Which book are you reading currently? #7

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Confessor by Terry Goodkind, the last book in the "so bad it is almost entertaining" political pamphlet series called The Sword of Truth. It truly boggles the mind that Goodkind can be a bestseller, true I kinda enjoyed the first few books, when I was 16 but jeez the monster it has turned in to. It is worth reading just to get an idea what not to do in a book. It is constantly entertaining and yet you can skip 2/3 of them and still have no problem whatsoever to follow the story. There is SO much empty talk and as we all know empty talk I find quite disturbing. Goodkind is a true, cant find a better word: Libertarian fascist sounds like an oxymoron and it is but somehow Goodkind pulls it off.

 

The complete Sherlock Holmes stories, though I don't plan on going through all of them. So far I've done the four novels, and like them to varying degrees. Study in Scarlet is interesting for being the first but otherwise I found it a bit disappointing. Sign of Four was slightly more interesting. Valley of Fear follows the same formula but I both the actual mystery and the back story behind it felt much more engaging and unpredictable. Hound of the Baskervilles is my favourite by far. It's got the best story (that touch of supernatural enhances rather than detracts from the detective mystery, in my opinion), a more active role for Watson, and the added plus that the reader, Watson and Holmes all find out what is going on at around the same time. The multiple narration styles (letters, diary, etc) also added some spice to it. I really like that one.

 

I'm rereading my favorite parts of the Hazarski Recnik (Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavich) for the n-th time. That book has so many layers of meaning.

Ziad, I warmly recommend that you do read them all. The Hound is my favorite too, (due to the language), but some of the others are also nice.

 

Reading "Atlas Shrugged" at home (still!). "Guns, Germs and Steel" on my way to my internship and "Russell on Metaphysics" on my way to work.

 

I loved Guns, Germs and Steel, so much so that I actually bought the book, which is kind of rare. Gave a whole new perspective to world history for me...

 

I'm going to start on the short stories soon, and I'll go as far as I can before I start getting bored. Depending on how good they are I may not stop until I've read them all

As in Bertrand Russell? I remember reading some of his stuff a few years ago. I don't agree with him on everything, but he's a very interesting read.

 

Yes, I mean Bertrand Russel. I never read anything by him before, I only glanced at snippets from Principia Mathematica ^^. I got to him through both Karl Popper and "Gödel, Escher, Bach".

 

You guys will crack up at this:

Feast of Souls: Book one of The Magister Trilogy By C.S Friedman


...Coincidence that I happened to find it in my favourate book store? Probably

 

Enagonios, Ender's Game is one of my all time favorites and I recently learned a nephew of mine considers it his all time favorite, too.

Morgoth, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a great book. Wrenched my thinking around nicely, though the author's later book Collapse seemed less interesting to me.

Just finished Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin, a wonderfully conceived medieval mystery with a little almost-alternate history thrown in. Serial child killer tracked by medieval woman pathologist. There's another book with the same main character just out in hardbook, I think, that I haven't seen yet.

The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Satterfield, I enjoyed but was dismayed to see it on the shelves at Wal-Mart - not usually a good sign. Admittedly a bit of a girl book but an interesting premise and acutely drawn characters.

 

Reading "The Runes of the Earth" the first book in the final chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. When I read the previous parts of this series I was mostly a child and have quite fond memories of reading about the adventures of the unbeliever. It has started out pretty ok, seems to follow the spirit of the old books. Anyone read them?

 

How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker

Nobody has any right to say anything about consciousness without reading this book. Very thorough and well written book about..well, how the mind works.

 

American gods by Neil Gaiman. I'm only a hundred pages in but it's really good so far.

 

About to start the Monstrous Regiment by Pratchett.

 

American Gods is awesome. All of Neil Gaiman's stuff is amazing.

 

Well, arguably Marvel 1602 wasn't one of his best work...I'd go just for great, not amazing...

 

I'll be looking into buying some more of Gaiman's books after I've finished American Gods. I'm not sure whether to go for more regular novels or onto the Sandman graphic novels. I suspect I'll get through them all eventually

 

Do both. Sandman is amazing. I can't even say how good it is. For his novels, there are Neverwhere (my fave), Stardust (much better than the movie of course), American Gods, Anansi Boys and Coraline. He also co-wrote Good Omens with Pratchett although I think that it was mostly Pratchett's writing that dominated through the comedy, and he had a couple of anthologies like Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things.

@Iku

true, it was still good though. "Roh-jaz"

 

Then there was The Eternals by Gaiman as well and I found that rather enjoyable. I love it how he gives space to the reader's imagination. A little bit of loose threads left hanging somewhere with a little hint of how the story might continue is most wonderful thing.

 

Last Call and Three Days to Never by Tim Powers. Not the grand sweep of Declare but quirky and interesting. And I am on a gradual sentimental re-read of all the Discworld books.

 

I can't make myself do it, it feels like closure, and I don't want Discworld to ever end.

I don't have all of them yet, but every now or then I pick up one of those I have and read it cover to cover. They always make me smile, and there is always some piece of universal wisdom there that I haven't noticed before, or that I have forgotten.

/me smiles sadly