What are you reading???

[HUMCALC 3]

Although I enjoy the movies, I don't enjoy Grisham's books

[oochymp 2,393]

finished The Street Lawyer, it was really good, though a bit preachy at times (but that's Grisham for you) now I'm reading Scott Turow's The Laws of our Fathers, about 100 pages into it, so far it's pretty good, about what I've come to expect from Turow

finished The Laws of our Fathers last night, it was okay, not as good as Turow's other novels though I think my main complaint is that it was just a little too long, started Michael Connelly's Blood Work last night, I'm only about 20 pages in so I can't really say much about it

[Guest Phailadelphia]

Reading Keynes-Hayek by Nicholas Wapshott and Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche at the moment.

[RazorStar 4,025]

Picked up the first book of the Wheel of Time series. So far it's kinda generic, but there is promise to be had. the intro bit was pretty epic.

[BwareDWare94 723]

Picked up the first book of the Wheel of Time series. So far it's kinda generic, but there is promise to be had. the intro bit was pretty epic.

 

Yeah, it's pretty slow for awhile, and the names are absurdly hard.

[Vin+ 3,121]

 

Started reading a collection of H.P. Lovecraft. Time to see what all the fuss is about.

So I'm trying to read everything in chronological order. Pretty much everything he wrote between the ages of 8-17 has been bad (which I guess is to be expected). Now that I've started the stuff he wrote in his 20s, the quality has picked up considerably.

 

Finally finished all 100 or so stories in this collection (can't believe I started this two Septembers ago...) . Don't know if I would call it great, but there's definitely some entertaining stuff. My only real complaint is that a lot of the stories follow the same narrative (I saw this unspeakable horror, let me tell you the events leading up to me seeing the unspeakable horror, oh no there's the unspeakable horror); kinda gets old after a while. I will say though, that I went into it expecting things to be...creepier. Maybe the stories are and they just don't translate well now that most of them are at least 80+ years old, but I wasn't really phased by them, Still, if you get bored, most of the stories are relatively short and entertaining enough. Pretty much everything that he's written can be found and read either on wikisource or hplovecraft.com, if any of you are interested.

[Duck Fallas 209]

The Thousand Orcs by R.A. Salvatore

[BwareDWare94 723]

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Trespass: A Novel by Valerie Martin

[Duck Fallas 209]

I am also reading The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett. It is book three in The Demon Cycle, which I feel could possibly be one of the great fantasy epic stories of our generation. It is seriously that damn good.

 

For anyone else interested the other books in the series are:

 

The Warded Man

 

The Desert Spear

 

I would strongly suggest reading both books in order so that you understand everything that transpires prior to the third. It is not really a series that works well as individual novels.

[oochymp 2,393]

I'm about 100 pages into The Lost World, I've also read a couple of the Jack Reacher novels recently, which I thoroughly enjoyed

[Guest Phailadelphia]

I've been studying Buddhism lately just for the hell of it. Halfway through "What the Buddha Taught," an intro to buddhism in general; and I'm supplementing it with "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," which is basically a how-to manual on meditating.

 

I also visited a Buddhist temple with my girlfriend for a class project she had to do. We happened to show up while the monks were chanting, so we quietly slipped into the temple (shoes off!) and had a seat on the floor. Neither of us knew the first thing about meditation at this point so we just sat and listened and marveled at the beauty of the temple. At one point I attempted to "zone out" (what I thought was meditating lol) and it sorta worked. We stayed until the monks finished chanting, chatted with a few of the "normal" folks that were there, took some pics and left. And I have to say, after leaving I felt...good. My mind was clear and I just at peace, ya know? It was a refreshing experience. I encourage everyone to experience it some time. At first I was just studying buddhism for fun because my girlfriend's teacher made it sound very interesting. My experience at the temple has given me a greater appreciation for it. Fun stuff. Here's a pic:

 

For perspective, the ceiling is between 20-25 feet high so that gives you some idea how big this Buddha statue is. And the rug in front of him is where the monks sit while they chant/meditate.

 

Anyway, this has evolved from what I'm reading into where it has lead me, which is actually kind of cool now that I think about it. And also still relevant. I think.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Phailadelphia

[GA_Eagle 595]

Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein

[GA_Eagle 595]

 

 

 

Started reading a collection of H.P. Lovecraft. Time to see what all the fuss is about.

So I'm trying to read everything in chronological order. Pretty much everything he wrote between the ages of 8-17 has been bad (which I guess is to be expected). Now that I've started the stuff he wrote in his 20s, the quality has picked up considerably.

Finally finished all 100 or so stories in this collection (can't believe I started this two Septembers ago...) . Don't know if I would call it great, but there's definitely some entertaining stuff. My only real complaint is that a lot of the stories follow the same narrative (I saw this unspeakable horror, let me tell you the events leading up to me seeing the unspeakable horror, oh no there's the unspeakable horror); kinda gets old after a while. I will say though, that I went into it expecting things to be...creepier. Maybe the stories are and they just don't translate well now that most of them are at least 80+ years old, but I wasn't really phased by them, Still, if you get bored, most of the stories are relatively short and entertaining enough. Pretty much everything that he's written can be found and read either on wikisource or hplovecraft.com, if any of you are interested.

I did the same thing with Lovecraft a while back and had similar thoughts. I also get the impression he's not a good enough writer to describe some of his unspeakable horrors and that's why he only gives vague impressions some times.

[Vin+ 3,121]

A good possibility. The thought of what's in the dark is infinitely worse than what's actually there, though whether it be due to the age of the works or just the fact that we've (I've) become desensitized to this stuff, it doesn't really come off well in most of the stories. Of course, there's also probably a reason why no one liked these stories when he was alive...

Edited December 25, 2013 by Vin

[HUMCALC 3]

"Hour Game" by David Baldacci

[Duck Fallas 209]

Gideon's Sword. by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

[Guest Phailadelphia]

Dreams From My Father, Barack Obama

[RazorStar 4,025]

Onto Book 4 of Wheel of Time. It really got set up into something big.

[Vin+ 3,121]

House of Chains by Steven Erikson. The fourth book of The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

 

I love these books.

 

I love the world.

 

I love the characters (Someone just gained the ability to summon a Hound. Badass.)

 

I love the sarcastic/witty dialogue between, well, everyone.

 

I love the fact that I never know where in the timeline the book is going to take place, and when something intersects with something that's already happened the "ohhhhhhh" moment is great.

 

I love that the mythos keeps expanding in each book (though the same can probably be said of any series.)

 

I still hate Kruppe, but he hasn't appeared in this book yet. Yet probably being the key phrase...

[GA_Eagle 595]

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein

[Duck Fallas 209]

Old Man's War. by John Scalzi.

 

Very interesting concept in a debut novel (released in 2004). In the book; the Elderly have the choice to either die or have their consciousness implanted into a body to fight in the war.

[Vin+ 3,121]

House of Chains by Steven Erikson. The fourth book of The Malazan Book of the Fallen.

 

I love these books.

 

I love the world.

 

I love the characters (Someone just gained the ability to summon a Hound. Badass.)

 

I love the sarcastic/witty dialogue between, well, everyone.

 

I love the fact that I never know where in the timeline the book is going to take place, and when something intersects with something that's already happened the "ohhhhhhh" moment is great.

 

I love that the mythos keeps expanding in each book (though the same can probably be said of any series.)

 

I still hate Kruppe, but he hasn't appeared in this book yet. Yet probably being the key phrase...

 

Finally finished it a few days ago. It remained Kruppe free! Woooo. Unfortunately, that's where the happiness ends. Really solid book overall, until it got near the end. There's a twist with one character that disappointed me, and the overall ending, while I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting, was anticlimactic. Oh well. I'll start book 5 at some point in the near future.

 

How I'd rank them thus far.

 

3 = 2 > 4 > 1

[Duck Fallas 209]

Ender's Game. Not sure how I never read it before, but it is pretty good stuff.

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Don't have much time to read what I want to read right now because of school, but I am reading as much as I can from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. It's a collection of poems. I've read a lot of poetry, but I've never seen someone capture his surroundings and his interpretations of them so effortlessly in this type of verse. He does a lot in his poetry. I have studied him in my classes and on my own time. He contemplates numerous themes in his poetry such as:

 

- the individual identity vs. society's influence on the individual

- the many roles nature plays. In Whitman's views, humans mimic nature, long to be a part of nature, and are connected with each other and with nature.

- accepting yourself for who you are, even the flaws that you wish you didn't have

- racial equality

- mortality

- gender roles and ideas about them

- sexuality (more specifically, celebrating the fact that humans are sexual beings and it's perfectly natural for them to be. Caught him a lot of heat in 1855. If you read "Song of Myself", you'll see why.)

- living in the moment

- a growing diversity in America in this time, especially in big cities. Whitman lived in Manhattan, so he saw this first hand during his lifetime.

 

One other thing to remember if you want to read Whitman's work: when he published Leaves of Grass, the country still wasn't even 100 years old yet. American writers in the 19th century were struggling to define what this new country was all about so that other people around the world would know. Some writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, etc... were doing this through their fiction and short stories. Whitman was giving the early America a poetic voice. If you read it, you will notice he says "I" a lot. I know this may not make sense, but a lot of the times when he says "I" he really means everyone. You'll understand as you read it. He sounds incredibly egotistical and self-centered, but he's not at all, at least for the most part.

 

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/whitman/song.htm

 

It's a pretty huge poem. You won't be able to read it all in one sitting, but luckily that's not even remotely necessary. You can read as much or as little as you want at a time.

 

I'm also reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne right now for class.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Sarge

[GA_Eagle 595]

Trainspotting