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I just thought it would be interesting to hear what everybody else is reading.
I Just finished Elantris by Sanderson (Thanks to OSC on the heads up there) Currently reading: Good to Great by Collins and starting Magic Street
Posts: 35 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Aside from that, last night I finished reading The Color of Magic, by Terry Pratchett, and I just started Conquistador, by S. M. Stirling. Thus far I am unimpressed.
Posts: 289 | Registered: Apr 2005
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*grumble* my history texbook and study guide, I have a final tomorrow.
But then I'm done with history! No more history, I've finished all my history credits!
*dances*
Actually, history isn't all that bad, I haven't really minded it. I've just had a bad instructor and the extremem misfortune to get him two semesters in a row.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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You know I read Conquistador by Stirling and I wasn't impressed either. Great premise, but the guy really isn't much of a writer. I remember reading it, esp some of the dialogue, and thinking...my writing is better than this. Now I just have to get my novel completed and published to prove it.
Posts: 232 | Registered: Jan 2005
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"Politics UK" - also for school. On the plus side, I just read Tarka the Otter for the first time, and I liked it.
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Nothing right now, but recently The Neverending Story, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Crystal City.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch. I'll get through it out of a sense of duty because I recently finished A Fairly Honorable Defeat and found it wonderful and wise and provocative.
Poetic Justice by Martha Nussbaum. The book trots out compelling arguments for the novel as a cultivator of public wisdom and for legal education to acknowledge the partial-- but essential-- role of the moral imagination in the judicial process.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion) - Dan Simmons. Second time through, as I'm preparing to read the Endyimon books).
afr: Where are you in the trilogy? The first book is indeed... well, it's dismal. I recall the other two being passable, but nothing that meets his average I'm afraid.
Posts: 1368 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces at the moment. It's pretty funny, but I have yet to encounter a character I remotely like.
Actually, I have yet to encounter a character. Nearly everyone central enough to get fleshed out is still pretty much a charicature. That's not so much a criticism as an observation. It doesn't seem to be the author's intent to craft a story about real people.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I just finished the new Harry Potter, and now I'm in the middle of Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I usually have a couple books going at once. I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, rereading Les Mis, and starting the complete collection of short stories by Joseph Conrad.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote: I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces at the moment. It's pretty funny, but I have yet to encounter a character I remotely like.
Actually, I have yet to encounter a character. Nearly everyone central enough to get fleshed out is still pretty much a charicature. That's not so much a criticism as an observation. It doesn't seem to be the author's intent to craft a story about real people.
I don't know, I actually quite liked the character of Jones. Also, the cop (can't remember his name at the moment) is a pretty good guy. The great thing about the book is that the least likeable character is the main one. Not many authors are gutsy enough to do that.
Oh, and right now I'm reading Demons by Doestoyevsy, Olympos by Dan Simmons and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb.
Posts: 194 | Registered: Feb 2005
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I've been reading a bunch of old Economist articles on Russia, China, Inda, and Brazil. And by "a bunch" I mean I've at least scanned ANY article written from 1985-2003 that mentions one of those countries. It's for an economics study I'm doing...
For fun, I recently read The Bone People by Keri Hulme (Booker winner in 1985). Harry Potter, of course...
I'm currently "reading" Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script. Mostly just struggling with hearing a difference between an aspirated and unaspirated b or d. I've also started reading my book list for my ethicial theory class. Right now I'm on Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of the Emotions by Robert Frank. It's a very, very interesting book.
On the fiction side I've been reading or rereading some of the books up at Baen's Free Library. I really enjoy the 1632 series by Eric Flint. Might just have to go out and buy the next ones in the series that aren't posted at the library. Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Architraz: I'm fairly close to the beginning. They're all sitting in the 6-walled prison being waited on by the Dopey.
The characters are so wooden and cliche. It's awful.
Contrast that with The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson, which I just finished, which was an awesome book in all respects right until the very end. All the characters were so much more round and vibrant.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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I'm reading Sophocles' Philoctetes, Michael Chabon's The Final Solution: A Story of Detection, and C. S. Lewis's Out from the Silent Planet. I just finished Chabon's Summerlands: A Novel, which I enjoyed quite a bit, S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire, which was entertaining but not especially good, and Silverberg's Roma Eterna, which sucked badly enough that I returned it to the library after reading only a third of it.
I've read a fair amount of Stirling's work; I typically enjoy his ideas and just kind of put up with the writing. Conquistador was by far the worst of his books that I've read, I have to say.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm reading Catch-22 for a class that's starting in the fall. I've wanted to read it for quite a while, and now I have an excuse.
I'm also in the middle of Bel Canto (can't remember the author off the top of my head), but it's not keeping my attention very well.
Posts: 1635 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I just finshed The Historian, and I am finally getting around to Heartfire by OSC. I also have Master and Commander on the nightstand, but can't read that for very long before I dose off.
Posts: 514 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm re-reading Magician: Apprentic by Raymond Feist. It's more sword-and-sorcery-esque than I remembered.
Posts: 2849 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces at the moment. It's pretty funny, but I have yet to encounter a character I remotely like.
Actually, I have yet to encounter a character. Nearly everyone central enough to get fleshed out is still pretty much a charicature. That's not so much a criticism as an observation. It doesn't seem to be the author's intent to craft a story about real people.
I don't know, I actually quite liked the character of Jones. Also, the cop (can't remember his name at the moment) is a pretty good guy. The great thing about the book is that the least likeable character is the main one. Not many authors are gutsy enough to do that.
Oh, and right now I'm reading Demons by Doestoyevsy, Olympos by Dan Simmons and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb.
I like Jones, too, but he's (so-far) still a bit of a cliche and hasn't been directly in the plot enough to matter. The cop would be very likeable if I could slap a spine in him. However, I haven't finished the book so I reserve the right to modify my opinions. Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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The Fort at River Bend by Jack Whyte. Just finished Jumper by Steven Gould and Cut and Run (I think that was the name) by Ridley Pearson. Liked them all.
Posts: 196 | Registered: May 2003
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quote: I like Jones, too, but he's (so-far) still a bit of a cliche and hasn't been directly in the plot enough to matter. The cop would be very likeable if I could slap a spine in him. However, I haven't finished the book so I reserve the right to modify my opinions.
Yeah, I guess I am making my assessment based on the end of the book which, I won't go into any major detail at the risk of spoilers, comes together quite nicely and in quite an amusing fashion.
Posts: 194 | Registered: Feb 2005
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About halfway through Magic Street. Next on my list (I think) is going to be Eragon but that may change.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I've started re-reading all the Harry Potter books as I wait for the new one to become available through the library. When I reserved it, I was number 1481 on the waiting list. Now I'm...
*goes to check*
... number 1106. Yoopee!
So I'm halfway through the first one right now.
Posts: 1996 | Registered: Feb 2004
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How to Mother a Successful Daughter by Nicky Marone
Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on Baby Furniture, Equipment, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear, and Much, Much More! by Denise and Alan Fields
Dr. Spock's The First Two Years : The Emotional and Physical Needs of Children from Birth to Age 2 by Benjamin Spock
The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by William and Martha Sears
I've just about gotten through the first 3. I have a huge stack that I'm working my way through.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I just finished The Last Report on the Miracles at No Little Horse by Louise Erdrich last night. I'm a big fan of Erdrich, so I wasn't too surprised that I really liked it.
Not sure what to read next. I've never gotten all the way through Emma despite two attempts; I might give that a try again.
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Ooh, I just finished that recently! Are you reading the restored (1150 page) version?
Not a perfect book, but King is such a great writer of characters that it rips my heart out sometimes.
Posts: 289 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a magnificent book, and reading about the five women it focuses on is simply fascinating. Even more, Kingsolver creates a distinctly different voice for each character's narration and manages to create five very central and very well-developed characters.
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