What are you reading?

Gord Lacey

Site Founder
Staff member
Feb 19, 2012
1,991
3
Curious what books other members are reading right now. I have a few series on the go:

Reacher - Lee Child's story about an ex-MP who finds himself in trouble. They made it into a movie, with Tom Cruise playing Reacher, which is hilarious because the character is 6'5" and 22-250 lbs. Read the first 3.

Parker - Started in the 60s, and has 24 books in the series, it's about a criminal and the various jobs he's involved in. They're quite short (under 150 pages), but packed with some good action. Jason Statham was in a movie (called "Parker") based on one of the books. Others in the series have been made into movies as well, including "Payback" with Mel Gibson (based off the first book, "The Hunter"). Just started the 4th book.

The Dead Man - A series of novellas started by Lee Goldberg (a friend of mine), and William Rabkin, it's about a guy who dies in an avalanche and is found alive 3 months later. Now he can see rot on people, and realizes the more rot, the more likely they are to do something very bad, so he decides to intervene. Each book is written by a different author. Done the first 12 (I think).

Denis Milne - A cop from London who does odd jobs for criminals. In the first book (The Business of Dying) he kills 3 people and stuff spirals downhill from there. There are 3 books in the series so far, but I've only read the first.

As you can see, my series' are mostly around the crime genre. I've read a few one-offs recently, like "A Guest in the Jungle," and "Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures" (true story, and very awesome). Besides the series above, I have a few others in my queue, like "Wool" (sci-fi), and some short stories.

I've started doing all my reading on my Sony eReader; not only is it nice to carry a ton of "books" with me wherever I want, I find it easier to read on the device. I think it had been about 15+ years since I read a book for fun, and now I've read a ton in the last 6-10 months. I love it.
 
K

Korven

Guest
I read in periods, right now I'm slowly working my way through "Black Sun" (Aryan cults, esoteric nazism and the politics of identity) by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.
 

Jeff Strong

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 19, 2012
8,144
2
Just finished Gregg Allman's autobiography. Wow, what a life. The writing is a bit rough around the edges, but then so is he.
 

Sean DonCarlos

Moderator
Staff member
Mar 17, 2012
4,293
0
I'm about halfway through Reaper Man, one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. They're kind of a parody/satire of other high fantasy novels and their stereotypes/conventions, and they're hysterical. I highly recommend them.
 

Bonzo

New member
May 16, 2012
902
1
Started reading Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut for about the tenth time this weekend. Last new book that deserves a 10 out of 10 was Ready Player One.

Edit: If comic books do count, too: I looove Chew.
 
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DeeEff

New member
Feb 28, 2013
495
0
I have always been a voracious reader. I used to buy 5-10 books per month from Amazon before running out of space in my house; now I hit the library every week for my fix. Preferred genres: science fact, science fiction, thrillers, mystery/detective/crime novels, and the odd biography.

Currently checked out:

Fiction:
- "Burning Angel", James Lee Burke. One of many great novels about Dave Robicheaux, ex-drunk, ex-New Orleans cop, current small town detective who breaks rules constantly in his personal pursuit for justice.
- "Maelstrom", Peter Watts. Hard sf set in the near almost post-apocalyptic future. Great read.
- "Lightspeed: Year One", John Joseph Adams (editor). sf anthology from the online magazine, and one of the best anthologies I've read in a long time.
- "City of Bones", Michael Connelly. One of the "police procedural" subgenre, starring LAPD Homicide detective Harry Bosch.

Non-fiction:
- "Chasing the Sun", Richard Cohen. The history, mythology, and science of our Sun.
- "How to Create a Mind", Ray Kurzweil. If you're at all interested in what life might be like in ten or twenty years when computers outstrip the abilities of the human brain, read Kurzweil.

Jack Reacher is one of my favorite protagonists - he's like a cross between Spock and Hulk Hogan. Lord Vetinari and Sam Vimes (Discworld novels) are also favorite characters of mine, full of unwitting social commentary and ironic humor. And "Ready Player One" got 4.5/5 stars from me.
 

superballs

Active member
Apr 12, 2012
2,653
2
I'm currently re-reading and then catching up on The Wheel of Time.

I think it's 13 or 14 books now, and I only read up to book 8, then let it go for oh...more than a decade. Author friggin died before writing book 12 and they have a new writer going by his notes and his widow's editing (she's been editing for him from the start i believe).

I really like parenthesis.
 

Jeff Strong

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 19, 2012
8,144
2
I'm currently re-reading and then catching up on The Wheel of Time.

I think it's 13 or 14 books now, and I only read up to book 8, then let it go for oh...more than a decade. Author friggin died before writing book 12 and they have a new writer going by his notes and his widow's editing (she's been editing for him from the start i believe).

I really like parenthesis.

Hats off to you. Those are some thick-ass books. My brothers were really in to Robert Jordan.
 

warh0g

New member
Jan 3, 2013
618
0
Reading Timothy Zahn's Star Wars: Choices of One
SW_Choices_of_One_mm.jpg


Big Star Wars EU book nerd, almost the only books I read (100+ read). Other than that I read "documentary" books like Generation Kill and such.
 

karl

New member
May 10, 2012
1,809
0
Hats off to you. Those are some thick-ass books. My brothers were really in to Robert Jordan.

I remember I got halfway into book 4 of this series and gave up on it. It has the same problem as all big Fantasy series I have read. The writer just do not know how to end it and the pace slows down to a crawl. Same Thing happened to me on book 4 of "Game of Thrones" a real snoozefest. I bought nr 5 of "GOT" but my eyes gets heavy just looking at the cover.

On the bedside table at the moment: Haruki Murakami: IQ84 and Julian Cope: Head-On
 

bavelb

New member
Apr 16, 2012
1,238
0
I'm about halfway through Reaper Man, one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. They're kind of a parody/satire of other high fantasy novels and their stereotypes/conventions, and they're hysterical. I highly recommend them.

Not only parody of fantasy, but a parody on postmodernism, popculture, movies, fairytales and whatnot. They are awesome. I have read 90% of them, and the rest are on my shelf to read. Such a shame that he is suffering from slow onset Alzheimers.

My current readinglist contains:

Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen part 6- The Bonehunters
(part 7,8,9 and 10 are on the shelf). Great high fantasy stuff but SOOO complex with its intrigues, magic system, races, timelines, languages.

George RR Martin - Song of Ice and Fire part 4 - A Feast for Crows
(been reading this from way before Game of Thrones was a thing, but I took a break halfway to start the Malazan series). A dance with dragons is on the shelf as well.

Terry Pratchett - All the Tiffany Aching books, Thud! Snuff, and Unseen Academicals
All are on the longlist, but I somehow keep rereading the older books. Especially the Watch-series within Discworld are a favourite.

As you can see I only read (quality) Fantasy :), and stacked up, my backlog of books is about 40 inches high :)

Which brings me to:

I'm currently re-reading and then catching up on The Wheel of Time.

I think it's 13 or 14 books now, and I only read up to book 8, then let it go for oh...more than a decade. Author friggin died before writing book 12 and they have a new writer going by his notes and his widow's editing (she's been editing for him from the start i believe).
Wheel of time got longwinded, predictable and ****ing dumb (all in my opinion of course) after around book 7(or 8....9 god I can't remember). By then it had the pacing of a daytime soapopera, was more mesogynistic than a Lil'Wayne song. The first 3 books were awesome though, the premise (although book 1 was a carbon copy of LOTR book 1) surrounding the magic system between males and females very interesting.

Although I heard that when the new guy took over, the pacing picked up again. So maybe I should summary-plot the first 11 books again and pick up from number 12.

Same Thing happened to me on book 4 of "Game of Thrones" a real snoozefest. I bought nr 5 of "GOT" but my eyes gets heavy just looking at the cover.

On the bedside table at the moment: Haruki Murakami: IQ84 and Julian Cope: Head-On
Meh, once you are familiar with general fantasy pacing, you learn how to not focus on the main Quest and enjoy all the sidequests that are being told in different books. SoIaF has a slow moving main plot (actually, what IS the main plot? The fight for the throne, or the "Winter that is coming" from the North (ie: the Wights)?. But goddamn if not a lot of small incredible subplots happen (as anyone who saw this weeks GoT episode must have noticed). WoT just slowed than to a crawl all around.
 
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karl

New member
May 10, 2012
1,809
0
bavelb, I still say it's a snooze fest ;)

It's not always about the main plot for me but how engaging the book is overall. I did read book 4 long before the tv series. So long ago in fact that I forgot to call it by it's real name. Easier to just call it GOT 4 than " A Feast for Crows, A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4" :)

(btw: Another series that had a fantastic start was "Magician" by Raymond E. Feist)
 

Mad07

Member
Feb 13, 2013
362
2
I've read a lot of book in my live ...

But in the last Year I read for relax the complete books of Ren Dhark http://www.ren-dhark.de/
The series was started up from 1965 !!! with small little books - which you can buy once per week / month / all 14 days.
After stop, the story was implemented once again into a session of books and it continuous with new books till today... ( they have found after dead of the Main Writer a script / red line to do this)

The 2 most important thinks what does I with the tablet:
TPA and reading :)
 
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Kolchak357

Senior Pigeon
May 31, 2012
8,102
2
Night Stalks The Mansion, by Harold Cameron and Constance Westbie

It's the true story of a haunted house in the suburbs of Philadelphia. The family lives there for two years and it tells of the happenings at the old mansion they are leasing. Also delves into the family's attempt to research the long history of the large house that was built in the 1700's.
I'm only about 25% of the way into the book, but it's been a fun read so far.
 

Timelord

Member
Oct 29, 2012
543
0
The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda (about my 10th re-read)
Also reading the VP API documentation.

Timelord ...
 
N

netizen

Guest
I have been reading James Clavell's Asian Saga series off and on, but have been spending more time reading comic books lately, lol.

I have been reading silver age to speculation era marvel books; early 60s through late 90s.


Prior to all of that I re-read the entire Malazan series, both Erikson and Esselmont; Haven't picked up the Kharkhanas trilogy yet however. Massive throwback/homage to The Black Company series by Glen Cook. The more Malazan expanded the more it echoed Cook's work.
There was this mid 70s humorous sci-fi thing called Aliens for Neighbours
World War Z, Cloud Atlas, some Stepehen King (don't ask me why), Phillip K Dick, ... too many to try and keep separated, or they were not of a sufficient quality to bother keeping separate; tropes all blur together and become predictable like any genre tends to.

Then there is all the non-fiction I read, most I won't bother to list as the titles alone bore the crap out of me.
 

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