The Currently Reading Thread v. A Clash of Kings

[v_clortho]

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. It's quite good so far

Great series. His other series is really good as well. Is this the first Weeks you've read?

[ozzy554]

Imajica by Clive Barker

Read any Barker before? Curious about your thoughts when complete.

I had read The Hellbound Heart and Weaveworld before this. Overall I really enjoyed it. Clearly Barker is a very imaginative guy though sometimes thats an issue for me when he gets so weird that I have no idea whats going on without re-reading a section a few times. Also sometimes I get the feeling that he was more interested in showing off the massive world he created than advancing the plot.

For me the highlight of the book was Pie Oh'Pah. I think he was the most interesting character in the book

[Cool Chris]

The Great and Secret Show was what I consider to be my first "adult" book which I picked up on a whim at the store (cool cover, title, synopsis for me in my high school years spent reading Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for class). I loved it. Many years later I read it again and couldn't believe how boring and convoluted I found it.

[ozzy554]

I do overall enjoy his work but convoluted is certainly a word that comes to mind when describing his writing.

[Kwyjibo]

Finished The Infection by Craig DiLouie, now on to Song Of Susannah by Stephen King

[masterthes]

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. It's quite good so far

Great series. His other series is really good as well. Is this the first Weeks you've read?

Affirmative. I enjoyed it. Will be reading the rest of the trilogy probably sometime next month

[masterthes]

Dracul by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker

[masterthes]

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X by Deborah Davis

[masterthes]

Well, that was one of the quickest reads of the year for me. It was also really good. Now, that I'm on summer vacation, I expect to read a lot these next few months. I think my record is 24 books

Anywho, back to fiction with Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

[masterthes]

Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Perez Galdos

[masterthes]

I recently finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, which I thought was alright, very middle of the road for me.

Now, switching over to biographies of literary editors of the 20th century with An Uncommon Reader: A Life of Edward Garnett, Mentor and Editor of Literary Genius by Helen Smith

[masterthes]

Staying with a theme of editors discovering literary talent from the early twentieth century, but this time, from my edge of the pond: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg

[masterthes]

Finally getting to read Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep

[Tomislav95]

The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo. Redbreast was otherworldly and since then the series became really great

[Evermind]

Been silent for a while in this thread, abandoned IT by Stephen King for now after a hundred of pages or so, wasn't quite in the mood for it.

Read Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett which was my first serious foray into him, his writing style is so terribly funny I couldn't help but laugh at some of the stuff. It's almost too ironic for my taste, and definitely not something I can read a lot of, but once in a while a book like that is alright. The plot wasn't too strong, but the writing won me over, I think I'll check something else out from him in a few months.

Now I'm onto The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and three chapters in, I'm enjoying this immensely. I hope the quality stays at least the same throughout the whole novel, so far this is incredibly captivating. If it stays at least in the same ballpark, I can definitely see why this book won Hugo Award in 2016.

[SchecterShredder]

Been silent for a while in this thread, abandoned IT by Stephen King for now after a hundred of pages or so, wasn't quite in the mood for it.

Read Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett which was my first serious foray into him, his writing style is so terribly funny I couldn't help but laugh at some of the stuff. It's almost too ironic for my taste, and definitely not something I can read a lot of, but once in a while a book like that is alright. The plot wasn't too strong, but the writing won me over, I think I'll check something else out from him in a few months.

Now I'm onto The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and three chapters in, I'm enjoying this immensely. I hope the quality stays at least the same throughout the whole novel, so far this is incredibly captivating. If it stays at least in the same ballpark, I can definitely see why this book won Hugo Award in 2016.

I thought Guards! Guards! was fantastic. The city watch books are some of my favourite Discworld books. The conversation where the Patrician is asking Vimes why his guard arrested the head of the thieves guild is hilarious. I'm eagerly waiting for when I get through the next 2 in the series to get to the next city watch story.

[masterthes]

Going back to fiction with American Pop by Snowden Wright. I'm already a quarter of a way through and really enjoying it

[SchecterShredder]

Finally finished HP7: Les Reliques de la Mort. Moving on to....

[Cool Chris]

The queue was empty so my mom passed some of her favorite international espionage thrillers on to me. Just finished a Brad Thor, now reading Daniel Silva.

[masterthes]

Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz. When it comes to horror, possession stories are usually my favorite sub genres; for example, The Exorcist has always been a favorite of mine, both the book and movie, so hopefully this will be good

[masterthes]

Taking my time with The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt. It's close to 1200 pages long, so it'll be part of a summer project for me.

On the more regular reading, I'm going with Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America by Thomas C. Foster

[masterthes]

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Haven't read anything by her, so I'm excited to see how this goes

[senecadawg2]

Just finished Crime and Punishment, Born to Run (McDougall), and How to Change Your Mind (Pollan). Now reading Where the Crawdads Sing, a mushroom field guide by Paul Stamets, and Quicksand (Steve Toltz)

I only just recently started reading more again, and I've enjoyed it a lot. And I know this is a "currently reading thread" but what are some of y'all's favorites of all time? I'll kick it off.


Fiction:

In the Lake of the Woods and The Things They Carried (O'Brien)
The Savage Detectives and 2666 (Bolano)
Chronic City and Fortress of Solitude (Lethem)
Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
Lolita (Nabokov)
Dance, Dance, Dance and Colorless Tsukuru... (Murakami)
The Three Body Problem (Liu Cixin)
The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
Anything by David Mitchell, but especially number9dream, Black Swan Green, and Cloud Atlas

Non-Fiction:

The Wisdom of Insecurity (Watts)
The Unsettling of America (Berry)
Eat and Run (Jurek)
The China Study (Campbell)
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Murakami)
The Undertaking (Lynch)
The Ecstasy of Influence (Lethem)

[masterthes]

Well, I managed to get about halfway through the Wharton before it just got too boring for me

Anyway, decided to pick Wheel of Time back up. I left off with The Dragon Reborn about two years ago, and now revisiting my favorite book in the series The Shadow Rising. Not sure if I'm just going to binge the series for the rest of the summer, but we'll see

[SchecterShredder]

The queue was empty so my mom passed some of her favorite international espionage thrillers on to me. Just finished a Brad Thor, now reading Daniel Silva.

Which Brad Thor did you read?

[Grappler]

Well, I managed to get about halfway through the Wharton before it just got too boring for me

Anyway, decided to pick Wheel of Time back up. I left off with The Dragon Reborn about two years ago, and now revisiting my favorite book in the series The Shadow Rising. Not sure if I'm just going to binge the series for the rest of the summer, but we'll see

I re-read the Wheel of Time series in 2014/2015 and spaced the books out with a different novel in between each one.  It kept me from getting too burnt out on it.  The first time I read the series, I read the first 10, straight through, which was a big chore by the end of it.

[Herrick]

I have finished Elric: The Stealer of Souls and now I'm halfway through To Rescue Tanelorn. I'm not very impressed so far. I don't mind the stories being in publication order but what's with some of the seemingly random stories thrown in? I know a little about the Eternal Champion thing and how some of these characters are different iterations of said champion, but I just want to read about Elric only for now.

I really liked the Eternal Champion story in To Rescue Tanelorn. Anyone know if the novel with the same title is just a longer version of the short story?

I really didn't like the Jerry Cornelius story. It was quite dull. Well, I'll keep on reading. Hopefully I get more into it.

[Cool Chris]

The queue was empty so my mom passed some of her favorite international espionage thrillers on to me. Just finished a Brad Thor, now reading Daniel Silva.

Which Brad Thor did you read?

Spymaster. Quite enjoyable even if I did get lost in a couple spots. This is not a genre I read often.

Question for all...What's the furthest you've ever gotten in a book before abandoning it? I try to finish everything I starts me can't think of anything I've made it far in and given up on but I am sure I will think of something.

[SchecterShredder]

The only book I've ever  DNFd was William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Got about halfway through before tapping out (~150 pages).

I don't mind Thor's work.  He writes a good thriller,  but i find that his politics come through a bit much for me. He keeps his plots moving though.

[masterthes]

I'll probably do one a month

[SchecterShredder]

I'll probably do one a month

With how much you read that might only be a 1% DNF rate

[Herrick]

Question for all...What's the furthest you've ever gotten in a book before abandoning it? I try to finish everything I starts me can't think of anything I've made it far in and given up on but I am sure I will think of something.

I'm not sure but I abandoned a 10 book series about a third of the way through the last book. I realized I just didn't care how the story ended because I had lost interest and it wasn't enjoyable anymore. I may go back to it one day.

[Evermind]

Now I'm onto The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin and three chapters in, I'm enjoying this immensely. I hope the quality stays at least the same throughout the whole novel, so far this is incredibly captivating. If it stays at least in the same ballpark, I can definitely see why this book won Hugo Award in 2016.

This was incredible, quite possibly my favourite fantasy read in the last few years. Last time I enjoyed the book that much was The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, and this book is very different from these two. Less action, more world-building, but never to the point it becomes a slog. Excellent book.

I've also managed to find the other two books in this trilogy and bought both today so I guess I know I'm reading in a few weeks after my vacation.

[Podaar]

Thanks, Ev! I really need some new reading material. If you say it's good, I'll buy it.

[Evermind]

I definitely recommend it. It's somewhat heavy (you'll know what I mean after the first few chapters) but it's one of those books I struggled to put away. Reading until 1 A.M. when you have to get up four hours later, that kind of stuff.