The Currently Reading Thread v. A Clash of Kings

[jasc15]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  I bought it about 10 years ago and put it down after a few chapters.  It just seemed to zany without any real point.  Decided to read it the other night, and I'm reading a few chapters a day.  Still pretty zany, and I guess now I see more of the social commentary in it.  It's a pretty easy read, so I figure I will finish it this time.

[kaos2900]

Just started The Great and Secret Show: The First Book of Art by Clive Barker.

[The Cat Of Tuscany]

I'm having to read Moby Dick this month for a class.

I find it very dull and uninteresting.

[Scorpion]

I often disliked books that I had to read just because I often have to be in a specific mood for a certain book and if I have to read a book that I'm no in the mood for, that really mars my enjoyment.

For example, we had to read Juli Zeh's "Corpus Delicti" for Literature Studies in high school, which is a pretty good book. But I wasn't really feeling it at that time and it just annoyed me, but I really dug it when I came back to it voluntarily two years later.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm having to read Moby Dick this month for a class.

I find it very dull and uninteresting.

Keep with it.  It's one of the greatest novels ever written.


Just started Make Me by Lee Child.

[Kwyjibo]

I often disliked books that I had to read just because I often have to be in a specific mood for a certain book and if I have to read a book that I'm no in the mood for, that really mars my enjoyment.

For example, we had to read Juli Zeh's "Corpus Delicti" for Literature Studies in high school, which is a pretty good book. But I wasn't really feeling it at that time and it just annoyed me, but I really dug it when I came back to it voluntarily two years later.

I hated all the books we had to read in school, not because they were bad, but because we were forced to read them. Took a long time to appreciate at least some of them (like Lord Of The Flies), but others are still shit (like some Günter Grass novels).

[Chino]

I'm about halfway through Stranger in a Strange Land. I'm loving it.

[hefdaddy42]

I'm about halfway through Stranger in a Strange Land. I'm loving it.

What an awesome book.

I first read that when I was in high school.  I went on a major Heinlein kick after that.  One of my favorite writers as a young adult, although I eventually moved out of my science fiction phase and haven't read him in years.

[Jaffa]

Pax, by Sara Pennypacker.  A middle grade novel about a boy who had to give up his pet fox when his father went to war.  Very, very sweet.

Just following up to say that this book ended up being really good.  It's obviously written for young readers, so maybe not everyone would enjoy it, but I still strongly recommend it. 

[Cyclopssss]

What doesn't kill us - David Lagercrantz. (Millenium IV) Not totally into it yet.

[Sacul]

Just the existence of that novel makes me sick.

[WDADU]

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.

[jasc15]

The Great Depression: A Diary.  A lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio kept a regular diary starting in 1931 about the world around him.  It's a mostly detached, unpersonal account, where he tries to understand what is happening rather than describing how it is affecting him and his family.  After the first few pages I've already come across some interesting entries:

Investigations are the order of the day.  The Senate is investigating private banking and in particular J.P. Morgan & Co.  Mr. Morgan was on the witness stand all day yesterday and today.  The evidence shows that his firm made loans to many men now prominent in public affairs.

In looking back over the 3 months since Roosevelt became President it seems that the U.S. has traveled a long way toward some form of socialism or managed economy.

And talking about the roaring 20's that preceded this:

Women's dresses became shorter and shorter until they hardly reached the knee

[Cyclopssss]

Just the existence of that novel makes me sick.

I know what you mean, and I'm still trying to make my mind up what to make of it.

[masterthes]

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb.

Really sad, but really great book

[WDADU]

Oh, I'm just devouring it. Loving it so far. I read his latest, We Are Water while on vacation in July, and I think it was probably the best book I've read all year.

[Sub Luna Vitrea]

AA: Cult or Cure? Second Edition by Charles Bufe
A First Dictionary and Grammar of Láadan by Susette Haden Elgin

[senecadawg2]

I've been trying to make more time to read recently. My favorites in the last couple months have been Lolita (Nabokov), The Town (Faulkner), The Haunting of Hill House (Jackson), and two books by David Mitchell: Black Swan Green and Bone Clocks

Highly recommend all of them.

[Sacul]

A few days ago I finished The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman. Fascinating read - I've never been fond of positive thinking, and have some times been labeled as pessimistic just for considering something might actually go wrong. Best of all, this isn't a self-help book, but more a philosophical one, citing recent studies on psychology and neuroscience, along with personal anecdotes and anylisis of certain tragedies that might have a deep yet different explanation than the official, if it's one. And although sometimes it gets a bit spiritual, it does carefully, with logic, so don't expect New Age shenanigans and the like. Some parts even blew me away, and when it happens, you know you've found something special. Brutally recommended. 5/5

So I'll start reviewing every book I read, in hopes its will get someone to read them. Or not

[Sacul]

Finished Lord of the Flies by William Golding, yesterday. So I wasn't sure of what to expect from such an iconic tittle, thus I was fairly surprised with it. It's fairly short (around 200 pages in English) yet quite intense, for the story grows darker with each page. There's some weird shit going on, really - some have an explanation, some don't. Although many criticise that this book could have been better written (I agree to a certain degree), it didn't really bother me - the characters are pre-teens that still behave like children, with just a few serious ones that try to put on some order. It's obvious from the go why this book has made a lot of noise and public commentary about how people can fall into an instinctive behaviour, a primitive nature. But while I didn't love it, I think it's quite an appealing story (how this is obligatory reading in some schools and wasn't in mine triggers me) that I'd love to translate into a game or animated media professionally, but with an even darker, more brutal view. And add girls, because there are none here. Oh well. Recommended. 3.5/5

[hefdaddy42]

Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig

[Jaffa]

The Witch of Lime Street, by David Jaher.

All about the occult craze of the 1920s, focusing on Houdini's quest to expose mediums as frauds.  Really, really interesting. 

[jasc15]

The Witch of Lime Street, by David Jaher.

Sounds interesting.  There was a documentary on Netflix recently on James Randi, who emulated Houdini in a lot of ways.  His primary aim was to debunk psychics, etc. and there are great examples of that in the documentary, which is also much about his private life.

[masterthes]

Doing a reread of Good Omens

[Kwyjibo]

Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy

[Dimitrius]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

[hefdaddy42]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

That's true.

[Sacul]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

That's true.

I really want to read that trilogy, but gosh, it is very tough to get into it. Like, I don't care about the multiple elf or dwarf genealogies, at least at the beginning

[Dimitrius]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

That's true.

I really want to read that trilogy, but gosh, it is very tough to get into it. Like, I don't care about the multiple elf or dwarf genealogies, at least at the beginning

You mean the prologue about the Hobbits and shit? Yeah that was pretty bad, but I guess you can skip that. Tom Bombadil was just weird to me and made me wanna stop a few times.

[Kwyjibo]

I can appreciate and acknowledge the influence that Lord Of The Rings has, but that doesn't mean it is easy and fun to read.

[Dimitrius]

You described my thoughts when I read 1984

[Prog Snob]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

That's true.

I really want to read that trilogy, but gosh, it is very tough to get into it. Like, I don't care about the multiple elf or dwarf genealogies, at least at the beginning

You mean the prologue about the Hobbits and shit? Yeah that was pretty bad, but I guess you can skip that. Tom Bombadil was just weird to me and made me wanna stop a few times.

I immensely enjoy reading Tolkien's works over and over. I read LOTR and The Hobbit once every year or two. No matter how many times I have read them, I always seem to pick up on something new. That's the beauty of his writing. There's treasures buried in ever corner of his books.

[Sacul]

You described my thoughts when I read 1984

This - my friends love it, yet it bored me to tears

[hefdaddy42]

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings because I can't call myself a fantasy fan if I haven't read Tolkien.

That's true.

I really want to read that trilogy, but gosh, it is very tough to get into it. Like, I don't care about the multiple elf or dwarf genealogies, at least at the beginning

It took me 3 different attempts to make it past the first hundred pages.

I'm glad I did it, because everything after that is magic.

[Sacul]

I guess I'll have to give it another chance then. By now, I'm reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. Just 4 chapters in, and I'm finding it quite fascinating.