March 2011 - Reading Thread

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Reading Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!) and I like it.

I'd like to continue with Warhammer40K after I eventually finish with Cain. What other Warhammer40k books would you recommend for setting beginners?

Try some Dan Abnet. Gaunts Ghosts series or the Horus Heresy.

Finished Silence Of The Lambs by Thomas Harris. Not to keen on his writing style but he's clearly an expert on his subject matter and his now iconic characters are fascinating. Slightly preferred Red Dragon however.

Now starting Faranheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. About 40 pages in so far and the prose is sublime. Makes Cormac Mcarthy seem like L Ron Hubbard.

[Astra]

About 1/3 into Gardens of the Moon [The Malazan Book of the Fallen #1] by Steven Erikson.

So far so good.

I printed out many maps and pour over them to get my bearings as I proceed.

I think the prose is user friendly nice and easy going. I do not rush. Often I have to return many pages or chapters back to re-read something. I don't want to miss details and get lost in this new big world :rolleyes:

[Mjolnir]

Am now all reread up and ready to tackle The Wise Man's Fear. I finished The Name of the Wind for the second time yesterday. It was very very enjoyable to read again, and I'd forgotten plenty of course.

One of the vital things I'd forgotten in a non-plot sense in the years between reading this the first time and reading it now is that, for me, though I don't find the book's plot or characters or world particularly electrifying in and of themselves, Rothfuss has the touch, Rothfuss has the power. His writing, even when it skirts close to inconsistency between modern-day colloquialism and faux-medievalspeak, just works for me on a level that's pretty bone-deep; it inspires complete confidence in the storyteller. I don't mean in terms of reliability, but in terms of entertainment. I trust Rothfuss absolutely to entertain me in a thought-provoking but always accessible way, and yes some of it is what he writes -- the plot, regardless of how it deprocates and downplays itself, can be pretty absorbing, particularly if you've a fondness for big sprawling stories as I occasionally do -- but a lot of it has nothing to do with what he writes and a lot to do with how he writes it.

Due to some small delays in getting WMF, I read Bujold's The Borders of Infinity, galloped through it in one sitting. Tense as always, though I'm not sure how it would work if you weren't invested in Miles Vorkosigan as a character beforehand. I think it might work, but quite differently.

And I picked up Susan Palwick's Shelter again, and am now about thirty pages from the end. This close to finished I'm maybe slightly less enamored of the book for a couple of reasons, but it is still very very good sf so far as I'm concerned, and should've been a Hugo nominee in its year in my humble opinion. [i don't think I'd change the winner, but I've read most of the 2008 novel shortlist, and Shelter's better than at least two things on it.] More once I'm really done, perhaps.

[Starkess]

Finished up Ringworld. Loved it! Been a while since I've read any sci fi--I think Altered Carbon was my last, and that was months ago--and it was a really good change in pace. Of course, a sci fi book from 1970, it was a little dated, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story at all. I'm a sucker for an exploration story, so I just am like "MOAR RINGWORLD PLZ" right now. I have The Ringworld Engineers to start tomorrow, so that's good enough for now.

[Bellis]

I haven't updated in the last couple weeks, so I'm going to throw this in the March thread instead of April. I am in denial about April (as is, apparently, the weather around here).

I was on a roadtrip last weekend and took a couple Barbara Ehrenreich audiobooks - Nickled and Dimed and Bait and Switch. Very commie stuff. :commie:

Nickled and Dimed chronicles the author's adventures undercover working low wage jobs in service and cleaning in Florida, Maine and Minnesota in the laste 90s. Besides showcasing how the others employed in this profession are no less talented or hardworking than anyone else, and their struggles with making ends meet, this book also points out the flaws in a system that cuts corners for surface appearance. For instance, I'll never hire someone from a "maids" firm now that I know that most don't really have the resources to do more than a very perfunctory surface cleaning, often re-using rags from other homes. I did feel better about my own workplace struggles though. Highly recommended.

Then I moved on to Bait and Switch, where Barbara tries to get a corporate PR job in the early 00s. The book follows her as she undergoes personality testing, job coaching, image makeovers, attends job fairs and networking sessions, and fails to land a "real" (not franchise sales) job in a year's time. Depressing stuff, if amusing due to the author's snarky attitude towards capitalism in general. The telling is more repetitive and tedious, though, so I can't recommend this as highly.

----

Besides these, I've read:

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien's excellent, legendary semi-fictional collection of memoirs of the Vietnam War;

Glamorama, by Bret Easton Ellis, a tedious romp through late 90s vapid celebrity/modelling culture - it takes a couple hundred pages to really get going with the main (surreal) plotline, during which I mused to myself how little I cared for anyone, though it somehow pulls together in the end.

[Grack21]

Finished Shadow's Son a few days ago. Am now 130ish pages into Wise Man's Fear. Bast is kinda of a dick.