June 2011 Reading Thread

[palin99999]

About half way through The White-Luck Warrior and after that it's on to a reread of ASoIaF.

What is everyone else reading?

[Grack21]

Heh. 50 Pages into The Warrior Prophet, then starting my reread of ASoIaF. Might throw a random star wars novel in there if there is time.

[RedEyedGhost]

Over halfway through Lord Tohpet by Gregory Frost. It's freaking awesome, and I would have finished it days ago but the holiday weekend didn't allow for any reading.

[nickg]

Finished the wizard knight by Gene Wolfe. Loved it. Easily my favorite by him.

Starting Otherland by Tad Williams. Only about 120 pages in, but its great so far. Excited about this series.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Slowly working through three books at the moment. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova which is well written (particularly the travelogue's of Istanbul) but the horror aspects are rather clumsily handled. Still, its a fun read so far.

A Princess Of Roumania by Paul Park. Early days but interesting.

The Passage by Justin Cronin. Very enjoyable and I have a feeling its about to crank up a fair bit.

[TheEvilKing]

Finished White Luck Warrior. A splendid book indeed. Now trying to catch up reading the threads on here.

Started The Three Musketeers by Dumas. Also reading Hidden Cities by Daniel Fox.

[valacirca]

I began June having started three books:

A Game of Thrones (I'm around 2/3 through; just in concurrence with the TV show)

The Hunger Games (Just started.)

Winter's Bone (halfway done)

Hopefully I'm done with all of these by the end of the month :P

[Paxter]

Have under 100 pages to go on The White-Luck Warrior. Great read so far as TEK mentioned.

Then on to either Rothfuss' Wise Man's Fear or King's Wizard and Glass.

[siemprepe]

Finished the first two books of the Long price quartet. Not really my cup of tea, but not bad either.

Now reading 1984 since I realised that I had never completely read it.

After that probably the judging eye.

[SkynJay]

Almost done with Dreams if Steel by Cook.

Then I pick through one of three choices from the library, Feed by Mira Grant, Firethorn by Sarah Micklem, and Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.

Usually when faced with a choice like that, i start with whichever one is shorter and work through.

[Happy Ent]

Slowly working through three books at the moment. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova which is well written (particularly the travelogue's of Istanbul) but the horror aspects are rather clumsily handled. Still, its a fun read so far.

Just walk away. “Now I know how to kill Dracula. I can bore him to death.”

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm about half way through Land of the Painted Caves by Jean Auel. Next is Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson and as a reward for reading that huge tome, ASOIAF re-read is next.

[Bahimiron]

Finished James Morrow's Slouching Toward Hiroshima. The autobiography of an early 20th century horror actor who is conscripted by the US government to make a movie about giant lizards so terrifying it will scare the Japanese into surrender. It's funny, but not nearly as poignant as Morrow's previous venture toward this theme with This is the Way the World Ends. It's also a super fast read.

Started Help! A Bear Is Eating Me last night, finished it this morning. Less a novel than a pamphlet. It's precisely what the title says. The first person account of the world's least likeable protagonist being eaten alive by a bear. It's definitely in the spectrum of bizarro fiction, though it doesn't go nearly as far as many of his pansexual post-splatterpunk squickmeister brethren in the genre. Funny, savage, kind of gross, probably 30 pages longer than it needs to be and it's only like 120 pages.

Finishing The Gun Seller, Hugh Laurie's first (and a decade later still his only) foray into fiction. It's a hell of a first half of a novel and kind of plodding second half of a novel. It's funny in a very British sort of way. He's not as prone to tangents as Harkaway or as flip as Douglas Adams, but he still has a dry character who bluntly assesses himself and the ludicrousness around him at every turn.

Looking at starting Stations of the Tide as soon as I finish The Gun Seller.

I'm also currently listening to Sabriel by Garth Nix, terribly read by the usually dependable Tim Curry. I don't know if it's just how bad Curry's reading is or if I just don't care for the book and its characters, but I've actually stopped listening twice to listen to something else, Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation and a half-dozen episodes of This American Life. I'm looking forward to it being done so I can start listening to The Player of Games or The Wise Man's Fear, which I'm not going to bother reading after hearing all of my friends bag all over its mary suedom.

[Eyelesbarrow]

Currently reading Cara Black's Murder in Belleville. Sometimes, I like her heroine Aimee Leduc, but there are times when she can be whiny and self-absorbed. I think I'm reading this series for her sidekick, Rene Friant, who's a dapper, savant dwarf.

I have several books to accompany me on a trip this June:

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun (Vols 1 and 2)

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (have started on this actually)

Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

Miranda July's Nobody Belongs Here More Than You

Christopher Priest's The Separation

I will also be bringing A Game of Thrones as a gift to my host, but I suspect I will be re-reading this too.

[Spaceman Hobbes]

I just finished the Lies of Locke Lamora(because I live under some goddamn rock), and I'm working my way through Red Seas under a Red Sky.

After that it's time for ASoIaF re-read.

[Starkess]

I'm about 40% through my A Game of Thrones re-read. So far enjoying it more than I had expected, and also surprised to see how faithful the HBO series has been (my memory of the books was fairly fuzzy, I couldn't pick out the "book scenes" or not).

Also reading Sophie's World. Another re-read--it's my favorite book--in order to entice a friend to read it.

[Cuchulain]

I reread Pynchon's Inherent Vice recently. Loved it as much as the first time around.

Yesterday I finally finished Martin's Dreamsongs. A couple of the stories are forgettable, but most of the collection is great. I especially enjoyed the two Tuf tales.

I've started Miéville's Embassytown. I'm 75 pages in and the writing's been really strange so far. Also very hard to get into, much more so than Miéville's other novels.

[mashiara]

I finished my reread of our favorite series, which seems to be what half the Board is doing right now. That is, I'm done with A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows and I'm delighted to report I enjoyed them even more than the first/second/third/fourth/I've lost-count time I read them. I had forgotten a lot of details from the last book, which I still consider the weakest but I was able to enjoy even the chapters I had hated in the past. My biggest problem was, I would run into these characters and immediately associate them with the people on this board. For instance, I finally found out where my friend Zollo got his name and if we ever meet again I plan on asking him why on earth he picked that name from the thousands he could have picked. And I kept correcting Martin's writing in my head, it's Tormund Midgetsbane, damn it, get it right. :lol:

Later today I'm hoping to start reading Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill, another one of Angalin's unexpected gifts.

[Contrarius]

I just finished the Assassin trilogy (Hobb), which I enjoyed quite a bit even though some things about it irritated me. Now listening to Ethan of Athos (Bujold), not my favorite Bujold but it's been a long time since I read it and I've never listened to it before. After that, maaaaaybe The Heroes (Abercrombie), the only Abercrombie I haven't read yet. Or maybe something else...you never know, I may actually listen to ASoIaF, which I've still never read!

[Peadar]

I've just finished reading Feed by Mira Grant. I enjoyed it.

Up next, more stuff from the Hugo voting packet. Maybe the novellas.