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The Dog Days of August Readings


Larry.

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Hoping to finish Comte de monte-cristo by the end of the month, almost half-way through it now. Really good, but a bit slow moving in the middle. Also on platter are RSURS, which I just ordered from Amazon, and a Book of New Sun/Short Sun re-read. And some other shorter standalones that I'll report on as I finish them.

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Finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Ordered RSURS by Lynch through Amazon.us

Ordered Abercrombie's two books and GotM by Erikson through The Book Depository.

I've finally reached my limit with Books A Million. Went there on Tuesday to get my hands on the newly released RSURS by Lynch and they didn't have it. Guy also told me they weren't planning on getting it either. Their SF/F section stinks. Seems like all they have is a ton of mainstream fantasy like Brooks, Goodkind, Jordan, Feist, Eddings, etc... Nothing edgier at all, with the exception of GRRM. What I wouldn't give for a Barnes & Noble or Borders. Looks like I will have to rely on ecommerce to fulfill my reading needs.

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Got the one volume brick of Jeff Smith's Bone this morning and finished it half an hour ago. I had some other plans for today apart from reading, but there you go... Brilliant, just brilliant!

To be finished

Peter Weiss - Die Aesthetik des Widerstands (The Aesthetics of Resistance)

Czesław Miłosz - Poems

Algernon Charles Swinburne - Poems

Planned

Hope Mirless - Lud-in-the-Mist

Harold Lamb - Warriors of the Steppe

Maria DÄ…browska - Nights and Days

Witold Gombrowicz - Diaries 1953-1969

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What I wouldn't give for a Barnes & Noble or Borders. Looks like I will have to rely on ecommerce to fulfill my reading needs.

Barnes & Noble is just as bad. They generally don't stock anything that is actually worth buying. They have let me down many times before - but RSURS was the last straw. But at least I have Borders nearby. Always reliable they are.

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Currently reading:

RSURS- got this yesterday from Borders and was able to use up a bunch of gift cards I had with small amounts of money on them. It was on sale, too, and stocked in the 'new releases' display area with many copies, so I can't complain about that local book megastore.

Also reading:

The Lives of Rocks by Rick Bass- It's a short story collection and has stories about rural life. I do like this kind of thing. My picking up the book had nothing at all to do with the title and the fact that one of the stories actually has to do with rocks. Really. ;)

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan- Apparently everyone around here has already read it and I'm behind the curve. Picked it up at the library randomly. This is going to make me feel guilty about what I eat. Oh well.

On the list for next up:

The Dark River by John Twelve Hawks- we'll see how similar this is to the first book.

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Just finished Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman. I couldn't tell that Gaiman had touched it to be honest. I don't understand all of the love for Pratchett. His stuff is all a bit long winded and oddly abrasive and then everything ends just when things get started. I wouldn't call it a bad book but I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm about to start Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell.

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Just finished Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell. I plan to read Ragamuffin after I get through Hawkwood's Voyage by Paul Kearney.

After that, one of these

American Gods, Neil Gaiman

Altered Carbon, Richard Morgan

Vellum, Hal Duncun

Jhereg, Steven Brunst

House of Chains, Steven Erikson

What I wouldn't give for a Barnes & Noble or Borders. Looks like I will have to rely on ecommerce to fulfill my reading needs.

I've got a B&N and the nearest Borders is an hour away, however, I mainly rely on my local independent. I can always count on them to have new books and they often have books that I haven't heard of or are hard to get elsewhere.

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Just finished two books recently.

A Dark and Hungrey God Arises by Stephen Donaldson. This is the third part of his gap cycle. First book was ok, the second book was great but this one was a step down from the second but still pretty good.

Also finished Stephen King's Lisey story. It has some simularites with Bag of Bones, one of my favorites, but its not quite as strong. It was an enjoyable read. Boo ya Moon seems like a creepy yet beautiful place.

Right now I'm reading the final Harry Potter. So far its fun but a little less magical than the earlier books.

After that? Not sure. I may plod on with the gap cycle or read some Updike or Steinbeck.

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Recently finished the first installation in Donaldson's Gap series and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. The Donaldson was decent, but AC pretty much blew me away for most of the story. I can't remember the last time it's been that hard to put a book down.

Right now, I'm 75-100 pages into The Scar by Mieville and enjoying it. A lot of attention gets paid to his worldbuilding, but I have to say the thing I love most about Mieville is when he really lets go with his prose. The scene near the beginning when the remade are being loaded into the ship is just inspired.

For the rest of the month, I've got:

Rabbit, Run by John Updike

The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce

Pomes All Sizes by Jack Kerouac

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Clarke

A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes edited by Steven C. Tracy

And the rest of the Gap series as they come in.

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I killed off a number of gift cards at Barnes & Noble to pick up Red Seas Under Red Skies, and I am certainly enjoying it so far. I like that it seems to start off as just another caper, but takes some interesting twists early on. And once again, the dialogue has made me laugh out loud on the subway. (In a good way. :))

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Just started Neverwhere by Gaiman and Freakonomics.. I like to trade off between a "business" book and a leisure one. I was looking for American Gods and Stardust but my library didn't have it in stock (I'm reluctant to buy books I haven't read). I'm very early in Neverwhere, but can anyone tell me if it's indicative of Gaiman's other works. I'll search the forum for Neverwhere later.. but since Stardust is coming out I figured I'd go with a Gaiman book since I've never read one before.

ETA: I searched for Neverwhere and I did not see anything titled Neverwhere.. I'm a little scared of opening the other threads for fear of spoilers. The ones I dared open consider it an entertaining story, which is all I ask for.

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Just finished reading 'El Sombra' by Al Ewing. It's Zorro (under a different name) facing off against steampunk Nazis! :thumbsup: The perfect book to read while drinking beer in the sun (nice); it won't ask anything of you; you'll just enjoy reading all the swashbuckling deeds of derring do... I did ;)

I've posted a review Here

Now back onto reading 'The Heart of the Mirage' (Glenda Larke)

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Currently reading The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Very good so far - I'm about 100 pages in right now. It is translated very well, too.

I may pick up Stardust again for a re-read prior to seeing the movie.

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Just started Neverwhere by Gaiman and Freakonomics.. I like to trade off between a "business" book and a leisure one. I was looking for American Gods and Stardust but my library didn't have it in stock (I'm reluctant to buy books I haven't read). I'm very early in Neverwhere, but can anyone tell me if it's indicative of Gaiman's other works. I'll search the forum for Neverwhere later.. but since Stardust is coming out I figured I'd go with a Gaiman book since I've never read one before.

ETA: I searched for Neverwhere and I did not see anything titled Neverwhere.. I'm a little scared of opening the other threads for fear of spoilers. The ones I dared open consider it an entertaining story, which is all I ask for.

I think Neverwhere is pretty indicative though, if you like it you'll probably like American Gods or Anansi Boys. (I haven't read Stardust or Coraline, or his graphic novels.) American Gods is somewhat more serious and epic in scope than his other books. I liked it pretty well myself - worth buying (or you could ask your library to buy it).

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I'm currently read Steph Swainston's "The Modern World" (called something else in the US, apparently), I'm about halfway through. I like Swainston's writing style and dialogue, the plot is quite interesting so far although some anachronistic aspects of the world-building (such as Comet complaining about finding an old pub he liked 200 years ago having been turned into a trendy wine bar) seem a bit out-of-place.

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Recently finished HP7, Catch-22, and Sandman 4.

Harry Potter was enjoyable. Disappointing in places, sure, but overall a satisfying ending.

Catch-22 was brilliant and hilarious at times, but there were times that it dragged. A strong beginning, but I was dreading the last hundred pages or so.

Sandman 4 was amazing. By far the best of the series so far. I wasn't even sure if I was going to continue with the series, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I've heard this was the best of the series though so I'm hoping I'm not at the peak, poised for an expensive decline in quality over the next 6.

I'm in the middle of House of Leaves now which is creepy, weird, and hard to put down.

As far as future reading goes, I recently created a spreadsheet to keep track of my to be read pile and discovered that it has reached a ridiculous 73 books! :stunned:

I'm going to try not to spend any more money on books for awhile.

I've narrowed down my 73 choices for this month:

House of Chains, Steven Erikson

River of Gods, Ian McDonald

The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky

Winterbirth, Brian Ruckley

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