March 2010 Reading

[Ski the Swift]

Upon receiving two new books from The Book Depository only minutes ago, I realized I'm actually in the month of March now. So in the spirit of all threads that are sacred:

What are you reading this month?

I've got Robbert Harris's Imperium

[Quarterman]

Reading Stephen King's Desperation followed by The Regulators (final Bachman book to read for me).

[The Evil Hat]

If all goes well, I'll probably get to:

Alastair Reynolds - Terminal World (can't wait for this one)

MR James - The Haunted Doll's House and Other Ghost Stories (reading now)

Steven Erikson - Reaper's Gale

Jeff VanderMeer - Secret Life (though I'm saving this for the break at the end of the month)

Jeff VanderMeer - The Day That Dali Died (same as Secret Life)

China Mieville - The City and the City

Mervyn Peake - Gormenghast

Robin Hobb - Mad Ship

Yeah, I predict a total change of plans after the first two and the VanderMeer. But what the hell, should be a pretty good month anyway.

EDIT: I should probably add Scalzi's Old Man's War to the list, seeing as I'm now fifty pages into it. Which means I kept to the plan for less than two hours...take that, mildly consistent February!

[Avalon]

Currently reading Tales of Dying Earth by Jack Vance, mostly because I've heard it mentioned quite a few times on this board. I've only read the first chapter of the first book (The Dying Earth), but so far I'm definitely intrigued. The prose style is better than what I've found in other fantasy-type novels from around the same period (1950) - in other words (though this may be damning with faint praise), I didn't feel compelled to drop the book after a page or two due to the writing style.

I plan to read The Anubis Gates next, and I'll probably browse through Ten Thousand Kingdoms in the bookshop to see if its something I'd want to buy (I know that the author has a couple of sample chapters up on her website, but I can't much abide reading long passages of text on a computer screen. Hence my ever-growing where-am-I-going-to-put-all-these-damn-books problem...)

[mashiara]

Books I finished in the last week.

Creation, by Gore Vidal. I was disappointed with this, it was nothing the other books of his that I've read. It's a very well researched and kind of interesting story about the ancient world, mainly Persia but reaching out to Greece, India and China. Lots of references to religious beliefs in the last two countries, it almost felt like it was a spiritual quest of sorts. I have to admit that though it did have its moments, for the most part it bored me. It might be totally fascinating to someone else but it just didn't work for me.

Summer, by Edith Wharton. A charming little novel with a female protagonist that feels very real in her flaws and her desires. Good book, well written.

Le Divorce, Diane Johnson. Meh, not much to say about this. It was supposed to be about the difficulties of adapting to a foreign culture -an American woman married to a French man- and dealing with relationship issues, divorce, property settlements... The author mentioned Bosnia often, seemingly with no reason. I guess it was on the news a lot when she was writing it? Not a book I'd recommend.

I've now started The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg. I remember how much Isis liked it and I'm hoping it's going to be a great read.

[TheEvilKing]

Currently reading Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore and A Magic of Twilight by SL Farrell. Early days on both of them really, but Moore's book seems like it could end up being absolutely brilliant. Afterwards I plan to read The Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb and Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm halfway through Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It is just meh right now for me. I'm not liking the first person narrative and it seems to spend way too much time inside the character's head and not enough moving forward of the plot. The metal dragons are cool though!

Up next is a non-fiction novel by Malcolm Gladwell, What the Dog Saw.

[TheLoneliestMonk]

I read Hedge Knight yesterday, and The Sworn Sword today. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency will now hold me over until Warriors gets here. Too bad I have completely forgotten the release date now... Good thing I preordered.

Dirk Gently has been good so far.

[BookWyrm]

I'm still working on One Hundred Years of Solitude (it still rocks), but I also just began Simon Armitage's translation of Sir Gawain & the Green Knight. It's very nice and makes me want to give Tolkien's translation a shot later on. I should finish SGatGK tomorrow, then it's back to full throttle Márquez.

I've had my eyes on Robert McCammon's Swan Song for a week or so now, it's looking more and more delicious. I know I promised myself some Dostoevsky in the near future but it may get put off once more.

[Astra]

Started yesterday Crown of Shadows by Celia S. Friedman Coldfire Trilogy, Book 3.

I am looking forward to learn how the story unravels with Calesta and Tarrant at the centre.

[Isis]

I finished off another 'unfinished' book yesterday: Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. I can only say, 'hmmm, it was okay' really. It would make a decent holiday read I guess, on the plane or sitting on the beach or something. Scary? Not so much. I think I was expecting a little too much from it.

Today I am returning to another unfinished book - The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Once that's polished off I may allow myself to start something new. I've been ordering lots of books lately in anticipation of being free of school at the end of this month. I shall probably start with Geoff Ryman's 253 - which is a collection of 253 253 word-long accounts of people commuting on the tube. Reviews say that I'll never see travel by tube in the same light again. I say, good luck with that one.

Mash - I hope you like it well enough to try some of his other books at least. I enjoyed that one because it reminded me of Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - they're both 'mystery' stories with interesting protagonists.

[beniowa]

I'm currently a little over a hundred pages into Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard. It's good so far.

[Alytha]

I'm reading guily pleasure vampireporn; the Black Dagger bortherhood, only because a friend gave me a big box full of vampire porn she had double. It's pretty awful, even the sex scenes are bad. And the main characters have the stupidest names ever.

If anyone wants a box full of German-translated vampire porn, let me know.

I'm also reading Charles Fort's collected works, which so far is a report of weird stuff falling from the sky, appearing in the sky or appearing on the moon. Some of it so strange that one wonders why there were no consequences.

I think I'm going to reread GRRM's Dreamsongs and Jack Vance's Lyonesse books soon.

[kcf]

I finished up The Conqueror's Shadow by Ari Marmell - it is a really snarky sword and sorcery book that stands well on its own form a mainly tie-in fiction writer (this is his first venture into true original fiction). Good stuff. (full review)

Next up is Spellwright by Blake Charlton - if the rest holds up as well as the prologue has, this is going to be a fun, intelligent book.

[Biter]

After finishing The Time Traveler's Wife during the weekend, I'm getting started on The Lies of Locke Lamora. TTTW wasn't was I was expecting (I was expecting to read more about the sci-fi aspect), but I enjoyed it anyway.

[Whitestripe]

I've now started The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg. I remember how much Isis liked it and I'm hoping it's going to be a great read.

For some reason, I just couldn't get into The Quiet Girl. I really did try. I'm currently reading John Banville's The Infinities. I like it, but it's not my usual style of book.

[Quarterman]

I finished off another 'unfinished' book yesterday: Song of Kali by Dan Simmons. I can only say, 'hmmm, it was okay' really. It would make a decent holiday read I guess, on the plane or sitting on the beach or something. Scary? Not so much. I think I was expecting a little too much from it.

I agree, okay, not a bad story,

the visions of the Kali statute were creepy but only one moment really generated any scares and that is when Kali performed the tarantula crawl.

[Isis]

Yeah, there was nothing really wrong with it and it had some nice moments

I wasn't expecting the first (corpse) sacrifice came back to life so that was pretty cool, I thought.

but from the blurb I thought it was going to be AMAZING. :)

Oh, just remembered - I've also read Christopher Priest's The Dream Archipelago. It's a collection of (incredibly bleak and depressing) short stories set on and among this bizarre sprawl of islands during a time of war. My favourite story, as you might guess if you know what my occupation is, was The Cremation. That one had an almost K J Parker-esque inevitability/futility to it.

[Rhadamanth]

Currently reading Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson. Not sure what I'm gonna read next unless the library can get me a copy of Abercrombie's Best Served Cold soon.

I liked Imperium but it wasn't amazing, to be honest. At least I didn't buy it.

[Garlan the Gallant]

This March I am slowly making my way through A Shadow In Summer. As per the books I'll be buying this month and thus reading:

The Great Bazaar by Peter V Brett

Spellwright by Blake Charlton (e-mail saying it just shipped :thumbsup: )

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Warriors Anthology by many, but mainly GRRM :drool: