October 2010 - What are you reading?

[Gormenghast]

I'm reading some pages of Gaddis (The Recognitions) and then read some pages of Franzen (The Corrections), so the comparison was spontaneous.

It's like the difference between a true genius (Gaddis) and one who thinks he's clever enough to look like a genius (Franzen). Anyone here read one or both of these?

On first approach Gaddis' sense of humor is just so much more successful.

[Astra]

I read Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains and I was really disappointed. I was expecting greatness from him and I didn't get it. I understand not all his books can be like Altered Carbon and this was a new genre for him but the book was mediocre. I just couldn't picture the world he created, I didn't care about the characters one way or another. The whole book felt unfocused to me.

Heh. He wanted to prove that J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is rubbish. so, he has to create something different and allegedly much better.

[Yohn]

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi. Very, very impressed. So many good ideas.

[Isis]

I read Richard Morgan's The Steel Remains and I was really disappointed. I was expecting greatness from him and I didn't get it. I understand not all his books can be like Altered Carbon and this was a new genre for him but the book was mediocre. I just couldn't picture the world he created, I didn't care about the characters one way or another. The whole book felt unfocused to me. Reading the next one when it comes out on paperback is not very high on my list right now.

I couldn't even get past the first 100 pages of this and I don't think I'll bother reading any of his stuff ever again. I wasn't expecting greatness but I was surprised my complete lack of interest in anyone or anything in the story. Anyway, vita brevis...

After 70 pages I was about to give up on M John Harrison's The Centauri Device. I was finding it slow going, pretentious for the sake of it, definitely not hip/not funny/not sharp/not witty, and generally thinking that it had aged really badly. However, having made the choice to speed-read through to the end (it's only 200 pages long) events picked up a little and it became more bearable. Maybe depressing space operas just aren't my thing. Once I 'get through it' I'm starting K J Parker's Shadow. YAY.

[Starkess]

I'm somewhat enjoying The Blade Itself, but...there is no plot. None. A few hints of disjointed story lines and a LOT of characterization. I can't imagine how people less stubborn than me keep at it! Still, I am aware that it's a trilogy, so even though it's three-quarters done and still not coming together, I'm willing to keep going. Think I'll even pick up the sequels tomorrow.

[williamjm]

I'm somewhat enjoying The Blade Itself, but...there is no plot. None. A few hints of disjointed story lines and a LOT of characterization. I can't imagine how people less stubborn than me keep at it! Still, I am aware that it's a trilogy, so even though it's three-quarters done and still not coming together, I'm willing to keep going. Think I'll even pick up the sequels tomorrow.

I like the trilogy, but I agree that the plot does take quite a while to really start in the first book - although the pace does pick up a bit towards the end. Fortunately, after the first book has introduced all the characters and the setting, the second and third books are much stronger in terms of plot.

[sparky]

I'm reading some pages of Gaddis (The Recognitions) and then read some pages of Franzen (The Corrections), so the comparison was spontaneous.

It's like the difference between a true genius (Gaddis) and one who thinks he's clever enough to look like a genius (Franzen). Anyone here read one or both of these?

On first approach Gaddis' sense of humor is just so much more successful.

You're comparing an apple to a bowling ball.

[macaroni]

Russell Brand - Bookywooky 2.

Loving it. love him more.

[wolverine]

Bernard Cornwell, Excalibur.

I kind of wish we didn't already know where Derfel ended up from the start of the series. Cornwell writes about topics I am very interested in but he is not one of my favorite. Too much telling, not showing.

Just reread the last 100 pages of The Thousand Fold Thought because I forgot my other book when I went bowhunting and it really make me want to get the first in the next trilogy.

Also just read the first book in the Lymond Chronicles and it was great. That may be part of the reason that Excalibur seems so shallow.

[Turinqui-Calima]

I finished Bill Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything" early October and absolutely loved it! I'm reading some Scandinavian crime novels at the moment but they're pretty meh and I miss "A short history".

So what I'm looking for here is recommendations! Anyone read anything else by Bryson for instance? Or anything else that is educational and entertaining at the same time? I'm very open minded concerning subject, I think it's more the style that I'm looking for.

[Biter]

Just to let you know the Kenzi-Gennaro books order is this:

1. A Drink before the War

2. Darkness, Take My Hand

3. Sacred

4. Gone, Baby, Gone

5. Prayers for Rain

6. Moonlight Mile

Thanks for the info. I thought DTMH had way too many cliches for me to really enjoy it, but at least the first few chapters of Sacred have been alright.

[Wras]

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea and I can't believe I didn't do so earlier. Only took a day and it was so much fun.

Now I'm juggling The Blade Itself as well as The Darkness that Comes Before. The Blade Itself is fun but I can't really shake the 'comic book' feel it has with the sound effects being typed out and the general exaggerated characters and descriptions. Still a good, easy read though.

[Larry.]

I'm alternating between finally reading the first two volumes of the unabrided The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, in the Easton Press leather-bound edition, Towers of Midnight (yes, I, along with a few others, have received our review copies recently), two Brazilian anthologies, Imaginarios 2 and Imaginarios 3, and some short fiction by Clark Ashton Smith and Arthur Machen.

[Old Nan]

Towers of Midnight (yes, I, along with a few others, have received our review copies recently)

Elsewhere you say that the style is noticeably different. Could you elaborate, or would that violate the terms?

[beniowa]

Last night I finished Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. The sequel to the amazing Leviathan wasn't as original as the first book, but it was still very good.

Next up will probably be Devices and Desires by KJ Parker.

[Eyelesbarrow]

Next up will probably be Devices and Desires by KJ Parker.

I'm reading this, too. For like 3 weeks now. (I'm very slow these days.)

Am alternating it with detective fiction by Peter Robinson called Strange Affair.

[Larry.]

Elsewhere you say that the style is noticeably different. Could you elaborate, or would that violate the terms?

It is shorter, sparser, more to the point. Not exactly like in Sanderson's own novels, but far from the pages of silk washing in the past. Things happen, quicker, and there's one little subplot that will surprise quite a few. Won't say what it is, though.

[mashiara]

I couldn't even get past the first 100 pages of this and I don't think I'll bother reading any of his stuff ever again. I wasn't expecting greatness but I was surprised my complete lack of interest in anyone or anything in the story. Anyway, vita brevis...

You know me, I have this serious character flaw, I just can't quit reading a book even when I hate it. Lord Jim is the only book I've left unfinished in my life back when I was in my early twenties and I still feel guilty about it.

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (translated by Ebba Segerberg) awhile back; unfortunately I didn't enjoy it that much. It's billed as a different type of vampire novel from the loads of vampire novels currently out there. However, the vampire stuff felt extremely clichéd to me - Håkan is just a pedophilic Renfield. I went hot and cold on Oskar, in parts he seemed brilliantly written and other times it was a chore to read him, and his tormentors were nothing more than cardboard cutouts. The lovable band of alcoholic losers were just boring to read about and honestly few of them actually exhibited alcoholic tendencies. It is much darker than most vampire books (with the pedophilia, sociopath in training, 'alcoholism', graphic depictions of bullying, etc.), so if that's your thing it might be worth reading. Overall it's not a bad book, but not one that I would recommend.

5/10

I'm currently about 60% through So Cold the River by Michael Koryta. It's pretty good so far, but is very repetitive with certain details (to the point that it feels like the book was written for imbeciles).

[The Evil Hat]

some short fiction by Clark Ashton Smith and Arthur Machen.

Are you going to do a review of these?