July 2011 Reading thread

[Moonshine]

That's some serious reading there Larry...

I read at probably 150-200 pages a day, not an hour ike it seems you do... Then again, between the internet, Call of Duty, Football Manager, and suchlike, my reading time diminishes.

July reads are:

A Storm of Swords (Part 1 almost finished)

A Feast For Crows

A Dance With Dragons

Ozzy Unauthorised by Sue Crawford - turning out to be utter shit, his autobiography was much better.

What Might Have Been - Editted by Andrew Roberts - a series of 'what if' essays by notable historians

The Way of Kings (Part 1) by Brandon Sanderson - part 2 is not yet in the library

And a few more as and when tey come to me.

[jagilki]

At the moment I'm about 300 pages into my re-read of A Feast for Crows, then I'll probably move onto one of the cheap books I got on my Nook (the 99 cent ones) not sure, probably a random one.

Hopefully I'll breeze through that just in time for A Dance With Dragons.

[UndergroundMan]

Just finished "Never Let Me Go". Great book. Started "Rabbit is Rich" by John Updike, as well. Will probably move on to either "19 minutes" by Jodi Picoult or "Requiem for a Dream" by Hubert Selby Jr because I loved the movie version, and I've heard good things about the book.

Picoult on the other hand, my mother and girlfriend swear by her, but I'm not sure yet if she's a good writer or more of a chick lit author that I may not enjoy.

[Cuchulain]

Finished Stephen King's Carrie. Quite good for a debut novel. Really enjoyed it.

I'm now reading Macdonald's River of Gods.

[Eponine]

Finished AFFC- more entertaining than the first read but still less memorable than the first three. Relatively few likable characters. But excited for the release.

Still listening to Snowcrash right now, stuck in traffic in Ohio but good 3G, but need to find book and fill in parts where I was asleep. Was very into first few hours but don't care a lot about the remainder of the plot. Boyfriend thinks Hiro is the kind of character that a 12 year old boy would come up with. He liked Cryptonomicon and Anathem better.

Started Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep- book list has gotten a little mixed up because waiting for earlier book and have way too much Lovecraft. Got tired of phosphorescent luminescence and unspeakable horror. Was determined not to get bogged down if I wasn't enjoying something, but find it hard to quit once I've started.

[Moonshine]

Snowcrash irritated me - the plot is full of holes, yet the story is told insanely well. Put me off Stephenson IMHO

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'll be finishing up A Storm of Swords on my commute home today. I'd forgotten how much happens in this novel. It doesn't feel like a 1000 page novel as the plot just whips by.

My first re-read of A Feast of Crows is next.

[Nearly Headless Ned]

Finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. Generally very good although the middle sagged a little.

[Peadar]

I loved Embassytown by China Miéville. Up next The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

[Moonshine]

Paedar: Fuck me, isn't Embassytown complicated? Brilliant - but complicated

[Whipster]

I finished A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge a couple of days ago. I really liked it, it's space opera with galaxy-spanning civilisations run by merchants, freighters and networkers rather than emperors, with some of the main characters belonging to a cool hive-mind species. It also has different levels of god-like beings, though not supernatural in the true sense of the word, and an interesting mechanism for explaining Fermi's paradox while still allowing for faster-than-light travel. I would have liked some more details on the technical bits, but I knew when I started reading it that it wasn't really hard SF so the lack of it didn't disappoint me.

Now I've started on A deepness in the sky which is supposedly a stand-alone prequel. So far it seems very different, but I can't tell if it's for better or worse. Apparently there will be a sequel to A fire upon the deep this autumn, I'll probably read that too.

[Maester Zoidberg]

Currently reading:

A Game of Thrones

Die Festung by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the war reporter who wrote the book "Das Boot" is based upon, who chronicles his travels through France and Germany in 1944. His descriptions of Paris as an isle of peace and beauty are really well written and make you feel how it must have been like there in those days. Especially when contrasted with his travels through Germany in the ruins of Munich and Berlin.

Paradise Lost by John Milton. I try to recited one book aloud everyday (might fit into the "Stupid stuff you do behind closed doors" thread as well ;)); but poetry such as this simply deserves to be read aloud. Gotta love all the references and allusions to mythology, bible and classic history.

The Japanese Empire by John Whitney Hall. If you want a well-written, concise and readable history of Japan and don't care much that it goes only to the 1960s, this is as good as it gets.

The Shaping of Middle-Earth, Vol. 4 of the History of Middle-Earth. Tedious reading, but very rewarding.

I hope to get around to reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms sometimes this month, on my first try I didn't come much farther than the first half of the first book, also Melmoth the Wanderer wants to be re-read I fear.

[stormborne]

Just finished Gail Carrigers Heartless - so much fun! i veged out thinking that DWD was coming out yesterday...so im re-reading Heartless again to try to fill the week without having to start something brand new

[Teng Ai Hui]

I'm about 100 pages into Leviathan Wakes. I picked it up because of GRRM's blurb on the front cover calling it a "really kickass space opera," and I'm finding that I agree with him.

[Peadar]

Paedar: Fuck me[...]

Thought I was

there for a moment ;)

But yeah. It didn't oust The Scar as my favourite Miéville, but it's definitely safe in the number 2 spot for now.

[Inkdaub]

I just finished Kay's Under Heaven, read two James Lee Burke books, and have begun Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

[Reposado]

Finished ACOK reread,then started On Stranger Tides yesterday on an airplane. It seems many of my choices recently are dictated by the limited supplies of small bookstores. Once I finish that, I presume ADWD will take up most of the month.

[beniowa]

I finished my ASOIAF re-read with A Feast for Crows.

Then I made short work of Carrie Vaughn's latest Kitty book, Kitty's Big Trouble. For those that read the books, there's a bit more setup for the larger scope of The Long Game, along with an introduction for more supernatural elements. On the other hand, the overall plot felt a bit weak. I didn't enjoy this book as much I the previous ones. I'll see if I continue with the series when the next book comes out.

Next up will be Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey.

[Jack Of All Trades]

LotR for class still. Halfway through the series atm.

Lolita (Nabokov)

Sophie's World (Gaarder)

Johnny Got His Gun (Trumbo)

[Xenophon]

I was reading Baudolino (the Umberto Eco book set in the 3rd/4th crusades) and really enjoying it until I got about 3/4 of the way through where it started getting weirder and weirder and more and more heavy-handed about Gnostism. Then at the end of June I was too busy to finish it, and now it sits there accusingly on my bedside table. Is it worth finishing, or should I cut my losses and run?