What are you reading in March?

[Melonica Stormborn]

It's been a while since I read them but I'm sure TSR was one of my favorite ones. I think you start seeing Rand really changing for the better in the next couple of books. I got a bit annoyed when he took so long to accept what he was and what he had to do. He just wanted to run for so long.

Who're the characters you want to follow?

I think that's part of what annoys me as well, almost all of them with POV whine about everything (I guess it's understandable given the situation but still....)

So far I'm interested in seeing Rand's slow descent to madness, TDR gave a glimpse of that and it's promising, but Perrin's, Mat's and Lan's are the ones I'd really like to follow as of now. So far, Egwene and co's storyline is borderline Harry Potter-ish where they'd break out of school and go on adventures without real repercussions because they're the most powerful channelers in years (or something like that) and I'm waiting for it to change to something less formulaic.

[kingofashes]

Yeah it is understandable. Like if I found out I was doomed to die to save the world or I could hear wolves in my head*(the voices are back...), I would be bricking it. But, I don't really want to be reading too much of that.

I've never read Harry Potter but I did enjoy Egwenes storyline alot although I didn't like that so many of the Aes Sedai are bossy, bullying idiots. I expected more from them :-P

The WoT has alot of secondary characters that are well written. Some of my favorite people in the series are ones that are only in maybe a couple of books.

* it would be cool though!

[Melonica Stormborn]

WoT did come before Harry Potter, so there's that. It may have to do with the school set-up and "wilder" is pretty much the WoT equivalent of "mudblood" (and the list goes on.....)

Egwene and co's storyline as far as I've read (up to TDR) was okay when they were in Tar Valon, the paranoia regarding the Black Ajah was an aspect I liked, it's the adventures that got me on the fence, but we'll see how I'd look at it in hindsight once I've read everything.

[MisterOJ]

Started on Wool after finally having been convinced by so many positive reviews here and other places that this wasn't standard self-pubbed crap. It's hard to turn off my internal editor, but I finished the first story and it was entertaining. I don't really like the format of a novel where the parts are only loosely-connected (ie the Foundation trilogy comes to mind) but I am willing to give it a go.

Have you started the second story yet? It's not loosely connected at all. I picks up right after the first story ends pretty much. The stories were written in serial form. They are very heavily connected.

[Whitestripe]

Finished Vampires in the Lemon Grove a day or so ago. Not sure what to read now.

[Brendan Moody]

Finished Down and Out in Beverly Heels, which was cute but would have better off as a comic novel without the less-successful romance and mystery elements. Also read three short books: Mohsin Hamid's How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Caitlin R. Kiernan's Blood Oranges, and Brendan Connell's Lives of Notorious Cooks. Now I'm working on Luke Geddes' I am a Magical Teenage Princess, which like the Connell book is published by the ever-intriguing Chomu Press.

I'm also chipping away at three back-burnered books: Ian Fleming's Live and Let Die (oh God, the racism), A. M. Burrage's The Occult Files of Francis Chard: Some Ghost Stories (some nice moments, but mostly workmanlike), and Jose Saramago's Raised from the Ground (a mixed bag: Saramago had found but not mastered his distinctive style).

[gordonah]

I have to agree. The Red Queen was one of the first books of Gregory's that I read, and it's probably one of my least favourites....

Thanks for the info.

As above, I've not ruled out reading any further in the series, but it more likely to be driven by 'luck', such as coming across another in a charity shop or school sale, than actively pursuing the series.

[Starkess]

Have you started the second story yet? It's not loosely connected at all. I picks up right after the first story ends pretty much. The stories were written in serial form. They are very heavily connected.

Yeah I read it today, I see it isn't as loosely connected as I'd thought based on some of the reviews I'd read

Although if the current trend of having each section's POV character die at the end continues I will be very put out. <_<

[williamjm]

I finished Tim Powers' Hide Me Among The Graves. I liked it more than The Stress of Her Regard (it's a loosely-connected sequel to Stress, set about 20 years later), which I thought had an interesting interpretation of vampire mythology which was much more sinister than most modern vampire novels manage, but all the characters were really annoying, and I'm not sure whether they were meant to be that annoying. I think Hide benefits from having some sympathetic characters (even if they can be quite foolish at times) and I liked both the supernatural elements and the detailed portrayal of Victorian London. I've read almost all of Powers' books, I'd probably rank it in the middle of them, it's not quite as compelling a story as The Anubis Gates or Declare but it is better than several of his older books.

Now I'm reading Sophia McDougall's Rome Burning. I read the first book in the series, Romanitas last year and I enjoyed it, although I'm hoping it might show a bit more of the world because the alternate history setting where the Roman Empire never fell had a lot of potential but it felt a bit underused.

[peterbound]

Have you started the second story yet? It's not loosely connected at all. I picks up right after the first story ends pretty much. The stories were written in serial form. They are very heavily connected.

Read the Collection. Loved it. Apparently there is a prequel of sorts out as well?

[Melonica Stormborn]

I've decided to go with book 2 of Emperor's Edge. Never again will I start multiple series at the same time! :P

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I've decided to go with book 2 of Emperor's Edge. Never again will I start multiple series at the same time! :P

I found book 2 the weakest of the four that I've read. Still, i had a blast reading the series. A warning: the first 3 books are self contained and book 4 ends on a big cliffhanger!

[3CityApache]

Read the Collection. Loved it. Apparently there is a prequel of sorts out as well?

Sort of, yes. It starts as a prequel and then it catches up with the story. And the final part of the trilogy is about to be released in October this year.

Just finished The Blink of the Screen. Putting it short: it contains a few gems I haven't known so far (mostly in Non-Discworld section), but generally the ones I've already known, like Troll Bridge or The Sea and Little Fishes are much better than others.

Not sure what to read next. Back to Reamde, Cloud Atlas or parhaps The Blade Itself?

[MisterOJ]

Read the Collection. Loved it. Apparently there is a prequel of sorts out as well?

The second omnibus is Shift. It's three stories instead of five and all three are more or less the same length - unlike in Wool. The first story is pretty much a prequel (although it's not quite that straightforward) but over the course of the omnibus, you sort of catch up to and overtake the story from Wool. So, it advances the overall story as well as giving backstory.

I liked Shift a lot. Not quite as much as Wool though. You get a lot more answers in Shift. But, some of the answers, I felt were... kinda unsatisfactory. Not terrible, by any means, but not outstanding either.

[KingAlanI]

Forgot that I recently went through Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

Early-1990's feminist tract

I saw a copy on display in a library and skimmed through it fairly thoroughly while sitting in the library. Political activist books in general often reiterate a lot, so maybe a decent skim was better than a full read - at worst I can criticize it for being repetitive, but I avoided that problem.

You may be familiar with body-image BS, but her main point is that it counteracts a lot of the gains of second-wave feminism (60s/70s). She gives examples of this problem appearing in various areas of society.

Notably for me, she says it's unhealthy for the men in straight relationships as well - sometimes I'm tempted to think misogyny is in mens' best interest, so it helps to have reminders like this.

[Lord Tyrion]

I just finished The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.

Currently reading Ascent of Money by Neil Ferguson and probably going to read iDisorder by Larry Rosen.

I also want to start reading Silence of the Lambs and/or Red Dragon. Not sure which one to read first though.

[Melonica Stormborn]

I found book 2 the weakest of the four that I've read. Still, i had a blast reading the series. A warning: the first 3 books are self contained and book 4 ends on a big cliffhanger!

Good to know! I'm not bothered because it's my theory that the second book of a series is usually weaker than the third one. I agree Emperor's Edge is fun regardless of objective quality.

I also want to start reading Silence of the Lambs and/or Red Dragon. Not sure which one to read first though.

Red Dragon is the first in the series so you might want to start with it. Silence is second, and may be the best of the bunch (in contradiction with my second-book theory).

[Rody]

Started reading The Blade Itself this month, and now I am halfway done with The Last Argument of Kings.

I love it how the author makes no clear good or bad characters (the POV characters). I love how badass Logen is, but the things he does as Bloody Nine, makes me hate him.

[Turinqui-Calima]

I've finally started The Farseer Trilogy and am really enjoying it so far. :)

[Ded As Ned]

I'm about halfway through Way of Kings... its growing on me as I go and I'm probably hooked enough to keep reading the series onward. The first quarter of the book was grueling though, with all the names & world-building exposition. Kaladin was easy to follow and the character I'm most interested in thus far... Dalinar's POV took me awhile to catch on and get interested due to all the names, statuses, etc., but his plotline has gotten more interesting since he had the vision during the highstorm.

Really curious to see what Szeth (or is it Zseth?) is up to and what his part will be in all this. That's one badass dude walking around as a lowly servant.