June 2009 - What are you reading?

[Jack7]

I think she's just as loose with the facts as any other Ripperologist. She's convincing, but it's all circumstantial and incomplete. It might be enough to get search warrants, but wouldn't be anywhere near enough to convict.

I thought she was kinda "loose" with some of her deductions as well.

I just finished reading Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Good latest installment in the Dresden Files.

I really like Dresden. Those books are almost always enjoyable to read. Sometimes I wish there was more real detective work, but sometimes he's pretty sharp as a character. But man at other times is he ever slow to get it.

 

[wolff96]

I really like Dresden. Those books are almost always enjoyable to read. Sometimes I wish there was more real detective work, but sometimes he's pretty sharp as a character. But man at other times is he ever slow to get it.

I view the Dresden series as a kind of modern renewal of a lot of the pulp detective novels written in the 1940s and 50s. They're kind of like popcorn for the soul.

That said, I just finished "Turn Coat" a few weeks ago myself, filled in the gap with "The Appeal" by Grisham, and am now reading "Spook Country" by William Gibson.

In my spare time, I'm also working my way through a biography on Einstein, though I can't recall the title at the moment.

 

[EricNoah]

Back into Swords & Deviltry (Fritz Leiber). Keeping my attention better the 2nd time around.

 

[Mercutio01]

Back into Swords & Deviltry (Fritz Leiber). Keeping my attention better the 2nd time around.

I just finished it in early May. Can't say I was impressed. I keep reading about how Leiber's work was excellent, but that wasn't my experience. It was mediocre enough that I'm trading my copy away.

 

[Elodan]

How are you liking it? It's a pretty good starting point.

I just finished reading Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Good latest installment in the Dresden Files.

I'm about 100 pages in and so far I'm enjoying it.

 

[Elodan]

I just finished it in early May. Can't say I was impressed. I keep reading about how Leiber's work was excellent, but that wasn't my experience. It was mediocre enough that I'm trading my copy away.

I just finished Book 5, Swords and Wizardry. I'm finding the books/stories to be hit or miss. I really liked books 2 and, I think, 4 but found the rest like of meh.

 

[EricNoah]

Leiber's good for getting a sense of what Gygax and Arneson had going through their heads when they were inventing D&D - I think that's what I am finding most entertaining, ultimately.

 

[Darth Shoju]

I started reading Lennon in America but I gave up on it. I was looking for a relatively objective biography of the man but this one seems to be a sensationalistic hackjob. I started getting wary when I noticed the author doesn't properly cite his work (either he just says "this person claimed this" or, when he does directly quote something, it's already common knowledge). Then I noticed that the most vilifying claims he makes (and there are some awful, awful ones) are completely unreferenced. I know John Lennon was a damaged and flawed individual, but I refuse to believe this crap without clear, reliable references.

So, instead I'm reading Pratchet's Last Hero, and then onto the Beatles Anthology. It may not be terribly incisive, but it should be a good read anyway.

For my paperback I'm reading Rage of a Demon King by Feist. The second book of the Serpentwar series almost made me give up on it, but this one is picking things up nicely. Not the best fantasy out there IMO, but still worth reading.

 

[Eridanis]

All in the Timing by David Ives

One of my all-time favorite collections of plays. Ives is The Man. I'd love to direct Universal Language one of these days.

 

[Wombat]

Just finished Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road, a really fun not-quite-fantasy read.

And, having overloaded on my Leiber obsession (reread the first four books of the series pretty much in a row ... which only leaves one good one), I am now back into history with a couple of biographies from the Napoleonic era, one on Nelson ... and the other on the husband of his mistress.