[Feb] What are you reading?

[Hijinks]

Just finished "Love and Other Near Death Experiences" by Mil Millington. Two thumbs up! Very funny

Still working on book 7 (I think) of the "Left Behind" series. Get a little tired of the rhetoric sometimes and put it down for a while.

Re-reading "Strangers" by Dean Koontz.

Re-reading "A Spell for Chameleon" by Piers Anthony

Have to start "Taxation and Regulation of Annuities" for work *sigh* But if I pass this exam, I will get a $500 bonus (sweetness)

 

[RaceBannon42]

I stayed up late to finish Infoquake by David Louis Edelman Monday night. I was too close to the end to put it down, and I couldn't sleep without knowing how it was going to end. A friend of mine described it as Neuromancer meets Wall Street, and thats a better comaprison than anything I can come up with. Interesting plot. Great Characters. Well developed setting. It all adds up to one hell of a debut. I can't wait for the rest of the trilogy. Pyr has really done a bang up job in their short tenure, and Infoquake is another feather in their cap.
Full review

Started on Howard Who? by Howard Waldrop. Its been several months since I've read any short fiction and I'm woefully short of experience with that medium.

 

[death tribble]

I too have read The Left Hand of Darkness but that was some years back.

Just recently finished The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. This goes all over the place so you have virtually nothing of Tristram Shandy but plenty of his father and his uncle. Tristram does not even get born for the first two volumes of his life and opinions.

Currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman

 

[Wombat]

Just recently finished The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. This goes all over the place so you have virtually nothing of Tristram Shandy but plenty of his father and his uncle. Tristram does not even get born for the first two volumes of his life and opinions.

It's all about the importance of The Hobby Horse!

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Comanches: The History of a People by T.R. Fehrenbach.

As I stated in another thread, I read more non-fiction than fiction. This is one of the better books I’ve read. It took some getting used to Fehrenbach’s style of writing on my part, because he is a university professor and wrote above an 8th grade level (the book was first published in 1974). But once I got it, my reading began moving at a quick clip.

The book is a fascinating read, coving the history of the Nermernuh (the term the Comanche used for themselves) as a poor and vulnerable tribe in the mountains to their usurpation of the Apache as the powerful and dangerous masters of the Texas and Oklahoma plains, and beyond. It also covers Spanish, French, Mexican and Anglo-American relationships with the Nermernuh and other Indians.

Fehrenbach does not paint an image of the “noble savage” and goes to some lengths to describe the violence, sadism and self defeating aspects of Indian culture in general and Nermernuh culture specifically. However, he is not a racist and does not support the notion any of the Indians deserved to be conquered and subjugated or were better off for that having happened to them. It was simply the grind of history.

17th and 18th century middle America and American West were interesting places.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I just finished Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys which is set in the same world as American Gods. Both are good books, although I felt that the ending of Anansi boys felt sort of "meh" because of the change which occured to the book's principle characters (I can't go into the details without ruining a good story).

In all, I think that the world of American Gods would be excellent to use as a campaign setting in d20 Modern... Hell, it would make a better Urban Arcana.

 

[Ibram]

Three cheers the Patrick O'Brian fans!

I've finaly managed to get a copy of his first book in the Master and Commander series, and am now very much a fan (I've been reading it durring lunch at work).

 

[Chairman7w]

JUST finished Clash of Kings (sitting in the car at a light, on way back from lunch) and will start "Code Zero" tonight by Ken Follet.

Gonna take a break from Martin, but wil pick it up with Feast for Crows in a few weeks.

 

[Enforcer]

JUST finished Clash of Kings (sitting in the car at a light, on way back from lunch) and will start "Code Zero" tonight by Ken Follet.

Gonna take a break from Martin, but wil pick it up with Feast for Crows in a few weeks.

Storm of Swords is next, actually, then Feast of Crows.

I'm reading Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower Vol. 6 of 7) by Stephen King. So far it's good. Not nearly as good as Wolves of the Calla, but still good. I don't like the author injecting himself into the story, however, that ruins my suspension of disbelief.

Next up will be The Dark Tower (Vol. 7), and then some Eberron novels (I've read The Dreaming Dark Trilogy, and I want to read the others).

 

[sckeener]

I had a hard time getting into TDTCB too. About half way in it really picked up for me. A lot of it was I found the prologue very hard to follow. The naming conventions Bakker uses also really bothered me at first. In retrospect after reading the Warrior Prophet, and The Thousand Fold Thought, Darkness is much better than my original impression.

Well I finished The Darkness That Comes Before (The Prince of Nothing, Book 1) by R. Scott Bakker. It was good, but it took over 200 pages before it hooked me. I had a rule of 150 pages, which I started with Shogun. If a book doesn't interest me in the first 150 pages, then I'd stop...I broke that rule for this book on the word of those on enworld. I am glad I did. I don't think I'll break it again though. It was a tough book to get into.

As for why the rule with Shogun, I started it and stopped after 75 pages. I didn't pick it up again for 18 years. At about 150 pages, I was hooked. So I developed the 150 page rule which as severed well until this book.

Next up is China Mieville's The Scar (and a few bread machine books. )