[Feb] What are you reading?

[Pielorinho]

I read Top Ten, a bound comic collection by Alan Moore, and Revenge, a novel by Stephen Fry, this weekend. The former was tremendous fun: much less dark than the other stuff by Moore that I've read (albeit still pretty freakin' dark), and the artist was obviously having a grand old time drawing a city in which every inhabitant is some sort of superhero. The latter was a disappointment. It's a modern retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo (which novel, by the way, every one of you should read--it is, according to the older definition of the word, awesome), but for my money it misses the most interesting part of the second half of the book:

Spoiler

The Count's weariness with vengeance

I've liked the other things I've read by Fry, but this one's spiritually empty ending left me cold.

Daniel

 

[Berandor]

I'm currently reading Carl Sagan: A demon-haunted world, Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul, Thomas Harris: Imperium as well as the review copy of Holly Lisle: Vincalis the Agitator. Needless to say, progress is stuttering, plus I've got two more books I want to read and two more review copies I have to read on line...

...I may have been a little overconfident when I accepted the reviews.

 

[meomwt]

Presently reading The DaVinci Code and wondering why it's been such a success. The short, choppy chapters don't suit my reading style and the writing isn't always brilliant.

Of course, it helps that I read The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail twenty years ago

 

[Tetsubo]

Same Sex Unions in Premodern Europe by John Boswell

 

[Brogarn]

Presently reading The DaVinci Code and wondering why it's been such a success. The short, choppy chapters don't suit my reading style and the writing isn't always brilliant.

That book bored the crap out of me. Some of it was very interesting and thought provoking. Mostly because of my religious (or anti-religious as the case may be) views. It tried very hard to be an exciting suspense book, but in my opinion, failed utterly. The fact that it got made into a movie made my right eyebrow raise into my hairline. Nevermind where my hairline is. Bald jokes aren't funny.

Back to topic:

I just finished up the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. It was... ok. I thought there were too many side plots that really could have been editted out, making the entire trilogy a single book about 600 - 700 pages long. I thought she did well with the Magician's Guild and some of the goings on there. The magic portions and main story arc were entertaining enough to read the whole thing. But I found myself skimming quite often over story arcs that had no real bearing on the main plot. Unlike Martin, who can write the hell out of side stories and subplots, Canavan just couldn't keep me interested with them and I found them a waste of my reading time.

Now, I'm going to read the 2nd in the Sandman compilations, then on to Temeraire (Her Majesty's Dragon here in the U.S.) since it's gotten rather good reviews.

 

[Pielorinho]

Presently reading The DaVinci Code and wondering why it's been such a success. The short, choppy chapters don't suit my reading style and the writing isn't always brilliant.

My wife is an historian, and she reluctantly picked up the book when her mom brought it over and raved about it. My wife went from, "This is poorly written but kind of fun" to "this is really silly but fun to laugh at" to "Oh no, oh no, he didn't just claim that The Little Mermaid contains a secret cult's hidden messages about the Divine Feminine!" I don't think she read any more of the book after the Little Mermaid fiasco.

Daniel

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'm reading "The Elric Saga, Pt II" a collection of Elric stuff from the Sci-Fi book club.

 

[GlassJaw]

Just started running a Conan campaign so I picked up The Bloody Crown of Conan since I never got a chance to get to it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Reading book five in the Sword of Truth series.

Worst in the series thus far.

Evil chickens?

Side plot that takes up half the book thus far?

Too much talking and too little getting done?

The writing is very easy to read though so I'll finish it off and hope that the next one I already have is better.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I read Silence of the Lambs (nice plot, lousy writing, but I'm just not into the 'serial killer' genre), Toni Anzetti's Riders of Leviathan, Michael Moorcock's Swords Trilogy (first half of the Corum saga), Fritz Leiber's Swords Against Death, and I'm reading Chronicles of Corum(second half of the Corum saga) and Carl Zimmer's Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea.