May 2009: What are you reading?

[Mark]

Hume, Aristotle, and Kant, eh? Interesting match-up.

He's doing research on Lost.

 

[Panthanas]

I'm re-reading the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust.

It's been quite some time since I've read them. They're fun

 

[CCamfield]

"In a manner so swift that the transformation seemed under way before it happened, Lamont Cranston had completely vanished, to be replaced by that superfoe feared by all men of evil:

The Shadow!"

- "The Hydra", from Nostalgia Ventures' Shadow #4 (republishing "The Murder Master", and "The Hydra")

I got 4 volumes of these in total. Great pulp fun.

P.S. Jamden, they've also reprinted a lot of Doc Savage. They're in a sort of comic trade paperback size format.

 

[Krug]

Started on Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. A fast read.

 

[Crothian]

He's doing research on Lost.

I gave up on Lost a few years back. But from what I've heard the ties to Philosophers has been a real stretch.

I finished Saberhagen's Second Book of Swords today. I'll be starting Jack DeWitt's Cauldron tomorrow.

 

[Wombat]

Well, the Victorian ghosthunter books proved to be ... far less than satisfying. Far too much acceptance of table-tapping at face value, far too little critical interpretation.

I have now moved on to The Devil's Broker, a biography of Sir John Hawkwood, the 14th century mercenary, by Frances Stonor Saunders.

 

[S. Baldrick]

Chopper by Mark "Chopper" Read.

 

[Krug]

Started on Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. A fast read.

Enjoyed Way of Shadows. Gritty fantasy. Might pick up the second and third books sometime.

Also finished The Year of Magical Thinking, which was moving in parts but didn't quite blow me away.

Started the Warhammer novel Malekith.

 

[Crothian]

Finisherd World War Z. It was pretty good though I like making fun of it.

Summoning by Kelly Armstrong. I really like her Otherworld series and this while being young adult novel and not starting strong was very good.

Next up is either Amber Benson's Death's Daughter, or Dune.

 

[Jack7]

I'm in the middle of Doc Savage #43: The Man Who Shook The World by Kenneth Robeson. I finished reading Doc Savage #40: The Dagger In The Sky last week. I recently found seven of the pulp books so they should keep me busy reading for a little bit.

It's hard to go wrong with Doc.
Ah, to be a kid again. I remember how Doc was always exciting to read.

He's doing research on Lost.

Made me laugh.


Non-Fiction

Blackwater - about the Blackwater organization

The Sheriff of Ramadi - an excellent book about how to fight a war to the advantage of everyone except the terrorists


Fiction

Enemies and Allies - this book about Batman meeting Superman during the Eisenhower administration and the Cold War was actually truly good. The chapters were more like kiddie-book chapters, or formatless script scenes, but the guy was actually a decent writer. He threw in references I'm not sure a lot of people nowadays would even know or remember. And he gave the best portrait of Batman I've ever seen in a book. I think though he got some dates wrong, like using Bakelite before it was actually discovered. I'm gonna hav'ta look that up though to be sure.

The Far Side of the World- Jack Aubrey - I needn't say more than that, listened to on CD

The Price of Murder, about the blind English magistrate John Fielding, excellent as always, listened to on CD

The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales


Literature

Remembrance of Things Past, Proust - I'll be honest, this book reminds me overmuch in some respects of the sappy and physically vital-less image I have of most of modern Europe. All emotion and life of the mind, absorbed in the past, sentimentally and personally self-obsessed, rather than actually doing anything about anything. Just yak, yak, yak, and memories of a time when they actually had people willing to act. But the guy sure could write, technically he's almost as good as Hugo or even Tolstoy. He can make a sentence go on for a whole page though, but I can't fault him for that. Back then people could actually write a real and interesting sentence.


Lecture (listened to on CD)

Just about finished up Shutt's Odyssey of the West: From Athens to Rome and the Gospels. Shutt wasn't the only professor who lectured, but the whole thing was good for the most part.