What are you reading? - Page 2

Zag0r · 30th December 2006, 17:14

I've been cramming in a lotta books over the last few months (Borders FTW):

Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace (epic)
Hadji Murad
The Kingdom of God is Within You (finished yesterday. profound, in my view - one can see how it affected Ghandi)

CS Lewis
Mere Christianity
The Screwtape Letters
The Problem of Pain
The Four Loves
The Great Divorce
Surprised by Joy

Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist
The Valkyries
The Fifth Mountain
Eleven Minutes
Veronika Decides to Die
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Various
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (David Hume)
The Case Against Christianity (Michael Martin) [crap, albeit logically so]
The Case For a Creator (Lee Strobel) [complete crap]
The Sikh Faith (Gurbakhsh Singh)
Miyamoto Musashi (Eiji Yoshikawa)
The Husband (Dean Koontz)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

Next up on the bookshelf:
Candide (Voltaire)
The Everlasting Man (GK Chesterton)

silva^ · 30th December 2006, 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

The World of Karl Pilkington, published by Ricky Gervais

Legend!!! So you have all the series of podcasts, and all the xfm stuff?

Golden Teapot · 30th December 2006, 21:31

Books I can remember in the last year:

Paladin of Souls (currently "reading")
Curse of Chalion
Cetaganda
Sally Lockhart trilogoy
The Warrior's Apprentice
The Vor Game
Lyra's Oxford
His Dark Material's trilogoy
Bartimaeus trilogy
Kingdoms of Elves and Reaches (1, 2 & 3)
Xenocide
Dune
Dragonvarld trilogy
Magyk
Angels and Demons
Eldest

and, a few others that I can't remember.

Really, I've not read any of them - instead I listen to the audiobook versions as I try to numb myself commuting to and from work. The only book I am actually reading is "flyte" and it's taking ages since I'm too lazy to turn the pages!

My mission for 2007 is to make a serious dent in the past Hugo award winners, some of which I've read and really enjoyed.

cyc · 31st December 2006, 02:09

Books I am reading/have read lately:

Dictators by Richard Overy - a comparative and operational history of the Stalin and Hitler regimes

Russia's War by Richard Overy (this guy is seriously one of the best contemporary historians)

The War for Children's Minds: Liberal Values and Why We Should Defend Them by Stephen Law

The Roaring Nineties by Joseph Stiglitz

Fatherland by Robert Harris (I normally hate contemporary fiction with a passion but this is just a cracking read)

Rangoon Attack · 31st December 2006, 13:26

just finished George Martin - A Clash of Kings

Nemises · 1st January 2007, 05:22

in the middle of all of the following:
re-re-re-re-reading Song of Ice and fire series (just re-re-re bought them all to stock my new bookshelf in UK)..as enjoyable the 4th time through as the first, currently midway through Storm of swords

re-re-reading Nights Dawn trilogy (peter f hamilton): see above...still a good read despite the terrrible ending of the series..just about to re-begin the Naked God

re-reading : Pandora's Star / Judas unchained , also by Peter f Hamilton..a much better series IMHO..very entertaining (at beginning of Pandora's star again..cool)

Angry White Pyjamas , Robert Twigger...a bio-story about a British guy living in Tokyo who does the Tokyo riot police Aikido course..not bad..pretty funny..

but most importantly!..reading for the first time, Naomi Novaks : Temeraire books!...so much fun!, shame they are so tiny

..read Temeraire in 2 days

.. still 2 others to go../rubs hands ...if anyone is intersted in an alternative hostory Napolionic series with an Air Force (Dragons) then you should read this..very cool so far ..light entertainment for sure, but fun all the same

EvilLumpy · 3rd January 2007, 02:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zag0r

CS Lewis
The Screwtape Letters

I've been trying to buy a copy of this for a while now and it's hard to get my mitts on. I blame you.

If you're interested in Lewis then I also suggest A Grief Observed, which was not listed in your post.

Just finished:
Emperor: Gates of Rome - Conn Iggulden
Dancing Girls - Margaret Atwood
Flights of the Mind - Can't remember who
WinterSmith - U Know Who
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

Reading:
Hitler's Generals - Correlli Barnett
The Toyminator - Robert Rankin

Upcoming:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche
Nightseer - Laurell K Hamilton

Wolf-age · 3rd January 2007, 13:39

I hope they serve beer in hell - Tucker Max

Cyberbob · 3rd January 2007, 13:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by silva^

Legend!!! So you have all the series of podcasts, and all the xfm stuff?

Damn right mate

Just listened to their xmas special too

Hemebond · 3rd January 2007, 15:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evoke

got through about half of that book. He makes very good points, but what ruins it for me is that he gets just as passionate about it as some of the fundies, with the arm flailing and the name calling.

Passion is not a bad thing. Being passionate about ignorance and stupidity is and bad thing.

Evoke · 3rd January 2007, 15:34

yeah, but will he 'convert' many of the religious types if he starts off with the ad hominems?

Ritalin · 3rd January 2007, 15:57

Almost finished:
'Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West' by Gregory Maguire. Really really enjoyable read - couldn't put it down.

Just started:
'The Life of Pi' by Yann Martel. Slow starter :/

Next:
'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll.

And then:
Hopefully Spink will lend me 'Sophie's Choice' by William Styron.

MrTTTT · 3rd January 2007, 17:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Draco T Bastard

Presently re-reading Fiests Empire trilogy and might go on to re-read the Riftwar saga.

Over the last year or so:-

political philosophy ftw. I've read much of that list. You don't study postgrad Labour Studies at Uni of Waikato per chance do you?

my progress/recent reads include a fuckload of poststructuralism related books.
Most recently i've been doing my own thing since i finished the final paper for postgrad.

Jacques Derrida - Spectres of Marx
Jacques Derrida - Of Grammatology
Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyondn Good and Evil
Louis Althusser - For Marx [if you havn't read this one, give it a blast. Althusserian marxism ftw]
Michel Foucault - Discipline and Punish [this book is relatively boring compared to some of his others. it's bland, unchallenging and drags on, better to read the commentaries imo]

LordP · 3rd January 2007, 18:22

I've just started re-reading "Talon of the Silver Hawk" (Conclave of Shadows Book 1), and I picked up Judas Unchained (Peter F Hamilton) to read after that.

chiQ · 3rd January 2007, 19:45

'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde
'Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide' by Steve Shah and Wale Soyinka

StN · 3rd January 2007, 20:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bahamut

I'm reading "The Code Book" by Simon Singh.

I'm halfway through this again - I read it too quickly last time too late at night, and didn't have time to digest the jangly bits properly.

Slothking · 3rd January 2007, 21:27

Currently thumbing through The book of General Ignorance by QI.

Lykaios · 3rd January 2007, 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by LordP

I've just started re-reading "Talon of the Silver Hawk" (Conclave of Shadows Book 1), and I picked up Judas Unchained (Peter F Hamilton) to read after that.

You have good taste in books, both of those are great

Currently re-reading Shards of a Broken Crown.

Draco T Bastard · 4th January 2007, 01:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTTTT

political philosophy ftw. I've read much of that list. You don't study postgrad Labour Studies at Uni of Waikato per chance do you?

Nope, political studies at Otago uni in Dunedin.

Ajax · 6th January 2007, 01:24

Just finished reading 'Gravity's Rainbow' by Thomas Pynchon.
Pretty epic stuff - quite unlike anything else really. It was extremely dense and somewhat bewildering in parts. Would love to hear opinions from anyone who has read it.

chiQ · 6th January 2007, 10:28

Reread 'V For vendetta' by Alan Moore yesterday. Am rereading 'Preacher' by Garth Ennis today, though I only have a few of them

I'll pick up a normal novel when I run out of Preachers.

dead goon · 6th January 2007, 10:39

The Mothman Prophecies

crocos · 6th January 2007, 11:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by dead goon

The Moleman Prophecies

NOOOOO!!!!! They OUT TO GET US!!!

Hazmat · 6th January 2007, 11:19

Frank Miller's 300

Toksin · 6th January 2007, 13:03

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden

Fascinating book.

reac · 6th January 2007, 18:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toksin

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden

Ha, just bought Guests of the Ayatollah by him with some of my Christmas book tokens. I wanted to get that one as well, but haven't found anybody with it in stock locally. Road Work is also well worth looking at if you don't mind shorter pieces.

Just finished:

I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Reading:

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide - Dave Thomas
Anabasis - Xenophon

Next:

Guests of the Ayatollah - as mentioned above
The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K Chesterton

Whiplash · 6th January 2007, 18:26

Finished: God Delusion - Richard Dawkins, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Tucker Max

Starting: The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins

Shock · 7th January 2007, 01:54

Just picked up "Inside Little Britain" today. Should get stuck into that tomorrow / today.

chiQ · 7th January 2007, 10:54

'The Little Lady Agency' by Hester Browne; complete pap, but entertaining in a beach-reading, chickish way.

Wally Simmonds · 7th January 2007, 14:16

The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk. Great read, so far.

MoP · 7th January 2007, 14:55

Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchet
The World According To Clarkson Volume 2: And Another Thing
O'Reilly Java ServerFaces
JBoss Seam: Simplicity and Power Beyond Java EE 5.0
About to start reading The God Delusion

Is the Tucker Max book in shops here?

Toksin · 7th January 2007, 17:23

Yeah, I've seen Tucker Max's book at Whitcoull's.

Cyberbob · 7th January 2007, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoP

About to start reading The God Delusion

I've heard great things about that

BathTub · 8th January 2007, 08:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberbob

I've heard great things about that

Yeah it's interesting to see how venomous the reviews are while simultaneously ignoring the actual contents of the book.

Baal · 8th January 2007, 09:24

Peter F Hamilton - Pandora's Star
Feist - Faerie Tale

Been trying to read the Stephen King gunslinger books but I lost interest around the 4th book for some reason.

Waldo · 8th January 2007, 09:37

I seem to be on a Terry Brooks kick atm, nice ez reading for the holidays.

Currently on Armageddons Children....By ....Terry Brooks....prequel to all the shanarah series

[Malks] Pixie · 8th January 2007, 10:02

Currently working my through Peace and War by Joe Haldeman - first part is probably his best known work The Forever War and it follows on from there.

Over the break I read...

The Invisibles (most of) - Grant Morrision
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - HP Lovecraft (some good summer reading there!)
My collection of 60's and 70's Analouge Magazines (got about 60 of them in mint condition).

Pixie

BathTub · 8th January 2007, 10:30

"The Invisibles (most of) - Grant Morrision"

That that is a messed up series. you didn't get to the end? Or didn't have all the books?

[Malks] Pixie · 8th January 2007, 10:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by BathTub

"The Invisibles (most of) - Grant Morrision"

That that is a messed up series. you didn't get to the end? Or didn't have all the books?

I have read it all through a couple of times - currently don't have all the books so only read the ones which I had...

And if you think thats messed up try reading the "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea - Morrison has pretty much stated that the invisilbles were strongly inspired by his reading of this series as a teenager.

Oh and it makes the invisibles look sane by comparrison.

Pixie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus%21_Trilogy

StN · 8th January 2007, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by [Malks] Pixie

And if you think thats messed up try reading the "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea - Morrison has pretty much stated that the invisilbles were strongly inspired by his reading of this series as a teenager.

Oh and it makes the invisibles look sane by comparrison.

Pixie

That's the one with the Nazi army submerged in Swiss lakes and lots of rooting on a submarine and Dillinger and his monster kooz? I think that took me the good part of a year to try and chew through.
/edit - yeah, that's it.

30th December 2006, 21:31	#43
Golden Teapot Love, Actuary	Books I can remember in the last year: Paladin of Souls (currently "reading") Curse of Chalion Cetaganda Sally Lockhart trilogoy The Warrior's Apprentice The Vor Game Lyra's Oxford His Dark Material's trilogoy Bartimaeus trilogy Kingdoms of Elves and Reaches (1, 2 & 3) Xenocide Dune Dragonvarld trilogy Magyk Angels and Demons Eldest and, a few others that I can't remember. Really, I've not read any of them - instead I listen to the audiobook versions as I try to numb myself commuting to and from work. The only book I am actually reading is "flyte" and it's taking ages since I'm too lazy to turn the pages! My mission for 2007 is to make a serious dent in the past Hugo award winners, some of which I've read and really enjoyed. Last edited by Golden Teapot : 30th December 2006 at 21:33.

3rd January 2007, 19:45	#55
chiQ Frag-muff	'The Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fforde 'Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide' by Steve Shah and Wale Soyinka __________________ Gaming/phone/computing platforms are not indicative of groinal/physical/cognitive impressiveness. Last edited by chiQ : 3rd January 2007 at 19:46.

6th January 2007, 10:28	#61
chiQ Frag-muff	Reread 'V For vendetta' by Alan Moore yesterday. Am rereading 'Preacher' by Garth Ennis today, though I only have a few of them I'll pick up a normal novel when I run out of Preachers. __________________ Gaming/phone/computing platforms are not indicative of groinal/physical/cognitive impressiveness.

7th January 2007, 10:54	#69
chiQ Frag-muff	'The Little Lady Agency' by Hester Browne; complete pap, but entertaining in a beach-reading, chickish way. __________________ Gaming/phone/computing platforms are not indicative of groinal/physical/cognitive impressiveness.

8th January 2007, 09:37	#76
Waldo Pornstar	I seem to be on a Terry Brooks kick atm, nice ez reading for the holidays. Currently on Armageddons Children....By ....Terry Brooks....prequel to all the shanarah series __________________ Its Business time

30th December 2006, 17:14	#41
Zag0r C₈H₁₀N₄O₂	I've been cramming in a lotta books over the last few months (Borders FTW): Leo Tolstoy War and Peace (epic) Hadji Murad The Kingdom of God is Within You (finished yesterday. profound, in my view - one can see how it affected Ghandi) CS Lewis Mere Christianity The Screwtape Letters The Problem of Pain The Four Loves The Great Divorce Surprised by Joy Paulo Coelho The Alchemist The Valkyries The Fifth Mountain Eleven Minutes Veronika Decides to Die By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept Various Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (David Hume) The Case Against Christianity (Michael Martin) [crap, albeit logically so] The Case For a Creator (Lee Strobel) [complete crap] The Sikh Faith (Gurbakhsh Singh) Miyamoto Musashi (Eiji Yoshikawa) The Husband (Dean Koontz) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Next up on the bookshelf: Candide (Voltaire) The Everlasting Man (GK Chesterton)

31st December 2006, 02:09	#44
cyc Objection!	Books I am reading/have read lately: Dictators by Richard Overy - a comparative and operational history of the Stalin and Hitler regimes Russia's War by Richard Overy (this guy is seriously one of the best contemporary historians) The War for Children's Minds: Liberal Values and Why We Should Defend Them by Stephen Law The Roaring Nineties by Joseph Stiglitz Fatherland by Robert Harris (I normally hate contemporary fiction with a passion but this is just a cracking read)

31st December 2006, 13:26	#45
Rangoon Attack	just finished George Martin - A Clash of Kings

1st January 2007, 05:22	#46
Nemises	in the middle of all of the following: re-re-re-re-reading Song of Ice and fire series (just re-re-re bought them all to stock my new bookshelf in UK)..as enjoyable the 4th time through as the first, currently midway through Storm of swords re-re-reading Nights Dawn trilogy (peter f hamilton): see above...still a good read despite the terrrible ending of the series..just about to re-begin the Naked God re-reading : Pandora's Star / Judas unchained , also by Peter f Hamilton..a much better series IMHO..very entertaining (at beginning of Pandora's star again..cool) Angry White Pyjamas , Robert Twigger...a bio-story about a British guy living in Tokyo who does the Tokyo riot police Aikido course..not bad..pretty funny.. but most importantly!..reading for the first time, Naomi Novaks : Temeraire books!...so much fun!, shame they are so tiny ..read Temeraire in 2 days .. still 2 others to go../rubs hands ...if anyone is intersted in an alternative hostory Napolionic series with an Air Force (Dragons) then you should read this..very cool so far ..light entertainment for sure, but fun all the same

3rd January 2007, 13:39	#48
Wolf-age	I hope they serve beer in hell - Tucker Max __________________ Nose to the wind

3rd January 2007, 15:34	#51
Evoke	yeah, but will he 'convert' many of the religious types if he starts off with the ad hominems?

3rd January 2007, 15:57	#52
Ritalin	Almost finished: 'Wicked: The Life and Times of The Wicked Witch of the West' by Gregory Maguire. Really really enjoyable read - couldn't put it down. Just started: 'The Life of Pi' by Yann Martel. Slow starter :/ Next: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass' by Lewis Carroll. And then: Hopefully Spink will lend me 'Sophie's Choice' by William Styron.

3rd January 2007, 18:22	#54
LordP	I've just started re-reading "Talon of the Silver Hawk" (Conclave of Shadows Book 1), and I picked up Judas Unchained (Peter F Hamilton) to read after that. __________________ "Nothing is so smiple that it can't be screwed up."

3rd January 2007, 21:27	#57
Slothking	Currently thumbing through The book of General Ignorance by QI.

6th January 2007, 01:24	#60
Ajax Architeuthis	Just finished reading 'Gravity's Rainbow' by Thomas Pynchon. Pretty epic stuff - quite unlike anything else really. It was extremely dense and somewhat bewildering in parts. Would love to hear opinions from anyone who has read it.

6th January 2007, 11:19	#64
Hazmat I Like Toast	Frank Miller's 300

6th January 2007, 13:03	#65
Toksin	Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden Fascinating book.

6th January 2007, 18:26	#67
Whiplash Bobo Fettish	Finished: God Delusion - Richard Dawkins, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Tucker Max Starting: The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins

7th January 2007, 01:54	#68
Shock	Just picked up "Inside Little Britain" today. Should get stuck into that tomorrow / today.

7th January 2007, 14:16	#70
Wally Simmonds	The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk. Great read, so far.

7th January 2007, 14:55	#71
MoP	Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchet The World According To Clarkson Volume 2: And Another Thing O'Reilly Java ServerFaces JBoss Seam: Simplicity and Power Beyond Java EE 5.0 About to start reading The God Delusion Is the Tucker Max book in shops here? __________________ And if a double-decker lol, rofls into us, To lol by your side Is such a heavenly way to lol

7th January 2007, 17:23	#72
Toksin	Yeah, I've seen Tucker Max's book at Whitcoull's.

8th January 2007, 09:24	#75
Baal	Peter F Hamilton - Pandora's Star Feist - Faerie Tale Been trying to read the Stephen King gunslinger books but I lost interest around the 4th book for some reason.

8th January 2007, 10:02	#77
[Malks] Pixie	Currently working my through Peace and War by Joe Haldeman - first part is probably his best known work The Forever War and it follows on from there. Over the break I read... The Invisibles (most of) - Grant Morrision The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - HP Lovecraft (some good summer reading there!) My collection of 60's and 70's Analouge Magazines (got about 60 of them in mint condition). Pixie __________________ Civilised is as civilised does and civilised people walk among us.

8th January 2007, 10:30	#78
BathTub	"The Invisibles (most of) - Grant Morrision" That that is a messed up series. you didn't get to the end? Or didn't have all the books? __________________ Kevin: You know, when we actually do unleash the dragons... Mike: When we do, right. Kevin: Oh yeah, when we do, I would hope that we're smart enough to attempt a doctrine of appeasement with them, you know we offer them, I don't know, New Zealand in exchange for them not burning down my house,.. Ah, I mean our houses. Mike: Good Kevin, that's real brave. Mike Nelson & Kevin Murphy - Reign of Fire Rifftrax Last edited by BathTub : 8th January 2007 at 10:32.