What are you reading?

[Alessa Gillespie]

I started to read:
Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
It's a story about vampires - done right. I got into it because a friend had recommended it and I have to say, that I love it so far. It's interesting, because the main character is a child of 12, and the vampire in the story is actually

Spoiler: female. <--click for spoilers if you so desire

Eli is revealed to be a vampire, who was originally a boy. He was castrated about 200 years ago and was turned into a vampire

.

It's pretty damn intense and intriguing so far, and actually has some really sweet moments too, I already feel like crying because "AWWW".

Spoiler

I am sort of confused by you saying the vampire is actually female. Castrated male=female? huh?

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

I am not actually reading anything atm, though I just finished re-reading Side Jobs a couple days ago. Gotta recommend the Dresden Files to anyone who likes reading. Next book is out soon! March cannot come soon enough.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Fire away.

Daniel Suarez - Daemon & Freedom™
John Twelve Hawks - Fourth Realm trilogy (The Traveler, The Dark River, The Golden City)
Stieg Larsson - Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest)
James Ellroy - Underworld U.S.A. trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Blood's a Rover)
Also if you're in the mood for fantasy stuff I'd recommend the works of China Miéville (particularly the Bas-Lag trilogy: Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) and George R. R. Martin.
And if you're in the mood for dense reading I'd recommend the works of Thomas Pynchon. Takes a lot of work to get through his books but it's well worth it; he's one of the best prose stylists I've ever read and you're sure to appreciate the anarchist sentiments in his work.
Though come to think of it, you'll probably be more in the mood to appreciate Pynchon after you've read Roberto Bolaño. Or at least I was. 2666 is also great although it's mostly set in the same city for most of it.

That should be a fair kickoff selection. Judging from your reaction to those I'll know what other stuff to recommend. Make sure to read all of these in order; in some cases you shouldn't even pick up the second book in the series before finishing the first. There are massive, massive spoilers for Daemon in the book description of Freedom™.

I should pick the Dresden Files up again but I have so many other books I'm reading. The nice thing about that series is that waiting in between books doesn't matter that much because there isn't all that much continuity between the plots. As opposed to something like the Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire where if you forget who some of the characters are you're boned.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Not that much continuity? Sure, the different cases Harry works on from book to book are often unrelated, but since Grave Peril there has been a much tighter continuity for the series main arc. That plus reoccurring characters, references to prior cases, and lots of running jokes tie each and every book/story together very nicely. Its not so much that there is less continuity, as it is easier to remember continuity without loads and loads of characters to lose track of.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Ah, I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm on the fifth book and thus far they don't have all that much to do with one another. Obviously there are recurring characters and a few subplots that develop over the books but thus far it's been nothing that would be particularly easy to forget.

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

It does stay easy to remember. Pretty decent collection of Checkov's Guns laying around waiting to go off though, and when they do you will kick yourself for not seeing it coming. Book five was a favorite of mine, btw. I mostly advocate the series so heavily cause no one I know is up to the same point as me and I have no one to discuss with. And I don't want to join another forum. That and because its just crazy awesome.

 

[Lord Noctis]

I am currently reading Star Wars: Dark Tide 1 Onslaught. The second book in the 19 book long New jedi Order series.

 

[Celes Chere]

Spoiler

I am sort of confused by you saying the vampire is actually female. Castrated male=female? huh?

Spoiler

Reading more of the book now, female is the wrong way of putting it. I had got that impression because my friend referred to him as female, but they actually still call him male, and in the movie he's male so I guess that was her opinion. O_o I'd agree - castrated male doesn't = female. xD Though they do say 'used to be a boy'. Hrrm.

 

[Bex]

Lyical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
I know what I'm about to say is blasphemy, and the pair of them are romantic poetry legends...
BUT UGHHHHHH. So dull. I like the directness of language in Wordsworth, it's a nice change and that, but writing on something that isn't nature would be nice.
Don't even talk to me about Coleridge.

 

[Alex]

Gramsci is Dead by Richard J. F. Day

 

[Mantichorus]

As I was feeling a bit down (understatement) last night, I speed-read through most of Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. This is a very powerful book; I wouldn't recommend it as an entry into the Discworld books, though (not even as an entry into the 'City Watch' sub-series).

I love Vimes' reflections and his dialogue with Vetinari at the end of the book.

It had been a mean, shameful little fight that had ended them, [...] but they hadn't been mean or shameful men.

 

[Alex]

^ Your priorities are wrong

 

[Ⓐaron]

I forgot about the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Ghost, you should probably actually read that before everything else I mentioned. You may also be interested in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin; I'd recommend you look it up on Wikipedia and see if the summary is anything that interests you.

I should probably type up blurbs for all these books in the recommend a read thread as well. I'll do that when I can be arsed.

 

[Octo]

Re-reading the Diary of Adam and Eve by Mark Twain. Not very long, but has a funny take on life the universe and everything. I recommend it.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Just started reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens again. If you haven't read it, it's set during the Industrial Revolution. All the allusions to machinery, the emphasis on facts, and practically abandoning everything that makes us human really reminds me of Kafka's The Metamorphosis. And, I believe Dicken's is much more explicit in this novel than he is in his other work. Definitely worth reading.

Though come to think of it, you'll probably be more in the mood to appreciate Pynchon after you've read Roberto Bolaño. Or at least I was. 2666 is also great although it's mostly set in the same city for most of it.

I can second this.

 

[Glaurung]

Finished reading "At the Mountains of Madness", just because I want to see how faithful to the book Gillermo del Toro is going to be. It was awesome, by the way ^^

 

[Mantichorus]

Re-read Night Watch again.

How Do They Rise Up

 

[Joe]

Russell Brand: My Booky Wook 2

 

[Mantichorus]

Russell Brand: My Booky Wook 2

>__> ...the only good thing I can say to that is, "at least it's not Twilight".

Speed-read Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. This book probably has my favourite Discworld quotes in:

What a mess the world was in, Vimes reflected. Constable Visit had told him the meek would inherit it, and what had the poor devils done to deserve that?

Spoiler

WORDS IN THE HEART CAN NOT BE TAKEN

What Better Work For One Who Loves Freedom Than The Job Of Watchman. Law Is The Servant Of Freedom. Freedom Without Limits Is Just A Word

And after questioning the existence of gods on the Discworld (bearing in mind They go around and through bricks through the windows of atheists), and being hit by a thunderbolt:

I Don't Call That Much Of An Argument

 

[Cthulhu]

Charles Groenhuijsen - Amerikanen zijn niet dom (Ameircans aren't dumb), a book written by a the former Dutch national news correspondent in the US (had a bit of a falling out with the news station after he was offered the job as anchroman, sumry hear) about, surprise, the US and Americans, largely highlighting the differences between the two countries and their cultures on things like sex, religion, work, drugs, socialism, etc and their origins.

 

[Mantichorus]

Cain's Last Stand by Sandy Mitchell. A Warhammer 40,000 Ciaphas Cain novel.

Ciaphas Cain, commissar and Hero of the Imperium, is enjoying retirement on Perlia, a world close to Tau space, when the Thirteenth Black Crusade rocks the galaxy. Using this opportunity, a lieutenant of Abaddon's called Varan heads to Perlia to claim an ancient artefact from before the evolution of humanity.

With only a few cadets and a handful of veterans, can Cain scrape through to victory?

...I'm re-reading this one. So far, Cain's only seen some action against some Tyranids in a asteroid base. But I know that

Spoiler

Varan can mind control people. And Necrons will show up towards the end

.

 

[Dana Scully]

Ciaphis Cain: Hero of the Imperium.

I'm only a third of the way through this omnibus, but I'm enjoying it immensely. It's certainly different from the usual darkness and grit of the WH40K universe, and while I love the typical 40K setting it's refreshing to see it portrayed with such scathing sarcasm and humour. And it's fun having a character who's so focused on his own survival rather than the glory of the Imperium.

Spoiler

And since you know right from the get-go that Cain lives through it all, it sort of allows you to relax and just enjoy the stories, rather than worrying if he's going to die. Though there are secondary characters to worry about still. XD

I also like the little shout-outs to Gaunt's Ghosts, always fun to see authours giving a nod their fellow writers.

Thanks for the recommending this series, Hazama. It's great.

 

[Mantichorus]

Ciaphis Cain: Hero of the Imperium.

I'm only a third of the way through this omnibus, but I'm enjoying it immensely. It's certainly different from the usual darkness and grit of the WH40K universe, and while I love the typical 40K setting it's refreshing to see it portrayed with such scathing sarcasm and humour. And it's fun having a character who's so focused on his own survival rather than the glory of the Imperium.

Spoiler

And since you know right from the get-go that Cain lives through it all, it sort of allows you to relax and just enjoy the stories, rather than worrying if he's going to die. Though there are secondary characters to worry about still. XD

I also like the little shout-outs to Gaunt's Ghosts, always fun to see authours giving a nod their fellow writers.

Thanks for the recommending this series, Hazama. It's great.

You're welcome. I'm currently reading through the second omnibus, Defender of the Imperium. If you love the 597th as much as I do, the second omnibus will be a bit of a let down, as they only appear in one of the three novels collected.

Cain's Last Stand: the leader of the main enemies in this book - a Chaos warfleet - is a Hitler expy. This leads to all sorts of British WWII-set comedy in-jokes. Dad's Army is the most obvious, but there's also a Lieutenant Gruber, in his little tank Chimera APC.

 

[Tenyoku]

'Lafacadio's Japan' - a collection of texts by Lafcadio Hearn about the 19th century Japan that gets replaced slowly from western influence with modern Japan.

 

[Russell]

Dante's Divine Comedy.

Read the Inferno, just starting on Purgatorio.