'A bit like "What Are You Listening To?" in other forums. I always prefer the "What Are You Reading?" threads. It always prompts some nice discussion.

I'm just getting into the heart of "The Bone Doll's Twin" (of the Tamir trilogy) by Lynn Flwelling. She's such an amazing writer. I adored her Nightrunners series, and actually started this book over the summer. Unfortunately, I ended up losing it twice, and it seemed that every possible bad thing that could happen to that book did - it fell into the sink, crushed a dead bird (long story and a complete accident), recieved a thorough washing to remove...dead bird bits..., had to dry out, got lost in the process of drying out and was uncovered precariously close to the air vent where it was gathering all the dust blown around in the corner, got left in the bathroom when it flooded, had to dry out, and finally fell into two separate puddles. Yes, it's a paperback (I'm too poor to buy and buy way to many books to blow my money on hardbacks), and, amazingly, it's still in one piece. Aside from being verrrry stiff, it looks perfect. Go figure :unsure: .

While the book was lost, I started rereading "Good Omens" by Niel Gaiman and Terry Prattchet. Who doesn't love the two of them ^-^?

I'm presenting reading the 1000 page manual for Apple's Final Cut video editing software. I am a computer nerd, so I enjoy reading a well written technical manual. :)

Last novel I read was "Man-Kzin Wars VIII" which is series of short novels (or long short stories depending on your point of view) inspired by Larry Niven's books regarding war with an alien race. Prior to that, I read Isaac Asimov's "The End of Eternity" which was very good, as was Harry Harrison's "The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell." All good sci-fi novels.

For periodicals, I read MacWorld and MacAddict (since I'm an Apple developer) along with Amusement Today and the magazine and newsletters from the American Coaster Enthusiasts (since I'm an amusement park nut).

When I'm done with the Final Cut manual, I think I'm going to continue along those lines and learn Apple's Live Type application, which is their fancy titling software, and then maybe try Motion, which is their graphic animation package that can do animated effects of various kinds for film and video.

I'm currently into Mercedes Lackey novels and, of course, Eragon. :rolleyes:

LEt's seee


Harry Potter, Vampirates, Eragon and Eldest, Sherlock holmes ;:D:D:D:D:D



I'm the proud owner of a bunch of books :D

Angels and Demons, The Lord of The Rings trillogy (Yet again) Goodnight Mr Tom, a load of Fantasy Novels that I can't spell...I'm a big reader.

I think I'm one of the few people out there who can't stand "The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien is the Hemmingway of fantasy, :rolleyes: and that isn't a compliment. My friends used to give me such a hard time for that, though my best friend tends to agree with me.

I'm a sucker for kid's and YA novels too. Aside from Harry Potter, there's Tithe, Lemony Snicket, and, of course, my unconditional love for Garth Nix. The Abhorsen trilogy (and "the Creature in the Case" novella) rocked my literary world ^_^ .

I'm into Redwall and The Depthford Mice book series's now.

I always like goosebum and i still like them

Just wanna add another one; E.E Knight's Dragon Champion.

Really interesting, considering that the main character is a dragon... :wub: :dance: (I just bought it tonight, so just managed to flip through the pages...)

I also like to read Fansifctions, count this?

Mercedes Lackey frustrates me. In fact, I just don't read anymore of her work. She's notorious for killing off my favorite character <_< or writing a trilogy where the first book is good, the last book is good, but the middle book is painfully boring and poorly written.

I'm reading this topic at the moment :P.
But seriously, I'm not reading anything at this time. I've just finished Dante Alighieri's "Goddish..." (does a such word ewist?) "... Commedy: hell". Well, I kinda was surprised of Shakespeare, Homer and other good writers in hell :D. But all in all, book is not bad, defines the hell very well.
I plan to get back to Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonflight" since I stoped reading due to book mentioned above (I have a list of books which are required to be read). And I want to finish it before we start to analyse the Bible at school :eep:.
Hehe, I'd like to read the Khoran and compare :D ... just don't know where to find it...

If you have a big bookstore around, like Barnes and Noble, you could probably find the Qur'an and many other holy texts. If you enjoy reading about similarities between religions, I would suggest "The Jesus Mysteries". I forgot the author, I'll have to ask my friend, who's working on her religious studies major. She tips me off about all sorts of interesting books on those sort of topics. If you're a very devout Christian, the book might not be for you, because it delves into Gnosticism and explains Christianity as the outer mythology of a greater religion. It also goes into one of my favorite similarities in just about every major religion - the resurrecting gods.

I am currently reading:

The Foryste Saga by John Galsworthy ( almost done with book 2 'In Chancery')

A really brilliant portrayal of the monied class in Victorian England.
The book basically focusses on two scions of a very large, very rich family and it tells of the failed marriage of one of the sons and later, his disgraced cousin's eventuall passion for this man's estranged wife and causing a feud, which is passed down to their children.

The novel also critisesses the morals of the rich and chronicles the dramatic shift of events from ca. 1880 to 1920. Really recommended over those 'historical' novels; fictional books written on the past by authors living in the present ! (Imagine that, how can they convey the full aroma of the era they are writing on if they never lived through it; at least John Galsworthy comes from the very people he is writing on, and so has a first hand account of their thoughts, intrigues and failings)

The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin (book 1)

A 5 volume classical chinese work ( I am reading the english transalation) about, again, two wealthy families and their eventual demisses. The book centres on the bittersweet love between a boy for his cousin and thir fate that they were never meant to be together on this mortal world.

For sci-fic and fantasy, I stick to Ursula K. Le Guin (does anybody here read her works?) Her 'Always Coming Home' is totally breath-taking.
And her 'Buffalo Gal, Won't You Come Home' will make you look at animals and plants in a different light.

I have, but her style doesn't seem to line up with my own tastes. Maybe I'll try the ones you mentioned sometime. I generally prefer authors like Asimov and Niven.

Any one here have read DUNE???? I do :D

Yes! I like Frank Herbert novels. It was unfortunate though that they did such a poor job with the movie adaptation. I've read all the Dune novels except for the one his wife finished after his death (just haven't gotten around to it yet).

I jsut read the first one : :(

Dune is one of the few titles in scifi I've enjoyed. I'm not a big scifi fan, with the exception of several books. There was a series by Margret Weis and Tracy Hickman I seem to remember really being a fan of. That was back in middle school, though. Does the "Wrinkle in Time" series count? I loved those books once upon a time...it was sort of scifi... :unsure:

Edit: Oh, there is one apocalyptic/futuristic novel by Garth Nix that I loved: "Shade's Children". It was the first novel I read by him, and also where I got my nickname and internet penname, Shade. I'm not sure why my friends thought the alias of a evil mastermind who manipulated kids would be a suitable nickname, but it stuck.

Hmmm... where to start... okay, massive fan of the Dune series (Frank Herbert`s; Brian Herbert`s and Kevin J. Anderson`s prequels and the new 'book 7' based trilogy);
Fan also of Anne McCaffrey`s Pern novels (and pretty much every other of her SFs);
Currently reading 'House of Chains' by Steven Erikson, pausing to read the most recent 'Star Wars' hc;
Thank goodness there`s not too much on the tube to distract my reading! (time is ALWAYS made to watch DB, of course!)

If the Dune movie didn`t do anything for you, you should check out the TV mini-series from a couple of years ago - a MUCH better adaption!

Whoo! I went book shopping at Barnes and Noble today. I got a bit lost on the way home (boyfriend insisted I should take a side road, instead of immediately getting onto the highway...yeah right...), but it was worth it. My spoils include: Lynn Flewelling's "Hidden Warrior" and "The Oracle's Queen", Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" (something I've put off buying for too long now), and the first volume of Tanya Huff's "Blood Books", which includes "Blood Trail" and "Blood Price". I'm not a huge vampire novel fan, but she's an excellent writer, and quite funny at that. She writes rather nice fantasy ("The Fire's Stone" being my favorite thus far), so I'm curious to see how she handles horror/humor.

I presume you used to read Lackey's Valdemar novels, right? :unsure:

Yeah, I partially agree with you. I read the Mage Wars trilogy and Owls trilogy, and I found out that the second novel is reeeally boring to my liking <_< . As for the Mage Wars trilogy, huh, the war ended in the first book itself. Bah...

Hmm, I don't really get this part. Who's your favourite character? And what happened?

I was actually thinking of "The Last Herald Mage" trilogy. My favorite character killed himself :rolleyes: , came back in the last book (sort of), then died again.

One book that i read and recommand to people is the Outsiders...

wellI just finished my chicken soupe for the horse lover sole book ..now I want the seconed one for Christmas:):) but I need soem thing more!!
~Shearkin

Oh, on the subject of required reading - I always have to ask, because I usually get a pretty overwhelming, negative response. How does everyone feel about existentialism? "The Stranger", "Waiting for Godot", Kafka, Dostyevsky, ect... Both in class, and among friends, I seem to be alone in the enjoyment of it. Mind you, sometimes I find it pretentious, and I don't always agree with the views expressed, but occasionally you find some deep stuff there. I always enjoyed discussing the "deeper meaning" with my teachers, though they seldom agreed with me.

My absolute favorite author is Oscar Wilde. 'Such a brilliant, witty, and talented man - and he knew it ^_^ . If there was one person from the past I could sit down to dinner and have a conversation with, he would be that person.

Does fanfics counts????

I wouldn't say so, though there are some fanfictions published under public domain.

I tought that it counted

"Waiting for Godot" and a few others were assignments I had in school. I'm not big on the style of those particular authors, however I do enjoy existential topics when presented in science fiction form. For example, in Larry Niven's novel "Ringworld" there's a big revelation at the end about free will that's interesting. There was also a really good Twilight Zone episode from the ones they made in the 80's where insanity seems to be spreading like a contagious disease. Turns out it's tied into the meaning of life and human existence.

The best sci-fi example though has to be the BBC TV series called "The Prisoner". It was made in the 60's and is a real cult classic. On the surface, it's a story about a spy being held prisoner and pumped for information. But underneath all that is a really deep look at the individual, society, free will, and so on. It's not really pure existentialism per se, but it addresses similar topics and it's a very good series if you like stuff that goes deeper (much deeper) than the story on the surface. The series is out on DVD for anyone who's interested. There are only 17 episodes to the whole thing, so it's more like watching a mini-series.

Wow, that sounds...silly to me. :unsure:

Well, by all appearances my favorite character died in that last book :rolleyes: . Why does this always happen. Anyway, I started reading Niel Gaiman's "American Gods" last night. That man has such a way with prose.

Currently I am reading the Sword of Truth series. It's a fantasy series, set in a fantasy world with a few wizards and such. Only one dragon in it though, and she was only in for like two books. It about Richard, who discovers that he is the Seeker of Truth and has a ton of magic which he never realised. This author tends to make charactors then drop them pretty quickly. :( Come back Chase!

I am also reading another fantasy series called the Wheel of Time. Its 12 books long, each around 600 pages or more. One was nearly 1,000. All are written except the last one, where the last battle is supposed to happen. In this Rand, is this super powerful dude who must fight at the last battle and save the world from the devil like bad guy.

I just love long stories... as long as they're good though. :P

At my school we have to read books for 20 minutes in our english class, so I randomly grabbed one off the fabtasy shelf and actually got a good one.

It's called Night's Wyrd (Wyrd also means destiny) It's a story about a soon to be nighted squire, and right before the ceremony, the local wizard looks into his future and says he is going to die before he takes over the manor. Then it's a wild and crazy adventure throught the contenent trying to escape death (which you can never do -.-) anyway the most interesting part of the book is that there is a magic working dragon, that can stop time, and transform into other beings. It's a pretty neat little novel.

I'm currently reading two books: the "Dragonflight" by McCaffrey (I like it, yet the translation feels unnatural at some places) and "Letters from Nowhere" by John Mekas, the Fluxist. I like that book, those "letters" are more like in a form of at the moment of speech. For exapmle: he starts talking about a great Lithuanian artist, then he says that he can't stand seeing word "designer" in Lithuanian newspapers (we have our own word for the person who creates design). Then he apologyzes and returns to the topic :). That's Fluxus and I like it :P. All in all John Mekas is an interesting personality with his interesting ideas, I also liked one of his movies, want to see more :).

Well, I'm halfway done with "American Gods". All I really have to say is..."wow"...I must recommend this book to others (assuming you're the proper age to read rather mature subject matter, including one of the most disturbing sex scenes I've ever stumbled upon - which is saying something), if you haven't already checked it out. It's widely considered to be Gaiman's most popular book, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick it up. I think it was just because I was having trouble figuring out exactly what it was about. Unless something goes terribly wrong during the second half (which it very well could), I'm amazed. I have more respect for Gaiman than ever, and I'm having a lot of fun picking out the gods in the novel.

Just received two zeppelin mail (letters, postcards carried by the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg in the late twenties/thirties)) auction catalogues today, and groaning over the realized prices ( mostly well beyond what I can afford, with lots reaching hundreds of Euros :faint: but then these are the exceptions and you can often get them for much less, say US$ 60-80) :

Hey I just finnished a book called "Pendragon " it has nothing to do with dragons'...well in the book that I just read there was no dragon's ...I really like it !!! if you like "doctor who " I would say you woudl like this !!! to any one who has read book one and to I have a question for you to ponder ....will he meat a old travler ....or uncle press at a young age ( I dont do the mathe on things' so that might have been around then but yeah ) I want to know if any one alse raed the book?
~Shearkin

I'm re-reading Eragon :)

The story has to be fresh for when the movie arrives!! :0!

WOW



When the movie will arrive