Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Just bought "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke". This book, published by Gollancz in the UK, contains every short story (104 in all) ever published by Clarke, many of which are available here for the first time since the 1930s. An excellent book for "dipping into" by one of the "Grand Masters" of SF.

It seems to only be available in the U.K., and only from WHSmith eBooks.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It seems to only be available in the U.K., and only from WHSmith eBooks.

I bought it from Amazon.

[BenG]

Watergate by Thomas Mallon.
A historical novel about the Watergate scandal. It wasn't that long ago was it?

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...gate-bumbling/

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next: Echoes of Betrayal by Elizabeth Moon

I'm looking forward to this.

And it was very good indeed. But only the third book out of five planned! If they follow the same pattern as the previous books, we won't see book 4 until early 2013, and the last until early 2014!

Ah well, perhaps by then my TBR list will be under control.

Next up: Evil under the Sun by Agatha Christie, her 37th book.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I finished Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Very enjoyable. One of my favourite Vonnegut titles.

I think I'll head off to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere next as well as continuing with The Information by James Gleick.

[HarryT]

Gor!

I've just used the latest 55% off voucher at Fictionwise to buy a bundle of the first 16 books in the "Gor" series. Yes, I know I should be deeply ashamed of myself .

(I've not logged on at FW for years, and I found that still had a couple of hundred $ microcredit there, so I figured I may as well use it for something.)

[jgaiser]

Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate by David Erik Nelson - A novella ebook that was free on Amazon for a couple of days.

A strange, funny little steampunk novella. Dickie Tucker decides to teach the clockies (former Civil War robots) a few things human. Some lessons work out well (learning that doors can either be pushed or pulled), others not so much (horseshoeing and milking cows). The title lessons lead to the real story.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BenG

Watergate by Thomas Mallon.
A historical novel about the Watergate scandal. It wasn't that long ago was it?

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/201...gate-bumbling/

Scott Simon interviewed Thomas Mallon on NPR this morning.


http://www.npr.org/2012/02/25/147262...criminal-minds

[Chi Cygni]

just finished "Kristin Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset, 1000 pages in 6 days. My oh my, was that a good piece of literature. I need a little break after I read something really good to let it sink in before I start a new one. Sigh...

[Synamon]

I just finished reading the second in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series after listening to the first one as an audiobook last week. The writing is nothing special so I enjoyed the audio more than the text, but the series is fun (love Bob!). I'll try and get as many as I can from the library as audiobooks and read the others to fill in the gaps.

Currently reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the language is wonderful and the imagery of a fig tree as choices in life is a good example:

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story.

From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Jay Cee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out.

I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by Synamon

I just finished reading the second in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series after listening to the first on as an audiobook last week. The writing is nothing special so I enjoyed the audio more than the text, but the series is fun (love Bob!). I'll try and get as many as I can from the library as audiobooks and read the others to fill in the gaps.

I'm three quarters of the way through it (Fool Moon), and have enjoyed the book more than the first, though Harry's obstinacy to the point of reckless endangerment is still getting on my nerves. I have given myself the challenge of reading the first three and then deciding whether it is worth reading the rest of the series.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by orlok

I'm three quarters of the way through it (Fool Moon), and have enjoyed the book more than the first, though Harry's obstinacy to the point of reckless endangerment is still getting on my nerves. I have given myself the challenge of reading the first three and then deciding whether it is worth reading the rest of the series.

He's not exactly learning from his mistakes. I'm hopeful that changes as the series goes on and he starts to feel part of something; at the moment he doesn't seem bothered whether he lives or dies, hence the recklessness.

[DianNC]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And it was very good indeed. But only the third book out of five planned! If they follow the same pattern as the previous books, we won't see book 4 until early 2013, and the last until early 2014!

Ah well, perhaps by then my TBR list will be under control.

I'm thinking of adding the Paladin's Legacy novels to my TBR list, but wondering if I need to read her Deed of Paksenarrion novels first, since Oath of Fealty (2010) is a sequel to Oath of Gold (1989)?

Or do all of her series follow one after the other?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DianNC

I'm thinking of adding the Paladin's Legacy novels to my TBR list, but wondering if I need to read her Deed of Paksenarrion novels first, since Oath of Fealty (2010) is a sequel to Oath of Gold (1989)?

Or do all of her series follow one after the other?

You should certainly read The Deed of Paksenarrion first (only $6 from Baen) Nearly all the main characters in the later novels appear first in that.

It's not necessary (IMO) to read the prequels before reading the later novels.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by Synamon

He's not exactly learning from his mistakes. I'm hopeful that changes as the series goes on and he starts to feel part of something; at the moment he doesn't seem bothered whether he lives or dies, hence the recklessness.

It does and he does... not that it stops him from getting into trouble. Trouble just seems to find him much more often than he looks for it.

I'll be starting book 7 soon (Dead Beat) and I have to agree with those who said that both the story and writing gets better with every book.