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

[kennyc]

Started "Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge yesterday..

[kennyc]

.....deleted....

[MrPLD]

Certainly didn't pass the sniff-test here.

[MrPLD]

Can't see this one lasting more than a few more minutes before the curtains come closing down.

[FlorenceArt]

I am engrossed in Stone's Fall. I liked the other books by Iain Pears I read but I don't remember having as much pleasure reading them, and I don't remember laughing out loud reading them. Not that this one is a comedy, but I like the narrator's tone and humor.

I have a question for Her Majesty's subjects here: what is the difference between "Lady Elizabeth Ravenscliff" and "Elizabeth, Lady Ravenscliff"? I assume that one must mean that she was born a lady and the other that she merely married a lord, but which is which? Or is it even more complicated than this?

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by recluse

I am currently reading "The Jennifer Morgue" by Charles Stross. I really don't know how to describe this book. It's kind of a what if James Bond were a civil servant/computer geek battling ridiculous, yet believable office politics while trying to save the world from Lovecraftian monsters on a shoestring budget. Hysterically funny. This book is a sequel to "The Atrocity Archives". Both are highly recommended.

Thanks, Jon. I haven't heard of that book, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Thought I'd begin with the first, so I just downloaded a sample of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Man, that 3G + Wi-Fi on the new Kindle makes for blazing fast downloads!

[bjones6416]

Just finished "Never Let Me Go," by Kazuo Ishiguro. Interesting. Not sure I'd say great, but interesting.

I'm about to start "Third Wish," by Robert Fulghum. It's a big undertaking -- 900-something pages, with included music. (When you buy the e-book from Amazon, as I did, you can download the music directly from Amazon. I've set up a playlist in iTunes and on my phone so I can listen to the appropriate music as I come to it.)

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Just finished "Never Let Me Go," by Kazuo Ishiguro. Interesting. Not sure I'd say great, but interesting.

I'm about to start "Third Wish," by Robert Fulghum. It's a big undertaking -- 900-something pages, with included music. (When you buy the e-book from Amazon, as I did, you can download the music directly from Amazon. I've set up a playlist in iTunes and on my phone so I can listen to the appropriate music as I come to it.)

And currently only $3.77 on Amazon (US) - adding it to my TBR pile - sounds enchanting.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

And currently only $3.77 on Amazon (US) - adding it to my TBR pile - sounds enchanting.

I'll let you know how it goes! The music is listed song-by-song on the Amazon page where you buy the book. I right-clicked on each song and downloaded it into a folder, then imported the folder into itunes. I was also able to drag the whole folder into the "music" folder on my phone, and it automatically named it as an album called "Third Wish Companion" and seems to include all the metadata.

[wayspooled]

I'm reading Blackout by Connie Willis and it's brilliant. But I wish I hadn't started reading because I've now heard it's part of a 2 book set and it ends on a cliffhanger and the sequel doesn't come out until mid-October. :P But if you want to put it on your list, highly recommended, even more than "highly" if you particularly like time traveling historians or WWII stuff. I'm liking it better than her "To Say Nothing of the Dog" which I loved.

[lilac_jive]

I've already read this, but I thought I'd throw it in here. I just came back from seeing author Robert Wittman speak about his book "Priceless." It's an autobiography about his time in the art crimes unit in the FBI. It was really enjoyable to read (among other things, he worked on the Isabella Gardner Heist and has some interesting insight into that) and his presentation today was really really cool. I highly recommend the book.

[rlparker]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Thanks, Jon. I haven't heard of that book, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Thought I'd begin with the first, so I just downloaded a sample of The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Yeah, sounds interesting to me too. I put it on my Wish List. I'm trying not to download samples--they just clog up the plumbing!

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

And currently only $3.77 on Amazon (US) - adding it to my TBR pile - sounds enchanting.

I bit for $3.77. I have an algorithm for buying books from Amazon. I can't state it precisely--haven't taken the time to try--but it has something to do with subject/genre, price, # of 4- and 5-start reviews divided by total # of reviews, and a minimum number of total reviews. And of course, if it's recommended by someone here at MR!

Anyway, I'm currently reading From the Memoirs of a Minister from France. Enjoying it very much--thanks AlexBell!

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by rlparker

I bit for $3.77. I have an algorithm for buying books from Amazon. I can't state it precisely--haven't taken the time to try--but it has something to do with subject/genre, price, # of 4- and 5-start reviews divided by total # of reviews, and a minimum number of total reviews. And of course, if it's recommended by someone here at MR!

Someone needs to make a little javascript-page to calculate that for us silly marketing people who spin our wheels all day trying to predict the ideal price point (I'm betting on $4.99 AUD today... maybe tomorrow I'll change that to $3.77 )

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Someone needs to make a little javascript-page to calculate that for us silly marketing people who spin our wheels all day trying to predict the ideal price point (I'm betting on $4.99 AUD today... maybe tomorrow I'll change that to $3.77 )


http://elitadaniels.com - Tree of Life (Part I). They shall age like us; they shall die like us. - High Fantasy.

I'd have to factor in the length of the book -- I love long books! And I won't pay a lot for a little bitty short book, no matter how insightful it may be.

[MrPLD]

Hello Betty,

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I'd have to factor in the length of the book -- I love long books! And I won't pay a lot for a little bitty short book, no matter how insightful it may be.

I suppose it depends on what you define as long? "Tree of Life" actually started out as a single novel but at ~700 pages we had to split it into two parts (at a cliff-hanger point of course ) to make it economically viable to go into print production.

Paul.