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

[issybird]

Originally Posted by amward

Started "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" I'm enjoying it but... had to borrow a pbook from the local library as couldn't get it as an e library book and it's so big I'm having a lot of trouble reading it with one wrist in a splint. This of course is not the fault of the book, but it would be easier on the ereader.

It stinks about your wrist, but Thousand Autumns was one of my top 2011 reads (available in the US on Overdrive). I hope you can persevere--or return to it later once you're healed if all the joy is being sucked out of it now.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

An excellent story, although some of the references are now obscure. Well worth a read....

I agree, and perhaps the fellow you were quoting in that post will now make up his mind to read it.

[Latinandgreek]

Originally Posted by taosaur

The last 2/3 of Snow Crash just didn't remotely live up to the expectations/potential set up in the first 1/3. It was a burst of creative brilliance trailing off into a mediocre action movie. I was put off Stephenson for years, but then Anathem completely drew me in and bowled me over.



I gave the first WoT audiobook a try solely because Brandon Sanderson finished the series, despite my every instinct having warned me off Robert Jordan every time I've encountered his work, and I couldn't take 20 minutes of it--stale ideas enveloped in a staggering volume of hot air. Maybe I'll read summaries and then give the Sanderson volumes a go, after I've exhausted his original work.

I'm still on Norwegian Wood and Ringworld, enjoying both thoroughly.

I might do the same. I've tried to get into WoT but I just can't do it. I think I only have one original Sanderson volume left to read though
I might just do what you have suggested - read the summaries and then read Sanderson's concluding volumes.

I loved Norwegian Wood, I think I might add Ringworld to my TBR list!

[CRussel]

Finished Georgette Heyer's Unknown Ajax. As always, I enjoyed it far beyond its literary merit. Heyer's books are a mildly guilty pleasure. They're funny, there's often violence but not offensively so, and you know that everything will all work out in the end, but only after several mis-steps and fumbles. This one was a better than average Heyer, so quite enjoyable.

Having a hard time deciding what should be next. I've got several I'm saving for the start of the new year's challenge and it's making it hard to decide on what I do want to read now. The good news is, it's allowed me to toss a couple of books OUT of my TBR when I started them and decided they just weren't anything I really wanted to read right now.

[missimpossible]

Originally Posted by taosaur

The last 2/3 of Snow Crash just didn't remotely live up to the expectations/potential set up in the first 1/3. It was a burst of creative brilliance trailing off into a mediocre action movie. I was put off Stephenson for years, but then Anathem completely drew me in and bowled me over.

Finished Snow Crash last night. It was pretty good! Sloppy in points, and I do see what you mean, but I really enjoyed it.

Read The Last Continent earlier on. It was... my least favourite Discworld book so far, except for Equal Rites. I'd been well warned though. It essentially has two plots points: HA HA HA AUSTRALIA and HA HA HA SEX. Which is mildly diverting but not really terribly exciting.

Now about 125 pages into Notre-Dame de Paris. Kind of ashamed I haven't read this sooner. It's been good so far!

[coderserdar]

jack higgins - edge of danger

an excellent sean dillon story
the relationship between sean dillon and hannah bernstein is explained excellently
and the adventure never goes on
everyone should read this book

[amward]

Originally Posted by issybird

It stinks about your wrist, but Thousand Autumns was one of my top 2011 reads (available in the US on Overdrive). I hope you can persevere--or return to it later once you're healed if all the joy is being sucked out of it now.

I'm thinking I might go back to it later, as it deserves better than the interrupted reading which is all I can manage at the moment.

[anijh]

I'm reading The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie.

Another excellent Hercule Poirot mystery. I should have got the answer!


Next up: F&SF Magazine, January/February 2012 by Spilogale Authors which has just recently appeared on my iPhone. Now moved over to my new CyBook Opus.

[pilotbob]

Just Finished Sawyers _Mindscan_. A pretty good book... do all of his books use the same material? There was much in here that used the same basis for some stuff as WWW was... Cellular Automata and both books reference _The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_.

I think Flashforward had a bit of living forever theme in it as well.

That said, I think Mindscan was a good read. I enjoyed the stories and the arguments of what makes a person a person. Interesting stuff.

My next read will be _The Tide Mill_ by MR member Richard Herley.

BOb

Kindle version of WWW:Wonder is still $12.99 even though the hard cover is $10.12. I'm waiting to see if they drop the Kindle version to $7.99 to match the per-order paperback price on March 27th.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Just Finished Sawyers _Mindscan_. A pretty good book... do all of his books use the same material?

Sawyer's got a bunch of pet themes which as far as I can tell, tend to show up in one form or another in all of his novel-length works*. You can read the non-novel versions of his thoughts on such over at his Futurism page, which includes interviews and essays he did about his favourite science/technology/human consciousness topics.

(ETA: It turns out he actually has a page where he lists the recurring themes in his works and where to find them by novel.)

As for me, currently re-loading the Kindle with new stuff in anticipation of a long transit ride to pick up another batch of the art books I bought during the Boxing Dale sale at the independent bookstore downtown.

Not sure what I'm actually going to read, but I think I'll only have the attention span for short stories, so I'll be loading up a bunch of anthologies to try the authors out.

* I've read pretty much everything he's ever written, with the exception of the latest novel and some of the short non/fiction pieces.

[richrock]

I've now moved on to Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. Never read any of hs work before, but always been intrigued. Unfortunately, I've only managed 2 pages so far, but it's been a good 2 pages!

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

I finished up Peter Pan last night and have just started Kim Harison's 9th (and most recent) installment in her The Hollows series, Pale Demon.

I just finished reading 'Pale Demon' and in my opinion it is the best yet of Kim Harrison's 'The Hollows' series. It's like the first 8 novels were supplying the readers with an extended back story leading up to 'Pale Demon'. I'm looking forward to the release of the 10th 'Hollows' novel, 'A Perfect Blood', with high anticipation.

I'm now going to begin reading 'The Fallen Man', the 12th book in Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn & Jim Chee Mystery Novels.

[bookhound78]

I'm currently reading Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick by Lawrence Sutin. It's a bit dense at times, but overall I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

-Neal

[covingtoncat73]

I'm about 67% done with Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey. It is one of her "Elemental Masters" books and certainly one of the best of those.

I hadn't read any Lackey in awhile but some of her books, mostly Elementa Masters, became available as eBooks from the library here recently, so I gave them a try. I couldn't get into Wizard of London and abandoned it. Unnatural Issue was okay and I finished it. This one is better than either.

It is loosely based on Puss in Boots but it is a little Paris Opera ballet dancer who goes to England and pretends to be a famous Russian ballerina and it appears to be set around the beginning of the 20th century, maybe the end of the 19th. It is a nice diversion as the last thing I read was The Strain, which was uber-gruesome.