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

[covingtoncat73]

I started on IQ84 by Murakami but it expired before I got very far (I had been reading other things and didn't start it until too late in the check-out period). Anyway, I wasn't quite in the mood for something that "dense."

I started on another library book, The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith. It seems to be going down well so far.

[JSWolf]

My current read is Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton. It's a science fiction murder mystery that's current going in two different directions. It will be interesting to see which direction the investigation takes or if both paths are correct. It's not a small book. But it isn't part of a series.

In Newcastle-upon-Tyne, AD 2142, Detective Sidney Hurst attends a brutal murder scene. The victim is one of the wealthy North family clones – but none have been reported missing. And the crime’s most disturbing aspect is how the victim was killed. Twenty years ago, a North clone billionaire and his household were horrifically murdered in exactly the same manner, on the tropical planet of St Libra. But if the murderer is still at large, was Angela Tramelo wrongly convicted? Tough and confident, she never waivered under interrogation – claiming she alone survived an alien attack. But there is no animal life on St Libra. Investigating this alien threat becomes the Human Defence Agency’s top priority. The bio-fuel flowing from St Libra is the lifeblood of Earth’s economy and must be secured. So a vast expedition is mounted via the Newcastle gateway, and teams of engineers, support personnel and xenobiologists are dispatched to the planet. Along with their technical advisor, grudgingly released from prison, Angela Tramelo. But the expedition is cut off, deep within St Libra’s rainforests. Then the murders begin. Someone or something is picking off the team one by one. Angela insists it’s the alien, but her new colleagues aren’t so sure. Maybe she did see an alien, or maybe she has other reasons for being on St Libra...

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I've lost my virginity! I've just listened to my first audio book!
Rather than bagpipe music or Sousa marches, I decided to try something different on my long walk, and picked up Asimov's "Caves of Steel," a BBC radio drama. Two hours of fast and hard uphill and down, and by the time I was back in my neighborhood, I was just about at the end of the program and the only way I knew for sure that I'd been walking was that my clothes were soaking wet from the effort! What a delightful way to do Asimov!

Stitchawl

I just got my virginity back. I recently finished Black Jack Justice by Gregg Taylor, available at Amazon and Smashwords. This is an ebook prequel to the popular podcast "radio" show also written by Gregg Taylor, and if you love the show as much as I do, this first meeting between the 1940s private investigators Jack Justice and Trixie Dixon ("Girl Detective") is a must read. True to the podcast, rarely does a civil word pass between them, but what can you expect of a working relationship that begins

Spoiler:

...with the two quite literally taking pot-shots at each other. Even now hardly a day goes by that Trixie doesn't "make a mental note to shoot Old Squarejaw."

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's not a small book. But it isn't part of a series.

That's a bit of an understatement. The paperback copy is HUGE. Don't know when I'll get round to it, but I definitely want to read it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by thinkpad

I didn't want to install Calibre on my main system, I feel it can be quite bloated at times, but I've setup a VirtualBox and will definitely try out if Calibre does a better job converting the book.

Oh yes, 136MB is quite bloated. That's all it takes on on my Windows system for the main install directory. The options/plugins directory takes 18.6MB for a grand total of 154.6MB. So yes, Calibre is quite bloated. Don't bother with it. You might not have enough disk space for it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Gazella

I just started Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. There are a lot of 80s pop culture references, I didn't grow up in the 1980s so I wasn't familiar with any of them but it's really keeping my interest.

Having grown up through the 80s, the references were very good. Overall an excellent book.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Crusader

That's a bit of an understatement. The paperback copy is HUGE. Don't know when I'll get round to it, but I definitely want to read it.

It's only a mere 916 ePub pages after all the dead weight of excess code, extra ToC and maybe the reviews fixed up/removed.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

I just finished Book 3 this afternoon, and it was a delightful farce! I, too, was a bit worried that I wouldn't like them now, some 25 years or so after I had read them, but Remo and Chiun are so far over the top that you can't help but laugh out loud at their antics.

Now it's time for some Sci-fi. I found a writer I'd never read, Timothy Zahn, and have started Cobra 1. Someone mentioned it, and I thought I'd give it a try.


Stitchawl

Zahn's Star Wars books are some of the best out there.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I've only read one pbook this year which was Lolita. I found the experience torture. I couldn't possibly have done it 9 times in a row.

OOHH! A pBook with a really awful story. How did you survive the ordeal?

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Zahn's Star Wars books are some of the best out there.

Thanks. I've never read any of the Star Wars books before. I'll have to take a look at this group.


Stitchawl

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up is John Rain book 2 - A Lonely Resurrection - by Barry Eisler. He has said the books are supposed to be mostly stand-alone, but I hope that doesn't mean he will re-hash a lot of the background he gave in the first book. So far so good at 10% in.

Another good read. He didn't really re-hash a lot of things which is very good. I do take exception to the author's statement in the introduction that he made these mostly stand-alone - there are major plot points that would be missed if you hadn't read the first one. Even if you could enjoy it, this one would completely spoil the other one.

I'm not sure where to go now, but it doesn't look like I will have a chance to read again until Monday, so I have some time. Maybe I should put up a thread like DiapDealer for suggestions. My requirements would include free though - vacation starts next week, so all available funds are going towards that for a bit.

[caleb72]

So I finished Jane Eyre swapping between audiobook and ebook. I enjoyed the book and and I'm really enjoying the fact that audiobooks can help me increase my available reading time.

I decided to keep that idea rolling, this time with a more current book. I just picked up Hallowed Ground by David Niall Wilson for free at Amazon and the audiobook for $1.99. I've been meaning to try this author for some time, but I'm unlikely to get to him on ebook alone. Enter the wonderful world of audiobooks and I can listen to the book on the way to work in the car and when doing housework and other things that don't lend themselves easily to reading.

Meanwhile, I'll still slogging through The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. I'm enjoying the story and I'm taking notes as I go, but my pure reading time is a little less lately, so it's a pretty slow process.

[Crusader]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's only a mere 916 ePub pages after all the dead weight of excess code, extra ToC and maybe the reviews fixed up/removed.

The paperback is 1104! Of course that's not very unusual for Hamilton.

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by alansplace

Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk was, as usual for a Nancy Drew story, a fun and nostalgic read! And Dance for the Dead was stupendous! Wow! What a story! What a character! This series wears me out reading each book and I've only read the first two so far!

Next up, Sabotage in Space by Carey Rockwell, the 7th and last book in the Tom Corbett Omnibus. In addition to that, Cursed (Alex Verus #2) by Benedict Jacka!

Sabotage in Space was another fun Space Opera that I enjoyed immensely and (I'm sorry to say) the last of the books in the Tom Corbett Omnibus. Thanks again for the Omnibus, Harry!

Cursed Was a great read and IMHO even better than its predecessor, Fated! I'll definitely be reading the subsequent books in this series!

Now on to Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion (Nancy Drew #18) by Carolyn Keene and since there's been discussion of this author here lately and since I've seen the movie and enjoyed it I also chose The General's Daughter (Paul Brenner #1) by Nelson DeMille.

[pilotbob]

I finished reading _The Accidental Time Machine_. I read this book in 5 days or so... first because it was probably shorter than the books I have been reading lately (JRR Martin, Steven King, etc) and also because it was a good an enjoyable ready.

I really enjoyed....

Spoiler:

...the allusion to Jurrasic Park and the Island in Indonesia.

So, what to read next. That book ended with an add for Marsbound and I may just opt for that. Otherwise, I still have many unread Trek books in my Star Trek series memes.

Decisions, decisions...

BOb