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

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'm reading the last YouSpace novel, Outsorcerer's Apprentice by Tom Holt.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Next will be a change. A sci-fi freebie. I'll read Starfish by Peter Watts. The first in his Rifters series. He offers these as a free download from his website.

This wasn't bad. Interesting sci-fi about living and swimming (?!) 3000 meters below the surface. Original, I thought. The tech required and undersea animal life were well researched. Quite fascinating. The story, which ends on a mild cliffhanger, is mostly a sociology experiment. Several open story arcs for the next book to finish hopefully. Rated C [3 stars].

Next read to be decided.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

If it's bad, and particularly if it's a book I know I will want to read aagain, then I will go in and fix it. But it takes me so long to read it then, and sometimes it feel like work.

So... sometimes I cringe inwardly and read through. I did get to help an author out with proofing her book once, though-- the publisher failed to provide her with galleys before publishing the paperback, and so she got a handful of fans to go through and nitpick the hell out of the final product with her.

If it is a book I want to read I will read through. Luckily most books I want to read are pretty good these days if not excellent. But occasionally not. Not going to spend 4 hours fixing a book that will take 4 hours to read or spend time and money looking for a better alternative. . About 10 pages in my brain filters out most of the stuff. I must really want to read the book though.

Helen

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

If it is a book I want to read I will read through. Luckily most books I want to read are pretty good these days if not excellent. But occasionally not. Not going to spend 4 hours fixing a book that will take 4 hours to read or spend time and money looking for a better alternative. . About 10 pages in my brain filters out most of the stuff. I must really want to read the book though.

Sometimes I wish I could do that. Unfortunately, my job requires me to be nitpicky about everything I read; I can't afford to develop any habits that might blunt that edge. It's inconvenient when reading for pleasure, but invaluable when reading for money.

[Hampshire Nanny]

Originally Posted by Lin2412

It really surprises me when there is are a few typographical or grammatical errors in books from traditional publishers. I'm more forgiving if it's in my indie ebooks, and brush them off as long as I get the meaning anyhow.

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

If it's bad, and particularly if it's a book I know I will want to read aagain, then I will go in and fix it. But it takes me so long to read it then, and sometimes it feel like work.

So... sometimes I cringe inwardly and read through. I did get to help an author out with proofing her book once, though-- the publisher failed to provide her with galleys before publishing the paperback, and so she got a handful of fans to go through and nitpick the hell out of the final product with her.

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Sometimes I wish I could do that. Unfortunately, my job requires me to be nitpicky about everything I read; I can't afford to develop any habits that might blunt that edge. It's inconvenient when reading for pleasure, but invaluable when reading for money.

Since I read on the Kindle most of the time, I use its ability to highlight text, which copies the marked text out into the log file. Most of the time that satisfies my need to note the problem when it is first encountered. I have shared this file (with my own comments) with authors. So far, I've not gone so far as to actually fix their book file.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by Hampshire Nanny

Since I read on the Kindle most of the time, I use its ability to highlight text, which copies the marked text out into the log file.

I do something similar with my Kobo or books I read in iBooks, but I usually log the fixes in a note on my iPad if I'm reading on the Kobo. That way, I have the right sequence even if the Kobo scrambles the annotation list.

[Fbone]

I decided on The Armageddon Inheritance by David Weber. The second in the Dahak trilogy. I read the first part about three years ago and noticed the rest of the trilogy (Empire from the Ashes) was still on my ereader. Figured I'd complete and delete.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: my oldest unread bought book: Imperium by Keith Laumer. From April 2005, an anthology of his Imperium stories edited by Eric Flint. Cross-time travel capers.

Fun. If I've read it before I've quite forgotten it. So perhaps that shows that it's a bit 'light'.

Anyway, next up: Analog SFF for March 2015. Bought in December 2014!

[CharredScribe]

I'm reading book 21 (Children of the Revolution) in the DCI Banks series by Peter Robinson. It is the last book I own in the series, and now I really want to buy the following ones, even though I have a long list of unread books. But I must know what happens next in the world of DCI Banks so I guess it's time to mosey on over to kobo.com.

[Lin2412]

I'm reading Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg, to see what the rave is all about. So far, I'm agreeing in her take with the concerns presented in the first chapter. (I'll most probably simultaneously read it with world war Z though. To be hones, I find the latter more interesting)

[Dngrsone]

I gotta find something light, that I can put down and pick back up in between class assignments... I'm already tiring of playing scrabble against the AI on my phone.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Anyway, next up: Analog SFF for March 2015. Bought in December 2014!

I'm also reading my latest purchase, a set of detective stories about Julius Katz and his mysterious AI assistant, The Julius Katz Collection by Dave Zeltserman. It's currently on special offer at Amazon UK and US, and having finished the first of the stories in the book, I highly recommend it.

[treadlightly]

I finally finished the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Well, the first three books anyway, the series does continue. I loved the magic system and the world that the author created, it was a great read. I did find the story a little dark in places and had to put the book down, which slowed my reading down.

Now onto this month's Book Club selection, The Iron King by Maurice Druon.

[Luffy]

The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco - 2/5

It is wishful thinking on my part that my review would capture, firstly, and then later, the mood of my bewilderment and disappointment respectively. The Name Of The Rose is an ode to ignorance. As the saying goes, never attribute to malice what can be attributed to ignorance. This medieval tale doesn't feel like a contemporary book, which is the aim of most historical fictions.

For much of the beginning, politics and theology dominate the proceedings. As this story is a mystery at its heart, its disheartening to report that the best deducting by our heroic detective is carried out right when he and his Watson of a chronicler are setting foot in the abbey. This place is where multiple murders are committed. I zeroed in on the most likely culpable person. I thought, wrongly, that the book would contain red herrings. If the latter were there, they never left the abbey's kitchen. Twists, as we understand them in modern vernacular, are sharply lacking here. There is no evidence of brilliance from our detective duo. Indeed, the bumbling clumsiness, physical even, serves the plot to achieve an actual and symbolic destruction of a repository that has served God and no one else.

The point of this book is left open to interpretation. I like to consider the setting of the time and lieu crucial to the underpinnings of what's a simple story at its heart. The key symbol here is the library. It's ironic that the older it gets, the more the rare, handwritten and hand drawn books appreciate in value. At the same time, the content of those books would decrease in accuracy. Relentlessly so. Seen from our eyes, the cherished knowledge of the Dark Ages is nothing but ravings and gibberish. There is also no pity for the girl that Adso sleeps with. Both he and us will never know her name, only her fate. She will be burned at the stake. I know the title of the book doesn't refer to the peasant girl as the Rose. But in that book, she is the only one who comes closest to clearing the meaning of the title.

[Luffy]

The Escape (John Puller #3)
by David Baldacci - 4/5

I liked The Escape. It was a very good book. Quite better than The Forgotten, which was an average book by an unknown - at the time for me - author, David Baldacci. The reason for that is clear. The Forgotten laid too much emphasis on the strengths of John Puller. There were too many locations, too many extras in the story. Pacing counts for something. But let us concentrate on The Escape.

I'm beginning to doubt I'll give any book 5 stars this year. It seems I'm a bit too sternly demanding these days. Not fair. I want to be able to say that I've chosen over 10 or 15 perfect books. The Escape came pretty close to that score. But its weirdly staged finale came in the way of perfection. I have to be honest. One reason why it could have scored higher is the Camel Club vibe that I got from the book. It's very strange. There's something sophisticated about The Escape. A minimalist finish that can only come from a richly orchestrated mind. Just like a room's decoration can be expensively minimalist, so is The Escape stark, livid, dynamic, contained, plausible, small scale, and quite professionally written.

I enjoyed reading most of the book, but the very end made it worthwhile. Two things that DIDN'T happen. A) The network was never rounded. B)Knox blew off Puller. The latter left me mystified. When there's a fourth Puller book (preferably just before or after a sixth Camel Club book) I want to see how this romantic cliffhanger pans out. The fact that Knox gets banged up in the line of duty - I mean the timing and the way it was accomplished - strayed away from the boring trope of the strong female character one sees too often. These characters don't have much depth. But they are not shallow either. So yeah, give me more of the same.