What book are you currently reading, or recommend?

[Buckeye Maniac]

It's pretty good, but I must have completely blanked at some point while reading, because a couple of the characters just appeared out of nowhere and they were talking about them like they'd been there a while.

 

[Muck]

Fantasy authors I learned to avoid long ago:

Terry Brooks
David Eddings
Terry Goodkind
Mercedes Lackey
Dennis L. McKiernan
John Norman
R.A. Salvatore
Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman
Piers Anthony

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

Fantasy authors I learned to avoid long ago:

Terry Brooks
David Eddings
Terry Goodkind
Mercedes Lackey
Dennis L. McKiernan
John Norman
R.A. Salvatore
Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman
Piers Anthony

I don't think I've read anything else he may have written. I just remember enjoying this series, The Blue Adept, and Juxtaposition in particular. Of course it's been 30 years or so since I have read them.

 

[Muck]

I don't think I've read anything else he may have written. I just remember enjoying this series, The Blue Adept, and Juxtaposition in particular. Of course it's been 30 years or so since I have read them.

Most of the authors I listed have a few books that I either like or have fond memories of (except for Terry Goodkind, who is truly awful). It's just that they all pretty much devolved into repetitive drek.

Anthony at least managed to start most of his series with an interesting premise before rapidly getting bored and mailing it in with the sequels. A Spell for Chameleon was one of the first fantasy books I remember reading as a kid and I enjoyed it as well as the next couple of Xanth novels. I also liked the first few books of The Incarnations of Immortality series.

Another issue with Anthony is the strong suggestion that he's a pedophile. That also a theme with several of the authors I listed...not pedophilia per se but strange sexual issues that they seem determined to work out via their books. John Norman's subjugation of women, Lackey's apparent belief that all men are bi & Goodkind's weird BDSM fetish....there are a lot of freaks in fantasy lit.

 

[BayBuck]

Anthony at least managed to start most of his series with an interesting premise before rapidly getting bored and mailing it in with the sequels. A Spell for Chameleon was one of the first fantasy books I remember reading as a kid and I enjoyed it as well as the next couple of Xanth novels. I also liked the first few books of The Incarnations of Immortality series.

Agreed on this, On a Pale Horse was my favorite Piers Anthony book. I was young and naive and thought his Total Recall novelization was the source material for the movie, and that they had left out all that cool backstory about the Mars ants. His Anthonology collection was about the pulpiest stuff I read i middle school.

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Fantasy authors I learned to avoid long ago:

Dennis L. McKiernan

It's not great stuff, but I have fond memories of his books. His wife was my one of my elementary school teachers not long after the Iron Tower series was published. They also lived about a mile from me, so I thought it was just about the coolest thing in the world.

It was only on reading them later (after having progressed through the LOTR series) that I realized all of the blatant similarities.

 

[BayBuck]

Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory"

Really powerful novel about Catholicism under suppression in 1930s Mexico, about faith and doubt and hope and despair, definitely a big-idea book as opposed to Greene's "entertainments" (which are mostly all great reads too). Very stark writing, many of the characters are not even fully named--the main characters are The Priest and The Lieutenant, a Catholic and a Socialist fighting for the soul of the state. It's kind of a slow-paced story but includes elements of a thriller that make for some tense moments, including the inevitable and terrible finale.

 

[BayBuck]

Also:

Yann Martel's "The Life of Pi"

I've been looking at this one on my bookshelves for years and years, finally got the chance to read it on a long day of airports and planes. What a great book, just so fun and funny and interesting and surprising. There was a lot more of the story before the shipwreck than I expected, and I enjoyed the philosophical discussion of zoos and Pi's positive synthesis of his three Abrahamic religions. Richard Parker the tiger is a great character. I have to admit the ending kind of threw me for a loop: I still don't know exactly what to think about it...

 

[BayBuck]

A Slate "Completist" review of John Le Carre's entire ouevre, in case anyone else is excited about his new release, A Delicate Truth. My copy is on order now...

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...s_all_23_novels_and_the_movies_discussed.html

 

[BB73]

I'm actually doing the 19th century thing. I've read Robinson Crusoe, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, Madame Bovary, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park in the last few months. I just started Emma, the 4th and last Jane Austen novel published before her death (I'm not sure if I'll read the other two).

I'll be ready for some Dickens and Dumas soon. I read Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamozov a few years ago, so I won't do those again.

I've been reading classics for a few years, tying to read them roughly in publication order, so I started with Homer's stuff and the ancient Greek plays, and I've slowly progressed through the centuries over the years.

An update on my progress through the 19th century:

The Three Musketeers - Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - V. Hugo
Oliver Twist - Dickens
A Christmas Carol - Dickens
Great Expectations - Dickens
Treasure Island - Stevenson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson
Kidnapped - Stevenson
The Master of Ballantrae - Stevenson

Of the above, I liked the two by Dumas and Great Expectations the best. I'm waiting before attacking David Copperfield and Les Miserables, since those are pretty long.

Other older classics:
The Adventures of Marco Polo
Candide, by Voltaire (a great satire)

Authors on my upcoming list:
Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells

 

[BayBuck]

An update on my progress through the 19th century:

The Three Musketeers - Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - V. Hugo
Oliver Twist - Dickens
A Christmas Carol - Dickens
Great Expectations - Dickens
Treasure Island - Stevenson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson
Kidnapped - Stevenson
The Master of Ballantrae - Stevenson

Of the above, I liked the two by Dumas and Great Expectations the best. I'm waiting before attacking David Copperfield and Les Miserables, since those are pretty long.

Other older classics:
The Adventures of Marco Polo
Candide, by Voltaire (a great satire)

Authors on my upcoming list:
Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells

I had actually been wondering how your project had been going... What about Moby-Dick? It's a slog but an accomplishment, and it has a lot of memorable and exciting sequences. Maybe some Thomas Hardy? He and Conrad are a good pivot point into the 20th, and a couple of my favorites. Dracula fits in well with your list too, also Wilkie Collins, and Sherlock Holmes of course.

 

[ochre]

An update on my progress through the 19th century:

The Three Musketeers - Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - V. Hugo
Oliver Twist - Dickens
A Christmas Carol - Dickens
Great Expectations - Dickens
Treasure Island - Stevenson
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Stevenson
Kidnapped - Stevenson
The Master of Ballantrae - Stevenson

Of the above, I liked the two by Dumas and Great Expectations the best. I'm waiting before attacking David Copperfield and Les Miserables, since those are pretty long.

Other older classics:
The Adventures of Marco Polo
Candide, by Voltaire (a great satire)

Authors on my upcoming list:
Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells

I just finished a book called "Black Count", by Tom Reiss, about Dumas' father. A lot of interesting stuff in there that I didn't know about France around the revolution time (and Dumas' family for that matter).

 

[BB73]

I had actually been wondering how your project had been going... What about Moby-Dick? It's a slog but an accomplishment, and it has a lot of memorable and exciting sequences. Maybe some Thomas Hardy? He and Conrad are a good pivot point into the 20th, and a couple of my favorites. Dracula fits in well with your list too, also Wilkie Collins, and Sherlock Holmes of course.

I read Moby Dick several years ago, and I'd say that you described it accurately. I also have to include Tolstoy in my 19th century list, but I've been holding off on tackling War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Stoker and Conan Doyle will probably get sampled when I'm looking for some things that are easier to accomplish. Wilkie Collins isn't on my radar.

I think I will get into Hardy and Conrad as I transition from the 19th to the 20th century, and my list should have included Kipling. I think I'm going to consider my effort complete after I get through the difficult works of James Joyce; I don't plan on including Hemingway, Fitzgerald, or writers after that time period. So 1925 will be roughly my stopping point.

Incidentally, I have also read The Power and the Glory and The Life of Pi, and am on the list for John Le Carre's current effort.

 

[jwinslow]

A recap of my many recent audio books from the Columbus library:

Dinosaur Hunter - slow whodunit set on a Montana ranch. It might be a bit dull to read but the author's humor combined with the talented voice actor led to constant outbursts of laughter.

From Russia with Love - slow, well crafted Bond. Delves into the humanity of the hero.

Moonraker - exceptionally boring installment. Well written dialogue paired with rampant inactivity. It is interesting that such a slow paced series became the most iconic spy/action movie series of all time. Then again, the standards and patience of the audience was much different fifty years ago.

 

[jwinslow]

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1416586628/"]Full Black - by Brad Thor[/ame] - Spy vs terrorism thriller. Highly suspenseful, action packed book weighed down by far too much political preaching, much of it repeated incessantly.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hunted-Brian-Haig/dp/B0046LUJ0K/] The Hunted by Brian Haig [/ame] - fiction based on true events, a capitalist mogul in post communist Russia is on the run from his homeland and America. Interesting tale and plot with poorly developed characters. The primary Russian villain uses the word idiot non stop.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Presumed-Innocent-Scott-Turow/dp/B00A19T2AO/] Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow[/ame] very good mystery with stellar character development and complexity. Quality ending as well. Blends mystery, law and suspense beautifully.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Nowhere-Novel-Jeffery-Deaver/dp/0671042262/]Blue Nowhere - Jeffery Deaver[/ame] Murder thriller based around a cyber warfare expert. Suspenseful, complex ride. Not particularly accurate from a technology perspective (though the average reader wouldn't notice).

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Symbol-Dan-Brown/dp/0307950689/] Lost Symbol by Dan Brown [/ame] a letdown after The DaVinci Code was inevitable but this was surprisingly poor writing. I can't count the number of times Langdon (fresh off of discovering the biggest conspiracy in history) repeated this exchange (other person: hey did you know X is a secret about Y? Langdon: that is just a myth. Other: nuh uh. Langdon: whoa. Quick, let's go after it!). That isn't even touching on the ridiculous homogenization of all religions into one compatible set of views and secrets. I don't mind fictional freedom with religious powers or even inventing hidden subtext in scripture to fuel some conspiracies (I enjoyed DaVinci) , but the lazy brush used to simplify the narrative was pretty weak. It also suffered from the same repetition that plagued the discussions about secrets.