What are you reading?

[Scribs]

Last week I read the play Lysistrata. That is certainly a change from the normal perception of the aichient greeks as stoic old men with white beards...

[starfire]

In Darkness Death- Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

I love their books. The series is about a young samurai in training solving mysteries. Easy reading, but still fun!^^

[uc pseudonym]

I have begun God Emperor of Dune (also by Frank Herbert), and I am still reading The Two Towers partially due to my busy schedule and partially because my motivation to continue reading dropped significantly a few chapters into Book IV.

Also, I completely missed a comment earlier in this thread, and I wish to amend that now.

That's a shame]Dune Messiah[/I] fairly well--particularly the end--and wouldn't have minded if the series had ended there.

It would still be possible to return to the book, though I think that after I complete Chapterhouse: Dune I will have little motivation to return. Though I find many parts of Herbert's science fiction world fascinating, I do not find his writing particularly engaging. This is not helped by the fact that I harbor a disliking for most of his characters, the exception being Duncan Idaho... and those of you who have read the series will understand about that.

I was reading a piece of literary criticism recently that included a critique of the publishing industry. One of his basic points was that authors were pressured to turn everything into a series, and he listed a number of series that he felt had gone beyond a wise stopping point, including Dune. Of course, my opinion is incomplete until I finish the books that Frank Herbert penned (for the moment I do not intend to pursue his son's continuation), but I am inclined to believe that this may eventually become my feeling as well.

[mitsuki lover]

Where in Idaho is Duncan located?
Sorry,I know Duncan Idaho is a person having read some of the Dune books myself,I just wanted to make a rather silly comment on the name.

Currently reading SUPERMAN:THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE MAN OF STEEL

[Kaori]

The Dreaming Place, by Charles de Lint. The best part of this book is its title; after reading it, I was left wondering how this author managed to win the World Fantasy Award.

Tamsin, by Peter S. Beagle. I didn't particularly like this book, even though Beagle is a good author. It did, however, have some compelling qualities, so it wasn't a completely worthless read.

Ratha's Creature, by Clare Bell. I read this book purely for nostalgic purposes.

The Homeward Bounders, by Diana Wynne Jones. (Not, of course, to be confused with the movie Homeward Bound.) While the book wasn't bad, it also wasn't the author's best work.

I was reading a piece of literary criticism recently that included a critique of the publishing industry. One of his basic points was that authors were pressured to turn everything into a series, and he listed a number of series that he felt had gone beyond a wise stopping point, including Dune. Of course, my opinion is incomplete until I finish the books that Frank Herbert penned (for the moment I do not intend to pursue his son's continuation), but I am inclined to believe that this may eventually become my feeling as well.

That is a fairly common viewpoint. I never actually read past Children of Dune myself; I had heard that the series went progressively downhill, so when I got to a point where I didn't enjoy the series any longer, I simply ceased reading.

[Sage_Al-Kahira]

Finished Catcher in the Rye two days ago! Now im Reading Faerie Wars.

[uc pseudonym]

[quote="Kaori"]That is a fairly common viewpoint. I never actually read past Children of Dune myself]
That is as good a place to stop as any. Many things change (as there is a 3500 year gap between the 3rd book and the 4th) and as of yet I do not see how these things are redeeming qualities. The friend whom I am borrowing the books from, however, said that he thought Chapterhouse: Dune was a significant improvement. We shall have to see, because I will likely finish the series eventually (though I have read each of the books successively slower).

[mitsuki lover]

Are you also reading the prequels such as House Atreides as well?
And btw:considering that the Atreides are supposed to descend from the mythical
Atreus(I think it's mentioned in the original Dune)isn't it possible that the reason
why the Atreides family suffers so much in the Dune books is because of the
curse on the line of Atreus?
Just a random thought.

[uc pseudonym]

I had never made that connection. No, however, I am not reading any of the prequels; my intent is only the primarily five books of the series. In case there is more than one list of them, I'll be specific:
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God-Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

[Kaori]

"Bartelby the Scrivener" and excerpts from Moby-D***, both by Melville. The former is incredibly morbid, but I enjoy Melville's prose style regardless.

Tamburlaine the Great, by Christopher Marlowe. Renaissance drama by Shakespeare's rival.

After wanting to read the book for years, I finally found a copy of
The Book of Sorrows, by Walter Wangerin, at a public library. Its title is an accurate descriptor. Some of the emotional moments were extremely moving, and some were less so; but overall, the book was definitely worth the time spent reading it.

[Jaltus-bot]

What are you reading now...?

Your mind.

[mitsuki lover]

Being the Halloween season I thought I read something appropiate so I am currently reading Buffy The Vampire Slayer:The Watcher's Guide Vol. 1.

[Technomancer]

At the moment, I'm reading:

Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell

and What Can a Neuron Learn With Spike-Timing-Dependent Plastcity? by Legenstein, et al, which is a recent article from Neural Computation.

[ishy]

At All Costs by David Weber

*puzzling over what 'Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity' is*

[Technomancer]

*puzzling over what 'Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity' is*

It refers to proposed learning rule for a specific type of neuron model. In other words, it models how your brain cells learn new associations. The thrust of the article is to determine the theoretical behaviour of the algorithm and whether or not it can learn associations for specific types of inputs. It's called STDP because your individual nerve cells communicate via electrical discharges (or spikes), and the learning rule operates on the correlation between the input and the output spikes.

[uc pseudonym]

In addition to the books I listed previously (which I am still reading):

Frankenstein (by Mary Shelly): I am pleased to note that I have been able to get into this book to some degree, though I do not enjoy 18th century literature as a whole. The initial idea is a good one, but the presentation is muddied (and the assorted movies bearing the same name throw out the idea almost altogether).

Searching for God Knows What (by Donald Miller): This book I have actually completed. Overall, my comments are much the same as those for Blue Like Jazz, though I enjoyed it less due to the subject matter.

Streams of Living Water (by Richard Foster): His premise (exploring the six dimensions of Christian tradition) is interesting to me, but I have been somewhat disappointed by how he handles them. Much of his chapters are devoted to specific practicioners of a given stream and their lives, and while these are at times interesting I do not see the value in them that evidently Foster did. Still better than a great deal of literature.

[yukinon]

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Martial Arts.

Which is pretty self-explanatory.

[bigsleepj]

"Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens - a story set (partly) in a debtors prison where they would sometimes lock up whole families.

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges - a fascinating, very complex but worthwhile selection of short-stories. I do believe the hard-going short story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" to be worth the price of the book alone.

[Kaori]

For class, I have been reading a bit of Poe and excerpts from Uncle Tom's Cabin, as well as the second part of Tamburlaine the Great. As far as slave narratives go, Uncle Tom's Cabin isn't particularly good, despite being popular and influential when it was first published.

I also recently read "Lila the Werewolf," "Come, Lady Death," and A Fine and Private Place, all by Peter S. Beagle. "Lila" is unrecommendable; "Come, Lady Death" is a very nice short story, and the novel didn't strike me as being particularly good or bad.

[Maledicte]

Just finished Patrick O'Leary's The Gift. I'm real happy about this as I have not finished a novel in a long time. Short, but very good--a fantasy story about stories. And I like stories. Lots of little fables thrown into one big one. Cheah.

[mitsuki lover]

Nothing right now.I'm in one of those stages where I feel like I need a break from reading for awhile,except for comic books and manga.

[yukinon]

People have those stages?

[uc pseudonym]

Some do, yes. My experience is that I have times in which I want to read a limited amount, and some times when I wish to read for lengthy periods of time. Generally speaking I am always reading at least one book.

I have been reading a variety of science fiction stories from a number of anthologies, for a class on science fiction. Incidently, while this is not actually reading, I listened to a significant portion of the original War of the Worlds broadcast. While it is obviously dated, it is still interesting.

[Scribs]

yes, the original Woar of the worlds broadcast is quite something. I own it, and liten to it now and again.

[TurkishMonky]

now i'm rereading Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn (my favorite sci fi writer)
as well as re reading thorugh "the last battle" in preparation for the narnia movie
hmm... not to mention just finishing UC pseudonym's Naruto fanfic yesterday.

[mitsuki lover]

Finally found something to read today.
BARD:the odyssey of the Irish by Morgan Llywelyn.
It takes the myths of the early Irish and turns them into a novel about one of the early Irish leaders,a bard named Amergin.

[Wild Eagle]

I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris. It's a cool book .

For the record, I've never dated nor do I plan to, anytime soon. I will date only after university and I will only date the girl I'm sure that I will marry, someday .

[Technomancer]

'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The time is the 1950s; the place, Barcelona. Daniel Sempere, the son of a widowed bookstore owner, is 10 when he discovers a novel, The Shadow of the Wind, by Julián Carax. The novel is rare, the author obscure, and rumors tell of a horribly disfigured man who has been burning every copy he can find of Carax's novels. The man calls himself Laín Coubert- the name of the devil in one of Carax's novels.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Terry Prachett's: The Colour of Magic

[Lady Arianrod]

I haven't been reading much outside of school, but I've spent some time skimming Wordsworth's poems. I like them. ^_^