What are you reading?

[rocklobster]

Just finished Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. It's an excellent book that I recommend to everyone!

[Maledicte]

Reading I, Strahd by P.N. Elrod. Blah blah vampire novel blah. The constant of lifting terms from historical Romania and plunking them into a fantasy setting is irritating me somewhat, but I'm liking the book so far. He's not *quite* like dear old Vlad Dracul yet...

[Technomancer]

I've just started Roy Woodbridge's The Next World War: Tribes, Cities, Nations, and Ecological Decline

Pre-occupied with the war on terrorism, we have lost sight of a more dangerous enemy of social peace and progress - the inability of the world's people to access the ecological goods and services they need to maintain and build their societies. By 2025, the combined demands of continued economic growth and the reduction of global poverty will require, annually, the... More ecological equivalent of three or four earths. If history is our guide, the options for meeting these enormous "provisioning" needs are extremely limited. Like the tribes, cities, and nations of earlier times, we can fight our neighbours for privileged access to declining ecosystem goods and services. This confrontation will inevitably pit the wealthy beneficiaries of the global economy against the billions of excluded, and lead to accelerated ecological collapse, the derailment of growth, and social chaos. The only alternative to this dismal prospect is to mobilize on a scale as if for war in order to meet this provisioning challenge on the battlefields of directed technological innovation.

[uc pseudonym]

How to Write a [Darn] Good Novel by James Frey (not the Million Little Pieces one)

I'm taking a break from writing to read some books about it, hopefully to gain perspective before beginning the edit process. This book was acclaimed in a number of places for in-depth treatment of characters (indeed, one of the main arguments is that a novel is its characters).

After reading it basically in one sitting, a rather easy affair given the breezy style, I'm not sure I agree. If I had to define why I feel negatively about the work in a single word, I would choose "superficial." For example, when he talks about stereotypes and how to avoid them, he often suggests throwing in a random unexpected personality trait. While he later nuances this by pointing out that it needs to be an intrinsic part of the character, the book is filled with examples I felt lacked depth.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I'm currently reading Star Wars: Dark Apprentice (the second book in the Jedi Academy trilogy). Yeah, I know. I'm such a nerd.

I used to LOVE those books! I still have the whole series sitting on my shelf. Ah, the good old days when I was an avid Star Wars fan.... Jedi Apprentice will always hold a nostalgic part of my heart.

Anyway, I took a quick break from Dune Messiah to read Jhereg by Steven Brust. It's his first (published) Vlad Taltos book, and I've been wanting to read one ever since reading the stories of an amateur author on DeviantART who was influenced by him. It was really good, one of the most enjoyable stories I've ever read. It's written from the perspective of an assassin who has been set the hardest job yet. It's almost like a mystery, except the goal is to kill the guy rather than catch him and put him in jail. What I liked best about Jhereg was Vlad's voice. You feel like he's sitting in front of you, lounging back and stroking his jhereg familiar, and just talking, letting the story wend the way it will. He's also rather cynical and sarcastic, which is precisely the kind of humor I love best. Highly enjoyable, and I would recommend this to just about anyone.

[bigsleepj]

Currently I'm finishing up Okla Hannali by R.A. Lafferty, which tells the story of a Choctaw named Hannali Innominee and his extended family, but it also tells much of 19th century American history through the eyes of the Choctaw nation. The story is told almost in a style similar to a fire-side story and uses fanciful exaggerations at times to get certain points about character traits across, but eventually the novel turns deeply grim and becomes a tragic tale. It's a very fascinating read and I'm enjoying it, but to be honest I'm not always sure where fact and fiction ends.

I've just started Roy Woodbridge's The Next World War: Tribes, Cities, Nations, and Ecological Decline

WOw! you always read the most fascinating books I've never heard of.

[Maledicte]

Just closed the cover on The Avengers: A Jewish War Story by Rich Cohen. Great true story about a young poet and two young women who fight during World War II (and live to tell about it!). Also finished reading the graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I'd forgotten how it went, and the illustrations really hammered back home just how creepy the story is (button eyes, yuuurgh.)

Reading No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty, the guy who started NaNoWriMo. Because I'm going to do it next month. ^^;

[king atlantis]

well, was reading the complete hitchiker's guide, but took a break after the 4th book or so because i saw Artemis Fowl #6 was out...
'upon reading it, i remembered just how much i truly enjoy the Artemis Fowl series, and REALY enjoyed some *ahem* long-awaited happenings that the author MUST build apon in his next novel.

THEN i had the displeasure of learning it may be his LAST Artemis Fowl book, or at least the last one for about 3 years.
which sucks, considering #6 left on quite a HUGE gripper, which could VERY easily lead to the next book.
so much so, i would think #7 could, in all attentive purposes, practically write itself!
i also learned that Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, gets to finish the un-finished Hitchiker's book...which im not sure if im glad of or not. their writing style is incrediously similar, so it POSSIBLY could work...

[mysngoeshere56]

I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Great Gatsby..... I thought it was boring.

[Feebeefi]

I'm currently reading A Life in Time and Space: The Biography of David Tennant and The Golden Age of Myth and Legend

[rocklobster]

I'm currently reading Jan Karon's Mitford books.

[Aletheia]

Currently reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. I have been looking for this book for months. Our library never has it. I guess people always check out the first one, but never get through it. Anyway, I finally found it at my school library. It's as good as I thought it would be. I love the movies, which is why I wanted to read the books. The plot is really different, so it's like two different stories, with a lot of the same, or similar characters.

[shade of dae]

I have just recently finished Mister Monday, Grim Tuesday, and Drowned Wednesday by Garth Nix. I had read the first installment in his The Seventh Tower series and was not very impressed for reasons that I cannot explain at this time. However, I was attracted to the cover art on Mister Monday and thought that it could be a welcome distraction from studying for my Interpersonal Communications quiz. Since my local library had the books Monday-Friday, I figured that I would get the series and return it if I wasn't impressed. After finishing the first book, I was very interested in reading the others. The stories have a dark, morbid feel that one would get from reading a classic Grimm's fairy tale. I read the reviews on Amazon for Mister Monday and found that many found the book to be too confusing. There is an element of unneccessary rules and titles, but for the most part, it is like dancing: Frustrating and confusing until you find the rhthym. The basic story repeats itself throughout the 3 books that I read: Find the will, beat the trustee, get the key. Althought the author has been able to change the setting of each book enough to keep the books interesting, I remain skeptical of them being as interesting for another 4 books.
Also, I have ordered William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair and Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Has anyone else read these titles? If so, what were your opinions?

well, was reading the complete hitchiker's guide, but took a break after the 4th book or so because i saw Artemis Fowl #6 was out...
'upon reading it, i remembered just how much i truly enjoy the Artemis Fowl series, and REALY enjoyed some *ahem* long-awaited happenings that the author MUST build apon in his next novel.

THEN i had the displeasure of learning it may be his LAST Artemis Fowl book, or at least the last one for about 3 years.
which sucks, considering #6 left on quite a HUGE gripper, which could VERY easily lead to the next book.
so much so, i would think #7 could, in all attentive purposes, practically write itself!
i also learned that Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, gets to finish the un-finished Hitchiker's book...which im not sure if im glad of or not. their writing style is incrediously similar, so it POSSIBLY could work...

I am afraid that I will have to disagree entirely. Eoin Colfer has long held my respect for creating the Artemis Fowl series. I have always enjoyed a competent protagonist, and the latest book The Time Paradox was a major dissapointment. Artemis who I had held with certian measure of respect for always having a plan, was, "swept along", it seemed. Also, the entire book seemed to be less of an attempt at being an enjoyable novel and more of a Greenpeace ad. Above all, my biggest complaint is the totally random and unneeded romance. I was fine with the two characters' relationship before, but now it seems that there is an awkwardness between them. What happened to Minerva? She played a major role in the book previous to this one, but there was not even one mention of her existence in the book. If anything irks me, it is characters getting wiped off from the surface of the planet with nary a thought to the readers' need for things to, as G.K Chesterton says, "Come to a point".

[the_wolfs_howl]

I finished Dune Messiah (wonderfully tragic ending, by the way), and have gone on to Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I knew I'd have to read it eventually, because it's something of a modern classic, I suppose you'd call it. The personification is lovely, but beyond that it's a truly gripping tale, I've found. It's so...brutal. The whole book makes me want to cry, but no tears have come. I mean...it's not just that it's about people who are stranded on a deserted island and start turning on each other. I've read books with betrayal and murder and all that. But this story is different, because it's little boys who are doing all this. They ridicule and murder their unfortunate prey. They gloat over warm blood gushing over their hands. It sickens me, and it makes my heart ache, but at the same time I can't drag myself away, because that's what human nature is like. The hardest part about reading this book is knowing that I would do no different than they, because mankind is fallen. What a vivid portrayal of the depravity of mankind.

[uc pseudonym]

How to Write a [Darn] Good Novel II by James Frey

Despite my reservations about the first book, I decided to read the second (in part because they are so short, in part because it was on interlibrary loan). It intends to be about more advanced writing techniques, which means that it talks about breaking rules instead of giving them, but I feel the criticism of the first applies to the second. Curiously, the author at one point describes his writing tone for the book and actually uses the word "breezy."

[ich1990]

Just Read:

“Airman” by Eoin Colfer

Colfer first caught my attention with his book “Artemis Fowl”. It had quirky characters, a competent and evil protagonist and fresh spin on the fantasy genre. Continuations of the Artemis Fowl series have been likewise entertaining up until the series zenith, book five. Book six, “The Time Paradox” was a mediocre book that continued the series unnecessarily and un-fortuitously. I also read his award winning book “The Supernaturalist”. Again, I was unimpressed; the main character was annoying and the twists were easily spotted. Just when I was at risk of categorizing Colfer as a one-trick writer, however, I came across his newest novel, “Airman”.

“Airman” utterly restored my faith in Colfer as a writer. The story is witty and funny, yet simultaneously dark and serious. There aren't that many “main” characters in the book, but they are all vibrant and memorable. The plot is superbly paced and engaging, I was never bored. The protagonist seems real and is, in the same vein as Artemis Fowl, very competent.

Overall, this is a fantastic adventure story with sci-fi and fantasy overtones. I would recommend it to anybody who is looking to start reading Colfer's works, or anyone who is looking to read quality entertainment in general. 10/10.

Note: This book is written for a significantly older reader compared with Colfer's other creations. It contains swearing and prison-related violence so, if you are getting this book for a child, you may want to preview it first.

[Technomancer]

WOw! you always read the most fascinating books I've never heard of.

Thanks. I found that while this book was interesting, it didn't really say much that was new (at least not to anyone who has been paying attention).

Anyways, I'm currently reading:
Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq, and the Future of the Dollar

[uc pseudonym]

The Shack by William Young

I gave this a very hasty reading, which was sufficient. My difficulty with this book is that it is very much a dialogue and the human side of it is profoundly different from me. Consequently, the God character(s) spend(s) a great deal of time talking about things that I find irrelevant. Or, in the case of major issues such as suffering, it is addressed in such a way that it doesn't answer any of my questions.

[shade of dae]

Finished reading Sir Thursday and Lady Friday a while ago. Despite my concerns about the novels being interesting, they proved to be as or more interesting as the previous installments in the Keys to the Kingdom series. I interloaned Superior Saturday, from our library system and though I have heard complaints about it leading directly into Lord Sunday, all of the books in the series have been cliffhangers to varying degrees. Also, suspicions that were aroused in the 1st and 2nd books are starting to come into light.

On another note, I recently got Vanity Fair, and so far have been very much enjoying the wiles of Rebecca Sharp. She is a very manipulative, remorseless, and spiteful woman, along with being a good actress. Paired with the sweet, naive, Amelia, this book, if it progresses as I think it will, should be a very interesting read.

[Fio]

I'm now reading the last book of Thoene's Jerusalem Covenant series. Sometimes the text becomes over political and depressive, but the main atmosphere of the series is hopeful. And the historical backround of the story made reading even more interesting.

Next to be red is Twilight. Two of my friends have recommended it to me, but they both are not Christians, so I'm not sure if I can trust their judgment.

[Radical Dreamer]

Started reading Christopher Priest's The Prestige the other day! It's excellent so far, though it's quite different from its movie counterpart. Either way, the writing is really, really well done, as is the way Priest chose to tell the story. I love it so far. XD

[ich1990]

Just Read:

Sinner by Ted Dekker

I really hoped that this book would be awesome. It is the capstone, the conclusion to the books of history saga which has spanned two trilogies, several stand alone books, and a young adult series. That is a lot of momentum, a lot of character development, a lot of possibility. I was ready to be amazed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't. Despite all of the potential and all the plot that had arranged itself around this book, it barely held my attention. Aside from the introduction of the book, it didn't really have an “epic showdown feel”, although it tried. This book is, in a sense, the most “Christian” thing he has written in years. Sadly, the extremely blatant theme (the evil of tolerance), while good in and of itself, did not play out well in the thriller format. The book was also set a few decades in the future, while this was trivially interesting, it also opened a few plot holes. For instance, do you really think that people will still be listening to Todd Agnew and drinking Rockstar energy drinks twenty years from now? Neither do I.

Further, the characters had changed so much during the decades long space between books, that I hardly recognized them, much less care for them. Far and beyond, Darcy was the worst of the group. The other characters “admire” her for her forwardness and no-nonsense attitude, but she comes across more like a whiny, manipulative brat to me. Additionally, one of the characters is getting kissed all the time. It started to get annoying towards the end.

To add to the problem, this was one of the most straightforward books that Dekker has ever written, the few twists that he worked in to the plot I was able to spot from a hundred pages away. Don't get me wrong, the book was interesting in spots. Black, in particular, had some great lines. On a whole, however, “Sinner” failed to live up to the hype, and failed to live up to the standard that I expect from a Dekker novel. Hopefully his next novel, the experimental and co-authored “Kiss” will be better. 6/10.

[the_wolfs_howl]

I finished Lord of the Flies. Wow. Just...wow. I had been kind of bored through the first couple chapters, but after that things started getting really interesting really fast. I was engrossed in the story; every time I'd put it down, I couldn't stop thinking about it and wondering what was going to happen next. I think Lord of the Flies might be the most...delightfully horrific story I've ever read. It devastated me, it repulsed me...but I admire it for its ability to bring about such a strong reaction.

I also read Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix in about two days. It was such a relief after the tension of Lord of the Flies. Delightful, whimsical, and imaginative as Nix always is, and it got quite exciting by the end.

Now I'm reading Daniel Deronda by George Eliot. It's so great to read writing of this caliber again, 'cause it's been quite a while since I've read a real classic. I was recommended this book because of its insights into characters' psychological aspects, and I really must agree. For people who don't care for long-winded descriptions of what a character's opinion of himself is, this book might seem kind of boring, but it's just my cup of tea. I just read a chapter that had no action or dialogue whatsoever; it was just analyzing what Gwendolen, who seems to be the main character right now, thinks of herself and how this stemmed from her life and the way people treated her.

[ich1990]

Just Read:

“Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton” by Dale Alquist

G.K. Chesterton has been called “the author who never left behind a masterpiece”. Despite writing about 100 novels, a handful of plays, a few hundred poems, and somewhere around four thousand essays, it is almost impossible to choose a single work that can clearly be called his magnum opus. This has caused no small amount of confusion on the part of readers who are looking to explore Chesterton's works for the first time. Some people suggest his theological works such as “Orthodoxy”, others propose his mystery “Father Brown” stories. Still others insist that his novels such as “The Man Who Was Thursday” are the best place to start.

“Common Sense 101” was written as an antidote to the confusion most first time Chesterton readers suffer. In about 300 pages, it does a fairly good job of summing up Chesterton's outlook on life. Author/Quoter Alquist acts as a tour guide on a trip through Chesterton's philosophies. While Alquist spends most of his time quoting Chesterton, he doesn't refrain from tossing in a few sarcastic or humorous quips himself. Mostly, these comments make this great book even better, but occasionally they cause confusion. In fact, one of the largest detractants from “Common Sense 101” is that it is sometimes unclear where Chesterton's opinion ends and Alquist's begins.

“Common Sense 101” is simultaneously one of the deepest and one of the lightest books I have ever read. Alquist and Chesterton act as a comedy duo of sorts. Together they wield the twin swords of satire and logic to poke fun at (and holes in) what they call the world's uncommon nonsense. It is quite funny, and I found myself laughing more often than not. Despite the levity, however, the book is dead serious throughout. It deals with and takes strong/controversial stands on the most sensitive of topics.

This is a very well put together book that provides the best single introduction to G.K. Chesterton's ideas and books that I have ever read. If you are a Christian, you will likely find this one of the best books ever written. If you are a Catholic, you will appreciate it even more. If you are not a Christian, the views that it presents may be a bit hard for you to swallow, but you should try anyways or risk missing out on one of the greatest minds in all of history. 10/10

[uc pseudonym]

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

Finishing my trio of writing books with something I found significantly more substantial. It also helps that it is written more recently, which makes the depressing statistics slightly more so.

Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi

A fascinating look at many aspects of social history. It operates mostly through interviews in a narrative sequence, which generally works well for interesting stories but occasionally drags. I have enjoyed the chapters I have read so far and find they tend to display keen insight (though I wish her conclusions were stated more explicitly instead of worked into the text as if they are facts like the others).

[Skylight]

Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen. I was working on Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, but I decided to switch over to the other because I needed a little boost in the faith department. It's good stuff. Some of what he says gets a little repetitive, I think, but at least I've been inspired to do more with my life. Yayz.

[Kkun]

The Fellowship of the Ring.

Again.

For class this time.

I love college.

[bigsleepj]

The Mission Song by John Le Carré.

Like anything Le Carré writes its just amazing, if intricate.

[shade of dae]

Just finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Having heard nothing but good things about this author, I decided to read it myself. The plot, overall, seemed rather standard fantasy fare. However, Mr. Gaiman seems to have enough wit to keep the story interesting and enjoyable. My two favorite characters were Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. Truly insane, they offered a relief from the rather average Richard and Door. As I have to head to bed soon, I will just say that while Neverwhere is not literary genius, it is an enjoyable and in my opinion, worthwhile, read.

[The Liar XIII]

I just finished "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding for English class. And I must say, Great book.
Now I am reading "Night" by Elie Weisel (some Transylvanian name). Blunt, but powerful reading. Straight to the point.