What books are you reading now?

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 4:43 pm

The Hidden Europe, by Francis Tapon...it's about his travels in Eastern Europe. It's pretty hilarious, and has a lot of good side discussions about linguistics and things I wasn't aware of like couchsurfing.

Sir Neil · Post by **Sir Neil** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 1:23 pm

Friends have been posting stories about the problem of rape, most recently Jezebel's "'Rape Culture' is Just Drunk College Sluts Lying, Says Major Magazine." The frustrating part is how many authors are ignorant of the law. Having sex with someone who is drunk is not rape. Not in Alabama, California, or Indiana. Ugh! I mean, they're wrong on the Internet! How am I supposed to sleep?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:24 pm

The Cincinnati Journal of Ceremonial Magick. Research! Terrible, terrible research.

shau · Post by **shau** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:04 am

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett. It's...not very good actually. Any interest in me putting up a rant review here? It's not RPG stuff, but it is fantasy.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:06 am

I'm curious as to how bad it is. It's no surprise really, with his illness this isn't exactly Pratchett as sole writer, no matter what it says on the cover.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Mon Nov 25, 2013 6:28 pm

I just started Batman Incorporated vol. 1, and I'm enjoying it immensely.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:27 am

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-st ... -tale.html

Short story. Don't read it at work.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Thu Nov 28, 2013 8:36 am

On topic: I'm currently reading "Let's Play Riviera: the Promissed Land" and Henry Laion Oldie "Mage in Law" (a reference to Vor in Law thing of russian history).

Off topic: Super Duper Dangan Ronpa, Battle Royale, Hugner Games... Are there any other fictional works where people/children slaughter each other for no good reason?

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 2:19 am

Longes wrote:On topic: I'm currently reading "Let's Play Riviera: the Promissed Land" and Henry Laion Oldie "Mage in Law" (a reference to Vor in Law thing of russian history).

Off topic: Super Duper Dangan Ronpa, Battle Royale, Hugner Games... Are there any other fictional works where people/children slaughter each other for no good reason?

The Running Man by Richard Bachman/Stephen King.

The book, not the movie.

Game On,
fbmf

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 5:27 pm

shau wrote:Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett. It's...not very good actually. Any interest in me putting up a rant review here? It's not RPG stuff, but it is fantasy.

thank you for telling me about this having been released, i have been hankering and hoping for him to continue writing discworld . . does it show that he's suffering from alzheimers?

icyshadowlord · Post by **icyshadowlord** » Fri Nov 29, 2013 6:09 pm

I picked the Song of Ice & Fire series up as of late and have gotten to A Feast for Crows by now.

nockermensch · Post by **nockermensch** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 5:45 pm

A short comic: http://www.sassquach.com/journal/2013/1 ... night.html

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 7:13 am

I've been working through World's Largest Dungeon in prep to run it. It's not terrible, but it's also nothing great. I have determined that Jim Pinto hates rogues.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 4:25 pm

Yeah, World's largest dungeon's hatred of rogues was weird. Rogues excel in dungeons especially in large scale dungeons. It just seemed as though he wanted a straight out fight them to death Gygax style with shitty traps. His hatred of Druid & animal companions is also annoying. The few times i attempted to run the module, I just ignored the druid hate and let people play them. I was tempted to see what World's largest city was like but decided against it.
---

I've been reading a fair amount of comics again.

Brian Wood's "Mara" seems to be vaguely influenced by "The Hunger Games" dystopian ethos but replacing battling for life with Volleyball. The story is also a coming of age story in that our hero slowly figures out that she's an unstoppable metahuman on the power of the higher levels of Superman. She also displays the same type of bored attitude present in Alan -get off my lawn- Moore & Neil Gaiman's version of Miracleman/Marvelman/McFarlane-Gaiman-tittyfight-man.

I also went through some Howard Chaykin comics like "City of Tomorrow" and the first 15-20 issues "American Flagg" which is a great example of how Judge Dredd should have actually been done. "City..." was okay. It features his sarcastic twist on the pulpy yesteryear sort of vision of the world mixed with sex and bombastic violence*.

I finally went through all Garth Ennis' "The Boys" and it really had its great moments and its downright shitty ones. I think he failed because he said he was trying to outdo "Preacher" in terms of the shock value. "Preacher" worked because the shock value was actually coupled with a coherent fast paced serious story with lots of accompanying humor. "The Boys" had shock and it had a coherent decently paced story but it failed because it placed humor above the serious aspect. This is fine when done right but when he was also going for the shock value, it didn't work as well.

I also read his more recent series for Marvel's Max imprint called "Fury: Max." Well, I read all of his "Fury" work for Max. This was an example of being a little over-the-top and having the funny highlighted more than the seirousness and how it could be done well. I've always had a fondness for his ultraviolence humor as seen in his work on "Fury", "Barracuda" and "Hitman."** I"m probably missing a few other examples.

I read James Robinson's first TPB of "Earth 2" under the new 52 stuff of DC. It was actually pretty good because its really not connected to any of the other DC New 52 confusion.
--

In books, I read a short pulpy novel called "THe Getaway" by Lisa Brackmann. It was okay. A fast beach read.

"The Familiars" by Jay Adam Epstein was a cute junior fiction book about a trio of familiars who had to travel the land to go free their kidnapped Wizards who were the propecied ones. A simple story with likeable characters and an easy to guess but fun plot twist about the history of that setting. It looks like he a wrote a couple more books in the series and I might check them out if i can get my kid to actually read the first book.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 9:35 pm

Robert Anton Wilson's The Sex Magicians

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Dec 07, 2013 2:23 am

I'm about to start on Cathrynne Valente's Fairyland books. The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, and The Girl Who Soared Above Fairyland and Cut The Moon in Two.

These are some of the best titles.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Sun Dec 08, 2013 6:58 am

Nearly finished with David Brin's Existence. It's a little heavy on Brin's usual self-importance, but the central crisis of the book perhaps the most terrifyingly plausible alien invasion of earth I have ever encountered in a work of fiction.

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:37 am

I have a habit of gently reading books I am buying for other people. So I just read "The Reason I Jump" tonight since I giving it as a gift. It's a very quick read, 140ish pages maybe including the foreword, and short pages to boot.

After reading I feel a bit bad getting after our eldest for repeating words/sounds over and over or using baby-talk or repeatedly doing things he knows he should not, if he truly cannot help himself. But I don't reckon I have other alternatives if I want to give him his best chances at not continuing that behavior.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:56 am

I just finished Newton and the Counterfeiter, a biography of Sir Isaac Newton that focuses on his time as Warden of the Royal Mint. I found it utterly fascinating - not just because of its revelations about Newton and his nemesis William Chaloner, but also its revelations about money and economics.

...You Lost Me · Post by **...You Lost Me** » Sat Dec 21, 2013 8:39 am

I finally finished Of Dice & Men, which I will also remember as "David Ewalt seeks out religion in D&D".

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:30 pm

I recently read Lord of Light by Zelazny based upon rave descriptions found here. I feel like a weak person now because while I enjoyed it, the book had a strong soporific power over me. It was like in the neighborhood of 200 pages but it took me almost a week to read it (I read ~100 pgs/hr typically when engrossed) because I kept falling asleep.

I am not ruling out the possibility that my copy was coated with some sleep inducing contact poison.

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 3:43 am

I just read Digital Divide by K.B. Spangler. You might know her as the author of A Girl and Her Fed. It's a story about the first cyborg police liaison in the world. It's a great crime novel with added themes of discrimination and reassembly.

TheNotoriousAMP · Post by **TheNotoriousAMP** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:14 am

Reading a Conan anthology that kindle was selling for 2 bucks (close to a 1000 pages of conan goodness!). Its damn good, but you'd it is annoying at times that every woman is white, heavy breasted and only wears a loincloth. Its sort of repetitive.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:22 pm

Proofing and indexing Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos.

Its damn good, but you'd it is annoying at times that every woman is white, heavy breasted and only wears a loincloth. Its sort of repetitive.

You obviously haven't read any of REH's stuff with black women.

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:19 am

I just picked up "S" by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst.

It's as meta a work as Lost or Fringe or whatever else Abrams decides he wants to do.

It's written as a novel by a fictional author who might or might not be who he/the world says he is. Then there's two readers who correspond with each other within the margins of the book itself trying to decipher who the author was or stuff like that. A quick peruse of some reviews of the book suggest that the novel can be read without reading any of the margin notes (which are present on each and every page) but then reading the margin notes and also the tons of extra clippings (letters, news paper articles, hand drawn maps on paper napkins, code wheels) gives you an extra layer.

Apparently the margin notes are further delineated by different colors based on the first or second or fifth time the two readers read the book.
--

Normally this sort of fiction grates on my nerves at times but I'm probably going to try to read this shit first as just the novel and then with some of the notes and the other add ons.

Apparently the code wheel also has its on ARC game website. I don't think I'm going to go that crazy into the book to decipher it all the way through.