What books are you reading now?

Datawolf · Post by **Datawolf** » Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:11 am

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Also, Swan Song by Robert McCammon (for book club).

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:12 am

I just finished AJ Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible and I really enjoyed it. It was funny, informative, and broken up into super-quick chapters that were breezy reading.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:38 am

Skeleton Crew by Stephen King. Good stuff.

Game On,
fbmf

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:00 am

Mister Monday by Garth Nix. It was quite bad. I had assumed that his awesome Abhorsen trilogy meant that everything else he wrote would be awesome.

I was dead wrong.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 6:35 am

fbmf wrote:Skeleton Crew by Stephen King. Good stuff.

Game On,
fbmf

Fuck yes. What's your favorite story?

Also, I'm currently reading Barry Eisler's thriller/espionage novels about assassin John Rain. They're...okay. They certainly have their WTF moments, and I have pretty serious questions about dude's treatment of women, but in general they're a decent light read.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:19 am

Cynic wrote:Mister Monday by Garth Nix. It was quite bad. I had assumed that his awesome Abhorsen trilogy meant that everything else he wrote would be awesome.

I was dead wrong.

Granted, I read that book, like, five years ago, but I liked it.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:16 am

PoliteNewb wrote:
fbmf wrote:Skeleton Crew by Stephen King. Good stuff.

Game On,
fbmf
Fuck yes. What's your favorite story?

Also, I'm currently reading Barry Eisler's thriller/espionage novels about assassin John Rain. They're...okay. They certainly have their WTF moments, and I have pretty serious questions about dude's treatment of women, but in general they're a decent light read.

Gramma, Beachworld, and the Raft have all been very good, and I haven't yet found one that sucked. The one I cared for the least was probably the really short one where the tiger is in the boy's bathroom.

Game On,
fbmf

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:58 pm

fbmf wrote:
PoliteNewb wrote:
fbmf wrote:Skeleton Crew by Stephen King. Good stuff.

Game On,
fbmf
Fuck yes. What's your favorite story?

Also, I'm currently reading Barry Eisler's thriller/espionage novels about assassin John Rain. They're...okay. They certainly have their WTF moments, and I have pretty serious questions about dude's treatment of women, but in general they're a decent light read.
Gramma, Beachworld, and the Raft have all been very good, and I haven't yet found one that sucked. The one I cared for the least was probably the really short one where the tiger is in the boy's bathroom.

Game On,
fbmf

Interesting. Agreement on "Here there be Tigers", disagreement on "Gramma". "The Mist" was probably my fave...either that or "The Reach" (last story).

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 3:09 pm

Finally managed to force myself through julian comstock . .
read fallen angels - wh40k horus heresy in between.
now am starting on reading the neuromancer omnibus.

npc231 · Post by **npc231** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 6:26 pm

Recently finished reading The Stand for the third time.

Now I'm reading Game of Thrones. I was inspired to do so by the HBO series of the same name.[/i]

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:05 pm

The Savage Sword of Conan, issue #1 (and others to follow).

Comic prices have dropped like a stone the last few years, issue #1 in great condition would be worth in the hundreds...I got it for $11. Hoody hoo!

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:07 pm

Hundreds? No. Not for Savage Sword.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:24 pm

Weird, these guys must be idiots, then: http://comicbookrealm.com/series/1779/0 ... d-of-conan

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:01 am

I have no idea, because I can't see shit on that site and it drives my script-killer mad. But I do own a copy of every Conan comic book printed in the US (and a few of the UK reprints), and I like to keep track of things. A 2010 Comic Book Price Guide gives a value of $60, which is about right in my experience - I paid $80 for a NM copy about six years ago, which makes it my fifth most expensive comic book ever purchased.

Unless the issue is CGC graded - which I continue to not understand the purpose of or desire for - there is no reason for SSoC#1 to be a hundred dollars, much less more.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 12:49 pm

^^

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:21 am

I read my brother's copy of Mistborn today. More magic systems need to depend upon action-reaction pairs like that.

Also, Hazekillers get so badly owned by Mistborn I kind of wonder why they even exist.

icyshadowlord · Post by **icyshadowlord** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:23 am

I've been too lazy to read in ages. Last time I touched a book that was not a D&D book was Lord of the Rings.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:07 pm

John Barnes' One for the Morning Glory. First book in ten years that had me reaching for a dictionary.

This is due to the fact that a number of words are consistently replaced with obscure similarly-looking or -sounding words. Reviewers have commented on that, but not a single one has presented an interesting theory why Barnes did that ("lol absurdist joke" is not an interesting theory).

All replaced words refer to pseudo-medieval setting elements. So here are three (compatible) theories:
1. It's a joke on newb readers who swallow historical terms without looking them up and/or idiot writers who shit words onto a page without checking their meaning.
2. It's a joke on history buffs (readers and/or writers) who insist on 100% historical authenticity in fantasy books.
3. It's a joke on the "tell, don't show" crowd who claim abstracted and genericized descriptions are better than factual ones because the former allow them to engage their imagination blah blah blah. "Go on, imagine THAT."

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:26 pm

The Taint of Lovecraft

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:53 pm

Ancient History wrote:The Taint of Lovecraft

The fact that I can't read that without snickering tells me that I really did stop maturing once I hit 12. I've gotten more responsible, but not mature.

On a more serious note: what is it? Is it about Lovecraft and his works, or something?

Post by **fbmf** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:59 pm

PoliteNewb wrote:
fbmf wrote:
PoliteNewb wrote:
Fuck yes. What's your favorite story?

Also, I'm currently reading Barry Eisler's thriller/espionage novels about assassin John Rain. They're...okay. They certainly have their WTF moments, and I have pretty serious questions about dude's treatment of women, but in general they're a decent light read.
Gramma, Beachworld, and the Raft have all been very good, and I haven't yet found one that sucked. The one I cared for the least was probably the really short one where the tiger is in the boy's bathroom.

Game On,
fbmf
Interesting. Agreement on "Here there be Tigers", disagreement on "Gramma". "The Mist" was probably my fave...either that or "The Reach" (last story).

The Mist was good, but I skipped it this time because I read it when it was released as a separate story (film tie-in) so I didn't think about it. The Reach just didn't do it for me. Reminded me of Ethan Frome for some reason.

I finished Skeleton Crew. Now that the last book of the STORMLORD series is out, I am re reading the trilogy starting at book one.

Game On,
fbmf

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:19 pm

RobbyPants wrote:
Ancient History wrote:The Taint of Lovecraft
The fact that I can't read that without snickering tells me that I really did stop maturing once I hit 12. I've gotten more responsible, but not mature.

On a more serious note: what is it? Is it about Lovecraft and his works, or something?

It's some collected Mythos fiction, poems, and essays by Stanley C. Sargent, most notable perhaps for his short story The Black Brat of Dunwich and his collection Ancient Exhumations. I actually bought it because I want to use one of his essays as a source in a paper I'm writing.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:32 pm

*blink blink*
you want to use something out of a book with lovecraft in the title as a source for a paper? O.o

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:42 pm

Well, the paper is Sex & the Cthulhu Mythos.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:16 pm

Ancient History wrote:Well, the paper is Sex & the Cthulhu Mythos.

i have seen enough hentai to know where this is going . . .