What Are You Reading?

Glad you're digging Dune, richy! Be sure to read the last two post-Frank books (though the writing goes downhill really fast, but the story is worth it. But the prequel cash-grab books are all around terrible and can be avoided.

I've been re-reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Again. I'm on book 11 now and still love them as much as when I was in high school.
 
The last books read where "the dark angel" trilogy buy Brent Weeks. Not much of a reader for novels and such. But this series was great hard to not finish it really.
 
I've been devouring books written by one of my best friends. So the last two books I've read are Taggers and Swallow, both by Brandt Miles. And currently I'm reading Son of Man, also by Brandt, though that one hasn't actually been released yet (perks of knowing the author :D).

I've also been reading the 8th book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Wind Through the Keyhole.
 
I'm reading more orwell, homage to Catalonia.
As a person who has occasionally ideologically flirted with anarchism, it's pretty interesting.
 
Hey guys been reading the Buffy the vampire Slayer Season 1 scripts. I picked them up when I was working at a thrift store a few years back. Actual soft cover prints has 4 or so in each book, have the first 2 really cool reading it and seeing how they layed it out and what has changed from paper to screen.
 
I am currently reading Like Waters for Chocolate by a latin writer, Laura Esquivel. I will be finish with it in about 3 days and I will try to watch the film adaptation too.
 
Stephen King's Mr Mercedes. The storyline goes thus:

In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. the killer escapes.

In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as 'the perk' and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.

Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with two new, unusual allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
 
im reading, "Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint"

halfway through it and already learned so much I would say this book is a must buy for anyone interested in short or feature filmmaking.
 
Recently finished:

http://www.annleckie.com/novel/ancillary-justice/

I liked it.

Nothing spectacular from the word-craft perspective (she's not a "writer's writer" if you are into that sort of thing), but a very unique protagonist and interesting fictional world with depth beyond what was written more than make up for the relatively basic style. I really liked the subtext/commentary of a social/political structure which is crumbling under the weight of its own nepotism.

Would recommend to anyone who likes softer Sci-Fi and I'll definitely read the rest of the series as they are released.
 
I haven't really been around much lately, so I've read a few things since last checking in. Finished the Wheel of Time re-read in February, and resisted the urge to start again at the beginning. I love those books so very much. Since then read:

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Always meant to read it, never got around to it. Absolutely loved it, very haunting book.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë
Also never managed to get around to this one, but enjoyed it greatly. Not as much as Rebecca, but it deserves the reputation it has.
Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
A quick overview of western philosophy, in novel form. I wish I had read this when I was in high school, it's a brilliant book. There was a film version made in 1999; I will have to track that down. I'd highly recommend this one to pretty much anyone.
Trader - Charles de Lint
I love de Lint, particularly his Newford books. Great urban fantasy drawing from Native American and European folklore.
Catch the Lightning and The Last Hawk - Catherine Asaro
Asaro's sci-fi is great; lots of science and math. Her characters...well, they're there. You get the sense that her publisher has been telling her to add romance to her books so they sell better, but she's not really good at writing it. She has a PhD in chemical physics, so really great at writing about that, and that keeps me reading her books.
Shroud of the Thwacker - Chris Elliott
I am a fan of Elliott (LOVED Get a Life and Cabin Boy) so of course I have his book. It's a surreal self-mocking satire of Jack The Ripper, with time travel, conspiracies and Yoko Ono. It's weird and silly and I love it, but quite definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Always makes me want to reread...
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
One of my all-time favorite books. I've probably re-read this more than anything else, including The Hobbit and Alice In Wonderland. I never get sick of it.

Not a ton of things, but I've been doing more music than reading lately.
 
Harry Binghams 'The Money Makers'..I opened page 1 about 5 months ago. Read 3 pages. thoroughly enjoyed all 3 pages. Put the book down on my desk. Have not continued yet, still digesting the first 3 pages while I get on with other stuff.

With that said though, it does seem like a good book so I should probably read the rest
 
StatusQuoMedia said:
...I opened page 1 about 5 months ago. Read 3 pages. thoroughly enjoyed all 3 pages. Put the book down on my desk.
Click to expand...

:lol: You sound like me. Or, I'm too like you. ;)


Josh, you're such a wonderful bibliophile. I wish I could say I read anywhere near the amount you read! :blush: So it makes me wonder if you also write. I mean, I know you write music and I know you write comic books. But do you also write novels or short stories? If not, do you plan to? Perhaps you should!

I'm a tortoise by comparison, so I'm still on the last of the Dune books (those written by Frank, that is). And I've really come to appreciate the series. He really was a good writer. I still have much of Chapterhouse: Dune to go. So far, I think I might have liked Heretics of Dune the most. It's like he really hit his stride with that one. I know you, Josh, recommended I check out the other ones too, but I'm reluctant to read any not written by FH himself. Even you said something like the quality of writing drops off. :( But maybe I will.

Seriously thinking about giving the first of the Wheel of Time books a try next to see if it's my cup of tea.

Although, I've had a nagging interest in reading House of Leaves, something I believe someone also recommended on this thread up there somewhere. So that's a likely candidate for next read too.

:)
 
Read House of Leaves next. It's awesome and complicated, and hits a lot of cosmic horror notes in a Lovecraft/Ligotti sort of way. And I definitely do recommend finishing Dune, because the post-Frank books make EVERYTHING make sense, and there's a bit WTF moment at the end of Chapterhouse that you are really going to want to see resolved. But, yeah, the actual writing is pretty bad, so maybe a buffer book or two inbetween.

As a huge Wheel of Time fan, I would absolutely recommend giving it a shot. But fair warning, plot-wise, the first book is (intentionally) very LOTR derivative. It becomes it's own thing after that, so if the characters and setting grab you, you'll find an immediate uptick in the plot.

I do read (and re-read) a lot, but these days it's mostly an hour a day, on my lunchbreak. Not a ton, but I do still chew through books! In high school I used to write a lot, and have tried to write a few times since then, but with all my other interests, I don't have time to refine my skills enough to be that good at it...I know enough to know I'm not that good! I do have an idea I might develop into young adult fantasy novels, because I wouldn't have the budget to make them films. The comic was the first prose I had written in a decade! If I do start to write something, I'll let you know!
 
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