Which book are you currently reading?

[35mm]

Neil Gaiman - American Gods​

I can't believe it took me 5 months to read Fall of Giants. And it wasn't because it was big (which it was), but for pure lack of time.
Decided to start something different before getting into the next Century Trilogy books, though.

Dune - Frank Herbert

Funny, because a few weeks ago a friend insisted I read the Dune saga, which I don't thing I'd ever do by my own initiative. I already have some of the books now and plan to start reading them soon (at least the first one). 👍

 

[35mm]

My mistake. Sorry.

 

[Brett]

This arrived yesterday:

 

[Cowboy]

 

[xZAMGMarmite]

 

[Pupik]

I, Robot.

Thankfully, it's nothing like the movie.

I'm churning through Asimov's Foundation for the fourth time.

 

[photonrider]

I used to eat Louis L'Amour for breakfast, lunch and dinner many, many years ago . . . I might have even thought I was kin to one o' em Sacketts meself atime ago. One of the best western writers - in fact he was my favourite, though Oliver Strange (the 'Sudden' series) and J.T Edson was also voraciously devoured. Couldn't much get into Zane Grey.
I loved L'Amour because if he said there was a waterhole in a certain place, then that waterhole was there. His westerns were authentic and I used to totally escape into them.
Must get some of his newer writing. 👍

@35mm - did you finish American Gods - and what did you think of it?

 

[ProjectWHaT]

 

[Cobra_GT500]

The Wheel of time series by Robert Jordan.

 

[APIOQM]

 

[photonrider]

Been looking at this for almost a year and just putting it aside when picking up some fiction off my book table. The thing is a monster - 9" X 6" and over 2 inches thick. 849 pages, not counting the 'special' section at the end. When I first brought it home my newly-minted teen started reading it, and I noticed he just went at it till it was done, and when he had finished I asked him for his opinion and he just gave me a thumbs up and a taciturn smile.
Come Saturday morning this last weekend, and suddenly finding myself too lazy to do anything but read, I picked it up again and decided to give it a go.
Wow!
That was it. It took up most of my weekend - I couldn't put it down and finally finished it Monday evening. A total blockbuster of a book and one of the most plausible yarns on time travel I've ever read.
If you like immersing yourself in the life of fifties/sixties America, and like to compare the differences between then and now, and are intrigued by time travel - well this is a book you must read.
As well - the whole take on the JFK assassination is mighty interesting, too.
The action and romance are a bonus.
King did it again. Robbed me of several days but gave me a good return for it.

 

[photonrider]

Finished Carriers by Patrick Lynch - a quick two-evening read. Nice action and a thoughtful end. Good science in it, too.
Started The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) finally. Ten pages in and I'm already bewildered.

 

[xZAMGMarmite]

 

[Legro]

Ian Fleming's Timantit Ovat Ikuisia, which really is just Diamonds Are Forever in Finnish.

 

[Walrus76]

I just finished Ian Fleming's 'Erittäin salainen' - For Your Eyes Only (1960), which includes five Bond-themed short stories. Not exactly John Le Carré but at least very easy and fast to read.

 

[Brett]

I recently picked up The Things They Carried. I have already read the book once, but it has been over a decade and I would like to reread the book.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

I just finished this yesterday. Great book. I can't wait until the next two in the series are translated if they haven't already.

 

[photonrider]

As I noted some time ago I had given up on finding good fiction; same old stuff was being churned out, active voice and all.

But Stephen King keeps recommending books, and I take him as a fairly good critic - so when he says something is good I am usually tempted to read it.

Anyway, putting King aside for the moment, I had picked up The Book Thief, found the beginning to be slow and ethereal, and put it aside wanting to get back to it later. That evening I got a call from my sister who had just returned from Cuba; she had some goodies for me - among the goodies a bottle of Cuban sand from the beach - err, Cuba, you are losing your beach. She said she bought it - was on sale as a souvenir.
In the course of our conversation she tosses The Kite Runner at me - 'Read this', she says. 'He writes like you.'
A bit miffed at that - since I don't want to write like anyone else, never mind the fact that I'm always challenged to develop different styles - I took the book home and started it.
Couldn't stop till I had put the book down. What an eye-opener.

But all that has really nothing to do with what I'm trying to say - that's all just 'book' stuff.
Because, a few days later, a lady colleague tossed Justin Cronin's The Passage at me. Yes, people keep tossing books at me. I'm a sure target. In any case, I get home, open the book and the very first page blows me away.
Why?
Because in the past week I had been talking about Bill Reynolds and Harper Lee - and both are mentioned in the very first page. A bit creeped out - and remembering what I had read in Frank Joseph's Synchronicity & You, I kept reading and was enthralled. Good book. I'm looking forward to the sequels.

As for the synchronicity . . . I'm keeping my eyes open. I've set a watchman.

 

[35mm]

Frank Herbert - Dune​

 

[photonrider]

Can't go wrong reading the world's best selling science-fiction novel, 35mm. 👍

_________________________

Read the above some time ago, but never reviewed it here.
Anecdotal enough to be entertaining, yet factual enough to be sobering. Christopher, however, not only has been cursed with a name quite unfitting for an anti-theist, but does trip over his enthusiasm at times - for instance he has no clue what a C-Section is and therefore undermines his credibility. The details that show religion poisons society are quite thought-provoking, but does not in any way lessen the fact that many other disciplines also poison society - whether intolerance or clinging to concepts.
Theists and deists should give this a read, if only to be aware of the many facets of the faith in hate.
Agnostics will be left scratching their heads.
Anti-theists may find grist for their mills.

Atheists won't give a damn.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery. It's about the rise of anti-Semetism in nineteenth-Century Europe, where widespread social upheaval in France and Italy has coincided with an increase in Jewish migration, and so the weakened establishment has taken to blaming the Jews, claiming that it is a Zionist plot to destroy Christianity in Europe.

Swap Judaism for Islam, and there are parallels to the here and now.

 

[EvanJamesLee]

The Great Gatsby for English class. Good book but the quizzes and notes ruin the fun of reading it.

 

[ScottPuss20]

My Life Is a Wedgie

 

[Crash]

Recently finished What If by Randall Munroe, the created of xkcd. Lots of funny, irreverent takes on weird science questions that people ask.

 

[Maldoxx]

Recently finished The Phantom Of The Opera. Of course, it was a pleasure to read. Sometimes the school gives you very good books.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

The Great Gatsby for English class. Good book but the quizzes and notes ruin the fun of reading it.

I've never liked Fitzgerald. I'm so glad that I don't have to teach The Great Gatsby.

Still, could be worse. It could be the Baz Luhrmann film version. I've never known a film to fundamentally misinterprits its source material the way his film version did.

 

[EvanJamesLee]

I've never liked Fitzgerald. I'm so glad that I don't have to teach The Great Gatsby.

Still, could be worse. It could be the Baz Luhrmann film version. I've never known a film to fundamentally misinterprits its source material the way his film version did.

That movie had the most idiotic music choice I have ever had the misfortune of listening to. They completely missed the point of the roaring 20s setting with big band jazz. Instead they decided to use some kind of rap soundtrack thats about 70 years from being in style.

 

[Beeblebrox237]

I've never liked Fitzgerald. I'm so glad that I don't have to teach The Great Gatsby.

Still, could be worse. It could be the Baz Luhrmann film version. I've never known a film to fundamentally misinterprits its source material the way his film version did.

I had two English teachers who absolutely loved Gatsby, and as a result it was one of my favourite books that I read at school. It's perhaps less subtle than some texts, but the symbolism is accessible to nearly everyone, a very rare thing fora book used in a literature class. It also had, in my opinion, a pretty good story. It was one of the few that I read all the way through.

 

[Northstar]

I've put off reading it for quite awhile as I never was a fan of the films. However after reading about how different the book was and the lack of anything else really catching my eye at the library I decided to give it a spin. I must say the book is way better than the film and I will be reading the other two books in the coming months (I'm not sure if I will bother with the non-Ludlum books).

Spoiler

Really the only thing I didn't like was the way Carlos escaped, it seemed like the usual case of deciding to make a sequel only after the story is 90% done.

 

[xZAMGMarmite]