Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[Seniordan]

Just got Stephen King's The Shining, and Dr. Sleep! Can't wait to dive into The shining this weekend.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading Deny Thy Father (Star Trek: Lost Era V) on my Kindle.

 

[bluebird3]

"Beyond Belief" by Elaine Pagels.

 

[nickynabi]

Sir Alex Fergusons autobiography

can't wait to see what he has to say

 

[krspkbl]

I was reading the Song of Ice & Fire series but just couldn't get through it. I made it about 20 chapters into Clash of Kings. I do like it but it's just a lot of reading for me.

Currently, I'm reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (J.K Rowling). I just bought it because I found out it was J.K Rowling (big HP fan). I'm actually quite enjoying it. Never been into crime/detective books before.

Next on my Kindle is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

 

[AlliFlowers]

I like series. Disappointed that the next installments of Game of Thrones aren't written yet, I went for another author who does series and started on Glenn Cook. First I read The Chronicles of the Black Company, and when I finished all 5 (6?) of those, I started on his Garrett series. Really good stuff if you're into fantasy. And tons of it. (Although nowhere near as many as Piers Anthony's Xanth series!)

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Today, I managed to obtain (finally - having ordered it a while ago) the latest book by Guy Gavriel Kay, one of my favourite, make that very much favourite, fantasy writers. GGK is a fantasy author with a difference. He writes slowly, (indeed some might say, very slowly) but produces highly intelligent, well researched, richly layered and deeply nuanced and beautifully written books.

His latest book is called 'River Of Stars' and I am very much looking forward to reading it.

 

[Dulcimer]

I want to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy but my university life is making it difficult to find the time. Has anyone read it? Is it worth reading?

 

[EricNau]

Just started The Thorn Birds. Not sure how or why it took me this long to start, but I don't think I'll be putting it down until I've finished. Phenominal so far.

 

[jeremy h]

I want to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy but my university life is making it difficult to find the time. Has anyone read it? Is it worth reading?

Goodness me -yes!!!

I thought it was one of the cleverest books I'd read for years. Even the style of the prose (lack of punctuation and sentence structure) reinforces the idea of things collapsing. There's a line in it about an 'obsidian knife' which still stays with me.

If I hadn't already read it I would postpone other things to read it.

 

[Jessica Lares]

That new book by Chrisann Brennan, The Bite in the Apple. I think everyone should read it. It's touching, sweet, sad, and fun all at the same time. It reads like any other novel, and is a page turner, unlike the Walter Isaacson biography. I'm halfway through chapter 8. I got the Audible version, but I'm going to buy the Kindle version afterwards to read through again and highlight and note stuff of interest.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Have just finished 'River of Stars' by the always excellent Guy Gavriel Kay, an extremely good and beautifully written book, as always. For those who want their fantasy a little less muscle bound and clichéd, who want strong, nuanced rounded characters, excellent story telling (and world building), subtle, and ambiguous and unpredictable (magical) forces, extraordinary research and exquisite prose, (and yes, extremely well written female characters), I strongly recommend Kay.

Next up, is another of my favourite fantasy writers, Scott Lynch. The third book in his extraordinarily good 'Gentlemen Bastard' series has just recently been published. It is called 'The Republic of Thieves' and I am looking forward to settling down with it and losing myself in it.

While Kay invariably takes years to produce the beautifully crafted works he eventually proffers, Lynch has been battling with debilitating bouts of depression, which he wrote about with impressive courage and moving insight, on his blog.

 

[WoodNUFC]

Just started reading Policing Paris by Clifford Rosenberg for class tomorrow. It's about controlling immigration into the city during the interwar period. Seems pretty interesting thus far.

I've read so many different histories in the last two months that they are all blending together! Yikes! I'm loving it though.

 

[kazmac]

...

Solomon Kane movie novelization by Ramsey Campbell. Fleshing out little bits from the movie very nicely. I will probably save the rest for my commute.

 

[ucfgrad93]

I am currently reading Catalyst of Sorrows (Star Trek: Lost Era VI) on my Kindle.

 

[63dot]

Book of Genesis around the time of Abraham and his sons. I want to eventually read a direct translation and see how it's different/same.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Roy Hattersley's biography of David Lloyd George.

 

[tessybear]

I've just finished Ex-Heroes and started Ex-Patriots, both books I got for my birthday and knew nothing about, but they are brilliant, cant wait to see what happens next!

 

[kazmac]

probably a complete cheat

but I just devoured The Wolverine behind the scenes book on iBooks. Very well done and the price was perfect.

 

[MacDawg]

Been reading the Mortal Instruments series... so shoot me

 

[Huntn]

Please no spoilers!

I'm up to about Chapter 10 of The Watchmen. This is a really incredible comic/graphic novel, unlike any other comic* I've read, with phenomenal personality profiles and an integrate plot. The only thing that is strange is that these "super heroes" don't seem to have any special powers except for Dr. Manhatten who is set apart from the rest. Take Rorschach for example. I've not seen the movie yet, but saw previews and in the movie he looks like someone who would definitely have super powers, but in the comic (so far), he's just a kick-ass guy.

Without spoilers will these character's powers (if they have them) be revealed as the story progresses?

*The Walking Dead is incredibly good, but it is a different kind of story.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

"'Alphabetical' - How Every Letter Tells a Story' by Michael Rosen. A fascinating and extremely interesting read.

 

[Gutwrench]

My two favorite contemporary authors are Ha Jin and Mary Oliver. I believe I've read everything they've published.

Ha Jin's, The Waiting is outstanding.

His heart began aching. It dawned on him that he had never loved a woman wholeheartedly and that he had always been the loved one. This must have been the reason why he knew so little about love and women. In other words, emotionally he never grew up. His instinct and ability to love passionately had withered away before they had the opportunity to blossom. If only he had fallen in love soulfully just once in his life, even though it might have broken his heart, paralyzed his mind, made him live in a daze, bathed his face in tears, and drowned him in despair!

Anything by Mary Oliver is worth the time to read, I think.

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Eavan Boland is a favorite as well. Quarantine is a favorite love poems.

Quarantine

In the worst hour of the worst season
of the worst year of a whole people
a man set out from the workhouse with his wife.
He was walking – they were both walking – north.

She was sick with famine fever and could not keep up.
He lifted her and put her on his back.
He walked like that west and west and north.
Until at nightfall under freezing stars they arrived.

In the morning they were both found dead.
Of cold. Of hunger. Of the toxins of a whole history.
But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her.

Let no love poem ever come to this threshold.
There is no place here for the inexact
praise of the easy graces and sensuality of the body.
There is only time for this merciless inventory:

Their death together in the winter of 1847.
Also what they suffered. How they lived.
And what there is between a man and woman.
And in which darkness it can best be proved.

 

[Gutwrench]

"'Alphabetical' - How Every Letter Tells a Story' by Michael Rosen. A fascinating and extremely interesting read.

I will have to pick this up. Thank you.

If you like this type of book, you might be interested in; The Professor and the Madman.

It's the remarkable story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and one of its star contributors. I read it many years ago and loved it.

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-CD-Simon-Winchester/dp/0060836261

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I will have to pick this up. Thank you.

If you like this type of book, you might be interested in; The Professor and the Madman.

It's the remarkable story of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary and one of its star contributors. I read it many years ago and loved it.

http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-CD-Simon-Winchester/dp/0060836261

Oh, wow. I do indeed love this sort of book, and thank you very much for drawing my attention to it, as is one I have not (yet) come across. Must add it to my reading list. Again, my warm thanks......