What I'm Also Reading Currently This Month

[Nick, Founder (In Absentia)]

I thought it would be interesting to see what the group is reading while they are reading our monthly selections.

This month I finally finished Way Station by Simak, a book I started off and on since high school. I have a love/hate relationship with the book.

I am currently reading The Haunted Air by F. Paul Wilson. I am a huge Repairman Jack fan and this one is distracting me quite a bit!

[bsc]

I'm currently reading Have Spacesuit - Will Travel. Been sitting on it for a while and finally getting to it. After that, I will probably be reading East of Eden by Steinbeck, which I'll likely be reading for quite some time.

[The other John]

Let's see.... first off, I have to keep up with my elder daughter's school books, since I have to correct her writing assignments. So, I'm in the middle ofa biography of Cameron Townsend.

For light reading over breakfast, I'm reading through collections of the comic strip For Better or For Worse. Right now I'm on the second volume.

Over lunch, I need a smaller book to fit in my lunchbox. I'm taking a break from SF and reading Old Home Town by Rose Wilder Lane.

I'm also waiting to get a biography of James K. Polk from the library for a little history fix.

And then I'm sloooowly plodding my way through a commentary on the book of Joshua. It's way over my head, but I like the challenge... in small doses, that is.

[Christina Stind]

Just finished Jonathan Lethem The Fortress of Solitude and now I'm diving head first into Slaughterhouse Five. Thinking about reading some Anne Rice later this month maybe.

[bsc]

I just finished East of Eden and have started on Neverwhere. Am also listening to Stranger in a Strange Land on my commute and while at the gym.

BTW, I highly recommend East of Eden.

[Rindis]

Still continuing with previous reading projects. That is, I recently finished book two of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and am starting on book three: To Green Angel Tower. (It's really too heavy to be hauling around, I'm going to have to read it fast in self-defense.) On the non-fiction front, I'm currently headed into book six of The Histories. Good reading, but hard to take at any real speed.

[Kristjan]

I just started reading Ender's Game to my daughter. So far she is really enjoying it.

[Jeffrey]

It is always a continuous battle between books I buy mainly sf/fantasy, books I own and reread (I have probably north of 2000 books), and new books I take out of the library -- mainly mysteries, thrillers, best sellers, sf and fantasy. I am reading Redbreast by Jo Nespo, a mystery novel set in Norway, I will be reading this month the latest Jack Reacher novel, the latest Grisham novel, a spy novel, A Sword from Red Ice (third book in JV Jones latest, and who knows what else.

I loved Enders Game and have read it twice. Neverwhere is very good. I read Way Station a long time ago and all of the Heinlein juveniles are well worth reading.

Rindis, I would really like to have your take on those Tad Williams books. I read them long ago in Hard cover when they first came out

[Arctic]

I'm also curious as to how the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series is. I've heard good things. I think I have the first book laying around somewhere.

the commentary book on Joshua also sounds intriguing. I read Joshua many years ago. It might be nice to revisit it sometime.

I have way too much on my plate right now. I've got two books I'm almost done with that I've been working intermittently on for at least two months, Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan and Brust's Orca. I really should have finished them by now, and if that's all I were reading, I'm sure I would have. After Orca, I intend to start the next Brust book, and after Sirens, I intend to read another Vonnegut book as I've been working my way slowly through all his novels.

Book club books I'm working on include Jane Eyre, The Eyre Affair, The Leopard, and of course Earthsea. I'll also be finishing up Water for Elephants tomorrow. It's ok, but didn't live up to the hype for me.

I recently finished McEwan's Atonement and am hoping to start his Chesil Beach soon as well.

I'm expecting The Name of the Wind and Renegade's Magic in the mail any day now, though they may have to be put off for a bit.

Somewhere in here I'm also supposed to be reading both The Pillars of the Earth and The Curse of Chalion to discuss with some friends...

so many books so little time...

[KristenR]

I'm going to the library today to pick up A Wizard of Earthsea and a bunch of other books (I haven't decided what else I am going to read.

And I just started reading The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe with my daughter. It's going to be fun...I haven't read it since I was very young.

[Sean]

I am just starting Terry Pratchett's "Pyramids." I'm slowly working my way through his works. I've read more than half of them now, though anything dealing with the Night Watch is my favorite, especially "Jingo," which I feel is a greatly relavant novel in this post-9/11 world with so much empty flag-waving and chest beating.

I'm also going to make a run later this week and grab a few more books, things that look interesting off the shelf, probably. Nothing specific in mind. I'm moving soon, so my wife packed my stack of "to-be-read" books. I don't know which box they're in...dang it.

[Cairnraiser]

I'm just finishing To Kill a Mockingbird, and I highly recommend it. On my bedside table I have Sam Harris' The End of Faith and on a lighter note Diana Wynne Jones' The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, perhaps we should have had that one as one of the first books in the fantasy-genre 8-)

[NumberLord]

I'm reading Infernal right now (another huge Repairman Jack fan). Once I'm done with it, I'm planning on reading The Road.

[Ty]

Arctic - the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series is just great. I'm not reading any Sci-Fi/Fantasy just yet - am getting tips from the group!

[Rindis]

Just finished off my re-reading of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn last Friday. Took me a while, but I'm happy I did, I hadn't retained much of it after a decade, and couldn't remember the ending, which was worth it.

Now starting Anthony and Cleopatra by McCullough, which I got for Christmas.

[Nick, Founder (In Absentia)]

I'm reading lots of preparations for my Praxis II PLT test as well as the content area tests for English and Social Science. I'm also on the last chapter of F. Paul Wilson's The Keep having just finished his Bloodlines.

I'm also considering starting either It or finishing the Dark Tower series. I'm currently on Wolves of the Calla.

[lionlady]

I'm working on The Subtle Knife and The Joy Luck Club. I need to get to the library and pick up Snow Crash.

[Kristjan]

I just finished Ender's Game. Now we are reading Ender's Shadow ... I wasn't quite up to reading her Speaker for the Dead yet.

[Travis]

Currently reading : Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Lined up I have:

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Conan the Cimmerian - Robert E. Howard
Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
On Basilisk Station - David Weber

[John]

Kristjan, I'm fairly sure I'm a minority in this, but I liked Speaker for the Dead even better than Ender's Game.

I'm currently reading:

A Feast for Crows - George R. R. Martin (almost done, bummed that the series isn't finished)
Walden - Henry David Thoreau (teaching it to juniors right now)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain (teaching it to sophomores right now)
Regeneration - Pat Barker (teaching it to seniors!)
The American Classics - Denis Donaghue (it's been lingering with only occasional bursts of reading actually getting done)
Plan B 3.0 - Lester Brown (making my way slowly)

[Kristjan]

John said: Kristjan, I'm fairly sure I'm a minority in this, but I liked Speaker for the Dead even better than Ender's Game.

I am not surprised. They really appear to be written very differently. When I first went through the series, the shift caught me by surprise, but once I got into Speaker, I liked a lot of it more then Ender's Game as well. If it weren't for the apparent cruel death and destruction stuff in the beginning, Speaker would have scored 5 stars from me (yeah ... I know it was sorta necessary and it was well done, but it was STILL disturbing). The story started to unravel for me with Xenocide (I still need to go back an read Children of the Mind ... I hear it got better again).

My reaction to Ender's Game had the added advantage of my military academy experience ... which was not pleasant ... and helped me empathize a lot with how the story progressed. I was not so much into the action that seems to appeal to most readers as I was into the psyche stuff that was going on. Following on with Ender's Shadow and that series allows me to bring up similar talking points with my daughter.

[Shannon]

At the moment I'm trying to finish Lolita for a bookclub meeting tonight, and then I have to read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro for another bookclub meeting next Tuesday.

I'm also half-way through Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. On top of that, I still haven't finished Tanya Huff's first vampire book, Blood Price, which I've been "currently reading" since November!

[Tim]

I just finished The Rule of Four. A decent book, pre-DaVinci Code, that was an enjoyable read. Next will be Independence Day by Richard Ford.

I'm tempted to go back and re-read Repairman Jack books, but that would set me back on my 1001 book quest.

[Sean]

In addition to Pratchett's "Pyramids," I have just bought PG Wodehouse's first book in the Jeeves and Wooster series, "My Man Jeeves." I like reading Wodehouse. It's like reading ecclectic beat poetry with a smashing sense of humor. I also picked up George Macdonald Fraser's "Flashman" after getting a recommendation for it from the mystery writer Craig Johnson.

[Robert]

Currently I'm hooked on Salvatore's Demon Wars trilogy, as well as any and all Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels. I'm also following Zahn's Dragonback series, which my wife picked up for me and is really good. Other than that, lately I am catching up on McCaffrey's Pern series and reading the loose odds and ends.

[Cuinn]

I am reading Pendragon Book 8. It is a good series I started like 3 years ago, this is the newest book out. I finished Splinter Cell Operation Barracuda, it was good. I plan on reading Splinter Cell Checkmate afterward, then I want to buy the fourth book. It is also an excellent series.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Stranger in a Strange Land, and then Amy's Answering Machine (for a bit of fluff), now I have moved on to Fahrenheit 451.

I'm new here, do you have to read the "group" book as well??? I may not be good at this sort of group, I have a little issue with "assigned reading".

[Jeffrey]

Amy

i very rarely read the assigned book. Not to be a spoilsport but sometimes seems like there are just too many other books I want to read at same time.

[Catamorandi]

I have so many lists with book clubs on GoodReads that I can't get to them all for a while. I don't think that I am reading any sci-fi or fantasy, though. Right now, I am reading Bridge of Sighs and Finnegans Wake. I haven't gotten very well in either one.

[Eric]

Since I kinda joined in the middle of this group reading Snow Crash, I decided I would wait till next month to join in readin Neverwhere, but at the moment, I'm looking through it, might read in a bit, but right at the moment, I'm reading The Door Through Space, by Marion Zimmer Bradley. So far, its a very good book, has me hooked atleast. so far, I would recomend it to anyone who likes a Sci-Fi. Kinda short though.