What else are you reading? (June 2010 - May 2013) *closed* Showing 2,451-2,500 of 13,523

[ns]

mc wrote: "ns, I've never read much of that m/m list, so thanks for something to check out (for example, I haven't read any JCP or Hale, though I read one Carol Lynne many, many moons ago.)

I remember Hirosh..."

I really recommend Hale's Drifter series (not that I need to, it's found quite a few fervent fans on this forum already ;)). And JCP is a must-read!

[Cleon Lee]

Anne wrote: "Re: Mindfulness -- There's a really great Youtube video where Shen Zen (or is it Shenzen?) spends about an hour describing mindfulness. I recommend that as a great place to start.

Personally, I ..."

Yeah, my mind kept wondering around during the meditation. Doing nothing is really not a good idea for me. lol.

[Anne]

ns wrote: "After some time, all you notice are the crutch words. Rather than the reader running on a clean, flat, fast cinder track, they're running an obstacle race on shaky sand with boulders strewn in their way. Grrrrrr. I'd like to place some authors on a vocabulary diet and take away their cheesy, calorific bloat words. Live lean, people, live lean. "

*Gulp*

You don't know how many hours I spend in front of my screen worrying about all those 'ands' and 'buts'. When I don't use them, I worry about sounding pretentious. Vicious cycle.

Lately I've been toying with the idea of writing a short (probably very short) experimental story using mostly emoticons and acronyms.

[ns]

mc wrote: "I've already mentioned that I have an e-pile of books that I haven't read yet; I'm embarrassed to admit that because of that, I have more than once bought the same book twice. Seriously, how pathetic is that? The authors should love me, though.

I started to create a master list of books on excel a while back, though I've fallen behind on that."

I did that too. I was going to write my own library sw but discovered LibraryThing.com in time. It's similar to Goodreads (which I now abuse for the same purpose).

LibraryThing allows you to enter your book info with a very simple interface, and all the power of full seqrching and a heavily populated book and cover db. It's very simple to get started, they don't take a zillion pieces of information from you. Just userid/pw and you're set. This was at least true way back when I joined.

So now I don't buy a book without checking my library online (browsing from my smartphone -- how did I live without this before?).

You can also export your library to yourself in csv format to import into excel or equivalent spreadsheet application. I managed to import mine from LT to Goodreads, too.

Goodreads is slightly different as the focus is on what you read versus what you own, but it can be easily abused for your purposes, as I've done.

[ns]

Anne wrote: "You don't know how many hours I spend in front of my screen worrying about all those 'ands' and 'buts'. When I don't use them, I worry about sounding pretentious. Vicious cycle."

Anne, I'm really scratching my head at that. Why would you feel it's pretentious to write a cleaner sentence?

I may be out of line here, keep in mind I am NOT a professional author. I didn't even study English to any extent, not having grown up in this country.

Speaking as a regular reader, though, here are my modified sentences to the ones above. They are very minor. Just a few words cut. While I believe they make the sentence less cluttered, it had never occurred to me that any particular style had a political/social/class/sophistication angle.

-- "He had his own case to worry about, beyond anything he could do to help Brian extricate himself from this mess."
-- "Ugly as the world around him was, he couldn't just go back to the condo."
-- "Brian had to come to terms with the fact..."
-- "Then he remembered the way ..."
-- "Just because the idea of therapy...."

[Sylvia]

ns wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "Great list! A lot of it I've read and the rest is on my to read list or I will put it there."

Hey Sylvia,

That was my full "read" list, I didn't axe the books I didn't actually lik..."

But why would you start a sentence with And?

[ns]

Sylvia wrote: "But why would you start a sentence with And? "

I wouldn't. :)

This author seems to be fond of doing so. I have no idea why. It baffles me.

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "You don't know how many hours I spend in front of my screen worrying about all those 'ands' and 'buts'. When I don't use them, I worry about sounding pretentious. Vicious cycle."

Anne..."

Actually, it's the excessive use of conjunctions within sentences that make me worry about pretentious phrasing, not at the beginning. Which I do plenty of. It's the choice between using commas or using conjunctions. Does that make sense?

I think my perception of pretension is personal, so I generally try not to let it influence me too much.

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "But why would you start a sentence with And? "

I wouldn't. :)

This author seems to be fond of doing so. I have no idea why. It baffles me."

I do. And I'm not proud of it. But I probably won't stop.

[Merith]

I just finished Patric Michael's and absolutely adored it. A "Gay for You" kind of novel, but oh so much more than that. Nothing about it is trite or cliched. Couldn't ask for a better read... unless it was to wish it were longer.


Now, I'm off to read .

[ns]

Anne wrote: "I do. And I'm not proud of it. But I probably won't stop..."

Not you too, Anne! Say it ain't so! :)

[ns]

Anne wrote: "Actually, it's the excessive use of conjunctions within sentences that make me worry about pretentious phrasing, not at the beginning. Which I do plenty of. It's the choice between using commas or using conjunctions. Does that make sense?

I don't think valid conjunctions are a problem, usually they're fine.

I think my perception of pretension is personal, so I generally try not to let it influence me too much."

You lost me entirely, but don't worry about it. As long as you're not letting it stop you from writing :)

[Sylvia]

Anne wrote: "ns wrote: "Sylvia wrote: "But why would you start a sentence with And? "

I wouldn't. :)

This author seems to be fond of doing so. I have no idea why. It baffles me."

I do. And I'm not proud of..."

:)

[Anne]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "I do. And I'm not proud of it. But I probably won't stop..."

Not you too, Anne! Say it ain't so! :)"

Tis true. Sorry. :(

[Jill]

ns wrote: "I really recommend Hale's Drifter series..."

Hi, just reading along here and wondering if you meant the Rifter series. I think the Drifters were a 50's rock group.

[Ayesh]

Gonna read this one...This Rough Magic by Josh Lanyon
yayy :D

[JPerceval]

Becky wrote: As for Tolkien, I loved The Hobbit, but the rambling style that worked so well for that story was awful for the Lord of the Rings. The Big Bad is after you to steal back the ultimate weapon and take over the world, and you stop to eat and/or nap every three pages? Ugh. I've tried to read LOTR several times, and I just can't do it."

Yes! This!

I received the Tolkien gift box when the films came out. It took me over a year to read The Hobbit. Over 2 years to read Fellowship. Ever since, my bookmark has been stuck about 6 chapters into Two Towers. And I like fantasy. But I just can't do it. You know when I read these books? When I can't sleep at night and don't want to take a sleeping pill.

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

I liked the LOTR movies. Viggo Mortensen was a thing to behold and worship in those movies. I read the books before seeing the movies. The first time I tried to read them, I stopped after Bilbo's disappearance, it seemed I couldn't fight sleep. A year after I brought the trilogy on vacation and drank it like fresh water.

[Calathea]

JPerceval wrote: "Ever since, my bookmark has been stuck about 6 chapters into Two Towers. And I like fantasy. "

Same here. ;-) Never got over the middel of the second volume (I think that's were originally the first part ended). Then I tried again with the audio book/audio play. I don't know if I ever heard the end because I fell asleep with constant regularity.

What I love is Tad Williams' "The Dragonbone Chair". It's a similar kind of story and epic fantasy but imo it's fascinating, compelling, exciting, with a vast number of wonderful, adorable characters. I read it when I was 17 and it's still my most favorite ever. :-)

[[deleted user]]

Emanuela ~Zstyx~ wrote: "I liked the LOTR movies. Viggo Mortensen was a thing to behold and worship in those movies. I read the books before seeing the movies. The first time I tried to read them, I stopped after Bilbo's d..."

I loved the LOTR books, read them as a teenager,and they were books that really stayed with and I remembered vividly afterward, and yes the movies were amazing...I am an unrepentant rabid fan of Harry Potter as well,can't explain it, but I loved every single book and have re-read them a few times :O) I think they appeal to my teenage heart :O) Don't love the HP movies though...

[JPerceval]

I enjoyed the films, and I have the DVDs. My SO thinks even they're better than sleeping pills (he's not a reader nor is he a fantasy fan, LOL).

Currently, my favorite fantasy series is Jacqueline Carey's Kusheline series. It's just so lush and imaginative, and above all, readable. I'm also a fairly recent convert to Anne Bishop.

Not sure if it's still in print, but the Harvard Lampoon Bored of the Rings was a riot.

[[deleted user]]

JPerceval wrote: "I enjoyed the films, and I have the DVDs. My SO thinks even they're better than sleeping pills (he's not a reader nor is he a fantasy fan, LOL).

Currently, my favorite fantasy series is Jacquel..."

I love Bishop's Black Jewel series...

[JPerceval]

I have the Black Jewels, but haven't gotten to them yet. My reading group is always going on about how wonderful they are, and one of the women there got me the books as a gift one year. It was I'd read and enjoyed. I also have but haven't gotten to that yet either.

[[deleted user]]

JPerceval wrote: "I have the Black Jewels, but haven't gotten to them yet. My reading group is always going on about how wonderful they are, and one of the women there got me the books as a gift one year. It was [bo..."

Yeah I read a couple of them with my online book club a few years back, and then read the rest myself and really liked them (I actually stopped at #6 Tangled Webs) got distracted with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series around that time and was a goner for like two months, and did not pick her back up, but what I read of the series I REALLY ENJOYED!

[[deleted user]]

Just finished for my F2F book club...lovely book about life in Africa in post genocide Rwanda...very moving and very good.

And now for nice change of pace :O)

[JPerceval]

Ah, yes, the Outlander series -- definitely one to get lost in! I still have the last few books of that one to read too, but it's been so long, I want to start the series over again...which is why it's taking me so long to get back to it, LOL, such a massive undertaking!

[[deleted user]]

JPerceval wrote: "Ah, yes, the Outlander series -- definitely one to get lost in! I still have the last few books of that one to read too, but it's been so long, I want to start the series over again...which is why ..."

I loved that series...Jamie Fraser is a force of nature *sighs*

I never read the last one I might wait until it ends to revisit...

[Josh]

ns wrote: "Anne wrote: "Maybe that's why you like Yellow Sands so much?"

Apropos of nothing, for those of us keeping count and interested in starting a pool on which jumps next:


titles with the word "Dark"..."

This just totally cracked me up. Clearly you WERE suffering insomnia.

[Josh]

ns wrote: "My April reading list was sparser, but I made up in quality what I lacked in volume this month, I think:

Cream of the M/M: JCP, Lanyon, Allen

Rifters2 -- Hale
Rifters1 -- Hale
Tangled Threads -- ..."

Wow. That's one heck of a lot of reading.

[Josh]

So Pizza and Beer suffers a little from having the focus be on the same MCs and their relationship (but really, while there was some growth, it wasn't enough to be sufficient because she did a great job in closing the deal on it in the first book).

This brings back the discussion on series because -- in my opinion -- there has to be more to justify a series than simply loving the main characters. There still has to be enough of plot and character arc left to justify another story.

It's easier to find it in mystery and adventure, but even then there's got to be some driving impetus to continue exploring.

[Josh]

But why would you start a sentence with And?

Let me just interject here that sometimes, if you're deep in POV and your main character's thoughts are imitating the rhythm of his speech (which is exactly what should be happening) then those kinds of tics will creep in. The thoughts mimicking the speech patterns.

It can be effective. Or it can be sloppy writing. You kind of have to go on a case by case basis.

[Josh]

Bella wrote: "Gonna read this one...This Rough Magic by Josh Lanyon
yayy :D"

Hope you enjoy it, Bella!

[JPerceval]

Lauraadriana wrote: I loved that series...Jamie Fraser is a force of nature *sighs*

Oh yeah...*g*

I think I left off at the fifth book, whichever that one was -- I have quite a bit of catching up to do!

[JPerceval]

Josh wrote: "This brings back the discussion on series because -- in my opinion -- there has to be more to justify a series than simply loving the main characters. There still has to be enough of plot and character arc left to justify another story.

It's easier to find it in mystery and adventure, but even then there's got to be some driving impetus to continue exploring."

I'm finding this to be the case with J.D. Robb's In Death series. She's 20-some books in, and sometimes it's tough to keep it going, I think. There have been some with seriously weak plots, but the characters and relationships have been developed with great satisfactions, and then there have been others without much character advancement, but wonderfully suspenseful mysteries, but more often than not lately, there has not been both in one book.

[[deleted user]]

JPerceval wrote: "Lauraadriana wrote: I loved that series...Jamie Fraser is a force of nature *sighs*

Oh yeah...*g*

I think I left off at the fifth book, whichever that one was -- I have quite a bit of catchin..."

They started to drag on a bit right around book 5 I must say...

There's so much to read it's hard to keep up...I just heard that there is an Atlas Shrugged movie out...that is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite books of all time and now I feel like should re-read...so much to read, so little time.

[Emanuela ~plastic duck~]

I think. Some people stop to think. And they put. A period. Period.

My professor of sociology 1.0.1 wrote like that and it made me crazy. But crazy bad. Not crazy good. This is close to torture in non-fiction books.

[Josh]

Emanuela ~Zstyx~ wrote: "I think. Some people stop to think. And they put. A period. Period.

My professor of sociology 1.0.1 wrote like that and it made me crazy. But crazy bad. Not crazy good. This is close to torture ..."

:-D

[[deleted user]]

Josh wrote: there has to be more to justify a series than simply loving the main characters.

Right on...Happens to me all the time though, I feel like I should keep reading because I loved book one or two or three...Perfect example is Outlander...by book six I WAS NOT having fun and forcing myself to read...but I loved the characters so much in the first 4 I felt like I had to...

[Josh]

I'm finding this to be the case with J.D. Robb's In Death series. She's 20-some books in, and sometimes it's tough to keep it going, I think. There have been some with seriously weak plots, but the characters and relationships have been developed with great satisfactions, and then there have been others without much character advancement, but wonderfully suspenseful mysteries, but more often than not lately, there has not been both in one book.

20 books in has to be tough. It works if the characters are mostly ciphers and it's just a series of puzzle plots -- like a lot of the old mysteries such as Nero Wolfe, etc -- but the downside of developing characters into people is you have to keep coming up with enough twists and turns and developments to justify following the story and characters for...ever.

It can be done, but I wouldn't want to have to try. Maybe that's just laziness on my part.

[[deleted user]]

Josh wrote: "I'm finding this to be the case with J.D. Robb's In Death series. She's 20-some books in, and sometimes it's tough to keep it going, I think. There have been some with seriously weak plots, but the..."

IMHO-20 of ANYTHING in books, movies, or kinds of CSI shows (God help us!!)...is WAYYY too much :O)

[Yvonne]

Josh wrote: "I'm finding this to be the case with J.D. Robb's In Death series. She's 20-some books in, and sometimes it's tough to keep it going, I think. There have been some with seriously weak plots, but the..."

This is like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone books with the alphabet. I think I read them all up until about L or M. I got burned out on them, so I don't know how she keeps it up. I saw she was up to the letter V.

[JPerceval]

Josh wrote: "20 books in has to be tough. It works if the characters are mostly ciphers and it's just a series of puzzle plots -- like a lot of the old mysteries such as Nero Wolfe, etc -- but the downside of developing characters into people is you have to keep coming up with enough twists and turns and developments to justify following the story and characters for...ever."

She's actually doing a damn good job, for the most part. What I think is saving it is all these books have, so far, taken place over a 2-year period. So Lt. Eve Dallas meets Roarke, they court, they marry, and now they're slowly dealing with married life against the backdrop of each of Eve's cases. So it's baby steps, relationship-wise. Then there's the other characters that got their own relationship lines, etc.

That said, the occasional book fizzles on both fronts, but I'll still pick up the next b/c I do so enjoy spending time with Eve and company.

[Anne]

Calathea wrote: "What I love is Tad Williams' "The Dragonbone Chair". It's a similar kind of story and epic fantasy but imo it's fascinating, compelling, exciting, with a vast number of wonderful, adorable characters. I read it when I was 17 and it's still my most favorite ever. :-) "

OMG, loved The Dragonbone Chair. Some of it still sticks with me, and I only read them once.

[Anne]

JPerceval wrote: "I enjoyed the films, and I have the DVDs. My SO thinks even they're better than sleeping pills (he's not a reader nor is he a fantasy fan, LOL).

Currently, my favorite fantasy series is Jacquel..."

I've been wondering about Kushiel for years, but I was scared of falling for good cover art. She had the same artist (at least for the early ones) as a lot of Sharon Shinn's Samaria series, which I loved some (but not all) of.

Anne Bishop rocks.

[Cleon Lee]

I'm reading Strange Fortune... the adventure is getting intense now.. and so is the chemistry...
This story is so different from other fantasy stories I've read before.

[JPerceval]

Anne wrote: "I've been wondering about Kushiel for years, but I was scared of falling for good cover art."

I can see that, but I think they're definitely worthwhile. Highly sexual, since the Houses of Terre d'Ange are founded on various types of love, but at the same time, the sex is more cerebral/spiritual, and not just sex for the sake of. Very rich history, parallel to the Renaissance, and tons of political intrigue.

[Anne]

JPerceval wrote: "Anne wrote: "I've been wondering about Kushiel for years, but I was scared of falling for good cover art."

I can see that, but I think they're definitely worthwhile. Highly sexual, since the Hou..."

I'm okay with highly sexual ;-) Alright, more for the list. *sigh*

BTW, I recommend Sharon Shinn, although her style is quite different than any of the above fantasy authors. Much lighter. Her Samaria series is based on angels.

[JPerceval]

I think I have one of the angel books by Shinn. Knowing me, it's the first one, so whatever that one's called, it's in my TBR somewhere...

[Cleon Lee]

Lauraadriana wrote: "Josh wrote: "I'm finding this to be the case with J.D. Robb's In Death series. She's 20-some books in, and sometimes it's tough to keep it going, I think. There have been some with seriously weak p..."

Tell me about it! This is the reason why I never try Discworld. I can't imagine collecting that many books, especially since the local bookstores collection for English books are terrible. Hunting and collecting the Sandman was enough headache.

[Murphy]

I disagee and evidently so do a lot of folks because they keep selling, JD Robb, Sue Grafton, Jonathan Kellerman, John Sandford,etc. The characters become friends and you want to know how they are doing.