What Else Are You Reading - November 2010 Edition

[Drew]

Just completed Gibson's Pattern Recognition and am finishing up Heinlein's Starship Troopers (I was embarrassed that I'd never previously read it.) After that I'm going to step out of Sword and/or Laser mode to read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and finish up that series. I really enjoyed the first two, read them back to back, but needed a break from the Swedish-to-English translation oddities. I was starting to get headaches. :)

[Paul]

Girl with the dragon tattoo

Harry Potter - one (for my kids - honest)

[Taueret]

I finally bit into something and am enjoying it- "The Embedding" by Ian Watson (I'm pretty sure it was someone else here's current read). This was after starting and not being grabbed by 'Incarceron' and a couple of other false starts recently.

[terpkristin]

Finished up Mezzanine so picked up iWoz on the Kindle. Should be a nice light diversion from Towers of Midnight, which I'm about halfway through listening to (and quite enjoying!).

[Craig]

I'm about halfway through Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings

I find it interesting that most of the characters are terrible people, but you still end up rooting for the main characters.

Next, either The Evolutionary Void, Changes, or something by Iain Banks or George R. R. Martin

[Jim]

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War - I haven't read a good Vietnam fiction book sine 13th Valley, The. This looks to be a worthy successor. I'm almost ready to get back into sword and laser topics, but needed a break after being emotionally rung out finishing Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy.

[Larry]

Finished Stephen King's The Dead Zone and Hearts in Atlantis, both are excellent. Also finished the great book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane.

Going to give Stephanie Meyer's The Host a shot (hopefully it has better writing than the first Twilight book, which I gave up on after just a few chapters).

I'm also going to start the Dan Simmons novel The Terror in the next few days.

[Sandi]

Larry, you might want to wait for summer to read The Terror. Simmons does such a great job of describing what it's like to be in an Arctic winter, I felt cold even in warm weather.

[Eric]

I am reading The Psychology of Joss Whedon: An Unauthorized Exploration and Foucault's Pendulum right now. Both are a bit intellectual and nerdy

[Ben]

Reading Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman and The Contract with God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue. I just finished (in half an hour) The Walking Dead Vol. 9: Here We Remain.

[Space Preacher]

Reading On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Own Worst Fears. Not really sci-fi/fantasy, but more of a Monster Manual for real life. So it works.

Wrapping up the audiobook for Best Served Cold. I prefer the reader they had on the First Law books, but good times nonetheless.

[Matt]

Having read TOaFK several times, as well as TPB previously.

This month, I tore through Towers of Midnight.

This week I readThe Desert Spear, and Dragon Haven.

Of the two, I would recommend Desert Spear (and it's predecessor The Warded Man.

While I like Hobb, this Dragon series seems to depend too much on you having read 3 or 4 other Trilogies to understand the history of the world at times.

[Tamahome]

Wow, Border's actually stocks Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others. I'm reading the story about beauty.

[Alasdair]

Hi all - new here!

I'm starting with Jeff Jarvis' What Would Google Do? which I realise is neither Sword or Laser, but I've been meaning to read for ages. Then I'll probably read Yellow Blue Tibia: A Novel by Adam Roberts, the blurb sounds intriguing.

I'm also listening to the audio version of Dune. Not sure how much time I'll have for this though.

[Aaron]

I am about 3/4 through Anathem by Neal Stephenson. So far, I am really into it. Also started Wolf Hall, but have put it down. Something about the narrative is jarring to me. Anyone else read this?

[Noel]

Matt wrote: "Having read TOaFK several times, as well as TPB previously.

This month, I tore through Towers of Midnight.

This week I readThe Desert Spear, and [book:Dragon Haven|7..."

Yes but the Hobb books are excellent. I don't think criticism should be levelled because a books forms part of a series. Read the books in order. I find it frustrating when people moan about reading books which obviously form part of a chronology and complain that they don't know enough about the back story. Perhaps it's just me but I cannot stand reading books out of order. For the same reason, I tend to steer clear of prequels. Why do authors write prequels other than to milk more money out of a given character or world. If you already read about the events that happen later, you already know the eventual fate of the character/s involved so where is the dramatic tension?

[Matt]

I didn't say that the Hobb books weren't good. But they are labeled as a stand alone trilogy (The Rainwild Chronicles) and no where does it say read these other 9 books first.

If an author wants to treat a group of books as continuous, then label them as an entire series.

I recognize that publishers don't usually like having series last more than 3 books (may say something about attention spans) and probably try and get the story told in no more than that.

[Brian]

Reverman wrote: "Just finished the audio read of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Really enjoyed it. It's the start of a multi-book series. It does take a couple chapters to understand the rules of the world ..."

The Wheel of Time books are read by the same two people, using the male and female perspective.

[Brian]

Curt wrote: "Just finished American Assassin and now back to A Clash of Kings. Great book so far, but I keep wondering when Martin will ever stop introducing new characters. I am gue..."

Don't get used to characters, Jordan liked to kill off main characters.

[Brian]

Feargal wrote: "Just finished the third book of the Ender series and I really regret reading it. I found it to be one of those books that spoils the original in retrospect. Ender's Game was a great read and the se..."

I have read all the Enders Game books and none were as good as Enders Game.

[Thomas]

Jim wrote: "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War - I haven't read a good Vietnam fiction book sine 13th Valley, The. This looks to be a worthy successor. I'm almost ready to g..."

Nice! I listened to this (got it from audible.com) this summer and enjoyed it a lot.

[Thomas]

Let's see. Still reading The Wretched of the Earth, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947, and 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. Also, The Time Traders (a nostalgia trip: I spent a lot of my time as a teen reading Andre Norton novels), Tau Zero, and MetaGame.

[Eric]

Just got In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks hope it's funny

[Curt]

My daughter sent another a box of books along and in it was a copy of World of Warcraft: The Shattering so I put A Clash of Kings down and started on it right away, the timing could not have been better (if you play WoW that is). She works in marketing at Simon & Schuster and sends a big box of books every month. What a nice surprise this was. Some other good ones to, but not in the S&L genre.

[terpkristin]

I finished reading (well, sometimes reading my hardcover copy and sometimes listening to the audiobook) Towers of Midnight this morning (enjoyed it, even though it was pretty Perrin-centric).

I'm still working on iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It; Woz is a bit arrogant in the book. So far, I just haven't dedicated much time to it, but I'd like to finish it before starting this month's S&L book. Given that it's a quick read, I expect I'll be done with it before the weekend's over.

On audio, I'm taking a break from the fantasy genre and took advantage of an Audible.com member sale to get The Emperor's Tomb, which is purported to be a decent mystery/thriller. We'll see. If I'm not digging it, I've got the Mistborn trilogy lined up; one way or the other, I'll listen to it when I'm done with The Emperor's Tomb.

[terpkristin]

I've given up on The Emperor's Tomb. I listened to the first half of it or so, and it bored me to no end. So, now I'm going to start Mistborn: The Final Empire to start tomorrow at the gym.

[Brad Theado]

Ive got a few that I am reading. I just finished Full Dark, No Stars which I thoroughly enjoyed. I also just finished
Appalachian Winter Hauntings: Weird Tales from the Mountains

I am working on The Day After Roswell
The Light Fantastic
and
UFOs

[terpkristin]

Finished iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It so am now moving onto How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe on the Kindle. Also started listening to Mistborn: The Final Empire this morning at the gym and then while driving around today. So far, so good.

[Larry]

Holding off on The Terror for now. Finished J.L. Bourne's zombie book Day by Day Armageddon. Now I'm moving on to his sequel Beyond Exile: Day by Day Armageddon.

[Jim]

I've succumbed to the peer pressure and have started The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo....whatever, lol.

Regards, Jim

[Tamahome]

Hmm, maybe I should read this one! The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo

[Alex]

Reading The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories! I love the noir genre and decided it was time to pick up some classics! I strongly recommend this to anyone who likes detectives!

[Aaron]

I don't know if you would call this laser but I am currently reading Dan Brown's Deception Point. Loving it at the moment.

[Hope]

I'm reading The once and future king (yeah I know I'm slow...) just started the second park of it.

And whenever I feel like something different, I am re-reading The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchet.