What Else Are You Reading - January 2011 Edition

[Lekeshua]

I am juggling a couple right now. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which I am enjoying but this one question is stuck in my head. Would society be so accepting of the Bennet girls learning and pursuing the dark arts? I know during that time period women become accomplished by learning art, music and languages. Nothing physical and fighting which at that time is a considered a male past time. Second Uncle Silas, which is okay. And third A Game of Thrones to get prepared for watching the series on HBO. Enjoying it so far but a very slow read so that I don't miss anything.

[Paul]

I blew through Good Omens in about a day. Other than that I have still been trudging through A Clash of Kings. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this one. I love reading George R.R. Martin, but it's kind of like running a marathon while I do it. Up next if I finish A Clash of Kings will be the second book in the Dark Tower Series, The Drawing of the Three. Hearing Tom talking about has gotten me interested in getting back into the series, and I have been playing a Gunslinger type of character in Torchlight this weekend.

[Sandi]

Lekeshua wrote: "I am juggling a couple right now. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which I am enjoying but this one question is stuck in my head. Would society be so accepting of the Bennet girls le..."

If you read the prequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, you'll find that they are completely ostracized when they first start studying martial arts.

[Chris]

Carmin wrote: "I've started my year getting around to read Neil Gaiman's books I hadn't read: American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys. All were amazing."

Maybe I should give American Gods another shot. I tried it a couple of years ago and just could not get into it.

[John]

Michael wrote: "I am starting American Gods tomorrow. I have not read ant Gaiman, so i am pretty excited. I have heard a lot of good things about Gaiman and American Gods, especially."

Reviews of this scared me away. I'm worried I'll lose interest in the middle as the story apparently loses steam. I might give it a shot after listening to Good Omens. In the meantime I've finished up the dreadful (as in full of dread) Full Dark, No Stars, the horrific The Third Bear, and the massive Blankets.

[Kevin]

I just finished Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. This memoir about life in Bombay could be a sci fi glimpse of a disfunctional post-apocolyptic world - except it's true!

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I finished listening to Good Omens today, as well as reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and Childhood's End. Hooray for being sick in bed!

Major Pettigrew's was through the Overdrive program at the public library, which I downloaded to my iPad. Unfortunately most of their audio books are completely incompatible with Mac (boo!).

[Tamahome]

Jenny, you can dual boot into windows, and install any wma audiobook on an ipod/iphone/ipad.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

Tamahome wrote: "Jenny, you can dual boot into windows, and install any wma audiobook on an ipod/iphone/ipad."

So true! Somehow in the last year, our two home computers and my work computer have morphed into Mac. I haven't installed Boot Camp yet but this is a good reason.

[Sgtdetritus]

I've been hooked lately by the "Rangers Apprentice" series by John Flanagan. I just finished the 7th in the series, and am waiting on the local library for number 8. I'm also listening to "Owner's Share" by Nathan Lowell via podiobooks.com Mr. Lowell's books are a very different take on traditional Sci Fi and well worth the time.

[Ed]

I just finished Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks(Brilliant) and Have started Prador Moon: A Novel Of The PolitybyNeal Asher I really need to get on the Asher book as Abercrombie's The Heroes is on it's way to me shortly (yay).

Man I rally can't recommend Banks' stuff enough. I have read a few of his Culture novels and never been disappointed.

[Axel]

I'm reading Name of the Wind. It's excellent so far. I would be reading Good Omens but since it's not available on Kindle I've decided to skip it for now. Might pick up a hard-copy still...

[Steven]

Just finished Storm Glass, and might move on to Will Adams The Alexander Cipher (not exactly SF&F I know)
Read Good Omens many many moons ago so hoping I can recall enough to fully enjoy the podcasts. Also read Revelation Space a couple of years back, found it deeply confusing, but might have been my broken up reading process at the time.
I have some of the other suggested titles on my Kindle wish list and it's my birthday next month so a few might find their way onto my device.

[Abraham]

Abraham wrote: "I am reading Anathem which will prolly keep me reading for months."

Just an update. Anathem is a wonderful book. I was leary of any book so large, as I have great sympathies to the precision of Hemmingway's works. Usually thick books end up being stuffed with unnecessary details and characters that do little to progress the plot or enhance the background. All that said, Anathem is a really cool world to stay in, especially for those who have an interest in the monastical world, but don't like all that religious stuff. It is a sword and a laser book, where you have a medieval monastic movement who has also flown into space to destroy an astroid. Mixes of new and old tech are found on most pages, and best of all, the characters seem to be at ease with all of it. All of it except for the references to things that annoy the auther, including cell phones and constant headphone use.

Its a big book, but my view at the 1/5th mark is that its well worth it.

[Brandon]

I just finished The Passage which was excellent and not what I expected.

I have heard great things about the Dark Tower series by Stephen King so I have picked up The Gunslinger.

[Lekeshua]

Sandi wrote: "Lekeshua wrote: "I am juggling a couple right now. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies which I am enjoying but this one question is stuck in my head. Would society be so accepting of th..."

Haven't read the prequel.Maybe that's why it feels awkward. Thanks for the tidbit.

[asf_73]

Just downloaded "Old Mans War" for the nook. I read a lot of great reviews for this book/series and I'm looking to get into the book. I picked a great day to start reading, considering NYC just got an extra 10" of snow.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I finally decided to try Stephen King again, after a lot of encouraging comments to my negative review of Insomnia. So I picked The Stand, since it came up on all those post-apocalyptic lists. I have it from Overdrive, so imagine my horror to find this is the revised edition, with 500 ADDITIONAL PAGES that were originally cut. In my experience with King, he doesn't usually cut enough!

Still, I'm 24 chapters in and have enjoyed it so far, although I'm not sure it is the best book to be reading while battling a nasty cold. That makes me a little paranoid. Hehe.

[Chris]

I just finished The Blade Itself and picked up Before They Are Hanged.

I tried listening to The Name of the Wind in audio form, but couldn't get into it. I didn't like the narrator for some reason, which kept pulling me out of the story. I'll pick up the book next month and try reading it then.

[Tamahome]

My driveway is blocked with snow right now, so I'll have to download if I want to read something.

[Mike]

Started on the Foundation series, and hope to start Void Series (The Dreaming Void) soon.

[Sean]

Jenny wrote: "I finally decided to try Stephen King again, after a lot of encouraging comments to my negative review of Insomnia. So I picked The Stand, since it came up on all those post-apocalyp..."

It's not just longer, it's been changed -- when King re-inserted the cut material, he updated the setting from the early '80s to early '90s. Unfortunately, he did a half-assed job. For example, there's still a reference to Stu having fought in Vietnam, which in the original would've made him about 30, but pushes his age to 40 in the revised edition, making his relationship with Ms. Jailbait a bit skeevy.

[Joe]

Jenny wrote: "I finally decided to try Stephen King again, after a lot of encouraging comments to my negative review of Insomnia. So I picked The Stand, since it came up on all those post-apocalyp..."


Though it is probably longer than it needs to be, it is very good and well worth reading, especially if you are in to post-apocalyptic fiction. According to his introduction, the original edition was edited severely by the publisher due to cost and binding issues, not based on content, so according to him, he didn't add pages, just put them back in. Whether you agree with that or not, I do think it is a very good book. It is the only King I have read, but currently, I am giving The Gunslinger another try after having read about half and gave up for a reason I can't remember now, and am enjoying it and plan on reading the whole series.

[Tamahome]

I just got Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man audiobook from overdrive. Marked as 'always available'!

[Carmin]

Xris wrote: "Carmin wrote: "I've started my year getting around to read Neil Gaiman's books I hadn't read: American Gods, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys. All were amazing."

Maybe I should give American Go..."

You should.

[Rob]

Also, just finished Shadowheart by Tad W. Good and easy ..."
Man I am trying to finish the audiobook but it seems like he is dancing around trying to finish the series. I am new to Tad Williams books but this series hasn't grabbed me. I have one more download this month and deciding between starting the Void series and Good Omens.

[Carmin]

Rob wrote: "
Also, just finished Shadowheart by Tad W. Good and easy ..."
Man I am trying to finish the audiobook but it seems like he is dancing around trying to finish the series. I am new to ..."

You should just download your audio books using torrents.

[Brandon]

I just started City Without End after finishing the The Gunslinger.

[terpkristin]

I finished listening to Good Omens so now have loaded up Clancy's Dead or Alive. I have that and one other book in my audiobook backlog, hoping to get through them relatively quickly. My audiobook listening would go up if I could go to the gym, alas I'm right now grounded from doing so.

[Justin]

Right now I am going through Isaac Asimov's foundation trilogy. I aready read and am currently reading . I have an Amazon Kindle and am using the text to speech feature for these books. Physically I have starting reading which I found reading in . I have listed my goal of reading 104 book this year on the reading challenge.

[Michael]

I am reading, "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. This book is a wonderful epic of original fiction and is probably the closest account of what vampires would be like if the actually existed. It is my understanding that this is the first of a trilogy, which I hope is the case.

[Ciaran]

I just finished A Game of Thrones. Been meaning to start A Song of Ice and Fire for ages, and just never got around to it until recently. Reading it on my Kindle, gutted the rest of the series isn't available on Kindle in the UK yet. Waiting till the 3rd of Feb for A Clash of Kings...

[Brian]

Started Signal to Noise after finally finishing Freedom (TM). I like the book but unfortunately there is no electronic version, so I'm struggling through it. My Kindle has absolutely ruined me for paper books :).

[Tamahome]

Brian wrote: "Started Signal to Noise after finally finishing Freedom (TM). I like the book but unfortunately there is no electronic version, so I'm struggling through it. My Kindl..."

I'm waiting for Windows Guru Mark Russinovich's Zero Day to come out.

[Brandon]

I just started I, Sniper after finishing the 3rd book of the Entire & The Rose series.

[Larry]

Finished Stephen King's Duma Key, which started out slow but turned out to be one of my favorite King novels.

I just started Michael Marshall's The Intruders, which is pretty good so far. I've heard that Marshall is a good author, but this is the first book of his that I've read.

[Joe]

paulbd wrote: "I blew through Good Omens in about a day. Other than that I have still been trudging through A Clash of Kings. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this one...."

Drawing is my favorite of the first 4 DT books, and Wolves of the Calla my favorite of the final 3. The whole series is amazing.

[Joe]

Michael wrote: "I am reading, "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. This book is a wonderful epic of original fiction and is probably the closest account of what vampires would be like if the actually existed. It is m..."

The second is due out in 2012, gonna be called "The Twelve", the third in 2014 called "The City of Mirrors".

[Neil]

I am reading Pandora's Star. This book is so long. It just really got going 300 pages in. I like it though. The beginning felt like work.