The Sword and Laser discussion
What Else Are You Reading?
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What Else Are You Reading - June 2012
I started reading Throne of the Crescent Moon as my first June read and I'm enjoying it. I want to read Tigana but it's not available as an ebook, at my library, and I haven't found it in a store yet. I'm starting to appreciate groups that make sure the group reads are available in a variety of formats.
Jenny wrote: "I started reading Throne of the Crescent Moon as my first June read and I'm enjoying it"Hey, I'm reading that too! :) Well, listening to it (which counts in my book).
Jenny wrote: "I started reading Throne of the Crescent Moon as my first June read and I'm enjoying it. I want to read Tigana but it's not available as an ebook, at my library, and I haven't found it in a store y..."If you go to Tigana forum section they explain a way to get it by switching your Amazon account location to Great Britain where it is available as an e-book. After you buy, it costs eight dollars and change, you can switch back to the U.S. or whatever country your in. I haven't tried it but others say its easy and doesn't cause any problems with your Amazon account.
This month I'm hoping to get to Tigana, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, All My Sins Remembered, Rosemary and Rue, Doorways in the Sand and hopefully finish up A Clash of Kings. I'm closing on a house at the end of the month so I'll be busy. I'll be lucky if I get to half of these. But most of them are fairly small so one can hope.
Having finished Tigana This month I'm reading "Dead Girl" by Mark Boss. Toll The Hounds - Even though I lemmed the series, after a break I feel like continuing again. I'll finish The Crypt by Scott Sigler, I'll be finishing Goblet of Fire and going on to Order of the Phoenix.And I might start on the Joe Abercrombie books.
I'm listening to Leviathan Wakes for my Hugo reading. Reading Robopocalypse for my offline book club. I'm skipping Tigana; I read it before then gave away the book, so must not have liked it that much. I also have The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin in my car, and The Child Garden by my bed. We'll see how many I finish.
Kevin wrote: "House of Chains"Hey, good stuff. I see some folks here are recommending the club focus on Gardens of the Moon. I'm nuts for Steven Erikson at this point. I'm on the ninth (I think it's the ninth?) book Dust of Dreams, a mammoth 1300 pages long (but almost done). Last one will be next, immediately following.
Did just read Storm Front, and I think I'll continue the Dresden books, especially since I'm now involved in an occasional Dresden LARP.
I'm listening to Tigana in my car (just finished part one!), but I'm reading Raven's Shadow by Patricia Briggs. She's best known for her urban fantasy work, but I've been trying out her traditional fantasy titles as well. So far, I think this may be one of her strongest titles.
After listening to podcast mentions of Roadside Picnic on S&L I ordered a copy and dived right in. Finished this morning and read it in two days ! I needed a quick read mixed into my month as I'm back to carrying five books with me at all times again. His book earned its place with those books I want to share but am hesitant to loan out my copy as "it's mine!" and I want to keep it forever. I've just received Tigana in paperback ( the audio,though lovely - put me to ease and then to sleep) and am also reading Divergents, Cinder and Catching up on last months S&L pick as well while waiting for Ready Player one to arrive.
I'm now reading both iPad and paperbacks again and getting confused whenever the pages won't swipe properly.
Rik wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I started reading Throne of the Crescent Moon as my first June read and I'm enjoying it. I want to read Tigana but it's not available as an ebook, at my library, and I haven't found i..."Thanks, I actually did read that board after posting here. I've been thinking of buying it, and someone offered to loan it to me, but I think I'm going to wait until I know whether or not I'll actually get to it. Last month I bought Hyperion but never got to it. I started Theft of Swords on my Kindle at the beginning of May and I still haven't finished it. Hopefully I will this weekend.
I'm still reading Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City and am enjoying it. I'm a little way into chapter 7 of Tigana.
I just started Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf and so far, I really like it.
I've also started reading The Quantum Thief and Throne of the Crescent Moon and am trying to figure out which one I want to focus on.
kvon wrote: " I also have The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin in my car"I just finished The Killing Moon and I really enjoyed it. Look forward to reading The Shadowed Sun.
I'm really liking Swamplandia!. It's a very physical book--the book drives home the oppressive heat and bug bites that you feel in the Florida swamps.
The Gone-Away World - lots of fun so far, Harkaway's very entertaining. Planning on getting Scalzi's Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas next week.
I'm like Kim in that a lot of my books are for book clubs and reading groups.I just started Tigana, and it feels good to be back on track with the S&L book for a change.
I'm reading A Pale View Of Hills for the World's Lit group, and Unbowed for Great Africa Reads.
Habibi for a book club called League of Extraordinary Dorks (but this is our first graphic novel).
And on my own - The Bellwether Revivals (from Penguin First Flights) and On Whale Island: Notes from a Place I Never Meant to Leave.
Oh yeah and I'm listening to The Talented Mr. Ripley, with a George R.R. Martin edited urban fantasy anthology in the audio queue.
I've finished Caesar: Life of a Colossus by my favorite Ancient Rome historian, Adrian Goldsworthy, which was great as usual and it also involved swords and daggers, although these last ones usually in the back :PNow I'm reading Blood Oath (a vampire working for the President of the USA, since Andrew Johnson) and I'm enjoying it very much - short chapters, lots of action, it's going to be a quick read and already have the other 2 books waiting.
And I've started listening to the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince audiobook - really glad I decided to read these when they were all done, so I don't have to wait.
André
Finished Throne of the Crescent Moon and liked it, and am starting A Princess of Mars now that I think I've found an acceptable ebook version. (The three-volume Collected John Carter from Disney (The Collected John Carter of Mars: Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana of Gathol, and John Carter of Mars, etc.) is worthless because some idiot decided to leave out most of the forewords & prologues from the original books.)(And yes, I do have two complete sets of paperbacks on my shelf -- one Ballantine and one Del Rey -- but I didn't want to reread until I could get them on my Kindle.)
Chris wrote: "Kevin wrote: "House of Chains"Hey, good stuff. I see some folks here are recommending the club focus on Gardens of the Moon. I'm nuts for Steven Erikson at this point. I'm on the ninth (I think i..."
I just started reading this series a month or two ago. I just finished book 3. I'm a convert!! Erikson is now one of my favourite authors!!! He continually astounds me over & over!! So, so good!!
I thought I needed a break from fantasy to read some SF, but now I'm just itching to get back to it!! (I'm out of the country on holiday, & I'm seriously missing my library!!!)
Geesh, June already. I had posted this in May, but I'll repost for June:So far, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid's table of content is scarier than the content. I'm loving the sections on Bach and Escher. If you know some musical terms, Bach should be a breeze. If you don't, I wouldn't think it would be difficult for you to figure what they meant, since he illustrated it nicely. I grew up with Escher, so it's simple to me. In fact, Escher is like a piece of furniture, I'm so familiar with him. It's terrific how he compares Bach's canons and fugues to Escher's pictorial illusions.
Also loving The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Wow, two great books at once!
I'm currently reading More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M. R. James, following along with this podcast.On my reading pile are Tricked, book 4 of the really fun Iron Druid series, and When Gravity Fails, which is a cyberpunk classic that I never got to read before.
I'd like to read Throne of the Crescent Moon, but can't get it as an ebook!
I just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and it's amazing. I didn't expect anything but I find myself at the edge of my seat, reading about the Zone and how it messes around with the laws of physics (as we know them). Also, it's a very thin book so I expect to finish it today. Can't put it down (sorry, Tigana, I'll be back tonight, pinky swear!)
I haven't read the book, but the Tarkovsky movie Stalker, that was based on that, is terrific. I love Tarkovsky's movies. The cinematography is phenomenal.Linguana wrote: "I just started Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and it's amazing. I didn't expect anything but I find myself at the edge of my seat, reading about the Zone and how it messes around wi..."
I started Doorways in the Sand yesterday and am really enjoying it. It's only my second Zelazny. But it feels nice coming right after Stars My Destination which I didn't really like.
You're the first one I heard from who didn't like The Stars My Destination. My SciFi Goodreads friends recommends this book to me.I'm about a third into The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Amazing stuff to think about that is backed by scientific data. This is from a futurist, so his ideas may seem far out to scientists in the community, but his speculations are backed by facts. I'm at the part I'm interested in, which is reverse engineering of the brain in order to figure out how to simulate its function. Wow!
I'm 20 pages into an 800+ pages tome, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, that is chock full of mind-twisting stuff. I'm at Godel's Theorem. So far, he's gone through the loopiness of some of Bach's compositions, Escher's visual conundrum, and the loopiness of the self-referential Godel's incompleteness theorems. They all go around ad infinitum. Row, row, row your boat...
Aloha wrote: "I haven't read the book, but the Tarkovsky movie Stalker, that was based on that, is terrific. I love Tarkovsky's movies. The cinematography is phenomenal..."Stalker inspired a music album by Robert Rich also called Stalker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ufhM...
Thanks, Tamahome! I'm debating whether to get the Body Horror anthology from Amazon or not, since my reading card is filled up. I just purchased a used hardback of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. I buy hardbacks of books that are treasures to me. I also have several eBooks by Hofstadter.
Currently about a quarter of the way through A Princess of Mars and just started re-reading Good Omens over the weekend (I'd forgotten just how fantastic this book is in the decade since I last read it).A friend lent me The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology last week, it will be the next book after I finish Good Omens.
@Aloha - "Gödel, Escher, Bach" sounds like a great read, thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction finally came out in a drm free epub format over the weekend (it's hard to stand on principles when you want to read something). It's a very good mix of stories so far.
Having finished Tigana, I started with Throne of the Crescent Moon as well, but I have been pacing myself with this one, simply because I'm still joining in on the Tigana discussions.I have yet to get my ducks in a row enough to know what other books I'll read this month, (and I refuse to read more than one book at once) so I think my next book may be 2312.
You're welcome, Ned! The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology is a great read. It's speculative but backed with hard facts. It's interesting tracking down some members of the scientific community's opposition to his ideas. It's an interesting argument because any opposition is also speculative, since there is a lot we still don't know. In Singularity, he answers some of his critics. For example, Hofstadter thinks that we don't have the ability to duplicate our minds because of our limited ability to know ourselves. Kurzweil counters that by saying that with the assistance of the computer, we will be able to know what composes our mind and duplicate it. The section on the process of brain reverse engineering is fascinating.Hofstadter wrote a book that detailed what he thinks creates our "I"ness, I Am a Strange Loop. That would be helpful in understanding why the process of mind transference would be impossible, I think.
Biologist PZ Myers also thinks Kurzweil's idea is off the mark. Debates between scientists who are into and aware of current scientific research is always stimulating.
http://www.science20.com/rogue_neuron...
Ned wrote: "Currently about a quarter of the way through A Princess of Mars and just started re-reading Good Omens over the weekend (I'd forgotten just how fantastic this book is in the decade since I last rea..."
A co-worker of mine just started reading Imajica by Clive Barker which got me wanting to re-read it, so I started that today.R. Scott Bakker has been publishing a piece called Light Time and Gravity serially on his website. So far, six parts have been posted and I am about 1/2 way through part 3. I am really enjoying it. Unlike his other work, which was rooted in genre, this piece is liteary fiction. The story is about Dylan, a professor who is writing about his past growing up in Southern Ontario and working on a tobacco farm. The memories of his childhood (which are told in a non-linear fashion) are intercut with his current thoughts/feelings on philosophy and culture.
Though I read the first 2 books of the ABARAT series years ago (Abarat & Days of Magic, Nights of War), I am re-reading them so I can read the newest--Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker.A wonderful series that I would love Sword & Laser to talk about (if they haven't already).
Skipping Tigana since Kay and I don't mesh well. So instead I'm keeping up on my Hugo reading while ticking off things in my to-read pile. Right now I'm about 20% into Leviathan Wakes, which I like so far, but since I'm very much more a sword than a laser, it's slow going for me.
Besides that, I only have The Ice Owl left and then I'll have read everything in the big 4 Hugo categories. After that I'll start filling in the blanks for other categories, such as Graphic Story and the Campbell Award.
I finished Sandman Slim today, which was just okay, but was a nice light breather after Embassytown. I started The Drowned Cities a few minutes ago.
Aloha wrote: "You're the first one I heard from who didn't like The Stars My Destination. My SciFi Goodreads friends recommends this book to me.I'm about a third into The Singularity is Near: When Humans Tra..."
I'm one of the first I've seen who didn't really like it either. *shrugs*
The Stars My Destination is on my list to read. I'll have to see whether I agree with my friends that it's great. Right now, though, I am grooving on the non-fictions.With Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, he's using illustrations of infinite loops, as in the Godel theorems, to imove toward the idea that is how the mechanics of our I'ness comes about. At least, that's what I'm getting from it. It's interesting the part where he said humans have the ability to quit or skip the game tha'ts ongoing, whereas a robot does not have the self-awareness to do so. Something like that. I had a more coherent and detailed musing while I was making dinner, but now my head is ready to fall to my chest. Going to get some Z's.
Reading Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Role-Playing Games and the first few chapters are really, really good, though I'm far from being objective.I'll probably continue with non-fiction as Antony Beevor's magnum opus The Second World War comes to Kindle tomorrow.
Finished A Princess of Mars and was congenitally incapable of not immediately starting The Gods of Mars.
Edward wrote: "Though I read the first 2 books of the ABARAT series years ago (Abarat & Days of Magic, Nights of War), I am re-reading them so I can read the newest--Absolute Midnight by Clive Barker.A wonderfu..."
I love the Abarat books. Are you reading the hardbacks with all the glorious illustrations?
Kris wrote: "Continuing to read the Malazan books up to The Bonehunters I think there is 3 or 4 to go still."And they are 1300 pages plus each. I'm on Toll the Hounds (book 8) and heading for the summit. I'll consider it a personal achievement finishing this series
Aloha wrote: "The Stars My Destination is on my list to read. I'll have to see whether I agree with my friends that it's great. Right now, though, I am grooving on the non-fictions.With Gödel, Escher, Bach: ..."
Go for "The Stars My Destination". It still resonates with me though I read it about 30 years ago.....
In light of the news of Ray Bradbury's passing, I think I'm going to put my other readings on hold and dig out I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories.
All my Goodreads friends whose reading taste I respect highly recommend it, so it is tops on my list to read. Thanks, Stuart.Stuart wrote: "Aloha wrote: "The Stars My Destination is on my list to read. I'll have to see whether I agree with my friends that it's great. Right now, though, I am grooving on the non-fictions.
With Gödel, ..."
Aloha wrote: "So far, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid's table of content is scarier than the content. I'm loving the sections on Bach and Escher. If you know some musical terms, Bach should be a breeze. If you don't, I wouldn't think it would be difficult for you to figure what they meant, since he illustrated it nicely. I grew up with Escher, so it's simple to me. In fact, Escher is like a piece of furniture, I'm so familiar with him. It's terrific how he compares Bach's canons and fugues to Escher's pictorial illusions."Did you say somewhere that you're reading this on Kindle? I have it in the paperback form (it's how I originally read it), but you reading it has inspired me to at least re-visit if not re-read it. I'm getting ready to travel to South America for about 3 weeks (where I'll have SOME time to read) but don't really want to drag that thick book. Is it e-available anywhere?
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Books mentioned in this topic
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (other topics)Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (other topics)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (other topics)
Stranger in a Strange Land (other topics)
Gravity's Rainbow (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ray Bradbury (other topics)Michelle Sagara West (other topics)
William Gibson (other topics)
Armistead Maupin (other topics)
Clive Barker (other topics)
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For this club I'll be reading Tigana.
For Literary Exploration I'll be reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.
For Pulp Fiction I'll be reading The Grifters.
And for the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club I'll be reading Deathless, A Scanner Darkly and Regarding Ducks and Universes.
For now I think that's enough to start the month.