Readers! what are you reading?

[ClockworkPenguin]

My reading is on is't annual deadline and revision season hiatus. Luckily, by the time that ends the next book in the Dresden files should be out, followed by the next Long Earth book and then the next Rivers of London book.

After that, I'll probably need some recommendations. I like fantasy and sci-fi with a side of humour.

I'm also going to try and read about Kant, because a friend of mine keeps talking about him, and I want to know enough to join in the argument.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

At the moment I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The only other book by him that I've read is Stardust. This is... quite different. But very good! I'm not too far into it yet, so I dunno what the overall conflict of the story will be, but it's about a guy who was let out of prison a few days earlier because his wife died in a car accident, along with his best friend who'd promised him a job. He meets an odd man called Mr. Wednesday, who seems, on the surface, to be a swindler, on a plane who offers to employ him as a bodyguard and 'accomplice'. From there things get really weird.


Next I'm planning to read Outlaws of the Marsh, which is the latest translation of the old Chinese story best known as Water Margin. Apparently it's 2000 pages long (I have it on Kindle, so can't verify for myself), so it should last me a while XD

 

[Coakle]

Lady of Mazes - Karl Schroeder

It's a science fiction story that looks at how extremely advanced virtual reality would effect people. It's clever, everyone uses multiple AI avatars to maintain their social network, Facebook taken to its endpoint. The human element talks about how and what makes an accomplishment meaningful. The dialogue is a bit inhuman at times, but the ideas are enough to sustain me.


Also recently got done reading Toh Enjoe's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire. It's pretty easy to catch on to what he's doing, but I kinda found it funny. It takes a sideways look at science fiction writing. Pretty short and it's free online.

I love personal stories, either semi-autobiographical or straight autobiography. The voice has to be right though, some stories will be written like a sermon. The emphasis is on the reader connecting to the author, rather then the other way around. It creates distance from the reader and author, which isn't what I'm looking for.


I'll be stepping out of my comfort zone when I get around to reading East of Eden.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't follow one genre, I follow classics, authors or simply any book that piques my interest.

Yesterday I finished Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. So far this year I've also read Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Child of God by Cormac McCarthy and Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick. I'll be following with Pulp by Charles Bukowski and Alamut by Vladimir Bartol.

I hate YA and "turn me into a movie franchise!" books. You know the kind.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Sadly, I'm not reading anything interesting except homework novels for my English class. :/

A lot of it is leftist as is my teacher but at least it's a change of perspective from the more center, right teachings of High School.

I'll make up my own damn mind where I stand politically though. No teacher is going to mold me in their image even if I'm bullshitting my way through essays for them.

Hmmm, let me check my shelf. It's been too long since I read a good non-fiction.

Here.

The Fighting Canadians by David J. Bercuson

Got that for my birthday in November, I should read this next I suppose.

 

[Elfgore]

I'm currently rereading the Tyranny of the Night series by Glen Cook. The latest book was released earlier this month and I need to make sure I'm up to date with all my characters and factions.

But in general, I'm a big fan of fantasy. Probably the only genre I read. Even my science fiction has fantasy as I only read warhammer novels.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

what are you reading now?- Currently I am reading Driven by James Sallis (it's the sequel to the movie/book Drive. He wrote it after the movie came out basically.) And Allegience (spelling failure) basically the last Divergent book. I also am waiting for the next Witcher novel. I love those books.
Manga wise I am reading the Attack on Titan books. Not much manga has caught my interest recently.

what do you like to read in general?-I love to immerse myself in these worlds, especially in the Drive short stories. It's fun to just loose yourself in a good book in awhile.

have you stepped out of your "comfort zone" at all recently?-yup, the Divergent series is outside of my one entirely. Pretty good, I won't lie.

if you don't read WHY THE HELL NOT?

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

Recently finished the 1st 2 Hyperion Cantos books, which were very good.

Now I'm on to 'If not now, When?' by Primo Levi and 'The Social Contract' by Rousseau.

 

[Colour Scientist]

At the moment I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The only other book by him that I've read is Stardust. This is... quite different. But very good! I'm not too far into it yet, so I dunno what the overall conflict of the story will be, but it's about a guy who was let out of prison a few days earlier because his wife died in a car accident, along with his best friend who'd promised him a job. He meets an odd man called Mr. Wednesday, who seems, on the surface, to be a swindler, on a plane who offers to employ him as a bodyguard and 'accomplice'. From there things get really weird.

I know it's annoying when people do this but American Gods is a great book.

Personally, I find Neil Gaiman's work to be a bit hit and miss but American Gods is fantastic.

 

[Jim Worth]

Just finished the Barrow, by Mark Smylie of Artesia fame, and am onto Glen Cook's latest, Working God's Mischief. I'd suggest anyone who's a fan of fantasy check out Glen Cook's well known Black Company books, and lesser well known Dread Empire series.

Fantasy I don't usually read, however, as I'm not a fan of the modern trend of it. That said, in addition to Smylie and Cook, I've recently found the works of KJ Parker to be really worth reading. It's more alternate history than anything, there's no magic or gods or what have you, just people from different cultures and backgrounds. Parker's Engineer trilogy is probably a great place to start.

I normally read horror, but I've caught up on all that. Everyone knows the big names, King and so forth. At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I'd suggest you check out some others. Thomas Ligotti is the king of modern day horror, and Laird Barron a protege with his own angle on things. For porny splatterpunk, you can't go wrong with Edward Lee, and Bryan Smith puts a more visceral, gritty action-movie feel to his stuff. Tim Curran does surprisingly good knockoffs of the concepts of other writers (I don't know why). Charlee Jacob, who may be dead, is absolutely fantastic, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to read some true dark fantasy with deep moods and dark dreams. Richard Laymon, who I know is dead, is also a fantastic writer, and I'd suggest anyone interested in his work (or vampire stories) check out the Travelling Vampire Show, probably the best vampire novel of the past twenty years.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Well, I'm reading "Enemy of God" at the moment, the second book in the "Warlord Chronicles" trilogy by Bernard Cromwell. It's essentially a realistic retelling of various Arthurian myths and legends, set during the Dark Ages after the Romans left Brittania. Pretty fucking awesome stuff and I seriously recommend playing the "Brytenwalda" mod for "Mount and Blade:Warband" before reading it, just to get a little bit of the general atmosphere.

Also, I've just finished a few of J.M. Coetzee's books, "Waiting for the barbarians" and "Disgrace".

They're short but deal with some pretty heavy stuff (apartheid, rape, psychological trauma's etc...). Coetzee is a really great writer, he really deserved that Nobel Prize.

 

[dyre]

As a history student interested in learning more about the beautiful tragedy that was the Spanish Civil War, I am reading George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. I must say, I'm only halfway in and I'm really starting to like Orwell (I had previously only read his decent but slightly overrated 1984). There's something wonderfully romantic in reading about people who really believed in social equality and fighting for a better world and could proclaim those values without even a hint of cynicism. Though, it's all the more tragic considering how the Spanish Civil War ended as well as how revolutionary Socialism really turned out.

Next on my list is Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, the "Booker of Bookers." I've been interested in the magical realism genre for awhile but I could never get into Marquez, so I'm going to try out what the Booker Prize judges apparently consider the finest piece of literature ever written in the Commonwealth. Also I find the Partition of India to be another fascinating (and tragic) part of history.

 

[vIRL Nightmare]

I've continued reading the Ranger's Apprentice series after putting it on hold. I'm also reading the Noble Dead Saga right now.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I just finished the second book/part, whatever of Haruki Murakamis 1Q84, which has been a fantastic read so far. He's defineately one of the most skilled writers i've had the joy of reading. But justmto shake things up i've taken a short break until i read the final 400 pages so now i'm finishing Last Orders by Graham Swift and starting on The Sea by John Banville. Seems very promising so far.

 

[mindfaQ]

Brandon Sanderson - Words of Radiance is the book I'm currently reading.

Stormlight Archive, only 2 books in, but has the prospect to become the best epic fantasy series out there imo.

I mostly read fantasy and sci-fi, but mix books of all genres in here and there, if I stumble upon one that seems great. An ebook-Reader with backlight certainly makes reading more comfortable, it's just great when the screen is always bright enough at all places and you don't have to hold the book open all the time, holding it awkwardly.

 

[BakedSardine]

The Day After Roswell

Either a UFO crashed there, or Philip Corso has made up one of the most intricate and elaborate stories, all the while maintaining a high level of respect among those he worked with in government. I'm not sure which, but it's an interesting read.

 

[florgeeblorgee]

If you know CrashCourse, they're doing a literature series right now, so I'm trying to keep up with that. So currently, Frankenstein.

 

[The Funslinger]

I'm currently about 40-45% through Stephen King's It. As with basically any Stephen King novel, I'm loving it. I love how similar it is to a TV show in its use of flashbacks and recollection. It's the sort of thing that could have been poorly written, but here is in safe hands.

My girlfriend is on the second Song of Ice and Fire novel. I want her to hurry up and finish the set so I can stop holding onto all these spoilers! D:

 

[Tactical Pause]

I've just recently finished Earth Abides (which was great, by the way) and finally got around to reading The Catcher in the Rye.
Currently, I'm just about finished with Prince of Thorns, which I started because I felt like reading some fantasy.

I've gotta say, it's really quite good. The main character is refreshingly different from the usual fantasy protagonist type, there's a whole lot going on behind the scenes that really turns some traditional fantasy tropes on their head, and the world... Well, I won't spoil anything, but the world is something special once you start to understand it.

 

[Gaijinko]

Going through my Gemmell collection one more time. The only thing I have ever read out of my comfort zone was IT by Stephen King, didn't like it one bit and struggled to finish it.