What are y'all reading for fun?

[Queen Michael]

What are you reading for fun at the moment? Me, I'm in the middle of Dreams of Red Chambers by Cao Xueqin. This far it's the best 18th century Chinese novel I've read. Though obviously that doesn't say much.

I'm also reading First and Only, a Warhammer 40,000 novel that several of the people here at the forum recommended I checked out. They were right to do so. It's great.

Another book I'm reading is Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton. It's good epic SF, but the frequent references to sex seem a bit unnecessary.

I'm also enjoying the hardboiled crime novel The Cage by Kenzo Kitakata. It's about a former yakuza who started a convenience store but just doesn't want to completely give up the criminal life.

How about you?

 

[DefunctTheory]

I got Bill Nye's new book, 'Unstoppable,' but I've been unable to get into the mood for it. I've also pulled Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs out of storage for a re-read, but have yet to crack it open.

The only book I've currently started is America's Test Kitchen 2001-2016, which I just got and am picking through for recipe ideas. That's probably not what most people would consider 'reading,' I guess.

EDIT: Oh, and I just finished the Wordbearers Warhammer 40k Omnibus.

 

[Barbas]

I've started reading something called The Iron Tree, by Martin Booth. A few pages in so far and it's already taking me back; if I close my eyes I can still smell the smoking incense sticks and see little pyramids of oranges in the temple, carefully arranged. The place seems so remarkably different, looking back just a decade or two.

EDIT: Also, Escapist comments and the contents of the FanFiction.TXT Twitter account.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

Ciaphas Cain: HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!

I have to admit, Sandy Mitchell may write basically the same story every novel, but I'll be damned if he can't make it entertaining. Showing the world of W40K from a more mundane, human perspective goes a long way towards making his books fun to read, and the setting less intimidating to someone who knows fairly little about the lore.

Still, I had to find a few terms and other aspects of the universe on the Lexicanum, but that just adds to the fun.

 

[Legion]

I have started re-reading the Night Watch "series" of Discworld books. I am currently on Feet of Clay at the moment. I was also bought a whole bunch of Terry Pratchett books recently so it seems I will be reading his works for some time to come...

 

[happyninja42]

I just finished "Phantoms" - Dean Koontz last night. Good stuff I enjoyed it. Quite different from the movie.

Yeah, the book was I think, the only book I've read that actually creeped me out and had me looking over my shoulder....and I was sitting up against a wall. xD

Watchers is another good one by him.


OT: I'm currently listening to the Duskwalker Trilogy by Jay Posey. Currently on the 2nd book, and I'm enjoying it. It's like someone took Cyberpunk and Mad Max, and made them have a love child. It's this crazy post-apocalyptic setting with everyone having various levels of augments and cybernetics. The writer took some very interesting directions with the story in the first book, surprising me by choosing to not use some of the more cliche tropes that you might expect. For example, there isn't really any exposition. We're not told what happened to the world, or why, or how, and none of the stuff is really explained as you encounter it. Because everyone in the moment knows damn well what's going on, so there isn't any need for it. This would normally be frustrating in a story, but the author does a really good job of providing the information in the course of the scene, in ways that still make sense.

It's a fun book series so far.

 

[tippy2k2]

This far it's the best 18th century Chinese novel I've read.

OT: I read constantly but my reading is generally a bit...lighter than that. I just finished an OK book called "Dave versus The Monsters" by John Birmingham. They're not great books but they're mildly entertaining and sometimes that's all I really want. It's about a guy named Dave and he fights monsters. That's about it...

The series I'm right now on is much better called The Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia (I'm on Book 2 specifically with Book 3 waiting in the wings). It's a bit heavier of a read about two groups of mages called The Grimnoires and The Imperial (think Professor X Versus Magneto where one group wants to live in peace with humans and the other group sees themselves as evolution and humans are now not needed).

 

[tippy2k2]

Curse you Escapist for causing this embarrassing double post! Thanks Kross!!!! *shakes fist

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I'm re-reading Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, will almost certainly go through all six books. I had credits available to get a new audiobook, but I had nothing in mind and didn't feel like undergoing the painstaking process of identifying a promising new book to read.

Just finished "Duma Key" and "It". Vastly preferred the former, which was a pretty effective horror piece, and was extremely well-read by John Slattery. King's It, on the other hand...maybe it was the reader, maybe the book just hasn't aged well. I didn't care for it. The ending was straight up bonkers, and the antagonist frequently came off as obnoxious rather than scary. Like being haunted by an evil Mel Brooks.

 

[CaitSeith]

Not reading, but I have been hearing Yahtzee's audiobook, Jam. Great dark humor, highly recommended.

 

[Ogoid]

Currently finishing Nick Harkaway's Angelmaker.

I didn't like it quite as much as his first novel, The Gone Away World; I missed all the gleeful camp and tongue-in-cheek humor (it had me literally laughing out loud at times), but it's a nice - if lengthy - read.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Currently reading through Pratchett and Dick. Now i'm reading "Hatful of sky" cause that's the last* Discworld book in my local library that i haven't read.

*well, last except the "Snuff", but i don't want to start that one before even beginning with the City Guard arc.

 

[Auron225]

Not reading, but I have been hearing Yahtzee's audiobook, Jam. Great dark humor, highly recommended.

Good to know, it's what I'm planning on reading next Was actually coming here to say that whilst I'm not actually reading anything right now, I recently finished his other work "Mogworld". It was very good, I really enjoyed it. Great humour and I was invested in everything that was going on, but I'd hesitate to recommend it to anyone not savvy with MMO's, or games at the very least.

 

[Zetatrain]

Currently slugging my way through Primordium, 2nd book of Halo's Forerunner trilogy.

After that I'll be moving onto The Sword of Destiny from the Witcher Series.

 

[the December King]

I just finished "Phantoms" - Dean Koontz last night. Good stuff I enjoyed it. Quite different from the movie.

Good choice! Loved the book. The movie... well, it wasn't terrible, it just wasn't great.

As for me, I'm re-reading The Troop by Nick Cutter, a horror story centered in the Maritimes. I'm also reading some new Stephen King short stories. When I'm done these I think I'll be picking up and re-reading The Relic and The Reliquary again, from the Special Agent Pendergast series of works by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (I didn't like the third book as much, and have yet to try the rest of the series).

The Relic (1995) movie is another example of "great source material but a so-so but not really terrible film adaptation", at least in my opinion.

 

[LongAndShort]

I'm a little way into "The Cat's Table" by Michael Ondaatje. Fucking engrossing read, I had to put it down because I started reading it at like 3am before bed and realised I might be up all night if I kept going. Waiting for a chance to just be able to read it straight through.

 

[The Eupho Guy_v1legacy]

I'm reading Sabbat Crusade, an anthology of short stories based on the Warhammer 40K series Gaunt's Ghosts. The stories are written by Dan Abnett and a host of other 40K writers. Of the five stories I've read so far, there have been two stories about the Ghosts themselves, one about another Imperial Guard unit, one about a detachment of the Iron Snakes Space Marine chapter and one about an unnamed member of the Sons of Sek, a major faction within the Chaos forces that have invaded the Sabbat Worlds.

 

[Fijiman]

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. A pretty good read if I do say so myself.

 

[Pete Oddly]

Just finished Joyland by Stephen King. Great little read, if not his best work.
Currently reading The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher. Fantastic stuff, and classic Butcher: great action, quirky characters, funny, and set in a very interesting world.
Next up is The Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton. He's been highly recommended by several people, so I hope this turns out good.