I'm about 30 or so pages from finishing "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown and i really love it. I suggest, if you haven't already, to read it. A lot of neat stuff in it. Like my sig(the ambigram of "Fire")

Cool you have good taste in sig things.

Currently:

Naked by David Sedaris

Four Past Midnight by Stephen King

I haven't been reading too much lately, I know that's bad, but I never have enough time!

Currently working my way through ALL of Stephen Kings books for about the third time.

I'm waiting for a delivery of cool books. (thanks to Commie - you cost me money!!!)

I'm reading Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
and Raptor Red by Robert T. Bakker.

Are you guys only reading Four Past Midnight because of Secret Window?

Moving this to Media...

I haven't been reading much lately. Can't really focus on anything because of school, but I just bought a non-fiction book about the French Revolution and I really want to start reading it soon. Probably won't get around to it till the end of school, but...

If only I wasn't such an internet addict.

The latest book that I read a fair chunk of was Jean-Francois Lyotard's The Postmodern condition: A Report on Knowledge. It was surprisingly readable considering that it is a translation of French philosophy but I still wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it!

On the bright side for me, it was a hell of a lot easier going than the previous book I had a crack at, which was Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, but then again that's two hundred year old German philosophy so it was never going to be a rip-roaring adventure of hi-jinks on the high-seas, but at least it does give a few good reasons why no-one can ever categorically prove or disprove the existence of God. That's always good for a laugh and breaks the ice at parties (The Transcendental Diakectic, Chapter III, Section IV, if anyone's interested in looking it up themself).

I can't wait to read something not related directly to my thesis, I think I might dig out an old Robert Rankin...

Reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon


A Burroughsian tale of rockets, Pavlovian psychiatry and espionage... I think... quite difficult to follow at times.

Just finished the anthology "Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre". Granted I skipped over the more metaphysical and boring bits, but the rest was good.

Just started "The Story of our Civilization:10,000 years of western man". Looks fun.

Have you read The Da Vinci Code as well?

I'm reading the incredibly hard-to-find Dirk Gently's Holostic Detective Agency(huzzah!), and The Bull from the Sea. I'm also supposed to be reading a book called the Luminous Web about philosophical string theory, written by a vicar--mein vati (of the same said profession, plus philosophy professor) leant it to me to read. Next I must tackle Kant, auf Deutsch. Oh, viel Spass...

Haven't yet, but when i get the money i will buy it.

but my next book is "Fight Club" because i need something to read on my trip.

Hmm, I'm reading umm.... Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat, and for required reading at school I have to read The Giver.... tch.... 1984 was much better. I'm also trying to read A Midsummer Night's Dream.... but thats not happening. There's too much going on right now.

I'm reading Interview with the Vampire....Oh Lestat...is there nothing you can't do?

Jennifer Government by Max Barry...I think im repeating myself, there are too many book related threads now...havent really got a chance to read it (brought this morning, exam on tomorrow so revising) but read a few pages...it seems good.

Walk into a church, have a picnic on a sunny day...

(couldn't resist)

Apparently not
Well he could....but I don't think he would.....

The book that inspired the game.

/spam

Yeah, scary thing is the author made the game as a marketing excercise...it seems to have worked. Well, obviously I didnt just go out and buy it, just saw it in the bookstore and from the blurb and first few pages it seemed worth reading.

I'm currently slogging my way through "Elmer Gantry" by Sinclair Lewis

It's a fictional account of a turn of the century revivalist Baptist preacher who is probably the most corrupt, self serving, hypocritical character I've read in a long time. Or caricature... Before writing the book, Lewis met with groups of ministers and priests and preachers and took his ideas from them. Supposedly all of the things that the title character does this group of spiritual leaders have done. It created a scandal when it was released in the 1920's or 30's, because no one would accept that a real minister would do the things that Elmer did, but now with my cynical post modern brain I'm not finding these things that he does all that shocking.

My God! He smokes and drinks?! He covets women?! Will it ever stop?

Okay, actually some of the things he does are pretty shameful, denies being a minister, knocks up a local farm girl and then sets her up to fall for her cousin so he doesn't have to marry her and shaming her in the process, has no real spiritual leanings, starts being a minister because he finds he has a knack for manipulating people, gets into the revivalist business for the sex, money and power, etc. etc. etc.

He actually reminds me of alot of TV evangelists...

It's quite interesting, I'd recommend it if you don't mind it being a bit slow. There's no high-jinx on the high-seas... just a lot of social commentary with a dull witted, sex driven, charismatic caricature of a Baptist minister as the title character.


Wow... this post was way longer than I meant to make it... sorry about that.

Currently reading _The Town_ by Bently Little, I read it before but right now I have nothing new to read and have to re-read things over and over until a bookstore opens or my Amazon.com order arrives.

I love Anne Rice, are you guys just starting the Vampire series or are you re-reading the books? A bit of advice for you if you're just getting started. After reading Memnoch the Devil, stop for a moment and read the Mayfair Witches chronicles, it'll be important later on that you have that read for future Vampire tales. The later Vampire novels are about 50% or more related to the Mayfairs. So having that information will enhance your reading pleasure.

In Defense of Secular Humanism, by Paul Kurtz. It's a collection of essays, so it sometimes gets redundant, but it's still good and insightful.

I have this odd habit of stopping books in the middle in favor of reading another book. I don't know why I do it, but as I usually finish all the books I start, it doesn't seem to matter. So, after this one, I'll be on both Dragons of Eden, by Carl Sagan, and Unending Quest, by Karl Popper (translated by him from original German, I believe).

After that...probably read some Asimov and The Logic of Scientific Discovery, again by Popper. Had to stop that last one b/c I couldn't understand some of the philosophical terminology and problems Popper was referring to *_*

And on top of that, I'm going over a particularly good archaeology text book, in prep. for my archaeology class next semester.

I'm so glad I didn't opt for summer semester classes...

David

I'm cheating with books at the moment. Currently I'm going through Robert Jordans Wheel Of Time series as audio books. In my defence I have read them properly before, I just can't be doing with the terminal eye strain I would get from reading through the 10,000 or so pages again.

I had to stop reading the Wheel of Time series, around about the 5th or 6th book. I forget which... I just got burnt out on those, I'll hopefully get back to them soon.

Anyone read the Terry Goodkind series, "The Sword of Truth", starts with Wizard's First Rule and gets amazingly deeper from there. That's an excellent series.

I really like The Sword Of Truth, but Goodkind seems to be losing his grip on it. Towards the end, I think from Faith of the Fallen, the books start to dissolve into rants against communism. I mean, I don't like communism either, but I know I don't like it and I know why, Richard can stop making speeches on the rights of the individual to succeed now because it's the same speech he made three chapters ago. The Pillars of Creation does this some more, mainly through straw-man arguments rather than Richard's preaching, though he does get some preaching in towards the end. I hear Naked Empire is more of the same, so I'm not buying it.

They are hard work. I read the first eight in a row and then just stopped - I really wasn't enjoying the series at all. I find that what he has done in nine books (and then some I believe) other authors have done in less and better.

I love Terry Goodkind - although I do agree that The Pillars of Creation did seem to lose it a bit. I have Naked Empire but I haven't yet got around to reading it. I'm undecided on whether to bother or not?

I'm back to an old one, but a good one. Magician, by Raymond E. Feist, and all the Midkemia and Empire books that follow. Read a good portion of them before, but I wanted to pick them up again, so started with Magician again. Fun times!

Who knew that I would miss reading for pleasure this much!

Well, apparently recaps of past plotlines and rants against communism take up most of it...

Damn i was looking forward to that myself.

Currently reading Porno by Irvine Welsh, Damn funny so far.

Good man *pats Spacehappy*

Have you read Filth? I think it has to be my favourite, a really interesting concept.

That's so true about Goodkind's books but, if you can read around that there's a lot more to them. I mean, yeah, Richard does come off sounding like Captain Kirk sometimes but, so? I mean, that never stopped Star Trek from being fun.

Magician was one of the first novels I read in one sitting, that's a good book. Although after the 3rd book I lost interest. I guess that happens a lot with long series of books. Well, except for Anne Rice, I could just keep reading her books forever.

If you want to read something that is almost a 180 of Goodkind's rants try reading some Spider Robinson. Stardancers is almost the opposite (and it's sci-fi rather than fantasy).

i guess i'll put my two cents in...

wizards first rule was excellent, couldn't put it down. the next two were also quite good, and i loved them. after that.... it was like goodkind's thinking process was "ok, i know the characters have already suffered emensly, but how can i make their lives just that much worse? oh, and how can i rant about how much stalinist style communism sucks?"

and i'm all for introducing new characters, but "faith of the fallen" ends with richard and kahlan in the heart of enemy territory... so for all of "pillars of creation" i'm waiting to find out what happened to them. they don't bloody show up until like the last chapter! and the plot was so predictable, it wasn't even funny!

i didn't even know there was a new one out, i doubt i'll bother getting it.

"Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss

really funny.

I love to read books..

Here is a list of books I would like to finish reading over the summer:

Ghosts Across Kentucky-William Lynwood Montell
Arabian Nights-Translated by Hussain Haddaway
The Obstinate Muse of Freedom: on the Poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt-Krisztina Szalay
A Brief History of Time-Stephen Hawking
Osiris & the Egyptian Ressurection-E. A. Wallis Budge
The Muslim Discovery of Europe- Bernard Lewis
The Antichrist- Frederick Nietzsche
The Norse Myths- Kevin Crossley-Holland
The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson
At the Table of the Grail edited by John Matthews
The Holy Kingdom by Adrian Gilbert-Alan Wilson and Baram Blacket (A book about finding the real King Aurthur.)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Books I know I won't finish over the summer:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose

Don't you mean "Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"?

Yeah, I really enjoyed that book; it was good fun for a pedant like me.

I finished My Forbidden Face by Latifa for school.
Now I'm finishing The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice.
I think next I want to read the third book of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton: Circus of the Damned.

Hm..... A really good book I read a little while ago called "Exodus" (I dunno who wrote it though) is a very good book, and I suggest it to many. Some parts you might want to skip depending on the level of gore and such you can handle (I skipped the part about the nazi's camps.... Very distuisting).

Ahhh! It's the Oxford Comma!

I got the book of all the books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series to read!

Went to the library - still reading douglas adams - but picked up about 26 books. They will go fast, dude.

The Gospel According to Gracey - Susan Kingsbury

And Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury again

You're going to make me post three times in a row in this thread, aren't you.

Postcards From Berlin - Margaret Leroy

my dad is reading the "The Dark Tower" series... he likes them.

They're brilliant. Stephen King has managed to tie up all his books into one series. Amazing stuff!!

I'm reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson, currently, which is very amusing--much more amusing than my last book, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness .

Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire.

w/e

Chris Wooding - The Skein of Lament.

And mighty fine it is too.

Ms Wyoming by Douglas Coupland. but it just doent seem to hit me like Gen X, Micro Serfs and Shampoo planet. are his other books soo, hmm easy to put down?- I still have Girlfriend in a Coma on my book shelf gathering dust.

Right now I'm reading Memmnoch the Devil.. I've been stuck on page 385 for a few weeks. I haven't read much for a while. >< My favorite book of all time would have to be The Witching Hour. I <3 that book.

Just finished Orwell's 1984.