What are you reading?

[uc pseudonym]

Do we have any Malazan readers still logging in here? I finished The Crippled God and I want to talk with someone about it. As a whole, I'd say this series was just barely worth my time - that sounds like a criticism, but it's actually pretty impressive considering it was close to 3.5 million words.

I definitely don't recommend it to people who don't like long fantasy. It's also uneven, but I'll take moments of brilliance over extended mediocrity any day. The series definitely leverages the strengths of long stories: the last novel is basically 100% payoff. The final conflict captures an epic feel you don't get very often because there are so many sides that have each had entire novels' worth of story devoted to them. Satisfying.

[SierraLea]

I finished On the Wings of Morning, which is by the same author as The Hawk and the Jewel. It was just as good, but not as funny as the other one, although it came close. I'm starting on my thrid one from her, Who Brings Forth the Wind, and I already spotted the couple in this one.

[SierraLea]

Halfway through Donita K. Paul's The Vanishing Sculptor. A month ago it was marked down to five bucks, so I thought, why not? It's okay, so far, but not as good as her Dragon Keeper series.

You are in for a treat. That series is one of her best, and I have read both. It doesn't have as many books ans the Dragon Keeper, but is still very good.
Also, if you liked the Dragon Keeper series, I should recommend The Door Within trilogy. It is one of my favorite christian fantasy books ever, but you have to read all three to understand why.

[TheMewster]

I recently finished The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. Now I'm reading The Case for a Creator.

[SierraLea]

I recently finished The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe.

Have you seen the movie?

[rocklobster]

Reading Desire of the Everlasting Hills. Fascinating stuff about the world Jesus lived in.

[Vilo159]

Reading Huckleberry Finn for a summer reading assignment, about half way through. Much better than I expected it to be, I'm enjoying it a lot.

[rocklobster]

Now reading Defending Your Faith: an Introduction to Apologetics by R.C. Sproul

[MomentOfInertia]

Economics: Principles, Problems, Decisions by Mansfield, for school.

[mysngoeshere56]

"Holes" by Louis Sachar.

[Atria35]

More Complete Father Brown. I was having a decently good time with it until I got to a particular story that really made this show it's age, with all it's rampant xenophobic and racial slurred glory. It's no understatement to say that I'm incredibly bothered by it and can't really let it go because it was so strong and blatant.

[bigsleepj]

More Complete Father Brown. I was having a decently good time with it until I got to a particular story that really made this show it's age, with all it's rampant xenophobic and racial slurred glory. It's no understatement to say that I'm incredibly bothered by it and can't really let it go because it was so strong and blatant.

I think I know the one you mean, and I felt very much the same way. *sigh*

[SierraLea]

I have started the second Hunger Games, and I wish Katniss would just hurry up and pick one!

[rocklobster]

More Complete Father Brown. I was having a decently good time with it until I got to a particular story that really made this show it's age, with all it's rampant xenophobic and racial slurred glory. It's no understatement to say that I'm incredibly bothered by it and can't really let it go because it was so strong and blatant.

Every writer has a story that they're disappointed with.
Oh, and I'm reading Cornelia Funke's Reckless

[Atria35]

Every writer has a story that they're disappointed with.
Oh, and I'm reading Cornelia Funke's Reckless

G. K. Chesterton never, ever wrote anything saying that he was disappointed with that particular story. And somehow, I doubt he was, since he was prejudiced in a few other ways and it shows through in a number of these stories.

I think you mean that 'every reader has a story they're disappointed with', because that was most certainly the case for me.

Anycase, reading nothing at the moment because I forgot my Nook at home, as well as my library card Since I'm used to bedding down with a book, this is driving me a bit up the wall.

[FllMtl Novelist]

I wish Katniss would just hurry up and pick one!

You might need some chocolate before you finish.

[Maokun]

G. K. Chesterton never, ever wrote anything saying that he was disappointed with that particular story. And somehow, I doubt he was, since he was prejudiced in a few other ways and it shows through in a number of these stories.

Wow....... I had been telling myself for a while that I really should get around reading something by GKC sometime and just now I realize that I already have! I read one of Father Brown's compilations when I was in my teens. Worst thing is that I was on an Agatha Christie high back then and thought them really poor attempts of some random dude to enter the genre of which A. Christie was supreme regent by ripping off (sorta) Miss Marple. I didn't even notice that book predated Agatha Christie's.

Mindblown.

[Michael]

Manalive by Chesterton is a much better show of his literary ability.

I'm reading:
Old Man's War - John Scalzi (Very good sci-fi so far, kinda like Starship Troopers)
The Black Jacobins - C.L.R. James (It was big when English and American casual communism was fashionable. His take on the Haitian revolution is unique for other reasons too: James is a "benefactor" of British colonialism.)
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (I'm probably gonna put this down. I just finished the section on the Ultimate 747 gambit, and it was a terrible philosophical argument.)
Picadilly Jim - P.G. Whodehouse (The preferred anti-depressant.)

[mysngoeshere56]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

[Atria35]

Wow....... I had been telling myself for a while that I really should get around reading something by GKC sometime and just now I realize that I already have! I read one of Father Brown's compilations when I was in my teens. Worst thing is that I was on an Agatha Christie high back then and thought them really poor attempts of some random dude to enter the genre of which A. Christie was supreme regent by ripping off (sorta) Miss Marple. I didn't even notice that book predated Agatha Christie's.

Mindblown.

xD I know! It's wierd to realize when a lot of these were written! I don't check the dates on a lot of things I read, so I am often surprised to find out something I adore is 50 years old, or something I thought was 50 years old is only 3.

Finished the Hunger Games series yesterday. Thoughts in appropriate thread.

[Maokun]

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins (I'm probably gonna put this down. I just finished the section on the Ultimate 747 gambit, and it was a terrible philosophical argument.)

I'd recommend reading The Blind Watchmaker instead in which Dawkins appears as the great scientist and witty writer he is, with minimal attempts to use faulty logic to transform sound science into hateful, biased contrivance.

Now that the saga of A Song of Ice and Fire has loosened its cruel clutch on me (until the next book is released,) I'm back to my venture of reading Terry Pratchett's entire bibliography. Now reading: The Hogfather (yessss! another Death book!)

[Neane]

I'd recommend reading The Blind Watchmaker instead in which Dawkins appears as the great scientist and witty writer he is, with minimal attempts to use faulty logic to transform sound science into hateful, biased contrivance.

Agreeing with this, Richard Dawkins is a good biologist by all means but he is a horrible thinker and philosopher and generally speaking I have to say is one of the worst advocators for atheism seen in a long while (well okay, Richard Carrier with his blue butt monkeys is even worse). His arguments are weak, old and refuted centuries ago for the most part (something Dawkins would know were he not a vacuous sophist) and his original one(s) are utterly horrible: "who designed the designer" is simply terribad.

Instead of poisoning your head with sillyness I recommend looking into some good literature on the subject. There are many good intelligently argued books by lucid and educated thinkers but if I had to recommend only one book it would be Edward Feser's The Last Superstition: A refutation of the new atheism

There's also far, far more competent literature from atheistic side of spectrum. Going with Dawkins or any other of the "four horsemen" is just terrible idea in the first place.

[rocklobster]

Well, I finished Reckless. And I have to say, Funke, you exceeded my expectations. I expected it to be good, but not that good! WOW!
anywho, Starting M is For Magic by Neil Gaiman.

[Kaori]

Patricia McKillip’s The Bell At Sealey Head: mediocre IMHO. McKillip tends to use and reuse the same stylistic quirks, especially in her newer books, and it has started to seem like an affectation to me. The plot was reasonably well-done (though I would have liked to see the story-within-the-story connect more closely to the book's other two plot threads), but it doesn't really say anything meaningful about anything. I think that McKillip's early-career works are better than her more recent ones, which is a sad thing to have to say about an author whose books I have often enjoyed.

This Immortal by Roger Zelazny. A couple of people I know really, really love this book. I found it to be a reasonably entertaining story, but nothing more than that. Without being pedantic in the least, Zelazny uses all sorts of allusions to mythology and such, which is cool, but despite that I just somehow didn't particularly take a liking to his distinctive writing style.

The Berserker Wars by Fred Saberhagen: As with most short story collections, the quality is mixed. Some of the stories were quite decent. Others were almost unbearably pulpy. The collection would be much improved had Saberhagen steered entirely clear of romance (in the sense of love stories, not in the sense of chivalric tales) and stuck to battle, intrigue, time travel, history, and the like. He does all right with friendships between men, but any kind of male-female relationships are without exception appallingly pulpy. Best line: "Your skull contains a vacuum of a truly intergalactic order.”

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict. As the introduction points out, this does have some limitations—being written in 1946 makes it rather dated, and the author stresses the rigidity and formality of the Japanese social structures of on and giri to exclusions of other aspects of the Japanese spirit. However, it still does yield very valuable insights into Japanese culture. Useful for a reader who already knows some things about Japanese culture; it would not be a good choice for an introduction to Japanese anthropology.

日本人の心 (Heart and Soul of the Japanese) by Yamakuse Yoji. This one is much more current (2011), and it gives an overview of a much broader array of aspects of Japanese culture. The difference between this book and the other is that this one is a shallow overview of many different things, whereas Benedict’s book is an in-depth analysis of the Japanese social structure as related to on, chuu, and giri. Really, any one of the thirteen chapters in 日本人の心 could justifiably have a whole book devoted to it. And overall, the book is just very Japanese in a way that is hard to explain—there are lots of cautious and vague statements of exactly the sort that Japanese like making and that tend to frustrate Westerners (“Unfortunately, all social values have bad aspects as well as good”). The fact that it's a bilingual book is helpful, though.

[HetalianKatana4]

I recently finished The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. Now I'm reading The Case for a Creator.

The Narnia series is my ultimate favorite books series with The Silver Chair being my favorite book! have you read all of them yet?

[Jolly Roger]

Just finished The Man who was Thursday by G.K.C

Awesome stuff.

[rocklobster]

Will be starting The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln soon.

[seaglass27]

Will be starting The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln soon.

What is this? It sounds interesting.

Reading "The New Catechism of the Catholic Church" out of curiosity.

[rocklobster]

It's a speculative fiction book that plays "What if Lincoln didn't get murdered?" Also, OJ, if you have any questions about the Catechism, don't hesitate to PM me!"

[Maokun]

his original one(s) are utterly horrible: "who designed the designer" is simply terribad.

Man, I know! I seriously slapped my face when I read that one. Goes to show that hateful bias can make the most learned of men spout the most eye-rollingly disingenous statements.