What BOOK(s) are you reading?

@Dair: Just read Ulysses, don't worry about it. People gloss over how fucking comedic of a writer Joyce was in the rush to be all erudite about it. I mean, one of the most famous scenes is a middle aged man jerking off behind a rock fantasizing about a crippled teenage girl. A significant percentage of the book is just total groaners of puns. You don't have to be recreating Dublin 1904 in your head to enjoy it, or have a complete grasp of the Odyssey. Just fucking do it.

Read ROBOPOCALYPSE, which opens strong and finishes poorly. It's a zombie book where zombies are robots. I really liked how the AI gets out, but after that things get a little (very) dumb.

Read BLOOD FEUD about the pharma industry (J&J) in particular and how eeeeeeviiiiiiiillllll they are. Fucking terrible. Hey, writers, if you are going to write an exposé on some industry, maybe bone up a little on what that industry does. The author selected her narrative and bent facts to match it. I thought the subject matter was interesting and deserves a book, but this is not it. Also, the writer is a hack who hacks hacks.

Finished KRAKEN by China Mieville. All I could think of was how more folks should read Clive Barker's IMAJICA.

I remember reading IMAJICA in highschool -- great book. I might reread it this weekend.

Finished GRRM's Clash of Kings yesterday afternoon and started Storm of Swords last night. I've got Westeros fever. Been a long time since I've read fantasy but that series pretty much rocks and I blame HBO for getting me into it.

I'm about 70 pages into The Gun Seller by Hugh (House) Laurie. Hilarious. I'd absolutely love to see the Coen Brothers opt it as a film (reminds me of Ethan Coen's writing, except much more... British) with Hugh in the lead role.

Harkonnen13 wrote: Finished GRRM's Clash of Kings yesterday afternoon and started Storm of Swords last night. I've got Westeros fever. Been a long time since I've read fantasy but that series pretty much rocks and I blame HBO for getting me into it.

Don't worry, your fever will quickly cool when you get to Feast For Crows.

Gary Sax wrote: Don't worry, your fever will quickly cool when you get to Feast For Crows.

I guess I'll find out when I get there. I've been doing a good job of avoiding spoilers so I won't even ask. If it just plain sucks I'll find that out too.

Yes, I'm about 90% through A Dance with Dragons. I have two words for you: God Emperor.

Morat Gurgeh wrote: God Emperor.

Leto Atreides II?

Recently finished In Fifty Years, We'll All Be Chicks by Adam Carolla. It's shorter than I'd thought it would be, funny in most areas but not all.

Currently, I'm reading MogWorld by Yahtzee Crowshaw (ZP fame). So far, it's pretty good. Main character dies, is resurrected as a zombie, wants to die but can't, and starts to find out strange things going on in the land, like nobody dies permanently and no new people are being born.
His cushy gig as a minion is soon wiped out and now he and his motely crew are trying to find the way to REALLY die.

After that, I have a Gav Thorpe novel to read. I just hope it's better than Farseer.

The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme by John Keegan

This one looked to the human condition on the battlefield in all three battles, focusing almost exclusively on the enlisted man. It's an older book (refers to Viet Nam in the present tense at one point) but it still rings solid regarding life in the combat zone. Though I'm less interested in Waterloo than the other two battles, I think it was the most insightful portion of the book due to its emphasis on Control.

Keegan rambles a bit at the beginning and the end and could have used a more heavy-handed editor for those parts, but the core of the book was a great read. This was on Kindle via text-to-speech for me.

S.

THE CORRECTIONS by Jonathan Franzen. Great book. Knocked it out over the weekend. Made me want to re-read INFINITE JEST, which is a nice comparison. He writes like a more "user-friendly" DFW.

I'm in the middle of 1984. I'm digging it. Orwell was either a Communist who didn't really believe the cause or he was fucking terrified of it.

stormseeker75 wrote: I'm in the middle of 1984. I'm digging it. Orwell was either a Communist who didn't really believe the cause or he was fucking terrified of it.

One of my favorites. I'm pretty sure he wasn't a communist.

I am a little more than half way through Dracula. It is interesting to read the original story, as all I know about Drac is from bastardized versions in film. Unfortunately, this one has been a bit ponderous to read. The setup has dragged on forever and, while it might have been interesting when vampire story was something new and unknown, has mad it very difficult to truly say I have enjoyed the book so far. I hope the second half of the story picks up the pace.

I've been reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It's an impressive book so far, if a little dense at times. I'm about 100 pages from the end at this point, and I'm excited to get into the sequel as well.