OMG BOOKS! ... for people who read books

[r00]

Someone gave me American Gods years ago, but I still haven't read it.  I really should at some point.

Right now I am on Book 4 (A Feast for Crows) of A Song of Ice and Fire series.  I haven't been able to read anything else since starting it. 

[Goose]

I've heard nothing but praise and the sound of ladies underpants being thrown whenever Neil Gaiman's name comes up, but I read the sample to American Gods from Amazon and it bored the crap out of me.  But, that's just me.

[Aaron]

Huh, ya, it isn't for everyone. But I'm really liking it. It's very different from what I normally read so maybe that is why I like it so much?

[Goose]

Yeah, my tastes definitely shouldn't be taken as a benchmark for anything.  I also can't stand Stephen King's writing either.  Tried repeatedly, couldn't close the book fast enough each time.

[luna]

Goose I just don't know about you anymore

Started reading The Twelve (Aaron!)

[Aaron]

About time Luna!

Goose have you tired the Dark Tower stuff? It isn't like his normal horror stuff... Granted I'm a huge fanboi so take it with a grain of salt...

[videodrone]

Started reading Cloud Atlas this past weekend. Finding it hard to get into it, but I think it's because I'm only reading it during my lunch breaks at work.

drone

[rynne]

I'm currently re-reading Mason & Dixon, which I still contend is the most enjoyable of Pynchon's longer works (at some point when I'm feeling ambitious I'll tackle Gravity's Rainbow again).

I also got a couple of weird fiction books for Christmas: Micheal Cisco's Celebrant and Reza Negarestani's Cyclonopedia. I was a big fan of Cisco's The Narrator (war fiction as fantastic nightmare), but I'm even more looking forward to Cyclonopedia based on the excerpt featured in  The Weird anthology. From what I can tell, it's an unbelieveable amalgam of Middle-East petrol philosophy, demonology, and academic study. Imagine Abdul Al Hazred as a 21st-century think tank intellectual crossed with the guy who developed the Time Cube: incredible and outlandish theorizing about the secret connections between oil, evil, and the empty desert, couched in language that's equally indicative of singular genius and utter insanity.

[luna]

I'm reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell on the recommendation of my kindle. Really enjoying it

[rynne]

Cyclonopedia is a total mind-fuck.


Take House of Leaves' nested narrative structure, except instead of Johnny Truant finding Zampano's notes on The Navidson Record, it's a Suicide Girl finding Reza Negrastani's (the actual author) notes on the works of the disappeared Iranian archeologist Hamid Parsani. Parsani's increasingly deranged publications postulate a sentient Middle East using malevolent petroleum to foster economic, religious, and political unrest in order to bring about the ultimate global desert. Evidence is given by a bewilderingly heterogeneous amalgam of theory from modern philosophy, demonic mathematics, extraterrestrial economics, disease systematics, etc., etc., citing sources as diverse as pre-Islamic sacred texts, discredited fringe geological models, and deep criticisms of John Carpenter's The Thing.


Every few pages I have to stop and wonder if the author is actually insane.

[Goose]

Finished Towers of Midnight: Book XIII of The Wheel of Time, the second-last book in the series.  The final novel, A Memory of Light, has finally been released in hardcover form, but I'm going to have to wait until April for the eBook.  Still pissed off about that.

I also finally read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.  I've never read any of his work before, but I'm a huge fan now.  It took me a while to get used to his writing style after reading Star Wars and WoT novels, just because its so dense and refined.  Every word is extremely important to what is happening right at that very instant in the plot, that I ended up slowing my reading speed way down just to be sure I was really getting all of it.  I loved it.  The story was awesome, especially given the level of tech that was out there at the time it was written.  It still seems like a plausible future today, which I don't know if that's a good thing or not given what he shows as the future.  I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, but the way the story laid itself out and the ideas presented were gorgeous sci-fi.  Pretty much everything he's written is now on my to-read list.

[sin]

Still chugging along on the "Dumarest of the Terra" series when I can afford them.  Recently finished "Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun" and I think this is probably really where Tubb hit his stride.  The books get formulaic at times (okay, MOST of the time), but the recent ones I've read in particular he seems to not nearly lean on that crutch as much.

edit: Plan on finishing "Haven of Darkness" tomorrow night at work.

[doom]

I'm starting to get interested in Witchcraft, and Black arts, Witch Trials, etc. for a story I want to write. If anyone can suggest anything, that would be pretty cool.

Also just got Chuck Palahniuks Kindle Single, Phoenix. About to start that.

ALSO,
delving into reading the Game of Thrones series with some friends, because I love the show.

[Aaron]

So since my pc shit the bed. I have read Fight Club. Next is Black House by King and Strain. Then Insomnia by King...

[Aaron]

Uh so my phone changed his name... Oops... For whatever reason I picked up the TDT books. I'm on book 4 Wizzard and Glass. Love them books. 

I watched Dune today (the shorter movie not the 3 hour one) anyway. It makes me want to read the book. I may have asked this before. But how are the rest the books in the series? I know Dune was the first book. But are the rest good as well? (or only really worth it if I love Dune?)

Also want to get Anthony Bourdain's first book since I'm a huge fan of his show.

I will also be buying Cyclonopedia as soon as Amazon has it back in stock... Its on my wish list at lest...