Literature?

[webwit]

Gibson's problem is that he already wrote his best work a long time ago, and he will never write a better one. Neuromancer has been so influential it kind of became a self-fulfilling prophecy (despite the fact he wrote about a future you don't want). A simple example of this is terminology like cyberspace or the matrix.

[Findecanor]

I read mostly sci-fi and fantasy. I have read most of the Dune books. I have read all of Wheel of time except the latest one (second reworked by Brian Sanderson). The Mistborn trilogy (by Brian Sanderson) was quite unusual. I am most of all looking forward to the next one in the A song of Ice and Fire series by George R R Martin.

A few Star Wars novels now and then also, but I am very choosy: There are some storylines in SW books that I don't care for at all. I have also read all Harry Potter books, but I am not a Potterhead.

[sixty]

I am most of all looking forward to the next one in the A song of Ice and Fire series by George R R Martin.

Same here.. about damn time too.

[vils]

I finished Christopher Hitchens autobiography Hitch-22 and Nick Cohen's What's left? a few weeks ago.
Since then I've re-read Dawkins The selfish gene, Pinker's The blank slate and How the mind works.
I'm currently reading Sam Harris The moral landscape and Michael Shermer's Why people belive weird things
I've also re-read some Heinlein novels and a few Val McDermid crime-novels.

Harold McGee's On food and cooking, Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of plenty and Masaharu Morimoto's The new art of japanese cooking are also currently read with pleasure.

[vils]

My all time favourite book though is Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo.

Very good book and film I must add.

Julian Barnes, Isaac Asimov, Koestler, Orwell, Mary Stewart, Celine and Strindberg are other favourites.

[JelinaNU]

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I mention this because it's otaku melodrama - you'll love it.

Pattern Recognition is one of my favorite novels. I've read it multiple times despite my feeling that the ending was rushed. Spook Country is a pseudo-sequel, but I didn't actually know that until after I started reading it. I've not yet gotten a copy of Zero Hour, which supposedly ties-up the series.

[Half-Saint]

Currently reading Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals. Next in line is Huxley's Brave New World. Been reading mostly Discworld novels the last couple of years with some Arto Paasilinna in between and books on climbing.

[The Solutor]

Lot of SF classics.

Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Bova, and so on...

[webwit]

How do you read your books? Paper or ereader or... ?

I've been using a Sony PRS650 for the last couple of months, I love it!

[Brian8bit]

I use a Kindle. The only reason I would use paper now is because there isn't a Kindle version available.

I've been reading George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice & Fire series and I'm currently on book four, A Feast For Crows. Possibly one of the best high fantasy series I've read in a long time. I started reading them as people where discussing on another forum that the HBO series was starting. So I decided to give the first book a go to see what all the hype was about and loved it.

[sixty]

Book four is by far the worst in the series. Boring boring boring. Next one is coming out in two months or something. Only has been 10 years since last reading of Tyrion. Can't wait.

What do you think of the HBO series now after reading the book? Personally I found it quite well done, even if rushed... but that is always a problem with TV adoptions.

[Brian8bit]

I'm avoiding watching the series until it's finished it's run, then I'm going to download the lot and give it a watch from start to finish over a couple of days. On the Overclockers forum though, those who have read the books also say it is very well done.

[TheSoulhunter]

Vocational school books (Fachkundebücher), you'll learn a lot interesting stuff that is also useful in daily life...

[webwit]

Deskthority, what else?

ereader.jpg (151.23 KiB) Viewed 5288 times

[Brian8bit]

I finished book four a couple days ago and I have to say, I loved it. I was worried when Sixty said it was the most boring of the series, that it would drag. But I enjoyed it just as much as the rest. And while it didn't focus on many of the main characters from the previous books, I did enjoy following them on their travels and where on the wind they ended up. I have the 5th book on pre-order, but in the meantime I'm reading Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy.

[gorb]

I finally got around to rereading The Name of the Wind this weekend and then read The Wise Man's Fear. I hope the third book comes out relatively quickly :(

[sixty]

I finally got around to rereading The Name of the Wind this weekend and then read The Wise Man's Fear. I hope the third book comes out relatively quickly

Sadly it won't. In some recent interview Rothfuss mentioned he would take his time and not be as stupid as the last time and announce a date earlier than he could ever realistically hold. I guess it will be a few years till we see how Kvothe ends up being that weak innkeeper...

[sixty]

I finished book four a couple days ago and I have to say, I loved it. I was worried when Sixty said it was the most boring of the series, that it would drag. But I enjoyed it just as much as the rest. And while it didn't focus on many of the main characters from the previous books, I did enjoy following them on their travels and where on the wind they ended up. I have the 5th book on pre-order, but in the meantime I'm reading Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy.

I'm surprised. The only thing I liked about book 4 is Littlefinger and some of Sam's adventures. If those were missing I think I would have fallene asleep on the book even more often than I already did!

[webwit]

You read a lot of books about men named after their fingers

[gorb]

I finally got around to rereading The Name of the Wind this weekend and then read The Wise Man's Fear. I hope the third book comes out relatively quickly :(

Sadly it won't. In some recent interview Rothfuss mentioned he would take his time and not be as stupid as the last time and announce a date earlier than he could ever realistically hold. I guess it will be a few years till we see how Kvothe ends up being that weak innkeeper... :|

:(

[Brian8bit]

I'm surprised. The only thing I liked about book 4 is Littlefinger and some of Sam's adventures. If those were missing I think I would have fallene asleep on the book even more often than I already did!

Both those story forks were interesting, especially to see the web Littlefinger is weaving for his "daughter". Though both stories create more questions than they answer. And the return of the stone woman and what she does to Brienne and Podrick was also fantastic. I can't wait to find out what happens to them. The only story fork I did find dragged slightly was Arya's.

Sometimes I feel authors skimp on character development. And I really enjoy reading complex character development. Which there's certainly no lack of in these books, which is probably why I've enjoyed them so much.

[sixty]

Amazon.de shipped 180 copies of a Dance with Dragons today - 2 weeks a head of the release. Gotta love software errors. Spoilers are all over the net now. So if you can't deal with spoilers - keep far away from literature forums for the next two weeks.

I couldn't help myself and went to read them all.

[webwit]

So has anyone been doing any reading lately? Me, I suffered a slight Asimov addiction the past year and have been reading most of his books, including Foundation and the Robot series. Not sure which book is my favorite. Possibly The Gods Themselves or the End of Eternity. Not literature, he told the stories and only the stories by his own persistent admission, but very intelligent reading, more intelligent than most so called literature.

[ripster]

Game of Thrones series.

Just My Type (book of fonts)

And your favorite: The Steve Jobs Biography.

[webwit]

Was it approved by Steve Jobs?

Wait.

[guilleguillaume]

I've been reading The hypnotist from Lars Kepler and I'm enjoying it. I'm very lazy when it comes to start reading but when I start it's difficult to make a pause until I finish the book or feel exhausted so I have to stop reading

[nathanscribe]

Still haven't finished Gravity's Rainbow. It's a big pile of unadulterated crap - occasionally brilliant crap, but still. Luckily I have other things to do. Went back and read The Hobbit for the first time since I was about 12, and Nennius' Historia.

Laugh a minute, me.

[Grond]

I love Pynchon. It's not everyone's piece of cake, of course. Some people consider it an acquired taste and only get into it after two or three of his novels. You should give him a second chance, maybe with "the crying of lot 49" or "inherent vice". Both are way more accessible thant "gravity's rainbow".

[mintberryminuscrunch]

dresden files, again

[nathanscribe]

I love Pynchon. It's not everyone's piece of cake, of course.

Quite. I've already read and enjoyed COL49 and V (and Slow Learner, which is a bit weak I think), but Gravity's Rainbow is just a but too uncontrolled and rambling for me. His others are all waiting on the shelf. I'm getting through GR by slow, sporadic increments. Must have read a dozen other novels in the meantime...

More these days I'm favouring writing that is tight, yet open - Thursbitch I've already listed, but stuff like Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut) - and less the kind of writing that foregrounds itself with stylistic extravagance. As good at that as Pynchon is, I find it tiring in such large doses.