What are you reading?

[Starkers]

Yeah, it's a great story! Only wish it had been longer. If anything this is a story I would have liked to see expanded upon in a full novel.

Along the same lines, is one of my favourite stories by Ben Bova, The Dueling Machine. Imagine entering a phonebooth type of thing to enter a world in order to settle disputes between two people, with the idea of not having to get hurt. Only in this story, someone does die due to a malfunction. Or is it?

Yes it definitely could have been expanded into a much larger story.

About halfway through now the that one is still probably the best. Some haven't aged well, I'm sure The Other Foot was quite daring for the time but now...well it was a little wince inducing reading it.

Yeah, I had much the same impression. Some were rather awkward to read and just left me wondering what they were on about. Even the one with all the historical figures and the witches? Couldn't figure out what was going on half the time.

Was that Usher II? The one set on Mars in the automated haunted/murder house? Shades of Fahrenheit 451 in that I think.

Almost finished now, seems that the UK issue that I'm reading has certain stories missing with other ones added (for example the one with the orbs from the Martian Chronicles is excised yet the similarly Martian themed Usher II is added?

 

[Owain Taggart]

Was that Usher II? The one set on Mars in the automated haunted/murder house? Shades of Fahrenheit 451 in that I think.

Almost finished now, seems that the UK issue that I'm reading has certain stories missing with other ones added (for example the one with the orbs from the Martian Chronicles is excised yet the similarly Martian themed Usher II is added?

I can't really remember the titles offhand at the moment, as everything ended up being a blur, but I think I had both of the stories. I remember the story with the orbs and I remember something very much like Fahrenheit 451, with fiction being banned.

Honestly, the last half of the book felt like stories set on Mars that hadn't made the cut for Martian Chronicles, and they didn't particularly stand out for me. They started feeling like they were too much of the same thing.

 

[Skellington]

Recently finished Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's 1872 vampire novella. It's like Jane Austen meets Hammer Horror, largely because it pretty much directly inspired certain Hammer movies such as Twins Of Evil. Loved it, a very pleasurable read.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Forgotten Ally: China's World War 2.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I'm reading Endgame Sky Key.

 

[kirk55555]

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

 

[Velocity]

The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith, and Idiocy by Rainn Wilson

 

[Smellincoffee]

Emma, Jane Austen

As part of a book challenge for 2015, I have to read a classic romance. This is the last entry on the list. Only 300 more pages of people talking endlessly about their social lives to go...

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

Gifted Hands by Dr. Ben Carson, as well as books by Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, and Alison Arngrim (stars of Little House on the Prairie TV show).

 

[tomalak301]

I finished DS9: Unity this week and I figured I'd take a step back from Trek for a while. I got an Itunes gift card and bought a hockey book from one of my favorite Hockey Podcasters, Greg Wyshynski, called "Take Your Eye Off The Puck". I just started, but it's basically a book on how to watch the various nuances of the game. Should be interesting.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass. The 1st in his new Cinder Spires series. So far I'm enjoying it.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Just finished Gladiator by Philip Wylie.

Started Caught in the Light by Robert Goddard.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon. Fun read! [ETA that I wrote this about halfway through the book, right before it suddenly got way more serious. Still a good read, but not necessarily fun.]

The Murderer's Daughter, Jonathan Kellerman. Creative plot; otherwise awful. I really wanted to like the strong female protagonist, but I couldn't -- she was almost as effed up as the "bad guys" in the story. And l hated the gratuitous detailed sexual violence near the end.

Humans of New York Stories, Brandon Statton. Just starrted it. Stories and photos from HONY, enjoyable in bits and pieces, like over dinner.

 

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I recently read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and Earth Abides. I'm now reading Swan Song.

 

[Saga]

A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin

 

[Smellincoffee]

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming, Mike Brown

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I'm going to do this 2016 reading challenge that a friend posted on Facebook (not sure where it comes from):

a book published this year
a book you can finish in a day
a book you've been meaning to read
a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
a book you should have read in school
a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF
a book published before you were born
a book that was banned at some point
a book you previously abandoned
a book you own but have never read
a book that intimidates you
a book you've already read at least once

Anyone else want to give it a try?

 

[Velocity]

New Scientist magazine Holiday Special

 

[RJDiogenes]

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming, Mike Brown

The dog or the planet?

I'm going to do this 2016 reading challenge that a friend posted on Facebook (not sure where it comes from):

a book published this year
a book you can finish in a day
a book you've been meaning to read
a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
a book you should have read in school
a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF
a book published before you were born
a book that was banned at some point
a book you previously abandoned
a book you own but have never read
a book that intimidates you
a book you've already read at least once

Anyone else want to give it a try?

I could try it. The hardest ones would be "previously abandoned" and "intimidates you," because I can't imagine what those would be. Also, "recommended by local librarian or bookseller," because that would probably be something mainstream that would bore me.