What are you reading?
- Thread starter Snowlilly
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I read Autopsy Room Four by Stephen King last night and finished From a Buick 8. 
I don't think I mentioned that I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. It was light, but very good. It evolved from the “curiosity shop” genre to the “secret society” genre to something resembling William Gibson on Prozac. The protagonist is an amiable everyman who gets involved in every situation basically as a result of his good nature. His girlfriend is very much a Gibsonian cowboy and Google, which is where she works, is very much like the cyberspace of the Sprawl novels. But instead of existing in a used-up world of decay, it takes place in a bright and shiny technological Renaissance, like the original Star Trek. It was really very nice. And it was full of great characters, none of whom were evil. The one “bad guy” wasn’t really that bad at all. He just had a philosophical disagreement with the others.
Now I'm beta-reading another novel by a friend, a Hard SF Space Opera. So far, it's putting me in mind of books like Cities In Flight, Ringworld, and Psychohistorical Crisis.
Now I'm beta-reading another novel by a friend, a Hard SF Space Opera. So far, it's putting me in mind of books like Cities In Flight, Ringworld, and Psychohistorical Crisis.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
and
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
and
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
^I luv his stories with those three witches...
I finished Bag of Bones by Stephen King around 3AM this morning.
So, finished Speak by Lousia Hall and it was amazing. I was almost ready to give up early on as I was having trouble getting into it, but then something changed and it grabbed me in such a way that few novels have recently. It's a quiet introspective novel with no enemies that has a lot of philosophical thought about AI. I greatly recommend it.
Just started Influx by Daniel Suarez, a fun Chrighton-esque sci-fi.
Just started Influx by Daniel Suarez, a fun Chrighton-esque sci-fi.
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"The Silk Roads" and "Atonement (one of my favorite movies)."
Still on Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen - onto book 4 now, House of Chains. At 1000 odd pages a book, with limited time on the trains, this series is taking time to read, but still enjoying how well planned and interconnected it all is.
Hugo - Wise words are like arrows flung at your forehead. What do you do? Why, you duck of course.
Hugo - Wise words are like arrows flung at your forehead. What do you do? Why, you duck of course.
Frederik Pohls Homegoing, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homegoing_(novel).
I am only reading it to take a little breather inbetween reading other stuff, so am positively surprised (Pohl isn't always like this)... A human is raised aboard an interstellar craft of aliens. His mission, to make first contact with Earth...
I read 25% of it before putting it down for the first time; relatively easy read, interresting aliens (family structure, psychology, societal structure), BIG ship (but not a lot of technobabble), and only because things are about to happen did I pause to have a little peek around the web, wanted to know what others thought about it, well, I also had to go pee and make a sarnie...
I am only reading it to take a little breather inbetween reading other stuff, so am positively surprised (Pohl isn't always like this)... A human is raised aboard an interstellar craft of aliens. His mission, to make first contact with Earth...
I read 25% of it before putting it down for the first time; relatively easy read, interresting aliens (family structure, psychology, societal structure), BIG ship (but not a lot of technobabble), and only because things are about to happen did I pause to have a little peek around the web, wanted to know what others thought about it, well, I also had to go pee and make a sarnie...
A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.
I'm in between books right now. I finished The Eleventh Plague this morning. I'm thinking of reading My Live by Bill Clinton or some other Presidential book.
After reading the both funny and intriguing Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennet, I found another: Star Trek: Indistinguishable From Magic by David A. McIntee, which I didn't like; it is written like a 'guess who the next guest-appearing Star Trek Canon character will be'-mystery... Not my cuppa.
I really don't like military SciFi either. Mostly, I think, because I don't understand the jargon; pages and pages of acronyms and people with weird titles (many of those with acronyms attached) and destriptions of military hardware (all written in acronyms (and inches thrown in just for the greater confusion)) and programs (acronyms!) and whatnot.
If a some such thing as car maintenance SciFi existed, I wouldn't like that either.
I did however enjoy reading (most of
) John Ringe and Travis Taylors Von Neumann's War.
I think I may have mentioned that I finished Frederik Pohls Homegoing in one go; It reads a bit like a 'young adult' story, but not in a way that interferes with the enjoyment of reading it for 'older, more mature' readers. I'd recommend it to everyone.
Yesterday I got hooked on Lucky Luke and read all I have of it... (~3.5 inches worth) -Might get into Asterix later today.
In a 2004 interview about his novel Hogg, Samuel R. Delany calls the book pornography and goes on to say...
It's not so much the pornographic content as such, and it is surprisingly nice to read a story where the sex isn't just gratuitously added interludes but an important part of the plot (the actual fetiches and practises described can be a hard read though, definately not for the timid -so I read a lot of SciFi when I have to put this down for a short breather).
The sex is an important part of the story as the plot describes the lives of young gay men in New York pre and post both Stonewall and AIDS.
Oh yes, and Delany has a way with language... You'll know it from his SciFi i hope.
Currently also reading Stephen Baxters collection of short stories, Vacuum Diagrams. I like these so much better than his enormous volumes of neverending novels.
I really don't like military SciFi either. Mostly, I think, because I don't understand the jargon; pages and pages of acronyms and people with weird titles (many of those with acronyms attached) and destriptions of military hardware (all written in acronyms (and inches thrown in just for the greater confusion)) and programs (acronyms!) and whatnot.
If a some such thing as car maintenance SciFi existed, I wouldn't like that either.
I did however enjoy reading (most of
) John Ringe and Travis Taylors Von Neumann's War.I think I may have mentioned that I finished Frederik Pohls Homegoing in one go; It reads a bit like a 'young adult' story, but not in a way that interferes with the enjoyment of reading it for 'older, more mature' readers. I'd recommend it to everyone.
Yesterday I got hooked on Lucky Luke and read all I have of it... (~3.5 inches worth) -Might get into Asterix later today.
In a 2004 interview about his novel Hogg, Samuel R. Delany calls the book pornography and goes on to say...
He could say the same about The Mad Man: Or, The Mysteries of ManhattanSamuel R. Delany said:
It's not so much the pornographic content as such, and it is surprisingly nice to read a story where the sex isn't just gratuitously added interludes but an important part of the plot (the actual fetiches and practises described can be a hard read though, definately not for the timid -so I read a lot of SciFi when I have to put this down for a short breather).
The sex is an important part of the story as the plot describes the lives of young gay men in New York pre and post both Stonewall and AIDS.
Oh yes, and Delany has a way with language... You'll know it from his SciFi i hope.
Currently also reading Stephen Baxters collection of short stories, Vacuum Diagrams. I like these so much better than his enormous volumes of neverending novels.
Finished Delanys The Mad Man, now reading his Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.
And for time-outs from that, I picked up Asimovs Nightfall & Other Stories.
And for time-outs from that, I picked up Asimovs Nightfall & Other Stories.
Just read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which is the script of the play that just opened in London. Fun to be back in Harry's world, but it felt like they tried to squeeze in too many complications for the length of time. I don't want to be too specific, in case someone else is planning to read it, but there's one aspect of the story that had me feeling like I was reading Star Trek instead of Harry Potter.
I'm taking a break from My Life by Bill Clinton and reading Arc Light, a nuclear war story.
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
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Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar
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Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar
