Question What are you reading?

[martins]

and I'm reading 'The Wasp Factory' by Banks. Disturbing stuff.

Ah yes, I remember that one. Pretty gruesome.

I have just finished all the 'easy reading' stuff I had around, so I am currently chewing my way through the books that had accumulated at the bottom of my bookpile:

Re-reading Darwin's The Origin of Species (monumental, but a bit dry)
Jelinek's Die Kinder der Toten (dire)
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Dylan Thomas' Collected Poems

 

[dougkeenan]

"A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Life of William Dampier: Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer"

 

[EJ316]

Shakespeare's Sonnets

I find the Sonnets quite hard to read through just as reading material as I studied them quite a lot at school, so I have partially sacrificed the enjoyment of reading them so that I can understand what they actually mean a bit better.

 

[Arrowstar]

I've got the following going at the moment:
-Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle)
-"The Bible Unearthed" (Finkelstein and Silberman)

Tex: You sound like you've never read Ender's Game before? If so, on an excellent choice. Even though the book is meant for young adults, some of the concepts and moral/ethical situations presented are clearly far more detailed than that and I think there's something for everyone to learn in there. If you enjoy it, there are other books in the same storyline by Card that you can take a look at and pick up. Highly recommended, all of them.

 

[Andy44]

Working through three currently:

The Shadow Factory by James Bamford

Battle of Sauron created by Jerry Pournelle

1776 by David McCullough

 

[Pilot7893]

For my summer reading project, I had to read "Life as we knew it." It had a good story line, just not that good science in orbital mechanics. As we all know, one orbital ajustment, be it asteroid impact or engine burn, cannot shrink the size of an entire orbit. Uh, right?:huh:

 

[Tex]

Tex: You sound like you've never read Ender's Game before? If so, on an excellent choice. Even though the book is meant for young adults, some of the concepts and moral/ethical situations presented are clearly far more detailed than that and I think there's something for everyone to learn in there. If you enjoy it, there are other books in the same storyline by Card that you can take a look at and pick up. Highly recommended, all of them.

Indeed I haven't read it, looked good in the book store. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Tex]

I finished reading "Ender's Game". Great book! A book for all age groups interested in space & science fiction, not just young adults.

I just picked up the next 2 books in the series, "Speaker for the Dead" and "Xenocide".

 

[Redburne]

I just picked up the next 2 books in the series, "Speaker for the Dead" and "Xenocide".

That had been my reaction upon finishing it, too.

Good books, and quite different to Ender's Game. I read the whole series, though it couldn't really compete with the fresh and unique idea of the first book.

Currently, I'm in the process of finishing the last pages of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Wow, what an epic work! I would not mind following the character's lives for another book, or two, although it has been slow going in some parts of the trilogy (as Major Tom already pointed out). Neal is simply brilliant.

"Anathem" is already waiting on the shelf, but I think a little break from Stephenson's work will make it even more enjoyable. For the same reason, I will skip "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Gosh, of which I've read some good reviews (plus one comment on Amazon that sold me: "if you liked the Baroque Cycle, you will love Sea of Poppies ...").

That leaves me with "Feersum Endjinn" (Ian M. Banks), "Catch 22" (Joseph Heller), and "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" (Michael Chabon) to choose from.

Decisions, decisions ...

 

[Andy44]

Tex, you need to read Ender's Shadow, too. Great book.

 

[Tex]

Ender's Shadow sounds great, I think it's supposed to be about Bean one of Enders first students in battle school. I intend on reading the whole series, but I think Enders Shadow is a few more books in.

 

[Suzy]

I couldn't accurately say what I am reading as I usually have several novels on the go at once and skip from one to the other depending on my mood, so I can take months to get through one (I mostly have sci-fi novels on my bookshelf). I have a very few favorite novels which I like to re-read scenes from. I am guilty of borrowing lots of interesting-looking books from my local library but more often than not never finish reading them as I lose interest (short attention span). :blush:

 

[Arrowstar]

Tex, you need to read Ender's Shadow, too. Great book.

I also highly recommend Shadow of the Giant, a book in the same 'Bean Quartet' that Ender's Shadow is in. Excellent, both of them.

 

[unussapiens]

Darkness, Be My Friend - Fourth in the series that began with "Tomorrow When the War Began", all by John Marsden.

A good read for any teens out there, and I'm pretty sure some adults would enjoy it too. Although it does get a little tedious in the 4th and 5th books, still worth the time.

 

[jedidia]

finished re-reading Heinleins "Space Cadet" yesterday, started re-reading Micheal Flynns "the wreck of the river of stars". Yeah, I'm on short supply... They started to charge you for buying books lately... :facts:

 

[Andy44]

I'm confused: are books usually free where you live?

 

[Star explorer]

prince and the pauper by Samuel Clemens or more famusly Mark Twain

 

[Kyle]

A good ole Clarke book
2010: Odyssey two.

 

[unknown_orbiter]

Okay here is a very good book list:
The Elegant Universe
DOOM (yes it is based on the video game but it is a gripping and amazingly written series of novels, not like that nerdy halo ****)
Any Micheal Crichton book (in reverence might I add)
Any books by Jack McDevitt

 

[Andy44]

I just finished Shadow Factory by James Bamford. Pretty scary stuff. I've been hearing this guy on radio interviews and seeing him on C-SPAN Book TV for a few years, now, and finally decided I have to read him. Glad I did.