What are you reading right now?

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.

I was reminded of this by a question on University Challenge the other week in which a review described it as '500 pages of Socialist Manifesto' so I thought I'd give it a read. I tend to enjoy satirising of Middle-Class England and the conflict of class. Quite a good book so far and it screams JK Rowling all over it.

Hadrian wrote:

Now I'm reading A Path of Daggers. Jeez, no matter how poorly Jordan writes his female characters, no matter how annoying the braid-pulling and beard-scratching and scarf-tightening gets, I keep coming back to his world. Guess I'm just a sucker for fantasy.

Yes but there's so much fantasy actually worth reading. Actually that's not true at all - but there is some.

Finished The Stand. Don't regret reading it, but wouldn't recommend it. Confirmed that Stephen King isn't for me. Some part of his writing grates on me - like listening to a good song that has an barely perceivably but eventually aggravating whine in the background. And now while I attempt to actually finish the half dozen books I've got going, I just bought Gibson's Virtual Light. Shit.

Do you have any recommendations?

Loop wrote:

Hadrian wrote:

Now I'm reading A Path of Daggers. Jeez, no matter how poorly Jordan writes his female characters, no matter how annoying the braid-pulling and beard-scratching and scarf-tightening gets, I keep coming back to his world. Guess I'm just a sucker for fantasy.

Yes but there's so much fantasy actually worth reading. Actually that's not true at all - but there is some.

Finished The Stand. Don't regret reading it, but wouldn't recommend it. Confirmed that Stephen King isn't for me. Some part of his writing grates on me - like listening to a good song that has an barely perceivably but eventually aggravating whine in the background. And now while I attempt to actually finish the half dozen books I've got going, I just bought Gibson's Virtual Light. Shit.

Do you have any recommendations?

Harder question than I thought it'd be, considering you're familiar with the two series that first come to mind when I think decent fantasy - A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicle. And because I skew towards science fiction..

Okay. Two recs. Sabriel by Garth Nix. Haven't read a Nix book I didn't like. The first book in his Abhorsen trilogy, but works fine stand alone. Really enjoyed it when I read it as a kid. More young adult, but well worth reading.

Andrej Sapkowski is a Polish author who wrote a series back in the '90s that is slowly being translated to English. It gained prominence when it was adapted into a video game called "The Witcher". Read The Last Wish by Sapkowski. When you like it (not if), read Blood of Elves. Then hate your life as you wait agonizingly for the next book to be translated into English.

Oh shit. Wait. If you like massive tomes of high fantasy in the style of WoT, stop everything and read Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. Do it now. This is the author that stepped in to finish the Wheel of Time, and while I don't usually go in for the giant sprawling decade-long fantasy epics..well, this one is different.

Happy reading.

Abendlichter wrote:He made fun of me because it was a book.

This must be the funniest sentence I've read this week I wonder what this guy's major was.

OT: I've almost finished "Blood and Gold" and thus will soon be able to start watching the third season of GoT

Well I decided and started reading Band Of Brothers. I am through the middle now and it's a really nice book. Ambrose did a great job of writing it because it's actually fun to read and a nice account of second world war through the eyes of a small group of people.

I've read the With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge (which was a theme for the HBO miniseries The Pacific) and I like Band of Brothers much more. Pacific was a better TV show, but Band of Brothers is a better book. It sounds like fiction when you are reading it, but it's actually not and I find that amazing.

Reading more on NSA and Snowden’s "Wiretap Anyone" Claim:

(Excerpt) wrote:Greenwald does not substantiate any claim to systemic abuse of XKeyscore. He does not provide a single instance where it was used — illegally — to collect information on a U.S. citizen. In fact, the discussion about potential abuse of NSA programs remains theoretical. There are no credible allegations of widespread, illegal abuse of the programs in place to identify and track suspected terrorists. (Even Senator Ron Wyden, in noting that the intelligence community “misled Congress about the usefulness” of mass collection programs, is not identifying systemic abuses or failure of oversight audits within the system.) The potential for abuse is real and not to be discounted, but it is misleading to present it as actual abuse.

Source: https://medium.com/state-of-play/f49beeaf6a9c

Biko - by Donald Woods

Hadrian wrote:

Loop wrote:

Hadrian wrote:

Now I'm reading A Path of Daggers. Jeez, no matter how poorly Jordan writes his female characters, no matter how annoying the braid-pulling and beard-scratching and scarf-tightening gets, I keep coming back to his world. Guess I'm just a sucker for fantasy.

Yes but there's so much fantasy actually worth reading. Actually that's not true at all - but there is some.

Finished The Stand. Don't regret reading it, but wouldn't recommend it. Confirmed that Stephen King isn't for me. Some part of his writing grates on me - like listening to a good song that has an barely perceivably but eventually aggravating whine in the background. And now while I attempt to actually finish the half dozen books I've got going, I just bought Gibson's Virtual Light. Shit.

Do you have any recommendations?

Harder question than I thought it'd be, considering you're familiar with the two series that first come to mind when I think decent fantasy - A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicle. And because I skew towards science fiction..

Okay. Two recs. Sabriel by Garth Nix. Haven't read a Nix book I didn't like. The first book in his Abhorsen trilogy, but works fine stand alone. Really enjoyed it when I read it as a kid. More young adult, but well worth reading.

Andrej Sapkowski is a Polish author who wrote a series back in the '90s that is slowly being translated to English. It gained prominence when it was adapted into a video game called "The Witcher". Read The Last Wish by Sapkowski. When you like it (not if), read Blood of Elves. Then hate your life as you wait agonizingly for the next book to be translated into English.

Oh shit. Wait. If you like massive tomes of high fantasy in the style of WoT, stop everything and read Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. Do it now. This is the author that stepped in to finish the Wheel of Time, and while I don't usually go in for the giant sprawling decade-long fantasy epics..well, this one is different.

Happy reading.

Thanks for the recommendations, brosef. I've added them all to my list.

Mephisto wrote:

lou21 wrote:

Mephisto wrote:I read Soul of the Fire by Terry Goodkind yesterday and am currently "reading" Ovid's Metamorphoses.

I love the Sword of Truth series! I think Soul of the Fire isn't my favourite book there but the rest are just fantastic. I'm currently reading A Clash of Kings from the Game of Thrones series

I love the series too! I've been reading it piecemeal over the years since it's hard to find a bookstore that stocks them all, and I didn't want to fork over a bunch of money to buy them all initially, so now I just go from when I find them. Soul of the Fire was my least favourite by far; no epic climax and everyone's a horrid bitch or dies.

Ovids Metamorphoses! I love it! I might reread it sometime soon.

I quite liked the Sword of Truth series, but only the first few. After the 4th one I couldn't help but find it predictable. Neil Gaiman will always be one of my favourites though.

Tonight I will read:


It's not something I usually read but, it was a random pick from my reading pile. I could do with something light anyway.

Loop wrote:

Hadrian wrote:

Loop wrote:

Hadrian wrote:

Now I'm reading A Path of Daggers. Jeez, no matter how poorly Jordan writes his female characters, no matter how annoying the braid-pulling and beard-scratching and scarf-tightening gets, I keep coming back to his world. Guess I'm just a sucker for fantasy.

Yes but there's so much fantasy actually worth reading. Actually that's not true at all - but there is some.

Finished The Stand. Don't regret reading it, but wouldn't recommend it. Confirmed that Stephen King isn't for me. Some part of his writing grates on me - like listening to a good song that has an barely perceivably but eventually aggravating whine in the background. And now while I attempt to actually finish the half dozen books I've got going, I just bought Gibson's Virtual Light. Shit.

Do you have any recommendations?

Harder question than I thought it'd be, considering you're familiar with the two series that first come to mind when I think decent fantasy - A Song of Ice and Fire and The Kingkiller Chronicle. And because I skew towards science fiction..

Okay. Two recs. Sabriel by Garth Nix. Haven't read a Nix book I didn't like. The first book in his Abhorsen trilogy, but works fine stand alone. Really enjoyed it when I read it as a kid. More young adult, but well worth reading.

Andrej Sapkowski is a Polish author who wrote a series back in the '90s that is slowly being translated to English. It gained prominence when it was adapted into a video game called "The Witcher". Read The Last Wish by Sapkowski. When you like it (not if), read Blood of Elves. Then hate your life as you wait agonizingly for the next book to be translated into English.

Oh shit. Wait. If you like massive tomes of high fantasy in the style of WoT, stop everything and read Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings. Do it now. This is the author that stepped in to finish the Wheel of Time, and while I don't usually go in for the giant sprawling decade-long fantasy epics..well, this one is different.

Happy reading.

Thanks for the recommendations, brosef. I've added them all to my list.

NP broski.

Just finished this one actually. For me, this book caught a lot of my attention as well as my emotion.

Hadrian wrote:Finished The Stand. Don't regret reading it, but wouldn't recommend it. Confirmed that Stephen King isn't for me. Some part of his writing grates on me - like listening to a good song that has an barely perceivably but eventually aggravating whine in the background. And now while I attempt to actually finish the half dozen books I've got going, I just bought Gibson's Virtual Light. Shit.

I'm a very big SK fan and I wouldn't recommend The Stand to anyone either. I also was completely unenchanted with his Dark Tower series that everybody raves about. Perhaps try one of his other books before writing him off.

I'm reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut at the moment. I didn't think I was going to like Vonnegut but I actually really do.

My dad adores Vonnegut. Telling him I don't think he was all that great was harder than telling him I'm gay.

Steven King isn't someone you read unconditionally. His work ranges from great to crap. It's best to stick to the stories credited by major Hollywood adaptations. When I was thirteen I read his novella "Apt Pupil", which is about a boy who strikes up a friendship with an ex-Nazi and ends up killing hobos and committing suicide. It disturbed me more than anything else I've read.

The Pillars of Creation by Terry Goodkind.

Also, whoever recommended Way of Kings to whomever above,

Dude. The next one comes out in November. Pysched. KALADIN STORMBLESSED FTW.

Hadrian wrote:Dude. The next one comes out in November. Pysched. KALADIN STORMBLESSED FTW.

Yeah, been waiting for this for three years! As long as I can finish my reread before then...

I'm more of a Shallan boy, and I'm kind of infatuated with Szeth's storyline, but we'll see!

Mephisto wrote:

Hadrian wrote:Dude. The next one comes out in November. Pysched. KALADIN STORMBLESSED FTW.

Yeah, been waiting for this for three years! As long as I can finish my reread before then...

I'm more of a Shallan boy, and I'm kind of infatuated with Szeth's storyline, but we'll see!

Interesting - it was the exact opposite for me. Though no matter whose story it was within a dozen pages I was captivated, Shallan and Szeth were definitely the hardest for me. I'm dying to know what happens in the storyline. Apparently the next book is focusing on Shallan, though :/.

Oh damn it. Apparently it got pushed back to early 2014. Ah well, after three years of waiting the next Witcher book has been translated into English and is coming out this week. Patience is a virtue.

Edward wrote:The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.

I was reminded of this by a question on University Challenge the other week in which a review described it as '500 pages of Socialist Manifesto' so I thought I'd give it a read. I tend to enjoy satirising of Middle-Class England and the conflict of class. Quite a good book so far and it screams JK Rowling all over it.

It was actually quite good. A few nonsensical lines every now and again, but a funny and depressing read. I'm now more inclined to give The Cuckoo's Calling a read.

Now onto the book I've been intending to read for three years: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.

So, I recently discovered China Mieville (How did this take me so long? How did I miss him? How did this happen?), and I felt the need to share this here, because I did not know how amazing he was. So amazing! His concepts! His writing! His vividness! I have barreled through Perdido Street Station, Embassytown, Kraken, and The City & the City in the past few days, and I am on track to barrel through much more. This is so thrilling! New brilliant author with many unread works! I am so excited.

If William GIbson says it's worth reading, I'm reading it.