The Written Word

exsuscito · 10/25/2007 04:54:11

We've covered movies and music in previous threads. Now I'm interested in hearing what books some of you fine people are currently engaged in, and what, if any, deserves to be your favourite(s).

Currently reading: I finally got round to picking up 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley, after reading 'Dearly Devoted Dexter' by Jeff Lindsay, and 'My Boring-As$ life' by Kevin Smith. Next, I plan on delving into 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson (the movie's thread inspired me to pick it up).

Favourite(s): The Matrix movies aroused my interest in philosophy and the nature of reality, and this lead me, in turn, to 'Simulacra and Simulation' by Jean Baudrillard. I've harped on about it in enough threads, so here I just encourage you to read it.

I've only recently begun to read fiction (caught up as I was with philosophy and non-fiction political books), so I can't really list any as favourites just yet. I can say that I did enjoy both Dexter books. Dark = good, in my book (no pun intended).

Archangel · 10/25/2007 05:16:33

I went on a stint of reading books about philosophy and religion for awhile, but lately I've went back to some guilty-pleasure reading with some of the Star Wars novels I hadn't read yet, while I've also been reading Paradise Lost off and on for the past year after I picked it up along with Dante's Inferno about a year ago for pretty cheap.

Procurator · 10/25/2007 06:12:59

I strictly read fiction (and reference books for work, of course).

Currently reading: The Night Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko.

Intend to read: The entire Discworld series. Maybe some more Dune stuff too - I'm only up to Children of Dune.

Favourite books: Anything by PG Wodehouse (Jeeves & Wooster being my favourites), everything by Jasper Fforde (the Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series), and, of course, any fiction by Douglas Adams.

PBlade · 10/25/2007 06:16:20

I'm *still* reading, and have been for the past year on and off, "Matrix Warrior" by Jake Horsley. Despite the silly name, it's pretty much philosophy and theory about what existence would be like if the Matrix was real, analysing the different archetypes within the Matrix. It's really deep and eye-opening.

And I still haven't finished it.

Inbetween reading the bugger, I've read the Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker, which are just seriously... really good.

Pyraci · 10/25/2007 07:38:10

Currently Reading: "The Hellbound Heart"(re-reading) by Clive Barker. I also plan to read "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson. (for the same reasons Exsuscito pointed out.)

Favorite(s): "Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard (again, for the same reasons as Ex.) as well as "The Hellbound Heart", "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "The Will to Power" by Friedrich Nietzche, and "La Divina Commedia" by Dante Alighieri

Harpalos-mxo · 10/25/2007 08:00:07

Currently Reading: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, by Stephen R. Donaldson. I don't like it. I don't even know why I started it, not being a fan of epic fantasy...

Next: Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Favorite(s):
Neuromancer, by William Gibson
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
1984 and Animal Farm, by George Orwell
The Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett
V for Vendetta and Watchmen, by Alan Moore
Maus, by Art Spiegelman

Illyria22 · 10/25/2007 08:27:04

Currently reading: "Collapse -- How Societies Choose to Fail or Suceed" by Jared Diamond.

Favorites: The Quintaglio Ascension Trilogy ("Far-Seer", "Fossil Hunter", and "Foreigner" ) by Robert J. Sawyer; "The Chalice and the Blade" by Rianne Eisler (anything by Riane Eisler, actually!)

Illyria

imax · 10/25/2007 09:00:38

Currently Reading: Justice by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, with art by Ross and Doug Braithwaite. This series has taken 2 full years to come out and I have all 12 issues, hoever i have only read about the 1st 4 lol

Next: All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder by Frank Miller and penciled by Jim Lee. Which I also have all the issues thus far but still have only read the 1st few.

Favorite(s Broken City by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso. Probobly the best and most realistic batman Story ever written. IMO

Tenshi · 10/25/2007 11:38:18

Currently Reading: Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, Animal Farm by George Orwell and a collection of Immanuel Kant essays
Next Up: More Immanuel Kant and I want to check out some more Neil Gaiman and the Dune series
Favorites: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, The Walking Drum by Louis Lamour (I like it because it's one of the few non-Westerns he wrote)

ZippyTheSquirrel · 10/25/2007 13:02:29

My two favorite book series are The Lost Years of Merlin and The Seventh Tower. I'm currently reading the Miles Vorkosigan series and the Artemis Fowl series.

Stack · 10/25/2007 13:41:28

I'm currently reading "Core" by Kassten Alonso. He's the son of one of my college writing professors, and he came and gave a reading a year or two ago. It's a really crazy book, the kind that throws in words out of nowhere just to simulate a person's oddball thought process, and it never uses quotation marks and rarely uses commas. It can be confusing, but overall it has an awesome effect of drawing you into the main character's head.

I'm not sure what I'll read next, though. I'm bogged down right now with a Shakespeare class, and we're going through about a play a week... and I'm three plays behind. I also have to read an entire book full of short stories this afternoon, called "Dance of the Happy Shades."

Offhand, my two favorite books are "Sphere" by Michael Crichton, for its persistent use of limited 1st-person and the constant psychoanalyzing of the other characters through the mind of the main character, and "The Silmarilion" by Tolkien, for just being the most beautiful work of fictional literature ever.

exsuscito · 10/27/2007 04:09:57

Brave New World has been postponed. I made the mistake of reading the first 20 pages or so of I Am Legend, and I must read more.

Good to see so many embracing the papyrus.

Tenshi · 10/27/2007 18:05:59

I just discovered the $1.00 book section of the local thrift store...I wont see the light of day for so looong...

MarsNova · 10/27/2007 19:13:11

Currently Reading - Cat in the Hat.

Favorite book - Green Eggs and Ham.

TheShickle · 10/27/2007 19:15:41

It took me like a whole day to read Cat and the Hat.

That Dr. Seuss is one hell of a novelist.

ThHidden01 · 10/27/2007 20:38:32

I like Michael Moorcock, his book Von Bek especially, which has a side of Lucifer I loved to read about. I also liked books by Pratchet, Gemmel and Puzzo (Things like The Godfather).

I loved a book called The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, which is about a warring era in china (Dynasty warriors anyone?)

Other than that I read a daily paper SMILEY

TH

MarsNova · 10/27/2007 21:07:05

TheShickle wrote:

It took me like a whole day to read Cat and the Hat.
That Dr. Seuss is one hell of a novelist.

HAHAHA

Its deep real deep stuff. Touches on personal issues. For instant Do I really want green eggs and ham in a box with a fox?

However there really are college course on the undertones that were used in the Dr.Seuss books. The big one was the military draft which he touched on in Green Eggs in Ham. The green eggs and ham were considered to be a G.I. "with a fox in a box" was consider to be getting stuck in a Fox hole. Crazy stuff.

Neoteny · 10/28/2007 00:28:55

Erm, well, I haven't really read anything since late august, and even that was a forced read (The Life of Pi - had to read it for college. Not too bad, but eh, not that great, in my opinion), but I suppose you could say I've been reading a lot of stuff from my text books hah. Nietzsche, Kant, Mill, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Buddha - good stuff! My Lit class not so much.

Favorites, however, include Orson Scott Card's Empire, Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind, Max Brooks's World War Z, and Gene Wilder's Autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger.

TheShickle · 10/28/2007 00:31:05

I enjoyed Ender's Game.

I am Dracula is a good book, although it upset me towards the end.

I always get upset when lovers are seperated, after they have gone through so much.

It's a pain I wish never to experience.

TheShickle · 10/28/2007 00:33:14

MarsNova wrote:

TheShickle wrote:
It took me like a whole day to read Cat and the Hat.
That Dr. Seuss is one hell of a novelist.
HAHAHA

Its deep real deep stuff. Touches on personal issues. For instant Do I really want green eggs and ham in a box with a fox?

However there really are college course on the undertones that were used in the Dr.Seuss books. The big one was the military draft which he touched on in Green Eggs in Ham. The green eggs and ham were considered to be a G.I. "with a fox in a box" was consider to be getting stuck in a Fox hole. Crazy stuff.

Indeed, but I see the link.

Would that mean that Sam I Am is Uncle Sam?

Maybe if Seuss was alive he'd of written The Matrix.

lol

"I will not take the blue pill here or there. I will not take it anywhere."

"I will not take it on a train, I will not take it in the rain."

Rosincrantz · 10/28/2007 00:56:08

Currently Reading: The Traveller, H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Tales, Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)

Intend to read: The Blooding, It, Gunslinger

Favorites: Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends, Anything by Edgar Allen Poe

Mave · 10/28/2007 01:33:36

Currently Reading:

Next Book:

Croesis · 10/28/2007 09:40:53

Currently Reading: Making Money ~ Terry Pratchett

Favourite Book(s):

The entire Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett;
Time, Space, Origin and Phase Space books by Stephen Baxter

Cervacius · 10/28/2007 10:28:10

Currently (being forced to) read: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Next: Life of Pi

Favorites: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and of course anything by J. K. Rowling.

TheShickle · 10/28/2007 10:33:20

Rosincrantz wrote:

Currently Reading: The Traveller, H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Tales, Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!)

Intend to read: The Blooding, It, Gunslinger

Favorites: Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends, Anything by Edgar Allen Poe

Lovecraft is good. Cthulhu is creepy.

Don't read The Necronomicon. It ruins lives.

exsuscito · 10/29/2007 14:27:46

Pyraci wrote:

I also plan to read "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson.

Set aside everything else and make this your priority. It's just...astonishing.

Roukan · 10/29/2007 17:49:02

Currently Reading: None

Buying soon: I am Legend

Favorite books: The Autumn Series (zombie books), and The Transall Saga by Gary A. Paulsen

Wallflower26 · 10/30/2007 13:24:46

Currently Reading: Reinfield Dracula's slave. It is a interesting take on the Bram Stoker's novel. It is told from the prospective of Reinfield, the lunatic that does Dracula's bidding. The author weaves stories in and out of each other based on the novel and film. Has all the original characters plus a few the author has introduced. It is not a fast paced book but it is not boring at all.

I am almost finished and think it's a decent addition to the Dracula lore.

Intend to read: I am legend. I have heard nothing but praise from book lovers about this novel. I also will be reading The Matrix Warrior. I have it on my shelf here and have not had time to read it yet. I think after watching the second film I would like to have some questions answered.

Favorites: Communion by Whitley Striber. A very disturbing look into the extraterrestrial if indeed based on truth. Stinger by Robert Mccammon. This book is a fascinating look into alien contact. Scary and a page turner. I read this in High School nearly two decades ago and still can remember the whole book it was so detailed. Very long book but well worth it, maybe my favorite book of all time. I don't think it is now available in stores but on ebay and online book stores you can still find it fairly cheap.

Illyria22 · 11/01/2007 13:23:53

Next on my list will be 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. 'Collapse' is a slow read, though, so it may take me a while to get to it!

Illyria

Cervacius · 02/26/2008 19:09:05

Thought I would rez this to see what people are reading NOW!

Just finished: Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Really good book, imo.

Reading now: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

About to read: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

I'm pretty excited about readings these. It's one of those books that is referrenced in life almost daily and it's good to know EXACTLY what they're talking about and not just what I remember seeing in the Disney movie when I was 5. Plus, the Matrix deals with it a ton which is a nice added bonus.

Chemuel · 02/26/2008 19:22:37

Currently Reading: Nocture by Adam Rapp

Next: Wolfblade, by William King

Favorite(s):
The Long, Dark Tea Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams
A Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson
1984 by George Orwell
Good Omens series, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Fragile Things, Neverwhere and Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
Rest Area, by Clay McLeod Chapman

Sykin · 02/26/2008 20:00:56

Currently reading: The Stand by Stephen King, Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook (I just sort of picked this trilogy-in-one book from the bookstore because of its name and cover art... it's not bad), Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche (yes, I have really spread myself too thin and have also abandoned reading; I feel like a criminal).

I was also reading that second book in the first trilogy of Diablo novels. I believe it's called The Black Road but I sort of put it down and used its bookmark for The Stand after awhile. I wasn't getting into it too well... which is a shame. All the novels that Blizzard commissions authors to write usually attract my attention from the time I buy them until I finish reading them the next day or so. Especially the ones stemming from Starcraft... oh yes.

Pay no heed to this geekiness.

exsuscito · 02/27/2008 04:30:36

Last finished: Against All Enemies - Richard Clarke.

Currently Reading: The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein.

Next: Maybe something on Chavez, or philosophy again. Failing that, I haven't finished Brave New World.

Bayamos · 02/27/2008 09:57:01

Last finished: Plato - Gorgias

Currently re-reading: Anne Rice - Memnoch the Devil

Next: Robert Axelrod - The Evolution of Cooperation

ArchDuke · 02/27/2008 12:37:59

Currently Reading:

Next:

Archived image unavailable: DMZ_TPB4.html

NightTrace · 02/27/2008 12:53:53

I hold dear my 1984 edition of 1984 SMILEY

shearman · 02/27/2008 13:53:11

I am totally addicted to 24 and I have read/currently reading many books, including the fiction series as well as book based around theory or political philosophy of the show.

I've just bought the first book in the Dexter series "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", and I'm sure I'll continue with the rest of the series.

I also just finished a book entitled "The Numbers Behind Numb3rs", which explains the math behind the TV show numb3rs, and gives in-depth info on how math is used in every day crime fighting. (You'd probably have to like math as well as the TV to like this book, liking the show won't be enough to keep you interested.)

Most of the books I read are based around TV shows I watch because let's face it, real life is pretty boring, for most of us anyway.

NightTrace · 02/27/2008 14:00:10

Oh, I'm also a huge huge reader of military history books. and in the end history itself.

I have a nice collection when it comes to that, ranking amongst my favorites are "A pictorial history of WW2" [circa 1948], a very very nice collection of on the scene black and white [they had any other kind then? SMILEY

] in order of date, with a few paragraphs describing what is going on/has happened in each picture. I also have a history book titled "Lies My Teacher Told Me" which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who in the last bit enjoys history/reading. it goes over many of the aspects that school text books tend to gloss over or even flat out avoid/lie about.

SMILEY

exsuscito · 02/27/2008 14:00:36

shearman wrote:

I've just bought the first book in the Dexter series "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", and I'm sure I'll continue with the rest of the series.

Read the first two, avoid the third.

shearman · 02/27/2008 14:11:52

exsuscito wrote:

shearman wrote:

I've just bought the first book in the Dexter series "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", and I'm sure I'll continue with the rest of the series.

Read the first two, avoid the third.

I wouldn't be able to. I can't leave a story unfinished.

exsuscito · 02/27/2008 14:46:51

shearman wrote:

exsuscito wrote:
shearman wrote:

I've just bought the first book in the Dexter series "Darkly Dreaming Dexter", and I'm sure I'll continue with the rest of the series.

Read the first two, avoid the third.

I wouldn't be able to. I can't leave a story unfinished.

Read an honest synopsis from someone on Amazon (to name but one source), which goes into how Jeff Lindsay 'explains' Dexter.

Just...ugh.

Chemuel · 02/27/2008 14:52:58

Oh! Also, I'm Currently Reading Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by Ashley Gilbertson and Dexter Filkins.

Pyraci · 02/27/2008 15:02:19

Sykin wrote:

Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche (yes, I have really spread myself too thin and have also abandoned reading; I feel like a criminal).

We need to have a discussion about this, when and if you have the time.

exsuscito · 02/27/2008 15:26:07

Pyraci wrote:

Sykin wrote:
Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche (yes, I have really spread myself too thin and have also abandoned reading; I feel like a criminal).
We need to have a discussion about this, when and if you have the time.

Ooh, I didn't see that at first glance. I'm in the same predicament with regard to Beyond Good and Evil, though I got a fair chunk of it read.

PBlade · 02/27/2008 16:20:00

I ordered Simulacra and Simulation a few days ago, because I've never actually read it *braces self*, so I will be annoying those of you who have already read it as and when I've read it.

That is all.

exsuscito · 02/27/2008 16:35:33

PBlade wrote:

I ordered Simulacra and Simulation a few days ago, because I've never actually read it *braces self*, so I will be annoying those of you who have already read it as and when I've read it.

That is all.

Look forward to it, ya no Simulacra and Simulation readin' mofo.

LucifersChosen · 02/27/2008 17:08:19

Reading : Gemmel's Troy series. quality books (1st - Lord of the Silver Bow, 2nd - Shield of Thunder, 3rd - Fall of Kings)

MatrixRefugee · 02/27/2008 20:32:28

Currently juggling "Summer Knight", one of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files novels, and "Northanger Abbey" by Jane Austen. Next up is "Kushiel's Dart" by Jacqueline Carey and getting back to "Interview with a Vampire" by Anne Rice.

Cervacius · 02/28/2008 21:47:06

I feel so inadequate in this thread. I just read a book about a boy in a boat with a tiger (although, in the end, it was much much more than just that) while you guys are reading Simulacra and Simulation and Nietzsche.

At least I knew who Nietzsche was without having to Google him. That counts for something, right?

But I did have to google how to spell inadequate.

Sykin · 02/29/2008 06:24:11

Life of Pi is actually very deep and among one of my favorite novels. While here we have philosophers aplenty using logic to dispel or construct certain hypotheses for reality and beyond, that novel nags the heart into pondering about where it all starts in the first place, the strangest of all human abilities: belief.