What book are you reading?

[Beeble]

Tell us what book you are reading right now or what book you just finished.

Right now i'm reading The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum. Not as good as i thought it would be, but still pretty entertaining. I havn't read more than 150 pages or so of it yet though, so hopefully it will become even better.

I'm also reading The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan. Great book, the first books in WoT is among the finest fantasy books ever written.

[Antikhrist]

Fahrenheit 451, about half way through Part II. It's pretty good, not a book I would read if it wasn't required though.

[The Dude]

The Roots of American Order by Russel Kirk.

This was originally one of the books I had for my American Political Thought class. I paid about $70 for it so I decided to go through with it. It offers a perspective on how american and western ideology had developed. It shows how paganism and neo platonism had played their parts and how Christianity, became the civil religion of the early US because it provided a happy medium between the two ideologies.

Along with that it talks of the civilizing process that the Spartans went through of going from a gang and uniting as a team and how the founding fathers though they looked to the athenians because of their democracy, they liked the Spartans because they were the first to believe that their civilization was unnatural in that its creation was born from law rather than just a natural process. Overall it's an alright book. I paid $70 for it so might as well read it.

[Saint]

I'm reading Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw. It's kind of required.

Non-Required reading is "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.

[Necro]

A New Kind Of Dreaming.

Only because I have to, stupid schooling. It's about some crazy killer or killing in Australia, I don't know. I mean, I'm not one to read a lot really -- and this book does suck =\.

[My Final Heaven]

Re-reading The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul. Dirk Gently and his holistic detective agency make me giggle on a consistent basis... Could have something to do with the fact it's Douglas Adams' writing it of course. I'm so annoyed he died half way through writing the third one.

[Tom]

I recently finished the book Splinter Cell: Checkmate. I've also been reading the LotR books on and off for a while now; I own all three in one book.

[Scrutator]

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. Decided to read more of his books besides the Night Watch ones so got Mort and Hogfather for Christmas, enjoyable and Death's role in this is pretty funny as well.

[The Man]

that was the first Discworld book I read.

I'm reading a bunch of stuff. Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys and The Sandman, Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake, and Noam Chomsky's Failed States are the most noteworthy.

[Pollensalta]

Just finished reading Swan Song, by Robert McCammon. It's a lot like The Stand, except it has to do with nuclear warfare instead of a crazy disease. 950 pages, but they go by really fast.

[Dionysus_PSI]

I just finished reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (the precursor to The Da Vinci Code), it is a very good book I think indeed.

I am about to start reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind, my girlfriend reccomended it so I went and got it, and if I like it I will read the series.


George Bernard Shaw, boohyeah, I've had to read some of his stuff for theatre school (not to mention Sheridan, Shakespeare, and many, many others).

I also wanna start reading Terry Pratchet.

And I got Dante's Divine Comedy sitting on my shelf waiting for me patiently.

...I'm also planning on getting the 'histories' for LOTR, I allready have The simalarillion.

Cheers.

[The Man]

Ugh, I couldn't stand Goodkind. His characters are one-dimensional clichés and his plots are full of so many strawman attacks on leftists that I ended up throwing the book across the room in disgust. Plus he's fond of gratuitous torture scenes and the plot of Faith of the Fallen is directly plagiarised from the plot of The Fountainhead, which wasn't that great a book to start with. Also in his interviews he comes across as the most arrogant ass ever

That said I have to confess I've never been able to bring myself to complete any of his books, but there's probably a really good reason for that. George R. R. Martin & Terry Pratchett >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Terry Goodkind

[Beeble]

I actually liked Terry Goodkind, even if the things you said about him is true. He is really perverted and many of the things he writes is taken from other books. Imo he's plagiarised WoT a whole lot. But somehow i still like them...

[The Man]

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't mind sex and violence when they add to the story. GRRM uses plenty of both. But Goodkind is all ZOMG [spoiler]LORD RAHL IS EVAIL BECAUSE HE CUTS OFF LITTLE BOYS' TESTICLES AND EATS THEM (or uses them in magic rituals, I can't remember which)[/spoiler]. He has no subtlety.

To his credit, the politics of the series don't become bat**** insane until book six, and most people had given up reading by then.

[Beeble]

I understand what you're saying. Most of the sex and violence do not add anything to the story at all. And i really need to pick up something by George RR Martin someday.

[The Man]

To be honest, GRRM is light-years ahead of anyone else writing serious fantasy before him; he's the first author who's truly broken past the "Good vs. evil" confines which had encompassed the genre previously. (Actually, that's not entirely true; Steven Erikson's Gardens of the Moon, whose writing date precedes the publication date of anything in A Song of Ice and Fire, also demonstrates those characteristics, albeit with a much more active pantheon. Howver, it wasn't published until much later, and imho contains some flaws in comparison to Martin's work). The only other fantasy author in Martin's league is Pratchett, who is not a serious fantasist at all; he's using the genre of fantasy as a means of satirizing our world, and in that fashion is much more comparable to Swift than to Tolkien.

[Faded Hero]

I'm reading Scar Night, so far its pretty hot. Lots of futuristic **** combined with old middle ages stuff, very interesting.

[Lady Advent]

The Yellow Wallpaper

Its a really quick read you could finish it on a long train journey or something. But its really interesting , I think its quite old tho, but in a nutshell its about a lady who is locked in a room as she is depressed and starts analysising this wallpaper, and in the end becomes insane effectively.

[Scrutator]

Finished The Hogfather today, it was good but not anything special next to his earlier work that I've read.

Bought God Emperor of Dune and Speaker of the Dead by Frank Herbert and Orson Scott Card respectively so will be reading them in the next week or so.

[Larsa]

I just finished reading Night and I'm starting to read Lake Wobegon Days.