What are you reading?

[Gaelbert]

I saw this idea routinely fail spectacularly on another forum, but I was wondering what the Playgrounders have been reading. So here it goes.
List the three books you last read, whatever books you're currently reading, and the next three books you plan on reading. Then, post recommendations for other people based on the lists.
Here it goes:

Recently Read:
1. Madness: The Invention of an Idea by Foucault
I'll be honest, I was pretty intimidated going into this. I don't have a large background in psychology, nor am I as acquainted with Foucault as I would like to be. That being said, I got more out of than I anticipated. It's divided into two parts, the first was written in 1954 and the second in 1962, and the shift in his perspective was immense. I think I got more out of the second part (an examination of the history of the idea of madness) than the first (a fairly standard psycho-analytic essay), but both parts were worth the read.
2. The Hobbit by Tolkien
I probably can't say much about it that hasn't already been said, but it's a light, fun read. Good stuff.
3. The Plague by Camus
This one is routinely bashed, especially in comparison to his somewhat better known The Stranger. I have no idea why. I suspect the hate towards The Plague has more to do with Camus' absurdist split with Sartre and the existentialists rather than the book itself. While the style isn't quite as gripping as The Stranger (for all I know that could be a difference in translation), the story is still satisfying on a number of levels.

Reading:
1. The City by Joel Kotkin
An engrossing read of city planning's global history, nowhere near as dry as it sounds.
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Enjoying it very much, but not far enough to pass any sort of judgement. I do love Mr. Bennet.
3. Living in the End Times by Slavoj Zizek
Zizek's provocative, so I won't go into great detail, but I do love that he includes contradictions to his own thought within his book. That's classy.

Planning to Read:
1. The Myth of Sisyphus by Camus
What can I say, he has me in his grip right now.
2. The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Recommended to me recently, never read any of this author so we'll see.
3. A collection of Hemingway's short stories
While I enjoy Hemingway's full length efforts, his short stories are even better.

[erikun]

I just finished reading the King Raven trilogy (Hood, Scarlet, Tuck) by Stephen Lawhead. Very enjoyable, both from a written perspective and how he handled "rewritting" the old Robin Hood tales. He's apparently written similar books, so I'll be looking at how he handled King Arthur next.

I am currently reading the first Ranger's Apprentice book, The Ruins of Gorlan, by John Flanagan. It reads well enough, but overall seems fairly bland.

The next title on my to-read list is the fourth book of the Parasol Protectorate, Heartless, by Gail Carriger. I have very much enjoyed both the characters and the plot of the first three books, so I'm quite interested to read through the next installment!


I'm planning on picking up the most recent Vlad Taltos‎ novel: Tiassa, by Steven Brust. The first six books were excellent, although I didn't care for a few after that. I'm interested in getting back into reading them, though.

[SaintRidley]

Last three read:

Moby ****, Dune, Dune Messiah.

Currently reading:

Tristram Shandy, Foundation, about to start Children of Dune.

Next three:

Probably God Emperor of Doom and two more books for school, but not sure what ones.

[Lady Moreta]

Oooh... what books have I been reading lately? can I even remember?

Recently Read
City of Bones ~ Cassandra Clare
Read this one for an online book club. Didn't really like it. The writing wasn't bad but the plot and characters were horribly cliched. Every single 'big reveal' I'd figured out pages and pages ago. Also suffered from a support character who overshadowed the main character quite badly. Still, it was a light easy read and I will probably finish the series. I suspect I wouldn't have been so harsh and nit-picky if I hadn't been reading it for a book club.

Solo Command ~ Aaron Allston
Seventh book in the X-Wing series, last one to deal with Wraith Squadron. I love this series and tend to read it at least once every year. Very funny and witty, Allston is a comic genius... but has all the Star Warsy-ness

Isard's Revenge ~ Michael Stackpole
Eigth book in the X-Wing series... this one goes back to Rogue Squadron's antics. Details how they fight and kill (again) Isard and her clone. It makes sense. Honest.

Currently Reading
Sign of the Cross ~ Chris something Kuzneski
Eh, not that great... admittedly I'm not too far in, but his writing style is really weird. He keeps jumping into this instruction manual/information pamphlet style that's really not suited to a work of fiction. At the moment, the only reason I'm still reading is that a) I hate not finishing a book, and b) it's a mystery and I kinda want to know what happens. At this stage, I'm seriously contemplating skipping to the end to find out what happens.

Starfighters of Adumar ~ Michael Stackpole
Ninth (and final) book of the X-Wing series (can you see the trend? ). This one is one of my favourites, only has four of the 'main' characters in it, but he seems to have picked up some of Allston's writing style and comic genius.

The Name of the Wind ~ Patrick Rothfuss
Reading for the same online book club. I've read this before but I'd forgotten how much I adore this book.

On the List
Magic's Pawn ~ Mercedes Lackey
No idea what this is about and I'm not sure I'll even read it in the end.

Some other book I got from the library but can't remember the name of.

The Wise Man's Fear ~ Patrick Rothfuss
Second book in the series, I think once I finish the first I'm going to have to get a copy and read it.

[GoblinArchmage]

I've been reading The Hobbit once again. Unfortunately, I spend too much time playing video games and not enough time reading.

Moby ****

Spoiler

Show

[Mauve Shirt]

Currently finishing up A Game Of Thrones, soon will be reading the rest of the ASOIAF series. Also simultaneously reading Terry Pratchett's Guards Guards.

[Eldan]

Had a lengthy post, forum backup ate it

Anyway.

Recently finished:

The Ecophysiology of Spiders. Don't remember the author. Read both for work, and because I have to develop a race of spider people for VUACS 2.

Ghost Story, Jim Butcher. A dresden file novel, and, like all in the series, lasted me only two evenings. Not as good as some in the series, but enjoyable.

Currently reading:

At work: The Ecology of Mangroves and Seagrasses, Peter J. Hogarth. This one is work related.

On the Train: The Baroque Cycle: the System of the World, Neal Stephenson. A 3000 page doorstopper trilogy about the 17th and 18th centuries. Set across the world, dozens of characters. About Calculus, and Cryptology, and Currency, and Newton and Leibniz and the 30 years war, and the Civil War, and religion and Slavery and America and India and... a slow read, but an interesting one.

At home: A Game of Thrones, G. R.R. Martin. Dance with Dragons is out, I have some reading up to do.

Soon:

Went on a book shopping spree recently. Got an H.P. Lovecraft collection, the Lies of Locke Lemora, Perdido Street Station (I read Kraken, thought it wasn't great, but had some nice world building ideas, thought I'd give the author another chance), a Conan the Barbarian collection, the Earthsea trilogy, and a few others I don't remember at the moment. So I'll be busy.


Edit: I also got the first ten or so discworld books on audiobook from a friend. I listen to those while painting minis, mostly. I only read the first few discworld books in German, and the translation wasn't very good (no, you can't translate puns word for word. And if readers complain about passages that don't make sense, don't just leave out the jokes entirely in the next version) and I've wanted to read them in English for a while now.

[Remmirath]

Let's see if I can remember.

Recently Read:
1. The History of the Runestaff by Michael Moorcock
Re-read. While I suppose in many ways Hawkmoon should be more sympathetic than either Corum or Elric (at least conventionally), I find that I like him the least of the three - and the setting is also my least favourite of the three - but they're still an enjoyable set of books, just not quite up there with the aforementioned other two for me.
2. The World Wreckers by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Re-read. I'm generally fond of the Darkover series, but some more than others, and some definitely less than others. This is in fact one of my least favourite ones, along with Darkover Landfall.
3. The White Road by Lynn Flewelling
This is one of those cases where I'm still reading the series, and enjoying it, but liked the first two books in the series a lot better (and the third a bit less than those). It was better, to my mind, than the book coming directly before it, so that's good.

Reading:
1. The Fire's Stone by Tanya Huff
I picked this up at the used bookshop one day, because the back of the cover looked interesting. I do that. I've only just started, so I can't really make any judgements on it yet, but it seems promising.
2. Exile's Song by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Re-reading it, but it's been so long since I've read it that I don't remember most of it. I'm liking it so far, although not as much as some of the other books in the series - I tend to prefer the earlier ones to the later ones.
3. The Eternal Champion by Michael Moorcock
Started reading might even be going a bit far here - I put the bookmark in and read a few words - but I'm reasonably confident I'll like it.
4. The God Eaters by Jesse Hajicek
Re-reading, as it's been a few years and I noticed on the shelf and thought 'gee, I don't really remember all the plot points of that book'. I needed something else to take with me when going away for a few days, as the other (#3) is quite short.

Planning to Read:
1. Shadow Matrix by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The next book in the Darkover series, which I'm re-reading the whole of.
2. The Book of Ti'ana by Rand Miller and David Wingrove
Another re-read. I recall being quite fond of the book some seven years back, so I thought I'd give it another read upon encountering it again. I don't remember many details of the plot any more.
3. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
I re-read it every so often, and it's about that time again.

[BiblioRook]

Yay! another one of these threads. Though projecting what you intend to plan to read in the immediate future would make further posts rather inane...

I'm in the middle of a series, so my list will be kinda boring. No, correct that, more the end of a series but middle of an author as I plan on finishing his other works once I'm done with his main series.

-Current book: One of Our Thursdays Are Missing by Jasper Fforde
Sixth (and latest) in the Thursday Next series, but so far it kinda feels like a spin-off. For good reason though as it's from a different person's prospective, but also due to the fact that the world mechanics were (quite literally) completely and rather abruptly redone.
-Previous books: (in reverse order read) First Among Sequels, Something Rotten, and Well of Lost Plots. All by Jasper Fforde.

Next three books in queue: The Big Over Easy, The Forth Bear, and Shades of Grey. All by Jasper Fforde.

[Moglorosh]

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at my wife's insistence. Never cared to read the series before but it's... decent I guess. Before that I'd dusted off the Percy Jackson series, again at my wife's behest.

Currently reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham, enjoying it greatly thus far.

My to-do list includes: LOTR + The Hobbit (I know, I should be ashamed for having never read it), H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Moby ****, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a big Lovecraft collection.

[Liffguard]

Recently read:
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
One of the staples of military science fiction. It's an allegory of the vietnam war, focusing on themes such as alienation and military bureaucracy. Effectively written as a deconstruction of many of the themes of Starship Troopers.

One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick
Autobiography and memoirs of a USMC officer on how he joined the corps and fought in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan.
Cyberpunk neo-noir set in a world where the human brain can be digitised, stored and transfered into new bodies. People are purely defined by their minds. Bodies are treated almost the same way as clothes, simply "sleeves" to be worn, replaced and discarded.

Currently reading:
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
Classic space opera adventure story but on the hard end of the scale compared to most others in the genre. Extrapolates on the vast differences that would open up between human cultures in an inter-stellar civilisation without FTL. Main story based on an archaeologist attempting to discover why an ancient alien civilisation went extinct almost as soon as they achieved space travel.

Plan to read:
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
I haven't started reading this yet 'cause I'm a bit burnt out on medieval fantasy (hence why I've been reading a lot more sci-fi recently) but will definitely get around to it soon.

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Not sure how to describe this one so here's the official blurb:
"Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy"

Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey
Space Opera again, but this time set entirely within our own solar system. Deals with the tension arising between the different factions of humans on different colonies and societies throughout the solar system.

[Eldan]

Currently reading:
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Pick up the Sequels and Prequels as well, if you can. Absolution Gap was a bit so/so for me, but Chasm City, a prequel set mostly in Epsilon Eridani/Yellowstone/Chasm City was absolutely amazing. It's part detective story, part weird post-apocalyptic punk thing, part mindscrew with the reader's expectations, and it's brilliant.

Before picking up the direct sequels to Relevation space you might want to pick up the short story collection Galactic North and read the first half of it, or so (at least, don't read the last one too early). Not only because it's awesome (it shows snippets of the entire history of humanity from the near future to tens of thousands of years ahead), but also because it introduces characters which show up in Redemption Ark with little explanation. Knowing who Clavain is, and how Conjoiners work really helps a lot there. Sadly, Reynolds has the habit of bringing in characters from other stories he wrote with little introduction.
Plus, it has a story titled The Great Wall of Mars.

Sorry, I geeked out a bit.

[Mauve Shirt]

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at my wife's insistence. Never cared to read the series before but it's... decent I guess. Before that I'd dusted off the Percy Jackson series, again at my wife's behest.

Currently reading The Rainmaker by John Grisham, enjoying it greatly thus far.

My to-do list includes: LOTR + The Hobbit (I know, I should be ashamed for having never read it), H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Moby ****, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a big Lovecraft collection.

It's difficult to judge the quality of the Harry Potter books if you're not 7-11 when you start reading them.

I'm reading The Time Machine as well, it came on my nook for free. But it's being interrupted by other things.

[Das Platyvark]

Recently Read:
Oedipus Rex, Antigone (Sophocles)
The former is probably the best play I've ever read, and the latter I felt was not near as good.

Ghostwritten (David Mitchell)
Very well written and quite intricate, but really confusing.

Stories (Edited by Neil Gaiman, Al Sarantonio)
Some really great stories in here, a few duds, most decent.

Currently Reading:
Necronomicon, a Lovecraft collection.
Sorry, I read one book at a time.

On the list:
Frankenstein (have to read it sometime)

Kraken (China Miéville)
On a relatives recommendation.

[SlayerScott]

I had meant to read it before the series came out but failed miserably and am now on the Bandwagon with everyone else. I am tearing through A Song of Ice and Fire like a Tween through Twilight. I'm 2/3rds of the way through A Storm of Swords.

I'm enjoying a reading Renaissance these days - having listened to my Mother and my fiancee lament their respective Book Club's love of Oprah books we've formed one of our own. Thus far we've read Robert Ludlum's The Cassandra Compact and John Scalzi's Old Man's War. Ludlum didn't write The Cassandra Compact himself, and it shows. Some hack took up one of his unfinished ideas. It's not awful, it's a fun, easy read. But if you compare it to his actual works it seems childish and simple. Old Man's War is a favorite of mine. A guy a little up mentioned The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I hear they're very similar and I plan to read The Forever War a little down the road.

Next up are my new Book Club Book - Wilbur Smith's The Triumph of the Sun and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. I took a course in Science Fiction Literature in University and I read the majority of the books but never finished. Since then I've harbored vague intentions of going back and making sure to get the one's I missed. I got Sherri S. Tepper's The Gate to Women's Country a few years ago and now the only thing missing is Stephenson's The Diamond Age. I tried to read Stephenson's Quicksilver a few years ago but in the early going I found the book as boring as it was enormous - we have a huge hardcover of it. So at the bookstore I wa torn between Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. I settled on Snow Crash because I've heard so much heaping praise for it. If it's as great as I've heard - or even just good - I'll go get The Diamond Age.

/COOL STORY BRO

[Traab]

Recently read
Owl Flight
Owl Sight
Owl Knight all by Mercedes Lackey

Currently reading

Silver Gryphon same author.

Next on the list?

The Belgariad by David Eddings.

Recommendations?

Any of the Valdemar world stories by Mercedes Lackey. Not a big fan of her bardic voices stuff personally. Redemption of Althaus by David Eddings. I think its a very cool story personally.

[Sipex]

Traab has good taste, the Valdemar series are solid Mercedes Lackey books.

Last Read:

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
In preparation for the movie

A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
My first Christopher Moore book, dark, funny and very engrossing. I highly recommend it if you're into dark humour and a bit of reality + weirdness.

You Suck - Christopher Moore
My second Christopher Moore book...see above except with vampires.

Currently Reading:

Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore
Not going through it as fast as the other two since I'm playing a DS game right now but it's still amazing.

Future Reading:

Any Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett books I haven't already gotten my hands on.

Moral of this post? READ CHRISTOPHER MOORE.

[Liffguard]

I tried to read Stephenson's Quicksilver a few years ago but in the early going I found the book as boring as it was enormous - we have a huge hardcover of it. So at the bookstore I wa torn between Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. I settled on Snow Crash because I've heard so much heaping praise for it. If it's as great as I've heard - or even just good - I'll go get The Diamond Age.

Snow Crash is definitely a fun read. Word of warning though, don't go in expecting to take it particularly seriously. It has some dark themes typical of the cyberpunk genre but overall it's tone is mostly towards the lighter end of the spectrum. A lot of the praise it gets is precisely because of its relatively light-hearted nature, fast pace and heavy use of irony but it's not a heavyweight book like a lot of other Stephenson works. I can probably best describe it as Ghost in the Shell meets Judge Dredd meets Idiocracy. The fact that the main character's name is Hiro Protagonist should give you a good idea of what the story's like.

[SlayerScott]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm not too worried, I like Douglas Adams to William Gibson and everything in between.

(Who'd be a better serious sci-fi reference than Gibson? David Brin or Ursula Leguin maybe...)

[Mauve Shirt]

Traab has good taste, the Valdemar series are solid Mercedes Lackey books.

Last Read:

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
In preparation for the movie

A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
My first Christopher Moore book, dark, funny and very engrossing. I highly recommend it if you're into dark humour and a bit of reality + weirdness.

You Suck - Christopher Moore
My second Christopher Moore book...see above except with vampires.

Currently Reading:

Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore
Not going through it as fast as the other two since I'm playing a DS game right now but it's still amazing.

Future Reading:

Any Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett books I haven't already gotten my hands on.

Moral of this post? READ CHRISTOPHER MOORE.

Advice: Don't read Bite Me, it is very weak. Do read Bloodsucking Fiends, Fluke and Lamb if you haven't already.

[Leon]

Recently Read:
1. Eisenhorn Trilogy Omnibus by Dan Abnett
2. The Turning by Tim Winton
3. Enforcer (the Shira Calpurnia Omnibus) by Matthew Farrer
4. Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier

Reading:
1. Mechanicum by Graham McNeill
2. Science of the Discworld III by Terry Pratchett with Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen
3. At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

Planning to Read:
1. Lord of the Night by Simon Spurrier
2. The Old Kingdom Chronicles by Garth Nix (reread again)
3. Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

[dehro]

I tend to read several books at once, alternating them over the same period..
Right now I'm halfway through:
Salman Rushdie's "the enchantress of Florence"
Paolo Maurensig's "l'oro degli immortali" (translates roughly as"the Immortals' gold")
rereading one of the Discworld books (at random, right now it's "nightwatch")
..and I think I'm forgetting a book or two.

[Sipex]

Oh wait, I've read Bloodsucking Fiends, not You Suck. Derp.

[BiblioRook]

My to-do list includes: LOTR + The Hobbit (I know, I should be ashamed for having never read it), H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Moby ****, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and a big Lovecraft collection.

Once I'm done with the Fforde books there are alot of classics (including a few of what you listed) at the top of my queue, more along the lines of classical adventure. Reading the Thursday Next series made me guilty over some of the classics I've always meant to read (or reread) but never seemed to make time for...


Edit: Also, +1 for Christopher Moore. I didn't really see anything wrong with Bite Me, but I also read it far removed from reading his other books so it might be different if I had a firm comparison.
Isn't his new book coming out soon? I know he's here in San Diego for Comic Con and I think I remember hearing something about him possibly premiering or previewing it there.

[Morech]

Recently Read (In reverse order):

The Enterprise of Death by Jesse Bullington
Black slave is forced to become the apprentice of a necromancer, gets cursed, and makes some unusual friends in her quest to have the curse removed. Set in 16th Century Europe.

The Second Empire by Paul Kearney
The fourth book in the Monarchies of God series, which is about the setting's equivalent of the discovery of the New World, while back in Normannia (Europe) the various nations have to contend with an invasion by the Merduks (Muslims), and the fallout of having two competing Popes. I'd heard it described as fairly brutal and pessimistic so far, but so far it's been bittersweet at worst, so maybe the fifth book makes up for that.

The Warrior Prophet by R. Scott Bakker
The second Prince of Nothing book. The can be described as Middle Earth + The First Crusade meets The Book of Revelation + A thesis on the emotional and philosophical underpinnings of human motivation. As far as I know it's the only series to imitate Tolkien properly (if that makes sense) in how it has a similarly distinctive world and equally epic plot with a world-threatening supernatural enemy and an impression of thousands of years of history.

Currently (Re)Reading:

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Reread the first book a few months back on the off-chance I would somehow be able to watch the show while it aired (didn't happen ). Now just rereading all of them in preparation for A Dance With Dragons (and technically A Feast For Crows since I haven't actually read it yet either).

Berserk by Kentaro Miura
My favorite manga, but definitely not for everyone.

Redwall by Brian Jacques
Sorta, at least since I haven't picked it up in a few days, but mainly because I didn't have time to do so back in February, but since these books were a big part of my childhood it seemed only fitting to go back to them in tribute to Jacques' memory.

Up Next:

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erickson
Somehow it took me three tries to get through Gardens of the Moon (and since Erickson seems convinced that most people either bail a third of the way into GotM or is pulled in right away, I wonder how unusual that makes me). It's still a very interesting setting, so we'll see how things go with this one.

I usually don't plan ahead so much as see what I feel like picking up next once I'm almost finished whatever I'm reading at the time, but the main up-next candidates are:

- Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rohtfuss
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (reread)

[BiblioRook]

Decided to deviate from my queue a bit and skip to reading 'Agatha H and the Airship City' by Phil & Kaja Foglio (book based off the Girl Genius webcomic, if you didn't know).

[H Birchgrove]

Mathias Sandorf by Jules Verne. It's basically a homage to The Count of Monte Cristo, but stands on its own IMHO. Its helps if you know something about the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis. An Alternative History in which Martin Luther became pope, the current pope (well, 1976) is English and science is forbidden. A young choir boy has a fantastic singing voice and therefore a lot of priests and the pope want him castrated. The boy himself is not too keen on the idea.

[Melayl]

I just finished reading the King Raven trilogy (Hood, Scarlet, Tuck) by Stephen Lawhead. Very enjoyable, both from a written perspective and how he handled "rewritting" the old Robin Hood tales. He's apparently written similar books, so I'll be looking at how he handled King Arthur next.

I read them a couple of decades ago (almost). He did an interesting job of it. They were quite entertaining.

I'm planning on picking up the most recent Vlad Taltos‎ novel: Tiassa, by Steven Brust. The first six books were excellent, although I didn't care for a few after that. I'm interested in getting back into reading them, though.

A much better book than the last couple, read it in one evening.

Magic's Pawn ~ Mercedes Lackey
No idea what this is about and I'm not sure I'll even read it in the end.

An excellent book in a wonderful series. I've read it 4 times now, and I don't even own it. It does start off rather slowly, but don't give up on it. The other 2 books in that series get much better yet, and the entire world is well worth reading. Pretty much everything else she's written has been worth reading, though I agree with Traab on the Bardic Voices series.

As for me, let's see...

Recently read:
Urban Shaman, 1st book of the Walker series by C. E. Murphy. Not as good as I was expecting, but is was her first novel, so I'm hoping it improves a little bit more.

Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. One of her Elemental Masters books. Quite good, but not as good as her Valdemar novels, imo.

Hmm.... I can't remember the title or author of the book before that. I must be getting senile in my old age... I think it was a book I re-read...

Planning to read:

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher. Just as soon as I can get my greedy little hands on it...

Naked City, an anthology including a Dresden story by Jim Butcher, and a story by Patricia Briggs, set in the world of her Mercedes Thompson series.

Thunderbird Falls, the next book in the Walker series by C. E. Murphy.

I'd recommend anything by Mercedes Lackey, Jim Butcher, Steven Brust, or Joel Rosenburg(the Guardians of the Flame author, not the other Joel Rosenburg), as well as Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series. Jennifer Roberson's Cheysuli books were pretty good. I may add more later, my brain is apparently not functioning at it's highest level right now.

[Madpolymorpher]

I just finished R. A. Salvatore's Gauntlgrym

I am in the middle of a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft.

I just went on a buying spree, with borders going out of business and all, so I have a nice list of books that I'll get to soon.
Among them are Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft, The Aeneid, and the second and third parts of the Divine Comedy

[WJMill]

Currently Reading:
Sword Dancer series by Jennifer Roberson. I'm on Sword Maker (#3 of 6). I really enjoy them so far. The characters are beautifully flawed and conflict is everywhere. I'm always guessing as to where the plot is going next.

Next on the List:
Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin. I've heard a lot of good things so far, and my boyfriend has praised the living crud out of the books. I know it's on TV now, too, but I haven't watched it. (As I prefer to read over TV, and it's on a channel I don't get.)

I'm also going to eventually re-pick up Harry Potter. The end has been generally spoiled for me already because the rest of my family have read all of the books and own all of the movies (and seen 7p2). I stopped at book 5 in high school because Harry was being an outrageous whiner and I wanted to figuratively punch him in the face. I got frustrated and never picked it up again.