What Books Are You Reading Right Now?

[Thiel]

I'm currently reading Deadstock by Jefrey Thomas, mostly to pass the time until Brian McClellan releases the next book in his Powder Mage trilogy later this month.

[happyturtle]

The Powder Mage series - also known as Those Books with the Most Badass Cover Art Ever

[Coidzor]

Just finished Simon Hawke's The Reluctant Sorcerer. Pretty enjoyable for pulp fantasy that I picked up for a buck. Oh, (computer) scientists being transported into fantasy worlds where this may or may not translate into a talent for magic, I need to figure out where this trope first arose.

[Palanan]

Whoo hoo!!!!

Hadrian is gone, gone, gone, and now I'm finally able to start The Anglo-Saxon World, an audiocourse by Michael Drout. He's deeply enthusiastic about the language, the culture, and the history, and in the first five minutes he's already mentioned Tolkien--who was his original inspiration for studying linguistics--plus MacGuyver and Angelina Jolie. He's like that, and it's great fun.

I've been waiting to start this since January, so it's time to dive in. He starts by reading a lengthy passage in Anglo-Saxon, with a thoroughly convincing accent, and that really helps set the mood. Time to get my Hengest on!

[Traab]

War Maid's Choice by David Weber. Its the latest book in his pretty much only fantasy series as he normally does sci fi stuff. It is awesome, badass and excellent in every way. He has the standard fantasy races, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. But he has put his own very big twists on them. Elves for example, are a created race. They gave up the ability to do magic in order to live forever. Halflings are the result of dark wizards using too much magic around their servants without caring enough to protect them. Think of it like comic book style exposure to radiation. Only this created a race of beings. The main character's race though is a new one, hradani. They are bigger, stronger, and faster than men, live around 2-3x as long, and heal faster from injuries, not wolverine fast, but if a wound would put a man down for a week, it would drop a hradani for a day or so. The downside is they were afflicted by something known as The Rage by dark wizards in the distant past. Basically they can lose their temper and turn into deranged berserkers, though some few can control it.

The series has tons of humor in it. Lots of quips going back and forth between friends, the fight scenes are well done, the background mythology is fairly new and interesting, and the story itself is pretty gripping. If you want to check it out, it starts with Oath of Swords. If you like fantasy I highly suggest you read it.

[Coidzor]

Whoo hoo!!!!

Hadrian is gone, gone, gone, and now I'm finally able to start The Anglo-Saxon World, an audiocourse by Michael Drout. He's deeply enthusiastic about the language, the culture, and the history, and in the first five minutes he's already mentioned Tolkien--who was his original inspiration for studying linguistics--plus MacGuyver and Angelina Jolie. He's like that, and it's great fun.

I've been waiting to start this since January, so it's time to dive in. He starts by reading a lengthy passage in Anglo-Saxon, with a thoroughly convincing accent, and that really helps set the mood. Time to get my Hengest on!

You're one of those gung-ho self-improvement types, aren't ya? Certainly sounds interesting though.

[dehro]

Just finished Simon Hawke's The Reluctant Sorcerer. Pretty enjoyable for pulp fantasy that I picked up for a buck. Oh, (computer) scientists being transported into fantasy worlds where this may or may not translate into a talent for magic, I need to figure out where this trope first arose.

I seem to remember reading stuff by Lyon Sprage de Camp that was very much in that vein

[Dr.Epic]

I rereading the Time Machine right now.

[megahobbit]

I'm reading a collection of HP Lovecraft's stories for the first time.

[turkishproverb]

Just finished Simon Hawke's The Reluctant Sorcerer. Pretty enjoyable for pulp fantasy that I picked up for a buck. Oh, (computer) scientists being transported into fantasy worlds where this may or may not translate into a talent for magic, I need to figure out where this trope first arose.

You just described Ragewar/The Dungeonmaster.

[EmeraldRose]

On to Lords and Ladies, which just so happens to be my most favoritest by Pratchett. Also, I'm done with assignments for the spring term, so my reading for the next couple weeks will likely go a bit faster.

[Feytalist]

I finally caved and bought the first Iron Druid Chronicles book. I'm already reading like 5 books simultaneously, so it will unfortunately just have to wait.

[Cristo Meyers]

Finished Reaper Man over the weekend. Good read, no complaints. Now I'm moving onto a book someone loaned me. It's not something I would ever be likely to pick up, but then again that's kinda the point right now. If the back cover summary is any indication, it's the book the movie Shooter was based off of. Or it's a knock-off of said book. Or there's only so many 'former military operative single-handedly saves the [insert high-level government offical] from assassination plot' stories to go around.

I am...less than optimistic about this one. If I'm not finished with it by the time I go on vacation I'll probably drop it, but it'll be a learning experience at any rate.

[EmeraldRose]

Ok, finished up Lords and Ladies, and Andre located Small Gods for me, so that one is next...

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Just finished Mouse Guard: the Black Axe (superb stuff, and the art was gorgeous as always), and am in the middle of Turn Coat. My Dresden reread continues! Can I finish Cold Days before Skin Game comes out? (Probably.)

[Feytalist]

Rereading Anansi Boys. You know, I think I actually like this more than American Gods.

[dehro]

I have to stop watching mock the week.. I read that as "nancy boys".. in Frankie Boyle's voice

[warty goblin]

Personal Reminders:
1) Don't get sick before finals
2) If sick before finals, don't do a six mile grocery hike, even if the Strategic Yogurt Reserve is empty.
3) If both the above conditions occur however, Time Enough for Love is a very good choice for a brain-soothing reread at the end of the day.

I really do like Time Enough for Love. So few books manage to be, for wont of a better term, completely prosaic epics. Sure there's some freaky stuff in there, some sexual combinatorics that aren't usually presented in a positive way, but that's kinda part of the whole point. Strikes me that threesomes with gender-swapped clones are an inevitable logical consequence of a non-inhibited approach to sex, really. Not my thing to be sure, but that's OK. Plus, the writing's still bloody fantastic. If more genre fiction was written almost entirely as dialog, I might still read more genre fiction.

[Gnoman]

Picked up a few of the Johnny Dixon novels by John Bellairs, out of a desire to see if they really were as good as I thought they were as a kid. They're surprisingly good, although the youth-oriented writing means that the plots are resolved too quickly, with clues that are too obvious. Does anyone know of any adult-targeted works that are similar?

[aiza55]

i'm at the very end of eclipse by stephenie meyer then i'm moving on to breaking dawn (obviously lol).

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I have to stop watching mock the week.. I read that as "nancy boys".. in Frankie Boyle's voice

There's a joke here to be made about American Gods' Mr. Nancy, but I can't put my finger on it.

[Feytalist]

There's a joke here to be made about American Gods' Mr. Nancy, but I can't put my finger on it.

Well. The character in Anansi Boys also has Nancy as his surname. So... it's pretty much written into the novel itself.


As an aside; I actually grew up with a bunch of Anansi folklore. My babysitter/housekeeper was from Mali, and told me many of their folk tales. I also had this book of African folklore, containing one or two Anansi stories. Very pretty book. Sort of an Afrikaans Orange Fairy Book, with pictures and everything.

...wonder if I still have that book somewhere.

[Piggy Knowles]

I'm about forty pages into Samuel Delany's Dhalgren. It's almost certainly my favorite book, and I read it every couple of years; last time was in 2011.

I'm also working on a piece of writing that draws heavily from a lot of gnostic texts and early Christian apocrypha, so I'm catching up on much of that. I've got Jean-Yves Leloup's book on the Gospel of Mary Magdalene going on audiobook right now, and I just finished the Arabic Infancy Gospel. Next I plan to re-read the Nag Hammadi library in full, although I haven't decided on whether I'm going to go with Robinson's Nag Hammadi Library in English or Layton's Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation. That said, my library currently has Robinson, while I'd have to get Layton through ILL, so I might just take the easier path and go with Robinson.

[Reverent-One]

You just described Ragewar/The Dungeonmaster.

Also the Wizardry series by Rick Cook.

[Coidzor]

Also the Wizardry series by Rick Cook.

That was my first exposure to the concept as a kid, I believe.

[Thiel]

I've put Deadstock on hold for now and picked up Leviathan Wakes instead. I'll probably pick it up again in a couple of months once all the big releases have come and gone.
From what I've read so far of it, Leviathan Wakes is much more my thing. Not really surprising, I've always been more into hard-ish Sci-Fi

[Feytalist]

Okay, so I just accidentally finished the first Iron Druid Chronicles book. The one I said will just have to wait. Whoops.

So now I'm addicted and have to get the rest asap. Also whoops.


...aaaand I just finished the second book. That didn't take long. Now I might as well just read the rest and be done with it, heh.

[warty goblin]

Reading some Mary Oliver, I think I am noticing two things. Firstly I like Mary Oliver, anybody who's outlook remains so thoroughly rural and who's poetry is so rooted observing nature is doing something very right in my book. Secondly I don't think I'm a tremendous fan of blank verse. It's nice, it just isn't memorable.

[Palanan]

Just this afternoon finished Drout's audiocourse on Anglo-Saxon history, which ended up being part history, part culture and much literature, since that's his specialty. He has a slightly goofy, entirely sincere enthusiasm for his topic which is great fun to listen to, and I enjoyed the frequent Tolkien references. (Although who knew Thomas Jefferson was such an Anglo-Saxon enthusiast?)

It was a great overview of five hundred years of the Anglo-Saxon world, although necessarily rushed, and now it makes me want to read that history in much greater detail. I have Blair's Roman Britain and Early England, which I've been meaning to look at for a while, but it seems a little stodgy. Most histories would, after Drout's spirited reading of Anglo-Saxon passages.

Speaking of which, if anyone wants to get a sense of this language, listen to some of the readings on his Anglo-Saxon Aloud, which has a wealth of material recorded as podcasts--from short snippets of poetry to long manuscripts.

Originally Posted by warty goblin
Firstly I like Mary Oliver, anybody who's outlook remains so thoroughly rural and who's poetry is so rooted observing nature is doing something very right in my book.

This sounds like something I might enjoy, will have to look this up. Although....

Originally Posted by warty goblin
Secondly I don't think I'm a tremendous fan of blank verse. It's nice, it just isn't memorable.

I have never, ever thought much of blank verse. I grew up with Tolkien, and I firmly believe poetry needs to have a rhythmic power when spoken aloud.

Sadly, blank verse has been very trendy with the snoberati, who in my experience are all too eager to snobbify at those poor, unfortunate souls who actually enjoy archaic structures like rhyme.

--You can probably tell I have some personal experience with this. I had the misfortune to share an office with someone who is considered something of a poet, and who certainly considered herself the cutting edge of literary awesome. Whatever inner experiences she wrote about, they didn't involve humility.

[Thiel]

Finished Leviathan Wakes. Easily the best scifi I've read this year.
Started reading Patric O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. I read the first couple of books in Danish ten years ago but only learned recently that he wrote ten books, so I've got plenty reading to do now. :D