What are you currently reading?

[Sonic#]

I could've posted earlier, but I forgot. ^^;;;

But I've been reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini, Changing Planes by Ursula K. LeGuin, and... recently finished Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Eragon by the same Paolini above.

I've been enjoying them all. I am impressed by how engrossed I've become with both Eragon and Neverwhere. It must be the characters and the niftiness of the worlds described. I mean... in Neverwhere, between Richard Mayhew, Door, the Marquis de Carabas, Hunter, Jessica, the Angel Islington, Vandamar and Croup (is that right?), the Earl, and the host of other characters... it's tough to pick favorites, but I know among them, I like most of them.

As for Changing Planes... it's like a series of informative snippets about different planes of existence, reached by using a method a woman used while bored and stressed at an airport. It's intriguing, and nice to read before I sleep every night. But it's also far too easy to see a political slant in the writing, which makes it less light-hearted entertainment.

Oh, and mortally wounding danger is nice. Paolini isn't afraid of killing off a character or wounding them. I kept thinking as I was reading the first book, "Doesn't Eragon ever get a break?" In fact, I'm still asking that. I was also asking it in Neverwhere, especially concerning the Marquis and Hunter.

[Roas Atrades]

In an unusual step for a Forgotten Realms series set in contemporary times, each of the books takes place a decade or more apart. The final book of the series hasn't even happened yet according to the current FR timeline (which moves one year forward for every one year of real time), but the Pools series was started back in earlier days, possibly before the editorial team got organized and decided that they wanted to give direction to the FR novel line instead of just writing about any old topic/location.

Now that's one of the classic FR series. I read that back in the 90's. I think I still have the books upstairs in a box with the rest of my D&D books.

[otakujohn]

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene. I usually read a few pages before bed.

[DarkenRyu]

Currently catching up on the series "The Wheel of Time." Stuck in Winter's Heart, hoping to catch up quickly. Another series I'm awaiting the next book for is Phantom in the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind. I've got tons of reading to catch up on... but those are the 2 series I'm currently working on.

[Sonic#]

I just finished The Machine Crusade by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson... it's some delicious Dune-ness, heavy on the social commentary and history, slightly predictable in parts, but somehow I just love it, though I always need some lighter reading after to cleanse myself.

So I'm reading The Year 1000, which discusses England at the turn of the millennium. Fascinating stuff (at least to me) about farming, the calendar system... I'm about to read about Easter!

And somewhere in there have been a series of books. The Westing Game, His Majesty's Dragon, Pride and Prejudice... I enjoyed them all, and helped to pass the time while I've been sick recently. The second one was pretty fun, putting dragons in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars... it manages not to be too farfetched... somehow...

[YoshiMars]

Actually I'm currently working on the Ender's Game series, just starting the second novel Speaker of the Dead and I am also trying to start The Da Vinci Code not due to the movie, it was on my "to-read" list for over a year now... thus the film reminded me that I have to get moving on that.
It's been rather slow going on getting both truly started though. I've not had a lot of time to read...

[Mag]

I just got the two newest Diablo novels Moon of the Spider and Tales of Sanctuary. I've been a total sucker for anything Warcraft or Diablo for years, but haven't given the Starcraft novels a chance yet.

[Dragonlord911]

I am now reading Dragons and the Missing Star. I am just passing time until the third book of the Eragon Trilogy... I will wait forever... Forever!!!!!!!!!!

[LuNaRtIc]

I don't read as much as I used to anymore. That really disappoints me. But I'm thinking about picking up The Thief Lord again, I never got to finish it. And if I finish it, I'll probably work on finishing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as well. Man, that book was a total snore from where I left off. I really don't like reading into Voldermort's childhood.... >__>; boring.

[Mag]

I'm reading The Science Book!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030435 ... oding=UTF8


It's filled with some really interesting stuff. Lately I've been reading some pretty heavy Astronomy/Cosmology material, so this caught my eye.

[Dragonlord911]

I love that Dragons of the Lost Star. I am now going to read every book in the trilogy.

[TheRadicalAusa]

I have just finished reading "Pet Sematary" by Stephan King, pretty twisted book. It was a good read nonetheless. My neighbor also got the movie off of her sister and we watched it - Creeeepy!

[Texcap]

Current re-re-reading George MacDonald's Lilith (though I've not been able to pick it up and dive into it for awhile now that I think about it). I also plan to begin reading Howl's Moving Castle which I picked up recently -- I hear its excellent.

[AlasdairPalemoon]

"The Belgariad" from David Eddings. I'm back into my fantasy-medieval kick so I belted out about 80 pages today. Nice book so far. Kinda cliche, but likeable characters and good dialogue.

[Werefrog]

Wow... this thread was buried. Anyway... I just finished The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. I liked it, but I think that I'll probably have to re-read it. I understood it for the most part, but there's probably more that I can get out of it.

I really liked Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness in the book and was disappointed by the fact that the fourth segment was in 3rd person. I think Faulkner writes best in first person.

[Alunissage]

Naw, that last part, in third person, was necessary to provide the outside, sane voice, because none of the narrators were at all normal. I think if it had been in the first person the point that Dilsey was the observer outside of the family would have been diluted, because pretty much the whole point of the book, as I recall, is that it was a family of nutcases. Although Caddy and perhaps her daughter may have been relatively sane, inasmuch as it was possible to be in that messed-up household. Not that Caddy's actions in getting away from her family were exactly reasonable.

I seem to recall that family shows up in other Faulkner books too, at least in passing. I know I read a short story, kind of an addendum, which had Caddy as a woman in her forties or thereabouts.

I'm kind of surprised that you're only reading this now, though. It was part of my 11th-grade English class curriculum, and was also in the Academic Decathlon section on Literature that year, which is probably why I remember as much of it as I do after nearly 19 years.

[Sonic#]

I read the Sound and the Fury on my own. Whenever my classes read Faulkner, it was always As I Lay Dying, who has narrators that at least sometimes make sense, even if they then go crazy.

Right now I'm reading Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson. It's from the 1750s, and it's an epistolary, so it's a very slow read. Basically, Clarissa is the daughter of a wealthy commoner in England. Her grandfather dies and she gets an estate as an inheritance. However, she is denied it by her family until she marries this disgusting morsel of a man. In comes Mr. Lovelace, a supposedly reformed libertine scoundrel who is determined to have her in marriage or ruin her, when all Clarissa wants is to remain single, and the only power she has to do so (the only power that society would give to her) is her passive virtue.

And before that I was reading Robin McKinley. Most recently, the Hero and the Sword. Which, for Alunissage, it does feature a female dragonmaster... in a sense. Tasty stuff. ^_^

[Werefrog]

Naw, that last part, in third person, was necessary to provide the outside, sane voice, because none of the narrators were at all normal. I think if it had been in the first person the point that Dilsey was the observer outside of the family would have been diluted, because pretty much the whole point of the book, as I recall, is that it was a family of nutcases.

Oh yeah, I can understand why Faulkner wrote the final part in third person. I just didn't find it as crisp as the other parts. I can't really explain why. I think it was just that I enjoyed the stream-of-consciousness (I guess Jason's part was more an internal monologue) so much that I was disappointed by the sudden shift. (Benjy's section was pretty ingenious even though I'm sure it scares many first time Faulkner-readers away) Maybe I should re-read the final part and see if I missed anything important. Already took it back to the library. Whoops.

I seem to recall that family shows up in other Faulkner books too, at least in passing.

I know for sure that they're in Absalom, Absalom! Quentin, his father, and Quentin's room mate are three of the four narrators in that story. It's the story of (another) aristocratic family on the decline pieced together by the narrators.

I'm kind of surprised that you're only reading this now, though. It was part of my 11th-grade English class curriculum.

The United States public school system: your mileage may vary. The only Faulkner that I was required to read is "A Rose for Emily." (good story and a really good story to introduce a reader to Faulkner) I read Absalom, Absalom! and As I Lay Dying for book reports and decided that my brain needed a break before I had a breakdown. I don't think that Faulkner novels are assigned all too often in the public school system. I had to (re)read Absalom, Absalom! my freshman year in college, and the majority of the students had never read Faulkner before.

[brit]

For me, it’s the book “Blink” (The power of Thinking, Without Thinking) by Malcolm Goodwell.
I have to read it for the summer.

[Werefrog]

I'm reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I'm not liking it too much even though I loved Beloved.