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[Scoops Novel]

Ian Banks has died today. I am here to recommend his last book the quarry, releasing on 20th June. It is a book about the last weeks in the life of a 40 year old diagnosed with cancer, mostly written before he was diagnosed with "no inkling" of the fact. Thank you Ian.

[Kirbypowered]

Gormenghast. Complete. Amazing. Just...amazing. Every detail in this book felt as though of significant purpose. Every action of seemingly immense consequence. I don't know if there's much I can say. It's beautiful. Just read this series, you will be doing yourself a favour.

Spoiler: 4/40 (click to show/hide)

The Math Gene: How Mathematical Thinking Evolved and Why Numbers Are Like Gossip - Keith Devlin (328 pages)
Titus Groan - Mervyn Peake (398 pages)
The Reality Dysfuntion - Peter F. Hamilton (1108 pages)
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake (511 pages)
Total pages: 2345

While I wait for my next book to show up in the library, I'll be continuing Paul Lockhart's Measurement, but I don't expect to really finish that any time soon. I'm currently fighting with similarity and characteristics of polygons, and getting nowhere especially quickly.

[Dutchling]

Finished book #11, Dracula. I'm 99%sure I already posted that here, but apparently not o.O

[Dutchling]

Started reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel. Awesome and hilarious so far .

[anzki4]

Well, I'm a little bit behind my schedule. Just finished book #2 : Rome I - Imperium by Robert Harris. This one was a re-read, because I borrowed the second part from a library and wanted to refresh my memory. Still as good as I remember it being.

The series a (two parts have been published, third is planned) fake biography of Cicero, a roman senator during the times of fall of Roman Republic (that is it becoming a dictatorship, the Roman Empire), written from the perspective of his slave scribe Tiro, who is in friendly terms with his owner (who often even asks his advice on political matters) and who really did write biography of his former owner after his death, but it was lost during the fall of Roman Empire. The book is mostly based on history with some made up stuff. All the major events and character are historical though.

Spoiler: Books read - 2/52 (click to show/hide)

1. Mort by Terry Pratchett
2. Rome I - Imperium by Robert Harris

[i2amroy]

Just finished Brandon Sanderson's new book, The Rithmatist, and I must say that it was excellent. So far this is the first book of his that I've read (with the exceptions of the Wheel of time books he co-authored) and I must say that his style is magnificent. I highly look forward to such time as when the sequel to The Rithmatist comes out.

Spoiler: Books Finished 25/52 (click to show/hide)

Valentine's Exile - E.E. Knight
Valentine's Resolve - E.E. Knight
Fall With Honor - E.E. Knight
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
When Darkness Falls - Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Lear's Daughters - Marjorie Kellogg with William Rossow
Rhapsody: Child of Blood - Elizabeth Haydon
An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire
Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire
The Redemption of Althalus - David and Leigh Eddings
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
Cold Days - Jim Butcher
Prophecy: Child of Earth - Elizabeth Haydon
Destiny: Child of Sky - Elizabeth Hadon
Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson
Crusade - Taylor Anderson
Maelstrom - Taylor Anderson
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Color of Magic -Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson

Total Pages: 11,011

[Dutchling]

Also started Around the world in 80 days. I have read it twice before but I could only remember the ending, so there it has to be read again

[anzki4]

Finished the second book on Rome series mentioned in my previous post.

Spoiler: Books read - 3/52 (click to show/hide)

1. Mort by Terry Pratchett
2. Rome I - Imperium by Robert Harris
3. Rome II - Lustrum by Robert Harris

[Kirbypowered]

Finally got the book I've been waiting for from the library...in foresight I probably could've read one of my books while I waited. Ah well, I learned some mathematics instead.

I've been thinking that maybe some books less than 500 pages would be nice, right? 600 page book, ahoy!

[Dutchling]

Finished Around the world in 80 days. It was an okay book. Nothing special but nothing bad either. 3 out of 5.

Also started reading The fault in our stars.

[i2amroy]

And book 26 goes down! World War Z, by Max Brooks, was certainly an interesting tale. The narrative format really reminded me of some of Kurt Vonnegut's books. All in all it was a fairly nice read, though it doesn't classify in my personal favorite books list.

Spoiler: Books Finished 26/52 (click to show/hide)

Valentine's Exile - E.E. Knight
Valentine's Resolve - E.E. Knight
Fall With Honor - E.E. Knight
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
When Darkness Falls - Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
Lear's Daughters - Marjorie Kellogg with William Rossow
Rhapsody: Child of Blood - Elizabeth Haydon
An Artificial Night - Seanan McGuire
Late Eclipses - Seanan McGuire
The Redemption of Althalus - David and Leigh Eddings
Ghost Story - Jim Butcher
Cold Days - Jim Butcher
Prophecy: Child of Earth - Elizabeth Haydon
Destiny: Child of Sky - Elizabeth Hadon
Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson
Crusade - Taylor Anderson
Maelstrom - Taylor Anderson
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Pyramids - Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett
Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
The Color of Magic -Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Rithmatist - Brandon Sanderson
World War Z - Max Brooks

Total Pages: 11,353

[varnish]

I forgot to read for months.

Just finished two books, though. The first being General William Sherman's Memoirs, the second, Team of Rivals. The book about lincoln. Reading the two at the same time was interesting, as there were at least a couple occasions where Goodwin used the memoirs as a source. One occasion in particular I noticed because the quote she used was written like it was a direct quote from a conversation, while in his memoirs, it's not. Sherman was writing a brief summary of what he meant when he and Lincoln spoke, several decades after the fact.

Nothing profound, it was just fun to notice the connections between a general history and one of the primary sources.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

2. Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey
3. Patricia McKillip - In the Forests of Serre
4. The Song of Roland
5. Andrea Moore Kerr - Lucy Stone: Speaking out for Equality
6. Ursula Le Guin - The Eye of the Heron
7. Tove Jansson - The Summer Book
8. Patricia McKillip - Od Magic
9. Mary Antin - The Promised Land
10. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
11. Gifts - Ursula Le Guin
12. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell
13. Main Street - Sinclair Lewis
14. Sherman's Memoirs - William Sherman
15. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin

[Dutchling]

Finished The Fault In Our Stars.

Fuck. That was a good book. Many tears were shed ;_;

5/5

Damn you, John Green. Damn you.

[palsch]

I'm caught in a short story trap right now. Only two full books since my last update;

Spoiler: 27 down (click to show/hide)

Charles Stross
Merchant Princes series ;
1 - The Family Trade
2 - The Hidden Family
3 - The Clan Corporate
4 - The Merchant's War
5 - The Revolution Business
6 - The Queen of Trades
From the Laundry Files series;
The Apocalypse Codex

Seanan McGuire
October Daye series;
1 - Rosemary and Rue
2 - A Local Habitation
3 - An Artificial Night
4 - Late Eclipses
5 - One Salt Sea
6 - Ashes of Honor
InCryptid series;
Discount Armageddon
Midnight Blue-Light Special

Alastair Reynolds
Blue Remembered Earth

Iain M. Banks
The Hydrogen Sonata

Richard Morgan
A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy;
The Steel Remains
The Cold Commands

John Scalzi
Old Man's War series;
The Human Division: Episodes 1-13

Tamora Pierce
Tortall: Protector of the Small quartet;
First Test
Page
Squire
Lady Knight
Tortall: Daughter of the Lioness
Trickster's Choice
Trickster's Queen

China Mieville
New Crobuzon series;
Iron Council

Finishing the last Seanan McGuire short stories now and will be moving onto that anthology I bought the other day. I'm still giving away one copy of that one by the way.

[Dutchling]

Finished book #14: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel, by Susanna Clark.

Awesome book. The plot and the end aren't that good, but most of the book is about, well.. the setting and characters instead of the plot. It's kinda like Harry Potter where you have seven books about an awesome school, which keep having a really lame ending and 'plot'.

5/5.