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[Ancre]

I finished another book (only three read so far ! I am getting behind on my schedule !). Ondine, by the same guy. I had a fourth book of  him that I wanted to read, but I'll probably just put it aside and read something else instead. Like ancient greek tragedies, perhaps.

Spoiler: the list (click to show/hide)

Jean Giraudoux - La guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (the Trojan war will not happen)
Jean Giraudoux - Electre
Jean Giraudoux - Ondine

[GreatJustice]

Finished HERO OF THE IMPERIUM. A fine compendium. Next up, I'm going to try to read DEFENDER OF THE IMPERIUM (also featuring Ciaphas Cain) and Withur We. Withur We actually has a free pdf version, so I'll be reading through it with my laptop.

[miauw62]

I finished Just One Look from Harlan Coben. Pretty nice book overall, just what I like in my books: a bit of action, not too much romantic stuff, a good plot and a tadbit of surrealism. Next up is another one from Harlan Coben, after that I'll probably try to get my hands on a discworld book. The first one I guess?

E: My local library is my only source for these books, and they seem to have ONLY Witches Abroad. Yay for my local library, the tiny book store that sells only well-known and recent books and the lack of any second-hand book stores!

[Caz]

Not been reading much over the last few weeks. A couple of fics, some half-finished books. Thinking of starting the Wheel of Time series.

Spoiler:  14/100 (click to show/hide)

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins  (387 pages)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (391 pages)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (390 pages)
The Four Agreements - Miguel Ruiz (144 pages)
Grotesque - Natsuo Kirino (480 pages)
Mammoth - Stephen Baxter (277 pages)
Theodore Boone - John Grisham (272 pages)
A Prison Diary - Jeffrey Archer (272 pages)
The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M Auel (512 pages)
The Valley of Horses – Jean M Auel (560 pages)
The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M Auel (784 pages)
Very Nice Ways to Say Very Bad Things – Linda Berdoll (143 pages)
The Book of Lies - Aleister Crowley (212 pages)
Le Couperet et Le Collet (Hunger Games fanfic, pretty damn good) - silvercistern (62,719 words)

[Sappho]

Spoiler: That's 8 down now. (click to show/hide)

Junky (William S. Burroughs) - 256 pages
Sourcery (Terry Pratchett) - 270 pages
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm (Nancy Farmer) - 310 pages
American Gods - Author's Preferred Text (Neil Gaiman) - 650 pages
Hell - Robert Olen Butler - 232 pages
Seven Emus - Xavier Herbert - 175 pages
Jamestown - Matthew Sharpe - 327 pages
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman - 370 pages

Neverwhere is my favorite book of all time. I lost count of how many times I've read it. 8? 9? Something like that. First time was in high school, maybe 12 years ago. The way I feel about this book is how English literature professors seem to feel about Shakespeare. Every word and phrase is finely crafted. Passages get stuck in my head and pop out to say hello at the oddest times. And the world he creates makes sense in a way reality never has. Just like my dreams, where the universe is created around my own perception.

I hadn't read the book in a few years. Lent it to a friend 2 years ago, who read half of it then told me he wasn't impressed (a sentiment I still can't comprehend) and he'd finish it "soon." A week ago I told him if he wasn't going to finish it then he should just give it back because I missed it and I wanted to read it again. I don't even really need to read it at this point - I have much of it memorized verbatim - but I wanted to anyway. I held it in my hands, careful about the cover which is coming off the spine of the book (need to glue that back on someday, "perfect binding" nonsense), and got pins and needles over my whole body. I felt high. I had my book back.

I took my time with it this time. Took me 3 whole days to read it.

[Trif]

Finished Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It's pretty great! I really like Philip K. Dick's very light and flowing style of writing, I get lost in thought very easily. And, as always, great characterization and a surreal plot. I recommend it.

Spoiler: List of books (click to show/hide)

• If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (Italo Calvino)
• Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
• Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick)

[Dutchling]

Just finished The Dunwhich Horror, definitely my favourite of the six short stories I have read so far.

Spoiler: Stuff like this, and not the plots or characters, is why I am starting to like Lovecraft (click to show/hide)

It would be trite and not wholly accurate to say that no human pen could describe it, but one may properly say that it could not be vividly visualised by anyone whose ideas of aspect and contour are too closely bound up with the common life-forms of this planet and of the three known dimensions.

[RedWarrior0]

Not been reading much over the last few weeks. A couple of fics, some half-finished books. Thinking of starting the Wheel of Time series.

If you do, I (and everyone else) recommend skipping book ten. The first three are good, the next six are given varying opinions, the tenth is, well, quite frankly terrible, the eleventh is in the same boat as 4-9, and the Sanderson ones are good.

Though really, this post is just an excuse (however valid) to post this: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1IF16DWWMC0CU/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0812571339&nodeID=283155&store=books

[fqllve]

Finished Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It's pretty great! I really like Philip K. Dick's very light and flowing style of writing, I get lost in thought very easily. And, as always, great characterization and a surreal plot. I recommend it.

I find your reasoning very specious. How much Dick have you read, because I find the idea you've read a lot rather... specious. :p

Seriously though, he uses that word like six times in that book. I dunno, I've read more than a dozen of his books and there are only a couple I enjoyed less than Flow My Tears. In fact, I actually love Dowland too, so I'm not really sure what went on there. I found his ideas somewhat harder to follow than his other books, Taverner somewhat less sympathetic than his other protagonists (maybe even less than Asher from The Divine Invasion?), and his writing more repetitive. The Taverner might just be because of his being a rich and famous actor as well as a super special Six, because Dick's protagonists tended to all be the same. I've just never understood why that receives so much praise when the inventive and energetic Now Wait for Last Year hardly ever gets mentioned.

That reminds me that I still need to read Ubik and The Man in the High Castle though. There's really no excuse for not having read those when I've read Our Friends from Frolix 8...

[Flying Dice]

Continuing my trend of spending personal leisure time reading for fun rather than education...

For the Emperor
Sandy Mitchell
30/1/13

It's Cain, what else needs to be said?

[Trif]

Finished Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It's pretty great! I really like Philip K. Dick's very light and flowing style of writing, I get lost in thought very easily. And, as always, great characterization and a surreal plot. I recommend it.

I find your reasoning very specious. How much Dick have you read, because I find the idea you've read a lot rather... specious. :p

Well, I never said that I read much Dick, did I :p
So far only Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and The Man in the High Castle, but I really liked Dick's style so I decided to pick up some more this year, starting with Flow my Tears.

[...]the inventive and energetic Now Wait for Last Year hardly ever gets mentioned[...]

And there is the next one! Thanks!

[mcclay]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Fallout:Equestria-Kkat
Fallout: Equestria Project Horzions-Somber
Conan the Avenger-Robert E. Howard
Conan of the isle- Robert E. Howard

All were pretty good, though I can see a lot of things that most consider bad writing nowadays in Conan. Still it was good and violent and all that jazz.

[Realmfighter]

Spoiler: 5/52 completed (click to show/hide)

• Poké Wars: The Subsistence
  118,768 words
  Decent concept and interesting actions scenes, but the typos are fairly obvious even if you're not looking for them.
• Practical Ethics, By Peter Singer
  359 pages of content, 395 with notes and index
  Philosophy is fun, especially when you're a awkward introspective seventeen year old!
• Poké Wars: The Coalescence
  72,269 words
  It's definately readable, I'll give it that.
• The Last Dragon Slayer, By Jasper Fforde
  289 pages
  Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite authors, and this book is a good example why. Witty, fun and with amazing world building.
• The Emotion Machine, by  Marvin Lee Minsky
  346 pages, 387 with index
  While probably more relevant to my dream of working on AI, a lot less interesting than Practical Ethics. Good thing I just got Animal Liberation by Peter Singer from the library.
  

[Scoops Novel]

How is Dune? I half read it at one point, but i think it could bear my interest. Also, i thought you might be interested in hearing about the long war, the sequel to the the long earth. It will be out in June.

[Caz]

Not been reading much over the last few weeks. A couple of fics, some half-finished books. Thinking of starting the Wheel of Time series.

If you do, I (and everyone else) recommend skipping book ten. The first three are good, the next six are given varying opinions, the tenth is, well, quite frankly terrible, the eleventh is in the same boat as 4-9, and the Sanderson ones are good.

Though really, this post is just an excuse (however valid) to post this: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1IF16DWWMC0CU/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0812571339&nodeID=283155&store=books

Ugh, I hate seasonal rot. Funny review.