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[brewer bob]

My mom wasn't reading her borrowed copy of 1984 so I picked it up again. I'd forgotten what it was like to read a book that totally grips you with every word.

A good read, and one of my all-time favourite books.

[ChairmanPoo]

I'm reading a thread titled "What are you reading?"

[brewer bob]

I'm reading a thread titled "What are you reading?"

What a coincidence that I happened to be reading the same thread! 

[heydude6]

I just finished Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice and I feel kind of empty inside now. I've been on a vampire fiction reading binge for the past few months (blame the announcement of Vampire the Masquerade 2) and this one is definitely my favorite.

So why do I feel so sad then? Well it's mainly because of the fact that I love it for personal reasons rather than objective reasons. The book is very angsty and though I enjoy the angst, I realize that there's a pretty good chance that some of it is not that well written and my personal biases are just blinding me. In other words, it's a book that I would have difficulty sharing with others.

I guess the reason why I'm posting here is because I want to know if anyone else here has read Interview? What did they think of it? Did they like it or did they think it wasn't that good? I'm just hoping I can discuss it with someone.

[Yoink]

I am currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson.
'Twas a lucky find in an op-shop when I was visiting family a month or so ago. As I ransacked the book section I came across it and at first was rather uninspired by its dorky cover art, but then I thought "Neuromancer... I've heard of that!"

Wasn't this book basically the grand daddy of cyberpunk? Or one of its progenitors, at least? It's quite good so far, I'm a little over halfway.

In the same book haul (the place didn't exactly have the best range, but they let you fill a bag of books for $5 so you better believe I picked the eyes out of the selection!) I scored a copy of John Dies At the End, which was nice since I have no idea what happened to my old copy - I re-read it already.
I was pretty stoked.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Neuromancer is the progenitor of cyberpunk, or at least something very close. If you like it you should look at some of the other novels Gibson wrote. Neuromancer is very much a first book and so lacks some of the polish that Gibson's latter novels have. _{The Difference Engine was kinda disjointed but the rest I read were good.}

[catacombs]

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[Yoink]

Neuromancer is the progenitor of cyberpunk, or at least something very close. If you like it you should look at some of the other novels Gibson wrote. Neuromancer is very much a first book and so lacks some of the polish that Gibson's latter novels have. _{The Difference Engine was kinda disjointed but the rest I read were good.}

I thought that was the case! Awesome, I finished reading it. It read very much like a hard-bitten pulp noir transplanted into the far future, something about the prose that I can't quite put my finger on. I definitely enjoyed it, even if I'm not ashamed to admit some of its far-out technobabble went right over my head - I kinda like that, though, when a book plunges you into its world without so much as a glossary to guide yourself by.   
Again, like a noir with all their gritty gangster/private eye dialect, just from a far-removed setting.


I also finished reading Web, by John Wyndham, which I'd started reading before being distracted by Neuromancer and then reading them both concurrently. It was good, though without nearly as much depth as Day of the Triffids, but then it was apparently published posthumously so it probably wasn't quite a finished product at the time. It makes it into "not too far-fetched" territory, which is what makes it reasonably unsettling despite its age.   


Now I'm reading Cogan's Trade. I watched Killing Them Softly once years ago and remember a few vague plot points, but it's been long enough that I have no idea how closely it actually followed the events of the book, haha. It's an odd read, full of rambling, conversational, believable dialogues between characters that you kinda hafta imagine 'em saying to really get.   
Enjoyable so far, though. I'll probably finish it on my flight tomorrow.
Oh, I'm reading a wonderful Mad magazine collection of vintage comics by one of their artists named Will Elder, too! I think I've only read one of his original parodies before (in a special edition re-issue of an old magazine), but it's fascinating to see how his style seems to have influenced Mad as a whole.   

[catacombs]

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[TeaAndRum]

The Descent (by Jeff Long). It's scary, yet inspires me to do stuff in DF.

[Eschar]

I just started The Dead Zone by Stephen King, and The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold. I'm in the middle of The Stand.

[pondicherry]

I just started Les Miserables and I'm loving it.

It was a good way to review some of the french revolutions ideas/history - having lots of fun.

[catacombs]

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[mangointango]

I have just finished The Witcher series

[Jopax]

I dropped Seveneves. Really boring and too much into the technical details of space travel.

Starting Don Winslow's The Border, the final book in his "Power of the Dog" series, which I recommend everyone should read.

I managed to get trough the first part mostly because it played with some interesting tech ideas, even tho it had some really poorly done tropes shoved in (with hamfisted social commentary no less). But then the second part comes around it's got all new characters which are completely uninteresting and there's a mystery which isn't one, and worse yet is completely fuckng dumb once its explained. I just gave up on it after a few chapters and read the synopys online, saves a bunch of trouble and annoyance.

I will say tho, that despite the dryness and a requirement of taking notes just to follow it at first, Anathem was suprisingly engaging and a fun read at the end.