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[Aqizzar]

Everyone likes to read, so speak up.  What have you been reading lately?  What do you remember enjoying?  Recommend some stuff for everyone's entertainment, and have long rambling flamewars about the merits of different genres and authors.  And hey, don't think you're limited to published books.  Good website?  Comic book?  Disturbingly specific fanfic?  Do tell.  _{But please, if you're going to ask where to find something, try Google first.}


As for my list, I've been buying a lot of books lately, to add to the giant stack of books that I've been meaning to read for a couple years now.  For some reason, I just haven't worked up the patience to read any of my purchases until just recently.  I've got a (brief) vacation coming up, so I'm trying to cram in whatever I can.  Right now, I've got-

Spoiler: Spoiler'd for bigness (click to show/hide)

Your Next-Door Neighbor is a Dragon by Zack Parsons.  Yes, Zack "Geist-Editor" Parsons of Something Awful, flush from his success with My Tank is Fight!.  Imagine if a Transformers-addled Hunter S. Thomson had done a penetrating expose of Elfwood.com.  Then throw in crazy doctors, wannabe crazy doctors, a murder plot, Ron Paul, and the New York Yankees.  Technically, it's a personal guide to some of the more flamboyant sub-cultures of the Internet.  Realistically it's one of the funniest narratives I've ever read, with enough painful craziness that I'm pretty well convinced that Zack didn't embellish anything.  I love his writing enough on SA that I don't believe he needed to make any of it up.

I Woundn't Start From Here: The 21st Century And Where It All Went Wrong by Andrew Muller.  I haven't gotten very far into it, but I'm already familiar with Muller from his contributions to the seminal The World's Most Dangerous Places.  This book is essentially a recollection of adventures by a professional war reporter, written with the irreverent wit of a guy who used to critique and interview rockstars for Rolling Stone.  It's an up-to-date guide to all the world's worst shitholes and how they got to be that way, by a guy who's hung out with the Taliban, Robert Mugabe, Carlos the Jackal, and the IRA.  Gripping and hilarious.

The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsythe.  Forsythe was basically Tom Clancy before Clancy was Clancy, one of the big-name military action authors of the '70s Bond-like explosion.  He's still around too, but most of his stuff is basically an older, phlegmier version of Clancy now.  But Dogs of War was one of his first books, and was practically an illustrated blueprint for knocking over the government of Equatorial Guinea.  Part of why it was so detailed was that he went straight to the source for info, namely by interviewing old-school mercenaries in their prime like Mike Hoare and Black Bob Denard.  So straight that he was detained by the British government when Guinea nearly collapsed in a coup around the same time.  I haven't gotten far into it either, nor did I ever see the movie.  It's dense enough that I'm warming up with Zack's book first.

It's telling that the other books on my waiting list are journalist's collections of the civil wars in Chechnya and Rwanda and dissertations on radical Islam.  I have a penchant for punched-up firsthand accounts of descents in the heart of darkness, a way of sublimating my own burning need for adventure.  Zack's book is just one more, tamer and weirder, part of that penchant.

But enough about me.  Let's hear about your reading.

[Jude]

I have like 30 friggin books stacked up, most of them serious and about history or politics or something but I really just want to read some damn science nonfiction

[Tack]

Spoiler: Currently reading (click to show/hide)

The Grey Knights Omnibus. - Ben Counter
Made up of a meld of three different grey knight's books by Ben Counter (one of the writers of the horus heresy), this is a Warhammer 40,000 fluff book, following everyone's (Subject to argument) most favourite chapter - The Grey Knights. With the single prime directive of killing all demons everywhere, the main character, Alaric, who seems to have more emotion and doubt than the rest of them, has to do a number of things to basically save humanity.

The Demon Spirit - R.A. Salvatore.
Basically the usual from Salvatore, a fantasy which follows an elven trained ranger named Elbryan, as he saves the entire world from a demon called Bestibulzar. The previous book in the series is "The Demon Apostle"

Spoiler: Soon to read (click to show/hide)

Unseen Academics - Terry Pratchett.
Ok, Another Terry Pratchett. Football comes to Ankh-Morpork, and the wizards have to win the tournament for some reason or another. But they can't use magic, so they basically use everything else. Coolest part? The librarian is the coach, and Vetanari is the Referee. A great book, it seems, especially by a person suffering from altzeimers.

Five Greatest Warriors - Matthew Rielly.
The sequel to the gigantic and epic series, following Jack West JR. I don't know what happens in it, so I won't try and blag my way through it.

Also wanting to revisit the Sellswords trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, Or Magician by Raymond E. Fiest.

[Davion]

I just finished The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway and that was great.

Up next on my list is Anabasis by Xenophon, and when I am not in the mood for the adventures of ten thousand ancient Greek mercenaries I'll be mixing it up with A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. I've also got Earth Abides and Alas, Babylon waiting in the wings to feed my post-apocalyptic cravings.

Here's a science fiction recommendation:

Spoiler: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick (click to show/hide)

Wikipedia's plot introduction is better than anything I could write up:

"The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch takes place some time in the twenty-first century. Under the authority of the United Nations, humankind has colonized every habitable planet and moon in the solar system.

Life for most colonists is physically daunting and psychologically monotonous so the UN must draft individuals to become colonialists. Most colonists entertain themselves using Barbie-like "Perky Pat" dolls and the multitude of accessories manufactured by Earth-based P.P. Layouts. The company also secretly creates Can-D, an illegal but widely available hallucinogen that allows the user to "translate" into Perky Pat (if the user is female) or her boyfriend Walt (if male). This allows colonists to experience an idealized version of life on Earth in a collective unconscious hallucination. P.P. Layouts employs several precogs to determine if possible new Perky Pat accessories will be popular. Life on Earth is also harsh as the global temperature has risen to a level where one can no longer be outdoors without a personal air conditioning unit and Antarctica is the only suitable vacation spot.

At the novel's beginning, renegade industrialist Palmer Eldritch has traveled to the inhabited Proxima Centauri star system in search of a sellable product. He has been gone for a decade."

The story that unfolds is a complete mindfuck. There's also something oddly creepy about it all, it might be the prophetic undertones it has, or the fact that Philip K. Dick was a hardcore drug user when he was writing this and insane. All I know is when I finished it I felt emotionally drained and couldn't sit down and read anything casually for a couple of days.

[Jreengus]

Recently I read the entirety of The Order of the Stick from start to finish. I can highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read, it you don't even need an intimate understanding of D&D to understand some of the D&D jokes and theres plenty of other humor too.

[andy1005]

Well I am currently writing an original fiction called: 2163. It's a hybrid of 'low' science fiction and drama that occurs as the title says: in 2163. Most of my ideas are fantasies that appear in my mind from time to time, I'm gifted with mental issues that aid me with my writing. It's probably not very healthy but the stories I create are pretty good according to my friends.

That's probably the only thing I'm reading at the moment. Although I'm quite a sucker for Doctor Who fanfiction from time to time.

[Akigagak]

While watching Rashilul playing his LP on livestream, something kicked off a desire to read all of the Song of Ice and Fire books again. But I can't find the second volume on my shelves with the others. It's very different reading them again, but I wouldn't say that knowing the twists takes much away from the books, as they're still very well written.

[ChairmanPoo]

I read the Dresden Files last week, after repeatedly seeing it cited on TVtropes.

It's not masterful literature per se, but it's entertaining enough, in a soap-operish way. Plus I like the wisecracks

[Mr Tk]

I've got Unseen Academics lined up as well.

I'm currently getting my way through the Count of Monte Cristo, and have just finished V for Vendetta.

My shelfari profile

[Keiseth]

Neuromancer was one of my last reads, and I enjoyed it. Before that, Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, or Good Omens, I can't remember which I got first. I need more books, however. And a job to get them!

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch looks insane and very readable to me.

[Footkerchief]

Last thing I read was Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.  Upcoming:
- Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton
- We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, kind of Brave New World meets THX 1138 meets Logan's Run, except more old school than any of those
- Primitive Mythology, the first in Joseph Campbell's "Masks of God" series
- Rereading Dune, if I can track down the person I loaned it to
- Sometime I'll get around to Les Miserables and The Count of Monte Cristo

edit: yeah I have like the nerdiest list in this thread, bite me

[Cthulhu]

I just read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, but that's not really a book.  It was pretty disturbing, and occupied most of my thoughts that whole day.  I was pretty sure I was going to have a nightmare about it when I went to bed but I didn't.  Lucky me.

[olemars]

Just finished "The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents" by Pratchett. Starting on Unseen Academicals today. Big Pratchett fan yeah, unfortunately I'm running out of pratchett books I haven't read yet. Guess I'll have to dig up "the color of magic" again soon.

[Wiles]

I study English Literature so I do a lot of reading. I've been reading a lot of Shakespeare plays during the past couple of months. I've read Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Richard III. I'm just finishing up Henry IV part 1 and will be moving on to The Merchant of Venice next. I'm also reading Ulysses by James Joyce which I sometimes love, but most of the time hate. I've been reading a lot of early Canadian poetry and prose too. If I have time over the holidays I think I'm going to try to read War&Peace by Tolstoy and the Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. Or not. I might be tired of reading by then.

[Lord Dakoth]

Just finished reading Dennis McKiernan's The Dragonstone, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's filled with diabolical plots and clever riddles. Although some parts of it follow the Tolkien "template," it was still an excellent book. I'm going to read the rest of the Mithgar series now.

Last week, I finished reading Fight Club. That was some pretty heavy stuff.

A month or two ago, I finished reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Now that was a good book. It really changed my world view. Apparently they're making it into a movie now, and Angelina Jolie is going to be Dagny Taggart...