Okay folks, let's get this party started.
What book(s) are you reading right now, and what do you think of it?
>>208
Only the first part is set in Japan.
Sidney Lumet - Making movies
It's pretty interesting so far. Lumet basically describes the various processes involved in, uh, making movies. Too bad I've never really liked his films that much.
>>208
it's teh rox, don't forget to read count zero and monalisa overdrive.
The Case Against Adolescence, by Robert Epstein. Genius nonfiction. Looks at education, history, sociology, psychology, etc...
I just finished All Quiet on the Western Front. Good book.
yesterday:The Monitors (Keith Laumer)(Purchase it in the secondhand bookstore.JP)
today:THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED LOVE AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD
(REPRINT in JAPAN 2005 (trancelate to JAPANESE)
mmm... OLD SF days.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. It's really too young for my liking, but the movie's coming out, so I thought I should read it.
The Trouble with Physics, by Lee Smolin. About how since the 70s, in physics, theory has gotten way ahead of experiment and people are imagining all this string theory and fantastic stuff like that, which may not be possible to actually test.
I'm not by any means a physics geek, but it's fascinating so far.
Lolita, again. The writing is so poetic and full of alliteration that it makes for a very tiring read, it took me far too long to finish reading it.
The Golden Bough by James Frazer. For a rambling obsolete anthropological work, it's pretty cool I guess.
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman et al. Oh god oh god oh god I love this thing.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. I have no idea what the hell I'm reading and I'm enjoying every word of it.
I have a problem with reading many things at once ;_;
V for Vendetta.
It's a graphic novel (har har har).
Finished Siddhartha and Prelude to the Foundation
Now reading Foundation.
just finished snow by orhan pamuk. real good
Tokyo Cancelled, by Rana Dasgupta. It is sort of like a "modern" Canterbury Tales, really.
"The Man Who was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterson: it is a fantastic turn-of-the-century metaphysical thriller about the conflict between order and anarchy.
"Roadside Picnic": the inspiration for the movie "Stalker" and the game "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.", and I gottta say it is some of the best soviet sci-fi I have ever read.
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
>>225
Just finished this morning. Its my first Murakami book and it was pretty good makes me want to read more of his stuff. Didnt really understand the whole people in reflections thing but i did love the ending
Hi, I'm >>218, and I'd like to join in your murakami circlejerk.
Started Noctes Atticae by Aulus Gellius. It's a commonplace book of an ancient Roman.
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
finished the Harry Potter series. WAY too overhyped.
The Fermata by Nicholson Baker
Im reading about zen budism ideology, its better than read the bible.
>>231 lol, first learn to spell before criticizing a book
finished Foundation, going to start Foundation and Empire
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami
Trying to read Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis, but it's a tough journey.
A Note of Madness, by Tabitha Suzuma. It's quite interesting, it's about a talented music student who's been having crazy mood swings.
Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Amazing book.
Starting on Fall on Your Knees by Anne-Marie Macdonald.
I just finished reading train man by nakatano hitori. it drove me to post here...
1984 by Orwell
Against a dark background - Iain M Banks
The green knight - Iris Murdoch
I was surprised to like the second one so much; I am not used to these Bronte-like themes.
the wind-up bird chronicle by haruki murakami
i wish he didn't namedrop so much
Just finished Strange Wine by Harlan Elison, collection of fantasy and science-fiction stories.
Now nearly done Visonary In Residence, a genre spaning short story collection by Bruce Sterling, with a collaboration with other other authors on a couple stories
In the middle of the Great Gatsby and A Brave New World (I really should finish them, but I'm kind of ADD)
I lost my collection of Kafka short stories when I was part way through and my father refuses to by a new copy ;_;
I did love The Metamorphosis though. Is it strange that I relate to Gregor Samsa? (I am about as close to Hikkomori as is possible in America...)
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (Yuji Oniki translation); last read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
The Handmaid's Tale by Margarete Attwood. What a pain, it's so frustrating somehow
I never really liked Margarete Attwood. Ursula Leguin does better feminist commentary.
Reading The Book of Lost Things by John Conolly. Don't know if want, but leaning toward do not want. Which sucks because I bought it new.
The Bible, by God OR some random dudes over a period of several generations
The Lord is a bit of a douche in the first couple chapters. Are things going to stay this formulaic (i.e. God: hey guys lemee help you all out; Jews: Haha whoops we disobeyed you; God: FUCK YOUFUC KYOU FUCK YOU okay that's out of my system)?
Archetype and Allegory in The Dream of the Red Chamber by Andrew H. Plaks
I think I could just stop reading everything else and just read critical essays on The Dream of the Red Chamber and I'd be perfectly happy.
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Just finished William Gibson, Virtual Light. I'll be starting Idoru (the sequel) as soon as I have some free time.
And I'm also reading Vladimir Nabokov, Despair. It's not as good as Lolita - kind of boring.
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
I'm close to the end of Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon.
It's a space-opera type novel, about some female captain in charge of a bucket of bolts with a small army of assassins after her.
It's okay. I think the prior novel, Trading in Danger, was much better.
1984 right now.
I don't have any money for Discworld books right now, so I'm going through my list of out of copyright books right now.
Its a bit of a pain reading on my screen though.
Space odyssey
The Ransom Trilogy by C.S. Lewis.
Its good. I might get into science fiction after all.
He talks about being in space and instead of it being full of nothing, its full of life because it is where life came from.
Never thought of it that way.
My advice on 1984, Put 1984 down right now and never pick it up unless you need it for a class.
There are many better books.
>>259
Its okay so far...
Also good choice on C.S. Lewis's space trilogy. Those in my opinion beat the shit out of most of the Narnia books.
Missing by Gakuto Coda.
I thought 1984 was quite good...
Finished this Malay thriller novel entitled "My Heart is in Harajuku" (original title: Hatiku di Harajuku). Very good story, if not a bit boring, it's about a Malay yakuza who relinquished his lifestyle and left Japan but had to return to the country to settle some unfinished business.
I'm currently engrossed with Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>... not as good as I thought it'd be.
i just finished reading "World War Z" by Max Brooks. made up of monologues and dialogues of future survivors of the global zombie war. pretty entertaining, decently written, although there were a handful of cliche memories too.
I'm reading house made of dawn and it.ls good but the author tends to draw out his scenery discriptions.
Just got World War Z. I'm enjoying it a lot so far. It's great how each individual story stands alone... easy to get others hooked on the story by reading some of the cooler parts.
Also reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and just loving it. I'm such a sucker for mystery and tragic loves. And the language is just beautiful, without being distracting. It's set to become one of my favorite books.
I'm starting to read Portal by Brian Reaves, Relentless by Robin Parrish, and Things I've Overheard While Talking To Myself by Alan Alda.
Awesome. Alan Alda is the man :P
Indeed he is.
I just got done reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and I soon will begin Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
But as a break, I'm reading The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupéry. (in English and Spanish. =P)
Clair de Lune, by Guy de Maupassant.
French literature is awesome.
>>271, it's a shame you don't read it in french/english. And it's Antoine de Saint-Exupéry :p
About to start 'After Dark" by Haruki Murakami.
I just started The War of the Worlds, having just finished Neverwhere.
Heh, I have The Little Prince somewhere. I remember reading it and thinking it was the dumbest thing ever before suddenly realizing years later with no real prompting whatsoever that it was allegorical.
wanderlust by rebecca solnit
the first 10 pages are great
Just finished up Pyramids in the Discworld series.
Gotta go buy some more of those soon...
I read Momo. Very nice.
Just finished: "Time's Arrow" by Martin Ames
One of the more unique books I've read.
Now starting on: Riverrun Trilogy by S. P. Somtow
Meh, not his best work so far.
Just finished:
"The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
Still reading:
"Branded" by Alissa Quart
"Welcome to the NHK" light novel by Tatsuhiko Takimoto
"No One Writes to the Colonel" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (short story collection)
Various sci-fi and fantasy literary journals
I like to be reading lots of things at once...it helps my attention span to be able to read a chapter of one thing, than a chapter of another, sort of like word Dim Sum
Just finished:
"Battle Royale" by Koushun Takami
currently reading:
"The Human Be-In" by Helen Swick Perry
Want to read next:
"Out" by Natsuo Kirino
"Hwangjini" by Hong Seok-Jung (but I don't know if my Korean is really good enough, it would be a challenging read)
or maybe "Heart of a Dog" by Mikhail Bulgakov
>"Out" by Natsuo Kirino
Hey, I'm just about to start reading that. It's been lying on my floor for a couple of weeks, I kept getting distracted by other things.
Last night I finished reading Dispatches, by Michael Herr. Then I had a dream that featured lots of helicopters and jungle.
Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Geochemistry: An Introduction, by Francis Albarede.
Some Bruce Lee biography. I bought it for £3 in HMV and its actually pretty good.
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger.
He's not one of my favorite statesmen, but he is a good political science writer, I'll give him that.
Re-reading The Brothers Karamazov. It's a good novel. I like it more than Crime & Punishment: it's more succinct, and it has a totally freaky sub context.
On the other hand, I'd rather be re-reading Chekhov; so much less depressing.
>>284
Have you read Profiles in Courage by JFK? I found it to be a good read. It's also relatively short.
>>285
Fun Fact: JFK didn't actually write that book, it was ghost written for him. If you did this in college, it would be called plagiarism.
R.A. Salvatore - Paths of Darkness (Forgotten Realms)
Weis/Hickman - Dragons of the Fallen Sun
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged
All alright so far.
I'm currently addicted to the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.
Brocas Brain - Carl Sagan
Just reread Snow Crash.
Now it's time to read "Quranic Studies" by John Wansbrough. One line at a time.
Strange, I just put down Snow Crash. I enjoyed the pop-linguistics, but the weeaboo was a little too strong for me. Also reading Foucault's Capitalism and Schizophrenia, just finished Borges' Labyrinths, and I'm just about to move into the infinite jest.
re-reading for the i don't know time The Stand, by Stephen King.
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
I don't actually know what else to read, so I'm making it through as much Murakami as I can.
The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It's OK so far.
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Taking a Murakami break at the moment.
Finished The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, started The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.
I just finished Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun. It was amazing. Moving onto some Vonnegut now.
Currently reading Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, will start on Death Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Case soon.
>>293
Are you me? I'm doing the exact same thing. Well, I was. But I just finished Dance Dance Dance. Now I've got four Murakami novels left to read, starting with South of the Border, West of the Sun.
Suddenly shifted my focus from rich historic cultural experience to intricate magic related fantasy. Peril's Gate, by Janny Wurts.
I'm reading the dream cycle of H. P. Lovecraft right now. I was expecting stories of horror and death, but was pleasantly suprised at how beautifully detailed and extensive Lovecraft's dream world is.
I finished reading Le Rouge et le Noir (Translated into English), by Stendhal. Somewhat humorous, all in all.
I'm going through Discworld again.
Most recently Night Watch, possibly the best book in the series.
Bilingualism and the Latin Language by J.N. Adams. It's a text on the various intersections of language in the Roman world.
A New Introduction to Greek by Chase & Phillips. Your basic ancient Greek primer.
Selected Poems of Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Alexander Coleman, translators various. Of what I've read, the poem Amorosa anticipación has really touched me.
NIV Bible. lol
I'm really not reading as much as I should, it's just spread out over different things.
Persepolis
Starship Troopers.
In reading Heinleins other books I always feel he places to much of himself in them, or even creates a character for himself to speak through. But this book just feels like Heinlein's personal military masturbation fantasy. I kept hoping it would get better but I think I'll stop now and find something else to read.
Currently reading Sabriel. Not sure what to make of it yet considering I just started (chapter 3).