Whatcha reading? (359)

1 Name: Bookworm : 2005-12-06 18:55 ID:SuCel/Q1

Okay folks, let's get this party started.

What book(s) are you reading right now, and what do you think of it?

210 Name: Bookworm : 2007-07-27 11:46 ID:LZmZoJ/8

>>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.

211 Name: Bookworm : 2007-07-28 23:20 ID:W/2sY5Gk

>>208
it's teh rox, don't forget to read count zero and monalisa overdrive.

212 Name: Bookworm : 2007-07-30 22:32 ID:uWa7wx45

The Case Against Adolescence, by Robert Epstein. Genius nonfiction. Looks at education, history, sociology, psychology, etc...

213 Name: Bookworm : 2007-07-30 22:57 ID:YrmJ9IvK

I just finished All Quiet on the Western Front. Good book.

214 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-01 02:04 ID:SpPyQUkd

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.

215 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-05 04:05 ID:g1ilF7wU

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.

216 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-06 18:34 ID:BuEE4vtS

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.

217 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-07 13:44 ID:+KTaeX4l

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.

218 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-13 01:00 ID:G8Re4C9w

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 ;_;

219 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E : 2007-08-14 05:07 ID:Heaven

V for Vendetta.

It's a graphic novel (har har har).

220 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-19 06:58 ID:VQzeGwYJ

Finished Siddhartha and Prelude to the Foundation

Now reading Foundation.

221 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-23 17:47 ID:MppJfGvb

just finished snow by orhan pamuk. real good

222 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-23 21:12 ID:h/o6MOFC

Tokyo Cancelled, by Rana Dasgupta. It is sort of like a "modern" Canterbury Tales, really.

223 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-26 16:21 ID:mqqhB0Da

"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.

224 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-27 12:42 ID:/PpzgN2W

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

225 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-28 03:00 ID:+KTaeX4l

>>224
What do you think, so far?

226 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-28 10:28 ID:/PpzgN2W

>>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

227 Name: Bookworm : 2007-08-30 03:34 ID:Heaven

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.

228 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-02 03:46 ID:nDXPbsWO

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

229 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-02 14:36 ID:t+DxTQvH

finished the Harry Potter series. WAY too overhyped.

230 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-04 22:22 ID:8Zpt7Klu

The Fermata by Nicholson Baker

231 Name: El grande : 2007-09-05 01:24 ID:wX7yisck

Im reading about zen budism ideology, its better than read the bible.

232 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-05 23:32 ID:WaYzzD+L

>>231 lol, first learn to spell before criticizing a book

finished Foundation, going to start Foundation and Empire

233 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-06 00:08 ID:mZICxjXv

Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami

234 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-07 15:33 ID:lSkixzKH

Trying to read Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis, but it's a tough journey.

235 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-09 10:40 ID:rKCg2EVN

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.

236 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-14 06:37 ID:zRkdQHc7

Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Amazing book.

Starting on Fall on Your Knees by Anne-Marie Macdonald.

237 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-14 07:20 ID:kKvHBKM1

I just finished reading train man by nakatano hitori. it drove me to post here...

238 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-15 17:36 ID:BBOrwPpR

1984 by Orwell

239 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-26 02:30 ID:t8j0uuSs

Just completed reading a short story by Ernest Hemingway. Email me for the complete text.

240 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-26 23:24 ID:Heaven

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.

241 Name: Bookworm : 2007-09-29 16:48 ID:0Ez931kb

the wind-up bird chronicle by haruki murakami

i wish he didn't namedrop so much

242 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-03 11:15 ID:Heaven

>>241
im read this also, Lets Race!

243 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-17 09:31 ID:F3890FUE

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...)

244 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-17 17:01 ID:W3tKCVtS

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (Yuji Oniki translation); last read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

245 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-19 23:58 ID:kUB61UIE

The Handmaid's Tale by Margarete Attwood. What a pain, it's so frustrating somehow

246 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-23 17:07 ID:eQX2hU7i

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.

247 Name: Bookworm : 2007-10-25 03:10 ID:otkru6pc

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)?

248 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-02 17:20 ID:2jebJYV/

>>238
good book

249 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-03 22:41 ID:Heaven

I just read the Neverending Story. It's beautiful.

250 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-04 15:09 ID:Heaven

The Collected works of a great hungarian poet : ATTILA JÓZSEF

251 Name: sage : 2007-11-05 22:21 ID:otkru6pc

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.

252 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-07 19:04 ID:W3tKCVtS

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

253 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-09 00:42 ID:uDW6FIG2

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.

254 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-09 22:40 ID:Heaven

>>247
I loved your description.

255 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-10 03:32 ID:dKB4hv4w

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner

256 Name: Bookworm : 2007-11-28 14:05 ID:UgW/DZJW

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

257 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E : 2007-12-01 06:37 ID:Heaven

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.

258 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-03 18:28 ID:Heaven

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.

259 Name: Walpaper : 2007-12-04 01:06 ID:QdEX+4nF

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.

260 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-04 01:44 ID:Heaven

>>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.

261 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-05 07:45 ID:suLpxGLu

Missing by Gakuto Coda.

262 Name: dmpk2k!hinhT6kz2E : 2007-12-06 06:18 ID:Heaven

I thought 1984 was quite good...

263 Name: Serial ATA : 2007-12-07 07:11 ID:FggKTCxI

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.

264 Name: 'Nonymouse : 2007-12-14 16:47 ID:HrON0pel

I'm currently engrossed with Milton's <i>Paradise Lost</i>... not as good as I thought it'd be.

265 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-15 17:37 ID:Lv7gzcnI

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.

266 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-19 22:17 ID:uf47AJTg

I'm reading house made of dawn and it.ls good but the author tends to draw out his scenery discriptions.

267 Name: Bookworm : 2007-12-30 00:47 ID:PdoqEbYL

>>265

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.

268 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-01 19:08 ID:Juii/u50

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.

269 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-02 00:30 ID:ScQh7RHw

Awesome. Alan Alda is the man :P

270 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-02 02:12 ID:Juii/u50

Indeed he is.

271 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-02 04:56 ID:Uk7VTaxN

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)

272 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-08 14:47 ID:/JRTeDPI

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

273 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-09 01:15 ID:3dgKodA0

About to start 'After Dark" by Haruki Murakami.

274 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-11 04:20 ID:gWoF4E8W

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.

275 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-11 05:33 ID:y4e7M76R

wanderlust by rebecca solnit

the first 10 pages are great

276 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-11 22:10 ID:MKVwRyq/

Just finished up Pyramids in the Discworld series.
Gotta go buy some more of those soon...

277 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-14 15:52 ID:mMWGpkSC

I read Momo. Very nice.

278 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-29 02:04 ID:jBFN1eT+

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.

279 Name: Anonymous : 2008-01-30 04:40 ID:H7Z9n75i

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

280 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-30 18:50 ID:dSgFyGpI

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

281 Name: Bookworm : 2008-01-31 10:17 ID:Wns78NdL

>>280

>"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.

282 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-02 19:42 ID:fQaNeCpC

Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Geochemistry: An Introduction, by Francis Albarede.

283 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-03 21:22 ID:snGMmdSW

Some Bruce Lee biography. I bought it for £3 in HMV and its actually pretty good.

284 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-03 22:33 ID:quhypM76

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.

285 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-04 16:50 ID:yt8gCxns

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.

286 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-04 17:12 ID:twxhdgr0

>>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.

287 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-07 05:39 ID:2MwhF2zS

R.A. Salvatore - Paths of Darkness (Forgotten Realms)
Weis/Hickman - Dragons of the Fallen Sun
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged

All alright so far.

288 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-08 02:28 ID:Juii/u50

I'm currently addicted to the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

289 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-09 00:49 ID:ST5LsRrK

Brocas Brain - Carl Sagan

290 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-09 02:26 ID:y4e7M76R

Just reread Snow Crash.

Now it's time to read "Quranic Studies" by John Wansbrough. One line at a time.

291 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-09 02:48 ID:P0e4l0dG

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.

292 Name: Nameless Fairy : 2008-02-12 01:47 ID:Heaven

re-reading for the i don't know time The Stand, by Stephen King.

293 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-12 03:01 ID:kr/oMuBf

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.

294 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-12 14:11 ID:wTR+25f3

The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick
It's OK so far.

295 Name: Bookworm : 2008-02-15 03:16 ID:wHF7IUV7

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
Taking a Murakami break at the moment.

296 Name: High Fructose!!/V3MTq9S : 2008-03-14 17:44 ID:Q8rKBe25

Well, yesterday I finished The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams (a friend gave me an actual printed & bound copy as a gift).

I liked it, but the anti-transhumanist message is a bit didactic. And the zombie sex part was just fucked up. I get what Williams was trying to do (specifically, to show just how incredibly screwed up humanity got after the singularity), but he went a little too far. The whole Death Jockey business was already pretty bad, but not nearly as disgusting, and he could have left it at that.

So now I'm starting We Nehrus by Krishna Nehru Hutheesing.

297 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-14 19:00 ID:c1G8c0/B

Finished The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, started The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.

298 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-17 05:27 ID:A2eYSiZA

I just finished Haruki Murakami's South of the Border, West of the Sun. It was amazing. Moving onto some Vonnegut now.

299 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-18 15:07 ID:42DwP0d3

Currently reading Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, will start on Death Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Case soon.

300 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-18 18:49 ID:zC08zO4x

>>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.

301 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-19 02:45 ID:c1G8c0/B

Suddenly shifted my focus from rich historic cultural experience to intricate magic related fantasy. Peril's Gate, by Janny Wurts.

302 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-19 20:39 ID:ICvydws/

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.

303 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-25 01:03 ID:UVrXhn0n

I finished reading Le Rouge et le Noir (Translated into English), by Stendhal. Somewhat humorous, all in all.

304 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-25 07:20 ID:jBFN1eT+

I'm going through Discworld again.
Most recently Night Watch, possibly the best book in the series.

305 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-26 00:00 ID:Heaven

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.

306 Name: Bookworm of College Park,MD : 2008-03-26 14:54 ID:EjMyaIwp

Persepolis

307 Name: Bookworm : 2008-03-26 16:24 ID:Heaven

The Survivors of the Chancellor

308 Name: Bookworm : 2008-04-05 18:21 ID:rmkYXpOT

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.

309 Name: Bookworm : 2008-04-07 22:41 ID:asuL31sR

Currently reading Sabriel. Not sure what to make of it yet considering I just started (chapter 3).

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