Tensei Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Musicophilia, a recommended read for anyone interested in music and/or psychology/neurology, it explores phenomena such as absolute hearing and amusia and manages to do it in an understandable, involving fashion. Great stuff. Also, lol, what's up with everyone reading fantasy novels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amayirot Akago Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Read the first chapter of Snow Crash today; so far it's more entertaining than Colour Of Magic in its entirity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoshi3gg Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I recently started reading Dune, and I've been enjoying it. Unfortunately, school started getting really busy shortly after I started, so I don't have as much time to spend reading as I'd like Read the first chapter of Snow Crash today; so far it's more entertaining than Colour Of Magic in its entirity. If you end up liking Stephenson's writing style, be sure to check out Cryptonomicon. It's not as wildly popular as Snow Crash, but I ended up liking it a lot more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickenwarlord Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 I remember taking over a year to read the Da Vinci Code. The Da Vinci code is a terrible book. You took about the right pace with it. I would recommend reading the Belgariad series by David Eddings and Interface by Neal Stephenson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magewout Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Also, I absolutely loved 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mousemuffins Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Read the first chapter of Snow Crash today; so far it's more entertaining than Colour Of Magic in its entirity. Being a fan of Terry Pratchett, I consider this a challenge. The 7th Harry Potter book was surprisingly good; lots of revenge at the end, cool stuff. Also I'm reading Three Cups of Tea; it's interesting. Incidentally, this post could be a thread bump. After all, anything's possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted May 1, 2008 Author Share Posted May 1, 2008 Has anyone else read the Baroque Cycle by Stephenson? It took me about 9 months to get through it due a lot to having a shortage of reading time, but it was really over the top and enjoyable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Sounds Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 I'm currently reading "Number Two", the first draft of the Back to the Future, Part II script. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yangfeili Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Lurulu, Jack Vance's most recent and probably last novel. After finishing it, the only unread Vance on my bookshelf will be the Durdane trilogy from the early 70s... I mean, he's made up the majority of my reading material for the last ten years, and now it's about to end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinewav Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 I'm a bit ADD, so it's rare that I find a book that can keep my attention all the way until the end. It's not that I don't like books... it's that I find reading an entire one to be rather difficult. That being said, I recently picked up a bunch of Old World of Darkness sourcebooks (role-playing material). Right now I'm making my way through the Orpheus series, and I've got to say that they're really well written. Right now I'm on book 2 "Crusade of Ashes". I've never ran a game before, but it's definitely an entertaining read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sobou Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 I just recently finished reading Starman by Sara Douglass, the third in a trilogy of fantasy books. I really enjoyed the trilogy and the world within it, but I thought that what the main hero and heroine basically were/became was a tad lame. And at points where I wanted action, I continued to get just bleh stuff. Still a good read, and a major change from the usual "swords and sorcery" that so overwaters the fantasy genre nowadays. Right now, I'm on page 26 of Michael Crichton's Sphere. Not sure if I'm going to continue it right now, or pick up a Stephen King novel (I started The Shining a couple of months ago and have neglected to go back to it). I'll probably stick to something Crichton though, since I do most of my reading at night, and while reading IT I got incredibly paranoid. Only time I ever had nightmares from reading a book. It's creepy as hell reading a book and expecting Tim Curry in a clown's outfit to be looking at you from the end of your bed as you're laying there at 3am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenobio Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Right now, I'm on page 26 of Michael Crichton's Sphere. Not sure if I'm going to continue it right now, or pick up a Stephen King novel (I started The Shining a couple of months ago and have neglected to go back to it). I'll probably stick to something Crichton though, since I do most of my reading at night, and while reading IT I got incredibly paranoid.Only time I ever had nightmares from reading a book. It's creepy as hell reading a book and expecting Tim Curry in a clown's outfit to be looking at you from the end of your bed as you're laying there at 3am. Aside from a few of King's short stories It remains the only novel of his that I've ever read. I had a few gripes with it, but overall it was a very engrossing read and for me at least also extremely creepy at times. I know exactly what you mean, Sobou, about how it made you paranoid. From what I've heard it's also best to stay far far away from any filmed version of it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avatar of Justice Posted May 7, 2008 Author Share Posted May 7, 2008 I just finished rereading the Fountainhead. It's the perfect book to read before starting your career, assuming you majored in something you like at college. Otherwise, it's just a reproach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuckyXIII Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Currently reading: Pride & Prejudice ~ Austen 1984 ~ Orwell Good Omens ~ Gaiman & Pratchett Have read this year: Ruthless Trust ~ Manning Anansi Boys ~ Gaiman Invisible Man ~ Ellison Cash by Johnny Cash Ender's Game ~ Card Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cecilff2 Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Lurulu, Jack Vance's most recent and probably last novel.After finishing it, the only unread Vance on my bookshelf will be the Durdane trilogy from the early 70s... I mean, he's made up the majority of my reading material for the last ten years, and now it's about to end. Just read his Marune: Alastor 933 book last month and it was pretty good. Recently finished Roadmarks by Roger Zelazny, which was pretty cool though somewhat confusing. The story is extremely nonlinear due to the nature of the book, and is split into two different chapters throughout the book(It switches from 1 to 2 then to 2 then to 1 again, in seemingly random order). According to the wiki, "Roger Zelazny figured out the order of the "Two" by stapling the pages of each chapter two together, then throwing them all in the air and the order he picked them up was the order he printed them. He said he was fairly pleased by the result." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgx Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 I read through the His Dark Materials trilogy again a couple weeks ago. Awesome still. If they do end up making the rest of the trilogy into movies, it is going to be difficult to avoid even more controversy, what with the angel characters and Asriel's mission to kill God and all that. How do you make those ideas vague without just making something else up entirely? They better hurry up and start filming before the Lyra actress gets boobs! The change at puberty is kind-of a key plot element. Pullman just released "Once Upon a Time in the North" which is a short story with Iorek and Scoresby. I'm gonna go pick it up. The other short story, "Lyra's Oxford" was.....short...but I'll eat up any HDM stuff. I hope he finishes "The Book of Dust" soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JH Sounds Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 ...and now I'm reading William Shatner's The Return, which is pretty much wall-to-wall fan service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Excellent book about uncertainty and randomness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHands Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. A Practical Guide to Racism, by C. H. Dalton. MAUS I, by Art Spiegelman. Usually do more at once, but class and work have been killing my time. Instead, the DSi fills in the gaps. Oh, how I wish 100 Classic Book Collection would come to NA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyne Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 ...and now I'm reading William Shatner's The Return, which is pretty much wall-to-wall fan service. Is that the Star Trek TNG era sequel he wrote to Generations? If so, I believe I may have ready that in high school. Honestly, when I saw that he'd wrote it, I was skeptical, but then I read it, and honestly, it was very well written. Had they actually done that as a sequel, I think it might have been somewhat well received. Oh yeah, that reminds me... I'm reading: Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins and How to DJ: The Insider's Guide to Success on the Decks by Tom Frederikse and Phil Benedictus in Association with Point Blank. The book How to DJ also features commentary from big name DJs such as John Digweed, Andy Cato and others. It's actually a very practical guide, and delves into as much of the digital era DJing as they could at the time, considering it was given a copyright of 2002. Anyway, I really like these books. Very good stuff, I plan to finish both within the next week or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeAuto Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 The Mistborn Trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages) This trilogy is the best fantasy story I've ever read. (Brandon's the one finishing the Wheel of Time series for Robert Jordan, r.i.p.) The Phoenix Legacy - by M. K. Wren (Martha Kay Renfoe) (The Sword of the Lamb, The Shadow of the Swan, and The House of the Wolf) Best Sci-fi trilogy ever. Look both these series up, you won't regret it. I'm reading both right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Jovian Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 A collection of short stories by various (like, 25) fantasy authors, called The Living Dead. I'm actually rather disappointed -- I've read like 10 or so of the stories so far, and only one of them even remotely resembled the classic shambling apocalypse. Most of them have been more along the line of ghost stories -- ie someone comes back to life in order to correct some injustice in their life (usually the manner of their death). Most of them were even capable of thinking and talking, rather than being mindless brain-eating machines. Very disappointing on the whole. Although I must say that the best story so far was about technozombies (ie, zombies revived by some scientific/technological process, rather than magic or voodoo or a virus or whatever) who fell in love with any small bright/shiny objects they saw. The preferred method of zombie wrangling was to show a Koosh ball to the horde and then throw it in the direction you wanted them to go. They'd all run after it but shambling and zombie-like, so you'd just have to beat them there and you could repeat the process indefinitely. There was also some really blatant stupid social commentary (the plotline revolved around a politician trying to use zombies of people killed in a terrorist attack to drum up support for a war against the terrorists, only to be thwarted when the zombies told everyone that dying was bad and they'd rather that no one else was killed, not even the terrorists), but it was the zombies-fascinated-by-bright-shiny-objects that amused the hell out of me. Also I've run out of stuff to read recently, and I read almost nothing but scifi and fantasy, so JadeAuto you better be right about those being the best ever or I shall be very disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Flintlock Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 I'm almost finished reading a Weird Tales volume I picked up at a used bookshop for 2 bucks; quite the deal.. I think I'm on a retelling of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Robert Bloch, and then I've just got a few more before I'm done. As far as novels/novellas go, I'm still trying to finish The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany, but damn can that man write. I think Gaiman once quoted his writing sounds like he "got drunk while reading the King James Bible" and I have to say that's a pretty accurate description. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Flintlock Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 MAUS I, by Art Spiegelman. I've been wanting to pick that one up for awhile. Do tell if its a nice read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeAuto Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 JadeAuto you better be right about those being the best ever or I shall be very disappointed. Honestly, it's hard to track down a copy of the Phoenix Legacy. There's a new author's guild reprint on amazon, but it's $20 for each book. It was worth it for me, as I read the last set of them I had to death. If you can find copies at a used book store, leap on it. As for the Mistborn books... Amazon is your friend, and for $24 for all three.. can't be beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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