Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you READING?

Just started reading Captains Blood By William Shatner. (Yeah Denny Craine)
Picks up after events in ST Nemesis.
So far so good...

Gloriana is a great book! Some of Moorcock's work is formulaic, but I really liked Gloriana.

Anyone read Geek Love? It's the latest read for my book club. It's freaky... literally... and grotesque. It's about a family of carnival freak show attractions, all of whom are genetically "engineered" by their parents. It's keeping my interest mostly for being so bizarre that it's hard to NOT to keep reading, even if I am otherwise not really enjoying the story. I know there's a bigger message here, but it's kind of an unpleasant read... not that all reading experiences should be pleasant, but sometime this seems shocking solely for the sake of being shocking.

Rokk, can you give me some details on this
book? I read a book years ago that your
description reminds me of.

The one that I read involved a dwarf woman as
the narrator whose family included siamese twin
sisters, a sort of seal brother, and a psychic
brother ... is that the one you're reading?

You win! That is indeed the book! Do you remember if it was ultimately a satisfying read for you?

I just read, in one night, Christopher Rice's new book, LIGHT BEFORE DAY. It's really good. This is his third book, and I've loved them all. Not supernatural like his mom Anne's books, but mysterious and sometimes creepy. His first book, A DENSITY OF SOULS is still my favorite though.

And they're HOT <G>!

I have heard something recent of Geek Love...maybe it was reading about the HBO show Carnival?

I am currently reading Shogun which may be the most intense book I've ever read. By this I mean it dominates my mind...I go to sleep and I dream of being in shackles with japanese men in togas yelling at me. It's a huge book...infact after 200 pages I took a break cause I felt a bit insane...read Lemony Snicket #1...took a day. Now back to Shogun. Hai!

I loved Shogun when I read it (maybe 20 years ago - can it really be that long? I read it before they made the Richard Chamberlin miniseries. The book is much better.)

STF, I remember seeing the Richard Chamerlain mini as a kid. All I really remember is him getting pissed on. Ever since then I've always considered the ultimate insult. hai!

Jorg-Em, I don't remember that scene. Perhaps best that I don't.

I've just started "Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It's set in Barcelona in the 30's and 40's. It's a mystery about an ellusive author's writings being all bought up and destroyed - at least that's what the jacket says, since I'm only on page 30.

It was a rather strange one. I think I had a
headache during it... and that always makes
reading a surreal experience for me ... and
that one led to surreality. 8-)

Well I've breezed through Timeline and Prey (both Crichtons) and have started one called Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. Interesting book that takes place in the same universe he created in his "Island in the Sea of Time" books.

Has anyone read these?

An excellent read. The ending was a winner. Please do share your thoughts when you're done!

I'm currently enjoying Eats, Shoots and Leaves! It's a gut-busting laugh out loud read from a "stickler" like myself. "Punctuation vigilantes unite!" I'd be curious to know if any non-English majors have read this and think it's as brilliant and funny as I do.

Life of Pi really surprised me, pleasantly. A boy and a tiger adrift on a raft? I feared it was going to be some talking tiger who would philosophize about life with the young man, ho-hum - but the tiger acted like a real tiger, or a believable one, at least... The ending was one of those laugh-out-loud-on-the-bus funny.

That Stirling book is one I'm looking forward to - love post-apocalypse books. He wrote one that took place in India (forget the title) which I didn't get into at all - except the appendix, in which he described the disaster that led to England's collapse and the re-establishment of the British Empire in India.

The Peshawar Lancers. I was thinking of reading that one but, like you, I like the description of the disaster and would like it better woven into the story.

Stirling has a sequel to Fire coming out this year, The Protector's War. Then one more, no publishing date, to come later. You can read sample chapters of most of his work at his website: http://hem.bredband.net/b108107/stirling/smstirling.html

I'll probably go on to Conquistador after Fire then maybe try the Sea of Time trilogy. I'm quite enjoying Fire.

Oh, Nancy, have you ever read Lucifer's Hammer? It is my second favorite post-apocalyptic book, right after The Stand. Excellent and most recommended. It was written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

And since I'm mentioning my favorite sub-class of sci-fi, the end-of-the-world story, I have to mention the classic by Nevil Shute, "On The Beach", and the also classic "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. It may be time for me to re-read both if not all four of these books while I'm on a rare reading kick.

I bought that book for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day (OK I'm not very good at getting romantic gifts for people) and he read a few pages then put it aside saying he just couldn't get into it (yes - I thought that was insensitive of him too).

So I'd be very curious to see what you thought of it STF. I'm tempted to borrow it off him and read it for myself so that at least one of us gets some enjoyment out of it.

Ain't been on this thread since January... Let's see. I read Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil which is the prelude to the upcoming Episode III movie. Pretty decent read. It was tough to get into, Luceno really has a way of wrangling the espionage and politics into the foreground, but it tends to be very... dry. Nature of the beast kinda thing I guess. The last part of the book was fast paced action though. It was hard to put the book down once that started.

Since then, I've started in on the New Jedi Order series. I've read...

Vector Prime
Dark Tide: Onslaught
Dark Tide: Ruin
Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial
Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse
Balance Point
Edge of Victory: Conquest
Edge of Victory: Rebirth
Star by Star
Dark Journey
Enemy Lines: Rebel Dream
and I'm half way through Enemy Lines: Rebel Stand.

What can I say? I got a lot of New Jedi Order books for Christmas. The fact that I've read that many books over the last two months bodes well for them. Every one of them kept my interest. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Sorry to hear that you didn't get into the Dark Tower series Scott. I had a hard time getting into The Gunslinger when I read it the first time years ago. I didn't really get drawn into the series until the last part of Drawing of the Three. From there I was hooked. Kind of lost track of it during the long wait between The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass, but I picked it up again over the winter and read through to the end. Then I went back to the beginning and read them through again. Knowing a little more about Roland's world and how it relates to ours made the first two books that much more understandable and fun to read.

I'd still have to say Wizard and Glass is my favorite of the seven books, and probably one of my favorite books ever. That one deals mainly with Roland's youth and the great love of his life and fills in a lot of the details about how and why Roland set out on his quest for the Tower to begin with. And, if you're a fan of The Stand, Randall Flagg makes an appearance in W & G and ends up playing an important part in the series. I won't say any more than that, because I don't want to spoil anything for you if you ever decide to give the series another shot.

[plug]Oh, and if you're into The Stand, take a peek at page 21 over in my gallery in Bits. I posted a Flagg pic that I colored over the weekend that I'm pretty proud of. [/plug]

Flagg is one of the best villains and one of the reason I really wanted to get into the Tower series. I'll probably retry at a later time. Maybe even skip right into book 3. Off to see the Flagg pic now.

I've heard that skipping around really isn't the best idea, and I'd probably have to agree. If you think it's confusing reading from start to finish you'll really get lost if you miss out on some of the details. Besides, I thought the ending of the second book (the drawing of The Pusher) was the best part of that book. I think that's the point where I really started to get into it way back when I read it the first time. I agree that the Odetta/Detta stuff was a bit annoying, but once the focus kind of shifts off of her a bit it gets a little better.

The Illustrated History of World War I, by John Keegan. Keegan is the best war historian I have ever read. Witty, thoroughly researched, and very British. The numbers from WWI are staggering. 40,000 dead in one day at the Somme. Hundreds of thousands at Verdun. Absolutely insane!

I'm also listening to James Lee Burke's Bitterroot. If you enjoy mysteries, RUN to the library. Burke wrote a series of novels set in Louisiana about a recovering alcoholic ex-New Orleans cop who always seems to get involved in apocalyptically messy situations (Black Cherry Blues, Heaven's Prisoners, Cadillac Jukebox,etc.). GREAT writing--not just great mysteries. Bitterroot is set in Montana and features a classic cast of f---ed up James Lee Burke characters. It can be pretty dark sometimes, but I can't get enough of him.

I second the Burke books. Caroline and I both read through all of his Dave Robicheaux novels a few years back. Along with vampires, anything to do with Louisiana and New Orleans usually wind up on our lists.

Don't think I've read Lucifer's Hammer or The Stand - how did I miss those? But I'll add 'em to the library list!

The Burke books are great, they seem to always end with good food and music - after dragging you through a few hundred pages of Louisiana scum and lowlife. Dave Robicheaux and Billy Bob Holland are complex - and overall appealing - characters, but I must confess that Clete Purcell is one of my favourites, even though he's violent, macho, a little psycho and would probably disgust me in real life.

Now I'm reading A Fortune Teller Told Me by Tiziano Terzani - an Italian journalist/foreign correspondent who worked for Der Spiegel, mostly out of Asia. A fortune teller in Hong Kong told him not to fly in 1993 - and he decided to follow the warning. This book chronicles his travels and work throughout that year. A travel book, but also lots on the politics and economics of the Far East. (Unfortunately, I only discovered this author because his obituary was in the paper a few weeks ago.)

I'm reading "First Knight" by Peter David of comic book fame.

I just finished "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". That was as great as all the reviews say.