What BOOK(s) are you reading? ARCHIVE

Picked up The Shotgun Rule yesterday and actually finished it yesterday. Charlie Huston is a pulp noir writing machine -- very efficient in setting a scene and great dialogue. This was kind of like stand-by me in a way.

If you like this kind of thing, I recommend him. Also liked his other books The Mysterious Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death (about a guy who cleans up crime scences and other crap) and Sleepless (a pseudo-scifi book about a future where some people lose the ability to fall asleep). Huston might appeal to F:ATties as he is also written some comics (I know he did the 2006 or so remake of Moon Knight for Marvel; first 12 issues).

Also finished Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe last night. It is good, but I don't know what I think of it yet. I will start Claw of the Concillator and carry-on. For some reason, it reminds me of the Amber series by Zelazny.

Just started on False Gods by Graham McNeill . Part 2 in the Horus Heresy series. The first book, Horus Rising was an excellent read and introduction, and has me wanting for more.

I bought Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. It's some weird shit, man. There's almost nothing explained and you just need to take it as it comes. I like the way it's written but I'm having a hard time following what's going on.

I've been splitting time between:
- Dan Simmons' The Terror: A fictionalized but excellent & detailed 'with-monster' account of the destination of the lost Franklin polar expedition.
- The 'At the Mountains of Madness and Other Macabre Tales', Lovecraft collection.

The Terror is a brute at 784 hardbound pages. Taking awhile to get through, but it's got incredible detail and a riveting plot thread. Those '3 years in the ice, eating our shoes' explorers lived a whole nother level of dedication. And then came home and promptly started raising money to go out and do it again.
Simmons researched through a long list of polar diaries (from his blog); Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott, the Karluk etc, to write it. With our Minnesota winter's it really read *cold*.

As to the HPL, I haven't gotten to 'At the Mountains of Madness' yet (still on Kadath), but it should make for a great companion for The Terror.

Notahandle wrote:

Chasch: When I noticed the length I imagined I'd skip forward to the meat of it. But his introduction, coverage of the basics, and the background was so entertaining that I never did. I enjoyed it, thanks. My conclusion would be that he probably writes as good as he talks, so I should dig out that book list that's on my backup drive.

Notahandle: glad you enjoyed it. According to his Facebook page, it appears the subject matter of this talk has been made into a book ("A Universe from Nothing") and Krauss will be doing a book tour next January.

As for what I'm reading now, I've got a number of loose ends, having not finished much that I've started in the past year. However, I'm probably plunging soon into the 3rd book in Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series, "Sharpe's Fortress."

I am nearly finished with 1984. One of my favorites and this re-reading has been quite enjoyable.

I am also nearly finished with the audiobook of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I am reading it on a recommendation from a couple people, but so far it is only a firm 6/10 rating. Nothing spectacular, but maybe the ending will wow me and bump it up to a solid 7. Either way, I doubt I will continue with the further adventures.

I have A Game of Thrones sitting out to be my next read before the HBO series starts, so I am excited to finish these books.

Got a new job last Sept along with a kindle to get me through the two hours/day that I spend on trains so I'm hammering through books

Over the last 4 weeks;

Girl with the dragon tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Girl who played with fire - Stieg Larsson
Girl who kicked the hornets nest - Stieg Larsson
Murder must advertise - Dorothy L. Sayers
Flying sorcerers - Larry Niven
Betrayer of Worlds - Larry Niven & edward M. Lerner

I heartily recommend Baen Books www.baen.com thay have a heap of free SF/Fantasy ebooks along with reasonably priced ebooks from many well known & new authors.

I don't read nearly as much as I'd like to these days, due to limited time and how that tends to be consumed by working on my board game or playing PC games. I need to make a concerted effort to turn off the computer earlier and settle down with my old friends the books.

That being said, when I do have a chance lately I've been reading 20,000 League Under the Sea in short spurts. I'm fascinated by the personal lives of fantasy and science fiction authors, and the evolution of pulp adventure. I find myself in awe of how much Jules Verne contributed to the evolution of science fiction, and how far ahead of the imaginative curve he was from his contemporaries. Also, it's a ripping good yarn.

I am reading The Kings Peace by C. V. Wedgwood. It is about King Charles reign prior to the civil war. It is a massive book, about 500 pages and the first 200 pages have been in written in a narrative style describing the country and how Charles related to the people. The sequel to this The King's War is next on my pile to read.

Been really busy this past week so I'm still early in A Storm of Swords, other than that I caved in and bought Wise Man's Fear at half price on Amazon, so that's next in the queue.

I've been chewing through the Lone Wolf and Cub series. They really are amazing.

I just read Naked Lunch.

Hooo boy. It's like the A Serbian Film of literature, only because it IS literature it's probably lost a lot of its shock value to my generation. There's more use of the word f*g than the average 4chan thread - not to mention a lot of "positions" that I'm pretty sure wouldn't be possible for even a hentai anime artist to draw. Or humanly possible either.

And yet I'm not as offended as I thought I would be. But yeah, Burroughs is kinda sexist and racist.

Lone Wolf and Cup is great. I have the first 50 or so issues in the full comic size from the 80s. I only wish the rest was available like that. I love the story, but hate the small books they used to reprint it here within the last 10 years. This story and Cerebus are the best epic comics I have read. Lone Wolf doesn't bog down for too long with a diatribe on the Bible like Cerebus though, thank goodness.

Jacob, I am actually about 20 pages into Naked Lunch. I am enjoying it so far. I had read Junky previously and really enjoyed it. Naked Lunch is definitely more difficult prose, but so far it is interesting.

Just finishing up "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters". Good book about 3 people thrown together and teaming up against a powerful cabal in a Victorian era/England-but-not fantasy world. I'd really recommend it, and thought I'd heard about it here but can't find any posts on it (perhaps my google-fu is weak).

Must have been on some other site I lurk about at and never post.

Just started Well of Ascension in Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy. First book was solid, though some minor parts of his writing style bother me and stand out more here than in his Wheel of Time books.