What BOOK(s) are you reading? ARCHIVE

Not Sure wrote:
If you like Stephenson, you really ought to try Pynchon. That's literary big game, and holy shit that guy can write.[/quote]

Yeah in the critical gushing on my copy of Cryptinomicon they say Stephenson is "wet" while Pynchon is "dry". Not sure how they can say that with a straight face. I personally love Stephenson's work, but calling Pynchon dry is going a little far. He isn't the easiest person to read, sometimes it's hard to tell which of his characters perspectives he is writing from, but with Pynchon you aren't supposed to be in your comfort zone. I can honestly say that I knew more about myself after finishing Gravity's Rainbow. I know, I know that sounds a little weird and crazy, but damn if that book wasn't the most beautifully subversive piece of art I've read, and I've read Naked Lunch.

Haven't been posting much. It's funny, sometimes I don't read a book for months then I read 3-6 novels one after another. I have been very busy but I have finished reading Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy. Sometimes brutal stuff, almost post-apoc in its treatment of fantasy.

Planning to read Butcher's latest Dresden book, Turn Coat and then Princep's Fury, the 4th or 5th in his fantasy series where people have elemental powers.

I have also finished the latest BPRD graphic novels.

Something else I'd recommend for fans of Stephenson or Pynchon (or both!) is Lawrence Norfolk, particularly "Lempriere's Dictionary". That's a great book in a style you'll be familar with and appreciative of. Lots of bizarro intrigue, the British East India Company, French-English backstabbery, Classical studies, and occasional high weirdness. Wonderful book. However (this is the downside) the American version has some unfortunate edits that were meant to be for length, but end up affecting the story. Try to snag the British release (I have both, and read the US before I knew of the problems). Good either way, great in the original British printing.

Not Sure wrote:

Try to snag the British release.

I looked on Amazon and am intrigued. Which one is the English edition, Ballantine or Grove Press?

Apparently neither. Both seem to be the US edit, which has crept its way into some listings on Amazon.uk as well. The longer version is about 630 pages, the US edit is about 430.

The UK version I have is ISBN 0-7493-9819-1, which has been reprinted by Vintage. (Mine's printed by Minerva, and was a lucky find in a San Francicsco used bookstore).

Abebooks.com has a few sellers in the US who have that version, as does Amazon if you search by ISBN. Going rate is about 4-8 bucks shipped.

ubarose wrote:

Not Sure wrote:

The UK version I have is ISBN 0-7493-9819-1, which has been reprinted by Vintage. (Mine's printed by Minerva, and was a lucky find in a San Francisco used bookstore).

I added this to the Fortress Amazon Store. If you have a chance, can you check and see that it is the correct version.

Thanks

That appears to be correct. I'd still recommend that US F:ATties check the seller notes, because sometimes used stuff with multiple ISBNs can be listed under the wrong one. Vintage or Minerva are both the 630-640 page original version. If only it were this easy when I was looking for the UK edition...

Hatchling wrote:

Can anyone recommend a stand-alone warhammer novel? I know nothing about that world. Thanks for any suggestions.

Are you looking for a Warhammer fantasy or 40K novel?

They tend to serialize or trilogize most of their stuff. The omnibus editions are pretty good value and not really longer than a great many big fat fantasy novels out there.

The classic Drachenfels is always good, even if the background is a bit outdated. It's still available new in the Vampire Genevieve omnibus with 3 other books in the series, but it does stand alone perfectly well.

If you can track down a copy of Riders of the Dead, I thought that was a pretty good stand alone by the Black Library's star author, Dan Abnett. It covers many of the key themes of Warhammer, focusing on the struggle of the Empire (main human area) against a great Chaos invasion.

I'm reading Clockwork Orange the 1986 copy write version or the English version. I've watched Stanley Kubrick and read the 1961 or American version with only 20 chapters but I've never read chapter 21 in the British or International version. The introduction says that in chapter 21 the narrator grows up and redeems himself and starts to compose music or something.

A Clockwork Orange as well as the Wizard of Oz and Catcher in the Rye were such influential works in my youth that I've re-read as an adult with a completely different perspective. All three novels are incredibly brilliant because the perspective is so different when you are a 13 or 14 year boy verse a 30 or 40 year old parent.

I just read a report of the German revolution 1918/19 by Sebastion Haffner

and "Der Vater eines Mörders" (The Father of a Murderer) by Alfred Andersch, who was a Communist, married a woman of Jewish ancestry and deserted the German army. (I have to read more of this guy.) The autobiographical book is about the principal he had in school, Himmler's father.

Columbob wrote:

Hatchling wrote:

Can anyone recommend a stand-alone warhammer novel? I know nothing about that world. Thanks for any suggestions.

Are you looking for a Warhammer fantasy or 40K novel?

They tend to serialize or trilogize most of their stuff. The omnibus editions are pretty good value and not really longer than a great many big fat fantasy novels out there.

The classic Drachenfels is always good, even if the background is a bit outdated. It's still available new in the Vampire Genevieve omnibus with 3 other books in the series, but it does stand alone perfectly well.

If you can track down a copy of Riders of the Dead, I thought that was a pretty good stand alone by the Black Library's star author, Dan Abnett. It covers many of the key themes of Warhammer, focusing on the struggle of the Empire (main human area) against a great Chaos invasion.

Thanks man!

A few days ago I picked up Blackhearts: The Omnibus by Nahan Long on a recommendation from someone at BGG. I'm keeping a list of titles. (Bill Abner highly recommended Ignorant Armies...which I'm currently trying to track down).

My main motivation for reading this stuff is to get some imagination going when I play Chaos in the Old World, which I just picked up.

I'm reading Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin. Its an autobiography, mostly about his failed first marriage and his alcoholism stemming from dealing with being the second man on the moon.

I bought Pride & Prejudice and Zombies for Amy, and she finished it, so I'll get to it when I'm done with Aldrin's book, but I migt read the new book I just bought Saturday: Mall of Cthulhu.

I just finished "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez Reverte. I enjoyed several of his books that I read years ago (The Flanders Panel and The Seville Communion) but I've only recently come across a copy of the Club Dumas in english. I highly recommend it to mystery fans that like a little bit of occult lore sprinkled in their reading.

-Will

Man I loved Club Dumas. Fiction very rarely holds my interest anymore, but that one did. Very well written and killer subject matter.

Right now I am reading Watchmen and listening to a TTC lecture on the early middle ages (essentially a book on tape.) Quite good. I usually don't admit to such things in public but people seem pretty nice here.

Sag.

I've started HOUSE OF LEAVES. So far, it's pretty fucked up. This book wants to be a pile of collages with some videos and so forth thrown in. A multimedia ghost story. It's working so far--I'm a little creeped out about 70 pages in.

THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.