The Book Thread

Severien

Severien

Dalayan Adventurer
Books are media. So the point of this thread will be to list what you're currently reading as well as your all time favorites, any books to plan to read in the near future, and discuss any books you have a mutual interest in.

I'll start, and personally, I love science fiction.

Books currently reading:
-Isaac Asimov's "Robot Visions," a collection of a number of Asimov's short stories
-Isaac Asimov's "Foundation's Edge" - I powered through the beginning parts of this series of his books but had to stop because Foundation's Edge hasn't come in the mail yet.

Books recently completed:
-Isaac Asimov's "Robot Dreams," a different collection of short stories. Standard Asimov, solid. A lot of stories about Multivac in this one.
-The entire aforementioned Foundation series up to Foundations Edge - Prelude to Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation. Good reads, all of them, though I thought Prelude was a bit lacking, though it had a few good Asimovian twists, the character relationships were awkward and unrealistic. "Foundation" and "Foundation and Empire" were the best of these so far.
-Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," a collection of short stories.
-Brian Herbert's "Hunters of Dune," definitely not at all similar to his fathers works in style, and not as good either, but worth reading through if you feel like you need some Dune-y goodness, same as his 6 prequel books.

Books waiting to be read:
-Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game"
-Isaac Asimov's Robot series - The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn
-Phillip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," - Yes, a re-read is due for this one. I was much younger when I first read it and though I liked it then, I need to go back now that I have a greater ability to understand the deeper concepts.
-Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal," I've never read Pratchett and this seemed like a good place to start.
-Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun series - "On Blue's Waters," "In Green's Jungles," "Return to the Whorl."
-Gene Wolfe's "The Urth of the New Sun," a sequel or coda to the Book of the New Sun. Hooray!
-Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman"
-Karl Marx's "On Revolution," some non-sci fi for the hell of it. Should be an interesting look into the mind of the man who sparked communism into existence.

Some others. My "to read" pile is to ginormous to remember.

All time favorites:
-Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" what is there to say about this one? Excellent book, inspired an excellent movie, kipple is an awesome concept.
-Harlan Ellisons "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," yep, I just read it and it's already a favorite.
-Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy and The Book of the Long Sun tetralogy. Fantastic books, recommended for everyone, distant future "dying earth" type science fiction. Not post-apocalyptic, however. Reads like fantasy, but isn't. Each tetralogy is standalone, but the Book of the New Sun was written first and has a vague connection to the next tetralogy. Everyone should read at least one of the tetralogies.
-Frank Herbert's Dune series - once again, what is there to say? They're good, and everyone knows it.

Books that are supposed to be good but you didn't like:
-Robert Heinlein's "Glory Road," and "Friday." These are supposed to be amongst his better works, I thought both were just shit. I couldn't finish "Friday," I only read a few chapters in and stopped. Heinlein can't write relationships and can't write female characters. Fuck that, Heinlein couldn't write realistic people in general. "Starship Troopers" is an interesting novel, "Job: A Comedy of Justice" was decent.... but after a string of bad Heinlein novels I'm not sure I want to continue trying them. I may give "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" a shot, but if thats not good, I'll just avoid Heinlein from now on.
 
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Oh man here we go. Nerd time.(Wikipedia links included!)

Books currently reading:
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson - pretty good so far. About 1/3 done with it.

All time favorites:
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Sphere by Michael Crichton
Airframe by Michael Crichton
Prey by Michael Crichton
The Icewind Dale Trilogy by RA Salvatore
The Dark Elf Trilogy by RA Salvatore
The Legacy of the Drow by RA Salvatore
The Paths of Darkness by RA Salvatore
The Hunter's Blade Trilogy by RA Salvatore
The War of the Spider Queen Series by Various Authors

Fun fact: I played EQ Live with RA Salvatore, and he lives about 40 mins away from me.

Forgotten Realms <3
 
Books currently reading:
-Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace" - A friend loaned it to me, and in the first 200 pages I've learned exactly two things. But I hear it has helped a lot of people.

Books recently completed:
-Robert A. Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" - I really enjoyed it. A good mix of scifi and politics. I have to agreed that Heinlein is pretty hit or miss. I liked about 1/3 of his stories I've read.
-Robert A. Heinlein's "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag" - Eh...it was okay.
-Robert A. Heinlein - A ton of short stories. - As I said before, hit or miss.
-James Kakalios' "The Physics of Superheroes" - Whimsical, but worth it. (If you're a nerd.)

Books waiting to be read:
-J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" - I know. How have I not read this? Well, I don't read much, and I'm getting to it.
-Kim Stanley Robinson's "Red Mars" - If I like it, I'll read "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars".
-Timothy Zahn's "Heir to the Empire" - I've started this Star Wars book 6 times, and I've liked it each time, but I've never seemed to finish it.

All time favorites:
-Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" - You will either love it or hate it. I've read it 3 times (and I don't read much).
-Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" - Loved this book. Will have to reread it when I get around to the sequels.
-Ernest Hemingway's "Old Man And The Sea" - It's gloriously morose. It's a nice short book, for those that don't like to read much.


Books that are supposed to be good but you didn't like:
-Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" - I was assigned to read George Orwell's "1984" and this book and compare them. Short version? "1984" didn't suck.
 
Books currently reading:
-Joseph Heller's "Catch 22"- I read this just about every summer... it makes life more bearable
-Mercedes Lackey "Black Griffon"- Rereading this to see if it is "ok" for my niece to read without me getting any angry-parent phone calls
-Douglas Hofsteder "Godel, Escher, Bach" - I keep this book on my official 'current' list b/c one day I will be patient, focused, and smart enough to finish it


Books recently completed:
-Terry Pratchett, various, once summer sets in some comedy is good for the soul
-John Milton's "Paradise Lost" - one of my friends pointed out after almost of tens years, dozens of essays, and two terms papers of claiming to have read this book it would probably be a good idea to go ahead and do so in its entirety.
-Lovecraft, various, instantly one of my favorite mythos/worlds... why can no one make a good movie out of this?!?

Books waiting to be read:
George R.R. Martiin- in September finally , guess he got tired of hoping he'd die or something before he had to finish Song of Ice and Fire.
"Sandworms of Dune"- I know this has been out almost a year but every time I go to a bookstore they're out :(
William Safire "Freedom"- I guess this could be on the current list, but Safire is so detailed and involved (and intimidatingly brilliant) that after a hundred pages or so I start feeling compelled to take Fort Sumter, so frequent breaks are required.


All time favorites:
Brave New World/1984: Nary a day passes I can't look at something going on in the world, think of one of these, and just laugh and laugh and laugh.
Heinlein "Stranger in a Strange Land" - All this Heinlein talk and no Stranger? For shame.
Machiavelli "The Prince" - Kind of has the same thing going for it 1984 does.
[almost] Anything Twain wrote.
The Dictionary - give me a nice heavy unabridged, comfy chair, and a whole lot of shut up from everyone else and I've got my plans for the afternoon (also true of Almanacs).
All those other books I like.


Books that are supposed to be good but you didn't like:
Clifford the Big Red Dog
 
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Books recently completed:

-Terry Pratchett 'Equal Rites' - Can not get enough of the Discworld books.

-Amy Gash 'What the Dormouse Said' - Lessons for Grown-Ups from Children's Books.

Books currently reading:

-Terry Pratchett 'Mort' - Just picked this up last night.
'Sourcery' - Picked this one up as well.

-Oscar Wilde 'Complete Works of Oscar Wilde - Everything in one book.
 
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Severien said:
Books are media. So the point of this thread will be to list what you're currently reading as well as your all time favorites, any books to plan to read in the near future, and discuss any books you have a mutual interest in.

I'll start, and personally, I love science fiction.

Books currently reading:
-Isaac Asimov's "Robot Visions," a collection of a number of Asimov's short stories
-Isaac Asimov's "Foundation's Edge" - I powered through the beginning parts of this series of his books but had to stop because Foundation's Edge hasn't come in the mail yet.

Books recently completed:
-Isaac Asimov's "Robot Dreams," a different collection of short stories. Standard Asimov, solid. A lot of stories about Multivac in this one.
-The entire aforementioned Foundation series up to Foundations Edge - Prelude to Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation. Good reads, all of them, though I thought Prelude was a bit lacking, though it had a few good Asimovian twists, the character relationships were awkward and unrealistic. "Foundation" and "Foundation and Empire" were the best of these so far.
-Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," a collection of short stories.
-Brian Herbert's "Hunters of Dune," definitely not at all similar to his fathers works in style, and not as good either, but worth reading through if you feel like you need some Dune-y goodness, same as his 6 prequel books.

Books waiting to be read:
-Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game"
-Isaac Asimov's Robot series - The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn
-Phillip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly," - Yes, a re-read is due for this one. I was much younger when I first read it and though I liked it then, I need to go back now that I have a greater ability to understand the deeper concepts.
-Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal," I've never read Pratchett and this seemed like a good place to start.
-Gene Wolfe's Book of the Short Sun series - "On Blue's Waters," "In Green's Jungles," "Return to the Whorl."
-Gene Wolfe's "The Urth of the New Sun," a sequel or coda to the Book of the New Sun. Hooray!
-Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman"
-Karl Marx's "On Revolution," some non-sci fi for the hell of it. Should be an interesting look into the mind of the man who sparked communism into existence.

Some others. My "to read" pile is to ginormous to remember.

All time favorites:
-Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" what is there to say about this one? Excellent book, inspired an excellent movie, kipple is an awesome concept.
-Harlan Ellisons "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," yep, I just read it and it's already a favorite.
-Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy and The Book of the Long Sun tetralogy. Fantastic books, recommended for everyone, distant future "dying earth" type science fiction. Not post-apocalyptic, however. Reads like fantasy, but isn't. Each tetralogy is standalone, but the Book of the New Sun was written first and has a vague connection to the next tetralogy. Everyone should read at least one of the tetralogies.
-Frank Herbert's Dune series - once again, what is there to say? They're good, and everyone knows it.

Books that are supposed to be good but you didn't like:
-Robert Heinlein's "Glory Road," and "Friday." These are supposed to be amongst his better works, I thought both were just shit. I couldn't finish "Friday," I only read a few chapters in and stopped. Heinlein can't write relationships and can't write female characters. Fuck that, Heinlein couldn't write realistic people in general. "Starship Troopers" is an interesting novel, "Job: A Comedy of Justice" was decent.... but after a string of bad Heinlein novels I'm not sure I want to continue trying them. I may give "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" a shot, but if thats not good, I'll just avoid Heinlein from now on.
Click to expand...

If you get one robot to pour poison into some coffee, and get another robot to serve the tea, you can get them to kill a person.

I just finished my AI exam, and my path happened to cross Isaac Asimov, for obvious reasons.
 
All this Heinlein talk and no Stranger? For shame.
Click to expand...

Well, I read Stranger in a Strange Land quite a while ago, for school. It was alright. I loved the first half, but the second half was really weak. So, I couldn't put it in my favorites. That was when he was switching his writing style, and I didn't really care for any of his books after that.

-Naffel
 
The Hand of Robin Squires is a book I read when I was really young. Still think its one of best stories I've heard. And Lords of the Flies was a great book. Hunting Humans is a book that I did for a War and Aggression elective in school that just about blew my mind. The stories still give me a chill up my spine. At the end of the book I was left with the feeling that I could very well be one of these crazy killers too. But you would have to read the book to understand. Basically the point of book was that its not an innate mix-up that breeds mass murders but in fact its the situations these people have experienced in life. They are not crazy just have been pushed to the edge one too many times by society. Thats what blew me away.

Death on the Ice was a massively good book. Its a story about 1000's of people that have, through a series of mistakes, been left to die on the ice fields off the coast of newfoundland during a seal hunt in like the 1800's. The things these people had to do to survive really gives you some insight into what humans will do when its their life thats at stake. They say the part of humans that taste the best is the wrist meat.

And of course The Lord of the Rings is a great read. Never did finish last book. And now that I've seen movies I don't think I ever will.
 
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Besides most of those, some more current items I like are:

Jim Butcher: Dresden books (NOT the tv show. ick)
John Barnes: timewar series (patton's spaceship, washington's dirigible, ceasar's bicycle)
Kim Harrison: Hollows series (starts with dead witch walking)
Charlene Harris: Southern Vampire series.
Gordon Dickson: dragon and the george series

None of these would probably be considered great literature, or the level as ones above this post, but they are fun reading and impossible to put down once you pick them up.

Jack L Chalker: well of souls series, jungle of stars, wonderland gambit series (had promise but the third book wasn't so good. Chalker blames his publisher for this though.)

I'm not a big fan of chalker. Some of his stuff is good, but somewhat disappointing. Oddly, I have a lot of his books.

I have to also admit I enjoy reading the artemis fowl series, as well as the harry potter books. What can I say? They are entertaining!
 
As an update, I read Ender's Game in about 3 days. Book is hella good. It's going in the favorites pile.
 
Nice thread!

Last read: Freud: Little Hans, The Wolf-man, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Currently reading: Veber: Aesthetics.
 
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Just finished up 'Mort' by Terry Pratchett and now I am reading 'Sourcery'. Eating these books up. If you want a good read and a good laugh give discworld a shot.
 
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