What Are You Reading?

[sjewkestheloon]

I'm reading Crime and Punishment, it's excellent.

[Acid King]

I just started Shadow of the Torturer.

[Square King]

I haven't had a lot of time to read lately, but I'm going through some Mark Twain stuff I missed on Stanza, a pretty sweet ipod touch/iphone app.

[Jon]

Halfway through Weaveworld by Clive Barker and enjoying it thoroughly.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I just started Shadow of the Torturer.

Whoa, dude! Prepare for the read of your life. First loop is even more amazing.

Shit got real about 75% in.

Whose translation is this?

[saucykobold]

I'm currently reading The Maltese Falcon.

[Acid King]

Whoa, dude! Prepare for the read of your life. First loop is even more amazing.

I'm only a bit into it but I'm enjoying it so far.

I'm currently reading The Maltese Falcon.

I have this in a Hammett anthology I bought but never got around to reading because I got hung up on James M. Cain. I'll have to move on to that after I finish the Mike Hammer novel I'm in the middle of. I always have to have one hard boiled novel in the rotation.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Halfway through Weaveworld by Clive Barker and enjoying it thoroughly.

Weaveworld would make for an interesting live-action or animated film indeed. Makes me wonder what Mr. Barker is doing nowdays when it comes to films and/or novels.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Square King]

Whose translation is this?

Not exactly sure. I just went with the first image I found on GIS.

[Jon]

Weaveworld would make for an interesting live-action or animated film indeed. Makes me wonder what Mr. Barker is doing nowdays when it comes to films and/or novels.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Tilda Swinton or Cate Blanchette for the role of Immacolata

[sjewkestheloon]

I read a bunch of Clive Barker novels when I was young and really had a blast. Seriously grotesque absurdist horror and wonderful for that very reason.

Might have to pick up something of his and see if I get the same kick that I used to get.

[Jon]

Its much more fantasy oriented than what I am used to from him (keep in mind my only prior Barker experience is his Books of Blood series which I also read as a teenager.) Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of gore along with the sexuality which I have always known him for but I am enjoying it more than his straight up horror novels. Again, I am only a little over half way through the book but the best description I can come up with is a grown up "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe" with a dash of his Books of Blood and Hellraiser series thrown in for good measure. Do check it out if you get the chance sjewkestheloon.

[saucykobold]

I have this in a Hammett anthology I bought but never got around to reading because I got hung up on James M. Cain. I'll have to move on to that after I finish the Mike Hammer novel I'm in the middle of. I always have to have one hard boiled novel in the rotation.

Yeah, it's a great genre. I devoured Chandler's novels a while ago, read a few of Spillane's, and am just getting started with Hammett. I'll get to Cain this summer, hopefully.

[sjewkestheloon]

Its much more fantasy oriented than what I am used to from him (keep in mind my only prior Barker experience is his Books of Blood series which I also read as a teenager.) Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of gore along with the sexuality which I have always known him for but I am enjoying it more than his straight up horror novels. Again, I am only a little over half way through the book but the best description I can come up with is a grown up "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe" with a dash of his Books of Blood and Hellraiser series thrown in for good measure. Do check it out if you get the chance sjewkestheloon.

Indeed, I remember reading one of his years ago about a magic carpet that worked as a portal, and Lion, Witch, etc is a very good comparison.

[Joe T.]

Finally finished Infinite Jest, which I will say, holy shit what a good book. Even if you aren't into post-modern or whatever type authors, David Foster Wallace is an intimidatingly impressive writer.

Trying to decide now whether or not to get into a few hard science type books, I have a few quantum physics popularizations laying around, and some math/philosophy books as well I've meant to read. Also on deck, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon and another David Foster Wallace book, The Broom of the System. I may just have to flip a coin.

[caldwert]

I'd flip a screwtape, but if a coin is all you have, then a mighty fine device it is!

[mortified_penguin]

Crime and Punishment, The Illustrated Man, Lovecraft Tales, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

I've got lots of free time these days...

[Joe T.]

I'd flip a screwtape, but if a coin is all you have, then a mighty fine device it is!

Man, where can I get books on tape that have been chopped and screwed? I already "asked asked Paul McCartney." The screwtape store got books on screwtape?

I'm not talking about CS Lewis either.

[sjewkestheloon]

Also on deck, Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon.

Good luck with that one. I enjoy knotty, post modern, avant fart stuff but Pynchnon leaves me puzzled. Read half of Mason Dixon and honestly had no clue what was going on.

Looks like I need to give him another go then.

[Joe T.]

I'm pretty sure I'll love it, actually. I think Pynchon is great.

Having no clue isn't such a bad thing. I've read so much absolutely linear history over the years that authors like Pynchon are the perfect counterbalance for me.

[sjewkestheloon]

I'm pretty sure I'll love it, actually. I think Pynchon is great.

Having no clue isn't such a bad thing. I've read so much absolutely linear history over the years that authors like Pynchon are the perfect counterbalance for me.

As I said above, I read a lot of post modern, post structuralist stuff with ease and far prefer a non linear narrative that leaves a lot to the imagination. Similar to yourself I spent many years reading 'classic' novels by the dozen while studying and spent many years rejecting linear narratives due to overexposure.

The reason that I like this sort of novel is that it leaves me with something to think about. Mason Dixon, in fact, left me with nothing to think about. There was nothing to think about because the work was incoherant to the point of making reading a chore.

Again I would like to try him again, especially Gravity's Rainbow, but from my very limited exposure to him it seems that he takes the style of late PK Dick to a baffling extreme at the expense of content.

I'd like to highly recommend that you try Roberto Bolano's 2666. I think you might enjoy its excentricities.

[BrianC]

I have been reading GNs lately:

Batman Year One
Batman The Dark Knight Returns
Human Target: Chance Meetings
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v. 1
Kick Ass
Doctor Who Classics v. 1
Rurouni Kenshin v. 14

I'll probably read v. 15 of Kenshin next and then some Sherlock Holmes (novels, not comics. I have a collection with two big books that collects the short stores and the longer novels).

[1up]

I just started on Max Brooks' post-apocalyptic horror novel 'World War Z'

[sjewkestheloon]

Just finished Crime and Punishment and found it quite wonderful. Anyone have a recommendation of where to go next with Dostoevsky?

I'm just about to read a Philip Dick biography which should be entertaining. I'm sure I've gleaned a lot of his life from reading Valis and the like but it will be good to compare the fictional meanderings, the imagined 'reality' and the objective(ish) truth.

[xris]

World War Z is The Shit.
Really, the be all, end all of zombie lore. A really fantastic read.
I'm on Virtual Light, the only Gibson book I've yet to read, even if it's the 1st of the bridge trilogy.

[sjewkestheloon]

Someone came into the library in which I work today and tried to donate some books. For some stupid reason we aren't accepting books at the moment so I had to refuse without even looking at them. The person then dumps the bags at the back and leaves.

When I later found them I opened the bags to discover a beautiful eight volume leather spine set of the complete works of Shakespeare put out by The Folio Society in 1997. Sealed in plastic.

I'm now a proud owner and can gladly retire my destroyed toilet paper version with sections pulled loose.

Recently I've read:

Philip K Dick:
Solar Lottery - OK for a first novel, didn't come together at all.
Deus Irae - Shit.
Now Wait For Last Year - Brilliant paranoid stuff, full of love/fear/hatred of the dictator/corporate/father. Classic PKD.

Friedrich Durrenmatt - Can't remember the title but it was a great little post modern detective tale of incomprehension.

Reread Paul Auster - New York Trilogy which remains one of my all time favourites.

Also picked up a Joyce anthology and Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49, the later in an effort to get over a failed reading of one of his others a few years ago.

[Engineer]

Currently reading The Golden Bough by James Frazer, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.

[CMoon]

Finally started reading Chandler. Started with The Big Sleep. I love how easy and quick it reads, but actually feels smart and well written.

[mesh control]

Wait Until Spring, Bandini by John Fante

[RGC]

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