What have you been reading lately?
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Thursday, September 14 2006 23:54
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Is "investment" a euphemism? I mean, I like reading Pratchett's books, but I don't read any of them more than, say, once or twice a year. Far too many good books out there to wa-- invest time reading some of them over and over again... ;) -------------------- The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead. Encyclopedia • Blades Forge • Archives • Stats • RSS (This Topic / Forum) • Blog • NaNoWriMo Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.' Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 6670
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written Friday, September 15 2006 07:52
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I just finished Armageddon's Children, by Terry Brooks. Whoa, dude! I totally didn't see that coming... </sarcasm> -------------------- IF I EVER BECOME AN EVIL OVERLORD: I will make several ludicrously erroneous maps to secret passages in my fortress and hire travellers to entrust them to aged hermits. Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 4153
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written Friday, September 15 2006 07:55
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Finally finished Three Nights in August... and I had forgotten what happened in the games it was talking about. I actually was surprised by the ending. That said, I'm thinking of reading Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere next. -------------------- TM: "I want BoA to grow. Evolve where the food ladder has rungs to be reached." Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice. Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, September 15 2006 09:06
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Since he seems to imply that the investment is still good if you read them all 12 times, I think investment is indeed the right term, and in my opinion the return on that investment isn't as high as you'd get by, say, swapping some of those re-read Herbert books for a few more Pratchett books. —Alorael, who is about to pick of El amor en los tiempos del cólera in order to be a more cultured individual. He's not sure who he's trying to fool, but he is sure it's unlikely to work. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Dollop of Whipped Cream
Member # 391
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written Friday, September 15 2006 18:07
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After talking about the series with Marl, who is currently reading them for the first time, I am rereading the core Dragonlance novels (aka anything by Weis and Hickman). -------------------- "Tyranicus is about the only one that still posts in the Nethergate Forum." —Randomizer Spiderweb Chat Room Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 562 | Registered: Friday, December 14 2001 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Friday, September 15 2006 21:06
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The earlier Dragonlance books were better than the later ones except for that irritating habit of making it sound so much like the game. I almost thought they would discuss initative and other technicalities. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
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written Friday, September 15 2006 21:37
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I've read all of the good books, few of the excellent books, and a handful of the crap books. Neverwhere falls toward to the top of the heap. Cholera, I've yet to get to that one as it seems too intellectual for me. Dragonlance serves only to help me recall the Dark Sun series of games. They were fun. -------------------- Synergy, et al - "I don't get it." Argon - "I'm at a loss for words..." Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Friday, September 15 2006 22:38
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quote:Don't bother. It has too much love and not nearly enough cholera. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, September 16 2006 00:01
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I'd read Cien años de soledad but, quite frankly, I don't have that kind of time. —Alorael, who has always wondered why more literature doesn't end with several important characters dying of infectious diseases before a pivotal plot point and the others just shrugging and going their separate, boring ways. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Saturday, September 16 2006 07:15
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Ah, having finished the first volume of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I find Lord Guan with his excessive honor to be one of the best characters. I also liked Lady Sun in the second volume. I am taking a short breather to read Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer, a novel set in the city of Ambergris. The two main characters are Duncan and Janice Shriek. He also wrote City of Saints and Madmen. The Ambergris novels are truly wonderful in their oddness. They are not violent but full of strange fanciful historical, literary, and religious passages with a mix of odd mushroom creatures. Truly worth reading if you like magical realism, or slightly otherworldly novels. -------------------- Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh. Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight. Add your one star vote to my tally. Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Saturday, September 16 2006 11:17
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Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude is like living as a goldfish. Everything's cute and bubbly, but somehow you start to feel trapped. Maybe it's the magic realism; could it be that if anything can happen, then really nothing can? I recently re-read an old copy of Lawrence Watt-Evans's The Cyborg and the Sorceror. This guy has been quietly writing away for a good 20 years, never really making it big, but regularly making the bookstore shelves the whole time. Re-reading him after a long time, I remembered what I had always liked about him. His plots are just more carefully worked out than most people's. And not just in the sense of having a grand design with all the angles checking out. His heroes also do realistic things like accidentally dropping their weapons while performing some acrobatic feat; and then they deal with the situation realistically. If Watt-Evans were designing CRPGs instead of writing novels, his games would have realistic encumbrance rules; and encumbrance would be an interesting challenge. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Saturday, September 16 2006 14:33
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quote:Wasn't it H.G. Wells who said that if everything is possible, then nothing is interesting? -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Tuesday, September 19 2006 09:01
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Starting When Darkness Falls The Obsidian Trilogy Book 3 by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Your standard elveys, dragoneys, demoneys, with the forces of the goody goody light, versus the darkest evil demons.... -------------------- Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh. Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight. Add your one star vote to my tally. Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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Cartographer
Member # 1851
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written Wednesday, September 20 2006 10:47
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I just finished reading the Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Also the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both in English and Finnish), thanks to Project Gutenberg. Presently I'm considering a long visit to the library to look for some more books. I've never read any Jules Verne and I'd rather remedy this. Also, I'd love suggestions to any particularly good (or decent) books circa late 19th century to early 20th century. -------------------- Pannaan kaikki hippulat vinkumaan! ^_^ Ooh! Riibu's Kolo - January Blues - Geneforge, +2, +3 - My Elfwood Gallery and DevArt page So many strange ones around. Don't you think? Posts: 1308 | Registered: Sunday, September 8 2002 07:00 |
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Dollop of Whipped Cream
Member # 391
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written Wednesday, September 20 2006 14:30
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quote:Mark Twain and Jack London come to mind. -------------------- "Tyranicus is about the only one that still posts in the Nethergate Forum." —Randomizer Spiderweb Chat Room Shadow Vale - My site, home of the Spiderweb Chat Database, BoA Scenario Database, & the A1 Quest List, among other things. Posts: 562 | Registered: Friday, December 14 2001 08:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Wednesday, September 20 2006 17:11
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Edwin Lefevre Reminiscences of a Stock Operator c1923. Everything in it still seems to ring true. Turn of the century bucket shops. -------------------- Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh. Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight. Add your one star vote to my tally. Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 6785
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written Wednesday, September 20 2006 17:23
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Rudyard Kipling has some overlooked adventure stories that are hard to find. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger stories start with the Lost World and then start going down hill. Posts: 4643 | Registered: Friday, February 10 2006 08:00 |
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Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
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written Wednesday, September 20 2006 20:01
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Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island and Kidnapped are his best known stories. It is tempting to call the former the originator of the pirate genre, but in fact pirate stories were popular in the generation before it, and Stevenson distilled them all into one of the best stories ever told. -------------------- Listen carefully because some of your options may have changed. Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Friday, September 22 2006 04:16
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Cookies to the first person who can guess what my name is derived from and thus reason what author I'm currently reading. :) -------------------- The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead. Encyclopedia • Blades Forge • Archives • Stats • RSS (This Topic / Forum) • Blog • NaNoWriMo Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.' Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Friday, September 22 2006 04:25
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Asimov. But it doesn't really count as a "guess" if I know the answer, does it? :P -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, September 22 2006 08:00
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But you haven't minimally altered the names to (presumably) reflect some kind of linguistic shift over the centuries! —Alorael, who considers Asimov's naming scheme only one step above using Y and strange dipthongs to produce fantasy names like Kylaerolylylae. It's a large step, admittedly, but only one. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Friday, September 22 2006 08:36
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... "Arancaytar", huh? ( :rolleyes: ) -------------------- The Noble and Ancient Order of Polaris - We're Not Yet Dead. Encyclopedia • Blades Forge • Archives • Stats • RSS (This Topic / Forum) • Blog • NaNoWriMo Did-chat thentagoespyet jumund fori is jus, hat onlime gly nertan ne gethen Firyoubbit 'obio.' Decorum deserves a whole line of my signature, and an entry in your bookmarks. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, September 22 2006 11:10
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You don't use a Y independently in the middle of a word to produce a vowel sound. And, for that matter, you don't use faux-Latin dipthongs like Ae. —Alorael, who gets away with it because he and his name are both angelic. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3428
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written Friday, September 22 2006 12:01
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I just checked out "Zero To Lazy Eight: The Romance of Numbers", and "Weighing the Soul: Scientific Discoveries, from the Brilliant to the Bizarre." Before that I read "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea." and "At Winter's End" [A Science Fiction book I ABSOLUTELY LOVE.], and a Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Religious peice I can't remember the name of, but was very good. And "Scars" one of the "Ironclaw Novels" -------------------- HIHI!!!! *hugs indescriminantly* take that, FEEL THE LOVE!!!! Posts: 47 | Registered: Wednesday, September 3 2003 07:00 |
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Councilor
Member # 6600
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written Friday, September 22 2006 15:25
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I just finished reading Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect by David W. Orr. I'm currently reading Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture by E. N. Anderson and browsing through A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona by Anne Orth Epple. Dikiyoba reads a lot of non-fiction. Fiction is good too, whenever Dikiyoba can afford to do nothing else for an entire day (and night). -------------------- Episode 4: Spiderweb Reloaded Posts: 4346 | Registered: Friday, December 23 2005 08:00 |