What are you currently reading?

[Ender]

Post what you are currently reading! This will be a good way to share recommendations.

If you want, you can follow the suggested format:

1. Title & Author
2. What page are you on?
3. What's the first sentence of the book?
4. Do you like it so far? (No spoilers. Just say whether you like it or not and perhaps what you're feeling.)

Good day,
Ender

[Ender]

Okay, I'm first!

1. PNIN by Vladimir Nabokov
2. Page 104
3. "The elderly passenger sitting on the north-window side of that inexorably moving railway coach, next to an empty seat and facing two empty ones, was none other than Professor Timofey Pnin."
4. I love it. It's hilarious

[Blaze]

Blind Eye, Stuart MacBride
I don't know
I don't remember
Yes.

It's at work, but I'm on a few chapters in.

[iago]

1. A Study in Emerald, Neil Gaiman
2. Finished (page 9)
3. "It is the immensity, I believe. The hugemess of things below. The darkness of dreams." (yeah yeah, three sentences)
4. It combines the concepts/styles of my two favourite authors, Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and Lovecraft. It's awesome!
5. http://www.neilgaiman.com/mediafiles/exclusive/shortstories/emerald.pdf

I'll post what I'm actually reading later, perhaps. But it's boring.

[Armin]

1. Bringing Out the Dead, Joe Connelly
2. 279
3. "I parked the ambulance in front of Hell's Kitchen walk-up number 414 and Larry and I pulled the equipment from the back."
4. yessir

[while1]

Just checked out "This Side of Paradise" at the library... reading this.

[Ender]

Justine by Lawrence Durrell
p. 190 or something

For a while I was mixed, but now I really like it

[Ender]

Just checked out "This Side of Paradise" at the library... reading this.

how's that going?

[truste1]

Just finished The Alchemist and now I've started The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life. It's a biography of WB. The first sentence is "Warren Buffett rocks back in his chair, long legs crossed at the knee behind his father Howard's plain wooden desk." I'm only on page 21 but so far I like it, but I can tell it's going to be a time consuming book.

[Joe]

1. Title & Author -- Ender
2. What page are you on? -- 1
3. What's the first sentence of the book? -- Post what you are currently reading!
4. Do you like it so far? -- Yes

[while1]

I'm reading "The Secret" not sure who it's by.  Some book that's suppose to give me the secret to find success in all aspects of my life beyond professional.  Not sure.  So far I get the feeling it's a bunch of BS and too superstitious/ metaphysical for my taste.

[Ender]

yeah don't read self-help books

i'll come up with a good book 4 u

[truste1]

I just bought a new book today, I think it was released last week. It's a business book written by the President of my school about finance and business. I'm looking forward to it, and then of course I'll be able to get him to sign it.

[Ender]

I just started reading Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. The cover is beautiful (naked woman) and so far I'm intrigued. It's a semi-autobiographical novel about an author's degenerate years in Paris, just the kind of subject matter that sparks my interest It also so happens to be a masterpiece of 20th century American literature.

[deadly7]

"Organic Chemistry" by L.G. Wade, Jr.

[Ender]

1. Great Expectations by Dickens
2. I'm around 200 pages into it.
3. I really like it so far. I love the humor, the arc of the story, the predicament he places his protagonist in. And there are moments in his prose that incur laugh-out-loud delight.

[rabbit]

1. Disclosure - Michale Crichton
2. 408
3. "It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer: (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; or (2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

or, arguably

"CONSIDERING THE MERGER, I THOUGHT YOU SHOULD GET THIS AT HOME AND NOT THE OFFICE: TWINKLE PRODUCTION LINES RUNNING AT 29% CAPACITY DESPITE ALL EFFORTS TO INCREASE."

4. Yes.  Lots of twists, though some parts seem pretty predictable.  I'm not used to 1993 tech being the height of fashion, so some things have thrown me a bit.

[Newby]

Pick-up artist books.

[Hitmen]

Pick-up artist books.

this is far funnier than it should be

[Armin]

1. Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art by Stephen Nachmanovitch
2. 56
3. "Improvisation, it is a mystery. You can write a book about it, but by the end no one still knows what it is. When I improvise and I'm in good form, I'm like somebody half sleeping. I even forget there are people in front of me. Great improvisers are like priests; they are only thinking of their god.
4. Fucking incredibly deep and relevant to my current lifestyle.

[Ender]

1. Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
2. p. 105
3. It's a fine first sentence.
4. I like it very much, and it promises to get even better. In particular, I really like the characters.

[Newby]

Pick-up artist books.

this is far funnier than it should be

I downloaded a torrent called "Pick Up Books" a year or so ago, because TehUser had mentioned some book called Rules Of The Game a year or so ago with an interesting concept. That torrent package had it. And I was looking through my Downloads folder and saw I still had all of those books, and since my strategies with women are terrible, I figure it could only be good to glance through them. And they're quite interesting. =P

[Super_X]

1. Bringing Out the Dead, Joe Connelly
2. 279
3. "I parked the ambulance in front of Hell's Kitchen walk-up number 414 and Larry and I pulled the equipment from the back."
4. yessir

Is this book on film, too, with Nick Cage playing the main roll?

[iago]

1. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
2. 926
3. "'Two tires fly. Two wail / A bamboo groove, all chopped down / From it, warring songs.' ...is the best that Corporal Bobby Shaftoe can do on short notice--he's standing on the running board, gripping his Springfield with one hand and the rearview mirror with the other, so counting the syllables on his fingers is out of the question."
4. It's awesome, but an endurance test. I don't normally read books that are over 1000 pages (I'm not sure if I ever have)

Post what you are currently reading! This will be a good way to share recommendations.

If you want, you can follow the suggested format:

1. Title & Author
2. What page are you on?
3. What's the first sentence of the book?
4. Do you like it so far? (No spoilers. Just say whether you like it or not and perhaps what you're feeling.)

Good day,
Ender

[Sidoh]

I finished Speaker of the Dead a few days ago, now I'm reading Xenocide.  I'm starting to regret it, though.  The pseudoscience and crappy metaphysics are kinda painful.

I have a Kindle and an Amazon giftcard to blow through.  Anyone have any "must read" suggestions?

[rabbit]

I love Cryptonomicon.  I read it a couple times, and it's definitely worth the time.

Sidoh, I definitely recommend Jack McDevitt's Hutch series.  Starts off with The Engines of God.  As for a must read...try out Pratchett's Watch series if you haven't already.

[Ender]

I finished Speaker of the Dead a few days ago, now I'm reading Xenocide.  I'm starting to regret it, though.  The pseudoscience and crappy metaphysics are kinda painful.

I have a Kindle and an Amazon giftcard to blow through.  Anyone have any "must read" suggestions?

Yeah, I remember that I really liked some books in the Ender series, and then didn't think too highly of some others.

I don't really know what you like so it's hard to give suggestions. I'll cover a broad range of genres, though:

Fantasy
I remember being enamored with the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. There are a lot of books in the series... but they are all very good. It's almost like reading a Diablo II storyline.

Novels
If you're looking for a more artistic book, I'd recommend Vladimir Nabokov. A good starting point is probably Lolita - an infamous book from the 50's/60's.

Classics
Give poetry a try! Try Dante, Homer, or Virgil. For Virgil and Homer I would recommend either the Fagles or Fitzgerald translations of The Iliad and The Aeneid. For Dante, it's harder to say. I have two copies of The Inferno: one is by Robert Pinsky, and it is a lot more poetic, meaning it sounds better; the other is by Robert M. Durling, which is a much more literal, direct translation, meaning that it is more accurate and true-to-Dante, but less poetic.

[iago]

I love Cryptonomicon.  I read it a couple times, and it's definitely worth the time.

Sidoh, I definitely recommend Jack McDevitt's Hutch series.  Starts off with The Engines of God.  As for a must read...try out Pratchett's Watch series if you haven't already.

I am enjoying it, but it feels like it progresses very slowly, and each story arc almost returns to baseline. The all-encompassing story that it's building to (the gold and e-commerce stuff) doesn't seem to be a big enough payoff.

But I still like it.

[deadly7]

I finished Speaker of the Dead a few days ago, now I'm reading Xenocide.  I'm starting to regret it, though.  The pseudoscience and crappy metaphysics are kinda painful.

I have a Kindle and an Amazon giftcard to blow through.  Anyone have any "must read" suggestions?

The psuedoscience isn't why you read those books. I love OSC's writing because he does an excellent job in creating human relationships and getting you to empathize with a character's suffering while understanding his decision process.

Also, relativistic travel is not really that unheard of. His science is internally consistent, which is more than can be said of other sci-fi novels I've attempted to read.

I love Cryptonomicon.  I read it a couple times, and it's definitely worth the time.

Sidoh, I definitely recommend Jack McDevitt's Hutch series.  Starts off with The Engines of God.  As for a must read...try out Pratchett's Watch series if you haven't already.

I can't power through it. It's just so damn boring and long. Brevity is beautiful.

[Sidoh]

The psuedoscience isn't why you read those books. I love OSC's writing because he does an excellent job in creating human relationships and getting you to empathize with a character's suffering while understanding his decision process.

Also, relativistic travel is not really that unheard of. His science is internally consistent, which is more than can be said of other sci-fi novels I've attempted to read.

Mmhm.  That's why I liked Ender's game, and that's why I continue to read the other books in the series.  It gets progressively harder to suffer through, though.  There was very little of it in Ender's Game, there was a little more in Speaker of the Dead, and there's a whole chapter in the first quarter of Xenocide that talks about the "philotic connections between people".

Have you read the other books in the series?

I don't mind the space travel stuff at all.  That's kind of enjoyable, actually.  It's interesting to read about a world that sees the effects of relativistic space travel.  I was actually quite pleased that OSC included those details.  The other scifi details are starting to become a little painful, though.  The "philotic connections", the pseudo-sentient subatomic particles, the details of the piggies' reproductive cycle, and descriptions of the Descolada are getting ridiculous.  I continue reading because I enjoy the bits in between (especially the initially separate story about the girl on Path, the Chinese world), but holy shit that chapter aboute the philotes was fucking paiiinnfful.

[deadly7]

Mmhm.  That's why I liked Ender's game, and that's why I continue to read the other books in the series.  It gets progressively harder to suffer through, though.  There was very little of it in Ender's Game, there was a little more in Speaker of the Dead, and there's a whole chapter in the first quarter of Xenocide that talks about the "philotic connections between people".

Have you read the other books in the series?

I don't mind the space travel stuff at all.  That's kind of enjoyable, actually.  It's interesting to read about a world that sees the effects of relativistic space travel.  I was actually quite pleased that OSC included those details.  The other scifi details are starting to become a little painful, though.  The "philotic connections", the pseudo-sentient subatomic particles, the details of the piggies' reproductive cycle, and descriptions of the Descolada are getting ridiculous.  I continue reading because I enjoy the bits in between (especially the initially separate story about the girl on Path, the Chinese world), but holy shit that chapter aboute the philotes was fucking paiiinnfful.

I've read the entire series, including the Bean saga. It's probably my favorite sci-fi series. That said, some of the science is a bit ridiculous. I agree. I just say "so what?" and continue reading. It's easy to lose yourself in the story if you stop trying to analyze everything.

If you dislike the weird pseudoscience then you may want to just stop because Children of the Mind (book 4) will make you cry. Start reading the Bean saga instead -- it's full of what OSC does well. The entire saga is about his relationships with people. It has some pseudoscience in there, but it's moreso just to progress the story than as a central axiom, imo.

[Sidoh]

Mmhm.  That's why I liked Ender's game, and that's why I continue to read the other books in the series.  It gets progressively harder to suffer through, though.  There was very little of it in Ender's Game, there was a little more in Speaker of the Dead, and there's a whole chapter in the first quarter of Xenocide that talks about the "philotic connections between people".

Have you read the other books in the series?

I don't mind the space travel stuff at all.  That's kind of enjoyable, actually.  It's interesting to read about a world that sees the effects of relativistic space travel.  I was actually quite pleased that OSC included those details.  The other scifi details are starting to become a little painful, though.  The "philotic connections", the pseudo-sentient subatomic particles, the details of the piggies' reproductive cycle, and descriptions of the Descolada are getting ridiculous.  I continue reading because I enjoy the bits in between (especially the initially separate story about the girl on Path, the Chinese world), but holy shit that chapter aboute the philotes was fucking paiiinnfful.

I've read the entire series, including the Bean saga. It's probably my favorite sci-fi series. That said, some of the science is a bit ridiculous. I agree. I just say "so what?" and continue reading. It's easy to lose yourself in the story if you stop trying to analyze everything.

If you dislike the weird pseudoscience then you may want to just stop because Children of the Mind (book 4) will make you cry. Start reading the Bean saga instead -- it's full of what OSC does well. The entire saga is about his relationships with people. It has some pseudoscience in there, but it's moreso just to progress the story than as a central axiom, imo.

Trust me, I'm the type of person that usually gets lost in the story.  I don't try to analyze everything.  I don't care if the science is ridiculous or grossly inaccurate.  I'm willing to grant all of that without much thought.

It's not the inaccuracy or the scientific absurdity that bothers me.  Some of it is just. plain. goofy.  The chapter when Miro and Valentine first conversed felt like I was sitting in a philosophy class with a bunch of stoned hippies.  It hurt me.

That's really my only complaint, though.  I'm still enjoying the books.

Thanks for the recommendation.  I'll probably try to finish up the series, though.  The silly crap doesn't ruin the book for me, but it certainly makes it a little less enjoyable.

[Sidoh]

P.S., thanks for the recommendations, everyone.

I looked into that first series you recommended, rabbit.  Sounds like my kind of book.  Amazon doesn't have a kindle edition, though.  Very sad.  Maybe I can find somewhere else to get an ebook from.

I'm also considering the following books.  They seem like the kinds of things I should read:

1. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (already got a copy of this)
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip Dick

Any other recommendations along these lines?

[deadly7]

Trust me, I'm the type of person that usually gets lost in the story.  I don't try to analyze everything.  I don't care if the science is ridiculous or grossly inaccurate.  I'm willing to grant all of that without much thought.

It's not the inaccuracy or the scientific absurdity that bothers me.  Some of it is just. plain. goofy.  The chapter when Miro and Valentine first conversed felt like I was sitting in a philosophy class with a bunch of stoned hippies.  It hurt me.

Ah. It's usually a fault I have. It's very easy to go "Wtf is up with this?" and then pull yourself out of a book.

That's really my only complaint, though.  I'm still enjoying the books.

Thanks for the recommendation.  I'll probably try to finish up the series, though.  The silly crap doesn't ruin the book for me, but it certainly makes it a little less enjoyable.

Ah. Yeah, just be ready for super weird shit to happen throughout the end.

P.S., thanks for the recommendations, everyone.

I looked into that first series you recommended, rabbit.  Sounds like my kind of book.  Amazon doesn't have a kindle edition, though.  Very sad.  Maybe I can find somewhere else to get an ebook from.

I'm also considering the following books.  They seem like the kinds of things I should read:

1. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand (already got a copy of this)
2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Phillip Dick

Any other recommendations along these lines?

Atlas Shrugged is a really long read if you haven't experienced Rand's particular style of writing. For a less pronounced philosophical Rand novel, I always recommended "The Fountainhead".

I'm trying to power through War and Peace. Books in which little happens early on are just death.

[Sidoh]

I think I'm gonna read Atlas Shrugged, but I'll probably read The Fountainhead too.

[dark_drake]

I think I'm gonna read Atlas Shrugged, but I'll probably read The Fountainhead too.

Good choice. I enjoyed both of those, but Atlas Shrugged about lost me with the three hour speech at the end.

I've been reading through the Dune series. I can easily recommend the first two (Dune and Dune Messiah). The next two, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune, aren't nearly as good. Frank Herbert struggled telling a story in which one of the characters was omniscient, and it showed. The stories plodded along with little to nothing happening. After this lull, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune bring the books back to deep and complex storylines and characters. They do drag out at parts, but these two rank up there with Dune Messiah.

[Sidoh]

I did like Dune!  I think someone told me the sequels get progressively worse, but it's nice to hear they recover.  I'll grab those too.

[Rule]

I'm curious about the book "Letters to a Young Contrarian" (Christopher Hitchens), but I am not sure what to expect.

[Ender]

I did like Dune!  I think someone told me the sequels get progressively worse, but it's nice to hear they recover.  I'll grab those too.

Hm, since your into Sci-Fi, you might want to look into Asimov's Foundation series. I haven't read it, but I hear it's very good. Also, Brave New World by Huxley, though I haven't read that either.

Oh, and have you read His Dark Materials? If not you should definitely get on that.

I think I'm gonna read Atlas Shrugged, but I'll probably read The Fountainhead too.

Good choice. I enjoyed both of those, but Atlas Shrugged about lost me with the three hour speech at the end.

I've been reading through the Dune series. I can easily recommend the first two (Dune and Dune Messiah). The next two, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune, aren't nearly as good. Frank Herbert struggled telling a story in which one of the characters was omniscient, and it showed. The stories plodded along with little to nothing happening. After this lull, Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune bring the books back to deep and complex storylines and characters. They do drag out at parts, but these two rank up there with Dune Messiah.

That's interesting. I read the first three or four Dune books, but I think they may have started to wane on me. Good to know that it picks up again.

[Armin]

I'm curious about the book "Letters to a Young Contrarian" (Christopher Hitchens), but I am not sure what to expect.

you should read Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse sometime. the main character often reminded me of you as I read it.

[Sidoh]

Hm, since your into Sci-Fi, you might want to look into Asimov's Foundation series. I haven't read it, but I hear it's very good. Also, Brave New World by Huxley, though I haven't read that either.

Oh, and have you read His Dark Materials? If not you should definitely get on that.

Thanks for the recommendations!  I like scifi, but I'm not particular to any kind of writing.

Yep, I've read the whole trilogy in middle school, and reread it a couple of years ago.  They're very good books!

[iago]

I'd be remiss if I didn't recommend Terry Pratchett

Strata and Good Omens are both short/easyish reads, but really good and completely standalone.

[rabbit]

I'd be remiss to not suggest The StarCraft Bible.