What are you reading? The book thread.

[]2eDeYe]

All the book talk in the gun thread got me thinking we need a book thread. Soooo

 

 

What book are you currently reading?

 

What is you favorite book or author?

 

 

 

I just finished the last Wheel of Time book, #14 in the series. I've read through the entire series a number of times and listen to the audio books quite a bit. Listening to the audiobook for that last one currently during my commute.

 

 

I'm currently reading The Fourth of July: And the Founding of America. It's a pretty good history of all the little things that got blended together or distorted throughout history about the founding and the celebration of the 4th of July.

 

 

 

My favorite author is probably Isaac Asimov and I've been reading a few Heinlein books lately. Love Sci-fi and Historical stuff. I've taken a liking to audiobooks as the let me 'read' on the way to work.

[Eagle_Adam]

john Gresham! 

 

im reading the pelican brief again 

[K_trip]

- removed -
 

[Rocket Dog]

I finished the first 8 books of the Wool and Silo series by Hugh Howey - waiting for the final wrap up in volume 9.  Also reading The Remaining by D J Molles, yet another "zombie apocolypse variation.

[captaingamez]

been chugging through Bukowski's Post Office, totally awesome book.

 

Not sure on favorite author, I read A whole lot of Bukowski but I am not sure he is my favorite author. I read a lot of Sci Fi stuff. and Mike said in the previous thread hes an Arthur C. Clarke fan but not so much Phillip K Dick.

 

I love Clarke, hes amazing, but for Science Fiction I think that Phillip K. Dick is my favorite. He just has a way of getting inside you, its wierd.

[Z-train]

Just finished Gregg Allman's book & Tony Iommi's.Just Got Ozzy's from Amazon.

[datzenmike]

I grew up with Azimov, Heinlein, Clark, Bradbury, John W Campbell, James Blish, Poul Anderson, Herbert, Burroughs, Philip K Dick.....

 

Clark, Niven and Philip K Dick are my favorites. Lately Steven Baxter and John Barnes.

 

Clark once said " Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That said I find that in the last 30 odd years a lack of good Si-Fi out there. Slowly the shelves have been over flowing and crowding out the Si-Fi section with Sword and Sorcery or Fantasy novels. What's left in the Si-Fi section is 50% Star Wars and Star Trek crap. A shame as most of what we have now is based on good Si-Fi of the past.

 

Now this could be the fault of the publishing houses, the stores or the people that buy this .... stuff. Maybe Si-Fi is falling out of vogue. What a delight to accidentally come across a gem these days.

 

I read a lot of Sci Fi stuff. and Mike said in the previous thread hes an Arthur C. Clarke fan but not so much Phillip K Dick.

 

I love Clarke, hes amazing, but for Science Fiction I think that Phillip K. Dick is my favorite. He just has a way of getting inside you, its wierd.

 

No no no, I never meant to imply I didn't like Philip K Dick. Ubik, Eye in the Sky, The Man In The High Castle.... some of the best mind fuck stories written.

[OkieRA29]

Phillip K. Dick is my favorite. He just has a way of getting inside you, its wierd.

 

 

so you like dick inside you?... wanna go camping?...

[datzenmike]

There is a Philip K Dick fan club called appropriately.... The Dick Heads

[Tristin]

I read mostly fiction in a variety of genres... I was grounded a lot as a kid for poor grades so reading was basically all I could do. Ive read a ton of books. Currently on a fantasy kick and finished the Sword of Truth series for the second time a couple weeks ago. I just picked up The Warded Man a week ago, but havent read much of it yet. 

 

Some of my favorite series' would be:

 

The Sword of Truth

Redwall Abbey

Runelords

 

Favorite authors:

 

Isaac Asimov

Terry Goodkind

Chuck Palahniuk

Ray Bradbury (I have a signed copy for F451 in storage. He did a reading at a B&N when I was in 9th grade)

[q-tip]

Tristin. You forgot the Twilight series in your list of favorites.....

[datzenmike]

I get it.  Twilight is to books what a Miata is to cars.

 

It's OK I read all the Jean Auel and Ann Rice shit too. Well not all the Ann Rice it was old wine in new bottles.

[Tristin]

Tristin. You forgot the Twilight series in your list of favorites.....

 

Never read any of that... Never read Harry Potter either (I liked the movies though). 

[OkieRA29]

Lets see, right now I am slogging through 'Threat Vector' by Tom Clancy.  Finished 'The Wheel of Time' series... side note to Authors, If you are going to write a 5 book series, make it 5 books, don't stretch it to 14 and then die in the middle of writting book 12...  Reading 'Game of Thrones' as I can't wait a year between seasons.  Good show though, loved seeing the reactions to the 'red wedding' scene.  Other authors

Clive Cussler

Ann Rice, old stuff, not any of the new either

Robert Ludlum  I still go back and re-read his stuff

Got the So-cal Speedshop coffee table book I am reading and the Edlebrock one as well.

 

Read a lot of Terry Goodkind when I was growing up, haven't read much in years.

Orson Scott Card, but lets be honest, he peaked with Ender's Game

 

Yeah, I read the Harry Potter series.  Very good books and the movies were done well too.

 

Also reading 'The Secrets of Speed' and the other book that goes with it.

 

One more, Kareem Abdul-jabar's history of the 761st Tank Squadron in WWII

[Jesse C.]

Currently Reading "Masters of the Air : America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Agains Nazi Germany" By Don Miller. Great book for those into Airplanes and history.

 

I also just read Kareem's book about the 761st Tank Group

 

Last car book was "Mickey Thompson, The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend"

[decoy12]

Currently Reading:

 

       SERVICE MANUAL

               MODEL

       L20A, L24 SERIES

              ENGINES

                 1972

(By) Nissan Motor Co., LTD.

           Tokyo, Japan

 

:rofl:

[datzenmike]

 

Clive Cussler

 

Robert Ludlum  I still go back and re-read his stuff

Orson Scott Card, but lets be honest, he peaked with Ender's Game

 

.

Clive Cussler peaked long ago when he started letting others write for him. Read a half dozen Brian Herbert's Dune prequel shit. Thought it would get better but never got close to his dad's ability felt jerked around.

 

Read Ender's Game never felt the urge to pick up the next.

[Camtron]

Clark once said " Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That said I find that in the last 30 odd years a lack of good Si-Fi out there. Slowly the shelves have been over flowing and crowding out the Si-Fi section with Sword and Sorcery or Fantasy novels. What's left in the Si-Fi section is 50% Star Wars and Star Trek crap. A shame as most of what we have now is based on good Si-Fi of the past.

 

Now this could be the fault of the publishing houses, the stores or the people that buy this .... stuff. Maybe Si-Fi is falling out of vogue. What a delight to accidentally come across a gem

It seems like there's less and less "pure" sci-fi, but it's leaking over into other genres and leaving a sci-fi tinge in the mainstream. I could probably think of more examples, but "The Time Traveller's Wife" comes to mind (and I admittedly have never read or watched it) and is considered a romance even though time travel is a major part of the plot.

 

The Red Planet by Heinlein was my favorite book as a kid, and I read a lot of Clark as

A teen, but I think my favorite book for the last (almost) decade is Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. I also loved the Harry Potter series, anything by David Sedaris, and a lot of books about mental illness. Lol. "Is There No Place on Earth For Me?" By Susan Sheehan is fucking amazing. She followed a single schizophrenic patient in and out of New York's mental health system for a few years during the 70s, before breakthroughs like Prozac came along and helped empty out the institutions. I'd reccomend that one to anyone.

Lately though I mostly read comic books. I have GVHD in my eyes which makes them dry and scratchy, so reading for long sessions is difficult, and I can finish an issue of a comic in the shitter.

[MikeRL411]

Ray Bradbury is one of my favorites.  He of course does recycle many of his "lesser" works into follow on epics.  Example, when I was [very] much younger I would listen to a radio [you known TV without the pictures] program on Sunday nights calles "2000 plus".  One very good program was "Is Mars Heaven?" which turned out in slightly altered version as a chapter in "The Martian Cronicles" [the book is very much better than the TV adaptation].  Let's hear it for Books!

 

He did have a very warped skew on space exploration, running down military misile developments while praising NASA accomplishments in his public appearances.  Naturally he skimmed over the fact that except for Werner VonBraun's super V2 Saturn rocket, all NASA sucesses were on man rated military developed launchers [dare we say missiles?].  The Jupiter C, Atlas, Titan IIM, Titan IIIM were ICBMs [except for the Jupiter, a theater BM, no pun intended], while the "Peaceful" Vangard was an unmitigated piece of S**it.  After the first Vangard failure Werner reached into his goody bag, mounted the payload he had waited on while the "peaceful" crap ran its course and launched the Discover in a few months on a Jupiter  He may have been a Nazi bastard, but he was "our" bastard.  The few of his coworkers who defected or were captured by the Russians developed what is now the "Proton" series..

[Jdm720]

Damn.. Last book I went through was the 2010 Nismo Catalog  :confused:

 

I have a book on quantum gravity on my nightstand that I've been meaning to get to, though...

[darrel]

Tom Clancy the jack ryan series.

 

john grisham

 

Just downloaded A Higher Call.

[datzenmike]

Totally like reading A Clear And Present Danger and Hunt For Red October 3 or 4 times. But strangely not a Clancy fan.

[darrel]

I meant to post this as well.

 

Just because it is Jugmungus.

 

[Camtron]

Almost forgot about this little jewel ;)

 

[datsunaholic]

Currently reading A Feast for Crows.   I almost exclusively read Sci Fi and Fantasy, but I'll read other genres on occasion.  For instance, one of my favorite books is The Stand by Steven King, and I'm not a horror fan at all.  The Stand isn't really horror anyway, but I have read some of his horror works as well.

 

My favorite authors include Orson Scott Card, Terry Pratchett, Greg Bear, and Larry Niven (particularly the Larry Liven/Jerry Pournelle collaborations).  Favorite dead authors include Robert Heinlein and Douglas Adams.  I have extensive collections of Piers Anthony and Star Trek novels (though haven't really bought many of those in the last 10 years, mainly due to those being at a middle-school level of complexity).

 

I've read books totally off genre for lack of any other reading material.  When I was in the Middle East the last time (2001) I'd run out of books by the end of the deployment.  When we were packing out, some guys threw their books in the trash rather than lug them home.  I took a few out of the trash that hadn't gotten disgusting stuff on them, ended up reading Larry Beinhart's satirical conspiracy-theory novel American Hero (that book was the inspiration for the movie Wag the Dog) on the plane flight back, as well as starting another book but I don't recall what it was.  The irony of someone bringing American Hero to the Middle East, less than a month after 9/11, didn't hit me until later.