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What Are You Reading?

Phoenix Psaltery
Ninja Wizard
Join date: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,599
10-18-2005 18:31
From: Chip Midnight
I just finished Red Mars... It's an epic hard science fiction story about settling and terraforming Mars.


Can you do more than +/-4m?

:D

P2
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Phoenix Psaltery
Ninja Wizard
Join date: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,599
10-18-2005 18:33
I just finished rereading Stephen King's "Hearts In Atlantis."

Also, I am reading this thread on this forum.

P2
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Leilany LaFollette
Not old, just older
Join date: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 686
10-18-2005 19:31
From: Katja Marlowe
OMG, I saw the new Gabaldon book at B&N today while running in for coffee. And well...I only had 7 dollars with me *cries*. Is it good?


True to Gabaldon form, so far it's great... but I am a fan, I mean, I would marry Jamie Fraser if he were real :D Seriously, I love the time travel / historical mix, the characters are great and no matter how fat her books are, I always want more (I told ya I was a fan ;) )

Leilany :D
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Katja Marlowe
Registered User
Join date: 15 Apr 2005
Posts: 421
10-18-2005 19:35
From: Leilany LaFollette
True to Gabaldon form, so far it's great... but I am a fan, I mean, I would marry Jamie Fraser if he were real :D Seriously, I love the time travel / historical mix, the characters are great and no matter how fat her books are, I always want more (I told ya I was a fan ;) )

Leilany :D



I so seriously hear you on that. I think it's how real the relationship between Jamie and Claire is. Transcends your normal romantic type story and becomes realistic while still making you feel all romancey awww at it. I can reread her books and still laugh out loud at certain parts. She also is very meticulous about her historical detail, so if you like history, it's neat how she brings it alive through the modern eyes of Claire. It's much like how I view historical events etc when reading about them in non fiction books. If that made sense.
Essence Lumin
.
Join date: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 806
10-18-2005 19:36
I just started reading "The Bastard" as it translates by Violette Leduc. She was an illegimate child of a servant girl and was rather ugly. The book description says she tells of her search for her identity, particularly through love affairs, both men and women.

Sorry you asked? Anyway, off to read and see if I like this book.
Chance Abattoir
Future Rockin' Resmod
Join date: 3 Apr 2004
Posts: 3,898
10-18-2005 19:38
From: Fairge Kinsella

Chance, do please tell if Olympos actually ends - I was so cross to be left hanging by Hyperion. I won't start reading this series again until it ends <grin>.


The Hyperion series already ended: Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion --you can stop there as they are a whole (and quite good) story, or proceed on to the real sequel which is (are?): Endymion and Fall of Endymion.

Olympos is part of a different, unrelated series which is, so far, Ilium and then Olympos.

It seems to be his "thing" to divide up each story into two books. I imagine that a lot of it has to do with the logistics of printing and selling 1200 page books. The prewriting that must be involved in his books gives me nightmares. It's like thinking about The Watchmen on a much larger scale, although The Watchmen makes me piss my pants a little too.
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Alex Lumiere
Registered User
Join date: 1 Jun 2004
Posts: 228
10-18-2005 20:41
"Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell" by Susanna Clarke
Fairge Kinsella
Gravity isn't so serious!
Join date: 23 Oct 2004
Posts: 158
10-18-2005 21:56
Thanks a million, Chance! I thought it was all one series - I'll get onto H of H, E, and Fof E, er, ASAP! :D
And I will not start Ilium until someone tells me that I can read the end of the story without waiting....
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Euterpe Roo
The millionth monkey
Join date: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 1,395
10-18-2005 22:04
From: Rose Karuna
"The Secret Life of Bee's" by Sue Monk Kidd

I'm about 3/4 of the way through and that's saying a lot lately as I'm on some anti-seizure medication that has really screwed with my ability to focus so it has to be a pretty darn good book to hold it for that long.

Awesome characters with a good solid story.


Ooooh. I got that for my mom--she lives in South Cackalacky. Yay! I am glad that you are enjoying it! :D
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Chip Midnight
ate my baby!
Join date: 1 May 2003
Posts: 10,231
10-18-2005 22:14
From: Taco Rubio
RGB Mars is an excellent series, Chip!


I'll probably read the other two. I found it slow going to get through Red, though. I both love and hate that the characters are so complex in their motivations and flaws. It's hard to like any of them very much. I love the granduer of the scope. Does it ever get more hopeful or is a cautionary tale all the way through?
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Cid Jacobs
Theoretical Meteorologist
Join date: 18 Jul 2004
Posts: 4,304
10-18-2005 22:20
I read a random book every few days, but i cycle out "Catcher and the Rye" and "Fight Club" every other day.
Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.
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Garnet Psaltery
Walking on the Moon
Join date: 12 Apr 2005
Posts: 913
10-19-2005 03:04
I'm ashamed to say it's at least two months since I read anything much. I do read the Radio Times but as for books .. well this thread prompted me to look at my bookshelves and I see I had begun to read 'The Battle of Corrin' by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson, and John le Carre's 'Absolute Friends'. When I get round to it I want to re-read Jane Jensen's 'Dante's Equation', which gave me a refreshing new look at good and evil and alternative universes.
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DogSpot Boxer
vortex thruster
Join date: 23 Aug 2005
Posts: 671
10-19-2005 05:34
I have a fairly long commute to work, so I listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car. I just finished The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Unabridged (of course).

It was excellent.

I'm getting ready to start Enders Game.
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Hiro Queso
503less
Join date: 23 Feb 2005
Posts: 2,753
10-19-2005 05:42
Read "Celestine Prophecy" by James Redfield the other day, after a recommendation. Tho I felt it was badly written, he described the interactions between different character types in an interesting symbolic way. Worth a read? hmmm not sure.
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Vixen Valkyrie
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jan 2004
Posts: 123
10-19-2005 05:42
The Shift by George Foy....all about a serial killer in a virtual reality version of old New York (same time period as Gangs of New York) It's a terrific read.
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Ghoti Nyak
καλλιστι
Join date: 7 Aug 2004
Posts: 2,078
10-19-2005 05:51
I'm reading:

The Way Of The Drum
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking
and re-reading:The Self-Aware Universe.

-Ghoti
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Leilany LaFollette
Not old, just older
Join date: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 686
10-19-2005 07:00
From: Katja Marlowe
She also is very meticulous about her historical detail, so if you like history, it's neat how she brings it alive through the modern eyes of Claire. It's much like how I view historical events etc when reading about them in non fiction books. If that made sense.


Yes, it's my favorite part! That view of history / historical events / time periods through the eyes of a specific character is my favorite thing to read.

I read *Angela's Ashes* a few weeks ago and I think it's the saddest story I've ever read since *Prozac Nation*. They both made me think about how wretched humans can be, but AA leaves you with a feeling of hope and that not all is lost.

Leilany


:D
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Taco Rubio
also quite creepy
Join date: 15 Feb 2004
Posts: 3,349
10-19-2005 07:11
From: Chip Midnight
I'll probably read the other two. I found it slow going to get through Red, though. I both love and hate that the characters are so complex in their motivations and flaws. It's hard to like any of them very much. I love the granduer of the scope. Does it ever get more hopeful or is a cautionary tale all the way through?


i think i read it last century and i will tell you honestly, i had to wade through it as the characters were very hollow and unappealing to me. i remember at this point none of the characters, and almost all of the near-tech :)
Marcos Fonzarelli
You are not Marcos
Join date: 26 Feb 2004
Posts: 748
10-19-2005 07:20
I just finished "Thud!" by Terry Pratchett.

:D
Pol Tabla
synthpop saint
Join date: 18 Dec 2003
Posts: 1,041
10-19-2005 07:30
The Information by Martin Amis
Zebulon Starseeker
Hujambo!
Join date: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 203
10-19-2005 08:35
From: Chip Midnight
I just finished Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was a bit tough to slog through but worth the effort. It's an epic hard science fiction story about settling and terraforming Mars.

I just started The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's a pop sci reformulation of evolutionary theory focusing on the gene as the engine of natural selection rather than whole organisms. I've wanted to read some Dawkins for a long time. When I saw a review at Amazon for this one in which someone wished they could unread it because it made it impossible for them to sustain relgious superstition afterwards I thought this would be a good place to start!



Cool, I had recently picked up both of these within the last year - and finished neither. However I pretty much got the gist of Dawkins' book and I heartily encourage anyone to give it a shot. It really helped to change my view of life and evolution.
Right now I'm tackling 'Jews, God and History' by Dimont - which has done about the same for Christanity that Dawkins did for me with evolution, but kinda in reverse. =\
Thea Donovan
talentless hack
Join date: 20 May 2004
Posts: 67
10-19-2005 08:46
Neuromancer by William Gibson. Next up is Automated Alice by Jeff Noon.
Gabe Lippmann
"Phone's ringing, Dude."
Join date: 14 Jun 2004
Posts: 4,219
10-19-2005 08:51
From: Thea Donovan
Neuromancer by William Gibson.


Somehow I just never got around to this. :mad:
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Trinity Serpentine
Schwan's Avitar Reject
Join date: 1 Oct 2003
Posts: 2,972
10-19-2005 08:53
I just started reading Anne Rice - Blackwood Farm
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Ananda Sandgrain
+0-
Join date: 16 May 2003
Posts: 1,951
10-19-2005 09:01
I am sadly without any new liturature to peruse, so I'm re-reading Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

Before that I finished with the newer Enderverse books from Orson Scott Card. They were interesting, but didn't hold a candle to the mindblowing tale in the original Ender's Game.
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