OT--read any good books lately?

[A.Rex]

The subject line says it all. Any book lovers out there? I'm a TV-hater and a big reader. Right now I'm halfway through "Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville. Very different from anything in recent memory, it's kind of literary steampunk--a very fun and interesting read. Anybody else?



REX

[Zrexxer]

I recently finished the entire "Rogue Warrior" series, only to find out that ol' Demo Dick has written a couple more! Hooray! OK, OK, it's testosterone laden crap, but it's where I learned about Spydercos and Emersons <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

I'm maybe 1/10th of the way into Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six" right now...

Dan

I got these lines in my face from trying to straighten out the wrinkles in my life

[fredswartz]

I've been a reading freak all my life. When I was on board a destroyer, reading was about the only entertainment. Met my fiance (who has a Masters in Library Science) at the library. Read everything on the spectrum from Nero Wolfe to Plato. Mostly fiction at this point.

[vampyrewolf]

lets see, the last month's readings...

asimov: "time, space, and other things"
Salvatoire: demon awakens, dark elf trilogy, mortalis
bible: genesis, revelations

My Word, My Honour, is my Life.

[Sword and Shield]

Let's see.

Just finished re-reading the LOTR trilogy, a couple oddball Clancys, the US Army survival manual for laughs, and two of the Worst Case Scenario series. WCS is fun, especially for some of the odd stuff they come up with. Anyone here been attacked by a croc? Still, you never know.

Good pick on the 6, Zrexxer. It's a good one, and I'm biting my fingertips rather hard so as to not spoil the ending.

Never underestimate the impossible.

[java]

After melding with a dictionary to read Umberto Eco’s <i>Foucault’s Pendulum </i> I decided to stick with easier read fiction.

Just finished up reading James Rollins’ Amazonia, Subterranean, Excavation, and Deep Fathom and now moving on (back to) Tolkiens’ LOTR.

Having read all of Thomas Harris books, to really know the heart beneath the darkness, I would recommend reading Boston Teran’s God is a Bullet or Shane Stevens, By Reason of Insanity . Think Manson family, fun with murder and mayhem, harsh language and violence for God Is a Bullet , Teran’s award winning first novel. With By Reason of Insanity , written 10 years before Silence of the Lambs , Stevens’ Thomas Bishop was the archetype for serial killers to come, including Hannibal Lecter.




Edited by - java on 12/20/2002 9:47:01 PM

[Al]

Well no fancy intellectual title here, just a real life account by Chuck Carlock - "Firebirds" A helicopter Gunship Pilot's account of his experience in Vietnam.

Java ~ Have you seen LOTR2, I saw it on Thursday, What a film!, the battle scenes just blew me away, I hardly noticed the 3 hours pass.

Edited by - Al on 12/21/2002 3:31:54 AM

[Big-Target]

Dumpster Diving:The Advanced Course,by John Hoffman.

The sequel to the famous underground enconomy cult classic,"The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving"

FYI,rumor mill, the <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> matriarch,civilian, harpy,&merlin models are popular with dumpster divers

BIG-TARGET>>>>>" If I survived an old lady *** kicking, I'd be bragging about it"--Tula(My Big Fat Greek Wedding)

[transistor]

"Shogun", "Tai-Pan", "Gai-Jin", "King Rat", and now I'm working on "Noble House". Clavell's Asian saga is a long, but gripping read. Like Michener, he wraps a great fictional yarn around a loose version of history so you actually learn something while being entertained. It even includes some good knife and sword play!

I'm also on page 211 of "Rainbow Six", and am working on my fourth go through of "The Hobbit"/LOTR (I'm half way into "Fellowship" right now). Recently did the Harry Potter books too. Highly recommended! Reading RULZ!

Edited by - transistor on 12/21/2002 9:04:27 AM

[dialex]

Hello, library rats, so very thrilled to meet you! <img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>
Transistor, you could also check Eric Van Lustbader. I enjoyed him more than Clavell. Actually, I am currently re-reading his "Ninja" trilogy.
I just finished re-reading Frank Herbert's "Dune" (the whole series), also one of my very favorites. Stays on the same place with "Picknick Near the Road" by Strugatsky brothers. For many years, I lived with that terribly wrong impression that russians don't write quality SF.
And I like Tom Clancy too. And many, many more <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>
But above all, the most instructive and interesting book I read so far is the Bible (not trying to be scholastic, just my 5c oppinion).
<marquee loop=infinite ><a href="http://users.pcnet.ro/dialex"><font color=blue>(my webpage)</font></a></marquee>

[yog]

When I'm not being a Knife Knutt, I'm quite often found being a Book Worm.

I read every night, and with the collection I have I quite often read a series of books at a time, the Dune saga, the books by Iain M. Banks, the Clancy books.
Because I have to read so much at work, my taste in casual reading is the same as my taste in films, i.e. escapeisum.

A couple recommendations I would like to make are the Sci-Fi books by Iain M. Banks (not to be confussed by the Iain Banks (same auther - different genre)), quite dark stories with pleanty of anti-heros.
The other recommendation is the Gunslinger series by Stephen King. Totally unlike any of his other work (with the possible exception of the Stand), a mix of wild west and modern day characters set in what is possibly a post apocalipse scenario (don't worry, it's much better than I described <img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

I'm currently reading the Silmarilian by Tolkien in preparation for seeing the Two Towers. **** this is a hard slog of a book, reading all three books of Lord Of The Rings in one sitting would be easier, but it does have some rather good sub-stories near the end.

Walk softly, carry a big stick.

[spidernoiree]

I just started Dissolution: War of the Spider Queen book 1.

Jeff <img src="spyder.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

[vampyrewolf]

DiAlex> if you want a good read, find some of Isaac Asimov's work. Russian, moved to USA shortly around WW2, did most of his good work in the 50s.

writes both science fact amd fiction.

My Word, My Honour, is my Life.

[delicrazy]

ive read asimov's I robot a few times. ive started rainbow six but never got around to finishing it. im at that horrible point where i remember enough to not wanna read that part again but not enough to keep going. dont you hate that?

[AllenETreat]

I've been plodding through Thomas

Harris' "Hannibal" ( the movie

adaptation ALWAYS ruins the letters<img src="sad.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>).

Also the Holy Gospel, My Webster's &

BLADE magazine, Spydie catalog(s)<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>,

and ANYTHING of whatever knowledge it

should hope to "impart"<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>




-AET<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>


Also "King Rat" by James Clavell might be

worth a "revisit" <img src="tongue.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

Edited by - AllenETreat on 12/21/2002 6:08:38 PM

[java]

Dialex,

Van Lustbader = cool reads!!! By trilogy, is that the 5 book Sunset Warrior Trilogy or the Nicholas Linnear series, now at 6 books, that started with <i>The Ninja</i>? Lustbader and Frank Herbert (The Dune "Trilogy&quot<img src="wink.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0> thankfully can't count and just keep em coming. Check out Trevanian’s <i>Shibumi</i> Good recommendation from VW> I believe Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy stands at 7 books. Asimov also wrote 5 –6 books as guides discussing the Bible. One of the greatest SF writers ever!

Al,

The Two Towers. Family outing over the Holidays! Looking forward to it!!!


<b><font color="blue">"A hole-less knife is a soul-less knife is a whole less knife" <i>-Javanese proverb</i></font></b>

[A.Rex]

Good taste everyone! I usually have at least two or three books going at once (for entertainment, aside from my Bible reading).

Just finished Kafka's complete short stories, still working on Don Quixote (started in Spanish, but gave up and pulled out the English copy), finished Choke, the new book by Chuck Palaniuk (the author of Fight Club and Survivor, two of my favorites of recent fiction), and also just finished the Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers (pretty decent alternate history sci-fi).

Next in line are Umberto Eco's the Name of the Rose, and Plato's Republic.

My all-time favorite author would have to be Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karmazov, Crime and Punishment, the Idiot--everything he wrote was genius. Moby Dick, another favorite. I've read Tolkien's stuff a few times, but his work is kind of like modern Shakesphere to me--I appreciate it and enjoy many aspects of it, but the actual reading is pretty dry and uninteresting. James Ellroy and Chuck Palaniuk are my favorite living authors.

High-quality, intellegent sci-fi is hard to come by, but Dune has been my favorite series since I was young, and my copies are about falling apart I've read and re-read them so often. Those of you who mentioned Dune had ought to check out Frank Herbert's other works--anything but the hackeyed prequel nonsense his son is churning out. Philip K. Dick has been another long time favorite. He wrote some brilliant and mind-bending stuff. Hollywood owes him a debt of gratitude--they've been mining his ideas for the last 25 years (speaking of which, I just saw Minority Report, based on one of his short stories--great story, awful movie--do yourself a favor and read the book instead).

REX

[sven]

saw two towers opening night... the 12 am showing... spent the entire movie going"wow!" awesome cimenatography...

sven

"trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."proverbs 3:5-6

[sam the man..]

going through Chris Ryan's "The One Who Got Away".

Sam

have scars will travel..

[transistor]

"Dune" and its sequels are terrific! Dialex, I'll put Lustbader on my short list. There's a lot of readers here! And it seems we have surprisingly similar taste in books. Hmmm?!! Wonder what Freud would make of that?