Reading!

[JimJamBonds]

I finished last night the new Harry Turtledove book "Drive to the East" another great alternate history novel. Sadly my reading 'list' has been mighty thin I just can't get into books this summer, although I do have my eye on a biography on Hank Greenberg.

 

[mastermatt24]

I stopped The Joiner King half way through to read Huck Finn for school.. I be done with that on Thursday, and I still have to read Ethan Frome..

 

[Rocketboy]

I recently finishd Sarah Vowel's Take the Canoli, more of her short essays and pieces from NPR in print. Pretty good and less political that the other one of hers I was reading.

 

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Well, all the lines in airports are great for reading, so after a brief vacation, I have 4 more to add to the list...

Last of the Jedi #2: Dark Warning Jude Watson (not as good as the really good #1)
Because Writing Matters Carl Nagin (a teacher training book)
Columbus in the Americas William Least-Heat Moon (a concise look at the "discoverer" of the New World
Weird Tales From Shakespeare Katharine Kerr & Martin Greenberg (an anthology of Shakespeare plays in new contexts and settings; pretty cool)

So that's 29 books, around 7000 pages. More?

 

[Rocketboy]

Last of the Jedi #2: Dark Warning Jude Watson (not as good as the really good #1)

Is that out already?
The first one was a fairly entertaining read, but from the description I read about #3, it sounds like the series won't be about Obi-Wan, but will follow the new former Jedi introduced in #1, which will probably stop me from buying them.

 

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Is that out already?
The first one was a fairly entertaining read, but from the description I read about #3, it sounds like the series won't be about Obi-Wan, but will follow the new former Jedi introduced in #1, which will probably stop me from buying them.

It was released in late July. The story (without giving away any spoilers) has Obi-Wan having to decide if he'll do things around the galaxy or stay on Tatooine to protect Luke, but there are some Jedi who weren't killed in the Order #66 purge, so the series could revolve around them, I guess. The parts I'm interested in are when Qui-Gon's voice is heard (some are flashbacks, but others are current conversations between he as a ghost and Obi-Wan).

 

[Rocketboy]

July, huh? Wow, I thought it was slated for September. I didn't see the first one until August (after the initial April oops release).
I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

 

[El Chuxter]

I get the impression the release dates for these LOTJ books are just suggestions. Book I came out early in some areas, too.

 

[InsaneJediGirl]

I thought LOTJ #2 was going to come out in September too. Wow,I'm behind lol

I just finished reading Esperanza Rising.Its more of a "young adult" book but excellent historical fiction of migrant workers in the Great Depression.Sad book in all really,but has a great message at the end to never give up.

 

[Ji'dai]

As young Dawn with finger tips of rose touched the world yesterday I finished reading Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. The translation, by Robert Fitzgerald, was a traditional one, keeping to the original verse and form (or as is possible in English). The translator used archaic spellings for people and places (Akhilleus/Achilles, Ilion/Troy, Aias/Ajax, Kyklops/Cyclops) but I got used to it.

I had forgotten that the The Iliad, a chronicle of the Trojan War, takes place in the tenth and final year of the siege and ends with the death of Hektor. The Trojan Horse, the fall of the city, and the fates of the other famous Greek fighters, are mentioned in The Odyssey.

I started on a collection of plays by Sophocles last night: Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. I also grabbed a copy of Fitzgerald's translation of Virgil's The Aeneid at the library too.

 

[Rocketboy]

I had forgotten that the The Iliad, a chronicle of the Trojan War, takes place in the tenth and final year of the siege and ends with the death of Hektor. The Trojan Horse, the fall of the city, and the fates of the other famous Greek fighters, are mentioned in The Odyssey.

Aw jeez, that for the flippin' spoiler warning!



I haven't had a whole lot of time to read as oflate, but on my breaks at work, I struggling...errr...working through The Approaching Storm. I think I'm on the last chapter (thank the maker).

 

[Rocketboy]

Finished "The Approaching Storm" a few days after the last post.
Boy did that ever suck.
Reminded me why 95% of EU sucks.

Finished "Jurassic Park" the other day. Great book. Better than the movie, which I re-watched after finishing the book, and it wasn't as bad as I remembered. And te kids were just as annoying in the book as they were in the movie.

Now reading "December 6" by Martin Cruz Smith. Only 35-40 pages in, but so far so good.

 

[El Chuxter]

I'm in the middle of Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. Like every other book by him I've read, it's a great read, but to try to explain it would pretty much entail quoting the entire novel.

 

[Daz]

My favourite books by genre:

Sci-Fi:

The Mars trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson

Altered Carbon/Broken Angels/Woken Furies - Richard Morgan

Voyage - Stephen Baxter

Heir to the Empire/Dark Forces Rising/The Last Command - Timothy Zahn


Political:

No Safe Place/Protect and Defend/Balance of Power - Richard North Patterson


Historical:

Gates of Fire/Tides of War/Alexander - Steven Pressfield

Gates of Rome/Death of Kings/Field of Swords - Conn Iggulden

Pride of Carthage: A novel of Hannibal - David Anthony Durham

Eagle in the Snow - Wallace Breem

Mystery/thriller:

Anything be Micheal Connelly or Jeffery Deaver


Legal :

Anything by Richard North Patterson

Graphic Novels:

Preacher - Garth Ennis

Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Hellblazer -various

Least favourite author and novel :

Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code
I f**king hate that novel its everywhere, whenever I use the train it's gauranteed there'll be at least fifteen people reading it in my carraige alone all hunched over their seats devouring it like pod people . Wake up people the Da Vinci Code is the biggest load of over hyped Sh*te ever to be published in 2000 years.

 

[El Chuxter]

Least favourite author and novel :

Dan Brown - Da Vinci Code
I f**king hate that novel its everywhere, whenever I use the train it's gauranteed there'll be at least fifteen people reading it in my carraige alone all hunched over their seats devouring it like pod people . Wake up people the Da Vinci Code is the biggest load of over hyped Sh*te ever to be published in 2000 years.

Why don't you tell us how you really feel?

I'm actually with you on this one. I tried reading it to see what the big deal was, and it was so poorly written, I couldn't get through the first twenty pages. The supposedly shocking theories he put forth have been around for centuries.

I'd rather watch Jurassic Park III again than finish that piece of tripe.

 

[Ji'dai]

I really liked The Da Vinci Code. Though it wasn't the first exposure I've had to that interpretation of the Grail legend, I still thought it was interesting. I'm not looking forward to the film version though.

 

[Daz]

El Chuxter I'm actually with you on this one.

Thank god I'm not alone

El Chuxter I tried reading it to see what the big deal was, and it was so poorly written.

Gullible Sh*te that I am I went out and bought both this and his other one Angel & Demons based on the hype(more money then sense me). Imagine my dismay when I discover it's written by a complete hack probably with the use of a writing by the numbers self help manual.

El Chuxter I couldn't get through the first twenty pages. The supposedly shocking theories he put forth have been around for centuries.

Given that I had already spent my hard earned cash (ok maybe hard would be pushing it) I some how pushed on past page twenty past the cliched character introduction and onto the transparent made for movie cat and mouse set piece set In the Louvre .Now quite how the cat never caught the mouse I'll never know seen as they seemed to stop every five minutes to study a painting and have the professor lecture his lady friend and the reader for about thirty pages at a time. Such was the length of these lecture's that I was nearly half way through the book and they still hadn't left the bloody Louvre. It was at this point that I just said money be damned I've wasted enough time on this tripe and threw it away, if I wanted lecture's I'd be in college.

 

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I guess I'll have to step in the voice of reason p kidding). The DaVinci Code was one of the best reads I've had in a while. I was not "shocked" by the theories, but the pacing was excellent. Were there some extended passages of extreme details? Yes. But the chapters weren't any longer than, what, 5 or 6 pages? That's concise writing; so what if that's semi-scripted. I don't know if I truly felt a closeness to the characters, by plot-wise and structurally, it was a great book, IMHO.

 

[Bobby Fett]

I just finished The Battle of Corrin by Herbert and Anderson. I've always liked the Dune series.

Right now, I'm half way through Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War by Robert Massie. If you like history, I recommend this one highly, but be forewarned: there is a second volume - Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea. About 1700 pages total.

I don't have anything on the agenda after that. Yet.

 

[Ji'dai]

I was burned out on epic poetry after finishing the books and plays mentioned in my last post (The Iliad, The Odyssey, Virgil's The Aeneid, Sophocles' plays Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus).

Around Thanksgiving I flew through all six Harry Potter books in a whirlwind two week period and had pretty good time doing that. Rowling must place some enchantment on her books because I simply could not put them down. I can't wait for the last volume now.

I read the epic Beowulf around Christmas time in an interesting bilingual translation by Irish poet Seamus Heaney. The modern English translation of the poem is presented side by side with the original Old English manuscript. It's amazing how much the English language has evolved in a thousand years. I recognized a few words in the OE script still in use in modern English and German, but most of the words were alien to me.

I most recently finished Dante's The Divine Comedy, which details the author's guided tour through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

Needing something a little lighter, I picked up Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn at the library last week.