what are you reading?

[sponge]

Just finished Screen burn, by Charlie Brooker. Now I'm reading Mixing with your Mind, by Michael Stavrou. The best book on audio engineering I've ever read.

[IronGiant]

I've been going through a bit of an 'Apple Period' - over the past few weeks have read Andy Hertzfeld's book on the development of the Macintosh, then a book all about Apple (I forget the title), and have just finished 'iCon', a fascinating unauthorised 'biography' about Steve Jobs.

[toxibunny]

just finished the curious incident of the dog in the night-time which comes highly recommended by me. very refreshing.

[Foozwah]

Finally picked up 'The Big Over Easy' by Jasper Fforde, yesterday.

Having really enjoyed the Thursday Next books, my bellybutton is puckering and unpuckering with pleasurable anticipation for this one.

[the2bears]

The Wizard by Gene Wolfe... fantastic book by one of my favourite authors.

Bill

[Funkenstein]

Re-reading after many years The Living and The Dead (English title of the original French novel D'Entre Les Morts on which Vertigo was based) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac. I still find it far superior to Hitchcock's film.

[illlogickill]

A friend of mine has recently been reading Art of War by SunTzu and has recommended that I read it. Look out Waterstones!

[Hajile]

Currently in progress with me are:

Science of Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Interesting stuff, even if it does occasionally get bogged down by the usual science reference book trickiness

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman. Recommended for anyone who's read any Harry Potter and wants to read some grown up children's fiction. Manages the impossible in that it has a ten year old female protagonist who is neither precocious or annoying, and goes off in some very strange and welcome directions.

The Silmarillion - Tolkien. Big fan of mythology, so this is absolutely facinating - if anyone wants a good read and a thorough exploration of historical mythology at the same time, this is the one for them.

and re-reading:

Preacher. Nuff said.

Good Omens - Pratchett and Gaiman. My absolute favourite of all time. The biggest injustice in Hollywood history is that Gilliam has never managed to get it filmed, although nowadays I think Edgar Wright would have a better stab at it.

The Greek Myths - Robert Graves. The ultimate guide to greek mythology. Pretty much every myth and story of the entire pantheon, all in one giant tome of a book.

Oh, and Watchmen, too.

[toxibunny]

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman. Recommended for anyone who's read any Harry Potter and wants to read some grown up children's fiction. Manages the impossible in that it has a ten year old female protagonist who is neither precocious or annoying, and goes off in some very strange and welcome directions.

those aliens with the big tree-nuts that they used as wheels spoiled it for me. 7.5/10.

[mamemeister]

Geoff Thomson 'Watch My Back'

[noodles]

Just finished The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer.
Half-french half-german kid forced into the Wehrmacht and sent to Russia
during WW2. Gut-wrenching.

Currently reading :

The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.
One of those injustice and revenge stories that are very hard
to put down.

The President's Tragedy (french politics on Chirac) by Giesbert.
Chirac has five meals a day and eats the equivalent of two and a half
baguettes a day on top of normal meals. And other crusty details about him on all kinds of topics. He's probably not pleased.

[zip accident]

illlogickill wrote:

Art of War by SunTzu

A famous book. I have 3 editions. The actual text is short, most of any book is commmentaries and translators notes.

The ancient Chinese commmentaries are perhaps relevant. The Shambala translations push a pacifist Westernised Taoist point of view, which is a bit odd I think, and makes me worry how biased the translation is.

I like the Lionel Giles translation, it's bitchy and a very fun read, but if you want Sun Tzu's thoughts, you have to note down every sentence as it's translated, which is at about one or less per page.

Myself, when I can't sleep, I'm finding A.J. Ayer's "Language, Truth and Logic" a fine relaxant.

[arron]

I went out yesterday evening and bought a couple.

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse as I gave my other copy to someone and I wanted to read it again..

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielski..which on initial examination is one of the strangest books that I have ever seen.

[Firefox]

I'm currently re-reading Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star because after reading the first hundred pages of the sequel Judas Unchained I realised I'd forgotton who a lot of the characters were, what a lot of the details of the situation were, and didn't really understand what was going on.

I have to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying it the second time around, though.

(edit)

I'm reading "Judas Unchained", the sequel to "Pandora's Star" by Peter Hamilton.

I have to say that I'm finding it rather dull so far, whereas the first installment was a real page turner. I'm only up to about page 100 though, so maybe it'll hot up later...

I eventually read Judas Unchained back-to-back with Pandora's Star, and it is an absolutely cracking novel!

The thing is that it doesn't pause to reintroduce any of the characters or recap on the situation at all, it just carries straight on without missing a beat.

In fact, you see one of the events from the end of Pandora's Star at the being of Judas Unchained, but through the eyes of different characters, which is kind of cool.

Thoroughly recommended, anyway.

[Jedburgh]

Just finished Neal Stephenson's The Confusion. The System of the World, next.