Book of the Moment

[Undine]

I'm intending for this thread to function in the same way as the Song of the Moment thread. What are you reading / have you just read? We'll take any and all genres!

I'm currently reading: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. My book club picked it. I'm kind of Austened out, but she's pretty sassy sometimes, so it's moderately amusing. I'm not going to lie--I watched the new Masterpiece Theater version, and I think I like it better...

[ilovemyguitar]

Oh, great idea for a thread! Ever since I got my Kindle for Christmas I've been reading like a crazy person. Right now I'm in the middle of "A Scanner Darkly" by Philip K Dick, and before that I read "John Dies at the End" by David Wong (it was alright, not exactly high art but very amusing). If I'm going to recommend anything specific, it would be "World War Z" by Max Brooks; it's a zombie apocalypse, in novel form!

Also, Undine, you might want to give "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" a shot eventually. I loved "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." (I was kind of on a zombie kick earlier this year. )

[Sonic#]

I've got too many book plates going on at the same time.

The English Romance in Time, Helen Cooper. So, this medieval literary critic hears about the concept of a meme and decides to apply it to romances. What structural themes recur throughout medieval and renaissance romances? What do these themes say about the work, the viewers, the authors, and the culture? Occasionally her focuses seem a little random, but I'm enjoying it.

Lord Foul's Bane, Stephen Donaldson. It's a fantasy novel about Thomas Covenant, an author who develops leprosy, gets abandoned by his wife, and shut in by his surroundings. He tries to rebel against this, and after a dubious encounter with a police car hurtling towards him, he awakens in a world under peril. He holds the potential linch-pin of salvation, wild magic, if only he can learn to master it and himself.

The Romance of the Rose. It's written first by Guillaume de Lorris, who wrote a great allegory about a man pursuing his love, the rosebud, in a pleasure garden. Then Jean de Meun decided that he would append on the end of it a second part of the poem, several times longer, filled with expositions misogynistic and droll, and which broadly speaking repeats much of the action that happened at first. I actually finished this one just now.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing, 2009. My favorite story is about the incurable itch... and the woman who scratches a head through her skull to find it. There's far more to it, and so rest assured that I've ruined the least engaging part.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

It's actually been a while, too long in fact, since I had the time to sit down and read a novel. Maybe later this week.

My last read, though, was Neal Stephenson's Anathem, which I quite enjoyed. I love the premise, and it's the first book I've read that I'd describe as an astronomy thriller. Sure, it kinda disintegrates four fifths of the way through, but so do all of his books.

I dunno what I'll read next. I've been into cyberpunk and postcyberpunk lately, so I think I'll try to find something of that genre in the Kindle store.

[Undine]

Oh man I just read Hunger Games in one day. It was so fun. Read it read it read it.

[Sonic#]

I saw Hunger Games! I nearly bought it, and then nearly bought Carrie Fisher's book, and then ended up with The Postman by David Brin. (Ah, airport bookstores.)

[Alunissage]

I missed this thread earlier. Most recent new book I read was Patterson's Heinlein biography vol 1. Anyone else read this?

[Sonix]

I'm reading Feri Lainšček - Ločil Bom Peno od Valov
which will be at matura (something like final exam for senior year) this year.

[Vyse of Arcadia]

I haven't read anything but my textbooks in a while, but the last thing I read was great. Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton.

It was fantastic. Rock 'n roll history meets aliens with social commentary. Highly recommended. Won a few awards when it came out, and just recently it was made free for the download by the author. Apparently it might also be a movie soon, which I did not know when I started it. I'm a bit surprised. It was fantastic and weird, and I can't see it pulling in big movie crowds.

[ilovemyguitar]

Current read: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera.

Recent reads: "Breakfast at Tiffanys" by Truman Capote, "Candide" by Voltaire (very funny!), and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson.

I also recently read the Book of Enoch (one of the books of biblical apocrypha) just as research for a work thing, and I found myself enjoying it more than I'd expected.

Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede by Bradley Denton.

It was fantastic. Rock 'n roll history meets aliens with social commentary. Highly recommended. Won a few awards when it came out, and just recently it was made free for the download by the author. Apparently it might also be a movie soon, which I did not know when I started it. I'm a bit surprised. It was fantastic and weird, and I can't see it pulling in big movie crowds.

Color me intrigued. I think I have my next book to read!

[Solana]

Bookworm that I am, I'll try not to clog this thread.

I'm currently reading 'Patrick' by Stephen Lawhead at home, and am enjoying this just as much as his 'Arthur' series. It's refreshing to read a good fantasy/historical book with a positive spin on Christianity. Might have to try his 'Robin Hood' series next. I'm also reading some wonderful books by Sonia Choquette about the care of the soul and following one's heart desires.

[Arya]

I just finished Vampire Hunter D - Mysterious Journey to the North Sea part 2 by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

I am starting to read Golden Fool by Robin Hobb. This is book 2 of the Tawny Man series. I can't wait to start this book, the whole series has been great and I look forward to this one.

[MaroonChan]

Many books.

“Extreme Teen Bible”: I'll be honest. I never really read the Bible. My mom got me this some years back and for the last year been working on it finally. Makes it much easier to understand.

"The Catholic Children's Prayer Book" By Louis M. Savary: Re-reading cause I wanted to.

"Sydney Omarr's Day-By-Day- Astrological Guide for Libra 2011″ by Trish Macgregor with Rob Macgregor": To just the horoscope readings. There were stuff explaining astrology, which were interesting. I read that already though.

"Legends of Shannara: Bearers of the Black Staff" by Terry Brooks: So good! I'm really liking it! About halfway done.

Fushigi Yugi volume 6 (Viz Big edition): One of my favorite manga's. This volume is great so far. Can't wait to see how the series ends.

I still have dozens of books to read.

[LuNaRtIc]

I'm in the middle of several books as well.

Lewis Carroll: A Biography by Morton N. Cohen - I am fascinated by Charles Dodgson, not only for writing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but for his photography and his brilliant mathematical mind. I'd really like to know more about his life and what kind of a person he was, but a lot of it is shrouded in mystery. Following this biography, I'm going to start reading In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll by Karoline Leach. She has a completely different perspective on Dodgson than Cohen. It should be interesting!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman - I like children's fantasy books too. :3

The Boys of Winter by Wayne Coffey - It's about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team. I'm a total dork for the whole "underdog" tale. And I like hockey. Yay! <3

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - A classic book that I've never read before, so I had to do it. And it has pirates, what's better than that??

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Pretty much the same deal as above, just with less pirates and more magic.

Gee. I have a weird reading list. I wish I had more time to read. D:

[Vyse of Arcadia]

A friend of mine loaned me The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russel (the same whose paradox inspired Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory.) I've only just started, but it's something I've wanted to read for a while anyway.

[Sonic#]

Right now I'm reading through several Middle English romances. I'm at Bevis of Hamtoun now. By the way, I really think there's some potential in these romances for an RPG, maybe following on the success of games like Jeanne d'Arc. I mean, the plot of this present one is like this:The

Father is king, mother is queen. King's old, queen plots against queen and then marries her help, the Emperor of Germany. The young son, Bevis, confronts his mother and then flees with the help of Saber, a trainer and knight. But before he can get too far, he's taken and sold to the king of Armenia. There he grows up, trains, goes through a variety of court intrigues, falls in love with the princess there, fights a successful war, gets imprisoned, escapes and distributes justice, gets back to England, and lives happily ever after... except that then his family gets split up and he has to get them back together again, as each struggles to survive.

So it's already sounding like an intriguing amalgamation of several game plots.

[MaroonChan]

Still many.

"Extreme Teen Bible"

"Sydney Omarr's Day-By-Day Astrological Guide for Libra 2011" by Trish Macgregor with Rob Macgregor

"Conversations with God for Teens" by Neale Donald Walsch

"Reckless" by Cornelia Funke: So freaking awesome!

[Ardent Fox]

I'm going to rez this topic to talk about a book I recently read called Mogworld. Here, give it a look.

Mogworld @ Amazon

The writer is the creator of Zero Punctuation, a video game review er...video on the Escapist website.

[Undine]

Currently reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman

It's about how a group of American teenagers actually get to go to a magic school, and then a Narnia like world, but how their story is drastically different because they are imperfect.

It's kind of like HP + Narnia + Catcher in the Rye. Really interesting and engaging world. (I think some people pick it up expecting a straight up HP book and are disappointed because they weren't expecting the narrator to be an arse.)

[Arya]

I just started American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I have heard good things about this book and I'm looking forward to reading it.