‘I don’t get much time to read nowadays’: that’s what I usually say, but the truth is I’m just lazy! But I’m on the look out for something good to read, so let’s make some recommendations. Have you read anything good lately?
I’ve been on a Sam Harris blitz recently, reading his Letter To A Christian Nation and Free Will. I found both interesting, but Free Will was definitely my least favourite. I found he tended to repeat the same argument over and over again, whereas Letter To A Christian Nation was just a complete all-out logic assault. Loved it.
That’s all I’ve been reading. I can’t remember the last time I sat down and read fiction. That makes me feel a bit sad.
What have you been reading?
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85 responses to “Off Topic: What Are You Reading?”
Dividing my time between A Storm Of Swords by George R R Martin and The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark by Carl Sagan.
Carl Sagan book is amazing. That man has a way with words.
And the Cosmos series! Oh I <3 Sagan!
Currently reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Lost Souls. After that I’ll be finishing off the Malazan Book of the Fallen series with The Crippled God and then I’ll start on I think it’s the fourth Game of Thrones book, because the TV shows gotten up to where I left the books off.
I was taken to see the City of Bones movie on the weekend. Almost against my will (almost – the leading lady is pretty hot), because it looked a tad twilighty to me, with the fairly stereotypical romance angles.
Are the books any good/better than the movie/get better?
I like them, but they are pretty romancy.
I read one of the Jack Reacher books during my last flight, and now I’m midway down a deep, deep hole…
Been alternating between the Immortal and Song of Ice and Fire Series.
I also have a stack of Artimus Fowl books I need to read (I only read the first three in the series and stopped on the forth due to study/research.
The Artemis Fowl books are excellent, and supposedly being turned into a film.
I got onto them after reading the extra Hitchhikers Guide book the author wrote.
True that. My favorite part is still when Butler tried to sneak up on Mulch in the first book, 😛
The fascinating thing about Mulch is the way Colfer makes all the different abilities funny-gross as well as sensible.
That’s what makes him so funny at times.
My other favorite is when he escaped a submarine by inhaling all the air, hahahaah!
Half way through A Clash of Kings, it was a tad slow in the beginning I found but i’m really enjoying it again!
Afterwards I might have a break from the series and read Rum Diary, I really liked Fear and Loathing and I need a change from the bleak and unforgiving world of Westeros.
Fear and Loathing is great, although I didn’t really like The Rum Diary. It’s a much better story by a conventional sense, but it doesn’t have the same twisted edge that Fear and Loathing has.
Yeh I thought that might be the case :\ Maybe i’ll read Fear and Loathing again heh.
I’m not in the middle of a book right now. I’ve been about to start a Storm of Swords for weeks now, I just need to get around to buying the ebook from iTunes so I can read it on my phone while commuting. Of course now I’ve gotten a 3DS and Animal Crossing so that’s been keeping me occupied on the train, but I’ll totally get around to it.
I actually went mad and got the Song of Ice and Fire books in hard cover (only been able to find them on Amazon so I think Australia only gets the paper back version).
Makes the text easier to read but I swear each book is heavy enough to turn me into the next Schwarzenegger!
Still, far better than needing to use a microscope on the paper back edition.
I think the last hardcover I bought was the final Harry Potter book. Fun fact: I have two copies of each of the last two books because my wife and I decided we were incapable of sharing.
I haven’t bought many books since then, the occasional paperback (and most of those have been the Sookie Stackhouse books True Blood is based on… for the wife, I swear), but I’ve started making the transition to ebooks.
Too late. We have you branded now, :-P.
I just started reading The City and The City by China Miéville. Its pretty good so far. Its a murder mystery set in an eastern European city
I read that a few months ago. Great book.
Finally some good taste. Currently reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
I keep meaning to get into Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I tried to get through the first chapter when it came out and just wasn’t in the right mood for it.
I also did a business writing course the other day and was given a book called The Little Red Writing Book. I want to read that purely so that I can say the title more often.
Been reading the Thrawn Trilogy and I can’t seem to put it down
Nothing! But when I find the time I’ll be starting on A Feast for Crows.
Just started reading American Gods by Gaiman, as I finished Fragile Things not too long ago.
Should also check out “Anansi Boys” if you’re enjoying American Gods.
It’s worth noting that the two books share a similar setting but are not related. Gaiman has said that he just happened to like the character of Anansi so much that he put him in both books, he doesn’t actually tie the two together.
Anansi Boys also has a much smaller scope than American Gods but is brilliant in its own way.
Fragile Things is one of Gaiman’s best works.
he’s just showing off there. ‘Oh look at me, I kick-arse at ALL the literary forms…’
Good choice.
Currently reading The Devil’s Knot. It’s about the murder of the three 8 year old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993. Also it speaks about the three teens who were accused of the murder, the corrupt police and much more. It’s a fascinating read. It’s probably also a good idea to watch the documentary West of Memphis as well. That gives more insight again. I’m yet to see the three documentaries Paradise Lost 1, 2 & 3 though.
I’m still yet to finish Corey Taylor’s new book “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven: (Or, How I Made Peace with the Paranormal and Stigmatized Zealots and Cynics in the Process)” i’m not finding it as capturing as his first book Seven Deadly Sins, which was a brilliant read.
Other than that I also have sitting there waiting to be read “Trust Me I’m Doctor Ozzy” by Ozzy Osbourne “Tattoo’s & Tequila” by Vince Neil & “Adlers Appetite” by Steven Adler
My reading Pile of Shame is as big as my video game Pile of Shame. I like to think that playing heavily story driven games is the equivalent of reading a book (especially since I largely play RPGs) but at the moment I’m reading “The Twin Knights” by Osamu Tezuka. The Princess Knight anime is coming out over the next couple of months so it’s a bit of a spoiler, but not that much.
Fighting Fantasy: Forest of Doom
It’s a choose your own adventure with dice rolls and stats etc.. so technically a book.. but also a game too 🙂 got it for the ipad.
Additionally, I am reading “Men At Birth”, which is a book of stories written by Australian men about their experiences before, during and after their partners give birth. My wife and I are expecting our first child in November, so having something to relate to is very helpful.
I’m just about to read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy for the second time.
It’s one of the most dense and horrific books I’ve ever read but is incredible.
If you haven’t read any of his books before, check out The Road and don’t watch the film until after you read it. The movie captured the imagery well but didn’t do the story justice.
Catch-22 & War and Peace.
Been wanting to pick up 1Q84. Get back into reading in general.
I read 1984 a little while ago. It was great, but worth it just to be able to understand references from it. Catch-22 is probably one of my favourite books. If you liked it, I’d recommed A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway.
Catch-22 is a really good book.
I should pick it up again sometime soon..
just was handed On the road by Jack Kerouac. I’m usually a sci fi/fantasy style reader and this is rather hard to get into but a girl gave it to me and wants me to read it. Stupid females making me say yes to things i dont want to.
I just finished On the Road, and I loved it. I agree it’s a bit hard to get into, the trick is to read it as quickly as you can I think. I’m usually a reader of a sci-fi (not fantasy though…) but I like to alternate with some ‘literature’.
Blink – The Power of Thinking Without Thinking: Malcolm Gladwell, The Art of a Beautiful Game: Chris Ballad (basketball related) & Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife: Eben Alexander.
Am reading The Road at the moment but have found it hard to keep plugging at it. I like the setting and wacky/dark events, but the little boy shits me to tears. Always complaining and scarred of his own farts(figuratively).
Need to start a Feast for Crows when Uni work is less busy.
I’ve been meaning to read this for ages, it just seems like it’s going to be pretty heavy going which is why I keep putting it off! Is it worth a read though?
I’m halfway through “The Long War” by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter at the moment andf loving it, it’s the second book in the Long Earth trilogy and it’s a great little series so far. Eagerly waiting on the next book.
I’ve also got Raymond Feist’s “Magician’s End” ready to start, but I’m reluctant to bring an anthology I’ve been reading since high school to an end.
Also have an eye on the horizon for the next Discworld book, “Raising Steam”.
I’m reading through John le Carré’s works currently. Some of it is slow going, but he builds his stories well. Old school spy novels, but without the James Bond stuff.
He spins a good yarn, that le Carre. Ian flemming on the other hand, was the JK Rowling of his time.
Flemming writes a good fluff novel. Most Bonds are short, well written, and well paced. I still need to read them all.
I have ennjoyed the Bond books I have read, I agree that the story and pacing were great, but IMO they are not well written books at all (that’s what I was getting at with the JKR comparison).
The ones I have read were well written (for fluff). Easy to read while in transit or some such. Not deep, easy to digest. Like a trashy romance novel, but on the flip side of the coin. 🙂
Bernard Cornwells Stonehenge.
I remember reading that years ago. The characters were great but the pacing was horrible
I know what you mean, but still can’t put his books down. This is like 8th book of his I’ve read in a row.
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger. I love philosophy but I’m constantly “What the fuck am I reading”ing.
Reading Blood of Elves, which is one of the Witcher novels. about to start “on stranger tides,” as Ron Gilbert said it was one of the books that influenced Monkey Island (and was the direct inspiration for Pirates of the Caribbean 4)
I’m in the middle of around 4 books now, which is quite silly of me I reckon.
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk (love anything by this guy)
11/22/63 by Stephen King (awesome book, no idea why i’ve put it down)
Marching With The Devil by David Mason (about the foreign legion)
Brotherhood of Warriors by Aaron Cohen (about Israel special forces)
I’m sure there’s more lying around with bookmarks in them as well.
I used to love Chuck Palahniuk, but I totally stopped after I read “Haunted” it just seemd so much less than his other stuff. I read and loved everything he did up til Haunted though, maybe I should give him another go.
I think everyone should read this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lesser-Omnibus-Graphic-Novel-ebook/dp/B00EG3X5C2/
I’ve also read Saga by Brian K Vaughan. The man is the best in the comics biz.
I’ve just read:
The Australian Moment by George Megalogenis
A Delicate Truth by John le Carre
I am reading:
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald
The Information by James Gleick
Next on my list:
Constellation Games by Leonard Richardson
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Murakami stuff is excellent
Just started the third book of Hugh Howey’s Silo trilogy. Phenomenal series by a great emerging author.
Just finished the second book of the Nexus of Kellaran series by Wayne Edward Clarke. I don’t usually like fantasy, but these books have been pretty awesome so far.
I recently tried to fill a few gaps in my reading, namely James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. What struck me is just how much the english language has evolved in such a short amount of time. Ian Flemming is continually describing things as gay and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has people ejaculating everywhere!
Now I don’t want to be “that” guy so I totally will not take this opportunity to shamelessly self-promote my self-published fantasy e-book on Amazon, What Dragons Dare. I am sure the four people that have actually bought the thing (most of whom being guilt-tripped relatives) are clamouring to post their embarrassing high praise of it.
Just to provide a tenious link to gaming, each chapter title is illustrated with my characters cos-playing a pop-culture reference which includes a certain Kanomi tactical espionage game series. While nobody’s watching I’ll just put this link down here that has nothing to do with anything and absolutely does not contain a preview of my book.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Dragons-Dare-ebook/dp/B00D81BS0Y/
Oh great. I am “that” guy.
Frank Zappa: The Biography by Barry Miles
Went on a Brandon Sanderson spree after finishing A Memory of Light… read Alloy of Law, The Emperor’s Soul and Elantris, taking a short break to finish off Feist’s series with Magician’s End, then plan to get back to Sanderson with Warbreaker and a couple of others. I’m really digging his “magic as a science” concepts – the idea of “forging” (as in copying) an object by inscribing a tome’s worth of description of its history onto it, or of an innate ability to consume specific metals to gain various complementary powers… He’s called “the magic guy” with good reason 🙂
If you dig “magic-as-science” then you must read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Came up as a recommendation via Good Reads for me… Demolished it and the second book in 3 days. Some of the best writing I’ve had the pleasure of reading and it’s a ridiculously excellent story too!
Oh, that’s one of my favourites. Rothfuss is a genius. I originally heard about it through a webcomic I read ages ago… musta been sometime in 2008… Picked it up, and instantly fell in love with the characters and the universe. Picked up Wise Man’s Fear as soon as it came out – everything else got set aside until that was finished. 🙂
That reminds me, I picked up The Name Of The Wind a couple of years ago but haven’t read it yet
READ IT!!!!! 😛
Seriously, cannot recommend that series highly enough.
I was chuffed I saw him last year at Supanova. Got the Mistborn trilogy signed as well as the Wheel Of Time books he finished and also a Steven Erikson Malazan Book Of The Fallen book I had in my bag 😀 great sense of humour on the guy
I’m slowly ploughing through my Doctor Who collection. NA, MA, PD, ED. Less than thirty to buy. Still over a hundred unread.
I have been reading Kotaku.
I’m waiting out for the new Skulduggery Pleasant book, Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy, which is out in a couple of days, so I’ve been slowly re-reading the series to get me in the mood.
The problem with Free Will @markserrels is that it’s basically just a glorified essay. The idea is simple, but then it doesn’t go into the deep science behind it, which would have been awesome.
Or perhaps it could have discussed it from a Newtonian physics perspective vs. what implications quantum physics and ‘randomness’ has.
Jump on to some stuff by the late Christopher Hitchens or of course Richard Dawkins. The less ‘radical’ books are actually better if you enjoyed Harris’ other works.
Last year I went on a bit of a Phillip K Dick bender, and read maybe 25 of his books. They kind of blurred together a bit, but the highlights were definitely UBIK, A Scanner Darkly and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Man in the High Castle was good, but kind of annoying.
Also, I recommend anything by Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clark.
If you are looking for a great fantasy book to read I cannot recommend the name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss highly enough. Although the mistborn series I am reading atm is also quite good
I started reading the first book in The Mistborn Trilogy last night. Was 12:30 am when I stopped reading, and I only did so because I’d hit the end of the first act.
Sam’s next book http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/a-plea-for-spirituality
As an atheist who regularly meditates I am very interested.
Must finish last 100 pages of A Storm of Swords
Currently retreading the Deverry novels by Katherine Kerr.
I’m reading ‘Dirty Wars’ by Jeremy Scahill and Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’, whilst rereading Francis Fukuyama’s ‘Origin of Political Order’.
Nothing right now as I just finished reading Metro 2033 (thanks beavwa)
That was a fairly tough read so might just go something easy and grab one of the Pratchetts I have at home that I haven’t read. Probably Wintersmith.
I clicked the post because of the Sam Harris pic lol, didn’t expect his picture to show up in a gaming website.
I’m reading a book by another Harris atm, Lustrum by Robert Harris.
I’m half-way through a Halo: The Thursday War. I read Glasslands quite quickly, that was ok. It got a bit weird though as they introduced the Elites’ family lives…yeah.
I read that ones predecessor, Ghost of Onyx about five years ago so it was a struggle to remember what was going on. I should just bomb it and get it done but it’s becoming an effort. The Fall of Reach is probably the best one in the series.
I read The Hunt for The Red October by Tom Clancy not long ago, that was pretty good, I’d recommend it. I’m trying to get hold of Cardinal of the Kremlin (the sequel).
I just started The Fellowship Of The Ring again but need to get a new copy of The Eye Of The World so I can properly read The Wheel Of Time from beginning to end. Then I’ll start on A Song Of Ice & Fire before reading the Malazan Book Of The Fallen again.
I might be liking fantasy epics a bit too much
American super hero comics, Saga & whatevet comics the library gets in.
Reading Habibi atm, it’s quite good.
Just finished reading House of Blades (Book 1 of The Traveler’s Gate Trilogy).
It’s pretty darn awesome for a young-adult fantasy read, and the second book is coming out in a few days.
Nice idea!
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Very fascinating and has helped me resolve some internal conflict revolving around the belief that I ‘should be more outgoing‘.
Book of the New by Gene Wolf for the fourth time, by far the greatest sci-fi/fantasy books i have read (imo of course). Break it up with some H.P Lovecraft and the Elric stories by Michael Moorcock.