Book Thread Continued

[Desert Walker]

I was concerned about the Heinlein biography I'm reading, given that it's volume one and covering his early years before his career as a writer really started.  Fortunately, it's quite engaging in spite of this.

Edit:

Still working on the Heinlein biography, but progress is steady. If all goes well I can finish tomorrow.

Meanwhile, this gem popped out at me and made me smile given his reputation for sexism in his writing:

The AML was expanding so rapidly that Heinlein had to recruit engineers everywhere he could--a very scarce commodity when all the young men were in the services.  But he knew there would be an untapped source: he spent the last months of the academic year scouting technical schools all over the East, looking for female engineers. Female engineers would be draft-exempt. He amused himself between interviews checking-and refuting (to his satisfaction) Doc Smith's idea that a woman could have either brains or beauty, but when he saw at first hand the unfair treatment women were accorded by universities, he became incensed. At the university of Delaware, he found that female engineering candidates were not even permitted into the School of Engineering:

I almost went through the roof...then took nasty pleasure in chewing out the President of the University in the presence of a large group of people, by telling him that his University's medieval policies had deprived the country of trained engineers at a time when the very life of his country depended on such people.

It makes me wonder if his attitude towards women has been misinterpreted...or if he was a late blooming sexist.

EDIT 2:  I'm now reading Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.  Just finished and reviewed The City and the Stars.

EDIT 3:  Finished Childhood's End.  I'm now reading The Fountains of Paradise.

EDIT 4:  Finished and reviewed The Fountains of Paradise.  I'm now starting on China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

[Jimmy]

I've been trying to read The Passage by Justin Cronin. I'm going to try and keep at it with the hopes that it will actually get, ya know, interesting. But I have to say so far that the first 200 pages have been extremely boring and uninteresting. I'll give it 200 more pages because it's so freakin' long, but if it hasn't picked up by then I'll move onto the next book on my shelf.

[Desert Walker]

After reading through part of 2001 and the beginning of ...Rama I've realized that Clarke's style has started to wear on me and I need a change. I can always return to Clarke later. I grabbed the LoA '50s sci-fi collection and started on The Space Merchants. It was just the jolt of caffeine I needed. (No pun intended. ;) )

[Tooker]

I've been reading Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker, which you can download free from his site here:

http://brandonsanderson.com/book/Warbreaker/page/20/WARBREAKER-Rights-and-Downloads

[Desert Walker]

Now reading Olaf Stapledon's The Last and First Men.

EDIT:

I returned to and finished The Cold Equations and Other Stories by Tom Godwin. Lots of good stuff in there, even if some of it isn't sheer brilliance. Godwin may not be a Brahms or a Bach but I'd argue that he is a Tchaikovsky or a Chopin.  I'm currently working on Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s and just started on The Skylark of Space by E.E. Smith.

[GrimReality]

I haven't commented in this topic in a while. My reading has been all over the place.
I read Titus Groan, which was fantastic. I want to read the next one, but I've heard the first is the pinnacle of the series. I have tons of questions, though! Anyone else around here ever read this book/series?

Finished Sandman Vol. 5. Not the best of the bunch so far, but still interesting.

I'm now reading Sword From Red Ice by J.V. Jones. Third in the (horribly named) Sword of Shadows series. Damn good writing in these. Great, very real, characters.

[Tooker]

I really need to get more of Sandman - I think I've only read the first one or two.

I recently found myself listening to the audiobook of Orson Scott Card's "Monkey Sonatas: Fables and Fantasies," which is the third in a series of short story collections he did back in '92 or so.  It's so bad - it's like reading a book of the worst episodes of The Outer Limits.  I'm happy that I can't remember whether I liked it when I read it back in the day.

Edit: can't decide if this should go in the amazing pics place or here, so I'm putting it here.  Fantasy books retitled.
http://mightygodking.com/2008/10/20/mgk-versus-his-adolescent-reading-habits/

[Desert Walker]

Some of those were pretty good.  Conan the Libertarian gave me a good laugh.  Has a nice ring to it, actually... ;)

Currently working on Moby Dick and some Poe in the evenings.  Seriously considering starting on a novel by A.E. van Vogt (probably Slan or The Voyage of the Space Beagle) for days when Melville gets a bit too heavy for me.

[Jimmy]

It took a while, but I finally finished reading The Passage by Justin Cronin a few weeks ago. It turned out okay, but it was one of the most tedious books I've ever read, and needlessly so.

Anyway, I wanted some lighter stuff for the next book or two. First I read Codename Verity by Elizabeth Wein. It was good, and I was actually surprised by the conclusion. A little annoyed that it used the snarky, sarcastic narrative voice that is ubiquitous in YA novels, but overall I really liked it.

Currently reading Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

[Daggerstrike]

Currently re-reading Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. The new one comes out later this year. He is one of my favorite authors. There are a few one shots that he has done that I REALLY hope he turns into series. Specifically the story Legion. Fucking awesome.

[D-Rider]

You know what's surprisingly good?  This copy of the first Vampire Hunter D novel I picked up on a whim.  My knowledge of this character comes solely from that shitty PS1 game I played way back.  This is not high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a pulp sensibility that I find refreshing in this day and age where every book I read wants to be a Tolkien-esque epic.  I'll be buying more of them...and apparently there are a lot of them. :P

[Lard]

I was concerned about the Heinlein biography I'm reading, given that it's volume one and covering his early years before his career as a writer really started.  Fortunately, it's quite engaging in spite of this.

I had no idea there was one out. Heinlein is a funny bird. Some things make him seem so progressive and some make him seem so backwards.

You know what's surprisingly good?  This copy of the first Vampire Hunter D novel I picked up on a whim.  My knowledge of this character comes solely from that shitty PS1 game I played way back.  This is not high literature by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a pulp sensibility that I find refreshing in this day and age where every book I read wants to be a Tolkien-esque epic.  I'll be buying more of them...and apparently there are a lot of them. :P

I've been collecting and reading them as they've been released, and I can vouch for their quality. None of his (Kikuchi's) books are fine literature but they're well translated and just ....interesting. He has some good ideas and he can end a story in a way that doesn't make you roll your eyes or groan.
I would suggest you keep going with them. I think the last I read was Volume 16.

I'm going to try and plow through books 2 and 3 of GoT before the season starts, based on a suggestion of my friend.

[Jimmy]

Finished Will Grayson, Will Grayson last week. Currently reading The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey. It hasn't been released yet, but I got an ARC a month or so ago and figured I'd go ahead and read it.

Next up will either be Mossflower by Brian Jacques, or That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton.

[Esper_Crusader]

Finally started The Omen Machine. Quite good to see the old gang again. Next up is Magda Searus: The fist Confessor.

[Tooker]

I read And Another Thing, the final Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book, which was written by Eoin Colfer.  Pretty decent, but you could definitely tell it was written by someone who's not Douglas Adams.

Now reading a book called Wool.  It's quite good.  Originally self-published but now available from actual stores and stuff.  (I got the Kindle version, which is the cheapest.)  I'm about 20% of the way into it and really enjoying it.  It's a post-apocalyptic story of people living in some kind of underground silo.  The first section stands on its own well, and tells the story of a man who decides he wants out.  The way the author leads you through the question of whether the outside world is really ruined like the character has always been told is brilliant.

http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-Silo-ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA