So... what are you reading right now?

[SW01]

Originally Posted by ForeverNight

Plutarch's Lives

Plutarch is great to read - I have a few of the Penguin compilations in translation - my favourites are the lives of those notable Romans at the time of the Civil War - Caesar, Pompeius Magnus and Cicero in particular.

[ForeverNight]

I'm reading the Clough translation/publication that my Social Studies/History teacher had on hand. It's okay so far, almost as confusing -if not more- than the Silmarillion, but it's pretty good... I especially like that it's Leather-bound with thick paper...

It just doesn't get much better than that.

[Pavlos]

I'm just beginning Milton's Paradise Regained, the little-known sequel to the famous Paradise Lost:

I, who e're while the happy Garden sung,
By one mans disobedience lost, now sing
Recover'd Paradise to all mankind,
By one mans firm obedience fully tri'd
Through all temptation, and the Tempter foil'd
In all his wiles, defeated and repuls't,
And Eden rais'd in the wast Wilderness.

I find Milton to be curiously fascinating. I have no emotional connection to his works but they draw me back to read again what I put back on the shelf. Cold but gripping, I suppose would summarise him.

[HdVaderII]

Right now I'm reading a novel by Robert Ludlum, The Chancellor Manuscript. Very good book.

[ZimmMaster]

Darth Bane: Rule of Two by Drew Karpyshyn.

[Will O' The Wisq]

Reading Journey Into Darkness ( the book about the wrestler Kane)

[SW01]

Originally Posted by Nero Enigma

Reading Journey Into Darkness ( the book about the wrestler Kane)

Very interesting! I read the books on Foley, Flair, Hogan and Rock. On the last three, it felt a bit like time wasted, to be honest...but Foley's books - especially Foley is Good - were brilliant, in my opinion. They seemed a lot more real than the others...

I'm still reading Master & Commander when I get time free from reading course texts. It is true that it helps to have a good operational knowledge of an 18th/19th cent. sloop (which I don't have but there is a handy drawing at the front), but it is still a great read!

[ForeverNight]

Dang, Master & Commander was VERY good, I'd recommend it to anybody who has the free time to read.

Now I'm going to be working on Post Captain, Hornblower and the Hotspur, and Lives, Vol. II.

Thanks for pointing me in M&C's directions, SW01!

[Serpentine Cougar]

I'm getting back into Wheel of Time, just started Book 6: Lords of Chaos.

[mur'phon]

Getting back?....
You'd throw away your sanity willingly.

[Serpentine Cougar]

^ Yeah, but I want to know how it all ends...

[mur'phon]

Wait, did they finaly end it when the author croacked? In that case here is what happens in each book untill the final book, read once for each book you haven't read, except the last one, then read the last one.

WARNING: if you find the wheel of time to be a serie of unpredictable masterpieces, with fantastic plot twists, kindly dont see below, instead, see a psychiatrist.

Magic guy: jugles three girls successfully, kills/defeats another bad magic guy at the end of the book.

Wolf guy: is unsuccessfully jugling two girls, but manage to set things straight with the "right" one in the end while doing some minor heroic deed.

Smart/looser guy: is jugling no girls, yet end up in deep ****t because of one/some, also fails at setting things straight with said girl(s), fails to get away from the mess that surounds magick guy, yet end up failing/creating his own personal mess.

Whor, err, sexually liberated yet sterotypical girls who shoot lightning: Despite spending 90% of the book working to get/getting saved by/looking at/sleeping with/killing others who look at/sleep with the men they love, they end up saving the other men/doing something which will save the men in the next book.

[Da_man]

Finished Dark Tower 1 by Stephen King, now I'm reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.
OH YEAH

[Jae Onasi]

I'm reading Blood of the Fold by Terry Goodkind now, book 3 in the Sword of Truth series.

[Serpentine Cougar]

Originally Posted by mur'phon

Wait, did they finaly end it when the author croacked?

No, they're getting this guy to write the last one.

[Miltiades]

Finished Kafka's "The Trial" a few weeks ago, and also finished "This Fleeting World" by David Christian last week (non-fiction), which gives an (compact) overview of Human history, not from a western viewpoint but from a "worldly" viewpoint. Started with "Digging up the Past" by John Collis, which is also non-fiction, and a good starting point to learn about excavations. I actually read them for my studies, but they're books, so they count, right?

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Been reading If this is a man (IIRC, it's named Survival in Aushwitz in the US, which, IMO, was the worst title adaptation ever. Nothing is farther from what the author writes about on his book), by Primo Levi.

An excellent read, which I should have started years ago.

[Blix]

Was trying to get into the "Twilight" Novel, I picked it up when I heard about the movie. I never made it passed the preface...I think I'll go through and re-read some of my old High School writings.

[Astor]

Originally Posted by Blix

Was trying to get into the "Twilight" Novel, I picked it up when I heard about the movie. I never made it passed the preface...I think I'll go through and re-read some of my old High School writings.

Beware those sparkly vampires.

I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy of Marlborough: His Life and Times, by Winston Churchill, so for now i'm re-reading The Nizam's Daughters by Alan Mallinson.

It's about an aide to the Duke of Wellington going to India to handle some private business, which involves him being drawn into a war between two states.

[Samuel Dravis]

I'm reading the graphic novel Watchmen, which is very good so far, as well as Ulysses by James Joyce. I might also be reading some of Re Joyce by Anthony Burgess (given to me by a friend) while trying to comprehend the latter...

[Sabretooth]

Been reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami on Bee Hoon's recommendation and I'm completely engrossed. I find the writing style the best I've read in a long while and the novel itself is a masterpiece. Murakami's easily in my top 10 now. >.>

I didn't kno u wuz liek all postmodern bee

[Pavlos]

Originally Posted by Samuel Dravis

I'm reading the graphic novel Watchmen, which is very good so far, as well as Ulysses by James Joyce. I might also be reading some of Re Joyce by Anthony Burgess (given to me by a friend) while trying to comprehend the latter...

You're not meant to comprehend it. Simply roll over and drown, your screams muffled by the pages that form a fold on your lip. Joyce falls apart at the seams... rather like this dog.

Modernism is like swimming in a beautiful lake and then touching the sea-bed with the tip of your toe and finding yourself reciting Geoffrey Chaucer in a field, standing atop a hovering cow. Modernists (a.k.a. people who are too clever for their own good) like to push the boundary of what's coherent and acceptable: why post-modernism is simply a failed off-shoot of a great literary movement.

Excuse me while I go and stick something sharp into Tracy Emin.

[Lantzen]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Read around the first 50 pages or something, and it seems interesting

[Pavlos]

I've just started the epic fragment Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe; right now, the number of classical references is making my head spin.

[Sabretooth]

I'm continuing Kurt Vonnegut, currently reading Breakfast of Champions. To be honest, I don't find it as good as his two A+ works, Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five, but it's still a read.

Also resuming the Old Testament, and reading the Book of Judges. Genocide is always fun.

[True_Avery]

Working on Alice in Wonderland right now.

[Samuel Dravis]

Originally Posted by True_Avery

Working on Alice in Wonderland right now.

Be sure to read Through the Looking Glass as well-- I can't decide which is better! TTLG has some excellent chapters but so does Alice! ^_^

[Achilles]

Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment by Phil Zuckerman

[Admiral Buttercrust]

Currently I am reading Flyte, book two in the Septimus Heap series, which is quite good.

[Sabretooth]

Finished Breakfast of Champions, onto Neuromancer by William Gibson, the cyberpunk classic. I saw Blade Runner a few weeks ago and am playing System Shock 2 now, so I'm in a totally cyberpunk mood. >_<

Reminds me a lot of the only other Gibson novel I've read The Difference Engine, and so it's a pleasant read.

[Aash Li]

Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Sequel to the 1976 book Inferno.

[e-varmint]

I am reading Byron Nelson's autobiography How I Played The Game. A fascinating book about and by a true class act!

[PastramiX]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

A week from now, I'll brutally rape and murder all of you.

[Jeff]

I'm almost done with Angels & Demons, I'm loving it. Probably have 100 or less pages left. Hopefully I'll finish it up tonight.

[Totenkopf]

TSAR by Ted Bell.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Tales of Julio Cortázar, named by many one of the masters of contemporary literature.

[ForeverNight]

Let's see:

The Surgeon's Mate -Patrick O'Brian, yes another book in the Aubry/Mautrin series... great books.

The Bourne Supremacy -Robert Ludlum, I've read the first one, now I have to read the second....

And, somehow, Plutarch's Lives Vol. IV.... doubt I'll finish this one in time and I'm borrowing it from my History Teacher...

Anyway, I'd recommend any/all of these books.

[Litofsky]

Currently, I'm about half-way through Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy.

[Samuel Dravis]

Currently, The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski. It's excellent.

[Ping]

I'm about to finish The Final Prophecy, part of the NJO series, and then I'll start on the grand finale, The Unifying Force. Something tells me that the series is going to end with the granddaddy of all battles...