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What are you filthy heathens reading atm?

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24567…21

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    #32
    8mv
    Registered Users Posts: 385 ✭✭8mv


    Sulla Felix wrote: »
    Not really. I read them almost at random for the first few I read and then went back to the first and read the remaining chronologically.

    The Wasp Factory was very very strange. I still wouldn't say that I enjoyed it...
    Try the Bridge. It's a mile away from the Wasp Factory and actually my favorite of all his works that I've read, over and above the Culture even. Added bonus: It's actually Banks' own favorite too. :D

    I must get back to reading Banks at some stage. I liked his non-scifi books at first, especially Espedair St for some reason. And Complicity was comic in it's over the top violence. I later read the first few culture books and enjoyed them. What was the one where the chapters were shuffled - Use of Weapons? Long time ago now. I think I'll try him again.


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    #33
    Gbear
    Registered Users Posts: 12,775 ✭✭✭✭Gbear


    8mv wrote: »
    I must get back to reading Banks at some stage. I liked his non-scifi books at first, especially Espedair St for some reason. And Complicity was comic in it's over the top violence. I later read the first few culture books and enjoyed them. What was the one where the chapters were shuffled - Use of Weapons? Long time ago now. I think I'll try him again.

    With the weird names it's hard to keep track. A good few have blended together in my brain.


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    #34
    kylith
    Registered Users Posts: 17,736 ✭✭✭✭kylith


    Trying to read The Sun Also Rises by Hemmingway. I can't really get into it to be honest, but I think that's more to do with my current schedule than the book.

    I've just ordered Mark Z. Danielowski's new one, and I'm really looking forward to that :D


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    #35
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    Just finished reading The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell, and about a third of the way through A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle That Shaped the Middle East by James Barr.

    Waiting to get the next book in the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian - when I get it, everything else will be put on hold, bar toilet functions and occasional naps.


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    #36
    legspin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,018 ✭✭✭legspin


    MagicMarker wrote: »
    Hmmm, lot of love for Mr Banks, tbh I'm not a great fan of Sci-fi and I hate hate hated The Wasp Factory.

    Does the Culture series need to be read in order?

    Not really, but you should probably start with The Player of Games, if for no other reason than it is by far the easiest read. The only ones that should be read in order are Consider Phlebas and Look to Windward but only because of the link between the two.


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    #37
    doctoremma
    Registered Users Posts: 1,870 ✭✭✭doctoremma


    Have just returned from holibobs, where I finished Sheepshagger by Niall Griffiths (quite possibly the bleakest, most desolate, depression-inducing book I've ever read) and started The Marhematics Of Life by Ian Stewart (standard pop science stuff, although the geometry theory is challenging me).


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    #38
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    recently finished the hydrogen sonata; enjoyable, but not his best. read stones of aran: pilgrimage by tim robinson before that.

    on the old ways by robert macfarlane at the moment.


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    #39
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    Pfft, learning.... :rolleyes:

    Robert Jordan - The Wheel of Time series. Book 14 is out in January so I'm heading back through the rest in preparation.
    About 60% through Book 2, The Great Hunt.


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    #40
    Delirium
    Moderators Posts: 51,709 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    Currently reading:

    And the ass saw the angel - Nick Cave
    A storm of swords - George R.R. Martin
    Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages - Federico Biancuzzi + Shane Warden (Author)

    Recently finished:

    Moonwalking with Einstein - the art and science of remembering everything - Joshua Foer
    Philosophy for Life: And Other Dangerous Situations - Jules Evans
    How to outwit Aristotle: and 34 other really interesting uses of philosophy - Peter Cave

    Picked up the philosophy books as my interest in the subject was piqued as a result of reading various threads in this forum.

    If you can read this, you're too close!



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    #41
    The Mad Hatter
    Registered Users Posts: 4,718 ✭✭✭The Mad Hatter


    Started something which I've been meaning to do for years: a parallel reading of The Odyssey and Ulysses. I expect it might take me a while.

    Between chapters, or when I'm too tired to make sense of those, I'm re-reading old favourite Roald short stories and the like.


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    #42
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    bluewolf wrote: »
    Just finished Atlas Shrugged
    what did you think of it?


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    #43
    norrie rugger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,656 ✭✭✭norrie rugger


    Re-reading the Hobbit (for like the 10th time)


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    #44
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    what did you think of it?

    Loved it, thought it was great.
    Sure, could have done with some editing like the speech, but the ideas were fascinating and sometimes scarily accurate.


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    #45
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    it's not a book i can say i've a terrible yen to read, given its reputation.


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    #46
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    it's not a book i can say i've a terrible yen to read, given its reputation.

    Duno why it has such a rep
    Whatever you're into sure


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    #47
    GLaDOS
    Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 23,202 Mod ✭✭✭✭GLaDOS


    Re-reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

    Recovered a battered copy of Watership Down in my granddad's house, anyone ever read it?

    Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of the test



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    #48
    pauldla
    Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    bluewolf wrote: »
    Duno why it has such a rep
    Whatever you're into sure

    I used to share a flat with a randroid...put me off reading her for life. Which is a shame, I suppose, one should make up ones own mind,etc.


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    #49
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    bluewolf wrote: »
    Sure, could have done with some editing like the speech, but the ideas were fascinating and sometimes scarily accurate.
    Just checked the last Ayn Rand/AS thread -- I assume your copy finally arrived :) I did get around to reading Rand's Anthem a short while later, and wrote a short review. The painful act of reading around 150 pages of AS suggests that it's Anthem writ large and inexcusably long. I don't know how anybody, having started it, could ever want to finish it by some means other than windmilling it with great force, through the nearest window (a closed one would do). Stonekettle read Rand, and agreed.

    Your patience is remarkable and I salute it!


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    #50
    Canis Lupus
    Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (fantasy). It's absolutely hooked me but it's a trilogy in progress so only 2 books at this stage. It's the first book in a while that I've had to force myself to put down.


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    #51
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    robindch wrote: »
    Just checked the last Ayn Rand/AS thread -- I assume your copy finally arrived :) I did get around to reading Rand's Anthem a short while later, and wrote a short review. The painful act of reading around 150 pages of AS suggests that it's Anthem writ large and inexcusably long. I don't know how anybody, having started it, could ever want to finish it by some means other than windmilling it with great force, through the nearest window (a closed one would do). Stonekettle read Rand, and agreed.

    Your patience is remarkable and I salute it!


    I have no idea why you found it so painful. It's typically 50s-dramatic as far as I can see, and I am a picky reader. I found it fascinating to read and wanted to know what would happen, as well as finding the ideas interesting.
    Sure, the characters are a little 2d sometimes, but still able to relate to.
    Overall it was also far better than Fountainhead.


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    #52
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,305 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    what people seem to find most offputting is others treating it like a bible; which obviously would cloud critique of it purely standing on its own as a story.


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    #53
    Paddy Samurai
    Registered Users Posts: 3,014 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    swampgas wrote: »
    Just finished reading:
    - The Anubis Gates (Tim Power)
    Great read,one of his top three IMO.


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    #54
    Beruthiel
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 42,362 Mod ✭✭✭✭Beruthiel


    I am rereading The Hobbit at the moment in preparation for the film coming out in December.
    Am a big Tolkien fan.


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    #55
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    Here's a list of everything I have read so far this year, according to my amazon account (and the 4 I am currently reading as previously posted). Hopefully this will be useful for those of you looking for new texts.
    • A Universe from Nothing by Laurence Krauss
    • Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
    • Thomas Jefferson (Eminent Lives) by Christopher Hitchens
    • Blood, Class and Empire: The Enduring Anglo-American Relationship (Nation Books) by Christopher Hitchens
    • Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens
    • The Quotable Hitchens: From Alcohol to Zionism--The Very Best of Christopher Hitchens by Christopher Hitchens
    • The Enemy by Christopher Hitchens
    • Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
    • The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens
    • The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish by Christopher Hitchens
    • Our Cosmic Habitat by Martin Rees
    • Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell
    • Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
    • The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever by Christopher Htichens
    • Letters to a Young Contrarian (Art of Mentoring) by Christopher Hitchens
    • Why Orwell Matters by Christopher Htichens
    • The Strange Death of Liberal England by Christopher Hitchens
    • God, No! by Penn Jillette
    • Lying by Sam Harris
    • White Fang by Jack London
    • Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide by Robert Louis Stevenson
    • The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
    • The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
    • Dracula by Bram Stoker
    • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
    • The Time Machine by H.G Wells
    • Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman
    • The Hobbit J.R.R Tolkien
    • Nostos by John Moriarty
    • The Missionary Position by Christopher Hitchens
    • The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
    • The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
    • A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
    • Serious Sounds by John Moriarty
    • What the Curlew Said: Nostos Continued by John Moriarty
    • Dreamtime by John Moriarty
    • A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
    • The Rachael Papers by Martin Amis
    • Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie
    • The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
    • Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays by George Orwell
    • The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson

    Next on my list are the following:
    • Moby Dick by Herman Melville
    • Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
    Beruthiel wrote:
    I am rereading The Hobbit at the moment in preparation for the film coming out in December.
    Am a big Tolkien fan.

    That's the reason I'm reading it again as well. I read it about 12 years ago, and forgot most of it if I'm honest. It's such a quick, fun, and easy read. I love it. Not sure how they are making three movies out of it though! :)


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    #56
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    I couldn't read Moby Dick :D

    I'll look at my order history too...
    Warbreaker
    By Brandon Sanderson

    The Great Gatsby
    By F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Moby Dick
    By Herman Melville

    The Golden Key
    By Melanie Rawn

    A Madness of Angels
    By Kate Griffin

    The Forever War
    By Joe Haldeman

    Gridlinked
    By Neal Asher

    Before They are Hanged
    By Joe Abercrombie

    Neuromancer
    By William Gibson

    Lone Wolf
    By Jodi Picoult

    The Magic Mountain
    By Thomas Mann

    Sleep, Pale Sister
    By Joanne Harris

    The Shadow of the Wind
    By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

    Among Others
    By Jo Walton

    Last Argument of Kings
    By Joe Abercrombie

    Perfume
    By Patrick Süskind

    Flowers for Algernon
    By Daniel Keyes

    The War for Children's Minds
    By Stephen Law

    Atlas Shrugged
    By Ayn Rand

    The Portrait of a Lady
    By Henry James

    I downloaded a few on my ipod as well & went into the shops
    Peter Hamilton! I read his latest
    Needs more books


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    #57
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    If you find you enjoy WarBreaker I highly recommend the Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson.


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    #58
    coffee_cake
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    Genghiz Cohen wrote: »
    If you find you enjoy WarBreaker I highly recommend the Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson.

    Oh, I've read most of his books at this stage :) It wasn't bad, but not up there. The new series is looking great so far


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    #59
    robindch
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,399 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Beruthiel wrote: »
    Am a big Tolkien fan.
    No shit, Beruthiel. How are the cats these days?


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    #60
    Canis Lupus
    Registered Users Posts: 9,893 ✭✭✭Canis Lupus


    Beruthiel wrote: »
    I am rereading The Hobbit at the moment in preparation for the film coming out in December.
    Am a big Tolkien fan.

    Tried so many times to read that book. Always found it such a chore and gave up.


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    #61
    [-0-]
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭[-0-]


    bluewolf wrote: »
    I couldn't read Moby Dick :D

    I started reading it but realized it is not going to be a book I can read while reading others so I put it down until I'm done with the books I'm reading at the moment. I loved the first couple of chapters though!


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