(WAYRN) Read any good books recently?

[Visions of Khas]

Good point. I agree, it should stay here.

[Eligor]

Have finished "War of the Flowers" and "Swords and Deviltry" as well as George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones". For some reason always shunned "A Song of Ice and Fire" expecting it to be a badly written Tolkien imitation, but it turned out to be closer to Maurice Druon's "Accursed Kings" than D&D, more historical romance than swords and sorcery. Very good book.

Still having trouble with Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" though, some parts are just too sentimental and saccharine (and I liked "Oliver Twist" and "The Pickwick Papers"!).

[//MavericK\\]

While we laboriously crawl toward July 27th, any one reading any good novels?

If so, what?

And does anyone have any ideas for some good, long-term reading. I really like multi-book series, rather than stand-alone-novels. Doesn't have to be sci-fi. I'm open to most genres.

I'm currently reading the original Dune for the first time. Not too bad, so far. If it keeps me interested, I'll keep going with the rest of the series. And, oh man, are there a lot of sequels and prequels. Anyone ever read any of them before?

[Sarov]

Maverick, I don't think you realized you posted this in strategy section (or did you?), so I moved it to the off-topic forums for you.

[//MavericK\\]

face + palm

Thanks Sarov

[Sarov]

Heh, no problem Maverick.

As for me, I haven't really read any books lately. I've read a few several months ago but I doubt anyone here would be interested in them (based on the books people have listed before), so they shall remain unnamed.

I think the reason I don't read much anymore is because it's really hard to keep my attention. There are so many things that can make me put the book down in a few minutes. More than half of the books I attempt to read, I end up putting down even if they first seemed interesting because of the summary. I'm a very picky reader. Or perhaps I know what I want and won't settle for less. I guess another reason that I haven't been reading is because I have yet to find anything really interesting.

Although one book's name and author I do remember reading that was pretty interesting was Vodka by Boris Starling. I absolutely love most if not all things Russian - the names, the accent (not the fake, pathetic or 'Hollywood' kind), the culture; eh, I'm just really, really fascinated with them - so that was a large contributing factor to the reason I picked it up from the local library in the first place. 'Ice picking', as I've come to call it, sounds brutal (described in the book as inserting a pick beneath the skin and scraping it along the bone).

I could probably look up the names of books that I've read before or the author's I have read more of, but since this thread is about things that one has read recently, I guess the books I can list are:

1. Empress (Book One of the Godspeaker Trilogy) by Karen Miller - the Mijaki are an interesting people and the culture is different from a lot of the fantasy cultures I've seen in books.
2. I have re-read Shadow Hunters and Twilight of the Dark Templar Saga because the books are just that awesome. I absolutely loved the snipits of Protoss lore, especially in the first book - the first book wasn't interesting enough for me to read it as much as I did the second or even the third book. For those Protoss lore fanatics lovers, these three books (First Born, Shadow Hunters, and Twilight) are a must read.

Hm, perhaps I should start reading more...

[TargetBlue]

Outside of the endless textbooks I am required to read in school, I don't read much myself. Though in the spirit of the slowly approaching SC 2 I gave the novels a shot...and man I am eating up Liberty's Crusade with gravy. Aside from that I was always a fan of the books by Tom Clancy and Stephen King.

[Visions of Khas]

You know, I could never get into any of King's books save the Dark Tower books. He comes up with interesting concepts, but I find he... I don't know, I suppose the word "digresses" seems most appropriate here.

[TargetBlue]

I'd hate to roam around in King's mind...that's for sure.

[Eligor]

While we laboriously crawl toward July 27th, any one reading any good novels?

If so, what?

And does anyone have any ideas for some good, long-term reading. I really like multi-book series, rather than stand-alone-novels. Doesn't have to be sci-fi. I'm open to most genres.

I'm currently reading the original Dune for the first time. Not too bad, so far. If it keeps me interested, I'll keep going with the rest of the series. And, oh man, are there a lot of sequels and prequels. Anyone ever read any of them before?

From what I've heard only the books written by Frank Herbert himself are really worth reading, the general consensus on the prequels written by his son being pretty negative...

If you're looking for a good multi-volume series I would strongly recommend Tad Williams' "Otherland" tetralogy, it is a sci-fi set in the near future that effortlessly combines a complex, multilayered and wonderfully creepy plot with some very interesting and pertinent reflections on the nature of virtual reality and the uses it can be put to (it also accurately predicts MMO's (that with the first volume published in 1994) and gives a most plausible picture of just where this whole Internet business might be headed, easily a must read for anyone interested in the future of computer games).

Although one book's name and author I do remember reading that was pretty interesting was Vodka by Boris Starling. I absolutely love most if not all things Russian - the names, the accent (not the fake, pathetic or 'Hollywood' kind), the culture; eh, I'm just really, really fascinated with them - so that was a large contributing factor to the reason I picked it up from the local library in the first place. 'Ice picking', as I've come to call it, sounds brutal (described in the book as inserting a pick beneath the skin and scraping it along the bone).

That would explain your nickname...

Speaking of 'Ice picking', I have Russian heritage and I've never heard of such a practice, was it something done in Soviet prisons or labour camps?

Any Russian books you've read? I could recommend some...

You know, I could never get into any of King's books save the Dark Tower books. He comes up with interesting concepts, but I find he... I don't know, I suppose the word "digresses" seems most appropriate here.

I have practically the same problem with most of his writings (never tried the Dark Tower books though). "It" must be the only book where I've skipped passages out of sheer boredom and it would probably win the award for the most anti-climactic and nonsensical ending as well. "Pet Sematary" I abandoned a third of the way through (and that's a book King claimed as his scariest and most suspenseful). I did like "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" (which had some genuinely scary scenes as well as the best conveyance of the sense of getting lost in the woods as a child) and "Carrie" (which was a pretty heavy book, but very readable nevertheless).

P.S. Merging this to the previous book thread I've started would be a good idea (and changing the title of that thread to this one's as well perhaps, I think it's a better one than "WAYRN").

P.P.S. Thanks.