What Are You Reading?

Podmonkey said:
H.P. Lovecraft - Necronomicon. Its just a fat collection of a lot of his stories. Really enjoying it and its a cool looking book.
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I'm just about to finish the Lovecraft Omnibus 1 'At The Mountains of Madness'. I'd only read some of his stuff online before this and I'm really enjoying it too. Omnibus 2 is sat on my shelf waiting.

I'm also simultaneously re-re-re-reading 'Look to Windward' by Iain M Banks. Has to be one of my favourite all-time books and the cream of the culture series.
 
I'm just reading The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum, having finished The Bourne Identity last week. Really enjoying them, the fact that the storylines have been very different to the films so far has kept my interest. Very solid thriller.

Will probably read the latest Lee Child offering next.
 
The Horus Heresy Series is excellent - read them all so far.

Currently got back into the Wheel of Time series with book 5 The Fires of Heaven.
 
shahpor said:
It is a surprisingly interesting book. Although you are constantly reminded of the time it was written by references. Still, not much the author can do about that.

Have you read the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov? I can definitely recommend the first 3 books. I am currently on book 6 - Prelude to Foundation - and while not a bad book by any means, it is not as good as the first 3.

Also half way through Dune by Frank Herbert. Wasn't sure I was going to like it, but I am really enjoying it so far.
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Another vote for the Foundation series. I've only read the first one so far and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have the next one lined up and ready.

Another recommendation which I marginally prefer to the Foundation series is the Ender Wiggin saga by Orson Scott Card. I'm currently half way through the 2nd book Speaker for the Dead and again I'm loving it. The first book, Ender's Game, is brilliant. A must read IMO and is fantastic as a stand alone novel which was the way he originally intended it to be.
 
The Foundation series is great overall, although best if you've also read the Robots and Empire series :)
IIRC Asimov wasn't going to do any Foundation books after the third but got talked into it by the publisher/fans after a number of years, and the last book was written by a third party based on his notes.

I'm currently reading the "Man Kzin Wars" series of books based in Larry Niven's "Known Space" universe, and quite enjoying them as they fill out the events between the early Known Space stories (Flatlander, Pathwork Girl, World of Ptavvs, A Gift from Earth etc), and the start of the Ringworld series.
Most of the Kzin Wars stories are shorts, but shorts that are in some cases 100+ pages :)
It's surprising how well it works, having other authors filling in the gaps and expanding on things that were hinted at/mentioned in passing during the Ringworld series :) (especially building up the Kzin background).
 
Nothing atm but need to get back to being a bookworm like I used to be, until the PC arrived.

I think I'll go for 'The Catcher in the Rye'.
 
Two John Birmingham trilogys - both alternate history/realities but still set on normal modern day earth. Really enjoying both series!

Axis of Time Trilogy (Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets & Final Impact) - A modern 21st century UN naval task force (fighting Jihadists in Indonesia) is transported back in time to Pearl Harbour 1941. However, some of the fleet is scattered across the world and falls into both axis and allied hands. This trilogy is more about the clash of cultures (US pre equality etc) than just hi-tech combat.

After America Trilogy (Without Warning, After America & "not released yet ufortunately") - On the eve of Gulf War 2003 with all the US military might ready to attack, a space phenomenom called "The Wave" vapourises 99% of the people in America instantly, only leaving Seattle unaffected. How the world now copes (or doesn't) without it's only superpower is the global focus of this trilogy.
 
I've just finished Islands of the Damned by R Burgin, good down to Earth biography and thoroughly enjoyed it.

About to take a deep breath and start Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor....here goes....
 
Werewolf said:
The Foundation series is great overall, although best if you've also read the Robots and Empire series :)
IIRC Asimov wasn't going to do any Foundation books after the third but got talked into it by the publisher/fans after a number of years, and the last book was written by a third party based on his notes.
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I agree that the other novel series Asimov wrote would be a nice background to Foundation. After all, it is surprising how many places Daneel Olivaw appears. :)

It certainly appears true that Asimov got talked into writing more Foundation books then he intended. That might explain the 30 years that took place between the 3rd and 4th books. It is hard to believe that a span of 50 years took place between Asimov writing the first and last books.

Also, as far as I am aware, Asimov himself wrote the 7 original books, although there have been Foundation books published by other authors after his death.
 
I finished Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton yesterday and I enjoyed the latter part of the book more, it's all pretty clear and concise but it felt as if he was managing to pull together his contentions a little better. It may be that a lot of the initial chapters was merely scene-setting as it were but I come away from the book having enjoyed reading it as the style is certainly likeable yet not feeling that I've learned anything too much further. Maybe the ideas were just too close to thoughts I'd had myself to feel entirely comfortable with it.

I'm now reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, enjoying it so far, the weird world that is being created slightly reminds me of Clive Barker in style. It isn't entirely what I expected so far but I've very deliberately avoided finding out too much about it as aside from knowing that people rate it I didn't want to be influenced by knowing the story or themes.
 
I've started on Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada (Translated by Michael Hoffman).

Interesting premise about a man who lives in Berlin during WW2. His son dies at war and it sets off a trigger where this guy starts to rebel against the nazi system. I've only read the 1st couple of chapters but it is very promising so far.
 
I've just finished American Gods this morning, it's a good book and I know that because I put off doing anything until I'd finished it. It's well written, fluent and engaging, the idea at the core of the book isn't particularly complex or novel but the manner in which it is depicted is what makes it - there's enough teasing hints that if you know some of the gods mentioned you can guess who is represented early as you meet them but even if you don't they're generally mentioned later on to clarify.

Not sure what I'll read next, probably lucky dip into the books that I've got sitting on my shelf.
 
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