Whatcha Reading? / What Should I Be Reading?

Currently I'm reading King's Shield, by Sherwood Smith and I'm in love.

(I'm also in the middle of Alpha Beta, by John Man; Catch-22, by Joseph Heller; and Fellowship of the Ring, by Tolkien.)


But really, if anyone has time to read a somewhat thick fantasy book, please try Inda and then The Fox by Sherwood Smith. I am in love with these books, but I would like to hear what others have to say about them. Also, if you think Inda is only so-so, please give The Fox a try anyway because it's a million times better.

Currently reading If you Liked School, You'll Love Work by Irvine Welsh - Recently read The Club Dumas & The Natural - both of which I recommend.

Also, a favorite summer read of mine is High Fidelity by Nick Hornby - classic stuff there!

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Originally Posted by Me, in another book thread

War and Peace. Seriously, read it. I went into it just trying to kill some time, but I got completely sucked into it very fast. Tolstoy pretty much defined what a novel is with that book; it seems like it could've been written just yesterday, and there are virtually no dull moments.

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Nearly finished both the Alastair Campbell diaries and Empire of the Sun (J.G. Ballard). After that I'm probably going to read either Live and Let Die (Ian Fleming) or When We Were Orphans (Kazuo Ishiguro).

Miriel: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is an excellent, Booker Prize-winning read.

foa: I second Miriel's suggestion of The Handmaid's Tale. That's a great book. Only Atwood that I've read though.

I need to read more. I've been reading eragon on and off for a few weeks.

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Originally Posted by The Unknown Guru

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Originally Posted by Me, in another book thread

War and Peace. Seriously, read it. I went into it just trying to kill some time, but I got completely sucked into it very fast. Tolstoy pretty much defined what a novel is with that book; it seems like it could've been written just yesterday, and there are virtually no dull moments.

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tried it, didn't like it as good as anna karenina.

have you read
Lolita (irl)
Sabriel/lirael/abhorsen (kinda YA but still good, fantasy)
East of Eden (irl)
things by Terry Pratchett (humor, fantasyish)
Things by Neil Gaiman (sandman(fantasy, comic book), american gods(irl fantasy))
Flowers for Algernon (irl)
The Bell Jar (irl)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (can you tell I'm a fan of '60s psychology novels? also, irl)
The Awakening (irl)
A Separate Peace (irl)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (irl)
Witch World books (collected for your convenience into titles such as Annals of the Witch World and Chronicles of the Witch World, clearly fantasy)
Cloudsplitter (irl)
Contact (irl sci-fi)
Dove (irl, the ocean)
Fool's Die (and for that matter. . .) (irl)
The Godfather (irl)
Giants in the Earth (irl)
Into Thin Air (irl, for reals, mount everest)
Jurassic Park (irl)
Men of Iron (irl, middle ages england)
Snow Falling on Cedars (irl, also for reals)
Support Your Local Wizard (Young Wizards series, more excellent YA,fantasy)
The Chocolate War (irl)
The Count of Monte Cristo (irl, france)
The Day After Roswell (I hated it, but maybe other people like ex-government official accounts of aliens! irl, but probably not for reals)
The Good Earth (irl, china)
The Little Prince (fantasy, adorable)
The Moon Pearl (irl, china)
The Poisonwood Bible (irl, Africa)
His Dark Materials (fantasy)
Watership Down (rabbits)

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Originally Posted by Miriel

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Originally Posted by fire_of_avalon

Then ... hmm. I don't know what I'll read. I'm open to recommendations, always. And I suck at this so I have no suggestions whatsoever.

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Have you read any Margaret Atwood books, foa? I think you'd like her. I loved The Handmaid's Tale.

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It's really weird but I've been trying to get myself to read her since high school and she always ends up slipping through the cracks of my memory.

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Originally Posted by Heath

Nearly finished both the Alastair Campbell diaries and Empire of the Sun (J.G. Ballard). After that I'm probably going to read either Live and Let Die (Ian Fleming) or When We Were Orphans (Kazuo Ishiguro).

Miriel: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro is an excellent, Booker Prize-winning read.

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I love The Remains of the Day so much. So. Much.

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Originally Posted by Miriel

I'm reading Running with Scissors for the 2nd time. I didn't really like it the first time, so I thought I'd give it a second chance.

It's really not that great of a book.

Y'all have such different tastes than I do in books. I'm not a huge fan of the classics, and aside from Tolkien, I'm not a huge fan of fantasy books.

Anyone have any good contemporary recommendations?

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You might enjoy Augustin's other works though. Running With Scissors and his most recent books are his more "extreme" books. I adore him. Try Magical Thinking, Dry, or Sellovision.

I'm re-re-re-re-re-re-reading Norwegian Wood.

I have American Gods by Neil Gaiman waiting to be read next.

I was finally persuaded to read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and it's pretty great.

Read any of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks. Best sci-fi ever.

Currently I'm reading the Amber Spyglass. I just finished The Subtle Knife a week or so ago.

I need to finish The Book of Lost things but I cba and His Dark Materials just drew me right in.

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Originally Posted by Breine

I'm still reading Lord of the Rings for the second time. I hope to get some time to read it through this summer - I love that book!

There are many books I'd like to read after that. For example, Middlesex and The Road. There are more, but I can't think of them right now. Whenever I walk into a book store I also just feel very inspired to read all of the books in there..!

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As much as I detest LotR, Middlesex and The Road are both novels I've been meaning to get around to.

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Originally Posted by Nominus Experse

Read the following:

A Brave New World
1984
Lord of the Flies
Cat's Cradle
Slaughterhouse Five
The Jungle
The Great Gatsby
Heart of Darkness
The Idiot
Invisible Monsters
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Fight Club
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
A Clockwork Orange
Foundation
Dune
Ender's Game
The Wasteland
The Tempest
The Illiad
The Odyssey
Lisa Strata
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Bible
The Koran
The Teachings of Buddha
Nicomachean Ethics
Lost Gods
The Selfish Gene
The End of Faith
Leviathan
Middlesex
Flowers for Algernon
The Cider House Rules
Don Quixote
It
The Catcher in the Rye
The Dispossessed
The World According to Garp
Atlas Shrugged
Gravity's Rainbow
Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way
Dolores Claiborn

Fix'd

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Currently I am a quarter of the way through the first part of Don Quixote. It is the best adventure book ever written. EVER.

Don Quixote was incredibly hard for me, but absolutely brilliant and hilarious.

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

Don Quixote was incredibly hard for me, but absolutely brilliant and hilarious.

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The only problem I'm having with reading it is that my translation sort of sounds like it's trying to imitate Shakespeare sometimes.

I just finished The Handmaid's Tale and Lord of the Flies; I'm re-reading Gone with the Wind and reading Cujo for the first time. I am sufficiently freaked out. :D

Reading Choke atm and kind of Brave New World.

Next up is Fight Club and re-reading Diary. I'm on a Palahniuk binge. And then probably reading Count of Monte Cristo, Jane Eyre, Catch 22, A TON of random Vonnegut, and then we'll see. Bert wants me to read his hoity toity fantasy books.