52 replies to this topic

[Christopher Haygood]

Just so the new book board isn't so lonely.


I'm currently reading:

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Earth vs. Everybody by John Swartzwelder

The Te of Piglet by Benjamin (not John) Hoff


I never read The Grapes of Wrath in high school like a lot of people, but I'm being blown away by it. Even more than Of Mice and Men. There's such deceptive simplicity and brevity to Steinbeck's language, but he uses his words masterfully. I'm about 70 pages in.

I think I've talked about John Swartzwelder before on the old board, but he's the funniest author I've read in terms of number of laughs per page. It's obvious why the Simpsons went downhill after he stopped writing episodes. Earth vs. Everybody is the fourth (I believe) in his Detective Frank Burly series, which I highly recommend.

The Te of Piglet is Hoff's sequel to The Tao of Pooh, an exploration of Taoism through Winnie the Pooh stories. Laugh all you want, these are some cool books, and the first one is short enough for me to recommend them to anyone with even a passing interest in Eastern philosophy.

So what is everyone else reading?

[Kat Leonard]

The Girl Who Played With Fire
I'm about halfway thru it. It's a trip. I started reading it just before the American version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo came out.

[Christopher Haygood]

The Girl Who Played With Fire
I'm about halfway thru it. It's a trip. I started reading it just before the American version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo came out.

Would you recommend the series? With as much hype as that books received, I always wondered if they were worth picking up.

And I heard that American movie was crap.

[Kat Leonard]

1) The series is really good. I enjoy the writing. The editor and translation sometimes spazz out though but it doesn't hurt things too badly.
2) The American movie was okay. It brought to the table things the original movies didn't. You had more exposition. And Rooney Mara is a better fit for Lisbeth than Noomi Rapace (no offense to Noomi. She's hot and all but she doesn't quite fit the Lisbeth I had in mind when reading). It wasn't as terrible as I expected it to be. Which is saying quite a bit. I always fear American versions of foreign films to be rotten. Dragon Tattoo was not one of them.

[Kiwi]

Kiwi has found himself in a place full of Science Fiction novels, the first book he has picked up is "Space Viking."

[Christopher Haygood]

Kiwi has found himself in a place full of Science Fiction novels, the first book he has picked up is "Space Viking."

Is it worth reading?

I'm pretty entry-level with science fiction, but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ender's Game, and Foundation are all books I would highly recommend. In that order. Seriously, if you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide yet, do yourself a favor.

There's also a lesser-known book by Ben Bova called Orion that I've made all my family/friends read. It's a historical science fiction novel -- the main character travels to different time periods chasing after someone who is likewise chasing after him -- and it's the first in a (so far) five-part series. It reminds me a great deal of Chrono Trigger, and so I feel it is appropriate to share on this board.

[Ciel]

I am currently reading Huxley's Point Counter Point, but my college courses have distracted me this past week.

[Christopher Haygood]

I am currently reading Huxley's Point Counter Point, but my college courses have distracted me this past week.

Love Aldous Huxley. Haven't read Point Counter Point, though I plan to get around to it, like a plan getting around to the other 10,000 books on my "to read" list.

[Kiwi]

Is it worth reading?

I'm pretty entry-level with science fiction, but The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Ender's Game, and Foundation are all books I would highly recommend. In that order. Seriously, if you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide yet, do yourself a favor.

Kiwi read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy years ago. Most of the stuff here is pulpy science fiction or whatever it seems. Space Viking... was an interesting book with unusual views on humanity. With not completely different to the whole "Freedom is Slavery" idea and a positive view of aristocracy.

Kiwi is now reading "Planets of Adventure" which is a compilation book with two larger novels and a bunch of short stories.

[Darklurkr23]

I have to read FIELDS OF READING in college. Bunch of random stories about stuff.... I really want to read Watchmen in a class though. Wonder how you'd pull that off

[PoukiSan]

Unfortunately the only thing that I'm actually reading right now is papers on atmospheric flow over and around mountains
I did buy the first couple of Wheel of Time books but I haven't had the chance to read more that the first 10 pages. Before that I read lots of Terry Pratchett novels

[mr.me]

I'm currently reading a book of Dilbert comics.

[DarkCobra86]

Does school book count? Like pathophsyiology of disease? Haha but I am reading my manga (gamaran, bleach, and naruto) currently.

[Palmerama]

I'm reading Sharpe's Triumph! After going on a spree and watchting all the episodes on Youtube I found a boxset of the 3 books set in India before Sharpe was in Spain. This is the second of three and is very good!

[Darklurkr23]

Mostly Rage/Meme comics.....

I hear everyone bullshiting about these hunger games movie. And when people hype a book, it usually sucks as a movie. (Cause i don't read books)

[DarkCobra86]

Mostly Rage/Meme comics.....

I hear everyone bullshiting about these hunger games movie. And when people hype a book, it usually sucks as a movie. (Cause i don't read books)

That is one book I do want to read because of the movie.

[Ludono]

Mostly Rage/Meme comics.....

I hear everyone bullshiting about these hunger games movie. And when people hype a book, it usually sucks as a movie. (Cause i don't read books)

The books were pretty good, although I didn't find them as amazing as many are making them out to be. I also didn't like the ending very much because,

Spoiler

of the fact they killed off Prim at the last second which didn't really serve much of a purpose, it just felt unnecessary. The whole ending to the series also felt a bit rushed/incomplete.

Overall worth a read though!

To those who haven't read it yet, I'd HIGHLY recommend the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin, more commonly, and wrongly, referred to as simply A Game of Thrones. You may/may not have seen the fantastic HBO adaption that came out last year, which is really good, even more so if you've read the novels. The second season, which is based off the second book A Clash of Kings yet called Game of Thrones season 2 to keep it easy, airs April 1!

[DarkCobra86]

To those who haven't read it yet, I'd HIGHLY recommend the Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin, more commonly, and wrongly, referred to as simply A Game of Thrones. You may/may not have seen the fantastic HBO adaption that came out last year, which is really good, even more so if you've read the novels. The second season, which is based off the second book A Clash of Kings yet called Game of Thrones season 2 to keep it easy, airs April 1!

Good recommendation there. I play the card games with my friend and loved it. The board game was cool too. I want to watch season one along with getting the books to read.

Winter is coming....

[SeveranceZero]

I started reading The Walking Dead comics but I'm at the point where I don't really want to get ahead of the show. I like that I don't know where the show is going and reading ahead in the comics will give away many spoilers - even though the show doesn't follow the comics completely.

My friend told me The Hunger Games was an enjoyable read but it seems more of a Twilighty book to me, so I haven't picked that up...

I also want to read the Song of Fire and Ice series, they've been recommended to me by quite a few people but sadly I don't read enough! I really need to read more.

[Sean Dimagiba]

I'm reading Drive by James Sallis. I saw the movie a few months ago and I finally decided to pick up a copy of the book. It's one of my favorite movies of all time, and the book is pretty good so far. I recommend picking it up if you enjoy a good suspense/mystery story.