What are you reading? (The Book Club thread)

[Wenchmaster]

Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov

Pretty bitchin', philosphical sci-fi mystery-drama, if I must say. It's slow to work into the great parts, but it's more than rewarding in the end. For those who like sci-fi at least.

[Xochi]

Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. Finally.

[Willow of oz]

Beowulf - the Seamus Heaney translation. Classic english poetry from about a thousand years ago (literally). Illustrated on every second page. Includes general afterword on the times and artifacts of the first millennium.
Lose Weight, Get Laid, Find God. Humorous life planner with a day per year describing what you should be accomplishing. A little hit and miss in the humour, and quite light reading as expected, but overall, not too bad. My current year plan according to the book? Become a workaholic
Titan - Stephen Baxter. Started this one a gazillion years ago, but it's been somewhat on the back-burner. Last-gasp NASA one-way-shot to Titan, with some earth scenes of ultra-religious conservative USA. Fairly good, despite my slow reading of it, though far from his best. I prefer his early radical futuristic SF, which it looks like he's moved away from these days.
The Demon Headmaster Strikes Again - Gillian Cross. YA book about a group of kids who encounter, again, a man intent on taking over the world. Maybe about third in the series. Picked it up because I was a fan of Cross when younger, so brings back memories.

[Furious George]

Dracula - Bram Stoker, quite enjoyable so far - also much longer than I expected.

[Willow of oz]

Originally Posted by Furious George

Dracula - Bram Stoker, quite enjoyable so far - also much longer than I expected.

I've noticed that with a few other older, classic works.
Like when I first saw Moby Dick - I was expecting something relatively slim, but the damn thing's got quite a few pages in it.

[gileslol]

Originally Posted by Willow of oz

Beowulf - the Seamus Heaney translation. Classic english poetry from about a thousand years ago (literally). Illustrated on every second page. Includes general afterword on the times and artifacts of the first millennium.

read it in ye olde english for a super annoying literary experience!

[Wenchmaster]

Deathworld.

[Willow of oz]

Originally Posted by gileslol

read it in ye olde english for a super annoying literary experience!

Hehe, I saw some of the samples, and damn the language has changed a lot.


Stiff by Roach - A book on everything about corpses: how they decompose (for crimescenes) to organ donation, grave robbing, soul searching, crash test dummies, anatomy class, etc. Quite readable.
The Head Book by Marsden - YA book just covering general facts, with a slight focus on Australia (such as an overview of our voting system, etc), some bits of history, interesting words, important people and books. Written to be engaging and far from dull.
The Old Man and the Sea by Hemmingway - short sweet and to the point. Liked it more than I thought I might. As per the title, an old man goes out fishing in the sea.
Dark Side of the Sun (Space Above and Beyond #2) - very short YA novelisation of one of the SA&B episodes. I quite liked the series and picked up a couple of the books somewhere, sometime. An easy hour read if you liked the series.
Catcher in the Rye by Salinger - read this around the time Salinger died, but I think just beforehand. I'd heard from friends that they weren't overly enthused about the book because a) they didn't like the main character, and b) there's no real plot, the story just wanders around. I didn't find those to be an issue, and hence rather liked the book, though I wouldn't go jumping up and down raving about it.

Pick of the bunch? No clear winner. Maybe the Old Man and the Sea.

[Willow of oz]

No-one's read anything interesting in the last 3 months?

I've read a fair few recently, but I'll just stick a couple here.

Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin - essentially why the Christian Right Republicans are right about everything and filthy bleeding-heart democrats are destroying the US and betraying everything the great country was founded on. Yes, I did go into it biased, and came out with much the same views as before, but it actually does make for a good read, and at least makes you look at the broader issues, as well as seeing *why* someone believes something different.
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen - the woman can't write. Absolute trash, don't know what anyone sees in her scribblings. Worst thing I've read in about 15 years and just couldn't finish.

[Casey.32]

I'm midway through The Collected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. It's basically the tale of a 12 year old boy who maps out every aspect of his life, from the way his father sips whiskey to the local geography.
I stopped reading it shortly however so that I could pick up Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

[Frosties]

I'm almost done with Watership Down.

[Svartwerk]

Originally Posted by Frosties

I'm almost done with Watership Down.

Definitely a great one for analysis.