What are you reading?

It's worth a read--there is definitely a slightly self-serving tone at times, but also it's hard to hide who you really are when you write about the things you most care about. At least unlike most politicians he has regular flare-ups of a self-deprecating sense of humor.

Excellent, I'm hoping I won't be disappointed by it, for all that he's a consummate political animal he has managed to seem up until now like he does genuinely care about a lot of things.
 
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I guess I had been reading too much MAking Money, then.

This night I dreamt of Golems. Very much human-looking golems, but still all-grey-brown in colour.

I was visiting some kind of an development and selling institute of some sorts ... brrrrr ...
 
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My dreams last night seemed for some reason influenced by the basic premise of Demons which I didn't even watch, I'd only planned to watch until I'd read this scathing review/

I believe in the end my subconscious came to the conclusion that if there really were a race of demon half people living in abandoned river tunnels below london the best way to deal with it would be to move to Milton Keynes because that's a new city so shouldn't have the same issues.
 
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Just picked up World War Z by Max Brooks on a gift card. Nice style and good flow so far.
 
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I'm flying thru the 2nd Instrumentalities of the Night book from Glen Cook. I really enjoyed the Black Company series, and this one is just as good. I struggled a bit during book 1 because he throws a ton of geography and interlaced politics right from page 1, but I've gotten the major players and important regions in my head now and I've realized that it's not critical to figure out the minor players and regions. Keeping me up late when I've got a badly nagging cough/cold and should be sleeping...
 
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Chicken soup, orange juice and a good book are the only known cure for that dte, so sounds like you're pursuing the proper course. Sleeping when one can't breathe can be problematic anyway.

I just finished a great chick book/historical mystery, not that anyone else here reads them, called Silent in the Grave, by Deanna Raybourn. Setting:Victorian England. Hero:Mysterious brooding muscular but enigmatically sensitive Gypsy/aristocrat with the Sight. Heroine: Eccentric daughter of an Earl whose syphillitic husband has been murdered by????? Highly recommended for those who care for that sort of thing.
 
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I've just finished Nation by Terry pratchett which was quite good. Somewhere between his children's books and his full grown up books really.

I'm getting a little bored of his protagonists though, they all seem to be basically the same "remarkably pragmatic, recognises the value of humanity before everything else etc" type, but it was a nice setting really and some good moments. Quite a moving ending too.

Now I'm on to my brother's second book Gears of the City [/spam]. Really enjoying it so far, he seems to be settling into his style a lot more with this one. Especially since there's a very dreamlike quality to the beginning with the central protagonist having had his memory stripped away from him (there is a narrative context to it, it's not just a "wake up with all memory gone" relatively cliched game start) and capturing that dreamlike quality without disappearing up one's own arse finnegan's wake style is always tricky but he's done very well.

A far more appropriate cover for this one too, no gay pirates on it. Not that I have anything against gay pirates, there just weren't any in the book and the cover didn't really fit with it.

Anyway, obviously you should all buy at least 10 copies because he's my brother but aside from that in so far as I can tell (and obviously I can't be objective) it is actually really good as well, especially if you like New Weird.
 
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Began reading Peirs Anthony's "Night Mare" again. I like this book very much. :)

Now I think I might try to collect the other Xanth books ...
 
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Wrapping up the 5th Nightside book from Simon Green, Paths Not Taken. Quick and very enjoyable read.
 
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Haruki Murakami , Dansu Dansu Dansu ( Dance Dance Dance )

My favourite out of all his books. Pure brilliance, I am going to re-read this one!

Do not shovel someone else's snow!

Now I'm on to my brother's second book Gears of the City [/spam]. Really enjoying it so far, he seems to be settling into his style a lot more with this one.

It is impressive in itself, that it is selling and was published, I am trying to read a sample of it on amazon. Might be I would order it, but looks like it is only availiable in US so far ?
 
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It is impressive in itself, that it is selling and was published, I am trying to read a sample of it on amazon. Might be I would order it, but looks like it is only availiable in US so far ?

He's certainly done well getting it out there, especially getting his first ever book put out in hardback :) Although annoyingly the person he was dealing with at his publisher has been made redundant in between agreeing to take his third book and getting it all official so he's had to start over with someone new at the company which is all proving a bit stressful.

I think it's generally available at least through the internet, I've certainly never had any problems getting it delivered in the UK. I think at one point he only had a US distribution deal, but that just meant that the physical bookshops didn't get it, and possibly that delivery was a bit more. I think there's an international deal for the paperback of his first book though, but I'm not sure . . .
 
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@benedict: Your brother's books are also available over here at Barnes & Noble. When next I get my book allowance, I'll be picking up the first. Some very complimentary user reviews at both spots.

Right now in the gloom of an ice storm, I'm finishing up the engrossing saga of the political problems of the Eighth Level of the Shellworld known as Sursamen in Matter by Iain M Banks. Either I'm getting used to him, or this one is much easier to follow than The Algebraist. I can't thank Prime J enough for turning me on to this author-- he's one of a very few modern science fiction writers I've been able to get into. He strongly reminds me of Vernor Vinge, a great favorite of mine (though I hear his latest is not up to par), with some overtones of Vonnegut from time to time, only much more contemporary. A very amusing and politically adept novel.
 
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Knocked out Double Whammy, some fluff from Carl Hiassen, a couple nights ago. Sort of falls into the sophomore slump, as he doesn't seem sure if he wants to write detective stories or comedy. I'll still pick up his next book at some point.

Started Hyperion. I've heard all sorts of drooling over it for years so I decided to see what all the buzz is about. We'll see how it goes.
 
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@benedict: Your brother's books are also available over here at Barnes & Noble. When next I get my book allowance, I'll be picking up the first. Some very complimentary user reviews at both spots.

He's done well out of Barnes & Noble, they've put both his books on the tables as well as up on the shelves (which apparently is where most casual browsers pick things up). Hopefully you'll like it, I can't tell for sure because I'm obviously biased, but all the reviews have been good (Thunderer even got a mention as one of the Onion's books of the year for 2008).
 
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Knocked out Double Whammy, some fluff from Carl Hiassen, a couple nights ago. Sort of falls into the sophomore slump, as he doesn't seem sure if he wants to write detective stories or comedy. I'll still pick up his next book at some point.

My girlfriend likes Carl Hiassen's stuff, and someone else who's very similar . . . grrr, can't remember the name of the other guy at all for some reason!
 
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Oh - currently reading Cities in Flight by James Blish, Gollanz is releasing a load of older stuff in a Science Fiction Masterworks series so I'm looking at them, seem to be the only things in bookshops that aren't eddings or some such other interminable and tedious series.

Quite good in a way but a bit dated. I did have a wry chuckle at one bit where he was saying that people had stopped being able to do mental arithmetic at all because since the invention of the slide rule had reached the pinnacle of calculation then human arithmetic was obsolete.

A book set a few thousand years in the future with technology that negates gravity so that entire cities can fly between the stars and they're still using slide rules because he just can't imagine that anyone could ever invent anything better!
 
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Spring 2009 is hopefully the last bit of my education at my current level and I am only studying for grades now really. Still, I have taken courses in advanced history, basic and advanced natural science, law and advanced writing. All of that sounds more advanced than it is. Theese courses will ofcourse guide what I will read during this spring.
 
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Almost finished reading the "Best of H.P. Lovecraft". In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

Next, I'm gonna go with "Dracula" by Bram Stoker.
 
Almost finished reading the "Best of H.P. Lovecraft". In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
 
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Between gaming (currently GTA: IV) and watching B-list horror films, not much time left for reading really, currently ready to finish the "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, and just starting "Audacity of Hope" by you know who...
 
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