What are you reading ?

If someone owns a copy of the Terry Pratchett novel called "Hogfather" which contains the pages 145-192, please report to me, I might buy the book.

My pages count from 1-144, then from 97-144, and them from 193-444 (the end).

Originally Posted by Corwin
I'm nearly finished 'The Great Book of Amber' all 10 of the Amber novels. Haven't read the whole series through in years, so it's been a wonderful exercise in nostalgia!!

Is that where your nick comes from?

I've read the first five books, loved them, although I generally don't like fantasy that has has too many connections to or starts out in the real, modern world. And then there's the name "Amber" which I find so enchanting (Chronicles of Amber, Ambermoon, Amberstar), which probably also has something to do with the fact that it starts with an 'A'.

I've just started the Corean Chronicles series by L. E. Modesitt Jr. I really enjoyed his Recluce novels, so I'm looking forward to this set of books. I bought the first six books in the series and just finished the first one. It was a little slow, but not too bad.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
If someone owns a copy of the Terry Pratchett novel called "Hogfather" which contains the pages 145-192, please report to me, I might buy the book.

My pages count from 1-144, then from 97-144, and them from 193-444 (the end).

Where did you buy such a book?

Can't you go to your local library? I seldom buy a book, instead I borrow them from the library.

At the moment I'm reading «Les Bienveillantes»("The kindly ones" is the translated title for the english version) by Jonathan Littell. It's a fictious-autobiography of a SS officer who served in the Sondercommando in russia during WW2. Needs quite a stomach to read but I can already say it's a great book. Won the highly reputed french Goncourt prize in 2007.

Finished Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather" today.

Originally Posted by Corwin
I'm nearly finished 'The Great Book of Amber' all 10 of the Amber novels. Haven't read the whole series through in years, so it's been a wonderful exercise in nostalgia!!

I've read them few years ago. About month ago I tried to read them again, but at the time I also managed to get "Night Tide" and "Bone Hunters" by Erikson and what can I say. Zelezny was put aside and once again Malazan war heroes triumphed. As for my experience from reading once again the first part of Amber I must say that the charm which I found in this series years ago waned. Or maybe I am just not in the right mood to adequatly appreciate it.

Originally Posted by nessosin
Zelezny was put aside and once again Malazan war heroes triumphed. .

Curious about these books, I picked up one a few years ago and (rare for me) couldn't finish it - did I just get a low point? Whats the attraction?

Originally Posted by V7
Curious about these books, I picked up one a few years ago and (rare for me) couldn't finish it - did I just get a low point? Whats the attraction?

I must admit that the first novel is little bit slow on the pace. But it changes around last 100-200 pages. Though I must say that I read Gardens of Moon twice. Second time, when I already knew how the story will progress in following books, was much better. So the thing is its hard to get into the series beacuse of the vast informations about the characters, plot and especially lore(which consists of tremendous amount of info) you must absorb. And definitly you wont understand everything what happens in books if you limit yourself only to one read. Its just impossible to gather all of the pieces, all the small details.

But I can assure you that once you get into the books you wont free yourself easily. Though I know it may sound a bit of like work, this "remembering all the details", it comes naturaly. And Erikson is unbeatable master in writing endings.

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I've just started the Corean Chronicles series by L. E. Modesitt Jr. I really enjoyed his Recluce novels, so I'm looking forward to this set of books. I bought the first six books in the series and just finished the first one. It was a little slow, but not too bad.

I agree, the series begins very slowly, but it does pick up and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. I have yet to find a Modesitt book I didn't like!!

I'm enjoying the series, although all the books are slow paced so far. I'm in Scepters, which is book 3. There is a lot of repetition in the storyline. Battle one sounds like battle 23, etc. This has been a much more plodding series than the Recluce novels. I'm still enjoying it though. I wish Alucius would do more outside of the military. The battle scenes aren't very exciting.

I have been reading The Vinci Code - really interesting.

I was recently reading a small book called "The fortifications of Seligenstadt" (translated title).

Seligenstadt is a small town with the old town's centre very nicely preserved (the houses in the centre are several hundred years old) which is located south-east of Frankfurt, Germany.

The town was given by Charlemagne ("Karl der Große") to his councellor and biograph Einhard (also called Eginhard) as a gift. Einhard founded the monastery there and the town was part of it, in fact it even belonged to the monastery for a long time.

The small book was interesting for me to learn more about medieaval fortifications - of which some rests still can be see in situ in Seligenstadt itself, especially a few towers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seligenstadt (This is in English, and shows the monastery and the so-called "Einhardbasilika", the church in which relics of the holy Marcellinus and Peter are kept.)

If you use the google picture search with the town's name as a key word, you can see many more pictures about it.

Nice picture, Alrik. I'm afraid all we've got in my area is the Alamo.

I finally got a hold of a copy of Sapkowski's The Last Wish, and I'm being very pleasantly surprised by it. The translation is occasionally a bit awkard (Terror was stamped on their faces like cold mud???) but much better than the other snippets I've read online. It's clear the author is a good writer, and his message comes through well so far.

I've been reading a couple of Jeff Vandermeer's books (City of Saints & Madmen and Shriek - an afterword).

Both well worth reading, although I'd recommend city of saints & madmen first. Nice to see a writer exploring some of the slightly more mature possibilities of a fantasy world, delving into the art and literature scenes and strong characterisations rather than a standard "Best warrior in the world ever saves everyone from evil" kind of storyline, no martial skills for the main protagonists at all. No real antagonists either, more of a real book set in a fantasy world (and an interesting one) than a standard fantasy novel.

Finished The Last Wish—worth the read for sure and the game is very faithful to Sapkowski's world imo.

I'm about half-way through The Master and Margarhita by Bulgakov now, thanks to another Prime Junta recommendation, and its quite entertaining. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the finer points on the political satire end, but the theater of the absurd feel is definitely coming across full force. It's also meshing nicely with some of the dark humor in PS:T, which I'm replaying atm.

Just finished The Broker by Grisham. Very good.

Originally Posted by magerette
I'm about half-way through The Master and Margarhita by Bulgakov now, thanks to another Prime Junta recommendation, and its quite entertaining. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the finer points on the political satire end, but the theater of the absurd feel is definitely coming across full force. It's also meshing nicely with some of the dark humor in PS:T, which I'm replaying atm.

The nice thing about it is that it works on so many levels. You don't *have* to read it as political satire, even though it is most certainly that too.

I recently saw a theatrical production of it. It was quite interesting how different their experience of the book was from mine. In particular, Pilatus and Yeshua were portrayed as somehow quintessentially Russian figures — Pilatus as the "chinovnik," his secret police operative as the "chekist," Yeshua as the "yurodivyi," the Holy Fool. My original experience was a much "straighter" reading of them as, well, a Roman and and Jew. My experience of the book was much enriched as a result.

Yes, those were the sort of nuances I thought I was probably missing. Still, a great book on the human level, and that's impossible to miss. Bulgakov would have appreciated seeing it produced theatrically-especially since so much of it deals with the theater, and his other novels/plays were put on to great success before being shut down by the government-wonder if he ever got to see it?

He never even finished work on the manuscript. His widow completed it shortly after his death in 1940, but it wasn't published until 1966. To my knowledge, the first theatrical version was staged in the early 1970's.