What are you reading?

Cormac

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I'd say this thread was begging to be born.

I recently completed Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. McCarthy is one of my favourite author and I was disappointed at first with this novel: the aging author is no more the incredible prose stylist he was in Blood Meridian (a fantastic 'western', highly recommended) and his other books, he now writes in a much simpler way that's hard to believe is the effort of someone who's elevated english prose to his level, but by the end my appreciation changed. Not one of his best, but still good and very moving.
Now reading the latest from arguably the finest contempory french novelist, Richard Millet. If anyone is curious, I'd suggest they try 'Ma Vie Parmi les Ombres' (My life amongst shadows, for a literal translation), a great novel.
 
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Currently reading "Black Powder War" by Naomi Novik. Third book in her Temeraire series (Her Majesty's Dragon, Throne of Jade) and an adventurous romp through a pseudohistoric 1800th century where the british isles are under attack from Napoleon - both by sea and AIR! Novik (who I also found out was a programmer (!)on NWN:SoU ) succeeds in adding dragons to a well known setting without making it cliche fantasy (no magic, undead, elves et c). Excellent, refreshingly "simple" and entertaining read that's labelled by some as Patrick O'Brian meets Susannah Clarke. Also, Peter Jackson has recently bought the rights.
 
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Trying some contemporary fantasy novels. Currently reading Cook's The Black Company, which isn't bad, really. Then I'll probably start a 800-page brick by some guy named George R R Martin.
 
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I'm working on both re-reading Joyce's 'Portrait of the Artist' and also 'Republic Commando: Triple Zero' (a Star Wars book)
 
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Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything": a rare popular scientific pageturner that appeals to almost all of my friends, even those that are not into science in any way. Very humoristic and brilliant in explaining things through metaphor and visualisation. Funny short biographies of famous scientists and their quirks. I now have the illustrated version which is even better.
Also perusing several new D&D books I bought recently, for example "Dragons of Faerun". Although I don't actually use them to play pnp rpg, I like looking at the wonderful illustrations and collecting them.
Last but not least: "The executive brain" by Elkohonon Goldberg. This is an eye-opener in the neurosciences by a former student of the great Russian neuropsychologist Alexander Luria. It deals with understanding the nature of the most complex cognitive functions we have as humans: the frontal lobe or "executive" functions. Also highly recommended for non-professionals, although a passing knowledge of basal neurology, -anatomy and -psychology is helpful.
 
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Terry Goodkind - Phantom

Raymond E. Feist - Into A Dark Realm

Christopher Paolini - Eragon
 
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George Orwell - "1984"

One just HAS to read it as he's playing Half Life 2 :) "Farm of the animals" was charming, and I really want to see how this comes out, then join the debate of whether the movie or the book was better.

HAHAHA! Apparently people like the farm, as seen here :D
 
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@HiddenX: I like both Eragon and Eldest. That series feels like a cosy and familiar amalgam of a lot of different fantasy influences. Nothing high-concept about it, just good ol' plain fantasy in the best sense of the word. What's your take?
 
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@HiddenX: I like both Eragon and Eldest. That series feels like a cosy and familiar amalgam of a lot of different fantasy influences. Nothing high-concept about it, just good ol' plain fantasy in the best sense of the word. What's your take?

My son is rereading Eragon, and tells us we all need to read it before the movie ;)
 
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Good advice! Although it's labeled a children's book I think it will appeal to grownups also. I'm not sure though if I would completely qualify for that latter group ;) I didn't know a movie was being made, I checked out the trailers: it looks like a promising movie, although more in the B than A category. But hey, they got Malkovich and Irons so there is some star power. And the director knows his special effects. Now to see if they can tell the story.
 
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Eragon is a good book for fantasy beginners - young and old.

The Author is very young:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Paolini

and I am curios about his future as a fantasy author.

My older son (now 10) was anxious for 'Eldest' to come out, and swallowed it up when it arrived. I was pleased that it exceeded his expectations - he likes it better than the first. Too often this type of young author is a 'flash in the pan'. I hope the last in th etrilogy maintains the quality!
 
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I think he is already finding his stride as a more independent author (style- and idea-wise) in the second book. I think he'll develop into a fine fantasy author in time.
 
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I'm reading Children of Amarid, the first book in the LonTobyn Chronicles by David B. Coe.
What is it that fantasy writing authors just have to write books in a series of at least 3 instead of just one.
 
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"The curious incident of the dog at the night-time". A great little book that is written from the standpoint of an autistic child of about 10 years old. It's kind of his journal about him being a detective in a "murder" case. Besides being a quite truthful representation of what an autistic child would write and do, there's also a moving underlying story that you only "get" while reading through the lines of the matter-of-fact writing. Such theory-of-mind things like feelings, motives and the ability to lie are dealt with beautifully from the autistic standpoint.
 
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Exile's Return by Feist, 3rd book in the series!!
 
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We were at Barnes & Noble on Sunday, as my older son had birthday gift cards burning a hole in his pocket (and wanted the brand new Artemis Fowl book). They had the 'collector edition' of the 'Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide' collection for ~$17, so of course I grabbed it. Hadn't read the 4th and 5th books ever, and only read the trilogy when they first came out. Just re-read the first book this summer, so now I will take a crack at the rest!
 
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