NOW READING

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Brigantium said:
Oh no problem, both threads are relevant, I just thought some of this debate had already been covered.
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That it has. And Tolkien is a subject that takes up whole forums on its own. I'll look it over once I have the time.

Speaking of forums, this one is very helpful and welcoming. I've been a member for two days and am already having a blast. Looking forward to many intelligent conversations here. And the odd drunken fooling around.
 
Just started reading Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest

so far i'm pretty impressed with how well it holds up, i thought it may have dulled with age but it doesn't feel like it's 86 years old
 
Reading Mr Mercedes (2014) by Stephen King.

A thriller/crime novel following the typical King formula. Not bad at all, but 2/3'rds of the way through, it's lacking the freshness of 11/22/63 or The Wind Through the Keyhole.
 
Severian said:
Just started reading Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest

so far i'm pretty impressed with how well it holds up, i thought it may have dulled with age but it doesn't feel like it's 86 years old
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A lot of those classic noir/hardboiled writers, especially Hammett and Chandler, hold really well. Their wording is so spare and direct that even though it feels dated, it never feels out of style.
 
Reading Thirteen Guests by J. Jefferson Farjeon. One of the neglected (until recently) masters of classic British detective writing.
 
LC and Severian beat me to the punch with the first two I was going to suggest. I'd also go for A Scanner Darkly, which I feel might be his best. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is strange and scary - allegedly Dick wrote it on amphetamines in just three days (the prose quality sometimes suffers accordingly, though it's not like he was ever a great stylist). Of the less well-known ones, I remember liking Now Wait for Last Year, though it's been a long time since I read it.
 
Currently reading Dave Egger's The Circle, about a young woman who gets a job working for the biggest tech company on the planet, sort of a combination of Google, Apple, and Microsoft, but with the influence, power, and knowledge to see, hear, and know all. It's a spectacular utopian novel with an undercurrent of privacy invasion, paranoia, and mind control that is just astounding (and I can only imagine leads to a dystopian ending). I'm only halfway through, but it's truly a spectacular book. Reading The Circle in today's world is what I imagine reading 1984 in the 50's must have felt like.
 
I think A Scanner Darkly is probably his best work, but not his more accessible work - good to read through some of his other stuff before you go there. But when you do - phew. Great, great, great story.
 
A pal of mine has just released his first self-published book (actually he's a friend I first met many years ago on the IMBB back when it was free and brilliant). It's a personal and humorous narrative of self-discovery which I really enjoyed and that I think most people will identify with, and it features a chapter about when we went to Gothenburg to see Iron Maiden. It's available on kindle for only 99p and I heartily recommend everyone to give it a try (it's 99p, what's the worst that can happen?).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Boldly-Goin...43633285&sr=8-1&keywords=boldly+going+nowhere
 
Read Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (2013).

Mandatory reading for anyone who wants to keep up with contemporary SF - it won the Hugo, it won the Nebula, and it won pretty much all other high profile awards in the field.

Deserves all the praise if you ask me, but be warned that it is not an easy read.

Edit:

Read The Martian by Andy Weir (2011).

Cast Away-in-space, basically. What can I say? It's awesome. It lacks the philosophical questions I want in my SF, but that's about the only criticism I have. Unbelievably suspenseful, scientifically accurate (& meticulously written). A future classic, that should spawn the phrase 'morning potato' in popular culture, among other things.
 
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I haven't read anything in months. Is it possible to have a kind of a "reader's block"? That's what I have. Nothing can hold my attention for too long apart from books I've already read and enjoy. Not even the sequels to long running book series can hold my attention nowadays. What's funny is that when I discovered the ebook world about 3 years ago, I've started reading books at a breakneck pace (on my phone) and started saving money for a Kindle, and when I finally got a Kindle about a year ago, I got this reader's block and it's been gathering dust for months :(

I also have to do a big purge of my digital library. Most of it consists of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic books written by Americans that I get from Amazon... Mostly independent authors. The zombie post-apocalyptic stuff is still cool, but I've discovered that most of the non-zombie post-apocalyptic material that features economical collapse, EMP, foreign invasions etc. is written by crazy conspiracy nutjobs which puts me off from reading their books. I dunno much about American politics so I didn't get it at first, but after reading their FB feeds... yep. Gotta do a background check on authors before I get their books from now on, don't wanna end up with another author like Glenn Beck in my library.
 
I haven't read anything in ages, probably in a year. I used to be a keen reader and it just disappeared for some reason. I'm not at all comfortable with it, I'll probably pick up some of my favorite books to get my appetite for reading going again.
 
Night Prowler said:
I haven't read anything in months. Is it possible to have a kind of a "reader's block"? That's what I have. Nothing can hold my attention for too long apart from books I've already read and enjoy. Not even the sequels to long running book series can hold my attention nowadays. What's funny is that when I discovered the ebook world about 3 years ago, I've started reading books at a breakneck pace (on my phone) and started saving money for a Kindle, and when I finally got a Kindle about a year ago, I got this reader's block and it's been gathering dust for months :(

I also have to do a big purge of my digital library. Most of it consists of sci-fi and post-apocalyptic books written by Americans that I get from Amazon... Mostly independent authors. The zombie post-apocalyptic stuff is still cool, but I've discovered that most of the non-zombie post-apocalyptic material that features economical collapse, EMP, foreign invasions etc. is written by crazy conspiracy nutjobs which puts me off from reading their books. I dunno much about American politics so I didn't get it at first, but after reading their FB feeds... yep. Gotta do a background check on authors before I get their books from now on, don't wanna end up with another author like Glenn Beck in my library.
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Are you talking about Fiction or "Non-Fiction" because they're is alot of good post apocalyptic novels.

Earth Abides
The Day of the Triffids
The Chrysalids
I Am Legend
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Damnation Alley
When Worlds Collide
The Book of the New Sun
Always Coming Home
The Road
A Boy and His Dog
 
All fiction. Heard of most of those :D I prefer stuff that starts from the beginning of the thing that causes the apocalypse (say, (Fear) The Walking Dead), rather than far future like in Mad Max for example. Earth Abides and I Am Legend are cool. The Road... I understand people who like it and I know it's really popular but it's too much of a downer. I know the whole genre is kind of a downer, but this was too much for me...
 
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