What are you reading now?

[charlesr]

Just finished Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. I don't normally pick up best-sellers but this one is set in France in the Pyrenees which is an area of the world I like. It flicks forward and back in time between 1209 and present day, and is a search for the holy grail to a certain extent although it's more a search to reveal what happened in the 1209 part of the book. The style starts off a bit weird (sorry, can't put my finger on why) but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. The ending was a bit disappointing. It built up and up and then just sort of flopped.

[djjimbob]

My first Dean Koontz book - By The Light of the Moon.

Never read him before and it's pretty good so far.

[Codger]

Re-read LOTR last month ago.
Re-read Rendezvou with Rama series after that.
Read R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf series (17 books so far)
Read 2001 series
Read Angels and Demons and Da Vinci Code (found it mildly entertaining)
Read 1981
Read Contact
Read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Time Machine, The Lost World, Journey To The Center of The Earth
Read Red Dwarf
Interview with the Vampire Series.
Read Ringworld series and Protector
Currently trying to read Foundation series (Asimov) and War of the Spider Queen (Salvatore).
And loads of other bollocks I can't remember, all in the last two months.

[Ajay1986]

A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick

[MattyD]

I'm reading Moby Dick and really enjoying it. It can be a bit of a struggle sometimes because there are literally chapters and chapters with no narrative whatsoever that go into great detail about the whale fishery; it's customs, working practices, whale behaviour and biology etc. It's a bit of a shock if you're used to modern novels. It's worth the effort though, for the insightful writing and superb prose.

After that I've got Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of The World by Haruki Murakami. He's an aquired taste but strangely intruiging.

[JRMacumber]

My first Dean Koontz book - By The Light of the Moon.

Never read him before and it's pretty good so far.

My favorite Dean Koontz books are Watchers, Phantoms, Twilight Eyes, Strangers, Lightning, and Odd Thomas. His books can be a bit formulaic, but I do think he can spin a pretty good yarn when he puts his mind to it. Odd Thomas has a sequel called Forever Odd, and my wife enjoyed it, but I haven't yet gotten to it. I hope you like some of is other works.

[JRMacumber]

As for me, I just finished reading Stephen King's Cell, and it wasn't bad, though it certainly wasn't great either. He said that he wrote it because people kept asking him to do another The Stand, but this isn't even close to being The Stand. Still, I liked it. A good light read. Now I need to read some research books I picked up so that I can get to work on my novels.

[charlesr]

A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick

Great stuff.

[Ady]

OK, over the last couple of months I've read Lolita (whose author's name I'm not even going to attempt to spell...) and Sayonara Bar by Susan Baker. I'm now reading Diary by Chuck Pahalniuk.

Lolita was an um... interesting book. It was also quite disturbing, not because it was sleazy in any way (it's very tastefully written), but because of the emotions it raises. You feel genuine disgust for the protagonist (particularly with regards to his actions and thoughts), but at the same time, you understand why he is the way he is. I'm still surprised the book even got published when it did. The author must've had some balls to even show the manuscript to another person. It did get a bit boring in the middle though.

Now, Sayonara Bar is an excellent book and I recommend it to any Haruki Murakami fans on here as the book's written style and themes are very similar to something Murukami himself would write. I'm not going to spoil it, just read it!

Diary is pretty good so far. Perversely funny and also sufussed with an underlying tension. In other words, you know it's building up to something...

[Nijo]

I think I've read all of the Murakami stuff now, except perhaps for the collection of short stories. My favourite is perhaps Wind-Up Bird Chronicle followed by Hard Boiled Wonderland (though that was the first one I read so it has bonus marks). Norwegian Wood is less surreal than some others as I recall, but still a nice read.

Might go back to Phillip K Dick as there are a couple I missed (favourite: Man in a High Castle). I also looked at the new Tad Williams - Shadowmarch - but haven't picked it up yet. Has anybody read it?

The last book I read was one of Coelho's - River Piedra - which is more religious than the others I've read (Alchemist and Veronika Decides to Die) and so loses some of the simple spiritual charm. You have to turn off your cynical response to read these books, but The Alchemist is worth it.

That's a fairly random collection.

[wheelaa]

Just finished Jon Ronson's 'Men who stare at goats' and 'Them: journeys with extremists'. Great stuff.

Anyone got any recommendations of similar type books?

[Rsdio]

Lolita was an um... interesting book. It was also quite disturbing, not because it was sleazy in any way (it's very tastefully written), but because of the emotions it raises. You feel genuine disgust for the protagonist (particularly with regards to his actions and thoughts), but at the same time, you understand why he is the way he is. I'm still surprised the book even got published when it did. The author must've had some balls to even show the manuscript to another person. It did get a bit boring in the middle though.

Nabokov's a brilliant writer, I'd highly recommend Bend Sinister if you fancy reading any more by him.

[Dirty Sanchez]

After many years of not reading fiction and only being lured by biographies or travel writing I have put my toe back in the water.

I used to read a huge amount, whilst away at the weekend I picked up a sci-fi short stories book. Couldn't put it down. On the back of this I have ordered Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead and The Forever War. Not been into sci fi for 20 something years so these are new to me although they are considered genre defining classics.

Off to France next week for 3 weeks so picking these up will fill the nights when I'm not smashed on cheap farmhouse vino.

[Ajay1986]

Ive been reading American Gods By Neil Gaiman. Kinda strange book some very weird scenes but im enjoying it overall.

[SaijoBob]

On the back of this I have ordered Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead and The Forever War.

I loved Ender's Game, and would also recommend Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch. Gripping first book, followed by the standard Sci-Fi/Fantasy declining series.