Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@sorteddan @FuriousMachine Really enjoying Fahrenheit 451. Hoping to finish it once I'm home from work, then I can pick up Hemingway's The Old man and the Sea which I have reserved at the library 🙂.

I read Moby Dick a year or so ago, didn't find it to be too tough a read.

dunno why but i dug out my old big paperback of Tom Clancy's Executive Orders out of my bookshelf and going to be re-reading that later this month and the rest of this year. Last time i read that sucker was back in 1997 or 1998.

Finished Buffalo Bayou (Goodreads page) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Proper hardboiled noir with a suitably nihilistic and bleakminded main character. Fair warning, though: It might get too bleak/dark for readers who aren't fans of the genre. Fairly short and a quick, easy read. Easy four stars in my Goodreads review.

For my next book, I'm returning to Frank Herbert, for one of his non-Dune novels: Hellstrom's Hive (Goodreads page)

@sorteddan Fahrenheit 451 was a great book. Really enjoyed that one. I have indeed struck
Gold at the moment.

Started and finished The Old man and the Sea by Hemingway a fantastic wee book. I have bought the George Orwell collection as I've always wanted to read 1984. Starting with Animal farm though as it's nice and short. I'm sure I've seen the animation in primary school, but could have easily got that mixed up with Charlotte's Web in my memory.

@FuriousMachine he actually wrote stuff outside of Dune? I need to read Dune Messsiah as I've only ever read the first book which I enjoyed.

Edit: The first sentence on the goodreads page makes me want to read it!

@MightyDemon82 Yeah, and if I'm to believe the foreword in Hellstrom's Hive, the Dune books aren't really typical of his style. I loved Dune; it was an easy five star for me, but the rest of the series got a bit rough.

Dune Messiah was a huge step back, as 90% of it was just characters talking about events that had happened, which I found annoying as a storytelling device (it's the ultimate "tell, don't show", in a way). Still, three stars from me (three stars means "good" on my scale, so it was by no means a disaster).

Children of Dune was better, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the previous book. Four stars.

God Emperor of Dune was still good, but I was struggling to maintain any interest in the series at this point. Still, three and a half stars.

Heretics of Dune was the one where I officially jumped ship. I finished the book and it wasn't bad (still three stars, if only just barely), but I realised that I found myself completely uninvested in the fates and stories of the characters and I really didn't care too much about what happened next. I may pick the series back up at a later date, but with so many exciting books just waiting to be read, I doubt it.

Hope you'll enjoy them, though. As mentioned, they're not bad; I guess they just weren't my kind of thing.

I finished Italo Calvino's 'If on a Winter's Night a Traveler' today. Great book.

Mary: An Awakening
Foe

@FuriousMachine I'll give Messiah a go and take it from there.

I returned all the books I had from the library on Friday. I always feel bad not leaving without one, so I'm now reading On the origin of time: Stephen Hawking's final theory, written by his colleague Thomas Hertog. Fascinating so far.

@LN78 What was A Masterpiece in Disarray like? It's a bit pricey in my country, I assume you are in the States or Canada. So I want to know if it's worth it.

@PixelDragon Looks interesting and is well reviewed on Goodreads, so on the reading list it goes

Currently reading a book on J Dilla by Charmas, it's quite interesting. A retrospective describing the influence of hip hop music on him, and, consequently, his influence on hip hop.

Traces of Two Pasts, a Final Fantasy VII book

I Finished origin of time last night, I wasn't allowed to play Spider-man 2 until I had done so.

I Read volume 2 of Full Metal Alchemist today and my next novel to read is Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert it won in a series of coin tosses between 1984 and Halfhead by Stuart Macbride!

Still reading the J Dilla book and alternating it with Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. So far it is very 'literary', perhaps unsurprisingly.

Just finished Invisible Cities. Great book. Some repetition but overall the quality is undiminished.

@TheBrandedSwordsman sounds like an interesting read. On it goes to the TBR list.

@MightyDemon82 Hope you enjoy it.

Still reading Dilla Time by Charnas, also looking at Dark Horse's versions of the Witcher stories. I don't think the material in the texts is canon, but it is very entertaining.

Catching up on this thread a bit.

@MightyDemon82 I love Catch 22. I've read it a few times and there's plenty of stuff I only picked up on second time round. Just a fantastically written book. I wasn't that enamoured with Fahrenheit 451 as I found it had a solid central idea but not one that could carry a whole book. But then again, I also feel that way about 1987!

@sorteddan @FuriousMachine Moby Dick is a tough read. It is massive and goes off on so many tedious and random tangents; I seem to remember there's a 20 something page chapter about the anatomy of different whales. By the time I finished the book I had to go read a synopsis to remind myself what on earth had actually happened.

@Thrillho I enjoyed both quite a bit, I'm assuming you meant 1984? that was going to be my next read but it's been bumped as I picked up The Forever War & Childhood's end from the library. Will read it after I'm done with those.

Finished Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert today and enjoyed it a lot. A unique take on folklore, mainly the Wild hunt!