What are you reading?

[smugetsu]

Oh come on, how many people do you know named John?

+1 right here...

[Hunchback Jack]

I'm reading the second Abarat book by Clive Barker. It's good. Some nice world-building, good pacing, and I care about the characters.

I'm not a huge Barker fan, but I've read a bunch of his work, and I think his writing has improved immensely. Still waiting for Art 3 tho.

I usually listen to a book in parallel (in the car to and from work, or while I'm working around the house). I've just finished listening to Conspiracy of Fools, a book about the demise of Enron. Next will be Dune, I think.

HBJ

[A Thing of Eternity]

I'm working on Dune Messiah right now, it's a lot better the second time around ( ok... how much cred did I just loose saying this is only my second time? ), and I liked it quite a bit the first time.

[trang]

:::looks up at TOE's post::::

Ditto on DM, probably 6th or 7th reading Forget, but fun reading again, about half way thru, just havent had as much reading time as I Like, and Life is being a real bear so my brain is so dam occupied that I cant focus on reading when I do get reading time.

Just slipping in pages here and pages there as I get time.

[SandRider]

very nice, three of the sietch reading Messiah at the same time

very nice.

[DuneFishUK]

Hurry up - I've almost finished COD!


---
I've also picked up Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky again after seeing Pandorum. I always thought Orphans was my least favourite RAH... but I might have been mistaken.

[Hunchback Jack]

Just finished The Greatest Show on Earth, Dawkins' latest book on evolution.

Now reading Dune. Its been long enough since my last read that I'm picking up a lot of details that I had forgotten, particularly about the relationship between Shaddam, CHOAM, and the Harkonnens with respect to Arrakis and the control of the spice. Pre-Atreides-fiefdom, of course.

HBJ

[trang]

short way into COD now.

[Nekhrun]

short way into COD now.

I'll be finishing it up tonight. It's been a few years since I read it last. I forgot about some of the things in there like the dead sandworms and some of Leto's internal struggle.

[A Thing of Eternity]

I just started into COD myself.

[Freakzilla]

In the middle of Erewhon.

[Serkanner]

Just started my fourth Banks purchase: "Use of weapons"

[SadisticCynic]

People keep giving me books to read so I've ended up reading several at the same time. I'm reading The Name of the Wind, a fantasy novel, nothing too deep and decided to have a look in the library for Milton's Paradise Lost and found a copy! So I'm reading that as well.

On the pile are Dune from God Emperor onward (my reread got interrupted), Shade's Children by Garth Nix and also a friend told me he'd lend me The Algebraist by Iain Banks. So I have quite a bit of reading ahead of me.

[Omphalos]

Been reading too much heavy stuff lately. Just finished a re-read of Cell, by Stephen King last night, then picked up Protector, by Larry Niven. Once my brain chills for a bit Ill get back to the heavy stuff.

[Hunchback Jack]

A while back I went through a stage of rereading some early '90s King - Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, Rose Madder, etc. I like his mid-'80s work the best, I think, but this period isn't bad either.

I liked Cell. Much shorter, tighter and more focused than the long and meandering Dark Tower novels that came before it.

HBJ

[DuneFishUK]

GEOD: - I listened to the attack of the face-dancer Duncans today... but I forgot to set a bookmark before I drove home - guess that means I'll have to listen to that hour-long section again tomorrow.... shit happens

[Omphalos]

A while back I went through a stage of rereading some early '90s King - Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, Insomnia, Rose Madder, etc. I like his mid-'80s work the best, I think, but this period isn't bad either.

I liked Cell. Much shorter, tighter and more focused than the long and meandering Dark Tower novels that came before it.

HBJ

I like his 70's stuff most of all. That is vintage King that just can't be beat. I liked Cell when I read it and gave it a good review. On second read there are more problems with the book then I noticed before. Its got a lot more of the typical 80's-90's King self-indulgance and causation problems then I saw the first time around. But it is tighter then a lot of his other recent stuff, especially the absofuckinglute travesty that Dark Tower became. But I'm still on planning on reading his new one about the Dome, even though I though Cell was weaker on re-read.

Stephen King at OBR

[Futar]

was given a copy of Ender's Game a few days ago and about half-way into now

funny thing though is i had it with me to read a little bit before my comp class started on monday and my instructor noticed it in my hand. after chatting for a bit about it(the man wouldnt stop talking i just wanted to read ) we got onto the subject of Dune and i briefly mentioned the new stuff and before i could comment on how bad they were he had already given it a thumbs down

[Freakzilla]

A guy on the Yahoo Julian May group was bitching about PoD was turning his brain into mush, I invited him here.

[Hunchback Jack]

Omph,

I like 70s King, but it's very plot-driven, and I think his writing improved in his later work. Sometimes he'd insert a chunk of exposition or backstory without any smooth transition, and his dialogue got much better later, too.

I must admit I have a soft spot for IT, even though it's bloated as hell, just because he was trying something a bit more complex and ambitious and mostly succeeded. Other books around that time - Talisman, DTII, Misery, Eyes of the Dragon - had some great storytelling, I think. (I pretend Tommyknockers doesn't exist - it was a massive, cocaine-fueled monstrosity that was all middle and no beginning or end).

The period from '94 to '04 was pretty much a mess though. I liked DTIV a lot, but there were a lot of bloated, meandering novels during that period. You could tell there were times where he was writing without any clear direction, just seeing where the story would take him, and he left all that stuff in. Too much DT content in non-DT novels, too, which left him with nothing to say when he came to finish the series, so he made up a bunch of new stuff that didn't fit.

I actually like the more recent novels better - I think he's creating more complicated characters, getting his plots under control, and using language more effectively. Still wordy, but not as directionless or repetitive.

I also hold some hope for the new novel, but the length of it, and the insane amount of gimmicky pre-publication publicity they're giving it makes me fear it will be another meandering doorstop.

HBJ

[Omphalos]

Heh. Big difference of opinion here. Personally I have not been able to read a word of his since Gerald's Game (actually I read a few - I though it all sucked). In his 70's stuff there was a frantic newness about him that I really, really loved. Once he found his voice with The Stand I thought he was great until he started to believe that it was Stephen King readers were looking for instead if interesting, slightly supernatural, weird Stephen King stories. His stuff in the 80's I just found too self indulgent. For the first time in decades I though he returned to where he originally came from with Cell. I still wonder what it was that got him there. Sobriety? Doubt it; I think that happened a long time ago. Maybe he actually started listening to his critics?

[SandChigger]

Unfortunately I can't think of King without recalling an ad over here for a show that I never bothered watching that showed a clip from an interview with him. It was dubbed into Japanese so I don't know what he really said in English, but what I heard was

"Hyouronka nante, kuso mitai na mon da yo."
"Critics? Ha! They're [just/the same as/on the level of] shit."

[smugetsu]

The Shining is my favorite King novel...the Kubrick movie was great but didn't follow the book so much. The Stand was fair, and I enjoyed Desperation.

I have read most of the older Stephen King books, and found a few I enjoyed. Typically speaking, I shy away from his newer stuff. Admittedly, I have read and did enjoy the Dark Tower series, though I freely admit it could have, and probably should have, been condensed into about three books.

[Hunchback Jack]

Still reading Dune; about halfway through.

Dismayed at how much of my memory of this book is actually of the Lynch movie, not the book.

HBJ

[TheDukester]

Dismayed at how much of my memory of this book is actually of the Lynch movie, not the book.

Ugh. By all means, scour that crap out of your head, one delicious chapter at a time.