Poll: Escapist book thread!

[Angie7F]

I read a lot as a child, but now I am just too busy with work to read.
However, I manage to keep a few books in my phone, and read them when I have the rare occasion of spare time...like waiting at bus stops etc. So given that I only get 5 minutes max at a time, I am not a big reader right now.

I did read a few chapters into "50 shades of grey" to find out what the hype was about but it was not my thing...

If I am going to read, i want to read something good!!!

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I am always reading but lately its been mainly fanfiction.
For the last actual book I read:
What book: Ready Player One
About: The entire world has basically joined a massive virtual reality MMO. Its where most real paying jobs are, schools and everything while still having planets for gaming.
The real world is pretty much post apocalypse. The owner of the MMo, in his will, leaves everything to the person who can find the easter egg he hid in his game. The book is set around a decade after this and nobody has found anything but some hardcore groups are still trying. the main character is dirt poor but determined to find the easter egg.
Lots of old gaming references and its just plain awesome.
Enjoying:I enjoyed it very much. More then most books I have read recently.

 

[ramboondiea]

Book: Feast of crows
about: 4th in the fire and ice series, very little about crows
Enjoying: no not really, defiantly the weakest in the series so far, only reading through it so i can start on the next, just doesn't have many of my favourite characters, so its like reading all the crappy parts

 

[Sethzard]

I read a lot. Particularly when out.
What book: - Six Easy Pieces - Richard P. Feynman
About: It's the first few chapters of The Feynman Lectures on Physics, basically the non-mathematical side
Enjoying: I haven't read much of it yet, but even the introduction is brilliant!

 

[Cheesepower5]

What Book: Flashman and the Dragon by George MacDonald Frasier
About: A colonial Brittish major who always finds great success by cheating, lying and cowardice. His duties take him to China where he enjoys the whores and free boarding until his leasure is ripped apart by an arms deal wreaking of shadiness.
Enjoying: It's usually damn funny, and just a little bit racist. The old-timey writing can be a bit of a barrier but that's never stopped me before.

 

[Kinguendo]

Book: The Motorcycle Diaries

About: Ernesto "Che" Guevaras diary of his travels around South America and the noticable change in his world view, eventually leading to his joining of Exiled Cuban Rebels as they prepare to revolt in Cuba.

Enjoying: Very much so, it isnt limited to a single genre. Its funny, its gripping, its thrilling, its saddening and heartwarming. Though admittadly not for everyone, if you think Che Guevara was just a murderer then this probably isnt for you.

 

[Alssadar]

I am currently reading the Iliad, by Homer, of course.
About: The Rage of Achilles and the Trojan War (I don't know if it ends in this book).
Enjoyment: Meh, it gets rather lengthy and a has more names than A Song of Ice and Fire (without the character development of each one), and I'm around the 200 page mark.
The only reason I'm reading it is for AP 12.
Other books I've read (I'm going with from this summer started): 1984, Beowulf, The Things They Carried, and now the Iliad. I still have the read the Heart of Darkness, the Death of A Salesman, and some poems. (With 5 weeks left of break, and 3 of them completely devoted to marching band...)

 

[catalyst8]

What book: The Odyssey by Homer.
[...] My only qualm with it is the obsessive use of the word Godlike, I swear Homer describes the same guy as Godlike at least once every page.

I don't know if you've read it but he does something similar in the Iliad, calling the sea 'wine dark' at every opportunity.

Well that's just great, I'm beginning to suspect Homer was all that great a writer.

Bear in mind that they're both epic poems, so it's not just epithets but whole verses which are repeated. While I'm no expert on Ancient Greek literature I suspect it's for alliterative purposes, since it's a common device found in nearly all epic poetry from the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh to the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf (which is nothing to do with the racist 2007 film of the same name). Even relatively modern English poets like T. S. Elliot or Samuel Taylor Coleridge used exactly the same technique to great effect.

 

[science girl]

I am a big forensic fiction fan so reading a good bit of Patricia Cornwell atm.