What are you reading right now?

[GeorgW]

I'm reading Hitchhikers. Have been doing so for a year or so. It's my feel good book.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'm reading a takeaway menu right now. Very good.

As for books I'm reading Star Wars: The Unifying Force. So far so very good.

 

[Slash Dementia]

I'm reading The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud. It's pretty good, but I'm reading it very slowly.

I love that book! Have you read it before? I just finished reading the trilogy.

OT: I am reading "the left hand of god" at the moment, which is very good.

Nope, but I read the first book last year and it was great. I got the trilogy as a Christmas gift.

I'm thinking about buying God, No! by Penn Jillette, has anyone read it?

 

[Tubezz]

I'm reading The Field of Sword by Conn Iggulden and before that I was reading The Death of Kings by same the author.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Seriously, though, I find that swamping the reader with ordinarily incomprehensible language is somewhat flow-breaking. Judging from your descriptions... I'm both curious... and wondering what she was attempting to achieve...

It doesn't come across as needless at all and none of it thus far really falls into the realm of pointless pedantry. Most of them are used to form metaphors using objects that I've just never heard of (a lot of things that a classicist would know of, but the average person would not, like, say, what a palimpsest is...). It's not obtuse language for its own sake, but mostly a bunch of object names for objects you wouldn't have any reason to be remotely familiar with.

 

[roguetrooper96]

101 Sudoku puzzles... yeah...

Before that I was reading the necronomicon and if I remember correctly, I stopped reading about a quarter of the way through becaus-OOH LOOK A BUTTERFLY!!!!- wait, where was I? Curse my terribly short attention span.

 

[SckizoBoy]

It doesn't come across as needless at all and none of it thus far really falls into the realm of pointless pedantry. Most of them are used to form metaphors using objects that I've just never heard of (a lot of things that a classicist would know of, but the average person would not, like, say, what a palimpsest is...). It's not obtuse language for its own sake, but mostly a bunch of object names for objects you wouldn't have any reason to be remotely familiar with.

After I posted, I went and read a preview of the first few chapters on Amazon's 'Look Inside' (prologue & intros to Sei & November). It must've been an edited version, because none of the vocab seemed excessively difficult to understand, though I will admit to re-reading some of the passages to understand the allegory.

Still, her writing style (which is very cerebral to say the least) got me interested enough to order it(!)

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

It doesn't come across as needless at all and none of it thus far really falls into the realm of pointless pedantry. Most of them are used to form metaphors using objects that I've just never heard of (a lot of things that a classicist would know of, but the average person would not, like, say, what a palimpsest is...). It's not obtuse language for its own sake, but mostly a bunch of object names for objects you wouldn't have any reason to be remotely familiar with.

After I posted, I went and read a preview of the first few chapters on Amazon's 'Look Inside' (prologue & intros to Sei & November). It must've been an edited version, because none of the vocab seemed excessively difficult to understand, though I will admit to re-reading some of the passages to understand the allegory.

Still, her writing style (which is very cerebral to say the least) got me interested enough to order it(!)

I've perhaps overstated the case. There aren't many, but having any was a strange sensation for me. The first one that comes to mind was the name of some obscure textile that occurred near the beginning.

I imagine there aren't a tremendous number of people who know what a frontispiece is either, for instance.

 

[Bloedhoest]

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett.

 

[KingGolem]

If you like it, try Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is less fantastic, but nevertheless it is the depth of the vision which makes it worth reading. Hehe, funny thing about Bacigalupi's writing is that he loves writing miserable stories of human suffering in apocalyptic-dystopian futures caused by our environmentally unsustainable practices. Did you know he was raised by hippies?

Interesting... strange choice of genre for a hippy raised author to write...(!) What you mentioned about 'human suffering in apocalyptic-dystopian futures' reminded me of Ian Irvine (his Three Worlds series in particular), man can he make a reader on edge and miserable as hell...

Strange? Not at all. You can plainly see he is perched upon his environmentalist soap box as he was raised. The dismal, pessimistic view of an ecologically ruined future is no doubt his way of warning us. Anyway, I looked up Ian Irvine and his Three Worlds series and found it to have very mixed reviews. Several damned it for its staggering front-loaded infodump, unrealistic character, and cliche of plot. What do you think? I am, needless to say, apprehensive.

 

[Gesepp]

Half way through the Horus Heresy, though that's on hold for a little while because I decided to read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.

And I need to start A Song of Ice and Fire next.

I'm about 200 pages into A Dance With Dragons now.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Strange? Not at all. You can plainly see he is perched upon his environmentalist soap box as he was raised. The dismal, pessimistic view of an ecologically ruined future is no doubt his way of warning us. Anyway, I looked up Ian Irvine and his Three Worlds series and found it to have very mixed reviews. Several damned it for its staggering front-loaded infodump, unrealistic character, and cliche of plot. What do you think? I am, needless to say, apprehensive.

Ah, now the penny drops, 'cos that makes a lot of sense...

Anyway, re: Ian Irvine, I didn't find the infodump that bad, or any of those criticisms, at that, least of all cliched. To be fair, I've only read the Well of Echoes quartet. It can be difficult going at times, largely because you are wading through pure despair...(!)

 

[4173]

The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter - Stories of turn of the century baseball, as told by players. Brilliant, one of the most important books on baseball ever written.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. Amazing book so far.

 

[KingGolem]

Strange? Not at all. You can plainly see he is perched upon his environmentalist soap box as he was raised. The dismal, pessimistic view of an ecologically ruined future is no doubt his way of warning us. Anyway, I looked up Ian Irvine and his Three Worlds series and found it to have very mixed reviews. Several damned it for its staggering front-loaded infodump, unrealistic character, and cliche of plot. What do you think? I am, needless to say, apprehensive.

Ah, now the penny drops, 'cos that makes a lot of sense...

Anyway, re: Ian Irvine, I didn't find the infodump that bad, or any of those criticisms, at that, least of all cliched. To be fair, I've only read the Well of Echoes quartet. It can be difficult going at times, largely because you are wading through pure despair...(!)

Alright then, I might check it out. I think I still have a credit left over on Audible. Thank you.

 

[Hennofletch]

Achtung ? Panzer! by Heinz Guderian. It's really interesting, as it wrote the German's tactics in WW2.