I am currently reading...

[clowntable]

I have a feeling this won't fly but bleh.

Always interesting in picking up good new books. Basically I read everything and usually multiple at a time, dunno why I just do.
Currently reading:
- Open Society and its Enemies (good)
- Atlas Shrugged (overrated but still ok)
- Neuromancer (decent but not the instaclassic I expected)

[Zurvan]

- Phantom by Terry Goodkind. Latest in the series, decent series, fabulous plot, as long as you don't mind being beaten over the head with obvious Catholic church metaphors and bad philosophy
- Thomas Covenant series: So bad, I put the first book down 50 pages before the end. Don't care what happens, not one bit. The main character is lame, and his motivations change at the authors whim.

[Stephen H]

I'm currently out of books.
I've read Atlas Shrugged a couple of times; if you can make it through the entire radio speech you're a better man than I. I get about 20 pages into it and I have to start skipping ahead to the end.
Neuromancer was pretty good; it's been a while since I read it.

[dmk]

this weekend i will be reading...

Watchguard Firebox X User Guide

i'm not very excited...

[amplify]

Just Finishing:
Blood and Thunder - Hampton Sides: Fantastic book on Kit Carson and the winning of the West.
Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin: Abraham Lincoln is my favorite person in all of history, I'd walk through flames to read a book about him.
The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama: OK so he's a liberal, but he has a way of putting his arguments and positions so that they seem a lot more reasonable that those of his left-wing comrades.

Just Starting:
Swann's Way - Marcel Proust: Holy Moses this writing is intricate, the sentences go on for days.
1491 - Charles Mann: What civilization was like in the Americas before Columbus. Starting this one this weekend and really looking forward to it.

What I am reading threads are always welcome.

[JaredL]

I frequently try to read wdcbooks but he's a tough nut to crack.

[Jeremy517]

Just finished: Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jiff Lindsay

I haven't decided what is next yet.

[amplify]

[ QUOTE ]
Just finished: UBB Source Code Manual
I haven't decided what is next yet.


[/ QUOTE ]

[wdcbooks]

[ QUOTE ]
- Phantom by Terry Goodkind. Latest in the series, decent series, fabulous plot, as long as you don't mind being beaten over the head with obvious Catholic church metaphors and bad philosophy
- Thomas Covenant series: So bad, I put the first book down 50 pages before the end. Don't care what happens, not one bit. The main character is lame, and his motivations change at the authors whim.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Thomas Covenant books are not good by any standard literary measure. Somehow I still admire them. It takes chutzpah to make a protagonist who is as unappealing and loathsome as Covenant.

I am always reading. Sometimes I am on pace for a book every two days. Recent choices:

"A Gallant Company" - Nonfiction account of The Great Escape. Terribly written and still compelling. RAF officers managed to create not only a tunnel of several hundred feet, complete with lights, a trolley system and air pumps, they also had a forgery lab, formal language lessons, a tailor and a theatre company.

"His Dark Materials" - I could not believe that the third rated book, behind "Pride and Prejudice" and "Lord of the Rings" on the 2003 BBC reads poll was something I have never read. A fantasy trilogy written for children, but based on Genesis and Paradise Lost. Thematically fascinating, with no clear cut good and evil really, but anti-religious establishment. Well worth the read, but most of the characters never quite came to life for me.

"River of Doubt" - Nonfiction account of Teddy Roosevelt's journey after losing the Presidential election to Wilson. It is unimaginable today that a 55 year old, overweight ex-President would dissapear for six months to travel down a tributary of the Amazon that is as long as Texas. He very nearly died and had to be forcibly restrained from injecting a lethal dose of morphine so his infirmities didn't slow down the travelling party.
He may not have been the greatest president of the twentieth century, but he was probably the greatest man to be president. "River of Doubt" also introduces Rondon, forgotten by history, as a Brazilian activist for indigenous rights who is a remarkable man with one of the few wills that could match Roosevelt's. This is my favorite book I read last year.

I could go on and on with others. Suffice it to say that I can also give recommendations based on other people's tastes. I got my screenname from my email adress as a dealer in rare books and manuscripts.

[wdcbooks]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a feeling this won't fly but bleh.

Always interesting in picking up good new books. Basically I read everything and usually multiple at a time, dunno why I just do.
Currently reading:
- Open Society and its Enemies (good)
- Atlas Shrugged (overrated but still ok)
- Neuromancer (decent but not the instaclassic I expected)

[/ QUOTE ]

Neuromancer is one of those books that will not wear as well as it ages. The present has caught up to what could only be imagined when Gibson wrote it. It is like reading a sci-fi book based on space travel written in the fifties. I read it shortly after it was written and much of what he imagined was completely new at that time.