Writing What Are You Reading?

[Shinmaru]

I vaguely remember one thread that might have been similar to this before, but I did a search and couldn't find anything. If I skipped over a thread that's along the same lines as this, I apologize.

Anyway, this is a thread for posting about any novel, novella, short story, or whatever else you're reading at the moment. Go wild, everyone. Hopefully a few people might be reading things other people have read, or even better, people will get interested in a particular novel after seeing someone else's thoughts on it. That's the best. :)

I'm reading William Faulkner's [i]As I Lay Dying[/i] at the moment. I probably would've been finished with it by now (my copy is about 250 pages or so), but school's been distracting me. The novel is a pretty tough read, which I knew it would be before I started reading it. For me, the biggest problem is figuring out who exactly is who in each part of the novel. [i]As I Lay Dying[/i] is written in a series of first-person narratives, and jumps from character to character after each chapter. Each character refers to the other characters in different ways (for example, the children will call Anse Bundren 'pa' while the adults will call him Anse). Once you get a handle on who exactly everyone is, the novel gets a bit easier to handle.

The actual story revolves around the Bundren family, an extremely poor, rural family living in the South. The matriarch of the family, Addie Bundren, is dying, and the chapters in the novel reflect upon everyone's reactions to this, the conditions of their life, and their somewhat touchy (very touchy in the case of Vardaman and Darl lol) mental states. It's a really good, interesting story. What makes it more interesting is how it's written. Faulkner employs a lot of stream of consciousness writing, and the internal monologues of each character are extremely interesting, albeit a tad confusing at times. I really like the novel so far, though. I'm about 115 pages in at the moment, by the way.

Anyway, those are my thoughts at the moment. How about the rest of you?

[Sea Of Chaos666]

The book your reading sounds quit intresting I thinking about buying it now. The book I'm reading is called [I]Dead Until Dark[/I] Heres the summary-

Sookie stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, Keeps to her self, and doesn't get out much. Not becasue she's not pretty. She is. It's just that,well.Sookie has sort of a "disability."She can read minds. And that dosen't make her to dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome-and Sookie can't here a word he's thinking. He's exactly the guy shes been looking for all her life....But Bill has a disabillity:He's a Vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of a-big suprise-murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she maybe next...

It's really a great book. Actully It's a series of book's. There really great I recomend someone reads it.

[Semjaza]

I somewhat recently finished Clive Barker's Weaveworld. I went through it pretty quickly considering it's somewhere around 650 pages. I really enjoyed the book, personally. It's a completely different style from what I've seen in the other book of his that I've read (well a collection) called Books of Blood. Such a great combination of fantasy, realism and horror. I've not read many books that I've liked as much.

I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel, by Susanna Clarke. This one is even bigger and has far smaller type, which is making it a somewhat slow read. I enjoy the book and its attention to detail is pretty astounding (there's even quite a bit of footnotes explaining small things in greater detail... pretty heavy stuff for a fantasy novel, I think).

It's not something I think would be as universally appealing as Weaveworld, however. It's fantasy in a sense, but it's extremely rooted in practicality. The ideas presented in it are not comparable to an "adult aimed Harry Potter" like many people seem to think it is. It's really not even similar.

[url]http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1582344167/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-0967036-8023013#reader-link[/url] -- here are some pages if anyone wants to check it out.

[Chaos]

Three projects right now, all are highly recommended if you have the time.

First off is All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque. I've read it many times before, and I love it. It's a classic war novel about World War I from the perspective of a young German man, for those of you unfamiliar with it. It spans from the middle to near the end, and it is a very in-depth look at the main character's mentality and how he has changed. Just a few pages into it is completely involving, and by the time you get to, say, the third chapter, it will have you very friendly with Paul, the narriating character.

Secondly, and for the third time, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong. A Homeric novel about the fall of the Han dynasty and the events to restore peace afterwards. Very involved, and very artful. Though very biased towards Shu-Han and Liu Xuande, it is still a fantastic story, which has survived in basic form since around 200 A.D. China. Not for the light reader.

The Crucible, by the recently late Arthur Miller, who died just last week. It was his critique of the McCarthy trials during the fifties, of which Miller himself was a victim of. He used the same degrading and public slandering that McCarthyism put forth in this story about seventeenth century Salem, during the witch trials. He heavily favors the hypocritical side of people and the selfishness that is often hidden from prying eyes. I really enjoy the in-depth look we get just by the characters' words, and how much the can express in just a few moments of emotion. Worth a look.

[Onix]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1]What am I reading, eh?

Well, I just finished [I]Good Omens[/I] by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman a few days ago. For those of you not familiar with it, it's basically the tale of the apocolypse, which is about to take place in a small town in Brittain. In it, the Antichrist is misplaced by an order of Satanic Nuns, an angel (guardian of the gates of Eden) and a devil (the snake that tempted Eve) form a pact and decide they like humanity, and the Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the Motorcyclists of the Apocalypse. It's incredibly funny, and you should read it at your earliest convinience. As if being told my own writing is similar to Pratchett's wasn't enough, reading this will definately give me cause to read more of his works.

At this moment, however, I am reading Dante's [I]Divine Comedy[/I]. Specifically, [I]Purgatorio[/I]. While just about everyone is familiar with Dante's harrowing journey through hell in the [I]Inferno[/I], there are actually two more books that follow it. First, Dante climbs the mountain of Purgatory which is peaked by Eden, and then he ascends into heaven, guided first by the Greek Poet Virgil, then by his angelic lost love. It's a hard book to read, especially with his unique rhyme scheme, but it is more than worth it to read this epic classic. The [I]Inferno[/I] is captivating, and I'm sure I'll be held through [I]Purgatorio[/I] and [I]Paradiso[/I].

-ULX[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Idiot2.0]

This is the books that I am currently reading

[COLOR=Blue][U]Eragon By: Christopher Paolini[/U]
The summary goes like this... When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy; pehaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon soon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.
Over night his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new workd of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword and the advice of an old storyteller for guidance, Eragon and the fledgling dragon must navigate the dangerous terrian and sark enimies of an Empire ruled by a king whose evil knows no bounds.
Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands...[/COLOR]
I belive this is a good story for fans of Anne McCaffrey, Author of the Dragonriders of Pern series.

[future girl]

[size=1]I'm reading Josie and Jack by Kelly Braffet. It's about the disfucntional relationship between a pair of siblings. I've kept up a pretty fast pace, mostly because it's not a very complicated read. I'm enjoying it for the way its building up the drama and the oddness of the story in general, but really it's nothing out of this world.

I was reading Oryx and Crake, but I needed a break from it. It's not complicated, I just can't bring myself to find it interesting even though I think it is. It's hard to explain, I'm just not in the mood for it I guess. I'm still thinking about whether or not I want to go back to it when I'm done with Josie and Jack.[/size]

[John]

I'm currently reading Darkness Visible by William Golding, and have been doing so for months now. Even worse, it's only a 250-300 page book. I've really only read it during any free time at school, so I've just barely been creeping along.

Nevertheless, it's a great book. In the first part, it talks about the life of a boy named Matty, who was a victim of the WWII London Blitz, and recovered from it with half of his face burnt away. It covers his life -- the spiritual aspect of it, most of all -- up to his twenties or thirties, and talks about his encounters with spirits telling him of his duties to God in the upcoming Apocalypse.

The second part talks about a pair of twins, Sophy and Toni, and their gradual fall from morals and the ordinary world, also through their twenties or so. (Or at least Sophy's twenties.)

The third part so far seems to be bringing all the characters together for something. I haven't gotten too far into it, yet.

It's a good book, and even though it's really pretty far out there sometimes, the philosophicial and psychological issues it deals with still seem somehow very grounded and relatable.

[Heaven's Cloud]

[QUOTE=Semjaza Azazel]

I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel, by Susanna Clarke. This one is even bigger and has far smaller type, which is making it a somewhat slow read. I enjoy the book and its attention to detail is pretty astounding (there's even quite a bit of footnotes explaining small things in greater detail... pretty heavy stuff for a fantasy novel, I think).
[/QUOTE]

[COLOR=INDIGO]By far the best novel I read this past year, though it does read a bit like Dickens.

Right now I am reading [b]American Gods[/b] by Neil Gaiman for the third or fourth time. I have a bizarre tendancy to re-read books that I really like every so often. Most of the time I'll catch something new, like a reference or a metaphor, or a connection that I failed to catch the previous time I read the book.

I also just finished re-reading [b]Neuromancer[/b] by William Gibson. I hadn't picked up this book in ages, but I was watching [b]The Matrix[/b] a couple of weeks ago and I realized that I just got a hankering for the book. [b]Neuromancer[/b] is definitely a good book if you enjoy movies like [b]The Matrix[/b] or [b]Ghost in the Shell[/b]. Very cyber punk.[/color]

[Minako]

These days I've been reading the Diana Gabaldon series books (three in all, I've only read two), [B]Crossstich[/B](sp?) and [B]Dragonfly in Amber[/B]. Both of which I would recommend!

The story revolves around Claire Randall (maiden name Beauchamp) in 1945, upon the ending of WWII. She is taking a second honeymoon with her husband, Frank, because of the war, they didn't get a chance to have a proper honeymoon. Frank is a history professor at Oxford University, and loves to trace his own geneology. This geneological hunger, leads Claire and Frank to Scotland, to investigate the infamous Jack Randall, captain of the English army back in the 1700s. While exploring, Claire stumbles upon a stonehendge (there are many all over Scotland and England), and she steps through a crack, and winds up in the middle of a battle field in 1743! There she meets Jamie "Red Jamie" Fraser, and they try to stop "the '45," a historical battle between the clans of Scotland and England.

I won't go into any more, because you have to read the books!

I [B]love[/B] these books because they are written so exactly, historically, mentally, and so on. Diana Gabaldon knows how to tap into human emotion, particularly when Jamie has an incident with Jack Randall, Jamie nearly died, but Claire brought him back. As soon as my English teacher (yes, my english teacher) lent me the first book, [B]Crossstich[/B](sp?), I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading it! I haven't read such a well written book in such a long time. A [I]highly[/I] recommended read!

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Chaos']The Crucible, by the recently late Arthur Miller, who died just last week. It was his critique of the McCarthy trials during the fifties, of which Miller himself was a victim of. He used the same degrading and public slandering that McCarthyism put forth in this story about seventeenth century Salem, during the witch trials. He heavily favors the hypocritical side of people and the selfishness that is often hidden from prying eyes. I really enjoy the in-depth look we get just by the characters' words, and how much the can express in just a few moments of emotion. Worth a look.[/quote]

I'm sure I have a copy of [i]The Crucible[/i] somewhere around my house. I've seen it laying around here, anyway lol. I've never read it before, and it would make for something good to read after I'm done with everything else on my plate.

[quote name='Who?']I'm currently reading Darkness Visible by William Golding, and have been doing so for months now. Even worse, it's only a 250-300 page book. I've really only read it during any free time at school, so I've just barely been creeping along.[/quote]

Your description of the novel caught my interest. Basically the only Golding I've ever read was [i]Lord of the Flies[/i], which I really liked a lot. I might look into this sometime.

I finished [i]As I Lay Dying[/i] earlier this morning. Any difficulties I may have had getting through the beginning of the book were absolved by the last hundred pages or so of the novel. Absolutely brilliant writing and some of the most chilling character monologues I've ever read, [i]especially[/i] Darl's final monologue where [spoiler]he's getting hauled away to the asylum[/spoiler].

And the ending of the novel is just so depressing, because you know the life of the Bundrens is going to continue to be harsh, and you want to [spoiler]beat that shit-for-brains bastard Anse to death, because he's such an asshole. He puts Darl away without batting an eye, he takes Dewey Dell's money to buy his damn false teeth, and after acting so concerned over Addie's burial, he gets himself a new wife.[/spoiler] God, I hate him so much.

I can't recommend [i]As I Lay Dying[/i] enough. It's quickly become one of my favorite novels, and I'm more than glad that I stuck with it the whole way through.

EDIT: Forgot to mention what I was going to read next lol. After many months of my sister begging me to read it, I checked out [i]Alice's Adventures in Wonderland[/i] from my school library a couple of days ago. I figure that I'll read it over the weekend. Should be enjoyable, my sister and I have similar tastes when it comes to what books we enjoy.

After that, I'll be starting on George Orwell's [i]1984[/i].

[Leofski]

For me, reding is a very expensive habit (I finished the great [I]Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell[/I] in two days), so as it's half term I'm not reading as much as usual (no one to borrow books off). However, I've started reading a few of Tom Holt's book, [I]The Potable Door[/I] and [I]In Your Dreams[/I], which read similarly to Pratchett might, if he wrote regularly in contemperary setting.
[I]
Neuromancer[/I] is brilliant. It's one of those books though, where having read it, a lot of things no longer seem original (in this case, particularly [I]The Matrix[/I])

[Outlaw Melfina]

:laugh: [FONT=Verdana]I was reading 'The witching hour', which is a comic. I have a tendancy to get comics from the library alot. [/FONT][FONT=Comic Sans MS]Now I'm reading 'The Darkeangel' It's okay, but I like reading thought-provoking comics, but not too adult ones. I'm too lazy to buy them, and I ever have any money anyway.[/FONT] :confused: They are good, but I don't like American comic art. Too shady, and really bad.

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]Currently I am reading "[B]The Deepest Sea[/B]" by [I]Charles Barnitz[/I], which is a story about a young viking, torn between Thor's Hammer and Jesus' Cross, and his travels across the changing face of the eighth-century world. This'll be my third or fourth run-through in around 5 years, which gives you an indication of how much I enjoy it. It is a really interesting and enjoyable book to read, and if you're interested in a novel that crosses fantasy with history, then this is for you. It's relatively short [540 pages], but it is very, very good. It is a book that leaves you feeling somewhat empty and bereft once you've finished, which is an indication of how good it is.

Another book I'd recommend would be the play "[B]Death Of A Salesman[/B]" by [I]Arthur Miller[/I], who actually died a few weeks ago. That is a beautiful play...I'm not reading it at the moment, but it deserves a mention.[/size]

[Mitch]

I'm reading Oryx and Crake. I have very little of it left. I plan to read Brave New World afterward. I also have a whole bunch of books I've started reading and haven't finished. Among these are Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk, The Hobbit (I'm reading it for about the third time), Clan of the Cave Bear (reading it for the second time), Frankenstein, The Sound and the Fury, and War of the Worlds. I'm really spontaneous with my reading, and I usually end up putting down a lot of books and just leaving them aside, somewhat read to read another day.

Reading has been sparse as of late. I hope to jumpstart it up again, though. I spend too much time online when I could be reading instead.

As for reading recommendations? Choke by Chuck Palahniuk is one of my favorite books I've ever read. It's similiar to Catcher in the Rye (which I'd also recommend), but a lot different at the same time. Choke really has no solid story. . it's about a sex addict who chokes in restaurants so people can save him, and then these people send him money and cards. With this money he pays for his mother's care at a hospital. It is about a lot more than just that, but you'll have to read it to find out. Such a great book.

Also by Palahniuk is Invisible Monsters. . .it starts off very rough to get into, but about halfway through and to the end it is amazing. It is about a woman who got into a car crash, and how she uses plastic surgery to get better. Again, it is about a lot more than this (my mind is actually pretty vague on it right now), and it's very enjoyable. Great book, as well.

1984, by Orwell, is one of the bleakest, most beautiful novels I have ever read. It pulls you in from the first words to the last three words, and is a dystopian masterpiece. Everyone should read this book. It's about a man who lives in a heavily oppressed word, basically an oligarchy (it's run by The Party, a few people, whose figurehead is Big Brother), and how he tries to change it. . .I don't want to give too much away, but this book gets so good towards the end, it just blew me away.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, is also a masterpiece. It is basically a coming-of-age novel, told about a black woman. It seems ordinary enough, but Hurston writes poetic prose, and the main meat of the novel is just straight-up colloquial dialogue. When we had to read this book for school, I didn't think I would like it. I read the first paragraph and thought it was another I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings all over again. . .but it wasn't. It pulled me in and was so much more.

The Great Gatsby is also very enjoyable. It is written so well is its main draw. It also makes some great points about the American Dream. It is told from the point of view of Nick, our narrator, and basically follows a man called Great Gatsby and how he has a dream to have the woman of his dreams. Through Nick he gets this, but of course his dream doesn't quite work out as expected.

Clan of the Cave Bear is the first book in a series of books written by Jean M. Auel. This book follows Aya as a little girl, who gets lost from her tribe and ends up in the Clan of the Cave Bear. She looks different than them. She acts different than them, but she is accepted by them. It's about a lot more than I can just sum up. It is a very interesting read, and makes you understand cavemen better, as well as the story is just totally engrossing.

It's been a while since I've read this book, but Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a nice futuristic novel. It follows Guy Montag, a firefighter, only in this world fire fighters burn books. One day, Montag meets a girl on the street, and she serves as a catalyst to make Montag realize what's in books. I read this book about three years ago, and it is also a very good book.

Night, by Ellie Wiesel (pronounced "Wheezel") is about Wiesel's experience at the holocaust. It's a haunting, depressing novel, but beautiful. You get to get inside Wiesel's skin and get a taste of the hell someone during the holocaust had to go through.

Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, is an autobiography. Again, you get to get inside McCourt's skin, and go through the triumpths and let-downs of his life. It was also made into a movie, of the same name, which is also worth seeing. Although the movie's not as good as the book, the movie was still damn good nonetheless.

The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, was a novel written during the pulley for worker's rights. It shows the grotesqueness of the meat industry. It's written in a mostly objective, journalistic style. The latter part of the book is a call for socialism, and is very intellectually stimulating. A masterpiece that packs one hell of a wallop. A must-read.

Of Mice and Men was one of the easiest-to-read books I've ever read. It was written so simply, and had such a great flow, and was so short yet so long even if it was short. I'm sure many have read this, as well. If not, it is worth a read. It's about odd friendship, and how unlikely people are friends and need each other, and how "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

[Sara]

[color=indigo]I haven't had much free time this semester, but I do have a science fiction/linguistics class (it is wonderful) that thankfully requires the reading of short stories and novels.

Last night I read a short story called "Speech Sounds." It is by Octavia Butler. I cannot say how much I enjoyed it.

The title doesn't do it justice (I take linguistic classes, and even [i]I[/i] thought it was going to be boring), but I thought it was a really beautiful story.

It takes place in California, some time after an illness swept the country and killed many people. In those it did not kill, it destroyed/impaired people's ability to process language. Everyone was affected--people cannot read, write, speak, or comprehend spoken language (or some combination of the above.) Society degenerated, people are intensely jealous of those who are not as impaired as they, and the only common means of communication is a new kind of sign language.

There are endless possibilities for contemplation here (especially for a lame language buff like myself) but the story is not very long. It doesn't explain the illness or tell the story of how things began to fall apart. It follows a few hours of the life of a woman named Rye.

It was really the attention to detail that got me. In a world without written or spoken communication, nuances of body language are everything. It's a very striking, moving story. The last time I fell so in love with a short story was Ray Bradbury's "Usher II," and my AIM handle is [i]still[/i] based off that. (Considering how often I used to change AIM names, that's impressive, okay? :p)

One particular thing from this story that really caught me was the naming of people. Without words, you cannot tell someone your name. Isstead, everyone has a name...token, I guess. Rye's is a pin shaped like a stalk of wheat. She asknowledges that "people who had not known her before [the illness struck] probably thought of her as Wheat." In the story she meets a man whose name symbol is a "smooth, glassy, black rock." Rye considers that his name could be almost anything--Peter, Black, Rock--but decides to think of him as Obsidian.

Almost more than anything else, I guess, that struck something in me.

The story is apparently available in the volume of short stories [i]Bloodchild and other stories[/i] (which I will be seeking out shortly); I also have the story in PDF form. If anyone is interested in reading it, please let me know.[/color]

[John]

I just finished Darkness Visible today, and I'm starting to reread 1984 for a book report. A synopsis of it has already been given in this thread, so I'll just add another recommendation instead. ^_^

I was also recently performing a short play for my Forensics class called The Three Step method, by Scot Auguston. I swear I looked for the dang thing almost every day for weeks before I could get ahold of it. Since it took me so long to find it, I suppose it'd be easier to post it as an attachment instead of leaving anyone who wants to read it out to hunt it down for themselves.

Essentially, the play is about a psychiatrist who demonstrates to his intern his practice of breaking down his patient into a limp, mindless dependant. Not sidesplittingly funny (well, not if you don't see it performed), but it's at least worth a read, I'd say.

[Dragonboym2]

[COLOR=Blue][COLOR=Blue]Recently I've been reading...let's see:

Battle Royale: You've seen the movie, now read the book. I really enjoyed it. It was violent, dark, edgey, and somtimes disturbing. But it was an interesting take on trust, loylaty, love, and the way things are for young people somtimes. A great take on socsity, and the so-called "dog eat dog" world. The manga's good too. But a little more extreme in some cases.


Superheroes: An anthology book by different authors with very different super beings. From the hilarious to the weird, it's all in there.

Mythology: The DC comics art of Alex Ross: Brillient and wonderfully illustrated. A look at Alex Ross and his work for DC comics. From unpublished art, and promotional works, to his thoughts on his favorite DC heroes. This is good stuff.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The novelation version of the original Gundam. There are many diffrences in there, like all the battles are in space, and the realationships with certain characters are more in depth. There are also a couple suprises you got to see for yourself. :D

The Many Faces of Van Helsing: Another anthology book. Many different stories looking at vampire hunter, Professor Abraham Van Helsing. And no, it's not like the awful Hugh Jackman movie. And sorry but Alucard is not in the book. (Damn.)

books I'm getting soon:

The Pythons: "It's..." MONTY PYTHON' S FLYING CIRCUS! A in dept look at our daft and silly english sketch comedy. Terry, Terry, Eric, Michael, John, and Gram are all there. A very silly book, for very silly people. If you don't know what I'm talking about, stop reading this, and get out while it's still safe. And now for somthing completely different. :blowup:

Jaws: I can't tell you how many times I heard people say: "Jaws was a book?" Yeah, it was a book allright. And it's creepy too. (Teeth. Big teeth.) :eek:

Fight Club: I can't tell you about this book. First rule of Fight Club...

Electric Jesus Corpse: A comedy horror with craziness galore. The world is overun with zombies, and Jesus has come back with a crazy band of apposals. Ones a pimp, ones a skin head, and ones a geneticly altered super warrior. It has such diollouge as "The carpet was eatting ants. But it would prefer a nice cold Pepsi, or a dog."

The collected Hichhiker's Guide to The Galaxy: All the books in one. Read it, it's very funny. ( "FOURTY-TWO!") And bring a towel! (You'l see..)


The Ultimate Zombie Survival Guide: How to survive a zombie attack. How to kill them, what weapons to use, and where to go to be safe. I have a suggestion: Get Bruce Campbell. Problem solved.

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2[/COLOR][/COLOR]

[EternalxDusk]

[FONT=Century Gothic][SIZE=1][COLOR=DeepSkyBlue]I'm reading "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank at the moment. A friend recomended it to me.

It's set in the 1960's, and the story starts out with Randy Bragg, a kind of "player" who lives in Florida. His braother is in the military and has suspicions of a coming nucleur war. Randy meets with his brother and is told this. His brother tells him that if anything happens like this he'll send him a telegram with the words alas, Babylon on it. The brother tells Randy to take care of his wife and kids and then leaves. A few days later he gets the telegram.

I'm awful at summaries, but this story is shaping up to be something. I'm about three quarters of the way through and the plot is a litle dry, but I'm anticipating a good ending. The story as well as the characters are beleivable and Frank does an excellent job of portraying different personalities' reactions to disaster. I picked up the book thinking it would be some cheesy sci-fi novel. I mean, it was nucleur war. But it actually isn't that bad.

Something else I'm starting on is "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair. I've heard good things about this book so I'll keep reading. it was hard to keep my attention on it at first, but it's getting better.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[John]

I just finished rereading 1984, and I must furthermore insist that everyone with half a smidgeon of thought in their brains needs to read it.

Right now, I'm sort-of-sort-of-not reading Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, by Dave Barry. I picked it up for another Forensics piece for school, and it's absolutely hilarious.

Basically, the book is Dave Barry poking gentle fun at American politics with sidesplitting humor. Nothing outwardly insulting or scathing -- hell, practically nothing [i]true[/i] -- is said, as you might find in books by P.J. O'Rouke, but it's still funny as all get out.

I plan to start reading Weaveworld, as suggested by Tony, if I can find it at the library. If I can't, I'll try As I Lay Dying, Shin's suggestion.

[BakaMonkey13]

[COLOR=DarkRed][SIZE=1]I just recently finished [I]The Da Vinci Code[/I] by Dan Brown.

Robert Langdon is a religious symboligist and professor at Harvard. After a lecture in Paris, he is scheduled to meet with Louvre curator Jaques Sanuiere, but the meeting never takes place. In the middle of the night, Robert recieves a call telling him a member of the French Judicial Police is coming to get him. The officer tells him that Jaques Sanuiere was found dead in the Louvre, his body arranged in a disturbing manner. Robert pieces together the clues and uncovers a dark secret that the curator kept for years. Teaming up with the late curator's granddaughter, Robert travels through Europe trying to unearth the incredible history and grand treasure of the Priory of Sion.

Warning: This book has contridictions to the Bible and extensivlly mentions the Pagan religion, it also has some sexual content and there's some other stuff.


And now I'm reading the [I]Pendragon[/I] series, I'm currently working on the third volume.

Bobby Pendragon was a normal fourteen-year-old, star basketball player, most popular boy in school, and everyone's friend.When his Uncle Press comes to find him and then takes him to a place he calls the 'flume', he tells Bobby he is a Traveler, a protector of the territories. Bobby comes face-to-face with Saint Dane, a man who is definatly not a saint. Saint DAne wants to control Halla, all the territories, all the people, and everything. Bobby must come to grips with his destiny, because, as he will later find out, he's no ordinary Traveler. He's one of the last Travelers.


Both of these are my must-reads![/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Dragonboym2]

[QUOTE=Who?]I just finished rereading 1984, and I must furthermore insist that everyone with half a smidgeon of thought in their brains needs to read it.
[COLOR=Blue]
That's a great book. But wicked freaky. Orwell is one of my favorite writers. Have you read "Animal Farm"? It's on fastist sociity. 1984 was on English Soicalism by the way. Not Fasicsism. I don't know what else he wrote, but "1984" and "Animal Farm" are by far his most popular. Oh yeah, some inspiration from "1984" was put into Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." Have you seen that movie? It's very good.

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2[/COLOR]

[John]

[QUOTE=Dragonboym2][QUOTE=Who?]I just finished rereading 1984, and I must furthermore insist that everyone with half a smidgeon of thought in their brains needs to read it.
[color=blue]
That's a great book. But wicked freaky. Orwell is one of my favorite writers. Have you read "Animal Farm"? It's on fastist sociity. 1984 was on English Soicalism by the way. Not Fasicsism. I don't know what else he wrote, but "1984" and "Animal Farm" are by far his most popular. Oh yeah, some inspiration from "1984" was put into Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." Have you seen that movie? It's very good.

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2[/color][/QUOTE]I haven't seen that movie, but I do know that Orwell actually wrote a lot of other books. I've never been able to get my hands on any of them, though.

[Dragonboym2]

[quote name='Who?']I haven't seen that movie, but I do know that Orwell actually wrote a lot of other books. I've never been able to get my hands on any of them, though.[/quote]

[COLOR=Blue]I don't think "Brazil" was a book. How come you think you'll never be able to get your hands on those movies?

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

Dragonboym2[/COLOR]

[Lunai]

[font=trebuchet ms][color=darkgoldenrod]I recently picked up a book at the library called [i]The Shades of Time & Memory[/i] by Storm Constantine, but I didn't like it all that much and I am going to return it on Saturday.

As soon as my roommate is finished with it, I am going to read Aldus Huxley's [i]Brave New World[/i]...it looks pretty good.[/font][/color]