What Are You Reading Now.

I'm currently reading a book called "The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse, a german writer who received the Nobel prize in 1946. It's an interesting read. The setting is central Europe around the year 2500. By means of a political decision this region of central Europe called "Castalia" had been cut of and isolated for about two hundred years. Castalia is an intellectual paradise. Socio-economic influence from the outside world is completely cut off and politics are not in the spotlight. The only thing that matters in Castalia is education and the pursuit of knowledge. It's like a small country with nothing but Ivy league Universities and research centers. People are raised and trained to study, read and write their entire lives- not aware that they live in a very privileged bubble of existence; oblivious to what is going on in the outside world. The elite among the elite in Castalia play a game called the glass bead game. The aim of the game is to forge links between distinct fields of human knowledge. For example, one might try and relate a piece of music by J.S. Bach to a mathematical formula.

I'm about half way through the book. It isn't action-packed or fast paced but it's good. It's well written and the world is well developed. The plot follows the main character, Joseph Knecht, from childhood to adulthood. He holds an important office within this isolated state and at the point where I am reading is slowly beginning to realize that he and his peers are in quite the ivory tower. He seems to be inclined to discover what is going on in the rest of the world.

I highly recommend this book. Has anyone read it?

 

The 11th House Of Night novel.

 

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

More specifically, the second half of the book, doing a character study on Boromir as research for my novel. I have a character who is quite different and in a very different situation, but goes through a similar development arc, and I wanted to study a really good example of how it's done.

 

They are good books but people often struggle with the older style english. I`m not sure I will read them again.

 

Recently finished Stephen King's IT, one of those books I'd always wanted to read but had never gotten around to. Was surprised by how much I loved it. I haven't read a ton of Stephen King but every time I pick up one of his books I usually end up really liking it.

Now reading Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey. This is book 3 of the Expanse. I actually got about halfway through the second book in this series before I realized there was a TV adaptation. I'm carefully avoiding the show (which I've heard mixed things about) because I don't want it to corrupt my mental image of the characters or setting, all of which I really like.

 

" Post Office " by Charles Bukowski. Love his style.

 

I`ve read the first of the three, and enjoyed it. The tv series is based just on the first book only. I think they are going to follow the books, if they get another series. I started watching the series on Netflix and I quite like it.

 

Yeah, I am definitely going to check out the show at some point. I did notice that Amazon put it up on prime sometime since the new year; hopefully they'll keep it there for a bit. It's just that once I see a movie/tv show, I can't help but picture those actors in the roles when I read the books. Which isn't a deal-breaker or anything, just not my preference.

Still, I just now looked it up and there are apparently six books in the sequence, with three more planned... so I'll most likely surrender to curiosity and watch the show long before I'm done with the novels.

 

Six, didn`t know there were that many, I too will have to try the next one. I agree, in general I wouldn`t want to watch a film or series before reading the book, it does tend to alter your view of the characters.

 

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Figured I could use some more Stoicism in my life. He originally wrote them as a sort of personal diary, not for consumption, and you can tell--it's very informal, repeats itself a lot etc. But there are some good bits, a bit stodgy language because the free translation on Project Gutenberg was probably written in like 1909 or something.

 

I actually tried mightily, but could not get into the Pern series. That was several years ago, though; maybe I should give Pern another try.

 

I just finished re-reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley, my favorite piece of vampire literature besides Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Right now I'm reading The Kill Order by James Dashner because the Maze Runner series grabs me by the shirt and sucks me in like few other series have done. It's depressing as hell, though; I don't know how much re-read value there is in that series for me simply because of the depressing factor. I'll probably keep re-reading Sunshine (and Fledgling), though; my copy of Sunshine is already falling apart!

 

Just finished Career Of Evil by J K Rowling, now I`m on to some of Ted Chiang`s short stories, then probably back to the Chaos Walking trilogy I got for Christmas.

 

Greetings, a couple of weeks ago, I finished reading a a very interesting book called the phantom ship, written by Captain Fredrick Marryat. It talks about a son who searches for his father who was doomed by being entrapped forever in an ancient phantom sea vessel .
The son's mission was to reach that ship and set his father free.
But its a great story. I enjoyed reading it very much.

 

Am currently reading the God father book. Written by the Great late author "Mario Puzzo".

 

I just began Tales of Nevèrÿon (a perversely unspellable title) by Samuel R. Delany. Delany has an amazing imagination and an advanced prose style, both of which I appreciate.

 

She wrote a Blue Oyster Cult biography?

 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik.

Haven't read a whole lot of fantasy, but this one is pretty good.

Although between school/work/new baby, my reading time has all but dried up, so it might take a while to get through it.

 

I liked that one.

 

Have you read her Temeraire stuff? I was thinking about picking up the first one, but as fantasy is not generally my cup of tea, I'm worried sentient dragons won't do it for me.

 

I tried the first one, but honestly I didn't like it. I started it twice and both times gave up halfway, which is one reason I was surprised at how much I liked Uprooted. That said, I know people who love the Temeraire books.

 

What was it that turned you off about the book?

Also, have you read Ann Lemke's Ancillary Justice?

 

I don't know what turned me off, exactly. I didn't find the characters or story very interesting.

Ancillary Justice is in my to-read pile

 

I started Ancillary Justice and wound up putting it down, but I'm going to give it another shot after Uprooted in hopes that the the story actually starts.

I think I had a problem with it because there's a ton of exposition to start the novel, more than would be acceptable in other genres. I'm thinking it may be a case of me just not being accustomed to that kind of exposition and backstory right from the gate.

 

Language of a new Century, A poetry Analogy of poems from Asia and the Middle East.