What Are You Reading?

[pumpkinpi]

The Silo Series by Hugh Howey
http://www.hughhowey.com/books/

I started with Wool, a present from MrPi for Mother's Day. It was the first book I'd read for pleasure since Christmas, because all my free time was dedicated to reading for class!

Very good. Unique (at least to me) premise. It dragged a bit during the action scenes (strange, I know, but it's true) but overall it was satisfying.

I was thrilled to know that Wool was composed of "Shifts" 4-8 of a 9 Shift omnibus. Wool was written first, but like Star Wars, Shift (shifts 1-3) are prequels. And Shift 9, Dust, comes out in August.

I am reading Shift as my first ebook. I talked a couple years back about getting an ereader but decided against it. I didn't want to spend the money and then not like the format.

Well, I didn't go out and buy an ereader specifically. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 "Phablet"--a hybrid phone/tablet.I love it. I look at other peoples' smartphones now and they seem so tiny! It is just the right size for reading a book. I can't wait to log on to my local library and start checking out books there! Sort of like Project Gutenberg--free reads.

[FZR1KG]

Well, at least someone got my sarcastic post

you have time for sarcastic posts with such a long list of tasks to complete?!

I just trade it for sleep. usually I post while I'm asleep. Or while the brain is totally disengaged at any rate.

[The Supreme Canuck]

I am reading Shift as my first ebook. I talked a couple years back about getting an ereader but decided against it. I didn't want to spend the money and then not like the format.

Well, I didn't go out and buy an ereader specifically. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 "Phablet"--a hybrid phone/tablet.I love it. I look at other peoples' smartphones now and they seem so tiny! It is just the right size for reading a book. I can't wait to log on to my local library and start checking out books there! Sort of like Project Gutenberg--free reads.

I assume you use the Kindle app? You might want to check out the Kindle store, in that case. They have a bunch of classic literature for free.

[code monkey]

Well, at least someone got my sarcastic post

you have time for sarcastic posts with such a long list of tasks to complete?!

I just trade it for sleep. usually I post while I'm asleep. Or while the brain is totally disengaged at any rate.

thanks! that explains so much.

[Rommie]

Was looking for a light read so I just started the new Dan Brown book, "Inferno." And I am pleased to report it's quite good so far! Well if you like Da Vinchi Code type adventure/ pseudo-intellectual light reading. (I think my main point is the first one he did after Da Vinci Code where they were in Washington DC sucked, this one on the other hand is back to his previous standard.)

I think also what makes it good is a. they're running around Florence right now and I love Florence (though wow, need to go back- I appear to have missed a lot!) and the bad guy is obsessed with the perils of overpopulation which makes for some thought-provoking reading. Oh and it's funny but perhaps I've read too much Robert Langdon stuff- I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say there's an assassin after him, but I kinda feel sorry for the poor assassin and how nothing's going well for him and hope he'll catch a break. I guess I'm set up for disappointment.

[code monkey]

Currently I have two going, "To Tuva or Bust!" about Feynman's dream of visiting the nation of Tuva

i've just remembered that there was a film made of the efforts of the person who'd been working with him on this project to continue it.

[cid]

My MAN2150 textbook.

Excavated a pile at home recently, and now atop the 'to read' pile are Alvin Toffler's three books Future Shock, The Third Wave,and Powershift.
Started reading Future Shock back in the 70's, and for some reason it troubled me enough that I never finished it.

[Parrothead]

Finally finished "The French Connection" by Robin Moore. Interesting in the way the case actually unfolded, when compared to the film based on the case. Some scenes out of order, others made-up for the film, final bust went down differently than depicted in the film. A good read, I re-watched the film on the weekend, after finishing the book.

I'm now re-visiting Robert Ludlum's "Covert-One" series. I have earlier read the first couple of books in the series, have a few of the later ones, but never got around to reading them. Figured I'd start from the beginning, IIRC, second book in the series was published around the time of Ludlum's death. I'm around 200 pages into "The Hades Factor" by Ludlum and Gayle Lynds. The series is written by other authors based on an idea of Ludlum's, kinda like the "Op-Center" series of Tom Clancy's was done, too. I noticed some of the latest "Covert-One" books were written by Kyle Mills, I like what I've read of his own works, so I'll look forward to eventually reading his contribution to the series.

[geonuc]

You may be the only person I've known who read the French Connection. The film has garnered so many accolades, I imagine it would be easy to think it wasn't even based on a book.

[Parrothead]

I came across the non-fiction novel at a bazaar, early May. The work was written as a case study of the largest heroin bust in the US, at the time.

ETA: The copy I got is a later printing, the cover features a picture of Gene Hackman's "Popeye Doyle" shooting the hitman in the back, at the subway stop. The book was originally published in '69, the case happened in '61 - '62, arrests and trials were '62 - '68.

[cid]

I've begun some literary excavations; anything not really important to keep (or in the unread box) goes down on 5th St to the Rev Cool's free books truck -- deals for everyone, with a special section for chilluns. I've been known to drop off a box, and take one or two tomes home in exchange for a small pocketful of change to support the effort.

Unread box -- notably, the three volumes of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. When done with these, I just might keep 'em as collector's items, as they're all three autographed by the author.

Current reading stack -- right beside the bed, as a few minutes of light (!?) reading help me drift off:
Oran's Dictionary of the Law, 2nd ed 1991
Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Vol 1 1962
Speaker's Lifetime Library, 1979

It might sound odd, reading reference books (and during the aforementioned cleanout, other than unread that's all that's getting saved), but like I said, a mental change of pace before knitting up that raveled sleave (sic), and I do have an interest in where aspects of the language come from, do I understand them, do I use them correctly, and the like. I guess it's an element of my geekitude...

[gethen]

Working on The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, a novel about parallel universes. Started out well, but it's slowing dangerously. I'll keep reading and hope it picks up again soon.

[brite]

Got off the poli-sci bandwagon for a bit and went for some brain candy -- JOHN RINGO! (If the author's name doesn't say brain candy... you aren't reading enough sci-fi...) Special Circumstances series... And turned the granddaughter onto Red Dwarf... I'm a BAD grandma....

[Rommie]

Finally finishing Cloud Atlas, which I started and stopped a few times. Couldn't really get into it despite the hype and then I figured out why- if you don't read much sci-fi and such it would come off as amazing, I think, but if you have at all then it's all pretty predictable.

I mean at one point two pages into a futuristic world section I found myself thinking "Soylent Green is people!"... and then of course a few hundred years later my suspicions were confirmed in that aspect. Dude's a good writer, sure, but good can't trump predictable sometimes.

[cid]

Virgil's Aeneid, a 1952 translation by Cecil Day Lewis, originally done to be a reading on the BBC.

Another discovery during "The Excavation of the Stacks" in the bedroom...I figgered, whatthehey, and dove in.

Wow...they sure knew how to write back then...high drama, unrequited love, war and peace, dealings with multitudes of unscrupulous gods, fights with mythical creatures...I must say, I am rather surprised here. I was expecting to be bored outen my skull, but this poem (it was written as a poem, in Latin, in dactylic hexameter) has captured my interest. I'm about halfway through, and I must say I'm intrigued...

Fuller details, including links to the Gutenberg Project's text, are available on Wikipedia.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Finally finishing Cloud Atlas, which I started and stopped a few times. Couldn't really get into it despite the hype and then I figured out why- if you don't read much sci-fi and such it would come off as amazing, I think, but if you have at all then it's all pretty predictable.

I mean at one point two pages into a futuristic world section I found myself thinking "Soylent Green is people!"... and then of course a few hundred years later my suspicions were confirmed in that aspect. Dude's a good writer, sure, but good can't trump predictable sometimes.

Yeah, I didn't like the book that much. Not terrible, just... meh. The movie, on the other hand, was excellent. It's why I picked the book up in the first place. Whoops...

[pumpkinpi]

Finally finishing Cloud Atlas, which I started and stopped a few times. Couldn't really get into it despite the hype and then I figured out why- if you don't read much sci-fi and such it would come off as amazing, I think, but if you have at all then it's all pretty predictable.

I mean at one point two pages into a futuristic world section I found myself thinking "Soylent Green is people!"... and then of course a few hundred years later my suspicions were confirmed in that aspect. Dude's a good writer, sure, but good can't trump predictable sometimes.

Yeah, I didn't like the book that much. Not terrible, just... meh. The movie, on the other hand, was excellent. It's why I picked the book up in the first place. Whoops...

I'm reading the book, not having watched the movie, because in a number of places I was advised to read the book first. I've read through a couple of sections and it's been entertaining but not as engaging as I'd anticipated. Oh well--if I don't like it I'm sure it won't ruin the movie for me. I'm very much looking forward to that!

[Hap]

The Silo Series by Hugh Howey
http://www.hughhowey.com/books/

I started with Wool, a present from MrPi for Mother's Day. It was the first book I'd read for pleasure since Christmas, because all my free time was dedicated to reading for class!

Very good. Unique (at least to me) premise. It dragged a bit during the action scenes (strange, I know, but it's true) but overall it was satisfying.

I was thrilled to know that Wool was composed of "Shifts" 4-8 of a 9 Shift omnibus. Wool was written first, but like Star Wars, Shift (shifts 1-3) are prequels. And Shift 9, Dust, comes out in August.

I am reading Shift as my first ebook. I talked a couple years back about getting an ereader but decided against it. I didn't want to spend the money and then not like the format.

Well, I didn't go out and buy an ereader specifically. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 "Phablet"--a hybrid phone/tablet.I love it. I look at other peoples' smartphones now and they seem so tiny! It is just the right size for reading a book. I can't wait to log on to my local library and start checking out books there! Sort of like Project Gutenberg--free reads.

I started reading this as well after this post. I am really enjoying it, finished Wool and started reading Shift about a week ago. I am really interested to see how it all got started.

[Cyborg Girl]

Just finished: Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (Lee Smolin)

^^^ If any of the ideas presented therein are true, then truth is far stranger than fiction.

[Loresinger]

I haven't read a book in so long it hurts ... when we get dragon man glasses I think that will be our celebration (a trip to the book store)

[Parrothead]

The Cassandra Compact by Robert Ludlum and Philip Shelby. Second book in the "Covert - One" series, this one deals with an attempt to steal Russia's store of smallpox and release a variant of it.

[Parrothead]

Still continuing with the Covert-One series. After I have finished the fourth book in the series, I'll take a breather and re-read a favourite book from childhood, Banner In The Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. The inspiration for the story came from the first ascent to the summit of the Matterhorn in 1865.

Disney made a movie based on Banner In The Sky, starring Michael Rennie and James MacArthur, which I may have to track down a copy of, it has quite the cast. Disney's film, inspired him to have a Matterhorn (with bobsled rollercoaster) built for Disneyland.

[brite]

Just finished The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma... took me several tries... OMG... wish I had given up on it. Also re-read the March Upcountry series by John Ringo and David Weber (more brain candy)... I figure that since school starts in 2 weeks and I have to seriously engage it with things like anthropology, American Government and the like... for now... I can have all the brain candy I want...

[Parrothead]

Finished The Paris Option third in the "Covert-One" series, now on The Altman Code, both by Gayle Lynds, based on outlines written by Robert Ludlum.

In this latest one, the US is concerned that China is shipping chemicals to Iran, to be used in chemical weapons development. There is intelligence that a container ship is carrying such a cargo, covert-one operative Jon Smith is sent into action. Early on in the novel, there is concern that intercepting the ship, could lead to a repeat of the " Yinhe incident ". I looked this one up and it happened during the Clinton administration, like stated in the novel. I'll guess this incident provided a jumping off point, for Ludlum's idea for the storyline of the novel.

[gethen]

Finally finishing Cloud Atlas, which I started and stopped a few times. Couldn't really get into it despite the hype and then I figured out why- if you don't read much sci-fi and such it would come off as amazing, I think, but if you have at all then it's all pretty predictable.

I mean at one point two pages into a futuristic world section I found myself thinking "Soylent Green is people!"... and then of course a few hundred years later my suspicions were confirmed in that aspect. Dude's a good writer, sure, but good can't trump predictable sometimes.

Yeah, I didn't like the book that much. Not terrible, just... meh. The movie, on the other hand, was excellent. It's why I picked the book up in the first place. Whoops...

I'm reading the book, not having watched the movie, because in a number of places I was advised to read the book first. I've read through a couple of sections and it's been entertaining but not as engaging as I'd anticipated. Oh well--if I don't like it I'm sure it won't ruin the movie for me. I'm very much looking forward to that!

I actually liked this book, though I didn't expect to. It wasn't great, but not a waste of time either.

I am totally stuck on Hugh Howey's Wool series. Great character development, a real twist on the post-apocalypse idea, and very engaging story telling. Now on the third group of stories, titled Dust and still hooked.