It's January. What are you reading?

[Bick]

I'm on holiday, and rattling through the novels I brought away with me. Just finished the Wodehouse (entirely splendid), so now I'm on to the last book I have in my travel bag (hopefully it will take at least 3 days to read), which is Eugenie Grandet, by Balzac.

 

[Connavar]

Im starting the year with reading Sam Spade novella by Hammett and a new fav brilliant poet:


Divan från Tamarit och två oden by Federico García Lorca. Thats the swedish title and the real one is Divan del Tamarit (written 1931–1934, published 1940; “The Divan at Tamarit”). From Britannica:"Divan del Tamarit also expresses Lorca’s lifelong interest in Arab-Andalusian (frequently referred to as “Moorish”) culture, which he viewed as central to his identity as an Andalusian poet. He regarded the Catholic reconquest of Granada in 1492 as a tragic loss."

Sometimes you are just lucky because this book,poet i found by chance before christmas when i was just browsing poetry shelfs in a bookstore. I read 2 poems and i found a wonderful poet. It is nice bonus he writes in the vein of classic Arabic love poems.

 

[Extollager]

The Johnsonian Coffee House has opened.

http://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/551091/

 

[Parson]

I just finished listening to In the Blood by Steve Robbins. I rather enjoyed it. It's a story of a person who tracks genealogies for a living. This one is filled with intrigue, questions, murder, and mysteries. Steve Robbins has a dry wit, that left me laughing aloud more than once. I plan to read his follow up book entitled To the Grave. I also finished Under Different Stars, a S.F. book which felt more like Romantic Fantasy to me. I was really frustrated that the science was so badly done. I mean, really, swimming through a worm hole???? I'll not soon enter this world again.

 

[hitmouse]

About to start Revolt in 2100 by Robert A. Heinlein (1953, but it's actually a revision of three stories from 1939 and 1940; the short novel "If This Goes On ---" and the shorter pieces "Coventry" and "Misfit.") It's all about a religious dictatorship in the future USA, the rebellion against it, and those who don't fit into the society that results afterwards. It should be interesting to see some of Heinlein's earliest, Pre-WWII work (even if rewritten to some extent.)

Good book. Have you read the preceding Future History collections (The Man Who Sold The Moon, The Green Hills of Earth etc.)?

 

[kythe]

I've been reading some short stories by Philip K. Dick. So far nothing really incredible, but they are good stories.

In books, I'm starting "Speaker For The Dead" by Orson Scott Card. It's technically a sequel to "Ender's Game", but the author had originally envisioned it as a stand-alone book. It is written in a different style.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Good book. Have you read the preceding Future History collections (The Man Who Sold The Moon, The Green Hills of Earth etc.)?

I have read quite a few of the stories in those collections, if not every single one.

The thing I find most interesting about "If This Goes On---" is that it shows in a very plausible way how a revolution against a totalitarian government might take place. It's not the work of a few heroes, but thousands of people in the novel's underground movement against the rulers.

 

[The Bluestocking]

Just finished Sherrilyn Kenyon's YA series The Chronicles of Nick.

That is one entertaining read!

 

[Nounboy]

I'm reading Richard Morgan, "Altered Carbon". My first from Morgan. About half way in. It's very well written, complicated ( I have to concentrate, not a lazy read), and probably could be further edited. Interesting world-building.

I was going to read " Cold War in a Country Garden", one of the first books I ever read as a kid, but can't find a reprint ( or a good used copy). Still waiting.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I'm about to start The Misfits by Arthur Miller (1961), which combines the original story of the same name (Esquire, October 1957) with the author's own novelization of his screenplay for the famous movie adaptation. It should be an interesting look at Miller's own vision of his work.

 

[j d worthington]

Continuing with my reading of the poetry of Clark Ashton Smith; but at this point (around the time he wrote much of what went into The Star-Treader), so much of what he wrote is so heady that I have to take it a little at a time, or it is quite possible to become honestly drunk on the stuff! and thereby miss some of the more delicate shadings and emotions evoked. One doesn't just chug down a truly fine wine....

So... I'm also going through Richard L. Tierney's stories of Simon of Gitta, using not only the collection The Scroll of Thoth (which brings together the bulk of these written by Tierney alone) but also the two novels (one a collaboration with Rah Hoffmann) which have been published separately, a selection published in another anthology, and one piece which was published in a difficult-to-find journal but is also available online. So far, I've gong through "The Sword of Spartacus", "The Fire of Mazda", "The Seed of the Star-God", "The Blade of the Slayer" (which owes an openly acknowledged debt to Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories), "The Throne of Achamoth" (written with Robert M. Price), and am currently working on the novel The Drums of Chaos. I've seen comments elsewhere about people having difficulty getting into these, but I've found them quite enjoyable, although the blending of Lovecraft's Mythos, Robert E. Howard's Hyborian tales, Clark Ashton Smith's fantasies of the early earth, Gnostic philosophy, with touches reminiscent of Star Wars, and a host of other things, makes for quite a ragout. Still, he weaves an atmosphere well, and there is much here which is both beautiful and stirring, with plenty of action and adventure (and a healthy dash of the comic) to keep the pace going quite nicely....

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I most recently finished In The House Of Incest by Anais Nin, a poetic, heady book about the quest to break out of sterile solipsism (the 'incest' of the title) and integrate with a larger sense of the world.

Also finished In The Woods by Tana French, a gripping and somewhat shattering mystery novel. Very well written and character driven, vivid prose, something of a midway slump. Now reading the follow-up novel, The Likeness.

 

[Parson]

I finished To the Grave by Steve Robbins. An interesting tale, which I really liked, but had one glaring weakness which I might post about another time. I'm on to the third in the series The Queen of England.

 

[Mangara]

Finished Little Brother and thought it was fantastic.

Currently reading:

Which is an absolute monster and so I'll be reading it for Feb too most likely.

Listening to:

via Libravox.

3/4 of the way through and it's quite the text.

 

[tobl]

That doesn't sound like an especially ringing endorsement

for me it is i read so much that hardly anything register much more than good. for instance i just read two volumes of mithcell hogan sorcery ascendant. it kept my interess more or less but i ended up giving up in the second volume. just didn'y got enough interesting for me especially compared to the book i had read before by John ringo.

 

[Bick]

I finished Balzac's "Eugenie Grandet". T'rrific. Nothing like a nice cup of tea, a sit down, and a bit of Balzac.

Now I'm onto "Redemption Ark", by Alastair Reynolds.

 

[Nounboy]

Finished Little Brother and thought it was fantastic.

Currently reading:

Which is an absolute monster and so I'll be reading it for Feb too most likely.

Listening to:

via Libravox.

3/4 of the way through and it's quite the text.

So how is Libravox? I've often wanted to listen, but can't be bothered downloading anything. Is it worthwhile?

 

[Mangara]

Yes! A million times yes! Great way to pass time when walking/doing chores etc!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started Rain in the Doorway by Thorne Smith (1933). Unlike the obvious fantasy elements in his other mildly bawdy comic novels (the ghosts in Topper and so on) I'm not sure where this one is going.

The edition I picked up at a used book store is interesting itself. It's a 1949 Pocket Book, so early a paperback that there's no price on it. Everybody just knew that these things were twenty-five cents.

 

[Chris Guillory]

I've read quiet a bit of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. Since then, I've heard references of similarities to Glenn Cook's, The Black Company. So I started the first one this week.