What are you reading now?

[Lou]

I was so impressed with the YouTube TV series Impulse, I went and got all the Jumper novels out of the library. The TV show Impulse has very little in common with the novel. I'm on the last novel now, Griffin's Story. This novel fills in some of the backstory of the Film Jumper. which by the way is only based slightly on the novel Jumper.

Although I can recommend the TV show Impulse (in fact, I hope they have a season 2), I can only give a half-hearted recommendation of the novels. For sure, entertaining, and as an SF fan, I enjoyed the author's ability in taking a well-trod path and making it both familiar and new. But at its core, it's a YA series and better appreciated by teens. But the fact that they are YA novels made them for fast and fun summer reads.

 

[Sax]

Finishing up Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.

 

[amberfunk]

About a hundred pages left in Stephen King's IT. Going to read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon after that also by Stephen King. Been meaning to reread the vampire chronicles by Anne Rice again. She has two new books added to the series in the last couple of years and I want a refresher other than reading about the characters in her guide to the series.

 

[Lou]

At my library when I see a book I want to read, I put it on hold, and they let me know when they are available. Sometimes I have to just wait days. Sometimes months. But for some reason, they never become available in ones and twos, but in three, fours, and fives.

anyway, today I downloaded an ebook from the library called At The Water's Edge by Sara Guen. She is the author of Water For Elephants. I'm only on chapter two.

When I do chores or go for outdoor runs, walkies, or hikes I usually listen to News Podcasts, like Comedy Central, Rachel Maddow, Up First, The Daily, etc. But since the whole Zero Tolerance campaign started I can barely listen to the news. So today i downloaded an Audio Book from Hoopla. I usually just listen to audiobooks that I have already read - I don't pay enough attention to spoken novels to track. Anyway, I'm listening to Penric's Demon - which is just a fun fantasy novella. Totally escapist.

If you like the free stuff in Libraries check to see if your local public library has a partnership with Hoopla Digital. they have ebooks, TV shows, Movies, audiobooks, and music you can borrow for free, and immediately download.

 

[Kellyr]

I've been reading through the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It's really long - 14 books, apparently, and I'm only on book 4. I've been enjoying watching his writing skills improve with each novel and the storyline just keeps getting better and better.

About the only thing I don't like about the books is his very male perspective on women. I was telling a friend who recommended the books to me that Jordan must really hate women, or he's had really bad experiences with them, as so far in the first 4 books, the majority of his female characters are just catty, immature, insecure, impossible, and rude. There was one female character, who, in the first book at least seemed centered and personable, but he seems to be starting to smush her into that same stereotype as the rest of the women. And then he makes the men just put up with it and shake their heads... "oh those silly women. I'll just never understand them..." I'm hoping to see a shift as the books progress.

That aside, the overall plot of the books is quite interesting and I can't wait to see what happens. They're fantasy novels.

 

[Lou]

I had a real love/hate relationship with the Wheel of Time. I loved the first book.

I finished reading the second book before the third book was published. So I had no idea that there were going to be 14 books. I'm pretty sure if I had known that I wouldn't have gotten past the third. I kept going mostly because I didn't know how long it was going to be. And once you've invested a few thousand pages of reading a story you feel like you ought to find out how it ends.

BTW, the end is satisfying. Otherwise, I would warn you off more strongly.

Part of my problem was that since I was reading the books in "real time" there was at least a year between each book. Sometimes more. So I would forget events or even characters. since there is so much that happens in each book, just reading the summary of the book before doesn't quite fill in all my memory holes. there was no way I was going to reread a previous book. So there was a frustration that I experienced that is maybe not so typical.

And since you mentioned female characters - I also had major issues with their story arcs.

Somewhere towards the end, New Spring, a prequel, came out. It was my favorite book of the series. So I recommend that you read that one someday.

 

[Veganite]

The last book I read, if you can call it that, were the graphic novel series for The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman.

I don't get a lot of time to commit to big reads, so I save those sorts of books for vacations. I mostly read magazines or books that don't require such commitments. I also, as much as I enjoy reading, spend most of my spare time playing guitar and playing around in my music studio laying down tracks for entertainment. If I read, I read at night just before bedtime.

 

[Kellyr]

And once you've invested a few thousand pages of reading a story you feel like you ought to find out how it ends.

I get that way, too, with reading book series.

There was one series I read - The Mistborn trilogy, that I slogged through despite my just wondering "when will it get good?" I started to have the same problem with Hyperion - I mean it got such rave reviews. I read the first book and was glad it was done, then started the second book hoping it would get better, but no - it just dragged and dragged, so I finally put it down and stopped altogether. One of the few times I've done that.

I like the overall storyline of the Wheel of Time books, so I'll keep reading them, despite my frustration with the female characters. But thank you for the warning!

 

[Lou]

I skipped most of the Mistborn books. I did finish the Way of Kings but didn't continue with the series. I also read the "Wax and Wayne" series. They were fun!

My favorite epic fantasy is the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It's three stand-alone trilogies. But if you read it - start at the beginning. it's best that way.

 

[veganDreama]

Altogether Dead by Charlaine Harris. It's a vampire book that the programme 'true blood' was based on. I like the fact the vampires in this book have synthetic blood so you could be a vegan vampire but none of the characters are even vegitarian which I don't like so much. I would have thought there would be at least a few with all the shape shifters about. If you can turn into another species I'd have thought you would have more empathy for other species since you have first hand experience on what another animal actually feels.

 

[Catfriend]

I tend to have more than one book going at a time. Right now I am reading Pax Romana by Adrian Goldsworthy (Roman history), the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, and am listening to The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold.

 

[Lou]

Bujold is one of my favorites. I may have read all her books. I like her fantasies the best. I just borrowed a lot of her audio books and have been using them as my bedtime stories.

 

[Emma JC]

I would bore you with the list of what I read as I do so almost constantly. I am so thankful for libraries as I could never afford the habit otherwise. I also put on Hold books that I wish to read.

Dean Koontz books are amoung my favourites and JD Robb/Nora Roberts, Maeve Binchley and other authors that have the same characters that show up or stories about towns that have different characters that overlap.

Of course I have read all the authors like Esselstyn, McDougall and Greger and Neil Barnard etc. CS Lewis, Heinlein, and others in the spiritual scientific realm are also fascinating although some libraries do not carry these older books. CS Lewis' space trilogy gave me the gift (years ago) of thinking of heaven in new and joyous way. Robert Monroe gave me a longing to be able to soul travel.

So grateful I was brought up in a reading (no TV) family.

Emma JC

 

[Catfriend]

Bujold is one of my favorites. I may have read all her books. I like her fantasies the best. I just borrowed a lot of her audio books and have been using them as my bedtime stories.

She is one of my favorites as well. I too love bedtime stores (and sleep timers!). I use audiobooks for company while I do house or needlework as well.

 

[Catfriend]

I would bore you with the list of what I read as I do so almost constantly. I am so thankful for libraries as I could never afford the habit otherwise. I also put on Hold books that I wish to read.

Dean Koontz books are amoung my favourites and JD Robb/Nora Roberts, Maeve Binchley and other authors that have the same characters that show up or stories about towns that have different characters that overlap.

Of course I have read all the authors like Esselstyn, McDougall and Greger and Neil Barnard etc. CS Lewis, Heinlein, and others in the spiritual scientific realm are also fascinating although some libraries do not carry these older books. CS Lewis' space trilogy gave me the gift (years ago) of thinking of heaven in new and joyous way. Robert Monroe gave me a longing to be able to soul travel.

So grateful I was brought up in a reading (no TV) family.

Emma JC

I don't know where I'd be without my local library! I am also forever grateful to my parents for nurturing a love of reading.

 

[Forest Nymph]

I'm reading A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold one of those poetic brilliant people who loved animals and nature but then stupidly rhapsodized about hunting...it's really well written and many of us would improve via his observations of the compromise of the land and the ill effects of development..I even concede that his 1949 attitude toward game probably reached more people at that time. But that environmentalists still revere this book is disturbing. It's like a book about a man that is beautifully written on the subject of his "love of women" as he simultaneously uses them and treats them as objects....I really love chickadees...But here is a chapter on shooting grouse. Typically hypocritical but really deserves to be criticized fully by the environmental community in the 21st century rather than romanticized.

Also re reading Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. He's the greatest living Western philosopher and it's easy to understand it should be required reading.

 

[Sax]

Re-reading "The Story of B". Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy has probably influenced my worldview more than any other literature. Highly recommended!

 

[veganDreama]

I don't know where I'd be without my local library! I am also forever grateful to my parents for nurturing a love of reading.

I agree with that. Especially since I live in Birmingham, England and go to the big birmingham library every week. My dad used to read to me and my brother when we were growing up.

 

[Emma JC]

Re-reading "The Story of B". Daniel Quinn's Ishmael trilogy has probably influenced my worldview more than any other literature. Highly recommended!

Thank you, Sax! I hadn't read any of Daniel Quinn's books and, on your recommendation, I picked up a few at the library. Unfortunately they do not have The Story of B, they do have Ismael and I started it last night. It is thrilling already and I am trying to read it slowly so it doesn't end too quickly.

Thank you again! Emma JC

 

[Sax]

That's great to hear!