The Mandatory "What book are you reading now?" thread

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Allen M. Steele: Spindrift. Lovely scifi, tries to be realistic in a rather naive, amusing way. They always have the Americas united and a bigger EU-type federation. And nothing about the rest of the world. :D Only Americans and English to space.. well, why would you want anyone else - they wouldn't speak the right language!
 
Fourth book in the Wheel of Time series. The Shadow Rising I think it's called.
 
Thread moved to the appropriate section :)

I'm reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy now.
 
Finished No Country For Old Men. Now I'm reading Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't by Stephen Prothero.
 
The negro in America
It's condensation of the book
An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy by Gunner Myrdal.

Also finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Catch-22.
 
Blackwater Lightship
I have to read this for school (over the holidays!). It's about a woman having to tell her mother that her brother has AIDS. It's quite dull.
 
I just finished reading Deadwater Deep by Terence Strong.

It's about the culmination of a CIA/MI6 plot to overthrow the Communist government in China that's been decades in the making. It's set a year after Hong Kong was handed back to China, and it's a brilliant and fascinating story - very human tales, and very credible and well researched too. Taking in CIA agents and front companies, British embassy workers, British and American special forces, the underground Chinese democracy movement, shady arms dealers, gulags, the Triads...
I've quite an interest in China and I found that there were all sorts of throwaway references in the book and points of interest that tied up with things I already knew about the place, so it worked for me on that level too.

I get the feeling noone here really shares my love of espionage/conspiracy thrillers, but I'll still recommend it as a brilliant story nonetheless. One that doesn't end predictably. :)
 
School says:

A History of Rome (Srs like 1000 pages... luckily I'm only covering Emperor Augustus)
Portrait of a Lady (PAINFUL.)

I'm reading:

Thirteen Detectives (GK Chesterton, pretty good)
Snows of Killamanjaro (Earnest Hemmingway, pretty good, I like it)
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (Japanese Light Novel, it's really ****ing hard to read. Damn japanese! Having their own damn language!)
 
I'm reading Light Before Dawn by Christopher Rice, but only because I haven't had a chance to go to the bookstore and get something I really want to read. I pretty much grabbed some books off a shelf at the market because I didn't have anything to read. :LOL:
 
Always meant to but never got around to it but ive just started on the His dark materials trilogy...
 
Jintor said:
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi (Japanese Light Novel, it's really ****ing hard to read. Damn japanese! Having their own damn language!)
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Lol. Get the translated books. I'm on book number 9 or something.
 
15357 said:
Lol. Get the translated books. I'm on book number 9 or something.
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No english release atm. Baka-Tsuki has a bare-bones translation up but if that's just for understanding. I might as well re-write their translation to be something more like an actual book...
 
Jintor said:
No english release atm. Baka-Tsuki has a bare-bones translation up but if that's just for understanding. I might as well re-write their translation to be something more like an actual book...
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Well, if you have the skill, go for it. :p


But anyway, I've given up trying to read Japanese novels in their original form. Non-fiction is much easier, really.
 
The Dragob Reborn. The Wheel of Time is an awesome series, but I stil refuse to prefer it over ASOIAF.
 
I'm reading The Confusion by Neal Stephenson, part 2 of the Baroque Cycle trilogy, a great epic series about the period 1660's-1700-ish, Newton, Leibniz etc.
repiV said:
I just finished reading Deadwater Deep by Terence Strong.

It's about the culmination of a CIA/MI6 plot to overthrow the Communist government in China that's been decades in the making. It's set a year after Hong Kong was handed back to China, and it's a brilliant and fascinating story - very human tales, and very credible and well researched too. Taking in CIA agents and front companies, British embassy workers, British and American special forces, the underground Chinese democracy movement, shady arms dealers, gulags, the Triads...
I've quite an interest in China and I found that there were all sorts of throwaway references in the book and points of interest that tied up with things I already knew about the place, so it worked for me on that level too.

I get the feeling noone here really shares my love of espionage/conspiracy thrillers, but I'll still recommend it as a brilliant story nonetheless. One that doesn't end predictably. :)
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I used to read a lot of Terence Strong. I remember White Viper as his best, but Tick Tock Man was also good iirc.
 
Laivasse said:
I used to read a lot of Terence Strong. I remember White Viper as his best, but Tick Tock Man was also good iirc.
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Thanks, I'll check those two out. I've never read any of his before - I picked DD up in a bookshop because it looked interesting. I went on a book-buying spree recently and couldn't find any reliable information about his work online so I didn't buy anything from him. Can you believe he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry? I don't get it.

Also, I'm reading The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton at the moment. Brilliant, if a little slow to get going. It's the first in the Night's Dawn trilogy, and I can imagine it being the sci-fi equivalent of LOTR - this one is over 1250 pages long, and it's the shortest of the three.
 
repiV said:
Thanks, I'll check those two out. I've never read any of his before - I picked DD up in a bookshop because it looked interesting. I went on a book-buying spree recently and couldn't find any reliable information about his work online so I didn't buy anything from him. Can you believe he doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry? I don't get it.
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It might be because he's not the most prolific writer, although I'm not even sure of that. I haven't read Deadwater Deep so I don't know how the two novels I mentioned shape up, but one thing to bear in mind is that because those two are older a lot of the political references are outdated (eg. lots of stuff about the IRA, particularly in Tick Tock Man because it's about bomb disposal). White Viper stands on its own a little better because it's about a covert op to take down some south american drugs ring and the protagonist is your typical badass ex-military superman. It's been ages since I read them but I did enjoy them a lot back then.
 
Laivasse said:
It might be because he's not the most prolific writer, although I'm not even sure of that. I haven't read Deadwater Deep so I don't know how the two novels I mentioned shape up, but one thing to bear in mind is that because those two are older a lot of the political references are outdated (eg. lots of stuff about the IRA, particularly in Tick Tock Man because it's about bomb disposal). White Viper stands on its own a little better because it's about a covert op to take down some south american drugs ring and the protagonist is your typical badass ex-military superman. It's been ages since I read them but I did enjoy them a lot back then.
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He's a big name in the political thriller genre and a best-selling author though, I mean even obscure references get Wikipedia entries. You'd almost think it was a conspiracy...
I'm a massive Ludlum fan so I'm not particularly bothered about contemporary references. On that note, you must read The Prometheus Deception and The Matarese Circle. :)
 
Nothing right now, but looking to get Generation X - Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Stern's suggestion. :bounce:
 
I want to read Iron Man by Hughes, but no where near me has the book.
 
I recently finished GK Chesterton's 12 Detectives. A good read.
 
Ennui said:
Finished No Country For Old Men.
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Thoughts on the book? I'm considering buying it for one of my friends who liked the movie a lot, but haven't read it myself yet. Might get it for him... and then borrow it.....


I've just read most of The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. It was pretty good, but I stopped in the part where he started making predictions for the future. I dunno why, but that part just didn't seem very interesting.

Now I'm reading Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day and Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing (second in the Border Trilogy, and I've already read All the Pretty Horses). I just wish I had more time to read during school. I always go to the library and see 5 or 6 books I want to read, but I know I probably don't have enough time. :( Next on my list are Necronomicon (Neal Stephenson), Contact (Carl Sagan), and All Tomorrow's Parties (William Gibson).
 
The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I'm not big enough a book reader to read literary trash flavour of the month that Richard and Judy mind control me to go and buy.
 
I'm gonna go grab Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Monday.
 
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