The "what are you reading" thread:

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
It's the journey that is of importance. Not so much the destination.

It actually sounds interesting. I love backstory. Man, if I weren't so poor, and GW wasn't so keen on raping its customers, I'd still pay attention to 40k.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by nostromo
Comments about an author's style always crack me up.

Though, I guess to be fair, the experience is REALLY enhanced if you know Hindi/Urdu, because there are phrases transliterated throughout the book. But regardless, the writing is top notch. Hell, it's Rushdie, not some hack!

[Nostromo]

I'm aware of that. But if a group of people claim that author X has a great style, you'll always find another group of people who claim the contrary. And that makes me laugh. Its as if they didn't read the same book. In a way, that explains it. Like you pointed out, people coming from different backgrounds will experience the book differently than those coming from another background.

[Imran Siddiqui]

You'll find complete agreement from me . Our backgrounds really tend to dictate our preferences and how we experience works of art. Some works will gain a large number of adherents for being generally pretty damned good in numerous standards, but even then, people will experience it in different ways.

[Cartimandua]

Originally posted by SpencerH
I'm also reading the last (I think) in the wheel of time series, Path of Daggers.

"Path of Daggers" is book 8 and Robert Jordan has published up to book 11 so far. The last of the series, "A Memory of Light" is book 12 and won't be released until 2009. Wheel of Time is one of my favorite series.

I just finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as well as Orson Scott Card's book "Sarah", which was simply lovely.

[SpencerH]

It's knife of dreams. Knife <- > Dagger, so I wasnt too far off.

[SpencerH]

I remember reading exerts from The Satanic Verses when it was first published and not being impressed. My tastes have changed though so perhaps I'll give it another try.

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
Harry Turtledove's World War-series in written form, and Larry Niven's Ringworld-quad-or-so-rology as audiobooks while working.

Niven's Known Space is my favorite. I'm reading Protector right now.

[VetLegion]

Re: Re: The "what are you reading" thread:

Originally posted by LordShiva

Wow, is it me or is this smilie animation a minute long

[SpencerH]

No only about 22 secs

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by SpencerH
The rise and fall of Theodore Rooseveldt by Edmond Morris. Brilliantly written. Dutch was very good too but I left it on a plane so havent quite finished it yet.

I loved the Roosevelt books

[Nostromo]

I finished reading Schopenhauer's 'On the Freedom of the Will'. He basically agrees with Kant, but fills in the details here and there. A worthwhile read nonetheless, given Schopenhauer's superior writing skills. There's also an interesting historical chapter, where he reviews what previous philosophers had to say on the topic.

Started reading Max Gallo's first historical novel on Napoleon. Gripping stuff.

[Meticulous Man]

The Unknown Soldier (Tuntematon sotilas) is author Väinö Linna's first major novel and his other major work beside Under the North Star. Published in 1954, it is a story about the Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union as told from the viewpoint of ordinary Finnish soldiers. Gritty and realistic, it was partly intended to shatter the myth of the noble, obedient Finnish soldier, and in that it succeeded admirably. In Linna's own words, he wished to give the Finnish soldier a brain, an organ lacking in earlier depictions — this was a barb directed at Johan Runeberg's The Tales of Ensign Stål, which admiringly portrays Finnish soldiers with big hearts and little independent intellect. The novel is based on Linna's own experiences, but is more or less fictional. In its structure and style, it may be compared to the war novels of James Jones.

The novel has no single central character (it both begins and ends with an ironic play on the narrator's omniscience), and its focus is on different responses to the experience of war. It tells the story of a machinegun platoon in the war from mobilisation to armistice. A picture of the whole nation in microcosm, the men come from all over the country (a result of Linna's unusual patchwork regiment[1] - units were normally made up of men from the same region.) The men have widely varying social backgrounds and political attitudes, and they all have their own ways of coping, but the general picture is one of a quite relaxedly businesslike attitude, and the men's disrespect for formalities and discipline is a source of frustration for some of the officers. They are all there just to get the job done, and official propaganda, both their own and that of the enemy, is to them a source of amusement or outright offensive. Linna's own description of the men in the novel's final sentence is "aika velikultia" — something like "good old boys". The main officer characters are three lieutenants who embody different attitudes: one strict and aloof, one relaxed and fraternal, one idealistic and later disillusioned but brave and loyal to his men.

Linna excels in describing the psychology of his characters. He paints realistic yet deeply sympathetic portraits of a score of very different men: cowards and heroes, the initially naive, eventually brave upper-class idealist Kariluoto, the down-to-earth Koskela, the hardened and cynical working-class grunt Lehto, the platoon comedian Vanhala and the preternaturally strong-nerved Rokka, the politically indifferent Hietanen and the communist Lahtinen. It is only for the sternest officers of the Prussian school for whom he has little love. Many of his characters have come to be seen as archetypes of Finnish men, household names to whom reference can be made without explanation.

[Varwnos]

I just bought "the avenger", by Thomas De Quincey.
I have only read the confessions of an english opium eater by him, so expect something equally interesting, hopefully

[Traianvs]

I, Claudius (and Claudius the God all in one!) by Robert Graves

entertaining to say the least!