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What are you reading?


Shane

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Just finished up Rise of the Governor.

 

Bought the paperback last year and it got buried in a huge stack of un-read books. Ended up reading most of it while waiting to see my doctor. Enjoyed the little things in it that only fans of the comic would pick up. Sadly something towards the end had been spoiled for me over a year ago. Now I need to get the second book. 

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A friend has gifted me the Game of Thrones series. So I'll finally know what the fuck it's all about.

 

Nice people eh. God bless them.

 

No, you will come to hate your friend for what he has done to you. And this from a guy that waited years for Jack Vance to finish "The Demon Princes". At least you knew going in that there would be five books. With GOT, there's no telling.

 

As for me, to take a break from the stuff I have to read professionally, I'm reading a ton of Wodehouse in these nifty cheap editions from Overlook Press. Twenty bucks for a Wodehouse book is the most fun that you can have without doing something illegal or taking your clothes off.

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I make sure to read at least one Wodehouse collection every year.

And one Flashman.

 

I'm afraid that I OD'd on Flashman by reading the first three back-to-back-to-back. They were good, but I never felt the need to reads the rest of the series, suppose I should do so. I'll put it on the list after James Branch Cabell's Biography of Manuel (yeah, eighteen volumes of Cabell, that's a whole summer project.)

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Re-reading the Wild Cards novels (George RR Martin's other saga). Finished the first two, now onto Vol. 3.

 

Fun stuff, sort of lost steam around Vol. 7 but the first five are gold.

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Re-reading the Wild Cards novels (George RR Martin's other saga). Finished the first two, now onto Vol. 3.

 

Fun stuff, sort of lost steam around Vol. 7 but the first five are gold.

 

 

I really enjoyed the new trilogy (Inside Straight, Busted Flush, Suicide Kings) a few years back too. Not a restart, just catching up with some of the old characters and adding a ton of new folks.

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Re-reading the Wild Cards novels (George RR Martin's other saga). Finished the first two, now onto Vol. 3.

 

Fun stuff, sort of lost steam around Vol. 7 but the first five are gold.

 

 

I really enjoyed the new trilogy (Inside Straight, Busted Flush, Suicide Kings) a few years back too. Not a restart, just catching up with some of the old characters and adding a ton of new folks.

 

 

I shall check them out stat. Thanks for the rec.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Read Dragon Age: Asunder. The characters were interesting enough and mostly well developed while the plot gave a more solid/focused look at the Templar/Mage conflict that the game, Dragon Age II, could only do so well with everything else going on in it. I really dug the past characters from Origins showing up and the changes they went through over time. Wynne in particular was interesting as she had become a far more calculating person. It was also nice getting a little insight into the Divine and the way she plays politics. Overall I thought this was a good read. I didn't really love any of the characters, but I thought the journeys they went through were very interesting, and the book did a fine job setting up the Mage/Templar war that is supposed to be going down during Inquisition.

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Four Kings - very good boxing book, story of Hearn/Hagler/Duran/Leonard. Almost finished it after buying it on Wednesday, just plowed straight through it.

 

Probably my favourite boxing book. I'd read about the fights and then go and watch em on youtube when I'd finished the chapter. Great stuff.

 

I've just read The Hate Game by Ben Dirs. It's about the Eubank/Benn fued in the early 90s (aka Britain's golden age of boxing) and its wider implications on the middleweight scene at the time. Really good read

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Ohhh, glad you reminded me about the release of that. Will pick it up.

 

Always thought that if I was ever going to write a non-fiction book, I'd have been interested in covering that time period of boxing in the UK. Just a great time.

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Yeah man, you had Eubank dodging everyone and taking nothing fights then pulling out gutsy performances when it mattered, Michael Watson being a legit threat in the MW division (and as horrific as what happened to him is, his fight with Eubank is amazing to this day), Benn just being glorious to watch but inconsistent in his performances, Steve Collins appearing out of nowhere and the rise of Joe Calzaghe. Then in the background there's arguably the most dodged boxer in boxing's history - the great Herol Graham - constantly trying to get a world title fight.

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I read David Gemmell's Legend and very much enjoyed it, however it felt like a 4+ star match with the cheapest of cheap DQ finishes. Gemmell's writing style is very simplistic storytelling where he crams 1000 pages worth of action into 400 pages. Druss is a man among men and by far my favorite character in the book. He also has my favorite quote maybe ever.

 

“And what is a man? He is someone who rises when life has knocked him down. He is someone who raises his fist to heaven when a storm has ruined his crop--and then plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate.

That man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud of what he sees. For low he may be in the present scheme of things: peasant, serf, or dispossessed. But he is unconquerable”

 

I followed Legend with Atonement by Ian McEwan. I found part one difficult to get through but the novel picked up from there and by the end I was dying to see how it ended. McEwan developed a great deal of depth in his characters and seeing the events from several viewpoints made for an interesting read. I love how McEwan throws tiny blurbs of information that call back to information provided earlier in the novel or historical notes that emphasis the approach of the second world war. McEwan is a fantastic writer, providing me immense enjoyment out of a novel I did not expect to like at all.

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Starting to read Stephen King's IT not sure how the fuck I missed this over the years. Curious to those who have read, I read a review the said the last 100 or so pages are like a different book and not as good? Is this true?

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Finished the first Jack Reacher book. I feel like I'll probably end up reading the series. The character interests me and I generally enjoyed the writing.

I'll probably start Skyjack, which is about D.B. Cooper, next...

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Not really reading but I really don't want to make some one-off topic just to say that Harlan Ellison has a youtube channel and it has all his Sci-fi channel commentaries in a handy dandy playlist.

 

 

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Starting to read Stephen King's IT not sure how the fuck I missed this over the years. Curious to those who have read, I read a review the said the last 100 or so pages are like a different book and not as good? Is this true?

 

I would agree with that to an extent. It does take kind of a weird turn at the end but it's still pretty well written.

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Finally read and finished the last Wheel Of Time book over the last week or two. I had actually had sitting on a table next me for the last six months, but had been too focused elsewhere on games and comics to really get into. The Last Battle might be the longest chapter I have ever read at 180 pages, but it was well worth it with the constant back and forth fighting, and crushing moments where just for a  moments where you felt a person was going to be so screwed (sadly accurate at least 40-50% of the time). I'm not sure why it surprised, but there were far more deaths than I thought there would be with at least one major character who I thought would live dying. Was particularly disappointed with that moment as the character had earned so many points from m earlier in the book. I really dug how just about every surviving character managed to make an appearance and get a good and usually important moment in. Overall I found the overall book quite satisfying.

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