What are you reading Thread

Finished the Thrawn trilogy's final volume The Last Command a week or so back.  Really good Star Wars trilogy that was, Zahn did an excellent job taking what made the original trilogy so fun and expanding it both in scale and in depth.  The novels had plenty of action of both sequence and political scheming varieties, and there was plenty of adventuring.  All up I'm glad I rebought the trilogy after last reading them over a decade ago, they have not only stood the test of my nostalgia but improved now that I'm old enough to understand and fully enjoy political scheming.  

Next up is either book 1 of the X-Wing series Rogue Squadron or Artemis Fowl and the Last Gaurdian when I buy another lamp so I can read in the evening again.  I soldiered through last command with the crappy light from the hallway and bathroom shining on the pages through my door but I shan't be starting another book until I've got some proper lighting again.

I am reading a TAFE (Technical and Further Education) text book on Computing Foundations: Learning and Assessment Guide.  It is Certificate I in computer studies.  It is really simple stuff, beneath my abilities, but I wanted to get a Certificate so it would go on my Resume, so readers wouldn't assume at my age I know nothing about them.  It is pretty dry stuff.

I've just finished reading Fable Vol 1 Legends in Exile which includes 1-5 of the comics and a few other bits.

I picked it up after playing Wolf Among Us which I enjoyed so much that I wanted to look into the source material , the game has got it's own comic which acts as a prequel to the actual fables but after reading Legends of Exile doesn't really fit.

But on the actual graphic novel, it was a really good read as I only bought this afternoon from local comic book shop and only just put down.

So definitely will be looking at the rest, only thing there's so many of them in the paperback format which I picked up & a few spin off's including Cinderella being a Spy for MI6.

Finished Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian yesterday, the truly final book in the series.  A fitting conclusion all things said, the conflict with Opal Koboi finally comes to a absolute boiling point as she makes her third (or fourth if you view book six that way) attempt to become queen of the world both above and below ground.  Alone, cut off from the rest of the world, and completely out-gunned Artemis Holly and Butler make a final stand.  

The return to Fowl Manor as the main setting of the book was a nice parallel to the first book, with the slant this time of them being the ones attempting a siege.  Opal was her usual hilarious psychopathic self, there wasn't much humour in this one because of how desperate and packed this adventure was but her bouncing off of others was as hilarious as it's been in the past.  

Overall I feel this book was a return to form and a great swansong for Artemis Fowl, both the character and the series.  Packed from beginning to end there was never a dull moment, and the ending was suitably fitting.  

Actual ending spoilers, you've been warned:

Any gripes I had with the last few books feeling slightly fillerish and disappointing have been completely overwritten thanks to this conclusion, a great wrap up to something that had been building for several novels and a good ending overall.  Like I frequently say an ending makes or breaks something for me, a good ending can make me forgive some missteps and a bad ending can make me dislike something that had been great up to that point.  I'm very happy to see that Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian was the former.

Calling my progress through Crime And Punishment 'leisurely' would be missing an opportunity to use the word 'glacial'. Still, I've made it to Part Five. So dense!

Have you read the crime bit and moved onto the punishment bit yet?

Crime was an activity that broke the law...

Punishment was something handed out to a transgressor...

...together they fight crime! No, wait...

More seriously, yes. He committed the crime(s) hundreds of pages ago and we're mid-punishment, which is essentially psychological, at the mo.

I quite enjoyed C&P. More so than anything else I've read by Dostoevsky, certainly.

Having finished off The Old Curiosity Shop, one of the weakest of Dickens' library, I'm now reading The Hydrogen Sonata by Ian Banks (add Is and Ms as appropriate). He seems to have a bit more of a sense of humour in this one than in some of his other space opera books - maybe lookign death in the face does that to you.

I reread all the Harry Potter books in two weeks. Now I've started on The Hunger Games.

How was rereading Harry Potter as an adult reader? I'm curious, because I've not read them since their original releases.

I'm pretty curious as well, been considering going to have another read through of the series for a few years now.

I think the first two books will probably have aged the worst for adult readers. They're definitely more like children's novels.

Yeah, very likely. I honestly didn't really like book one all that much even when I was the same age anyway, it wasn't really till book two and particularly Prisoner of Azkaban that it struck a chord.

ZeroJones wrote:

Crime was an activity that broke the law...

Punishment was something handed out to a transgressor...

...together they fight crime! No, wait...

More seriously, yes. He committed the crime(s) hundreds of pages ago and we're mid-punishment, which is essentially psychological, at the mo.

I wasn't actually expecting a constructive answer to that question. Nicely done.

Oddly enough, I'm currently rereading the Harry Potter series. As predicted: I still love 'em.

I've "read" Information is Beautiful, by David McCandless (former Future golden-era dude). It basically takes a bunch of statistics and repurposes them in interesting graphical ways. It is fasciniating, but falls down ocassionally; apart from layout errors (naughty - my copy's already an updated version) some of the detail is actually harder to decipher than it being in a basic table. It's still good though.

Crime And Punishment has fallen! That was a slog, and no mistake. My brother - who bought it for me - warned me that it was very bleak, but I disagree. The final pages really made the whole book worthwhile. Now I'm on to one of the three books I really wanted to read from my Kindle: The Dying Of The Light, the last Skulduggery Pleasant book.

Really? I found C&P quite readable, although it does spend most of the book being a bit dismal. Good ending, though.

It was a slog purely because of its size and Nintendo's monopoly on my free time. I enjoyed it overall and am glad that I read it. My brother Pete bought it for me for Christmas (may have said this before) as I wanted to read his favourite book. I asked my brother Tim to do the same for my birthday, and he got me a copy of For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Anyway, The Dying Of The Light is now over, too - a nice end to the series, with lots of tension and comebacks, both of the verbal and, er, event variety. I'm now back on War Of The Worlds.

I blitzed through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for the second time, for the purpose of fulling enjoying the BBC TV show. When I get a book I enjoy, more so than most videogames, I want to do nothing else but read. I do other things, I stave off the Catholic guilt - but I don't want to. This was one such occasion.

Balladeer wrote:

When I get a book I enjoy, more so than most videogames, I want to do nothing else but read.  I do other things, I stave off the Catholic guilt - but I don't want to.  This was one such occasion.

Oh yeah, I definitely get that. It never happens right away (apart from aGoT), but once I get into a book I forego sleep and everything else until I'm done.

I am doing a course in Philosophy, around time-travel and had to read a couple of short stories, A Sound of Thunder by Bradbury (of Fahrenheit 451) and All You Zombies by Heinlein (of Starship Troopers).

I knew of A Sound of Thunder, but never read it and it is an amazing piece. I thoroughly recommend downloading it (you'll find a PDF online) and reading it. I love that it is literally the root of The Butterfly Effect and such a thought provoking story.

All You Zombies isn't as immediate in its enjoyment as Thunder, but an amazingly interesting story, worth downloading as well. The story is very odd to say the least. Read it and you will know what I mean.

Been meaning to read ASoT since I first heard of it, so I will try and do that soon.

I'm still on my Star Wars Legends binge, just finished Allegiance by Timothy Zahn the other night.  A fun yarn set between the first two movies, basically a squad of Stormtroopers abandon ship and go rogue, meanwhile Mara Jade gets sent to track down the source of some illegal dealings in the Empire and Han and Luke get sent to sort out a pirate gang causing problems for the rebellion supply lines in a sector.  Seeing how it all came together was typical Zahn brilliance and a joy to read.

Compared to the Thrawn trilogy and Hand of Thrawn duoligy it was a really fun adventure, rather than a galaxy at stake or fight for survival (Survivors Quest).  

Before that I read Vector Prime, book one of the seventeen novel long New Jedi Order series.  That one was kind of hit and miss for me, at times it just felt like nothing was happening, but on the other hand when things did happen they were pretty exciting.  I imagine a lot of people who only watch the movies will be glad that it's not part of the new canon though, given one of the characters who died in the novel, can't deny I'm fine with the movies not sticking with the Legends canon either because of it.

Currently reading the second novel in the series, Dark Tide I: Onslaught, which had a pretty good opening section showing some political fallout from the first novel and continuing on from the first book really well despite the author change.  I can see where we're going with regards to the New Republic and its denial of the invasion because of typical political self-interest, and I like it.

Just commenced re-reading Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. Well chuffed with it, as the copy my friend sent me appears to be about 100 years old. Does make me nervous that I'll break the copy though, as it's not in the best shape.

Ah well. If I do, I'll be sure to moan about it here.

Over the weekend I started reading For Whom The Bell Tolls. My brother Tim bought it for me for my birthday. It's very precisely written, until it's not. I'm not making sense.