Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

Halfway through "Dissipatio H.G.", written in 1973 by the italian Guido Morselli.
At first it may look as a simple novel about the "last man on earth" cliché, but here the author plays wisely in the fields of philosophy and literature. He discovers to be the last man on earth after a suicide attempt and the post-apocaliptic scenery he lives now is just an excuse to look into himself and humanity itself.
The fact that the author shot himself right after finishing the book surely add more emotional value to the text.

Finished up the second book in the Inheritance Cycle, Eldest a few days ago.

Now I'm started on the third book, Brisingr.

Finished the second of Stephen King's Dark Tower books, which was a lot better than the first. I'll go back to the series soon, but decided to read Luke Smitherd's Kill Someone. The basic plot is the main character is given the choice of killing a person he chooses (with a few rules like no terminally ill people), or the people asking him to do this will kill five sisters who are well known for being philanthropists. If he agrees he will have 13 days to complete the task, but after a small chunk of time a limb will be cut off the eldest sister and, if she had no limbs left, she will ultimately be decapitated and they'll move onto the next eldest. Smitherd's other book I've read, The Stone Man, was excellent so I'm hoping this one will be good too.

Read Great Cities in History by John Julien Norwich. Very interesting book which is essentially a collection of 2-3 page essays by different authors explaining the importance of a bunch of cities in history

That sounds super interesting. I'm adding to my list.

I'm currently reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck and I'm loving it. Can't believe I waited so long!

So finished up "Great Cities in History" by Norwich which was excellent, really recommendable read for anyone with an interest in historically important cities. Also finished "Jellymans Thrown a Wobbly" by Jeff Stelling, the fella from Soccer Saturday. That was decent if your a fan of the show, good few fun anecdotes but I was expecting a lot more, a lot of the book it was just Jeff describing the show and how it came about/how he got the job which weren't that interesting to be honest.
Started reading "Danubia" by Simon Winder. It's a personal history of the Habsburgs family and their role in Europe and the Holy Roman Empire. It's pretty good so far, Winder adds a nice sense of humour to something which could be very dry to read

Recently finished reading The Shining and now most the way through the follow up, Doctor Sleep. Definitely going through a Stephen King phase at the moment.

@Dichotomy I'm going back to IT and listening to the audio book on my commute in preparation for the new movie. Might also go on and re-read the Dark Tower.

@Rudy_Manchego I read It around Christmas time, big book so it took me a while. Not sure the film is on my radar though as they seem to have split it into two parts with the first part being completely the story of what happened to them as kids and the second part what happened to them as adults. For that to work I think there will have to be some big changes to the story as the book uses jumping back and forth between the two periods as a way to build up both periods to a simultaneous conclusion. King also used that method to help explain what was going on without giving away too much which will be completely lost if they tell the story of them as kids before telling it as adults.

I've read up to book four of the Dark Tower series so far, decided to give it a break for a bit so I don't get burnt out, but will get back to it in the next month or two. I've also had sitting on my shelf for some time a book called S by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst that I have to get round to reading. If you've not heard of it it is worth having a look at as it is pretty unique in its set up, basically it is a normal story in the book, but two people have used the book to send messages, maps and other stuff in it between themselves. Once I get round to it I'll give my impressions (although it has been sitting there for a good few years so don't hold your breath ).

@Dichotomy Yes, I'm not sure about the film version and the split. At first I thought it was a cool idea but now listening to it, I realise that adult story is what gave a lot of tension as you learn about their childhood as they rememeber and also foreshadows the scares and the best scenes. I think it means the second film will suffer as the adult story loses some of its poignancy when you aren't going back and forth.

Sounds like a cool book but I also have a reading backlog as big as my gaming one!

Since my last post, I finished the last two books of the Inheritance Cycle (Brisingr & Inheritance).

The series means a lot to me, as I read the first three books back in high school (the first two numerous times), and it feels unreal to have finally finished it up nearly a decade later. I'm not sure how highly it rates in terms of the high fantasy genre overall (other than the Hobbit, I haven't read anything else in the genre), but I sure as heck enjoyed it, and reading the final book really was a rollercoaster of emotions for me. Even though it won't happen (the author said that he's done with these characters, although not necessarily the world itself), I would totally be down for a book 5, lol.

I did pick up a used copy of Rising Sun (by the author of Jurassic Park) at a local thrift shop, but I'm going to let my emotions concerning Inheritance to settle first.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. He's a fantastic science fiction writer who specializes in short stories and novellas. Had the collection for years, but just got around to it. I imagine it'll get a new lease on life now that one of the stories has been adapted into a major motion picture.

I used to be a book nut and am slowly coming back to it. Recently finished and loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. It has to hold some record for most exclamations in print! It's one to keep on the shelf, right next to Cloud Atlas and To Reign in Hell. Next up: Dune.

@fontainelefunk I loved Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, one of my favourite books ever.

You also can't go wrong with Dune, once you get over the ridiculous names.

@Rudy_Manchego Ha, multiple consonants and apostrophes in each name ... one could make a nickname for every proper noun in the book and be better served. In fact the protagonist shall now heretofore be named after myself! (In my mind, for convenience)

Written in Blood by Caroline Graham, it's part of the Inspector Barnaby series

Read a bit since I last checked in, reread The Shining and then read the sequel Dr Sleep, it is interesting to see how King's writing has evolved over the past few decades. I also read the first two novelisations of the Alien films, I would say there is not enough extra content in them to make them that worthy of someone's time. It was a bit funny that in the second book they avoided using even moderate bad language in the dialogue and having a hard time not reading it as they made it in the film.

I'm now onto the third book in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson, I've also read his Words of Radiance books in the past and he is a very good gritty and more realistic fantasy writer. Recommended if you're into that sort of thing (although I still rate Joe Abercrombie higher in that regard).

I've been reading the fourth Bosch book "The Last Coyote" by Michael Connelly and have around 100 pages left (it's a long book). I reckon it's the best one so far and quite a few nights I've been up really late reading because it's been so exciting.

This book really goes to the roots of the protagonist and explores many of the reasons why he is who he is. I'm also enjoying the theme which seems to be redemption and people having regret for not acting when they should have done. As ever Bosch's love life is a little corny with some brief sex descriptions. They are always the weakest part of these books!

Before I started reading the Last Coyote I read the second Anno Dracula book, "The Bloody Red Baron", which I thoroughly enjoyed. The murder-mystery novella slapped on the end was extremely entertaining.

Haven't started reading it yet, but I did just pick up House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. And, flipping through it... I get the sense I'm in for another challenging Ulysses-esque experience.

@KratosMD Visual novels and JRPGs .... those count as reading, right?