Books: What are you currently reading?

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

Currently attempting a second time Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. The book was misplaced for over a year until my wife discovered it this summer while clearing our room for a paint job.

Currently at chapter VII with the kid regaining his freedom from the Mexicans and he's re-encountered The Judge. Several incredible passages in this book.

[Son of Arathorn]

Re-reading Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind. It's noticeably sloppier the second time through, but I still love how he twists the 'birth of a hero' development.

However, I'm re-reading that very slowly, as I'm in the midst of Hobbes' Leviathan, Newton's Principia, and about to begin Locke's Second Treatise of Government. School is a killer.

[CJofCourse]

Currently halfway through Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (Part 2 of the Thrawn Trilogy), the man is a literary genius, he captures the feel of the Star Wars universe incredibly he jumps around a lot, yet everything flows nicely. He can change your perspective on the story without you noticing.

I read Heir to the Empire (Part 1) a long time ago and never got around to the rest of the series, I was recently reminded of the series and decided to finish.

[keglo]

I just finished "The Crippled God" by Steven Erikson. It was the last book in "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. A ten book series that I have been reading for years. It was very good.

It's weird but I'm feeling a little sad right now that it's over. I'm going to miss my time in that world, despite it being dark and gritty. As corny as it sounds I'm going to miss hanging out with those rough marines and heavies, those sappers and sergeants. It's a damned good story teller that can make you feel that emotionally attached to the characters.

I have to sit back for a while now and try to digest that conclusion, and all that was left unsaid.

[chas]

I haven't read a Star Wars book since the novelization of the first movie, let alone paid the hardcover price for a novel (well, I got a discount). Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston takes Snips fron being a refugee from the prequel trilogy and recent animations into the early Imperial period, when she finds a new purpose and gets her groove back. Very nice!

[CJofCourse]

Originally Posted by CJtheMighty

Currently halfway through Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (Part 2 of the Thrawn Trilogy), the man is a literary genius, he captures the feel of the Star Wars universe incredibly he jumps around a lot, yet everything flows nicely. He can change your perspective on the story without you noticing.

I read Heir to the Empire (Part 1) a long time ago and never got around to the rest of the series, I was recently reminded of the series and decided to finish.

Literally just finished reading The Last Command (Part 3), and I won't spoil anything, but the end is incredibly epic, if I had to choose 2 words to describe the ending, they would be epic, and lacking. Epic in the sense that it was very epic, the villains powers were interesting, and epic. Lacking in that another villain goes down almost too easily, I can't see him going down any other way, but it still felt too easy, too quick. Lacking in another way that it doesn't seem to clean up what happens to the heroes after the epic finish.

[Hex_Enduction_Hour]

Decided yesterday to just push through the final three or four chapters of Blood Meridian.
The book is an amazing read. The descriptions McCarthy provides of the landscape and the endless journeying/escaping the characters make through it are evocative and just as numerous.

The story was more fantastical than I imagined it would be with the Judge seemingly levitating coins around a fire, desert fauna huddled about a lightning struck tree in the middle of the night, and the doubtful durability of wounded characters in the harsh landscape.

There is so much to analyze and study with the themes and situations I find myself scouring Reddit discussions, Goodreads reviews, YT videos and chapter summary & analysis.

I'm very satisfied to have completed this book. Where do I go from here?
I may have to revisit Moby Dick.

Any recommendations?

[misterdoctor]

I just finished Gore Vidal's BURR. I wanted to get some perspective on controversial elections of the American past, and a historical novel about the VP who famously shot one of the founding fathers in a duel seemed like a good choice. It turned out to be pretty fantastic; Burr lived to a remarkable age for the period -- outliving all his rivals -- and he was involved in many more momentous events besides that famous duel with Hamilton. I learned many things I did not know about the War of Independence and the bitterly contested election of 1800; and the complex portrait of Jefferson that Vidal (as Burr) paints has forever altered my feelings about the third president.

Now I'm reading some horror stories by Thomas Ligotti -- and am not sure if I'm as impressed as I'm supposed to be, but I'm giving it the college try -- in between taking stabs at Alan Moore's mammoth novel JERUSALEM. (I'm about a third of the way through, and it's sometimes a struggle ... but not an unrewarding one, so far.)

[Dr.Goomonkey]

I'm a big Douglas Adams fan, and I recently got a book not by him that the Washington Post describes the author of as "Equal parts Douglas Adams, J. K. Rowling, and Shel Silverstein..."

The author in question is Walter Moers, and the book is Rumo and His Miraculous Adventures. Wow is it fun. Technically it is the third in his Zamonia books, so I'm sure I'll get the first one after this. Unfortunately it looks like the second one hasn't been translated to English yet, maybe I'll learn German... Or better yet Zamonian, seeing as Moers really just translated them in the first place.

If you want to read a "work if monumental silliness", I would strongly recommend this to you. It's wery wundibar.

[Dysole]

Well, being sick yesterday I decided to do some reading. I'd recently acquired my two favorite books of the Pern series from a local bookstore (Dragonsong and Dragonsinger) and decided to read those over the several Discworld novels. I hadn't read the books since I was in my teens and they are somehow so much better than when I read them then (similar thing happened with the first couple of books in the Wrinkle in Time series). Sick day well spent.

~Dysole, who for some reason always found things like the harpers far more interesting than the dragonriders

[chas]

Just got the two volume unabridged Moss Roberts translation of the Chinese Iliad, (Romance of the) Three Kingdoms. Having read the one volume abridged version years ago, I'm also watching the 2010 Chinese TV series--a mere 65 one hour episodes on youtube!

This is partly in anticipation of getting the board game Three Kingdoms Redux. See my thread Chinese Board Games on Other Board Games.

[Agent Minivann]

Keeping with the reread theme, I'm rereading Dune. It's crazy to think that the only publisher who would touch it the first time around was Chilton.