I finished Armor and also read The Stalking Moon by TV Olson and Black Gate 15 (a fantasy anthology from 2011 I picked up from a library sale.)
Just started Tarzan the Untamed by E.R. Burroughs.
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Books: What are you currently reading?
- Thread starter johnny139
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I finished Armor and also read The Stalking Moon by TV Olson and Black Gate 15 (a fantasy anthology from 2011 I picked up from a library sale.)
Just started Tarzan the Untamed by E.R. Burroughs.
Terry Pratchert's Discworld series; I've read more than ten of them so far. Borrowing them from a pal. I love some of the characters and am old enough to catch many of his pop and other cultural references.
Having just finished watching all Five Seasons of The Last Kingdom on disk, I discovered I could get all 13 books by Bernard Cornwell (I'm an old Sharpe fan) from Amazon for 39% off, and they arrived. I'm about halfway through the first one. Before this purchase I read a selection from it online, and liked what I read. Also many posters on BGG recommended them. Once you start you literally don't want to put it down; luckily I'm retired.
Having just finished watching all Five Seasons of The Last Kingdom on disk, I discovered I could get all 13 books by Bernard Cornwell (I'm an old Sharpe fan) from Amazon for 39% off, and they arrived. I'm about halfway through the first one. Before this purchase I read a selection from it online, and liked what I read. Also many posters on BGG recommended them. Once you start you literally don't want to put it down; luckily I'm retired.
After The Last Kingdom, I continued reading historical novel series.
The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon is a seven volume series on the French and English kings at the start of the Hundred Years War. George R. R. Martin credits it as one of his sources for Game of Thrones, but this earlier series from the 1950s is not as well know here in the States, as it was not translated and made available until fairly recently. This French series had two TV series which were never translated/subtitled into English. The author was a member of the French Resistance in WWII and eventually the head of the Academie Francaise, that nation's famous top literary association.
Just finished Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian Trilogy about Britons vs Saxons in post Roman Britain. He has a great mechanism where the last surviving Arthurian warrior is writing the story of his old times. His patron princess wants him to include more of the romance tales that have sprung up since then; but he sticks to what actually happened.
This clever device reflects on the author's picking and choosing which aspects of the Arthurian legends he keeps and which he discards in his own unique telling of the "King Arthur" stories as opposed to the mostly unknown history of those 'Dark Age' times about which little is still known!
The Accursed Kings by Maurice Druon is a seven volume series on the French and English kings at the start of the Hundred Years War. George R. R. Martin credits it as one of his sources for Game of Thrones, but this earlier series from the 1950s is not as well know here in the States, as it was not translated and made available until fairly recently. This French series had two TV series which were never translated/subtitled into English. The author was a member of the French Resistance in WWII and eventually the head of the Academie Francaise, that nation's famous top literary association.
Just finished Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian Trilogy about Britons vs Saxons in post Roman Britain. He has a great mechanism where the last surviving Arthurian warrior is writing the story of his old times. His patron princess wants him to include more of the romance tales that have sprung up since then; but he sticks to what actually happened.
This clever device reflects on the author's picking and choosing which aspects of the Arthurian legends he keeps and which he discards in his own unique telling of the "King Arthur" stories as opposed to the mostly unknown history of those 'Dark Age' times about which little is still known!
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Most of this last year I joined the local Science Fiction book club. Each month a member chooses a book for us to read and discuss, and I recently did one myself, which resulted in a session in which the 8 attendees (of perhaps 12 total members) enjoyed. This gang has been around for years.
We've read the following during my tenure in the group, which is made of up mostly older folk. These have included both old classics I never read and brand new volumes:
We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor*
Willful Child by Steven Erikson*
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler
Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair (my presentation)
A Fall Of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
The Night Shift by Natalka Burian
Five More Books:
*The first books of trilogies I completed on my own
Red Shirts by John Scalzi (as suggested by the group)
We've read the following during my tenure in the group, which is made of up mostly older folk. These have included both old classics I never read and brand new volumes:
We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor*
Willful Child by Steven Erikson*
The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
The Mountain In The Sea by Ray Nayler
Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair (my presentation)
A Fall Of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke
The Night Shift by Natalka Burian
Five More Books:
*The first books of trilogies I completed on my own
Red Shirts by John Scalzi (as suggested by the group)
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Rereading Chris Knowles The Secret Sun Synchromystic Handbook and am looking forward to eventually reading Knowles's Our Gods Wear Spandex and The Spandex Files: The Death, Rebirth and Re-Death of Comic Book Heroes.
Well met!
Re-reading: Zen body-being: an enlightened approach to physical skill, grace, and power by Peter Ralston.
Sounds fascinating, kolakoski!
Currently reading The Complete Works which includes both Handbook and Discourses from Epictetus, my personal favorite stoic philosopher. I've noticed it's quite a bit easier to read, less nihilistic, and contains more actionable knowledge than Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
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Well met!
Read Meditations. Stoicism and elements of Buddhism in the martial arts have similar philosophies. Epictetus quotes show up constantly on my Facebook feed. Guess I'll have to go to the source . . .
5e Dungeon Master's Guide.
I liked Meditations. I'll have to get this.
The Sabres of Paradise by Lesley Blanch. This is a truly amazing, frightening, and colorful history book about the Caucasian resistance to the expansion of the Russian Empire in the mid 19th Century. It was a primary source for Frank Herbert back when it came out in 1960 when he was writing Dune! The fierce Muslim mountain tribesmen fought for 30 years before being conquered. Both sides were brutal and unrelenting. The volume was famous when it came out; Jackie Kennedy asked Krushchev about it and got an evasive reply! This book is so well written that you feel like you've been sent back in a time machine. It also serves as a biography of the charismatic Imam Shamil, the leader of the fanatical Murids, who fought from deep mountainside forests and almost inaccessible mountain peak villages against the Tsar's rapacious army of conquest.
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Ninja Status
...Something unique
Currently on my 2nd read-through of Silent Music by William Johnston. Real interesting if you like meditation and want to learn more about its history, science and importance.