What are you reading?

[a762user]

i am reading notes of a dirty old man by Charles Bukowski

[werewolf]

listening to zombie fallout series. the guy that is reading it reminds me of the actor Richard Kind. I thought i would never laugh so much listening to zombie novels. check them out.

[OldtypeM87]

I'm currently going through The Hobbit right now and hoping to get to The Lord of the Rings trilogy after that.

[werewolf]

listening to zombie fallout series. the guy that is reading it reminds me of the actor Richard Kind. I thought i would never laugh so much listening to zombie novels. check them out.

just finished the zombie fallout series. haven't laughed so much

[zombone]

I am excited in reading the Zombie Fallout series, because I heard it is funny, but lately I've been completely enthralled with "Better Undead #1" on Amazon.com. It is hilarious and easy to read, I read it on my lunch break and then again when I got home. It has it's own laugh out loud moments. You should check it out.

[Lilydragon]

Today I found out about one of the classic Post Apocalyptic novels i had not heard from before, Earth Abides. I read some reviews about it until i found this "Stephen King has stated that Earth Abides was an inspiration for his post-apocalyptic novel, The Stand" SHUT UP and take my money!!!! 2 minutes later and I had it ordered!

Earth Abides is a 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer George R. Stewart. It tells the story of the fall of civilization from deadly disease and its rebirth. Beginning in the United States in the 1940s, it deals with Isherwood "Ish" Williams, Emma, and the community they founded. The survivors live off the remains of the old world, while learning to adapt to the new. Along the way they are forced to make tough decisions and choose what kind of civilization they will rebuild.

And while I was at it, also ordered World War Z... I almost feel ashamed on this forum I haven't read it :P

Don't feel bad, I haven't read World War Z...

[Robzombie]

Today I found out about one of the classic Post Apocalyptic novels i had not heard from before, Earth Abides. I read some reviews about it until i found this "Stephen King has stated that Earth Abides was an inspiration for his post-apocalyptic novel, The Stand" SHUT UP and take my money!!!! 2 minutes later and I had it ordered!

Earth Abides is a 1949 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer George R. Stewart. It tells the story of the fall of civilization from deadly disease and its rebirth. Beginning in the United States in the 1940s, it deals with Isherwood "Ish" Williams, Emma, and the community they founded. The survivors live off the remains of the old world, while learning to adapt to the new. Along the way they are forced to make tough decisions and choose what kind of civilization they will rebuild.

And while I was at it, also ordered World War Z... I almost feel ashamed on this forum I haven't read it :P

Earth Abides, yeah thats a good one. Read it maybe 7 years ago. Read WWZ about a year ago as well but Earth Abides I think is much better. I barely remember anything about WWZ but Earth Abides has stuck with me.

[Osiris]

Right now I'm reading:

This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin (The World in Six Songs) explores the connection between music, its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it, and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:

• How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
• Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
• That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
• How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head

Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. A Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist, This Is Your Brain on Music will attract readers of Oliver Sacks, as it is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.

Audition by Ryu Murakami

In this gloriously over-the-top tale, Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son ever since his wife died seven years before, finally decides it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that, in order to attract the perfect wife, they do a casting call for a movie they don t intend to produce. As the r sum s pile up, only one of the applicants catches Aoyama s attention Yamasaki Asami a striking young former ballerina with a mysterious past. Blinded by his instant and total infatuation, Aoyama is too late in discovering that she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagines her to be. The novel s fast-paced, thriller conclusion doesn t spare the reader as Yamasaki takes off her angelic mask and reveals what lies beneath.

Real World by Natsuo Kirino

In a crowded Tokyo suburb, four teenage girls indifferently wade their way through a hot, smoggy summer. When one of them, Toshi, discovers that her nextdoor neighbor has been brutally murdered, the girls suspect the killer is the neighbor's son. But when he flees, taking Toshi's bike and cell phone with him, the four girls get caught up in a tempest of dangers that rise from within them as well as from the world around them. Psychologically intricate and astute, Real World is a searing, eye-opening portrait of teenage life in Japan unlike any we have seen before.

Also, re-reading:

Valdez Is Coming by Elmore Leonard

They laughed at Roberto Valdez and then ignored him. But when a dark-skinned man was holed up in a shack with a gun, they sent the part-time town constable to deal with the problem—and made sure he had no choice but to gun the fugitive down. Trouble was, Valdez killed an innocent man. And when he asked for justice—and some money for the dead man’s woman—they beat Valdez and tied him to a cross. They were still laughing when Valdez came back. And then they began to die.

Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave To A 19th Century Addiction by Steven Martin

A renowned authority on the secret world of opium recounts his descent into ruinous obsession with one of the world’s oldest and most seductive drugs, in this harrowing memoir of addiction and recovery.

A natural-born collector with a nose for exotic adventure, San Diego–born Steven Martin followed his bliss to Southeast Asia, where he found work as a freelance journalist. While researching an article about the vanishing culture of opium smoking, he was inspired to begin collecting rare nineteenth-century opium-smoking equipment. Over time, he amassed a valuable assortment of exquisite pipes, antique lamps, and other opium-related accessories—and began putting it all to use by smoking an extremely potent form of the drug called chandu. But what started out as recreational use grew into a thirty-pipe-a-day habit that consumed Martin’s every waking hour, left him incapable of work, and exacted a frightful physical and financial toll. In passages that will send a chill up the spine of anyone who has ever lived in the shadow of substance abuse, Martin chronicles his efforts to control and then conquer his addiction—from quitting cold turkey to taking “the cure” at a Buddhist monastery in the Thai countryside.

At once a powerful personal story and a fascinating historical survey, Opium Fiend brims with anecdotes and lore surrounding the drug that some have called the methamphetamine of the nineteenth-century. It recalls the heyday of opium smoking in the United States and Europe and takes us inside the befogged opium dens of China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. The drug’s beguiling effects are described in vivid detail—as are the excruciating pains of withdrawal—and there are intoxicating tales of pipes shared with an eclectic collection of opium aficionados, from Dutch dilettantes to hard-core addicts to world-weary foreign correspondents.

A compelling tale of one man’s transformation from respected scholar to hapless drug slave, Opium Fiend puts us under opium’s spell alongside its protagonist, allowing contemporary readers to experience anew the insidious allure of a diabolical vice that the world has all but forgotten.

[Osiris]

*blows dust off old thread*

Suuuup. What's everyone readin', huh?

I recently finished...

Neuromancer
by
William Gibson

I think it's probably my favourite book ever as far as sci-fi goes. I'd been meaning to get around to it for years, and years. I don't have a good excuse for not cracking it open, but I'm immensely glad I did. I didn't make it through the first chapter before I was on my way to the local big box book&coffee chain store to pick up the next two in the trilogy (Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive). Unfortunately, the book store only had Count Zero in trade, so I was forced to spend a few days searching the internet for Mona Lisa Overdrive in trade. I've got a weird thing about the size and shape of book I buy. I have a preference for trades, and refuse mass-bound paperback as a viable substitute for hardcover.

Anyway, Neuromancer is amazing. If I were to liken it to something modern, I'd say it's The Matrix before The Matrix. Not at all an exaggeration.

Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway--jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills. Then he double-crossed the wrong people, who caught up with him in a big way--and burned the talent out of his brain, micron by micron. Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body, Case courted death in the high-tech underworld. Until a shadowy conspiracy offered him a second chance--and a cure--for a price....

It's engaging. It's well-paced. Thoughtful. Oh, and there's a girl with sunglasses for eyes. Yeah. It's a good read. Liked it a lot.

If that doesn't pique your curiosity, I'll leave you with the the opening line:

The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Sadly, it's all I've had time to read since finishing off NaNoWriMo, but I aim to crack something in the next day or two.

[Solanine]

Huh Neuromancer? I'm going to be honest I never really dug it. For me it fell into the same trap as a lot of cyberpunk stuff, it faked depth where there was none.
You can speak all the gibberish about hacking computers you like, if you don't explain how any of it works (and you really need to in this case) then you can't expect anything happening during those sequences to have any real meaning. All I got out of those sequences was the net result e.g. someone had to disconnect, a door is now open etc etc.

Currently reading the Foundation trilogy. Possibly no.2 in my top five scifi (right after "Do androids dream of electric sheep").