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phred wrote:Don Quixote by Cervantes. I'm up to chapter 15.

Is it bad that the most interesting part of the book so far was the short bio of Cervantes in the front of the book?

It's not Cervantes' fault that the art of novel writing has progressed slightly in the last 404 years.

Just finished "Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour of The Globe" by Brian Thacker which also required a re-read of his first book ("Rule Number 5: No Sex on The Bus: Confessions of A Tour Guide") for shits and giggles, about to begin "Archangel" by Robert Harris.


Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

The_Saint wrote: Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Son ... rd_title_0
September 27, 2010





now reading: old sci fi shorts collection, edited by Asimov that I picked up at Icon ("Supermen") and "Anathem". I dislike needing to remember new words/names

Just read Neither Here Nor There and A Walk in the Woods, both travel books by Bill Bryson (Europe and the Appalachian Trail, respectively), and now I have a strong urge to see both. Maybe they could move it so I could hike the trail from Paris to Rome.

Presently reading In a Sunburned Country--same author, this time about Australia.

RedImperator wrote:Just read Neither Here Nor There and A Walk in the Woods, both travel books by Bill Bryson (Europe and the Appalachian Trail, respectively), and now I have a strong urge to see both. Maybe they could move it so I could hike the trail from Paris to Rome.

Presently reading In a Sunburned Country--same author, this time about Australia.

Try his dictionary and science-centric books if you like that sort of thing. All of his stuff is great.

The Grim Squeaker wrote:

The_Saint wrote: Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Son ... rd_title_0
September 27, 2010

So is he actually still writing it, or has he finally decided that maybe someone should edit one of his books one of these days?

weemadando wrote:

The Grim Squeaker wrote:

The_Saint wrote: Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Son ... rd_title_0
September 27, 2010

So is he actually still writing it, or has he finally decided that maybe someone should edit one of his books one of these days?

He's been reading chapters at several Conventions in the last few years. If anything it could potentially be longer

I'm currently reading A Massacre In Marienburg, a warhammer novel. I quite enjoyed the first in the series, so hey ho.

The Grim Squeaker wrote:September 27, 2010

I'll believe it when I see it... in my hands.

The potential of the HBO series scares me... it could be good... but it could also go so horribly wrong, though the fan made cast list for a theoretical movie couldn't fail.



After having a chat with a friend about computer security I've been re-reading Cryptinomicon - Neal Stephenson and Neuromancer - William Gibson and then went off on a tangent and been reading The Robots of Dawn - Isaac Asimov and The Simulacra - Philip K Dick.

The_Saint wrote:Just finished "Sleeping Around: A Couch Surfing Tour of The Globe" by Brian Thacker which also required a re-read of his first book ("Rule Number 5: No Sex on The Bus: Confessions of A Tour Guide")

At the risk of sounding like a name-dropping fuck...my old man edits Brian's stuff, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. His next one should be awesome - he got a copy of the original Lonely Plant guide to backpacking Asia, he's been travelling around seeing what's still there and what's changed.

Thomas P.M. Barnett's Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating, the followup to his The Pentagon's New Map.

Phantasee wrote:I tried starting The Odyssey (Oxford Classics edition), but I fell asleep before I cracked the cover. Been sitting in the "To Read" pile for two years now, I think.

Man, I love that book! I really hope you get back to trying to read it. I'm about to tackle Joyce's Ulysses in about a week, once I'm finished with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Just on the last chapter of Portrait, just finished The Dubliners (also by Joyce), and I'm reading Victor Gischler's Vampire A Go-Go concurrently with it to ease the serious depression. I also recently finished Vonnegut's Mother Night and (FINALLY) William Vollman's The Royal Family (which was a lot more interesting since I read it concurrently with the King James Bible). Almost don't recommend The Royal Family unless you sort of know the bible a bit. Vollman's like a religious crazypants zealout birthed from a dirty whore. Anyone read any of his other books?

yo, wench in honor of Yesterday being Colombus day, National Geographic reported back in the 1970s that they found Greek Porpoise anchors off the coast of Brazil while looking through some other ship wrecks...

That just might be the bit of truth in the foundation of the story of Oddyssus.

I'm rereading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at present.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through Philip Dru: Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow, written by Woodrow Wilson's political advisor, Col. Edward Mandell House. It's just as bad as I expected.

I'm re-reading Beevor's Battle of Spain. It's pretty funny stuff.

Terry Pratchett's Thief of Time and Alastair Reynold's Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days.

Just finished the Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan, a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the Age of the Five trilogy.

I'm now rereading for something light, Magician by Feist. I know his books were always a bit cliche but even a little bit in, I can see how much more enjoyable they were. And best of all, no bloody Miranda.

Count Chocula wrote:I'm about 1/3 of the way through Philip Dru: Administrator: A Story of Tomorrow, written by Woodrow Wilson's political advisor, Col. Edward Mandell House. It's just as bad as I expected.

Well, it is about a Marty Stu....

Foundations of Differentiable Manifolds and Lie Groups, by Frank W. Warner.

thejester wrote:...At the risk of sounding like a name-dropping fuck...

You fail. Was talking to a friend who'd travelled around Europe many years ago on a coach tour and mentioned Thacker's books and Top Deck Tours and apparently they were the group which other tour groups told their passengers to stay away from... a suggestion rarely followed.


Just read THE CHARACTERISTICS AND USE OF LEAD-ACID CAP LAMPS. by M.F. Cowlishaw, 1974 ...and I thought I knew heavy reading.... (all to do with rebuilding a miners lamp for caving).

The Grim Squeaker wrote:

The_Saint wrote: Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Son ... rd_title_0
September 27, 2010

And now that page says September 28, 2010.

Bloody hell, first he said he hoped to finish by the end of 2007 (no kidding), then it was June 2008, then it was September or October 2009, then now it's September 2010. Source. This is a really long wait.

I'm currently re-reading Dune, Frank Herbert. I like it, and now I'm wondering which order the sequels/prequels should be read.

Tritio wrote:

The Grim Squeaker wrote:

The_Saint wrote: Someone mentioned "A Song of Ice & Fire" .... WHEN THE *#^% IS "A DANCE WITH DRAGONS" COMING OUT???

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Son ... rd_title_0
September 27, 2010

And now that page says September 28, 2010.

Bloody hell, first he said he hoped to finish by the end of 2007 (no kidding), then it was June 2008, then it was September or October 2009, then now it's September 2010. Source. This is a really long wait.

I'm currently re-reading Dune, Frank Herbert. I like it, and now I'm wondering which order the sequels/prequels should be read.

Do NOT read any of the prequels (or sequels) by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. They range from decent (the house trilogy) to eye gougingly bad. When I say eye gouging, I mean I wanted to burn the books after reading them.

The real sequels can be a bit tiring, but interesting - I loved "God Emperor of Dune", "children of Dune" and "Dune Messiah" are also good (though not as much so as the original).

Up until two days ago, the only book I hadn't read in the house was Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol.

I wish I had just chosen one of my Lovecraft books, instead.

Yup. Philip Dru: Administrator turned out even worse than I feared. I think I'll go home and read something equally well written and consequential, like an old Executioner paperback. At least it will have guns and explosions and skirmishes, and not one OMFG GENIUS ONE BATTLE CHANGE TEH WURLD scene. Excuse me, two ULTRA GENIUS WIN fights. And Executioner politics don't go past "me good, he bad, I KILL!" I need a break.

Tritio wrote: Bloody hell, first he said he hoped to finish by the end of 2007 (no kidding), then it was June 2008, then it was September or October 2009, then now it's September 2010. Source. This is a really long wait.

It did take him five years or so to write Feast for Crows.

If I were being morbid, I'd put money on him doing a Jordan and croaking before the series finishes.