Just read some Jules Verne this morning. My goodness, gracious, that 20,000 Leagues is probably the most fun book.

I have currently ordered the Legend of Drizzt box set 2, containing books 4-6. I am a BIG fan of R.A Salvatore, and the Dark Elf Trilogy is currently my favourite book series. The way he writes action scenes is simply fantastic and engrossing. Plus he's a great writer of culture, to make the characters drastically contrast with it.

I'm also planning to buy the first book in Dragonlance Chronicles series, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight". Been given a good recommendation for this book and can't wait to read it!

Is anyone here a writer themselves? I write short fantasy stories, inspired allot by Power Metal and the fantasy literature I write. I am currently writing a short story called "Nazkrug the Gladiator", which is about an Orc named Nazkrug being held captive by dark elves in a gladiatorial arena. He must make alliances with the other gladiators to stay alive, but also face some of the toughest and most dangerous opponents ever. And this time there may be a slim chance of him escaping once and for all...

All of the man's major works are awesome. I've not read his essays or plays, but I bet they're awesome, too.

Is his writing less dry than H.G. Wells?

Much less.

Reading Richard Laymon's night in lonesome october, fuck he's a legend of that genre

Aha, I didn't realise you never got around to The Asutra. Yeah, I'd maybe go over the first two again at least, because the third book is pretty dark and grim...and more impactful if you remember what came before. The surprise death at the end of Brave free Men is only a taster.

I haven't read the Alastor books either! I have really high hopes for them, though.

Ahaha I guess I'm going to have to, because I don't even remember who dies at the end of Brave Free Men. I'm looking forward to it, honestly. I particularly remember a hilarious exchange between Gastel and one of the "balloon boys" or whatever they were called that operate those transporters on the wires.

I'm beginning to wonder if it matters at all which order I read the Alastor stuff in. Wyst showed up first, which I thought was the end of the series, but the descriptions I'm reading now make it sound as if they are all loosely collected and just happen to center around the same cluster.

Yay, I got Book of the New Sun back from the library, time to finish it! I was in Sword of the Lictor.

Jonpo, yeah, I don't think they're meant to be in sequence at all.

Oh man, you ain't kidding, if that surprise death is a sucker punch (and a great one, too) then The Asutra has a whole bunch of them. Honestly I think the Durdane trilogy is tied with the Demon Princes for his best work, though I still haven't read anywhere close to all of them.

Jonpo, you gotta let us know what you think of all those Vance books, you've picked up a few I'm not familiar with.

I keep going back and forth on my favorite series of his. Honestly I think it's just whichever I'm reading at the time. I've read both The Dying Earth and Demon Princes twice, and I constantly waffle back and forth. I'll probably go for a third when I get them back off loan. Can't really make any clear statement on the Durdane situation until I re-read them. I've forgotten so much. I will say that I really love the way he incorporated his knowledge/appreciation of music (especially jazz) into that one. The descriptions he comes up with for sounds and moods and textures of the various music played by the travelling troupe is just wondrous. I also got REALLY emotionally attached to some of the Lyonesse characters so I think that one might be in the running.

Man, I just got four of them in yesterday and I'm tearing through The Dragon Masters already, which looks like it's going to be really short and punchy. Highly recommended. It feels like the sort of story that he would have devoted a paragraph to describing in a much bigger novel, and then liked the idea so much he just decided to expand on it.

Just started reading The Way of Men by Jack Donovan...outstanding so far.

I got a brand new paperwhite Kindle for an early birthday gift a couple months ago, I was skeptical at first but I'm totally loving it. I'm free to read more books for cheaper, even cheaper than used book stores, and choose from a wider variety. All those hard to find indie-published novels and short stories I always thought looked cool but just couldn't afford to shell out ten or twelve bucks a pop for the real thing...usually between 99 cents and six bucks for that sort of thing via digital medium.

Yeah, I've been tearing through that stuff like candy. Currently picking away at the American Apocalypse series by 'Nova' and enjoying it tremendously. All the classic joys of end of the world stories like vigilante justice and firefights with government troops with a lot less of the usual political preachy-ness (and thank the dark gods, none of that "christian warriors reclaiming 'merica for jeebus" nonsense that so common in survivalist lit...in fact he pokes fun at it quite a bit) and, while there's a small dose of action cliches, they manage to control the over the top gung-ho shit a little better than most books. It's pretty realistic while still having plenty of suspense and action. (Most people don't mind that sort of thing, I can't read that crap without picking it apart) Halfway through the second book and I give it the thumbs up so far if you're looking for a fun easy read...I can't put this one down.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of those classic tales that satisfied every time you read it.

meh..i can find those kind of books for about 2 bux at my local hospice quite easily..can't stand digital reading myself,that's just me though

never thought i'd say this but this Richard Laymon book im reading is total shit,started good with rape and cannibalism and has been shit for the rest of the book...it better have a fucking good ending.Looking forward to my "way of the wyrd" to turn up in the mail

Lady friend let me borrow a collection of David Foster Wallace short stories. Never read him but heard lots.

So I read The Metamorphosis for the first time, and it pretty much ruined last night for me. Couldn't bother thinking straight or feeling right after that, no way.... not that I expected Kafka to conjure tranquil, rolling green pastures.



The only piece I read so far by him, The Devil is a Busy Man, made me put on the moral thinking cap. Maybe Infinite Jest, a 1000 pager hailed as his stand-out work, can do the same; but I think Moby Dick and IT are first up in line for fictional marathon material.

Moby Dick is such a pain. It's got its moments and overall I think somewhat highly of it, but good god, Melville.

I'll stick to his shorter works.

I hated The Metamorphosis. I can respect Kafka from what I know about his tortured life and all, but The Metamorphosis is too long and just drags on forever. I guess that was the intent, to give the story a kind of drugged out feel, but hey, so what.

And personally none of Melville's shorter works have done it for me like Moby Dick. Didn't really like Bartleby the Scrivener, and the other stuff I read was good enough I suppose, just didn't electrify me like Moby Dick did - God, that was a powerful fucking book.

Bartleby's one of his more well-known and it's not bad. I like The Piazza and The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids better, probably.

Btw Kafka's Trial is a great book. Haven't managed to finish Metamorphosis.

I received a $50 dollar Barnes and Noble gift card from my mother on Christmas. Got around to cashing it in today.

Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 Years of Solitude
John Steinbeck: Grapes of Wrath
Christopher Hitchens: Arguably

A lot of literary classics that I've been meaning to pick up for a while. Right now I'm reading "Suttree" by Cormac McCarthy. "Blood Meridian" (my favorite book ever) is more acclaimed, but a lot of diehards tell me that this is his meisterwerk. At over four hundred pages long, it may as well be eight hundred. His vocabulary is beyond astounding.

I finished Joseph Conrad's short-story "Youth" last night. Really enjoyable stuff, and a narrative which really balances delicately between portraying the loss of youth, and the futility of many of it's endeavours, but at the same time glorifies it. As the reader it was difficult indeed to settle upon finding the story depressing or elating. While it didn't have much of a feeling of peril or adventure, I assume from being more symbolic and metaphorical than in any way swashbuckling, it was also an enjoyable tale of sea travel on the literal level, even if everything which can possibly go wrong for the crew does.

It came in a volume with Heart of Darkness and some other things, which I will be reading next - the style was fantastically readable but at the same time there was a lot of symbolism and content crammed into twenty seven pages.

Almost through with Fulgrim (5th Horus Heresy novel). Still good pacing, dialogue, action, atmosphere and (most) characters. Add to that a surprising amount of depth. And Eldar! Woohoo. I also like how the novels so far cross over with previous ones and explore the unfolding story from different perspectives, adding new details and insights to previous books. Graham McNeill isn't Dan Abnett, that I noticed, but he does a good job regardless, although he sometimes gets carried away with all the "OMFG PRIMARCH/ASTARTES" descriptions. I could have done without the 25th mention of how Fulgrim causes spontaneous orgasms in everyone in the room or how demigodly Space Marines are. Minor nitpick, though, guess that comes with the setting. Ben Counter, as someone already mentioned, knows how to write a battle and Galaxy in Flames was pretty intense in that regard. The account of the Eisenstein I also enjoyed, especially

With all the different authors involved so far I think they did a pretty great job at creating a reasonably smooth overall story.

I haven't read either of those two stories. I guess I should check em out, no? Moby Dick though, despite being unwieldy and by all accounts it shouldn't work...really inspired me, and the writing is excellent. The story is incredibly triumphant and meaningful really - a great tale of fate and what matters to a man. Ahab is really one of my favorite characters in literature.

It's got a large scope and a lot of depth and Melville was definitely brilliant, and it's probably proto post-modernism, but I found it tedious to read. The fact that I chose to write a final essay over its meaning probably factors into my disdain

Because fuck if anybody in literary criticism can agree on what that book's singular meaning is. The post-modern criticism is especially ridiculous. I went with it being an anti-Transcendentalist text, anti-religions of nature, but if that's even partly true, it's definitely only partly, and I knew that as I was writing the paper. Frustrating.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is so well written, beautiful book.

The book I've gotten into more than any other book in a long time--Metalion The slayer Mag Archives. It gives really good insight into the culture of earlier metal. When I ordered it, I thought it would be a book full of just mags, and it turned out to be more than that! Good stuff.

I went to a local bookstore to pick up the first few Horus Heresy books, but they didn't have them. They did have a good amount of Omnibus books though. For someone that hasn't read any of the WH40K novels, it's my understanding that I can start pretty much anywhere. Is this correct?

Just finished Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff. It's about a 600 man gang bang (that's a lotta dicks huh?) and basically the story centers around three of the participants (Mr. 72, Mr. 137 and Mr. 600 respectively) and the gang bang enchantress herself Cassie Wright. I found this book to be damn good fun in a demented sort of way. And it pulled out quite a few unsuspected laughs as well.

What a coincidence, I got Suttree for Christmas and just finished it last night. I absolutely loved it, McCarthy's prose gets me every time. Some passages were just unreal. Out of the four books I've read of his, it would be my second favourite behind Blood Meridian (yes, it's also one of my favourite novels).

Awesome man. I'm about a fourth of the way through; I'm a very slow reader, but so far I'm impressed, as always. Just that intro with the italic font...most of the time I was saying to myself "What are these words?".

Just finished "Interrogations - the Nazi elite in allied hands", which was quite fascinating. About half of the book sets the context, then the rest is verbatim transcripts of the interviews with Speer, Hess, Georing, Keitel, Ley etc. Also recently finished "Life after Death" by Damien Echols. It's his account of the 17 years he spent on death row for the West memphis three murders. Surprisingly upbeat despite the horrific subject matter. And "Ravenwing" by Gav Thorpe - good olde 40k pulp. Finished the first 2 books in the "Danilov quartet" ("Twelve" and "thirteen years later") by Jasper Kent - entertaining pulp great for the commute into work. Nearly done with "A dance with dragons".....sort of felt that dragged a bit. Maybe I'm just reaching the "get to the damn point already" stage with Martin.

Next up are the 3 books that arrived in the mail the other day - "Storm of Steel" (Ernst Junger), "Revolt against the modern world" and "Metaphysics of War" by Julius Evola. All 3 are things I've been meaning to read for years.

My new years resolution was to keep track of everything I read this year. To that end I'm using Goodreads.com. I know it's a lot in any given year as I read about 2 or 3 hours a day (30 mins on the tram into work, an hour at lunchtime, 30 mins home and an hour before bed) but I've never tracked it enough to come up with a list before.

Reading Dubliners by James Joyce. The man perfected the craft of the short story. In fact, I'd perhaps rank him among my favorite short story writers, and those that I consider the best. The realness of his tales, combined with the occasional element of unease, makes for quite a juicy and unforgettable reading experience. And better yet, you can re-read each of his stories and pick up on new subtexts, etc., every time.

The Portrait of the Artist... is next. I wanted to start that one first, but decided I'd take on his prose chronologically. Chamber Music doesn't count as it is poetry. Mighty fine poetry, I might add. I found an old Viking Portable of his collected works (everything except the Wake and Ulysses, obviously), and find myself skimming through Chamber Music and Pomes Penyeach throughout the days.

But yeah, Dubliners is excellent. The Sisters filled me with a sense of unease and anxiousness, as well as a deathly serenity. Joyce really hypnotizes you with his realistic prose and incredibly realistic dialogue. I find his take on the Catholic upbrining very interesting, being raised Catholic myself. An Encounter was quite effective, and saunters nicely into unexpected territory. I just finished After the Race this morning, and would like to read it again as I sense a lot of initially undetected social and ethical commentary. In it, a Frenchman, a Hungarian, an Irishman and an American take to a night on the town.

I am very excited to finish this book. I'm more excited to start The Portrait, though.

I'm interested to hear where you ordered Storm of Steel from, and how mucho it costo?

It's out in penguin classics now, so you can get it anywhere for around $10.

I occasionally work at a place that goes through stuff people throw away to resell, and my god have I been hoarding books from there..

Men Who Hate Women (Stieg Larsson)
Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)
Hard Times (Dickens)
Spirits of the Dead: Tales And Poems (Edgar Allan Poe, Penguin publishing)
Misery (Stephen King)
The Tommyknockers (Stephen King)
The Shining (Stephen King)
Cell (Stephen King)
The Discovery Of Society (Randall Collins, Michael Makowsky. Haven't read, but deals with sociology)
Civilization and Its Discontents (Sigmund Freud, translated)
Philosophy And The Young Child (Dno, I pretty much snag up every book that seems to deal with philosophy)
How The Mind Works (Steven Pinker)
The Republic (Plato)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (David Hume, translated)

most of which are in a good condition, plus a few more I've acquired from libraries and flea markets which I'll spare you from listing. I basically have enough literature to last me for more than a year. (would be less wasn't my brain addled with ADD's)

Either way, been reading Heldenhammer in the Legend Of Sigmar omnibus (Warhammer Fantasy) by Graham McNeill and enjoy it quite a bit. It feels a tad pulpy for it's bare minimum quality dialogue, but the storyline itself is pretty gripping and the world immersive, with at least a single tearjerking moment so far, so it definitely isn't just pure fanboy jerkoff material. (without being unbiased enough to even make such a claim, heh)

Also, has anyone noticed how many of the newer Black Library titles have these really shitty covers, especially the Time of Legends and Horus Heresy series? Time of Legends look like artwork promoting a JRPG game with it's stylized digivomit, while many Horus Heresy covers look like done with 3D models when not obscured by photoshop magic. It just feels tastelessly digital as fuck, and I literally can't bring myself to spend any amount of money to have trash like that degrading my bookcase, which sucks because I really wanted to check out the Horus Heresy series having been teased with tiny tidbits of history of that arc since I was a kid. Thankfully, the artists who did the Time of Legends omnibuses don't seem to have been dragged out of the gutter, because the style used there actually feels much closer to being timeless and genuine as all good Warhammer artwork is. Let's hope the future of Horus Heresy will be the same.

Maybe I've just been spoiled by all the amazing artwork in the older Warhammer rulebooks though..

Finally around to finishing Book of the New Sun. It's so damn good! I love Gene Wolfe. Nearing the end of Sword of the Lictor and I've been savoring his adventures up in the mountains. Just got to the lake town.

Gwwaaahh you're making me want to read it again! The mountain section was just beautiful. Though...which parts weren't, really. Right now I'm almost halfway through The Book of the Long Sun, having picked it back up after about a year and half away from it. Really enjoying it. It's amazing how different in tone it is than New Sun, it's a lot...breezier, more candid, more innocent-feeling, as opposed to the sense of insane density you find in its predecessor. Almost to the end of the first volume and it's starting to get quite heady. Like all Wolfe that I've read, I really have no idea where this is leading; it's so dreamlike and obtuse, yet so elegantly rendered.

Think you'll read The Urth of the New Sun when you're done with BotNS, Nahsil? Talk about dreamlike...fucking hell.

And I know I've mentioned this in passing before, but have any of you sci-fi/fantasy heads read any of the Nevèrÿon books by Samuel R Delany? Or any Delany, for that matter? He's by far one of the most interesting sci-fi/fantasy authors I can invoke, and yet I never hear people even mention him here, let alone discuss his work. I think some of you folks might really, really like what he does.

I came across some literary criticism for Delaney while I was in a science fiction and empire literature course. I'd like to read him eventually, seems to be a big name in literary scifi.

I'm sure I'll read that eventually, but I'll take a break from Wolfe when I'm done with this. I've got David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut, Alan Watts, Irvin Yalom, Aldous Huxley, Umberto Eco, George Saunders and others lined up.

Any of you guys know any good war memoirs or good books about less cliche wars like the iraq/iran war or the ethiopia/eritrea war? African bushwars? Maoists in asia? Comedy skits in south america? etc etc etc. Been interested in reading about cool wars lately (IE: not the world wars or the civil war).

Yeah, you HAVE to read that one. It's stupid that it's separate, without it all the prophecies and shit in the first four don't really get a conclusion.


I haven't read the Neveryon books, but I did read the monolithic Dhalgren, which took me a long time to get through but I enjoyed it a lot. It's one of those dense books during the reading of which I take a break to read a shorter, lighter book. It's fantasy in that the setting is inherently fantastical, in fact a lot like the Zone from Stalker/Roadside Picnic, in that a bizarre event of some kind happened to a modern-day US city and now it's really weird there. But it's much less dangerous than the Zone, and the story basically follows one character's journey into, and eventually out of, the city. He finds gangs, weird hippie communes, crazy artists, etc., all sorts of people who have chosen to live there for various reasons, and over time you figure out why he has chosen to live there. It's like modern literary fiction in that it's all about characters talking and their developing relationships and such, without a lot of forced drama, except with this really unsettling spin on everything. There are all sorts of weird omens, surreal events, that kind of thing. There's A LOT of social commentary, transgressive sex, philosophy, etc. but it's not ham-handedly delivered for the most part. Anyway I'd recommend it as long as people know what they're getting into.