The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Like most other book club, I think there needs to be a thread like this. So what is everyone reading other this post.

Great initiative Kevin!

I am currently reading The Given Day by Dennis Lehane. It's a good book, but there are few likable characters. Most are mean and cruel or annoying because their choices are stupid, and it's getting on my nerves...

I will start by saying I am currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Miéville. It is an interesting even though I am only 50 pages in.

Listening to 11/22/63, reading Memories of Ice.

Yeah, we need this one.

Tomorrow I'll get The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury and it will be my filler up till we hit 15th of April when Dune group reading starts. Probably I will need one more book till Dune...

I'm embarrassed to say I've not read anything by China Miéville yet but I keep hearing really good things! Not sure which one to start with though.

I'm about half way through Moon Over Soho which is the second Peter Grant novel and I'm really enjoying it.

Penny wrote: "I'm embarrassed to say I've not read anything by China Miéville yet but I keep hearing really good things! Not sure which one to start with though.

I'm about half way through Moon Over Soho which..."

Everyone says Perdido Street Station I think due to in part it is part of trilogy, which are usually more popular than anything that is a stand along, but I think any one will do.

I am still reading The Way of Kings. This is one long son of a beesting.

Dara wrote: "I am still reading The Way of Kings. This is one long son of a beesting."

It's not THAT long. I read it in less than little over a week. :-D

Of course that largely had to do with how much I was enjoying it, and blowing off other stuff so I could read it more.

Heh, I was reading Stormlight like maniac and most of the time I was late at work since my reading hours are mostly at night.

I've just been busy. I can usually read at work some which I do but last week was my boyfriend's birthday and Easter and I also try to make time for gaming (I played Journey last week. Incredible!) plus with it taking me so long, I lack motivation to make time for it since it's already taking me forever.

Guess you just don't realize how awesome it is, or you'd have your priorities straight. ^_^

Well I have PS3 but there is no way I can combine gaming and reading, not enough time for both. And since lately I have nice list of book that I wanna read, PS3 will have to wait till Dark Souls 2 is out ;-)

I'm enjoying what I read - glad Shallan is back in book 3. Sanderson has such an effortless style of writing that it's impossible not to like it.

I have Dark Souls and have yet to really play it. I started Bioshock last week. I always end up switching between Mass Effect and Skyrim.

Edit: I am really distracting from threads here today... My apologies.

Dara wrote: "I'm enjoying what I read - glad Shallan is back in book 3. Sanderson has such an effortless style of writing that it's impossible not to like it.

I have Dark Souls and have yet to really play it. ... by"

No worries. I tend to do that a lot myself.

Rob wrote: "Dara wrote: "I am still reading The Way of Kings. This is one long son of a beesting."

It's not THAT long. I read it in less than little over a week. :-D

Of course that largely had to do with how..."

One of my friend read it in two days.

Yeah, well I'm a pretty slow reader. Doing 1000 pages in about a week is very fast for me. I normally read about half of that.

i'm reading Days of Blood & Starlight, the sequel to Daughter of Smoke & Bone.

i wanted some fast reading young adult novels after finishing Steven Erikson book 2.
but they pleasantly surprised me. some real creativity in world-building here, and especially book 2 (i'm about halfway) is really good so far!

Kevin wrote: "Rob wrote: "Dara wrote: "I am still reading The Way of Kings. This is one long son of a beesting."

It's not THAT long. I read it in less than little over a week. :-D

Of course that largely had to..."

Holy crap. I'm usually a fast reader but I couldn't do 1,000 pages in 2 days. Reading that in a week is good for me.

If I had two days off of work, and nothing else to do, maybe.

Depending on the print size and how into the book I am, I average between .5 and 1 page a minute. So best case scenario, that's about 17 hours of reading time for me.

I finished The Given Day the other day.

Now I'm working my way through the wonderful The Lover by Marguerite Duras. Since I will finish this book tonight (it's short) I started reading The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie this morning on my way to work. I've had it at home for years and wanted to read it for just as long... about time. The first chapter is promising.

Oh and, once I have finished The Lover I will start reading Memories of Ice.

Finished the audiobook for 11/22/63 (My Review)

Starting The Wretched of Muirwood as my first official SFFAudio review.

Oh yeah, and I'm starting Dragonflight for S&L after work today.

I'm currently reading Faithful Shadow and it's pretty good. It's a horror novel and rather interesting one.

Finished listening to The Wretched of Muirwood that I did for SFFAudio (My Review).

I've moved on to second book in the trilogy The Blight of Muirwood.

I've been struggling my way through The Shadow of the Torturer. It came highly recommended but I can't say I'm enjoying it much. Apparently the best aspect of the books are the twists which I expect only happen at the end. I've also read that you have to re-read these books many times before you can truly understand the genius of them. I expect I'll finish it tonight or tomorrow.

Penny wrote: "I've been struggling my way through The Shadow of the Torturer. It came highly recommended but I can't say I'm enjoying it much. Apparently the best aspect of the books are the twists which I expec..."

I've never read anything by Gene Wolfe, but I've heard good things.

If you finish tonight, you have about a week to read something else before Dune. I made you "discussion leader" since it was your suggestion! ^_^

Excellent! I'll try not to get drunk on the power, but no promises.

I might try to squeeze the other book club book Infernal Devices in before we start reading Dune. Or I'll go for something short like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which I've been meaning to read for years!

Finished listening to The Blight of Muirwood (My Review) and I've already jumped right into the final book of the trilogy: The Scourge of Muirwood

At the moment Conan the Barbarian, The Complete Collection and as I already mentioned this edition for Kindle was pretty much cheap and lacks real page numbers, table of content and have odd text formatting. Of course stories are there which is most important :)

Penny wrote: "I've been struggling my way through The Shadow of the Torturer. It came highly recommended but I can't say I'm enjoying it much. Apparently the best aspect of the books are the twists which I expec..."

Wolfe is NOT an easy read! Kind of like Erickson and Miellville, you have to concentrate on every sentence. That said, I thought this series was one of the most brilliant I've ever read, but I do need to reread it, I got kind of lost in the last book. I'm not sure about the twists being the best aspect, for me it was the writing itself, the imagery that formed in my head, the world, the mood. There's one image especially I can't scrub from my head, and I read this almost 20 years ago!

I finished listening to The Scourge of Muirwood. You can read My Review if you're inclined.

I'm not completely sure what's next for audio, but I'm leaning towards Cryptonomicon since I have another road trip coming up in 2 weeks and it's over 40 hours so there is no way I'll finish it on that trip alone.

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorites! I absolutely love Stephenson, and the only one of his that ranks higher is Readme. Altho it's close.

Lori wrote: "Cryptonomicon is one of my favorites! I absolutely love Stephenson, and the only one of his that ranks higher is Readme. Altho it's close."

I've only done Snow Crash by him, but it's one of my favorite books. I also got Anathem in eBook for cheap recently, so I need to read that at some point too.

Lori wrote: "Wolfe is NOT an easy read! Kind of like Erickson and Miellville, you have to concentrate on every sentence. That said, I thought this series was one of the most brilliant I've ever read, but I do need to reread it, I got kind of lost in the last book. I'm not sure about the twists being the best aspect, for me it was the writing itself, the imagery that formed in my head, the world, the mood. There's one image especially I can't scrub from my head, and I read this almost 20 years ago!"

I agree that Wolfe isn't an easy read, but I don't think that was the main reason I didn't enjoy the book. I'm busy reading The Dispossessed which also isn't what I'd call easy, but I'm loving it! So much food for thought!

perdido street station is a great book by china Miellville and his other books have been enjoyable also.

The book I'm reading now is the Doctor Who book Sick Building which i find is better than the eleventh doctor book touched by an Angel.

Oh yeah, and I finished Dragonflight this weekend (My Review).

I will be starting The Wise Man's Fear with some friends in a few days.

I have been off-books the past two weeks (gods!) but most definitely since this weekend and onward. I have felt an obsessive need to re-read A Song of Ice and Fire since season three started as book 3 and 4 are my favourites and I'm continuously being reminded about their awesomeness. As my books are lent out I have pulled a total marathon watching the series in their absence.

Getting back to books this week tho.

Penny wrote: "I agree that Wolfe isn't an easy read, but I don't think that was the main reason I didn't enjoy the book. "

Woops didn't intend to imply that. :)

Lori wrote: "Penny wrote: "I agree that Wolfe isn't an easy read, but I don't think that was the main reason I didn't enjoy the book. "

Woops didn't intend to imply that. :)"

I didn't mean to imply that you'd implied that, if you know what I mean :P Not being an easy read did contribute to my overall dislike of the book. I didn't like the world the story was set in and nor do I feel that I understood it properly, I didn't feel connected to the narrator and wasn't fond of the looking back on my life storytelling technique. But I slogged through this not easy reading to hit an ending that just stoped. So it was the last straw I think.

Happily I've just finished The Dispossessed which I think might be on my top 10 favourite books of all time list. Simply amazing! I'll write a review soon. Next up is Dune :)

I don't want to imply that you implied that she implied that the implication was just implied.

I have always struggled with Wolfe. I got through shadow of the torturer, but found that I had to concentrate too much or I would lose completely what just happened. I also really really didn't care what happened to the characters, they did absolutely nothing for me.
I read fifth head of Cerebus and decided that I wasn't smart enough to read his book. I literally had no idea what I was reading, I kind of understood that there was meaning to be had, but I just could not join the dots.

Rob wrote: "I don't want to imply that you implied that she implied that the implication was just implied."

:)

Lee wrote: "I have always struggled with Wolfe. I got through shadow of the torturer, but found that I had to concentrate too much or I would lose completely what just happened. I also really really didn't care what happened to the characters, they did absolutely nothing for me.
I read fifth head of Cerebus and decided that I wasn't smart enough to read his book. I literally had no idea what I was reading, I kind of understood that there was meaning to be had, but I just could not join the dots. "

I think either you get Wolfe and love him, or you don't. I fall into the don't category. I'm glad I tried and I'm glad I know. I anticipate a massive discussion with my friend in Joburg who was so insistent that I read The Shadow of the Torturer the next time I see him.

Over the weekend I finished listening to Cryptonomicon (My Review).

Additionally I finished reading The Wise Man's Fear last week (My Review).

I'm wrapping up with The Wise Man's Fear in a day or two I think.

I finished Dune a few days ago which was awesome!

I'm almost finished Whispers Under Ground which might be my favourite Peter Grant yet. It's the third in the series by Ben Aaronovitch and it's really good fun. Urban fantasy detective magic vibe set in London and much as I might like Harry Dresden this is way way better! British humour (which is frankly the best kind), a detailed history of parts of London, some great characters, good plot. In other words I recommend the series :)

Next up is Cat's Cradle for book club which I've been meaning to read for years!

Finished Memories of Ice (My Review). I'll be starting House of Chains once I finish Wool Omnibus as my Malazan read continues.

Oooh, how far into Wool are you? What do you think of it? I really liked the original first short story and thought the rest were also brilliant, but not quite in the same way and I didn't think they stood alone as well. I think this work is best served read as if it's one book.

Penny wrote: "Oooh, how far into Wool are you? What do you think of it? I really liked the original first short story and thought the rest were also brilliant, but not quite in the same way and I didn't think th..."

Book 4. I was only going to read 1-3 this weekend then read 4,5 next weekend, but it was too good to stop/I had to find out what happens next so I re-arranged my plans for the week.

I also finished listening to Song of Susannah (My Review).

On to The Dark Tower as I conclude my audio reread of the Roland's quest for the tower.

Finished Wool Omnibus this weekend and started Storm Front. Not super crazy it yet.