Reading any good books?

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Midge

I've been reading some really good books lately... One that I would recommend to anyone (mostly girls, but I GUESS guys could read it too) is Set Apart Femininity. I've got a Spurgeon book called Grace: God's Unmerited Favor and another one I've borrowed by R. C. Sproul. It's pretty good. Just reread Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis (are we just allowed to call him "Jack"? I feel like I should have some kind of nickname for him because I love him and his books SO very much!)...

I think I have that RC Sproul book. Or another by him.

"Till We Have Faces" is awesome! I loved that book. Have you read "The Great Divorce"?

Books I have NOT read recently:
my textbooks.

Me neither

[Midge]

Yes. I think it's just SO Lewis that MacDonald leads him around.

*Leads Rule around... right off a cliff*

[GrayMouser]

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy

This book is absolutely horrible, and I mean that as high praise. It is gut-wrenchingly bleak, but incredibly gripping. I read the whole thing in a day, because I couldn't put it down, and had waking dreams about it all night.

I see I've fallen into the trap of putting it here instead of in the science fiction thread- "that's not SF, it's good". It's a post-apocalyptic tale, which makes most other devastated futures look like a romp in the park. Halfway through, in fact, the author almost loses it, venturing into "Saw" territory; but it's never horror for the shock value, and he pulls it back in the end. Highly recommended, two thumbs up, five stars- but only if you're ready for an express ticket to the Heart of Darkness.

[SilverKnight]

I read lots of books, but at the moment I have just started Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton.

[Pip]

I got Moby Dick for my birthday and I'm working on that. I'm also in the middle of Return To Alastair. It's the second in a trilogy of books by L.A. Kelly. It's really intereting and fun to read.

[Jonathan]

I quickly got hooked on John Grisham.
I recently read The Broker and The Last Juror and have just gotten started on The Summons. His legal drama is captivating and it's a delight to see how he (being an attorney) really masters the genre.

[Annatar]

I just finished Sharpe's Eagle. Sharpie is awesome. Bernard Cornwell is a great writer, his battle scenes are so realistic and very well-written.

[SilverKnight]

Originally Posted by Annatar

I just finished Sharpe's Eagle. Sharpie is awesome. Bernard Cornwell is a great writer, his battle scenes are so realistic and very well-written.

I really enjoy reading the Sharpe's books. I have got most of them.

[Annatar]

Cool, I've only read a few so far but I plan to read them all, in time.

[nasuada]

I just started 'The Fires of Heaven' by Robert Jordan. It's the fifth book in the'Wheel of Time' series.

[Grey_Wolf]

Ive just begun reading the fourth and final part of Manda Smith's Boudica quartet. A recommended you read all four - very well written.

Titles: Dreaming the Eagle, Dreaming the Bull, Dreaming the Hound and Dreaming the Serpent Spear.

Another quartet I finished a couple of weeks ago (for the second time) is AA Attanasio's Arthur series - a very much recommended read - an altogether excellent and beautiful poetic retelling of the legend.

Titles: The Dragon & The Unicorn, The Eagle & The Sword, The Wolf & The Crown and The Serpent & The Grail.

[cee2lee2]

Originally Posted by Annatar

I just finished Sharpe's Eagle. Sharpie is awesome. Bernard Cornwell is a great writer, his battle scenes are so realistic and very well-written.

I like historical finction and the Sharpe series is excellent. I probably never would have heard of these books except for the LOTR connection (Sean Bean as Sharpe). I've read many of them and enjoyed each one, but as you say, the battle scenes are so realistic, I don't see me re-reading them. So the books are donated to our local library.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by cee2lee2

I like historical finction and the Sharpe series is excellent. I probably never would have heard of these books except for the LOTR connection (Sean Bean as Sharpe). I've read many of them and enjoyed each one, but as you say, the battle scenes are so realistic, I don't see me re-reading them. So the books are donated to our local library.

I like historical fiction, too, but let's open a can of worms here.

How accurate should historical fiction have to be? I tend toward the Flashman school- as close to accepted history as possible, and if you're inserting a character, you should show how they could have been there.

If a writer of historical fiction is going to alter accepted history, I think they should have to draw on a reasonably plausible alternate source- i.e. not "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".

Otherwise, it's too easy- you can just make up anything you want, and call it historical instead of fantasy.

Note here, I draw an exception for clearly labeled 'Alternate History'; a genre of which I am very fond, and to which I've contributed a few timelines of my own (and my only Wikipedia contribution, in support of Fritz Lieber.)

[cee2lee2]

It's not a can of worms, GM. You have reasonable expectations that an author honor the time and place in which he has set his characters.

I have to confess, I am not knowledgeable about history except in a very general way. This likely allows me to enjoy books containing historical contradictions which would irritate a more knowledgeable reader. The detailed descriptions of the battles seemed realistic to me and allowed me to see how the characters were affected by the action. But actually, I wouldn't have a clue what a real battle would be like in our time or in Sharpe's.

I said the Sharpe series was excellent because of the high level of enjoyment I experienced reading the books. On the other hand, they were not so "excellent" that I plan to keep and read them again, unlike some other books I revisit frequently.

[Mari]

I'm reading Michael Ende's Neverending Story at the moment. I'd seen the film years ago, but I didn't like it.
The story is excellent though! Lot's of great wordplay and I love how every chapter starts with the next letter of the alphabet. I wonder if we'll get to the Z. The book is even printed in 2 colours, so it's easy recognizable as either Atreyu or Bastian being the main actor.
I wouldn't read it to 'my' kids as it is though. You can see it was written in a different tradition then the newer children's stories: the language is older and the cultural references are different.

[Earniel]

I liked the first part of the book well enough, but till this day I find the second part rather depressing.

I'm currently re-reading my Sherlock Holmes books. Great fun. They're so old-fashioned that it's, well, sort of of endearing and cute. A window on a long-gone time when everyone had a housekeeper or a butler, telegrams was high-tech, brave, manly men could faint without looking silly and nervous brain-fevers were rampant. Really interesting.

[Mari]

I owned that one too, but I left it in Japan for the dormitory library. I liked it (though I don't believe I ever finished it)

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Mari

I'm reading Michael Ende's Neverending Story at the moment. I'd seen the film years ago, but I didn't like it.

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I liked the first part of the book well enough, but till this day I find the second part rather depressing.

For me it was the other way round - I liked the second part better. Though it was a long, long time since I read the book and I can't recall it nearly as good as I remember both movies. But I appreciated the book more.

[brownjenkins]

I'm re-reading Edding's stuff in honor of his passing.

[cee2lee2]

Just finished Death of a Romance Writer. It's a collection of short stories and a novella by Joan Hess. Her mysteries are always amusing even when dealing with serious situations.