And what are you reading now? Continued!

[Frelga]

Finished The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, the second in the Kingkiller Chronicles. I enjoyed it and found it to be a much more polished and mature book than the first, and a more absorbing one. Unfortunately, there is no word on when the third book might be out

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

I'm reading The Possibilities of Sainthood by Donna Freitas.

[Canamarth]

Frelga, already liked the first Rothfuss but the second was even better, you're right.

As I was travelling and didn't want to bring along the large and heavy Wolves (which I haven't finished yet), I planned to buy a smaller paperback on the journey. Paperback, check. Small? Not really. Started China Miéville's The Scar, second in the Bas-Lag universe (but the books are independent). Great read! Especially when you're crossing the sea in a ship while reading about monsters that could lurk underneath ...

[The Nameless Thing]

The new Dresden. Skin Games.

[siddharth]

A Wizard of Earthsea

Loving the series. (first time)

[Canamarth]

Have fun siddharth! I read them a while back and while I love how the stories evolve (from a mere fantasy copy to stories addressing deeper issues), I'm simply not overly fascinated with the secondary world. Can't exactly say why.

Reading A Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Stuard D. Lee for review now. It brings together the who-is-who of Tolkien scholarship and so far, I've not been disappointed.

[PatriotBlade]

Sid, I've been reading those since High School. I LOVE them! Ursula K. LeGuine is one of my favorite authors!

[heliona]

Ooh, sidd, the original trilogy is excellent. (When I read The Wizard of Earthsea there were only three books. ) I found the later books not as interesting, but perhaps that's because I read the original books over ten years before the later ones came out.

I've just finished The Three Musketeers - it was excellent. Milady was diabolical.

[LleuLlewGyffes]

Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven

The author's most P K Dickesque novel, but with the added bonus of her majesterial writing style. It's a book I don't want to finish.

As an aside, the Earthsea series can be divided into the first three novels, before LeGuin felt obliged to fly the feminist flag, and the later sequels, in which her male protagonist is emasculated and side-lined.

The former is genius, the latter... not.

[siddharth]

Ooh, sidd, the original trilogy is excellent. (When I read The Wizard of Earthsea there were only three books. ) I found the later books not as interesting, but perhaps that's because I read the original books over ten years before the later ones came out.

Liking it a lot so far. I have the quartet in a single book. So I would be reading the first four books, ending with Tehanu.

[Canamarth]

As an aside, the Earthsea series can be divided into the first three novels, before LeGuin felt obliged to fly the feminist flag, and the later sequels, in which her male protagonist is emasculated and side-lined.
The former is genius, the latter... not.

...is one opinion. I liked the mature works far better, though, as I said, I am not so much into this particularly secondary world.

[heliona]

I haven't read any of the Earthsea books in a while - I wonder if I'd read them as adults, whether I'd prefer the later books. However, as time can not be turned back, I shall never know. The Wizard of Earthsea I read a few years after I first read The Hobbit, and I loved it (so I was about seven or eight). Not longer afterwards, I found the other two. I preferred Tombs of Atuan to The Farthest Shore. Upon rereading them much later, I was surprised how much was in A Wizard of Earthsea. So much happens in that first novel!

Having finished The Three Musketeers I've changed tack and am now starting Stephen King's The Gunslinger, first in the Dark Tower series. (It's the 2003 revised edition - I think Wilko has the original version.)

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

I'm reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

[portia]

I just finished the Latest (?) Beaton book about Policemen Hamish McBeath: "Death of a Policeman"

I am starting a W.E.B. Griffin book.

[Canamarth]

Having finished The Three Musketeers I've changed tack and am now starting Stephen King's The Gunslinger, first in the Dark Tower series. (It's the 2003 revised edition - I think Wilko has the original version.)

Excellent, excellent choice. How are you liking it? I still have two books to (re-)read from the Dark Tower series but need to cram in some more reading for review before I can continue. Now on the bedside table: Tolkien in the New Century: Essays in Honor of Tom Shippey, ed. by John Houghton et al.

[PatriotBlade]

Even though I was enjoying Game of Thrones, I was unable to find time to finish it. I will try again eventually. I am now trying to read Divergent.

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

Currently reading What the Moon Said by Gayle Rosengren.

[TheGreenWizard]

The Art of Power by Jon Meachem, it is a biography of Thomas Jefferson. I am nearly finished with it and have thought it excellent so far. It provides a fascinating look into Jefferson the human being.

[Adaminth The Grey]

Currently I am (for the third time) reading "The Medicus" (Noah Gordon)

[The Nameless Thing]

Currently reading the hugely entertaining James Rollins 'Sigma Series'. Outlandish world crisis's solved by a DAPRA team of scientists/green berets.

Very enjoyable.

[PatriotBlade]

Finished Divergent and Insurgent, now reading Shifting Shadows, by Patricia Briggs.

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

I'm reading City of the Dead by Brian Keene.

[Finarphir]

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.
My gawd this novel rocks! Written by the dude who brought us Fanboys, I hear it's in the works for a bigscreen treatment. Anyone who grew up in the 70's-80's will be in nostalgia heaven...this book is packed tight with more geek candy than most could possible eat. There's D&D, Wargames, Godzilla, Ultraman! (yes, ULTRAMAN!!!), Pacman, Joust, John Hughs movies, etc., ad.infinitum...literally, almost everything that was 70's-80"s pop-culture (mostly 80's) is in here, in a very good way.
The story centers around a networked virtual world that folks plug into, in the not too distant future, for just about anything and everything. The guy who created the virtual world (known as OASIS) dies and leaves his massive Bill Gates-like fortune to whoever can find the easter eggs and solve the mysteries/riddles he left behind. Many are hoping to find the prize including evil corporate douchebags that will stop at nothing to get the big payday. The story is funny, intense and straight up addictive! Well written with many homages to the often despised '80's, this novel gives the decade new respect...in retrospect.
Highly recommended!

[PatriotBlade]

Listening Woman by Tony Hillerman

[portia]

Just finished "Death Come Quickly" a China Bayles book by Albert. Very Cosy but interesting.

[Lalaith-Elerrina]

Am ready To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee for the umpteenth time. Love it!

[Morwenna]

God Stalk by P C. Hodgell (borrowed from a friend--and just yesterday I found out it's the first in a series! )

And re-reading Dickens' Christmas books. ('Tis the season!)

[Tsalagi_Phoenix]

I'm reading Whispers from the Grave by Leslie Rule.

[markkur]

I just finished reading Sir Walter Scott for the first time. Andrew Marr (in his recent vid-bio of Scott) stated his favorite work by Scott is The Heart of Mid-Lothian, so I gave that book a go. Marr also said; it is a commonly-held opinion that Scott did not write female characters well. Now that I have read Lothian...I strongly disagree with that view.

<imvho>For the most part, the story is driven by a very well defined Jeanie Deans. Just like Dickens, Scott weaves a lot of detail into his players and I found I related to Jeanie's struggle very well indeed and although it is a story about life in the 1700s Jeanie does not sit weeping, waiting for a man to make things right. She is one very strong and determined person...nearly as much as our dear Frodo Baggins.

However, I will add this about The Heart of Mid-Lothian it is NOT an easy read. Although Scott made the all important career decision to "write in English" he did not forsake his native Scotts dialect. I found it to be, at times, almost as difficult as middle-English...almost.

I'm trying to decide what to read next. I am leaning towards Robert Louis Stevenson's Davey Balfour. I enjoyed the 1995? production Kidnapped so this pick should be a good one but because of http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/ I always feel like a "kid in a penny candy store holding a pound-note."

Btw, for anyone that likes historical novels, I discovered a genre-forerunner to the likes of Edward Rutherford. G.A. Henty's The Dragon and the Raven was a good yarn set in King Alfred's time and I read another by the same author about the Luddite uprising in merry 1800s England called Through the Fray. Neither book was awesome but both were nicely done and held my interest just as much as todays writers.

[MeadowForest]

Stephen Clarke - 1000 Years of Annoying the French

An interesting and humorous read about the tiffs between Britain and France through the centuries.