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Thread: The Return of just what exactly are you reading right now?


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Not going to mention my favourite, that's for everybody here the same I think.
Apart from Tolkien, what am I reading? A lot, all at the same time, because I have to and because I like to.
Just finished Entropy from Pynchon and Galatea 2.2 from Powers. Never thought there were such amazing postmodern writers in America, really Super Wow Smilie! Continually reading Harry Potter - don't laugh: this is pretty good stuff! Some Dutch and Flemish literature no one of you out there would know (so I'm not going to mention it), some Borges and other than that just giving in to my addiction: poetry from T.S.Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Jorie Graham, Paul Celan, Gottfried Benn and Georg Trakl.
You guess correctly: reading is my job ... Ha Ha Ha Smilie
Having last night finished reading Stephen Mitchell's new English version of Gilgamesh, tonight I'll start The Outlaws of Ennor by Michael Jecks, another of his 14th century murder mysteries starring Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace, and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock.
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Has anyone read the Sword Of Shannara series by Terry Brooks?


Yups! Loved it! Read it years ago, before LOTR so I can't really say if it is much alike Tolkien. I found Feist an impressive copycat of Tolkien though....
Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D' Arthur. (Well probably just the first of my four leather bound volumes.) At least I can read these in bed. My other full sized single volume is about four inches thick and weighing in at about twenty pounds, makes a good door stop. Elf With a Big Grin Smilie
These are a few other good fantasy reads:

Sunshine
The Blue Sword, By Robin McKinely

Dune
Dune Messiah
The Children of Dune,all three by Frank Herbert

The Sandtiger series,By Jennifer Roberson,including:
Sword Dancer
Sword Singer
Sword Maker
Sword Breaker
And of course,Anything by Terry Brooks (First fantasy books I read were by him)
Having finished Volume 1 of 4 of Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D' Arthur last night, I started Roger MacBride Allen's new (in 1993) robot novel Isaac Asimov's Caliban. This book is about a robot in which the 'Three Laws of Robotics' were never included in its programming. Those laws being:

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I. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

II. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

III. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such proection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.


The creation of a robot without these three laws makes for a mighty sticky wicket, especially as it's on a planet where robot lovers and robot haters live in a tenuous coexistence.
I am re-reading The Wastelands, by Stephen King and The Reforms of Peter the Great by Evgenii Viktorovich Anisimov. Read Smilie
Michael Jecks The Tolls of Death, which is very convoluted plotwise. It is the 17th book in the series starring Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeoer of the King's Peace, and his friend, Balif Simon Puttock investigating murder in the 14th century, this time in Cornwall.
Anything by Wilbur Smith is excellent! Everytime i read a Wilbur Smith book for my first time, i think it's the best thing i've ever read, so much graphic detail at times, it's unreal. I'm currently reading his book called "Cry Wolf" and i love it!

I've always considered Tolkien as my all time favourite author, but everytime i stumble across another Wilbur Smith book, i think i'm starting to reconsider.
I'm back into Humphrey's collection of Tolkien's letters, as I haven't read them in awhile.

And, honestly, keeping up with the posts and games in here is quite akin to reading a book. it just jumps all over the place - kinda like the Two Towers.

Smile Smilie
I'm now rereading Jeff Sharra's Gods and Generals in which he tells the story of Generals Spike Lee, Herby Hancock, and Michael Jackson, and Colonel Wilt Chamberlain in the years leading up to that told in his fathers book about The Battle of Gettysburg titled The Killer Angels. Okay their given names really were Robert Edward Lee, Winfield Scott Hancock, Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Tears again came to my eyes when I reread the chapter about party thrown by Captain Winfield Hancock and his wife for Major Lewis Armistead on the night these friends of many years separated, never to meet again, each going to serve on the opposing side during the American Civil War. This is especially poignant having read in the Gettysburg book, that Armistead, after sending his regards to the wounded Hancock, died within yards of him on Cemetery Ridge.
Aw Grondy, ya old softie. I'm reading guess what? TLOTR, for the 13th time. Maybe it's unlucky, it's taking the longest time it's ever took. And I just read Tree and Leaf, which I just got shipped over from England. Not a copy in NZ to be had, according to all the bookstores. And I"m memorising Mythopoeia. It's the coolest poem ever. Apart from the Lay of Leithian, but I've already memorised that. Well, the bit in the Silm. ANd I just finished reading the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth!!! Man, am I angry at King Arthur and Beowulf and Beorhtnoth especially at the moment!!! Useless heroics. Useless. They annoy me.
gimmie a Wilbur Smith book and you won't see me for a few days, i'm just that absorbed into it his writing. His books are an emotional rollercoaster, although no book has ever made tears fall from my eyes, but Wilbur came the closest with them being a little blurred. Wink Smilie

Speaking of Wilbur smith, i'm gonna order some of his books online right now!
No time for Fear by Alistair Maclean.
The Mysterious Ivory Ball of Wong Shing Li by Harry Stephen Keeler. Supposedly a Sci-fi concerening clairvoyance and telepathy and the many dimensions of our existance. As it was written in 1957, it is one of his more modern stories: most his books that I have read come from the twenties, thirties, and forties. I assume this plot will be just as convoluted as his earlier ones.
I just finished reading a most excellent book by the late Philip K. Dick entitled Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? On man what a great read, one of the best books I’ve read in a longtime!

For those that may not know, DADOES is the book that the film Blade Runner was based on. I can already tell I’m going to have to read it a few more times, because it’s the kind of book (and Dick was the kind of writer) that really messes with your head!

Now that I’m finished with that, I’ll be finishing up Phil Jackson’s book The Last Season. A Team In Search Of It’s Soul as I had started that one a couple of weeks ago and just need to knock out the last 85 pages.
Read Smilie
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The Blue Sword, By Robin McKinely
Yay! I'm surprised, Rue. Most people I talk to have never heard of Robin McKinley... You don't like her other things as much, or just haven't read them?
Right now I'm reading The Sil at school and The DS9 (that's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, for all you non-trekkies) Companion at home, because I can't carry it around as well.
I'm reading The Hornblower series by C. S. Forester before classes begin, then it will be 19th century American Gothic novels from there. I love the Hornblower books. They aren't difficult (well, some of the naval terms are a bit confusing), but they are difficult to put down.
The Silmarillion, then I will start re-reading my Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon/MOSSAD series) Prince of Fire comes out next month.Feb 17,I think
P.S. Mailman just dropped off my new Tolkien Companion by J,E.A Tyler Big Smile Smilie
Elfstone: Have you tried Blade Runner II: The Edge of Human by KW Jeter? Not as good as the original, but for those who want more Dekker: beggars mustn't be choosy.

I'm going to reread John Buchan's The Thirty Nine Steps and possibly even his other three Richard Hannay adventure novels.
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Elfstone: Have you tried Blade Runner II: The Edge of Human by KW Jeter? Not as good as the original, but for those who want more Dekker: beggars mustn't be choosy.


No Grondy I haven’t, I wasn’t even aware that book existed. In all honesty, I probably won’t read it because it’s not official in anyway, and really just fan fiction, which I’m personally not big on (though I do understand what you mean by beggars not being choosy).

If Philip Dick had written a sequel to DADOES, then I would be all over it, but he only wrote the one story, and really Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner is just a spin off of Dick’s book, and outside of a few things, the two are extremely different.

I do love BR though, it’s one of my all time favorite films, and the reasons I love the film so much haven’t changed even though I just finally got around to reading Dick’s original story (which is by far superior to the story in the film, but no big surprise there).

I’ve been on a big time BR kick lately because it had been almost ten years since the last time I saw the director’s cut, and I finally recently purchased the film on DVD for my personal collection, and have watched it a few times over the past couple of weeks.

I just never realized before how deep that film really is, and how there is so much more going on under the surface then most people realize. That sent me on a quest, and I became obsessed with going deeper, and looking for answers which is why I had to finally read DADOES. I’m afraid that if I tried KW Jeter’s book I would be severely disappointed since again, it’s just fan fic, and a spin off of a spin off.

One of the best things about both Dick’s book, and the film BR is the fact that there aren’t (and never will be) any sequels so you can’t get a lot of the definite answers you’re looking for. You just have to decide for yourself on the most important questions, and that’s just the way both Dick, and Ridley Scott intended things to be because both the book, and the movie were made to mess with your head!
Disturbed Smilie
I haven't read BR II for quite a while, but I seem to remember that one of the head games in it was the rumor that Dekker may also have been a replicant.
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but I seem to remember that one of the head games in it was the rumor that Dekker may also have been a replicant.


That’s one of the big eternal questions about both DADOES, and the film Blade Runner. In DADOES, Dick seems to make it pretty clear (at least to me) that Deckard is human, but the possibility is left open that perhaps he’s an android. The general consensus out there amongst most is that Deckard is human in the book though, and there really isn’t any argument about that.

Now on the other hand, in the original version of BR that was released in 1982, Deckard is definitely human as well (and Harrison Ford has said that he believes Deckard to be human, and that he played the part under the assumption that Deckard was human). However, when the director’s cut of BR came out in 1992, it seemed to point to Deckard being a replicant. In fact, there really is no debate in my mind now (for reasons I won’t go into here) that Deckard is definitely a replicant in the director’s cut. Ridley Scott has even said in recent years that Deckard is a replicant in his story.

This is a fiercely debated hot topic though (much bigger even than anything like ’did the Balrog have wings’, etc.), and people are extremely divided over this issue. There are basically two camps when it comes to the hardcore BR fans, there is the ’Deck is a Rep’ camp, and the ’Deck is human’ camp, and you’re either on one side of the fence or the other if you’re a serious BR devotee.
Elf Smilie
I have yet to read the original story, but I've got the Director's Cut BR on VHS, so if I can't find anything on the 500 plus channels tonight, I'll give it another watch. (Most night's I'm dissatisfied with what's available.) I wonder if we could serve pickled replicant eyeballs in the Khazad-dum Inn. Elf With a Big Grin Smilie
I'm now re-reading Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels, which was the basis for the TV movie "Gettysburg". It is just as good the third time.
Re-reading Douglas Adam's So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, the fourth book in the trilogy, which I think is my favorite of the five.
For the first time in a LONg long time, I'm reading more than one book. I'm reading REturn of the King, The Book of Lost Tales Part One, and I"m memorising Mythopoeia. I've just finished Yes Minister. Some of you oldies will remember the TV series?
Last week I was reading Wieland and this week, I'm reading The House of Seven Gables. I'm taking a 19th century American Gothic class...very interesting. I also am reading a bit of history on mesmerism because I have to give a presentation on it this week. Oh man, I better get back to it...
Just a huge folder I brought back from a course I was on last week, containing pages and boring pages of notes about Police And Criminal Evidence (PACE), Human Rights Acts, and recent changes to Environmental Law. At times I feel like throwing it out of the window, but if I'm going to enforce it, I've got to know it. I've a couple of research reports about a small reef-forming worm (Sabellaria) I've got to read before I have a meeting with English Nature too.... What happened to the times when reading used to be fun?
Oh, come on, Val...what could be more interesting than reading about a reef-forming worm?...he, he. Smile Smilie
I'm reading Return of the King at the moment. My progress is... a little slow. The slowest, in fact. I can't tak eit to school and most of my time at home is spent doing music practises and homework, so I can only read it at home. I'm kind of going a chapter in two weeks at the moment. And it all started so well!!!
Re-reading Campaigning with Grant by Horace Porter, who was one of General U.S. Grant's Aide-de-Camps during his command of the American Civil War's 'Army of the Potomac' against the Confererate's 'Army of Virginia'..
Just finished reading... can't remember the title, something like, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes... a collection of Holmes stories by different authors... very good and true to Conan Doyle's style and the characters.
I'm on the second book of Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy and enjoying it.
I have reached Chapter FOur. Great, eh?
At the moment I am reading... I always read several books at the same time, bad habit, but hey... Crime and Punishment by Dostojevski, The Light Fantastic by Prattchet, Among Druids and High Kings and Huxley's Antic Hay.
A crazy book by Mary Roach called 'STIFF' which is about the secret lives of human cadavers plus Bill Bryson's Made In America.
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The Light Fantasitc by Pratchett
Elf With a Big Grin Smilie Good book! I just started The Roaring Trumpet by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. Well, started re-reading it...
a book about the world war 1 invasion of Gallipoli, called......"Gallipoli". dont have it on hand though for the author unfortunately
Just finished The House of Seven Gables, which I loved, as well as a bunch of Edgar Allen Poe stories. I loved The House of Seven Gables; in fact, I think it's better than The Scarlett Letter, but then again, I haven't read that one in, oh, 15 years or so. Hawthorne is actually a better writer than I thought he was. His word choice and construction of sentences is just beautiful. Regarding Poe -- It's funny, but I read "The Pit and the Pendulum" when I was in high school and really liked it; this time, I was a bit disappointed with the ending; it was kind of a let down.
The Guns of Navarone by Alistair Maclean.
Ok, we had a good discussion about "The Pit and the Pendulum" in class last night, so I like the ending again. Smile Smilie
X. Jones’of Scotland Yard (1935) by Harry Stephan Keeler, wherein he enumerates yet another solution to the infamous Andre Marceau murder.
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ecce Hommo and The Antichrist
Wilbur Smith (surprise!) - The Power of the Sword

I'm finally reading a non-Tolkien book. I'm reading Pride and PRejudice. *all young members die of boredom* It grows on you. I first read it when I was six. Didn't understand or remember a word of it, but it was famous and everyone thought I was clever when I was reading it so I read it. Then I read it a few years ago. IT WAS SOOO BORING!!!!! It was EEEWW. Then I read it again. And I was like 'tolerable, but eew" And now I'm like "GOTTA READ!!! GOTTA READ!!!" I like it when Elizabeth is all shamed. Cause then I'm like "SHAME!!!!! I KNEW THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!" WEll, that's AFTER I've read that bit. When I'm reading it I'm like "SHame. You poor poor thing." BUT WAB!!
I am currently reading the book by stephen donaldson called White Gold Wielder. It is part of an awesome series that gives him the right to stand next to Tolkien, i think. Two series with three books in each I love it!! but a more adult book than LOTR
Have stated in another posting, 'There And Back Again' by Sean Astin it is about LOTR but also gives a lot about him and his life in acting. Good book!

Love Wilbur Smith In Love Smilie

Has anyone read the prequel to Rebecca it's called 'Rebeccas Tale' also really good.

Have just finised reading/looking at 'The Artwork of Amy Brown'. Beautiful pictures of fairies. I have 2 tattoos of her fairies (plus a few other tattoos Animated Wink Smilie !!)
I finished Seabiscuit a little while ago... Although I really like horses, to my shame I did not know that story, and have not yet seen the movie. The book was excellent- it took a little while to get into, but once I started I finished a lot faster than I thought I would. Also, strangely, when I finished it I had this immense urge to write non-fiction, which has never happened to me before...
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