CWF Readers Club

Here you can talk about anything (that isn't related to the other forums).

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eMTe
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CWF Readers Club

Post by eMTe »

What do you read now?

I started to read Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe, because my friend recommended it to me and sofar it's even better than I expected. It captures totally, like good movie or rpg.

Will tell more later.
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Post by Scythe »

Right now? Wheel of Time vol. 11 (Robert Jordan). Fantasy forever.
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Post by Chroelle »

I am still trying to get through The leaky Establishment by David Langford. So far I am not too fond. I was expecting more.

I think I might give up on it (something I never do with a book) and go reading through Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde. The Thursday Next series have always been good reading.
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Post by eMTe »

Well, I started reading Henning Mankell's One Step Behind yesterday around 23 pm and finished around...6 am. Then went to sleep, but only because I thought I should, I werent sleepy at all. The whole book is a masterpiece of any genre and mastery with which Mankell builds suspense and psychological portrait of ordinary man (although he's a policeman), his thoughts and his daily routine is amazing. It's easy to overdramatize a scene when something crucial for crime story happens, but Wallander (main protagonist) remains believable character throughout whole book, whatever happens. After 10 pages you feel like youre sitting next to him and know him for ages. And he might be your uncle.

This is quality among quality.
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Post by Pager »

I'm reading Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick. Like most other PKD books I have read I have no idea what this one is really about yet, and probably won't until I am finished.
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Post by Scythe »

Reading Robert W. Chambers, some long dead guy of no fame or importance. :) Late 18/early 19 hundreds. Different stuff.
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Post by Railwaymodeler »

I suppose I should pick up a good book- I got plenty of them but no time for reading anymore.

I am tempted every now and then, to turn on my record player, and settle on the sofa with a Jules Verne book. I have a number of them, and would not mind reading 'Around the World in 80 Days' or maybe 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'.
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Post by Pager »

Well, I finished Dr. Bloodmoney, possibly one of the strangest books I've read in a looong time.

Then read Monster Island by David Wellington, a book about a global zombie plague but a group of people venturing into New York City to get pharmaceuticals from the UN Headquarters.

Now I am reading Children of Men by PD James. I'm about halfway through.
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Post by Scythe »

I recently picked up Ryu Murakami's "In the Miso Soup" and "Piercing" - fairly disturbing kind of books, but especially Piercing was really well written. A man feels the urge to stab his new born baby with an ice pick, so in order to not do that, he convinces himself he must stab somebody else. Pop psychology but entertaining.
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Post by Zyx »

Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. It's a massive 900 page book and it's just the first book of a trilogy. It goes through European history in the Baroque time. Lots of historial sci-fi and history of finance.
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Post by eMTe »

If you like this kind of books, you can read Jacek Dukaj's Ice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(Dukaj_novel)), my friend recommended it to me as being "monumental", but Im not quite into over 1000-pages books. :P Maybe later.
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Post by eMTe »

This topic kinda died, so I'll relieve it a bit, having nothing better to do (you cant play games at any free time).

I recommend Mark Twain's half-real, half-fiction memoirs - Roughing It and Old Times on the Mississippi. They're full of wit, interesting observations and they give a decent description of how life looked like in so-called Wild West in the middle of XIX century. If old-fashioned language and lack of spicy moments are no problem for you youll have nice reading.

PD James' detective books. No matter which one, she's not worse from the renowned classics.
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Post by Drasir-Vel »

I like the science fiction book Tau Zero which can be read here: http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=4770
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Post by Chroelle »

I have been reading again after our vacation, and I have dug myself into the Jasper Fforde "Thursday Next" series once more. Weird enough I read the first with great enthusiasm, but it ebbed away as I got closer to the end, and then I read the second one because the first one started off so well, and that was somewhat disappointing too to me - never really caught me and thus I missed some of the plot because I wasn't really into it, and I had already gotten the 3rd and 4th of them, so I thought I would read the 3rd on this vacation to sort of get it over with, and it showed up to be an amazing read! I was laughing out loud numerous times while reading, and the plot was clever and funny, and had a real intelligense too it without being too smartypants. I ahve now started to read the 4th which is so far turning out to be a good read as well. Recommended reading!
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by eMTe »

Ive recently laid my hands on Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo detective Martin Beck series and I have to admit these are one of the better criminals Ive read. Im after lecture of first three, all written in 60-ies, and they differ much from modern stories, they are almost free from overpsychologisation which floods crime fiction for decades. As for the main character he's the pre-Wallander type with private life problems, lack of sleep etc. but what differs him from most of similar characters is that he's not the superhero type, one in a million who can solve the mystery. The books are very realistic in depiction of day-to-day routine of Swedish police with endless paperwork, tiresome interrogations etc. Beck is considered the best interrogator in the team, but he may not be the best overall - other guys from the team sometimes surpass him, one being really tough, another having photographic memory and so on. This makes the stories very realistic, in comparison to majority of crime fiction books where standalone hero solves mystery by deduction (hardly used in police work). Recommended!
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by Chroelle »

And the movies aren't bad either. :)
(one of them is on tonight - The girl that played with fire (free translation)).

I simply love this series. Particularly because of the characters in there, that seems so realistic and yet so over the top - but explanably so. There is a reason why Lisbeth Sallander is so off the charts...

I have so many books piled up at the moment that is waiting to get read. I am working my way through another Terry Pratchett novel, and I am anxiously waiting the next in his series, and the next "Next"-series by Jasper Fforde. Neil Gaimans "American Gods" is next on my to-read list. Has any of you ever read any Pratchett, Fforde or Gaiman?
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by Scythe »

Am currently reading Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories. After that I need to be reading the next Jacqueline Carey pseudo-historical "Kushiel" novel, which has been tempting me for a long time.
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by Drasir-Vel »

I just finished reading the book Sudan by Art Ayris and Ninie Hammon, mostly because it was the free book of the month on WOWIO. But yeah, it was a very gripping book about the slave trading in Sudan, and a father trying to rescue his child from slavery after their village was raided.
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by Zyx »

Chroelle wrote:Neil Gaimans "American Gods" is next on my to-read list.
Recommended.

I'm still trying to progress through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon.
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Re: CWF Readers Club

Post by Chroelle »

Neil Gaiman made my list of to-read writers when he co-wrote "Good Omens" with Terry Pratchett. Easily one of the best books I've ever read. "Nation" by Terry Pratchett is still my favourite I think.

Read about "Good Omens" here: http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Good+Omens/
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