What are you reading?

[Extravoice]

Sadly, this is what has become of Bell Labs, at least the formerly beautiful facility in Holmdel, NJ.

[Noclevername]

I'm about halfway through The Postmortal, a dystopic look at extended life (of the kind usually found in SF, a simple triple injection that stops your aging process wherever it currently is: eternal youth, oldth, or babyness). It's pretty grim-- black market immortality doctors, the dissolution of "til death" marriages, pro-death religious terrorists, eternally immature trolls who no longer confine their trollery to words on the internet, government crackdowns and government breakdowns, Malthusian disaster, and all the vast social, legal, and economic complications of a world where almost no one ages.

But I'd still take agelessness in a heartbeat if I could. I wonder how I'll feel about it when I've reached the end of the book.

[HenrikOlsen]

Deathworld, in memory of Harry Harrison, who died earlier today.

[Solfe]

I just finished The Runes of the Earth and started Fatal Revenant last night. Stephen R. Donaldson's name has popped up more than once on the forum in the past few weeks and I remembered I haven't read all of them.

I am trying to convince my wife to read his Mordant's Need's books but so far she hasn't.

[crosscountry]

I flipped back to Sherlock Holmes from the Illustrated Man. It's great having an E-reader so I can flip back and forth when the "books" are divided into short stories.

[Gillianren]

I've been reading The Lifespan of a Fact, written by John D'Agata and fact-checked by Jim Fingal. It's an interesting look at the importance of fact versus feel in creative nonfiction. Though by the standards of my roommate with the MFA in Creative Nonfiction, what D'Agata was writing (an essay about suicide in Las Vegas) wasn't creative nonfiction, because Fingal found a lot of errors. These are annotated, including a little of the argument between the two men which is basically a discussion of the importance of truth versus truthiness.

I'm also reading December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World, by Craig Shirley. I would suggest to the author that April 1865 is the month he's looking for when he asks if any other month in US history produced as many changes.

[HenrikOlsen]

I'm also reading December 1941: 31 Days That Changed America and Saved the World, by Craig Shirley. I would suggest to the author that April 1865 is the month he's looking for when he asks if any other month in US history produced as many changes.

I hadn't realized before that Appomattox and Booth were only a week apart.

[Extravoice]

I've finally (almost*) finished reading the all of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, and have come to the conclusion that the generally accepted view that his works are dark and full of foreboding is incorrect. His most well-known works do deal with insanity and murder, but the vast majority of his stories do not involve those things. While many involve the topic of death, fear of dying, how people react to the loss of a loved one, and life after death, rarely do his stories involve violent death.

Poe also wrote mysteries, detective stories, science fiction, comedies, satire, and some stuff that I can't quite figure out.
For one of America's most famous authors, it is unfortunate that most people are only familiar with a small portion of his work.

*There is an (uncompleted) serialized novel that I haven't read and a comedy written as if spoken by someone with a thick Irish brogue that I just can't get through.

[Paul Beardsley]

I've never understood the importance of Poe. A while back, whilst reading a website about the works of Lemony Snicket (which contain more literary references per line than the average T.S Eliot poem), I came across a section that, basically, berated you if you were unfamiliar with "The Raven". It commanded the reader to run, not walk, to the nearest library and beg that they educate you.

Now I'm familiar with "The Raven" and quite a lot of Poe's other work, including some of the less-well-known stuff such as "The Balloon Hoax", "Diddling", and "'Alf a Gordons or Pimms" or whatever it's called. I've read it and I've liked it, but I'm not convinced it's core literature; I'm not convinced that anybody who hasn't read it is an illiterate philistine.

Meanwhile I'm re-reading The Hobbit (another "if you read it you might enjoy it" rather than "what do you mean you haven't read it?" book). I've also read the free Kindle sample of Stephen Baxter's Doctor Who novel, and am thinking about purchasing it. Baxter's SF credentials are solid gold, but his ability to capture the quirkiness of Doctor Who fiction (and Troughton era at that) comes as a pleasant surprise.

[Moose]

His most well-known works do deal with insanity and murder, but the vast majority of his stories do not involve those things. While many involve the topic of death, fear of dying, how people react to the loss of a loved one, and life after death, rarely do his stories involve violent death.

It's simpler than that. His later works (particularly Eldorado) made it pretty clear he was profoundly depressed. He was looking for something out of life, (almost certainly a someone), and he never found it/her.

[Gillianren]

Paul, it might help you to put Poe into the context of American literature. As in, he's one of the founding members of it. Certainly there had been people writing in America for hundreds of years prior to Edgar Allan Poe, but he was one of the first people who was not just attempting to ape the literary styles of Europe. He was trying to develop something new--and, in the detective novel, he pretty much did. Okay, he could be a bit laudanum-soaked, and probably there was something biochemical going on. At bare minimum, the man had a hard life, and he never learned the important lesson that other people's opinions can matter, especially for someone who makes their living on art. I actually read some of his writing for a class about the American South, because while Poe was not completely a Southern writer, the roots of Southern Gothic literature basically start with him.

Likewise, Henrik, the last week of Abraham Lincoln's life was one of great triumph. Unfortunately, he spent a fair amount of it suggesting delicately that he would like equal citizenship for blacks, and that's pretty much what made Booth do it. If you leave aside his psychological issues, of course.

[Disinfo Agent]

"The Lord of the Rings — The Fellowship of the Ring": quite enjoyable. More fufilling than "The Hobbit", which I've also read.

Theodore Sturgeon's "More than Human": thought-provoking in some ways, though I don't think it left a lasting impression on me.

[Solfe]

Poe also wrote on other topics, such as Olber's Paradox.

[schlaugh]

Just finished The Long Earth (part 1) by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, two of my favorite authors. Both have collaborated well with other authors - e.g. Sir Terry with Neil Gaiman, Baxter with Arthur C. Clarke - and while the story reads quite well and hangs together, the premise is just too overwhelming for any thorough treatment in a single book or even in a series. For example there is a briefly recurring character who could certainly be well-served with her own novel. A sequel is planned but AFAIK that's it. I'll certainly read the sequel, if only to pick up the thread from the last line in the first book. But the concept that almost anyone could step among millions of parallel worlds is rather staggering (that's not a spoiler...the concept is described in the advertising blurbs).

[Gillianren]

Well, the problem is that one of the coauthors is not in good health. I don't even know how interested I am in reading a sequel, despite Sir Terry's being one of my absolute favourites. It's an interesting concept, but I didn't find the execution all that great.

I gave up on December 1941, to my regret, because the author's politics kept overwhelming the writing. The information was relatively useful for my needs, but the writing style was difficult to get through. I have now been reading A People's History of World War II: The World's Most Destructive Conflict As Told by the People Who Lived Through It, edited by Marc Favreau. I also, yesterday, read The Complete Funky Winkerbean: Volume I 1972-1974, by Tim Batiuk, because I was fond of Funky Winkerbean when it was funny and not maudlin.

[Noclevername]

I finished The Postmortal and was a little let down. For one thing, it seems to assume no other medical advances until a handwaved nanotech cure-all decades after the stop-aging treatment. There's little effort to address the population-growth problem until one country leaps directly to nuclear genocide. For a book supposedly about the issues raised by longevity it fails to address those issues except in vague and implausible ways.

[crosscountry]

Right now I'm bouncing back and forth between Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man and Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People. Both are collections of short stories, which makes it easy to alternate.

[Parrothead]

Have finally finished reading Jo Nesbo's "The Leopard" and "Phantom". Still waiting for a hold on "The Redbreast" to come in, after which, I will have read all the english translations of Nesbo's "Harry Hole" mysteries.

While waiting, partly thanks to earlier discussions in this thread and to the fact I've been doing many anacrostic, cryptogram and cryptoquip puzzles, lately. I have pulled a early-mid 1970's edition of the anthology "Complete Tales & Poems" by Edgar Allan Poe off one of my bookshelves. I'll be revisiting tales such as "The Gold Bug", "A Descent into the Maelström", "The Man of the Crowd" and other tales and poems.

[ToSeek]

Reading Gareth Roberts' novelization of Douglas Adams' "Shada" script for Doctor Who. It's very well-done, and I'm enjoying it, but it's probably just for Doctor Who fans.

[Paul Beardsley]

Reading Gareth Roberts' novelization of Douglas Adams' "Shada" script for Doctor Who. It's very well-done, and I'm enjoying it, but it's probably just for Doctor Who fans.

I read Gareth Roberts' Who novel, The English Way of Death, years ago. The premise was hilariously daft, and the book started well, but then it quickly grew tedious as all the elements were generic and the characters were doing things that made no sense because "he felt he ought to do something."

I had a look at the first few pages of Shada, and my impression was, he was trying very hard to be Douglas Adams.

I'd be interested in your opinion when you finish it.

Meanwhile I'm reading the Kindle sample of The Lord of the Rings. Not sure I want to re-read the whole thing right now.

And I'm listening to Stephen Baxter's Doctor Who novel, The Wheel of Ice. That's very good.

[schlaugh]

Just received a copy of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It’s a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels, bought used from Amazon for 25 cents (shipping $4.50) Some of the recipes from 18th century Europe, especially from on board the ships, makes haggis seem appealing. Others look pretty good.

[Fazor]

I'm finally reading Dan Simmons' The Terror. A year or two back, I was looking for the book and had trouble even finding it online. My new phone has a nice, big, very clear screen, and I found the book on Google Play Books, so I'm working my way through it that way. I much prefer physical books, but this isn't bad either. And the book? I'm not ga-ga over it so far, but it's interesting enough to keep me turning the pages -- er, flicking the screen, rather.

[HenrikOlsen]

Some of the recipes from 18th century Europe, especially from on board the ships, makes haggis seem appealing.

What's wrong with haggis? I've tried it, it's yummy! As in "yes please, I would like a fourth plateful".

[Paul Beardsley]

I'm finally reading Dan Simmons' The Terror. A year or two back, I was looking for the book and had trouble even finding it online. My new phone has a nice, big, very clear screen, and I found the book on Google Play Books, so I'm working my way through it that way. I much prefer physical books, but this isn't bad either. And the book? I'm not ga-ga over it so far, but it's interesting enough to keep me turning the pages -- er, flicking the screen, rather.

I'm always pleased to hear about someone new discovering ebooks. I've become a bit evangelical about the Kindle, so I hope I don't get banned as a spammer.

I don't know what your phone is like, but one of the things I really love about the Kindle is that it's actually more comfortable to read in bright sunlight than a conventional paper book.

[Fazor]

I'm always pleased to hear about someone new discovering ebooks. I've become a bit evangelical about the Kindle, so I hope I don't get banned as a spammer.

I don't know what your phone is like, but one of the things I really love about the Kindle is that it's actually more comfortable to read in bright sunlight than a conventional paper book.

I'd read eBooks before -- out of copyright things like Tom Sawyer (on PC screen -- terrible strain on the eyes) and I had Don Quixote on my old phone, but the screen was so small it was terrible to read. This new phone is amazing to read on, and a kindle or related tablet would be better (though I'm not planning on buying one.) The fact that I can just go onto the store and buy a new book anytime I finish reading one sounds like trouble though . . . (but there IS a pretty huge selection of free texts too, which is great.)

[crosscountry]

The fact that I can just go onto the store and buy a new book anytime I finish reading one sounds like trouble though

or awesome. more people reading more is a good thing.

[Buttercup]

Cabal by Clive Barker.

[Scriitor]

Cabal? I have that sitting on my shelf. Is it any good?

[Buttercup]

Cabal? I have that sitting on my shelf. Is it any good?

I'm enjoying it. Yes, would say it's very good.

[schlaugh]

What's wrong with haggis? I've tried it, it's yummy! As in "yes please, I would like a fourth plateful".

Well, to each his own. Maybe I should have said that the recipes make the description of haggis seem appealing. Truth be told, I've not eaten haggis but the idea of cooking innards and oatmeal in the critter's stomach...uh, no. Economic, I agree, but not my cup of tea...or haggis.