Reading in October

[RainbowGurl]

So what book(s) are you reading this month

At the moment I am reading point horror 'The Stranger'. I don't think I will be reading this for very long because I always seem to finish a book in 1 - 3 days

 

[direstraits]

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester is my next in line. Been anticipating reading this novel for quite some time.
[snip]

read this some time back, remembered it to be brilliant. i don't know if the word 'jaunt' came from this book. probably not.

i'm trying to finish _7 Habits of Highly Effective People_, and evidently failing, so that makes me quite ineffective indeed. up next is probably Cryptonomicon.

unless the next Song of Ice and Fire book miraculously comes out anytime soon... where the heck is it???

ds

 

[crowsplitter]

I've just rediscovered "The Game Players of Zan" by MA Foster. Brilliant.

Now reading Philip Pullmans "Dark Materials" trilogy... bit of a wild ride!

 

[Øystein]

read [Alfred Bester's "The stars my destination", aka "Tiger! Tiger!") some time back, remembered it to be brilliant. i don't know if the word 'jaunt' came from this book. probably not.

Hehe, it definitely does not. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

Jaunt: 1678 in modern sense, earlier meaning "tiresome journey" (1592), originally "to ride a horse in such a way as to tire him" (1572), of unknown origin, probably from some obscure O.Fr. word.

I read that Bester novel a couple of weeks ago myself, and enjoyed it quite a lot. Funnily enough, the edition I read was apparently an old censored British release. What was censored, you ask? Well, the phrase "I kill you filthy" was replaced with "I kill you deadly".
Really.
Apparently that's all.
Go figure, heh.

Bester did seem to want to hammer its point into the reader, making absolutely sure that we GET IT, but thankfully that didn't hurt my enjoyment, what with having spent years reading silly SF novels that do just that.
Now then, I need to read "The Demolished Man", which seems to generally be considered the strongest of the two; at least storywise.

up next is probably Cryptonomicon.

I have this lying around myself. Admittedly I feel like I have an endless array of books to read now, what with three decent libraries in town and a bad habit of reading books from them instead of the volumes I purchase.
To be honest, this one looks quite interesting to me, but I have a hard time getting myself in the mood for it, as I always get flashbacks to the rather wretched action-novel Snowcrash, which admittedly did have plenty of interesting ideas, but which kept getting overridden by all these cringe-inducing attempts at being cool. If memory serves me right, this was the one with the terrible main protagonist name of "Hiro Protagonist" too; cute joke, but it jarred nonetheless.
Still, I'm in the perfect position to be positively surprised by this one.

 

[rune]

I've just finished reading Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff

 

[GreenMonkey]

Well, Salvatore's new book was good as usual (picked it up this afternoon, just finished it). Literary masterpieces they aren't, but quality stories they are.

 

[Bountyhunter]

Richard Preston's The Codex is holding me till the library calls and lets me know that Stephen R. Donaldson's Last Rune of the Earth: The Final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is available. I'll ask for the hardcover for Christmas, but must read ASAP!

I think it's Douglas Prestons book. Richard Preston is his brother.

 

[Yobmod]

I've had a busy reading week. Managed to get through:

Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny (9/10) Very good book. The world-building was great, the characters ok, and the hindu mythology fascinating. To many unnecessary hindi words though.

Hothouse - Brian Aldis (7/10). Quite good. Lots of great ideas (radiation kills of animals, plants diversify to fill thier niches), but too many at once (if people were stupid enough they would lose time sense, hence be able to travel through time!) and some illogical (human brains are actually parisitic fungus [not if you know basic microbiology / physiology]).

Dragonsong / Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey (6/10) One of my favourite authors from my teenage years. Well thought out ideas and good characterisation, but the writings only so-so. Maybe one for the kids.

I am Legend - Richard Matheson (8/10) Good characterisation, fascinating vampire plot. The writing style wasn't my cup of tea though.

Enders Shadow - Orson Scott Card (6/10) Only for Ender's game lovers i think. Not up to the standard of that great book, i found lots of it annoying, and think it may spoil my enjoyment when re-reading the 'original'. Could have been cut down a lot, but guess that would have made it too similar to Enders game. A lot of effort to set up the sequel too - which i wont be reading.

 

[rune]

Been to the Library today and picked up three books

I'm going to read Fools Errant by Mathew Hughes, no idea what his books are like as I've not heard of him before.

 

[Cathy C]

I've just finished reading Long Hot Summoning by Tanya Huff

Ooo! I've got her latest hardback in my TBR pile - Smoke & Shadows. It's a spin-off of the Victory Nelson series. Reviews on it have been super. Soon, soon <whimper -- too many books! too many books!>

Cathy