So whatcha reading?, Novels, Mags, Comics, etc... Options

[The Metal Mallet]

I'm surprized I haven't noticed a thread for literature so I guess I'll start one up.

So recently, I just finished a novel called "The Alphabet of Manliness" by Maddox. The author goes by his website alias, he's become quite popular in North America, and likely other parts of the world through his website, "The Best Page in the Universe".

It's a very humorous novel if you're into his sense of humor, it has a certain immature taste to it. But I find that hilarious. Overall the novel goes through the 26 letters of the alphabet, each letter representing something manly. For instance, J is for Beef Jerky, or N is for Chuck Norris.

I highly suggest it if you're into immature humor, though it might be hard to get overseas unless you're in the UK, you can get it through Amazon I believe.

[Geonox]

Da Vinci code, started reading it last year and I still haven't finished it. Not that it's a boring book but I keep falling asleep and when I wake up I don't know what I just read. So basicly I have to start over again each time . The stupid thing is that with the release of the movie there are so many spoilers on tv or in magazines that I already know how the story is going to end. Or at least what the secret is :/ so stupid.

[Megil Tel-Zeke]

Just read Michael Crichton's Andromeda Strain which is an old title but still a great read if you like scientific fiction. Kept my attention that I finished it in a day.

But I am now reading the classics. I'v rad some Plato, and just started reading Aristophans The Lysistrata after finished Aristophane's The Clouds both of which are very good reads, but the I am finding the rhyme scheme distracting so Iam always rereading passages.

And also add to the reading list several titles(3 so far) on organization and housekeeping (fgured I would get a head start before I moved into my apartment in August)

[Tellie]

hehe...dont know if this counts as litterature,but I'mreading AMU(yes the entire AMU), and also I have started tor ead the famous work of Proffessor Toliiens work...teh Silmarillion,it turned out to be a betetr book than I had imagined.

[treydog]

Dead of Winter by Parrish

Free Fall by Crais

[Fuzzy Knight]

Not much... Having been reading the online news A LOT more than I've used to.. I've started reading the Drizzt Trilogy 'Hunters Blades' by R. A. Salvatore again, great book and his description of the characters is very well done and with good depth - pluss that the fight scenes, are truely amazing - you can picture everything, every slash, every movment straight in your head by reading it...

As Geo, I've also started on the Da Vinci Code, but haven't read much yet...

And of course, several fan-fic's here

[The Metal Mallet]

I plowed through the 'Da Vinci Code'; pretty quick read for me, of course I don't fall asleep easily. If you're into a book like that I suggest 'The Rule of Four' by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. It deals with trying to solve the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, supposedly the longest book ever written. It's a little less religiousy than the 'Da Vinci Code'.

I plan on moving onto the Ender Games series once I finish this Terry Brooks book, I've been reading it for far too long...

[hunter14]

i just read the "book thief" it was ok but i would not recomend it

[ThePerson98]

I need to watch this thread. I haven't read a good book in a long time, and one of the best things is when you are reading a book and absolutely consumed into it

[DoomedOne]

Alright right now I've got:

"The People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. It goes through the entire history of the US from the perspective of people whose perspective was ignored, the Indians, the black, the workers, the South Americans, the victims basically.

"Failed States" by Noam Chompsky. It talks about what happens that causes a state to become unable to unwilling to provide for their people, and gives some very good example. I read like a page and sleep on just that, it's so compacted with facts, knowledge and thought provoking material.

"The Global Class War" by Jeff Faux. This regurgitates a lot of stuff you learn by reading any book about why our world is so screwed up right now. But once you get passed that it really lays out the reasons for why we are where we are, who the perpretrators are, everything. I mean, it was this book that got me to hate Bill Clinton and think of him as a traitor to human rights advocates and environmentalists, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Science Fiction Treasury" by Isaac Asimov. He only wrote like one story in it, but they're all classic short stories from the 60s and 70s. Some of them are achetypes for things we see a thousand times over today.

I've been picking up whatever one I fell like reading that night. I also just finished "Citizen of the Galaxy" by Heinlein. That was an interesting read about a former slave who experiences different cultures and lifestyles on his attempt to find his true home.

[Fuzzy Knight]

Sounds like some good books there Doomed...

I've been thinking aout ordering a book about the snipers role in Russia from WW2, very good book I've heard... I'll try to get a link, just need to find it *runs off in search for the link...*

Ok, found it...

Sniper on the Eastern Front
The memoirs of Sepp Allerberger - Knights Cross.
by Albrecht Wacker.
Publisher Pen and Sword Books Ltd (UK)
Year 2005
ISBN 1844153177
Format Hardback - 196 Pages

Chapter 2
A Sniper Emerges

Using the 8x magnification telescope with which the company commander had issued me, I surveyed the terrain extending from our trenches through the small gap between the parapet logs, but could make out nothing suspicious. Cautiously I raised a rolled-up field tent, topped by a peaked field cap, above the logs while I observed the Russian positions. Their sniper was probably inexperienced in the art, for he fired as soon as the field cap appeared. I saw the flash of fire from his carbine and the merest trace of smoke, and also detected the slight shimmer on the lense of his telescopic sight. Now I knew his position. In this first engagement I had already shown my intuative feel for the snipers role. I made a mental note of the first rule of sniper combat: never fire at anything not positively identified. When allowed to fire at will, loose off only one shot from the lair, then either change location or at least desist temporarily from further activity and conceal yourself.
My opponent remained where he was, awaiting a fresh opportunity- a fatal error for which he was to pay with his life. I placed the rolled tent on the parapet ledge as a rest for the forestock and cautiously poked the muzzle of my carbine through the observation gap between the logs. I could not use the telescopic sight because the crack was too narrow. The Russian was about 90 metres away, within effective range for the weapon's fixed sights.
I felt very nervous. The Jager were expecting a super-precise shot, and I was now confronted with the task, for the first time in my life, of deliberately aiming to kill a man 'in cold-blood'. Was this scrupulous? My throat was dry, my heart raced and while aiming the weapon I noticed how it trembled in my hands. I could not fire the shot in this condition and held back, taking aeveral deep breaths to compose myself. Colleagues surrounded me, watching with expectation. What could be worse? I settled the weapon into my shoulder once more, aimed carefully and hesitated. "What are you waiting for? Let him have it," somebody said from several yards away. This evaporated my tension. In a dream and with machine-like precision I began to curl my trigger finger. Taking up the pressure I breathed in, held my breath and squeezed. The rifle cracked, a thick wisp of smoke drifted accross the field of fire, obscuring my vision. A Jager watching through another slit in the parapet logs shouted, "You got him, man, right between the eyes. He's dead." The news of the death of the Russian sniper spread like forest fire through the trenches. Suddenly MGs began to bark, carbines cracked and somebody yelled, "Attack!" The Russians, completely supprised by our activity and the sudden assult of German troops, fled their advanced trenches for their main front line. We reached the abandoned positions without encountering resistance.
In curiosity, a group of us made a short detour for the hide from where the Russian sniper had been operating, a scattered pile of logs beneath which he had dug a hollow - now a shallow open grave - for his body. Beside his feet was a trail of blood. Two Jager draged the body free by the ankles. The Russian was a boy of about sixteen with crew-cut hair. The bullet had entered through his right eye. A bloody mash of brain and bone splinters covered his upper torso at the back, the fist sized exit wound in his head revealed that his skull had been cleaned of cerebral matter by the pressure wave of the rifle bullet. "You hit him cleanly with a single shot, dear boy, and over open sights at almost a hindred metres. You're good Sepp," a Jager commented. I stared at my victim with a mixture of pride, revulsion and bad conscience. All at once my stomach revolted and I vomited up my most recent meal of black bread, sardines in oil and malt coffe. My colleagues reacted with sympathy and understanding for my lack of control. A blue-eyed NCO, ten years my senior in years, head and shoulders above me in height and wearing a large reddish beard, comforted me with a striking north German accent: "No need to be ashamed, old man, it has happened to the best of us. You just have to get over it. Better to sick it up than compassion your pants. As it happens, Pappa has a remedy..." and at that he withdrew a silvery shnapps flask from a breast pocket and offered me a slug. I took a mouthful and handed it back, thinking as I did so, " He looks like a Viking, the only things missing are the horns on his helmet." The idea of a Viking serving with mountain troops amused me and made me smile.
By now the Soviets had gathered their wits and had begun a counter attack. An hour later we were all back in the positions we had occupied earlier. I had passed the sniper's practical and was now accepted in the role by all and sundry. The admiration this engendered enabled me to shrug off the feelings of revulsion I still felt for my deed. I made a mental note of the second rule of sniper-fieldcraft: War is a merciless system of Killing and Being Killed. In action, sympathy for the enemy is ultimately suicide, for every opponent whom you do not kill can turn the tables and kill you. Your chances of survival are measured by the yardstick of how you compare in skill and objectivity as against your opponent.
This was a principal to which I remained true throughout. If I had an enemy in the crosswires of my telescopic sight and a finger on the trigger, his fate was sealed.

This post has been edited by Fuzzy Knight: Jun 22 2006, 08:53 AM

[Wolfie]

Not reading anything at the moment, as it's hard to be interested enough to read when you've read every book you own about ten times. I will probably start reading the Empire trilogy by Raymond E. Feist soon though, haven't read that in a while....

As for what i've just read, I recently finished A Darkness at Sethanon, before the, Silverthorn, and before that, Magician; the three book sof the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist

[Kiln]

I'm not reading anything specifically now but I'm gonna have to check out that book Fuzzy talked about. Somehow snipers and wars have always interested me and that part he quoted was amazing and it really drew me in.

Thx Fuzzy.

[Fuzzy Knight]

Might order it from amazon.co.uk today, ordered several books and stuff from there - it's cheap and fast. Never had any problems.

Here's the cover...





Also thought about ordering the book "I was with Patton" Looks like a good book as well

This post has been edited by Fuzzy Knight: Jun 22 2006, 09:57 AM

[jack cloudy]

I'm not reading anything at the moment (Except about a dozen fan-fics )
I did read Unknown Menace a while back.

It is a fan-fic written by André Galvão. (I know, but I already read every good
sci-fi in the library. )
Any fan of X-com should really read it someday. It's got mystery, heroism, battles between the regular military and the aliens, (I always wondered where the boys in green went during the war.) tragedy and high-tech Heavy Plasmas. I downloaded it from the internet somewhere as a 693 pages long pdf file. Unfortunately, I've forgotten where I got it.

[Pisces]

Hmm...lets see there is my biology text book, politics in New Zealand, comparative politics textbook, Zen in the art of Archery (just a random book), and some random collection of Buddhist stories.

Anything anyone else might find interesting? Well no. Oh there is the handbook for all the bureacratic nonsense involved/...no, nothing at all.

[Foster]

A 'how to speak Putongua' book, a biography of Prince Henry the Navigator, and a lot of porn.

[Zelda_Zealot]

i just read the "book thief" it was ok but i would not recomend it

I hope you are not talking about "Thief" by Megan Whaylen Turner.
As of now though I am re-reading "A Scanner Darkly" while I wait for the movie, must have movie!

[The Metal Mallet]

Well it looks like there's some interesting, and amusing book choices out there.

I agree with Kiln, that sniper book does look intriguing

[Ibis]

I've been reading Minque's great story about "Serene of Cyrodiil" in the FanFic section here. It's a really great read. I think I will read some more stories there when I finish. I've never visited there before this.