Amph What are you reading right now?

I thought the first book was very good, occasionally great, but not as mindblowingly awesome as I'd expected from all the recommendations. The second book was largely, unfortunately, a reprise of the first, and at the end I felt that we'd been seeing what we'd already seen while all the good stuff had been happening offscreen. The third book was better than the second; I really liked the "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" theme and appreciated just how dark Collins was willing to get, and I couldn't help but wonder whether the publisher had demanded a happier ending than she'd originally envisioned. Ultimately I thought that this trilogy had a saggy, mostly unnecessary middle and could have worked better as a duology; that for the films they're expanding it to a tetralogy has me a little concerned.

 

Just about finished Voyage of the Dawn Treader

 

I've finished Pride and Prejudice. I pick the book for just fun and now i am planning for go enjoy game of thrones

 

Time Regained by Marcel Proust

The seventh and final volume of In Search of Lost Time.


The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Every novel and short story. I was hooked after reading thotBaskervilles and The Valley of Fear.

 

Just finished China Mieville's Embassytown (review: https://andrewliptak.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/embassytown-by-china-mieville/)

Currently slogging through George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and M.M. Buckner's The Gravity Pilot.

 

Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett


The Argonautika by Apollonios Rhodios translated by Peter Green

 

Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. I'm not very far in, but I like it so far. Very Tolkien.

 

"The Coming of the Third Reich" by Richard J. Evans.

I've read it before, but it's still very good.

 

In the month since my last update I've finished:

The Damned Busters (To Hell and Back, Book One) (2011) by Matthew Hughes -- An exceedingly amusing romp in which an actuary accidentally causes Hell to go on strike. His price to set things right? He gets to be a part-time superhero. A fine summer read.

A Haunting Beauty: Stories of the Macabre (1983, 2000) by Charles Birkin -- A retrospective volume of Birkin's stories -- he was most active from 1964-1971 or so -- compiled before he died but not published until nearly 2 decades later. Strong horror stories in the conte cruel and grand guignol tradition more often than the supernatural. A hidden pleasure.

Toward Truth: A Psychological Guide to Enlightenment (2010) by Daniel Mackler -- Read for a book club. A radical extension of Alice Miller's child advocacy ideas.

Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power, and Intimacy in the Sex Industry (2010) ed. by Melissa Hope Ditmore, Antonia Levy & Alys Willman -- After getting into an internet discussion/argument about prostitution in which everyone had strong opinions despite knowing very little about what they were talking about, I decided I wanted to be better informed. Don't know why I chose this book to start, but it was good -- offered a range of perspectives from sex workers, activists and academics.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010) by Michelle Alexander -- Best book I read this month. Even if you're skeptical of the author's (well argued and convincing) claims about the prison system being a form of social control creating a racial caste system in America, the examination of the current workings of the American penal system, the supreme court decisions that have gotten us where we are today, the policy decisions that have led to the ongoing, mostly fruitless War on Drugs and those that continue to pump money into a grotesquely bloated prison system despite the evidence that it's not really having all that much effect on crime, and more make this well worth reading.

 

Auditioning: An Actor Friendly Guide by Joanna Merlin. Summer reading for a course in the Fall. I find it a useless practice to write auditioning books myself because the process is so different every time and everyone has an individual approach to it. Merlin offers nothing really groundbreaking for anyone that has studied acting for any length of time.

 

I just finished Allen M. Steele's Hex, part of his Coyote series, or the second series after the Coyote trilogy. Didn't like it: review forthcoming to The Functional Nerds.

Also just finished M.M. Buckner's The Gravity Pilot. Also didn't like it, review: http://andrewliptak.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/the-gravity-pilot-m-m-buckner/

Currently reading four books:
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers who created the American Superhighways, by Earl Swift. Fantastic read, highly recommended.
Bright's Passage, by singer/songwriter Josh Ritter. Good thus far.
A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin. Good so far, but dense.
Matterhorn, by Karl Marlantes. Excellent read.

 

"The Big Roads" sounds intriguing.

 

A History of God by Karen Armstrong examines the historical origins of (belief in and stories about) the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Also contrasts the "Big Three" with pagan belief systems indigenous to the Middle East, such as Babylonian myth. Armstrong is a lifelong student of religion and former Catholic nun, now agnostic. Fascinating stuff.

 

"Bad Sports" by Dave Zirin.

 

"Talleyrand" by Duff Cooper. So far, so good.

 

Just finished The Big Roads, by Earl Swift. Fantastic read. Review: https://andrewliptak.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/the-big-roads-the-untold-story-of-the-engineers-visionaries-and-trailblazers-who-created-the-american-superhighways/

Now reading Bright's Passage, by Josh Ritter.

 

I agree. That sounds like a really fascinating book.

 

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett

A Discworld novel featuring Death and Rock n' Roll.


The Gunslinger by Stephen King

I've never read any fiction by King before this. The first novel in The Dark Tower series.


Allies by Christie Golden

I borrowed a copy from the library. This one can't be worse than Golden's debut.


The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu

The oldest novel: written in the eleventh century.

 

Great read; I dunno if it's ever more than the experience, but the experience is so great, it doesn't really need to be. Which translation?

 

Almost finished Game of Thrones. I will most likely start Clash of Kings next.

 

The Modern Library Arthur Waley translation. Despite its size (1100+ pages in my edition) it is a swift read. Footnotes are essential for the references to ancient Japanese culture and literature. I agree, it is a great experience; good reason this novel has survived the centuries.

 

I started reading Clash of Kings last night.

 

A Princess of Mars-I wanted to read this in anticipation of the movie John Carter coming out next year. What was probably mind blowing to someone back the 1910's when it was first published was familiar to someone in the 2010's reading it as it was to me. And I can see how it became an influence for James Cameron with Avatar and stories in countless other mediums. Still what matters most is that it was a good story. I liked this one a lot.

 

New Jedi Order
Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial

 

"The Crimean War" by Orlando Figes