What are you currently reading?

reply to post by HanoiLullaby


Awesome, I'll see if I can pick those up next time I go on a book run. I've got a great system where my mom gives me cheesy books that I turn around and sell to get credit for better ones, lol. Suggestion was just in time, too, as I was almost out.

I am reading The Retribution by Val McDermid.

I am reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

I am reading The Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson.

These are the more interesting books I've read in the last few months:

- We are not the First: Riddles of ancient science by Andrew Tomas (extremely interesting)

- U.N. Agenda 21: Environmental Piracy by Ileana Johnson Paugh ( this should be essential reading for all of us)

- Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future by Robert M Schoch.

- Spillover: Emerging Diseases, Animal Hosts, and the Future of Human Health by David Quammen

- Legacy of the Gods: The Origin of Sacred Sites and the Rebirth of Ancient Wisdom by Freddy Silva

- The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya (novel for those who like George Orwell's stuff)

- The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels by Thomas Gold (theory of abiotic oil)

- Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World by Steven Mithen

- The Tarim Mummies by J.P. Mallory

- The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body by Frances Ashcroft

- Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis by Rowan Jacobsen

- Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna

- The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists Are Taking A Leaf From Nature's Book by Peter Forbes

- Financial Vipers of Venice: Alchemical Money, Magical Physics, and Banking in the Middle Ages and Renaissance by Joseph P Farrell

- The Yugas: Keys to Understanding Our Hidden Past, Emerging Present and Future Enlightenment by Joseph Selbie

- Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators by William Stolzenburg

- Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

- The Lost Secrets of Maya Technology by James O'Kon

- Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization by Richard Manning

- The Baltic Origins of Homer's Epic Tales: The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Migration of Myth by Felic Vinci

- The Untold History of the Potato By John Reader

- Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures: A Study of Subterranean Mysteries in History, Folklore, and Myth by William Michael Mott

- Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert W Lebling

- Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor

- Lost Civilisations Of The Stone Age by Richard Rudgley

- UFO's Exopolitics and the New World Disorder by Komarek, Ed V.

- Watermelons: How Environmentalists Are Killing the Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing Your Children's Future by James Delingpole

'Chasm City' by Alastair Reynolds and it's really good (so far).

reply to post by Jonna


The 39 Steps and the Tyrion Lannister chapters.

I've just started reading Under The Dome by Stephen King.

The Age of Reason

Thomas Paine

I highly recommend it.

Picked up a random book at the grocery store some weeks ago, A Fire Upon the deep by Vernor Vinge.

It was pretty entertaining so I picked up the second part as well, "The Children of the sky" The books have some interesting things in them, first the tines race, there basically these dog like creature who independently would be no smarter then a 3yr old, but due to there evolution and the planet they have extra senses one of which is they have this biological mechanism which allows them to sort of combine there thoughts. Basically they have an inbuilt infrasound radio which is sort of attached to there brain and are capable to transmit there toughs out. By themselfs there pretty stupid but in a pack they become one creature general composed of 6 or so members, which are all of one mind to sort of say. The story itself is nothing all that new, in the second book it was all about politics mostly , but its pretty cool story anyways, and I liked both books.

And some days ago I picked up two books, one by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. I read the first few chapters and it really did not pick up my attention. I left off it, maybe some other time.

So yesterday I started reading the second book "Night of the Living Trekkies" and got halfway through the story before I really had to sleep. So far its very entertaining, its got everything in it, mysteries, quirky characters, a sometimes semi hero, trekkies, Klingon, and off course zombies, and even posible aliens, among other things. Oh and besides the sometimes semi hero, the heroine of the story is this 6 foot tall chick who is running around in a half naked princes Leia slave girl costume, and not only that but she wears over size 10 shoes, in mans size. I just thought I would throw in that bit of tidbit.

So far really digging this book, will probably finish it today. night of the living trekkies

Mark Twain's autobiography. For a guy who's been dead for 100 years he is still pretty funny and topical.

Was at the book store last week, picked up two books again as I have nothing else to keep me occupied when bored. Was felling in a comic bookish mood so I picked up The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson. I also picked up a book called Vicious by V.E. Schwab when I read the back and found out its about super powered heroes as well, well in a way at least.

The first book, it was nothing all that spectacular. There are many variations on the birth of superman and his home planet Krypton and its ultimate doom, so many that its really hard to keep them straight and with each new comic or movie or any piece of literature its either reinvented or things are added to it.

Lets just say its not the Krypton I envisioned, but it is the krypton of all the various comics and movies and put into a plot as its final days approach. In the new movie Man of Steel they have an imposed breeding selection and the whole noble houses and there particular symbols the S on supermans chest being the symbol for the house of EL and its representation. They have same thing in this book but the world is different, in fact in this Krypton things are nowhere near as technically advanced as its depicted in the movie or the comics, in fact there is a sanctioned imposed on such things, with only a few people one being Kal-El father Jor-El dabing into the forbidden and creating all kinds of scientific projects.

And for one of the most oldest and advanced civilization that existed in the universe its sort of lacking in the overall story, its a bit disappointing really. But the conclusion is set in stone pretty much and everybody knows how that story will end. However the author could have done a better job, in fact there is a lot you can put into the story of krypton and the kryptonian race even long before they meet there extinction even down right to the origins of how supermans powers or all kryptonians powers came to be or operate while they are under a yellow sun.

The second book I picked up was much more better and much more of a page turner. In fact I read it all in about 4 to 5 hours from when I started it. As its a pretty short book only 364 pages it is not that troublesome to read or get into or to finish. This book is something that surprised me, its really pretty well done. The story and premise is something akin to Watchmen or Sin City as it follow the old premise of what will actually happen if there really were people with extraordinary powers out there, in this case there called EO's, Extra Ordinaries.

The old Plato riddle of the ring. If anybody read the republic, I forgot were exactly but in there is a story which Plato recants in typical Socrates fashion about a farmer who finds a ring which can turn him invisible. The whole premise then in typical Socrates fashion is, what then will happen? They pose different outcomes of what exactly human nature is and what exactly anybody who comes across such power will do with it, and lets just say the guy does not use the ring to help the needy and unfortunate. Which is a prime theme in all comic book and superhero stories.

In fact here is a summary of the story, this whole theme has been done before and through the ages this story influenced many others, including the lord of the rings in some ways which is kind of obvious, but also other comics like I mentioned above like the watchmen or sin city. Ring of Gyges

This story follows the same premise, but is concentrated on the charters more so then any overall meaning. The book VICIOUS starts out pretty harmless, about two teens more like frat boys at there higher end academy, introduces a few characters and there life's and relations, but quickly sidelines from there into something entirely else. Don't really want to spoil the story but, the whole premise of the book is on something called EO's or extraordinary people and the side project of one of the kids at that school Eli and his friend Vincent on do they exist and if they do how will they come about. Which then deviates into trauma, and life or death situations which could bring about such extraordinary powers and there theories on it and search for there project on it.

And the story wastes no time in getting right down to the point, and in to the thick of it. Shortly culminating in the twos own experiments at becoming EO's, and not only that but there success at it, lets just say there powers and ways they come to it is pretty interesting and represent something in there psyche or soul or even there last moments of thought as they die and are literally reborn, but they are also reborn missing something for everything they gained. And from the get go it gets ugly, and the whole tale of revenges is told in a sort of- present to - past scenes and chapters. A bit like pulp fiction were it starts at the middle of the story then goes back, in this case the story goes back the past ten years to the twos academy years and to explain things. Its actually pretty well done, and keeps you glued and turning pages.


In fact the main protagonist if he can be called that, Victor also reminds me of another charter, this one from an anime. Taking the title of the book "Vicious" and the description of the charter, a pale haired man in a trench coat, even his whole demeanor and attitude even his power to even the whole revenge story line, I would say the author was influenced a bit by the Cowboy bebop anime who has a charter in it the main villain by the name of vicious, which not only is dressed and has the same style and single minded demeanor of Victor, but also seems to be oblivious to pain as is shown in many episodes, one which he takes a grazing bullet to the face without even blinking or being stabed right through without any sort of feeling. Of which is Victors main power as he can either turn off pain in himself or give it to others, and is ruthless and single minded to the point of being vicious. Even that whole story in cowboy bebop is ultimately after many escapades and wacky adventure a story about revenge between two people, which is the culmination and final showdown in this book. I could be drawing highly unlikely parallels but the charter Victor does remind me of Vicious from cowboy bebop in many ways, which probably the author could have been influenced by when writing this story.

Also the most important thing in the book is exactly what is written before the first chapter starts a quote by somebody named Joseph Brodsky a poet, which again is a take on the old ring of gyges story.

"Life...the way it really is...is a battle not between Bad and Good, but between Bad and Worse.--- Joseph Brodsky."

And really that is the main premise of the story, throughout much of the story it leaves you wondering if your not really reading the events as they happen from the eyes of the villains, and who is who. That is in till you come to know some of the other charters better, and you come to realize that yes you are reading it from the villains perspective, but the other perspective is much worse, and much more crazy.

I never read any other books by the author V.E. Schwab, but I liked this book and will be keeping an eye out for her other works in the future.

I am reading The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice.

The Lost Colonies of Ancient America by Frank Joseph

Picked up this book Under the Dome by Stephen King a few days ago, I have a few chapters to go before I finish it.

Will likely finish it today only a few hundred pages to go, the book is pretty great, the characters are interesting to say the least, and the whole mystery which nobody in the book seems to take all that serious is egging me on to find out what is making or set the dome in place. Its like oh there is a dome over our heads, we may run out of everything and be dead within a month but hey lets all go back to our daily life's and local drama. What about them corn bob? Oh ya there pete them corn is not commin along like I thought, so who should run for mayor or first selectman or whatever.

But all aside the book is an interesting tale, only read a few of kings books, I still need to finish the whole dark tower gunslinger trilogy I started years ago, and i probably will but not anytime soon as I forgot what it was about and will have to start at book one again. This story or tale started out with a bang, no really literally it had crashes, it had splurts, it had frooms and zooms, and snip cut them all along the middle like the author was running with scissors, and everything else to boot was thrown in to spice things up, including a few murders. Oh ya a bunch of things were just thrown at you, its like Mr Kind decided to cook up a story soup and told himself one day. Gee what can I throw into this bowl and how will it all mix together? After a bit of stirring you get the tale which is told in Under The Dome. So far as I have yet to finish this tale it looks like the title should have been called "human goldfish and there fascinating behavior when put in a bowl" Which just may be what this story is about, and experiment by higher powers for there science project at school.

The book is pretty good actually, as I am still reading it, there is no discounting that, and I really am fascinated to see how or why or what is keeping the dome there and the whole mystery surrounding it, but I somehow in typical fashion think there wont be a real definite answer to that, or it will be the typical mysterious force which seems to manifest itself in different way throughout all of kings books. I suppose I will have to read on to find out.

I am rading Cross and Burn by Val Mcdermid.

I'm currently reading Maskerade by Terry Prachett. I'm stuck about half way through it and awaiting getting enough free time to do some reading.
After that I plan on checking out The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I've heard its suppose to be pretty good.
And I guess this is technically my first post on ATS, not sure what that says about me but it's probably nothing good.

Jevasi
I'm currently reading Maskerade by Terry Prachett. I'm stuck about half way through it and awaiting getting enough free time to do some reading.
After that I plan on checking out The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I've heard its suppose to be pretty good.
And I guess this is technically my first post on ATS, not sure what that says about me but it's probably nothing good.

edit on 25-3-2014 by Jevasi because: (no reason given)

You may as well just skip to The Name of the Wind.

I guarantee you WILL find time to finish it LoL, took me about 2 long sittings to get through that one.

-FBB

Thanks for the tip. I think I'll start reading it once I get some of my GIS stuff out of the way.