What are you reading right now?

[mountainmage]

You've really made this conversation take a depressing turn, Mage.

You know what would cheer you up? Reading Confessions of a Yakuza!

[LordRetard]

A better and more entertaining version of postmodern lit might be Rant by Palahniuk. Fiction written in the style of an oral biography. And it is fantastic.

That sounds a lot like The Fall by Albert Camus, which is one side of a dialogue wherein a man talks about his fall from grace. It's one of my favourite books.

You know what would cheer you up? Reading Confessions of a Yakuza!

I think you might just be saying that.

[Lethal Interjection]

A better and more entertaining version of postmodern lit might be Rant by Palahniuk. Fiction written in the style of an oral biography. And it is fantastic.

That sounds a lot like The Fall by Albert Camus, which is one side of a dialogue wherein a man talks about his fall from grace. It's one of my favourite books.

I'll have to check that out.

[Apocalyptus]

I'm sort of switching between five books at the moment, which are:

Neuromancer by WIlliam Gibson
New Legends, a science fiction short story anthology edited by Greg Bear
The Surrogates by Robert Venditti
Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
aaand Necronomicon: The Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft

[smiley_cow]

Oscar Wilde's children stories. I wasn't even aware these existed before a few days ago.

[Euclidthegreek]

I've started on but haven't read in a long time My Name is Red, by Orhan Pamuk. I've got a whole list of other stuff I want to read, too.

I'm actually really reading this now. It's really good.

[Asherian]

I'm reading House of Leaves. I'm about 80 pages in, and I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I also had this problem. I think my biggest issue with the book is I was told it was a mind fuck and it really isn't. Its a good suspense/horror definetly, and it has a bit of a nice twist with some weird lay out choices. Its hardly reality warping or mind twisting in my opinion though.

But I also read the Illuminatus trilo-fnord-gy and was able to track it all the way through/thought it made sense, I've been informed that's a bad sign.

Right now I just finished reading The Thran, and reading The Brother's War. I've also been consuming Warhammer 40k fiction again, just in a 'trying to get you to buy more of our damn addictive games' fiction. Er.. last "real" book I read was um.. Christine Falls and Silver Swan, by an irish guy who's name I forgot but is apparently famous for the Sea. Which were highly enjoyable mystery's.

Dude Urza is such a jerk, poor Mishra : (

[mountainmage]

Right now I just finished reading The Thran, and reading The Brother's War. Dude Urza is such a jerk, poor Mishra : (

DID SOMEONE SAY MAGIC: THE GATHERING NOVELS?!?!?!?!

:[] :[] :[] :[] :[] :[] :[]

I'm going to be reading The Purifying Fire after I'm done with my current book!

[Kimra]

Just finished reading:
Wicked
The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman is my hero)
1984

and have just picked up:
Casino Royale

I'm catching up on my reading for the last five years. It's good fun.

[Apocalyptus]

Ah yes Neil Gaiman is my hero too. I hope at least someone here has also read the Sandman books?

Did you like Wicked, Kimra? I've been planning on reading it for ages but haven't gotten round to it yet. I've figured five books at once is probably enough for the moment...

[Kimra]

Of course I've read the Sandman Graphic Novels. But I like his kids books as well (which the Graveyard Book was) and really his poetry is awesome. Example one two three four (if you can only read one of them, I recommend two)

As for Wicked, the book. I found it infinitely boring. I found myself at a loss for why anyone would read it, but also desperately trying to figure out what I had missed, because that many people can't be that wrong. Anyone else I know who's read it thought it was really interesting and funny. I think I'm just not capable of contemplating the deeper meanings of good and evil which it (apparently) presents for the reader to analyse. I also don't like having to analyse a book to understand it. It was an arduous read for me, but don't actually let that stop you from reading it, I'm quite a pleb when it comes to books.

On a side note, the book doesn't actually adhere to the Wizard of Oz (which I read straight afterwards out of curiosity).

[Apocalyptus]

Yes, I love his short story books, like M is for Magic. I'm not really into poetry, but his is pretty good.

I read the Wizard of Oz once, and found the story to be far more interesting than the film. The thing that sticks out in my mind is the part about the Emerald city not actually being emerald but white and silver, and the Wizard just tricks everyone by making them wear green goggles while they're in the city. Although I've just realised that in real life that wouldn't work because your eyes would just adjust and after awhile everything would look normal colours again.

I still plan on reading the rest of them (apparently there are a lot, about 20 or something) eventually.

[smiley_cow]

I know two people who've read Wicked, one loved it and one despised it, so I've averaged it out in my mind to probably being a mediocre book.

I read the first Wizard of Oz book a while back, and I agree, it's better than the movie/musical. I know there's quite a few sequels, but after a while I think the publishers started hiring new writers to write, so they're not all written by L. Frank Baum. They are all past their copyright though, so you can find them all online.

[Apocalyptus]

Yeah I think I already downloaded them, but I have a huge number of books that I'm planning to read to get through first.

[LordRetard]

As for Wicked, the book. I found it infinitely boring. I found myself at a loss for why anyone would read it, but also desperately trying to figure out what I had missed, because that many people can't be that wrong.

I dunno, I haven't read Wicked but I am confident that there are plenty of shit books out there that an abnormal amount of people like.