Books

[Wilf]

Eathsea quartet... definately worth reading. Ursula le Guin may not be the easiest author to read, but it's certainly worth it. (I'd also reccomend reading her comments on the recent Earthsea TV "adaption" here)
I've recently bought The Complete Robot, a collection of Asimov's short stories relating to robots. I personally feel that Asimov's short stories are a lot better than his novels. It's a shame that the Foundation series moved form a series of short stories to novels.

[Kathy Li]

Omg. I think I might be starting to re-read Dorothy Dunnett. Someone stop me!! That's a 14 book series, where each book is over 500 pages long!! I need sleep and food more! Whenever I start reading Dunnett, I end up foregoing both to get to the next page... someone stop me! (wrestles hand down from reaching for Game of Kings).

Have you ever read a book that kept you up past 4am? For me, only three authors have made me do that: George R.R. Martin, Dorothy Dunnett, and Connie Willis (Passage. I stayed up until 2am, thinking I could put the book down and then she did the unthinkable and I had to finish. If you've read it, you know at exactly which point I decided to stay up all night).

[AlidaART]

Speaking of trilogies, anybody here read Kevin Crossley-Holland's King Arthur trilogy? The first is The Seeing-Stone, second is At the Crossing-Places and the final volume (which is fabulous beyond words), is The King of the Middle-March. They're amazing, and not just if you're a Kind Arthur freak: they offer real, human philosophy and some really engaging characters. I can't recommmend these books enough.

RE Earthsea: Sorry Tui, I've tried and failed to read those. As Wilf said, she's hard to read. Perhaps I should make a second attempt.

Lastly, Kli--try to hold yourself back! Those things are massive! Eat and sleep over Dunnett, I know you can do it! Though I have heard they are very good (my father reads them, not I). But no, tempt me not.

[seabiscuit1009]

Aw, I LOVE those King Arthur books! Very enjoyable series...and it's one of the few series that my brother will read, which means that it HAS to be good. It took so long for my library to get the third book. It made me mad.

Books up past 4 AM...Well, obviously HBP. The Da Vinci Code (and it was NOT worth staying up that late for, even if I like the author's books) The Book of Honor by Ted Gup (don't know why I stayed up that late for that book either, but it was good) Eragon, and MANY more that I don't remember. I pull many all-nighters, both for enjoyment (reading my books) and for school purposes (only for big projects that I just haven't had time to finish.)

Gah...I am STILL working on finishing Eldest for the second time...curse school and not giving me time to read...

A book that was tailored/written for me...I'd have to say A Mango Shaped Space...and Eragon...and SYWTBAW...and a bunch of other ones...lol, I see myself in many different books, which is why they seem to be written for me...

-seabiscuit, a.k.a. hungry

[AlidaART]

Well seabiscut, I think part of the problem with the last Arthur book was that it took ages for them to publish it over here in the first place...so it's no wonder your library made you wait a long time

So...Gatty/Arthur or Winnie/Arthur? Or for that matter, Winnie/Tom? Personally I wish Gatty and Arthur could eventually get together, but seeing what happened to Serle and Tanwen...and Winnie and Tom definitely seemed to be happening at the end of King of the Middle-March.

[Kathy Li]

Originally posted by AlidaART:
... Lastly, Kli--try to hold yourself back! Those things are massive! Eat and sleep over Dunnett, I know you can do it! Though I have heard they are very good (my father reads them, not I). But no, tempt me not.

Still.... trying....

We'll see if a diversionary tactic to read Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica works. If not, I may have to pull out the big guns and start Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle.

The problem is that, for me, reading Dunnett is one of my worst addictions--I end up re-reading the full cycle at least once every two years, much as most folks read LotR. Hooray that your dad likes 'em! Most folks I know have never heard of Lymond or Niccolò.

[alla]

*bump*

Well... Bookfest this year was a good haul, and amongst what I got, I managed to get 'The Wanderers' trilogy by Caiseal Mor. I'm only halfway through the first of them, but I'm really enjoying them. Has anyone else read this trilogy?

Sadness... I've had to go through my books and take some of them to the lifeline bin to make room for others. Dad won't let me put up another two or so shelves to fit them in with, so what is left (all my SFF stuff, of course and a few others) have been stacked horizontally. It half makes me feel like I'm in a second hand bookshop.

Recently read Inkspeel, sequel to Inkheart. Not bad. want to read something new because I'm out of books. waiting for solemn key by dan Brown. If any's read Angels and Demons or Da vinci Code, you know what I'm talking about.

[Kathy Li]

Alla, wait until you start double-stacking (i.e., put vertical stacks in front of vertical stacks on the same shelf) to fit all the books in.

BTW, I picked up Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, since I finally finished my Christopher Wren biography (His Invention So Fertile) and I won't get the two books confused any more. I'm really enjoying Quicksilver, but occasionally there are bits that pop out at me as hypermodern, simply because Stephenson's so damn exuberant in his writing, and nothing from the 18th century ever feels like that to me. But overall, loving the entire conceit and wondering where it's going to lead.

Mostly, though, I'm watching television instead of reading books. Does anybody else go through cycles like that? I tend to flip back and forth between book, movie, and television -intense phases.

[Peter Murray]

Originally posted by kli6:
Alla, wait until you start double-stacking (i.e., put vertical stacks in front of vertical stacks on the same shelf) to fit all the books in.

I found that some of my shelves are just deep enough to have three rows of books on. Two shelves have now started on a third row like that. Of course, this means I have no idea where any book is now .

[seabiscuit1009]

Originally posted by kli6:
Alla, wait until you start double-stacking (i.e., put vertical stacks in front of vertical stacks on the same shelf) to fit all the books in.

Oy. You know, I just got all my books off the floor by doing that a few days ago. Hehehe...Mom says I need to donate some or something. I told her that she is the craziest person I've ever met for suggesting something like that.

What am I reading right now? Well...YW! I decided it's time for a reread...so I went to the library to get AWD and AWAl, since they're the only 2 I don't own. They didn't have AWAl (IT'S OUT! SOMEONE ELSE READS MY BOOKS!) so I just got AWD. I got up to the line, and went fishing around for my card, and...guess what? Couldn't find it. I then said "Crud, I don't have my card." Sound familiar? It should. The librarian just let me take it out and told me to bring it back WHEN I HAD MY CARD ON MONDAY. Now. Normally, I don't believe in, I don't know what to call it. But that whole episode is just weird. WEIRD. (and I didn't even remember that the whole crud part was in SYWTBAW until about 10 minutes ago.)

-seabiscuit, a.k.a. hungry

[Space Cadet]

Heh heh lol Hungry I wish stuff like that happened to me.

On the topic of bookshelves, I have a bookshelf that is designed to be double-stacked. In front of the main back bookshelf, there are two mini bookshelves on wheels resting on a track, so I don't need to pull my books out to get the ones at the back.
That bookshelf is nearly full, despite the fact that over half my books are on the other side of the world in cardboard boxes in my parents garage. I don't know what I'm going to do when I move back to NZ and fuse my two book collections together. Live in a place that has a spare room I can convert into a library, I suppose . . . Then I can spend my weekends organising and cataloging. Yay!

[Dragon Writer]

I got up to the line, and went fishing around for my card, and...guess what? Couldn't find it. I then said "Crud, I don't have my card." Sound familiar? It should. The librarian just let me take it out and told me to bring it back WHEN I HAD MY CARD ON MONDAY. Now. Normally, I don't believe in, I don't know what to call it. But that whole episode is just weird. WEIRD. (and I didn't even remember that the whole crud part was in SYWTBAW until about 10 minutes ago.)

What would be really interesting is if it happend when you were checking out sywtbaw. I mean that WAS also the title of the manual, if i remember correctly. Of course, i could be wrong.

[Wilf]

I have absolutly no idea whether my shelves have sufficient room for my books or not, because a very large proopertion of them aer with me here at university. I have a feeling that when I move out from home I will have to buy a *lot* of shelving.

I've also found out today that there's another Chrestomanci book coming out this September *bounces happily*. (Fantasy group of books by Dianna Wynne Jones... very different magic to YW, but I'd recommend them to anyone here). It's called Pinhoe Egg, and for those who know the books, it's set after Charmed Life and in/around Chrestomanci Castle, and features Cat Chant. It should be a similar length to Conrad's Fate. This news proved a welcome distraction from my work on research project (now 30% done...).

[AlidaART]

Wow, Wilf, this is very weird, but I was just planning to go see if DWJ was plotting anything new as of late, as I was just re-reading Conrad's Fate (which I love to pieces--fifteen-year-old Christopher Chant? So much fun!). Actually, I sort of wish she'd write more about Christopher--he's a really fascinating character, I think, and deserves more book time than he gets, generally. But this September! May I say again, wow.

By the way, for a book with a similar style to that of DWJ (more existential than Harry Potter, but not as scientific as YW), you should all try out Caroline Stevermer's A College of Magics. Brilliant book, and has little or nothing to do with an actual "college of magics" in a Hogwartian sense. The characters are great, and the plot is highly convoluted but nevertheless intriguing. Check it out.