I've been reading a lot lately, and I just wanted to see what kind of books you guys like to read.

I'm currently reading Catch-22 and it is really weird. I know it is/was a smash-hit, but I honestly don't get it. I feel like I'm missing something. yes, I know it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of message but... what's the hype about it? I know it was probably a big deal in the 50s... but people are still saying it's an amazing read and such. Hm.

One book I would definitely recommend would be "True Notebooks" by Mark Salzman. It's the true accounts of how he would teach Creative Writing classes in a high security juvenile prison. I could not put it down when I first read it.

Catch 22 is one of my all time favorite satires on war and the military. Right up there with Slaughterhouse 5.

I am reading an interesting expose on the Iraq War, The stolen elections and ... other stuff called "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast. Very entertaining writing style. Though if true the picture he paints is a grim one indeed.

I am also reading Lee Thacker's "One For Sorrow" at the recommendation of Dave Sim.

It's a fictional biography of a woman's life from a young girl to accomplished author. She goes through a lot of horrible things, gets involved in the punk scene, talks to ghosts, and writes surreal stories.

It's very odd. Sometimes tragic, sometimes funny. Thacker has created a really dimentional portrait that is very addictive.

I've been reading Good Omens. SO funny, and just so clever and well written. It's one of those books where I was so in love with it, that i didn't want to read it all at once because then it'd be over. I actually rationed it.

I've been plowing my way through H. P. Lovecraft's stories every night. I never ever thought a book could really scare you until I started reading this stuff. I didn't get to bed until 6 AM last night I was so afraid of the crab people from Yuggoth.

It's even scarier taking into account the fact that I live right near all the places his stories take place in. The next town over was mentioned in the last story of his I read. >>

OH MAN I LOVE LOVECRAFT! Ahhh you're my new hero :prayer:

This summer I have a lot of books I'm plowing through.

For school:
-Beowulf
-The Stranger (Camus)
-David Copperfield (Dickens)
-The Tempest (Shakespeare)
-Parts of the Bible (God lolz) (I don't understand how all the rich Jews in my neighborhood don't freak out about this being required reading in public school. Personally I don't care.)
-A World Light Only By Fire (can't remember the author's name...)

Not for school:
-American Gods (Neil Gaiman)
-Anansi boys (Neil Gaiman)
-Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
-Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
-Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
-Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
-A book of H.P. Lovecraft's stories
-Fleurs de Mal (Baudelaire)
-One of the Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse, but my mom hasn't finished it yet and I can't remember the title

I swear there were one or two more...@_@ Well I'm off to read!!

Tundra
I've been reading Good Omens. SO funny, and just so clever and well written. It's one of those books where I was so in love with it, that i didn't want to read it all at once because then it'd be over. I actually rationed it.

I hope you read more of Terry Pratchett, because even though this was written by Gaiman and Pratchett, the humor is mostly pratchett.

All of his books are great, but here are some that pretty much stand up on their own (though are enhanced by reading all of the backstory):

Small Gods
Reaper Man
Jingo
Wee Free Men

...oh, there are so many. Even his Johnny Maxwell trilogy is pretty good. As well as the Bromeliad Trilogy.

Right now I'm reading (or have recently read):

~You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
~Very Good, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse
~Cruddy by Lynda Barry (kind of depressing)
~Carnet de Voyage by Craig Thompson
~Godplayers by Adrian Brody (about three-fourths incomprehensible-- Adrian must have been smoking something when he wrote this)
~The Acme Novelty Library Volume 16 by Chris Ware

And every day this year I've been reading a page of Benrik's This Book Will Change Your Life. Sadly, I have not been able to complete most of the tasks in the book, due to lack of resources, opportunity, or particular interest.

~IJ

PS: I have to read Wuthering Heights this summer for AP Lit. Is it any good? Does it hold interest? Are there any jet-ski chases?

A lot of those books sound pretty interesting! I'll probably have to make a reading list for myself or something.

I just recently finished reading Atlus Shrugged. Pity. It ended up being like a big love triangle. But Ayn Rand was still a nice read.

Have any of you read Demian? Wonderful book! Herman Hesse is one of my favorite classic authors. Steppenwolf is another good one, although it gets really odd at the end.

Suzi, have you ever read Brave New World? It's the "bastardized" theme of The Tempest.

yeah, i'm working my way through pratchett. :) And I'm going to see some people perform Jingo in a few weeks.

I assume they aren't performing in the East Coast US, right? :(

One of these days I want to go to that big Discworld convention in the UK.

I started reading Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell but I got to busy to finish it. I didn't get that far, but it seemed pretty good.

Everyone seems to like Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett. I've never heard of them before. Hm.

My favorite co-author group is Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, but mostly just their early works. Their newer stories have gotten pretty bad. Riptide was probably their best, but The Cabinet of Curiosities and The Ice Limit were pretty good too.

Mazoo
Suzi, have you ever read Brave New World? It's the "bastardized" theme of The Tempest.

Ha! No, I haven't read it, and I didn't know that, either. I'm reading The Tempest from a list of optional books because I'm working on Beethoven's 17th piano sonata right now, the one nicknamed "The Tempest", and I thought reading the play could inspire me. While getting it done for school!

Pixie
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke. It's probably one of the best books I've read in a long long time, and easily one of the most original. It's also 1000 pages long! XD Which is a good thing, trust me. You don't want it to end. Hilariously funny too, in that sarcastic, clever, Jane Austen kinda way.

Yeah, I haven't started yet and oh man it's so huge! My bestest friend Alex loaned it to me while he's in Japan this month, and whenever I hear from him he bugs me to read it. Everything I've heard about it sounds fantastic. So...maybe soon...

Anyone who enjoyed "Good Omens" would probably enjoy Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently" books. There are two: "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul" ... they were written years ago, but I personally found them to be much tighter than the first three Hitchhiker's books.

Oh, you're a pianist Suzi? Exciting! I'm unable to focus on that many keys at once. Kudos to you, my friend. I have great respect for pianists.

Mr. Gaimen and Mr. Pratchett are the authors of The Sandman series? I thought that was a comic.... man am I confused about things.

Mazoo
Oh, you're a pianist Suzi? Exciting! I'm unable to focus on that many keys at once. Kudos to you, my friend. I have great respect for pianists.

Mr. Gaimen and Mr. Pratchett are the authors of The Sandman series? I thought that was a comic.... man am I confused about things.

Gaimen wrote Sandman ... was drawn by various artists.

Pratchett does not work in comics. As far as I know, the adaptations of his novels weren't even done by him.

Mazoo
Oh, you're a pianist Suzi? Exciting! I'm unable to focus on that many keys at once. Kudos to you, my friend. I have great respect for pianists.

Ahhh, thank you...Yeah, the pieces I'm working on right now are for college auditions in the winter - I'm going to major in Music, possibly double major, or minor, in Art. I envy all my classmates who are just beginning to think about college, this summer before senior year, and I've already been working on my audition pieces since February :p Such is life.

The Science of discworld (the first one, read the last two but not the first one) because terry pratchet is a classic authour with a great sense of humour.

That reminds me, I need to check out more Diskworld books from the library....

Well, other than comics, I've recently read the book Ian Jay mentioned, called "Feed". Creepy, depressing, and satirical, it didn't end on a hopeful note. This leads me to believe that the author might be depressed, as most books at least leave a shread of hope at the end.

Anyway, I'm also reading The Scarlet Letter, because I'll have to read that next year. Alongside Their Eyes were Watching God and All The King's Men.

Oh MAN, I had to read All The King's Men last year! I really wasn't looking forward to it, because I'm not fond of political fiction in the slightest, but that was one HELL of a book. I think I fell in love with Jack Burden a little.

Sorry to interrupt anything important, but HOW CAN ANYONE BE SCARED AT HP LOVECRAFT's WORK??? It is impossible to even quiver at those magnificant pieces of literature!

Yes, the writing's brilliant.

But try reading 'Whisperer in the Darkness' for the first time at 1 AM to however long it takes, and count in the fact that you LIVE in New England. You won't sleep very well.

*shrug* You can't really compare how and why people get scared over different things. Some of Lovecraft's stories have scared me real bad, others just left me a bit chilled, and most of them just leave me with a feeling of "wow...wow that was awesome". It's definitely just a personal thing :smt069

Eh... I'm not really a fan of Stephen King. He's too weird. The only book I've been able to read and finish was The Talismen, and that isn't even like his other books because it follows the Romance mode of literature rather than his typical Ironic mode. I tried reading some of this other stuff. I didn't like it. End of story.

yeah, i loved the dirk gently books! :D

I'm personally not that into Stephen King... except for his Dark Tower series. And I've only read up to the second book, The Drawing of the Three. Apparently a copy of the third book no longer exists on planet Earth or something. Also I've heard his book On Writing is funny and helpful, but I haven't read it yet.

The Dirk Gently series is, of course, awesome. It needed a third book, though. The best trilogies always have three books in them, at least.

The Suze, I haven't read Lovecraft yet... though I did read about him running a small restaurant in a coastal tourist town in California ("Try the Eggs Sohoth! I've heard they're delicious!") in a couple of Christopher Moore's novels. By the way, for the record, Christopher Moore is a giant among men when it comes to modern satirical writing. I recommend you run right now-- DON'T walk!-- to your nearest bookstore and pick up some of his stuff.

CSS... That was the great part about Feed! It didn't end on a good note. If it ended on a good note, you'd think, "Oh, brain-planted microchips? Well, I guess that's all right, then."

Mazoo: You have not heard about Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett? Wow, you're even less into the Internet subculture than I thought. Neil's Sandman series totally rearranged my head when I was thirteen. And, of course, American Gods was an equally brilliant piece of work. And Terry... well, he's practically a legend in the fantasy genre. He still pumps out new novels like homemade fudge (though, after reading every single one available at my local library, I've really got to admit that they all start to sound alike after a while. I didn't know they'd turned some of his stuff into a play, though...). Buy some of their stuff while you're out at the bookstore getting those Christopher Moore novels.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was an interesting novel, but after a while you start thinking, "Okayyy, I get the idea, can we move on now, please?" I realize it was a masterpiece from a bygone era, but it still could have used some judicious editing.

And also, for something new... Anyone ever heard of Matt Ruff? His Sewer, Gas and Electric struck me as funny, bizarre, and ultimately brilliant. Plus it's got Ayn Rand's digitally reincarnated soul in it! (And she is, as ever, kind of an egotistical prick.) Read it if you can find it.

~IJ

Ian Jay
"Oh, brain-planted microchips? Well, I guess that's all right, then."

My old english teacher probably would've thought that book ended on a good note then. He had some control issues and whatnot.

Ian Jay
You have not heard about Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett? Wow, you're even less into the Internet subculture than I thought.

I'll take that with a grain of salt, Mr. Jay.

Ian Jay
And also, for something new... Anyone ever heard of Matt Ruff? His Sewer, Gas and Electric struck me as funny, bizarre, and ultimately brilliant. Plus it's got Ayn Rand's digitally reincarnated soul in it! (And she is, as ever, kind of an egotistical prick.) Read it if you can find it.

Ayn Rand wouldn't be Ayn Rand if she wasn't an egotistical prick. Like Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell, her book Atlus Shrugged needed some editting of it's own.

I hate it when books do that. The just go on and on and on and repeat the theme over and over and over again until any idiot can get it. John Steinback does that in his East of Eden. No wonder I got a bit sick of it at the end.

Vixus
Just read Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. It is one of his darker moments in the series and leaves you longing for the original Ankh-Morpork (rather than the past one)...

that's what i like About the discworld series, The characters dont so much get developed over the series, they are more already established and then the world around them developes. Nothing is a better example than Ankh-morpork, in 'the colour of magic' the City is a horrible run down crime pit, by the time you get to 'going postal' the city has a organised and effective (and non horribly corrupt) police force, a postal service and the world has a network of semaphore towers. I don't think there has ever been a better series of comedic fantasy books.

Terry pratchet is the only man who can make a post office seem awsome.

I love everything Pratchett. The "Science of Discworld" books are great and I am really looking forward to getting the third one. They're hard to get here in the U.S. because presently there's a concerted movement to not allow science through our borders. ;)

An update: I just finished reading "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast. He's an investigative reporter and he talks about the Iraq War, Voting and the Class War in the U.S.

Very well written - with a very wry sense of humor - and very creepy stuff. So far as I can find, there's no one out there doubting the factuality of his reports (though they do dispute some of his conclusions). You can get a taste of his work at http://www.gregpalast.com

Mazoo

Ian Jay
You have not heard about Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett? Wow, you're even less into the Internet subculture than I thought.

I'll take that with a grain of salt, Mr. Jay.

Who said not being into the Internet subculture was a bad thing?

~IJ

Tater Salad
I'm probably the only person who didn't like Sandman. I just sorta skimmed through it at the bookstore, but it was ugly to look at and never bought it. If someone really WILL give me the money I'll buy it though. ;)

Each issue is done by (multiple) artists, so it's a real mixed bag. The earlier issues are more mainstream looking, but as the series progresses it breaks free from that. The last volume has the best art, in my opinion...omg it's gorgeous. The important thing is to read for the story, I think, because even if you like one artist's style you can't get hung up on it because it won't be around next issue.

Now I don't know about other places, but -my- library has them, so why spend the money? I borrowed volumes 1-8 from a friend and got the last two from the library :p

Ian Jay
CSS... That was the great part about Feed! It didn't end on a good note. If it ended on a good note, you'd think, "Oh, brain-planted microchips? Well, I guess that's all right, then."

Yeah, but he could have at least let there have been a ray of hope that humanity could have ESCAPED from the need to have brain implanted micro...yeah...actually I see your point there. I guess he was trying to tell us if we ever got so far into that then we'd be fucked any which way...