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[theinevitable]

Um, so, I read the entire old thread. I want to get back in the habit of reading.
I have a stack of books to read (all will be for the 2nd time. I remember little about most of them.)

Neuromancer-- William Gibson
White Teeth-- Zadie Smith
Dune-- Frank Herbert
Rainbow Mars-- Larry Niven
Count Zero-- William Gibson
Snow Crash-- Stephenson.
Diamond Age-- Stephenson.
Cryptonomicon-- Stephenson.
The Age of Spritual Machines-- Ray Kurzweil
The Code Book-- Simon Singh
Made in America (an informal history of the english language in the united states)
Quicksilver/Confusion/System of the World (I read the first one and half of the 2nd one, and then stopped because I was so confused. I have a very huge problem with telling characters apart.)

I really love mr Stephenson, but sometimes it seems that he is trying too hard. Everything is too cool. he tries to fit in too much. this is why they are all so long.

That said, I have read every book he has published (except The Big U and the last one in that new series.) I read "In the Beginning... was the command line" and took up linux. I think I would do anything that man told me to do.

I am not sure what order I should read these in. Right now, I am starting Neuromancer.

Also: someone commented on the first thread that they had bought Everything is Illuminated. Did any of you read it? i love that book so much. so much.

what is everyone else reading?

[robot_god]

Well, it's mostly been Tortora's Principles of Anatomy and Physiology.  But I recently started 2001, Space Odessy although I slowed down drastically once it got passed the dawn of man part.

[pmcd9]

I recently started 2001, Space Odessy.

How could it possibly top the movie?

~Paul

[Doc]

I've been reading a couple of John Le Carre books lately (The honourable schoolboy and 's people), both of which I enjoyed but found a bit dry in parts. Some of the dry was in a good way, some just made it hard to read.
Similarly I just picked up and consumed Queen and Country volume 3, which along with the rest of the series I can heartily endorse.
I also recently read the last 8th doctor, doctor who book 'Gallifrey Chronicles' which I've been meaning to read for ages because I lost track of the books a while back but am a huge geek.
My girlfriend lent me (forced on me) her copy of the chronicles of narnia which I am starting at least, I am just a bit put off becuase of what I have heard and my own observations of flicking through the last book, it looks like Lewis got a bit heavy handed by the end. That said the Magician's nephew seems to begin with the right ratios of mystery and wonder so maybe I'll stick it out.
Oh, I also recently read 'how to survive a ***** uprising' which was purchased on a whim and was fun to read in short spurts and is very shiney besides.
The last 'literary' book I read was P.G. Wodehouse and... I can't actually remember which one it was. I'd describe the plot as involving a poor but respectable family in the country, lost loves, silly disguises, vague criminality and severe indigestion but from what I understand this includes most of the man's works.

[Mite]

Everything is Illuminated is great. I haven't read his new one yet.

I haven't had a lot of time to read this spring, but I did finish:
Chesapeake, by James Michener (I'm a sucker for his books)

Foucalt's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco (Read it in high school but couldn't remember much of it, and since I keep telling people it's the thinking man's Da Vinci Code, I thought I should take another look)

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Tom Robbins (Either it's not as good as the others or I'm getting a little sick of his particular brand of cowboy hacker mystic philosophy)

Heart of Darkness, Conrad (Well, I'm 8 pages in. Just started it. When do they find Marlon Brando and the heads on pikes?)

Stephenson can get tiring. Eventually it seems like he's writing less of a book and more of a list of things that he knows about and thinks are cool. I haven't read the rest of the baroque cycle, though I found Quicksilver to be ok. It didn't quite grab me enough to make me want to read the rest, though.

[theinevitable]

Heart of Darkness is delicious.

by which I mean: horrifying.

Foer's new one, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, is great. I really loved it.

for the record, he has written two books. One is about the Holocaust, and the other is about 9/11. Wow.

[misterqueue]

Just started re-reading Heller's Catch 22.  I thoroughly enjoyed it as I remember but it has been a bit of a time since I've read it.

Neuromancer blew my 15 year old mind the first time I read it (which is to say it took my mind into a back alley and suckled it until it climaxed.  Yeah.. imagine that for a few seconds..)

Fuckin' Stephenson.. man couldn't write an ending if James Joyce handed it to him on a damned plate.  He writes a good middle though, I'll give him that.

[CortJstr]

Agreed on Stephenson, Q. Diamond Age had a great middle then the ending just seemed to happy. And in the Boroque Cycle the best book was The Confusion (the middle one). I just read Zodiac which was my least favorite so far. But at least the main character wasn't named Hiro Protagonist.

Right now I'm about 200 pages into Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

[Drygioni]

Just started re-reading Heller's Catch 22.

That book is ten kinds of fuck*ng awesome. I am currently reading the sequel of sorts, Closing Time. My favourite bit of any book ever is when it ties in with Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 (probably my overall favourite book ever). And it just works. Fantastic.

Has anyone read anything by E.H Gombrich? He makes the history of the world a lot funner than it really should be. And I've got this massive George Orwell collection to finish, then after that it's onto a Graham Greene anthology. And there's a couple of Discworld novels I haven't read yet. Also, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell which I have on the backburner somewhere.

I also have a book on the fall of Britpop.

[jough]

I'm reading Matt Zandstra's PHP5: Objects, Patterns, and Practice.  It is gripping.  Not too much plot, but lots of development.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I am currently reading China Mieville's "Looking for Jake," a short story collection that is like reading episodes of the X-Files.  Just work in Scully and Mulder and they'd be perfect.

I must have read a half-dozen baseball-related books over the off-season, most recently "The Bad Guys Won," about the '86 Mets.  A good read.  But I still hate them.

My great-grandmother gave me uber-cheesy best-seller "Marley and Me" for Christmas, and that is currently bathroom reading.  Let me save you some time:  The dog is ornery, and makes them insane.  But they grow to love the dog.  Then the dog gets sick and dies, and they are sad.  The end.

[arkabee]

It is gripping.  Not too much plot, but lots of development.

i thought there were laws against this.

[side_show]

I am so sick of books right now.  I had a book drift next to the bed, like a snow drift, only made of books.  I've started and discarded so many books after the first chapter lately.  I even cracked out my old favorite and gave up on it a few chapters in.  I can't get in to anything these days.

[wombat]

I've started and discarded so many books after the first chapter lately. 

This is my problem too.  Lately my highest praise for a book is "did not want to throw across the room after second chapter."  I spend my reading time looking longingly at my list of Amazon preorders of forthcoming books by authors I'm sure I actually like.  I am halfway seriously thinking of spending the summer rereading all of Raymond Chandler so I can try to rip off some of his style for something I am writing.  Pathetic, but at least I know I won't want to throw the books across the room.

What is sad is that I don't like to read nonfiction anymore like I used to.  It is a golden age of nonfiction, with people writing whole books about pencils and salt and the great molasses flood in Boston.  I would have killed for these books ten years ago, but now I'm like, eh, reading the review is all I really need to know about the great molasses flood.

Also:  Ark!!!

[acoxcae]

It is a golden age of nonfiction, with people writing whole books about pencils and salt and the great molasses flood in Boston.

If my opinion helps, the whole book about salt is wonderful.  It's really well-written, interesting, and about the perfect length.  Plus, you have no idea how much history is directly or indirectly salt-related.

For those who don't know it, it's Salt - A World History, by Mark Kurlansky.  Apparently he also wrote a book entitled Cod, with a similar style, but I've seen it - it's very small, and the salt book talks a lot about Cod - it's probably mostly repeat material.

So now I'm on a quest for non-fiction - what've you got?