The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

 
Not exactly "reading now" because I just finished it, but Dan Brown's Digital Fortress - I found it at a charity book-exchange shelf and at 50c I figured it was a good inexpensive opportunity to see what I thought of the guy's writing.

What I think is, his writing's not too bad (quite engaging, in fact), but his research is seriously impaired by "you can't know what you don't know".  So many things that he doesn't have THE FIRST FRACKIN' CLUE how they work in reality - and quite possibly doesn't care, because they'd screw up the story he's trying to tell.

The mistakes of fact would have driven me batshit (I usually have a very low tolerance level for that), 'cept that very early on my mind switched into the same mode I use for reading vintage SF whose scientific speculations have since proved to be completely off-base.  It also helped to take the story itself as a Comedy of Errors; so much of the plot depends on people making foolish choices.

So, unintentionally funny - much more amusingly so than "unintentionally funny" usually is.  I'd like to think the reason Brown is a bestselling author is because people are enjoying the unintentional humor, but I am old and cynical, and fear that it's because there are that many readers who don't know any more than he does about, well, practically everything.

Sunflower

I´m reading "Robert Asprin - MYTH-series" (in German version)

It´s very funny. If you want Fantasy AND laughing while reading a book - read this.

People in the train look at me and wonder, how can it happen, that I can have so much fun only with a book in my hands :p

I love books for children and teens, because the words are much more coloured and painting pictures in my mind

 
I love that series and have it around here...somewhere...

*goes on a hunt*

Because someone had to restart this thread after the move.  What are you reading, how is it, and would you recommend it?

 
I'm on the fourth book of the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. I'm totally sucked into those books.:

Because someone had to restart this thread after the move.  What are you reading, how is it, and would you recommend it?

 
I love the Game of Thrones books. Can't wait for the next.

Just re read The Passage by Justin Cronin so I'd be up to date for The Twelve which was fantastic. I can't wait for the third, but hoping he doesn't take another 6 years to write it!

Right now I'm looking for a good fiction book to sink my teeth into, preferably another series. I'm 6 months pregnant and have chronic morning sickness, so hoping to find something to pass the time. But I have no idea what's good, there's so much out there. I'm thinking about Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Currently reading John Scalzi's The Android's Dream, which frankly I like a helluva lot better than the title reference.  I've so far only read The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by PKD, and was bored to tears by that latter & confused by the former.  Is there anything by him I might like, or is it all the vein of those two?

After that I plan to start Lian Hearn's The Harsh Cry of the Heron & Peter Watts' Blindsight.  Or maybe I'll start one of those JJA anthologies.

...

 
Religious Reading:  _A History of Pagan Europe_ by Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick.  No, I would not recommend this book.  Very disappointing.  Also, _Neo-Pagan Rites_ by Isaac Bonewits.  

School Reading:  _My One Night Stand with Cancer_ by Tania Katan.  Fairly interesting and funny

Ordinary Reading: _Rainbowshadow Road_ by Lisa Kleypas.  The jacket cover fooled me. *I* could write a better novel.

I just finished "Shadows In Flight" by Orson Scott Card. Honestly, It left me a little cold (although it did almost make me cry). It seems like he was wrapping up the end of the series for the sake of wrapping it up, rather than adding something new and interesting. Not to mention it was hella short.  A measly 200 pages! It only took me one day from start to finish.

OK, on to current reading.

Fiction: Infinite Jest. I am trying so goddamn hard to get through this novel, but is is HELLA thick content. Slow going for me. I'm almost convinced that David Foster Wallace has some kind of schizoid personality disorder. That or he's a bit of a dick. Regardless, the book is totally awesome.

Non-Fiction: I found an old re-telling of some Norse myths from 1953 (unfortunately I got the 1961 reprint, not the first edition ). Now I'm slowly working my way through. Nothing I don't know of course, but it's interesting to see how the translator chose to tell the myths. Plus I REALLY like the smell of old books!

I am currently reading:

O Mother Sun! A New View of the Cosmic Feminine by the late Patricia Monaghan. I'm almost finished it. If I were to sum it up in one word, that word would be "dated" but Monaghan's works aren't exactly known for their accuracy.

Next up:

Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey. I read Magic's Pawn and was like "Wow, this is actually surprisingly sensitive for its time." (I've seen much worse.) Even though the villain in Pawn was absolutely ridiculous! I think this is the first time I've actually laughed when the villain shows up.

And I still have The Wraeththu Chronicles buried under a pile of my other books, somewhere....

I'm currently reading My Berlin Kitchen, along with two or three cookbooks.

(Yes, I read cookbooks.  Doesn't everyone?)

 
I had a professor in university who read cookbooks when she was having a bad day, to quote her "I like the food porn, okay???"