Books you've read this year or are currently reading

I really enjoyed Extra Lives by Tom Bissell, Patton Oswalts book, I read American Psycho and am currently reading Haunted, what books have you read and liked that you could recommend

I've been reading Shogun by James Clavell since March, and still haven't finished. I'm really bad at reading books. I'd like to read more often, but I just never get around to it.

There's already a thread for it http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/off-topic/31/books-your-currently-reading/219565/

Haven't read a single book this year. ^^

I just finished The Magician King, the absolutely fantastic sequel to Lev Grosman's The Magicians. A series well worth looking into if you loved children's fantasy series like Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, but are now in the mood for something a little more cynical and satirical. Also, it has lots of swearing, drinking, and sex!

After a few years of only reading comics, I resolved to read 12 books this year. This also coincided with getting the Kindle app, so they've all been e-books. So far: "Dead Space: Martyr" by B.K. Evenson, "City of Thieves" by David Benioff, "The Name of the Wind" and "The Wise Man's Fear" by Patrick Rothfuss, "World War Z" by Max Brooks, and "A Game of Thrones: Book One" by George R.R. Martin.

Currently working on "Conan The Cimmerian: The Complete Tales" by Robert E. Howard. Pretty badass.

This year? Let's see:

1. The Calling
2. Syrup
3. NOKAS
4. Company
5. Apache
6. Slaughterhouse 5
7. The Forever War
8. Naiv. Super.
9. Tatt av Kvinnen
10. I Am Legend
11. The Wise Man's Fear
12. Neuromancer
13. Cat's Cradle
14. Mogworld
15. The Last Wish
16. With the Old Breed
17. The Accidental Time Machine
18. Agent to the Stars
19. Blood of Elves
20. Old Man's War
21. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
22. A Farewell to Arms
23. A Game of Thrones
24. Breakfast of Champions
25. Fuzzy Nation
26. Machine Man
27. A Clash of Kings
28. Norwegian Wood
29. Looking for Alaska
30. A Storm of Swords: Steel and Snow

Now reading A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold.

Currently reading the A Song of Fire and Ice series

Man, I sure hope George RR Martin appreciates all the new sales he's getting. Read most of his larger novels when I was a teenager, I'm glad people are finally giving them the recognition they deserve.

Currently reading: http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Your-Brain-Music-Understanding/dp/1843547155 A wonderful account of our psychological and biological reactions to music enjoyment, their origins and the beauty and mystery of music itself.

Read This Year:

• Discworld:

• The Color of Magic
• The Light Fantastic

• Eisenhorn:

• Xenos
• Mallus
• Hereticus

• Gaunt's Ghosts:

• First & Only
• Ghostmaker
• Necropolis
• Honour Guard
• The Guns of Tanith

• A Song of Ice and Fire:

• A Game of Thrones
• A Clash of Kings
• A Storm of Swords
• A Feast for Crows

Currently Reading:

• Gaunt's Ghosts:

• Straight Silver

• A Sing of Ice and Fire:

• A Dance with Dragons

Hoping to Start by the End of the Year:

• Bas-Lag:

• Perdido Street Station

• Long Price Quartet:

• A Shadow in Summer

1. Horus Heresy: False Gods by Graham McNeill - I liked it 4/5
2. Horus Heresy: Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow - meh 3/5
3. Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe - the first good Eldar novel :) 4/5
4. Ravenor Omnibus by Dan Abnett - great but inferior to Eisenhorn 4.5/5
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - I expected more. His writing style is meh. Why don't you repeat some more words and "and... and... and.. and..." structure? 4/5
6. A Storm of Swords Part 1 by George R.R. Martin - Jesus F-ing Christ that guy's writing style is still baaaaaaaaad 3/5
7. A Storm of Swrods Part 2 by George R.R. Martin - I gave up after 200 pages. Again fuck this guy and his dumb writing style and lame killing off of interesting characters.

@phrosnite

What don't you like about G.R.R.M.'s writing style? Not saying you're wrong, just curious.

I'm on my fourth Horus Heresy novel, but I'd say Galaxy in Flames is my favorite so far.

I can't remember everything I've read this year, but I can certainly try!
 

1. Animal Farm - George Orwell
2. Young Hitler - Claus Hant
3. Zero Hour - Andy McNab
4. Fear - Jeff Abbott
5. Run - Jeff Abbott
6. The Secret Executioners - Danny Baz
7. I am fifteen and I do not want to die - Christine Arnothy
8. Assassin's Creed: Renaissance - Oliver Bowden
9. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - Oliver Bowden
10. Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade - Oliver Bowden
11. Paper Money - Ken Follett
12. Mercenary - Duncan Falconer
13. The Summons - John Grisham
14. Alamein - Iain Gale
15. Fatherland - Robert Harris
16. Archangel - Robert Harris
17. The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy
18. The Spy - Clive Cussler
19. London Calling - James Craig
20. The Set-up - Felix Riley
21. Devil to Pay - Ross Kemp
22. Empire of Gold - Andy McDermott
23. The Quickie - James Patterson
24. The Holy Thief - William Ryan
25. The English Assassin - Daniel Silva
26. The Mark of the Assassin - Daniel Silva
27. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
28. Eagle in the Sky - Wilbur Smith
29. The Dark of the Sun - Wilbur Smith
30. Hitler's Paratrooper: The Life and Battles of Rudolf Witzig - Gilberto Villahermosa
31. The Heart of Danger - Gerald Seymour
32. The Road - Cormac McCarthy
33. The Secret of Excalibur - Andy McDermott
34. The Cult of Osiris - Andy McDermott
35. Maximum Impact - Jack Henderson
36. Where Eagles Dare - Alistair MacLean
37. Red to Black - Alex Dryden
38. True Blue - David Baldacci
39. Never Look Away - Linwood Barclay

I have a lot of books in my room I'm yet to read, so I'll try and make some progress through them as well. At the moment I'm reading Young Stalin, by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It's going to be a long one. While it's only 400 or so pages and a lot of it is probably going to be made of sources, the font is relatively small so there's a lot of text on each page. By the time I'm done though, I'll probably have a good idea of Stalin's early life. I highly recommend William Ryan's The Holy Thief, as well as Felix Riley's The Set-Up, if you're looking for some great work by new authors. They're the debut works of both men, and judging by the quality, both of them will be featuring in my collection in the future still!

@Aas: He repeats the same words over and over and over and over again. Also I hate his stupid "and... and.. and... and.." structure. Also the books have too many characters and sometimes you have to read through 30-120(often boring) PAGES! to find out what happened to a certain character. I gave up after 200 pages into book 3 part 2. After that I read the summary on Wiki. I'm glad I did that. More time and money won't be wasted.

Edit: removed "when", have replaced with gave

I surprised myself and read quite a few this year...

World War Z

ICE - Ice T's Autobiography

A Perfect 10 - The Ron Santo Story

Lies Our Teachers Tell Us

Don Cherry Hockey Stories and Other Stuff

Don Cherry Hockey Stories and Other Stuff: Volume 2

The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet

Metro 2033 and 2034

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut

Horus Heresy novels Horus Rising, False Gods and Galaxy in Flames

I'll soon get a list of 20 classic books I have to read as a part of my studies, it'll be a tough one after reading so much hyperbolic space mishaps.

This year:

• The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
• The Waste Lands by Stephen King
• Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
• Call of the Dead by John le Carre
• The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carre
• Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard
• Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard
• Pronto by Elmore Leonard
• At The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft
• One Day by David Nicholls
• The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

It's been a while since I've read regularly so I'm trying to flesh out what kinds of books I like and I'm still not so sure. The Dark Tower is incredibly hit and miss; Audrey Niffenegger and H.P. Lovecraft are both intensely boring; le Carre and Rand are both pretty awesome so I'm looking for more of that but perhaps a little less dry. I could do with reading some noir.

I don't read anything non-fantasy anymore, and R.A. Salvatore just released the second book in the Neverwinter series so I am currently enjoying that. Brent Weeks is a great Author with Beyond the Shadows Saga that I thoroughly enjoyed as well.

Been getting into Comics as well recently, especially Batman: Arkham City and the new 52 Detective Comics Reboot. Dollmaker is fucked up.

Currently starting Dune for the first time.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Just finishing Metro 2033, and have Roadside Picnic lined up next.

@xMP44x said:

@HandsomeDead said:

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

How did you find it? Depending on where I've seen reviews of the book I've seen it praised as the best thing ever, and also targeted as one of the worst books possible. How did you find it? It's a book I've been considering reading for a while now.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's overlong and really dry at points but I feel that's part of the charm because the plot is very grandiose and it's written as a real mish mash of styles; some of it reads like an essay, some of it like a pulp novel. I hate to use the word unique, but I've never come across anything else like it. Honestly, if you're interested in reading it, give it a go and see how you do. It also helps to keep your mind open to the concept of objectivism. I know another guy who read it who absolutely hated it but he also voted for the communist party in the last round of local elections so it was to be expected.

Dumb question, but is 600wpm very fast? I read that fast but it still takes ages to read books.

@HandsomeDead said:

Overall, I really enjoyed it. It's overlong and really dry at points but I feel that's part of the charm because the plot is very grandiose and it's written as a real mish mash of styles; some of it reads like an essay, some of it like a pulp novel. I hate to use the word unique, but I've never come across anything else like it. Honestly, if you're interested in reading it, give it a go and see how you do. It also helps to keep your mind open to the concept of objectivism. I know another guy who read it who absolutely hated it but he also voted for the communist party in the last round of local elections so it was to be expected.

I think I might give it a go then! I have a lot to get through as it is, but I might take a break from it to get some Ayn Rand. Off the top of my head I have at least thirty books to get through, but a lot of them I intend to read in a pattern. For example, I have a trilogy on Soviet politicians by Robert Service, and if I was reading the series I'd likely aim to do it consecutively. I have some weird systems for reading books I guess, but I'll definitely have to buy Atlas Shrugged. I seem to have a left-wing leaning according to most political tests but I'm open to trying the book anyway. Thanks for the opinions.

@benpicko said:

Dumb question, but is 600wpm very fast? I read that fast but it still takes ages to read books.

The bigger concern for me is the prose. I can dust off an Elmore Leonard book in about two or three days but something more densely written - and I have no real examples as I've focused on breezy books lately - can take me much longer even if it's the same word count.

I'm currently making my way through American Gods, Cutting for Stone is up next

I read a bunch of H.P. Lovecraft this year, and some music books.  Also just read the latest Mass Effect book (Retribution), which was pretty cool.
 
I take my time with books, so I can really absorb them instead of just knocking some off a list.  Probably why I don't read nearly as much as I'd like to.

Dumb question, but is 600wpm very fast? I read that fast but it still takes ages to read books.

I'm still working through the second volume in a 4 part collection of Orwell's letters and essays. I've already read the last part, and the first is very expensive so I shan't get it until I've read the rest of them.

I've pretty much only read the Song of Ice and Fire books for pleasure. Otherwise I've read at least 10 books on crime and punishment in Britain for my history class.

Currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's best categorized as historical fantasy, but it's not typical of what you think of for that genre. It's about magicians in 19th century England and manages to completely avoid the cliches you'd expect from that. I'm generally not into that type of fantasy and this is different enough to hold my interest.
 
The book took me awhile to get into. The first 300 pages (out of 1000) are primarily following a character who isn't likeable, but it's well written enough that I was carried through to where things get really great. I'm still a few hundred pages from finishing it, but I definitely recommend it.
 
Next will probably be Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, but it's also fairly long and I might need something shorter in between for a break.

I've read Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey

Currently reading Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

I'm reading Count Zero by William Gibson. Playing Deus Ex 1 over the summer really got me interested in cyberpunk so I figured I go back to where it all began. I finished Neuromancer for the first time about a week ago. Damn good book, it's kinda crazy reading it for the first time and realizing all the stuff so many other people took from it.

I won't list all the books that I've read this year, but here's a sampling of some of my most recent reads.

• Ghost Story by Jim Butcher
• Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz
• Where is Joe Merchant? by Jimmy Buffett
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Last Wish by Andrezej Sapkowski

I'm currently reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

I read through the entire Dresden Files series this year. Those books are pretty much amazing.

Had to read The Hunger Games for English class. 
 
That book is shit. 
 
Also read a couple of Swedish books that no one cares about.

finally started the lord of the rings and am on the two towers

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I can't remember what all i've read this year with the exception of My Life by Bill Clinton, which was a good read if you're into politics. Right now i'm reading Arguably by Christopher Hitchens, which is fantastic but I feel like a lot of it goes over my head, and the book reviews part is rather dull if you haven't read the books he's reviewing or have no interest in them. Also, I started Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy yesterday, which is the collection of interviews done with Jackie Kennedy a few months after the assassination. They had to be locked in a vault for 50 years because Jackie didn't want the interviews released until a long time had passed and things had died down about the assassination. It seems good, though it's little tough to read due to it being a series of interviews just dictated into a book (it also came with all the interviews on CD, though). Interesting stuff, a lot of it is dated of course.

I wrote way more about those books than I came into this thread intending to, and I doubt anyone else here cares.

Had to read The Hunger Games for English class. 
 
That book is shit.  Also read a couple of Swedish books that no one cares about.

First 10 wheel of time books.
esienhorn. Triology
Ghost story book 13 of the dresden files
wise mans fear
the ghost brigades
a lot of comics

just finished the eye of the dragon and just started reading the uncharted book

I read that as well ... even after watching the movie and knowing what happens it was still incredibly touching (and depressing). I started reading No Country For Old Men (without having seen the movie this time) right after but I got distracted by Uni stuff and haven't finished it since.

@TheSeductiveMoose said:

Had to read The Hunger Games for English class.

That book is shit.

it's actually quite good for YA literature though!

@belaraphonsaid:

Currently starting Dune for the first time.

You're in for a real six part treat, well, if you're into the whole chosen one goes fucking apeshit... with politics and some weird ass words that can kill. I love them, if you're having any problems with them, don't hesitate to ask, I'm a Herbert fan all the way.

I just started reading A Feast of Crows, and you know I dig it. It's another one in the series, I'm interested in reading from Cersei's point of view, because that bitch is CRAZY.

Also, I have Blood Meridian lying around, which I have to get to. McCarthy is the boss.

Been reading the second Dragon Age novel for some time now, but I just can never seem to finish it. I'm around 30 pages from the end, but I just can't seem to get in the mood to sit down and try to burn my way through it.

Some of these posts make me feel like I should read more.
I can however fully recommend The Saga of Larten Crepsley. For those unaware TSoLC is a 4 book prequel to the fantastic book series The Saga of Darren Shan (Which I'm currently on my 10th read through).
It follows Larten Creplsey through his youth and is a wonderfull saga and full of nods to the DS books with a ton of characters making appearances. It makes Larten Crepsley that much cooler, and makes everything that happens in Darren Shan book 9 all the more impactfull.
The third book came out a few weeks ago and I think the final instalment will be here at the beginning of next year I think.
You need to all read these books, right now!