What are you currently reading?

[Metathron]

Reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods in which he sets out to conquer/rediscover the Appalachian Trail. Man I love this guy, there's so much to be learned from his books and, at the same time, he makes me laugh out loud, something which few books/films/TV shows manage to achieve. My favourite remains Down Under, however.

[theLuckyDragon]

I read Gulliver's Travels in English last month; Swift's language was absolutely delicious. Then I read Prelude to Foundation, also in English, as it was the only book of the series that I hadn't read. Now I'm reading Anne Frank's diary and it's really nice. After this I want to buy The Name of the Rose in Romanian, because my friends tell me it's good.

[Muszka]

The Hobbit is best of them.
(not too long is another plus)

A good book should be 1000 pages long at least. Whenever I find a book I like, I realize, how can 500-1000 pages be short. When I started to read the LotR a couple of years ago, I was sure that it's a long book with his 1500 pages, but when I was at the middle I was regretting that it's not triple than actually is.
But it's true that some books don't have a story good enough to be told in 1K pages, for example I've read some books by Paulo Coelho, and though they aren't perfectly fitting my taste, they are quite readable, but couldn't be so goo, with double or triple size.

Last night I finished the last Harry Potter and funny how it gave me the "one more turn" feeling.

After this I want to buy The Name of the Rose in Romanian, because my friends tell me it's good.

Though I didn't read the book I also heard many good opinions about it.

[Angelspit]

Read 250 pages of A Clash of Kings so far, and it's as good as the first book. I can't wait to see what HBO will do with its TV adaptation...

[Jolly Joker]

Storm of Swords is even better, I think, so you'll still have a lot of great stuff to read.

[Metathron]

So is this series any good? I've heard a lot of praise thrown at it.

I've looked it up on Wikipedia and I must admit I'm not too crazy about this part:

Whilst Tolkien was inspired by mythology, A Song of Ice and Fire is more clearly influenced by medieval history, most notably the Wars of the Roses.

[Corribus]

Putting aside Tolkien, because comparisons to LotR are tired and usually not even fair, it is easily the best fantasy series out there. The only other one that comes close was MST by Tad Williams, but they are completely different. This is not a swords and sorcery epic. At least, not yet. Which is why I probably like it so much. No "super wizard" or "evil dark lord" crap and no deus ex machina magic or prophesy garbage to mysteriously advance plotlines. It is incredibly realistic for something that's completely made up.

[Angelspit]

My only complaint is that it's not easy to keep track of who's who, since there are so many minor characters (who, occasionally, get promoted to major characters) and locations. But I found a great Web site to help me when I'm confused.

No "super wizard" or "evil dark lord" crap and no deus ex machina magic or prophesy garbage to mysteriously advance plotlines.

That's so refreshing. But it also means I won't be able to read anything else fantasy from now on.

There's a separate thread for that series. We should probably move there if we want to talk about the books further.

[Jolly Joker]

Martin CAN write, that's the big advantage he has - his style is MILES ahead of most anything you can read nowadays, especially in the fantasy department.

[Metathron]

But there is some magic / "paranormal" stuff in there? Because the idea of reading some sort of realistic historical medieval type of narrative in an imagined world does not appeal to me at all.

Currently reading Stephen King's Needful Things.

[Corribus]

There is a supernatural component to the work, which gives it that fantasy flavor, but it's not the main focus of the story - yet - and so far it's not much more than a backdrop for the events taking place.

Trust me. If you like fantasy, you *will* like these novels. Look, you buy Game of Thrones. You give it a try. If you don't like it, which is a near impossibility, you're out what... 5 bucks?

[Metathron]

I might just take you up on that and pick it up the next time I'm in the bookstore, and we'll take it from there.

[asandir]

take it from me as well, who doesn't really read anything else except fantasy, that these are suhweet!!! I read just the first three and they were all great, my biggest complaint is the sheer amount of time to get book 5 out - and I do suggest you stop at 3, at least til 5 is out, because he was forces to split book 4 into 4 and 5, so 4 seems to miss (at least I am told it does) some of my favourite characters!!!

[Kalah]

I'm going to purchase the complete Harry Potter collection, now that it's finished. I have avoided buying them until now since I didn't want to if the series had turned into a never-ending line of books. It's up on Amazon for a very reasonable 70 quid.

[Kareeah Indaga]

Currently supposed to be reading Interview with a Vampire.

Having trouble staying in it, and I keep wanting to reach into the book and give Louis a solid shake. Louis, I don't give a flying leap about the reporter's cigarette. Quit cutting back to him, blast you.

[Corribus]

Vampire Lestat was much better. Then they really went downhill after that.

[Metathron]

I've only ever read one Anne Rice book, the protagonist was a mummy. Not especially memorable.

[Muszka]

I never knew that there is a book Interview with a Vampire... I only saw the movie, but never liked it.

My problem with fantasy books is that after LotR the majority seems to be just a coloring book. Don't know how could Harry Potter survive, but I liked it. From the 4th book there can be seen a good advance in the writing style of Rowling, experience is visible. Even the Hobbit seemed a bit weak read after LotR.

[asandir]

Interview with a vampire is nothing special, Louis's viewpoint sucks, the Vampire Lestat is good, Queen of the Damned is good too, Memnoch the Devil is interesting, and then some dross, picks up a bit with later ones in New Orleans, a little at least

[Muszka]

Dunno... I also saw Queen of the Damned , but never read it... Maybe the book is good, but the movie wasn't special for me.