What are you reading right now?

[Kriss]

"Angels & Demons" Dan Brown (for my presentation about popular books-final exams stuff)

Anyway, when I read about the main charcter, he makes me think about Nili...don't ask, I have no idea why...
You think that the addiction to the forum can be dangerous? ;D

[Sinbad]

Langdon makes you think about me? *shifty eyes*

Well...he´s a nerd...in a good way. So... thanks?

[Kriss]

Yeah, he does ;D Maybe because he is wise as you and knows so much about history ;D

[Sinbad]

I read this wonderful book in Italy, unfortunately just part 1 as I noticed, but I just ordered art 2 called "All clear" whee



The book plays in 2060 Oxford. Time travel has become a reality, historians travel through time for their research it´s something that´s very common. Time travel is based on a theory that time travellers can not alter the past. They have the technology to create "drops" into the past to send the travellers through and through which they can return but they have to search for drop sites, time travel does not allow historians near any divergence points, so they can travel and observe and interact with the "contemps" without having to worry to mess things up.

The story centres around a group of young time travelers, all researching WW2 England. Polly is researching the Blitz in London, assigned to apply as a shopgirl in London to research on how the people back then dealt with the air raids. Merope is researching evacuation and is a maid in a mansion that takes in London evacuees. And Michael poses as an American reporter researching the rescuing of British troops from Dunkirk to Dover.
By and by they find out that they can not return to Oxford and things start to go wrong. They wonder whether the rule of them not being able to change the past is really true. Also, their mentor has apparently gone missing.

This book really is sooo good, not just for fantasy fans but also for people interested in history because it gives a really intense insight into WW2 everyday life.

[Maeve]

Whoa! That looks interesting indeed! I'm not really a fan of the World Wars' period but the whole concept of time traveling without altering the past is pretty cool! Reminds me a bit of Stargates, with the drop sites system...

[Sinbad]

Another very good tip that I might have mentioned several times already: Robin Hobb´s AWESEOME Farseer trilogy. Currently re reading it all and I´m towards the end of book three.

That´s what it´s about:

The story opens with an old man taking his grandson to Buckkeep, the fortress of the royal family, the Farseers. The lad is six years old and the old man, against the protest of his own daughter, hands the kid over to the guards, telling them that his father should look after him now and that he doesn´t have the money to feed him. That´s how the hero is introduced.

Fitz (the name meaning "bastard son of") is the illegitimate son of Chivalry Farseer, King in Waiting to the Six Duchies. Chivalry abdicates to avoid scandal, handing the inheritance of the throne over to his younger brother Verity while the old king still lives and then moves away, not caring for his son.
Fitz grows up in the stables, handed over to the care of the stable master who teaches him how to work with animals. Very soon it turns out that the boy possesses the Wit, a kind of animal magic that allows him to communicate and bond with animals and that is seen as a perversion in the Six Duchies, an offense so severe that their folklore knows gruesome tales about Witted folk and their law demands them to be hung over fire and burned. The stablemaster tries to get the boy away from the Wit but the kid does not see anything bad with it.

Being a Farseer, Fitz also possesses another kind of magic, even though very rudimentary: the Skill, a magic running almost solely in the Farseer line that is a sort of telepathy and ability to witness what is happeneing far away.

In the years during which Fitz grows up, the kingdom is in turmoil. Red Ship raiders devastate their coastlines, taking people and bringing them back in a kind of soulless state that comes to be known as Forged and in which they seem to have lost all humanity. While King in Waiting Verity uses his Skill to try and drive the raiders off the coasts, slowly being consumed by the magic´s lure, the weakening King, Shrewd, gives Fitz as an apprentice to his royal assassin. Still a boy, Fitz learns the art of poisoning and killing for his king and more and more realises that as a king´s man he does not have a life of his own. Longong for a simple life with his childhood love Molly, and constantly having to hide his Wit which becomes a part of his life when he bonds with the young wolf Nighteyes, he is also in constant danger from his youngest ungle, Regal, half brother to his father Chivalry and his uncle Verity, who longs for the throne himself and who more than all longs to kill Fitz.

In the middle of intrigues and magic, the situation for the SIx Duchies becomes more and more severe so that finally, int he middle of desparation, King in Waiting Verity, leaves Buckkeep in search of an old legend that might help save his kingdom before it is ripped apart by the intrigues of his half brother and the attack of the raiders.


***

Seriously, there is a lot of fantasy stuff out there and much of it is mediocre, but this trilogy is among the very best I´ve ever read. The characters are realistic, the writing style is marvellous (and a bit special because everything is told from Fitz´ point of view), the plot never gets boring and even though it´s fantasy, it does not dominate the story at all, so there is a very realistic feel to the whole thing that reminded me of Lord of the Rings, even though the style is different. You have the feeling that this world and all its characters are very well thought through. An absolute must read.

[sunkiss]

Ok this is quite random, but I only noticed this thread 2 mins ago and thought I'd comment since I'm taking a tweet break from reading I'm reading To The Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf and Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad, at the moment..

High modernism era, must say..

[Khei]

As mentioned before.. Been reading Spice & Wolf. I'm addicted to this Manga Series.

Holo and Lawrence make such a cute couple even if she is a giant wolf in human form and gets him in all sorts of trouble.

[Rongar]

Been a while since this was posted on...

Until recently, a kid of mine has been absolutely obsessed with Percy Jackson and the Olympians. He read ALL 5 books and asked me to do so as well, so he'd have someone to talk to them about.

After the 5 books ended, Rick Riordan, the author, announced that another series, a sequal to PJ&tO, would be out. My student made sure I had a copy of the book, by bugging me endlessly until I bought it, and then talks began again.

The newest book, The Heroes of Olympus Book 2: The Son of Neptune continues the story of Ancient Greek/Romans myths into the 21st century and Percy Jackson is once again caught in the middle of an ancient war beteen Gaia, primordial Goddess of the Earth, her Giant monster children by her 2nd husband Tartarus, and the Olympian Gods and their strongest demigod children.


And in the last few weeks, just finished in time to see the movie, I have read the Hunger Games! I love it! I can't wait to see if the movie and the book match and flow well together!

[Sinbad]

Oy, this thread needs more updating methinks

Okay, i stumbled across this series a while ago, book three arrived in the mail today and i just spent two hours outside reading and i am already on page... *checks*...105.
So bear with me, the idea behind this might sound trashy and cheesy but it´s fast paced it´s original, it´s awesome. I love it. Also, whereas I usually despise vampire stuff (long as it isn´t Anne Rice....don´t get me started on Twilight and stuff like that...yikes), this one is great. because it´s NOT a creepy caught-in-a-teenage-body 200ish years old stalking 17 year olds with no personality


Aaanyways, this here and please I seem to me a minority in actually knowing the books (and my otherwise very loyal-in-regards to-books friend disagrees on the awesome of these with me) but i think this should SO change.

Christopher Farnsworth: Nathaniel Cade series

basic outline: The idea for this is apparently based on a true case of some young early 20s guy caught somewhere in the American South in the late 1860s. He was sentenced to death for "acts of vampirism" since he was said to have sucked the blood of some people on some ship he was sailing with.
What the author did was think: Hey, so what if this guy really WAS a vampire? Well, not a new idea. But here you take a sentenced-to-death vampire, a voodoo witch and a drunk president Johnson + the bullet that killed Lincoln é voila: POTUS has a vampire that´s bound to the office of president...like...through the years. Practical, huh?

So basically the idea is that this guy, Nathaniel Cade is bound to protect the president. Whoever it is at the time and the author sort of sets American history and urban legends of mystical stuff and the paranormal into context with that, basically having Cade be the one that deals wtih all kinds of shit nobody is supposed to know about. Such as Frankenstein trying to build an army (book 1) or a lizard monster virus that infiltrated Al Quaeda (book 2) or the Boogeyman (book 3)

basicall, this is awesome stuff. Sounds cheesy, sometimes is cheesy, but it´s so exciting and fast paced, i am seriously having a very hard time to put these down.
It´s set in today´s times, the third is actually 2012 with an alternative president (who doesn´t seem thaaaat different but anyways) but everything up to 2008 matching with the historical records.

So..has anyone read this? It´s great and I am repeating myself but i´d love to discuss this stuff with a fellow nerd. ;D


BOOK 1


BOOK 2


BOOK 3

[Kriss]

I'm going to read "Blood Oath" just after finishing "A Song of Ice and Fire"

My mom reads Christopher Farnsworth's books and she likes them a lot, too. She said I should read it so that's why I will try to find time for them as well.

And these who doesn't like comics can still enjoy Thorgal's story

In English "The Child of Stars"
It's lovely (I know, I'm not really objective )
But me really recommends

[Bryn]

Right now, I am reading, and thoroughly enjoying "Death At Seaworld, The dark side of whales in captivity.

This is a non fiction book, by David Kirby.
It takes us behind the scenes of Sea world and other Marine parks, where The real life of Whales and other sea mammals is anything but "Perfect, and Safe" Whales at Sea world, (Americas most popular marine park in the entire world) in particular Are kept in tiny tanks, The whales are bored, Some get underfed, if they refuse to preform. When not being forced to preform, the whales are kept in over crowded tanks, Their are no toys to keep them happy, Some of the whales are kept in the hot sun all day long. The whales are often sick,
and often become agressive. Not only towards the trainers, (Seaworld, and other marine parks cover up alot of whale and trainer accidents...Alot)

The book tells the reader about the emotional and physical distress of Orca's that have been captured and ripped from their mothers grasp, Some of these whales never survive this grueling event of being seperated from their beloved family. I imagine the same story can be told about the 1000s of dolphins, false killer whales and purpoises aswell)

The book also focuses on "Tilikum" Or "Tilly" for short. Tilly is a large male Orca located at Seaworld in Orlando California. "Tilly" is responisble for the deaths of 3 people. The most recent was Dawn Brancheau in 2010. Is Tillikum a ruthless killer? Or is he bored, stressed, sick, and lonely? The book will explain the Truth behind why Tilly is a dangerous whale, who would be better off being rehabilated and released back into the Icelandic waters that he was captured from long ago.