What Books are you reading now?

[Zinegata]

The Price of Admiralty (John Keegan) - just rounding out Keegan's excellent books on warfare. "Admiralty" is interesting, although I think it kinda rehashes a lot of other books on the same subject and doesn't offer the same insights as "Face of Battle"

Setting Accounts (Harry Turtledove) - World War 2 between The USA and and the Confederacy. Enough said.

Dreadnought (Robert Massie) - probably one of the best books detailing the events leading up to the First World War. The politics are interspersed with commentary on the surprising family lives of many of the period's best-known figures, giving a real human element to what is usually depicted as "European Monarchs squabbling and ending up killing 20 million people".

Duty Calls: A Ciaphas Cain Novel (Sandy Mitchell) - featuring Commissar Ciaphas Cain, (fraudulent) HERO OF THE IMPERIUM. A comedy set in the grim, dark universe that is Warhammer 40K, featuring lots of backstabbing, endless hordes of prototype-Zerglings, and the only normal romance in this particular universe (Well, it's between a Commissar and an Inquisitor. But I suppose their common hobby is executing others for heresy).

[Shiro Amada]

Books? None, since it's been near 4 months since I got a book last. I'm waiting for a new Star Wars or Trek novel to come my way, as those are about all I read now.

Comics, since they are a form of book and you can read them, I'm reading:

"The Umbrella Academy: Dallas" from Dark Horse Comics: An offbeat sequel to "The Umbrella Academy", which is, itself, offbeat.

"G.I. Joe" from IDW: A new universe take on G.I. Joe.

"G.I. Joe: Origin" from IDW: The prequel book to the new series.

"Star Wars: Clone Wars" from Dark Horse: Comic book set in the 3D CG series with more adventures of Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ashoka and Rex.

Various X-Men titles: The only books I'm still reading from Marvel, as they've essentially retconned the Marvel U to death.

[Dendrobium Stamen]

At the moment, I'm reading a few...

Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, which I've started 3 or 4 times but never actually finished... hopefully this time!

Watchmen, re-reading the graphic novel before the film comes out.

1984 by George Orwell, simply because somehow I've never actually read it.

The Liar by Stephen Fry, because I bought it for 75p in a charity shop, and Stephen Fry is a national treasure, comedy legend, and all-round genius, so I was curious.

And I recently read Michael Crichton's original Jurassic Park novel, which is absolutely fantastic.

[Mirai Rogue]

I won't list the half-dozen partly read history books I have on the go currently for a start I'm not entirely sure myself. Anyway I'm currently working my way through Star By Star from the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series. I started on this series about half a decade ago but didn't really like it then. Now I'm a little older I seem to appreciate it differently.

[Josh D]

As always, I'm kind of in the middle of a number of different things right now.

I'm working my way through first three Warhammer Malus Darkblade novels by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee. I'm getting toward the end of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and need to go out and get the next few pretty soon.

In comics, I just finished working my way through a 3-year run of Daredevil that had been building up in my unread comics pile. Good stuff, I wish I'd been keeping current with it before now. It also seems to have escaped the recent spate of Marvel crossovers almost entirely. I've also just finished re-reading Watchmen for the first time in years, likewise preparing for the movie.

[Native Jovian]

I've mostly been rereading old stuff recently because I've more or less plumbed the depths of the authors/series I like and there hasn't been anything new come along to grab my attention yet. It's really quite sad.

[Ocelot]

The Watchmen - Just to get hyped for the movie.

Star Wars Legacy - The only Star Wars storyline that dares to seperate itself entirely from the movies or KOTOR games.

And that's about it for the time being.

[Zinegata]

Update on the book front: Finished World War Z, and starting on the Gaunt's Ghost series. I got "The Saint" omnibous on the cheap ^_^.

And by the Emperor, that tank battle in Honour Guard was awesome.

[Black Knight]

Just finished The Savage Wars of Peace, where I learned that suppressing the Philippine Insurrection cost about the same number of lives as the "Overseas Contingency Operation" (got to love the State Department!) in Iraq.

Now into No True Glory and Liddel-Hart's Strategy (which makes sense, unlike Luttwack's Strategy, written in counter to Liddel-Hart, and with a lot more speciousness in its arguments).

[Zball]

Not much. Just gonna say that I read Dreadnought years ago and adored each and every page. Just an incredible book.

I'm kinda sorta halfway re-reading the fantastic series by Gene Wolfe dubbed "The Book of the New Sun." These books are quite possibly some of the most incredible works of fiction I've read in my life. I mean, wow. Do yourself a favor and read them.

Other than those, I'm enjoying picking up random books in the library and reading them. There's one really interesting one about the Mayan shaman and culture. The writing isn't great and the author tends to ramble and compare and use Jungian philosophy more than I'd like but it doesn't much matter. I'm too busy trying to wrap my head around the universe being upside- down, a world tree with two portals that are the front and back of the Great Serpent while the Principal Bird Deity is perched in the branches and having two calenders.

[Native Jovian]

I'm kinda sorta halfway re-reading the fantastic series by Gene Wolfe dubbed "The Book of the New Sun."

I haven't read The Book of the New Sun, but I've read Gene Wolfe's "The Wizard Knight" and found it just a shade too WTF to be really enjoyable. From what I've heard, The Book of the New Sun is basically the same, but more. Confirm/deny?

[Ryujin]

I'm kinda sorta halfway re-reading the fantastic series by Gene Wolfe dubbed "The Book of the New Sun."

I haven't read The Book of the New Sun, but I've read Gene Wolfe's "The Wizard Knight" and found it just a shade too WTF to be really enjoyable. From what I've heard, The Book of the New Sun is basically the same, but more. Confirm/deny?

Confirm, if I'm interpreting your 'WTF' correctly. The story takes place in the far future, and Wolfe doesn't really go much in the way of exposition--especially of the technology since he takes Clarke's Axiom too much to heart, so you're left with virtually no frame of reference for a lot of what's going on. You have to really invest some thought in the books to get a not-so-fuzzy picture. I had to check a copy of GURPS New Sun for reference just to confirm some stuff.

Note that it's been a decade since I read the series, so take what I said with a grain of salt.

I wouldn't mind having a Terminus Est, in any case.

[Native Jovian]

Sounds about right. My problem with The Wizard Knight was that there was essentially no explanation of why anything was the way it was. The way things were and the stuff that happened were pretty cool -- but the overall impression was of the author just sort of nodding his head and saying "sure, why not? Throw it in!", which irritated me.

[Zball]

Yeah. Book of the New Sun is so jarring because you know nothing. The entire world and system is so completely alien. Once you get past the fact that you're not in Kansas anymore, the series is incredible. I love his style there as well. Very little dialogue and an almost overwhelming amount of story. Because it's written as a train of thought, there are things that don' make too much sense or things glossed over or forgotten. Still a great set of books.

[ainamacil]

Well, one of these days when I learn how to read, I'll be reading Patriot Battles: How the War of Independence Was Fought by Michael Stephenson. It's a pretty good explanation of the realities of early 18th century combat (who fought, why they fought, what they used, ate, etc.) and tackles a great many sacred cow myths of the war, like the British Army being composed entirely of convicts and ruffians and the American forces being a united, democratic front.

Like I said, one of these days...

A perennial favorite of mine is World War Z, which is, IMO, the best zombie media (including films) out there. Pretty excited for that to become a movie one of these days.

[Black Knight]

Just finished A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin, which was the basis for the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon", all about the Apollo Program. Quite a good read, but it really makes me want to smack every president since Nixon who wasn't named Bush for failing to do more than give lip service to the space program.

[Black Knight]

While waiting for my car to have its oil changed, I picked up my brother's copy of Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby (who also wrote High Fidelity and About a Boy). Ostensibly about crazed English football (soccer) fans, it is in fact about all those afflicted by fandom of anything. I've two brothers who are every bit as passionate about Ohio State football (American) and Cleveland Indians baseball as Hornby is about Arsenal football, and it could just as easily been a book about them as about him. More amusingly, it also got me to sympathize with him as his team repeatedly failed epically, because it reminds me of how I treat Gundam shows. It doesn't really matter how bad they are, or how much potential they waste. I still watch them, to the amazement of the people in love with a particular offering which I can't stand. Sports fans, naturally, can not delude themselves into thinking a bad team is in fact good the way entertainment fans can convince themselves that a bad show is really good, but clearly they are the same sorts of people, and even rabid sports fanboys are looked at askance by "normal" people, even if still tolerated better than, say, video game fanatics.

An amusing way to spend some afternoons. The book, I mean.

[Black Knight]

Recently read Liddel-Hart's Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American, which helped him shape the theory of the Indirect Approach, possibly his greatest contribution to military theory (and a subject Sherman mastered). Also Anton Myrer's Once An Eagle, possibly the worst novel I've ever been forced to read, if not the worst I've ever read.

[Josh D]

I'm on my second "watching the old BBC mini-series, started reading the novels its based on" foray (the first being John LeCarre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and related works), I'm about 100 pages into Robert Graves's I, Claudius. So far, it's one of the best bits of historical fiction I've read outside Bernard Cornwell's stuff. People and events that affect the Roman Empire are, of course, somewhat dramatised but relatively accurate as far as I can tell. And Claudius is one of the most intriguing protagonists I've come across. Dismissed by just about everyone apart from a few very close friends and relations due to his physical infirmities, no one quite realizes that Claudius - often advised by the aforementioned select few to keep "playing the fool" - is the smartest person in the room. He's often a victim of circumstance or someone else's manipulations but usually manages to make the best of it. Up next on the list is Claudius, The God, the portion of the story covering his tenure as the 4th Emperor of Rome.

[Black Knight]

Whew. Just finished the manga Nodame Cantabile. Considering its a manga about students of classical music, it's a surprisingly moving story. I sometimes felt that the author could cheat, because in 25 pages of a chapter there might only be four pages worth of dialogue if it was covering a performance, which is one area that the anime definitely pulls off better. That said, the characters and the relationships between them are surprisingly realistic and treated humanely. Whether its the boy estranged from his father for fifteen years, or the teacher/student relationship, a lot of the emotion conveyed struck a chord with me. I'm rather sad that the English translation seems to have stalled, and that I'll be missing the ending of the animated version, but them's the breaks, and that's why I'm glad I found a fan translation of the manga.

[Mirai Rogue]

Recently I decided to try and learn more about science. Not really sure why but I wanted to broaden my knowledge beyond the past. To that end I'm currently working my way through an illustrated edition of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. It's a very nice text and well written from my perspective.