What are you currently reading?

[Lethevich]

(via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.

[Drasko]

Chekhov - The Steppe

[Diletante]

I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing out on these plays for so long!

EDIT: Grammar.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing on these plays for so long!

Good for you. What will be your next? Do you know Antony and Cleopatra? Recommended.

[karlhenning]

I just finished Shakespeare's Macbeth. I found it amazing. I can't believe I have been missing on these plays for so long!

That's the first of the plays I ever read, too!

[Diletante]

Macbeth is the first Shakespeare work I've ever read. I also bought an edition of Hamlet I'm going to read soon. I'll look for Antony and Cleopatra in my local bookstore, thanks for the recommendation.

[Franco]

This is a very good overview of the major, and not so well known, poets of the US.  Each chapter provides a well researched biography and critical analysis of the full career of each poet, or group of poets, under review.  There is a sub-focus on women and poets not part of the standard canon, but the chapters on Poe, Longfellow and other "big names" were very good and were not the "knock them off their pedestal" take.  I'm about one-third of the way through; just finished the chapter on Millay and other late 19th to early 20th century female poets.

Highly recommended as well as the companion anthology.

[karlhenning]

Most interesting, Franco, thanks.

[CD]

He makes it feel like it, though.

What you call prolixity I call an amazing facility for detail!

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Macbeth is the first Shakespeare work I've ever read. I also bought an edition of Hamlet I'm going to read soon. I'll look for Antony and Cleopatra in my local bookstore, thanks for the recommendation.

You can't go wrong with Hamlet... I envy you, my first reading was 30 years ago and I still remember the impact.

[lisa needs braces]

(via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.

Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

Right now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

One fantasy series I adored though was Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" books. I read the first three and enjoyed them immensely.

[Papageno]

Somerset Maugham's Alien Corn - eh, not bad.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

Right now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

One fantasy series I adored though was Ursula K. Le Guin's "Earthsea" books. I read the first three and enjoyed them immensely.

So did I. I have never read the later ones.

[greg]

Finished this today:

[DavidW]

(via audiobook)

So far this sucks quite a lot - so much of it is lifted from Lord of the Rings. I don't know what makes fantasy such an uncreative genre, but I'm becoming tired of not finding anything worthwhile there... It is at least listenable, I suppose - the style of writing is decent.

Yes but he breaks from that after book #1, and in just a few volumes you will completely forget about Lord of the Rings.  The first novel is a terrible start though.

[DavidW]

Much of fantasy writing after Tolkien was, essentially, rewriting of Tolkien!

For awhile, but I think that's misleading.  The era of LOTR knockoffs like Terry Brooks ended decades ago.  The fantasy genre has really matured.

Right now the most popular fantasy series is "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, soon to be an HBO series. It doesn't make the mistake of emulating Tolkien (though I only read the first volume.)

That series has it's own problem, well actually it's the same problem that all those epics have.  First volume is a great start, but it's downhill from there.  Anyway the problem is too many characters and plotlines, it looses momentum and collapses under the weight of it's own complexity.  I call that the Robert Jordan effect because it happened so hard in Wheel of Time that it became thousand page volumes where nothing consequential at all would happen.  By volumes 3 and 4 it feels the same with Song of Ice and Fire, just not as bad though.

I wish more fantasy writers would give up that Victorian era way of writing epics, and write on a smaller scale.  The arc of a character in a smaller setting is more interesting than the teenage angst driven end of the world garbage spun out of thousands of pages.  Martin is not that bad, but he can do alot better than that series.

For a modern fantasy epic, done in a smarter way, try The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (though it does have a little bit of angst), I think it might have been written during the Terry Brook times, the dark times, so it really shined bright when it came out.

[Lethevich]

Yes but he breaks from that after book #1, and in just a few volumes you will completely forget about Lord of the Rings.  The first novel is a terrible start though.

Hmm, sounds promising. Is it true that the series sagged at around 8-10 and picked up at 11?

[DavidW]

Hmm, sounds promising. Is it true that the series sagged at around 8-10 and picked up at 11?

I thought so (it finally picked back up again in the last volume), but not promising because he's dead, and his series won't be finished by him.  Another author will finish it based on his notes, but if that's anything like Christopher Tolkien, Brian Herbert and so on it's going to majorly suck and not do any justice to it whatsoever.

[Dr. Dread]

The Great Gatsby

[Diletante]

Finished this today:

And? How did it feel to penetrate the secret? 

Today I started reading The Great Gatsby.