What are you currently reading?

[karlhenning]

That chick has no chic.

[DavidW]

I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It was an enjoyable page turner, but it was too tawdry with too many cliche expressions substituted in place of rich metaphorical imagery to rank it as a literary masterpiece like the idiots on amazon do.

I had been reading alot of Ben Bova's grand tour novels and even though he is terrible with characterization, he gets the science right more often than not and his novels add up to exciting, and plausible near future stories.

Also recently I read Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill, which was an excellent page turner, he is at least as good as his dad.

[Diletante]

Reading "Life, the Universe and Everything" by Douglas Adams.

Many cricket references flying over my head. I don't even know what friggin' cricket is about.

From this collection:

[karlhenning]

As an American, I don't understand the least thing about Cricket. Didn't interfere at all with my enjoyment of Adams, though : )

♫ I don't like Cricket . . . I love it! Dreadlock Holiday . . . .

[Brian]

I read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It was an enjoyable page turner, but it was too tawdry with too many cliche expressions substituted in place of rich metaphorical imagery to rank it as a literary masterpiece like the idiots on amazon do.

That's a thoroughly enjoyable series of thrillers, and the second one is if anything better than the first (even if the last page is a bit improbable). I haven't read the third but urgently want to. Of course, the really literary masterworks of recent detective fiction are the books by Henning Mankell and PD James (or if you want to stick with Swedes, Mankell and Sjowall/Wahloo). Jo Nesbo has been generating acclaim, along with a couple other "nouveaux Mankells," and if I ever have a month off and a big budget, I will investigate all of them.

[Brian]

Geoffrey Robertson, a distinguished human rights lawyer (and professor at my university) who in the past has defended Catholics' right to freedom of expression in Singapore, served as a war crimes judge in Sierra Leone, worked on the Pinochet trials, and most famously defended Salman Rushdie, turns his pen to the "case of the Pope." He makes a lucid, coldly logical, but at places poorly copy-edited (it was rushed to publication in weeks) case for the prosecution of Benedict and his fellow church fathers for violations of human rights and international laws. Since the book takes only one side, he does not attempt to present a case for the defense - that's just not the purpose here. Still, I would not want to be defense counsel if Geoffrey Robertson was on the other side of the courtroom. A fascinating read so far (page 75 of 174).

[DavidW]

That's a thoroughly enjoyable series of thrillers, and the second one is if anything better than the first (even if the last page is a bit improbable). I haven't read the third but urgently want to. Of course, the really literary masterworks of recent detective fiction are the books by Henning Mankell and PD James (or if you want to stick with Swedes, Mankell and Sjowall/Wahloo). Jo Nesbo has been generating acclaim, along with a couple other "nouveaux Mankells," and if I ever have a month off and a big budget, I will investigate all of them.

Mankell has been on my reading list all summer (thanks to Lis!).  I agree that PD James is a great mystery writer.

[Brian]

Mankell has been on my reading list all summer (thanks to Lis!).  I agree that PD James is a great mystery writer.

Hope you'll like Mankell. Start at the start; the character development really is continuous, and also I began with one of the very last Wallander books and found the catching-the-bad-guy scene quite improbable (ie, clinging onto helicopters type stuff).

[DavidW]

Alrighty I'll start at the beginning then.

[Daverz]

Hope you'll like Mankell. Start at the start; the character development really is continuous, and also I began with one of the very last Wallander books and found the catching-the-bad-guy scene quite improbable (ie, clinging onto helicopters type stuff).

I've only read Faceless Killers so far and enjoyed it well enough (I love the Swedish TV series).  His style seems rather plain compared to the Wahloo & Sjowall books, at least in English translation.

[Philoctetes]

Some books that I'm looking at:

Infinite Ascent by David Berlinski
The Mathematical Century by Piergiorgio Odifreddi
Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen

[karlhenning]

Fathers and Sons, by Alexander Waugh . . . about his own illustrious family.  A wonderful, gripping book.

[Brahmsian]

Currently reading the massive IT, by Stephen King.  Hope to be done before Christmas. 

[MN Dave]

We all float down here.

[AndyD.]

I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.

[karlhenning]

I was working at in the Viking-Penguin distribution center the summer It came out.

[MN Dave]

I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.

Yes, it's way too long.

[karlhenning]

The downside of his being paid by the word ; )

[DavidW]

I'm a huge '70's and '80's Stephen King fan. But I never liked a lot of the stuff, after. With It, it (smiling) seemed to get more and more wildly far flung as I read, and by the last third I was ready to stop. It just seemed like a kitchen sink thing. Maybe I should try it again.

So you didn't get to the weird pedophilia-esque stuff at the end... might be worth leaving it where it is.

[greg]

I don't think it's too long... at least, it kept my interest the whole way.

It can never be too long...

wait, what did I just say?

(vomit)