What are you reading?

The only book I ever need.

Books! I love books but for a long time I just didn't have the spare time to do any sort of reading. Other than the occasional chapter of one of my Dawkins or Hitchens books.

But recently I have rediscovered it and been reading in my lunch breaks at work. I've gone through two Patrick Rothfuss books (The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear; the best written fantasy novels I have ever read), and a Trudi Canavan trilogy which was very good. Currently reading through one of my old favourites: Northern Lights (christ that had a rubbish film adaptation).

I adore books, but I often don't read as much as a lot of people. For the sole reason that it takes me weeks to get into a book. I might read a chapter or even just a few pages every few days, then suddenly I'll get drawn in and read the rest in a day . I mainly read fantasy . My favourite series is probably the Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix, although Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson comes close.

At the moment I'm finishing off a bunch of first-books-in-their-series that a friend lent me to try. On the last one that I was lent, the first book of the Memory, Sorry and Thorn series by Tad Williams.

And I can't wait until the final book of Wheel of Time comes out..

A few weeks ago I started on The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and I've unfortunately still not finished The Island of Doctor Moreau - as exams have taken up pretty much the last month of my life. Then yesterday, in celebration of exams being over, I bought The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick.

I have a lot of books to be getting through.

The last book I finished was 'Great Expectations' and that was a good 6 months ago now, I need to get back into reading but it really annoys me when I get into a book only to find I put it down for a few weeks due exams and other commitments and it breaks the whole flow of the book.

I just finished Charlotte Street by Danny Wallace, which is going in the list of some of my favourite books of all time. I loved all of the characters, and the ending was so beautiful it left me smiling for ages afterwards. Highly recommended.

Anyway, now I'm back to getting through Temeraire, which is also pretty good.

Great Gatsby and Julius Caesar is what we went through for the iGCSE english course. Both really enjoyable, and I'll be reading more of Shakespeare's work in-depth. I'm also reading 'The Greatest Show on Earth' by Richard Dawkins and 'The Grand Design' by Stephen Hawking. Nerdling!

Right, now I'm awake again, what have I blown this month's spending money on?

All Mr Pratchett's stuff, that's what. Currently running at two a day.

Oh hey, book thread!

Really recently gotten into Douglas Kennedy's stuff, it's a wonder his books have only been made into french films considering the subject matters. Very good at taking someone down to nothing and then actually making their 'rise' plausible. Can't write from a woman's perspective for toffee though.

It's either him, Grisham, or Waugh that I read these days, and to be honest while I love Grisham, you can only read so many books about lawyers in a row...highly reccomend them all though.

I just finished Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy. Next I am going to read the Commenwealth Saga. I found all these books in a charity shop for less than a pound each.

As for fanfic,

Well, I'm supposed to be starting The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, but it's been sat next to my chair unopened for a few weeks now.

As for fics, it's also a bit up in the air. I've mostly just been reading updates for the past week or so. I tend to binge on a few fics in quick succession then take a break and only read updates for a bit. I have kinda started A Slice of Life though.

Reading right now:
A textbook on biometrics for my OU course (well I should be anyway!)

Currently on the go:
Quarantine - Greg Egan
Interesting sci-fi exploration of quantum mechanics and the nature of free will, among other things.

Past Sins
First long(ish) fanfic I've read, enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would!

Just finished:
A Dance with Dragons - George RR Martin

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Jon better not be dead!

I just finally got around to reading "A Clockwork Orange", and aside from being as incomprehensible as all hell it was a good read.

For fics, I've most recently been reading First Pony View which while incomplete is quite an interesting tale and a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for the main character in it. I'd suggest everyone take a peek at the first chapter at least.

For books, bought the latest Discworld book 'Snuff' at Sainsbury's last night as it was half price.
On the backburner I've got the last book of the Ghengis Khan saga by Conn Iggulden, it's not quite gripping me the same way the first three did.