What are the last 5 Books you've read?

[mgoblue101415]

Hey, how was The Descent? Annihilus read 'Year Zero ' a couple of months ago and liked it....but wasn't too sure about Descent.

I loved The Descent. It was great, IMO. Definitely a page turner. I read it in 2-3 days.

I highly recommend it.

 

[mikiemo83]

Triathalon 101 (I am doing my first triathalon in Sept. and I need as much prep as possible.)

congrats to you, my wife is doing the danskin mini-tri at the end of this month in webster. a lot of respect to you for doing it.

 

[HelenaHandbsket]

I used to read all of the time and then I became an internet zombie.

In recent Memory:
CURRENT - Collected stories Franz Kafka
Chainfire - Terry GoodKind
Pillars of Creation - Terry Goodkind
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
Clash of Kings - George RR Martin
Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith

 

[fulltilt]

(Currently Reading #1)
1. Abandon Ship!: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the Navy's Greatest Sea Disaster
by Richard F. Newcomb, Peter Maas

2. The Hobbit (Read to my 4 year old)
by Tolkien

3. Patriot Reign
by Michael Holley

4. Black Mass : The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob
by Dick Lehr, Gerard O'Neill

5. The Stand
by Stephen King

I love Stephen King but The Stand pissed me off.
900 pages and the book ends like THAT?
Are you kidding me?!

 

[Amnorix]

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

2. Chronicle of the Pharoahs

3. John Adams (by McCullough)

4. The Phony War, 1939-40

5. Patton: A Genius for War

 

[cadmonkey]

The Hobbit: Tolkien

Cujo: Stephen King

Salem's Lot: Stephen King

Gasping for Air: Joy Mohr

and I really can't think of a fifth, its been a while since I read a book. I used to read on the train all the time, now I use the train as an extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning.

 

[Annihilus]

I used to read all of the time and then I became an internet zombie.

In recent Memory:
CURRENT - Collected stories Franz Kafka

Ok, now this is just getting stupid. Annihilus is about 1/4 of the way through The Trial by Kafka. It's pretty good if you can get past the fact that the paragraphs are like 3 pages long.

If you like Kafka, you should watch Kafka (the movie). It stars Jeremy Irons and is filmed in black and white.

 

[HelenaHandbsket]

Ok, now this is just getting stupid. Annihilus is about 1/4 of the way through The Trial by Kafka. It's pretty good if you can get past the fact that the paragraphs are like 3 pages long.

ROFL you ARE my missing twin!!! ROFL

I haven't read the Trial yet. I actually picked it up because I have been wanting to read Metamorphosis for years and never got around to it. The reference to Mr Samsa in JTHM was what pushed me over the edge. Just picked it up last weekend.

If you like Kafka, you should watch Kafka (the movie). It stars Jeremy Irons and is filmed in black and white.

Will keep an eye out for it! Thanks!

 

[BradyGirl]

Patriot Reign by Michael Holley

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.

Collected Stories of Mark Twain (off and on)

Currently reading: 1776 by David McCollough (spelling?)

Currently reading: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

 

[thomas144]

I was a big fan of Kafka in my youth...

Alle diese Gleichnisse wollen eigentlich nur sagen, daß das Unfaßbare unfaßbar ist und das haben wir gewußt.

 

[thomas144]

I have 1776 on MP3 and have been listening to it on my exercise walks. This weather is driving me crazy because I really want to get back to the story!!

Anyway, it's a great listen and would make a fantastic movie, if they would just do it straight. Particularly interesting to people who live near Boston.

 

[Bruschi 3:16]

Harry Potter and the half blood prince by JK Rowling
Insomnia by Stephen King
Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
The Last Best League (forget the author)
Moneyball

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

Wolves of the Calla (DT 5) - Steven King

Song of Susannah (DT 6) - Steven King

The Dark Tower (DT 7) - Steven King

Cryptonomicon - Neil Stephenson

(Forget the title, but it was a book on reletivity) - Bertrand Russell

I highly recommend the DT series, and Cryptonomicon was absolutely fantastic. A book I could not put down. I can't wait to read more of his stuff. Quirky writing style, but great plot and a lot of fun.

And the last one? Well, you need to want to learn about reletivity and its implications, I guess. I don't really like Russell's style, though.

 

[TrueBeliever]

You know, I was thinking of starting a reading thread, what with all the movies, TV and music threads. But I see someone beat me to it.

Extra added bonus - the book I'm currently reading:

Orbital Decay by Allen Steele - Every once in a while I get this weird craving to read science fiction, for some reason it's usually in the summer. I looked through a bunch of paperbacks at the local library and picked this one, a novel about lonely blue-collar workers building a massive space station 25,000 miles from Earth.

And the last five I read:

Stone Cold by Robert B. Parker - Parker's latest novel about his newest creation, suburban Boston police chief Jesse Stone, this time tracking a pair of thrill killers on the loose in his town. Not bad, but I still prefer the Spenser novels.

Blind Faith by Joe McGinnis - this nonfiction entry tells the story of the Marshalls, a prominent family in the suburban New Jersey city of Toms River. Rob Marshall was a successful insurance salesman, his wife Maria a devoted homemaker and mother to their three sons, Roby, Chris and John. It all ended in the early morning hours of Sept. 7, 1984, when Maria was shot to death in what Rob claimed was a robbery gone bad. But immediately police found holes in Rob's story, and soon they found out that not only was he having an affair, but Rob Marshall was also several hundred thousand dollars in debt, with $1.5 million in life insurance policies on his wife - the last of which he had rushed into effect just 12 hours before his wife's death...

Death is Forever by John Gardner - Another in the long line of Gardner's diluted James Bond thrillers. Gardner is nowhere near the novelist that Bond creator Ian Fleming was, but I vowed to read all of these, so every so often I force through one. Ugh.

Back Story by Robert B. Parker - Spenser is asked to solve a 30-year-old murder as a favor to an old friend, and finds a legion of cover-ups and long-buried secrets.

Widow's Walk by Robert B. Parker - I had almost given up on the Spenser series because it seemed like Parker was writing them on autopilot. Then on a whim I checked this one out of the library and boy was I impressed. A lot of the familiar elements were there - sham marriages, gay guys pretending to be straight, tough guys who aren't so tough - but something about this one was a real breath of fresh air and I loved it.

 

[TheHammer]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood - great post apocalyptic story, some elements of The Stand, Huxley's Brave New World, 1984, etc.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Husseini - Incredible book. One of the most powerful stories I have read in years. You will be moved.

Tripwire by Lee Child - Third book in the Jack Reacher series. Outstanding series. Reacher is one of the very best serial characters since John D. McDonald's Travis McGee from the 60's and 70's.

Running Blind by Lee Child - Another Jack Reacher story.

The Narrows by Michael Connolly - Hieronymous Bosch back in action. Connolly is right now at the very top of the mystery/crime/thriller genre.

And a bonus:

Mortal Prey by John Sandford - Sandford is a slight cut below Connolly, but still one of the top 5 in the buziness - right there with Child. The main character Lucas Davenport is very, very cool.

 

[B A Rabbit]

I have two short non-fiction books out of the library which I am trying to read right now before I go to Italy in 9 days:



Auschwitz: A New History

The War of Our Childhood: Memories of World War II

The Forgotten Soldier

Thomas if I may say, You seem to be big on Germany, Nazis, and Concentration camps.

Do you, or have you ever read the magazine "The New Yorker?" There is an artist who does some work for that magizine named, Art Speigelman.

Art Speigelman wrote a book called MAUS (Which went on to win a pultizer prize) It was the last book I read that made me sad it eneded.
It deals with many issues, not the least of which is his farthers journey through
Auschwitz, and his lack of adjustment once WW2 was over and he made it to America. ( Think "The Pianist")

But it's also about with how Art deals with his farter's lack of adjustment.

Its really quite good. Heres a link to the preview: Amazon, MAUS

There is another book kind of similar to this called "Fax from Sarajavo" that deals with one familys escape during the Bosnian war. His only contact with the outside world was a fax machine. But this book isn't as good as MAUS.
Here's the preview:Fax from Sarajavo

 

[jim_vh]

olympos - dan simmons
rum punch - elmore leonard {leonard elmore? i forget}
moving pictures - terry pratchett
worse than watergate - john dean

 

[thomas144]

Thomas if I may say, You seem to be big on Germany, Nazis, and Concentration camps.

Do you, or have you ever read the magazine "The New Yorker?" There is an artist who does some work for that magizine named, Art Speigelman.

Art Speigelman wrote a book called MAUS

I've never actually read Maus but I should. I think my son has a copy. I do read (and subscribe to) the New Yorker.

The best books I have read in recent memory, maybe ever, are the two volumes of Victor Klemperor's diaries:

I Will Bear Witness

They are the diaries written by a jewish university professor in Dresden who was married to an Aryan and thus managed to survive the war. Absolutely amazing stuff. I really need to reread that. Really explains what it would be like to live in that situation, on a day to day basis, how his rights and property are gradually restricted. You read him matter-of-factly describe how the authorities want him to make a list of all his possessions, and he naively goes along with it.

 

[Splunge52]

Lincoln - Gore Vidal

Mute - Piers Anthony

Faithful - Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King

John Adams - David McCullough

The Iowa Baseball Confederacy - W.P. Kinsella

 

[Moebius]

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix - (re-read to remember some stuff)

Mystic Warrior Vol 1 - Tracy & Laura Hickman

Dragons In The Archives - Margeret Weiss & Tracy Hickman

The Theif Who Painted Like Mondrian - Lawrence Block