What are you reading?

[Ed Link]

The Hylia has many avid literary people. We have the book readers, the news addicts, and just the people who like the occasional fml to brighten their day (I'm still not sure how that works as a pick me up...).

So use this topic to post any thing you're reading or feel should be read by the rest of the Hylia. Throw up a link to an interesting news article that should be read, but is not quite debate worthy. Find a funny web comic and give us a link to enjoy a 5 second chuckle.

To start out, I just broke out my copy of Redwall in honor of Brian Jaques and his wonderful series. That, and it was one of 5 books I brought with me to college and I had finished 2 of them already.

[Bidet to you sir]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nasa-completes-52year-mission-to-find-kill-god,19263/


I loled.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Finished Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy this afternoon. Fantastic reading. Jumping on a literary bandwagon frequently turns out great.

I'm aiming to read (and in some cases re-read) 50 books this year. And here's the list, which will be updated as the year - and books - go by.

I went through a long period of not reading any books until mid-way through last year. Now I don't want to stop. Anyways, this is the thread which convinced me to get in Your Pants, so let's get posting my 2011 reading list! A work in progress.

Have read
1 - Hurricane Gold by Charlie Higson
2 - The Danger Society by Charlie Higson (A non-fiction book for the most part, but includes the longest James Bond short story ever written so totally counts.)
3 - By Royal Command - by Charlie Higson (Yep, I worked my way through the Young Bond franchise just after Christmas -- the first two just missing the 2011 window -- after years of avoiding the series. Shame I left it for so long.)
4 - The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel - by 'Kate Westerbrook' (Interesting to see my favourite fictional hero from a different perspective. Though Jane Moneypenny -- really? -- gets her hands a lot dirtier in these "diaries".)
6 - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - by Stieg Larsson
7 - The Girl Who Played With Fire - by Stieg Larsson (Millennium Trilogy got a lot of attention. Worth it? So far, so great.)
8 - Zombicorns - by John Green (And I made a vague attempt at perfect binding the PDF I printed...)
9 - The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next - by Stieg Larsson (This thing is a beast of a book. Will take a couple more weeks yet.)
10 - And Another Thing - Eoin Colfer (Loved the Hitchhikers series, this continuation was just as kooky with plenty of chuckles thrown in.
11 - Relentless - Dean Koontz (We have a bookshelf in the canteen at work with random books people just bring in for others to read. This was the first I picked up. A gripping thriller but with a really poor ending.)
12 - The Broker - John Grisham (My second tea-break reading at work. Never read anything by Grisham, this was an entertaining, if mostly uneventful, thriller.)
13 - Zero Minus Ten - Raymond Benson (The first of six James Bond novels by Benson, set in the 1990s. He's only gone and made M a woman in the literature canon as well!)
14 - The Facts of Death - Raymond Benson (Benson's second 007 novel featured a bizarre Pythagorean cult.)
15 - High Time to Kill - Raymond Benson (Benson's third, and the start of the Union Trilogy. Featured an Eton rival that Charlie Higson obviously had no interest in addressing.)
16 - Tomorrow Never Dies - Raymond Benson (Arrived in the post and read in one sitting, Benson adapts Bruce Fierstien's screenplay with reasonable success considering the pretty average source material.)
17 - Doubleshot - Raymond Benson (Features twin Bond girls, a series first. A hit and miss adventure.)
18 - Never Dream of Dying - Raymond Benson (The Union Trilogy comes to an end with a Fleming ally turning out to be a villain all along. Then again, Corsican mafia don is unlikely to really be a good guy.)
19 - The Man With the Red Tattoo - Raymond Benson (Bond returns to Japan to stop an extreme version of the West Nile virus being unleashed on the world. Succeeds, naturally.)
20 - Licence Renewed - John Gardner (Going on the cover artwork, it's easy to think that the villain is Colonel KFC Sanders. Also, Q is now a girl. Called Q'ute...)
21 - The World is not Enough - Raymond Benson (Yes, yes, another Benson Bond novelisation ahead of any vague schedule I had. Average, no major changes to the film script.)
22 - Colonel Sun - Kingsley Amis (Writing under the alias Robert Markham, the very first non-Fleming Bond novel is a pretty solid read.)
23 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - JK Rowling (A break from Bond - well, I have read 10 in a row - as I march through the Potter series once more. Watching the films as well. Book is better.)
24 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling (Book is better. By quite a long way.)
25 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - JK Rowling (Halfway! And it's still only April. Also, worst film so far.)
26 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (Book better. Starting to notice a trend.)
27 - The Deceived - Brett Battles (A very entertaining thriller. Bought the book which preceded it and discovered there are two more.)
28 - Hell Island - Matthew Reilly (A novella featuring - spoilers - gorillas cloned and trained by the US military as the ultimate soldiers. Yeah. Was short but strange.)
29 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Again, book better.)
30 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (An okay adaptation, but why does Jim Broadbent's Slughorn not have a damn moustache? Dammit.)
31 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Well splinch me sideways, the first part of the film adaptation is my favourite. Mainly because they haven't had to chop it to pieces...)
32 - Breathless - Dean Koontz (Dammit, Dean, can't you make a decent book with a satisfying ending instead of 300 pages of build-up and a closing 60 or so of suck?)
33 - The Cleaner - Brett Battles (Sure, I know what happened thanks to reading the second book, but this was a great read all the same.)
34 - For Special Services - John Gardner (A pretty by the numbers Bond continuation. Largely unmemorable)
35 - The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (Another "People rave about this, let's find out why" entry to the list. I see why.)
36 - Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (And it gets better with the second book, although it feels a touch rushed when it comes to the *spoilers*)
37 - Velocity - Dean Koontz (Success! Koontz creates a thrilling novel without a sucky ending.)
38 - Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games trilogy comes to a hugely satisfying end, with plenty of twists along the way.)
39 - The Unwanted - Brett Battles (The third cleaner novel has some really strange moments, but kept me glued from start to finish.)
40 - Carte Blanche - Jeffrey Deaver (The new Bond is very much Fleming's character (and supporting cast) wrapped in a 21st century package. Would welcome more of this.)
41 - The Enemy - Charlie Higson (Another series, this time it's Higson's young adult zombie franchise. Everyone over the age of 14 has been killed or now stalks the country's surviving youths. Creepy, though a little ham-fisted with its pop culture references.)
42 - The Dead - Charlie Higson (Damn, this guy likes killing off his characters.)
43 - The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Can see why people enjoyed it, though not convinced it's entirely accurate in the details. But it's an enjoyable read all the same.)
44 - Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsey (Finally finished the second Dexter book. Poor Doakes. And we thought TV Doakes had a rough ride.)
45 - Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer (Rattled through this. Only cost me a quid. Might get the other books once I've finished the massive stack I currently have.)
46 - Die Another Day - Raymond Benson (Another novelisation done and dusted. Fills in a few blanks, but is probably Benson's weakest adaptation.)
47 - Catch 22 (A classic for many reasons. A bit eccentric, okay a lot eccentric, but a fascinating bunch of characters.)
48 - Game of Thrones - George R R Martin
49 - A Clash of Kings
50 - A Storm of Swords; Part 1 Snow and Steel
51 - The Name of the Star - Maureen Johnson

[Akie]

Slowly working on The Pillars of the Earth.  It's hard to read extra things in college:(

[Bidet to you sir]

Trying to read "why does e= mc^2 ?" and my brain, ow.

[Be_yourself]

Reading a book which i can't remember the name of, but its about The Hells angels and its by Hunter S Thompson, in fact, now that i think about it i think it is called Hells Angels. Its an interesting book, it really emphasises the freedom that the Hells angels strive for and in a way have in their own special extra legal way.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Finished "And Another Thing", moved on to "Zero Minus Ten", the first of six Bond novels by Raymond Benson.

Set in the 1990s (retconning Felming's novels so they happened in the late 70s/80s), he's only gone and made M a woman in the literatue 007 canon as well.

[Be_yourself]

Finished "And Another Thing", moved on to "Zero Minus Ten", the first of six Bond novels by Raymond Benson.

Set in the 1990s (retconning Felming's novels so they happened in the late 70s/80s), he's only gone and made M a woman in the literatue 007 canon as well.

Is it really Bond if it isn't by Fleming?  Its not that i'm a massive fan of Bond, i like the movies, i've never read a Bond book, i started Casino Royale and read about 10 pages.  but i'm assuming these novels by Benson are in response to the popularity of the movies, and as such, would anyone read a Lotr sequel by an author other then Tolkien if someone based it off the movies which were based off the books?

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Is it really Bond if it isn't by Fleming?

I'd dismissed the Young Bond series with a similar sort of reasoning, but have grown to regret that way of thinking having actually read said sub-franchise now. Charlie Higson did a surprisingly good job immitating Fleming while crafting stories for a younger audience.

As for the adult continuations, I'm only just getting into them, but I'm willing to give them a go.

While Sebastien Faulks proudly proclaimed on the cover of Devil May Care that he was writing "as Ian Fleming", Benson is very much his own man and ZMT reads a lot more like a combination of the film and literary Bonds, while bearing close resemblance to Fleming's style of writing. There's a bit more humour and more emphasis on the gadgets, almost certainly to meet the expectations of those who have discovered the books through the movies - though the magical doodads in ZMT have yet to prove as outlandish as those on the big screen.

There are certain parts of the novel which come across with a very Fleming-like vibe. There's wonderful, deep descriptions of the locales and their histories and a complex Mahjong sequence which is very familiar in tone, having read Moonraker's Bridge game and Casino Royale's Baccarat showdown.  The action is thick and fast, though Fleming never used the phrase "spear-hand" and Benson used it at least four times.

Better say, Benson isn't the first continuation author. Kingsley Amis and John Gardner previously held the role of Bond novel author, both following the revived interest in Bond thanks to the movie franchise. Nor will Sebastien Faulks be the last, as a new Bond novel is just a couple of months away. Again, a modernised Fleming Bond (Faulks' was a historical work set in the 50s/60s Bond world). Will post like a demon when Carte Blanche falls into my lap around my birthday. (Providing Amy is a good girlfriend and has pre-ordered it as a present like I hinted.)

(click to show/hide)

God, EA, shut up! Be_yourself said he wasn't that massive a fan and you go on a five-minute rant.

[Be_yourself]

Nah, nah, twas an interesting read.  Im a fan of Bond, but its not in the same way i am Zelda etc. i don't hang out for the next sequal, if a bond movie is crap i don't post rants etc.

I'd be kinda miffed though if another author took up a series that i read, i think its just a bit strange, the character transends the author, but i guess, if we put it in the context of games then that is what has happened with Zelda twice now, Miyamoto-Aonuma and Aonuma to this new fellow...

[Sheldon Cooper PhD]

Faulks' bond novel wasnt too bad, but wasnt exactly fantastic either. Hopes are high for this next one coming up.

[Bidet to you sir]

Artemis Fowl- The atlantic something or other (it's really boring)

I am a child.

[DarkLink]

Nothing, I need reading material ;_;

[Ed Link]

Just finished Redwall. Now I'm pulling out Catch-22 for a reread. Such an awesome book.

[Bidet to you sir]

Peter pan and alice in wonderland (both are about 2 hours reading time each)

Because they're free and I can download them on my iPhone.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Finished Benson's third Bond novel, A High Time to Kill, today and then read his first screenplay adaptation, Tomorrow Never Dies, from cover to cover. Considering TND was the weakest of Brosnan's installments as 007, this was a good read. Why else would I have gone on such a reading bender? It filled in a few holes and made the otherwise stereotypical evils a touch more interesting (Strange how Stamper's orgasm at being burned alive at the base of a missile didn't make the film... )

Next up, Doubleshot.

[DarkLink]

Batman: Year One

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

Doubleshot, DONE.

Current reads:
- Never Dream of Dying, Benson's fifth original Bond novel and the final part of the Union Trilogy.
- The Deceived: My random read at work. Guy cleans up other people's dead bodies when they don't want them found, latest just happens to be an old friend.

I'm also open to any suggestions of books I should have read by now (obvious classics) to add to my 50 Book Challenge.

[Ed Link]

For EA:
If you haven't read these yet...

Catch-22
Slaughterhouse Five
Steven Colbert's I Am America and So Can You (although far from a classic...)

[Beh]

I'm reading the New Testament.

Good shit so far.