What are you reading?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Song of Albion turned out to be a Celtic fantasy as expected.  I am half way though the first volume.  It is a gripping, fast read.  Has overtones of the Outlander series.  We are off to bonny Scotland again.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Finished the Paradise War, Volume 1 of the Song of Albion.  About to crack volume 2.

I was right, it is a Celtic adventure tale with warriors, bards, and political intrigue.  Lots of galumphing about, demons, dark lord, prophecies, and all the usual stuff that goes with this genre.  It also comes complete with dire wolves and aurochs.  The author did his research well.  However, getting carried off though a portal on Samain is quite intriguing, so I will finish the trilogy.  Good escapism, even if it is set in Britain and Holy Albion.  Lots of good Druidic stuff, but no human sacrifices, so far.

Update: Friday, 10 December 2010

I am about half way though the second volume, The Silver Hand.

This is a real page turner, but be prepared for lots of Celtic names and place names.  There is a pronunciation guide for those who don't have a smattering of Gaelic or Welsh.  As usual with a trilogy, the plot thickens.

Update: Sunday, 12 December 2010

Finished volume 2 yesterday and cracked volume 3.

There is something to be said about being retired.  You can do whatever you like after maintenance chores.  I launched off into the third volume with some expectation of trouble, and it was there of course.  However, having read two volumes of this tome, I am now anticipating the plot, which, having thinned, is now weakening.  I've put this aside for the time being, as I am Celtic Myth'd out.  The book has come to interventions by Dagda, the head god, and this kind of kills the plot.

[EyeofMobius 27]

Finished Malcom Gladwell's "Blink" which is a pretty good book about how we make decisions which is rather good despite being on the Bestseller List.

Now Reading "The Ethical Slut" by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy. A non-fiction book discussing relationships with a focus on Polyamoury and Open Relationships.

@A Nonny Moose: Your post has reminded me that I have a book I have been meaning to read which covers Celtic Mythology. I bought that book after reading a book which covered the Norse-Mythology in a way I found to be gripping to say the least.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: EyeofMobius

@A Nonny Moose: Your post has reminded me that I have a book I have been meaning to read which covers Celtic Mythology. I bought that book after reading a book which covered the Norse-Mythology in a way I found to be gripping to say the least.quote>

Did you get something comprehensive on the Norse Myths?  It is something like Tolkien's Unfinished Tales with little fragments at the beginning.  When you finally get to the Aesir, there is a lot of folk foundation ready to absorb it all.  If you like the Norse stuff, you should try the Native American myths, especially the Huron federation.  Loki and the trickster are they same guy.  Since the Native Americans came across the Bering land bridge, you wonder what they brought with them by way of myths and traditions.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Finished Double Star by Heinlen. Don't let the title fool you its not about 2 stars that orbit each other.

Just wish we had Politicians  like this book depicted

Also finished the last of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series

The Knight and Knave of Swords aka Farewell to Lankhmar by Fritz Lieber.

Started in on

Summer Queen by Joan Vinge the sequel to The Snow Queen which i realy liked.

Will also start  tomorow of Interstellar Patrol by Chris Anvil for lunch times.

there is no Wiki article for Interstellar Patrol. Get on it.

BTW Christopher Anvil is a pseudonym used by American author Harry C. Crosby.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Ah.  I had forgotten or never knew the real identity of Christopher Anvil.  His espoused philosopy in his writings reminded me much of John W. Campbell.  Of course, they are contemporaries.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[ZackAttack 0]

Orientalism by Edward W. Said

I must say, this is one of the few books that you can't skim through it. (in my opinion )

Talks about how westerners(Europe and USA in general) think about the Middle East from the Christian crusades till the modern times.

It's quite hard to find good luck finding it!

[Slashback 136]

I can't find any books that I wan't to read at the moment (I need inspiration...), so I'll try reading some of my "old" comics again.

I have all Herg

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Son of a Witch is very good but I have been so busy that I have not progressed beyond half way in the past week (I haven't read it for a week).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

I'm now reading A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin.quote>

I've set this book aside in favor of reading Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan (RIP) and Brandon Sanderson.

Barbarossa

quote>

[EyeofMobius 27]

Originally posted by: ImVhOzzi

I can't find any books that I wan't to read at the moment (I need inspiration...), so I'll try reading some of my "old" comics again.

I have all Hergé's Tintin comics (except for "Tintin in Soviet"), so why not read them all - from oldest to youngest?

As a YouTube celebrity once said: "Come on, let's do this..."

quote>

I break through this with short fiction. Lots of good stuff online. I mostly listen to short fiction podcasts like Escape Pod, Fantasy Pod & Pseudopod since those are the flavours of genre I like. There's a bit of community there and the hosts also mention bits and bobs about other things that catch their fancy and sometimes they drop me a lead on something that catches my fancy.

Escapepod is here http://escapepod.org/ and you can find the other 2 podcasts through there as well if they are your genre being Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror.

---

I got some online shopping credit for christmas and a book store gift certificate so I think I might be filling up my reading list again

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

For the moment, I have put aside the Celtic trilogy.  I am Celticed out, and want to read something else.  I'll be in London on Friday, so maybe a quick stop at Chapters will solve my problem.  Meanwhile, I am continuing in Linux internals documentation.

[EyeofMobius 27]

Yay trip to the bookstore today

I am currently still reading The Ethical Slut but I also found over the holidays David Allen's "Getting Things Done" in addition to those two I picked up and will be reading through in the next couple weeks (days if I get on a role) the following

Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

@ A Nonny Moose: I still haven't yet come across the Norse Mythology book but I do remember that it started mostly with the solo tales of Odin followed by the regular soap opera goings on of the other figures until finally the end of days at the end of the book. What I learned the most is that Thor is a jerk.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: EyeofMobius

@ A Nonny Moose: I still haven't yet come across the Norse Mythology book but I do remember that it started mostly with the solo tales of Odin followed by the regular soap opera goings on of the other figures until finally the end of days at the end of the book. What I learned the most is that Thor is a jerk.quote>

Nah, he's just a hammer-head.  If you haven't read Wagner's hash up of all this, you should read through the libretto of the Ring of the Neibelungen, then read the Volsunga Saga that was his base.  Brunhilde is really a Burgundian princess and Siegfried is a Prince of Orange (Holland).  Hardly a thing for Der Feuhrer to base his mythology on, but he was nuts for a long time.

The most noble, or maybe the most stupid, of the Aesir was Heimdahl.  Nobody in his right mind would have put his hand in the mouth of the Fenris wolf.

You have to be careful in all this, Odin is sometime Wotan, depending on the language of the writer.

Enjoy Stranger in a Strange Land.  It is an exercise in solipsism and free love.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, I've gone from Celtic fantasy (still on hold) to utter fantasy.  I've started the Enduriing Flame trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory.  So far, it is a bit of a juvie, dealing with the graduating ambitions of two older teens, but it looks like a nice romp.  I guess many of the members here would identify with the two main characters who are age 17.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I am reading 'Night' - Elie Wiesel.

Its a book for school, I tell you I am not looking forward to yet another topic on the holocaust (I've done it in 3 CLASSES last year and will again this year... )

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yoshi, are you in special circumstances that would cause emphasis on all that Nacht und Nebel?  Some schools can overdo it.  Maybe it is time for Leon Uris' Exodus.

[Meg 368]

I just finished "Confessions of a Prairie B-itch:  How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated" by Alison Arngrim.

I have to admit I was surprised; the book was not what I expected it to be.   And I have to give her credit:  anyone who can take a bad situation and change laws to help others in similar circumstances has my respect.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Finished Interstellar Patrol, Part 1  anyway.

Have not found a copy of Part 2 yet.

Still slugging thru Summer Queen at Night

will start

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson- 2006 Hugo Winner for best Novel.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Originally posted by: A Nonny Moose

Yoshi, are you in special circumstances that would cause emphasis on all that Nacht und Nebel?  Some schools can overdo it.  Maybe it is time for Leon Uris' Exodus.

quote>

I guess I was just unlucky in the subjects that I picked. We did a little bit of it in German (although that was more on the DDR, which was VERY INTERESTING ), History, and our Elish teacher 'felt that she had to' show us plenty of stuff like that. So I'm kind of over it.

[Roger51 381]

The man in the white suit - Ben Collins

[BoserF 1]

I'm reading a boring book for history, it's called the heretic from miguel delibes

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: BoserF

I'm reading a boring book for history, it's called the heretic from miguel delibesquote>

Just because it is assigned for history doesn't make it boring.  Which heretic?  Anybody interesting like Luther or Savonarola?

Maybe you should look at the society surrounding the book, and assess it from that angle.

[EyeofMobius 27]

I just finished reading Stranger in a Strange Land and do not yet "grok" it fully. I did like it but it will be a few days before I crack open anything new as there is much worthwhile concept to extract and digest I believe.

I shall probably stuff Neuromancer down my gullet o'er the weekend but have some creative scribbling to accomplish on a story concept that came to me before I started the last book. The base concept was in infancy, and recorded at 2am, but is fruitfully drawing me to brainstorm.

@BoserF: Some of the best stuff I have read is history and in class too. The last one I read for a history class and not self interest was "Why Nations go to War" by Stoessinger. It was a rather riveting read on the major wars of the last century. Breaking down some of the personalities as well as the tactics in a way that was not dry or preachy.

@ A Nonny Moose: The book was not too far reaching for my imagination but a good fit for it in philosophy. Also my main arguement for Thor being a jerk stands out in one particular story where some frost giants arrived to talk peacefully and Thor smote one with his hammer as one might brush a fly off food; No acknowledgement just annihilation. The Norse book did discuss the pertinent works of Wagner's opera in places where they fell well into the flow of the book without divulging into the actual telling of the opera which feels a decent courtesy. I personally use Wotan but felt in the case of anyone trying to discerne our banter on the topic it might help if I used the 'popullar' form.