Recently I started on three works:

Jacob's Room (Virginia Woolf), Salterton Trilogy (Robertson Davies) and The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russel).

I tossed the third about 1/5 in because it was full of gibberish; long physical character descriptions lacking real meaning but too obviously intended to be somehow symbolic, things like that. Couldn't get through a page without some level of agony. That upset me because I really liked the high concept (it's the only one on the list that's science fiction) but I couldn't go on.

I replaced it with Doctor McNinja (Christopher Hastings).

What's everyone else here read?

What's everyone else here read?

Possibly the worst thread around here in a long time.

I feel like that since high school. I don't read fiction because my experience is that they take too long to make a point.
I think that many books only worth an article.

The most recent thing I was reading was:

The Good Girl Revolution (Wendy Shalit 2006)
This is a non-fiction with an argument that society pressures girls to lower their standards. I agree with its thesis.
I sampled some pages on Amazon and confirmed it says what I thought it would. As a result I don't feel like reading
the whole thing.


The last fiction that I enjoyed that I could remember:

Pollyanna (Eleanor Porter 1913)
This is a fiction about an orphaned girl who tries to stay positive by asserting something to be glad about in every situation.
I disagree with its thesis. In the story, it is obvious that the main character is just suppressing her feelings. The assertion
is superficial. I read the whole thing because I needed to know if the ending was inspiring. But as far as I remember it wasn't.

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[color="#1C2837"]I feel like that since high school. I don't read fiction because my experience is that they take too long to make a point.
I think that many books only worth an article.[/quote]

[color="#1C2837"]Me too.
[color="#1C2837"]
[color="#1C2837"]The Sparrow really fit into this category of waiting for it to get the point, and just not an enjoyable experience, while the others (Jacob's Room and Salterton) are written in a way that is engaging on an ongoing basis (at least for me). I am very happy with Davies and Woolf.[/font]
[color="#1C2837"]
[color="#1C2837"]I think this short here is my favorite piece, though.

I have started to become lazy when it comes to reading different authors. I have mostly stuck to Terry Pratchett's work recently, I like the mix of serious topics and light comedy. I don't find a lot of his books as hard work as other, more serious, fantasy novels.

I did recently pick up a collection of both H.P. Lovecraft's work and Robert E. Howard work which I'm slowly getting through. I do find myself enjoying the short stories over longer more time consuming ones. In addition I have started to do some research and reading of myths/legends after finding some books I had left over from my childhood.

A year or two back I did try and read some books based on both the Warhammer and Warcraft IPs. I can't advise anyone ever doing that though, most of them just felt like poorly written fan fiction.

It may be seem an odd question but has anyone actually sat down and read the Bible or any other religious works? if so are they worth reading from a story point of view? I keep meaning to sit down and read version of the new testament I have laying around from when I was a kid but I would like to know if its really worth the time it takes to invest in it.

I've read some bits of the Bible here and there recently. I also keep finding these sorts of religious - I guess sermons - posted on blogs by priests and such and some of them are really nicely written. Like this one. I'm not going to advocate the Bible in terms of story however I think some bits from like Jesus and King Solomon and so on are great rhetorically.

I've always really liked the good samaritan bit, specifically where Jesus answers the question "who is my neighbor?" with a story and ends with "now which of these three do you think was a neighbour to him?"

I had a book on religion (as a concept) that was really tightly written. I liked it a lot and recommend it whenever someone asks about religion, but can't remember the name & author at this moment.

There's a lot to skim in the Bible (unless you're Christian) but there's a few bits of gold.

My friends and wife have pressed me to read Pratchett. I'll get to it. After my current list I have some books in Polish I'm supposed to read for practice. (Metro 2033 and some other thing.)

Thanks for the info Joe. As for Pratchett I would personally start from the middle of the Discworld series (my personal favourite is The Fifth Elephant). His earlier books are generally very "out there" in their approach and not as well put together in my opinion. His more recent books have started to develop a different tone that I know some people aren't as fond of. Good Omens is also a very good book if you come across it. All things said he's a very good writer and even his poorest work is more than a match for most of the books i have read in the past.

I read early and mid-career Orson Scott Card, H.P. Lovecraft, Asimov, Gentry Lee, Neil Gaiman, Orwell, Vonnegut, and, when I can stand it, Stephen Donaldson (I hate every character, and he's pedantic and repetitive. But I love his settings and scenarios!). I like Pratchett well enough, though what I've read of him tends to wrap everything up too neatly for my taste.

I try to avoid any book that's especially popular (I can't stand Christopher Moore or James Patterson or Dan Brown) or that has been made into a TV show on USA or TNT (I'm looking at you, Tess Garritson).

I've been thinking of adding some Vonnegut to my list. My brother-in-law gave me a copy of Mother Night once and it was excellent.

I've been reading a random selection of books from the SF Masterworks series. I like being able to pick them up, often never hearing of either the book or the author but thoroughly enjoying each one I've read so far. I take a break every couple of books to read something different, recently Don Quixote and before that Of Mice and Men.

I also just read Freakonomics and am currently reading Bad Science, which are interesting books.