The whole point of "The Sparrow" is that it's slow moving and the information only shows up after a while. It's like a old-fashioned movie; there's some opening stuff, some evolution in the middle and an ending. It doesn't just kick off with explosions, carry on with explosions and end with some explosions.

Mostly I have been reading books about medieval history. "Conquest: The English Kingdom of France in the Hundred Years War" being one.

Also I've read several sets of games rules and a bunch of graphics systems specs.

I've had particularly bad luck with fiction recently, in the past 6 months I've stopped in the middle of at least 4 novels because they were either boring or bad, and dragged myself grudgingly to the end of two more that were mediocre. On the other hand I read at least a dozen good novels in the same period, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

I read primarily fanfiction and romance novels. If anyone actually wants recommendations for romance novels tell me and I'll provide them, but I know gamedev's population is heavily male, so it seems unlikely anyone here particularly wants that. I used to read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, so I've read Pratchett, Vonnegut, Card, Asimov, Lovecraft, etc. But what I really liked was the stuff being written in the late 70s and throughout the 80s, and I've run out of those that look good and I haven't already read. I still look at the new releases but they're mostly just not to my taste, although there have been some great fsf movies recently.

I remember enjoying Don Quixote, although some of the tv/movie versions I've seen were more exciting than the book. I've read some Virginia Woolf but not the one mentioned above.

Re: the bible, I was required to read the whole thing at one point. (I was raised christian, naturally inclined to be an atheist, and throughout my teen years went through a gradual decrease in humoring my parents who kept wanting me to give sunday school "one more chance".) IMHO the bible is comparable to any collection of myths or folktales from a culture of similar technological level. There are about a dozen moderately interesting stories in it. But, mostly you will already be familiar with the stories because they have all been retold many times in modern fiction. Several of them are available in movie or animated versions which are generally improvements on the original; there's a very good old animated movie of Noah's Ark (and oddly enough, a sequel), and Veggietales is about as fun and high quality as christian children's entertainment gets.

For non-fiction I am currently reading The Woman's Book of Creativity. I don't usually read anything aimed specifically at women but I have been looking for books on creativity and talking to one's subconscious, and this was on the used bookstore shelf and it looked readable, sane, and not redundant with other things I've already read. I've read about 1/3 of it so far. One of the exercises was actually inspiring, that's probably enough to justify the purchase price right there. Before that I read Power Screenwriting, which was also pretty good.

[color=#1C2837][size=2]The whole point of "The Sparrow" is that it's slow moving and the information only shows up after a while. It's like a old-fashioned movie; there's some opening stuff, some evolution in the middle and an ending. It doesn't just kick off with explosions, carry on with explosions and end with some explosions.[/quote]
[color=#1C2837][size=2]

[color=#1C2837][size=2]I realize I'm a difficult reader, but I'm not some teenager with raging hormones. [color=#1C2837][size=2]I was reading it next to a book about some pretentious Canadians in the 50s putting on a Shakespeare play.

I'm finishing up Graham McNeill's saga on Ultramarines. Now that you guys pointed it out, it does take some time for each book to "get on with the action" -- yet, I am satisfied with each one. In the near future I'm going to scavenge the rest of the Black Library publications about Space Marines.

I'm finishing up Graham McNeill's saga on Ultramarines. Now that you guys pointed it out, it does take some time for each book to "get on with the action" -- yet, I am satisfied with each one. In the near future I'm going to scavenge the rest of the Black Library publications about Space Marines.

I read Dan Abnett's Horus Rising and found it enjoyable. His other 40k books are also good from what I have heard. I did try and read Graham McNeill's Mechanicum but I just didn't enjoy the experience, if you liked his other books though I assume you would enjoy that one as well. The Horus Heresy in general is an interesting topic so if you're looking for a new series to start I would advise trying that one.

The book I just finished reading was "The Intelligent Entrepreneur" it was really good book on the subject. A little preachy at times when the author is giving his rules on how to succeed. The best part of the book was the other half where it follows the real lives of 3 successful entrepreneurs side by side over the course 10 years from them thinking of going to Harvard business school to after they had all becomes successful multimillionaires.

Before that I finished rereading Trudi Canavan's "Age of 5" series. It's good fantasy series it deals the with highly religious society that worships the last 5 gods and the fanatical immortal leaders of the religion known as the white. The main character is the newly appointed 5th white and the series follows the conflicts and struggle she deals that arise from her unquestioning love of the gods, her love of man who is a member of a heretical cult of powerful healers, and the growing doubts she has when the gods force her to do some questionable acts. Along with the growing threat of war from the south and the eventual aftermath of that war.

Next on the reading list is the "The Secret Life of Words" and the new Terry [color=#1C2837][size=2]Pratchett book "snuff" when it comes out next month.

I'm into Lois McMaster Bujold lately, both her science fiction (Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, the whole series -- awesome!) and her fantasy (The Sharing Knife series, of which I've read two and wish I could find then next, or that she'd finish it if that's the problem). I have a feeling that anyone wanting to write dialog for games should read plenty of SF/fantasy, and also probably anything with good dialog in it, because a lot of the text for a game is going to be dialog.

I recommend reading any of Brandon Sanderson's novels. They are great to read since he comes up with these completely new and advanced magical systems. He is very imaginative.

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.

You might want to watch the movie version for comparison, I liked it a lot.

Well, I've found the Uplift series quite interesting. Only read Startide Rising though.
Solaris, the Fundation Series, Dune series of course.
I've just finished a Hungarian sci-fi, it's a shame that the writer never became well known, because the book should have its place among the greatest sci-fis.

I like the fintional universe stuff, I looked into Warhammer 40K too, but it was so farfetched to match some computer games.

I started reading The Old Testament, but it was boring and the creation story was quite lame. Silmarillion was much better.