Currently Reading: Intellectual

[TheBlob]

Currently reading: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Book 1 of The Dark Tower
Page 30/304

I'm still reading A Calculus of Angels by J. Gregory Keyes, but I just recently got the first five books in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, so I decided to start reading them as well. It's good so far, but more fantasy then the other Stephen King novels I have read before.

[DragonHeart]

Airframe by Michael Crichton
Page: n/a

I'm going to start reading this as soon as I'm done typing up this post. I've read it several times and enjoyed it (obviously), so I'll post the blurb from the back cover.

Three passengers are dead. Fifty-six are injured. The interior cabin virtually destroyed. But the pilot manages to land the plane...

At a moment when the issue of safety and death in the skies is paramount in the public mind, a lethal midair disaster aboard a commercial twin-jet airliner bound from Hong Kong to Denver triggers a pressured and frantic investigation.

AIRFRAME is nonstop reading: the extraordinary mixture of super suspense and authentic information on a subject of compelling interest that has been a Crichton landmark since The Andromeda Strain.

Yes, it is a bit dated. This was published in 1996, well before 9/11. If anything I think that actually increases the strength of the story, as he gives you a taste of what terror in the skies actually feels like.

Update: Well, read and finished. It took about four hours, including all interuptions of varying reasons and lengths. Still a great read, even knowing what happens.

~DragonHeart~

[U2Girl1966]

Currently reading - Cell by Stephen King. I'm about half way through. It's typical King, but still good.

Leave it to King to find something to go wrong, very VERY wrong, with something that just about everyone has these days - a cell phone. Without giving anything away, the cliffnotes version is that one day, just after 3pm, anyone who is using a cell phone turns into a zombie sort of being. The books is about what happens to those few people who were not using their phones and what they do to survive.

[DragonHeart]

Legend by David Gemmell

From the back cover:

Druss, Captain of the Ax, is the stuff of legends. Tales of his battles are told throughout the land, and the stories expand with each telling. But Druss himself grows older, until finally, the warrior turns his back on glory and retreats to his mountain lair. There he awaits his old enemy: death.

But far below, the barbarian Nadir hordes are on the march. All that stands between them and the Drenai people is a mighty six-walled fortress, Dros Delnoch--a great citadel that seems destined to fall. If it does, the Nadir will sweep inexorably across the land, killing all who oppose them.

Reluctantly Druss agrees to come down from his mountaintop to lead this last, hopeless fight. Lost causes mean nothing to him--he has fought such battles a thousand times in a thousand lands. And he is a hero to inspire a new generation of warriors. He is Druss the Legend.

I'll update with my opinion later, it just came in today and I intend to start it as soon as this post is done. I tend to read books in one sitting.

~DragonHeart~

[Shadow Of Darkness]

Im reading:The Power of Unconscious
page 19 (hehe) /270
Its a great book, its about how to use the unconscious which is very useful.
and many other useful things

[DragonHeart]

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Page 123/440

At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history--one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale...

This novel is definitely not for the squemish or the faint of heart. It's bloody, it's coarse, it's violent. It's also a damned good read, even only 1/4 of the way in.

I recommend this to anyone who likes the following: the movie 300, history, war, warriors, strength, courage, or a good book. It is all of these, sans the movie which is based on a graphic novel of the same event.

~DragonHeart~

[U2Girl1966]

While Danielle Steel has written her share of trashy, silly, fluffy stuff over the past 20ish years, there is one book that stands out.

"His Bright Light. The story of Nick Trainia". Nick was her second (of nine) children. He killed himself about 10 years ago at the age of 19 and this book, written (from what I can tell) shortly after his death, tells his story from her point of view.

While I don't have kids by choice, this book was very moving, sad and bittersweet to read.

[DragonHeart]

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
Page: N/A (Finished it yesterday)

Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain's defense by taking to the skies...not aboard aircraft but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons.

When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes its precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Capt. Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future--and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature. Thrust into the rarefied world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France's own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte's boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.

Now these are dragons. Easily one of the best novels involving dragons I've ever read. So much so that I immediately ordered the next two books of the series and am seriously considering preordering #4, which won't be out for a few months yet. Very highly recommended to anyone who likes dragons and alternate histories.

~DragonHeart~

[Dori]

Les Miserables (abridged version) by Victor Hugo
Page 170/829

I'm reading this book because I thought Hugo wrote The Hunchbcak of Notre-Dame so wonderfully that I would be a fool not to give this book a try. Unfortunately, it's the abridged version which usually I disklike reading.

So far, I am nearly through the the first part titled "Fantine". It is quite the depressing story, and perhaps a future canidate for my favorite book (which the Hunchback so far holds). I'm sure most people have heard of this book and know something about it so I will leave out the details of my reading. If you haven't, I challenge you to read it. The abridged version is probably better for people who aren't used to the classics (or the sheer length of the book!).

[DragonHeart]

Spirit Gate by Kate Elliot
Page: 1/445 (Hardcover)

From the dust jacket:

When Mai is approached by Captain Anji at her family's fruit stand in her village marketplace, she feels fear, for he is one of the invaders, and she knows that if he wanted, he could take her from her family, never to be heard from again.

What she can't possibly know is that she is about to take the first step into a life beyond her wildest imagination, on a journey through lands terrible and fierce, with people strange and wonderful, to a land rumored to harbor unspeakable violence and cruelty.

One of her uncles had left their town and never returned. Now, as she sets off with Anji and his soldiers, her uncle Shai journeys with them to discover their lost kinsman's fate. But the world has turned upside down: The immortal Guardians have abandoned the world; their mortal agents of justice, Eagle Reeves, seem no longer to hold the respect of people throughout the lands of the North; and the villages and towns of the Hundred are in peril of civil war.

Captain Anji and his disciplined troops ride a trade route east to discover what fearsome shadow has seized the land and so terrified its people. Their gates are entwined with those of a reeve who has already tasted the bitterness of loss and with merchants and slaves both sacred and profane, who must transcend the paths they thought to tread if they are to see the light beyond the shadow that blights the land.

Whew, that's a lot of run-on sentences. Whoever wrote that synopsis must have huge lungs. Anyways, the giant eagles more or less made my decision for this book. Never read any of Kate Elliot's previous work, though she's written more than a dozen novels. I'll probably be posting a review of this book on my blog when I'm done, if anyone's interested. (I have a review of His Majesty's Dragon posted there already.)

~DragonHeart~

[VidenTheColdOne]

Currently Reading: Ender's Game By Orson Scott Card

I began reading it because i had been reading a book about writing fantasy/fiction that wa written by Card, and he mentioned parts from Ender's Game, which sounded really interesting, so i asked my friend if he had it, and he did, so i began reading it.

It's pretty good so far, i'm only like 5 chapters in but so far its very mysterious, and i can't wait to see what happens in Ender's future.


EDIT: I finished reading it today, and it was pretty good. I really like Card's writing style, and i will have to pick up more of his books in the future. I found out that Ender's Game is the first in a series, so i will look into the rest now.

[GrimmJaw]

Currently Reading: Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card

I've been reading alot of books by OSC, and this was the last one in the Ender's Shadow Series. It was quite good. Card is a magnificent writer of Sci-Fi. I love how he fleshes out each character, from Peter to Achilles from Dink to Petra, everyone is very well created. It's a great read, should you come upon the series.

[Momo Mastermind]

I'm currently reading Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King for the second time.

I absolutely love this story. It has such mundane dull settings, and the narration is done completely by the main character, Dolore