The 2008 Books Read Thread!

[DragonHeart]

Based on the original thread started by Psiko. Unfortunately the turnout was lackluster, to say the least. In light of this, I'm altering the posting guidelines for this version.

• You may post more than once.
• New posts must have a minimum of two books listed.
• Your first post may contain just the list of books you've read, updated as often as you like. Subsequent posts must have some form of commentary about each book added to your list. The comments do not have to be added to the master list in your first post.
• You may comment on other members' lists, but I do encourage any in-depth discussion to be moved to independent threads.

Also, because it's so early in the year, feel free to add any books read in November-December as part of your 2008 list.

DragonHeart's Books Read in 2008:

Gardens of the Moon (Malazan I) - Steven Erikson, Epic Fantasy
Deadhouse Gates (Malazan II) - Steven Erikson, Epic Fantasy
Memories of Ice (Malazan III) - Steven Erikson, Epic Fantasy

As you can see, I'm working my way through one series at the moment. GotM and DG I read in December; MoI is what I'm currently reading.

~DragonHeart~

[OmniTense]

Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Kind of dry, but informative, the way I likes it. She spent too much time on Greek mythology without addressing Norse mythology long enough. But that's because Odin is just plain cooler than Zeus.

Hercules: the complete myths of a legendary hero
He really was an idiot. I mean amongst the dimmest minds of ancient Greece; he probably couldn't work his way out of a paper bag.


Excavation by James Rollins
Okay. A little Michael Crichton for someone, who is, decidedly NOT Michael. Too much smoke and mirrors and really the plot was not strong enough to justify all of the pomp and circumstance of reading it. Now that I'm done trashing it. It was a fine attempt and I must admit was fun to read.



Haven't really decided what I'm going to start on yet either... Something playful...Probably some cheap whodunnit, like an Elizabeth George novel. I say that because my mother is shipping me about four Elizabeth George books because I liked the first. Good stuff.


-Sin

[pulse]

Read last December: 'Rant' by Chuck Palahniuk - This book was really good, it has the whole anti-materialism aspects to it that he often implements in his work and of course has lots of obscenities to it. In case most people don't know who this is, this is the author who wrote 'fight club'.

Reading Now: 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' by Hunter S. Thompson - Of course this is amazing, if you haven't seen the movie(with Johnny Depp in it) then I highly recommend it; very intense though, frightening even. I can really feel the fear and paranoia in this story when I read it, a very interesting read.

[Psiko]

Heh, I'm in but I'll not count the November or December readings. It has been a slow yar so far, but it has been a good one to read for me!

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Wow, talk about motivational. Every writer needs to read this book. It was enough to get me writing again for the first time in over a year. That in itself should speak volumes about it.

[Rikkuffx]

December-A Stockingful of Joy-holiday romance,its a bunch of short stories mixed into one book. It was a really nice holiday read. I love reading holiday romance novels during the holiday time I actually have a couple ones I didnt read this year but theres next year.

I'm reading Tanis the Shadow Years right now,its a Dragonlance novel,I should have finished it by now but I havent felt like reading it,the dog also stole my bookmark out of it and I cant remember where I left off.

[OmniTense]

Originally Posted by Psiko

Heh, I'm in but I'll not count the November or December readings. It has been a slow yar so far, but it has been a good one to read for me!

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Wow, talk about motivational. Every writer needs to read this book. It was enough to get me writing again for the first time in over a year. That in itself should speak volumes about it.

I've actually read this. For a class, I've read this. It is a pretty good guide on composition and can help people out of tight spots. A good book.

[joesteel64]

I've been devouring the books lately, however, I haven't really picked up anything new.

Confessor - Terry Goodkind Amazing way to end the series. It had a lot of action, and the character's are really well done.

Faith of the Fallen - Terry Goodkind Only book six of the series, but by far my favorite. The opportunity to see how the Imperial Order's everyday lives worked was amazing. Also the Imagery was incredibly vivid.

Eldest - Christopher Paolini It's a great way to pass the hours by in high school when you're waiting on kids to finish a test that you finished in ten minutes. I love the story, and the use of the Ancient Language was fascinating. I'm now officially psyched for the third book - Brisingr (yes that's fire in Norse)

Dragons of Summer Flame - Margaret Weis Quite possibly my favorite Dragonlance book, and the only one to have an overly emotional effect on me at the end. Again, the characters were amazing, and the imagery was awesome.

I Am America (and so can you!) - Stephen Colbert One of those books that had me laughing from cover to cover. Colbert's satire gets me everytime. The writing style is almost like the book is a dictation, or I'm reading the script for "the word".

As you may or may not be able to tell, imagery is a big part of my fiction based reading.

[Isredel]

Pendragon, Book 7: The Quillian games - MacHale This is a book series that I've been reading since I was 13. I can't go into specifics about this book without giving out spoilers.

Sorry that I can't really give a second book but so far, I haven't had the chance (or thought) to go to a book store recently.

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/...resized200.jpg

PS: Does img code not work on this thread? I wanted to post a picture of the book cover.

[Mistress Sheena]

No, it doesn't. And you did post a picture. It's just a link. No big deal.

[Jin]

I've been reading up on classics a lot recently. Roman to be specific. I just finished Tacitus' Annals and I'm currently reading Suetonius' Lives of the 12 Caesars. Also, I just ordered Polybius' works and a compilation of Plutarch's Lives. Just the Roman ones though, as of yet I haven't gotten into the Greek scene, although I wouldn't mind reading some of Homer's works.


Tacitus was amzing. My current username most likely shows my love of his style of writing. Coincidently (or not) as it is, Tacitus' cognomen comes from the latin word 'tacitus' or 'tacit' in English which basicly means one expresses opinions and ideas without actually...expressing them, if you catch my drift. Tacitus writes exactly in this manner and I loved reading his subtle attacks against those he disliked, while technically not actually saying anything against them. It's too bad that his account of Caligula's reign was lost, that would've been good.

Suetonius is halarious. I wouldn't call him a true historian (actually he's a biographer), for a lot of his facts are clearly more heresay than anything, but he gives a very entertaining account of Caesar and the emperors (Augustus to Domitian). Caesar's sexuality came into question with utterly halarious dialogues.

[Mistress Sheena]

I just bought Writing Down The Bones. Amazon had a sample few pages, and it was very interesting what she had to say. So I bought it for $4.99. That is, 1.00 + 3.99 shipping. Great deal if you ask me.

As for what I've read, I only have one thing:

Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor.

I'm currently working through Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.