Reading any good books?

[SilverKnight]

Originally Posted by Annatar

I just finished Sharpe's Eagle. Sharpie is awesome. Bernard Cornwell is a great writer, his battle scenes are so realistic and very well-written.

I really enjoy reading the Sharpe's books. I have got most of them.

[Annatar]

Cool, I've only read a few so far but I plan to read them all, in time.

[nasuada]

I just started 'The Fires of Heaven' by Robert Jordan. It's the fifth book in the'Wheel of Time' series.

[cee2lee2]

Originally Posted by Annatar

I just finished Sharpe's Eagle. Sharpie is awesome. Bernard Cornwell is a great writer, his battle scenes are so realistic and very well-written.

I like historical finction and the Sharpe series is excellent. I probably never would have heard of these books except for the LOTR connection (Sean Bean as Sharpe). I've read many of them and enjoyed each one, but as you say, the battle scenes are so realistic, I don't see me re-reading them. So the books are donated to our local library.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by cee2lee2

I like historical finction and the Sharpe series is excellent. I probably never would have heard of these books except for the LOTR connection (Sean Bean as Sharpe). I've read many of them and enjoyed each one, but as you say, the battle scenes are so realistic, I don't see me re-reading them. So the books are donated to our local library.

I like historical fiction, too, but let's open a can of worms here.

How accurate should historical fiction have to be? I tend toward the Flashman school- as close to accepted history as possible, and if you're inserting a character, you should show how they could have been there.

If a writer of historical fiction is going to alter accepted history, I think they should have to draw on a reasonably plausible alternate source- i.e. not "Holy Blood, Holy Grail".

Otherwise, it's too easy- you can just make up anything you want, and call it historical instead of fantasy.

Note here, I draw an exception for clearly labeled 'Alternate History'; a genre of which I am very fond, and to which I've contributed a few timelines of my own (and my only Wikipedia contribution, in support of Fritz Lieber.)

[cee2lee2]

It's not a can of worms, GM. You have reasonable expectations that an author honor the time and place in which he has set his characters.

I have to confess, I am not knowledgeable about history except in a very general way. This likely allows me to enjoy books containing historical contradictions which would irritate a more knowledgeable reader. The detailed descriptions of the battles seemed realistic to me and allowed me to see how the characters were affected by the action. But actually, I wouldn't have a clue what a real battle would be like in our time or in Sharpe's.

I said the Sharpe series was excellent because of the high level of enjoyment I experienced reading the books. On the other hand, they were not so "excellent" that I plan to keep and read them again, unlike some other books I revisit frequently.

[Grey_Wolf]

Ive just begun reading the fourth and final part of Manda Smith's Boudica quartet. A recommended you read all four - very well written.

Titles: Dreaming the Eagle, Dreaming the Bull, Dreaming the Hound and Dreaming the Serpent Spear.

Another quartet I finished a couple of weeks ago (for the second time) is AA Attanasio's Arthur series - a very much recommended read - an altogether excellent and beautiful poetic retelling of the legend.

Titles: The Dragon & The Unicorn, The Eagle & The Sword, The Wolf & The Crown and The Serpent & The Grail.

[Mari]

I'm reading Michael Ende's Neverending Story at the moment. I'd seen the film years ago, but I didn't like it.
The story is excellent though! Lot's of great wordplay and I love how every chapter starts with the next letter of the alphabet. I wonder if we'll get to the Z. The book is even printed in 2 colours, so it's easy recognizable as either Atreyu or Bastian being the main actor.
I wouldn't read it to 'my' kids as it is though. You can see it was written in a different tradition then the newer children's stories: the language is older and the cultural references are different.

[Earniel]

I liked the first part of the book well enough, but till this day I find the second part rather depressing.

I'm currently re-reading my Sherlock Holmes books. Great fun. They're so old-fashioned that it's, well, sort of of endearing and cute. A window on a long-gone time when everyone had a housekeeper or a butler, telegrams was high-tech, brave, manly men could faint without looking silly and nervous brain-fevers were rampant. Really interesting.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Mari

I'm reading Michael Ende's Neverending Story at the moment. I'd seen the film years ago, but I didn't like it.

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I liked the first part of the book well enough, but till this day I find the second part rather depressing.

For me it was the other way round - I liked the second part better. Though it was a long, long time since I read the book and I can't recall it nearly as good as I remember both movies. But I appreciated the book more.

[Lief Erikson]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I liked the first part of the book well enough, but till this day I find the second part rather depressing.

I'm currently re-reading my Sherlock Holmes books. Great fun. They're so old-fashioned that it's, well, sort of of endearing and cute. A window on a long-gone time when everyone had a housekeeper or a butler, telegrams was high-tech, brave, manly men could faint without looking silly and nervous brain-fevers were rampant. Really interesting.

Cool .

[Acalewia]

I've been reading Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels.

So far Dead Until Dark and Living Dead in Dallas are really good. I get paid tomorrow so I'll be picking up Club Dead next

[Mari]

I owned that one too, but I left it in Japan for the dormitory library. I liked it (though I don't believe I ever finished it)

[brownjenkins]

I'm re-reading Edding's stuff in honor of his passing.

[cee2lee2]

Just finished Death of a Romance Writer. It's a collection of short stories and a novella by Joan Hess. Her mysteries are always amusing even when dealing with serious situations.

[BeardofPants]

Interesting, I just finished reading Dead Until Dark. Some bits I liked, others not so much. Would you say the series gets stronger?

[katya]

The Idiot, Dostoevsky. I think he's my all-time favorite writer and I think I'll read all of his books now. So far I don't like The Idiot better than either Crime and Punishment or Brothers Karamazov, but I'm only a quarter of the way into it and I like it quite a bit.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by katya

The Idiot, Dostoevsky. I think he's my all-time favorite writer and I think I'll read all of his books now. So far I don't like The Idiot better than either Crime and Punishment or Brothers Karamazov, but I'm only a quarter of the way into it and I like it quite a bit.

Absolutely

While "The Idiot" doesn't quite reach the heights of the Big Two, it's still very good, especially the set-pieces- just in the beginning, the scene on the train, the scene where Prince Myshkin meets The Yepanchin family, and of course at Nastasya Fillipovna's house.

"The Devils/The Possessed" is also great.

[Acalewia]

Club Dead was really good. Made me really dislike one of the characters that I had formerly liked.

So far Dead to the World is a hoot with a lot of mystery interlaced in it

[katya]

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

Absolutely

While "The Idiot" doesn't quite reach the heights of the Big Two, it's still very good, especially the set-pieces- just in the beginning, the scene on the train, the scene where Prince Myshkin meets The Yepanchin family, and of course at Nastasya Fillipovna's house.

"The Devils/The Possessed" is also great.

I replied to you once already, I don't know if it got lost or what. But yes, I'm almost done with "The Idiot" now, and though I don't think it's as good as the other two, it's very good and I'm anxious to read more Dostoevsky. My favorite scenes so far have been anything involving Nastasya Fillipovna, and then the scene where Ippolit

supposedly tries to shoot himself, and his whole way of dealing with his approaching death in general

.

I've been studying Russian too. That's the 5th language now that I'm studying seriously, and 2nd priority, after Japanese. I wanted to finish learning the ones I'm already working on (Japanese is the only one I've reached fluency with) but I really really want to learn Russian well enough to be able to read the Russian copy of Brothers Karamazov I have (I got it from a library book sale for $1.50!).

EDIT: Add the last regular chapter (not the epilogue part) to my list of favorite scenes! I actually had read something accidentally about what, roughly, happened, but not the details. That was my favorite chapter. It really took me by surprise.