What are you reading?

Right now I'm reading Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach... which, YES, is about human cadavers and what is done to them in the name of science... and it's absolutely fascinating. Morbid as heck, but fascinating.

I seem to be on a bit of a YA lit kick at the moment ... which is super-hard, 'cause all the YA books in the library are in the "teen room" which is locked after 6pm! OMG, planning my day around getting to the library on time...

 

just finished up An Abundance of Katherines. It wasn't as amazing as Paper Towns, but in some parts def. better than Looking for Alaska

It was also kinda funny, that while was reading this book at work, 3 customers in a row told me how great that book is, and what big fans of John Green they are!

I seem to be on a bit of a YA lit kick at the moment ... which is super-hard, 'cause all the YA books in the library are in the "teen room" which is locked after 6pm! OMG, planning my day around getting to the library on time...

 

just finished up An Abundance of Katherines. It wasn't as amazing as Paper Towns, but in some parts def. better than Looking for Alaska

It was also kinda funny, that while was reading this book at work, 3 customers in a row told me how great that book is, and what big fans of John Green they are!

I do love John Green. I don't know whether Paper Towns or The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite, but I love all his books.

Have you tried reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer Smith? I think if you like John Green's books, you might be interested in it.

Finished reading Daughter of Smoke & Bone yesterday. It is an absolutely delicious read if you're into YA. It's got a lot of fantasy and a bit of romance in it but it's pretty touching!

 

I *JUST* started this yesterday!!! I'm so glad to see a good review of it, I'm only about 80 pages in, but I'm really impressed so far, the language, especially, isn't dumbed down completely, which I love.

 

Have you finished it yet? The sequel comes out soon! I cannot wait...

The first book was so fun to read! You're totally right about the "not dumbed down" thing since I feel a lot of authors assume their YA readers are actually young teens, haha.

I'm hooked on the Infernal Devices trilogy atm- can't wait for December for the last book. Am always into LOTR on & off (when some of the YA I'm reading leaves a bit to be desired in the literacy dept. Tolkien is great for a pick me up Nekopon, I will have to give Daughter of Smoke & Bone a go)!

 

I'm also reading an old crime noir The Black Dahlia which is based on a true crime. Not so keen on some of the descriptive language but love the milieu

You too, Saba?! I loooooove the Infernal Devices trilogy! I thought Clockwork Princess comes out next March though, not December. >__< But hell, what wouldn't I give to make it come faster!

 

I'm currently reading something totally not my usual style and not YA... Devil in the White City. I can barely read ten pages a day because it's written pretty densely but a good read either way. It's sort of half fiction and mostly real about Jack the Ripper and the World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893.

 

Oh hell, PuffsxPlu, I cried so much after I finished The Fault in Our Stars... In fact, it was so hard to get through the last two chapters without getting the pages wet. It was worth the 274th in line at the public library for this book!

Have you finished it yet? The sequel comes out soon! I cannot wait...

The first book was so fun to read! You're totally right about the "not dumbed down" thing since I feel a lot of authors assume their YA readers are actually young teens, haha.

 

Finished it and LOVED it... now I just need to write up a review of it for my book blog, LOL.

 

I'm pretty excited about the second book, and I'll have to get it when it comes out. The world building was fantastic. Amusingly... a lot of the YA review blogs I read disliked this book, and I suspect they didn't like it because of the language (as in, advanced, not profane, LOL) and world building -_-

 

I read a lot of YA novels, mostly because people hand them to me, or ship them to me, and say "Here, read this"... so I do... and often times, they're just drivel. Ok reads, but not phenomenal. I feel like people just don't expect much from YA plot, and it's sad. The books I tend to love the most, The Monster Blood Tattoo series by D.M. Cornish or The Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell, are often poo-poo'd by YA readers because they lack a romance story and are rich in world detail -_-

 

And now there's this genre called "New Adult"... and I have no idea what that even means 0_0

Nekopon - God, I cried so much reading it. I preordered it and got it the day it came out. I read it all that night, and sobbed at least 4 times reading it and the sobbing continued throughout the next few days.

 

littlebearries: I....can't think of any reason to come up with a "New Adult" category...because YA should cover that. When exactly does one qualify as a "new" adult, anyway? Their 18th birthday? Does this newness have an expiration date? I'm kind of confused.

You too, Saba?! I loooooove the Infernal Devices trilogy! I thought Clockwork Princess comes out next March though, not December. >__< But hell, what wouldn't I give to make it come faster!

 

You're right, it is March 2013 (I think Clockwork Prince came out last December)? And then CC is bringing out the Dark Artifices I'm hoping it's a good read too.

I'm currently reading 2313 by Kim Stanley Robinson. I'm not sure what it is, but it's really slow going for me. I've had the book for weeks, but I haven't been able to bring myself to read it for more than 15 minute stretches at a time.

I'm currently switching between Harry Potter (4) and Sookie Stackhouse (5, 6? I've lost count!)

I can't wait for the last Sookie book to come out. It's been such a long ride and I want to finally see where it's going to end.

Bioshock:Rapture.

It gives a closer look at everything that happened before Bioshock & Bioshock 2, how Rapture was made etc., great book to a great game :3

Spice & Wolf as bedtime reading

 

Up to book 3, which is basicly the second season of the anime.

Its a nice different viewpoint to the same events in the anime oddly enough, and the few little details that were changed between the two have kept it interesting so far. Still easy to imagine Ami Koshimizu's voice with Holo though.. heh

Oh goodness, uh, I need to start avidly reading again. I went through a period last autumn where I just kept getting & reading books. Right now I'm considering picking up and trying the Infernal Devices books (or getting for my Kindle, whichever). Last series I finished up was the Lady Emily series, and I'm looking forward to the next book to come out!

Recently finished reading Spice and Wolf vol 6. It's the least good of the novels so far, mainly because there's little going on in the plot department. All of the other books have some grand adventure going on and this one... doesn't. But it wasn't terrible. Looking forward to vol 7 coming out in English in a few months.

 

I also have always been interested in the Shannara series, to find out if it was any good. I have read part of Sword of Shannara and, well... I'm just not really into it. I've read other Tolkien/Lord of the Rings clones. Maybe I've read too many and I'm getting bored. But that's what it feels like, and it's not getting better. It's getting more boring as I go. I think I'm done with this series, and I haven't even finished reading the first one.

I've read all of the Shannara series, mainly because I'm a bit of a completist, and the thing about it is I love two of the books. Any two. He literally has two plots and all of his books pretty much rehash one or the other, simply changing a few of the names. He reuses the exact same characters, but writes them as descendants of those in previous books.

 

Another author with a similar problem is Louis L'Amour. I just finished re-reading The Lonesome Gods, my favorite western, and one of my favorites of his many books. Unfortunately, he alos, mostly recycles plots and characters and just somewhat alters the settings. After about four of his books they all start feeling the same.

I just started reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower is by Stephen Chbosky - I picked it up (on Kindle) after seeing the film. It's a bit sad so far but I'm hoping it will be good~

Just picked Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson back up after stopping to read a much awaited (better) book. It's one of those books you have to like make yourself read sometimes. It has almost too many story lines going at once. It's very detailed with the world and history, almost to the point of being excessive sometimes...but eh it's not too bad. But I've honestly skipped parts of the story to get back to what I call the main characters.

I'm really tearing through books lately. I finished Catching Fire (the 2nd book from The Hunger Games trilogy). IMO it's more exciting than the first one and somehow felt less predictable. Don't get me wrong, the first one was still excellent. But considering I've been a huge fan of Battle Royale for years (both novel and movie form), I could see where the first one was going as soon as I started reading.

 

Also mostly through Firebird, by Mercedes Lackey. I know people like to diss her books but whatever. I still enjoy them. This one is a bit different than usual for me, since most of her books that I've read have been from the Valdemar series. This one is a stand alone fantasy story about Russia back in the days of tsars and boyars.