That review really makes me want to get the book. Good thing it is in the university library. I'll check it out for some winter reading.

I am finishing up the last hundred pages of Haruki Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". I really enjoy it but very strange. Sort of like reading a David Lynch movie.

Well I finished Dune the other night and I feel a little disappointed.
It started well but towards the end there was a definite drop in quality it almost seemed as if Herbert was trying to finish the book within an arbitrary word limit. I felt it needed to take its time a little more and come to a more natural end rather then confronting the Guild the Emperor and the Harkonnen in the last chapter.
I was also left wondering whether this would be a hit if it was released for the first time today. It’s clearly heavily influenced by the life of Mohamed. The hero is a mystical leader who leads his people in bloody rebellion against an empire that enslaves the planet because it is reliant on a substance only found under the sands of Dune. I'm not sure how that would play with middle America or whether Muslims would be happy to see a thinly veiled analogy of Mohamed with no strong religious sense using his followers religious beliefs to make them wage war against his enemies and bring him to power.

I found it very pretentious and turgid. I was disappointed earlier than you.

I liked that it was often pretty imaginative though. But it struck me as too full of posturing to finish.

I read both "The Master and Margarita" and "The Catcher in the Rye" on this thread's recommendation and I found both to be great. Good calls on both. "The Catcher in the Rye" had me depressed for a few days after finishing it though.

I just recently finished "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner and I loved it. I don't want to spoil the story too much, because figuring out what the hell is going on is half the fun, but it's about a rural southern family and a dying wish. Much like all of Faulkner's work, the language is pretty complicated but it's not too bad if you stick with it and realize early on that some passages aren't going to make sense until later. I didn't manage to "get" all the imagery and symbolism used but I enjoyed what I did. Overall I would recommend it to someone with too much time who is looking for something different.

I am currently reading "Ulysses" by Joyce but am very likely in over my head.

I'm too egotistical to be put in my place by Ulysses. I'll probably be humble enough to read it by the time I no longer have even close to the mental capacity to make any sense of it at all.

i'm about a third through this, feel about the same.

also reading david foster wallace - oblivion and other stories. the wikipedia entry on this is pretty accurate... i like it, but it's hard to recommend to someone without knowing them.

I'm currently reading 'Claudius the God' by Robert Graves for the third or fourth time - thoroughly enjoyable.

Also reading 'Bigger Deal' by Anthony Holden, the sequel to 'Big Deal'. Big Deal was great, this is okay so far, but not outstanding.

Also reading 'Hitler - My Part in his Downfall' by Spike Milligan, very funny.

I'm reading "Catch 22" right now. Only done 2 chapters but it's clever and funny so far. I heard it was very love/hate.

I'm about halfway through Ron Paul's new book, A Foreign Policy of Freedom. It's very similar to what he's running on today, but basically the book is a series of I suppose, his most important statements while in Congress. It's slightly eerie reading what he wrote back then, and seeing how it's come true/still applies to today.

I am also one of those who read many books at once. Right now I am working on You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming, The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver, Double Cross by James Patterson, and Fundamentals Of Poker by some guy named Malmuth.

For something different, try Cary Tennis' "Since You Asked" which is a best-of compilation of his advice column on Salon.com. I ordered it from his site http://www.carytennis.com/home.html and got a signed copy. I recently stumbled on the column and now I read it daily. Very entertaining and enlightening, not your traditional Dear Abby style advice.

I am reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I found it for $2 hardcover. I have been enjoying the book, a really fast pace read.

good read. It's one of the few books I literally could not put down! I stayed up all night reading it.

I picked up Max Brooks' World War Z while holiday traveling and I was very impressed.

WORLD WAR Z

The premise is absurd: a world wide plague wipes out half of mankind, turning people into flesh-eating zombies. Civilization buckles and almost collapses before the humans fight back.

However, the book is so well written and in such an original way that it verges on greatness. The whole book is an "oral history" told ten years after the Great War. The author travels the world interviewing survivors, political leaders, and military personnel. It's as if the war really happened - events are deadly serious and reverent.

It's sort of like Studs Terkel doing zombies!

Great read.

Supposedly a great(but abridged) audiobook on this with some tremendous performances on it. Sorta torn about giving it a shot -- on the one hand I hate abridgements and on the other hand, if you look at the raves on audible.com for this, it makes it sound like it was a huge success anyway.

If there's any book that would be great on audio, this is it, as it's 99% monologue.

Speaking of, do any of you guys know anything about audiobooks? Sometimes I see an interesting combo of novel + actor, but I've never actually listened to one.

I didn't finish it, and have read and liked all his other novels (some more than others, obviously). The structure annoyed me, for one thing - it might be possible to portray some sense of narrative flow through an oral history, but he didn't do it imo. Also I thought the concept was pretty weak.

I'm about halfway through this, and it's very good, the best book I've read since The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

I love this book. I've probably bought it 7 or 8 times. I wish his newer books were as good.

Has anyone picked up the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen graphic novel? It sounds pretty cool.

I am reading To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. The first time I read this book over a year ago I thought it was terrible, but now due to necessity I have to read it again and can barely put it down.

In regards to Palahniuk (and in order) I read Fight Club, Diary, and Survivor, but stopped after Survivor because I found that he had gotten formulaic and slightly too ridiculous. I have no problem suspending disbelief for anything, but I also think I just found his style to be wearing thin on me.

I found that I enjoyed Diary the most of the three, however, and I also adhere to the popular notion that while Fight Club was a VERY good book, the movie just got the whole concept and nailed it better.

As far as what I'm reading, I've got a Chekhov anthology and a Ginsberg anthology, but I can have any short story or poetry anthology in front of me at any given time.

- Jay

A big let down from the first one.

You can try audible.com for a really reasonable price. I'd suggest looking for things that are especially good for that format. Dom's talking about the zombie book is a perfect example -- horror is so much about atmosphere that it's perfect for a good reading. Also good are biographies. Gene Wilder's and Julia Child's are two I bought and am looking forward to, when I stop working to midnight and 12-hour holidays. :P

I absolutely love this thread. I particularly like when someone says what they're reading and then come back with a minireview later. Yay.

World War Z is really high on my list of "to read" books. I need to get to it a little quicker it seems after some more rave reviews.

I'm currently reading Wicked (finally) and after that I plan to start I Am Legend. Gotta read one of the greatest vampire stories before going to see Will Smith all buff.