# So what do you read?



## TakeWalker (Dec 11, 2007)

I've always believed that writers have to be readers, so here's a thread for us to recommend or discuss what we read as far as published works.

I've been sorely lacking in reading time lately due to heavy schoolwork, but I've got the latest novel of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher sitting next to my desk. Come Friday, I'm gonna tear through that thing in two days. c.c And it will be awesome. DF was the first urban fantasy series I really came across, and I've been hooked on the genre ever since. I just wish I was cool enough to write it!


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## TheGru (Dec 11, 2007)

I actually haven't read a good book in a long time, sadly a busy (and somewhat stressful) life has been holding me down for awhile now.

Last good book I read was one of the Myth Series by Robert Aspirin.


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## Koronis (Dec 11, 2007)

Currently outside of Mangas the novels I'm reading are The Legend of Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore, three book set. As well as the Diablo series Sin War, Three books. (Can you tell I like fantasy?) I've missed alot of good novels I'm sure when I stopped reading due to various reasons of laziness. But thats my current list. Manga is a different story but can hardly be useful for helping you write since most of the description is put into pictures for you.


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## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Dec 11, 2007)

I mostly read nonfiction nowadays - I like big, pretty coffeetable art books (I just bought the one for the Beowulf movie), but mostly read science books, particularly about the brain, psychology, medical stuff, evolutionary biology, though I've also recently read about Babbage engines and have made forays into philosophy. 

It seems like every fiction book I pick up lately is very disappointing. I did greatly enjoy Clare Bell's "Ratha's Courage", the 5th book in a series about intelligent saber-toothed cats who have just discovered the use of fire.


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## Xipoid (Dec 11, 2007)

The Dragonlance series/compilation is one of my all time favorites, most notably Margret Weiss, Tracy Hickmann, and someone else I cannot remember at the moment. Discover magazine as well though I haven't had much of a chance since I had a recent address change and they are still in the process of rerouting. Otherwise I tend towards books on wines, curios, science, or style (not fashion).


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## Damaratus (Dec 11, 2007)

I read through The Golden Compass before it came out in the theaters.  I'm still working my way through some collected H.P. Lovecraft short stories now.


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## Rilvor (Dec 11, 2007)

I've never read anything by Lovecraft, although I'd be interested in giving some of it a read. I'm currently working my way through all of Stephen King's books.


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## M. LeRenard (Dec 11, 2007)

I just read whatever catches my eye.  Par exemple... the last 5 books I read were (in no particular order) Spook (about psychics, ghosts, ectoplasm, and other supernatural phenomena), Something Wicked This Way Comes (because I wanted to, and it was Halloween), Cat's Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut, for those who aren't familiar), Family Guy and Philosophy (a hilarious attempt to put some actual meaning into Family Guy), and The Eagle's Gift (about native Mexican sorcerers: non-fiction).
But I do have a preference for sci-fi and fantasy.  Right now I'm reading Stephen King's Insomnia.


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## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Dec 11, 2007)

Rilvor said:
			
		

> I've never read anything by Lovecraft, although I'd be interested in giving some of it a read. I'm currently working my way through all of Stephen King's books.




Lovecraft is one of my all-time faves. Start with "Herbert West, Re-Animator", it's splatstick and probably his most fun read. "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Dunwitch Horror" are awesome, too.


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## Kemmy (Dec 11, 2007)

Some H.P Lovecraft, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robin Cook, still have the last Harry Potter book to read :/ reading R.A. Salvatore's Icewind Dale series... gotta jump in on the Redwall series, finish the His Dark Materials Series by Philip Pullman (only read Golden Compass, WAY before the movie came out), might get in on FANG/ROAR from Bad Dog Books [ http://www.baddogbooks.com/ ]... that's all I can think of at the moment


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## Vore Writer (Dec 11, 2007)

I read a mixture of thriller and fantasy type stuff: James Patterson, Brian Jacques, Jane Lindskold, Sue Henry, and so forth. Right now I'm reading Voyage of Slaves by Brian Jacques.


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## Molotov (Dec 12, 2007)

Last thing I read was the four novels in one book by Stephen, when earlier referred to as Bachman. I read through the first one, originally titled "Rage". Story is crazy and plays with the mind. I wanted to read the other one, "The Long Walk", but I never finished it, and am already nearing the ending. It's the twists that make me come back for more.

There are other books too, I just keep forgetting either the title, author, or both, *shrugs*


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## KristynLioness (Dec 12, 2007)

I just finished reading Salamandastron from the Redwall series. Have loved to read that one for years. I pretty much love animal books that are mostly about the animal from the animal's perspective and I love dragon books where dragons are portrayed as intelligent and the plot isn't the dragon being slain, kept as livestock, and/or ridden. I'm really picky about the books I read but there's a lot I enjoy anyway.


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## Rhainor (Dec 12, 2007)

The Sholan Alliance series (in order: Turning Point, Fortune's Wheel, Fire Margins, Razor's Edge, Dark Nadir, Stronghold Rising, Between Darkness and Light) by Lisanne Norman.  This series, and -- more directly -- the other members of its (rather small, due to lack of exposure) fan club is one of the things that introduced me to the Furry Fandom.

Anything by Larry Niven.

And the oh-so-popular-to-despise "Eragon" and "Eldest" by Christopher Paolini.  Inheritance series FTW!


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## Meliz (Dec 12, 2007)

I've read some Discworlds, they were pretty sweet.

I have all three Barry Trotters in hardback, they're total win, and i have a paperback version of Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho, even more win.

And currently i have an order out to get Bruce Campbell's books, "If chins could kill - confessions of a hollywood b movie actor" and "make love! the bruce campbell way". can't wait till they're in.


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## Le_DÃ©mon_Sans_Visage (Dec 12, 2007)

KristynLioness said:
			
		

> I love dragon books where dragons are portrayed as intelligent and the plot isn't the dragon being slain, kept as livestock, and/or ridden. I'm really picky about the books I read but there's a lot I enjoy anyway.



Have you read anything by Thorarinn Gunnarsson? He wrote a trilogy plus a prequel which has highly intelligent, magic-using, and very sarcastic dragons are protagonists. His books are a little weird, and some of his authorial tics get obnoxious by the end of the trilogy, but they're still intetresting reads.


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## dave hyena (Dec 12, 2007)

I am currently reading "The Cambridge history of Poland to 1696", it's very interesting, since I learnt that Poland, by paying Peter's Pence, helped to ensure proof of it's independence and existence as a nation thereby, and the years when there was no kings of Poland, only dukes with their internecine squabbles. 

You can kind of tell the book was written before, during and after world war II though, since some aspects of it, like the pre-occupation with race and slavs and german colonisation and whether or not bits of land belong to Germany or elsewhere, seem very dated. Sadly, some of the authors died during world war II. 

Earlier I read Joinville and Villehardouin, which is two french chronicles, written by participents in crusades during the 13th century. One covers the 4th Crusade, the other the Crusade of St. Louis.

In particular, the second one you shall find to be as good as any fantasy novel, with Joinville witnessing a serjent deflecting a pot full of burning greek fire with his shield and his descriptions of the terrible uncertainties and dangers of traveling by boat, even in the Mediterranean, at that time.

Aside from that, I read a biography of Alexander the great, Warefare in the Latin east and I hath been assured that I should read "Redwall", so I'm trying too. The last fantasy books I read was some ones by Raymond E. Fiest (terrible, terrible, didn't finish them in the end), Song of Ice and fire (v. good), Otherland (v. good, kind of strange ending though) and I did read Northern lights (As the golden compass is called here), Subtle knife and Amber spyglass about two years ago now. D:


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (Dec 12, 2007)

TheGru said:
			
		

> I actually haven't read a good book in a long time, sadly a busy (and somewhat stressful) life has been holding me down for awhile now.



This is also my case. I've been doing what I can to learn on good characters and forms of good speech. So before I took up the positions I'm working now I read the biography of Theodore Roosevelt and the collected works of Fredrick Douglass.

During my work at the county, I'm always reading through the ordinances and drafts that I sometimes edit/have to write a report on. So I suppose I'm feeding the idea machine for possible bureaucratic tangles in the stories I write.


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## Kipple (Dec 13, 2007)

Currently working my way through "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. A weird book, very non-linear.


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## Heath (Dec 13, 2007)

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## DARKWOLFE (Dec 14, 2007)

i read lots of sci fi and horror type stories and any book that deals with werewolves or some type of were creature , war novels ,suspence stories ,thrillers things like that


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## Kindar (Dec 14, 2007)

I'm not currently reading much, other than only stories I find on FA and other sites. I favor Science fiction over most, and just behind it, fantazy. the last thing I tried to read was the first book of the "new Jedi order" Starwars books, and It pretty much killed my desire to read.

after having seen the Dresden files TV serie I've been meaning to get the books, but I've been short on time recently.


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## KazukiFerret (Dec 14, 2007)

I've read Dante's _Divine Comedy_ twice. I read mostly manga (Rurouni Kenshin, Get Backers, Chrono Crusade, Bleach, Hellsing, Death Note, Inu-Yasha, and Naruto) but I love zombie novels, crime drama, Koontz novels, Stephen King, ect. 

I read alot of books, people give me books and I read them in a day. Even Stephen King's phonebooks, one day.


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## Calhanthirs (Dec 15, 2007)

Just Finished Reading: Training People, how to bring out the best in your human.

Currently Reading: God's Dog
 How to Speak Grizzly.

Up Next to read:
Harpers Magazine Jan 2008
Of Wolves and Men
The Cougar Almanac.


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## lobosabio (Dec 15, 2007)

I am currently puttering through an anthology of H.P. Lovecraft's stories.


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## M. LeRenard (Dec 16, 2007)

> Currently Reading: God's Dog


That's a non-fiction book about wolves, isn't it?  I've shelved that thing, like, 10 times in the last year I've worked at the university library.  I've actually been meaning to read it at some point.  Funny.
Let me know if it's any good.


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## Calhanthirs (Dec 18, 2007)

Close, it's on Coyotes. It's hard to find a good non-fiction book on 'Yotes so I would recommend this one, even if it is a bit outdated. Of course, I'm also the  type to be biased on the side of the Coyote.


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## M. LeRenard (Dec 19, 2007)

I guess I just assumed it'd be about wolves because of the title, although coyotes does make more sense.  I think the Crow or some tribe had a legend in which Coyote created the world and mankind, so yeah... God's dog.  But I think I will read it.  Coyotes are ALMOST as cool as foxes. :wink:


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## Anilothei (Dec 19, 2007)

I absolutely love to read..
I read books by..

Anne Rice; The Vampire Chronicles series

Robert Jordan; The Wheel of Time series

Elizabeth Kerner; Redeeming the Lost, The Lesser Kindred, Song in the Silence

Tamora Pierce; Song of the Lioness Quartet series, and The Immortals series.

T.A. Barron; The Merlin series

Brian Jacques; The Redwall Novels

These authors and their books are all some of my most favorites, I also enjoyed some of the Warcraft series involving the Night Elves and High Elves and opening the dark portal. I love all of these books, in their own way they are amazing and can sweep you away into a dream world where some of your wildest and most beautiful dreams can come true, though, as well, some of your worst nightmares come to meet you face to face only to be defeated.


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## twilightiger (Dec 27, 2007)

If I only had to pick a handful. . .

Terry goodkind; the sword of truth series. The ending of the first book. In one word. Brilliant.

David Gemmell; Anything with Druss the legend, Skilgannon the damned or Waylander the slayer is going to be good.

The dragonlance series. _Before_ the age of mortals. The new age of Krynn officially killed the series for me. Par-salian just _gave_ tasslehoff the device of time journeying? A creature of the grey gem! I mean, come on, seriously. Margeret Weiss and Tracy Hickman wrote some of the best fantasy of an entire generation. The new stuff is just _Shudder_

Robert J. Sawyer; the quintaglio exodus trilogy. 

Eric Garcia; Anonymous rex. Vincent Rubio is an herb addicted dinosaur detective. What more can I say. This book (and its prequels/sequels Casual rex and Hot and Sweaty Rex) had me howling with laughter. _They were deep frying everything, hot dogs, cheese, chocolate. As long as it had a stick in it, they were eating it. There was even deep fried stick on a stick. The mind reels. The heart attacks._ 

Joan D. Vinge; Catspaw. This is quite possibly the best book I have ever read. The reality an empath faces every day has never been expressed quite so poignantly. None of that. 'Captain. I sense hostility' empathy either. _If they just powered up their forward phaser array. You'd think the whole ship would be sensing hostility as well._ 

Neil Gaiman; The Sandman collection. Read it. It really is that good.


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