What are YOU reading right now?

[MrMojo]

Well?


I'm reading Honore De Balzac's Lost Illusions (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375757902/qid=1076621052/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-8165227-4577744?v=glance&s=books) .

It's quite good.

[OLSEN]

Look to windward

by Iain M Banks

i´m only on page 30 but so far so good.

[lyon]

I just finished reading a book on John Adams as well as American Sphinx, a book about Thomas Jefferson. Conclusion, I like Adams much better than Jefferson. They were both amazing men though with incredible intellects. I am now reading Founding Fathers (I am on a early American kick) as well as Will Durant's book Christ to Caesar. The latter is about the history of the Roman Empire. I also just wrapped up the latest book in the Series of Unfortunate Events book series, though those books go so fast they hardly count. I love to read, and I love history books.

For art books I recently bought Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. It was pretty interesting. It has some great reproductions in it as well.

On the list to read:

Cryptonomicon - Stephenson
Quicksilver - Stephenson
Truman - McCullough
Eisenhower - Ambrose
Heroes of History - Durant
The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide - Adams

Cool topic.

How

[Mad Giraffe]

this...and the third book(10 books..serie) of the fantasy saga called: "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan and ne to that..the Hobbit by J R R Tolkien...and of both I'm making concept art..eeh..fanart...scenes and characters and stuff, fun thing to do:D..

[gekitsu]

in my backback i have il principe by macchiavelli
entertainment wise, i just re-read r.a. salvatore's legacy of the drow series (yeah, cheesy fantasy all the way!)

umm... its kind of strange right now, only two books im reading. usually, its at least three books im reading at a time (well, not simultaneously, you get the point).

anyone have some good fantasy literature hints for me? english language preferred. :chug:

[nick reynolds]

A collection of H.P. Lovecraft
Random art books and magazines.

[mos667]

Currently I am reading:
Deepsix by Jack McDevitt (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061020060/qid=1076626316/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-2387726-3520661)

The book so far is pretty good (only about a quarter of the way through.) Recently, I have been reading many books. Some good, others bad. This one has been one of the not so good ones.

An amazing book I finished last night was:
The New Madrid Run by Michael Reisig (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0965124010/qid=1076626406/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-2387726-3520661?v=glance&s=books)
I am really into the post apocalyptic/ending of the world books. I really enjoy reading about the fallout and how people live/stirve/survive.

A series I have almost finished (they did not have the last book) is the Fire-us series:
Fire-us by Nancy Butcher (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0064472736/qid=1076626553/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-2387726-3520661?v=glance&s=books)
Although not my favorite series, it was an enjoyable one. The book is aimed toward the less hardcore science fiction readers, and I found it to be a little under my level. Even with that, it had an interesting turn of events.

And to top it off, my favorite series read recently:
Tommorow When the War Began by John Marsden (Marsden's Series) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/044021985X/qid=1076626646/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/103-2387726-3520661)
This series of books told an AMAZING story of a group of teenagers that find a race of people taking over their home town in Australia while they were away partying in the woods. I really, really reccomend this series.

[scottg]

I finished Dean Koontz's "Odd Thomas" A couple of weeks ago. Good book. But almost all his books rock.

Also just finished H.P.Lovecraft's short story "Dreams in the witch-house" Love H.P.'s stuff. He's hard to read some times but he writes very eerie stories.

scottg
nefandus.com

[MrMojo]

Ahh, McDevitt. I like his stuff. If you like Deepsix, you'll love Chindi (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0441011020/qid=1076627997/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-8165227-4577744?v=glance&s=books)

[Noah Bradley]

The first of C. S. Lewis' space trilogy. Great book so far.

[sinkywinky]

The Neutronium Alchemist (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330351435/qid=1076631981/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-8582909-2505461) - Second book in the nights Dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton. Lots of sci-fi goodness (And lots of stuff I'd like to draw. Mabey in 5 or 6 years i'll have the required madskills :))
The Subtle Knife (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0590112899/qid=1076632136/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_3_2/202-8582909-2505461) - Second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. It is also rocking my socks.

[mtw]

I'm just about done with The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Next I'll be reading A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. On the side I'm trying to read two books by Harold Speed, The Practice and Science of Drawing and Oil Painting Techniques and Metarials.

[davi]

well i started to read http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18342 but didn't finish

[mos667]

MrMojo: Hey awesome, thanks man. I have a week off from school next week, so plenty of time to read. I picked up the Deepsix book because the cover looked pretty :). After looking in the back, I realized I had read another one of his books, Moonfall. I think I'll look into that book you recomended.
Sinkywinky: The Dark Materials is an excellent series. I absolutely loved it (or so I remember, I don't remember what it was about though :))
davi: "How to keep an idiot occupied."

[oglzogl]

Just finished Robert McCammon's Ushers Passing (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671769928/qid=1076633429//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i15_xgl14/102-1034965-7976928?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) the other night..

About halway through Robert Holdstock's Celtica (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765306921/qid=1076633614/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-1034965-7976928) right now. So far not as inpressed as I thought I'd be. But, I am a huge fan of Holdstock. His Mythago Wood (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0765307294/qid=1076633729/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/102-1034965-7976928) and Lavondyss (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0688091857/qid=1076633729/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/102-1034965-7976928?v=glance&s=books) books are still some of my favorite yarns.. maybe why I am so tolerant of Celtica?

I also belong to www.audible.com and listen to books a lot durning the day at work. Been revisiting Stephen King's Dark Tower (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/89/ref=pd_sr_ec_ser_b/102-1034965-7976928) series in audio format and am now listening to the most recent book, The Wolves of Calla (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1880418568/ref=pd_ser_asin_5/102-1034965-7976928?v=glance&s=books). I had forgotten how much I liked those stories... probably because it has taken him so long to release a new book in the series. Not much of a King fan but the Dark Tower is great. Two more are coming out this year and the series will be done. Happy times :)

After I am done with that audio book, I have Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0440238609/qid=1076634156/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-1034965-7976928?v=glance&s=books) ready to queue up so I am set. I've read them before, but when I saw the audio version available I knew I needed it. Good stuff!

[N D Hill]

Aurthur Miller's The Crucible

[Redder]

"Standards for Visual Art" and "The Stone of Delmarr".

[Bathgate66]

I'm 3/4 finishing through Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. A fascinating read that entails the migration of large societies of ancient times. We're talking about about pre-history and early history stuff here folk.

I think I might pick up the Da Vinci Code after hearing so many great things. As well I'd like to read 'The Trouble with Islam' by a local (Canadian!) celebrity political pundit.

[|NTeRN]

i just finished book 2 of Wheel of time.... at about 100 in book 3 (the dragonreborn)

awsome series if you like the fantasy ( knights, wizzards, ect) genre... im hooked on them and i still got 7 more books to read

[Lono]

just finished Lullaby,, just started survivor..

Palahniuk is completely addictive!

-Lono

[INFERNOmunky]

STEPHEN HUNTER....POINT OF IMPACT....3rd time

GOOD SHIZNITS:nod:

[catterpillar]

julian may's 'the many coloured land', wizard's first rule (terry goodkind for anyone who's had a bag over their head since childhood), rider's to the midnight sun - marc llewellyn, lost - gregory maquire, thomas de quincey's 'the pleasures and pains of opium (for a bit of non fiction). :p

[Aven]

Am currently half way through American Gods by Neil Gaiman. After that I want to go back and finish The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe.

[Fightergraf]

I just finished some Forgotten Realms books as in "Elaine Cunningham", And right now Im reading "The Great Dialogues Of Plato" By Plato. I was planning on next reading "Mein Kampf" By Adolf Hitler, dont ask, my Dad gave it to me for some reason.

[jwo]

The Zombie Survival Guide : Complete Protection from the Living Dead

[Swoop]

Currently:
Everything i can get my hands on from Dean Koontz. Lastly finished "Strangers" which was a good book. Reading Lightning now.

Recently finished:
Strangers - Dean Koontz
The Face - Dean Koontz

Future readings:

American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis

[Dan.v.D.]

stuff on tizian, michelangelo and rubens

[Caspergt]

davi, you kidder. Lol.
gekitsu - the first book I mention here...:

Recently finished China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. I'm not usually into fantasy, but that guy's imagination and colorful style blew my mind. Wanted to check out Stephen Baxter (hard science) afterwards. Read Time (of the Manifold series). That book read like dry cardboard compared to Mieville.

C.J. Cherryh has written about how Fritz Lieber's works has influenced her writing. Found it interesting since I greatly enjoy her sf-stuff. So I got ahold of the Lieber compilation The First Book of Lankhmar and have read the first three stories of that book (The Snow Women, The Unholy Grail, Ill Met in Langhmar). It's ok. It has a bit of a been there, done that-feeling to it, but that's probably because of all the people who came after - not what came before. So what's next? Maybe it's time for at comic. Uhm, let's say Shutterbug Follies by Jason Little. Then Red Thunder by John Varley, Explorer by C.J. Cherryh. Hey, maybe some non-genre stuff will turn up, who knows.

As for non-fiction: Don Seegmiller's Digital Character Design & Painting. Plakatens Mester (book on danish poster-artist Sven Brash). Chip Kidd by Véronique Vienne. And finally Chris Ware's The Acme Novelty Datebook. That is one cool book I tell'ya.

[Neil]

I'm reading Flash MX 2004 Actionscript Training from the Source and

PHP & MySQL Development.

[Sularia]

"Tangled Webs" the second book in the Daughter of the Drow series by Elaine Cunningham. Darn good reads.

[Beatnik]

The DaVinci Code

[nova]

my friend's blog, it's like a book: http://66.235.37.224/matt/newblog/

Dreams Underfoot (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0812516214/104-3784157-8517540?v=glance) by Charles DeLint, my favorite author. an urban fantasy. it's managed to weave itself into my daily life..

[AnarchyAo2]

I just finished The Wastelands, the 3rd book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I'm going to start Wizard and Glass soon. Their the only books that a english recommended to me and I liked. Some parts are corny. Like when Roland goes rambling about "Have you forgotten the face of your father?!"

[cybercyst]

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767908171/qid=1076725407//ref=pd_ka_1/002-4905404-1978445?v=glance&s=books&n=507846). But then I got some video games, Simpsons Hit & Run (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000A0V3B/qid=1076725541//ref=pd_ka_3/002-4905404-1978445?v=glance&s=software&n=507846) and Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005RD71/ref=pd_sim_vg_2/002-4905404-1978445?v=glance&s=videogames&n=468642), so I haven't been reading my book lately. *Slaps wrists*

[AnarchyAo2]

Haha Cyber, I'm the same way. I get distracted at home, and don't read much. I catch up on my reading in study hall and on the bus.

[mos667]

Study Hall? The bus? The best time to read is during math or science class when the teacher is blathering on, baby! Maybe this is why I don't have such high grades, and my teachers dont like me much...

[Nadim]

Gazbia Sirry: lust for colour - starts with some essays then lots of sketchs, oil paintings and water colours.
Good one

[wallychairmover]

you mean people also look at words as well as pictures around here?!:D

just started readin cryptonomicon, just finished the da vinci code, kinda in a secret messages kick lately i guess

for quick hits i've got the sherlock holmes series and almost all of lovecraft in a few books, good times!

[Caspergt]

Dan Milligan doesn't seem to be reading much: "Being one who’s always looked at reading as a bit of a fad, and thus a slow and poor reader, advantage Tyboogie." (from http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15284 )
... and just just look at his stuff!
I gotta stop reading now and just draw, draw, draw.

[STiCKy]

An Unfinished life - Biography of JFK

its pretty good but plenty boring at the same time, 800 or so pages, and im only 200 in, gonna be a long time before im done most likely

[AnarchyAo2]

Heh Mos. I'm not smart enough to read in math and chemistry class. I can't even draw in those classes or I get behind. I actually have to hide my pencil in the bottom of my backpack to keep myself from drawing.

[MrMojo]

Well, since so many people talked about it, I picked up the Dark tower 1 and 2. So far so good.

[AnarchyAo2]

The first one sucks, it starts getting good in the 2nd one, The Drawing of Three.

[REAU]

I just got finished reading Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard. Now I'm reading Out of Control by Kevin Kelly.

[wronghand]

Just finished Robert Jordan latest in the Wheel Of Time series. Some of the
storylines I really enjoyed but others were annoying. There were a lot of chapters
where the characters pointlessly blabbered on without advancing the plot, page filler?

Pissed me off enough to draw this in my sketchbook.

W. Hand

http://www.wronghand.com/wrong/cluck.jpg

[amphex]

just finished The Sun Also Rises (for school! :()...
i dont like hemingway much Ive decided...but an interesting read nonetheless.
i think im gonna reread The Stranger (Camus) next...hopefully I'll be able to pick up on some more interesting tidbits this time around :)

for some reason I just cannot STAND fantasy books and all that stuff....I really could not force myself to read any of those LOTR books.

[Bathgate66]

Has anyone read the holy bible?

I figured that since I am a self-proclaimed atheist, I want to be sure that I'm on the right side of facts. :D I just picked it up tonight.

I also picked up Voltaire's Bastards by John Ralson Saul. I hope it's good.

[AnarchyAo2]

No one reads the bible. Its more symbolic then a actual reading material. They may as well save the time of making paper for it and just carve a bible out of a block of wood because no one is gonna read it.

[amphex]

anarchy, that is simply not true.
dont say things like theyre facts when you really dont know if they are.
many people read the bible. MANY many many people.

[gekitsu]

speaking of the bible, i often thought i should read the q'ran. as the muslim world is becoming more and more of a topic, one should at least try to understand their point of view.

but then... i just ordered that china mieville book. the reviews sounded great. :)

[AnarchyAo2]

Hey guys. I was just chatting in IRC. I got into a discussion with a guy about Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He told me that I should read Stephen King's The Talisman and the sequel The Black House. It connects with The Dark Tower series and he told me that the 5th book in the Dark Tower series makes more sense if you read those first. He said that their good books anyway.

Amphex: Yeah sorry. That was stupid to say.

[Sapphire]

Right now I'm almost finished with "Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060987103/qid=1076978102/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/002-3650429-4325656) by Gregory Maguire, and just finished "Geek Love" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375713344/qid=1076978242/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-3650429-4325656) by Katherine Dunn. Strange enough, Geek Love was actually an assigned book in a class about monsters in movies and literature... a very unique and interesting class. Never been in anything like it! It also happens to be paired with a science class.. we see and read some crazy stuff.

Geek Love is insane, disturbing, and worth the read... and Wicked is often hard to put down, and offers a unique perspective on the life of the Wicked Witches, and others around them.

[Dominie_Dirtch]

AnarchyAo2 - Half of Stephen King's books tie-in to The Dark Tower. They published a list of every book that does in the "Other works" list at the beginning of "Wolves of the Calla." Insomnia and The Stand are both huge tie-ins, and there is even stuff that relates in "Hearts In Atlantis", which is a great book in itself.

I just bought at started "Lullaby" today. Everyone in their mother has been suggesting Chuck Palahniuk to me, and I'm a huge fan of Fight Club, so I finally picked up one of his books. If it's great, which I assume it will be, I'll buy Choke next.

I just finished Catch-22 a couple of days ago. I've been trying to catch up on all these "standard reading" books that I missed because I was home schooled. I'm working on a theory that a lot of these books were ruined for people because they were forced to do book reports on them..haha

Also in the past couple of weeks:
Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut
Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse (wonderful, I must read for any artist/creative person)
IT, by Stephen King

And after Lullaby, I'm going to read another Vonnegut, "Breakfast of Champions." After that, a friend has promised to lend me American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, and House of Leaves. House of leaves looks like one major project, so I think I'm putting it to the end of the list...

Also, anyone that's into massive fantasy series (AKA 'Wheel of Time') should check out The Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind. First book is called "Wizards First Rule” Very intense fun to read books.

(glad to see I'm repeating a lot of the books other people have listed... good taste around here, heh..)

[amphex]

Anarchy : What are the Stephen King The Dark Tower books like? I've never read a Stephen King book before and I have no clue what kind of stuff he writes

[Dominie_Dirtch]

The Dark Tower series is Stephen King's attempt at Fantasy. The majority of his books are horror. I find them to be some of the best books I've ever read. Very interesting concepts, very emotional, impacting stuff. I think anyone that has read the fourth book can attest to how powerful, and sometimes harsh his writing can be.

This is not your typical fantasy, either. No elves or dwarves here. The protagonist is actually a Gunslinger. Hence the title of the first book. I highly recommend the series to anyone that reads.

[.cfb]

On the subject of reading the Bible. I really think that it should be required literature in schools.

In high school, especially if you take any AP lit class, or Honors class, you'll be reading lots of classics. It's so obnoxious to have to a teacher have to explain what each Biblical reference means in the books, which are extremely common.

At least hit some of the important parts.

[mos667]

Well .cfb, it is the whole seperation of church and state. If you want that to happen, just head over to a private school. There they can do whatever they want. But having them read the bible seems to be a very undemocratic thing. Now, say, if the assignment was to have them read a holy book of their choice, or something they feel spiritually attached to (I.E. George Carlin's brain droppings) then that would be okay and dandy.

I think I need to pick up a copy of this so-called "Bible".

[Fipse]

mos667, it´s a bit more difficult. Even if you´re having a laicistic approach in schools books like the bible and the q´ran (Koran) have a lot of influence to modern days social structures and morals. Even for understanding classical literature in many kinds it can be important to have at least read one of the religious books (not to speak about history, social sciences etc.).

E.g. many of the historic wars and many other events are at least justified by this religious books, if you believe in them or not. To have a more modern example, I read Rushdies "Satanic verses" without knowing the q´ran and it just was a highly entertaining book for me. After getting to know it I could understand what impact the book had on islamistic fundamentalists.

BTW at the moment I´m reading an overview about the actual archaeological finds in Germany, "Mona Lisa Overdrive" by Gibson and for some distraction one of Ellis Peters brother Cadfael books.

Fipse

[MrMojo]

Douglas Adams - The Salmon of Doubt

It's really awesome, mostly short stuff he wrote that were found on his Macs after death, but also 12-13 chapters out of a Dick Gently book he was working on.

[AnarchyAo2]

The Dark Tower series is Stephen Kings take at fantasy. Its actually a western style fantasy (I know, it sounds stupid but its really not "western", the world its set in is really a ruin of what it used to be). The main character is Roland, he is from Gilend (sp?), its actaully a city from the bible. It was destroyed a long time ago, and Roland seeks out the Dark Tower in hope to cure the blight that has been placed upon his homeworld (and other worlds).

In the Gunslinger (the first novel in the series), Roland is on a quest to reach the infamous "man in black" to get the answers he needs. (Its really short, and I didn't like it as much as the 2nd book).

Keep in mind that the first 3 books don't really tell much about Roland and his past or even why hes after the tower. All you really know is that he is desprate to find it and does ANYTHING to get there (A great example of this is in the first book, and theres a big suprise in the 3rd, in relation to what happens in the first) . The characters really are memorable, they each have a great sense of personality. It really is a great series.

I'd like to summarise more for you but I'm afraid that I might give something away.

"Go then. There are other worlds than these." :D

[oglzogl]

I just picked up Insomnia simply because it is another Dark Tower tie-in. Got about halfway through it yesterday. A very good book! Suprise, suprise.

Another huge tie-in would be Salem's Lot.. because a character from that book plays an important role in the Wolves of Calla.

Actually, as was mentioned before, most of King's books are tied into the Dark Tower series in some way although I dont think you need to read any of them to enjoy the Dark Tower. They just might enhance the story if you had read the other books.

There are some things that have been introduced into the series that I dont like yet but with two more books coming out, who knows? I might, in the end.

Kind of funny, I've considered Stephen King as something of a hack for a long time. I read him a bit in my teenage years but became bored because it seemed like he used ideas from other authors and repeated himself way too much. The Dark Tower has changed my mind about him though. If he is remembered for writing anything good, this series will be it... at least for me.