What Are You Reading?

It's been a good long while since I really sat down and read some books, and I'm trying to get back into the swing of it. Partly to improve my own writing, partly just for fun, and I thought I'd share some of the stuff I'm going through and see what other people are reading, too. Doesn't even have to be stuff you're reading now, can be something you've read before.

The Onion Book of Known Knowledge - It's basically an encyclopedia written in the Onion's style. Lots of jokes and silliness and stuff, like reading one of their articles. I'm not reading it straight through, and I don't think it's meant to be taken that way - you can just turn to any random page and get a chuckle. It's fun.

Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King - I've read this one before, but it's been a while. One of my favorite books on writing, because it goes over pretty much everything - pacing, dialogue mechanics, proportion, breaking up paragraphs, et cetera. It gives lots of examples of bad writing and explains where it fails, as well as good writing and shows how it succeeds, and each chapter has exercises you can do. The only complaint I have with the book are the cartoons in every chapter.I never got the point, they just show flashes of this old guy writing a book. It's like the Far Side, only not funny. Otherwise, it's great.

The Law of Superheroes by James Daily JD and Ryan Davidson JD - Anyone that pays any attention to me at all can suss out that I'm a big comic fan. I also enjoy reading about court cases and legal matters, so this book is right up my alley. It basically explores the legal ramifications that superheroes would have to deal with if they actually existed - things like whether Wolverine's claws would be considered deadly weapons (they would), what liability they'd face for property damage, patenting inventions they make, stuff like that. It's a neat read, lots of interesting arguments, and you learn some cool stuff about the way the system works.

I started The Pilot's Wife a while ago, and then lost it. I found it again, but haven't got back into the swing of it.

What's it about?

If tabletop RPG manuals count......

Hunter the vigil - I've basically been a fan of the world of darkness since I played vampire the masquerade on the PC, and Hunter appealed to me as it's about normal humans who do battle against the paranormal.

Shadowrun 3rd edition - I got shadowrun returns and was intrigued by the setting, and so I decided to look further into it. Technology and magic at the same time is quite interesting.

Middle Earth Role Playing - I played this with my gaming society back in my first year of college, and got the book to look further into it.

Mutants and Masterminds - Just picked up this recently, seems like Dungeons and Dragons but with superheroes and villains.

Also I remember one book that I read over and over again in high school, called bury my heart at wounded knee which showed how the native Americans lost their land and lives. Quite tragic at times.

With all the time I've been spending on trains, lately, I have had so much more time to sit back and read. It's been super nice. Here's what I've been throwing myself into, lately:

In anticipation of Multiversity, I've been rereading Grant Morrison's "Supergods." Really odd book, especially when viewed as an autobiography. Also really weird, when taken as a history of the comic book industry. Morrison has a lot of detractors, but he's still my favorite comic writer, and "Supergods" is a really good book for rethinking the whole concepts of comic book and superhero, in general.

Fiction-wise, I just gave Al Ewing's "Gods of Manhattan" a try, and that was really good. It's sort of a pulp novel pastiche. I guess the elevator pitch would be "Golden Age Superman teams up with Zorro and a Jungle Lady to fight The Shadow and a Super Nazi." I usually don't like genre pastiches, but this was actually incredibly good, and I strongly recommend it. It was like the better parts of an Alan Moore comic, in prose. Gripping, fast-paced, with a number of solid ideas. A little bit predictable, in places, but that wasn't a deal-breaker. For me, at least.

Still trying to figure out what to read next, so I'm eager to take suggestions. Right now, I'm between re-reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor" (not as big a Palahniuk fan as I used to be, but I still think that's one of my favorite novels), or maybe Banana Yoshimoto's "Kitchen" (a short novel that's taken me an embarrassingly long time to finish).

As for others, I haven't tried that Daily/Davidson book, Acuya, might need to check that out. It sounds like fun. And Deus, let me know how you like that Mutants & Masterminds book. I ran a game off of the first edition rules for two years, and I'm considering running one on the 3rd ed. rules, so I'm really interested in what folks think of the recent editions (assuming that's what you're reading, of course).

I'm re-reading Neuromancer again...

...for like the hundredth time. Yeah. >_>

Finished You Only Live Twice a bit ago. I both liked it and was a lil let down by it.

Not sure what book I'm going to read next. Not counting all the books I have that have book marks in various parts of them ~.~

I was reading through the Bond books in order a couple of years ago, it was funny to see Fleming get increasingly bored of his character, to the point where he brought out the amnesia bullshit. Amnesia is author code for "i could not give a shit anymore". I stopped reading after that.

I don't remember the Amnesia part o.O

I just finished Who is to Blame? by Alexander Herzen (spoiler- it is rich people) which sucked a lot. There were a lot of good ideas and some truly well written characters that Herzen never did anything with. The book had a ton of potential but was kind of meh. Because I feel let down, I haven't really picked up anything since, although I do have What is To be Done? by Chernyshevsky that I intend to read, and Panic in a Suitcase by Akhtiorsakaya, but I am considering swinging by the bookstore to pick up some Vonnegut or something to give me a reprieve from Russian stuff.