[2014] What Are You Reading?

anyone that can recommend a good historical non-fiction? whether it be: a biography, auto-biography or whatever.

any subject really, anything that you felt was good and worth a read

thanks

 

Same here; I read the Martian after reading how much everyone liked it here...it was awesome! Great read...much appreciated fellas.

 

Anyone recommend anything similar to Ready Player One?

 

Look at my post on the previous page about Lawrence in Arabia, by Scott Anderson. It's superb.

 

After finishing the Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson and quickly powering through The Martian (excellent, by the way, as so many others have mentioned), I decided to start Sanderson's newest series, The Stormlight Archives.

I wasn't expecting to become infatuated with the series, even though I was sure I would enjoy it since Sanderson is such a great writer. But whenever I had heard Sanderson mentioned, it was always in regards to the Mistborn Trilogy, so I assumed those books were his masterpieces.

I was wrong. The Way of Kings (book #1) and The Words of Radiance (book #2) are both fantastic. Absolutely, unbelievably fantastic. Highly, highly recommended, especially for anyone who is a fan of the fantasy genre in general.

The wait for future books in the series is going to suck, though.

 

I really want to buy Words of Radiance but I'm waiting patiently for the paperback.

 

Habibi - Craig Thompson (2011)

Ever since reading, Persepolis by Satrapi, I've been revisiting graphic novels. Like Satrapi's work, Habibi is beautiful, dark, and powerful. If you want to read about an epic love story set in a fictional, but almost-real old Arabia give this book a try.

 

I loved:

There is a lot of humor in the book, John Mann also wrote a book about Kublai Kahn and Atilla the Hun. But I liked this one the best.

I also loved Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth

 

Finished rereading A Game of Thrones last night and started my 2nd reading of A Clash of Kings.

 

I just finished the Black Count and enjoyed it. The author of the three musketeers and the count of Monte Cristo covers his grandfather's expeditions, because those historic novels were largely based on his experiences as the first black french general.

 

If you're a baseball fan - Ball Four by Jim Bouton.

 

Some of these are more current, but I really enjoyed them all.

A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo
Empire of the Summer Moon - SC Gwynne
The Good Soldiers - David Finkel
Lost in Shangri-la - Mitchell Zuckoff
In the Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
Frozen in Time - Mitchell Zuckoff

 

So Words of Radiance was as good as Way of Kings? I thought it was gonna be more focused on the female protagonist who is interesting but nowhere near as fun to read (and reread) as Kaladin.

 

The POV chapters in Words of Radiance were nearly identical to the set up from The Way of Kings, and all the main characters had their fair share of chapters. The only difference was that there were several flashback chapters for the female protagonist, as opposed to flashbacks from Kaladin's childhood.

EDIT: Also want to add that I believe that Words of Radiance is even better than the first book. Asides from the awesome action that one would expect, the dialogue was great and the interactions between certain characters were downright hilarious.

 

The Fountainhead-Ayn Rand. Love it so far.
Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde-highly recommend (don't watch the movie!)

Can't wait to watch Gary Cooper do his thing, I'm assuming he is Howard mofo Roark.

 

Would you say its worth re-reading? I finished the series last year, and they were my favorite books ever so I've thought about reading them again, but they were so time consuming that I've been wondering if it would be more worth it to start something else, like Brandon Sanderson's series which are listed above

 

Although I loved it the first time, I haven't re-read Game of Thrones in 14 years. They are time consuming. Life is too short and there is far too much great literature out there to spend it on the same massive tomes. Also, the Song of Ice and Fire books aren't as enjoyable re-rearding for me as something classic like Lord of the Rings.

 

I still haven't finished it, but I think you'd like The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie. It's part of a trilogy (First Law Trilogy)

 

I have read the entire series 3 times and enjoyed it more during the subsequent reads because I knew what was going on. I also thought that they read quicker because, again, I knew what was going on. I will definitely read them again when we know a release date for Winds of Winter.