What Are You Currently Reading?

[Lamp Post]

I can't believe we don't have this thread, I went through all the threads looking for it.  Brought back such memories, too.  :D  Tell me if I, however, missed it.

 

So, pretty self explainatory.  What are you currently reading?  'Tis appreciated if you'd also say whether or not you'd recommend/not recommend the book, too, so everyone can expand their reading list.  :D 

 

I'm curretly reading:

 - Symphony of Ages Seires -- Elizabeth Haydon.  They're great.  I'm adoring them.

 - The Messenger -- Markus Zusak.  'Tis lovely.  Very down-to-Earth, great writing style, fast moving without too much action. 

 - The Gates -- John Connolly.  Only a few pages into it.  'Tis beyond amazing, though.  I love this author.

 

[Contradiction]

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, per Nathan's recommendation.

So far, so good, but I'm supposed to be annotating and I've no idea what to write down. Dx

[nathan_p]

Derp, guess what I'm rereading :B

[Contradiction]

Heh heh. I actually finished yesterday. But I'll be rereading to add annotations. Fuck this.

It was good, though. :D

[nathan_p]

I'm quite fond of it. Annotate out all the parts with untranslated Middle English >.> Hey, it counts!

Oh, you can also contrast the Pandemic to the plague vOv They've made both societies fearful of contagion, and they express it in similar ways (quarantine, fear of the sick [when Kivrin is first brought to the village, one of the very first questions asked over her is whether she has the plague -- the blue sickness -- and in 'modern-day' Europe there was a panic over a minor viral outbreak because it could repeat the Pandemic] ).

Other than that, though, uh... I dunno... good luck.

[Contradiction]

Except my teacher's stressing quality annotations. For the book prior to this, she gave me a D+ because my musings weren't insightful enough. >.>

The point of the annotation is so that I can write a comparison/synthesis essay about it and Cat's Cradle. Not really sure what to do for that...

[nathan_p]

Oh ouch. *wince* Well, in that case, annotate out the untranslated bits and speculate wildly on why Willis chose to do that.

Hmm. Based on the Wiki summary of Cat's Cradle, you could probably go for themes of how science affects everyday life -- fictional time-travel technology vs. fictional ice-nine and the atomic bomb -- orr of ordinary people transported from their 'normal' milieu to a different society where people may speak incomprehensibly (until the transportee learns the local lingo).

[Contradiction]

Hm. I shall do both, so that I have options. Thanks.

[Hannah]

Looking For Alaska, because I finally have money. ^.^ (Also, I decided that Plato can go fuck himself, and am taking this week off)

*SPOILERALERTSPOILERALERTSPOILERALERT*

Alaska fucking dies. Fuck this, man. I need to build a greater swearing vocabulary...

[EndOfTheEarth]

Finished the Axis of Time series by John Birmingham.

The premise was fun, and the strategy and cultural ramifications on all fronts was amusing, but I disliked Birmingham's tendency to spontaneously and uselessly kill characters of note, either during side-events in books, or during the time between the books occurring.

Now I'm reading The Prince by Machiavelli.
He's lucky to be dead. If he were alive, I'd hunt him down and strangle him; he's really not much better than the idiot street people interviewed on TV.

[nathan_p]

Oh, Machiavelli XD

...book would sell better if retitled "How To Be A Douche, Renaissance-Style".

[EndOfTheEarth]

I actually just finished writing a blog post for class pointing out that because he has no professional experience, he has no right to talk.

[nathan_p]

OK, that I didn't know. It's been a long time since AP Euro.