Books & reading

1. What are you reading now? Or recently?

2. If anyone is a member of either LibraryThing.com or Goodreads.com, friend me. I am ProfessorAlan on those sites, as well.

ProfessorAlan wrote:1. What are you reading now? Or recently?

Summoner (Chronicles Of The Necromancer)- Gail Z. Martin

Systematic Theology, Volume 2- Norman Geisler

Favorite Comics Right Now:

The Secret Six- Gail Simone

Brightest Day- Geoff Johns

Green Lantern- Geoff Johns

The Flash- (yup)Geoff Johns



What are you reading, Alan?

I'm currently reading The Enclave by Karen Hancock (oh yeah, I geek out over Christian sci-fi novels too!).

And did I mention Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos yet?

Paeter wrote:What are you reading, Alan?

I just finished Suprised by Hope, by NT Wright.
just about finished My Life With the Saints, by James Martin, SJ.

About a quarter of the way through the last trade of 100 Bullets.

just started Empire of Ivory(Temeraire #4), by Naomi Novik.

reading with my 19yo daughter (re-read for me) Temple of the Winds, by Terry Goodkind.

I have two long-term reading projects, ones I want to finish by the end of the year. One is a re-read of Pascal's Penses (I read a few pages a day, maximum), as well as Grudem's Systematic Theology. I got slowed down recently with his chapters on Men & Women, as I am more of an egalitarian than he is, so I am a little behind my pace, but I'll still finish it by the end of the year.

ProfessorAlan wrote:

About a quarter of the way through the last trade of 100 Bullets.

100 bullets pretty good then? I've always been a little curious.

Let's just say 100 Bullets puts the "graphic" back in "graphic novel." It is very noir, complete with lots of bad language, nudity & violence that comes with that genre. I usually shy away from this type of stuff.

But the overall story is very intriguing, well-crafted characters, and I think the artist is quite good.

ProfessorAlan wrote:Let's just say 100 Bullets puts the "graphic" back in "graphic novel." It is very noir, complete with lots of bad language, nudity & violence that comes with that genre. I usually shy away from this type of stuff.

But the overall story is very intriguing, well-crafted characters, and I think the artist is quite good.

Is that the one in Black and White, or am I thinking of Sin City?

I'm on goodreads as Kevin Bayer, I think... my user profile is at http://www.goodreads.com/bookreviewer

Paeter wrote:Is that the one in Black and White, or am I thinking of Sin City?

You are thinking of Sin City. 100 Bullets is in color.

ProfessorAlan wrote:

Paeter wrote:Is that the one in Black and White, or am I thinking of Sin City?

You are thinking of Sin City. 100 Bullets is in color.

Okey doke. Thanks for clarifying.

I've been making my way bit by bit through Peoples of Middle-earth. I'm really enjoying it, but I can only recommend it to someone who really likes Tolkien, and would be interested in things like detailed family trees and Gondorian historical revisionism.

I've been leavening that with the latest Mercedes Lackey novel from the Valdemar series, Foundation, but I've got to say it's been disappointing so far. But it makes for acceptable brain-candy between the chewy hard stuff.

What I'd really like is for George R.R. Martin to get off his bum and give us A Dance with Dragons already...

I just finished reading (listening ) to Ender's Shadow and am now oging through Shadow of the Hegemon and hope to complete the shadow series to end up listening to Ender's Exile...

But I just found out that Graphic Audio dramatized the gospel of Mark so that might take 2 hours of my time away from everything else... It's just really awesomely well done.

I'm not a reader; I'm a listener. I've been listening to so many podcasts right now, I've had little time for even that, though.

Lately I've really been enjoying the podcast novel FETIDUS (Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead, and Supernatural).

WhiteBoy wrote:I'm not a reader; I'm a listener. I've been listening to so many podcasts right now, I've had little time for even that, though.

Lately I've really been enjoying the podcast novel FETIDUS (Foundation for the Ethical Treatment of the Innocently Damned, Undead, and Supernatural).

The worst of it is I Just (and I mean just) bought a Nook from Barnes and Noble so that I can get back into actually "reading" books. And am now plowing through The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. And I just noticed that somebody wrote a 6th book for the Hitchhiker's Guide so I absolutely know what's on my reading list

Hackmodford wrote:I just noticed that somebody wrote a 6th book for the Hitchhiker's Guide so I absolutely know what's on my reading list

Don't get too excited. It's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Hitch-hikers.

UKSteve wrote:

Hackmodford wrote:I just noticed that somebody wrote a 6th book for the Hitchhiker's Guide so I absolutely know what's on my reading list

Don't get too excited. It's almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Hitch-hikers.

Well I've only listened to the drama and never read the books but have watched the movie... will it be that different too me?

Hackmodford wrote:Well I've only listened to the drama and never read the books but have watched the movie... will it be that different too me?

Well let's see, the original radio drama (Primary Phase) and the TV series and the first two books were broadly similar; the Secondary Phase was different cos a bunch of it was co-written so Adams couldn't use it in later books; the recent radio shows (Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential Phases) were broadly based on the later books (with a little retcon added to allow the existence of the Secondary Phase); the movie went off at a completely different tangent (and isn't as good as the books or radio shows); and the Eoin Colfer book... well, what are you thinking about reading that for when there are five proper HHG novels to read?

Because I need more HHG

When you say a little retcon

A) I'm not familiar with that word
B) Does that explain why there seems to be some sort of continuity conflict between the secondary and tertiary phase?

I've only heard the radio dramas. And I liked the movie after watching it a couple times and finding all the little references hidden throughout.

Hackmodford wrote:When you say a little retcon

A) I'm not familiar with that word
B) Does that explain why there seems to be some sort of continuity conflict between the secondary and tertiary phase?

Retrospective continuity, I believe is the full term. And yes, it means they had to fudge the continuity after the event.

UKSteve wrote:

Hackmodford wrote:When you say a little retcon

A) I'm not familiar with that word
B) Does that explain why there seems to be some sort of continuity conflict between the secondary and tertiary phase?

Retrospective continuity, I believe is the full term. And yes, it means they had to fudge the continuity after the event.

Okay so how would you explain what happened between those two stories? If you were purely listening to the audio dramas?

[quote="Hackmodford"][quote="UKSteve"]

Hackmodford wrote:
Okay so how would you explain what happened between those two stories? If you were purely listening to the audio dramas?

You know, if I'd been writing it, I would probably have done something suitably surreal like ignore it but for the occasional oblique reference to it. Which I suppose is kind of what they did by 'explaining' the Secondary Phase away as the imaginings of Zaphod's ego, or something.

CUT IN. I love Basil sands work he is an awesome write,and I also love the Archangle pod cast.

Currently reading, off and on, right now:

Fiction:

I waited anxiously for the newest book set in Terry Brook's other fictional world to come out in paperback. Landover, where a deeply depressed lawyer purchased the right to the throne of a magic kingdom, and the problems and responsibilities of the kingship. Lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago it arrived, so I'm making my way through A Princess of Landover.

In between other reading material, I dart back and forth through a stack of Robert E. Howard anthologies that Del Rey has been putting out, those are a lot of fun.

Non-Fiction:

Slow going through Joseph Campbell's Primitive Mythology. Also, some small doses of A Short History of the World.

Comics:

Well, I never thought I would be as into comics as I have become, however, circumstances have made comics a better target for my attention. Having found my ability to read has become slower, comics provide for faster reading. There is also the convenience of all the compilations and collections of old series, making better access a reality. Currently reading through:

Marvel Star Wars. Yes, the ancient series that Marvel did in the late '70's and early to mid-'80's, which Dark Horse have been kind enough to make available.

Star Wars X-Wing. Again, Dark Horse has made the series desirable by compressing them into three omnibuses.

Star Wars Legacy. Over 100 years after Return of the Jedi, the well known elements of Star Wars have evolved into interesting new patterns.

Classic G.I. Joe. Not the movie, not the new comic book, and not even really much like that animated series from the '80's, except in terms of visual similarity; this G.I. Joe from it's heyday, as created by Larry Hama, a continuity all it's own.

DC Comics Star Trek Volume One. Set between The Wrath of Khan, The Search For Spock, and after The Voyage Home, and ending before the fifth Star Trek movie showed up. Available to me by way of a CD Rom disk that has 30 years worth of Star Trek comics, from the 1960's to a stopping point only a few years ago, including all the comics that DC, Marvel, Image, and others produced; all on one disk. It's just insane!

I just came across this website.
https://www.lethalpublishing.com/christianscififantasy/index.php?cPath=21
The nephillum series interest me...

sadly I'm trying to find ebooks for my new nook.

does anybody have a recommendation on a christian sci-fi ebook? Preferably from Barnes and Noble but epub works fine.

Hackmodford wrote:The nephillum series interest me...

I though it was a pretty bad series, but it hit some particular points that I always hate, so there was no chance I'd like it. Your mileage may vary.