What are you reading right now? (possible RotE spoilers)

[joost]

Reading 'Playing the game' from storiesonline right now. A nice 'coming of age' story. And still reading Snow crash too, but I'm reading that mainly in the train while travelling to work.

[danieladamsmith]

I have a terrible secret to admit on this forum. I am actually reading the LIVE SHIP TRADERS trilogy right now. I just started MAD SHIP this morning on the UBAHN having finished SHIP OF MAGIC minutes before that...That's not the secret. The secret is that I read Farseer and then went straight to Tawny Man skipping the LIVESHIP TRADER trilogy and now I am backtracking.....

[Farseer]

I think I may have mentioned this already (??) - my husband did the very same thing but then, over halfway through Fool's Errand, he realised he just HAD to read LST to get the 'whole' story, so went back to Ship of Magic. He is also currently reading The Mad Ship and can't put it down...quite a huge turnaround for someone who used to be a non-reader and hated fantasy of any kind, and also considering he swore black and blue that he'd never read LST as "it doesn't have Fitz"!

Good on you for backtracking, danieladamsmith, and getting that confession off your chest!!

I must admit I put off LST for quite a while after finishing Farseer (I'm still kicking myself), and if I had known then that the TM books had existed, I'm thinking that, like you, I'd have gone straight onto them, too!

I am too tied up with brain-draining tasks at the moment so am avoiding reading something new. I am also still in my umpteenth full RotE re-read, searching for the one line that confirms reincarnation within the realm...! I've not long begun AQ but have been dispersing it with reading over my husband's shoulder. I also have a terrible habit of looking in the books for "just one thing" and then getting caught up in it all for more than a few chapters...a little bit of SOM here, a little bit of DH there...

[Farseer]

On the train: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

What?! I can't believe I read this post and overlooked this little tidbit! I have wanted to read 'The Alchemist' for such a long time, and almost bought it when I was in Townsville the other day. How is it, Albertosaurus Rex?

And joost...I have finally worked out that your little ditty comes from Tears For Fears!

[Albertosaurus Rex]

That is actually not an easy question to answer. I am currently more than halfway through. It's an easy read, I'll say that.

Honestly, with books that have a strong religious or spiritual bent, a lot of one's enjoyment depends on if one agrees with the author. And not all of the messages are to my liking. It starts off with stuff about following your own dreams, or "living your own legend" as it's called here. It is stated that many people know what their goal in life is, but never get around to actually making sure they get there. It takes effort to do that, and that's a message that is very true.

However.... then we get stuff like "when someone wants something, the whole universe will conspire to make it happen" and that signs are everywhere, if you the eyes to look. To be sure, Coelho explicitly states that The Alchemist is a symbolical tale, so I don't know if he actually believes that. I don't want to start a religious flame war here, but that's the kind of attitude that I really don't like.

[danieladamsmith]

I did go through a period where I read all of Coelho's books. He's a good storyteller. I think the problem I have with him isn't necessarily his work although perhaps he's a bit to blame.His books tend to be a little over simplistic. But they are kind of like cautionary tales. It's all the baggage that comes along with being a Coelho reader. Usually they are the New Age, Self Help, Healing crowd. Though I hate when people file me in a certain folder when I tell them I read fantasy I guess I am doing a bit of the same...oops

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I just finished The Alchemist and I'm honestly not quite sure what to think of it. Good points are mixed with a kind of ideology that I absolutely cannot stand. Also, the ending was a little weird...

I'll discuss it behind spoiler tags.

The boy arrives at the pyramids but doesn't find his treasure there. Then he meets a group of robbers, one of whom tells him about his dream: a treasure located at the church back in Spain where the boy used to sleep. I thought that the point being made here was that it was the journey that mattered, rather than the destination. Personal development and all that. Then in the epilogue, the boy is back at the church and does find a physical treasure there. What?

[joost]

Online story: Dance of a lifetime (Don Lockwood)
Book: Fables v14: Witches (Bill WIllingham)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I have less than 200 pages to go of Tigana. I love it, but at the same time I feel that the big pay-off is long overdue. It's frustrating - I really enjoy the book, yet at the same time I feel like very little has actually happened.

On the other hand, stuff is happening in Robert B. Wintermute's The Quest for Karn, but it's a dull read so far.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Just finished Tigana. It's a good book, I really enjoyed it. However, the strange thing is that for the last 200 pages (out of 793), my patience suddenly ran out. Come page 600, I suddenly found myself thinking "Alright, I've had enough. Just end."

And now I'm going to read... The Inheritance by our one and only Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm!