What are you reading?

[Lizard]

Book Club is reading World War Z, so I guess I'm rereading that? I'm also reading Child 44, which if you're as into Soviet-era Russia as I am, is a total hoot.

[Jubal]

Finished with Byzantines (for a little while, I'm not abandoning them forever!), back to reading Archaic Greek poetry...

[Pentagathus]

Been reading Tolkien's Tales of the Perilous Realm for the first time, regret not doing this sooner.

[Jubal]

It's very good

More Herodotus here :/

[Lizard]

Started re-reading Catcher in the Rye to honour my soon-to-be JD Salinger-related tattoo <3

[Jubal]

I just read the Shepherd's Crown - the last Pratchett book - this morning, it was great Though really really sad to know that it's the last of them. 

Also pinned, we should use this thread more, it's good.

[comrade_general]

Got Walden from my unit for Xmas.

[Glaurung]

The Wood Beyond The World, by William Morris. It was published in 1895, and is perhaps the first modern fantasy novel. I have some more Morris books with me for the weekend.

[Jubal]

^ These both look/sound like things I should read!

Meanwhile I'm back to John Kinnamos' "Deeds of John and Manuel Komnenos", and trying not to regret my choice of topic for this essay too much...

[Lady Grey]

I'm in the process of reading a few things at the moment.
Really getting into the Agatha Christies - I'm reading 'The Clocks' currently. Also reading the movie novelization of Crimson Peak before I see the film - I want to mentally prepare myself! SotK got me a sort-of companion to Crimson Peak as well call 'The Art of Darkness' which is sort-of a making of etc. which is a gorgeous book.


I also finished The Hourglass Factory by Lucy Ribchester a while ago - I loved it - right down my street!


AND I have the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series to start!

[Pentagathus]

Those Morris books do sound like something I'd enjoy. Currently reading nothing except a physiology text book. Fun fun.

[Jubal]

I'm reading Donald Rayfield's "History of Georgia", which I just bought for myself - it's really very well written, in terms of focus it skews to the modern but it's big enough to incorporate several chapters on the middle ages which are very good. Would recommend, though keeping track of the different names (especially if you don't know the geography) is a tad tough!

[Glaurung]

I've just finished a re-read of Diana Wynne Jones' The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. It's written as a sort of generic travel guide to the worlds found in a lot of modern fantasy, and consists mostly of a series of encyclopedia-style entries describing all the features that the tourist might expect to find during a visit to Fantasyland. There are some unexpected insights - for example, that Fantasyland horses appear to breed by pollination, and that the staple diet seems to be stew.

As I heard the story, Diana Wynne Jones read a lot of generic fantasy to write entries for the Encyclopedia of Fantasy, and she then wrote the Tough Guide to get the experience out of her system. It's all done quite humorously, but the Guide points out many features of fantasy writing that have been repeated somewhat mindlessly by a lot of authors. I'm reasonably confident that at least one author changed various aspects of their fantasy world after reading the Guide.

[Jubal]

That sounds like a fun read, I should look out for it...

I don't think I've ever made characters eat stew in anything I've written. Possibly because I'm not a great fan of stews myself!

[Glaurung]

That sounds like a fun read, I should look out for it...

Yes, I recommend it. Unfortunately, it's very probably out of print - it was first published in 1996 and I haven't seen it in bookshops for a long time. It probably won't often appear for sale second-hand either.