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[Klear]

I finaly got my hands on House of Leaves. For those who don't know the book, it is an experimental novel... actually, words fail me. It's a book about a book about a film about a house that is a labyrinth, which is bigger on the inside that on the outside. And the page layout is crazy:





While I'm usually wary of such experiments, since na outrageous form often means less substance of the content, all the reviews of this book I could find were overwhelmingly positive.
Besides, the strange formatting isn't just for its own sake, as is often the case. It serves to create an atmosphere which corresponds to the events in the book: when the characters explore the labyrinth, the pages themselves start being twisted and maze-like. When they are chased by something, suddenly there are only a few words on each page, which makes you turn the pages rapidly etc.

It was never published in the Czech Republic (and frankly, I don't think a translation would do for me) and I couldn't find it in any library or bookstore anywhere. Luckily I googled up a Czech blog where the one writing it offered to sell a copy of the book (since he accidentally got two copies) and managed to get my family to get the book for me for my name-day I had this Sunday. Otherwise the book would be quite expensive to get.

In any case I just started to read and it's really well written, though I can't say if the book is good until I've finished it. It has already succeeded very well in something which many books try - it is told through several layers: the main (?) character got his hands on a manuscript written by a strange blind old man called Zampanó who recently died. Thus after some introduction there is a transprition of said manuscript with notes by the main character, while the manuscript itself describes a strange fictional (it might be fictional in-universe as well) film called "The Navidson Record", which is about the weird house and the Navidson family that lives there and explores it. It sounds complicated, but it's in fact quite easy to follow and understand (so far) thanks to different layers being set in different fonts. And the best thing is that it creates some vague fear not only for the safety of the main character, but for mine as a reader.

Well.. so that's it. I'll let you know if the book is as good as it seems when I finish it.

[LuckyDee]

Got the full colour version at home, read it a couple of times already. One of the most brilliant books I've ever laid my hands on - enjoy!

In stark contrast: I'm currently reading 'Snuff', the latest Discworld novel.

[ZicherCZ]

Thread hijack! (if Klear doesn't mind too much, that is :) )

What are you guys reading now anyway?

After my moving, I renewed my library account, and jumped on Terry Pratchett, with some old and gold Stephen King for good measure.

[Klear]

Thread hijack! (if Klear doesn't mind too much, that is :) )

What are you guys reading now anyway?

I meant for the thread to evolve into this. That is the reason I named it "Now reading..." instead of "House of Leaves" and it definitely had nothing to do with the fact that it's impossible to make part of the thread title blue.

Anyway, to get back on the new track - I recently absorbed every Sherlock Holmes story written by Doyle (preparing to watch the BBC miniseries) and then started to read another Warhammer 40k novel, though that will have to wait now.

[ZicherCZ]

I'm glad you are from Prague and not from Ostrava - A.C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is just next on my to-read list, and you would be stealing my reservations at the library ;).

[Belk]

What are you guys reading now anyway?

Well. This forum +)

[Klear]

I'm glad you are from Prague and not from Ostrava - A.C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is just next on my to-read list, and you would be stealing my reservations at the library ;).

I actually downloaded the whole thing as a text file and stuck it into my cheap old mobile phone. There's a program that makes a jar file out of any text and makes it really easy to read on the small screen, and I can bring it aynwhere, or to be more precise, I don't have to bring anything extra, since I carry my mobile phone with me everywhere. Before you bring it up, though, I do prefer paper books, though I usually only read those before sleep.

@Belk

Hehe..

[ZicherCZ]

I actually downloaded the whole thing as a text file and stuck it into my cheap old mobile phone. There's a program that makes a jar file out of any text and makes it really easy to read on the small screen, and I can bring it aynwhere, or to be more precise, I don't have to bring anything extra, since I carry my mobile phone with me everywhere. Before you bring it up, though, I do prefer paper books, though I usually only read those before sleep.

Then I believe your mobile phone is a bit newer than the one of mine (Nokia 3310, working well still for 11 years!) :).
For me, it is a matter of half an hour trip to my work, and another half an hour back home. Not mentioning those times reading calmly at home, preferably with a glass of wine or whisky :).

[LuckyDee]

After my moving, I renewed my library account, and jumped on Terry Pratchett, with some old and gold Stephen King for good measure.

I can see we're in the same ballpark here. Some personal recommendations:

* Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman (modern fantasy)
* The Passage, Justin Cronin (post-apocalyptic, sequel to be released September this year)
* Anything by Douglas Coupland (a lot computer/programming related stories, hilarious)
* The Hitchiker's Guide, of course.

I'll see if I can take some pictures of my bookcases this evening, I have a reasonably large collection that I'm very proud of.

[Klear]

Then I believe your mobile phone is a bit newer than the one of mine (Nokia 3310, working well still for 11 years!) :).

A bit: Sony Ericsson K750, though it's a fourth or fifth one... I don't remember how many I've lost, only to buy the same model again.

[thelaptop]

My "leisure reading" is confined to The Economist these days, while my non-leisure stuff is based on a ton of research papers from VLDB, SIGMOD, SIGKDD, SIGIR, WSDM, WebDB, ICML, MLJ.

=)

[LuckyDee]

As promised: I'm an avid reader, of mostly English books, and have amassed quite a collection of the last decade. My definite favourites are Stephen King (which I started on when I was eleven or twelve yrs old, I guess) and Terry Pratchett, but I'll try nearly everything once. I read on a daily basis, mostly before I go to sleep and while taking a dump (sorry if this is too much detail, but it's one of life's greatest combinations as far as I'm concerned).

As well as collecting the works of Pratchett and King, I've been taking detours around Neil Gaiman, Douglas Coupland (a must-read for anyone who's into computers), Dean Koontz and HP Lovecraft, but I've also started collecting the books that - to me at least - are the modern classics: Lord of the Flies, On the Road, Alice in Wonderland... the only one missing that I can currently think of is 1984, but I've already read this 2 or 3 times at least.
Then there's of course textbooks for RPGs, which I keep going through as well.

Please have a look at parts of my collection (bout half of the books shown are my girlfriend's, who reads even more than I do). If you want more info/details, just gimme a shout - always happy to discuss a good book. If you have any recommendations, feed me!

The shelves:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Discworld:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

More Discworld and other fantasy:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

King:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Erm... stuff:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

RPG:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

There's more obviously, but these are most of my personal favourites.

[Klear]

Erm... stuff:

I was SO sure there will be porn under that spoiler =)

[LuckyDee]

I was SO sure there will be porn under that spoiler =)

Wrong shelves ;)

[eharper256]

Gosh, wish I had that much shelf-space Luckydee. Mine are a double stacked nightmare. :D

On topic, I just finished reading the latest Iron Druid book, 'Tricked' by Kevin Hearne. Tremendous fun as always, especially for the conversations he has with his Irish Wolfhound Oberon.

[ParaSait]

If manga count, I'm currently reading Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai!, just finished Another, and now I started on Goth.

[LuckyDee]

Finished Snuff, now started on The Ghosts of Sleath / '48 by James Herbert. I've already read '48 once (post-apocalyptic story set right after WWII), and up until now it's been the only good JH I've been able to find. Thought I'd give The Ghosts another try though.

On a mind-boggling side-note: I was actually appalled at the profanity in Snuff (I think it uses 'piss' once, 'shit' three times and I'm pretty sure I saw a 'fuck' pasing by as well). I'm actually amazed at myself, since I'm normally highly unlikely to take offence at this, especially with words that are being used so much that they've lost a lot of their power.
However, I've always admired Pratchett for being able to do without, and seeing him take a swing at explicit profanity after 32 books of implicit remarks is a bigger let-down then I'd ever imagined. I must be growing old...

[Klear]

Finished reading House of Leaves a couple of days ago. It really is as good as everybody says. When I finally put it down, I felt like I emerged from a labyrinth, knowing that I maybe didn't see all of its winding passages, and that I will have to return there someday in the future. I'm a little afraid that next time I open the book, the story will be completely different.

In the meantime, I read HHhH by Laurent Binet. As a Czech, the subject of assassination of Reinhard Heydrich is close to me, obviously, but the book is really well written even beyond the incredibly dramatic story written by history, I especially liked all the musings on writing a historical novel.

Yesterday I finished Seventeen Moments of Spring. It's a novel which was adapted to a brilliant Soviet series. Something like a Soviet James Bond. Even though it can be seen as a propaganda piece (in fact, it was commissioned by the KGB), it is in fact a brilliant piece of cinematography and having read all of Fleming's Bond novels, I can tell you that these are much better.

Oh, and I also read False Gods, part of the Horus Heresy series of WH40K novels. I read a lot lately. =)