What are you reading, part 3

[Patriotic Kaz]

I'm the opposite, anything to save money! Unless I'm getting it signed...then i probably won't even read that copy.

[Fireborn]

I finished Fallen today, and I thought it was decent.  In comparison to Twilight I'll say this.  Everything that Stephanie Meyer tried to do, Lauren Kate pulled off about three times as well with about a fourth of the length.  Half of the reason for this is that it has angels rather than vampires and actually makes the two different romantic interests in actual competition.  It has a mythology I'm rather interested to see play out, its secondary characters have some interesting quirks (thought they tend to parallel those in Twilight)  The setting is also much better with the conflict derived not entirely from romance but also from the fact that the main character questions her own sanity from time to time.  She has good reason to do so, since she's locked up in a reform school for what appear to be the criminally insane.  The romantic side of the book is also played much better, with the counterpart to the "Team Edward Team Jacob" debate actually being a debatable contest.  This book's "Edward" has a short POV for the prologue, and this brief snippet into his head allows you to see the subtle hints of what's going on in his head from the prose, and is actually a likable and stable person.  The MC falls a tad into Mary Sue territory, but this isn't too terribly apparent as her main function is to be a placeholder for the reader, which she accomplishes rather well.
Overall, I'd recommend this to your Twilight hooked friends as a far superior alternative.  And there's a sequel coming out in September, which I actually intend to read!

[little wilson]

I'm the opposite, anything to save money! Unless I'm getting it signed...then i probably won't even read that copy.

Well. There's a reason for it. I'm kind of Nazi-ish when it comes to my books. I keep them in as pristine a condition as it is possible to do with paperbacks, and yet still read them. Some of them I've had for a good 8 years and they have no rips or bends. The only thing they've got are places on the edges where the color has worn off. That's it.

Buying a book with a rip in the cover--even with a discount--would've irritated me....Maybe this means I'm a bit OCD, but....I don't really care.

[Bookstore Guy]

I'm the opposite, anything to save money! Unless I'm getting it signed...then i probably won't even read that copy.

Well. There's a reason for it. I'm kind of Nazi-ish when it comes to my books. I keep them in as pristine a condition as it is possible to do with paperbacks, and yet still read them. Some of them I've had for a good 8 years and they have no rips or bends. The only thing they've got are places on the edges where the color has worn off. That's it.

Buying a book with a rip in the cover--even with a discount--would've irritated me....Maybe this means I'm a bit OCD, but....I don't really care.

Dont be silly.  There's nothing wrong with that mentality.  There's a reason I rarely let people borrow my books: they might damage them...or leave a fingerprint on them...or breathe on them. 

As for the Vampire Earth books, I personally found the first on to be slow for the first chunk due to "setting stuff up."  However.  The ending to book one was great, and then the following novels were fantastic (except book 7...).  He got back on track with the latest book (as we mentioned in the review).  I'm hoping the Dresden series follows this example and becomes good again...cause the most recent 2 novels sucked big time.

[WriterDan]

Yeah, I'll typically take the covers off of hardbacks that I loan to people, and I have a really hard time loaning my paperbacks out.  Had a friend one time (notice the past tense) borrow a set of the first four Harry Potter books in paperback that I own.  When he gave them back to me, he said it looked like they'd never been read before he got them but that now they looked "well used".  I can't begin to describe the things that went through my head in that moment (most of them would probably get me landed in jail, or at the least some kind of house arrest), but given these recent responses, I'm guessing that some of you can at least begin to feel my pain.

Lots of times when I loan books out I also worry that I'll never get them back; however, now I need not worry anymore because of my most recent Christmas present:

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod88840113

Oh.  Can I even begin to describe how cool this thing is?    I'm going stamp-happy.

[readerMom]

I'm cheap, but I like to lend books, so I use those address stickers that charities send to guilt you into sending them money.  At least that way when I lend a book I know guilt will follow that person until they return it. We recently got a package of two books my husband lent his cousin, 6 months ago. It works well for books kids take to Grandma's or school too.

[Bookstore Guy]

Yeah, I'll typically take the covers off of hardbacks that I loan to people, and I have a really hard time loaning my paperbacks out.  Had a friend one time (notice the past tense) borrow a set of the first four Harry Potter books in paperback that I own.  When he gave them back to me, he said it looked like they'd never been read before he got them but that now they looked "well used".  I can't begin to describe the things that went through my head in that moment (most of them would probably get me landed in jail, or at the least some kind of house arrest), but given these recent responses, I'm guessing that some of you can at least begin to feel my pain.

Lots of times when I loan books out I also worry that I'll never get them back; however, now I need not worry anymore because of my most recent Christmas present:

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod88840113

Oh.  Can I even begin to describe how cool this thing is?    I'm going stamp-happy.

That's awesome! lol!

Of all the people I know and have known, I've lent out books to 4 people; Dan Wells, Brandon Sanderson, and my 2 good friends Nick (from the blog) and Rob.  That's it (take note that my parents aren't on this list.  Or my wife.).  And they've been good to my babies---err books.  Especially Nick.  Cause he's even more OCD with books than I am...a feat for sure.

[Patriotic Kaz]

For a book I'm going to read one time and give away/ sell to half-price, b/c i don't have the shelving space, I tend to not care so much about the appearance just the binding.

[little wilson]

Oh, man. It's great to know there are others with this book-OCD. For the longest time, I've been the only one I know with it, although my sister has it to a very minor degree.

And Dan, I totally understand. Not that something like that has happened to me (my loaned books came back looking a little more used, but nothing that I couldn't handle with more than a cringe or two), but I know what I would do (or want to do) in that situation, and none of them would be pretty....

BSG, good to know that about Vampire Earth. Hopefully they'll suck me in enough to get me back into a reading mood. For some reason, I haven't felt like reading much lately. It's an odd feeling for me....

Also, I told my brother to read to Erikson. Even though I have read Gardens yet, I know the kinds of books he likes and after what I've heard here, I'm sure he'll love them....And if he likes them, I'm pretty much guaranteed to like them (since that's generally how my family rolls with fantasy).

[Patriotic Kaz]

I have similar taste to my father, though mine are broader when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, he likes more of the old school. However, I really don't like the books my sister or older brother read. Though we generally agree about movies, go figure.

[little wilson]

My tastes are a mixture of my brother and my sister. My brother likes adult fantasy; my sister likes teen fiction/fantasy. My dad is more like my brother. And everyone else either doesn't read or doesn't read fiction (one of my other brothers prefers non-fiction). So yeah. I'm pretty much guaranteed to like any fantasy book my brother reads, but he's not going to like all the stuff I read, because some of it is more teen rather than adult....which he doesn't like.

Funny how families mesh and clash like that.

[WriterDan]

Finished Darker Angels.  I enjoyed it.

Just picked up Neuropath by Bakker.  Judging by Steve and Nick's review though...  We'll see, I guess. 

[Shivertongue]

Currently through my umpteenth re-read of The Wheel of Time. This is something I do every time I finish the newest book, and thus started again on Eye of the World moments after closing the Gathering Storm. I'm currently at Path of Daggers, having started it last night - found an old bookmark in it, which kind of surprised me. Apparently I was reading it sometime in the past and stopped...

[Patriotic Kaz]

Chaos, we have some upstart trying to get another god to challenge our authority... look at Shivertounge's sig.

[Bookstore Guy]

Nick and I got some awesome ARCs.  Oh man am I geeked out.  Tor and Pyr are our heroes.

In addition, I imported an absurd number of novels.  Once I finish up reading John Saul's latest, I will be having some serious reading fun.