Welcome to Loafy23's Book pages!


This is an extension of my Book page.  Not unlike my Recently Viewed Movies this page is a listing of what I'm reading (instead of viewing) currently.  Although it's sorta like a diary of my reading it's also here and open for discussion.  I'm making comments and mini reviews as I go along so if you have anything to offer or if there's a book or series of books that you think I might be interested in then please contact me.

There's something that I should say at this point.  Many reading this may think that I'm not giving enough details about the plot of the books I'm reading.   That may be true but for me there's a fine line between talking about the plot and spoiling a story for the reader.  I guess I'd rather err on the side of vagueness than ruin a wonderful read for someone else.

What am I currently reading???

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(Mar 26, 2000)

The Tombs of Atuan was a very good read.  I finished it this morning sometime around 5 or so.  As I'd mentioned in my last update I was about a third of the way into the book and Ged had not even been mentioned yet.  That was remedied a handful of pages later.  From that point on the meat of the story commences and we're shown how the one person who is your jailer can also be the one who'll set you free.   Truth, kindness, and compassion go a long way.  The Tombs of Atuan is a wonderful but sad story.  I wholeheartedly recommend it to those who love fantasy.

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(Mar 25, 2000)

As the love of my life says, I've been devouring books like mad lately.  My reading speed is increasing and I no longer look at a 600+ page book as an insurmountable undertaking.  Since there's no TV to distract me the only things to interrupt my reading are games (PC and otherwise,) the love of my live (Hi honey!!! :),) my online adventures, and frequent doctor visits.  The doctor visits are actually another excuse to read because those of you that've been to a doctor know that they're NEVER on time and you'll have at least a half an hour's wait ahead of you.  Do you trust your doctor's choice in waiting room reading material?  I don't, that's for sure.

On my last update below I stated that I was almost finished with the Malloreon series.   It was done within a day or two of the writing of that update.  I borrowed Belgarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress off of Keslar Fox (both in hardback, by the way) and continued on with this series that I've grown to love so much.  Both of these books are continuations/explanations of what went on and how things came to be what they did and why from two very different points of view.  Belgarath covered some 7000 years of history from when he was a child to the conclusion of the Malloreon.   Likewise Polgara covered everything from slightly before her birth up to beginning of The Belgariad.  Both books give a great insight into these two wonderfully different characters who are father and daughter.  I very much enjoyed those two books totaling some 1300+ pages and at the end only wanting more.  ;)  The only book left in that series is The Rivan Codex which is more or less background info on how the Eddings' undertook this massive series and includes backstory on the characters as well as shows readers just what's involved in writing a complete fantasy world down and making it coherent and believable.  I've not acquired this book yet but I'm gonna try!  :)

Before I'd concluded Polgara the Sorceress Fox dropped Fear by L. Ron Hubbard in my lap and also a book he'd just concluded by Neil Gaiman called Neverwhere.  I must at this point thank Fox for the present of Neverwhere.  I'd never expected anything more than him letting me borrow Neverwhere but in Fox's wonderful giving fashion he completely surprised me and I now have my own copy.  Thanks, Fox, yer The Man.  ;)

I decided to read Neverwhere first because of Fox's ravings about it.  ;)  I dug into it, and to be completely truthful, I had some trouble getting into it at first.   I always find the first book that I read after having read a mountain of works by another author to be difficult since I'm so used to (at that point) to the other author's style.  So after the first 70 pages or so I settled into Gaiman's style and became more and more hooked.  Neverwhere is a fantasy book (for lack of a better term) based in London of today.  The whole premise behind it is that there's a whole, unseen world below our cities and in this world lives those that've "slipped through the cracks" in the upper world.  It's a wild and primeval world where they live by our refuse.  Richard Mayhew slips through the cracks after helping a bleeding girl he finds on the sidewalk.  What ensues is a great adventure filled with excitement, disbelief, and danger.  Neverwhere has two of the most vile bad guys ever!  Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar.  Both are quite prim and proper English 'men' but hideously evil to the core.  One thing that I found that helped my enjoyment of the book was reading it with an English accent.  Try it, you'll understand.  :)

After Neverwhere I took a day off from reading.  Then, as always, I got bored and picked up Fear by L. Ron Hubbard.  I'm not a reader of the horror genre, I've just never really been interested in it.  After reading Fear though... well, let's just say that I MIGHT become a reader of horror.  :)  I read Fear straight through in about six hours.  To say that I've a new found respect of Hubbard is an understatement.  Fear is a sensational horror book that does not use anything more than the readers imagination to enthrall you in one man's loss of a hat and four little hours of time.  Would you publicly and loudly denounce the existence of devils and demons?  Jim did.  Fear's what he got for his proclamations.  This is definitely a must read for anyone with even the slightest bit interested in horror.

After Fear I didn't have any books in the queue so I mistakenly asked Tryp to get out all the books from the top shelf of our big book case.  I'm now up to my armpits in books.  :)  But I did find something to read.  I'd intended to read some Asimov but I found that although I have many of his books I don't have a complete series of the books that I do have.  Something else caught my eye though.  Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy had been recommended to me many years ago by my girlfriend at the time.  She'd torn through them in short order but I just didn't have the love of reading at that time as I do now and she and those books passed out of my life.   Fortunately I'd gotten two of the three in a mass book purchase I'd been lucky enough to make some years ago.  I'd later picked up the other that I needed to complete the series but I'd just never gotten around to reading 'em.  The first one, A Wizard of Earthsea, is finished and now I'm working on the second of the trilogy, The Tombs of Atuan.  LeGuin's style is quite different from what I'm used to and thus the books, although slim, are taking me a little longer than normal to read.  None the less though, the enjoyment I'm receiving is great.  This trilogy is about the life and adventures of a sorcerer named Ged (AKA Sparowhawk) from the mountainous island of Gont.  A Wizard of Earthsea tells of Ged's young life and his coming to the Island of the Wise to learn to control and strengthen his magical abilities and ultimately become a Wizard.  Ged's pride gets the best of him and what results is the loss of someone he cares a great deal for, his life nearly being lost, him being greatly scarred, and the unloosing of a great evil upon the world.  You'll have to read it to get the rest of the story.  ;)

A third of the way through The Tombs of Atuan and I've not even seen Ged yet!  I know he's in there somewhere. :)  A cool story none the less though.  But everything I've read so far has been a setup for things to come.  I'll let you know more when I'm done with it.  :)

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(Feb 29, 2000)

Welp, the world didn't come to an end on new years.  I didn't think that it would anyway.  :)  This is my first update of the new century.  I cannot say new millennium though because (if you're paying attention and have some math skills) you know that doesn't start until the END of this year.  Again I've been lax in updating my pages.  Life gets in the way, ya know?  Here's a run down of what I've been reading since the last century.

After finishing Magician's Gambit I quickly moved on to the rest of The Belgariad.  Next was Castle of Wizardry and then last of course was Enchanter's End Game.  My love of the characters in this series grew with each turn of the page.  I definitely wanted to continue reading about these people but unfortunately my copy of the second series, The Malloreon, was incomplete.  I had books one, three, and five but had no idea where I'd get books two and four.  Fortunately for me our good friend Keslar Fox had the whole set and loaned me those two.

The Malloreon is almost complete.  I've got less than some 200 pages to go on the last book in the series, The Seeress of Kell, and I'm very sad that there's so little left for me to read about these characters.  I know that there are two more books to read, one about Belgarath and one about Polgara but that's not enough...  I wish that Eddings would write another story about some of these characters.

I have enjoyed every book in both of these series.  The characters have been made real inside of my mind due to Eddings incredible attention to detail and immersive style of writing.  I will profoundly miss these characters when I've read all that I can in these books.  If you're a fan of fantasy, this series is a must read.  That's all there is to it.

I've been so lucky in my reading adventures.  Thanks to good friends with good taste I've gotten to read some of the most impressive works in fantasy and scifi literature and for that I thank them all.

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(November 22, 99)

I finished Queen of Sorcery yesterday and almost immediately started in on the third book, Magician's Gambit.  Although it's not really been all that long since I read the Thomas Covenant books I feel as though that was the last series that really made me care about the characters as much as I do about these characters in The Belgariad.  I guess I am fortunate in that I've gotten to read two such wonderful series in such a short time.

Once I get into my reading groove with these books it's very hard for me to stop even when I know that I need to sleep so that I'm able to meet the needed obligations of the next day.  I read until about 5am today...  Now I'm sitting here fighting sleep.  Maybe I just need a nap.  :)

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(November 20, 99)

Wow... It has been quite a long time since I've updated this page.  The eye problem that I mentioned in my last update is still bothering me a great deal.  I'm now seeing an eye specialist for the problem.  He says it's Corneal Erosion caused by my eye drying out while I'm sleeping and possibly opening slightly and allowing something or other to scratch my eye.  Doc says that I have five scratches on my eye.  It's not pleasant to say the least.  But at least I now have some sort of an answer as to what's been causing all this pain.

Since my last update I started reading David Eddings' The Belgariad series.  I finished the first book, Pawn of Prophecy, a couple of days ago while sitting in the car on what was (unfortunately) not the last stop of grocery shopping day.  PoP was a rather long but enjoyable introduction to the main characters.  The book did build and become more exciting and intriguing as it went on.  Enough so that I'm deep into the second book, Queen of Sorcery.

In the past two days I've managed to devour fully half of QoS.  The story is getting more and more interesting as I go and I'm finding it harder and harder to put it down.  Eddings has supplied varied, believable, and very interesting characters.  These are characters that I care about so I'm compelled to continue reading.

I must return to my book.  :)

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(September 10, 99)

No book has yet to catch my eye.  My friend Keslar Fox may be done the Illuminatus Trilogy so I think that I'll bug him until he lets me borrow it.  :)  Although... reading is going to be quite difficult for me for a while since my left eye's giving me so much trouble.  I've been having a lot of pain in that eye as well as a great deal of blurred vision on it's account.  Hopefully the anti-biotic cream I'm putting in it per doctor's orders will clear everything up.

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(August 19, 99)

Wow!  It has been a long time since I last updated this page.  For quite some time now I've been having a lot of trouble reading due to the medication that I'm on for my severe back pain.  The meds are so powerful that they make it difficult for me to concentrate enough to read and fully comprehend what I'm reading.  I can read labels and stuff like that with no problem but I want to really understand and be pulled into the stories that I read.  It's just been very difficult to do that as of late.

I finally finished the last book of the second Amber series, Prince of Chaos.  Although I enjoyed the second series much more this second trip through them I feel that the ending of this last book was sort of anti-climatic.  Now this may be due the broken reading patterns that this book was read under...  I may just have to go back and read it again to be sure of my feeling about it.

Zelazny did leave the ending open for another series.  It's very unfortunate that he never got to write that series.

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(June 24, 99)

Time to start on the last book of the Amber series, Prince of Chaos.  I just completed Knight of Shadows.  The revelations just keep coming.  The Pattern and Logrus are defined more and more plus we get a visit from an Amberite that was thought to be long since dead.  The whole book as a feeling of building towards some great climax and in typical Zelazny style there's a big twist at the end.  He really was a marvelous writer.

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(June 20, 99)

I just completed Sign of Chaos.  Zelazny did love to put a twist into his surprise endings... always compelling you to read the next in the series.  I'm so glad that I've gotten to read the Amber books one after another.  It would have been torture to wait for the next book to come out.  :)

This book brings to light the Golden Circle nations.  These are nations that have preferred trade status with Amber.  And as I mentioned in my last update there's a revelation of sorts about the Pattern plus there's now a new Amberite to add to all the decks of Trumps.  Merlin's forced to find allies where there'd only been enemies in the past.  The most important of all the revelations comes right at the end though.  :)

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(June 18, 99)

I'm still working on Sign of Chaos and I've got about half of it read.  Things are falling into place for Merlin and the surprise addition of a new Amberite as well as a scary insight into the Pattern itself.

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(June 14, 99)

I finished reading Blood of Amber early this morning and immediately started on the next in the series, Sign of Chaos.  I thoroughly enjoyed Blood of Amber.  The plot gets more and more convoluted and deep in this one.  Although a few questions are answered, many more are posed.  Merlin's to the point that he doesn't know whether to shit or go sailing.  :)

I'm hoping to finish Sign of Chaos a bit faster than Blood of Amber thought they are just about the same size.

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(May 31-June 1, 99)

Another two day update... same reason as the last. I decided on Monday to go ahead and start reading the Merlin books of the Amber series.  Here I am at 7a.m. Tuesday morning and Trumps of Doom, the first in the Merlin series, is complete.  I must admit that after reading this book I'm finding that I'm having to re-evaluate my views of this series.  I think that my feeling concerning this series were a bit off.  The comparison that I'd made in the past, I believe, was based on my feelings for the main character and not the book or the overall story.  Merlin is a very different character from Corwin although there are similarities.  The differences can be attributed to experience.  Merlin is very young compared to Corwin...  In the Corwin series the main character is an old and wizened one.  Corwin is many, many centuries old and has had hundreds of lifetimes of experience in which to learn certain things... to become wary and cagey.  Merlin is very young in comparison.  He's not had time to become wizened and in fact had a very difficult time when first coming to Shadow Earth because he simply just didn't know what was what and what was expected of him.  I think that the differences in the books comes more from the fact that the character is just so different from what was presented in the first series.  Now I'm not saying that I'll keep this opinion through this entire series but this is how I feel now.  Check back to find out if my opinion changes.  :)

I'll probably start the next book, Blood of Amber, very soon. 

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(May 29-30, 99)

This update basically covers two days... or really one from my perspective as I've yet to go to sleep.  I started The Hand of Oberon on Wednesday the 26th and finished it up last night.  This book clarifies a lot of things about the family and who is who.  You now find out the true source of all the trouble for Shadow and Amber.  At the end you get a big surprise too!  :)

I immediately started The Courts of Chaos (the final book in the Corwin series) after finishing The Hand of Oberon.  This book I read straight through, cover to cover.  I'd have to say that this book presents more twists and surprises than all the previous books combined!  As well written as all the others also.  Although I enjoyed this book thoroughly there's still one paragraph near the end of what I'd guess to be the third quarter of the book that completely baffles me and makes me wonder just what the Hell Zelazny was smoking when he wrote it.  I truly must attribute the paragraph to Corwin's mental and physical state at this time in the story.

Now that the Corwin series is done I must say that I've enjoyed these books even more this time around.  Zelazny instantly became my favorite author, next to Tolkien, after having read these books the first time through and I'm even more sad now than I was when I'd first heard of his death.  I've read a good deal of his work and I believe that he's given all his readers a great deal of enjoyment.  He's made me happy, sad, angry, and thoughtful... and what more could you want from a book than to "feel?"  I highly recommend this series to any that have an inkling to read fantasy or already established fans of the genre.

Five books in less than four weeks is pretty good, I believe.  I dunno if I'm gonna jump right into the Merlin series or what at this point.  I just haven't decided yet... maybe I'll just sleep on it.

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(May 25, 99)

'Just finished up Sign of the Unicorn.  It's really amazing all that I've forgotten about this series.  In this book most of the other character's personalities are flushed out and we lose another main player.  The most relevant or exciting thing happens within the last few pages... a monumental discovery.  Read it and find out what it is.  :)

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(May 22, 99)

The Guns of Avalon is complete today and I've already started on Sign of the Unicorn, the third book in the Amber series.  These books are pretty easily read in a couple days if you're a fast reader and can dedicate the time.  I am now a fairly fast reader but being able to dedicate the time is the main problem.  The Guns of Avalon is a great book.  One of the most significant of the five.  Here we see  the death of an important character, the introduction of a couple very important characters, and the implementation of the main plot line.  The character of Corwin is really flushed out in this book.

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(May 9, 99)

My want of reading has been invigorated.  I didn't think that this would happen so soon.  On May 4th we had to do our grocery shopping and what this entails for me is sitting in the car for a long time while Pikachooo does the shopping.  So I do tend to get VERY bored but sitting there so I usually take something along to read.  I decided to grab Nine Princes in Amber on the way out the door.  After three hours in the car (which just kills me due to my back problem) I'd managed to devour most of that book.  I'd hoped on finishing it that day but since we had company that evening I had to delay my reading.  I did manage to finish it by the 7th though and started on the next book in the Amber series almost immediately.  The Guns of Avalon is a bit longer than Nine Princes but I'm more than a third of the way through this one already.

I really love this series.  It's truly a marvel of the fantasy genre.  I've been meaning to re-read Amber for some time now but when there's just so many books to read and only so much time in one life.  :)

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(May 3, 99)

I've been reading The Fortress of the Pearl for some time now.  It's a rather short book coming in at just over 200 pages but it's taken me forever to get through.  This is an excellent book... a continuation or supplement to the Elric Saga.  The book details the time that Elric spent in Quarzhasaat, a city in the Sighing Desert, and the surrounding area.  This time is only grazed over in the Elric Saga but here it is fully developed and revealed.  If you are a fan of Elric then this book is a must read.  Moorcock explains the multiverse in a much deeper way as it is associated with Elric, the worlds of dreams, and destinies of souls.  I would have liked to have read this book in one or two days but it's been spread out over a period of just over a month.

My reading has really been curtailed as of late...  I've just not had the desire to read lately.  I don't know what I'm going to read next.  I would like to reread the Amber books... at least the first five.  I don't know if I'll read the last five though as I'm a bigger fan of Corwin than of Merlin.

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(Mar 22, 99)

I haven't gotten back to Imajica yet... I got detoured to a book called Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame.)  This book was released at the same time as the PC game by the same name.  The book was a lot of fun to read and quite a quick read to boot.  It's  a mixture of Adams and Python humor in a science fiction setting with lots of demented robots with strange personalities.  The whole idea for the book comes from just one or two lines in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and thus feels as though it's a natural extension of that series.  Although this is no deep novel it's a helluva lot of fun to read.  Very entertaining if you like the English styled comedy of Adams and Monty Python.  This book was a great diversion for me.  It lightened my mood and entertained me for a couple days.

Imajica is still on my list to be read although I don't know when I'll get back to it.  I'm taking life a day at a time right now...

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(Mar 16, 99)

I finished White Gold Wielder with tears in my eyes and a general feeling of loss and of respect for Thomas Covenant.  I don't think that any series of books have made me feel as much as these.  Donaldson is a true genius of a storyteller.  I would rank this work with Tolkien in importance and in the level of emotional involvement the reader experiences.  Thomas Covenant is by no means a likable hero and at times it's really damned hard to do anything but dislike him but there is an understanding about this character that's reached in this story.  If you think about what is taking place and has taken place in his life and by putting yourself in his position that understanding is found.  I don't think that many of us can really understand what it's like to have your life removed from you by a disease as terrible as leprosy... but I think that most of us understand what pain is...  Leprosy is that magnified many times fold and superimposed on one's soul.  I believe that The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is more than just a fantasy tale... it teaches us understanding and empathy.

I've heard rumors that Donaldson may be writing another addition to this series.  I personally don't think that there needs to be another set of books written to "complete" the tale but I'll welcome them with open arms if he decides to write them.

Today I started reading Imajica by Clive Barker.  I've only gotten a few pages into it so far so I'm still in the evaluation stages.  I'll know more in a few days as to whether I like it or not.

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(Mar 9, 99)

The One Tree is done and I'm about 270 pages into White Gold Wielder.  I'll be sad when I'm done with it as I've become quite attached to a couple of the characters.  My favorite character of them all is Pitchwife the Giant.  Kinda like a giant Quasimodo with a great outlook on life.  Thomas Covenant is still not a likable hero but at least now I truly understand him and his anger and harshness.

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(Feb 18, 99)

After taking a day off from reading I had to start back in on The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  I'm reading The One Tree now and have put about 120 pages in the past.  This series continues to be very strong despite this being the fifth book overall.  The character Linden Avery is a great counterpoint to Covenant plus the Giant characters really bring this story to life.  I'm still having a great time with this series.

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(Feb 9, 99)

I've finally finished The Wounded Land.  Finally???  That makes it sound like a chore... it was anything but a chore.  I really love this book.  It's so well written and is such a spectacular continuation of the story of The Land.  I may start the next book, The One Tree, today or I may wait a couple days... I haven't decided yet.

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(Jan 28, 99)

Still haven't finished The Wounded Land though I have made some progress.  If I don't finish this book soon I'm going to have to start over again just so I feel that I have a complete picture of what Stephen R. Donaldson is saying.  The book is wonderful, I've just not had the time to read.  :(

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(Jan 19, 99)

The Wounded Land is still not done.  I'm some 150 pages in to it and it's as excellent as all the other books that I've read in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.  The only reason that I've not read more is that the reading mood seems to have left me.  :(

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(Jan 4, 99)

I've made just a little progress with the second chronicles.  Only 55 pages into it and I like it already.  This story takes place 10 years later in Thomas Covenant's life and 3500 years later in The Land.  I must say that I was curious as to how Donaldson was going to start this series considering how the last book ended of the first chronicles.

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(Jan 2, 99)

I've been reading The Power that Preserves, the last book in the first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: The Unbeliever, since around Dec 17th.  I've had a hard time getting through this book as I've not had much time to read with all the holiday stuff going on.  I finished this morning around 6:30.  I was close to the end and I just had to finish it up so I just kept at it.  I read about 300 of the 480 pages in the past week so I really jumped into it once I had the time and a lack of distractions.  I enjoyed this book very much and found it to be a fitting end to this series of three.  This series is quite sad though... nearly on par with Elric in sadness.

I decided to start reading the second Chronicles of TC this morning...  I guess I just don't know when to stop.  :)

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(Dec 15, 98)

I finished The Illearth War early (around 3am) this morning.  I'm kicking myself for having not borrowed the next book in the series yesterday when I was at Chris' house.  Now I'm Jonesing for the next book and it's in the next city!  The Illearth War is a fantastic book, even better than Lord Foul's Bane.  Although this series is about the character Thomas Covenant, the majority of this book covers other characters...  But the development of the Thomas Covenant character is great in The Illearth War.  The two people that I know that've tried to read these books have not finished either book...  I don't really understand that 'cause these books are incredible.

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(Dec 11, 98)

I'm more than 160 pages into The Illearth War and enjoying it as much as ever.

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(Dec 8, 98)

I started halfheartedly reading the Douglas Adams' book "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and then my friend Chris loaned me the second book in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever "The Illearth War."  I must say that these two books have really captured my imagination and my feelings.  I shed tears within the first fifty pages.  Donaldson is a powerful writer.

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(Dec 2, 98)

I finished the Thomas Covenant book last night.  Excellent fantasy!!!!  I highly recommend this book to fantasy story lovers.

I think I'm gonna read the Dirk Gently books next...

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(Nov 29, 98)

I've hit a slump as far as reading is concerned...  I've not even finished the Thomas Covenant book yet.  :(

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(Nov 24, 98)

I've not gotten back to the Zelazny short story book.  I am done with "Probe."  In the end it turned out to be a very good book and I'm glad that I read it.

A friend mentioned reading "The Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" series.  He didn't care for it but the concept intrigued me.  So my friend let me barrow the first book of the series. "Lord Foul's Bane."  Stephen R. Donaldson is an excellent writer from what I've seen so far.  I'm almost 400 pages into this first book and I find it to be a very emotionally involving book.  It can be very difficult to get past a certain incident early in the book but it's well worth it if you do.  The incident caused some very strong feelings against this character that I had so much empathy for... it made me almost hate the character for his actions.  If you've read the book then I'm sure you know what part of the story that I'm speaking of.  If you haven't read it then once you do you'll understand as well.  After I'm done with this one I'll have to search out the next in the series.

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(Nov 13, 98)

Seven stories down and eight more to go in the Zelazny short story book.  This book contains one of the shortest short stories ever told, I believe.  It's called "The Monster and the Maiden" and only takes up just over a page of space.  It's got a great twist to it though.  :)  My fave story so far has been "The Keys to December."  They've all been entertaining though.  Zelazny was just a fine writer, that's all there is to it.

"Probe" is my current task.  It's a Star Trek book that deals with the probe from the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home."  I'm a little over a third of the way through this one.  It started out fairly slow but it's getting better all the time.

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(Nov 6, 98)

The Lost World is complete.  (Deja Vu all over again!) I don't know how they got that movie from this book though!  Damn, talk about a different story!!!  I loved the book.  It would've made a much better movie than what was released.

I'm now reading a book of short stories by Roger Zelazny.  It's called "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth."  I've read the first three of the fifteen total.  The stories are great!

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(Aug-Oct '98)

I've been doing a lot of reading lately.  It's a phase that I go through every so often.  Let's see... what have I read lately?

I started out with this reading phase by picking up "How Much For Just The Planet," a Star Trek novel.  Even if you're not a fan of Star Trek this is a good book to read.  It's well written, twisted, and very funny.  The lighter side of the ST universe you might say.

Then I decided to read something that I've been wanting to read for a long time... The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I burned through those three books in short order.  I loved LotR and was very sad that it was over when I finished up the last book.  I know that it seems strange that this was the first time that I'd read LotR since I'm such a huge fan of The Hobbit.  I'd just never found the time to do it before now.

Next I read "Creatures of Light and Darkness" by Roger Zelazny.  An excellent book but a difficult read for it's size.  A very convoluted plot, Egyptian Theology, and a writing style that's a combination of prose, narration, and streams of conscientiousness.  A wonderful book though.  One of Zelazny's best.

I just finished reading "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton.  I loved the movie and had been told that the book was excellent by my girlfriend.  I don't see how they got that movie from this book!  Talk about taking liberties with a script.  The book is far better than the movie could ever have hoped to be.  I just don't understand whey the director and producers didn't follow the book much more closely.  They'dve made even more money than they did.

What am I going to read now?  I'm gonna start on "The Lost World" by Crichton...  We'll see if it's as good as the first.
 

Watch here for more to come!

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BlueRibbon

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