Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Still never read any Lovecraft, any suggestions on a good place to start?

I am reading Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy for the 200th time, love that book 

If you like paper, get the Penguin Classics edition edited by S.T. Joshi. There's three volumes, so get the one subtitled "Call of Cthulhu and other Weird Stories". Joshi put an ungodly amount of effort into annotating Lovecraft's work, and published all the stories in as close to their original form as you can get (so you get all of the archaic spellings and racism present in the originals ). It makes for a pretty rich reading experience, considering Lovecraft wrote for pulp sci-fi magazines.

Of course, HPL's work is all public domain now, so if you want an edition made out of glowing pixels look here: http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

Try "Dagon" for a pretty quintessential, very short example of what HPL liked to write. "Cool Air" is a personal favorite of mine, and "Nyarlathotep" and "The Call of Cthulhu" are both very classic HPL. "Azathoth" is not a finished story, but it is an example of how good HPL's writing style can be when he isn't being racist or nondescriptive.

"At The Mountains of Madness" and "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" are more like novellas than short stories, and develop HPL's cosmology pretty well (they are also both examples of his "science-fiction/Edgar Allen Poe" phase and his "Lord Dunsanay/dreamlike fantasy" phase, respectively).

These are just my recommendations, though. You might find your tastes completely different from mine.

[Cain]

I'd agree with those.  However, if you want some lesser known, but quite disturbing Lovecraft stories, try The Music of Erich Zann, Pickman's Model and Ex Oblivione.

[Cainad (dec.)]

I'd agree with those.  However, if you want some lesser known, but quite disturbing Lovecraft stories, try The Music of Erich Zann, Pickman's Model and Ex Oblivione.

This is also a personal favorite of mine. All the eldritch horror, sans tentacles.

I don't remember Ex Oblivione, guess I should go read it.

[Cain]

It's a bit different, for Lovecraft.

I'm reading Pratchett's latest, I Shall Wear Midnight and re-reading Negri and Hardt's infamous 2000 political philosophy book Empire

[BadBeast]

This weeks Angling Times.

[dontblameyoko]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

and

Robert Kennedy: His Life by Evan Thomas

[eighteen buddha strike]

Just got done with some light reading.

THUD! by Terry Pratchett
and The Thief of Always by Clive Barker.

I had never read Pratchett before, and have to say, judging by that one book... I would read more.
As for Barker, well maybe, Thief of Always was OK but nothing special really.

Now, I'm starting on Watership Down, which is absolutely charming.

after this, I think I'll hunt down a copy of Lord of the Flies.

[eighteen buddha strike]

Still never read any Lovecraft, any suggestions on a good place to start?

I am reading Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy for the 200th time, love that book 

As long as you don't try to start with At the Mountains of Madness or Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, you should be ok. Just pick up any random collection, start with the shorter stories, you need not worry about any particular order really.

I usually suggest that people save his Dream stories until they're a bit more familiar with him, and At the Mountains of Madness is a great story, but it was written as a serial and it revisits itself A LOT, kinda drags on way more than it should as a result.

Oh, and avoid the Rats in the Walls and the Crawling Chaos as well, except for the lulz.

[Cain]

Pratchett is well worth reading, though his earlier books are more a satire of the fantasy genre than anything else (especially The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, with plenty of friendly nods to Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber and other).  After about book five, Sourcery, he starts making the series more coherent, and tackling more difficult subjects with a weightier approach.

[Faust]

I've started the man in the high castle. Honestly I hate his writing style but his ideas are interesting.

[Cramulus]

I've started the man in the high castle. Honestly I hate his writing style but his ideas are interesting.

I couldn't get into that one for some reason. alternate history post WWII drama doesn't really strike my fancy.

[Stelpa]

Still never read any Lovecraft, any suggestions on a good place to start?

I am reading Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy for the 200th time, love that book 

As long as you don't try to start with At the Mountains of Madness or Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, you should be ok. Just pick up any random collection, start with the shorter stories, you need not worry about any particular order really.

I usually suggest that people save his Dream stories until they're a bit more familiar with him, and At the Mountains of Madness is a great story, but it was written as a serial and it revisits itself A LOT, kinda drags on way more than it should as a result.

Oh, and avoid the Rats in the Walls and the Crawling Chaos as well, except for the lulz.

I have just started reading Lovecraft, and I already realize one thing: He was a racist prick 

[Don Coyote]

Guess which lucky spag just got his kindle in the mail.

fuck it. it's me. Now to download shit from projectgtuenberg and reread Lovecraft and Lord Dunsany.

[Cain]

I'm jealous.  The Kindle WiFi is on my Xmas list though.

[Jasper]

Still never read any Lovecraft, any suggestions on a good place to start?

I am reading Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy for the 200th time, love that book  

As long as you don't try to start with At the Mountains of Madness or Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, you should be ok. Just pick up any random collection, start with the shorter stories, you need not worry about any particular order really.

I usually suggest that people save his Dream stories until they're a bit more familiar with him, and At the Mountains of Madness is a great story, but it was written as a serial and it revisits itself A LOT, kinda drags on way more than it should as a result.

Oh, and avoid the Rats in the Walls and the Crawling Chaos as well, except for the lulz.

I have just started reading Lovecraft, and I already realize one thing: He was a racist prick  

Well, yeah.  But still, he had a lot to say about literary style and writing in general. Have you read Miscellaneous Writings?