How is Stardust supposed too be? I'd assume good, you don't strike me as the kind who would read a book because it sounded god awful. At the least the movie is coming out.

As for Hitchhiker, do you just have hitchhiker or do you have the rest of the series too? It's all very good but I know a few people who didn't know of the sequel until I told them.

It's dense, thoughtful, difficult, and quite fascinating. More in-depth and technical than something like A Brief History of Time, so it takes some getting used to. If you enjoy theoretical physics, though, it's a good book to read.



Stardust is quite good, I thought; it has a very fantastic, otherworldly quality to it, while remaining grounded and human in its characters and conversations. I'm somewhat iffy about most of Gaiman's novels, mostly because his style seems best suited for short stories, but I did think Stardust was one of his better books.

I know you weren't asking me, but I couldn't resist answering anyway.

Hey!

-Harry Potter #7.
-Poems by Kingsolver, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, and various other short stories for English class.
-Dungeons and Dragons, The Player's Handbook: v.3.5; mainly the combat section.
-Dungeons and Dragons, Complete Adventurer; mainly the Streetfighter prestige class and feats sections. I'm a feat bastard

Beyond the Hobbit Tolkien should not be read as a typical fantasy novel. Tolkien was a linguist and a historian whose life obsession was an alternate mythology of Europe. His books should be read with that in mind to achieve a greater degree of enjoyment.

The Silmarillion should read like the bible in ways. It's the history of another world. Tolkien really created a full fledged world with his books.

I just finished reading Harry Potter, which was good, IMHO.

I'm going to start working on The Golden Compass again, since I tried reading it, but I wasn't getting into it. Maybe I'll try again, iuno. Else, I'll probably re-read The War of the Spider Queen series by various hand picked authors, all picked by my favourate author, R. A. Salvator, author of the Drizzt Do'Urden books, which I LOVE! Waiting for the third Inheritance (Eragon) book though... Any news as to when that comes out?

I really liked the golden compass. (Northern Lights in England) Once you get past Oxford it picks up. Lorak the Armored Bear is one of the best characters in the book too.

A source I consider particularly reliable has told me that Stardust is just shy of amazing, and I'm inclined to take his word on it. All that aside, I'd like to see the movie as well but I'm inclined to read the book first. The reading experience just isn't quite the same if I see the movie first.

As for the Hitchhiker's Guide, what I've actually got is The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a compilation of the five novels and a short story. I generally read the Hitchhiker's Guide and call it good since I thought the later novels were a bit disappointing in comparison. I really have to read through them again, it's been a few years since I last finished them. If you're a fan of Adams, I highly recommend The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Ahh, I have that collection too. I do like the other books though.

I was referring to books!

Othero, I know this is random, but I saw that you lived in New England... what state? I live in NH, and I'm just curious.

Forget that, I just finally got my hands on a copy of Dune!

The Golden Compass was my favorite book for a long time. Enjoy it .

Ewwwwwww.

I suggest no one read the Simarillion. Ever. It's an interesting idea and there was clearly a lot of thought behind it and it has some really cool ideas that would be good if they better done but it's a horribly written, near unreadable book.

Currently I'm rereading Dune.

Anyone ever read the book 1984? It just came to memory. We read it in my English class last year... It was REALLY hard to follow.

It's not a novel, don't read it like one.

The Silmarillion is closer to a history of middle earth. You need to read it like that. You also need to be a hard core Tolkien fan.

"The Silmarillion" kicked ass! It made me like Tolkien even more. But I also was always a huge fan of deep mythological tales, like Robert Graves' "The Greek Gods and Goddesses" and anything by Homer.

As for what I am currently reading... I'm wrapping up the Quran on audiobook. For paper books I'm in the middle of Aristotle, between his works on logic and his works on physics. Aristotle's works on logic are amazing for anyone who has studied computer science. I'm convinced that his works 2,300 years ago are the foundation of modern day computer science. Though a forewarning: he is not easy to get through at all, especially if you don't know discrete math.

I'm taking a break from Aristotle between logic and physics and am starting "Human Accomplishment" by Charles Murray. This one sounds like it attempts to quantify significant contributers to human advancement around the world and postulate what conditions caused the Galileos and Confuciuses of the world to come into existence. I don't know if it's any good or any accurate since I haven't gotten much into it, but it sounded pretty fascinating.

As for LotR, I gave up on it the first time. The second time I almost gave up. But once I got past the boring building parts it was amazing. It's been many years, but I think the turning point for me was once the fellowship was formally formed at the House of Elrond.

Yeah! That was my favorite novel of all time until I read "Fountainhead". It's certainly not an easy read. I'd consider it a college-level book. It's pretty intense and has lots going on in it. I highly recommend it!