currently reading

[AmberV]

Writing a Novel with Scrivener.

[Jaysen]

Stay with it. Satan soon has one hell of a fall.

Dave

I know I am a stupid hick with no education, so forgive me for rhetorically asking the question:

Why the heck can't I read this without pausing at the end of every line?!?!

I know the rules, but I have to read each line 14 times to get past the "kindergarten poem reading" rhythm and into the right meter.

* sigh *

Yet another example of the value of a college education.

[druid]

Hey, no kidding, it's a difficult poem for any reader.
Here's an online study guide that may be of help.
http://www.paradiselost.org/
Good luck, J-Man.

[Fluff]

Young master Jaysen,
In the study guide's overview, you'll see reference to:

It has these elements in common with the Aeneid, the Iliad, and the Odyssey.

That's the Odyssey. Mr Homer's little piece. (nothing to do with Homer Simpson), and not the other crock of shite Od(d)yssey.
Fluff

[Jaysen]

Crap. I was getting all excited that I had a leg up on this, but now I realized that I am right back where I started from!

[bargonzo]

Flawed Dogs, by Berkeley Breathed, of Bloom County and "Opus" fame; his first novel. With my 7-year old son. Great fun!

[pigfender]

Flawed Dogs, by Berkeley Breathed, of Bloom County and "Opus" fame; his first novel. With my 7-year old son. Great fun!

I LOVE Bloom County!

[Sin]

I'm nearing the end of George RR Martin's A Clash of Kings. I read Game of Thrones a couple of years ago and loved it, but never got around to continuing the series. Watching the HBO series has motivated me to stay ahead of the show.

I'm also reading Makers of Modern Strategy by Peter Paret. This nonfiction book discusses how modern warfare strategies have developed since the Middle Ages, and how other factors like economics and politics have played crucial roles in shaping soldiers as well as war.

And finally, I've always wanted to learn how to write, so I'm currently reading How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. He wrote another book about developing characters that I thought was brilliant, and this book is similarly interesting.

[Foxtrot]

Ben Kane - The Forgotten Legion Trilogy.

Met Ben very briefly at the Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall a few weeks back and decided to give it a try. Not my usual subject matter, historical fiction, but enjoying the first one so already downloaded second and third parts to my Kindle.

[dibee]

Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
90 days to your novel by Sarah Domet
Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc by Dara Marks

Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc is particularly good.

[dogboi]

After years of not reading much outside of literary fiction, I'm suddenly on a Fantasy/Sci-Fi Kick.

Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology edited by James Patrick Kelly

Just finished Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale. Enjoyed it, despite its flaws. Hard to find good fantasy with realistic Gay characters.

On the Reading Queue is Vellum by Hal Duncan, and The Leftovers by Tom Perotta. I probably won't read The Leftovers until after NaNoWriMo, though. I've got some short books in ebook form I can read during October while I work on NaNo plotting.

[LeeSalter999]

Frantically trying to finish A Clash of Kings, by George RR Martin before it comes on Sky Atlantic in April!!

[Ahab]

I continue wandering down memory lane. This week's selection: Under the Greenwood Tree, by Thomas Hardy.

[PJS]

Susan Sontag's On Photography, which I failed to appreciate first time through, thirty years ago or so. Perhaps that's because it was, at the time, on the edge of camera technology; but as it's now behind -- having no mention of digital photography -- I'm forced to deal with her sense of images, of their place in our world (not always welcome, but inescapable) and our lives. Forcing me to rethink not only the pictures I take but the words I write as well.

PS

[LeeSalter999]

Halfway through Taunting the Dead by Mel Sharratt. It's a dead good read, pardon the utterly unforgiveable pun.