I’m reading one of the Dune books right now, but the problem is, it’s the second one (I think) - Dune: House Harkonnen. I haven’t read the first one… so I’m just wondering, if anyone has read the Dune books, is it necessary to read the first one before you read the second one?
Otherwise I guess I’ll go back to the library and borrow the first one instead.
House Harkonnen is in this sort of “Prelude to Dune” set of novels, so they would prepare you well for Dune, I guess… I’m not sure, though - I haven’t read the prelude to Dune ones yet.
Your reply made me even more curious, Wnvoss, since I didn’t even know the books had prequels, so I went to the Wikipedia (I had no idea the Dune universe is so huge! ), and then to amazon to check the reviews… and now I think it seems weird to read it because first of all, people say it’s not as good as the other books, and it’s written after all the other books…
Luckily, I picked up another book at the library, I’ll read that one instead until I go back to the library check out the other Dune books. It’s “The Telling”, by Ursula K LeGuin (my favorite author).
Just finished Phillip Dick’s “Time Out of Joint”, Just started Discworld - love it already , and also currently reading Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” book 5 - it’s quite ponderous .
Now I’m reading The Jesus Incident by the same guy who wrote Dune. It’s turning out pretty well (but then again, I’m only reading it while waiting for the 3rd Space Odyssey book).
The Forensic Casebook The Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating How to Write a Mystery Novel Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
Kenneth - tell me how Sahara turns out. I never finished it because I was like 12 when I tried reading it…
And in my opinion, Agatha Christie > Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so far, mostly because Conan Doyle’s short stories consist mostly of someone telling what happened and why they’re hiring a PI…
Seems you want to write a police mystery novel, MatrixManNeo…
I’m reading many books in the same time.
The Chronicles of Froissart : chronicles of the Hundred Years’ War, written by a monk around 1370…and it’s of course in old french. Some passages and anecdotes are very funny in my eyes, especially an incredible war between Edward III and the Scots, and it gives a good idea ot the Middle Age way of thinking.
The Limits of Interpretation, by Umberto Eco. Rather complicated, it’s about semiotics. He’s trying to bring back this fuzzy science to some common sense, especially after the big mess that has been put in it by some french “professional confusionists” like Derrida or Genette.
The Elegies of Duino, by R.M. Rilke. Poetry. Just beautiful.
And I’ve recently read Moonfleet, by J.M. Falkner. It’s a lot darker than Fritz Lang’s adaptation (my favourite movie) but it’s a great novel about smugglers in the XVIII century, and a mysterious cursed treasure…
Edgar Allen Poe - The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings
I’ve only read a couple of stories and poems so far and i’m finding the old style of language difficult.
I did really like ‘The City In The Sea’ poem. As i was reading it, i started to visualise all the detail. It’s very descriptive.
I just finished The Light Fantastic, the second book in the Discworld series. At the moment I have several new books to read:
The next Discworld book.
The first book in Stephen Kings Dark Tower series.
The sixth book in The Wheel of Time series.
Still have a little bit left to read in The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams.
It was an ok book, a typical run-of-the-mill action novel. As for the plot, Wikipedia’s entry on the book has a volumous résumé, but be aware that it is full of spoilers, including giving away the ending.
It was also made into a movie, but I found it very dissapointing. About the only thing the movie didn’t mess up compared to the book was that the names of the characters were correct.