"Krzyżacy" ("The Teutonic Knights") by Henryk Sienkiewicz
I've never ever touched it during school years even though it was a required reading. But now I can read it without anybody forcing me to do it (ha! take that education!). The sad thing is that I already know more or less what happens in the book (thank you school and TV for friggin spoilers) so I can't enjoy it fully...

Started the German translation of "The Martian" by Andy Weir today.

You're in for a ride. It's my favorite book ever. I read it in english, though, so I hope the german version is well made. Lots and lots of technical - and probably hard to translate - details in the book.


So... I'm at 25% of Peter Pan in Scarlet and I'm enjoying it. Two problems though...
1 - The author tries too hard to emulate the original book author's innocence and ingenuity. Quoting that girl from that movie: "stop trying to make this happen, it's not gonna happen."
2 - They changed Tootles to a girl!!! The most iconic lost boy is now a girl! Gah, I know the first problem should be the serious one but this one really bugs me.

Comic books: I added the masterful Don Rosa to my back log. His Disney comics are second to no one, including Carl Barks. No more additions for a long, long time. This time I swear!

The Francois Lepine collection. Now with the japanese dictionary "Yarxi", i am finally about to master Kuji Kiri and majutsu, once and for all! Time to make some kanji talismans too and replace rune carving with "authentic" japanese spell tags!

Star Wars Darth Plagueis by James Lucenno

Currently reading Full Moon O Sagashite, by Arina Tanemura. It's a great shoujo manga, recommended to any shoujo manga fan. The artwork is absolutely STUNNING.

A friend lent me The Neverending Story which I'm thinking of starting with tonight. Remarkably I still haven't seen the film, and for no good reason either. I'm sure I'll love it, but now that I want to read the book I'm kind of glad that I haven't seen it yet.
Oh? That's good to hear. I absolutely loved the first book, but couldn't really get into Messiah. Guess I'll just power through it one week to get to Children then.

The problem with the Dune books though, in contrast to most anything else, is that it just doesn't feel right to read them in rainy weather :P

I've always wanted to read Rama. Everything I read that won both the Nebula and Hugo award - only Dune and Ringworld though - is incredible. I mean, really incredible.

I know 35 years is a lot to ask of one's memory, but would you recommend it?

'1984'

Man, things were a lot different back then.

Yeah, don't expect another Dune - it really isn't - and you'll be fine with it.
Also, it's true, Dune and Rain literally don't go well together :P.

I can't remember and Arthur C. Clarke story I did not like but I was a teenager when I read them. I used to love Asimov but I've tried re-reading "I Robot" and "Foundation" and did not like them anymore. So a tentative yes to your question.

I couldn't get through it. I found the writing pretty atrocious and eventually gave up on it.

So, now I started The Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It grabbed me and I'm liking it so far but we'll see if I keep with it.
I'd like to recommend to you "Dhalgren" by Samuel R. Delaney.

Thanks - added to my list. Which of the two in my post has you making that recommendation?

Edit: looked it up. Sounds like a Gaiman-esque book.

Both, really. It's way more mature than Gaiman's writing, but sci-fi heavy, and complex like Stephenson's, and real-issue heavy.