Finished The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen last week. Fairly interesting, though hardly objective; then again, I suppose if I had seen first-hand how that man and his regime operate, it would be somewhat difficult for me to be objective about them, too.

Death by Food Pyramid / by Denise Minger
She's an entertaining writer and well informed. She analyzes the politics and science that lead to current popular thinking on diet and nutrition, and then lays out how to read critically the available information, including scientific papers. Best of all, she doesn't lay out a program for everyone to follow, but offers information to make one's own choices. A very useful book on the subject.

Full list here.

Promise of Blood: Book 1 of the powder mage series by Brian McClellan

Muskets, magic and revolution abound. Set in a neo Victorian setting it follows several characters as the king is overthrown and the government is replaced with a republic. The magic system is unique and cool with well fleshed out world.The action is well written and paced. The characters lack depth however. Still a good read. I'm actually reading the sequel right now.

Forgive the late reply, but...

Interestingly, I personally like Clarke the best of the 'big three' (him, Asimov, and Heinlein) although I really enjoy the other two as well. Clarke's Childhood's End and The City and the Stars are two of my personal favorites.

Some great recommendations there. I'll toss in the two Clarke novels I mentioned above as well as any of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks; Peter F. Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy; and C.J. Cherryh's Chanur novels as well as her Hugo winning Downbelow Station. Hell, most sci-fi by Cherryh, but those are the ones by her that I always recommend.

I read Torrente Ballester a long time ago, and I haven't read him since then. But I still consider him probably the best Spanish novelist of the 20th century. And Fragmentos de Apocalipsis was my favorite novel of his. I am glad he is getting some recognition around here.

I have recently finished Stoner by John Williams, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Tiempo de silencio by Luis Martín-Santos. I am glad to say all 3 were excellent.

I've read through the 2001 novels (2001, 2010, 2061, 3001), and thought that 2010: Odyssey Two was superior to the first novel. Having seen 2001, the first book can be skipped, but the second one expands the universe and provides a more compelling plot. There's a sense of urgency throughout the novel that I found lacking from the first novel.

So far this year, I've read:
Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke)
Foundations of Paradise (Arthur C. Clarke)
Locked Doors (Blake Crouch)
Break You (Blake Crouch)

The Blake Crouch novels are a continuation of his novel Desert Places, which are a collection of rather brutal novels. The plot involves a serial killer and his brother, and can get quite graphic in places. I first found out about Blake Crouch, through his Wayward Pines series, which is an interesting series evocative of Twin Peaks, with a rather silly twist towards the end of the first book. However, the Desert Places books make me uneasy at times because of the content. Many people die in these books, in addition the sequels would not have happened if the main character didn't make poor decisions.

Last year, I read another of his novels, called Run. This is most likely the novel I enjoyed the most, it's a standalone novel, and I liken it to a hyper-kinetic version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It's not groundbreaking, but it's enjoyable to read.

#5 Hunting Eichmann: Chasing down the world's most notorious Nazi by Neal Bascomb

Dog On It / by Spencer Quinn
A mystery about a detective named Bernie Little and his dog Chet, told from the dog's point of view. A pretty good case, amusingly written.

Full list here.

How do you all read so fast?

Like what's the trick?
Like I know how to read words fast but I'm not going to remember anything unless I read every sentence at least twice

Every time you go to poop. Take a book with you. You'll be surprised how fast you get through one.

I told a story here a while back about when I got severe food poisoning (lost about 14 pounds) I read a chunk of Don Quixote.

I just finished re-reading these last week, really excellent books and the wait for the 3rd installment is killing me! I also read the Lightning Tree for the first time last week which was a very enjoyable story revolving around Bast.

So far this year:

1. The Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch - the latest book in the Gentlemen Bastards series;
2.Thorns trilogy - Mark Lawrence;
3. The Dresden Files, Storm Front & Fool Moon - Jim Butcher;
4. The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear & The Lightning Tree - Patrick Rothfuss (re-read);
5. The Black Company & Shadows Linger - Glen Cook.

I don't read quickly really. I've only read 3 books so far this year. That said, I've been reading more lately, and my speed has picked up a bit simply by practice.

The Long Earth which a mates mother gave to me, quite a good book, until I got to the end & found out the was a sequel I now had to rush out & purchase lol

The Long War, sequel to the above. Good book too, but alas, I checked the inside of the back cover, to find there would be a third book in the series.

The Long Mars at £35 for a collectors edition? For that price, I`d want Mssrs Pratchett & Baxter to read it to me ;)

Started [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_(novel)]Outlaw[/url] uintil the above lowers in price :)

I've been doing a lot less reading and a lot more gaming in recent years, maybe it's time to work on that. I did just buy my first Kindle to put all those humble books on (though not comics since its a Paperwhite)!

So far this year I've only finished:

1. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (started in 2014 though)
2. Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds

Bad idea. Unless you want hemorrhoids, you don't wanna be spending more than a few minutes sitting down on the toilet. Plus, ewwww, I wouldn't read anything on the toilet that I'd wanna touch outside the bathroom.

I've never read any of his books (although I actually think I have a couple floating around in my massive 'to read' pile). What are your thoughts on this one?