Just discovered Chris Wooding; in particular, "The Iron Jackal." I have yet to find steampunk that I enjoy, but I read the opening and it seemed good. Of course, it's the third book out of four, so I checked the library and placed the first two on hold. They don't have the fourth. Bastards.

I have too many books on the go, but of the many that I'm reading, I'm currently concentrating on:

The Guns at Last Light by Rick Anderson - probably two thirds of the way through this one and I find it's just as great as the first two in the trilogy. He's an excellent writer and makes what could easily be very dry material as enjoyable as reading a good fiction novel.
The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson - I set this aside for a while, but picked it up again a few days ago. About 1/4 of the way through and very much looking forward to seeing how the long saga of Thomas Covenant finally concludes.
Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt - just a few pages left in this one and well worth the read. Gives a lot of different perspectives on one of the fundamental questions of existence and really makes you think.

The house of sleeping beauties by Yasunari Kawabata. Brilliant novella.

Finished reading this edition of The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard. Classic Conan stuff, 4/5.

Nice! I picked up This Anthology back when it was first released for nostalgia's sake (I have most of those stories in other books somewhere in storage). I love Howard's Conan stories.

Love his books. I've never laughed so hard at the printed word; some of his shorter stories are so goofy for one being so tortured. Kinda makes me think of "Finnegans Wake", in that the sheer absurdity is what makes it funny - but at least I know what DFW is talking about. The first sentence of "Girl With Curious Hair" never fails to fill me with glee.

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll put that on my list of books to read. Have to agree, his style is street level-funny I feel, by coaxing the very comically absurd out of what's (well-observed, often tough) reality, and mostly keeping the believability intact (a joy to read, these scenes, even if weirdness trumps believability in the end).

==.==

Now, I am done with The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Quick read, enjoyable as - likely - all his books (I have also read Reservation Blues by him, if I recall correctly). The author sticks once more to his life-on-the (Native American) reservation setting; I feel he did all of this better in earlier works though, e.g. in the film Smoke Signals (see it, if you haven't, it is a masterpiece!) for which Alexie wrote the screenplay adapting one of his short story collections, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

True Diary is charming still and has some universal life lessons embedded that are worth discovering/getting reaquainted with, but there are stretches where I felt the protagonist coasted too obviously along a rather traditional "American dream" route.

I read the Anderson Press paperback edition (ISBN13: 9781842708446), which features fun illustrations throughout that complement the story very well. Regular, good quality paperback as far as printing and binding goes.

I finished "The Postmortal" (Drew Magary) and "Heroes Die" (Matthew Stover) while travelling to the seaside by train (which took 7,5 hours... it was a nightmare).

Now I'm in the middle of "Why does E = mc2 (and why should we care?)" by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Basically, it's Einstein's theories of special and general gravity written for non-physics.

The Egg by Andy Weir.

Still working my way through the "Ebenezum" trilogy by Craig Shaw Gardner, and "Dragons of Spring Dawning."

I'm reading "An English Ghost Story" by Kim Newman - which is horrible. I'm reading it for review purposes; fortunately it doesn't come out until October so I have time, but for now I'm setting it aside. Really don't like it much. It's a good idea, but the execution could use some work.

And I'm waiting for "Traitor's Blade" so I can review that; can't remember the author offhand.

Sebastien de Castell?

I have just started Red Country by Joe Abercormbie, and so far it is living up to my high expectations.

I'm lending from my local library Witcher's books.
Now I'm reading the second one, Sword of Destiny :)

Out, by Natsuo Kirino. As for now, I read about 70% of the book and I am deeply enjoying it. Very well written. I highly recommend it if you like mistery novels / are even slightly interested after reading the plot.

Done with Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. While initially it bothered me somewhat that the protagonist's main scheme obviously would never work in real life, the book grew on me, because #1, undoubtedly, Palahniuk can write and #2 it's got some astute observations in juxtaposing cynicism towards life and taking part in it. Fight Club is the more complete beast, but Choke is worth reading; makes me want to re-watch the film with Sam Rockwell which I saw a longer while ago. Decent movie.

My copy is this: Vintage Paperback (ISBN13: 9780099422686), OK-quality, could hold up for several read-throughs if you don't abuse it, is my guess.