What BOOK are you reading right now?

I've been tempted several times to watch the movie

Dagmarka, is Master and Margarita a book that would be difficult to listen to? Is it one of those Russian novels that forces you to go back to a list of characters on the first page to remember who Dimitri is and whom he is related to?

My time away from the internet and tv and the world has been consumed by reading lately.

I have read quite a few graphic novels, most of them in the Blackest Night series.

I have read the first four books in the Alchemist Series by Nick Scott. The Alchemist, The Magician, The Sorceress, and the last book out so far, The Necromancer. He still has 2 more books in the series that needs to come out. The whole series is extremely good, and keeps you engrossed and turning the page.

Right now I have just dived into the monster that is The Passage. So far so good. Not to sure what is going on in the story quite yet, but it has me caught and reading more every chance I get. I guess that's what a good book is supposed to do huh?

I am trying to slog my way through Sacks' Migraine. It is not written for the layman!

Ah, sorry you got unlucky there; all the Oliver Sacks books I've read so far were written for laymen. I hope it's still worth the effort?

***

Niven's N-Space is a much slower read than I expected as well, but for a pleasant reason: Because the book is an anthology, every story presents a new world Niven made up, or explores a new corner of a world I already learned about in an earlier story. Accordingly, after about five pages of diving into a something new, my reading gets abruptly interrupted by a thought like "but what if ____?", or, "I wonder what ____ might work like?" And then my thoughts wander off on their own for a while. So it's five minutes of reading, thirty minutes of thinking, five minutes of reading, thirty minutes of thinking.... At this rate, it will take a while until I finish.

how is the blackest night series?

i liked identity, crisis, infinite crisis and 52, but was a little let down by countdown to final crisis and final crisis

i'm thinking i have to read blackest night regardless after putting in the effort of the others

Thomas, I am still in the beginning pages. I think I just need to memorize the terms in the glossary and keep a dictionary near by.

So, you like the Niven tales?

Love 'em. I enjoy the way they make me think. (I like the occasional adolescent stuff too, but I'm too dignified to admit that in public.)

Don't think so....then again, I didn't think so of the rest of the russian novels either...or it is not something i had noticed or minded.
M&M has three parallel stories that the writer weaves between. Maybe it's not a straightforward easy read, but certainly captivating and worth the effort.

I'm going to get the book, anyway, but wondered if I could listen to it instead of reading it. Now I'll listen....thanks.

I haven't listened to the audio book (neither this one, nor, I realize, any), but I imagine it would be great for this. There are films and theatre plays of the book and some are fantastic. Here is a website that usually has the updates on what's out there related to this work:

http://www.masterandmargarita.eu/

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that the only Russian Classic that I immensely enjoyed reading was Dostoevsky's The Idiot.

Dys, I liked The Idiot, too. Did you read any of the other Russian Classics?

yes but it was mostly drudgery. Just not a genre I tune into easily, especially the mystical.

I am listening to Ulysses.
*I got from Audiobooks. So far, so good.

Joe(I am, I'm afraid, inserting little bits of Irish into my conversations.)Nation

never read any of the old russian classics, but i did like Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago (although it's been 30 years since i read them)

I liked Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and Cancer Ward (which I remember as a real bummer); liked Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov once I got through all the names; loved War and Peace (Tolstoy), couldn't stand Anna Karenina. That's probably it unless I'm forgetting some book.

after one day and the first two volumes of the gulag (didn't know there was third until just today when i googled the spelling of Solzhenitsyn) i started the cancer ward but found it too dreary (not that the others were a laugh riot)

I did not know it was on audio books. I must have a copy. Then, when I jump out of my purple Ford Ranger at work, I will be better able to communicate with my friend from Mexico. (he he. He is still working on American English).

funny, Audible has two unabridged versions, one is 27 hrs and 21 mins and the other is 29 hrs and 41 mins and one abridged version that is 55 mins long, now that's an abridged book

(a review of says it's more of a sampler to get a feel for the longer work)