What are you reading?

[Mish]

What happened to the other thread dedicated to this subject?

Anyway...

I started reading Frank Herbert's "God-Emperor of Dune" today (That's Dune 4 for those of you unaware of Frank Herbert's genius).

Frank Herbert's Dune (the original novel) was my third favourite book when I was little (after Iliad/Odyssey and the twelve chairs), but I never really did read all of the consecutive stories. Well now I can and I feel like a little kid again. The world of Arakis, the water of life, the spice melange, Kwisatz Haderach and the axolotl tanks are calling me back.

[Ryan Heitzman]

I was reading the bible. Then I quit.

[Gribble]

Dune ranks among my favorite but I never read any of the sequels. How are they? Worth picking up?

I can only imagine they'd be a disappointment compared to the original, though probably head and shoulders above most science fiction out there.

I've been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'm thinking come the summer after next I'm taking a trip cross country. One of these days, if I grow the balls for it, I'd love to hit the California coast and follow it south all the way to the tip of Chile.

[Mish]

Dune ranks among my favorite but I never read any of the sequels. How are they? Worth picking up?

Not as good as the original, but definetly worth picking up. What I like about the sequals is how the focus shifts to completely new characters and new warring factions and new plots and subplots. Dune 4 is about Leto II the son of Paul Artredies who becomes an even more powerful Kwisatz Haderach. He turns himself into a human/worm hybrid and becomes invincible, that and him having visions of all possible futures turns him into a kind of a God. He is a hero who is also a tyrant that opresses people in order to save them.

You need to read more in order to understand it... The innovation and originality in that book is through the roof. They don't make them like this anymore.

[doppelgaenger]

I've been reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. (free time reading)
Also studying a Luther bible that was printed in 1907 for translation inconsistencies (part of a three year research I've been doing)
I am also teaching myself French with an old book my grandfather gave me. That man can speak 7 languages - German, French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and of course English.

[Lipp]

Speaking of Dune, I picked up a box-set of the 3 latest books Dune novels by Brian Herbert about two weeks back, Dune was an amazing read so figured I'd flesh it out a bit while enjoying the holiday sun.

So I just finished Dune : The Butlerian Jihad and am now reading Dune: The Machine Crusade. Have to say that they're not as deep or as well-written as the original, but still make for a decent read to get the background. I already read Paul of Dune, so after that I'm having a second go at Dune: Messiah and then try to go chronologically by reading the also new Winds of Dune. I last read them as a teenager, so I always found the time jumps between the novels to be annoying, so the more chronological it is the better.

[Mish]

Speaking of Dune, I picked up a box-set of the 3 latest books Dune novels by Brian Herbert about two weeks back, Dune was an amazing read so figured I'd flesh it out a bit while enjoying the holiday sun.

So I just finished Dune : The Butlerian Jihad and am now reading Dune: The Machine Crusade. Have to say that they're not as deep or as well-written as the original, but still make for a decent read to get the background. I already read Paul of Dune, so after that I'm having a second go at Dune: Messiah and then try to go chronologically by reading the also new Winds of Dune. I last read them as a teenager, so I always found the time jumps between the novels to be annoying, so the more chronological it is the better.

I've read an outline of all Dune books by Brian Herbert and although they sound interesting I felt there was something missing in the plot. Especially the sandworms of Dune (Which is supposed to be a Dune 8 and conclusion to the saga) it had like 5 Deus Ex Machinas towards the end, so lame.

Though, I have to say that Dune universe is incredible, Butlerian Jihad was the Terminator BEFORE the Terminator, the Omnius was the matrix BEFORE the matrix and arguably Dune Emperor was the emperor before the Star Wars empire. I really hope they make more movies, for a science fiction masterpiece the story on the big screen remains largely unexplored.

[Lipp]

Especially given that it was written back in 1965.

With the film production capabilities today a remake is definitely possible, and actually in the works, but keeps on being stalled with directors jumping on and off the ship.

Future adaptation

A new film based on the book was announced in 2008, to be directed by Peter Berg and produced by Paramount Pictures.[39][40][41] Producer Kevin Misher, who spent a year securing the rights from the Herbert estate, would be joined by Richard Rubinstein and John Harrison (of both Sci Fi Channel miniseries) as well as Sarah Aubrey and Mike Messina.[39] Variety reported that the producers were looking for a "faithful adaptation" of the novel, and "consider its theme of finite ecological resources particularly timely."[39] Science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson and Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert, who have together written multiple Dune sequels and prequels since 1999, are attached to the project as technical advisors.[42] In October 2009, Berg dropped out of the project, later saying that it "for a variety of reasons wasn't the right thing" for him.[43] Subsequently, with a 175-page script draft by Joshua Zetumer, Paramount reportedly sought a new director who could do the film for under $175 million.[44] On January 4, 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that director Pierre Morel was signed on to direct, with screenwriter Chase Palmer incorporating Morel's vision of the project into Zetumer's original draft.[45][46]

Pierre Morel has since quit as director of the Dune remake.[47]

[Gribble]

I have no faith in modern science fiction movies.

It will be a cartoony CGI romp. Looney Tunes in space. More like Duck Dodgers than anything Herbert envisioned.

[Lipp]

I have no faith in modern science fiction movies.

It will be a cartoony CGI romp. Looney Tunes in space. More like Duck Dodgers than anything Herbert envisioned.

Have you seen Sunshine? It even turns into a bit of a horror movie, something you'd might enjoy.

[josh44]

Currently reading Young Stalin.

[josh44]

Anything by Ernest Hemingway.

[FNM]

Working my way through Milton's Paradise Lost. Not easy, but it's brilliant.

[doppelgaenger]

Working my way through Milton's Paradise Lost. Not easy, but it's brilliant.

Really? I hated reading Milton. It was required text for a lit. course I took.

[bluesummer]

Just finishing up The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.

I'm all about the atheist literature lately.