Just wanted to know what everyone was reading books wise.

Me I just finished The Singing By Alison Croggon, the whole Pellinor series is great.

The Assassin's Touch by Laura Joh Rowland. It's a part of a series of books which feature a Tokugawa-era detective named Sano Ichiro. So far, there's 15 books in the series. This one is Book 10. A must read.

I am reading Stephanie Laurens 'Cynster Sisters Trilogy'.

The first book was 'Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue', and that's about the first sister getting kidnapped by a laird who may or may not be the evil villain they are imagining. When that plan failed he moved on to the next sister, and I'm reading that book now.

It's called 'In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster', and it's about Eliza getting successfully kidnapped by a cold-hearted hit-man for the mysterious laird, yet finds a hero to rescue her in the most unlikely of places...

They are both excellent reads, but there are a few "spicy" scenes in there, so I wouldn't suggest this to any of the younger folks out there.

i am currently reading three series all

The immortals series by Alyson Noel (about immortals)

The House of night series by pc cast (vampires)

The Fallen series by Lauren kate (Angels)

all are very good and i shall recommend all

@Sammi-chan: I've read House of Night and the first installement of Fallen, also. I would recommend Blue Bloods, as well- the writing isn't spectacular, but the story is intriguing and makes a very unique connection between vampires and fallen angels that is pretty awesome.

Okay- don't laugh, but I'm reading (actually rereading) The Vampire Diaries. As a teenager (in the 90's ) I was a huge L.J. Smith fan- The Game, Night World, The Secret Circle, and, as mentioned, The Vampire Diaries. It was really difficult at the time to find teen books with supernatural themes that weren't cheesy (yes, I'm looking at you RL Stine) and that, at least when it came to some of the less subjective themes/myths (like witchcraft) she actually had an idea of what she was writing about- if embellishing- was refreshing.

As a fan of the novels, it took me a long . . . looooooong time to like the TV series that's based on it since so many of the core elements of the books had changed (for example- there's a very big deal on the specifics of Elena's physical appearance in the novels, and what's the first thing anyone who read the books likely noticed about the girl cast as Elena? Looked nothing like the original character, but Nina Dobrev is great in the role, so I let it slide after a while, lol . . . and okay, so maybe Ian Somerhandler in the role of Damon helps ). I can now appreciate the show and the books as two separate entities (my husband, who knows about the fanfiction world through me, listened to me comparing the two and said 'Huh, so these TV shows are like alternate universe fanfictions, then?' . . . and always leaning towards AU in my own writing, it suddenly clicked into place XD).

The series had originally ended in the 90's, but within the last few years, Smith started a sequel series, The Vampire Diaries: The Return and it seems to be meant to appeal to both the fans of the original who've gotten older, as well as draw the decidedly more worldly crop of teenage readers who make up so much of the market now as the newer books incorporate darker and more mature themes. The adjustment from the original series to the sequel was a little odd to me for a moment- as in the end of the last installment of the original, they graduate highschool as the class of '92 . . . and then in the opening of the sequel series, they suddenly have email and cellphones as a reflection of the fact that it's been near twenty years in the world of the writer and audience, even though for the characters only a handful of days have gone by.

Anyways, the latest installment of The Return is out and since I know I'll be getting it for my birthday, I'm rereading the entire series as a refresher. I've always enjoyed reading well-written supernatural teen novels, and think that it helps with keeping my literary voice sounding believable when necessary as some of my original fiction works do center on older-teen characters, and one of my biggest pet peeves is when a teenage character comes across sounding too mature for their age for no apparent reason other than that the writer simply doesn't make the effort to come across with a teenager's perspective.

I'm reading an old book from the 1950s, entitled "My Brother's Keeper" by Marcia Davenport. It is crazy fascinating.

Two brothers, the last members of a well-to-do family, have been living together in increasing seclusion in their family mansion in New York City. The older brother had not been seen in years. The younger brother had been caring for him, going out only at night and walking for miles to buy hundreds of oranges, believing that if his brother at huge numbers of them, it could cure his blindness. Trapped in the old brownstone by the terms of their cruel grandmother's will, their surroundings have changed around them. What was once a very wealthy area has become a run-down slum. Their new neighbors whispered about the treasures hidden inside their house, and began to break in frequently. The younger brother began dragging in items to use to make booby-traps to protect his brother, who he protected in the only room left with a window that would open. To get to him, he had to negotiate a series of tunnels and traps that would make the Viet Cong proud. A large amount of the stuff in the mansion was bundles of newspapers he was saving, so that his brother could catch up on the news when he got his sight back. I won't give away what all happens, in case anyone wants to dig up a copy of this old book. Most amazingly, it is based on a true story!

I'm currently reading Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
Ana Karenjina - Dostojevski ......... (Both in my mother language translations)
And the Demonica series by Larissa Ione (in English)

Sammi-chan - I've read both The Immortal series (translation) and The House Of The Night series .... Awesome ..... As well as The Vampire Diaries ........ I've got to say, those books are good. (Glad to know I'm not the only one who likes them..... I get wierd looks from my friends whenever I mention the paranormal genre, especially vampires and such)

~lily

I just finished reading A Feast For Crows by George R.R. Martin, and will soon start with the next (and latest) book in the series.

I'm also planning on re-reading The Lord of the Rings soon, this time though in English. I've ever only read it as a translation to my first language before.

Garden of the Incubus by John Tigges
The Gatekeeper by Dana Reed
(I like old horror novels, what can I say)
a Non-Fic called Haunted Heartland
Gradually working my way through a whole buttload of free kindle books someone keeps listing that can be found on Amazon.com (you can read them without a kindle if you download their PC app, it's free and works just fine). There are so many of these that I can't even begin to list them but The White Shadow series or The Raven's Heart trilogy is good.

I’m currently re-reading Exile’s Song by Marion Zimmer Bradley and When the Wind Blows by John Saul.

Danyealle-sama wrote:
Garden of the Incubus by John Tigges
The Gatekeeper by Dana Reed
(I like old horror novels, what can I say)
a Non-Fic called Haunted Heartland
Gradually working my way through a whole buttload of free kindle books someone keeps listing that can be found on Amazon.com (you can read them without a kindle if you download their PC app, it's free and works just fine). There are so many of these that I can't even begin to list them but The White Shadow series or The Raven's Heart trilogy is good.

I loved Haunted Heartland- I reread it soooo many times

I have had a major spring clean lately and unearthed a cache of books relating back to the carefree days of childhood. Not having seen them for many a year I spent the last couple of cool, wet spring weekends ensconced in my favourite armchair, a bowl of plain salted potato chips at my elbow - complete with a bowl of softened vanilla ice cream for dunking said chips in - and just indulged in a good long walk down memory lane.

I read and re-read these endlessly as a 12 year old way back in 1972.

Little Women
Good Wives
Little Men
Jo's Boys all by Louisa May Alcott

What Katy Did
What Katy Did At School
What Katy Did Next all by Susan M. Coolidge

Annette and the Mystery At Smuggler's Cove (A Disney publication featuring Annette Funicello of original Mouseketeers fame)

It was a lovely break from the everyday stresses of real life.

I'm rereading 'Leviathan' and 'Behemoth' by Scott Westerfeld since the last book in the trilogy, 'Goliath', just came out.

Also, 'Game of Thrones' by George R. R. Martin.

Series:

'The Iron Fey' by Julie Kagawa

'Shade', 'Shift' and 'Shine' (Coming out in May 2012) by Jeri Smith-Ready

'Eon' and 'Eona' by Alison Goodman

I read a lot. >_>

>.> It's been a while since I read anything besides my textbooks. Although I did recently pick through my old cache of books that I've had for years and cleaned it out. I picked up my old complete printed volume of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien and had a read. It's still very good XD.

I have also picked up my favourite of Tolkien's compilations, The Silmarillion, and the Children of Hurin.

~ Pyre

I've started to re-read my collection of the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop.

None of the stereotypical horror-based characters. The people are witches and warlords who channel magic through the strength of jewels they receive through a birthright ceremony or, if they're strong enough, a later ceremony. The society is sort of an alternate universe, where females rule and males obey and serve. The society of Blood is degrading because of others' greed for power, and those who remember what being Blood really means wait for the day when someone, Witch - the Dreams Made Flesh- finally comes and calls in the debt from the corrupted.

The series delves into some pretty dark moments, and some would call it Mary-Sue. But when I get the cravings for some overly-dramatic plot filled with 'perfect' characters, this series becomes my brand of poison ^-^

Glad to see another Black Jewels fan! I just finished re-reading the Shalador duology.

Now I'm trying to decided whether to re-read Garth Nix's Seventh Tower series, or Sara Douglas's Wayfarer Redemption.

I working on "The count of Monte Cristo". I'm really into to classics right now, and I totally blame it on the classics challenge that was here on Dokuga. It's all their fault, I just recently finished Jane Austin's, Pride and Prejudice, because of Sandreline Moon's story, "Pride and Prejudice: The Takahashi Way"

'The Secret History', by Donna Tartt. I love the intensity of the characters, how introverted and lost the main character is, and how real it is to the other side of society; with students living outside of social norms. fffff. The characters are real and yet so unusual, and the whole thing is so interesting enjoyable to read! xD

I was stuck in Anne Rice though, from the Vampire Lestat to Queen of the Damned. Amazing. A little overdramatic, but beautifully so. sdjkglasj.

I want to properly read Jane Eyre though! And the Mayor of Casterbridge, which has been recommended to me so many times - finally buckle down and read more classics than 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' that was forced on me age 12 (I loved it though. >__<), and of course, Jules Verne. xD

I also saw Garth Nix up there! ;u; That man needs more recognition!

@Freya!

It took me a long, long time to like The Vampire Diaries TV show (and I still can't take it seriously as anything other than 'junkfood'. xD). The 'perfect' nature of it makes me giggle and facepalm - it's like the clique-teen introduction to the supernatural - but are the books better with that? The House of Night did itself no favours with taking the main characters seriously (from what I read of the first book, she sees it as a 'drag' to become marked as a creature ostracised by most people, that drinks blood?), and is not a series I am fond of. (I did love Twilight - up until the third book, where I got a little bored - though. xD I viewed her as unusual, but her personality acceptable.. in that I wouldn't make the same decision, but she was a bit obsessive, and therefore a more plausible character? xD)

Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. I reread it every six months or so (it's a very short book) just to see how my perspective has changed. It's also one of the few I recommend to everyone. It's not religious, but it has Jesus beams coming from the book sans Jesus, if that makes any sense. In general Richard Bach is my hero, and his books are all amazing. Johnathon Livingston Seagull is perhaps one of the most amazing things I've ever read.

Right now I'm reading The Vampire Diaries series by L.J Smith

@Ejunkie:

I really have no love for Twilight, no offense to anyone that's in love with it. It was just, I read the first one, expecting to love it in spite of myself and when I finished it, I was like " . . . This is what everyone's going so crazy over?" And then when people heard I didn't like Twilight, they'd respond "Oh, that's 'cause you only read the first one." >_> . . . Despite the logical response of "Well, if I didn't enjoy the first one, why would I put myself through reading anymore of it?" I still gave the second one a try. And it's not like I hate it with a passion, it's more like . . . I could understand if it was just 'popular', but the hmm . . . the writing, alone, doesn't merit the 'take the world by storm' phenomenon that it has become. Every time there's a commercial for one of the movies and I have to hear the words 'world wide best seller' or 'world wide phenomenon' I just kind of cringe and die a little inside.

As for The Vampire Diaries- it's not really as clique-ish in the books, but mostly because so much of the story takes place outside of school-settings, and unlike the TV series, Elena and her gang were already in their senior year of school at the beginning of the first novel, where as the show has them only beginning their senior year now at the start of the 3rd season. It took me a bit to like the Elena character in the books because she's the Queen Bee of her school . . . being a gothie, left alone mostly because ppl were a li'l afraid of me, outcast when I was in high school, it took me a while to be able to warm up to her. She starts out almost like a spoiled child 'cause she's very used to having her way and getting what she wants, so when she doesn't get something she wants, it makes her almost automatically obsessive about figuring out how to get whatever it is. The TV series Elena is a bit easier to digest in this respect, I think. The characters that survived the book-to-show translation are almost entirely different from their original form, as well. Though, like the show, the books, at least in the beginning, do have their fair share of teen-drama (like worrying about school functions and stealing each other's diaries, things like that), but that's to be expected as it is teen-fiction.

The books are entirely different from the show- like I said in my initial post, these shows are more like AU fanfictions based on the books because of how much it varies from the original material. L.J. Smith is a fantastic author, but the story she tells in the books (especially the HUGE left turn the entire story takes in the sequel series, The Vampire Diaries: The Return) can't be gauged by really anything going on in the show just like the show can't be predicted by how the story unfolds in the books. I would say if you're curious about it, pick up the first one- the original series is in collected editions now (the first two volumes in one, the last two in one), but they might still be in their original format at the library- worst case scenario, you decide you don't like it.

As far as I'm concerned, L.J. Smith is the reigning queen of supernatural teen-fiction.

Oh, and don't get me started on all the character-flaws of the main character in House of Night. Eventually, as the series progresses, the story becomes less centered around teen-drama-bs and more serious, but as it becomes more serious, the main character (in my opinion) becomes a bit more insufferable because she get somewhat full of herself and her role. As the reader, you can see all the pitfalls she's setting herself up for with her decisions and attitude and it makes it difficult to sympathize with her when everything falls down around her even as you're cringing and going, "I so saw that coming."

I am reading the last installment of the Eragon series

Then I am going to be reading 'Burned' by Ellen Hopkins. She is an amazing writer and I have all of her books. I recommend 'Crank'.

For books regarding Supernatural books, I would recommend Vampire Academy, Tithe, The Summoner, Blue Bloods, Halo, and Wicked Lovely. Those are just a few. I have my own personal library of 140+ books

Ohh, yes, Wicked Lovely was good, too!