I think most versions are based off an old anonymous translation. There is a fairly new translation by Robin Buss that is supposed to include stuff not in the older translation. It's gotten good reviews, but I've only read the old one.

Oh. Well, I hope I didn't read the abridged version. I understand that there are some abridged versions out there but I didn't see that the book I read was the abridged one.

That's something I've been meaning to do for a while now. Maybe I will once I finish up the Ender series.

If it was about 1000 pages it wasn't "abridged". I think the older translation did leave out some of the more risque parts though, so I guess it would be more censored than abridged.

In the past couple weeks I've read...

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
Stalking the Angel, Free Fall, Voodoo River and LA Requiem, all by Robert Crais

Currently I'm reading Crais's Sunset Express. Angel was the first Elvis Cole novel I read and I am hooked. Crais is fantastic.

Alien Redrum, I'm hitting rummage sales and used book stores trying to accumulate Crais Elvis Cole series, and am having no luck. Sign of a good author when the stores can't keep his stuff in stock and people arn't willing to part with their copies. I'll have to keep plugging away and buy them full price at B&N later if I can't find them. Patience is a virtue I'm told.

Just started The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon.

I finished Plum Island. The first half of the book was kinda slow but it picked up in the second half and especially in the final 100 pages. I'll definitely read more of DeMille's work if it's anything like Plum Island.

Man, I bought all of my Crais novels at various used book sales.

Currently my dad has all of my Crais books, but if you want I can mail them out when he's done with them.

Shoot me an email if you are interested. It may take a few weeks though (until my pop finishes reading them).

Also, you may want to check out this. I use that damn_site religiously to find book sales.

Finished Lawrence Block's Hit Man. I really enjoy the Keller character, and at times, Block's humor reminds me of Donald E. Westlake. I like the little observations he throws in about everyday things.

Just started Donald E. Westlake's Money for Nothing. One of my favorite authors ever. He can crank out the humorous Dortmunder books, then turn around and do gritty, noir-style books under his Richard Stark alias.

Thanks for the offer AR, but I don't want to put you out. The link you gave me is pretty helpful, as it told me my local library will have a sale the end of October. My city is fairly small (120,000 people) so there arn't alot of those kind of opportunities (we have only one used book store) to purchase good used books. But it looks like the library sale for my city will have 90,000 books to choose from, so that should help me out a bunch. Thanks again!!

Zeus, if you liked the main character from Plum Island he is brought back in The Lions Game, also an excellant book. John Corey is trying to foil a terrorist kind of thing. DeMille is currently working on a third book that will maybe be out in spring 2004 featuring Corey as well.

Most of his books are stand alones, though Generals Daughter and Up Country feature the same main character Paul Brenner. I would recommend both of these books as well.

Others of his worth mentioning are Talbot Odyssey, The Charm School, and Gold Coast. Cathedral, Spencerville, By The Rivers of Babylon, and Word of Honor round out his body of work. All pretty solid IMO. His books due tend to run long compared to many others, but it usually is spent on character development since he doesn't write about the same character as a rule and can't develop him over several books.

Wow. Thanks for the excellent info. I'll definitely be checking those books out...I'm especially looking forward to reading Word of Honor since I like military books (though it sounds nothing like the type of military books I usually read).

I got 5 books from the library today. I'm going to start reading A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane.

I just finished Holes. My scouts said it was a good book so I picked it up at Costco and read it in a few hours... pretty good book, now I cans ee the movie when it hits DVD.

Now I'm trying to finish the first Harry Potter book... don't laugh.

What's tthere to laugh at? The Harry Potter books are fun to read. I've read all 5 myself.

Right now I'm reading The Bachman Books. $ novels written by Stephen King under the ghost name of Richard Bachman. It was pulled off the market because the book "Rage" was supposedly mentioned by some of the students involved in the Collumbine (sp) shootings. At least that is what I have heard.

Rage I could not get into and struggled to finish it. I have about another 100 pages of The Long Walk and I am enjoying it throughly.

Not sure what is next. Most likely The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

I'm halfway through Speaks The Nightbird ,by, Robert McCammon.

I'm hoping someone will pick up the other book he has finished, I think it's about a travelling circus during WW2, something like that. I don't want him to go back into retirement, that's for sure.

Great book. Highly recommended.

Up next, Spiders , by Richard Lewis. I love bug horror books.

I agree completely. Unfortunately, both Speaks the Nightbird, and the other book were written ten years or so ago, so McCammon never left retirement in the first place, and he has no plans whatsoever to resume writing/publishing.

The Complete Tales And Poems Of Edger Allan Poe

Just finished.

The New Adventures of Hitler, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Steve Yeowell. A graphic novella written by Morrison in the '80s and published in a British comic anthology; very difficult to track down, but well worth it. This great piece of historical fiction by Morrison details Hitler's time in England in 1912, wherein John Bull (the UK version of Uncle Sam) inspires Hitler to return to Germany and become a fascist dictator. As much a critique on Thatcher as an analysis on Hitler, at the end when Hitler vows to return to England, it carries a sinister double meaning. Excellent.

In the middle of:

The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford. The basis for Kubrick's masterpiece "Full Metal Jacket," the novel does not disappoint. The novel actually manages to keep pace with Kubrick's twisted imagery of the boot-camp brainwashing of normal young men into sadistic, twisted killing machines, and occasionally outdoes it. The parts of the novel that actually take place in Vietnam have so far upped the ante, and promise to get darker from there.

Up next:

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters by Greg Palast.

I'm re-reading Emerald Eyes by Daniel Keys Moran, then I'll read The Long Run by the same author.

Last week (while on vacation) I read Wicked by Gregory Maguire (?) which I didn't really like much (it was readable, but I just didn't really like the approach it took) and Catch Me If You Can, which I did like in spite of all the bragging.

Well I just finished The Quiet American.

I just got from my preorder at Amazon, Grass for his Pillow- part II of the Tales of the Otori trilogy.

After that it's on to the next three of the Sharpe series from Bernard Cornwell- after the India trilogy (Sharpe's Trafalgar,etc.)

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Just started Dennis Lehane's Prayers for Rain last night. While I've heard a lot of raves about him, I've never read him before. So far, I really like his writing style.

The devil in the white city!

I started Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation yesterday. I'm halfway through. This is the kind of non-fiction I like to read.

If you like it, too, might I suggest you pick up Nicholson Baker's Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper for a nice expose of the "preservation" techniques used in the library industry.