I'm currently reading 'Memoirs of a Geisha' by Arthur Golden.

Almost finished, and I'm enjoying it, heh.

Well, I finished Fear and Loathing, and now I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor.

That book is the biggest soap opera ever, Irtar. I read it for senior english.

Yes, and that is why I don't really like it. Everyone is obsessive compulsive in that book! Not to mention, it's more painful to read than my early posts. Yes, there are some neat writing things in there and ideas that can be spawned. But if not for the fact I HAD to read it, the book would never have even been looked at by me....Stupid soap operas...

Tried to read that a while ago, couldn't make it past the first fifty pages. Does it pick up after the beginning, or am I just lazy?

I don't know, I'm only at page 20. Though it is funny that the last person to have taken it out of the library was in '86. But I'm going to try to get back into it. KOTOR 2, SW Battlefront, and Warhammer 40k are destroying whatever time I have other than that for posts and school work.

Knights Templar are basically an ancient organization founded to guard the Holy Grail. They attained great power and were eventually (mostly) destroyed by the Pope... I forget most of it now.

Oh, and I don't know how the books show them but that isn't what the Knights Templar were...if I remember anything from the documentaries I've seen and from history class. The Knights Templar were an elite group of Crusaders, who got a lot of spoils from the First Crusade. It is said they stored many of the relics and much of the gold they found in hidden vaults. One of the relics rumored to be found is that of the Holy Grail. Also, with the generated funds and the protection they could provide, the Knights Templar set up one of the first banking systems in medieval Europe.

Asimov, Heinlein, Tolkien, Herbert, Clarke, Michael Stackpole, Kevin J Anderson, and Michael Reaves.

My personal faves:
The Dune series - Frank Herbert
2001-3001 - Arthur C Clarke
Rendevous with Rama - Clarke
Childhood's End - Clarke
Starship Troopers - Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlien
LOTR, The Hobbit - Tolkien
I, Robot series - Asimov
Dune Prequels - Kevin J Anderson

It's hardly a novel, but I've been picking through George Carlin's, "When will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?"

It's been funny. Eh, it has some recycled material, but is well worth reading if only to kill a few minutes at a time.


And I agree with Demo that The Da Vinci Code is "decent," if maybe a little better. The plot didn't really do anything for me, but the backstory - even if fictional in part - kept me glued.

I'd recommend it to anyone even mildly interested in history. And especially art history, I'd imagine.

Oh also... Terry Prachett, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett. I cannot stress how much love I have for this man. Try any of the Discworld series, or Good Omens (collaboration with Neil Gaiman, yum).

I didnt' like Rendevous With Rama that much.

Angels and Deamons, the prequel to Da Vinci Code is a good choice, if you liked Brown's more well known foray.

Got that lying around the house actually.

Just picked up 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" by Haruki Murikami that I got for christmas last year again. It's a great read which I'd foolishly thought I'd lost. Fucking wierd too, but in a good way.

Snowcrash. That is a neat book.