I've been slacking here.  Well not with the reading, but with the talking about reading.

I restarted The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (dude box sets ftw... I may have to just get all new paperbacks).  Mostly because he's finally finished it and I need to catch up before I read the end.  Else I'd be hopelessly lost.  I still need to get into the boxes and pull out the rest of the books as well as pulling out the Martin series that Tainda told me to read and will kick my ass for not starting yet.

I also want to go out and pick up The Ancient.  It's the sequel to The Highwayman by Salvatore.  It should be fantastic because The Highwayman was simply incredible.  Sometimes when a writer gets too into a certain world they tend to get formulaic (this ended up being my issue with Dean Koontz and Stephen King) and you forget just how talented they really are.  This is outside of the whole Dritzz, Forgotten Realms business and just blows you away.

I also read The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and some guy.  I feel bad for not remembering his name and when I go to look it up on Amazon to link it here I'll remember and feel even worse (James Mallory!!!  HAH!).  It's the usual light fluffy fantasy that Lackey writes.  That doesn't make it not worth reading.  I read all her books.  She's a terrific writer and I like to see things from a female perspective.  Her character development is a definite strength.  There's the usual good versus evil battle, but it manages not to be trite.  I like that she goes in and asks at what point "for the good of all" leads you from actually doing good to oppression.

I'm also re-reading The Dark Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop.  Hands down and without a doubt one of my all time favourite series.  Period.  Read it.  Now.  No, really.  Now.  I'll wait.

I'm also going through my usual (slower) classics.  I've picked The Decameron back up (more like lifted from my step-sister, but she wasn't reading it anyway).  Reading a few pages of Pride and Prejudice here and there, interspersed with Sense and Sensibility and Vanity Fair (sidebar:  does anyone else find it funny that Amazon is selling the Barnes and Noble publication of this?).  It isn't that these books are less interesting to me.  They're fascinating and I love them.  The problem is that they are more immersive than the lighter mainstream books that I read and require more time to devote.  As time is something that I'm short on currently, I can't really spend as much time with the deeper books as I'd like.  Fortunately Fan Faire is coming up and I can get some good plane reading in.