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Finally finished Neal Gabler's superb biography Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. It's a must-read for anyone interested in animation. I found the latter half of the book rather slow-going, mostly because I was more interested in Walt's earlier days than his later, park-building twilight years. That's no fault of Gabler's, obviously. I didn't grow up watching Walt on TV like my folks did, so I didn't have any preconcieved notions going in. Walt was a true creative genius, with no overriding passion other than perfection. He was a terse, distant man, a perfectionist who preferred cartoons and trains to real people. Little touches, like how his figertips had calcified over the years from his chainsmoking, are the sort of things that bring a larger-than-life figure down to earth. It's hard to believe he's been dead over forty years, but Gabler makes it feel like you could reach out and shake his hand. Highly recommended.
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May 2, 2007 02:06
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I just finished George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails, the first book in his Maurid Audran trilogy. At twenty years old, it was an interesting contrast to newer cyberpunk -- there were a lot of great elements (like the overall feel of the Budayeen, the squalid district where the story takes place), but also some that felt flat (what, no one swears in the future?). The first half was great -- it really sucked me in. The next 40% was pretty good, but not great; I really wasn't wild about the last 10%. It didn't feel like "Oops, I don't know how to end this," but something about it just didn't sit right. I'm not planning to finish the series. Jawa Fluffer fucked around with this message at 05:41 on May 2, 2007 |
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May 2, 2007 05:38
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CrimsonGhost posted:Does he end this book well? My main problem with Mr. Long is that his endings always suck rear end. After reading an enjoyable book for 300 or so pages he manages to ruin it with a three page ending that doesn't do any justice at all. For example- The Descent and The Reckoning. Hmmm... I might not be the best person to ask about this as I didn't really have a huge problem with how he ended The Descent, however if you like, there's the small epilogue chapter at the end of thsi book which you could skip altogether.
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May 2, 2007 12:06
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Chamberk posted:Finished Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. (I was on a bit of a nonfiction kick for a while.) I got bogged down in the "preparations of the World Fair of 1893" part for MONTHS, but once the fair started I couldn't really put it down, and I finished the book in a night. Fantastic stuff. Certain parts about things that happened during the fair gave me goosebumps. Yeah, despite being a serial killer buff I actually liked the parts about Olmstead and his parks quite a bit. I've been to several parks he designed- Central Park of course, and Brookdale, Branch Brook, and Eagle Rock reservation in NJ. I just finished The Watchman by Robert Crais, one of his Elvis Cole detective novels. This one is more of an actioner, and features sidekick Joe Pike in the lead role, much like his excellent prior novel, L.A. Requiem. Crais writes similar to Kent Anderson of Night Dogs and Sympathy for the Devil fame, and manages to merge the poetry of Chandler with the laconic, staccato brevity of Hammett. He definitely stands on their foundation and writes a great thriller. Prior to that I slogged through Glen Cook's The Tyranny of the Night, the first in his new series. This one is set in an alternate history, I'm guessing around the 1300's. The names are all changed. Rome is Brothe, and I found that to be a confusing and distracting conceit. I loved The Black Company, and I'm enjoying the story of Else Tage, but not being a history buff is leaving me at a disadvantage. The meddling of the Norse pantheon is great fun, but I don't think this is his best work. It's a bit indulgent, and I wish he'd just used the historical names, like Janissaries and Florence and so on. It makes keeping track of who's who a real burden, which weighs down an otherwise gripping tale.
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May 2, 2007 13:05
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Waldo Jeffers posted:I just finished The Sound and the Fury and it was amazing. As someone who is getting into writing, I've never felt so insignificant. Faulkner made each character's point of view so believable that I was beginning to worry that he himself was a mentally handicapped, suicidal, hatemongering douchebag. Anyway, I strongly recommend to anyone with a patient mind for working through some twisted stream of consciousness. Yeah its a cracker alright. But for some reason, I felt reading Faulkner after this book just wasn't the same. A bit like listening to an album where the first track is amazing but everything else never quite touches on the same kind of magic. Its all great of course but it peaked at the beginning and its been a downward slope ever since. As I Lay Dying was fantastic and it was hilarious (and disturbing in equal measure. The things those bumpkins do to Addie's corpse...) But I doesn't do what The Sound and the Fury does. So in terms of its technique I tend to think of As I Lay Dying as doing what the Sound and the Fury does in microcosm. I just finished Absalom! Absalom! and I could never shake the feeling that it was basically Quentin's narrative in The Sound and the Fury times ten. Beautifully written but Quentins chapter in the former book was just too much. So Absalom! Absalom! was so painful to read and so lyrical and needlessly verbose. And it reaches so much. Which is Quentin all over. But it was unbearable for me to be in Quentin's head for so long. The reasons for why I read the Sound and the Fury and reread it twice more were not the reasons I read Absalom! Absalom! I climbed a mountain for the former book and I reached the summit and it made sense. I think I got the point. I climbed a mountain for the latter book and I reached the peak but I felt my only reward was the exercise? I don't know... Good job though on finishing one of the great novels of the 20th Century and in my humble opinion one of the greatest works of an American author period. WanderingKid fucked around with this message at 16:16 on May 2, 2007 |
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May 2, 2007 16:06
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A Game of Thrones, the first book in the Song of Fire and Ice series by Georges R. R. Martin. Im hooked like a 12 pound trout.
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May 3, 2007 23:58
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In the past month I read Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, and Galapagos. After Vonnegut died I decided that I should read some more of his books. All three of them were amazing.
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May 4, 2007 01:29
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Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov After reading Dune and finding the in that to have such a beautiful flow Asimov was a little harder. He writes more efficiently and boldly I think. But Second Foundation was exactly what I expected, a super awesome sci-fi Asimov book. Next I'm onto Perfume: Story of a Murderer. Started it after I saw the movie and thought it was really good but would probably be better in book form. Now I'm half way through and it's a little slow at parts, and the movie isn't true to the book for time/logistical purposes. They are different. thehandtruck fucked around with this message at 01:44 on May 4, 2007 |
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May 4, 2007 01:41
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I was travelling last weekend, so I stole some of my roommates books. I read, "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Dress Your Family in Courderoy and Denim" (both by David Sedaris). Me Talk Pretty was hilarious. I actually laughed out loud while reading it. Dress your Family... was funny but seemed like the author was just cashing in on a winning formula. It didn't seem quite as fresh, but maybe its because I read it right after the first book and had reached my "funny family stories" quota. In any case, they are quick and easy reads that I would recommend as a beach book.
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May 4, 2007 21:35
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"Cell" and "Everythings eventual", both by Stephen King. I haven't read that much King in my day but I plowed through these over the course of two transatlantic flights. Excellent stuff, I enjoyed them both and pretty happy to see both Cell and 1408 turned into movies, I think they both have the potential to work.
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May 4, 2007 21:45
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Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut I decided to start reading Vonnegut after hearing so many good things about him when he died. I really enjoyed about every story. My favorites were: Harrison Bergeron All The King's Horses, Report On The Barnhouse Effect, The Euphio Question, Deer In The Works, Unready To Wear and Epicac. It's amazing how well he can get you in the mood of a story in such a short time and leaves you wanting more. I reccomend it to everyone.
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May 4, 2007 23:03
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The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. It's the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and I'll admit that I was excited to start it once I heard it was a great fantasy trilogy. I was not dissapointed. I'm usually not a fan of high fantasy (think LOTR derivatives), and thankfully this book was nothing like it. It went extremely fast, and I think it has literary value.
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May 5, 2007 00:39
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God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert Read the last 150 pages just this evening. I always start out slow, maybe 25 pages or so a day, then whoosh through the last third or so of whatever I'm reading in an afternoon. The 3,500 year gap didn't bother me as much as I thought it might, because it was still about Leto II. I'm on to Heretics now, then Chapterhouse. Screw that wanting filler to split up series, I want to get to the end of this.
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May 5, 2007 02:06
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LooseChanj posted:God Emperor of Dune, Frank Herbert Not so fast! What did you think of it?
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May 5, 2007 02:34
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Zero Karizma posted:Not so fast! What did you think of it? I thought the ending was rather abrupt and slightly disconnected from the rest of the story, and I spent quite a bit of the book trying to visualize the worm-Leto hybrid. Herbert could have done a better job conveying why Siona hated the worm so much. And poor Duncan. Poor poor bastard. Getting resurrected over and over like that. I thought in Dune Messiah the gholas weren't clones, but the actual regrown flesh of someone who'd died? Seems like he changed that this time.
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May 5, 2007 02:50
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LooseChanj posted:I thought the ending was rather abrupt and slightly disconnected from the rest of the story, and I spent quite a bit of the book trying to visualize the worm-Leto hybrid. I can give you that. But did the readability of a book entirely about a gigantic man-worm, surprise you? I mean, I thought I would hate this book. quote:I thought in Dune Messiah the gholas weren't clones, but the actual regrown flesh of someone who'd died? Seems like he changed that this time. They are, but Duncan's different. Remember Neo talking to the Architect in Matrix 2? Didn't a certain scene in this book strike you as familiar?
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May 5, 2007 18:04
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This is brilliant, but in just a few short days, I also finished The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman, book 2 in His Dark Materials trilogy. And by God, it's brilliant. The stage has been set for the last book, and I could really feel the epic scope of this novel. It's going to be a fight between God vs. His Creation. His Dark Materials indeed.
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May 5, 2007 19:56
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Blood Music by Greg Bear, an interesting tale about a scientist that writes intelligence into the DNA of some of his own Lympchytes and is forced to inject them into his own system. The cells grow incredibly intelligent and begin to form colonies and decide it is time to take over. It wasn't exactly what I expected but it was a fun fast read that was smart and well thought out. I have seen people hear talk about Mr. Bear's writings before and i will have to check out more from him myself.\dpvtank posted:This is brilliant, but in just a few short days, I also finished The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman, book 2 in His Dark Materials trilogy. And by God, it's brilliant.
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May 5, 2007 20:30
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Zero Karizma posted:I can give you that. But did the readability of a book entirely about a gigantic man-worm, surprise you? I mean, I thought I would hate this book. I still want to know wtf he looked like. Seriously. According to the text, he still had arms, and vestigial legs. So, uh, where was the giant 2-meter diameter worm attached/growing from? Zero Karizma posted:They are, but Duncan's different. Remember Neo talking to the Architect in Matrix 2? Didn't a certain scene in this book strike you as familiar? Umm, could you be more specific? I honestly don't remember anything that might fit. If he is different, then is it really fair to still call him a ghola? I'd think you'd want some sort of modifier in there.
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May 5, 2007 21:03
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Zero Karizma posted:The thing I liked most of all was the early blood transfusions they do, where the only screening process is that you needed to be a "strong man" to give blood to ANYONE. Lucy gets 4 random blood donors. She was lucky to live as long as she did! Maybe she was AB+?
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May 6, 2007 01:15
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I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I had to read it for class. I enjoyed it so much I just purchased Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and Dance Dance Dance, both by Murakami. Hopefully they're just as good as Wind-Up Bird.
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May 6, 2007 03:09
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I just finished Collapse by Jared Diamond. Like any of his books, it was amazingly well-written, very convincing, and relevant to today. Whenever he quotes other authors I'm always thankful it is not 500 pages of that, instead Diamond manages to make the book fun and actually a page-turner (for me at least). I always wish to find a major flaw in one of his arguments but even come up short in minor flaws. He's just too good! And its enviromental focus really doesn't need to be explained as to why it's relevant. If it does go read this book!
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May 6, 2007 03:15
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Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. It's popular to hate this and Hannibal, but I think this is better than his last effort. While it's unwise to delve into the backstory of a bugaboo like Lecter, this does a decent job. It was entertaining reading, but wasn't as good as Red Dragon. I enjoyed the setting on the Eastern front, and post-war Paris. I felt Lady Murasaki to be a bit contrived, but for airplane reading it's quite good. It doesn't quite give the finger to readers like Hannibal did, where he tries to outdo the horror with Mason and the infamous ending, which I think the movie handled better. Hopefully Harris will move on, and his publisher will allow him to.
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May 6, 2007 16:50
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Just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by whatever that guy's name is. I enjoyed it much more than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and it seemed as if I was the only that didn't hate the ending. Hemmingway said it was cheating as does everybody I know but I guess I could look past it. Or something.
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May 6, 2007 18:48
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I just finished Carroll's Through the Looking Glass a little while ago, and yesterday I completed A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. TTLG was aggravating, I really had to force myself to finish it. ABM was much more enjoyable (the biography of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., on which the movie was based). I like going through biographies that movies have spawned from and noting the differences - in this case, Nash was much more full of himself before his descent, had far more unbelievable and laughable delusions, and his social graces were abhorrently lacking.
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May 6, 2007 20:17
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LooseChanj posted:I still want to know wtf he looked like. Seriously. According to the text, he still had arms, and vestigial legs. So, uh, where was the giant 2-meter diameter worm attached/growing from? He kept evolving over time. They weren't arms and legs any more by the time we catch up with him in God Emperor. Here's an artists conception:  quote:Umm, could you be more specific? I honestly don't remember anything that might fit. If he is different, then is it really fair to still call him a ghola? I'd think you'd want some sort of modifier in there. Ugh, we've entered the realm of Matrix discussion. We must be on the prestigious Internet. Ahem: Architect: "Hmm... that was faster than the others." Remember how there were a billion Neos before the true Neo? Then when he was talking to the Architect, true Neo was a tiny bit faster than all the others? THIS Duncan Idaho was a special copy that could finally overthrow Leto. In fact the Dune references in the Matrix are ridiculous, bordering on plagiarism. How about Neo being blinded, only to be able to "see" in special matrix vision? (Paul) The Wachowskis openly admitted being influenced by Dune, among other sources, but I thought it strected a bit further than mere "influence" at times. Also Matrix 2 and 3 sucked. A ghoala isn't a straight clone, so yes he is still a ghoala. There are differences and eccentricities in each Duncan. Usually ghoalas can't unlock their memories, but in the Duncans cases, they do... but they get there at different speeds. BrainParasite posted:Maybe she was AB+? I'd still say she was extremely lucky!
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May 6, 2007 20:39
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Zero Karizma posted:He kept evolving over time. They weren't arms and legs any more by the time we catch up with him in God Emperor. Here's an artists conception: Wow, that's a really...special mspaint job there.  The whacked image in my head was of a weird dude on the head of a huge tongue. Like the worm was growing out of his back. Whatever, I'm just getting into Heretics now and I'm all  cuz I love the Tleilaxu.
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May 7, 2007 00:03
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I just finished White Night by Jim Butcher, the ninth installment of the Dresden Files. I think it is safe to say that Jim Butcher is the Jerry Bruckheimer of modern fantasy fiction. Jesus christ. The climactic battle at the end of the book just kept going and going and going and explosions were piled on top of explosions and even more explosions and then huge rifts in the space time continuum appeared and even more explosions followed. That poo poo is loving intense.
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May 7, 2007 00:35
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Just finished Candide by Voltaire (it's been a productive day). I have no idea why I had put it off for so long; it is immensely enjoyable and very candid. And how can you say no to a classic that is only 100 pages long? Truly a win-win story.
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May 7, 2007 01:13
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LooseChanj posted:Wow, that's a really...special mspaint job there. I try  Besides, if you think that's lovely, check out this action figure version: 
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May 7, 2007 01:36
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Zero Karizma posted:I try Good God, that's horrible. Looks like a piece of cat poo poo with a face on it.
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May 7, 2007 04:37
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dpvtank posted:This is brilliant, but in just a few short days, I also finished The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman, book 2 in His Dark Materials trilogy. And by God, it's brilliant. I finished the series a few days ago. What can I say? It's very well written, but the ending left me feeling down. I won't spoil it or anything, but it's left me really depressed. It's not a tragic ending, so don't worry, but drat I'm depressed about it. But also I've just been feeling down lately anyway so it's probably that. I really hope Pullman writes a book in the future to make me happy again  .But on the other hand the way it ended was important as well, and the significance of it might be lost if he revisits it. Arrgh, why must there be so many stories with such bittersweet endings  . It goes from so happy to so sad so fast  .I've gotta find a happy book now.
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May 7, 2007 09:36
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Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the margins of my time Clive James. I've always loved Clive James, but i never realised that this guy has read everything. This is book is 50 years of reading, writing, critical analysis and humour stuffed into a single easily accessible volume.
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May 7, 2007 10:25
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Flowers for Algernon Now, I'm normally very distrustful of books that loads of people find awesome, since they tend to be pretty bad, but I LOVED this book. Read it in about 4 hours, just since I enjoyed it so much. Absolutely amazing, recommended to anyone.
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May 7, 2007 11:28
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Mack the Knife posted:Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Arg, I swear on all the gods I will NEVER read or watch this. I'll despise it, as I did everything with Mischa in Hannibal. Does Harris have Alzheimer's or something? The whole reason Hannibal Lecter is so awesome is that he is outside the bounds of understanding. Will Graham and subsequently Clarice Starling both use their knowledge of human behavior, psychology, and forensics to understand and capture or kill the two enemies; Jame Gumb and Francis Dollarhyde. Both of them were 'made' monsters through various effects of psychological truama inflicted upon them, i.e you could tell why they ended up that way. With Hannibal, he was supposed to be awesome and scary, because you couldn't apply any behaviorism or rules to him, nothing 'made' him the way he is, in his own words: (paraphrased) "you've swapped good and evil for behaviourism Clarice, nothing happened to make me the way I am, I happened." I mean it was the whole drat point! No psych tests worked, they couldn't sweat him with drugs,etc. And now? Oh yeah, he acts this way because Nazi's ate his sister.  It didn't give us the finger?! It basically destroyed the best character ever created! I'm going to pretend it never happened.
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May 7, 2007 11:42
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AlexHat posted:It didn't give us the finger?! It basically destroyed the best character ever created! I'm going to pretend it never happened. Well, I'm not really a Lecter fanboy. I see where you're coming from, though. Lecter was best when he was left to wander the world, like the boogeyman he is. If you enjoy Lecter and want to read about a psychopath who may not eat people but is just as terrifying, I suggest the latest two Matthew Scudder novels by Lawrence Block: Hope to Die and All the Flowers Are Dying. The unnamed killer is like Lecter, a psychopathic genius, and he has a ripping good time in those two books, setting people up, murdering for joy or profit. The Ripley books by Patricia Highsmith might interest you as well. Pontius Pilate posted:Just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by whatever that guy's name is. I enjoyed it much more than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and it seemed as if I was the only that didn't hate the ending. Hemmingway said it was cheating as does everybody I know but I guess I could look past it. Or something. I liked the ending, and thought it was one of the more poignant parts. I wrote a paper on it ages ago. Tom's little game is a poke at abolitionists, he wants to free Jim but only if he can feel ennobled by it. And it lets Huck see how even his good friend Tom thinks little of poor Huck and his slave friend Jim.
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May 7, 2007 19:03
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I just finished two books in the last 2 weeks: Perdido Street Station by China Meiville and Neuromancer by William Gibson. The plan is to alternate between the Meiville's Bas-Lag series and Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy (thanks Cyber/Steampunk thread!) I just started The Scar. Seems excellent so far!
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May 7, 2007 22:46
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WimpBastard posted:I finished the series a few days ago. What can I say? It's very well written, but the ending left me feeling down. I won't spoil it or anything, but it's left me really depressed. It's not a tragic ending, so don't worry, but drat I'm depressed about it. But also I've just been feeling down lately anyway so it's probably that. I really hope Pullman writes a book in the future to make me happy again He did write something of a followup. It's called Lyra's Oxford. It's only about 67 pages long, so you can probably finish it in one reading from the local library. I'm around 150 pages into The Amber Spyglass, and its pretty interesting so far. I should be finished before the end of this week. It's gripping!
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May 8, 2007 00:36
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I just finished Perdido Street Station by China Meiville. It was really dissapointing. I mean, I really loved all the characters but once, about 3/4 through, I realised that the whole book was really just them trying to kill some "undefeatable" bugs the whole thing became tiresome to read. I understand this works in B-Movies but I'm not really going for it in books. It was also about confusing as it tended to go from fantasy to sci-fi as the book progressed, which left me with a unsettleingly vague Final Fantasy-esque world. But mainly I just feel there is so much untapped potential there. It seemed every page gave you a new idea but nothing was really capatalized upon beyond that one freaking bug. Daemons, AI, polydimensional spiders, nomad eagle-men, perpetual motion machines (alright alright, Chrisis machines), undercover agents.... and he based around 5 dream eating bugs.
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May 8, 2007 01:13
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dpvtank posted:He did write something of a followup. It's called Lyra's Oxford. It's only about 67 pages long, so you can probably finish it in one reading from the local library. I'm around 150 pages into The Amber Spyglass, and its pretty interesting so far. I should be finished before the end of this week. It's gripping! I've read about Lyra's Oxford, and I know it won't be what I want. Though it does intrigue me. According to Pullman he won't feature a story with the kind of closure I want, and at any rate I suspect it would be hard to write a story like that without screwing it up. drat good books though, but the ending just makes me so sad.
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May 8, 2007 03:08
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