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Jawa Fluffer
May 1, 2007

Oooohhhtini...
Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson. It's about a kingdom where random people used to transform into godlike beings -- up until 10 years ago, when they started getting cursed instead. It's better than I'm making it sound; solid fantasy through and through. A bit simplistic in places, but he took a very focused approach to the main characters and to his worldbuilding, and it works well.

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Kire
Aug 25, 2006
Light by M. John Harrison. It's a sci-fi book, set partially in 1999 and partially in the distant future. Three plotlines go through the book and only meet at the very end, one following a scientist/psychopath named Micheal Kearny in 1999, the other two plotlines following two separate people in the distant future. Not a very good book, the author really likes to use nonsense-science to inflate the descriptions of things which really got on my nerves. Many things are left unexplained, and there are a few minor plot holes.

Not recommended, despite Neil Gaiman proclaiming on the cover that "Possibly my favorite sci-fi book of the past decade." What were you thinking, Mr. Gaiman?

Total Party Kill
Aug 25, 2005

CrimsonGhost posted:

I just finished this based on your reveiw here. I liked it more than I thought I would. It took a long time to get rolling though and I almost put it down three or four times. It was a little roller coasterish with the up and down pacing but it worked pretty well. And I was happy to find that he ended the book better than his others which always felt rushed and hanging.

Wow, I'm flattered. Even moreso that you enjoyed it! It did take some time to get started but there were things in there that kept me interested throughout: Frog boy clone and those assholes that loving INHALED the virus. I've only read this book and The Descent of his as the others seem like straight rock-climbing stories which I don't feel that interested in. Any rave reviews for those if you have read them?

Also, Thanks to my busy schedule I can't read nearly as much as I could before and LooseChanj has finally beaten me for most posts in this thread :argh:

Krinkle
Feb 9, 2003

Ah do believe Ah've got the vapors...
Ah mean the farts


Alright I just finished wizard and glass from the dark tower series. How much further is it worth it to go on? I take it from the front page article recently about worst villain reveals that the ending is less than satisfactory :(

Clown Meadows
Jul 13, 2003

YARRRR! Where be the gray matter up in this piece, son?
In my opinion it's worth reading. It's not entirely satisfying, given what the first 4 books build up in terms of story, but I still found books 5-7 enjoyable.. Maybe not book 6, but books 5 and 7 were still a decent read.

pill for your ills
Mar 23, 2006

ghost rock.
My local library really hyped the NEA's Big Read of Fahrenheit 451 this past month, and I got a free copy out of it. Really enjoyable read. Bradbury had a way with obtuse yet vivid metaphors. And I felt for Montag in his quest to reject consensus reality and to retain his individual powers of reason. Run, you nonconformist bastard! Run like the wind!

Now, back to Cat's Cradle.

Macrame_God
Sep 1, 2005

The stairs lead down in both directions.

I recently finished "The Rising" by Brain Keene, a horror novel set in a modern world overrun with the living dead. The novel is done from the perspective of numerous characters ranging from a single father, a priest, a scientist, and a prostitute. "The Rising" made for a pretty good horror novel, though his depictions of sex and violence got a fair bit over the top (even by horror standards). Keene didn't pull any punches in regards to his descriptions of mutilation, rape, and genuine inhumanity, even if those involved were small children. Those things aside, it was a pretty easy read with some genuinely terrifying moments and a refreshing take on the zombie horror sub-genre.

I'm currently reading "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it and I intend to be finished with it within the next couple of days.

Nomenklatura
Dec 4, 2002

If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.
A Discworld book. Again. What the hell IS it about Pratchett?

Krinkle posted:

Alright I just finished wizard and glass from the dark tower series. How much further is it worth it to go on? I take it from the front page article recently about worst villain reveals that the ending is less than satisfactory :(
Don't believe the hype. The ending of the series works. Other aspects of books 5-7 don't, but the actual ending works. That's all I'll say. You won't think so at first, but if you reread it and think about it, you'll understand.

Marshal Plugnut
Aug 16, 2005

The code to the exit is 1125

I've just finished Hyperion by Dan Simmons. It took me a while to actually get into reading it, possibly due to the fact that you're thrown in at the deep end with all the things going on (Ousters? Time tombs? Shrike? Tell me what the gently caress they are!). But eventually this information is provided, given slowly and subtly, while mixed in with fabric of the story. The way how the entire background and motivations of the characters is provided through their individual chapters in the first book I found to be a great way to give the book not only a great structure, but a great way to provide all the information to explain the course of events, while not making all the connections too obvious to the reader by sublty hiding them in the respective characters stories and viewpoint on the situation. The way how it all ties together in the end astounded me- unlike some authors who seem to write the book and then try to tie it all together, or just end it any old way cos they can't be arsed (I'm looking at you Stephen King), I really got the sense that Simmons had planned it out in great detail and knew exactly what he wanted to do with the book. Example- the cruciforms- a mysterious alien artifact? A possible experiment by outside/future powers? Turns out they had a definite purpose from the start (a way to keep the human stock alive indefinitely to power the AI UI), and the fact that they are introduced in the first few chapters is pretty drat nifty.
If you're a fan of sci-fi, and don't mind huge 800 page books, I highly reccomend it.

Div
May 27, 2001

The last few books I read were:

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. An 800 page epic that ironically has the major flaw of being too short. It seemed like after writing so much the writer just decided to bail, but when you invest a month or more reading about the lives of these characters you really feel cheated when it just ends abruptly. Still, as 800-page reads go, this has to be one of the easiest to get through. Superbly well written, glorious characters, a fantastic plot (aside from the ending, or lack thereof) and almost perfect pacing. There are plenty of internal struggles to latch on to here, the one that I was most interested in was the protagonist's (a 19 year old prostitute in Victorian era London) struggle up the social heirarchy and all the internal guilt and conflict that comes from leaving behind the hardships of poverty and settling into the comfort of wealth. Henry Rackham's story of secret love for his dearest (and only) friend who is dying is also a page-turner. I have to say that reading how a guy felt about a girl and how wildly different the girl felt in return was one of the most interesting and amusing things about this book for me, as a 22 year old comp sci graduate all I had ever read were stories with male lead characters with female love interests, so getting a female perspective on things really gave a fresh slant to proceedings. One of the best written and fascinating novels I've read, but again for those of you who like closure on a story... prepare to take one on the chin.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. Although a big Murakami fan, I didn't bother picking this up when it was released last year because I have always avoided short stories (probably because all the ones I was forced to read as part of English in High School were awful). But I read Life After God by Douglas Coupland a few months back and really enjoyed it and when I saw this again I decided to pick it up. This is easily one of the best Murakami books I've read (which is all of his novels except Norwegian Wood) and although the stories themselves can be hit and miss, the writing is always fantastic. The first few stories didn't really fill me with hope for the rest of the book as they seemed really mundane and too much like pretentious fill-in-the-blanks poetry, but eventually the book hits its stride and when it's good it's just fantastic. When I finished 'The Seventh Man', 'Tony Takitani' and 'The Ice Man' I had to just flip back the few pages and read them all over again. Brilliant, and really sparked off a passion for reading short stories in me.

Post Office, Women, Ham On Rye and The Most Beautiful Woman in Town by Charles Bukowski. Yeah, all in a row. I avoided Bukowski for the longest time because he was recommended to me as the guy to read after you were burnt by a woman. It really didn't seem to be the kind of thing I'd be interested in reading, but after I read one of his poems ('Bluebird') I picked up Post Office and started reading. I put it down after about 30 pages because I thought it was dull and if I wanted to read about a guy who hated his lovely job I'd just keep a journal. I went back to the more conventional fiction until one Saturday morning I woke up and just had this urge to pick up Post Office and finish it. By Monday night I had finished three of his novels. The writing is unlike anything I've ever read, it's nothing but blunt for long periods and then he'll drop in a cutting paragraph that just makes it all worth while, it's brutal, brutal, brutal and then a page of the most sensitive humanity pours through and you get hooked on it and have to keep reading to get to the next one.

Most of the time his fiction reads like a good story teller would relate his tale to you in real life - without a hint of pretension and with a healthy amount of exaggeration. The problem with Post Office was the story he was telling isn't all that interesting. Women and Ham on Rye don't share the same problem, and Women in particular makes for almost perfect toilet reading. Ham on Rye was almost pefect for the first two thirds but I felt it really lost its way towards the end. The writing was simple and easy to take on board as ever but the story just became dull after Chinaski reaches college. Women was probably my favourite of his novels (I'm aware I haven't read Factotum). I felt when Women started to cross the line between observational account of Women to 'look how many women I've hosed even though I'm an rear end in a top hat' bragging tales and threatened to lose direction the way Ham On Rye did, he dropped one of his most heartfelt and sensitive passages and it really saved it.

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town and other Mad Stories is a short stories collection and is really quite patchy but there are a few memorable ones amongst the far too frequent (and dull) stories of horse gambling - including the title story, the gut grinding machine, the account of his stomach ulcer 'charity ward' visit, the story about necrophilia and the lovely fat girl in New Orleans. If you like Bukowski then you'll like this.

BRB MAKIN BACON
Mar 22, 2007

I am Tuxedo Mask.
Russell Wilson, look into your heart and find the warrior within.
It is your destiny.

~:Seattle Seahawks:~
Cat's Cradle Again. Everytime I feel like reading a good book, but one cannot be found I always turn back to Vonnegut. The last chapter of the book alone is well worth the read. The commentary on the distinction between truth, lies and their influences on the happiness of the everyman is one of the most impressive theories I've ever read.

See the cat? See the cradle?

MC Stevepants
Jan 7, 2006

Who wants a spanking?
Just sped through Revolution On Canvas 2: Poetry From The Indie Music Scene. It was pretty good but not great. The entries ranged anywhere from brilliant (Motion City Soundtrack, Meg & Dia, BANE) to terrible(Say Anything).

Synchestra
May 22, 2007
I just read Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest". It's brilliant satire, and the more I read of this guy, I can understand why he's quoted so often. He has a statement on everything. He's the first Victorian I've come across with a serious gently caress-all attitude, which is so incredibly refreshing, since most Victorian authors are coloured by the pious and anally retentive attitude of their time.

(It's also a play, so it's a quick read. Which is also refreshing, after having drudged halfway through George Eliot's monstrous brick Middlemarch. Jesus Christ, that book is killing me.)

Kosher man
May 8, 2002
So I am open to suggestions on books to read. The last few I have finished in order are. Good Omens by Terry Prachett, The Sirens of Titanby Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Right now I am reading Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I don't own a tv anymore so I find myself reading alot.

Encryptic
May 3, 2007

Kire posted:

Light by M. John Harrison. It's a sci-fi book, set partially in 1999 and partially in the distant future. Three plotlines go through the book and only meet at the very end, one following a scientist/psychopath named Micheal Kearny in 1999, the other two plotlines following two separate people in the distant future. Not a very good book, the author really likes to use nonsense-science to inflate the descriptions of things which really got on my nerves. Many things are left unexplained, and there are a few minor plot holes.

Not recommended, despite Neil Gaiman proclaiming on the cover that "Possibly my favorite sci-fi book of the past decade." What were you thinking, Mr. Gaiman?

I didn't really care for Light either. Harrison is a great writer (the Viriconium stories are fantastic) if difficult to follow at times, but this one didn't grab me at all.


I just finished Farseed by Pamela Sargent. It's a rather good young adult sci-fi novel that's surprisingly good for being aimed towards a younger audience. A bit simplistic in places naturally, but it deals with some pretty mature themes so I found it worthwhile.

Just started Summerland by Michael Chabon. The recent Chabon thread about his new novel inspired me to pick up one of his books (didn't get a hold of his Pulitzer Prize-winner, though) and so far I'm enjoying it.

LooseChanj
Feb 17, 2006

Logicaaaaaaaaal!
Chapterhouse: Dune :D <---oh ffs

Whew. I don't think it's taken me a week to read a book in ages. This one is really just a continuation of the story started in Heretics. Much MUCH stronger climax than usual, with some nice decompression at the end. It would have been nice if Herbert had lived, the very end hinted at an interesting direction the story could have gone in.

I still hate how I feel like 90% of Herbert's stuff just goes sailing so high over my head I need binoculars. :(

space pope
Apr 5, 2003

Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson. I loved every minute of it. The characters are great and I could literally see each scene he described. As a journalist, Paul Kemp is everything I aspire to be.

Sniper on the Eastern Front, Sepp Allegerberger. Story of a marksmen who won the Knight's Cross. A good account of the development and deployment of a sniper program in the Wehrmacht. Also probably one of the most brutal accounts of combat I've ever read (which is saying a lot): including graphic violence, gang rape and cannibalism. The only problem I had with it was the author's boasting. Although he was an amazing marksmen, sometimes he can be a little overbearing with his self-promotion. Sometimes, the dialogue re-creation is a little awkward and contrived. But overall, a wealth of knowledge.

Macrame_God
Sep 1, 2005

The stairs lead down in both directions.

Since I have absolutely nothing going on lately, I've blazed through three different books this week!

The first was "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain. A very masterful work by a masterful American author. What I particularly enjoyed was the multidimensional nature of the story. What comes off as a satirical tale about the dangers of monarchism turns into a story about the dangers of elitism and how modern technology does not, by a default, make a society more advanced or civilized. I also enjoy how Twain was able to mix in some truly somber and touching moments into what is, by design, a comedy. One particular moment in the book which I favor above all others is where King Arthur, disguised as a commoner, carries a dying child towards her dying mother so that they may be together in their final moments. In doing this, King Arthur risks contracting small pox himself from the dying pair, but does so anyway because he feels it is his kingly duty to do so. A truly a touching moment. My only complaint was that Twain had a tendency to use his characters to sort of, for a lack of a better term, break the forth wall and address to the audience his own personal grievances with royalty, business owners, slave owners, and the Catholic church. Though he has many profound things to say, it became rather distracting at a number of points.

The second book was far easier: "The Wonderful Wizard of OZ" by L. Frank Baum. This story needs no introduction. However, hearing that the popular motion picture had taken so many liberties with the original work, I felt compelled to read it. Sure enough, the book contained far more content than the motion picture, which cuts out at least a third of the original story. Seeing as how it was a children's book first published in 1900, I blazed through this with unparalleled ease. Still, I was taken with Baum whimsical world which he created and I'm tempted to invest in some of his other "Oz" installments in the future to see how he pans the story out.

Lastly, the one I completed this afternoon, was "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming. I had intended to read Fleming's debut novel for James Bond before the motion picture came out, but I procrastinated and wound up seeing the picture before reading the book. Now that I have the opportunity, I have finally read the novel and I must say that I'm rather shocked with how many liberties were taken with the book in order to make the film! Of course, the book takes place more than 50 years ago during 1953, during the earlier years of the Cold War, but even beyond that the two works are surprisingly different in their content and how the story itself plays out. I'm not going to go into too many details in the differences between the two (this post is long enough as it is), but I will say that any one who goes into the film expecting the book (or in my case, visa versa), will be astounded by the differences. I also must admire Fleming's choice on how to end the book. "Casino Royale" concludes rather gloomily (despite even knowing how the film ends), but I think it was a pretty bold choice to have it end on a low note despite being such a fun and exciting novel.

I am currently reading "First Blood" by David Morrell. I am approximately one-third of the way through it.

SLAUGHTERCLES
Feb 10, 2004

A PURSE IS NOT FOOD
The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges. I have to kick myself for not reading it sooner; this is the fiction I was meant to read. I was particularly impressed by Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. creating a secret society just to imagine an entirely different planet seems like it would be fun to do, unless it has already happened and we're all living in the shadow of Tlon... :tinfoil:

Kaerf
May 3, 2007
never work
I just finished Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.

I spent the book waiting for something exciting to happen, and it never came. Overall, I enjoyed it much more than I did Haunted but it fell short of what he achieved with Survivor and Lullaby with regards to a good, solid story.

kizoku
May 21, 2007
I should finish The Godfather tomorrow- and I've never seen the movie. If it's as good as the book, I'll love it. I had even already heard about one of the "surprises" in the beginning and it was still awesome.

I was in the middle of Good Omens (Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett), but I'm probably gonna put that off more to reread the Harry Potter books after I finish this. (Wow, how nerdy do I feel now.)

The instrument has yet to be invented that can measure my indifference to that remark.

Jawa Fluffer
May 1, 2007

Oooohhhtini...

Kaerf posted:

I just finished Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.

I spent the book waiting for something exciting to happen, and it never came. Overall, I enjoyed it much more than I did Haunted but it fell short of what he achieved with Survivor and Lullaby with regards to a good, solid story.

Ditto on just finishing Rant. I went in as blind as I could -- all I knew was the oral biography aspect, and that Rant himself never speaks in the book -- so not much at all. I didn't know about the whole time travel thing, and in retrospect I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I'd at least heard "It's not about what you think it's about" before reading it.

As it was, it felt like rehashed sci-fi concepts (Strange Days, anyone? And I swear the day/night split has been done before) wrapped around a so-so story. Not so hot.

By contrast to Kaerf, I loved Haunted -- it's my favorite Palahniuk, along with Choke (I suspect Fight Club would be up there too, but I haven't wanted to spoil my enjoyment of the movie by reading it).

Fellwenner
Oct 21, 2005
Don't make me kill you.

kizoku posted:

I should finish The Godfather tomorrow- and I've never seen the movie. If it's as good as the book, I'll love it. I had even already heard about one of the "surprises" in the beginning and it was still awesome.

I found it to be one of the few books that is excellent in both book and movie incarnations. Dreamcatcher is another well done adaptation.

I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, and I was honestly blown away. The book is narrated by Death, and is centered around Liesel Meminger from the day she's delivered to her new parents through the years of World War 2 in Nazi Germany. Well developed and memorable characters, and really just outstanding in every way. One of my all time favorite books now.

Next up is the book I got bored with prior to this one, The Historian. Don't bother reading it. I'm about 1/2 way through, and while it is a good story with nice descriptive language, the execution is a bit off. Everything is just sort of dragged out far too long.

Fellwenner fucked around with this message at 01:48 on May 26, 2007

Minerva
May 13, 2004
RAWR!
I just finished "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore, and it was exellent.

Slick Willie
May 4, 2007

I just finished reading "The Long Walk" by Slawomir Rawicz (not the Stephen King book).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavomir_Rawicz


This was actually my third time reading it. It's absolutely the most amazing story that I've ever read.

Edit: well, crud. I'm reading this wiki page and it sounds like the whole things might not have actually happened. Still a good story. :smith:

Slick Willie fucked around with this message at 04:31 on May 26, 2007

pill for your ills
Mar 23, 2006

ghost rock.
And now Cat's Cradle is done. Vonnegut had mankind pegged, didn't he?

Grand Duke Ian posted:

See the cat? See the cradle?

The moment that Newt used that phrase in reference to Angela's marriage, the whole point of the book became absolutely clear to me. It was right then that this book became my single favorite fiction work.

No idea what to read next. What could possibly top that?

e: I was going to go for Philip K. Dick's VALIS, but I discovered that my copy has a major printing error, with more than thirty pages coming from a completely different book. So I'm going to hunt down Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares after all.

pill for your ills fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Jun 1, 2007

Bubblegum Wishes
May 22, 2007

What to Expect The First Year by Murkoff, Eisenberg & Hathaway. What can I say, I'm 8 months pregnant. Really good referance that even tells you what to do if the kid chops off a finger. Or at least I think its good, well see how correct it was after the baby comes I guess.

Wippersnapper
Nov 1, 2003

Stealing your favourite hockey teams
...in spirit.

Minerva posted:

I just finished "A Dirty Job" by Christopher Moore, and it was exellent.

I also just finished this book. It took me about 2 months to get through the thing because as mindlessly fun as it could be, I just didn't find it all that engaging. I was disappointed after having it recommended by the guys at the store, and eyeing it based on the cover.

Overall the idea was fun, and some of the jokes were clever, but far too often I found he just went for the easy jokes (read: Hey guys I'm writing about a penis this is funny stuff). Overall, it certainly wasn't horrible and was a decent read, but a semi-predictable and disappointing ending wouldn't make me rave about it.

kizeesh
Aug 1, 2005
Im right and you're an ass.
I finished The Drawing of Three by Stephen King, the other day. Still brilliant, but I'm noticing even more than the first time I read it that the series is far more of an episodic serial than a set of novels, the first 2 or 3 books could be broken up into 20 or so short vignettes and would suffer not a jot for doing so.

Roland is still a complete bastard though, god I love him.

LooseChanj
Feb 17, 2006

Logicaaaaaaaaal!
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut

My third Vonnegut. I enjoyed it more than Slaughterhouse, and quite a bit more than Hocus Pocus. The absurdity of inserting the author himself into the events was enough, but interacting with his main character? Sheer insanity. The illustrations were funny too.

I guess my next Vonnegut will be Cat's Cradle, since that seems to be a goon favorite.

Macrame_God posted:

Lastly, the one I completed this afternoon, was "Casino Royale" by Ian Fleming. I had intended to read Fleming's debut novel for James Bond before the motion picture came out, but I procrastinated and wound up seeing the picture before reading the book. Now that I have the opportunity, I have finally read the novel and I must say that I'm rather shocked with how many liberties were taken with the book in order to make the film!

I started on the Bond series with CR right about the time the movie came out. I read the book first, then saw the movie. I'm not sure how well Bond translates out of the Cold War. What surprised me was that only the second half of the movie was culled from the book. (I've got Goldfinger on deck, after Second Foundation.)

LooseChanj fucked around with this message at 18:43 on May 27, 2007

MeatwadIsGod
Sep 30, 2004

Foretold by Gyromancy

space pope posted:

Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson. I loved every minute of it. The characters are great and I could literally see each scene he described. As a journalist, Paul Kemp is everything I aspire to be.

I just finished The Rum Diary yesterday, and I agree. It was fantastic. "God dammit! It's fear of the sack I tell you!" The exposition of the characters and the progression of Kemp's infatuation and eventual disgust with San Juan was amazing.

Macrame_God
Sep 1, 2005

The stairs lead down in both directions.

LooseChanj posted:

I started on the Bond series with CR right about the time the movie came out. I read the book first, then saw the movie. I'm not sure how well Bond translates out of the Cold War. What surprised me was that only the second half of the movie was culled from the book. (I've got Goldfinger on deck, after Second Foundation.)

Yeah, the whole first half of the movie is entirely original. Basically, they wanted the story of how Bond became a Double-0 agent, whereas in the book he's already been a Double-0 agent for a while. Personally, I think it was an appropriate move. If it is the first installment, you should get a little backstory to go with it. Besides, the book itself was a tad bit lacking in the action department and the original first act adds some additional fun to the experience. Furthermore, I think adding a bit more to the end was a good move too. The novel "Casino Royale" ended on a very low note. I'm not complaining about that of course. How could have Ian Fleming have predicted that his work would become a cultural phenomenon? Still, when you walk into a Bond movie, you don't want to end with a :smith:. You want to end with a :hellyeah:.

All things considered, yes, a hell of a lot of liberties were taken with the original work, but they were appropriate as far as I'm concerned.

MeatwadIsGod posted:

I just finished The Rum Diary yesterday, and I agree. It was fantastic. "God dammit! It's fear of the sack I tell you!" The exposition of the characters and the progression of Kemp's infatuation and eventual disgust with San Juan was amazing.

Being a HST fan, I've had this book on my shelf for a while now, but I haven't cracked it open just set. Seeing as I'm currently on a book (First Blood), and I have two more that I've already committed myself to read afterwards (The Golden Compass and Scooter), it might be a while before I get around to it.

Macrame_God fucked around with this message at 05:41 on May 28, 2007

yea ok
Jul 27, 2006

Just finished up Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. I thought it was a pretty excellent book, but at the same time, definitely not for everyone. Up next for me is probably Haunted or Rant. I'm on another Palahniuk kick.

Mister Sir
May 26, 2007

by Lowtax
At the Center of the Storm, by George Tenet.

It was OK, but not as great as the critics made it out to be.

Morbid Florist
Oct 22, 2002

and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.
Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Book about child soldiers and the civil war in Sierra Leone. I was hoping for more stories about the time he spent in the war itself but I get why he may not want, or be able, to recall them.

Overall it's definitely a favorite that will be re-read without doubt. I'd actually like to find more books like this one.

Killfast37
May 7, 2007
Area 7 by Matthew Reilly

Really over the top and I was able to suspend the disbelief to make it more enjoyable. This isn't anything special, just a trashy fast paced action novel that I was in the mood for. I will probably read Scarecrow and then get back into some decent reading material. I'm looking at reading Battle Royale since I'm a huge fan of the movie.

meanmikhail
Oct 26, 2006

The angriest Russian around
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger for the third time. I still love it, though most of my friends find Holden to be the most annoying person ever.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure why I didn't like it as much as Slaughterhouse-Five. I just didn't think it was nearly as interesting. Still good, though.

Lastly, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson, and I loved, loved, loved it. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is still my favorite book (tied with Catch-22), but this one was terrific as well. I think I'll probably love just about anything Thompson wrote. His style is just so goddamned fun.

I'm going to be reading a few books at the same time over the summer: Watership Down by Richard Adams, East of Eden by John Steinbeck, The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. When I'm done with all of those, I hope to move on to Dubliners by James Joyce, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, and Naked Lunch by William Burroughs.

LooseChanj
Feb 17, 2006

Logicaaaaaaaaal!

meanmikhail posted:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger for the third time. I still love it, though most of my friends find Holden to be the most annoying person ever.

That's because he is, and it's loving hilarious.

Total Party Kill
Aug 25, 2005

I finally finished Footfall by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle. It wasn't the longest book in the world but for some reason it read really long. Alien invasion story told with an almost Armageddon-esque ending. Spaceship powered by atom bombs downs an entire fleet of alien ships? It was exciting and enjoyable although I enjoyed Lucifer's Hammer by these two writers much more.

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Encryptic
May 3, 2007

Finished Summerland, which was really good. Definitely going to pick up Chabon's other work when I have a chance.

Started Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell over the weekend and I'm digging it so far.

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