|
Recycle Bin posted:Finished the first Horatio Hornblower book, Beat to Quarters. Apparently Hornblower was the inspiration for Kirk and Picard's characters in Star Trek, and is mentioned frequently in movie commentaries which is why I picked it up. I really enjoyed it. There are a lot of nautical/navy terms, but you can figure them out well enough as you read without consulting wikipedia. It's a short, fast read. Not terribly deep, but it was refreshing after reading nothing but sci-fi for the past month. You're just getting started; the rest of the books are great reads too! Thanks for the info on STTNG, I can definitely see the similarities now that it's pointed out. I just wrapped up T.C. Boyle's After the plague which is a collection of sixteen(?) short stories. Most of them were great, none of them were bad. One thing that struck me was the sometimes abrupt and mostly open ended endings of each story, and how he's very very good at writing unlikable characters. Most of the stories have no characters you really root for or sympathize with, yet they are captivating in some fashion. The guy's simply a great writer.
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 02:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 21:51 |
|
|
Greetings from Bury Park, by Sarfraz Manzoor. A Pakistani guy living in England discovers Bruce Springsteen. As a total Dirty Jerseyan, I loved it.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 02:54
|
|
|
The entire Engineer Trilogy by K.J. Parker. They weren't perfect, but entertaining enough to read.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 03:31
|
|
|
I just finished Richard K Morgan's Market Forces. Loved it, due to the action, and human interaction. Sometimes a bit preachy, but it's hard to find a good writer of action anymore and the car chases in this actually revved my heart. I like Morgan's science ficti a lot, which this is not - more just future fiction, although it does give a nod to Mars (all his other books feature Mars pretty heavily).
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 06:52
|
|
|
I just finished Ender's Game a couple of days ago and it was fantastic look at the the military mind and at times a damning indictment of military leadership and mindsets. At times it brought to mind themes brought up in Metal Gear Solid 3 about the devaluing of soldiers as humans, the presence of deception in getting soldiers to do what they need and even the necessity of not only dehumanizing enemies but removing the concepts of bloodshed in order to get the most horrific acts done. I can see why the military would put it on their leadership course reading lists, but I wonder what lessons they draw from it?
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 15:13
|
|
|
Suttree by Cormac McCarthy. I've read The Road, Blood Meridian, and Child of God during the past six months and I think I enjoyed Suttree the most so far. The tone is much more humorous than any of his other books yet still has that strange exploration of disaster and exploring humanity. The characters in Suttree are definitely some of his best.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2008 21:51
|
|
|
Read yet another William Dietrich book - Dark Winter. Having read just about all of his published work, I'd say he definitely took a turn for the better when he moved on to historical fiction instead of writing thrillers like this one. Not to say that DW is terrible, but it could have been better. The plot centers around a meteorite (which could potentially be worth millions) discovered at the Amundsen-Scott research base in Antarctica, which prompts people to start dying off one-by-one and causing everyone to suspect everyone else. It's an interesting study of how people interact in such a confined environment though the big reveal at the end is pretty implausible. I also just read Cronenberg On Cronenberg - a collection of interviews with David Cronenberg, which was excellent. Unfortunately, it was published in 1992 (just after Naked Lunch came out) so there's no insight into his more recent films, but reading about his early work and his influences was fascinating. I've been on a Cronenberg movie kick recently so this was right up my alley.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2008 06:05
|
|
|
Settlers of the Marsh by Frederick Philip Grove. Bought it because it was originally on my Canadian Literature course-list, but the prof ended up dropping it, so I figured I'd read it during my holidays. It plays out mostly like a standard Canadian settler-narrative, up until the much-hyped "I saw this coming but didn't think Grove would actually do it, given that he's writing in 1920s Canada" ending. Knowing a bit of his sordid history and having read this book, I'm now rather interested in reading his (fictional, haha) autobiography.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2008 17:42
|
|
|
American Gods - Neil Gaiman I bought it because a friend of mine could not stop shouting Gaiman's praises. I figured I had to read it just to shut my friend up. Turns out that he was right, who knew?
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2008 21:35
|
|
|
lil v00d00 d0llie posted:American Gods - Neil Gaiman Weird, me too, for the same reasons... with the same reaction. That said, I also just finished Prometheus Rising for the second time. I think it should be required reading for anyone interested in makign themselves better.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2008 22:33
|
|
|
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I'd read Slaughterhouse-Five, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Cat's Cradle and enjoyed them all, but it usually took me four or five sittings to finish each one. I read through Sirens in two sittings, under 24 hours, and enjoyed it the most of the Vonnegut that I've read. Everything just ties together so perfectly. I had a very odd sense of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it seems like Adams was a pretty big fan of Vonnegut. There might even be a few interviews where he mentions Sirens as an influence.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2008 23:27
|
|
|
Master of Space and Time by Rudy Rucker. I'm disappointed to find out Michel Gondry isn't doing the movie any more, because his style would fit the visuals of this book perfectly.
|
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2008 04:39
|
|
|
Just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I heard about it on this board and it's every bit as good as you folks said. If you have even a passing interest in fantasy literature, it's worth your time. Currently reading Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson. Only a few pages in, so not sure how it is yet. Might put it aside when I get the book that follows The Name of the Wind. Edit: Apparently it hasn't come out yet according to my local bookstore. Oh well. I Am Fowl fucked around with this message at 01:08 on May 24, 2008 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2008 01:03
|
|
|
Finished Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. Extremely simple prose, but worked into fantastic sections of political discourses. You really can see the "point" of the book's new generation, while at the same time, be repulsed by it. Anyone have recommendations of similarly deep political fiction?
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2008 21:02
|
|
|
GhostDog posted:Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. Like all his books, I immensly enjoyed reading it despite the constant state of bewilderment as to what it all means. I really like the "surrealism" and the sense that there's only a thin veil between the everyday world and some kind of strange parallel dream-world I get from his books, but gently caress me if I ever finished one of them and thought "Aha!". Maybe you have to read them more than once, maybe I'm just dense, or maybe the vague feelings of meaning are the whole point of the thing. That's the same with me. That's one reason why I like his books, they have a lot of re-read value. If it's any consolation, the Japanese people I've talked to who have read him say the same thing. There are some books that analyze his work (Jay Rubin, one of his English translators published one, and I've seen a few others by different authors on Amazon) available, which I might consider buying once I round up and read the rest of his books. I was on vacation last week and that gave me a lot of time to read: Underground by Haruki Murakami - I had left this one for last of his books I own, thinking that while it was Murakami, it was still non-fiction. I'd heard about the Tokyo subway gas attacks in a Japan studies course as kind of a footnote: 12 dead isn't really all that horrifying when you've got stuff like WW2, Manchuria/Korea, etc to read about. Anyways, Murakami tracked down as many people as he could find who were on the subway that morning who would consent to be interviewed, interviewed them over the course of a few months, then put everything together into a book. Throughout the process he was exceedingly conscientious of the victims feelings, checking to make sure everything he was going to print was okay with the interviewees, even though he said it really killed him to take some details out in some cases. Some of the PoV's aren't very interesting (in the end, he could only get 62 people), but others are incredibly touching/moving. Although only 12 people died outright, a number have permanent brain/nerve damage from the sarin, and others have PTSD. He also added a section at the end where he interviewed some members of the cult who was responsible, although none of them had a direct role in the gassing. The book provides a lot of insight into the way Japanese people think, and I think for that alone it was worth reading about. The Zahir by Paulo Coelho - This was the last book of the lot I bought. It actually started out pretty promising, but I actually grew to hate it even more than his other books I've read as I went. The main character is basically him, and he's a smug douche about how successful he is ("my little story about a boy and an alchemist"), his critics, his wealth/ability to sleep around, etc. It really just caps off the dislike I have for the guy's work, and I'm going to be glad to get rid of this poo poo. Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner - I picked this up more or less on impulse at the bookstore, since it was thick and part of a "sci-fi classics" collection. He calls it a "non-novel" at the end, which is true in a sense; while there's a main narrative going on, there's also a series of vignettes in the form of speeches, television ads, random people unconnected to the plot's points of view, etc which try to give the reader a more detailed view of his future world. It's not a very pleasant look at the future, though I wouldn't say it throws "THIS IS A DYSTOPIAN WORLD THAT SUCKS A LOT" in your face the same way that 1984 or Brave New World does. It's written with a lot of jargon/slang sort of like Clockwork Orange, which almost made me put it down in the first chapter, which was some high speed news cast thing. Was glad I stuck with it, and the "Afams" (African-Americans) called white people "paleass" was pretty funny. The book deals with a Malthusian future (2010, the book was written in the 60's), where there are some beginnings of eugenic legislation. Families are limited to the number of kids they can have, and are forbidden from having kids if both parents carry recessive, bad genes. He shows a lot of the impact this has on people though the various vignettes. The main plot revolves around a poor African country called Beninia, a young Afam executive at a megacorporation, and his slacker white roommate who actually turns out to be a sort of sleeper agent. All in all it's a pretty dark book, but the ending leaves you with a small sense of hope. View the West from the Eyesight of the East by Phramahaasupaa Chinoralo. This book should have been called "View the West from the Eyesight of a Conservative Buddhist Monk". I still liked getting a Buddhist perspective on things, but it doesn't really tell me how the average Joe Six-pack Asian (in this case, Thai) views the West. The author is a Buddhist monk who went to Canada to teach meditation for five years, which he continuously tries to inflate by calling it "half a decade". While there were some interesting points he raised, especially about how we treat the elderly, a lot of his understanding of Western society is superficial and in some cases, flat out wrong. Some basic research or statistics would have helped him out a lot, but the book came off more as a published collection of blog posts than anything else (the author's Geocities site and Hotmail address are in the book, so maybe that's the case). He didn't have much positive to say about the West, though his stated purpose in the introduction was to kind of take us down a peg and show Thais that their society isn't as inferior as they think. It was still an interesting perspective to read from and it helped me understand Thai people a bit better, I'm going to look for more books in the "so what's with those crazy white people, anyways?" genre in the future. This is the first book I read in a foreign language (Thai)... it's cool to finally be able to combine two of my interests (reading and languages). Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 07:27 on May 17, 2008 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2008 07:17
|
|
|
The most recent book I finished a few days ago was State of Fear by Michael Crichton. Although the book came out a few years ago, the book is still still relevant, as it discusses global warming. The book argues against Global Warming, but as any book or article can do, information can be skewed. The book makes global warming look like a total non event and makes it seem like everything related to it is retarded. I cannot say I know enough about global warming, so reading all this information that shows it isn't happening is a bit persuasive. I did take it with a grain of salt, because it isn't a very balanced book. The global warming lectures aside, the book was your run-of-the-mill thriller. Extremely predictable and not especially good when it comes to the story. I read it in one day, all 640 pages or so, which means it must have been okay.  It was a fine book, and if one is looking for a pretty basic thriller that's more about a political issue facing the world today, then it can get that job done.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2008 07:36
|
|
|
Rabbit, Run by John Updike - I mentioned it in the Bad Books thread, though after some reflection I probably shouldn't have posted it there. It's just that the things Rabbit did made me so loving angry, especially near the end. I understand that Updike was definitely showing the consequences of Rabbit's actions and not at all endorsing them, but I've never liked a protagonist less.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2008 06:43
|
|
|
Chamberk posted:Rabbit, Run by John Updike - I mentioned it in the Bad Books thread, though after some reflection I probably shouldn't have posted it there. It's just that the things Rabbit did made me so loving angry, especially near the end. I understand that Updike was definitely showing the consequences of Rabbit's actions and not at all endorsing them, but I've never liked a protagonist less. This is a pretty common response to the book. Rabbit is supposed to be unlikeable, and Updike writes it perfectly, but obviously it's not pleasant to be written to like that.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2008 06:55
|
|
|
Just finished The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I thought it was really quite good. Hope the author goes on to write more sci-fi; her previous books are 'teen vampire novels' :\
hundrumfun fucked around with this message at 13:41 on May 18, 2008 |
|
#
?
May 18, 2008 13:38
|
|
|
Rant: The Oral Biography of Buster Casey, Chuck Palahniuk I really drug my feet reading this. I don't know why, because it turned out to be amazing. Really really  ending, weirder even than Fight Club.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2008 20:23
|
|
|
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Theres tons of negative reviews on this book, theres even talk of it in the preface by the author.. seems like theres as many people who hate it as there are who love it, seems to be quite popular in the Books You Couldn't Get Through thread I could see how its difficult to read, the time line is all over the place, theres tons of characters and a huge amount of military terms and acronyms. The book kind of reminds me of MASH, I wouldn't be that surprised if one influenced the other in some way
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 13:47
|
|
|
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Tells of an insane asylum in the 60s in which is introduced a likeable sociable conman from jail who inspires the crazies to rebel against their tyrannical ex-army Nurse and her arsenal of sedatives, loud classical music and electroshock "therapy". A rather short and fascinating book that took me a while to read because it's almost too rich at times. The narrator has a very particular voice and sensitivty that takes a while to get used to and enjoy. Once I was into it though, I loved every minute and will definitely reread it down the line. I hadn't seen the film adapation by Milos Forman starring Jack Nicholson before and did as soon as I finished the book since a friend highly recommended it. I was very disapointed by the change of focus from Bromden's point of view over McMurphy's actions to simply McMurphy's actions. This took a lot out of the tale for me, for instance the power struggle between him and Nurse Ratched loses much of it's importance which discredits the ending a bit. If you loved the film or if you haven't seen it, read the book first is my advice. I'm starting Asimov's Foundation now and halfway through the first book. I'm shocked as to how accessible this is, I used to put it off because I was sure it would take me too long to understand/enjoy. I have this prejudice over other major Sci-fi monuments as well. Herbert and Heinlein scare me.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 14:45
|
|
|
White Rabbit posted:I'm starting Asimov's Foundation now and halfway through the first book. I'm shocked as to how accessible this is, I used to put it off because I was sure it would take me too long to understand/enjoy. I have this prejudice over other major Sci-fi monuments as well. Herbert and Heinlein scare me. If you feel that way, then it's possible Dune and its sequels might be a bit much at first, but with Heinlein you have the option of starting out with his juvenile books, a lot of which are actually quite readable for adults. Instead of starting out with something like Stranger in a Strange Land, try Starship Troopers. It has equal parts "pew-pew" awesome and political commentary.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 15:17
|
|
|
Michael Chabon's novella The Final Solution - a Sherlock Holmes story (though Holmes is never identified conclusively) set years later after Holmes has retired to a quiet British town during World War II and takes on one last case (a murder mystery involving an African Gray parrot who recites lists of numbers and his mute companion). Chabon's prose and wordplay is very enjoyable, though the story is so short it feels a bit rushed towards the end. Devices and Desires, the first book of the Engineer trilogy by K.J. Parker. Happened to pick this up at the library and I liked it - it reminds me a bit of L.E. Modesitt's Recluce series with the intense focus on realism in a "fantasy" world.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 15:26
|
|
|
Pompous Rhombus posted:If you feel that way, then it's possible Dune and its sequels might be a bit much at first, but with Heinlein you have the option of starting out with his juvenile books, a lot of which are actually quite readable for adults. Instead of starting out with something like Stranger in a Strange Land, try Starship Troopers. It has equal parts "pew-pew" awesome and political commentary. Haha, cool thanks for the heads up. I was more interested in Heinlein anyway so I'll definitely get my "pew-pew" on this summer.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 16:33
|
|
|
the entire Ravernor trilogy (Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, Ravenor Rogue) scifi novels writen by Dan Abnett based on the warhammer 40,000 universe about an imperial inquisitor gideon ravenor i found them rather enjoyable and fun to read but then again i'm in to warhammer 40,000 and enjoy most books writen by this author
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 19:15
|
|
|
After Dark by Haruki Murakami. Magical realism is a strange genre for me, but I loved this book. Can't wait to read more.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 21:38
|
|
|
Soma Soma Soma posted:The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I'd read Slaughterhouse-Five, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, and Cat's Cradle and enjoyed them all, but it usually took me four or five sittings to finish each one. I read through Sirens in two sittings, under 24 hours, and enjoyed it the most of the Vonnegut that I've read. Everything just ties together so perfectly. Now watch Harrison Bergeron : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088 After, of course, reading the short, short story: http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html I mean this IS The Book Barn... Capn_Marrrrk fucked around with this message at 22:43 on May 19, 2008 |
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 22:40
|
|
|
I went to visit my high school philosophy teacher a week ago and during our conversation he lent me Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. This text acts as both a novel as well as a history of philosophy told through dialogues between Sophie Amundsen and a mysterious correspondent that begins with the pre-Socratics (Thales, Anaximander, Democritus, etc.) and ends with Jean-Paul Sartre in the 20st century. Throughout the novel mysterious events begin to occur in Sophie's life and she must use her new-found philosophy skills to solve them. It is very well written, the philosophy parts especially so; the author did an extremely good job of providing a very concise overview of the philosophies throughout the ages, and simplifying (although by no means "dumbing down"!) the ideas of the philosophers throughout the ages, such as Spinoza and Kant. While it is written ostensibly for a 'young adult' audience (the main character is 14-years-old going on 15 in the novel) it is an enjoyable read for any age and is a wonderful introduction to the history of philosophy for those who are otherwise unknowing. I just bought a copy for myself and I will definitely be re-reading it. I highly recommend this novel. Does anyone know if any of Gaarder's other novels are worth checking out?
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2008 23:45
|
|
|
LooseChanj posted:Money Shot, Christa Faust Go Hard Case Crime!! I love their books and that one sounds awesome. I just finished The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke and found it to be a fun short read. I really like his note at the beginning about how his books are based on science and are much more plausible than Star Wars or Star Trek. The book is about the death of the sun and humanity's attempt to continue the human race by sending seed-ships into outer space to populate any hospitable planets. The usual criticism of religion is there, but I agree with him completely. I also just finished Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker. I read about this book online and thought it sounded interesting. It is one of my favorite historical books I've read. It is a history of WWII told from memoirs, newspapers and other sources. The book shows sides of the war that we don't usually see in America: Roosevelt's anti-semitism, Churchill's blood thirsty war-mongering, the European blockade that he allies used to starve millions of civilians and the voices of the pacifists who urged the leaders to avoid war.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2008 09:13
|
|
|
Blindness. I really liked it. There were a few sections were it was essentially "And then everyone cried and people talked about religious imagery," but it was a very good book that really drew me into the writer's world. I suppose the issue I had with it reminds me of Don Quixote, where every fifty pages it was "And then someone showed up and told a story, and everyone had a bit of a cry and a hug, and then laughed at Don Quixote, and then someone else showed up." Which isn't that bad, but it does slow down the story. It did seem to be a particularly strange mix of rushed and slow once they left the asylum.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2008 14:28
|
|
|
The 9th Axiom posted:
More like, "Making themselves weirder" which is a good thing, but you have to keep at it and work at it everyday or else you slip back into the programmed you. As far as philosophies go, it is more fun and entertaining than most of them out there, but it can alienate you from your loved ones, so it's best practiced if one isn't in an ongoing relationship. All of which reminds me, I'm over due for a reading.
|
|
#
?
May 20, 2008 15:30
|
|
|
Couple of days ago on the same day I finished Atlas Shrugged and David Copperfield. I certainly appreciated Atlas Shrugged--I think the literary flaws of the book, whether the weak characterization or repetitive prose style, are quite obvious and annoying but I found her defense of capitalism to be refreshing. That said, they should really produce and abridged version. She doesn't justify the lenght of the book unlike "The Fountainhead" which was all together a funner novel. And I thoroughly loved David Copperfield, one of my most enjoyable reading experiences in a while. With Dickens I've discovered that it really helps to keep the serial nature of his novels in mind when reading them--I would only read one of the monthly parts at a single sitting. You come to quickly anticipate the next "episode" much like original audiences (who read "David Copperfield" over two years!) and when you come across the chapters like "I Assist at an Explosion," "Tempest" and "I Am Shown Two Interesting Penitents" the payoff is all the more greater. Phillip The Wise fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 21, 2008 |
|
#
?
May 20, 2008 23:37
|
|
|
Post Office, Charles Bukowski The SA Book Club got off to a late start this month, so we picked a short novel. I forgot how hilarious this book is. I spent 11 years in the grocery business, so I can really relate to the soul crushing grind of post office drudgery. Bukowski's novels (with the exception of his last, Pulp) are autobiographical, but he's not the most reliable of biographers. For instance, he gives the impression that all he has to do is snap his fingers and any woman he wants will leap into bed with him.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2008 14:02
|
|
|
I finished the entire series of a Song of Ice and Fire. It's really entertaining, and I can't wait to see how everything ties together in the end. It's good fantasy for people who dislike fantasy i.e. no elves.
|
|
#
?
May 21, 2008 14:19
|
|
|
Don Oot posted:I finished the entire series of a Song of Ice and Fire. Look out, he's from the future, come to spoil the GRRM thread!
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2008 09:49
|
|
|
devices and desires can't bothered to find the book to tell you who the author was (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2008 10:51
|
|
|
Jennifer Government by Max Barry Interesting and not too far fetched story about a future where there are no taxes and much of the world is run by companies. Employees take the last name of their employer, children take the name of their school(which are run/sponsored by companies) Entertaining book, really liked it. Ive heard theres a imbd listing for it with a production date of 2010 look forward to seeing the movie if it ever comes out
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2008 20:57
|
|
|
Finished The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick last night. Really enjoyed it, I think I have it figured out or at least I have a theory about what was going on. It's a great read and one that will keep you thinking long after you've finished it.
|
|
#
?
May 22, 2008 21:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 21:51 |
|
|
Just finished Joe Meno's The Boy Detective Fails which I thought was just wonderful. It takes the Venture Bros type idea of exploring a pulpy childhood icon (in this case children's mystery books, like the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown) and putting them in a world with horrible consequences. What it does differently is it goes off more into the depressing dimensions of it rather than the straight up comical ones (not to say this book isn't funny, there are a series of rather absurd scenes). Pretty well written and an extremely quick read. I'd recommend it.
|
|
#
?
May 23, 2008 15:20
|
|
