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Arwox posted:I love it. The stories are great and it has awesome shelf presence. Because of your posted I purchased this book yesterday. Thanks.
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May 23, 2009 18:10
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Ytlaya posted:particularly of what is commonly touted as the best fantasy series ever written. ahahahahahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHAHAhHAHAHAHA!!!
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May 23, 2009 20:41
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I'm on a reference book spree at the moment. Just bought a couple of the Penguin guides to grammar, punctuation and clear and concise writing and that and I'm in the market for a dictionary too. Don't suppose it counts as buying but I found a French dictionary from my A level days that I thought I'd lost and it's in really good condition so that's on my shelf now. And I've just begun George Orwell - Books vs. Cigarettes and finding it pretty interesting so far.
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May 24, 2009 21:47
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Got a $100 gift card to Amazon (thanks credit card points!) so I bought a few books last night. I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me and Blank Spots on the Map by Trevor Paglen. These books talk about the super secret world that the government hides from us. I Could Tell You is a collection of patches of secret underground military divisions. Blank Spots is about government installations and projects that "don't exist." Both seem very interesting, looking forward to reading them. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I've heard so much good poo poo about it, I had to pick it up. I read The Road something like 10 months ago. I'm reading No Country right now and flying through it. God Save the Fan by Will Leitch. Deadspin is one of my favorite sites, so I've wanted to read this for a long time. Never been able to find it in stores. Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. Don't know a ton about this, but there was a thread here not long ago about it being pretty good. It was 10 bucks, so I won't be broken up if its not fantastic. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I just finished Neverwhere and the Sandman series. I read Coraline awhile ago. Basically, I like everything I've read by Gaiman so far and this sounds like it should be great.
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May 24, 2009 22:24
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I discovered an incredible used book store and have decided to make this a Reading Summer. I'm committed to going once a week and never leaving empty-handed. So far I've picked up: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation - Read the first one earlier but bought my own copy with cover art that matches the other two. Read them last week. Incredible epic sci-fi and wonderfully imagined universe. I think I still prefer Dune, but this is a very close second. I'm keeping my eyes open for the other four books in the series. Franny & Zooey - Next up, really looking forward to this. I read Nine Stories a few months ago and loved most of them. The Fall - Read this today in the park. Very short and interesting. I haven't lived a full enough life to really appreciate it fully, which is kind of depressing. I need to revel in some debauchery and sin one of these days. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway (First 49) - Always been one of my favourites if not THE favourite. I feel like short stories are best read in the summer and I can't wait to jump in.
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May 25, 2009 23:38
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American Gods - Neil Gaiman I've been meaning to read this for a long time, picked it up about 2 weeks ago after reading the "hall of fame" thread. ABout 300 pages in, loving it.
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May 26, 2009 00:23
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Just picked up The Know It All by AJ Jacobs. Seems pretty cool.
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May 26, 2009 01:26
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Lamar posted:Just picked up The Know It All by AJ Jacobs. Seems pretty cool. I read this earlier in the year and found it surprisingly entertaining. It's neat how he basically wrote a biography in encyclopedia-format, and there's some interesting trivia in there.
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May 26, 2009 01:43
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I just picked up Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" and Murakami's "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" today. I had read through The Remains of the Day a few weeks back, and now I've just been kinda lost as to what to read, since TRotD was such a well-written book. I breezed through Dr. Strangelove, and attempted to start Cryptonomicon, but I think I'll read through Never Let Me Go and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles before I get to that. In fact, I have a lot of books I've started and have yet to finish: American Psycho, Against the Day, A Walk in the Woods and Love in the Time of Cholera. Sheesh.
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May 26, 2009 03:27
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A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, which is really evocative and beautiful, and transcends being just a brilliant book on the "race problem" to become a book about the barriers between one person and another. Excellent. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley...like the most goony book I've read in years, but I'm in a King Arthur phase and this is pretty much a classic. Not super keen on the writing; it feels very heavy-handed and "Fantasy", especially because I keep comparing it to T. H. White's The Once and Future King, but the story of course is a legend and her take is quite interesting so far.  Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, just got this, only read the first few pages so far but I can tell it's going to be brilliant, not least because the friend who says it's her favorite has great taste in books.  Click here for the full 528x768 image.
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May 26, 2009 03:35
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Gay4BluRayz posted:
I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I would, for some reason I thought it was going to be more of a satire than it was. I found myself way more interested interested in the Dr. Impossible sections throughout the book as well. Maybe the fact that I already read comics hurt my enjoyment of it because I had some trouble seeing a lot of the characters as separate from the real characters they're supposed to represent (one character is supposed to represent Superman, another Dr. Strange, etc.). I just picked up a whole bunch from the bargain section at work and couple others over the past month or so. The Yiddish Policemans Union, Gentlemen of the Road, and Maps and Legends all by Michael Chabon The Book of Dave Will Self After Dark Haruki Murakami Bang Crunch Neil Smith 2666 Roberto Bolano Dacap fucked around with this message at 05:10 on May 26, 2009 |
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May 26, 2009 05:06
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Danger Jane posted:
I just picked up a couple of non-fiction books, From Monad to Man by Michael Ruse and The Making Of The Fittest by Sean B. Carroll. Also bought the Pickwick Papers by Dickens. I really like Dickens, but I've mostly read his later works, so I'm looking forward reading one of his earlier more comic books.
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May 26, 2009 06:09
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I recently purchased Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, borrowed Cormac McCarthy's The Road from the library (backwards, I know) and put a hold request on Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects. So far, The Road is everything I was told it would be: bleak, poetic, depressing, disturbing and incredible all at once. It pales a little to Blood Meridian but then again, most novels do.
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May 26, 2009 15:33
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 Bought a while ago, but just started. Man, I don't know why I put off Vollmann this long (only previous experience is an excerpt from Rising Up and Rising Down); it's excellent so far.
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May 26, 2009 15:41
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I just bought Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses, both by James Joyce. I was primarily reading The Count of Monte Cristo but will probably set it aside to read Finnegan's Wake. I bought the James Joyce books because my Irish grandfather recently passed away, so there's been a surge of Irish everything around my house lately.
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May 26, 2009 18:02
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Psmith posted:
The Knight Templar was released in 2002 and out of stock on Amazon. Looks like a new translation by Steven Murray is on the way though. On Topic: Just started out The Daemon, it's enjoyable so far.
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May 26, 2009 21:06
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Crocz posted:The Knight Templar was released in 2002 and out of stock on Amazon. Looks like a new translation by Steven Murray is on the way though. Yah I thought about finding a used copy of the out of print translation but I think Ill just wait for the Murray one. On topic: I just started The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago. Im about 100 pages in and Im really enjoying it so far. The depiction of Mary and Joseph as just this regular family struggling with the same day to day poo poo as everyone else is a real interesting concept. Jesus was just born so we'll see how it goes. Im in the mood for some historical fiction and I was thinking of picking up Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series
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May 28, 2009 00:53
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Not too far into The Unblemished by Conrad Williams. Its a pretty disturbing horror novel which I've made the mistake of reading during lunch break at work. Its chock full of horrific imagery which makes certain sections kind of hard to read.
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May 28, 2009 04:30
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I just got started on The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth and while I'm only around 90 pages in I can already tell I'm going to love it.
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May 28, 2009 15:50
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Just started Mrs. Dalloway from Virginia Woolf. I haven't read much Woolf before outside of a bit here and there. I'm really surprised by how amazing the writing is; I know it would be great, but not this phenomenal. Not to turn this into a recommendation thread, but also I just finished a rereading of The Winter's Tale and I'm going through my collected Shakespeare book. I want to get into some relatively lesser known Shakespeare. I've read all of the "Great Plays" except for Richard III and Antony + Cleopatra. What are some of the plays I should read this summer? Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, Antony and Cleopatra, etc? I don't know which are particularly strong outside of a very vague idea. bearic fucked around with this message at 21:04 on May 28, 2009 |
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May 28, 2009 21:01
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I´m currently halfway through Choke by Chuck Palahniuk and it´s pretty good, quite uplifting after Invisible Monsters, which I read last year. Worst book I ever read. I also bought Rant from the same author, but since you cannot read two of Chuck´s books in a row I guess I´ll finally finish Max Brook´s World War Z in the meantime.
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May 28, 2009 22:19
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muscles like this? posted:Not too far into The Unblemished by Conrad Williams. Its a pretty disturbing horror novel which I've made the mistake of reading during lunch break at work. Its chock full of horrific imagery which makes certain sections kind of hard to read. Im gonna take this as a recommendation.
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May 28, 2009 22:37
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Arwox posted:Im gonna take this as a recommendation. The back of the book states that there is a "cannibalistic apocalypse that rips through modern day Britain" and it doesn't lie.
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May 29, 2009 02:36
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Just bought Journey to the end of the night (Celine), history of madness (Foucault), and The evolution of co-operation (Axelrod). I bought History of Madness because I found Discipline and Punishment to be very interesting, but holy gently caress this thing is huge.
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May 29, 2009 04:30
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It's that time of the season for my re-read of C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, which is one of my top-five All Time Favorites. I swear I read this book at least twice a year and I never get tired of it. There's always some little metaphor I didn't catch the last time. I need to pick up a second copy of this soon, the one I own is looking a little tattered.
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May 29, 2009 19:46
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Hooray for payday-Friday book buying jags. I purchased: the new Mieville Books two and three of Joe Abercrombie's First Law series The Unblemished by Conrad Williams I haven't purchased this one yet because it's new and expensive, but I'm going to as soon as I can find a reasonable copy, it looks awesome: http://www.amazon.com/Food-Younger-Land-Food-Before-Restaurants/dp/1594488657/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2 Amazon posted:Award-winning New York Times–bestselling author Mark Kurlansky takes us back to the food and eating habits of a younger America: Before the national highway system brought the country closer together; before chain restaurants imposed uniformity and low quality; and before the Frigidaire meant frozen food in mass quantities, the nation’s food was seasonal, regional, and traditional. It helped form the distinct character, attitudes, and customs of those who ate it. Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 20:58 on May 29, 2009 |
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May 29, 2009 20:51
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A friend lent me Kafka on the Shore and so far (about 120 pages) its been decent, I almost put it down in the beginning, I felt like it was something a kid would write. I liked A Wild Sheep Chase a lot so that's why I borrowed Kafka, but so far it isn't really doing it for me.
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May 29, 2009 22:30
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Ballsworthy posted:Books two and three of Joe Abercrombie's First Law series Enjoy! They're both really good, fun reads, his next book is due out soon as well. A stand alone novel set in the same world following new characters.
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May 29, 2009 22:40
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Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I read Light In August several weeks ago (my first foray into Faulkner) and really enjoyed it, so I wanted to read more Faulkner, especially given how often Cormac McCarthy's early work has been compared to Faulkner.
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May 29, 2009 22:43
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I've bought so many books since my last post it's embarrassing. The ones I'll actually point out for goon points are I Am Legend I hate the loving movie and the cover on my copy is the Will Smith one, but it was $5 on clearance at Barnes & Noble, so why not. His Dark Materials Trilogy I'm researching children's fantasy, which is also the reason I just bought Chronicles of Narnia. The Thrawn Trilogy because I'm feeling Star Wars-y. Also, Children of Dune because I just finished Messiah and want to actually finish the series now.
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May 29, 2009 23:16
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I just started reading Starship Troopers, however I bought it in 1997 when the movie came out and I was 12. I never read it until now, at 24. Its so old the drat pages have even started yellowing. Its even got the movie cover on it. I'm only about 100 pages in, its not that bad. I'll probably finish it in a couple days. I'm trying to read my backlog of books so I started with this, I think I might finally read the 3rd LOTR book after that.
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May 30, 2009 18:07
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Merou posted:I just started reading Starship Troopers, however I bought it in 1997 when the movie came out and I was 12. I never read it until now, at 24. Its so old the drat pages have even started yellowing. Its even got the movie cover on it. Is the book even a 100 pages long? It's funny to think the cover has Casper Van Dien on it and then at the end of the book you learn the actual ethnicity of Juan Rico.
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May 30, 2009 20:01
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Starting The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Comes highly recommended of course. 600 pages, ugh, I've been flying through short books the past few weeks so this is going to be a change.
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May 31, 2009 00:26
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V-Men posted:Is the book even a 100 pages long? My copy is 263 pages long. I'm at the part where the book rants about those goddamn kids not getting spanked and ruining the world.
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May 31, 2009 03:38
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Just started Naked Lunch. I'd heard it was a very disturbing, morbid book but, uh, wow. It started fairly decipherable and then just descended into pure incomprehensibility, and yet, it's a real testament to Burroughs talents that his style is just so engaging that pages upon pages of orgies and other craziness later I'm still really enjoying it.
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May 31, 2009 04:07
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I started Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis a few days ago. It's shaping up to be a really great book so far. I'm only in chapter five right now, though.
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May 31, 2009 06:22
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nate fisher posted:I really enjoyed the first 3 books a lot, but I found A Feast of Crows to be a let down. You ain't alone in that sentiment. I've just begun Shaman's Crossing, by Robin Hobb, who wrote the Assassin Trilogy. So far, it seems to have a lot in common with that book: misunderstood people, spoiled and evil noblemen, recapping of the character's life, creeping doom, etc. I hope it picks up.
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May 31, 2009 11:04
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin. I picked it up on a whim and its typical LeGuin awesomeness.
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May 31, 2009 12:01
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Found a used book store this week. Got some really good deals in my opinion. "The Road" - Cormac McCarthy (started this one) Bluebeard - Kurt Vonnegut Animal Farm - awesome tiny little hardback Brave New World/Brave New World Revisted - Huxley Paradise Lost - Milton All for $30 and change
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Jun 1, 2009 01:32
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anathenema posted:You ain't alone in that sentiment. Just wondering, have you read the Tawny Man and Liveship Traders trilogies from her also? I liked the the trilogy that Shaman's Crossing was in, I forget the name of it, but I don't think it was as strong as her others. I just started Gears of the City by Felix Gilman. Not sure how popular his first novel, Thunderer, was around here, I've never heard it mentioned. I enjoyed it though. About 150 pages into Gears and am thoroughly enjoying it so far.
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