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Tiborax posted:Just finished A Game of Thrones, after being instructed by numerous different parties to start reading ASoIaF. I read it in about a week, and drat. Just...drat. I'm just starting this now, and am looking forward to it based on all the awesome things I've heard about it. Just finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman after hearing good things about it in another thread here. In this case, it totally lived up to the hype. The mix of fantasy/sci-fi/real-world was just right and I really liked Pullman's writing style. There was enough detail to keep it immersive, but not so much that it felt like world building, which I can't stand. The ending of The Amber Spyglass after the battle with Metatron and the death of the Authority felt a bit like it was tacked on...almost like an extended epilogue...but I think it worked really well to close out the series and really showed how much both Lyra and Will had grown up. On a side note, after reading The Golden Compass I ran out to watch the movie version from a few years ago. Holy god, talk about a terrible job making the move to screen. Even among many failed book-to-screen adaptations I think this one ranked near the worst for me. Major plot points and details changed, while other minor details were kept, for no conceivably good reason in either case. Ugh, it still pisses me off thinking about it. I'm half glad that the last two books will probably never make their way to the theater after seeing what they did to the first.
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Jun 25, 2009 14:49
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I just finished my reading at work book Old Man and the Sea. It was pretty awesome, I didn't think Hemingway wrote like that in other books, the only other one I've read was For Whom the Bell Tolls. I also finished my too ashamed to read in public book The Crystal Shard. I can't help it loving orcs getting killed is quality prose. 
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Jun 26, 2009 02:14
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I picked up The God of Small of Things by Arundhati Roy a few days ago because I needed something to read on the train and it turns it out was awesome. The chapters aren't in sequence chronologically and I wasn't paying too much attention to the book at first (I'd never heard of it so I didn't think it would be any good) so it was a little hard to figure out. But the author uses this technique really well and some chapters it isn't clear how they fit into the story until much later. I definitely recommend this book if you like good books!
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Jun 26, 2009 08:12
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Titan by Ben Bova. I thought it was a fantastic sci-fi novel about exploration. It's between Jesus Incident and Red Mars in terms of its science. A good mix of kind of hard science mixed with future life in a colony and enough futurist science fiction that made Jesus Incident really enjoyable for me.
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Jun 26, 2009 17:57
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Mediocre_Dane posted:Last night I finished my dad's copy of The Strain, which was co-written by Chuck Hogan and Mr. Pan's Labyrinth himself, Guillermo Del Toro. I just finished this as well after I won it from a goon's website. It's nothing groundbreaking or anything, but when it comes to monster stories it has all the cliches I love - ragtag group of resistance fighters, badasses, and monsters that would be scary to face. Good entertainment reading, for sure.
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Jun 26, 2009 20:47
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I just got done reading the Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton. Two books in total Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained. And I really had to force me self to finish it this time around (It's my second read through). Nothing really bad about the author except that his writting really drags on. Do I really need 4 pages of 2 kids swimming in a pool only to lead up to one plot moving paragraph for a minor character? In fact I frequently found my self skiping pages of text and not missing a drat thing plot wise. Not sure what I'll tackle next.
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Jun 26, 2009 22:52
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Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Maybe I'm jaded, but I didn't find it as brutal or shocking as I was led to believe it was. Sure it was violent, but straightforward depictions of even grisly violence are not offputting to me. It's not like I'm disappointed, though; it's a book I consider well worth reading. Judge Holden was an interesting character for sure.
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Jun 27, 2009 02:15
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SaviourX posted:Stannis is still married. Just you keep on reading, though, boy-o. So I was reading last night, and everything was fine, until all of a sudden ALL OF THE poo poo HIT THE FAN. THERE IS NO MORE FAN. THE PRODIGIOUS AMOUNT OF poo poo THAT HAS HIT IT HAS DESTROYED IT. HOLY GOD. Yeah. My reaction was something to that effect. Best part? 300 pages to go.
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Jun 27, 2009 05:19
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Tiborax posted:So I was reading last night, and everything was fine, until all of a sudden ALL OF THE poo poo HIT THE FAN. 300 pages left? The fan ain't seen nothing yet, trust me.
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Jun 27, 2009 05:24
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Finished The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. At first I didn't think it would be good; come on, the guy wakes up as a bug (p.1)? I'm glad I stuck with it until the end, it's actually quite good. I thought the ending was good. I particularly liked all the analogies and the references to the Bible and Christ's "earthly ministry", the appearance of the three wise men, the apples representing original sin, etc... I'm a sucker for imagery and things (what's in the literary term for that?) like that.
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Jun 27, 2009 08:04
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Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian C. Esslemont - Shoddy writing, but improves during the second half, then devolves again, then improves. Only get it if you want to find out more of the plot from Erikson's writing. But don't expect any stellar writing. In fact expect mediocre writing.
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Jun 27, 2009 15:00
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I finally finished The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin! It was my first foray into science fiction and I enjoyed it -- plus it wasn't even the usual canon of Heinlein-Asimov-Clarke! I found that she wrote the novel humourously and didn't skimp on description of anything. Furthermore, she played the philosophical differences between Annares and Urrasti (communist and capitalist, respectively, to put it simply) off on each other well, illustrating how impossible a perfect society is, both in comparison and tout court. While she had a tendency to repeat herself regarding the philosophical points of the physics she used, that too was still interesting and considered well, although it did get a little same-y after awhile. Wikipedia says this is soft science fiction, which is fine with me -- to be honest, I suspect I would prefer the sort of science fiction that attempts to look at philosophical ideas and how they would play out within society, rather than precise physics without much else to recommend it in terms of a novel -- and I will definitely read more sci-fi now that I'm initiated.  Up next: Under the Net by Iris Murdoch, since that too is overdue at the library...
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Jun 27, 2009 20:54
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Did That on Television posted:I finally finished The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin! I wholeheartedly suggest that you read The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. It won both the Nebula and the Hugo awards and it's her best book IMO. If you like her writing style then this is right up your alley.
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Jun 28, 2009 02:23
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Just finished Skystone by Jack Whyte and goddamn am I stoked on this series. From what I've been told, its better than the Templar series.
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Jun 28, 2009 03:10
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AN ANGRY MOTHER posted:Just finished Skystone by Jack Whyte and goddamn am I stoked on this series. From what I've been told, its better than the Templar series. By any chance did you get your copy from someone on PaperBackSwap? I just sent a copy out a few weeks ago after learning about that site here on the forums. I wonder if I should have read it before I sent it! Every Dead Thing by John Connelly - A really intriguing detective story about a Cop that gets his family brutally murdered by a serial killer and spends the rest of the book trying not to crack while solving another crime that could possibly be related to his families. I really enjoyed the tone and pace of the story - so much so that I'll likely continue reading this series of books. The ending was totally out of character for the book though and came out nowhere with a body being discovered at the last possibly moment completely by chance and was miraculously the key to breaking the case. It felt like the author didn't know how to solve the crime, which after such an intricately spun plot that felt like you were discovering clues that would finger the killer, was a disappointment.
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Jun 28, 2009 22:54
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Getting back into this message board since I have a lot of free time on my hands with which I'm going to spend reading. About an hour ago, I just finished The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King. While it took him 12 years to write it, I've had it sitting in my bookcase for about 10 years and finally resolved to read it in full over the weekend. I enjoyed it enough, I guess. Enough that I'm going to read the next one in the series (and if that hooks me enough, I'll finish the series through). I guess I enjoyed the setting and the whole anachronism/"unstuck in time" gimmick. Next up is a wide variety of things, like struggling through Pygmy by Palahniuk and hitting up some stuff by Vonnegut, Camus and Irvine Welsh that I've been meaning to read for a while. Actually gonna go to the library and get a card since I don't have the funds to add to my collection right now.
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Jun 29, 2009 08:45
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Dudikoff posted:By any chance did you get your copy from someone on PaperBackSwap? I just sent a copy out a few weeks ago after learning about that site here on the forums. I wonder if I should have read it before I sent it! In my opinion, yes, you should have. Its a very good start to a very promising series. I really enjoyed Mary Stewart's Merlin series and I am already forgetting it. AN ANGRY MOTHER fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Jun 30, 2009 |
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Jun 29, 2009 09:54
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Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The ending is as great as everyone says it is.
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Jun 30, 2009 01:56
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Blue Moon posted:Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The ending is as great as everyone says it is.
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Jun 30, 2009 02:01
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Finished Ender's Game. It was pretty awesome and I'm looking forward to reading the sequels.
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Jun 30, 2009 04:00
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Finished Cities of the Red Night, by Burroughs. It was the first really hosed-up book I've ever voluntarily read, and I really dug it. I thought the storytelling structure and the basic concepts (B-23, the Articles) were awesome. Didn't like the execution so much, but there was a lot about the writing style I really enjoyed. Burroughs' style is so immersive, even when what he's writing doesn't make any sense. I mentioned this in another stickied thread, but it seemed like with this book, unlike any I've ever read, the plot moved through the characters as opposed to the characters moving through the plot. The various characters seemed like a medium through which the plots involving the virus and the Articles and time travel unfolded. It's a literary device that's always intrigued me, and I've always wanted to write a story that uses it really well. The sex seemed very gratuitous, though, and the book really degenerated into a total mess near the end. I'm still glad I read it, though. I should probably read his earlier work so I know more about Clem Snide and Audrey going in.
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Jun 30, 2009 04:29
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I just finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I highly recommend it to anyone. I think it may be one of my favorite books.
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Jun 30, 2009 14:29
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Tailored Sauce posted:Finished Ender's Game. It was pretty awesome and I'm looking forward to reading the sequels. The bean books are more akin to Ender's Game than any of Ender's later space adventures out on his own. I'd suggest starting with Ender's Shadow personally. Xenocide and the rest of the proper Ender series is much less political military scifi and has a much more alien space opera kind of feel to it.
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Jun 30, 2009 16:28
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I just finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. It's a standalone fantasy novel and I enjoyed it a great deal. It's an easy read, very similar writing style to Sanderson's other stuff with perhaps a bit more humor. The plot was solid, the characters were interesting, the magic system and mythology of the world was excellent. I'd recommend it to anyone that enjoys fantasy.
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Jun 30, 2009 19:31
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The Great Gatsby. I didn't know a whole lot about it and only had the book as I bought a pile of F. Scott Fitzgerald books as a curiousity at a used book store. It really was a fascinating read, especially in the second half which I blew through in no time.
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Jul 1, 2009 06:45
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American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Curosity finally got the better of me, after having heard about it for years. Despite being a fan of the movie and black comedy in general, I'd been putting it off. This is pretty much because when I was 12 I read a bit of Glamorama out of curisoity, disturbing me for the rest of the day (the paragraph in question included the words "razor", "anus" and "purple foam"). I mean, I've always considered myself pretty desensitized to violence, gore hasn't done a thing to me sice I was a kid, but there's something uniquely perverse and discomforting about Ellis's stuff. Maybe it's the completely detached tone, I don't know. Anyway, I finally manned up and read American Psycho, and I'm really happy I did. I knew it was a satire, but I wasn't expecting it to be so laugh-out-loud funny, especially Bateman's psychotic, hallucinatory episodes in broad daylight ("I want to watch you die, muth-a-gently caress-AAAAAAAHH!") The murders were expectedly brutal, but taken to such absurd extremes that they became strangely hilarious. The writing's top notch, understated but punchy when it needs to be (god, I sound like Bateman talking about Genesis). I'd recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach and a sense of humour.
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Jul 1, 2009 07:59
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Just finished Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, and I thought it was really terrific. His style is jarring at first, but once you get used to it, it's a really fascinating read. So fascinating, in fact, I ran out and picked up Ulysses at Half-Price books. I'm interested in seeing what it's like since I know that Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist from Portrait of the Artist, is in it.
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Jul 1, 2009 10:06
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The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. A spooky book. It's more of a creeping psychological scare than an all out assault. I get the feeling that Jackson was a bit of an outcast or a loner in her time, as the main character is written almost too well.
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Jul 1, 2009 16:21
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The Evolution of Cooperation by Axelrod. After finishing The Selfish Gene I was interested to delve into the subject of game theory a bit more, but as it turns out, Dawkins did a really good job of summarizing Axelrod's book. Not a disappointing read by any means, just unnecessary.
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Jul 1, 2009 16:34
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I just finished House of Leaves. i'mstarting what's technically The Whalestoe Letters even though it's in the same book. Honestly, i liked it but I'm not sure I "get it"... I mean, was there anything to get? I'm not really getting anything. I liked it a lot but I have the feeling i missed the point... What was the point? Seems to me Johnny's just mentally unstable like his mother and that Zampano was just a weird old man who wrote a weird old manuscript about a fake movie just for fun... I think I'm gonna go back to Pyramids by Terry Pratchett. Working my way through the Discworld books. They're fine books!
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Jul 1, 2009 16:44
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Finished Pillars of the Earth If you have any doubts about starting this, ignore them and get going. It's a very entertaining book that languished too long on my bookshelf because I didn't want to deal with something that sounded so boring (yawn, building a cathedral, who cares?). It wasn't boring at all, the Cathedral was just the McGuffin for a very entertaining series of plots. While the use of more modern vernacular is be distracting at first, the characters are so well drawn and the situations they find themselves in so interesting, that you ignore it and move quickly to the conclusion.
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Jul 1, 2009 23:12
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Just finished The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist. It's a very well-written Victorian-era adventure/mystery novel with some very light sci-fi/steampunk elements. It's basically about three strangers that stumble upon a large nascent conspiracy that involves prostitutes and murder. I had a hard time keeping track of all the side characters at first, but the author does a good job of differentiating them and making the part each plays very meaningful.
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Jul 2, 2009 01:00
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Lord Humungus posted:American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Curosity finally got the better of me, after having heard about it for years. Despite being a fan of the movie and black comedy in general, I'd been putting it off. This is pretty much because when I was 12 I read a bit of Glamorama out of curisoity, disturbing me for the rest of the day (the paragraph in question included the words "razor", "anus" and "purple foam"). I mean, I've always considered myself pretty desensitized to violence, gore hasn't done a thing to me sice I was a kid, but there's something uniquely perverse and discomforting about Ellis's stuff. Maybe it's the completely detached tone, I don't know. I've had a copy of this sitting around for a few weeks now, I guess I'll go ahead and start on it now. I've heard nothing but good things about it.
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Jul 2, 2009 02:41
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Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. A strange little book.
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Jul 2, 2009 13:24
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I just finished Blindness by Jose Saramago. It was excellent, the style was a little intimidating at first but it works very well and helps put you in the environment. Very thought-provoking stuff, and really entertaining. I have a question about the ending, though, for those of you that have also read it. In the final lines where it says "Then she lifted her head up to the sky and saw everything white, It is my turn, she thought. Fear made her quickly lower her eyes." Does that mean that the doctor's wife was stricken by the white blindness at the very end? Seems pretty likely but I'm not totally sure. Thanks to whoever can answer that. edit: Thanks uggy, that makes sense. Deltron 3030 fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jul 3, 2009 |
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Jul 2, 2009 19:28
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Wolfgang Pauli posted:The Empty Space by Peter Brook. I've yet to read Brecht or Jerzy Grotowski, but my god, this guy can write. I had a feeling that any book that has Tyrone Guthrie as one of the back cover reviews couldn't be all that bad, and it far surpassed any expectation I had. Easily one of the greatest written works on theatre. Just finished this. I'm a complete theatre newbie and this book was very enlightening. I really want to check out some local plays now.
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Jul 2, 2009 20:12
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Deltron 3030 posted:I have a question about the ending, though, for those of you that have also read it. In the final lines where it says "Then she lifted her head up to the sky and saw everything white, It is my turn, she thought. Fear made her quickly lower her eyes." Does that mean that the doctor's wife was stricken by the white blindness at the very end? Seems pretty likely but I'm not totally sure. Thanks to whoever can answer that. No, she's doesn't go blind. It was just a white sky, so she lowered her head because she was worried she may have become blind. uggy fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Jul 3, 2009 |
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Jul 3, 2009 00:54
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Deltron 3030 posted:I just finished Blindness by Jose Saramago. It was excellent, the style was a little intimidating at first but it works very well and helps put you in the environment. Very thought-provoking stuff, and really entertaining. I recommend watching the movie as well, I thought it was well done. The film version of that ending will help put it into perspective for you.
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Jul 3, 2009 06:06
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Anunnaki posted:I recommend watching the movie as well, I thought it was well done. The film version of that ending will help put it into perspective for you. Ughhh, that movie was terrible, I thought. The book is just so amazing and the way he writes fits the book so well. The movie loses that, and I think it suffered. There's no good way to translate Saramago's writing style into the movie.
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Jul 3, 2009 07:02
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Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. A simple, violent, black and often funny standalone story about revenge. This is set in the same world he created for his First Law trilogy and takes place in the war torn city states of Styria where our lead character and her brother are betrayed, he is murdered and she just about survives being thrown off a cliff. Her aim is to kill the seven men she holds responsible regardless of who gets in her way, assisted by a cast of new and old characters. Shivers is great, and Cosca returns to provide the comic relief and a few excellent scenes. If you like First Law you will like this, but I may recommend you take a break as it may come off as feeling a little familiar. I would also say that it is a little to long and seemed to drag on a bit in places. However, it was still a really enjoyable read, with great characters just like First Law. For anyone new to his books I would say start with the trilogy, you could read this as a stand alone but you would miss a lot of references and would miss out of some of the deeper threads that he is building across his books.
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Jul 3, 2009 12:59
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