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Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia. While cheesy at times, it was quite entertaining, and the gun fights are nice and over the top. Now I still have to finish Cormac McCarthy's Border trilogy, I'm currently in the middle of The Crossing.
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Nov 8, 2009 00:10
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I've finished a few in the last weeks: Under the Dome by Stephen King. I got an ARC for this book. Loved it, best new King book to date, etc etc. See the Stephen King thread for more. The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. I loved this book but don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone. It mainly deals with two families living in England in the 1890s to WWI. One of the families is rich because the mother is a famous children's book author, the other family is poor because the father is a talented-yet-haunted potter who drinks and smashes his own creations. The books deals with all the family issues but also all the political and social issues of the day with the kids getting into a mix of socialists, anarchists, etc groups. It also deals with creativity and how people handle it. It's a big book filled with history and clashing ideas, but it always manages to stay personal and engaging. You do have to like the more literary side of "literary fiction" to enjoy this one though. Good without God by Greg Epstein. The author is the Humanist chaplain at Harvard and this book tries to be the positive side of atheism by laying down the ground work for what Humanists should stand for, rather than just tearing down religion like Dawkins, Harris, et al. That said, it does quote the "New Atheists" alot, and will probably be seen as just another book preaching to the choir of nonbelievers. It's a light read in that regard, and doesn't bring anything new to the table. Still, it could work as a primer for folks who want to get their sound bite answers down to annoying questions like "If there's no afterlife, why don't we just rape and kill everyone?!?!"
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Nov 8, 2009 00:17
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Jeeves in the Morning took forever to get through, and I think the payoff is wearing thin on me. Should quit the Jeeves series for a while. The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde was probably not at its best in audio format, since I got confused over who and what pretty easily. I tended to tune it out while playing a computer game, unfortunately, and by the end I was just over the whole thing (no pun). All those hours of chasing and sleuthing and THAT was the ending? A loving reptile hatches out of a giant egg and wants to kill this Jellyman, who has only been mentioned in passing?!?!? WHAT THE gently caress? When someone rec'd this book as being "funny" many months ago, I thought they meant I'd be amused. I was not.
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Nov 9, 2009 01:03
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Just finished reading the Hobbit, I know I should have read it years ago but never did. It's a really entertaining read, always something going on Bilbo is really much scrappier than I imagined him being. Highly recommended.
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Nov 10, 2009 18:16
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Malazan book of the fallen book... 8 I think. Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson. I'm reading Toll the Hounds right now, book 9. Reaper's gale was oh kay and toll the hounds has some awful stuff that he never put in any of his previous books like (no spoilers) 'oh and on we move from that fell scene, ah, on the breeze, yes, the breeze. see how the leaves blow by and what does that little boy think about that ? *taps nose* we'll see won't we? oooh and on the morrow etc etc' but most of it is his standard decent fare.
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Nov 11, 2009 00:00
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Dear Mr. David Weber, Based on my reading of your "novel," The Apocalypse Troll, you fantasize about being a retired special forces operative who finds love with a strange woman from the future (who actually turns out to be from an entirely different universe!) who you rescue, thus prompting her to offer herself to you before the two of you continue on to save the entire human race. There are as many problems with your book as there are with amateur scribbling one might find online. The entire novel reads like a gigantic adolescent fantasy. Your protagonist lacks any characterization at all and feels completely dead. I was particularly amused by his stoic determination to be a gentleman when giving his wounded and unconscious passenger a sponge bath after he had stripped her unnecessarily before. And then he would awkwardly avert his eyes when the sheet would shift and show her pert, young breasts. (Remember how often you had to mention how young she looked? You might want to avoid that in the future. I got the point in the first chapter when you introduced her.) The amusing prospect of her being effectively immortal and eternally young (thanks to backfiring germ warfare - if it doesn't kill you, it extends your youth forever? seriously?) ended with her crying about how hard her life was due to the "normals" jealously hating her. Are you including some sort of personal perspective in there? Was it really you who was the lonely outcast that never quite fit in because you were just so much better than everyone? Oh, and while there are far too many problems with this work to list, the absolute poo poo-flavored cherry on top of the poo poo sundae has got to be exposing Richard Aston to the "immortality" biological agent despite assurances of instant death if he did so much as come in contact with Leonova's blood. The whole book, we're sure that he'll die if she bleeds on him, right? The disease has a 99% fatality rate! So she decides to "save" him when he's wounded in the "climactic" final battle by bleeding contaminated blood in his mortal wounds. I read The Forever War recently, which got me back on a science fiction kick, but books like yours are the reason I gave up on the genre in the first place. This is the third (fourth if you count my current project) bad sci-fi novel. I think I'll reread some Frank Herbert just to get back to something worth sinking into. In short, Mr. David Weber, you should stop writing books for other people to read. Thank you in advance.
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Nov 11, 2009 02:26
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I just finished A Brief History of Time. I had to reread a few sections for clarity but it was well worth it. I now have a basic understanding of our mostly current knowledge of the universe! I started reading the next Patrick O'Brian novel, Post Captain, but then I saw Zorak's space thread. Now I want more space stuff!
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Nov 11, 2009 07:04
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Just finished The Diary by that Chuck guy. I'm starting to get tired of his depressing books. Well I kind of have my self o blame for reading to many of his books in a short amount of time. I guess it was kind of good but not that exiting. This one could almost be called a horror story, which isn't what I'm looking for in a Chuck Palahniuk book.
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Nov 11, 2009 09:47
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markehed posted:Just finished Diary by that Chuck guy. I'm starting to get tired of his depressing books. Well I kind of have my self o blame for reading to many of his books in a short amount of time. I guess it was kind of good but not that exiting. This one could almost be called a horror story, which isn't what I'm looking for in a Chuck Palahniuk book. I thought of it more as a mystery, and I enjoyed it. I've read all Pahlaniuk's novels, and yeah, I could definitely see it becoming old if you read a whole bunch of them in succession. Take a break with a book or two in between, if you're set on reading all of them. Personally, I think the only necessary Palahniuk reading is: Survivor, Invisible Monsters, Rant (if you're into epistolary novels), and of course Fight Club. A lot of people love Choke, but I honestly thought it was one of his weaker novels.
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Nov 11, 2009 10:22
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the amber trap posted:
Are you honestly surprised that a book called The Apocalypse Troll doesn't provide the quality you're used to from other sci-fi?
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Nov 11, 2009 16:11
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Nahkrinoth posted:
No, no! Read the O'Brian. Post Captain is one of my favorites of the series and introduces you to characters you will encounter throughout the rest of O'Brian's "two million word opus." Post Captain also has some of the best comedic moments in the series. You'll love Aubrey's escape from France disguised as a bear, the almost uncontrollable, double-headed HMS Polychrest, and the hilarious battle of the sexes at Aubrey's ball. This installment also features the frightening duel between Jack & Stephen, some of the most meaningful character development which occurs in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Be warned: Post Captain will hook you in for the rest. Back on topic: I just finished Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand by Samuel R. Delany (1984, Bantam). In short summary, this is a novel of great ambition and scope, with some perplexing and thought-provoking Sci-Fi concepts. Ultimately though, my enjoyment of this novel was lessened by what I consider a rather important flaw in the plot and to a lesser degree by the many recurring graphic homosexual scenes and descriptions. (Before I continue, let me mention here I am not normally bothered by homosexuality in my literature--I'm a fan of Wm. Burroughs, who describes shocking homosexual acts in his books. I also like gay authors; David Sedaris and Truman Capote, to name a few. That said, the vivid depictions of homosexual sex acts, never mind the recurring alien sex "cruising", and the protagonist's vividly and obsessively described fixation on the body of a man who is his "perfect erotic object" began to distract me before the book's end. Perhaps this was the author's intent, or perhaps I just have my own hangups to deal with, but if this book had been recommended to me, I would have wished someone had told me that I would encounter so much of this.) Digression aside, this book, much more than most SF, feels like literature, and I read that Delany has been likened to James Joyce. I can't say, but Delaney has created several well-developed worlds (Velm, Rhyonon and Nepiy, a very interesting alien race (the evelm; on par with Vinge's Skroderiders) and some frightening details about future dystopias, e.g.(the RAT-Radical Anxiety Termination-procedure). One of the central concepts of this book, "cultural fugue", the breakdown of human civilization on a planet, was an interesting idea, though I wasn't ultimately convinced. It seemed to me a little half-baked that a world's civilization will collapse because of the rise of a singular cultural hegemony. Such a state of things does not sufficiently explain why Rhyonon exploded or what in the world the Xlv had to do with it, if anything. This concept seemed to get lost in the author's desire to tell a tragic love/lust story between the protagonist and his object of ultimate attraction. A more interesting concept in this novel involves the two paradigms which compete for control of all of the human-occupied planets. One is a very socially conservative group which models its governance and culture on the concept of the human nuclear family; the other models itself on the stream--collectives of individuals that live together and function like a clan or extended family, as they create "ripples" or generations to continue the stream. The morals and values of the latter paradigm are much on display here, though the pressure exerted by the other is always felt. There were some interesting things to enjoy in this novel: whole worlds and complex alien species created by the author, a diaspora of humans throughout the galaxy, competing human governance philosophies, the niceties of off-world etiquette and the threat of planetary extinction because of culture. These points may make reading it worth your while. On the other hand, if a gaping and unexplained plot problem, or an abundance of homosexual sex give you pause, this may not be the novel for you. Edit: missing article O Rapture fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Nov 11, 2009 |
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Nov 11, 2009 23:27
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Just finished Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Pretty solid all around.
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Nov 12, 2009 17:08
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Internet was broken for weeks so I could finally start and end some bigger book reading projects. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. The excruciatingly slow moving story of three people who work at a vanity literary agency specialized in ripping off conspiracy theorists. When one of their clients brings in an encrypted rosicrucian manuscript, they decide to invent the ultimate conspiracy theory. I don't wanna spoil anything but they really get into it and so does the author because goddamn. You can really tell how much that guy loves writing and it's a pleasure to read his words. Eco is probably the only person who can write a terrifyingly long list of what is more or less nonsense and actually make it funny because it just goes on and on and on. The literary equivalent of Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes over and over and over again. I loved every page of it but it's definitely a book for people with patience. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The rise and fall of an ill fated family living in an equally ill fated village. Beautifully written and pleasant to read, but I didn't find it particularly moving personally. I enjoyed it but was also kind of disappointed since I expected a little bit more.
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Nov 12, 2009 23:02
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Just finished another book by Chuck Palahniuk. This time it was Haunted. To say that I finished it is a bit of a lie. It's more like I've had enogh of it and don't intend to pick it up again any time soon. This is mostly because I've had it with Chucks negativity and lack of anything but melancholy.
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Nov 12, 2009 23:49
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markehed posted:Just finished another book by Chuck Palahniuk. This time it was Haunted. To say that I finished it is a bit of a lie. It's more like I've had enogh of it and don't intend to pick it up again any time soon. This is mostly because I've had it with Chucks negativity and lack of anything but melancholy. Guess you missed my post? 
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Nov 13, 2009 04:30
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23 Hours by David Wellington. Building off the end of Vampire Zero where the main character Special Deputy Laura Caxton was arrested for kidnapping and torturing a prisoner (which to be fair was done to stop a master vampire from killing a whole bunch of people) leaves Caxton serving 5 years in a maximum security women's correctional facility in Pennsylvania. The book has the standard Wellington fast pace with the story taking place over about two days. He does get on a soapbox for a bit using the mouthpiece of the prison's warden to complain about how horrible US prisons are. There's also very few returning characters with Caxton's girlfriend Clara getting the majority of facetime. The "twist" ending is a little obvious before you get to it and it seems he just can't let this series end as once again we're left without a proper conclusion to the story. The book is a little bit of a let down as its almost entirely action with very little downtime and really none for the main character.
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Nov 13, 2009 07:36
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IM_DA_DECIDER posted:Are you honestly surprised that a book called The Apocalypse Troll doesn't provide the quality you're used to from other sci-fi? I refuse to judge books by their lovely titles.  There was a very limited selection in my ship's library, and the write-up on the cover (inside and out) made it seem like this guy was some huge author I hadn't heard of before and that the book was some classic and that this "first time in paperback" edition was some sort of big deal. I really didn't expect much, but I didn't expect it to be nearly as awful as it was. I'm sure I could have found something better if I had been in a book store. On a side note, I'm rather tired of Nordic imagery being subverted by science fiction and fantasy authors.
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Nov 13, 2009 21:08
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Van Gogh's Room at Arles by Stanley Elkin. The first and third of the three novellas are excellent character studies of ineffectual and pathetic men. Darkly fascinating, really. In the first, the wife of a man crippled by a degenerative disease leaves him the day before they were to throw a party for his students; he unfortunately decides to carry on with it anyway. In the third, a community college instructor finds himself in a workshop situation in Arles, France, surrounded by academics far more accomplished and intelligent than he. Staying in van Gogh's old room does him no good; he pretty much falls apart. You can't help but feel embarrassed for these guys; they just don't handle themselves well at all. (The other novella I got bored with and didn't finish.) Pricksongs & Descants by Robert Coover. This is a collection of experimental postmodernist short fiction, but what's notable is that the experiments are largely a success. Coover has a lucid, mindbending style which is deceptively simple. In one example, "The Babysitter," several versions of reality take place concurrently while still maintaining an overall coherence. His Bible stories retold are deliciously brutal as well. At worst, this kind of thing might seem a bit dated (the collection was published in 1969), but Coover is a master stylist and parodist, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book. Ghost Town by Robert Coover. Since I enjoyed Coover's short fiction above, I hit the library and found one of his novels, though it's pretty short still. Brilliant work about a nameless cowboy roaming an interminable desert, who stumbles upon a town that may or may not be real. A nice deconstruction of the Wild West. Just reading it made me feel like I'd been out in the sun too long. Coover rarely hits on the nose, but this bit was telling: quote:He is a drifter and one whose history escapes him even as he experiences it, and yet to drift is to adventure and to overstudy one's history is to be ruled by it, and he is above all a free man, intent on pursuing his own meaning even if there is none. The Body Artist by Don DeLillo. Another very short novel, really a novella. A woman struggles to deal with the suicide of her husband and encounters an intruder in the house, an apparently mentally disadvantaged young man who can repeat verbatim some of their conversations, even in the dead man's voice. She doesn't know what this means, but who knows what the gently caress anything means? As I said upthread, DeLillo has a talent for putting you into the heads of characters who seem completely alien, and this book is another good example. When I read DeLillo I believe there are people out there who don't even share the same planet. It's a weird and fascinating novel, and the prose is notably liquid and disassociative, sort of an extended prose poem that seeks to evoke immediately in the reader its theme of deep loss and alienation.
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Nov 14, 2009 00:38
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Learning the World by Ken MacLeod annoyed me, but mainly because of unrealized potential. It had interesting concepts, but they were implemented rather clumsily. There were several grammatical and punctuation errors that were quite distracting. The "human" main character was an obnoxious brat of a teenager who was whining to her "biolog" incessantly. (The first edition copyright is November 2005 - why not use "blog" and call it what it is?) The start of the novel was awkward and confusing because of a complete lack of description or exposition. The novel bogged down in the middle third with awkward and poorly described political plotting. The end had some bizarre plot "twists" that couldn't have been predicted and made so little sense (launching a "defensive," just-in-case nuke at a seceding segment of the ship-borne population in order to preserve their cushy lifestyle, despite going on at length about how much better life is now that humans don't use violence any more) that I honestly believe the author was just trying to figure out how to work in some sort of conclusion. My favorite part of the book was the name of the ship: But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!
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Nov 14, 2009 05:07
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The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara - A fictionalized account of the battle of Gettysburg, told from the perspectives of various commanding officers (Lee, Longstreet, etc.). It stands equally well as a meditation on what the Civil War actually meant for the people fighting in it as well as a gripping account of the battle itself - the numerous maps throughout the book to show the course of the battle as it progressed over 3 days were immensely helpful in visualizing how it all played out. Stone's Fall by Iain Pears - A complex historical mystery that tells the story (in 3 parts that proceed back in time from 1909 London to 1867 Venice) of how a prominent British industrialist ends up dying after a mysterious fall from a high window. It proceeds along similar lines to Pears' earlier An Instance of the Fingerpost with the 3 parts being told by different people, with the narratives interweaving into a complicated tapestry. The only weak spots are that the 3 narratives aren't particularly different from one another in tone and the ending seemed just a little too pat and rushed. Great book, otherwise.
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Nov 14, 2009 06:21
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Wrojin posted:Pricksongs & Descants by Robert Coover. This is a collection of experimental postmodernist short fiction, but what's notable is that the experiments are largely a success. Coover has a lucid, mindbending style which is deceptively simple. In one example, "The Babysitter," several versions of reality take place concurrently while still maintaining an overall coherence. His Bible stories retold are deliciously brutal as well. At worst, this kind of thing might seem a bit dated (the collection was published in 1969), but Coover is a master stylist and parodist, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading this book. I read a fantastic noir story by Robert Coover in Harper's last year, called 'The Case of the Severed Hand' (July 2008). It's only available to subscribers, but it's well worth a read if you get a chance. For my part, I've been keeping my eye out for more of his work, so I'll definitely pick this up. Thanks! I also finished Infinite Jest a few days ago. It was something of a relief, as I'd been reading it for nearly 5 months, but I did find myself slowing down and rationing out the last few pages, because I wasn't sure I was ready for it to end. Much has already been written about it here and in the David Foster Wallace thread, so I won't go into too much detail, but I'll confirm that it manages to be sad, funny, bewildering, deeply intuitive, wise, childish and many other polar opposites, all at once. Some of the dialogue actually made me laugh out loud, and the depictions of the lives of drug addicts were so honest in their brutality that I felt genuinely sad. The book's intellectual pleasures were just as powerful, with passages that will delight word-, politics-, cinema-, pharmaceutical-, and sport-geeks, as well as some of the clearest and most vivid prose I have ever read. I have no doubt that Wallace was a genius, and if you're at all interested in modern fiction I strongly suggest you give it a try.
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Nov 14, 2009 08:54
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CUM CURMUDGEON posted:Naked Lunch by Burroughs. Great read, but I was slightly put off by it starting off more structured and then spiraling into chaos. Have you read Junky? It's a little more on the ground - check it out!
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Nov 14, 2009 15:12
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Just read The Algebraist by Ian M. Banks on a friend's recommendation, it wasn't bad... I gave it 3/5 because I didn't like the villain character at all and that bit of the story was pointless and since it never got resolved anyway it could have just been left out. The author presents some really cool concepts and interesting ideas, but the dwellers/gas giant chapters were just really mundane and boring in comparison to the rest of this awesome, rich sci-fi universe he constructs, and there were a whole lot of dweller chapters... I wish he'd write a sequel or spinoff or whatever that focuses on the Mercatoria / Beyonders.
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Nov 14, 2009 20:39
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Dragon's Fire by Todd and presumably Anne McCaffrey, though you couldn't prove it by me. I seem to remember Pern books actually having characters I could give two shits about, but these characters are all so boring. And in audiobook format, their names sound alike. You've got Tenin, who is a total bastard, and Terik, who is also a total bastard. And they work together. Then the master harper (Moriney?) and a wandering harpen (Morin?).... For god's sakes, buy a Name Your Baby book, Todd. Anyway, Pellar, the mute center of the story, had such potential to be a great character with unique challenges and basically he just wanders around in the woods. A lot. Oh, and if Dragons can mentally talk to anyone they choose, and they're so fast and can go between, why don't they start a special transportation weyr so we don't have all this "Pellar spent the next two months walking from one side of Pern, around the mountains, and down a valley, through the winter where he almost died, and out the other side of Pern." and we can have PLOT instead. Silly idea. They practice flaming thread for what, 10 hours of every day? How about running some lord holders back and forth and some medical supplies? HUH? Ahem. Also there's True Love and Great Sacrifice and Noble Purposes. But boring. Also finished Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver, whom I normally like. And the idea of pre-picking your victims and announcing a death before it happens with a roadside memorial sounds really creepy and cool, I thought. I was wrong. We learned what "H-T-T-P" stands for, and how people write these journals, only online, on the WEB, so they're called WEBLOGS or just BLOGS for short. And they can be mean to other people. And use bad spelling. And l33t speak, which does anyone even use anymore!? And phrases like "EPIC WIN." (It was cool to see Dooce mentioned in the book though, but they managed to make her seem lame, too.) So yeah. People die/almost die, who is doing it, let us run around and see, oh and throw some conflicted romance crap in there with some soul searching and preaching about the interwebz and MMMMMPORGS make people violent in real life or IRL. Except he made up his own word for online crap, I think, he uses the term "synth world." Really? Is that even used!? I was hoping it was the sweet but creepy retarded kid doing the killings, but that would be too easy, wouldn't it. Chilton, the webmaster/blogger, is all MY SITE IS SO IMPORTANT I PROVIDE WORLDWIDE SERVICES, which cracked me up because I've heard fan site webmasters say the same thing.... the world will DIE without 20,000 pictures of Ashton Kutcher, DIE, I SAY. I've been guilty of something similar myself, but I'm over it now  Luckily I read Crosses in hardback (instead of audio) so I could skip all the female emotional masturbation he leads our Hero through. Refreshing!
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Nov 14, 2009 23:54
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kelmaon posted:I also finished Infinite Jest a few days ago. It was something of a relief, as I'd been reading it for nearly 5 months, but I did find myself slowing down and rationing out the last few pages, because I wasn't sure I was ready for it to end. Much has already been written about it here and in the David Foster Wallace thread, so I won't go into too much detail, but I'll confirm that it manages to be sad, funny, bewildering, deeply intuitive, wise, childish and many other polar opposites, all at once. Some of the dialogue actually made me laugh out loud, and the depictions of the lives of drug addicts were so honest in their brutality that I felt genuinely sad. The book's intellectual pleasures were just as powerful, with passages that will delight word-, politics-, cinema-, pharmaceutical-, and sport-geeks, as well as some of the clearest and most vivid prose I have ever read. I have no doubt that Wallace was a genius, and if you're at all interested in modern fiction I strongly suggest you give it a try. I'm about 250 pages into it - went in knowing very little about it or Wallace aside from what I've read in passing here and there in TBB. Whoa. I went from thinking "This is good stuff" over the course of the first 200+ pages to "Holy poo poo, this is amazing" after Joelle's OD in the bathroom. Had to put the book down for a few minutes and absorb that one.
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Nov 17, 2009 04:56
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kelmaon posted:Infinite Jest But, yeah, Coover. I started on John's Wife the other day, and it's perhaps too long and sociologically American, but still a good read so far. I'm going to keep pursuing him for a while, anyway, because he's pretty good.
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Nov 17, 2009 06:56
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On the Road. I can't say it was that good. There's a kind of artless fun to the writing, I guess, but it's definitely more interesting as an inside look at influential personalities in the early Beat days than it is as prose, although a few passages are exceptions.
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Nov 19, 2009 00:42
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Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman. The bi-annual library book sale strikes again--especially the $2-per-bag final hour. This was the first one that I cracked open when I got home, not so much a book about books (with which I'm totally on board), but more a book of personal essays about being bookish (also with which I'm also totally on board). It's been staring at me from the shelf of the local Barnes & Noble for a few years now, but since it's always been there (and always at cover price), I've managed to resist. The tipping point this time: it wasn't always going to be on a table in the gymnasium at the First Baptist Church, and it definitely wasn't always going to get cheaper the more I stuffed into that flimsy grocery bag the woman at the door handed me. It was a heartbreakingly quick read, but the book's as thin as a rail, so it's no surprise how quickly it went away. One of those essays inspired me to upgrade my shelving system, too.
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Nov 19, 2009 02:30
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EasyEW posted:not so much a book about books (with which I'm totally on board), but more a book of personal essays about being bookish (also with which I'm also totally on board) Then of course, Proust.
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Nov 19, 2009 05:10
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Wrojin posted:I have a book on my shelf that's been staring at me for a while, and by the sound of things you might like it: A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, which is at least awesome to browse through. A somewhat related book I did read is How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton. Oooo, I already took on the de Botton one a few years ago. It was a dandy. Proust himself is on the shelf, but I've been saving that one for a more adventurous moment that seems to be taking its sweet-rear end time to reach me. The Manguel book sounds intriguing, just from the ambitious title.
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Nov 19, 2009 08:31
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dancehall posted:On the Road. I can't say it was that good. There's a kind of artless fun to the writing, I guess, but it's definitely more interesting as an inside look at influential personalities in the early Beat days than it is as prose, although a few passages are exceptions. I agree with this but I also think it gets progressively better the more you get into it. It's also endlessly referenced so it's cool to see what people are referring to.
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Nov 19, 2009 17:19
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Encryptic posted:I'm about 250 pages into it - went in knowing very little about it or Wallace aside from what I've read in passing here and there in TBB. Whoa. I went from thinking "This is good stuff" over the course of the first 200+ pages to "Holy poo poo, this is amazing" after Joelle's OD in the bathroom. Had to put the book down for a few minutes and absorb that one. Yeah, some of the writing is so stunning that you want to stop to absorb it, I think I had a similar reaction to that passage. Infinite Jest is also pretty unusual in that it reveals its secrets very slowly - as someone said elsewhere (I think it was in the DFW thread) you could read the first 300 pages and still not really have a firm idea about what the plot's about. But I agree, the more you read, the more you appreciate it. Wallace can write in just about any style, but just wait 'til you get to the Eschaton game (not a spoiler, don't worry). By the way, I really like your reviews, I've put several things on my wishlist on your recommendation. Wrojin posted:Yeah, that's one of those big loving books that I've been procrastinating on lately. There are some pretty good other ones, like Underworld and Against the Day and even Moby Dick, Fagles' translations of Homer, and The Border Trilogy. Life is too short. If I could believe in an afterlife where I could read books forever, I could relax and enjoy myself more. All five of those books are sitting on my shelf waiting to be read - I know what you mean about procrastination! But Infinite Jest is probably more readable than you think, you'll be hooked in no time - I read 400 pages in the space of a few days when I had time last holidays, and I'm usually a very slow reader.
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Nov 20, 2009 07:08
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kelmaon posted:Yeah, some of the writing is so stunning that you want to stop to absorb it, I think I had a similar reaction to that passage. Infinite Jest is also pretty unusual in that it reveals its secrets very slowly - as someone said elsewhere (I think it was in the DFW thread) you could read the first 300 pages and still not really have a firm idea about what the plot's about. But I agree, the more you read, the more you appreciate it. Wallace can write in just about any style, but just wait 'til you get to the Eschaton game (not a spoiler, don't worry). By the way, I really like your reviews, I've put several things on my wishlist on your recommendation. Yeah, I just read the Eschaton part the day before yesterday, I think it was. drat. At first I wasn't sure I understood what DFW was going for with the book, but as I get further into it, I can see the beginning of the threads being pulled together. I know I'll definitely have to read it again but for now I'm just enjoying a first-time read. You're welcome, by the way. I've gotten a ton of great recommendations from TBB myself so I'm glad to give something back by contributing my thoughts in this thread. 
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Nov 20, 2009 14:02
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Plot It Yourself, by Rex Stout. Another Nero Wolfe mystery, a case which starts as a run-of-the-mill plagiarism/extortion plot against best-selling authors and their publishers...until the bodies start piling up. Another library sale book, and one I was genuinely surprised to find because it was one of the few I've actually been looking for since it was mentioned in Francine Prose's Reading Like A Writer. I don't usually get that lucky rooting around in second-hand piles, so this could be a good omen for the future. Plot It Yourself is supposed to be one of the best stories of the series, and although I haven't exactly blanketed the field yet, it definitely felt like one of the best of something. It's a clever story, with the touch of humor that I'm learning to expect from these books.
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Nov 20, 2009 22:55
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And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer was doomed from the start. It's a completely unnecessary sequel to the Hitchhikers' Guide series that tries so very hard to pay proper homage to Douglas Adams' work. However, by trying so very hard to be like Adams, Colfer manages to display how truly unlike Adams he is. The book is amusing, but nothing in it made me laugh like the original series. I'm under the impression that Colfer didn't really know what to do with most of the characters. Ford is absent most of the time. Actually, it's more like he's ignored. Zaphod removed one of his heads (the left one, I believe) and used it as his "smart" half to operate as the ship's computer on Heart of Gold. Seriously. Random Dent is still as petulant as ever, but her inability to separate reality from her fantasy of ruling the galaxy in the introductory chapter is frustrating. Oh, and Trillian falls in love with Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. Remember him? He's the immortal who insults everyone in alphabetical order. For some inexplicable reason, he saves the main characters from their supposed death by lasers at the end of Adams' work. Marvin does not appear in this book. On the one hand it makes perfect sense, but I missed him. One of my biggest problems was the clumsy manner with which Colfer handles religion. He pokes fun at it, but his method is lacking Adams' lighthearted finesse. In fact, that's the problem through most of the book. It's mostly reminiscent of that marginally funny guy recycling other people's superior jokes. In fairness, I think my mind may have been made up before I read the book.
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Nov 20, 2009 23:20
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I powered through Lord of the Flies back in high school and was really excited about it solely because someone had told me that there's cannibalism in it. There's no cannibalism in it. Either way, I just finished rereading it and I definitely appreciated it more this time around. Now I've decided that next will be Heart of Darkness because I like feeling warm and fuzzy when I read.
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Nov 21, 2009 20:02
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The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss. It follows the story of the Iliad from the point of view of it being a historical event. As such it examines the events and characters with an eye for what real events may have inspired the original inventor of the tale. I've never actually read the Iliad, but after reading this I feel that I've got a pretty good handle on it. If you're interested in the Trojan War you can't go wrong with the book. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. George Orwell fought with a Socialist militia during the Spanish Civil War. The book is the tale of his experiences in the conflict. It's mostly him not knowing what the gently caress is going on, and having to deal with a constantly shifting and confusing political climate. Half the time I couldn't keep track of who was who, there are so many acronyms! It was pretty fun reading a book where Orwell speaks fondly of how amazing it was when the revolutionaries were (briefly) in control, when Orwell's 1984 is often used by people to criticize socialism. A good read if you're interested in a ground level view of the Spanish Civil War. The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. The cover says it's a cross between Umberto Eco and Anne Rice. That's about right, although it's definitely biased towards Eco. It follows a hunter of rare books on a quest to find copies of a forbidden book. Along the way there are many Three Musketeers references and an enchanting and devilish young girl. It's a good read if you like "intellectual thrillers", which I guess is another way of saying, "like Dan Brown but not written for morons".
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Nov 21, 2009 23:09
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appropriatemetaphor posted:The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Roman Polanski made an entertaining but not especially great film from this called the Ninth Gate. I can't speak on how true to the book it was, having never read it.
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Nov 22, 2009 00:30
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I just finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The quote on the cover of the book says: "A free-wheeling vehicle... An unforgettable ride!", and that's a very apt description for the book. Each chapter is 2-3 pages long, so rather than your traditional style of book where the thing is broken up into medium-sized chunks, the whole thing just kinda flows from scene to scene without ever really having a break anywhere. The plot is awesome and the concepts that the book presents are really cool, using the fake religion of Bokonism as a way of expressing all kinds of interesting ideas about humanity as a whole. Plus, once a certain plot point gets introduced (ice-nine), it gets pretty thrilling. It had a crazy ending too. I've now read two Vonnegut books, and he's a fantastic author. I'm definitely going to keep reading his stuff. For now, though, it's back to Gravity's Rainbow.
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Nov 22, 2009 08:26
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wlokos posted:I just finished Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. That is probably one of my favorite Vonnegut books for all the reasons you mention.
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Nov 22, 2009 17:56
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