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Earwicker posted:What's the famous bad review? Clearly not as famous as I said it was. Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3594613/Someone-needs-to-have-a-word-with-Amis.html
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Apr 26, 2010 17:27
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Facial Fracture posted:Clearly not as famous as I said it was. Here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3594613/Someone-needs-to-have-a-word-with-Amis.html Thanks. Probably is famous in literary circles in the UK, but Amis isn't really as well known over here. Anyway I've seen a number of both positive and negative reviews of Yellow Dog so far, so I don't think my experience will be particularly overshadowed by anything  edit: and that review is barely a review. most of it is just Fischer talking about himself and complaining about the UK publishing industry and I don't think he actually addressed why he didn't like the book in any real way. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 18:19 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 18:09
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I just started For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. I just got off a stint of reading a bunch of comics, so it's taking a bit of adjusting to a normal book and especially one written in this manner. I'm finding that events are unfolding slowly (I'm only like 60 pages in, so things don't usually get going just yet). But has anyone read this? Is it a slow burn? I've heard it's supposed to be one of his better works.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:26
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Earwicker posted:edit: and that review is barely a review. most of it is just Fischer talking about himself and complaining about the UK publishing industry and I don't think he actually addressed why he didn't like the book in any real way. I guess it was sort of an early precursor to the "Amis has descended into self-parody" reviews that now come up with each new book, which is probably partly why the review is remembered. Even though I agree with the self-parody assessment, it's lazy criticism and that review is similarly lazy and pretty meandering, if also damaging.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:44
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Well that was definitely a bad review. I'm glad the author took the time to justify his firing of his old agent.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:52
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Yeah it seems more like he was just trying to get in a bunch of digs at Andrew Wiley and kind of made a half rear end attempt to disguise it as a review of Yellow Dog because that's what he was really supposed to be doing that week.
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Apr 26, 2010 21:03
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I imagine that it would be tough to review a book when you can't mention anything that is in it. Of course a lot of it does seem personally motivated and Fischer trying to gently caress over what the publishers were trying to do with an embargo. Not a great review by any means but I can understand his frustration.
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Apr 26, 2010 21:09
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gigawhite posted:I imagine that it would be tough to review a book when you can't mention anything that is in it. Of course a lot of it does seem personally motivated and Fischer trying to gently caress over what the publishers were trying to do with an embargo. Not a great review by any means but I can understand his frustration. I can certainly understand being frustrated by embargoes but there's no need to focus that frustration on this one agent as though the guy is somehow personally responsible for what is a longstanding industry-wide practice, especially when he's throwing in a number of other random digs at the guy. I mean who knows maybe Wiley really is just an incredibly lovely agent, I'm not trying to defend the guy it just seemed like a really obnoxious way to write a review.
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Apr 27, 2010 16:01
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Green Crayons posted:This is actually one of my favorite pieces of modern English literature. I'll be curious what you think about the whole thing once you're through it. Anyways. I need to reread the first 1/4 of the book to really get a feel for the whole scope. The book seemed to be in four parts -- pre-Louise, Louise, the obsession with anatomy and the odes written to Louise, and the parts after that with Gail. By far, I enjoyed the second part the most. I feel like I want to reread those 30-40 pages over and over. Very emotionally moving throughout the entire text, and also extremely funny at parts.
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Apr 29, 2010 03:10
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Just started House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. It annoys me when authors (Asimov) try to span their plots over massive eras like hundreds of thousands of years but other than that it's good so far. edit: This author really likes to add zeroes to things. In the first 6 chapters we have seen a one million room mansion, a person be 300,000 years late for an appointment, a star with 50,000,000,000 man-made objects around it and a spaceship that holds 1,000,000,000 passengers. Syrinxx fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Apr 30, 2010 |
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Apr 29, 2010 18:36
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I just bought Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman. I don't always like her comedy but her interview on NPR about the book was very intriguing.
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Apr 29, 2010 21:09
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Today I got Rant, Snuff, and Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.
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Apr 30, 2010 00:03
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Bought the Chronicles of Narnia online. I'm going to do a completely secular reading of it. Aslan? Just a magic lion 
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May 1, 2010 08:55
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I just started the Kushiel's Legacy series based on suggestion from a friend a while back... I'm kind of afraid there will be more fancy hooker sex than actual intrigue, but whatever. Hooker sex is cool, right? I almost bought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo too, but series that end up being mainstream bestsellers kind of make me wary. The cover and premise seemed cool though. I guess I'll wait for someone to tell me they aren't crap.
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May 1, 2010 10:36
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caellyndria posted:I just started the Kushiel's Legacy series based on suggestion from a friend a while back... I'm kind of afraid there will be more fancy hooker sex than actual intrigue, but whatever. Hooker sex is cool, right? Love the Kushiel series, and while there's fancy hooker sex, it's amply padded in intrigue and embroilment. Hate the Stieg Larsson series. Nothing too wrong with the story, it's just that the writing is unbearably dry and drab and... Scandanavian.
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May 1, 2010 16:06
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I'm about 20% through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I'm enjoying it a lot. Do we have a dedicated thread for Stieg Larsson?
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May 1, 2010 16:30
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Hedrigall posted:Bought the Chronicles of Narnia online. I'm going to do a completely secular reading of it. Aslan? Just a magic lion That's kind of hard to do when you get to the last couple of books which involve Aslan creating Narnia straight out of Genesis.
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May 1, 2010 16:53
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Hedrigall posted:Bought the Chronicles of Narnia online. I'm going to do a completely secular reading of it. Aslan? Just a magic lion I will never understand why people want to remove the religious overtones in the Chronicles of Narnia. For one C.S. Lewis stated multiple times that they were not meant to be focused on religion but looking at his background it's clear he wrote what he knew which was Christianity. Besides Christian themes and symbolism run wild in Western writing. I'm no Christian but as a person that has spent a lot of time studying various religions I don't get why people can't just appreciate the creativity and imagery of any religion. I just feel it's like reading a story written by a Buddhist and say "I'm not going to read this as Buddhist. That Bodhisattva? Just some magic ghost." Fake edit: Getting of my high horse. I hope you like the books anyway you choose to read them, I loved the series as a kid and have been meaning to reread them.
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May 1, 2010 18:15
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caellyndria posted:I almost bought The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo too, but series that end up being mainstream bestsellers kind of make me wary. The cover and premise seemed cool though. I guess I'll wait for someone to tell me they aren't crap. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is decent pulp, which isn't an insult because most pulpy popular fiction isn't even decent. The writing isn't dull or drab or somehow "Scandinavian" in a bad way (what?). It's a quick read and it deviates enough--though not hugely--from "standard" crime fiction stock characters and style that it's sort of interesting while you're reading it. Some reviews praised the lead girl as some sort of anarchic feminist-y emblem but the author spends a lot of time eagerly sexualizing an emotionally damaged young woman with the body of a child and making her standoffish largely as a conceit toward making her desire to become unguarded with the middle-aged journalist man more "meaningful." A lot of rape and abuse stuff written by a guy who gets muddled up between wanting to construct a female-empowerment figure and undermining that desire by illustrating his own prurient interests. However. You read books that look like this  so I'm not sure how your trash-fiction parameters would preclude you from reading a generally well-received and popular novel???
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May 1, 2010 22:45
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Facial Fracture posted:Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is decent pulp, which isn't an insult because most pulpy popular fiction isn't even decent. The writing isn't dull or drab or somehow "Scandinavian" in a bad way (what?). It's a quick read and it deviates enough--though not hugely--from "standard" crime fiction stock characters and style that it's sort of interesting while you're reading it. Some reviews praised the lead girl as some sort of anarchic feminist-y emblem but the author spends a lot of time eagerly sexualizing an emotionally damaged young woman with the body of a child and making her standoffish largely as a conceit toward making her desire to become unguarded with the middle-aged journalist man more "meaningful." A lot of rape and abuse stuff written by a guy who gets muddled up between wanting to construct a female-empowerment figure and undermining that desire by illustrating his own prurient interests. Hahaha, to be fair, I'm only on the first book of Kushiel's Legacy which has a mildly classier cover! (not much) But thanks and good to know! I was more worried about the writing style because a lot of popular crime stuff can be urgh, IMO, well-received or no. Anyway, I'm also starting Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman because I like to read two things at once. It's about the only book of his I haven't read, yet, I think. Or close to. caellyndria fucked around with this message at 02:45 on May 2, 2010 |
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May 2, 2010 02:42
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I'm just now starting an anthology of 18th-century and Romantic literary periodical essays. It starts with Steele and Addison, and ends with Hazlitt and De Quincey. Lots of fun jokes about 20-something aristocrats and whores. I'm also starting Gulliver's Travels because it's sad I've never read it even though I know so much of it. Just finishing up Lewis's The Monk, which is amazing and terrifying in some spots, and you should definitely read it even though the first 40 pages are a bit slow (content- and syntax-wise).
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May 2, 2010 03:41
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ONE TWO THREE TIMES TWO TO THE SIX/JONESING FOR YOUR FIX OF THAT LIMP BIZKIT MIX
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Starting out on Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Slow start. I like his style of writing, and love some of his other books but am 100 pages in and wondering when it'll start getting interesting. So far it's meh.
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May 2, 2010 04:52
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vegaji posted:Just finished it about half an hour ago. I really enjoyed the book and it had some absolutely breathtaking writing in it. I never even thought about the gender of the narrator while reading the book, so it surprised me to see people hung up or curious about it as a "gimmick." If it never occurred to me, then it's not a gimmick in my reading. But, yes: I would have to agree with you regarding the best part of the book, but the book definitely never failed to deliver at any point. Really glad to hear you thoroughly enjoyed it.
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May 2, 2010 12:25
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My most recent purchase was yesterday when I received, from Amazon, China Miéville's "Kraken". I started reading it yesterday too and it's pretty awesome so far.
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May 2, 2010 19:03
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Brothers Karamazov Master and the Margarita War and Peace Infinite Jest thru Amazon, super saving shipping. I'm just finishing high school, 4 years of no extracurricular fiction reading whatsoever. Heh.
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May 2, 2010 20:09
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I'm about 50 pages into Balzac's Cousin Bette and it's sort of like if a class-conscious, domestically-focused author such as Dickens were more interesting, more cynical, and more French. I can see why Henry James had a thing for Balzac but I'm really enjoying this book whereas I don't much like James who was prissy and sometimes dull.7 y.o. bitch posted:Just finishing up Lewis's The Monk, which is amazing and terrifying in some spots, and you should definitely read it even though the first 40 pages are a bit slow (content- and syntax-wise). The Monk is really good and interesting. I remember a story about a traveler and bandits and a bed with blood-stained sheets being pretty creepy. It's been years though and I should read it again some day.
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May 2, 2010 21:13
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I just finished Revelation Space and Chasm City in about 4 days and I'm about to start on Redemption Ark. This series is much better than I thought it would be and I can't believe I hadn't heard about them until the past year. Are the rest of the books as good as the first 2? Which one comes in second to Chasm City? I keep hearing that it's the best one in the series.Skellen posted:Starting out on Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Slow start. I like his style of writing, and love some of his other books but am 100 pages in and wondering when it'll start getting interesting. So far it's meh. I'd say stick with it, it's an awesome series. Are you any good at skimming? If I wasn't a good skimmer there's no way I would have ever gotten through the first book. Especially with his 2 page descriptions of the streets of London. I'd say at least read up to The King of the Vagabonds and see if you want to keep reading it. Jack Shaftoes parts are always awesome. Daniel Waterhouse's story will eventually get pretty interesting especially towards the middle and end.
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May 2, 2010 22:41
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Death By Chocolate posted:My most recent purchase was yesterday when I received, from Amazon, China Miéville's "Kraken". I started reading it yesterday too and it's pretty awesome so far. Oh my god I am so jealous. I preordered it from Book Depository, they told me a week ago they shipped it but I haven't received it yet.
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May 3, 2010 09:13
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Facial Fracture posted:so I'm not sure how your trash-fiction parameters would preclude you from reading a generally well-received and popular novel??? Just stating my preference. Obviously plenty of people have found something to enjoy in Stieg Larsson's books; I just couldn't get into it. My tastes in murder mysteries run more toward Tana French (In the Woods, The Likeness). And yes, it's terrible cover art  The Book Smugglers just did a survey on cover art affecting readers' perceptions, and the Kushiel series were mentioned more than once.Anyway, I just got Ann Patchet's Bel Canto and I can't wait to finish up what I'm reading right now to get started on it!
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May 3, 2010 12:39
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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Not terribly interested after 150 pages or so.
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May 3, 2010 15:21
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I'm halfway through Margaret George's interminable Helen of Troy; after that I'll begin going through the A Wrinkle In Time boxed set I got as a birthday gift 
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May 3, 2010 16:27
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I also just got Bel Canto, as well as Charles Chesnutt's "The Marrow of Tradition" and a book of Graham Greene short stories. Good used book store run.
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May 3, 2010 18:34
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Today I picked up The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
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May 3, 2010 19:58
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I just started The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Quite weird and it is eerily similar to Stephen King's The Long Walk and Battle Royale Koushun Takami...
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May 4, 2010 01:57
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Just picked up the kindle version of: Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky I think I'm going to start Cousin Bette after I finish The Iliad.
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May 4, 2010 04:45
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 and  And I'll eventually get to Vol. 3 too. I've got a lot of Marias to read.
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May 4, 2010 05:27
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Skellen posted:Starting out on Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver. Slow start. I like his style of writing, and love some of his other books but am 100 pages in and wondering when it'll start getting interesting. So far it's meh. As Mustang said, stick with it at least until the Jack Shaftoe parts. Daniel Waterhouse's story makes much more sense and is much more enjoyable once you've finished Quicksilver, which makes it a very odd choice to put at the start of the series.
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May 4, 2010 14:02
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ShutteredIn posted:
These look really good!
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May 4, 2010 14:37
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Just finished Howard Sounes Dylan biography (fuckin' fantastic, by the way) and I've started on Gibson's Neuromancer. I'm going to dive into Stephenson's The Diamond Age right after, before hitting Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. Getting my Sciffy fill.
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May 4, 2010 17:36
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I'm about 100 pages into The Girl Who Played With Fire and I'm already sick of the phrase "sex mafia". I enjoyed the first one and I expect I'll enjoy this one, but the author really does go on about irrelevant details sometimes. Hooray, a list of all the things the protagonist purchased to furnish her new apartment, the brand of dining room table she chose will certainly be important later in the book.
Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on May 4, 2010 |
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May 4, 2010 18:03
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