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I finished reading King's Misery today. It was extremely good and the first novel I have been unable to put down in many years. It took a while to get used to the language but once I was past that hurdle it became very enjoyable. There were a lot of times when I felt afraid of Annie as though she'd come to life. I mean, dear God, she was horribly crazy and somehow King is incredibly good at conveying that. I have also nearly finished Bryson's At Home. To be perfectly honest, it was enjoyable, but most of the book has completely missed what I supposed to be the point. I thought it would be a social and architectural history of the home, but instead it rapidly devolves into a self-indulgent compilation of facts that have little relation and only the weakest connections are made to the subject. For example, when he discusses the staircase, he begins with demonstrating just how dangerous they are. Immediately afterwards he admits that nobody knows what the origin of the stair is. Because of this, the remaining twelve pages or so in the chapter are a discussion of the once present dangers of wallpaper and paint. Don't get me wrong though. It's hugely interesting but a lot of it is largely irrelevant.
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Jul 10, 2010 05:41
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Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Admittedly didn't finish it but rather the book disappeared somewhere while I was around 50% finished. I can't say that I enjoyed reading descriptions of cities without any plot. I guess it was meant to be read one city at a time with some time of contemplation afterwards but the most I got out of it is 'yup, this sure is an aspect of cities'. The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers (Stadt der Träumenden Bücher in German). I don't read fantasy but after endless praise from friends I actually picked it up, fully expecting it to be pretty dumb and childish. It was surprisingly enjoyable though, a book and literature based fantasy world is a nice departure from the usual Tolkien derivatives. Kind of like a long and fantasied-up version of The Library of Babel, which is one of my favourite short stories.
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Jul 10, 2010 10:03
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Finished Kraken by China Miéville a few days ago. Read straight through it and enjoyed thoroughly, though not as much as his Bas-Lag novels. It's clever urban fantasy type stuff and had quite a good, twisty ending that is worth sticking around for. He loves talking about his cities. This book felt a little like reading a Neil Gaiman novel aimed at an older audience. Now I'm going to continue working my way through A Clash of Kings which I'm about half way through. I'm enjoying it, but it's slow going.
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Jul 10, 2010 13:50
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SilverSliver posted:Have you checked Spook out yet? I'm definitely trying it out sometime after finishing Stiff. Yep - I'm a huge Mary Roach fan! I can honestly say I really just wasn't that interested by Spook. It's still a good read but in order, I think her best book was Stiff, then Bonk, then Spook. It could just be a topic preference, but I felt like Spook was harder to get through for me and less interesting.
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Jul 10, 2010 20:19
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Picked up Divine Misfortune by A Lee Martinez, and finished it today. It's pretty damned good. So far he hasn't written a book that I didn't like. It doesn't really have anything to do with his other books, but if you get the chance to give it a read, I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
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Jul 11, 2010 07:36
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Finished Fevre Dream by the Gurm recently. +ves: Hairy Stu apart there was some drat fine writing in here, I loved the tenous linking of the Goodie vampire (Joshua) and Baddie Vampire (Damon) to Christian mythology, and I like his skewed look at the genesis of vampirism and how they function. GRRM is also drat fine at making you care about characters, and I've never been so interested in something as dull and functional as 18th century riverboating as I was while reading this book. -ves: Ending/epilogue felt really rushed and unfinished, and there was some poor pacing in the second act as well with the to-ing and fro-ing around the boat. Kinda wish the guy would get his poo poo together and write some more stuff, really.
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Jul 11, 2010 18:56
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Marx: A Brief Insight by Peter Singer. Basically what it says, 132 or so pages telling a bit about Marx's life and philosophy, although it left me wanting more, especially as it would apply towards contemporary society (rather than Industrial Revolution-era Europe), and how the various communist nations of the 20th century interpreted and implemented his ideas. Not sure if I'm going to seek out more on the subject, I had a graduate comparative political economy class in college and I can't see myself voluntarily reading a pompous/long-winded academic piece for pleasure.
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Jul 11, 2010 19:12
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Just finished Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis. I'm not sure what to think about it, really. It was ok, I guess.
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Jul 12, 2010 08:17
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World War Z by Max Brooks. It was not as good as I had hoped, I felt the build up was great, and was worth the read. That being said I felt it had the potential to be a lot better.
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Jul 12, 2010 17:20
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The Bonfire of The Vanities by Tom Wolfe. This book was pretty big and at first I thought I wasn't going to be able to finish it; it was kind of dry in the beginning. But then it got much better and ended up leaving me stunned at the final events. This book is a masterpiece of the 80's that kind of feels like an episode of the Law and Order mixed with elements of the movie Wall Street.
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Jul 12, 2010 23:00
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Lackadaisical posted:Start with Stiff. It's a much, MUCH better book. Also, I saw Mary Roach speak about Bonk and she is absolutely hysterical. She gave everyone small toothbrushes that said something about filling your cavities on them. She said ordered them small so they'd be easier to travel with but she didn't realize until later that it might not have been appropriate to order childrens brushes! Yeah check out I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon Even if you've never heard of Warren Zevon or his music, it's a really great book that literally pulls no punches in describing his life or what he did. I think that honest, no-holds barred truth (that he acknowledged and never denied) really helps cement the book and his musical talent/legacy, which no one could deny. The structure of the book is pretty nice because it'll have a small narration about him, some events, or whatever and then a few pages of quotes from people he knew at the time or people associated with the event.
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Jul 13, 2010 00:38
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I finished the Mass Effect: Revelations book. Let's see... well.... um.... it was set in the Mass Effect universe and it ... um... was a quick read. And .... yeah. 
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Jul 13, 2010 01:21
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Just finished King Rat and loved it. Recommended to me by the same who recommended me American Gods, Sandman, The War of The Flowers and hero comics like The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come. Boy does he never falter. - Although the slang could at times make it a wee bit harder for me to read than books written in English normally would. The underground feel and its own mythological base mixed with its use of "Drum 'n' Base" made for one interesting setting in which a great story unfolds. I pitied the protagonist, I pitied King Rat, I pitied his allies, I pitied Fabian. In general I pitied a lot of characters. I had a hard time coming to terms with King Rat not getting his kingdom back. I know why Saul acted as he did, but still.  In fact the ending is in no way of the feel good variety.This is definitely one story that works best in your imagination, where you don't have to be able to picture everything crystal clear for it to work. Often you can settle with abstractly picturing what is happening. And now for something COMPLETELY different: The Great Gatsby. - It's supposed to be a classic that apparently almost every American have been forced to read at some point 
Jarl fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Jul 13, 2010 |
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Jul 13, 2010 14:46
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i finished she came to stay by simone de beauvoir last night. it was her first novel, published in 1943, and it was fantastic. it was interest to see the prefiguring of ideas she would more explicitly (and thoeretically) explore in the second sex six years later -- particularly the great importance on the role of freedom in the lives of females, and how it is often conferred upon them (if it is at all) by men rather than independently expressed. furthermore, that the book was written to let de beauvoir air her feelings w/r/t an affair sartre had which nearly ruined her relationship with him -- and written so very well at that -- makes it pretty devastating. it's not an easy read, but it's insightful and rewarding all on its own. i'm definitely going to pick up her second book, the mandarins, published in 1954 and considered her magnum opus, as well as a collection of her letters to sartre (and his to her). theirs was a fascinating (albeit extremely troublesome) relationship...
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Jul 13, 2010 20:05
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I just finished And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks the 'lost' Burroughs and Kerouac book. A very fast paced read written by two literary giants before either had any published works. I really enjoyed it, and could only describe it a cross between Truman Capotes Breakfast At Tiffanies and In Cold Blood. I'd recommend this to anybody with interest in the beats. Also recently finished Timequake by Vonnegut and thought it was great. I appreciated the autobiographical element and the fictional autobiography of Kilgor Trout I reserved King Rat at my local library based on the recommendation. It wasn't until I was 23 that I read the Great Gatsby, I'd always shrugged it off as lame required reading in high school, but it really blew me away. I also recently picked up a cute comic version of the story by nicki greenberg with all the characters replaced by kooky sea creatures and animals. 
Elrobot fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Jul 14, 2010 |
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Jul 13, 2010 20:06
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I did it! I finished War and Peace. Now time to start on my two month backlog of books to read.
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Jul 14, 2010 00:35
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Neilson's Trial by combat, and Barbara Holland's Gentlemen's Blood, covering judicial and honour duels, respectively. The former book was written in 1890 (it's available online), and is primarily a legal history of judicial duels in Great Britain. The latter book is a pop history of honour duels, written in a breezy unscholarly manner with a worrisome lack of footnotes.
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Jul 14, 2010 01:12
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I just finished The Drive-In Trilogy, my roommate gave it to me after I told him he should read John Dies at the End. It was pretty good up until the end of the last book. Jesus, it being caused by the wrath of an angry god or some other poo poo would have been less lame. Then after that I read Halo: The Cole Protocol. I read it in 3 days, I'm not proud of it. Thats really all I can say. Next is a Star Wars book. It hasn't be a very literary month so far.
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Jul 14, 2010 03:12
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Madame Bovary. Sweet baby CHRIST how did it take me so long to get around to reading this amazing, amazing book? Maybe because the title sounds boring, to the English-speaking ear at least. But it is gripping and beautiful and devastating, and every other sentence is a little masterpiece unto itself. Straight into my top ten, bitches, straight in there.
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Jul 14, 2010 08:43
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dancehall posted:Madame Bovary. Sweet baby CHRIST how did it take me so long to get around to reading this amazing, amazing book? Maybe because the title sounds boring, to the English-speaking ear at least. But it is gripping and beautiful and devastating, and every other sentence is a little masterpiece unto itself. Straight into my top ten, bitches, straight in there. I first tried reading that book in late elementary school or early junior high and I think most of it went right over my head. This makes me want to bust it out and read it again. Anyway, I just finished reading Dead Until Dark. I'm a fan of True Blood and decided to read the first book in the series that started it. I'm not going to say it's a well-crafted, thoughtful work but it was funny and it only took me a couple hours to read it. Definitely a good (albeit trashy) break from my more "serious" reading.
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Jul 14, 2010 15:02
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Just finished The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman. It's an account of the opening month, approximately, of WWI, and the events leading up to the outbreak of hostilities, both fairly dynamic stages of a war often characterized by stalemate. It's an extremely accessible volume, focusing on the personalities of the senior leaders and their individual decisions (complete with squabbling, poor judgments, scapegoating, etc.), as they affected the planning and execution of the initial operations. The account includes a detailed reprise of the Schlieffen plan and its failure under Moltke and von Kluck, and also of the political and planning miscalculations that contributed to the outbreak of war and to early victories by the German army. Overall, a worthwhile read the main disappointment of which is that it does not cover the later stages of the war.
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Jul 14, 2010 19:14
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NightConqueror posted:I did it! I finished War and Peace.
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Jul 15, 2010 06:40
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I just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts, after numerous recommendations I saw here on the forums. I powered thru this book in 4 sittings. The pacing was very well done, seemlessly jumping from forwarding the story along, sprinkled with just enough flashbacks to flesh out the book's universe and character development without getting boring. Also, the unique take on Vampires, cyborgs, multiple personalities, biology, evolution, consciousness, sentience, and the most alien of any aliens I have seen in a story yet. Not your typical First Contact story. Highly recommended.
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Jul 15, 2010 15:08
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I finished Where the Dead Voices Gather by Nick Tosches last night. It's a book that does two things: (1) biographies Emmett Miller, a minstrel blackface performer of the 1920s and '30s, and (2) shows the influence of the American minstrel tradition on various sorts of music: rock, pop, jazz, and so on. Emmett Miller was a mysterious figure which Tosches came across in his research for his two other books, one on the history of country music and the other on pre-Elvis rock and roll, and so decided he should do more research on this man. This book is the culmination of roughly 25 years of research. It is written quite humourously as Tosches is not an academic and rather disdains that writing style and purpose; to this end, there are numerous asides and tangents, but they are almost all worthwhile -- such as, for instance, his ruminations on the primordial sound that Delta bluesmen, Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Dylan, and Jerry Lee Lewis were able to tap into and impart upon the listener. His treatment of the peculiar American cultural creation known as minstrelry, and the concomitant use of blackface, are reasonable. He notes that minstrelry was not merely racist and that both black and white alike enjoyed it -- after all, it was entertainment first and foremost, and no one truly believes the happy plantation darkey caricature it presented. He notes that it becomes problematic when the performers take this stage persona on when they are not on-stage, and so what was previously used to sucker people and take their money (a pure motive) has now become distressingly "real". (An example of this sort of transition can be fruitfully seen in 2pac's move from socially-conscious hip-hop to more overtly gangsta hip-hop and how he took on that gangsta persona in real life as well.) He also illustrates how the minstrel tradition informed various other traditions like the blues and country and whatnot, and how they are basically all stealing from one another anyway (i.e. if you think Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" from 1954 is actually properly accredited to its composers, know that it has been around in some form or another since at least 1919). All in all, it was an excellent book and I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the development of popular music in general and especially in what is now called, I guess, "roots music" or whatever.
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Jul 15, 2010 17:21
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Sean McGlynn's By Sword and Fire: Cruelty and Atrocity in Medieval Warfare. Title says it all. The author has two main points: that the chivalric code did not prevent mass slaughter of non-combatants (
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Jul 15, 2010 18:10
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Out of curiosity, what were the reasons given? The ones I can think of would be to deny resources of any kind to the opposing forces and to reduce overall morale?
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Jul 16, 2010 01:09
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z0331 posted:Out of curiosity, what were the reasons given? The ones I can think of would be to deny resources of any kind to the opposing forces and to reduce overall morale? There was an account of one battle (Agincourt) where the French bungled an attack on the English and many of them were slaughtered in the confusion. The English gathered up the French survivors from the battlefield (maybe two thousand of them). Soon after, there was a cry that the remaining French cavalry were gathering to renew their attack. At this point the leader of the English gave the command to kill all the French captives (except for a few of the most important ones). The reasons the author gives for this unchivalric cold blooded murder of thousands: 1. The English soldiers were fatigued an not in formation -- if the French had really attacked, there was a chance that they could have been a real threat to reverse the English victory. 2. The French captives were unarmed, but still in their armour. If the French cavalry had attacked, these captives could have posed a real problem to their captors: the battlefield was littered with discarded weapons. 3. The men guarding the captives were far more valuable helping to face a renewed French attack. 4. Massacring the captives in plain sight of the remaining French army was a display of strength, or toughness: do you really want a piece of me? These reasons repeat throughout the book for the many examples the author gives.
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Jul 16, 2010 01:37
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I finally got to reading Watership Down. I've been wanting to read it since middle school when I was obsessed with the movie. As always, the book turned out much better.
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Jul 16, 2010 04:21
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Skin Trade by Laurel K. Hamilton. Okay, *maybe* she's getting back to the actual story. Sexual tension involved, but no actual sex until the last bit of the book! Back to Stiff by Mary Roach I go.
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Jul 16, 2010 20:05
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Evfedu posted:A Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. This is one of my favorite books ever. On a side note, when I was in high school I sent Barry Hughart one of my short stories completely out of the blue. He had no idea who I was, I just sent it because I loved his writing. Anyway, he sent me back a multi-page critique and a writing assignment. Then when I sent him my response to the assignment, he sent me a multi-page critique of that. I have no idea if he's even still alive, but he was/is a really nice guy and a talented writer. I just wish he hadn't become hugely bitter with the industry and quit writing altogether.
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Jul 16, 2010 20:32
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I finished "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King today. The first story is what the book was written for, in my opinion, and I have no complaints. The second story was a lot slower and really got on my nerves "lets go Bitch hunting" is the stupidest phrase in the history of writing and made me want to stop reading the story. Any time people say poo poo like this it makes me cringe and this was easily 30+ times in the story. The third story seemed out of place and not inline with the rest of the book. The fourth story was good. I like it more now than I did when I first finished it. I particularly like some of the content that falls out of the sky at the end. The fifth really brought the whole book full circle. I like books that tell the story of an entire life or multiple people interacting over a lifetime. Which was what this book did for me and I really liked it because of it. I'm in the middle of reading the majority of King's books and will hold overall placement in his work till I'm done. But it is near the top.
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Jul 17, 2010 00:09
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Imperial Bedrooms... I am a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan, but I must say, this was his weakest book. The beginning was pretty uninteresting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the last 40 or so pages. You really see what a completely awful person Clay is.
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Jul 17, 2010 00:31
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Holy gently caress, I just finished Lolita about five minutes ago and wow. Can... can I start it again?
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Jul 17, 2010 02:58
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The Machine posted:Holy gently caress, I just finished Lolita about five minutes ago and wow.
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Jul 17, 2010 03:04
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Just finished the fourth The Dresden Files book, Summer Knight. Love the series so far and recommend them to any fans of fantasy/mystery novels who has yet to read them.
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Jul 17, 2010 06:53
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The Reader - Bernhard Schlink One of the shallowest puddles of bookclub bilge I've ever had the misfortune to pick up.
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Jul 18, 2010 01:46
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Just finished Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. I can't figure out if Dr. Seuss cheated on his wife or not. I hope not.
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Jul 18, 2010 04:09
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Gorilla Salsa posted:Just finished Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel. I can't figure out if Dr. Seuss cheated on his wife or not. I hope not. His first one? Yeah he did for sure. I've met his second wife (widow), she really looks a lot like a Seuss character. Which is loving creepy. Also she stole a sandwich from me.
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Jul 18, 2010 05:53
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Lackadaisical posted:Can anyone recommend other good, similar biographies? Motley Crue: The Dirt was a real good fast read of a band that truly lived a life that was loving crazy (I am not even a Crue fan).
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Jul 18, 2010 22:33
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Patricia Highsmith's Those Who Walk Away. One amazon reviewer ( ) called it a low-key suspense novel, and that is perfectly descriptive. At the beginning of the book, the protagonist and another man are walking down a deserted street. The man shoots at the protagonist, but misses, and runs away. Instead of going to the police (as anyone in real life would do) or going for revenge (as anyone in a suspense novel would do), the protagonist spends the rest of the novel attempting to make amends with the man who tried to kill him, while this man grows increasing hostile to the protagonist.This is a book about psychology and feelings and relationships (which is another way of saying nothing much happens in it). It would have made a great Hitchcock movie. But you have to be able to buy the protagonist's motivation for seeking peace with the man who shot him. I didn't, and the rest of the book was lost to me.
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Jul 18, 2010 22:45
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