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Skellen posted:Oh you poor bastard. I think your friend might secretly hate you. I bought Game of Thrones for the wife recently, so I'll be reading that as soon as she's done. I'm not hip to people's general pissiness about Martin outside of his apparent abiding love for fantasy football conflicting with his finishing (continuing?) the series. Is there anything else I should be worried about with the series? I'm about 2/3 through Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, and I have to say that I haven't read a book that I've disliked this much and still can't stop reading. I love the action (a couple of instances have brought me closer to vomiting than any other piece of fiction I've read), and I'm loving the hell out of the characters and can't wait to see what their fates are. However, I'm confused by the introduction of a supernatural element halfway through the book with "the Eaters", and I'm not sure I really like Abercrombie's writing style all that much. Like I said, I'm eager to see how he wraps the whole thing up, and I think I'll probably snap up the First Law series when I'm done. It's just weird for me to have such ambivalence with a book. I'm not a particularly voracious reader, so books tend to be a bit more take it or leave it for me.
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Oct 9, 2010 10:01
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But Best Served Cold is set several years after... it builds on the implied knowledge you... how did you even...? there's a Joe Abercrombie Thread.
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Oct 9, 2010 19:15
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I'm currently reading Balzac's Father Goriot, since you know, it's mandatory reading in school. Not bad though. And just bought Conrad's Heart of Darkness because I love the movie Apocalypse Now and Stoker's Dracula, for some Halloween reading.
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Oct 9, 2010 20:38
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Evfedu posted:But Best Served Cold is set several years after... it builds on the implied knowledge you... how did you even...? there's a Joe Abercrombie Thread. Wasn't aware of that. Oddly enough, I don't spend a great deal of my time reading about books on the internet.
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Oct 10, 2010 18:21
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EDIT: This is the wrong thread.
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Oct 11, 2010 06:11
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Just started Wollstonecraft's early novella, Mary, and probably going to be getting through as much of her corpus as I can over the next two months, whenever I have spare time - next in line is Godwin's Memoirs, and then pretty much just everything but Rights of Woman, which I've read, although I'm gonna look at some source and reception material on it. Looking to submit an abstract to NASSR for next year's conference on "Romanticism and Independence," so mostly thinking about Mary and the idea of female friendship as a feminine independence apart from masculine Revolutionary Romanticism.
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Oct 11, 2010 08:11
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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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I just started The Lampshade by Mark Jacobson. It's a horrifying, riveting story, and I love Jacobson's writing. It's been hard to put down so far.
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Oct 12, 2010 18:32
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Just bought Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Haven't started it yet, will probably get around to it this weekend.
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Oct 12, 2010 19:50
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For me, a few days ago, it was John Dies at the End by David Wong. Really, really enjoy it.
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Oct 13, 2010 04:50
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I am about 30 pages in to John Barth's first novel, The Floating Opera. No idea why I haven't read anything by him before...his style is very dryly hilarious, especially considering the story is of a man who decides to kill himself one day. I already look forward to reading more of his books.
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Oct 13, 2010 15:30
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Just picked up Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. It's been on my "to read" list for the last... oh... twenty years. I heard him on the radio about a month ago pimping his new book, which is kind of a sequel, and figured that I might as well knock it out. it kinda sucks. I probably would have loved it 20 years ago, though.
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Oct 14, 2010 23:56
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Jolly Roger posted:it kinda sucks. I probably would have loved it 20 years ago, though. Yep, it kinda does. American Pyscho is awesome though.
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Oct 15, 2010 02:16
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Just started reading P.G. Wodehouse's The Inimitable Jeeves. I had been watching a tape of Stephen Fry's recent talk here and he mentioned that the three greatest literary influences on his life were Wilde, Waugh and Wodehouse. As I loved the first two, I decided I ought to check out Wodehouse. It's fantastically written and very funny.
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Oct 16, 2010 00:42
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I got Mister B Gone by Clive Barker. So far I am conflicted, its an interesting first person fictional account of a demon. I am about 1/4 of the way through and the narrative becomes muddled. Anyone else given this a shot?
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Oct 17, 2010 01:41
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I read it last year (bookstore had it on sale for 3.99 or something). Honestly? Not great. Not horrible, just kinda..... god damned boring. It doesn't really have a plot to it, just sort of rambles on. Good for killing time though, if that helps.
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Oct 17, 2010 03:39
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Thats exactly how I approached it.
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Oct 17, 2010 12:51
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Yeah my reaction to it was to be utterly underwhelmed. It's not egregiously "bad." But it's just not good, either. My honest opinion is that life's too short for such books.
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Oct 17, 2010 13:01
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Currently reading: Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein, which is an interesting tale of a incredibly long lived man who has had many names but usually is referred to as Lazarus Long... fascinating story filled to the brim with polyamory and of various lifetimes in this man's existence, from pioneering in newly settled colonies to time travel (which I have yet to get to). ... and began but haven't picked up again The Day of the Jackel by Frederick Forsyth. Bought and waiting upon The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick. 23 Skidoo fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Oct 17, 2010 |
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Oct 17, 2010 14:30
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Picked up The Wave by Susan Casey last week. It's pretty good so far, a little bland at times, but it totally makes up for it after a couple pages of scientific babel and then goes into something where giant waves are part of modern culture and how the changed the world.
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Oct 17, 2010 16:37
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Wyatt posted:Yep, it kinda does. American Pyscho is awesome though. Yeah, I remember reading American Psycho in high school. Definitely enjoyed the hell out of it.
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Oct 19, 2010 00:50
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Simultaneously started and still deciding which one to stick with: Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Supposedly a fantasy classic. Don't know what to make of the first 50 pages really. There is a lot of spells and fast moving plot so far, but nothing really stands out. I'm real picky regarding fantasy, so I don't know if I really will like this. A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane. The 1st novel of the Kenzie-Gennaro crime series, which spawned the surprisingly great "Gone, Baby, Gone" Hollywood movie, based on one of the successive books in the series. I previously read a 100 pages or so but somehow put it down. Decided to give it another chance. Though I have plenty of books to read, I also ordered 2666 by Roberto Bolaņo (english translation, no danish translation yet, which I would have preferred). I hope it won't kill me with undecipherable and complex Spanish to English prose  , and The Reversal by Michael Connelly.
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Oct 19, 2010 20:34
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something_clever posted:Simultaneously started and still deciding which one to stick with: I finished 2666 a few months ago and even though I'm a native English speaker, I'll give my 2 cents and just say I thought the prose was pretty easy to read. Also, its a great loving book.
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Oct 19, 2010 23:59
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Picked up a used copy of Cellini's Autobiography. It's been on my to-read list for a while and I'm looking forward to starting it once I've finished my current reads.
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Oct 20, 2010 00:26
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I hope you enjoy Cellini! It's so entertaining. And even with all the wonderfully overblown stories of events in his personal life, the stuff about the process of creating his art is possibly even more interesting!
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Oct 20, 2010 00:42
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I'm halfway through Hell House by Richard Matheson. Having never really read horror before I decided to give it a go, curious really to know if a book can actually frighten me. This one cropped up in a fair few 'top ten' lists so I thought why not? I'm so utterly dissapointed, this book is like a bad horror film from the 1970's and reads more like akward soft porn with women being touched up by ghosts, getting their tits out, doing strip tease and so on. I just put it down after a scene in which a cat goes mental and attacks a women who is too frail and weak to throw it off. Her boobs somehow came into play as well. I have some Lovecraft audiobooks which I hope will restore the genre in my eyes.
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Oct 20, 2010 17:06
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Dr Scoofles posted:I'm halfway through Hell House by Richard Matheson. Having never really read horror before I decided to give it a go, curious really to know if a book can actually frighten me. This one cropped up in a fair few 'top ten' lists so I thought why not? Might I suggestion my all-time favorite horror novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
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Oct 20, 2010 17:28
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nate fisher posted:Might I suggestion my all-time favorite horror novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. You may! I'm on a genuine mission here so I'm really interested to take recommendations from book barn goons because, well, you guys know your poo poo. The 'books that make you cry' thread really got me thinking. I've been excited, mystified, on edge, jubilent, turned on, upset, disgusted, revolted and moved to tears by books but I have never ever been scared. Thats probably because I've not dabbled in the horror genre. I'm sceptical though, my dead reaction to horror films makes me think books will fail too.
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Oct 20, 2010 18:24
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Just started The Scarlet Letter, the first time I've read it since high school. I've been spending too much money at the Kindle Store, so I figured I should start reading all of those free classic e-books. I'm actually kind of excited to read that novel again.
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Oct 20, 2010 21:43
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Dr Scoofles posted:I'm halfway through Hell House by Richard Matheson. Having never really read horror before I decided to give it a go, curious really to know if a book can actually frighten me. This one cropped up in a fair few 'top ten' lists so I thought why not? My housemate swears that Palahniuk's Haunted gave her nightmares for a few weeks. I tried to read it, but something about his writing style post Choke elicits the same reaction in me as nails on a chalkboard.
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Oct 20, 2010 21:46
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something_clever posted:Simultaneously started and still deciding which one to stick with: I got that book for Christmas last year, and I recommend you do what I did: skip the first book and go straight to "The Eyes of the Overworld." The Dying Earth books never really stop feeling like a collection of short stories featuring the same character in each chapter, but that one and "Cugel's Saga" have a more cohesive structure, a hilarious lead, and are generally the awesome books that people are usually talking about when they say The Dying Earth. As for me, i'm reading The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, and really loving it. I'm not sure why it took me so long to start reading his stuff. I also picked up Somebody Comes to Town, Somebody Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow from the library solely because it had a praise-quote by Gene Wolfe on the back. The plot synopsis sounds pretty abysmal, but i'll give it a shot.
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Oct 20, 2010 22:38
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Popular Human posted:I got that book for Christmas last year, and I recommend you do what I did: skip the first book and go straight to "The Eyes of the Overworld." The Dying Earth books never really stop feeling like a collection of short stories featuring the same character in each chapter, but that one and "Cugel's Saga" have a more cohesive structure, a hilarious lead, and are generally the awesome books that people are usually talking about when they say The Dying Earth. Seconding this. Unless you're already a Vance fan, Dying Earth can kind of drag. Bits of it are really fun though.
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Oct 21, 2010 08:57
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Recently bought books: Evolutionary Patterns: Growth, Form, and Tempo in the Fossil Record edited by Jeremy B. C. Jackson, Scott Lidgard, and Frank K. McKinney The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw by Michael Ruse The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 BC to AD 1450 by David C. Lindberg Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography by Ernst Mayr and Jared Diamond Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution by Robert L. Carroll Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution by Robert L. Carroll Yay science! 
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Oct 21, 2010 20:18
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I've been reading Jack London's People of the Abyss online. Each chapter is a firm punch in the gut. I think I may go through the whole thing again and mark everything that applies to modern America.
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Oct 22, 2010 03:03
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Just picked up Bujold's Cryoburn and while I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far, what's really eye-popping is the CD they released with the book. It's got every single Vorkosigan book in a wide variety of formats, plus essays, interviews and a photo gallery. The series is absolutely fantastic, so I'd recommend this book to anyone into sci-fi (plus, you know, the rest of the series once you discover that reading them on your computer will make your eyes bleed). And anyways, the whole thing is worth it if only for this image in the photo gallery:  gently caress. YES. ps: The series is a lot better than this cover seems to indicate. Honest.
Miles Vorkosigan fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Oct 22, 2010 |
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Oct 22, 2010 03:46
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Miles Vorkosigan posted:Just picked up Bujold's Cryoburn and while I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far, what's really eye-popping is the CD they released with the book. It's got every single Vorkosigan book in a wide variety of formats, plus essays, interviews and a photo gallery. Just to further plug Bujold (not that she needs it) the content of this CD is available online also, free and legal, here.
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Oct 22, 2010 07:56
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Recently started The Passage after everyone seemed to be honking about it, my partner read it first and she was pretty critical so I was wary, but drat she was pretty much right. Just got to the bit with the settlements and this really is basically middle-class Dan Brown. The writing is smooth enough for it to go quickly, but he has such unbearable aspirations that he stamps all over the book, consequences be damned, which just make it seem pretentious. Why was the girl able to talk to zoo animals? Before she'd been virused? How the gently caress did the vampires take over the world if it's possible to kill them with a net/crossbow? Does this guy understand the physics of what it would take to stop a bullet with skin? There are these multi-page, terrible ~*CHARACTERISATIONS*~ interludes as well that make me bite my fist. Show not tell? Anyone? And I will bet a tenner at least two of the "dead" characters are going to pull an animu and come back from the grave when it's dramatic/plot convenient. And I just finished Agyar (my new least favourite book) so I am having truly dreadful luck with Vampire novels at the moment.
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Oct 23, 2010 16:57
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Evfedu posted:And I just finished Agyar (my new least favourite book) so I am having truly dreadful luck with Vampire novels at the moment. Please read Let the Right One In if you haven't already 
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Oct 24, 2010 12:57
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Got a bunch of books: Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island Jonathan Franzen - Freedom Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games Jon Krakauer - Where Men Win Glory Earth: The Book - writers of Daily Show I should really be buying all these books, what with the fifty-odd I have that I haven't read...
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Oct 25, 2010 03:19
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Currently reading, though about to finish, Wodehouse's Mike and Psmith. A quick, but highly entertaining story. Besides, it seems to be crucial reading before the later Psmith stories.
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Oct 25, 2010 08:15
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:For me, a few days ago, it was John Dies at the End by David Wong. Really, really enjoy it. I just picked that up today. I haven't had a chance to get into it yet, but I'm expecting terrific things. I also recently found a copy of The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood. I've loved the films of that group of filmmakers, so I'm really excited to get into it.
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Oct 25, 2010 22:31
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