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I started The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruis Zafón yesterday afternoon. I read almost half of it before I had to put it down to go out and meet my friend. It's amazingly compelling and the writing is simple but evocative. I'm intrigued by the mystery, entranced by the setting, and I find all the characters interesting. I haven't liked a book so much in quite a while! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Magic Realism or fantastical tales. I just hope the ending stands up to the rest of the story!
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Dec 12, 2010 23:32
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Salicious Crunk posted:
Are those photos of the copies he gave you? They're beautiful. Even if you hated the content, they'd be worth putting on your bookshelf based on aesthetics alone. Edit: The "NOW A GREAT MOTION PICTURE" on Goldfinger is fantastic. MillionsV fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Dec 13, 2010 |
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Dec 13, 2010 00:15
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Gave up on Gravity's Rainbow for now and moved on to Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima. So far it's pretty good.
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Dec 13, 2010 00:56
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20% into Blood Meridian and I'm really not seeing what the fuss is about. It's well enough when people are talking to each other, but the rest of the time it's a bit of a drag. Don't get me wrong, my 16th-18th century colloquial American vocab is coming on leaps and bounds (not that I imagine I'll ever be able to drop "Sutler" into conversation) as is my grasp of Mexican flora, but beyond that it's a bit listless.
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Dec 13, 2010 01:07
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Picked up a copy of John Hodgman's More Information Then You Require as a Christmas present today. I read some of it while waiting in line (place was packed) and it wasn't bad - I'm going to try and finish it before I give it to my friend.
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Dec 13, 2010 01:52
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Just bought Matterhorn on the Kindle for iPad app. Supposed to be amazing!
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Dec 13, 2010 03:11
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NightConqueror posted:Gave up on Gravity's Rainbow for now and moved on to Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima. So far it's pretty good. Dunno how far you are, but let me know if you end up with any sympathy at all for Isao. Depending on your answer, I'd also be curious to know if you think Mishima intended Isao to be sympathetic or not.
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Dec 13, 2010 03:53
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barkingclam posted:Picked up a copy of John Hodgman's More Information Then You Require as a Christmas present today. I read some of it while waiting in line (place was packed) and it wasn't bad - I'm going to try and finish it before I give it to my friend. This is the best kind of present.
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Dec 13, 2010 03:55
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MillionsV posted:Are those photos of the copies he gave you? They're beautiful. Same print, different copies. I do really like the aesthetic and language so far. There's something weird about being able to get into Bond's head every so often. There are also some new editions featuring Bond Girl artwork which are pretty nifty. They're not particularly cheesecake and they certainly pop.   
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Dec 13, 2010 05:08
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Salicious Crunk posted:Same print, different copies. I do really like the aesthetic and language so far. There's something weird about being able to get into Bond's head every so often. There are also some new editions featuring Bond Girl artwork which are pretty nifty. They're not particularly cheesecake and they certainly pop. those covers are pretty awesome. I just got Dune and REALLY cannot get into it at all :/
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Dec 13, 2010 07:02
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It starts slow, but once they get to Arrakis it picks up.
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Dec 13, 2010 07:19
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z0331 posted:It starts slow, but once they get to Arrakis it picks up. It just seems like mr herbert is making up every other word for the hell of it and it's really throwing me off
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Dec 13, 2010 07:30
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Salicious Crunk posted:Same print, different copies. I do really like the aesthetic and language so far. There's something weird about being able to get into Bond's head every so often. There are also some new editions featuring Bond Girl artwork which are pretty nifty. They're not particularly cheesecake and they certainly pop. drat it, why do these have to be UK editions? I'm hesitant to buy used copies off Amazon because they'll almost certainly be different editions. I'd buy all of these in hardcover if I could - the covers are so beautiful.
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Dec 13, 2010 15:53
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Getting ready for my Christmas break I hit the university library one last time for some books. I went for a Chinese theme, Black Snow by Liu Heng The Lost Daughter of Happiness by Geling Yan Border Town by Shen Congwen And one Japanese book, Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa I'm pretty new to Chinese and Japanese authors, without access to my university library I would probably never have had any exposure to them. Apart from Wild Swans by Jung Chang my local book shop tends to favour Western writers who provide a 'Chinese-y' romance. It seems they focus almost exclusively on the lives of concubines and really ham up negative historical steriotypes. I have no idea what these will be like, they are little mysteries waiting to be discovered. Hope I didn't select a bunch of really awful books.
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Dec 13, 2010 21:16
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I didn't "begin" this yet, and you don't have to "buy" it, so ignore this post if you must. I'm about to begin reading a new George Saunders story (Escape from Spiderhead) that was published in the New Yorker today. I recommend you click here and do the same!
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Dec 13, 2010 21:56
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Yeah I read books. posted:those covers are pretty awesome. I'm reading Dune right now, and it's true that it starts slow and then gets better when they get to Arakkis. As for making up words I think it works in that it creates a whole universe for the series. What I found more distracting was his over use of the same similes.
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Dec 13, 2010 22:30
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I'm re-reading The Corrections because I'm pretty sure someone will get me Freedom for Christmas. I still feel like it's "okay," but 10 years or whatever after I last read it I still feel frustratingly ill-equipped to judge it because I still haven't read much contemporary American lit. I remember thinking when I first read the novel that Franzen seemed to dislike his characters--that he was creating "people" just to stick their heads in a vise--which sat uncomfortably with me because the novel didn't seem satiric enough to support that kind of apparent bitterness. I don't know if I still think that though. We'll see when I've finished it.
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Dec 14, 2010 03:08
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z0331 posted:Dunno how far you are, but let me know if you end up with any sympathy at all for Isao. I'm about halfway through right now. I'm certainly not sympathetic to him - it's more like pity. Isao to me seems more like a kid with a bright future and a lot of talent who has some bizarre obsession with heroic Japanese tales and he's just squandering all his potential for some silly ideal.
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Dec 14, 2010 23:22
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Mentor: A Memoir by Tom Grimes upon recommendation by my advisor. It's fantastic so far.
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Dec 15, 2010 01:11
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NightConqueror posted:I'm about halfway through right now. I'm certainly not sympathetic to him - it's more like pity. Isao to me seems more like a kid with a bright future and a lot of talent who has some bizarre obsession with heroic Japanese tales and he's just squandering all his potential for some silly ideal. That's pretty much how it made me feel, though at about halfway it became less pity and more distaste. Given Mishima's personality, though, I'm just wondering if he meant to make him sympathetic and failed, made him sympathetic but we just don't see it that way given our mindset, or if he wanted to show Isao and his ideals as anachronistic and no longer feasible in the modern world.
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Dec 15, 2010 01:39
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Tonight I'm finally working towards finishing this collection of Sherlock Holmes stories I've had sitting on my shelf half-finished for years. It's a copy of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes that's really nicely leather bound, and it has "A Study in Scarlet," "The Sign Of Four," "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes." I'm in story 4 of Adventures right now, so I still have quite a ways to go. Hopefully I can finish it before the new year starts.
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Dec 17, 2010 01:27
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A Game Of Thrones For years, I've always somehow avoided this despite having a couple of friends who loved these GRRM books. Considering that LOTR and Dune are a couple of my favourite books... it's staggering that I never bothered picking it up sooner. Thanks HBO! For reminding me to pick it up. Speaking about the book, it is quite fantastic. A lot more debauched than I thought it would be though...
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Dec 17, 2010 12:17
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Strand posted:A Game Of Thrones I just picked this up today as well, actually. Not really my genre, but looking for something new to try. The last fantasy type book I read insulted my intelligence... was just so dumbed down.
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Dec 17, 2010 21:10
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Strand posted:A Game Of Thrones You're going to have fun reading that. Stay away from the GRRM threads until you finish the series. I started Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian. After long campaigns abroad, it's funny to see sailors trying to adapt to living on land again. Very solid so far.
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Dec 17, 2010 22:40
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I have had a good while of non fantasy books until I borrowed my friends copy of Feists Krondor: the Betrayal and really enjoyed the read, despite me hearing it is meant to be one of his worse books/series.So because of that today I went on a bit of a binge at the second hand store anddecided to get the Song of Ice and Fire series, along with a few series of Raymond E Feist. All for less the 20 quid. Got to love Oxfam bookshops! Think I am going to get through my Feist novels before I bother with the GRRM series. Going to takee me a while! I haven't seen much talk about Feist novels in the short time I have been browsing the Book Barn, what are peoples thoughts on him? I am enjoying the stuff I have read so far, despite it being his poorer work. Makes me look forward to starting the Magician.
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Dec 17, 2010 23:35
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I've just now started reading Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis and it is really droll... I'm about halfway through now and it's sort of starting to pick up but it's taken quite awhile to get there. I'm now starting to understand why Lewis took the route he did in writing this but it doesn't make it any less boring. Perhaps a second read-through afterwards might make it better.
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Dec 18, 2010 15:52
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I just started Deadly Companions, which is a nonfiction microbiology/infectious disease history book... but then I bought book 13 of the Dresden files today. So I'm starting the dresden files book today.
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Dec 18, 2010 19:51
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I finally started reading the Stieg Larsson books, I've not been reading nearly as much as I like for the past two years since I became a dad, but a friend gave me a kindle and I love it, it's motivated me to find and make more time to read. I burned through The Passage and Under the Dome in the past two weeks.
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Dec 18, 2010 20:07
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About to start Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. The permise seems interesting and hopefully the documentary-like narrative wont be too bad.
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Dec 20, 2010 04:44
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Just started Bringing the Heat by Mark Bowden. I've heard good things about this book and I like Bowden's magazine pieces, so I've got high hopes.
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Dec 20, 2010 05:07
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I'm partway through Matterhorn; it's good so far. I'm also reading The Big Short by Michael Lewis. I didn't know too much about it before I started, and now I know more about how the subprime mortgage disaster/recession of this last decade happened than I ever thought I would. It's actually a really good read, though I felt a little bit like I was reading Trainspotting or Clockwork Orange at the beginning because it's like there's a whole language you have to get used to. You (or I at least) go along just pretending you know what it all means at first, but by the time you're a third of the way through you realize you actually are understanding it. And I'm midway through Emma which is a long overdue read for me. Unfortunately I've seen Clueless and I know that it's based off Emma, so it keeps popping into my head.  ("Oh, he's Paul Rudd.")
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Dec 22, 2010 04:32
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I just bought and started reading The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. I have to say that after reading the reviews I was expecting an excellent book already but that it is exceeding my expectations. I just read the part about the Love of God, which was quite different from the rest of the book and really enlightening.
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Dec 22, 2010 14:46
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Finished up with Mishima's stuff and started on Nabokov's Lolita. Have to say I'm pretty excited to see the whole story. I enjoyed the movie at the very least.
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Dec 23, 2010 05:46
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I got Penguin Classics' Confessions of St. Augustine for Christmas. It seems like a much better translation than the one I've read. And I bought myself Witold Gombrowicz's Pornographia. I would have waited until my credit card had been given a rest to order Ferdydurke, but I stopped for coffee at an out-of-town chain bookstore yesterday and they had 6 copies of Pornographia, so buying it was clearly fated. I'm barely into it, but it promises to be great. Thanks to the person who recommended Gombrowicz!
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Dec 28, 2010 19:24
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Domes posted:I just bought and started reading The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm. I have to say that after reading the reviews I was expecting an excellent book already but that it is exceeding my expectations. Word, this looks cool. Its been on my Dad's shelf for years and I've never thought to peruse it. How does he seem to fit into the rest of the Frankfurt school stuff?
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Dec 28, 2010 21:29
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Part way through Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey. Its pretty fun so far, basic premise is the story of James Stark who used to be an up and coming young magician before he was sold to Hell by his Circle. After 11 years he's out of Hell and back for revenge.
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Dec 28, 2010 22:43
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That book is surprisingly good. The sequel to it is actually pretty good too. I would recommend them to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy noir stuff ( unless you are one of those people who has to have all the bullshit about random werewolf sex and otherkin bullshit that tends to be in the urban fantasy stuff).
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Dec 28, 2010 23:32
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I started Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian. Out of peril and back to civilization. I'm enjoying this new spy plot.
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Dec 30, 2010 16:32
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I had seen a lot of posts about the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. Kinda hard to get into at first but I'm about 1/4 through The Golden Compass and it's starting to pick up.
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Dec 30, 2010 17:48
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Just bought Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies and the goon-written The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott. I still have a bunch of books I got for Christmas, though, so I think I'm going to save those for after I finish my Xmas gifts and start either Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes or Q&A by Vikas Swarup.
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Dec 31, 2010 00:38
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