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Picked up Best Served Cold by goon favorite Joe Abercrombie, along with Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato. I really liked The Things They Carried, and I've heard even more superlatives thrown around about Cacciato, so I'm excited.
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Dec 31, 2010 01:39
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Just bought the Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary edition. I've seen the movies but I've only ever read the Hobbit and Fellowship. I remember loving the descriptive passages and such so it will be a fun read right after I finish... ...The Poisonwood Bible which so far is an awesome book. I've just started the second part so I haven't seen the characters develop too much, but I like the little quirks they each have and the fact that you can see the events from different points of view. The author has a way of phrasing descriptions that I find great as well.
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Dec 31, 2010 02:22
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Recently started Kurt Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House after having read his short story Harrison Bergeron . Some really good short stories in here if you like sci-fi morality stuff.
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Dec 31, 2010 09:20
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I just bought The Stand by Stephen King and The Shack by William P. Young. The King novel came highly reccommended to me and I am not even an 8th of the way into it and I cannot set it down. The Shack 's writing style leaves a lot to be desired-- it always hints at picking up in pace and in emotion but never does. Then it gets into crazy, outlandish Christian stuff that I, even as an agnostic Christian, cannot fathom at all . I'm halfway through, and I hate doing this, but I won't finish it. Next on the list is Moby Dick . After reading Blood Meridian I was told to read the other American epic.
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Jan 1, 2011 19:47
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Just bought these: Return of the Black Company Glen Cook Chronicles of the Black Company Glen Cook The Many Deaths of the Black Company Glen Cook The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie Trying the Black Company books based of a recommendation, I have one of the compendiums at home, these round out the set. Also with the Abercrombie book going off a recommendation and because he seems popular in the book barn.
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Jan 2, 2011 03:33
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I'm getting into my first 2 books for 2011: Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King A collection of 4 novellas. I'm halfway through the first one, "1922", which is a pretty drat good story about a farm owner who murders his wife. I can tell things are going to get hosed up, but I have no idea whether King is going to take the "dead wife haunts him" route or the non-supernatural "farmer goes insane with guilt" route. Will be interesting to find out! I love the writing style too, it's written as a murder confession and King has the language for the 1920s down perfectly. Mary Ann in Autumn by Armistead Maupin The 8th Tales Of The City novel, continuing the saga of the lives of a number of San Fransiscans (gay, straight and transsexual). These characters were all in their 20s in the first book, and now they're all in their 50s and 60s. I'm interested to see what Mary Ann's big secret is, and also to see if she can be redeemed as a character after she acted like a gigantic bitch in the last 2 novels. I love the new, younger characters too, my favourites being Jake (a bearish transman) and Shawna (a kickass, completely uninhibited sex blogger). Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Jan 2, 2011 |
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Jan 2, 2011 16:40
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Got Witkiewicz/Witkacy's Insatiabilty. Apparently there's a nod to Romantic influences in some of the settings, etc. of the novel, so my having read Pan Tadeusz will finally come in handy!
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Jan 3, 2011 03:48
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I'm trying to get into Lords of Grass and Thunder by Curt Benjamin. I just finished a re-read of his 7 Brothers trilogy, which I love, so I thought I'd tackle this one again. I've never managed to just read it clear through; it feels like a tacked-on afterthought without the epic story arc of the trilogy. Mostly though it's just kinda boring.
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Jan 3, 2011 08:49
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I'm about one hundred pages into my birthday gifts, The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb and Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace. The former I'm a bit ambivalent about--it's incredibly timely and interesting, but also a bit sneering. The latter is absolutely wonderful--but then, anything less from Wallace would be a bitter disappointment.
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Jan 3, 2011 11:02
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Just picked up A Brief History of Time and Origin of the Species .
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Jan 3, 2011 18:29
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For some reason I've been reading around Pynchon, having just finished Warlock by Oakley Hall, the book that Pynchon and Richard Farina started a micro-cult around, and now I'm reading 'Been Down So Long It's Starting to Look like Up' by Farina, which seems pretty cool. Similar style to Pynchon's more low brow sections, with a great rhythm and some erm ... interesting characters.
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Jan 3, 2011 22:11
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terrorist posted:Next on the list is Moby Dick . After reading Blood Meridian I was told to read the other American epic. Moby Dick is excellent and horrible. One of the best and worst books I've ever read. The beginning is quirky and hilarious, and interspersed through-out the book is some beautiful writing on the nature of man. However! You have to wade through a LOT of words. A lot. And most of them are about different breeds of whales, types of boats, pages on how to tie various knots. My advice to you: take heart! Plow through it with determination! You'll be glad to have read it once you finish it, but the journey is epic. I have just started The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones. Teen book, but doesn't seem like standard fare... I'm finding it interesting thus far. Then I'll be getting back to The Shadow of the Wind, which is excellent.
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Jan 4, 2011 19:47
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I'm about half way through Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, and am very much enjoying it.
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Jan 5, 2011 00:41
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I just got House of Leaves today. I don't remember what you guys said about it so I'm hoping it doesn't suck.
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Jan 6, 2011 00:32
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juliuspringle posted:I just got House of Leaves today. I don't remember what you guys said about it so I'm hoping it doesn't suck. It's really loving good actually. It might seem like it's written kind of weird at first but seriously, stick with it.
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Jan 6, 2011 00:43
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juliuspringle posted:I just got House of Leaves today. I don't remember what you guys said about it so I'm hoping it doesn't suck. It's a great read. I can still picture some of what happens in that book in my head clear as the day I read it. It's insanely good.
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Jan 6, 2011 01:33
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House of Leaves is Scholastics Magazine for adult-age psuedo-intellectual morons.
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Jan 6, 2011 02:37
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juliuspringle posted:I just got House of Leaves today. I don't remember what you guys said about it so I'm hoping it doesn't suck. Stick to the main story, ignore the footnotes and if he starts listing poo poo just skip a couple of pages.
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Jan 6, 2011 02:55
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About 200 pages into A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.
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Jan 6, 2011 03:16
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Just bought White Knight By Jim Butcher. Ive been reading these books since the first one came out, and i fell behind by about 5 years. Thankfully this new kindle is whipping my rear end back into reading shape.
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Jan 6, 2011 04:32
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Flatscan posted:Stick to the main story, ignore the footnotes and if he starts listing poo poo just skip a couple of pages. I like the footnotes, all those books and essays he refers to had some fantastic titles and it conjoured up a whole new world of serious academic study in the Navidson record. We are told over and over the Navidson record doesn't exist, but with all this evidence it should drat it  The lists though, yeah I skipped those. I think only a die hard fan of the book would try to read every back to front list of house fixtures. I finished House of Leaves last month, and I'm still dead excited about how much I enjoyed it.
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Jan 6, 2011 12:36
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Just begun Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. This poo poo is dense! Pretty intimidating too.
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Jan 7, 2011 00:35
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ICA posted:Just begun Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. You'll have to report back and tell us whether you (1) made it through The Speech and (2) liked the third part.
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Jan 7, 2011 01:13
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ICA posted:Just begun Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. After starting 3 or 4 times I finally made it through the Fountainhead. I didn't think it was too bad of a book so I picked up Atlas Shrugged. 3 years later it is still waiting for me to read it.
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Jan 7, 2011 14:39
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Well now it's even more intimidating!
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Jan 7, 2011 14:46
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ICA posted:Well now it's even more intimidating! Well at least now with your probation for the next 24 hours you should have plenty of time to read.
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Jan 7, 2011 15:31
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I just bought The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, knowing nothing about it and going purely on a tip off that 'it's great'. To be honest my heart sank when I unwrapped it and read the cover. It's blurb is an exact summery of Battle Royale concept (In the future 24 kids are entered into a live broadcast TV show in which they must kill or be killed, the survivor wins) and Stephenie Meyer's name is all over it as promotion. Is it any good? Am I unfairly judging this book by it's cover?
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Jan 7, 2011 16:16
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Just finished Game of Thrones, and now I moved on to Clash of Kings.
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Jan 7, 2011 16:39
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Honestly, I'd say give it a try. Yeah, it is very Battle Royale-inspired, but I read the first book and enjoyed it - to the point that I do want to read the next two, eventually.
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Jan 7, 2011 16:53
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Dr Scoofles posted:I just bought The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, knowing nothing about it and going purely on a tip off that 'it's great'. Yes, it is good. It's excellent for YA.
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Jan 7, 2011 17:25
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Dr Scoofles posted:I just bought The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, knowing nothing about it and going purely on a tip off that 'it's great'. I just finished it and bought the second book in the trilogy. I wasn't expecting much, but it was good enough to make myself wake up early before work so I could finish it. I've never seen/read Battle Royale, though, so that might have something to do with it.
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Jan 7, 2011 20:06
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I am about to start Game of Thrones, and got the other 3 books for Christmas. I can't wait!
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Jan 7, 2011 23:19
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Picked up a used copy of the collected plays and fragments of Menander. I'm not really sure what to make of it so far - most of what's left of his plays is a few lines and scenes, so I feel like I'm missing the bigger picture, but one of the plays is contrasted with an adaptation written by Plautus, so I'm looking forward to that.
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Jan 8, 2011 01:52
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barkingclam posted:Picked up a used copy of the collected plays and fragments of Menander. I'm not really sure what to make of it so far - most of what's left of his plays is a few lines and scenes, so I feel like I'm missing the bigger picture, but one of the plays is contrasted with an adaptation written by Plautus, so I'm looking forward to that. A whole lot of Roman drama is lame rewrites of Greek stuff and Plautus specialized in do-overs of Menander, so you can always read your way through Plautus to get a sense of what you're missing (though if you've read one Plautus play, you've read them all IMO). Also, heads up, if there's no foul-mouthing in your Menander collection, it's probably not the greatest translation. Also, if you're checking for ancient excerpts at used bookstores in the future, keep an eye out for the Norton Classical Lit anthology; it's mostly good for its coverage of guys who didn't leave a lot of complete texts behind. Like Hipponax, a guy whose longest extant excerpt-of-poem is about ejaculating prematurely. Facial Fracture fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 05:08
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Brave New Worlds a collection of short stories with a dystopic theme. Its got some good stuff in there but I'm slightly disappointed with the Kindle version since as far as I know they didn't include links to the stories in a table of contents.
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Jan 14, 2011 23:32
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Facial Fracture posted:Also, heads up, if there's no foul-mouthing in your Menander collection, it's probably not the greatest translation. Yeah, my copy somehow doesn't have the phrase "shiteater" in it. Must have been from a particularly bad manuscript or something. Finally got around starting to Cellini's autobiography. 50 pages in, he's stabbed people, lipped off pretty much everybody, gotten into a swordfight and been kicked out of Florence - and has an interesting look at how art is made and the kind of people who make it. I can tell I'm going to like this one.
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Jan 15, 2011 05:12
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I just got 2666 based off the many and varied praises it received. I'm working through the first part, but the heart of the story so far is a love triangle between 3 academics who all study the same reclusive German author, and frankly it couldn't get much more unrelatable if it tried. The next parts are about something else, so I'm continuing, but I feel like its going to have to do a lot to tie it all together.
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Jan 17, 2011 05:27
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Red Crown posted:I just got 2666 based off the many and varied praises it received. I'm working through the first part, but the heart of the story so far is a love triangle between 3 academics who all study the same reclusive German author, and frankly it couldn't get much more unrelatable if it tried. The next parts are about something else, so I'm continuing, but I feel like its going to have to do a lot to tie it all together. Just keep going. I found the first part a little slow too (though not unbearable), but it definitely is worth finishing.
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Jan 17, 2011 17:55
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Started: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale. So far Margaret is currently winning the race to the last page. I'm about a 100 pages in and I like the fact, that so far it's mostly filled with pre-apocalypse flashbacks. Because the post-apocalypse environment confuses me a bit so far. And I'm also enjoying the pigoons and rakunks   I have read and somewhat enjoyed all the previous Hap and Leonard books prior to "Vanilla Ride", but the series has increasingly become a little too stale and predictable. I think I'll put this on the back burner for a while. I also ordered this danish masterpiece:  Translated to English: Confessions of a Legionnaire. A close, but out of touch, relative of mine wrote this, based on his less than stellar experiences in the French Foreign Legion. Can't wait to start reading this. Book of the year I tell ya! Look at how loving bad-rear end he looks! I'm currently nerding it up in TBB while frequently making weird noises directed at my cat. But he has had the time to join The FFL and he even wrote a book about it!  I have wasted my life and I am a disgrace to my genetic material...Red Crown posted:I just got 2666 based off the many and varied praises it received. I'm working through the first part, but the heart of the story so far is a love triangle between 3 academics who all study the same reclusive German author, and frankly it couldn't get much more unrelatable if it tried. The next parts are about something else, so I'm continuing, but I feel like its going to have to do a lot to tie it all together. I had the same problems with the 1st chapter that you are describing. I would advise you to keep on reading. It gets potentially better & more mind numbing/intense the further you read. And the pieces do get connected in the end...sort of...but not really...in a good way. something_clever fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Jan 17, 2011 |
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Jan 17, 2011 19:37
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I'm about halfway through Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I don't really get why people were complaining that his settings aren't original, because an inverted Peloponnese is a million times more interesting then Generic Middle Earth Setting. other than the seemingly required sex scene that accompanies all fantasy novels (I just got through ch 10 and Alienor) the only thing that really bugs me is the length of the chapters. I guess he just puts so much detail, but it's pretty daunting to cover 30 pages per chapter.
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Jan 17, 2011 20:06
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