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oldpainless posted:I somehow have missed this thread for a while, but I got a bunch of stuff from Borders closing sale. First book up is Foucalt's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. When I read this, I wasn't sure what to think of it. It's definitely interesting to watch what happens and how the narrator gets caught up in what's going on as well as the people that "the things in the plot" are happening to. Trying not to spoiler it as I'm not sure how far along in the book you are. It definitely creates an atmosphere of tension and  in the opening chapter, however.
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Oct 27, 2011 16:19
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I'm just finishing up book three of Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, and have already read Heroes. I've heard the fourth book (Best Served Cold, I think) is pretty weak compared to the others, is it even worth reading?
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Oct 27, 2011 16:45
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Encryptic posted:Been a long time since I read the book but he's likely referring to sea creatures by their scientific names in Latin. For instance, I Googled for pavonari and it turns up a passage from the book that implies he's talking about a nautilus - "I saw there (but not dried up, as our specimens of the Nautilus are) pavonari spread like a fan as if to catch the breeze". I actually googled for pavonari as well and all I found were links that had to do with the book itself. That's the thing, a lot of the species names seem now-defunct, and even the legitimate Latin ones I don't always recognize. I don't really mind though, I just sort of zone out when I get to those passages. I have to be honest here, I always thought the title meant that the protagonist would, at one point, travel to a depth of twenty thousand leagues. This is a remarkably stupid assumption considering that this is almost ten times the Earth's diameter. Even 19th-century science fiction wouldn't push it that far. Hey, I didn't know how much a league was.
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Oct 27, 2011 17:43
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 Got these at the local library's seasonal sale.
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Oct 27, 2011 22:43
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Kekekela posted:I'm just finishing up book three of Abercrombie's First Law trilogy, and have already read Heroes. I've heard the fourth book (Best Served Cold, I think) is pretty weak compared to the others, is it even worth reading? I thought it was a pretty good revenge story and it's in the same dark gritty style. I'm probably alone in not being completely blown away by Abercrombie, but he's a competent-enough writer and I found this to be a bit more engaging than The First Law trilogy. Phlegmish posted:I actually googled for pavonari as well and all I found were links that had to do with the book itself. That's the thing, a lot of the species names seem now-defunct, and even the legitimate Latin ones I don't always recognize. I don't really mind though, I just sort of zone out when I get to those passages. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of those names are probably outdated by now but it's an interesting relic of the time period Verne was writing in.
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Oct 28, 2011 13:25
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I just started Axiomatic by Greg Egan, which is his first collection of short stories (hard sci-fi). I've read two of the eighteen so far, and both of them have totally blown my mind. This guy has amazing ideas, and crams tons of them into each 20-page (or so) story. The first two were: - "Infinite Assassin", which is about a drug that lets its users experience parallel universe versions of their own lives, and one man who's almost exactly the same in every single one of the infinite universes. - "The Hundred-Light-Year Diary", in which astrophysicists come up with a method of sending information 100 years into the past, and everyone on earth is granted approximately 100 words per day for their whole life, to send a diary back in time. Egan explores concepts of free will and knowing the future, as well as shows what happens when people (and governments) abuse the technology. All in 17 pages. loving genius.
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Oct 28, 2011 15:00
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I just started working my way through The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee last night, and holy cow is this book awesome. Who knew the cancer research could be so fascinating?
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Oct 28, 2011 18:11
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 Boomerang - Michael Lewis A tale about five different (Iceland/Ireland/Greece/Germany/USA) countries and what eventually led to their economy rising and inevitably crashing. I finished Moneyball a few weeks before the movie come out, then I saw Lewis talk about his book on the Daily Show about a week ago, so when shopping for something to read when I was at work I thought I would give it a try. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about the economy or how it works, this book was a pretty easy read, and full of some really funny stories. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone.
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Oct 28, 2011 20:19
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OxySnake posted:
Definitely gonna check this out. I recently read The Big Short and loved it. I came home from the Princeton Public Library's annual Friend of the Library sale with a good haul. First up from that is Aztec Autumn, by Gary Jennings. It's the sequel to Aztec, arguably one of the best works of historical fiction.
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Oct 30, 2011 00:51
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I just hit the used bookstore because they were having a buy one get one sale on horror today only. Lucky me, I found a trade paperback version of Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, and one of Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I read almost all of the Wheel of Time stuff before Jordan died, but I've never read Mists. There's a bunch more, but it's all either horror or silly murder mysteries.
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Oct 30, 2011 06:41
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Just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie , like it a lot so far after 100 pages in.
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Oct 30, 2011 11:06
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As seems to be a habit of mine I'm reading far to many books at the same time. The most recent though are Camus' Nausea and The Myth of Sisyphus (also by Camus.). Gotta love that existentialism.
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Oct 30, 2011 12:22
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Ignem Aeternem posted:As seems to be a habit of mine I'm reading far to many books at the same time. The most recent though are Camus' Nausea and The Myth of Sisyphus (also by Camus.). Gotta love that existentialism. Sartre wrote Nausea, dawg. 
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Oct 30, 2011 13:54
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Tolli posted:Just started Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie , like it a lot so far after 100 pages in. Just picked this up on Audible myself, glad to hear some positivity.
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Oct 30, 2011 18:09
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I'm about 80 pages into the new Murakami 1Q84 and I don't know if I can really keep going. 950 pages of slow-moving, bland prose. I'm blown away by the hype this thing is getting. Example from the first page:quote:Aomame loved history as much as she loved sports. Oh boy! ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 08:43 on Oct 31, 2011 |
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Oct 31, 2011 08:39
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ShutteredIn posted:I'm about 80 pages into the new Murakami 1Q84 and I don't know if I can really keep going. 950 pages of slow-moving, bland prose. I'm blown away by the hype this thing is getting. Example from the first page: I like the prose mostly but the book is indeed becoming a slog. I'm more than 1100 pages in and things are really starting to drag. Murakami needs to hire a new editor.
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Oct 31, 2011 09:40
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Salty. posted:
Ah, nice! Wish I had God Emperor of Dune! You should definately read Dune at some stage soon; I just finished up the first and second books in the series, and am currently reading the third. Very good series, indeed
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Oct 31, 2011 11:18
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ShutteredIn posted:I'm about 80 pages into the new Murakami 1Q84 and I don't know if I can really keep going. 950 pages of slow-moving, bland prose. I'm blown away by the hype this thing is getting. Example from the first page: She must just about poo poo herself for sports history then.
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Oct 31, 2011 16:06
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Ok so, technically, I didn't buy this one it was free, but I just got it and started reading it. Copia just released a free Dracula ebook that has added notes by two Dracula scholars. I sometimes read their free books on my nook, but this one has been worth looking at in their ereader app because the expert notes are pretty interesting. They not only explain antiquated words, but explain references and even compare it to modern vampire stories like True Blood and Twilight. I read Dracula a long time ago, but I thought now was a good time to read it again! Book is here if you're interested: http://www.thecopia.com/dracula
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Oct 31, 2011 18:06
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Ugh I don't think I can stand anymore 1Q84. Book 3 is just really poorly written. He introduced a new viewpoint taking the already sluggish pace to new lows. There's just too many dream sequences and flashbacks. It doesn't help at all that the character in the new viewpoint is badly presented. Murakami seems to make a cardinal sin with respect to character introduction and just serves up the character's traits and backstory raw in a few slabs of text instead of characterizing him through his actions. I'm going to go cleanse myself with a copy of The Idiot (Pevear/Volokhonsky) I've been meaning to read.
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Oct 31, 2011 22:24
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This plus creepy creepy author self insertion and dumb cultural references was my Murakami experience.
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Oct 31, 2011 22:28
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I started re-reading James Halperin's The Truth Machine. It's 15 years old now and it's a trip reading it now considering some of the predictions (President Al Gore, the nuking of Baghdad, Belgrade, & Sarajevo, etc). There was talk of a movie, but it never came to fruition. If you'd like to read it, it's available as a free download. Yeah, I know, that's a weird website to be offering it, but it appears to be a clean file (MSE did not go nuts).
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Oct 31, 2011 23:29
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I'm about 30% into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I'm still waiting for the plot to start. It's not that I don't enjoy chapter after chapter of descriptions of people's clothing and long winded family histories and lots of effort put towards making a character look super ooky spooky gothity goth. It's more that I don't really like a book that still hasn't actually started over a quarter of the way in.
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Nov 1, 2011 04:56
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50 pages into The Storm Of War by Andrew Roberts: It's fascinating and engagingly written, and I'm learning so much I never knew (my knowledge of 20th century history goes as far as year 10 at high school; I only studied ancient history after that — and even then, the state curriculum here when I went through high-school was heavily focused on Australia only for its 20th century history lessons). The book is, however, light on illustrations (mainly just has photos of the leaders involved) and definitions, so I'm complementing the narrative with this fat tome that I picked up for 25% of RRP when Borders was dying: 
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Nov 1, 2011 05:54
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Hedrigall posted:50 pages into The Storm Of War by Andrew Roberts: drat, I should've done the same, when Borders spat the dummy, (although I suppose I can't complain; I did get a cople of Andy McNabs, after all!  ) since my WW2 education would be pretty on par with what yours was, plus what I found out in some books and online, for things that were nagging me, and specific stuff that I was interested in/wanted to learn more about. So, how much is the Australian RRP? Worth getting, or should I wait for a sale?
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Nov 1, 2011 06:04
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Major Isoor posted:drat, I should've done the same, when Borders spat the dummy, (although I suppose I can't complain; I did get a cople of Andy McNabs, after all! For the visual guide, RRP was $49.95 so I got it for about $12.50. Pretty drat good for a large-format hardcover of nearly 400 pages.
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Nov 1, 2011 06:07
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Hedrigall posted:For the visual guide, RRP was $49.95 so I got it for about $12.50. Pretty drat good for a large-format hardcover of nearly 400 pages. drat, that is good! Might have to see if I can find it discounted though; $50 is a fair bit of money, and my entire family seems to think spending much more than $10 for a book is a rip-off, despite all of which being heavy readers. Ah well, at least I know what to keep an eye out for! Thanks
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Nov 1, 2011 06:19
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Re-watched my The Pacific BluRay so decided to give the books it's based on a go. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie Hope I'll like them as much as Matterhorn. Anyone read all 3 and got some input on that one?
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Nov 1, 2011 13:20
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Tahirovic posted:Re-watched my The Pacific BluRay so decided to give the books it's based on a go. All in all, I think you'll really enjoy that one, at least. 
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Nov 1, 2011 15:23
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I just started (and am about 5 chapters into) the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. So far I'm enjoying it; I don't often go for biographies but this one is engaging and interesting. Next on my list is Roger Ebert's autobiography...so I guess I'm on a biography kick these days.
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Nov 1, 2011 18:03
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overdesigned posted:I just started (and am about 5 chapters into) the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. So far I'm enjoying it; I don't often go for biographies but this one is engaging and interesting. Still a fascinating read, though. The downside is that it will encourage certain types of business people to act more like assholes on the grounds that "it worked for Steve Jobs", without having any of his genuine vision and obsessive perfectionism. Behaving like Steve Jobs is one thing if you've founded a massively successful global company from the ground up, another entirely if you manage a call centre.
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Nov 1, 2011 18:54
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I started reading A People's History of the United States. I am about 4 chapters in, and am simply amazed so far. This really is a good read.
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Nov 1, 2011 21:29
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I'm about 30 pages into Out Of Oz by Gregory Maguire. Unsurprisingly, it feels very similar to his other Wicked Years books. cptn_dr fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Nov 2, 2011 |
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Nov 2, 2011 06:26
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I just finished The Road, and since I like to switch between fiction and non-fiction, I'm reading Ghost Wars by Steve Coll right now. This book (well, excerpts) was assigned reading for me in undergrad, and since I never cracked it open, I'd might as well read it leisurely now.
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Nov 2, 2011 06:59
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Tailored Sauce posted:I started reading A People's History of the United States. I am about 4 chapters in, and am simply amazed so far. This really is a good read. Yeah, that's a classic right there.
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Nov 2, 2011 12:47
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Just started Abercrombies Best Served Cold, and have Into Thin Air (about climbing Mt Everest) on deck based on high goon recommendations in another thread. e: Just finished Abercrombie's The Last Argument of Kings and thus the First Law Trilogy, would definitely recommend to anyone that's into low fantasy. Kekekela fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Nov 3, 2011 |
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Nov 2, 2011 14:18
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Abou 80% through Chuck Klosterman's The Visible Man - probably the most interesting thing I've read in a while. Recently finished his first novel Downtown Owl as well.
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Nov 2, 2011 15:48
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I just snagged The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. I'm trying to hurry up and finish Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I really am not digging it half as much as Gaiman's other works. It just seems like the writing style is a bad copy of Hitchhikers Guide.... It's a kind of entertaining story but it just jumps around so much. I'll be glad when I finish it. I really want to see how The Strain Trilogy will end.
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Nov 3, 2011 02:22
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cptn_dr posted:I'm about 30 pages into Out Of Oz by Gregory Maguire. About 400 pages in now. So much better than the last 2 already, really glad he didn't use the present day/flashback framing device that he relied on in the last two.
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Nov 4, 2011 01:30
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I am listening to the Steve Jobs book. It's great.
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Nov 5, 2011 00:19
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