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Picked up a few used ones when I traded some on: Fat City by Leonard Gardner (really looking forward to this one!), Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell, Robert Evan's autobiography The Kid Stays in the Picture, the second volume of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and Kapuscinski's The Soccer War. I'm looking forward to Fat City, it's one I've been trying to track down for a few years and Evan's book looks entertaining, too.
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Nov 16, 2011 04:03
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I've never read a Neil Gaiman anything before and for some reason walked by Anansi Boys and American Gods and thought sure why not. Still early on in American Gods, I like it so far but I'm a sucker for mythological stuff (I figured out who Mr. Wednesday really was as soon as he said his name, although they keep tossing in hints) and I'm curious to see what happens.
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Nov 16, 2011 09:54
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Just finished Dry by Augusten Burroughs. First thing I've read by him and I couldn't put it down. Will definitely be reading more of hiw work in the future. Just started There is no Year By Blake Butler. Really interesting so far. Wondering if it's going to progress past just a lot of descriptions of surreal occurrences and develop a plot or not. Not that I care either way just curious.
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Nov 17, 2011 09:24
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Finished "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" and "Old Man's War". The Heinlein book was just great. Now starting with "Honor Harrington" stuff followed by "The Hobbit". Then i should get my rear end up and read the last "Black Company" books.
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Nov 18, 2011 20:52
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pakman posted: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. Just finished Foucault's Pendulum and its a very interesting, yet extremely difficult book, to get through. There are large chunks I had to read more than once and I still dont understand big parts of it. But like The Name of the Rose I consider it worth it. Next I plan to read either The Map of Time, Hitler, or Washington, the last two being biographies.
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Nov 20, 2011 06:42
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Just finished up "Best Served Cold" by Joe Abercrombie. Not the strongest thing I've read by him, but enjoyable enough. Starting "Into Thin Air" now by Jon Krakauer, a first hand account of an Everest ascension gone fatally wrong. Bought it based on a goon recommendation and the first couple of chapters have been pretty compelling, got feeling I'm going to burn through this one in very short order.
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Nov 21, 2011 00:05
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I just started The Mists of Avalon after putting it off to read a bunch of other things (re-read the entirety of A Song of Ice and Fire!). So far, I'm not thrilled but I'm only five chapters in.
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Nov 23, 2011 09:33
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Just finished "Into Thin Air", Jon Krakauer's first hand account of the Mt Everest disaster of 1996. Holy ... gently caress...even knowing most of the story going in this is a fast paced and horrifying/fascinating read. Started Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men" this morning. It was a D&D recommend that tells the story of the Obama administration's handling of the economic crisis they inherited.
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Nov 23, 2011 14:46
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I just began reading "Mockingjay", the final installment of "The Hunger Games", I'd been avoiding the books for a while because the sinopsys made them sound ridiculous, but they've been fun reads and I'm really looking forward to the conclusion. Once that's done I think I'll finish reading the "Anne of Green Gables" books, when I'm not reading classic books I apparently have the taste of a fifteen year old girl, but dammit they're fun 
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Nov 24, 2011 03:07
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OK just finished the Map of Time. It wasn't what I was expecting from the cover or the description but still a very entertaining book. We got it for 9 dollars hardback at Half-Prce Books and it was well worth it.
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Nov 26, 2011 16:09
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Finished Sagan's Pale Blue Dot yesterday, and started on Contact immediately. Its just unbelievable that the guy is dead. That bit (look at it. Thats us. Thats home...) is one of the most beautiful passages I have ever read. I had goosebumps running up my spine when I heard it on audiobook and it was just as powerful being read.
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Nov 26, 2011 17:20
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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. Great book, but I had to stop reading the time he arrived at the 20th century. I may go back to revisit it (it's been about five years), but one of my memories of the book are him listing every single socialist rally that happened during a few-year span. I can't remember, for sure, if this happened. Also, I decided to finally crack open the collected works of Shakespeare, and begin reading the stuff I haven't finished before. Right now? The Merchant of Venice.
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Nov 26, 2011 22:08
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Twin Cinema posted:Great book, but I had to stop reading the time he arrived at the 20th century. I may go back to revisit it (it's been about five years), but one of my memories of the book are him listing every single socialist rally that happened during a few-year span. I can't remember, for sure, if this happened.
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Nov 26, 2011 22:10
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Kekekela posted:Probably, it was a great book but it definitely could do with some editing to make for a more even read. I have heard this criticism before, and I am not sure if I completely agree with. Sure, it does have a lot of truth to it, and that it would have made for a better read had it been edited. However, I think Zinn's focus wasn't so much on readability, but basically writing a "quieter" history with as many sources as he could fit. But, again, I haven't read the book in a while. I was also still a teenager, so I could have misunderstood some of the book.
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Nov 26, 2011 22:36
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Twin Cinema posted:I have heard this criticism before, and I am not sure if I completely agree with. Sure, it does have a lot of truth to it, and that it would have made for a better read had it been edited. However, I think Zinn's focus wasn't so much on readability, but basically writing a "quieter" history with as many sources as he could fit.
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Nov 26, 2011 22:48
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Just started The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. It's pretty interesting reading about a scifi/dystopian near future with a female protagonist, probably because the genre just seems so male dominated. The dynamics of their society and the weird gender role reversals are fascinating, and Olfred's story so far is just heartbreaking. Interested to know what actually set this all about, why the ability to have children seems so important, and who is really in control in this society, the men or women.
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Nov 27, 2011 00:25
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Kleptomaniac posted:Finished Sagan's Pale Blue Dot yesterday, and started on Contact immediately. Its just unbelievable that the guy is dead. That bit (look at it. Thats us. Thats home...) is one of the most beautiful passages I have ever read. I had goosebumps running up my spine when I heard it on audiobook and it was just as powerful being read.
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Nov 27, 2011 04:21
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Murakami's 1Q84. 30 pages in and I'm already seeing a hilariously awkward sex scene.
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Nov 28, 2011 16:16
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Just started The Two Towers. I came back to this series after failing to get into it a number of times, but having read some more fantasy I'm starting to appreciate it a lot more. I know it's bad form to compare the book to the films but I'm shocked at how little the characters are actually developed. Being high fantasy I can understand the emphasis on the lore and back stories but it's still a bit strange to me.
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Nov 28, 2011 16:46
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tabris posted:Murakami's 1Q84. 30 pages in and I'm already seeing a hilariously awkward sex scene. Oh believe me, there's more! I'm almost done with part 1 and there have been tons of awkward sexual themes. Of course, there's the slightly odd 17-year-old girl that the protagonist lusts after despite himself...
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Nov 28, 2011 17:34
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Started Cynthia Ozick's Metaphor and Memory last night. It's a collection of essays and reviews on books and authors she wrote 20, 25 years ago. I'm not too familiar with some of the authors she wrote about - Italo Calvino, William Gaddis - but it's getting me interested in checking them out.
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Nov 28, 2011 17:45
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Started two sci-fi books tonight (I read multiple books at once — these two bring my current books up to five!): • Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear, which is spaceship horror, told in first-person present tense, which is odd, but so far it seems cool. I hope it lives up to other works in this genre (eg: Event Horizon is one of my favourite movies; and I'm one of the few people who liked Pandorum) • Triptych by JM Frey, which promises to be a weird story involving time travel, aliens, gender politics and, well, alien sex.  So far the dialogue is giving me Doctor Who vibes, which isn't a bad thing!
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Nov 29, 2011 15:02
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Chamberk posted:Of course, there's the slightly odd 17-year-old girl that the protagonist lusts after despite himself... Oh boy, it's Hard Boiled Wonderland all over again!
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Nov 29, 2011 22:10
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IM_DA_DECIDER posted:Oh boy, it's Hard Boiled Wonderland all over again! And Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Dance Dance Dance... I love the dude, but he does have some ideas he keeps returning to. So far there haven't been any page-long descriptions of food preparation though, I'm a little disappointed about that...
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Nov 29, 2011 22:40
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Chamberk posted:And Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Dance Dance Dance... I love the dude, but he does have some ideas he keeps returning to. I remember some pointelssly lengthy descriptions of random meals that Tengo cooks at home.
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Nov 30, 2011 05:30
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I bought "I'm better than your kids" by Maddox hoping for some cheap laughs. It's really hit or miss though. Maddox lost his edge now, I can't believe that book took so long to make for what it is.
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Nov 30, 2011 22:42
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I started picking my way through bits and pieces of a translation of Euclid's Elements. I keep running into  moments like realizing that he didn't have a decimal system to work with.e: I can do math, but grammar eludes me :frankfrank: Ganson fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Dec 1, 2011 |
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Dec 1, 2011 04:53
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I just started The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman. It is the sequel for The Left Hand of God, that I found really entertaining (I got it done in one day and half). I don't know if it's me, but looks like the writing style changed a bit and my pace is a lot slower on this one. Probably is just me.
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Dec 1, 2011 17:08
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Parildo posted:I just started The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman. Don't think it is just you, I only got two chapters in before I got bored and moved on to something else.
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Dec 1, 2011 17:35
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Just started The Fall by Del Toro and Hogan. I loved the first one, but this one so far has way too much going on, I hope to god that it gets better by the end.
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Dec 1, 2011 17:37
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Yesterday, I bought Aravind Adiga's latest, Last Man in Tower. Adiga's debut novel, The White Tiger, was absolutely fantastic, but it was followed up with Between the Assassinations, a short story collection, which had a few stories that were as amazing as The White Tiger, but most were just forgettable (not bad, just not anything special, either). Now that he's returned to novel format, I have high hopes for this one!
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Dec 1, 2011 18:58
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I'm about 100 pages into Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, which is a multigeneration family epic with aspects of magic realism set in South America. Yes, there are comparisons between this and Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, but it has its own charm. I think I caught a little joke at 100 Years's expense - the patriarch Esteban wants to name his son after him, but his wife refuses because that would make things too confusing in her diary that tracks the family history. Anyone who's read 100 Years of Solitude can appreciate that, I think.
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Dec 3, 2011 02:05
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screenwritersblues posted:Just started The Fall by Del Toro and Hogan. I loved the first one, but this one so far has way too much going on, I hope to god that it gets better by the end. I just started The Strain today, and it's pretty good so far. I wanted something a little lighter and shorter to read at work as a break between gargantuan fantasy novels and Reamde. I love how one of the character's names is a Phillip K. Dick shoutout 
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Dec 3, 2011 17:32
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Just ordered Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power by Richard Stites Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution by Richard Stites Moneyball by Michael Lewis The Once and Future King by T.H. White Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie Ten days that Shook the World by John Reed I went a little overboard, but then again I only spent a little more than it would cost to buy one new video game.
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Dec 4, 2011 00:50
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I was at the grocery store yesterday and there was a bin of books priced 3/$10. I picked up The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch. According to the jacket blurb, it's about a man accused of murdering his wife. While in prison, a man gives him a talisman that will allow him to go back in time one hour at a time for up to 12 hours in order to find out the truth.
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Dec 4, 2011 02:35
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Tainen posted:Was walking through the bookstore last weekend and saw this 900 page monstrosity Along with all the "A Song of Fire and Ice" goony-goons (I'm currently reading a feast for crows), I also bought Necronomicon and I actually also got a friend to buy it as well. I've read maybe 5-6 stories so far and I like it just fine. The book itself is very decorative and has a lot of beautiful illustrations. It's definitely worth its weight in gold. Another book I finished some time ago was "Hemsöborna" "The People of Hemsö" in english, by A. Strindberg.  A portrait of August Strindberg. You can almost see the insanity in his eyes. Except for being an author and dramaturgist, he was also a chemist who didn't believe in the periodic system of the elements. He was into alchemy and was hospitalized with a skin condition he had gotten because he was mixing chemicals with his bare hands. August Strindberg was one of, it not the most important author Sweden has ever had. So if you want a good read you should check out "Hemsöborna" or "Fadren", which he wrote in his defense when his wife was claiming he was insane (he was). The book later served in his defense, as it talks about a woman conspiring to get her husband locked up in a mental institution. A. Strindberg had a rich and turbulent life. He was heavily involved in ockultism and he helped women get their right to vote in Sweden. I cannot recommend his works enough. Otherwise I've recently purchased "l'étranger" by Camus, which was amazing and "à la Recherche du Temps Pedu: Du côté de Chez Swan" by M. Proust. I've read Camus in french before, and I can handle it. Though I think I'll have to read proust in english before I try getting through it in its original form. Some of Proust's sentences are seemingly neverending. Tacostein fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Dec 4, 2011 |
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Dec 4, 2011 02:50
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Started Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times yesterday. It's old, old baseballers talking about the game they played, back at the turn of the last century (a couple of the people interviewed in this book were playing in the late 1800's which is kind of insane). I'm really enjoying it so far, it's a really fun and colorful read.
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Dec 5, 2011 05:07
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Started The Black Prism by Brent Weeks. Read the Night Angel Trilogy and thought it was pretty cool, so I figured why not give this a try. Hopefully he isn't as misogynistic in this one as the earlier trilogy.
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Dec 5, 2011 16:40
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Not really. It's pretty good, except if you made a drinking game of "when the main character is described as fat" you would be dead by mid book.
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Dec 5, 2011 23:19
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Started reading Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita a week ago. In French, so half the time I barely know what's going on. The pedophilia is predictably weirding me out, but I like his lyrical writing style, even though that sort of thing usually isn't for me.
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Dec 10, 2011 05:30
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