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I finished Haroun and the Sea of Stories just a little while ago and it didn't take long for me to finish it at all. One of the reasons was of course because the book isn't very long but also because it was a great joy to read. I have always enjoyed books that take place in worlds full of magic and strange creatures and this book delivered a lot of that.
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Apr 3, 2012 19:58
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Witchfinder General posted:I read through The Old Man and the Sea yesterday and loved the hell out of it. Short, easy to get in to and I feel like it's going to stick with me for a long time. I'm way late to the party with Hemingway, but I'm amazed at his ability to lay down a story so minimal at times and still come out with something so rich and full. I'd recommend checking out To Have and Have Not next. Its one of my all time favorites and I had a similar reaction to what you've described here after reading it.
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Apr 3, 2012 20:15
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Tough poo poo by Kevin Smith Not bad for a sort of autobiography/straight rant book. It was interesting to read about his rise with Clerks through Red State being released by him. Not bad if you like the guy.
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Apr 3, 2012 20:27
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Lord of the Rings I finally finished my goal of reading The Hobbit and then LOTR right after. I have to say that both were great reads. I wish that LOTR was longer so that I could keep reading it. I'm also happy that I saw the movies first and then read the book because otherwise I might have walked out of the movies. Also, the end when the hint of the weed from Isengard and then running into Saruman on the road ending with the hobbits running into Saruman at Bag's End and his violent death...wow that was awesome and I was NOT expecting it. I had never even heard of that ending. Tolkien is (was) the man.
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Apr 3, 2012 21:35
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Predator's Gold. Second part of the Mortal Engines series. I liked it quite a bit, a nice companion piece to the first book and adding a lot to the lore of Reeve's world. The third book takes a leap 15 years in the future, so I might skip it a bit and read some other things before taking the series back up.
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Apr 3, 2012 21:47
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ProfessorFrink! posted:Lord of the Rings I finally finished my goal of reading The Hobbit and then LOTR right after. I have to say that both were great reads. I wish that LOTR was longer so that I could keep reading it. Read The Silmarillion, then, but don't feel bad if you skip a few dozen pages of songs, epic poems, and essays on the Elvish language.
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Apr 3, 2012 23:14
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Kekekela posted:I'd recommend checking out To Have and Have Not next. Its one of my all time favorites and I had a similar reaction to what you've described here after reading it.
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Apr 4, 2012 00:12
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Drift by Rachel Maddow. A quick history of Presidents ignoring the War Powers Act etc. over the last 40 years and how isolating the public from war has mad it too easy to send soldiers around in perpetuity. There are a few anonymous quotes, mostly about military contractor stuff that never went to court, but the majority of the book is straight out of Presidential memoirs, Congressional testimony, and public documents. I hope she follows up on the proposed sequel about the unintentional comedy and craziness of our nuclear weapons program. We had a nasty habit of accidentally dropping bombs. One is still frozen in Greenland or under the ocean. v  v
UltimoDragonQuest fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Apr 4, 2012 |
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Apr 4, 2012 00:32
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Just set down The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Whoa. A murder mystery built like the classics of Greek literature -- the suspense lies not in who does the killing but how it unfolds (as you find out immediately the murderers and the victim). My heart's still reeling a bit from the tension of the last 100 pages. It's a substantial investment at 550+ dense pages, but worth it. Also worth mentioning: The Lifespan of a Fact by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal. A fascinating read comprised entirely of a "creative non-fiction" essay submitted to The Believer and the correspondence between its fact-checker and author. All the more interesting now that I've heard the correspondence was at times dramatized and staged for the purposes of the book. Also finished: Franzen's The Corrections (at times terribly close to home, at times unreadably obnoxious) and Natasha, a collection of short stories by David Bezmozgis. Very enjoyable.
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Apr 4, 2012 03:41
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Read Independent People by Halldor Laxness and then kill yourself. It's really good though, seriously. It's about sheep.
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Apr 4, 2012 08:47
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I just finished reading The Hunger Games (Susanne Collins) and Black Hole (Charles Burns). We all have heard of the Hunger Games, and I must say I wasn't impressed at all and won't be reading the other books in the trilogy. As for Black Hole, it's a graphic novel about a bunch of high school students dealing with an STD that mutates them and it's set in 1970's Seattle. I plowed through it in two sittings and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Now onto Kavalier and Clay, I'm really going to finish it this time!
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Apr 4, 2012 12:36
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Finished Hunger Games, first book of trilogy. Impression is very mixed. From all the hype around these books, i expected more. Its not dull, but its not amazing either. I would say everything is average, story, characters. Will read the next one, hope it will be better.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:25
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Just finished War Maid's Choice by David Weber. For a book chock-full of bloodthirsty warriors, there sure was a lot of courting and hand-holding going on.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:50
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Orwell's 1984 and White Knight by Jim Butcher. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Apr 5, 2012 03:35
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Ashendar posted:Finished Hunger Games, first book of trilogy.
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Apr 5, 2012 04:53
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Policing in England and Wales, 1918-39: The Fed, Flying Squads and Forensics by Keith Laybourn and David Taylor. A pretty dry and narrow monograph on the state of policing in Great Britain during the interwar years. Interesting as a snapshot of the transition of policing as it changed its focus from crime prevention to crime response, particularly the introduction of rudimentary forensic techniques and mobile units. The problems raised by the huge increase of cars during this period dominates the books, and while it does produce some cool data, like this: it makes the book a pretty one-note read.
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Apr 6, 2012 04:47
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dokmo posted:Policing in England and Wales, 1918-39: The Fed, Flying Squads and Forensics by Keith Laybourn and David Taylor.
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Apr 6, 2012 06:15
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I was at a used book store leafing through various history books, and that one drew my attention because of all the tables (like the one I scanned). I am a sucker for data-driven history books, even though this one was kind of a dud.
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Apr 6, 2012 16:53
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The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo. It's been a while I was interested in reading something about the Stanford Prison Experiment. Psychology isn't my field, but I have some curiosity on the subject, nourished by documentaries on it, Milgram or the Third Wave. It's really an hard read. Not because the book is overly technical. But because you comprehend that anybody (and that should mean you too) is able of the worst evil if subject to the wrong influence. Being educated, adjusted, sane gives no protection. The speed with people interiorize their roles is mind blowing. In six days, a beignign setting gave birth to outright abuses, sexual humiliations, ... And it gets worse when you enter Abu Grahib and its very documented depiction of what occured there, and what systemic causes were at the deep root. And what probably occurs still in other "civilized" world prisons. It then turns to a charge against the Chain of Command, up to the highest level, for having put in place a system where rules were to be forgotten, lines to be blurred, and personal accountability inexistant. One can say it's politically biased, but when another torture-memo of the Bush era is released, you can't really keep the official position of a few "bad apples in a good barrel". (The number of official reports and the sheer number of other "incidents" make this opinion laughable at best). By chance, the light is at the end, when Zimbardo finishes by "celebrating heroism", expliciting in that heroic acts too can be motivated by these environments, and giving you clues to resist pervert influences. An eye-opener, really . Picardy Beet fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Apr 7, 2012 |
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Apr 7, 2012 18:02
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Ashendar posted:Finished Hunger Games, first book of trilogy. Its alright I suppose, pretty well written, the whole loving premise I find rather stupid though, you find yourself loosing any suspension of disbelief allot because of that though the actual story is fun enough. Its one that I might have enjoyed and found really deep if I was 12 or something, probably the target audience. Think I wont bother with the other 2 and just read the synopsis of them.
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Apr 8, 2012 00:09
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Just finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I loved the hell out of The Graveyard Book, it had this dreamy quality to it that was just pitch perfect and this seems to be just as good. loving amazing up until the ending which was a slight let down for me. I don't know what I expected, but I expected something better. Apparently it's going to be made into an HBO miniseries which I am now stoaked for.
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Apr 8, 2012 03:58
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Finished Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. A very colorful book so to speak.
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Apr 8, 2012 06:38
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I just finished Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. It's obviously very eye opening and interesting given the time it's written in, but I was expecting something different, probably a bit more action (though that would make it more fictional). I'd find myself bored by her complaining about her family, then it'd hit me - she was just a normal teenage girl in a horrific situation. The epilogue certainly affected me after that.
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Apr 8, 2012 22:23
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The Gentleman's Hour by Don Winslow Sequel to Dawn Patrol (and my second favorite book of the author), crime fiction set in modern day San Diego with a PI named Boone Daniels. Winslow injects so much more than just the main story into his books, he always seems to explain some part of history or culture to whatever area the story is set in. In this book he goes into a little history of karate and the fighting arts and it wasn't drawn out or dull, very informative. The story itself though is one of the grandfathers of surfing is killed (who's also a mentor and family friend of Boone) and it turns out our PI has been convinced to help the defense to make sure the killer doesn't get the needle. Of course things are never so simple when it comes to a crime story and Winslow doesn't disappoint, bringing a few separate stories into one great conclusion that once again leaves me wanting more from this particular set of characters.
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Apr 9, 2012 15:29
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Ban me, plz.
Somebody fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 9, 2012 23:29
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theuser posted:Murder all niggers. Kill all faggots. Rape all cunts. Ron Paul 2012. But what did you think about The Turner Diaries?
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Apr 10, 2012 00:34
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What a strange thread to post that in. Speaking of racism- I just finished Pym by Mat Johnson which I enjoyed a lot. Very easy to get in to and I imagine really rewarding if you are familiar with Poe, Jules Verne and Lovecraft (I've only read Lovecraft). I was really happy with the pacing of the book since I thought it was just going to drop dead once or twice, but it would pick right back up. Even the parts going over the background of Poe's work was really entertaining and interesting. My one complaint was the book was funny, but I wasn't falling out of my chair laughing or anything like I was led to believe. Guess that's more my fault, though.
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Apr 10, 2012 02:36
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I've been on a Don DeLillo kick lately. I read White Noise for a class a few months ago and was absolutely floored by it. I graduated as a literature major, but nothing I had ever read spoke to me in a voice I connected with or saw the world from the same vantage point so much as the character of Jack Gladney. I read Underworld back in February, but while it was thematically much broader than White Noise (which is tough because I consider White Noise a book about everything), I just didn't connect with it the same way. I read and finished Falling Man and felt similarly; that it was really well-written and told a great set of personal stories, but it didn't resound in my mind. I'm I went out and picked up a few Philip K. Dick novels just a bit ago – Ubik and a collection featuring A Maze of Death, VALIS, The Divine Invasion, and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. I'm really excited to begin making my way through all of those! Edit: Finished Point Omega. Overall a good read which left me with plenty to think about.  But what in the world happened to Jessica?
Varequidam fucked around with this message at 07:38 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 10, 2012 02:59
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Varequidam posted:I've been on a Don DeLillo kick lately. I read White Noise for a class a few months ago and was absolutely floored by it. I graduated as a literature major, but nothing I had ever read spoke to me in a voice I connected with or saw the world from the same vantage point so much as the character of Jack Gladney. If you haven't read The Names yet, I'd recommend checking that out at some point, I think its one of his best.
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Apr 10, 2012 03:51
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I just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The book is nearly 700 pages but not that much happened. Kvothe is such an utter nice guy (yes, in THAT sense of the word) in his relationship with Denna. Must be a true reflection of the gooniness of Patrick Rothfuss. Everything else about his character is total wish fulfilment. I hated his smug tone and his masturbatory descriptions of music he played so beautifully and cheeky conversations he had with adults that only made them love him more. I also hated whenever he went off on a paragraph-long analogy to describe a certain emotion. "I felt like... imagine walking on a frozen lake, and—" SHUT THE gently caress UP KVOTHE I got so sick of the repetitiveness of the book. Kvothe needs money, then he gets some! Then he needs some more, then he gets some more! Repeat ad nauseum. And don't get me started on the cloyingly twee conversations he has with Auri. "What's in the bottle?" "A smile and a moonbeam and a splash of unicorn tears and a dash of werewolf cum!" ugh The plot was all over the goddamn place with NO narrative structure at all, and offered no resolution by the end. DESPITE ALL THIS I liked parts of it and the worldbuilding was pretty good so 3 stars but it'll take a lot of convincing to get me to read the sequel.
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Apr 10, 2012 05:47
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The Witness for the Prosecution And Other Stories (Agatha Christie). Short story collection, includes one visit from Hercule Poirot (The Second Gong). It's quite middling. Some stories are better than others. Perhaps it was just the idea of packaging these particular stories together. You expect a twist ending and you get a variation of it every time. Wireless is particularly guilty of this, where you predict the end result long before you get there. The Red Signal and S.O.S. are the best of the bunch, but neither of them would qualify as excellent.
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Apr 10, 2012 06:35
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Read loads over my Easter and I'm throwing another shout out to Beat The Reaper. A story of an ex-hitman sprinkled with frighteningly in-depth medical terminology and holocaust info. Loved it from end to end, although the sex scenes got a bit much.
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Apr 10, 2012 20:18
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Hedrigall posted:I just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The sequel's pretty much the same thing. I can't see how exactly he's going to make it a trilogy unless a whole poo poo-ton of stuff happens in that third book. Just finished Nixonland by Rick Perlstein and LOVED it - a massive comprehensive look at the 60s (well, 64-72) and the man who made our world what it is today, Richard Nixon.
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Apr 10, 2012 20:39
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Step by Step: A Pedestrian Memoir by Lawrence Block. A weird little memoir by one of the great modern crime fiction writers. The books is almost unbelievably self indulgent (as the writer himself says in the opening): a memoir structured around his love of walking. Not the sights he sees and the places he goes while walking—but his love of walking itself: his hikes as a kid to his competitive racewalking as an old man. If I wasn't a Block fan I would have never started this thing, much less finished it, and I'm not going to tell you that I loved it, but Block is still good enough a writer to make most of this interesting enough, especially since he seems to employ his aptitude for wordplay much more than normal.
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Apr 10, 2012 20:57
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Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. An ambitious novel linking six seemingly-disparate short stories together, each story interrupted half-way by the next. I had read his latest effort, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet a few months back and both books are comparable in terms of scope and his command of language. I really enjoy the characters he writes and the worlds he puts them in, as both are colorful and well fleshed-out in this book. The various plots hold up interest well enough and at first glance seem unusual if not outright misplaced; but as you continue reading, you realize that Mitchell is going for larger ideas and themes that ultimately make a comment on readers' expectations of fiction. Mitchell delves into historical fiction, science fiction, fictions within fictions...and still manages to come out the other end without feeling lost. Recommended if you are looking for a challenging read without it being scholarly. Kodo fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 10, 2012 21:15
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In preperation for the upcomming film adaptation, I decided to re-read The Great Gatsby, seeing as how I'm an English Literature major and it's my job to take adaptations of great works of literature and criticize them like the smug little so-and-so I am. And I think I know why not a whole lot of people read it outside of high school. This was the most depressing book I've ever read, and the only book that's made me cry. The story hits so hard and resonates with me on such a deep level. Gatsby best represented the "lost generation": disillusioned by the First World War, they found themselves at the end of an apocalypse and decided to live the rest of their lives as hedonistically as possible. Gatsby bootlegs and throws lavish parties only to impress Daisy who doesn't even care who she's with as long as he's rich. Tom is an unrepentant bastard and when Myrtle gets run over by his wife, he pins the blame on Gatsby who dared to upset his WASP status. George, in a fit of rage, sorrow, and pent-up bile from Tom having an affair right in front of him with his wife, kills Gatsby in his pool and kills himself. And the symbolism just compounds the utter melancholy and bleakness. From the Eckleberg spectacles representing an omnipotent and ineffective higher power to the ashfields representing the apocalyptic wastes of post-war Europe. I don't know what impressed or possessed Fitzgerald to writing this, but it stands to be the saddest and best book I've read so far. I've got no more. Writing about this is making me depressed again. I need a drink.
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Apr 11, 2012 00:54
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barkingclam posted:If you haven't read The Names yet, I'd recommend checking that out at some point, I think its one of his best. I'd agree with you on this 9.99 times out of 10, but the poor bastard has been reading all of the most dramatic DeLillo! Would it really be fair to recommend what has been called his toughest book? I'd like to cast my vote for fun-time DeLillo! Go out and get Running Dog ASAP. That book is a blast.
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Apr 11, 2012 16:06
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MillionsV posted:I'd agree with you on this 9.99 times out of 10, but the poor bastard has been reading all of the most dramatic DeLillo! Would it really be fair to recommend what has been called his toughest book? Fair enough (although I thought Ratner's Star was a tougher read). End Zone is another good one.
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Apr 11, 2012 16:26
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Benny the Snake posted:Gatsby I reread it recently, too. It honestly didn't hold up for me very well. I read it in high school and thought it was one of the better books assigned. Going back to it though was fairly underwhelming. I now hold a disinterested contempt for most of the characters. Granted, the symbolism is interesting, but I find it really hard to get behind the 'greatest (American) novel ever' sentiments.
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Apr 11, 2012 17:35
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I finished Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. I can't believe it's being made into a movie with Tom Sizemore. Bust out the bronzer.
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Apr 12, 2012 03:07
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