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Picked up Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, & Selected Stories by Nikolay Gogol and The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek, both of which have been on my to-read list for a while. I'm curious to see how Madman is compared to Gogol's novels, I really struggled through Dead Souls so hopefully his short stories should be more concise and give a bit more closure. Planning to read Svjek first though and looking forward to some good ol' comedy capers set to a horrific World War 1 backdrop.
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Jul 17, 2012 10:40
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Picked up The Pale King by David Foster Wallace today. I'm only a few pages in, but it has grabbed my attention.
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Jul 17, 2012 21:28
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Just finished Keith Richards' Life (which I recommend) and started Stephen Baxter's Manifold Trilogy. I just got a Kindle Fire and it's my first eBook checked out from my local library.
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Jul 18, 2012 03:15
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Mister Kingdom posted:Stephen Baxter's Manifold Trilogy. I really enjoyed this. I should re-read it soon.
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Jul 18, 2012 03:18
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The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War by Alexander Waugh. It is good. Lots of history, but I would like more personality. The Wittgenstein family history is complex and inextricably linked to that whole Europe thing in the first half of the twentieth century, and Waugh does a good job of imposing a semi coherent narrative structure upon the chaos. But his treatment of the individual family members, particularly Ludwig, leaves something to be desired. All of the actors feels underwritten and stale. It needs more dirt, more gossip to bring its cast some life. If you like world war one and two stuff or enjoy the occasional people magazine I'd recommend it.
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Jul 18, 2012 15:41
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John Ringo's Ghost. Holy, god drat poo poo is this book loving hilarious. It seems like every page is filled with a moment of "Oh John Ringo no!" This book is 50 Shades of Grey combined with a 10 year old's fantasy of joining GI Joe.
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Jul 19, 2012 02:11
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Beastie posted:John Ringo's Ghost. Holy, god drat poo poo is this book loving hilarious. It seems like every page is filled with a moment of "Oh John Ringo no!" There was a thread for the Ghost series a while back. It got bad. Fast. If you think you've read the worst in the book, you only need to read the next chapter to see how terribly wrong you were.
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Jul 19, 2012 02:24
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I've recently bought the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson, and have started The Wounded Land. And wow, I certainly didn't expect the Land to have been ravaged quite this much, in this way! I'm not very far in, but it's pretty certain that just about everyone's forgotten about EarthPower, have effectively been brainwashed to believe that aliantha is poisonous, and whatever it is with them using their blood to produce crops! Hopefully things start to look up by the end of this chronicles - I'd hate to imagine what the third one will be like, if not!
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Jul 20, 2012 02:24
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Late to joining the party..but just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy...drat that is a good book.
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Jul 20, 2012 02:34
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Tearing through Bossypants by Tina Fey. Very funny. My favourite bit so far is where she describes the difference between comedy writers from Harvard and ones who come from an improv background.
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Jul 20, 2012 07:10
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I have been reading this week Niceville by Carsten Stroud. So far it is like a cross between a Elmore Leonard, Stephen Hunter, and Stephen King novel (as someone said on Amazon it reads a lot like Stephen King). I am really enjoy it. Also for years there has been one Bret Easton Ellis novel I haven't read, and that is Glamorama. I purchased the original hardback when it was released back in the 90's, but I never been able to get past Victor in NYC. There are many reasons for this (burnt out on BEE at the time and other books calling me). So for the last couple of weeks I have been reading it while at the same time (while driving to work or waiting for my son at football practice) listening to the Audible version of the book on my iPhone. It is amazing how having someone read the book to you can change the tone of the certain parts. It really helps with the satire of the book at times. So far with Glamorama it has been nice to see so many characters from Rules of Attraction show up, but it has one of the most punch-able and unreliable narrators. Victor is so unaware of anything but himself (I guess that is the point so far). I have no idea where this book is going (I just read what I consider one of the craziest threesomes ever put to paper), but I am willing to find out.
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Jul 20, 2012 15:15
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I snagged Jesse Bullington's The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart yesterday. I had read The Enterprise of Death before this one and really liked the setting and narrative style. They are the kind of books that you have to deliberately read slowly because there is so much depth to each sentence. Also it's just loving hysterical, reminds me of my brother and I, minus all the grave robbing. Okay, maybe even the grave robbing. 
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Jul 21, 2012 20:54
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Just began Dune. My dad gave this to me to read when I was in late elementary or early middle school. Needless to say, I didn't get much out of it and it went over my head. He also gave me the Hitchikers Guide series around that time but that was a bit easier to digest (and I loved it). 
stimulated emission fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jul 22, 2012 |
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Jul 22, 2012 05:00
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Edited because I wrote what I had just finished-- didn't realize there was a separate thread for that. What I'm starting is David Brin's Existence, which I'm expecting to absolutely love.
Suntory BOSS fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Jul 23, 2012 |
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Jul 23, 2012 04:15
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I got Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding and love it so far. It reminds me a bit of Franzen or Chabon. I also downloaded the ebook of Adam Levin's The Instructions, which is supposedly great. Excited for both of these books, they were huge hits last year.
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Jul 24, 2012 01:19
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For something a little bit different since I have read it several times, I just pre-ordered the new hardcover edition of American Psycho (first time in the US) signed by Bret Easton Ellis. It was over $150 the other day and dropped to $122.85. I wanted the UK version of the hardcover but has been going for over $200 easily. http://www.amazon.com/American-Psyc...american+psycho The last time I got a signed book was a James Ellroy book back in the 90's. My stupid Ex got mad at me and ripped out signature page back in 99.
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Jul 25, 2012 23:51
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As the new month begins I am 100 pages into The Shining by Stephen King, which is already very atmospheric and has phenomenally good writing and characterization. I can see why it's commonly considered among his very best novels. I'm looking forward to the sequel which will be coming out in 2013. I am also slightly more than 100 pages into Survival, the first book of the Species Imperative trilogy by Julie E Czerneda. She herself is a biologist and this series is a space opera about an earth biologist who gets caught up in galactic affairs. So far the book has a lot of cool ideas about the field of biology in the future, and promises to be a really exciting story with awesome alien races (reminds me a lot of David Brin's Uplift books so far).
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Jul 31, 2012 12:37
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I just discovered writer Megan Abbott. After finishing The Song is You by her, I have ordered her newest book Dare Me and her other book The End of Everything. I have really enjoyed her noir storytelling so far.
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Aug 3, 2012 21:17
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Just started Tristram Shandy. Been interested in this for a while, since it's supposed to be funny and interesting in how it stretches what a novel actually is, so I figured after finishing Fielding's Tom Jones a little while back, why not tackle another cool 18th century author.
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Aug 5, 2012 04:27
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Just started The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace. Heading back to school soon and I want to stock up on books to read 
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Aug 5, 2012 15:55
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RebBrownies posted:Just started The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace. Have you read any of his other books before? I loved Broom of the System, in some ways more than Infinite Jest, and want to re-read it when I get time. To continue the DFW trend, I finally bought a copy of The Pale King. Truth be told, I am nervous about reading it. My anxiety was calmed a little bit after reading the intro by the editor (DFW's long time editor who assembled Pale King). It sounds like he worked on it with utmost care and respect for Wallace.
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Aug 5, 2012 16:24
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thathonkey posted:Have you read any of his other books before? I loved Broom of the System, in some ways more than Infinite Jest, and want to re-read it when I get time. I just read The Pale King. It was my first David Foster Wallace book and I really loved it. It was very unusual and some of the chapters were breathtaking to me. So I am really excited to move along with The Broom of the System
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Aug 6, 2012 03:27
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Today, since my tax return just came in, I treated myself to two absolute monster books. Firstly, the complete Bone graphic novel in one 1400-page paperback. I've heard tons of good things about it and my best friend is absolutely obsessed with it so I am really looking forward to reading it. Secondly I got this absolute beast:  Over a thousand pages, full of chapters with all the latest research about dinosaur anatomy, physiology, behaviour, evolution, phylogenetics, taxonomy, taphonomy, and a million other things. And gorgeous colour plates. I am drooling over its pages. It's absolute palaeontology porn. 
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Aug 6, 2012 08:53
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Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. I've read the first few chapters and I'm really enjoying it, Someone told me the ending is absolutely terrible, So I'm a bit apprehensive to read any more. Anyone else read it? Is it worth finishing? Bawjaws fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Aug 6, 2012 |
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Aug 6, 2012 11:44
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Just started Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham.
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Aug 6, 2012 12:33
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I'm moving to Berlin next week and I'm about a third of the way through Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts. So far I'm really enjoying it, and yesterday for whatever reason it was un-put-down-able. I'm saving Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin for the plane, since it'll probably be a really short read.
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Aug 6, 2012 19:50
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Ok so I am on chapter 6 of The Pale King and I love it so far. I've caught myself chuckling or straight up laughing out loud more than a couple times so far which doesn't happen a lot when I'm reading. I can't shake the very bitter-sweet feeling that this is the last novel I'll ever read of Wallace's 
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Aug 8, 2012 05:07
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Just bought The Ionian Mission by Patrick O'Brian and Ancient Worlds by Richard Miles. The latter is actually a birthday present for a friend which I'm hoping to get signed by Dr. Miles himself who is a professor at my university. We've both had him as a lecturer and tutor before and he's just wonderful.
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Aug 8, 2012 10:06
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I personally am currently reading The Sugar-Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner.
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Aug 8, 2012 17:27
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Bawjaws posted:Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. Personally I really liked the book and I didn't have any issues with the ending. I thought it wasn't particularly good in the sense that it wasn't a mind-blowing twist or anything, but I didn't think it was bad either, and certainly not worth giving up on a really good book for. As for me, I just started Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege by Antony Beevor and We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen, and am switching between the two. I'm really liking both of them, Beevor is great at writing approachable, enjoyable history, and Jensen's novel of the citizens of a Danish port town in the 1800s and beyond and their seafaring adventures has a great lyrical quality to the prose that reminds me of the greats of nineteenth-century literature that both Mr. Jensen and the translator who managed to preserve that quality should really be commended for. I'm looking forward to continuing in both of them.
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Aug 9, 2012 15:30
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I've just started reading Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham. I'm simultaneously looking forward to and dreading taking it on the bus to uni tomorrow. I'm sure if people see the title they're bound to think it smut but then I can be inwardly smug about my taste in literature.
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Aug 12, 2012 11:59
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Just began Daniel O'Malley's The Rook on the recommendation of a friend. Only about 10% into it but I am enjoying it so far. Strong opening, good sense of mystery, and I'm intrigued & excited. Next on my list is either going to be Storms of My Grandchildren by James Hansen or The Magician King by Lev Grossman.
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Aug 13, 2012 00:48
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I'm a quarter of the way into Contact by Carl Sagan, which is pretty great, but there's something weird about the way that Sagan conveys really important events through dialogue only. In a lot of scenes there's no description whatsoever of the interesting thing happening, it's just characters discussing it. Reviews I've heard have been mixed as to whether the book or the movie is better. For me, the movie is absolutely flawless and is probably my favourite science fiction movie ever, so it'll take a lot to top that. I asked in the recommendation thread for a book about the history of astronomy and then randomly browsing in my uni's bookstore I found The Story of Astronomy by Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest. It's pretty slim, 240 pages in total, but it seems to cover everything I wanted to read about, from ancient civilisations all the way to modern discoveries/exploration. It will probably focus mainly on the historical figures and be light on the astrophysics, but I can always find another book for that aspect of the subject.
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Aug 16, 2012 14:31
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In a local charity store yesterday, I found and bought Dune by Frank Herbert, and The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. I've wanted to read Dune for a while now but I haven't been a persistent book-reader since my childhood. I'm hoping I'll be able to get into it once I start reading it, I fear TV and video games may have ruined my attention span somewhat.
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Aug 17, 2012 04:03
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My wife got me The Dog Stars, as it's apparently the hot book for the end of summer and she thought I'd like it. Anyone else read it? It's good so far (about 50 pages in); it's going to be a really quick read.
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Aug 17, 2012 15:20
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I've been listening to The Third Gate by Lincoln Child while traveling for work. It is so bad. Like, infuriatingly stupid and terrible. It seems like it's going to be a standard archaeology thriller, then goes full retard with empaths and psychics and all kinds of stupid poo poo. Koryk fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 15:38
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Koryk posted:I've been listening to The Third Gate by Lincoln Child while traveling for work. It is so bad. Like, infuriatingly stupid and terrible.
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Aug 17, 2012 16:06
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Syrinxx posted:Isn't that guy a goon? I know there's some goon that writes bad airport fiction to pay the bills. No, that's Andy McDermott, who posts here as Payndz. I really like Lincoln Child's work with Douglas Preston, any book the two of them collaborate on is pretty much guaranteed to be entertaining, shame to hear Child's solo stuff isn't any good.
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Aug 17, 2012 17:20
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WeaponGradeSadness posted:No, that's Andy McDermott, who posts here as Payndz. Isn't he the guy who wrote a novel about a steampunk circus or something? Or was that someone else. I picked up Jonathan Eig's Luckiest Man yesterday. It's a pretty through biography of Lou Gehrig and I'm looking forward to reading it.
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Aug 17, 2012 18:13
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barkingclam posted:Isn't he the guy who wrote a novel about a steampunk circus or something? Or was that someone else. That's someone else, who I can't remember. McDermott/Payndz writes the Eddie Chase/Nina Wilde adventure stories, which are Indiana Jones or Uncharted-style adventures. I really enjoyed the first one but have yet to continue in the series. As for me, I grabbed Johannes Cabal the Detective, sequel to Johannes Cabal the Necromancer. I adored the first book but this one's not grabbing me as much as the first one did. I've still got a few good laughs out of the dark humor and Cabal is still the same likable bastard though, and I'm not real far into it anyway, the actual plot is still being set up, so I'll keep with it. It's not bad, it's just good but not as good as the first, so far.
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Aug 17, 2012 18:37
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