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After going on a bit of a Sci-Fi binge I've been trying to douche my brain a bit, so I just finished up Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold, which was excellent. Now, I'm reading the recent Pevear translation of The Three Musketeers, and so far, it's a whole lot of fun. Talk about a book that just bounds around with seemingly ceaseless energy...
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Aug 17, 2012 18:38
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Sale going on at my university's book store. I managed to grab: NP - Banana Yoshimoto Time Out of Joint - Philip K. Dick The Clocks - Agatha Christie Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie Anathem - Neal Stephenson
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Aug 23, 2012 04:31
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Just started reading the second book in the Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever; The One Tree by Stephen Donaldson. Definitely interesting, and I think that the fact that they're leaving the Land to journey across the ocean could be a nice breath of fresh air. Although I'm not bored of the Land, I definitely think it'll be good to read about Covenant's journey through completely new areas, that'll likely be a good deal different from what Covenant (and the readers too, by extension) is used to. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to continuing it!
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Aug 23, 2012 05:23
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I started reading Lionel Asbo: State of England by Martin Amis last evening. I've been looking forward to it for awhile now and so far it's quite good. Lionel reminds me of Keith from London Fields.
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Aug 23, 2012 06:02
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I just started Coffinman by Shinmon Aoki. It's interesting how they worked the English translation, since tenses can jump around at random, but I like it so far. After that, I have three or four sci-fi short story compilations I got halfway through and need to finish.
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Aug 23, 2012 06:51
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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.
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Aug 23, 2012 12:29
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Payndz posted:I've been besmirched! This besmirchment will not stand!
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Aug 23, 2012 16:34
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Syrinxx posted:In the interest of fairness I'm going to buy The Hunt for Atlantis at Audible and see if I like it. Hope the narrator is good. Tell me if it's good! I've seen Andy McDermott (that's you, isn't it Payndz? Can't remember, but I believe that's it) books around, but haven't really heard about if I'd like them or not - and anyone who has Deadpool as their avatar must have good taste!  EDIT: Alternatively/additionally, can anyone tell me what authors' novels are similar to Payndz's series? Just so I can get a better feel for what his novels are like. Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 04:39 on Aug 24, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 04:29
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e: I don't know why the gently caress I posted any of this.
Conduit for Sale! fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Aug 27, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 08:48
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Major Isoor posted:Tell me if it's good! I've seen Andy McDermott (that's you, isn't it Payndz? Can't remember, but I believe that's it) books around, but haven't really heard about if I'd like them or not - and anyone who has Deadpool as their avatar must have good taste! They're archaeology/mythology-themed action adventure, so the same genre as James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, Chris Kuzneski, Scott Mariani, Steve Berry and Clive Cussler. "Indiana Jones meets James Bond"-type stuff, basically. If that sounds like your thing, and you accept going in that you won't find anything resembling high art (I'm more about exploding helicopters and cheesy post-kill wisecracks), you'll hopefully enjoy them.
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Aug 24, 2012 09:05
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Payndz posted:Yep, that's me. Ah, I'm familiar with both Matthew Reilly and Clive Cussler. I take it you're referring to the Jack West Jr. series? ('Seven Ancient Wonders', etc. that is) If so, that's definitely a plus, as I enjoyed those a fair bit. I didn't really get into his other series, sadly, as that seemed to just be a little too wacky and shallow plot-wise, for my liking. (Although the archaeology/mythology element to the Jack West series made things a lot more interesting for those books) Also, do you by any chance do the one thing I found irritating in the one book (so far, anyway) I've bought of Clive Cussler's; which is to write himself into the book, and give the protagonists a major piece of information, when they came to a dead end. That grated on me a fair bit, if I'm honest. (I've got no issue with the author making a cameo or something, but telling the protagonist/s what to do next - and in such a blatant way - isn't really what I buy books to read) But yeah, I may have to check out your series, soon - especially if they fit into what I've written above! (and sorry for the slight wall-of-text, there! )
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Aug 24, 2012 12:31
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I've only ever read one Clive Cussler book, and when I got to the point where the heroes were stranded in the middle of the Pacific with no food or water and a boat appeared out of nowhere piloted by a man who introduced himself by saying "Hello, I'm Clive Cussler", I decided that was how things would stay. 
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Aug 24, 2012 13:50
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Payndz posted:I've only ever read one Clive Cussler book, and when I got to the point where the heroes were stranded in the middle of the Pacific with no food or water and a boat appeared out of nowhere piloted by a man who introduced himself by saying "Hello, I'm Clive Cussler", I decided that was how things would stay. Oh wow, so he's really made a habit of it? Geez. Well, I suppose it's good news that you were equally shocked by that as I was! I may need to take him off the to-buy list, and put you onto it, I'm thinking..
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Aug 24, 2012 14:21
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Payndz posted:I've only ever read one Clive Cussler book, and when I got to the point where the heroes were stranded in the middle of the Pacific with no food or water and a boat appeared out of nowhere piloted by a man who introduced himself by saying "Hello, I'm Clive Cussler", I decided that was how things would stay. It gets worse. There's one book where he shows up and says "Hello, I'm Clive Cussler, but everyone calls me 'Dad'".
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Aug 24, 2012 16:11
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Andy, I bought your book. Sorry if I came across as a butthole I didn't mean to say your books were bad, just remembered that you called them light reads/airport fiction. 
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Aug 24, 2012 17:57
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Syrinxx posted:Andy,
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Aug 24, 2012 18:49
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Payndz posted:I've only ever read one Clive Cussler book, and when I got to the point where the heroes were stranded in the middle of the Pacific with no food or water and a boat appeared out of nowhere piloted by a man who introduced himself by saying "Hello, I'm Clive Cussler", I decided that was how things would stay. rereading them was such a bad experience after loving them as a kid. There's all sorts of vague "dad racism" and misogynist comments. I remember when hero Dirk Pitt was infiltrating a chinese compound there were references to "whatever passed as music to those orientals" and such. Paragon8 fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Aug 25, 2012 |
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Aug 25, 2012 13:18
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Went to Half Price Books and bought: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick Piercing - Ryu Murakami All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarty Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie I finished reading Time out of Joint yesterday and wanted to try more of PKD's work. I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but it kept me interested. What other titles should I try by him? I also several chapters into Agatha Christie's, The Clocks. I enjoy most of her books and read them to relax; they're formulaic but addicting.
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Aug 27, 2012 09:04
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silver_bananas posted:I finished reading Time out of Joint yesterday and wanted to try more of PKD's work. I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but it kept me interested. What other titles should I try by him? I've only read A Scanner Darkly of PKD's works, but it's pretty amazing. It really nails this sense of mounting paranoia throughout. There also happens to be an excellent movie adaptation of it.
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Aug 27, 2012 14:45
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Just started C. Northcote Parkinson's admirable biography Jeeves. I knew that Parkinson had written a biography of Horatio Hornblower but I never got round to reading it. I only chanced to see the one on Jeeves in the library when I was looking up other books. So far it's making for a good light read.
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Sep 1, 2012 05:04
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silver_bananas posted:I finished reading Time out of Joint yesterday and wanted to try more of PKD's work. I'm not a huge sci-fi reader but it kept me interested. What other titles should I try by him? It kinda died off, but there is an actual PKD thread. Not that this is the recommendation thread, but I'd say A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream..., Flow, My Tears..., Eye in the Sky, and Ubik are my top five.
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Sep 1, 2012 12:41
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Just finished Stephen King's "The Wastelands" and onto "Wizard and Glass" now. The wife has been on my rear end to read the Dark Tower series for years now and I am finally getting to it. Once I schlogged through "The Gunslinger" it smoothed out quite a bit.
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Sep 2, 2012 03:06
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Just started the Gerald Bevan translation of Tocqueville's Democracy In America. It's really dense so far, but I told myself I'd read it before the election ended. Has anyone else read it? Any tips on getting the most out of Tocqueville?
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Sep 3, 2012 23:38
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Just started the first volume of Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization. This first volume briefly covers pre-history, the very early near-eastern civilizations, and surveys India, China, and Japan. The later volumes are much more detailed but focus almost exclusively on western civilization. The emphasis is not so much on dates and names, but on things like commerce, cultural aspects, religion, philosophy, everyday morality, literature, architecture, etc. The authors include many aspects of history that are less known but extremly interesting, such as Akhenaten, who may have created the world's first form of monotheism and was one of the very few genuine pacifists among the ancients. So far an amazing book and I'm not even done with the first volume.
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Sep 4, 2012 14:39
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I'm just about 100 pages into Kitchen Confidential and holy crap, I never how messed up it is to be a chef. Bourdain has given me a new respect for the people who cook my food.
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Sep 6, 2012 02:13
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My University's annual bookfair is on at the moment and as I helped prepare for it I got the first pick of the books. I bought: - Two Patrick O'Brian books from the Aubrey-Maturin series. Not ones I need right now, but still good to have since they were $2 each - The Selected Esquire Reader. A selection of articles from the 30s and 40s when it was a considerably different publication - A history of Salisbury published in 1834 which I got for $10. The binding has collapsed so I'll have to repair it before I can read it though - A three volume collection of the selected short stories of Somerset Maugham - A three volume collection of the selected novels of Somerset Maugham - A book titled Lost Villages of England by Maurice Beresford - Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet, presented in a massive one volume hardback. Unfortunately I have absolutely no time to read any of these. 
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Sep 9, 2012 13:21
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Recently started back in on Capital. I'm sure I needn't highlight the substance, the broad outlines of which are probably familiar to everyone, but I have to say I'm always surprised at what what an engaging and compelling read it is. It's really well worth reading for anyone, whether the reader is or is not sympathetic or otherwise particularly interested in political economy.
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Sep 9, 2012 19:03
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Just bought Rome: An Empire's Story. http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780199775293-0 Can't wait for it to get here...
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Sep 10, 2012 07:42
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I have just begun reading The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker since I have several profs who seem to be Pinker fans, and oh man what a large tome; what am I getting myself into here. Least I'll be able to intelligently discuss recent claims made by any folks droppin' evopsych  in the near future.Two chapters in: the first chapter feels largely like rhetorical bluster so as to prime the reader to accept Pinker's thesis that violence has declined through more examples and less data. The second is significantly more substantial and interesting, being essentially an attempt to update Hobbes' Leviathan hypothesis in the light of modern biology, sociology, and anthropology. The meatiest slice of evidence he provides here is a graph of deaths due to warfare in state societies and non-state societies which I'm going to go back and take a second look at. My big issue with it is Pinker's tendency to take potshots at the claims of a nebulous left-leaning "some anthropologists" and I don't come away with a clear idea of the potential objections to the claims he is advancing. Also reading Don Quixote 
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Sep 10, 2012 09:29
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WeaponGradeSadness posted: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. The third one is excellent though. Two is definitely in third place, but I'm torn between whether i like the first or third book better.
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Sep 10, 2012 21:26
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Devices & Desires by K.J. Parker was recommended to me at length by a friend, so it's just been bought and put on top of the stack. As per usual, I have no idea where I'm going to start in said stack.
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Sep 12, 2012 09:05
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About 10% into The Hunt for Atlantis by Andy McDermott. It's lots of fun so far and the Audible performer is actually quite good at narrative. Unfortunately he's really bad at character voices. So far this is the book equivalent of a summer popcorn flick and I'm enjoying it.
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Sep 12, 2012 18:35
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Bought a whole stack of John Mortimer's Rumpole books yesterday. Never read them but I've heard of Rumpole and I got them cheap.
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Sep 13, 2012 01:42
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Zhaan posted:Devices & Desires by K.J. Parker was recommended to me at length by a friend, so it's just been bought and put on top of the stack. As per usual, I have no idea where I'm going to start in said stack. I do own this, but I have avoided it like the plague since remembering that K.J. Parker wrote The Scavenger trilogy. I thought the name sounded familiar at the time but couldn't place it until i was too late. When you do read it, consider reporting back on how much blood/gore there is in it. This was what made me put the Scavenger trilogy in a back room somewhere and never go near it again. A shame, because I remember the rest of the writing being pretty okay.
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Sep 13, 2012 11:39
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 Started this on Monday. I'm about 80% through, and I definitely like it, but at some points I am not sure why. If you like Pahlinuk, I suggest that you give this a try. Lots of uncomfortable bits, lots of funny bits, lots of sad bits... Was my thrift store 1$ pickup from last weekend, glad I picked this up (which I did for no particular reason, it just looked... different).
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Sep 13, 2012 15:32
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Just got This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz and Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. Looking forward to reading them both.
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Sep 13, 2012 16:12
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I just started Harry Harrison's Deathworld saga. I got it in a collection of eleven of his stories for $1.99 at the Kindle store. Not sure why it was so cheap.
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Sep 13, 2012 23:06
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civilian.d posted:
Is that the James Gunn that wrote the Dawn of the Dead remake and was married to Pam from the Office? Edit: Well I be drat it is.
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Sep 14, 2012 01:23
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screenwritersblues posted:Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. Please update us when you finish this! I just discovered Chabon recently, and although I've only read The Yiddish Policemen's Union so far I really dig his style.
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Sep 14, 2012 01:52
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nate fisher posted:Is that the James Gunn that wrote the Dawn of the Dead remake and was married to Pam from the Office? Yup, he's actually done more writing for the screen than otherwise, I believe. It lends to a choppy scene-change sort of narrative style, which can be infuriating if done incorrectly, but I think his screenwriting background helps him pull it off.
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Sep 14, 2012 04:50
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