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Aberlien posted:Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and I can't put it down, even for my own good (true crime novels and I after midnight have a bad history, just ask Robert Graysmith). I fell in love with the 1966 movie a few years ago, and after finishing Helter Skelter on Thursday, was on the lookout for some more true crime novels and found a first edition of In True Blood at the used bookstore last night; immaculate condition, only 12 bucks. Even with my terrible reading habits I've blazed through 150 pages so far.
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Nov 17, 2012 01:45
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I just bought the most recent Vince Flynn The Last Man and Dean Koontz's Odd Apocalypse. Not sure if I should re-read the whole Odd Thomas series again before hitting the new one, since it's been a rather long time since I'd read any of them.
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Nov 17, 2012 09:11
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Just got Pratchett's Mort on my Kindle after having read the first three Discworld novels. The first two was great. Equal Rites started out good, but I felt it got a bit unfocused towards the end. This one (Mort) is great so far, though!
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Nov 17, 2012 21:33
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Started reading two books at the same time and just flippy floppy back and forth between them. One Two Three Infinty - George Gamow and Manhattan Project The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb - Stephane Groueff
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Nov 18, 2012 02:45
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I just started Rowling's The Casual Vacancy and I have Londoners by Craig Taylor on the shelf for when I finish.
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Nov 18, 2012 20:14
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Granbar posted:Just got Pratchett's Mort on my Kindle after having read the first three Discworld novels. The first two was great. Equal Rites started out good, but I felt it got a bit unfocused towards the end. This one (Mort) is great so far, though! Coincidentally, I just got Sourcery, after reading the first four Discworld novels a while back. Mort definitely felt more cohesive than Equal Rites, to me at least.
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Nov 19, 2012 17:17
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I just finished rereading Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune, and also read Daniel Keyes Flowers for Algernon. Flowers for Algernon really left me in one hell of a state after the final page. Started reading based on movies coming out: Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell Life of Pi - Yann Martel Picked up for a classics kick: Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
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Nov 20, 2012 11:04
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Am a bit into Les Misérables, which I'm enjoying, coming off finishing Don Quixote, and getting ready to watching the 10th anniversary musical then the movie that is coming out. The french in Les Misérables is hard to swallow, and 90% of the references to current day 1893-1820 Paris, even after reading The Count of Monte Cristo over and over, goes over my head.
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Nov 20, 2012 11:22
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After reading a few interesting articles and blog posts about the subject online I just ordered The Nine Nations of North America by Joel Garreau on Amazon, along with the similarly themed American Nations: A History or Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard, and Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in North America. While I wait for them to ship I'm rereading Dracula.
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Nov 20, 2012 21:27
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Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating it. About to begin The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints by Alban Butler. The full 12 volume version is almost impossible to find in ebook form unless you get poor quality public domain scans. I encountered some very interesting stories about some of the early saints from other history books and decided this work would be worth reading.
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Nov 23, 2012 01:22
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Starting The Best American Short Stories 2012. Although I don't understand why it's the 2012 when all of the stories came out in 2011.
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Nov 23, 2012 01:50
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Just started Independence Day by Richard Ford. His prose is always good but there is something awkward in how he describes minority characters.
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Nov 23, 2012 05:59
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screenwritersblues posted:Starting The Best American Short Stories 2012. Although I don't understand why it's the 2012 when all of the stories came out in 2011. That's simply because they wait until the year is over and then begin to sort through stuff that they think was notable. Then the year's guest editor gets a list of a couple hundred things and works through that, selecting those that end up in the year's volume. So they end up lagging behind, but I guess if they published a book with "2011" in its title in the fall of 2012 nobody would buy it because they'd think it was 'old' -- and therefore obviously not worth taking note of, since we all know that everything that is older than a week is irrelevant to our lives. Whoops, that turned into a rant...
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Nov 23, 2012 13:31
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Just picked up two books: Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste, an anthology of Lester Bangs' music writing and a giant, unabridged copy of Boswell's Life of Johnson. I figure if nothing else, Boswell will keep me company if I get snowed in or something this winter. Looking forward to both, though.
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Nov 24, 2012 18:09
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Just started the Dresden Files, from the beginning. I may or may not move all the way through the series steadily. Depends on whether I get tired of the writing.
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Nov 30, 2012 01:18
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rufius posted:Just started the Dresden Files, from the beginning. I may or may not move all the way through the series steadily. Depends on whether I get tired of the writing. Let me be the first to drop in from the Dresden thread to remind you not to give up until you've read book 3. The first 2 books are very weak in several ways that do improve starting in the third. If you hate it after book 3 then it probably won't get any better for you.
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Nov 30, 2012 08:13
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wheatpuppy posted:Let me be the first to drop in from the Dresden thread to remind you not to give up until you've read book 3. The first 2 books are very weak in several ways that do improve starting in the third. If you hate it after book 3 then it probably won't get any better for you. It occurs to me that my post made it sound like it was a trial. While I find the writing of the first book a bit weak, I'm still enjoying it. It's good to hear it'll get better. I felt like Sanderson's first Mistborn novel (The Final Empire) had a *lot* of rough edges and that as you read the second and third novels, you could see his skills develop. I really enjoy reading authors' works and seeing their skill progress. Sounds like this is what happens to Butcher's writing as well.
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Nov 30, 2012 14:59
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Just started a short little historical book called The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millenium. The title pretty much explains what the book is about, but the interesting thing is that it's divided in 12 chapters, one for each month of the year. I love me some history, and this light read is just what I need after finishing one of the most brutal (and awesome) books I've ever read, Blood Meridian.
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Dec 3, 2012 13:35
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I picked up a copy of Moonheart by Charles de Lint, on the basis of a) it's not part of a series, b) it doesn't have gratuitous silly names, and c) the cover looks evocative. Other than that I have 0 de Lint experience, does anyone recommend him?
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Dec 3, 2012 16:41
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Tardigrade posted:I picked up a copy of Moonheart by Charles de Lint, on the basis of a) it's not part of a series, b) it doesn't have gratuitous silly names, and c) the cover looks evocative. Other than that I have 0 de Lint experience, does anyone recommend him? I love Charles De Lint. Urban fantasy without the squick. Nice bit of romance without being too sappy. Moonheart is a personal favorite.
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Dec 5, 2012 04:32
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Trying for the 300th time to get into The Master and the Margarita and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I really want to read them but I always find myself putting them down.
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Dec 5, 2012 19:14
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Been on a short story kick. Finished We Can Remember it For You Wholesale, just started Kelly Link's Magic For Beginners, downloaded a bunch of old science fiction stories from ManyBooks and got a few free Philip K Dick stories from Amazon.
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Dec 7, 2012 06:02
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The Signal and the Noise, thanks to D&D's Nate Silver thread I entered on a whim (  )Cold Days: The Dresden Files book 14. Both in audiobook format.
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Dec 7, 2012 10:14
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Just started In One Person, by John Irving. I love me some John Irving.
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Dec 7, 2012 22:13
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rufius posted:
This is nice to hear because I'm about halfway through the first Mistborn book and really enjoying it. Looking forward to even better ones.
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Dec 12, 2012 06:38
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Syrinxx posted:This is nice to hear because I'm about halfway through the first Mistborn book and really enjoying it. Looking forward to even better ones. Be sure to read the "Alloy of Law", a one off that he wrote based in the same world during a later time period. It is probably the best written of the four books, but I didn't care for the story as much. Another friend loves this story.
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Dec 13, 2012 00:03
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Just started James Clavell's Shogun and am really hooked. Never read his stuff before but I did Patrick O'Brian (Master and Commander) which I'm led to understand have a similar... feel.
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Dec 13, 2012 00:04
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James Clavell's Shogun is one of my favorite books! Because of you I will check the works of Patrick O'Brian.
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Dec 13, 2012 02:31
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Just started The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler.
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Dec 14, 2012 20:44
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Just bought Selected Poems and Selected Non-Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges. I already have and love his Complete Fictions and I figured I needed to complete the set. It would be nice if the poetry and non-fiction collections were also complete but from what I understand that would make them thousands of pages long and the Selected volumes are the largest collections of Borges in translation anyway so I'm not going to complain.
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Dec 14, 2012 23:35
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Just started John Scalzi's Redshirts audiobook, and so help me God, after going through just the second chapter, I want to stab him in the eyes. Bear with me. It's narrated by Wil Wheaton, star of stage, screen, (internet  ) and voice. I grew up during the TNG era, and his parts annoyed the poo poo out of me, because I firmly believe that child-actors and sci-fi shows should never, ever, mix. That said, the narrative is pretty good. And Wil's narration is done well. Well enough, in fact, that I was getting used to his distinctive accent and suspending my disbelief, when suddenly, I hear:"*" Duval said. "*" Dahl said. "*" Duval said. "*" Dahl said. "*" Duval said. "*" Dahl said. - in very quick succession. And Scalzi keeps writing this way, every chapter, with every character, during every loving discussion. What the gently caress? Didn't his english teacher ever tell him not to do this? To mix it up a little, with "exclaimed", and "remarked"? "Replied", and "called back", et cetera? You know, right before he showed him what a loving thesaurus is? How could he (or his editor/publisher) loving look at that and go, "Yup, looks like a solid best-seller to me!", and send it to the printers with nary a second glance? I'm pretty sure I was taught this before I even entered high school.  It's really not that bad of a book. It takes the cliches typical of the Kirk era, mixes in the meta, fourth-wall aspect of Galaxy Quest, and adds a liberal dose of both humour and profanity. Wil Wheaton is a pretty good voice actor once you get past the whole "Wesley Crusher: Boy Genius" albatross that's been hanging from his neck for over a decade. But while the exposition is written with geat suspense, humour, and timing, the writing of the dialogue, while funny, is just so... amateur. I'm gonna finish it, because the plot has it's hooks in me, but ugh, it won't be nearly as fun as it could be. Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 04:45
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Actually, just using "said" for every spoken line is the preferred method. It's something that comes up relatively often in the fiction writing threads here on SA, because novice writers will do exactly what you're suggesting: Try to spice up the prose with words like "replied" and "exclaimed" and "asked" and so on. It's frowned upon because it's usually redundant. Like in your example, we already know from the context that Dahl is "replying" to Duval. And if somebody is "exclaiming" that should be clear from the context and the punctuation. Obviously sometimes a word like "mumbled" or "yelled" is called for, but the ratio of "said" to every other word like it should be more like 50:1 than 5:1. I'd guess the reason that it stands out to you is that you're listening to the book instead of reading. In the text "x said" is mostly just there so you can keep track of who is saying what. Naked lines of dialogue would be easier to look at, but it would be easy to get lost, especially if there's more than two characters talking at once. So you need the "x said"s to keep things straight, even if it is repetitive. Your eyes sort of pass it over, though. If a reader is doing even slightly different voices for different characters, the "x said" bits will stand out as themselves redundant (and repetitive), and grate. To be honest I think I remember hearing an audiobook version of one of the Harry Potter books, and thinking that "he said" and "she said" seemed to come up way too often. It's just something that needs to be there for a reader but isn't as important for a listener. Definitely stick with Redshirts though, it's pretty great. To contribute, I'm only partway though Noam Chomsky's Failed States, which details the way the USA has many of the characteristics of the countries our leaders demonize: Acting against world opinion, terrorist activity in other nations, failing to apply the standards we hold others to to ourselves. I'm aware of a lot of the stuff he brings up, but litany of examples is just so relentless and depressing (but very eye opening). I can only read a chapter or two at a time. Still worth it though, and Chomsky's brand of sarcasm makes it bearable.
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Dec 15, 2012 05:59
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Mister Macys posted:"*" Duval said. Goddamn, that annoyed the hell out of me too when I was reading Redshirts. I had been looking forward to reading Scalzi stuff before Redshirts, but if he writes like that in all of his books, no thanks.
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Dec 15, 2012 08:58
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Prolonged Priapism posted:but the ratio of "said" to every other word like it should be more like 50:1 than 5:1. I'm calling bullshit on this, because if it's true, Scalzi is literally the first authour I've heard or read, who comes anywhere near that ratio. That being
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Dec 15, 2012 10:55
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I just started The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. I'm only 1 story in, but Rats in the Walls was phenomenal.
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Dec 15, 2012 16:19
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Every Dead Thing Wanted to get into a good series of crime thrillers and this came highly recommended.
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Dec 15, 2012 21:38
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Mister Macys posted:I'm calling bullshit on this, because if it's true, Scalzi is literally the first authour I've heard or read, who comes anywhere near that ratio. I don't know about exact ratios, but "said" is preferred for statements and "asked" is preferred for questions. They're meant to be unobtrusive tags. Trying to enliven a story by breaking this convention is considered amateurish because it's substituting telling for showing. If a character is annoyed, that should be apparent in context. You shouldn't have to write "he groaned." That said, I'm not familiar with the book. If the author really is writing long passages consisting only of lines of dialogue, each with a "said" attached, then that's bad too. In long exchanges between two characters the tag can be omitted once the pattern is established. With conversations involving multiple characters, you should be weaving in action. One technique for ditching a speech tag is to attach it to a character's action in the same paragraph. Ex: Blipblap sniffed at it. "I don't think this smells right." There the speaker is implied, and a speech tag is unnecessary. That all being said, it's not a rule, it's a guideline. That's the way it is with most writing rules you'll hear. There are circumstances when you may want to modify or change the normal speech tag, such as when the speaker's tone or mood contradicts what's expected. jasoneatspizza fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 22:20
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Floofykins posted:That said, I'm not familiar with the book. If the author really is writing long passages consisting only of lines of dialogue, each with a "said" attached, then that's bad too. Scalzi does this. No joke, I'm talking 6-12 lines of conversation with just "said", or "asked". Almost no variation, implication, or description. I've listened to dozens of authors, and he's the first I've ever heard who does this. Believe me, it's instantly noticeable. Card, Butcher, Abercrombie, Tolkien, Jordan, Pratchett, etc... none of these authors pulls that poo poo. Welp, Scalzi just namedropped Star Trek and shattered the fourth wall. He could write 90% of the rest of the book with "derp", and it won't matter, because I ain't stopping. 
Mister Facetious fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Dec 16, 2012 |
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Dec 16, 2012 00:20
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Nosy_G posted:I just started The Best of H.P. Lovecraft. I'm only 1 story in, but Rats in the Walls was phenomenal. That's one of his best stories. Don't be surprised when the quality dips quite a bit.
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Dec 16, 2012 01:07
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WastedJoker posted:Every Dead Thing Very slow 12hr shift at work allowed me to finish this pretty hefty book in one sitting. Loved it. Bird Parker is an interesting lead and the way Connelly rights has a lovely cadence.
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Dec 16, 2012 21:50
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