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Tracher posted:I just finished Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. About a navy seal in Afghanistan. It was sad but a good story. I couldn't stop reading it until the end. All the political ranting about liberals and the state of Texas made me put it down right after I picked it up.
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May 25, 2013 23:26
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Columbine (Dave Cullen): I read so many glowing reports on it, then found a copy at a thrift store. It hadn't been a priority on my reading list, but rocketed up. I read it in four days. It's odd. I was the same age as Klebold and Harris. I remember it happening, remember a bit of the news coverage that afternoon. Remember the rumor that some dumb kid had used it as a threat the next morning at my school. But the biggest memory I had was from weeks later. We read Hamlet in English and our annotated version described one of the symbols in the text. It was a columbine flower. It meant sorrow. There is no true understanding about anything other than the black and white facts. Klebold was more interesting, mainly because he was so much of an unknown, a kid that was so pliable. It's quite an interesting read, Cullen wrote everything so well, the pacing's wonderful. Hope, anger and understanding, often within the same chapter. Highly recommended, even just for the first section that laid everything out as it happened. Cullen wisely offers no wild theories, just the one that Harris was a psychopath. I think it fits well. In every chapter your jaw drops at just how good he was at manipulation.
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May 26, 2013 07:33
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I have recently finished reading the first two books of the Dresden Files series: Storm Front and Fool Moon. Both books were enjoyable but I do hope the rest of the series does not follow the same scheme of something happening, Harry starts investigating, someone outmanoeuvres him and he manages to pull something out of his hat and save the day.
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May 26, 2013 23:20
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dorijan posted:I have recently finished reading the first two books of the Dresden Files series: Storm Front and Fool Moon. Both books were enjoyable but I do hope the rest of the series does not follow the same scheme of something happening, Harry starts investigating, someone outmanoeuvres him and he manages to pull something out of his hat and save the day. The first two books are considered "the poo poo ones". That said, the structure or the tone don't really change, he just executes it better.
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May 26, 2013 23:49
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Columbine (Dave Cullen): I read so many glowing reports on it, then found a copy at a thrift store... I picked this book up on a whim and was very glad I did. His depictions of Harris and Klebold are very carefully shaded and well done. Cullen also does an amazing job tearing apart every "explanation" for these crimes that arose in the days after. Obviously in a situation like this people want answers, and Cullen shows what an infantile instinct this can be, and more importantly, how damaging the rush to blame people is to the process of actually figuring out what happened and why. Every parent wants to think, "well, thank God my kid couldn't grow up to be like that awful Eric Harris," when it's clear these parents were about as involved in their kids' lives as any parents could have been. Cullen's depiction of the media's blood-thirstiness during the whole ordeal is also very depressing.
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May 27, 2013 17:04
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I picked up Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil at Goodwill because I liked the cover and because I had never read any philosophy text of any kind except for an essay by Schopenhauer in high school and that book Sophie's World. Mine looked like this. Dig that apple!  It's arranged in nine sections and I read one each day. I vibed with a lot of what he had to say. There was a lot of finger-wagging at other philosophers who put too much faith in man's ideas, and it seemed like Nietzsche was trying to say that when it all comes down to it, any philosophical system is still manmade and at best a guess and, also at best, insignificant. What sucked about the work was Nietzsche's sexism. poo poo, I never knew this guy put women down so far, which seems odd for a philosopher. The translator's notes talked about this after some particularly ignorant poo poo about Nietzsche's views on women in politics and church (Nietzsche essentially said that women who seek to heighten their positions only serve to hurt other women. Hello, nineteenth century.), and he (the translator) said that Nietzsche's views in that regard were shaped by the times and we should forgive him and whatever. Speaking of the translator's notes, they were very good. The edition I read (pictured) included a running commentary on the work that included references to Nietzsche's other works and works that he (Nietzsche) had read. The notes also remark on differences between this translation and others, citing misinterpretations and things like that. Very good notes, and the book also has a full index of works and terms referenced by both the translator and Nietzsche. I gave it 3/5 on Goodreads, it would have gotten four if not for the sexism (and how much of it there was throughout). It's definitely well-written, and the ideas are well-formed and thought-provoking. There was a particular part I liked where Nietzsche commented that the world revolves inaudibly in space, comparing that to the way great ideas are often unacknowledged during their time. I appreciated small images like this that made the work less rigid. The final section is actually a poem, which I thought was nice.
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May 27, 2013 18:29
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You're shocked that a nineteenth century conservative had terrible views on women?
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May 27, 2013 23:32
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I finished the older Penguin collection of stories from The Thousand and One Nights, translated by NJ Dawood. It collects about a dozen stories, like Aladdin and The Seven Voyages of Sinbad, so it's kind of a sampler. It's a nice selection and some of the stories I was unfamiliar with were the ones I liked best; The Historic Fart is fun one. The translation was kind of clunky and the introduction by Dawood was about as sparse as it gets, with barely any information on the stories themselves (but he goes on and on about Burton's translation for some reason). Still, I liked this collection. I'm going to read the complete thing one day.
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May 28, 2013 00:32
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The last book I finished was Insects are just like you and me except some of them have wings by Kuzhali Manickavel. It is a series of (very short) short stories, all set in India but written originally in English - the author is Indian/Canadian, I think. The stories often come across more as glimpses into or snapshots of people's lives rather than 'stories' with beginnings and ends, though some of the longer ones do have that sort of development. That's mostly because of how short they are - some of them about half a page. The prose is very pretty, using cool little similes like "her fists are perched on the table like tiny anxious birds" that create a very interesting atmosphere. I guess you could describe it as 'Kafkaesque', but comparing it more to Kafka's atmospheric short pieces than his longer, more famous stuff. All in all it was pretty good. It's not gonna appeal to everyone but I liked it.
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May 28, 2013 03:24
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Deep Navigation, a SF short story collection by Alastair Reynolds. 4 stars. Covers a range of Reynolds' career from 1990 to 2009. OVERALL THOUGHTS A nice collection for the Reynolds completionist, which includes a bunch of very good stories, and a bunch of okay ones. Not exactly as required-reading as Zima Blue and other stories was, but this collection has its share of must-reads. One thing missing was notes from Reynolds himself after each story, which Zima Blue (and, I think, Galactic North) had. That would have made this collection just a little sweeter. STORY BY STORY NB: Asterisks (*) before titles indicate the stories I thought were best of the lot. Nunivak Snowflakes - Messages from the future sent in rains of fish; intelligent spacetime inhabiting the mechanical arm of a Inupiat teenager; a lone Canadian spy trying to keep ahead of several world superpowers. This is a wonderfully weird story, a wholly unique idea, and the first piece Reynolds ever published (at the age of 24!). Great start to this collection. Monkey Suit - A nice little piece, with a sci-fi spin on the idea of the unfinished business of the recently departed. It doesn't really add much to the Revelation Space universe though, so I was a tad disappointed. *The Fixation - Oh wow. A kind of dark story with a weird premise. It's sort of like the Bittorrenting of objects between parallel worlds, mixed in with a bit of fantasy about an alternate world where the Antikythera Mechanism wasn't lost, and was key to the formation of an empire. I liked it! *Feeling Rejected - A tiny story that's really for academics, in the form of a peer-review rejection for a scientific paper, on the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilisation. It's blithely satirical of the politics of academia today, while also chock full of ideas about how we might study other civilisations. I LOVE the idea of a cultural H-R diagram. I wish so much I could read all the cited articles. As a scientist, I found it hilarious! Fury - A story about loyalty, memory, a 30-thousand-year-old galactic empire, a mystery with a grisly reveal, an ancient crime, and the question of how that crime can be punished. A decent tale, but I admit I liked the worldbuilding more than the plot. There's uplifted animals, too! Stroboscopic - Reminiscent of Player of Games by Iain M Banks, except the game in this story is far more deadly. Players must manipulate the ecology of alien lifeforms that are only truly alive for a short burst every 72 seconds, due to evolving near a pulsar. Trust me, it makes sense in the story. The weird biology, and how it's worked into the rules of a futuristic game, makes this a very clever tale. The political-conspiracy-subplot was a little less convincing, though. The Receivers - Not really my thing. It's a well written story and all, but the plot just didn't grip me very much. The story is about what happens to some famous 20th Century composers in an alternate timeline when World War I keeps going for decades. I suppose it counts as science fiction, but there was no real scientific explanation to the phenomenon that occurs. I guess this is more a story for music aficionados. *Byrd Land Six - Now THAT is a loving story! A physics experiment gone wrong creates a rather horrific situation for a small group of researchers in an near-future Antarctic base. Brilliant and chilling! I really enjoyed the rather spooky imagery involving wind and ice that just seems wrong... The Star Surgeon's Apprentice - Eh, that was okay. A fairly simplistic story about a teenage boy apprenticing on an interstellar ship which turns out to have a few secrets. This was originally written for a YA anthology, which explains why it's rather basic, plot-wise, for a Reynolds story. One thought: It reads pretty drat goofy when a lot of exposition is given to a character that can't speak in full sentences. On the Oodnadatta - That was bizarre! A bit confusing in structure, but definitely a unique idea — actually, more of a mish-mash of several seemingly incongruous ideas. Self-driving road trains in the Australian outback, the legal status of the cryogenically frozen, simulation of human minds, mutant kangaroos, cloning, terrorists, slavery of sorts. Weird. Fresco - A depressing vignette about a lonely AI, as it listens to signals from life beyond the Milky Way galaxy. Kind of a companion piece to the equally-short (but much more clever) "Feeling Rejected", only taking an even more pessimistic view. Nothing special, but it's nice to have it in this collection. Viper - Some good ideas in this one, like a near-future prison on a high-speed train. But the central concept — putting criminals in VR simulations to assess their psychology — is one I've seen before: an episode of The Outer Limits, I think, with a smack of Inception. I thought I knew where it was going, but the ending was ambiguous enough not to make me groan. Soirée - A slightly melancholy little piece about Earth's first interstellar voyagers being awoken from stasis, and meeting those who came after them yet overtook them with superior technology. The little-white-lie aspect of the brave new world reminded me of Reynolds' other story "Beyond the Aquila Rift", but with a different flavour and nowhere near as creepy. *The Sledge-maker's Daughter - Set in a post-apocalyptic England, this story is oozing with worldbuilding details that hint at an epic backstory, yet the plot focuses mainly on the minor tribulations of a small community. I always enjoy the theme of advanced technology being rediscovered by a society reverted to simpler ways. And the personal stories of the titular daughter and the old woman were compelling. Very good, could be a whole novel, etc. *Tiger, Burning - This was a fantastic story to close the collection on. A sort of detective tale (with an anthropomorphic feline protagonist who made me think of the comic character Blacksad) set in a future where humans have colonised thousands of parallel realities. A smattering of cheeky references to Shakespeare (sorry, "Shaxpia") and Forbidden Planet made me laugh; while the ideas about the legal status of people after their memories have been transferred between realities, were clever.
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May 28, 2013 07:06
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The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. Boy of English descent comes of age in World War II-era South Africa. It is not all lollipops and hand jobs. The titular phrase refers to a motivational mantra that enables the main character to dig deep and get poo poo done in the face of many possible setbacks. It is simply written but never pandering, and its characters and emotions run deep. So much better than the formulaic American coming-of-age novels being shat out by the thousands in bookstores across the country. IM_DA_DECIDER posted:NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. An homage to Stephen King, filled with direct and indirect references to his work. Proficiently written and never boring, it still fails at actually being scary. Joe Hill is Stephen King's son.
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May 29, 2013 09:06
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Starplex by Robert J Sawyer, 4 stars. Pretty good, albeit super short. It's impressive that Sawyer can pack as much in to a 300 page novel as would take other authors 5-600 pages. But despite the amount of action and questions and answers, it still felt like it was lacking something. Maybe taking a slightly slower pace would have lent the action and revelations a little more weight. Holy crap though, what action! There are a handful of big space action sequences, and a particular battle scene in the back half of the novel was jawdropping in its inventiveness. It makes battle scenes from recent space-set movies (eg: the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies) look simplistic. Other things I liked: The alien races were pretty well fleshed out, as were the dolphins (slightly different from the uplifted dolphins of David Brin's books, and not actually uplifted). There was a real sense of discovery in the titular ship's mission and adventures. There was a number of cool astrophysical and alien mysteries. The physics employed by the author was pretty sophisticated, and didn't talk down to the audience. There was a particular conversation with a character from the far future, about how life on earth will continue to evolve in the next 10 billion years, that made my head reel from the implications. Some things that detracted: Some of the dialogue was unrealistic. Some of the descriptive passages were too infodump-y. Some logical leaps made by characters were a bit too convenient. Things happened too fast; several times, precarious situations at the end of chapters were resolved on the very next page. Final thoughts: It's Star Trek with better physics and more-alien aliens.
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May 29, 2013 13:42
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I wanted another Harry Potter-ish fix, so I read all five book about Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. While not as good as Harry Potter and clearly aimed at a younger audience it was still enjoyable while it lasted. Now I'm not sure what to read next, perhaps a "real" fantasy/sci-fi book like Dune or the Hobbit.
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May 29, 2013 15:36
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When Gravity Fails by George Alec Effinger. Good middle-Eastern themed cyberpunk fiction. Moving onto the sequel.
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May 29, 2013 18:57
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LARGE THE HEAD posted:Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. I know, that's why I found it quite endearing. I'm sure daddy is proud. 
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May 29, 2013 21:58
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Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris, 5 stars. Laugh out loud funny all the way through. It may be my favourite Sedaris book to date! I think I want to recite the poem "Dog Days" to all my friends.
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May 30, 2013 04:47
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I just finished reading Crime and Punishment. This is another of those books that took me for loving ever to get through, but I absolutely didn't regret keeping on. I found myself rereading portions, looking for details I'd missed (the meeting between Sonia and Luzhin where he gives her the money) or just because they cut to the loving bone. (Pretty much everything to do with Marmeladov; and the dream about the horse) It tries really hard to be about Raskolnikov and his changing motivations and interpretations of his own motivations. I think the murder being talked about almost strictly referring to the pawnbroker at the beginning, only seriously acknowledging Lizaveta other than as a way to broach the subject near the end is the main mechanism by which this is done apart from stating them outright. But I think the other characters are more interesting. I kind of fixated on Luzhin toward the end because he reminded me of a former boss of mine, the most vile person I've ever known.
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May 30, 2013 09:15
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IM_DA_DECIDER posted:I know, that's why I found it quite endearing. I'm sure daddy is proud. Ah, okay. I just hope that somebody is actually pleasantly surprised by that factoid, haha.
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May 30, 2013 09:36
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Just finished "The Art of Intrusion" by Kevin Mitnick. Really cool first-hand accounts of Ocean's 11 style heists and hacking exploits.
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May 30, 2013 22:41
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Finished Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Wow man, that was really messed up but interesting as well. The author shocks you time after time and makes you understand an animal-abusing, killing, 16 years old sadist. Imagine the three most shocking things that could possibly happen to you during your life. It's highly likely these things happen in this book and even more likely they'll be worse. Literature can be a weird thing for sure.. Now getting into (to me) a new kind of genre; Bizarrofiction. Starting off with Party Wolves in My Skull by Michael Allen Rose. Never heard of this genre before and very curious about how this will go..
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May 31, 2013 00:58
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Occulation and other stories by Laird Barron, 4 stars. Every one of these 9 stories/novellas is well-written, full of character depth and excellent imagery. However, the effectiveness of the horror varies. Satanic stuff is nowhere near as scary as cosmic horror, which is why stories like "Six Six Six" and "Catch Hell" just left me rather blasé at the end (despite having good build-ups). The cosmic horror tales such as "The Broadsword" and "Mysterium Tremendum" were far more effective. "Mysterium Tremendum" was possibly one of my favourites because not only was it scary and tense, it also had very realistic and sympathetic gay characters — something I don't come across much in the horror I read. I really wanted to like "-30-" because of the isolated setting, scientific themes, etc, but it ended up disappointing me because the excellent and creepy build up disintegrated into a paranoia-filled and hallucinatory ending which didn't make much sense. If Barron had taken a more straight-line approach to the horror stalking the researchers in the desert, I would have been way more freaked out. The same goes for the titular story, which was just confusing rather than actually scary. The creepiest story, interestingly, had no supernatural elements at all. "Strappado" is one of the most dread-filled stories I've ever read. I began to feel physically sick while reading it, as the anticipation grew and grew. The fact that it manages an incredibly horrific ending without even any gore, makes it all the more effective. I'd say this is just as good as Barron's first collection, with some standouts, and some ineffective albiet still-well-written pieces. The stories "Mysterium Tremendum", "Strappado" and "The Broadsword" are the absolute must-reads.
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May 31, 2013 05:57
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Jazzcat posted:Finished Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. Wow man, that was really messed up but interesting as well. The author shocks you time after time and makes you understand an animal-abusing, killing, 16 years old sadist. Imagine the three most shocking things that could possibly happen to you during your life. It's highly likely these things happen in this book and even more likely they'll be worse. Literature can be a weird thing for sure.. I have (somewhere) a paperback copy (old, yellowed, battered) of this book. As is usual for paperback editions, it has a collection of numerous blurbs from various reviewers on the first inside pages. Somewhat unusually, only about half of those blurbs are in the vein of "this is a really good book by a promising new author", the rest are more like "this book is horrible filth and whoever was responsible for getting this accpted by an otherwise reputable publishing house is even more sick than the author and should be fired". And then, hilariously, there is one which basically says "this is mediocre, unremarkable and kind of boring really".
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May 31, 2013 12:39
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Finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. Wow, I hadn't been as engrossed in a book in a while. A real page turner. I thought it got a little slow when they transitioned from year 0 to the Colony or whatever it's called, and I started getting worried, but it picked up quickly after that.
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May 31, 2013 17:45
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Groke posted:I have (somewhere) a paperback copy (old, yellowed, battered) of this book. As is usual for paperback editions, it has a collection of numerous blurbs from various reviewers on the first inside pages. Somewhat unusually, only about half of those blurbs are in the vein of "this is a really good book by a promising new author", the rest are more like "this book is horrible filth and whoever was responsible for getting this accpted by an otherwise reputable publishing house is even more sick than the author and should be fired". And then, hilariously, there is one which basically says "this is mediocre, unremarkable and kind of boring really". Reminds me of how Crash by JG Ballard kinda sold itself on the fact that a publisher's reader at the first publisher it was sent to read: "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"
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May 31, 2013 18:38
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I finally got all the way through The Night Land, by Mr. William H. Hodgson. I very much like all his other stories but this one was a bit difficult, not least because of the narration. Ugh! I also could have done without most of the ROMANCE and I don't mean just at the beginning. Otherwise, an excellent story and I'd love to read a translation into modern English.
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Jun 1, 2013 15:25
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Finally got around to reading Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls by David Sedaris. Nothing groundbreaking, but a good read. Some of the stories written from a conservatine's point of view felt somewhat heavy handed, lacking his typical wit at times. Still, if you're a Sedaris fan you know you'll go buy this book and read it, and you'll probably have a good time too I have no idea what I'm going to read next. I read so little these days that isn't a technical manual or something. I'll figure it out though
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Jun 1, 2013 16:37
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Megazver posted:The first two books are considered "the poo poo ones". That said, the structure or the tone don't really change, he just executes it better. Well that explains a lot! I finished Grave Peril and Summer Knight this week and it didn't bother me all that much as with the first two. The same themes keep showing up though: money issues, Susan and his godmother.
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Jun 2, 2013 01:48
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xcheopis posted:I finally got all the way through The Night Land, by Mr. William H. Hodgson. I very much like all his other stories but this one was a bit difficult, not least because of the narration. Ugh! I also could have done without most of the ROMANCE and I don't mean just at the beginning. Apparently your sentiment is not unique: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Land-Story-Retold/dp/0615508812
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Jun 2, 2013 05:58
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I just (re)finished a read through of the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Its science fiction and a space opera, however it has a couple of HUGE draws for me. There is an over-arching plot line that is still developing (author has published about 15 books so far and is only half way through the plot line). The military in the books make sense and so does the science (not claiming it is accurate, but at least it is consistent). The political / social tensions that give rise to the conflict also make sense and the characters have to deal with their positives and negatives. In short it is one of the best science fictions series I have ever read, cant wait for the next one!
Never.More fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 10:28
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Read through Iain Banks' "Matter" on the second try due to its overly long setup. It was not as concise as "Excession", atmospheric as "Look to Windward" or loaded with interesting characters like many other Culture novels. The protagonists remain somewhat bleak, including the female SC agent as well as the two "medieval" guys, a hedonistic prince and his shrewd servant. The one drone in the story does not do anything. One of the main ideas ("matter") is dealt with in the first half and then, after some tiring SC agent's monologue, quickly forgotten. The second (shellworlds) on the other hand is presented well and makes for an intriguing setting. The exciting end comes quick and does not satisfy. All in all I think I felt a bit of the nihilism you could find in the first Culture novel creeping in. Matter was still an enjoyable read and lots of cool ideas have been explored. An average Culture novel still makes a good science fiction. lllllllllllllllllll fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 12:52
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The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco about uncovering a group of murders at an abbey during the early 14th century against the backdrop of the controversy between the Franciscans and the church. I saw the movie a long long time ago, and there was a copy for two bucks at the used bookstore so I figured why not. It was definitely a good read and I can see why it's held as a definitive example of semiotics, plus I being a student of history loved that aspect of it, and Eco says in his afterword that he's a big medieval history buff so he tried to be fairly accurate with as much as he could. He put a lot of effort into the book and it shows. I have to say the first 100 pages or so were a chore to get through with its pace and overabundance of details, but then Eco said that was deliberate and people told him while he was still working on it as much and his response was basically "deal with it" and he saw it as an initiation to get through. I'm glad I stuck it out.
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Jun 2, 2013 22:22
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I just read The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. It's a collection of short stories written about the author's experience in Vietnam. In the entire book you question whether or not the stories are true, and the author encourages you to. It has a lot of different themes, all of which were very thought provoking, one main one for instance, is the use of fictional storytelling as catharsis, but also in order to convey the truth. In his book truth and fiction blend, he aims to give you the feelings he had, the mindset he had, and more, through both true and fictional accounts, and it is very successful. From the beginning of the book I was engrossed in his writings, and it was a very fun and easy to do read.
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Jun 4, 2013 07:08
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Xanderkish posted:Just finished up Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons. Stop right here and move on to another series. Do not read Endymion.
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Jun 4, 2013 18:03
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I've foolishly started both The Master and His Emissary and Guns, Germs, and Steel at around the same time, so I'm awkwardly trying to decide which behemoth to conquer first. Goddamn I love anthropology. Also trying to finish House of Leaves but I frankly, deep down, may think it's a piece of poo poo. The prose in the Johnny Truant sections is so painful that I'm considering skipping it, but then I'm missing the point, aren't I?
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Jun 5, 2013 21:53
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Completed London Fields by Martin Amis yesterday. Still processing it a bit, but a great narrative of aimlessness amid whispers of looming nuclear annihilation. The prose kills. I will probably finish Bukowski's Post Office tonight or tomorrow.
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Jun 6, 2013 17:47
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I tried to read Wolf Hall but only made it half way and just couldn't stand it anymore. Then... Read The Magic of Thinking Big. I'm on some kind of a self-help book kick these days, and this one is one of the best I've read so far. It had quite a few hilarious 1950s examples, everyone's been in the war, the ideal is a big new house in the suburbs, et cetera. But the message is very powerful and I've found that implementing Schwartz's lessons has really helped keep me positive. Heartily recommended. Started the Discworld books, just read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantasic, this is just really great, silly entertainment. I don't mind it at all and each one only takes a day or two to read so I'll probably just continue on through all 49 of the books. And, since the movie is coming out, I read Ender's Game. Ender is a bit of a Marty Stu, but the story is really great anyway. I loved this book and I'm starting the next one, Speaker for the Dead, now. Excellent sci fi.
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Jun 7, 2013 16:14
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I just finished Gone Girl. The story itself is compelling and somewhat unpredictable, but the ending left me unsatisfied and unsettled. This is not the usual type of fiction I go for, but it was recommended to me by a friend I'm slightly interested in. I really hope this book wasn't some kind of message.
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Jun 7, 2013 20:30
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dorijan posted:I have recently finished reading the first two books of the Dresden Files series: Storm Front and Fool Moon. Both books were enjoyable but I do hope the rest of the series does not follow the same scheme of something happening, Harry starts investigating, someone outmanoeuvres him and he manages to pull something out of his hat and save the day. You're doing yourself a disservice if you're not listening to the audiobooks. The narration is just AMAZING. Sounds like a 1940's detective novel. The series is fantastic, I'm not through the series yet, but it's such fun.
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Jun 8, 2013 00:58
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Just finished JMG Le Clezio's The Giants and it might be one of the most compelling and provocative novels I have ever read. It is a strange, almost experimental (but not difficult to read) novel about the city of Hyperpolis, a "city of electronic signage dominated by cybernetic giantism". It talks about the disorientation of the senses and the loss of identity in large, man-made structures. It laments the extinction of the real. It suggests that corporate advertising hijacks original thought and pushes us into a collective direction. It is a call to rebellion, but avoids tired cliches and blind ideologies. I really liked it. Also, it was written in the late 1960's, but it is still just as prevalent as ever. If not, more so. Besson fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Jun 8, 2013 |
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Jun 8, 2013 06:10
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Dirty_Moses posted:Also trying to finish House of Leaves but I frankly, deep down, may think it's a piece of poo poo. The prose in the Johnny Truant sections is so painful that I'm considering skipping it, but then I'm missing the point, aren't I? I stopped by my childhood home recently and read through at least 20 Eyewitness books. Cool favorites: Aztec, Inca & Maya, Crystal & Gems, Volcano & Earthquake, and Costume. I hope they still make these! They turned me into the obscure trivia buff I am today.
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Jun 10, 2013 03:56
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