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This is my favorite response of the thread. Well done, sir.
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Jul 10, 2014 15:05
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Frackie Robinson posted:I just read Moby Dick for the first time. It's really loving good. I can really relate to it, whaling was kind of the fracking of its day. This is a great read. Harvesting whale oil was never so exciting! I have not read anything else by Melville, I wonder if there's any other gems out there by him.
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Jul 10, 2014 15:13
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I’ve just finished The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco. I’ve only ever read one Eco book before, The Name of The Rose, and I really enjoyed its blend of history, intrigue and philosophy. This book, however I really struggled to like. The first big problem I found was the structure. Without going into too much detail the book is a Picaresque novel, which takes the form of the protaganists diary as he recalls his past actions. Eco took the, odd step, of having his protagonist suffer from a split personality. Both sides write notes to each other and fill in their respective memory gaps. It’s a needlessly extravagant way of framing the plot and doesn’t particularly add anything. It gets worse when the nameless Narrator butts in and adds a third voice to the novel. The other big BIG problem is the personality of the books 'hero'. He's racist, sexist, xenophobic and, above all, anti-Semitic. There is no problem on earth that cannot be traced back to the Jews. I read that Eco deliberately tried to make his lead character as unpleasant as possible, and he succeeds. It’s just, I don’t feel any empathy with him at all, and have no desire to spend anytime occupying his head space. Something of a problem when the majority of the novel is written in the first person. Usually a novels lead character has some sort of redeeming feature, but he'sis repellent to his very core. Without wanting to be wholly negative there are some bright spots. The book is impeccably researched and delves into a world and time that’s full of possibility and intrigue. If the book were somehow re-written, with a main character that wasn’t vile in every conceivable way, it would be great. It’s a real wasted opportunity.
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Jul 10, 2014 15:56
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Gerbil_Pen posted:This is a great read. Harvesting whale oil was never so exciting! If you're into poetry at all, he wrote quote a bit of that after Moby Dick.
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Jul 11, 2014 13:29
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If you like the prose of Moby Dick then he did a lot in that style. Redburn, Typee, Omoo, a brace of short stories (eg Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cerano) are all worth a read. There's also The Confidence Man which is a bit more difficult. A damning satire of western society as the devil roams a steamboat conning people out of their souls, woven together from a variety of closely studied parodies which, unless you're a scholar of the era, you will need explaining to you. I mean it's fun, but it's in in no way accessible. Yesterday I finished The Inheritors by Ford Maddox Ford and Conrad. Genre-wise it's classified as a sci-fi thriller. Extra-dimensional beings are infiltrating the higher echelons of western society to engineer an economic collapse by scuppering yet another colony, this time in Greenland. The actual fantasy elements are reduced to a shimmering city in the air, a lady whose luminosity is more literal than usual, and a dash of sociopathy in a few characters. As to their plot, it's interesting to read something where an admittedly murderous colony run by a wildcat King Leopold is held up as the last hope for humanity. The cynical eye exposing the assumed-philanthropic mission is the same which uncynically deems it essential for Britain's survival. Possibly an irony that's too thick for me. Actual plot is minimal, the narrator simply makes a tour of various dinner parties until he has a failure of nerve at work, but the descriptions of those dinner parties are beautiful. The house of a publisher's reader flooded with a sodden mass of unpublished matter is a highlight. Apparently it's not very well thought of, but I liked it a great deal. It was also my first time reading a free download from Project Gutenberg on an e-reader, and it wasn't ideal. The formatting was frequently off, and the copy-editing was perpetually suspect. I wish I could have found a nice physical edition but I don't think this is in print at the moment.
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Jul 11, 2014 14:21
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I just finished up Kumquat by Jeff Strand. If you've read him, you know he is basically a thriller/horror guy with humor, so hearing he wrote a romance style novel kinda surprised the ever loving gently caress out of me. I read it though, and surprisingly it is pretty good. My opinion of romance novels has pretty much always been "They are all bodice rippers with words like turgid and heaving", and in general that's pretty true. Basically they are porn in book format. This one, not so much. Not saying it's as pure as the winter snow and virginal as extra virgin olive oil, but surprisingly the focus of the book is not on the sexcapades of the main stars of the book but in the relationship part of it. I actually was surprised to realize "Holy poo poo, this is giving me feels!" when I was reading it. It is well written, and it is funny, but it's also strangely almost exactly what it's like to start a relationship. The lead guy is basically a socially awkward dude who's vaguely paranoid of everything, and the lead lady is basically socially awkward as well and not presented as a virtual princess who is just waiting for her price to come lug her up to a tower and ravish her. It's like... a romance novel starring normal people doing normal-esque poo poo and dealing with "normal"-esque problems (to a point). It's pretty refreshing to have something like this pop up and no one is a vampire or a werewolf and there's no pack or clan or other bullshit. Plus the little excerpts from the tv show are great  I never, ever, EVER thought I'd recommend a romance novel as a "Gotta read", but gently caress, it's good. If you like his books, or his humor it's in full force in this book. It's like 3-4 bucks on kindle as well, so it's not like it's going to break the bank trying out a 15$ ebook. Give it a whirl, you might dig it.
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Jul 11, 2014 22:21
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I just finished The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. They were good books. Much better than I was expecting. I really couldn't put them down once I got going with it. But that ending is a disappointment. It just felt really rushed and sloppy. I also got annoyed with the mental gymnastics that the author gave Thrawn. He touches on it in the story, but it was still frustrating and annoying that Thrawn was seemingly clairvoyant about a lot of stuff.
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Jul 13, 2014 05:46
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blackguy32 posted:I just finished The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. They were good books. Much better than I was expecting. I really couldn't put them down once I got going with it. But that ending is a disappointment. It just felt really rushed and sloppy. I remember loving these books when they came out. You're right, though, Thrawn sees the most amazing things coming with insight from the most obscure artifacts, but is done in by the thing he should be most familiar with...
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Jul 13, 2014 14:56
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I finally found a good used copy of The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong, so then I also had to re-read The Confucian Kingship in Korea, both by JaHyun Kim Haboush. Those left me very loving depressed, so I tried to cheer myself up with Fatal Flaws by Jay Ingram, a book about prion diseases, government stupidity, and scientist in-fighting. Good for the lay person and for those with some bio-chem/cell bio knowledge. (Did you know that a Nobel prize winner was later convicted and imprisoned for pedophilia? Neither did I.) That didn't quite do the trick, so I went for Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology (ed. McCullough), on the grounds that there were some memoirs I hadn't yet read in there. That went well until I got to the Kamadura period and then it got all nasty. So I finished off the week with Hunt Emerson's 'Inferno', which was quite well done! On the Hunt Emerson note, I first came across his work in the Graphic Classics and again in The Graphic Canon; I recommend both these series.
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Jul 13, 2014 20:37
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From the last few days: From The Notebooks Of Dr. Brain, by Minister Faust - Picked this up on a whim in a clearance sale. Turns out it's actually pretty darn good! Framed partially as a self-help book for superheroes, told by eminent super-shrink Dr. Brain, this features a great cast of characters, a surprisingly deep discussion of the politics of heroism, a huge amount of agonising and inspired puns, comic book homages (right down to awesome and always-appropriate alliteration!) and surprises that kept me guessing til the end. Great fun! The Diving-Bell And The Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby - Warm, personable, humorous, but with moments of crushing sadness. Very good. Black Butterfly, by Mark Gatiss - The third and final (so far) book starring magnificent bastard spy Lucifer Box. I loved it to bits, as much as the first (The Vesuvius Club) but not quite as much as the second (The Devil In Amber). Gatiss has a wonderful sense of humour, blends action and comedy like peaches and cream, and it's honestly just nice to have an openly queer protagonist in a thriller series. I read this in two sittings in less than a day, that's how much fun I was having. Next it's After Me Comes The Flood by Sarah Perry, and then I'm going to actually get around to reading The Quantum Thief. Or that Canadian book about bear erotica.
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Jul 14, 2014 01:10
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Finished The Three by Sarah Lotz after reading some of the buzz about it. Wow. I. HATED. THIS. BOOK. The ending was a page taken straight out of Stephen King's worst (I can't tell you the specific book since it ruins the ending of both)--however, unlike King, the journey to the stupid final destination wasn't fun or compelling. The book was written in the same style as World War Z, another book I disliked for many of the same reasons. If you're using "oral accounts" and other bits and pieces of media, and if you can't write in varied and unique voices, it's probably not a good way to go about things. Also, if you are going to write from the POV of an American (or any other nationality other than your own--the author is apparently South African), do some research so you don't call a public bathroom a "public convenience." It sounds stupid and it's glaring. Plus, overusing ethnic words sounds phony, too. In this case, the Yiddish ones--a couple of characters were New York Jews, and they threw around "meshugganah" about a thousand times. This isn't Fiddler on the Roof. I can understand a few words, especially ones that have become ubiquitous--putz, schmuck, etc--but it was really annoying and noticeable. Look, I don't need things like motives and reasons to be spelled out for me in books. Some of my favorites end without any sort of "why." But if you're going to give me one, don't make it something so stupid it makes the rest of the book a waste of time. Blah.
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Jul 14, 2014 15:10
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I finished Blood Meridian last night. I can understand why some people get frustrated with the style of the book early but it was worth it. Now I'm hunting around enjoying various theories and interpretations. E - some of these are crazy E 2 - I forgot to mention the style reminded me very much of how characters would pontificate and prose in 'Deadwood' and that made it more fun to get through. Supreme Allah fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Jul 14, 2014 |
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Jul 14, 2014 19:05
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Gerbil_Pen posted:Those books are sitting unread on my bookshelf as well. I added Handmaid's Tale when I was gathering post-apocalyptic lit, and always meant to read it. I grabbed Oryx based on recommendations. I re-read Handmaids Tale every few years. Favorite book ever, just life-changing. The Oryx trilogy is very good as well. If you are a fan of Atwood's prose, Cats Eye is my favorite non-dystopian of hers.
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Jul 14, 2014 19:16
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tonytheshoes posted:Finished The Three by Sarah Lotz after reading some of the buzz about it. Crap I was thinking about ordering this book, but I also disliked World War Z (mainly because I don't like reading fictional oral accounts). Is this book all oral accounts?
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Jul 14, 2014 20:10
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nate fisher posted:Crap I was thinking about ordering this book, but I also disliked World War Z (mainly because I don't like reading fictional oral accounts). Is this book all oral accounts? Oral accounts, news articles, web chats, phone conversations... A lot of people enjoy the book, so if you can find a sample, I'd check it out first--it just wasn't for me.
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Jul 14, 2014 20:44
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I am having major issues with books at the moment, first of all I started the Game of Thrones, got half way through and I just wasn't sucked in. I then moved on to 'One by One - Chris Carter', I wouldn't say this book was fantastic but it was a step up from GOT. Not sure if I want to read any of Chris's other books though. I give it a 6/10
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Jul 14, 2014 20:53
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Talas posted:Just finished Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Holy crap, that was bad. Ha ha! No poo poo. I've been hitting the audiobook after doing a wee bit work on the TV series, and holy cow, it's an over-drawn out badly paced and horribly edited slog. It starts really slow, painfully so in fact, then drags through interminable scenes of the grumpy unlikable main bitch character fuming and not taking the situation seriously, till finally plot contrivance end up with her spending half of every chapter shagging a buff ginger bloke. They've adapted the book quite a bit from what I could see, but I honestly wonder, can they adapt it ENOUGH to make it not poo poo?
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Jul 14, 2014 23:28
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nate fisher posted:Crap I was thinking about ordering this book, but I also disliked World War Z (mainly because I don't like reading fictional oral accounts). Is this book all oral accounts? I really enjoyed it and it didn't bug as much as tonytheshoes but part of the reason I liked it was that it was similar in format to World War Z so honestly if you didn't like that book I'd skip The Three.
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Jul 15, 2014 00:06
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tonytheshoes posted:Finished The Three by Sarah Lotz after reading some of the buzz about it. No really, I'm not going to to read the book so could you tell us in spoiler tags what Stephen King ending she ripped off?
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Jul 15, 2014 00:12
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Graphic the Valley by Peter Brown Hoffmeister. A "modern retelling of Samson and Delilah," set in Yosemite valley park; it's wilderness survival fiction. It's about a boy who grew up and illegally lives in the national park, and comes at odds with the commercial entities and those who run park. Really good: Violent and raw. I read it over a few evenings. The book switches back and forth between past-tense for the majority of the story, and present-tense for mini-flashbacks contained in untagged paragraphs interspersed throughout. Highly recommend this one.
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Jul 15, 2014 00:34
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Hedrigall posted:No really, I'm not going to to read the book so could you tell us in spoiler tags what Stephen King ending she ripped off? I will as soon as I can post again from an actual computer--don't wanna risk messing up the spoiler tags. Anyway, part of me feels bad for railing so hard on the book, but I guarantee I've loved books that others have completely despised (The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody comes to mind...).
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Jul 15, 2014 03:51
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edit: durp wrong thread
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Jul 15, 2014 06:14
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I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt and holy gently caress why has it taken me so long to read that book. It's brilliant; I can't think of the last time I read about a bunch of terrible people that I sympathized with so much. It's basically a criticism of the wealthy and she manages to make all the scenes involving these lovely fuckin' people have this timeless, 19th century academic mood, whereas every moment that isn't surrounded by academic dickheads is super blatantly somewhere around 1992. Only she never really changes voice at all to show the difference between the disconnected shits and the real world; it's just brilliant. I'm annoyed that none of my friends have read it and it wasn't chosen as the book of the month, I really want to gush about it with someone.
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Jul 15, 2014 14:31
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Hedrigall posted:No really, I'm not going to to read the book so could you tell us in spoiler tags what Stephen King ending she ripped off? HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD-This post will ruin both a Stephen King novel and The Three by Sarah Lotz. If you haven't read King's more recent books or if you intend to, you might not wanna look at this... Basically, the end is very similar to Under The Dome. The Three (the three kids who survived the plane crashes that happen at the beginning) turn out to have been possessed, I guess, by some sort of entity, be it alien or a god or a runaway android or AI or whatever--the book is very ambiguous about this--and the whole thing was just some sort of experiment to see what would happen if the entity tried to bring about the end of the world. They came to earth a long time ago to "plant the seeds" and then returned later to see if it worked. It was really stupid. Reminded me of the entity that slapped the dome on top of the city in King's book to create a human ant farm and observe human behavior. Blah.
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Jul 15, 2014 14:37
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tonytheshoes posted:HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD-This post will ruin both a Stephen King novel and The Three by Sarah Lotz. If you haven't read King's more recent books or if you intend to, you might not wanna look at this... I don't know that I took it that literally, to me the ending was still pretty ambiguous as to whether or not the narrator of the last part was truly crazy and just made poo poo up in her head. I actually prefer this theory because I think it makes the whole thing creepier.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:24
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Poutling posted:I don't know that I took it that literally, to me the ending was still pretty ambiguous as to whether or not the narrator of the last part was truly crazy and just made poo poo up in her head. I guess that could be it, but the way the author handled it, I feel that would be the equivalent of "it was all a dream". I dunno... I love unreliable narrators, but just couldn't see it that way. Anyway, I was interested enough to finish it, so I suppose that was one thing it had going for it.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:29
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tonytheshoes posted:I guess that could be it, but the way the author handled it, I feel that would be the equivalent of "it was all a dream". I dunno... I love unreliable narrators, but just couldn't see it that way. Anyway, I was interested enough to finish it, so I suppose that was one thing it had going for it. Didn't seem to me as 'it was all a dream' and I saw it more as the author's paranoia affecting her perception of events. I loved the ambiguity of the entire situation - we are never outright told that there were any supernatural events in novel whatsoever and Lotz kind of allowed the reader to come to their own conclusions as to whether or not the author was making poo poo up or if it was actually happening. In fact the narrator was specifically being called out by a lot of people accusing her of unfairly persecuting these young kids as the 'horsemen of the apocalypse'. I think the fact that one kid outright disappeared and never showed up - with people searching for him and even bringing forward 'false messiahs' is kind of a hint towards it all being in her head rather than it being any kind of reality. The ending, again - it's coming out of an android's mouth, not a real kid. Can it really believed? I think there was a bit of criticism of mass media and hype and the control that media has over perception of certain events, and how gullible people can be. Not sure that I would compare it to Stephen King's work which tends to be very straightforward supernatural without any doubt as to the source of the weirdness. At least that was my reading of the work which I think gave it a lot more depth than a straightforward supernatural reading.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:52
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Whalley posted:I just finished The Secret History by Donna Tartt and holy gently caress why has it taken me so long to read that book. It's brilliant; I can't think of the last time I read about a bunch of terrible people that I sympathized with so much. It's basically a criticism of the wealthy and she manages to make all the scenes involving these lovely fuckin' people have this timeless, 19th century academic mood, whereas every moment that isn't surrounded by academic dickheads is super blatantly somewhere around 1992. Only she never really changes voice at all to show the difference between the disconnected shits and the real world; it's just brilliant. I'm annoyed that none of my friends have read it and it wasn't chosen as the book of the month, I really want to gush about it with someone. Came here to post about this book. Just finished it yesterday. I feel conflicted about it; I enjoyed it but at the same time I was constantly frustrated because in all honesty I wanted the book from Henry's point of view, not from the perspective of a pretty pathetic passive observer and latecomer who never gets fully involved. Even after the group tell him about the bacchanal, he's never PART of anything, he never has anything much at stake and we never really see why he's motivated to stick around with these bunch of pince-nez twats anyway, apart from the fact that he wants to be as pretentious as they are. Meanwhile Henry is hanging out with the enigmatic master Julian and going totally off his nut by the end of the book, which would have been far more interesting to read about. I realise that the choice of narrator preserves the mystery of the whole thing and gets across the idea that Henry was manipulating them, but it left all the characters feeling shallow because he (and we) never get to know them that well. Was finding it hard to give much of a toss by the end. Though the narrator talking about how his girlfriend broke up with him because he looked so super haunted and tragic gave me a right laugh
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Jul 15, 2014 20:18
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I just finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, just in time for the referendum on Scottish independence. I can't help but think the book was a little satirical here and there.
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Jul 16, 2014 05:09
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:I realise that the choice of narrator preserves the mystery of the whole thing and gets across the idea that Henry was manipulating them, but it left all the characters feeling shallow because he (and we) never get to know them that well. And I mean, even ignoring the Gatsby parallels, the poo poo that goes on with Henry basically comes down to "man, all my lessers are kind of breaking down, this is boring, I'm going to tend my garden" - putting him as the protagonist would mean reading most of an entire book of a guy going "I think I'm better than my peers" culminating in "man, my peers are acting dumb, I think I'm better than them, oh gently caress I can't actually get out of this situation I created, better kill myself rather than seek help in one of my peers."
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Jul 16, 2014 06:08
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I read The Rookie by Scott Sigler; I think the recommendation came from this thread. It was enjoyable and about exactly what you'd expect from a light scifi book about The Galactic Football League. Good vacation reading but I doubt I'll continue reading the series.
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Jul 16, 2014 15:06
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Poutling posted:I know this is terribly elitist, but I can't bring myself to read these books because all I can think about is that the author became famous by plagiarizing lines from Buffy and adding them into fanfics of Draco loving Harry Potter in the butt. You know, I don't know anything about that, and I hope I never do.
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Jul 18, 2014 16:48
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rohoku posted:You know, I don't know anything about that, and I hope I never do. 
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Jul 19, 2014 03:08
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Read the Rothfuss stuff because somebody went amd bought me autographed copies for my birthday so I finally gave into my family and read them. Such a goddamn mary sue jeeeeesus loving christ.
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Jul 19, 2014 04:08
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I'm slowly working my way through Denis Johnson's stuff and just finished Tree of Smoke. This was different from his other stuff that I read but I still enjoyed it. I think I definitely prefer him writing a more basic story about drug addicts and whatnot along the lines of Jesus' Son but he still does a good job throwing you into this tangled, dense world of Vietnam and intelligence operations. I don't think there was any part of the book that was as unbelievable as that one 30-page section in his first novel, Fiskadoro, about the fall of Saigon which is kind of disappointing, but there was one or two really intense scenes and a lot of interesting plot and characters and because the book takes place over a long period it was nice watching them grow and develop. The book was long as gently caress and I definitely started nodding off in the last section aside from one or two points but overall was still good. I think people who have read espionage books like John le Carré's stuff would appreciate this book a lot. It's less spy novel, but still intelligence novel if you'll take that.
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Jul 19, 2014 13:16
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White Jazz, by James Ellroy. It's my least favourite of his L.A. Quartet, I found most of the plot either ridiculous or hard to follow. Guess I wasn't in the mood for Ellroy's telegraphic style.
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Jul 19, 2014 22:26
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After Me Comes The Flood, by Sarah Perry. From its initial synopsis, this book had a lot of potential. A man walks out on his life, gets lost in the woods, ends up stumbling into a seemingly-abandoned mansion. But when he gets there, he learns that the house's inhabitants have been expecting him, know his name, and have a room set up just for him. The house and its gaggle of misfits are full of mysteries and idiosyncracies, and there are hints of something sinister going on under the surface, waiting to be uncovered... ...Except they're not. The few glimpses of intrigue and mystery are bogged down in page upon page of dull characters, go-nowhere conversations and bland, heavy-handed allegory. The back of the book tells me the author was raised in a very Christian household, and the book is shot through with associated imagery - one of the characters is your standard "preacher who lost his faith" even. What frustrated me about the book is that there were moments of genuine interest and a few haunting passages, but they were so swamped by blandness that it was a chore to get through. Maybe I'm just not the right audience for this book, but it did very little for me. Pygmy, by Chuck Palahniuk. Very fun, very Palahniuk. A world of hideous grotesques driven by desire and disgust. Hardly great literature, but it was surprising, fun, and had me cringing and laughing in equal measure.
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Jul 19, 2014 23:18
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Has anyone here read Tietam Brown by Mick Foley? It was recommended when I was asking people for tragicomedies. Mick Foley is an American wrestler, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Its the story of 'Andy' Brown, a 17-year old who has spent the first 16 years of his life in a combination of foster care, state homes, and prison. He has bounced from one traumatizing situation to another, but things look to improve with the reemergence of his father, Tietam Brown. So the first, maybe half? of the book is pretty good. You have the formerly absent father with a mysterious past and eccentric behavior, who seems to have some genuine love for his son. Andy is clumsily making his way through his first romantic relationship, and is getting to know his father. Yes, its violent, and yes Tietam has a dark streak -- but nothing seems so bad that he is irredeemable (at least for the first half or so). But then the mystery and eccentricities are explained and revealed in a really disappointing way. The final act of the book is unsatisfying. It doesn't earn its tragic turn, especially seeing it looked as though it was just a darker than usual coming of age story. And I think the epilogue is just out and out garbage. It doesn't heighten anything, it doesn't explain anything. Entirely unnecessary. All it does is add insult to injury and depict more suffering. But like the tragedy, it is unearned. There is some loose implication of the cycle of trauma, but that wasn't really explored throughout the rest of the book, only hinted at. Anyone who has read it, I really want to know what you think. I thought it had potential, but the wheels fell off.
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Jul 20, 2014 03:01
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I just finished up the Nightingale series by Stephen Leather. Basically, guy gets told he's going to hell by random people, sees it in signs, etc. Whole lotta people die when he tries to figure out what's going on. It's 3 books, and frankly they are all kinda boring. I thought the first book would be a decent segue into a cool urban fantasy, but nope. All 3 books have the same plot. There's a decent ending that wraps the whole shebang up a bit, but it's still leaving a lot of plot threads open and hosed up, so it's not really that great. Biggest problem with it, is that it's british and the guy was a cop, so every time they haul him in, his arch-nemesis on the force has to be I guess a captain level guy over there, and his name is Chalmers. Superintendent Chalmers. Or...  I could NOT get that out of my head for the entire series. If you are INCREDIBLY hard up for some sort of british detective story about satan worshipers and you want a protagonist who is basically a light Felix Castor, give em a read. That's about the only recommendation I can give you. I've read worse, but damned if I can think of any at the moment that fall this far into the boring, repeated plot category.
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Jul 21, 2014 08:11
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I just finished The Girl With All The Gifts and I liked it very much. I am no zombie fan but this book touched my heart. 8.5/10.
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Jul 24, 2014 01:04
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