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The people in my book club complained about House of Leaves being too hard a read, so our new book is War and Peace...
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Oct 24, 2015 08:23
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Bullbar posted:The people in my book club complained about House of Leaves being too hard a read, so our new book is War and Peace... Do you all have some particular focus on irony?
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Oct 24, 2015 12:39
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I'm about 50 pages into Gravity's Rainbow. The prose has some loving absurd imagery that can be hilarious but can also get a bit out of hand and incomprehensible. I am enjoying it so far and I think I have to just get used to the fact that some paragraphs will not be delivering much meaning to me on this read.
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Oct 27, 2015 05:06
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I'm about three chapters in to The Girl in the Spider's Web. So far it's a decent follow up to Steig Larsson's trilogy featuring Lisbeth Saladar and mimicking his style a little more than is necessary (Does every one not completely allied to Our Heroes have to be an incompetent misogynist?) but it's still good so far. I actually just finished Lee Child's latest work and I fantasize about how cool it would be to Lisbeth Salandar and Jack Reacher teaming to gently caress things up for truly bad fictional people. johntfs fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Oct 28, 2015 |
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Oct 28, 2015 10:54
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I just started The Moviegoer again, by Walker Percy. I've tried starting it a few times but it hasn't hooked me. I know it's supposed to be a great book and I think I'll like it but drat I'm having trouble.
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Oct 31, 2015 20:12
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Starting Slade House by David Mitchell. I love how all of his books seem to exist in the same "Mitchell-verse," but unfortunately, I have read his books over so many years, I have a hard time remembering things. I might have to do a Mitchell mega-read at some point. Also through the first chapter or so of The Library at Mount Char.
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Nov 4, 2015 16:09
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funkybottoms posted:Do you all have some particular focus on irony? War and Peace isn't hard, per se, it's just very very long. I actually thought it was a pretty compelling story. The last 50-100 pages, though... that's a little dry.
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Nov 8, 2015 06:07
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You do have to remember a lot of characters, who all have 3 names.
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Nov 9, 2015 10:13
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And my comment was mildly tongue-in-cheek...
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Nov 9, 2015 13:37
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Started A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay this weekend... sounds like an interesting premise, but the blog post parts of the book are already annoying me...
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Dec 7, 2015 18:22
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I got Tom Holland's new book Dynasty, about the first five Roman emperors, for Christmas. His previous work, Rubicon, starts with Sulla's rise to power and ends with the man who would be Augustus defeating Marc Antony and seizing ultimate power in Rome, while this one starts with Augustus's reign and continues through the death of Nero, so in that sense it's as much a sequel as one history book can be to another. I really enjoyed Rubicon and Holland's other works, he has a way of injecting his writing with enough excitement that you almost feel like you're reading a novel, while at the same time not skipping over any of the depth you'd expect from a good history book. I'm really looking forward to starting it.
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Dec 26, 2015 04:51
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Just started Jingo, and am almost finished with Roadtrip Rwanda, which is utterly fantastic (who would imagine a book about that place could be so damned funny?) and leaves me wanting to know more about the history of central Africa. This is also from personal motivations--my family got caught up in the Congo Crisis. They don't talk about it much. Consequently, I will be reading King Leopold's Ghost next. Gravity's Rainbow will resume once the hell part of my winter term schedule gets sorted.
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Jan 4, 2016 05:25
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I have to return The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra tomorrow but I like it. About 100 pages left, I think I can pull it off. Still have Welcome to Night Vale by Fink and Cranor, but I'm taking my time with that one.
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Jan 4, 2016 08:16
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Just jumped into Cibola Burn, book 4 of the Expanse series. I've read a lot of complaints about it being a boring transitional novel, but I've enjoyed it so far... then again, I'm only about 100 pages in. This series is cheesy as hell, but it's my favorite fast food, and let's face it--what's fast food without cheese?
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Jan 4, 2016 15:46
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Just getting into The Three-Body Problem. The translation seems perfect and the story is really good so far.
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Jan 4, 2016 18:00
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After an aborted and barely remembered attempt to read it years ago, I've picked back up Mystery by Peter Straub. I'm digging it so far, it's got that whole "real life world's greatest detective" vibe
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Jan 11, 2016 23:45
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I just bought and started the Diary of Anne Frank, and The Devil in the White City (by Eric Larson)
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Jan 12, 2016 19:21
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I just started Gravity's Rainbow. now I kind of want a banana.
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Jan 13, 2016 00:27
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I just bought Gravity's Rainbow. We'll see how this goes. EDIT: I also want a banana.
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Jan 14, 2016 01:39
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This week I started two books, due to needing a physical book at work and having a kindle at home. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle was one of my Christmas presents and so far I'm really loving it. As soon as I realised the nature of the game Trace Italian, I was hooked. Meanwhile on my kindle I started Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
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Feb 20, 2016 04:43
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Just started reading S, also known as Ship of Theseus. It's really loving interesting - you've got three intertwined narratives and most of the story is told through notes a pair of people have been leaving each other in the margins of the book. It also includes a fuckton of faux documents, postcards, newspaper cutouts, and a map drawn on a mockup of a campus coffee shop napkin. Printed on what seems to be an actual napkin. Really looking forward to seeing where it goes.
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Feb 22, 2016 15:22
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I really enjoyed Ship of Theseus
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Feb 22, 2016 19:01
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Just bought The Sea Devil - The Story Of Count Felix Von Luckner, Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis and The Wolf by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen. ...yes, I may be getting my fill of Great War-era action with this lot, but I don't think that's a bad thing! I've really been meaning to read more about Felix Von Luckner, so I thought I might as well get his book (among others) sooner, rather than later. EDIT: Speaking of which, if anyone here is aware of other good WWI (or other wars, I guess) tales/people I should look up, I would greatly appreciate the suggestions! Major Isoor fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Feb 23, 2016 |
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Feb 23, 2016 04:02
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Major Isoor posted:Just bought The Sea Devil - The Story Of Count Felix Von Luckner, Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis and The Wolf by Richard Guilliatt and Peter Hohnen. Check out Ernst Junger's Storm of Steel for a cool time in the trenches
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Feb 23, 2016 05:54
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You seem to be into lone German ships wandering around causing trouble, so if you can find copies you'll probably dig "The Emden" and "The Ayesha", the story of how SMS Emden ran all round the Indian Ocean in 1914, and the even more ridiculous journey home for her crew, as told by the ship's first officer Hellmuth von Mucke. You'll probably also enjoy Mimi & Toutou Go Forth, the story of one of the most thoroughly ridiculous affairs in the whole of military history. (Then go read about Louis Barthas because everybody should read about Louis Barthas.)
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Feb 23, 2016 06:05
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A human heart posted:Check out Ernst Junger's Storm of Steel for a cool time in the trenches Thanks, I'll need to check it out when I get home! Trin Tragula posted:You seem to be into lone German ships wandering around causing trouble, so if you can find copies you'll probably dig "The Emden" and "The Ayesha", the story of how SMS Emden ran all round the Indian Ocean in 1914, and the even more ridiculous journey home for her crew, as told by the ship's first officer Hellmuth von Mucke. You'll probably also enjoy Mimi & Toutou Go Forth, the story of one of the most thoroughly ridiculous affairs in the whole of military history. Trin Tragula (in linked thread) posted:The next day, October 12, at 9 p.m. we went back to the front line, relieving the 281st Regiment. Arriving at the firing line, we noticed assault ladders placed every ten meters along the parapet. This sight made us shiver, just as if we were walking past the gallows. In our trench were the remnants of a German heavy artillery battery, completely wiped out by our own artillery: shells, equipment, and German corpses, all buried together. Night and day, they put us to work excavating the dugouts in this strong-point. Good lord, I think you just sold me with that excerpt alone!  And I'll have to check out the other books too, once I get home.Thanks you two, looking forward to reading up on these suggestions!
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Feb 25, 2016 23:40
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Just started reading The Descent by Tim Johnston, and ooooh boy does the author love to hear himself write... Ray Bradbury he's not...
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Feb 26, 2016 20:17
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Major Isoor posted:EDIT: Speaking of which, if anyone here is aware of other good WWI (or other wars, I guess) tales/people I should look up, I would greatly appreciate the suggestions! Winged Victory by V.M. Yeates Knight of Germany: Oswald Boelcke Bloody April and Aces Falling both by Peter Hart Flying Fury by Major James McCudden Black Fokker Leader by Peter Kilduff
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Feb 26, 2016 22:17
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DeadBlack posted:I'm about 50 pages into Gravity's Rainbow. The prose has some loving absurd imagery that can be hilarious but can also get a bit out of hand and incomprehensible. I am enjoying it so far and I think I have to just get used to the fact that some paragraphs will not be delivering much meaning to me on this read. You have to just go with it. Realize that Pynchon is creating a lot of mood and scenery. Just give in to the beautiful use of language--his writing is really spectacular. Also, especially early on, Slothrop's getting drugged pretty well so none of that poo poo is supposed to make linear sense. The narrative does snap a little more into focus once you get into Chapter 2. I'm only 320 pages in and now totally captivated. I've heard the focus gets fuzzy again near the end though so. edit: oh hey, thread didn't parse according to posts I've read, sorry about replying to such an old post. Bilirubin fucked around with this message at 04:23 on Feb 29, 2016 |
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Feb 29, 2016 04:21
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If you ever get lost flip to the backcover and read the basics of the plot, that'll serve you for about 4 hundred pages.
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Feb 29, 2016 10:18
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Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh Has been talked about a few times here I think. Just done the first chapter, seems like it's going to be a good read about the world of brain surgery and the dramatic things that go with it. I watched a BBC series a few years ago about Neurosurgery in Oxford and it's going to be more of the same sort of thing, which is what I want.
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Mar 2, 2016 14:31
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No Longer At Ease by Chinua Achebe He wrote my all time favorite book, Things Fall Apart, which I first read in high school about 13 years ago and I'm just now getting around to reading his other stuff. I started it yesterday and I'm about halfway through. I wasn't expecting it to take place in modern times (relative to when it was written) and I'm enjoying how it keeps exploring the relationship between European colonists and traditional African values but in a different time period. I'm gonna read Arrow of God next and I really wanna see where that goes.
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Mar 2, 2016 18:42
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Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber. I read some of this a long time ago, and coming back to it I'm blown away by how wonderfully written it is.
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Mar 3, 2016 12:28
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Bullbar posted:Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber. I read some of this a long time ago, and coming back to it I'm blown away by how wonderfully written it is. All of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories are fantastic and I wish I could find a copy of them in a library. I read my dad's compilation to tatters when I was a teenager.
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Mar 3, 2016 15:16
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Gentlemen Bastards Trilogy Figured I need to start yet another series of books until Dresden, Kaladin, "I like screwing Farie goddesses" and Jon get going again.
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Mar 3, 2016 19:34
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Blackass Rarely do I hear about a book and think, I need this in my brain right now. This, a Nigerian satire about a black man who wakes up white--except for his rear end, is one of them. It's proved pretty entertaining so far.
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Mar 4, 2016 01:31
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Lolita. Only on chapter nine, however, I fell in love with the writing style, the French, the story line. Not quite sure the line of consciousness as is written is quite favorable, however. Reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in how it would begin at point A and then end in Point D somewhere.
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Mar 7, 2016 04:38
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About half-way through Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood after starting it yesterday. So far, so, so good. Reading about the life of Oryx was pretty harrowing, but it's the kind of book I lose track of time while reading. It reminds me a lot of the work of George Saunders.
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Mar 9, 2016 17:51
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DroneRiff posted:Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh It's a really engrossing read.
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Mar 30, 2016 00:48
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Silo by Hugh Howey. I'm very underwhelmed by it, maybe my expectations were too high given how well it's been reviewed, not just by internet forum types that praise shite like World War Z and Ready Player One but professional reviewers too. It just seems pretty uneven, I guess being written episodically, tied together and then completed as a novel doesn't help. The premise and writing are good, but the the dialogue and characterisation came across really amateur to me. Really the premise is strong and I see how that's drawn people to it. I think it's a shame it wasn't written as a novel throughout and had a narrative that didn't rely on writing in the voice of different characters.
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Mar 30, 2016 01:17
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