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Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer. Drivel, absolute drivel. What you get when you let a mediocre writer publish her daydreams. Absolutely reeks of Mormon culture and ignorance of anything outside it. But you could say that about the whole drat series. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone & Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling What you get when you let a decent writer adapt her daydreams to allow kids to insert themselves in. Much better than Twilight, but I can certainly understand the comparisons. Is most YA stuff like this? Eye-rollingly fantasization? I think Pratchett has spoiled me. Still, I'm planning on finishing this series too. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum Now this is how you do it right. I'm not sure if I've ever read this before, and I don't remember much of the movie, but I loved it. Doesn't insult your intelligence by trying to justify a talking scarecrow or how the gently caress you could replace a guy's arms and legs until he's completely made of metal, it just shows you and says there deal with it.
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Dec 29, 2008 22:23
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Murder Noveau posted:And I read Fight Club again for the 100th time. I hate to be "that guy", but is there much point in reading the book if you've seen the movie? I hear there's a slight change in the ending, but I already picked up Choke to put on my to-read list, so I just wonder if I'm going to read one of his books would I really benefit from Fight Club since I wouldn't be one of those I-did-it-before-it-was-cool guys.
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Dec 30, 2008 02:14
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IUG posted:I hate to be "that guy", but is there much point in reading the book if you've seen the movie? That's what I did, and it made me want to read the rest of his stuff.
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Dec 30, 2008 02:39
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Just finished The Crying of Lot 49. I was pretty indifferent about it until about 30 pages from the end, when it started clicking for me, and I started to love it. For a while I was confused and didn't get it, and now, well, I won't say I get it, obviously, but I really enjoyed it. At times it felt almost like a prank you get other people to read.
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Dec 30, 2008 05:53
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I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max. The guy is a complete rear end in a top hat but his stories couldn't possibly be any funnier, whether they are true or not. Excellent airplane/subway reading.
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Dec 30, 2008 16:14
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crabrock posted:The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. You can tell that a really great book and story lies underneath all the esoteric gimmicky style, but it would take a few read-throughs and some cliff's notes to full grasp it all... I believe Faulkner wanted to publish the book in multicolored fonts so that you could figure out who/when was speaking. Publishers weren't down with this, and reading this book for class was confusing as hell until I read it like 3 times (by re-reading passages and looking over quotes I thought to be significant). Great book though, I have Absalom, Absalom sitting on my shelf, dunno when I'll get around to that. I still have some lingering hatred of Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness style of writing. If you search google for The Sound and the Fury I think the harvard or yale website has it with the multicolored fonts. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller I know, everyone read this book. Nothing new to say about it, except I enjoyed it much more this time around. I got halfway through when I was in HS, got bored and picked it up during winter break and I found it to be a lot more funnier and thought provoking this time. The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien I just started but it's awesome so far, my english prof recommended it to me (and like 3 people at the checkout line at borders). Hilarious, realistic, sad.
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Dec 30, 2008 18:22
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tokki g posted:I believe Faulkner wanted to publish the book in multicolored fonts so that you could figure out who/when was speaking. Publishers weren't down with this, and reading this book for class was confusing as hell until I read it like 3 times (by re-reading passages and looking over quotes I thought to be significant). Great book though, I have Absalom, Absalom sitting on my shelf, dunno when I'll get around to that. I still have some lingering hatred of Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness style of writing. If you search google for The Sound and the Fury I think the harvard or yale website has it with the multicolored fonts. Yea, I don't want to bash it because a] i'd look retarded, and b] I could tell that there was something good there... only it was presented in the most confusing way possible. Also I just learned that my close parenthisis button isn't working even though *(((_ all the other ones do and so does 0.  Catch-22 is great, I need to read it again.
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Dec 30, 2008 22:05
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tokki g posted:If you search google for The Sound and the Fury I think the harvard or yale website has it with the multicolored fonts. Here's a link I found recently: http://www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/main/index.html . It's got annotations for some of the sections, an introduction/appendix by Faulkner, and options to chronologically reorganize Benjy's chapter and colorize Quentin's (and identify the time they refer to).
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Dec 31, 2008 01:33
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Just finished Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut and I loved it! I had nearly no expectations starting this book and it turned out incredibly good and hilarious the whole way through. I found his sometimes subtle and sometimes much more blatant expressions of truths captivating. Maybe that's how I was semi-ruined for Slaughterhouse V. I read it without having read any of his other work, all the while expecting something (turns out) utterly foreign to his style.
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Dec 31, 2008 07:22
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The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Deals with a young woman's breakdown and treatment for mental illness. I've read a lot of rough stuff, but this one really made me identify with the main character. Just wanted to hold her and make everything ok  It didn't help that it's apparently more or less autobiographical and the author later committed suicide.Seriously read this book, one of the best novels I've read.
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Jan 1, 2009 04:38
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Ubik by Philip K Dick. Wow, this has got to be one of the weirdest novels I have ever read. I really enjoyed it, however. Looking forward to reading more Philip K Dick books!
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Jan 1, 2009 23:01
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Immanis posted:My roommate let me borrow his favorite book over winter break: "Timeline," by Michael Crichton. I really liked it, and immediately picked up "The Andromeda Strain," and now I'm on "The Terminal Man." I just finished The Andromeda Strain, and I quite enjoyed it. I'm now starting Triple by Ken Follett. Also, for those who haven't read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, I highly recommend it if you enjoy a medieval setting.
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Jan 2, 2009 02:02
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Selfish Otter posted:Here's a link I found recently: http://www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/main/index.html . It's got annotations for some of the sections, an introduction/appendix by Faulkner, and options to chronologically reorganize Benjy's chapter and colorize Quentin's (and identify the time they refer to). Please no one read The Sound and The Fury in chronological order the first time through. The book is a fantastic puzzle presented precisely. You are supposed to be mystified and confused, and slowly those layers fall away. I just finished The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. It was a pretty good book that took the standard hard-boiled detective narrative and set in a speculative fiction Alaska where the state of Israel never took off and the Jews were dumped on a frozen patch of land called Sitka. The plot centers around a murder that happens a few months before the Jews are set to lose their land and likely get deported and a detective who still gives a drat about solving cases even though his boss (and ex-wife) has basically ordered him to dump all his active cases into the cold case files so they're not pending when they hand it back over to the US government. Chabon, as usual, can write a hell of a sentence and create an amazingly detailed world, but the plot was a little by the numbers. Still a great read. Judge Holden fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Jan 2, 2009 |
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Jan 2, 2009 06:43
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Got a foot high stack of books for christmas, and decided on Book of the New Sun first. Waxed a bit more philosophical then Id expected, but it was a great story. One of the most interesting casts of characters I've seen. Severian especially. His interactions with other characters were fantastic, and was written into the role of handsome daredevil who can decapitate in one swing with his giant sword (and kill people with his hands) with more grace then I'd ever be capable of managing. I even read all the little stories (okay I skimmed the Ascians'  ) which is a departure from the norm for me, as I usually can't wait to get back into the meat of the action. Looking forward to rereading this one.Up next on the pile is Mother Night. Tomorrow night. I've got a strange habit of not starting new books for at least a day after finishing a good one
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Jan 2, 2009 10:38
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_jink posted:Got a foot high stack of books for christmas, and decided on Book of the New Sun first. Waxed a bit more philosophical then Id expected, but it was a great story. One of the most interesting casts of characters I've seen. Severian especially. His interactions with other characters were fantastic, and was written into the role of handsome daredevil who can decapitate in one swing with his giant sword (and kill people with his hands) with more grace then I'd ever be capable of managing. I even read all the little stories (okay I skimmed the Ascians' I only read Shadow of the Torturer, and I guess I didn't "get" it. After Severian fled the Guild I kind of lost interest because I felt that the plot meandered. You say you read the whole "Book of the New Sun"--does this mean all four parts, from Shadow of the Torturer to The Citadel of the Autarch? Also I just finished Stephen King's most recent short story collection, Just After Sunset. The stories ranged from lame and uninspired (Rest Stop, Willa) to cheesy but fun (N., The Cat From Hell) to really fresh and compelling (Stationary Bike, A Very Tight Place). Bag Of Ghosts fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Jan 2, 2009 |
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Jan 2, 2009 20:42
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The Devil in the White City by Larsen. I was not a fan of Larsen's writing style, and I won't likely read any of his other books. However, I did learn a lot. Now I see references to the Chicago Columbus Fair everywhere! Up next: Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.
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Jan 3, 2009 01:50
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Finished re-reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I only started getting into him a year ago and it was the second book I read (after The Road) and it took me three months to get through the book and I still didn't really understand a lot of the overarching themes. I've read almost every McCarthy book in the past year and this is the first time I've re-read one of his books. I really liked it a lot more now that I'm used to his prose and descriptive style, and I got a lot more out of the book. It also only took me a month to read it this time. I still like Suttree the most but haven't finished the Border Trilogy yet. Right now I'm half way through The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and I'm really digging it. Can't really put it down. I'll probably read In Defense of Food after I finish this.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:40
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Finished Good Omens the other day. It was oookay. I found the writing to be kinda messy. From what I read, Pratchett did most of the actual writing which I can believe. My knack against the man is, though his ideas are brilliant, he sometimes can't execute them fully and I wish Gaiman did more of the heavy work. Also just finished Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. This book is now my new favorite book, something I can just open up and read. My English teacher recommended it and gave me the xerox'd first story. I had to go out and buy soon after reading it. Here's an excerpt from Powell's Books of the first story: http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=9780060975777&page=excerpt#page
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Jan 3, 2009 06:11
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Dionysus Myth and Cult - W. F. Otto. Interesting read, very scholarly and often poetic. Better probably for those with at least some reading in Classics.
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Jan 3, 2009 10:35
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death of socrates posted:Dionysus Myth and Cult - W. F. Otto. Interesting read, very scholarly and often poetic. Better probably for those with at least some reading in Classics. Wow, very interesting. Do you know any other books on ancient religions like that? What about Sybille cult, or ancient Roman gods before Greek anthropomorphisation? I had this old Roman history text book and it had some very interesting chapters on that topic. I will try to get the authors name, it was a great book.
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Jan 3, 2009 18:53
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Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K Dick. Wow. This novel is so flawed, yet so perfect. Really weird too.
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Jan 3, 2009 21:02
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hexadecimal posted:Wow, very interesting. Do you know any other books on ancient religions like that? What about Sybille cult, or ancient Roman gods before Greek anthropomorphisation? I had this old Roman history text book and it had some very interesting chapters on that topic. I will try to get the authors name, it was a great book. Nothing in particular. A prof. of mine I'll ask when the term starts. He's into this stuff and has read it.
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Jan 3, 2009 21:14
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death of socrates posted:Nothing in particular. A prof. of mine I'll ask when the term starts. He's into this stuff and has read it. The book I mentioned is "A History of Rome" by Tenney Frank. It is very old, however - 1938. It had some very interesting stuff, I never read in other history text books on Rome.
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Jan 3, 2009 22:41
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The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Of all the books I have read about war, I think this one hit me hardest. This book is a story about war stories, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone trying to understand war and/or trying to understand what a loved one who has been to war is going through. If you see it on a store shelf buy it, or at least sit and read the chapters "Speaking of Courage/Notes" while you're there.
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Jan 4, 2009 04:12
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Recently wrapped up Immortals: The Crossing by Joy Nash. A Fantasy/Romance Novel where the world openly acknowledges Immortals, Witches, etc. It was a pretty decent read. My only hang up was Artemis' constant internal references to how "handsome" Mac Lir is, once they meet. Being a romance novel, it has very few "adult oriented" scenes. The story itself revolves around the immortal Mac Lir hunting down a witch (Artemis) while she tries to retrieve her son's soul from the pits of Hell. Overall: It would keep me in the bathroom for just under an hour. **** I'm currently putting a dent into Duma Key by the King, himself - Stephen King. Edgar Freemantle gets into a serious accident, costing him his arm and his wife (divorce). He retreats to Duma Key, an archipelago off the southern coast of Florida for a 'geological re-hab'. You all know King. From here things get spooky. His buddy Wireman is hilarious, also. Overall: This one has made me break my hour and a half 'sitting time' record. Mahnarch fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Jan 5, 2009 |
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Jan 5, 2009 00:09
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I just finished American Gods by Gaiman. It was my first Gaiman book and I liked it fine. Im reading Good Omens at the moment and don't like it as much.
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Jan 5, 2009 00:53
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Water for Elephants Loved the narrator and just the mood that Gruen makes last through the entire book. The plot was engaging thanks to the setting but I kept waiting for some of the characters to progress a bit more. Great novel, overall. Anyone ever read any of Gruen's other books like Riding Lessons? Ubu Roi 
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Jan 5, 2009 18:45
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East of Eden by Steinbeck. I wasn't expecting much, but I really think it was an awesome story. Steinbeck is very good at setting up scenes, and I'll probably try to read more. I'm working on V. by Pynchon at the moment. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, but I sort of fell into a groove with it and am really enjoying myself. I've only got ~140 pages to go. After that I'm planning on either Cancer Ward by Solzhenitsyn or The House of Leaves. Which should I choose I wonder?
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Jan 6, 2009 06:04
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Just finished All Quiet on the Western Front. I picked it up since I figured it was one of those books that everyone should get around to reading since it's so well known. It's rightfully a classic. It was a great and easy read, I read it in a few days on my commutes. I'm thinking next is going to be either Atlas Shrugged or The River of Doubt. I was going to read American Gods next but it's in my dorm room and I don't go back to school for another week.
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Jan 6, 2009 20:40
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Johnny Truant posted:Skylark of Space by E. E. "Doc" Smith - I decided to re-read this because I read it a very long time ago, so my memory was quite hazy about this book. After reading this I've really come to realize that Smith is a very overlooked sci-fi author, because this book and the other three in the series (Skylark III, Skylark of Valeron and Skylark DuQuesne) which I've begun plowing through, are just fantastic books. My dad told me they just go downhill from SoS, but I'm really enjoying Skylark III at the moment. The books are about Dr. Richard Seaton, a scientist working for a government firm, and how he finds a chemical that lets him harness the intra-atomic energy of copper, which essentially gives him a clean source of unlimited power. From there he and his very rich, lifelong friend Martin Crane set off to make a space shuttle and explore the galaxy. Wow I loved the Skylark series when I was a kid, then my best mate borrowed them and STILL has them over 10 years later. He say's he'll give me them back on average once a month, and I have a standing pride that prevents me from taking them from his home unasked. Skylark DuQuesne is the perfect ending, ignore what your dad says, the way Smith builds the pop-science over the books to the point that the ridiculousness of it begins to make perfect sense is amazing. I just finished Joseph Conrad's short story An Outpost of Progress. I know he thought it was his best work, but I thought it was funny but a bit obvious. sorry.
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Jan 6, 2009 21:32
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I, Lucifer: Finally, the Other Side of the Story By Glenn Duncan, God gives Lucifer a second chance at redemption by allowing him to inhabit the body of a writer. It is an amazing book if you like dark comedies and thinking differently. Up Next: The Liar and Making History by Stephen Fry
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Jan 7, 2009 04:40
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Ahhh, I haven't kept up with this thread in a while. I have read some stuff, but the most memorable were: Anthem by Ayn Rand. I'm not gonna lie, I read this book 1) I like science fiction and 2) Rush's album 2112 is based after this book. While short in length, it was a classical futuristic society where everyone has to live in a socialist world ruled by a small elitist group. Very reminiscent of The Eye of Heron or even The Time Machine. The Road by Cormac McCarthy My God what an amazing book. I couldn't put it down and finished on a plane ride home. I had to go very slow at the end to hold back the tears in front of the rest of the plane. It was amazing. If you haven't read it by now, DO IT.
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Jan 7, 2009 20:55
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Tom Toddlesworth posted:Just finished Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut and I loved it! I had nearly no expectations starting this book and it turned out incredibly good and hilarious the whole way through. I found his sometimes subtle and sometimes much more blatant expressions of truths captivating. Slaughterhouse V was the first Vonnegut book I ever read and since I have read quite a few. With every new Vonnegut I read, I feel like Slaughterhouse V just gets separated from the bunch. While it's a good book, I don't feel like it's typical Vonnegut by any means. Maybe it's just me.
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Jan 7, 2009 21:00
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz This book was recommended by several people and I read great things about it online. However, I felt it was incredibly overrated and no where near the previous Pulitzer Prize winner (The Road). It was painful to get through. The lack of Spanish translations and long pointless footnotes drove me nuts.
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Jan 8, 2009 18:00
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Citizen of The Galaxy by Heinlein. Awesome story and interesting cultures. Omg slavery in outer space!
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Jan 8, 2009 18:29
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The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley - I've only read one of Crumley's other books (The Right Madness) which could've been a lot better plot-wise but *was* interesting enough to get me interested in reading his other stuff. Anyway, I picked up TLGK after hearing it was one of his best and wasn't disappointed. It introduces his PI character C.W. Sughrue and follows Sughrue's attempts to locate an alcoholic writer - a job which then leads him to another case involving a woman's long-lost daughter. Great book and I'm glad I decided to read some more of Crumley's stuff. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth - A fictional account about an attempt to kill former French president Charles de Gaulle by a mysterious assassin code-named "The Jackal". Well-written with a lot of detail going into the Jackal's plan for the assassination, although the ending was VERY anti-climactic and seemed like a retarded waste of 300+ pages. The White Trilogy by Ken Bruen - A collection of three short crime novels that follow a group of cops as they deal with murderers and other assorted whackjobs in the seedy underbelly of London as well as trying to sort out their complicated personal lives. Very dark at times but also surprisingly funny. On the heels of this one, I just also read Bruen's The Guards - featuring his Irish ex-cop turned PI Jack Taylor, which was even better. Really enjoying Bruen's style and I can somewhat see the comparison to James Ellroy. In between library trips, I also read the first two Dune books again - it's been a long time and they're still as good as I remember. I just can't imagine WTF Frank Herbert would think of the massive poo poo Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson took on the series these days.
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Jan 8, 2009 19:28
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Just finished Layer Cake- usually I try to avoid reading a book after watching the movie upon which it was based, but in this case, the movie followed the book so much that it was basically the movie playing in my head as I read it. The language of the characters is brilliant, I wish more authors did tricky things with accents like Connolly did. I'm really hoping that this sequel that he has been writing for a while will get released, so they make a sequel to the movie as well. Daniel Craig says he will only do another movie if Connolly writes another book.
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Jan 8, 2009 20:39
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The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West. I really liked this book, despite Tod being the gooniest character I've read about since catcher in the rye. I laughed when he went on Faye's and Earle's dates and they made him pay, and then he never got laid. It reminded me of that GBS printer thread... Anyway, it was a good book. A pretty short read but has some really good writing. I'd recommend it.
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Jan 9, 2009 02:03
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Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I got mixed feelings, but overall, I liked it a lot. Pros: + Stylish and vivid prose--I am usually not the type that can really "see myself there" when I am reading, but in this case I did + Very creative setting / premise. Excellent worldbuilding. + Funny at times! + Chabon writes a mean sentence + Jews! We are amusing people. Cons: - Pretty garden-variety detective story. - Sometimes, the prose toed the line between elegant and overwritten - Pointless present tense - Detective Landsman, the main character, wasn't too interesting or original. A washed-up alcoholic detective with regrets. Sigh. -The second half seemed a little all over the place. I thought that the story spread itself too thin here, and introduced too many strands that never quite got tied up. For example, the whole thing with Mendel Shpilman the Messiah and the US gov't Zionist conspiracy was a little murky. -A few annoying plotholes and inconsistencies. For example: at the end, Landsman, who we know HATES HATES HATES chess and sucks at it, suddenly has a brilliant insight and solves the chess problem that Shpilman was working over? Buh?
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Jan 9, 2009 11:39
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I just finished A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away by Christopher Brookmyre. It's one of those books that slowed my reading to a crawl because while it was pretty good, it certainly wasn't involved enough to propel me through it. 'Thrillers' aren't really my thing and the satiric undercurrent this book was supposed to possess wasn't that strong. The chapter where the main character is suspected of kidnapping two children and has his house picketed by a chavvy lynch mob is far too broad in its satire, for example, and relies on poor and easy stereotypes. This is a pretty goony thing to say, but the main characters interest in First Person Shooters is actually pretty well researched. Recongnisable weapons and levels are mentioned throughout the book which is pretty impressive. So, a solid and sometimes funny thriller, but not the sharp satire I wanted or was lead to expect. Disco Pope fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jan 9, 2009 |
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Jan 9, 2009 13:46
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