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I haven't finished anything in a while.  I've been reading "The wind-up bird chronicle" by Haruki Murakami but I only read like 2 or 3 chapters a day, while I usually finish books in a day or two. "Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world" (which I read a while ago) definitely had a more intriguing plot.
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Nov 16, 2006 00:03
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I just finished Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. I don't care much for his poetry, but there were a few really good short stories in there.
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Jan 20, 2007 17:44
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splink posted:I just finished this as well. I didn't really think it was as good as Smoke and Mirrors, but it had its high points. Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire was a pretty fun read, and I really liked the way Other People worked structurally. The Monarch of the Glen was good, but kind of predictable if you've read the other American Gods stuff. Now that you mention it, I did like his "person volunteers for a magic trick and DOESNT RETURN!!" story in Smoke and Mirrors better
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Jan 24, 2007 01:00
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I just finished the last book of the Dresden Files. I read the first four at the beginning of february, and last week I started with the fifth. They're great books, but not really deep or anything. Good entertainment. Think wizards in a contemporary setting, but more grown up than Harry Potter, and with pretty much every type of folklore critter thrown in. Faeries, vampires (in three varieties no less), werewolves (four types), dragons, holy knights of the Cross (with a capital C), demons, fallen angels, and so on. I can't wait for the next book to come out. Luckily, that'll be in April. Jim Butcher (the author) writes like a madman, almost as fast as Stephen King.
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Feb 23, 2007 22:16
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Kafka on the shore, by Haruki Murakami. A story about fate, basically. Like Macbeth, or the Harry Potter novels, only the exact opposite of those. Where Macbeth's and Harry's prophecies only come true because of what they choose to do, Kafka Tamura's prophecy is fulfilled despite his actions to prevent it. It was a very intriguing story. I especially liked the Mr. Nakata/Hoshino chapters, they were fun to read. Now that I'm done I still have some questions, but I'm not sure they're really relevant to the story so they probably don't have answers. why DID Nakata's class faint during the war when they were out in the mountains? If Nakata couldn't talk to cats anymore because he moved away from the edge between the worlds, how could he talk to the stone? And so on. For school I also had to read heart of darkness, the scarlet letter, a long day's journey into night, a streetcar named desire, the crucible, who's afraid of virginia woolf, and a raisin in the sun. A word of advice: read books/plays when they're assigned, not at the last possible moment before midterms 
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Mar 21, 2007 00:02
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The first book in the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Leguin. I thought it was alright. I love her writing style, the way she uses it to tell Ged's story is great. Problem is, Ged's story itself didn't really do it for me. I saw the identity of the shadow coming a mile off, and all the rowing got on my nerves. My favourite part was at the island of Roke, but that probably has something to do with my weird fixation on wizarding schools. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to read the next one, but the lure of reading about Ged becoming an Archmage is strong... Also, tonight I started and finished Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson. I have read a lot of books in my life, but never one as sad as this one. Jesus christ.
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Apr 18, 2007 00:43
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Krinkle posted:I just finished "the drawing of the three" in the dark tower series. I was pretty upset because the first thing to happen was he gets his shooting finger chewed off This turned me off the whole dark tower series. I read the first book and thought it was alright, then read the first couple of pages of the second and he got his fingers chewed off. I stopped reading thinking I'd go back to it later but I never did. edit: I just finished the first part of the collected vampire: the masquerade clan novels. It's about the vampire apocalypse. I would recommend reading the clan novels separately, the way the collections are sorted (chronologically) makes the build up really, really really slow and the action far too short. reflir fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Apr 24, 2007 |
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Apr 24, 2007 22:06
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I just finished White Night by Jim Butcher, the ninth installment of the Dresden Files. I think it is safe to say that Jim Butcher is the Jerry Bruckheimer of modern fantasy fiction. Jesus christ. The climactic battle at the end of the book just kept going and going and going and explosions were piled on top of explosions and even more explosions and then huge rifts in the space time continuum appeared and even more explosions followed. That poo poo is loving intense.
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May 7, 2007 00:35
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The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick. It's basically about fakeposting in a future where the internet doesn't exist. I also finished House of Leaves a couple of days ago but pretty much everything that needs to be said about that book has already been said more eloquently by someone else.
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Jul 30, 2008 19:18
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Oldbill posted:I guess I got what I deserved for reading Palahniuk yet again, but Pygmy was a special blend of insipid that I've never seen before and hope never to see again. The book is written from the perspective of a meticulously trained teenage operative from some unnamed Communist country that sent him to America to kill as many capitalist pigs as he can and impregnate their women or something. I'm not exactly sure, because the actual objective of "Operation Havoc" shifts constantly without any explanation. I've never actually read any of his books but this sounds hilarious.
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Sep 11, 2009 14:34
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Yesterday I finished A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami. It was a Murakami alright; mysterious women on the phone, deep and dark wells, cats, Nat King Cole, stoic protagonist, leaving behind society and trekking into the wild to complete a mystical quest, quirky girl with magic powers, a scathing critique of the monotony and lack of imagination among the Japanese, and so on. I liked it alright, but it really made me wonder when he's going to stop rewriting the same book over and over and publishes something more like Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world. Protagoris posted:I think a lot of people find it pretentious because the whole book, beyond everything else it does, is supposed to function as a critique on critical/academic writing. People that do critical/academic writing don't tend to like to have their careers and vocations thrown back at them. Hahaha, yeah, that's the reason.
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Oct 4, 2009 13:38
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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. The idea of a world after our fossil fuel reserves are mostly depleted was worked out really well and I really enjoyed the biological angle of his science fictions. What bothered me though was that apparently in the future photo-voltaic cells don't exist, nor had anyone capitalized on farming the CONSTANT RAGING HEAT that was referenced every third line. The battle at the end lasted too long and was largely uninteresting, though thematically I guess the book needed one last snap of wound up tension.
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Mar 6, 2010 18:50
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muscles like this? posted:The Magicians Holy poo poo. Holy poo poo.
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Mar 9, 2010 22:59
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The Magicians by Lev Grossman is the best book I have ever read.
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Mar 11, 2010 00:35
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Green Crayons posted:Going to stop by B&N today after work to pick up The Magicians because of Goooons! Better be good. I emailed the author to tell him how much I enjoyed the book and he sent a polite email back saying that that meant a lot to him  Suck on that, Rowling I also finished Rainbows End some time last week and thought it a pretty likely description of the near future, though it'll probably take a little longer than Vinge's estimated 10-15 years. It's really a novel about hidden knowledge, dangerous knowledge and their consequences. If you've ever stepped into a library and thought "holy poo poo, think of all the things I can look up here! I can know EVERYTHING" this is probably the book for you.
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Mar 13, 2010 11:08
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PBCrunch posted:Does this book read well as stand-alone? I read another book by Vinge called Marooned in Realtime and it was difficult to make sense of since I had not read the previous novel The Peace War. I've not read anything else by him and it was fine. So, yes.
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Mar 15, 2010 19:42
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The Machine posted:He's a talented author by Stephen King's standards, I very, very much doubt this.
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May 27, 2010 23:03
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Spoiler alert jesus christ
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Jul 26, 2010 23:47
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Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know science. edit: I just finished reading "... 2nd edit: Alternatively: Earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that I now know that I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that I now know that earlier today I finished reading Gödel, Escher, Bach. Etc. reflir fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Aug 7, 2010 |
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Aug 7, 2010 18:58
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That book sounds awesome (I'm a PhD student! I could stumble over a rare book in the stacks and have  adventures! ) but the terrible pun and the consciousness stuff really don't bode well for it at all. On a scale of 1 to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanfic, how cringe-inducing is it?
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Jun 13, 2011 23:02
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Roydrowsy posted:terrible pun? Yeah, I meant the Mystery thing. I'll probably go get it though!
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Jun 14, 2011 18:27
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UUriffic posted:That's interesting, he uses words in the same way as a scientist does in a research writing or a philosopher in a paper, or at least that's what I get out of that Q&A. In science and philosophy of course, you want to use the same words when you mean the same thing because language must be precise, like a clockwork machine. This is only the case for some words though. He also simply has word crushes, like insalubrious and inchoate in Perdido Street Station, integument, extirpate and a lot of other words that are specifically biological in their etymology in The Scar and exigencies in Embassytown. I'm pretty certain The Scar is the only fiction book ever to feature the word 'euryhaline'
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Jul 8, 2011 22:29
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I also recently finished the Hunger Games trilogy. I read the first book straight through in a single sitting, I really really liked it. The plot hook was great (Battle Royale!), there were some great scenes (like the whole wasp sequence) and some really enjoyable characters (Foxface, Rue, Cinna). The "Oh my loving god Katniss The Chosen One is awesome at everything, this is totally not me showing up those bitches in high school 20 years later" factor was cranked up a few notches too high for my tastes and the writing was a little too simple at times, but those are really the only negatives. The second and third books are loving terrible. There are really no other words for how quickly Collins ran a good thing straight into the ground. I guess when you're a sixteen year old girl the whole Peeta/Galen OH MY GOD IM SO CONFUSED ABOUT EVERYTHING angle must be really enticing, but it made me want to retro-actively abort myself. What's more, there aren't even any Hunger Games in the third book (one of the few redeeming features of the second book, along with (again) some pretty interesting characters), it's just a boring dystopian victory lap where people act for completely unrealistic reasons and can be manipulated in increasingly unrealistic ways only because the author is stupid (either intentionally or unintentionally). Mockingjay is like a debate where everyone's a straw man. That takes some loving skill, but it doesn't make for good reading.
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Mar 27, 2012 19:36
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Hedrigall posted:The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. 4 stars. I've read all of them, and in the latest at least no dates are mentioned. I get the feeling it's set in a perpetual 'a year from now' future, and while the Laundry is definitely ratcheting up for Case Nightmare Green drawing closer, it's also definitely not there yet. I really enjoy the series a lot, and the books are getting more interesting all the time.
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Jul 29, 2012 09:24
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