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I just got back into reading last year after almost a decade of not reading anything beyond what was mandated by my job or education, so I'm keeping it modest at 12 books for the year. Here's my next question. I'm in the middle of a book. Does it count for this year if I started it 2013, but finished it in 2014?
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Jan 2, 2014 04:35
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Strong Mouse posted:From everything I have seen, and from what I do, it is your goal. You decide what counts and what doesn't. I am personally going to have the book I am finishing up that I started last year count, because I am going by when I finish. Thanks. I'm going to count it because I'm pretty much exactly half way through it.
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Jan 2, 2014 05:24
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Oh, I forgot to add my Goodreads profile as well: Goodreads. Also, don't pay attention to my progress updates. I'm using it to get a sense of how/when/how much I read.
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Jan 8, 2014 22:04
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#1 - Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky. Not sure how I feel about this one. I think I still need to ruminate on it for a while to get the full significance. It seems to be more meaningful than what I pulled out of it initially. I'm also not sure how to process the end. #2 - The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith. This was a short story, but I'm counting it because it was one of my gifts from the TBB Santa exchange. It was definitely entertaining, but it feels like it might or should be a part of a larger collection. It felt a lot like the first couple chapters of a much longer novel. It laid just enough ground to create a "universe" for a much larger story, but ended after hinting at a potential narrative. Also, I was a little weirded out by the Underhill/Lady May romantic aspect. It could have worked if it was a full novel and done tastefully (the emotional, not sexual part). But ending where it did left me with a "This dude is writing fan fiction about his cat" feeling. It didn't help that I read most of it in a vet ER waiting for news about my cat with a blocked urethra.
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Jan 10, 2014 21:55
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showbiz_liz posted:I wonder- for the people who did this last year, could you say what your favorite book of 2013 was? It would help me (and maybe others) to choose books for the 2014 lineup. Mine was probably Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The most gripping nonfiction book I've ever read, I think. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. I didn't do it last year, but my favorite book I read in 2013 was The Day of the Triffids (it was also September's TBB book of the month). It has an interesting take on how the end of the world occurs for an apocalypse novel. Also, I really liked Wyndham's prose.
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Jan 13, 2014 18:13
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Butch Cassidy posted:5. Neuromancer by William Gibson. Was super fun and transcended its plot flaws to become an amazing piece of existentialism, depravity, and Rastafarian with a shotgun. But I really need to kick into a few lighthearted books to break my "everything is poo poo" bender. Post what you come up with for lighthearted books. I don't prefer lighthearted books, but I always go through runs of 4-5 books that need to be broken up before I start another depressing look at mankind.
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Jan 17, 2014 17:42
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General question about Goodreads. I've been plotting my progress (every night that I read, I update to the page I'm on) to get a sense of my reading habits, but there's no way to change the total page number of the book. This is significant because the book I'm currently reading Going Clear by Lawrence Wright is actually ~370 pages long but the book is out of 560 pages (because of notes, bibliography, appendix and credits).
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Jan 23, 2014 21:49
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Wasn't planning on finishing my book today, but I was awoken at 5:30 am from a guy working a crowbar on the cast iron grate to my basement. Gave me two hours after the police report to finish my book. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright: Honestly, incredibly well researched, but the available information on Scientology isn't anything new. I've read most of the substance of this book on my own over the years, so it's not shocking to me. If you haven't researched Scientology on your own, this is an incredible look into the cult that masks itself as a religion. But from people's reviews, I was expecting things I didn't know. Also, the "Prison of Belief" portion is exactly the same as any cult or messiah group. Jim Jones and Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, Warren Jeffs, David Koresh, there is no significant difference between them. I was steered towards this book because of the recommendations of people who have never studied this subject before. Bottom line: If you've studied criminal religious enterprises/cults in the past, this book is a well researched example of just one more criminal religious enterprise. If you've never studied this subject before, it's a well written and well researched book to familiarize yourself with the very definition of what a cult is. Edit: Oh yes, and that's book 3 for me.
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Jan 29, 2014 06:33
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Radio! posted:1. Countdown City- Ben H. Winters What did you think of Hell House (without spoilers)? I've read almost all of Matheson, and feel like I should read this one because of it. However, I always have a book I want to read more at any given time.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:16
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1.Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Brothers 2.The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith 3.Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright 4.The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clark I'm going to put my February in a week early because I know I won't finish another one this month. Slow month, only got the one done. The Deep Range is one of Arthur C. Clark's less known books that was recommended to me from the Sci-Fi thread when I asked about books that take place in/on/around the ocean. I've since learned that it was published the year after he moved to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) to pursue his interest in scuba diving, which now informs his desire to write this book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Short description: a former space marine becomes a submariner whale farmer. I definitely enjoyed it more than Childhood's End. Like Childhood's End, it's split into 3 parts, but the time frame between each part is just a couple of years. Also like Childhood's End the third part takes on a different tone than the rest of the book, but not outlandish like Childhood's End. The first two parts are really more about telling a story, while the third part takes it in a more cerebral/philosophical direction. The book itself holds up very well to time. Arthur C. Clark seems to be one of the Sci-Fi writers in which a lot of the science fiction described in his books has became science fact by now. That's one thing I liked about this book. Enough of the things that he describes have come into being that the book feels believable in a not too distant future, eventhough it's already 57 years old.
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Feb 21, 2014 17:37
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1.Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Brothers 2.The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith 3.Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright 4.The Deep Range by Arthur C. Clark 5.The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Again, I only got one in this month. I'm still on track for my goal of 12 this year, but hopefully I can kick up the rate and get at least 2 done next month. As for the Martian Chronicles, I enjoyed it and I liked the format of the book basically being a string of short stories taking place on Mars. I also had read a quote from Ray Bradbury saying that this wasn't a sci-fi novel, it was a fantasy novel, and it definitely should be read in that context. There really isn't much in terms of science fiction and the elements in there really are much closer to fantasy. I will say that I didn't care for the weird story in the middle of the book about the guy who builds the Poe house and kills the government censors. I appreciate it for basically being a precursor to Farenheit 451 but I just don't think it fit in with the rest of the book. Also, I shouldn't expect too much since it was published in 1950 but the misogyny of the Walter Gripp story was again a little hard to swallow. I mean, he calls a beauty store looking for anyone else left on Mars because he figures "if there's any place a woman would be in a post-apocalypse world, it would be at a beauty store" and then having someone actually be there and pick up the phone was ridiculous, and then having him literally run away from her and live alone because she was fat and ugly. Again, it was hard to swallow 65 years later since it didn't go any deeper than that. It was definitely a cool book, and I think it benefits from looking at it as both a western/frontier story as well as mid-west small town vignettes. His early life in Illinois definitely informs this book.
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Mar 27, 2014 15:50
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Stupid_Sexy_Flander posted:Nah, I have a list of "want to read" that I keep on my kindle, but basically it's whatever grabs my fancy at the moment. Yeah, I pretty much do the same thing. I was going to read The Shining because I got it for $2 on Kindle, then my friend suggested Ready Player One and I was able to download it from my library, so that's what I'm going to read next.
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Mar 29, 2014 18:05
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Guy A. Person posted:If reading some comics helps someone work toward a goal and get through other, more challenging stuff without giving up then they should go ahead and put it on their list. I would rather have someone think "well I didn't finish Moby Dick this month but I did read two graphic novels so I can list those and keep going" rather than "I can't finish a single book so I may as well give up and go play video games". Or.... we could let people set their own reading goals and how they are going to attain them without being twits about it.
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Apr 10, 2014 18:12
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Stravinsky posted:Well the whole thing is he was probably already reading them anyway, and had prior knowledge that he would be doing so. But he was already discounting them from his list and now decides I'm going to up my books read count now so that I can feel like I can list them as well. Its just padding so you can say you read more. And we do have two (in reality there are four different forums) where you can talk about graphic novels/comics/manga/ what have you that it seems really off topic to talk about reading them in the book barn. It's not a contest, so stop talking about "padding your numbers". His goal and how he attains it is his personally. It has NO affect on you whatsoever, and it encourages him to read. So stop with this insane de-rail and start posting the books you read and what you thought about them, or stop posting. Edit: This stupid de-rail you started is 100 times worse than discussion about graphic novels. Fremry fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 18:26
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Fremry posted:1. Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Brothers 6. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Another slow month, I'll blame it on work, but I really should have gotten another one done. That being said, I enjoyed Ready Player One. I have a friend who is a middle school librarian and after a bunch of novels about the end of the world, how horrible humanity is, how hosed humanity is, and or a combination of all three, I asked her for a recommendation for something that's an easy read and in which humanity isn't the antagonist. She said it was her favorite book she read last year (she reads mostly YA because that's what her students are reading), and she has recommended it to a couple of our friends who also liked it. It was exactly what I needed at the time. It was a super easy read and entertaining. I understand why it's a YA novel that appeals to an older crowd, because if you are familiar with 80's pop culture (mostly movies and videogames), it is quite a nostalgia trip. A very good tip I got from the YA thread, if you plan to read this, watch "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick.
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Apr 29, 2014 19:15
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Fremry posted:1. Roadside Picnic by Strugatsky Brothers 7. Foundation by Isaac Asimov 8. Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr. The Foundation series has been sitting on my list for a while and I didn't get to it until just now. I can understand why this is considered a Sci-Fi classic series. I enjoyed it quite a bit, so I've started Foundation and Empire. I know that there's debate back and forth as to whether you should start from the series order or the publication order, but I've decided to read it as it was published. Who Goes There? was the novella that the movie The Thing was based on. The movie from the 50's always has a place in my heart because my dad taught me my first bit of film knowledge when we watched it (that there are no pauses in the dialogue between speakers to create a feeling of anxiety in the viewers). It has aged surprisingly well considering it was written in the 1938. I'd suggest it to anyone who enjoys corny b-movies, and it's also one of the more interesting monsters I've read. Edit: Who Goes There? is also a free "rental" in the Kindle Lending Library if you have Amazon Prime. One of the few decent books on there. Fremry fucked around with this message at 19:07 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 16:34
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