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What are you reading? (July 09)
- Thread starter ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
- Start date
Meanwhile, I'm about a quarter of the way through Infinite Jest myself (page 228; I was almost embarrassingly grateful to see
) and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. It's very well written (if, shall we say, a tad indulgent) and I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm waiting to see if the novel's ending is worth the effort of reading the damn thing. Only time and another 750 pages or so will tell. In the mean time: onward!
Year of FnordChan
the chronological listing of Subsidized Time years on page 223
Year of FnordChan
I think I'll start Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie today. The book I started last month isn't very good. It's only 300 or so pages and I'm halfway through, but I just don't feel like reading it at all.
I bought Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds today. Got it signed too. Also got A Game of Thrones signed by GRRM.
olore said:
I bought Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds today. Got it signed too. Also got A Game of Thrones signed by GRRM.
sparky2112
Member
FnordChan said:
I really think IJ is one of those books that gets better as it goes along, and I think the endnotes get better too - some are stories in and of themselves; there's one in particular on the background of the Quebec wheelchair gang that had me laughing out loud. Trust me, there's some amazing stuff on the way.
I think Wallace would have had a pretty big reputation even without IJ, but with it (for those that have read it), he's a GOD. There's a handful of giants in our generation, and he was one of them.
Cyan said:
Well, I definitely don't expect everyone to love it as much as I have.
It is incredibly indulgent, yes, but what sets it apart from other indulgent books (say, Gravity's Rainbow) is how genuine and soulful it feels. There is nothing cold or calculated here. The book feels like a chronicle of DFW's messy, sad inner being.
I'm really sad that he's gone.
Kildace said:Finished Fall of Hyperion yesterday (what a book.) and decided to tackle something completely different because how tough an act to follow that book is so I chose
I have no doubt that it'll be fantastic, just like every other Murakami book I've read.
Finished this just today. Peculiar book. I really didn't understand all of it but I just couldn't put it down.
Just started with this. So far I like it.I just finished this yesterday:
Awesome book, made me just want to forget everything and hit the road :lol
timetokill
Banned
Just finished Green Mars a couple nights ago, now I'm on to:
abstract alien
Member
This may be a bit vague, but I have a question. Does any recall seeing a book based on Frankenstein, but told from his point of view? I think its a newer piece because of the cover art, which I believe consisted of an eye. Anyone got a name for it, or something you think might be it?
Anasui Kishibe
Banned
Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. So far pretty good
Baxter is one of my favourite authors, and basically it was one of his stories (Moon Six which I read in the awesome Infinity Plus site) that made me start seriously reading science fiction. It was around 1995, I read it and noticed that it had been first published in 'something' called Science Fiction Age (RIP <3). I'd seen the magazine on sale a few times, together with Asimov's, Analog and F&SF. My thoughts after I recovered a bit from the awe were literally "you can buy this stuff IN MAGAZINES????". Next day I bought all the current issues of the aforementioned publications and became a science fiction addict for life.
This makes it rather unexplainable that I didn't read Time until 2009, and when I saw that it was made available FOR FREE on Suvudu I started reading it. I find it amusing that even with all the hard science fiction concepts on display, the reactions of some of the characters and humanity in general to the events in the book are somewhat less believable than the SF concepts. I also don't quite think the 'Carter Catastrophe' hypothesis would hold much credence. I think I can refute it easily but perhaps I'm being naïf, and on reading it you just 'feel' it isn't right. Still, I'm loving the whole of it. It's grandscience fiction as usual from Baxter.
Also, I swear that every month someone's reading Altered Carbon in these threads. You've got some really good books ahead of you. *envy*
They're quite different, but I recommend that whoever likes the Takeshi Kovacs series to try Neal Asher's 'Ian Cormac' series, starting with Gridlinked.
Lastly, nyong, you won't truly know the extent of how wrong you were until you've finished the trilogy. Have fun.
ILOVEASIANS
Member
Read the first book of the Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. I enjoyed it but it was a very quick read. Debating on whether to keep going with the remaining books.
How do the rest of the books compare to the first for those who have read them? Do they get more meaty?
How do the rest of the books compare to the first for those who have read them? Do they get more meaty?
opps didn't see the july thread, anyways:
Read The Road in less than 24hrs last week, great book
Using these threads as a recommendation list now, and have started The Name of the Wind and have The Secret History ready after I'm done that
I'm half done TNOTW and I've gotta say
Read The Road in less than 24hrs last week, great book
Using these threads as a recommendation list now, and have started The Name of the Wind and have The Secret History ready after I'm done that
I'm half done TNOTW and I've gotta say
The main character is increidbly unlikable much of the time, he's written to be too good (author: how awesome is kvothe? so awesome) at everything and the book at times feels like the male equivalent of twilight, with the author just seemingly writing a fantasy about themselves. I do like it sofar but this aspect of the book is really annoying
Keep going. I have read all books and The Gunslinger is like the little brother of the family.ILOVEASIANS said:
Here is a rough comparison based on number of pages from Amazon:
Code:
Number of pages paperback editions The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Gunslinger 264
The Drawing of the Three 480
The Wastelands 608
Wizard and Glass 752
Wolves of the Calla 960
Song of Susannah 560
The Dark Tower 1,072
Tim the Wiz
Banned
aidan said:
Easily? Disagree.
Tim the Wiz said:
It's all a matter of taste, of course, but I wasn't a fan of The Gunslinger, at all. If it weren't for a few good friends urging me to continue with the second book, I would have dismissed the series as something that simply wasn't for me. I did read The Drawing of the Three and fell completely head-over-heels for it.
I consider The Dark Tower to be one of the finest works of Speculative Fiction out there, but The Gunslinger was not a good book. Muddy and directionless, caustic characters and too segmented by its original delivery (as serialized ficiton) to be really all that enjoyable or interesting. At the end of the novel, I wasn't sure what I had just read (but not in a good way).
The next weakest novel in the cycle is The Wolves of Calla, but for about the complete opposite reasons as The Gunslinger.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
aidan said:
Odd. I found it to be an atmospheric, surreal and intense experience. A slow burn that left me absorbed in Roland's world and in what came next. I will agree that the next few books until Wolves of the Calla were ultimately stronger, but The Gunslinger remains unique.
bengraven
Member
1 - brilliant
2 - great, sets things up
3 - fantastic, wait for book 4 is painful
4 - brilliant
5 - disappointing, but decent
6 - fairly immemorable, though I did kind of rush through it to get to -
7 - mostly brilliant, last half easily my favorite DT book next to 1 and 4
Edit: Ironically, this lineup also somewhat sums up the HP books as well as the DT books.
2 - great, sets things up
3 - fantastic, wait for book 4 is painful
4 - brilliant
5 - disappointing, but decent
6 - fairly immemorable, though I did kind of rush through it to get to -
7 - mostly brilliant, last half easily my favorite DT book next to 1 and 4
Edit: Ironically, this lineup also somewhat sums up the HP books as well as the DT books.
CajoleJuice
Member
Yeah, still reading The Stand. It's goooood. I don't know why, but the planchette part I read last night in bed might have creeped me out the most out of the entire novel so far.
ILOVEASIANS
Member
Thanks for the responses guys. Went down and picked up The Drawing of the Three. Pretty excited to get reading now that I know that the series keeps getting better.
CajoleJuice said:
That is the only book I ever read where I got perhaps 85% of the way through and simply stopped giving a shit about it. I literally didn't care about a single character. So I stopped, took it back to the library, and haven't touched very much King since.
That said, his book 'On Writing' is fantastic.
If someone could help me out, probably with spoiler tags, could someone explain what the 6th part of Glamorama really did at the end of the book? Because I don't know. The 5th part finished it up completely to me. Then the 6th part, 25 or so pages, took the book somewhere I was not expecting, and I just don't know what the hell it all meant.
It was good though.
It was good though.
CajoleJuice
Member
Man, that sucks. That's a lot of pages. :lolVinci said:
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Mifune said:
Yeah, I've just crossed 200, kissing the Infinite Summer schedule goodbye and racing past it. It's my second reading of the book, and I'm just astonished at how well written it is. Practically every single segment of the book (save some of the more phonetically dissonant narrators) is without a doubt the best straight up prose I have ever read. Without question. The fact that it is wildly hilarious, smart, and deeply affecting is kind of just a bonus.
People probably like to think that people say it's The Best Book Evar so that they can be cool and be saying it about a book that is so large and seemingly daunting.
Wrong.
It's easily, without a doubt, the best written book I have ever read.
CajoleJuice
Member
I'm sure The Stand being generally held as one of his best works didn't really help.Vinci said:
I'll take Mifune's statement to be more meaningful.BenjaminBirdie said:
Just finished Cat's Cradle and it was excellent. Kind of wonder which Vonnegut to read next, can anyone point me in some direction? Was thinking either Piano Player or Mother Night. I've also read and loved both Slaughterhouse-Five, and The Sirens of Titan
Probably reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy next.
Probably reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy next.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
CajoleJuice said:
Thanks for the heads up...?
I don't even know, like, is this supposed to be an insult to me?
CajoleJuice
Member
I was just ragging on your love of hyperbole. With a book like that, from what I hear, it certainly might be applicable.BenjaminBirdie said:
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
CajoleJuice said:
Heh. I get it, man.
But seriously, taking it as a sobered second reading, hyperbole-free, with no OMG THIS NEW THING IS SO GOOD AND AWESOME sensation, it really is the best prose I've ever read.
I mean, something has to be, right?
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