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Bazza · Mar 6, 2012

Finished Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs last night. Not a bad book but its not gonna win any prizes, it was a nice change of pace from what i have been reading though.

Now gotta decide whether to start the Sharpe books, Iain M Banks Culture books or the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik, whatever i decide the next game of thrones book will push them all the the bottom of the pile if it is released on time.

SCULLIBUNDO · Mar 6, 2012

Salvor.Hardin said:
So I have these two lying on my shelf, unread. No idea which one I should start with.

I own both and can tell you that The Count is infinitely better.

Erico · Mar 6, 2012

Finished Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. Amazing, amazing book.

The-Remains-of-the-Day-Ishiguro-Kazuo-9780679731726.jpg

As I was progressing through it, I began to see more and more of myself in the narrator, and it was really beginning to worry me. So I asked out this girl that I have been crushing on. She turned me down, but I felt pretty great afterwards knowing that I wasn't letting opportunities slip by then justifying my inaction through passive self-delusion.

I feel in control of my life again and as confident as ever. I plan to read this book every year as a sort of warning parable of what life should not be like.

I think I can honestly state that this is the first book I've read that has changed my life.

Qwomo · Mar 6, 2012

For some reason or another I found myself in the possession of a book-on-tape, which is a medium I'm not normally a fan of, but

was really good! I listened to it in about a day, which is super refreshing since I'm a slow reader otherwise.

It wasn't particularly long or technical, and a lot of the book seemed to just be about whatever the author wanted to talk about rather than part of a larger theme (ie, the history of the English language), but I learned some neat stuff. I thought the prospect of Phoenician influencing Proto-Germanic was especially interesting.

Clever Pun · Mar 6, 2012

Just finished Incarceron:

It wasn't bad on the whole. The premise (a prison the size of a world) was interesting enough to keep me going. I'll get around to the next in the series eventually, but I'm not clamoring for it.

Now on to Titus Groan:

Only about 40 pages in, but I really like it so far. The imagery is rich, and the way it begins with the broad descriptions of Gormenghast and slowly brings you into the more important characters by following different threads organically through the castle is really cool. It's dense so I can imagine it will take a couple weeks to finish, but I can see this being a book that's hard to put down once it gets going.

Seanspeed · Mar 6, 2012

sparky2112 said:
I tell everyone that tries O'Brian that M&C is a tough read. I really wish the series started with the second book, Post Captain, which I think is a more developed story.

O'Brian is brutal in his lack of hand-holding of the reader. Don't understand naval terminology? Tough. That's certainly one of the reasons there's several companion books to the series.

Yea, if I decide to read it, it might be something where I have to have Wikipedia/Google at the ready. lol

Would you say its worth the trouble?

Salvor.Hardin · Mar 6, 2012

Scullibundo said:
I own both and can tell you that The Count is infinitely better.

Yep, I think I'm going to start with The Count. It seems to be a unanimous opinion amongst my friends who have read the two, which is unfortunately not many, for I find that most of my scifi aficianado friends haven't read much classic literature, or much of anything outside the realms of scifi and fantasy literature .

demented · Mar 6, 2012

I was reading some recommendation thread on reddit and #2 book was this:

then I remembered that I have this book for over 5 years now and it has been sitting on my shelf(along with many many others) and have never read it(plus it's not that big). So I started reading and LOVING it so far, got all the other ones in series(beside some short stories) on ipad.

Salvor.Hardin · Mar 6, 2012

That's a terrible cover for Ender's Game.

LiQuid! · Mar 6, 2012

I never read Ender's Game but I was looking at the cast list for the upcoming film adaptation and my mind was blown to see that Ender's a kid. From only knowing the title and nothing else about the book all these years I assumed Ender was a man. Like Logan from Logan's Run.

Garryk · Mar 6, 2012

Just finished "A Feast For Crows" last week. I'm going to wait on starting "A Dance With Dragons" just so it won't make the wait for the next book so horribly long.

Right now I'm reading:

demented · Mar 6, 2012

Salvor.Hardin said:
That's a terrible cover for Ender's Game.

That's the one I found on google images that looked ok lol, here's one of my book:

and I hate reading books in Serbian, at least it isn't in cyrillic :|
Luckily others are in English, plus I often stop and translate some stuff for myself just because it sounds better heh

bengraven · Mar 6, 2012

Scullibundo said:
I own both and can tell you that The Count is infinitely better.

I truly tried to get into it during the book of the month thread, but someone told me that Dumas fluffed the narrative because he was being paid by the word; after that point I kept wondering if the paragraph I read was just a character rambling or if Dumas threw it in there for filler. I know this is a silly reason to not finish something, but I'm not a fan of bloated works.

Piecake · Mar 6, 2012

bengraven said:
I truly tried to get into it during the book of the month thread, but someone told me that Dumas fluffed the narrative because he was being paid by the word; after that point I kept wondering if the paragraph I read was just a character rambling or if Dumas threw it in there for filler. I know this is a silly reason to not finish something, but I'm not a fan of bloated works.

I thought The Count was only mediocre. I felt that the characterization was poor and I had a problem with the ending that will be in the spoiler

it ended too perfectly, to the point where I didnt believe it, and that really killed the book for me right there

Zerokku · Mar 6, 2012

About 60% of the way through the first Mistborn novel and am absolutely loving it.

echoshifting · Mar 6, 2012

Gonaria said:
I thought The Count was only mediocre. I felt that the characterization was poor and I had a problem with the ending that will be in the spoiler

it ended too perfectly, to the point where I didnt believe it, and that really killed the book for me right there

In Dumas' defense, that was pretty common for the literature of his time.

&Divius said:
Finished LOTR: The Return of the King yesterday. Got my hands on my moms e-reader, currently reading:

Up next; George Orwell's 1984 & Animal Farm.

I've decided to read more books this year, but I'm a noob when it comes to picking stuff. So I hope I did well.

So far so good, I'd say!

sparky2112 · Mar 7, 2012

Seanspeed said:
Yea, if I decide to read it, it might be something where I have to have Wikipedia/Google at the ready. lol

Would you say its worth the trouble?

OMG, YES. Seriously, the sailing and battles and sails that make both possible could NOT be more than secondary to the overall story that runs from book to book. One critic said that O'Brian was the best novelist of the 2nd half of the 20th century, and that wasn't an overstatement. There's lots and lots of Nelson-era naval writing out there, but O'Brian is the undisputed king.

Mononofu · Mar 7, 2012

Monroeski said:

Picked this up because of the recommendations in this thread.

Brazil · Mar 7, 2012

Mononofu said:
Picked this up because of the recommendations in this thread.

Great choice.

Easystride · Mar 7, 2012

Started The Eye of the World earlier this week, and I'm about 25% complete. I don't know what I've got myself into, I've heard a lot of bad things about the series, but I was craving fantasy.

The Culture Vulture · Mar 7, 2012

Finished Life of Pi, doing some reading about the book and appearantly an Ang Lee directed film is coming out at the end of the year.

Starting a book I've waited to read for quite a while, A Confederacy of Dunces

A-Confederacy-of-Dunces-Toole-John-Kennedy-9780802130204.jpg

Protome · Mar 7, 2012

I started reading Warbreaker,

I'm enjoying it so far, there seems like there might be a few too many characters to keep it interesting, but in Mistborn books Sanderson managed to pull off having a large group of interesting characters, so we'll see. I like the premise, it's a very odd fantastical world that has been created and the way Magic works is pretty cool. Hoping it holds up for the rest of the book.

Zerokku said:
About 60% of the way through the first Mistborn novel and am absolutely loving it.

Fantastic book

You should read the other two when you're done, they aren't quite as amazing but they come pretty close at times.

npm0925 · Mar 7, 2012

I finished a few books recently.

11/22/63 by Stephen King was readable but forgettable. Nothing about it is novel; it just rehashes themes that have been covered better countless times before. I didn't care much for King's work before reading this book and am of the same opinion upon finishing it.

Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi is a teenage miniaturization of his The Windup Girl. It's fun to read, presents some interesting ideas about the future, and reminds me a lot of first Hunger Games novel with its cast of children growing up in traumatic environments.

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Llewellyn Moss does not come off as as much of a boob as he does in the film adaptation; he's a very dangerous man in his own right matched against an almost supernatural foe. All of the great dialog in the movie springs from this novel (e.g., "He will bring it to me and lay it at my feet."). I'd say the movie is better simply because of Javier Bardem's amazing performance.

I am now reading Shogun by James Clavell. It's great so far.

Clever Pun · Mar 7, 2012

Salvor.Hardin said:
That's a terrible cover for Ender's Game.

Speaking of terrible Ender's Game covers, this is my favorite:

Freeza Under The Shower · Mar 7, 2012

Self comes to mind by Antonio Damasio.

ultron87 · Mar 7, 2012

Clever Pun said:
Speaking of terrible Ender's Game covers, this is my favorite:

At least that one actually communicates something about the content of the book.

Better than "spaceship by a future thing":

Or "evil future tower":

Sleepy · Mar 7, 2012

I asked this in the football thread, but it may be better suited here:

Has anyone read Jonathan Wilson's The Anatomy of England? I found Inverting the Pyramid interesting. Also, anyone read his new magazine The Blizzard?

I might do a reread of Game of Thrones. I really rushed ADwD...

Mumei · Mar 7, 2012

Finished Augustus a couple days ago; started The Hollow Hills. I like it better than The Crystal Cave at this point.

Clever Pun · Mar 7, 2012

ultron87 said:
At least that one actually communicates something about the content of the book.

Better than "spaceship by a future thing":

Or "evil future tower":

True, those don't give a lot of info about the novel, but at the same time I don't remember too many happy-go-lucky space high-fives happening either.

So that begs the questions - are there any great covers?

FnordChan · Mar 7, 2012

Seanspeed said:
Yea, if I decide to read it, it might be something where I have to have Wikipedia/Google at the ready. lol

Would you say its worth the trouble?

As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, I'd definitely say they're worth the trouble it takes to get into them. The first book or two are really where you're going to have rough going with the naval terminology. My advice: Don't worry too much about looking up every word and just work on picking up the meaning in context and with the help of the ship diagram at the beginning of each novel. Admittedly, this meant that large swaths of the first two novels boiled down to "things are happening on a boat" for me, but you'll learn what things mean as you go along and I'm worried that pausing to look up too many things will slow down the action for you. More importantly, you'll have the wonderful characters, humor, and naval adventure plots to pull you through the bits where the terminology gets particularly dense.

FnordChan

bengraven · Mar 7, 2012

FnordChan said:
As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, I'd definitely say they're worth the trouble it takes to get into them. The first book or two are really where you're going to have rough going with the naval terminology. My advice: Don't worry too much about looking up every word and just work on picking up the meaning in context and with the help of the ship diagram at the beginning of each novel. Admittedly, this meant that large swaths of the first two novels boiled down to "things are happening on a boat" for me, but you'll learn what things mean as you go along and I'm worried that pausing to look up too many things will slow down the action for you. More importantly, you'll have the wonderful characters, humor, and naval adventure plots to pull you through the bits where the terminology gets particularly dense.

FnordChan

What I adored about the novels was how slow things go. He's such a great writer that you enjoy the slow moments.

Fitz · Mar 7, 2012

Been wanting to post in this thread but I'm not the fastest reader so I've spent the past age working through Ice and Fire and not much else, just finished ADWD though so I'm going to move on to shorter books for a little while. With that in mind I decided to checkout the Discoworld books, none of which I've read before. I like the idea of a big universe but with lots of individual stories so that I don't feel stuck in one series forever. Anyway I decided to start with Mort and go from there.

Seanspeed · Mar 7, 2012

sparky2112 said:
OMG, YES. Seriously, the sailing and battles and sails that make both possible could NOT be more than secondary to the overall story that runs from book to book. One critic said that O'Brian was the best novelist of the 2nd half of the 20th century, and that wasn't an overstatement. There's lots and lots of Nelson-era naval writing out there, but O'Brian is the undisputed king.

FnordChan said:
As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels, I'd definitely say they're worth the trouble it takes to get into them. The first book or two are really where you're going to have rough going with the naval terminology. My advice: Don't worry too much about looking up every word and just work on picking up the meaning in context and with the help of the ship diagram at the beginning of each novel. Admittedly, this meant that large swaths of the first two novels boiled down to "things are happening on a boat" for me, but you'll learn what things mean as you go along and I'm worried that pausing to look up too many things will slow down the action for you. More importantly, you'll have the wonderful characters, humor, and naval adventure plots to pull you through the bits where the terminology gets particularly dense.

FnordChan

bengraven said:
What I adored about the novels was how slow things go. He's such a great writer that you enjoy the slow moments.

Sold! Thanks guys.

Jarlaxle · Mar 7, 2012

Just started this. I've wanted to read it for awhile now since I finished The Talisman about a year ago. I'm about 130 pages in. I like it better than The Talsiman so far but it is disturbing me a little bit.

The guy kidnapping, killing, and eating parts of the little children is getting to me. Before I had my son (19 months old now), these sorts of things never really upset me.

thomaser · Mar 7, 2012

thomaser said:
Don DeLillo: Underworld
Günther Grass: The Tin Drum
Hussain Haddawy: Sindbad and other stories from the Arabian Nights
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera
Oscar Wilde: The Complete Works

Quoting myself from page 1. Anyway, finally went for The Tin Drum, and I enjoy it very, very much. It's almost a little overwhelming in its awesomeness, as if it was written just for my tastes. Only 10% in so far, hope the rest keeps up the high quality!

Maklershed · Mar 7, 2012

Heads up - Kindle version of Fight Club = .25 cents right now

slider · Mar 8, 2012

Few pages into Securing the State by David Omand. Interesting stuff.

Kud Dukan · Mar 8, 2012

Reading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the first time. Only about 50 pages in, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

Az987 · Mar 8, 2012

Maklershed said:
Heads up - Kindle version of Fight Club = .25 cents right now

Bought

Thanks broski

Ceebs · Mar 8, 2012

Maklershed said:
^ I keep seeing that on Amazon and have been very curious about it. Please post a review when you're finished.

Finished The Mirage and as requested my quick thoughts on it.

It did not live up to the hype sadly. It's like a more self aware pop culture version of The Man in the High Castle. It tries a bit too hard and everything has a "oh that's cute or slightly clever" feel to them, but none of it really hits home. It's probably worth a read if you are choosing between this and another generic sci-fi or fantasy novel, but if you are only reading great books put it on the backburner.

Quote · Mar 8, 2012

Kud Dukan said:
Reading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the first time. Only about 50 pages in, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

It'll be over before you know it.

KidDork · Mar 8, 2012

This book needs a soundtrack by Daft Punk. Loving it tons.

evilpigking · Mar 8, 2012

Reading The Crystal Variation following the advice of others in the threads. It is different than I was expecting, haven't made up my mind yet but even though it is the beginning of the Liaden Universe novels chronologically, I guess it was written fairly recently and maybe isn't representative of the rest. I'll see how I feel at the end.

Zona · Mar 8, 2012

KidDork said:
This book needs a soundtrack by Daft Punk. Loving it tons.

Its a Testament to the quality of Stephenson's writing that I didn't realize just how bat shit insane the plot of that novel was until I finished and attempted to describe it to someone else. I did love it so. Only thing I missed is... well Ill call them Stephensonism's like the Capt Crunch bit in Criptocominom. Or All of Anathem.

demented · Mar 8, 2012

Kud Dukan said:
Reading the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the first time. Only about 50 pages in, but I'm really enjoying it so far.

That was #1 on list where I found ender's game, wasn't sure if I should pick it up, liked the movie but is the book much better and worth reading?

JGS · Mar 8, 2012

demented said:
That was #1 on list where I found ender's game, wasn't sure if I should pick it up, liked the movie but is the book much better and worth reading?

You will dislike the movie more once you read the book. It's that funny.

maomaoIYP · Mar 8, 2012

Monroeski said:
Finished:

It was really, really good.

Just over halfway through:

and thus far even better.

Ishiguro has a new fan. I also own The Unconsoled, which I had planned on leaving until later but which I now plan to move on to immediately after Never Let Me Go.

Real late to reply to this but I hope you do see this..... The Unconsoled is nothing like any of his other books, it's woefully unreadable in my opinion.

Bloodbeard · Mar 8, 2012

I don't like it at all. It reads like an online news article comment section, complete with half-witted, played out "sarcasm" and condescension. It's bad enough wading through this on the internet, but I expect books to be free of this drek. The style is distraction and I'm having a hard time deciphering what exactly her argument is and if it has any legs. There's a reason it's out of print I suppose, not that I had a choice in reading it.

finowns · Mar 8, 2012

Maklershed said:
Heads up - Kindle version of Fight Club = .25 cents right now

Thanks!

Mumei said:
Finished Augustus a couple days ago; started The Hollow Hills. I like it better than The Crystal Cave at this point.

Have you read Everitt's Augustus? Great historian and writer.

Is the Augustus you read fiction? Looks interesting.

subversus · Mar 8, 2012

Fjordson said:
I would. The first book, Altered Carbon, is far better than the two sequels. Amazing book.

Altered Carbon is good but the second one is the best.

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