RepairmanJack
Member
Apparently I'm saying fuck this to everything else I planned on reading and diving into Discworld. Wish me luck.
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What are you reading? (March 2015)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Mackenzie 92
Member
I liked it. Pretty crazy story.
Reminds me I still need to get around to The Big Short.
I really need to start plowing through that series. I have never read anything by Pratchet.
The Big Short is nothing besides amazing.
Mumei, get your ass onto reading The Big Short!
Tragicomedy
Member
AwesomePossum
Member
I'm currently reading The Stand, and fuck is it taking me a long time to finish. I'm loving it so far though.
RepairmanJack
Member
I'm in the same boat, unless Good Omens counts I guess.
62% through Freedom by J. Franzen.
It's my first Franzen's Novel (yes, I know, I should have started with The corrections) and I'm finding it rather interesting, nevertheless I'm reading it reaaaaally slowly. Some chapters are a bit boring
, but overall this is a good book (so far).
It's my first Franzen's Novel (yes, I know, I should have started with The corrections) and I'm finding it rather interesting, nevertheless I'm reading it reaaaaally slowly. Some chapters are a bit boring
yes, Walter, I'm looking at you!
Yea, the benefits are truly impressive. I obviously can't personally vouch for it, but a bunch of scientific studies have shown that practicing mindfulness improves one's self-concept, reduces stress, anxiety, and depression, improves executive function, and increases attention and memory. Basically, it trains you to be in the moment and then accept and be non-judgmental of all of your nasty self-involved and self-defeating thoughts that float through your brain while 'meditating' mindfully.
Another good benefit is that all of the exercises revolve around you focusing your attention on a specific thing, like your breathing or the sensations you get while you are in the shower. I'd imagine that it would be a quite intense experience if you focused your increasing attention in the right spots while you are having sex or masturbating.
Obviously this is a thing that the results will correspond to how much effort you put into it, and I am sure that results probably vary from person to person.
RepairmanJack
Member
Only about 100 pages into The Color of Magic and I can already tell why Christopher Moore is compared to him. I'm loving this.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Going on a trip to Thailand and need a few books for my kindle.
Stuff I've enjoyed recently:
Ender Series
Day by Day Armageddon series
Girl with Dragon Tattoo series
The Passage series
Would appreciate any recommendations
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
Under Heaven and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (it's a fantasy set in a China-like world)
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Ahvarra: The Heart of the World by me.
Make sure to get back to it at some point. Once it picks up, it really picks up. It might take you a month to read the first 300 pages but a day or two to read the other 500.
I absolutely love that book.
Three months till the next one, right? I'm hyped as hell.
come on mumei you gotta admit the first 500 pages or so draaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggggggggg
the last 500 pages also drag but they drag faster
The pacing is stately, thank you very much.
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey
Under Heaven and River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay (it's a fantasy set in a China-like world)
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Ahvarra: The Heart of the World by me.
Can agree with everything but Guy Gavriel Kay's book, since I haven't read it.
And if you're going to get Old Man's War, go ahead and get:
The Ghost Brigades
The Last Colony
Zoe's Tale
The Human Division
But you may want to pace them, since Scalzi does have somewhat formulaic writing. Take a breath between each book.
Brave New World by Huxley tangentially touches upon that sort of concept. Not sure of anything more direct though.
Beatboxtaun
Member
Been too busy gaming, but what I want to read is Russell Brand's "Revolution".
AngmarsKing701
Member
I agree. I haven't read Human Division yet but I have enjoyed all the others in this series. However, YMMV so start with Old Man's War and make a decision from there.
Thanks, I was reading BNW a couple months ago. Dont know why I stopped.
bengraven
Member
My book backlog has officially beaten my Steam backlog.
Since I have over 200 unplayed games on Steam that's saying something. Damn you quarter-priced book stores.
My wife and I read that at the same time as well - I think the only book besides Wool that we did that with. She always finishes before me though, despite my being a much faster reader and her having just become interesting in reading in the last 4-5 years.
We both loved it. In fact, she insisted we pick up a hardcover at our library sale just in case we ever get a chance to meet Erin Morgenstern and can get it autographed.
One of my favorite novels of all time. I picked it up at a thrift store knowing nothing about it or the author, flipping through I thought it would be a more realistic take on Arthur. One blizzard night when the power went off and I had nothing electric to play with, I started reading it by candelight and quickly, within the first few pages, realized not only was it actually really really funny, but it was also the basis for Disney's Sword in the Stone. Goes so much more beyond that, though.
Wish we could get a trilogy of this book. A kind of comedic drama - maybe like an Edgar Wright version?
Interesting, because Christopher Moore has been on my periphery for years now. I love his book titles and covers and they seem like they would be something I can dig, but never had anything to compare it to. If he's even marginally like Pratchett, I will definitely start grabbing his books.
In fact, now I'm kicking myself since I've seen lots of his books for dirt cheap at thrift stores and passed them up.
I need to start reading these as well. I would love some actual space opera for once. I think true space opera is a rarity these days.
Since I have over 200 unplayed games on Steam that's saying something. Damn you quarter-priced book stores.
My wife and I read that at the same time as well - I think the only book besides Wool that we did that with. She always finishes before me though, despite my being a much faster reader and her having just become interesting in reading in the last 4-5 years.
We both loved it. In fact, she insisted we pick up a hardcover at our library sale just in case we ever get a chance to meet Erin Morgenstern and can get it autographed.
One of my favorite novels of all time. I picked it up at a thrift store knowing nothing about it or the author, flipping through I thought it would be a more realistic take on Arthur. One blizzard night when the power went off and I had nothing electric to play with, I started reading it by candelight and quickly, within the first few pages, realized not only was it actually really really funny, but it was also the basis for Disney's Sword in the Stone. Goes so much more beyond that, though.
Wish we could get a trilogy of this book. A kind of comedic drama - maybe like an Edgar Wright version?
Interesting, because Christopher Moore has been on my periphery for years now. I love his book titles and covers and they seem like they would be something I can dig, but never had anything to compare it to. If he's even marginally like Pratchett, I will definitely start grabbing his books.
In fact, now I'm kicking myself since I've seen lots of his books for dirt cheap at thrift stores and passed them up.
I need to start reading these as well. I would love some actual space opera for once. I think true space opera is a rarity these days.
ImpalingNarwhal
Member
I just picked up Neuromancer for the first time. I'm excited; everyone claims it's top-tier science fiction.
bengraven
Member
I think I found the best Penguin Classics cover.
And a massive inspiration for the cyberpunk movement. I believe it wasn't the first, but it certainly helped.
Edit: apparently it was the first book to win the "triple crown": Nebula, Hugo, and Phillip K. Dick awards.
And a massive inspiration for the cyberpunk movement. I believe it wasn't the first, but it certainly helped.
Edit: apparently it was the first book to win the "triple crown": Nebula, Hugo, and Phillip K. Dick awards.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
Read it for the time it was released and not the many MANY things inspired by/ripped-off from it or you're gonna have a bad time.
RepairmanJack
Member
I was listening to the Terry Pratchett episode of The Incomparable and one of the guests made the comparison which is what made me instantly want to read Terry Pratchett. Moore's A Dirty Job is probably one of my favorite reads of all time and I'd been dying for more writing like him.
Only so far in to the first book, that many people don't recommend starting with for some reason, and I can see where the comparison comes from. The characters and sense of humor when it comes to the interactions of those characters really seems similar to me.
I would definitely recommend Moore though.
I made it through about a paragraph in 2004 before shelving it for the next eleven years, myself.
It's also one of my all-time favorites now.
SliceSabre
Banned
Ok so maybe its just me but did anyone else find A Clockwork Orange to be extremely hard to read? I'm reading it for the first time myself.
I feel like as I'm reading I'm trying to translate at the same time because of the way the main character talks. Took me a while to realize that at one point he says apology but in the book it isn't spelled like that, its spelled something like this 'appie pol ogy'. I'm only on page 6 right now but I am curious if this gets easier to read as I get deeper?
I feel like as I'm reading I'm trying to translate at the same time because of the way the main character talks. Took me a while to realize that at one point he says apology but in the book it isn't spelled like that, its spelled something like this 'appie pol ogy'. I'm only on page 6 right now but I am curious if this gets easier to read as I get deeper?
Rug Monkey
Member
Yes. For me personally Nadsat just clicked after a while. Pretty much every generation has a youth slang and it was particularly prescient of Burgess to invent his own English/Russian patois.
There's a Nadsat dictionary with notes on the language which may help.
Maklershed
Member
Lightning_Roller
Banned
I'm reading a classic by Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. And I love it!!
If you're reading it in English, make sure you read the Robin Buss translation!
Lightning_Roller
Banned
There's a difference between translations?
Yeah for some sentences I had a hard time grasping their meanings, but I powered through it. It probably gets a bit easier later since the same nadsat words get repeated constantly.
I found being intimately familiar with the film went a long way.
bengraven
Member
I think I've posted about it before, but yeah, I've tried to read Strange since it was first released at least four times (?). I've never even met Strange. The furthest I got was
Norrell agreeing to help that big jawed politician by saying his wife who I believe is dead. It was so long ago I remember picturing John Kerry as the politician.