ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Been cheating with Audio Books. Gone through all the Harry Potter books and am going through all the Song of Ice and Fire books now.
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What are you reading? (January 2012)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Clever Pun
Member
Audio books aren't cheating at all! It's a great way to experience literature in a different way, and some books work even better in the format (with the right narrator).
I've listened to audio books exclusively during my commute for the past 3 or 4 years, and I've loved it. A good audio book and suddenly being stuck in traffic isn't so bad!
Biggest-Geek-Ever
Member
Just started up Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I'm hoping this is more enjoyable than Handling The Undead, and on par with Let The Right One In
Moral of the story is TRUST NO-ONE. ESPECIALLY NOT EMIRS OR KHANS.
I still think the audiobooks are the best way to experience The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Meh. Really overrated stuff. Read the first two books and couldn't bother with anything else.
So far so good!
I've mentioned it already, but I'm reading The Name of the Wind. I'm still only like a 1/4 of the way through it, but its probably the best thing I've read since the Game of Thrones series. Just very well-written and captivating. Like a very adult Harry Potter novel. I absolutely love it.
And then you can join us for another long wait for the third book... Because Patrick Rothfuss' writing speed seems to have been inspired by Martin's.
Amazing books though, enjoy reading them.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Because you sort of look like him without the earrings, I'd also recommend stepping up to read a China Mieville novel one day.
And also because his writing is awesome, yes? Yes.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Frivolous concerns. Really, why so shallow, Ichor?
I'm sorry, I have this stupid problem where I judge authors by their writing, what's wrong with me man?
Also, thanks for reminding me that I still need to read Embassytown Dresden!
So the 2nd book is good? I've been hearing that Rothfuss is a bit of a one-hit wonder with the first book and the 2nd isn't nearly as good. Dont get me wrong, if the 1st book is good enough all the way through, I dont care what anyone says, I'll be reading the sequel.
Also, has anyone seen the connection between this book and Skyrim? Standing stones, Draugar, stories about an adventurer getting an arrow in the knee? Hmmmmm
Never heard of him. Looked him up and while he's got my body-type and a shaved head, I dont think anybody would confuse me with him. Are his books actually any good, though? I could really care less what the author looks like.
I actually liked the sequel more. I can understand where people can lose interest though, there are some questionable sections in it, but I personally just plowed through those parts to continue with the greatness that is Kvothe's tale. Kvothe's level of badassitude reaches unknown heights in Wise Man's Fear. Just try not to go insane during the part with
Felurian
Just finished Slaughterhouse-Five the other day (was great!). What I have to choose from at the moment:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Not sure if I want to jump right back into a war book, but it's NeoGAF's book of the month so I'll get around to it soon.)
Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings by Pietro C. Marani (Saw something like this in the thread and had to check it out. Probably just going to skim through and enjoy the art, though!)
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Enjoyed the first one, so gonna give this a whirl sooner or later.)
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Not sure if I want to jump right back into a war book, but it's NeoGAF's book of the month so I'll get around to it soon.)
Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings by Pietro C. Marani (Saw something like this in the thread and had to check it out. Probably just going to skim through and enjoy the art, though!)
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (Enjoyed the first one, so gonna give this a whirl sooner or later.)
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Yeah, his books are usually real good shit. And by shit i mean as in 'the shit' or THE SHIT, not like, well, it's shit, etc.
Reading Ved Mehta's Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker. Excellent book. Better than Brendan Gill's memoir, not as good as James Thurber's. Although Thurber's had the magnificence of Harold Ross to describe. Whereas Mehta's has the slight intrigue of Shawn, who was fastidious where Ross was chaotic.
It's an amazingly good account of the workings of the magazine - even if Mehta's experience of being a staff writer was unique - being blind. His manner can grate a little: the worship of Shawn is a bit sedulous, though it is made clear that Shawn's social conscience was a tremendous thing.
It's an amazingly good account of the workings of the magazine - even if Mehta's experience of being a staff writer was unique - being blind. His manner can grate a little: the worship of Shawn is a bit sedulous, though it is made clear that Shawn's social conscience was a tremendous thing.
1000% neuromancer.
Good to know.
But really, like I said, whether I read the sequels or not depends completely on how good this first book continues to be. So far, it gets better page-by-page. There's stories within stories within stories and I love every bit of it. I've come close to crying at points. And the magic aspects seem very well explained rather than just saying 'hey, magic exists, so yea'.
Glad to hear some good reviews of the next book, though. If it stays good, then I've got a lot to look forward to.
I was checking out Gibson's site and he recommended reading Burning Chrome first. It's a collection of short stories (Johnny Mnemonic, etc.), that have a few characters that appear later in Neuromancer. The goal is to read Neuromancer though, I've heard it's great.
On ADWD I did a hybrid read I guess. I did about 50/50 reading and audio book. I really enjoyed it and just doing it by chapter made it really easy. Problem now is some of the books I want to read either don't have each chapter listed separately or they don't have audio books available online anywhere.
enemyairship
Neo Member
Just started it the other day (and haven't had a chance to pick it up again). I like it a lot so far. The way he tells the story, going back and forth between narratives is fun. I don't know what to read next, though I have a lot of backlog. If anyone has any suggestions that are similar to Born to Run I'd be sure to pick that up next.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Oh they are excellent but there's something that feels wrong about carving shit up in Skyrim while listening to some ASOIAF. Too much fun. Did the same with Harry Potter, listening to the book and breaking some shit in Lego Harry Potter.
Clever Pun
Member
Yeah that's a great example. Humorous books work great in the audio format.
I did the same thing when I played LoTR:O years ago. I think it was all the Series of Unfortunate Events. Fun stuff!
Just finished:
Thought it was a great book. 20% of the way in I was overwhelmed and didn't really understand the concepts yet but I slogged through it and became hooked, then ended up reading from 40% to the end in one day. I like each of the 3 main characters he revolves the book around and I like the whole world he's created, such an interesting an alien world it is. Can't wait for the next book in 2013.
The 10 book plan is crazy but if anyone can do it it's Sanderson. I said it before and i'll say it again, the man is a writing beast. I've now read 6 novels from him and they've all been good. Easily one of my favourite fantasy authors right now.
Now to decide what to read next. I've got soooo many books on my Kindle that I want to read and that a lot of people say to read. I'm currently finishing off the Hunger Games trilogy but after that I have the choice of:
I'm leaning towards The Name of the Wind because of acclaimed it is. Then I'll probably move on to the Great Hunt because I want to progress through the Wheel of Time series eventually, might as well be now. After that though it's basically whatever. I'll probably just pick it randomly unless someone wants to recommend one.
Thought it was a great book. 20% of the way in I was overwhelmed and didn't really understand the concepts yet but I slogged through it and became hooked, then ended up reading from 40% to the end in one day. I like each of the 3 main characters he revolves the book around and I like the whole world he's created, such an interesting an alien world it is. Can't wait for the next book in 2013.
The 10 book plan is crazy but if anyone can do it it's Sanderson. I said it before and i'll say it again, the man is a writing beast. I've now read 6 novels from him and they've all been good. Easily one of my favourite fantasy authors right now.
Now to decide what to read next. I've got soooo many books on my Kindle that I want to read and that a lot of people say to read. I'm currently finishing off the Hunger Games trilogy but after that I have the choice of:
- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
- The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
- The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
- Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
- Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
- Storm Front by Jim Butcher
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
- Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
- The Stand by Stephen King
I'm leaning towards The Name of the Wind because of acclaimed it is. Then I'll probably move on to the Great Hunt because I want to progress through the Wheel of Time series eventually, might as well be now. After that though it's basically whatever. I'll probably just pick it randomly unless someone wants to recommend one.
Wow, what a coincidence!
British Monsoon
Member
'The Iron Jackal' by Chris Wooding, the third in the 'Tales of the Ketty Jay' series - really excited to read this as I thoroughly enjoyed the other books in the series;
'The Great Game' by Peter Hopkirk, picked this up on Kindle as recommended by someone here last month and it's been a great read so far, some real crazy stories of endurance, ingenuity and subterfuge all expertly told;
'The Great Game' by Peter Hopkirk, picked this up on Kindle as recommended by someone here last month and it's been a great read so far, some real crazy stories of endurance, ingenuity and subterfuge all expertly told;
Clever Pun
Member
I'd go with 1Q84 from that list, but I'm a huge Murakami fan, and haven't read it yet.
As for me, I just finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a few days ago and I'm not working through Catch-22, while listening to Ptolemy's Gate during my commute.
Book 3 better have an editor with some balls to tell Rothfuss to cut all the bullshit. All Kvothe's time pretending to be a noble was minddumbing. Maybe it was worse for me because I listened to the audiobook but man. Ugh, and the time in Fae....
exactly. don't listen to that muppet. read neuromancer NOW.
Hahaha, sorry guys, looks like I failed this trust building exercise
. Only like 200 pages, then on to Neuromancer!Nice username/avatar combo coldvein. I'm a Sage fan from way back when.
Maklershed
Member
Just finished Nightwoods by Frazier (Cold Mountain and 13 Moons). It was decent but nothing great. I wish he would stick to writing about the 1800s. This particularly novel reminded me a lot of William Gay .. actually this book seemed like the result of taking The Long Home and Twilight and putting it in a blender .. which is a good thing but Gay did it better in my opinion.
My next hard copy book to read is Gateway by Pohl
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
(still working on 11/22/63 for Kindle)
My next hard copy book to read is Gateway by Pohl
Gateway by Frederik Pohl
(still working on 11/22/63 for Kindle)
bill gonorrhea
Member
and
again
Deified Data
Banned
Embassytown is the bee's knees.
Finished The Scar, going in for Iron Council. Will pick up Embassytown after that.
since 2001, here. dude used to kill it. put out a couple classics. he plays the rare show around here still, and only rocks the greatest hits.
Currently reading:
Paperback
Kindle / Phone
^ Reading through the series first time. Enjoying it immensely at the minute, but only too aware of the general consensus on the later books. Should be an experience, either way.
Also have a GoodReads profile - Here if anyone wants to add me as a friend. I have too few at the minute
Paperback
Kindle / Phone
^ Reading through the series first time. Enjoying it immensely at the minute, but only too aware of the general consensus on the later books. Should be an experience, either way.
Also have a GoodReads profile - Here if anyone wants to add me as a friend. I have too few at the minute
British Monsoon
Member
I've got to the point where I've only got space to buy more books if I sell some books. So yeah, e-readers rule.
What he says!
Maklershed
Member
Unless you commute to work and can only carry so much with you and you don't want one of those things to be a 1,000 plus page book.
I'm reading 11.22.63 by Stephen King at the moment. It's very readable but not exactly stunning so far.
I also just joined goodreads, primarily for the 2012 reader challenge. I'm worried my reading is dropping off so I'm going to keep a close track on it.
My profile is here
Mostly it's full of SFF, the odd classic, if anyone's into that...
Also, e-readers are cool, I (asked for and) got a sony reader for christmas and it's lovely. Though so far I'm only using it for reading trashy books, not ones I want to keep particularly.
I also just joined goodreads, primarily for the 2012 reader challenge. I'm worried my reading is dropping off so I'm going to keep a close track on it.
My profile is here
Mostly it's full of SFF, the odd classic, if anyone's into that...
Also, e-readers are cool, I (asked for and) got a sony reader for christmas and it's lovely. Though so far I'm only using it for reading trashy books, not ones I want to keep particularly.
Also physical books take shit ton of space much like physical movies and games. Down with physical media!
But I love having a big fat bookshelf.
I don't care for owning most DVDs or games in physical form, but doing without physical books? That would be a tough one.
Unhandled Exception
Member
I picked up Ready Player One, Freaky Deaky and The Way Of Shadows this last week. Currently going through RPO - love the opening.