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Maklershed · Jul 1, 2016

Maklershed · Jul 1, 2016

Visit the June book club thread hosted by Cyan: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1226913

The book for this month is Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Via goodreads.com: Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Maklershed · Jul 1, 2016

Currently reading Amazonia by James Rollins

Amazonia by James Rollins

Zombine · Jul 1, 2016

Will start reading this today:

Huge comic nerd, but for some reason I never looked into any of Gaiman's other works outside of the medium.

Christoff Yurievich · Jul 1, 2016

Haly208835026 said:
Why would you recommend Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell to a beginner Mumei are you insane!?

Why not? It's just a thick book, not a difficult one.

The Mule · Jul 1, 2016

Just finished Greg Egan's Axiomatic.

Love his work, and I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. I think Egan is at his strongest with the short story format. Some of the stories fell a bit flat, but overall it was a really strong line up of ideas that make you think.

I'm now reading a book written by a friend. Her name is Elspeth Muir and the book is called Wasted.

Necrovex · Jul 1, 2016

Does GRE prep material count as reading? QQ

Still reading Game Change, and A Woman in Charge. Two fantastic political literature. I have paid more attention to word choices and prose.

I have debated about reading Infinite Jest and trying to play catch up. But my willpower has been enervated by the GRE. :-(

Litan · Jul 1, 2016

On the second malazan book, Deadhouse Gates. Couple more chapters and I'm done, then it's straight on to Memories of Ice.

Imp the Dimp · Jul 1, 2016

Farseer #3: Assassin's Quest

250 pages in. Not as good as the outrageously good second book so far but overall I'm really enjoying the trilogy. Fitz is the best main character I've read in fantasy.

Blackie · Jul 1, 2016

Literally non-stop military science fiction action.

Laggurl · Jul 1, 2016

Anyone familiar with Man's Fate (Andre Malraux)? Just got it loaned from a friend And think some outside perspective of it may be helpful!

Love the chapter names and the fact that the book opens by listing the principal characters and their title.

Hop · Jul 1, 2016

On Book 3 of All the Birds, nearly halfway through. Been slower reading it than I'd like. And the SMB3 book just went out to Kickstarter backers so that's next on the list.

McBryBry · Jul 1, 2016

Do you guys like comics? Because if so, I'm on one hell of a comic bender...

In trying to get caught up with Marvel, starting with the Marvel NOW! relaunch in 2012/2013... Trying to read everything that involves someone I like. Which is a lot. I scrolled through the entire list (found a reading order) and ohhhhhhhhh boy. I'm gonna be reading for a while...

Currently going through Avengers Arena, then gonna start Captain America. But I've still got so much before I even get to Age of Ultron.

Laggurl · Jul 1, 2016

McBryBry said:
Do you guys like comics? Because if so, I'm on one hell of a comic bender...

In trying to get caught up with Marvel, starting with the Marvel NOW! relaunch in 2012/2013... Trying to read everything that involves someone I like. Which is a lot. I scrolled through the entire list (found a reading order) and ohhhhhhhhh boy. I'm gonna be reading for a while...

Currently going through Avengers Arena, then gonna start Captain America. But I've still got so much before I even get to Age of Ultron.

Ha, yeah not sure where comics stand but I'm in the same boat; it's crazy getting back into comics now after a break of 5 yr or so. So much stuff...

Fuu · Jul 1, 2016

My picks for this month:

The Vegetarian (2007), Han Kang
O Resto é Silêncio (1970), Érico Veríssimo
On Writing (1999), Stephen King
The Amityville Horror (1977), Jay Anson
The Girl on the Train (2015), Paula Hawkins

McBryBry · Jul 1, 2016

Laggurl said:
Ha, yeah not sure where comics stand but I'm in the same boat; it's crazy getting back into comics now after a break of 5 yr or so. So much stuff...

And it definitely doesn't help when the characters you care about are in like 5 different books lol.

TheOctodad · Jul 1, 2016

Just finished book one in the Book of The New Sun series. Starting Claw of the Concillator now.

I have no idea what's going on.

Peru · Jul 1, 2016

Fuu said:
The Vegetarian (2007), Han Kang

Bought this for my kindle. Excited about it.

TheExhaustedWalrus · Jul 1, 2016

Just started Hyperion, only ~70 pages in and I am really enjoying it. I love the format.

Regiruler · Jul 1, 2016

Got the Mistborn trilogy for christmas and only recently started reading it. Start is pretty good but I need to make myself go back to it at some point (I always have trouble starting the chapter or 3 in any work).

Pau · Jul 1, 2016

Necrovex said:
Does GRE prep material count as reading? QQ

Still reading Game Change, and A Woman in Charge. Two fantastic political literature. I have paid more attention to word choices and prose.

I have debated about reading Infinite Jest and trying to play catch up. But my willpower has been enervated by the GRE. :-(

Oh boy. I know the feel. What are you focusing on?

TheOctodad · Jul 1, 2016

TheExhaustedWalrus said:
Just started Hyperion, only ~70 pages in and I am really enjoying it. I love the format.

This is my favorite book of all time. My recommendation, have the second part ready to go before you finish. It's really one long book.

AngmarsKing701 · Jul 1, 2016

About 2/3 of the way through Kay's Children of Earth and Sky. Aside from some wild contrivances, I'm enjoying it. Kay's writing is the most graceful prose of anyone I've ever read.

ngower · Jul 1, 2016

I started Fates and Furies and I hate the narrator (Lotto) so I'm sort of avoiding it. Maybe I'll finish it.

Enjoying the first two issues of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank if that counts...

theapg · Jul 1, 2016

Moneyball. I'm about half way through and loving it.

Atraveller · Jul 1, 2016

Reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, gotta clean my backlog.

wenis · Jul 1, 2016

jacobs34 · Jul 1, 2016

ngower said:
I started Fates and Furies and I hate the narrator (Lotto) so I'm sort of avoiding it. Maybe I'll finish it.

Enjoying the first two issues of 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank if that counts...

Fates and Furies takes a pretty big left turn at some point, it's worth pressing on.

Necrovex · Jul 1, 2016

Pau said:
Oh boy. I know the feel. What are you focusing on?

I've seen your posts about it! I also feel we may have talked about it during PAX East when I was exhausted from all the partying.

My biggest weakness is the math portion. I haven't touched math (outside Statistics) in like seven years, so I completely forgot how to do all word problems and the algebretic formulas. I'm following Magoosh's 90-day schedule (compressing it into 60-days) for both verbal and math. I actually enjoy the English portion as it is making me appreciate sentence structures, prose, and sophisticated words. Aiming to simply get decent scores as I am planning to pursue state schools in Florida. This will be a hellish two months though (already a week in and kill me right now).

Mike M · Jul 1, 2016

Listening/reading to Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks. First Brooks I've ever read, and it's pretty enjoyable so far.

sadblob · Jul 1, 2016

Started Mother of Learning, was pleasantly surprised after the first chapters, when I thought it was a generic "magic school" story. I got addicted and read 15 chapters last night. Who needs sleep anyway?

Nymerio · Jul 1, 2016

I think I've developed a thing for the time of the roman empire.

adversarial · Jul 1, 2016

Lasthope106 · Jul 1, 2016

Still reading A Game Of Thrones. About half way through now. These are big books. I'm really enjoying it so far, but the only thing that irritates me is just the sheer number of characters, locations. In a single page, GRRM, dropped like 15 new characters out of the blue. In all my times of reading, I don't think I've ever encountered writing like that.

Having the X-Ray feature on the Kindle is a must for this series I think.

lawnchair · Jul 1, 2016

The Mule said:
I'm now reading a book written by a friend. Her name is Elspeth Muir and the book is called Wasted.

this looks intense.

Aurelius · Jul 1, 2016

Story of the coal mining industry in the south of the Netherlands from the early 1900's till the decline in the 1950's. Very interesting for me since both my grandfathers were coal miners.

Atraveller · Jul 1, 2016

Still reading A Brief Hostory of Time, the difficulty curve of this book is strange, the first few chapters are "I've learned all of this in high school I can skip this" easy, then it quickly turned into "I recognize all these words but I have no idea what Hawking was saying" hard.

Lasthope106 said:
Still reading A Game Of Thrones. About half way through now. These are big books. I'm really enjoying it so far, but the only thing that irritates me is just the sheer number of characters, locations. In a single page, GRRM, dropped like 15 new characters out of the blue. In all my times of reading, I don't think I've ever encountered writing like that.

Having the X-Ray feature on the Kindle is a must for this series I think.

There are many houses with notable lords and knights, it is only natural. I'll take that over the show's needless character over-trimming/killing, only to merge characters or repurpose some in weird or straight up awful ways.

fakefaker · Jul 1, 2016

Still ploughing through The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund. It makes Crime and Punishment look like Walt Disney.

Cade · Jul 1, 2016

The double whammy of Overwatch and Steam sale has annihilated my reading progress. I'll have to do better, but none of the books I'm reading are easily binge-read. Hate when this happens.

thomaser · Jul 1, 2016

Finished "Endurance Techniques" by Chris McNab, a randomly picked-up book about what elite soldiers ought to be like. Not really my kind of thing, but mildly interesting at times.

Now, starting Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. Now this looks fun!

Zombine · Jul 1, 2016

Holy cow. Finished the first chapter of American Gods, and I've got to say that was quite the ending.

I don't think that I read this wrong, but the sex goddess who posed as a hooker sucked that John into her vagnia and ate him then went to sleep.

lol what a book.

ClosingADoor · Jul 1, 2016

Finished: The Butterfly Garden

Quick read, decent book. The ending "twist" was a bit useless however.

Now on to: Fire In The East

Was looking for some new historical fiction. See if this series is any good.

Haly · Jul 1, 2016

Zombine said:
Holy cow. Finished the first chapter of American Gods, and I've got to say that was quite the ending.

I don't think that I read this wrong, but the sex goddess who posed as a hooker sucked that John into her vagnia and ate him then went to sleep.

And this is getting an adaptation next year!!

The Mule · Jul 2, 2016

lawnchair said:
this looks intense.

it's sad and very personal

More_Badass · Jul 2, 2016

Interesting premise. Basically looks at architecture and city planning from the perspective of both thieves and burglars and from those who stop them, such as panic room companies and security consultants

kswiston · Jul 2, 2016

I am 95% of the way through The Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan. The plot structure is different than the first novel, but I think it holds up better than some led me to believe.

Epcott · Jul 2, 2016

Imp the Dimp said:
Farseer #3: Assassin's Quest

250 pages in. Not as good as the outrageously good second book so far but overall I'm really enjoying the trilogy. Fitz is the best main character I've read in fantasy.

Ha! Just started this today too!

I hope Regal gets crown cancer.

Zombine · Jul 2, 2016

Haly said:
And this is getting an adaptation next year!!

I closed the book to take a break and I said "Lol there is no way they are going to film this." I know it's Starz but holy crap.

And Gaiman's colorful explanation of the entire event...

More_Badass · Jul 2, 2016

Zombine said:
Holy cow. Finished the first chapter of American Gods, and I've got to say that was quite the ending.

I don't think that I read this wrong, but the sex goddess who posed as a hooker sucked that John into her vagnia and ate him then went to sleep.

lol what a book.

Any other impressions of American Gods? I've read the first few chapters on my Nook, thinking of getting the book but I've read mixed impressions. Is it more existential/philosophical or does it explore the gods in a more voyeuristic way? I'm more interested in looking through a window into this world rather than a convoluted hard-to-follow read

Haly · Jul 2, 2016

More_Badass said:
Any other impressions of American Gods? I've read the first few chapters on my Nook, thinking of getting the book but I've read mixed impressions. Is it more existential/philosophical or does it explore the gods in a more voyeuristic way? I'm more interested in looking through a window into this world rather than a convoluted hard-to-follow read

It's a pretty straightforward read, even the magic gods bits. Definitely on the voyeuristic side.

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