gregor7777
Banned
and..
I must admit I'm a little disappointed with the Europa book. A bit too much finger-pointing at the "establishment", and it's difficult to read at times. Ridges. Ridges.
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What are you reading? (June 2011)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
and..
I must admit I'm a little disappointed with the Europa book. A bit too much finger-pointing at the "establishment", and it's difficult to read at times. Ridges. Ridges.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
Mifune said:
Yeah, I'm pretty lenient when it comes to matters of argument. I take no offense to most things, as I really don't care what others think of my thoughts. I make no apologies for thinking DFW a bad writer and will continue to denude his work if asked, but if others enjoy it, they're free to it.
BanShunsaku
Member
Finished on the weekend:
Now about a third of the way through:
Now about a third of the way through:
Jayayess1190
Member
Just finished this for a summer class. This book had me emotional by the end. At first I wasn't feeling it, and Oskar was annoying me, but by the end I was completely changed. The letters confused me a little bit, and the multiple characters speaking on the same line, but overall I liked it a lot.
Finally finished this after so many false starts:
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
It took me forever to get into as I initially found most of the cast unlikeable aside from Ned/Tyrion but everyone grew on me, I thoroughly enjoyed the last half, and am looking forward to the next.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
It took me forever to get into as I initially found most of the cast unlikeable aside from Ned/Tyrion but everyone grew on me, I thoroughly enjoyed the last half, and am looking forward to the next.
I don't want to sound like a Psycho, but I'm looking for a book that tells the story of pain and suffering. Just reading about people going through really bad times makes me feel good
I also love books set in the past. Though I like them better when they're not non-fiction (history ones).
I read Babbit and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Babbit: A guy named Babbit falls prey to consumerism. He puts on an act for everyone so he can remain in the high class. No one knows he hates his life and his job.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Talks about 6 characters. Out of those, 1 of them isn't talked about too much. Two are deaf and relied on each other for years. One is a girl who wishes to be a musician and loves the Piano. The other is a owner of a small restaurant. The other is a black doctor that wishes he could change the people around him, and his past life with his children. The other one is a somewhat mad man that believes communism would save the corrupt factory owners.
They all go through very tough times, and just wish their lives were different.
I love both books because they talk about frustration, hate, depression, and angst. I'm just tired of the same old stories. I like how you never know what will happen with books that are a bit darker than most.
Help me out Gaf :'(
Yeah I think I'm fucking crazy
I read Babbit and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Babbit: A guy named Babbit falls prey to consumerism. He puts on an act for everyone so he can remain in the high class. No one knows he hates his life and his job.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: Talks about 6 characters. Out of those, 1 of them isn't talked about too much. Two are deaf and relied on each other for years. One is a girl who wishes to be a musician and loves the Piano. The other is a owner of a small restaurant. The other is a black doctor that wishes he could change the people around him, and his past life with his children. The other one is a somewhat mad man that believes communism would save the corrupt factory owners.
They all go through very tough times, and just wish their lives were different.
I love both books because they talk about frustration, hate, depression, and angst. I'm just tired of the same old stories. I like how you never know what will happen with books that are a bit darker than most.
Help me out Gaf :'(
charlemagne
Member
Just finished up this one. Definitely better than the second in the series, but the series has taken a full turn from fantasy to sci-fi. Gets a bit ridiculous by the end, and way too obviously leaves it open for the trilogy written afterwards.
Jayayess1190 said:Just finished this for a summer class. This book had me emotional by the end. At first I wasn't feeling it, and Oskar was annoying me, but by the end I was completely changed. The letters confused me a little bit, and the multiple characters speaking on the same line, but overall I liked it a lot.
That's funny -- the note from Asimov that someone posted a few page back reminded me of the letter from Hawking in this book. I absolutely adore this book, and I've had great success teaching it to Freshmen (many of them were Oskar's age on 9/11).
If this book doesn't make you cry, then you are a heartless robot.
VeryGooster
Banned
Finished Ender's Game last week, which I thought was a fun read. Although I did enjoy the Battle School stuff and after, I found myself really enjoying the plot with the brother and sister writing political essays.
Originally I was going to read something else, but I decided to jump into Unbroken -- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption:
I'm like three quarters of the way through, but holy shit. Holy shit. If you ever wanted to know what it was like being an American soldier in a Japanese POW camp with arguably the most sadistic man running it, here you go.
Originally I was going to read something else, but I decided to jump into Unbroken -- A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption:
I'm like three quarters of the way through, but holy shit. Holy shit. If you ever wanted to know what it was like being an American soldier in a Japanese POW camp with arguably the most sadistic man running it, here you go.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I finished Jane Eyre a few nights ago. It's a good book overall, though not great and not as timeless as some other 19th-Century literature that I've read. I've actually not read Emily (Wuthering Heights is likely next, actually; after the Naipaul thing, I've been boning up on my women authors, pun absolutely intended), but Charlotte Bronte doesn't really have much of an ear for dialogue; not that I expected realism from a book of that period, or even something close to it, but the characters simply didn't have much interesting to say, save a few snippets here and there (mostly in the repartee between Jane and Rochester). Contrast that with the dense and poetic monologues and dialogue from Moby-Dick, which I also read recently, and Bronte's limitations as a writer (at least in this book) become apparent pretty quickly. I also didn't think that the occasional mix of Gothic elements (spooky mansions, ghosts, a purple-faced lunatic, etc.) worked all that well, as it never really built toward anything; one could maybe point toward the fact that Jane/Rochester seem to call out to each other from across the country at the end, but really, that seemed more a summation of the novel's religious outlook than a fulfillment of the superstitious stuff that peppered it throughout. But, for all the novel's limitations, it is a pretty breezy read, and there are parts and characters that are memorable, which is more than I can say for some more contemporary books that I've read recently. To sell the novel as great literature oversells it, I think - indeed, it would serve better as proof of Naipaul's assessment of women writers than as a counterargument - but as a light piece of entertainment, it's entirely serviceable and surprisingly modern, in that respect.
Next is... hmm, I'm not sure. I'm sticking with women writers for a while, but on my plate are:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (probably next read)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (thought The Bluest Eye was mediocre, bordering on bad; this is my "second chance" novel for her)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (would be my first Austen as Wuther Heights/Jane Eyre will be/was my first Bronte)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (I've read part of this before, and I can almost say without reading that it will probably be the best of the lot, the part I read being great great great)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (also very excited for this one)
And after those all are done, some male writers:
All the Strange Hours by Loren Eiseley (Very excited for this one; will try to find some Eiseley essays before I read it, as I've never read any of the man's work, but this has been sold very highly to me)
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (want to bone up on my sci-fi, figured this would be a good start)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (first from him)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (first Nabokov)
And various plays and such in there, since I'm going to be writing a play over the summer.
Next is... hmm, I'm not sure. I'm sticking with women writers for a while, but on my plate are:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (probably next read)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (thought The Bluest Eye was mediocre, bordering on bad; this is my "second chance" novel for her)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (would be my first Austen as Wuther Heights/Jane Eyre will be/was my first Bronte)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (I've read part of this before, and I can almost say without reading that it will probably be the best of the lot, the part I read being great great great)
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (also very excited for this one)
And after those all are done, some male writers:
All the Strange Hours by Loren Eiseley (Very excited for this one; will try to find some Eiseley essays before I read it, as I've never read any of the man's work, but this has been sold very highly to me)
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov (want to bone up on my sci-fi, figured this would be a good start)
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (first from him)
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (first Nabokov)
And various plays and such in there, since I'm going to be writing a play over the summer.
nakedsushi
Member
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
Interesting analysis of Jane Eyre. I guess whenever I read period books like that, I automatically adopt a British accent or an SNL version of it, so the dialogue sounded fitting to me. I thought the famous quote below was especially moving:
Fresh after Jane, I decided to tackle the other Bronte and started Wuthering Heights. Oh man, I *hated* it so much. I'm curious to hear what you have to say about it. I hated it so much, I stopped more than halfway in. It was just too Bronte-ish for me. Heathcliff was such a despicable character and Catherine, not much better.
On a related note, I also disliked Pride and Prejudice. No redeeming characters at all and I was annoyed by Elizabeth.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
That was one of the more tolerable bits of dialogue, but even then, there's a certain clunkiness to it. You learn to accept it and to just think about what it's doing for the character after a while, but it does present a detriment in the macro.
Edit: Forgot to mention in that review that my assessment of the book is that it's essentially a high version of a romance novel; not much depth to it, but it does have a certain visceral power.
Edit: Forgot to mention in that review that my assessment of the book is that it's essentially a high version of a romance novel; not much depth to it, but it does have a certain visceral power.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
icarus: maybe, but I've also heard great praise given to the man, as well, and by people I trust, people who aren't sci-fi literature fans. So, we'll see. I recall you being quite a fan of the recent Jane Eyre film, no?
CajoleJuice
Member
I will be shocked if you like Asimov.
charlemagne
Member
Going to start Room by Emma Donoghue tonight.
Dresden said:
I am reading Chronic City by Lethem right now (my first novel of his; I have read his short stories "The Light and the Sufferer" and "The Hardened Criminals") and am completely and totally enraptured. Lethem can seriously write. And I am loving the slipstreaminess of it.
Oh, and I just got these from Amazon:
Kraken- Mieville
The Golden Age- Michal Ajvaz
The Fantastic- Todorov
Will most likely read the Ajvaz book next.
zero margin
Member
Yeah, there's some parts in there (MB) that really have a pop to it. It's good, really, I'm just not overly impressed with it. I'm reading mainly for Lionel at this point - he's amazingly eloquent for someone with Tourette's, but still, likable enough to follow.Help Me! said:
I couldn't stand Kraken at all. It was even worse than his other dud, Iron Council.Kraken- Mieville
been gaming a ton and not really reading until recently when i fucked up my wrist, so no more games, just books!
finally finished hp lovecraft's Tales, library of america edition.
received hp lovecraft's complete and unabridged works, a barnes + noble book collection..looks nice, has everything, including some really early stuff not in the library of america edition. will be getting on that shortly.
also started butcher's crossing by john williams.
finally finished hp lovecraft's Tales, library of america edition.
received hp lovecraft's complete and unabridged works, a barnes + noble book collection..looks nice, has everything, including some really early stuff not in the library of america edition. will be getting on that shortly.
also started butcher's crossing by john williams.
Finished Dark Tower I The Gunslinger. Just started Draw of Three last night.
It was good and different. It's odd because it seems like King is showing off a little with the writing almost like he's writing too much just to prove he can come up with a bunch of metaphors. However, overall the book is very good with the ending and the Cort training segments being topnotch. I didn't quite grasp the town stuff but that was pretty exciting too.
Not seeing how they are going to make this into a movie.
It was good and different. It's odd because it seems like King is showing off a little with the writing almost like he's writing too much just to prove he can come up with a bunch of metaphors. However, overall the book is very good with the ending and the Cort training segments being topnotch. I didn't quite grasp the town stuff but that was pretty exciting too.
Not seeing how they are going to make this into a movie.
Nappuccino
Member
I've been trying to find a book that piques my interest- I gave Asimovs foundation series a shot but... its not doing it for me right now.
Picked up my copy of City of Saints and Madmen and finally dug into it a bit. Holy crap this is good stuff.
There's enough whimsy and intrigue to keep me sucked into the world and so far its been surprisingly funny even while reading the history of Ambergris with its amazing amount of annotations.
Picked up my copy of City of Saints and Madmen and finally dug into it a bit. Holy crap this is good stuff.
There's enough whimsy and intrigue to keep me sucked into the world and so far its been surprisingly funny even while reading the history of Ambergris with its amazing amount of annotations.
nakedsushi
Member
Kraftwerk said:
Just finished. I MUST read this again soon. Amazing, simply amazing. It was complex at first, but I got used to it.
THAT ENDING HOLY SHIT.
The Culture Novels are the best 'series' I have read to date.
I recently finished this too. I was kind of meh about the ending, but mostly because the middle half of the book dragged on. I was more interested in the forward-moving chapters than the backwards moving ones. The twist was unexpected, but the more I thought of it, the less I got it. Spoiler of the ending:
So what happened? Did Culture put in the wrong personality when he brought him back to life the first time? Or was it a whole elaborate game played by the main character? Why does he think he's Zakalwe?
Just finished
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I was surprised so many people read this as a kid. I hadn't even heard of it till recently. But it's a pretty good mystery and I love how all the clues are there in the beginning and if you were clever enough, you *could* figure it out.
perryfarrell
Member
Reading The Devil and Sherlock Holmes by David Gramm. He writes long-form journalism that oftentimes appears in the New Yorker etc. Many of the pieces are about weird or puzzling cases that appeared in the news, which he then investigates and spins into super-compelling stories.
One's about a French dude in his 30s with a pathological tendency to impersonate teenagers and then enroll in schools or live with families as this persona. One's about a Sherlock Holmes expert who stages his own death, scattering mystery novel-type clues in the process. One's about a 78-year-old bankrobber who was retired in Florida but just couldn't kick the habit. One's about the frantic search for the giant whale by a few borderline crazies. He even manages to make a story about NY underwater water supply tunnels interesting. Highly recommended.
Oh yeah, and I'd like to say again that images should be banned from threads about books or music.
One's about a French dude in his 30s with a pathological tendency to impersonate teenagers and then enroll in schools or live with families as this persona. One's about a Sherlock Holmes expert who stages his own death, scattering mystery novel-type clues in the process. One's about a 78-year-old bankrobber who was retired in Florida but just couldn't kick the habit. One's about the frantic search for the giant whale by a few borderline crazies. He even manages to make a story about NY underwater water supply tunnels interesting. Highly recommended.
Oh yeah, and I'd like to say again that images should be banned from threads about books or music.
zero margin
Member
mike23 said:About 35% through American Gods at the moment. It's a little bit slow action-wise so far, but it has me interested.
I did not care for it, trudged through and couldn't wait to just be done with it. I would have stopped early but I have OCD and can't leave a book unfinished.
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
I've read these three. Wuthering Heights twice. I love it, and recommend it highly. It has a great setting and wonderful characters. One of the characters in particular is utterly fascinating and strange. The narrators are fairly unreliable too, which adds to the mystery.
Beloved also has my highest recommendation. I found it very engaging and forceful, but it can be a tough read. Very heavy on symbolism, convoluted timelines and difficult dialects, so it's easy to get lost on the way.
Pride and Prejudice was not for me, along with the rest of Jane Austen's books. Witty, yes. Clever, sometimes. But ultimately uninteresting, filled with unlikeable characters and dull intrigues.
First half of Robopocalypse was very good, then the author got incredibly lazy. His passion is in the tech, so when hengets to zero hour + x and has to start talking about the human survivors as the focus, I feel like he really becomes disinterested and just wants to be done writing.
Nappuccino
Member
zero margin said:
I felt the same way.
Neverwhere and Anansi Boys were pretty great though. And his short stories are almost uniformly fantastic.
Finished this.
Ludicrous, but a good summer read nonetheless. The book felt plausible at first, but very quickly becomes incredibly comic book-y in terms of action and plot structure. One of the blurbs recommends it to be a Tarantino film, but I think I'd like to see Rodriquez direct it. He just seems more of a fit to this material.Could be an over the top classic. Now moving on to finish:
I haven't read a King novel since The Stand, and I find this book reminds me of that quite a bit in terms of characters and the division of those afflicted between good and evil. King's affection for small town folks can be a little sugary at times, but despite that I've grown fond of many of them. And the main idea of the story is still pretty cool.
Ludicrous, but a good summer read nonetheless. The book felt plausible at first, but very quickly becomes incredibly comic book-y in terms of action and plot structure. One of the blurbs recommends it to be a Tarantino film, but I think I'd like to see Rodriquez direct it. He just seems more of a fit to this material.Could be an over the top classic. Now moving on to finish:
I haven't read a King novel since The Stand, and I find this book reminds me of that quite a bit in terms of characters and the division of those afflicted between good and evil. King's affection for small town folks can be a little sugary at times, but despite that I've grown fond of many of them. And the main idea of the story is still pretty cool.
Frankenstrat
Member
fantastic read.
LocoMrPollock
Banned
Frankenstrat said:
fantastic read.
Red Orm, the OG badass.
I recommend the Aztec series if you enjoyed this.
Just finished it. Loved it. One of my favorite books I've read the past year. Was at Borders today and picked up 'Of Human Bondage', also by Maugham, and will probably read it some time in the near future.demon said:Think I'm about to start this:
Not sure what to read next. Think it may be this (stole it off my dad's book shelf):
Re: The Long Ships. I bought it almost a year ago and spent a while trying to read it but just couldn't make it. I'm not the fastest reader so that probably didn't help, but the writing style (maybe not helped by the fact that it's a translation) was a little off-putting and tedious to me and had trouble holding my interest. I'd read 30-50 pages, put it down for a while, come back to it and do the same, and by the time I was half way through the book I'd forgotten too much about the characters. I wish I'd liked it more but it just didn't do it for me. Maybe one of these days I'll give it another shot.
pro_gamer666
Banned
Really enjoying it so far; has me completely engrossed.
Really love his work. Going to have to look for what I'm told are superior versions of his stuff, but I'm still thoroughly enjoying this particular edition.
About halfway through Foundation and am loving it. Going to have to go and read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire afterwards.
Crumpet Trumpet
Banned
Kind of late to the party, heh
Witchfinder General
punched Wheelchair Mike
Len Fisher - Rock, Paper, Scissors
Amazing. I've just started it and I'm already shifting the way I think and the way I interact with people.
Amazing. I've just started it and I'm already shifting the way I think and the way I interact with people.