What are you reading? (May 2014)

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survivor said:
About 100 pages into Night Film. I really don't know how to feel about its visual gimmicks. Like is having a page of iphone text messages or printout of websites articles or a criminal report really add to the story that much? Just feels like extra flair added to make it look cool but so far it hasn't improved the storytelling.
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I thought that at first, then it kind of felt necessary, Like if the wirter didn't use them often I felt something was missing. Anyway, I loved the book, it trapped me right away, just in the first pages. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
 
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Just finished this and it was phenomenal. Its the best biography that ive read so far. I dont think there is one weak point. Even his early life was fascinating thanks to his father and family dynamic and how John D reacted to it. Learning about how Standard Oil started and eventually dominated the oil industry and all of the criticisms, legal issues, and lawsuits.

I also really enjoyed reading about his philanthropy, how his conceptions changed and what each philanthropic endeavor was and did, and how people reacted to it. I mean, I really had no idea that Rockefeller had a significant part in modernizing medicine in the United States and significantly undermining the quack doctors that prevaded the medical field at the time (even though he liked the quack doctors).

Besides because being involved in such interesting events, Rockefeller is a fascinating character. He was driven, ruthless and a managerial genius when it came to making money, but completely rationalized that (and blotted out the bad stuff he did) as a sign that he was blessed by God and ordained to give away his money wisely for the benefit of mankind. Lot more to it to that obviously, but thats the basic gist of his personality.
 
Reading 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke and really enjoying it, I like the movie but it was lacking in the character department and the book naturally adds some. I was surprised to learn that the book was based on the screenplay by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick as I always thought the book came first for some reason.
 
Finished:

The Agincourt Bride by Joanna Hickson

Well, this was certainly a book. I did not know this was the first installment of a series before I started it. The most I can say in its favor is that it mostly wasn't terrible. I was kept interested in the story, but I will not be reading the sequel. Also it simply cuts off at the end, in a fashion that makes you think you've got a copy that's missing pages instead of a logical wrap-up that leaves you curious about what comes next but still feeling satisfied that this is the end of the book.

Started:

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Is this the point in the series where the doldrums start to kick in? I've heard it gets slow and then picks back up towards the end, and that the last few books are good. I'm still reasonably entertained
and Elaida had better fucking get what's coming to her I swear to god
but I can sort of feel that this is going to be tedious soon. I don't get the hate for Egwene, Nynaeve, et al. I just get the sense that Robert Jordan wanted to go for strong female characters but was a bit heavy handed with it, not being a strong female himself.

Still, I want to finish it and learn how it all plays out without turning to a Wiki. It's killing me seeing major things happen in different parts of the world and the other characters are just meandering along not knowing anything about it (that's entirely realistic, with them being weeks' traveling distance apart and without Smartphones, but it's still painful at times).
 
I would probably read a well-researched book about ancient sewers, so if anyone has any suggestions...

Anyway, finished this last night:


The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh

My Goodreads Review said:
I oscillated back and forth on what I thought of this story but the final few pages are such a rush that on the whole, I think I enjoyed it. Not so much a story as a collection of shorter stories hung together on the skeleton of a case, The Choirboys is thoroughly depressing in its unrelenting cynicism and its repulsive, mildly corrupt, hair-trigger violent and all around contemptible cast. It was therefore kind of a shock to find myself, by the book's end, empathising with this lot. With minor touches of dark, almost absurdist humour and the occasional foray into more philosophical concerns, one can certainly see how it has inspired authors like David Simon and the other plethora of police procedurals and psychological tragi-dramas that have come after it.
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The Male Brain - just read the most interesting chapters while I was in the library

weak book, not very fleshed out. Very interesting to learn how testosterone morphs the male brain though.
 
I have a free credit on audible. Thinking of getting Into Africa (you know the one with "Doctor Livingston I pressume?"). Anyone read it and can recommend it, or should I get some other biography-adventure?

I really want Ancillary Justice but it seems it hasnt gotten an audiobook release yet.
 
obin_gam said:
I have a free credit on audible. Thinking of getting Into Africa (you know the one with "Doctor Livingston I pressume?"). Anyone read it and can recommend it, or should I get some other biography-adventure?

I really want Ancillary Justice but it seems it hasnt gotten an audiobook release yet.
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Use your credit on the longest book that you want to read. That way you'll get the most value out of it
 
tauroxd said:
I thought that at first, then it kind of felt necessary, Like if the wirter didn't use them often I felt something was missing. Anyway, I loved the book, it trapped me right away, just in the first pages. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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Night Film was great. Long as fuck tho.


ahhhh GAF, I've been stuck on the last third of "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tart for the last two months. I just don't like where the story has gone :/ I really want to finish but everytime I try to I just end up realizing how much I liked the first half more than what I've read of the second half. 250 pages to go...

can someone tell me if the ending is disappointing?
 
Mr.Swag said:
Night Film was great. Long as fuck tho.


ahhhh GAF, I've been stuck on the last third of "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tart for the last two months. I just don't like where the story has gone :/ I really want to finish but everytime I try to I just end up realizing how much I liked the first half more than what I've read of the second half. 250 pages to go...

can someone tell me if the ending is disappointing?
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Just stop reading the book if you're not enjoying it. No use in making yourself hate the book by forcing yourself to finish. Once you realize it's ok to give up on books, the truth will set you freeeeeee.
 
How can I feel cultured if I gave up on tomes like The Count of Monte Cristo?

Like the many trials Dantes underwent, I must forge ahead, for the sake of my vanity.
 
Haly said:
How can I feel cultured if I gave up on tomes like The Count of Monte Cristo?

Like the many trials Dantes underwent, I must forge ahead, for the sake of my vanity.
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I didn't care for The Count of Monte Cristo as much as I had hoped I would. His mission felt like it should have been over after like, 100 pages or so.

edit: oh wait, yours is a facetious response :P
 
Nappuccino said:
I didn't care for The Count of Monte Cristo as much as I had hoped I would. His mission felt like it should have been over after like, 100 pages or so.
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I thought so too, until I realized this was a result of modern fiction standards, and by giving up, I am admitting weakness in the face of adversity.

By god, if people could do it 200 years ago then so can I!
 
Reading through The Name of the Wind and Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America right now. Also a bit of Globalization: The Human Consequences by Zygmunt Bauman, sucks that I'm reading that in Portuguese which makes the reading of a vague philosopher even more difficult.
 
nakedsushi said:
Just stop reading the book if you're not enjoying it. No use in making yourself hate the book by forcing yourself to finish. Once you realize it's ok to give up on books, the truth will set you freeeeeee.
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but i can't drop moby dick

it's like my... uh... off-colour leviathan of choice
 
Haly said:
I thought so too, until I realized this was a result of modern fiction standards, and by giving up, I am admitting weakness in the face of adversity.

By god, if people could do it 200 years ago then so can I!
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They got to read it in weekly increments though! And Dumas paid some one else to write the boring sections.

If the author thinks its so boring that he doesn't want to write it himself, that is telling.
 
nakedsushi said:
Just stop reading the book if you're not enjoying it. No use in making yourself hate the book by forcing yourself to finish. Once you realize it's ok to give up on books, the truth will set you freeeeeee.
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Agreed. Have given up on a few books when I'm just not feeling it, and it's just not worth the time if I feel like I've lost interest. Just move on to something I would like.
 
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I have a copy of this that I've had since I was about twelve or so, I've taken good care of it but I've read it thousands of times. I used to have the other companion edition(The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories), but I gave that one to a special woman long ago.

As for other stuff, I recently finished Jeff Somer's seminal cyberpunk series featuring Avery Cates(The Electric Church, The Digital Plague, The Eternal Prison, The Terminal State, and The Final Evolution), has to be one of my favorite cyberpunk novel series. I also read William Gibson's Neuromancer, very good book and I'm glad to see that my idea for my science fiction novel hasn't been done to death so it might actually be worth finishing.

I love Lovecraft's work so much, I even had to do several essays and presentations on him in High School done to a collegiate standard. It's strange but...when I researched him aside from him being rich most of his life and living off his family's established wealth, his tragic life and mine are remarkably similar down to even when we were born.

I don't necessarily believe in reincarnation, but I feel a strange kinship with Mr.Lovecraft and he is probably my largest benefactor of influence on my writing besides Edgar Allan Poe.

I'm also reading through Watchmen again, my favorite comic book/graphic novel. I have a framed original copy of the 6th issue of the original run of Watchmen that is near mint that I bought at some comic shop for five dollars(it's worth about 40). I know its silly but besides the little Rorschach action figure an ex girlfriend bought for me for my Birthday, it's my most prized possession besides my PC and an old 1956 first edition compilation of Edgar Allan Poe's work.
 
About halfway through We Need New Names and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm also starting to realize I like the style of writing where there are no quotes around the dialogues a lot more than the usual way of writing them.
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Also finished reading Night FIlm. Good build up to the mystery although I have been let down by the ending. My major issue is with the way the story tried to hype Cordova as some sort of a filmmaker genius and even comparing him to Kubrick when in reality from all his movies summaries, he seemed like your average mystery horror hack who likes ambiguous endings to his movies. Also there seems to be an over usage of the word "horror" to tell me how scary something is without really making me feel that.
 
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Finished this just now and I enjoyed it. I feel like the scholarship might be a bit dated though since his biography mostly seems to be pre-1980 work. One issue was that he suggested that Washington was the one who eventually convinced the french to attack Yorktown, which is simply not true. He was actually adamant about attacking New York and the French basically had to threaten to take their toys and go home to get Washington to go to Yorktown. Thanks to the French's knowledge of siege warfare, they did most of the strategic planning and engineering in Yorktown too, something that was not mentioned in the book.

Because of that, I feel that I should probably read another work on the revolution (hopefully one not as long) to see what they say. Wouldnt mind suggestions

I am going to start reading this

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The history of American foreign relations has always interested me, so I am definitely excited to read this

and will listen to this

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This sounds interesting, but I hope it doesnt devolve into describing 'regional characters'. I find such generalities rather useless.
 
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Just finished a marathon on Foundation series that I put on hold for a long long time -April and May 2014.

Well. That was something. I read there were authorized sequel not written by Asimov, are they legit worthy sequel? They aren't another Dune bs, right?
 
Ezalc said:
Also a bit of Globalization: The Human Consequences by Zygmunt Bauman, sucks that I'm reading that in Portuguese which makes the reading of a vague philosopher even more difficult.
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Despite the short length, it's quite a challenge to get the most out of in any language. I read it at the end of my Sociology degree a number of years ago and it's one of the few books from the degree I've really hung onto. Best of luck, Bauman is pretty seminal.
 
Finished Salem's Lot

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Pretty good stuff. Its hard to say too much about it without spoiling anything, but it was a fairly engrossing read and moderately scary, which is a good accomplishment for a horror book I suppose.
The picture in my mind of the vampires appearing in people's windows in the middle of the night is pretty damn freaky.

I've also read the three The Expanse(Leviathan Wakes) novellas. I'd say the only one really worth reading is The Churn. The other two(Butcher of Anderson Station and Gods of Risk) were quite awful. Badly written, irrelevant in so many ways, and simply uninteresting. I'm shocked these were actually released. I think The Churn is actually decent and worth reading for fans of the series, though.

Am now reading:

The Korean War by Max Hastings

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Its a more personal narrative of this war. I felt like my knowledge of this was pretty weak, so I was interested. Its quite interesting and I'm learning a lot, but man, I cant scrub the feeling that the author really enjoys making Americans look bad whenever possible. He does try and 'be fair', but it definitely seems like he's trying to give them flak more often than not.

And also, David Mitchell's Back Story.

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Love David Mitchell and the book is hilarious so far. Its impossible to not read everything in his voice as it sounds exactly like you'd expect it to if he was saying all this aloud.
 
Piecake said:
Just finished this and it was phenomenal. Its the best biography that ive read so far. I dont think there is one weak point. Even his early life was fascinating thanks to his father and family dynamic and how John D reacted to it. Learning about how Standard Oil started and eventually dominated the oil industry and all of the criticisms, legal issues, and lawsuits.

I also really enjoyed reading about his philanthropy, how his conceptions changed and what each philanthropic endeavor was and did, and how people reacted to it. I mean, I really had no idea that Rockefeller had a significant part in modernizing medicine in the United States and significantly undermining the quack doctors that prevaded the medical field at the time (even though he liked the quack doctors).

Besides because being involved in such interesting events, Rockefeller is a fascinating character. He was driven, ruthless and a managerial genius when it came to making money, but completely rationalized that (and blotted out the bad stuff he did) as a sign that he was blessed by God and ordained to give away his money wisely for the benefit of mankind. Lot more to it to that obviously, but thats the basic gist of his personality.
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Bought this because of your post! It sounds really interesting and I look forward to starting it.

Now reading Cryptonomicon, which I've tried before and given up. I made it over the hump and now it's one of my favourite recent reads! Thanks GAF
 
My wife started watching the Longmire series on A&E which were based off a series of books. I couldn't really get into the series so I decided to pick up the books.

I just finished book 1 and started book 2 last night:
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I'll likely be reading the rest of the series throughout this month and next, especially since another book in the series comes out tomorrow. I'm really enjoying them. They're basically a good mix of crime/thriller/mystery with a bit of a Louis L'Amour western vibe.
 
Mainly reading uni books, but managed to fit a couple of big books in (if the second one can even be called a 'book'):

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Is this the best novel of last decade? Bolaño, knowing he was near death, clearly put everything into this book and ended up producing a masterpiece.

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(Building Stories)

I think I ended up liking this more than Jimmy Corrigan. It was a tougher read - every time I opened the box I was faced with a psychological struggle in deciding where to begin. The way each piece is constructed so that it adds to what the reader has read before is beautiful, and an incredible feat considering the order is ultimately up to the reader. It's a gorgeous object and an absolute work of art.
 
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I'm quarter of the way through this at the moment and I'm wondering if anyone else here has read it before and did they manage to figure out what's going on with the duality of the two cities before it was really made clear in the plot? I feel like I should of been able to work it out by now :(
 
Professor Chaos said:
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I'm quarter of the way through this at the moment and I'm wondering if anyone else here has read it before and did they manage to figure out what's going on with the duality of the two cities before it was really made clear in the plot? I feel like I should of been able to work it out by now :(
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One of my favorite books. The first time I read it
I thought that is was "magic," one city breaching into the other; when I read it again a year later, I was convinced it was just two cities in the same geographic space whose citizens learned to ignore each other, or fight each other for space. I don't think there is a "right" way to interpret the cities. Though, the mythology and third city do seem to suggest that "magic" is the appropriate interpretation.
The ambiguity is one of my favorite aspects of the book.

When you finish let me know what you think. BTW that cover is fucking awesome.
 
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