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What are you reading? (February 2016)

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But what kind of book is To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it a slow burn?

Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.

My books are mostly digital now. My shelves are mostly special editions, graphic novels, and other books that rely on images.
 
A Delusion of Satan - Frances Hill

Saw The Witch on Friday, got me interested in learning more about the era and the lore/beliefs in witches at the time.

But what kind of book is To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it a slow burn?

Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.
My shelf has triple rows of books on it.

Nowadays though, besides the cheap books I get in the B&N Bargain Priced section or my library's bookstore, I get everything on my Nook. It's cheaper and I can take more books on the go
 
I just read Gerard Manly Hopkins for the first time for my Victorian Lit class this semester.

His poems are interesting for sure. Reading them is a lot of fun though especially aloud.
 
But what kind of book is To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it a slow burn?

Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.
I buy digital unless it's an artbook, don't have much spaces left after more than a decade of physical book buying.
 
Well, there's The Twelve, which is the sequel to The Passage, I believe.

Vampire apocalypse also shows up with The Strain, by Del Toro (I think?).

It's more the way it's written and the beautiful transition from
Fiction to SciFi Horror to pure Fantasy.
I actually had an advanced readers copy of The Twelve, I read The Passage back when it came out, hence the hunger. I've read a lot since, but nothing I enjoyed as much.

The Strain was alright, it retains a simplistic but consistent quality.
 
But what kind of book is To Kill a Mockingbird? Is it a slow burn?

Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.

I buy mostly digital now unless its not much cheaper or if the book I want is not available digitally. I am out of space for physical books atm (I have atleast 150 of them) and I just don't have enough room anymore. I have amassed far too much junk and it will be painful enough when I eventually move out. It is a shame because I love "real" books.

But I love my kindle too, it is far more comfortable to read in bed and with it I can read many books that would be inaccessible otherwise (out of print, very expensive, etc).
 
So I just finished going through books 1-5 song of fire and ice and I'm kind of at a loss for what to read next. This has been my focus for quite awhile now.

A friend recommended The Belgaraid but unfortunately it's not on kindle. I'd like to finally read all of Lotr this year but I'm not sure I'm ready for that so soon after the GRRM mountain.

Looking for more of an easy read. I hear the Lost Stars is pretty good? Any other must read, easy to chew sci fi or fantasy series that may have flown under my radar?
 
Koko the Mighty by Kieran Shea was so dry and boring that it sucked the liquid from my eyeballs. I gave up on it around page 200. Going to go back to a book I found much more enjoyable before I was side tracked by life: Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn.

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For adaptations I highly recommend Gankutsuou. It is anime (idk if you like it or not) but holy shit is it incredible.

I will always second someone recommending this show. Gankutsuou was the reason I read The Count of Monte Cristo.

Making very slow progress on 1984. Incredible novel. But I am having a difficult time pulling myself away from Chrono Trigger and my first time playthrough of Dark Souls.
 
Just got my library card, so I picked up Catcher in the Rye and Haruki Murakami's short story book The Elephant Vanishes. gonna read a few stories a week and try to get through CitR before I have to take them back. I got CitR based on the other gaf thread about books that influenced people.
 
Finally almost done with Insurgent Democracy: The Non Partisan League. Next up Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream :( Once that's taken care of I can finally properly start The Last Wish.
 
Wow, I saw that the editing of the Kindle edition of Game of Thrones is really bad, with a lot of unnecessary parentheses, Dorne changed to Dome, tomcat to torn cat etc. I think I might head out and buy the paperback today, and make it the first book I'll really try get through since high school many years ago.

[edit]
I also see that it might have been re-edited, so there shouldn't be any typos, misspellings or grammatical errors anymore.
 
So I just finished going through books 1-5 song of fire and ice and I'm kind of at a loss for what to read next. This has been my focus for quite awhile now.

A friend recommended The Belgaraid but unfortunately it's not on kindle. I'd like to finally read all of Lotr this year but I'm not sure I'm ready for that so soon after the GRRM mountain.

Looking for more of an easy read. I hear the Lost Stars is pretty good? Any other must read, easy to chew sci fi or fantasy series that may have flown under my radar?

Man I can't think of anything weirder than going from GRRM to Eddings lol.

Give a Discworld book a try if you're looking for some easy but still great reads. Also there's tonnes of them!
 
By the way, I haven't seen the TV show of Game of Thrones. Actually only the first 3 episodes of Season 1. So if I start reading the books, it'll be a brand new experience to me.
 
I'm in the middle of four books right now, which is the most I've ever had going at once, and may be one too many!

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I started reading this massive collection of every Sherlock Holmes story last summer, getting through both A Study in Scarlet and a few months later The Sign of Four. I just picked it up again and started The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

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Written by one of the script editors who had worked on the show since before the 2002 reboot.

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A book about Ken Jenning's historic Jeapordy! winning streak with the history of trivia sprinkled throughout.

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A book about a former missionary losing his faith in Christianity.

--

Four books at once is quite a lot. I consider myself a fast reader, and it's weird to see my progress in any one book move so slowly, even though I know it's because my reading time is being spread so thin!
 
Let's say you are reading an epic, like A Song of Ice & Fire, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - are you writing down places, characters and such on a piece of paper to be able to follow the story and have an overview of everything?
 
Let's say you are reading an epic, like A Song of Ice & Fire, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - are you writing down places, characters and such on a piece of paper to be able to follow the story and have an overview of everything?

I'm terrible with names and such, so I did this with Hamilton's Pandora's Star. Tons and tons of characters and places, like you'd see in an ASOIAF book, but in a scifi universe, so on top of that it had all kinds of weird alien shit going on you have to wrap your mind around. So I had a hundreds of lines long .txt file that listed all named characters, major places and major alien technologies, with brief descriptions (who and where, motivations, etc for characters, that kinda stuff)

Read it for like 3 months until I finally dropped it after reaching the final, I dunno, third or fourth of the book. The story was intriguing, but ultimately it was just too much for me. The ridiculously long chapters didn't help.

Kinda want to give the book another try, but since I've lost the .txt file, I can't find the motivation anymore.
 
Let's say you are reading an epic, like A Song of Ice & Fire, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings - are you writing down places, characters and such on a piece of paper to be able to follow the story and have an overview of everything?

Not with those three as they're really not that hard to follow.
 
I'm terrible with names and such, so I did this with Hamilton's Pandora's Star. Tons and tons of characters and places, like you'd see in an ASOIAF book, but in a scifi universe, so on top of that it had all kinds of weird alien shit going on you have to wrap your mind around. So I had a hundreds of lines long .txt file that listed all named characters, major places and major alien technologies, with brief descriptions (who and where, motivations, etc for characters, that kinda stuff)

Read it for like 3 months until I finally dropped it after reaching the final, I dunno, third or fourth of the book. The story was intriguing, but ultimately it was just too much for me. The ridiculously long chapters didn't help.

Kinda want to give the book another try, but since I've lost the .txt file, I can't find the motivation anymore.
That also seems really tiresome honestly. Having to write down every detail for every character and place in the book. I'm not sure I can do that, pulling myself away from the book every time I have to write down something.

Not with those three as they're really not that hard to follow.

I had a hard time following the conversation the first 5 pages in the Prologue of Game of Thrones.

Right now I'm thinking if I should get it in English or in my native language.
 
That also seems really tiresome honestly. Having to write down every detail for every character and place in the book. I'm not sure I can do that, pulling myself away from the book every time I have to write down something.

Yeah, it was a bit tiresome, but after the first 3 or 4 hours of reading they slowed down with all the new characters and such so I could better focus on the actual book. And it was nice to have a small cheat sheet whenever some name I haven't heard in weeks was brought up.
 
Currently reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It is pretty bad so far. I like the setting and the idea, (who doesn't like dystopias overthrown by teenagers hm?) but god it is predictable, cliched, also perhaps a bit sexist and potentially homophobic. And it's just boring. I'm really disappointed. I don't even know if I'll finish it. It makes The Hunger Games look rather brilliant in comparison.

Then again, I thought The Maze Runner was so very very bad I quit after about thirty pages or something, so maybe these things just aren't for me.
 
That also seems really tiresome honestly. Having to write down every detail for every character and place in the book. I'm not sure I can do that, pulling myself away from the book every time I have to write down something.



I had a hard time following the conversation the first 5 pages in the Prologue of Game of Thrones.

Right now I'm thinking if I should get it in English or in my native language.

Man, you would hate Cormac McCarthy.
 
Reading Calamity by Brandon Sanderson and The Speech by Bernie Sanders

I normally buy nonfiction in physical format because it's easier for me to retain, plus I like being able to physically highlight stuff. I buy my fiction on kindle, but if I really loved it I'll buy it on hardback. I also utilize my local library.

I use to use collections more on my kindle, but now I find myself just removing it from the device when I've finished reading it. It's easy enough to search my amazon library online or on my fire. My kindle library is only 561 items, though, so it might get more difficult the more books I get.
 
Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.

95% of my book purchases are physical. That said I've been buying books since the late 80's, and I have thousands of them. In my living room I have 4 over 6 feet tall bookcases full of books, 2 book cases in the upstairs den, several boxes of books in the garage (mostly old paperbacks), and stacks of books all over the house (I have 2 high stacks beside my bed of book waiting to be read). So I am a little addicted to physical books, and they are a pain when you move. Also book clutter is the only type of clutter I like.
 
Also are you guys buying most of your books digital or physical? I'm not sure if I should dedicate my shelves to books. I kind of want to hold a book in my hands. I never finished a book when I had a Kindle anyway.

I do physical. I either buy them or rent from the library.

Audiobooks I download from Librivox which are free.
 
95% of my book purchases are physical. That said I've been buying books since the late 80's, and I have thousands of them. In my living room I have 4 over 6 feet tall bookcases full of books, 2 book cases in the upstairs den, several boxes of books in the garage (mostly old paperbacks), and stacks of books all over the house (I have 2 high stacks beside my bed of book waiting to be read). So I am a little addicted to physical books, and they are a pain when you move. Also book clutter is the only type of clutter I like.

I bow to you sir.
 
I'm reading The Strain book 3 (The Night Eternal). It's ok. I wouldn't recommend the series but I read the first 2 cuz I was liking the show but S2 wasn't that good, I will probably quit the show when S3 starts up. I do want to finish the book series though out of obligation, so here I am. Fortunately they're very easy reads and not long either.
 
How is it decided if a book gets a hardback release or not? I'm really bummed out when books can't be found in hardback, as I find the paperbacks to tear up a little over the years.

I were looking at Game of Thrones and there's no hardback cover available.
 
How is it decided if a book gets a hardback release or not? I'm really bummed out when books can't be found in hardback, as I find the paperbacks to tear up a little over the years.

I were looking at Game of Thrones and there's no hardback cover available.

I think hardcovers are generally for the popular authors or those debut authors getting a big marketing push. They tend to be the first edition of a book released, followed by paperback versions months later.

For something that's been kept in print for a couple of decades like a Game of Thrones that hardcover edition is most likely long since out of print. However, with a series that popular you might get newer hardcovers either reprints with a new cover or ones that are basically aimed at collectors which might have extras like interior illustrations e.g. releases from some specialty publishers like Subterranean Press.

I did look on amazon uk and found this
 

It's so much better than I expected. Fantastic pacing and sense of mystery. As a Western reader, the only issue I've had is following all of the similar names. I must not be the only one, there's a handy name list in the front of the book to help.
 
Cool! It is on Crunchyroll if you want to give it a spin before you buy it. Unless you already did lol
I've never actually tried the service (the extent of my exposure to anime is just Ghost in the Shell which I bought on BR at Christmas last year). Might take a look at it, assuming I can get it in the UK.
 
I'm reading The Strain book 3 (The Night Eternal). It's ok. I wouldn't recommend the series but I read the first 2 cuz I was liking the show but S2 wasn't that good, I will probably quit the show when S3 starts up. I do want to finish the book series though out of obligation, so here I am. Fortunately they're very easy reads and not long either.

I read them way back when on a co-workers recommendation. They're OK, but there's a lot of threads that go nowhere and it's really annoying to keep seeing them fall by the wayside.

The end game was sort of interesting so I'm glad I stuck through the terrible second book.
 
It's so much better than I expected. Fantastic pacing and sense of mystery. As a Western reader, the only issue I've had is following all of the similar names. I must not be the only one, there's a handy name list in the front of the book to help.

That has always been my challenge reading Chinese literature. Fortunately most of the Chinese books I've read have been between 1300 and 2500 pages, so there's plenty of time to learn the most important names. >_________>
 
Welp, I decided to start Far from the Madding Crowd after liking Tess of the D'Urbervilles so much. I'm 1/4 of the way through the book and while I'm enjoying Hardy's writing style, the story hasn't grabbed me like Tess did. I'm hoping it will pick up soon.

Also I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but I've been listening to War and Peace on audiobook since the middle of January. I'm a little past halfway in the book right now. I'm actually really enjoying it so far. I could do without some of the military chapters, but overall I like it better than Anna Karenina.
 
Ready Player One. Trying to get back into reading and loving this book so far.

Finished A Dirty Job (Christopher Moore) the other day, my first book in forever. It had some funny, quirky bits and a story I should've enjoyed more than I did, but the writer ke put going back to this beta male bit which got old pretty quick. It'll probably keep me from his other books.
 
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Finally finished this, cover to cover. Ligotti is an incredible writer. Lush, baroque prose and philosophical cosmic horror. Fantastic stuff.
 
This is the sort of thing that catches my eye just passing by.

I would definitely recommend it if you like HP Lovecraft or Edgar Alan Poe. But that still says so little about this man's fiction. He's in a league of his own just like those authors, but his brand of "cosmic horror" is far more surreal, abstract, esoteric, metaphysical and plain fucking weird. He is also one of the best prose stylists I have read in horror. Your mileage may vary on many of the stories, but if that sounds interesting then you must check it out.

If you ever pick it up maybe start with The Last Feast of the Harlequin which is his trademark story.
 
If you've ever read Emma, Austen's most technically ambitious work, or if you want to read it (spoilers are not that important) or if you just want to hear arguments for Austen as a groundbreaking novelist, check out this episode of In Our Time on your favorite podcast service or download it BBC's site.

It's a radio show with a set time so the host rushes things along a bit, and with three professors in the room they can't get to everything they want to say, but it's probably one of the most concise cases made for Austen. And a nice recognition of the jealousy of male authors using her techniques and then slagging her off.
 
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