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[sparky2112]

Posting this for all the Infinite Jest fans here. Hadn't seen it in a while, and it's even better than I remembered, after just having finished this in the book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpfK7l404I

 

[Pachimari]

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

Hmm, might consider that edition. But to those of you who get the physical editions, let's say it's a series like Ice & Fire, do you want all the books to be hardcovers or from the same print, or doesn't it matter, that some of them are hardcovers and some of them are paperbacks in a series on your shelf?

 

[Pachimari]

After having read the sample of The Last Wish (The Witcher series) I have decided to pick it up. It seems very interesting and up my alley.

I have also heard that Gods & Kings is a great series? Have anyone read it? And how's book one?

 

[TTG]

Posting this for all the Infinite Jest fans here. Hadn't seen it in a while, and it's even better than I remembered, after just having finished this in the book:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpfK7l404I

Haven't seen that before. I did finish The Pale King the other day though. Those all dialogue chapters were just awesome.

 

[Number45]

Finished Tide of Shadows, which I really liked. Wasn't terribly keen on the fairytale short, but the others were excellent (I particularly liked The Girl with Wings of Iron and Down, and all the questions it left me with). The story notes take it all to another level as well - I love glimpses into the process of writing (although that makes the whole thing sound far more mechanical than it seems to be), it's one of the reasons I took to The Gunslinger only after reading the prologue (which I read afterwards, because spoilers) and why I find the later stages of the series so fascinating.

Moved onto, and nearly half-way through:

And I'm loving it so far. Possibly my favourite bit of sci-fi I've read.

 

[aravuus]

Summer Knight of the Dresden Files. Felt like reading urban fantasy a couple of days ago and despite hearing some negative things about the early Dresden Files books, I decided to start the series from the very beginning. Ended up burning through the first and the third book in two days lol. Not the best books around, but super easy to read and a lot of fun. Can't wait to get into the "better" books of the series!

 

[Imp the Dimp]

200 pages into this and I'm really enjoying it. Sanderson is fantastic. At this point, I hope the pace picks up a little though. It does lack a little..urgency so far I think. It's a very fast read nevertheless.

 

[Nymerio]

That's a nice cover.

I'm still going through The Brothers Karamazov. Still liking it, though it's certainly not the easiest book for me to read.

 

[NeoGiff]

I recently finished the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, and last night I started reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

 

[sparky2112]

Haven't seen that before. I did finish The Pale King the other day though. Those all dialogue chapters were just awesome.

I'm due for a Pale King re-read. Maybe later this year, after some space from my current IJ re-read...

 

[aravuus]

I recently finished the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb [...]

How did you find the latter half of the trilogy? I loved the first book, but had to drop the second one midway through due to the insanely sluggish pace. Wondering if I should try to push my way through, if the third book is better.

 

[Pachimari]

Is it smart to read the book and watch the show of Game of Thrones at the same time?

 

[koopathecat]

Just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Holy shit what a book. Burned through it in 2 sessions.

Next up: Irvine Welsh's newest offering that I can tell will be good but not great because it doesn't feature the Trainspotting/Glue Characters. The Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins

 

[Maklershed]

Is it smart to read the book and watch the show of Game of Thrones at the same time?

You'll blaze past your position in the book in no time. The show skips a lot of stuff.

 

[Peru]

A fun murder mystery/'sensation novel' - easy read, beautiful young mystery lady with a childish laugh and sinister secrets, with quite a few silly turns, but darker undertones of position and propriety in the 19th century.

 

[Soulfire]

Finished reading The Speech, it was exactly what you'd expect from a transcript of a filibuster. Lots of repetition. Going to read FDR by Jean Edward Smith now. First, though, I'm going to focus on Calamity by Brandon Sanderson since it's a library book and there's a wait list.

 

[Number45]

Just discovered that The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is set in 2016. Spooky! Also, the author clearly sucks at pre-cog.

 

[mu cephei]

^^The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is super fun. Toe tingling good for most of it.

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.

I listened to this today, it was pretty good. (Though Melvin Bragg seems to've made an art of being politely rude, somehow he pulls it off). I thought the stuff about Emma's reaction to the changing society of the times was interesting, I don't think I'd thought of/ come across that before.

 

[causan]

Finished this month:

Currently reading:

 

[BorkBork]

Just discovered that The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is set in 2016. Spooky! Also, the author clearly sucks at pre-cog.

Hated it when I first read it, but it's growing on me. Sooooo trippy.

 

[thomaser]

Finished "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. Fascinating and powerful.

Starting on "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel. Everybody loves it, seemingly, so I dive in with great expectations!

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

I just finished prosecutor Juan Martinez's book Conviction about putting that monster skank Jodi Arias behind bars.

It wasn't that great or insightful but part of the reason is I watched a lot of the trial so there were hardly any revelations.

 

[Loxley]

I recently embraced minimalism in a serious way, so I've been reading a lot about the subject. Just finished Everything that Remains by The Minimalists (Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus) and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and they've both really been a revelation for me. Marie Kondo has slightly different (re: distinctly Japanese) take how to declutter your life compared to Millburn and Nicodemus, but both have been equally fascinating to read and very insightful. The Minimalists podcast has also been a great companion piece.

Now I'll be moving on to both author's next works, Essential - Essays by The Minimalists and Spark Joy from Kondo.

 

[Jintor]

I was reading a discovery of science book but I just ended up super bored throughout the astronomy section because I simply can't comprehend that stuff without diagrams. Guess I'll drop it for now and read something I feel like actually reading.

 

[Pachimari]

I recently embraced minimalism in a serious way, so I've been reading a lot about the subject. Just finished Everything that Remains by The Minimalists (Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus) and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and they've both really been a revelation for me. Marie Kondo has slightly different (re: distinctly Japanese) take how to declutter your life compared to Millburn and Nicodemus, but both have been equally fascinating to read and very insightful. The Minimalists podcast has also been a great companion piece.

Now I'll be moving on to both author's next works, Essential - Essays by The Minimalists and Spark Joy from Kondo.

Thanks for these recommendations. I'm gonna see if I can find them. Are there any good books from Anthony Robbins?

 

[GK86]

Like the others, I don't know any series, but you might try Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk

A huge thanks for the Captain Blood recommendation. I just finished it and I enjoyed it tremendously. Lots of twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat for the majority of it. I was rooting for Blood and his band of misfits the whole way through. The language used kinda slowed me down, since I had to look up words and terms. Overall though, I loved it.

 

[Dr.Horrible]

Just finished Ready Player One. Absolutely loved it and am tempted to go right back and read it again. Any impressions of his second book, Armada? Any other recommendations if I really enjoyed this one?

 

[Tragicomedy]

Finished Heart of Darkness by Conrad. Disliked it immensely.

 

[MattyG]

I'm slowly working my way through House of Leaves and also just started reading S.

I have a feeling S. won't take too long, but the way House of Leaves is written is making me a.) read slow and b.) intentionally take my time on top of reading slow. I think House of Leaves has me more interested in what's actually going on, but I absolutely adore the notes between Jen and Eric in S. The subject matter and style of the notes hit really close to home sometimes. I have a similar thing I do with one of my friends, and I can see us in their characters sometimes. Both fascinating books though.

 

[Cade]

I'm slowly working my way through House of Leaves and also just started reading S.

I have a feeling S. won't take too long, but the way House of Leaves is written is making me a.) read slow and b.) intentionally take my time on top of reading slow. I think House of Leaves has me more interested in what's actually going on, but I absolutely adore the notes between Jen and Eric in S. The subject matter and style of the notes hit really close to home sometimes. I have a similar thing I do with one of my friends, and I can see us in their characters sometimes. Both fascinating books though.

Reading both at once seems masochistic as hell, lol. Let me know if you like S. as I liked House of Leaves a lot and wouldn't mind picking up S. if it's good as it's such a cool package.

 

[MattyG]

Reading both at once seems masochistic as hell, lol. Let me know if you like S. as I liked House of Leaves a lot and wouldn't mind picking up S. if it's good as it's such a cool package.

Haha trust me, I know. I just knew HoL was going to take me a while (been reading for 4 days and I'm only on page 80), and I couldn't stop staring at the box with S. in it. It drew me in, the siren!

I'll definitely be sure to let you know how things go with S. though! It definitely feels like less work than HoL, that's for sure, but there's still a lot of layers to it that may make it a challenging/long read. And yeah, the presentation alone is amazing. Bonus: the book is off to a very good start from the 50 pages I read tonight. Hopefully I'll get through a substantial chunk tomorrow since it's my day off.

 

[Pachimari]

I just bought two physical books and they were on sale with 20%!

I bought Game of Thrones and the 1Q84 trilogy.

 

[Maklershed]

Finished Player of Games (culture 2) yesterday. It was good but not what I was expecting - a sequel to Consider Phlebas. Before I move on to Use of Weapons I'm going to take a quick break and read Angel's Flight (Bosch 6).


Angels Flight by Michael Connelly

 

[Peru]

^
I listened to this today, it was pretty good. (Though Melvin Bragg seems to've made an art of being politely rude, somehow he pulls it off). I thought the stuff about Emma's reaction to the changing society of the times was interesting, I don't think I'd thought of/ come across that before.

Yes, he can be a little annoying, but he gets really good people to come and talk about whatever subject is up. Wish they'd do a longer podcasts and edit it for the radio show, though.

OR I wish some professors or academics just got together and started talking about older literature in podcast formers.

 

[Ratrat]

Finished: A Single Man(good book, as much as I like the movie I'm not a fan of some of the changes in hindsight.

Reading: Revelation Space.(So far it is incredibly boring and confusing)

 

[Kill3r7]

The Pacific by Simon Winchester.

 

[Pachimari]

Reading my first book since high school. It's probably gonna take me months to read through. I'm not that good at focusing.

 

[Atraveller]

I just bought two physical books and they were on sale with 20%!

I bought Game of Thrones and the 1Q84 trilogy.

Good.

 

[sparky2112]

Finished Heart of Darkness by Conrad. Disliked it immensely.

Wow, that's a little surprising. Haven't read it myself, but Conrad usually gets nothing but praise...

 

[Hanzou]

Just finished Ready Player One. Absolutely loved it and am tempted to go right back and read it again. Any impressions of his second book, Armada? Any other recommendations if I really enjoyed this one?

I quite like ready player one but found AR. Ada to be kind of bad in comparison. Seemed much less pop culture then the ready player one which is probably a good thing buy the story was pretty boring in comparison.

I just bought two physical books and they were on sale with 20%!

I bought Game of Thrones and the 1Q84 trilogy.

wait, what books make up the IQ84 trilogy?

 

[foomfoom415]

wait, what books make up the IQ84 trilogy?

The Japanese version is 3 books. Potentially it was released similarly in some markets, though I think the US release was 2 books?

I just finished up The Bees by Laline Paull and it was riveting.




Next up on the docket is Morning Star by Pierce Brown.

 

[TTG]

Finished Silence by Shūsaku Endō tonight(thanks DeathoftheEndless!). Interesting premise, a good bit like Conrad's Heart of Darkness actually, fascinating setting, great writing although it looks like this is the only one of Endo's books that this particular translator worked on. I suppose the reason I didn't like it more is the way the subject is explored. Our main character's faith in God is tested, but we are talking some really rudimentary scenarios and philosophy. Let's just say papa Karmazov and Professor Pangloss are well beyond what we're dealing with.

So, my takeaway right now is to seek out more of Endo's work, he does way too many things really, really well. I just wish it was a little easier to do so digitally.

 

[Pachimari]

Here in Europe 1Q84 are three books.

But I'm not reading either of the two yet. As I have begun with "The Shadows of the Wind". I know nothing about it but it seems okay. Have only read the prologue.

 

[Danielsan]

Here in Europe 1Q84 are three books.

But I'm not reading either of the two yet. As I have begun with "The Shadows of the Wind". I know nothing about it but it seems okay. Have only read the prologue.

Odd, bought my hard-copy versions at launch (imported from the UK) and it was made up out of two books, not three

The Shadows of the Wind is really good. Nice pick-up.

 

[Pachimari]

My copy is just one book that consist of the three books. But they also have three separate copies here.

I picked up Shadows of the Wind because it was the only copy shining on the shelf lol. Found out it's a 10th Anniversary edition and is shining bronze.

I'm only 11 pages into it.

 

[theRizzle]

I've been reading Judd Apatow's Sick In The Head for the past couple weeks off and on. It's essentially transcripts of interviews that he does with comedians (mostly). It's a really good read if you are interested in the craft of comedy, and you don't have to commit much time per sitting to read since the majority of the interviews are a few pages at most.

 

[PassiveObserver]

70 pages, or 10%, into this big lug of a book. Surprisingly breezy so far, even though it's written to ape 17th century style . Ebenezer cracks me up. He buys time with a whore but doesn't want to pay her because he loves her. Then he exclaims "I'm a virgin and a poet!" like that's some great shakes. Haven't read that many picaresque novels, but loving this so far.

 

[Pachimari]

There are so many words I don't understand in The Shadow and I'm only 11 pages in. Oh well, I might skip over or miss out on some details.

 

[sparky2112]

70 pages, or 10%, into this big lug of a book. Surprisingly breezy so far, even though it's written to ape 17th century style . Ebenezer cracks me up. He buys time with a whore but doesn't want to pay her because he loves her. Then he exclaims "I'm a virgin and a poet!" like that's some great shakes. Haven't read that many picaresque novels, but loving this so far.

Well, that's the one that Barth is most known for. It's somewhere in my to-read pile...


On the IQ84 front, this is the version I got when it first launched in the U.S. Not sure you can find this one anymore...

 

[aidan]

My copy is just one book that consist of the three books. But they also have three separate copies here.

I picked up Shadows of the Wind because it was the only copy shining on the shelf lol. Found out it's a 10th Anniversary edition and is shining bronze.

I'm only 11 pages into it.

My favourite book of all time. I'm so jealous you get to read it for the first time.