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[Night_Trekker]

I just recently started on Blindness. Great so far (about 1/4th of the way through).

EDIT: Holy shit. Someone in this thread is calling William Faulkner "overrated"?

 

[Mumei]

Finished A Clash of Kings; I'm about 100 pages into A Storm of Swords. I'm well past the point that I remember too much of the plot beyond broad strokes, which is nice.

 

[coldvein]

bought this because of all the recommendations on GAF.

Finding it really hard to get into, it just seems so dry.

Am I doing it wrong?

no, the book is garbage. i was convinced by the gaf-love to give it a shot, too. what a chore. in expressing my dislike for it, i found that there were actually a couple people who agreed with me.. will never understand the popularity of this book/author/series.

 

[nakedsushi]

Oops, forgot it was a new month.

Finished two books today:


Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Really liked it. It reads like a children's book with some dark elements to it. Even though I watched the movie first, I don't remember much of the movie at all. I connected more with the characters in this book than I ever did with the movie. Very sweet.


Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann
Finished this in one sitting. I guess you could call it a thriller, but (plot spoiler)

Spoiler

the whole spirits/ghost of abused and beaten boys seeking their revenge by luring teenagers to bury themselves and die was too far-fetched.

The book is like a longer story built around a ghost story.

 

[Scrow]

currently not reading anything, but i finished Dune recently.

I'm thinking of getting the sequel to The Name of the Wind or delving into Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (Red, Green, Blue). I've read Red before, but I think I will just re-read it and continue with the second and third book. Are they worth it?

 

[johnbeez]

Book club read finished

Initial thoughts - a decent enough read, not quite as good as Gates of Fire but still interesting enough to be a page turner.

Next up was

First Michael Connolly book I have read and really enjoyed it. Could see the twist coming a mile off, and yet this didn't detract from the overall read. Enjoyed it so much I have moved onto

Only a few pages into this one but it promises to be as good as the Lincoln Lawyer

Good thing about these books are that they are short reads, needed a break before starting the Crippled God next

 

[Yasser]

finally had enough free time to finish money by martin amis, which was a treat and recommend to everyone, especially if you enjoyed american psycho as a satire of the time period.

also got through the murders in the rue morgue by edgar allan poe. enjoyable, though i needed to re-read sentences/passages a few times and the actual scenarios for the mysteries weren't very interesting.

now reading then we came to the end by joshua ferris. at 130 pages in, it just feels like a dull version of the imperfectionists by tom rachman. hope it picks up soon because i'm not sure i'll stick with it as is for another 300 or so pages

 

[Dresden]

Going through the crying of lot 49--also finished American Born Chinese, though it was overrated but still a decent read.

 

[Fritz]

William Faulkner - Knight's Gambit

Faulkner's The Big Woods is one of my favorite books. But I find it really hard to get into some of his stuff. Knight's Gambit is not as demanding as his more elaborate works. Basically six murder mystery stories. Like it so far.

 

[sparky2112]

now reading then we came to the end by joshua ferris. at 130 pages in, it just feels like a dull version of the imperfectionists by tom rachman. hope it picks up soon because i'm not sure i'll stick with it as is for another 300 or so pages

You're killin' me over here. One of my favorites ever AND I love The Imperfectionists. Other than the fact that they both feature dying companies, I don't see them as stylistically similar at all. shrug.

 

[Yasser]

You're killin' me over here. One of my favorites ever AND I love The Imperfectionists. Other than the fact that they both feature dying companies, I don't see them as stylistically similar at all. shrug.

so far i just feel the imperfectionists dealt with the theme in a much more interesting manner, with the perspective changing every chapter, the segments from the past, and better developed characters. that said, i do like some things so far in then we came to the end having worked in an office and i like how it's written from a generic "hivemind" point of view

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

no, the book is garbage. i was convinced by the gaf-love to give it a shot, too. what a chore. in expressing my dislike for it, i found that there were actually a couple people who agreed with me.. will never understand the popularity of this book/author/series.

wat, it is amazing.

It's like the only "fantasy" stuff I can bear to read, although I plan on giving Game Of Thrones a shot.

 

[ilikeme]

Hermann Hesse - Narcissus and Goldmund

So far so good (about 30 pages)

I like the tree a lot

 

[grumble]

no, the book is garbage. i was convinced by the gaf-love to give it a shot, too. what a chore. in expressing my dislike for it, i found that there were actually a couple people who agreed with me.. will never understand the popularity of this book/author/series.

Agree with you. Read four of his books and they were all fairly bad. There are oceans of better fantasy than this.

 

[coldvein]

wat, it is amazing.

It's like the only "fantasy" stuff I can bear to read, although I plan on giving Game Of Thrones a shot.

wat!? your dfw avatar had led me to believe that you had impeccable taste in books. oh well. opinions etc. it's among the worst fantasy i've ever read. i liked almost nothing about the book. writing style, setting, characters, story, nothing. it was such a battle for me to get through that thing. Game of Thrones is going to absolutely blow your mind, it's 10,000x the book that the blade itself is. not exaggerating that number.

 

[bistromathics]

er dont know if this will get lost among the photos, so:

Has anybody read any biographies on Aldous Huxley? I'd love a good recommendation, beyond the ones used for the Wikipedia article or the handful of reader reviews on Amazon.



edit: Well, it was hard to track down, but I asked my aunt (lives in UK) for this copy of his "autobiography". Found no other reference to it on the internet, so I don't know what it actually is.

 

[Maklershed]

Started reading Under the Dome


Under the Dome by Stephen King

(on my Kindle of course because I'm not strong enough to pick up the hardcover)

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

wat!? your dfw avatar had led me to believe that you had impeccable taste in books. oh well. opinions etc. it's among the worst fantasy i've ever read. i liked almost nothing about the book. writing style, setting, characters, story, nothing. it was such a battle for me to get through that thing. Game of Thrones is going to absolutely blow your mind, it's 10,000x the book that the blade itself is. not exaggerating that number.

Just flipping through it seems to have none of the noir swagger in the prose that I love so much about Abercrombie. Just dull, straight ahead, Here Are 20,000 Characters, Have Fun, fantasy stuff. I'm still going to read it (bovs) but it seems like Abercrombie is really an aberration; a creative prose stylist who writes fantasy.

 

[Bananakin]

Finished Catcher in the Rye last week, here's my goodreads review: (gave it four stars)

I actually rather liked this book. It's funny, just after complaining about how Stranger in a Strange Land had no plot or conflict, I go and enjoy Catcher in the Rye despite it being even worse in this regard. I guess what I should have said then was that character pieces with minimal plot can work, but you better have an interesting character to support it. And I found Holden Caulfield to be exactly that: interesting. Which is not to say that I liked him per se. Some people say that to enjoy Catcher in the Rye you have to identify with Holden Caulfield, or agree with him, or like him. I don't know if that's really the case. For me it was enough that he was a fleshed out, complex character. Nuanced would be the word to describe his personality. Far too often authors just create a character around a single personality trait and run with that. Even if they're "flawed", it's in some obvious, one-dimensional manner. Holden, though, is a portrait of inconsistency - sometimes he's a total prick, but then he'll have moments of real compassion. Or he'll be extremely judgmental towards some people, but to others he gives a completely fair shake. I may not have liked him, but I could never bring myself to outright dislike him either. He's just a fascinating character to read. And it turns out that that was enough for me, in this case.

Now reading One Day, by David Nicholls.

 

[traveler]

Just finished:

Didn't enjoy it as much as Cloud Atlas, but I still liked it quite a bit and I will continue working my way through Mitchell's library in the future. Definitely seems to be the most similar in scope, themes, and structure to Cloud Atlas of the rest of the Mitchell's novels. Looking forward to trying out his more "traditional" fare in 1,000 Autumns and Black Swan Green.

Still reading:

Both of which are good; I just don't drive through nonfiction like I do fiction- especially when I happen to be reading fiction at the same time.

Also reading:

Freedom just about lost me in that prologue, which I found pretty boring and hard to differentiate from soap operas, to be frank, but the autobiography section that follows it has been much, much better. This book is just packed with meat, for lack of a better term. Every word fleshes out the characterizations and relationships to the point where I've really become quite aware of how much environmental detail is added in other novels. Franzen gets right to the point and skips the scene setting almost entirely.

The Name of the Wind is entertaining enough, but I'm finding it much less engaging than ASoIaF and much more of the sort of writing and story I expected all those years I'd shied away from fantasy. I'll finish it, but if it doesn't improve, I won't be picking up A Wise Man's Fear.

 

[X26]

Started reading The Lies of Locke Lamora as my bus commute book, and made it to the sart of book1 , so only about ~25 pages in sofar. I like the little I've read sofar, although the modern-ish swearing and the shakespear quote book 1 opens on feel really out of place

 

[X26]

The Name of the Wind is entertaining enough, but I'm finding it much less engaging than ASoIaF and much more of the sort of writing and story I expected all those years I'd shied away from fantasy. I'll finish it, but if it doesn't improve, I won't be picking up A Wise Man's Fear.

If I wasn't the kind of person that finishes every book I start no matter how bad it is I would have stopped reading it about 1/4th the way through

 

[Burger]

Fascinating stuff.

Ranulph Fiennes has travelled to the most dangerous and inaccessible places on earth, almost died countless times, lost nearly half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and been awarded a polar medal and an OBE. He has been an elite soldier, an athlete, a mountaineer, an explorer, a bestselling author and nearly replaced George Lazenby as James Bond. In his autobiography he describes how he led expeditions all over the world and became the first person to travel to both poles on land. He tells of how he discovered the lost city of Ubar in Oman and attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the South Pole -- the expedition that cost him several fingers, and very nearly his life. His most recent challenge was scaling the north face of the Eiger, one of the most awesome mountaineering challenges in the world. Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes OBE, 3rd Baronet, looks back on a life lived at the very limits of human endeavour.

 

[Adam Blade]

no, the book is garbage. i was convinced by the gaf-love to give it a shot, too. what a chore. in expressing my dislike for it, i found that there were actually a couple people who agreed with me.. will never understand the popularity of this book/author/series.

Agree with you. Read four of his books and they were all fairly bad. There are oceans of better fantasy than this.

I'll echo these sentiments. Abercrombie is a terrible writer.

 

[Karakand]

Just finished Siddhartha, and just started this:

My favorite part of his radio show is when he invites the right winger on and they just yell at each other for 9 minutes or however long it is on ghetto "progressive" talk radio before they have to go to commercial. The dude from the right wing ACLU (lol) with the squeaky voice is the best repeat offender he just jumps straight to the shouting sometimes and it always sounds funny.

His show on RT is pretty cool too when you contextualize it as being a part of a network that seemingly exists just to troll America, but there's a lot of regurgitation from the radio product so I can't watch it v. much.

I made a Goodreads account, and have been busy adding books that I've read over the years. I have some trouble with the rating system, since 3 stars doesn't always mean the same level of enjoyment for every 3 star rating, but I'm mostly dealing with it.

I just write byline reviews and don't give a number value rating, that way no one can tell what's actually good that I've read. (PSYKE nothing I read is good.) Hack the planet. Subscribe to Adbusters today.

 

[ultron87]

Settled on Altered Carbon as my next read.

Only a few chapters in so I haven't even gotten to the meat of the story yet, but it is really good so far.

 

[Dresden]

Pretty much just three dudes (later just whittled down to one) romping through the remnants of cultures destroyed by the Soviets. Interesting stuff so far, if a bit sad.

 

[Goody]

I added a few more to my list. Between all of these and a few issues of the Oxford American, The Florida Review, All-Story, and The Pinch I really want to read as many short stories as I can this year. It's a lot of fun hopping between all of these authors.

 

[Bloodbeard]

Been reading through my favorites in this lately.

This arrived today, haven't opened it yet though.

I was recommended this by one of my philosophy professors, she said I would love it. 20 pages in, and I do.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

Settled on Altered Carbon as my next read.

Only a few chapters in so I haven't even gotten to the meat of the story yet, but it is really good so far.

In the middle of this series at the moment, couldn't put it down. Really cool Blade Runner/Ghost in the Shell style sci fi.

 

[Hausmeister]

While being on my way to work and around the city I read (again):

At home:

 

[JackEtc]

Been reading Shizuko's Daughter for English class. I'm enjoying it.

We're reading Lord of the Flies next. Pretty excited, the book is great (so I've heard).

 

[justin.au]

Been reading Shizuko's Daughter for English class. I'm enjoying it.

We're reading Lord of the Flies next. Pretty excited, the book is great (so I've heard).

The best book I "had" to do during high school. I re-read it recently and it's great that Golding was able to deal with complex themes in a way that is accessible and enjoyable to anyone aged 12-odd and up.

Top read.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Oh, I'm also reading MY book which is FINALLY OUT today. I'm not just hyping it here. I am actually reading it. Because it is just that funny and well-illustrated.

We wrote an actual book, and didn't just paste together a bunch of our Twitter posts.

 

[nakedsushi]

Oh, I'm also reading MY book which is FINALLY OUT today. I'm not just hyping it here. I am actually reading it. Because it is just that funny and well-illustrated.

We wrote an actual book, and didn't just paste together a bunch of our Twitter posts.

Congrats!

edit:

Finished

Never Knew Another by J.M. McDermott

I got the ebook for free when they were offering it up for 24 hours only. Best free ebook I ever read! I even would have paid for it. I liked it a lot more than Name of the Wind.

Completing this book is like coming up from a dream. The layered storytelling is done really well here. What you see on the cover with the person in a wolfskin is the outer layer of the story. It's hard to describe the book without giving too much away. I guess I could say it's about demons and demon children and the sense of isolation they feel from the rest of society.

The world is so rich that even though I was fully invested in some of the character (Rachel and Djoss, for example), I still felt like I was missing a lot of the action in town. I suppose the other books in the series will fill in those holes. In addition to being a fully-realized world, it was also a very grimy, dirty, and smelly world.

I knocked off one star because the ending felt rushed. It wasn't a real ending, but the reveal was completely out of the blue. I kind of forgot what the real plot was because I was so entrenched inside another frame of the story.

The prose is beautiful, the tone is bleak. I can't wait for the next book.

 

[Mumei]

Just got to the scene that everyone knows in A Storm of Swords.

Spoiler

I still couldn't quite believe what I was reading even after all these years. There's this vague feeling of unease reading it, but I never quite expected that.

 

[Olorin]

After finishing The Liveship Traders (Excellent! Some slow parts here and there, but fantastic characters and a satisfyingly ending) I've moved straight on to the next trilogy in Robin Hobb's Elderling Saga: The Tawny Man Trilogy

I'm reading it for the second time, but it's been a while and I only remember some main plotlines. I also remember liking this one the least out of the three trilogies, but it's still great to read about Fitz and the Fool again.

 

[legend166]

My Kindle just arrived!

Awesome. I'll go through this thread and see what looks interesting.

 

[Granger Danger]

Just got to the scene that everyone knows in A Storm of Swords.

Spoiler

I still couldn't quite believe what I was reading even after all these years. There's this vague feeling of unease reading it, but I never quite expected that.

Why did you even spoiler that, it doesn't spoil anything

 

[Deleted member 1235]

just finished Joe Abercrombies latest 'the heroes'

It's really good. Perspectives from characters that were in the trilogy and characters that had perspectives in previous novels return but not as perspectives. Was really nice. Was only really disappointed that

Spoiler

the hints of the bloody nine returning didn't come to pass. Bayaz is still a badass though

EDIT:

Just ~20% into the first Patrick Rothfuss book. It's no wonder he gets mentioned in the same sentence as Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch so often. Love all these guys books, tough time picking a favourite. I think it would go like this

Abercrombie
Rothfuss (but I'm only 20% of the first book, may go up. really loving it so far)
Lynch

 

[Ratrat]

Whats a good book in the military sci-fi genre? I really liked Starship Troopers and The Forever War, currently looking into either Old Man's War or Hammers Slammers. Are they worth reading?

 

[Maklershed]

My Kindle just arrived!

Awesome. I'll go through this thread and see what looks interesting.

Don't forget to check the op as well. There's a collection of links of threads created on GAF where recommendations are given.

 

[Mumei]

Why did you even spoiler that, it doesn't spoil anything

I didn't even want to hint at the nature of what I read, that's all.

 

[sparky2112]

Hey - if you've not yet read The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, which guys like Stephen King couldn't praise highly enough, let it be known that the book is now an iPad app, and it looks absolutely kickass.

I LOVED this book, btw.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-selected-works-t-s-spivet/id427023005?mt=8

http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/features/ts-spivet/index.html

 

[LocoMrPollock]

no, the book is garbage. i was convinced by the gaf-love to give it a shot, too. what a chore. in expressing my dislike for it, i found that there were actually a couple people who agreed with me.. will never understand the popularity of this book/author/series.

It's the weakest book he's written and also more of an introduction to the world. Each of his subsequent books are much better.

Whats a good book in the military sci-fi genre? I really liked Starship Troopers and The Forever War, currently looking into either Old Man's War or Hammers Slammers. Are they worth reading?

This was pretty good. Not really sure where I got it, but it was a pretty quick read and I enjoyed it. It is pretty heavy on the military lingo and such, but it didn't bother me.

 

[FiRez]

Just finished reading this. It was pretty good, but I'm still a little confused about most of it. About to start reading Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut next, exciting times ahead.

I'm currently reading this one, it has one of the best introductions I've read so far in any book, the first 10 pages completely convinces you to keep reading, I love the existentialist observations of Kafka and his conversations with the guy from the library

 

[nakedsushi]

I was recommended this by one of my philosophy professors, she said I would love it. 20 pages in, and I do.

I started reading this yesterday based on your recommendation. It *is* very good. I like that it's very straight-forward and not at all touchy-feely.

 

[Leeness]

I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak for the first time. I'm surprised I haven't read it before, but it's excellent. Really enjoying it!

I'm reading pretty slowly lately, though, so I'll most likely not finish it till the end of the month, haha.

 

[def sim]

Currently reading Machine of Death.

Fun little light reading so far. Dudes need to get up on this.

 

[-Kees-]