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What are you reading? (August 2013)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
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Tragicomedy
Member
Weird that they're messing with the order now, some 63 years after the first book was published.
nakedsushi
Member
Finished:
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Meh, it was disappointing. A time traveling serial killer sounds like a good premise for a book, but the time traveling thing was just a gimmick and not really fleshed out. The killer didn't have a satisfying motivation. The ending was pretty weak. And the time traveling didn't make sense.
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Meh, it was disappointing. A time traveling serial killer sounds like a good premise for a book, but the time traveling thing was just a gimmick and not really fleshed out. The killer didn't have a satisfying motivation. The ending was pretty weak. And the time traveling didn't make sense.
charlemagne
Member
I thought they changed the order ages ago?
It happened in 1994! I do like how there's an argument for both sides though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia#Reading_order
Finished this last night.
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A short and enjoyable read but it doesn't work as a standalone novel IMO. Feels largely like a supplemental book that ties the first two books together while leading to the next one. The book also offers a completely different perspective on the events of Angel's Game
Wish someone else here has read them because the events surrounding the main character in book two begs for discussion.
Going to continue with Curse of Chalion now.
The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A short and enjoyable read but it doesn't work as a standalone novel IMO. Feels largely like a supplemental book that ties the first two books together while leading to the next one. The book also offers a completely different perspective on the events of Angel's Game
Wish someone else here has read them because the events surrounding the main character in book two begs for discussion.
Going to continue with Curse of Chalion now.
Deathmistress
Member
I'm about a third of the way in "twenty years after" by Alexandre Dumas. It's the "three musketeers" sequel. It's been a long time, but I remember why I love the series so much.
I recently completed A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin.
Currently reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. The premise is interesting -- that war can be eliminated by purging some intrinsic flaw in the human character -- and it reads very similar to the Hunger Games.
The quality of the writing is definitely better than that of book 4, and some of the less interesting characters (Sansa and Samwell in particular) are thankfully absent. Tyrion's chapters are a disappointment, with him pretty much out of the game for the entire book; the loveable little prick does return to form in his final chapter, however. Daenerys and company remain dreadfully boring. The most interesting theme of the book is reversal of fortune (usually good to bad) and how a character deals with the change -- some never learn (Cersei), some strive to do better (Jaime), some are broken (Theon). Still it feels as if 90% of this book is simply build up to the payoff in the last 100 pages.
Currently reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. The premise is interesting -- that war can be eliminated by purging some intrinsic flaw in the human character -- and it reads very similar to the Hunger Games.
I really enjoyed that series, although the first book was a fair bit better than the others.
Just finishing up
What did you think of Wool? It was a fun series but I just never felt quite satisfied...
Yeah, gave the first book 4/5, kinda lessened because I did see the movie, so the twists and turns I all knew, but it was still a fun read from start to finish, so I'm at least excited to see where it goes. edit: and more importantly, how it ends!
ADWD was the biggest disappointment for me due to the POV's involved... I'm one of the rare people who preferred AFFC to ADWD
fredrancour
Member
Ohhhh my goodness I almost reflexively highlighted the dance with dragons spoiler without looking what it was for.
Maybe I should just stop using the internet til I've caught up on those.
Maybe I should just stop using the internet til I've caught up on those.
I'm one of those people too.
toweringinferno
Member
Emperor of thorns by Mark Lawrence
Finished:
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Meh, it was disappointing. A time traveling serial killer sounds like a good premise for a book, but the time traveling thing was just a gimmick and not really fleshed out. The killer didn't have a satisfying motivation. The ending was pretty weak. And the time traveling didn't make sense.
I read it when it first came out and that's exactly what I thought, which is unfortunate since her previous book was so good.
Mackenzie 92
Member
Started out kinda slow, but man it's even darker than the others. Loving it tho.
Couldn't decide on a work of fiction, so I started this instead:
Literary Theory: A Beginner's Guide by Claire Connors.
I'm not a beginner in this field so it does feel a little pointless. But I bought it on a whim, and have to read it sometime. Could be nice with a refresher, too.
Literary Theory: A Beginner's Guide by Claire Connors.
I'm not a beginner in this field so it does feel a little pointless. But I bought it on a whim, and have to read it sometime. Could be nice with a refresher, too.
Some people are crazy and like their ebooks. :O
Actually I'm the crazy one who can never convince myself to get the ebook version because I like the feel of paper too much.
maquiladora
Member
With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change
Printed in 2007, so misses out on events like the record breaking 2007 and 2012 arctic ice melt seasons. Still, I'm enjoying it (about 1/4 done) and it's very easy to read.
Finished reading
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I found it an excellent dark fantasy book. Fast paced and to the point. The main character could as well be a villain in many other books as well as his "brothers". Overall I loved it and I'm off to the second book King of Thorns.
Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. I found it an excellent dark fantasy book. Fast paced and to the point. The main character could as well be a villain in many other books as well as his "brothers". Overall I loved it and I'm off to the second book King of Thorns.
Just finished this myself as well after picking it up based on that post-apocalyptic fiction thread from a few days ago. I agree with not being fully satisfied, but for me, I think that's largely because I had created all these expectations on where the story was going, and which characters the focus would be on, and it just fell short.
The revelations in the first parts of the book were very enjoyable, and made for great intrigue and mystery. I think the problem I had with Wool was that it settled too early and the main conflict lasted too long. Still, I loved the setting, and the early parts of the book did a wonderful job of getting me interested in even the most minor of details with how their world was set up.
---
Working on this:
Still in the vein of a dystopian future, but after Wool, I could use a little fun and humor.
ElectricBlue187
Member
A picture (book) is worth a thousand words
...
I'm currently reading John LeCarre's The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. I've never read one of his books, the writing is very strong.
Some people are crazy and like their ebooks. :O
Actually I'm the crazy one who can never convince myself to get the ebook version because I like the feel of paper too much.
Speaking of, I found this very interesting:
This is how reading is for me - I retain information better and concentrate better when I'm reading paper (and I find this is also true for when I've read things printed out, not just books) - and a good part of my enjoyment comes from the look, feel, and smell of a book.
Incandenza
Banned
As much as I like the feel of a physical book (especially a nice thick paperback), I really, really love getting instant dictionary lookups on a kindle. Being able to just touch an unfamiliar word and get a definition is invaluable when reading, especially with older or more challenging books. Since I got a kindle in 2010, the only physical books I've bought (outside of schoolwork) have been Mark Z. Danielewski's stuff, for obvious reasons. Which I guess are pretty much the pinnacle of creating atmosphere via a book's physicality.
nakedsushi
Member
Me too! Now the problem I have is when I read physical books and come to an unfamiliar word, I can't help but tap on the physical page, which obviously doesn't work.
charlemagne
Member
That's pretty cool. I've only ever read them in chronological order, as the box set I have presented them in that way. I wonder how differently I would feel had I read them in the original sequence.
I liked it that way back in the day as Narnia slowly unfolded. Think I had more of a rapport with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy too as I was discovering the world with them.
I am kind of curious how these people supposedly "skip around" on an e-reader. For me, one of the biggest weaknesses of a Kindle is the amount of effort you need to expend in order to "skip around". With a paper book, i can riffle through the pages to get to any chapter i want, use a finger or a bookmark to note down the page, and then do it again. This is invaluable for studying from a textbook when you need to reference and cross-reference and cross-cross-reference.
Doing that on a KIndle would just be a nightmare.
Doing that on a KIndle would just be a nightmare.
Yeah, I can't handle reference stuff or anything that might require jumping around on an e-reader. It's bad enough going back a few pages to check something.
Thanks.No pictures or diagrams for Delusions of Gender so the ebook version should be perfectly fine.
Yeah, the dictionary lookup is the best feature that makes stick with ebooks for now. Plus Kobo/Kindles are very lightweight and certainly beat carrying around a 1k pages book. Honestly at this point the only time I go with a physical copy is if the preferred translated version isn't available or I just happen to grab the book at the library.
Always wondered what I would do if I had to flip back to a certain event while reading on a Kobo. I probably would just ignore it and do nothing.
With Kobo you can use the highlight feature. Just highlight a section and it'll be listed for whenever you want to go back to it. I use it from time to time if there's a quote I want to remember.
Ah but here's the rub, you might not know that you want to refer to something until you've read past it. I can personally attest to this while I was reading Book of the New Sun. There were many places where I wanted to go back real quick to double check on something but that was rendered, more or less, impossible by the nature of e-readers.
TheKaeptain
Banned
After really enjoying the first half of "The Walk", I'm struggling a little with the second half. Where the first half was the character building and story moving on, the second half is just place and action descriptions. Constantly.
I hated this about the Dragon Tattoo book, where every single action was described, mentioning the contents of a bin for example. Some description is good to set the scene but too much just feels like filler ... and that's what this is starting to feel like.
It's only a short book so I'll finish this part but not sure I'll carry on with the series.
I hated this about the Dragon Tattoo book, where every single action was described, mentioning the contents of a bin for example. Some description is good to set the scene but too much just feels like filler ... and that's what this is starting to feel like.
It's only a short book so I'll finish this part but not sure I'll carry on with the series.
A valid point
While they're not perfect, I know I'm on the ebook side. Aw, stick with it. I can understand what you mean though, at times it does feel simply like a journal for his trek across America, which is perfectly reasonable in context to the story, and given the early note of how his mother told Alan to write everything down in his journal, even what might not seem important. My issue with the first book is that it did feel like a prologue to the second book, and doesn't feel like it would stand on its own. Once you get to the ending though I think you'll be compelled to keep going
Maklershed
Member
Whoa sweet! Book 3 of Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy comes out later this month...
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
If you haven't read Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood yet, do it.
MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood
If you haven't read Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood yet, do it.
Finished:
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
Meh, it was disappointing. A time traveling serial killer sounds like a good premise for a book, but the time traveling thing was just a gimmick and not really fleshed out. The killer didn't have a satisfying motivation. The ending was pretty weak. And the time traveling didn't make sense.
Agreed. The concept was far more interesting than the execution. I got the impression the author was more interested in creating snapshots of a different time and showing the fate of smart women in the 20th century than in the gimmick that would make people pick up this novel. Ultimately the book felt empty because there was no reason or rhyme to both the killings and the time travelling and the serial killer himself remained a mystery despite far too many chapters devoted to him. The book didn't really work in the end. It would have been a great novella but its a shallow 300 page novel.
nakedsushi
Member
Hm, I couldn't get into her previous book (Zoo City, right?) either, so maybe her writing is just not for me. She seems to be really good at describing different times/locations, but her plots always leave me wanting.
Exactly. I think part of a good serial killer novel is getting into the head and understanding the motivation of the killer, but that didn't really happen here. I wish more was explained about
The House
got leave a key for his past self in the coat and tell the woman to mention Bartek
Also, maybe it's just me, but it really made me cringe when
Dan got more ethnic and started saying phrases in Spanish all of a sudden in the last quarter of the book
Ventilaator
Banned
I read Stephen King's On Writing. I looked at the thing I was writing after finishing it and had to fix the second sentence. That was a bummer.
Finished:
As someone who worships at the alter of Vonnegut, my opinion when it comes to this book may be a bit biased, but I feel these short stories are every bit as important as Vonnegut's novels when it comes to his contribution to literature. I'm repeating myself in this thread but his ability to capture pieces of the human experience in such simple, heartfelt prose is remarkable. Even the lesser known stories like "D.P." and "The Euphio Question" are incredibly impactful. I'd highly recommend it to someone who is just starting, or wants to start reading Vonnegut.
Starting:
This will be my fourth book by/about DFW I've read this year. Wallace has gone from being a writer I shamefully never got around to reading, to one of my five favorite authors over the course of six months. Really looking forward to these essays as I've heard nothing but good things about them.
As someone who worships at the alter of Vonnegut, my opinion when it comes to this book may be a bit biased, but I feel these short stories are every bit as important as Vonnegut's novels when it comes to his contribution to literature. I'm repeating myself in this thread but his ability to capture pieces of the human experience in such simple, heartfelt prose is remarkable. Even the lesser known stories like "D.P." and "The Euphio Question" are incredibly impactful. I'd highly recommend it to someone who is just starting, or wants to start reading Vonnegut.
Starting:
This will be my fourth book by/about DFW I've read this year. Wallace has gone from being a writer I shamefully never got around to reading, to one of my five favorite authors over the course of six months. Really looking forward to these essays as I've heard nothing but good things about them.
on kobo and ibooks, you can search for keyword and it will list all the occurrences of the word in the book along with an excerpt of the sentence. I use that all the time and find it much easier to jump to locations I've read before or to quickly look up character introductions if I forget who they are. It's my favourite feature of ebooks (other than carrying a ton of books at once)
Its funny you mention Book of the New Sun as it was the first book I read on my E-Reader. Gene Wolf's vocabulary is so diverse that I found myself having to lookup words from time to time. The ereader was extremely valuable as I could lookup a word, get an exact definition and move on.
Besides, the entire Sword & Claw series demands a second full reading anyway ;D.
I think the convenience of the ereader has trumped any qualms I have with it. I even take it backpacking since its lighter than a typical paperback. To each their own though!
Finished:
As someone who worships at the alter of Vonnegut, my opinion when it comes to this book may be a bit biased, but I feel these short stories are every bit as important as Vonnegut's novels when it comes to his contribution to literature. I'm repeating myself in this thread but his ability to capture pieces of the human experience in such simple, heartfelt prose is remarkable. Even the lesser known stories like "D.P." and "The Euphio Question" are incredibly impactful. I'd highly recommend it to someone who is just starting, or wants to start reading Vonnegut.
.
Currently alternating between these short stories and whatever novel I'm reading next.
Vonnegut is truly amazing.
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