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What are you reading? (December 2014)
- Thread starter Maklershed
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I think Perdido is great, one of my favourite fantasy novels, which is why I feel a bit stung by The Scar, hah. It has some neat additions to the world of Bas-Lag at least. Both the Grindylow and (in particular) the Anopheli were good and weird creatures. I'd have liked to see more of either of them, in different ways they're set up to have a major impact on the story. The Grindylow sort of follow up on this, but after so many interludes of them hunting for Armada they just up and leave after finding what they want. Which makes sense for them, but it didn't make for a very exciting climax to the sub plot. For Krüach Aum, Bellis worries a lot about teaching him a common language and him picking it up way too fast, which ties in nicely with how their race's history and the tabu of being in contact with them is presented earlier. Then the character just dies and nothing happens.
On one hand it's nice that these additions to the world can just be there without having to play a big part in the story. It builds up a world where the abnormal is so common that it doesn't require any justification from the plot to be included. The creation and purpose of these creatures is mostly left up to the imagination and I really like that. It's just that nothing much was there to replace their impact on the main storyline.
ClayKavalier
Banned
My account finally got approved!
I've lurked this thread for a really long time, feels weird actually writing in it.
I just finished Penn Jillette's Every Day is an Atheist's Holiday. I don't agree with the guy's politics at all, and I'm not really interested in the essays that focus on atheism, but despite the title of the book most of them aren't. I really like Penn's sense of humor and he clearly loves life. There's a lot of crazy stories in here, a highlight being a chapter where he recounts having the skin of his scrotum peel off due to an allergic reaction to stings he got from bees used in a televised magic trick. Another interesting one was a candid recount of a time an employee sold an old work laptop that had pornographic pictures of Penn. He talks about why it disturbed him even though he's extremely open about himself, sex life included.
Some chapters were definitely boring, and as usual for Penn the namedropping can get old. He spends way too much time talking about his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice, which is really boring compared to so many of his other experiences. I still really liked the book though.
I just started reading The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyworld, which I got based on impressions from these threads. I'm only a few pages in but it's really charming so far. I'm not really liking the pace, September is just immediately thrown into Fairyworld and it's hard keeping up with all the bizarre characters and imagery, but I'm interested to read more.
Also just bought Jim Gaffigan's and David Mitchell's new books. Not really expecting much out of Gaffigan's, his last book was nine-tenths recycled material from his standup, but I really like him and have never paid to see him or bought any of his DVDs or albums or whatever, so I grabbed this one of too just to feel like I'm giving back a bit.
Only David Mitchell I've read so far is Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green, both of which I really liked, so I'm excited to dig into that after Fairyworld.
I've lurked this thread for a really long time, feels weird actually writing in it.
I just finished Penn Jillette's Every Day is an Atheist's Holiday. I don't agree with the guy's politics at all, and I'm not really interested in the essays that focus on atheism, but despite the title of the book most of them aren't. I really like Penn's sense of humor and he clearly loves life. There's a lot of crazy stories in here, a highlight being a chapter where he recounts having the skin of his scrotum peel off due to an allergic reaction to stings he got from bees used in a televised magic trick. Another interesting one was a candid recount of a time an employee sold an old work laptop that had pornographic pictures of Penn. He talks about why it disturbed him even though he's extremely open about himself, sex life included.
Some chapters were definitely boring, and as usual for Penn the namedropping can get old. He spends way too much time talking about his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice, which is really boring compared to so many of his other experiences. I still really liked the book though.
I just started reading The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyworld, which I got based on impressions from these threads. I'm only a few pages in but it's really charming so far. I'm not really liking the pace, September is just immediately thrown into Fairyworld and it's hard keeping up with all the bizarre characters and imagery, but I'm interested to read more.
Also just bought Jim Gaffigan's and David Mitchell's new books. Not really expecting much out of Gaffigan's, his last book was nine-tenths recycled material from his standup, but I really like him and have never paid to see him or bought any of his DVDs or albums or whatever, so I grabbed this one of too just to feel like I'm giving back a bit.
Only David Mitchell I've read so far is Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green, both of which I really liked, so I'm excited to dig into that after Fairyworld.
obin_gam
Member
I am currently reading Ursula K. Le Guin's sci-fi The Dispossessed.
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Am four chapters in, and from what I have understood: in the Tau Ceti system in our galaxy there is a planet and it's moon. The planet is governed in a ultra capitalistic way and the moons inhabitants live their lives in total anarchy (in other words a classic Utopia). I love this moon btw, they dont even know what "mob mentallity" is <3
An emmissary from the moon who is fascinated by the culture of the planet visits the planet and he is the one we follow.
A very cozy story. His naïvité set against the planets ultra capitalistic and anti-feminist ways are glorious to behold, and he has a lot of good queries for us readers to think about. In essence, I feel like the book is sort of an anti-Atlas Shrugged.
Am four chapters in, and from what I have understood: in the Tau Ceti system in our galaxy there is a planet and it's moon. The planet is governed in a ultra capitalistic way and the moons inhabitants live their lives in total anarchy (in other words a classic Utopia). I love this moon btw, they dont even know what "mob mentallity" is <3
An emmissary from the moon who is fascinated by the culture of the planet visits the planet and he is the one we follow.
A very cozy story. His naïvité set against the planets ultra capitalistic and anti-feminist ways are glorious to behold, and he has a lot of good queries for us readers to think about. In essence, I feel like the book is sort of an anti-Atlas Shrugged.
The part where Bill and Richie are talking about the haunted photo album and Bill bursts into tears over Georgie made me legit dusty eyed. I dunno if King is classified as a good writer or not but goddamn are his characters relatable.
Tragicomedy
Member
Don't judge a book by its cover
Seriously. Some of those Black Company covers are hilariously bad...and yet the series is amazing. Shocking that the writing inside the book is more important than the arbitrary cover art.
The Kindle has become the great equalizer, since you don't have to look at the cover art. I suspect it is also why all those trashy romance novels sell so well in e-format. There's nobody judging you from across the doctor's office for the long-haired, Native American six pack on your book cover.
sparky2112
Member
Boy, The Martian is seriously good, isn't it? The author has this stuff down COLD.
Tragicomedy
Member
I sure liked it, but I tend to fall in love with "hard" science fiction. The only drawback from me was that some of the humor felt really forced and cheesy, but that was easy enough to ignore.
I'm looking forward to the movie version.
The omnibus covers are pretty badass in comparison.
=( Feel like I've missed something since I was the rare few who didn't like it. I am excited for the movie however.
Jag
Member
Yeah. He really did a great job with it. The ending was kind of meh, but the journey more than made up for it.
Welcome!
Based on the username I guess you like Chabon, funny I just discovered his work this year. Reading Yiddish Policeman Union right now.
nakedsushi
Member
I couldn't get into it at all. I think I got about a few entries in and called it quits. It felt like a bunch of blog entries, which makes sense, since the author published it on his site in installments a few years ago before it got made into a book.
I usually like self-deprecating humor, but this time, the protagonist seemed too self aware and trying too hard to be funny. It seemed very forced.
Not very far yet, but it's a blast so far. It's compared a lot to the Three Musketeers, which I've realized I never read or really know much of anything about. Might have to fix that at some point!
Edit: Didn't know The Martian is getting the movie treatment. Loved the book, but a movie really doesn't interest me in the slightest.
Aral and Cordelia are <333.
This explains so much. I wish I had known that before I read it. I wouldn't have liked it any better, but I'd have understood the awful humor.
sparky2112
Member
You know, they shaky camera direction from his Bourne movies (Paul Greenglass, is it?) would be PERFECT for this movie. Visceral story, visceral feeling.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami...
... Well I finally got around to reading this author. After much critical and interpersonal acclaim I decided to go hard and grab his longest work to date. Sitting at 1,150+ pages, I can only regard 1Q84 as a huge waist of my time.
I have a lot to say about the book and why it fails as a good piece of fiction, but simply put, it doesn't do very many good things. The characters are identified by tick-box "features" rather than characteristics. For all the potential peril in the book, almost nothing exciting happens. In pages 600-something, it's exciting to imagine how all of the strange events will resolve themselves in the coming chapters.
Yet toward the end of the book it becomes clear none of that will happen. While I can commend the length of the book, I can do little else. Not a good book, and has soured my interest in the author as a whole. I can see myself returning to another (shorter) book, just not before reading something worth my time
2/5
Aand a second run of
Yep. Still the best book of my lifetime.
bengraven
Member
The Crowfield Curse
Okay, this is exactly what I was looking for. Nice moody, spooky atmosphere, subtle fantasy leaking in, little bits of gothic mystery. It reminds me of the Spook's Apprentice books (it actually gets a thumbs up by their author) but actually good, deserving of it's many rewards for genre and YA.
Okay, this is exactly what I was looking for. Nice moody, spooky atmosphere, subtle fantasy leaking in, little bits of gothic mystery. It reminds me of the Spook's Apprentice books (it actually gets a thumbs up by their author) but actually good, deserving of it's many rewards for genre and YA.
sparky2112
Member
I like you. I've made a few runs at read #2, but I've yet to make it past about 200 pages. It's been over ten years now, since read #1, so it's time.
Rereading Name of the Wind so I can read the next book too. Love the series, and I love the above cover, but oh god, those alternate covers are horrendous.
I'm about 200 pages through The Wise Man's Fear. I love it so far. What a great series!
The long-winded tennis match descriptions are still kind of laborious. Wallace seems to wander into his own fascination of the sport while leaving the reader behind. Really, though, it's the kind of book you can open up, start reading, and pull out a handful of well-written, paragraph long sentences and a bevy of good ideas. Amazing book! I finished The Pale King in July and enjoyed that greatly. A better book than Jest in a few ways.
sparky2112
Member
I wouldn't necessarily argue with that, but they are two wildly different books, even with their shared voice. I'm just glad we got to see The Pale King at all, because I don't know that Wallace would have ever finished it. I don't think he had a full grasp on what was in front of him, but as a result, I think we got to see him attack it from multiple directions, and THAT'S what makes it the book that it is. 'Unfinished' though it may be, it's certainly not at all unsatisfying. A more organized narrative might have turned out a very different, and not necessarily as good a book.
Yep, total blessing that it got a print. And they were extremely careful not to make any meaningful modifications to the text. In fact, one of the footnotes cites something on page 80-something when the actual source is three pages beyond it. It's likely that only syntax and spelling were modified (if that guy made those mistakes EVER). The actual arrangement of the content must have been a nightmare.
They are very different. The Pale King hardly feels unfinished, though. It's such a gumbo of voices and characters that you accept early on that its a conceptual vignette rather than a progressive narrative. The suffocating, anxiety-ridden passages really made my head spin. His lack of periods were really felt in that book particularly.
The only reason I suggest it's a 'better' book (maybe) is Wallace's more relaxed writing. His ideas can be such a head game as is. Jest felt compelled to wave it's tailcoat at me, constantly berating me with abbreviation and fancy vocabulary. For people with a brain like a dictionary, good for you. For little old me, my constant relay to the Webster became exhausting and marred my enjoyment occasionally. Pale King panned this for a more digestible experience and the ideas shined through as a result. Really, it's just my lack of knowledge that hurt my overall experience of Jest.
Glad to have someone to discuss this writer with! I'm sad to see so few people read his stuff.
Yessssssssss. God damn. That book ate a couple months of my life because I just had to keep forcing myself to read it. That book could've been good at 400 pages but ughh.
disillusion386
Member
I didn't want to start a new thread, and I'm not entirely sure if this is the best thread to post this question.
Anyway, I would like to get into Asimov's works. I have been looking around to find out the best order to read them and found this: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...ct-order-for-reading-material-of-isaac-asimov
So is I Robot the place to start? Thanks!
Anyway, I would like to get into Asimov's works. I have been looking around to find out the best order to read them and found this: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...ct-order-for-reading-material-of-isaac-asimov
So is I Robot the place to start? Thanks!
Some of the Glen Cook covers are ridiculously bad, especially the Garrett P.I. books. Though I like my Black Company covers.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami...
... Well I finally got around to reading this author. After much critical and interpersonal acclaim I decided to go hard and grab his longest work to date. Sitting at 1,150+ pages, I can only regard 1Q84 as a huge waist of my time.
I have a lot to say about the book and why it fails as a good piece of fiction, but simply put, it doesn't do very many good things. The characters are identified by tick-box "features" rather than characteristics. For all the potential peril in the book, almost nothing exciting happens. In pages 600-something, it's exciting to imagine how all of the strange events will resolve themselves in the coming chapters.
Yet toward the end of the book it becomes clear none of that will happen. While I can commend the length of the book, I can do little else. Not a good book, and has soured my interest in the author as a whole. I can see myself returning to another (shorter) book, just not before reading something worth my time
2/5
I'm a fan of Murakami's generally, but 1Q84 was (for me, anyway), by far his weakest book. I wouldn't give up on him just because you didn't like this one.
Ok - this is good to hear. A background thought of mine was [why the hell do people love him so much?]. I was thinking about Kafka on the Shore for a future read? Sound okay? Any recommendations on how to recover from this?
moka
Member
Just finished reading Flash Boys and I loved it. It gives a really great insight into high frequency trading and how it played it's role in the financial crisis, how it works and how people worked to prevent it. You don't even need financial knowledge to understand it either.
It's amazing how high frequency trading essentially just takes advantage of microsecond-level delays between exchanges to legally front-run.
It's amazing how high frequency trading essentially just takes advantage of microsecond-level delays between exchanges to legally front-run.
nakedsushi
Member
I started a lot of books this past week. Hope to finish a couple before the year is over to meet my 2014 Reading Challenge quota.
Its bullshit what capitalism has turned into
Rereading Name of the Wind so I can read the next book too. Love the series, and I love the above cover, but oh god, those alternate covers are horrendous.
Wow, did they bring the Wheel of Time cover artist back from the dead for those two?
Anyway I'm rereading Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge at the moment. As a story I've always found it ok, but as a look at a possible near future extrapolated from current (at the time of writing) trends in technology it's wonderful. Once I finish it I have The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams waiting for me. I've also requested The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente, but as only two libraries in the system have it I may be waiting a while.
Kafka on the Shore is great. Though, I'd consider it one of his bigger and less accessible books, along with 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
I really like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World if you're not looking to tackle something huge.
Then again, I wouldn't really call any of his books inaccessible in the way something like Ulysses, Infinite Jest, or Gravity's Rainbow are inaccessible.
Anyway, as for me, I decided to give Wolf in White Van a try.
I'm about a quarter of the way through and it hasn't really gripped me completely, but it's enjoyable.
I think that's one of his better books, though I'd suggest doing:
- A Wild Sheep Chase
- Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
- Norwegian Wood
A Wild Sheep Chase is probably the best introduction to his style; Hardboiled Wonderland is a mash-up between something of a cyberpunk thriller and a surrealistic fantasy setting (the "End of the World" half of the story inspired Haibane Renmei, if you're familiar with the anime). Norwegian Wood is the book that took him from critically acclaimed to mainstream popularity in Japan, and very different from his other books but generally considered one of his best.
And then Dance Dance Dance if you're interested in a kind-of sequel to A Wild Sheep Chase, or Kafka on the Shore, or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Or even Sputnik Sweetheart, which is one of my favorites, and is a brief 210 pages.
moka
Member
I have to say though, from an intellectual/technical standpoint, high frequency trading is pretty damn interesting.
I still haven't read Sputnik Sweetheart, After Dark, or South of the Border, West of the Sun. I should probably get on that.
I haven't read After Dark. I found South of the Border, West of the Sun to be quite dull, myself, but Sputnik Sweetheart is one of my favorite books of his. It has this wonderfully melancholy feeling.
The Prince is largely relevant to almost any political life in this world, it a kinda funny way.
It's also satire, he wrote it as a response to his exile by the Medici and watching the actions of Cesare Borgia. He wanted to show how brutal even a "benign" dictator would have to be to keep power. He was after all involved in an attempt to turn Florence into a republic. That it was taken as an instruction manual always amuses me in a dark way. It's like reading 1984 and then trying to build The party.
Codex Alera by Jim Butcher may be a good start. It's not really High Lit, but then neither is Mistborn. Think Roman Empire meets D&D with a splash of Pokémon.
OHH the Powder Mage trilogy may also be perfect. It's sort of Napoleonic fantasy that starts with the overthrow of a corrupt king.
Wafflecakes
Member
Someone recommend me a series along the same lines (as far as genre/pacing) as Mistborn.
I have been looking for a new series for weeks, but the sheer volume of fantasy out there scares me away from actually taking the dive and buying something.
I'll try out the Codex books. Seems like an interesting premise.
Not really into historically based fantasy like Powder Mage.
I have been looking for a new series for weeks, but the sheer volume of fantasy out there scares me away from actually taking the dive and buying something.
I'll try out the Codex books. Seems like an interesting premise.
Not really into historically based fantasy like Powder Mage.
I've only read Hardboiled Wonderland and Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.
Wind-Up Bird is one of the best books I've read over the last year or so. I loved the particular flavor of weirdness, and the story really sucked me in... 5/5 stars for me. But it's a really long book, and very meandering, which might not be suited to your taste based on your comments regarding IQ84.
I had very mixed feelings about Hardboiled Wonderland. I didn't hate it, but I was far from satisfied. I felt like it didn't live up to its potential.
Funny. I love Hardboiled Wonderland. It's not only my favorite Murakami but up there with my favorite novels, period. It's also the first Murakami book I read, which might have something to do with why I loved it so much. Had never read anything like it before. Did you read Wind-Up Bird first or second?
His non-fiction book Underground about the Tokyo sarin gas attacks is essential as well.
Sanderson's own Stormlight Archive series (planned for two five book series, currently two books in, third book coming in 2016) is quite close in terms of plot structure (Sanderson is a rather formulaic writer when it comes to his plotting / pacing, at least judging from Stormlight / Mistborn), pacing, and attention to the convoluted workings of magic systems.
Though they are admittedly much longer than Mistborn, they're still the closest thing I can think of.
BlueDogAnchorite
Member
If I had to say why I liked The Scar better, I just found the setting to be much more interesting. You have alot of valid criticism though, which I agree with. I wish he would spend more time on the actual plot than world building.
Wafflecakes
Member
Oh. I have read those, but sooo tired of waiting for the next one.
I'd probably recommend the Wheel of Time. It is, despite some flaws, perhaps among the better high fantasy works. Pretty traditional though, but if you like Sanderson's works, then you may like WoT.
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