the_painted_bird
Member
It's true, but read it anyway. Always a pleasure reading Murakami.demon said:
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What are you reading? (February 2011)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
LocoMrPollock said:This one -
Yes! That's the one I want. I wonder if I'll be able to get it here in the states without paying exorbitant import fees.
leroy hacker
Member
demon said:
You can read the details about how and why it happened, from the translator, here:
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/murakami/complete.html
And yes, read it anyway.
Diseased Yak
Gold Member
Skilletor said:I just finished
I loved it. It took me awhile to warm up to it, but once I did I blew through it. I didn't like the way it ended, but looking forward to Wise Man's Fear.
I'm reading Graham Greene's The Quiet American now. Looking forward to checking out Abercrombie's The Heroes when it drops next week.
Reading The Name of the Wind right now as well, 61% done with it. Really liking it, more than I thought I would.
"Jackass, Jackass" LMAO
Currently:
It's good. The Prince of Nothing series was excellent though, will be hard to beat. I just started it.
Going to be reading:
I love the Culture books.
Just finished:
Rock-solid fantasy book. Written in a slightly old-school tone, this book is a fantasy CLASSIC. Seriously, it's a must-read if you like fantasy books.
I don't have much time to read right now though; I'm studying for the CFA Level II in June. If anyone has any tips for that, PM me!
It's good. The Prince of Nothing series was excellent though, will be hard to beat. I just started it.
Going to be reading:
I love the Culture books.
Just finished:
Rock-solid fantasy book. Written in a slightly old-school tone, this book is a fantasy CLASSIC. Seriously, it's a must-read if you like fantasy books.
I don't have much time to read right now though; I'm studying for the CFA Level II in June. If anyone has any tips for that, PM me!
UltimaKilo
Gold Member
Apart from one I was reading last month, which I still am (A Journey by Tony Blair), I'm reading a book that a friend bought me. Unfortunately I'm not a big fan but I feel bad not reading it...
I've also just finished "The Epic of Gilgamesh", the first story ever written down by man (that we've found). I read the original Sumerian version and I liked it a lot. One can read the whole thing in a day.
I've also just finished "The Epic of Gilgamesh", the first story ever written down by man (that we've found). I read the original Sumerian version and I liked it a lot. One can read the whole thing in a day.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
aidan said:
Amazing! Thank you.
The Gaming Gamer
Member
I like Ender's game a lot, I'm about 2/3 done. I just finished the Song of Fire and Ice series so this is a nice quick read. I plan to read Slaughterhouse-Five when I'm finished. I like to read a nonfiction book whenever I read so I'm reading An Incomplete Education, I kind of just skimmed through it so far but it seems like a nice refresher course for being out of school.
BrokenFiction
Member
Zefah said:
In the U.S. - Amazon pre-order and I guess they broke embargo, because they actually shipped it to me on 1/27. And who's gonna punish Amazon? So yay for me!
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Probably Morgan's finest effort. His musings on genetics and social hierarchy are fascinating, no doubt, but it starts to lean towards hectoring as the novel goes along. Only in the Coda does the lecturing pay off, spewed out of the mouth of the novel's shadowy antagonist: an alarming point on the definition, and nature, of humanity which throws off-stride the genetic assumptions bandied about all throughout what went before.
All else wilts on second glance: a tawdry love affair writ larger than it ever was, a convoluted, uncoiling conspiracy which shreds the targets Morgan loves to defile (i.e. the indiscriminately corrupt and criminal underbelly of political and corporatist largess), a heavy-handed, somewhat unnaturally-constructed denouncement of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism. Every page, every paragraph, every sentence is compound, crammed with imagery and thought and emotion. Sometimes liltingly beautiful, yes, but the flow is rough at times, nonetheless. It feels like maybe Morgan spent too much time with this manuscript; adding more and more layers over the top of his narrative, aiming for greater and greater osmosis. But perhaps this effort could have been better put into creating a more focused and naturalistic narrative.
Whatever the faults, whenever our protagonist, Carl Marsalis, is in motion, nothing can tear you away from the page, much like with Morgan's earlier Kovacs novels. Finally, the massive levels of disappointment I once thought overwrought surrounding The Steel Remains - which I still broadly admire, if only for the great potential of its characters and world - begin to seem sensible.
More potent and horrifying in our intrinsic, hypocritical makeup than our fear of the unknown and The Other is our fear of realizing ill truths - about our complicity, about our moral capacity, about our weaknesses; in short, about ourselves. We are rationalizing rather than rational beings, after all.
Never Let Me Go sketches an awfully realistic depiction of our very human capacity for atrocity and self-veiled indifference; our ability to keep the bad things we do out of sight and out of mind. The love triangle nestled amidst all this helps keep the story deceptively calm and banal, provoking a non-aggrandized, truthful hurt when the inevitable loss is suffered.
I've read some criticism that the unwillingness of the protagonists to undermine authority, and challenge their fate, somehow makes them inhuman. Rather, I contend, the author shies away from the fanciful dream-narrative we like to hear to make us feel better. For every protesting, anti-establishment German living during the Nazi regime, there were ten or more who were docile and accepting of the authority foisted upon them. Acceptance of authority is very much a human trait, especially when, by every appearance, resistance is foolhardy and the pull of expectation is unremitting. I do not celebrate this; it simply needs to be accepted.
In the end, this is a remarkable novel, extolling the fragility and priceless nature of all life.
afternoon delight
Member
No idea. But everyone I know who's read him ends up loving his material. His actual works are short, you should spend twenty minutes or so scanning some stories. I read them before bed for an hour, great stuff.
MustacheBandit_
Member
It's pretty good so far. I've found myself laughing pretty loudly at times. Enjoyable book and as usual, most of what he says is pretty true.
bggrthnjsus
Member
jd salinger - franny and zooey
after i finish this i will probably read those stieg larsson books since my sister gave me the first one and it's just sitting around.
recently read kazuo ishiguro - remains of the day and haruki murakami - kafka on the shore. also just read simon critchley - the book of dead philosophers
One of my favourite books ever. Happy reading!Erico said:Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
Finally getting around to reading this series.
I'm reading The Lord of the Flies for school, and I like it a lot! Good book, very very very much symbolism though. It's like everything is symbolic. Love Ralph!
Then we're gonna read Brave New World by Huxley. I read the first chapter.. oh god why start the book with a chapter on how a fucking laboratory works. He managed to get some intereseting bits of ideas in there between all the explaining about where the eggs go and what bokanovskification works........ fuck lol, horribly boring chapter. Hope it gets on with it later and has something interesting to say.
P&V's translation of Gogol's short stories.
Reads solid I just can't give a hoot about a lot of the characters, e.g. in How John Johnson Quarrelled with John Nikephorosson two landed men have the luxury of engaging in a farcical feud predicated on one of them needing to legitimize his status as a have. Haha, so funny.
Guess I should just lock myself in the book bunker with Brecht, Fallada, Traven, etc. munching on EBT Hot Pockets until classocalypse finishes off suburbia. Keep paying for the library, suckers.
Reads solid I just can't give a hoot about a lot of the characters, e.g. in How John Johnson Quarrelled with John Nikephorosson two landed men have the luxury of engaging in a farcical feud predicated on one of them needing to legitimize his status as a have. Haha, so funny.
Guess I should just lock myself in the book bunker with Brecht, Fallada, Traven, etc. munching on EBT Hot Pockets until classocalypse finishes off suburbia. Keep paying for the library, suckers.
I like gavriel kay, will pick this up. Most of his stuff is pretty good.grumble said:Currently:
[
Just finished:
Rock-solid fantasy book. Written in a slightly old-school tone, this book is a fantasy CLASSIC. Seriously, it's a must-read if you like fantasy books.
I don't have much time to read right now though; I'm studying for the CFA Level II in June. If anyone has any tips for that, PM me!
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
coldvein said:
The ones without the map background, right?
LocoMrPollock
Banned
coldvein said:
You, sir, are a turd. Respectfully.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Reading Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football (soccer) Tactics right now. Great read, it will be difficult to find other books that give such an in depth look on sport.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
coldvein said:
I quite like the ones with the map background. Oh well!
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
coldvein said:
Please qualify that statement by explaining what defines "amateurish art".
Zefah said:
sorry. maybe a poor choice of words on my part. it's boring art. it's basic. it's uninteresting. if i grabbed some kid in a highschool art class and told him i was writing a fantasy series with WAR and GLORY in it and i wanted some covers, he'd come up with something like those actual covers. they might as well have done that, instead i'm sure they paid someone thousands of dollars. not a huge deal. it's a subjective matter. it's just a bummer that such (apparently) good books are stuck with such unattractive covers.
Currently reading and not digging:
I'm 26% done and there is entirely too much going on. I have no clue what the hell is happening, almost ever, and I think part of it is the way he writes. There have been two things that I've thought were intriguing so far; the dummy being possessed by a sorcerer (can't remember name) and the chapter where Paran (?) died and went into the "other realm", for lack of a better term, to meat the twins of luck and other supernatural beasts.
This is a very different style of writing than the last book I read, The Name of the Wind, which I found to have amazingly well-written chapters. I was immediately hooked on that book but this? not so much.
I'm 26% done and there is entirely too much going on. I have no clue what the hell is happening, almost ever, and I think part of it is the way he writes. There have been two things that I've thought were intriguing so far; the dummy being possessed by a sorcerer (can't remember name) and the chapter where Paran (?) died and went into the "other realm", for lack of a better term, to meat the twins of luck and other supernatural beasts.
This is a very different style of writing than the last book I read, The Name of the Wind, which I found to have amazingly well-written chapters. I was immediately hooked on that book but this? not so much.
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Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
coldvein said:
So, uh... what kind of fantasy book cover art do you think is good, "professional", and worth thousands of dollars?
I see this "amateur"/"any high school kid can do it" bullshit from so many people when they want to talk shit about art they don't like.
alright Zefah, i went down into my vast librairie in search of fantasy book covers that i like. here we go.
return of the king.
two towers.
elric.
narnia.
more lotr.
dune. (sci fi, i know).
now i have displayed what i like, and you are free to insult my taste. haha. do you see what i'm getting at, though? i don't really like loud cover designs. i don't want to be beaten over the face by the artwork on the front of the book. in particular, look at those 1977 editions of rotk and two towers. they could have big orcs holding decapitated heads and swinging bloody axes, but they don't. they're classy, not pulpy. they're not screaming "look at me, i have war and violence". i dig that. obviously this is all just a matter of taste, subjective, in my opinion, etc. different strokes.
again, these are just books that i had on the shelf at home, i'm not saying they're the ultimate fantasy book covers. i don't have a personal vendetta against joe abercrombie or anything. i only single him out because judging by these threads his books are quite popular. this leads me to believe that he's probably a pretty legit author. this also means i have to look at those ugly covers all the time! haha. ahh well. there you go.
return of the king.
two towers.
elric.
narnia.
more lotr.
dune. (sci fi, i know).
now i have displayed what i like, and you are free to insult my taste. haha. do you see what i'm getting at, though? i don't really like loud cover designs. i don't want to be beaten over the face by the artwork on the front of the book. in particular, look at those 1977 editions of rotk and two towers. they could have big orcs holding decapitated heads and swinging bloody axes, but they don't. they're classy, not pulpy. they're not screaming "look at me, i have war and violence". i dig that. obviously this is all just a matter of taste, subjective, in my opinion, etc. different strokes.
again, these are just books that i had on the shelf at home, i'm not saying they're the ultimate fantasy book covers. i don't have a personal vendetta against joe abercrombie or anything. i only single him out because judging by these threads his books are quite popular. this leads me to believe that he's probably a pretty legit author. this also means i have to look at those ugly covers all the time! haha. ahh well. there you go.
Finished this and now I've moved on to the second book. Great steampunk book with a little bit of coming of age mixed in. I'm reading the second book now.charsace said:
Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Only read a little bit of it so far. Seems to be a fantasy story about a group of people fighting for their rights.
Can't wait to see the movie based on the first book.
UraMallas said:Currently reading and not digging:
I'm 26% done and there is entirely too much going on. I have no clue what the hell is happening, almost ever.
I think most people have this reaction. If you stick at it, and read the next book - shit will make sense. So much sense. So awesome.
Father_Mike
Member
Salazar said:
Ya I was going to post this. If you can make it past the first half of Gardens, it will be worth it, promise.
nakedsushi
Member
charsace said:
What? The 2nd Mistborn book is steampunk? I started a few chapters of it a few months ago, but didn't notice any steampunk. And...they're making a movie on the first one? Sort of want?