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What are you reading? (February 2015)

Kahoona

Member
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Come on, like it would be anything else!

Hopefully book 3 is better than book 2. That cliffhanger left a bitter taste in my mouth. It's like he suddenly just stopped writing.
 

mid83

Member
So despite already having three books I'm working thru on my Kindle I got a email today that I had the following book on hold. I decided to run out and grab it and I've already finished. What a great read! I can't remember the last time I knocked out a book in a single night. I can't recommend this one enough!

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Mr.Swag

Banned
Reading: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson.

Wow I love it so far. 1893 is 99 years before I was born and I love that there is a medium that can transport me there.
 

ShaneB

Member
Finishing up In the Kingdom of Ice. Great story that I had never heard about.

Will definitely check it out sometime as well in that case.

Loving Alive as expected. Definitely a tough read at times given all that happened, and it's hampered a bit since I feel like I know the movie so well, but still engrossed. I think I'll eventually read Nando Parrado's book about it sometime as well.
 

justjohn

Member
Still reading life and fate. Probably one of the most intense books I've read in a while and im only about 20% in so far.
 

Piecake

Member

Good book. I thought it was a pretty good attempt to ground the whole thing in a few people to personalize it and make it more entertaining/relatable. The only issue was that the people he had to work with werent all that interesting.

It did give me a much better understanding of the gold standard and the sheer stupidity of it. It really forces you to the conclusion that any advocates of the gold standard today are either insane, ignorant or just plain stupid.
 

hythloday

Member
I finished Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. Like I posted earlier, there isn't a whole ton of "new" information in it, but it was still fascinating. And really depressing.

Just started:


Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Never read anything by Robin Hobb before, and what I've read so far has really impressed me, so I'm excited. Three cheers for a new fantasy world to sink into!
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
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Come on, like it would be anything else!

OH SHIT. I had no idea this was so close to release!!!!! Argh, I'm in the middle of Golden Son, but it's too good to stop. But I can't wait for more powder mage domination.
 

Tugatrix

Member
Finished the martian and love it, Ridley Scott i'm watching you don't fail me with this book

next:

Au revoir là-haut - Pierre Lamaitre
 

bengraven

Member
I finished Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. Like I posted earlier, there isn't a whole ton of "new" information in it, but it was still fascinating. And really depressing.

Just started:


Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Never read anything by Robin Hobb before, and what I've read so far has really impressed me, so I'm excited. Three cheers for a new fantasy world to sink into!

One of us, one of us.

(Because I have to post this now: Read Farseer Trilogy first, then Liveship Traders, then move on to Tawny Man before doing the final trilogy - which is only one book so far).
 

hythloday

Member
One of us, one of us.

(Because I have to post this now: Read Farseer Trilogy first, then Liveship Traders, then move on to Tawny Man before doing the final trilogy - which is only one book so far).

Thank you, that's helpful! I had read that they were all in the same "world" but I had no idea where to start, really.
 

Nelo Ice

Banned


Just finished this and wow. That was a really exciting read. Am curious to see how the movie was adapted since one things got going it was a nonstop thrill ride.
Def wasn't expecting the first swerve. Thought hey Nick's an asshole then once the the story starts coming together it's like fuck Amy's a complete psychopath. Also Nick should have called Saul instead of Tanner Bolt lol.
 

Mr.Swag

Banned


Just finished this and wow. That was a really exciting read. Am curious to see how the movie was adapted since one things got going it was a nonstop thrill ride.
Def wasn't expecting the first swerve. Thought hey Nick's an asshole then once the the story starts coming together it's like fuck Amy's a complete psychopath. Also Nick should have called Saul instead of Tanner Bolt lol.

The movie doesn't dissappoint. Fantastic writing,direction,soundtrack,acting and good cinematography and editing.

Gillian Flynn adapted it herself.
 

Xeroblade

Member
Just the thread I as looking for! My first post too.

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Just got done reading this, it was fantastic, I really enjoyed it a lot.

Also I just finished Ready Player One as well. I loved it why so much hate towards it?
 

Nuke Soda

Member
Liked Ready Player One.

I just threw my copy of The Troop by Nick Cutter across the room. On purpose I might add. I congratulate it for getting me, but I am not touching that fucking book with a ten foot pole now. So I guess it did its job. Anyways here is what happens, not a major spoiler but still tagging it:
Sociopath/Future Serial Killer Shelly is going to kill a kitten, in graphic detail. I own two kitties, I am not reading the book anymore.
Am I being a big baby and having an overblown reaction? The book was a 3/5 before this moment, it had some good gross out body horror.
 

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
Good book. I thought it was a pretty good attempt to ground the whole thing in a few people to personalize it and make it more entertaining/relatable. The only issue was that the people he had to work with werent all that interesting.

It did give me a much better understanding of the gold standard and the sheer stupidity of it. It really forces you to the conclusion that any advocates of the gold standard today are either insane, ignorant or just plain stupid.
Had the same reaction, though I did find the Hjalmar Schacht portions to be quite interesting and the problems with German reparations and that Keynes was a smartass.
 

Bazza

Member
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About 75% through this so only a few hours reading left to go,
Really looking forward to finding out who Tanner actually is and also more about the melding plague.


After I finish before i move on to Redemption Ark I will be reading this which came out today.

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Bazza

Member
I finished Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief. Like I posted earlier, there isn't a whole ton of "new" information in it, but it was still fascinating. And really depressing.

Just started:


Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Never read anything by Robin Hobb before, and what I've read so far has really impressed me, so I'm excited. Three cheers for a new fantasy world to sink into!

Lucky bastard, read so many fantasy books last year but the Farseer Trilogy is probably up there as one of my favorites wish I could erase all memory of them and read them again (guess I will have to wait for time to work its magic on my memory's), as someone else said, read them in order, while the different trilogy's don't directly link to one another they all build up parts of the same world and it feels to me that the trilogy's are being written in a way that eventually there will be a final series linking all of them together.
 

causan

Member
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Finished listening to this on audible last week. What a great book and the narration is perfect. I found it was a mix of Castaway, Apollo 13 and MacGyver.


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Picked this up from the library this week thanks to GAFs recommendation and really enjoying it.

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I also started listening to this on audible a couple of days ago after listening to the Mistborn trilogy last month and Sanderson is starting to become one of my favorite authors.
 
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K Dick

theres a few characters who's stories intertwine a bit...

not liking it as much as I was expecting to....was going to put it down half way, but figured i'd finish it since i kinda enjoyed 3 characters of the 4 stories.

doesn't really ever pick up in my opinion.
 
Will definitely check it out sometime as well in that case.

Loving Alive as expected. Definitely a tough read at times given all that happened, and it's hampered a bit since I feel like I know the movie so well, but still engrossed. I think I'll eventually read Nando Parrado's book about it sometime as well.

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend it.
 
Haven't read anything since Pushing Ice and since the wife just finished The Paper Magician, we're both starting:

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Fingers crossed that we both enjoy it.

The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K Dick

theres a few characters who's stories intertwine a bit...

not liking it as much as I was expecting to....was going to put it down half way, but figured i'd finish it since i kinda enjoyed 3 characters of the 4 stories.

doesn't really ever pick up in my opinion.

I'm with you there. I like Phillip K. Dick and picked up The Man in the High Castle because someone recommended it after I had just finished Ubik.

It just kind of dragged. I never really got into it, but stuck with it thinking there might be some awesome payoff, but there wasn't any. Not one of my favorites of his. :/
 
I'm halfway through Consider Phlebas right now. It's fun. I've traditionally stayed away from older sci fi books because I (pointlessly) worry that some of the ideas (like FTL drives and hyperspace) are going to feel annoyingly anachronistic in light of recent science, so I'm glad I gave this a shot.
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Hmm I like If a Winter's Night A Traveler a bit less than Invisible Cities, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Delightfully insane. That Japanese chapter had me rolling.

Rereading and relistening (got the Audiobook) to Prelude to Foundation. I loved it growing up, but now... it's not good. So much exposition and such leaden writing. The female protagonist still steals the show though.
 

Cerity

Member
A little bit more through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, just past the point where
Mr. Norrel resurrects Miss Wintertowne
. I'm not sure what it is about the writing but I find it very strange.

Might put it down to read The Symposium and come back to it. I remember hearing somewhere about socrates saying that people are half peoples and such and it's been intriguing me more lately.
 
After ten novels and about 3.5 million words, I'm done with The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.

In a few words:

Son. of. a. bitch.

It gave me characters I loved, obscenely cool stuff of every variety, and sometimes even deeper thematic things to ponder. It also did it all on a scale so ridiculously absurd that any other book I've read so far that claims to be an 'epic' fantasy just kind of seems like a pretender to the adjective by comparison. Granted, that isn't an especially lengthy list of things, but still.

Absolutely wonderful. In a few years I'm sure I'll be the novel equivalent of the gaming-side posters in backlog-complaint threads. "Gaf, I've got a stack of twenty novels on my coffee table, but I couldn't pick something to read so I just picked up the Malazan series again."
 
After ten novels and about 3.5 million words, I'm done with The Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson.

In a few words:

Son. of. a. bitch.

It gave me characters I loved, obscenely cool stuff of every variety, and sometimes even deeper thematic things to ponder. It also did it all on a scale so ridiculously absurd that any other book I've read so far that claims to be an 'epic' fantasy just kind of seems like a pretender to the adjective by comparison. Granted, that isn't an especially lengthy list of things, but still.

Absolutely wonderful. In a few years I'm sure I'll be the novel equivalent of the gaming-side posters in backlog-complaint threads. "Gaf, I've got a stack of twenty novels on my coffee table, but I couldn't pick something to read so I just picked up the Malazan series again."

Don't worry there's more! After the Anomander Rake trilogy is done, he's starting a new trilogy about the Toblakai. :)
 

fakefaker

Member
Still reading Things Half in Shadow by Alan Finn, but the gf and I are reading it to each other(gives us more snuggle time woo!), and she's now busy with school, so it's going to take a bit to finish it. So decided to start another book in the meantime with Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Judd Trichter.

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JokerAceX

Member
Reading Mistborn: The Final Empire....

So I get to chapter 34 shit has hit the fan hard these last few chapters but man Brandon just loves to lay it on. So we have Kelsier along with Ham and one of the groups of surviving rebel soliders doing their thing freeing the captured skaa from House Renoux. Kelsier being all the badass fighting the imperial guard and killing an Inquistor, then THAT happens.

After all his badassery he gets beat by the Lord Ruler with a bitch-slap and spear to the chest. I closed the book and haven't been able to pick it back up since...that was 4 hours ago....really FUCK Vin and Elend....in my heart Kelsier was the MC. Brandon please don't send my boy out like that :<.To make it worse the Lord Ruler has to be all "Let the executions begin" Brandon please bruh you hurting my heart.

Sorry for my little rant, help Gaf tell me it gets better I'm not sure if I can finish the book now ;_;
 

Woorloog

Banned
Reading Mistborn: The Final Empire....
Sorry for my little rant, help Gaf tell me it gets better I'm not sure if I can finish the book now ;_;

Not a spoiler but since it is a response...
It is interesting how people find Kelsier such a charismatic, interesting character. Pretty sure this is the reason Sanderson killed him off (he talks about this in annotations for Mistborn, available from his site), as otherwise he'd keep stealing the spotlight and others would not have space to grow. Not that his influence vanishes from the books...
 

LProtag

Member
Just finished Elantris tonight. Not my favorite of Sanderson's works, but it was still solid. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on.

I think I just have to read The Emperor's Soul and Sixth of the Dust and I'll have read all the cosmere stuff...
 

Loke13

Member
Just finished Elantris tonight. Not my favorite of Sanderson's works, but it was still solid. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going on.

I think I just have to read The Emperor's Soul and Sixth of the Dust and I'll have read all the cosmere stuff...
Being among his earliest works it was definitely unpolished he really improved from working on WoT in my opinion.
 

SmoothCB

Member
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Finally on to this. Started the series 20 years ago and stopped at Crown of Swords Ages ago. Started a full series read about a year and a half ago.

Loving it so far and the pacing and quality of the earlier books seems to be making a return!
 
I finished this over vacation:


The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

It was one of my most anticipated books of 2015 and unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype. A fantasy book set in the days of Camelot by Ishiguro sounds incredibly good, but I didn't think it had the same heartbreaking nostalgia that Remains of the Day or When We Were Orphans had. The theme, memories and how it affects our relationships with people, permeates the entire book, but the characters didn't really do anything for me.

It's still a good book, but not amazing like the other Ishiguro books. And if people are turned off by fantasy, it's more like a fantasy book in the way that Never Let Me Go is a sci-fi book. The fantasy is just a frame for the characters and interactions. I'd say it's even closer to magical realism.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Bram Stoker's Dracula

Love the old film and the newer one from the 90s that had Keanu Reeves in it.

It's interesting to see the changes they made for the films. Mostly the characters. Like Dracula and Lucy.
 
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