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What are you reading? (July 09)

Quazar

Member
51xk9CDvjcL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg


And still...

51KpZaBdJsL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 

Mifune

Mehmber
BenjaminBirdie said:

I know you know this already, but the book is fucking amazing.

Granted, I'm only maybe a quarter of the way through it, but I can't remember the last time I was reading something and going, "Yep, this just might be the best thing I've read, ever."
 

Vinci

Danish
I've been in a Clarke mood recently. Finished 2001, 2010, 2061, Childhood's End, and Rendezvous with Rama in the last ten days. Grabbing 3001 next.

After that, I'll get to reading something new. Not sure what though.
 

FnordChan

Member
Meanwhile, I'm about a quarter of the way through Infinite Jest myself (page 228; I was almost embarrassingly grateful to see
the chronological listing of Subsidized Time years on page 223
) and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. It's very well written (if, shall we say, a tad indulgent) and I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm waiting to see if the novel's ending is worth the effort of reading the damn thing. Only time and another 750 pages or so will tell. In the mean time: onward!

Year of FnordChan
 

Uncle

Member
I think I'll start Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie today. The book I started last month isn't very good. It's only 300 or so pages and I'm halfway through, but I just don't feel like reading it at all.



olore said:
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds


I bought Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds today. Got it signed too. Also got A Game of Thrones signed by GRRM.
 
FnordChan said:
Meanwhile, I'm about a quarter of the way through Infinite Jest myself (page 228; I was almost embarrassingly grateful to see
the chronological listing of Subsidized Time years on page 223
) and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. It's very well written (if, shall we say, a tad indulgent) and I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm waiting to see if the novel's ending is worth the effort of reading the damn thing. Only time and another 750 pages or so will tell. In the mean time: onward!

Year of FnordChan

I really think IJ is one of those books that gets better as it goes along, and I think the endnotes get better too - some are stories in and of themselves; there's one in particular on the background of the Quebec wheelchair gang that had me laughing out loud. Trust me, there's some amazing stuff on the way.

I think Wallace would have had a pretty big reputation even without IJ, but with it (for those that have read it), he's a GOD. There's a handful of giants in our generation, and he was one of them.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Cyan said:
That's some mighty strong words, friend.

Well, I definitely don't expect everyone to love it as much as I have.

It is incredibly indulgent, yes, but what sets it apart from other indulgent books (say, Gravity's Rainbow) is how genuine and soulful it feels. There is nothing cold or calculated here. The book feels like a chronicle of DFW's messy, sad inner being.

I'm really sad that he's gone.
 

CiSTM

Banned
Kildace said:
Finished Fall of Hyperion yesterday (what a book.) and decided to tackle something completely different because how tough an act to follow that book is so I chose

murakami.jpg


I have no doubt that it'll be fantastic, just like every other Murakami book I've read.

Finished this just today. Peculiar book. I really didn't understand all of it but I just couldn't put it down.

I just finished this yesterday:
n24430.jpg


Awesome book, made me just want to forget everything and hit the road :lol
Just started with this. So far I like it.
 

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
I am reading "Let the right one in" by some guy whose name I cannot remember:(amazon tells me it is: John Ajvide Lindqvist).

It's not bad, but I am sick of Vampires and Zombies. It seems like 80% of new horror novels are about those two.
 
This may be a bit vague, but I have a question. Does any recall seeing a book based on Frankenstein, but told from his point of view? I think its a newer piece because of the cover art, which I believe consisted of an eye. Anyone got a name for it, or something you think might be it?
 

FirewalkR

Member
2rxfbx3.jpg


Baxter is one of my favourite authors, and basically it was one of his stories (Moon Six which I read in the awesome Infinity Plus site) that made me start seriously reading science fiction. It was around 1995, I read it and noticed that it had been first published in 'something' called Science Fiction Age (RIP <3). I'd seen the magazine on sale a few times, together with Asimov's, Analog and F&SF. My thoughts after I recovered a bit from the awe were literally "you can buy this stuff IN MAGAZINES????". Next day I bought all the current issues of the aforementioned publications and became a science fiction addict for life. :)

This makes it rather unexplainable that I didn't read Time until 2009, and when I saw that it was made available FOR FREE on Suvudu I started reading it. I find it amusing that even with all the hard science fiction concepts on display, the reactions of some of the characters and humanity in general to the events in the book are somewhat less believable than the SF concepts. I also don't quite think the 'Carter Catastrophe' hypothesis would hold much credence. I think I can refute it easily but perhaps I'm being naïf, and on reading it you just 'feel' it isn't right. Still, I'm loving the whole of it. It's grandscience fiction as usual from Baxter.

Also, I swear that every month someone's reading Altered Carbon in these threads. You've got some really good books ahead of you. *envy*
They're quite different, but I recommend that whoever likes the Takeshi Kovacs series to try Neal Asher's 'Ian Cormac' series, starting with Gridlinked.

Lastly, nyong, you won't truly know the extent of how wrong you were until you've finished the trilogy. Have fun. :)
 
Read the first book of the Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. I enjoyed it but it was a very quick read. Debating on whether to keep going with the remaining books.

How do the rest of the books compare to the first for those who have read them? Do they get more meaty?
 

X26

Banned
opps didn't see the july thread, anyways:

Read The Road in less than 24hrs last week, great book

Using these threads as a recommendation list now, and have started The Name of the Wind and have The Secret History ready after I'm done that

I'm half done TNOTW and I've gotta say

The main character is increidbly unlikable much of the time, he's written to be too good (author: how awesome is kvothe? so awesome) at everything and the book at times feels like the male equivalent of twilight, with the author just seemingly writing a fantasy about themselves. I do like it sofar but this aspect of the book is really annoying
 

Snaku

Banned
Finished the Chamber of Secrets audio book as read by Jim Dale. I love how creepy that book can be, and Jim Dale's voice work is delightful at times (I love his voice for Peeves). Moving on to the Prisoner of Azkaban.
 

Zamorro

Member
ILOVEASIANS said:
Read the first book of the Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. I enjoyed it but it was a very quick read. Debating on whether to keep going with the remaining books.

How do the rest of the books compare to the first for those who have read them? Do they get more meaty?
Keep going. I have read all books and The Gunslinger is like the little brother of the family.

Here is a rough comparison based on number of pages from Amazon:
Code:
Number of pages paperback editions The Dark Tower by Stephen King

The Gunslinger               264
The Drawing of the Three     480
The Wastelands               608
Wizard and Glass             752
Wolves of the Calla          960
Song of Susannah             560
The Dark Tower             1,072
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
ILOVEASIANS said:
Read the first book of the Dark Tower, The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. I enjoyed it but it was a very quick read. Debating on whether to keep going with the remaining books.

How do the rest of the books compare to the first for those who have read them? Do they get more meaty?

The Gunslinger is easily the weakest book in the cycle. Keep going.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
Tim the Wiz said:
Easily? Disagree.

It's all a matter of taste, of course, but I wasn't a fan of The Gunslinger, at all. If it weren't for a few good friends urging me to continue with the second book, I would have dismissed the series as something that simply wasn't for me. I did read The Drawing of the Three and fell completely head-over-heels for it.

I consider The Dark Tower to be one of the finest works of Speculative Fiction out there, but The Gunslinger was not a good book. Muddy and directionless, caustic characters and too segmented by its original delivery (as serialized ficiton) to be really all that enjoyable or interesting. At the end of the novel, I wasn't sure what I had just read (but not in a good way).

The next weakest novel in the cycle is The Wolves of Calla, but for about the complete opposite reasons as The Gunslinger.
 
aidan said:
It's all a matter of taste, of course, but I wasn't a fan of The Gunslinger, at all. If it weren't for a few good friends urging me to continue with the second book, I would have dismissed the series as something that simply wasn't for me. I did read The Drawing of the Three and fell completely head-over-heels for it.

I consider The Dark Tower to be one of the finest works of Speculative Fiction out there, but The Gunslinger was not a good book. Muddy and directionless, caustic characters and too segmented by its original delivery (as serialized ficiton) to be really all that enjoyable or interesting. At the end of the novel, I wasn't sure what I had just read (but not in a good way).

The next weakest novel in the cycle is The Wolves of Calla, but for about the complete opposite reasons as The Gunslinger.

Odd. I found it to be an atmospheric, surreal and intense experience. A slow burn that left me absorbed in Roland's world and in what came next. I will agree that the next few books until Wolves of the Calla were ultimately stronger, but The Gunslinger remains unique.
 

bengraven

Member
1 - brilliant
2 - great, sets things up
3 - fantastic, wait for book 4 is painful
4 - brilliant
5 - disappointing, but decent
6 - fairly immemorable, though I did kind of rush through it to get to -
7 - mostly brilliant, last half easily my favorite DT book next to 1 and 4

Edit: Ironically, this lineup also somewhat sums up the HP books as well as the DT books.
 
Yeah, still reading The Stand. It's goooood. I don't know why, but the planchette part I read last night in bed might have creeped me out the most out of the entire novel so far.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. Went down and picked up The Drawing of the Three. Pretty excited to get reading now that I know that the series keeps getting better.
 

Vinci

Danish
CajoleJuice said:
Yeah, still reading The Stand. It's goooood. I don't know why, but the planchette part I read last night in bed might have creeped me out the most out of the entire novel so far.

That is the only book I ever read where I got perhaps 85% of the way through and simply stopped giving a shit about it. I literally didn't care about a single character. So I stopped, took it back to the library, and haven't touched very much King since.

That said, his book 'On Writing' is fantastic.
 

besada

Banned
I'm out of things to read. After Lethem's YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET, I became unable to finish the other Lethem I had on hand.

I guess a trip to the library is called for, but I have no idea what I'll get.
 

Timo

Member
If someone could help me out, probably with spoiler tags, could someone explain what the 6th part of Glamorama really did at the end of the book? Because I don't know. The 5th part finished it up completely to me. Then the 6th part, 25 or so pages, took the book somewhere I was not expecting, and I just don't know what the hell it all meant.

It was good though.
 

Salazar

Member
John Crowley's 'The Solitudes: Book One of the Aegypt Cycle'.
Hunter S. Thompson's 'Hell's Angels'.
Chip Kidd's 'The Cheese Monkeys'.
 

migulic

Member
FrankHerbert_Dune_1st.jpg


Reading it for the first time ever (just reached the end of the first book, so I'm about 1/3 in) and absolutely loving it.
 
Mifune said:
I know you know this already, but the book is fucking amazing.

Granted, I'm only maybe a quarter of the way through it, but I can't remember the last time I was reading something and going, "Yep, this just might be the best thing I've read, ever."

Yeah, I've just crossed 200, kissing the Infinite Summer schedule goodbye and racing past it. It's my second reading of the book, and I'm just astonished at how well written it is. Practically every single segment of the book (save some of the more phonetically dissonant narrators) is without a doubt the best straight up prose I have ever read. Without question. The fact that it is wildly hilarious, smart, and deeply affecting is kind of just a bonus.

People probably like to think that people say it's The Best Book Evar so that they can be cool and be saying it about a book that is so large and seemingly daunting.

Wrong.

It's easily, without a doubt, the best written book I have ever read.
 
Vinci said:
Yup. Which is why for the next several years I wouldn't touch anything King wrote at all. Finally got over that.
I'm sure The Stand being generally held as one of his best works didn't really help.
BenjaminBirdie said:
It's easily, without a doubt, the best written book I have ever read.
I'll take Mifune's statement to be more meaningful.
 

Anobyl

Member
Just finished Cat's Cradle and it was excellent. Kind of wonder which Vonnegut to read next, can anyone point me in some direction? Was thinking either Piano Player or Mother Night. I've also read and loved both Slaughterhouse-Five, and The Sirens of Titan

Probably reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy next.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Thanks for the heads up...?

I don't even know, like, is this supposed to be an insult to me?
I was just ragging on your love of hyperbole. With a book like that, from what I hear, it certainly might be applicable.
 
CajoleJuice said:
I was just ragging on your love of hyperbole. With a book like that, from what I hear, it certainly might be applicable.

Heh. I get it, man.

But seriously, taking it as a sobered second reading, hyperbole-free, with no OMG THIS NEW THING IS SO GOOD AND AWESOME sensation, it really is the best prose I've ever read.

I mean, something has to be, right?
 
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