nakedsushi said:
Funny you'd say that, I actually thought it started pretty weak but got really interesting once (spoiler)
the facility is compromised and the virals escape
What are you reading? (March 2011)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Funny you'd say that, I actually thought it started pretty weak but got really interesting once (spoiler)
Start re-reading A Game Of Thrones yesterday evening. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm falling in love all over again. The last (and first) time I read the book must have been 3-5 years ago. I remember initially having a hard time dealing with the wide variety of main characters and the jumping between them after every chapter. Until about page 200. After that I fully locked into the book and couldn't put it down and quickly devoured the sequels as well . I expected the same thing to kind of happen again, but I'm completely hooked from the first page. The writing is do damn good. It's funny how you sometimes forget why you really loved something, until you are confronted with it again after a long time of absence. It's also feels like reuniting with old friends. Areya and Jon's chapters are such bliss to read, because I dearly care for these two characters.
I will definitely finish A Game Of Thrones before the HBO series launches. Hopefully I'll be able to re-read the sequels before A Dance With Dragons is released.
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Cyan said:
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
Makes me want to lace up my shoes and go out on a run right now!
Actually, makes me want to toss the shoes and go out on a run. We'll see.
Barefoot is too hardcore for me, but reading that book did make me want to try the lightweight shoes like the Nike Free for my next pair of running shoes.
nakedsushi
Member
Rei_Toei said:
It's been a while since I thought about The Passage, but what I meant was:
After the virals escape and it jumps forward in time where everyone's segregated into little protected towns or whatever, the goal of the story ends up being getting the girl back to the facility so they can get her anti-virus blood or whatever. That part seems way too drawn out. There were too many side trips and and fumbling around. If only the girl could explain hm......
I also didn't like the whole mystic element of it. Like when the zoo animals freaked out about her because they somehow "knew" or how that nun/sister knew exactly what to do. In this type of book, it just seems like a lazy way of poor foreshadowing.
I also didn't like the whole mystic element of it. Like when the zoo animals freaked out about her because they somehow "knew" or how that nun/sister knew exactly what to do. In this type of book, it just seems like a lazy way of poor foreshadowing.
edit: I'm reading The Name of the Wind right now, but I thought this was fitting:
bengraven
Member
mike23 said:Just hit chapter 15 in
This author must have a rape fetish or something. Every other page it seems some man or woman is being raped. I'm finding it difficult to read and I've started to skim over the parts that are especially rape-y. I'm hoping it gets toned down later in the book, it'd certainly make the book more enjoyable for me if it did.
People give George R R Martin grief about the amount of rape in his books, but I still think Brett tops him.
for example, the two main female characters in the series lost their virginity through rape and that apparently made them "stronger".
Tim the Wiz said:
Of the stuff of his that I've read, I highly recommend Rubicon Beach and Days Between Stations. Both are dreamlike narratives that tie into filmmaking, but never as overtly or specifically as Zeroville does. Tours of the Black Clock, his book about Hitler's private filmmaker, is interesting, as is the largely autobiographical Arc D'x. I've really yet to read anything of his that I did not like.
I have The Sea Came In at Midnight and All Ecstatic Days on my bookshelf, still to be read.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Relix said:
Oh yeeees
Same, but i got this cover
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
still slogging through
and I just.... will finish it. It's OK, interesting angle to vampires/dracula, but just kind of boring.
Really want to just finish now to make a start on
cause his books are great. after that I'll check out the Patrick rothfuss books.
and I just.... will finish it. It's OK, interesting angle to vampires/dracula, but just kind of boring.
Really want to just finish now to make a start on
cause his books are great. after that I'll check out the Patrick rothfuss books.
Maklershed
Member
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
Pretty good. Gaiman really shines when he's writing short stories.
Melchiah
Member
I'm just about to start reading Ulysses for school:
It's been a while since I've had such a mix of anticipation and dread before opening a book. If nothing else, I can at least say I've read it. We're spending two weeks on it in class, so I obviously will get a lot of guidance from my professors, but I was wondering if anyone here had any online resources to recommend?
I also just finished To the Lighthouse which I really enjoyed:
Once I got into the flow of Woolf's style I became totally absorbed by it, more so than I would ever have expected. Finished it in two sittings.
It's been a while since I've had such a mix of anticipation and dread before opening a book. If nothing else, I can at least say I've read it. We're spending two weeks on it in class, so I obviously will get a lot of guidance from my professors, but I was wondering if anyone here had any online resources to recommend?
I also just finished To the Lighthouse which I really enjoyed:
Once I got into the flow of Woolf's style I became totally absorbed by it, more so than I would ever have expected. Finished it in two sittings.
afternoon delight
Member
Night Trekker, I like you. A lot.
If we're talking best ofs, Blood Meridian and The Crossing are tied for bleeding-eyes-wonderful.
HarryHengst
Member
A book which basically says that human consciousness is a mistake, humans are an abomination, we in fact know that we are but we trick ourselves by denying that fact. We lack meaning in our lives, which we then go and try to recreate through things like religion, nations or families. The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.
Bleak stuff, but the author is a good writer, although i do sometimes have difficulty following his logical steps taking. But hey, it's a philosophical work so that's to be expected.
Also, a better review of the book can be found here.
afternoon delight
Member
But The Crossing lets him go on tangents! :lol
Melchiah
Member
HarryHengst said:
A book which basically says that human consciousness is a mistake, humans are an abomination, we in fact know that we are but we trick ourselves by denying that fact. We lack meaning in our lives, which we then go and try to recreate through things like religion, nations or families. The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.
Bleak stuff, but the author is a good writer, although i do sometimes have difficulty following his logical steps taking. But hey, it's a philosophical work so that's to be expected.
Also, a better review of the book can be found here.
I'm going to read that one next. Thanks for recommending it.
Night_Trekker
Member
afternoon delight said:
Thanks!
The Crossing is definitely the best book in The Border Trilogy (all of which are good, though I feel Cities of the Plain is slightly behind the first two) and, I agree, one of the best things McCarthy has written. I think Suttree is also up there with Blood Meridian, though its "plot-less" nature could make it hard for some people to follow and appreciate.
I'm looking forward to The Passenger, but I wonder if McCarthy will stay with the more simplistic style he uses in No Country for Old Men (and, later, The Road). I would be fine with that, but a return to the intricate, detailed prose from earlier novels would be nice, too.
EDIT: According to Wikipedia, he's working on three new novels.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:Same, but i got this cover
I have this just sitting next to my desk. Can't wait to start it.
afternoon delight
Member
No need to feel like shit, his novels tend to pick apart the soul in some interesting ways. Check out all of them, but start with the Border Trilogy. (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities on the Plain)
Attackthebase
Member
I finished two novels this month.
This was for my Post-Col class. It was decent, somewhat confusing. I probably would have gotten more of a kick for it if I wasn't lusting for another novel. A novel that I finished tonight! This little number,
Omfg, 'A Storm of Swords' was amazing. I am probably going to wait for the summer before I read through Feasts of Crows. Gotta bundle that shit up with 'A Dance With Dragons.' My flight to Japan will be somewhat tolerable now with Martin releasing a new novel in the Song of Ice and Fire Series.
This was for my Post-Col class. It was decent, somewhat confusing. I probably would have gotten more of a kick for it if I wasn't lusting for another novel. A novel that I finished tonight! This little number,
Omfg, 'A Storm of Swords' was amazing. I am probably going to wait for the summer before I read through Feasts of Crows. Gotta bundle that shit up with 'A Dance With Dragons.' My flight to Japan will be somewhat tolerable now with Martin releasing a new novel in the Song of Ice and Fire Series.
Frankenstrat
Member
[if the image keeps being stupid, it's Everest: A Mountaineering History, by Walt Unsworth]
fantastic read. good length as well.
charlemagne
Member
Finished off Sophie Masson's The Knight By The Pool. A very average book. Nevertheless, onwards I march into the second in the trilogy.
Just finished this
The magic system was interesting in design but shallow in execution, if that makes any sense. A lot of "I drew in some power and made him unable to think of what I don't want him to think about" or "I drew in some power and changed into a bird."
There are a lot of characters that the author was constantly shifting from one to another, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I just found myself wishing that I could get back to more interesting characters at times, or that they would converge sooner.
Overall it was a decent book, I'll probably finish the trilogy at some point.
The magic system was interesting in design but shallow in execution, if that makes any sense. A lot of "I drew in some power and made him unable to think of what I don't want him to think about" or "I drew in some power and changed into a bird."
There are a lot of characters that the author was constantly shifting from one to another, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I just found myself wishing that I could get back to more interesting characters at times, or that they would converge sooner.
Overall it was a decent book, I'll probably finish the trilogy at some point.
Reading two books at the moment.
Lost Languages by Robinson is really one of the greatest books I've ever read. I don't read nonfiction nearly enough, which is a shame, because raw sexy facts can be so much more compelling than literature sometimes.
It's pretty much what you'd expect; deals with the decipherment of all the mysterious languages throughout history, etc. And dear lord if it isn't the most fascinating shit.
I've also been reading some Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman,
and I gotta say, it's really not drawing me in. Which is a huge shame, because I'd slobber over both those men's boners any day. Two authors I really enjoy. I think the story may just be kind of flat IMO, though I haven't gotten far at all. And the very slight tonal shifts every sequence or so throws me off; it becomes easy to tell which portions were written by Pratchett and which ones by Gaiman. Kind of ruins the flow partially, methinks.
Ultimately I'll probably shelve Good Omens for later reading. It's likely a good book by definitely good authors, so I'm not writing it off just yet.
PS, as an unactivated lurker, gotta say that these threads were immensely helpful in providing me with superb reading material. So thanks for that, chaps.
Lost Languages by Robinson is really one of the greatest books I've ever read. I don't read nonfiction nearly enough, which is a shame, because raw sexy facts can be so much more compelling than literature sometimes.
It's pretty much what you'd expect; deals with the decipherment of all the mysterious languages throughout history, etc. And dear lord if it isn't the most fascinating shit.
I've also been reading some Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman,
and I gotta say, it's really not drawing me in. Which is a huge shame, because I'd slobber over both those men's boners any day. Two authors I really enjoy. I think the story may just be kind of flat IMO, though I haven't gotten far at all. And the very slight tonal shifts every sequence or so throws me off; it becomes easy to tell which portions were written by Pratchett and which ones by Gaiman. Kind of ruins the flow partially, methinks.
Ultimately I'll probably shelve Good Omens for later reading. It's likely a good book by definitely good authors, so I'm not writing it off just yet.
PS, as an unactivated lurker, gotta say that these threads were immensely helpful in providing me with superb reading material. So thanks for that, chaps.
Aleczandur89
Neo Member
Starting up the Darth Bane series.
50 pages left in Wise Man's Fear. Good lord, it almost seems like someone else finished this book. That last hundred or so pages
are so rushed and lacking in detail that it hardly fits with the rest of the book. It's as though it's a cliff notes version of his actual final dozen or so chapters. Maybe something amazing happens in these last few chapters but wow, what a disappointing way to finish off the book (really, I was sort of disappointed with the entire second half as it became sort of a series of vignettes instead of a cohesive tale).
starting when he goes back to the Maer
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
HarryHengst said:
The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.
Whoa, that's a bummer and a half. Somebody should put that on a sad kitten poster.
Attackthebase
Member
fhtagn said:
If it wasn't for Gaf, I would have never read the Song of Ice and Fire series. So, I'm forever in Gaf's debt. Time to read through Blood Meridan!
afternoon delight
Member
Just some select stuff from McCarthy since all the cool kids read him:
"Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting." - All the Pretty Horses
"The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.
The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others." - The Crossing
"Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting." - All the Pretty Horses
"The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.
The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others." - The Crossing
Sounds awesome.fhtagn said:Reading two books at the moment.
Lost Languages by Robinson is really one of the greatest books I've ever read. I don't read nonfiction nearly enough, which is a shame, because raw sexy facts can be so much more compelling than literature sometimes.
Will add onto backlog.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Combichristoffersen said:
Pretty good. Gaiman really shines when he's writing short stories.
Hmm I need to look into this.
PS: Oddly enough I find a lot of Authors people like/love to be better when they are doing short stories or novellas, but if I named names people would hate on me.
TestMonkey
Member
Nice light reading after the 960 page Lonesome Dove. Not sure what I'm gonna start up next. Gardens of the Moon or Wise Man's Fear maybe.
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