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[Easystride]

Think I might give Anathem another shot after I finish off Childhood's End.

 

[Syph Medwes]

Need to read it for a class but it's something I'd read anyway so it works out quite nicely. Great read so far.

 

[sgossard]

Heart Shaped Box is $1.99 - worth a purchase?

I say yes. 4/5 stars for me.

 

[cashman]

Been reading this for a month and only just crossed the halfway point

 

[Switch Back 9]

I don't get the love for Blood Meridian. I know I'm in the minority here, but I recently bought it on my Kindle and struggled to finish. Maybe it gets better on subsequent rereads but I found the entire thing so laborious. More than likely I whiffed completely on the point of the book.

I kind of agree in that McCarthy's prose and lack of punctuation can be difficult at first but for me anyways, once you get the ball rolling it starts to flow really well. I've only read this and The Road so I can't really comment on his other works though.

Next up:

Definitely in my top 3 favourite books of all time. LOTR can get bent, I must have read the Hobbit about 15 times at this point in my life. I just love it so much. I hope you enjoy it!

 

[Ceebs]

I have had a terrible time trying to find something new to read for the past month. I am bored to tears with genre fiction and have not seen anything else that really catches my eye lately.

Guess that is why I keep rereading stuff lately.

 

[markhimself46]

Definitely in my top 3 favourite books of all time. LOTR can get bent, I must have read the Hobbit about 15 times at this point in my life. I just love it so much. I hope you enjoy it!

Yeah I saw the movie when it came out back in December and really loved it. Big fan of the LOTR series. I read those books when I was younger and enjoyed them--for some reason never got around to reading The Hobbit. You don't like the LOTR books?

 

[saelz8]

 

[Cheebo]

Definitely in my top 3 favourite books of all time. LOTR can get bent, I must have read the Hobbit about 15 times at this point in my life. I just love it so much. I hope you enjoy it!

Completely. The Hobbit is vastly superior to LOTR. It is one of the few books I would call perfect.

 

[Aleph]

American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)
Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++(Bjarne Stroustrup)

 

[Krowley]

Heart Shaped Box is $1.99 - worth a purchase?

I Really enjoyed Heart Shaped Box. It's not a perfect book, and it may be a little uneven, but it has some of the best spooky moments that I've encountered in a long time, and I came to really like the main characters by the time I finished.

 

[Castle Doctrine]

Went on a reading binge recently, then I fell off a cliff and can't touch a book. Here's what I read in a month and a half, in order:

- The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich. One of my favorite books of all time. I love Gombrich's clear and unpretentious writing, deftly weaving an unbroken narrative of art history, and some architecture, from cave paintings to the modern 20th century (mostly western art).


- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. Fast-paced, entertaining story of an incredible man, but I had trouble believing a few of the extreme survival details.


- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. This grand behemoth lived up to the hype. Phenomenal storytelling. Some of the characterizations bothered the heck out of me though (cartoonish villains).


- The Breach (Travis Chase, #1) by Patrick Lee. Imaginative sci-fi adventure. Awesome. Starts to fall apart in the middle, but has a strong finish.


- The Hunted by Brian Haig. Relentless thriller about Russian corruption during the Gorbachev/Boris Yeltsin days. Well-written. Fascinating because it's based on a true story. Some of the villains are silly stereotypes though, and the story starts to chase its tail as it goes.


- Ghost Country (Travis Chase, #2) by Patrick Lee. Sequel to The Breach. Still imaginative and unique, but not as good as the first book. Too much expository dialogue, characters kind of flat this time around. Good though.


- Rules Of Prey (Lucas Davenport, #1) by John Sandford.. Been eyeing this series forever, wanted to finally dig into it because there are so many books and I heard good things. Meh, it's alright. Typical late 80s serial killer fare. Won't continue the series.

- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. One of the best books I've ever read. A post-apocalpytic story. Some people don't like the unorthodox writing, and it does take time to get used to, but once you do it takes on a poetic quality. Penetrating insight into the characters and their situation. Brilliant and beautiful.


- The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, #1) by James Dashner. Interesting and original premise, annoying as all hell characters, not enough actual maze running. It's okay, a lot of people liked this more than me.


- Hounded (Iron Druid Chronicles, #1) by Kevin Hearne. Hearne is a great writer, so many smooth sentences and a great vocabulary, but at times I hated this book. Main character was smug and weird, couldn't connect to him. Won't continue the series.


-

- The Enemy by Charlie Higson. Man did I love this book. Besides The Walking Dead, I don't really care about the zombie genre, but this knocked it out of the park. All the characters are young teens and not a single one of them is annoying. Humorous, tragic, suspenseful, action packed, and as the story progresses, surreal.


- The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice, #1) by John Flanagan. Was looking for some light young adult, but this was a little too young adult. Decent story, generally solid and charming. Overall I liked it.


- The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) by Patrick Rothfuss. Finally joined the hipsters and tackled this tome. Rothfuss is a talented and brilliant writer. So many memorable moments, great storytelling. He's also indulgent and drags shit on to a frustrating degree, and Kvothes relationship with Denna made me want to smack him. Overall, pretty awesome, but after reading negative reviews for the sequel, the Wise Man's Fear, I've decided that I'm done with this. Can't trudge through another slow-paced 1000 page book. Sorry Kvothe.

 

[Switch Back 9]

Yeah I saw the movie when it came out back in December and really loved it. Big fan of the LOTR series. I read those books when I was younger and enjoyed them--for some reason never got around to reading The Hobbit. You don't like the LOTR books?

It's not that I don't like the LOTR books, I just find the Hobbit a much more fun and entertaining read. I'm not a huge Tolkien nerd and I love that the Hobbit is pretty much a stand alone tale.

 

[Maklershed]

- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. One of the best books I've ever read. A post-apocalpytic story. Some people don't like the unorthodox writing, and it does take time to get used to, but once you do it takes on a poetic quality. Penetrating insight into the characters and their situation. Brilliant and beautiful.

Great book. One of my favorites of last year.

 

[Castle Doctrine]

Ok, this sounds cool. Been a while since I took an art history class, but I've always found it interesting.

Gombrich's conversational style hooked me from the beginning. Good for the layman. His insights into how art evolved are fascinating.

 

[Divius]

Just finished This is a Book by Demetri martin

Currently reading

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 

[LuffyZoro]

In the middle of this:

It's something I've had a hard time just picking up and reading at a given time since starting it, as I find the story so hard to just jump into and out of. It may have had to do with me starting this while I was in the middle of Roadside Picnic, which absolutely hums along at a much faster pace. That said, I absolutely love the world and the characters so far. Would love if anyone had any recommendations of similar books (thematically similar, similar plots).

I've just started this book recently after putting it off for over a year (got it for Christmas '11), and have enjoyed it so far. It does feel dense though, so reading it is slow going.

 

[markhimself46]

Just finished This is a Book by Demetri martin

Loved this book. Felt it captured his humor/stand-up perfectly. I'm going to see him at the Wilbur Theater in Boston in a couple of weeks--the same week his new book comes out actually.

 

[markhimself46]

It's not that I don't like the LOTR books, I just find the Hobbit a much more fun and entertaining read. I'm not a huge Tolkien nerd and I love that the Hobbit is pretty much a stand alone tale.

I can get behind that. All the excitement and adventure of all three LOTR books in one. Can't wait to read it.

 

[Easystride]

Just picked up Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I really enjoyed the sample and it is on sale on the Kindle store for $1.99.

 

[Ceebs]

Just picked up Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I really enjoed the sample and it is on sale on the Kindle store for $1.99.

Enjoy. Easily my favorite author.

 

[InVinoVeritas]

I think someone on GAF recommended this to me. Pretty good so far, very bleak and dark, kind of reminds me of The Stand.

 

[Lumiere]

Finished

Thanks to those who recommended it a while ago - I really liked it! Plan on reading at least the rest of the Merlin trilogy soon.

Right now I'm reading Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest. Planning to read all of her Hainish stuff.

 

[Bad7667]

Just finished Cloud Atlas and I really enjoyed it. My favourite character is Adam Ewing. The last couple paragraphs are really beautiful.

After I finished reading I watched some trailers for the movie, only ever seeing the poster for it. I was not expecting what I saw at all. Its so different from what I had imagined that I don't think I will end up enjoying it. The characters being the same really threw me off. I never pictured that at all.

Don't know what I want to start next. Its between Stranger in a Stranger Land, Ship of Fools or Blood Meridian.

Any suggestions on what I should start coming off of Cloud Atlas?

 

[gabbo]

I've just started this book recently after putting it off for over a year (got it for Christmas '11), and have enjoyed it so far. It does feel dense though, so reading it is slow going.

Flad I'm not the only one who feels that way.
Now if only GAF could let me in on the title of any similar books.

 

[Buckethead]

Unfortunately:

Just kidding, I finished it. It was terrible.

 

[eattomorro]

Finished off I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Truly a fun but thought provoking little book.

Now off to Zoo City by Lauren Beukes.

 

[sgossard]

Enjoy. Easily my favorite author.

Re: Christopher Moore, I loved Sacré Bleu but couldn't stand Bloodsucking Fiends. Can you recommend a book of his that is similar to the former?

 

[ShaneB]

Only thing I'm not liking about The Hobbit is that the chapters are so damn long I prefer jumping in and out with shorter chapters.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I'm reading "I, Zombie" by Hugh Howley at the moment (author of the wool series)

I love most of his stuff, but this I can't get. it gives the zombie perspective of whats happening, with the people essentially able to still think, but they are trapped, coherent as shambling zombies that just groan and eat.

Graphic description of injuries and pain etc make me a bit queasy actually... also, I prefer zombies NOT to have personality.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Just finished this up this weekend. Aside from the atrocious coverart, this was a really good book. At times it reminded me of 1984. I like some of the dynamics in the SF/Fantasy worlds that it treads between. I would've liked to see a different outcome between some of the characters, but that's probably just nitpicking and a little fanboyish. I'll definitely read more in Caine series at some point.

I did some quick searching online though and it seems almost impossible to find a new copy of Blade of Tyshalle. Even the used copies are going for outrageous amounts of money and I really would prefer not to read on an e-reader. Oh well, I'll just wait on it until something presents itself or I eventually get into e-readers.

 

[T.M. MacReady]

Just finished:

Not sure what I want to move on to next.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Currently reading this after looking for suggestions similar to Christopher Moore. I'm about 200 pages in, so far I like it but it's a little too scatter brained/ADD for my liking. It got better once it slowed down after the first 100 pages or so though, looking forward to finishing it.

http://i.imgur.com/E5M7w86.jpg
I think someone on GAF recommended this to me. Pretty good so far, very bleak and dark, kind of reminds me of The Stand.

One of my favorites. This reminds me, ever since I read Swan Song I've been meaning to read some other McCammon novels.

Re: Christopher Moore, I loved Sacré Bleu but couldn't stand Bloodsucking Fiends. Can you recommend a book of his that is similar to the former?

I haven't read it yet but I've heard Fool is a little similar. Not exactly similar but A Dirty Job is my favorite Moore novel, I'd definitely recommend it.

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

So I just finished this

And I don't know how I feel about it. On the one hand I absolutely love it up to the point where Harshaw sorts out the matter of property rights between Mike and the General.

But then the book changes drastically. A lot of the characters established in the first half become their polar opposites in the second. The amount of acceptance and logical leaps made for Mike's religion to become acceptable to the supporting cast seems forced. While I understand that some of my unease might be due to my inability to grapple with some of the concepts introduced in the book, which are pretty interesting, some of my unease also comes from the disjointed character development and unrealistic portrayals as the story develops.

At the end, it's a book that leaves me with much food to grok because of what it tries to get at, but it doesn't accomplish it in as effortless of a manner with which it sets up the story.

And yes, I loved Jubal Harshaw while understanding that he was nothing more than a Heinlein mouth-piece.

 

[Dorrin]

I've just started the second book in the Dresden series, Fool Moon.

 

[Lumiere]

So I just finished this

And I don't know how I feel about it. On the one hand I absolutely love it up to the point where Harshaw sorts out the matter of property rights between Mike and the General.

But then the book changes drastically. A lot of the characters established in the first half become their polar opposites in the second. The amount of acceptance and logical leaps made for Mike's religion to become acceptable to the supporting cast seems forced. While I understand that some of my unease might be due to my inability to grapple with some of the concepts introduced in the book, which are pretty interesting, some of my unease also comes from the disjointed character development and unrealistic portrayals as the story develops.

At the end, it's a book that leaves me with much food to grok because of what it tries to get at, but it doesn't accomplish it in as effortless of a manner with which it sets up the story.

And yes, I loved Jubal Harshaw while understanding that he was nothing more than a Heinlein mouth-piece.

I didn't exactly love Jubal , but did like the book up to the second part. I also didn't know how to feel about it after finishing it, but in the end my annoyance towards the second part prevailed. Looks like I can't grok it after all.

 

[Dresden]

Would anyone be interesting in doing a short fiction club, or something along those lines? Perhaps on a weekly basis. If there's some interest, I'll probably toss up a thread.

 

[Chesh]

Just finished reading Moby Dick, took me about half a year to get through. Enjoyed it overall, was a bit of a slog at times. Now I'm reading:

So far not what I expected at all!

People are always reading Blood Meridian in this thread, it's going on my list.

 

[Tenrius]

I finished Memory and it's definitely one of my favourite Vorkosigan books now. Always wanted to learn more about Simon Illyan and the new phase of the series looks promising. The overall mood was also nice.

Next up:

 

[Dresden]

Sounds cool. There might be an issue with people actually getting ahold of whatever it is.

I figure it'd be good to limit to things available for free online.

 

[Labombadog]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Just finished Chapter 1 and it has been pretty gripping so far.

 

[sparky2112]

Good layman look at DNA and the history of what it has revealed to us. The author is on RadioLab from time to time, which means I'm automatically a fan.

Man, the popular media does a crappy job of reporting on exoplanet research. This book fixes that.

 

[Castle Doctrine]

Rubicon, by Tom Holland.

I read about 1/3 of this book and at the same time started listening to The History of Rome podcast, which caused me to abandon the book. Book is pretty good but something about the writing put me off. The podcast is excellent.

 

[Dogfacedgod]

I just finished The Wheel of Time last week so now I'm reading:

 

[themadhatter444]

- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. One of the best books I've ever read. A post-apocalpytic story. Some people don't like the unorthodox writing, and it does take time to get used to, but once you do it takes on a poetic quality. Penetrating insight into the characters and their situation. Brilliant and beautiful.

I adored this book. It's beautifully written and certainly strengthened the bond between my dog and I. I took it a step further and read The Art of Racing in the Rain directly afterward though I thought it was pretty terrible.

 

[sans_pants]

just finished rendezvous with rama and bicentennial man, half way through ringworld by larry niven and slow reading nixonland

 

[Monroeski]

Just picked up Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I really enjoyed the sample and it is on sale on the Kindle store for $1.99.

Just finished reading that myself, though mine had this cover -

Lamb by Christopher Moore

Decent enough overall, but not quite as humorous as I expected (as in the sections of "serious" writing were longer and more numerous than I thought they'd be). It also got much less enjoyable towards the end IMO once Jesus starts preaching, everything got a much different feel at that point IMO.

Now reading this -

Luminarium by Alex Shakar

though we'll see if I finish it; seemed interesting when I picked it up but reviews I've read since then make it sound like it may be a bit too much of a slog.

 

[kaztar]

Cute animal stories are my guilty pleasure.

Once that's done it'll be back to finishing off the Murakami books for me

 

[Maklershed]

Finished Dune Messiah. While I recognize Dune as a beloved classic, it didn't resonate with me for some reason. Dune Messiah, however, I loved. Herbert's world was pretty dry (no pun intended!) and boring in Dune but became very interesting in Messiah. On top of being introduced to oddities such as Eldric, a face dancer, a ghola, Alia, etc it had a great story full of intense political intrigue, and a fantastic commentary on religion, heroes, and superstitions.

I plan to read Children of Dune soon but I wanted to break things up and read Red Country first


Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

 

[Salvor.Hardin]

I didn't exactly love Jubal , but did like the book up to the second part. I also didn't know how to feel about it after finishing it, but in the end my annoyance towards the second part prevailed. Looks like I can't grok it after all.

So what particularly annoyed you about the second half? Character development and the endless theological discussion are the usual complaints I've read of the book.