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What are you reading? (March 2014)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
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I'm (regrettably) reading a few different things right now.
It's not bad and it's getting better the further I read. Some stuff is finally happening BIG SPOILERS
There are some things I like and others I don't. I don't imagine he'll finish before the TV series though, nor will he wrap everything up in two books. :/
My first introduction of the Constantine character was through the movie, which I kinda liked (guilty pleasure.) When I saw the Constantine talk in the last thread(?) and how it was even better - I thought I'd give it a shot. I haven't really read anything noir (for lack of a better word) but some of lines in this book are AWESOME! Stuff like -
"The streets are hardened arteries leading to the city's dead heart..."
"She mutters off to torture more vegetables in her foul kitchen."
"Back in the flat I'm Billy the Kid and Ghengis Kahn rolled into one."
"It takes five hours. As the sun wobbles down onto the horizon, spilling its blood across the plain, like a wounded animal...we find the village."
"The root is bitter and drops into my empty stomach like gobbets of molten lava. Within moments my head is ERUPTING - smearing reality up the walls. Christ. I hate psychedelics."
"At Houston Street, I swim upwards through the human soup. Nose to the trail of memory. Turning all the familiar Greenwich Village Corners is satisfyingly painful. Like picking scabs. "
Sure it feels like something I would have written in high school. Sure it's over-the-top, but man, it's a lot of FUN!
Hope it keeps getting better!
I've got a few other books that I've kind of started, but can't really focus on right now. I miss the days where I read one book from start to finish before moving on to the next. :/
It's not bad and it's getting better the further I read. Some stuff is finally happening BIG SPOILERS
Bran finally met the Green Seer. Jon is choppin heads.
My first introduction of the Constantine character was through the movie, which I kinda liked (guilty pleasure.) When I saw the Constantine talk in the last thread(?) and how it was even better - I thought I'd give it a shot. I haven't really read anything noir (for lack of a better word) but some of lines in this book are AWESOME! Stuff like -
"The streets are hardened arteries leading to the city's dead heart..."
"She mutters off to torture more vegetables in her foul kitchen."
"Back in the flat I'm Billy the Kid and Ghengis Kahn rolled into one."
"It takes five hours. As the sun wobbles down onto the horizon, spilling its blood across the plain, like a wounded animal...we find the village."
"The root is bitter and drops into my empty stomach like gobbets of molten lava. Within moments my head is ERUPTING - smearing reality up the walls. Christ. I hate psychedelics."
"At Houston Street, I swim upwards through the human soup. Nose to the trail of memory. Turning all the familiar Greenwich Village Corners is satisfyingly painful. Like picking scabs. "
Sure it feels like something I would have written in high school. Sure it's over-the-top, but man, it's a lot of FUN!
Hope it keeps getting better!
I've got a few other books that I've kind of started, but can't really focus on right now. I miss the days where I read one book from start to finish before moving on to the next. :/
Finally finished reading Blindness yesterday. I started it alongside GAF's book club, but then I get sidetracked by other books and this really wasn't a story that I wanted to marathon reading it. Very tense and sometimes heartbreaking novel, the unique writing style was quite interesting. I liked how it was meant to be told as an actual story with some references to the narrator, but I also don't like how the text is never divided. Just barrages of walls of texts, one after the other. Anyway, looks like there is a sequel to the book, but it seems to me it's one of these things where everyone ignores its existence.
After reading Blindness I thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea if we just castrated everyone in the world.
Exactly my thoughts when I read it last year. I was also expecting it to feel a little dated due to its age but it was unexpectedly timeless.
Is there some kind of GAF group on goodreads I can join? I read a lot but forget to post in these topics most of the time
That is pretty awesome cover. I bet yet again english release will have some lame coverUnexpectedly won this book (I usually wait for the English translation), but looking forward to reading it.
I'll be waiting your impressions.Wrapped up Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks tonight. It's a summer blockbuster fantasy book; don't goo looking to deep and you'll have a good time. I did.
Now off into space with Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach, which has gotten some good reviews on Goodreads.
I read it and I enjoyed it! It made me want to play more Mass Effect afterwards, though most Space Opera's make me want to do that, haha.
You planning on jumping into the #2 book afterwards that just came out a few weeks ago, Honor's Knight?
tauroxd
Member
Finally started:
Just finished chapter 7Not a hundred pages in and my favorite character has already been killed off. That's... promising :/
I said the same thing. But keep reading. I'm at 40%.
Heh awesome! I haven't played MA3 yet, so this will probably give me the motivation, bad ending and all.
Yeah I'm gonna jump right into the second one after I read the first one. Both books have been staring at me, giving me dirty looks cuz I haven't dived into them yet. I have a huge backlog, but new books seem to give me a guilty conscience about not reading them first! Have your read the second one as well?
lastflowers
Banned
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Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Only 40% of the way through, but jesus christ, what an incredibly detailed and well-told book. Even if I don't understand the physics of it completely, I'm at least grasping it better than I have before - though I'll still need to plot out some notes to make it all certain in my head, I reckon.
I just bought this! Having read Gravity's Rainbow and The Rocket and the Reich, I grew an immense desire to read about the US development during WW2. I read the Oppenheimer biography by Ray Monk a week or so ago, and it was excellent. This is next on the docket after I brush up on some stuff for work and finish a biography of Emerson.
Not yet! I should be soon though. I had to stop everything I was doing to read and finish Words of Radiance, and I was in the middle of the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books beforehand, so probably after that. Maybe a couple weeks or so. When you finish them, let me know what you think!
Gordon0Freeman
Member
Finally finished Pandoras Star.
Thinking about jumping into one of the True Detective like books I have saved or into the Newsflesh Trilogy... Anyone read the Newsflesh Trilogy?
Thinking about jumping into one of the True Detective like books I have saved or into the Newsflesh Trilogy... Anyone read the Newsflesh Trilogy?
redhairedking
Junior Member
I'm reading The Fellowship of the Ring right now. I haven't seen any of the movies or read the books, other than The Hobbit. Surprisingly, I have somehow not been spoiled for anything.
Plasticine
Member
Finished Video Night by Adam Cesare. Didn't really care for it that much, which is disappointing. It was a relatively short book, but was a chore to slog through. The 80s nostalgia quickly wore off, leaving a pervasive flippant attitude that rubbed me the wrong way. I also thought the writing was kind of weak. Chapters and sections just ended without a hook to make me interested in what was going to happen next. The pacing was really off. It took over half the book for the lead characters to become engaged with the actual story -- I think it was actually around the 60% mark or so when it finally happened. I don't understand how this thing is so well-reviewed on Amazon and genre websites.
I'm currently reading:
I'm halfway through this, and it's been an awesome experience. Hopefully the back half lives up to the first part.
I'm currently reading:
I'm halfway through this, and it's been an awesome experience. Hopefully the back half lives up to the first part.
Soul Jelly
Neo Member
Thank you for the recs ^^
On another note and an unrelated genre, I also just read 'When I Was Five I Killed Myself' - very short but rather powerful. I thought the narrative voice was really well done, and the book generally played on my mind for a while after I put it down.
I put that on my to-read list a while ago, thanks for the positive feedback. Will bump it up the queue perhaps.
EverythingShiny
Member
Yep! I read all three. I think there are some related short stories that I haven't read. The books are decent. I got a bit annoyed at the main character at various points. It's nothing ground breaking, but it is entertaining, especially if you like zombies.
What did you think of Pandora's Star? I read that recently as well.
Tragicomedy
Member
/mindblown.gif
I really, REALLY like that book. I absolutely devoured it while I was in Afghanistan and found it strangely comforting. For better or for worse, it will always be linked with Kandahar in my mind.
Anyone else have a strange association between a book and an otherwise unrelated place?
Joyce's The Dead and London. For obvious reasons, I rarely bring it up.
"The Dead" is the final short story in the 1914 collection Dubliners by James Joyce. Dublin=Ireland. London=England
I don't know why. I just can't help it.
JoJoShabadoo
Member
Just started it. The indifference with which he narrates such important events is incredible.
brianjones
Member
just finished.. really fantastic. the other vonnegut I've read is cat's cradle which was also great. can't wait to check out more
gonna start of my first murakami next.. decent place to start?
Wrapped up Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks tonight. It's a summer blockbuster fantasy book; don't goo looking to deep and you'll have a good time. I did.
Now off into space with Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach, which has gotten some good reviews on Goodreads.
Really enjoyed this, can't wait for the next
AlimNassor
Banned
Started Words of Radiance. Not even a quarter through, and I fucking love it.
Gordon0Freeman
Member
It was all right. Took me forever to read because it dragged on and it never really grabbed me like say House of Suns. I downed that in a week. So I'm still indecisive about continuing the series (Commonwealth). But I loved reading reading about the Commonwealth and all the different planets so we'll see
I'm 5% in right now and I'm already having to re-read several sections to get the gist of what's going on. I'm such a philistine when it comes to science.
EverythingShiny
Member
I felt the same way. For what it's worth, I've heard that the next book, Judas Unchained, is faster paced and is the payoff for making it through Pandora's Star. I'll get around to reading it soon, I hope.
Also, thanks for mentioning House of Suns - I hadn't heard of it before, but I just looked it up and it sounds really good!
Hrmm, bought that a while back on a kindle daily deal. I am pretty ignorant of science, but definitely interested in the history, so we will see how it goes. Will probably give it a shot when it becomes the book of the month
Gordon0Freeman
Member
Yea I've heard good things about Judas too.
You should definitely give HoS a read. My favorite scifi book. I'm hopeful that Reynolds returns to that universe some day
I gave up on the kindle cos flipping through it is a bitch. Going to order a hard copy and keep it on hand to flip through it.
Started with Malazan earlier but it's been going slugishly for me, bot because I dislike it but because it's a bit complicated. So, I started listening to The Way of Kings audiobook whenever I could and have been going through it extremely fast, it's such a great and entertaining book, it's really making me start to like Sanderson as an author. I will definitely check Mistborn once I'm done with the stuff currently on my plate.
roosters93
Member
Finished The Book Thief in a couple of days. At first I wasn't really feeling it but I came round by the end.
not to be that guy but the ending seems a little too positive
Now onto The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I've already read This is How You Lose Her so I have some idea of what I'm in for.
gonna start of my first murakami next.. decent place to start?
That's where I'm starting too, so based off nothing else yes
Ventilaator
Banned
Wow. Talk about a title that instantly makes me interested in what it's about.
Wrapped up Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks tonight. It's a summer blockbuster fantasy book; don't goo looking to deep and you'll have a good time. I did.
Now off into space with Fortune's Pawn by Rachel Bach, which has gotten some good reviews on Goodreads.
Btw, I like this cover for the book a lot, because my FemShep in ME3 has red hair like her here, haha. I'm not sure where the cover is from though, everywhere I see uses the cover you posted.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Felt the same way about Pandora's Star. I never went back to read the sequel.
That other cover than the one I posted is awesome! Wonder why they didn't go with it?
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Because reading six books at a time isn't enough, I decided to read The Psychopath Test because I didn't want to watch his TED talk if I own the book.
It's quite pleasant so far. And quick / short, which is nice for a change.
It's quite pleasant so far. And quick / short, which is nice for a change.
The real Butters
Member
I just wished I could sit down and read more than I do. Dang electrics keeping me away!
Right now.
On it's way.
Right now.
On it's way.
Just recently found a bookseller that has lots of Alastair Reynolds for sale at lower-than-normal prices. Older editions, but that doesn't matter. Currently reading:
Next will be either more Reynolds, or a book about rebuilding Japan after WW2 if my friend finishes it sometime soon.
truly amazing.
Incandenza
Banned
Seeing all you guys reading Way of Kings is giving me a real serious fantasy craving. I think I'm gonna have to start my ASoIaF reread soon...
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