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What are you reading? (May 2013)
- Thread starter Maklershed
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Finished - The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini: Really beautiful book, some of it was way too emotionally-intense at times though, had to put down the book a few times because of it, ending was deliciously bittersweet.
Now Reading - Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey - Basically lots of great anecodotes from Cowhey from her teaching career, sort of presented like a teaching textbook for pre-service teachers like me to learn from, but has a narrative flow to it which makes it really easy to read through, some of the stories here are so postively inspiring, and have the element I really want to explore in my future class-rooms :0
Now Reading - Black Ants and Buddhists by Mary Cowhey - Basically lots of great anecodotes from Cowhey from her teaching career, sort of presented like a teaching textbook for pre-service teachers like me to learn from, but has a narrative flow to it which makes it really easy to read through, some of the stories here are so postively inspiring, and have the element I really want to explore in my future class-rooms :0
Grenouille
Member
(David Copperfield)
SuperEpicMan
Banned
Just finished:
You seem to have the same taste in books as me
, I just finished American Gods, and have been looking for a copy of End of Eternity to read.Just finished...
Mostly abysmal.
Simmons somehow takes his fantastic mercurial universe and explains its wonders and mysteries to the point of dessication. And what he doesn't kill with exposition, he outright retcons. And what's with all the creepy sex scenes? And pages of descriptions of places and things that don't fucking matter? And the chapters of info dump? And the threadbare plot that somehow comprises 700 pages?
I wish I would have stopped after Fall of Hyperion.
Mostly abysmal.
Simmons somehow takes his fantastic mercurial universe and explains its wonders and mysteries to the point of dessication. And what he doesn't kill with exposition, he outright retcons. And what's with all the creepy sex scenes? And pages of descriptions of places and things that don't fucking matter? And the chapters of info dump? And the threadbare plot that somehow comprises 700 pages?
I wish I would have stopped after Fall of Hyperion.
The Culture Vulture
Member
I'm slowly.... sloooowly making my way through Clash of Kings. Just pased the 80% mark. I love these books, but man I miss the days when it felt like I was moving from book to book pretty swiftly.
81% done Storm of Swords. Great book but feel like I have been at it forever.
I'm glad that's where I stopped. Every time I think of reading the next one I see a post like this and think that I've made the right decision.
I'm trying to decide whether to read The Long Price Quartet, The Amber Chronicles, or The Gormenghast Trilogy next. Any thoughts?
I'm slowly.... sloooowly making my way through Clash of Kings. Just pased the 80% mark. I love these books, but man I miss the days when it felt like I was moving from book to book pretty swiftly.
Same here! Actually at around the same part of the book, too. I don't read as much at home anymore so most of my reading is limited to breaks + lunch time at work. It's so good.
It's a quite old Portuguese to English phrase/guide book that was written to teach students in Portugal the English language. The reason I'm reading it is that it was written by a man who didn't know English using a Portuguese to French guidebook followed by a English-French dictionary. According to some sources I've read there's a good chance the author didn't know French either. Here's a free version.
Just finished...
Mostly abysmal.
Simmons somehow takes his fantastic mercurial universe and explains its wonders and mysteries to the point of dessication. And what he doesn't kill with exposition, he outright retcons. And what's with all the creepy sex scenes? And pages of descriptions of places and things that don't fucking matter? And the chapters of info dump? And the threadbare plot that somehow comprises 700 pages?
I wish I would have stopped after Fall of Hyperion.
I haven't read this one yet, and I certainly enjoyed the first two, but I have to say that I think this series is kind of overrated.
Usually people act like the Hyperion series is Dan Simmons' greatest achievement as a writer. I personally think his horror novels are better. It's been a while since I read them, but from my recollection, Carrion Comfort and Summer of Night are both amazing, and better than either of the first two Hyperion books.
Neffarias_Bredd
Member
I haven't read the last two, but I loved the Long Price Quartet so I'd recommend that
Oh you made the right decision all right. Endymion is kinda fun but tedious, and Rise is just excruciating in the tedium department. And it explains a lot about the universe without ever enriching your understanding of the series as a whole, and in many cases, actually damages that understanding.
Ugh.
Summer of Night was amazing. It looked like your basic potboiler horror novel yet managed to still creep the living beejeezus out of me. Yet in true Simmons style, he had to write a sequel-A Winter Haunting-- that I thought completely gutted the previous book. It's a curious way to manage a career. Still, I admire the man. The Terror was wonderful.
Still making my way through Leviathan Wakes. Add my voice to the strong GAF chorus about how much fun it is. I think I"m in love with Naomi.
I picked up both of those books used not too long ago, along with Song of Kali. Look forward to checking them out, although I think I need a break from the guy.
I agree in that I don't think the Hyperion books are AS amazing as a lot of people say, but strangely the mediocrity of the Endymion books has me appreciating them more. Their plotting is dense and consistently engaging, unlike Endymion which boils down to a chase scene spread across many planets and a thousand pages. I really think Simmons just got bored and only wrote them out of obligation.
Mackenzie 92
Member
eattomorro
Neo Member
Yeah some of the references come at you outta left field, but that doesn't phase me at all, I just go with it. Haha, and it looks like there are three different English editions with different covers for each. I guess the publishers really want this series to be successful here.
Yay a Russian woman makes the first nondepressing Russian novel.
eattomorro
Neo Member
I've only read the first Gormenghast book and can tell you it's a deep, lyrical, beauty you have to give yourself up to. And dry, bring a bottle of water.
I recently read Long Price Quartet and really enjoyed it. Interesting characters and a fresh and unique magic system.
Typhoon_Ex
Member
Just started it, so far so good.
Isn't there a new one coming out this summer?
sparky2112
Member
Still (barely) reading The Way of Kings by Sanderson. Yes, I'm only about 100 pages into a 1,000 page novel, but I'm just not feeling any narrative drive to this. Fantasy is so hit and miss with me. When I'm feelin' it, I binge read more than I do in any other genre. When I'm not, it's a slog with breaks to read other stuff. I think I'm in the latter territory here...
TimeEffect
Member
[/URL]
Still making my way through Leviathan Wakes. Add my voice to the strong GAF chorus about how much fun it is. I think I"m in love with Naomi.
It's so good. I love the entire crew as well, great chemistry between all the characters. Amos is hilarious. I'm trying to roadmap my ASoIaF reading to be ready for when Abbadon's Gate is released in a month.
Yeah, I don't read much at home either, but now with warm weather coming, I think I'll be spending more time out on the balcony in the evenings reading. I should finish Clash of Kings today
edit: Clash of Kings finished. Moving on to Storm of Swords!I finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, and it's a decent, short read. The novel is one-way conversation between a Pakistani man and an American man, strangers to one another, in a cafe in Lahore, Pakistan. The Pakistani guy is telling his story of going to school and working in America around the time of the 9/11 attacks, all the while trying to ease the tension with the American. The storyteller discusses his growing unease and inner conflicts with his station in life.
I'm currently about a hundred pages into The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's not too interesting so far, but it's picking up.
I'm currently about a hundred pages into The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's not too interesting so far, but it's picking up.
I tried to read a Kevin J. Anderson Star Wars book once. There was a scene where Luke wanders into Ben's old place and says "Obi Wan, you're my only hope." I thought, hey, look, Luke's cracking wise, repeating Leia's line from the hologram message. What a guy, that Luke.
But no. This was a Serious Moment. This was the moment where the John Williams soundtrack would have swelled, and I was meant to have a deep feeling of feelingness.
Instead, I thought, "You bloody hack."
I put the book down then, and never went back.
The Culture Vulture
Member
Enjoy/Be afraid
DarkChronic
Member
I only have a 100 pages left and that's really upsetting me. I had heard this book was a major disappointment but I didn't find that to be the case at all. Yes, the characters a Mary Sue. I don't care. I've devoured the first 1000 pages and I just want more. I'm sure there's no clue as to when the third one is planned to come out. Is there?
Right on, dude. The two books are just excellent - they really struck a chord with me. I hope we get something on book 3 soon...
Last Visible Dog
Banned
Moving nicely through the Culture books
Consider Phlebas 7/10
Player of Games 8/10
currently really enjoying Use of Weapons
Consider Phlebas 7/10
Player of Games 8/10
currently really enjoying Use of Weapons
Ugh, over 1000 pages
This is gonna take forever. Hopefully I can make a big dent in it this weekend. No plans, so think I'll enjoy the nice weather and spend the afternoons out on my balcony reading.
I finished Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls which I really enjoyed and was a great thing to read while visiting my father-in-law at the hospital since he was falling in and out of sleep so often. I'm just about done with 1984 and decided to give Ayn Rand a try so I also started We The Living. I didn't realize at the time how well they match up together, a nice combo meal of opressive governments if you will.
just started.
Careful. You're reading a story in the best of the best category.
So many reading The Name of the Wind so decided to blast through it. Enjoyed it so i've already downloaded the next one on my kindle.
Did get kind of tired of
Did get kind of tired of
kvothe running out of money and thinking about tuition/debt, then aquiring talents and thinking about how he was going to spend them. Got a bit boring. Also people blush a lot in this world. Bunch of red faced wimps.
finished the orphan masters son by adam johnson, which is about the life of a . i thought it was pretty good, it's a hefty story and very inventive as it blends a ton of genres and splits the narrative at times and does a great job of making all that come together and feel satisfying and gripping. what it has to say about the nature of identity, communication and intimacy in north korea where the state is part of absolutely everything is evocative too.
that said reading nothing to envy a few months before did lessen the emotional impact, it's a very fantastical, clearly crafted tale of one person who has a huge amount of over the top things happen to him in his life and this sort of took me out of it emotionally compared to the grounded grueling reality of life in rural north korea that i'd read about. funnily enough despite knowing everyone escapes in nothing to envy, because how else would their stories be told to the author, i felt more afraid for them than i did for any of the characters in this book.
that said reading nothing to envy a few months before did lessen the emotional impact, it's a very fantastical, clearly crafted tale of one person who has a huge amount of over the top things happen to him in his life and this sort of took me out of it emotionally compared to the grounded grueling reality of life in rural north korea that i'd read about. funnily enough despite knowing everyone escapes in nothing to envy, because how else would their stories be told to the author, i felt more afraid for them than i did for any of the characters in this book.
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