Trent Strong
Banned
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I don't think I'm smart enough to read this. The writing style is brutal.
I see what you did thereJust finished reading L'Étranger by Albert Camus few days ago. Or maybe it was yesterday. I can't be sure.
I see what you did there
I'm a huge Camus fan and would recommend anything he has ever written. La peste (I think it's called the plague in English) is my personal favorite, but as I said, everything is at least worthy of being called good.
I read an article that Stoner recently became extremely popular in Europe but I can't remember the catalyst.
I never gave a damn about Halo universe, but I love the precursors/ancients trope in sci-fi and most of all Greg Bear rarely dissapoints.
I read an article that Stoner recently became extremely popular in Europe but I can't remember the catalyst.
I don't know about that, but there's definitely still a lot left to recommend.
Yeah, can confirm that for Germany. It got a new edition at the end of last year and was very well received (talking critics here, of course, so maybe that's not what you meant by "popular")
Just finished The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass and now I don't know what to read next. I don't want to immediately start Dark Tower V, I'd rather read something shorter next. Not really sure what though.
Can anybody recommand me something in the vein of Fahrenheit 431, Brave New World, 1984 or Clockwork Orange?
Also finished The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham and absolutely loved it. Short and to the point but filled to the brim with feels. Love his writing.
Just finished The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass and now I don't know what to read next. I don't want to immediately start Dark Tower V, I'd rather read something shorter next. Not really sure what though.Can anybody recommand me something in the vein of Fahrenheit 431, Brave New World, 1984 or Clockwork Orange?
We by Zamyatin
This comes to mind.
This Perfect Day by Ira Levin[/url]
Thanks, I'll try this.
For some reason this is not available for my Kindle yet, but I can preorder it when it comes out on August 21....
Finished Way of Kings - now officially my 2nd favorite fantasy novel. Can't wait to read book 2.
I'm currently working on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I really like it but I am constantly bewildered by that enjoyment. When writing excuses plugged it, they described it as "The best boring book ever" and I understand what they meant completely. It feels like I am going nowhere and I am completely fine with every moment of it. A mystery wrapped in an enigma.
I'm holding off starting them because I don't know if I can stomach 15 or 20 years of waiting to go through a full series. There's enough to read in the meantime.... I'll consider reading them when I run out of malazan books.
People who read wheel of time or are reading A song of ice and fire are probably laughing at me.
Hey at least Malazan is finishedGRRM IM LOOKIN AT YOU
Yup, that's why it's my reading priority. I'm sure the side-novels produced by the other author are good, and are gonna be ongoing for a while, but at least I have a core mega-arc with some resolution.
EDIT: and because I ran out of black company books a long time ago.
Though I think at this point I like Malazan better. Probably. TBC is a pretty amazing bunch of stories.
The ICE books are good. Not as good though.
Erikson is supposed to be working on a Karsa Orling trilogoy and the Forge of Darkness books are also great. Forge is a precursor to all of Malazan and you should totally read it AFTER the Malazan series. Its got all of the spoilers for everything.
Trying out some new stuff that I'm not that used to. I liked Seamus Heaney translation of Beowulf so I went with something by him and read through Human Chain, collection of poems. I'd say most of them went over my head, seems like my vocabulary knowledge isn't up to par with his writing. I feel like I need to explore some more poets, maybe read some anthology to find someone I can enjoy, I also read Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish which I enjoyed a lot. Written in rhythmic verses that probably seems like a gimmicky writing style, but I liked it.
It also looks like I finished my Goodreads challenge for the year. Put down 20 books and now I'm done so I guess no more reading stuff till 2015. I should probably look into increasing the count for next year.
Interesting. After reading this it seems that it got tons of praise in America after it was re-released in 2006, and kinda exploded (critically and a bit of popularity) in Europe thanks to it being released in a few territories and excellent press where it already was released, probably thanks to new editions like you mention.
I honestly never heard of the author or the book, and just read it because my brother highly recommended it. I am glad I did.
My next book, not surprisingly, will be
If you have not bought a copy yet NYRB is releasing a new edition some time this year.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590178211/?tag=neogaf0e-20
I'm holding off starting them because I don't know if I can stomach 15 or 20 years of waiting to go through a full series. There's enough to read in the meantime.... I'll consider reading them when I run out of malazan books.
People who read wheel of time or are reading A song of ice and fire are probably laughing at me.
My friend thinks the same. He liked Sanderson's books well enough but he can't bring himself to start the Stormlight Archive.
Waiting for ASOAIF to end is painful enough, for both him and me.
Starting reading a long series is difficult. Especially so if it is still work in progress, but even otherwise... The Wheel of Time taught me this, by having a couple of really, really bad books.
The thing is, i love long series, i rarely really connect with shorter stuff. The more there is, the more real it feels, i think. Though of course if a short series or even a single book feels real enough, it is enough for me, i think. Unfortunately such ones are very rare. Worldbuilding is very important for me, as much if not even more important than the characters and plot/story.
But bad books, even weak ones (can) hurt too much. Though i'm not sure how to define a weak book, aside from obvious issues like really bad writing, i never had issues with the last two ASOAIF books, the latter is perhaps a tad slow and uses the same trick too often but it is nowhere near as horrible as that one Wheel of Time book (Crossroads of Twilight or some such).
I wonder if weathering bad books is easier if you're reading a long series... On one hand, you are already invested and you know the author can do better. On the other hand, there are no guarantees the author manages to bring the series back to the level it was before (Robert Jordan managed this with the final WOT book he wrote, and Sanderson's finale trio for the series is good).
I tried reading Malazan but the first book didn't hook me. It was good enough that i read it and liked it okay but nothing made me like it so much i'd want to read more of it.
Perhaps i will re-read it to see if i get more out of it when reading it again. I doubt that though.
Lately i've been re-reading books i have and i've realized re-reading books is kind of boring. I don't know if i remember things too well or what but i need something new (fantasy, i've given up on finding scifi i'd like and haven't read yet, aside a few exceptions i'm interested in but can't find anywhere).
And so, i ask, once again, for recommendations. Picking something blindly doesn't work for me really. And reading reviews doesn't help me either, people give either one or five stars, and they either have only praise or derision for books. Perhaps i read wrong reviews but can't figure out where to find good ones.
EDIT doesn't help that i have basically two days to find something. Libraries here are no help, English fantasy is nigh-nonexistent and they don't translate enough to Finnish, most certainly not the interesting ones.
(Of previous ones, i can recall that Wolfe guy's books being recommended. Also Dark Tower but i shot that down based on what i know about it, i'm very particular about fantasy being fantasy, don't really like crossing it with real world, or scifi for that matter (i don't oppose fantasy setting expanding to space and becoming a space fantasy, but i'm super skeptical whether anyone can pull that off in a way i like it).)
Really enjoying the audio book of Bill Bryson's One Summer.
I didn't dislike it. I found it okay but not good enough to hook me. EDIT also, the author's foreword didn't help any. That egoistical claim of the book either sucking the reader in by 1/3rd and reading the rest of the series or giving up there... ugh.I'm surprised you didnt like Mazalan. Thats basically all world building. Personally, I didnt like it since I feel that the characters are driven by the plot and the plot isnt driven by the characters (were pretty weak too). And I felt that the world building was complex just for the sake of being complex, i.e. pointless.
I recommend:
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Its one of the best fantasy novels that Ive read
Riyria Revelations by Sullivan is also very good and simply good fun
I didn't dislike it. I found it okay but not good enough to hook me. EDIT also, the author's foreword didn't help any. That egoistical claim of the book either sucking the reader in by 1/3rd and reading the rest of the series or giving up there... ugh.
I don't think it was complex, i think it was complicated (complex is good for of complicated. Kind of.). And that was an issue, it jumped from character to character and didn't have enough time for them.
And what you say about the plot driving the characters... yeah, i can see that.
Anyway, i will give the book a re-read.
Also, your comments are useful for some... introspection. When planning RPG campaigns (and that's mostly planning), i put the plot to forefront too much, wanting to ignore that the players shape things so much... But i digress, again.
I'll write those recommendations down. I figure that if i get perhaps 5 recommendations, i will find at least one of them (i once went to a book store with a list of 3 or 4 books and didn't find a single one of them).
I don't have a smartphone, nor have any use for one. Except when in a bookstore, i want to check things about books or ask about them...
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I don't think I'm smart enough to read this. The writing style is brutal.
My friend thinks the same. He liked Sanderson's books well enough but he can't bring himself to start the Stormlight Archive.
Waiting for ASOAIF to end is painful enough, for both him and me.
Starting reading a long series is difficult. Especially so if it is still work in progress, but even otherwise... The Wheel of Time taught me this, by having a couple of really, really bad books.
The thing is, i love long series, i rarely really connect with shorter stuff. The more there is, the more real it feels, i think. Though of course if a short series or even a single book feels real enough, it is enough for me, i think. Unfortunately such ones are very rare. Worldbuilding is very important for me, as much if not even more important than the characters and plot/story.
But bad books, even weak ones (can) hurt too much. Though i'm not sure how to define a weak book, aside from obvious issues like really bad writing, i never had issues with the last two ASOAIF books, the latter is perhaps a tad slow and uses the same trick too often but it is nowhere near as horrible as that one Wheel of Time book (Crossroads of Twilight or some such).
I wonder if weathering bad books is easier if you're reading a long series... On one hand, you are already invested and you know the author can do better. On the other hand, there are no guarantees the author manages to bring the series back to the level it was before (Robert Jordan managed this with the final WOT book he wrote, and Sanderson's finale trio for the series is good).
I tried reading Malazan but the first book didn't hook me. It was good enough that i read it and liked it okay but nothing made me like it so much i'd want to read more of it.
Perhaps i will re-read it to see if i get more out of it when reading it again. I doubt that though.
Lately i've been re-reading books i have and i've realized re-reading books is kind of boring. I don't know if i remember things too well or what but i need something new (fantasy, i've given up on finding scifi i'd like and haven't read yet, aside a few exceptions i'm interested in but can't find anywhere).
And so, i ask, once again, for recommendations. Picking something blindly doesn't work for me really. And reading reviews doesn't help me either, people give either one or five stars, and they either have only praise or derision for books. Perhaps i read wrong reviews but can't figure out where to find good ones.
EDIT doesn't help that i have basically two days to find something. Libraries here are no help, English fantasy is nigh-nonexistent and they don't translate enough to Finnish, most certainly not the interesting ones.
(Of previous ones, i can recall that Wolfe guy's books being recommended. Also Dark Tower but i shot that down based on what i know about it, i'm very particular about fantasy being fantasy, don't really like crossing it with real world, or scifi for that matter (i don't oppose fantasy setting expanding to space and becoming a space fantasy, but i'm super skeptical whether anyone can pull that off in a way i like it).)
I recommend:
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. Its one of the best fantasy novels that Ive read
Riyria Revelations by Sullivan is also very good and simply good fun
I don't think there'd be a problem with that. Please share.I'm currently reading my wife's first book which I'm really getting in to, I'm not a big reader but so far it's really good (I'm probably biased!). I didn't want to put an Amazon link up in case it gets me into trouble for shamelessly plugging it! If that's allowed, please say
It's a paranormal fantasy set in Victorian London.