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[Monroeski]

Yeah I felt the same about Ready Player One. I'm glad someone wrote that book and it was fun while I was reading it, but it did feel very dumbed down. Like if someone wore a shirt with a 1up mushroom on it but also had the explanation of what it was below the picture.

Do find House of Leaves scary at all? I didn't think so while reading it, but it did give me trippy dreams because I would read it before bed.

Not finding it scary, really, just very interesting (the term "gripping" comes to mind, but that feels a bit strong).

Honestly, though, I can't remember ever reading a book that made me "scared." Just doesn't work in that medium for me. I tend to find stuff that is supposed to be scary either boring, like how a slasher flick wouldn't translate to text for me, or simply interesting, like in House of Leaves' descriptions of

Spoiler

the maze; dark, featureless, ever changing, perhaps based on occupants' emotions, etc. It had all of my attention because it's just cool, not because it's scary.

 

[KingGondo]

I read The Hot Zone when I was about 11, and it scared the shit out of me.

So did parts of The Stand and It.

Lovecraft's stories are the closest I've come to being "scared" reading since then, but the reaction it gets from me is more aptly described as "dread."

 

[T.M. MacReady]

That's from one of the writers of kissingsuzykolber.com, isn't it? Love that blog, what's the book like (style & content)?

Yeah, its by Drew Magary of Deadspin and KSK.

It's a traditional novel of sorts, with regular chapters as well as some chapters that are in the form of blogs/news feeds to keep up with the story without the narrator having to tell you everything else thats going on in the world.

I think I did a poor job explaining it! But check it out!

 

[T.M. MacReady]

Almost finished with this

"1922" was good, and "Fair Extension" was excellent, despite being quite short.

 

[siaoliao]

Currently reading The Devil in the White City and Babbitt

I've heard good things about The Devil in the White City. I've had it for a while and still haven't gotten to it but I plan to in the next month.

I've finally (had the book for about 10 years) started reading Stanislaw Lem's A Perfect Vacuum, a collection of his reviews on nonexistent books.

I've only read two reviews so far: Idiota, which is a novel by an Italian author written, contrary, in the vein of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot; and U-Write-It, basically a social commentary on an "erector-set kit" that lets people construct stories reusing content from the literary greats, and how academics freak over the layperson destroying literary history but Joe Schmoe doesn't really care because he can't tell a whit between Tolstoy and some copy/paste degradation.

 

[nakedsushi]

Man, if you've never found books scary, you need to trade in your imagination for one that's more vivid!

I'd really like a suggestion for a scary "I don't want to turn off the lights" book. I haven't found many books scary like that at all. I read House of Leaves because I thought it would be that, but it was merely weird. The scariest book I read lately was Columbine and it was only scary because of how batshit crazy the two shooters were.

 

[meadowrag]

I recently started A Farewell to Arms.
It is the first of Hemingway I've ever read.
At first I HATED it. I despised his writing style, it just pissed me off because there didn't seem to be any style or thought or beauty to it at all. His writing is like that of a 4th grader.
But then for some reason I still can't figure out, I found it harder and harder to put the book down. Now I'm about 150 pages in and am pretty hooked.

Does he remind anyone else of Kerouac a little bit? Not so much in content, but in terms of delivery.

 

[Nymerio]

Still reading Stephen Kings "IT". I'm at about 40% and once I'm finished I think I'll get started on the Shadowlance trilogy because I'm a sucker for GAF recommendations:

I love you. And, I will even break my no quoting of images rule for this post, because Dalglish fucking rocks and deserves any readers he can get.

 

[Mgoblue201]

Moby Dick

Finally getting around to reading the free ebooks I put on my Kindle. I'm loving the dry humor and the little asides about life. Good stuff.

Moby Dick isn't known for its humor, but I thought that certain chapters, such as the introduction of Queequeg and Stubbs's dinner, were genuinely funny. Unfortunately, it's overwhelmed by the humorless elements of the book.

 

[i_am_ben]

Just finished 'the Forever War'

it was fucking awful

 

[Sobriquet]

I'm reading through all of the Dark Tower books. Currently about 100 pages into Song of Susannah.

 

[demon]

Just finished 'the Forever War'

it was fucking awful

Really? I just bought that book and thought I would read it after I finish my current one. Why didn't you like it?

-edit-
wait, there are two The Forever Wars. Which one are you referring to? Haldeman or Filkins?

 

[i_am_ben]

Really? I just bought that book and thought I would read it after I finish my current one. Why didn't you like it?

-edit-
wait, there are two The Forever Wars. Which one are you referring to? Haldeman or Filkins?

the haldeman one.

The central premise, that travelling to distant planets can take centuries, is interesting. However, the world building, characters and plot are all fairly boring.

It felt like a wasted opportunity.

 

[Monroeski]

::edit::
double post. I really need to try a new browser on this phone.

 

[omgkitty]

.

 

[Monroeski]

Man, if you've never found books scary, you need to trade in your imagination for one that's more vivid!

In my defense, I just tend to stay away from the genre. I VERY rarely ever try horror books. I've gotten plenty of feelings of suspense out of novels before, but is never say I was scared.

Recommendations?

 

[nakedsushi]

I recently started A Farewell to Arms.
It is the first of Hemingway I've ever read.
At first I HATED it. I despised his writing style, it just pissed me off because there didn't seem to be any style or thought or beauty to it at all. His writing is like that of a 4th grader.
But then for some reason I still can't figure out, I found it harder and harder to put the book down. Now I'm about 150 pages in and am pretty hooked.

Does he remind anyone else of Kerouac a little bit? Not so much in content, but in terms of delivery.

I haven't read any Kerouac, but what appeals to me about Hemingway's writing *is* that it's very sparse and straight forward so that when he does choose to embellish a bit by using an extra adjective of adverb, it means he really wants to emphasize that part.

I just finished my 2011 reading challenge of 75 books. Woohoo! Maybe I'll up it and try to beat last year's 81.

 

[Burger]

Just loving this series, read the first one last week, and expect to finish the above this weekend.

 

[Almyn]

Just loving this series, read the first one last week, and expect to finish the above this weekend.

I finished the first book yesterday. It was great overall, Although I didn't like the ending so much. I have read a lot of negative comments on the second book though and it has put me off jumping straight in to the second part right away.

Going with this instead.

 

[RoH]

Halo: Glass Lands

 

[Awesome Animals]

After I finished Ready Player One, I went to look up some Murakami after seeing the 1Q84 thread, and also seeing that that isn't the Murakami book to start with. I then saw the book, The Windup Girl, saw that it won the Nebula Award in 2010, and saw that it was $7 for the Kindle. Without knowing anything else about it, I picked it up and began reading. I just finished the first chapter, but I am certainly curious about what's going on so far.

The Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi

 

[ultron87]

I finished the first book yesterday. It was great overall, Although I didn't like the ending so much. I have read a lot of negative comments on the second book though and it has put me off jumping straight in to the second part right away.

The second book is alright. It just drags a lot in the middle.

I'm about halfway through the third one and it is much snappier.

 

[Fjordson]

I just finished my 2011 reading challenge of 75 books. Woohoo! Maybe I'll up it and try to beat last year's 81.

Holy shit! That's awesome. I'm only at 14 for this year. One off my goal of 15 :lol

 

[rocksteady1983]

Still trudging my way through The House on the Borderland. Slowly but surely.

 

[PhoenixSFT]

After I finished Ready Player One, I went to look up some Murakami after seeing the 1Q84 thread, and also seeing that that isn't the Murakami book to start with. I then saw the book, The Windup Girl, saw that it won the Nebula Award in 2010, and saw that it was $7 for the Kindle. Without knowing anything else about it, I picked it up and began reading. I just finished the first chapter, but I am certainly curious about what's going on so far.

The Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi

I have a paper copy of Windup Girl, but couldn't really get into it. I just did not give a fuck about what genes were used to create the fruit the MC is talking about in the beginning.

 

[Mumei]

I haven't read any Kerouac, but what appeals to me about Hemingway's writing *is* that it's very sparse and straight forward so that when he does choose to embellish a bit by using an extra adjective of adverb, it means he really wants to emphasize that part.

I just finished my 2011 reading challenge of 75 books. Woohoo! Maybe I'll up it and try to beat last year's 81.

Impressive!

I have been setting and upping my goal as I've reached them (I was initially too conservative since I hadn't thought of books that I read before setting the goal when I first set it, so every time I caught up, I would just increase the goal so that I'd be on target for that goal. When I caught up again, rinse and repeat. I'm at 73/75 now myself).

 

[Tesseract]

rubicon. so good.

 

[Cactus]

Just finished Gulliver's Travels, which was both hilarious and unsettling. Definitely something I'd recommend to any avid reader.

I'm about to start...

 

[8BitsAtATime]

I'll be reading these this weekend and next week.

 

[Scythian Empire]

Beowulf
Dante's Inferno
Metamorphoses
Frankenstein

Studying English can suck sometimes

 

[coldvein]

just started the stranger by albert camus. hope to finish it today, as well.

 

[8BitsAtATime]

just started the stranger by albert camus. hope to finish it today, as well.

I loved the stranger!! I must have read it 4 or 5 times in high school.

 

[Boozeroony]

Dutch/Flemish-GAF knows wassap!

 

[charlemagne]

Finished A Storm of Swords late last night. Wow. Going to take a break before reading A Feast for Crows though, I want to start reading Inheritance as soon as it arrives later on next week.

 

[Salazar]

Children of the Sun, by Martin Green. It's a chronicle of 20th century literary dandyism in Britain. Pretty good.

Not Entitled, by Frank Kermode. Terrific memoir. Dearly missed critic.

 

[Ceebs]

Reading this when I am taking a break from NaNoWriMo.

For the guys talking about the Mistborn books, the 2nd is by far the weakest up until the last act. It does the whole dark middle of a trilogy thing. The last book is more enjoyable but neither are anywhere near as good as the first book.

 

[BorkBork]

I've finally (had the book for about 10 years) started reading Stanislaw Lem's A Perfect Vacuum, a collection of his reviews on nonexistent books.

I've only read two reviews so far: Idiota, which is a novel by an Italian author written, contrary, in the vein of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot; and U-Write-It, basically a social commentary on an "erector-set kit" that lets people construct stories reusing content from the literary greats, and how academics freak over the layperson destroying literary history but Joe Schmoe doesn't really care because he can't tell a whit between Tolstoy and some copy/paste degradation.

Saw this in the used bookstore the other day, almost bought it. Lem just has some awesome concepts (The Cyberiad was a riot). I'd like to read your impressions after you finish with it.

 

[bengraven]

Just reading source material for my NaNoWriMo novel.

 

[aerts1js]

I'd really like a suggestion for a scary "I don't want to turn off the lights" book. I haven't found many books scary like that at all. I read House of Leaves because I thought it would be that, but it was merely weird. The scariest book I read lately was Columbine and it was only scary because of how batshit crazy the two shooters were.

The only book that has ever really scared me was Bag of Bones by Stephen King. I'm not sure why that one in particular did it (I've read a lot of his work) but it did.

edit: I also have read House of Leaves a few months ago. It was weird, but too long and not exactly scary.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

I remember The Witching Hour by Anne Rice being scary.

 

[thomaser]

Beowulf
Dante's Inferno
Metamorphoses
Frankenstein

Studying English can suck sometimes

Why? Those are four great books. The Dante trilogy is very difficult, though, if you don't have a good reference guide.

Studying English myself. Right now I'm trying to read both "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and write an assignment on Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape".

 

[Gilby]

I think I'm gonna give Ridley Walker a try, anyone here read it? It seems similar to Canticle for Leibowitz, which I also have not read yet, but intend to one day.

 

[Narag]

Knocked out A Feast for Crows recently. Think I'll hold off before A Dance with Dragons and check out some other stuff on the to-read list.

 

[Dresden]

Finished it tonight. It was quite a journey. I'm not that familiar with British history so all the stories behind Thomas Cromwell's rise and the decline of the Church was pretty fascinating stuff. Wasn't as happy about the end - I appreciate how it ends with Thomas More's fall as sort of a capping point in the struggle between the religious and the more secularist advocates of Lutheran/English bible, but I'd hoped instead to see more of Cromwell's dealings instead of the end coming rather abruptly, feeling more like an interruption than a finale.

Really liked it though.

 

[demon]

Saw this in the used bookstore the other day, almost bought it. Lem just has some awesome concepts (The Cyberiad was a riot). I'd like to read your impressions after you finish with it.

Never read any Lem but I've had The Futurological Congress sitting on my bookshelf for months. It's a short book but it sounds like a lot of his stuff is pretty dense and not a fast read. Is this generally true?

 

[MotionBlue]

Finally finished "Hero of Ages" by Brandon Sanderson. Better than the second book, worse than the first. Had some nice surprises, but felt rushed at certain points.

Spoiler

Sazed's epiphany about choice and faith felt very forced to me.

 

[Devil Theory]

 

[thetechkid]

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

Moby Dick isn't known for its humor, but I thought that certain chapters, such as the introduction of Queequeg and Stubbs's dinner, were genuinely funny. Unfortunately, it's overwhelmed by the humorless elements of the book.

Well funny and not, every part of that novel is wonderful.

 

[Goody]

Well, my wife had a conference to go to, so I tagged along and had a boatload of time to read while at the hotel.

I finished up All We Need of Hell, by Harry Crews. I heard Crews once explained as a "white trash Hunter S. Thompson," and while I'm sure that comment is aimed more so at his style of non-fiction, the diction in this novel took me back to when I first read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His characters though are purely grotesque. Our main man, Duffy Deeter, 40-something lawyer and athlete, is obsessed with the limits of the human body and soul and he's just now finding out that he is not as great as he thinks he is. It's a great little story and it was a brisk little read. I really, truly loved it, but was thrown off a bit by the neatness of the bow tied at the end.

I brought one of the Library of America's volumes of John Steinbeck's novels with me to the hotel and just devoured two of his short novels. I read Cannery Row and The Pearl and don't have much to say about them, really. I'm still kind of stewing on them, since I read them so quickly, but I do know that I loved what I read. The characters of Cannery Row are a delight and the parable of The Pearl has got a really good burn on it.

What sticks out to me the most, though, is how much my classmates hated these books when I was in high school. Especially The Pearl. I just remember that I never read any of the assigned reading in high school. I can still hear the complaints and groans over it. Going back to books from high school is pretty fun.

Next up: Never Die, by Barry Hannah. Maybe Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Throw some short stories in there too.