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[sparky2112]

If you're at all interested in the subjects listed above and have been looking for a place to jump in, this is your book. Bryson seems to have a knack for explaining complex things like outer space to a layman like me in the most simple way possible. Thanks to those who mentioned it here a few months back. Great read so far.

I credit Bryson with jump-starting my almost ravenous love of science. The illusrated version is fantastic too.

 

[foomfoom415]

I finished up The Passage and loved it.

I'm currently reading:

And YIKES, it's absolutely terrible. Easily one of the worst books I've read all year. I'm kind of taken aback at how miserable everything about it is. Mercifully it's short, and I'll be done with it very soon.

 

[FACE]

Just finished

And I didn't like it as much as the first 2. Tell me the rest of the series gets better.

Just started

Now read this:

 

[Mackenzie 92]

Reading this while I wait for Red Country, what a massive freaking book full of win. Reading these, it's kinda like traveling back in time.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps by Otto Penzler

 

[Prez]

Reading this while I wait for Red Country, what a massive freaking book full of win. Reading these, it's kinda like traveling back in time.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps by Otto Penzler

Would be fun to read on the train, but I'm not taking a 1000+ page book with me.

 

[demon]

Finished The Alchemist yesterday and just started this, about 40 pages in:

I have not yet read much Vonnegut for whatever reason, only A Man Without A Country, and Slapstick which was a real mindfucker.

 

[tmarques]

Reading this while I wait for Red Country, what a massive freaking book full of win. Reading these, it's kinda like traveling back in time.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps by Otto Penzler

Jesus Christ, never heard of this - so ordered. Thanks!

 

[Fjordson]

Reading this while I wait for Red Country, what a massive freaking book full of win. Reading these, it's kinda like traveling back in time.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps by Otto Penzler

That looks so neat. I love classic noir.

 

[nakedsushi]

Finished:


Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

Ech, it was only okay. Shin's story was compelling and terrible at the same time but I don't think Harden was the right person to tell it. His writing just didn't seem that good for a journalist's.

For those who are waffling about reading Escape from Camp 14, I think this is a much better book along the same lines:


Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Makes me wish Demick had written Shin's memoir instead.

 

[Tesseract]

phineas poe (kiss me, judas). friend recommended.

it's garbage, i want to rip out its pages and eat them with tomato sauce. 1/5 kidneys.

 

[Jintor]

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Makes me wish Demick had written Shin's memoir instead.

Excellent, excellent book

so depressing though

 

[Movement]

About to finish

Surprisingly good and thoughtful book. My first Simak read and I'm impressed. I'm thinking of starting Xanth series (Piers Anthony) next.

 

[Violet_0]

I'm wondering, does anyone know if there are any good mystery novels in the vein of something like The Cube? A book that deals with themes like isolation/survival/exploring the unknown?

 

[nakedsushi]

I'm wondering, does anyone know if there are any good mystery novels in the vein of something like The Cube? A book that deals with themes like isolation/survival/exploring the unknown?

Do you mean The Cube the movie? If so the only thing I've read that comes to mind is House of Leaves, which comes up on GAF often.


House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

It's kind of a literary horror book about solving an unknown, a house where the dimensions inside don't match up with the dimensions outside, unreliable narrators, etc. if that's what you're looking for.

The only caveat is that the layout and format of the book is a little weird and gimmicky at times.

 

[Bonethug]

Amazon has GAF favorite, The Long Ships, as a Kindle Daily Deal today for $1.99.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

I have not yet read much Vonnegut for whatever reason, only A Man Without A Country, and Slapstick which was a real mindfucker.

Read God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater.

 

[Rei_Toei]

Started with The Twelve but it's a mess comparing to The Passage. Don't think I'll finish it.

 

[Narag]

Finished these recently:

The Graduate by Charles Webb


Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

 

[EVOL 100%]

On a reading binge lately

 

[Fusebox]

Snow Crash - halfway through and loving it. The blurb turned me off it for so long but I'm glad I finally gave it a shot, it's great fun.

 

[Maklershed]

I'm wondering, does anyone know if there are any good mystery novels in the vein of something like The Cube? A book that deals with themes like isolation/survival/exploring the unknown?

I asked for a similar recommendation for a few months ago and a few people mentioned this book and it turned out they were right. It was great and scratched my itch ...


Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds

And this book meets all three of your criteria AND its one of the first post-apocalypse novels:


The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel

 

[Guileless]

Amazon has GAF favorite, The Long Ships, as a Kindle Daily Deal today for $1.99.

I'm in for $1.99.

Read a review of this in the WSJ yesterday:

American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950's

Following its acclaimed three-volume edition of the novels of science fiction master Philip K. Dick, The Library of America now presents a two-volume anthology of nine groundbreaking works from the golden age of the modern science fiction novel. Long unnoticed or dismissed by the literary establishment, these “outsider” novels have gradually been recognized as American classics. Here are genre-defining works by such masters as Robert Heinlein, Richard Matheson, James Blish, and Alfred Bester. The themes range from time travel (Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time) to post-apocalyptic survival (Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow), from the prospect of a future dominated by multinational advertising agencies (Pohl and Kornbluth’s The Space Merchants) to the very nature of human identity in a technological age (Theodore Sturgeon’s More Than Human and Algis Budrys’s Who?). The range of styles is equally diverse, by turns satiric, adventurous, incisive, and hauntingly lyrical. Grappling in fresh ways with a world in rapid transformation, these visionary novels opened new imaginative territory in American writing.

 

[Mastadon]

Currently reading

It's one of my favourite plays, and I've seen it performed a few times but haven't actually read through it until now.

 

[Like the hat?]

Read a book called Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft over the past couple days. Fun little ya novel, but man, really should have been called Mary Sue's Guide to Witchcraft.

 

[Prez]

OP, could you add the following links to the opening post?

Non-western literature
Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century

Non-western literature is barely talked about so it should be interesting for some.

 

[Mackenzie 92]

I'm wondering, does anyone know if there are any good mystery novels in the vein of something like The Cube? A book that deals with themes like isolation/survival/exploring the unknown?

This fits the bill pretty well.

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

 

[Violet_0]

^ oh, this one looks good

Do you mean The Cube the movie? If so the only thing I've read that comes to mind is House of Leaves, which comes up on GAF often

yeah, I know House of Leaves (one of my brothers owns it), but it's unfortunately not exactly the kind of book I'm looking for

I asked for a similar recommendation for a few months ago and a few people mentioned this book and it turned out they were right. It was great and scratched my itch ...

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309197028l/89186.jpgimg][/url]
[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89186.Pushing_Ice?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds[/url]

And this book meets all three of your criteria AND its one of the first post-apocalypse novels:

[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209525.The_Purple_Cloud?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328817985l/209525.jpg[img][/url]
[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/209525.The_Purple_Cloud?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel[/url][/QUOTE]

thanks, I'm gonna look them up to find out if these are for me. Much obliged

e: for now, I ordered Pushing Ice

 

[Maklershed]

OP, could you add the following links to the opening post?

Non-western literature
Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century

Non-western literature is barely talked about so it should be interesting for some.

Absolutely. Thanks for providing the links.

e: for now, I ordered Pushing Ice

Excellent. If our tastes are at all similar you won't be disappointed.

This fits the bill pretty well.

Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear

This sounds good and you haven't steered me wrong so far with the First Law recommendation ... ordered!

 

[Nezumi]

Oh man. I started listening to the audiobook of The Blade Itself some weeks back but dropped it because it didn't really grip me. I found the characters to be somewhat interesting, but after 5 hours still nothing had happened.

Reading through this thread I decided to give it another go and dammit not only did things finally start to happen but doing NaNOWriMo at the moment actually changed the way I perceived the style and the writing in general. This man is brilliant when it comes to writing characters. I loved everything I heard...

Sadly it also led to me doing next to no writing on my NaNo-stuff because somehow everything I had written so far seemed like total shit to me (Well it probably really is but since quality is not the point of NaNo...). So I had to drop the book again in order to be able to keep writing.

I now listen to the Harry Potter books instead, which I totally love, but luckily don't effect me in writing myself.

 

[Maklershed]

On the hard copy side of things I finished Thunderstruck and starting The Man in the High Castle


The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick

 

[Quake1028]

The Long Ships for $1.99.....my patience has paid off!

 

[Nappuccino]

It's pretty good, wouldn't call it amazing or anything. Amped: A Novel (his follow up, not in the same universe) is what I am reading now. It's okay-ish also.

I don't know... something about the way it is written and the short scenarios just keep me involved and invested the whole time. For the past few months, I've been struggling to find a book that just grabs me and this one is fitting the bill. I'm only about half way through so maybe that takes a dive at some point. We'll see.

 

[BanShunsaku]

Finished these over the weekend:

Real real good. Stayed up until 3am on Saturday morning finishing it off.

Good ridiculous stuff, I lost it when Reacher

Spoiler

survived being shot due to the bullet being unable to penetrate his pecs

.

Started this last night:

I'm reading Dark Tower for the first time and I've heard this is one of the best (if not the best) so I'm looking forward to it. 50 pages in and

Spoiler

fuck Blaine the Mono

.

 

[DarkChronic]

Went on a massive book buying spree last week. Walked out of the bookstore with around 6-7 books.

The first one I started was Good Omens.

I'm a little more than 75% through. It's okay. It has its moments but I'm not finding the humor quite to my liking. I've smiled here and there, and the "humor" seems to be the main draw, so I'm kinda slogging through this second half. Wasn't a huge fan of Hitchhiker's either, and this kind of reminds me of it. Bit too quirky/weird for my tastes.

Anyway, not sure what to start next. Thinking of starting The Black Company.

 

[Jintor]

I'm a little more than 75% through. It's okay. It has its moments but I'm not finding the humor quite to my liking. I've smiled here and there, and the "humor" seems to be the main draw, so I'm kinda slogging through this second half. Wasn't a huge fan of Hitchhiker's either, and this kind of reminds me of it. Bit too quirky/weird for my tastes.

How can this be?!? *explodes*

 

[Silas Lang]

Reading As I Lay Dying right now for class. Not digging the format.

 

[FiRez]

It's pretty satisfying to read something in french while not requiring to consult the dictionary each page.

 

[demon]

Just finished Vonnegut's Mother Night. Great book. Think I'll probably start this tonight, bought it yesterday...

 

[nakedsushi]

Finished:


The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer

Masterful writing and a wonderful cast of characters. Although this is a memoir, it reads like fiction. I recommend this to all men in their twenties. I picked it up because I want something Gatsby-esque and this fit the bill.

 

[Dresden]

Good ridiculous stuff, I lost it when Reacher

Spoiler

survived being shot due to the bullet being unable to penetrate his pecs

.

Hahaha, that cracked me up too. So over the top.

 

[demon]

Finished:


The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer

Masterful writing and a wonderful cast of characters. Although this is a memoir, it reads like fiction. I recommend this to all men in their twenties. I picked it up because I want something Gatsby-esque and this fit the bill.

That sounds interesting, amazon-wishlisted.

 

[Grady Durden]

Really enjoyed it. Finished it today and already bought the second novel the series.

 

[ymmv]

I'm thinking of starting Xanth series (Piers Anthony) next.

If you're older than 12, don't.

 

[CF_Fighter]

Started Cloud Atlas earlier this week. Not very far into it as I haven't had much reading time, but the small amount I've read so far have been enjoyable. Loved the movie, but the book has that depth you simply can't bring to the screen no matter how hard you try.

 

[Mascot]

Just finished

Very good, but didn't reach the same heights as A Quiet Belief In Angels (but then again, not much does).

Just started

The premise interested me (top secret Nazi super-weapon from WW2 potentially being unleashed on modern society), but it was only 10p from a local charity shop so it would have been rude not to.

 

[eattomorro]

Reading this while I wait for Red Country, what a massive freaking book full of win. Reading these, it's kinda like traveling back in time.

The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps by Otto Penzler

If you like that, you'll love this. Some truly classic noir in it.

 

[Mumei]

I'm about 400 pages into The Long Ships, which I have interrupted to watch most of the first season of Top Gear on Kabouter's recommendation and to read a bit of Toshiro Kageyama (7p)'s Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go, which is more than a bit beyond where I am as a player but I am still finding useful / educational in terms of broad principles.

Oh, and I am about halfway through The Son of Neptune.

 

[Quake1028]

Finished all of these recently:

Now not so patiently waiting for this tomorrow:

 

[Maklershed]

Just a heads up - the Mercury trilogy is $1.99 ea ($5.97 for whole series) today on Amazon. Seems well reviewed:


Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese


Mercury Rises by Robert Kroese


Mercury Rests by Robert Kroese


Also the Post-Human trilogy is free right now and that also has decent reviews (Note: Post-Human was published first, Trans-Human was 2nd, and Sub-Human was 3rd):


Sub-Human by David Simpson


Post-Human by David Simpson


Trans-Human by David Simpson

 

[KidDork]

Finished this yesterday.

Still processing it. I am going to miss it. It's been four months of just me and this book. I'm going to miss the stupid footnotes, the characters, and the resolve to not put it down and move onto something else. Is it great? Yes. Is it frustrating? At times. Is it funny? Yes, and also goddamn horrific at times also.

Like, I said, still processing.