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[Jintor]

Finished two books, though both were re-reads.


The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Studs Terkel

By far Studs' best oral history, a wonderfully grounded view of WWII from multiple different points of view (though I wish he had more interviews with persons on the Axis side of the fence). Possibly the most interesting bit is how ingrained racism was into the American army, which is something that has a decided tendency to get whitewashed over.


Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program by David L. McConnell

Applying for the programme this year so thought I'd brush up. Unfortunately about a decade out of date, but is meticulously researched and provides a lot of insights regarding the origins of the programme and its early years as well as its cultural effects on both sides of the fence.

Still plugging along at Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Now that the two have actually met it's moving a bit quicker, but it's still unaccountably dull for something that is rather pleasing to read in-the-moment.

 

[Frester]

I finished Irvine Welsh's Skagboys a week or two ago, I was super into his stuff in high school. Now I'm halfway through Robert Lacey's Inside The Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia. I'm headed to Jeddah for a work trip in about a week so I wanted to read up for that, coupled with the 2013 Lonely Planet Oman, UAE, and the Arabian Peninsula. Also picked up Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Monuments Men, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being to read on my trip.

 

[Gazoinks]

I was afraid this was going to be a tough read and the first few chapters made it seem that way. But.. I'm around 30% through now and this book is really just quite fun and exciting to read. I have a feeling I will blast through this in the next few days. Also enjoying looking up all the obscure occult references and I have never been more thankful for the tap-for-defintion Kindle dictionary.

Just before this I read if on a winter's night a traveler which was fantastic. I noticed that they have the same translator, who just recently passed away. The translation of these books seem fantastic where I'm not constantly reminded that I'm reading a translation, which I often experience reading for example books translated from Japanese.

Oh yeah, I've been meaning to read Focault's Pendulum for a while. Seems like my kind of thing. Right now I am:

Yeah, finally getting around to reading this. Not far enough to comment yet, but it has more of a sense of humor than I expected it to. Hiro Protagonist is a pretty great name for an MC.

 

[survivor]

Finished reading The Catcher in the Rye. I regret not reading it at high school. I think my class was supposed to, but my English teacher at the time made us read A Tale of Two Cities instead.

I love that cover, and it's the one I bought. But if you're looking for pretty covers, you should also read the graphic novel adaptation. The art, and especially the coloring, is gorgeous.

And that picture really doesn't do justice to the soft glow. It's quite magical, really.

I looked at some pictures from the comic and it does look pretty great. I will have to check it out one of these days.

 

[Tragicomedy]

Woah woah there fellas. What are you talking about? Explain that to me, cuz I never once picked up on that!

Spoiler

From the Wiki: "Throughout the book, she has on a couple of occasions begun to summon her Shardblade, in spite of her determination to never use it, but has so far avoided completing the process."

I only caught the final time, but

there you go.

Yeah, finally getting around to reading this. Not far enough to comment yet, but it has more of a sense of humor than I expected it to. Hiro Protagonist is a pretty great name for an MC.

You are reading my favorite book of all-time. Enjoy!

 

[Auron_Kale]

Just finished reading A Room With a View as I've mostly been reading it during my commute. Such a great story and I found Lucy's journey rather timeless. I'll probably be rewatching my copy of the 1985 Merchant Ivory adaptation sometime this weekend.

Now to figure out what I should read next....

 

[Mackenzie 92]

Started this up. Just felt right.

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Started this up. Just felt right.

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

Oh man, this looks awesome.

 

[Piecake]

Woah woah there fellas. What are you talking about? Explain that to me, cuz I never once picked up on that!

Spoiler

Been a while, but I believe the clue is when she is seeing those freaky things that no one can see. She counts to ten when she is really freaking out and something drops in her hand

SUPER DUPER SPOILER DONT READ IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK AND FIND CLUES since i think this is foreshadowing

Spoiler

Its also how she killed her dad.

 

[Jimothy]

I'm about halfway through Dune and I'm not really digging where the story is going. It's basically turning into what seems like another "white savior" story, which is one of my most hated tropes. I don't need specific plot details but I'm considering putting it down because I feel like I already know how it's gonna end. Does it play out differently than lets's say, John Carter?

 

[Narag]

I'm about halfway through Dune and I'm not really digging where the story is going. It's basically turning into what seems like another "white savior" story, which is one of my most hated tropes. I don't need specific plot details but I'm considering putting it down because I feel like I already know how it's gonna end. Does it play out differently than lets's say, John Carter?

It's played pretty straightforward in the first but with a decent amount of deconstruction in the second book iirc.

 

[Silkworm]

Started this up. Just felt right.

The Abominable by Dan Simmons

Is this anything like his "The Terror"? I really enjoyed the desolation feel in that novel and if this has the same vibe, then I know what I need to pick up (though I did just start IQ84 which I'm enjoying so far).

 

[Wurst]

Spoiler

There are a few points where she thinks about how "help is just ten heartbeats away" or similar. It's easy to miss, but eagle-eyed readers have put that together with the fact that it takes ten heartbeats to summon a shardblade, along with a few other little hints.

Those are some awesome observations I didn't pick up! Nice!

I began to read it in March but dropped it half way through. The prose and story was beyond my understanding. I was determined to read it and found a german edition. It was much better to grasp in your native language and I quite enjoyed it.
I think the

Spoiler

SciFi elements were quite obvious. I was blown away by the one painting that depicts Neal Armstrong on the moon, though. In the end I quite enjoyed it although there was not much happening at the end of the day.

I found it on the NaNoWriMo winners page and thought I'd give it a go. It's a very good book with lots of insights and good ideas. I can recommend it to any aspiring author who's eying self-publishing!

 

[Necrovex]

Just finished up A Storm of Swords.

What else can I say besides, "Shit."

It is all I can do to not immediately begin Book 4. I need to give this universe some time to marinate before diving back in. It's just too much.

Knowing I have two books yet to read and two more on the way I can't even begin to imagine where this story is going. I love how everyone seems to be on his or her own personal mission, yet I know it'll all come together in some brilliant way.

Before reading Feast, you need to realize it has a very different feels compared to Storm of Swords. It takes the time to examine the other parts of Westeros (and in particular, my favorite place, Dorne). Book 4 and 5 spend their time building plotlines and the overall world, similar to book one and two.

 

[Jimothy]

It's played pretty straightforward in the first but with a decent amount of deconstruction in the second book iirc.

Well that's pretty disappointing. Not sure if I'm gonna continue reading it then...

 

[The Culture Vulture]

Finished Cat's Cradle and picked up Gone Girl. Not expecting too much out of it just reading it like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to see what the hype is.

 

[OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather]

Finished reading The Catcher in the Rye. I regret not reading it at high school. I think my class was supposed to, but my English teacher at the time made us read A Tale of Two Cities instead.

That bites.. Who was responsible for that decision?

 

[Professor Chaos]

I'm about halfway through Dune and I'm not really digging where the story is going. It's basically turning into what seems like another "white savior" story, which is one of my most hated tropes.

Dune deconstructs the trope by

Spoiler

having the savior 'engineered' and seeded into the Fremen's religion in order to manipulate them.

 

[Mannequin]

I never understood why Moby Dick was a go-to reference for "huge boring classic nobody wants to or actually reads". I've read it two or three times over the years. Maybe I'm just inherently interested in the finer points of 19th century whaling? I don't know. It's fascinating, devastating, ominous, funny (as you noticed), and so packed with symbolism that I really need to read a few books about Moby Dick one of these days.

Moby Dick is great. I read it last summer, and really enjoyed it, then it was a required text on an English course I took at University, and I wrote an essay on it. As I went through all the secondary texts about it I realised just how rich with symbolism it really is. And Melville's prose is wonderful.

 

[TCRS]

Haven't read a thriller in a long time.

 

[Osorio]

Marti is just as pleasurable to read in English as he is in Spanish

 

[endre]

Let me start with this. Buying a Kindle was one of the best desicions in my life.

Lately I am all into Asimov again. I am reading my way up the recommended Asimov novels. I read some robot stories and the foundation trilogy before. I can tell that I find the Elijay Baley stories way more interesting than the all acknowledged Foundation trilogy. Currently I am reading The Robots of Dawn:

Random front cover:

...and of course it is awesome.

p.s.: I always remember the situation when I walked into a bookstore and I asked for a really good sci fi novel, something like Asimov short robot stories. The worker sad Asimov is not as good since it always revolves about the same premice and recommended me the Hyperion cantos. While I have greatly enjoyed the first two books of the Hyperion saga I find the Asimov books that do not delve into the foundation trilogy very enjoyable.

 

[Necrovex]

I can't do it any longer. I am 80 pages into World War Z, and I am so bored with this book. How does a book make zombies, especially involving a gigantic war, boring?! I dunno, but Brooks found a way. The characters are all fairly monotone, excluding maybe a quirk or two. But I wouldn't be able to line up any of those characters if you asked me to.

Screw this book, I am reading some better fiction. I'm getting Norwegian Wood and Ender Game's from the library in a few days (whenever they arrive in my local library, both have been shipped). I'm trying to decide which to start on first.

 

[Jimothy]

Dune deconstructs the trope by

Spoiler

having the savior 'engineered' and seeded into the Fremen's religion in order to manipulate them.

Hmmm. I kind of like that actually. I guess I'll keep reading.

 

[Maklershed]

Random front cover:

I thought this was a box for a Gameboy game at first.

 

[Mumei]

Those are some awesome observations I didn't pick up! Nice!

I began to read it in March but dropped it half way through. The prose and story was beyond my understanding. I was determined to read it and found a german edition. It was much better to grasp in your native language and I quite enjoyed it.
I think the

Spoiler

SciFi elements were quite obvious. I was blown away by the one painting that depicts Neal Armstrong on the moon, though. In the end I quite enjoyed it although there was not much happening at the end of the day.

You have to read all four!

 

[ShaneB]

3/5 for Ender's Game. Good fun, but I was getting fairly bored in the middle, and then it wrapped up nicely.

 

[Nymerio]

I finished The Daylight War earler today. The ending was predictable but I loved it nonetheless.

Spoiler

Though I always kinda thought he was trying to set up Renna to do something incredibly stupid with her lack of self control. Was pleasently surprised that shit did not fuck up. The only character I absolutely don't like is Leesha. She has that whole "holier than though" thing going on and when she actually defended Jardir for trying to murder Arlen I just completely wrote her off. The abrupt ending makes me think that Jardir may not have actually died though.

 

[The Culture Vulture]

3/5 for Ender's Game. Good fun, but I was getting fairly bored in the middle, and then it wrapped up nicely.

Yep. My feelings almost exactly.

 

[BriareosGAF]

Finished reading The Catcher in the Rye. I regret not reading it at high school. I think my class was supposed to, but my English teacher at the time made us read A Tale of Two Cities instead.

Personally I wasn't really able to enjoy Catcher in high school in the way I was when I read it later in my early 30s, so I wouldn't feel too bad. Too full of piss and vinegar to have patience back then .

 

[NeoGiff]

Tonight I'll be finishing up Colours of Chaos, the eighth book in L.E. Modesitt's The Saga of Recluce. Both it and the book preceding it, The White Order, deal with the same character and can pretty much be read as standalones.

For anyone not familiar with Recluce, I highly recommend it. My brother introduced me to the series and I haven't looked back since. Expect a massive amount of complex political, trade and military conversations, as well as intimate detail on various forms of craftsmanship. It sounds extremely tedious, yet somehow it's very interesting.

 

[Iceman]

White fire by Douglas Preston/lincoln child. Trying to savor it (theres always at least a year between special agent pendergast novels). So far so good. As good as the Helen trilogy books if not better, but not quite as good as any of the Diogenes trilogy. As far as non-trilogy books (one off stories) go it's one of the best recent offerings. Always fun when pendergast completely dresses people down - and his first scene is an evisceration of some puffed up phonies.

The mystery is huge, and unsettling, taking pendergast across the Atlantic. The crimes are gruesome and graphically described. The tension is mostly consistently maintained. I'm about half way through and I have no idea what's going to happen or what the resolution will be. I'm pretty sure the one obvious suspect the authors are gently promoting is a red herring - too obviously linked/too on the nose. But I'm sure I've already been introduced to the villain(s).

 

[Mackenzie 92]

Is this anything like his "The Terror"? I really enjoyed the desolation feel in that novel and if this has the same vibe, then I know what I need to pick up (though I did just start IQ84 which I'm enjoying so far).

Definitely. Has the same mood and feeling of dread and isolation. Perfect reading for a cold winter night. Loving it.

 

[Incandenza]

Anyone reading J.J. Abrams's "S"?

Thinking about getting this for Christmas and would love to hear what others are thinking about it. I looove House of Leaves so this seems like my kinda book.

 

[Haly]

I can't do it any longer. I am 80 pages into World War Z, and I am so bored with this book. How does a book make zombies, especially involving a gigantic war, boring?! I dunno, but Brooks found a way. The characters are all fairly monotone, excluding maybe a quirk or two. But I wouldn't be able to line up any of those characters if you asked me to.

(((((

World War Z is social commentry with a zombie war as the context. I hope the movie and title didn't lead you into thinking otherwise.

 

[Narag]

Joe Abercrombie's The Heroes is one of today's kindle daily deals. Figure some First Law fans might jump at that price.

 

[Shiggie]

Anyone reading J.J. Abrams's "S"?

Thinking about getting this for Christmas and would love to hear what others are thinking about it. I looove House of Leaves so this seems like my kinda book.

orded it on Amazon. Should get it today.
Sunday shipping is a godsend.

 

[Dawg]

Enjoying Dune. A lot of strange names to remember though.

 

[Shiggie]

Picked these up recently.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Anyone reading J.J. Abrams's "S"?

Thinking about getting this for Christmas and would love to hear what others are thinking about it. I looove House of Leaves so this seems like my kinda book.

I'm curious about this too. I got sucked into the hype about House of Leaves, but ultimately ended up hating it. But I dunno, this sounds intriguing.

 

[Seanspeed]

Spoiler

There are a few points where she thinks about how "help is just ten heartbeats away" or similar. It's easy to miss, but eagle-eyed readers have put that together with the fact that it takes ten heartbeats to summon a shardblade, along with a few other little hints.

Hmmm, ok. That is pretty clear then. I might re-read before the new book comes out, so I'll keep an eye out.

Finished Cat's Cradle and picked up Gone Girl. Not expecting too much out of it just reading it like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to see what the hype is.

Its much better than Girl with Dragon Tattoo, in my opinion. Much more deserving of the hype.

 

[Nymerio]

Finished Cat's Cradle and picked up Gone Girl. Not expecting too much out of it just reading it like The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo to see what the hype is.

Just started this yesterday! I'm liking it so far. I actually had my eye on this previously but decided against reading it after I saw some of the reviews on Goodreads, but then I looked at some of the reviews to books I liked and decided to never look at Goodreads reviews again.

 

[Maklershed]

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie is $1.99 today. Buy, buy, buy.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00480O978/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[berg ark]

Anyone read The man without qualities by Robert Musil? Would you recommend it? What about In search of lost time by Proust?

 

[BriareosGAF]

Enjoying Dune. A lot of strange names to remember though.

One of my favorite things about Dune is that no one quite knows where Herbert learned so much about Islam, although I believe based on his dialect the thought is someone Malaysian. I remember when one day I realized the Feday'kin in Dune are using the same term as Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen special guard. It was like... oh!

 

[TTG]

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie is $1.99 today. Buy, buy, buy.

Thanks! Time to see what the fuss is all about.

 

[Weiss]

Just finished reading Blood Rites of the Dresden Files. God, I love this series, especially how it seamlessly blends future plot points and story arcs from one book to the next.

Next up is This Book is Full of Spiders, and then Metro 2033.

 

[Wiktor]

Finished Odd Thomas. My first Koontz novel. Enjoyed it a lot. It started slow, but then steadily was gaining speed untill the truly great finale.

Spoiler

Screw you Dead Koontz for killing Stormy...wtf? ;(

Since I enjoyed it I decided to pick something else from Koont'z library. Didn't want to immediately jump on another Odd Thomas, so I picked Twilight Eyes. So far it starts a lot stronger than Odd Thomas.

 

[Easystride]

Finished up The Good Father. I like the book. The characters made some incredibly stupid decisions, and the ending was somewhat unrealistic, but it was still a fun read.

Started 11/22/63. If the first two chapters are any indication of the quality of this book, I can tell I am going to love this.

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie is $1.99 today. Buy, buy, buy.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00480O978/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Do you have to read any of the other books in the series, or can you jump right into this one?

 

[Paganmoon]

Do you have to read any of the other books in the series, or can you jump right into this one?

It's written as a standalone novell, so you don't need to read the books prior. There are some details you might miss if you haven't read atleast the trilogy though.