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[Night_Trekker]

Read Ender's Game a couple weeks ago. Would love to get some opinions on the rest of the books in the series before I dive in.

The only other one I've read so far is Speaker for the Dead. Definitely pick it up.

I also just finished:

And boy was that quite the trip. It's like two to three stories all combined into one book with all kinds of craziness in the text. At it's heart it is just about this mysterious house that has some weird shit going on in it, but there are honestly too many levels to this book for me to comprehend. It was still great fun to read though.

Great book.

 

[Guileless]

After finishing Anathem

How was Anathem? I have a copy but I haven't been in the mood to start it yet.

 

[mr stroke]

Finished-

slow and plodding to start, but really suprised tward the end.




and after seeing this in these reading threads for months I decided to give it a shot-

about half way through and loving it so far. Really like the narrative.

 

[Kildace]

How was Anathem? I have a copy but I haven't been in the mood to start it yet.

Came into this thread to post Anathem.

I'm a third of the way through and thoroughly enjoying it so far even though it was somewhat hard to get into for the first ~50 pages because of the made-up terminology used to describe pretty much everything. Great world though with a very subdued main character unlike in everything else I've read by Stephenson (except Randy Waterhouse, I guess).

Before Anathem I read "The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao", Pulitzer fiction '08. Great book, amazing characters, unusual and engaging narration. Thumbs up despite an ending that felt a tad rushed and the encyclopedia-length footnotes that I had to read, but were a little too detailed imo.

 

[Fjolle]

This is a bit off-topic, but i dont want to create a new thread for it.

Does anyone have some tips for caring for oldish (like printed in the 70'ies, not antique or worth anything special) books. I have some which are cracking at the outer hinge. I tried to google it, but couldn't get any good results. I guess that i could just glue or tape it together...

 

[FnordChan]

Does anyone have some tips for caring for oldish (like printed in the 70'ies, not antique or worth anything special) books. I have some which are cracking at the outer hinge. I tried to google it, but couldn't get any good results. I guess that i could just glue or tape it together...

I'm afraid I don't really have any tips. However, I do have a friend who does book restoration for a living and who often deals with folks bringing in books (generally family bibles) that someone fixed up at some point with duct tape or what have you. Cue painstaking restoration work in a desperate attempt to repair these books properly. Now, from the sound of it these aren't exactly books where you want to go in for full restoration. However, if you do want to take care of them long term, you may not want to attempt to fix it yourself, especially not with tape. Alternately, you may want to check a restoration guide (YouTube seems to have a fair number of videos on the topic) before trying anything yourself. In the meantime, you may want to get some comic book archival bags (possibly springing for Mylar) to store the books in, which will hopefully help keep 'em together neatly for a bit longer.

Good luck, and if you do make a go at restoring it yourself, make sure you have these guys on hand to help out.

FnordChan

 

[Deleted member 1235]

these threads would be more helpful if people described the book they are reading.

I came in here looking for ideas for something to read and all I see is pictures of books. I suppose I could judge the book based off it's cover but I heard you aren't supposed to do that.

 

[EBCubs03]

House of Leaves



Great book.

Wow, that is a great cover. So many books try to look too fancy with, but this book nails it. I want to buy it just for the cover alone.

 

[hc2]

Robert Crais reading some of his LA detective novels, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike books mainly. Good reading.

http://www.robertcrais.com/novels.htm

 

[Fjolle]

I'm afraid I don't really have any tips. However, I do have a friend who does book restoration for a living and who often deals with folks bringing in books (generally family bibles) that someone fixed up at some point with duct tape or what have you. Cue painstaking restoration work in a desperate attempt to repair these books properly. Now, from the sound of it these aren't exactly books where you want to go in for full restoration. However, if you do want to take care of them long term, you may not want to attempt to fix it yourself, especially not with tape. Alternately, you may want to check a restoration guide (YouTube seems to have a fair number of videos on the topic) before trying anything yourself. In the meantime, you may want to get some comic book archival bags (possibly springing for Mylar) to store the books in, which will hopefully help keep 'em together neatly for a bit longer.

Good luck, and if you do make a go at restoring it yourself, make sure you have these guys on hand to help out.

FnordChan

Thank you. I'll try to find someone who knows about this stuff and ask them before i do anything.
And it must be a special experience to work at that place...

 

[TimesEunuch]

I also just finished:

And boy was that quite the trip. It's like two to three stories all combined into one book with all kinds of craziness in the text. At it's heart it is just about this mysterious house that has some weird shit going on in it, but there are honestly too many levels to this book for me to comprehend. It was still great fun to read though.

I just finished this over the weekend. I thought I would be tough going, but it really sucked me in and I tore through it in a couple of days. For such an oddly structured book, it's pretty accessible, though dense. I caught a couple of references to `Either/Or' by Kierkegaard (apart from the main one that both books share a similar conceit). Would like to understand how much of an influence E/O is. There's an official forum which I need to check out when I get some time.

 

[TimesEunuch]

Wow, that is a great cover. So many books try to look too fancy with, but this book nails it. I want to buy it just for the cover alone.

The inside is just as visually interesting. You'll end up having to hold the book at all kinds of angles to read it.

 

[Bulla564]

I have made it a point to go from nothing, to reading AT LEAST one book per month, and I'm starting with

You could say that the hypothesis of the book is that biological and geological factors throughout history determined the fates of civilizations. It is VERY interesting, and it asks the questions: why did Western Europe colonize the New World, and not the other way around.

Very good start.

 

[waynej506]

The Twilight Series. The best books ever.

 

[Anobyl]

About halfway through after starting it last night. Loving it.

Finished a few days ago. Loved how all over the place it was. Great book.

Might start this today.

 

[Saya]

I'm about 300 pages in and it's a lot better than the first book of the series, Gardens of the Moon. I'm enjoying it now, but I don't know if I'll still read the whole series.

 

[Kildace]

I'm about 300 pages in and it's a lot better than the first book of the series, Gardens of the Moon. I'm enjoying it now, but I don't know if I'll still read the whole series.

Trust me, when you've finished book 2 and then read book 3 there's no doubt that you will read the whole series.

 

[Mifune]

How was Anathem? I have a copy but I haven't been in the mood to start it yet.

I'm a little over halfway through and I love it.

Tough going in the beginning (it's like learning a new language) but then it gets great. It slowed down a bit in the middle but then hit another patch of awesome.

Can't wait to see where it's all headed. So far I'd say it has modern classic written all over it.

 

[Draft]

I have made it a point to go from nothing, to reading AT LEAST one book per month, and I'm starting with

You could say that the hypothesis of the book is that biological and geological factors throughout history determined the fates of civilizations. It is VERY interesting, and it asks the questions: why did Western Europe colonize the New World, and not the other way around.

Very good start.

I'm reading this too. It's very good.

I also read the SCUD trade paperback collection, which was great.

Few Berserk books.

And now I'm reading a collection of old Robert Howard Conan stories, and wow, they are great. Book Conan is totally different than Movie Conan. He's basically Bronze Age James Bond. Smart as hell, total scam artist, men want to be him, women want to be with him.

 

[way more]

I don't think I like it at all.

 

[Saya]

Trust me, when you've finished book 2 and then read book 3 there's no doubt that you will read the whole series.

Hah, ok. That's good to hear. I already have book 3 waiting for me here.

 

[Dan]

This arrived today:

Third in the 'series', after Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle.

 

[ultron87]

The inside is just as visually interesting. You'll end up having to hold the book at all kinds of angles to read it.

Yeah, some of the type setting tricks that the books does are great. Especially when it is used to heighten the tension of a seen or to match the movement being described.

Spoiler

I especially loved when Navidson was crawling through the slowly tightening tunnel and the text got crammed into a smaller and smaller box.

 

[perryfarrell]

these threads would be more helpful if people described the book they are reading.

I came in here looking for ideas for something to read and all I see is pictures of books. I suppose I could judge the book based off it's cover but I heard you aren't supposed to do that.

Agreed. That's why music threads or book threads on GAF always suck. (Music threads are worse, because people just quote pictures of album covers of bands they would like to be associated with, it's not about music at all.)

It's kind of a law of internet forums that a post with pictures draws more attention that a post w/out pictures. So people try to outdo each other by quoting lists of pictures. No discussion, nothing.

 

[sykoex]

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n3/n16779.jpg[IMG]


I don't think I like it at all.[/QUOTE]
I was wanting to read this. Did you enjoy the film?

 

[Alucard]

Agreed. That's why music threads or book threads on GAF always suck. (Music threads are worse, because people just quote pictures of album covers of bands they would like to be associated with, it's not about music at all.)

It's kind of a law of internet forums that a post with pictures draws more attention that a post w/out pictures. So people try to outdo each other by quoting lists of pictures. No discussion, nothing.

Try to change this by offering your own substantial input into the thread. I've tried arguing over the fact that most people just post book covers without giving any information on the book itself, and how that is utterly useless to those of us who come into the thread looking for recommendations. I'm also in agreement that it's far more annoying in the music threads, especially if some album covers don't have the names of the artist on them. The only way to really combat it is to act differently yourself and speak about the things you are reading or listening to.

 

[Meliorism]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This is the first book of McCarthy's that I've touched. I'm not that far into it, and I don't know what I think so far. The dialogue between the father and son is interesting at times, but I honestly don't know if I like the way McCarthy writes. At some points when reading the dialogue between the father and son, I don't feel like I know who is talking. I guess for me it's indicative of how hard it is to identify with the characters.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I've read some of Plath's poetry like Daddy and enjoyed it, so I decided to check out this book. Again, I'm not that far into it, but I really like Edith's character. She reminds me of myself: detached, feeling numb, et cetera. I've definitely enjoyed this book more than The Road, but I actually bought this one and checked The Road out from the library, so I'll probably continue reading McCarthy before finishing Plath's book.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

I haven't even started this book yet, but I've read so much praise from various people on the internet, so I figured I'd check it out from the library. Really not much else to say on this one.

 

[nitewulf]

just finished vol. 1 of preacher, so fucking brilliant:

 

[Blackface]

Essentially an extremely brief summary of the book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxGMqKCcN6A

 

[HarryHengst]

yes, i like shitty novels. I really need light stuff to read besides all the things i need to read for my MA classes.

 

[wenis]

there are points in the book where I am really impressed by the imagery and characters and then other times that are not as frequent, but feels very kitchy and sometimes annoying. I'm enjoying it so far though, but I can't help read it as dr.house as this trained army bodyguard getting into wacky gun filled antics.

 

[godhandiscen]

http://graphics.cs.uiuc.edu/~garland/papers/quadrics.pdf

 

[AgentOtaku]

Quick, easy read. It was okay

Still haven't finished this, but almost done

 

[Tieno]

Been having an october reading extravaganza.
Read the entire Earth's Children Series

Then read Child of the Jungle

After that Choke

Then yesterday finished Shadow of the Wind

Started "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo

Only disappointment was Choke, after Fight Club I don't think I really enjoy Palahniuk's style.
I devoured the Earth's Children series, completely helped change my perspective on time.
Child of the Jungle is a fascinating autobiography and the first part made me think of my own childhood.
Love Shadow of the Wind, gets better and better the further you get. Very well told.

 

[ToyMachine228]

Batman: Hush Vol 2

 

[NekoFever]

Just started it yesterday. I didn't think The Last Wish was that great to be honest but I'm giving it a chance with one of the 'proper' novels before I decide whether or not to move on.

 

[SouthernDragon]

One of my favorite books ever.

Going to start these:

Tracing your Roots

Eragon

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The Kite Runner

 

[besada]

I just finished this over the weekend. I thought I would be tough going, but it really sucked me in and I tore through it in a couple of days. For such an oddly structured book, it's pretty accessible, though dense. I caught a couple of references to `Either/Or' by Kierkegaard (apart from the main one that both books share a similar conceit). Would like to understand how much of an influence E/O is. There's an official forum which I need to check out when I get some time.

If you don't hate Poe (the musician) then her album Haunted is a great companion to this book. She's Danielewski's sister, and the album is full of references to the book, and to their family, which informs parts of the book.

Worth it alone for "5 1/2 Minute Hallway".

Oh, and as for what I'm reading, I just finished two Carl Hiaasen books. Hiaasen writes comedic crime, I guess is a fair description. Nature Girl is the story of a woman who gets one telemarketing phone too many, and lures the telemarketer out into the wilderness in retribution. Lucky You is about two white supremacists who win the lottery, only to discover they have to share the 28 million dollar jackpot with a black girl who lives in a town full of fake Christian miracles.

Really good stuff.

 

[karasu]

 

[Fritz]

Not this awesome edition though. It was pretty hard to get over here. Im still looking for John O'Hara's Andrea but I cant find it.

Non-fiction wise this:

it' basically a rundown of all the important philosophers from ancient Greece to the 20st Century. I really have to push through this one but I want to fill a gap here. I know nothing about philosophy, yet.

 

[Cranehand2ndComing]

Traded books with a friend, he'd never read the Harry Potter series, and I'd never read A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm about 150 pages into Clash of Kings. I went into the series not knowing what to expect at all, and its pretty fucking amazing so far. Great history, dialogue, storyline interweave, and most every chapter ends with an O SHIT cliffhanger.

Besides that, I'm about halfway through Preacher, and hitting various comics along the way; Loeb\Sale Batman, Moore Swamp Thing (incredible), along with some other shit.

 

[Sax Russel]

Just finished it. Incredible series overall. I'm kinda saddened, though, that I only ended up reading it because Robert Jordan died, and I wanted to look into the works of the author who was picking up WoT. The quality of the Mistborn trilogy leaves me incredibly hyped for AMoL.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Just finished Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune. Opinion a bit mixed. For one, things seemed to be going along at a really steady pace while I wondered when things would come to a head, then they all of a sudden did lickety-split. For another, while I seem to like Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Dune prequel novels more than most, it's still weird to see them take a supposedly 2.5 page outline for Dune 7 by Frank Herbert and expand it into two books which continue the story while also adding in references to the new backstories they've written in the last decade.

Now I'm basically back to fluff until deciding what to hit next. Right now reading the third Star Trek: Strange New Worlds book. I enjoy these. It's a collection of short stories written by amateurs and compiled by professionals, so it's sort of the best of fanfiction in small enough chunks that you can read an entire story (or more) per sitting.



To add this in since it happened since the last time I wrote in one of these threads, I read Clarke's 2001: A space Odyssey, 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey. While all were interesting, as a reader it was a bit annoying how he intentionally made them... non-sequels. Basically, if there was something in a past book he wanted to ignore, he'd do so. In one of the forewords or afterwords he basically brushed this as a criticism aside by saying something like "It's fiction, dummy!", but I wish he'd kept things more consistent. Writing 2010 by using the movie version of 2001 as a basis where the book and film differed I could understand, both since the movie is better known and 2010 the book actually started as an exercise in writing a proposal for a film sequel. However, by the time of 3001 he's retconned things so that the events of the previous books happen later. I understand that writing in the 1990s some of those things that were supposed to be in the near future aren't believable, but the events of books named for years no longer supposed to have taken place in those years is just wrong.

 

[Tayo]

3rd time i read this book but the 1st I read it in english...and I love everything of itQ___

loving this thing tooO_O

 

[RedShift]

Not too bad a book, being made to watch it for school though which puts me off. Watched the BBC serial first.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Just started:

Really digging it so far.

 

[npm0925]

I am about 120 pages into it right now, and am about to start "The Soldier's Tale." The priest's tale was pretty intense, and really started to draw me into the book after a pretty overwhelming beginning. I honestly don't always get or understand Simmons' prose, but that is half attributed to the amount of detail he's trying to put into the world all at once. It still feels pretty overwhelming at this point, but there is a sense of pieces slowly coming together, and the more I read about The All Thing, Shrike, Hegemony, Ousters, etc. the more comfortable I become with placing them and their roles in my mind. The actual tales are straight forward enough, but the stuff in between (so far) has been fairly challenging. I don't know if I'm just stupid or if Simmons is just that creative, imaginative, and talented with language. Thoughts?

I'm also reading this book and am about 100 pages in now. The priest's tale reminded me a lot of The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe in terms of its colonialistic tone and the sheer strangeness of an alien world and culture. I like how the novel opens in media res, letting the reader piece together things rather than being spoon-fed exposition. Anyway, it's fantastic so far. Here's a quote that really stuck out to me:

"I now understand the need for faith -- pure, blind, fly-in-the-face-of-reason faith -- as a small life preserver in the wild and endless sea of a universe ruled by unfeeling laws and totally indifferent to the small, reasoning beings that inhabit it."

 

[Skittleguy]

IS A MAN NOT ENTITLED TO THE SWEAT OF HIS BROW?

 

[QVT]

Hero of Our Time was one of the coolest fucking books ever and everybody should read it. Really short, really awesome.

Iliad was kinda blah, too old for my tastes. Achilles everything was awesome but it worked better as a plot summary than as an actual book. Probably because it's a poem.

Onto Gogols collected tales and Odyssey. Nevsky Prospect in Gogols tales is a revolution. Quite a work.

 

[arena08]

Moving onto