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[Guileless]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me out with a recommendation. I'm getting my new Kindle on Friday and I'm trying to pick out the first book that I should read. Generally, I read non-fiction and biographies. I like to learn as much as I can from the books I read. For some reason I feel that I don't learn as much from fiction books. Do any of you have any recommendations for a fiction book that also teaches you a lot? I particularly would like it to deal with history and/or science. Any help would be great. Thanks guys.

I enjoyed Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson. Biography, history of science, and speculative fiction all in one book.

 

[thomaser]

The Nobel Price for literature was awarded today. It went to Mario Vargas Llosa from Peru. Other hotly tipped authors were Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon (who's always hotly tipped, year after year) and Adonis (pseudonym for Ahmed Ali Said from Syria, another guy who *almost* gets it every year).

Llosa is of course best known for his many books. But he's also known for having been a Peruvian presidential candidate, and for once ending a long friendship with Gabriel Garcia Marquez by punching him in the eye.

The bookstores I frequent have always had many of his books, but I've never bought any of them for some reason. Some of the major ones are:
- The Green House (1965)
- Conversation in the Cathedral (1969)
- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977)
- The War of the End of the World (1981)
- The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (1984)
- The Feast of the Goat (2000)
- The Bad Girl (2006)

Has anyone read any of these? I'd love to get recommendations.

 

[Dan]

Reading my first Bond novel in the following printing.

 

[demon]

Just bought this today, per gaf's repeated recommendation:

It's new, meaning no paperback and not in used bookstores, so it's the most I've spent on a book in a long time. :lol I'm liking it so far though.

 

[Salazar]

Scott Pilgrim #4,5,6.
Rereading The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli. GAF - YOU MUST READ THESE BOOKS. THEY ARE BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE READ OR ARE LIKELY TO READ.
Some ass-backward collection of Virtual History essays edited by Niall 'Scum' Ferguson.
The Solitudes by John Crowley.

 

[leroy hacker]

- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977)
- The War of the End of the World (1981)

Those are the two Vargas Llosa novels I've read. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is a fantastic and original comic novel, one of the best I've read (Which oddly enough was made into a movie starring Keanu Reeves) while The War at the End of the World is an epic historical novel with a large and varied cast of characters. I'd say I enjoyed Aunt Julia more, but they are both unforgettable and I highly recommend them.

If I hadn't lost these two books in my last move I'd probably be re-reading Aunt Julia tonight, but instead I got Conversation in the Cathedral from the library.


Incidentally, I was quite surprised, but happy, that he won the prize. I had thought his politics and having once punched Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the face would always keep him from it.

 

[Burger]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me out with a recommendation. I'm getting my new Kindle on Friday and I'm trying to pick out the first book that I should read. Generally, I read non-fiction and biographies. I like to learn as much as I can from the books I read. For some reason I feel that I don't learn as much from fiction books. Do any of you have any recommendations for a fiction book that also teaches you a lot? I particularly would like it to deal with history and/or science. Any help would be great. Thanks guys.

I recently read The Terror by Dan Simmons and while it is fiction, it's very factual and fascinating. Basically the story goes that in the mid 1800's 2 ships, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus sailed north to find the rumored North West Passage. Neither ship was ever seen again, despite numerous searches. Bits and pieces (including the odd corpse) from the Franklin expedition have been found over the last 160 years, and a general idea of the fate of the men has been formed, but the author has taken much of what happened and inserted his own ideas:

The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of finding the Northwest Passage. When the expedition's leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the Terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear there is no escape. A haunting, gripping story based on actual historical events, The Terror is a novel that will chill you to your core.

I thought the book was one of the best I had read this year, totally gripping and dripping with details of the Franklin Expedition, a thrilling tale of what life must have been like aboard a ship like Terror/Erebus. I thoroughly recommend it.

 

[evilpigking]

Finished off:

which brings the Garrett PI series to a close until next month when the next one is released. I liked the series quite a bit, it felt pretty consistent throughout and caught my interest from book one meaning I didn't feel like it was a chore to get to the meat of the series. Also liked that it basically focused on the mystery/detective work rather than relegating the detective aspect to the background in favor of the fantasy aspects.

Now moving on to:

I felt like Knife of Dreams was a return to earlier form for Jordan and from what I've gathered Sanderson keeps the pace going and does a good job keeping the essence of the characters. I'd comment on the cover but I think enough has been said about it already and it pretty much speaks for itself.

 

[Fireblend]

God I want to read Gravity's Rainbow so badly. But I'm scared, I'm honestly frigthened by it. Should I just man up and read it? XD

I'm reading Lord of Light at the moment. Almost done with it, really liking it. I think I'll read "The Windup Bird Chronicle" next. My first Murakami novel.

I'm almost done with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (been pretty busy these last couple of weeks, so I've taken my time with it) which means I'll have to start the Behemoth that is Gravity's Rainbow next week, most likely :lol can't say I'm intimidated, although I'm by no means as much of a reader as some people here, I say go for it, if you care about what you read and do it for entertainment (unlike most people) you're probably already qualified

Being about to start Gravity's Rainbow I'm reminded of the feeling I had with Foucault's Pendulum 5 years ago or so, when my interest in books really took off. A great friend lent it to me and I've not been without a book since then, but it did seem like an intimidating challenge at the time coming from Harry Potter and the usual (Costa Rican) school reading list. :lol it remains one of my favorite novels.

The Windup Bird Chronicle is great, hope you enjoy it I read so many awesome books last year (these monthly threads played a role in that ) it would be difficult for me to rank them, but The Windup Bird is definitely up there.

 

[V_Arnold]

Started reading the whole Wheel of Time series AGAIN (now for the 3rd time) when I realized that all book's hungarian translation was at least 1 year late. Started the read in July, and needless to say, with the original language and this awesome story, I never ever had as a good time while reading anything. RIP, Robert Jordan (

(And I cant wait to get to the latter books, when I was 17-18, I kinda read these things a bit hasty, meaning I tended to skip some scenes where names where not Rand/Perrin/Elayne/Mat/Nynaeve/Moirane, etc. So at the end of Crossroads of Twilight, there were chapters that I could not understand due to these skippings.. I was horrible, I know. But not this time!)

 

[Eric WK]

Just finished The Sun Also Rises. 4/5

Today I'm giving in to the hype and starting this little epic right here:

 

[Fixed1979]

Just finished The Sun Also Rises. 4/5

This book made me love Hemingway. I think it was the first of his that I read (besides Old Man and some shorts), I then proceeded to work my way through his catalogue.

Currently.

Finding the flow to be a little usnsure compared to KC, but I enjoy his ramblings and rants and story telling enough to easily keep ploughing through.

 

[Quake1028]

Just Finished

on nook

Now Reading

 

[Nymerio]

Currently reading:

Loving it!

Saumensch!

 

[demon]

This book made me love Hemingway. I think it was the first of his that I read (besides Old Man and some shorts), I then proceeded to work my way through his catalogue.

Currently.

Finding the flow to be a little usnsure compared to KC, but I enjoy his ramblings and rants and story telling enough to easily keep ploughing through.

That's good to hear. I didn't expect MR to be as good as KC, which I really enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would (maybe I shouldn't say that, I love his show), but I'm still going to pick it up eventually.

 

[nakedsushi]

Finished this after work yesterday:


This second book of the series has more machines and clanker technology than the first one, which had more fabricated animals. The change in scenery from a British airship to the Ottoman empire was good, but felt a little shallow since it didn't really *feel* that foreign.

Spoiler about Deryn's secret

Spoiler

AAAH I expected Alek to finally realize that Dylan/Deryn was a girl in this book, or at least have Deryn spill the beans to him, and they got close a couple of times, but still no luck. I hope they don't go through this entire series with Alek believing that Deryn is a boy.

Picking back up with Boneshaker after this.

 

[John Dunbar]

Decided to finally read some Austen. Can't believe I'm finding a book that's essentially a bunch of rich ladies gossiping so fascinating. So you have to settle in a love country cottage with servants. Oh the horror.

Great writing, will probably read Pride and Prejudice soon after.

 

[AnkitT]

Finally finished reading Anansi Boys. I find Gaimans universe to be utterly fascinating! His descriptive prose is quite alluring. Cant wait to start on American Gods and his other works. Now, on to finishing Pygmy, and then on to The Will to Power.

 

[Kola]

Funny and depressing at the same time. Strummer lived life to the fullest with all its advantages and disadvantages.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

I thought the book was one of the best I had read this year, totally gripping and dripping with details of the Franklin Expedition, a thrilling tale of what life must have been like aboard a ship like Terror/Erebus. I thoroughly recommend it.

Excellent book but the ambiguity of the ending left a lot to be desired.

 

[mike23]

Read this:

and immediately bought this on my Kindle:

I'm psyched for the magic high school.

I also pre-ordered this in book form. I think I've read most of the short stories, but there's a new one in there.

 

[Narag]

Hoping to finish this today after a long break from it:

 

[thomaser]

Those are the two Vargas Llosa novels I've read. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter is a fantastic and original comic novel, one of the best I've read (Which oddly enough was made into a movie starring Keanu Reeves) while The War at the End of the World is an epic historical novel with a large and varied cast of characters. I'd say I enjoyed Aunt Julia more, but they are both unforgettable and I highly recommend them.

If I hadn't lost these two books in my last move I'd probably be re-reading Aunt Julia tonight, but instead I got Conversation in the Cathedral from the library.

Incidentally, I was quite surprised, but happy, that he won the prize. I had thought his politics and having once punched Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the face would always keep him from it.

Thanks for your recommendations! I'm putting Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter high on my to-buy list.

 

[Kuraudo]

I'm so glad Jane Austen took time out to write a companion to a TV show :lol

 

[nitewulf]

just finished

currently reading

 

[sparky2112]

Hoping to finish this today after a long break from it:

No lying - it's a tough first book. But keep going, because the series only gets better. The next one, Post Captain, is pretty darn close to a masterpiece.

 

[xxracerxx]

Fucking horrible ending to the trilogy.

Finally done with it so I can talk with my girlfriend about it and move on to a better book:

 

[Salazar]

I'll probably pick up where I left off in the Flashman series to stave off my historical fiction craving - but one or two or several books I've been procrastinating on for weeks might get my attention before that.

God damn, you have some taste.

Please, please check out the Mortdecai trilogy if you've not read it. Charlie will remind you of Flashy, and the prose is of an unimaginably high order.

This is an article about Bonfiglioli. Tragic genius.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/20/040920crat_atlarge

 

[-Kees-]

 

[GDJustin]

How do you like that? I was thinking of picking it up to read, but not sure if it's good or not.


From yesterday's post: I'm going to read nothing but steampunk this month.

Started with:

The rest of the books for this month:


Anyone have any other suggestions I should replace the above with? I'm debating whether or not to add Diamond Age. Is it really steampunk? It's a massive book, so not sure if it'll take up the entire month or not.

I was going to quote you and say "weird there is a woman I know that is reading nothing but Steampunk this month" but then I realized you are her. Hello, Twitter friend!

Anyway, I jut finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I've moved on to The Girl Who Played with Fire.

I like the series quite a bit so far- I don't see the backlash. Well... I do see it. They're kind of easy to pick on and pick apart. But I still like them, thanks to their strong characterization.

 

[Fireblend]

Any of you guys use Shelfari? I noticed we have a (kind of inactive) goodreads group, maybe we could start a shelfari one if anyone's interested?

My profile

 

[Salazar]

Any of you guys use Shelfari? I noticed we have a (kind of inactive) goodreads group, maybe we could start a shelfari one if anyone's interested?

My profile

I joined Librarything a few years ago (and wrote a pretty shabby academic article condemning its philosophy - more properly, its rhetoric - but arguing that it would probably defeat the other social cataloguing sites). I've lost track of how that's going.

I ran out of motivation to catalogue anywhere near all of my books. I got to 394.

http://www.librarything.com/home/Cleomedes

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Finally finished reading Anansi Boys. I find Gaimans universe to be utterly fascinating! His descriptive prose is quite alluring. Cant wait to start on American Gods and his other works. Now, on to finishing Pygmy, and then on to The Will to Power.

Stay away from American Gods, it's a horribly overrated snorefest. Read Stardust, Coraline or Good Omens instead. The Graveyard Books is pretty decent too, and The Last Temptation was cool (Gaiman + Alice Cooper? I'm in).

Just read this:

A decent enough, if at times slow and dry, Swedish crime novel that's sort of based on the assassination of Olof Palme. I actually liked the follow up better.

Also read this one again:

It's as good as ever, but the movie adaption actually managed to take an already magnificent comic and turn it into a superior movie adaption. So good.

And finally, working my way through Inuti Labyrinten (Inside the Labyrinth) by Kari and Pertti Poutiainen (couldn't find a pic of the cover), a nonfiction book detailing the piss-poor policework and investigation of the assassination of Olof Palme, and various theories about suspects and potential perpetrators.

 

[Fireblend]

I joined Librarything a few years ago (and wrote a pretty shabby academic article condemning its philosophy - more properly, its rhetoric - but arguing that it would probably defeat the other social cataloguing sites). I've lost track of how that's going.

I ran out of motivation to catalogue anywhere near all of my books. I got to 394.

http://www.librarything.com/home/Cleomedes

After around 100 books I'm struggling to remember any other I've read I guess it's not too bad for someone who started reading "seriously" around 4 or 5 years ago, but it definitely shows how I've got a long way to go. Checking your list now

 

[AnkitT]

Stay away from American Gods, it's a horribly overrated snorefest. Read Stardust, Coraline or Good Omens instead. The Graveyard Books is pretty decent too, and The Last Temptation was cool (Gaiman + Alice Cooper? I'm in).

Well, I had bought his whole catalogue(which was a pain, since most outlets here only carried stardust), so I probably will read it. But yeah, it seems to be a very polarizing book.

 

[Fireblend]

Well, I had bought his whole catalogue(which was a pain, since most outlets here only carried stardust), so I probably will read it. But yeah, it seems to be a very polarizing book.

I don't get the hate it gets here. It's nowhere near the quality of The Sandman or Good Omens, but I'd consider it to be among the most enjoyable books I read last year. Do give it a chance, specially if you liked Anansi Boys.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Well, I had bought his whole catalogue(which was a pain, since most outlets here only carried stardust), so I probably will read it. But yeah, it seems to be a very polarizing book.

Well, don't tell me I didn't warn you of it being horribly boring If you bought Fragile Things, read Monarch of the Glen, the sequel to American Gods. Personally I found it to be a far more enjoyable story than American Gods.

 

[Guileless]

Can anyone recommend a Sam Lipsyte novel? He just had a short story published in The New Yorker that I enjoyed. I browsed his page on Amazon and I'm thinking of picking up Home Land.

 

[demon]

Can anyone recommend a Sam Lipsyte novel? He just had a short story published in The New Yorker that I enjoyed. I browsed his page on Amazon and I'm thinking of picking up Home Land.

The Ask looks like it's fairly good. He had an interview on the Marc Maron podcast and ever since then I've been interested in picking up the book....I probably will some day.

 

[Yasser]

finished what the dog saw by malcolm gladwell, it's good but i didn't like it as much as his previous books, i like it when his books have a consistent theme and all the wacky case studies are tied together by that common theme.
now i'm moving onto some goethe, gonna start with the sorrows of young werther unless someone thinks i should start with a different work of his

 

[Narag]

No lying - it's a tough first book. But keep going, because the series only gets better. The next one, Post Captain, is pretty darn close to a masterpiece.

Oh, I know. One reason for taking a break from it was to reacclimate myself to reading stuff like this as I hadn't seriously in years so I had to redevelop some lost skills. I tore through it at a decent pace once I picked it back up so I assume my plan worked.

 

[FnordChan]

I recently finished reading Kahawa by Donald Westlake. Kahawa is Swahili for "coffee" and a train loaded down with six million dollars worth of coffee is the subject of this book, as our mercenary heroes (such as they are) are planning to steal said train. The trick is that the setting is Uganda during the late 1970s and the train belongs to the dictator Idi Amin, so in addition to getting a top notch heist novel Westlake also gives us a fascinating setting and a lot of grim, historically accurate detail. At just over 500 pages, this is the longest Westlake novel I've read yet, but it's absolutely fantastic from beginning to end, with a tone that's more serious than the other work I've read that was published under Westlake's own name. Highly recommended; you can get used print copies off Amazon for the cost of shipping and there's also a Kindle edition available.

I recently saw William Gibson speak at Duke, and before he showed up I tried to finish reading Spook Country, his 2007 follow-up to Pattern Recognition. I didn't succeed, but I did get a fair way into the book and have been enjoying it quite a bit. The plot hasn't quite emerged from the multiple character viewpoints just yet, but so far it's about a former musician turned journalist, Hollis, who has been hired by a mysterious magazine to cover several augmented reality artists. It turns out that at least one of these artists may have more going on with his work than just art, and at some point it's going to intercept with the other two viewpoint characters: a young member of a small Cuban/Russian criminal family and a detached tranquilizer addict who is being used as a translator by someone who may or may not be a cop. Even if the plot hasn't emerged entirely, the characters are interesting and Gibson's prose is, as ever, excellent. I'm looking forward to getting back into Spook Country and already have his latest novel, Zero History, ready to go when I'm done. Well, not immediately; there's a one-two punch of Lois Bujold and Jim Butcher hitting in the next few weeks, and those are going to demand my immediate attention.

FnordChan

 

[Burger]

Just started reading the conclusion to the Void trilogy (on my new Kindle). I only have this to say about it so far:

 

[Mifune]

Can anyone recommend a Sam Lipsyte novel? He just had a short story published in The New Yorker that I enjoyed. I browsed his page on Amazon and I'm thinking of picking up Home Land.

The Ask was pretty good. Depressing and bitter as hell, but funny.

 

[sparky2112]

The Ask was pretty good. Depressing and bitter as hell, but funny.

Yeah, that's Homeland too. Lipsyte is kinda niche for a reason.

 

[Mifune]

Got this from the library. And The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is misspelled on the cover of the fucking book. Unbelievable.

Oh, and the book itself is great too.

 

[bggrthnjsus]

just read:

and

first time i've had to really take time to sit down and read for pleasure in a couple years

really liked both, but they're both a little depressing...similar themes in both

 

[GhaleonQ]

The bookstores I frequent have always had many of his books, but I've never bought any of them for some reason. Some of the major ones are:
- The Green House (1965)
- Conversation in the Cathedral (1969)
- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1977)
- The War of the End of the World (1981)
- The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta (1984)
- The Feast of the Goat (2000)
- The Bad Girl (2006)

Has anyone read any of these? I'd love to get recommendations.

Peru's not 1 of my favorite South American countries for literature, but The City And The Dogs/The Time Of The Hero was rather excellent.

 

[Quake1028]

Just bought this today, per gaf's repeated recommendation:

It's new, meaning no paperback and not in used bookstores, so it's the most I've spent on a book in a long time. :lol I'm liking it so far though.

Just found out my library has this in e-book form. Will definitely try to fit it in this month.

 

[Grady Durden]

This book is awesome. I'm half through it and can't put it down!