What are you reading? (September 2012)

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Puckmarin said:
Next book is a toss up between:

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and:

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Care to list the pros and cons or each or convince me why I should read one before the other?
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They are both great novels, but Infinite Jest requires a much, much bigger investment in time and energy than Kavalier and Clay. I'd read Chabon first, you can read it much quicker. I think Infinite Jest works best when you've got a lot of time on your hands (like a holiday), but definitely read them both.
 
Cyan said:
I won't promise you'll love him, but the guy has some incredible short stories. Library of Babel, The Circular Ruins, The Lottery in Babylon, The Aleph, Three Versions of Judas.

They tend toward the dry and somewhat sterile, but also mind-blowing.
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I read more of Borges this week and I can say I feel a lot better reading his work. They are intriguing in setting although sometimes I do get lost in the text. At least the setting or plots of each short story actually make me feel like I should read more of this.

Library of Babel felt a bit unique to me and I felt more connected with that short story; even though it did somewhat give me an eerie feel.

not psycho said:
Hmm I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude, but couldn't get into Borges. I later found out it could have been a bad translation I read though, I should try again.
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I don't know, I just can't seem to love One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Perhaps my mental scars of my professor is too deep now (maybe), heh.
Do give Borges a second read with a different translator.
Some translators just don't translate a work as it was meant to be well.
His works seem interesting to me and somewhat sparks a few triggers in my head as regards of creativity goes.

ymmv said:
Tales of the Dying Earth is not actually science fiction (perhaps only in the sense that in the far, far, very far future magic is indistinguishable from science). You don't see that many SF books about wizards, sorcery and monsters, do you? The reason why there are some SF elements is that Vance wrote these stories for SF pulps and because in 1950 there was no thing like a separate fantasy genre. His first Dying Earth stories were written before the publication of The Lord of the Rings. This is proto-fantasy and this is why it straddles genres. It rightly belongs in Gollancz' Fantasy Masterworks series. The US cover is simply deceiving.

[IMG/]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WezlXSZBL._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg[/IMG] [IMG/]http://www.goldenageofscifi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/tales-of-dying-earth.jpg[/IMG]

Tales of the Dying Earth is an omnibus, it also contains The Eyes of the Overworld and the picaresque novels Cugel's Saga and Rhialto the Marvelous. The whole collection is enormous value for money for fantasy fans.

The best thing about the books is Vance's humorous writing style, but he's also great at world building, making up wonderful names and creating intricate societies with odd customs. You can't go wrong with any of his books.
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Hmm, wasn't aware of this, I just followed Amazon's description that it was Sci-Fi novel. I thought wrongly then perhaps!
I'll give it a read when I get time to next summer.

TestMonkey said:
I thought it was amazing. Throws you in the deep end immediately and doesn't pull punches. Really drew me into the series and the book gains depth the more you learn about the world.
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Manik said:
I wasn't a massive fan of the first book, but the second onwards are amazing (up to Book 6 so far). The best advice I can give you is to at least make it as far as the end of Book 2 (Deadhouse Gates) before you give up on the series.

And it only gets better after that.
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A little conflicting I see!
Thanks for feed back you two though, I'll give first book a read at least. I don't know if I can muster up to Book 2, but we'll see how time fairs on my side.
 
Gryphter said:
My wife is reading this in preparation for the movie. I do not intend on reading it, my book and game backlog is too massive. Can you tell me, did your copy have entire passages written in French with no English translation? Is this explained and is it worthwhile to have those pages translated? I tried to google it and didn't really find any answers
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I read an ebook copy and mine didn't have entire pages of French. There was some French in conversation but that was about it.
 
Futureman said:
so I'm putting together a web series w/ some friends right now. I'm looking for any kind of recommended reading or viewing that deals with the distinction between reality and fantasy, Real World vs. Dream World. Anything really.... short essays and articles are probably better, but I'm also open to fiction, non-fiction, psychological examation of people dealing with this.
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Movies: Anything by David Lynch, maybe Mullholland Drive.
 
Ledsen said:
Movies: Anything by David Lynch, maybe Mullholland Drive.
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Excellent recommendation. Also, any and all Buñuel films, Un chien andalou is a must.
Read The surrealist manifesto by André Breton.

-------

I just finished this one

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Blew my mind. Not at all what I was expecting. I'm gonna read everything this man has written.

And why didn't anybody tell me this came out?

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If there's anybody who knows Music, that's Mr. David Byrne.
 
sgossard said:
I just finished this one

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Blew my mind. Not at all what I was expecting. I'm gonna read everything this man has written.
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The best part is that I would say The Colour of Magic is easily the worst of all the Discworld books. That and The Light Fantastic are both still good reads but the rest of the series gets AMAZING. I love the Death series of books.
 
Lanark said:
They are both great novels, but Infinite Jest requires a much, much bigger investment in time and energy than Kavalier and Clay. I'd read Chabon first, you can read it much quicker. I think Infinite Jest works best when you've got a lot of time on your hands (like a holiday), but definitely read them both.
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Perfect description of two of the best novels in the last whole bunch of years. You can't go wrong with either, but IJ is work. Great, fun work, but still...
 
I haven't read Infinite Jest, but I'm definitely aware of its reputation as a challenging read. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but Kavalier & Klay is a really engaging story and Chabon's prose is a delight to the eyes. Also, he won a Pulitzer Prize for that book.
 
Puckmarin said:
I read an ebook copy and mine didn't have entire pages of French. There was some French in conversation but that was about it.
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OK, thanks. I'm not sure if she's exaggerating but she told me there was 1 paragraph in French and then the next day she said it happened again and "was like 2 pages."

Also an e-book, Kindle store
 
Monroeski said:
The best part is that I would say The Colour of Magic is easily the worst of all the Discworld books. That and The Light Fantastic are both still good reads but the rest of the series gets AMAZING. I love the Death series of books.
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One of my faves is Small Gods, in general I like the guards series the best...
 
*ABOVE*

One Hundred Years of Solitude unreadable? What? I get frustrated from reading at times but I found that book to be inifinitely easy/enjoyable to read. Are you referring to the family tree thing? It's a little confusing, but it's in the front of the book for reference. Now Autumn of the Patriach... that is frustrating due to the lack of paragraphs.
 
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Believe it or not, my first Stephen King book. I'm about 13% done according to my Kindle and I love it already. There's a great line in the first couple chapters that sold me on the book entirely where two characters discuss time travel...

"What happens if you go back in time and kill your grandfather?"

"Why the fuck would you want to do that?"
 
Gryphter said:
OK, thanks. I'm not sure if she's exaggerating but she told me there was 1 paragraph in French and then the next day she said it happened again and "was like 2 pages."

Also an e-book, Kindle store
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I will say that it's probably the most enjoyable book I've read all year.
 
Futureman said:
*ABOVE*

One Hundred Years of Solitude unreadable? What? I get frustrated from reading at times but I found that book to be inifinitely easy/enjoyable to read. Are you referring to the family tree thing? It's a little confusing, but it's in the front of the book for reference. Now Autumn of the Patriach... that is frustrating due to the lack of paragraphs.
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The problem with solitude, for me, isn't the lack of readability. It reads beautifully, but the story is just a mess. It really is like reading a bunch of short stories and only a few of them are entertaining. The first few chapters were great for me, after that it was very hit and miss until I finally had to put it down.

I do think the decision with character names was confusing and kind of pretentious. Whatever benefit he gained from it (showing that life repeats itself or whatever) wasn't worth it IMO, but that wasn't the only issue. Not even the main issue. The book just jumps all over the place too much, and after a while I was basically wondering why I should even care enough to continue.
 
looks like they got another one of those ebook bundles up, books don't look too bad

http://storybundle.com/

StoryBundle's back, and we've brought some friends. Dangerous friends.

The Second Degree bundle features a total of seven fantastic indie novels that showcase different points of view from different sides of the law. In our stable of protagonists, we have a detective, a journalist, a lawyer, a petty criminal, a normal guy and a serial killer—which make for an incredibly exciting cross section of the crime and thriller genre.

Our authors featured in this bundle include a 2012 Best Indie Book finalist, won a Pulitzer Prize, had multiple plays commissioned and produced, been an elected official (more than one!) and been personally endorsed by wrestling legend and author Mick Foley.

Our core concept remains the same: Pay what you want for five quality indie ebooks. These include:

Dire Means by Geoffrey Neil
Black Bird by Greg Enslen
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green by Paul O'Brien
Diary of a Small Fish by Pete Morin
The Marinara Murders by Erik Hanberg


If you pay more than the bonus price of just $7, you get two bonus books, which are:

Project Moses by Robert Lowe
The Saints go Dying, the prequel to The Marinara Murders by Erik Hanberg


You still get to decide how much of your purchase you want to go to supporting indie authors, and you can still choose for a portion of the proceeds to go to one of two fantastic charities. All our books are DRM free and can be read on just about any ereader, tablet, smartphone or laptop.

We're sure you'll love it.
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After a long string of Star Wars books from May until now, I finally got around to reading this classic which sat on my bookshelf for a few years. Needless to say, I'm glad I did. Upon my initial reading, I was left feeling like maybe I had missed something because I had been used to the brisk pace of space fantasy literature, so this one took me a while to really appreciate. I realized that I really had to slow down and take in every word to catch every detail. With that in mind, I re-started the novel again last night, once more from the editor's wonderful notes and preamble, and am enjoying the book immensely the second time through. I'm 50 pages in already, which is great since it's only 120-something pages in total. I love the language, and how Marlow describes his surroundings, his mission, and the people he comes into contact with. The "other" is really quite mysterious and not given much of a voice in this novel, which I suppose is part of what Conrad was striving for, it being an account of the civilizing mission in Africa through the eyes of an Englishman. I'm enjoying being in the middle of this world right now, and while I may not be privy to all of the layers that Conrad likely intended, the ones I am catching are rich indeed.
 
nakedsushi said:
Finished this on a plane. Boy, was I mad that I couldn't buy the second book right away. Cliffhanger-central!


Hyperion by Dan Simmons

As good as everyone else made it out to be. I only gave it 4 stars because I wish they could have revealed more about
the Time Tombs
in the first book. Is the second book just as good? Better? Worse? Am I going to be disappointed?
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Prepare for disappointment. At least, that's how I felt after finishing the sequel. The writing style shifts into total third person, the story barely feels the same, and I just felt it was a chore to trudge through. Maybe I'd feel differently about it today, but as a follow-up to what was a really strong first book, it left me feeling wanting.
 
ymmv said:
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Donald Westlake is supremely awesome. Hard Case Crime's catalog, trade dress, and illustrators are amazing. Together, the combination is nigh overwhelming. That does it, as soon as I'm done with The Alienist I'm getting back into the Dortmunder novels.

FnordChan
 
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Trying it out.

Nicely written, though it kind of feels like a romantic version of Jonathon Norrell and there's no circus in sight.
 
Received this in the mail today

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Totally forgot it was coming out, so I'm really looking forward to it. Might go ahead and buy the Kindle version though, since I've gotten so used to reading books on via the phone app.
 
I have not updated my own reading in this topic in awhile, so I guess I'll do that now.

I recently finished, after several months, reading Three Kingdoms. I was pleased to find that the end of the book had a chronology of events at the end. I enjoyed the story, though it took me awhile to get used to the names, the geography (what little I got), and understanding what was going on. There were also various jumps in time or location where completely new characters and locations would be introduced, and I would feel ... lost for a time. Honestly, though, the thing that bothered me the most was that the prose was very dull.

For all my complaining, though, I quite enjoyed it.

I am also 684 pages into The Brothers Karamazov, about 80 pages (aka through Book II) into Paradise Lost, about 1800 pages into The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature (haven't read it in months), 300 pages (aka finished the first book) of a His Dark Materials - and I just got to that reference in Paradise Lost - omnibus edition, and that's about it.

I should finish TBK by tomorrow, and Book III of Paradise Lost as well.
 
About 3/4 of my way through The Green Mile, which I think has to be one of King's best, assuming he doesn't mess up the ending (Never seen the movie, so I don't know if he does!).
 
Finished reading The Sense Of An Ending last week. Liked it quite a lot. Definitely recommend it. I've been trying to read Cloud Atlas but I'm finding it very hard to follow. One of those books where I have to reread pages a lot. Thinking about putting it aside for another time.

I have just started Operation Mincemeat. Only 3 chapters in but so far it is really interesting.

Any recommendations for a great space book? Something similar to Firefly?
 
416PGcy6pZL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. The third book in my "American Detective Novels"-course at uni. The first two were Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" and "Red Harvest". Really enjoying this course so far :)
 
Reading Nixonland, there's some really interesting stuff in it if you're into politics at all. Kind of a chore to get through, though, I've been reading it for about a week and I'm not even halfway done.
 
thomaser said:
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"The Big Sleep" by Raymond Chandler. The third book in my "American Detective Novels"-course at uni. The first two were Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon" and "Red Harvest". Really enjoying this course so far :)
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"The knight" motif in the Big Sleep is the secret to an A paper.
 
luxarific said:
Received this in the mail today

images


Totally forgot it was coming out, so I'm really looking forward to it. Might go ahead and buy the Kindle version though, since I've gotten so used to reading books on via the phone app.
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What!! Thought it was due in October. Very bought.
 
brave-new-world.jpg

I read 'Brave New World' yesterday, I enjoyed it, very easy reading and some great imagery

I also read Orwell's 1984 a couple of weeks back, so it was interesting to compare the two in some ways

Next I'll be reading Paradise Lost once it arrives!
 
Mistborn-Cover.jpg


It started out as a good book, I'm about 3/5 through it and now it's a really good book. Anyone know if the sequels keep up in quality?
 
Sielys said:
Mistborn-Cover.jpg


It started out as a good book, I'm about 3/5 through it and now it's a really good book. Anyone know if the sequels keep up in quality?
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Though the first book is the best the two sequels are still really good and should be read just because they form one big story. The last one drags a little bit at times but the ending was really great.
 
luxarific said:
Received this in the mail today

images


Totally forgot it was coming out, so I'm really looking forward to it. Might go ahead and buy the Kindle version though, since I've gotten so used to reading books on via the phone app.
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Weird, Amazon has the hardcover in stock despite it saying "Publication Date: Oct 9". But the Kindle version is still unavailable. Curses!!!!
 
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