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What are you reading? (September 2013)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Say whaat.
I don't know how to feel about that. What makes the novel (besides the prose) is the narrator and that seems to have been removed in the trailer.
Yeah, I just saw that. I hope he's still a physical presence.According to the author, the narrator will be a voice over narration in the film and just wasn't in the trailer.
The confrontation between him and Liesel at the end of the book is one of the most heartbreaking moments I've ever read in a novel. I get chills thinking about it.
Trailer seemed very generic, but John Williams is scoring it and Geoffrey Rush is a really interesting choice as Hans so hopefully they'll do the material justice.
Recently finished:
Patternist 1 - Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
This was really, really good. Grabbed me on the first page and didn't disapoint even once. It's the kind of science fiction that functions by supplying (semi) plausible explanations for mythological ideas, and I really like that kind of thing. Also, it deals with some fairly uncomfortable subject matter in a very effective way.
Amber Chronicles 1 - Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
This is actually the second time I've tried to read this. I wasn't in the right mood the first time, but this time I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some of the people on Goodreads mentioned that this book feels very unploished, like a rough draft, and I agree. The quality is very inconsistent. In certain sections, the writing is very nice and in other parts, it almost feels like you're reading placeholder paragraphs that were meant to be rewritten later. On the plus side, the book is very fast paced, and the imagination on display is really out there, almost like the dude might have been tripping on acid while he wrote parts of it. The whole concept behind the multiverse is cool, and the main character is quite engaging, partly because he's not a cardboard cutout good-guy. Overall, based on this first book, I'm curious to see where this series will go. It seems like there is a lot of potential for wild storytelling within the basic concept of the universe. I'm reading the second book right now, and the writng doesn't seem to be nearly as inconsistent as it was in this one, but it's also a lot more restrained in other ways, which may or may not be a bad thing.
Patternist 1 - Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
This was really, really good. Grabbed me on the first page and didn't disapoint even once. It's the kind of science fiction that functions by supplying (semi) plausible explanations for mythological ideas, and I really like that kind of thing. Also, it deals with some fairly uncomfortable subject matter in a very effective way.
Amber Chronicles 1 - Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
This is actually the second time I've tried to read this. I wasn't in the right mood the first time, but this time I enjoyed it quite a bit. Some of the people on Goodreads mentioned that this book feels very unploished, like a rough draft, and I agree. The quality is very inconsistent. In certain sections, the writing is very nice and in other parts, it almost feels like you're reading placeholder paragraphs that were meant to be rewritten later. On the plus side, the book is very fast paced, and the imagination on display is really out there, almost like the dude might have been tripping on acid while he wrote parts of it. The whole concept behind the multiverse is cool, and the main character is quite engaging, partly because he's not a cardboard cutout good-guy. Overall, based on this first book, I'm curious to see where this series will go. It seems like there is a lot of potential for wild storytelling within the basic concept of the universe. I'm reading the second book right now, and the writng doesn't seem to be nearly as inconsistent as it was in this one, but it's also a lot more restrained in other ways, which may or may not be a bad thing.
While him actually being there would be good, and that moment is amazing
"I'm haunted by humans"
And Geoffrey Rush <3 I wouldn't have thought of him for Hans but I LOVE him so much. I saw that and just smiled so much
and then cried lol
Mackenzie 92
Member
Recently finished:
Patternist 1 - Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler
This was really, really good. Grabbed me on the first page and didn't disapoint even once. It's the kind of science fiction that functions by supplying (semi) plausible explanations for mythological ideas, and I really like that kind of thing. Also, it deals with some fairly uncomfortable subject matter in a very effective way.
Picked that up in a recent sale. Glad to hear it's good.
Finished The Last Unicorn last sunday. Amazing book. My sister is a huge fan of the old animated movie but has never actually read the book. I was trying to convince her to read this, but she is afraid that it could ruin the movie for her. I didn't even know what to say...
Went on to read I'm not a Serial Killer:
Went on to read I'm not a Serial Killer:
Finished Night Film and was left feeling kinda ambivalent about it at the end. It was very entertaining to read, but not a book I will remember a year from now.
Started Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Man...I've only read Infinite Jest by DFW, but I consider it one of my favorite books so I don't know why I've waited so long to read his other stuff. It's so good. The one about the AVN awards was just fantastic.
Started Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Man...I've only read Infinite Jest by DFW, but I consider it one of my favorite books so I don't know why I've waited so long to read his other stuff. It's so good. The one about the AVN awards was just fantastic.
Maklershed
Member
Point out Beagle did the screenplay and Christipher Lee had such respect in the source material he brought his own copy in when recording lines.
NekoFever
Member
I've been wanting to read that but it doesn't appear to be in print over here and it's not available to buy digitally. I wish I'd got in on that Humble Ebook Bundle now
I'm currently reading "Old Man's War" by John Scalzi. I'm about halfway through. Really enjoying it so far.
One of my friends convinced me to read the book TAMPA, and I started the first few chapters in between OMW, and it's fucked up! And yet I'm fascinated by it. I'll get into it once I finish Old Man's War this week.
One of my friends convinced me to read the book TAMPA, and I started the first few chapters in between OMW, and it's fucked up! And yet I'm fascinated by it. I'll get into it once I finish Old Man's War this week.
Maklershed
Member
Started reading
Gonna try and get started on Milton's Paradise Lost as well.
This has been sitting on my pile of shame for years. Got it at a book sale a long time ago and keep neglecting it. Interested to hear your thoughts on it.
Yeah, I'll try that. She's really picky about reading but she's been bugging me to recommend her something to read. I recommended her Night Circus before and she loved it, but she won't read this oO
I've been wanting to read that but it doesn't appear to be in print over here and it's not available to buy digitally. I wish I'd got in on that Humble Ebook Bundle now
That was actually the reason I got in on the bundle. That and the fact that tons of people here recommended it, I didn't even know it was that popular.
Incandenza
Banned
Finished:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I ended up liking it quite a bit. The first fifty pages or so really put me off. Shy, slightly sardonic teen girl gets swept off her feet by hot boy that's just leg-spreadingly bold, and all of tumblr collectively orgasms. But it moves past that pretty quickly, and it wound up being a pretty smart and highly emotional story.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
I ended up liking it quite a bit. The first fifty pages or so really put me off. Shy, slightly sardonic teen girl gets swept off her feet by hot boy that's just leg-spreadingly bold, and all of tumblr collectively orgasms. But it moves past that pretty quickly, and it wound up being a pretty smart and highly emotional story.
I'm reading Legendary Siblings by Gu Yong. It's a wuxia novel that was translated by fans from Chinese to English and it's a free ebook available for download. This is my fourth wuxia novel I am going through right now.
Previously read these:
The Duke of Mount Deer
Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword
Eagle Shooting Hero (Legend of the Condor Heroes)
I'm so happy I found these books translated into English. I have been wanting to read them for a long time.
Previously read these:
The Duke of Mount Deer
Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword
Eagle Shooting Hero (Legend of the Condor Heroes)
I'm so happy I found these books translated into English. I have been wanting to read them for a long time.
Collete
Member
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Close to finishing it right now got to the part where
Arren and Ged just encountered the dragons and the Changer on Roke disappeared. I have a good feeling the Doorkeeper is up to something. He smiled too innocently!
After I finish it, I'll probably pick up Slaughter House Five:
or continue to read from the Portable Beat Reader if all else fails.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Pretty dense, very dry, quite interesting so far
Started reading
Gonna try and get started on Milton's Paradise Lost as well.
have you fucked with delillo before?
Thanks. I know what it's like having a guilt-inducing backlog, although I picked this up second hand a few weeks ago.
Nope. I was tempted to buy one of his earlier shorter novels - a lot of people recommend White Noise - but I thought 'screw it' and jumped into this one.
I finished the prologue, which I really liked. I had a hard time following some of the baseball plays since I know nothing but the bare basics of the sport, but I got the gist of it in the end.
Well, good luck to you. I haven't read this one myself, but have been meaning to. I would also recommend Libra if you find yourself wanting to read something else of his. I read that one earlier this year, and it absolutely blew me away.
Thanks for the recommendation.
Finished Night Film and was left feeling kinda ambivalent about it at the end. It was very entertaining to read, but not a book I will remember a year from now.
Started Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
Man...I've only read Infinite Jest by DFW, but I consider it one of my favorite books so I don't know why I've waited so long to read his other stuff. It's so good. The one about the AVN awards was just fantastic.
Read Consider the Lobster in two sittings. DFW's nonfiction is nothing short of brilliant. Just wait until you get to Rise, Simba. Great stuff.
Also: The rise of Dostoyevsky GAF thrills me to no end.
Mackenzie 92
Member
Damn man, you knocked that out pretty quick. I haven't even hit the halfway mark. Physical books always seem to take me longer to read for some reason.
Finally finished Russian Fairy Tales (a Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-Lore) by William Ralston Shedden Ralston
Outside of the stories themselves, it's pretty dry reading as it goes pretty in depth into their variations and origins. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're really interested in the history of the stories.
Outside of the stories themselves, it's pretty dry reading as it goes pretty in depth into their variations and origins. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're really interested in the history of the stories.
Gave up on The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa and can see why it was in the bargain bid. I could only get to page 61 because the the changing narrative style and overly complex story telling which shifted from sentence to sentence. Ugh.
Rereading The Hobbit by some guy named Tolkien.
Rereading The Hobbit by some guy named Tolkien.
Finished.
I judge books (and by extension, authors) by how well they can draw emotions out of me, and the emotion I have the most appreciation for, as a literary tool, is sadness. By this metric David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing is one of the best books I've ever read. The book mainly consists of vignettes about various boys and their relationships (or lack thereof) with friends, family and each other, narrated by a chorus of those lost to AIDs in the 70s and 80s. It's the narrative device, that I think, is the real triumph of this book.
Instead of throwing facts and dates and persons and numbers at us like a Wikipedia article, what Levithan does is capture the emotions of those who died to AIDs by letting them speak through the narrators, as if they were still watching over the LGBT youth of today. They are simultaneously envious of, concerned by, proud of, dismayed by, heartbroken by and joyful of their legacy and the inheritors of their legacy. It's the side of history that people never really get to see in school, which is usually very dry and emotionally distanced. If history is cataloging the facts of the past, then stories like these serve to remember the experience.
And it must be a very harrowing experience indeed. Usually, when I'm reading any kind of book with an emotional climax, there's a build up, a peak, and then the denouement. If there are tears to be shed then it's either at the peak or the denouement. However, while reading Two Boys Kissing, I found my eyes regularly being blurred by tears, always at the segments where the narrators are recounting their lives and their losses. Somehow it feels so much more real, even though the narration is vague enough that it could be attributed to anything.
While ruminating about Two Boys Kissing on the subway, I suddenly thought of Cormac
McCarthy's The Road and wondered why, despite the better ambiance and language, it never affected me the same way Two Boys Kissing did. I decided that it was because the prose was just too dense, and instead of drawing me into the plight of the father and son, all it did was distract me because I was paying more attention to the writing than to the characters. There's none of that feeling of suffocation here. Levithan's prose is grounded, earthed, simple, but still overflowing with implications and, most of all, sorrow. Ultimately, this kind of writing resonates with me more strongly than anything in The Road did, more strongly than most stories I've encountered.
I'll leave a little snippet here in order to illustrate what I mean about Levithan's prose:
Reading at the moment as I continue this YA kick:
I lucked out with a couple days of plane travel in there, so that was an easy 2/3 hours reading each way. There are a couple later chapters that might have dragged on a little too long, but it still felt like a very fast read to me. Considering the length, I'm surprised I finished it so fast as well.
Tom Bissell's exhausting, sprawling travelogue of Uzbekistan. Ostensibly about the disappearing Aral Sea, it veers off course in many funny, moving, educational ways. Reminded me of DFW, not for its writing style, but its emotional honesty and big heart. You read this book and you just "get" Bissell, in much the same way that you feel like you know Wallace after reading Infinite Jest, and that reader-author connection is a special thing.
I don't know what to read next. I've now been sitting here for over an hour going through amazon and goodreads and can't find anything. I want to take a break from fantasy and read something else. Ideally some kind of mystery novel, something that keeps me guessing. Does anyone have a recommendation?
No link at end of last thread? SHAME
Still plodding through
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel
And I read the rest of Numbers today:
Holy Bible English Standard Version by Anonymous
Old Testament God continues to be an asshole. He told this prophet guy to go help out the enemy of the Israelites, but then he was a real dick to him the whole way over. "Why you gonna help out the enemy of the Israelites?" "B-b-but you told me-" "You gonna do that? Angel gonna block your way sucker!" "You said-" "Oh man good thing your donkey knows what's what, else I'd have knocked your ass six ways to sunday" "B-but" "Anyway go help out the enemy of the Israelites"
Still plodding through
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel
And I read the rest of Numbers today:
Holy Bible English Standard Version by Anonymous
Old Testament God continues to be an asshole. He told this prophet guy to go help out the enemy of the Israelites, but then he was a real dick to him the whole way over. "Why you gonna help out the enemy of the Israelites?" "B-b-but you told me-" "You gonna do that? Angel gonna block your way sucker!" "You said-" "Oh man good thing your donkey knows what's what, else I'd have knocked your ass six ways to sunday" "B-but" "Anyway go help out the enemy of the Israelites"
juicyfruitas
Member
I tend to read 1 fiction book at a time and 2-3 non-fic books simultaneously. Here's what I got going on right now.
Enjoying this one so far. 4 transplants (mostly from SE Asia) find themselves in the urban madness of Shanghai trying to build a life or hold on to one. Tash Aw's style is on point and he manages the multiple characters and perspectives well.
About 25% in so far - and while not as accessible as his volume of videogame ruminations, "Extra Lives," this collection of previously published essays/articles on creativity and the creative process is a chewy and satisfying read:
Learning how to master shit. Half way through and so far, so good. Similar to his '48 Laws of Power' but this one has a more streamlined focus on mastering the craft of life:
Almost finished with this and am really enjoying it. This volume contains bite sized passages (1-2 pages each) that sheds light on the daily creative process utilized by over 100 luminaries (mostly writers). The common thread is that daily (or close to daily) ritual is necessary and creative endeavors must be approached with blue collar craftsmanship - not fanciful lollygagging while waiting for the muse to strike:
Enjoying this one so far. 4 transplants (mostly from SE Asia) find themselves in the urban madness of Shanghai trying to build a life or hold on to one. Tash Aw's style is on point and he manages the multiple characters and perspectives well.
About 25% in so far - and while not as accessible as his volume of videogame ruminations, "Extra Lives," this collection of previously published essays/articles on creativity and the creative process is a chewy and satisfying read:
Learning how to master shit. Half way through and so far, so good. Similar to his '48 Laws of Power' but this one has a more streamlined focus on mastering the craft of life:
Almost finished with this and am really enjoying it. This volume contains bite sized passages (1-2 pages each) that sheds light on the daily creative process utilized by over 100 luminaries (mostly writers). The common thread is that daily (or close to daily) ritual is necessary and creative endeavors must be approached with blue collar craftsmanship - not fanciful lollygagging while waiting for the muse to strike:
bob_arctor
Tough_Smooth
I saw the movie after the book and thought it was wonderful.
I'd actually read the bible if it was written like that.
The Artful Dodger
Member
The Cartoon is pretty good when compared the book. I think the book comes off quite a bit darker, but overall it's a fantastic adaptation of it. It shouldn't ruin the cartoon for her. Both are pretty good.
But it's been a while since I've seen it.
Picked that up in a recent sale. Glad to hear it's good.
Very good. It was one of those books I couldn't put down.
I think there's a bunch of "Here's the bible in jive!" "Here's the bible in Australian!" "Here's the bible in C++!" novelty thingies out there if that's your trick. It just helps me reinterpret it though, which is why I try and summarise things like that.
In terms of writing style, the most interesting thing about the Bible is that it just jumps randomly from thing to thing with no real pre-determined narrative structure or semblance of cohesion. A major military campaign can be over in two or three sentenceswhile the damn thing can go for pages listing the exact dimensions of the golden whatever God would like ya'll to build this morning.
Old Testament God really is bloody insane, too. I mean, I knew a lot of the tales before, but yeeeeeeeesh.
Yeah, it's superb. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again is also very good, particularly the story about him on a cruise. Personally I found his short story collections enjoyable in small, spaced doses but very tiring to finish and a little disappointing and I loved Infinite Jest and The Pale King.
Yesterday I finished Cryptonomicon and thought it was about alright, not as good as I'd hoped and the ending was pretty rushed considering how long he took to get us there. Now I'm reading a Hardy Boys novel, The Tower Treasure, for some light relief while I decide which part of my Kindle backlog to tackle next, I'm thinking Wolf Hall at the moment.
Burned through The Reason I Jump in a couple hours yesterday, a very short read, and it was very beautiful.
Now starting The Man Who Watched The World End
Now starting The Man Who Watched The World End
Been reading this one as well. About halfway through it. I enjoy it so far, My only qualm about it is how it jumps 10 years in the future at random times in the book. If I stop reading, and pick it up the next day, sometimes it feels like I skipped some parts.
The next book after this one, I will probably try one of the discworld books, and see how I like the series. The only thing I know about discworld is that I vaguely remember playing the PC game in my childhood.
sparky2112
Member
I don't know if I've ever read a paragraph that fucked with my head more...
