Support NeoGAF

[Krowley]

Let me know what you think. It's pretty short and each chapter is like 2 pages. It's an afternoon read.

Will do, though it may take me a little longer. I read so many books at once lately that almost nothing is an afternoon read for me unfortunately. It's a weird habit that I can't seem to get out of now that I've picked it up.

But anyway, this sounds really cool. I was looking over the rest of the author's career and from reading descriptions of different books it seems like this is pretty typical for him. I may end up liking a lot of his stuff.

 

[Akahige]

The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard, above average book and racist as fuck

now reading:

 

[Ashes]

Hector and the search for Happiness. Good quick read that is funny.

Thank you kindly.

I'm going to have to thank you again. What a wonderful book. A real delight. Simple and to the point.

 

[Haly]

Crime and Punishment is boring but not as boring as LOTR surprisingly.

 

[nakedsushi]

Finished this page-turner:


Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I liked it better than Gone Girl because it was more believable. But man the characters are so unsympathetic. I wanted to punch some of them for making such poor decisions. Usually I'm annoyed by chapters that jump backward and forward in time, but it actually worked really well in this one.

 

[sparky2112]

I liked it better than Gone Girl because it was more believable.

That's because Gone Girl is a miserable Piece Of Shit if you're married. There is not one redeeming thing about that novel if you have no tolerance for ugly people. It's overrated beyond ALL measure.

 

[ShaneB]

I'm going to have to thank you again. What a wonderful book. A real delight. Simple and to the point.

You're very welcome!! It was recommended to me as well in these threads when I needed a quick pick me up.

 

[effzee]

Are the Jack Reacher books worth reading?

 

[Verdre]

Finished Call Me Human by Sergei Marysh

Started off mediocre enough, but by the last 20% or so it had gone straight into the realm of terrible. Also features two paragraphs of good ol' Russian homophobia that are used to help cement two characters as horrible people. I can't help but think the homophobia comes straight from the author, as it's in a long section detailing all the horrible things about two characters and the revelation that they're gay is what he tries to use to cement that view.

 

[Dresden]

Are the Jack Reacher books worth reading?

They're fun (and very silly, and disposable). Get old after a while though, as with most things of that nature.

 

[Tashi]

Just finished A Storm of Swords HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG. The last few hundred pages are out of CONTROL!

Next I have to finish Quiet by Susan Cain. I started it a long time ago but put it aside for other stuff. After that I don't know if I wanna do the Halo novel Primordium or if I wanna read A Feast for Crows.

I'll probably do the Halo book because it's 1/5th the length of book 4 LOL.

 

[Thing on a Spring]

Just finished this.

Rather good it was, too. The man's certifiable.

 

[Krowley]

Are the Jack Reacher books worth reading?

Depends on who you ask. I'm a big fan myself. I would say it's one of my favorite book series.

The biggest attraction is Reacher as a character. He's kind of like Sherlock Holmes, meets Conan the barbarian, meets The Punisher, meets Caine from Kung Fu. By the time you get five books in, it's almost like reading about a superhero. Everything is bigger than life, and the pacing is fast. Child knows how to write in a way that keeps you glued to the page.

The plots are varied enough that even the genre can shift dramatically from book to book. Some of the books are straight-up murder mysteries, others are action adventures, and others include elements of international intrigue (Reacher still has connections because of his background as an elite military cop and gets caught up in major events from time to time, almost like Rambo in a way.) Some of the books are very small and deal with only two or three major characters. Others have a huge cast of characters. Sometimes Reacher is in the big city, other times out in the country or in very small towns. He fights arms dealers, and terrorists, and psychopaths, and organized criminals, and hit men. Despite these variations the books can be kind of repetitive because Child plays certain plot pieces again and again, but if you like the books well enough, it's easy to forgive that.

The quality varies a lot across the series, with a few real stinkers scattered throughout, but there are nearly 20 books now and they still haven't gone on an extended decline. There are about 5 to 7 that are pretty damn near perfect (at least by the standards of this kind of fiction.).The rest are either very good, tolerable, or straight up awful. Luckily, there are no major ongoing storylines so if you start on one that sucks you can drop it like a hot potato and just move on to the next one, or even read them out of order if you want.

IMO the series is some of the best escapist fun out there.

 

[ShaneB]

Taking a break from the football tome "America's Game" (which feels like would take me 6 weeks to finish), but I'll read a chapter in between things I think, and started reading this...

Now reading..
The Door Into Summer

 

[Maklershed]

^ Very good book

 

[Night Crawlers]

Rereading Leaves of Grass and I cant believe I didn't notice the subtext in this one on the first go lol:

Is this then a touch? quivering me to a new identity,
Flames and ether making a rush for my veins,
Treacherous tip of me reaching and crowding to help them,
My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself,
On all sides prurient provokers stiffening my limbs,
Straining the udder of my heart for its withheld drip,
Behaving licentious toward me, taking no denial,
Depriving me of my best as for a purpose,
Unbuttoning my clothes, holding me by the bare waist,
Deluding my confusion with the calm of the sunlight and pasture-fields,
Immodestly sliding the fellow-senses away,
They bribed to swap off with touch and go and graze at the edges of me,
No consideration, no regard for my draining strength or my anger,
Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them a while,
Then all uniting to stand on a headland and worry me.

The sentries desert every other part of me,
They have left me helpless to a red marauder,
They all come to the headland to witness and assist against me.

I am given up by traitors,
I talk wildly, I have lost my wits, I and nobody else am the greatest traitor,
I went myself first to the headland, my own hands carried me there.

You villain touch! what are you doing? my breath is tight in its throat,
Unclench your floodgates, you are too much for me.

 

[Krowley]

Just finished:

Fool Moon: Book 2 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

This had a lot of the same problems as book one, and a lot of the same strengths.

Overall I thought it was pretty okay. Dresden is likable. Sort of. Going into the series I expected him to be your typical hardboiled, cynical private eye type, which would've been fine--in some ways better--but it turns out he's actually kind of a softie. This can be annoying at times, but for some reason I'm sort of okay with it.

Also, despite the magic system, which still seems to be just strong enough to get him out of trouble (or weak enough to get him into trouble, if that's what the story needs) the big action scenes were well conceived and executed.The ending and everything leading up to it paid off in a big way.

There are still problems (plenty of them) but I feel pretty good about pressing on to the next one.

 

[Protome]

Been a while since I posted in one of these topics!
In that time I've read a bunch of stuff, but most recently I finished reading

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a ship of her own making.

It was pretty good. The writer manages to create a suitably absurd Wonderland-esque world and the characters are all silly and likeable. It's not the most original concept in the world, but I had fun reading it and bought the sequels as soon as I finished it. I think once I'm finished with what I'm currently reading I'm going to just read a string of this author's work, I really love the writing style. Any recommendations?


Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I love Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I felt it was pretty shameful that I hadn't read this yet. As with most Douglas Adams things it went in completely different directions from what I expected and was incredibly funny.

And now I've started reading at the recommendation of a friend:
The Name of the Wind

I'm not far into it yet, but I'm liking it so far.

 

[Lionheart1827]

Little over half way through this:

Its really good so far. I finally took the plunge into the series and bought the 4 book kindle bundle.

 

[Dec]

And now I've started reading at the recommendation of a friend:
The Name of the Wind


I'm not far into it yet, but I'm liking it so far.

Name of the Wind is good fun reading, Wise Man's Fear, too. I think I read like 35 hours the weekend I first picked them up.

 

[SmoothCB]

Crux by Ramez Naam

Hope it's as good as the first one. Definitely great food for the imagination!

 

[fakefaker]

Finished up Animal's People by Indra Sinha today, and other than the ending feeling a bit forced, I was really engaged with this heart wrenching story.

And now to tackle something a wee bit longer...The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas.

 

[Samk]

Finished up Animal's People by Indra Sinha today, and other than the ending feeling a bit forced, I was really engaged with this heart wrenching story.

And now to tackle something a wee bit longer...The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas.

One of my favorites. My best friend and I still refer to "Going Monte Cristo" on people who piss us off. The idea of systematically destroying people from the inside out is very powerful.

Spoiler

It destroys Dumas in the end, of course. But it is intoxicating.

 

[Neffarias_Bredd]

Just picked this up after it was recommended to me via goodreads

 

[Akahige]

Finished this, probably my favorite Clive Barker book yet

 

[TestMonkey]

Saw a commercial for it during the Saints game and thought hey I have that book.

 

[The Artful Dodger]

Just picked this up after it was recommended to me via goodreads

This book is amazing, hope you enjoy it!

 

[Akahige]

Reading this:

 

[Wigwam]

Finished My Edgar Allan Poe collection. Enjoyed it for the most part but some of the stories were quite the slog. Now on to this:

 

[Akahige]

Finished Book 1 & 2 of Saga of the Swamp Thing

The ending of 2 was pretty fucking weird

now onto

 

[Tragicomedy]

Reading this:

Excellent. Swamp Thing Moore is best Moore.

 

[Switch Back 9]

Finished Book 1 & 2 of Saga of the Swamp Thing

The ending of 2 was pretty fucking weird

now onto

You think it's weird now you're in for a treat.
Just wait until

Spoiler

he dies or something and get's resurrected on a blue planet all by himself

 

[Blitzzz]

Finished listening to:

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku

I enjoyed it. Lots of specific reference to tech in books/movies/games and an analysis of how they might be made. The explanations are well laid out and easy to understand for the most part. Tech based on purely theoretical physics was a little less entertaining and more text book like.

Recommended for any sci-fi fan that would like some tie in to the real world.

 

[Zhengi]

I finished Legendary Siblings. This was a pretty long book with 1000+ pages, but I completely enjoyed it. However, I'm burned out on wuxia novels at the moment as this was my fourth book in about 2 months and I'm taking a break from them for a bit. I've gone back to reading the complete works of Sherlock Holmes starting with A Study in Scarlet. This will be my third time reading through the series. Definitely going to enjoy this

 

[commish]

Just picked this up after it was recommended to me via goodreads

Probably my favorite book ever. It's definitely in the top 3.

 

[Verdre]

Finished The Funeral Party by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

I enjoyed it. Very short, quick read.

 

[Mackenzie 92]

taking a break from revelation space and reading this. pretty fun and gory. like it


The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

 

[demon]

Decided to take a short break from the ASOIAF series and am now reading

It didn't really capture me at first but it's gotten better. I'm liking it.

I read that a few years ago. Wasn't phenomenal but I enjoyed it. It takes some interesting turns towards the end.

I just started this:

I'm from (around) Chicago and know virtually nothing about him.

 

[Akahige]

You think it's weird now you're in for a treat.
Just wait until

Spoiler

he dies or something and get's resurrected on a blue planet all by himself

yeah just got to that part, this comic is starting to turn in Watchmen

 

[TTG]

The Discworld series is on Kindle's daily deals, I've seen it mentioned here, what's the verdict?

 

[Corum]

The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

I'm glued to it and fortunately (/unfortunately) I have to travel a lot for work so plenty of reading time available!

 

[bengraven]

Finished Hawkline and I'm waiting for my Titus Groans omnibus to arrive. In the meantime I'm just reading through some of Jeff VanDemeer's stuff, which is basically all about me. Cabinet of Curiosities and the Steampunk Bible. Good stuff if you love steampunk, Lovecraft (which go together like peanut butter and jelly), and Cherie Priest, MIke Mignola, Alan Moore, etc.

Hawkline Monster was...I think it was good? I loved the flow of narrative and I loved, LOVED the dialogue. It was marketed as a Western Gothic, but it...was and wasn't either of them. You get four pages of "these men are assassins in the old west", a few chapters of "our father was a mad scientist who created this Victorian home in the middle of Oregon" and the rest is like an Irvine Welsh drug trip.

And a lot of fucking, which I'm okay with because I pictured the Hawlines as Rachel Weisz.

 

[i_am_ben]

One of the most boring books I have ever read. One dimensional characters and a plot that was totally unfocused.

 

[Jag]

One of the most boring books I have ever read. One dimensional characters and a plot that was totally unfocused.

People rave about the series and I felt the same way. It just didn't grab me and I'll read anything.

I also need a recommendation for War of The Roses historical fiction. Been watching The White Queen on Starz (very well done BBC production, feels like GoT) and really getting interested in the politics of the era (but don't want a history book). I've read both Pillars books and someone recommended The Sunne in Splendour.

 

[Marcovaldo]

The Discworld series is on Kindle's daily deals, I've seen it mentioned here, what's the verdict?

discworld is good, light-hearted fun

 

[Blitzzz]

Started listening to this:

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Feels like a historical mystery documentary show. I love those haha

 

[HoJu]

Currently struggling through To the Lighthouse. Woolf is just constantly going in different directions; it's hard to keep track of what's going on or what she's trying to get across.

Also reading Kafka on the Shore, which is a much easier read. Oh how I love Murakami.

 

[zaryn]

The Discworld series is on Kindle's daily deals, I've seen it mentioned here, what's the verdict?

Could someone suggest which of the 5 books on sale would be good for a discworld beginner? I think I've see Mort recommended, but also on sale are The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, and Sourcery.

 

[justjohn]

Unforgivable blackness: the rise and fall of jack Johnson

 

[fredrancour]

Could someone suggest which of the 5 books on sale would be good for a discworld beginner? I think I've see Mort recommended, but also on sale are The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, and Sourcery.

I've only read color of magic but the reading order flowchart that prompted me to do so listed mort, equal rites, and color of magic as intro novels, with the light fantastic and sourcery as following CoM