Animation Revelation Forum

Books! Yes, books. Oh... yeah... books...  :(

In short, talk about what you're reading here and/or give other guys some ideas as to which books they should read.

Been reading Dune lately.

I would continue to get into Herbert's stuff if my library had a copy of Children of Dune, but until then, I'm too lazy to go to another library so I'm not reading much now.

Finished reading Tokyo Vice. Absolutely amazing book if you enjoy reading well-written non-fiction accounts about the Mafia (in this case, the Yakuza).

In other words, if you're me.

That does sound pretty good.

I'll have to look into it.

It's an excellent read. The author has a great sense of humor and writes it kind of like a Noir mystery at times. :lol:

The last few chapters are really depressing and kind of scary. You can tell that his experiences greatly effected him and influenced him as a person.

One of the books I'm reading at the moment is The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, which can best be described as a mix between historical fiction and fantasy, set in a thinly disguised version of Spain during the Reconquista. Highly recommended if you like fantasy, historical fiction or just good storytelling in general.

Just finished Brave New World for the first time and loved it. I would be playing Iron Maiden's album of the same name now (the title track of which is based on the book), but my copy's been acting up lately.

Until then, I'm starting The Big Sleep up. I wasn't crazy on the movie as much as I like Bogart and noir, so I'm hoping that I'll find the original book more interesting. Raymond Chandler is a great writer either way.

Trying to make a dent into Lord of the Rings. The chapters are a bit longer than in The Hobbit but gotta love the detail that the movie glosses over.

Finished Mistress of Mistresses by E.R. Eddison recently and while it does suffer from an almost painfully tedious introductory chapter (a problem it shares with Eddison's more famous work, The Worm Ouroboros) it soon takes of and the reader gets involved in a world rife with political intrigue and warfare. The characters are also interesting particularly The Vicar of Rerek who is now one of my favorite villains of all time.

I finished The Big Sleep earlier today, and I wonder what I was on to not dig the movie, because the book is great, and I couldn't help but imagine Bogart's voice while reading it.

Looks like I have to rewatch the movie, and I'm also looking for the rest of the Philip Marlowe stories.

Also, Raymond Chandler is one of the coolest people ever and if you haven't read any of his Marlowe books or seen any of the movies he wrote yet, you should feel ashamed.

Almost done with Farewell, My Lovely now. It isn't as tightly constructed as The Big Sleep and the use of the n word dates it a bit, but I still think it's a solid addition to the Marlowe line.

After I read all of Raymond Chandler's books, I have a big list to catch up on of what to read.

Do you think it would be too obsessive if I add every book that Iron Maiden has based a song off of to my list?

I really should read more Chandler, considering that I quite enjoyed The Big Sleep.

I've recently finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and while at times, it felt like the plot wasn't going anywhere in particular, I still found the book worth my time. The characters were all vividly drawn and memorable and there were enough interesting moments in the book for me to recommend it to those who haven't read it yet. Overall, I think I'll check out more of Murakami's works in the future.

Starting my Maiden voyage now. I skipped ahead and read "Murders in the Rue Morgue" at Barnes & Noble the other night, and now I'm going back to reading Phantom of the Opera.

Next up I'll check what is required reading based on NOTB.

Reading Heart of Darkness for school, and Witches Abroad for boredom. The former's an absolute slog, while the latter's proof I should get in more Pratchett.

Read Cat's Cradle, and it was an odd book. Didn't hit the right notes for me, but kept me interested enough to read it throughout the whole bus trip.

But then again, I never really got Slaughterhouse-Five either. Maybe I'm just not a Vonnegut kind of person.

So it goes.

Rereading The Heroin Diaries now, which contains passages from Nikki Sixx's journals when he was at his all-time low in terms of abuse while Motley Crue were at their all-time high in terms of commercial success. It's one of the greatest rock-related books I've read, and a wholly hollow book at that.

Just going through it again makes me think about a couple of things

1- This explains why the Girls album sucked.
2- Why haven't I read The Dirt yet?
3- Never, ever do heroin. Or date a girl named Vanity.

Spent the night binging through Grave Peril. Definitely an improvement over the first two Dresden books.

Currently reading Moorcock's Glorianna or the Unfullfill'd Queen. I haven't read much by Moorcock before, save for one Elric book and The Dancers at the End of Time, but this book is truly excellent. It's very Mervyn Peake in it's characters and atmosphere. Oh, and if you're not familiar with the works of Mervyn Peake, let me just say that the comparison was meant as a compliment.

Read some book called King Dork, which was fine up until a bunch of nonsensical plot resolutions happened near the end. Also went through the first book in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. The series is thick as all hell (2700 pages with tiny font in total), but still a gripping read.

With that, I'm currently starting the second book and Terry Pratchett's Masquerade.

Reading Men at Arms, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The Brothers Karamazov. I'm on a bibliophilic roll.

So... I thought I'd pass along this nugget of information that turned up today. If you haven't already heard, Borders bookstores are now, officially, going out of business:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Borders-Calls-Off-Auction-nytimes-1678947798.html?x=0 (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Borders-Calls-Off-Auction-nytimes-1678947798.html?x=0)

...and thus, the inevitable has arrived. We all knew this was a foregone conclusion; after they filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, 'twas just a matter of time.

As far as brick and mortar bookstores go now, this basically leaves Barnes & Noble... or, if you're lucky, you've still got a good used/indie operation going in your area.

I actually don't have a local Borders. I rely on Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million when I don't want to buy used or go to the library.

Sucks, though, since this doesn't speak well for the future of book stores.

Ah, right; forgot about Books-A-Million. We don't have those here, though (at least, not in Reno anyway; not sure about the west coast as a whole).

Well, that sucks for the Borders at Boston. Though can't say this'll affect me much since I buy most of my books on Amazon now.

I'm still reading on If There Are Thorns by V.C. Andrews. Though I need to find Petals of The Wind.

That's sad. I was thinking of getting some bookshelves, but wonder if even that is going to be a rarity.

Eh, I have plenty of Borders up in northern Virginia. Not seeing any of them here in Florida though, except for Books-A-Million. Went over there yesterday to purchase Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Have to read it for a class in school, liking it so far.

That sucks.  I haven't been to a bookstore yet out here in VA, so I don't quite know what's around, but I did like the Boise Borders location much more than I did the Boise B&N.  I too have never seen Books A Million back west, but there's Hastings, which is a general entertainment store(music, movies, video games, etc), but they had a pretty good selection of books, and in most locations even had a cafe, just like any other book store.

Been catching up on The Dresden Files (aka if Peter Parker pretended he was John Constantine). and it's been getting better with each book. Manages to be over-the-top without being stupid, and gives all its characters these delightful little shades, where even the villains are well-rounded and likable.

Currently reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. Great book, so far, I'm actually a bit surprised by how much I like it and it's characters.  It just goes to show that in the end, genre is nothing, writing is everything.

There are still genres I prefer to others though. I read a lot of historical fiction for example.

I read some Tolstoy a while ago (really liked The Cossacks), but I'm kind of afraid to read his two epics. I don't know if I'll have the time to conquer them.

Planning to read War and Peace during Christmas Break, so that'll be my entry into his work. Also trying to be ballsy and see if I can fit in Proust's In Search of Lost Time too.

Recently I began reading The Iron King, the first book in Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings series, which details the circumstances that led up to the 100 Year War. Really exciting stuff and Druon brings the setting and the characters to life masterfully. I suspect that this series is going to end up alongside the works of such authors as O'Brian and Dunnett on my list of favorite historical fiction in the future.

Going through Swann's Way, and sadly not getting much. All I'm seeing is just the narrator perving over Odette while the Monsieurs just talk a bit.

Out of boredom I started browsing through my older brother's collection of books and began reading Douglas Adams's The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

I started up Orlando by Virginia Woolf. It's a really cool idea, although the change is pretty sudden when it happens.

I recently finished The Dream of Scipio by Iain Pears. Awesome book, I had high expectations on this one after reading his previous novel An Instance of the Fingerpost and I wasn't disappointed.

Currently, I'm reading a collection of short-stories by Ryonosuke Akutagawa.

Well, it looks like I'll get to start The Hunger Games after all. I found it at GoodWill for a buck, along with season 2 of Fresh Prince for $5.

Granted, I also have a shitload of books to get to first, so it'll have to wait a little.

Reading The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. That title is definitely what I'm going through when reading it.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on February 20, 2012, 09:31:32 AM
Reading The Confusion by Neal Stephenson. That title is definitely what I'm going through when reading it.

Hmm, I've never read any of Stephenson's work. Although, I've been thinking about giving The Baroque Trilogy a shot.

Currently reading The Grass Crown, the second novel in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series.

Reading some Gogol right now. Good stuff. Gonna' start The Wallace by Tranter afterward and then maybe pick up some cyberpunk fiction once I finish with that. Anyone here know any good cyberpunk authors (other than Gibson lol)?

Neal Stephenson? He's done a few cyberpunk novels (Snow Crash for one), and they aren't bricks like some of his other works. Also, Warren Ellis if you don't mind comics.

Cool, I'll look into them.

I love comics, I was just mostly asking about regular books here. :P

So I finally got to read The Hunger Games. It's a very interesting concept, but I feel that it's poorly written, the universe is underdeveloped, and the characters are flat, aside from Katniss and maybe Haymitch.

Battle Royale is better.

When thinking about it, how does the concept of the Hunger Games make sense? So they think that forcing the Panem's children to fight to the death WON'T cause uproar among the districts? Catching Fire's even worse in showing how the antagonists work on making their plans evil instead of practical.

And yeah, Haymitch was my favourite character. Everyone else was either bland or there to manipulate emotions.

The Hunger Games seems like something that would benefit if it were told through shifting POV's. From what I can tell, the series just sticks with Katniss' POV for all three books.

Yeah, it was treated like Katniss was the only one suffering through the Games, and everyone else was in the wrong for merely trying to survive.

Anyway, I finished the Baroque Cycle. Longest book I've ever read, and while there were plenty of times where nothing happened, I can't picture anything being cut out without weakening the story.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on February 28, 2012, 09:34:18 PM
When thinking about it, how does the concept of the Hunger Games make sense? So they think that forcing the Panem's children to fight to the death WON'T cause uproar among the districts?

I haven't read the other books yet, but it doesn't seem like the people of Panem really have much of a choice to feel otherwise and are just accustomed to the games. That, or the other districts don't want to end up like District 13.

I do think that shifting POVs would have helped to make it better, too. For one thing, maybe Peeta would have been a better character if we could actually get to know him and not Katniss's change in feelings towards him.

Also, I called that Peeta's dad had a SnapexLily thing with Katniss's mom the moment he appeared. Way too predictable.

I do want to read the other books, but I also don't want to pay retail for them. I'll look around thrift stores to see if I get lucky again, since I don't think I could read either in one sitting at Barnes & Noble.

So is this the next thing I'm going to see hyped to high heaven for the next 6 years or so?

It looks a LOT like Battle Royale.

Katniss is a more interesting character than Bella or Hermione.

That's all it really has for it.

I'm currently reading Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey and so far, I have to say that it's pretty damn good, especially when it comes to the characters, who are all engaging and believable. The heroine and narrator of the book is a sort of courtesan/luxurious prostitute, so as you can guess there's quite a strong erotic element running trough the story. Oh, and she's also a masochist. Just thought I'd point that out.

If the above puts you off on reading the book, I should point out that the sex-scenes are, at least in my opinion, well-handled and never come off as artificial or crude. There's also plenty of political intrigue, betrayals, assassinations and all that other stuff that makes a novel worthwile. The closest thing I can compare Kushiel's Dart with is George R.R. Martin's stuff, so if you like his books, I'd recommend checking this one out.

Currently making my way through Bleak House. It's been awhile since I read any Dickens and I tend to find him a bit hit and miss (for example, I enjoyed A Tale of Two Cities but didn't care all that much for Great Expectations except for the scenes featuring Miss Havisham). However, this novel with it's tangled web of legal feuds, deceit and sinister lawyers is pretty good so far. Hopefully, it'll manage to sustain my interest for the remaining 600 or so pages.

Quote from: Ensatsu-ken on January 11, 2012, 04:17:13 PM
Out of boredom I started browsing through my older brother's collection of books and began reading Douglas Adams's The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Ah, nice choice. I miss Douglas Adams. I remember using Dirk's strategy of following the person in front of you when you're lost and it worked.

So how does Hunger Games compare with Twilight? It's totally hyped up this month.

Quote from: Angus on March 27, 2012, 02:01:58 PM
So how does Hunger Games compare with Twilight? It's totally hyped up this month.

Well, for starters, things actually happen and the prose isn't pretentious. At least, not by much.

On the subject of Dickens, I'm reading David Copperfield now, and I keep on thinking to myself "when will this end? When will this end? WHEN. WILL. THIS. END?!!!!"

Dickens really isn't for me.

Quote from: Avaitor on March 27, 2012, 02:45:09 PM
On the subject of Dickens, I'm reading David Copperfield now, and I keep on thinking to myself "when will this end? When will this end? WHEN. WILL. THIS. END?!!!!"

Dickens really isn't for me.

The only thing I can really remember from David Copperfield is the main villain. He was pretty entertainingly loathsome though, if there's one thing Dickens was good at writing it was bad guys. Sure, his villains are caricatures but at least they're memorable caricatures.

As for the length, one thing to remember is that Dickens work (and the works of most of his colleagues) was the 19th century equivalent to on-going TV-series and/ or soap-operas. Some of these works have aged well, such as most of Dumas' works (The Count of Monte-Cristo for example is a tousand pages long in it's unabridged form but reading it I hardly noticed) and others have not.

Personally, I'm more of a Wilkie Collins guy. The Woman in White is one of my favorite novels.

I agree, his villains are typically interesting. His characters and prose are just fine for the most part, but I can't get into his work for the life of me.

Well there's always Don Quixote if you want huge paragraphs that go on and on.

Just finished Bleak House. I liked this novel more than Great Expectations, but still found it to be quite uneven in places. There are parts of the novel that were excellent and other parts that were a chore to get through. Not a bad novel by any means I don't regret reading it, but I'm in no hurry to read another Dickens anytime soon.

Funny you should mention those two Dickens novels. Was watching part of Great Expectations last night and both feature Gillian Anderson.

I gave up on I Am Number Four for now; had almost been shipped overseas this month and it was a library loaner.

Quote from: Angus on April 13, 2012, 02:50:43 PM
I gave up on I Am Number Four for now; had almost been shipped overseas this month and it was a library loaner.

Refuse to read that book because of the shady behind the scenes stuff between the authors.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on April 13, 2012, 02:51:40 PM

Quote from: Angus on April 13, 2012, 02:50:43 PM
I gave up on I Am Number Four for now; had almost been shipped overseas this month and it was a library loaner.

Refuse to read that book because of the shady behind the scenes stuff between the authors.

Hmm? :SHOCK:

Quote from: Foggle on April 13, 2012, 02:53:03 PM

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on April 13, 2012, 02:51:40 PM

Quote from: Angus on April 13, 2012, 02:50:43 PM
I gave up on I Am Number Four for now; had almost been shipped overseas this month and it was a library loaner.

Refuse to read that book because of the shady behind the scenes stuff between the authors.

Hmm? :SHOCK:

The original author was used as cheap labor to churn out the next Twilight, while the publisher, James Frey of Oprah infamy, would take almost all of the profits.

Wow, that's fucking horrible. I wouldn't want to read that book, either.

Yeah, it's a sad backstory. They only put out two novels as a result.

Yeah, I posted a huge article on that one on the old board. Young Adult books are currently being destroyed.

Also, I'm in the minority, but I just don't care for Douglas Adams' work. I read the entire Hitchhiker series and it really didn't do anything for me.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on April 13, 2012, 05:49:31 PM
Yeah, I posted a huge article on that one on the old board. Young Adult books are currently being destroyed.

Eh, that's the exception instead of the rule. YA books seem to be getting more credit recently than ever thanks to guys like John Green.

QuoteAlso, I'm in the minority, but I just don't care for Douglas Adams' work. I read the entire Hitchhiker series and it really didn't do anything for me.

*gets pitchfork*

But really, after the first book, everything else starts getting less funny and interesting.

He was good at what he did, but it never resonated with me at all.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on April 13, 2012, 05:59:41 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on April 13, 2012, 05:49:31 PM
Yeah, I posted a huge article on that one on the old board. Young Adult books are currently being destroyed.

Eh, that's the exception instead of the rule. YA books seem to be getting more credit recently than ever thanks to guys like John Green.

Good point, the attitude behind "manufactured" stories seems to be becoming less and less accepted and I'm glad for it. If I Am Number Four had succeeded that wouldn't have been good for anyone.

I noticed the shark jumping around the fourth book. The fifth one was hardly memorable. Dirk Gently was more interesting by then.

Reading Oliver Twist now.

Yeah, I'm never reading another Dickens novel again.

Quote from: Brak's Dad on May 14, 2012, 11:13:00 PM
Reading Oliver Twist now.

Yeah, I'm never reading another Dickens novel again.

Good plan. Great Expectations made me ponder suicide.

Quote from: Brak's Dad on May 14, 2012, 11:13:00 PM
Reading Oliver Twist now.

Yeah, I'm never reading another Dickens novel again.

I liked the BBC miniseries they made out of it.  :(

I just hate his writing, so very very much. And it's funny, I don't think I've ever liked any adaptation of his work. I never cared for ANY version of A Christmas Carol, even Disney's or Scrooged, I couldn't even finish David O. Selznick's take on David Copperfield, and Oliver & Company was always one of my lesser favorite Disney movies.

I don't know why I dislike his work so much, but I just do.

Hmm. You just might not be a fan of repetition given A Christmas Carol's reputation. And Oliver Twist isn't particularly known for its subtlety. The thing about Dickens is that his protagonists usually aren't well-written, at all. So that might be why.

Now in books that people like, I read the Witch Hunters by Steve Lyons yesterday as part of my Doctor Who binge. Feels like a Hartnell story, but definitely shows when it was written in places. Also, the foreshadowing to future stories was pretty obvious.

His supporting characters usually are more interesting than the protagonists, yes. But I wouldn't add a single one to my favorites.

Also, as he was writing the books in serial format, and had to write the books to make sure the audience would remain large, it kind of shows how hodgepodge his style can get. So basically, he was his day's soap opera writer.

Ouch. Dickens hate makes me sad.

I've been reading Chris Jericho's second autobiography (Undisputed) and he sure packs a ton of pop culture references in his writing.

Currently reading London Match, the final part in Len Deighton's first trilogy about Bernard Samson. Great espionage fiction, if you like the works of Le Carr? than I certainly recommend London Match as well as the previous books in the series.

I finally got to pick up a copy of A Game of Thrones a few days ago. To pass the time before I get to find the other books, I'm reading The Once and Future King.

It's funny, the Disney version of Sword in the Stone isn't too far off from the book at all. They just cut out a lot of filler.

It's kind of sad that I'm reading that Chris Jericho book and have to pull up Wikipedia every few paragraphs.

Was surprised that Ray Bradbury was still around until this week.  91 years old. RIP. same age as J.D. Salinger.

I really should get around to read more Bradbury, can't believe I haven't read Fahrenheit 451 yet, just to name an example.

Currently reading White Jazz, the fourth book in James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet. I'm curious to see whether or not Dudley Smith finally gets his comeuppance in this one.

Hmm, I thought everyone had to read 451 in high school, not that I paid much attention to it, but it makes me wonder what's "required reading" these days.

The only book I can think of that was "required reading" was The Great Gatsby.

Which totally should be.

I caved in and bought those two B&N versions of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I hope my head doesn't explode.

Quote from: Angus on June 19, 2012, 09:06:24 PM
I caved in and bought those two B&N versions of The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I hope my head doesn't explode.

Good for you, Angus. You can't go wrong with Conan Doyle.

Regarding Fahrenheit 451, I should perhaps point out that I'm Swedish and so did not attend an American high-school where I'd guess Fahrenheit 451 would be required reading. Although considering how universal it's themes are, I'm a bit surprised it was never brought up during my high-school years. At any rate I haven't read it, but I aim to fix that one day.

I've read Gatsbyhowever and I have to say that despite the prohibition era stuff and the mystery surrounding the main character it left me cold. I'm willing to give it another go though.

No prob. I'd probably have to read those high school books again since I really didn't have a clue the first time around.

So I went to see Brave and stopped by the book shop in the mall since they had a giant rack of 50 Shade Of Grey out front. I picked three random passages to read and was stunned each time.

The first involved cleaning vomit out of pants, the second involved a hipster getting deep listening to Snow Patrol and really thinking man, and the third involved a breakfast scene that climaxed with one character wanted to have sex with the others mouth.

At the front of the store so anyone could walk up and grab it.

Wow.

So now this exists. (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/anna-karenina-leo-tolstoy/1002348975?ean=9781435139626)

I also quite need this. (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/barnes-noble-leatherbound-classics-dracula-bram-stoker/1106658799?ean=9781435129733). And this. (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/barnes-noble-leatherbound-classics-hp-lovecraft-h-p-lovecraft/1106658815?ean=9781435122963).

Currently reading Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis. I've been curious about this book ever since I saw it described as Watchmen meets Alan Furst (speaking of which, I really need to read more Furst; Dark Star was a great read) and so far, it's definitely living up to my expectations. The plot boiled down to it's bare necessities is as following: Nazi-Scientist takes in a bunch of orphans and uses them as test subjects for his experiments. A lot of them die, but some of them survive and are given superpowers. In order to combat this threat, British Intelligence decides to recruit the warlocks of Britain and with their help form an alliance with various demonic entities in order to combat the nazi supermen. Of course, this alliance is not without it's price.

If the basic plot is pure pulp (and I mean that in the best possible ways), the characters on both sides are all complex and interesting. I must admit that so far, I find the parts of the book that focuses on Dr. von Westarp's "children" to be slightly more interesting than those that take place in Britain, but that could be because the former parts feature my two favorite characters in the book the siblings Klaus and Gretel. Gretel is especially interesting; a sociopath who can predict the future, she makes for a very compelling villain and I can't wait to see what she does next.

Picked up City of Thieves by David Benioff at the local library and have been making my way through it. It's a well-crafted adventure story about two guys looking for eggs in Leningrad during the German occupation.

I'm reading an anthology of essays to get myself better at writing papers. Some of them just feel like short stories with meta-narration.

I've been reading some G.K. Chesterton. Great stuff.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 29, 2012, 05:05:26 PM
I've been reading some G.K. Chesterton. Great stuff.

Yeah, Chesterton's great; the guy knew how to write a good detective story. I think my favorite of his works is The Man Who Was Thursday, which kind of reminded me of The Prisoner in terms of it's uncanny, weird atmosphere and characters.

As for me, I'm currently reading Blood's A Rover by James Ellroy. Great book, Ellroy is one of my favorite authors living today.

Read Cosmopolis and Crying of Lot 49 for class. Liked the first more than the second. Pynchon just doesn't work right with me.

Currently, I'm reading the first volume of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It's a very engrossing book; the alternative reality is revealed gradually through subtle hints and the characters, both the more grounded and the slightly larger-than-life are believable and interesting. Well worth seeking out and a good starting point if you've never read anything by Murakami before.

The Millienium series of books, aka the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, is really good.  I'm currently working on the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, but the second book(The Girl Who Played With Fire) is one of the best books I've read in a while.  It's everything you want in a book; an event happens and you want to the who, what, and why, and you're intently reading the book until before you know it you've gone through 200 hundred pages(through which the main character and the person under suspicion in the book, Lisbeth Salander, does not make an appearance), and you've still got unanswered questions.  That's what happened to me with this book.

Yeah, I still say the Hunger Games books should have been written in the same style Larsson wrote the Millennium trilogy, so we could crack into the mind of more than just Katniss.

I still haven't read anything by Larsson, perhaps it's time I gave him a shot.
Currently reading The Plague by Camus and enjoying it, it's proven much easier to get into than I thought it would be.

I'm still reading Father Brown stories, though in between stories I'm planning on reading my new copy of the Great Gatsby.

After reading The Faults in Our Stars, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for YA novels, and I REALLY don't care for the current fixation on them.

Quote from: Avaitor on February 02, 2013, 11:00:33 PM
After reading The Faults in Our Stars, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for YA novels, and I REALLY don't care for the current fixation on them.

I really hated that book. :/

I'm about to start Rabbit, Run by John Updike for school, but I'm happy 'cause I've been meaning to read it for a couple years now.

I've been digging into Phantastes by George MacDonald, this is definitely going to be one of my all time favorites when I'm done.

Quote from: Avaitor on February 02, 2013, 11:00:33 PM
After reading The Faults in Our Stars, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for YA novels, and I REALLY don't care for the current fixation on them.

If you've read The Outsiders you really don't need the rest. And yes, that includes Rye.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 04, 2013, 03:51:09 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on February 02, 2013, 11:00:33 PM
After reading The Faults in Our Stars, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for YA novels, and I REALLY don't care for the current fixation on them.

If you've read The Outsiders you really don't need the rest. And yes, that includes Rye.

Nation. The Book Thief. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. An Abundance of Katherines. The Tiffany Aching Series.

Yes, yes, there are other worthy entries in the genre. I just wanted an excuse to throw a jab at Holden Caufield.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 04, 2013, 07:21:50 PM
Yes, yes, there are other worthy entries in the genre. I just wanted an excuse to throw a jab at Holden Caufield.

John Lennon's fangirls beat you to that several decades ago.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on February 04, 2013, 07:09:09 PM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 04, 2013, 03:51:09 PM

Quote from: Avaitor on February 02, 2013, 11:00:33 PM
After reading The Faults in Our Stars, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for YA novels, and I REALLY don't care for the current fixation on them.

If you've read The Outsiders you really don't need the rest. And yes, that includes Rye.

Nation. The Book Thief. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. An Abundance of Katherines. The Tiffany Aching Series.

The Book Thief is one of my favourite books ever.

Hmm, I've got The Book Thief sitting on my shelf, but haven't read it yet. Perhaps I should make it my next priority.

Currently reading Children of Men by P.D. James, I liked the movie a lot, so I decided to check out it's source. So far, the novel is very good; for the moment it's mostly focusing on the main character's childhood and his relation with his cousin, the dictator of England. The future presented by James is interesting and I look forward to see more of it. She does a great job at depicting the hopelessness and growing resignation of a humanity on the verge of extinction.

While at Barnes & Noble, I skimmed Valerie Harper and Sissy Spacek's autobiographies. Both looked pretty good from what I can tell, but I'll wait for them to go paperback.

Which reminds me, I still need to read Mustaine's book.

Currently reading Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard, I picked it up at the local bookshop's sale on a whim, having never heard about the before. However, a blurb on the inside of the cover compared him to Le Carr?, so I decided to give it a try. So far, it's an intriguing mystery-story that reminds me of something Eric Ambler (The Mask of Dimitrios etc) could have written and that's definitely a compliment.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and [Ayn Rand's] Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

This is the best quote ever.

Beautiful.

What's funny is that I just found out that my uncle has a copy of Atlas Shrugged in his office.

Like he's fucking Bert Cooper.

Passover starts on Monday, and my mom said that I can have a book or two as a gift (yes, we do Passover gifts). Since my sister got some masacra for her gift, and the paperbacks for ASOIAF are about $8 each, I think that's worth two or three of them.

Now I can read beyond A Game of Thrones! :>

Edit: or just one book. Damn cheap $10 mascara!

Currently reading Startide Rising by David Brin, it's a science-fiction novel with some really interesting ideas and concept. For example, in the book's universe, more advanced races can basically uplift other species; enhancing their intelligence and so-on. However, the species that do get uplifted also falls in debt to their benefactors, having to work as a servant/slave-race until their debt is paid. Humanity is among the species that were uplifted and by the time of novel, we've also done this with some animals on Earth, namely chimpanzees and dolphins. Oh, and the story concerned a spaceship from Earth crash landing on an undisovered planet and discovering artifacts that may belong to the oldest race in the universe is well-told and interesting with fleshed-out characters.  If you enjoy science-fiction, I'd recommend it.

Been reading a handful of Richard Wright's short stories lately, such as Down by the Riverside and Big Boy Leaves Home. They're truly brutal works, and something I would never recommend to the lighthearted. And yet, something truly human shines in those tales.

I got A Clash of Kings yesterday (as in Monday), and I'm already about halfway in. Does that show you how much I like these books?

I am annoyed at how little Daenerys has showed up so far, though. Only two chapters, while Tyrion by comparison must have had least half a dozen by this point. At least it's all very well-written thus far.

Daenerys' chapters gets less and less interesting with each new installment of the series. I found them a chore to get through in A Dance With Dragons. Than again, neither Dance nor the previous novel A Feast for Crows managed to reach the heights of the first three novels. They were not bad, mind you, I just didn't enjoy them as much as their predecessors.

I'll have to take your word for it. They've become so sparse as of now that I can't really say that I love or hate them.

I hope I can get back in the mood to read soon, I still have the Moviegoer to go through.

I'm on A Clash of Kings now. I think after I'm done with this one, I'm going to stop reading the books for a little to catch up with the show, then I'll get onto the next ones.

One thing has fascinated me, though. Earlier in the book, Cersei made a claim that as she and Jaime were born together, they will surely die together. Is this foreshadowing?

Spoiler

Andddd I hit Arya's death.

Martin, you cruel bastard.

[close]

Right now I'm reading some non-fiction for a change, namely: Death in the City of Light by David King, which chronicles the case of Dr. Marcel Petiot; the serial-killer who terrorized occupied Paris. So far, I find the book to be a very engrossing read about a truly despicable individual. Of course, it's also extremely depressing and not just because of the ruthless cynisism and contempt for humanity that the good doctor displayed, but also because of the fact that no matter how horrible a person Petiot was, the fact that remains that compared to the Nazis running France at the time, he was an amateur.

I'm reading Love In The Ruins by Walker Percy which is excellent so far. It's pretty funny and imaginative at the same time and the characters are quite varied.

I just finished up 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan. Great little adventure story.

I finished The Prisoner Of Zenda. It's a great little adventure story.

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on June 09, 2013, 10:21:31 PM
I finished The Prisoner Of Zenda. It's a great little adventure story.

Are you going to read the sequel next?

I just finished Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: A great thriller about a man who comes home one day and finds that his wife is missing and is soon suspected of having murdered her. The story is told in first-person by both the man and the wife (the latter via diary entries); all the characters are interesting and the various twists of the story are excellently staged. I'll definitely seek out more books from this author.

Quote from: Pharass on June 19, 2013, 11:37:12 AM

Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on June 09, 2013, 10:21:31 PM
I finished The Prisoner Of Zenda. It's a great little adventure story.

Are you going to read the sequel next?

I have it on standby. First I'm going a bit more modern-ish with Salem's Lot and Black Cherry Blues.

I'm considering going through every Hugo winner for Best Novel, since I end up looking for a lot of books that win the award anyway.

I might reread one or two as well. I knew that I read through Goblet of Fire, but I honestly can't remember anything about it.

I sort of did something like that when I splurged in Penguin's short lived Red Classics Boys line since not only were they classics, but had really cool art design without any padding outside of the story.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Riddle Of The Sands, The Prisoner Of Zenda, and Rupert Of Hentzau. I find doing something like that is easier when they all fall into the same genre.

As for now, I started A Feast for Crows yesterday. Although i'm not hating it at all, I can see why it's the least popular book in the series thus far. We're geting into the perspective of characters that we haven't done so before, like Cersei and Brienne, and while I've been wanting to do so for them, it's still a bit of a change, while they're also throwing a lot of new things at us while not really going back and resolving certain points from the end of the last book.

I'm only about 200 pages in so far, so I'm really curious to see how it goes.

I think my favorite parts of Feast (aside from those that focused on Sansa who really comes into her own in that book) were the ones that revealed just how deluded and unstable Cersei is. It's been awhile since I read it but I can't recall her making a single good decision in any of the chapters that featured her

Currently reading The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle. As the title indicates, this book is a collection of short-stories that focuses on a hussar in Napoleon's army. The stories themselves are great adventure stories that expertly mixes humor (often at the main character's expense, although he's always blissfully unaware of it) with more serious stuff. If you want to check out another character of Doyle's who easily rivals the great Holmes in entertainment value, I recommend seeking this book out.

Quote from: Pharass on July 18, 2013, 03:31:33 AM
I think my favorite parts of Feast (aside from those that focused on Sansa who really comes into her own in that book) were the ones that revealed just how deluded and unstable Cersei is. It's been awhile since I read it but I can't recall her making a single good decision in any of the chapters that featured her

She has not. I love her lesbian chapter, and how she basically ends it by saying "that was fun, but only Jaime can please me"/

Currently reading a Swedish novel; Mannen fr?n Albanien (The Man from Albania) by Magnus Montelius. It's a very well-written mystery/espionage thriller in the vein of Le Carr?. The novel takes place in Stockholm during the 90's and concerns two journalists investigating the mysterious death of an accused spy who fled the country years earlier. Apparently this is the author's first novel, but I'm certainly looking forward to read more of his work in the future.

I always forget about this thread until you bump it. I read Rupert Of Hentzau finally, and it was a great sequel to the Prisoner Of Zenda if not quite as fast-paced.

I'm sort of just mulling through a few books right now deciding which to focus on.

Right now I'm reading The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. It's a good book, although I can't help but think that the eponymous story-within-the-story is more interesting than the main plot.

I found a vintage pulp copy of one of those short story collections which consists of stories that weren't approved for Hitch's show.

I want to find more of them. Some very cool reads in there.

Just dropped The Stand.

Stephen King at his best and his worst at the same time. It's just too much for one person, honestly.

Reading Live by Night, the latest (I think) book by Dennis Lehane. It's a follow-up to his previous novel A Given Day and centers around the younger brother of that novel's main character and his career as a gangster in prohibition-era Boston.
Really good so far, Lehane continues to establish himself as one of my favorite living authors.

I recently finished The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.
This was a great read, definitely one of the best science-fiction novels I've read. Basically, Stars is The Count of Monte Cristo in space (I read somewhere that the makers of Gankutsuo were originally going to make an anime adaption of Bester's novel but couldn't get the rights, but I'm not sure if that's true). However, there are differences so that Stars never feels like it's derivative of Dumas' work.

One difference is between the protagonists of each novel. In Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes starts out as a nice, but somewhat naive young man with a bright future ahead of him. On the other hand, Bester's protagonist; Gully Foyle starts the novel as a barely articulate primitive brute. Like Dantes, Foyle's quest for vengeance against the ship who abandoned him to drift in space (he actually swears vengeance on the ship itself and later in the book displays incredulity when one of his associates tells him it's pointless to take vengeance on a vessel and that he should instead focus his anger on the people who gave the order to pass him by) transforms him into a formidable being who will stop at nothing to make his revenge come true.

Another interesting aspect about The Stars My Destination is the so-called Jaunting. Basically, in Bester's vision of the 25th Century human beings have learned how to instantly teleport themselves (though it only works if you've actually been to the place you want to teleport too before and you need a mental picture of it in order to do so) which have lead to ordinary vehicles like cars or bicycles being status symbols for the wealthy.

Like I said; The Stars My Destination is a great read that I recommend to anyone with an interest in the genre. Now I need to decide if I should continue with The Demolished Man, another of Bester's novels or if I should take a pause from the SF stuff and move on to Sanctuary by William Faulkner.

I heard really good things about The Demolished Man. Most people can't seem decide between that or The Stars My Destination as the better.

I myself am reading The Haunting Of Hill House for Halloween this year. I'm not the biggest fan of The Lottery, but so far I'm enjoying this one quite well.

Quote from: Avaitor on September 12, 2013, 05:26:39 PM
Just dropped The Stand.

Stephen King at his best and his worst at the same time. It's just too much for one person, honestly.

I missed this post. The Stand is more of a "project" that you have to really sit down and sort of focus yourself in order absorb the sheer amount of story. I've also put it aside for reading later and got the mini-series to watch on DVD for now.

I honestly think Salem's Lot is a much easier read and gets really good (and STAYS good, unlike a lot of his work) despite the beginning being a bit over-stuffed with town activity for my tastes but a lot of it actually pays off later so it's a small price to pay. It makes a good Halloween read, too.

Well, I do really like Misery and Carrie, but it feels like King lets himself get carried away with longer novels like the Dark Tower and the Stand.

There's promise in both, but sometimes it's just too much for me.

Salem's Lot might be long, but it's still rather centered on the main plot and is quite good overall. But I only mainly like his early stuff anyway. After The Stand and The Shining my interest in his work falls off sharply.

After giving it some thought, I decided to continue with Bester and go with The Demolished Man. I'm almost finished with it and although I have a slight preference for The Stars My Destination, Demolished has been a great read and would easily get into any list of my favorite science-fiction novels. Ben Reich, the main character is a great villain-protagonist and his battle of wits with Lincoln Powell, the psychic detective out to catch him is riveting.

I've also been reading some books by Ross MacDonald and they too, are great, first-rate mystery stories. I've only read two of MacDonald's books so far, but it's easy to see why writers such as James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard hold (or held in the latter's case) him in such high regards.

I just finished reading The Neverending Story. Yeah, it definitely trumps both movies.

The first one sticks pretty close, but the changed ending in the movie makes me understand why Michael Ende didn't like it so much. The second one has Xayide and the whole memory-thing, but it's way better in the book and the ending is much more powerful for it. There's just so much going on in the book that even two movies couldn't contain it all. I have to give them credit for trying, at least.

All in all, great read!

Finished Sanctuary, out of the few books I've read by Faulkner it was definitely the easiest one to get into. All in all I enjoyed it. That said, I don't think I'll ever be able to look at corncobs the same way again.

As for now, I'm currently reading the first volume of Gao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the classic works of Chinese litterature. It's pretty good so far, I was in the mood for a huge epic/saga with tons of characters and this seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

Sanctuary is pretty good. Apparently Faulkner didn't think too highly of it, though. I will admit that while I love many of his books, I rarely understand more than 50% of any given one.

Quote from: Foggle on November 05, 2013, 02:12:35 PMI will admit that while I love many of his books, I rarely understand more than 50% of any given one.

Yeah, I'm fairly well-read, but Benjy's chapter of The Sound and The Fury was among the toughest things I've read in a long time.

I finished a read of Treasure Island. Nothing like a good swashbuckler, is there?

My favorite quote by the captain to John Silver (a crafty villain as always):

Quote"Very good," said the captain. "Now, you'll hear me. If you'll come up one by one, unarmed, I'll engage to clap you all in irons, and take you home to a fair trial in England. If you won't, my name is Alexander Smollett, I've flown my sovereign's colors, and I'll see you all to Davy Jones. You can't find the treasure. You can't sail the ship- there's not a man among you fit to sail a ship. You can't fight us- Gray, there, got away from five of you. Your ship's in irons, Mister Silver; you're on a lee shore, and so you'll find. I stand here and tell you so; and they're the last good words you'll get from me; for, in the name of heaven, I'll put a bullet in your back when I next meet you. Tramp, my lad. Bundle out of this, please, hand over hand, and double quick."

That's when I grew to like the captain.

I finished "Lucifer's Hammer" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. As far as end of the world scenarios go, it was quite exciting with many interesting characters and some unexpected twists. I have another book on the pile by them to read, being "The Mote in God's Eye" which I heard was a first contact story that I've heard good things about. First I'll probably go through "Jurassic Park" since I've put that off for too long.

I seem to be in a sci-fi mood.

The Mote in God's Eye and Jurassic Park are definitely good ones!

Awesome! I definitely can't wait to get around to them, then.  :)

Any of you guys hear about the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney? There's four of them, with a fifth in the works. Greaney's the guy that got to work with Tom Clancy before he died. I highly recommend them, they well-written action movie in print form.

I got Rain of the Ghosts for Christmas and am in the process of reading it. So far, it's very good with strong, believable characters and an interesting plot. Of course, we're talking about Greg Weisman here, so those things were pretty much a given.

As much as I enjoyed The Disaster Artist, there's one thing I don't understand- how on earth did Tommy come up with that pizza, and how does it taste?

Half Canadian bacon with pineapple, half artichoke with pesto, and light on the cheese. Never mind that the pizza came as a plain cheese. Inquiring minds need to know!

Finished Jurassic Park, and now I can understand why fans of the book were disappointed with aspects of the movie. It's still a great movie, but there's no question that I find the book better.

Gennaro, Wu, and Regis weren't even in the film and Hammond was a real piece of work in the book.

Still, all in all, it was a great story.

I finished A Dance With Dragons, and while it isn't as good as A Storm of Swords, it was much better than A Feast of Crows. Which makes sense, since trading in Cersei, Jaime and Brienne (although I do rather like Brienne as a character, even if her narrative never wowed me) for Tyrion, Dany and Jon Snow will end up doing that.

Now to just wait for Martin to finish these things. In the meantime, I'll just read about how MTM was made.

I'm on the third book of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy.

Trippy stuff.

Quote from: Avaitor on January 02, 2014, 11:55:41 AM
I finished A Dance With Dragons, and while it isn't as good as A Storm of Swords, it was much better than A Feast of Crows. Which makes sense, since trading in Cersei, Jaime and Brienne (although I do rather like Brienne as a character, even if her narrative never wowed me) for Tyrion, Dany and Jon Snow will end up doing that.

Now to just wait for Martin to finish these things. In the meantime, I'll just read about how MTM was made.

Personally I find Jaime to be a more interesting character than Dany and Jon (although I like them too). That said, I agree that Dance was better than Feast.
Currently reading the second part of Le Rouge & Le Noir by Stendhal. I have to say that the book's plot really became more interesting once the main character got to Paris and started to get mixed up in the various intrigues of the rich and powerful.

I can't seem to get into Jaime as a narrative character, personally. He fares much better for me on the show.

That seems to be the case for most people from what I can tell, though.

Fair enough.
As for a character that fares much better for me on the show, I'd have to say Tywin. Charles Dance pretty much steals every scene he's in, I especially enjoyed the scenes Tywin shared with Arya in the second season. Those were some of my favorite moments in the show.

Bought The Magicians by Lev Grossman on the annual book-sale and is busy reading it, great stuff. I've seen the book describe as Harry Potter for Adults (with a dash of Narnia thrown into the mix) and while that is technically an accurate description, I feel that it does the book a bit of a disservice, since it may cause a prospective reader to think that Grossman just took Rowling's characters and made them have sex and do drugs. Although The Magicians is about a boy who goes to a magic school where he meets a bunch of people who become his friends and finally feels like he belongs somewhere, Grossman's novel is different from Rowling's in a myriad of ways, the things mentioned earlier being only some of them.

One thing I particularly liked about The Magicians is the fact that magic is not an easy thing to learn; it's unpredictable and takes considerable effort to master. In one of my favorite moments in the book, Quentin, our protagonist, wonders why the students who have some sort of physical flaw, like a bum leg or a crooked jaw, simply doesn't use magic to fix them like Hermione straightened her teeth? It's because that kind of magic is extremely risky and last time someone attempted to do it, it did not end well for anyone involved.

I could talk about other things like the characters who are all interesting and believable (which is fortunate, since a large part of the novel lacks a central conflict and instead relies on the interaction between the characters and how Quentin discovers more about the new world he's stumbled into, to keep the reader interested), but I'm just going to stop there. The Magicians is awesome, if you haven't read it, do so.

Currently reading Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand C?line. It's an extremely cynical and pessimistic novel which I nonetheless find pretty funny at times (not that humor and cynicism are mutually exclusive, a lot of times the two go hand in hand). One of my favorite scenes is in the very beginning; the narrator and his friend sit at a caf? and talk about how stupid one has to be to join the army and stuff like that. The next moment a group of soldiers walk by and our anti-hero immediately runs off to get drafted.

I finished Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor which was quite an interesting read. I find her fairly exceptional when it comes to characterizations.

Almost done with the second volume of Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber. All I can say is that I'm glad that the book contains a character-index, because I found it quite easy to lose track of how the various characters were connected. That said, it's a good read and gives an interesting look into the upper-class society of 18th Century China.

Currently reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, the first book in her trilogy about Thomas Cromwell. I had heard a lot of good things about Wolf Hall, so my expectations going in where quiet high. I'm glad to say that so far, my expectations have been met; this is a great read and may very well rank among the best historical fiction I've read. I strongly recommend checking it out.

I just started reading A Game of Thrones, which in picked up from my local library. So far the only major difference that I've noticed from the TV show is that most characters are notably younger in the book than in the show.

I'm a bit further along in A Game of Thrones. So far the show was pretty accurate to the first book, from what I can see, with only a few minor changes here or there. I am realizing that, oddly enough, I seem to be hating Cersei more than Joffrey. Oh, don't get me wrong, Joffrey is a prick who deserves to die horribly, but the more I think about it, Cersei comes off as one of those bitchy moms who DOES know better but ended up spoiling the crap out of her kids when she should've been a real mother and learned how to discipline them. Of course, Tommen and Myrcella turned out alright, but Joffrey is the fucking poster child of bad parenting. Even when she knows that Joffrey is making a bad decision, she hardly does anything to stop him.

Putting that aside I like how the book gives you a bit more insight into the characters, through narration, than the show does.

The first season is rather faithful to the book, but as the show goes on, it does make more and more changes.

And I do agree about Cersei. She does understand that Joffrey is rotten, but she barely has an idea of how her parenting has ruined him over the years. Which makes sense, since she's quite dumb.

I'm reading "Last Call" by Tim Powers.

Freaky stuff.

So I just realized that "Ser Mormont" of The Night's Watch and "Ser Mormont" who is currently spying on Daenerys are father and son, respectively. That's the kind of details that you are more likely to pick up on while reading as opposed to watching the show, where you let many of the dozens of names that are thrown at you fly over your head. Despite season 1 being faithful to the first book, I've learned a lot more about this world than what I already knew from the first 4 seasons by reading the book. It reminds me of how there are so many details about the Corleones' and their family history that you just won't really get by watching the The Godfather or it's sequels (which to be fair both at least pay homage to some characters from the book that were left out of the first movie).

The point being that, it makes reading these books interesting even if I already have at least a general idea of what major events are going to happen. Though in the case of The Godfather, I did read the book first.

Wait, if Ser Barristan was on the small counsel in King's Landing, then that means that he already knew that Mormont was spying on Daenerys. I'm guessing then that the scene in season 4 of the show where he seemingly just finds out about it was changed from the books, then, because going by the book, he should've known about it the moment that he ran into them, and it would be odd for him to wait so long to bring it up.

I finished AGOT a few days ago. Overall I liked it about as much as the first season of the show. There were a few additional scenes that weren't in the show (most likely due to budget constraints), and vice versa since the show clearly added some stuff, but it was mostly the same story.

I was expecting Jaime to be a POV character, but then I remembered that he wasn't present that much in season 1, nor in the first book. I'm wondering if he will become a POV character in a later book, or maybe that's Brienne.

Anyways, I'm planning to start reading ACOK sometime soon, but I'll be on vacation in Niagara Falls for the next few days, so I'll probably only get to it by the end of this week, or whenever I get time to stop at the library.

IIRC, he becomes a POV character in the third book. Cersei and Brienne do in the fourth.

Currently reading Romance of Three Kingdoms, since I've been enjoying the 2010 TV-series a lot, I decided to check out the source-material. So far, the book has been pretty much what I expected it to be; lots of battles, talks about the bonds between men, honor, some political scheming, etc. It's a good read, though I will give the TV-series a slight advantage for portraying its characters with a bit more nuance (Cao Cao for example).

I tried to get ACOK from my local library today, but it was already checked out, so I had it put on hold for me. So, it looks like it'll be a while before I can get to it.

I finally managed to get ACOK from. My local library. I'll start reading it later today.

Bronn: "Fuck you, dwarf"
Tyrion: "That's Shae's task"

And that's why Tyrion is awesome, among other things. :joy:

I'm going to say it right now, while I'm a huge LOTR and Hobbit fan, I think ASOIAF is better from both a story-telling and character perspective. I think that both are among the greatest fantasy series of all time, of course, along with Harry Potter (yeah I said it, I don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks).

I might favor ASOIAF myself, but it's hard to knock LOTR. And of course, Howard's Conan work is still a lot of fun to read.

I'm reading Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury, his last book. I don't think I've yet read something from the man I haven't enjoyed.

I finally started up ASOS which I just picked up from my library today. I'll start it later, but it should be a great read, and if I'm not mistaken that should "mostly catch me up with where the show is currently at.

As for how ACOK compares to the second season of the show, there are marked differences this time, though it's still relatively faithful to the source material. Of the story-lines that played out differently, I found that Arya's story in particular was handled better in the show than in the books. Just being a regular serving girl for some ass-wipes want nearly as interesting as her conversations with Tywin Lannister in the show. Of course she doesn't actually meet him in the book, and instead ends up becoming Roose Bolton's cupbearer. While her interactions with him are not all that interesting, I do have to admit that it'll probably tie into future story events better.

On the other hand, I thought that Theon's story was handled far better in the book than in the show. The book does a much better job of using his story-line to set up Ramsay's character, and it makes more sense in the book why his family isn't willing to spare men to help him hold Winterfell (since strategically it makes no sense, and he didn't even think about that), whereas in the show it just seems like they are being dicks to him just because.

Danaerys's story-line was kind of weak for this season of the show, and the book wasn't really any better, but I hope that her story picks up again just like it did in season 3 of the show.

Other than that, most of the other story-lines were fairly faithful in the show to the books, and despite any changes, I liked them about the same in both versions, though I will say that watching the battle of Blackwater Bay will always be more entertaining for me than reading about it. I'm just not a fan of long battle scenes in literature. It's a large reason for why I prefer The Odyssey to The Iliad, for instance.

While looking for books at one of the local flea markets I found a nice two-volume edition of Mushashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. I'm currently halfway through the first volume and I'm really enjoying it, so far. I basically know nothing about the historical Miyamoto Musashi beyond the most basic facts, so I can't really point out which of the events in the book are based on historical facts and which ones Yoshikawa just made up. That said, the book is a great story about a man's personal growth, coupled with lots of exciting action and adventure. Musashi himself is a very engaging main-character and it's interesting to see how he develops both as a warrior and a person. In addition, the supporting cast is quite strong as well, with many memorable characters, the crafty monk Takuan being my personal favorite at the moment.

I believe that's the novel that Vagabond is based off of. I had no idea that it was translated to English, though. I'll have to look into that.

I'm reading it in Swedish (forgot to mention that), but according to Wikipedia an English translation was published in 1981.

Now for some Shameless Self-Promotion: I recently finished the first two books in Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle and a short review of them are now available at Ye Olde Blogge, if you're interested.

I finally got back to reading ASOS. I'm noticing how Sam and Arya's story lines are mostly playing out the way that they did in the show, whereas other characters have a lot of different scenes,much as Jaime and Davos. Still, it looks like season 3 of the show was still fairly faithful to the book, from what I've read so far.

I started reading the Dresden Files finally.

Storm Front's not bad, but I heard it gets much better after that.

I finally finished A Storm of Swords. And....now I can see why so many people were disappointed when a certain character didn't appear at the end of season 4 (and is supposedly being cut out of the TV show's story entirely). Anyways, those last few chapters were amazing, and I really liked where Jon Snow's story-line left off in this book.

Anyways, I can't wait to start reading A Feast For Crows, which will finally put me ahead of where the show is currently at how that I'm mostly all caught up with each story-line, save for a few select characters. I'm aiming to be caught up with the main books entirely before season 5 starts.

On a side note, does anyone here know if the Dunk And Egg short story novellas are worth reading? I've been thinking about checking them out once I catch up to the main ASOIAF books.

I've just started reading A Feast For Crows. This'll be super interesting since I'm now mostly past the show, and thus in heavy spoiler territory.

I'm in the middle of Grave Peril. I'm kind of surprised more people here don't read this series, it seems to me to be the better parts of Buffy only with a noir/hardboiled edge.

So far, this book is the best one I've read of the first three.

Yeah, I found myself bored by the first two books. The third book was when it really got interesting, and generally sets the tone for the rest.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 11, 2014, 03:58:23 PM
On a side note, does anyone here know if the Dunk And Egg short story novellas are worth reading? I've been thinking about checking them out once I catch up to the main ASOIAF books.

I've heard good things, but GRRM certainly feels strongly enough about them, since he's considered giving the okay to adapt them for a miniseries if he can't finish the next book in time.

I finally got through Red Dragon during my trip, and I really did like it. Harris' prose was sharper here than in Silence, as was the core mystery more interesting, even if I ultimately prefer Clarice as a protagonist to Will Graham. But it was cool to see most of the Hannibal gang in their original format.

I'm going to check those out after I read A Dance With Dragons.

Anyways, I'm about halfway through AFFC right now, and I'm loving the Cersei/Jaime story-lines. Brienne's story is a bit slow paced, but still interesting to follow, and I really like all of the stuff having to do with Dorne in the aftermath of a certain event from ASOS. Sam and Arya are also both a treat, as always. That said, the Iron Islands storyline is pretty boring for me so far. I've never really liked any of the Ironborn storyline characters, as they tend to be either really unlikable or just not all that interesting, IMO, but I'm sure that all of this buildup will lead somewhere, eventually.

I finally bought A Dance With Dragons, so I'll be reading that over the next couple of weeks.

Picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I plan to start reading it pretty soon, since I'll probably finish ADWD tonight.

I finally finished ADWD, which means that I'm finally caught up with the main story-line of ASOIAF. It's going to be really tough waiting for The Winds of Winter to come out, now.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on January 18, 2015, 11:03:02 AM
Picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I plan to start reading it pretty soon, since I'll probably finish ADWD tonight.

You might like "Eight Days of Luke" by Diana Wynne Jones. That's where Gaiman got the idea to write that book.

I'll add it to my backlog and check it out sometime after I read this one. ;)

Reading American Gods is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to pros. After five books of GRRM's writing style, as much as I love his stories, the long-winded nature of his paragraphs get to be a bit too much at times. It's almost jarring (in a good way), to see a much more to-the-point format from Neil Gaiman.

On another note, I also picked up Jaws from Peter Benchley. I'm curious to see how the original story stacks up to the cinematic classic, for me.

everyone, anyone, please recommend me any good scifi book you can think of, no matter what other subgenres it has. thank you.

Quote from: gunswordfist on January 23, 2015, 08:49:49 PM
everyone, anyone, please recommend me any good scifi book you can think of, no matter what other subgenres it has. thank you.

Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein.

Anathem.

Thank you spark and insomniac.

Spin

thank you, avaitor.

Dune.

thank you, spark of spirit.

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester.


On another note, I'm currently reading The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates. Its the first book by Oates that I've read and makes me wonder why I haven't checked out her work before, because this is really good; a mix between historical fiction and Gothic horror with a wide cast of interesting characters (some of them based on historical figures, others fictional).

Thanks you, Pharass. :)

So The Shepherd's Crown will be Terry Pratchett's last Discworld novel. It'll be really bittersweet when I'll get to reading it.

There was no one like ol' Johnny. He will be missed.

I'm reading The Once And Future King by T. H. White because X-Men 2 reminded me that it existed.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 23, 2015, 09:41:28 PM
I'm reading The Once And Future King by T. H. White because X-Men 2 reminded me that it existed.

Now there's a book I haven't read in a long time, I remember liking it a lot though.

As for me, I'm currently reading Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac. I have to say that out of the (admittedly few) books I've read by Balzac so far, this is my favorite. The intrigue is strong and the characters are well-drawn, especially the two female villains, one of which is the titular character.

Yeah, it's pretty excellent. So far I've only read The Sword in the Stone, which is such a classic children's fantasy story, but I have yet to start on any of the other stories due to being busy. Still, it'll be interesting to make the transition into the more mature and complex stories of the other three parts of the book.

So after I finish rereading the first 3 Rurouni Kenshin volumes (and I might order more in the coming weeks, if I'll have enough in between rent), I plan to go through

-A reread of the first 5 Song of Ice and Fire novels
-The First Man in Rome
-The Deptford Trilogy
-The Count of Monte Cristo (I actually read the first handful of chapters a few years ago, but I had to remove the app I downloaded it from and never got back to it)
-A couple of Hugo winners
-A reread of Jurassic Park

Nothing like a good read during the summer.

I could go for a re-read of a bunch of Michael Chrichton books, myself. I don't care if his characters are usually dicks.  The guy wrote really interesting and compelling stories.

And I've been re-reading select parts of the ASOIAF books ever since I first caught up with the books. GRRM is so good at hiding clues all over his text that it's kind of mind-blowing how poignant his pros can be on a re-read.

I'm also in the minority of people who really enjoyed AFFC and ADWD. They aren't quite as strong as the first three books, but to say that they are too slow and nothing happens in them is, to me, completely missing the point of this series to begin with. The big pay-off events are only satisfying because if all of the political maneuvering and nuanced character developments that go on in these books, and the last two books were full of that.

I do think AFFC is the weakest of the books thus far, at least for my tastes, but I'm excited to get through them all again. I told myself that I'd do this after this season of GOT ended, and it'll be a good refresher on the odd chance that GRRM finishes The Winds of Winter before the next season.

You know, while I stand by the opinion that this season was still great television, it was definitely weaker than the other seasons, in my eyes, and the thing that scares me is that the weakest parts were the story-lines that completely deviated from the books (in this case, Dorne and Brienne's mission).

I know that it's not possible to include all of the story and characters from the books in just 10-episodes per season, but the thing is that all of those are important, and I'm worried that an overly condensed version of the final act of the story will lead to a lot of contrived writing on the show's part, which is why I'd still rather see it go in its own direction rather than loosely trying to line itself up with George's story, which seems almost pointless, now, IMO.

But to be fair, the pros still far outweigh the cons, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

But yes, I'm super pumped for TWOW. In the meantime, I'll be picking up A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in October to hold me over.

I've been reading Stephen King's It, lately. I'm roughly a third of the way through. You know, for as much as some people like to shit-talk about this one (especially the Walker brothers and their fans), it's very well-written, has fully fleshed out characters, and is very addicting and hard to put down, with an interesting mythology built around the creature and the town of Derry. This also doesn't have most of the problems that the TV mini-series had.

And yes, while I haven't gotten that far yet, I am aware of THAT notorious scene....and yeah, I doubt that reading it in context will make it any less fucked up....but honestly, it'd take a lot more than that to ruin the whole story for me.

I'm also aware of the cosmic turtle....but, IDK, that actually comes off as pretty awesome in how out there it is as a metaphysical concept to me, personally. This genuinely interests me more than any conventional plot device would.

I mostly like this book because it has a lot of heart to the core characters, and I love the strong sense of comradery that builds between them. I'm a sucker for stories with good team-work, and this feels sort of like a smaller-scale, horror-themed version of 20th Century Boys.

Anyways, I'll probably read The Stand after I finish this.

I have a copy of It, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm skeptical of a lot of his later work for being overwritten with boring plots and concepts, but his early stuff from when he had fire in him are good reads. Specifically The Shining, Salem's Lot, and The Stand.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 27, 2015, 06:15:13 PMAnyways, I'll probably read The Stand after I finish this.

I'm fairly certain you'll really like it. It has influenced a lot of good stuff for a reason.

I kind of do tend to think of It as part of his earlier career, myself, being a mid-80's book. Though he has published books since the 70's, so he was well-established by that point in time.

1. Does Stephen King have a popular movie adaptation that DOESN'T also have a tv series?
2. I will always love him for co-writing Skinner Sweet's origin.
3. Hmm, I wonder if Netflix has It..

1. Plenty: Carrie, Christine, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Misery (Just to name a few).

3. Keep in mind that most adaptations of his work usually aren't very good, with just a few exceptions.

Misery is probably my favorite of his, tbh.

...never heard of it.

Quote from: gunswordfist on October 27, 2015, 11:01:44 PM...never heard of it.

It's the movie that made Kathy Bates a star.

I've been reading The King Must Die by Mary Renault. Its the second book of hers that I've read and much as I enjoyed my first (The Persian Boy), this one's even better. Basically, its Renault's take on the myth of Theseus, though viewed through a historical context. For example, the minotaur in this novel is not a half-bull half-man, but the queen's illegitimate son, etc. Renault brings all the characters as well as the world they inhabit to life excellently, a great novel which I warmly recommend.

By the way, the "Greatest Novel"-tournament has come to a complete halt and I'm starting to wonder if there's any point in keeping it going. Currently, there doesn't seem to be much interest. Which I can understand, there were so many different tournaments going for awhile that its understandable if people are a bit burned out on the whole thing.

I'm definitely interested in keeping it going, but it does feel like we need a tiebreaker to come over and help us out. Those were pretty tough matches!

Fucking Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine making me want to cry in the middle of a subway.

I learned recently that Umberto Eco and Harper Lee have both passed away at the ages of 84 and 89, respectively.
2016, we need to talk..

I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. It was a great story and an equally great movie.

R.I.P. Harper Lee :'(

EDIT: Berkeley Breathed shares his letter (https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed/photos/a.114529165244512.10815.108793262484769/1136867129677372) from Lee.

R.I.P. to both.

I especially have fond memories of To Kill a Mockingbird.

R.I.P. Eco and Lee.

I've been reading War for the Oaks by Emma Bull and some of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. Surprised to find out the former was published in the 80s, because it felt more modern to me.

I read the first book in The Hyperion Cantos not too long ago. Good stuff, among the better science fiction novels. I should check out the rest of the series at some point.
Currently, I'm reading When Christ And His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman. Its my first Penman and I find myself wondering why I haven't checked out her work earlier, because this is seriously great. Its historical fiction detailing the civil war between the empress Maude and her cousin Stephen for the throne of England. If you're a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, I strongly recommend this book.

Currently reading A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James and I must say that the book is well deserving of all the praise it has received. I do wish that there had been some kind of glossary for all the Jamaican slang used by the characters, but aside from that, its a great read.

So Alan Moore's 1184-page brick of a book that he's slaved over in his cave for more than a decade will finally be out in a week. I put it on hold at my local library, and I'm afraid of it.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on September 02, 2016, 05:32:04 AM
So Alan Moore's 1184-page brick of a book that he's slaved over in his cave for more than a decade will finally be out in a week. I put it on hold at my local library, and I'm afraid of it.

I had completely forgotten about that book, can't even remember the title. What was it again?

I've been making my way through Edward Wittemore's Jerusalem Quartet. Recently finished the second book and am about to start the third. This is a great series and I can easily see why the books are held in such high regard by those who've read them. Its also one of those series' that defies easy classification, being both historical fiction, spy-fiction and magic realism at one and the same time. The series also offers a host of memorable, larger-than-life characters, such as Haj Harun, the self-appointed guardian of Jerusalem who has spent three millenia defending it, always on the losing side.
Great read, highly recommended.

Jerusalem

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on September 23, 2016, 01:30:48 PM
Jerusalem

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about it, when the time comes.

The prose was wonderful, and I applauded Moore's attempts to play with other writer's eccentricities (like a one chapter riff on Finnegan's wake). On the other hand, it also showcases the worst of Moore's habits, obsession with details most readers won't even care about, detours that are just him rambling about modern culture, things you've heard him say in dozens of interviews. Anyone expecting Alan Moore to not veer off and complain about superheroes or the 21st century will be disappointed. It's not for the fainthearted, and demands far more attention than your mind can muster when on a delayed subway or on a dirty bus. That said, I did like it far more than LOEG: Century or Neonomicon (I'll read Providence once it finishes), so it's worth a try.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on October 22, 2016, 02:11:10 PM
The prose was wonderful, and I applauded Moore's attempts to play with other writer's eccentricities (like a one chapter riff on Finnegan's wake). On the other hand, it also showcases the worst of Moore's habits, obsession with details most readers won't even care about, detours that are just him rambling about modern culture, things you've heard him say in dozens of interviews. Anyone expecting Alan Moore to not veer off and complain about superheroes or the 21st century will be disappointed. It's not for the fainthearted, and demands far more attention than your mind can muster when on a delayed subway or on a dirty bus. That said, I did like it far more than LOEG: Century or Neonomicon (I'll read Providence once it finishes), so it's worth a try.

Thanks for the heads-up. I must admit that much as I respect Moore, the flaws you mention make me reluctant to read the book. At any rate, I have far to many other books I need to get to as it is. I'll file it in the "maybe" category for now.

Resurrecting thread to inform everyone (in case they didn't already know) about the recent passing of a great author:

RIP Richard Adams (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/28/richard-adams-writer-watership-down)

Haven't gotten to Watership Down yet, but I did read a few of his short stories some time ago. RIP.

This video perfectly sums up my thoughts on The Cursed Child: http://youtu.be/rq-9BnHPjsY

I watched the video. To be perfectly honest, I really don't have any interest in reading The Cursed Child, but the video was good; interesting and informative.
As for me, I've started reading They Were Found Wanting by Miklos Banffy; its the second book in his Transylvanian Trilogy and so far, its living up to the high expectations set by the first volume.

Quote from: Pharass on January 20, 2017, 02:32:38 PM
I watched the video. To be perfectly honest, I really don't have any interest in reading The Cursed Child, but the video was good; interesting and informative.

Believe me, you're really not missing anything.

As for me, I have The Stand by Stephen King, which I have yet to start, and am currently reading The Name of The Wind. I have to say, I really like it when a fictional story actually bothers to explain how its system of magic works, and I like how this series seems to have a very methodical, almost scientific basis for the mechanics of its magic.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on January 27, 2017, 03:14:05 PM
I really like it when a fictional story actually bothers to explain how its system of magic works, and I like how this series seems to have a very methodical, almost scientific basis for the mechanics of its magic.

Have you read Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson? I read it not that long ago and recall the magic system in it being pretty well-thought out.

I haven't, but if you say it's good I'll consider looking into it for sure.

Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on January 28, 2017, 10:11:13 AM
I haven't, but if you say it's good I'll consider looking into it for sure.

Its the first book in a trilogy. I haven't read the other two yet, but I thought it worked pretty well as a stand-alone.

Currently re-reading Wolf Hall. Such a great novel; at the risk of being accused for hyperbole, I think that Hilary Mantel is a genuine candidate for the title of best living novelist. To be honest, I'm even more excited for the release of The Mirror and the Light than I am for The Winds Of Winter and that's saying a lot.

I recently read Ready Player One, and thought it was kind of dumb. Don't get me wrong, I can fully see the appeal of a story like this, and the trailer for the movie leads me to believe that Spielberg will be taking enough creative liberties to make this story work much better than its source material, but as it stands I found it to basically be the American version of Sword Art Online, except slightly less shitty and offensive, but not really good either. I'm all for 80's nostalgia and pop-culture references, but taking that out of the equation (which is all the book seemed to have going for it in the first place) and it's as standard of a story as you can get, and while that is certainly not an inherent problem in and of itself, it's just that I've seen this standard story done much better elsewhere that this one didn't really stand out to me. On top of that, it doesn't help that the main character sounds like one of those self-indulgent Internet twats that I can't stand, yet neither him, his friends, or any part of the narrative seem self-aware of that fact, instead passing him off as some kind of gaming and digital prodigy that is somehow the messiah of virtual reality (which also kind of conflicts with the novel's apparent message of not wasting your life by completely ignoring the outside world).

Anyways, I currently have Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology on Audible, which I'll be listening to now that I've completed RPO, and in addition to that, I finished The Name of the Wind a couple of months ago and really got into it, so I'll be starting the sequel book The Wise Man's Fear shortly, as well.

I'm making my way through The Wise Man's Fear, the second of The Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy. I really liked The Name of the Wind (I even double-dipped to pick up the 10th Anniversary Edition) and I'm really loving the sequel. By far it's a superior book to the already engaging first novel. I'm just not looking forward to finishing it because seeing as how it released back in 2011 and there is no word of when the third book will be released, we're pretty much looking at a Winds of Winter length wait for the conclusion to the story.

I decided to take a quick break from comics and manga after catching up with Rat Queens (although that might change, as volume 4 of Berserk just came in the mail), and bought a cheap copy of The Dark Half. I've been wanting to go on a mini-Stephen King splurge in between the movies for The Dark Tower and It, but at the same time, my interest in getting to the latter has declined. That said, I'm really liking this one so how, although knowing his knack for bad endings, I'm expecting a shit twist to explain everything coming up.

I do want to do a full reread of Dark Tower along with Misery, and finally give The Stand another shot. I can't find the first Dark Tower, or the other novels I mentioned, however, so we'll see how that goes. Which is a shame, since I think those would be good for my flight.

Finished The Wise Man's Fear during my lunch break today. I enjoyed The Name of the Wind but this second book is really where I found myself hooked. The only downside is that I have another Winds of Winter scenario to deal with in that I'll find myself waiting indefinitely for the next book to come out. I do have a copy of Rogues lying around, which I admittedly only picked up for the "A Song of Ice and Fire" and "The Kingkiller Chronicle" spin-off stories included in it, but those will hardly last me for too long.

That said, it's definitely worth reading this series before the inevitable live-action adaptations find a way to screw it up.

I'll be moving onto some other fantasy novels later on, but for now I have a horror novel that I've been meaning to read through.

I read a biography about Leni Riefenstahl by Steven Bach. I've always found Leni Riefenstahl to be one of the most interesting people in modern history. She pioneered several film techniques that would eventually become vital DNA for later movies like Star Wars and The Lion King, yet she also created Nazi propaganda, used children from concentration camps as extras without thinking of their well-being, and Hitler's reign certainly wouldn't have been as prominent without her help. And the book fully captures how brilliant she was in filmmaking while making it clear just how deluded she was, like how she eventually abandoned Hitler's cause but started filming the indigenous Nuba people from Sudan in such a fetishistic way as she did the Germans.

Just finished reading The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. I started this due to being overly frustrated in having to wait eons for the next ASOIAF and final Kingkiller Chronicle books to come out, and ended up finding yet another top-tier fantasy series. This time I had the added bonus of having an actual complete trilogy to read through with an actual ending to it's narrative arc, which kind of makes it the best of the three so far. This manages to have the appeal of Game of Thrones in how it subverts many genre tropes and tends to depict it's characters more realistically, but at the same time doesn't move at a snails pace and doesn't lose itself in way too many subplots (and I say this as an avid fan of ASOIAF). In fact, maybe a little to it's detriment, I'd say that by the third book it maybe moves a little too fast at times to the point of having the first half of that book feel really rushed to get to the climax. That said, in the grand scheme of things it's a small price to pay for how well-paced and incredibly engaging the finale is. Most notably, though, the characters are maybe some of the most well-written that I've encountered in all of fiction.

I'll say this much, though, this isn't the type of series for people who want things with happy, neat endings to arcs tied up in a bow. While this series wasn't nearly as kill-happy as something like GoT, it's also not afraid to give you pretty dark and depressing outcomes for it's characters. They are set up to follow clear and easily identifiable genre archetypes, yet none of them end up being what they seem to be on the surface, and their personal journeys either don't take you where you expect them to go, or get their in a way that you didn't expect. In general, except for just two of the main POV characters in the story, the rest are always teetering on the edge of being classified as a hero or villain. However, the engrossing part about how Abercrombie writes them is how he will get you rooting for them to better themselves through their arcs, and at times they will, but then the narrative will always find a way to deal them a disappointing setback; that is to say disappointing, but good in terms of well-written story-telling.

That isn't to say that this series is all dark and dour, though. The trick to what makes Abercrombie's writing so interesting is in how he smartly balances some good, positive morals to his story with plenty of bring and optimistic spots, but also peppers in an equal amount of the more downer, cautionary tales that are essential to layered stories and characters. This kind of series definitely isn't for everyone, but it has become a new favorite of mine, and I am definitely planning on reading the stand-alone novels that take place in The First Law World.

Oh yeah, I remember reading those books years ago. Really liked Glokta and Bayaz.

I found Glokta to be a particular favorite of mine. He has that dry-wit and general sarcastic demeanor that makes his dialogue feel really entertaining, and he's arguably the only character who's better off than he was when the trilogy started, even if he hasn't changed much as a person (which is kind of the theme of the story, anyways).

Came across this video that I really like: https://youtu.be/U0bU3nsEfMg

In particular, I really find that it applies to all kinds of fiction besides Fantasy as well (which the video touches upon). I have been a fan of books, comics/manga, movies, video games, anime/animation, TV, music, and numerous other mediums of entertainment. I came to a realization through everything that I've consumed that trying to define things by genre is really an imaginary and kind of BS way to categorize things and limit the scope of their true appeal.

At best, "genre" can be thought of as a vehicle for exercising different kinds of story-telling possibilities by conveying a creator or team of creators' intended vision and themes through familiar and appealing conventions to an audience to make for something entertaining on some level. Nothing about any genre or medium of story-telling inherently prohibits a work from having any more or less meaning or value to any person in particular other than by the skill of the craft used to convey that story. Also, obviously there's a degree of subjectivity to the perspective of the individual engaging with that content. Other than that, though, trying to say one genre is inherently inferior to anything else requires an absurd level of mental gymnastics for the people claiming such to truly make sense of.

Like, if you prefer serious movies based on real people to say, superhero flicks: OK, I can understand that. But is anyone seriously going to try and argue that Gotti is a better movie than Spider-Man 2 because the former is not part of a genre that they look down on regardless of how shitty the former is in execution as opposed to the latter?

As for what I'm reading:

I just finished 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill, which was an interesting collection of stories ranging all over the place in terms of quality.

I am also currently reading Children of Dune, the third in the series, and have started the audiobook for Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (the third stand-alone novel in The First Law saga). I had actually planned to save Red Country for later, but ended up moving it to my next book so that I could catch up and read the latest First Law book which just recently released.

I saw a new book, The Past Is Red, by Catherynne Valente come into the library a few days ago and checked it out. I hope it will be good.

Trying to get back into reading after ages of inactivity, and finished 2 books lately. First was She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, which I found all right. Picture Mulan but more subversive, and you've got an idea of what the novel's like. Another book that I liked more was A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark, though it's admittedly a little too straightforward to do anything daring.

I've become a fan of Clive Barker after reading his novellas The Hellbound Heart and Cabal some years ago now. For his full-length novels, I've read The Damnation Game, Weaveworld, The Great and Secret Show, and Imajica. I am currently on The Thief of Always. His story telling prowess is great both in the short and long forms.
I also feel that finally reading his novels fills up gaps in my psyche that I've missed doing so throughout the decades of my life.

Yeah, I remember liking Weaveworld when I read it a few years ago, yet even though I also liked the first couple Hellraiser movies, I never pushed myself to reading the rest of his work. Blaming my usual laziness there.

Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on September 30, 2023, 03:44:48 PMYeah, I remember liking Weaveworld when I read it a few years ago, yet even though I also liked the first couple Hellraiser movies, I never pushed myself to reading the rest of his work. Blaming my usual laziness there.

I used to be intimidated by the page counts of his novels. I overcame that by making reading the books into goals.

I hope the ILL I requested for Clive Barker's Sacrament will come in either later this week or next week. The library I work at used to have a copy but withdrew it.

For the last few months, I've been reading Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart. It's a very heavy book and also very raunchy.

Bookworm bit me for the first time in ages, and I've been eating through books like I used to again. Probably a temporary thing though. Anyway, favorite books I've read lately are Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. I really recommend those if you're looking for something weird and Borges-like. Piranesi in particular if you want something you can read in under a day.