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What are you reading? (August 09)
- Thread starter ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
- Start date
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Just started the series a couple weeks ago...read and watched the first 3... going to do the same with the next 3. I used to think HP looked dumb as hell years back, but after finally trying to read them, I now fully understand why so many people love it.
Just started the series a couple weeks ago...read and watched the first 3... going to do the same with the next 3. I used to think HP looked dumb as hell years back, but after finally trying to read them, I now fully understand why so many people love it.
Woodward's Bush at War series. I'm on the last book now. It's been really interesting to follow the shift in the way Woodward perceived Bush. He was practically calling him a visionary in the first book, and the third book's title was State of Denial. I think I'm going to follow them up with Strategery, a book about the 2004 election with a definite pro-Bush bias that I've wanted to read for a while regardless because the author seems to have had significant access to Bush. Woodward's books barely ever mentioned the political side of the equation, but I love that stuff.
Benjamin_MFF
Member
Some book about weather.
Woohoo! I finally got someone to read the Caine booksMike Works said:
I've been trying to promote this series for nearly a decade now.Apparently Stover was told that Blade of Tyshalle's length (~800 pages) made a reprint unfeasible. It's a damned shame because Heroes Die managed to stay in circulation thanks to his Star Wars novels and obviously a good portion of the readers of that one would check out its followup.
It's available as an eBook now if that's of any use. My online searching didn't find any better deals than what Aidan found at Abe Books. Maybe try the used bookstores in your area.
Mortimer J. Adler's 'Philosopher at Large'. He taught Trilling and Barzun. Excellent account of the 'Great Books / Western Civ' program at Columbia.
Also, Austin Grossman's 'Soon I Will Be Invincible'. I was looking for the Magician book written by his brother, Lev, but this (a satiric superhero novel) is good in the meantime. Chip Kidd cover, which is generally a promising sign.
Also, Austin Grossman's 'Soon I Will Be Invincible'. I was looking for the Magician book written by his brother, Lev, but this (a satiric superhero novel) is good in the meantime. Chip Kidd cover, which is generally a promising sign.
Dan said:Woohoo! I finally got someone to read the Caine books
Apparently Stover was told that Blade of Tyshalle's length (~800 pages) made a reprint unfeasible. It's a damned shame because Heroes Die managed to stay in circulation thanks to his Star Wars novels and obviously a good portion of the readers of that one would check out its followup.
It's available as an eBook now if that's of any use. My online searching didn't find any better deals than what Aidan found at Abe Books. Maybe try the used bookstores in your area.
I've been trying to find Blade of Tyshalle for a number of years as well without success. Want to read that before I read Caine Black Knife (or whatever the new Caine-book is called).
Currently reading (in addition to Feast of Souls)
Katzenjammer
Member
Just finished:
Really good, recommend it to everyone.
Currently reading:
About halfway through. Good book so far.
Really good, recommend it to everyone.
Currently reading:
About halfway through. Good book so far.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Keen said:I've been trying to find Blade of Tyshalle for a number of years as well without success. Want to read that before I read Caine Black Knife (or whatever the new Caine-book is called).
Currently reading (in addition to Feast of Souls)
How many pages and how smalls the font?
I read Midnight Tides recently and enjoyed it quite a bit, found out that theres going to be 10 books in the Malazan series but if they are as long as Midnight tides i dont think i will ever get to them.
Started and finished Snuff yesterday, my first Chuck Palahniuk book and it was fucking terrible, might be the worst book I've ever read. Luckily I didn't buy it, somehow he commands ridiculous prices despite the length (and apparently, quality) of his books. I also have choke and rant on hold at the library, hopefully they're better.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Ton of pages and small font. Don't have it in front of me, so can't be more precise.
Wait, you read Midnight Tides first? Why? It's the fifth book of the series, Dust of Dreams is book 9.
They're all pretty much the lenght of Midnight Tides, but I do recommend them very much. One of the better fantasy series around, but they are door stoppers the bunch of them.
Try one of his novellas, Blood Follows, The Healthy Dead or The Lee's of Laughter's End. They are much much shorter and you can get a feel for his writing, without diving into another mammoth book. IMO though Deadhouse Gates and Memories of Ice (books 2 and 3) are among the best fantasy novels out there, so I really think you should give them a shot.
Went to the book store yesterday.
Was going to get Infinite Jest, but they were sold out.
Decided to get Game of Thrones instead and give that a shot. Hopefully all the hype isn't lying/hasn't raised my expectations too high.
Still have 100 pages left in Olympos, but I'll probably finish that tonight or tomorrow since I have the rest of the week off from work.
Was going to get Infinite Jest, but they were sold out.
Decided to get Game of Thrones instead and give that a shot. Hopefully all the hype isn't lying/hasn't raised my expectations too high.
Still have 100 pages left in Olympos, but I'll probably finish that tonight or tomorrow since I have the rest of the week off from work.
Musashi Wins!
FLAWLESS VICTOLY!
Salazar said:
How is that? I actually like Trilling and Barzun a lot more than him (bookwise) but that whole era was so influential on so many American thinkers.
Musashi Wins! said:
Well, the influence was more direct than that. Mort was teaching the Great Books seminarwith Mark van Dorenwhen Barzun and Trilling took it. He says, unsurprisingly, that Barzun ended up teaching him, and carried on doing so all through life. Clifton Fadiman was there, too.
Barzun's 'On Writing, Editing, and Publishing: Essays Hortatory and Explicative' is damned fine.
Reading Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain
Maybe a bit over a quarter of the way in and so far it's really, really cheesy. One irritating bit is that they'll mention something like rigor mortis and then go on to give you a paragraph or two of in depth explanation about it.
There's also a character named Eldritch. Come on now.
Edit: Finished. 2/5 at best. It manages to find itself about half way in, but it doesn't really do anything worth noting and the "vampires", other than the main antagonist, are more like the creatures in Christopher Rowley's Vang novels than anything.
So, I don't recommend it unless you're a Del Toro super-freak or something. The writing is average-ville.
Maybe a bit over a quarter of the way in and so far it's really, really cheesy. One irritating bit is that they'll mention something like rigor mortis and then go on to give you a paragraph or two of in depth explanation about it.
There's also a character named Eldritch. Come on now.
Edit: Finished. 2/5 at best. It manages to find itself about half way in, but it doesn't really do anything worth noting and the "vampires", other than the main antagonist, are more like the creatures in Christopher Rowley's Vang novels than anything.
So, I don't recommend it unless you're a Del Toro super-freak or something. The writing is average-ville.
Rabbit Lord
Member
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
How can someone recommend Terry Goodkind and only give GRRM a passing mention.
Fuck that guy.
On Book 7 of the Dresden Files -
Over halfway done; at the part where
All I have to say is fuck YES. Not just at what I spoilered, but all the stuff leading up to it over the last couple dozen pages;
This series got noticeably better around book 4 or so I think, and if this current pace keeps up Dead Beat has marked another noticeable shift to the positive.
Over halfway done; at the part where
Harry is drafted into the Wardens.
All I have to say is fuck YES. Not just at what I spoilered, but all the stuff leading up to it over the last couple dozen pages;
the Vampire War is kicking into gear, Chicago has gone to hell, there are massively powerful necromancers running around everywhere, and Harry's about to summon the fucking Erlking, not to mention Harry being possessed and at risk of being judged and killed by the White Council any second.
Danne-Danger
Member
50 pages left with Ubik, I'm really enjoying it. My favourite from Philip K. Dick so far (between it, Electric Sheep and A Scanner Darkly).
Mr. Bunnies said:
Yes, it's a ghastly list. The fact that you cannot comfortably mention Goodkind without expressing reservations about his style, his politics, and his personality should exclude him from all lists of preference and recommendation - let alone a shortish list, and let alone one in the New Yorker.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
Just finished reading this (yes, I know I'm replying to myself).viciouskillersquirrel said:
I realise that her argument was that El Salvador's Indian (i.e. indigenous) population still exists despite widespread notions that this is not the case, but I still get the impression that she's trying to make something out of (almost) nothing. The way her argument goes is that while the Matanza was the last Indian uprising and lots of people were killed, the Nahuat and Lenca populations didn't commit auto-ethnicide (racial boundaries at that stage were really quite blurry) as a result.
Apparently, just prior to this uprising, political thought in Latin America started to really tack onto the idea of La Raza - that is to say, the Latin American race, the glorious pan-continental mestizo racial-cultural fusion that would form a unified bloc to stand united against the rapacious Anglo-Saxon yanquis up north. As a result, older ideas on race/class/cultural identity were left by the wayside and most births from then on began to be classed as mestizo rather than indio, ladino or (very rarely) blanco, negro or mulato.
Essentially, after a certain point, anyone with even a trace of mixed heritage was classified as mestizo, where formerly, they'd have been designated as ladino or indio. After a few decades, racial categories were dropped from government rhetoric altogether - they were now functionally useless. They switched to speaking in terms of class.
A few decades of this sort of regime later and you end up with areas that still have vestigial use of Nahuat and distinctive accents but who to the outsider are indistinguishable from your run-of-the-mill country peasants.
Rabbit Lord
Member
Salazar said:
Eh, I'm not really put off my an authors views if he/she can tell a good story. I don't think he(Goodkind) can.
Back on topic, just ordered...
alternade said:
I'm in the middle of this right now as well. I had also heard that it was pretty scary, but it hasn't scared me at all until tonight. I'm about 350 pages in and finally it's starting to give me chills. That's not to say that I don't think it's fantastic otherwise. One of the most interesting and in my opinion well thought out novels I've read. The way he plays with the narrative structure is truly unique.
The way he does the footnotes remind me of Susannah Clark's novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell but only on crack.
I'm loving this book so much right now.
Mr. Bunnies said:
The first couple of Sword of Truth novels were actually very good imo. It all started to fall apart (as documented by nearly everyone) around book 5. (Although I also liked Faith of the Fallen). Goodkind is just such a pompous ass that it's almost hard to like the beginning novels now.
I mean, this guy actually thinks he is Richard. You've seen his picture in the back of the books right?
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Dan said:Woohoo! I finally got someone to read the Caine books
Pretty sure that was me.
Anyway, there's no worry about length impeding sustained publication with Caine Black Knife. It's probably the reason why he released it as he did - the first in a two-part story.ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
:lol It really is a self-fulfilling prophecy: read only the mass-market hits within any genre and you'll constantly miss the critical successes. An atrocious article, from the condescending assumptions to the actual recommendations themselves.
ALeperMessiah
Member
tekumseh said:Every summer for at least 20 years, I've worked my way through these:
The Civil War, A Narrative by Shelby Foote
In my estimation, Foote is easily the best observer of history I've ever read, with apologies to Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose, and James McPherson among others. Spanning almost 3000 pages, I've never once not been able to complete the series once I've started it. If you have any interest in US history, these books are requisite reading....
I listened to these on Audiobooks last year, ignited a love in me for Civil War history, excellent books, Foote does such a good job of storytelling that even at 3000 pages, (or divided into ~30 audiobooks) it's a riveting tale.
I'm currently working my way through this:
Chancellorsville is my favorite battle of the civil war. So far Sears does a great job of telling the story.
Future PhaZe
Member
I've read it before, but the HBO casting has me too hyped to wait until a few months before a Dance with Dragons.
Mike Works
Member
just started Red Seas Under Red Skies, the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora
this is the first time i've ever read 3 books at the same time :lol
this is the first time i've ever read 3 books at the same time :lol
Jamesfrom818
Banned
Looks like Mike Works' tag no longer works correctly
I finished Way of the Shadows a couple of days ago. Enjoyed it but felt it was part brilliance and part silly overdone cliched fantasy which left me a bit conflicted as to how I felt about it overall.
Started Perdido Street Station and I'm still trying to get through Singularity Sky, it drags a bit.
Started Perdido Street Station and I'm still trying to get through Singularity Sky, it drags a bit.
Just finished chapter 38.Stealth said:
I knew as soon as he went back to the museum that somebody was going to animate the T-Rex, but I assumed it would be lying in wait as a trap for Harry. Never in my wildest dreams did I think HE would animate it, and with Butters keeping it up in his polka suit. :lol
This ending is going to be fucking bad ASS.
This ending is going to be fucking bad ASS.
Fleet of Foot
Banned
Alucard said:
Wow, I'm reading the same book and thinking the same thing. After reading The Royal Assassin, I went right into Assassin's Quest against my better judgment.
I don't mind long books but these books are looooong. Deceptively long. This book is only 750 pages which isn't longer than most other books I read. I think the difference is that there's comparatively little dialogue in these books. So it's page after page of long paragraphs with no breaks. Every page is packed full.
They're good books but I'm ready for a break. Halfway through the third book in a trilogy is not where the reader should be tempted to give up, but I am. I'm on page 450 and I haven't touched it in several days now.
I do want to know what happens to
Regal. I hope he gets killed real good.
At the same time, I'm let down by the personality change in
The Fool
I've got all these other books I want to read but I feel like I shouldn't start anything until I finish this one. So instead I've just been reading nothing.
Fleet of Foot said:
Yeah, I'm really curious to see what happens to
Regal
that I really want him to get killed in the worst way possible. He makes want to swear at my book, I hate the motherfucker so much. Also curious to see what happens with Verity, and what this Skill River deal is all about.
I still like the Fool.
After the death of Shrewd, he basically lost his reason for living. Now that he's met up with Fitz again, he seems to be regaining some of his old charm.
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