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[Tim the Wiz]

If I love the characters, I don't think slow will stop me all that much. Although, I probably will take my time reading through these.

You say that now. When you reach them, books seven to ten might change your mind.

 

[Kola]

I wasn't aware of the the strong political character of this book. Especially for a book written only a short time after Locke. It works both as a child's book and a political satire and this is probably the highest praise you can give a book of that nature. Albeit it has a totally different subject it does resemble Animal Farm a bit.

 

[Kola]

Finished this on Tuesday. I Liked the Forever War a LOT better honestly. I think this book was pretty boring in lots of places and throwing three major stories together and resolving everything in basically 2 pages just didn't sit well with me. Feels more like at the end the author went "whoa, this book is pretty long, better wrap this up."

Man, I love "The Forever War", it may be one of my favorite books. I guess I should better skip this one eh? I loved the ending, it couldn't have been done better imo.

 

[Kola]

BTW: Does anyone know of a good book about the Vietnam War? Perhaps one which includes the history of French Indochina as well as an account of contemporary Vietnam and puts everything into perspective? English, German or French would be ok.

 

[Guileless]

I wasn't aware of the the strong political character of this book.

Swift was the foremost Tory polemicist of his time, but most people do think of Gulliver's Travels as a children's book. Are you reading it for pleasure or as part of a formal curriculum? I read it in my high school English literature class (or the excerpt in the Norton Anthology.)

BTW: Does anyone know of a good book about the Vietnam War? Perhaps one which includes the history of French Indochina as well as an account of contemporary Vietnam and puts everything into perspective?

This is difficult, because the whole thing is so politically charged and relatively recent. Along with the innumerable pop culture references, orthodoxy has coalesced around A Bright Shining Lie and The Best and the Brightest, both of which won awards and a lot of public attention. They aren't recent, though. But you could read one of those in conjunction with something more recent from the revisionist school: Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict for a fuller picture from the American point of view.

If you speak French, you could probably find something written from a different perspective about the French colonial experience.

 

[MilesWebber]

.

And I'm just going to assume everyone knows Joe Hill's worst kept secret in publishing.

That he's Stephen King's son?

 

[Blackace]

Now that I'm well again, I've started reading The Wheel of Time series of books. I'm only about 90 pages in, and while I am enjoying it, I feel that I have done this book a grave disservice by either not reading it earlier or by playing so many shoddy jRPGs over the years.

The beginning is such a jRPG cliche that it's not just a beaten dead horse but one that has been drug through the muck so much that all that's left is the femur, patella, and maybe a bit of the tibia. And yes, I had to look that up.

It's also a bit slower than I want, but I can definitely feel myself being sucked into the world.

The pacing is actually fairly good in the start of the series. Jordan really put you in a world where both you and the main characters know nothing... baby steps at first then he opened the flood gates. As many will say the pacing gets slow in a bad way much later in the series.

You say that now. When you reach them, books seven to ten might change your mind.

Didn't change mine.

 

[Monroeski]

Finished

and

in the last couple of days. Both were great.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

That he's Stephen King's son?

Looking at his Wikipedia picture, yeah. :lol

 

[giri]

The pacing is actually fairly good in the start of the series. Jordan really put you in a world where both you and the main characters know nothing... baby steps at first then he opened the flood gates. As many will say the pacing gets slow in a bad way much later in the series.


Didn't change mine.

The pace drops because he has too many threads going on at once, and tries to write about all of them in every book. Maybe the world got too large for him? i don't know, but i didn't mind the series slowing down, it allowed him to put a lot of things in order, and spend a lot of time giving real character to the "lesser" characters in the series.

He does have a fetish for describing in detail everything, even the slightly damaged gold guilding on the foot stool in the sitting room 2 buildings over. But that to me is what makes this series, jordan had this ability to create not just a world, but rooms/suites/ estates/ castles/ cities/ inns, that you almost feel like you would recognise if you ever stepped into them. Rarely is there a setting that you feel like is just another "typical non-descript" town or something, everything has its local touch and feel to it.

I still think it's one of the best fantasy series ever, and i hope the ending does it justice. Shame he died before he had time to finish the series.

 

[finowns]

Re-reading some of the Dresden Books.

OMG. Changes in like 5 weeks!!

Dresden vs. The Red King.

Too bad about the cover its terrible.


Anyone read the Nightside book series by Green? I think I am going to check it out.

 

[giri]

That's definitely part of the problem, especially in book 10 where he touches on every single storyline and they all barely inch forward.

But I think the bigger reason people started feeling like the pace was a problem from book 7 onward was

Spoiler

the resurrection of the Forsaken

. Up until that point,

Spoiler

killing off one of the Forsaken

was sort of a good plot milestone. It made it feel like things were progressing. Once that was overturned, people began to feel like things were going backwards.

I've gone through all the books again over the last few years (up to midway through the new one), on my iPod while running. Funny enough, I had much less of a problem with the pace the second time through, and I think it was because I already knew the aforementioned was going to happen. The only book I really had a problem with was book 8 (IIRC), since my absolute most favorite character isn't in it.

I've read the series cover to cover about 12 times, (though a few of those were before book 10 came out). And it re-reads well, and you pick up A LOT that you never saw the first time through. And that keeps on happening. There's so much detail and linked lore that you just don't see the first time. Some of it i'm convinced you're not meant too.

 

[Rubashov]

That's definitely part of the problem, especially in book 10 where he touches on every single storyline and they all barely inch forward.

But I think the bigger reason people started feeling like the pace was a problem from book 7 onward was

Spoiler

the resurrection of the Forsaken

. Up until that point,

Spoiler

killing off one of the Forsaken

was sort of a good plot milestone. It made it feel like things were progressing. Once that was overturned, people began to feel like things were going backwards.

I've gone through all the books again over the last few years (up to midway through the new one), on my iPod while running. Funny enough, I had much less of a problem with the pace the second time through, and I think it was because I already knew the aforementioned was going to happen. The only book I really had a problem with was book 8 (IIRC), since my absolute most favorite character isn't in it.

Completely agree with the spoilered part. I used to enjoy making a list of who was still in the game and who wasn't, and it all became moot.

You have the whole series on audiobook? That looks like a fortune on iTunes. Did you get a deal anywhere?

 

[crowphoenix]

The pacing is actually fairly good in the start of the series. Jordan really put you in a world where both you and the main characters know nothing... baby steps at first then he opened the flood gates. As many will say the pacing gets slow in a bad way much later in the series.


Didn't change mine.

I'm thinking my problem is more that I've seen this opening copied so many times that I'm really ready to actually get going. The only time I actually feel the story has bogged down was during

Spoiler

the dream

, and that was once again, because I've seen that copied many times.

It's almost frustrating, because I can see the wonderment, skill, and quality in the books. It's just so attached to other things that it's been dragged down a bit.

Still, I'm looking forward to reading more and seeing where the story goes from here.

 

[Karakand]

My favorite Heinlein novel is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, the story of a Lunar penal colony that revolts with the aid of a sentient computer.

This is alright aside from the ridiculous parts on Earth and the terribad battle towards the end.

 

[Tornado Condor]

For english class

 

[Kola]

Swift was the foremost Tory polemicist of his time, but most people do think of Gulliver's Travels as a children's book. Are you reading it for pleasure or as part of a formal curriculum?[/QUOTE]

I knew that he was one of the most extinguished satirical writers of his time, but I imagined Gulliver's Travels to be a step into child's territory just for the sake of doing something else for a time. How utterly wrong I was.

I guess there are few books which had such a massive and lasting impact on popular culture, even Studio Ghibli (Laputa, Castle in the Sky) or Mario64 were infected by Swifts imagination. Great stuff.

This is difficult, because the whole thing is so politically charged and relatively recent. Along with the innumerable pop culture references, orthodoxy has coalesced around A Bright Shining Lie and The Best and the Brightest, both of which won awards and a lot of public attention. They aren't recent, though. But you could read one of those in conjunction with something more recent from the revisionist school: Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict for a fuller picture from the American point of view.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll take a look at those.

 

[otake]

Thinking about picking up this:

Anyone read it? Any good?

I'm also planning on getting into this:

Any good?

 

[Rubashov]

Sure did. The library! It's awesome--my library has all kinds of books on CD. I check them out, rip them onto my computer, and then mess around with the formats a little so they're convenient for iPod listening. And with that, you're off and running. So to speak.

A lot of libraries also now have a setup where you can download audiobooks directly from a website. As I understand it, they're DRMed so as to stop working once the checkout period ends. Still, it's pretty nifty!

That's ...amazing. Looks like one of my libraries has downloadable audiobooks too, though the pickings are slim. I may have to get my own card and go check out the stock. Thanks!

 

[replicashooter]

Man I've been on such a reading kick this month...

I started with this, which I picked based on GAF recommendation. It's fantastic.

I've just ordered this cos Amazon have it on it half price, currently reading this:



Exceedingly eye opening, Velikovsky collates loads of different cultures writings about Biblical events and sticks them together for an interesting argument.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Enjoying it so far. Really great read if you're a fan of basketball.

Just picked this up. I love his podcast so I can't wait to get into the book even if he is a Celtics fan.

 

[Ryu]

Man, I love "The Forever War", it may be one of my favorite books. I guess I should better skip this one eh? I loved the ending, it couldn't have been done better imo.

You can certainly give it a shot. It's definitely a lot better than most Star Wars EU books, but it's nowhere near as good as Forever War. Forever War spans so many years and so much technology but I somehow found it more believable and accurate than this book which is set in the not-so distant future. I just didn't feel connected with the characters and the whole "save the world" plot just didn't feel compelling.

 

[James Woods]

The Forever War

Fantastic.

Spoiler

Happy endings

usually irritate me but this one almost made me cry like a bitch. After reading up on the sequel, Forever Free, I will avoid it like herpes.

 

[Undeux]

Goëdel, Escher, Bach makes me feel like an idiot, but I can't stop reading it.

 

[Salazar]

Exceedingly eye opening, Velikovsky collates loads of different cultures writings about Biblical events and sticks them together for an interesting argument.

That's a very flattering view to take of what he does.

 

[jergrah]

Picked up Boneshaker and also Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings at the library yesterday. Will start one of them on the commute home today.

Moore is one of my favorite authors and Fluke is his only book I have yet to read - so Im looking forward to it.

 

[Chorazin]

Re-reading some of the Dresden Books.

OMG. Changes in like 5 weeks!!

Dresden vs. The Red King.

Too bad about the cover its terrible.

I've had it pre-ordered for months now, I cannot wait. One of the few series I'm still collecting in physical book form.

 

[MidnightRider]

About to start either.

or

 

[MidnightRider]

Received this as a gift from a friend. I'm about 50 pages in and I've never read a book that talks about cocaine more than this one.

You will love that book.

It's fucking AWESOME.

 

[MidnightRider]

You are in for a treat. My favorite book ever and the only one that actually made me laugh out loud. Brilliant.

You've never read "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" then...........

 

[Guileless]

Re: The Forever War and its progeny. I have read Dune, Ender's Game, and The Forever War.I thoroughly enjoyed each and think they are rightly considered classics of the genre, but I have no desire to read their sequels.

 

[Christoff Yurievich]

Just finished this after reading about the series earlier in the thread. Not something I'm usually after but I enjoyed it. My wife loved it and promptly put holds on all of the available books at the library. I love online ordering. (no downloadable audiobooks though)

Next up:
Unsafe at any speed; the designed-in dangers of the American automobile / Nader, Ralph. Your hold is #: 1
Fool moon / Butcher, Jim, 1971- Your hold is #: 2
and eventually:
Wizard's first rule / Goodkind, Terry. Your hold is #: 18
The lightning thief / Riordan, Rick. Your hold is #: 59
The hunger games / Collins, Suzanne. Your hold is #: 78

 

[MajorB0ner]

Just finished The Name of the Wind - 8.5

and A Clash of Kings - 9.5. There are so many characters it was hard to remember their personalities, such Theon Greyjoy from pretty early in the first book. I'm really attached to Bran, I almost got sick with the Mill event.

Today I'm going to start Magician: Apprentice by Fiest.

Next up it's back to Fire & Ice with Storm of Swords.

 

[Chorazin]

Just finished this after reading about the series earlier in the thread. Not something I'm usually after but I enjoyed it. My wife loved it and promptly put holds on all of the available books at the library. I love online ordering. (no downloadable audiobooks though)

Nice! Glad to see someone else gave the series a try. The series does get better as it goes along, and it's a lot more fun when more and more people find out about her secret life.

 

[finowns]

A bunch of similarities to the Dresden Files. It was good. I am getting the next book.

 

[Foob]

finallllly got the chance to start this

 

[afternoon delight]

Serious reading this month.

From Hell: Stark, disturbing, compelling case study of the Jack the Ripper murders. The artwork and the writing combined are fascinating. Hefty work too. (five-hundred-fifty pages)

The Orestria (Agamemnon, The Coephori, The Euminedes): Epic myths that define justice and vengeance. Concise detail, depth, wonderful philosophy.

 

[Monroeski]

Reading -

on recommendation. Not generally something I would usually pick up, but I enjoy reading practically anything so I'm giving it a go. I hear it may end up a bit more conspiracy-theory-ish than I like, though.

 

[Skittleguy]

Dashiell Hammett - Red Harvest

I think I found a new favorite genre.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I finished Lanier's "You Are Not a Gadget" and am rereading it, excellent book. Not because I agree with all of it, but it has made me rethink or discover many things.

Reread Dante's Inferno (because I love EA) because I read some essays on it by Borges.

Reading Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross.

Reading Conjectures and Refutations by Karl Popper.

 

[JumpJeff84]

Read half of 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, but then left it at a friends house accidentally. Should get it back tomorrow night. Good book.

 

[MilesWebber]

Picked it up yesterday. Loved HSB. 4 chapters in and it's already better then Under the Dome *runs*

 

[Ryu]

Just finished this. Not bad at all. I enjoyed it enough to grab the second book in the series. Reading this and thinking about what the guys said on the Giantbombcast about other games set in the ME universe, there really are endless possibilities for great stories. Just the Spectres alone are like ruthless jedi of the ME universe. I'd love to see a book dedicated to their formation and the journeys of some of their agents.

Not sure what I'm going to read next. I'll post when I make a decision.

 

[sparky2112]

I finished Lanier's "You Are Not a Gadget" and am rereading it, excellent book. Not because I agree with all of it, but it has made me rethink or discover many things.

Had this in my grubby hands at the library last night, but ended up walking out with:

...which makes me so effin' angry I want to kill something small, cute, and furry. Seriously, what the **** IS so great about America? Our healthcare system is an abortion, and all we have are people screaming 'SOCIALISM!!!!!!!' at the top of their lungs when anything but the status quo is proposed. Fucking retards...

And:

Loved his book on Iraq - 'The Assassin's Gate', so I'm looking foward to this...

 

[skads_187]

its a bit old, but i had seen the movie in the 90's, so decided to finally read the book.

its an amazing book.

 

[Ryu]

Continuing my sci-fi kick with this...

 

[Rabbit Lord]

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

It took a bit to get in to, he throws at you a bunch of characters and situations that the reader has no context for at first. About halfway through now and really enjoying it, already ordered the next books in the series.

 

[Salazar]

Rereading it. Burrow, probably one of the leading intellectual historians of our age, breaks down historiographical method by way of a succession of character sketches (Herodotus, Arrian, Livy, Sallust, Plutarch, Bede, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and on, and on) and outlines of different schools of thought. He died a few months ago. This was, I think, his last book. Possibly not his very best (he was frightfully good on Gibbon), but the one in which he really laid his learning open, showed his readers the lot and the links between it all. History-Gaf must read this.

The book is exceptionally handsome, too. The page edges are blackened, so when closed it appears like a sort of black brick or rock.

 

[afternoon delight]

Continuing my sci-fi kick with this... (War of the Worlds)

Finished this about two weeks ago - LOVED it. The images he conjures are still disturbing and stark.

 

[Junior Asparagus]

Real life British journalistic goes ghost-hunting. Pretty entertaining so far.