AndresON777
shooting blanks
Just got it last night, awesome so far
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What, are you reading? (January 2009)
- Thread starter Alucard
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Just got it last night, awesome so far
Hari Seldon
Member
Very good if you want the real background of Thermopylae, Leonidas, and Xerxes. Written for the layman. Gives a complete account starting with the formation of the Persian Empire and pre-Democratic Athens and ending with the rise of Athens as a major regional power.
As an update, I'm about three-fifths of the way through Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl. It's excellent, but it's certainly a slow burn; the first 300 pages are all setup for the last 200 pages. Which is the point, I suppose.
FnordChan
FnordChan
octopusman
Member
I couldn't stop flipping the book upside down and back.Speschal K said:
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
So, it's a good list then?Eric P said:
EDIT: This might be a whole other discussion. What say I make a new thread about it?
smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.
xKilltheMx
Member
Better than I thought, pretty good read.
I've now completed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams. I just finished the final page of this 20 minutes ago...
A fitting conclusion to the absurd adventures of Arthur Dent and company. The story went all over the place, but ultimately came together at the end. I still have questions about what really happened to a character or two (can't recall the last whereabouts of Zaphod at the moment. Help?), but overall I'm pleased with how the series played out. In terms of pure entertainment, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series delivers a fun, light ride through the universe, with philosophical insights strewn throughout. If you enjoy satire, social criticism, or randomness, you should probably check this one out.
I'm now moving on to my first ever Piers Anthony book, and look forward to another fantastic and witty tale.
I've heard nothing but good things, and am aware of how prolific this guy is. I think after I get through this one, I'll have to read something a little more serious. My last 7 titles will have included 5 books by Douglas Adams, 1 by Terry Pratchett, and 1 by Piers Anthony. My brain should probably focus on something non-comical when I'm through here.
A fitting conclusion to the absurd adventures of Arthur Dent and company. The story went all over the place, but ultimately came together at the end. I still have questions about what really happened to a character or two (can't recall the last whereabouts of Zaphod at the moment. Help?), but overall I'm pleased with how the series played out. In terms of pure entertainment, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series delivers a fun, light ride through the universe, with philosophical insights strewn throughout. If you enjoy satire, social criticism, or randomness, you should probably check this one out.
I'm now moving on to my first ever Piers Anthony book, and look forward to another fantastic and witty tale.
I've heard nothing but good things, and am aware of how prolific this guy is. I think after I get through this one, I'll have to read something a little more serious. My last 7 titles will have included 5 books by Douglas Adams, 1 by Terry Pratchett, and 1 by Piers Anthony. My brain should probably focus on something non-comical when I'm through here.
BladeWorker
Member
Right Side Up, Paul Wells' journalistic rant on the rise of Conservatism in Canada.
'The Discovery of France' by Graham Robb, about the parts of rural France that official or popular histories have ignored, disparaged, or misrepresented - villages, castes, customs, beliefs and so forth that never really made it out of the Middle Ages. Very good book - glorious correction to the notion that Paris = France.
'Flash For Freedom' by George MacDonald Fraser. Nuff said.
About to make a start on Tom Holland's three historical works (Rubicon, Persian Fire, and Millennium) in anticipation of hearing him speak at the Oxford Literary Festival. Can't bloody wait.
'Flash For Freedom' by George MacDonald Fraser. Nuff said.
About to make a start on Tom Holland's three historical works (Rubicon, Persian Fire, and Millennium) in anticipation of hearing him speak at the Oxford Literary Festival. Can't bloody wait.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Onto the last book now, almost 1/3 of the way 1542 pages of pure awesomes and some more to come...... then onto the Tawny man series
Finished the Assassin series, onto the Tawny Man Series......... man i love these books.
itsinmyveins
Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
I'm reading The Stand by Stephen King, the extended version. And it's fucking loooong. I'm probably gonna be reading it in the january 2010-thread still.
Salazar said:
That is an excellent book. Hurrah for Flashy!
I finally finished John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl last night. As mentioned earlier, it was dense and took a while to really get rolling. And, as expected, once it did crank up it was magnificent. This isn't to say that the first part of the book isn't good, mind you, but it's an extremely slow burn so it was nice to see things start happening. For a look at the Palestine issue, Le Carre gives you the good and the bad of both sides, which I suppose is the important thing to know about the whole mess. At any rate, it was excellent.
This morning I grabbed Duane Swierczynski's The Wheelman for a change of pace (and so I can get it back to the library before long). All I know about it is that it's a modern crime novel about a wheelman and that I enjoyed Swierczynski's Severance Package quite a bit. I'm all of a few pages in but the book opens with a heist gone, if not wrong, not as right as anyone would like, so things are off to a good start.
FnordChan
sooperkool
Member
Blatz said:I'm reading this now. It's great. It's good to know that the sequel kicks also...
I'm on Last Argument of Kings
It gets even better.
ItsInMyVeins said:
I actually just finished reading this a few days ago. Great book, I really enjoyed it. It is pretty long, but not unnecessarily so, I thought. It never seemed to drag on for me, like LOTR does at times. Although to be fair, I have read LOTR many times over. In any case, that makes eight Stephen King books I've read (Dark Tower series + The Stand), and none of them have been horror novels.
Just finished Peter S Beagle's Tamsin.
It was pretty slow until about half way through, but after that I thought it turned into a wonderful read.
When her mother remarries, a 13 year old girl moves to a run down, 300 year old farm in Dorset england where she meets a ghost and many things out of folklore. Old Lady of the Elder Tree, pooka, the Wild Hunt.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:Finished the Assassin series, onto the Tawny Man Series......... man i love these books.
Finished this, if you have reas the Assassins series it will definetly bring tears to your eyes, ah jeez makes me feel like shit even now :'(
Space Cadet
Banned
Against the Day- Thomas Pynchon
Only about 50 pages in, but it's great so far.
Only about 50 pages in, but it's great so far.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
dadaaaaa reading this now 100 n something pages in
good stuff.viciouskillersquirrel
Member
OK, I finished Dracula (which was SOOO much better than the movie, by the way) and started on this:
It's pretty good so far - it's historical fiction set in the early 1100s (so all the English noblemen speak Norman French) has so far been about a family and some monks as well as royal intrigue.
My girlfriend has been obsessed with this book, so I did her a deal and said I'd read this one as long as she read Gone with the Wind.
It's pretty good so far - it's historical fiction set in the early 1100s (so all the English noblemen speak Norman French) has so far been about a family and some monks as well as royal intrigue.
My girlfriend has been obsessed with this book, so I did her a deal and said I'd read this one as long as she read Gone with the Wind.
Finished
3 Stars
Finished
Excessive use of metaphors, what was Bradbury thinking? 2 Stars.
Reading
Much better than Scott Atran's book so far, not necessarily for content, but delivery. I stopped Atran's book not even half way through, only choosing to read chapter summaries. Reading that book was like walking across the Gobi, absolute utter dryness. It was a research paper in book form, a chore, so I treat it as such, a reference. Pascal Boyer does a much job communicating byproduct theory of religion.
3 Stars
Finished
Excessive use of metaphors, what was Bradbury thinking? 2 Stars.
Reading
Much better than Scott Atran's book so far, not necessarily for content, but delivery. I stopped Atran's book not even half way through, only choosing to read chapter summaries. Reading that book was like walking across the Gobi, absolute utter dryness. It was a research paper in book form, a chore, so I treat it as such, a reference. Pascal Boyer does a much job communicating byproduct theory of religion.
FnordChan said:
Glad it turned out great in the end. Over Christmas, I raided my mom's bookcase and snagged my dad's old hardcover copies of that book, as well as A Perfect Spy and The Secret Pilgrim. Pretty excited about going on a Le Carre tear one of these days.
Anyway, I just finished Dan Simmons' Hyperion. It was pretty good until about halfway through, when something in my head clicked and it became revelatory. Maybe I just liked the later stories better than the earlier ones. More likely I had let the universe and characters sink in to the point that the book had real meaningful impact on me. A powerful book and, no matter what anyone says, I think it stands alone wonderfully.
That said, I'm rushing out to pick up Fall of Hyperion VERY soon.
Read a lot of biographies on Nietzsche's life and this is a really good one. It assumes prior knowledge and really gives the little details someone like me is interested in. Like a tale about young Nietzsche round Wagner's one Christmas where Nietzsche decided to start improvising on the piano while a quartet played something Wagner had just penned. Wagner began laughing hysterically at Nietzsche's playing and had to leave the room (douche) while his equally anti-Semitic wife just about his wife just about held it together. Nietzsche would despise pity but I can't help but feel for him in that story. It makes me happy to know Nietzsche's legacy is of much more importance than Wagner's.
mjc said:
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
That line sticks with me.
Mifune said:
A Perfect Spy is astonishingly good and incredibly depressing, even more so when you learn that it's partially autobiographical. I haven't read The Secret Pilgrim just yet but I have a copy around the house somewhere waiting patiently.
It's been a long time since I read Hyperion, but I believe that was my experience as well. "Yeah, this is pretty good oh, wait, holy shit, I take it back it's amazing." That said, I got distracted a few pages into Endymion and never got around to finishing the other two books in the sequence. That was, oh, a decade ago.
I'm almost finished with The Wheelman. After the slow build of Le Carre having an incredibly fast paced book to tear through made for an excellent change of pace. I'll report back in the next day or two.
FnordChan
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
DeathNote said:
Reading, well depends, i concentrate like a mutha when reading i guess so im not doing anything else.... but with audio books i listen but then dick around doing something else and it then it becomes just background noise. I guess if you sit there with an MP3 and just close your eyes its probly the same but i reread lines and chapters sometimes so i guess it would be harder to do that with an audiobook.
http://thekrakennaps.blogspot.com/
New Book: Portnoy's Complaint
Portnoy's Complaint or Sex: The Sexing started off as a series of dinner party monologues by Philip Roth which dipped into autobiographical territory and it shows.
It's the story of one Alexander Portnoy and his life history as relayed in a series of couch sessions to a psychiatrist. It is at turns, vulgar, hilarious, depressing, disgusting, uplifting and educational. Basically, it's life as a man. Though I must confess I don't quite possess the same libidinous strength that the book's main character seemingly does.
It's entertainingly told and so far reads very quickly, but my main issue is with the structure of the book. It's done as a series of Psychiatric monologues but the length of these "sessions" varies wildly. I wish that it had kept to a specific rhythm with call backs to previous session rather than expanded stories.
Beyond the sex, the book also goes into life as a Jew in prewar New Jersey, or at least as it relates to this small section of Newark. His mother is essentially the mother from hell. Excessively doting and well intentioned but quite overbearing (with specific reference to Freud on Leonardo) and the painting of this as an issue for all Jewish mothers of a certain social strata in that time period within this community (driving one's child to suicide).
My own exposure with Jewish mothers is limited. I think I know exactly one and her children are too young to psychoanalyze for sexual misconduct, though hilariously one of her children, still of nursing age, did spend an inordinate amount of time staring at my girlfriend's breasts while we were at dinner with them.
That's ok, because I tend to do the same thing.
New Book: Portnoy's Complaint
Portnoy's Complaint or Sex: The Sexing started off as a series of dinner party monologues by Philip Roth which dipped into autobiographical territory and it shows.
It's the story of one Alexander Portnoy and his life history as relayed in a series of couch sessions to a psychiatrist. It is at turns, vulgar, hilarious, depressing, disgusting, uplifting and educational. Basically, it's life as a man. Though I must confess I don't quite possess the same libidinous strength that the book's main character seemingly does.
It's entertainingly told and so far reads very quickly, but my main issue is with the structure of the book. It's done as a series of Psychiatric monologues but the length of these "sessions" varies wildly. I wish that it had kept to a specific rhythm with call backs to previous session rather than expanded stories.
Beyond the sex, the book also goes into life as a Jew in prewar New Jersey, or at least as it relates to this small section of Newark. His mother is essentially the mother from hell. Excessively doting and well intentioned but quite overbearing (with specific reference to Freud on Leonardo) and the painting of this as an issue for all Jewish mothers of a certain social strata in that time period within this community (driving one's child to suicide).
My own exposure with Jewish mothers is limited. I think I know exactly one and her children are too young to psychoanalyze for sexual misconduct, though hilariously one of her children, still of nursing age, did spend an inordinate amount of time staring at my girlfriend's breasts while we were at dinner with them.
That's ok, because I tend to do the same thing.
I just finished up Duane Swierczynski's The Wheelman and it was pretty fantastic. As mentioned above, I wanted a palate cleanser after the dense Le Carre I'd just finished and this was exactly that: a fast paced, violent, over the top story about a professional criminal having a really, really bad weekend after a heist goes horribly wrong. It's not what you would call realistic but it is a lot of fun and, as Swierczynski previously wrote a book about the history of the bank robbery in America, he has a lot of fun details to offer to help ground things somewhat. Amazon is currently selling The Wheelman for five, count 'em, five bucks new as a bargain offer, so if you're in the mood for some contemporary crime fiction I recommend you check it out.
I'm not sure what I'll be reading next, but I'm thinking it'll probably be John Scalzi's The Last Colony, the third book in the Old Man's War sequence, which has been patiently waiting it's turn at home since New Year's.
FnordChan
I'm not sure what I'll be reading next, but I'm thinking it'll probably be John Scalzi's The Last Colony, the third book in the Old Man's War sequence, which has been patiently waiting it's turn at home since New Year's.
FnordChan
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