2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Not sure I'd have enjoyed or appreciated this as much without the movie but as it stands it's wonderfully complementary.
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What are you reading? (July 2013)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Not sure I'd have enjoyed or appreciated this as much without the movie but as it stands it's wonderfully complementary.
finished this today. it's about the descent into madness of a woman called etsuko from the death of her philandering husband to her total infatuation with a young man called sanburo. took me a little to get into, especially as it seemed like it was being set up as a generic melodrama in a backdrop of rural japan's sexual repression and strict social scriptures. however it quickly emerged instead as a vividly described, complex and believable portrayal of a twisted but sympathetic woman in a great deal of psychological difficulty; focusing primarily on her contradictory thought processes, messy rationalizations and all-consuming passions, as well as her genuine attempts to find happiness and the all to clear pain the toxic relationships had caused her. i wasn't that convinced of her affection for sanburo till a mesmerizing scene of great intensity at a village festival that really ties the whole book together.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Finished The Sun Also Rises, I love the writing style but I don't really see how Jake and Brett change in the story. Their relationship seems exactly the same from beginning to end and only the stuff around them changes. It's weird to read a book with characters that seem so static (except for Coen I guess)
Did you read Perdido Street Station first? The Scar is one of his better, most readable book.
Professor Chaos
Member
Finished:
Had a lot of fun reading this book. It feels like in the last couple of years King has been in top form. There's not a whole lot of classic King horror here, but the characters and the world are both on point. Plus, I am a sucker for the way King writes dialogue. If you're looking for a breezy summer novel, you can't go wrong here.
Starting:
This is my first LeCarre novel, looking forward to it.
Well I'll be damned. I just finished Joyland and am about 3/4 of the way through the Spy Who Came In From the Cold, which I'm really enjoying. It almost seems the antithesis of the glitzy James Bond kind of spy, which I'm much preferring. You have excellent taste if I do say so myself.
Couldn't decide what to read or what I'm in the mood for, so I love when Amazon picks a daily that perfectly says "Shane, you should read this!"
Going to start this shortly.
The Walk
by Richard Paul Evans
Going to start this shortly.
The Walk
by Richard Paul Evans
So, apparently Bridge of Birds is being adapted as a feature film?
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1417075-bridge-of-birds-movie#comment_id_78841906
I'd love to see that, the Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series is one of my favourite series of books ever.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1417075-bridge-of-birds-movie#comment_id_78841906
I'd love to see that, the Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series is one of my favourite series of books ever.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Finished Asimov's Foundation over the weekend. If I have to be honest, I didn't enjoy it very much. Coming up with the concept 60 years ago is worth applauding but the plot/characters/prose was mediocre. I don't think I will continue with the rest of the books.
Also about 60% into Zafon's Angel's Game. It's got a lot better once Act 2 started. Becoming quite the page turner like Shadow of the Wind was.
Starting this next since it popped off the queue from the library. Might be a good time for a break from sci-fi/fantasy anyhow. I think I added it when I was looking for Scandinavian crime books. Never read any of this series so we'll see how it goes.
The Bat by Jo Nesbø
Also about 60% into Zafon's Angel's Game. It's got a lot better once Act 2 started. Becoming quite the page turner like Shadow of the Wind was.
Starting this next since it popped off the queue from the library. Might be a good time for a break from sci-fi/fantasy anyhow. I think I added it when I was looking for Scandinavian crime books. Never read any of this series so we'll see how it goes.
The Bat by Jo Nesbø
sparky2112
Member
I honestly believe this book changed my life a bit. I am forever in Bryson's debt.
Mackenzie 92
Member
Couldn't decide what to read or what I'm in the mood for, so I love when Amazon picks a daily that perfectly says "Shane, you should read this!"
Going to start this shortly.
The Walk
by Richard Paul Evans
That sounds pretty good. Purchased.
Do you recommend it for someone who is pretty new to Hemingway? I've read a few short, Old Man and Green Hills of Africa.
Just passed 27% done. Really think I'll blast through this pretty quick, really like it so far and it's a fast read. Seems there are a few books in the series, so I'm wondering if they're continuations or other self contained stories maybe. edit: Yeah.. this is a lightning fast read. I might finish this tonight since I know it's got its hooks in me.
When I first started to read more earlier this year, I thought I'd be spending all my time reading so much science fiction that I missed out on because I didn't read a whole lot, but here I am finding myself much more drawn to these smaller scale, very personal stories.
nakedsushi
Member
Finished Birthday of the World and Other Stories. Now I'm going through a short story collection: The Year's Best in Fantasy and Horror 10th Edition. Reading a story every night before going to sleep. :3
Thank you! This was very helpful since she just has so many!Of her collections, I've read A Fisherman of the Inland Sea, Four Ways to Forgiveness, The Wind's Twelve Quarters and The Unreal and the Real (volume 2). (and Tales of Earthsea, but you already read that one).
They're all very good, but my favorite is probably Four Ways to Forgiveness. It's a collection of 4 loosely connected novellas focused on two planets in the Ekumen setting. Also, I'd probably skip The Unreal and The Real vol. 2 since it's really a selection of stories from her other collections, and some of the best you already know from The Birthday of the World.
I agree that her non-fiction must be lovelyI'll give it a try one day!
teruterubozu
Member
It's a must-read for anybody curious about this world. Mind-blowing indeed...and hilarious too.
Sorry for jumping in here, but I highly recommend The Sun Also Rises for a Hemingway neophyte. It does a great job of capturing what I love most about Hemingway's novels, which is the feel of a place and moment. The fishing scene with Jake and Bill comes to mind, as well as all the scenes where characters are sitting around a bar talking to each other. I couldn't think of a better book of Hemingway's to read during the summer.
No, I didn't read the first book since I was told The Scar wasn't a sequel.
I went through the Wiki to look up the different races and other stuff and it's making the reading go much smoother now.
Incandenza
Banned
Man, is it really this good? My uncle, a big reader (mostly of the pop-lit variety) and recommended it to me because he knows I like Stephen King. I'm certainly up for something like The Stand but didn't get further than downloading a sample for it because I was balls deep in ASOIAF at the time.
Gordon0Freeman
Member
So just finished part 1 of the House of Suns. And it's alright I guess. It gets better I'm assuming?
Thanks, I will read it when I finish my current book!
The Artful Dodger
Member
I just picked up a book about Hemingway and Faulkner's Rivalry.
I'm really looking forward to reading it.
I'm really looking forward to reading it.
IISANDERII
Member
yep read it a couple of years ago. Amazing book. I read it twice.
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
If you like King and you clearly have an eye for good prose with a DFW handle, I can assure you you'll love his book.
At 58% now.
Ohhh dear.
Maklershed
Member
Put The Terror on hold to read 600 Hours of Edward based on a strong recommendation from ShaneB. Just started it on my bus ride to work this morning and already 25% in. Pretty interesting so far - its a unique perspective of the world from the mind of someone with Aspergers.
600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster
When I finish this I'll probably continue to put The Terror on hold as a co-worker just gave me NOS4A2.
600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster
When I finish this I'll probably continue to put The Terror on hold as a co-worker just gave me NOS4A2.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Yes he is. I highly recommend A Song for Arbonne as well, but really all of his stuff is great. the one book of his that I didn't get into is Ysabel.
Mak, glad to see you reading my favourite book so far this year. I hope you like it as much as I did. I finished The Walk last night, finishing a book in one day is something I've never done, but it's definitely a very quick read with some decieving page counts I think I'm gonna read the rest of the series.
I think I'm gonna read the rest of the series.
Mackenzie 92
Member
Mak, glad to see you reading my favourite book so far this year. I hope you like it as much as I did. I finished The Walk last night, finishing a book in one day is something I've never done, but it's definitely a very quick read with some decieving page counts
Better than Replay? Might have to check it out.
Maklershed
Member
I'm 50% in and enjoying it very much. Definitely a nice change of pace from sci-fi and fantasy and what not.
Yeah, Replay was great, but it was fairly standard in how much I liked it, great story from start to finish, and "The Curious Incident..." was my favourite book until I read '600 Hours of Edward', just because I found myself relating a lot to what Edward was going through, and I got very emotional reading it.
I'm now 30% through "Miles to Go" book 2 of The Walk series, and it's great so far. The first book and it's fairly short length now feels like an extended prologue to this.
I've been reading Altered Carbon for the last couple of days, finished yesterday. Really liked the premise, the first hundred or so pages are the strongest, you can nitpick it apart after that if you're so inclined. Anyway, I thought it was entertaining and I apparently have a real soft spot for that type of sci fi world and all that it implies. I'm not well enough versed in sci fi dialect to define it accurately, wikipedia says "hardboiled cyber punk sci fi". It's definitely doesn't go far down the cyber punk alley, it's not Nueromancer. More than anything, it's the hardboiled detective stuff that rang true to me. There are also some classic sci fi overtones with interstellar colonies and even Martians... and there's a lot of body swapping/consciousness stored on disk stuff, but it doesn't delve deep enough into the philosophical problems that poses. Descartes am sad, I suppose.
So that was fun! But, now I'm lost. Maybe go back to what I was reading before this, or pick something new up.
So that was fun! But, now I'm lost. Maybe go back to what I was reading before this, or pick something new up.
AngmarsKing701
Member
To be fair, 40+ years later it feels like several of the Bond books were phoned in. But at the time they were revolutionary.
Really enjoyed the first three, Casino Royale in particular. Just didn't seem like anything to really distinguish this one like say the tension present in Live and Let Die due to Bond being terribly outmatched by Mr. Big or how Bond's mortality seems to be in his thoughts so often in Moonraker. Seemed like he just shot his way up the ladder in this one although I did like having Leiter return in the capacity he did.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Agreed and once this really sets into a popular series I think a lot of the edginess from the first few titles get washed out in favor of the staples that make Bond the icon he is.
ElectricBlue187
Member
Yeah it's his first novel and a good place to start
Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin
Realm of Racket by Matthias Felleisen, Conrad Barski M.D, et al.
Conrad Barski's cartoons edged this over Tom Stuart's Understanding Computation. They were pretty hilarious in his last book Land of Lisp.
I recommend them if anyone's interested in programming. They are a lot of fun and teach decent languages.
The Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert
Finished Angel's Game yesterday. Shadow of the Wind was definitely better. Threw up a short review on goodreads:
An up and down book. Act 1 was very long and slow and almost entirely focused on the development of the main character. There was barely a hint of the mystery described in the synopsis. Act 2 finally picks up the plot and becomes quite an enjoyable read all the way to the last bits of the book in Act 3. The ending itself was a bit flat as Zafon leaves many of the the events open to the reader's interpretation.
It would probably be a decent "book club" book due to the open ended questions.
An up and down book. Act 1 was very long and slow and almost entirely focused on the development of the main character. There was barely a hint of the mystery described in the synopsis. Act 2 finally picks up the plot and becomes quite an enjoyable read all the way to the last bits of the book in Act 3. The ending itself was a bit flat as Zafon leaves many of the the events open to the reader's interpretation.
It would probably be a decent "book club" book due to the open ended questions.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Just started it last night. Seems like a fun adventure novel so far.