-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
What are you reading-June ?
- Thread starter mr stroke
- Start date
Baker said:Finished my last book over the weekend and found this buried in my closet.
I enjoyed it, but I enjoy anything by Palahniuk. Ignore the haters.
I've read a couple of Eco's non-fiction books on semiotics and I've always wanted to read it but was reminded to by someone calling it a non-retarded Da Vinci Code. Haven't started it yet but planning on doing so tonight.
I'm about two-thirds of my way through Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith, the third of the Arkady Renko procedurals. This time Renko has returned from exile just in time for the fall of the Soviet Union, with the events of the novel taking place in August of 1991. As ever, the proceedural aspect - in this case the fire bombing of a black market banker - is solid, but the real joy of the book is in reading about life in Soviet Russia, which is particularly grim and fascinating as everything is falling apart. After this novel, Renko's adventures continue in a post-Soviet world, but I'll likely take a break for a bit before going back to them.
I'm also reading through Screen Burn, a collection of Charlie Brooker's scathing television columns for the Guardian, which are the basis for his brilliant TV show Screenwipe. Brooker cheerfully goes for contemporary British television's soft, fat underbelly, ruthlessly laying into material he considers crap (i.e. most everything) and offering some moderately insightful commentary along the way. Consider it The Glass Teat for our degenerate modern times.
Armitage, I'm a big fan of The Big U. It ain't the most coherent novel Stephenson ever wrote and it's got an ending that doesn't work even by his standards, but as a series of vignettes about college life it's blackly hysterical. Hope you enjoy it.
FnordChan
Prime crotch
Banned
Original version though, I've had the book since it came out but never got around to read it until now.
I think the translation of the edition I'm reading is what keeping me from finishing it, for example it took me a while to realise what Flatline was on this translation.
GoutPatrol
Forgotten in his cell
Mash said:
You're in for a great ride! But you should be prepared for the opening chapter - it's very difficult. Eco once said that he wrote it that way on purpose, to make sure that only readers who are willing to spend some effort on the book will go on with it - shallow readers will drop it when they can't get through the beginning. Probably just a joke, but there's something in it.
I am reading
"What We Say Goes"
which is really well written and very interesting in subject matter. I'm only half way through though, but so far this book has delivered above my expectations, not being that familiar with Noam Chomsky.
I am also reading "AK47: the Story of the People's Gun"
Not as good as I had hoped, but the subject matter is still fairly entertaining.
"What We Say Goes"
which is really well written and very interesting in subject matter. I'm only half way through though, but so far this book has delivered above my expectations, not being that familiar with Noam Chomsky.
I am also reading "AK47: the Story of the People's Gun"
Not as good as I had hoped, but the subject matter is still fairly entertaining.
Mash said:
BlackSalad
Member
I found "farewell to arms" in my parents basement and started reading it just because its a classic. I'm far enough into it that I'm finally used to hemingway's wierd use (or lack) of punctuation. Good book so far
AndresON777
shooting blanks
just finished reading this for like the 5th time, it's prolly my favorite ever.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0156468999/?tag=neogaf0e-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0156468999/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
I quickly read through
Which is fantastic.
And now reading
Which is fantastic.
And now reading
DOBERMAN INC
Member
Not very far in yet ,im unsure how i feel about it.
Jack Scofield
Member
Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Haven't read it in a few days, but it's a really interesting book.
nakedsushi
Member
Journey to the West for the first time. I've read all the comic books about Sun Wu Kong. I figure it's about time to read the adult version.
Auron_Kale
Member
Been reading this:
With this in-between:
With this in-between:
mrkapawutzis
Member
Just read The Road and was so enthralled that I read Alas Babylon hoping for something equally harrowing but the latter was so fucking ridiculous in its science and characterizations that I couldn't forgive the fact that it was written in 1959. I literally felt like punching the book.
Cranehand2ndComing
Member
A fantastic must-read for hardcore baseball fans.
SpoonyBard
Banned
Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. I got bored and it's been laying on my table for a long time... I should continue reading it though, maybe it'll pick up. I liked all his previous books, this one's a bit strange.
Maybe next I'll read some Dicworld stuff again, lighter and quicker to read...
Jack Scofield
Member
Quazar said:
Yeah, his explanations are pretty easy to understand. Since he wrote it for a general audience, you don't have to be a physicist or anything to understand what's going on.
I recommend it if you're interested in physics, black holes, dimensions, time travel, and stuff like that.
Jack Scofield said:Yeah, his explanations are pretty easy to understand. You don't have to be a physicist to understand what's going on, since he wrote it for a general audience.
I recommend it if you're interested in physics, black holes, dimensions, time travel, and stuff like that.
That's great to hear. That's why I liked his documentaries and will definitely be picking his book(s) up after hearing that.
Jack Scofield said:Yeah, his explanations are pretty easy to understand. Since he wrote it for a general audience, you don't have to be a physicist or anything to understand what's going on.
I recommend it if you're interested in physics, black holes, dimensions, time travel, and stuff like that.
I'll definitely check that out then. Books about theoretical physics blow my mind and I love it.
Currently going through:
As good a writer as he is a physicist. Much respect for this guy.
SabinFigaro
Member
I just finished the saga of the Mule, and it was holyshitsoawesome. I'm definitely hooked.
Gattsu25 said:
Was recommended to me in the last 'What are you reading" thread and I really enjoy it. Around 3/4 done with it so far...I should just finish the book off tonight
I'm about half way and I'm really enjoying it, too. Very fun read and hard to put down.
Blatz said:Sweet, I'm glad somebody else picked it up. Too bad the sequel isn't out until Apr '09.
Thanks for the heads up, I didn't realize that there was a sequel in the works.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Written in 1988, could've been in 2008. Was also interesting finding out he had already extrapolated on a few observations I've made about the music industry and much more of it.
SpoonyBard said:
In my opinion - which seems to be in line with the general concensus - it's his worst novel. Whenever people rag on Palahniuk if their criticism is of this particular book I tend to just keep shtum.
Auron_Kale said:
]
Have you finished it before? It's such a great book. One of the first books to really affect me when I read it as a kid.
tetrisgrammaton
Member
the soft machine
'd forgotten how good it is
'd forgotten how good it is
Cauliflower of Love
Banned
It's getting interesting, and I'm only halfway through.
Just finished Rant by Palahniuk. It was uh... not what I was expecting. I really had no idea what the book was about aside from the info on the back, but Palahniuk hasn't let me down yet, so what the hell.
The story was going along pretty much as described on the back, but then it does this hard left turn into sci-fi territory out of nowhere, with people with Matrix-esque ports in the back of their heads to record what they see and do and experience the same from other people. Then it turns even further left, spins out and rolls across three lanes of traffic before getting hit by the sci-fi truck with the shit it eventually gets into...
Ford Prefect
GAAAAAAAAY
Amazing, amazing book, cannot recommend it enough to those with an interest in the current situation regarding internet piracy, copyright, and so on (just finished it today). It's writing by a Stanford Law Professor, but it's pretty accessible and does a good job mixing opinion with historical context. I also recently read The Pirate's Dilemma by Matt Mason, which engages in similar debate but offers more of a cultural/historical perspective rather than a legal argument. Also quite a good read.
I'm about to start this book up tomorrow:
...which was recommended to me by a friend, so hopefully it should be good. I seem to be reading a lot of non-fiction of late, but I've also been finding a lot more time to read in general so I'm pretty satisfied with that.
Kestastrophe said:Still reading
Been reading this one for months and I'm only half-way through.
I'm on this one as well. Have been for a few months. I'll do spurts of 40 or so pages in a day for 3 days... then just read 10 pages here and there for weeks. I'm up to 730 something though and really want to finish it off so I can move on to something... lighter.
Got to say though it is really amazing so far. Life changingly so for me. If I finish this soon I'm going to start a topic for discussing it.
octopusman
Member
I had the hitchhiker's guide but it was so huge that the leather bound binding broke and the glue didn't hold...Fuzz Rez said:
crowphoenix
Banned
Darn! I hadn't posted in this thread. I wanted to point and laugh at my past self from across the time warp and call him a loser. But I can't. Sad.
JzeroT1437
Member
OH SHIT IT'S JUNE SOMEBODY DIVIDED BY ZER--
Captain Blood
Member
*removes what book he is currently reading*
Yea June WTF lol
Yea June WTF lol
GoutPatrol said:
Fuck yeah! He is really quite the writer. I love the concept that runs with about only being able to know somebody so much. Very powerful and I can't wait to finish it (hard to sandwich between papers and studying for finals but I always try to make time).
Just finished this for class:
Quite a book. It chronicles from the formation of Al Qaeda to the attack on 9/11. It shifts perspectives from the Taliban to FBI and develops the people very vividly. Highly encouraged. It's not too difficult to read (except from remembering all the Middle Eastern names. It gets kind of difficult to keep track)
If I had to describe, it'd be like a book form of the Office, but even that is a little off. It goes from the perspective of a group that works in an advertising firm during the dot com bust. It basically shows all the idle time they have to gossip, marvel, (one guy figures out a way to rig up a TV to the bottom of his cubicle and watches all the Cubs games, haha) and there's always a paranoia hangings amidst them of who the next is going to be to let go.
and every once in awhile, I'll go for the change of pace with a short from Sedaris:
echoshifting
Banned
Why?
Skittleguy
Ring a Bell for me
...does this mean I don't have an exam on tuesday?
