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What are you reading? (March 2010)
- Thread starter FnordChan
- Start date
That's why I haven't set it down yet. I'm hoping that GAF's recommendation comes from the author taking these tropes and putting them on their head or something really clever. I hope I can come back and post in a few days and say "I get it! It's all so clever! He tricked me."FnordChan said:
We'll see. Hopefully this wont turn into another scribblenauts.
MilesWebber
Member
I'm about halfway through 'Horns' by Joe Hill. It's an awesome book but there's a flashback that lasts way too long in the first third.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
ronito said:
It's out... here?
And the first chapter or so of Name of the Wind is just the frame for the meat of the story.
Finished The Player of Games a while back. Funny how Banks wrote two books back to back (Consider Phlebas) about essentially the same topic and that the books are so wildly different in pacing and action. I liked the book, but he committed a cardinal sin, imo, when he assumes that I'm not smarter than the protagonist and spells things out.
Speaking of which, I'm currently reading Fallen Dragon by Hamilton. It's a long book and takes a while to get going. He goes pretty in depth about a certain something that the reader has figured out immediately. Maybe I'm cynical or just read too many damn books.
Speaking of which, I'm currently reading Fallen Dragon by Hamilton. It's a long book and takes a while to get going. He goes pretty in depth about a certain something that the reader has figured out immediately. Maybe I'm cynical or just read too many damn books.
I just finished John Le Carre's The Secret Pilgrim, which was excellent and is highly recommended for fans of the Smiley novels. The coda to The Secret Pilgrim closes the door on the Cold War and looks forward to the battles to be fought over unbridled capitalism, which promise to be even uglier and which have me looking forward to reading Le Carre's more recent work.
Next up, Blood Magic, the sixth book in Eileen Wilks' Lupi series. The series is about a psychic detective (a Chinese, female, and hot psychic detective, that is) who winds up involved with a werewolf prince, at which point they both become too busy trying to stave off supernatural disaster to shack up properly. However, it's paranormal romance, so in the latest volume the inevitable happens: they're getting married. Or, at least, they're going to try to, but it looks like all hell is going to break loose again. I've really enjoyed the previous Lupi books, some of which have so much plot happening that the characters don't have the time for hot sex, so I'm looking forward to Blood Magic...not least because it gives me something to scratch my urban fantasy itch with while waiting anxiously for the latest Dresden Files novel.
I've also been spending a lot of time lately happily flipping through Robin Bougie's NSFW Cinema Sewer, which bills itself as "the adults only guide to history's sickest and sexiest movies". I'm not entirely sure about the sickest or the sexiest, mind you, but Bougie does love trash cinema and expresses this love by hand-writing a fanzine about his favorite exploitation films, including his deep, abiding fondness for pornography. A fair chunk of the zines have been reprinted here and the articles are generally fascinating, including extensive essays about topics such as Linda Lovelace, the non-existence of snuff films, and the anti-porn movement, collections of vintage drive-in advertisements, appreciations of films such as The Candy Snatchers, Black Belt Jones, and Ninja III: The Domination, and the occasional obscene drawings of, say, Louise Brooks. There's a lot of sleaze packed into this book (including drawings of porn stars at their stickiest) but it's a well researched, highly affectionate selection of sleaze. If you're into cult cinema and aren't afraid of large doses of raunch, check it out.
FnordChan
Next up, Blood Magic, the sixth book in Eileen Wilks' Lupi series. The series is about a psychic detective (a Chinese, female, and hot psychic detective, that is) who winds up involved with a werewolf prince, at which point they both become too busy trying to stave off supernatural disaster to shack up properly. However, it's paranormal romance, so in the latest volume the inevitable happens: they're getting married. Or, at least, they're going to try to, but it looks like all hell is going to break loose again. I've really enjoyed the previous Lupi books, some of which have so much plot happening that the characters don't have the time for hot sex, so I'm looking forward to Blood Magic...not least because it gives me something to scratch my urban fantasy itch with while waiting anxiously for the latest Dresden Files novel.
I've also been spending a lot of time lately happily flipping through Robin Bougie's NSFW Cinema Sewer, which bills itself as "the adults only guide to history's sickest and sexiest movies". I'm not entirely sure about the sickest or the sexiest, mind you, but Bougie does love trash cinema and expresses this love by hand-writing a fanzine about his favorite exploitation films, including his deep, abiding fondness for pornography. A fair chunk of the zines have been reprinted here and the articles are generally fascinating, including extensive essays about topics such as Linda Lovelace, the non-existence of snuff films, and the anti-porn movement, collections of vintage drive-in advertisements, appreciations of films such as The Candy Snatchers, Black Belt Jones, and Ninja III: The Domination, and the occasional obscene drawings of, say, Louise Brooks. There's a lot of sleaze packed into this book (including drawings of porn stars at their stickiest) but it's a well researched, highly affectionate selection of sleaze. If you're into cult cinema and aren't afraid of large doses of raunch, check it out.
FnordChan
Amazon says May 11th...Tim the Wiz said:
Tell me Tim, does it get better? I mean really better?
I'm on the third chapter and I'm reading it and after reading:
"His voice was different. Hollow. Wan. Like a plant that's been moved into the wrong sort of soil. Lacking something vital had begun to wilt...His gesture's weren't as extravagant, his voice wasn't as deep, even his eyes weren't as bright as they had been a month ago . Their color seemed duller. Less seafoam, less green grass than they had been. Now they were the color of riverweed, like the bottom of the green grass bottle. And his hair...."
I'm just like "GOOD GOD MAN! ARE YOU GETTING PAID BY THE WORD? GET ON WITH IT!" I set it aside then.
I trust your judgment. Should I stick with it even longer? Does it really get better? Cause I see it now there's little hope.
Currently reading:
I thought A Fire Upon the Deep was amazing and wanted read more of his writing. I am not disappointed.
Also, I am looking for a gift for my father. He is ex-military and usually gets into war movies like jarhead and hurt locker. If anyone has something they would like to suggest, I would be open to it and appreciative.
I thought A Fire Upon the Deep was amazing and wanted read more of his writing. I am not disappointed.
Also, I am looking for a gift for my father. He is ex-military and usually gets into war movies like jarhead and hurt locker. If anyone has something they would like to suggest, I would be open to it and appreciative.
Easily the best in the series. The 2nd one is quite good also, but it definitely goes downhill from then. They are tolerable, but I had to really force myself through the last two.suffah said:
speculawyer
Member
Meh . . . a bit over-done. I like the long-range thinking. But the 'nobel savage' myth is kinda annoying.
GallonOMilk
Member
I'm finally doing it ... Reading Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, probably the most daunting book I've tackled in years. It's 750+ pages of really dense narrative full of obscure references and really complicated structure. It gets to the point where a character has a flashback about an ancestor who then has their own flashback within the flashback, then it switches to another character 100 miles away without telling you. But it's so creative, witty, and funny I just can't stop reading it. I normally read at 100+ pages per hour but after 1.5 hours of reading this I was on page 18 ... And I got so much more out if those 18 pages than 300 pages of another novel. This book is so famously loved - times top 100 novels and many awards for novel of the decade - and yet so hated - the pullitzer prize judges awarded it the prize but the trustees hated it so they just gave no pullitzer prize to literature that year rather than give it to this book. Buy it and read it. It will take weeks, even months if you read it right (in detail, look up the references, and understand it) and it will be worth every second. You'll likely hate it the first time through - most people do - but read it anyway. Every other novel you read after will just seem less than. I mean, cmon, the basis of the plot is that Nazi v2 missiles hit London wherever the protagonist gets an erection. Can't get much better than that.
finowns
Member
ronito said:Amazon says May 11th...
Tell me Tim, does it get better? I mean really better?
I'm on the third chapter and I'm reading it and after reading:
"His voice was different. Hollow. Wan. Like a plant that's been moved into the wrong sort of soil. Lacking something vital had begun to wilt...His gesture's weren't as extravagant, his voice wasn't as deep, even his eyes weren't as bright as they had been a month ago . Their color seemed duller. Less seafoam, less green grass than they had been. Now they were the color of riverweed, like the bottom of the green grass bottle. And his hair...."
I'm just like "GOOD GOD MAN! ARE YOU GETTING PAID BY THE WORD? GET ON WITH IT!" I set it aside then.
I trust your judgment. Should I stick with it even longer? Does it really get better? Cause I see it now there's little hope.
I urge you to stick with it. gets better as it goes.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
ronito said:Amazon says May 11th...
Oh, Australia and Britain must have gotten it earlier.
ronito said:
It gets better, but if you're already having problems with the prose... Cyan is right; if you're still not engaged by the time Kvothe arrives in the city, there's little point forcing it.
I know it's quite a well-thought-of book, but it's not particularly unthinkable that you feel this way: The novel is a lot more conventional than some would like to admit and the overwhelming praise of his prose is more than a little overstated - I'd certainly put authors of similar ilk, such as Abercrombie and Lynch, ahead of him. It's the protagonist and the sheer weight of potential and mystery wrapped around that character which makes it really tick, and if you're not hooked by that element of the story soon-ish, perhaps this isn't the right novel for you.
Another part of the equation is whether or not you're in the mood for a fantasy bildungsroman. I know I'm tired of them at this stage. If that's a sticking-point, why not try Matthew Stover's Acts of Caine series, beginning with Heroes Die? It features a great anti-hero in a, well, complex situation that successfully blends fantasy and sci-fi concepts with underlying, certainly unconventional, themes of definite merit. And there's a lot of action. (Dan, back me up!)
Salazar said:
You must have an awesome job.
I bought the Algebraist last month on a recommendation, and was wondering if Phlebas (which I have heard is Bank's better book) is as badly written as The Algebraist was?eznark said:
On that note, I read The Lost Symbol on Sunday and damned if the man hasn't got his formula and is sticking to it. I swear every chapter finished with a character gasping in shock at some revelation or another which we'll finally be told about 3 pages later. It was more ridiculous than Uncharted 2's "just caught" leaps of faith about twice per level :|
I wouldn't recommend it.
I also picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, again on a recommendation. Quite enjoyable so far, makes a difference from my usual sci-fi/fantasy
itsinmyveins
Gets to pilot the crappy patrol labors
I've been reading The Mist by Stephen King. It's very short and easy to get through. I like it though -- I've always had a soft spot for King. It seems like every other book I read is by him.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Salazar said:
I'm still baffled as to how someone would actually break up with, let alone divorce, Kate Winslet - unless she's a closet Scientologist, Randroid or something equally heinous.
crowphoenix
Banned
Tim the Wiz said:
I don't know about Ronito, but I know you've sold me on it.
Finished the first book of the Illuminatus! Trilogy, The Eye in the Pyramid. That book could be a beatdown at times with all the jumping around of perspectives and time periods and such, but I suppose that was the point.
May start this soon and read the two concurrently -
May start this soon and read the two concurrently -
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
FnordChan said:
Hmm. I read Absolute Friends, published in the US in 2004. The concept is intriguing: the son of a Nazi becomes a Marxist true believer in East Germany, gets disaffected and becomes a double agent for the UK and has to come to grips with the post-9/11 world and his life's work. But the actual novel is disappointingly simplistic, and the ending is preposterous enough to come straight out of a Warren Ellis one-shot that nobody is supposed to take seriously. It is interesting enough to read, but I did not enjoy it.
I am staying on the spy fiction bandwagon with Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsythe, which has one of the best all-time cover blurbs:
"The Day Of The Jackal makes such comparable books that The Manchurian Candidate and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold seems like Hardy Boy mysteries." -- The New York Times
FnordChan said:
The worst part of The Name of the Wind is that is you do fall in love with it, you'll always be anticipating the sequel. And who friggin knows when that'll come out, it's been delayed so many times, and the author seemingly spends all his time blogging about how mad he is that people keep asking him when the sequel is coming out.
Guileless said:
Hrm. Sorry to hear Absolute Friends was disappointing. I've been reading Le Carre in publication order, so I reckon The Night Manager is next on my list. I'll report back; hopefully I'll enjoy my go with post-Cold War Le Carre more than you did.
That is a good blurb. Let us know how you like it. The only Forsythe I've read is The Fourth Protocol, which I enjoyed but don't actually remember anything about.
FnordChan
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
The book works on some levels. The character of the East German double agent is well-written and compelling. But the ending is so bad that it ruined the rest of the book for me; up to that point it was interesting as a character study of an East German who tried to make it through the 20th century's ideological upheavals with some individual dignity intact. And up to that point I did not mind the shrillness of Le Carre's politics intruding on the narrative. But the ending just put me off the book completely. It's still interesting enough to be worth a read. It's not boring.
I read The Fourth Protocol based on a recommendation here, it may have been you. It's the only other Forsythe I've read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can even see where it might put off someone who was committed to the political Left. It's about a Soviet plot to stage a parliamentary coup to bring a hard Left government to power in the UK and usher in the Worker's Revolution. I love any book that has Politburo figures sitting in their dachas plotting against each other and for world domination.
I read The Fourth Protocol based on a recommendation here, it may have been you. It's the only other Forsythe I've read. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can even see where it might put off someone who was committed to the political Left. It's about a Soviet plot to stage a parliamentary coup to bring a hard Left government to power in the UK and usher in the Worker's Revolution. I love any book that has Politburo figures sitting in their dachas plotting against each other and for world domination.
OK, as Cyan said I'll wait until the city. But I have a hard time seeing this turn around there's a lot of times where I just sit and wonder how it made it past an editor. This morning it was a sword and it took him no less than 10 sentences to describe it and 3 of them started with 'It was'. You know me, I was like "It was a nice sword. I get it."Tim the Wiz said:
As for Heroes Die, I'm absolutely looking it up.
Maklershed
Member
Nice!elwes said:After I finish that, I'm going to read this:
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Chorazin said:
The manuscript is finished and was sent in last year. Rothfuss and his editors have been in editing mode since then, which ronito has certainly shown to be a justified use of time. :lol
crowphoenix said:
ronito said:
More coming into the fold is always good. The future of the Acts of Caine series, after the next (fourth) installment, is a bit uncertain due to its limited audience - and despite its critical success - but Stover intends to have at least seven books in the series.
ElectricBlue187
Member
They are both awesome. Player of Games is a better introduction to the Cultureeznark said:
ElectricBlue187
Member
Please elucidate. I didn't think it was Banks' best work but how was it badly written?Tisan said:
Finished this. Was alright. Definitely weaker than the first. Still, it has not satiated my Mass Effect need so the DLC for 2 coming and the release of the next book this summer should be good. I don't really have high hopes for the fiction at all, but I do enjoy them as like quick popcorn books.
This is my next book via random number generator of the 9 or so books in my backlog. About 30 pages in now and it's about what you'd expect. Won't be long till this one is finished and donated to the library.
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Toby said:
The classic soldier's memoir is With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge, an American in the Pacific theater during World War II. I've recommended it to friends many times, and everyone who reads it enjoys it.
If he would prefer something more recent: House to House by David Bellavia. It's a soldier's memoir about the battle of Fallujah. Generation Kill by Evan Wright is written by a journalist embedded with the Marines during the initial invasion of Iraq. They are each interesting reads.
The movie Jarhead is based on a book. I picked it up in a bargain bin a few years ago, but I haven't read it yet.
movie_club
Junior Member
has anyone ever read against nature? i need to ask a question about the book for a paper, but no longer have the book because i returned it to the library. Cant find it online
finowns
Member
Entropia said:
Don't get your hopes up. The TV show blows the books away.
The books are weird there is like mysticism going on gets way unbelievable, not much like the show at all.
I usually do not like books where there is no semblance of rules for the universe. That said I kind of like this book its maniacal, freakish with really disturbing imagery.
I see hope that it could get better. I'm sticking with it. Anyone read this series A opinion would be nice I am still getting my head around it.?
Fnord Chan have you been reading the dresden preview chapters for Changes? Why am I not sensing any love for dresden in this thread. We have like 20 days left. Its going to be crazy!
finowns said:
I'm trying to hold out and just read the preview chapters when the book arrives. However, I may succumb and read the three (and soon to be four) posted chapters before then. Either way, I'm stoked for Changes!
FnordChan
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Re: The Name of the Wind-- I was just reading Penny Arcade's news post from yesterday and Gabe references it and links to its official site, which proclaims that
The Name of the Wind marks the debut of a writer we would all do well to watch. Patrick Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous.
-Terry Brooks, 22-time New York Times bestselling author
The Name of the Wind marks the debut of a writer we would all do well to watch. Patrick Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous.
-Terry Brooks, 22-time New York Times bestselling author