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[Rei_Toei]

I didn't like it at all. The first third was great. Then it just went downhill. It was also needlessly long. My main problem (plot spoiler) with the story was

Spoiler

that everything could have been solved fairly easily if people just communicated better.

Funny you'd say that, I actually thought it started pretty weak but got really interesting once (spoiler)

Spoiler

the facility is compromised and the virals escape

. Your critisism is kinda vague - care to expand? The way you're formulating it now, it can be applied to a truckload of (good) books: 'if only they....'

 

[Danielsan]

Start re-reading A Game Of Thrones yesterday evening. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm falling in love all over again. The last (and first) time I read the book must have been 3-5 years ago. I remember initially having a hard time dealing with the wide variety of main characters and the jumping between them after every chapter. Until about page 200. After that I fully locked into the book and couldn't put it down and quickly devoured the sequels as well . I expected the same thing to kind of happen again, but I'm completely hooked from the first page. The writing is do damn good. It's funny how you sometimes forget why you really loved something, until you are confronted with it again after a long time of absence. It's also feels like reuniting with old friends. Areya and Jon's chapters are such bliss to read, because I dearly care for these two characters.

I will definitely finish A Game Of Thrones before the HBO series launches. Hopefully I'll be able to re-read the sequels before A Dance With Dragons is released.

 

[Guileless]

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

Makes me want to lace up my shoes and go out on a run right now!

Actually, makes me want to toss the shoes and go out on a run. We'll see.

Barefoot is too hardcore for me, but reading that book did make me want to try the lightweight shoes like the Nike Free for my next pair of running shoes.

 

[nakedsushi]

Funny you'd say that, I actually thought it started pretty weak but got really interesting once (spoiler)

Spoiler

the facility is compromised and the virals escape

. Your critisism is kinda vague - care to expand? The way you're formulating it now, it can be applied to a truckload of (good) books: 'if only they....'

It's been a while since I thought about The Passage, but what I meant was:

Spoiler

After the virals escape and it jumps forward in time where everyone's segregated into little protected towns or whatever, the goal of the story ends up being getting the girl back to the facility so they can get her anti-virus blood or whatever. That part seems way too drawn out. There were too many side trips and and fumbling around. If only the girl could explain hm......

I also didn't like the whole mystic element of it. Like when the zoo animals freaked out about her because they somehow "knew" or how that nun/sister knew exactly what to do. In this type of book, it just seems like a lazy way of poor foreshadowing.

edit: I'm reading The Name of the Wind right now, but I thought this was fitting:

 

[bengraven]

Just hit chapter 15 in

This author must have a rape fetish or something. Every other page it seems some man or woman is being raped. I'm finding it difficult to read and I've started to skim over the parts that are especially rape-y. I'm hoping it gets toned down later in the book, it'd certainly make the book more enjoyable for me if it did.

People give George R R Martin grief about the amount of rape in his books, but I still think Brett tops him.

Spoiler

for example, the two main female characters in the series lost their virginity through rape and that apparently made them "stronger".

Kind of sick.

 

[Mifune]

Hoy. It was pretty weird, actually. I picked up Zeroville randomly off the shelf in the library after recognizing it from randomly skimming through a review online. I didn't expect much, but it was quietly enthralling all the way through, especially for me as a film-lover, as it opened up some reflection on the influence films have on us, and how they often intrude upon our perception of reality. I keep promising myself that I'll read more of his stuff soon-ish. I have the idea that I'll tackle his novels in publication order sometime or the other. (Just took a week and a bit to reply to that!)

Of the stuff of his that I've read, I highly recommend Rubicon Beach and Days Between Stations. Both are dreamlike narratives that tie into filmmaking, but never as overtly or specifically as Zeroville does. Tours of the Black Clock, his book about Hitler's private filmmaker, is interesting, as is the largely autobiographical Arc D'x. I've really yet to read anything of his that I did not like.

I have The Sea Came In at Midnight and All Ecstatic Days on my bookshelf, still to be read.

 

[Relix]

Oh yeeees

 

[.JayZii]

Reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle now and am absolutely loving it. I feel ashamed it took me so long to start reading Murakami.

 

[Dresden]

Are you on the Westeros forums, too? I remember seeing this up on the Lit section over there a while back.

I lurk sometimes. Made an account about a year ago but never really used it. That's where I saw the book.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Oh yeeees

Same, but i got this cover

 

[Dresden]

Going through Kafka on the Shore again. I dunno, just felt like it all of a sudden. It's such an easy read, I just kinda float along and I'm already chilling with Hoshino as Nakata straightens out his spine.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

still slogging through

and I just.... will finish it. It's OK, interesting angle to vampires/dracula, but just kind of boring.

Really want to just finish now to make a start on

cause his books are great. after that I'll check out the Patrick rothfuss books.

 

[Maklershed]

Finished Stranger in a Strange Land and on to Cataloochee


Cataloochee: A Novel by Wayne Caldwell

 

[Chuckie]

Found this book at my parents place. I've read a lot of Stephen King books, but never got to the Dark Tower series. So I started that yesterday.

Only 40 pages in, but already liking it.

 

[Dresden]

Finished Kafka on the Shore--I liked it much more this time around. Weird. It just clicked with me today.

Planned on finishing 900 Days but Towers of Midnight and Cryoburn are calling out to me.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Pretty good. Gaiman really shines when he's writing short stories.

 

[Gorgon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

"A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the author or reader. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet"."

Yep, that's as good a description as any. The Mary Sue is emblematic of a particular type of poorly written fanfic. The character has too many virtues and no flaws (or their "flaws" are cute and likable), they're loved by all and sundry, and they make no mistakes/obstacles melt from their path.

A character with no arc, no room to grow, and no challenges to overcome. Boring as hell, in other words.

Often, people use the term to reference only the very first part of the definition--too many virtues. *shrug* Main characters, especially in fantasy novels, often have many skills and virtues--that alone does not make them Mary Sues.

Thanks!

 

[eznark]

I have 350 pages left in Wise Man's Fear. I feel like it really fell apart.

 

[Melchiah]

http://www.hplovecraft.com/study/litcrit/awal.asp

H.P. Lovecraft, the radical, misanthropic master of the horror genre, now has an impassioned advocate in Michel Houellebecq, Europe’s most controversial modern novelist. In his illuminating and passionate appraisal of Lovecraft’s life and work, Houellebecq reveals a surprising debt to the master of “weird fiction.” Anyone who’s read Houellebecq’s Platform or The Elementary Particles will be quick to recognize, unlikely as it might seem at first, the intersection of Houellebecq’s deeply cynical worldview with H.P. Lovecraft’s incisive and delirious writings. With a new introduction by Stephen King, this translation, the second volume in the Believer Books series, is the first appearance of Houellebecq’s book in English. Also included in this volume are two brilliant, seminal, and representative stories by H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu” and “The Whisperer in Darkness.”

I am so beastly tired of mankind and the world that nothing can interest me unless it contains a couple of murders on each page or deals with the horrors unnameable and unaccountable that leer down from the external universes.

Love it so far.

 

[yonder]

I'm just about to start reading Ulysses for school:

It's been a while since I've had such a mix of anticipation and dread before opening a book. If nothing else, I can at least say I've read it. We're spending two weeks on it in class, so I obviously will get a lot of guidance from my professors, but I was wondering if anyone here had any online resources to recommend?

I also just finished To the Lighthouse which I really enjoyed:

Once I got into the flow of Woolf's style I became totally absorbed by it, more so than I would ever have expected. Finished it in two sittings.

 

[afternoon delight]

Yeah. I've read everything he's written so far, and I've enjoyed all of it. If he's written it, I can personally recommend it. (Unless we're talking about the screenplay for The Gardner's Son, which... is a screenplay and just doesn't work when read, in my opinion.)

Night Trekker, I like you. A lot.

If we're talking best ofs, Blood Meridian and The Crossing are tied for bleeding-eyes-wonderful.

 

[Dresden]

Night Trekker, I like you. A lot.

If we're talking best ofs, Blood Meridian and The Crossing are tied for bleeding-eyes-wonderful.

I think Blood Meridian is unsurpassed. It's his best work and also one of the bestest bookz evar of the last century. So goddamn good, despite how nice the Border Trilogy is.

 

[HarryHengst]

A book which basically says that human consciousness is a mistake, humans are an abomination, we in fact know that we are but we trick ourselves by denying that fact. We lack meaning in our lives, which we then go and try to recreate through things like religion, nations or families. The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.

Bleak stuff, but the author is a good writer, although i do sometimes have difficulty following his logical steps taking. But hey, it's a philosophical work so that's to be expected.


Also, a better review of the book can be found here.

 

[afternoon delight]

I think Blood Meridian is unsurpassed. It's his best work and also one of the bestest bookz evar of the last century. So goddamn good, despite how nice the Border Trilogy is.

But The Crossing lets him go on tangents! :lol

 

[meadowrag]

Just started Anna Karenina last night.

Dostoevsky is the undisputed master in my eyes, but I've never read a Tolstoy novel, so I guess I'll see if he lives up to his reputation.

 

[Keen]

People give George R R Martin grief about the amount of rape in his books, but I still think Brett tops him.

Spoiler

for example, the two main female characters in the series lost their virginity through rape and that apparently made them "stronger".

Kind of sick.

People do? I thought Terry Goodkind got the most flak. Then again, he, justifiably, gets flak for most of his stuff!



edit: oh, I'm also readin Wise Man's Fear.

 

[Melchiah]

A book which basically says that human consciousness is a mistake, humans are an abomination, we in fact know that we are but we trick ourselves by denying that fact. We lack meaning in our lives, which we then go and try to recreate through things like religion, nations or families. The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.

Bleak stuff, but the author is a good writer, although i do sometimes have difficulty following his logical steps taking. But hey, it's a philosophical work so that's to be expected.


Also, a better review of the book can be found here.

I'm going to read that one next. Thanks for recommending it.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Night Trekker, I like you. A lot.

Thanks!

If we're talking best ofs, Blood Meridian and The Crossing are tied for bleeding-eyes-wonderful.

The Crossing is definitely the best book in The Border Trilogy (all of which are good, though I feel Cities of the Plain is slightly behind the first two) and, I agree, one of the best things McCarthy has written. I think Suttree is also up there with Blood Meridian, though its "plot-less" nature could make it hard for some people to follow and appreciate.

I'm looking forward to The Passenger, but I wonder if McCarthy will stay with the more simplistic style he uses in No Country for Old Men (and, later, The Road). I would be fine with that, but a return to the intricate, detailed prose from earlier novels would be nice, too.

EDIT: According to Wikipedia, he's working on three new novels.

 

[Drewsky]

I'm looking forward to The Passenger, but I wonder if McCarthy will stay with the more simplistic style he uses in No Country for Old Men (and, later, The Road). I would be fine with that, but a return to the intricate, detailed prose from earlier novels would be nice, too.

Man, now you made me feel like shit. The only things McCarthy has written that I've read are No Country and The Road. I loved them both if that helps.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Same, but i got this cover

I have this just sitting next to my desk. Can't wait to start it.

 

[afternoon delight]

No need to feel like shit, his novels tend to pick apart the soul in some interesting ways. Check out all of them, but start with the Border Trilogy. (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities on the Plain)

 

[Attackthebase]

I finished two novels this month.

This was for my Post-Col class. It was decent, somewhat confusing. I probably would have gotten more of a kick for it if I wasn't lusting for another novel. A novel that I finished tonight! This little number,

Omfg, 'A Storm of Swords' was amazing. I am probably going to wait for the summer before I read through Feasts of Crows. Gotta bundle that shit up with 'A Dance With Dragons.' My flight to Japan will be somewhat tolerable now with Martin releasing a new novel in the Song of Ice and Fire Series.

 

[Frankenstrat]

[if the image keeps being stupid, it's Everest: A Mountaineering History, by Walt Unsworth]

fantastic read. good length as well.

 

[charlemagne]

Finished off Sophie Masson's The Knight By The Pool. A very average book. Nevertheless, onwards I march into the second in the trilogy.

 

[mike23]

Just finished this

The magic system was interesting in design but shallow in execution, if that makes any sense. A lot of "I drew in some power and made him unable to think of what I don't want him to think about" or "I drew in some power and changed into a bird."

There are a lot of characters that the author was constantly shifting from one to another, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I just found myself wishing that I could get back to more interesting characters at times, or that they would converge sooner.

Overall it was a decent book, I'll probably finish the trilogy at some point.

 

[Qwomo]

Reading two books at the moment.

Lost Languages by Robinson is really one of the greatest books I've ever read. I don't read nonfiction nearly enough, which is a shame, because raw sexy facts can be so much more compelling than literature sometimes.

It's pretty much what you'd expect; deals with the decipherment of all the mysterious languages throughout history, etc. And dear lord if it isn't the most fascinating shit.

I've also been reading some Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman,

and I gotta say, it's really not drawing me in. Which is a huge shame, because I'd slobber over both those men's boners any day. Two authors I really enjoy. I think the story may just be kind of flat IMO, though I haven't gotten far at all. And the very slight tonal shifts every sequence or so throws me off; it becomes easy to tell which portions were written by Pratchett and which ones by Gaiman. Kind of ruins the flow partially, methinks.

Ultimately I'll probably shelve Good Omens for later reading. It's likely a good book by definitely good authors, so I'm not writing it off just yet.

PS, as an unactivated lurker, gotta say that these threads were immensely helpful in providing me with superb reading material. So thanks for that, chaps.

 

[Drewsky]

No need to feel like shit, his novels tend to pick apart the soul in some interesting ways. Check out all of them, but start with the Border Trilogy. (All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities on the Plain)

Yeah, I plan to. ATPH has been sitting in my Amazon wish list for a while, I might just give it a buy here soon.

 

[Aleczandur89]

Starting up the Darth Bane series.

 

[gofreak]

I stopped Surface Detail and started reading this.

I am freaking loving it. I will get back to Surface Detail mind you.

 

[eznark]

50 pages left in Wise Man's Fear. Good lord, it almost seems like someone else finished this book. That last hundred or so pages

Spoiler

starting when he goes back to the Maer

are so rushed and lacking in detail that it hardly fits with the rest of the book. It's as though it's a cliff notes version of his actual final dozen or so chapters. Maybe something amazing happens in these last few chapters but wow, what a disappointing way to finish off the book (really, I was sort of disappointed with the entire second half as it became sort of a series of vignettes instead of a cohesive tale).

 

[Guileless]

The conspiracy of the title is lying to ourselves that "being alive is alright" and that life will be even better for our children, thereby finding an excuse to continue the cycle of humankind.

Whoa, that's a bummer and a half. Somebody should put that on a sad kitten poster.

 

[Attackthebase]

PS, as an unactivated lurker, gotta say that these threads were immensely helpful in providing me with superb reading material. So thanks for that, chaps.

If it wasn't for Gaf, I would have never read the Song of Ice and Fire series. So, I'm forever in Gaf's debt. Time to read through Blood Meridan!

 

[afternoon delight]

Just some select stuff from McCarthy since all the cool kids read him:

"Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting." - All the Pretty Horses

"The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning.

The universe is no narrow thing and the order within it is not constrained by any latitude in its conception to repeat what exists in one part in any other part. Even in this world more things exist without our knowledge than with it and the order in creation which you see is that which you have put there, like a string in a maze, so that you shall not lose your way. For existence has its own order and that no man's mind can compass, that mind itself being but a fact among others." - The Crossing

 

[eznark]

Finished Wise Mans Fear. I can't believe how thoroughly the book falls apart the last third. It almost seems like he ran out of time and just decided to publish 2/3 book, 1/3 outline. Just bad, very bad.

 

[charsace]

Finished Wise Mans Fear. I can't believe how thoroughly the book falls apart the last third. It almost seems like he ran out of time and just decided to publish 2/3 book, 1/3 outline. Just bad, very bad.

I agree. From you know what point on the book felt rushed. Surprising when its so big. I don't understand why it was rushed out.

 

[Dresden]

Reading two books at the moment.

Lost Languages by Robinson is really one of the greatest books I've ever read. I don't read nonfiction nearly enough, which is a shame, because raw sexy facts can be so much more compelling than literature sometimes.

Sounds awesome.

Will add onto backlog.

 

[Vanillalite]

Pretty good. Gaiman really shines when he's writing short stories.

Hmm I need to look into this.

PS: Oddly enough I find a lot of Authors people like/love to be better when they are doing short stories or novellas, but if I named names people would hate on me.

 

[TestMonkey]

Nice light reading after the 960 page Lonesome Dove. Not sure what I'm gonna start up next. Gardens of the Moon or Wise Man's Fear maybe.

 

[eznark]

I agree. From you know what point on the book felt rushed. Surprising when its so big. I don't understand why it was rushed out.

Thank goodness, I thought I was going to be the only one disliking a GAF favorite again.

 

[charsace]

Thank goodness, I thought I was going to be the only one disliking a GAF favorite again.

I love the first 2/3 of the book and was frustrated by the other 1/3. I thought it was decent, but not great like the first book.