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[Alucard]

Time to talk about the books taking up our free time for another month. Currently, I am gingerly making my way through Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

I am about 120 pages into it right now, and am about to start "The Soldier's Tale." The priest's tale was pretty intense, and really started to draw me into the book after a pretty overwhelming beginning. I honestly don't always get or understand Simmons' prose, but that is half attributed to the amount of detail he's trying to put into the world all at once. It still feels pretty overwhelming at this point, but there is a sense of pieces slowly coming together, and the more I read about The All Thing, Shrike, Hegemony, Ousters, etc. the more comfortable I become with placing them and their roles in my mind. The actual tales are straight forward enough, but the stuff in between (so far) has been fairly challenging. I don't know if I'm just stupid or if Simmons is just that creative, imaginative, and talented with language. Thoughts?

How about everyone else?

 

[natethegreat409]

At the suggestion of my Western Civ teacher, I got The Iliad by Blind Homer. I'm about 140 pages in so far, and I'm finding it way to detailed for my taste. The story is good, but Homer gives a small life story of each person who dies in battle, and the mans metaphors go for the better part of a paragraph. I just don't like learning all about a person, and then in the next line he gets a spear stuck through his chest.

 

[thomaser]

Finished "The Rest is Noise" by Alex Ross today, a fascinating overview over the development of classical music in the 20th century. Lots of great personalities and interesting anecdotes.

Now starting "Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov. My first Nabokov - going in with great expectations!

 

[ArtG]

Just started it yesterday--very interesting so far. Has dealt with a couple of cases where some diseases and freak accidents have helped people connect more with music, (man who was struck by lightning became a successful pianist by teaching himself after being struck) or have music they previously enjoyed induce seizures.

 

[Witchfinder General]

However, I'm also still reading The End of Certainty. Books on politics take so long to read.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

 

[Uncle]

 

[thomaser]

I am about 120 pages into it right now, and am about to start "The Soldier's Tale." The priest's tale was pretty intense, and really started to draw me into the book after a pretty overwhelming beginning. I honestly don't always get or understand Simmons' prose, but that is half attributed to the amount of detail he's trying to put into the world all at once. It still feels pretty overwhelming at this point, but there is a sense of pieces slowly coming together, and the more I read about The All Thing, Shrike, Hegemony, Ousters, etc. the more comfortable I become with placing them and their roles in my mind. The actual tales are straight forward enough, but the stuff in between (so far) has been fairly challenging. I don't know if I'm just stupid or if Simmons is just that creative, imaginative, and talented with language. Thoughts?

His series are usually like that, at least the two I've read (The Hyperion-books and Ilium/Olympos). You're bombarded early on with all sorts of weird terms you have no clue about, making for tough beginnings, and their meaning clears up very gradually as you go, often very late into the story. Many consider the Hyperion-series to peak with the second book. I agree, but think the two last are well worth reading as well. The problem with those two for me is that they clear up things too much. By the end of the second book you're still in an enormous, fascinating, mysterious universe with all sorts of exciting possibilities to dream about. By the end of the fourth, however, every last mystery is explained, leaving very little to the imagination.

Art G - I'll read Musicophilia too later some time. Sacks is very interesting indeed.

 

[Bliany]

Finished this last night:

And immediately moved on to:

 

[HitokiriNate85]

I just finished reading this for my Detective Fiction class. I really enjoyed it, and I'll be picking up more of his novels when I have the chance to read outside of assigned texts.

This is next for the same class. I've never read any of his works, so I don't really know what to expect.

This is what I was reading before the start of the semester. I just don't have the time to read it now, which really sucks because A Game of Thrones was excellent and I was already about 1/5 of the way into Clash. It's going to be difficult to pick back up because there's just so much to remember. I'll probably have to start over(with Clash) or find good summaries for Game and the chapters I've already read in Clash. A thread on GAF got me interested enough to start the series, so kudos to you guys.

 

[ucdawg12]

Just finished this last night:

Moving on to this (it's a mystery book not some old philosophy text lol):

And then really looking forward to this!

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51UxGXUJdWL._SS500_.jpg

Spent far too long reading this book. Great book, though. I'm about to start...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385333498.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

 

[Borgnine]

Actually had a subscription to the comic when I was a teenager in the mid-90s. The issues came out so slow (like 6 a year, if that) that I barely scratched the surface of the story before I got out of comics. Maybe 2/3 in, and it's really great.

This is what I was reading before the start of the semester. I just don't have the time to read it now, which really sucks because A Game of Thrones was excellent and I was already about 1/5 of the way into Clash. It's going to be difficult to pick back up because there's just so much to remember. I'll probably have to start over(with Clash) or find good summaries for Game and the chapters I've already read in Clash. A thread on GAF got me interested enough to start the series, so kudos to you guys.

Finished this a month or so ago. I loved Thrones and started in on Clash right away, but it left me a little disappointed. Still great, but not as good as Thrones. It felt kind of like just a bridge to book 3, if that makes any sense. Didn't feel like a whole lot happened. Anyway I hope it's building to book 3, since I'm going to get that after I finish Bone.

 

[Salazar]

Alberto Manguel's Dictionary of Imaginary Places.
Christopher Logue's War Music.
Garrison Keillor's We Are Still Married.

 

[FnordChan]

I just spent several weeks completely wallowing in Jerry Ahern's Survivalist series, a popular men's adventure title from the 80s. A friend of mine likes to point to men's adventure novels as being the last major realm of popular fiction to avoid legitimization by academia, and while some grad student will probably get their hands on the field eventually (and, if it's already happened, someone let me know), so for the time being there's a sort of pleasure in reading something so completely unrepentant. At any rate, The Survivalist is about John Thomas Rourke, Ahern's survivalist Mary Sue, who doesn't let minor details such as nuclear war, Soviet occupation, Florida destroying earthquakes, degenerate hordes, and all consuming global firestorms keep him from finding his family and staying alive in his survival retreat. Those are the events that cover books four (The Doomsayer) through ten (The Awakening) of the series, all of which I read in succession, something I can't really recommend but still enjoyed greatly, mostly through a combination of nostalgia and irony, particularly the latter. I'm armed with most of the next 19 books in the saga, which I'll get around to eventually, but I decided I had to take a break and read something that is actually, you know, good.

James Ellroy's American Tabloid is a damn good book. It's a secret history of the late 50s, detailing the sordid lives of men involved with major figures of the era - J. Edgar Hoover, Jimmy Hoffa, the Kennedys, and Castro, among others - and how they pursue their agendas with near complete disregard for morality or their own survival. The style is hard boiled (punctuated by wonderful epistolary sections), the political intrigue is gripping, and the violence graphic and shocking. The whole package is incredibly bleak and astonishingly good. This novel (and it's sequel, The Cold Six Thousand) are being turned into an HBO series, so jump on board now before everyone's raving about the titles next year.

FnordChan

 

[Monroeski]

Just finished this -

And it was fuck awesome.

 

[hc2]

Going back through all the Bernard Cornwell's books about early England (the Arthur series, Grail Quest, Archers Tale, Saxon Stories) and Richard Sharpe series. Love that medieval warfare, the legend of Arthur, and anything about Wellington's wars.
Almost finished.

Cornwell's web page listing all his books.

http://www.bernardcornwell.net/

 

[carpal]

After finishing Anathem, it was right on to this:

This is great read, I never thought I'd be enjoying number theory.

 

[Mr. Hyde]

 

[QVT]

Iliad which is pretty fantastic.

Finished Eugene Onegin last week again. Remains decent and more influential than good.

Reading Hero of Our Time by Lermentov. It's an adventure novel but it's from 1840 and it is pretty badass.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Still chipping away at Suttree. It's pretty damn dense.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Screw the dwindling popularity of the monthly reading threads.

READ BOOKS YOU ASSHOLES

 

[Benjamin_MFF]

Halfway through this little gem

 

[Jugendstil]

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All - Allan Gurganus

The Grass Harp - Truman Capote

Malcom X - Alex Haley

What Color is Your Parachute 2009

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

About to start reading a bunch of Jean Genet for the first time. I think I'll start with Thief's Journal.

 

[hokahey]

Just finished last night:

Still reading:

 

[mjc]

I'm only about 50 pages into it but I'm enjoying it well enough.

 

[Schattenjäger]

working on

just started

will also start

 

[HolyStar]

 

[Mifune]

James Ellroy's American Tabloid is a damn good book. It's a secret history of the late 50s, detailing the sordid lives of men involved with major figures of the era - J. Edgar Hoover, Jimmy Hoffa, the Kennedys, and Castro, among others - and how they pursue their agendas with near complete disregard for morality or their own survival. The style is hard boiled (punctuated by wonderful epistolary sections), the political intrigue is gripping, and the violence graphic and shocking. The whole package is incredibly bleak and astonishingly good. This novel (and it's sequel, The Cold Six Thousand) are being turned into an HBO series, so jump on board now before everyone's raving about the titles next year.

FnordChan

Yeah, bleak is the operative word. Brilliant book, but don't expect to find any heroes.

I had no idea it was going the HBO route. Thanks for that.

I'm still reading Neal Stephenson's Anathem. The first third was utterly fantastic but the middle is slow going. Plus I haven't had too much time to read lately.

 

[Oreoleo]

Read Ender's Game a couple weeks ago. Would love to get some opinions on the rest of the books in the series before I dive in.

 

[Anobyl]

About halfway through after starting it last night. Loving it.

 

[Eric Hall]

 

[Buttchin]

I bet you guys can figure out which one I'm reading for pleasure....

 

[Salazar]

At the suggestion of my Western Civ teacher, I got The Iliad by Blind Homer. I'm about 140 pages in so far, and I'm finding it way to detailed for my taste. The story is good, but Homer gives a small life story of each person who dies in battle, and the mans metaphors go for the better part of a paragraph. I just don't like learning all about a person, and then in the next line he gets a spear stuck through his chest.

You need Christopher Logue's verse retelling. No, really: you have to goddamn get it.

 

[sykoex]

I'm not a big reader, so when I do read it's usually a known quantity like old classics.

Right now I'm reading The Sleeper Awakes by Wells. I'm not liking it as much as Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, or Time Machine... But I like the premise a lot and I'm enjoying it enough.

I can't decide If I should read 2001 or some Arthur Conan Doyle next.

 

[Kola]

He finally convinced me that it's quite necessary to learn fluent French.

 

[WedgeX]

First up is American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. PBS got me interested in this. I'm only to the Manhattan Project so far, but it's building up for the epic McCarthy era fall.

The comes Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. One of my mentors gave this to me (to get some background on Haiti, as one of my projects might end up doing some work involving the country).

I've already read Nickle and Dimed, so Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich is a natural follow up (and I got a new copy of it for $3!).

And if I get time this month, I'll be reading The Final Days by Woodward and Bernstein. Might have to wait for November, but I can't wait!

 

[Wark]

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

I picked this book up because I'm a huge fan of Murakami's. I've only read the first two chapters, but I could probably finish it in a few hours since it is a relatively short book.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

I really wanted to get into the Wheel of Time series so my friend purchased this for me at a discount book store for a couple of bucks. I've only made my way through a couple of pages because I have a few exams coming up

Spoiler

and games too.

Halfway through this little gem

I was gonna pick that up. Do you think it is worth purchasing?

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

 

[permutated]

One of my all time favorites.

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I needed something really light, I have some heavy stuff going on, so I picked up The Last Wish, the Polish fantasy novel that was the inspiration for the PC game, The Witcher. Turns out it's fantastic, being that I'm a fan of the sort of fantasy of Fritz Leiber or Robert Howard. Perfect fit of action packed, dark, morally ambiguous genre fiction. Really enjoying it.


Also trying this one

too early to say, but it has a lot of interesting background on the classic original.

 

[ultron87]

Time to talk about the books taking up our free time for another month. Currently, I am gingerly making my way through Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

I am about 120 pages into it right now, and am about to start "The Soldier's Tale." The priest's tale was pretty intense, and really started to draw me into the book after a pretty overwhelming beginning. I honestly don't always get or understand Simmons' prose, but that is half attributed to the amount of detail he's trying to put into the world all at once. It still feels pretty overwhelming at this point, but there is a sense of pieces slowly coming together, and the more I read about The All Thing, Shrike, Hegemony, Ousters, etc. the more comfortable I become with placing them and their roles in my mind. The actual tales are straight forward enough, but the stuff in between (so far) has been fairly challenging. I don't know if I'm just stupid or if Simmons is just that creative, imaginative, and talented with language. Thoughts?

How about everyone else?

Things do indeed start out quite overwhelming in Hyperion, and a lot of it doesn't really get cleared up until the second book. I've literally just started the final book of the series.

I am quite excited to see how the series is going to end. I'm actually somewhat glad that everything apparently gets explained in this one, because even after the third book there is a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense.

I also just finished:

And boy was that quite the trip. It's like two to three stories all combined into one book with all kinds of craziness in the text. At it's heart it is just about this mysterious house that has some weird shit going on in it, but there are honestly too many levels to this book for me to comprehend. It was still great fun to read though.

 

[Steriletom]

I just finished The Grapes of Wrath today and started on Midnight's Children this evening.

 

[Dirtbag]

Taken me a month..... :sadface
Though, I've been really busy and it took a while to get into it.

I'm close to the finish line, and things have gone batshit crazy now.

 

[Meloche]

I've had a copy of this from the library for a while now but haven't had a chance to start it yet. Hoping to do so soon.

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

If you're like most you'll enjoy the series up to about book 5 or 6 (which is still close to 5000 pages of reading), but if you can make it through some of the down parts in books 7-10, you'll find plenty to like in book 11. Good luck! :0)

working on

intelligentinvestor.jpg

It's a pretty tough read, both because of its length and because the main text hasn't been updated since the 70s. The end of chapter commentary helps, but there are definitely parts that drag on (the fact that railroad companies are often used in case analysis should be telling on its own). I still think it's worth a read though, if only because it outlines the philosophy that the most successful investors like Buffett and Monger adhere to. Heed Buffett's preface and pay close attention in chapter 20; it's by far the most important.

 

[MorisUkunRasik]

 

[Cosmic Bus]

 

[Ill Saint]

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges.

 

[adamsappel]

 

[Anduron]

It's a little too preachy sometimes but otherwise quite good.