• 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? (October 2010)

nn1qn5.jpg


Join www.goodreads.com and join the NeoGAF Group.

Online Book Stores

http://www.bookdepository.com/ Free shipping World Wide, cheap.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ Free shipping Word Wide, cheap.

Blogs

Sci-Fi & Fantasy
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/
http://aidanmoher.com/blog/
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/

Free Audio Books

http://podcastle.org/ Free Fantasy audio books.
http://www.archive.org/details/audio All sorts of stuff.

Shelved Threads
What are you reading (September 2010)
What are you reading (August 2010)
What are you reading? (July 2010)

What are you reading (June 2010)
What are you reading?(May 2010)
What are you reading? (April 2010)
What are you reading? (March 2010)
What are you reading? (February 2010)
What are you reading? (January 2010)
What are you reading? (December 09)
What Are You Reading (November '09)
What are you reading? (October 09)
What are you reading? (September 09)
What are you reading? (August 09)
What are you reading? (July 09)
What are you reading? (June 09)
What are you reading? (May 09)

If you have some good links post them and i will put them in.


!!BOOK CLUB!!

??? <-- anyone know what the book is this month?
 
Still working through Crescent by Phil Rossi and The Stand by Stephen King

51hrfJp-wRL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-18,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


iyjsc9.gif


It's getting harder for me to read me because with the limited sun now, I can't really read on the bus anymore.
 

Salazar

Member
Kenzaburo Oe: The Pinch Runner Memorandum.
Gareth Williams: Fields of Praise: The History of Welsh Rugby Union.
Natsume Soseki: I am a Cat.
Virgil: The Eclogues.
 
Yes, i am a giant manchild so i read fantasy, shut up. :lol

xOhet.jpg


The first book in the series was awesome and i'm looking forward to see where the story goes. Just hope this has less
14 year olds with milkdripping boobs which have dragons feeding of them
. :lol
 

Fireblend

Banned
Last week I finished:

the_girl_with_the_dragon_tattoo-large2.jpg


2.5/5, definitely not my kind of book, but it was entertaining. I would compare it to watching a Jerry Bruckheimer Movie.

This week I started:

the-unbearable-lightness-of-being.jpg


So far so good. Being in Prague it only seemed logical :p

Next up:

gravitys-rainbow.jpg


Really excited for this one, it's been on my wishlist forever. :D

(Repost from almost last page of sept thread)
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
HarryHengst said:
Yes, i am a giant manchild so i read fantasy, shut up. :lol

You think you're going to receive guff for reading Martin? You must not be a regular in the reading threads.
 
Fall+of+Hyperion.jpg


I'm really into it so far. I really hope the ending is better than Hyperion. Maybe I'll get around to reading some of my dad's books I bought him last Christmas next
 

ultron87

Member
ElectricBlue187 said:
I'm really into it so far. I really hope the ending is better than Hyperion.

Well Hyperion is half a story, and you're reading the other half, so you'll actually get an ending this time. :D

I enjoyed the follow up books (Endymion and Rise of Endymion) but the first two books might be better as a standalone tale, I dunno.

I'm still reading:

10316763.jpg


Finally getting to the actual war part, and it has been quite enjoyable so far.
 

Fritz

Member
afternoon delight said:
pretty-horses_l.jpg


And it's great.

I'ld like to get into McCarthy. Any advice where to start?

Reading John O'Hara's the Instrument at the moment after finishing Lovey Childs.
 
I'ld like to get into McCarthy. Any advice where to start?
Well, I'd suggest starting with Blood Meridian because it's literally lightning in a bottle. Moves quickly, is possibly tied for his best, and will introduce you to the content and matter he usually dissects. (Lack of meaning in many areas of life, degradation, violence, coming of age, morality, etc)
Then I'd go to All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Crossing, The Road. I still need to read Sutree and his play.

The Crossing is my favorite, though. It's a fucking epic.
 

Relix

he's Virgin Tight™
GAF I need a new book to read. I want either a thriller with a tad bit of supernatural mixed in it OR a fast paced Fantasy story. That isn't a 154 book saga. Any recommendations?
 

Fritz

Member
afternoon delight said:
Well, I'd suggest starting with Blood Meridian because it's literally lightning in a bottle. Moves quickly, is possibly tied for his best, and will introduce you to the content and matter he usually dissects. (Lack of meaning in many areas of life, degradation, violence, coming of age, morality, etc)
Then I'd go to All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Crossing, The Road. I still need to read Sutree and his play.

The Crossing is my favorite, though. It's a fucking epic.

Great, thanks! Checked the amazon page and Blood Meridian it is. I'm actually kinda excited now.
 

ultron87

Member
Oh yeah, also just got the Daily Show's new book.

51UYjllc4sL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Haven't read much yet, but if it's as good as America, I should enjoy it.
 
ShitMyDadSays-cover.jpg


I was out of the house and saw it was on the Kindle store. It's sort of entertaining but sort of regret spending $10 on it. I never read the Twitter so if he pulls the quotes from it it's all new to me. I like the stories but not the little quotes at the end of the chapters.
 

KingGondo

Banned
Darkness said:
The Stand by Stephen King. Never read anything by him before.
Probably his best, along with It and parts of The Dark Tower.

I finally finished the 5th hardcover of The Walking Dead, and am now determined to finish Blood Meridian. I started reading it before studying for the bar exam, so needless to say I got a little sidetracked.

Also re-started Neuromancer by William Gibson, pretty awesome stuff so far.
 
Brettison said:

How do you like that? I was thinking of picking it up to read, but not sure if it's good or not.


From yesterday's post: I'm going to read nothing but steampunk this month.

Started with:

The rest of the books for this month:


Anyone have any other suggestions I should replace the above with? I'm debating whether or not to add Diamond Age. Is it really steampunk? It's a massive book, so not sure if it'll take up the entire month or not.
 

Dresden

Member
I had no idea Daniel Abraham was so prolific. It's because he writes under different names! And a great interview.

Still reading:
remains-of-day.jpg


Really like it. The first fifty or so pages of the book fell out last night, though, my copy of the book being so old (I bought it used).
 

Az987

all good things
I am reading Holler if you hear me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and Electroboy: A memoir of mania

5042313106_29b2a0f5d6.jpg


5042313150_f8ec926b6e.jpg
 

AnkitT

Member
Currently struggling to finish these half read books:

pygmy-cover7tn4.jpg

"Pygmy" by Chuck Palahniuk

51thvoxwamlcpu0.jpg

"Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy With Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics" by Steven E. Landsburg

anansi_boys_booknqdl.jpg

"Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman

Next up on the list:
will-power-friedrich-worqe.jpg

"The Will to Power" by Friedrich Nietzsche (Read a few pages and liked it)
 

Duress

Member
Reading

6a00e398d38ef5000300fa968518c90002-500pi


I read The Gunslinger a while back but only remember bits and pieces. From what I remember, the first book didn't draw me in. I'm hoping it gets better with this second book.

Is there a site where I could get a summary of what happened in the first?
 

Roofy

Member
AnkitT said:
Next up on the list:
will-power-friedrich-worqe.jpg

"The Will to Power" by Friedrich Nietzsche (Read a few pages and liked it)

very good book, nietzsche always challenges the reader in interesting ways
 

thomaser

Member
ArabianNights1.jpg


Husain Haddawy's translation of the Arabic Nights on Norton. Supposedly the best translation by far. It's saucy stuff, nothing like the tales my parents told me when I was little - only four pages in, and a bunch of servants have group sex with the queen while the king's brother hides and watches.
 
Finished a Game of Thrones and a few books I hadn't planned on reading:
41XG6tSOFrL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

The World Without Us - Alan Weisman
Didn't expect to like it too much but it was really interesting and I basically didn't put it down until I finished it. Definitely recommend it to everyone out there.

51JdIOmpG1L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Prime Obsession - John Derbyshire
Another extremely interesting book that I just picked up on a whim and read in about a day. It makes the somewhat complicated to explain and understand Riemann Hypothesis and gives a lot of information about it - what it is, the history behind it and attempts at a solution, etc. It does have mathematical formulas and graphs in it that detail some attempts at proof, but Derbyshire does a really good job of taking enough time to explain things in a way that most people would understand fairly well, while saying interesting things along the way that keep you reading even if you have no idea what the math is saying at all. I'd recommend that everyone picks this up and reads it now, it really is excellent.


Fireblend said:
Next up:

gravitys-rainbow.jpg


Really excited for this one, it's been on my wishlist forever. :D

(Repost from almost last page of sept thread)

Gravity's Rainbow is definitely a polarizing book - you'll either love it and finish it, love it and not finish it, or not finish it because you hate it so much. I just finished reading it for the fourth time and was amazed at how much I got out of it. Fourth reread and it felt almost like reading a book for the first time again because I noticed so many more subtleties, events I hadn't noticed, metaphors, etc. Especially in the fourth part.

Here's my post about Gravity's Rainbow from the September thread, if you're interested: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23216200&postcount=152
 

mike23

Member
Read the first two books in the Twenty Palaces series by Harry Connolly. I liked them a lot and the second book really hooked me when it hinted at some future possibilities.

FP5i6.jpg
oT1pt.jpg


Read some graphic novels for a class I'm taking:

dk2hH.jpg
9dAI7.jpg
Hznhm.jpg
 

suzu

Member
Finished Last Argument of Kings. I enjoyed it. Say one thing for Joe Abercrombie, say he
hates happy endings. lol

spoilars:
Bad endings for everybody! Except for the most douchey of douches (Bayaz and Glokta). There are no good guys in this series -- everybody is just bad or very bad. They're still charming though. I really liked all the northern guys the best (Black Dow is hilarious). Ninefingers! Wow at the reveals. I still rooted for him though. He's a pretty decent guy, at least until he turns into a berserk psychopathic murderer. :p It's pretty cool that he ended up the same way as he was in the beginning of the series. I hope he's still alive and Abercrombie brings him back in another book. I want to know more about the Bloody-Nine! If not as a main character, then a cameo maybe?

Oh and I feel really awful about happened to West. Poor guy. :( I think that's the only thing I really disliked about the ending.

Overall, The First Law trilogy was a good read. I only wish he would describe the settings with just a little bit more detail. I had a hard time picturing the cities, etc. Abercrombie can really write battles though.

bestserved.jpg

Going to start Best Served Cold next.
 

Salazar

Member
Lafiel said:
How are you enjoying this?

Very much. I decided I needed to swim a little more adventurously in Japanese literature, having for quite some time stuck to Oe, Abe, Tanizaki, and Murakami.

I can't, of course, say whether or not it is an accurate depiction of the cat mind. But it is a terrifically persuasive and endearing one. It has a kind of shy wit that Oe and Murakami share.
 

deadbeef

Member
AnkitT said:
Next up on the list:
will-power-friedrich-worqe.jpg

"The Will to Power" by Friedrich Nietzsche (Read a few pages and liked it)


The only thing I don't like about Will to Power is that Nietzsche famously writes in aphorisms that, taken one-by-one, are easy to misinterpret. Will to Power was, I believe, an unpublished work in Nietzsche's lifetime. I think his sister tried to capitalize on his posthumous fame and published a collection of his notes as Will to Power. So, there's no consistent theme... or at least it wasn't ready to published by Nietzsche.

I remember how proud of myself I was when I read and understood The Birth of Tragedy. I spent a lot of time reading Beyond Good and Evil, and also Also Spoke Zarathustra.

If you don't mind reading a synthesis written by another author, I really enjoyed the following book:

41CUj0DgFHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
 

Lafiel

と呼ぶがよい
Salazar said:
Very much. I decided I needed to swim a little more adventurously in Japanese literature, having for quite some time stuck to Oe, Abe, Tanizaki, and Murakami.

I can't, of course, say whether or not it is an accurate depiction of the cat mind. But it is a terrifically persuasive and endearing one. It has a kind of shy wit that Oe and Murakami share.
You should read Kokoro and The Gate if you haven't already. They're my favorite soseki novels. I would also like to recommend Rashomon and 17 other stories by Ry&#363;nosuke Akutagawa if you want more classic japanese literature.

That's good to hear, i might make it my next soseki novel.
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Just started:

512G-vLDNhL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


Was recommended as the best, soundest, clearest introduction and guide to Taoism. It's pretty funny so far, which is a very good sign.
 
Top Bottom