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What are you reading? (October 2012)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
I've been thinking about jumping on the Culture series. I feel pretty burned on reading in general after either putting down or just not really enjoying the last ten or so books I've picked up. :/ In any case, the series doesn't seem to be a linear narrative so should is there a better starting point besides the first published novel?
Maklershed
Member
Great deal there.
Devil in the White City is fantastic. Its why I'm reading Thunderstruck right now. Jury is out on it though .. I'm not far enough in but it seems like it'll be good.
BlazingDarkness
Member
A random combination of books over the next week, including;
Paul Ekman's 'Emotions Revealed' (non-fiction)
John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (epic classic poetry)
Jean-Dominique Bauby's 'The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly' (memoir of a 'locked-in syndrome' sufferer)
Pat Barker's 'Blow your house down' (thriller based loosely on the Yorkshire Ripper)
I've finished all of these, 'Blow your house down' surprised me in that after reading I can see that it's clearly not a thriller, but focuses almost completely on the fallout surrounding the events that would be featured if it were a thriller. I like Barker's writing style, I'll definitely read some of her other stuff.
Now I'm halfway through Kazuo Ishiguro's 'The Remains of the Day'
It's the first book of his I've read so I'm definitely intrigued
Next I'll be reading
Yukio Mishima's 'The sailor who fell from grace with the sea'
and Natsume Soseki's 'I am a Cat'
I read 'Confessions of a Mask' and 'Kokoro' from each of those authors over the summer, and I really enjoyed them, 'Kokoro' is probably my favourite book right now, so I'm excited to read some of their other stuff
Quote
Member
Read
Loved the first 2/3 but as soon as
I could not be less interested in what was going on. There were some interesting things mentioned, but never really wrapped up. Like
or
I do like the way Reynolds describes places, he can paint a clear picture and atmosphere without that feeling that he likes to hear himself talk, something I could not get past with Peter Hamilton's style (Pandora's Star). I could clearly picture Nostalgia for Infinity, it was creepy and breathing and had this huge sense of scale.
Fun little read. Ending is a little weird, but only because its aged kind of bad.
About 50 pages in. I'm not into detective drama so much so I'm trudging through Miller's stuff right now, hoping it picks up.
Loved the first 2/3 but as soon as
Sylveste arrived on the Nostalgia for Infinity
why bother talking about the Captain switch bodies with Sajaki?
Sylveste just being a copy of his father so his father can use the body later?
Fun little read. Ending is a little weird, but only because its aged kind of bad.
About 50 pages in. I'm not into detective drama so much so I'm trudging through Miller's stuff right now, hoping it picks up.
Now I'm halfway through Kazuo Ishiguro's 'The Remains of the Day'
It's the first book of his I've read so I'm definitely intrigued
How awesome is this awesome book?
SO AWESOME.
His novel Never Let Me Go is also incredible, I'm not sure which one I like more. The Unconsoled isn't all that great, I didn't bother finishing it. Nocturnes is on my "to read" list.
About 50 pages in. I'm not into detective drama so much so I'm trudging through Miller's stuff right now, hoping it picks up.
I'm about halfway through and it definitely does pick up. The plot moves much quicker after about a third of the book and by halfway it's full steam.
BrokenFiction
Member
After taking a few months off from Erikson, I'm plunging back in with the final two books in the Malazan series, starting with:
Neffarias_Bredd
Member
An argument could definitely be made for the Malazan series
I read like 5 or 6 of those books before they got too philosophical for my liking. I thought the part in the first book with
Denna
Also, I'm sort of listening to the audiobook of 11-22-63. It's interesting, but the narrator makes every line sound like a tragedy, which is frustrating. The story is dark enough as it is. At this point I think I'm going to have to make myself listen to the rest of it, or just give up.
Yep, Remains of the Day is one of my absolute favorites. Devastating.
nakedsushi
Member
About 50 pages in. I'm not into detective drama so much so I'm trudging through Miller's stuff right now, hoping it picks up.
I thought the detective drama was the best part. It's definitely a big part of the novel, so if your'e not into, maybe you should stop. It definitely "switches it up" later, but I'm not sure for the better.
Ah, I did not know that. I can see that now. I just made it to part 2 of the audiobook. I feel a little awkward about the Hindu accent. I wonder if it's offensive to Hindus?
Koroviev
Member
If you like those two, it would definitely be worth it to try Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Norwegian Wood is also excellent, even if it isn't his usual surrealist material.
PhoncipleBone
Banned
Listening to the audio book of the Schwarzenegger bio "Total Recall."
Plan to get the audio of Pete Townshend's "Who I Am" next.
Plan to get the audio of Pete Townshend's "Who I Am" next.
Hard Boiled is next on my Murakami list, but I think I'm going to take a break from him for a bit and read something else before doing it. Don't want to burn myself out.
Koroviev
Member
So far, I've ready most of his more substantial works, including The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Norwegian Wood. I pre-ordered 1Q84, but it's...eh.
I'm going to try picking it up again, but it's definitely lacking the imaginative finesse of his earlier novels. Large stretches of it constitute nothing but boilerplate material (i.e., abusing women is bad) and Tengo Sue does nothing to add interest, other than being a creep (I'm not sure that the author intended that perception).
In the meantime, I think I might look into Sputnik Sweetheart and Wild Sheep Chase.
Great :x.
lastflowers
Banned
For anyone that likes Cormac McCarthy: http://www.metropulse.com/news/2012/sep/19/jim-j-bone-long-1931-2012-one-visit-not-quite-fict/
It's an obituary for one of the characters/real people of Suttree.
It's an obituary for one of the characters/real people of Suttree.
Amazing...just finished Suttree last month.
nakedsushi
Member
Not sure if everyone saw, but looks like Humble Bundle is taking a page from Story Bundle, who took a page from Humble Bundle, and is now offering ebooks.
http://www.humblebundle.com/
I'm gonna sit this one out for now since I half-read Zoo City and didn't like it and the only other book I'm interested in, Old Man's War, I already have.
http://www.humblebundle.com/
I'm gonna sit this one out for now since I half-read Zoo City and didn't like it and the only other book I'm interested in, Old Man's War, I already have.
Mackenzie 92
Member
I've just gone back to re-read Consider Phlebas, which means I will then grab Excession. Not sure why. They're my favourites, and I always read one if I've read the other
Consider Phlebas is the best place to start.
BlazingDarkness
Member
I finished it today, I really enjoyed it!
Very nice reading, and while simple I feel like it has some real emotion in there
I did buy Never Let Me Go along with that novel and I'll be reading it in the coming days!
Today I also read the second book, The sailor who fell from grace with the sea (Mishima) It's so obvious to me after reading this book that the author was a very complex man
Koroviev
Member
You have to read Temple of the Golden Pavilion. As much as I loved Confessions of a Mask, I think Temple of the Golden Pavilion is my favorite. It brings to mind Crime and Punishment and Taxi Driver.
I haven't read any Ishiguro yet, but I have his novel "A Pale View of Hills" sitting on my shelf.
I read Mary Stewart's The Last Enchantment yesterday and today, and I got about 150 pages into When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America. The latter is pretty fascinating; by now I've actually heard quite a bit of it from other books but it puts the narrative together nicely.
And if you are into Arthurian myth and historical fiction, I can't recommend Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy more highly.
And if you are into Arthurian myth and historical fiction, I can't recommend Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy more highly.
I read it without knowing anything about what was going to happen or what it was about at all. It was great that way.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Oh yeah, I have both of those on my book shelf ready to read - I'm hoping to read them over the weekend or early into next week!
That's exactly how I'll be approaching it, all I know is what is on the back cover
Koroviev
Member
This had me really confused for a second.
bengraven
Member
Seriously, Ray Bradbury is the best short story writer of the 20th century.
Are those the massive 1000+ page tomes? I used to see a Merlin trilogy on the shelves in my high school and they were each gigantic.
That said, I'm totally up for that.
Are those the massive 1000+ page tomes? I used to see a Merlin trilogy on the shelves in my high school and they were each gigantic.
That said, I'm totally up for that.
Long story from the C-word thread.
You are probably referring to The Mists of Avalon and related books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I have not read those before, but I have heard good things about them. The slightly-larger-than mass market paperback editions of The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment ran around 470 - 510 pages, though.
The Zimmer Bradley books are pretty good, and rather epic.
That's exactly how I'll be approaching it, all I know is what is on the back cover
I didn't even read that. I don't for most books I read these days.
A heads-up to everyone in here who can read Norwegian: every Norwegian-published book up to 2000 can now be read for free at www.bokhylla.no, starting tomorrow. The national library has digitized 100000 texts so far, and there will be around 250000 when it's done. There are "normal" books, textbooks and even magazines.
There are caveats, of course: they are not e-books, but photographed books. So you can not download them or print them out. You have to read them at the site. But if you use a tablet, it should work pretty well.
The authors will get paid, too. And if an author has a book on the market that's still popular and making them money, they can withdraw it from the service.
There are caveats, of course: they are not e-books, but photographed books. So you can not download them or print them out. You have to read them at the site. But if you use a tablet, it should work pretty well.
The authors will get paid, too. And if an author has a book on the market that's still popular and making them money, they can withdraw it from the service.
Sounds good. I might read them eventually, though T.H. White and Mary Stewart have set a high bar for Arthurian fiction.
Today I read Geoff John's Batman: Year One, which was pretty good. There were some story twists here and there that I hadn't been expecting for a Batman comic - though truth be told I haven't really read many Batman comics in the first place. I also read Tao Te Ching. I am fairly sure about 97% of it went straight over my head, but I liked what I thought I understood, and I felt much more relaxed (sanguine, even) after reading it.
I also started reading Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate. The story so far is pretty quotidian; twenty-six year old man is successful in his career, alone, feels lonely, meets with old girlfriend at a diner, and so forth, but what makes it interesting is the entire book is a novel in verse, and is written as a series of sonnets.
Read:
Reading:
I think never read a book as slowly as this one before.
It was on my buying list for years, but I wasn't until last year that I finally got it when the sister of mine gifted the book to me as a Christmas present.
It was apparent to me from the atmosphere that's by just conveyed by just looking at the book, that Shadow of the Wind is not a read you want to rush through. I knew I'd need to store it for a special ocassion.
So, it wasn't until four ago that I started to carrying the book with me everywhere I went. When I finally started not to only carry but also read the book two to three months ago, I was captured from the very first page and it didn't take more than a few pages until I've fallen in love with Zafón's Barcelona.
I wanted to devour every single word of it, but at the same time I regretted every turned page knowing that the end comes irrevocably closer with every word I read.
Today, at about 4am, I finally reached the last page and the longer I read the more I felt that Julián's and Daniel's story is not only theirs, but also mine. I can truly say that I've not often enjoyed a book so thoroughly. The Shadow of the Wind might be my new favorite.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
The Bell Jar is destroying me. Almost done. Not very long.
Kyleripman
Member
Just another re-read of my favorite book. These characters are real people to me. It's not even about the horror aspect. Love this fucking book.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Just finished this...
eattomorro
Neo Member
It's a horror film site, but have a excellent book review portion as well. Enjoy!
http://www.horrortalk.com/book-reviews.html
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Oh yeah I'm about to start reading....
Should be a good October book.
Should be a good October book.