roosters93
Member
Not the most intelligent read but they are kind of fun and pass the time. The Jack Reacher series is also the fastest selling series at one a second.
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What are you reading? (June 09)
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Not the most intelligent read but they are kind of fun and pass the time. The Jack Reacher series is also the fastest selling series at one a second.
I just finished this trilogy a few hours ago and found it to be incredibly enjoyable. It has a slightly faster pace than say, a song of ice and fire but manages to maintain some amazing characters. Sure the characters may not have the depth of say Jon or Tyrion in ol' Georgies masterpiece but it comes close and it actually had me laugh out loud, which is very rare for a book, let alone a fantasy novel.gamer @ heart said:
Ive heard a few people mention that some of the dialogue and mannerisms seem out of place in the world such as
Kylar flipping off the titan
It was a very engrossing read and i recommend it to anyone who finished A feast for crows and wants more.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
I'm reading Dead Heat by Dick Francis
SCULLIBUNDO
MEMBER
So I just finished reading Band of Brothers (I've watched the miniseries 6 times over) and it was absolutely brilliant. If you love the series it is absolutely worth picking up the book. The series was so true to the book (with the book obviously giving far more insight into characters and situations) that I think its a rare case where I'm glad I watched it before reading it as you have a series of images to relate all the scenes and descriptions to and the combat decisions make a whole lot more sense than if you went into the book blind.
Now I'm about to start reading The Road.
Now I'm about to start reading The Road.
Space Cadet
Banned
Scullibundo said:
Excellent book; very bleak, minimalist.
Reading "Indignation" by Philip Roth and a Beatles biography. Next week planning to start "The Broom of the System" by David Foster Wallace, and "Mao II" by Don DeLillo.
I raced through 'The Blade Itself', and was very impressed. Keen to get the second in the series; my library doesn't have it, so I might have to buy it. Reread Roald Dahl's 'Boy', too, and was stunned anew. I have Simon Gray's 'The Smoking Diaries', which I've skimmed before and now plan to read properly, and an authorised biography of John Mortimer to get through.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Hrmmm i been banned for 3 months, read/listened to these over that period.
The Road Audio Book
Not bad, but not brilliant. Enjoyed it. I think "I'm sorry" and "OK" make up half the dialogue in the book.
Havnt read it cover to cover, just the authors i was interested in, pretty good.
Same again as above.
Awesome, young adults book but really really good, its a series read em all, nice and short. Well worth a look.
READ THEM!
Eh, was alright.
Zombie Survival Guide Audio Book
Same as World War Z, nice and detailed but yeah.
Really dug this, cant wait for the next book.
Reading this now, very long, was gonna stop but Tehol and Bugg are to fascinating to let me! good read anyways.
Got another bunch of books coming next week as well yay and got a few more Audio books, Moby Dick and some other classics + Stephen Kings Dark Tower series.
The Road Audio Book
Not bad, but not brilliant. Enjoyed it. I think "I'm sorry" and "OK" make up half the dialogue in the book.
Havnt read it cover to cover, just the authors i was interested in, pretty good.
Same again as above.
Awesome, young adults book but really really good, its a series read em all, nice and short. Well worth a look.
READ THEM!
Eh, was alright.
Zombie Survival Guide Audio Book
Same as World War Z, nice and detailed but yeah.
Really dug this, cant wait for the next book.
Reading this now, very long, was gonna stop but Tehol and Bugg are to fascinating to let me! good read anyways.
Got another bunch of books coming next week as well yay and got a few more Audio books, Moby Dick and some other classics + Stephen Kings Dark Tower series.
Just finished Hyperion and working on The Fall of Hyperion.
The book deserves all the praise it's been getting on Reading-Age. Possibly the best Sci Fi Book I've ever read, Simmons has Bank's skill at creating a complex, internally coherent civilization with a unique narrative structure. I'm kicking myself for not picking it up earlier.
dragonlife
Member
Sounds interesting. I think I'll look into itKildace said:
Just finished Hyperion and working on The Fall of Hyperion.
The book deserves all the praise it's been getting in this thread. Possibly the best Sci Fi Book I've ever read, combines Bank's skill at creating a complex, coherent plausible civilization with a very tight narrative. I'm kicking myself for not picking it up earlier.
SCULLIBUNDO
MEMBER
Dan said:
Children of the Mind IS the fourth one. I really loved the third (Xenocide, even though the first 100 pages were grueling), but I will agree the fourth was a letdown. My qualms with it have nothing to do with religious preaching though.
gdt5016: Did you read the Shadow saga?
BenjaminBirdie said:
Yep, I'm on page 70 or so, having recently finished Footnote 24. Woo boy. So far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I got a couple of hundred pages into Infinite Jest when it was first released but got distracted, so I was glad to have an excuse to give it another shot.
FnordChan
Scullibundo said:
Oh yes. My recent read through of CotM wrapped up my second read of the entire thing (plus Ender in Exile for the first time).
I slightly prefer the Original Quartet over the Shadow series. If only because I find Shadow Puppets to be (by far) the weakest book.
I agree with your thoughts on Xenocide (though not to the "grueling" extent). But after the initial hump, I found the Path storyline to be near equally engrossing as the other lines.
Another thought:
I first read the whole thing about 3/4 years ago, I was much younger, and I had no clue about Card's politics/social views. Lets just say that this time certain passages in both series screamed "WTF."
BenjaminBirdie
Banned
Dr.Acula said:
Heh. There's a lot of great little future detail in the book. It doesn't often get full blown in terms of scenes of craziness, but DFW did a great job building the world.
FnordChan said:
WOO!!!
I'm Twittering a lot as I make my way through it if anyone feels like following it. Same name as here.
octopusman
Member
Started The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and can't put it down.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Bamp
Finished Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson, good stuff.
Robin Hobbs new book coming out soon as well! The Dragon Keepers, supposedly short stories or something will be getting asap... and the new Spooks book is out as well so will have some ordering to do at the end of the month!
Anyone else read books accompanied with a dictionary, im going to have to start doing that soon.... big words n all
Finished Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson, good stuff.
Robin Hobbs new book coming out soon as well! The Dragon Keepers, supposedly short stories or something will be getting asap... and the new Spooks book is out as well so will have some ordering to do at the end of the month!
Anyone else read books accompanied with a dictionary, im going to have to start doing that soon.... big words n all
SCULLIBUNDO
MEMBER
gdt5016 said:
Yet I find Shadow of the Giant to be the strongest, on par with Ender's Game.
Whilst it is directly influenced by Mormonism (I didn't know this till after I read the first two books since I know nothing of the religion) you should give Card's Homecoming series a read. There a five books and the first four are all brilliant (the fifth being utter shit). Whilst it is inspired by Mormon books he twists it into a great sci-fi story and like the Ender series I love the characters. The Ships of Earth is the best one.
Tim the Wiz
Banned
Salazar said:
Love Rumpole, might give this a try.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
Dust of Dreams is coming out in two months time.
When I finish The Fortress of Solitude, I think I'm gonna take a crack at Infinite Jest. I'll be like a week behind everyone else, but being unemployed and all I shouldn't have too much trouble catching up.
By the way, that Hyperion cover posted above is really NICE. About a million times better than the cheeseball horror that adorns the cover of the paperback I own.
By the way, that Hyperion cover posted above is really NICE. About a million times better than the cheeseball horror that adorns the cover of the paperback I own.
Kildace said:
Just finished Hyperion and working on The Fall of Hyperion.
The book deserves all the praise it's been getting on Reading-Age. Possibly the best Sci Fi Book I've ever read, Simmons has Bank's skill at creating a complex, internally coherent civilization with a unique narrative structure. I'm kicking myself for not picking it up earlier.
Awesome awesome book. And holy crap that cover is way cooler than the boring version I have.
I just finished Ilium by Simmons. I was just expecting the Iliad in space, but it is way better than that. I'm starting the sequel Olympos, which I have not read good things about, so hopefully it turns out better than the reviews on Amazon suggest.
Cerebral Assassin
Member
Tim the Wiz said:Love Rumpole, might give this a try.
Dust of Dreams is coming out in two months time.
I still can't get hold of a paperback version of Revenge of the Crimson Guard(I know I can get the American one but most American fantasy covers are badly drawn & are a bit embarrassing to read on the tube.
Have you read the Soldiers son Trilogy? I enjoyed her other stuff but was a bit burnt out(I went through the trilogies in a month or so) so haven't picked them up yet.
I've just finished the Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, very interesting but slightly tricky to keepup with(I was reading the collections of 2 books each, it was very jarring at the "join")
Now I've just started to read this its well written, funny but I 0haven't reached the chapters on Hillsborough or Heysel(but at least Istanbul is to come
Scullibundo said:
SotG is really, really great. Another reason I prefer the Originals is that I find Speaker For The Dead to be equal (honestly, maybe even better) to Ender's Game.
I've had the Homecoming Series sitting here, and have for years (I'm that guy who buys every book, season, album, movie etc in a series before I start it,-see Wheel of Time, which I've been stuck on the first book for years). Just haven't gotten around to it.
Recently finished Ibsen's play "Emperor and Galilean". Good, interesting historical play. I prefer Peer Gynt, though.
Now, almost halfway through Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Strange, deep little book about love, loss and life. Lots and lots of delicious food for thought. I want to see the film too.
After this, don't know. Maybe "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence.
Now, almost halfway through Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being". Strange, deep little book about love, loss and life. Lots and lots of delicious food for thought. I want to see the film too.
After this, don't know. Maybe "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D. H. Lawrence.
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy
it's 4th of July in my asshole
Some swears in this book!
nakedsushi
Member
I'm happy to see so many people reading. I picked up a lot of good suggestions on what to read next.
Just a question, but do most of you read physical books? Anyone doing ebooks?
If anyone is on GoodReads, add me http://www.goodreads.com/nakedsushi
Just a question, but do most of you read physical books? Anyone doing ebooks?
If anyone is on GoodReads, add me http://www.goodreads.com/nakedsushi
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
And it's sequel, Parable of the Talents. Great sci-fi. Smart and thought provoking, but also accessible.
nakedsushi said:
Still physical books, and the occasional audiobook. I chose Librarything over Goodreads. I've not updated in a while, and I have a mountain of books still to catalogue, but it's a good site.
http://www.librarything.com/home/Cleomedes
Night_Trekker
Member
cody said:
I know I'm late replying to this, but McCarthy doesn't write in one particular style. Blood Meridian (or something like Suttree, which I'm close to finishing now) is much more complicated, wordy and dense than The Road. No Country for Old Men (which I just finished... even better than the movie) is written in a similar, minimalist style.
I can see myself enjoying The Road as an audio book, but not Blood Meridian. It's just so complicated. You really need to be able to go back and re-read sections until it all sinks in.
Anyway, I guess I'm going to pick up the "Border Trilogy" next, and maybe order his plays and the screenplay he wrote.
nakedsushi
Member
Salazar said:
I have a LibraryThing account too. I also like it better than Goodreads b/c it's GREAT as a cataloging tool, but the social network aspects of GoodReads is better. I sent you a friend request to LT.
Teddman said:
I've been using Stanza on my iPhone for the past week for the Southern Vampire Mysteries set and you're right. I'm zipping through those books at a fast speed just because it's so convenient since I have my phone everywhere.
The only downside to ebooks is that they still seem too expensive. With just a few more bucks, I could just buy the physical book and not have to deal with stupid DRM. I wish that buying the physical book would just let you magically download an ebook, so that I could keep the book at home, but upload a digital copy to my phone to take wherever I wanted.
I'm re-reading Neil Gaiman's book American Gods and it's still my favorite book read. I like how it's paced and how it doesn't get stale with too elaborate explanations of characters and places. I also really like short stories just because they move quickly.
I'll be buying Stephen King's short story collection Skeleton Crew but I want a full-length novel too. I've read almost all of Terry Pratchett's and Neil Gaiman's work. I like when the fantastic clashes with reality (urban fantasy or whatever it is called). Keeping the things I've mentioned in mind, what should I get?
I'll be buying Stephen King's short story collection Skeleton Crew but I want a full-length novel too. I've read almost all of Terry Pratchett's and Neil Gaiman's work. I like when the fantastic clashes with reality (urban fantasy or whatever it is called). Keeping the things I've mentioned in mind, what should I get?
I finished "The Descent" which was a terrible book about an underground civilization that spawned our legends of Demons and Satan. By the time I realized I hated the book I was too far to stop, and forced myself to finish.
I started reading "Chaos" by Escober last night. Hope it's good.
I started reading "Chaos" by Escober last night. Hope it's good.
I've been working through the Dark Tower for the last few weeks. I'm about halfway through Wizard and Glass now and loving it. The last three books arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm really hoping that the drop in quality everyone talks about isn't as pronounced as you all make it seem.
Also finished Les Miserables, finally. I'm glad I held out and finished it, but it feels like half of the novel happens in the last 250 pages. That half of the novel was fantastic, but I honestly can't say what "happened" in a lot of the other 1,200 pages.
Also finished Les Miserables, finally. I'm glad I held out and finished it, but it feels like half of the novel happens in the last 250 pages. That half of the novel was fantastic, but I honestly can't say what "happened" in a lot of the other 1,200 pages.
It took me a while, but I finished this classic last night...
Dune by Frank Herbert
It is impossible to read Dune without being somehow affected by the mass of hype that exists around the novel. Hyperbole adorning it as "the best science fiction novel of all-time" is difficult to avoid.
While I don't necessarily agree with the "best ever" moniker, this is a very unique and special book. There are layers upon layers of detail and intrigue to the plot, as it mirrors our modern society and its complex power structures. It also leaves plenty of discussion open on the mythology of the messianic hero, and whether messiahs simply aren't people who decide to take up the mantle and believe in their own myth.
The reason why I really enjoyed reading Dune was Frank Herbert's incredibly deep and philosophical mind. I felt that every single page held a little treasure, be it a result of clever wordplay, or a disarming insight into power struggles, the human condition, emotions, and our twisted relationships with one another. Because of these little treasures, I cannot help but heartily recommend Dune to anyone who is looking for an interesting messiah story that deals with the fate of humanity. However, it is everything surrounding the story that really places this novel into the upper echelon of imaginative fiction. 4.5/5
Next up: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and The Wind in the Sun, a short story collection by Arthur C. Clarke.
Dune by Frank Herbert
It is impossible to read Dune without being somehow affected by the mass of hype that exists around the novel. Hyperbole adorning it as "the best science fiction novel of all-time" is difficult to avoid.
While I don't necessarily agree with the "best ever" moniker, this is a very unique and special book. There are layers upon layers of detail and intrigue to the plot, as it mirrors our modern society and its complex power structures. It also leaves plenty of discussion open on the mythology of the messianic hero, and whether messiahs simply aren't people who decide to take up the mantle and believe in their own myth.
The reason why I really enjoyed reading Dune was Frank Herbert's incredibly deep and philosophical mind. I felt that every single page held a little treasure, be it a result of clever wordplay, or a disarming insight into power struggles, the human condition, emotions, and our twisted relationships with one another. Because of these little treasures, I cannot help but heartily recommend Dune to anyone who is looking for an interesting messiah story that deals with the fate of humanity. However, it is everything surrounding the story that really places this novel into the upper echelon of imaginative fiction. 4.5/5
Next up: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and The Wind in the Sun, a short story collection by Arthur C. Clarke.
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