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Books, I read them ...
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Reading Stalingrad: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught by Micheal Jones. I've been on a war material binge lately.
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I just read The Running Man today. Freaking incredible.
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Really? I read the first ten pages, and the constant banging on about what a dystopian society the characters lived in started to really annoy me, and I gave up. Plus, it'd been ten pages and the main character hadn't left his apartment yet (which he said he was doing AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK)
Never finished a Stephen King book, never gonna try (again) -
I didn't think it was that bad. I thought he left pretty quickly, although I'm a fast reader. It's the preparation for the game that takes a long time. If it means anything, I usually dislike novels, but I really loved the story and will definitely read it again sometime.
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I've acctually just gotten back into reading, Right now I'm Starting Jumper, and 1984, als for School I'm Reading Siddartha. Two words: It Sucks
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Amen to that. Siddhartha was terrible. I've never been able to figure out why so many people have to read that book.
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1984 is one I've been trying to get in to -- like Atlas Shrugged -- but I keep putting it down and having to restart.
Now I'm reading the Prose Edda, which is enlightening and very, very hard to swallow. -
[quote="The Joel"]Amen to that. Siddhartha was terrible. I've never been able to figure out why so many people have to read that book.
Seriously. Maybe I'd be able to appreciate it if it was discussed in a lit class, but it seemed seriously lame. People should just read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man instead, though that's probably less accessible outside of a classroom setting.
Bildungsroman, bildungsroman, bildungsroman? -
[quote="Spankminister"][quote="The Joel"]Amen to that. Siddhartha was terrible. I've never been able to figure out why so many people have to read that book.
Seriously. Maybe I'd be able to appreciate it if it was discussed in a lit class, but it seemed seriously lame. People should just read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man instead, though that's probably less accessible outside of a classroom setting.
Bildungsroman, bildungsroman, bildungsroman?
Its easier than what followed it. Ulysses was decipherable. Finnegans Wake was just fuel for doctoral candidates. I really liked Portrait. It struck a balance between what Joyce did in Dubliners and his more acclaimed stuff. You're totally right, Spankminister. -
Herman Hesse is gonna shit down your neck.
FROM BEYOOOOOOOOOOOOND THE GRAVE.
Remember that part when he described that chick's titty? I was all like "Hell yea!" -
I'm surprised to see all the hating on Siddhartha. I thoroughly enjoyed that one, but I read it for pleasure rather than being forced to read it in an academic setting. Perhaps it's an issue of translation? I know there are different versions out there. The original was in German.
I just finished The Day of the Triffids. It's probably the best piece of post-Apocalyptic science fiction I've yet read. The most horrifying moments aren't the inscrutable vegetable menaces that are stalking the blinded survivors of the catastrophe, but rather the lengths the human characters go to in order to survive and rebuild. Utterly chilling. -
I am currently reading A Clockwork Orange and Dracula. I also have Snowcrash andthe Tao Te Ching on my shelf, waiting to be read.
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I'm curious to hear if Clockwork Orange is good. I didn't like the movie, but I generally don't like much of Kubrick's work.
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The movie is based on the censored American version of the book. The uncesored version is, well, more extreme, if that's a problem for you. If not, it's awesome.
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Currently reading another Murakami short story collection and, after my wife's insistence, Twilight. It's kinda clunky, but entertaining, even if I'm constantly reminded while reading it that I'm not the book's demographic, being neither a girl nor a teenager.
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I just finished the fourth book of the Odd Thomas series. It's pretty good, even though the ending is basically just a lead in to the next book in the series. I've been reading a lot of Dean Koontz, and while I like how he write, I am starting to really hate the whole "Society is so terrible, things were better back in my day" stuff that seems to be in all of his books.
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Just finished Crooked Little Vein. For a while, I was too busy to read for leisure, what with the college adjustment and stuff, but a friend recommended the book to me, and I found the time.
The basic plot is something like Snow Crash, what with two people finding a magical mind controlling whatsit, but it's modern America, and instead of being written by a guy who gets carried away describing stuff, it's written by that guy who tries bringing up creepy shit he read online whenever possible (weird fetishes basically takes the place of tech-porn).
It's actually a lot more tasteful than it sounds, and the main character has this cool film noir-y aspect to his personality. I'd recommend giving it a read. -
[quote="karaokeninja"]The movie is based on the censored American version of the book. The uncesored version is, well, more extreme, if that's a problem for you. If not, it's awesome.
The American version of the book wasn't censored. They added a chapter to it. The final chapter of the book was not in the original release, but the publishers felt that it was necessary because an American audience would not accept the story if the main character did not reform at the end. The differences between the book and the movie are all liberties taken by Kubrick, and actually, the movie is based on the British release of the book.
Furthermore, it was the movie which was censored, not the book. Cuts were made to reduce the rating from X to R, but all video versions of it available today are actually the X rated cut with the rating reduced to R. -
[quote="thecashewkid"][quote="karaokeninja"]The movie is based on the censored American version of the book. The uncesored version is, well, more extreme, if that's a problem for you. If not, it's awesome.
The American version of the book wasn't censored. They added a chapter to it. The final chapter of the book was not in the original release, but the publishers felt that it was necessary because an American audience would not accept the story if the main character did not reform at the end. The differences between the book and the movie are all liberties taken by Kubrick, and actually, the movie is based on the British release of the book.
Furthermore, it was the movie which was censored, not the book. Cuts were made to reduce the rating from X to R, but all video versions of it available today are actually the X rated cut with the rating reduced to R.
Nice thread necromancy, buddy. -
[quote="karaokeninja"]Nice thread necromancy, buddy.
I do what I can. -
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. I forget every now and then, but when someone manages to write a leading couple as though they were both intelligent people, it's amazing because it's so RARE. So frequently, leading men/women are either written as a constant adolescent soap opera breaking up/making up cycle, or airheaded fawning "my love for you is like a loving river of love." Nick and Nora Charles are pretty freaking badass. I have The Continental Op on my shelf as well, but I feel like I should read something by another author in between to space it out a bit.
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Currently reading Snow Crash. On chapter 17 or so, right after you meet the Gargoyle. This book ROCKS.
I am also in the middle of World War Z by Max Brooks -
I bought "The God Delusion". I've only read the preface, and it's been pretty good so far. I was reading it the other day in the floor lounge, and I got into a little scuffle with someone who said I was going to hell. But whatever, he also looked at me dumbfounded when I was trying to explain why Christianity and Catholicism is different. He had the audacity to call me stupid for thinking they're not the exact same thing. I retorted by saying that would be like calling Chinese people Japanese, but I think the metaphor was lost.
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Dawkins is okay, but he tends to ramble off the point from time to time.
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Things that I will be getting sporadically from Amazon as I have money:
Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre
Improvise: Scene From the Inside Out
Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation (My old improv director tells me this book is kind of cynical but still really good.)
The Areas of my Expertise - John Hodgman
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Blankets - Craig Thompson
I'd already have them all ordered, but my paycheck didn't come in until after I left to go back home. -
[quote="Panzer Tiger"]I'm still waiting for the Red Dwarf movie. It's been promised for about as long as Duke Nukem Forever.
Good News!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/27/red-dwarf-cast-reunited -
Just started reading The Book of 1001 nights and it's really good, really racist and sexist, but good non the less.
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[quote="LessThanHero"][quote="Panzer Tiger"]I'm still waiting for the Red Dwarf movie. It's been promised for about as long as Duke Nukem Forever.
Good News!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/27/red-dwarf-cast-reunited
Hopefully this will be awesome. They could make a movie about the trials of making the Red Dwarf movie. Something like Lost in La Mancha might be appropriate.Spoiler:I wonder what the "shock development" that leads them to earth is considering in the last episode everyone but Rimmer was in a parallel universe, Rimmer was about to die and Red Dwarf was disintegrating.
Anyway back to books. I heard Anathem is pretty bad. Anyone read it? -
Falling Through The Earth
by Danielle Trussoni
Finally brushed the dust off of it after all these months. -
The Guns of Avalon.
Ahh, Zelazny.
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I know this is the oldest news ever, but Im re-reading snowcrash.
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[quote="borritobandito"]Something something something snowcrash.
Shit. Now I want to read Snowcrash again. -
I should read other things Stephenson has done. I hear The Diamond Age is super cool.
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[quote="David D."]I should read other things Stephenson has done. I hear The Diamond Age is super cool.
It's pretty neat, as are Anathem, Cryptonomicon, etc. The endings all feel kind of rushed, though. He reminds me of Heinlein in that way... Heinlein couldn't end a story for shit. -
Actually, Snow Crash's ending grows on you a bit. As I said elsewhere, the issue is that Stephenson doesn't do the "victory lap" epilogue we've come to expect in genre fiction. He just assumes that you've been paying attention.
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[quote="RobotBastard"]Actually, Snow Crash's ending grows on you a bit. As I said elsewhere, the issue is that Stephenson doesn't do the "victory lap" epilogue we've come to expect in genre fiction. He just assumes that you've been paying attention.
Snow Crash is the exception. I thought the ending there was just fine.
I understand what you're saying, but I would counter that his books are all about world building and complex plots, and it always feels like he reaches a random point and says, "Okay, done!", and then wraps everything up haphazardly in about 4 pages. There's no emotional investment to the resolution of the books issues; weird since he's so good in getting you invested in the characters up until that point. -
[quote="Nataraja"]I understand what you're saying, but I would counter that his books are all about world building and complex plots, and it always feels like he reaches a random point and says, "Okay, done!" and then wraps everything up haphazardly in about 4 pages. Oh, I agree with that! Actually, I think I should have gone on to say that Snow Crash was the last book where Stephenson had a good ending; after that it's all like you said, "okay i'm bored, rocks fall everyone dies the end".
If you guys can track down "Zodiac" you might want to go check it out. -
It was the first book with a good ending, too. Remember the ending to Cryptonomicon?
Spoiler:And then the Nazi gold melted and they'll figure out a way to get it someday and he got the girl just who was that wandering Jew?
It did have one of the funnier sex scenes I've ever encountered. -
I am so looking foreword to the Paprika novel being released. Even if is only in the U.K.
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Just started reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt.
I have been getting alot of books lately since getting a bookmooch account. -
I recently read the first Vampire Hunter D novel, and loved it so much that I'll definitely continue reading the series. I liked how the mutant who shoots spiders out of his back gets a bigger role, and there's a reference to the existence of cyborg werewolves.
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WOLFOIDS??
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[quote="Sony_CEO"]WOLFOIDS??
you would have known all this if you had read "Lord of the God-Kings" -
Just started my depressing read down The Kite Runner. I know it has to be good
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I started to read "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" by Kary Mullis. Who thought that a biochemist could write a non technical book so well
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So, I finnally read the Mobile Suit Gundam Novels and... Oh man were they awful! I should have just listened to Karaoke Ninja and not bothered. The action scenes weren't really that bad like I had been lead to believe, infact some of them were pretty enjoyable (The scene where a zeon commander stepped out of his MS with a machine gun to fire at the Gundam only to be incinerated by a beam sabre was pretty sweet.) But the dialogue was so stilted and awkward, and Tomino seems to forget to describe what things like the MS's and spaceships look like, probably assuming that if you bothered to read something as terrible as this you must already be fammiliar with all the mecha, but it sure does make some scenes confusing...
The ending was really the most dissapointing part. I actually think the third volume showed real promise at the beggining, but it all fizzles out in this really anti-climatic resolution. Its almost like Tomino just gives up and just decides to end it in two pages. -
we wanted to see what the fuzz about twilight was........and well so far its kinda like a 14 year old version of anne rice vampire books..
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[quote="akeripper"]we wanted to see what the fuzz about twilight was........and well so far its kinda like a 14 year old version of anne rice vampire books..
Which is like if a 14 year old deviant found a thesaurus. -
I keep different books in different rooms/in my car and read bits and snatches in a highly ADD fashion. Currently:
Rushdie's _Satanic Verses_
Harlan Ellison's _The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World_ collection
Just finished re-reading _Briefing for a Descent into Hell_. Oh god, it's so good. I love that novel and have ever since high school. Recently finished _Confederacy of Dunces_, too. It was fantastic. -
I read the algebraist. that was good. i read the court of the air that was good.
