What are you reading? (Literature)
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If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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Can't speak to the last one but McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses might please you. Underworld by Don DeLillo might interest you too.
Hmm, I've not looked too much into McCarthy's other stuff (after reading the two I mentioned and reading around the internet I figured that Blood Meridian was more an outlier from his usual), what about All the Pretty Horses would you say relates it to Blood Meridian? I figure it's not the title :P
Not sure DeLillo and I would get along well tbh. I've only come across his work twice; the first time was reading a fairly critical review of one his books about darker sides of suburban culture, shopping malls replacing churches within American culture and so on. And I definitely can't stomach social commentary that is that on the nose and simplistic. The other time was when I sat through about a third of Cosmopolis (the film) and bailed after about the fourth or fifth instance of two people sitting in a limo babbling pseudo-intellectual nonsense at each other. :/
I do appreciate you taking the time to offer some suggestions though, hopefully what I've written doesn't come across too harsh or ungrateful :/
Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
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Hmm, I've not looked too much into McCarthy's other stuff (after reading the two I mentioned and reading around the internet I figured that Blood Meridian was more an outlier from his usual), what about All the Pretty Horses would you say relates it to Blood Meridian? I figure it's not the title :P
Not sure DeLillo and I would get along well tbh. I've only come across his work twice; the first time was reading a fairly critical review of one his books about darker sides of suburban culture, shopping malls replacing churches within American culture and so on. And I definitely can't stomach social commentary that is that on the nose and simplistic. The other time was when I sat through about a third of Cosmopolis (the film) and bailed after about the fourth or fifth instance of two people sitting in a limo babbling pseudo-intellectual nonsense at each other. :/
I do appreciate you taking the time to offer some suggestions though, hopefully what I've written doesn't come across too harsh or ungrateful :/
Oh no, not at all! It's perfectly normal to be picky about books.
I can't speak directly to Underworld since it's based off a friend's recommendation and I have no first-hand knowledge of what the tone is really like. It just goes in the same category in my head as Infinite Jest.
All the Pretty Horses is more of a classical western set in the…50s? It's three teens run away south to Mexico to be rancheros and get mixed up in some gang trouble, so the topic at least seems fairly similar to Blood Meridian. I think the tone and style are similar too but it's been a while.
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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Oh no, not at all! It's perfectly normal to be picky about books.
I can't speak directly to Underworld since it's based off a friend's recommendation and I have no first-hand knowledge of what the tone is really like. It just goes in the same category in my head as Infinite Jest.
All the Pretty Horses is more of a classical western set in the…50s? It's three teens run away south to Mexico to be rancheros and get mixed up in some gang trouble, so the topic at least seems fairly similar to Blood Meridian. I think the tone and style are similar too but it's been a while.
Ahh ok, All the pretty horses sounds promising in that regard, I'll have to look into it, thanks :). I'll give Underworld a look too, I mean I'm sure there are certain aspects of Infinite Jest (or DFW's stuff in general) that, exposed to out of context, would make me roll my eyes pretty damn hard (well even harder than I did when exposed to those aspects in context :P
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I've been reading the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce, on recommendation of a friend who saw a lot of similarities with my own YA fantasy writings. As one would be expected, it's a really good series, clearly bent to the younger side of YA, but not in a way that looks down to the readers at all. I particularly love the way the main character grows into adulthood over the course of the books, and I think it's especially important how her development is directly tied to the many challenges she faces. And, of course, the fantastic elements are all very familiar ground, but its familiar for a reason. Ultimately pretty fun and light and not much else, but I absolutely plan to introduce this to the younger members of my family.
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So I finally finished The Wheel of Time.
It wasn’t a perfect ending. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending. :ninja:
! Am I the only one that felt like the story lost steam after Egwene died? After that point it felt like it was just going through the motions of wrapping up the last threads, nothing else really moved me, maybe until the epilogue?
! Even the part where Rand sealed the Dark One again felt lacking. I felt we needed a bit more explanation on what effect his actions will have on the world this time, but we barely got that.
! And the “pipe lighting” moment, though it was apparently intended to be a mystery I had this Inception moment like “were they in the Dream world all along? O_o” lol.Hidden:
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Are you going to start reading Discworld now? :3
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Hidden:
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So I finally finished The Wheel of Time.
It wasn’t a perfect ending. There are neither beginnings or endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending. :ninja:
! Am I the only one that felt like the story lost steam after Egwene died? After that point it felt like it was just going through the motions of wrapping up the last threads, nothing else really moved me, maybe until the epilogue?
! Even the part where Rand sealed the Dark One again felt lacking. I felt we needed a bit more explanation on what effect his actions will have on the world this time, but we barely got that.
! And the “pipe lighting” moment, though it was apparently intended to be a mystery I had this Inception moment like “were they in the Dream world all along? O_o” lol.! I definitely agree. Egwene's big moment definitely feels like the most dramatic point of the book. I think it Echoes Return of the King a bit too strongly: the biggest battle happens midway through to stem the tide of evil, complete with undead battalion and heroine's heroic sacrifice-ish. And then there's a later battle that feels less epic to more or less provide a distraction while the protagonist seals evil away. A Memory of Light probably executed that last part a little better than RotK by virtue of giving almost everyone something important to do (sorry Matt) and skipping The Eagles bailout, but it's still too close to be really satisfying.
Hope you enjoyed the marathon anyways! Books 12 and 13 definitely felt superior to the final one but I think they all did a fairly good job of tying up most of the stories. -
Speaking of Discworld. I just finished "Long Earth" and "Long War" from Pratchett and Baxter. Having "Long Mars" in my hand, I hope it doesn't drag like Long War (there was no war?).
Aside from that, very interesting setting with Pratchett-like-written characters everywhere.
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Sorry nope :P I’m 1/3 thru the Stormlight Archive’s newly released third book, Oathbringer ^_^
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's out????
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@Panda:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's out????
Yep :D last week. Get it get it get it!
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Also can I get a solid good fantasy recommendation? Need to spend off an audible credit.
I’d like a chunky huge book that’ll give me at least 20ish hours of listening lol. -
If you're down for historical fantasy Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is quite long and very acclaimed.
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I'm reading The Pleasures of the Damned by Charles Bukowski and Nisio Isin's Kizumonogatari. Anyone here likes reading translated Japaneses light novel?
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So I'm 100 pages into Ready Player One, and I'm liking the book so far. I do have some gripes, though.
The exposition of the world-building is pretty sloppy, and is just dumped on you at multiple places. It's just kinda unnatural, and it just stalls the plot and is a pace killer at times.
…And yet I like this world. I just don't like the delivery of how it's done, I guess. But the premise is exciting enough for me to keep on reading. All the 80s referencing gets old after a while, and the dialogue is pretty bad in places.
It's a very entertaining book, don't get me wrong! It's just certainly no piece of literature, but then again I don't think the book is really aiming for that. I think it's my own fault for setting that kind of expectation, as I was curious what all the hype was about. It makes sense that there's an audience for this book, I just don't think I'm in that particular target range.
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@Mr.:
So I'm 100 pages into Ready Player One, and I'm liking the book so far. I do have some gripes, though.
The exposition of the world-building is pretty sloppy, and is just dumped on you at multiple places. It's just kinda unnatural, and it just stalls the plot and is a pace killer at times.
…And yet I like this world. I just don't like the delivery of how it's done, I guess. But the premise is exciting enough for me to keep on reading. All the 80s referencing gets old after a while, and the dialogue is pretty bad in places.
It's a very entertaining book, don't get me wrong! It's just certainly no piece of literature, but then again I don't think the book is really aiming for that. I think it's my own fault for setting that kind of expectation, as I was curious what all the hype was about. It makes sense that there's an audience for this book, I just don't think I'm in that particular target range.
Are you familiar with SF in general? How would you compare it to other SF books? Heard about the movie based on the book and wanted to read it too at some point.
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Are you familiar with SF in general? How would you compare it to other SF books? Heard about the movie based on the book and wanted to read it too at some point.
I'm somewhat familiar with SF, but I haven't been able to read as much as I'd like to hope. Either way, RP1 isn't a very hard sci-fi kind of novel. At best, it deals with virtual reality and sorta has some commentary on it (as far as I've read). I'm at the point now where the plot picks up and it's getting better, so I'd say it's worth a read at the very least.
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@Mr.:
I'm somewhat familiar with SF, but I haven't been able to read as much as I'd like to hope. Either way, RP1 isn't a very hard sci-fi kind of novel. At best, it deals with virtual reality and sorta has some commentary on it (as far as I've read). I'm at the point now where the plot picks up and it's getting better, so I'd say it's worth a read at the very least.
Alright, thanks!
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Just finished book 4 in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. Really enjoying the King universe. I've read a few King books before these, and was excited to hear most of his books happen in the same universe, with the Dark Tower being the linchpin to it all. Also enjoy King's take on epic adventure story telling. He stated how he was inspired by Lord of the Rings, and always wanted to write an epic. I'd say he's succeeded. 4 down, 3 (4?) to go.
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I am doing what I should have done years ago as a One Piece fan and started reading Treasure Island. Seeing Muppet Treasure Island doesn't count.
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I'm currently reading You Can't Text A Tough Conversation by Mike Bechtle. I was told that my communication skills needed improving, so I bought this book.
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I am reading The Romeo & Juliet Book.
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Fire and Blood by G. R R. Martin and enjoy it very much :)
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I've just finished overreading LOTR. Gonna start Silmarillion soon
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After more than 10 years (damn, has it really been that long?) I'm finally picking back up Stephen King's It. And I've got a ways to go since I only made it through Part 1 the first time.
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I've just finished reading Druss the Legend by David Gemmell. The book is awesome, strongly recommend to everyone who likes heroic fantasy novels
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I started reading 1001 Nights this week. I've read through the first few stories, and all I can say is…
What. The. Fuck?
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I've decided to read Harry Potter again, just started. I love this tale, especially the first three parts
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I've finished Silmarillion yesterday. Awesome book, even better then LOTR
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I can't remember if I posted in here about reading the Recognitions. I'm still chugging along at that. I took a long break from it but read another chapter the other day. Don't know if LNs count for this thread but I'm also reading the Kino's Journey LNs. They make me grateful at how good the prose is in the Recognitions. Though it's hard to know how much of that is the original text and how much of it's the translation. I just found out that I was reading an old translation though so I switched over to a more recent one and it hasn't been bad. Might have just hit a rough patch.
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Finally got a copy of The Left Hand of Darkness. Now I can read it and see what all this hullabaloo is about.
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I've started the Legend by David Gemmell. It's the first book of Drenai Series. Awesome epic fantasy
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Rereading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code.
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Currently reading "The Mountain Shadow" a sequel to Shantaram. I don't want to add any spoilers, a book is definitely worth reading.
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Anyone has a review for Six Of Crows?
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Anyone has a review for Six Of Crows?
Right here. It's a pretty fun and intricate heist with a large helping of YA angst and romantic tension. Everyone has secrets, naturally, but the wonderfully chaotic heist that takes up a good 40% of the book makes up for those cliches. I'd generally recommend it as something light and fun.
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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NOS4R2. Saw the first episode of the tv-series and got interested. Liking it so far.
The executioner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg9XPcPKYAQ
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Right here. It's a pretty fun and intricate heist with a large helping of YA angst and romantic tension. Everyone has secrets, naturally, but the wonderfully chaotic heist that takes up a good 40% of the book makes up for those cliches. I'd generally recommend it as something light and fun.
Oh that should be good enough for rainy days I guess, I'm getting it.
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Currently reading A Fault in our Stars by John Green.
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Just finished the first book of the mistborn series, I absolutely loved it
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Started Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.
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Currently reading The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
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Volume 4 of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.
It's amazing. -
Triple feature!
Finished The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison about a month ago. It was… disappointing. A young exiled prince becomes emperor after his father and three other heirs are killed in an airship crash. He struggles to grasp court politics and etiquette while managing the investigation of his estranged father's death. The book had two major flaws. It's a weird complaint, but somehow the book didn't justify its fantasy-steampunk setting? Both steampunk and magic are extremely sparse, and the non-human nature of the characters (they're elves and goblins) feels largely extraneous and just a marginally more exotic version of human races. It ends up being window dressing that just gets in the way of reading. Second, the character isn't active enough to justify his ending. The point of the book is that the emperor is bound by rules just as much as anyone else, if not moreso, but that only a handful of moments where his true character can shine through to affect the plot. His success comes entirely through the actions of others he's appointed, so o guess he gets credit? I spent the whole book waiting for something big to happen and it never really does. Generally not worth bothering with.
Also finished Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, an interesting take on Russian fairy tales and Rumpelstiltskin. It mostly focuses on two characters: a moneylender whose bragging gets her entangled with a get ice prince, and a Duke's daughter who runs afoul of the tsar and his black magic. It's generally quite good and well-written, though a number of other perspectives are mixed in that don't really amount to much and just kind of end up diluting the impactful moments. Still a pretty good read, especially if you like adaptations of known fairy tales.
I also just finished A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab, my favorite of the three. It focuses on a magical ambassador between three different eighteenth century Londons and his accidental quest to dispose of a dangerous artifact. It's breezy and fun, if not quite as beautifully written as Spinning Silver. My only real complaints are that the female protagonist doesn't get to do enough in the climax and that one of the threats amounts to very little. Still very eager to read the next book in the trilogy. I'd recommend it for sure.
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Gearing up for College football season by reading Phil Steele's 2019 College football Preview.
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Has anyone here read Steven Erikson Malazan Fallen series? Just finshed the 5th book what a amazing read it's been can't believe I only came across it last month.
