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UnfurledSails posted:Any advice on rebuilding a reading habit? Read what interests you. Don't worry what people think, just read what you like. Don't think of it as work - reading can be a liesure activity. Read when you have down time, like before bed or when you're on a bus. If you aren't liking something drop it, you don't have to finish it. Basically just read what you like; if it feels like a chore, it'll become one.
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Jan 15, 2012 04:43
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I'm not in school anymore, so I read what I want to read. If I feel like reading some pulp crap for a day or two, I read it. If I feel like reading about Ancient Celtic Blacksmithing Secrets for a week, I read about it. Just grab something you think you will like, and go for it. Post up some of the stuff you loved when you were a kid, or something specific you are looking for, and you can get tons of recommendations for books.
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Jan 15, 2012 05:00
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Treat it like playing an RPG. Finishing a page is winning a random battle, finishing a chapter is a level-up. Actually works quite well to keep going and get into a flow state.
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Jan 15, 2012 23:52
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Joramun posted:Treat it like playing an RPG. Finishing a page is winning a random battle, finishing a chapter is a level-up. Actually works quite well to keep going and get into a flow state. Congratulations, you made reading even nerdier than it already is.
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Jan 16, 2012 01:57
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Joramun posted:Treat it like playing an RPG. Finishing a page is winning a random battle, finishing a chapter is a level-up. Actually works quite well to keep going and get into a flow state. I would actually like to have a Fitocracy like logging site for books. That would be awesome.
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Jan 16, 2012 02:06
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Joramun posted:Treat it like playing an RPG. Finishing a page is winning a random battle, finishing a chapter is a level-up.  Just read to enjoy, it only becomes work if you want it to. If you have to come up with stuff to rationalize it, you're overthinking it.
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Jan 16, 2012 02:41
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I've noticed that some of my reading has started to feel like work lately. If I can't finish a book I feel like I've failed somehow. My shelves and Kindle are full of books that I've left untouched after a few pages.
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Jan 16, 2012 04:52
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Years ago Lucas released a scriptbook for the Star Wars movies. I'm not sure if it was just New Hope or all three of the original series. I am fairly certain it was all three films in one big book. It compared each of the versions of the script, even the original "Starkiller"/Mace Windu/Journal of the Whills draft as margin notes. Anyone know which book this is?
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Jan 20, 2012 05:47
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Enjoyed this http://yelpingwithcormac.tumblr.com/quote:CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL
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Jan 21, 2012 15:20
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Super Grub posted:Enjoyed this http://yelpingwithcormac.tumblr.com/ My favorite is the Olive Garden one.
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Jan 21, 2012 15:54
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Dunno if this has been mentioned yet, but it's pretty awesome. http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/12/worldbuilders-2011/ That's the start of the whole "worldbuilders" blog posts, but basically it's a "donate to this charity, and for every  you donate you get an entrance into a lottery for some seriously awesome (or kinda lame) donations from authors."There are some great collectors items, and some crap I could care less about but mainly it's just a nifty donation drive to help people out. The charity is matching 50% of what you give, so it's pretty nice. Some signed books, some artwork, some manuscripts, some old books, old series, just.. tons of poo poo. Check it out, and lob some cash at em. It's for a good cause and you might end up with some pretty awesome additions to the library. They also have some pretty nice auctions on ebay for everything from signed editions to art prints to having your book edited or bound.
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Jan 21, 2012 18:29
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Does "The Killing of Worlds" end the Succession story line? As was mentioned in the 52 books in a year thread, Westerfield has a lot going on with his YA books, is it likely he would ever finish this series or come back to it?
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Jan 25, 2012 05:21
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UnfurledSails posted:I would actually like to have a Fitocracy like logging site for books. That would be awesome.
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Jan 27, 2012 03:11
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I'd like Good Reads a lot more if every self-published "writer" with a fantasy or horror novel would quit trying to friend me. Yes, I have a passing acquaintance with a few competent writers. No, I won't read your book and recommend it to them.
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Jan 27, 2012 03:20
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Ornamented Death posted:I'd like Good Reads a lot more if every self-published "writer" with a fantasy or horror novel would quit trying to friend me. Yes, I have a passing acquaintance with a few competent writers. No, I won't read your book and recommend it to them.
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Jan 27, 2012 03:26
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You can add a question to your GR profile that people have to answer when they friend request you, and it can either require a specific answer or be open-ended. I use one that's something like "Why do you want to be my Goodreads friend," and I went from getting at least one author request a week to maybe one every few months. Anyone normal that wants to request you will just put something like "we have similar taste," and a lot of authors just interested in self-promotion are too busy requesting fifty zillion people to bother with me. A few of the more aggressive ones have linked me to their book or their website as an answer, and I just report those to Goodreads. Authors aren't supposed to be mass-messaging or hassling users about trying their books, so if you report them then they'll often get a warning to knock it off.
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Jan 27, 2012 04:33
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Ornamented Death posted:I'd like Good Reads a lot more if every self-published "writer" with a fantasy or horror novel would quit trying to friend me. Yes, I have a passing acquaintance with a few competent writers. No, I won't read your book and recommend it to them. Oddly, this happens to me on Twitter. I even had an author I had heard of (KW Jeter) do it.
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Jan 27, 2012 17:34
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Anybody reading Quiet by Susan Cain? I'd like to know where this book is being discussed if at all. From my own experience, I tend to get overly excited and carried away with influential ideas so I need opposing opinions or just perspective from others. That being said, this book could cause a paradigm shift in how introverts are viewed. It's in the Amazon top 10. I hope people are talking about it in the same way that Outliers was discussed because an entire class of people are severely misunderstood and misrepresented, especially in the United States. http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking/dp/0307352145 It's not a groundbreaking new scientific study that changes everything, but rather it's a collection of research that puts everything about introverts in clear view. People in academia and experts on behaviour and leadership and especially business know about the value of introverts, but it's not known much below that level of society. And if you've seen the latest issue of TIME, it almost goes hand in hand with the release of this book.
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Feb 4, 2012 00:42
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TO UNDERAGE GYMNASTS
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Has anyone else been getting books from Amazon that are slanted and twisted like someone's been wrenching on them? There's no actual damage to them and they're fine after I put them on my bookshelf for a while or put some heavy books on top of them, but it's still kind of annoying.
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Feb 8, 2012 04:17
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7So, after seeing people here recommend Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, I picked it up recently. I'm only about 200 pages into it so far, but I love it. It just hits all the right notes for me somehow, especially how likeable and charmingly incompetent the narrator is. Is Willis' Doomsday Book a good place to go after here? What about any of her other works? I'd also love recommendations for any other similar authors. Thanks!
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Feb 8, 2012 05:56
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The dialogue between Zula, Peter, and Csongor on the Russian jet is priceless.
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Feb 8, 2012 08:40
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Radio! posted:7So, after seeing people here recommend Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, I picked it up recently. I'm only about 200 pages into it so far, but I love it. It just hits all the right notes for me somehow, especially how likeable and charmingly incompetent the narrator is. Well, Doomsday Book is good, but it is also a lot bleaker, not really funny like To Say Nothing. . . Ms. Willis recently published a two volume novel set in the same universe, but with everyone travelling back to London in the blitz: Blackout and All Clear. They were enjoyable, but I found Willis' sanctimonious tone a little nauseating in places. I think her best work is actually in her short stories, see if you can find Fire Watch, I thought it was very good. If you want more comedy in the Victorian vein, check out Three Men in a Boat, the book that inspired To Say Nothing of the Dog.
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Feb 8, 2012 19:38
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Has anyone else been getting books from Amazon that are slanted and twisted like someone's been wrenching on them? There's no actual damage to them and they're fine after I put them on my bookshelf for a while or put some heavy books on top of them, but it's still kind of annoying. 
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Feb 8, 2012 20:29
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I want to read a book thats going to possibly change my life. Something thats going to make me a better person. And I want it to be relatively recent. What are the books that people are still going to be reading from this time in 20 years? In 50 or 100 years? Which authors are going to be known as THE GREATS of the early 2000s.
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Feb 8, 2012 22:54
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Has anyone else been getting books from Amazon that are slanted and twisted like someone's been wrenching on them? There's no actual damage to them and they're fine after I put them on my bookshelf for a while or put some heavy books on top of them, but it's still kind of annoying. I get this a whole lot with unusually large books. My copies of Gödel, Escher, Bach and the Hitchhiker's Guide wouldn't stand without excessive support for months. As for the author question, I don't think there will be much general greatness - there will probably be authors for their niche genres. Murakami for whatever it is that applies to him (surrealism? urban fantasy?) comes to mind. Pretty much those that are seen as great authors today already, for reasons other than pandering to a very specific audience. Eliza fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 8, 2012 |
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Feb 8, 2012 23:13
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Conduit for Sale! posted:Has anyone else been getting books from Amazon that are slanted and twisted like someone's been wrenching on them? There's no actual damage to them and they're fine after I put them on my bookshelf for a while or put some heavy books on top of them, but it's still kind of annoying. This happens to me once in a while. Maybe it was damaged in shipping? It's not a big deal, I just assume it's why I was able to get a book so cheap. snoozeallday posted:I want to read a book thats going to possibly change my life. Something thats going to make me a better person. And I want it to be relatively recent. With any luck, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides and Michael Chabon will be. You didn't ask, but if I had to recommend one book between them, it'd be Franzen's The Corrections.
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Feb 9, 2012 01:03
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PatMarshall posted:Well, Doomsday Book is good, but it is also a lot bleaker, not really funny like To Say Nothing. . . Thanks! Also, I only just realized I posted this in the completely wrong thread. Whoops 
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Feb 9, 2012 03:31
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barkingclam posted:Jonathan Franzen Over my dead body! But seriously, my hatred for Franzen aside, I think that we can't even try to guess what will be considered a classic from our time. Probably something that has had commercial success but little critical acclaim. Think shopaholic and that kind of crap. It usually happens like that - most of the 19th century classics were their equivalent of soap operas at the time they were published.
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Feb 9, 2012 07:49
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I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not, but... how does No Country for Old Men compare to the movie? It's my favorite movie of all time, and the Coen brothers are probably my favorite filmmakers of all time, so... even though I like Cormac McCarthy a lot, I'm wary of reading the book just because my expectations are so high. I've only read Blood Meridian, so maybe I should pick up some other books of his before reading No Country for Old Men?
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Feb 9, 2012 13:48
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Conduit for Sale! posted:I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not, but... how does No Country for Old Men compare to the movie? It's my favorite movie of all time, and the Coen brothers are probably my favorite filmmakers of all time, so... even though I like Cormac McCarthy a lot, I'm wary of reading the book just because my expectations are so high. If you liked the movie and like McCarthy, I can pretty much guarantee you'll love the book. The film is pretty much a shot-for-shot adaptation, with only one semi-major change that I recall (for those who have read the book and seen the film: Carla Jean's death is shown in the book but only (heavily) implied in the film).
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Feb 9, 2012 14:47
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Here's a question: Some friends and I were discussing whether or not we find it irritating to pick up a paperback and find that the spine has been creased. It used to bother me a lot, but after I got over the idea that books were meant to be read and not stared at on a shelf, I began folding my paperbacks over (provided they're not 500 pages or something.) I find it's a little easier to concentrate when I'm only looking at one page at a time instead of two, also. I've come to appreciate the crease as a physical mark left proving exactly how far I've read in the book. If the creases stop only halfway down the spine I get motivated to finish the book just to crease the entire spine and prove that I've read it. The only thing that really bugs me is when a book is so bent that it tends to open to the same pages without much provocation. Also, if I don't crease it aaaalll the way down, the book won't sit on its side and leans over. Creased spines bother the poo poo out of at least a few people I know, and I'm curious what your opinions are about it?
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Feb 9, 2012 16:50
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Conduit for Sale! posted:I'm not sure if this is a stupid question or not, but... how does No Country for Old Men compare to the movie? It's my favorite movie of all time, and the Coen brothers are probably my favorite filmmakers of all time, so... even though I like Cormac McCarthy a lot, I'm wary of reading the book just because my expectations are so high. I read once that when the Coen's were writing the movie they joked that all they did was one of them held the book up while the other typed it up as a script. That probably isn't too far from the truth given how faithful the adaption is. There's a few differences between them, but even if you wanted to count all the changes you probably wouldn't get into the double digits. It is a really fantastic book, and you don't have to lower your expectations at all if you want to read it.
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Feb 9, 2012 17:27
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Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I didn't see a relevant thread in the subforum. I recently inherited a Kindle DX from my neighbor's job (basically left by a resident for six months, so he gave it to me). It has been reset, and all I have done is basically plug it in, set up my amazon account, and charge it from my computer. Until this time I had avoided all knowledge about eReaders to stop me from wanting to purchase one, on the idea that I would read all of the print books I own first, then reward myself later. So, I guess my basic question is, now that I have one for free, what are a few tips/tricks I should know to take full advantage of it, specifically in regard to free books or other uses besides just purchasing an eBook off Amazon?
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Feb 9, 2012 21:15
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mcustic posted:Over my dead body! But seriously, my hatred for Franzen aside, I think that we can't even try to guess what will be considered a classic from our time. Probably something that has had commercial success but little critical acclaim. Think shopaholic and that kind of crap. It usually happens like that - most of the 19th century classics were their equivalent of soap operas at the time they were published. Well, the poster asked who will still be read in 20 years and I don't think The Corrections is going to fade away any time soon. I don't think it's too unfair to look that ahead that far, since tastes aren't going to completely flip around in less than a generation.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:28
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Voodoofly posted:Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I didn't see a relevant thread in the subforum. Free and Public Domain Books megathread has a lot of information about different places to get free ebooks. The eReader Megathread: Yes, all publishers hate Canada is for general eReader information/advice. Personally, I have filled up my Kindle with pdfs of obscure Victoriana from Google Books, but that is only one of the many possible options awaiting you.
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Feb 9, 2012 22:38
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Idonie posted:Free and Public Domain Books megathread has a lot of information about different places to get free ebooks. Thanks, this is exactly what I'm looking for.
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Feb 9, 2012 23:01
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Heath posted:Creased spines bother the poo poo out of at least a few people I know, and I'm curious what your opinions are about it? I've drat near mastered the art of reading paperbacks without creasing the spine at all, provided they aren't too terribly thick. That said, I generally don't care if a paperback is creased to hell because to me, it's a reading copy; it's meant to be abused. The one exception I make is for paperback originals - first edition/first printings that were in paperback format rather than hardcover (the first six Dresden Files books, for example, had PBOs). However, such concerns are pretty squarely in the realm of collecting, and not a lot of people care too much about that.
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Feb 9, 2012 23:57
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Voodoofly posted:Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I didn't see a relevant thread in the subforum. Download Calibre. It will greatly increase the number of books you can put on there, especially if you're much of a pirate, and just generally help to organize your e-books. quote:I want to read a book thats going to possibly change my life. Something thats going to make me a better person. And I want it to be relatively recent. Well, it's always hard to judge who's going to be the canonized authors of an era from within that era. Right now there are a bunch of different movements jockeying for position, and most likely one of them will win out and be remembered as defining the time (in the same way the high modernists won the first half of the 1900s) and the rest will be semi-forgotten. For now, I would just say read a broad swathe, as there are great authors in every style. The big names I would reccomend are David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison and Cormac McCarthy, although only the last one has really published "major work" this century. As for the best of the right-now, you'll get a million different answers for that -- you can try checking some of the more reputable literary sites like Bookslut or The Millions. Of course, it's also possible that the professors of the future will just say "gently caress it, let's do something the freshmen like" and Harry Potter will be remembered as the voice of our generation.
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Feb 10, 2012 05:50
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Food Court Druid posted:Of course, it's also possible that the professors of the future will just say "gently caress it, let's do something the freshmen like" and Harry Potter will be remembered as the voice of our generation. "[Harry Potter] was not of an age, but for all time." - Ben Jonson, circa 2079 
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Feb 12, 2012 04:54
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mcustic posted:Over my dead body! But seriously, my hatred for Franzen aside, I think that we can't even try to guess what will be considered a classic from our time. Probably something that has had commercial success but little critical acclaim. Think shopaholic and that kind of crap. It usually happens like that - most of the 19th century classics were their equivalent of soap operas at the time they were published. It's actually quite interesting. Wasn't Dickens or something the Tom Clancy of Victorian times? Broad populist literature? Same with Shakespeare. Harry Potter, Twilight, Shopaholic etc. are probably going to tell future generations more about our culture than what we consider high level literature today. (I still argue that the first Shopaholic is actually pretty good)
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Feb 12, 2012 19:17
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