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8) S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dourst: OK I will admit that this was a really cool book, but I was very confused on what the hell was going on. There's a lot of things going on. There was a lot of inserts, things ranging from maps to funeral cards, to letters that were written between the characters who were writing all over the book. I'd like to know what the cypher wheel was for, so I can use it with the book. If you a Abrams fan, I strongly suggest that you read and try to figure out what is going on. 8/30 Currently reading: The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner: I'd figure I'd see what all the hype is about with this book. After all, it's set in NYC and I'm a sucker for books set in NYC.
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Jan 29, 2014 03:38
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Possibly the last book I'll finish in January; definitely the last good book of fiction I'll finish. 5) Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. What an incredible read; it's a story about technology and mythology colliding in the modern Middle East, it's about security and love and jinn and I wish I could put my finger on the one thing standing in my way of saying that I love it. goodreads review
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Jan 29, 2014 04:59
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Wasn't planning on finishing my book today, but I was awoken at 5:30 am from a guy working a crowbar on the cast iron grate to my basement. Gave me two hours after the police report to finish my book. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright: Honestly, incredibly well researched, but the available information on Scientology isn't anything new. I've read most of the substance of this book on my own over the years, so it's not shocking to me. If you haven't researched Scientology on your own, this is an incredible look into the cult that masks itself as a religion. But from people's reviews, I was expecting things I didn't know. Also, the "Prison of Belief" portion is exactly the same as any cult or messiah group. Jim Jones and Jonestown, Heaven's Gate, Warren Jeffs, David Koresh, there is no significant difference between them. I was steered towards this book because of the recommendations of people who have never studied this subject before. Bottom line: If you've studied criminal religious enterprises/cults in the past, this book is a well researched example of just one more criminal religious enterprise. If you've never studied this subject before, it's a well written and well researched book to familiarize yourself with the very definition of what a cult is. Edit: Oh yes, and that's book 3 for me.
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Jan 29, 2014 06:33
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Tiggum posted:I read this a while ago and hated it. Right off the bat, this guy who was suddenly and unexpectedly thrown back in time knew what day a solar eclipse was going to happen. He also knows how to construct power plants, telephones, explosives, guns etc. with only the resources of a medieval kingdom to help him. All that would have been irritating, but what really pushes it over the edge is the protagonist's apparent belief that 19th century America is the apex of all civilisation. Knights are made to be nicer and less destructive by learning to play baseball. People are cured of superstition by learning to talk like Americans, etc. It's incredibly obnoxious. It is obnoxious, (I just so happen to have memorized the exact date and time of every solar and lunar eclipse in the past 1500 years.) I have a soft spot for it because it was the first things by Twain that I ever read as a kid and it's one of the earliest works of time travel fiction.
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Jan 29, 2014 06:53
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Oh yeah, Alif was definitely the last good book I'll finish in January. 6) Game of Bones by T.B. Thread Goddammit, you motherfuckers got together and wrote a book and somehow I never knew that T.B.Thread was "the bookbarn thread" because gently caress. This is the best book about lemoncakes I've ever read. goodreads
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Jan 29, 2014 15:52
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^^^ I think T.B. Thread is The Bad Thread. 3) Un Lun Dun by China Mieville Fun Book, imaginative and in parts quite exciting. Certainly a book for kids though so I spent a decent amount of reading time thinking about how my daughter will like it when she's old enough rather than enjoying it for itself. A lot like Kraken (also by Mieville) in many ways but much better.
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Jan 29, 2014 16:06
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I am going to make a toxx goal of 100 and a stretch goal of 150. Last year I got to around 130 or so. I will also <s>try to</s> keep better updates this year. I won't wait three months then drop a wall of text!
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Jan 29, 2014 19:41
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I don't think I will be finishing anything else in January, so here are this months books: 1) Winters Heart - Robert Jordan I am still enjoying this series despite the slow pacing through the last couple of books. 2) Inferno - Dan Brown Not bad for what it is, I enjoy the descriptions of the art and architecture, but the 'twist' at the end was pretty stupid. 3) The Red Tent - Anita Diamant Better than I expected. It was an interesting take on the life of a minor Biblical figure. 4) Andrew Johnson - Anette Gordon-Reed Andrew Johnson was a huge racist and a terrible president. The biographer did a good job of remaining as unbiased as possible given the subject matter. 5) The Silver Star - Jeanette Walls Disappointing. I loved her two previous books but this one was a bit of a flop. She was clearly trying for a 'To Kill a Mockingbird' vibe and it just didn't happen. 6) King Henry VI Part II - William Shakespeare Just ok. Supposedly the 3rd part of the trilogy gets better. 7) The Godfather - Mario Puzo Ugh. Not totally awful, but one of the few cases where the movie is (far, far) better than the book. There is an entire section about a tertiary character getting surgery on her oversized vagina that has literally no bearing on the main plot. 8) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America - Erik Larson A really good book about the events surrounding the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair and the serial killer Herman Mudgett who was operating in the area at the time. 9) The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri This took me almost all month. The first section, 'Inferno' is by far the best. I started losing interest towards the middle of 'Paradiso'. So far: 9/100
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Jan 29, 2014 21:29
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I wound up going really heavy on graphic novels this month, but things will probably even out as I start digging into more ASOIAF books and other big books in my to-read pile. 01. Grant Morrison - Batman RIP 02. Dan Lockwood - HP Lovecraft Anthology II 03. Douglas Coupland - Player One 04. Ed Brubaker - Gotham Central book 2 05. Ed Brubaker - Gotham Central book 3 06. David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice 07. Ed Brubaker - Gotham Central book 4 08. Bill Willingham - Fables, volume 1 09. Bill Willingham - Fables, volume 2 10. Bill Willingham - Fables, volume 3 11. Dennis O'Neill - Batman: Venom 12. Derf Backderf - Punk Rock and Trailer Parks 13. Doug Moench - Batman: Prey 13/60 Yeaaaah, that's a lot of graphic novels. As far as Batman stuff goes, the Gotham Central series was fantastic, I'm sad there aren't more books. Prey and RIP were alright. Venom was probably the worst Batman book I've ever read. The Douglas Coupland book was interesting in its presentation, the Sedaris book was great although I've read most of those stories before in other books, and the HP Lovecraft thing wasn't as good as the first one but wasn't bad. Fables is a series that was recommended to me by a coworker - it's okay I guess, I was mostly interested because of the Telltale game series that came out based on it. I will probably read the rest of them at some point.
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Jan 30, 2014 01:57
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January
Female authors: 3/20 Non-fiction: 2/10 Goodreads. Body Bags was mostly just tedious and dumb. It takes way too long for anything interesting to happen, and when it does the plot is stupid. First Drop was much better, although I really hate how it seems that almost every tough female protagonist has to be a rape victim. It's just such a predictable and overused trope. Seriously... I'm Kidding was funny but without any real substance. Easy to read and just as easy to forget. Bartender is probably the stand-out for this month, which is unfortunate because it's not very good. It's pretty funny, but it could really stand some pretty severe editing, and it shows how much Dan O'Brien's writing has improved over time. Very reminiscent of his early columns on Cracked. Communication Skills Toolkit is one of the worst books I've read in a while. I only did read it because it was assigned as a required textbook for one of my classes, and that appears to be because the authors are in a position to influence what books are required. Pompous, condescending and badly written, and containing practically no worthwhile information. I'd suggest skipping this even if you are told you have to read it.
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Jan 30, 2014 07:47
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"Mr. Squishy posted:1 The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky as translated by David Magarshack. 2 Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes 3 The Maltese Falcon by Dashiel Hammett 4 In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce 5 Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers 6 Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley 7 The Looking Glass War by John le Carré 8 The Card by Arnold Bennett 9 The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger ♀ 1/20 Σ 9/60 I come back to this thread and see a lot of bi-weekly updates. Jeezy Peezy. Mr. Squishy fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Jan 30, 2014 |
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Jan 30, 2014 12:28
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January Update! 1. The Fires of Heaven (Wheel of Time, #5) by Robert Jordan 2. Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) by Jim Butcher 3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 4. Diamonds Are Forever (James Bond, #4) by Ian Fleming 5. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 6. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings 7. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 7/52 completed Front loading some of my reading since the next three months may be a bit busy for me. As with other Wheel of Time book, I spent the first half thinking where is this going, then the second half of The Fires of Heaven was enjoyable. The books are long so I'll pick the series up at the end of my challenge again. Changes, without spoilers, was good and there certainly were changes. Hitchhikers Guide I've seen the movie with Martin Freeman, but never read the book. I enjoyed it but coming from the movie I wondered where the rest of it was. I'll pick up the rest of the series in the next few months. Diamonds are Forever bpughton the cheap months ago. it was okay, but felt like Bond was more bumbling through scenes than actually doing spy stuff. Martian Chronicles Further making up for my lack of classic sci-fi, I liked it. Felt like it was coming from a early 20th century view of Mars. Mapheads I teach geography so sometimes it's nice to read about people as nerdy about geography as I am. Left Hand of Darkness It was abit different. And I did struggle a little getting through it, but it picked up for me in the last third of the book.
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Jan 30, 2014 17:55
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Spadoink posted:Going to aim for 60 this year. My Goodreads. January update list ..  1. The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie 2. Burial Rites - Hannah Kent 3. The 100 Year Old Man who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared- Jonas Jonasson 4. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin 5. As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner 6. All She Was Worth - Miyuki Miyabe 7. And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini 8. The Unburied Past - Anthea Fraser I recommended the 100 Year Old Man to everyone I (personally) knew who read, because it was just fantastic - not conventional, quirky, enjoyable, with some big smiles. I think it is one of those books that has universal appeal. I read a Faulkner because I hadn't read anything from him since Uni. My experience remained the same - took me a frustratingly long time to get into the diction and narrative style, and only started "enjoying" it right before it ended. All She Was Worth is about 20 years old, and is a Japanese mystery that has at its centre the consumer and credit industry. It remains very relevant to current economic issues, which I found disconcerting. The Unburied Past was terrible, which is what happens 90% of the time when I just pick and choose off the library's "new" or "recommended" sections online. The whole thing is only 200 pages, of which there are two major plot lines (a stalking by a rapist/murderer, and the murder of the protagonists parents), and yet the author devotes craploads of space to minutia - there is a half a page where one character in Canada has written an email to another to set up a Skype call to discuss their children. She transcribes the entire email, including such stupid details such as "do you have Skype," "my username is [whatever]," the time difference is 5 hours, so I suggest we have this call at 4pm my time, 5pm yours" .. ALL OF WHICH IS IRRELEVANT TO THE STORY. The pertinent part is "character A arranged to discuss the children with character B. Over a Skype call [as if that detail even matters] they decided X." Ack.The plot was meh, the time and effort given to irrelevant details, though, made me angry. And the Mountains Echoed was a great story - I had read Khaled Hosseini's two prior works, and was glad that while part of this story takes place in Afghanistan, it is not about Afghanistan in the same way the Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns was. A character early in the books writes a letter that states something along the lines of "well, everyone is aware of the history of what has happened to Afghanistan, so I'm not going to rehash that," which I took for Hosseini's approach to this book. A great weaving of the stories of seemingly disparate characters across geographies and time lines. His writing really pulls you into each character and their world.
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Jan 30, 2014 22:37
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I didn't do as much reading this month as I planned to, but I still knocked a few off the list. I won't be adding thoughts to the "classics" because I doubt I have anything original to add. I'll note if they're particularly boring though. 01. A Happy Death by Albert Camus. I would only recommend this to the hardcore Camus fans. It was his first attempt at a novel, much of which transformed into The Stranger (A Happy Death inspired me to reread it in fact). A lot of Camus' early thought is in here, if that's your thing. 02. The Stranger by Albert Camus. 03. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky. 04. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Music For Cats fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jan 30, 2014 |
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Jan 30, 2014 22:59
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Mr. Squishy posted:
Maybe they don't know about the What Did You Just Finish? thread! January: 1. More Than This, by Patrick Ness. Interesting premise, great story and characters. The only thing that really bothered me is that Ness relies on fractured sentences to build up suspense, which is really unnecessary. I noticed this in the 3rd book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, and it seems he has stuck with this. Nonetheless, 4/5. 2. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store, by Robin Sloan. I love how Sloan interweaved books, codes, secret societies, and technology, but ultimately it fell a little flat. It's a great quick read, but despite all his efforts to comment on 'old knowledge' versus new technology, it seems to me that he didn't actually have anything meaningful to say. 3/5 3. Butcher's Crossing, by John Williams. This is an amazing, realistic depiction of the West in the 1870s, and a visceral read. 4.5/5 4. Anthropology of an American Girl, by Hillary Thayer Hamann. I don't think I've ever encountered such a frustrating protagonist; she dumps her somewhat abusive boyfriend for an older man whom she's never even spoken to but has instantly fallen madly in love with, spends the next few months wallowing in teenage angst, spends a few months with him, and then settles for some rear end in a top hat rich guy who knows she's not in love with him, even though she hates rich people. I don't loving get this story. And yet it really hit some kind of nerve in me. Stay away from this book. 2/5 5. Look at the Birdie, by Kurt Vonnegut. Some of his uncollected short stories. They were great as usual, though a few fell flat for me. 4/5 6 - 10. Sweet Tooth vols 2-6, by Jeff Lemire. Fantastic story, great art (loved the different styles for different characters' storylines, too), and I think I cried reading every single volume. 4.5/5
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Jan 30, 2014 23:16
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1. Worm wildbow (J. McCrae) - This was an extremely good book/serial. I started reading it last November because somebody posted about it in the Dresden Files thread, and I got sucked into it. This story is one of the main reasons that I didn't finish my challenge last year, as I spent an entire month doing nothing but reading this. I then took a bread during the last part and didn't get it finished until the first of the year, so I am counting it for this year. If you haven't read, even if you don't generally care for super-hero stories, you should try it. The beginning starts off fairly weak, but when it picks up, it really gets good. 2. The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger's Apprentice) John Flanagan - A decent book that I didn't love, but there really wasn't anything that I didn't like about it either. I am probably going to read more of the series later, and it helps that the books are fairly short so I can get them done in a few hours of nothing going on. 3. Libriomancer (Magic Ex Libris) Jim C Hines - A series with an interesting magic system and an interesting world. This book generally amazing, except when it comes to dealing with the love interest. At that point, the story gets awkward and hard to read. Thankfully, those sections don't last all that long, and the plot makes up for it. 4. The Magicians Lev Grossman - I knew nothing about this book coming into it. I read the synopsis/back of book thing (I don't remember what it's called) and it sounded mildly interesting. This book was like watching a trainwreck. A deppressing stupid trainwreck where the stupid main character can't stop angsting about his life even though he usually ends up getting what he wants. I really don't like this book whatsoever, I personally don't think it should be read... and yet I think I am going to read the next book in the series just to see how much worse the author can make the main characters life 5. Blood Song (Raven's Shadow) Anthony Ryan - I really, really, really liked this book. This has been the best fantasy book that I have read in a good while. The characters are interesting. The plot is interesting. The framing story is interestin. There were a few time that I had to try and remember who a character was when they showed up after being gone for a while, but I generally always have that problem. I went from a 1-star book (The Magicians) to a 5-star book, and I couldn't be happier. I really don't want to have to wait 6 months for the next book in the series to come out. Can't they release it earlier? 6. After the Golden Age Carrie Vaughn - Another superhero story. While I don't think that it can really compare to either Steelheart or Worm, I still find that it is a very good story. I definitely plan on reading the next book when it comes out later this year (I seem to be saying that a lot!). 7. The Rise of Renegade X Chelsea M. Campbell - Superhero story. The main character is quite witty, and the book is amusing throughout. There's really not that much more to say about it. 8. Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy) Robin Hobb - I really enjoyed this book. The author makes an interesting world, and has an interesting coming of age plot that makes for a great read. I pretty much read this straight through, and then immediatly started on the next on, which brings me to... 9. Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy) Robin Hobb - While I like the events in the first book better, I find that I like this one a lot more. It feels like it has something that the first one didn't, and that made the entire story much better. I can't wait to see what happens in the next book, seeing as how this one finished. Even at the end, I had no idea what was going to happen. You should read this series, it is good. I have read 9 of my challenge of 75 books. My goodreads profile in case you want to see my reveiws of the books I have read. Some reviews are longer than what I have here, some are shorter. It really depends on the mood I am in when I right each thing respectively. I am currently reading a few books: Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy) I wish I could finish this before the end of the month, but it is quite a bit longer than the other 2, so I will probably get it done early next month. Gardens of the Moon (MBotF) I have started for the 3rd or 4th time, and it looks like I will be finishing it soon. Codex Born (Magic Ex Libris) I have started, but got distracted by slightly more interesting books (I still can't stand the female main character). Promise of Blood (Powder Mage) I started, but then I ran into the Farseer books and have been finishing up the month with them. I will get back to this one qute soon, I think. Yeah, I get distracted fairly easily by other books, so I tend to have a few sitting on the back-burner for a time. If I listed all of the books that I have started but not finished because of that, I may run out of characters to use in a post.
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Jan 31, 2014 00:02
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I am still working my way through Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection ... it's fabulous.
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Jan 31, 2014 00:27
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Hey, I'm doubling my personal challenge this year for 52 books! I like seeing what other people are reading so feel free to add me: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6373807-james I try to write a little bit about in review of what I've read even if it's just a few sentences.
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Jan 31, 2014 00:54
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Okay, so I think that's it for January. I'm already 35% of the way towards my goal, geez.               5. The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons - I read the first book in December. This series was my first foray into space opera. I found the ‘literary’ qualities of the series really stupid—the intertextuality, etc.—and Dan Simmons has a dull style of writing, but I ended up liking this book quite a bit, probably more than the first one. It’s just more exciting, despite being overly long. I liked Gladstone’s arc most of all. Simmons still takes himself way too seriously, though. I’m glad the later books are terrible; I was jumping for any excuse to stop reading the series. 4 stars. 6. The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence - A pleasant surprise! It was a fun little kids book (not quite YA lit) that drew me in largely because of its historical setting. I can see why some people would hate it. The protagonists are progressive, ‘middle-class’, anti-slavery Romans with all of the values of 21st century Americans. No big deal; I can accept that kind of hand-waving. Kids would probably find genuine Roman attitudes impenetrable. But it did threaten to go off the rails when the Roman protagonists gladly sat through a sermon on Christian forgiveness and prayer and letting the Lord into your heart. Whatever. I liked the rest of it well enough. 4 stars. 7. COPRA: Compendium One by Michael Fiffe - Simply one of the best comics I have ever read. Phenomenal world. Amazing art. Surprisingly good dialogue and plotting for a comic written by the artist. 10,000 stars. 8. COPRA: Compendium Two by Michael Fiffe - Same as above. Maybe a little less mind-blowing. There’s some awkward ‘story-so-far’ recapping near the end and it stumbles around a little bit in service of wrapping up the first plot arc. 5 stars. 9. Crecy by Warren Ellis - I don’t like Warren Ellis, he’s a tryhard and an eternal teenager, but this was pretty good. It makes a good effort at being educational although it’s not really historically accurate. Ellis seems to be tolerable to the adult mind when he’s not writing from a soapbox. 4 stars. 10. Sabertooth Swordsman and the Mayhem of the Malevolent Mastodon Mathematician by Damon Gentry and Aaron Conley - A fun little comic from the same zeitgeisty formula that produced Adventure Time et al. The art is the best and the worst part. The zany ‘hyper-bizzy’ style makes for some surreal designs, but there’s just too much poo poo everywhere, it’s too messy. The climactic fight scene was incomprehensible. Would make a better Klei brawler. 3 stars. 11. Yoko Tsuno: The Curious Trio by Roger Leloup - Cinebook is responsible for some of the worst translations in the history of the written word. I looked up the translators’ CVs and it looks like they mostly translate manuals and technical writing. Boy, it loving shows. The awkward, formal dialogue basically ruins the story, although I have the sneaking suspicion it’s not very good in the original French, either. Alas. 2 stars. 12. COPRA: Compendium Three by Michael Fiffe - The end of the series as written, illustrated, lettered, marketed, and published by Fiffe. What a man.  Anyway, these last few issues are the loving best of the lot. The characters really get the poo poo fleshed out of them. 5 stars.13. The Secrets of Vesuvius by Caroline Lawrence - The second book in the Roman Mysteries series after The Thieves of Ostia. This book loving sucks. I should have known it from the first book, but this series is Christian fiction. The first book featured a fun little mystery (that I was unable to solve before it was revealed, hooray), but the mystery in this book amounts to a single riddle, to which the answer is GOD. Well, GOD drat IT. Additionally, all of the female characters (from small children to teenagers) have vivid romantic interests. Bleughk. This series was promising, but I guess it’s just not for me. 2 stars. 14. Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth by Naguib Mahfouz - Short, threadbare, and ultimately devoid of the Rashomon-style metafiction that is hinted at, this book was nonetheless pretty enjoyable. I think I’m more willing to forgive really short books. 4 stars. 15. Adventure Time Vol. 1 by Ryan North - A fun, if nonessential, diversion for fans of the show. It doesn’t feel quite ‘right’ but it’s still pretty fun. 4 stars. 16. Adventure Time Vol. 2 by Ryan North - Okay, this one nails the tone of the show pretty much perfectly. The dialogue is true-to-form and the storyline feels like an extended episode. After some teething issues, this comic is easily recommendable to fans of the show—although I can’t imagine what non-fans would get out of it. 17. The Magus by John Fowles - Read this book. This book really blew me away. I was struck as I was reading it that it’s one of the most special—and immediately one of my favorite—books that I’ve ever read. My goodreads revew sums up my thoughts better than I can paraphrase here. Basically, the ending left me feeling a little sour, but I think that’s the point, and I appreciate it for that. Fowles left me feeling like Nicholas Urfe in that regard, I think. He did a really good job of consummately bringing the reader (I should say, me) into every twist and turn of Urfe's character. ???? stars. 18. The Guest Cat by Takashi Hiraide - Spare, stiff, and short. The ending saves it. Nothing in particular happens in the ending, it just meanders into a sweet, comfortable place. There’s something awfully formal and awkward about every Japanese author I’ve ever read. If you gave me a Haruki Murakami, a Seicho Matsumoto, and a Takashi Hiraide book, and told me they were all written by the same person, I would believe you. Like Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, I forgave this book its faults because it was so short. 3 stars.
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Jan 31, 2014 08:11
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4. Creating Flow with Omnifocus by Kouroush Dini Not much to say here. If you are interested in learning how to apply the Omnifocus software to your life, this is *the* book. Dini sets up like a 20-task long "leaving the house" list as an example of how deep you can dig. 5. Shadows Linger by Glen Cook The second book of the Chronicles of the Black Company. Mostly a segue book into the end of trilogy. Lots of shades of grey, as is the Black Company series signature. Main characters dying matter-of-factly always takes me by surprise. As it is, not much actually happens but the plot moves along and I expect the third book to be a real showstopper.
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Jan 31, 2014 08:22
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Qwo posted:Okay, so I think that's it for January. I'm already 35% of the way towards my goal, geez. You should increase your goal! Even if you only read half as much as you did so far you'll end up with more than 100 books. Anyway, my list: 1. De helaasheid der dingen ---- Dimitri Verhulst 2. Worm, Pt 1 ---- J.McCrae 3. Worm, Pt 2 ---- J.McCrae 4. Worm, Pt 3 ---- J.McCrae 5. Promise of Blood ---- Brian McClellan 6. The Red Knight ---- Miles Cameron 7. The Fell Sword ---- Miles Cameron 8. Deathless ---- Catherynne M. Valente De helaasheid der dingen is a Belgian (Flemish) book with an intranslateable title. Seriously, if you translate literally you get something like "the melancholy of stuff everywhere" which kinda loses it's meaning. Good book tough. I decided to split Worm into 4 parts because of its size, but I ended up only reading the first 3 parts, can't get myself to read the rest. The Red Knight is one of the best fantasy novels I've read lately and I can recommend it to every fan of the genre. The Fell Sword is the sequel, it's good as well, but sets up so many storylines that will/may eventually be used in future books that the storyline of the book itself got too little attention. Deathless was extremely good and I've become a big fan of Valente. It is difficult to recommend her though, because I don't know many other writers who have the same writing style and/or genre.
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Jan 31, 2014 11:55
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 Huck Finn - Mark Twain - This was a great way to start the year, although the end was kinda strange. I didn't read the Ton Sawyer book yet, but I probably will eventually. Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce - She's written better. Nice to see Briar and Rosethorn again, but it didn't seem like there was anything new in here that hadn't already been said in Will of the Empress. Last Light - Alex Scarrow - People kept recommending this, but honestly, all the "villains" were teenagers and there was a strong undercurrent of "I wish I'd listened to Husband, who is now a REAL man, about how the world is going to end, he was RIGHT" Swap the word "husband" with "author" at will. The World According to Garp - John Irving - I liked this. A lot. It gave me a weird feeling to be reading something so far outside my normal genres, but I really enjoyed it. It also made me realise that I need to get back into writing again. Fool Moon - Jim Butcher - Werewolves! The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin - It was ok, some interesting ideas about a genderless society, but I didn't really enjoy it. Grave Peril - Jim Butcher - Ghosts/Vampires! Pacing is starting to improve! Kings Property - Morgan Howell - Oh man, where do I even start. In retrospect, I'm downgrading it to 2-stars. Was my favourite part the bit where her best friend dies in childbirth, or the part where the Villain puts a rock in the babys blanket and throws it in the river, never to be mentioned or referenced again. Or maybe the... No. There's too many to list. It's a bad book, don't bother. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood - I don't know what I was expecting, but I don't think it was that. Ok, not fantastic, but not bad. Hothouse - Brian Aldiss - For such a good idea, this was a terrible book. Red Seas under Red Skies and Republic of Thieves - Scott Lynch. Read these one after the other apparently. They're not bad books, but I think once he finishes them and starts to write something else his writing will improve. They're also annoyingly episodic. Total: 12/60 - A bit ahead but I tend to read in bursts.
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Jan 31, 2014 12:39
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Walh Hara posted:De helaasheid der dingen is a Belgian (Flemish) book with an intranslateable title. Seriously, if you translate literally you get something like "the melancholy of stuff everywhere" which kinda loses it's meaning.
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Jan 31, 2014 18:37
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January! 6/65. 1) The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness, by Rick Bass. Really great trio of novellas. 2) Haweswater, by Sarah Hall. One of my favorite authors, she's got an ability to bring regions and environments to life that I've not often seen. 3) The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi. This was pretty great. Very confusing at first, but how the world works slowly opens up and it gets real good towards the middle and end. 4) Hardwired, by Walter Jon Williams. Not bad, lots of action. 5) Childhoods End, by Arthur C Clarke. Started out great, but then got real boring. 6) Daylighters, by Rachel Caine. For being a YA vampires series it wasn't bad at all. Some great characters, decent storylines.
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Jan 31, 2014 21:08
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JANUARY 1. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang 2. A Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett 3. Journey to the West: Volume 1 - Wu Cheng'en (translated by W.J.F. Jenner) Slightly slower start than I hoped but things are picking up now.
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Jan 31, 2014 21:13
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January: 1) The Hanging Garden by Patrick White This was confusing as first, as it's unedited and jumps quite randomly from first person to third person, and even to second person POV. White makes the emotions and the atmosphere very tangible though. Unfortunately, the book is unfinished and so I will never know how it ends. 2) The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton I really enjoyed this one. The setting was interesting, and new to me (19th century New Zealand), it had a large array of well-written characters, and the plot, something like a mystery or detective story, had me hooked. My only complaint is that the ending was a bit of a let down. 3) Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens Good, though not my favourite by Dickens. 4) The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes Although I read this only a week ago, I've already forgotten most of it. 5) Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer Better than I anticipated, though I was expecting something a little less depressing. 6) The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Michael Paterniti Disappointing. I was expecting fiction, but the book is in fact non-fiction. But that's not why I was disappointed. I was expecting a story about a cheese maker in rural Spain. Sure, the book is about that. However, 50 percent of it is about Paterniti's kids, his wife and how hard it is to write and oh god what does he even want to write. Another 30% is spanish history. It also slightly suffers from I-want-to-impress-the-readeritis. Symptoms include long descriptions, metaphors that do nothing, "novel insights" and rhetorical questions about life etc. On track with 6/52
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Jan 31, 2014 21:56
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January's all done. I forgot there was a "what did you finish reading" thread so I'm gunna make my updates more spread out and lumped-up 1. Stories Of Your Life And Others by Ted Chiang. Amazing and incredible and made me want to cry goodreads 2. Desolation Road by Ian McDonald. Sci-fi Gabriel Garcia Marquez but so much more; I loved it to the ends of the earth goodreads 3) Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. I read it, I'm glad I did, I never will again goodreads 4) The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh. Best book about cat people in spaceships ever goodreads 5) Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. Fantastic, unique, missing something to stick in my mind like an anchor goodreads 6) Game of Bones by T.B. Thread. Terrible, hilarious. goodreads 7) Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan. Fantastic look at an industry I want to join. goodreads 7/60, let's hope I can keep varying poo poo a bit all year
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Jan 31, 2014 23:51
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thespaceinvader posted:6: Hilldiggers by Neal Asher. So, it turns out, it wasn't continuing the series at all, and was actually both a very recent book and the last chronologically in the verse, but fortunately also stand-alone so I didn't gently caress up too badly picking it. Good book though, enjoyable, and twisty at the ends. I'm looking forward to picking up more Asher. 7: The Science of Superheroes by James Kakalios. FIancee bought me this one on a whim. Interesting and well-written, but didn't teach me much I didn't already know, so kinda difficult to get into. Read it with more interest when it talked about the history of comics than when it was desperately stretching for real-science analogues to 'explain' superpowers (The Invisible Woman becomes invisible because she stretches her electron energy levels so she reflects/absorbs in UV, guys, really, really, guys? Guys?) The writer has charisma, but he kind of missed the point of comics for my money. It was better when he was talking basic F=ma type stuff using a leaping Superman than trying to explain poo poo like invisibility and mocking unstable molecules. 8: The Gabble and other stories by Neal Asher. Almost finished on this, and really enjoying it. Some of the world/species-building is fantastic, and I'm really enjoying Geronamid as a character - we met him a bit in Hilldiggers, but it's nice seeing him properly here.
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Feb 1, 2014 10:54
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I ended up crapping out last year, finishing short of my goal of 30 with just 22 books read... But they were (mostly) drat good books, so whatever! Setting myself a goal of 30 again this year, and I'm already on pretty good pace 1) The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Starting out pretty easy with such a short novella. Hadn't read any Stevenson before, but I quite enjoyed it. 2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Hadn't read this since high school, so it was nice to be reminded of what a talent he was. 3) As for Me and My House by Sinclair Ross Planning to get more in touch with classic Canadian fiction this year (and the Modern Canadian Fiction class I'm taking sure is gonna help). This was a bleak, depressive, work about the Depression-era Canadian prairies. Woo (it was actually bizarrely entertaining and very interesting). 4) The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner This one didn't ultimately grab me until its final third or so, but what a powerful ending it had. Great novel about art, its meanings, and revolution. Hopefully I'll be back with another four at the end of February.
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Feb 1, 2014 17:35
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4) Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times - Lucy Lethbridge. Exactly what it says on the tin. Goodreads review. 5) No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - Graham Bowley. Nonfiction about the August 2008 K2 disaster. Goodreads review. 6) Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief - Laurence Wright. I found it interesting, though in light of what Fremry said, I should specify that I knew very little about Scientology other than the Xenu story and that they like being dicks to children on boats. Goodreads review. 7) The Replacement - Brenna Yovanoff. YA fiction about a changeling. Mackie's crush's younger sister is stolen away by the fairies, and after 65% of the book he decides to go and get her back. It was alright. Goodreads review.
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Feb 1, 2014 18:28
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Let's get my own particular party started, then. 1) “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid” by Douglas Hofstadter (started in 2013) 2) “A Blink Of The Screen – Collected Shorter Fiction” by Terry Pratchett 3) “Swing Hammer Swing” by Jeff Torrington 4) “The Rise Of Militant” by Peter Taaffe (started in 2013)
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Feb 1, 2014 19:36
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End of January: 1. Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan. No new material, pretty boring. 2. Dangerous Women Any anthology is a mixed bag. Bombshells was by far the best short story. The SoIaF novella was okay. 3. Classic Feynman Really, really good, especially the CD that came with it. It was better hearing Feynman tell the stories. 4. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice SO BORING. Oh, and werewolf sex. I supposed I should have expected it. Picking up Going Clear.
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Feb 1, 2014 19:46
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1. Countdown City- Ben H. Winters 2. Promise of Blood- Brian McClellan 3. First on the Moon- the editors of Life Magazine 4. London Falling- Paul Cornell 5. Fade to Black- Francis Knight 6. A Country Doctor's Notebook- Mikhail Bulgakov 7. The Haunting of Hill House- Shirley Jackson 8. Hell House- Richard Matheson 9. Unfinished Tales- JRR Tolkien Fade to Black was unbearable boring. I don't know if it was the writing style or the story or what, but it just never managed to grab my attention or make me care about what was going on. I saw another goon on Goodreads say the same thing, so I guess it's not just me.
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Feb 1, 2014 20:02
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17. Tom Clancy - The Hunt for Red October For the longest time, I've been avoilding Tom Clancy. Those moncromatic covers with pictures of airplanes and stuff on it, didn't strike me as being all that worth my time. Besides, most the people you saw reading them looked like douchebags. But, I actually really liked it. Its very technical and totally military porn, but it's also pretty easy to get into. I'm gonna pick up a few more. 18. Brad Meltzer - The Book of Fate Pretty generic political mystery. It wasn't a bad audiobook to work on for the past two or three weeks, but ultimately nothing that memorable or exciting.
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Feb 1, 2014 20:36
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3. The Round House by Louise Erdrich. I really enjoyed it but it's not really for anyone who isn't into novels that incorporate stories within a story or who won't want to put up with reading about tribal law and jurisdiction. The narrator is a teenage boy and the whole novel is told, essentially, from his perspective which can be frustrating but it's worth it in the end. The only real problem I had was that Erdrich never uses quotes when someone's talking so occasionally it can get difficult to figure out who is talking. 4. Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey Meh.
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Feb 2, 2014 02:53
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January. 1. The time traveler's wife. Audrey Niffenegger. Some of the characters were really unlikable and I'm not really into all the deterministic stuff and how the characters just accept everything. 2. The Thin Man. Dashiell Hammett. This was a nice and unexpectedly funny surprise. 3. The Way of Kings. Brandon Sanderson. Starts slow but picks up nicely by the end. 4. The Illustrated Man. Ray Bradbury. Bradbury is a genius, all the stories are awesome and worth reading. 5. Interesting Times. Terry Pratchett. Pretty funny but a little bland. 6. Martian Time Slip. Philip K. Dick. Scary, really scary. But good. 7. The Heroes. Joe Abercrombie. Better than his other books. More sympathetic characters for a start. 8. Halting State. Charles Stross. Extreme techno-babble, I wonder how would it be to read this without some technology knowledge.
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Feb 2, 2014 03:10
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Radio! posted:1. Countdown City- Ben H. Winters What did you think of Hell House (without spoilers)? I've read almost all of Matheson, and feel like I should read this one because of it. However, I always have a book I want to read more at any given time.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:16
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It's very...silly. Maybe it was scary when it came out, but now it just feels very dated in terms of both what it considers scary and lurid. It's not a terrible read by any means, but don't expect to be actually scared and expect a lot of eye-rolling "you can tell she is possessed by evil because she wants the sex" parts.
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Feb 2, 2014 06:49
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I never did get round to updating on the last round, but I'd just squeezed in 52 by the end of the year - that's in spite of a couple of misguided projects (like reading the Norton anthology of Theory and Criticism cover to cover). 1. Simon Leys - The Hall of Uselessness 2. William Gerhardie - Futility 3. Thomas Madden - Venice: A New History 4. Susan Sontag - On Photography 5. Rowan Moore - Why We Build 6. Apuleius - The Golden rear end 7. Robert Edsel - The Monuments Men 8. Amelie Nothomb - Loving Sabotage 9. Irmgard Keun - Gilgi 10. Leszek Kolakowski - Is God Happy? Selected Essays Got a shittiest book of the year already locked in with The Monuments Men. What really seals it are the insightful first person insertions from the author: 'Gosh, he thought, I really want to get over to Europe where all that war is happening. I want to save all the precious things - for humanity.' It's like a combination of the History channel and the art lectures from a Dan Brown novel.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:55
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thespaceinvader posted:8: The Gabble and other stories by Neal Asher. Almost finished on this, and really enjoying it. Some of the world/species-building is fantastic, and I'm really enjoying Geronamid as a character - we met him a bit in Hilldiggers, but it's nice seeing him properly here. 8: Finished the Gabble - a very interesting book of short stories giving fascinating glimmers into a universe I'm intending to spend a lot of time in this year. Moved on to: 9: Gridlinked by Neal Asher.
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Feb 2, 2014 09:55
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