201 replies to this topic

[Brady]

Guinevere Seaworth, on 25 April 2012 - 08:40 PM, said:

I know I'm going to get shot down for this, but I couldn't finish Catch-22 by Jospeh Heller.  I gave it 100 pages and I just couldn't care to pick it up and read any more of it.  The humour seemed so juvenile and I didn't like the rambly tone of the prose.

Astra, on 26 April 2012 - 04:24 AM, said:

Then they have to shoot both of us

I have two guns. One for each of ya.

[SkynJay]

Brady, on 26 April 2012 - 05:00 AM, said:

I have two guns. One for each of ya.

Ok, now I have to find my copy of Tombstone and rewatch it again.

[Ser Plissken]

Finished Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet, and I feel like someone close to me has died.  A bittersweet tale of love, friendship and betrayal, with one of the most elegant magic systems anyone could ever hope to imagine.

Can't wait for The King's Blood!

Now reading The Descent by Jeff Long.  It's absolutely bonkers, but extremely well written and genuinely terrifying.

[Ayx]

Started reading "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion". This book deals with the same subject matter that "Thinking, Fast and Slow" but I like it a lot better. The elephant and the rider metaphor is very well choosen, and artfully introduced.

The title of the book is a bit misleading, and gives impression that its an partizan politics book, akin to "Whats the matter with Kansas", but so far (I'm only 1st part in) there been no politics, its more of a psychology book.. I had found it after reading Bakker's blog and seeing reference to elephant and the rider..

Also, you got to give it to the author for having balls to put "morality of intercourse with a dead chicken" story in the first few pages.

Edited by Ayx, 26 April 2012 - 06:02 PM.

[Sheep the Evicted]

Ayx, on 26 April 2012 - 06:00 PM, said:

Started reading "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion". This book deals with the same subject matter that "Thinking, Fast and Slow" but I like it a lot better. The elephant and the rider metaphor is very well choosen, and artfully introduced.

The title of the book is a bit misleading, and gives impression that its an partizan politics book, akin to "Whats the matter with Kansas", but so far (I'm only 1st part in) there been no politics, its more of a psychology book.. I had found it after reading Bakker's blog and seeing reference to elephant and the rider..

Also, you got to give it to the author for having balls to put "morality of intercourse with a dead chicken" story in the first few pages.

Hmm interesting. Im reading Thinking, Fast and Slow right now and despite the subject matter being ridicolously interesting it seems unfocused somehow, rushed maybe, the author even admitted he's not a natural writer and unfortunately it shows. The closest description i can think off is that it reads like a textbook rather then a non-fiction novel. Only about 100 pages in though. Perhpas it will pick up or perhaps it won't and i'll just drop it and pick up The Rigteous Mind. Still i might stick it out anyway because i feel a nobel laurettes account of his seminal work deserves to be read.

[beniowa]

I finished Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht.  Pretty interesting world and I liked the writing. Leicht does a good job invoking the time and place as well as making the story quite emotionally charged. On the other hand, the narrative jumps around a bit so the flow is a little uneven. I do feel there is quite a bit of potential for this author.  I'll probably pick up the second book the next time I'm in the bookstore.

Now reading Slaughterhouse Five.

[Reposado]

re-Read the first two books of Cook's instrumentalities of the night, about to read the third for the first time.

have to admit, i'm not a huge fan. Parts of it seem wierdly done, especially when the perspective jumps into random person's head for one sentence.

not nearly as good as the first few garrett books.

[SkynJay]

First book of Monarchies of God finished(So, half the omnibus).  Pretty good.  Not sure why I couldn't get past the first chapter twice in the past, I flew through it this time.  Nice pace, love the politics.  Had a bit of trouble with the map looking like a Britain-less Europe at first, but got over it quickly.

And due to the trend of the board, I just happened to notice it does not pass the Bechdel test.  Stuff I would have never noticed a month ago, what do you know, us neckbeards can learn new things.

Anyway, going to read the second half now, because I can't ever seem to read only part of a series at a time.

[Grack21]

OK I'll bite. What is the Bechdel test?

(Yeah I could just google it but meeeeeeeeh)

[Datepalm]

Seriously? I really thought that had become a common term.

its:
1. Does a book (/movie/episode) have more than two women with names in it?
2. Do they ever speak to eachother?
3. About anything other than a man?

It's not a way to categorize any particular work as good or bad, or even feminist or not, but to examine a body of things (like...all the nominees for an award, or all the books i've read this year, etc) and see how many pass a fairly basic measure (a Bechdel pass can literally be a single line of dialogue) thats meant to be a simplified shorthand way of examining whether the work was conceived with women as fully fledged characters with intrinsic narrative purpose, or as adjutants to furthering male characters, crudely speaking. It's reasonable that some books will fail - because they're set in a monastery or a ww1 trench, because they're a gay romance, because they're a tightly focused male first person pov - but it becomes problematic when, say, all the Oscar nominees fail.

[mashiara]

I don't think I've posted in here since the beginning of the month. Life keeping me busy and all that.

Haven't managed to read much. Two books I hugely enjoyed, Rivers of London and Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. Fast paced and just pure fun to read, I'm looking forward to the third one in the series.

Other reads include I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill, an older book but still readable. Boys (children) can be really cruel, I didn't need a book to tell me that. Oh, and Faith by Lesley Pearse, which I really didn't like and it took me forever to finish.

I've now started 9 Dragons by Michael Connelly. By started, I mean I've read the first 5 pages in the last 2-3 days.   Don't blame the book, blame me.

[Ser Plissken]

Finished The Descent, by Jeff Long.

Whilst I enjoyed the first eighty-percent or so, I didn't care much for the Scooby-Doo ending.

I feel cheated.

[Grack21]

Datepalm, on 28 April 2012 - 11:39 PM, said:

Seriously? I really thought that had become a common term.

its:
1. Does a book (/movie/episode) have more than two women with names in it?
2. Do they ever speak to eachother?
3. About anything other than a man?

It's not a way to categorize any particular work as good or bad, or even feminist or not, but to examine a body of things (like...all the nominees for an award, or all the books i've read this year, etc) and see how many pass a fairly basic measure (a Bechdel pass can literally be a single line of dialogue) thats meant to be a simplified shorthand way of examining whether the work was conceived with women as fully fledged characters with intrinsic narrative purpose, or as adjutants to furthering male characters, crudely speaking. It's reasonable that some books will fail - because they're set in a monastery or a ww1 trench, because they're a gay romance, because they're a tightly focused male first person pov - but it becomes problematic when, say, all the Oscar nominees fail.

Never heard of it before it was mentioned here.
Man, some weird things pass/fail on that one.


How do we count muppets?

[dornish prince]

just finished enders game.  it was excellent...best book i've read this year.  its only the fifth, but there you go.  i hear tell that he's a bit wacky, OSC, that is but i'm wondering if any of you feel that any of the other ender books are worth reading.  color it through the lens of someone who feels that enders game is one of the strongest SF tales ever written if you would please.  thanks.

gonna try and pick up teh night circus again.  it isn't the books fault that i keep putting it down, i think that my kindle has spoiled me.

[Contrarius]

dornish prince, on 30 April 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

i'm wondering if any of you feel that any of the other ender books are worth reading.  color it through the lens of someone who feels that enders game is one of the strongest SF tales ever written if you would please.  thanks.

Ender's Game was my favorite sf book for years and years. IMNSHO Speaker for the Dead and Ender in Exile are also very good. I couldn't even finish Children of the Mind, though, it really went off the rails...and I don't remember enough about Xenocide to give it much recommendation, but I guess it was at least better than that. Read the later ones only if you're still interested after the first three.

[Apoapsis]

dornish prince, on 30 April 2012 - 07:54 AM, said:

just finished enders game.  it was excellent...best book i've read this year.  its only the fifth, but there you go.  i hear tell that he's a bit wacky, OSC, that is but i'm wondering if any of you feel that any of the other ender books are worth reading.  color it through the lens of someone who feels that enders game is one of the strongest SF tales ever written if you would please.  thanks.

The other books in the Ender series are completely different from Ender's Game. If you want something similar to it Ender's Shadow is probably the closest fit, but the rest of the Shadow books are quite awful.

Speaker for the Dead is good, but, as I said, completely different. It's in the human-space-colony-meet-aliens-and-weird-shit-happens genre.

[Lord of the Night]

Finished my April reads with my last book ending today. May reads tomorrow, looking very forward to them.

26th March - Started The Primarchs by Various Authors
-1st April - Started The Serpent Beneath by Rob Sanders
-3rd April - Finished The Serpent Beneath

3rd April - Finished The Primarchs

4th April - Started Bloodsworn by Nathan Long

7th April - Finished Bloodsworn

7th April - Started City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

11th April - Finished City of Bones

11th April - Started Supernatural: Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting by David Reed

12th April - Finished Supernatural: Bobby Singer's Guide to Hunting (Under 24 hours)

12th April - Started Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

15th April - Finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter

15th April - Started Palace of the Plague Lord by C.L Werner

22nd April - Finished Palace of the Plague Lord

22nd April - Started The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell

26th April - Finished The Last Ditch

26th April - Started Supernatural: The Unholy Cause by Joe Schreiber

27th April - Finished Supernatural: The Unholy Cause (Under 24 hours)

27th April - Started Star Wars Blood Ties

27th April - Finished Star Wars Blood Ties

28th April - Started Burn Notice: The End Game by Tod Goldberg

30th April - Finished Burn Notice: The End Game


LotN

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I finished Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey.  The alternating back and forth of the 2 POVs for most of the book made it disjointed novel for me.  Also,there was alot telling and not showing.  It was an OK Valdemar novel for me.
Up next is Winds of Change by the same author.

[Myshkin]

Finished my re-read of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.  What a brilliant novel.  My only regret is that I just couldn't justify buying a new copy, and so read it in the same translation as last time.  Not that I have any problem with the translation (Burgin/O'Connor), but it would have been nice to read a different translation for comparison's sake.  Has anyone here read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation?  If so, what did you think?

Now reading J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur.

[Grack21]

Myshkin, on 30 April 2012 - 09:40 PM, said:

Finished my re-read of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.  What a brilliant novel.  My only regret is that I just couldn't justify buying a new copy, and so read it in the same translation as last time.  Not that I have any problem with the translation (Burgin/O'Connor), but it would have been nice to read a different translation for comparison's sake.  Has anyone here read the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation?  If so, what did you think?

Now reading J.G. Farrell's The Siege of Krishnapur.

I just picked up TMAM not to long ago. Not sure which translation though.
Been meaning to read more Russian Lit. Read Laughter in the Dark and was hooked.
And as long as I have you, what do you think are the best translations for Crime and Punishment and War and Peace? I see that one due mentioned a lot.

I could elaborate but I'm tired I'll strat a thread tomorrows.