October Reads

[Little Wing]

My copy of Red Country finally showed up, so I'm looking forward to starting that in the next couple of days :D

I'm about halfway through and it's really fun so far. Have you read The Book of Lost Things? I think fans of one will definitely enjoy the other.

No, I haven't! :o Will do, thanks!

[Bellis]

I was cooped up indoors for two days, anticipating hurricane Sandy, and I spent much of that time reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. What a potboiler! After the first few chapters, I knew I had to avoid reviews or synopsis. I didn't want to spoiled, and I'm usually not worried about that. I was guessing... what genre this would be, where the plot was going, who I was supposed to cheer for (if anyone - OK that one cop was alright). By about halfway through, I had some niggling doubts, but I couldn't put it down. I wanted all my girlfriends to read it (and my boy friends too) (and my last therapist). What a clever dissection of modern relationships and psychoses. About 3/4 through, the story began to come together in a way that left open only a single possible ending. It became predictable, partly because it was well-constructed, but also because the writer had written herself into a corner and she couldn't resolve the puzzle in a more creative manner. But today, the day after, I feel a little underwhelmed. Anticlimatic, kind of like that expected power failure from the storm that never made it here. Yes, it worked, but it was also, on the whole trashy. Yes, that's part of why I liked it. But it really could have been tightened some more, with certain more preposterous red herrings and minor characters either fleshed out or left out.

I also couldn't help but think of ways the story could have improved; For instance:

I kept hoping that Desi would end up double-crossing Amy, which would have been foreshadowed by Nick's conversations with her other past friends and how she had screwed them over. I like the idea of Desi keeping her safe... for the police! Was really disappointed when he turned out to be one-dimensional, no different than Amy and Nick always believed him to be. I didn't actually mind Amy and Nick getting sentenced together in the end, it seemed poetic. But I wish Desi had ended up as less of a victim in all this

Overall, it kept me enthralled though, and that deserves 4/5.

[NewsToTom]

@Crown: Digital Fortress is dreadful, even by Dan Brown standards. Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, of which I sort of read the first two books, I consider a lousy juvenile, better only read by people with nothing resembling a quality filter. 1984 is quite good. I enjoyed the experience of reading the first book, though I thought the series went downhill pretty quickly after that and stopped after about the third book.

My reading for the month of October included little in the realm of fantasy or any sort of speculative fiction. I read at lunch the first two chapters of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, and am surprised I managed that much; it has all the subtlety and complexity of a 2x4 to the head. I concluded J.K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy, and found the second half sufficiently unrewarding that I wished I'd had given up no more than 100 pages in as I'd considered. You could make an almost interesting argument about how the end of the book plays out, but I prefer not to spend my reading time completely surrounded by uninteresting, hateful characters.

The non-fiction highlight of the month was Tim Blanning's Pursuit of Glory, the entry in Penguin's history of Europe series covering 1648-1815. It is oddly structured and, as every book covering such a major time period must, makes some editorial decisions that are easy to quibble with, but I found the surprisingly extended look at the hunting practices of the nobility some of the finest absurdist comedy I've read in quite some time. All I need to do now is read Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon, and then I'll have to actually read War and Peace (or come up with a new excuse for why I'm not going to read it yet).

November's reading slate has not yet been set, though the local library has provided me a copy of Tom Wolfe's new novel. I suppose I'll either read that or find some reason to put off reading it for a while.

[UndergroundMan]

I've been super busy writing papers and planning ceremonies and training for Army ROTC. However, I'm hoping to finally finish "Side Jobs" by Jim Butcher and "Game of Kings" by Dorothy Dunnett this weekend. "Game of Kings" finally picked up some speed, and I think it's absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to finish it. Side Jobs is just okay so far; hope the later stories get better than the first third. I also managed to finish "Love in the Time of Cholera" earlier this week. Great book, but not quite as good as his masterpiece "100 years of solitude". I'm also reading "Charlotte Temple" for a class, and wow that book sucks. It amazes me how many crappy books I've read for college English classes simply because they have some small historical significance. Also finished reading an abridged version of "Monkey or Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en for an East Asian Lit class. Despite all the weirdness, I rather enjoyed it.

After that I plan on moving directly on to some entertaining books that I'm very excited to read including Lev Grossman's "The Magician King", Abercrombie's "Red Country" and "Ghost Story" by Jim Butcher.

[Guest]

I finished Cloud Atlas today and must now choose a new book.

I'm leaning towards reading Dune for the first time. I almost started it a few months back before getting roped into other things.

[Jolene Brown]

Do it! Do it do it do it! Dune is awesome.

[Starkess]

I finished The Fractal Prince. Like the first one, the second half was immeasurably better than the first half. But I still had the sense that I only half knew what the eff was going on. It reminded me of when I read books in Spanish, I can get the gist of what is going on but a lot of the details are escaping me. Not sure that I'll bother with the next one. I read a review that described his writing as baroque, and I think that's a fairly accurate assessment. Which isn't good or bad in and of itself, but it's not my taste.

Don't have anything up next on the to-read list. Might have time to trawl the library collection and Amazon tonight to pick something up.

[RedEyedGhost]

Don't have anything up next on the to-read list. Might have time to trawl the library collection and Amazon tonight to pick something up.

We talked about it awhile back and you were wanting to wait until the third book was available, and it is now, so I'll highly recommend Kameron Hurley's God's War. With a first line like

Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert.

how can you not want to read it :D

[Serious Callers Only]

Finished Dracula Cha Cha Cha... weird book. Left me kinda wanting to read sequels, but not the previous (which i didn't read)....

Especially the 2nd part, which was kinda fundamentally instrospective - in a good way - but had a supernatural element the story could have done without, because it was brash and kinda pointless except as a prod; probably another goddamned reference - the whole books is synthesis

Also made me realise that the title song... is actually a thing

one of many versions, wtf

Book is full of references in names and other things... she kills margareth's tatcher daughter, which was probably declasse.

[dornish prince]

i didn't want to start a new thread for this and i respect the opinions of many who regularly post in 'reads'...so, i read a few blurbs and i'm ready to introduce a new book into my rotation. the two i'm down to are jhereg by brust and the last werewolf by duncan. to any who have read one or both, what say you? are they worth it? what did you like about them?...without heavy spoilers, please. go.

[Guest]

Do it! Do it do it do it! Dune is awesome.

What? No caps lock? I am disappointed given your custom title.

[Scion of Valyria]

i didn't want to start a new thread for this and i respect the opinions of many who regularly post in 'reads'...so, i read a few blurbs and i'm ready to introduce a new book into my rotation. the two i'm down to are jhereg by brust and the last werewolf by duncan. to any who have read one or both, what say you? are they worth it? what did you like about them?...without heavy spoilers, please. go.

I've only read The Last Werewolf, but it was awesome. Definitely worth it. Hell, I think Stego raved about it and he's one of the harshest critics I've seen on this forum. Its well written, with some fairly interesting characters. Made werewolves cool again. Really sexual though, so if you get icked out by that easily, you might want to give it a wide berth.

[Jolene Brown]

What? No caps lock? I am disappointed given your custom title.

I must have just woken up from a nap or something. Hitting the shift key or the caps lock key takes that smidgen of extra effort that I need a few minutes to muster up. It should definitely NOT be taken as a lack of enthusiasm for the idea of anyone reading Dune.

P.S. - I also like the Lynch movie. Don't listen to the h8ers. I don't know if I would say it's good, per se, but I remember thinking it was at least fun to watch.

[wolverine]

I must have just woken up from a nap or something. Hitting the shift key or the caps lock key takes that smidgen of extra effort that I need a few minutes to muster up. It should definitely NOT be taken as a lack of enthusiasm for the idea of anyone reading Dune.

P.S. - I also like the Lynch movie. Don't listen to the h8ers. I don't know if I would say it's good, per se, but I remember thinking it was at least fun to watch.

One of the worst movies I ever tried to watch.

Just finally finished Gods and Generals. It was ok, not as good as I hoped. It paints a very interesting picture of Julian and does make me want to learn more about him. Like was he really crazy at the end? Maybe I did not like the book as much because I really began to like Julian and then it all went to crap. I just don't understand why he went to from the most rational person in the Roman empire to what he did. The way his character was constructed, becoming emperor would not change him as it did in the book.

My selection is limited to my smaller paperbacks so I can easily take them hunting. I am going to pick between: Gormenghast, Fair Blows the Wind (L'Amour), and Corvus (Kearney). I have wanted to read Gormenghast for awhile but I am pretty sure the two latter are much lighter reading and I may be more in the mood for something that.

EDIT: Would I need to read Titus Groan first? I got a 1974 copy of the book from a used book store for a dollar so I don't have the first book.