January 2012 - New Year, new reads

[ambyr]

To keep a better record of my reading I have started a small document with my start dates of each book and when I finish it. From 2012 onwards this is the start,

Sounds like you're a candidate for Goodreads! (Or, you know, Librarything or Shelfari or whatever, as you prefer.)

[Merrin]

I really enjoyed the first half, a lot. After a certain scene where Gair gets tested, things got a bit... loose? I ended up enjoying the read, but some major problems in the second half of the narrative. Hopefully Cooper gets back to the style from the first half of the novel.

I agree. I read right through to there with no problem. I liked the Alderan and Gair of the first half. I'll probably pick up the second book just to make sure I wasn't being overly grumpy.

The books I ordered from Amazon just arrived so I'll probably start on a novel by Emma Donoghue by the end of the day here.

[Durckad]

Some of you folk read too damn fast. You're giving us normal (slow) people a complex.

Hopefully I'll finish Broken Angels this weekend. After that, I dunno, I have plenty of books in my pile still.

[Bellis]

I read Stoner, a novel by American midwesterner John Williams, a sort of minor mimetic classic it seems from the mid-20th century. It's the simple, clear, melancholy, semi-autobiographical story of the life of Will Stoner, a farmboy who, as the 20th century progresses, becomes a professor of Middle English. It's just so clearly and elegantly written. I was a little annoyed by the portrait of his wife, which could be construed as misogynist, but perhaps she's meant to be a tragic or at least pathetic figure too. The other figures are just... heartbreaking. Highly recommended, especially to anyone who works or aspires to work in academia.

[Procrastimancer]

Decided to finally start reading Empire State by Adam Christopher. It has been sitting on my nightstand for a while now, just collecting dust. About twenty-five pages in and, so far, it is a bland read that leaves me with little desire to continue.

[Candre]

Read "Wolf Hall" by Mantel, "The amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Chabon and the whole "Swamp Thing" run by Alan Moore. Those works are near perfection and I had a very splendid first half of the month. After that I read "The Night circus" by Morgenstern and it felt rather shallow in comparision. I don´t get the hype. Next on the list is Daniel Abraham´s "An autumn war".

[Gormenghast]

I, huh, "reviewed" The Crying of Lot 49".

Maybe now I can say I finished a Pynchon's book.

Now resuming reads with Erikson, Abercrombie and Glen Cook. I'll probably start Thomas Covenant as well.

[Myshkin]

Just finished Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. As you Lit Forum regulars may know I'm a huge fan of Magical Realism, and how Murakami has escaped my notice all these years is beyond me. Kafka on the Shore is a beautiful, powerful, and profoundly affecting novel, and stands up well against anything written by Rushdie, Saramago, Grass, or Garcia Marquez. Probably the best novel I've read since I first read The God of Small Things 7 or 8 years ago.

[polishgenius]

I didn't like Kafka on the Shore. Well, not like is too strong, but I didn't like it either.

I should have liked it - it had all the right ingredients- and I get the feeling if I read other Murukami I'll probably like at least some. But that one just didn't click.

I got Bitter Seeds by Tregilis, The Company by Parker and Blood of the Mantis by Tchaikovsky out of the library the other day, so those (starting with Tregilis) as well as my ongoing read of Long Sun which is going slowly but enjoyably.

I should also re-pick up my even slower ongoing read of Gravity's Rainbow one of these weeks...

[peterbound]

Just finishing up God's War. This fucking book is knocking it out of the park. Gotta say i really enjoy it.

Tried to make it through The Tomb, a Repairman Jack novel, but good fucking god it was poorly written. Am i missing something with them? They get stellar reviews on Amazon, and he's written 15 of them to date, but hey are really freaking bad.

Oh and Nickg.. Fuck Warhammer. Get some fucking better taste man, your brain is going to turn to mush on that shit.

[nickg]

Just finishing up God's War.  This fucking book is knocking it out of the park.  Gotta say i really enjoy it.

Oh and Nickg.. Fuck Warhammer.  Get some fucking better taste man, your brain is going to turn to mush on that shit.

I just cant help it. Gods War is some good shit though. Infidel is more of the same, only better. Night Shade is on fire lately.

[Isis]

The first book I completed in 2012 was The Windup Girl. It was abandoned halfway through in my locker for months, not sure why, probably just didn't appeal to me at the time. Although I enjoyed it once I invested the time in it to make progress and could see how the different storylines were converging, there was still an element of 'let's just get this finished!' to it. My fault for letting it sit there half-read...

I also got around to reading K J Parker's Purple and Black. What a beautiful little book, with its coloured ink. :) Typical Parker. Highy enjoyable and thought-provoking. Now to get hold of Blue and Gold and complete my reading of the entire Parker back catalogue.

Yesterday I completed Ready Player One. I see why it has been so popular. It's incredibly easy to read, fairly entertaining and you just want to keep turning the pages. I have seen comparisons with Snow Crash, even seen people say 'this is what Snow Crash should have been'. Hmmm. Now, I get the similarities but I don't think that the two books are trying to do the same thing so I don't understand that kind of comment at all.

Next up: finishing The Heroes. Another unfinished 2011 book. My number one resolution for this year is to be a better reader. My performance the past two years (despite having good reasons) has been pitiful. I signed up to goodreads last week and it quickly became apparent that I used to fit in a decent amount of reading despite being busy. Now that I'm less busy I'm actually reading less, which is just ridiculous.

[Ormond]

About a week ago I finished Martin the Warrior by Brian Jacques. It was the first of Jacques' books I'd ever read. I was already 31 when he published the original Redwall so I was never introduced to it as a child, but wanted to read one since the series seems so popular. I decided to read Martin the Warrior because its story is the first chronologically in the history of Jacques' world.

For the first half of the book I really wasn't liking it much and couldn't relate to Jacques' anthropomorphic animal characters. I was annoyed by the accents he gave his moles and pygmy shrews, and thought the use of stereotypical pirate jargon for the "corsairs" was too cute. I also think there are some logical holes in his world. His characters are always eating cheese, but there is no mention of cows, goats, or any other hoofed animal this could have come from. His anthropomorphic mice, rats, stoats, otters, etc. are described as being covered with fur like the animals in our world, but he has an older mouse character who "wears a beard." Is this a fake beard or are we supposed to somehow believe he was able to grow out his fur on his face so it looks like a beard?

Surprisingly, though, the book grew on me. I was impressed by Jacques' discussion of the horrors of war in a children's book and his willingness to kill off major characters. The discussion of the different attitudes of the different characters to concepts like revenge and freedom was fairly well done. By the end of the book I could see how he was often writing at a level a bit above that of the average children's fantasy author.

Now I'm about a third of the way through Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. This is another animal fantasy by a British author, except it's about a society where anthropomorphic dragons like in a world inspired by Victorian novels. It's interesting to read about a society where social conventions of marriage follow the strictest over-fastidious Victorian norms, but where parents also eat their offspring who are ill or defective. :)

[Datepalm]

Very quickly read Jasper Ffordes Shades of Grey. I'd have finished it in one go if I didn't have a test in the middle. Really odd mix of murderous, heirarchial dystopia book with eccentric small town politics book. Works though.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I enjoyed The River of Shadows by Robert Redick. I'm looking forward to reading the final volume of the series in the spring.

I decided to start The Count of Monte Cristo. Never read it, although I really liked the movie adaption with Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel.

[SkynJay]

Finally trying a Culture novel. I have had Use of Weapons on my shelf for months(last march according to the voucher). Not sure why I have been afraid of it, just have not been into Sci-fi as much recently, maybe this will kick start it again.

[Starkess]

I decided to start The Count of Monte Cristo. Never read it, although I really liked the movie adaption with Guy Pearce and Jim Caviezel.

Ooh, one of my absolute favorites! I actually fell asleep trying to watch the movie but I've read the book a couple times. I hope you like it!!

[beniowa]

Forgot to post here. Finished Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle, about an American girl who moves to England and befriends a ghost. While I didn't get completely sucked in, it was still a pretty good read, though Beagle might have gotten the whole teenage girl thing a little too well. A nice, short book if you're a fan of the author.

Also read Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon by Mark Hodder. First off I have to say I've enjoyed how well the steampunk and time travel elements were handled in Hodder's books. Some of the better in the sub-genre. As well as how the author gave the books a Victorian feel without overdoing it. The third Burton and Swinburne book wrapped up most of the plot arcs by the end, but then the very last page is somewhat ambigious. It made me wonder if more books are planned or not and I wasn't sure how to feel about it.

Now I'm most of the way through Absolution Gap.

[Lord of the Night]

Oh and Nickg.. Fuck Warhammer. Get some fucking better taste man, your brain is going to turn to mush on that shit.

I have read many Warhammer Fantasy/40k books that are far better than more popular series like Malazan and Dresden Files. There are some that are better than ASOIAF imo. So what you said is just plain wrong.

LotN

[Happy Ent]

Finished David Meyer’s Also wir träumten (2006), best described as “Trainspotting in Leipzig around the time of the German unification.”

Bone-shatteringly depressing (to the point of me needing several, month-long breaks). Extremely authentic dialogue. No plot. Very austere prose, almost brutal. Heartbreaking, infuriating, sad. Recommended.