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What are you reading (May 2011)

The Chef

Member
Just finished:
the+wise+man%2527s+fear.JPG


I'm still on such a fantasy high right now so I'm not quite sure what to read next.
 

FnordChan

Member
Guileless said:
Props to the guy who finished The Pale King, but it can't be more tedious than the 600 pages of A Perfect Spy by John le Carre.

I can't help but jump in to offer a more positive opinion. While it's often slow going, I found A Perfect Spy to be a fascinating (if incredibly depressing) character study of an amoral spy juggling allegiances and facades while looking back on his past to see who, if anyone, he really is. It's even more of a kick in the teeth when you learn that the novel is at least partly semi-autobiographical, namely the parts about the protagonist's conman father. A Perfect Spy is not a book for everyone, it's not where I would suggest that someone start reading Le Carre, and I can see how someone could find it to be boring. That said, I thought it was a bleak, powerful novel and I'm very glad I read it.

51xqoO-AVJL.jpg


I'm roughly halfway through Desolation Island, the fifth novel in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series. What can I say? It's another wonderful naval adventure set in the Napoleonic Era starring characters I have come to love. I recently dropped by the used bookstore and bought the next five novels in the series, and I'm looking forward to enjoying them throughout the year.

FnordChan
 
Cyan said:
No, meaning that the switch happens near the beginning of the story, so I assume it's the same here.

Also, you should read the Prisoner of Zenda. ;)



Oh, didn't realize it was near the beginning.

Still, it's probably not a good idea to be careless with spoilers in these threads.
 

Jenga

Banned
just finished a confederacy of dunces


I was rather surprised it ended so happily. I was really expecting him to end up at Charity. Him running off with Minkoff was pretty sweet in its own way, and I actually kinda hope his 'valve' opening meant he would actually progress a bit in life. Good book.
 

Goody

Member
I just finished Yonder Stands Your Orphan. It was good. Not great. There's a real effort here on Hannah's part, which is better than what can be said of some of his other later novels (Hey Jack! and Boomerang). The sections of the book that feature the villain, Man Mortimer, make the book tremble in yours hands. It's a shame that the rest of the book can be so convoluted. Very well worth the read though.

Started Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell. We'll see how it goes.
 

Pau

Member
Finished:

UB1pd.jpg

Slowly working my way through Philip K. Dick's works. I enjoyed this for the most part and really liked how the author explored the theme of reality.

and

738BV.jpg

I met the author a few years ago but didn't pick up the book until now. Aimed towards teenagers so the prose and plot aren't anything spectacular, but there were parts that were terribly heartbreaking, even more so considering that the book is based on the author's experiences.

Just started:

hZrRx.jpg

Love "realistic" depictions of alien invasions, so this is awesome so far. Surprised that the book opened up with a female astronaut since I've been reading some older science fiction, and they're just seeped in sexism or completely lacking in female characters. (The Man in the High Castle actually had a pretty active female central character. The portrayal was still eye-roll inducing though.)
 
Right now I'm reading my first Kurt Vonnegut book, Breakfast of Champions.
From reading the premise of the book I knew that I was in for a crazy ride.
The book is even crazier than I what I had expected.
And I fucking love the way writes and his hilarious sense of humor.
Now I really want to read Slaughterhouse-5.
I also finished The Stranger by Albert Camus a while ago.
If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and do so. Its only 120 pages but its so full of meaning.
 

Burger

Member
51-7hls3uzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg


Just finished reading this last night. Enjoyed it so much.

Hopefully somebody here can recommend me an equally fantastic book to read next.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
The Albatross said:

I've heard some really good things about this book!

I'm now almost done with this little short biography written by Einhard after Charlemagne died in his honor:

Charlemagneimage.jpg


Vita Karoli Magni
 

Jenga

Banned
I put aside a few hours to put some time into Royal Flash today (part 2 of the flashman series).

Great novel. Now I kinda feel compelled to read into the lives of Lola Montez, Otto Von Bismark, and Carl Gustav

EDIT: huh, didn't notice it mentioned last page
 

Ceebs

Member
Cyan said:
No, meaning that the switch happens near the beginning of the story, so I assume it's the same here.

Also, you should read the Prisoner of Zenda. ;)
It's not exactly at the beginning of the story, but you know it's coming long before it happens. It even jokingly mentions that Flashman's adventures inspired The Prisoner of Zenda in the back cover copy.



Jumped into reading The Terror by Dan Simmons. I have read some of his stuff before, but never this one. Besides I needed a break from the lighthearted stuff of Flashman.

the-terror-755117.jpg


Waiting on a few things from the local library including Lost City of Z and A Visit From The Goon Squad (Thought I would get it in time for the GAF Book Club, but oh well)
 
Ceebs said:
It's not exactly at the beginning of the story, but you know it's coming long before it happens. It even jokingly mentions that Flashman's adventures inspired The Prisoner of Zenda in the back cover copy.


Not sure why that should matter? Just don't post spoilers and all will be well. Common courtesy.
 

CiSTM

Banned
Burger said:
51-7hls3uzL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg


Just finished reading this last night. Enjoyed it so much.

Hopefully somebody here can recommend me an equally fantastic book to read next.
You could Always read the prequel. It is bit of a let down after Shadow of the wind (actually it is big let down) but I still think it was worth the time.
 

Fjordson

Member
I picked up the first Dresden Files book, Storm Front, on a whim last week. The premise sounded pretty interesting and I have friends who like the series, but I didn't enjoy it all that much. Everything felt so simple and bland. I don't know how to express it exactly. Just very forgettable as a whole.

Up next:

9to3nc.jpg


L.A. Noire has me in the mood for something like that and I've actually never read Ellroy, despite being a big fan of hard-boiled/noir stuff.
 
I have too many books to read and spend too much time distracted by the internet.

That said, I'm debating about re-reading neuromancer, getting back into mona lisa overdrive or starting something completely different.
 
Just started the Fire and Ice series.

I'd say I'm about halfway through A Game of Thrones. I really enjoy some characters a heck of a lot more than others. Hopefully it all gets somewhere.
 
Fjordson said:
L.A. Noire has me in the mood for something like that and I've actually never read Ellroy, despite being a big fan of hard-boiled/noir stuff.
I've been wanting to read some noir detective novels for the same reason. I just bought L.A. Confidential on bluray because of it.
 
BannedEpisode said:
Just started the Fire and Ice series.

I'd say I'm about halfway through A Game of Thrones. I really enjoy some characters a heck of a lot more than others. Hopefully it all gets somewhere.

Just don't get overly attached to anyone.
 

Sleepy

Member
Still reading Players by DeLillo. For a novella, it's been a slog...I have appreciated every other book I have read by him, but this one seems too detached, which I think is the point. Maybe I need to change my orientation.

Anyone reading Embassytown by China Mieville? Verdict?
 
God, starting Vonnegut with Breakfast of Champions? That's a bold move, like making Persona your first Bergman movie. I started with God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, myself.

Anyway, I have an admission to make: mine was a high school that did not require me to read Moby-Dick at any point, so until recently, I had not read it. I basically shotgunned it in the past week and a half or so, though, and I must say: holy shit! This is easily one of the greatest books that I've ever read, probably in the top five. Everything about it just drips with greatness, from Melville's immaculate ability to construct an interesting sentence and paragraph, to the rich symbolism, to the great characters (are there better monologues and soliloquys than those of Ahab, even in Shakespeare? I'm hard-pressed to think of many), to the long (but never indulgent or pointless) descriptions of nineteenth-century whale science and the whaling industry that always dovetail into philosophical and psychological musings, to the wit, to the unforgettable imagery. That this was not immediately hailed as a masterpiece is probably the grandest proof of the maxim that great art is rarely recognized in its time. It's almost a shame that they force kids to read this, as it likely inculcates entire generations with a hatred of it, as kids are wont to hate most of the books that they're forced to read; then again, they probably wouldn't come to it on their own, anyway. Sigh...
 

Burger

Member
CiSTM said:
You could Always read the prequel. It is bit of a let down after Shadow of the wind (actually it is big let down) but I still think it was worth the time.

Yeah I heard the same thing. I'll read it, but I'll give myself a big gap so as not to have high expectations.

I ended up going with The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie, for a quick refreshing laugh after such a massively involving read.
 
So GAF, recommend me a summer reading, please!
I'm looking for a somewhat lengthy book(500 pages or more).
Some of the books I've been interested in:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky(or Crime and Punishment)
Iliad by Homer
Emma by Jane Austen
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

I went to Barns and Noble twice and couldn't make up my mind :(
 

SolKane

Member
Jenga said:
just finished a confederacy of dunces


I was rather surprised it ended so happily. I was really expecting him to end up at Charity. Him running off with Minkoff was pretty sweet in its own way, and I actually kinda hope his 'valve' opening meant he would actually progress a bit in life. Good book.

Too bad in real life he kills himself.
 

SolKane

Member
DesertEater said:
Right now I'm reading my first Kurt Vonnegut book, Breakfast of Champions.
From reading the premise of the book I knew that I was in for a crazy ride.
The book is even crazier than I what I had expected.
And I fucking love the way writes and his hilarious sense of humor.
Now I really want to read Slaughterhouse-5.

That's his worst book, IMO, and I would seriously not recommend it to anyone who had never read any of his books. Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater are leagues ahead of BOC.
 
feast_crows_uk.jpg


I read A Storm of Swords in a few days. Then I get to this book, and it's a much slower pace. Been reading this for almost a week already and am only halfway done. I hope A Dance with Dragons is more like the third book than the fourth.
 
SolKane said:
That's his worst book, IMO, and I would seriously not recommend it to anyone who had never read any of his books. Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle, and God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater are leagues ahead of BOC.
hehehe I just finished it. It was my first book and I really liked it.
 

Tigel

Member
I'll be starting Nation from Terry Pratchett in a few days. I have no idea what it's talking about nor have I read any of Pratchett's previous books. Is it supposed to be good?
 
DesertEater said:
So GAF, recommend me a summer reading, please!
I'm looking for a somewhat lengthy book(500 pages or more).
Some of the books I've been interested in:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky(or Crime and Punishment)
Iliad by Homer
Emma by Jane Austen
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

I went to Barns and Noble twice and couldn't make up my mind :(
Les Miserables by hugo
 
DesertEater said:
So GAF, recommend me a summer reading, please!
I'm looking for a somewhat lengthy book(500 pages or more).
Some of the books I've been interested in:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky(or Crime and Punishment)
Iliad by Homer
Emma by Jane Austen
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

I went to Barns and Noble twice and couldn't make up my mind :(

I had mixed feelings about Moby Dick. Its worth the read but be aware that it turns into a whale textbook about halfway through for goooood stretch of time. Seriously, like a long encyclopedia entry.
 

SolKane

Member
DesertEater said:
So GAF, recommend me a summer reading, please!
I'm looking for a somewhat lengthy book(500 pages or more).
Some of the books I've been interested in:
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky(or Crime and Punishment)
Iliad by Homer
Emma by Jane Austen
The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

I went to Barns and Noble twice and couldn't make up my mind :(

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy

I don't recommend Pickwick Papers by Dickens, if you want to read one of his longer works try David Copperfield or Bleak House. For Dostoevsky, you can't go wrong with Crime and Punishment or Demons, which is also a good place to start with his work. For Dumas, I haven't read Three Musketeers, but Count of Monte Cristo is an absolute must, completely gripping even in unabridged form. Moby Dick will be considerably harder to read if you're not accustomed to mid- 19th century prose, and though it is a relatively modern work, it's a very dense text besides the main narrative.
 
Just read my first Asimov novel. Started last night, finished today. Really enjoyed it. I had previously only read Clarke for this style.

33z1j.jpg


Any suggestions for the next Asimov novel to read? I was thinking Foundation(s?) as I heard someone mention it.
 
For those of you that have been playing L.A. Noire and/or you're looking for detective fiction, I saw on Rockstar's site that they've collaborated w/ Mulholland Publications to present eight short stories in a 99 cent e-book collection.

The stories in L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories are ...

The Black Dahlia & White Rose by Joyce Carol Oates
Naked Angel by Joe Lansdale
See the Woman by Lawrence Block
Hell of an Affair by Duane Swierczynski
Whats in a Name? by Jonathan Santlofer
The Girl by Megan Abbott
Postwar Boom by Andrew Vachss
School for Murder by Francine Prose
 

Karakand

Member
Rubin is not an unhappy woman: she has a loving husband, two great kids and a writing career in New York City. Still, she could-and, arguably, should-be happier. Thus, her methodical (and bizarre) happiness project: spend one year achieving careful, measurable goals in different areas of life (marriage, work, parenting, self-fulfillment) and build on them cumulatively, using concrete steps (such as, in January, going to bed earlier, exercising better, getting organized, and "acting more energetic"). By December, she's striving bemusedly to keep increasing happiness in every aspect of her life. The outcome is good, not perfect (in accordance with one of her "Secrets of Adulthood": "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"), but Rubin's funny, perceptive account is both inspirational and forgiving, and sprinkled with just enough wise tips, concrete advice and timely research (including all those other recent books on happiness) to qualify as self-help.
oh my GOD

btw cyan i added you on goodreads accept me plz you can see my wonderful listopia trolling in real time then
 
BannedEpisode said:
I had mixed feelings about Moby Dick. Its worth the read but be aware that it turns into a whale textbook about halfway through for goooood stretch of time. Seriously, like a long encyclopedia entry.

It's not, though! He gives a lot of descriptions of whaling and whales, but he (the character or Melville, take your pick) always takes the time to tie those facts into issues philosophical, theological, social, etc. Really, the long - but never superfluous descriptions of the whaling industry are what really make the book sing and turn it epic, as it makes not only the tale but the scope of its inquiry large. Plus, well, Melville's got such an incredible prose style that even the driest of facts sings when he writes of them. I've read three things by the man - Moby-Dick, Bartleby the Scrivener, and Benito Cereno (my qualitative order of them), and he's such an incredibly rewarding and even very modern writer (goes to show the timelessness of great art, really) that every second I spend with him feels like one well-spent. This paragraph is what you call critical fellatio, but I'll gladly give ol' Hermie a freebie.

SolKane: I'm sorry, but Breakfast of Champions is simply not, by any objective critical metric, a worse book than Slapstick. I'd put it in the upper echelon of the works of the man that I've read, myself, but even if you don't, Slapstick is simply worse. Slapstick reads like a poor imitator of Vonnegut, which even Vonnegut himself acknowledged (he self-graded the book an F in one of his short story/essay books, none of which I can say I've read, actually).
 

Ohwiseone

Member
Currently reading:

51cT1W9GADL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


It is....unique, I enjoy it actually...other than the scenes of religion getting shoved down your throat every once in a while. It is something a bit different, and I am onto the second book thank god they are short reads.

and

51UkS-%2B6UYL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-19,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


First Neil Gaiman book ever, so far I REALLY REALLY enjoy it,


starting within the next few days I am going to read:

41BUbX1b-AL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-7,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg


I wanna know what the hype is about, god I hope it is at least semi-entertaining.
 
Got done with the perfect GAF book:



review from goodreads said:
You must read this book RIGHT NOW. I mean RIGHT NOW because Ready Player One is very much a book of this time. It's full of current pop culture references like cat videos, cute geek girls playing 80s covers on ukelele, ebay, etc. What it's also chocked full of is also tons and tons of 80s culture references. While I enjoyed the book, I would have enjoyed it more if I were born earlier and was old enough to remember the 80s. As an avid video game player, I appreciated all the references to the old games and even references to games so old that I had never even played.

At its heart, Ready Player One is a novel about adventure, friendship, and some epic boss battles. Halfway through the book, I kind of wish something like the OASIS did exist because it seems like it'd be the Greatest Game On Earth.

If I were born earlier and had more sentiments attached to the 80s, I would have given this book 5 stars. As it is, I can see nerdy people all over the world enjoying this.
 
Ohwiseone said:
starting within the next few days I am going to read:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BUbX1b-AL._SL500_AA266_PIkin3,BottomRight,-7,34_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg[IMG]

I wanna know what the hype is about, god I hope it is at least semi-entertaining.[/QUOTE]


I started the first one about a week ago and am just finishing up the third. It definitely keeps you interested.
 

SolKane

Member
Snowman Prophet of Doom said:
SolKane: I'm sorry, but Breakfast of Champions is simply not, by any objective critical metric, a worse book than Slapstick. I'd put it in the upper echelon of the works of the man that I've read, myself, but even if you don't, Slapstick is simply worse. Slapstick reads like a poor imitator of Vonnegut, which even Vonnegut himself acknowledged (he self-graded the book an F in one of his short story/essay books, none of which I can say I've read, actually).

Well I was exaggerating, and meant it more along the lines that it's the worst in his "official canon," i.e. of the books which he is known for, it ranks among the most terrible. I've never read Slapstick (wiki says he gave it a D) but I have heard bad things. BoC is quite poor though, with Vonnegut even admitting to being bored by the book in the text of it. It seems to be written more as an exercise or some kind of grieving process for his mother rather than as an actual concerted narrative effort, which sets it apart from the rest of his books to that point. Still my main problem is that it manages to be completely outré without actually being interesting, which is a hard feat to pull off. Also of his works that I've read I can't think of a worse one to start to with.
 
It might be one of the worst ones to start with, true, but it's a damned fantastic book overall. The two lead characters are extremely memorable (and, though stylized and exaggerated for humor's sake, both realistic and non-stereotypical characters), the "boredom" that you refer to at the end does, I think, actually wrap into a very nice bit of artistic deconstruction (especially when he inserts himself into the story), and as per the Vonnegut usual, it's fucking hysterical, funnier than perhaps anything else that he ever wrote (at least that's I've read). I mean, its strengths are pretty much the exact same strengths of any other in the Kurt Vonnegut canon.
 

Dresden

Member
Breakfast of Champions is his funniest book, I think. It was the first Vonnegut novel I read, and it got me hooked.

6.1 inches.

By the way Bluebeard is my favorite out of all his books. Not his best, by all means, but I love it nonetheless.
 
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