Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading? (Read 792071 times)

Eric P · « **Reply #240 on:** April 30, 2009, 07:06:44 PM »

Quote from: Joe Molotov on April 30, 2009, 07:06:20 PM

I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Pretty awesome book.

yeah it's great fun.

Fresh Prince · « **Reply #241 on:** April 30, 2009, 07:25:57 PM »

Ulysses -still. I told myself I wasn't going to buy another book until I finished the previous one I bought :'(

Eric P · « **Reply #242 on:** April 30, 2009, 07:34:26 PM »

Quote from: Genghis Cohen on April 30, 2009, 07:26:22 PM

Out by Natsuo Kirino

i really, really like her.

they wanted to do out as a comedy starring gina davis. there was a more serious but seriously abysmal japanese movie based on the book

Kestastrophe · « **Reply #243 on:** April 30, 2009, 09:18:03 PM »

I finished World War Z yesterday and earlier this month I finished The Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahmed. I will be starting God, Guns, Germs, etc. next and then I might read The Great Influenza due to the timeliness of the subject matter. I have 2 Iain Banks novels that I haven't started yet either.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #244 on:** April 30, 2009, 09:48:07 PM »

Quote from: Genghis Cohen on April 30, 2009, 07:26:22 PM

Out by Natsuo Kirino

great book. Check out Miyuki Miyabe's "All She Was Worth" if you like out

I didn't like Grotesque so much though...

chronovore · « **Reply #245 on:** May 01, 2009, 03:48:37 AM »

Quote from: Kestastrophe on April 30, 2009, 09:18:03 PM

I finished World War Z yesterday and earlier this month I finished The Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahmed. I will be starting God, Guns, Germs, etc. next and then I might read The Great Influenza due to the timeliness of the subject matter. I have 2 Iain Banks novels that I haven't started yet either.

What'd you think of World War Z? I was kind of underwhelmed, after all the hype.

Quote

There were a couple of neat insights, and it's a reasonably fresh treatment on zombies, but taking it from the "war is over" moment as a retrospective robs it of all suspense.

Note: It's only a spoiler if you count things which show up in the Author's Forward as a potential spoiler.

Kestastrophe · « **Reply #246 on:** May 01, 2009, 08:11:17 AM »

Quote from: chronovore on May 01, 2009, 03:48:37 AM

What'd you think of World War Z? I was kind of underwhelmed, after all the hype.

It was alright, but it definitely wore its welcome. It was very well thought out and I loved how he tied in politics into the story. I can't say I was expecting much, since it was the first zombie book that I've read.

chronovore · « **Reply #247 on:** May 01, 2009, 10:24:37 AM »

Christ, dude. You are busy banging your way around the world, and the women send you books in return? Life must be pretty good.

Guybrush Threepwood · « **Reply #248 on:** May 02, 2009, 12:49:38 PM »

I just bought a couple books to read over the summer:

What Vonnegut books should I read after Cat's Cradle? I already read Breakfast of Champions and I really enjoyed that.

Dickie Dee · « **Reply #249 on:** May 02, 2009, 01:08:03 PM »

The only book I ever found actually unreadable was Catch-22...I've tried getting through it multiple times but it's tone just completely wears me down by about the 100th page, and this comes as someone who gravitates to that sort of thing. (I've liked his other books)

Rman · « **Reply #250 on:** May 02, 2009, 01:24:53 PM »

On Food and Cooking. It's going to take me a bit, since it is really a reference book, and The Talent Code. I'm a big reader of business and management books, weirdly.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #251 on:** May 02, 2009, 07:15:32 PM »

getting started on these two:

Should be interesting...I'm looking into taking slices of anti-intellectualism and applying them to our ridiculously written laws...

OMG I HOEP THEY TALK ABOUT ANIME KAWAIIIII ^_^;;;;;;;;;;;

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #252 on:** May 02, 2009, 09:49:28 PM »

I tried reading through Earth Abides but the section about Ish hitting Kentucky (or some similar state) and saying he could live like a king among the blacks sort of turned me off.

Eric P · « **Reply #253 on:** May 02, 2009, 10:40:59 PM »

uh really?

that's been sitting on my shelf for like a year to be read now

the worst "casual racism" i think i've encountered was in The Devil Rides out wherein the educated whites and an asian have a long conversation about "good blacks" and "bad blacks" and how the whites would be able to tell the difference because they'd traveled the world

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #254 on:** May 02, 2009, 11:11:57 PM »

Jesus :/

But yeah, its a small section but the writer portrays the black family as bumbling and nervous around Ish (a white man). He praises the family for living off the land but its sort of backhanded (them being simple and all, should come naturally!).

Eric P · « **Reply #255 on:** May 04, 2009, 02:30:41 PM »

now reading Use of Weapons

Cyanista · « **Reply #256 on:** May 04, 2009, 02:54:49 PM »

I really liked World War Z, though not as much as I liked the Zombie Survival Guide.

Right now I'm reading The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan and The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand and a bunch of other hacks...

Can't wait to be done with Rand so I can start on the Nicomachean Ethics.

Eric P · « **Reply #257 on:** May 04, 2009, 04:58:34 PM »

Quote from: Genghis Cohen on May 04, 2009, 04:52:56 PM

Quote from: Eric P on May 04, 2009, 02:30:41 PM
now reading Use of Weapons

GF just wrapped The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers who wrote Reflections in a Golden Eye, which is about sexual perversion on an Army Base. I asked to read that so I have to put UoW on hold for now

Van Cruncheon · « **Reply #258 on:** May 04, 2009, 05:04:09 PM »

scattered switching between michel foucault's "the birth of the clinic" and r. scott bakker's "the aspect-emperor" which makes for some pretty schizo late evenings

Eric P · « **Reply #259 on:** May 06, 2009, 11:57:33 AM »

Great Rumbler · « **Reply #260 on:** May 06, 2009, 12:25:46 PM »

Right now I'm trying to finally finish Neuromancer. I started it a long time [like two years ago], but I still haven't finished it. Maybe someday...

Eric P · « **Reply #261 on:** May 06, 2009, 01:09:44 PM »

welcome to the monkey house

Kestastrophe · « **Reply #262 on:** May 06, 2009, 02:01:33 PM »

Quote from: Eric P on May 06, 2009, 11:57:33 AM

(Image removed from quote.)

That's what I am reading now as well. I started God, Guns, Germs and Steel but I did not like the environmental deterministic tone so I stopped for now. omg, the beginning chapters of Use of Weapons are good

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #263 on:** May 07, 2009, 02:58:52 AM »

Starting up Bret Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction. Am excited, loved the movie and read American Psycho about a month ago.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #264 on:** May 07, 2009, 03:03:10 AM »

Quote from: ch1nchilla on May 07, 2009, 02:58:52 AM

Starting up Bret Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction. Am excited, loved the movie and read American Psycho about a month ago.

what'd you think of American Psycho compared to the movie?

I was little surprised at how little I got out of the first 200 pages or so of the book, since the movie did such a good job (not a slight on the book at all, more like if I had seen/read one or the other first, it would have cancelled out the other, if that makes any sense.) there were only a few key scenes in the book that expanded his character at all for me, actually.

looking forward to reading more of his stuff later, but I just ordered about 8 new books....

cubicle47b · « **Reply #265 on:** May 07, 2009, 09:26:09 AM »

The Judging Eye (Aspect Emperor) by Bakker.

Fresh Prince · « **Reply #266 on:** May 07, 2009, 07:19:43 PM »

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Akala · « **Reply #267 on:** May 07, 2009, 08:29:14 PM »

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #268 on:** May 12, 2009, 01:01:12 AM »

Quote from: Kranz Fafka on May 07, 2009, 03:03:10 AM

Quote from: ch1nchilla on May 07, 2009, 02:58:52 AM
Starting up Bret Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction. Am excited, loved the movie and read American Psycho about a month ago.

what'd you think of American Psycho compared to the movie?

I was little surprised at how little I got out of the first 200 pages or so of the book, since the movie did such a good job (not a slight on the book at all, more like if I had seen/read one or the other first, it would have cancelled out the other, if that makes any sense.) there were only a few key scenes in the book that expanded his character at all for me, actually.

looking forward to reading more of his stuff later, but I just ordered about 8 new books....

I read the book almost a year after watching the movie, so the movie really only "augmented" the novel for me, if that. I was somewhat disappointed with the exclusion of a LOT of things, and the film seems to only cover the first half or so of the novel, so that was disappointing as well. I'm almost finished with The Rules of Attraction right now, and from what I've read so far I can say that the film is almost an *exact* adaptation. Very good stuff, although I'd recommend reading the book first to get a better bearing of what's going on.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #269 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:32:05 AM »

He seems a little more human in the book to me. Patrick Bateman in the movie is a little more larger-than-life. The visual influence is heavy too in the murder scenes. Towards the end of the book, I was skipping through large chunks of the murder scenes,

spoiler (click to show/hide)

since I pretty much stopped believing in them

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. I guess that's the weirdest and coolest part about the book/movie--

spoiler (click to show/hide)

whether he's really committing all that stuff is up to the reader and either way you want to read it has support, though both interpretations have completely different meanings.

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Oblivion · « **Reply #270 on:** May 12, 2009, 02:42:57 AM »

Reb · « **Reply #271 on:** May 12, 2009, 04:41:03 AM »

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, I don't know what to think of it yet.

duckman2000 · « **Reply #272 on:** May 12, 2009, 04:46:16 AM »

The Crow Road

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #273 on:** May 12, 2009, 08:17:50 AM »

I tried to take out Book 3 of the Gunslinger series but it wasn't at the library. So I ended up getting The Shining. Man, Stephen King is fucking great. I'm 200 pages in and the slow rise to anger/madness within Jack is amazingly written. Also Danny isn't a seizure prone mute like in the movie. I love his perspective in the book.

Dickie Dee · « **Reply #274 on:** May 12, 2009, 09:02:53 AM »

Dan Simmons' The Terror

Eric P · « **Reply #275 on:** May 12, 2009, 09:49:26 AM »

and now to anger Patel:

"Use of Weapons was pretty good, but the whole chair and big twist at the end were really pedantic. i can see if you read mostly sci-fi how this would be revolutionary but it's not in other genres like the Gothics or centuries of horror and darker fantasy works. it's well written and the time divergent structure was really, really good except for a few bits, but really, everyone going 'TEH CHARE!!!!!!' really overplayed that aspect. Ian Banks also failed to fully capitalize on the elements which led to that for the sake of his final pages really misfiring the whole plot point even further"

I'm currently reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers written when she was twenty-three. Jesus what have I been doing with my life?

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #276 on:** May 12, 2009, 03:59:30 PM »

Quote from: Kosma on May 01, 2009, 09:58:42 AM

(Image removed from quote.)

I had to read this book for a class in high school, and it was intensely awful. Just sayin'.

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #277 on:** May 13, 2009, 04:01:18 PM »

Finished the Shining am now reading The Dead Zone.

chronovore · « **Reply #278 on:** May 14, 2009, 01:52:54 AM »

Just started Watt's Blindsight, a Patel recommendation.
Reading on Stanza/iPod Touch thanks to the magic of free ebook wireless downloads on-the-fly.

Edit: Just finished Stross/Doctorow's Appeals Court (also free), which was fluffy and fun except when it wasn't. It's a lot like Hitchhiker's Guide, set in post-singularity America. I didn't enjoy the ending, as there was a big plothole left unexplained.

Don Flamenco · « **Reply #279 on:** May 14, 2009, 02:30:20 AM »

Quote from: Oblivion on May 12, 2009, 02:42:57 AM

(Image removed from quote.)

ahaha! I forgot all about this book. I read the whole damn thing and I don't think I understood a word of it. I was on lots of drugs at the time though.

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #280 on:** May 14, 2009, 03:33:41 AM »

Just finished up 20th Century Boys vol 2. HOLY SHIT IT IS AWESOME. I WANT MORE. RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

Starting One Hundred Years of Solitude either tomorrow or this weekend.

Eric P · « **Reply #281 on:** May 18, 2009, 12:16:44 PM »

JOE R MOTHERFUCKING LANSDALE

Quote

Novels in the mystery and suspense genres often get a bad rap, with aspirations to something other than the typical being overlooked, or at most touted as "transcending the genre." The second entry in Joe R. Lansdale's series starring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, Mucho Mojo, is a book just like that.

When Leonard's uncle Chester dies, he inherits the old homeplace. This causes complex feelings in Leonard since Chester had disowned Leonard on learning that Leonard was gay. While he and Hap are fixing up the place, they discover a large wooden box in which is found a child's skeleton and a stash of child porn magazines. Despite the obvious circumstantial evidence, Hap urges Leonard to look into alternative explanations. Meanwhile, they meet up the drug dealers across the street, a local preacher with questionable motives, and the lovable MeMaw, Leonard's neighbor who always has time (and an open invitation) for a glass of tea.

In addition to the plot involving the secret murders of several of a small town's black children, Mucho Mojo investigates such heavy subjects as relationships -- whether black-white, man-woman, gay-straight, adult-child, young-old -- and racism. And all the while Lansdale delivers a cracker of a crime novel, with a terrific ending, that continues the story of the main characters as begun in Savage Season.

but you girly men continue to read your books about elves and ray guns and shit.

Tauntaun · « **Reply #282 on:** May 18, 2009, 12:20:33 PM »

Quote from: Eric P on May 18, 2009, 12:16:44 PM

but you girly men continue to read your books about elves and ray guns and shit.

That's BOLT guns nukka!

Just picked up:

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #283 on:** May 19, 2009, 12:05:50 AM »

Pluto is getting good. Need to go pick up volumes 2 and 3 tonight, but I probably will wait until tomorrow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The North No. 2 chapters made it enjoyable for me, I hope the story keeps this bitchin awesomeness up.

[close]

Madrun Badrun · « **Reply #284 on:** May 19, 2009, 12:19:39 AM »

I grabbed the Fellowship off of the bookcase while waiting for windows to reinstall today. I'm now 100p in. So much for doing work today. :'(

Eric P · « **Reply #285 on:** May 19, 2009, 01:17:42 AM »

Quote from: ch1nchilla on May 19, 2009, 12:05:50 AM

Pluto is getting good. Need to go pick up volumes 2 and 3 tonight, but I probably will wait until tomorrow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
The North No. 2 chapters made it enjoyable for me, I hope the story keeps this bitchin awesomeness up.
[close]

i loved vol 2 of 20th cent boys

ch1nchilla · « **Reply #286 on:** May 19, 2009, 02:55:33 AM »

Quote from: Eric P on May 19, 2009, 01:17:42 AM

Quote from: ch1nchilla on May 19, 2009, 12:05:50 AM
Pluto is getting good. Need to go pick up volumes 2 and 3 tonight, but I probably will wait until tomorrow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
The North No. 2 chapters made it enjoyable for me, I hope the story keeps this bitchin awesomeness up.
[close]

i loved vol 2 of 20th cent boys

Yeah, I'm reading that as well. It's too bad they're bi-monthly.

Eric P · « **Reply #287 on:** May 19, 2009, 11:22:45 AM »

at least they alternate!

chronovore · « **Reply #288 on:** May 19, 2009, 08:37:58 PM »

I started re-reading GANTZ and ended up getting into it. I'd previously read through volume 15, at which point I was caught up and had to read weekly installments in Young Animal (or is it Young Jump?) and fell away. Now it's up to vol. 24 or 25, so I've got a little reading ahead of me. Luckily a media rental place across from my work does comic rentals for 90 yen a week.

Other Japan-bores: I've only seen this one shop do comic rentals. Is this common?

GANTZ is interesting in that it stays fairly realistic in depicting people's reactions while placing them in an insane situation. There's not a lot of melodrama, and people trying to be heroic are sometimes punished for their altruism brutally, and some situations are so overwhelming that even people trying for heroism sometimes flee in terror or freeze up.

Oku has been criticized for his overly dry, non-exaggerated rendering style, which is influenced toward the austere by his use of laying out every panel in a 3D CAD program, then tracing it. It does lend a cold, reserved, and somewhat photographic tone to the art, but I find that its very dryness lends to the believability and immersion, much like Lovecraft's first-person, reporterlike style in his mythos books.

Bildi · « **Reply #289 on:** May 20, 2009, 02:29:48 AM »

Just finished:

Fictional book about the airline industry based on stories from interviews with airline and ground staff. Interesting light reading.

Kestastrophe · « **Reply #290 on:** May 25, 2009, 12:59:37 PM »

Finished Use of Weapons. What a twist on the last five pages or so. It was a bit of a difficult read, not for the prose, but the structure was hard to follow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Is there motivation for why Emel assumed Zakalwe's identity? I feel like I missed something

[close]

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #291 on:** May 25, 2009, 02:47:17 PM »

I'm reading Book 3 of the Gunslinger now

Eric P · « **Reply #292 on:** May 25, 2009, 04:05:47 PM »

Quote from: Kestastrophe on May 25, 2009, 12:59:37 PM

Finished Use of Weapons. What a twist on the last five pages or so. It was a bit of a difficult read, not for the prose, but the structure was hard to follow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Is there motivation for why Emel assumed Zakalwe's identity? I feel like I missed something
[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

attempt to redeem himself is my guess

[close]

muckhole · « **Reply #293 on:** May 25, 2009, 04:35:41 PM »

Picked up:

Kestastrophe · « **Reply #294 on:** May 25, 2009, 05:03:55 PM »

Quote from: Eric P on May 25, 2009, 04:05:47 PM

Quote from: Kestastrophe on May 25, 2009, 12:59:37 PM
Finished Use of Weapons. What a twist on the last five pages or so. It was a bit of a difficult read, not for the prose, but the structure was hard to follow.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Is there motivation for why Emel assumed Zakalwe's identity? I feel like I missed something
[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)
attempt to redeem himself is my guess
[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

that's what I thought. But why did he even go as far as making the bone chair? Was he just obsessed with besting Zakalwe?

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Eric P · « **Reply #295 on:** May 25, 2009, 05:09:52 PM »

spoiler (click to show/hide)

my guess was that he wanted to hurt them as badly as he could

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Eric P · « **Reply #296 on:** May 26, 2009, 01:24:46 AM »

have you read any stuff by david morrell?

he may also scratch that itch

chronovore · « **Reply #297 on:** May 26, 2009, 02:15:50 AM »

Quote from: Oscar the Grouch on May 25, 2009, 10:33:50 PM

I'm reading Snow Crash for the first time. I'm actually almost finished it now, it's been a really enjoyable read. After this, I'll probably go back to the Bond books. They are my comfort food.

It's been a dog's age since I read any, but I recall the Gardner-written Bond books were quite good, and close in tone to the new, gadget-lite Bond of the Daniel Craig movies. Er, predating them, of course.

ManaByte · « **Reply #298 on:** May 26, 2009, 12:41:41 PM »

Since it's Memorial Day and the 65th anniversary of D-Day all rolled into one two-week period:

Tauntaun · « **Reply #299 on:** May 26, 2009, 01:04:44 PM »

^ That looks cool.

News:

Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading? (Read 792071 times)