809 replies to this topic

[Vicious Parker]

I just finished A Wizard of Earthsea. Enjoyable, and a wonderful setting.

Not sure what to read next... I read the first few pages of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The main character seems kinda square, and the setting seems a little generic.

[Phalanxman]

Have you read Flatland?

[Stars]

I started The Eye of the World a few weeks ago, but the first 60 pages or so were slow-going. Once stuff started happening, I picked up the pace a bit. Presently they are on their way out of Emond's Field.

[Stars]

Have you read Flatland?

 

That's a funny book, totally dug it back in my Sci-fi/Fantasy class.

 

In the past four months I've read:

 

- Rabbit Run by John Updike - The story of a man named Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom who runs away from his wife and child because he doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of a family. 

 

- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - A graphic memoir about a young woman named Alison who tries to understand her father and herself. Along the way, she discovers that she and her dad are a lot closer than she originally thought.

 

- Sag Harbor - A coming of age story about Benji, a young black man trying to find his place. Awkward teenage antics abound. It's a pretty funny read. 

[lazlo falconi]

I started The Eye of the World a few weeks ago, but the first 60 pages or so were slow-going. Once stuff started happening, I picked up the pace a bit. Presently they are on their way out of Emond's Field.

Just watch out for Lord of Chaos... That book almost ruins the whole series.

So I started reading Game of Thrones. I'm not very far into it but it is damn good.

[Vicious Parker]

Reading The Lost Fleet: Courageous, by Jack Campbell. It's the third book in the series, and they have been decent so far, though not great. I can't tell if I'm just bothered because they books are so clearly written to be a "series." This shouldn't bother me, I suppose, since I grew up on television, and not reading. But I guess I'm just used to buying books and experiencing them as a self-contained story. I don't really mind open-ended resolutions, or a few unanswered questions, but knowing that the reason some threads are left hanging is because there's another book... just seems to bother me to no end.

 

Some haven't bothered me, like Harry Potter, or Dune. But those tended to be longer, more self-contained narratives.

 

Another possibility is that I just don't like this author as much as I originally thought. Blah.

 

Speaking of Game of Thrones, I'm looking forward to started that series of books (even though I've been following the show). I wonder how that will make me feel. Will my knowledge of the show change this at all? I dunno.

[3DS]

I finished reading The Dragon Reborn from The Wheel of TIme series and I'm now reading The Shadow Rising, the fourth book of the series.

[Stars]

Been rereading Hikaru no Go, partly to refresh myself on game terminology, but also because it's been a while, and I enjoyed the series.

 

I'm also a little past 500 pages into The Eye of the World.

[Phalanxman]

I'm reading through the Young Jedi Knights series. I know it's for tweens, but they're pretty good. Haha. Not my normal type of reading. I'm usually more of a classics type of person.

[Vicious Parker]

I'm simultaneously reading A Game of Thrones, Running with a Mind for Meditation, and The Wind-Up Girl.

 

Kind of a strange month for me.

[Donkeymog]

How are you finding a Wind-Up Girl?

[Vicious Parker]

I like it quite a lot. If you remember, I recommended it to you before.

[Phalanxman]

Reading The Morality of Capitalism by... a lot of people. Hoping to finish either today or tomorrow.

 

EDIT: Finished. Would recommend to anyone interested in economics.

[Stars]

I got The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya in the mail yesterday and started reading it today. As I recall, there are two books left after this, but the English editions will be published as a single volume. I'm a bit sad that the series will be over, but I look forward to seeing how it concludes.

[Monkeydog]

So I'm still trying to read/listen to every Murakami book, however I really slowed down.

 

I have been trying to start reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. But it's so different I kept not being able to get into it...but I think, weirdly, a Cracked article got me into it. One I oddly just read today after trying to get back into it yesterday. It mentioned that Hard-Boiled is an overlooked sci-fi classic, and that in his core Murakami is a sci-fi writer, even if the book he's most known for (Norwegian Wood) is a very "literary" novel. And since I read that, oh my god the book makes sense. I think I was trying to make sense of it in a sense of as one of his other novels. But it's so far removed from stuff like Norwegian Wood or Dance Dance Dance or Wind Up Bird. I mean, certainly, everything he writes has a kind of sci-fi attribute to it, which I wouldn't have ever really thought of if I didn't read what I read. Parts of Dance Dance Dance take part in a completely different dimension. Multiple chapters of After Dark take place in a girls' dream/TV. But Hard-Boiled is so far not even feeling like it takes place in reality, it feels almost cyberpunk and dystopian. 

 

I don't know if I like it so far, but I am definitely intrigued. Especially since the dual narrators/settings that alternate between chapters hasn't been explained yet...and I'm really curious as to what comes of it.

 

Also once I move I'm probably going to start powering through A Song of Ice and Fire since I'll have extra time to actually read.

[Stars]

The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya

Huh, I was wondering how this would work when I heard about it. This book branches out into two alternate storylines halfway through. It started flipping between story alpha and story beta, and I got really confused if I was distracted during the switches.

Also, curse you cliffhanger ending!

[Phalanxman]

Right now I am reading book 4 of the Young Jedi Knights series and am about 1/14th of the way through H. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction. Two great books. However, I can't wait to get through the series and the book so I can crack open my babies!

 

Spoiler

[Phalanxman]

I just finished the top one. I couldn't wait. The book was good. I had hoped it would be more focused on the psychological aspect of John Wayne Gacy Jr, but it wasn't. Also, the epilogue was horrible. It sounded like one of those inflammatorily illogical letters that politicians get from over-emotional moms demanding the outlawing of skateboarding or something.

[Donkeymog]

I like it quite a lot. If you remember, I recommended it to you before.

 

Was it you? It must have been years ago.

 

Oh, and on holiday I read half of Currency Wars by James Rickards. And a bit of Julian Assange's book Cypherpunks.

[Xteven Xavier]

finally finished The Da Vinci Code