251 replies to this topic

[Stars]

Just finished the last volume of Akira. I really wish they had made it into a series rather than a film, but alas. Maybe the live-action movies will actually get made and will be closer to the manga instead of the condensed story we got in the animated movie.

[Xteven Xavier]

Clash of Kings

[Stars]

Oh my! If it's not too late, get the audiobook of The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's good ol' epic fantasy, so it's nice and long for all that driving. And it's amazing.

Entered my name in a drawing at work for a signed copy of the book. Cross your fingers.

[Phalanxman]

I just finished How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I'm going to edit this tomorrow with an excerpt from this that I think "said it best."

 

EDIT: "We sometimes find ourselves changing our minds without any resistance or heavy emotion, but if we are told we are wrong, we resent the imputation and harden our hearts. We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem which is threatened... The little word 'my' is the most important one in human affairs, and properly to reckon with it is the beginning of wisdom. It has the same force whether it is 'my' dinner, 'my' dog, and 'my' house, or 'my' father, 'my' country, and 'my' God. We not only resent the imputation that our watch is wrong, or our car shabby, but that our conception of the canals of Mars, of the pronunciation of 'Epictetus,' of the medicinal value of salicin, or of the date of Sargon I is the subject to revision. We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumptions leads us to seek every manner of excuse for clinging to it. The result is that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do."

I don't think this is the case of everyone. Once you internalize the philosophy that you must repeatedly question everything you believe no matter how passionately you believe it, you begin to see reality as it truly is. You subvert the defense of the self and attend to the defense of an incomplete and eternally limited truth. Only in this frame of mind can you purely love the idea, because only then can you defend it as a fact based paradigm and not an emotional one. As you acquire new information under this mindset, your beliefs become gradually more in tune with reality. I believe this is the only way to live a full life.

[BottomGuy]

Oh my! If it's not too late, get the audiobook of The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It's good ol' epic fantasy, so it's nice and long for all that driving. And it's amazing.

Done. I've actually amassed several free books from not using my subscription so it will be nice to have another long book to listen to at work.

 

I finished The Silmarillion on the way to Pittsburgh and moved on to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Didn't end up continuing it on the way to New York, however, since Kamau was unexpectedly able to join me, and we just talked the whole 7-8 hours.

But for some strange reason this is not available on Audible. Le sigh...

[Puffin]

I just finished listening to the audio book Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. It was quite a bit darker than I'd normally look for in a fantasy book, but it was different listening to the point of view of a despicable protagonist. I'll probably listen to the other two books in the series, too, while I'm painting.

[Phalanxman]

American Gods by Neal Gaiman

[Stars]

Finished Heroes: Saving Charlie.

 

Starting Seconds.

[Kamau]

Finished Heroes: Saving Charlie.

 

How was it?

 

Splurged on a bunch of books the other day, so I'm rereading the Fate of the Jedi Star Wars series in order to catch up and read the new ones I bought. :) Currently on book 1 of 9 (Outcast). (I owned books 1-5. Once my order arrives... I'll own all 9. :D )

[Stars]

Hiro is adorkable. And I liked the theme of "everybody dies at the end of their story, but a good middle can still make it a happy story."

 

As for Seconds...

Spoiler

"Bread makes you fat?"

[Phalanxman]

Finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Good stuff. Recommend it.

[Vicious Parker]

I'll second that recommendation.

 

My reading has slowed to a crawl the last few months. I'm just a few chapters away from the end of The Hobbit... I might actually finish it today or tomorrow. I blame small children.

[Donkeymog]

I remember reading American Gods when I was 19. Shit was awesome.

 

Nowadays I just read Don DeLillo. Everything I can get my hands on. Currently reading Falling Man. It's not his best.

[Phalanxman]

Finished Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Good stuff.

[panda]

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. Stories of abuse and also healing from a child psychiatrist. Horrible things actually happen in damn near every county in this country.

 

And if you read A Child Called "It" thinking that was your exposure to child psychiatry, THAT book was mostly exaggeration and lies (thanks, Oprah). This book is real.

[Phalanxman]

Finished Gladio, The Tesla Papers, and have begun The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

[Stars]

Now that I'm done with my test, I figure this is a good time to resume The Wheel of Time. Started back up with book five, The Fires of Heaven.

[Xteven Xavier]

I've been reading manga again lately, haven't done this since high school. Anyways I'm reading Initial D. it's pretty not bad.

[Puffin]

I finished A Dance with Dragons a few days ago. I thought the ending was pretty meh. Honestly, my interest in the series is kind of waning. It seems this book could have been half as long as it actually was and that most of it was just needless description that was doing nothing, but stalling. There were a lot of times that information was rehashed over the course of paragraphs (and I don't mean that you'd hear about an event multiple times from different characters- I mean one character or PoV just reiterating what they've already said or thought again an again for no real purpose). Plus the number of character-chapters that are being introduced to further complicate matters is just starting to seem kind of convoluted to me. It could end up making the story more interesting in future books, but it's hard to tell. It could just as well end up getting over-complicated and silly.

 

Anyhow, since finishing that, I've started reading Treasure Island. Despite my love of pirates, I've never read the book until now and I wanted something much shorter and relaxing to read.

[Kamau]

Still working through the Fate of the Jedi series. I'm currently up to book 3 of 9. (Traveling on a plane = lots of time for reading!)

 

I also finished listening to the Divergent series on the drive home from an epic weekend at the renn faire. It was a terrible decision because driving and bawling is hard to do at the same time.

 

I also also attempted to start listening to Peter Pan in Scarlet, which is the first officially recognized sequel to Peter Pan. It's going to take me a little while to get into it, not only because I've been listening to the narrator of the Divergent series for so long, but also because the narrator of Peter Pan is the same guy who voiced another series I'd been listening to. So I have to get that series out of my head and zone into this one.