Literature?

User avatar
gorb

10 Mar 2011, 00:49

Haha, thanks. My copy was delivered last tuesday. I really want to read it but I will probably end up reading The Name of the Wind again. I just play too much counterstrike D:

User avatar
sixty
Gasbag Guru

10 Mar 2011, 00:54

You could always do the audiobooks while playing CS. Though, that might be a little bit odd.

User avatar
gorb

10 Mar 2011, 00:56

I've never listened to an audiobook before actually...and I imagine it would take a very long time to get through a book of that length verbally. It would also be really distracting during cs :D

At my old job I worked the night shift (2300-0730), so I had plenty of time to read. It would be too obvious to sit here and read at my current job lol

User avatar
sixty
Gasbag Guru

10 Mar 2011, 01:00

gorb wrote:I've never listened to an audiobook before actually...and I imagine it would take a very long time to get through a book of that length verbally. It would also be really distracting during cs :D
You mean like this?
(potentially NSFW, definitely NSFW if you have speakers)

Why did The First Law make you mad, btw?

User avatar
gorb

10 Mar 2011, 01:40

I thought the series was great and everything, but the things that ninefingers did as the bloody nine just made me mad.

User avatar
sixty
Gasbag Guru

10 Mar 2011, 01:45

gorb wrote:I thought the series was great and everything, but the things that ninefingers did as the bloody nine just made me mad.
I kinda agree, though I always thought of it as some kinda berserk rage on LSD! It seems like many people left the triology feeling pretty bitter. No happy ending, no one gets what they wanted (besides arguable Glokta). Very much like real life :?

User avatar
gorb

10 Mar 2011, 01:52

Exactly. I always enjoy a happy ending and I definitely didn't get one with that series D:

I did buy one of the related books, "Best Served Cold," but I haven't read that one yet either.

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

10 Mar 2011, 02:08

Happy endings usually suck. Reminds me of the best horror movie of Dutch making, Spoorloos, which has a legendary ending, possibly the best dramatic effect in a horror movie of all time. The Hollywood remake The Vanishing had a good ending slapped on to it and it sucked. This is not an atypical story.

User avatar
keyboardlover

10 Mar 2011, 02:24

That film looks good. I'm going to check it out.

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

10 Mar 2011, 02:30

Whatever you do, don't read reviews, comments or trailers. Best watched by knowing as little as possible beforehand.

User avatar
gorb

10 Mar 2011, 02:31

webwit wrote:Happy endings usually suck. Reminds me of the best horror movie of Dutch making, Spoorloos, which has a legendary ending, possibly the best dramatic effect in a horror movie of all time. The Hollywood remake The Vanishing had a good ending slapped on to it and it sucked. This is not an atypical story.
Well I don't exactly want some bright and cheerful ending where everything is perfect, just one that didn't have everybody worse off lol

User avatar
gore

10 Mar 2011, 06:03

ripster wrote:If you like Kant you'd love this mystery.

Image

I'd lend you my copy but you Kant have it. It's not part of my philosophy to share. Either that or it's behavioral due to being an only child.
Nah I'm waiting for a book where Schopenhauer is a fast and loose cop who doesn't play by the rules but get results no matter the cost.

ripster

10 Mar 2011, 17:39

German Nihilists make great villains. You'd think they wouldn't care.
Image

Pylon

11 Mar 2011, 01:14

Speaking of nihilists, one of the main characters in this one is one:
Image
(yes, I have the stupid arrow since I got the image from Amazon)

It's a good read.

IanM

11 Mar 2011, 22:30

sixty wrote:Any of you actually reads books? If so - what?
Charles Stross - excellent sci-fi and some Lovecraftian spy thrillers. read most of his novels and the short story collections are on my must read list.

Stephen King - The Dark Tower series (7 books & over 4000 pages) Wasn't sure about reading King but so many people love these books I gave it a try and really liked it.

Terry Pratchett - all of the 'adult' Discworld novels, predictable recommendation but these rarely disappoint.

Robert Ludlum - the Bourne trilogy. The films are very different, they use only the first few chapters of the first book as a starting point, so it's easy to like both the films and the books.
Last edited by IanM on 12 Mar 2011, 18:05, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Moth

12 Mar 2011, 03:27

I just finished The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. Excellent read.

User avatar
Moneyless

12 Mar 2011, 04:30

When I actually have time to read I don't want to waste time trying a bad novel, so I tend to stick to "literary classics" these days, although I haven't actually read a novel in a while. I loved Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and Dashiell Hamet's The Maltese Falcon was good, as well as other "literary classics" like The Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, 1984...

I was kind of disappointed about 1984 though, with all I'd heard about it and the way it'd been hyped up by people I know or old classmates I thought it would be this amazing read but TBH I thought it was "just ok."

I've also read a couple Tom Clancy novels that I thought were pretty good, especially Rainbow Six (even though it is like 900 pages in paperback with super thin pages and size 0.5 font). One Tom Clancy I didn't like though was Red Rabbit, I only read about the first third of the book, I don't know really -- it was just kind of boring I think.

Ripster also mentioned Ken Follet, I've read three of his books so far (all WWII era ones) and I think they were pretty good, especially Eye of the Needle.


I want to read Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series (aka "The Girl [with/who] [the Dragon Tattoo/Played with Fire/Kicked the Hornets' Nest]), but I just don't have the time for 550-850 page bricks right now.

strike015

12 Mar 2011, 08:34

currently reading the wheel of time series only up to the fourth book, pretty awesome so far.
i only read when i commute to and from uni, so it'll take me a while to get up to book date.

User avatar
CephalicCarnage

12 Mar 2011, 08:41

After well over a decade, I'm still re-reading and awaiting the final book in the Wheel of TIme series by Robert Jordan (and now Brandon Sanderson). I don't read as often anymore but WoT is one series I keep going back to and I enjoy every time.

User avatar
gorb

12 Mar 2011, 17:43

IanM wrote:Robert Ludlum - the Bourne trilogy. The films are very different, they only the first few chapters of the first book as a starting point, so it's easy to like both the films and the books.
Yeah, extremely different from the movies, but the books and films are great :D

User avatar
JelinaNU

12 Mar 2011, 17:46

I thought that Abercrombie's "First Law" trilogy was exceptional; his ability to effectively change his written voice to match the reader's shift in character PoV is the best I've read. His darker tone coupled with a not-exactly-high-fantasy setting does a lot to separate the series from other popular, tapestry-style fantasy series.

I recently finished Charlie Huston's "Sleepless" and quite enjoyed it. The format was slightly disorienting at first, but I enjoyed how the novel was, as a whole, slightly off-kilter. Huston's "The Mystic Art of Erasing All Signs of Death," however, wasn't my favorite -- mostly because I couldn't actually find the redeeming quality of the frak-up, @hole protagonist.

Presently, I'm reading a classic for the first time: Frank Herbert's "Dune." I landed a hardcover at the used bookseller and have been enjoying it immensely. I regret that I only have the few hours of my weekend train commute to read it.

IanM

12 Mar 2011, 21:36

JelinaNU wrote:Presently, I'm reading a classic for the first time: Frank Herbert's "Dune." I landed a hardcover at the used bookseller and have been enjoying it immensely. I regret that I only have the few hours of my weekend train commute to read it.
Dune is outstanding, one of my favourite books and a book that is easy to recommend. I read all the subsequent Frank Herbert novels in the series, and the more recent prequels and conclusion by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson. None of them are as good as Dune, and the quality is somewhat erratic. There are high points and good moments in most of the other books, I liked them enough to continue to the end, but if you start reading them hoping for more greatness like Dune, it doesn't quite happen.

ripster

12 Mar 2011, 22:01

Speaking of Classics it's a good time to read "Shogun". Earthquakes are a major subtext in the novel.

godly_music

13 Mar 2011, 03:20

Tarantino is ew.

Right now I'm reading the Eisenhorn trilogy by Dan Abnett which is considered one of the best books from the Warhammer 40.000 universe. It's... not bad. We'll see how it goes.

Dune on audiobook earlier this year. Everyone knows it's cool. The second book hasn't convinced me yet.

Dogi

13 Mar 2011, 06:45

I haven't actually read a book completely in many years. I try and start ones sometimes but dont even get halfway before getting distracted by something else. My next attempt is going to be the Metro 2033 book, after the atmosphere of the game and hearing how much better it is in the book.

User avatar
gorb

13 Mar 2011, 06:46

I dunno if any of yall have read the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - I recommend you do if you haven't :)

User avatar
sixty
Gasbag Guru

14 Mar 2011, 10:25

gorb wrote:My copy was delivered last tuesday. I really want to read it but I will probably end up reading The Name of the Wind again.
In related news, seems like the author uses a Model M!

Image

I sent him a mail, giving props :)

User avatar
nathanscribe

14 Mar 2011, 10:39

Currently reading Dante's Divine Comedy by means of taking a break from Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow.

Previously read Thursbitch by Alan Garner, Gulliver's Travels (Swift), and Vathek by Beckford.

I like going into bookshops and asking for mad titles - ones I actually want to read, mind, not just for the heck of it. Favourites include:

Centuria: 100 ourobouric novels, by Giorgio Manganelli
Hypnerotomachia Polyphili, by Francesco Colonna
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture, by Apostolos Doxiadis

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

28 Mar 2011, 00:31

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I mention this because it's otaku melodrama - you'll love it.

User avatar
Brian8bit

28 Mar 2011, 20:57

webwit wrote:Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I mention this because it's otaku melodrama - you'll love it.
Wait until you get to Zero History. It's one long Apple product placement.

I still loved it though. I think I mentioned earlier in the thread I've read his three trilogies and collected shorts. Today though I finished Dune by Frank Herbert. I've seen the film countless times (got it on DVD) and enjoy it as a Sci Fi action film. But the book just completely blew me away and has now ruined the film for me forever. I went to download the second novel in the series Dune Messiah, but due to copyright it's not available for Kindle in the UK. Damn and blast. So I'm probably going to get a hard copy of Dune Messiah and download the last three books in Kindle format.

Post Reply

Return to “Off-topic”