What are we Reading?

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  • Reply 101 of 149
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by @_@ Artman View Post


    This is the first book I've read of Miévelle. I've heard his books can be a little dower, but I like that sometimes. His descriptions of people, places and things is very rich. Not as overwhelming as Neal Stephenson. Speaking of, you might want to check his Cryptonomicon or Baroque Cycle series. Great books.



    Actually I was reading the first of the Baroque Cycle at about the same time as Perdido. It was interesting. I also was reading El Capitán Alatriste which was taking place in the Golden Age of Spain. Interesting to compare the image of past England and past Spain...
  • Reply 102 of 149
    carol acarol a Posts: 1,043member
    I like British navy adventure stories set in the late 18th, early 19th centuries.



    Loved all the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin books, and the Hornblower books.



    I haven't read any of the D. Lambdin naval stories yet, so don't know if they are any good; but I just received the first two volumes via interlibrary loan from a university library in another part of the state.



    No way was I going to start yet 'another' series by inadvertently reading the *last* volume first. Grrrrr.



    I did exactly that with the O'Brian books. I didn't even realize it was a series, and bought and read volume no. 17 first. Tsk.



    (Thank god the first two Lambdin titles were obtainable via interlibrary loan. Yay! )



    A few questions:



    1) Have any of you used interlibrary loan services much? If so, for what kinds of books - technical/academic/pleasure reading? What's the farthest away that a book has been shipped to fill your interlibrary request?



    2) Do any of you avoid reading chapter titles? I find that I'm WAY too good at guessing what's going to happen in the chapter with just those few words in the title. I'd rather *not* guess, and be able to enjoy the suspense as it comes.



    3) Sometimes, when I'm reading something *really* suspenseful, I'll actually cover up lower parts of the page with my hand, so my eyes can't read ahead and spoil the suspense. Any of you ever do that? haha
  • Reply 103 of 149
    lfe2211lfe2211 Posts: 507member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Well, I wasn't too impressed by "Love in the Time of Cholera". The guy just seemed so stupid not to move on, then waste his life on meaningless sexual relationships while running away from anything possibly more serious, using his so-called "love" for Fermina as an excuse. I know far too many people in the real world like this, and I'm not impressed.



    I can't believe people who think this story is "romantic"!!!!



    Yeah, they finally get together... well into their seventies. Whooppee... now they can share their love by giving themselves sponge baths and enemas. Meanwhile, he's wasted his life, and the chance to find an alternate love that he could have shared his whole life, not just in its twilight.



    I agree with one of his lovers that commented that Fermina is the worst kind of whore... marrying someone she didn't love for money and social expectations. She showed zero I capacity for real love. Not a very attractive heroine.



    Meanwhile, Florentino is a remoresless rapist who directly caused the deaths of at least two women, while he fucked his way through life all the while claiming "true love" for Fermina. What a hero! Oh, and he's a poet, so that makes him alluring...



    No... not a story about "good" love for anyone who knows what that really is. It's much more compelling as a story about aging and death, which while recognized as a major theme of the book, is overlooked as the exceedingly superior theme.



    This book is not a love story! I'm 100% certain Garcia Marquez didn't intend it to be.



    Yet ignorant people still say "what a love!"



    What a waste of love. What a dearth of love. What a hypocrisy of love. What a foolish love. But not real, true, respectable love.



    .....



    Now I'm reading "Imajica" by Clive Barker. I LOVED Weaveworld, and he really has a descriptive way with words.



    Next up is "Vurt" by Jeff Noon, a book I loved and have read several times, as well as all of his other works.



    I think "Cholera" is not about love at all--it's about disease--diseased love affairs, physical disease like cholera and a diseased society. IMO, GGM's greatness is in the magic and lyrical nature of his prose. Try out "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Also, I have found that his short story collections contain some of his best work.
  • Reply 104 of 149
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Carol A View Post


    I like British navy adventure stories set in the late 18th, early 19th centuries.



    Loved all the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin books, and the Hornblower books.



    I haven't read any of the D. Lambdin naval stories yet, so don't know if they are any good; but I just received the first two volumes via interlibrary loan from a university library in another part of the state.



    No way was I going to start yet 'another' series by inadvertently reading the *last* volume first. Grrrrr.



    I did exactly that with the O'Brian books. I didn't even realize it was a series, and bought and read volume no. 17 first. Tsk.



    (Thank god the first two Lambdin titles were obtainable via interlibrary loan. Yay! )



    A few questions:



    1) Have any of you used interlibrary loan services much? If so, for what kinds of books - technical/academic/pleasure reading? What's the farthest away that a book has been shipped to fill your interlibrary request?



    2) Do any of you avoid reading chapter titles? I find that I'm WAY too good at guessing what's going to happen in the chapter with just those few words in the title. I'd rather *not* guess, and be able to enjoy the suspense as it comes.



    3) Sometimes, when I'm reading something *really* suspenseful, I'll actually cover up lower parts of the page with my hand, so my eyes can't read ahead and spoil the suspense. Any of you ever do that? haha



    Spend one too many Friday nights with a hot bath and a good book?



  • Reply 105 of 149
    carol acarol a Posts: 1,043member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Carol, as I said above, if you love suspense, the most suspenseful book I've read in a LONG time was Headlong by Michael Frayn. He's also a British writer, so if you like British style prose as I do, you might want to give it a try.



    Thanks for the recommendation, tonton. I intend to give your book a try. Yes, I do very much like both suspense 'and' British prose.



    (Btw, it's refreshing to get a courteous reply and 'not' an insult. So thanks for that as well. )
  • Reply 106 of 149
    shawnjshawnj Posts: 6,656member
    Oh I'm just kidding. My Friday nights are usually in the library.



  • Reply 107 of 149
    cato988cato988 Posts: 307member
    Night



    Elie Wiesel





    Excellent Book
  • Reply 108 of 149
    turnwriteturnwrite Posts: 372member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cato988 View Post


    Night



    Elie Wiesel





    Excellent Book



    Yeah, it's pretty good. Loads better then the Diary of Anne Frank.
  • Reply 109 of 149
    psychology: themes & variations by Wayne Weiten





    alex
  • Reply 110 of 149
    dmzdmz Posts: 5,775member
    Fualkner in the next day or so, not sure what.



    Right now:

    The Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook David Crook

    Seeing Through Cynicism: A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion Dick Keyes

    Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian: a Reader Paul Weston
  • Reply 111 of 149
    turnwriteturnwrite Posts: 372member
    Just started "The Ayn Rand Cult" to get a criticism of the Objectivist ideas. I'm pretty unsatisfied with it so far though, it seems to more a critique of Ayn Rand's personality than her ideas. Oh well, maybe it will get better.
  • Reply 112 of 149
    @_@ artman@_@ artman Posts: 5,231member
    Well, I thought I'd revive this thread, since reading for me has been a great diversion from the everyday humdrum madness of the world.



    "Perdido Street Station" was a deep, dark journey but well worth it. The characters were engaging and the story was epic. It is filled with detailed descriptions and depictions of the characters, settings and culture of the life and times of the city of New Crobuzon. The author has created a steam-punk world filled with science, scandal and even horror. But be warned that the ending may surprise you.



    Currently I'm reading the sequel "The Scar". It takes place a few months after the Perdido story. It involves a young women who boards a ship to escape New Crobuzon which is then taken by what seems at first to be pirates. The crew and passengers are taken to a massive city called Armada, a flotilla of thousands of boats and ships tied together to form a floating city. Each chapter gets better and better. It is not as deeply detailed as Perdido but I like that for now. China Mieville is a great new science fiction writer and I recommend him.
  • Reply 113 of 149
    turnwriteturnwrite Posts: 372member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by @_@ Artman View Post


    Well, I thought I'd revive this thread, since reading for me has been a great diversion from the everyday humdrum madness of the world.



    "Perdido Street Station" was a deep, dark journey but well worth it. The characters were engaging and the story was epic. It is filled with detailed descriptions and depictions of the characters, settings and culture of the life and times of the city of New Crobuzon. The author has created a steam-punk world filled with science, scandal and even horror. But be warned that the ending may surprise you.



    Currently I'm reading the sequel "The Scar". It takes place a few months after the Perdido story. It involves a young women who boards a ship to escape New Crobuzon which is then taken by what seems at first to be pirates. The crew and passengers are taken to a massive city called Armada, a flotilla of thousands of boats and ships tied together to form a floating city. Each chapter gets better and better. It is not as deeply detailed as Perdido but I like that for now. China Mieville is a great new science fiction writer and I recommend him.



    Erg... I really want these books, they sound amazing. But I just don't have the money to spare right now..



    I did get Freakonomics as a gift, I am about a third of the way through it and find it fascinating. He totally flip-flops cause and effect on a lot of topics.
  • Reply 114 of 149
    @_@ artman@_@ artman Posts: 5,231member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by turnwrite View Post


    Erg... I really want these books, they sound amazing. But I just don't have the money to spare right now.



    Get the trade paperbacks. $7.99? Maybe it's the small print, but I need the portability.



    Also, you don't have to read these two in order actually. Both are their own stories. "Iron Council" though is the third of the series and that story occurs years after the first two. I'm saving that for last.



    Oh, and the artist Edward Miller has done the covers and artwork for the hardcover books. His work is amazing...



  • Reply 115 of 149
    Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Great auto biography.
  • Reply 116 of 149
    carol acarol a Posts: 1,043member
    Wrt the British naval adventure series I was beginning to read:



    I finally finished the first book, The King's Coat, and now I understand 'why' I had never heard of the author (D. Lambdin) before.



    I guess it might have something to do with the fact that those rousing sea battles, where the British navy is slaughtering the enemy and burning their ships, sometimes have the American Continental Navy as their adversary. \



    So those slaughtered sailors are Americans, during the war of independence from Britain.



    Somehow, having the destroyed foe be one's own countrymen tends to put a strange edge on those particular battle scenes in the novel.



    The 'other' British naval series I had enjoyed so much mostly took place during the Napoleonic Wars, with a different set of opponents altogether.



    Speaking of the Napoleonic Wars, I also read the entire series of Sharpe's Rifles, which dealt with the British 'army' during the same time period. Also some great and highly addictive stories.
  • Reply 117 of 149
    @_@ artman@_@ artman Posts: 5,231member
    I'm finishing up The Scar by China Mieville. This book moves a lot faster than Perdido Street Station and is a lot more exciting.



    Next up is Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I've always liked his comic book work, so I thought I'd give it a shot.



    Then Iron Sunrise by Charles Stross...oh shit , I just found out this is a sequel to his earlier book Singularity Sky. Oh well, I've got time to look around for the other book. \
  • Reply 118 of 149
    turnwriteturnwrite Posts: 372member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by @_@ Artman View Post


    Next up is Neil Gaiman's American Gods. I've always liked his comic book work, so I thought I'd give it a shot.



    That is a pretty good book, but it's not as good as Douglas Adams' earlier take on the same concept, in "The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul."
  • Reply 119 of 149
    bageljoeybageljoey Posts: 2,004member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Did anyone know why Sauron did what he did? No, Tolkien never explained it. He was just a villain.




    I have added some Clive Barker to my summer reading list. Your passionate enthusasim is too much to resist.



    But there was no reason to take a shot at Tolkien



    Admitedly Tolkien did not spend time trying to get you to empathise with all the characters--good or evil. I wouldn't call that a defect but an artistic choice. Nevertheless, if you want to know the whys of Sauron, Tolkein did spend time with character development and motivation of Sauron as well as many of the other characeters in the Lord of The Rings trilogy--just not in the LOTR itself. You can go over to the Silmarilllion. As I understand it, Tolkein intended to publish that work allong with LOTR, but the publishers balked.



    Nevertheless, you set a high bar. I expect Clive to kick some Tolkien @$$...
  • Reply 120 of 149
    dstranathandstranathan Posts: 1,717member
    Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard.
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