What are you reading?

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Crudblud

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #780 on: May 06, 2013, 04:35:09 AM »
James Joyce - Finnegans Wake

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General Disarray

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #781 on: May 25, 2013, 05:16:33 PM »
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. I think it's cool how he has his characters use magic, but he makes up hard rules as to how that magic operates. He did the same thing with Warbreaker. He's a pretty good fantasy writer, check him out.
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rooster

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #782 on: May 25, 2013, 07:08:53 PM »
Read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

And what did you think? It's one of my favourite books, in particular the Frobisher section.
Did you see the movie? I've heard good things about the book and movie, so I'm kinda interested.

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Eddy Baby

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #783 on: May 26, 2013, 12:59:50 AM »
Read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

And what did you think? It's one of my favourite books, in particular the Frobisher section.
Did you see the movie? I've heard good things about the book and movie, so I'm kinda interested.

I have yeah. The film kind of inverts my opinions on the various stories. Like I say, Robert Frobisher's story in the book is easily my favourite, but I don't like it so much in the film. For a start they change the setting from Flanders to Edinburgh. WHY.

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Roundy the Truthinessist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #784 on: June 10, 2013, 08:21:40 PM »
I'm working my way through A Song of Ice and Fire.  I'm on A Clash of Kings right now.
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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #785 on: June 11, 2013, 08:15:34 AM »
I think I will read something by Ian Banks next. I have several of his novels, but I'm not sure which one to read first.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #786 on: June 11, 2013, 04:31:46 PM »
Interpretation of Dreams by Freud, On the Road by Kerouac, and What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown. This is the first time I've attempted multiple books at the same time, and it's not working very well, but I can't decide which one to stick with.
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Crudblud

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #787 on: June 12, 2013, 04:44:16 AM »
Peter Calvocoressi - World Politics Since 1945 (7th ed.) Part Three: The Middle East

Partly in preparation for going to see The Gatekeepers on Friday.

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mathsman

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #788 on: June 12, 2013, 04:48:11 AM »
Why Does e=mc2 by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw.

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Lord Wilmore

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #789 on: June 12, 2013, 06:10:57 PM »
Read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

And what did you think? It's one of my favourite books, in particular the Frobisher section.


Frobisher is easily the best-written character/narrative, though I did enjoy the deliberately cliched style of the Luisa Rey sections - really compelling conspiracy caper, even though it's playing up to the genre. Overall the book is very good, though the two sci-fi sections were a little weak, especially the Sloosha's Crossing chapter.


Anyway, I've since read the first book of the Illuminatus! trilogy, Heinlen's Starship Troopers, and I'm now struggling through The Insidious Dr Fu-Manchu, which is actually offensively racist. Imagine what Nazi pop-lit was like, but directed against Chinese people instead of Jewish people.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2013, 08:17:59 PM by Lord Wilmore »
"I want truth for truth's sake, not for the applaud or approval of men. I would not reject truth because it is unpopular, nor accept error because it is popular. I should rather be right and stand alone than run with the multitude and be wrong." - C.S. DeFord

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Eddy Baby

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #790 on: June 13, 2013, 08:34:15 AM »
Just finished The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, also by David Mitchell. His most recent work, and probably his best. Very historically accurate, I gather, gripping, and with incredibly ornate language. I didn't realise the first time I read this, but even this book, set in the late 18th century, has links to Cloud Atlas.

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Ski

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #791 on: June 13, 2013, 01:57:16 PM »
For fifty-cents, I picked up "Keplar: A novel" by John Banville  for fifty-cents perversely because I cannot stand Keplar. While the protagonist, the book has done nothing to evoke any sympathy for the character/historical person.

At the same time I also grabbed "Ghost Eater" which is a nautical tale, which I just started. Imagine my shock when A.R. Wallace rears his ugly head early in the first pages.

"Never think you can turn over any old falsehood without a terrible squirming of the horrid little population that dwells under it." -O.W. Holmes "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.."

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Eddy Baby

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #792 on: June 14, 2013, 03:09:14 AM »
For fifty-cents, I picked up "Keplar: A novel" by John Banville  for fifty-cents perversely because I cannot stand Keplar. While the protagonist, the book has done nothing to evoke any sympathy for the character/historical person.

What does this mean

Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #793 on: June 15, 2013, 11:29:22 AM »
Brave New World Revisited
By Aldous Huxley

http://faculty.txwes.edu/csmeller/human-prospect/ProData09/03WW2CulMatrix/WW2WRTs/Huxley1894/BrNewWrldRe1958/BraveRevIndex.htm

Island by Huxley is one of my favorite books of all time. Check it out if you like him.

seconded, Island is a favorite book.

I'm listening to an audiobook of "fire upon the deep" and it doesn't make any sense I might stop.

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Ski

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #794 on: June 15, 2013, 08:21:30 PM »
For fifty-cents, I picked up "Keplar: A novel" by John Banville  for fifty-cents perversely because I cannot stand Keplar. While the protagonist, the book has done nothing to evoke any sympathy for the character/historical person.

What does this mean

The character is not written in a way that evokes any sympathy despite being the protagonist.
"Never think you can turn over any old falsehood without a terrible squirming of the horrid little population that dwells under it." -O.W. Holmes "Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.."

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Lord Wilmore

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #795 on: June 16, 2013, 08:24:55 PM »
Okay, Fu Manchu was just to boring and racist. Gave up, now reading Ulysses in honour of Bloomsday.
"I want truth for truth's sake, not for the applaud or approval of men. I would not reject truth because it is unpopular, nor accept error because it is popular. I should rather be right and stand alone than run with the multitude and be wrong." - C.S. DeFord

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Chris Spaghetti

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #796 on: June 19, 2013, 01:16:22 PM »
I've put Gorbachev down for a bit. After the interesting rise through the Soviet ranks and general life in the USSR it's gotten bogged down in some pretty heavy political bits which must, I'm sure, be interesting for people who lived through them, but I can't connect at all. I think the problem is that he assumes a base knowledge of the events in question(which I don't have) and adds his own commentary on them. It's a shame because he's a good writer and can make even the driest topics fairly interesting when he assumes the reader is as ignorant as I am; a great example is when he's minister for agriculture in his region and after a couple of pages of writing about grain quotias and tractor factories adds a great line which is along the lines of "...I am aware that the casual reader may not be as enthused about these matters as I am, however, if you will indulge me a little longer..."

I've restarted Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.

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Crudblud

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #797 on: June 19, 2013, 01:49:30 PM »
Made it to the halfway point (section II.3) of Finnegans Wake, for some reason not as difficult as Ulysses.

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Supertails

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #798 on: June 20, 2013, 01:20:41 AM »
Just starting Joyland, Stephen King's new novel. I'm excited.

I actually only started reading because my internet annoyingly died (I'm not proud to admit that :[ I need to start reading consistently again.), but luckily it's already caught my interest enough that I'm going to continue reading. Why is Stephen King so amazingnggngng
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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #799 on: June 22, 2013, 02:29:09 PM »
Im reading kafka on the beach, I hate it! I'll finish reading it though. I feel sorry for the cats  :'(

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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #800 on: June 23, 2013, 02:37:37 PM »
The Crow Road, by Iain Banks.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

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Lord Wilmore

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #801 on: June 23, 2013, 08:04:39 PM »
Made it to the halfway point (section II.3) of Finnegans Wake, for some reason not as difficult as Ulysses.


I forgot that I swore I would read the Odyssey before reading Ulysses again, so that is my current project.


P.S. read it in an Irish accent. The wordplay is more obvious.
"I want truth for truth's sake, not for the applaud or approval of men. I would not reject truth because it is unpopular, nor accept error because it is popular. I should rather be right and stand alone than run with the multitude and be wrong." - C.S. DeFord

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Crudblud

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #802 on: June 23, 2013, 09:53:31 PM »
P.S. read it in an Irish accent. The wordplay is more obvious.

That was my instinct, it seems to have paid off so far.

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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #803 on: July 04, 2013, 06:47:18 AM »
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It's pretty good, so far.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

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Genius

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #804 on: July 04, 2013, 06:53:47 AM »
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It's pretty good, so far.

Katniss sucks.
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OMEGA MAN

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #805 on: July 06, 2013, 07:10:15 PM »
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It's pretty good, so far.
I bought my daughter the series to read, when she finished them [she just turned 13] she pestered me to read them, so I gave in and read the lot. They are very good, sometimes brilliant and at moments profoundly sad. More from Suzanne Collins and her alter ego  Katniss.   
BOLLOX.

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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #806 on: July 07, 2013, 08:43:06 AM »
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. It's pretty good, so far.
I bought my daughter the series to read, when she finished them [she just turned 13] she pestered me to read them, so I gave in and read the lot. They are very good, sometimes brilliant and at moments profoundly sad. More from Suzanne Collins and her alter ego  Katniss.

I've read the trilogy now. I agree with you that they were brilliant at times, and very sad... but at times they were also rather silly (the "muttations" and the boobytraps in the Capital were a bit much).  I'm glad I read them.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

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Roundy the Truthinessist

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #807 on: July 07, 2013, 08:57:08 AM »
On the whole the series was a lot darker than I was expecting.  There were a few times that I stopped reading and said to myself, "This was written for kids?"... a fact which of course does explain some of the series' sillier elements.

I loved the Snow/Coin dichotomy towards the end, and I give Collins points for not holding back on the bleakness of war.
Where did you educate the biology, in toulet?

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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #808 on: July 07, 2013, 10:34:25 AM »
I liked how Katniss was written, too. It's kinda rare that a female character gets to be the hero. Collins didn't make her perfect, and I like that too.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.

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Space Cowgirl

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #809 on: July 12, 2013, 12:16:30 PM »
Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson. It's really good.
I'm sorry. Am I to understand that when you have a boner you like to imagine punching the shit out of Tom Bishop? That's disgusting.