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| What are you reading?; Because we were strangely lacking this. | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 5 2012, 11:23 PM (4,041 Views) | |
| Snowman | Jul 15 2013, 03:05 AM Post #91 |
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Berserker
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^ I almost read The Man in the High Castle for the final English essay we had to do this year, but then I didn't 'cause I couldn't find enough lengthy articles about it and we needed a lot. Glad you liked it so much though. I've read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the next book I was going to read by him was going to be Ubik but I'll read that instead. Y'know, after Feast and Dance... And I want to read John Dies at the End too. Hope that's good. |
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| Olinea | Jul 15 2013, 06:24 AM Post #92 |
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No finesse
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I finished Cat's Cradle over vacation and it's a pretty good read I suppose, I guess I expected more from it and I don't think it fully satisfied the nerdy chemistry side of me with the Ice-9 but nonetheless it's pretty short and a book I wanted to read for a while. I started A Clockwork Orange and that one's a doozy, the main character speaks in some weird slang the author invented and there's really no easy way to tell what he's saying without trying to get it from the context. I gather that if it was written regularly it might not be the same but the language thing is so dense (like around a third of the words or so are made up, it seems) that it takes some time to read. I'm curious about how that book will progress because I'm sure it's a classic for a reason but it's pretty hard to wade through. Hopefully that changes because I really can't see it getting much easier. |
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| Pwner | Jul 18 2013, 12:04 AM Post #93 |
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Jack of Some Trades
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I shall finally attempt to read a Stephen King book all the way through. Hurrah! I've tried to read It, The Stand, AND Pet Semetary and couldn't finish a single one. But now I'm already a sixth of the way into 'Salem's Lot, and all shall be right with the world again. It's pretty intriguing so far. Stephen King always does a fantastic job of fleshing out the locations and characters in his novels. Also reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, because <3 David Sedaris. Not many other people I know read his work, which is a shame because I think that many of you would like it. If you do want to read his essay collections, you can pretty much start anywhere except When You Are Engulfed In Flames, unless you're okay with darker stuff. I suggest his new book as well, Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, as it has a fairly light tone. |
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| Snowman | Sep 7 2013, 09:25 PM Post #94 |
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Berserker
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I finished Dracula and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde recently. I thought Dracula was mostly good. It got slow at some spots, but I enjoyed it. TSCODJAMH was really short and I'd recommend it if you are looking for something quick to read. I'm guessing you all know the plot twist by now, but the first half of the book pretty much talks about all these strange things that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are doing, and the last half kinda explains all of it from his/their point(s) of view. So the first half wasn't really that exciting or anything, but the last half was pretty interesting. Also read All the King's Men for school over the summer. Most of my friends who read it really didn't like it, and several people in the class either didn't read the book or just skimmed it. I did read all of it, and I liked the last few chapters when the shit got terribly cray, but I didn't really like a lot of the first half-ish. Just started The Sirens of Titan, and I think I'm gonna read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (short story) before the TV show starts on the 16th. After those two, A FEAST FOR CROWS. I'm finishing up some other things (games/TV) before I start that too so I can hopefully put most of my attention on that and read it quickly so I have time for A Dance with Dragons before season 4. |
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| BigMac | Sep 7 2013, 11:55 PM Post #95 |
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Real Trill Shit
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Got lotsa books goin on. For my English class I have to read The Time Machine which is actually quite good, especially when you understand the social commentary. For myself, I have been reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Pretty good, but I'm not even halfway done after a month. Weird. I also read The Dark Knight Returns recently, which is super good. I have a few books that I plan on reading soon, including Philip K Dick's Ubik, the collection of Lovecraft stories I just bought, this small Doctor Who book I got, and the first part of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. |
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| paige5999 | Nov 6 2013, 02:31 AM Post #96 |
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I'm a smart, strong, sensual woman
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I've been reading a book called The Sociopath Next Door. Basically, it says that 1 in 25 people are sociopaths. So now I am going to assume that basically everyone is a sociopath. |
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| DarkFlashlight | Nov 6 2013, 04:32 AM Post #97 |
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it will take a toll
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What's the technical definition of a sociopath? |
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| paige5999 | Nov 9 2013, 12:56 AM Post #98 |
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I'm a smart, strong, sensual woman
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Basically, someone who has no conscience. There are different types of sociopaths, but the main indicator is just a lack of anything resembling a conscience. |
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| Snowman | Jan 9 2014, 11:39 PM Post #99 |
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Berserker
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HBO has announced that I need to finish A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons by April 6. I'll be working on that. I'm currently about 200 pages into Feast. |
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| BigMac | Jan 10 2014, 01:21 AM Post #100 |
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Real Trill Shit
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Read A Picture of Dorian Grey finally. I guess this was a book that everyone read in high school but we read The Importance of Being Earnest instead so suck it. It was really good. Oscar Wilde does a great job of writing somewhat Romantically without being a full on Romantic writer (which I despise). Now I'm reading Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, which is basically just various stories from different world mythologies told in a humorous and informal way. Can't wait. |
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| Romanticide | Feb 11 2014, 11:38 AM Post #101 |
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Cult Leader
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*bump* I finished up some of my readings before Lightning Returns, and I haven't posted here in... forever... So yeah. Cormac McCarthy - The Road Everyone who reads this book seems to jizz over it, and I suppose they have reason. It's a good book. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting, but that's not the main draw. Hell, even the two main characters aren't the main draw, considering that you don't even learn their names (because McCarthy loves his vagueness). As far as backstory goes, you learn the grown man in this story is haunted by the loss of his lover/wife. That's really about it. The draw, to me, is how McCarthy writes about the small events: Gathering food, bathing, trudging on down the road, and so on. Every event in the story takes on significance because the threat of death or worse waits around every corner. I'ma be contrarian and say I liked No Country For Old Men more. I tend to like stories where I have a reason to care about the characters. I don't know a whole lot about these characters, and honestly, "just surviving the apocalypse" isn't reason enough for me to care. At least No Country For Old Men had a clearly defined conflict and a main character you came to know somewhat. I still feel these characters are strangers to me, only defined by their relation to and love for each other. Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner, And the Mountains Echoed, A Thousand Splendid Suns The formula for his novels seems pretty obvious at this point: An emotional story about family and love, set in the trappings of Afghan culture. But hey, write what you know. It works, so yeah. I'd have to say this is his best book. Sure, I got a case of the feels from And the Mountains Echoed and A Thousand Splendid Suns as well, but this one hit me a bit harder. I suppose a big part of this is that unlike his other novels, this is about a pair of friends who are more like brothers, with all that a relationship like that entails. I can relate to that far more so than to a romance for obvious reasons, and so I guess that's why it affected me more. /shrug All three of his novels are great, though. Dean Koontz - Innocence This is probably his best work since One Door Away From Heaven. Both of the main characters come across as Mary Sues from the moment you meet them, but, well, there's a plot justification for that. Even in spite of that, I do like both of these characters a lot, which is a great thing, because at its core this novel is a romance between them. I can't say I'm a big fan of the ending. Even though it was foreshadowed a fair bit, it just seems to come out of nowhere. I get how it factors into the story and all, but I can't help but feel it was shoehorned in, either to end the novel or to justify why the main characters are the way they are. Neither is a particularly good explanation to me. Dean Koontz - 77 Shadow Street Again, another good novel. I don't think this one would crack my top five of Koontz novels, but this beats most of his recent efforts, including everything in the Odd series. (Please stop trying to make Odd Thomas a thing and get back to Christopher Snow novels. FAR more interesting character, supporting cast, and setting.) This feels more like an old school Koontz novel than anything he's done in recent times, The Taking exempted. It has the obvious messages about faith and society Koontz has in every single one of his modern novels, but this one hearkens back to older books like Watchers, Phantoms, amongst others, with the whole supernatural horror vibe. |
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| MrMarill | Feb 11 2014, 11:41 AM Post #102 |
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DAT STORY TIEM
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I've only finished the Kiterunner from that list and I really was not a fan of it. It's very hard to care for such an unbelievably unlikeable character and I didn't feel like he was redeemed or anything throughout. I just got mad every time more things went right for him which wasn't what the book was trying to do. |
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| Romanticide | Feb 11 2014, 11:48 AM Post #103 |
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Cult Leader
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Yup, I'd agree he's unlikable. Even if his guilt manifests itself in extremely obvious ways, his efforts to deal with it are ham-fisted at best and life-altering at worst. If pressed, I'd probably say I read the book to find out what happened to his friend Hassan, only to find out... I'll stop there. But yeah, pretty much everyone who isn't Amir (or Assef obviously) is more likable. Even Baba becomes more likable in the end. I'd also agree he isn't redeemed. You can argue that his attempt at redemption went horribly wrong too, which is consistent with the character and the story as a whole. And then the ending goes all saccharine on us, though it's not total sunshine and rainbows, which I guess is something. Edited by Romanticide, Feb 11 2014, 11:49 AM.
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| MrMarill | Feb 11 2014, 12:15 PM Post #104 |
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DAT STORY TIEM
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Getting into spoiler territory, my thoughts are pretty much the same as yours. I was pretty excited when reading it to see where his character would go and just ended up disappointed. I'm also not a fan of books that kinda just stop without enough closure. I'm fine for ambiguity, but it doesn't leave me satisfied. |
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| MilkAndCookies | Feb 12 2014, 08:43 PM Post #105 |
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sadjan stevens playing the world's saddest song on the world's saddest banjo
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I started this the other day, having needed to break up my A Song of Ice and Fire reading a bit. It's pretty good I suppose -- I'm not far enough into it to make a really great judgment on it. |
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