General Book Thread

[Daft]

I finished The Hunger Games trilogy. That was a surprisingly dark ending.

 

I enjoyed it. Now to American Gods.

[Murr]

I'm currently reading

 

 

 

2nd part to the First Law Trilogy.

 

The first book was very much an introduction to the characters, different parts of the world and such, and some action, Couldn't put it down.

 

This book I started yesterday, And it's already straight into what was promised from the first book.

 

 

I've not read game of thrones series yet, but have watched season 1 of the tv series, so far this book series reminds me alot of Game of thrones.

 

Powerful Northmen, Tanned Southerners, Mages, Inquisitors.

 

If you like Game of thrones (from the tv series, not reading the books) I recommend this series.

[Coolness Bears]

Updating my read books list, basically adding all the books I've read ever and all that it has done is make me sad that there is a gap of 5 years where I've barely read any.

 

THIS CHANGES TODAY.

[ipaul]

Finally got around to reading Freedom.

 

 

I loved it.

[dan-likes-trees]

Finally got around to reading Freedom.

 

 

I loved it.

 

Yes. So very good. I tried The Corrections after but couldn't get into it in the same way. Gonna pick up his new essay collection soon. Love the man.

 

Almost finished this bad boy.

 

 

Never read middle-class despair done better. Great read.

[Beast]

So I've finished reading THG: Catching Fire and now I'm on THG: Mockingjay and really enjoying it at the moment. After that, I have American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, The Godfather by Mario Puzo and The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger to read so quite a few books to keep me busy for a while.

 

Also, when it becomes available to pre-order, I'm going to be getting JK Rowling's new book, Casual Vacancy, on 27th September. Can't wait for that!

[bob]

Really enjoyed all of Brandon Sandersons books, so bought this:

 

 

Hoping it to be similar, or at least as good.

[Daft]

I'm reading Rant by Chuck Palaknuik.

 

 

It's enjoyable but I'm not quite sure why yet.

[jayseven]

Since arriving in Oz with 3 chess books I've helplessly picked up a bunch others, and even hit off the library a few times. Sitting in my pile-to-read;

 

Brett Easton Ellis - Lunar Park. Read Less Than Zero a few months ago and, along with American Psycho, he's solid gold.

 

Neil Gaiman - American Gods -- @Daft did you finish it? I first borrowed it from teh library and got hooked, but had to return it, then got it as an anniversary present and unfortunately I've started on other books since then!

 

China Mievelle - Iron Council -- the third and last (so far) book of his that occurs on the planet Bas Lag, I've been putting it off because the first two books were simply outstanding. My friend described the books as pratchett meets hunter s. thompson meets chuck palahniuk. The bugger knew I couldn't resist that. Generally, I think this definition is largely about his large vocabulary. Mievelle has 'sworn' to write a book in every genre, and this is supposed to be his western (the 2nd book, The Scar, was the seafaring epic).

 

Jeff Lindsay -- Dexter - An Omnibus -- the first 3 books. Racing through the first, enjoying the refresh of season 1. My dad told me that the series and the book end differently, and from 2 onwards they begin to differ greatly.

 

Also got Greg Egan - Oceanic (short sci-fi stories), The Brothers Lebowski (big lebowski shakespearised) and a collection of Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson as toilet reading.

 

How's everyone else doing?

[Tom]

I enjoyed the Dexter books, but I think I prefer the series.

 

I'm currently re-reading Harry Potter (I'm off work sick so easy reading is appreciated) but I'm planning on going a bit heavier when we go on holiday next week. I think I'll finally read Stephen King - It and if I finish that I'll start China Mieville - Perdido Street Station which has been sat on my Kindle for ages but has daunted me by the length.

[jayseven]

YES. YES! YES!!

 

Perdido Street Station is a mammoth task. Get past the first two chapters and you should be plain sailing. The bug-heads were a bit "..." at first but they're bearable. Please let me know how you get on with it - I have the next book, The Scar, on my Kindle which means I can lend it to you for a week. Good to know eh?

[Tom]

How can I ignore enthusiasm of such magnitude! I'll do my best to get it read on holiday and report back.

[Daft]

Neil Gaiman - American Gods -- @Daft did you finish it? I first borrowed it from teh library and got hooked' date=' but had to return it, then got it as an anniversary present and unfortunately I've started on other books since then![/quote']

 

Nah, I started reading about five other books at the same time and then I just never got back to it. Fail, on my part. I'll pick it up again soon.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

Picked up Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow's The Grand Design again and finally finished it. It's definitely a great book for fans of the universe, theoretical physics, quantum mechanics and all that, but I was left wanting a bit more. I felt they skipped lightly over some of the explanations, especially as the book progressed (obviously because it's aimed at the general public), but while it was a good idea to skip some of the technical explanations (as they wouldn't have benefitted anyone, and the ones they did put in sometimes left me confused), I wanted more thorough explanations of these theories in layman's terms. Basically I wanted them to try to explain these mind-boggling things more in-depth to the non-scientific crowd, but it seems they opted to sacrifice depth for the sake of not confusing people too much, which is a choice I perfectly understand, though I felt it lessened the impact of the reading, especially by the end, as the theories had grown more complex and the explanations less detailed. Ironically enough, while they most likely chose this approach with the intention of maintaining clarity, I actually felt the stuff thrown around became less and less clear as the book progressed. I longed to understand these things better, but by the end it seemed like they didn't even try to explain them. Probably because people like me wouldn't understand even if they tried, but I still wanted them to try.

 

TL;DR - A great book, but it felt like the authors wussed out a bit towards the end. I wanted them to try harder to explain some of all this stuff to the non-scientific crowd. But I realise that's probably a tough challenge.

 

Oh, and it had great humour!

[Daft]

Childhood's End - Arthur C Clarke

 

Smashed through this in a day. It wasn't by any means perfect but it was gripping and there are some awesomely poignant parts. Never read Clarke before, not too sure what of his I'll read next if anything.

 

Now I need to decide what I'm in the mood to read; Starship Troopers, The Forever War or Ender's Game...or something else completely. Bought Robopocalypse, too.

 

I love my Kindle.

[jayseven]

If you read Ender's Game then you're trying (and failing) to be a hipster :P

 

I read it 5 years ago, so I SUCCEEDED.

 

(people tell me the 3rd book is awsome but I found the 2nd one such a leap of faith that I couldn't get through it. Weird purtuguese pig people!)

[Daft]

Is that because of the film next year? Because that's partly why I want to read it (on account of books>films), the other part being that I'm just going through a load of SciFi at the moment.

 

Is the first one good? I think I might read The Forever War first.

 

Although, do you have any other similar book recommendations? (BTW, thanks for the reminder, I just downloaded Darkly Dreaming Dexter).

[jayseven]

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot collection of short stories is an absolutely seminal tome. Sci-phi, if you will :P Essential reading. No idea what you've read already.

 

Space opera stuff = Ian M. Bank's The Culture series of novels. The Culture is a society of many races and species that are beyond the normal realms of life -- in teh sense that they adapt their own genes, and can live forever. They have spaceships the size of planets, which are considered alive, and are seriously smart AI with widely differing personalities. Each book is a different beast, entirely stand-alone in their own rights. Each time I finished a book, it replaced the previous as best damn sci-fi I've ever read. Cannot stress enough how good these are.

 

Ender's Game is on the list of sci-fi books that everyone ought to read. It's not particularly well written, just the idea behind it is now an archetype. I do think it's more of a book for 'young adults' and reminded me a lot of Pratchett's Only You Can Save Mankind (technically part of the 'Johnny' trilogy, again for kids), though dobtlessly that was a purposeful nod by pratchett. Ender's Game also really reads like a fantasy novel set in space. Again, not necessarily a bad thing.

 

What sorts of sci-fi are you reading? Other classics like Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, and The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester are also phenomenal when you consider how long ago they were written.

 

In looking for the author of The Demolished man, I found this list of 100 great sci-fi books, essentially it's a list of classics. As you can see, Ender's Game is number 1! I've 'only' read 23 of those listed (Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 was the last book I finished). The second book in teh Ender series, Speaker for the Dead, is ranked, so I guess I should give it another shot, too!

[Daft]

I thiiiiink I've read I, Robot.

 

Just downloaded Consider Phlebas after that rec. Been meaning to read that for a while but it's one I always forgot about. I heard Use of Weapons was amazing.

 

Currently my Sci-Fi collection (on my Kindle) contains,

 

Consider Phlebas

The Forever War

The Machine Stops - E.M. Forster

Childhood's End (Just finished)

Starship Troopers

Ender's Game

Robopocalypse

 

Dunno, if that helps. The only other Sci-fi book that really sticks in my mind is Dune. Which blew me away.

 

Also been reading Lovecraft. Got about half way through The Mountains of Madness - I'm pretty sure I stopped just before it got good but I became bored.

[Tom]

I didn't enjoy Dune at all - sorry, I know that makes me a heathen - but I just thought it was trying too hard and didn't have enough substance. Admittedly it could be partly because I listened to it rather than read it (I have a long commute so try to use it to catch up on reading) and I know some books are better when read.

[jayseven]

Heard mixed things about dune - it's, what, 6 books all-in-all? Someone with a very trusted opinion told me that either the 3rd or 4th book is simply one of the best ohmigoshjesuswept books ever, and I feel like I need to get in on that action... but I've always found that it's a fairly large investment to go in on a series of books taht are connected.

 

Culture novels, on teh otehr hand, offer a much better chance of the book being good, due to the author not having to try and constantly evolve/challenge a specific set of characters.

 

@Daft I shall warn you now, that Consider Phlebas is THE worst culture novel :P Player of Games is the easiest starter, but yes, Use of Weapons is what many consider his best - he 'started' the novel 20 years earlier, sort of that one story he'd, for years, yearned to do properly. You'll never look at a chair in the same way again (srsly). I just have to stress that fact again; Consider Phlebas is the worst of the lot. It's a great introduction to the idea of what The Culture are, but please, please continue with others afterwards. You will not regret it! The 2nd book alone is set something liek 250 or 600 years later...

 

Excession ended with me saying, rather loudly considering the packed train - "Noooo! What. The Fuck." Look forward to that.

[Daft]

Nah, sod Dune the series. Just read the first book and leave it. Stunning.

 

Worse comes to worse with Consider Phlebas and I'll just skip it and go on to the next one. Cheers for the heads up, though. I excel in dumping books.

[Daft]

So I'm like a quarter way through The Forever War and I'm not really enjoying it. I think I might just drop it. There's nothing really compelling me to go on.

 

Thoughts?

 

Edit: Okay, I gave it another chapter (because I couldn't quite be bothered to start a new book) and it's picked up again. I guess I just find the Taurans just really enigmatic and unconvincing.

 

Also, if I want to read a war about Vietnam I'll read a book about Vietnam.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Daft

[Daft]

Three posts in a row; deal with it.

 

Just finished The Forever War. Actually quite enjoyed it by the end. The effects of the time dilation was the most interesting thing to read about. The Tauran's were...lame. In the end I kind of felt overly disassociated from the book's world, which might have been the point. But yeah, not bad.

 

I'm going to rate it...

 

If Childhood's End is a 4/5 I'll give The Forever War a 3/5. Not sure if I should read the next book, Forever Free. Reviews don't look too hot and I think I'm pretty much happy to leave it as it is.

 

Now to decide on my next book....

[jayseven]

Culture. Start with Use of Weapons or Player of Games.