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What Did You Read Today?


RoyWill Rumble

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Currently reading "Dial M For Murdoch"; I don't generally bother with books that deal with things presently in the public eye, as they tend to be populist cynical cash-ins, but I couldn't resist; I just love the idea of watching Rupert Murdoch squirm.

Only a chapter in so far, so it's nothing earth-shattering, but it's fairly interesting, and a quick and easy read.

Can you let me know if it's any good when you've finished?

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It's pretty good - it's basically just a summary of a lot of the stuff in the papers, and falls into "this happened, then this happened" a few times, but if you're interested in the subject material it's worth a read, even if doesn't shed that much new light. Tom Watson inserting himself into the story in increasingly bizarre ways gets a bit offputting, though.

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I picked up Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator...just cause it was lying around. It isn't long, only took a couple of hours to read, but I'm glad I did. Last time I read it was when I was like eight and I realised now that so much went over my head. It's such a brilliantly ridiculous and crazy book, and I never realised that at the time. As and eght year old I didn't see anything unusual about the President of the USA having a sword swallower from Afghanistan in his cabinent. >_>

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Just finished Junky by William S. Burroughs. It was a quick read and quite a good book, ending on a rather falt note though. I have Naked Lunch by Burroughs lying around, but i decided to wait with it for a while. Instead I started on Martin Amis Money: A Suicide Note. Right now I'm about 50 pages in and completely hooked, Amis storytelling and characters are really great. Right now I'm considering purchasing London Fields, but i'll wait and see how Money turns out first

Naked Lunch is fucked. And it's one of my favourite books for that very reason. Junky was good stuff, too. I'm gonna start The Ticket That Exploded soon.

Anyway, going through Leaves of Grass, for sadly the first time. Whitman was pretty fucking awesome.

Also just finished Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I read it a few years ago, too. And it's still just as depressing now. The last few pages? Chrrrrrrrrrrrisssttt.

Also finished The Road recently. I'd been meaning to read it ever since it came out, never got to it. I finally did, and I can see why McCarthy won the Pulitzer. It's fucking amazing.

Also read The Art of Racing in the Rain thanks to a suggestion from the girl. It's an easy read, but it's interesting, and damned heart-breaking--and quite uplifting, too, actually. It's a story told from the perspective of a dog about said dog and his owner, who's a racecar driver. It's radder and more complex than it sounds. I don't wanna give away the plot too much.

Andddddd read Memoirs of a Beatnik by Diane di Prima. It was on the cheap, and I realized I hadn't actually read any female beat writers. Though, it is a memoir--so not exactly what fiction, but I was kinda intrigued. And it was about... 90% fucking, and 10% plot. Yet, I kinda felt compelled to read it, just 'cause it was interesting. Nothing really HAPPENED, but then again, it was so god-damned beat-y. Beats just fucked and wrote. They just existed and fucked. I dunno. All the fucking wasn't offensive, really. After about twenty pages I knew what to expect. And I was fine with that. So I enjoyed it. Some of the descriptions were both hilariously and awesomely vivid, too.

Edited by Will? Yum.
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In the spirit of clearing out my closet of books that I own but have not read, I started on The Godfather a few days ago. Still only a 100 pages into it but man, I am really enjoying it much more than I thought I would and it makes me want to watch the movies again (also because I've only ever watched Godfather once).

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I recently finished the Steve Jobs biography and its pretty fascinating. The writing gets a little dull in the second half but Jobs certainly lived an interesting life and It will be interesting to see how it translates into a movie. Should be good though since it was just announced that Aaron Sorkin will be writing it.

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Just finished The Gunslinger (vol 1 of The Dark Tower series) by Stephen King.

It's kinda...alright. I finished it, which I wouldn't have done if I wasn't enjoying it enough, but it just lacked....something. King himself says that re-reading it, he feels like he is reading a different author and that it very much feels like the writing of a young and inexperienced writer and I can see where he's coming from. It has a certain aloof pretentiousness that King novels don't have and it certainly lacks the easy authorial voice that King novels have. You can generally tell when you're reading a Stephen King and The Gunslinger breaks this rule.

King excels (or you might say used to excel) in creating characters that you cared about and were invested in and once he had spent suficient time in doing so then he made bad shit happen to them. After over 200 pages I care about Roland, Jake, The Man in Black and the quest for the Dark Tower about as much as I did when I picked the book up in the library last week.

This all sounds negative, and it shouldn't. It was readable, had some good passages and some nice ideas. If it were any other author I'd not turn down the chance to read book two but I wouldn't go out of my way to aquire it. Knowing that it is Stephen King and that book two was published much later, I'm more likely to give it a go (And because a friend loves the series.)

Anyway, next I'm going to be giving a go to The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain and then Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet which I've been intending to read for yonks.

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Finished reading "The Centaur" by Algernon Blackwood. Aside from a couple of really nice phrases or cool passages, it was pretty dull. Nothing actually seemed to happen.

Started reading "More Than Human" by Theodore Sturgeon. I picked it up because the concept seemed like it might help me brainstorm some stuff for a short story I started work on a while back before hitting a brick wall and, although I'm only 60 pages in, I bloody love it. Best thing I've read in a hell of a long time, especially considering I've effectively gone in "blind".

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Guest mr. potato head

Not sure what to think about Douglas Coupland's "Generation A". The characters are superb, but the plot kinda veers off into inexplicable batshittery.

It starts out as an interesting (if over-the-top) character study of 21st-century youth in a way nobody else I've seen has ever tried to do, but ends with somebody trying to get high off said youths' brains somehow.

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I borrowed Game of Thrones from my girlfriend. Can't fucking stand it. I just--noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooope. Nope. I know that people have their styles. The beats are undoubtedly my favourite writers. And I very much emulate their style. But I get that people don't like the beats. And I can see why. And I feel that way about Martin. I just find his writing unbearably dense and boring. It's just tedious. And what's worse? His characters are amazing. There's a lot of intrigue in the actual story of it, but I cannot god-damned stand the way Martin writes. IT'S SO BORING. I give books a hundred pages before I make my verdict, and I read about 200 of Game of Thrones. It was nightmarish. I'll watch the series when it's all over, because the characters intrigue me. But the books? No thanks. >_>

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Oh, I know, sir. I find the Lord of the Rings books insufferable, too. After that rabbit hole in middle school I kinda stopped with fantasy. I was warned about Game of Thrones, but I was like "Nah, can't be that ba-OOOOOOOOOHHHHHMYYYFUCKINGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHNO." The show, from what little I've seen, does the books more than justice. I just don't see how someone would willingly read this series. It's a god-damned chore. Reading shouldn't be a chore. Fuck it. It's masochism.

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Tolkien is vastly underrated as a writer. He's much, much better than the likes of Martin, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, etc. This is not to say he's exactly a literary craftsman, but he has a much stronger command of both English and myth. Gene Wolfe is one of the better fantasy writers and he even writes in gigantic blocks that are rough to get through. The only fantasy writer I know of with a fairly modern style is Scott Lynch who wrote The Lies of Locke Lamora, but his writing is insufferable because it's so smug.

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Weirdly enough, when a book is based in a fantasy world, spending time setting up characters/setting/et al is a useful and necessary thing.

Strange, ay?

And those who can do so without being tedious will be praised for it, while those who use that excuse as a crutch will be maligned.

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Weirdly enough, when a book is based in a fantasy world, spending time setting up characters/setting/et al is a useful and necessary thing.

Strange, ay?

And those who can do so without being tedious will be praised for it, while those who use that excuse as a crutch will be maligned.

It was more comment on how someone can be surprised by that kinda writing in a fantasy novel.

Surely, it is to be expected somewhat?

If you are a fan of your Bukowski-types, the long expositional passages are going to be a chore.

But some people want to read that.

It is like complaining about the trumpets in ska.

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I wanted to start reading Game of Thrones.. should I not? :shifty:

If you can read any widely marketed book in the last few years, you'll be fine. For many people I feel like Game of Thrones is their first foray into this sort of character-based political fantasy. I already read through much of the Wheel of Time before getting to this, so a lot of the tropes were similar. I gave it a shot because I was promised really good writing, which I personally didn't find. So yeah, while I can't personally recommend it, definitely check it out for yourself.

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Weirdly enough, when a book is based in a fantasy world, spending time setting up characters/setting/et al is a useful and necessary thing.

Strange, ay?

And those who can do so without being tedious will be praised for it, while those who use that excuse as a crutch will be maligned.

It was more comment on how someone can be surprised by that kinda writing in a fantasy novel.

Surely, it is to be expected somewhat?

If you are a fan of your Bukowski-types, the long expositional passages are going to be a chore.

But some people want to read that.

It is like complaining about the trumpets in ska.

I don't think anyone was surprised. Just dismayed.

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