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What Did You Read Today?


RoyWill Rumble

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I just started reading "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski while I'm still reading Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things" at work.

"House of Leaves" is a bit pretentious and unwieldy, but undeniably creepy, and I'm less than a hundred pages in. (Y)

My mate loves House of Leaves. Or at least I think it's that one. Is that the one with about four words per page? ¬_¬ Seriously, some pages are pretty much blank, right? Never read it, I assume there's some sort of 'artistic' reasoning for it?

I always assumed it was because he was Welsh and couldn't cope with more than a few words per page. :P

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I just started reading "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski while I'm still reading Neil Gaiman's "Fragile Things" at work.

"House of Leaves" is a bit pretentious and unwieldy, but undeniably creepy, and I'm less than a hundred pages in. (Y)

My mate loves House of Leaves. Or at least I think it's that one. Is that the one with about four words per page? ¬_¬ Seriously, some pages are pretty much blank, right? Never read it, I assume there's some sort of 'artistic' reasoning for it?

I always assumed it was because he was Welsh and couldn't cope with more than a few words per page. :P

I haven't gotten to that point yet, so I don't know, but I do know that I've read some pages that were crammed with text and footnotes and whatnot, so it'd be quite challenging to the... uh... Welsh?

I also know that the format of the text is related to the subject matter at times, so I'm sure it has 'artistic' purpose.

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Reading The Pillars of Earth right now. It's quite fascinating reading about the running of the Church and state in the 12th century, and it's written in a fairly accessible way. Not too dense or philosophical. I'm diggin' it.

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Just finished I Killed on the bus ride home, and I loved the shit out of it. It was a short read, too. All of you fucks should read it. Some of the stories are just absolutely fucking ridiculous. I found myself telling my girlfriend about half of the stories in the book the other night.

10/10, no doubt.

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Reading The Pillars of Earth right now. It's quite fascinating reading about the running of the Church and state in the 12th century, and it's written in a fairly accessible way. Not too dense or philosophical. I'm diggin' it.

My wife is reading that right now, and she is also enjoying it quite a bit.

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I've just started An Utterly Impartial History of Great Britain or 2000 years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge by John o' Farrell. Its very funny so far, I recommend it.

My to read list is as such - Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze?, Can a Robot be Human?, The Book of Animal Ignorance and the last two Dexter books. Good times!

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I was reading "An Utterly Impartial History of Great Britain or 2000 years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge by John o' Farrell" too, and it is very funny and accessible. I will say though, that it goes through so much in a fairly quick and breezy manner that not much information sunk in. I chose to put it on the shelf, and I'll dip into it and read a section of it if and when I'm interested, as I think (and hope) I'll take more in that way.

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Speaking of Stephen King, has anyone on here read the Dark Tower series?

I'm just beginning Volume V, The Wolves Of The Calla and really into it, having just read Volume IV on holiday earlier in the month. I lost a little bit of interest at the end of the third but still engrossed in the story. Usually I stick a couple of books between each volume but decided to go straight ahead with the new one.

So yeah, anyone on here reading/read them? I'm interested to know if the ending is worth the lengthy journey.

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Speaking of Stephen King, has anyone on here read the Dark Tower series?

I'm just beginning Volume V, The Wolves Of The Calla and really into it, having just read Volume IV on holiday earlier in the month. I lost a little bit of interest at the end of the third but still engrossed in the story. Usually I stick a couple of books between each volume but decided to go straight ahead with the new one.

So yeah, anyone on here reading/read them? I'm interested to know if the ending is worth the lengthy journey.

Yes, it is. Although it does get a little contrived at times...

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Just finished The Pillars of Earth and have moved on to its sequel, World Without End.

I really enjoyed Pillars. A good, largely historically accurate read with some compelling characters, a few infuriating villains, and some shocking deaths to keep it interesting. Will be interesting to see how the book set 200 years later goes.

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Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin is one of the most brilliantly surreal books I've ever read, fantastic stuff - teleporting bears, sad dolphins, killing sprees, nonsense, Sean Penn getting punched in the face by a sad bored bear...nothing really happening...it's just wonderful. It's kind of like a dream sequence reading it in some respects, as it doesn't need to make sense, and it doesn't, but kind of works on its own internal logic.

Currently reading "Oscar's Books", which is a biography of Oscar Wilde through the books he read; interesting concept, but quite dull so far - although I've read more Wilde biographies than you can shake a stick at, so I'm not getting much in the way of new information from it, or nothing interesting anyhow, other than the odd tidbit about his childhood that's not often touched upon. Nothing close to "The Secret Life Of..." as far as biographies of the great man go, though.

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Speaking of Stephen King, has anyone on here read the Dark Tower series?

I'm just beginning Volume V, The Wolves Of The Calla and really into it, having just read Volume IV on holiday earlier in the month. I lost a little bit of interest at the end of the third but still engrossed in the story. Usually I stick a couple of books between each volume but decided to go straight ahead with the new one.

So yeah, anyone on here reading/read them? I'm interested to know if the ending is worth the lengthy journey.

I'm about halfway through volume 3, but haven't messed with it in some time. Thoroughly enjoying them, tho.

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Right now, I'm reading "Fragile Things", a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, and it's predictably brilliant.

I really liked Fragile Things. Gaiman has a nack for short stories. After reading it, I ended up going out and getting Smoke and Mirrors. What were your favourites? I liked The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch, Bitter Grounds, How to Talk to Girls at Parties and Goliath. Goliath was kickass.

Recently I read the Viking trilogy (the first two thirds anyway, I can't find King's Man anywhere :() by Tim Severin.

Tim Severin. Worship him.

Definately a book I will need to check out. Sounds awesome.

This thread has reminded me that I've been meaning to pick up "Fragile Things" since it came out - Gaiman can be a little patchy outside of graphic novels, as much as I love him, but judging by "Smoke And Mirrors" he can really nail a short story - I think it helps him not to have to flesh out an idea too much, as some of his full-length novels tend to drag or become a little repetitive or predictable or just plain daft.

His short stories are good, especially in that anthology. Which were your favourites?

Anyway, just picked up 'I Killed' from the library today. It's a collection of road stories from quite a lot of big American comics. I'm not even a third of the way through and I already love it. If you even like stand-up comedy in the least bit, read this book. I love it ten times more than any person should because I'm a comic myself, so I know that this kind of shit really happens and it doesn't surprise me as much as it might anyone else, but I still find myself just going "Wow, what the fuck" quite a bit. Then, then I laugh for a very long time. Seriously, this book will probably be 10/10 easily. Read it.

Another one that I'll have to put on my list to read.

I'm attempting to read It, but I'm having a little trouble getting into the book....

If I can't, I'll probably just switch over to 'Salem's Lot...

"It" is good once you get into it. It does take a little while though.

Anyone read Stephen King's "Desperation"? Good book. One of my favourites by him, although I've not read "The Stand" or the Dark Tower series.

Oh, has anyone read Jess Walter's "The Zero"? I tried several times to get into it and moved onto other things and then I picked it up like a week ago and finished it. It's actually very good, though I get the sense that maybe I didn't quite understand everything. The protagonist is a man who has gaps in his memory and Walter jumps around a fair bit. It's very intriguing, based in part on 9/11.

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