What Did You Read Today?

[NM!]

I read a book called Flip or Flipped. Something like that. It's for my 8th grade Reading Pre-AP class and well it's definitely not the best book I read. It's about a boy who moves into a new town and well there is a girl across the street who falls in love with him and bugs him and almost stalks him to a point and each two chapters is pretty much the same thing except you see the boys point of view and the girl's. The second half of the book is like the girl figuring out that looks isnt everything and the boy falls in love with her. I admit the concept of the book "Flipped" is interesting as you see both sides but nearing the 100 page mark I found myself skipping the girl's part as most of it was pretty much the same thing that the guy said. Another book that I like a lot is called "Fourtunate Boy"...I think it's boy or kid, but yeah whatever, anyways its about two kids who become almost brothers after the African American's mom meets the "White" doctor and well the white kid is athletic and seemingly perfect at anything he does while the African American boy is clumsy and well pretty much the opposite. Really interesting book and I don't want to give away most of it but I will say it in the spoiler tab below.

Spoiler: Click here to view

The two adults never married, but they lived with each other. Then the mom dies like 30-40 pages into the book and at the funeral the dad who never cared comes by to pick up his son. Pretty messed up, but after the man takes his boy, the kid sees the "black" way of living as the dad seems to put it.

Excessive Profanity is in it but it is a good read. Just saying that in case a younger EWB'er decides to check out the book.

[Skummy]

Working my way through Jon Savage's "Teenage" at the moment, which is a tremendous sociological study of adolescence between the tail-end of the 19th century, through to 1945, which is roughly when the term "teenager" came into common usage, and as such is usually the starting point for studies of teenage subculture, so it's fantastic to see how we got to that point.

Following that - a book about David Lynch, some more Yukio Mishima, and "The Necronomicon" - an HP Lovecraft collection.

Also recently finished "Captivated", a very very odd biography of J.M. Barrie and the Du Mauriers, focusing on their fixation with hypnosis, and on Barrie generally being an evil manipulative little bastard. Kind of trails off halfway through, though, although that could be largely because the Du Mauriers don't interest me all that much, really.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

The Stand:

Spoiler: Click here to view

So... yeah, everybody in Vegas dies after an atomic explosion. What? Seriously?

Still haven't finished it, about 30 pages to go, but after that, I kinda lost the will to end it.

Also, yesterday I bought the seven first Discworld novels. I stumbled upon a book fair and they had them, 3€ (4$ / 2.4£) each. Not a bad deal, I think. I've always wanted to read them and finding them at that price, couldn't resist.

[Kaney]

The first two or three Discworld novels are a bit weird, it takes Pratchett some time to fall into his natural rhythm but there are plenty of good books in there if you like that sort of humour.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

The first two or three Discworld novels are a bit weird, it takes Pratchett some time to fall into his natural rhythm but there are plenty of good books in there if you like that sort of humour.

Well, I did love Good Omens, and I'm hoping the type of humor is similar. I'm guessing Pratchett did the humor parts in that book, because honestly, the other Neil Gaiman books I have, while excellent IMO, don't have quite that same type of humor now that I think of it, IIRC only Anansi Boys has some humor in it, the others are more serious).

[Avenged Probably]

I just finished the first volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower 'Gunslinger' and loved it

I have the next two books sat on my shelf ready and Im going to dive straight into number two. I recommend to anyone, especially as Im not usually into books of that genre (or books at all for that matter) and had absoloubtley no problam staying engaged with it the whole time.

[Guest Wild Hog]

Recently i've been reading some David Gemmel books.

Chronicles of Druss The Legend

Legend

Lion Of Macedon

The Dark Prince

All amazing fantasy novels. Especially the Lion of Macedon and The Dark Prince, its set in ancient greece about a young boy growing up and learning about fighting for sparta. He then goes on to rise up against sparta to defend the town of Thebes.

[Skummy]

I wouldn't read the first two Discworld books as an introduction to the series, certainly not Colour Of Magic, it's wildly different in style and content to the rest. I'd start with Mort or Guards! Guards!.

[Johnny Latino Heat]

I wouldn't read the first two Discworld books as an introduction to the series, certainly not Colour Of Magic, it's wildly different in style and content to the rest. I'd start with Mort or Guards! Guards!.

The ones I got were the ones that were translated into Portuguese, which are:

The Colour Of Magic

The Light Fantastic

Equal Rites

Mort

Sourcery

Wyrd Sisters

Pyramids

[Skummy]

Definitely go with Mort as a starting point out of that lot; it gives you a pretty decent grounding in Discworld humour, as well as how the world itself works. Most of what you get told in Colour Of Magic about the nature of the Discworld, most of the characters you meet, most of the events - none of it matters, and a hell of a lot of is directly contradicted in later books - it's a parody of LOTR style quest fantasies, not yet an established fantasy in its own right. By The Light Fantastic the series is starting to find its feet, as ideas and characters start to form a lot more, but really, other than introducing you to Rincewind, The Luggage and Twoflower, I think they can all be ignored, and you could probably even jump to Sourcery as the "first" Rincewind story.

[RavenBlack]

Lately I've gotten back into my Redwall habit (Brian Jacques is awesome), so I've been rereading random novels from that series.

The last book I bought was Chris Paolini's Brisingr (no comments from the peanut gallery). Much better than the disappointment Eldest turned out to be, with an ending that didn't upset me (I hate cliffhangers). There's even a Doctor reference, though it's in there for pretty much no reason. It wasn't the best book ever, but I was happy with it.

[Gongsun Zan]

I just finished the first volume of Stephen King's Dark Tower 'Gunslinger' and loved it

I have the next two books sat on my shelf ready and Im going to dive straight into number two. I recommend to anyone, especially as Im not usually into books of that genre (or books at all for that matter) and had absoloubtley no problam staying engaged with it the whole time.

As much as I loved the first few books of the Dark Tower, its one of those series that really loses steam about the halfway point. Just a bit of warning to those reading it, I guess.

[Farmer Reil]

I couldn't even finish Gunslinger. I read Wizard and Glass in hospital a few years ago and it was brilliant, but I bought a box set of the first three and never even finished the first one. Maybe I should try again, but there are just so many other books I have to read first...

[StevenRichardsRules]

I finished reading A Life Without Consequences, a semi-autobiographical novel by Stephen Elliott, and I'm pretty impressed. The guy has talent and really knows how to make you empathise with the characters, even if you've never been in a foster home or lived on the streets. Which I haven't so...

[nabeel]

Currently reading Catch-22 by Heller.

Simply brilliant. Its no wonder that this book is a classic. I keep re-reading the first few chapters again and again because of the sheer simplicity and brilliance; Heller adopts a point of view I've never come across before in any of the many books that I've read before.

Must read.

[fr34k]

Why did this thread die? There must be some people around who read on a regular basis, so I'm bringing it back

I just finished reading "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I'm normally pretty sceptical about the 'classics' of literature and I tend to dislike quite a few of them, but this is not one of them. The Gatsby character was pretty interesting and this kept me hooked until the end. Definitely recommended. It's a pretty quick read too (Y)

I'm now at the beginning of "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski. Bukowski is one of my favorite authors, if not the favorite, but I never got around reading his debut novel. It's typical Bukowski and as awesome as everything else by him. Check him out if you haven't read anything by him.

Next in line is "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk. I really enjoyed Fight Club and wanted to check out something else by him for a long time. I hope it's good. The format is awesome though, with pages and chapters counting backwards. I'm looking forward to it.

What about you EWB?

[Timmoru Suzuki]

I've recently finished 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and Stephen King's 'The Stand,' both of which were excellent.

I've just started 'The Age of Zeus' by James Lovegrove, not too sure about it yet.

I'm also considering reading some Jeeves and Wooster by P G Wodehouse. I think that's the sort of stuff I might enjoy.

[Walker]

Nearly finished Chuck Palahniuk's "Rant" and will move onto "Lullaby" when I'm done.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Just finished "How We Almost Gave The Tories The Boot", doubt anybody else here would be interested.

Before that was "The World Is A Ball" by John Doyle, basically a diary of his travels to every Euro and World Cup from 2002 to 2008, plus 2010 qualifying. Good stuff, he's a good writer.

Not sure what'll be next, though The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is in the box I brought out with me. Suspect it'll be The Forever War or Flowers For Algernon, though. Hopefully it'll be fiction for a change anyhow.

[therockbox]

Dead Sea by Brian Keene - 4/10. Would probably make a decent zombie film. Didn't make a very good zombie book.

Dune - 7/10. Enjoyed it. Wasn't sure about it until the Harkonnen plan kicked in but from then on was very good, even if slowed in the last third.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - 9/10. Brilliant book. Could fit into about three or four different genres quite easily, really well written and a great plot.

Just started American Gods, the slightly longer version.