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Goodreads Reading Challenge/General Bookery


Liam

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5 minutes ago, VocalVomit said:

How do I mark what year I read a book on that goodreads thing? 

I set my goal at 10 for the year, really low standard but it’s going to be a busy one.

Click on 'My Books'. Then you'll have a library of all the books you've rated/read. One of the columns is 'Date read' and you can edit it there. 

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First book I've finished this year was Stephen Fry's Mythos. Other than a couple of amusing imagined conversations, I thought it was mostly a bit rubbish.

I just can't really see who it's for. If I wanted to learn about, or read up on, the myths he's telling, why not just read Ovid, or Robert Graves, or really any other widely recognised compendium that's already out there? If I just wanted to see Stephen Fry's take on them, a la Neil Gaiman's re-telling of Norse Mythology, then he muddies the water too much with asides and references, as if he hasn't made his mind up whether he's aiming to tell the story or teach you about it. When he allows himself to get carried away writing dialogue, it's actually not bad - Greek myth reimagined as a sort of Wodehouse-ian comedy of manners - but he never seems to have the confidence in himself as a storyteller to just stick to that, but isn't anything like the academic he would need to be in order to add any weight to the constant nods to, "and from this name, we get the words...." or lazy interpretation or, worst of all, self-referential, "I once played this character on stage" style footnotes. He also picks a fairly dull - to me, at least - batch of myths, ending it all well before the Age of Heroes, so there's no Heracles, no Jason & The Argonauts, no Trojan Horse, no Odyssey...and I just can't really picture anyone who bought a book about Greek myth being too happy on getting home and realising none of that was included.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Granted that it was a good length book to do it with, but I knocked off The Ocean at the End of the Lane in a single evening because I could not put it down - I did so about 3/5 of the way into it but then had to pick it back up and finish it before I slept. All of the Gaiman books that I have read so far have done that to me and I'm saddened that I think I'm at the end of the ones that will have the feeling and flow that I want.

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  • 1 month later...

Just got done reading Stephen King's Christine yesterday and what book. I've seen John Carpenter's adaption a bunch throughout the years however it just doesn't do the source material justice, in my opinion, however it's still a fun film itself.

Also the ending though, well I wasn't expecting anything happy still left me gutted:

Spoiler

Essentially the narrator, Dennis, tells us the one member of the Repperton Gang who seemingly got away died in a "freak accident" involving a car well closing up at work out in the west coast. He then wonders if Christine is working her way back to him, or is he being paranoid? The way it's played out just comes off as depressing and sad since Dennis is such a great guy, for the most part, and it seems like no matter he'll never move on with life, making him Lebay and Christine's final victim, no matter what.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm just about to finish the Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton, about doping in the Tour De France. It won the William Hills Book of the Year award in 2012. Has been really interesting.

There is no subject I care less about on a day by day basis that I enjoy reading about more than cycling. I've never watched an event properly, yet I've read a number of really interesting cycling books.

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/06/2018 at 14:51, Liam said:

Y'all should read more books.

I had been meaning to read it for awhile, but I bought Anthony Bourdains "Kitchen Confidential" after he passed away.  I finished it in about a day or so and it made me buy his 2nd book immediately.  

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I just bought a ton, now with some school done hoping to get through some this summer. 

I’m halfway through Skagboys right now, good stuff, usual Irvine Welsch. 

But I’ve been enjoying www.thriftbooks.com 

There are great deals if you don’t mind used books.

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  • 2 weeks later...

ALmost finished reading Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.  Its about Theranos and WSJ reporter John Carreyrou's investigation into it that eventually lead to its downfall.  Really couldn't put it down.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Dry by Jane Harper was exactly what I needed to kick-start another binge of reading. It's a proper page-turner, with good characters, an absorbing mystery and a real sense of place - I think that's always a big thing for me, the setting as a character and this captures that perfectly. Already got the follow-up ready to crack on with, before I get back to a bunch of books I bought last year. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 14/06/2018 at 22:10, VerbalPeru said:

I just bought a ton, now with some school done hoping to get through some this summer. 

I’m halfway through Skagboys right now, good stuff, usual Irvine Welsch. 

But I’ve been enjoying www.thriftbooks.com 

There are great deals if you don’t mind used books.

Hey, now I’m more than half-way. I also started reading Soldier Box, which is basically an English dudes story of joining the Army, deploying once, then going AWOL because he decides he’s never going back to Afghanistan. Actually, he does a tour in Africa and decides he doesn’t ever want to occupy foreign land on behalf of the military.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Skagboys is done, finally. Not finally that it was bad, but finally I fucking finished it. I used to read a ton of books, but like I said before, as I get older the time to do it isn't always there. Anyway, I powered through the last few pages of Skagboys this weekend and followed up by getting started on Last Exit to Brooklyn a bit earlier. 

I liked Skagboys, a nice prequel to Trainspotting showing their descent into hell. Last Exit to Brooklyn is a book I'm interested in because I own the movie and am curious how the book will be. 

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On 28/08/2018 at 01:24, VerbalPuke said:

Skagboys is done, finally. Not finally that it was bad, but finally I fucking finished it. I used to read a ton of books, but like I said before, as I get older the time to do it isn't always there. Anyway, I powered through the last few pages of Skagboys this weekend and followed up by getting started on Last Exit to Brooklyn a bit earlier. 

I liked Skagboys, a nice prequel to Trainspotting showing their descent into hell. Last Exit to Brooklyn is a book I'm interested in because I own the movie and am curious how the book will be. 

Wasn't Last Exit to Brooklyn originally banned?

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On 28/08/2018 at 01:24, VerbalPuke said:

Skagboys is done, finally. Not finally that it was bad, but finally I fucking finished it. I used to read a ton of books, but like I said before, as I get older the time to do it isn't always there. Anyway, I powered through the last few pages of Skagboys this weekend and followed up by getting started on Last Exit to Brooklyn a bit earlier. 

I liked Skagboys, a nice prequel to Trainspotting showing their descent into hell. Last Exit to Brooklyn is a book I'm interested in because I own the movie and am curious how the book will be. 

Last Exit to Brooklyn is one of my favourites. It's proper fucked up. Well worth ya time. The film adaptation also holds up quite well, I'd say. It's got nothing on the back, but it definitely captures the atmosphere and seediness but it loses some of the depth.

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