What Did You Read Today?

[Nick Adams]

I recently read Sammy's House by Kristin Gore. Fairly well-written and quite humorous, with a protagonist that you at times pity, dislike, sympathize with, and wonder just how she managed to get where she is. I like the roller-coaster, and although some parts of the story feel inevitable, others are quite surprising. Worth the read, though I didn't treat it as sacred like I do with some of my books.

[stokeriño]

Read Brave New World for the first time the other day.

I think it always ends up the same way with these distopian/utopian future books... I find the world itself really interesting to read about, but then there comes the part inevitably someone with a 'normal' (20th century) sensibility clashes with the world and it's just a long stream of

Person: "WTF world, this is sick and terrible!"

World: "lol what? You crazy dude."

Person: "AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH *mind spasm*"

Of course in BNW you get a bit of the opposite too, with Lenina being all shocked and disgusted by the 'savages' and so forth, but it just seems like the quality of the story takes a dive when it gets into things like this... Like the subtle-yet-obvious critiques and parodies of our world found through the discovery of how this future world works aren't enough for the reader - they need to have a character actually stand there and shout about the madness as well.

I dunno. Maybe I just have an unnatural dislike for plot or something. >_<

[Hagen]

I finally (!) finished Underworld by Don Delillo. It seems like it took forever, I was completely exhausted by it about half-way through and had to put it down and read a couple of other books, but I picked it up again and finally finished it. There is no doubt that Delillo is a very talented writer and the book is so ambitious in the fact that he tries to create a panoramic view of the American landscape from the 50's to the 90's. But with 100+ characters and subplots it becomes confusing and tries way too hard. Honestly he could have cut 300 pages out and it wouldn't have hurt it. What keeps you reading while Delillo breaks of into various subplots is the tension and "unsolved mysteries" in the main plot, which in the end get resolved in a fairly anti-climatic way. Way too long, way to self-involving and really not worth the effort. I wouldn't recommend it.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Hagen

[ADG]

I finished The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared a couple of days ago. I heartily recommend it, one of the best books I've ever read.

[stokeriño]

Just started on The Count of Monte Cristo. I have a three day training course for work next week which involves staying in Portishead with, likely, sod all to do outside of the course hours of 10am-4pm so I figured a hefty novel choice was in order... 1,200+ pages may well be pushing it but at least I am already familiar with the story, if not the book itself.

Also glad that I sought out the Penguin Classics version with the 1996 translation. The introduction contains excerpts that seem to confirm what I'd read online about virtually all prior translations (taken from the one 1846 version) being utterly terrible, both in use of antiquated Victorian English and also sizable chopping around with the text to hide certain aspects from Victorian sensibilities ("oh no, Eugenie's not lesbian; she's just...going away...with a female...friend...for a long time. ).

[Summers]

So I read The Running Man a few days ago and it was awesome and it got me on a King kick, so I just finished The Long Walk and holy shit - what a book, what a journey. Totally one of my favourite books now.

I was completely drawn into the Walk and I became totally invested in not only the main character but so many of the characters.

[Liam]

I finished The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window and Disappeared a couple of days ago. I heartily recommend it, one of the best books I've ever read.

Yeah, I absolutely loved that book.

Am currently reading Engage: The Rise and Fall of Matt Hampson - about a man who picked up a serious neck injury whilst on England U21 Rugby duty. A good read, for sure.

The problem I have is that I have a multitude of books sitting to be read, but don't spend enough time doing it. Got It's Not Rocket Science, Gone Girl, finishing the rest of All Hell Let Loose, 1Q84, The Eye of the World - amongst others.

[Ace]

So, got back into my local library recently. Picked up Carte Blanche because I saw it was a 007 novel. Raced through it within a day.

Past week I've read The Sleeping Doll and Roadside Crosses. Deaver is amazing.

[Meacon Keaton]

So I read The Running Man a few days ago and it was awesome and it got me on a King kick, so I just finished The Long Walk and holy shit - what a book, what a journey. Totally one of my favourite books now.

I was completely drawn into the Walk and I became totally invested in not only the main character but so many of the characters.

You're one of the few people I know that have read The Long Walk. I have told others to read it and it has sat on my friend's bookshelf for six months. It is really different from anything else I can think of.

As for me, I finished 11/22/63 by King. Absolutely loved.

[ZJ Penn]

I'm trying to read all of King's books interspersed with others and 11/22/63 has been recommended by many. Be a while though, I'm on The Stand uncut edition right now and it's a marathon.

[Meacon Keaton]

11/22/63 is probably second only to The Stand when it comes to King books for me. Finally got my wife to start The Stand and she hasn't put it down.

[Liam]

I used an extract from The Stand in a lesson I taught when training. Never read the whole book though. Always meant to give it a go.

[KONGO]

So I'm looking for some new books to dig into. Any recommendations? I'll take a look at most anything, but I will say one of the first things that turn me off is very heavy prose (so no, I will not read Game of Thrones, sorry). Very interested in sci-fi, especially older stuff, and well-written stuff of any genre. Non-fiction's my bag as well, especially history (African or Middle Eastern history would be ace), though I'm not looking for an overly dry tome. As far as science I tend to like space, but any sort of exploratory science will perk my interest.

Sorry for the spiel, figured I'd lay all the cards out on the table. Anyway, appreciation to anybody who can send me a good rec.

EDIT: Figured I'd say that I am also specifically looking for good stuff on the French REvolution.

[Skummy]

On the sci-front, have you read "The Stars My Destination"? I'm not a huge sci-fan, mostly because the genre tends to get stuck in a mess of accepted tropes and whatnot, so it's the earlier stuff that's more interesting to me, as "sci-fi" wasn't yet as set in stone in terms of what could and couldn't be done.

To me, "The Stars My Destination" is one of the key examples of that - it's very dark and almost nihilistic, at a time when sci-fi was largely aspirational and very positive in tone, and almost cyberpunk decades before such a thing existed.

[livid]

If you want some good crime fiction, I would definitely recommend checking out anything by Dennis Lehane.

[Skummy]

I just finished reading a collection of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné books. Moorcock is someone who's been on my radar for years, but I've never read his "true" fantasy work before, though I was familiar enough with the basics of the Elric story.

I enjoyed it, though at some points the writing was downright awful. The phrase "then he died" comes up routinely, which was pissing me off, and there's an opening paragraph to one chapter that I wish I had to hand now, as it's one of the worst bits of prose I've ever read.

That said, the premise is great, and despite all that, it's a really solid story with some really cool underlying concepts - some of which seem fairly clichéd now, but only because they've been so heavily borrowed by later writers, particularly since they form the basis of a lot of D&D. I'm a fan of any fantasy story that doesn't just follow Tolkein's lead, and while it does borrow liberally from Conan, even while subverting the usual tropes of the "swords and sorcery" genre, it's no less compelling for it.

I'm now reading "The Other Log Of Phileas Fogg" by Philip José Farmer. It's the first of his books I've read, but I've been meaning to read into his "Wold Newton" universe for years, as I'm a big fan of "all fiction is true" shared universes, though Farmer's is absolutely fucking bonkers. I'm barely a quarter into this thing, and already it's just bizarre. The only shared universe I've seen that's half as exhaustive is League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen's, and that's not half as convoluted and well-connected as this one.

[KONGO]

Yeah, ultimately, prose was my issue with Moorcock. I also recall not liking Elric too much as a character. That said, I gave it up pretty quick.

Actually found the book I had been reading again, started in on it. Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars. Has been very interesting so far. One thing I like about a lot of old sci-fi is that they start with a genuinely interesting premise rather than doing what I generally do which is say "Yeah it's a regular story but it is in space.

[VerbalPuke]

Went to the bookstore for the first time in ages and found a book called Detroit Rock City. As you assume its a book about Detroit's rock and roll scene, documenting from the 60s until 2000 or so. Thus far there has been a lot Amboy Dukes, MC5, and Mitch Ryder discussion, and talk of the drugs they took, venues they played, and cities that were hot spots. I'm excited to get to the 70s, the time sort of in between tue Stooges and punk. Its reads like We Got The Neutron Bomb or Please Kill Me in that it's a collection of different people sharing their memories of the time period.

[KONGO]

The City and the Stars was fantastic, definitely recommended. Got me thinking again about the place of combat/confrontation in story plots, as this story really has none but progresses very well despite it, never feels like it's lagging. I do feel like I use it as a crutch.

Now started in on As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I don't really know what to do with Faulkner anymore. He is capable of great turns of phrase but it's often buried in chatter and twisted language that I'm not sure if I'm supposed to unravel. I sit there and try, then it comes out that I really can't find anything. The thrust and tone of the story is still good but that weirdness in his prose is a big turn-off.

[gunnar hendershow]

Finished Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go last night. A really fantastic read. Hard to classify, it might be sci-fi, might be dystopian, might be romance. Who knows. It's great though, I enjoyed it immensely.

I cracked open Don DeLillo's White Noise today. It's my first foray into his writing, the first 20 pages have been interesting with a good amount of humor and commentary on American society. Looking forward to see how it is once things really get rolling along.