What Did You Read Today?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I swooped through a cycling double-header this last month or two.

and

The first one was VERY well written, especially considering his age, and gave great insight into the way he works.

The second one makes me want to read up more on some of the more well-known British cyclists from the past like Tom Simpson, Robert Millar and Sean Yates.

[Benji]

What I read today was a thread title, and I read it incorrectly. Ignore me.

[Meacon Keaton]

I just assumed you put subtitles on while watching Alien, and that was what you meant.

[Ace]

Re-reading the Belgariad just makes me miss Eddings even more I know his recent work was nowhere near as good as his older series, but still....

[Damian WayLNKe]

I just started reading Cop Stories: The Few, The Proud, The Ugly by Dick Elwood which is a bunch of stories from someone that joined the Baltimore City Police force in 1966. I've read 30 pages which had four stories that involved him shooting something/someone over a course of a year. I doubt that would go over so well today. Here's a list:

1. First day on the job he shoots a rabid dog that was about to attack him during the middle of the day near a bunch of people

2. He and another cop stakeout the inside of a pub over night because it has been robbed for six straight weekends. They end up just unloading their rounds on the robber as he enters and comes onto their floor. It was dark and they saw the robber holding something shiny (which turned out to be a coke bottle).

3. He breaks up someone trying to steal a car and is punched in the face by the person who is holding a screwdriver (note: they didn't hit him with the screwdriver). He chases them down in front of the Baltimore Sun newspaper building and shoots them in the back. A photographer pops out and gets a picture of him standing over top the corpse.

4. He came up on people loading a van with stuff they were stealing out a house. He chases one of them down and shoots two shots over their head and they stop and are caught. It turns out all of the perpetrators were females and "lesbians". They had committed 120 burglaries in the Baltimore area and he ends up receiving the American Legion Police Officer of the Year Award.

He also arrested Micky Mantle for being too drunk during this time frame.

[The Sandman]

Has anyone in here read the Mass Effect books, i'd be able to get them with about 10 euros each and was wondering are they any good?

[hugobomb]

Finished the first two Millenium (The Stieg Larsson ones, not the DS9 ones, though those are great too) books this week about to get the third on my Kindle (). The first was better than the second, though most trilogies are like this TBF. Very much looking forward to getting into the third.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Finished the first two Millenium (The Stieg Larsson ones, not the DS9 ones, though those are great too) books this week about to get the third on my Kindle (). The first was better than the second, though most trilogies are like this TBF. Very much looking forward to getting into the third.

They're all great, but yeah, the first is probably best. I'd rank them first, third, second, but they're all somewhat different so to each their own.

[SRN]

Has anyone in here read the Mass Effect books, i'd be able to get them with about 10 euros each and was wondering are they any good?

I've read half into one of them. They are decent sci-fi if you like Mass Effect, nothing super special.

Also, I've finally gotten around to delve further into Tucker Max' I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. I love that book, it is fucking hilarious. Go read it now, everyone.

[Summers]

Currently reading the first Mass book. It's awesome. A good background novel for those who are to into Mass Effect like me.

[AnnIQ Edison]

Read 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' the other day and I must say that I was quite dissapointed with it. I obviously knew it wasn't going to be exactly like the TV show but it felt very shallow and I was expecting a long, drawn out psychological story but it just didn't feel that way and I just didn't enjoy the book. Again, quite dissapointing.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Read 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' the other day and I must say that I was quite dissapointed with it. I obviously knew it wasn't going to be exactly like the TV show but it felt very shallow and I was expecting a long, drawn out psychological story but it just didn't feel that way and I just didn't enjoy the book. Again, quite dissapointing.

Don't get your hopes up for the other books then. I just finished The Inverted World by Christopher Priest. The buildup to the end was pretty cool, but it just sort of fell off for me when it got to it.

[Skummy]

...people thought books based on Dexter, of all things, wouldn't be shallow?

[Damian WayLNKe]

...people thought books based on Dexter, of all things, wouldn't be shallow?

Dexter, the TV show, was based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

[SRN]

Currently reading the first Mass book. It's awesome. A good background novel for those who are to into Mass Effect like me.

As am I. I couldn't let the book go but then all of sudden my mind focused elsewhere. I am going to pick it up again, most certainly, because I love the Mass Effect universe.

[Skummy]

...people thought books based on Dexter, of all things, wouldn't be shallow?

Dexter, the TV show, was based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

Fine, reverse my point. People thought the book that Dexter was based on wouldn't be shallow? Dexter is trash, why would you expect subtlety, suspense, drama or a psychological epic from anything associated with it?

Back on topic, I'm currently reading The Princess Bride, because I've wanted to for years and never got round to it, and a friend's lent it to me. It's as witty and brilliant as I'd hoped. Also reading "Toppamono: Outlaw, Radical, Suspect, My Life In Japan's Underworld" by Manabu Miyazaki, as I was on a bit of a Yakuza/Japan kick lately, but giving it a break 'til I finish Princess Bride...it's good, but incredibly dense, so it's pretty heavy-going. Nothing too groundbreaking or incredible so far, fairly standard biographical stuff, but the subject matter's interesting enough.

I've got another couple of Yakuza autobiographies lined up, as well as a biography of Yukio Mishima, the new Richard Burton biography, and tons of other stuff. Really behind on my reading lately.

[zero]

Just read The Hunger Games and realized it's the first fiction novel I've read in years. Read tons of political books, biographies, comedy books, books about film, music, etc... but I haven't read fiction (outside of graphic novels and comics) in a really long time. Glad I finally fixed that. Not that The Hunger Games was fine literature or anything, but a really quick, fun and easy read. After seeing all the casting news lately, I'm really excited for the movie too.

[Hickey]

I'm reading Wolves of the Calla. I've been reading the whole Dark Tower series recently. I'm not big into fantasy, but these books are fantastic.

[Guest Neon Noodle]

Just read The Hunger Games and realized it's the first fiction novel I've read in years. Read tons of political books, biographies, comedy books, books about film, music, etc... but I haven't read fiction (outside of graphic novels and comics) in a really long time. Glad I finally fixed that. Not that The Hunger Games was fine literature or anything, but a really quick, fun and easy read. After seeing all the casting news lately, I'm really excited for the movie too.

Out of curiosity, have you ever read Battle Royale? When I read The Hunger Games finally in the fall, I enjoyed it but I was disappointed because I'd already read Battle Royale and felt that it did the same thing so much better.

Also I felt like it gets most of its kudos from girls only because they wish they could be Katniss, but that's another story

[zero]

I have not read Battle Royale, but from my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong), the premise for it (and the Hunger Games), seems heavily inspired by Lord of the Flies, Stephen King's The Long Walk and of course, the Oscar-winning film Surviving the Game, starring Ice-T. Powerful regimes forcing the powerless into horrifying situations that often result in grisly death wasn't exactly a new premise in 1999, when Battle Royale was published. That's not a knock on either work, but as I'm about 100 pages into Book 2 of the Hunger Games, it seems the bigger premise for the series isn't so much about the Games themselves, but rather the dictatorship behind it.

I still have a book and a half to read, but I'm getting the vibe that the Hunger Games is much more 1984/Star Wars for teenage girls, rather than Battle Royale for teenage girls.