tec Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I finished Fifty Year Sword by him last week, it's pretty cool and can be read in under an hour. On The Martian at the moment and finding it really dull, it's a month into him being stranded on Mars and he doesn't write about his loneliness, family, his loves, wanking, nothing, it's just a bloke moving things around and saying cheesy dad jokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lala Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I finished Fifty Year Sword by him last week, it's pretty cool and can be read in under an hour. On The Martian at the moment and finding it really dull, it's a month into him being stranded on Mars and he doesn't write about his loneliness, family, his loves, wanking, nothing, it's just a bloke moving things around and saying cheesy dad jokes. is it matt damon in the film? maybe the author had him in mind from the start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tec Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Yeah that's the one, Damon doesn't seem nerdy enough for the humour aspect of the book so hopefully they have changed it a fair bit. I just checked out the author and he does look like the kind of bloke who would write the story this way, goofy jokes and wise cracks. Maybe it'll improve, or maybe it's just not to my tastes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Last 3% of Infinite Jest...almost there! For a book over a thousand pages long, it sure is compelling and doesn't feel like it's gone on longer than it should (although the explanation of the Eschaton game could have been cut by twenty pages and been fine imo). Not quite the 'next step in literature' hype had labeled it as, but definitely pretty goddamn good for a book this long to make sense, be entertaining and fulfilling. Easier to read that Gravity's Rainbow, that's for sure. Then again, what isn't? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubin Farr Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 Terry Gilliam - Gilliamesque http://gilliamesque.tv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubin Farr Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Terry Gilliam - Gilliamesque http://gilliamesque.tv Variety is reporting Director/Author/Writer/Commedian Terry Gilliam has died. He's very much alive right now. http://gawker.com/correction-terry-gilliam-not-killed-by-hella-sick-vin-1729436846 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auxien Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I get the feeling that not even Danielewski has made his mind on that book and just leaves it to the reader to make up his own interpretation Yeah, I really do think that's part of his intention with the novel; leave some aspects undefined to allow interpretation. That alone is interesting to me, but I'd be curious to hear which aspects are truly open and without direct correlation to any intended thread of meaning (Johnny/Johnnie, perhaps, as an example). I finished Fifty Year Sword by him last week, it's pretty cool and can be read in under an hour. On The Martian at the moment and finding it really dull, it's a month into him being stranded on Mars and he doesn't write about his loneliness, family, his loves, wanking, nothing, it's just a bloke moving things around and saying cheesy dad jokes. I haven't looked at Fifty Year Sword; I did see that The Familiar is intended to be like 27 volumes and I'm just not interested into committing to a trek like that, honestly, especially since I'm a relatively slow reader. And I saw some various quotes of Only Revolutions being difficult to obtain and nearly unreadable for its bulk. I'm okay with some work, but if it seems like a daunting task just to read it, I'm going to be extra hesitant to pick it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tec Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 I finished Fifty Year Sword by him last week, it's pretty cool and can be read in under an hour. On The Martian at the moment and finding it really dull, it's a month into him being stranded on Mars and he doesn't write about his loneliness, family, his loves, wanking, nothing, it's just a bloke moving things around and saying cheesy dad jokes. I haven't looked at Fifty Year Sword; I did see that The Familiar is intended to be like 27 volumes and I'm just not interested into committing to a trek like that, honestly, especially since I'm a relatively slow reader. And I saw some various quotes of Only Revolutions being difficult to obtain and nearly unreadable for its bulk. I'm okay with some work, but if it seems like a daunting task just to read it, I'm going to be extra hesitant to pick it up. I have Only Revolutions but had to call it a day a quarter of the way in as I had no idea what was happening, haven't got the patience really, if you find it cheap maybe give it a crack but I wouldn't spend big on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 Finished Infinite Jest! And it turns out reading it a second time makes the early first chapters that read mostly nonsensical the first time around make sense! So that means another thousand pages to read! Again! (Good though.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hello spiral Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Just finished A Feast of Crows, enjoying these a lot. Will be frustrating to grind to a halt at the end of the next one. Can't imagine how frustrating it must be to someone who started reading them in '96. Now I've started on the new Barker, The Scarlet Gospels, while I wait for A Dance With Dragons to be procured for me. It's already off to a good (and disgusting) start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tec Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 I'm going to be screwed when/if the next GoT comes out, it has been ages since I finished the last book and won't have a clue what's going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lala Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 a friend of mine uses the xray feature on the kindle to follow the characters by name so she can remember who is who Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublename Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 (edited) Anarchism and Education by Judith Suissa I'm always looking for unorthodox shit to try the classroom, hopefully there's something useful in here. Edited September 11, 2015 by doublename Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caze Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Tragedy & Hope Was slightly dubious about this one due to what I read about it online, seems to be popular amongst right-wing conspiracy nuts in particular. It's gotten off to a good start though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QQQ Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 (edited) Finished Cities of the Red Night by Burroughs. It stays surprisingly cohesive for most of the book (though still difficult to follow), though the further you read into it the more it blurs and by the end little makes sense. I read the 2nd in the 'trilogy' (The Place of Dead Roads) first which I didn't know much about at the time and it was hard as hell to make sense of anything (but still loved it). This time around I knew more of what I was getting in to and it makes it a slightly easier read. I particularly liked the occult detective story portions of the book, which were also the most straight forward. Burroughs is a mad genius for sure. Not sure if I'm ready to tackle some of his more cut up works (Naked Lunch etc). The first few pages of that just made my head hurt. Edited September 12, 2015 by QQQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jellyrajah Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Finished Cities of the Red Night by Burroughs. It stays surprisingly cohesive for most of the book (though still difficult to follow), though the further you read into it the more it blurs and by the end little makes sense. I read the 2nd in the 'trilogy' (The Place of Dead Roads) first which I didn't know much about at the time and it was hard as hell to make sense of anything (but still loved it). This time around I knew more of what I was getting in to and it makes it a slightly easier read. I particularly liked the occult detective story portions of the book, which were also the most straight forward. Burroughs is a mad genius for sure. Not sure if I'm ready to tackle some of his more cut up works (Naked Lunch etc). The first few pages of that just made my head hurt. You might want to check out The Process by Brion Gysin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muflontillah Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Orson Scott Card - Ender´s Game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QQQ Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 Thanks for the rec, jellyraj, I'll check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berk Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 (edited) Just finished Bel-Ami, thought it was overrated in the end though Man, the ending to Anna Karenina is a bit of a disappointment, anyone agree? Or am I missing something? Gotta say I agree with this article: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/feb/01/anna-karenina-ending It's been a few years since I read the book, but now that I think back on it, I do remember the ending being pretty bad compared to the rest of the novel. So it's definitely not just you thinking that ah ok, good to hear! Edited September 16, 2015 by Berk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifeforce Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 Yeah, it's a pretty surreal choose your own adventure book with lots of references to other works and real life thrown around. The main character has some pretty hard mental health problems and the story spins out of control lots of times. Speaking about non-English books, the Finns here might enjoy this book. It's pretty IDMz. That looks like a beautiful language. Would it be difficult to learn ?Isn't that where Tolkien derived his Elvish from ? If you know Estonian or some more obscure Finno-Ugric-languages close to Finnish it might be not very hard. Otherwise it's considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, especially the grammar. Also some of the old vocabulary is probably pretty odd, like "sun"->"aurinko". Now, if you want to use the word aurinko it might get tricky.. "from the sun" -> "auringosta" "also from the sun" -> "auringostakin" "also to our sun" -> "aurinkoommekin" "not even from our sun" -> "auringostakaammekaan" etc.. Just looking back through this post and I thought "fuck it, I need a new challenge in my life. I think I'll try and learn Finnish". I mean, I'm not in a hurry or looking for a quick fix. Trying to learn a language in the shortest possible time is not what I'm looking for. A lifetime of study,practice and more importantly, enjoying the experience is more what I'm about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kooch Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 I've been reading trashy Richard Laymon books, The Stake at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Sumbitches Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Finished The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco there, great stuff. Dude knows his medieval culture/history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caze Posted September 17, 2015 Share Posted September 17, 2015 Finished The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco there, great stuff. Dude knows his medieval culture/history. Baudolino is great for that stuff as well, he goes even further down the rabbit hole in that one - based around the time of the Holy Roman Empire and the myth of the Kingdom of Prester John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hello spiral Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 The new Clive Barker is shockingly bad. Read up on it afterwards and it seems the original manuscript was over twice as many pages. That's exactly what it reads like. Stripped of all nuance, forced exposition, terrible dialogue, plot threads introduced early on that are never mentioned again (and presumably were in the bits that were cut) Reads like teen fiction or The Famous Five Go To Hell. Still not got around to getting hold of the last (so far) Ice and Fire book so gonna read Dune next to satisfy my 'book with fantasy map at the start' cravings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 Bought a 1 penny copy of We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates and it's not only in perfect condition but signed. Noice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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