doublename Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I feel like Michael Crichton is the real culprit re: super short chapters. Haven't read him since I was a kid, but I kind of remember his novels being kind where there are 100+ chapters in ~350 pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azatoth Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hannu Rajaniemi - The Quantum Thief Need to read it again. I feel like it might work differently than the first time, which I really liked. But first need to finish a re-read of Schismatrix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muflontillah Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I want to re-read the Bridge Trilogy plus Neuromancer because I was so hyped about it that I finished it too fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Finished Atwood's The Heart Goes Last. Great read, nice ending. Starting on Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Definitely easier to read than Gravity's Rainbow, thank god! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hello spiral Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 To begin with it is yeah.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spratters Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 I've never read any of Patterson's stuff but it's shameful the amount of books he releases with his name on them, and I blame him and Dan Brown for the growing trend of a chapter being a page and a half long, it's pathetic. Sorry. I dunno, I sort of like the small chapters, allowing me to stop within a couple of minutes notice (couldn't ever put a book down mid-chapter), but I'm so used to it now. Going on to most other books will make a chapter seem like War & Piece. I will definitely give him a rest after this one, just not sure what to try next???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audioblysk Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 R.D. Laing - The Divided Self. Published in 1960, a brilliant psychologist delves into the why's and how's of schizophrenic patients offering existential analysis. Very good read if you're into that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 To begin with it is yeah.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sally Vingoe Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 just finished herman hesse - the glass bead game; still resonating in my head, which is a good start also just started ayoade on ayoade, right up my street it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caze Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Just started reading Anti Fragile by Nicholas Taleb, has started off in the same all over the place style as Black Swan, but seems have settled down into a more readable and coherent style by chapter 4. Where black swan was all about pointing out flaws in the system, this one is more about solutions. Good stuff so far, and less belabouring the point and repetition (and more diverse examples). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redruth Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 civil disobedience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricone RC Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 almost done with Leviathan Wakes. Sci-fi action stuff, it's a lot of fun although I'm a bit tired of characters saying that stuff will "crack like an egg". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drome Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Kolymsky Heights... Top read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muflontillah Posted January 20, 2016 Share Posted January 20, 2016 Neal Stephenson - Anathem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berk Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Still reading Brothers Karamazov, but I'm amazed at how good it is here and there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Finished Vineland, was a crazy old Pynchon read: paranoid anti-government themes, ridiculous puns and buildings stomped by what appears to be Godzilla. Good shit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Reading Oblivion by David Wallace and I can't help but feel that anyone that refers to his fiction as 'inspiring' has probably not read any of his fiction. These are depressing stories designed to punish any character that dares to have fun or enjoy themselves or have any kind of happiness. Life is miserable and full of pain and DFW makes sure of it. Amazingly written but wouldn't it have killed the guy (it did) to write a happy thing for once? Sheesh! 'Incarnations of Burned Children' I tell you! edit: tbf one story does have a sort of positive ending to it, but that's a rarity so far. Half the book to go... Edited January 31, 2016 by Bechuga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublename Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) His work inspired me to abandon my dreams and accept a life of despair and alienation, m8. Edited January 31, 2016 by doublename Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Job well done DFW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baph Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 At least there's no false advertising re the title, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doublename Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) Just finished The Cartel by Don Winslow. This and its prequel, The Power of the Dog, are the only things I've read by him, but they read like Le Carre or Graham Greene taking on the drug war. 10/10 On to the The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Whites by Richard Price and The Hummingbird's Daughter soon. Edited January 31, 2016 by doublename Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) After a 8 year break from reading, I finally finished 'One hundred years of soltitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez last week. What a read. Sublime in so many aspects, detailed on so many levels. A truly spectacular read. The last chapter gave me so many emotional states: joy, despair, horror, peace and, finally, acceptance. Pretty cool that Melquiades conjured the whole thing up, and that the last remaining Aureliano deciphered the secret, and in that act was introducing his own oblivion. I loved that bit a lot. Now I'm reading Contact by Carl Sagan.I loved the movie a lot, and I like this book too. Ellie is such a powerful and loveable character. The dialogues are very interesting, and monsieur Sagan has such a nice way of writing. I'm also reading an autobiographical book by Adriaan van Dis, a dutch author. The book is about him pretty much guiding his estranged mother to her death, while simultaneously writing down her life story. It's so brutally honest. I like that At the same, I am reading a translation of the whole Kama Sutra (+introduction +comments). I probably am going to take my sweet time for that. DWF-talk: I dug up Infinite Jest while i was moving houses. Although I bought it, read about a 100 pages a while back, it was a very hard book for me to get through; it felt detached, so unerringly detached in it's irony. I didn't like that. Having said that, I read that book a while ago, and wasn't in the bestest of state of minds back then. Also was dealing with some drug addiction problems back then (still am lol ), so it might've been too confrontational for me. idk, maybe i should give it another shot (year of trial size dove bar gave me a good fucking chuckle, i have to admit). What attracted you guys to Infinite Jest? Edited January 31, 2016 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The Freud in me can't help to notice the connection between 'Contact', the book with the theme of the estranged mother and the Kama Sutra.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bechuga Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I was attracted to it because I kept hearing how it was an impossible book and I wanted to see if that was true. I'm attracted to those kind of works in general, to see if they're as tough / crap as said, eg Gravity's Rainbow, Golden Notebook etc. Infinite Jest is tough in a way, but rewards you for persevering. Just gotta keep going and not skip anything. Reading on a kindle helps, especially with footnotes / arm cramp. The first couple of hundred pages are designed to be tough, after which it begins to ease up a little and make sense, bit by bit. The Eschaton game is particularly fun to read, if slightly overlong. Read carefully all the way through, even if difficult for you to do so. And then once you've gotten to the end, reread the first part of the book. Anything else I could say might ruin the fun... Here I can really spoil how the book is structured, if you're still struggling to continue (not plot spoilers but structure ones so don't click unless you're sure...): The book is designed to be read more than once (!) and the early sections of the book (mainly the first fifty or so pages) only make sense once you've finished it. (I have only read the book once but will reread one day) The first time you read it, those first fifty pages make little sense, but once you have and come back to reread them, their purpose becomes known: the beginning is the END of the book, the aftermath. In particular, there's a name mentioned in the first fifty pages that seems a non sequitor on first read but when you come back to it, realise it's the biggest spoiler in the whole book. The namings of the years as sponsorship deals is also a trick to hide the fact that the beginning of the book is the end, and is cleverly done imo. Someone stated that the second read is like 'passing a blacklight over the text and seeing all the hidden plot points'. I agree with this, although if you read carefully you can notice a whole bunch of hidden bits as you read the first time. I am excited to see how much stuff I notice on the second read, especially knowing what I know from the first read. Out of the difficult books I've tried so far, Infinite Jest is the one that rewards the most imo. I will definitely reread it one day and I will enjoy doing so. Resign yourself to the fact it will take a long time to finish and you'll enjoy it, I'm sure. Took me four months to finish it, reading it bit by bit at work each day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KovalainenFanBoy Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 (edited) I'm now reading Neverwhere. I'm not one for fantasy books and "fairy tales", even if they're adult-oriented as this one (supposedly) is, but I loved American Gods so I figured I'd give this one a shot. Also it has Spiral's seal of approval so it can't be horrible*. I'm liking it so far (50ish pages in) And to continue the Infinite Jest talk, I got it for xmas and am going to read it after I'm done with Neverwhere. Picked it up cause it's a classic and I'm a sucker for postmodern, detached, etc etc novels. It's worth noting I gave up on Gravity's Rainbow twice last year, god that book is a drag *it can be horrible Edited January 31, 2016 by ThatSpanishGuy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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