Topic: Books

[ScaryTooth]

So, I've been reading a lot lately in my spare time. I just finished "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" a couple days ago. Sweet ass book. Now I want to see the show "Dexter" that was based on the book. I've seen a couple episodes, and I really like it. But I want to start from the beginning.

Before I read that, I re-read "The Watchmen" what an awesome fucking novel. I saw the trailer, and I wanted to read the book again. I forgot how good it was. It was nice to have a refresher. Now I hope the movie is decent.

At the moment I'm reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke". I want to read it before the movie comes out. I'm really digging it so far. I think Palahniuk is becoming my favorite author. I've loved everything I've check out by him so far. I want to read "Rant" Next.

Anyway, you guys reading anything good?

[Quemaqua]

I'm rereading the horribly-named Masters of Doom, which despite a little funky writing, some typos, and the occasional evidence of the author's limited understanding of certain concepts, is actually a really good book.  It's currently depressing the hell out of me because it throws my life's lack of achievement into stark contrast, and I hate the fact that I'm stuck doing what I'm doing.

I'm also trying to read God's Demon by Wayne Barlowe, but haven't had enough time.  If you don't know, Barlowe is the artist who did Barlowe's Inferno and Brushfire, two of the best art books I've ever seen.  The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe is nothing to sneeze at, either.

[ScaryTooth]

I was actually looking for "Barlowe's Inferno" a few weeks ago, and the only copy I found was this one..Pretty sweet, but way out of my price range.

[Quemaqua]

Holy crap.  Must be a special edition or something.  You can find it reasonably a lot of places... a lot of the bookstores here still have physical copies.  Amazon.com has it for a reasonable price, I think.  It's well worth finding, regardless.

[PyroMenace]

I actually want to read Chuck Palahniuk's "The Haunting". This is a friend of mines favorite book plus I have yet to read one of his books.

I picked up the Watchmen while I was visiting Que and Sy but I havent gotten around to reading it yet.

[Quemaqua]

Heh, same here.  I picked it up a bit ago and still haven't gotten to it.  I was too busy reading the Sin City library that I picked up, which is just fucking awesome, and finishing The Dark Knight Returns.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I just finished "Time's Eye" by Arthur C. Clarke recently and enjoyed it, its not as good as his earlier stuff but still a good read nonetheless.  I've actually been reading through "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan recently along with an audio book version read by him a few years before he passed away and its really cool hearing him read it. 

Good to hear you're enjoying Palahnuik's stuff Scary.  He's one of my favorite writers, I have read all of his stuff, except for Rant, which I really need to read.  Also, Pyro, "Haunted" is completely fucking awesome and disturbing on so many levels, you'll like it.

Que, since you seem to be on a Batman kick, you should consider reading The Long Halloween and Batman: Year One.

[gpw11]

BURN EM

[Cobra951]

Heh, same here.  I picked it up a bit ago and still haven't gotten to it.  I was too busy reading the Sin City library that I picked up, which is just fucking awesome, and finishing The Dark Knight Returns.

The style that worked so well in Sin City didn't work nearly as well for me in The Dark Knight Returns.  Definitely worth the time, but I was not overly impressed.

[iPPi]

I just finished up World War Z by Max Brooks.  Pretty good read.

[ScaryTooth]

I just finished "Choke" yesterday. Loved it. It was kind of dismal, but it was awesome too. Somewhat like Fight Club. I love how reading his books, makes you notice little stupid smaller details in everyday life. Signs, the behavior of people, just little dumb things. At least thats the kind of effects it had on me. Great book.

I was going to read "Rant" next. But I decided to check out The New York Trilogy

[Quemaqua]

Time to resurrect this thread. What have you guys been reading lately? I know some of you are on Game of Thrones what with the show happening and all.

I just finished Stephen King's On Writing which was totally awesome. I don't think I learned anything much that I didn't already know about the craft of writing in general, though it was interesting to see points of similarity or difference. Some of the most interesting stuff was just him talking about his life experiences, like his drug and alcohol addiction and when he nearly died after getting hit by a car.

Finished Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves not too long ago. Some people completely hate it, other people think it's brilliant, and I think both opinions are valid. I loved what was there and thought that the unique way it was written actually worked for what he was trying to do (it could have been done very poorly but wasn't--it added to the story rather than just being a distraction). The only sad thing is that I don't think he tied it all together in a way that was as transcendent as it had the potential to be. So in the end it was just a fun story with some good characters (and one spectacular one), written in a compelling and unique way. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in literary horror.

I'm still working on both Needful Things and Gorky Park. The former I like but have been distracted from for a while due to other stuff.

The latter I just can't seem to make real progress on. I've read half the book, but I feel like I've been at the halfway point for forever. It's just really dense... an interesting crime novel set in 1970's USSR. It's got a lot going for it but it's just tough to sit down and read. This isn't a page-turner for me I think mostly because a lot of the political stuff and "hey look at how different Russia is" stuff gets in the way of the story a bit. It doesn't help that the mystery is so enigmatic and impersonal it's hard to give a shit about the how and why, and the protagonist has to carry 90% of everything on his own shoulders for the first third of the book. Which he does, but sometimes I just found myself wanting to know more about him and a lot less about what he was striving to solve. It's not a bad book, just needs to pick up more steam.

Have been reading some of Joyce Carol Oates's Give Me Your Heart, a short story collection. I really liked a couple, but it hasn't impressed as much as I'd hoped. But I'm not nearly done yet. Also picked up Angel Dust Apocalypse and Monstrous Affections, which I haven't given much time to but am insanely curious about. Angel Dust is my first real foray into the Bizarro genre... I'll let you know how that turns out. I plan to pick up The Haunted Vagina and Help, I'm Being Eaten By a Bear when I get done with this. Monstrous Affections is more straightforward literary horror, but seems of high quality and has garnered a lot of praise. The cover was enough to get my attention in the first place, heh.

Finally got around to buying a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Got a nice bonded leather copy for seven bucks at a used bookshop in Eureka when idol and I were traveling through for Sy's wedding. I don't know when I'll get to it. Hopefully soon. I should have read the thing years ago.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Hooray for books!  I just recently finished up Joseph Campbell's four book The Masks of God series and it was ok, a little hard to get through in some parts though.  I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed The Hero With A Thousand Faces that I read several years ago.  I'm finally getting around to reading Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark that I picked up at the last meet and its been a great read so far.  While not a proper book, I recently picked up a photograph book titled Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs and it was awesome to look though.  It has a collections of photos all the way back to the very early rockets being built in the 1940s by Germany and then goes through the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Soyuz, Mir, and Space Shuttle progams.  With the last space shuttle Atlantis touching down tomorrow morning it was a great time to look through it.

[Pugnate]

I read Andre Agassi's Open, which was really really fucking amazing. Even if you don't like tennis, you should read it. One of the best books I've read in a while.

I read Kite Runner and it made me cry several times. Fucking Kite Runner.

[scottws]

I'm not much of a reader.  When I do read and it's not IT-related stuff, it is usually spy/military stuff along the lines of Tom Clancy.  Seriously Red Storm Rising is probably my favorite book.  My favorite "real" book is The Trial by Franz Kafka.  I've been meaning to read it again but haven't.  I'm just too busy with other stuff.

Here's a question.  In high school I took a bunch of English Lit. classes and we read all these "classic" books.  So where do modern classics come from and how do I find out about them?  How do I find a truly good modern non-fiction book that isn't military/spy/girly without just randomly guessing and picking something up?

Edit:  Sorry, I meant fiction.

[Quemaqua]

Wait, non-fiction?

[scottws]

Sorry I was kinda drunk when I posted that.  Fiction.

[Pugnate]

Why do you make only one mistake when posting drunk and Nick makes 100?

[Quemaqua]

It's not really a science, I guess. I honestly have a hard time not finding good fiction. I have way too many books. But I'm sort of heavily invested in literary circles and thus stumble upon things randomly on a pretty regular basis without even trying.

Book reviews are obviously one source of recommendations, as are friends who read (probably the best source there is), but there isn't any sure-fire way of finding the next modern classic. While there are lots of movies to watch, books outnumber them by about eighty bajillion. You can spend all the time you want and still never be familiar with everything that's out there. If you're interested in a particular niche or genre then things aren't so hard, just find a site that recommends stuff and read some synopses/reviews until something piques your interest. If you're wanting to find some good literary fiction... that's tougher in the specifics, but you've got so much good shit out there it's sort of hard to miss too often unless you have incredibly particular tastes.

You can probably Google stuff and find lists of so-called modern classics according to someone. But I think once you get some recommendations from friends and find something that appeals to you, it's pretty easy to go from there. Find one author you like, there's usually someone somewhat comparable or writing in a similar style. And if you find a 2nd author from the first, it just grows exponentially from there.

[ren]

Recently I've read:

World War Z. iPPi mentioned this earlier in the thread. Great fun, quick read.

The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain. This one was fantastic. Such a stark contrast from Huckleberry Finn, my only previous encounter with his work. The ending was kind of weak but then I found it it's an unfinished book so that explains that.

Frankenstein. This sucked. I struggled through it and it's a pretty short book.

Treasure Island. This was awesome. Such a fast-paced book, especially compared to everything else I've read from the 1800s. I imagine when this came out it was like a summer blockbuster that blew everyone away.

Game of Thrones. I liked it. The tv show is basically the exact same which made it a bit hard to watch since I started right after finishing the show. Needless to say, I got a bit sick of the whole thing. After a few more weeks away from it I'm really excited to get into Book 2 and see something new.

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Non-fiction. I'm early on in this one but I would already recommend it to everybody. Read the brief Amazon synopsis, if it piques your interest this is definitely worth a read.

I'm not much of a reader.  When I do read and it's not IT-related stuff, it is usually spy/military stuff along the lines of Tom Clancy.  Seriously Red Storm Rising is probably my favorite book.  My favorite "real" book is The Trial by Franz Kafka.  I've been meaning to read it again but haven't.  I'm just too busy with other stuff.

Here's a question.  In high school I took a bunch of English Lit. classes and we read all these "classic" books.  So where do modern classics come from and how do I find out about them?  How do I find a truly good modern non-fiction book that isn't military/spy/girly without just randomly guessing and picking something up?

Edit:  Sorry, I meant fiction.

For non-fiction, I tend to look at best of lists. Recently a bunch of sites have posted their best of 2011 so far lists and it gives you a good idea of what's good. I check out NPR Books, NY Books, The Guardian Books and The Millions and whenever a title pops up from multiple sources I look it up and read it if it seems interesting. So far the method has worked pretty well. And by check out I mean I follow them on twitter, it's a much faster way to get reading suggestions in the back of my mind than visiting the sites daily.  Also what Que said, once you find some authours you like, what's out there kind of explodes. It's like getting into a new genre of music, once you finally break the initial barrier you'll discover so much more than you expected.

Has anybody read The Room by Emma Donoghue? I've seen it pop up a few times and might read it next.

[ren]

I read Andre Agassi's Open, which was really really fucking amazing. Even if you don't like tennis, you should read it. One of the best books I've read in a while.

I read Kite Runner and it made me cry several times. Fucking Kite Runner.

I love The Kite Runner. I wouldn't at all be surprised if it ended up being a classic.

Also, que, I don't recognize any of the books you've talked about except Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Could you recommend me something?

[Quemaqua]

Looking for horror, thriller, mystery...? I don't know your tastes and mine vary pretty widely.

Actually, you can see my library here and ask me about anything that interests you. I certainly haven't read everything I own, and there's a small amount of crap in there (I put in books that were gifts I didn't want, etc., since I use LibraryThing to keep track of stuff I need to get rid of too, heh), but if you sort by tags you can probably get through whatever interests you at a glance.

So... I dunno'. Here's just random stuff about things I've read or plan to read:

I'd try Chuck Palahniuk's Rant or the aforementioned Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves if you're looking for something a bit out of the ordinary in terms of structure.

I've read a lot of Haruki Murakami over the last year, including Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After Dark, A Wild Sheep Chase, and Dance, Dance, Dance. Murakami's stuff is very dream-like and sort of... out there. You'll either love it or hate it, though I'd recommend starting with Chronicle or After Dark (the latter is very short). These are a bit more grounded. I liked Chronicle more than the rest (I loved it, actually), but haven't yet finished South of the Border, West of the Sun, and I haven't even started Norwegian Wood or Sputnik Sweetheart.

If you're looking for short stories and haven't read Smoke and Mirrors, Angels and Visitations, or Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, I'd recommend all of them. I've gotten a bit through a collection he edited called Stories which has some good stuff so far, and Monstrous Affections from David Nickle that I talked about earlier seems like it's got some great potential. I was also pretty fond of Clive Barker's Books of Blood for straight horror stuff, but it's been years since I've read that. I was never quite as fond of Barker's novels, though I still need (and am anxious to) read Mister B. Gone.

I recently read Johannes Cabal the Necromancer which is a much better book than its title might suggest. I mostly wanted to read the sequel, Johannes Cabal the Detective, which sounded like a fun sort of steampunky bit of dark humor with a Sherlockian twist, but figured I'd read the first book first. I did and enjoyed it, though it had some issues. But it was fun, was actually pretty consistently funny in a nicely dry sort of way, and I grew to like the main character quite a bit. Pokes fun at Lovecraft and some other horror standards. Looking forward to starting the sequel.

Finished Steig Larsson's now-famous The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which is another pretty decent book but with a really fucking stupid title. I have the two follow-ups but haven't gotten to them yet. Has some odd characters who seem to sort of fly in the face of convention just for the fuck of it, but it was a colorful mystery novel in a non-American setting that wasn't quite so distracting as Gorky Park's non-American setting. Plan to read Peter Straub's Blue Rose trilogy soon (Koko, Mystery and The Throat) which I mostly bought so I could read The Green Woman, a graphic novel he wrote as sort of an epilogue to the trilogy.

I'm anxious to start World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler, The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno, by Ellen Bryson, and E. L. Doctorow's Homer and Langley and Loon Lake. Oh, and hopefully finally get around to Sartre's Nausea.

Planned to buy is... actually surprisingly little. The main thing right now is Cory Doctorow's Makers. I almost bought a first-time author's paperback called Whitechapel Gods which has an amazing premise, but I suspect he didn't go anywhere I'd love with it as I was flipping through so put it back.

[ren]

Interesting, thanks. I'll look into some of it when I finish what's currently on my plate and let you know what I think.

Our tastes might seem to vary quite a bit but I think that's just because I don't know what my taste is. I used to devour books when I was a kid and then high school turned me against and I'm only now starting to read seriously again. I don't know where to start and end up reading a mix of the classics and bestseller lists. You seem to have a much more developed taste and know of books I haven't heard of, at the least I'll figure out more of what's out there.

[Quemaqua]

Haha, I actually meant that I don't know your tastes in particular because I don't know what you read; and my own tastes, with which I am well acquainted, vary widely and thus make it hard to just pick things out to recommend. It might have been Stephen King who said it or might have been someone else, I honestly forget, but I "read widely and without discrimination". That's not entirely true, but close enough.

[Quemaqua]

Picked up The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene which I've almost picked up tons of times but finally bit on at $5, a gorgeous copy of The Divine Comedy with the engravings of Gustave Dore in nice huge plates (even though this is probably the 3rd variant I'll own now), and the copy of Sir Thomas More's Utopia which I've been meaning to grab for bloody forever.

For my birthday, I also got The Quotable Asshole and The Giver, and a few other small book items.

At the last couple trips of Half-Price Books I snagged some Eco, including The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, The Name of the Rose, and a nice hardback first edition of Foucault's Pendulum. I also randomly grabbed Christopher Buckley's Thank You for Smoking, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let Me In (which unfortunately I couldn't find in any other edition, I was hoping there'd be one with the original title of Let the Right One In which I think is about 10,000 times better... goddamn movie tie-in releases), and Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory even though there are other books of his I'd rather read (but hey, cheap is cheap). Oh, and James Joyce's Dubliners.

I bought Murakami's 1Q84 and still haven't gotten into it. Frustrating. I keep wanting to read it but other stuff is coming up, and lately I haven't been reading at all since I'm so stuck on Dark Souls.

Best thing I've read in a really long time is Bringing Out the Dead, though, which was absolutely amazing. My favorite movie and now also arguably my favorite book. I think I mentioned this in another thread somewhere but I'll be damned if I can keep track of shit. Anyway, it's amazing and you should read it.

I'm right now reading The Boy Detective Fails by Joe Meno. I actually got this at the library, and the meet happened and I promptly got a $0.75 charge because I didn't renew in time. Oh well. The premise seemed great, and I don't know what to make of it. It's kind of lighthearted and goofy on the one hand, but sort of dark on the other, and the premise itself is both dark and also funny. I don't know where it's going to go, but it's been interesting thus far. Hoping to dig into that more this week since I really need to get it back to the library soon.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I have been recently reading House of Leaves which Que was nice enough to get me for a gift and I'm loving it.  One of the best books I've read in awhile.  During the meet I picked up Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End and read it on the train ride home and loved it as well.  I plan on reading some of his works after I finish with House of Leaves.  I got a copy of The Sentinel by Clarke as well and it comes with several of his short stories, looking forward to that.

[Pugnate]

Finished Dance of Dragons. Pretty awesome./

On Robin Hobb's first Liveship book.

[ren]

Let me know how 1Q84 is. I've heard a lot about it and keep meaning to pick it up when I get some money. I recently read The Giver as well. It was always on the bookshelf in the third grade and I kept wanting to read it but never did. A few weeks ago Amazon had it for a dollar so I had to go for it. Very good intro to sci-fi/dystopian reads for kids. Flawed in a few ways both still entertaining.

Most of my reading lately has been a result of Amazon Daily Deals because it's so hard to say no to dollar books.

I've recently finished reading:

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Awesome book. Kind of makes me want to watch the movie but I'm going to assume that's a bad idea.

The Hunger Games Trilogy. Young adult fiction/light reading is basically the best reading material you can have when you spend all day reading textbooks. Anything that requires any kind of thought is often not worth the effort. For those purposes, The Hunger Games was pretty decent.



Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet. This was motivated by the BBC Sherlock. All I had ever read of the series before this was Hound of the Baskervilles. This book makes me want to read the rest.

The Color Purple - Alice Walker. Story of a black female in early 20th century America and all that horrible stuff she went through. Good read.

[Quemaqua]

Love Sherlock. I've read all the stories probably 3 times. There's a lot of good stuff there, something very different from what's prevalent now.

[Quemaqua]

Que reviews The Boy Detective Fails

EDIT - Also Fight Club. I know, it's late.

[ren]

Sophie's Choice

I'm only about a quarter of the way through but I am absolutely loving this book based on the writing style alone. I'm using the dictionary feature on the Kindle a lot with this novel and each time I have to look up a word, I get super excited because I'm amazed at how perfect the word is for the scenario.

[beo]

neuromancer

about half way through and loving it so far. first time in years that a novel has gripped me to this extent.

[ren]

Sophie's Choice

I'm only about a quarter of the way through but I am absolutely loving this book based on the writing style alone. I'm using the dictionary feature on the Kindle a lot with this novel and each time I have to look up a word, I get super excited because I'm amazed at how perfect the word is for the scenario.

Five months later and I've finally finished it. Absolutely fantastic read. It was a bit heavy at times so I would only read a chapter every now resulting in slow progress, but whenever I was reading it I was completely captivated.

[Cools!]

I just started reading Crime and Punishment a few weeks ago. Good stuff thus far.