Book thread

[The Tig]

reading "The Martian" right now - I'm no lit snob so if it grabs me it grabs me - cool read - movie is out now so I hope to finish it prior to seeing the flick

That was a really fun read. There are a few technical holes for the techies, but otherwise a really enjoyable book.

So far the movie reviews are mostly positive.

[Graeme]

I'm about half way through Midnight Tides, the fifth book of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series which I started reading because of recommendations on this thread. I am in awe at the scope and audacity of this project, and that he actually seems to be pulling off what he set out to achieve: if anything ever deserved the adjective "epic", it's this, and the depth and complexity of the world he created is, as far as I know, unparalleled in fantasy and he's done it (so far) without really any of the expository world building that tends to weigh down the genre. That makes it a challenging, sometimes frustrating read--like in the first chapter of the first book where he's describing a sorcerous battle and is getting into things that he doesn't explain and only gradually reveals over the following thousands of pages--but I think the effort is ultimately worth it.

[RoryQ]

I'm still reading the Malazan books.... Glad you're enjoying them.

Right now I'm on Stonewielder by Ian Cameron Esselmont.

The end is in sight... Kind of...

If you want a way to get a bit more detail / clarity / analysis on what's going on, Graeme, then you should check out the Malazan re-read series of blog posts on Tor's website. There are two people who break each book down chapter by chapter and summarise what's happened, and then offer their perspective on it. One of them is reading it for the first time (Amanda) and is, to be honest, worth skipping. But the other poster (Bill) who's reading it for the second time offers some really good pointers on what's going on without actually throwing any spoilers in.

They don't quite serve it up on a plate, it's got more of a book club feel. It's kind of like 'well, how did we like that chapter...?'.

I just like it because I find that it helps me get more out of the books and a full appreciation of what's going on. I felt like I was getting maybe 70% of it otherwise and missing a lot of the subtle stuff that is in there.

As for being epic... Yes, it's quite an amazing series. I don't think there's been anything on this scale before that has managed to crack the mainstream fantasy genre to the same extent?

I'm about half way through Midnight Tides, the fifth book of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series which I started reading because of recommendations on this thread. I am in awe at the scope and audacity of this project, and that he actually seems to be pulling off what he set out to achieve: if anything ever deserved the adjective "epic", it's this, and the depth and complexity of the world he created is, as far as I know, unparalleled in fantasy and he's done it (so far) without really any of the expository world building that tends to weigh down the genre. That makes it a challenging, sometimes frustrating read--like in the first chapter of the first book where he's describing a sorcerous battle and is getting into things that he doesn't explain and only gradually reveals over the following thousands of pages--but I think the effort is ultimately worth it.

[polliwog]

That was a really fun read. There are a few technical holes for the techies, but otherwise a really enjoyable book.

So far the movie reviews are mostly positive.

I was listening to an interview with the auhtor the other day where he talked about how Mars's thin atmosphere couldn't produce a dust storm of the kind described in the book...he figured that this wouldn't be an issue for the average reader, but of course he's been getting tons of letters about it since the book came out.

[Graeme]

@RoryQ Thanks for the Malazan re-read blog suggestion and I'll have to check that out. I guess I've been working through the series for nearly the past two years and it's hard to keep everything straight because the story is so vast. I have been referring to the wiki from time to time. I've read a few reviews that say that it's a series worth rereading because you'll get a lot more out of it the second time around--I remember starting Gardens of the Moon and he's writing about mages unleashing warrens with all these crazy names and I felt so completely out of my depth, like I'd missed an entire volume of the book at least--but with the sheer size of the series, a second reading seems as daunting as the first one. A guide would be super useful in helping me to make more sense of it.

[zetroc]

Got the collected Tattootime box set a few weeks ago and they're absolutely fascinating. Otherwise I'm reading "Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner, about how those of us who live out west are basically just kidding ourselves and we're going to run out of drinking water, and "Missoula" by Jon Krakauer, which is similarly depressing.

That Malazan series sounds interesting. Is anyone here also on Goodreads?

[Synesthesia]

I've been really behind on actual books, but have been stopping in to a local comic book store and buying graphic novels or compilations every now and then. So far I've read The Infinity Gauntlet (LOVED it), most of a book compiling the Stacy deaths in Spider-Man, and most of a compilation of the Black Cat Mystery comics. I'm really getting interested in pulp comics, pre-code stuff, horror, etc. So if anyone has any recommendations for that kind of stuff (either great art or great writing), that'd be great.

My boyfriend has been going with me and getting the new Invader Zim comics and just recently got a couple issues of Cyborg, which looks really cool and I'm eager to read after he finishes them.

[Shane Solusar Bywaters]

This is a great thread, tons of stuff I need to pick up and read.

I just finished A Song of Ice and Fire and I'm freaking out the sixth book isn't out yet. So I'm re-reading Lord of the Rings in the meantime. I think when I'm done with that I'll get back into the Dune series or pick up some Gaiman books.

I don't read all that much when it comes to literature, I'm usually a magazine person. But one of my all time favourites is the Jungle Book/Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling.

[RoryQ]

I still haven't read Tattootime ... Must remedy that. Last time I tried to order it the website wouldn't me order to Ireland.

[Graeme]

@zetroc If you're thinking of starting with the Malazan books I would offer you some advice that I was given here before starting them, which is to give the series at least two books before making up your mind about it. I love the series now, but it took until a particular moment in the third book to fully convince me. The first book had enough interesting stuff going on to make me want to read the second, but just barely. I was introduced to the books in the context of "if you liked A Song of Ice and Fire, you should read this" and while I think these books surpass George RR Martin's in many ways, they lack the strong characters that he has (this is especially apparent in The Gardens of The Moon where it reads more like there are character classes than characters) so it's more difficult to build an attachment to the characters and their world. The writing gets much better after the first book, but I also think it's totally reasonable to not give a book thousands of pages worth of the benefit of the doubt.

[zetroc]

@Graeme - thanks for the detailed intro. I've read A Song of Ice and Fire about five times start to finish (pending book 6) and don't mind spending time with it before picking up the whole series. I really liked that series, though A Clash of Kings is a real slog and is the toughest one to get through, but I've decided that any long series like that will have high points and low points, and that some sections will fly by and others will crawl. I'll check my local bookstores.

[sophistre]

From what I have read in the last couple of pages of this thread, the Malazan stuff sounds like the Simarillion had a baby with Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer stuff. With maybe some Viriconium sprinkled on top. I'm curious! I can add it to the pile of 'gigantic fantasy epics that take years to chew through' with the Gormenghast books, which I still have not finished.

I have been reading a LOT, because I'm too tired at night right now to do anything else. I just finished With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, by Eugene Sledge. I picked it up because it was frequently quoted in Ken Burns' WWII documentary 'The War,' which I just finished watching. (It's amazing, but it's Ken Burns, so yeah.)

Also been reading a lot of short stories and horror, as usual. Stephen Graham Jones' After the People Lights Have Gone Off; Fungi, which is a collection of fungus-themed weird tales by a bunch of big names (Vandermeer, Mamatas, Barron, Tanzer)' A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay, which is kind of an exorcism novel and kind of more than that; Last Days by Adam Nevill, a paranormal occulty investigation-documentary type book that actually gave me the creeps to read at night, which is no mean feat, because very little in fiction actually makes me uneasy anymore. I'm still analyzing it to figure out what made it work so well. The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology is probably really self-explanatory. Nightmare Carnival, edited by Dennis Danvers, with a bunch of carnival-focused short weird fic. Ominous Realities: The Anthology of Dark Speculative Horrors.

Non-fiction, I just recently finished The Man Who Wasn't There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self, by Anil Ananthaswamy. It's a layperson's neuroscience book about the brain-body connection and its significant role in forming what we think of as the Self, and it somewhat contests the (now fairly popular) hypothesis that the Self has no static parts at all, and doesn't actually really exist. Good stuff.

And right now, I'm almost halfway through The Quiet Room: A Journey out of the Torment of Madness, by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett. It's about Schiller's descent into schizophrenia, her experiences with it, and her recovery process. There are irritating parts of it (Schiller and her family are extremely wealthy/successful and have some pretty glaring biases against 'lesser' types of people, bleh) but it's still really fascinating.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and I just learned that China Mieville has a new collection of stories out as of this summer, and nobody told me, even though he might be my favorite. So, yeah. Good readin' summer. :)

[Nick W]

Still working on Infinite Jest, was not ready for this!

Did recently pick up Ed Hardy's Wear Your Dreams at the library. I enjoyed it and was a quick enough read. The change of pace needed for fucking IJ.

[Uncle Tys]

I'm reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's The House Of The Dead, it's about his time

locked in a Siberian political prison camp. Not as exciting as I'd expect as its more about the prisoners mental state and hierarchy as opposed to things that happened while he was there (that I was hoping for). If you want a great trilogy (adventure) The Left Hand Of God trilogy was amazing and highly recommended!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sourpussoctopus]

Oh, Dostoyevsky. I started Crime and Punishment three times, and stopped halfway through The Idiot. I've been meaning to read the Russian classics for years, but it never seems like the right time. I feel like things have to align in order for me to get into the headspace needed to absorb those stories. Maybe this winter.

I'm about 100 pages from finishing Dune. Honestly, it lives up to the hype. I'm super into it, it's such an immersive story.

[sophistre]

I'm about 100 pages from finishing Dune. Honestly, it lives up to the hype. I'm super into it, it's such an immersive story.

Dune is incredible.

...you can safely skip the rest of them. I remember the second one being ....okay... but disappointing just because it was nothing like the first one. After that, I don't remember anything about them at all except for the disappointment.

[joakim urma]

Currently reading Richard Dawkins "The Ancestor's Tale".

The layout of the book is that he starts with homo sapiens sapiens and goes backwards in time, stopping everytime there is a significant break in our evolution so to speak. I think it's like 30 steps in the end, from us to the very first bacteria. Each stop concerns one specific animal but while he talks about it you also learn a shit tonne of evolutionary theory and general science and biology. Really well put together book and super interesting. Was a bit slow for the first 1/3 but now I'm so in it and enjoying every page.

Also reading a volume of the collected short stories of Amy Hempel. Amazing writer and imagination. I can see that she has been really influential on later writers and her stories are so full of clever humor, anecdotes and insight on the human experience. Much recommended!

[MadeIndelible]

Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood was the last book I read. Told through the flashbacks of Toru Watanabe are the stories of his university years and the love and loss he envounters. Really dark and psychological, the stories are laced with brilliant description.

I plan on reading Lovecraft's Reanimator soon. I watched the movie tonight, and it was really well done. Partial towards books over movies as I am, I am really looking forward to Lovecraft's telling, as the movie was set in the 1980s, and I enjoy period pieces a lot.

[sophistre]

Currently reading Richard Dawkins "The Ancestor's Tale".

Definitely a classic. The Selfish Gene is a classic, too.

Right now, I am reading Skullcrack City, by Jeremy Robert Johnson, and it is GREAT. I don't even know how to describe it. It sticks a bunch of genres into a blender and mixes on high, and then tells you its crazy story in a narrative voice that reminds me a little of Chuck Palahniuk. It's funny and sharp, and a little dark, and kinda amazing.

[joakim urma]

@sophistre

People have been telling me to read The Selfish Gene for years. I think I will soon.

By the way if you are into Chuck Palahniuk I really recommend the Amy Hempel book I wrote about above. I think his humor and way of letting the reader go inside the head of the main character almost positively has to be influenced by Hempels storytelling. It's great, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

[sophistre]

@sophistre It's great, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Added to the top of the to-read pile. :)

[LadySparrow]

Aaah, the book thread!

I'm quite into books, reading about 100 books per year.

I love urban fantasy and fantasy mixed with fairy tales and legends. My favourite is Neil Gaiman.

Is there anyone with Goodreads account? I would appreciate new friends there :)

Right now I'm reading (among others) The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth. It's "a must" for all word- and English-geeks.

[zetroc]

Just got a copy of Higgs' "The Doomsday Bonnet" in the mail. Pretty cool stuff. Reminds me a lot of "Antwerp" by Roberto Bolaño.

[The Tig]

I Ink, Therefore I Am

[marley mission]

i have so many cool books that i want to read - but i cant get off instagram damnit!