Books discussion

[Midnight_Carnival]

Finished Wilt on High by Tom Sharpe.
That man is sick even by my standards, it wasn't quite as depraved as The Wilt Alternative, but did make me feel guilty for apreciating the humor and want to take a shower after reading it.

How was that book in all? Now that you say this, those type of books interest me in a weird way. If you say it is good, I definitely think I'm going to check it out at the local bookstore.

"Good" is a very ambigious term. If you like potty-humour taken overboard to the point of perversity and enjoy reading of the misfortunes of others then the Wilt series is very good. If you make a point of trying to show others how clever and mature you are then I would suggest you avoid reading it. Sharpe is in my mind a truly inspired genius who is capable of levels of depravity I would struggle to match, also, he does so in a wry and witty way, not a "he he, let's be diry, I know this book is only going to be read by ten year olds in any case" way. I would reccomend you start with Wilt of The Wilt Alternative, the books which preceded this one in the series.

-Oh, and I finished reading Armageddon's Children by Terry Brooks. It was not the most original or captivating story I've ever read, but entertaining and not badly written. As I have said, I am getting the idea that Mr Brooks is maturing in his writing style, I'm not sure wheter this means that he enjoys writing less now...
-One thing that irritated me though, the closing words:

"to be continued..."

So many fantasy authors these days seem to write series after series of books. The problem with this is that every book always ends in this huge contrived suspense thing so that you buy the next one. If an author can do it well, good for him; I do however have more respect for authors who can write a series of books in which each book is a story in itself. Where the sequel adds to the story, rather than being necesarry for the story to make any sense. If you are going to write sot that everything builds up to this massive climax in the last book, then please have the decency to make it worth the wait. It is annoying to wade through +/- 1200 pages to decide that you were dissapointed.
I reserve my judgement on Terry Brooks' latest series, but I'm preparing myself for a dissapointment, that way I will hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

[Velensk]

Speaking as a relative to an author I will say that goes both ways. This person I refer to comes up with story faster than she can write them. She likes to reuse characters but she always makes sure that there is a new story and that each story she writes has a conclusion to itself. The exception to this rule is her fantasy epic which does this because it is infact one story that is too long to tell in a single book. She does however have the majority of the story worked out (and will tell it to me verbally if I let her) and I can tell when I read her books and that they do not end entirely concluded it is because she had to pick a smaller climax to wrap up the book.

Speaking as a reader of her: She is not a bad writer. She writes in a style that not everyone may appreciate (then again who doesn't). It's hard for me to not to inwardly roll my eyes when she tells me about super-positive and/or sappy feedback she's received (then again it's a bit hard for me to not roll my eyes at some of the positive feedback I get to my own campaigns) but at the same time I regard it as much better than the majority of the stuff I've gotten out of the library.

I have very low regard for the stuff I've tried that turned out to be like the book Carnival mentioned and even lower for people who feed demand for it.

[Midnight_Carnival]

I have very low regard for the stuff I've tried that turned out to be like the book Carnival mentioned and even lower for people who feed demand for it.

Sorry, did you mean the Brooks or the Sharpe? Mr Brooks is a little comercial, a little generic, but fun to read and since he has a large following, I presume there are many readers (somewhere) who will flame you for having a low regard for him. Myself, I am not fanatical about his work but will continye to read it.
Mr Sharpe is bitingly satirical and launces over-the-top scathing attacks on institutions and social conventions, he is particularly ciritical of the police and military, but also of the education system. Depravity is his most deadly weapon, he describes the sane, ordered hospital beurocracy in such a way that it leads to a man having his bladder "reinflated" by a seven-year-old child jumping on the bag attached to his catheter. If you also have a low regard for people who watch shows like South Park and Family Guy then sure. I find Mr Sharpe's books far more entertianing and far funnier than such shows.

Tell your female author relative please that I strongly sympathise. I am afflicted similarly, although I'm not at the level where I have written anything worth considering for publication yet. I have the problem that while I'm writing one short story, several others interupt me demanding to be written, I'm working on a longer short story and on pieces of a novel now, it is torture.

[Thanatos]

Just for fun I just started another compilation of Lovecraftian stories.
Light reading for lonely evenings in a dark, cold and empty house...

[Reginald_Barclay]

How was that book in all? Now that you say this, those type of books interest me in a weird way. If you say it is good, I definitely think I'm going to check it out at the local bookstore.

"Good" is a very ambigious term. If you like potty-humour taken overboard to the point of perversity and enjoy reading of the misfortunes of others then the Wilt series is very good. If you make a point of trying to show others how clever and mature you are then I would suggest you avoid reading it. Sharpe is in my mind a truly inspired genius who is capable of levels of depravity I would struggle to match, also, he does so in a wry and witty way, not a "he he, let's be diry, I know this book is only going to be read by ten year olds in any case" way. I would reccomend you start with Wilt of The Wilt Alternative, the books which preceded this one in the series.

I don't necessarily enjoy reading of others' misfortunes, it just intrigues me how other people cope with their adversities and disadvantages. Now, when you say "potty humour taken overboard to... perversity," I'm not sure exactly what you're meaning:
Either you're saying I'm a pervert, or you're just describing the book. I don't know you well enough, so I'm not going to make that assumption.

Anyways, I'm still going to look into it.

[Gambit]

Picked up Clear and Present Danger at the library. I saw the last quarter of a movie with the same title once a while back and I've been wanting to hear the rest of the story. /me hopes the book and movie are related

[Midnight_Carnival]

Either you're saying I'm a pervert, or you're just describing the book.

The latter.
I don't know you well enough to judge whether you were a pervert or not, and if you were, it honestly wouldn't concern me - as long as you kept stuff I wouldn't apreciate to yourself. Do check out Wilt, it is good, but I cant be held accountable if it offends you.

---Oh, and it happened again!
My brother came to visit for a weekend and brought with him a book he borrowed from a distant library. It was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I read the first two or three chapters out of boredom, and actually found it quite good (from what little I read) I definately wanted to at least read enough to decide whether I wanted to finish it or not. -then he went back taking the book with him...

Started reading Vinatge Stuff by Tom Sharpe, not as good as the Wilt series, but still funny and scathing. Was interupted by my (other) brother taking Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson out of the library which I am currently reading. In my opinion it is not as good as many of his others, but still great.
Anyway, I have yet to finish it so I shouldn't complain.

[HomerJ]

Currently reading "Odd Hours" by Dean Koontz, the most recent novell of the Odd Thomas series. I like the character.

Greetz
HomerJ

[Bellerophon]

Finally finished the Emperor and Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden a couple of days ago which turned out to be an excellent read and I recommend them to everybody who want to know something more about Ceasar and Genghis Khan and the cultures of the Romans and Mongols.

Next on the list: Host by Stephenie Meyer, along with the Twilight saga, must see wha all this fuss is about .

[Turuk]

Finally finished the Emperor and Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden a couple of days ago which turned out to be an excellent read and I recommend them to everybody who want to know something more about Ceasar and Genghis Khan and the cultures of the Romans and Mongols.

Next on the list: Host by Stephenie Meyer, along with the Twilight saga, must see wha all this fuss is about .

How you can put such an interesting and good read next to drivel.... is beyond me. I bid you farewell as you journey to join the dark side....

[Bellerophon]

How you can put such an interesting and good read next to drivel.... is beyond me. I bid you farewell as you journey to join the dark side....

Yes, yesssss, onwards to the dark side where they have plenty of cookies, hot mormon women and glittering vampires!

http://i48.tinypic.com/vwc5f.jpg

[Cloud]

Finally finished the Emperor and Conqueror series by Conn Iggulden a couple of days ago which turned out to be an excellent read and I recommend them to everybody who want to know something more about Ceasar and Genghis Khan and the cultures of the Romans and Mongols.

Loved the Conqueror series, haven't had a chance to get onto the Emperor series.

Recently I've been reading a lot of stuff on the Templar Knights. Read the first two books of The Crusades trilogy by Jan Guillou. Really well written.

Also read Last Wish and Blood of Elves by Andrzie Sapkowski, a.k.a. the Witcher books. Really enjoyed them, the latter a little more than the former.

[Midnight_Carnival]

For my yearly dose of extreme holiday depression, I have decided to read short stories by J G Ballard

I think I read a science-fiction short story by him, it was about everybody getting really depressed and loosing interest in everything and they all got this incurable sickness which made them constantly fall asleep and have no energy and even less interest in anything. There was also this alien civilisation which built this huge chronometer which was counting down till the end of the universe, and they gave humanity the technology to mutate themselves. Well, anyway, long and the sort of it was that this one guy mutated himself into a giant ear which could hear the whole universe at once.
It killed him.

Most depressing science-fiction I ever read was The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut jnr, bitter, hateful, very sad and hopless. Never read a novel by Ballard as whenever I tried to I ended up wanting to slit my wrists after a few pages. Gene Wolfe also wrote a few depressing science-fiction short stories.

[anakayub]

I've just finished Jeremy Black's "War: An Illustrated World History". A very interested read, as there's a lot of content in a small book. It talks about the history of war from classical to modern times, the technological and military science development, as well as the socioeconomic factors and consequences of war. Highly recommended for those with interest in military history (not enough detail for those who study it as a job :p).

[Thanatos]

After dark and creepy creatures from outer space I am switching back to something more human.

Albert Camus - The Stranger