Books discussion

[Coaxke]

I read it after reading Fight Club and seeing the movie, and thinking hey, more by the same author might be good.

Well.... and I thought Fight Club was messed up...

Yeah, it is interesting in that sense. I began reading it because a friend recommended it to me. She said that it was so good that the ending made her cry. She also said that the book helped her to see people from a different perspective.

[Turuk]

She said that it was so good that the ending made her cry. She also said that the book helped her to see people from a different perspective.

It does do that, I will agree. It's just like reading Fight Club or watching the movie, it lets you think about people in a different light. Beyond the whole I want to start a fight with random strangers thing.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Just finished Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.

Not the best fantasy I have read this year, heavy plot, lots of intrigues (which to be honest were not that intriguing) and the like. In my humble opinion he took himself and his story a little too seriously. It could have done with some more absurdity and possibly humour. I find his style of writing determinstic.

I got the distinct impression that this was the work of a newer writer, that the rest of the series would be better. I have not read the next one in the series yet, but I think I just might at that.

[Elvish_Pillager]

I couldn't get through it. I thought it was just bad and uninteresting.

Ironically, I've listened to an interview with the author, and found his talk clever and engaging.

[Bellerophon]

You guys can't be serious. Even the slight possibility of someone(read: a person who's read at least a dozen fantasy/ Sci-fi books) seems mindboggling to me. Sure it's not easy to read, sure it doesn't have a s***load of humor in it and of course it takes itself seriously, this is the freakin' Song of Ice and Fire. It's placed in an extremely well defined world(Martin borrowed a lot from the War of the Roses), where magic plays only a small role, it's somewhat what Mount & Blade is to the Elder Scrolls series. Violence is omnipresent and one cannot expect to survive a day in Westeros in the same manner as the characters from Discworld for example do. Magical chests with hundreds of little feet don't have a chance of surviving long either. One more thing: does one expect the Bible to be easy to read? Of course not, just look at the size of the damm thing. Now how do you expect a saga comprising of more than four books with three more to come to be easy to read?

Well, what I'm trying to say is that this particular series is imo one of the best fantasy works of all times, only not so litelary, I would hate to be mistaken for a fanboy afterall.

And I'm aware that my writing is kinda rough on the edges, still working on the fluency of my english XD

[Velensk]

Depends what you are looking for in a book. For me the problem with that book was that it became a bunch of people I didn't care about killing each other and the people I had slight intrest in. It did not have any of the other things I like in a book.

EDIT: to be on topic, I just finished reading the book Griffon in Glory at a friends request. I think it might have been better if I had read the first book (which my friend forgot to tell me existed).

[Machiavelli]

I'm currently reading this (the quote below), along with my post to make sure it doesn't quite that ridiculous as I think it is.

Literally though, I've been reading "Alas, Babylon". About a post-apocalyptic nuclear age.

A pretty basic question. What books are you reading right now? It'd be nice to have both the name of the book(s) and a short description of it(them), since they might be books no one else has ever heard of.

---

My answers (I tend to read a bunch of books at the same time):

* Nightside the Long Sun, by Gene Wolfe - I just finished reading the Urth of the New Sun, and decided to go on to the next Sun series... if you've never heard of him, Gene Wolfe is amazing, the Book of the New Sun was one of the best sci-fi/fantasy (well, it's both) books I've ever read, and I can't wait to get through the Book of the Long Sun and then the Book of the Short Sun.
* Gerard Manley Hopkins, A Very Private Life, Robert Bernard Martin - I'm reading a biography of GMH because I'm going to be doing a big project on him come the Fall 09 semester, and I'd like to get a head start; plus I think he's interesting (sprung rhythm FTW). I just checked out the only biography of him at the local public library.
* Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins - See above.
* Ausgewahlte Kinder- Und Hausmarchen, due Bruder Grimm - i.e. selected fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, in German. I'm trying to read this to improve my German, plus it's fun.

[Jetrel]

Finally read "Ender's Game".

It was a good book; I'm surprised that it lived up to the hype.

[crazzycat]

Hamlet - William Shakespeare

[Bellerophon]

Just read Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.

Because I'm sure not many of you even heard of the book, here's a link to the Wikipedia article on the book.

I must say that this is one of the best books I have ever read, and I recommend it to everyone, regardless if they're into Sci-fi fantasy or something completely different.

[Sauron]

There is a better book by them (due to some interesting unintended, metaphoric references to nowadays' politics and media) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_Power
I read most of their books, yet Prisoners impressed me most.

[Zigg]

LOTR

[Cloud]

Wow your reading an abbreviation of a trilogy.

I'm reading a book entitled "A Darkness Forged in Fire" by Chris Evans and is Book one of The Iron Elves trilogy. It's been good read so far, and portrays some elves very differently from the norm. Fantasy genre (obviously) set in a slightly later age than most fantasy books of it's kind - muskets and other gunpowder weaponry of that period are commonplace.

I'd like to read a book called "The Last Wish", mainly due to playing The Witcher so much recently

[Girgistian]

I'd like to read a book called "The Last Wish", mainly due to playing The Witcher so much recently

I'd like to read it as well, and for the same reasons too. Dark fantasy's the best fantasy.

[Skizzaltix]

As usual, I've been reading comic books

Also Thinking Recursively in Java.