Favorite books / What are you reading?
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El Pagano Loco
It Wandered In From the Wastes
alec said:
There are tons of e- books you can download about them. But i don't know what's this site's policy on piracy so i can't tell you more.
Joelzania
Look, Ma! Two Heads!
I just finished reading Do androids dream of electric sheep, and I must say, it was powerful.
I loved the pace of the book. It never seemed to sit still, and said a lot in 200 pages. Inspired me to start writing my sci fi novel again. Or read Dune. Maybe both.
I loved the pace of the book. It never seemed to sit still, and said a lot in 200 pages. Inspired me to start writing my sci fi novel again. Or read Dune. Maybe both.
Joelzania said:
Aww man, I got about 3/4 of the way through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, put it down and forgot about it many years ago. Regretable. I should start it again. Dune as well. I remember finding it a bit too tough to get through as a teenager.
I'm adding Stephen King's Dark Tower series to my reading list. It's not something I would ever pick out for myself, but a close friend bought and sent them to me so it would be rude not to.
I need to buy a copy of the Gormenghast series too.
TO E-BAY!
JTColeTran
First time out of the vault
Right now I'm reading To Kill A Mockingbird and Mockingjay, occasionally delving into a bit of H.P. Lovecraft.
AskWazzup
Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
Reading a study book "Psichological Aspects Of Harmony in Music ". It's a very interesting piece of research, one that i was trying to find for some time (even posted a similar topic here, some time ago). Finally getting my answers, albeit difficultly with all those damn numbers and terms 
Also just finished reading the history of Jazz. I found it to be a very Fasinating book, so i'm thiking of reading the English (long version) also.
Reading all kinds of other books on music theory and trying to start reading the "teach yourself Mathematics basics", since i was a big slacker at school and it kicked me in the ass at college. Now just trying to do it for myself.
As for prose, at the moment having my eyes set on "The Master and Margarita" and a couple of other a bit more ehm... subtle books.
Also just finished reading the history of Jazz. I found it to be a very Fasinating book, so i'm thiking of reading the English (long version) also.
Reading all kinds of other books on music theory and trying to start reading the "teach yourself Mathematics basics", since i was a big slacker at school and it kicked me in the ass at college. Now just trying to do it for myself.
As for prose, at the moment having my eyes set on "The Master and Margarita" and a couple of other a bit more ehm... subtle books.
UniversalWolf
eaten by a grue.
It's great to read if you like Blade Runner. It's very different from the movie, and equally as good. It makes watching the movie much more interesting, IMO.Wry said:
The Gunslinger (the first Dark Tower book) is very enjoyable.
I probably liked The Gunslinger best too of the whole series.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is one of those books that's been on my must-read list forever but that I always seem to forget about when in the library.
Right now reading Bonfire of the Vanities. Tremendously surprised at how good it turned out to be. Thought it'd be some over-hyped best-seller piece of crap but I'd really recommend it myself now.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is one of those books that's been on my must-read list forever but that I always seem to forget about when in the library.
Right now reading Bonfire of the Vanities. Tremendously surprised at how good it turned out to be. Thought it'd be some over-hyped best-seller piece of crap but I'd really recommend it myself now.
Hehe, it's good to know I won't get a beating for having Steven King on my shelves.
I'm definitely a fan of Bladerunner. Unfortunately, the paperback belonged to an ex so I don't have a copy to pick up and reread. I'm sure I'll get round to it again someday.
I'm adding "Synchronicity" (C.G. Jung) to my list. I've been meaning to buy that for nigh on fifteen years and I finally ordered it.
I'm itching to get "Agent of Evolution" to slake my Bill Hicks obsession but I can't find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
One of these days I'm going to have to get myself a library card.
I'm definitely a fan of Bladerunner. Unfortunately, the paperback belonged to an ex so I don't have a copy to pick up and reread. I'm sure I'll get round to it again someday.
I'm adding "Synchronicity" (C.G. Jung) to my list. I've been meaning to buy that for nigh on fifteen years and I finally ordered it.
I'm itching to get "Agent of Evolution" to slake my Bill Hicks obsession but I can't find a reasonably priced copy on ebay.
One of these days I'm going to have to get myself a library card.
UniversalWolf
eaten by a grue.
Heh, I just learned something absolutely mindblowing. I don't know how well-known this is, but I'd never heard it before today, so FYI in case you're ignorant like me:
The movie The Outlaw Josey Wales is based on a book called Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter, who also wrote a bestselling autobiography called The Education of Little Tree, about his childhood raised by his Cherokee grandparents.
It was a lie.
Forrest Carter's real name was Asa "Ace" Carter, and he was a notorious, high-level KKK member from Alabama who wrote pro-segregation speeches for George Wallace. One of Wallace's most famous lines was, "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." It was written by Carter. He took the pen name Forrest Carter after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.
After Wallace "sold out" and turned his back on the segregationists, Carter ran against him in the Democrat primary for governor of Alabama, but came in last place. Afterward he moved to Texas and became Forrest Carter, bestselling author.
Freakin' incredible. Simultaneously appalling and fascinating.
His novels are pretty good, BTW. This doesn't really change my opinion of his books, but needless to say it's something you should be aware of if you're going to read them.
The movie The Outlaw Josey Wales is based on a book called Gone to Texas by Forrest Carter, who also wrote a bestselling autobiography called The Education of Little Tree, about his childhood raised by his Cherokee grandparents.
It was a lie.
Forrest Carter's real name was Asa "Ace" Carter, and he was a notorious, high-level KKK member from Alabama who wrote pro-segregation speeches for George Wallace. One of Wallace's most famous lines was, "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." It was written by Carter. He took the pen name Forrest Carter after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK.
After Wallace "sold out" and turned his back on the segregationists, Carter ran against him in the Democrat primary for governor of Alabama, but came in last place. Afterward he moved to Texas and became Forrest Carter, bestselling author.
Freakin' incredible. Simultaneously appalling and fascinating.
His novels are pretty good, BTW. This doesn't really change my opinion of his books, but needless to say it's something you should be aware of if you're going to read them.
I've been a little busy as of late, but am still working my way through Crime and Punishment, when I've got the time and the inclination. Raskolnikov's turning out to be a lot more sympathetic than I thought he would be, and honestly, a lot more than I wanted him to be. It seems like Dostoyevsky himself wasn't very keen on the guy, either.
Raskolnikov was a pretty damn tricky character for me. I was kind of fond of him, but because of what he had done and to whom...
I don't know if it is right to like him or not, so to speak.
I don't know if it is right to like him or not, so to speak.
T
TorontoReign
Guest
clercqer said:
I didn't like the Gunslinger as much as the other ones for some reason. I think it was because King wrote that one so long ago, and his style changed a bit. I really like The Wasteland personally.
Cimmerian Nights
So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
Good find U-dub, that's nuts. While I've never read the book, so can only comment on the movie, it's actually not at all a simplistic black/white view of post Civil War America you'd expect to be written by a KKKer. It has pro-individualist, anti-corporate, anti-federal themes, but it's also pretty anti-white, especially the epic "endeavor to persevere" monologue. To it's credit, it's never overly-preachy either though.UniversalWolf said:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csEzTwKemwY[/youtube]
If anything, one of the main themes of the movie is how the Indians and southerners were both minorities that got fucked over by Uncle Sam. The nuttiest thing is, for all the championing Hollywood does for some of it's pet politics, that's the only movie I can think of that dares broach the subject, and does it in a much more introspective, multifaceted way than most browbeating, Hollywood movies. From a fucking Klansman.
Ironic how diversity could work that way.
That's kind of mind-blowing too, I'd only known NBF as one of the more famous Confederate generals of the Secession. IIRC he was very controversial - an effective raider or ruthless terrorist depending on what side of the Mason-Dixon you're on. Never knew he was so big in the Klan.UniversalWolf said:
UniversalWolf
eaten by a grue.
FWIW, the people who knew him personally only after he became Forrest Carter couldn't believe his past when they found out about it. None of them had any idea.
Clearly Gone to Texas is his own story, after a fashion. Once his "war" against integration was lost, he moved to Texas and created a new life instead of surrendering. Whether he still believed all the stuff from his life as Ace Carter, or to what degree, is hard to determine.
There's a great documentary about him, called The Reconstruction of Asa Carter:
http://reconstructionofasacarter.com/
At one point after he wrote The Education of Little Tree he was being interviewed by Barbara Walters. His old KKK buddies in Alabama were watching it on TV and laughing their asses off. That book was on Oprah's list too, until she found out about his real identity.
Clearly Gone to Texas is his own story, after a fashion. Once his "war" against integration was lost, he moved to Texas and created a new life instead of surrendering. Whether he still believed all the stuff from his life as Ace Carter, or to what degree, is hard to determine.
There's a great documentary about him, called The Reconstruction of Asa Carter:
http://reconstructionofasacarter.com/
At one point after he wrote The Education of Little Tree he was being interviewed by Barbara Walters. His old KKK buddies in Alabama were watching it on TV and laughing their asses off. That book was on Oprah's list too, until she found out about his real identity.
I'm currently reading "A Gentle Hell" by Autumn Christian. She is a pretty interesting writer i.e. she writes pretty mental stuff that is actually worth reading. The book is free on Amazon today if anyone fancies a free book:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Gentle-Hell-ebook/dp/B006SLDFGQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
http://www.amazon.com/A-Gentle-Hell-ebook/dp/B006SLDFGQ/ref=pd_sim_kstore_4?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
Walpknut
This ghoul has seen it all
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and A zoo in winter, Thanks, Book Fair.
El Pagano Loco
It Wandered In From the Wastes
What Is to Be Done? by Vladimir Lenin
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Its being made into a movie? LOL GL HF.
Pretty awesome so far in word form though.
Its being made into a movie? LOL GL HF.
Pretty awesome so far in word form though.
Edmond Dantès
It Wandered In From the Wastes
Finally read Catch-22.
Had some difficulty at first grasping the style of the book. After I got the hang of the (seeming) internal contradictions I really started to enjoy the book. The last few chapters stand in stark contrast to the rest of the book, but are nonetheless very good, just in a different way.
Then I gave Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series a shot. I'm halfway through 'The Eye of the World' but I think I'm going to quit the book, and the series. I already find his style of writing to be long-winded, and supposedly that only gets worse and worse in later books. There are so many other, good, better, books and series out there that I can't afford to waste my time with something barely mediocre. Apart from that, I dislike some characters, specifically Mat Cauthon, and on more than one occasion Rand as well. Also, Jordan seems to know of only one type of female character. Perrin, so far, seems to be the only character that doesn't have his head up his arse.
Added to that come two complaints. One, Jordan is too easy and predictable, and - a complaint which ties in with the first - unless he ought to be credited with inventing the clichés of the fantasy novel genre, he makes such abundant use of every single cliché and topos that it barely feels as if he himself adds anything creative. Some farm boys, who perhaps are all 'chosen ones', travel with a band of adventures throughout the land, get chased by what seems like a crossbreed between Trolls, Orcs and goats, led by Nazgûls. One character has an unknown and mysterious past you just know is going to come back with, supposedly, some shocking revelation that'll no doubt under-awe to the extreme. One example of predictability is the character of Mat. You know he'll screw up, and once you find out that, yes indeed he did, in precisely the way you thought he would, it just gets frustrating.
Perhaps Jordan is the worst possible author to follow up Catch-22. Whereas Joseph Heller is a master at staying ahead of his readers, catching them by surprise at every turn, Jordan seems like set on rails, going through the motions, merely showing the reader the predictable advances of his characters, always one step behind the reader. An author's advantage is knowing more than his audience. Jordan gives away that advantage character-wise; I can't as of yet say how he performs plot-wise, but I don't mind not finding out.
Had some difficulty at first grasping the style of the book. After I got the hang of the (seeming) internal contradictions I really started to enjoy the book. The last few chapters stand in stark contrast to the rest of the book, but are nonetheless very good, just in a different way.
Then I gave Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series a shot. I'm halfway through 'The Eye of the World' but I think I'm going to quit the book, and the series. I already find his style of writing to be long-winded, and supposedly that only gets worse and worse in later books. There are so many other, good, better, books and series out there that I can't afford to waste my time with something barely mediocre. Apart from that, I dislike some characters, specifically Mat Cauthon, and on more than one occasion Rand as well. Also, Jordan seems to know of only one type of female character. Perrin, so far, seems to be the only character that doesn't have his head up his arse.
Added to that come two complaints. One, Jordan is too easy and predictable, and - a complaint which ties in with the first - unless he ought to be credited with inventing the clichés of the fantasy novel genre, he makes such abundant use of every single cliché and topos that it barely feels as if he himself adds anything creative. Some farm boys, who perhaps are all 'chosen ones', travel with a band of adventures throughout the land, get chased by what seems like a crossbreed between Trolls, Orcs and goats, led by Nazgûls. One character has an unknown and mysterious past you just know is going to come back with, supposedly, some shocking revelation that'll no doubt under-awe to the extreme. One example of predictability is the character of Mat. You know he'll screw up, and once you find out that, yes indeed he did, in precisely the way you thought he would, it just gets frustrating.
Perhaps Jordan is the worst possible author to follow up Catch-22. Whereas Joseph Heller is a master at staying ahead of his readers, catching them by surprise at every turn, Jordan seems like set on rails, going through the motions, merely showing the reader the predictable advances of his characters, always one step behind the reader. An author's advantage is knowing more than his audience. Jordan gives away that advantage character-wise; I can't as of yet say how he performs plot-wise, but I don't mind not finding out.