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What book are you reading now/have finished?

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  • Little People. Mother-fucking-Little-People.
  • edited June 2012
    Little People. Mother-fucking-Little-People.
    Almost fell the fuck out of my seat on the airplane when Aomame flashed back to reciting the Witnesses' Prayer before her first kill.
    The callbacks are absolutely goddamned perfect.

    Post edited by WindUpBird on
  • edited June 2012
    A lot of the dialog, especially with women so far, is incredibly agonizing. It doesn't sound natural at all. The sentence structure is bland most of the time and the detail is a little bit on the superfluous side.

    Maybe I haven't gotten to the point where things start to click but much like how that chick doesn't give a shit about the guy talking about boats I don't give a shit about her thoughts on what kind of guy she likes.
    Post edited by MATATAT on
  • Well, maybe 1. You are not used to Japanese communication styles and 2. You are reading a work of literature in translation. I would bet on the former, because Murakami's works that I have read have some of the best translators in the business, who are good fiction writers in their own right.
  • edited June 2012
    I figured it was a combination of the two, mostly the latter. I don't think it's for me though. But at the same time all the characters I've met so far talk sort of like they have no feelings.
    Post edited by MATATAT on
  • Japanese is a very understated language. "No way! I totally disagree with you! That's so ridiculous!" can be conveyed by saying "Well, there are some people who think that."
  • Japanese is a very understated language. "No way! I totally disagree with you! That's so ridiculous!" can be conveyed by saying "Well, there are some people who think that."
    The language of Jewish women.

  • edited June 2012
    I'm sort of turn between it. The writing is really expository at times which bothers me when used in excess. But it borders on that limit for me. after reading a little more I can see how the dialog confirms more to your description of it. Theres times though when he writes dialog like it is supposed to a complete sentence and not actual speech. It is getting a little more interesting though.
    Post edited by MATATAT on
  • Just started reading The Prince of Nothing series. I was wondering if anyone could tell me if [Garbled] is supposed to appear twice in different sections of the first book. I think I may have a corrupted e-book file. Re-downloading it gives the same file with [Garbled] on those two pages.

    First appearance pg 136, “And Proyas is often impractical,” Achamian concluded. “You fear that this game with the Emperor will provoke Proyas the Judge, rather than Proyas the Tactician.” [Garbled].

    Second appearance pg 166, [Garbled] the end of the Steppe. I need him to cross Scylvendi lands, nothing more. If he hasn‟t succumbed by the time we reach the mountains, I will kill him.
  • That's not a corrupt e-book, it's a poorly OCR'd e-book.
  • Currently reading "A Life Too Short: The Tradgedy of Robert Enke". It is a the biography of the German goalkeeper, who in 2009 killed himself. About half way through and it is very good, if somewhat hard read at times due to content. Blowing away the myth of the sporting superman. Giving me a real sense of how depression affected the life of Enke and his career.
  • Well, it's been a while - Prince of Nothing, here I come...
  • Well I needed to kill an hour at Barnes and Nobles and completed How to be Archer: A How to Book on Being a Spy. If you are a fan of Archer, this is a must read with all of the in jokes it has.
  • Well, it's been a while - Prince of Nothing, here I come...
    Be sure to tell us WHAT YOU SEE.
  • I've been re-reading the Prince of Nothing books so when I move on to the second trilogy I can actually remember something that happened in them. Last night I finished the second book. There are so many details that I had forgotten or just missed with the first read.
  • I've been re-reading the Prince of Nothing books so when I move on to the second trilogy I can actually remember something that happened in them. Last night I finished the second book. There are so many details that I had forgotten or just missed with the first read.
    I vaguely remember that the sections which focused on Mimara (Esmenet's daughter, I think that was her name) were all in present tense, while every other section was past tense. Was that just me imagining things, or is it actually true and I just missed why it was that way?

  • edited July 2012
    I've been re-reading the Prince of Nothing books so when I move on to the second trilogy I can actually remember something that happened in them. Last night I finished the second book. There are so many details that I had forgotten or just missed with the first read.
    I vaguely remember that the sections which focused on Mimara (Esmenet's daughter, I think that was her name) were all in present tense, while every other section was past tense. Was that just me imagining things, or is it actually true and I just missed why it was that way?

    I'm guessing it had to do with:
    her Judging Eye. We're seeing directly through her the way she sees through everyone else.


    How effective it is is debatable. R. Scott Bakker is a good writer with great ideas, but he isn't a great writer.
    Post edited by DevilUknow on
  • I vaguely remember that the sections which focused on Mimara (Esmenet's daughter, I think that was her name) were all in present tense, while every other section was past tense. Was that just me imagining things, or is it actually true and I just missed why it was that way?
    In a way you are right. The truth of what happened to Mimara was told in present tense, but it wasn't narration. It was Kellhus saying what Esmenet had done with her. I'll quote the relevant part here.
    "You speak the tongue of your conquerors..." Kellhus whispered. "You say, Mimara, come with me child."
    A shiver passed through her, as though she were a drumskin...
    "And you take her..."
    "She's dead!" some woman cried. "She's dead!"
    "To the slavers in the harbour..."
    "Stop!" the woman hissed. "I say, no!"
    Gasping, like knives.
    "And you sell her."

  • In a way you are right. The truth of what happened to Mimara was told in present tense, but it wasn't narration. It was Kellhus saying what Esmenet had done with her. I'll quote the relevant part here.
    "You speak the tongue of your conquerors..." Kellhus whispered. "You say, Mimara, come with me child."
    A shiver passed through her, as though she were a drumskin...
    "And you take her..."
    "She's dead!" some woman cried. "She's dead!"
    "To the slavers in the harbour..."
    "Stop!" the woman hissed. "I say, no!"
    Gasping, like knives.
    "And you sell her."

    I meant in the second trilogy when
    Mimara and Achamian are on the journey to the Coffers, and the parts of that which were from Mimara's point of view. The fact that she has the judging eye sounds like the best explanation for this.
  • edited July 2012
    I meant in the second trilogy when
    Mimara and Achamian are on the journey to the Coffers, and the parts of that which were from Mimara's point of view. The fact that she has the judging eye sounds like the best explanation for this.
    Well have not yet read the second trilogy, so I wouldn't know anything about it.

    Post edited by Apsup on
  • I finished the Hunger Games trilogy the other day. Overall I liked them but I can't help but feel the ending was a bit abrupt.
  • edited July 2012
    From Audible:

    -------------
    1Q84
    UNABRIDGED
    By Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (translator), Philip Gabriel (translator)
    Narrated by Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett

    Length:46 hrs and 50 mins
    ------------

    46 HOURS!!!!!!!!

    Sweet Jesus... 46 hours...

    EDIT:

    -----------
    Man Who was Thursday
    UNABRIDGED
    By G. K. Chesterton
    Narrated by Simon Vance

    Length:5 hrs and 56 mins
    ----------

    Now that's better :)
    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • I'll just note here again that the point of the book club is to read the book with your eyes if possible. It's a different experience from listening.

    1Q84 in particular is served better by reading. You'll back up and re-read sentences more often than you realize: can't do that easily with an audiobook, and it's a big part of why the book is the way it is.
  • I'll just note here again that the point of the book club is to read the book with your eyes if possible. It's a different experience from listening.

    1Q84 in particular is served better by reading. You'll back up and re-read sentences more often than you realize: can't do that easily with an audiobook, and it's a big part of why the book is the way it is.
    Also, like Luke had said earlier to changes the way you perceive a book based on the way someone reads it to you. Not necessarily a bad thing but don't try 1Q84, you'll groan in agony.

    I started enjoying it more by just reading it mostly because I hated the readers, but still Aomame is in whiny emo kid mode the entire way either way.
  • I'll just note here again that the point of the book club is to read the book with your eyes if possible. It's a different experience from listening.

    1Q84 in particular is served better by reading. You'll back up and re-read sentences more often than you realize: can't do that easily with an audiobook, and it's a big part of why the book is the way it is.
    It may be different in some subtle, mystical way, but the book club only ever talks about the story, and as long as that story is piped into my brain, giving me the required entry fee, the delivery method bothers me not.

    Your intentions, however, are noble.

  • Not with this one, I'll tell you that much.
  • edited July 2012
    Just started The Warrior Prophet.

    If I was a tiny bit dubious with the opening chunk of book 1 (sparse, disparate events, that for the first time reading, are hard to put int context), all that was swept away by the end of book 1 and now into book 2.

    It's BLOODY fantastic. Every encounter, every tiny little conversation around a fire is battle of wits!

    Can't put it down.

    Post edited by InvaderREN on
  • Oh, those conversations around fires. You'll think back on them fondly when things get rough later. ;^)
  • I'm gritting my teeth and waiting for two things: A Memory of Light, and the next Patrick Rothfuss epic involving Kvothe. Pretty much everything else is crap. I'm too picky for my own good.
  • Finished the Warrior Prophet. Was enjoyable but really found myself disliking Kellhus more and more. Partly due to his arrogance and party due to how he treated others. That and how easily everyone is manipulated, its like they are just blank slates to his god like mightiness. . Proberly going to take a brake from the serries for a book or to then go back for the Thousandfould thought.

    Also read Curse of the Gloamglozeler. Fun and easy to read with some cool concepts.
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