Oh, okay. I gave a theory about Shadow, but like I said, my mythology outside of Greek and Roman is fairly limited.
I think Shadow may be Morpheus due to his vivid dreams, though unaware of who he is. That, or Janus due to his fascination with coins. I am not sure yet...
I am reading The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero. If you recognize that name, it is none other than the very man who played Mark in the terriblarious movie, The Room. This is the untold story of the making of that movie as well as Sestero's relationship with Tommy Wiseau.
That movie has always fascinated me because of how awful it is and I've always wanted to know the story behind it. Now you can. Wiseau is such a fascinating person and is so god damn weird. I haven't finished it yet, but it reads like a combination of a Greek tragedy and a Greek comedy, because Wiseau put so much of himself into making it, was so misguided in how he did it, and wanted so much to be both the next Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando...and yet it was all a mess. Despite that, it miraculously gained this cult following and made him a star...but not in the way he wanted...although he seems to take it in stride.
Just finished Ready Player One. Late to the bandwagon, but it leaves me with mixed feelings.
I think if not for Wil Wheaton's great narration from the audiobook, I wouldn't have finished it. I really like the concept, the descriptions and even some parts at the end. But sheesh, I was annoyed by all the 80s nostalgia. I maybe counted 7 references that weren't from that decade, but something about that obsession really bothered me. Most of the 80s references are things that anyone who is interested in the subject would already know.
The way nerd/geekdom is portrayed in this book is through fanboyism. Every gunter obsesses over what Halladay liked or wrote about, and he never escaped from that decade, despite living much longer. Part of being into pop culture is finding your own sense of identity with what you like and why it connects to you in some way. The plot is really a case of just who the smartest fanboy is, with tacted on elements of needing friendship and learning about the importance of reality.
The way they handled relationships was pretty awful and that also made the dialogue suffer as well. I couldn't recommend this to anyone my age, but maybe someone 15 who would like to learn about the 80s would enjoy it.
The whole theme of the book is fanboyism as you put it. Halladay was Obsessed with 80's culture, but the call outs to them (most of the anyways) had to be recognized by your average reader. The book isn't a masterpiece, but I felt it was well done. The relationship between Parcival and Artemis is more or less a cliche, but also very realistic, in my opinion. After reading the book, I listened to the Audio book and liked it even more. Wil Wheaton should read everything (except maybe 50 shades of grey).
I have listened to 92 audiobooks via my Audible subscription.
Of ALL the audiobook narrators in 92 books, Wil Wheaton is perhaps the single worst narrator. Or, to put it kindly, the match of him and the writing of John Scalzi in Redshits is the single worst in 92 audiobooks.
The only reason I've not tried out Ready Player One yet is the fact I'll have to actually read it myself from a paper or ebook, as I can't bring myself to buy another audiobook narrated by Wheaton.
I also finished the Ready Player One audiobook this past weekend, and I thought it was a fun book. Not great, but solid and enjoyable the way kid's movies from the 80s were (albeit a bit darker than those movies usually got). I think Wheaton did a decent job, since the material is very much in his wheelhouse, but his performance wasn't as good as other audiobooks I've heard in the past (or the one I'm currently listening to).
I finished American Gods today... Wow, I really liked that book. I think I may listen to it on audio book at some point next year. I will post more thoughts later.
Ready Player One was a strange one for me. I really enjoyed it and raved to my friends about it but a month down the line I didn't really have any feelings about it. Its like there was all the stuff that should have made it good but when you got below it all there wasn't much stuffing. I would have liked more presonal relationships, more charicterisation rather than "Hey remember this old game?" or "Hey its tomb of horrors!".
American Gods is a strange one. I enjoyed it but felt that Gaiman got a bit lost in himself at some points and needed his editor to poke him with a stick to get him back on track. It was good but no Neverhwere.
I meant to post this last week when I finished it but read the last book in the MistBorn serries. Man that was a ride and a good one at that. It might not have been as dark and gritty as say emperor of Thorns but some times its nice not to have to deal with protracted torture and rape scenes and wondering which charicter is going to senslessly die.
Also read the last book in the Ahborhosen serrier which I started about 10 odd years ago. Its teen fiction. The magic system is cool and the charicters ok. Nothing mind blowing but a good read.
Onto Kavalier and Clay, about half way through and I'm waiting for the drop. Something bad is going to happen, they are going to have a falling out, people are going to die I can feel it.
I finished American Gods today... Wow, I really liked that book. I think I may listen to it on audio book at some point next year. I will post more thoughts later.
The full cast version of the audio book is really good. I'd recommend getting that one if you can.
I just finished up with Christopher Hitchens' God is not great and Greta Christina's Why Are You Atheists So Angry?. Hitchens was a real pleasure to read. I think i'll be looking for more of his writing. Christina's writing wasn't quite so good, but was still well worth reading. Both of these works will put some fire in your blood to go out and do some serious unbelieving.
That will have to wait for a little bit though. Now is time for my yearly Christmas reading of The Hogfather.
So I just finished Kavalier and Clay, literally a minuet ago. Bit of a feels train there, I can properly parse out what I feel at the end of it. Sadness maybe? I feel I might need to reread the end. Hauntingly falorne? There is happiness in it yes but a great sadness its bloody hard. Im not sure this is the most raw first impressions.
Finished a few books in the last couple weeks. The more I use Audible, the more I regret not doing it sooner. It really is a good way to "read" books that I normally wouldn't have read because of time and priorities.
The Everything Store - What an unusual coincidence that a book about the history of Jeff Bezos and Amazon would come out shortly after I started working there. That aside, it was interesting to learn more about how the company came about, and now I know to never get on Bezos' bad side >_>
The Tipping Point - This was also an interesting read. It makes a lot of good points to support the idea that encouraging good behavior works better than discouraging bad behavior.
The Road - Didn't really enjoy this one much. I get that the story is meant to be really bleak and that a life of survival tends to be about repetition, but that doesn't get me very engaged. I'm glad I listened to this one because if I had to actually read it, I wouldn't have finished.
I just finished reading John Scalzi's Redshirts. Wow, for something that seemed like a by-the-book parody of Star Trek, it went out of left field. I mean, I liked it, but I did not see it ending the way it did.
Next, I'm going to be reading London Falling by Paul Cornell. I've seen all three of his Doctor Who episodes and rather liked them, so I thought I would give one of his books a try.
I just finished reading John Scalzi's Redshirts. Wow, for something that seemed like a by-the-book parody of Star Trek, it went out of left field. I mean, I liked it, but I did not see it ending the way it did.
Yeah I liked the first part but the second didn't set my pants on fire.
Read "All You Need Is Kill" last night. Short. Started off a little boring. Once it got going, was well paced. Translation seemed solid to me. Plot twist was unexpected to me. It may have felt a little awkward in the transition, but I enjoyed it.
I dread what Tom Cruise and the various writers will end up producing as a movie.
Finished Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story by Dave Marsh. It was pretty garbage, but a good insight to what people thought in 1979 for those of us who weren't there. Now onto Talk About A Dream: The Essential Interviews with Bruce Springsteen, one of my Christmas presents.
Just finished God's War by Kameron Hurley. I very much enjoyed it, but am at a bit of a loss for how to describe it... part grimdark/Tarantino, part Final Fantasy, part Dune?
It may be hard to get into, but is worth the read.
I've recently got a Nook, and have began actually reading again. I've been working my way through the Geeknights Book Club collection, beginning with the Prince of Nothing trilogy. I've just finished the second book, and it feels like the time when I first watched Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion, when I realized that most of the anime I've seen was pretty crappy compared to that. I used to love the Dragonlance novels, but now that I've read Prince of Nothing, I'm like "They're no Prince of Nothing". It has made me question and seriously look at the fantasy books I've read, and hold them up to another degree.
Needless to say, this is now my favorite fantasy book.
Almost finished with my Secret Santa gift, Brain on Fire. I've really enjoyed it. Reading about someone going insane and then recovering from it has been an interesting ride, and I can't complain at all about the writing style. Super high quality, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Finished the Culture novel I skipped out on before, Matter. It was pretty good, but not revolutionary. Still slogging through Bakker's Light, Time, and Gravity, his "anti-literary" novel. He released a first draft online a while ago, so I grabbed a copy. It's very rough, and the pacing definitely needs work, but I see where he's going with it. I'm not sure how effective it will be, though.
Just finished London Falling by Paul Cornell. It was rather good, sort of a mix of a police procedural and the hidden universe of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. The book reads like it was adapted from a television pilot, though, and makes use of a lot of acronyms that would be more familiar to people living in London. Thankfully it has a glossary, in case it gets to be a bit much. There's a sequel coming, called The Severed Streets. I'll definitely check it out at some point.
I just picked up Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones. It is a fantastic read and is providing a wealth of information and insight into one of the people I admired the most and owe a lot of my childhood to. Pick it up if you can.
Almost finished with my Secret Santa gift, Brain on Fire. I've really enjoyed it. Reading about someone going insane and then recovering from it has been an interesting ride, and I can't complain at all about the writing style. Super high quality, I recommend this book wholeheartedly.
Got Veronica Roth's Divergent as a Christmas gift and I've been reading it. I think I would enjoy it more if the book wouldn't constantly remind me of how stupid its world is.
Also, 16 year old world saving protagonists "born special" is getting beyond tired. I just bought Timebound, and like Divergent... yeah... "genetic time travel." Uh-huh.
My sister just read that Divergent trilogy in about three days. Then I heard her going over the premise with my parents and couldn't even keep listening because the premise sounded so stupid.
There is a good part in the first book where there is actually character development for a bit.
A good part? I look forward to it.
Truth be told, I'm not bothered by the clichefulness of the story. Go ahead and be a little miss special youngster, it's all fine with me. But the world and how stupid it is just hits me every time it raises it's head.
Comments
That movie has always fascinated me because of how awful it is and I've always wanted to know the story behind it. Now you can. Wiseau is such a fascinating person and is so god damn weird. I haven't finished it yet, but it reads like a combination of a Greek tragedy and a Greek comedy, because Wiseau put so much of himself into making it, was so misguided in how he did it, and wanted so much to be both the next Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando...and yet it was all a mess. Despite that, it miraculously gained this cult following and made him a star...but not in the way he wanted...although he seems to take it in stride.
It comes highly recommended by me.
I think if not for Wil Wheaton's great narration from the audiobook, I wouldn't have finished it. I really like the concept, the descriptions and even some parts at the end. But sheesh, I was annoyed by all the 80s nostalgia. I maybe counted 7 references that weren't from that decade, but something about that obsession really bothered me. Most of the 80s references are things that anyone who is interested in the subject would already know.
The way nerd/geekdom is portrayed in this book is through fanboyism. Every gunter obsesses over what Halladay liked or wrote about, and he never escaped from that decade, despite living much longer. Part of being into pop culture is finding your own sense of identity with what you like and why it connects to you in some way. The plot is really a case of just who the smartest fanboy is, with tacted on elements of needing friendship and learning about the importance of reality.
The way they handled relationships was pretty awful and that also made the dialogue suffer as well. I couldn't recommend this to anyone my age, but maybe someone 15 who would like to learn about the 80s would enjoy it.
Of ALL the audiobook narrators in 92 books, Wil Wheaton is perhaps the single worst narrator. Or, to put it kindly, the match of him and the writing of John Scalzi in Redshits is the single worst in 92 audiobooks.
The only reason I've not tried out Ready Player One yet is the fact I'll have to actually read it myself from a paper or ebook, as I can't bring myself to buy another audiobook narrated by Wheaton.
American Gods is a strange one. I enjoyed it but felt that Gaiman got a bit lost in himself at some points and needed his editor to poke him with a stick to get him back on track. It was good but no Neverhwere.
I meant to post this last week when I finished it but read the last book in the MistBorn serries. Man that was a ride and a good one at that. It might not have been as dark and gritty as say emperor of Thorns but some times its nice not to have to deal with protracted torture and rape scenes and wondering which charicter is going to senslessly die.
Also read the last book in the Ahborhosen serrier which I started about 10 odd years ago. Its teen fiction. The magic system is cool and the charicters ok. Nothing mind blowing but a good read.
Onto Kavalier and Clay, about half way through and I'm waiting for the drop. Something bad is going to happen, they are going to have a falling out, people are going to die I can feel it.
I just finished up with Christopher Hitchens' God is not great and Greta Christina's Why Are You Atheists So Angry?. Hitchens was a real pleasure to read. I think i'll be looking for more of his writing. Christina's writing wasn't quite so good, but was still well worth reading. Both of these works will put some fire in your blood to go out and do some serious unbelieving.
That will have to wait for a little bit though. Now is time for my yearly Christmas reading of The Hogfather.
The Everything Store - What an unusual coincidence that a book about the history of Jeff Bezos and Amazon would come out shortly after I started working there. That aside, it was interesting to learn more about how the company came about, and now I know to never get on Bezos' bad side >_>
The Tipping Point - This was also an interesting read. It makes a lot of good points to support the idea that encouraging good behavior works better than discouraging bad behavior.
The Road - Didn't really enjoy this one much. I get that the story is meant to be really bleak and that a life of survival tends to be about repetition, but that doesn't get me very engaged. I'm glad I listened to this one because if I had to actually read it, I wouldn't have finished.
Next, I'm going to be reading London Falling by Paul Cornell. I've seen all three of his Doctor Who episodes and rather liked them, so I thought I would give one of his books a try.
I dread what Tom Cruise and the various writers will end up producing as a movie.
It may be hard to get into, but is worth the read.
Needless to say, this is now my favorite fantasy book.
Truth be told, I'm not bothered by the clichefulness of the story. Go ahead and be a little miss special youngster, it's all fine with me. But the world and how stupid it is just hits me every time it raises it's head.