Finished Keith Richards' book. AA+ everyone who likes 20th century music should read it. Now reading another Bruce book, this one focusing on his pre-b2r years.
Finished up the audio book of The Scream Staircase. Really enjoyed how the first chapter throws the reader right into the action. The characters Lockwood, Lucy and George make a great team of paranormal investigators. And the reader does a great job of bringing all the characters to life. The horror for it being a YA novel was more tense than scary but still was good. I'm looking forward to the next book.
Got to the end of The Judging Eye. If the Prince of Nothing was the Lord of the Rings then the Judging Eye was the Hobbit.
Of Mice and Men. I never realised how short this book was. I can see why they study it in schools. Curly's Wife had no name given in the book and in her final scene it was that sort of thing that made her pissed off with everything.
Lenny was pretty tragic. I thought he'd make a lot more blunders than he did. But when he make them they were biggies. My brother forewarned me to note animal based similies and they were indeed exclusively used for Lenny.
George was the man to Lenny's animal. This had me thinking about Steppenwolf again.
Finished a load of 40k books as they are easy and you can turd them out in a day. Ive got The Crippled God, Children of Dune and Malice to chose from next not sure where to start.
Finished Saint in the City: 1949-1974. Very good. Thoroughly researched, it dispells myths propegated by the Peter Aimes Carlin bio, and Dave Marsh's numerous books on the topic. Now onto the Nilsson bio.
Finished Consider Phlebas. As compared to later Culture books, I thought it was very disorganized and had too many disconnected parts. I enjoyed reading a lot of sections in the book, but not the book as a whole.
If I'd read this one first, I'm afraid I'd never have gotten to read Player of Games, which was a hell of a lot better.
Finished Consider Phlebas. As compared to later Culture books, I thought it was very disorganized and had too many disconnected parts. I enjoyed reading a lot of sections in the book, but not the book as a whole.
If I'd read this one first, I'm afraid I'd never have gotten to read Player of Games, which was a hell of a lot better.
Im half way through Phlebas, it really hasn't drawn me in. I normal have no clue when reading Banks books, end up rereading and thinking about whats been written. With Phlebas it felt dull, predictable and like most space opera.
I'm half way through the 8th book in my Culture series re-read we started last year, and Consider Phlebas is, by far, the worst book. Please don't start with that one first. Read Player of Games first, then Phlebas, and then know from then on all the books will be way closer to Player of Games. Which is a good thing.
I set the Mistborn trilogy aside for a while, as it wasn't really sucking me in. In the time since then I read A Canticle for Leibowitz, Skin Game (Jim Butcher), The Apocalypse Codex (Charles Stross), The Wise Man's Fear (Patrick Rothfuss), and I just got into Redshirts by John Scalzi. Haven't had the time to delve into Horns yet as the Butcher novel pushed it out of the way, but it's still in the queue as I'd like to get it read before the movie comes out. So many books, so little time...
Also forgot Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines, which was an interesting, albeit predictable, cross between the zombie apocalypse and superhero genres. I probably would have skipped it, but it was on one of the Kindle Daily deals for $1.99, so I figured "what the heck" and bought it. It was worth the two bucks, but I doubt I would have purchased it at full price. It definitely read like it was somebody's novelization of the superhero RPG they were playing on weekends, but was entertaining nonetheless.
Been reading Culture books. Despite being a basically psychotic AI, Falling Outside of the Normal Moral Constraints is my favorite character from the series by far. Hopefully they'll stop by the Earth one of these days and we can get the hell out of here.
Dune had some fantastic highs, but it had some incredibly boring lows. I mostly remember the hideout with Mom/integrating into Fremen society being kinda boring. Once they were into Fremen society it got a bit better but it was just like too many chapters of okay we're waiting around not doing anything.
Currently reading: The Art of Zen and Motorcycle Maintenance.
I loved Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I really need to re-read it since it's been over 10 years now. However, I want to try to find my old copy buried somewhere in the attic, because I highlighted quotes that I liked from it, and I'm interested to see if I still agree with my 20 year old self.
I recently finished up all 3 books by Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl. Her books are very dark, but they weren't as ZOMG as most people who recommended them to me had implied.
I currently am binging on some Stephen King, since I hadn't read him before. I finished Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, and Salem's Lot, and I'm currently reading It. It's really interesting how the scary monsters in the book aren't nearly as scary as some of the normal townspeople in a lot of these books. Abusive parents and spouses, bullies, and racists are the real monsters.
It's really interesting how the scary monsters in the book aren't nearly as scary as some of the normal townspeople in a lot of these books. Abusive parents and spouses, bullies, and racists are the real monsters.
If you want to get that from a Stephen King movie, let me recommend The Mist. The monster CGI was never that good, but the story and characters and acting are all top notch. And the ending is OMFG dark.
You know, I had seen that movie before reading any Stephen King books, not knowing that it's a running theme. I figured that was just that one story in particular, but now it suddenly makes a lot more sense.
King's next books I have lined up are The Stand, Pet Sematary, and Needful Things. Then I'm going for some pulpy action/adventure novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
Finished Wicked last week. Good stuff, though there were long bits at the beginning where I wished he would get on with it. Now I'm refocusing on The Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker, which is a layman's guide to higher-dimensional geometry. It feels kinda tired hokey some times, but there's a lot of neat ideas to practice wrapping my head around.
I'm half way through the 8th book in my Culture series re-read we started last year, and Consider Phlebas is, by far, the worst book. Please don't start with that one first. Read Player of Games first, then Phlebas, and then know from then on all the books will be way closer to Player of Games. Which is a good thing.
Thank the Minds. Guess I'm picking up the next book.
Finally finished American Gods. Yes. I am that slow. It was fun looking up the various gods and their mythology behind them as I discovered whom each of the characters represented. I am looking forward to the tv series.
As for my next book, I have no idea. I need to catch up on some comics first.
I'm half way through the 8th book in my Culture series re-read we started last year, and Consider Phlebas is, by far, the worst book. Please don't start with that one first.
I bought a box set of the first three books (this) and I chose to read Consider Phlebas first. I can understand why one might recommend starting with a different book, but in my case I was highly confident that I would still read Player of Games even if I didn't particularly enjoy the first book.
I liked the idea behind Consider Phlebas, i.e. to portray the Culture from an antagonistic outsider's perspective, but I think it could have done a much better job of that.
Am I the only person that liked Consider Phlebas? I thought the first four books (chronologically) were excellent, but the rest just weren't as good. They were all super predictable, full of literal and figurative deus ex machinas and felt like they didn't have anything new to offer.
I'm half way through the 8th book in my Culture series re-read we started last year, and Consider Phlebas is, by far, the worst book. Please don't start with that one first. Read Player of Games first, then Phlebas, and then know from then on all the books will be way closer to Player of Games. Which is a good thing.
Consider Phlebas is still the only culture book I've ever read. Should fix that, after I deal with all the stuff I already have on my bookshelf.
Right now I'm reading "A fly in a pail of Milk" by Herb Carnegie. It is an autobiography of a black hockey player who found success in the 1950s, but was barred from the NHL due to his skin color. Infamously Conn Smythe said that he would pay any man $10,000 if he or she could turn Carnegie white.
Am I the only person that liked Consider Phlebas? I thought the first four books (chronologically) were excellent, but the rest just weren't as good. They were all super predictable, full of literal and figurative deus ex machinas and felt like they didn't have anything new to offer.
I'll be clear, I did rather enjoy Consider Phlebas.
I'm still reading the third book, so I can't comment on the later ones.
Wrapped up a load of trashy 40K books for dumb reading. Did read Bitter Seeds, which was ok, not amazing but ok. The main character is a bit of a 2D tool but the rest of the cast is pretty interesting. The German side is a little bit under developed and the character Grettle is slightly irritating. But it has German vunderkind vs British warlocks so whats not to like.
Started reading Against a Dark Background. Certainly a Banks book and, its premise at least, is what I would like from one of his books. All of this is a delaying action till I can gird my loins to read The Crippled God. On that note I can not stress enough how amazing the Mazlan book of the Fallen series is. It is so up the ally of the FRC that it is unbelievable.
I just finished up the last of the Warrior Cat books I had purchased for my spawn years ago. Not great literature by a long shot but when you just want to enjoy the story they are a fun read. Also the stand alone books have been interesting to read because they take place at the same time as the original six book series and tend to have the same scene rewritten from a different perspective.
Comments
Of Mice and Men. I never realised how short this book was. I can see why they study it in schools. Curly's Wife had no name given in the book and in her final scene it was that sort of thing that made her pissed off with everything.
Lenny was pretty tragic. I thought he'd make a lot more blunders than he did. But when he make them they were biggies. My brother forewarned me to note animal based similies and they were indeed exclusively used for Lenny.
George was the man to Lenny's animal. This had me thinking about Steppenwolf again.
Finished a load of 40k books as they are easy and you can turd them out in a day. Ive got The Crippled God, Children of Dune and Malice to chose from next not sure where to start.
If I'd read this one first, I'm afraid I'd never have gotten to read Player of Games, which was a hell of a lot better.
I recently finished up all 3 books by Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl. Her books are very dark, but they weren't as ZOMG as most people who recommended them to me had implied.
I currently am binging on some Stephen King, since I hadn't read him before. I finished Carrie, Cujo, The Shining, and Salem's Lot, and I'm currently reading It. It's really interesting how the scary monsters in the book aren't nearly as scary as some of the normal townspeople in a lot of these books. Abusive parents and spouses, bullies, and racists are the real monsters.
King's next books I have lined up are The Stand, Pet Sematary, and Needful Things. Then I'm going for some pulpy action/adventure novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
As for my next book, I have no idea. I need to catch up on some comics first.
I liked the idea behind Consider Phlebas, i.e. to portray the Culture from an antagonistic outsider's perspective, but I think it could have done a much better job of that.
Amazon new was £8.00. Amazon used had one at £3.80.
But I got a kick out of negotiation too.
I'm still reading the third book, so I can't comment on the later ones.
Started reading Against a Dark Background. Certainly a Banks book and, its premise at least, is what I would like from one of his books. All of this is a delaying action till I can gird my loins to read The Crippled God. On that note I can not stress enough how amazing the Mazlan book of the Fallen series is. It is so up the ally of the FRC that it is unbelievable.