So, I'll be 35 in less than a month, which, according to Dante is the midpoint of a man's life. I certainly haven't accomplished much in my three and a half decades on this planet, but I swear that before my next birthday, I will have read every work of William Shakespeare! Yay me!
Of course, Gore Vidal claimed he did so before he graduated prep school. And Karl Marx claimed that he re-read Billy's entire ouervre annually. But they're just big show offs. Ooh, look at me, I'm so smart.
Anyway, I read half of Love's Labour's Lost this morning at work and I'll finish the second half after I decide to stop wasting time on the internet.
Finished Clavell's Tai-Pan in three days, then broke down and opened The Affair and blew through that in a few hours (Lee Child is very easy to read, and I thought this was one of his better efforts). Am partway into Clavell's Noble House. I'll read King's time travel one if my mother remembers to send it when she's finished with it -- although I was so disgusted with the low quality of the stories in Just After Sunset that I was tempted to swear off the rest of his stuff, too.
"Gil's All Fright Diner" by A. Lee Martinez.
Well, I turn 48 on Friday; but been reading Last Legion by Chris Bunch; a pretty good military sci fi at the troop level; having been a soldier; I can say it has a lot of themes and insights that are right on from a soldiers perspective; enough to piss me off at times hehe; pretty good book.
Just finished Herbert's Dune and Asimov's Foundation in my attempt to read NPR's Top SciFi fantasy classics (actually top 10 by year's end :). Starting Orwell's 1984. I know how did I miss these before? :)
That was a fun list, huh? I picked up one or two titles from it since it's come out, too. There was a thread about it here that you should go revive for fun.
I love Dune, and the two that follow it are good, too. I haven't read any of the others, nor any Asimov, but...
1984 is amazing. It is also one of the few fantasy/sci-fi novels that you can easily strike up a conversation with non-geeks about. I've chatted up a hot chick because she was reading it in public and I HAVE BEEN CHATTED UP by TWO hot chicks because I was reading it in public!
It's true--Orwell gets you laid!
I love Dune, and the two that follow it are good, too. I haven't read any of the others.
God Emperor I thought was kind of silly and overblown, but I have to admit that Heretics was my favorite out of all of them. Unfortunately, Chapterhouse sort of blew chunks, IMHO.
I love Dune, and the two that follow it are good, too. I haven't read any of the others.God Emperor I thought was kind of silly and overblown, but I have to admit that Heretics was my favorite out of all of them. Unfortunately, Chapterhouse sort of blew chunks, IMHO.
Peter Bramley's A Companion & Guide to the War of the Roses. Great book as it lists all the sites to visit that have a connection to the War of the Roses. And here I am on vacation in Midland England! Off to Warwick and Kenilworth Castle the weekend. :)
Also reading Col Buchanan's Farlander. A little bit formulaic so far but managing to hold my interest.
The Big Cats and their fossil relatives. Looking at the evolution of the cat family over the course of time.
Finished Clavell's Tai-Pan in three days, then broke down and opened The Affair and blew through that in a few hours (Lee Child is very easy to read, and I thought this was one of his better efforts). Am partway into Clavell's Noble House. I'll read King's time travel one if my mother remembers to send it when she's finished with it -- although I was so disgusted with the low quality of the stories in Just After Sunset that I was tempted to swear off the rest of his stuff, too.
A piece of advice, if you haven't read it yet, Gai-Jin is nowhere near as good as Tai-Pan or Noble House, so it wouldn't be a great loss to you if you skipped it.
A piece of advice, if you haven't read it yet, Gai-Jin is nowhere near as good as Tai-Pan or Noble House, so it wouldn't be a great loss to you if you skipped it.
I read it years ago, after I first discovered Tai Pan and Noble House, and I agree completely. Also, I couldn't quite get through Whirlwind, either. Fortunately, King Rat and Shogun were both quite good, and four good novels to 2 crap ones is a pretty respectable ratio.
"The Automatic Detective" by A. Lee Martinez.
18 days to go until I am officially middle-aged by Dantean standards!
Finished up Love's Labour's Lost and The Merry Wives of Windsor, only one more to go and the contents of Shakespeare's brain will be all mine!
100 pages into The City and the City by China Mieville and, yep, it's pretty good. I'd say awesome, but I'll have to wait to see how it ends. Instantly enthrallinh, though, imho.
Just started Sanderson's Mistborn #1 - The Final Empire.
I wanted to see what the hooplah was all about.
I got about 1/3 of the way through Kage Baker's Anvil of the World, but then it was recalled, so I'll have to reorder it to find out how it ends. Luckily, there were three more holds waiting for me at the library to take its place—I'm now reading the Kalevala in preparation for a second viewing of Jade Warrior.
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100 pages into The City and the City by China Mieville and, yep, it's pretty good. I'd say awesome, but I'll have to wait to see how it ends. Instantly enthrallinh, though, imho.
The City and the City is probably my favourite of his now!
I am out of reading at the moment. Any good gritty fantasy that someone can recommend?
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100 pages into The City and the City by China Mieville and, yep, it's pretty good. I'd say awesome, but I'll have to wait to see how it ends. Instantly enthrallinh, though, imho.The City and the City is probably my favourite of his now!
I am out of reading at the moment. Any good gritty fantasy that someone can recommend?
Glen Cook or Gene Wolf?
Could be worse, he could be reading The Sword of Truth.
Hey i resemble that remark TOZ
Also currently reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Snuff by Terry Pratchett and The Complaints by Ian Rankin (if you've been to an author's favourite pub, you'd better come back from the trip with one of his novels, too).
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I am out of reading at the moment. Any good gritty fantasy that someone can recommend?
I'll second Kage Baker, although moral lapses relating to copulation and inebriation might not be what you had in mind when you said "gritty".
I liked both The Anvil of the World and The Heart of the Stag or whatever it was called. The stories weren't exactly what you'd call "epic fantasy" but the world was and, more importantly, Baker could write.
"The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" by Professor James C. Scott - How different cultures create, coexist and exploit each other.
"The Strain Trilogy" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan . Vampires as a virus.
Assassins of the Turquoise Palace by Roya Hakakian. Iranian intelligence agency killing dissidents.
I just finished Demon City Shinjuku by Hideyuki Kikuchi. It's clearly a debut novel, and it's easy to see the author's growth between it and the sequel which is included in the omnibus. Still, it leaves me with the dilemma I always have with translated works: how much is the original author's work and how much is the translators? I guess I'll never know short of learning Japanese.
Anyway, I'm now on to the Untold Adventures anthology of D&D short stories. Figured I'd round out the year with some quicker reads.
i just finished reading joanne rowling's "harry potter" series, and i loved it. the books were always fun, constantly surprising, and never boring.
rowling is a great storyteller. her creativity, exposition, and dialog are fantastic. at times i found myself wanting to skip the flavor-text to get right to the next line of dialog. that's how good it was.
just as george rr martin's "a song of ice and fire" series is memorable because of the believability of his characters, so is the "harry potter" series. i found it very easy to like the good guys and very easy to dislike the bad guys. the girls are believable, being smart and emotional. the boys are also believable, being rebellious and short-tempered. the adults seem to cover all types -- kind, giving, vengeful, controlling, fearful, and always flawed.
albus dumbledore ranks right up there with merlin and gandalf as one of the great wizards of literature.
or... could he be the greatest?
the books are fantastic. i think i may have found my new favorite author.
george who?
"The Strain Trilogy" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan . Vampires as a virus.
I bought the first book when it originally came out in hardback and finally got around to starting it just the other night.
Very interesting so far. Looking forward to completing the trilogy.
If you liked book 1, book 2 and 3 is more of the same :)
Could be worse, he could be reading The Sword of Truth.Hey i resemble that remark TOZJust make fun of David Eddings and we're even. :)
(Seriously, are you expecting an apology? You must not know me well. ;)
TOZ the day i ask for an apology from you is the day the skynet has taken over my computer. It always taken in stride on the internets.
Anyways currently rereading the Frankenstien books by Dean Koontz.
"Broken Angels" by Richard K Morgan. More post-cyberpunk bodyswapping private investigator soldier of fortune goodness!
Finished The City and the City. I thought it was pretty awesome. I can't really think of what to say about it, so I'll just quote the blurb on the dustcover: "Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City and the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights."
IVV--What did you want to discuss about it? We can either do it here or take it back to the What CM book should I buy thread. I'll go bump it.
Finally got around to picking up Wise Man's Fear. Only 6 chapters in, and it is solid, but doesn't have the same charm as The Name of the Wind. Glad I picked this one up on kindle- wouldn't want to have to carry a book of this size through the snow and back to work for the next while.
Since I don't want to rock the boat. ;)
Fiction
Lamb - Christopher Moore
Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton
Non-Fiction
Captain Kidds Biography - actual name and author elude me.
Under The Black Flag - author eludes me.
Tom Paine--Common Sense. In the Penguin edition that I'm reading, the introduction is almost the exact same length as the pamphlet itself! Otherwise, I'd already be done.
I haven't read this since I was 16 or so; like the quotes from the Old Testament about how monarchy is an abomination in the eyes of God! Had recently decided that after I finish up Shakespeare, I was going to move on to The Bible. Looks like I'll have to read Paine's Age of Reason alongside it.
I was going to move on to The Bible. Looks like I'll have to read Paine's Age of Reason alongside it.
A winning combination, Tovarich!
The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind.
[Ignoring Kirth's post, not because I disagree, but because I consider the Books thread neutral territory.]
Tom Paine--Common Sense. In the Penguin edition that I'm reading, the introduction is almost the exact same length as the pamphlet itself! Otherwise, I'd already be done.
Heh. That reminds me of when I read the Penguin edition of "The Epic of Gilgamesh".
I haven't read this since I was 16 or so; like the quotes from the Old Testament about how monarchy is an abomination in the eyes of God!
<blinks>
<ponders a moment>
<blinks again>
Um... there are indeed many people who interpret the Old Testament that way. I remember one of my religious teachers making that argument... while many of the students, myself included, made arguments the OTHER way. It CAN be interpreted to mean the opposite.
When I was pondering earlier, the one major thought that I had was that Samuel got upset at the suggestion of a king. I searched for "Common Sense", looked at this site, and browsed it just long enough to confirm my belief that Paine quoted Samuel a lot (as well as a few other places in the Bible.)
But still, I mean, really! Listen to this:
In the early ages of the world, according to the scripture chronology there were no kings; the consequence of which was, there were no wars; it is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion.
WHAT THE...?!?
Before the establishment of a monarchy, the Jews went through a TERRIBLE time!!! They were poor, and were often attacked by other nations... and when one tribe was attacked, that tribe could only beg for support from the other tribes, because there was no king to unify them. Read the story of Cicero and Barak in the book of Judges, and see what Deborah had to say about those tribes that refused to help!
But let me get closer to the heart of the matter: When Paine said "no wars", I assume that he meant no CIVIL wars... and that's baloney!!! The end of the book of Judges goes on and on about terrible things that happened, ultimately culminating in a civil war that nearly wiped out an entire tribe. And the book repeatedly emphasizes that the reason for these evils was that THERE WAS NO KING!
It's perfectly reasonable to argue that monarchy is a bad idea, or that the Old Testament implies that it's a bad idea, but really, Paine went a little too far!
I didn't say I believed him, or thought that Paine was an accredited Biblical scholar--I just said I liked his quotes re: Samuel. (In fact, I tend to doubt almost everything Enlightenment thinkers have to say about the classical world.)
In other news, I think Penguin is my all-time favorite publishing company.
I am a fan of the classics. I just finished Treasure Island. I'm rereading Three Musketeers for the first time in 15 years.
So, when you were reading Treasure Island did you hope Long John Silver would win? Or is that just me?
You know, I didn't hope that he did. But I did kind of see him as a force of nature. I know Long John Silver was an inspiration for the Jack Sparrow character. I didn't expect Long John Silver to win, but I expected him to make out like a bandit. I was most impressed with the Doctor though. He went from being a wig-wearing nancy to a partisan in the span of a few weeks.