Yep. Some of the first chapter books I ever received as presents, kicking off an expensive lifelong addiction.Our school library kind of sucked too. I got some books (mainly Hardy Boys and Boxcar Children) from the public library, which wasn't much better than the school, but a little. A lot of the books I just bought. I might ask my parents if a book was worth reading, to which they usually replied "Most books are worth reading at least once. If it looks interesting, buy it. If you don't like it, you can donate it to the library." So that's where a lot of my allowance went. I wound up keeping most of the books. I gave a few to friends who borrowed them and liked them a lot more than I did. Only a few got donated.Boxcar Children is real?
I thought they made that up for Steven Universe.
Same. When I was little, my Mom's family still owned a small independent book chain in California (sadly closed now, but it had a very long run), and I would get beautiful editions with the store seal pasted inside the back cover. Most of those are now on my children's bookshelves.
EDIT: Once again, fully clothed for this post.
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Dutch literature that we had to read for dutch classes in highschool was not my cup of tea. There was a lot of WW2 trauma in there and I did not care for that at all.
Luckily by that age I read far above my reading level, both in dutch and english, and I was pretty much allowed to read anything I pleased for english. So that was all fantasy.
I surprised a lot of teachers by reading the clan of the cavebear novels for my own enjoyment when I was 13/14.
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My feelings for GOT are closely tied to Robert Jordan and the WOT. This may be unfair, but it remains true. Let me explain since i am in the mood to procrastinate. This is my opinion, and not meant as a personal attack. I stand by my statement that as a gateway book/series/whatever, it is a good flag bearer for the fantasy genre.
I really liked GOT book 1. GOT 2 was still pretty good, but his explosion of plot lines made Robert Jordan look like an amateur. Jordan at least waited until like book 4-5 before his plot lines got unwieldy in my opinion. Having to keep track of all these folks was going to be a challenge and his release schedule only exacerbated it.
Book 3 came close on the heels of book 2, so no real complaints there, but even more plot lines and characters were added with no ready resolution in sight.
Then came the delays. 5 years to book 4, and then it was only half the book promised. At this point, I have forgotten who half these people are. I read book 1 back when I was in law school, and Now, 9 years later I am supposed to keep them all sorted out? Back to the half book. It was explained that it was just too much to put in one book, so only half the characters would be addressed, but that book 5 would be out almost immediately. Except it wasn't. The daenerys cul de sac problem is well documented on the internet. But he was more interested in bemoaning politics and how bad his jets were (or complaining about getting food poisoning from eating Mystic Pizza) than in actually, you know, writing. So, 6 years pass before we get book 5.
At this point, more jordan baggage. Having been "burned" by the death of Robert Jordan before he finished his series, I gave up on Martin. I understand authors don't "owe" their readers anything. He does not "owe" us these books or a satisfactory conclusion. But I am not going to invest more time and dollars in something where I don't know if I will ever have closure.
He is not young. He is not healthy. And he really has no incentive to write at this point. At the time of book 5, it was pretty clear that he did not have a vision for how to get to the finish of his story. Unlike RJ who had an outline and whose editor was his wife (and thus privy to pretty much the entire skeleton of the plot), Martin seemed very likely to die before the books were finished. Once the HBO series caught up to him, he at least had to sketch out how to get from point A to point B, but that certainly has not translated into more writing.
I will only mention in passing that new characters introduced and killed off without ever having interacted with any of the other plot lines in book 5 did nothing to convince me he knows what he is doing. This and the cul de sac contribute to my assertion that he can't write out of a paper bag. He has good prose, but, in my opinion, he is not a good storyteller.
Again, I am not your lawyer, this is not legal advice, and there is no attorney client privilege formed by the expression of my opinion.
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Dutch literature that we had to read for dutch classes in highschool was not my cup of tea. There was a lot of WW2 trauma in there and I did not care for that at all.
Luckily by that age I read far above my reading level, both in dutch and english, and I was pretty much allowed to read anything I pleased for english. So that was all fantasy.
I surprised a lot of teachers by reading the clan of the cavebear novels for my own enjoyment when I was 13/14.
I can relate.
(Remember, when I was in 2nd grade I was reading Edgar Rice Burroughs) :)When I was in grade school, I got into Greek myths of gods and goddesses. Devoured every single (kiddie) book my grade school library had on them. When they finally ran out of kids books, the librarian said I could always read the 'grown up' books on them, the Iliad and the Odyssey. (The way she said it, she clearly didn't think i would)
Fast forward to High School. Everyone in English class moans and whines when we are assigned, The Iliad.
Me: "Oh good, I get to do review!"
All other students: O_o "You have NOT read it already?!?"
Me; "Um,.. Yes? The Iliad AND the Odyssey. Hasn't everyone?!?"
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they tried to make me read that in elementary school, the class didnt get it.Oh, adding to the list, the Prydain Chronicles. They were assigned reading in junior high and I read them long before LOTR, so I loved them (hated how Disney bastardized it, couldn't get through the entire film), but of all the people I know who have actually heard of/read the series (including Whingey Wizzard), almost all of them hated it.
It could just be that I loved the English teacher who assigned it... she also had us read "the Westing Game" and Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca in class, not exactly typical... but I don't get the hate here either. WW says the books are just badly written and derivative, but he's a snob.Our classroom copies all had the ending removed and we had debates to discuss who we suspected and why. She was trying to teach us critical thinking.
This being rural northern Wisconsin, that was something of a fool's errand, but she gets points for the attempt.
Interesting.
I wish I had been in your class.
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My feelings for GOT are closely tied to Robert Jordan and the WOT. This may be unfair, but it remains true. Let me explain since i am in the mood to procrastinate. This is my opinion, and not meant as a personal attack. I stand by my statement that as a gateway book/series/whatever, it is a good flag bearer for the fantasy genre.
I really liked GOT book 1. GOT 2 was still pretty good, but his explosion of plot lines made Robert Jordan look like an amateur. Jordan at least waited until like book 4-5 before his plot lines got unwieldy in my opinion. Having to keep track of all these folks was going to be a challenge and his release schedule only exacerbated it.
Book 3 came close on the heels of book 2, so no real complaints there, but even more plot lines and characters were added with no ready resolution in sight.
Then came the delays. 5 years to book 4, and then it was only half the book promised. At this point, I have forgotten who half these people are. I read book 1 back when I was in law school, and Now, 9 years later I am supposed to keep them all sorted out? Back to the half book. It was explained that it was just too much to put in one book, so only half the characters would be addressed, but that book 5 would be out almost immediately. Except it wasn't. The daenerys cul de sac problem is well documented on the internet. But he was more interested in bemoaning politics and how bad his jets were (or complaining about getting food poisoning from eating Mystic Pizza) than in actually, you know, writing. So, 6 years pass before we get book 5.
At this point, more jordan baggage. Having been "burned" by the death of Robert Jordan before he finished his series, I gave up on Martin. I understand authors don't "owe" their readers anything. He does not "owe" us these books or a satisfactory conclusion. But I am not going to invest more time and dollars in something where I don't know if I will ever have closure.
He is not young. He is not healthy. And he really has no incentive...
As I have met Mr. Jordan and got his autograph(first ever book autographed by an author) and saw Mr. Martin are a great distance several years ago, I understand where you are coming from, even if I dont agree with the broad strokes. I used to follow Martin's blog-like-thing several years ago, and I picked up on where the series was going at THAT time, and most people kind of sussed out what the ending was going to be- but this was long before HBO and their...creative...takes on important scenes in the book. It is VERY likely(Martin had admitted as such) that what he was thinking "then" is different than what he is thinking "now" as he has given the series to a couple of much younger guys(mehhhhhhhhh) to finish on tv and he will get to the books...when he gets to them.
I am the child of a folk singer, so was brought up on myths & legends and peculiar old English folk tales; I also read LOTR when I was quite small, but probably the most formative YA fantasy literature for me were the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks, which I think still stand up.
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Tuf Voyaging is still one of my all-time favorite books.
I totally get it about Jordan and Martin.
I was watching Great British Bake-Off the other day, and a baker got herself into trouble because the thick, dense layers of her cake compacted under their own weight and it just became one sort of indistinguishable blob. Mary and Paul were not impressed.
This is *exactly* why I stopped reading both series. `
The concluding bits if Wheel of Time are the only Sanderson I have not read and will not read, because I can't make myself drag myself thru the rest of the series to get to his stuff.
The concluding bits if Wheel of Time are the only Sanderson I have not read and will not read, because I can't make myself drag myself thru the rest of the series to get to his stuff.
He hits a home run. His Matt writing feels a bit off, but the rest of it is smash on. Books 1-6 pretty solid (some may quibble about 6, but I liked it). 7-10 a bit iffy. here is where it felt he had a lot of spurious plot lines and characters - BUT - Sanderson does an amazing job of pulling them back into the end of it all.
If you don't want to slog through the reading- I can also recommend the audio books.
If, when, GM ever finishes GOT, I MAY, go back and audio book through it. I have tried to reread once and failed miserably. In contrast, I have read RJ 3 times all the way through and audio booked through twice.
Note that audio books work best for me during longer car rides (> 30 min)
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I've got complicated feelings on Harry Potter since nostalgia goggles are still in full effect for a lot of it. I was just the right age when they came out and already reading constantly, but that was the first series I got to be an eager fan of, waiting for new books to come out, being able to talk to someone about having enjoyed the same thing. I mean, yeah, forums and fangroups were already a thing, but I was nine and not allowed to use the internet.
Even before the series had finished, I was picking flaws out of it, but I still liked the books too much to really loathe them. I've reread them all several times, and I still enjoy them, but less so than when I was in middle/high school.
But Rowling has been consistently chipping away at my already diminishing enjoyment, between her inability to just stop saying things on Twitter and just...Fantastic Beasts existing.
So I don't know. They're not excellent, but they were important.
...and I'm still going to say they're better than Game of Thrones.
My sister was given each HP book as they came out, but oddly I was the one who ended up falling in love with them despite being four years older. I remember waiting in line until midnight at a bookstore, in my early 20s, to get my hands on the seventh book.
I don't have the time and energy these days to do that for any book, but it's still a good memory.
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I read WoT in high school and had just caught up on the series when Jordan died. I'd started to lose interest around book 8, but by then, sunk-cost fallacy had set in, and I had to see it through. 11 was an improvement, and then...author existence failure.
I was really excited that they tapped Sanderson because I love his other stuff. So when book 12 finally came out a few years later, I picked it up...and had completely forgotten who the characters were. So I looked back at the several thousand pages I would need to reread and moved on to something else.
What I find boggling is that it took Sanderson 3 books to wrap up what Jordan had pitched as the final novel. Sanderson routinely writes things that are easily classified as melee weapons and/or trebuchet ammunition, and even he couldn't finish what Jordan left in one go.
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I am the child of a folk singer, so was brought up on myths & legends and peculiar old English folk tales; I also read LOTR when I was quite small, but probably the most formative YA fantasy literature for me were the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks, which I think still stand up.
LONE WOLF FOREVER
FOR SOMMERLUND AND THE KAI
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Having talked to sanderson over a few hands of MTG, no one who really was in the loop expected a one book finish. Harriet hoped that it could be done in two and Sanderson signed on expecting to do two.
It took three. He does not apologize for that and quite honestly, there were enough threads that it took 3 to bring everything back together without feeling rushed (and what in that series was rushed after the first book?).
The concluding bits if Wheel of Time are the only Sanderson I have not read and will not read, because I can't make myself drag myself thru the rest of the series to get to his stuff.He hits a home run. His Matt writing feels a bit off, but the rest of it is smash on. Books 1-6 pretty solid (some may quibble about 6, but I liked it). 7-10 a bit iffy. here is where it felt he had a lot of spurious plot lines and characters - BUT - Sanderson does an amazing job of pulling them back into the end of it all.
Here we agree.
Absolutely amazing. Ends some long going dangling storylines without a tear shed. Very well done.
I tried reading Harry Potter, I didn't make it past the first couple of pages.
I was forced to watch the movies (2 kids and 20+ nieces and nephews) I didn't like them at all.
Dutch literature that we had to read for dutch classes in highschool was not my cup of tea. There was a lot of WW2 trauma in there and I did not care for that at all.
Luckily by that age I read far above my reading level, both in dutch and english, and I was pretty much allowed to read anything I pleased for english. So that was all fantasy.
I surprised a lot of teachers by reading the clan of the cavebear novels for my own enjoyment when I was 13/14.
Do you have obligatory literature reading for school regarding 80 Years' War?
Because we have about every possible period of wars, occupation, wars, partitions, wars, and more occupation.
Also, hugs.
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Tuf Voyaging is still one of my all-time favorite books.
<3
If I ever get my hands on Martin, my question would start with "When the next book comes out!" wait a moment and then clarify "Of Tuf Voyaging! More of 1000 worlds setting!"
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Dutch literature that we had to read for dutch classes in highschool was not my cup of tea. There was a lot of WW2 trauma in there and I did not care for that at all.
Luckily by that age I read far above my reading level, both in dutch and english, and I was pretty much allowed to read anything I pleased for english. So that was all fantasy.
I surprised a lot of teachers by reading the clan of the cavebear novels for my own enjoyment when I was 13/14.
Do you have obligatory literature reading for school regarding 80 Years' War?
Because we have about every possible period of wars, occupation, wars, partitions, wars, and more occupation.
Not regarding the 80 year war specifically.
You need to read x amount of dutch literature books each school year, do a written book review, and you get a one on one quiz at the end of the school year about the book (so the teacher can check if you actually read it, not plucked a review of the internet).So anything that counts as literature counts. So when I was in highschool in the '00s that ment that a lot of 'current' literature was either people who went trough the war themselves, or children of those people.
And a lot of it was either directly about WW2 and the fallout, or had a lot of fallout seeped trough. Because PTSD was not really a thing, a lot of people born after the war had a hard time growing up, because their parents had trauma they couldnt work trough.
Sure, there were other kinds of books (free sexuality has always been a topic), but as dutch literature didnt interest me one bit, I didnt pay a lot of attention, and I couldnt name most books I've read.
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It says something about the collective trauma of our nation that Harry Mulisch his book, De ontdekking van de hemel (the discovery of heaven) is rated as the best dutch literary book. You can bet nearly every kid has read it somewhere in their high school carreer (or pretended to and watched the movie instead).
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So when I was in highschool in the '00s...
Feels a little bit older...
And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
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Dutch books are so incredibly boring. Or at least, Dutch "literature." It's either World War 2 stuff, or colonialism. Oh, and sex. As Woran said, it's all very boring and actively turns kids off reading. Everything's mopey and depressing, because the subject matter is depressing. You don't give 15-year olds WW2 stuff, they're literally too young to comprehend that stuff. I was one of the few kids in my class who actually read all the stuff because I was crazy and I enjoyed the act of reading more than the subject matter I was reading, so there's that.
I mean, English "literature" isn't that much better, I believe, but it's at least more diverse. There's something to be said for teaching children your nation's history, but all these books just suck the fun out of reading. There needs to be a balance between fun and educational. I read a book about a guy trying (and failing) to become a cheese merchant. The book wasn't great, but it was a view into middle-class life in the 1930s. I was so glad the main character didn't f&!!, shoot, or ship the subject matter to India, because that actually is 90% of what Dutch literature consists of.
As for fantasy: I've read GRRM's work until the fourth book. That one was just a mess and I didn't want to continue anymore. By then I'd also heard more and more about Martin himself and he just seems like a huge prick, and I started boycotting him. He doesn't write because he likes the story, but because he likes the sound of his own voice. That's what's started to bother me more and more about book 4: it felt more like rambling than an actual story. Things just happen because. He also writes on a DOS computer without internet access, and sends it to his editor by floppy disk. At some point you stop being quirky and just literally disappear up your own ass from pretentiousness.
I've read the first three books of Wheel of Time. Then I just stopped. I liked the books well enough, but it just didn't feel "meaty" enough. The stories themselves were cool and imaginative, but I guess I just didn't feel satisfied enough. Still can't put my finger on it exactly what I missed about the series, but I just didn't have the drive to continue reading.
I should read more. I've been spending way too much time on my computer lately.
Dresden Files woo!
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And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
You are missing Gorbacz bringing it on!
Dutch books are so incredibly boring. Or at least, Dutch "literature." It's either World War 2 stuff, or colonialism. Oh, and sex. As Woran said, it's all very boring and actively turns kids off reading. Everything's mopey and depressing, because the subject matter is depressing.
I have to disagree with that, though here, visit to Auschwitz camp museum is often part of late elementary/high school curriculum for those close enough for it to be a reasonable one-day trip. Isolating kids from monstrosity of the war is worse than exposing them to it, because it brings unhealthy glorification later on.
I woke up with a headache and I am so tired.
Send me internet hugs.
Internet Hug!
I mostly read Forgotten Realms novels (Azure Bonds, and Servant of the Shard are my favorite, followed by Streams of Silver and the Thay harpers book), Stephen King and biographies (John Belushi book was awesome! Same with the book by the drummer for The Doors) and true crime (like Helter Skelter or the John Wayne Gacy book) and I love Hunter S. Thompson.
I didn't like The Hobbit, but loved Lord of the Rings.
I loved the Weetzie Bat series the General was into when we went steady in high school.
But, because my brother was a hugely obnoxious Douglas Adams fan boy I never read him until I moved in with the General after college (all those wasted years!).
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You are missing Gorbacz bringing it on!And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
OK. You made me look. Loves me some irascible Gorbacz.
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OK. You made me look. Loves me some irascible Gorbacz.You are missing Gorbacz bringing it on!And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
That doesn't sound like Gorbacz.
Cartoon Network's Infinity Train was pretty good.
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That doesn't sound like Gorbacz.OK. You made me look. Loves me some irascible Gorbacz.You are missing Gorbacz bringing it on!And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
Yes. He's typically so cuddwy and wuvable.
Sitting in on the school board meeting gives me SUCH flashbacks...
...I forgot how horrific these things were.
"We need to report on every single thing, no matter how trivial, every time we meet."
Honestly, some of it is pretty interesting. Right now they're going over the projected budget shortfalls due to COVID-19 and what they're doing about it (and the woman on it seems really sharp). But most of it is SOOOOOOOOO boring!
My feelings for GOT are closely tied to Robert Jordan and the WOT. This may be unfair, but it remains true. Let me explain since i am in the mood to procrastinate. This is my opinion, and not meant as a personal attack. I stand by my statement that as a gateway book/series/whatever, it is a good flag bearer for the fantasy genre.
I really liked GOT book 1. GOT 2 was still pretty good, but his explosion of plot lines made Robert Jordan look like an amateur. Jordan at least waited until like book 4-5 before his plot lines got unwieldy in my opinion. Having to keep track of all these folks was going to be a challenge and his release schedule only exacerbated it.
Book 3 came close on the heels of book 2, so no real complaints there, but even more plot lines and characters were added with no ready resolution in sight.
Then came the delays. 5 years to book 4, and then it was only half the book promised. At this point, I have forgotten who half these people are. I read book 1 back when I was in law school, and Now, 9 years later I am supposed to keep them all sorted out? Back to the half book. It was explained that it was just too much to put in one book, so only half the characters would be addressed, but that book 5 would be out almost immediately. Except it wasn't. The daenerys cul de sac problem is well documented on the internet. But he was more interested in bemoaning politics and how bad his jets were (or complaining about getting food poisoning from eating Mystic Pizza) than in actually, you know, writing. So, 6 years pass before we get book 5.
At this point, more jordan baggage. Having been "burned" by the death of Robert Jordan before he finished his series, I gave up on Martin. I understand authors don't "owe" their readers anything. He does not "owe" us these books or a satisfactory conclusion. But I am not going to invest more time and dollars in something where I don't know if I will ever have closure.
He is not young. He is not healthy. And he really has no incentive...
I keep telling people that old sea captain is never finishing those books. I'll stick with Sanderson that guy is a writing machine. He's like 2 books a year.
I also feel like their was a lot of short term writing tricks to get people into it, to increase drama, to grab people, but they didn't work on me only made me dislike the series. (Also F Jamie I don't care what he did to redeem himself he pushed a little kid out a window.)
Jordan apparently expected to be writing those books forever. Every book he just kept branching out to more and more side stories and character at at one point I couldn't care less about any of them but the main 3-6 characters. Also random cliff hangers that wouldn't get resolved for 2-3 book later I could only imagine how terrible that was for people that had to wait on their release.
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And are any of us truly surprised that a thread titled, "NO COVID 19 VACCINE? NO GEN CON!" has degenerated into hostilities?
It happened pretty fast really... /s Yay I contributed!
The concluding bits if Wheel of Time are the only Sanderson I have not read and will not read, because I can't make myself drag myself thru the rest of the series to get to his stuff.
I do not blame you. Like I'm glad I read it and the Sanderson parts finished it out quite nicely well as well as it could considering how many threads he had to tie together. I would not ever pick that series up again.
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Yes. He's typically so cuddwy and wuvable.That doesn't sound like Gorbacz.OK. You made me look. Loves me some irascible Gorbacz.You are missing Gorbacz bringing it on!And yeah, I ended up having to turn off the GenCon thread. It was like watching a slow-moving freight train trundling towards the collapsed bridge over the ravine: Fascinating to watch while knowing what was in store, then turning away when the inevitable happened...
I agree it's fun to watch him go.
Ok I think I'm caught up. busy day on FAWTL.