For the Love of Books!: Looking for a good read?

[Requiem]

Also awaiting the paperback version of Spellbound by Blake Charlton.

 

[DtJ Composer]

Well now I'm here somehow.

Thanks Anne.

 

[Requiem]

hahahahaha I hoped the name would draw you in. Secretely I bought the book because it had Composer in the name.

 

[DtJ Composer]

Well luckily for you I do enjoy a good book.

 

[Requiem]

You should read it since you're in it.

 

[Dastrn]

I read Ender's Game again. still 10/10

I'm halfway through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's not bad.

I'm also reading a book that Overswarm sent me called "Round Ireland with a fridge" which is pretty funny. A guy bet his friends 100 bucks he could hitchhike around Ireland with a small fridge on a little trolley. Totally did it, and wrote a book about all the people he met along the way. I'm 2/3 through it. It's been pretty funny, although I wouldn't recommend everyone run out and buy it unless you're into that sort of thing.

 

[ShroudedOne]

I'm wondering how I could possibly miss this thread, especially since I like reading. As a contribution, I HIGHLY recommend the Sword of Truth series from Terry Goodkind. The first book in the series is called Wizard's First Rule. It's kind of complicated to explain, but it starts out with a young man called Richard who lives in a small town as a forest guide. He meets a girl named Kahlan, who is being chased by a group of men sent to kill her. He saves her, and in doing so, gets himself in a much larger situation than he could have imagined. It's a fantasy read, with magic, swords, and VERY good writing. If you ever stumble across the title in a library, or in a bookstore perhaps, I recommend checking it out.

The explanation seems a little lacking, but it's difficult to encompass all that the series offers in a post that I don't want to make too long.

 

[Wiscus]

A while a go I finished a dance with dragons, it was better than the previous book , but suffered with the feeling of the characters not really getting anywhere nor advancing the plot (there are a few exceptions) Arrya and Tyrion are still my favorites and lucky me they make it through the novel in one piece...

Spoiler

OH GOD JON SNOW, HE BETTER NOT COME BACK WRONG LIKE CAT, I WILL RAGE

Yesterday I finished Night by Elie Wiesel, it was very engaging with a different sparse, reporter like tone to the horrors that he saw which is something different to me when reading Holocaust experiences. With that tone and approach I doubt Ill be forgetting it any time soon.

I'm about a quarter into Jonathan strange and Mr. Norrell, I'm enjoying it and I made a dent into the Black company which I'm enjoying more than I thought I would.

I think one of my favorite books of all time; The iron dragons daughter is getting a reprint so I'm hoping to pick it up so I can finally own a copy, I also need a new copy of lolita since mine was battered when it was given to me many years ago, its falling apart now...

@ShroudedOne: That sounds interesting, I'm going to put it on my library list :3
Also dont worry about long post imo, I think all of us here like seeing one another go on about books, haha

 

[¯\_S.(ツ).L.I.D._/¯]

A while a go I finished a dance with dragons it was better than the previous book before it but suffered with the feeling of the characters not really getting anywhere nor advancing the plot (there are a few exceptions) Arrya and Tyrion are still my favorites and lucky me they make it through the novel in one piece...

Spoiler

OH GOD JON SNOW, HE BETTER NOT COME BACK WRONG LIKE CAT, I WILL RAGE

Glad to hear you thought Dance With Dragons was better, I'm on Feast for Crows now and I'm not as in to it as I was with the others. It's still quite good, it's just lacking my favorite characters. I love the ironborn though, Asha is such a badass, and Euron's the definition of OG.

 

[Wiscus]

Asha is pretty awesome, freaking Greyjoys.
How could you not like a bunch of people who worship Cthulhu basically.

The only thing that fest really lacked was everyones favourites and it has a bit of a tendency to drag imo, but I do love Brianne and Jamie. Oh! and Sansa grew on me in ffc.
There are way too many enjoyable characters, ahh

I hope you enjoy Adwd when you get up to it :3

 

[Dastrn]

I'm maybe 60% through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's going so slow. I can't say it's anywhere close to my favorite fantasy book I've read. It's more alternate history with some magic than fantasy, tbh.

I'll be glad when it's over. 300 pages to go.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I'm maybe 60% through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's going so slow. I can't say it's anywhere close to my favorite fantasy book I've read. It's more alternate history with some magic than fantasy, tbh.

I'll be glad when it's over. 300 pages to go.

>_>

I wasn't too terribly impressed with it either but I managed to finish it. Pacing was balls. Kind of like a Tad Williams book that isn't part of the To Green Angel Tower series or that one-shot of his known as War of the Flowers. I'm looking at you, Otherlands series. Xabbu! and his awesomeness could not save that series. I couldn't bring myself to finish it because of how ridiculously slow it was.

Somebody mentioned Enders' Game up in this...? Is Orson Scott Card your dude? Take a walk on Magic Street, which is one of the coolest takes on Shakespearean Fae this side of the old Disney cartoon classic Gargoyles. It was a really, really enjoyable romp. It was a little short in my opinion, but it was a fun read nonetheless.

I need to finish The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, too. Good stuff; very memorable characters. Can't remember why I put it down to start with...

Oh yeah, it was probably because I picked up Against All Things Ending by Stephen R. Donaldson around that time. This book, the third in the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series, was fantastic. Do yourself a favor: Read this series in its entirety (starting with the First and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, respectively) ASAP, and get to this book. Get caught up in the hype!


(Why haven't I posted in this thread sooner?)

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lythium]

Yo, SC. :3c

I'm maybe 60% through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's going so slow. I can't say it's anywhere close to my favorite fantasy book I've read. It's more alternate history with some magic than fantasy, tbh.

I'll be glad when it's over. 300 pages to go.

I can honestly say that I didn't much care for this either.

 

[Mota]

I'm saddened by the slow extinction of bookstores. Everywhere I turn a bookstore is having a closing down sale. Damn Amazon and Ebooks.

Saw a Texas Hold em Poker book for $5, bought it and its broaden my knowledge of the game :D Still havent finished though. Some maths skills required.

Also bought the sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but haven't had the time to read either.
A friend of mine wants me to read a dystopian novel called Blind Faith

 

[Wiscus]

I'm maybe 60% through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. It's going so slow. I can't say it's anywhere close to my favorite fantasy book I've read. It's more alternate history with some magic than fantasy, tbh.

I'll be glad when it's over. 300 pages to go.

I guess Ill be the only one who enjoyed this book, I finished a while ago and I have to say despite the slow start I really enjoyed it...
Particularly for the reason above, I adore historical fiction and atypical fantasy books.
It even has Lord Byron in it!

 

[Lythium]

Reading Murakami again. He's becoming my number one fallback, it seems.

I tried reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which started off slow, got better, than got kind of boring. I didn't bother with the rest of it.

One of my co-workers recommended The Long Walk by Stephen King, and although, I'm not a huge Stephen King fan, I thought I might give it a try. It certainly sounds interesting.

 

[Wiscus]

I really liked the long walk, in fact its one of my favorite short stories by him. I think you may like it Lythy.
Try to get a collection that has all the bachman short stories so you can also read Rage which is wonderful imo.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I really enjoyed King's Dark Tower series.

Ya'll should definitely give that a shot.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lythium]

I really liked the long walk, in fact its one of my favorite short stories by him. I think you may like it Lythy.
Try to get a collection that has all the bachman short stories so you can also read Rage which is wonderful imo.

Looks like The Long Walk is a full novel?

But I may look into getting some of his short stories at some point. :3c

 

[Wiscus]

Sorry, I meant to say shorter stories =x
Though at one point it was published alongside Rage iirc, or perhaps I'm just blurring together memories since I tend to read them both at the same time.

Edit: hmm looking it up the page amount is way more than I recall it being, I'm going crazy.

 

[Orboknown]

I recommend the Divine Comedia.
Dante aligherni <3

 

[Lythium]

The only part of the Divine Comedy that I enjoyed was Inferno. Purgatory was just creepy, and Paradise was fine, but not very interesting imo.

 

[Orboknown]

I did a metaphorical analysis as a journal for english just on the inferno..and it took up 3.5 pages.with me not remembering the order(so not doing it)of the last 7 circles.[was doing it from memory]

 

[Requiem]

I need to finish The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, too. Good stuff; very memorable characters. Can't remember why I put it down to start with...

l

Glockta all the damn way. He made that book so good.

Edit: Also I finished the last of The Black Company books yesterday. There are two more on Glen Cook's schedule but no one knows when they might come. A bit depressed about it ;-;. The ending was as perfect as can be though.

 

[Lythium]

Reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Picked it up because a co-worker recommended it to me. Pretty good, I must say (especially for a first book), but not at all what I was expecting. I'm about halfway through it now.

 

[Dastrn]

I really liked the long walk, in fact its one of my favorite short stories by him. I think you may like it Lythy.
Try to get a collection that has all the bachman short stories so you can also read Rage which is wonderful imo.

This x100! I have several copies of the bachman books collection. I buy it every time i see it, since it's out of print.

rage is fantastic, and you can't find it anywhere.

the long walk is fantastic. one of my favorite king books.

I'm reading the Harry Potter books again. it's been a few years since I've read them. I've gotten through the first 4 books now in the last 3 weeks. I'm going to finish jonathan strange before moving on to Order of the Phoenix.

 

[Requiem]

How are the harry potter books looking now that you're a bit older?

I finished The Good Guy by Koontz a few days back, blazed through it (for my doing). It was pretty amazing and exciting. The character designs were really amazing as was the pace of the story. If this book says something about Koontz I'll surely enjoy more of him.

Started in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin, which is a total delight.

 

[Jim Morrison]

Has anyone here read The Alchemy of Desire by Tarun J. Tejpal?

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Just finished the latest in the Dresden Files series (Ghost Story). Pretty good. Jim Butcher is keeping the pace quite well.

Started on Christopher Farnsworth's debut novel, Blood Oath. The premise is really cool---unseen supernatural forces are arrayed against the United States government, and the best line of defense against them is this vampire that President Andrew Johnson captured and forced into serving the country 140 years ago. The presentation on the other hand....gaaaaah. The dialogue is stiff and the characters (thus far) are boring and cheesy Americana motifs. Also, I can't help but feel that the writer is a bit too American patriotic; everything is al-Qaeda this, 9/11 that, and it even sets up this Middle Eastern terrorist cell as the bad guys to start with. I usually don't complain too much about this sorta thing in literature (signs of the times that a piece was written really shows I'm certain stories), but really, it's just oversaturated.

I'll keep trying. =/

Smooth Criminal

 

[Requiem]

That all hinders you, but not the everlasting "IT'S ONLY THREATENING AMERICA" and "ONLY AMERICA HAS DEFENCE AGAINST IT" sheit?

 

[Lythium]

Getting through 1Q84 pretty quickly. I'll probably have it done just in time for the release date. Then maybe my boyfriend will stop bugging me, because he also wants to read it.

 

[Requiem]

Getting through 1Q84 pretty quickly. I'll probably have it done just in time for the release date. Then maybe my boyfriend will stop bugging me, because he also wants to read it.

What's it even about?

 

[Smooth Criminal]

That all hinders you, but not the everlasting "IT'S ONLY THREATENING AMERICA" and "ONLY AMERICA HAS DEFENCE AGAINST IT" sheit?

Well, no. Not really. At least an ideal like that can be projected as a sort of underlying motivation for the protagonist(s), and that's why I can stand it being the overreaching theme of a story. There have been plenty of men, women and nations in stories that just want to defend their nation and their nation's ideals and only they have the power (or tools) to do so.

It is a bit stifling at times in this book, though. Not gonna lie. I'm thisclose to putting it back down again 'cause it's not getting any better.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Double posting to say that I regret finishing that awful book. .___.

Why oh why did I bother...?

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lythium]

Well, now you can move on to something better?

 

[mzink*]

Anybody else looking forward to the next Inheritance Cycle book? I've been rereading through the first 3 since its been a while since I last read them. The 4th is supposed to be released in November.

 

[ShroudedOne]

I certainly am, although I've forgotten about them for a little while. This November, huh? I should look out for it, then. I really enjoyed the first three, a lot (even though it's not "original," I guess).

 

[Lythium]

So, if you're looking for something awesome to read in the graphic novel area, I strongly recommend Locke & Key. It's so good. Actually, this comic sums it up nicely:

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Locke and Key? I've heard some good things about that series.

Fables is another good series of graphic novels. Also, check out the Walking Dead, the series that spawned the ridiculously well-done AMC show of the same name.

Check out Watchmen, too.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Lythium]

Watchmen is really good, I second that. I also really enjoy Fables, but I find that I'm not enjoying some of the later issues as much as the previous ones.

I haven't read Walking Dead yet, but I'm getting kinda bored of vampires and zombies and stuff like that. Eventually.

I really want to read Y: The Last Man though.