there is no way I could read the Lord of the Rings trilogy again
the only reason I read them the first time is because I felt like I was obligated to
Yeah, same here. I read them all, they were pretty OK, but man did they ever drag.
Also, someone on these here forums once recommended the Vampire Hunter D novels to me, so I bought one. I guess someone trolled me or something, because this shit is terrible.
More people need to be aware of this epic troll.
Has anyone else read this? Do the books get better? The setting is actually pretty neat, but my god the writing in the first book is bad.
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PharezonStruggle is an illusion.Victory is in the Qun.Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
I finished reading this today:
It was compelling and comprehensive journalism in book form and it was really good. I'd recommend it if you want a good nonfiction book to read for a few days. I was able to meet the author, Dave Cullen, and he had a lot of interesting things to say about the research that went into the book. Took him 10 years to write it!
I recently finished The Name of the Wind and the Mass Effect books (I got seriously heavy into the games, needed the story more fleshed out). And now I'm not sure what to read.
I have the following unread, of my newer books:
- Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
- Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
- Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (this is going to be a trend.)
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
- Interworld by Neil Gaiman (I had a Barnes and Noble's gift card and had just read American Gods and the Sandman series. Went a bit crazy. Do the same thing everytime I find a new 'favorite' author.)
- Dune by Frank Herbert (I'm worried about reading this one first because even if it was released first in real time, in the story's chronology isn't there a prequel or something somewhere?)
- The Scientists by John Gribbon
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
And a number of older things I've never read like, LOTR (tried so many times to finish it), everything ever written by Lewis Carroll (definitely my favorite), Art of War, The Divine Comedy, Iliad, Odyssey, Metamorphosis, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, One Flew over the Cuckoo's next, Slaughterhouse Five, Welcome to the Monkey House, etc.
I have all that and I'm still thinking of buying some new books. ._. Those being House of Leaves, John Dies at the End and some other one I can't remember for some reason.
I guess I'm trying to say I'm indecisive, and read a lot. So, hi.
From what I've read thus far of the mysterious/ominous opening/prologue, it seems you do.
I always listen to music while reading. Dunno, why, just like associating it with what I'm reading, and Leonard Cohen really doesn't seem to fit this, what with his Gypsy Wife interfering with my personification of this witch woman.
I was thinking the Mass Effect soundtrack just because it has that 'epic space' feel to it. Anyone else do this/have a better suggestion?
It's just that Tolkien is a terrible storyteller, and it is incredibly noticeable in LOTR
The Silmarillion, on the other hand, played to his strengths by being written in a meticulous, mythological way that the professional linguist in him excelled at
Also, fun fact: the whole thing started when tolkien was grading papers for his parents, and he took a sheet of scrap paper and wrote down the word "hobbit"
kind of but not really
In a 1955 letter to W. H. Auden, Tolkien recollects that he began work on The Hobbit one day early in the 1930s, when he was marking School Certificate papers. He found a blank page. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."
by that time he was a professor, I don't know why he would be grading papers for his parents, since his father was a banker in South Africa.
I just read Kafka on the Shore by Murakami, followed that up with The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, and am just now starting Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey. I'll probably read a lot this summer now that I'm done with all ~4000 pages of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (phew!), but so far all I know is that I plan to pick up The Brothers Karamazov and some David Foster Wallace.
I have to say that Dune is one of my favorite books of all time and even though the sequels are less than wonderful at times, Herbert still managed to craft an incredible world that I have no problem with stealing from when I need a good idea for a sci-fi or fantasy thing I'm writing.
Anyways, speaking of fantasy, I started reading The Long Patrol. I haven't tried to read a Redwall book since I think Marlfox came out and I don't know that I've ever finished one. As I recall Jasques can be a bit dry and his character's speech tends to be on the annoying side.
Of course, now that I've read through Twain and Kipling and a bunch of other writers, I guess I'm more acclimated to reading vernacular dialogue.
Doesn't mean I'm not slightly annoyed by it, though.
oh, speaking of children's books about talking, warring animals, i also re-read Watership Down because I saw it lying around somewhere
weirdly, it wasn't as good as i expected! usually the books i loved as a kid i still love today, but this one never really grabbed me, even though i'm pretty sure i loved it when i was younger. i mean, it was still good and all, but... i dunno.
Speaking of Dune, how far into the series should I bother reading? I've read Dune and Dune Messiah, currently working my way through Children. Is finishing the series worth my time?
Lost Salientblink twiceif you'd like me to mercy kill youRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I reread Dune last year at the behest of forumers.
It was... not as awful as I remembered it being.
I can't wait for next week because I will finally have real reading time again. Also because while I'm in D.C. Bale and I are supposed to check out a couple of bitchin bookstores.
Yaaay unwise spending decisions!
Lost Salient on
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Dune Messiah is short. It's a pretty readable little book, but, yeah, after re-reading it last week, I realize that nothing happens in it. There's a conspiracy and a bunch of babble about prescience and Paul's kids get born, but somehow none of this is handled dramatically at all. It's short, but, yeah, it's kind of boring.
PI, you're an ok dude, but nobody shits on the Redwall books unanswered.
Those books are awesome and excellent and if you don't like them you're a bad person. Or I guess you're too old; but man if you're eleven those books are the coolest.
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V. also has the best advice ever in the world, delivered by Slothrop himself.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
More people need to be aware of this epic troll.
Has anyone else read this? Do the books get better? The setting is actually pretty neat, but my god the writing in the first book is bad.
It was compelling and comprehensive journalism in book form and it was really good. I'd recommend it if you want a good nonfiction book to read for a few days. I was able to meet the author, Dave Cullen, and he had a lot of interesting things to say about the research that went into the book. Took him 10 years to write it!
And whoever first brought up The Gone Away World, I love you. I'm only about 100 pages in and can already tell this book will be a recurring favorite.
I have the following unread, of my newer books:
- Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
- Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
- Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman (this is going to be a trend.)
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
- Interworld by Neil Gaiman (I had a Barnes and Noble's gift card and had just read American Gods and the Sandman series. Went a bit crazy. Do the same thing everytime I find a new 'favorite' author.)
- Dune by Frank Herbert (I'm worried about reading this one first because even if it was released first in real time, in the story's chronology isn't there a prequel or something somewhere?)
- The Scientists by John Gribbon
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
And a number of older things I've never read like, LOTR (tried so many times to finish it), everything ever written by Lewis Carroll (definitely my favorite), Art of War, The Divine Comedy, Iliad, Odyssey, Metamorphosis, The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, One Flew over the Cuckoo's next, Slaughterhouse Five, Welcome to the Monkey House, etc.
I have all that and I'm still thinking of buying some new books. ._. Those being House of Leaves, John Dies at the End and some other one I can't remember for some reason.
I guess I'm trying to say I'm indecisive, and read a lot. So, hi.
read Dune because it is fantastic
depending on your mood
E: It being Dune. Then Good Omens I suppose, I enjoyed the first chapter of the latter tremendously, then just put it down, I don't know why.
Thanks very much.
From what I've read thus far of the mysterious/ominous opening/prologue, it seems you do.
I always listen to music while reading. Dunno, why, just like associating it with what I'm reading, and Leonard Cohen really doesn't seem to fit this, what with his Gypsy Wife interfering with my personification of this witch woman.
I was thinking the Mass Effect soundtrack just because it has that 'epic space' feel to it. Anyone else do this/have a better suggestion?
kind of but not really
by that time he was a professor, I don't know why he would be grading papers for his parents, since his father was a banker in South Africa.
Anyways, speaking of fantasy, I started reading The Long Patrol. I haven't tried to read a Redwall book since I think Marlfox came out and I don't know that I've ever finished one. As I recall Jasques can be a bit dry and his character's speech tends to be on the annoying side.
Of course, now that I've read through Twain and Kipling and a bunch of other writers, I guess I'm more acclimated to reading vernacular dialogue.
Doesn't mean I'm not slightly annoyed by it, though.
Wow. Don't know what I was expecting, but it shattered whatever my expectations were as soon as I opened the book.
In a good way, or a bad way?
weirdly, it wasn't as good as i expected! usually the books i loved as a kid i still love today, but this one never really grabbed me, even though i'm pretty sure i loved it when i was younger. i mean, it was still good and all, but... i dunno.
but I read through Heretics and Chapterhouse and I don't feel any worse off for doing it
It was... not as awful as I remembered it being.
I can't wait for next week because I will finally have real reading time again. Also because while I'm in D.C. Bale and I are supposed to check out a couple of bitchin bookstores.
Yaaay unwise spending decisions!
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
reading America (The Book), sooooooooo fucking funny.
Though the return of Duncan Idaho is pretty cool.
listen, motherfucker
I read war and peace
didn't serve 1400 pages in 1800s russia to come back here and eat a bunch of farts
For all that, I'll defend the first one as being a masterpiece to anybody who asks.
as a ghola, but yes
Redwall is some fucked up, lame bullshit.
It's almost as bad as Treme or whatever that Napoleon/dragon book not having hussars.
Also, if a book had a hamster hussar, it would be the best book in all of the world.
Those books are awesome and excellent and if you don't like them you're a bad person. Or I guess you're too old; but man if you're eleven those books are the coolest.
I mean Brian Jacques could fix all that by tossing in a hamster or two, but no, he's gotta be a busta about things.