Books you're reading now

I'm reading Immortal, a crime novel, first in a series.

Will read the new First Law trilogy next.
 
Finally made it to the last book of the wheel of time. I burned through the last 2 fast as hell.
 
HenryFlower said:
good looks sherbro

Pevear & Volokhonsky are the dynamic duo when it comes to Russian translations. they might not always be the best option, but when it comes to Dostoevsky, they are #1. my friend who was born & raised in Russia refuses to read any other translations of Dostoevsky.
Click to expand...
That's good to know. It's my first time reading any Russian literature.
 
General_Speckz said:
Bought Meditations by Marcus Aurealius a couple months ago.

Sat down and read it a couple of times, but I can't even get through the (multiple) intros. There's a lot of unpacking in every sentence, and 2 footnotes for every 5 sentence paragraph. Tough to tackle.
Click to expand...

I've had problems with this book too...Try other Stoics, such as Epictetus (The Good Life ) or Seneca (On the Shortness of Life)
 
img_6133.jpg
 
not reading this yet (soon), but just got my limited New Directions “book in a box” printing of B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates.

Dg17wpVXkAAhazF.jpg

4583861366_fe9cf0ee0e_b.jpg

(not my photos)
 
Zer said:
I'm giving Neuromancer a second read (Gibson's whole aesthetic is unbelievable) and also giving Don Quixote a try (First impressions are excellent but suspect it's going to turn me into a sobbing wreck at some point)
Click to expand...

Hey, I've just picked up Cervantes as well!
 
Currently reading Haunted and The Tyranny of Experts.
 
Finished IT a couple of weeks ago. Now I’m about 400 pages into the Shining. I’m quite surprised just how different the characterizations of Jack and Wendy are in the book compared to the movie.
 
Neal Stephenson is one of the most arrogant writers in the trade. I am specifically referring to his hard-headed refusal to accept his editors' recommendations. If you are a pop writer--(and he is)--then I don't care how smart you are, you are not smarter than your editors in that particular area of your craft.

Pages and pages of boring sub-par, banal, witless writing. I'm done. Just wasted an audible credit on an audiobook of Neal's called Anathem and it is one of the most boring books I have ever expected not to be. And I was dumb to expect otherwise because I have encountered this problem in former works of Neal's. And it is not the specifically science/tech parts that I am talking about. Quite often it is just the dull non-technical stretches of dialogue.

So how does he get away with this? I don't think I could answer that without insulting his culties.
 
deltapapha said:
Neal Stephenson is one of the most arrogant writers in the trade. I am specifically referring to his hard-headed refusal to accept his editors' recommendations. If you are a pop writer--(and he is)--then I don't care how smart you are, you are not smarter than your editors in that particular area of your craft.

Pages and pages of boring sub-par, banal, witless writing. I'm done. Just wasted an audible credit on an audiobook of Neal's called Anathem and it is one of the most boring books I have ever expected not to be. And I was dumb to expect otherwise because I have encountered this problem in former works of Neal's. And it is not the specifically science/tech parts that I am talking about. Quite often it is just the dull non-technical stretches of dialogue.

So how does he get away with this? I don't think I could answer that without insulting his culties.
Click to expand...

I loved Snow Crash and followed it up with The Diamond Age - I couldn't believe how dull and dry a book it was by comparison. No doubt in terms of ideas and concepts it was as interesting as Snow Crash, it just didn't have anything like the same charisma. I've wanted to read more of his work like Reamde but it's very low priority
 
Zer said:
I loved Snow Crash and followed it up with The Diamond Age - I couldn't believe how dull and dry a book it was by comparison. No doubt in terms of ideas and concepts it was as interesting as Snow Crash, it just didn't have anything like the same charisma. I've wanted to read more of his work like Reamde but it's very low priority
Click to expand...

I took a peak at some pages of Reamde. Problem I found almost immediately was that Neal thinks he is funny when he is not, and there is perhaps nothing more of a turnoff for me in fiction than non-self-awareness of this. And he can be funny sometimes. And he can crank out some good solid densely crafted prose at times. Like Seveneves has one of the best opening first few chapters in a book I have ever read. It was amazing! Then he started doing that tedious trying-to-be-funny dialogue stuff and I quite reading. But it is not just his failed attempts at humor. He includes a lot of detail in his writing in general that makes you go "yeah ok, that nice, I'm gonna go now."
 
IngaVovchanchyn said:
Hey, I've just picked up Cervantes as well!
Click to expand...
Cervantes was so ahead of his time—writers like Cervantes (17th century), Sterne (18th century) & Melville (19th century) were postmodern before postmodern was even postmodern. if you love Don Quixote, definitely pick up his short stories collected in Exemplary Stories
 
Strongly recommend the First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercombie to everybody. Especially if you love Game of Thrones. Also the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Phenomenal. Abercrombies characters are all gray. Each could be seen as a hero or villain depending what side of the fence you're on. By far my fav author
 
Blayt7hh said:
618G6ty3o1L._SX342_.jpg

Finally stopped resisting and started reading this. About halfway through, it’s very engaging
Click to expand...
Freakin epic! Check out First Law Trilogy bye Joe Abercrombie, I believe its the only thing that competes or is better
 
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
The Rwanda Crisis, History of a genocide - Gérard Prunier
 
Finished Karamazov Brothers last week (Dostoievsky) and started Tolstoi's "War and Peace". I feel a little bit intimidated.

Karamazov Brothers was actually a great book and the last one from FD. There was going to be a 2nd part which would take place in the same town 20 years later but FD died.
 
HarcoreFanSince03 said:
Freakin epic! Check out First Law Trilogy bye Joe Abercrombie, I believe its the only thing that competes or is better
Click to expand...
Yeah I read the first two or three of those years ago, before it was finished. I remember liking them a lot but I dont remember a whole lot about it. Almost finished the third Stormlight book since I posted this
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,246,690
Messages
56,142,499
Members
175,084
Latest member
Goratchyk

Share this page

Back
Top