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Baa?21243 Posts
On May 29 2013 01:12 TrickyGilligan wrote:Show nested quote +On May 29 2013 01:03 TOCHMY wrote:Just finished: ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/73/Hyperion_cover.jpg/200px-Hyperion_cover.jpg) It was pretty good. Slow at times, intriguing at times. + Show Spoiler +The scholar's tale moved me. Now, I've heard the sequels are not as good, but damn did the author leave me with the cliffhanger of cliffhangers. Seriously worse than the ending of Death Note episodes....As such, it feels like a good idea to pick up the sequels (dunno wich comes first, but Endymion and Fall of Hyperion I guess?) What do you guys think? Next in the series is Fall of Hyperion, which picks up right after Hyperion. I agree that it's not as good as Hyperion was, a lot of the ideas and themes in Hyperion I feel get tossed aside in order to wrap up the story. It does resolve the plot neatly and leave you with some closure, which Hyperion so does not. Worth a read to finish the story I think. The other two books are about Endymion, and they take place in the same universe but aren't directly connected with the Hyperion story. I have yet to read them myself, but I think I've heard that they're better than Fall, but not as good as the first Hyperion.
I thought Fall of Hyperion was just fine, Endymion and Rise of Endymion are worht a read, but they're definitely worse than the first two I feel.
@packrat I hate Toni Morrison lol Song of Solomon was like the worst book I've ever read ~_~
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For a guy who loved Bioshock Infinte and the whole + Show Spoiler + multiple universes , time travel etc
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/xU7bcCg.jpg)
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On June 02 2013 05:09 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
@packrat I hate Toni Morrison lol Song of Solomon was like the worst book I've ever read ~_~
Please tell me thats not the only one. I haven't read Song of Solomon, but Sula is an amazing book that you should at least give a chance. Sula exhibits just such an interesting take on ego and independence not to mention that the writing just sounds so good in my brain. Give it a chance if you haven't already.
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Baa?21243 Posts
My understanding of Morrison is that all her books are extremely similar in themes and style to one another, and my experience with Song of Solomon leaves me negative desire to read anything else she has written.
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On June 02 2013 07:14 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
My understanding of Morrison is that all her books are extremely similar in themes and style to one another, and my experience with Song of Solomon leaves me negative desire to read anything else she has written.
On a positive note I guess that means I get to enjoy Song of Solomon :/
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On June 02 2013 04:25 DuckS wrote:
Now I feel like the silly English man, what, with my specific spelling of Dostojewsky. But to chip in again, his ability to paint relationships and insight of characters is uncanny.
Has anyone read Brothers Karamazov? I'm sure it's worth a blind purchase, but it caught my eye, although I don't recall being too huge a fan of the plot, from my fast overview from it. I don't think I've ever seen a correct romanization of Достоевский(Dostoyevsky). It's actually pronnounced like this: http://pt.forvo.com/word/достоевский/
(Unstressed O's sound are pronnounced like A. Both O's in Достоевский are unstressed.)
Anyway, Dostoyevsky/Dostojewski/Dostoiêvski(Portuguese) is close enough.
==
TBK is probably my favourite novel. It's definitely worth a buy, very deep characters, nice philosophy and entertaining plot. I can only say that I started studying russian because of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Yes, it's I-need-to-learn-this-language-to-read-the-original good.
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Read Beloved in high school by Toni Morrison. Never will I touch her work again.
On another note, reread a bit of East of Eden at the pool. Damn that book is good.
Sped through Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Short, but very good.
Still looking for a new fantasy/fiction series though. Not a fan of the Dark Tower (it got increasingly weird and surreal), reread Song of Ice and Fire and somehow I'm a tad reluctant to reread Wheel of Time. I'm close to the end of Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, but honestly its not as good as the other series I've read recently. Really looking for something with either an immersive world or just great descriptions of people and how they interact and think. Goodreads isn't helping very much sadly.
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Finished reading:
Gone Girl - What the fuck did I just read seriously? such a deranged book, and really really not sure if I enjoyed it or not lol.
Neverwhere - absolutely loved American gods which I read about a year ago, and finally found a copy of neverwhere. Amazing, was like American gods but slightly easier to follow, while still keeping brilliant characters and a plot that makes me want to re-read it soon.
First law trilogy (Blade itself, Before they are hanged, Last argument of kings) - Wow... what else to say about this series apart from that, amazing characters, amazing plot, seriously up there with ASoFaI, and I have to say, I think I enjoyed it more than I did ASoFaI (which is quite a big say since I fucking loved it ASoFaI). But its a complete series, with hardly an points that drag, and unlike GRRM, the author' (Joe Abercrombie) writing actually improves noticeably throughout the three books. If any one is waiting aimlessly for TWoW to be realised, I HIGHLY recommend picking these books up.
Prince of Thorns - again another amazing fantasy book, completely different style from others iv read since its first person, and the main character is an anti-hero, but hes an anti-hero who the author actually made me like lol XD brilliant book, gonna read the others in the series once my exams are done.
Currently reading:
Metro 2033 - So far a really really good book, however I find it hard to follow some of the place names given sometimes since there all massively long lol.
Neuromancer - Living up to the hype so far, but again, techo jargon getting a little bit hard to understand :D
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On June 02 2013 03:59 corumjhaelen wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2013 03:44 nepeta wrote:On May 29 2013 06:01 packrat386 wrote:On May 29 2013 05:56 dmnum wrote:
Actually Hemingway used Thou because it sounds like "Tú", which is informal spanish for "You". Thee is used for "Te", which I don't think has a direct translation to english. So Hemingway uses "I love thee" as a translation of "Te amo", which is not all that formal.
Edit: Nevertheless it's an amazing novel, hope you enjoy it. Interesting. I've studied spanish a lot (10 years woot) but I never actually made that connection. I figured he was using that language because the dialect of spanish used in spain is seen as quite formal sounding in a lot of latin american countries (somewhat like british style english vs american style english). Thanks for pointing out that connection though, its really interesting  10 years is quite a long time, did you get a PhD, and then fail to make that connection? (Says I, who once referred to 'For whom the bells toll' in an exam) :p Started reading 'Atlas shrugged', but from the first couple of pages it reeks of wannabeism, pretentious crap and who writes books with more than 1000 pages in the 20th century? I thought we stopped doing that after the 19th...
Also reading a new 60s science fiction short story book, which is, of course, grand. Robots made with vacuum tubes which are fluent in English, time travel and REALLY silly simple paradoxes. What Asimov would qualify as 'the type of SF with cops and robbers in space ships'. American middle class values from the 50s and interstellar travel, does it get any better than that? edit: English names for Dostojewsky characters are so unfamiliar, almost didn't recognise them. Was wondering, if it was another 'Idiot' you were talking about. You thought wrong, gosh ^^ In Search of Lost Time is the best thing ever, and I think Ulysse is also a bit longer than 1000 pages. Two minor novels, of course :p For Dostoïvski characters, those are French names, so it might be even worse^^
Will you please keep your books' names in one language? It's confusing the hell out of me. ^^ First you do Ulysses in French, then À la recherche du temps perdu in English, so my question is: Where is 'de ontdekking van de hemel' in Korean? (Horrible long book by a horrible Dutch writer.) I won't judge Proust and Joyce, my French isn't good enough for the first and the second is still on my 'to do' list, but books with a lot of pages generally piss me off beyond belief. Might have something to do with having to read too much Dutch post-post-whatever-modern crap of 800-1200 pages which has (thank god) by now been completely forgotten.
Don't know whether or not you've read Ayn Rand, but I hope so Atlas shrugged gets better as it gets on. Stuck up son of a bitch with his 1000 pages full of bleating nonsense.
edit: LOL at Dostayevski. Thought I'd seen it all with his name in several languages, but that it actually is DostAjevsky... ^^^&^^^
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United Kingdom14464 Posts
On June 02 2013 05:10 vahgar.r24 wrote:For a guy who loved Bioshock Infinte and the whole + Show Spoiler + multiple universes , time travel etc storyline, can u tell me if this book is good - the dark tower series by Stephen king?
I can't tell you from personal experience, but my brother who reads far far more than me absolutely adores this series and this book, so thats at least one hearty recommendation, if not from me.
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On June 02 2013 05:10 vahgar.r24 wrote:For a guy who loved Bioshock Infinte and the whole + Show Spoiler + multiple universes , time travel etc storyline, can u tell me if this book is good - the dark tower series by Stephen king?
I found it an excellent series.
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Sometimes B&N have gems waiting to be bought:
![[image loading]](http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780199976270_p0_v2_s260x420.JPG)
Also ordered:
![[image loading]](http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9780674072336_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
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On June 02 2013 04:25 DuckS wrote:
Has anyone read Brothers Karamazov? I'm sure it's worth a blind purchase, but it caught my eye, although I don't recall being too huge a fan of the plot, from my fast overview from it.
Brothers K was one of those life-changing books. Really shaped a lot of my perspectives on compassion and our "sinful" nature. It's incredibly dense and almost all dialogue, so just be ready for that. Despite all that, it's still really compelling and eminently readable (hyperbole alert!)
I was kind of too young in some ways to grasp it all, so I'm thinking about giving it another read. That would make it my 3rd time.
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On June 02 2013 04:25 DuckS wrote:
Now I feel like the silly English man, what, with my specific spelling of Dostojewsky. But to chip in again, his ability to paint relationships and insight of characters is uncanny.
Has anyone read Brothers Karamazov? I'm sure it's worth a blind purchase, but it caught my eye, although I don't recall being too huge a fan of the plot, from my fast overview from it.
Also, anyone else a fan of Nietzsche? I cracked open a few books this summer, in an effort to run from my studies. (I had originally planned my summer to hop on the academic econ route; I have a lot of it coming up shortly) I'm about 60 pages into Thus Spake Zarathustra, and enjoying it so far.
I read 2-3 books by Nietzsche when I was 18 I think (On the Genealogy of Morality, Twilight of the Idols and The Birth of Tragedy). I think he's a highly enjoyable writer (very rare among philosopher), but a deceptively complicated philosopher, which makes it a dangerous reading. In particular, you need to have your sarcasm detector ready. That's why I gave up Zarathoustra at the times, I was never sure what he meant. I need to get back to him now though, I think I'd understand him better now.
On June 02 2013 08:46 nepeta wrote:Show nested quote +On June 02 2013 03:59 corumjhaelen wrote:On June 02 2013 03:44 nepeta wrote:On May 29 2013 06:01 packrat386 wrote:On May 29 2013 05:56 dmnum wrote:
Actually Hemingway used Thou because it sounds like "Tú", which is informal spanish for "You". Thee is used for "Te", which I don't think has a direct translation to english. So Hemingway uses "I love thee" as a translation of "Te amo", which is not all that formal.
Edit: Nevertheless it's an amazing novel, hope you enjoy it. Interesting. I've studied spanish a lot (10 years woot) but I never actually made that connection. I figured he was using that language because the dialect of spanish used in spain is seen as quite formal sounding in a lot of latin american countries (somewhat like british style english vs american style english). Thanks for pointing out that connection though, its really interesting 10 years is quite a long time, did you get a PhD, and then fail to make that connection? (Says I, who once referred to 'For whom the bells toll' in an exam) :p Started reading 'Atlas shrugged', but from the first couple of pages it reeks of wannabeism, pretentious crap and who writes books with more than 1000 pages in the 20th century? I thought we stopped doing that after the 19th...
Also reading a new 60s science fiction short story book, which is, of course, grand. Robots made with vacuum tubes which are fluent in English, time travel and REALLY silly simple paradoxes. What Asimov would qualify as 'the type of SF with cops and robbers in space ships'. American middle class values from the 50s and interstellar travel, does it get any better than that? edit: English names for Dostojewsky characters are so unfamiliar, almost didn't recognise them. Was wondering, if it was another 'Idiot' you were talking about. You thought wrong, gosh ^^ In Search of Lost Time is the best thing ever, and I think Ulysse is also a bit longer than 1000 pages. Two minor novels, of course :p For Dostoïvski characters, those are French names, so it might be even worse^^ Will you please keep your books' names in one language? It's confusing the hell out of me. ^^ First you do Ulysses in French, then À la recherche du temps perdu in English, so my question is: Where is 'de ontdekking van de hemel' in Korean? (Horrible long book by a horrible Dutch writer.) I won't judge Proust and Joyce, my French isn't good enough for the first and the second is still on my 'to do' list, but books with a lot of pages generally piss me off beyond belief. Might have something to do with having to read too much Dutch post-post-whatever-modern crap of 800-1200 pages which has (thank god) by now been completely forgotten. Don't know whether or not you've read Ayn Rand, but I hope so Atlas shrugged gets better as it gets on. Stuck up son of a bitch with his 1000 pages full of bleating nonsense. edit: LOL at Dostayevski. Thought I'd seen it all with his name in several languages, but that it actually is DostAjevsky... ^^^&^^^
Ahahah, sorry about that, too much listening to Sayle, plus my English being too poor.
Personnally, it's the contrary, I've read way too many good books with a lot of pages to be put off by that. Especially after Proust, I'm ready for almost anything :p
As for Atlas Shrugged, I have no intention of reading it, it just seems to be some ideological nonsense, and what's worse, poorly disguised as a novel. As Proust said, "Une oeuvre où il y a des théories est comme un objet sur lequel on laisse la marque du prix."
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On June 02 2013 07:44 ticklishmusic wrote:
Read Beloved in high school by Toni Morrison. Never will I touch her work again.
On another note, reread a bit of East of Eden at the pool. Damn that book is good.
Sped through Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Short, but very good.
Still looking for a new fantasy/fiction series though. Not a fan of the Dark Tower (it got increasingly weird and surreal), reread Song of Ice and Fire and somehow I'm a tad reluctant to reread Wheel of Time. I'm close to the end of Memory, Sorrow, Thorn, but honestly its not as good as the other series I've read recently. Really looking for something with either an immersive world or just great descriptions of people and how they interact and think. Goodreads isn't helping very much sadly.
If you want a fantasy series like your saying it sounds like you need to read The First Law Trilogy or The Kingkiller Chronicles
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anyone already read the childhood of jesus by Coetzee?
![[image loading]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/covers/2013/2/26/1361883690319/The-Childhood-of-Jesus.jpg)
I rode the first 2 or 3 chapters and looks good, but I don't have too much money to spend on books right now
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On June 03 2013 02:01 pedrlz wrote:anyone already read the childhood of jesus by Coetzee? I rode the first 2 or 3 chapters and looks good, but I don't have too much money to spend on books right now
Library?
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On June 02 2013 05:10 vahgar.r24 wrote:For a guy who loved Bioshock Infinte and the whole + Show Spoiler + multiple universes , time travel etc storyline, can u tell me if this book is good - the dark tower series by Stephen king?
Yes. An amazing series.
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![[image loading]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2eqadCf3M1r72buoo1_500.jpg)
+ Show Spoiler +“My feeling is this whole country is founded on the principle of 'if you are not hurting anyone, and you're not fucking with someone else's shit, and you are paying your taxes, you should be able to just do what you want to do.' It's the freedom and the independence.”
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Just finished:
![[image loading]](http://thebooksmugglers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Alloy-of-Law.jpg)
Damn was it good. I felt kind of meh when I started reading it. A spin-off from a fantastic trilogy, is this even gonna be good?
It was great. Wayne quickly put himself as one of my favourite character and the banter between Wayne and Wax made me laugh out loud many times!
Also, the dude on the cover with the goggles look alot like the british actor dude who screwed Katy Perry a few years back. Made me read Wayne with his voice (tho I'm not sure that's Wayne but w/e)
Next up:
![[image loading]](https://images.bookworld.com.au/images/bau/97803853/9780385343244/0/0/plain/shogun.jpg)
Read the first 100 pages this weekend, I'm already hooked!
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EPT
