EPT@CSheep : yep, probably :/
What Are You Reading 2014 - Page 13
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
@CSheep : yep, probably :/ | ||
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
On February 20 2014 01:21 SixStrings wrote: After being done with ASoIaF, I'd like to read another fantasy series. Can you guys recommend anything that isn't as much of a fairy tale as The Kingkiller Chronicle and not as polished and formulaic as The Dresden Files. I like both, but I want something a bit darker, more gritty and raw. You might want to try the Malazan books by Steven Erikson. There were different opinions on them in the 2013 thread, but they are definitely gritty and raw. See also here. | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
On February 20 2014 06:50 corumjhaelen wrote: @ dmnum : yep, Plato is excellent at that, such a good writer imo. I'm reading the Statesman atm, I don't like his approach too much here, but the myth is so beautiful. As for his attack on sophistry, it might me the dialogue where he is the harshest among his enemies among those I've read. The Gorgias is imo much more balanced (even though I disagree with the guy who writes the prefaces in my edition - he thinks Callicles is a complete moron while I think Plato acknoledges his position is not refuted). What else did you read ? I hope to have finished every single one within 3-4 months now (I must have ~6 left). euhtyphro to phaedo, cratylus, theaetetus, sophist and republic. I mostly agreed with all of them except for phaedo. I understand it was almost impossible for an ancient greek not to believe in the duality of body and soul, but his whole argument rests upon this assumption and I found it odd that Plato didn't look into it. I also wasn't too interested in cratylus even though I completely agreed with it, but the introduction I read explained why he spent 30 pages examining so I went into it knowing what I would get. | ||
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SixStrings
Germany2046 Posts
On February 20 2014 07:01 123Gurke wrote: You might want to try the Malazan books by Steven Erikson. There were different opinions on them in the 2013 thread, but they are definitely gritty and raw. See also here. Thank you kindly. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
First book is slightly less good than the others. Not that it's particularly bad, but you can tell it's a debut/early novel. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
@Itkovian, I finished reading How to win friends and influence people. It was better than I expected, so thank you for that tip. I still feel that it's a bit sales-person-minded, and I would've appreciated somw comments from Mr Carnegie on long term relationship and group dynamics, alas one can not have it all. | ||
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Manit0u
Poland17765 Posts
On February 20 2014 01:34 GumBa wrote: Just bought Wheel of Time after hearing good things. Anyone read it and what do you think no spoiler pls I couldn't get through it. Felt too much like TV soap opera and ripoff of other things (myrddraal are pretty much Nazgul, trollocs are orcs, then you get Aes Sedai, aka Bene Gesserit and all that jazz...). Did not like. You didn't want spoilers so I didn't get into details. Just know that if you read LotR and/or Dune and/or Earthsea the entire series will feel pretty cheap. | ||
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Jonoman92
United States9110 Posts
Snow Falling on Cedars - Reminiscent of Empire Falls in that the setting and local sub-culture is as important as the story at hand. Enjoyed it quite a bit. The Gambler - My first venture into Dostoyevsky. Will get a more serious novel next, probably The Brothers Karamazov. A Confederacy of Dunces - Part way through, kinda funny. Norwegian Wood - Haven't opened it up yet. Looks short enough I might get to it. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
On February 21 2014 06:11 Jonoman92 wrote: Snow Falling on Cedars - Reminiscent of Empire Falls in that the setting and local culture is as important as the story at hand. Enjoyed it quite a bit. I've only seen the movie Snow falling on Cedars, but it was quite the eye opener to me regarding the American concentration camps. Have you seen the movie, and if so book worth reading anyways? | ||
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KillerSOS
United States4207 Posts
On February 21 2014 02:51 lungic wrote: First book is slightly less good than the others. Not that it's particularly bad, but you can tell it's a debut/early novel. I honestly liked the earlier books better than the later ones. They get too heavy/bogged down in details around book 6 or 7. | ||
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Jonoman92
United States9110 Posts
On February 22 2014 04:09 lungic wrote: I've only seen the movie Snow falling on Cedars, but it was quite the eye opener to me regarding the American concentration camps. Have you seen the movie, and if so book worth reading anyways? Well, at least here in America we refer to them as "internment camps" as concentration camps are what the Nazis did. I haven't seen the movie, might give it a watch soon though. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
On February 22 2014 04:48 Jonoman92 wrote: Well, at least here in America we refer to them as "internment camps" as concentration camps are what the Nazis did. I haven't seen the movie, might give it a watch soon though. The movie is OK, IIRC the photo was very nice but the story telling was a bit lacking. | ||
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lungic
Sweden123 Posts
On February 22 2014 04:45 KillerSOS wrote: I honestly liked the earlier books better than the later ones. They get too heavy/bogged down in details around book 6 or 7. I really only had a problem with parts of Memories of Ice and parts of Dust of Dreams. Not that there were storylines I wasn't too fond of, but I found the pacing to keep up rather good, especially with the level of detail necessary to keep the layers of the story. Especially if one compares them to the Esslemont novels, especially Stonewielder, Orb, Sceptre, Throne, who builds up nicely but then falls flat. | ||
peanuts
United States1225 Posts
![[image loading]](http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/95/118095-004-E9D5AC09.jpg) I'm planning on finishing up Angels in America, by Tony Kushner. I started it last year, but got sidetracked before I could finish it, and just have yet to get back to it. I'm worried that I might actually have to just restart it, since I've kind of forgot some of the plot points, but hopefully starting up again will jog my memory. ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/56/Angels_In_America,_2003_TV_mini_series,_DVD_cover.jpg) For an English class, I'm reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer this month. McCandless seems like a bitch, to be 100% honest. Finding it hard to sympathize with him. Krakauer's writing is really tight though, I'm enjoying his style. ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Into_the_Wild_(book)_cover.png) | ||
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Dirkzor
Denmark1944 Posts
On February 23 2014 06:37 peanutsfan1995 wrote: Right now, I'm working my way through a rereading of Melville's Moby Dick, an old favorite. It's an absolute classic and a brilliant story. No doubt it's a hefty book, but everyone should muscle their way through it at least once in their life. + Show Spoiler + I'm planning on finishing up Angels in America, by Tony Kushner. I started it last year, but got sidetracked before I could finish it, and just have yet to get back to it. I'm worried that I might actually have to just restart it, since I've kind of forgot some of the plot points, but hopefully starting up again will jog my memory. For an English class, I'm reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer this month. McCandless seems like a bitch, to be 100% honest. Finding it hard to sympathize with him. Krakauer's writing is really tight though, I'm enjoying his style. I've started on this book twice in the last 2 month. Havent gotten past the first 2 chapters yet. I'm just not used to reading that kind of books (older style english) that it takes a lot of concetration to read. Makes it hard for me to really be engaged... After reading your post those I think i'll try some more... =) | ||
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packrat386
United States5077 Posts
+ Show Spoiler + And my first book for this year, Love and Math: ![[image loading]](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/11/19/science/19SCIB/19SCIB-popup.jpg) This was a birthday gift from my parents and I’m halfway in. It’s partly a biography of a young mathematician overcoming discrimination and finding his passion in soviet Russia. The other part is a sort of an explanation as to why he enjoys math so much. I find the biographical element really interesting, but so far the math has not been terribly engaging. I understand that he’s trying to avoid the kind of nitty gritty detail that makes people hate math in school, but it often leaves me feeling like it hasn’t really been explained. We’ll see how the rest goes. Happy New Year Folks! Finished: Love and Math This book could have been 2 books, one of which I would gladly read, and one of which I would gladly leave on the shelf. The far more interesting part of this book was the biography of the author, who beat the odds and anti-semitism of his home country (soviet russia) to become a mathemetician. His story of working on mathematical discoveries as a side job and sneaking into the best university to read papers and attend lectures, was compelling and interesting. On the other had his presentation of mathematics was largely boring. I get what feels like a real sense of the passion that he has for math, but I find that his descriptions are too general for me to feel like they've been really explained. Part of my distaste may also stem from the fact that I don't find discussion of these sorts of concepts that interesting to begin with, so it would take a lot for the author to win me over. I would recommend the book to someone who really enjoys abstract math, but otherwise just get a good biography instead. Next I'm going to read The Stranger ![[image loading]](http://www.hihimag.com/hi/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Camus.jpg) Since a lot of people on here seem to like it (I'm looking at you corumjhaelen). Should be good! Finished: The Stranger Excellent book. I had read a little bit of existentialism before this, so I wasn't unprepared for the content. That said the presentation was great. I really loved the descriptions of the protagonist just experiencing life in the moment. I don't think I need to give a detailed review of this book since half of the people here seem to have read it but, 5/5 would binge read again. I ditched sixty stories because it didn't look very good in the library (sorry sam). Instead I picked up This Side of Paradise ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/This_Side_of_Paradise_dust_jacket.gif) I've heard from some that it is actually better than gatsby. Should be good. Finished: This Side of Paradise Quite a good book. My major criticism is that the plot doesn't move very well, but otherwise the writing is excellent. The portrait of a lost young man hits close to home. decided to pick up the screenplay, The Seventh Seal ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/716A37B9C5L.gif) I've always wanted to see the movie, but never have. My uncle gave me the book. Should be good! Finished: The Seventh Seal Pretty short, but also pretty good. Really left me wanting to see the movie. I also enjoyed the mildly existential overtones. Not a whole lot to say about this other than that the imagery was amazing and the story itself was the good kind of heavy. On the topic of existential overtones, I picked up ![[image loading]](http://artfromtheashes.blog.sbc.edu/files/2012/03/images1.jpg) except in its The Fall because I'm reading the English version (even I'm not that pompous). Should be good! Finished: The Fall Another excellent book. I'm genuinely sorry that I didn't start reading Camus' work earlier after having read this. I found the narrative style really cool (always being talked to about the past, makes it seem like an oral history). I also enjoyed the wholehearted endorsement of brothels in this book, all of my friends enjoyed hearing about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from lying drunk between 2 sleeping prostitutes. Great book. I picked up Across the River and Into the Trees ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Hemingriver.jpg/200px-Hemingriver.jpg) because I'm on a quest to read everything that hemingway ever wrote. Should be good! Finished: Across the River and Into the Trees This book was quite good. The standard stiff drinks, beautiful women, and maimed soldiers that I've come to expect from Hemingway. I think this book was interesting because of the extent to which his warriors were removed from their war. It reminded me a lot of some of the Nick Adams stories in that the colonel finds that he can never really escape his profession. A good read if you want a more hipstery selection of Hemingway's work. Speaking of hipstery, I've picked for my next book The Torrents of Spring. ![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/Spring_torrents.jpg) Its Hemingway's first piece of published fiction, and that last of Hemingway's non-posthumous novels that I haven't read. Should be good. Forgot to update, but a few days ago I Finished: The Torrents of Spring This book was sort of weird. To me it seemed that Hemingway was poking fun at some of the tropes of "lost generation" writing. His characters make numerous references to Paris although they have been there only briefly and many have a massive admiration for continental culture that they don't actually understand. They also tend to heavily overvalue "authentic living" (one his characters prasies pump making factories for about a page and a half), and Hemingway includes numerous asides about his current position in the world of professional writing. It was enjoyable, but a bit strange since it was written before a lot of the works that it seems to mock, and many of the tropes that it pokes fun at are employed in his later works. Anyway, for something new and interesting, I picked up a 110 year old copy of The Count of Montecristo. ![[image loading]](http://s2.hubimg.com/u/259337_f260.jpg) Should be good. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
-The book of it. Good trolling. -The Statesman. Really great myth in the middle, the rest is more or less a unintended proof that politic is not a science. -Tacitus' Histories. Nice. Started ![[image loading]](http://www.paxlibrorum.com/res/covers/tn_600_9780199535668_front.jpg) Herodotus' Histories. Fun so far  | ||
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
On February 24 2014 00:26 Dirkzor wrote: I've started on this book twice in the last 2 month. Havent gotten past the first 2 chapters yet. I'm just not used to reading that kind of books (older style english) that it takes a lot of concetration to read. Makes it hard for me to really be engaged... After reading your post those I think i'll try some more... =) In my opinion it is not really worth it. The first 2 chapters are actually far more readable than most of the rest of the book, so it will only get worse. Maybe it is required reading for americans, because the book seems to be central for their literature for reasons I do not know. But for me even the translated version was nearly unreadable and not worth it at all. I cannot recommend this at all. | ||
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Dirkzor
Denmark1944 Posts
On February 26 2014 06:09 123Gurke wrote: In my opinion it is not really worth it. The first 2 chapters are actually far more readable than most of the rest of the book, so it will only get worse. Maybe it is required reading for americans, because the book seems to be central for their literature for reasons I do not know. But for me even the translated version was nearly unreadable and not worth it at all. I cannot recommend this at all. Hmm... Maybe I should give up on this notion that reading old classics is a necessity... | ||
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