I haven't really finished anything in a long time other than work reading, the last one might have been Lexicon by Max Berry, an OK thriller about using the power of words and the sounds of words to control people. Some good stuff, some dumb stuff.

Now reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin which is very intriguing and I feel like should be a more well known classic.

dmnum

Brazil6910 Posts

March 05 2014 22:35 GMT

#283

Huck Finn was amazing. Probably the best piece of USA fiction I've read along with Hemingway's works(Especially The Old Man and the Sea).

Now I'm reading some short stories by the latter aforementioned author, and tomorrow I'm going to start working on the rest of Kafka's ouevre(I have not read Amerika and some of his short stories - especially looking forward to A Hunger Artist) and The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares.

Salteador Neo

Andorra5591 Posts

March 05 2014 22:52 GMT

#284

On March 05 2014 08:31 Qwyn wrote:

Show nested quote +

Words of motherfucking Radiance, oh my god!

Just finished the Prologue, and at the end, a single manly tear fell from my eye.

Everything about this book, my god! I haven't been this excited, since, well,...the Way of Kings?

Jasnah Kholin <3.

Holy crap o.o I don't know if I'm gonna have the patience to wait until they translate it to spanish. Omfg hype.

WindWolf

Sweden11767 Posts

March 06 2014 07:24 GMT

#285

I'm trying to find time to wrap up Robin Hobbs Blood of Dragons currently. It's been a really good so far.

elt

Thailand1092 Posts

March 06 2014 08:03 GMT

#286

On March 06 2014 16:24 WindWolf wrote:
I'm trying to find time to wrap up Robin Hobbs Blood of Dragons currently. It's been a really good so far.

I've read the first three but somehow the wait and the not-so-favourable lingering opinion I have of the first three means I never got around to it. Then again I'm probably doing Hobb and injustice given her ability to wrap up series.

Just about done with my re-read of The Last Light of the Sun. A lot better than I remembered it to be, but that's probably because the first time I read I was in the middle of a a Guy Gavriel Kay burning through all of his books.

Next will definitely by Words of Radiance.

WindWolf

Sweden11767 Posts

March 06 2014 08:07 GMT

#287

On March 06 2014 17:03 elt wrote:

Show nested quote +

Have you read the Liveship Traders Trilogy first? Rainwild Chronicles gets so much better if you have read those books first. What happened in Liveship does have an impact in Rainwild.

elt

Thailand1092 Posts

March 06 2014 08:25 GMT

#288

On March 06 2014 17:07 WindWolf wrote:

Show nested quote +

Have you read the Liveship Traders Trilogy first? Rainwild Chronicles gets so much better if you have read those books first. What happened in Liveship does have an impact in Rainwild.

I've read the Liveship traders. It wasn't exactly my favourite among the books she's written though.

I'm dreading and excited in equal parts for Fool's Assassin though.

WindWolf

Sweden11767 Posts

March 06 2014 18:40 GMT

#289

On March 06 2014 17:25 elt wrote:

Show nested quote +

I've read the Liveship traders. It wasn't exactly my favourite among the books she's written though.

I'm dreading and excited in equal parts for Fool's Assassin though.

I've only read Liveship Traders and Rainwild Chronicles. But on the other hand I do have some interest in marine themes, (I used to scuba dive and I was a part of sea scouts)

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21245 Posts

March 07 2014 01:29 GMT

#290

I finally read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and it really exceeded all expectations.

packrat386

United States5077 Posts

March 07 2014 01:39 GMT

#291

On March 07 2014 10:29 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
I finally read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and it really exceeded all expectations.

Such a great book.

Enki

United States2548 Posts

March 07 2014 03:51 GMT

#292

Last Read:
[image loading]

A Feast For Crows - Was Surprised to say I enjoyed this. Some parts were a bit slow but I pretty much flew through this book. I think after this I can confidently say I want to continue to series.

[image loading]

Batman: Noel - The art is really good but I can't say I really enjoyed the story...seemed pretty short and ended just as quick. Hopefully Black Mirror is better.

Reading Now:
[image loading]

Total Recall - The Arnold biography. So far just got the part where he starts toward his movie career after he retires from weightlifting. Pretty cool, learned a lot about his childhood and even some back-round stuff from the Pumping Iron documentary that I watched awhile back. Interesting stuff.

Reading Next:
Dunno yet. Been thinking of reading one of the Murakami books that I got for Christmas.

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

March 07 2014 08:30 GMT

#293

halfway through Donna Tartt's A Secret History, very entertaining thus far. Tartt's prose is a breeze to read through.

lungic

Sweden123 Posts

March 07 2014 19:16 GMT

#294

Also read "Never Let Me Go" some weeks ago but on the contrary I found it bland. The language in the book was ok, but as for the story I'm not convinced. May I ask what you found in the book that was inspiring to you, in case I missed something.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21245 Posts

March 07 2014 19:27 GMT

#295

I found the core story of Never Let Me Go a bit bland, but was really taken in by the way Ishiguro described childhood and the past through the narrator. I really related with the way the narrator looked into the past to re-examine childhood friendships, obsessions, and memories.

In addition, I thought everything was just achingly sad, and how a sense of loss permeated every aspect of the novel. You're never sure of the exact source of this sense of sadness and loss, and it is only as you read more do you go from a state of ignorance to partial knowledge, much in the same way a child learns more of the world around himself as he grows up. Even in the end, however, a lot is left unsaid and unexplored, much in the same way that we can never claim perfect knowledge of our circumstances.

The part of the novel l that I liked the most was, as I implied, not the actual story, but the way it explored childhood, and more importantly, our perceptions of childhood, and the growth of knowledge and loss of innocence, so to speak.

packrat386

United States5077 Posts

March 07 2014 19:34 GMT

#296

On March 08 2014 04:27 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
I found the core story of Never Let Me Go a bit bland, but was really taken in by the way Ishiguro described childhood and the past through the narrator. I really related with the way the narrator looked into the past to re-examine childhood friendships, obsessions, and memories.

In addition, I thought everything was just achingly sad, and how a sense of loss permeated every aspect of the novel. You're never sure of the exact source of this sense of sadness and loss, and it is only as you read more do you go from a state of ignorance to partial knowledge, much in the same way a child learns more of the world around himself as he grows up. Even in the end, however, a lot is left unsaid and unexplored, much in the same way that we can never claim perfect knowledge of our circumstances.

The part of the novel l that I liked the most was, as I implied, not the actual story, but the way it explored childhood, and more importantly, our perceptions of childhood, and the growth of knowledge and loss of innocence, so to speak.

I also really enjoyed the sense that something was wrong and sad throughout the whole novel. It was sort of strange that there seems to be this sense of impending doom hanging over the group the whole time, but nobody knows why. I think that was part of why I liked it so much. That and the fact that I love a good tragedy, and it was, as you said, "achingly sad".

lungic

Sweden123 Posts

March 07 2014 19:50 GMT

#297

Thank you both for your insights, much appreciated, I'll going to ponder it a bit and see if I can appreciate it more from that point of view.

packrat386

United States5077 Posts

March 07 2014 19:53 GMT

#298

On March 08 2014 04:50 lungic wrote:
Thank you both for your insights, much appreciated, I'll going to ponder it a bit and see if I can appreciate it more from that point of view.

I mean, if you don't like it you aren't wrong or anything. People have different taste in books and thats ok.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21245 Posts

March 07 2014 20:54 GMT

#299

Having thusfar read 4 of Ishiguro's works, I think a very apparent theme that runs through his oeuvre is the idea of regret, or "what could have been," of unfulfilled potential and unexplored possibilities. I think everyone has, at one point or another, pondered the past, and wondered if something could've turned out slightly differently, often with a tinge of melancholy. Ishiguro captures these moments astonishingly well, and can extend them from fleeting moments into a lifelong contemplation.

And since I'm a sucker for the melancholy, I adore stories like this :3