EPTWhat Are You Reading 2015 - Page 49
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dmnum
Brazil6910 Posts
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
one broad theme is genetic determinism for which the bene gesserit serves as a kind of icarus. keep in mind the major idea expressed or celebrated in all the books is 'freedom' or human agency and vitality. in this way it's a very loaded series, and i found all of the characters a bit overly determined by their motivation or allegory. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
I think Jerubaal has given a reasonnable advice : get a textbook to be clear about the different names and date, read Burke, Chateaubriand, Carlyle, Michelet, Tocqueville, Jaurès, Soboul, more modern historians and in the end you will tell me whom I should really read cause I don't have time, and Chateaubriand is boring :p Read Boule de Suif today, really nice (and well known, it's Stagecoach) short story. You thought French bourgeoisie sucked after reading Balzac and Flaubert ? You've seen nothing. Also finished Auf den Marmorklippen, another good book (written by an horrible nazi of course), but I do prefer the Opposing Shore on almost the same theme (but I will convince twenty people to read the Critic of pure reason before I can convince an English speaker to read it I think). And now onto ![[image loading]](https://rjdent.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/ice-palace-1.jpg) The Ice Palace (Tarjei Vesaas) | ||
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notesfromunderground
188 Posts
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
Also it's the novel french lit academics consider the best of french postwar litterature, which is probably not his best selling feature. | ||
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Philozovic
France1677 Posts
I read : + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](https://bookywok.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/cancer-ward.jpg?w=600) + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://media.npr.org/assets/bakertaylor/covers/o/one-day-in-the-life-of-ivan-denisovich/9780451531049_custom-e147a8d92cbd6b54bea5d28807c51d348a71a661-s6-c30.jpg) Both of course great, I just bought the gulag archipelago and will be reading it soon. The human dignity and the reflexion of what makes a man a man is starting to becoming one of my favourite subject of reading I think. + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://www.avoir-alire.com/IMG/arton30919.jpg?1439022289) Quite weird, no story at all but I liked the atmosphere of the book (and again the dignity of men and the oriental philosophy of accepting stuff). + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335782224l/41811.jpg) Really surprising, I was quite desapointed at first but actually it was well written and I enjoy it (not as much as do androids dream of electric sheep ?) + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://media.cleveland.com/books_impact/photo/11709802-large.jpg) Not as good as the passage, but still okayish. No where near great in therm of litterature but enjoyable and quick to read. Guilty pleasure  + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/22/All_the_Light_We_Cannot_See_(Doerr_novel).jpg) I think I can not emphasis enough how desapointed I was with this book. I really thought it was going to be good, I didn't expect it to make my top 10 list but still I was really looking forward to it. The city it takes place is 40 minutes from where I've lived all my life and as everyone here I could walk in the inner city (which is the rich part) with myeyes closed. Moreover I heard a lot of great things about it and I gave it a chance despite that blablabla WWII. I hated the chapter's arrangement, the story was boring as hell, no thickness or depth in the caracters. Everyone is just nice or mean, they don't ask questions yeurk. The only good thing is + Show Spoiler + the way the boy die, pretty unexpected + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/Iggulden_-_Lords_of_the_Bow_Coverart.png) ![[image loading]](http://bookworldpuertobanus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Trinity-War-of-the-Roses-Bk2-%E2%80%93-Conn-Iggulden.jpg) Random books buy there, because 10 books in 28 days weren't enough oO (didn't read as much since HS). Not great, but not being an anglo saxon I don't know jack about the war of roses so it's a nice introduction and the one about ghengis was pleasing, I probably going to read the rest considering how fast it is to read this guy and I have to admit he got me on the hook. + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51grMGCKivL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) One of the best book I've read in my life, loved it. Every single page of it, every word, everything. Just a master piece, the father figure is beyond word, I wish i will be as good as a father. + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://www.tiptoplifestyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/flowres-of-algernon.jpg) I threw up reading this book, my mind is still hurted, my eyes were bleeding one of the worst piece of shit I have ever read by far. A good chunk of the book isn't even propper language, the story is bad, the way it is told is bad one of the worst book I have ever seen (all the light we can not see was just boring, this is trash, this is worse than sniper winning GSL). + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://pmcdn.priceminister.com/photo/au-revoir-la-haut-de-lemaitre-966696447_ML.jpg) Prix goncourt 2013, Really bad book. I still don't know how it could won such a prestigious prize (well actually the last 10 winners are all at most okayish so ...). I can't understand why everyone is just crazy about it around here. I mean the "public" I can understand they read 4 books during summer at the beach taking a sunbath and 1 more at christmas so they don't know Jack and Soljenitsyne could as well be an U.S.S.R leader for all they know but god critics Oo ???? That's supposed to be your job, this book is worse than an average Ken Follett (don't get me wrong, I really like reading Ken follet but that's gulty pleasure, you know what you going to get not much deapth, way to much sex to fill the blanks and a good and happy ending where the bad are punished and the goods are happy and live forever after overcoming all the dificulties in the world). So basically this a Ken Follet, with a pathetic hero which you can not like because he is dumb and weak but sooo nice and his buddy which you don't even try to understand because he is not used at all by the author. And then a very bad guy which is nothing but dark blablabla I hated it and I read it until the end first because I've never given up halfway and second to tell everyone how much I hated everysingle word of it. OH THE STYLE oh my god I forgot to talk about the shitty Middle schoolish style of the author GOD I HATED THIS BOOK WITH ALL MY HEART (it's way better than flowers for algernon not even close and I could have liked it for what it is a shitty guilty pleasure book that I won't remember in 3 years but here it's like the second comming of the literature god ....) The plot had potential though  + Show Spoiler + ![[image loading]](http://www.franceinter.fr/sites/default/files/imagecache/scald_image_max_size/2014/04/24/887386/images/mains-du-miracle.jpg) So I know Himler killed so many people and was evil and all, but this book is really really weird. I really felt bad for the guy. Reading it I think you are supposed to be happy that the doc is saving so many lifes. But during all the book I really felt bad for the guy whose only "friend" in the world does nothing but lie to him (sure for good reasons I mean he saves many people) but still I really felt wierd reading it. I mean is something wrong with me ? The only idea of cheating someone who think you as a friend make me feel bad. Even if this guy is one of the worst killer of all time. My 2 cents, currently reading 5 smooth stones, loving it so far | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
I did read Au revoir là-haut, and I'd just say I had very low expectations starting it, I was almost pleasantly surprised. I mean I thought that it wasn't very good, some part were even quite bad, but more precisely, I thought of it as just really uninteresting, uninspiring, bland, well that sort of thing. I do love the ploy to make you believe it's 500 pages long though. I think it could be printed in less than 150 lol Are we supposed to feel like "Guys I'm reading the Goncourt, this is serious stuff, like Proust and Gary had it, this is a very big and serious book with a red and white paper saying it won a prize, god girls are going to crush on me" ? Edit : for PKD, there are people who know more than I do here, but my favorites are Ubik, The Three Stigmatas of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly. | ||
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Philozovic
France1677 Posts
On October 09 2015 05:02 corumjhaelen wrote: Are we supposed to feel like "Guys I'm reading the Goncourt, this is serious stuff, like Proust and Gary had it, this is a very big and serious book with a red and white paper saying it won a prize, god girls are going to crush on me" ? No that's not what I meant but It's supposed to give credit to a good author. For exemple I really liked The Son or The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. Because it's a good story and the caracter actually have a personality, they think and have contrast. It's not all black and white. The 2012 winner was actually interesting, not my cup of cofee but it tells something. Au revoir là haut is a beach book and not even a good one. | ||
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Fighter
Korea (South)1531 Posts
On October 09 2015 04:48 Philozovic wrote: + Show Spoiler + I threw up reading this book, my mind is still hurted, my eyes were bleeding one of the worst piece of shit I have ever read by far. A good chunk of the book isn't even propper language, the story is bad, the way it is told is bad one of the worst book I have ever seen (all the light we can not see was just boring, this is trash, this is worse than sniper winning GSL). I read that book in middle school and thought it was pretty good. Really good actually. Maybe you're just too old for that kind of book. | ||
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Philozovic
France1677 Posts
On October 09 2015 12:06 Fighter wrote: I read that book in middle school and thought it was pretty good. Really good actually. Maybe you're just too old for that kind of book. Maybe it was a gift from my roomate so I had no context, I'm maybe old and weary Do you remember what you liked about it ? | ||
Flicky
England2673 Posts
On October 08 2015 23:08 Carnivorous Sheep wrote: My typical response to characters feeling flat and motivation feeling unclear is that you have to read, at the very least, Messiah, Children, and God Emperor. I actually love this style of writing lol, I hate reading superfluous descriptions when I'm reading this kind of book. If something is happening just let it happen I don't need to hear about how they ride in the desert for a week or something. I understand that as the opposite of bloat, it's fine (and quite welcome for someone who reads modern fantasy), but it would've only taken a sentence here and there to set things right. They have the really cool extracts from Irulan at the start of each chapter which could've easily been used to say things like "They attacked us for X months..." so that I can figure out what is happening and the scale of the events. You have to admit it's a pretty anti-climactic finish they + Show Spoiler + take over the fucking empire from nothing in about 30 pages just by shooting noses off spaceships (wtf does that even do) then have a shitty duel. But cool, I didn't hate it or anything and I don't think I'll be reading more of the series. I just seem to be super opinionated on it which usually means I would've loved it if the "flaws" weren't there. I decided to read Room next. | ||
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maybenexttime
Poland5835 Posts
1) The language seemed overly pretentious. Who speaks that way? ASoIaF feels way more natural in that regard. 2) The dissonance between the way certain things are described by the characters and their actual portrayal, usually underwhelming.+ Show Spoiler + E.g. Mentats were described as supremely intelligent, but were fooled on many occasions and made some terrible blunders. The Sardaukar were described as some sort of superhuman warriors/soldiers, but in the actual plot they looked incompetent, kind of like the GoT (TV) Unsullied. Suk conditioning was described as something unbreakable, but was overridden by one of the most ordinary forms of blackmail... 3) The fantasy elements - prophetic powers, "transmutation" of substances by pure will, etc. | ||
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/outside-in She was just announced as one of the long-listees for the national book award: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/17/lauren-groff-and-nell-zink-are-among-national-book-award-fiction-nominees/ I finished The Wallcreeper a month ago and it was one of the best works of fiction I read in a while. I was skeptical at first, but her voice really is remarkable, and she really is a cultural repository on top of having brilliant and effortless prose. Her backstory is more interesting than the novel itself. And she's pretty attractive for an older lady. | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
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JimmyJRaynor
Canada17682 Posts
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IPLKLRllL._SX342_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) | ||
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ticklishmusic
United States15977 Posts
On October 12 2015 09:53 Nyxisto wrote: I remember someone saying that The Scar was worse than Perdido but I loved it. Amazing book. I've read four books by Mieville this year and I can't understand how he hasn't a bigger readership. Kraken or Iron Council next? It might be the weirdness which makes him a little niche and turns off most people who pick it up without knowing what they're getting themselves into. I love his stuff though, one of the authors who I wish would write sequels to standalone novels. | ||
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Fighter
Korea (South)1531 Posts
On October 09 2015 15:28 Philozovic wrote: Maybe it was a gift from my roomate so I had no context, I'm maybe old and weary Do you remember what you liked about it ? Well, again... that was middle school when I read it lol. But.... at the time, it seemed like some pretty mature concepts. The idea of a guy gaining intelligence, and losing it seemed so sad. And the way it was written, to make you feel what the man was feeling as his intelligence changed, was something I had never seen before. I was a VERY well read child. I'd already read LotR and a lot of Piers Anthony before I read FFA. But FFA seemed like it made the character much more human, and empathizable, than any other character in a book I'd read up to that point. It reminds me of the Giver. It's a book you read, that you don't quite forget the experience of having read. But like I said, I really think it's aimed at a younger demographic. | ||
Whitewing
United States7483 Posts
On October 08 2015 18:38 VaultD wrote: I am currently plowing through Sanderson's Shadows of Self, which is as usual some very nice light reading. It also acts as a good breather, as I've been working my way through Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. The first two books were pretty great (The Shadow of the Torturer was especially captivating.), but I am finding myself in a need of a bit more easy reading before I continue with the rest. But I must say that Wolfe's prose is at times quite amazing. I just started reading Shadows of Self as well, having a lot of fun with it so far. I just finished Butcher's Aeronaut's Windlass, which was quite a ride. | ||
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/53cGyHw.jpg) For the third time I've tried Gombrowicz's Ferdydurke, and finally it clingled. Have you read it notesfromunderground ? It's right up your alley imo. The stuff about school and culture is ala on point... | ||
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notesfromunderground
188 Posts
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