Books!

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Just read Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill. If you like dark fantasy (Neil Gaiman springs to mind) then I can't recommend it enough. Probably one the best books I've ever read.

 

Onto the sequel now, Queen of the Dark Things. Can't wait.

[Darklord Rooke]

Peter F. Hamilton is a sci-fi God! I'm buying all his damn books, they're too good

[Funyarinpa]

Reading Kafka's The Castle and I have been convinced since like the fifth page that I am too young to remotely even comprehend this shit. After I stop reading after a 30-minute session, my mind is in a garbled, murky state of confusion. Everything written makes sense, but you never feel you have an actual grasp on anything. Deceit upon deceit brings you down. There's a never before seen depth to everything buried under a murky layer of complex affairs.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

Reading Kafka's The Castle and I have been convinced since like the fifth page that I am too young to remotely even comprehend this shit. After I stop reading after a 30-minute session, my mind is in a garbled, murky state of confusion. Everything written makes sense, but you never feel you have an actual grasp on anything. Deceit upon deceit brings you down. There's a never before seen depth to everything buried under a murky layer of complex affairs.

 

Nah dude, Kafka does that. Part of the reason his work's so amazing really, makes you think far beyond what you normally would do.

[Funyarinpa]

Nah dude, Kafka does that. Part of the reason his work's so amazing really, makes you think far beyond what you normally would do.

It's so fucking disorienting

[kyrt]

I'm waiting for my copy of this to come in;

[storyteller]

Finished Tsuki Dake ga Watashi no Shiteiru Koto wo Miteiru.

Didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the last few books as I read it, but I totally missed all the hints the author was dropping throughout the novel, so she was probably a better writer than I gave her credit for.

Ended up being a bit more enjoyable for that, but still, not nearly as good as the last few books.

[Funyarinpa]

Reading The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein. Great book, might be the third best book I read all year (after The Dispossessed (#1) and 2010: Odyssey Two (#2)).

[Beato]

Just finished The Catcher in the Rye, I don't really know what to say about it honestly. I was pretty neutral during most of it but the ending tied it up pretty well so I guess that I ended up kinda liking it in the end. I think that the first two thirds could have been a bit shorter though (not that it's a long book) since it mostly just makes the same points all over. It's pretty easy to see how it came to be so influential at least.

 

Probably going to read something in japanese next, I borrowed Nemuri by Haruki Murakami from the international library a while ago and it needs to be returned soon so I should probably get to that.

[Funyarinpa]

Just finished Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki And His Years Of Pilgrimage. Throughly enjoyed it. This was my second Murakami novel after reading Kafka On The Shore last May. I don't know which I prefer, but I liked the ending of Tsukuru Tazaki much more, that's for sure. Kafka had a bit of a more... atmospheric beginning though. 

Didn't touch it for like a week halfway through, kept forgetting.Finished the last 130 pages or so in a single sitting. Beautiful, great atmosphere throughout. Don't have much else to say... 

Advice: Put "Around" from Hotline Miami 2 OST (or if that isn't your thing, the best lyricless, calm, sad song you know) on repeat in the background, it fits the book so well. I usually don't listen to music while reading, but this is an exception. 

Going to finish The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress next. 

[Fred the Barber]

I'm about 50% of the way through reading Updraft, a well-received debut fantasy novel. It's a little bit heavy-handed at times, and it started off a little bit slow, but the world it builds is unique and fascinating, and the plot and characters have all really pulled me in. From where I am so far, I'd definitely recommend it.

After that, I'll probably dig into Jim Butcher's recent release, The Aeronaut's Windlass. I'm a big fan of The Dresden Files (which is kind of growing long in the tooth, and not too far from wrapping up now) and the Codex Alera (which is done), so I'm pretty excited to see Butcher starting up a whole new series. I have really high hopes for this one.

[storyteller]

Started Seinen by Ishida Ira.
I feel like there was something of a mysterious? mood to the beginning of Shounen, which I liked, but that isn't really there any more, perhaps due to Midou Shizuka no longer being a major player in the story (at least, not yet).

[sub-zer0]

Haven't had time to read at all, busy with school and other stuff, but thanksgiving break has started for me, so I can finally settle down and enjoy a book, Started His Majesty's Dragon in the Temeraire series, I'm not really a huge dragon fan, but i'll read anything that's fantasy or sci-fi if it sounds interesting to me. 

[Ezioe]

I read a lot I suppose. My favorite series is Harry Potter and I read mostly YA-fiction. Not Twilight or shit like that, though. I also like books bt Jodi Picoult. Trail/Court fiction is yummy to me. I loved The Book Thief. It was boring to me at first but I just got into it and cried at the end. To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic. 

[Funyarinpa]

Haven't read it yet but I'll start to read The Cuckoo's Calling by JK Rowling solely because the third book, Career Of Evil, takes its chapter names and beginning-of-chapter quotes (including the name of the book) from Blue Öyster Cult lyrics and song names (including the book's name itself). 

[finiteHP]

I read quite a lot.  I mostly read Sci-fi and Fantasy.  My favourite series are Discworld, Codex Alera and Dresden Files.  I am of the unpopular opinion among Jim Butcher's fans that Codex Alera was better than Dresden Files is.

Currently I'm reading Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.  I was really looking forward to reading it, but I'm finding it a hard slog.  I don't like any of the characters and while I don't mind complex language, he uses more "why use a simple word when you can use a complex or archaic one instead" than I like.  It's like he wrote the book using a thesaurus.

Edited November 27, 2015 by finiteHP

[Fred the Barber]

Especially relevant to the last post, I just finished up Jim Butcher's most recent release, The Aeronaut's Windlass. Holy shit it is good. I'm now much more interested in seeing new books in this new Cinder Spires series than I am in seeing where The Dresden Files goes next. Just how the Codex Alera and The Dresden Files are quite different from each other, this is clearly another very distinct series. It's not just that the setting, the characters, and the magic have changed - the fundamental themes and values are also very different in each new world he builds, and this series is no exception. It's also got all the classic Jim Butcher elements - chaotic action, loveable characters, and suchlike. It was a fantastic read.

Next up I'll be reading the latest Mistborn novel. Brandon Sanderson is even higher on my "never disappoints" list than Jim Butcher, so I go into it with high hopes, even though Mistborn might actually be my least favorite Sanderson series at the moment...

[Darklord Rooke]

Currently I'm reading Perdido Street Station by China Miéville.  I was really looking forward to reading it, but I'm finding it a hard slog.  I don't like any of the characters and while I don't mind complex language, he uses more "why use a simple word when you can use a complex or archaic one instead" than I like.  It's like he wrote the book using a thesaurus.

Heh, it sounds like you have a similar reason for disliking him as the Penny Arcade crew: 

The difference between Neal Stephenson and China Miéville for me is that I never liked the latter, even though I’m supposed to; even though it is simply an accepted fact that people of any cognition whatsoever are turning each page with a shaking hand, ready to receive his next sacred revelation.  I own every one of his books, each time thinking this will be the one until his unique ocular drill begins to whir and I must hurl the book across the room or be blinded.  This may be the first time you have read on a website that China Miéville is something less than a God; I’ve certainly never seen it typed, which was reason enough to do it.

In trying to understand what it was precisely I found so intolerable, I recalled a song called “Fit But You Know It” by The Streets.  Being smart, or beautiful, or strong, or confident, or epitomizing any other virtue is whatever.  But you can push these things, you can grind them into another person, and we have social censure for this kind of behavior.  His writing is incredibly smug.  I can feel him leering at me through his typewriter, shoulders up, breathing hard.  That’s when I stand up, walk over to the bookshelf, and place it with the others.  No way.  We have no shared history; I’m not going to bore through one of these things out of deference to some prior affection. I don’t owe him shit.

Apparently he has a book where there are two cities and they, like, overlap.  That’s what I heard anyway, and if someone else had written it maybe that would matter. ... TB out.

 

Edited December 1, 2015 by Rooke

[hitoribocchi]

Finished Jewish Noir.

Tame, but interesting read.

[Nebjula]

Started on Ulysees, wish me luck.

[Funyarinpa]

Couldn't read much of 3001: The Final Odyssey in the last few days, been busy.

[Fred the Barber]

The new Mistborn novel, Shadows of Self, is pretty damn good so far. I'm very, very close to being done. As usual, with a Brandon Sanderson novel, it's a fun and exciting read. I really don't understand how he produces work of such high quality at such a prodigious rate.

[finiteHP]

Despite all my issues with Perdido Street Station I did find it interesting.  Don't know if I'll ever read another book by him.  I'm now reading The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.  So far I like it.

[Funyarinpa]

Borrowed The Color Of Magic from the library. 

Pratchett is somewhat witty but I don't agree with the Douglas Adams comparisons, Pratchett doesn't compare at all 

[finiteHP]

On December 28, 2015 at 0:58 AM, Funyarinpa said:

Borrowed The Color Of Magic from the library. 

Pratchett is somewhat witty but I don't agree with the Douglas Adams comparisons, Pratchett doesn't compare at all 

The first few Discworld books are kind of rough.  The general consensus is that they start to become good at Guards! Guards! and get better.  By the time I got to Reaper Man, Pratchett had become my favourite author.  Personally Adams doesn't compare at all.

 

Finished Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaes books.  Pretty good.  I'm now reading the Unbound short story anthology because it has a Dresden Files story.