http://4-ch.net/games/kareha.pl/1206548566/
This is a nice thread. Let's have a book edition.
I just read my first book by Haruki Murakami, "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle". Murakami gets a lot of praise in these parts, and after reading this book, I can confirm that it isn't unfounded. The book to me felt a bit weaker towards the end, but I really liked hearing the stories of Nomonhan, Siberia, and such.
I just finished that today too! I totally agree btw.
Just finished Man in Revolt by Albert Camus. I'm not so sure how I feel about it, but mostly I'm just upset that May 68 didn't take off and that Camus didn't live to see that last rebellion.
i just finished Eldest by Christopher Paolini. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first book in the series Eragon
Finished "The Quitter", MASTERPIECE!
i kno, isnt it liek teh gr8est? i so totly cant wayt for the next book, Inheritence: return of the Jedi!!!! wat aboot u?
On a serious note, I just finished the kalevala. Woot for excellence and epic poetry at its finest.
Just finished The Scar by China Mieville and i have to say it was excellent really everyone should read at least one book from the bas-lag universe.
TR: The Last Romantic by H. W. Brands
Fascinating picture of one of my favorite presidents. I thought it was very informative and I always love hearing about how badass TR was.
Just finished Kakfa on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. After reading Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norweigian Wood, The Elephant Vanishes, and Hard-Boiled Wonderland it's all sort of blending together. This seemed like the weakest book of his I've read, but it might just be that they're all the same and I'm tired of them.
Just finished reading Apocalypse Culture II, edited by Adam Parfrey. And I heartily recommend it to all interested in material most companies would consider "unprintable" (the printers actually wouldn't print it without some small censoring of certain art pieces in the book)
Just finsihed "Der Chinese" by Henning Mankell.
What a great book. Recommend it for everyone interested in politics, history and crime.
Just finished House of Leaves.
Still wondering what the big deal is about (though I will admit to being freaked at least once).
>>11 again. I finished "The killing hour" by Paul Cleave today. The story was a little confusing and it was not as funny as "The Cleaner" but still had a lot of charme and - of course - guts and gore.
Paul Cleave is really becoming one of my favorite writers. Any recommendations what to read next?
I just finished the Gunslinger by Stephen King, now working on The Drawing of the Three.
I just finished "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss. It was a fun and humorous read.
"Voyage of the Dawn Treader" by C.S. Lewis.
I got it when I was a kid, but I still love it.
Flight of the Dragon Kyn
and
Dragons Milk
Both by Susan Fletcher
Both amazing childrens books..
I just finished "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham. Probably one of the most insightful, sentimental novels in our post-modern era. If you're into modern-day life and complex emotions, then I highly recommend you read it. Very poetic. =)
"The Stranger" By Albert Camus.
A little slow, but epic in my opinion.
It's one of those books that brings you into the experience of the character, and it's not always fun, but when you've read it, you find that it's fulfilling. Hard to explain... I guess you have to read it to get what I mean, but anyway, it's a great book, very much worth a read.
>>15 here. I'm a slow reader. I just finished Drawing of the Three but currently don't have access to The Waste Lands at the moment. I should be able to get it by the end of the week.
So far, I'm digging the Dark Tower series. Its a lot different than the other Stephen King books I've read. Its kind of a conglomerate of genres. Very interesting. I'm not gonna recommend reading it yet, as I haven't finished the series, but its really good thus far.
"The Hobbit"
Never read anything by Tolkien before, it was good. I like the manners and pleasantries especially (lol, I know the book is about an epic adventure, but I've seen/read so many they hardly phase me-not to say the main plot was lacking: it was excellent).
It's so comfy.
I wish people were like that these days. Especially on the internet! I'm tired of people being assholes to each other!
"The Woman in the Dunes" by Kobo Abe
Finished the Wastelands and now on Wizard and Glass.
Murders in the rue Morgue and other stories by Edgar Allan Poe
I just finished "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse. Sheer brilliance. Hesse is a master of his craft and did an excellent job of blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. Wonderful novel.
Forgot to say I finished Wizard and Glass. I also finished Wolves of the Calla. Starting Song of Susannah now.
Though I was tempted to read Salem's Lot instead because the main character of Salem's Lot is a character in Wolves of the Calla and possibly the rest of the series. I've decided to read Salem's Lot after I finish the Dark Tower series.
Wizard and Glass is probably my favorite book in the series so far. Wolves of the Calla was pretty good too, but it was just so... fucking... long... with so much build-up that the climax was pretty anti-climactic.
I read all up to Wizard and Glass >>29, and at that point I realized that the only Stephen King book I ever read and liked was Running Man.
Just finished Song of Susannah. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Its kind of ridiculous with the fourth wall breakage. Next book is the last book!
I haven't read much of Stephen King outside the Dark Tower series. I think IT and Christine are the only other books I read. I enjoyed IT, while Christine was kind of... meh.
It's my first time here, and I feel like I should post that the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was the last book I read.
Though it's been two years since OP finished that book...
I finished The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O'Conner. Fucked up book, but it was pretty good. Lots of symbolic shit.
Finished Amerika by Franz Kafka. Was fairly bored with how ordinary the plot was. And here I thought Kafka was all about weird-ass situations.
Deadlight by Archie Roy -- an obscure science-fiction name over here in the U.S. -- was a fun read. Follows the persecution of a brilliant scientist by a secret organization following his discovery of a way by which one can look backwards in time and the creation of a device to accomplish the same. He is murdered (surprisingly early on, as well -- why we hardly hear what a great man he is before he gets himself shoved off a cliff!), the case of which taken up by his trusted colleague who eventually becomes a target himself.
Professionally, Roy is an astronomer with interests chiefly in neuroscience, psychology and parapsychology. The penultimate subject makes occasional appearances in mental illustrations during times of stress and fatigue. Most prominent however are details of academic life, giving one something of an inkling of the feelings of a man cast from his comfortable scholarship into absolute disarray.
You know what, the fucking book is only two-hundred pages. I've already given three-fourths of it away and I'm sure to spoil the entire god damned thing if I keep talking.
Finished "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. It was a pretty good book, but definitely overhyped from what I had heard.
1633 by Eric Flynt and David Weber. Solid alternative history, well researched and fun to read. Looking forward to starting on The Baltic War later today.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein. Fun book, and looking up the few Russian expressions didn't get too annoying either. Recommended for anyone looking to get into this guy's books.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Most accurate portray of the military.
Bourne Identity. Bourne Supremacy.
Ehhh.,..I like my paperback page turners. Now I just need to get hold of the last book.
I finished The Mote in Gods Eye and Ringworld and now I'm reading Ringworld Engineers.
When Gravity fails, I ordered it after playing some of Circuits edge, the excellent older game based on it.
The book was pretty pointless, 75% of it is just the character wandering around drunk in the same bars again and again with virtually no plot development. I have actually counted, and there are more pages describing sex with transvestite prostitutes than there is in the book's ending climax.
Not a bad book, but could have done much better - 7-8/10
>>42
Hayyy. Ringworld Engineers is pretty nice. Read it a couple weeks ago. Also just finished The Gripping Hand. Liked it too. Probably will follow up with Ringworld's Children.
Finished the 4 Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy books and The Catcher In The Rye in under a week. I'm now going to start reading Asimov's Foundation series.
Altered Carbon, one of my new favorites...now for the rest of the tak...
>>46
Oh fuck, I didn't know there were more. I read an omnibus version that contained "The trilogy of four". Oh well, I was kind of sad that it was over, so this is actually a good thing.
I just finished reading the Nietzsche Compendium. 'Beyond Good and Evil' is confusing as hell.
Hmmm... finished a few recently.
Fellowship of the Ring
Drive-away Man
Tired of Death
All really good.
Lately I found myself reading books about primary and pre-school: Totto-chan, by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, an account of an alternative primary school in Japan, Tolstoy's Popular Education (a booklet expounding Tolstoy's views on primary education, not for the faint of heart reader), Duishen by Chingiz Aitmatov, a novella on the story of an almost analphabet Kazakh who decides to start a school in his village. But the best of them was To Children I Give My Heart, an account by Vasily Sukhomlinsky of how he organized primary education in a small village in Ukraine just after WWII. Extremely humane and illuminating, with an exotic political background to boot.
Buddhism: a Concise Introduction, by Huston Smith and Philip Novak. Very good book, delivers a good summary of buddhist beliefs and explains the different traditions that have developped in Asia. Also spends a good deal of time explaining Buddhism in the US, which was also interesting.
An excellent way of getting around that subject in a single small book.
Storm Front, by Jim Butcher, first book of the Dresden Files series. A film noir inspired murder story with lots of magic (the narrator is a contemporary sorceror) and faë (vampires, little folk, etc).
Plot and characters are very basic and cliched, but the self parody makes it entertaining enough to finish the book. However that's enough of Dresden Files for me.
Something fresh by PG Wodehouse
Deep Fathom by James Rollins.
It didn't end the way I expected, but then I don't really know how I expected it to end. I just know I didn't expect the ending it had. Also I think the author might be anti-American, or at least anti-CIA.
Finished book 4, Inheritance from the Inheritance cycle.
Oh, Eragorn, why must you pay such a price?
High rise by JG Ballard
Man, I absolutely loved this book. It has a practical mirror image of many plot ideas I had been wanting to write (I had even gone so far as wanting the action to occur in a high-rise at one point). Makes me happy and yet sad to see that so much of what I wanted to make has already been completed.
Character psychology is wonderfully imperfect and yet driving. The brief, quasi-sociological descriptions of what is actually happening fit the pace nicely. All in all, I think I'm going to be reading quite a bit more of this fellow
Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm
I have mixed feelings about this book. A practical analysis of Nazism at times. but just as often a wishy-washy romanticization of the practical limits of freedom. In his hurry to point out that human beings are so often alienated and controlled externally, Fromm neglects to point out the even internally the individual is controlled. His descriptions of alienation however, are top notch. One cannot help but draw comparison during to Elull's The Technological Society.
Sometimes useful, most often without practical application. A mixed bag I suppose
I gave up on the collected works of Alexander Pope. He's got some excellent epigrams, but anything longer bores me to death.
I just finished The Maltese Falcon, it was pretty good.
Finished The Girl Who Played With Fire.
>>57
I loved that series except for the last book. The author suddenly starts shoving science fiction into the magic and Eragon gets fucking squat for everything he went through. I love the series so much but it ended so badly.
Finished The Wall by Jean Paul Sartre. I haven't read fiction in a while and my critical reading skills have gone to shit. Did enjoy several of the character studies though.
[i]No simple Victory: World War II in Europe, 1939-1945[/i]
Norman Davies REALLY hates Stalin. And Norman Davies REALLY wants to let you know all about it. Over and over and over again.
Excellent and balanced analysis of the wartime situation. Bleeding heart commemoration of every boy and his dog killed by the soviet regime. Occasionally it fits, most of the time it is just anecdotal irrelevancies. He also has a soft spot for Poland, you'd think there were more poles in the western armies than Canadians and Free French.
Don't get me wrong, the book is extremely detailed and deserves reading if you want a political evaluation of the war. The evidence is certainly well-researched and certainly not distorted. Davies just happens to really hate the soviets
>>64
somehow I knew that was going to happen. Hey, can't say I tried
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Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
Zipped through it. It was fun what with the Niel Gaiman and mythology and gods intersecting with real life.
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk.
It's a murder mystery novel set in Istanbul in the 1500s, and every bit as bizarre as that sounds. I rather enjoyed it, despite the bits about sticking needles in people's eyes.
The Man in the High Castle
Ubik
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Flow My Tears, Said the Policeman
A Scanner Darkly
Philip K Dick is the only author who matters
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
It was horrible. Very well written and all, but the subject matter was just relentlessly miserable.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Time Out of Joint. Thanks >>69, I was looking for more Philip K. Dick to read.
Dead Lucky: Life after death on Mount Everest by Lincoln Hall
I was promised that it was something of a typical mountaineering memoir crossed with a hypoxia-driven hallucination but this assessment is overblown. It's at least 95% lucid. Of these books, it's one of the better ones.
Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season by Nick Heil
Another memoir of the semi-disastrous 2006 season which Lincoln Hall barely survived. This stern warning about the dangers of the worst place in the world will likely do nothing to keep people away from it. You pretty much climb over frozen corpses to get to the top these days.
High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael Kodas
Turns out everything about Everest these days is a scam from base camp prostitution, to Sherpa con men, to people passing cheap Indian welding gas off as Poisk oxygen. I bet Everest isn't even really the tallest mountain!
Lost in Moscow: A Brat in the USSR by Kirsten Koza
This is the true story of a Canadian, who in 1977 at the age of 11, went on a cultural exchange trip to the USSR with a group of other children from around the world. At the height of the Brezhnev stagnation, the shortages of food and basic consumer goods is apparent even to these kids, whose heavily-censored trip was meant to showcase the best the Soviet Union had to offer (its Party elite). Written in the frantic tone of a hyperactive child thrust into absurdities of a Soviet summer camp, I found it very funny. A weird find. Highly recommended.
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick
Kingdom of Fear - Hunter S Thompson
Your English is good at it!
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
If it's about anything other than Everest, it's not worth reading! This one in particular is quite confusing since it's mostly translated from Russian/broken English. An interesting response to Into Thin Air. Turns out the "villain" of that book spent a lot of time at high altitude fixing ropes and nearly killing himself rescuing his own clients, mostly explaining his absence from the actual disaster of 1996. Climbing Everest is still a stupid idea, though. I've got it scheduled for 2019. Please throw my corpse over the side onto the pile, please.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Has some interesting ideas that are statistically accurate, but won't convince anyone. A short read with very interesting ideas. If you're into controversy, it turns out that abortion is actually a very good thing from a very limited economic perspective. Then again, Rhodesia was a very good thing from a very limited economic perspective (but also made no one happy).