I will say, though, that I didn't find the first book of the Stormlight Archive particularly "exciting" -- basically the whole thing was, in my mind, setting the scene for the the books to come (which definitely do get quite exciting). If you want exciting to start off with, the Mistborn series may be your best best! Just my two cents.
I hear ya. Just read the first 25 pages, and it’s a lot of world building and yet faster paced than the first 95 slog of Hyperion. Given the reviews that Hyperion is the setup book for the following 3, I’m not that impressed. I like fantasy as much as I do Sci-Fi, so I’m happy to bounce. It’s escapism I want, so whatever is easier to deep dive... If the way of Kings holds up for pace, I’m happy to read through for better books. I have some time off over Xmas, and I’m looking forward to a long adventure.
@Magnetic it's definitely a long adventure, but it's super fun escapism for sure, and as has been said, it gets better as you go along.
So far, so good!
Ohh! Nice list! I don't have anything to recommend- wait that's a lie, I would recommend Patti Smiths' Just Kids, but I read it because I'm a huge Mapplethorpe fan.
I'm replying because I wanted to thank you for giving me a great idea! I've been trying to get my boyfriend to read something becuase I'm a huge reader and want to talk to him about books but the last book he read was Slash's book YEARS AGO (my boyfriend's popular nickname is Slash, heh) so I just read this list out to him and said if I could get him a book on a band, which would it be and he said Led Zepplin (which I'll be reading myself as well naturally...)
Yay I won christmas!
Finished: “Close Quarters” by Victor Milán … that was good. Nice to learn about some other Inner Sphere culture via Camacho's Caballeros. Cover doesn't thematically depicts a part of the book but specifically, it doesn't. Close... but doesn't.
Starting: “Far Country” by Peter L. Rice
"The Brain That Changes Itself" - Norman Doidge, M.D.
Why? Because Neuroplasticity is fucking amazing.
Also, hello all. First post. Nice to meet you.
Finished: “Far Country” by Peter L. Rice… not the average BattleTech novel, that’s for sure. Quite a satisfying read.
Starting: “Hearts Of Chaos” by Victor Milán
that looks amazing, the way the cover art and the...side art?...go together.
Finished: “Hearts Of Chaos” by Victor Milán … a Camacho's Caballeros adventure of tragedy, heartbreak and ultimately survival. The cover doesn't really depict a event in the novel but generally captures the feeling.
Starting: “Tactics Of Duty” by William H. Keith, Jr.
Finished the Way of Kings, which had a great ending/ setup for the next book. Starting on Words of Radiance tonight.
I randomly bought this book, The Devil and the Dark Water, after skimming this thread and thinking the cover looked nifty. I just started reading it and I'm liking it a lot so far.
Several people on my Goodreads list love that book, as well as his previous one The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.I want to read them, but my queue...sigh. Library books first because they have a time limit.Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.
Just finished Lovecraft County. Great premise but it ultimately didn't say or do much of anything apart from waggle its finger and remind us that racism is bad. Kinda disappointing in that regard. I was hoping for more in the way of actual commentary on how to reconcile or come to terms with the fact that someone who's work you admire is a fucking monster (rather pertinent to me at the moment), but nope.
Got a few more on my reading pile. Debating between Ursula K. Le Guin's Lathe Of Heaven, a Prince biography, or In Heaven: Stories inspired by David Lynch.
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
The story is set in a small village in Poland and is ostensibly framed as a murder mystery but is really so much more. Thoughtful, insightful and oftentimes very funny.
Today I finished the audiobook of Stephen King's The Stand.
Currently reading...
Scott Jurek - North
Craig Ferguson - Riding The Elephant
Ian Fleming - Casino Royale
Sir Peter De La Billiere - Supreme Courage
It was OK. There are certainly parts that make you laugh but there are also parts where you're pretty sure you're not smart enough to get the joke. I don't blame Moss for this at all because he had a much better education than I. And the constant usage of film-specific terms was a little off-putting but again that's on me as I'm reading/listening to a book about film so of course there's going to be some terms that are specific to that: he's entrenched in the film-making process so he would know them and use them in conversation without a second thought.
The analysis compared to other films was usually great, really enjoyed those bits. I was definitely primed for those with all the behind-the-scenes extras from DVDs. Which appear to be missing anymore, have you noticed? You put a DVD in and it's a static screen with four (if you're lucky!) buttons that look like they were designed in 1999. No modern aesthetic at all, just functional harshness. Which sounds like I'm doing a bit like he does in the book, now that I'm re-reading this...huh.
Anyway. It's not laugh out loud funny and you don't need to have seen the movie for it to work. That said, I do think you might need to have seen some of the films he compares it to just to get an idea of why he's comparing them. I mean that film in question is so milquetoast and by-the-numbers that you can picture every scene he describes! But the comparisons are important for the juxtaposition.
I would say this is 70% art history, 15% alt-history, 10% funny romp, and 5% anachronistic blather. I mean, I just don't think Toulouse-Lautrec was running around Paris talking about wanting to bonk prostitutes.
I hope that someone walked out of this with a Master's in Art History because it seemed very complete and complex in that category.
(I am glad I had the audiobook so I got accurate pronunciations of all of the artists, like Van Gogh)
Finished: “Tactics Of Duty” by William H. Keith, Jr. ... finally got this one done. I liked it fine, it advances the Gray Death Legion story and I wonder where it will lead to.
I was able to purchase (it still needs to arrive) the last remaining old school BattleTech novel that I didn't have (#2, never had been reprinted, so it was scarce and people were charging quite a bit for it...), so I think I'll take a little break from the continuity and wait for that one to arrive so I can read that and then continue.
A Confederacy of Dunces
Starting: "The Sword And The Dagger" by Ardath Mayhar ... okay, time to get back into the swing of things.