Reading this again, because the first time I had no idea what was going on.
Reading this again, because the first time I had no idea what was going on.
omg, one of the freaking awesomest books ever
i loved HoL, but had problems with "only revolutions" - this one i did not get
"Wizard" by Marc Seifer — a fascinating and revelatory biography of Nikola Tesla
I've been a huge Titanic buff nearly all of my life, but somehow never read this book until now. It's AWESOME!
I was just thinking about that book a few days ago, out of nowhere. I really want to read it.
As for me, I just started reading Slaughterhouse-Five. Finally. It's on my "I should have read this in high school everyone else on the planet has read it it's supposed to be amazing why did this take me so long what the hell is wrong with me" list. I'm 70 pages in and really enjoying it so far.
Trendy i know, but fuckin solid as well...
Whoa, shame on me, I'm obsessed with the Titanic and I haven't read this either. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll stop by my library and see if I can find it!
By the way, I'm reading W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage. I heard it name-checked in, of all places, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode from years ago and I've always been mildly curious about it. I happened upon it at my library and decided out of curiosity to check it out - it's amazing. It's so awesome yet extremely uncomfortable to find a character you relate to so well, especially when they share all your flaws and bad habits.
About 60 pages into this, but I'm going to quit. I don't mind gross books, but this feels really limited and shallow.
I know I'm going to ruffle some feathers around ETS with this one, but I'm finally, finally getting around to reading The God Delusion. I know, welcome to 2006. I tried reading it before but found it really hard to get into for some reason. I probably wasn't in the mood to read it at that time and was trying to force myself to. I don't know. All I know is, I'm a hundred pages into it and can't stop reading. I'm forcing myself to put it down and go to bed.
Just finished: Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Currently reading: Penn Jillette - God, No!
On deck: Stephen King - The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel
What the hell? I haven't even looked at this thread since the new board started, and I came in here to post:
I found this quote in it today, and thought it was profound:
"Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of "not knowing." Of course not knowing hardly prevents the approaching chaos."
I think this is probably the Darkest book by Murakami, even darker than Tokio Blues, and also its the most ambitious because the descriptions are so complex you have to pay attention at every detail, the book has also the Fantastic and Sad vibe most Murakami books have but with a constant sense of hope, it's very long and very intense but pays of well, like the kind of movie you watch were you think nothing is going to happen and then... boom, it hits you in the face, i recommend it a lot, but only if you have read Murakami before, because it has lots of references from other works
Awesome. Nick Hornby has some great insights.
Just finished this
and started this:
Just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's heart-smashingly sad/amazing Never Let Me Go (saw the film first, fell in love, checked the book out from my library, fell even more in love) and just started John Irving's The World According to Garp, which is turning out to be one of those books that makes me laugh out loud quite frequently. As soon as I finish that one I think I'm going back to Ishiguro's other novels.
Stuff about hemorrhoids and operations to remove them. That didn't gross me out though: the book just seemed like it wasn't going to provide any insight...into anything, not even hemorrhoids.
Awesome so far.
Loving the realistic parts about miners and their families' lives.
Hating the airy-fairy mystical romance claptrap.
EDIT: In the end, I didn't like this book much. It lured you in with a very convincing realist representation of working class life, to then go off on this horrible mystical tangent about love, and clingy mothers, and weak sons, and self-sacrifice, and unrequited love, and this totally douchey protagonist. Ugh. Some great scenes, but on the whole this book was rather painful to get through.
Last edited by aggroculture; 05-09-2012 at 08:15 AM. Reason: because I read more
^ That's on my Book Bucket List. Edit: Heh, or maybe NOT!
I'm back into Franzen's "Freedom" (after my brief Titanic distraction). I'm not sure if I hate Patty or love her, I initially hated Joey but now I like him, ditto for Connie, I don't like Walter much at all, I hate Lalitha, and I (of course) love Richard Katz. All the hip music name-dropping in this book is surprising, I didn't know Franzen had it in him. At some point, I was really glad to find out why there is a BIRD on the damned cover.
Last edited by allegro; 05-15-2012 at 06:25 AM.
I'm finishing the last chapters of The Night Eternal, the 3rd book in Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's Strain trilogy. I can sum up their take on the vampire mythology with these two words: holy shit!
The Strain and related have been on the periphery of my to read list forever, pretty much, but that's basically the nature of my to read list.
I've currently been reading Damned by Chuck Palahniuk and I'm slightly surprised to find myself really enjoying it. Maybe it's because my expectations were pretty low going into it, but it's proving to be a lot of fun. It started out one way and then went in a direction I wasn't totally expecting, and the (in)famous Palahniukian twist wasn't obvious to me from the very beginning. I'm pleased.
^^^ I think I've been unfairly judgmental to Palahniuk because he was the "it" author back in my high school days, where even those who didn't like to read would generally like to be seen carrying around a copy of Fight Club, thus giving them some kind of hip literary cred. But I have to admit that book sounds awesome. On my to-read list right away!
Reading this again. Hopefully this time I finish it:
Just finished Dexter is Delicious last night and I really enjoyed it, much better than the last couple books. No clue what I'm going to read next, my book backlog is pretty huge right now.
Yeah, I actually haven't read that either and it's on my list. Gotta get around to it soon. Glad to hear that it's keeping your attention.
Right now, I'm reading a VERY long bio of Henry VIII that I got on sale. I'm trying to read more nonfiction and make myself more smarter.
Last edited by xmd 5a; 05-13-2012 at 03:08 AM.