Books The BOOK thread

[solvista]

Started reading Dean R Koontz - Hideaway this morning. Haven't left the house, haven't put it down until an hour ago when I finished it.

Edge of the seat stuff, starts with a quick tempo and ends that way. Well happy to recommend it.

 

[VeevaVee]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Beach by Alex Garland. Not a lots happened so far but enjoying it. Apparently the films shit though.

 

[FranklyVulgar]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Beach by Alex Garland. Not a lots happened so far but enjoying it. Apparently the films shit though.

I really enjoyed the book, the film i didnt watch because i heard it was shit...

recently finished A Simple Act of Violence by R.J Ellroy and i have to say it was superb. Gripping from the moment you allowed it to be and without giving anything away it was a genuinely surprising book at times, wonderful stuff.

 

[VeevaVee]

I really enjoyed the book, the film i didnt watch because i heard it was shit...

I carried on reading it after writing the above post and now theres a shed load happening! Should finish it soon.

 

[peterstorey]

I'm about 2/3 of the way through The Beach by Alex Garland. Not a lots happened so far but enjoying it. Apparently the films shit though.

I'd say the book's pretty shit and the film's more or less unwatchable.

 

[Brophs]

I'd say the book's pretty shit and the film's more or less unwatchable.

Succinct and correct. The film was a tumescent, bloated, mish-mash of bad and worse ideas.

 

[esmufc07]

I'm reading John Grisham's The Associate at the minute, very good read.

 

[Flying Fox]

Gone off the fiction for a bit after reading The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly. Effing good read. Couldn't put it down and finished it in a day (~420 pages). One of my favourite authors.

Currently working through a history of the Bin Laden family by Steve Coll. Well researched, bit tedious in parts, but overall, quite good.

 

[hungrywing]

J. M. G. Le Clezio's Terra Amata.

 

[VeevaVee]

Finished The Beach. Quite enjoyed it, but the ending was very weird, it seemed to get all sinister out of nowhere? The majority of the book seemed to be just about getting there, then getting to know inhabitants and generally being lazy twats. Then it all went mental near the end.

 

[surf]

For the high adventure/wilderness fans, a couple of true stories that took place in the California Sierra Nevada mountains. Both read like thriller/mystery books:

The Last Season by Eric Blehm: the hunt to find an experienced wilderness ranger who goes missing in King's Canyon. Gives an insight into life in the back country, the people who choose it, and how a mountain rescue works.

Shattered Air by Bob Madgic: how some macho male hikers decided to ignore warning signs and climb Half Dome in Yosemite during a lightning storm, with tragic consequences. As a by-product, you'll learn a lot about lightning and how EMT's work in the field under difficult conditions.

Both are highly recommended. I've been to the places described and you get a good feel what the back country experience is like.

 

[jveezy]

Also bought Mortenson - Three Cups of Tea which I`m really looking forward to, as I used to live in Pakistan.

Highly recommend this one. Currently reading (well audiobooking) the sequel Stones into Schools and it's just as good as the first. This one is actually told in first person by Greg Mortensen himself and discusses a lot of the events that have happened since the events in Three Cups of Tea. Absolutely captivating as well as heartwarming and it (along with the first book) completely changed the way this ignorant American views the events in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Contemporary nonfiction must-reads in my opinion, even if you're not into that sort of thing. In 20-30 years I believe the former of the two could possibly be considered one of the most important books of this generation and the second is a natural continuation of the story. Once again, highly highly highly recommended.

 

[SirAF]

Started on A Study in Scarlet by Conan Doyle a couple of days ago.

 

[Younited.7]

I'm reading some of JG Ballard's short stories at the moment, and although they currently seem to form as one, i think the juxtaposition of the surreal/real cleverly conceals the hidden - or intrinsic - meaning of the stories; which are, i must say, highly enjoyable.

I've also been reading Peter Ackroyd's 'Blake' which is a good book for those who are interested in Romanticism and one of its most peculiar, transcendent characters. Ackroyd's research skills are incredible and he has all the talents of a historian whilst keeping his prose quite succinct and not overly superfluous. I really enjoyed his essays from 'The Origins of the English Imagination' and i've enjoyed this too. Thoroughly informative.

I gave up on 'Brideshead Revisited' as i'm sure it's overrated tosh - unless, of course, you were born in the 1920's or attended an Oxford College. I can grip the idea of the change of English society from Muscular Christianity to psychological, or our transition to 'modernism' between the Great War and WWII, but i don't think Waugh or 'Laurence' convey or interrogate this notion thoroughly enough. It's Brokeback Mountain for toffs.

Lastly, i'm tucking into 'A Farewell to Arms' as we speak. Hemingway is the master.

 

[hungrywing]

Lastly, i'm tucking into 'A Farewell to Arms' as we speak. Hemingway is the master.

Along with 'Across the River...' the only book of his I had trouble finishing. (Kept wanting to punch the narrator in the face) Although the final passages are mind-searing.

 

[lesclaypool]

I'm reading some of JG Ballard's short stories at the moment, and although they currently seem to form as one, i think the juxtaposition of the surreal/real cleverly conceals the hidden - or intrinsic - meaning of the stories; which are, i must say, highly enjoyable.

I've got his 'The Crystal World' lying about somewhere (along with about 100 other unread books). The premise of his 'Kingdom Come' sounds quite interesting, has anyone here read it?

Currently reading 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen, about the Columbine High School shootings of '99.

 

[mehro]

Attended a lecture and book signing by Nobel winner Amartya Sen today. will probably start reading his book, The Idea of Justice (signed by him! a nobel prize winner!) next week.

 

[Desert Eagle]

Finished reading all four books of A song of ice and fire by George Martin last week. Loved it.

 

[peterstorey]

The premise of his 'Kingdom Come' sounds quite interesting, has anyone here read it?.

It's very good but 'Crash' is his masterpiece and Cronenberg made a good job of the movie too.

 

[lesclaypool]

It's very good but 'Crash' is his masterpiece and Cronenberg made a good job of the movie too.

Cheers pete. I'll probably order the two books tomorrow.

Also, I read No Country for Old men a couple of weeks ago and thought it was excellent. I'd watched the film a year before reading the book and thought it was really good but watching it after reading the book kind of puts it into perspective. Decent film but the book is miles better.

 

[Wibble]

Mr Greedy The pleasant, friendly appearance of the title character belies the insatiable inner person that author Roger Hargreaves chooses as a metaphor for selfish destruction in the second book of his satirical world mythos inhabited by the eerily-named Mr Men.

In 1887 John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834 - 1902) wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr Greedy is the on-the-surface child-friendly representation of this but this is no child's book; rather, it is a fable that crosses boundaries of age and background and it warns of the ultimately doomed dangers not just of power but any addiction.

Hargreaves simplifies the 19th century message and substitutes power with the physical substance we all know: food. This is a master's stroke of genius on the author's part. The seeking of power is not, after all, universal; there are those who are content to simply be. But the need for food is a craving we cannot simply turn off or something to which people either take or leave. It is always there. For an addict - power, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, religion, and so on - there is a similar need but the vast majority of people are not addicts. Baron Acton's stark warning strikes a chord; Roger Hargreaves' Mr Greedy character sets free a macabre symphony from the orchestra.

Selfish destruction is self-serving says Hargreaves. Mr Greedy likes to eat. Eating makes him fat. Becoming fat makes him hungrier. Ad infinitum. He lives in a house, says the author, "that looked rather like himself." It is the nature of the addict to barricade his or herself with reinforcing surroundings. The roly-poly house of Mr Greedy is instantly recognisable as the Yes Men that protect the tyrannical business executive from reality. There is a similar fantasy that encases everyone who falls for destructive addiction.

The physical appearance of Mr Greedy lets us know that what we are reading about is wrong, as if we needed telling. Yes, this is a personable character, a smiling character, perhaps someone we might enjoy being around. But Hargreaves doesn't want us sympathising too much; at the heart of the story is a great exclamation mark: stop! Enough! Mr Greedy is fat and we all simply know without needing to be told that fat is bad. Each page turn heightens the anticipation of Mr Greedy's undoing. Hargreaves' writing style is superb in keeping us alert for the come-uppance and yet simultaneously lulling us, rocking us gently along. As humans we recognise this; it's when we know we're doing something wrong and we think we're being careful and we're slowly going past the point of no return. A better glimpse into the psyche of the addicted personality sliding down into the chasm simply isn't present in modern literature.

The title character is inquisitive; he wants more. It leads to his undoing. In the novel it's the forced overdose and fear of the giant that sorts out Mr Greedy. In plain terms: too much of something might just kill you. It's obvious and, were the book to end that way, unsatisfactory given what has gone before, but there is one final twist in this fascinating tale. Mr Greedy is a changed man; the fear changed him but in so doing the fear became the new addiction. He's unrecognisable. Despite the smile he doesn't look as approachable. Hargreaves asks: "I think [the new look] suits him a lot better, don't you?" but you're unsure as a reader whether it really does. And then the final three words:

Beware of giants!

The climax to Mr Greedy blows apart the hard-to-achieve yet still simplistic cure to the disease of addiction; the cycle of selfish destruction can be broken but we must be vigilant that it isn't replaced with something equally unwholesome. Life is a balancing act. In the book Mr Greedy Roger Hargreaves shows us the ends of the see-saw. Careful you don't fall off. 9/10

 

[hungrywing]

Mr Greedy The pleasant, friendly appearance of the title character belies the insatiable inner person that author Roger Hargreaves chooses as a metaphor for selfish destruction in the second book of his satirical world mythos inhabited by the eerily-named Mr Men.

In 1887 John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834 - 1902) wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr Greedy is the on-the-surface child-friendly representation of this but this is no child's book; rather, it is a fable that crosses boundaries of age and background and it warns of the ultimately doomed dangers not just of power but any addiction.

Hargreaves simplifies the 19th century message and substitutes power with the physical substance we all know: food. This is a master's stroke of genius on the author's part. The seeking of power is not, after all, universal; there are those who are content to simply be. But the need for food is a craving we cannot simply turn off or something to which people either take or leave. It is always there. For an addict - power, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, religion, and so on - there is a similar need but the vast majority of people are not addicts. Baron Acton's stark warning strikes a chord; Roger Hargreaves' Mr Greedy character sets free a macabre symphony from the orchestra.

Selfish destruction is self-serving says Hargreaves. Mr Greedy likes to eat. Eating makes him fat. Becoming fat makes him hungrier. Ad infinitum. He lives in a house, says the author, "that looked rather like himself." It is the nature of the addict to barricade his or herself with reinforcing surroundings. The roly-poly house of Mr Greedy is instantly recognisable as the Yes Men that protect the tyrannical business executive from reality. There is a similar fantasy that encases everyone who falls for destructive addiction.

The physical appearance of Mr Greedy lets us know that what we are reading about is wrong, as if we needed telling. Yes, this is a personable character, a smiling character, perhaps someone we might enjoy being around. But Hargreaves doesn't want us sympathising too much; at the heart of the story is a great exclamation mark: stop! Enough! Mr Greedy is fat and we all simply know without needing to be told that fat is bad. Each page turn heightens the anticipation of Mr Greedy's undoing. Hargreaves' writing style is superb in keeping us alert for the come-uppance and yet simultaneously lulling us, rocking us gently along. As humans we recognise this; it's when we know we're doing something wrong and we think we're being careful and we're slowly going past the point of no return. A better glimpse into the psyche of the addicted personality sliding down into the chasm simply isn't present in modern literature.

The title character is inquisitive; he wants more. It leads to his undoing. In the novel it's the forced overdose and fear of the giant that sorts out Mr Greedy. In plain terms: too much of something might just kill you. It's obvious and, were the book to end that way, unsatisfactory given what has gone before, but there is one final twist in this fascinating tale. Mr Greedy is a changed man; the fear changed him but in so doing the fear became the new addiction. He's unrecognisable. Despite the smile he doesn't look as approachable. Hargreaves asks: "I think [the new look] suits him a lot better, don't you?" but you're unsure as a reader whether it really does. And then the final three words:

Beware of giants!

The climax to Mr Greedy blows apart the hard-to-achieve yet still simplistic cure to the disease of addiction; the cycle of selfish destruction can be broken but we must be vigilant that it isn't replaced with something equally unwholesome. Life is a balancing act. In the book Mr Greedy Roger Hargreaves shows us the ends of the see-saw. Careful you don't fall off. 9/10

And they say young people don't read these days. Tee hee.

 

[Livvie]

Mr Greedy The pleasant, friendly appearance of the title character belies the insatiable inner person that author Roger Hargreaves chooses as a metaphor for selfish destruction in the second book of his satirical world mythos inhabited by the eerily-named Mr Men.

In 1887 John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834 - 1902) wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr Greedy is the on-the-surface child-friendly representation of this but this is no child's book; rather, it is a fable that crosses boundaries of age and background and it warns of the ultimately doomed dangers not just of power but any addiction.

Hargreaves simplifies the 19th century message and substitutes power with the physical substance we all know: food. This is a master's stroke of genius on the author's part. The seeking of power is not, after all, universal; there are those who are content to simply be. But the need for food is a craving we cannot simply turn off or something to which people either take or leave. It is always there. For an addict - power, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, religion, and so on - there is a similar need but the vast majority of people are not addicts. Baron Acton's stark warning strikes a chord; Roger Hargreaves' Mr Greedy character sets free a macabre symphony from the orchestra.

Selfish destruction is self-serving says Hargreaves. Mr Greedy likes to eat. Eating makes him fat. Becoming fat makes him hungrier. Ad infinitum. He lives in a house, says the author, "that looked rather like himself." It is the nature of the addict to barricade his or herself with reinforcing surroundings. The roly-poly house of Mr Greedy is instantly recognisable as the Yes Men that protect the tyrannical business executive from reality. There is a similar fantasy that encases everyone who falls for destructive addiction.

The physical appearance of Mr Greedy lets us know that what we are reading about is wrong, as if we needed telling. Yes, this is a personable character, a smiling character, perhaps someone we might enjoy being around. But Hargreaves doesn't want us sympathising too much; at the heart of the story is a great exclamation mark: stop! Enough! Mr Greedy is fat and we all simply know without needing to be told that fat is bad. Each page turn heightens the anticipation of Mr Greedy's undoing. Hargreaves' writing style is superb in keeping us alert for the come-uppance and yet simultaneously lulling us, rocking us gently along. As humans we recognise this; it's when we know we're doing something wrong and we think we're being careful and we're slowly going past the point of no return. A better glimpse into the psyche of the addicted personality sliding down into the chasm simply isn't present in modern literature.

The title character is inquisitive; he wants more. It leads to his undoing. In the novel it's the forced overdose and fear of the giant that sorts out Mr Greedy. In plain terms: too much of something might just kill you. It's obvious and, were the book to end that way, unsatisfactory given what has gone before, but there is one final twist in this fascinating tale. Mr Greedy is a changed man; the fear changed him but in so doing the fear became the new addiction. He's unrecognisable. Despite the smile he doesn't look as approachable. Hargreaves asks: "I think [the new look] suits him a lot better, don't you?" but you're unsure as a reader whether it really does. And then the final three words:

Beware of giants!

The climax to Mr Greedy blows apart the hard-to-achieve yet still simplistic cure to the disease of addiction; the cycle of selfish destruction can be broken but we must be vigilant that it isn't replaced with something equally unwholesome. Life is a balancing act. In the book Mr Greedy Roger Hargreaves shows us the ends of the see-saw. Careful you don't fall off. 9/10

Is it a book too?

Started reading Dean R Koontz - Hideaway this morning. Haven't left the house, haven't put it down until an hour ago when I finished it.

Edge of the seat stuff, starts with a quick tempo and ends that way. Well happy to recommend it.

I read that ages ago - remind me what it was about.

Lightning is one of the best Dean Koontz books. And Strangers is good too.

 

[De Selby]

Nearly finished 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace.

It's brilliant, but a bit of a hard slog at times through its 1,000-odd pages.

 

[adexkola]

Reading The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith, a history of Africa after it's independence. It's very accurate, the level of corruption, greed, subversion by the Western world, and broken promises make the read intriguing and depressing so far.

 

[CantonasWife]

I've mentioned this book here before, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, when I'd read it in it's original version in Swedish. I just started reading the English version and I'm glad to say that the book is still as good translated! This trilogy of books (the other ones are named: The Girl who played with fire, and The Girl who kicked the hornets nest) are the best books I've read. They're on the top sellers list on amazon but most people I talk to haven't read them yet..
Highly recommended anyway!

 

[pillory]

Nearly finished 'Infinite Jest' by David Foster Wallace.

It's brilliant, but a bit of a hard slog at times through its 1,000-odd pages.

Yeah. I think I'm the only one to have mentioned DFW on the Caf before. Here, for instance:

Spoiler

I had just finished Infinite Jest when David Foster Wallace killed himself, and now I've developed an obsession with James Incadenza's filmography (found in the novel's notes), which I read several times a week. It makes me happy-sad.


"Immanent Domain" - B.S. Latrodectus Mactans Productions. Cosgrove Watt, Judith Fukuoka-Hearn, Pam Heath, Pamel-Sue Vorrheis, Herbert G. Birch; 35 mm; 88 minutes; black and white w/ microphotography; sound. Three memory-neurons (Fukuoka-Hearn, Heath, Voorheis (w/ polyurethane costumes)) in the Inferior frontal gyrus of a man's (Watt's) brain fight heroically to prevent their displacement by new memory-neurons as the man undergoes intense psychoanalysis. CELLULOID; INTERLACE TELENT CARTRIDGE RE-RELEASE #340-03-70 (Y.P.W.)

"Valuable Coupon Has Been Removed" - Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Cosgrove Watt, Phillip T. Smothergill, Dianne Saltoone; 16 mm; 52 minutes; color; silent. Possible Scandinavian psychodrama parody, a boy helps his alcoholic-delusional father and disassociated mother dismantle their bed to search for rodents, and later he intuits the future feasibility of D.T.-cycle lithiumized annular fusion. CELLULOID (UNRELEASED)

"As Of Yore" - Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Cosgrove Watt, Marlon Bain; 16/78 mm; 181 minutes; black and white/color; sound. A middle-aged tennis instructor, preparing to instruct his son in tennis, becomes intoxicated in the family's garage and subjects his son to a rambling monologue while the son weeps and perspires. INTERLACE TELENT CARTRIDGE #357-16-09

"Safe Boating Is No Accident" - Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad (?) Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited/X-Ray and Infrared Photography by Shuco-Mist Medical Pressure Systems, Enfield, MA. Ken N. Johnson, 'Madame Psychosis', P.A. Heaven. Kierkegaard/Lynch (?) parody, a claustrophobic water-ski instructor (Johnson), struggling with his romantic conscience after his fiancee's ('Psychosis's') face is grotesquely mangled by an outboard propeller, becomes trapped in an overcrowded hospital elevator with a defrocked Trappist monk, two overcombed missionaries for the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, an enigmatic fitness guru, the Massachusetts State Commissioner for Beach and Water Safety, and seven severely intoxicated opticians with silly hats and exploding cigars. Listed by some archivists as completed the following year, Y.T.-S.D.B. UNRELEASED

"Dial C For Concupiscence" - Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Soma Richardson-Levy-O'Byrne, Marla-Dean Chumm, Ibn-Said Chawaf, Yves Francouer; 35 mm; 122 minutes; black and white; silent w/ subtitles. Parodic noir-style tribute to Bresson's Les Anges du Peche', a cellular phone operator (Richardson-Levy-O'Byrne), mistaken by a Quebecois terrorist (Francouer) for another cellular phone operator (Chumm) the FLQ had mistakenly tried to assassinate, mistakes his mistaken attempts to apologize as attempts to assassinate her (Richardson-Levy-O'Byrne) and flees to a bizarre Islamic religious community whose members communicate with each other by means of semaphore flags, where she falls in love with an armless Near Eastern medical attache' (Chawaf). RELEASED IN INTERLACE TELENT'S 'HOWLS FROM THE MARGIN' UNDERGROUND FILM SERIES - MARCH/Y.T.-S.D.B. - AND INTERLACE TELENT CARTRIDGE #357-75-43

"Insubstantial Country" - Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. Cosgrove Watt; 16 mm; 30 minutes; black and white; silent/sound. An unpopular apres-garde filmmaker (Watt) either suffers a temporal lobe seizure and becomes mute or else is the victim of everyone else's delusion that his (Watt's) temporal lobe seizure has left him mute. PRIVATE CARTRIDGE RELEASE BY POOR YORICK ENTERTAINMENT UNLIMITED

"The Film Adaptation Of Peter Weiss's 'The Persecution And Assassination Of Marat As Performed By The Inmates Of The Asylum At Charenton Under The Direction Of The Marquis de Sade'" - Year of the Trial-Size Dove Bar. Poor Yorick Entertainment Unlimited. James O. Incadenza, Disney Leith, Urquhart Ogilvie Jr., Jane Ann Prickett, Herbert G. Birch, 'Madame Psychosis', Marla-Dean Chumm, Marlon Bain, Pam Heath, Soma Richardson-Levy-O'Byrne-Chawaf, Ken N. Johnson, Dianne Saltoone; Super-8 mm; 88 minutes; black and white; silent/sound. Fictional 'interactive documentary' on Boston stage production of Weiss's 20th-century play within play, in which the documentary's chemically impaired director (Incadenza) repeatedly interupts the inmates' dumbshow-capering and Marat and Sade's dialogues to discourse incoherently on the implications of Brando's Method Acting and Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty for North American filmed entertainment, irritating the actor who plays Marat (Leith) to such an extent that he has a cerebral hemorrhage and collapses onstage well before Marat's scripted death, whereupon the play's nearsighted director (Ogilvie), mistaking the actor who plays Sade (Johnson) for Incadenza, throws Sade into Marat's medicinal bath and throttles him to death, whereupon the extra-dramatic figure of Death ('Psychosis') descends deus ex machina to bear Marat (Leith) and Sade (Johnson) away, while Incadenza becomes ill all over the theater audience's first row. 8 MM SYNC-PROJECTION CELLULOID. UNRELEASED DUE TO LITIGATION, HOSPITALIZATION

He's even in my location.

 

[Great Hat]

Yeah. I think I'm the only one to have mentioned DFW on the Caf before. Here, for instance:

He's even in my location.

Infinite Jest is good. It's infuriating at times, but there are enough great moments and some really fascinating social and ideological subtext which keep it interesting and make the slog through it worthwile.

Just read Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One. It's a curious novel, dealing with English expatriates in America, and in particular around a pet cemetery in which Dennis Barlow, the cynical yet poetic protagonist works, and an excessively lavish cemetery for upper-class Californians. The novel contains much of Waugh's celebrated irony and social commentary, and treads the thin line between farce, comedy and tragedy.

Not his most spectacular work, but solidly enjoyable and thought provoking, and a good place to start with his output.

 

[jveezy]

I've mentioned this book here before, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, when I'd read it in it's original version in Swedish. I just started reading the English version and I'm glad to say that the book is still as good translated! This trilogy of books (the other ones are named: The Girl who played with fire, and The Girl who kicked the hornets nest) are the best books I've read. They're on the top sellers list on amazon but most people I talk to haven't read them yet..
Highly recommended anyway!

Didn't see this before. Would definitely recommend The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Listened to the audiobook and it was quite good. The Girl who Played with Fire is out on audiobook as well I think.

 

[Wibble]

Is it a book too?

Yes and much better than the film.

 

[Sir Matt]

The Black Company Series by Glenn Cook.

I just finished reading the main line of the series by Glenn Cook. It's a dark fantasy series that isn't very well-known, but it's very good. It offers a different feel to most fantasy.

Has anyone else read any of the books?

 

[De Selby]

Yeah. I think I'm the only one to have mentioned DFW on the Caf before. Here, for instance:

He's even in my location.

I just ordered The Broom of the System and Consider the Lobster (a collection of his non-fiction work) off Amazon.

Can't wait to read them. The man's a genius.

Edit: Was a genius.

 

[pillory]

I just ordered The Broom of the System and Consider the Lobster (a collection of his non-fiction work) off Amazon.

Can't wait to read them. The man's a genius.

Those were the last books of his I read. I finally found them when I was in San Francisco in October. It's always a sad moment when you run out of books you haven't read by a favourite author, and even more so when the possibility of him writing tons of new books has just been snatched away by his suicide. (Though there is an unfinished novel in the works.)

I should probably or probably not warn you that I found The Broom of the System relatively shallow and silly compared to the rest of his work.

 

[esmufc07]

Finished 'The Associate' by John Grisham the other day. It's a good book, starts off really well and quickly grips you but then about half way through it just becomes 'meh'. Nothing much really happens in it and it becomes a hard read. It picks up about 2/3 of the way through again and when you think there might be a good ending, it just stops. The ending was very flat and disappointing for me, I was expecting more.

Still, worth a read, on the whole it was a good book.

 

[uae]

Another Brent Weeks fan? Have you read any of the Night Angel books yet? Is the Brian Ruckley book Winterbirth or Blood Heir? I haven't read Blood Heir yet but Winterbirth is definitely worth a read. Which Conn Iggulden, Jennifer Fallon and Fiona McIntosh books? These are all important questions uae.

Out of the list I would probably choose Jacqueline Carey, but that's mainly because she is the only author I haven't read so I have no idea if her books are good or not.

Oi Smashed, finally got round to doing this. Absolutely brilliant i thought. There are actually 2 trilogies, one after the other. I read the 1st book of the 2nd trilogy, and it was quality.

 

[Flying Fox]

Just started reading Passport to Enclavia by Vitali Vitaliev. Non-fiction paperback, still, a good read.

 

[DoctorEvil]

Does anyone have historical fiction recommendations?

Colleen McCullough have written a wonderful series of books telling the story of the fall of the Roman republic through the eyes of the main historical figures. (That is, Marius, Sulla, Pompey and Caesar.)

I can not recommends these enough. She really manages to bring an ancient society, which is very different from our own, to life. The series is sometimes called the Masters of Rome. The first book, which is probably the best one, is "The first man in Rome".

 

[Count Duckula]

The Black Company Series by Glenn Cook.

I just finished reading the main line of the series by Glenn Cook. It's a dark fantasy series that isn't very well-known, but it's very good. It offers a different feel to most fantasy.

Has anyone else read any of the books?

I've rnot, but I intend to read them once I've finished the Malazan books. I've heard they're actually very similar, although the Black Company sways towards more horror-esque themes.

 

[DoctorEvil]

Finished reading all four books of A song of ice and fire by George Martin last week. Loved it.

Yep. These are the real deal.

Shame it would be years till the series if done. Martin seems to be a bit of a perfectionist, and it takes him forever to finish each book. Especially now, when the story has diverged as far as it can. (Next books should start to conclude story arcs.)

 

[DoctorEvil]

Just about to start book 9 of the Wheel of Time series to catch up so i can read book 12 which i got from girlfriend as a present. Also got latest Pratchett waiting to be read after the Wheel of Time mega read is over, 8 books down 4 to go.

I have read book 12 and enjoyed it a lot. (You will need this bit of motivation to read book 10.)

There are some differences ins style between Jordan and Sanderson. The main one is that Jordan was much more subtle, in the sense that he would tell less, substituting hints instead. This mainly apply to what various characters think.

Anyway, while some characters seem a bit off, overall it is a very good book. IMO, Sanderson was a good choice for the author which would finish this story.