Glad you enjoyed it!
I haven't read anything else by McCarthy, given the responses here I think I'll give Blood Meridian a go!
Books The BOOK thread
- Thread starter Livvie
- Start date
I haven't read anything else by McCarthy, given the responses here I think I'll give Blood Meridian a go!
Almost finished volume one of Karl ove Knausgards Min Kamp. It's incredibly banal but fascinating.
I'm just reading Blood Meridian and while I'm enjoying it, at just about 2/3rds of the way through I think it needed some closer editing and refinement. Cormac is spending a lot of time telling me the colour of the sky and the lay of the land and then some people are going to get scalped. I'm not sure it's a good enough driving force for the length of the novel.
I'm hoping for a grand finish.
I'm hoping for a grand finish.
Yeah, it's a prose poem of a novel. His style took me a while to get used to.
Reading King's Mr Mercedes
To be fair, i know roughly what its all about, and i don't think for a second I'll agree with her, but i may still enjoy reading her POV. Sort of like Hitler, other than the murderous side, he has some interesting ideas.
I'll look out for it, cheers.
I have planned on reading Main Kampf at some point actually, just not got around to it yet.
Just had a google of this and it sounds interesting, though some hit and miss opinions of it by the looks of things.
Noooo, haha. I meant A House for Mr Biswas.
It's hit and miss if the Goodreads brigade and their ilk are rating anything not made to cater for their tastes. I've seen people trash Dante, Tolstoy and Goethe there.
Re-read Moneyball, still an excellent book.
Finished Mr Mercedes too, can't say I loved it.
Finished Mr Mercedes too, can't say I loved it.
What's the narrative style/POV to Moneyball Leg-End?
It's written from the authors perspective but he doesn't force his own opinons at all, lets the real people do the work. Highly recommend it, even if you don't care for the sport.
I had read 'The Road' prior to Blood Meridian, his style wasn't a particular concern for me personally, I just started feeling BM was repetitive at times but it's not an entirely fictional story in his defense, so he had to accurately portray historicity. I see at the top of the page you call the work genius, perhaps his use of language is - maybe definitely - but the story isn't, for me at least.
Good points, mate. Yep, it's the descriptive language for me (though it can become too much).
I have finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë... well at least I thought the characters were likable (I really don't have a clue why Jane liked Mr Rochester, he seems more like a guy to run away really far from.) even if I was really puzzled that at the beginning the main character was more an observer than an actor in her book. Slow book, but nice reading, even if some parts were predictable, and this end was surprising
.
even if I was hoping the author wouldn't go with a unhappy ending, and that the obvious hint was misleading. After all the narrator misled at least once before.
Wait, did you read Villette or Jane Eyre?
I read Villette, but I was just comparing the characters of Villette (especially two male characters) to Mr Rochester (well I obviously read Jane Eyre but last year).
I have finished Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. I'm more disappointed, it wasn't really that surprising (story quite formulatic) and it reminds me too much of some of his previous books. The main character was just too passive and a bit whiny. Though it's still easy to read if we except the sex scenes.
Flipped the last page of East of Eden. Been a very satisfying and thought-provoking read.
Widely considered to be John Steinbeck's magnum opus, it is his modern retelling of the biblical tale of Cain and Abel. Two brothers each brought an offering to God, Abel's offering got accepted instead of Cain's and in a jealous rage Cain slays Abel. After that he lied to God about the murder and subsequently got cursed for life. The novel's themes have very close ties to the biblical tale - the poisonous rivalry between two brothers, the age-old struggle between good and evil, and lastly, the importance of love. The character list in the novel is quite huge and goes down two generations. Probably one of the novels with the most fully realised characters I've ever read.
For those who are in the mood for a sombre yet hugely fulfilling read, I'd recommend this book.
Widely considered to be John Steinbeck's magnum opus, it is his modern retelling of the biblical tale of Cain and Abel. Two brothers each brought an offering to God, Abel's offering got accepted instead of Cain's and in a jealous rage Cain slays Abel. After that he lied to God about the murder and subsequently got cursed for life. The novel's themes have very close ties to the biblical tale - the poisonous rivalry between two brothers, the age-old struggle between good and evil, and lastly, the importance of love. The character list in the novel is quite huge and goes down two generations. Probably one of the novels with the most fully realised characters I've ever read.
For those who are in the mood for a sombre yet hugely fulfilling read, I'd recommend this book.
Blood Meridian has one of the most mindblowing finish to a novel.
Last edited:
Why? I am halfway through Mr Mercedes and it's been a good read. Very slow, as per usual with King he takes time to build characters, but it's been pretty interesting. Not your typical King book that I've come to love but decent enough nonetheless. I can see how some people might not like it though hence why I'm asking, curious what's the biggest single reason for this.
I have finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor. Pretty writting, but not really a balanced book to the bad side, I mean I got the feeling that the author was giving lot of advantages to the good side, even if apparently the bad side had the advantage of numbers. So she mostly sabotaged the climax. Still a pleasant reading if I don't think too hard about it, just one obvious plothole.
I didn't care for the premise after the opening much, the villain wasn't particularly interesting and frankly the lead was....boring. I think its great that he decided to try something new but King is at his best with a little bit of supernatural in there, 11/22/63 was the right blend of it for me. I mean don't get me wrong I thought it was alright but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to people.
I just finished I Am Pilgrim and thought it was excellent.
Sadly, the fine author Graham Joyce passed away today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Joyce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Joyce
I've not read any of his books. Is there a good introductory title you'd suggest?
Probably this one, mate:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Kind-F...03620&sr=1-1&keywords=Some+Kind+of+Fairy+Tale
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Kind-F...03620&sr=1-1&keywords=Some+Kind+of+Fairy+Tale
Cheers for that. Have Kindled it.
Now I have to find out what that green tab on the corner of my name means...
Means the user is online.
Ahh. Thanks. Thought I was in trouble or something!
I've just finished Mr Mercedes and must say I was disappointed towards the end. The ending wasn't brilliant at all, what I liked was the setting and characters I guess but the ending wasn't something I'd have expected from a very good writer like King at all.
I'll read Shining and Doctor Sleep now. Somehow even though I've read over 20 King books in my life I've somehow managed to avoid Shining all this time. Should be a blast!
So I got I Am Pilgrim for my Kindle for $8 and followed it with Gone Girl which I have not read yet. I will set Shining and Dr Sleep aside for later and start with Gone Girl.
My 'to read' list has become longer and longer...have 13 books piled up that i wanted to get to at some point or the other in the last 5-6 months.
Mine is closer to 500 books though it's only a list, not really a pile, and some are only there because I have an insane hope the summary is more promising than the ratings of the first GoodReads page. Even if I tend to agree more with the "haters" if there are some "haters". I probably should make an "absolutely to read first list".
I'm currently reading the Good Earth of Pearl Buck. It's slow and at half of the book, I really dislike the main character. I can't believe that at middle school I read several books of this author. I suppose it says a lot that I don't remember the plot of a single one.
I'm currently reading the Good Earth of Pearl Buck. It's slow and at half of the book, I really dislike the main character. I can't believe that at middle school I read several books of this author. I suppose it says a lot that I don't remember the plot of a single one.
Let us know what Gone Girl is like, thats been on my list for a while now but I'm half thinking I might just wait for the movie at this point.
I've decided to go with the book first and then Fincher's film, I'll probably be done with the book well before it hits cinemas. I'm doing the same with Before I Go To Sleep - I've bought a Kindle book now and will only see the movie that's just been released after I'm done with it.
I'm going on holiday tomorrow to Alicante, nothing better than hitting the beach at 31C with a good book. I'll probably finish about 3 books while there easily. I've stockpiled them, some of them free from Kindle library, some of the paid for - I've paid no more than $50 in the store though and have about 25 books to finish now, some of the well on the best seller lists (Before I Go To Sleep, Doctor Sleep, The Enemy, Shining, Gone Girl, The Racketeer), some highly rated (Cold Broken Hallelujah, I Am Pilgrim, A King Of Infinite Space) and some free stuff I've managed to grab.
Great to be back in the readers world. I've neglected it for the past 2-3 years, sort of forgotten how great it feels.
Just read The Thirty Nine Steps. Really enjoyed it. I had a bit of a binge on Tami Hoag who I didnt particularly like but was given a few books by. Read a couple of the Earl Swagger books too where you check your mind at the door a bit when reading. Good entertainment but they don't grab ye.
I was away on holidays in June/July and absolutely inhaled books. It was like been 13 again.
True that, there aren't many things better than lying on the beach with a book in hand (or on a terrace of your Summer house overlooking the sea for that matter
). Kindle is a blast too because I won't be limited to 2-3 books I could carry with Ryanair limits, I'll be taking everything I have with me.Gone Girl goes first (I've already started reading), then Before I Go To Sleep and if I have time I'll move over to I Am Pilgrim or one of Dilts' novels (think I'll read A King Of Infinite Space first).
It's a good book.
Got my copy of this today. The way I see it is, I trust Fincher to make it interesting whether I know the story or not. Zodiac is one of my favourite films and we all knew the outcome beforehand. Plus I'm just really impatient.