assfax Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 Books I've read in the past year: American Gods: Pretty good Damnation Game: Ending was silly Weaveworld: Fucking amazing. Voice of the Fire: first 200 pages are a major struggle, then it becomes tolerable. More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: blew through this in 5 sittings. Fucking vital. Rendezvous with Rama: alright. Everything about it made me visualize how wrong a movie would be. They'd never spend the money if they had to be this low key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 3, 2014 Share Posted September 3, 2014 Currently reading The Sister Brothers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Sugar Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 The Sisters Brothers was very, very good. I just finished it last month and couldn't put it down. Just finished Stephen King's JOYLAND and I was really impressed. Some very touching moments during the book: really well done. Also read the ORCS trilogy (Stan Nicholls), which is a neat take on Orcs maybe not being as bad as everyone thinks: they just have a shitty lot in life. A neat mix of Irish and Native folklore into the general concept of what being an Orc is all about. Very fun. Currently reading GAME OF THRONES but I keep losing the book: left it in the back of a friend's car for two weeks, misplaced it at work and had it "borrowed" a week ago...maybe I'm never supposed to finish it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin877 Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Also read the ORCS trilogy (Stan Nicholls), which is a neat take on Orcs maybe not being as bad as everyone thinks: they just have a shitty lot in life. A neat mix of Irish and Native folklore into the general concept of what being an Orc is all about. Very fun. Heard mixed opinions about it. The premise sounds great. Currently reading the Autobiography of Steve "Dr. Death" Williams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Rydell Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Ya know, for what is ostensibly a Young Adult novel, The Westing Game holds up really well some 25 years after I first read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted September 13, 2014 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Just finished WHite House Diary by Jimmy Carter, and it was full of insight into his presidency. Its an annotated(where appropriate) version of the actual diary he kept while he was in the white house, so minimal spin. I would recommend it to history buffs. Feeling a little burned out on hsitory at the moment, so I'll read a "gasp" novel for a little intellectual pallet cleanser. Nothing wrong with novels, I just rarely read fiction anymore. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 The Sisters Brothers was very, very good. I just finished it last month and couldn't put it down. Just finished Stephen King's JOYLAND and I was really impressed. Some very touching moments during the book: really well done. Also read the ORCS trilogy (Stan Nicholls), which is a neat take on Orcs maybe not being as bad as everyone thinks: they just have a shitty lot in life. A neat mix of Irish and Native folklore into the general concept of what being an Orc is all about. Very fun. Currently reading GAME OF THRONES but I keep losing the book: left it in the back of a friend's car for two weeks, misplaced it at work and had it "borrowed" a week ago...maybe I'm never supposed to finish it. I really liked The Sisters Brothers. I thought the ending was a bit of a letdown but overall a very good book. I liked the Orcs trilogy as well. I didn't like the follow-ups as much though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Hanger Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 Working my way through the Wool Omnibus/Silo Series/whatever for my book club. Holy shit, the original "Wool" is one of the most perfect pieces of short genre fiction I have ever read. Like "The Cold Equations" level perfect. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 I read Wool last year and loved it. Haven't continued with the rest of the Silo series, though. It's one of the best examples of dystopian fiction. Is it just as good after Book 5? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 Almost done with the novelization of the film Constantine. SO much better than the film. What are some of the differences b/t the novel and the film? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 Almost done with the novelization of the film Constantine. SO much better than the film. What are some of the differences b/t the novel and the film? He is British. The plot is way more fleshed out.Plus no Shia Lebouf or Keanu. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Sugar Posted September 18, 2014 Share Posted September 18, 2014 .Plus no Shia Lebouf or Keanu. This could be a selling point for all books. PRAISE FOR JOHN Q. NOVELIST'S NEW BOOK THE BOOKENING! "No Shia LeBouf." ~ Wendel Reviewterschmidt, Iowa Sentinel 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Stalking the Nightmare By Harlan Ellison Wanted something to read. Hit the library,which is the only library for 3 counties,and this was the only book that caught my attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 In Constantine's defense: yeah, the idiotic casting was clearly done purely for financial marketability reasons, but Keanu and Shia did at least try as hard as they possibly could to play those characters to the best of their limited abilities, Also, for any Shia hater, his eventual fate in the movie is... well, pretty fun to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Finished Stalking the Nightmare and started Deathbird stories now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assfax Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Graham Greene: The Comedians I can't say I hated it. It wasn't up it's own ass like the books on my true shit list were. It definitely evoked a setting in my mind. Mainly thought I'm left thinking it was just kind of dull and meandering. Had some really great lines like "The palm he held out to us was large, square, pink and humid.". True shit list of books I fucking passionately hate: Bug Jack Barron The Fermata Nova Express Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Bug Jack Barron was very much a thing of it's time. It was one of the major "New Wave" novels. Now, it's just sort of a curiosity, Spinrad has done much better work. I know that Nova Express is viewed as a beat classic and all that, but I haven't the patience to wade through such self-indulgent nonsense. bobholly138: You're reading the work of arguably the greatest short-story writer in the English language at the very height of his prowess. Harlan is one of those rare individuals like Graham Greene, he can write fiction or non-fiction equally well and when you get to his essays, he can take a subject that you have no interest in whatsoever and when you're done reading his comments, you can't wait to learn more about the subject. I owe Harlan for turning me on to a great many things, The Spirit, Dr. Who, George Carlson and the list goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Bug Jack Barron was very much a thing of it's time. It was one of the major "New Wave" novels. Now, it's just sort of a curiosity, Spinrad has done much better work. I know that Nova Express is viewed as a beat classic and all that, but I haven't the patience to wade through such self-indulgent nonsense. bobholly138: You're reading the work of arguably the greatest short-story writer in the English language at the very height of his prowess. Harlan is one of those rare individuals like Graham Greene, he can write fiction or non-fiction equally well and when you get to his essays, he can take a subject that you have no interest in whatsoever and when you're done reading his comments, you can't wait to learn more about the subject. I owe Harlan for turning me on to a great many things, The Spirit, Dr. Who, George Carlson and the list goes on. Yeah,I realized early on what kind of talent Harlan has. For years I just knew him as "That cranky older guy that is on Sci Fi Buzz every Sunday." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Been reading "A fraction of the whole" by Steve Tolz. Well written, but pretty depressing on the whole and no sign of the "hilarity" the jacket promised. Oh well, bought it at a yard sale for something like fifty cents, so no harm no foul. Back to non fiction for me, and I have a butt load of new books from yard sales and the annual fund raiser at the local library. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobholly138 Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Richard Stark-Lemons Never lie Found the Hardcase Crime paperback at Dollar General for a buck. About 40 pages in and so far it is really good. I have been grabbing various Hardcase Crime paperbacks from various stores for a few years now. Never paying more than a buck a book. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 Dubious parenting division, case #11352 The 12 year old is going to be 13 in February. He's read stuff on various levels, plenty of steampunk (both post-apocalyptic and otherwise), Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, all of the His Dark Materials books, probably a dozen YA fantasy or sci fi series, etc (including Tolkien). He's reading Poe and Christie in school (he's in GT this year; more naturally inclined to math/science but we make him read so damn much and processes certain fictions that he can't help but be good at it). Every now and again I'll toss something I feel is a stretch at him, usually something I've read. Or by an author I read, and in years' past, he usually balks at it. I picked up Cory Doctorow's Pirate Cinema at the library and he's about 25 pages into it as of last night. I'm about 105 pages into it as of this morning, because I knew the IDEAS of the book were things I wanted to discuss with him and I have a mild sense of "Oh crap, what did I do." He's in 7th grade so I imagine there's not much in there that's going to be a massive surprise to him, but content wise, it'll be more vivid than what he's used to processing. So now I'm going to have to get ahead of it and awkwardly prompt him for discussion when his mother is not around. Because the book's good and it's good enough and basically shows enough leg early on content wise, that I think he'll stick with it. I think it'll serve him well to get through too, but it's also like giving a literary flamethrower to a 12 year old. It's not Rand or anything but there's a lot in there both conceptually and in content he hasn't encountered much yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted November 10, 2014 Share Posted November 10, 2014 White Jazz. It's been about a decade since I last read an Ellory book, I'm completely out of practice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assfax Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Read Timescape. Initial concept had me hooked. Tachyons sending morse code messages to the past. I'd heard of this theory before. Then right about in the middle I just started flagrantly skimming every boring ass dinner party scene. As soon as Peterson gets the confirmation message nobody gets excited or seems to give a shit. Then we lovingly detail the one dude and all the minutiae of his boring relationships. Then he goes to give the big "message from the future" speech we just skip all that shit. Then the cutesy JFK shit is given a whole bunch of space. There was this scene where Peterson fucked some bookstore lady and apparently gave her her first orgasm. Was this necessary? God damn there was a ton of useless shit in this book. Then there was this scene where, if I'm not mistaken, genetically engineered chimps did construction work. Things I appreciated in it: Soviet Union has no actual involvement in anything. No governments come in and take over Bernstein's shit. No convenient "oh the ocean is clearing up" bullshit tacked on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwoy2j Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 Just finished Revival by Stephen King. Pretty good. Storytelling was solid throughout and the twist at the end was great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 I'm reading one of the coolest things to ever cross my desk. It's a tpb fanzine dedicated to the work of R.A. Lafferty. As some of you may know, I'm the editor for the Lafferty Collected Short Fiction series and one of the guys involved in this project interviewed me about the series. That's like the least interesting thing in there, everything else is top notch lit-crit and appreciations of a writer that these guys all loved. The zine is called Feast of Laughter and its very existence makes the world a bit better of a place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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