Recently Read..

Life of Pi. Oh Yes.

oh and the tony parsons books (Man and boy / Man and wife)

Just got through "A fall of moondust" and "The sands of mars" by Arthur C Clarke, 5/5 for both. Really excellent stuff in some of his earlier writings (compared to the crap in Rama 2, Rama revealed, etc. Gentry Lee killed the Rama series for me :sad: ). I'd also recommend The Fountains of Paradise, same author.

I've just got my hands on Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance... Yes, I know its famous philosophy stuff, but I've never read it before (funnily). ANd I still need to get started with "I, Asimov" by Asimov, and "Return of the Primitive" Ayn Rand.

Don't like the Potter books too much myself. It's just that the whole series of books seem to be "tamed down" a bit to account for the readers, or something.

fraggard said:
Just got through "A fall of moondust" and "The sands of mars" by Arthur C Clarke, 5/5 for both.

fraggard, you seem to be just discovering books i read 20-30 years ago.. and the best part is, you are liking them as well.. would it help, if i made a list of equally excellent books for you to read??

or would you favor self discovery.. both are good choices..

lemme know :smile:

Orpheus said:

fraggard said:
Just got through "A fall of moondust" and "The sands of mars" by Arthur C Clarke, 5/5 for both.

fraggard, you seem to be just discovering books i read 20-30 years ago.. and the best part is, you are liking them as well.. would it help, if i made a list of equally excellent books for you to read??

or would you favor self discovery.. both are good choices..

lemme know :smile:

Actually, I seem to have gone off on some kind of Sci-Fi kick, which will last as long as my library has more books for me to read :/ A list would be good, but I'll probably just read whatever I can get my hands on... See if anyone else is interested though :smile:

Orpheus said:

$loth said:
I always get hooked on the potter books, whenever I know that i'm going up to my nans on the train I always take one of the books with me, then I can never put it down.

need i remind you, that the odds of your generation favoring them is a bit higher? :razz:

seriously though, if the rest of the books read like the prison one, i think i'll finish them..

Prisoner of Azkaban is IMO the best of the serries, although they are all worth a read.

i almost finishd part one of the lord of the rings.

the fellow ship of the ring- almost completed

the two towers-almost beginning

the return of the king- not yet begun.

im reading it in the original english. although im dutch :smile:

Mephs said:
Porno - Sequel to Trainspotting and Glue (characters from both books tie in well).

LOL, when I first read that I thought you meant something else :rolleyes:

@ Orph, prisoner of akzakban is a goodone, I much liked the last 2, there hard to decide, they have there good points and not so good points.

Anything by Tom Clancy really, except some of his earlier books like Clear and Present Danger, which are a really heavy in politics, American politics at that. I'd recommend Rainbow Six, the Net Force series and the Op-Centre series.

Also the books in the Star Wars: X-Wing series, they are all top notch stories. Really anything Star Wars, or even Star Trek, is pretty good. Just make sure the Star Trek books involve either the Next Generation or Original characters, as others tend to be a bit s**t.

Stephen E. Ambrose is a good read as well. D-Day, Band of Brothers and Pegasus Bridge are excellent accounts. The way Ambrose incorporates fact and personal stories, its like you are reading a story, rather than a factual account. It gets you really involved and characters/etc are developed like a standard novel. Top notch.

fraggard said:
A list would be good, but I'll probably just read whatever I can get my hands on... See if anyone else is interested though :smile:

1) midworld
2) have space suit will travel
3) star beast
4) cachelot
5) imperial earth
6) nor crystal tears
7) anvil of the stars
:cool: forge of god
9) ability quotent
10) ringworld
11) ringworld engineers
12) all the pip and flinx series
13) all the john carter series
14) all the foundation books
there are a s**tload more but consider anything written by,
1) clarke
2) heinlein
3) card
4) niven
hope this helps a bit..

i almost finishd part one of the lord of the rings.
the fellow ship of the ring- almost completed
the two towers-almost beginning
the return of the king- not yet begun.

im reading it in the original english. although im dutch:)

Return of the King is the best of the series. Fellowship has way too many boring points. Two Towers is great as well. I mean its a wonderful series. I just enjoyed Return of the King the most.

[size=13][color=white]i almost finishd part one of the lord of the rings.
the fellow ship of the ring- almost completed
the two towers-almost beginning
the return of the king- not yet begun.

im reading it in the original english. although im dutch:)

Return
of the King is the best of the series. Fellowship has way too many
boring points. Two Towers is great as well. I mean its a wonderful
series. I just enjoyed Return of the King the most.
[/color][/size]

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I got the box set on DVD but didnt watch the return of the king untill
i had read it: showing tremendous self-restraint on my part. Still
havent read the appendices yet....

it has been my experience, that books always outshine their movie counterparts.. if i had both, i would watch the flick, then read the book, as it will dramatically decrease your viewing pleasure to do it the other way around...

but as they say, thats just me :smile:

i love imagining how beatifull middle earth is. and the films hels wiht that.

You have to decide which one must suffer, the book or the film: I
generally prefer books to films, but always love to see a film version
of something I've read. Its interesting to see what directors, and
actors got out of the book....beats joining a book club i suppose!

I actualy liked Two Towers the best. Personaly, I can't stand Frodo and Sam. I much prefer reading about legolas, gimli, etc... If memory serves Two Towers was mostly about them, and Return of the King was mostly Frodo/Sam trash.

And for those of you (mat) who worship Tolkine: Read criticaly and you will find that he wasn't actualy a very good writer.

it has been my experience, that books always outshine their movie counterparts.. if i had both, i would watch the flick, then read the book, as it will dramatically decrease your viewing pleasure to do it the other way around...

but as they say, thats just me :smile:

Thats actually not true. The extended editions of the films are REALLY close to the books. Of course they leave things about. But they are just about the best book adaptations ever.

Erum. Return of the King is mostly about Gondor. Battle of Pelenor Fields is like a fourth of the book. Everything with Frodo and Sam is really cool in Return of the King. Its the violent stuff :smile: . Where Sam goes looking for Frodo and such. The Two Towers is really the one with them heavily in it. So, I'm a little confused about what you're talking about.

Tolkien wasn't really a writer as much as he was a linguist. And it shows in his writing. But for his books it fits very well.

Tracer Bullet said:
I actualy liked Two Towers the best. Personaly, I can't stand Frodo and Sam. I much prefer reading about legolas, gimli, etc... If memory serves Two Towers was mostly about them, and Return of the King was mostly Frodo/Sam trash.

And for those of you (mat) who worship Tolkine: Read criticaly and you will find that he wasn't actualy a very good writer.

It's been a long time since I read them.

I know, I was re-informing you :smile:

This is a bit of a departure from what everyone else has been listing, but the last two books I completed were Pure Drivel by Mr. Steve Martin (he deserves an honorary "Mr.") and Mind Over Matters by Mike Nelson (of MST3K fame). Both are basically collections of humorous essays. Martin is definitely funnier and is a bit looser in structure - a good trio are written as sketches and another involves just a single period over four pages. Nelson sticks more with a traditional, extended-length editorial style. Nelson also has about twice the page count. I'm also just about finished with Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and am about to start work on Woody Allen's Side Effects.

am currently muggling through the 4th potter book, i must confess, its funny as hell in places and the boring parts are far between..

good read so far.

I recently read "White Wolf" and just this morning finished off
"Legend", both by David Gemmel. I was a bit sceptical of his books at
first but thought I'd give them a shot and have been pleasantly
surpised, both were excellent reads. They are fairly typical fantasy
novels with lots of heroic characters and against all odds battles, but
the characters are given a substantial amount of back history that
leads you to grow quite attached to them. Thankfully my flatmate has
most of Gemmel's books so I have a good supply to keep me going :smile:

Orpheus said:
am currently muggling through the 4th potter book, i must confess, its funny as hell in places and the boring parts are far between..

good read so far.

i have to say it.. when this book hit the theaters, its gonna be the best of the lot.. assuming they come close to the book that is..

i am actually having fun reading it, and laughing outright in places.. even malfoy said something funny this time.. i will leave it up to you to decide though, i will not ruin it for you..

this book, has much less child stuff than the others.. i can only assume its because the characters are getting older.. still its a great read so far.

bumps

i have been listening to a buttload of audio books since i got my MP3 disk player..

some recommendations are:

Isle of the Dogs
Earths Children
Shadow Puppets
Prey

if at all possible, try to read, or listen to all of these :smile:

Prey = good SciFi novel

I enjoyed it, but I've been disturbed to see that many people take the events depicted therein as a possible, even likely outcome of nanotechnology research. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Tracer Bullet said:
Prey = good SciFi novel

I enjoyed it, but I've been disturbed to see that many people take the events depicted therein as a possible, even likely outcome of nanotechnology research. Nothing could be further from the truth.

possible or not, its a damned fine Grade "A" book :smile:

if you get time, at least listen to or read "Isle of the Dogs" T.B.

I'll certainly add it to my list. Sadly, even though I'm unemployed atm, there is still not enough time in any given day. I've just got too many damn things I want/need to do!

Prey's indeed a good book, I read that the summer before last. I wish the characters were a bit more rational as to avoid some weird drama, though. I haven't really read much lately, I think the last novel I read was in July, probably something by Palahniuk as he's always entertaining.

Then again, I have 3 hours between classes at college, so I just head to the library and find some random non-fiction materials to read... probably the most entertaining one so far was called "The Neoliberal" or something like that... shows how good the library is. I also read parts of one on small arms but I got lots of weird looks for it, even though it IS in the library... ah well.

I've found I'm actually doing with books as I do with a lot of games. Buy 'em now, read 'em later. I have shelves upon shelves of books that I haven't read yet, but intend to. I just simply don't have time. I honestly haven't had REAL free time since I started college four years ago, just procrastination free time.

I do with books what I do with games too....get to a boring part and leave it to gather dust. I really struggled in some parts of The Lord Of The Ring, where landscapes etc were being described. Too much detail in description tends to spoil things in a book (to be honest though, its very important aspect of the LOTR books to 'see' middle earth), the more left to my imagination the better. Another way I treat books like games is I get infuriated at tough parts I can't get past, e.g. "The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawking (im stuck on 'level' two :razz: ) and a real head-trip of a book on consciousness....called "Consciousness" by someone or other.

I usually lose interest in books by the third sentence.

Cassius said:
I usually lose interest in books by the third sentence.

you are reading the wrong books then.

the hardest thing about reading, is finding your true desire, i love western movies, i hate western books.. i love fantasy books, but usually hate fantasy movies.. i love sci-fi books and love sci-fi movies.. the choice was pretty simple for me back then.

what you need to do is, break your leg or something incapacitating, to where reading is a perfect solution for time passage.. not that i am wishing you pain, but you need motivated is all.

currently reading "Order of the Phoenix" can someone please tell me how an 800+ page book can be considered "children's"?

seriously though, i didn't think they could get better than #'s 3 and 4, but book #5 is damned good,perhaps better..

i never imagined reading books classified "children's" :smile:

Heh, I wasn't really a fan of Harry Potter, though I have read them all... the 4th one in 2 days because I was sick and truly had nothing better to do. They're entertaining but meaningless IMO... the entertaining Britney Spears of books, if you will.

Hugh said:
Heh, I wasn't really a fan of Harry Potter, though I have read them all... the 4th one in 2 days because I was sick and truly had nothing better to do. They're entertaining but meaningless IMO... the entertaining Britney Spears of books, if you will.

maybe there is something wrong with my preferences then.. people have said the same thing about terry brooks, and edgar rice burroughs.. two of my best authors..

well i like the potter books, and the best the hell out of the movie versions so far.

i am so excited, i have to post it here, i just found out larry niven wrote not one, but TWO more ringworld books :biggrin:

i know no one wants to hear this, but i found them in MP3 format and will have them soonish :smile:

/me does jig.

if they are 1/2 as good as the 1st two, they will still be great books :smile:

I've recently rediscovered the adventures of Odysseus aka The Oddesy.When I read it for the first time several years ago I found it dry and hard to manage, but now I think it's great! Imagine 500+ pages of epic heximeter verse! It's an absolutly stunning and hypnotic read. I can't wait to find myself a copy of The Illiad.

IMO there is nothing fluffy about the Potter books (except for a giant three-headed dog :biggrin: ). The plotting is tight, the language diverse, and the characters dynamic. What more could you want?

Pah, the Harry Potter series is a horrible, bastardised mishmash of
Roald Dahl, and JRR Tolkein. Even then, it doesn't do that particularly
well. Rowling is laughing all the way to the bank, filling the void of
UK childs/fantasy writers - but so shamelessly its embarassing.

i dunno who dahl is, but she beats tolkien hands down..

she can have my money..i don't care if she laughs or not.

Rohl dahl is some old guy who wrote stuff like the BFG [ big friend giant] and such. Get with the times gwil, you liked that stuff when you were younger and we, I mean the younger generation like harry potter.

[size=13]I don't disagree with the younger, or older generation like Harry
Potter - i'm merely saying, that I (and many other Potter cynics I have
spoken to ) see her work for being a money spinning franchise, one
created by badly sticking together ideas and writing techniques from
past masters of old.

I'm not looking at rose tinted glasses, or saying it used to be better

• i'm dismissing this cultural storm for what it is (in. my. opinion.)
• an ugly bastardisation and blatant whoring of older books gone before

her.

Hell, I don't even like Roald Dahl that much...

I'm saying she has stepped into the void to replace these people, or
attempt to emulate them - and from the brief encounters I've had with
the series, it reads to me like a vain attempt to play on the success
and ideas that other people concocted. I disagree with that, strongly.

Just because I don't like JK Rowling and Harry Potter, it hardly means I am "behind the times"...

Big Friendly Giant, to be precise as well :smile: I suggest you go read some
more Dahl and see some of the blatant rip offs she practices and
perpetuates in the releases of that moronic book. Watered down culture
for a watered down society.

</wrath>

[/size]

I agree with you Gwil; though I don't have a problem with anyone liking what's she's done, I personally feel that the only original idea she's had is to put trolls, wizards and general magic stuff in a school setting.

Actually, I do have a problem with older people liking what she's done, because it's regurgitated cack and you should be reading better :razz: (says me, a sci-fi fan... lol)

I saw the BFG movie

i am surprised i like it so much, i am predominantly sci-fi myself.. i could drown most people in the quantity of books i have read in 35+ years..

i am beginning to see a trend though, most americans i have talked to like the books, maybe because we don't know any better.. the entire setting is british.. we wouldn't know "thats bulls**t" parts.

i was laughing myself silly reading it again this morning.. would take to long to describe the setting, but it was another weasley moment.. those twins..

i have been told i have odd tastes in books.. perhaps this is one.

I saw the BFG movie

?

I was raising the point about what you had written in your post - whether it's due to lazy typing, or other, I dont know.

The point wasn't about the movie adaptations though..

[size=13]I suggest you go read some
more Dahl and see some of the blatant rip offs she practices and
perpetuates

We're talking about JK Rowling ripping off past authors and taking the
stupid British public, and indeed Hollywood, for all they're worth.

[/size]

How can you explain who Roald Dahl is without divulging his biggest book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? From whence the Oompa Loompas came.

No one is arguing that JKR has used original material. It's pretty tough for any author to write without drawing on everything they have ever read. At the risk of repeating myself my argument is simply this: they are entertaining stories that are well put together. That's really all I need to enjoy them. The characters are entertaining, the language is interesting. If you ask me, she has done a service to millions of children around the world by giving them books they can read with joy. If nothing else it will open their eyes to other authors in the future. I don't see how you can begrudge her the money. That is after all how our society works. I don't think it is possible to write 600,000 + words unless you enjoy doing it. I'm sure she was hoping to make money, but the sort of cynical plagiarism you are describing is simply not feasible.

Cash Car Star said:
How can you explain who Roald Dahl is without divulging his biggest book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? From whence the Oompa Loompas came.

this guy wrote willie wonka?

i'll be damned, i guess i heard of him afterall..

The Twits was his best work, if you want my deluded opinion.

Either way, my stance on JR is a mix of Lep's and Tracer's: they're not the greatest books in the world, but people like 'em so more power to 'em.