Recently Read..

i am finishing up the 3rd book in the latest terry brooks "Shannara" series..

"The voyage of the Jerle Shannara"

more brooks goodliness..

wut si read

A lot of us have exams Orph, so I doubt many are doing much recreational reading. :smile:

!

I'm presently 1/3 of the way through "The Sword of Shannara".

"The Glass Bead Game" by Herman Hesse.

Reading "Pandora's Star" by Peter F Hamilton, and hopefully getting Alastair Reynold's newest book in a couple of days :biggrin:

ehm ... "Nightmares" by Stephen King atm !

Biological Component said:
!

I'm presently 1/3 of the way through "The Sword of Shannara".

you, have a very long read in front of you my friend, but well worth it i promise.

people either like terry brooks, or they don't. he has a unique writing style, that sometimes tends toward the repetitive, i assume to remind and to acquire word totals since i hear writers are paid by the word sometimes :biggrin:

anyways, this is the shannara books as it stands.. i am unsure as to the chronological nature of this list, because the damned books were not written in order it seems :sad:

• First King of Shannara
• The Sword of Shannara
• The Elfstones of Shannara
• The Wishsong of Shannara
• The Scions of Shannara
• The Druid of Shannara
• The Elf Queen of Shannara
• The Talismans of Shannara
• Ilse Witch
• Antrax
• Morgawr

not so recent was a star wars book.. cannot recall which but it broke my heart to read it..
have not touched a star wars book since.. and i am a major fan of the series, especially anything by timothy zahn..

the book? chewy dies, heroically of course, but still dead.. it was as needless as when data died in the last trek movie.. poor plotting IMO on the part of the author. people die, but in books you can chose better methods..
sighs
i haven't read many next generation treks either since.
currently, i am into the "Lost Era" trek books.. very good stuff.

Not long ago I read the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Excellent book.

Liking this quick reply thingy Lep!

Da Vinci Code? Oh dear...

Just finished The King Of Torts by John Grisham. Not my usual style of book, but it felt just average to me.

I don't read recreational books, I find dreaming is far more imaginative, though I do read architecture and design books, broaden my horizons with new styles and stuff...

Btw lep when you get home theres more books here for you to read...

Myrk- said:
Btw lep when you get home theres more books here for you to read...

thats a bit to much info myrk.. leps exotic- erotic books should be kept in the PM's

/runs

Yer but I'm lazy plz :biggrin:

Terry Brooks is the Bud Light of fantasy storytellers.

Cash Car Star said:
Terry Brooks is the Bud Light of fantasy storytellers.

that my friend, is the best way i have ever heard of to describe brooks.. let us hope though, we don't have many full flavor lovers here

brooks is not my favorite fantasy writer, ed greenwood holds that distinction, but brooks is in the top 5.

nice phrase cash.. i may borrow it sometime if thats ok :smile:

Currently working my way through Manifold Time by Steven Baxter. Normally I tear through Sci-fi books but this one is simply annoying me with the poor use of statistics and rather ridiculous plot. I'll buy most any vision of the future but at least make an attempt to ground it in real physics!

EDIT: And what would that make Piers Anthony, Cash?

Leperous said:
Da Vinci Code? Oh dear...

And what exactly is wrong with the da vinci code?

In the past I've read some stephen baxter (vacuum diagrams, traces, voyage), asimov (i robot, foundation series) etc. all good

It sounded like "The Bible Code", but on closer inspection it sounds like a guy writing a book about some weird stuff he sort of knows about (e.g. holy grail, jesus, roswell, yadda yadda etc. etc.), so we'll let you off :wink: Baxter is good when he's not writing about monkeys having sex and crapping everywhere ("Manifold", I think)

Galille by Clive Barker...only problem with it is its so long and it ends abruptly so you're still left with no resolution to the story. I guess he's working on a sequel (hopefully!).

The statistics nonsense and completely made-up physics ruin the book (Manifold Time) IMO. He writes well, and his story is good, if not for the problems above I might read other books of his. Any recommendations, actually?

I'm going to start in on Dune Messiah later though. I loved the original Dune, let's hope this is even remotely as engrossing.

Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger was the most recent thing that I have read (well, re-read, I read that book rather often.) A Perfect Day For Banafish is without a doubt one of the single most depressingly brilliant things that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Great stuff there. Teddy is just plain creepy, Just Before The War with the Eskimos is brilliant, and the dramatic irony in Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes is top notch.

Overall, a great read, IMO.

Before that, I had read Joyce Carol Oates Collector of Hearts. It's a collection of rather traditionalist romantic (period) short stories (They're billed as "Stories of the Grotesque.") I think it's worth a read solely for the creativity with the writing itself. One of the stories is called [black bar]. And I don't mean that text. It is literally just a black bar on the page. As the narrator goes through the story, she recounts a particular event, and as the story progresses, small chunks of text are replaced with black bars. The last few paragraphs are riddled with them, and there is just a huge block of black taking up one of the closing paragraphs. Very creative.

The book may leave some people wanting more, as most of the stories have no clear-cut ending. But I still enjoy it- as I said, it's very creative in terms of structure.

The Korean War, by Max Hastings... not quite finished it yet, very heavy going. to be expected though, I guess! don't think it's exactly everyones kettle of fish, either :smile:

Gwil said:
everyones kettle of fish, either :smile:

i have a paperback copy of "war and peace"

i look at it setting on the shelf periodically.. it sets there real nice too :heee:

Is that the same Max Hastings, World's Worst Columnist?

Leperous said:
Is that the same Max Hastings, World's Worst Columnist?

columnist for whom? he is the editor of the Evening Standard, I know of.. ?

I thought you wrote worst Communist. I didn't think they could get any worse ZING!!!!!!

you only hate communists because they made stupid americans look stupider! :razz:

Commies are only wrong when they put their idiocy into action.

found out yesterday.. terry brooks started a new shannara series, i have it on hold at the library (the hardback is 25 dollars and the paperback is not due till october 2004)

the first book is called "Jarka Ruus"

the new series is called "High Druid of Shannara"

/me does jig :biggrin:

bumps

for you trek fans.. i am in the middle of this series presently.. and i am impressed..

I'm still looking for "The HitchHikers guide to the galaxy" in the local book shops, but they only have crappy translations into dutch/german. I want the original .. :sad:

The Hitchhikers Guide is an excellent book. One of my very most favorites for sure.

Just read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke.
brings out extra thumbs 5 thumbs up.

This book is just brilliant, I can't believe I missed it before. And I also just got the sequel.

I recently found out that Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? is still a brilliant book on the 3rd way through.

Forceflow said:
I'm still looking for "The HitchHikers guide to the galaxy" in the local book shops, but they only have crappy translations into dutch/german. I want the original .. :sad:

If you can handle the shipping costs, amazon.com is sure to have what you want...

I Just finished the third book in The Dark Tower series. Thy have been enjoyable, but they are just getting wierd so I may not go for the next one.

Books I have recently read:

Omerta, by Mario Puzo
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul, by Douglas Adams

Books I am currently reading:
The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk
The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan
The Last Don, by Mario Puzo
The complete works of William Shakespeare Vol. 1

All of those books are great, except ole William. I think he's kind of overrated.

Are you kidding? I recently read the first bit of Shakespeare I ever had (Midsummer) and I thought it was great. Awesome style, originality, and philosophical angles there.

Once you wrap your head around the archaic diction it's alright. :smile:

I am not saying that he's not a great playwright. All I'm saying is that he's overrated. The people who I feel overrate him, by the way, are English teachers. I have just started on this and it has put kind of a foul taste in my mouth. Before reading this collection, I had read Hamlet and MacBeth.

Hamlet was good, although kind of weird plot... didn't make much sense.

MacBeth was good.

My problem with him is that I am sort of 'plot' guy. And usually the plots of Shakespeare plays are s**t. Not awful, but for someone like him I suspect he could do better. Instead he focus on symbolism, the beauty of the language, and character development. In those aspects, he's excellent. Great. Stupendous. The praise he recieves in those categories is well deserved.

But I kind of like a plot.

edit:
This is completely off topic, but I must vent my hatred.

I forgot, I also read digital fortress (by that Da Vinci Code guy) a while back, but that book was kind of... um... s**t. I had a hard time believing that the main character had an IQ of 170 when I figured out the solution to her problem at the end of book instantly, and she was struggling. And it was so OBVIOUS, gah. Not to mention that the writing was poor.

Here's a sample:
It was hard to believe that leg like those supported an IQ of 170

Isn't that bad writing?
The entire book was so damn stupid.

If the Da Vinci Code has writting of much the same quality, then I have to agree with Stephen King's analysis of the book (in Entertainment Weekly), which was something along the lines of "Just because you sell a lot of books doesn't make you a good writer." Although that kind of applies to Stephen King as well. Only kind of

fraggard said:
Just read Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke.
brings out extra thumbs 5 thumbs up.

This book is just brilliant, I can't believe I missed it before. And I also just got the sequel.

all the rama books get progressively better than the last.. by the last one, you almost cry cause it ends.. its one of those very rare story lines you hope never stop..

i think there are 5 books in all.. the 1<sup>st<sup> just barely ties into the other four though :

<DIV>Am currently reading an old book, "The Icarus Agenda" by Ludlum. Awesome book (or books, as it is split into two main sections), very involved plot with a lot of psychological action, as well as some of the more conventional kind. The first half of the book is full of action and espionage - for the second half, the bullets fly slower and less frequently, but the political side and devious plans come into action.</DIV>

*blows dust off old post to carry on with other recently threads*

i am finding the potter books to be very entertaining.. much more than the title suggests..

Yes, the Harry Potter books are great. People had to twist my arm before I was willing to pick one up, bot once I did, I was hooked. The most recent one is not as good as the others though.

so far, i have only read the prisoner one complete.. i am just beginning the next in line.. i suppose i should hunt down the first 2 and read them as well..

i will say, the book is 10x better than the flick was, and i loved the flick, so i guess my woody should go away in another week or so :heee:

/runs

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.

$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..

I've been mostly reading Irvine Welsh of late -its all good:

Trainspotting - Just a REALLY Great book, and no where near as linear as the film. They should have it on the curriculum IMO.

The Acid House - Fantastic group of extremely wierd short stories, like sick jokes told in the from of prose.

Glue - A good book with great characters, but not much of the bitter cyncism and trademark punk rants about the world.

Porno - Sequel to Trainspotting and Glue (characters from both books tie in well). Sadly It smacks of 'movie script for trainspotting 2' as opposed to a book in its own right (It just picks up 10 years after the story that the film made out of series of shorts in the first book). Its mostly centred round Sick Boy this time though, but Begbie is great in it.

I'm currently reading 'Ecstacy' by Welsh at the minute, so no opinion of it really formed. I definately recommend Irvine Welsh to anyone; once you learn to read in the scottish dialect, and catch on to the terminology its all really gripping.

Forgot to mention 'Filth': Corrupt cop with a tapeworm. Nuff said. I went through the book feeling disgusted, to thinking that the character was great, then generally disturbed, by the end of it I realised it was a tragedy, about him becoming the one thing he hated most in the world. I'd say it was second only to trainspotting, maybe in some ways better, they're such completely different books.