Finished reading Les Mis now. Incredible book. Long but probably the best I've ever read.
Books The BOOK thread
- Thread starter Livvie
- Start date
I have started Foucalt's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. If you have read this, please post your opinion of it.
I have started it but I haven't finished it yet.
I started in 1991 so I'm not going too well TBH.
I started in 1991 so I'm not going too well TBH.
Sounds a bit like 'The Book of Joe' by Jonathon Tropper
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46661.The_Book_of_Joe
Reminds me of my effort at Ulysses. 99 pages read since 2002 and I cant be bothered beyond this.
Starting the Hobbit now. Should hopefully be good.
Nearly finished John Steinbeck's Of Mice & Men.
Shit, what a sad story, poor old Lennie....
Shit, what a sad story, poor old Lennie....
Should I make the effort to read the Dark Tower series? I devoured King books in the 1980's and read the first DT book when it came out but was underwhelmed. I've read a few King books in the last 10 years but been fairly disappointed.
I was just thinking about Deliverance by James Dickey...I think it's beautifully written.
I was just thinking about Deliverance by James Dickey...I think it's beautifully written.
The dark tower books go from one extreme to the other for me. Some awful chapters in them followed by great ones etc. I'm on the last book at the minute having spent the last two months reading through them all. The fourth and fifth books were the most enjoyable.
I'm in the middle of the third book of "A song of ice and fire". Everything is brilliant with the only problem that it looks they will never end. I have read more than 1500 pages and I'm about the half of the books. They're fecking huge.
I loved the Dark Tower books, definitely up there among my favourite 'series' along with A Song of Ice and Fire and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. Don't know if you have ever read King's 'Insomnia' it's a great book but even better if you have read the Dark Tower books first.
Yeah I liked Insomnia, loved The Talisman...I think it started to go wrong after Insomnia for me. I thought Dreamcatcher was fecking awful and haven't bothered with anything since.
If you do decide to read the Dark Tower I would suggest that you read Insomnia again afterwards you will see it in a completely different way
Have to say I have enjoyed some of King's more recent stuff, Under The Dome and 11/22/63 were readable.
Haven't posted in a while but have been busy reading away getting through my usual backlog of bought books. Currently i am reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson the last in the Mistobrn trilogy and completely lost in the story. Decided to give him a read after the good job he has been doing on the last of the Robert Jordan Wheel of time series and glad i did.
Finished with my Peter F Hamilton catch up on his books finishing the Nights Dawn Trilogy, The Void Trilogy and the prequals to this series the Commenwealth Saga looking at how some of the Void Trilogy characters developed from back then to the books set later in the time line. Nights Dawn books took a while to sit right with me but in the end they did. I found the others series of his easier to hook me and if anyone likes sci-fi and hasn't read any of his books then start with the Void and Commenwealth series first.
With getting my iphone since my last post in here have been downloading samples of books from the ibooks store to give new authors a try and found 2 sci-fi authors that were worth reading. Michael Cobley and Gary Gibson both of the series i ended up buying of theirs were a decent read if ones you could read through quickly and more character based than heavy on the science behind how things worked.
I am glad Pratchett returned to form in his return to Vimes and co in Snuff as when he starts to do side projects or work outwith Discworld at times it doesn't immediately work with me for reading them.
Even though i have cleared a lot of books since my last post and re-read a few along the way so many books later in the year i am looking forward to. Terry Brooks has 2 out, the last Wheel of Time series book later in the year and books i have bought which still lurk in my books to read pile.
Finished with my Peter F Hamilton catch up on his books finishing the Nights Dawn Trilogy, The Void Trilogy and the prequals to this series the Commenwealth Saga looking at how some of the Void Trilogy characters developed from back then to the books set later in the time line. Nights Dawn books took a while to sit right with me but in the end they did. I found the others series of his easier to hook me and if anyone likes sci-fi and hasn't read any of his books then start with the Void and Commenwealth series first.
With getting my iphone since my last post in here have been downloading samples of books from the ibooks store to give new authors a try and found 2 sci-fi authors that were worth reading. Michael Cobley and Gary Gibson both of the series i ended up buying of theirs were a decent read if ones you could read through quickly and more character based than heavy on the science behind how things worked.
I am glad Pratchett returned to form in his return to Vimes and co in Snuff as when he starts to do side projects or work outwith Discworld at times it doesn't immediately work with me for reading them.
Even though i have cleared a lot of books since my last post and re-read a few along the way so many books later in the year i am looking forward to. Terry Brooks has 2 out, the last Wheel of Time series book later in the year and books i have bought which still lurk in my books to read pile.
If you liked the mistborn series you should read the way of kings. Same author, great book. Ages until the next one is out though.
Got the rest of his stuff on my to buy list but just got to wait on a month where i have had some decent overtime to buy them all.
Finished reading Ken Follett's Fall of Giants. It's the first part of his Century-trilogy and a great read. Just like his previous best sellers Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, it's a story situated in the past (beginning of the 20th century this time) and tells the stories of different main characters that are all intertwined in some way. In contrast to those previous books, this one actually combines a lot of historical facts into the fictional story.
The story mainly deals with World War I and you see the build-up to the war and the war itself from very different point of views. There's a Welsh mineworker who goes to the front, there's a servant that becomes a suffragette, there's an English Lord who's in the army and later in intelligence, his sister who falls in love with a German diplomat, there are two Russian brothers (one fleeing to America, one becoming involved in the Russian Revolution), etc.
I enjoyed the book a great deal and learnt a lot from it as well.
Next on the list is Eco's The Prague Cemetery
The story mainly deals with World War I and you see the build-up to the war and the war itself from very different point of views. There's a Welsh mineworker who goes to the front, there's a servant that becomes a suffragette, there's an English Lord who's in the army and later in intelligence, his sister who falls in love with a German diplomat, there are two Russian brothers (one fleeing to America, one becoming involved in the Russian Revolution), etc.
I enjoyed the book a great deal and learnt a lot from it as well.
Next on the list is Eco's The Prague Cemetery
Reading 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen. Had it for years, only got stuck in to it this week. Loving it so far. Lovely style, great flow to it. 650 pages seems off-putting but actually an easy read. Anyone read it?
Read "The Last Mughal" while I was in Delhi. Was fun being able to see the sites while reading about them. Anyway, a fine book, though more focused than I'd hoped.
Recently read that one. Pretty decent and I like the style. If you are interested in the Italian unification period, the Communes days and the franc-maçonnerie you will be served. My only reproach is that I found the line between reality and fiction to be sometimes ambiguous.
I have actually no idea what the book is about. But I've really enjoyed The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum, so I just bought this one as well.
A fantastic book, although I was tempted to leave it in the first 100 pages. After that it was great.
I'm reading A Life Too Short. It's the book on Robert Enke and it's rather depressing. Wonder how things would have been if he hadn't turned us down in 01?
But be aware that the Way of Kings is slow-paced, and doesn't have much action. I love Mistborn so that's why I didn't gave up the way of kings even if reading it was like grinding in a game until the end finally got interesting. Hopefully the next tome won't begun at that pace. Though it's true that some people also appreciate slow paced stories.
I have finished Warbreaker, still of the same author, it's quite slow-paced too and seems more world-building but thanksfully not that slow, with funny parts.
I am reading Persuasion of Jane Austen.
I have just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind. Very entertaining book with some great quotes (especially from the character Fermin). The story is also well developed. It's my first Zafon so I might check some of his other novels but so far so good !
Next : Albert Camus - Summer then Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Next : Albert Camus - Summer then Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Saw Norrell & Strange in a charity shop at lunchtime and picked it up for £2. Should that be my next read after I finish The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (loving it!) or should I pick up another DeMille or Iles?
I had the same. It's going quite slow in the beginning but I'm really glad I kept reading.
Anyone else fed up with women going on and on about 50 shades of grey?
If I took a playboy magazine to work and started talking about it I'd be labeled a pervert, yet women are allowed to talk about S&M among other things and it's seen as perfectly normal, sexist pigs
God help us when they bring out a movie
If I took a playboy magazine to work and started talking about it I'd be labeled a pervert, yet women are allowed to talk about S&M among other things and it's seen as perfectly normal, sexist pigs
God help us when they bring out a movie
Is it actually good though? I remember reading the hunger games after hype surrounded it and I thought it was great. If it's anything like Stephanie Meyer it's gonna be shite.
Haven't read it but the consensus seems to be that:
* It's not very well-written.
* The S & M stuff is rather mild.
NB: it contains dialogue like this...
and this...
and even, unbelievably, this...
* It's not very well-written.
* The S & M stuff is rather mild.
NB: it contains dialogue like this...
and this...
and even, unbelievably, this...
I have read it (I'm female), based on the thread on the newbies forum where they were all going on about it. I downloaded all three, they are only cheap, and spent increasingly less time on the second two (didn't spend long on the first one).
Where do you start with this one?
It's mawkish, completely unbelievable (you have to accept for starters that a 28-year-old highly-damaged young man would already apparently be a billionaire and head of a business empire) and not at all 'erotic'. I'm not even sure that the author did any more than look at a few websites and put the word 'vanilla' in a few times, to make readers think she was in the know. Barbara Cartland probably did better with some of her racier offerings.
He never seems to go to work as he's always having sex with the heroine in one of his many houses, or on his yacht, or in his private jet, or in a lift/elevator, or in a posh car .... you get the picture.
Worse than that, the third book ends up all happy-ever-after. And if the heroine says 'oh my' once,she says it a thousand times.
He never seems to go to work as he's always having sex with the heroine in one of his many houses, or on his yacht, or in his private jet, or in a lift/elevator, or in a posh car .... you get the picture.
Worse than that, the third book ends up all happy-ever-after. And if the heroine says 'oh my' once,she says it a thousand times.
I could go on but I won't. The author must be laughing all the way to the bank and many women will think they are now experts on 'this sort of thing'.
Steve, you're really in the wrong market. Gothic horror doesn't make a buck these days, mild S & M and general erotica are where it's at.
Oil me Fernando, demanded Denise, who was spending her first summer away from St. Helens.
Si, he replied.
Ooh, that's good. Lower, there's a good lad.
Thees eez not een hotel contracht, senorita.
Aye, but what abou' the contract you've signed with my 'eart, Fernando?
The worker's struggle must take a back seat when a beautiful lady calls, he thought.
Now take that toothpick out of your mouth and pleasure me, Fernando lad.
This shit pretty much writes itself.
Even the very first line of your parody made me laugh, mate.
Got to admit though, I can't even write the stuff that E.L. James does, let alone do it well. Romance is the biggest-selling genre of all, yet I even can't begin to master it.
Got to admit though, I can't even write the stuff that E.L. James does, let alone do it well. Romance is the biggest-selling genre of all, yet I even can't begin to master it.
Note to self: Grow Vagina, be a middle aged woman and peddle this shit out to the masses.
Vulcan 607 by Roland White.
Absolutely stunning book about operation Black Buck during the Falklands war. I devoured it within a day. The fact it was real and precise didn't hamper the writing style which came across as an epic film spanning the world. If you like you real life stories and love reading about how inept yet brilliant the British military are then you'll love this book.
Absolutely stunning book about operation Black Buck during the Falklands war. I devoured it within a day. The fact it was real and precise didn't hamper the writing style which came across as an epic film spanning the world. If you like you real life stories and love reading about how inept yet brilliant the British military are then you'll love this book.
Currently reading Hitch-22. Such an incredible prose style.
I thought it was good but quite hard work and ultimately not as good as quite a few of Eco's other books, especially The Name Of The Rose and Baudalino.
Starting tonight "A Dance with Dragons" - the last published book of ASOIAF. Definitely this franchise is going to be remembered as one of the best ever.
The Road by Cormac McCartney.
The prose is easy to read but the story and themes are pretty dark and depressing.
Now I'm caught between No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian. Will probably get Blood Meridian because I've watched the movie adaptation of No Country for Old Men.
The prose is easy to read but the story and themes are pretty dark and depressing.
Now I'm caught between No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian. Will probably get Blood Meridian because I've watched the movie adaptation of No Country for Old Men.