Dresden Files = Victory. That is all.
"What are you reading?" thread.
- Thread starter HoboNinja
- Start date
Catching Fire is friggin' nerve-wracking. Though I enjoyed The Hunger Games, I think I prefer the sequel. Hard to stop reading.
Yeah, I agree... she really seemed to hit a good stride with that. Mockingjay has been sort of... I dunno... the tempo seems a little off for the events that she's writing about, and almost a little gimmicky, but I'm digging the direction the characters seem to be going. Just about done - just couldn't finish it last night. Passed out. *wry grin*
Read Hunger Games in one sitting on Tuesday (first book of the year! /lazy) and finished Mockingjay yesterday. I couldn't put these books down for long. Holy crap, SO MUCH HAPPENED! Mockingjay left me pretty upset in a few parts. Okay, more than a few parts. (I'm not one to cry while watching movies, but I have a feeling the last movie will have me bawling.)
Judge not the Discworld by Color of Magic. That book is almost a parody of fantasy books of the time and doesn't really capture what becomes great with the series. I recommend the watch series which starts with Guards! Guards! or the Death series which technically starts with Mort, but gets better with Reaper Man and on. The witches can be fun too, but start with Wyrd Sisters as Equal Rites is still an early book and only has Granny Weatherwax in it.
How the hell do you end a book like that?
I'm glad I bought the trilogy so I can start Mockingjay whenever I want.
I'm glad I bought the trilogy so I can start Mockingjay whenever I want.
Little over halfway through Storm Front now. Its so far been pretty predictable, and screams of self insertion like a friggin' Star Trek fanfic.
And yet its an incredibly fun read. I'm enjoying it immensely.
And yet its an incredibly fun read. I'm enjoying it immensely.
S
Soliloquy
Going Postal isn't a bad place to start either, if you want to get a look at his much later works.
Finished Storm Front, starting on Fool Moon.
Yyyeah... that self-insertion vibe tends to fall off a bit, later, if only because of how... well... yeah. Just keep reading.
Alternately: It may be self-insertion, but it's not Gary-Stu, IMHO.
Added at: 22:30
Also: Mockingjay - pacing was a bit off, felt a bit forced, some of the stuff left me going "Really? Why would you even...?"
And then out of nowhere, a single line about two pages from the end hit me between the eyes like an axe handle.
*golfclap* Not bad...
Alternately: It may be self-insertion, but it's not Gary-Stu, IMHO.
Added at: 22:30
Also: Mockingjay - pacing was a bit off, felt a bit forced, some of the stuff left me going "Really? Why would you even...?"
And then out of nowhere, a single line about two pages from the end hit me between the eyes like an axe handle.
*golfclap* Not bad...
Catching Fire
Holy crap, I'm not the only one reading The Hunger Games stuff? Awesome. I'd read the first one earlier this year, but decided to go for broke and just order the box set off Amazon. I'm already halfway through it in a matter of days. What is it about these books that's so hard to put down? I can't put my finger on it. As addicting as they are, though, I find the writing to be, well, clunky at times. There's a lot of awkward sentences I find myself tripping over. It's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book, but it makes me think, "Hell, if you'd just written it this way, it would sound much better."
The Unwritten, Vol. 5
Oh man, this series just gets better and better. Anyone out there who's a literary buff like me would love the hell out of this comic.
Resurrection Man, Vol. 1
Some minor complaints aside about the book's formatting (the covers are all at the back of the book as a gallery, not dividing each issue/chapter), this is a great book. Lacking a better term, it's superhero fiction. And hot damn, it's great. I literally couldn't put the damn thing down because I wanted to see what they'd do next. Great stuff for a really underappreciated series in the late nineties.
On my "To read..." shelf: Major Bummer (another forgotten comic book gem), Mockingjay, Preacher Vol. 5 (re-buying the series in the new hardcover releases), and The Complete Maus (used to own the two volumes separately).
Holy crap, I'm not the only one reading The Hunger Games stuff? Awesome. I'd read the first one earlier this year, but decided to go for broke and just order the box set off Amazon. I'm already halfway through it in a matter of days. What is it about these books that's so hard to put down? I can't put my finger on it. As addicting as they are, though, I find the writing to be, well, clunky at times. There's a lot of awkward sentences I find myself tripping over. It's not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book, but it makes me think, "Hell, if you'd just written it this way, it would sound much better."
The Unwritten, Vol. 5
Oh man, this series just gets better and better. Anyone out there who's a literary buff like me would love the hell out of this comic.
Resurrection Man, Vol. 1
Some minor complaints aside about the book's formatting (the covers are all at the back of the book as a gallery, not dividing each issue/chapter), this is a great book. Lacking a better term, it's superhero fiction. And hot damn, it's great. I literally couldn't put the damn thing down because I wanted to see what they'd do next. Great stuff for a really underappreciated series in the late nineties.
On my "To read..." shelf: Major Bummer (another forgotten comic book gem), Mockingjay, Preacher Vol. 5 (re-buying the series in the new hardcover releases), and The Complete Maus (used to own the two volumes separately).
Anyone ever read the Wild Cards series? "Suicide Kings" was on the discount table for $5 last time I went to the book store, so I picked it up, but I'm not sure if its the kind of book I can jump into or if I have to have read the entire series up to that point, or if I just need to pick up Inside Straight and Busted Flush first.
"Fool Moon" is so far much less predictable than "Storm Front" was.
"Fool Moon" is so far much less predictable than "Storm Front" was.
I bought some of them ages ago. I wasn't crazy about them, but I'd like to give them another try some day.
I figured for 5 bucks it'd be worth it regardless.
Heh, yeah, pretty much. Sometimes you find some gold among cheap books like that. It's how I discovered The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour. 
GasBandit
Staff member
Couldn't finish Revenge of the Dwarves. The Dwarves and War of the Dwarves were good... but the author suddenly makes the protagonist act VERY out of character in the third book, and so many important things happen/people die BETWEEN BOOK 2 AND 3 that it feels like the actor who played so-and-so got fired between seasons of a TV show, and when the next season starts up "Oh, soandso died 4 years ago." THIS IS A BOOK, YOU CHOWDERHEAD. TELL THE STORY OF HIS DEATH, DON'T JUST START REFERRING TO HIM IN THE PAST TENSE LIKE A FIRED ACTOR!
Anyway, reading "I am Legend" now. It's going REALLY fast, it's a lot shorter than I thought it would be. The zeerust factor is hilarious. It was written in the 50s about the 70s, and yet in the book cars are still rare and difficult to operate (and still have a manual choke that has to be operated separately from the gas pedal).
Anyway, reading "I am Legend" now. It's going REALLY fast, it's a lot shorter than I thought it would be. The zeerust factor is hilarious. It was written in the 50s about the 70s, and yet in the book cars are still rare and difficult to operate (and still have a manual choke that has to be operated separately from the gas pedal).
Finished Mockingjay last night. I didn't mean to, but anyone who's been reading these books knows how well stopping goes...
Anyway.
Probably the weakest of the series, but still good.
Anyway.
Holy shit, that was harsh. So many people died. Sober, brutal... I had really hoped Katniss would have a chance to get over all this, but from the epilogue, it seems she stays broken. Realistic, but sad.
Probably the weakest of the series, but still good.
Dracula, Journey to the West, Discworld: The Color of Magic, and my essential Sherlock Holmes.
Just finished it, myself. I couldn't put Catching Fire down. In fact, as soon as I finished the last chapter of it, I was like "NO! Come on! You can't end a book like that!" I stormed into my living room, put CF back in the trilogy box and immediately pulled out Mockingjay, reading the first chapter or two. Holy crap, are these books impossible to put down.
Okay, putting the rest in spoilers, including responding to the Quotester here:
-I liked the sober, realistic ending. It was a war, after all. No one walks away from a war like that unbroken. It was a bittersweet ending. I knew she'd wind up with Peeta in the end, but really didn't expect their reunion with his hands around her throat! Goddamn these books and their cliffhangers!
-I was nearly in tears when she broke down yelling at Buttercup near the end.
-Thought for sure Finnick was going to make it to the end. Of the group, I figured everyone but him, Katniss, Gale, and Peeta would survive. Everyone else may as well've been wearing red shirts.
-Still trying to work out her reasoning for killing the new president. I guess it was the whole, "We don't lie to each other" line from Snow? I'm still a little unclear.
-I was nearly in tears when she broke down yelling at Buttercup near the end.
-Thought for sure Finnick was going to make it to the end. Of the group, I figured everyone but him, Katniss, Gale, and Peeta would survive. Everyone else may as well've been wearing red shirts.
-Still trying to work out her reasoning for killing the new president. I guess it was the whole, "We don't lie to each other" line from Snow? I'm still a little unclear.
But yeah, overall, I thought this was no stronger or weaker than the other two. Of course, I read it and Catching Fire in a frigging whirlwind, so they kind of mesh together for me. It's sort of like ploughing through a season of 24. You don't remember which episode was which at times.
Finished "Fool Moon" this morning.
Also finished Batman:Year One last night.
I have a 6 hour bus ride to Ottawa on Sunday and all I have to read is Batman: The Killing Joke, and "Suicide Kings", which looks like its the third book in a trilogy and I should probably hold off on it.
I may have to head to Toronto early so I can stop into the book store on my way to the Greyhound station.
Also finished Batman:Year One last night.
I have a 6 hour bus ride to Ottawa on Sunday and all I have to read is Batman: The Killing Joke, and "Suicide Kings", which looks like its the third book in a trilogy and I should probably hold off on it.
I may have to head to Toronto early so I can stop into the book store on my way to the Greyhound station.
I've been meaning to pick up this series. I haven't read ANYTHING about it, but I saw the first book at Indigo last year and made a mental note to come back for it when I finished.... whatever it was I was reading at the time. But now everytime I enter a bookstore, they only have the second or third book. Never the first. (First world problem.)
GasBandit
Staff member
Who "enters a bookstore?" Psf.
The first book is rather elementary. I get the feeling it's the fault of the translator (it was originally in german). The second is a much more robust read. The third just starts making shit up and having people (mostly dwarves) act in completely disjointed ways from previous books... which is something I have a hard time believing of dwarves. Dwarves, even in these books, are well known for their unchanging ways. Not that I want to spoil anything, but
I have a hard time believing any dwarf would divorce his wife, particularly not by WRITING HER A LETTER within a WEEK of meeting "somebody else" on the road and deciding he was bored of home life and the new demi-dwarf woman he met was "more exciting."
Between that and all the loose ends left carelessly yet intentionally dangling, I can't recommend the third book, no matter how interesting and novel the bad guys in it are. Couldn't even bring myself to finish it, though I got most of the way through it.
I like bookstores.
She killed Coin because she believed Snow about the attack, and that Coin sent Prim into the Capitol to be killed by Gale's double-bomb.
You what book I read a while ago in high school? Brave new world. Man...that was some deep ass satire. Anyone else read it?
It was okay. Lots of interesting ideas, but Huxley didn't really tell a story with it, so it was more of "Here's this world" than 1984's "Here's this world and the people to whom it does horrifying things."
That's a good analyzation of the story to tell you the truth. Plus I did find one character's sudden character change weird. But hey, he ended having "sex-hormone" chewing gum so I at least had a good laugh.
It's much easier to divide it up into various "series". It helps you keep track of certain characters.
You can start anywhere. It does not matter. You can pick up any book and you'll be okay. Pick one that sounds interesting and go with it.
If you MUST read things in order, use this. Pick one of the series and grab the first book on the left for that series. But honestly, these are silly books. While there is character development and stories that carry between books, each one's overall plot and humor is pretty self-contained. This is not a world where you're expected to soak up lore and remember it for later events in another book. Pratchett's been writing these for many years--he probably doesn't feel like memorizing that shit and doesn't expect us readers to do so either.
Example, Watch novels: I read Guards, Guards! which is the first of them. Then, not knowing what was next, I read The Fifth Elephant. I could tell some things had happened to the characters between, but overall things didn't feel too different. Then I went back and read Men at Arms. I felt I had all the pieces between Guards, Guards! and The Fifth Elephant, not even realizing that there were three novels between those books, not one.
Hell, I started with the third Death book. Didn't feel I missed anything. In fact, some people will tell you to avoid some of the early novels because Pratchett hadn't gotten into form yet.
So just look at summaries, pick something that sounds neat, and read that. You can branch out from there.
I can understand that, with the way we've been trained by LOTR, Wheel of Time, Pern and so many other "serious" series. This is a comedy series, that's delved more and more into social commentary (but that's fine), that honestly the rules don't even stay the same from book to book. Pick a title that sounds interesting, or is just there right in front of you, and start reading.
Let's be honest, it's a world that is flat, riding on the backs of 4 giant elephants that are standing on the back of a giant turtle traveling through space. Have some fun.