"What are you reading?" thread.

Bowielee · Aug 31, 2013

So, I just finished reading Preacher by Garth Ennis.

WHY HAVE I NOT READ THIS BEFORE????????????????

What I was most surprised by was how ultimately moralistic the character of the three main protagonists are. When Preacher had been described to me, I was sure that they were going to be a bunch of amoral psychopaths on a mission to kill god. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesse's quest isn't ultimately about getting revenge on God, it's about holding him accountable for his actions and doing what is right by humanity. Just a phenominal series.

One little bugaboo, though, is the portrayal of gay characters in the comic. I know it's a product of its time, but the gay characters for the most part are all portrayed as sex perverts and/or psychopaths. I mean, I know that the characters themselves don't harbor homophobic tendancies, as they do TALK about gay people in some kind of positive light, but the author simply never actually presents any of those characters. I wouldn't even bring it up if so many characters in the comics weren't gay and bisexual.

Yoshimickster · Sep 13, 2013

I'd like to think he makes up for it in Boys volume 2(or was it 3?) with the sub-plot of the one gay couple. Not saying there isn't the trademark Ennis deviancy, but still.

Read Flex Mentallo a couple days ago, its good but I feel it was a little too short for the mindfuckery it was trying to ensue. Also this is definitely the super-hero nerd in me talking, I feel he hardly used his powers at all during the course of the book. I know the concept of altering reality with your muscles is clearly meant to not be taken seriously, but I feel the character hardly used it to the extent it could be. Good read, but it could use a little more meat.

Bowielee · Sep 13, 2013

I heard that Boys was ten times worse in that department.

drawn_inward · Sep 13, 2013

Starting on Half-blood Prince. The series is okay so far. The first two books are okay. I like PoA quite a bit. I really liked GoF, but OotP was way too stretched out plot-wise. So much so, I hate Umbridge more than Voldemort at this point. She seems way more evil than him b/c they focused an ENTIRE book on her, and then a tiny little bit at the end with Voldemort. It started off strong, but really gets bogged down. By the time the showdown at the Ministry happens, I almost didn't care.

Also, Sirius's death scene was way lame. Oh well.

Spoiler just in case.

Anyhow, HBP has started off quite well and I am enjoying it so far. The Weasley twins were criminally under-utilized in the films.

GasBandit · Sep 13, 2013

Order of the Phoenix was a bit of a slog, but it gets better in HBP, if memory serves. After that... well, I hope you like angry teenagers in tents.

drawn_inward · Sep 13, 2013

GasBandit said:
Order of the Phoenix was a bit of a slog, but it gets better in HBP, if memory serves. After that... well, I hope you like angry teenagers in tents.

If the movie is any indication then it looks like it will be 500 pages of magic camping ahead of me. I read recently that Rowling wish she could do a director's cut of her last few books. She definitely could have used some editing.

Bowielee · Sep 13, 2013

God, I loved Umbridge as an antagonist.

GasBandit · Sep 13, 2013

drawn_inward said:
If the movie is any indication then it looks like it will be 500 pages of magic camping ahead of me. I read recently that Rowling wish she could do a director's cut of her last few books. She definitely could have used some editing.

Oh good, you've seen the movie so are a bit insulated from spoilers. Yeah, the first half of the book is, as the movie part 1 should have been titled, "Harry Potter and the Antagonistically Extended Camping Trip." And it gets a bit tiresome. But once you're through it to the second half, stuff gets good again. Like the second movie.

ThatNickGuy · Sep 13, 2013

Sorry I missed your post on Preacher, @Bowielee, but totally glad you enjoyed the series. Gay stereotyping notwishstanding. At least that stuff was a minority in the run.

Me, in the meantime...

The Giver

When I was observing a Grade 6 class during my Education work, this was the book they were reading. It was honestly the first time I'd even heard of the book, but I'm also not very well read on young or teen fiction. Anyway, out of curiosity, I picked up a copy for myself but only now got around to reading it.

Holy hell does this book give you a swift kick to the gut about two thirds of the way through. And the ending is great in that ambiguous way like the movie Pan's Labyrinth. Really neat setting, though I wish the author would've taken the time to give us more details on how the community that Jonas lived in came to become what it was. Still a great read.

Vrii · Sep 13, 2013

If I'm remembering right there are sequels to The Giver that you might want to look into. Haven't read it since elementary school myself, though.

Bowielee · Sep 13, 2013

Fun random reading fact:

When I first read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, it was the copy of the book at my school's library. Apparently the book was from a bad printing run and it had a section where entire chapters from the beginning of the book replaced chapters in the 3rd quarter of the book. I was confused as hell, but I had always assumed that it was supposed to be like that seeing as it was all about folding time and space.

Imagine my surprise when I read it years later and there was a whole section that I never read before and a considerably less confusing plot structure.

Frank · Sep 13, 2013

School Libraries!

I cannot bring myself to read fiction lately. I have like 200 novels on a shelf ready to go (including Nick's) and just don't to.

Yoshimickster · Sep 14, 2013

While we are on the topic of Ennis, anyone else read Crossed? If so, how full was your vomit bucket afterwards?

Fun Size · Sep 16, 2013

I have to ask: when I read the premise of Crossed, it immediately struck me as an excuse to just put the worst ideas you can into a book for pure shock value, with no real purpose. So, is there any artistic merit, or was my initial assessment correct?

Either way, I'm not going to read it because I personally believe that there are certain things that don't serve you mentally - ideas that, for lack of a better word, can "stain" you permanently.

Covar · Sep 16, 2013

Fun Size said:
I have to ask: when I read the premise of Crossed, it immediately struck me as an excuse to just put the worst ideas you can into a book for pure shock value, with no real purpose. So, is there any artistic merit, or was my initial assessment correct?

Either way, I'm not going to read it because I personally believe that there are certain things that don't serve you mentally - ideas that, for lack of a better word, can "stain" you permanently.

I'd imagine that depends if you ever found artistic merit in Ennis's work to begin with.

Fun Size · Sep 16, 2013

Haven't read any of it. I do want to look up Preacher based on what I've heard around here, but Crossed just seems...I don't know. I've seen one page - probably one of the worst put out based on how publicity works - and I thought to myself "Huh, that seems totally unnecessary."

UPDATE - I take that back. I read a bunch of Hellblazer and enjoyed it.

Yoshimickster · Sep 16, 2013

I like it, yes it is INSANELY graphic but I feel its a good zombie apocalypse story. The sequels though...yeah I have not heard very good things.

Sparhawk · Sep 16, 2013

I just read the first (new) issue of Eternal Warrior from Valiant. Enjoyable, good job re-introducing Gilad Anni-Padda. Written by Greg Pak, art by Trevor Hairsine. The issue starts in Ancient Mesopotamia and ends in more modern times, issue finishes on a cliff-hanger (hey, it should) and does a good job of giving the motivation behind Gilad. I'll be waiting on the next issue to come to my house.

What can I say, I'm over 100 miles from the nearest comic shop and Lone Star Comics is one of the easiest stores I've dealt with over the years, and I'm cheap, so I opted for the once-a-month shipping.

Hailey Knight · Oct 6, 2013

Just finished Yahtzee's second novel, Jam. Set-up in a nutshell: the Blob attacks Australia and its consistency resembles strawberry jam, observed by a protagonist who eventually grows half a personality.

It was okay. Not as funny as Mogworld, and not as interesting. It got a lot better in the last 50 pages, but there's 200 or so pages of gunk in the middle. I think one of his first novel's strengths was that the protagonist was a very Yahtzee-like character (or resembling his persona in Zero Punctuation). Or at least that his first novel's protagonist had a personality. This time he wanted to do something different I guess, so he wrote a protagonist who's a walking do-nothing. It's not like this is accidental; the other characters make note of this, but it doesn't make him compelling. None of the characters really are, though one gets pretty interesting when the Yahtzee proxy character turns out to be right.

I was hoping for an interesting story and overall what this felt like was a critique on how ill-prepared our generation would be for the breakdown of civilization, with lots of lazy jabs at hipsters and the Facebook crazy. I did like that even though this wasn't a movie, let alone a found footage movie, so there would be no technical reason to have this happening, there's still an idiot running around with a camera who won't put it down or turn it off even when there's danger or problems going on.

tl;dr: It's not a bad book, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm hoping his next book will be better, because I enjoyed the hell out of Mogworld, so I know he has better stories in mind than this one.

Fun Size · Oct 7, 2013

Just finished The King in Yellow, which started as an interesting set of horror stories loosely based around a book that drives its readers mad and finished as a set of short stories revolving around Americans, mainly art students, in Paris falling in love and whatnot. I'm wondering if I didn't get a bad copy, as it was a public domain copy.

I'm starting up The Terror now.

Kovac · Oct 12, 2013

I just finished reading The Gathering Storm (WoT). Brandon Sanderson did a really good job with it as I found it to be a gripping continuation to the series.

Null · Oct 12, 2013

Kovac said:
I just finished reading The Gathering Storm (WoT). Brandon Sanderson did a really good job with it as I found it to be a gripping continuation to the series.

I completely agree. He really shook off a lot of the "saga fatigue" that was setting in during the last 3 or 4 WoT books.

Kovac · Oct 20, 2013

It's time for the final book in the wheel of time series.

The kindle version is oddly expensive. $18.69 compared to $8.54 and cheaper for the earlier books.

PatrThom · Oct 20, 2013

Kovac said:
It's time for the final book in the wheel of time series.

The kindle version is oddly expensive. $18.69 compared to $8.54 and cheaper for the earlier books.

"Do you want to know how it ends or not???"

--Patrick

Kovac · Oct 20, 2013

I have been pondering buying the paperback instead so that I can reject the outrageous publisher ebook price.

But waiting 72 days to know how it ends... I don't think I can do it.

GasBandit · Oct 20, 2013

So pirate it now and pay for it when it stops being stupidly priced. I'm looking at a complete Epub/mobi/pdf torrent of the complete wheel of time series (0-14 + extras) with a 20/1 seed/leech ratio on an 88 meg haul.

Kovac · Oct 25, 2013

Well that's it. The tale is over.

And while i'm happy to have reached a conclusion i'm also a little sad that the journey is over. I've been reading the series since 2000.

ThatNickGuy · Oct 25, 2013

I was in the hospital last weekend (rather not talk about it), which gave me time to go through several books.

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

This one hit home for me because I'm knee-deep in a Human Services course right now. One of the things we've discussed is the devaluation of people who aren't perfect according to society. So in this case, you have the main character whose face is horribly disfigured and treated like a monster. There's a lot more to the book than that, of course (because Palahniuk), but that was the best part of it for me. There's a lot of discussions on beauty and the idea of beauty in society today. Great stuff and recommended if you like any of 'ol Chuck's work, like Fight Club.

The Killing Man by Mickey Spillane

It's funny. Even though I wrote a novel that was both a love letter and parody of the noir detective genre, I'd honestly not read a lot of it, myself. But not too long ago, I introduced myself to Mickey Spillane's work. Technically, Mickey Spillane's work but finished by Max Allan Collins, but it was largely still Spillane. And I loved it. There were so many moments while reading The Big Bang that I said to myself, "Oh my god! I wrote Dill like Mike Hammer and I never even knew who Mike Hammer!"

This time around, it's all Spillane and I loved every moment of it. Even if I hadn't read this in the hospital, I likely would have a hard time putting it down. And speaking of difficult to put down books...

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

For years, I'd been apprehensive to read any of the Discworld books. Not because they weren't interesting, but because how just how prolific the series was. There were so many that I just didn't know where to start. When I asked some friends about it, they showed me an "easy to follow" flow-chart of the series, which only further confused me and scared me away.

But there was a bookshelf of books for patients to read and wouldn't you know it, but it had the very first book in the series there to read. And I couldn't put it down. It was hilarious, it was engaging, it was action packed. I loved every page. Now I definitely want to dive into the rest of the series at some point.

Sparhawk · Oct 25, 2013

ThatNickGuy said:
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

For years, I'd been apprehensive to read any of the Discworld books. Not because they weren't interesting, but because how just how prolific the series was. There were so many that I just didn't know where to start. When I asked some friends about it, they showed me an "easy to follow" flow-chart of the series, which only further confused me and scared me away.

But there was a bookshelf of books for patients to read and wouldn't you know it, but it had the very first book in the series there to read. And I couldn't put it down. It was hilarious, it was engaging, it was action packed. I loved every page. Now I definitely want to dive into the rest of the series at some point.

Some say to read them in groupings of character/subject or whatever, I just read them as they were released. It's the order that he wrote them, the books grow upon themselves. Just enjoy them. Rincewind is a great character... and the luggage... and the wizards... and well everything.

PatrThom · Oct 25, 2013

ThatNickGuy said:
I couldn't put it down. It was hilarious, it was engaging, it was action packed. I loved every page. Now I definitely want to dive into the rest of the series at some point.

Make sure you pick up Good Omens at some point, too. It's the same sort of absurd style, but it stands alone in a different universe, so you can read it whenever you want.

--Patrick

ThatNickGuy · Oct 25, 2013

PatrThom said:
Make sure you pick up Good Omens at some point, too. It's the same sort of absurd style, but it stands alone in a different universe, so you can read it whenever you want.

--Patrick

I read it years ago, actually. Don't remember much of it now, but I remember liking it a lot at the time.

HCGLNS · Oct 26, 2013

Reading A Feast for Crows.

Hailey Knight · Oct 26, 2013

The Storyteller graphic novel.

... it kinda sucks. There have been a couple good stories, but most have been duds. Still have a couple to go, so maybe it will pick up, but overall it's been a disappointment when I was hoping for at least a nostalgia trip and at best some fun stories. Oh well.

Terrik · Oct 29, 2013

With a few exceptions, I'm finding I enjoy Horus Heresy novels than any of the "vanilla" WH40K novels. I find it a more interesting universe.

WasabiPoptart · Dec 2, 2013

Before the semester started I picked up The Wise Man's Fear and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I liked the first book. The second dragged and felt a bit more overdone. I'll probably read the third when it comes out just to find out what happens next.

I finished Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles over the summer. I completely enjoyed the series, though I have to admit there were parts of the plots which I found extremely frustrating.

I was very disappointed by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I really wanted to like it. I think that circus should be real. But the plot was incredibly predictable and the characters had no depth at all. Eventually I was reading it just to get to the end.

Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress was another book I read over my long summer. It was a decent read and I liked the premise. It reminded me of Gattaca. I tried reading the second book in the series and couldn't get into it at all.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell impressed me a lot more than I thought it would. Maybe it was my lack of expectations. Maybe it appealed more to me because I like reading historical fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and mysteries. I haven't seen the movie and honestly I'm afraid that if I do I am going to be disappointed.