Books & Literature Thread

[TheVulpineHero1]

Who reads nowadays, right? Well, apparently, people. People who read. So this here is a thread for people who read to talk about the things that they are reading, their favourite books, their least favourite books, and what have you.

At the moment, I'm re-reading Thud! by Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors. He does the Discworld series, a long-running (must be over 40 different novels by now) line of books based on a blending of medieval fantasy, sarcasm, and the occasional satire of British culture. They're also hilarious, full of neat literary flicks of the wrist that convey a very particular sense of humour that characterises the whole setting. Thud! isn't what I would consider the best of the Discworld series (or even the best of the Ankh-Morpork guards 'cycle'), owing to some plot devices that didn't really appeal, but it's still great fun, especially to anyone familiar with the characters.

I think the worst book I've read recently (or, rather, the one I least enjoyed) is one called Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. I don't know if it's because the book is designed to appeal to the American culture, but to me it's simply full of fluff and pointlessness in a bad way-- and I usually enjoy slice of life stories, which are generally just that. It's meant to be a Bildungsroman with some magical elements, but I got halfway into the book, the main character had grown up and he still only had one noticable personality trait (that he was curious). That might be okay in a better book (I gave it a pass in American Gods), but apart from that the whole thing just seemed to be fetishising road trips, gambling, and living off the great outdoors, which doesn't really play too well with a british guy like myself. Maybe it's a good book beneath all that, or gets good after I gave up, but it just didn't hook me or make me care.

[limepie20]

We just finished All My Sons by Arthur Miller in English. I thought it was a great play. Wooh! The ending was sad.

[TheVulpineHero1]

Wasn't Arthur Miller the one who wrote Death Of A Travelling Salesman? I keep meaning to read that, but never get around to buying a copy. (We ended up doing Othello, 1984, Whose Life Is It Anyway, The Big Sleep, and A Streetcar Named Desire in my various English classes over the years. If we could just have swapped out Othello with Much Ado About Nothing and left out Streetcar entirely, I'd have been a bunch happier with the lineup. The antipathy I hold towards Blanche Dubois has not decreased in the years since I looked at that play).

[limepie20]

Wasn't Arthur Miller the one who wrote Death Of A Travelling Salesman?

No, he did The Crucible.

[kilon]

At the moment, I'm re-reading Thud! by Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite authors. He does the Discworld series, a long-running (must be over 40 different novels by now) line of books based on a blending of medieval fantasy, sarcasm, and the occasional satire of British culture. They're also hilarious, full of neat literary flicks of the wrist that convey a very particular sense of humour that characterises the whole setting. Thud! isn't what I would consider the best of the Discworld series (or even the best of the Ankh-Morpork guards 'cycle'), owing to some plot devices that didn't really appeal, but it's still great fun, especially to anyone familiar with the characters.

Last time I checked there where 39 novels, but number 40 is on its way. I have 17 of them, and the first 2 from the Science of Discworld series. I still have to read like 6 of them though. I really don't read enough if I'm totally honest.

What is your way of reading them? Chronologically? By main character(s)? I do that. My favourites being the city watch, from what I've read so far. But I really like Moist von Lipwig and Death as well.


I do want to go and read more classic must reads, like 1984 (which I did read. If you haven't, do it now)

[TheVulpineHero1]

I usually read them by main characters as well, and the Watch are definitely my favourite. I was actually really surprised by how much I enjoyed Night Watch. Usually when I hear about time travel I'm kind've 'eh', but then Pterry turned it into a chance for Sam Vimes to be badass for like a book solid. I think Moist Von Lipwig was star of the first Discworld book I ever read, though (it was Making Money).

No, he did The Crucible.

Huh. I should have known that, since I actually saw the Crucible -- a friend of mine on a drama course did a production of it, and had the shiniest shoes of the whole cast (he was the main judge guy).

[Octagon]

The Discworld books are amazing. Mort is the only one I haven't read yet... I like the City Watch series best and the Susan ones are also very good, but it's hard to compare entire story branches.


Is anyone else here fond of Haruki Murakami's works? They can come across as a bit pretentious sometimes, but I love the way the atmosphere is different in each book despite all the common themes, the detailed but not florid narration and all the mindscrew the protagonists experience. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was the first one I've read, and it's still my favourite.

[TheVulpineHero1]

I had a phase where I was into Haruki Murakami. I think Dance Dance Dance was the first one I read, and I really enjoyed it for the almost Raymond Chandlerish feel. I then read Norweigan Wood (my sister's favourite book, didn't really appeal to me) and A Wild Sheep Chase, which I liked less than Dance. Then I started reading Kafka On The Shore, got to about the middle, and put it down. I don't really know why I stopped reading, but it just didn't appeal to me any more. I still think he's a good author, though.

By the way, has anyone here read Memoirs of a Geisha? I was considering buying it the other day, but ended up getting lunch instead. The key question I want to ask: is the book better than a submarine sandwich?

[AlexanderXCIII]

Hmm... I can't remember the last time I read something; maybe I should fix that.
Even if only so my sister stops bugging me about the Hunger Games.

The last books I remember reading are Around the World in Eighty Days (one of my favorites) and the Leviathan trilogy. (Imagine World War I but with flying whales and mechas)

[krawky398]

I haven't been reading a ton recently, but I'm currently reading Mobile Suit Gundam: Awakening, Escalation, Confrontation. I'm not very far in yet and haven't read in a while, but there's already a few distinct differences between it and the original TV series.

Although, I already know how it ends, but it should still be fun to read through.

[Yonowaaru]

The Discworld books are amazing. Mort is the only one I haven't read yet... I like the City Watch series best and the Susan ones are also very good, but it's hard to compare entire story branches.


Is anyone else here fond of Haruki Murakami's works? They can come across as a bit pretentious sometimes, but I love the way the atmosphere is different in each book despite all the common themes, the detailed but not florid narration and all the mindscrew the protagonists experience. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World was the first one I've read, and it's still my favourite.

Oh, more Murakami? I've only read 1Q84, but I should read some of the other books if they have a similar atmosphere, since I loved the atmosphere in that book.

I'm making my way through a miscellany of the macabre by H.P. Lovecraft. I've been trying to make time to read it, but stuff keeps coming up. I really love the atmosphere in these books, and the fact that he keeps coming up with new synonyms for the word 'putrid' or 'corrupted'.

[Octagon]

Pretty much every Murakami novel has *something* in common with the others - there's usually urban settings, sympathetic, drifting outsiders as main characters, and supernatural/subconscious disturbances (it's often up to the reader which kind is happening), so if you liked 1Q84, there's a lot to look forward to - Murakami books "taste" so similar that you might get bored once you're through ~80% of his works, but until that point, you might immensely enjoy them.
I just noticed that much of this applies to Cowboy Bebop as well, whatever this could mean
Especially "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" is similar in terms of the atmosphere and even shares one or two characters with 1Q84.

I assume that 1Q84 starts out in the same reality (while branching off into the eponymous alternate universe later).

[Shinmera]

I just finished re-reading "The Book of Atrus". As a huge Myst admirer, I really enjoyed reading it once more. It adds a lot of depth and back-story to the Myst series and is generally quite a good read imo.

Next I'm going to dive into something technical again, as I need to pick up my Lisp studies once more.

[PlatinumTriforce]

We finished reading A Tale of Two Cities in English class a few weeks ago. I thought the story was pretty good and had a lot of interesting plot twists but HOLY CRAP THAT MIDDLE ENGLISH MAKES ME WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT. Not to mention, Charles Dickens' sentences always seem to run on like there's no end, so sometimes it can be a bother to read some boring chapters. Anyone else read anything by him (I've also read Great Expectations, god I hated that book so much)?

[Petzi]

A while back I read The Relic by Eça de Queiroz (a 19th century Portuguese author). it's about an orphan who lives with his rich aunt, who is a rigid zealot Christian and sends him to a priest school. His aunt is cold and imposes a lot of rules, so he hates both her and priesthood. So his life plan is to wait for his rich aunt to die while making her believe he's a saint.

Later, auntie decides to send the poor guy to the Holy Land to seek some sacred relic. It's all pretty anecdotal, but there's a serious side to it. Definitely recommended.

I also read Blindness, by Saramago, of which there is a film but the book is better.

[Frozelar]

I'd have to say my favorite series is Inheritance. It's an action/adventure series about this guy who gets a really cool companion and fights stuff and goes into this army type thing and fights more stuff and eventually saves the land. I am very good at describing things but in all seriousness, I would definitely recommend reading it

Also not too long ago I read the series called His Dark Materials. It's another action/adventure series of books about these kids who find ways to travel between dimensions and they fight stuff and whatnot. I will say, though, that it gets so... well, in my opinion, towards the end I think the series tries too hard to be interesting to the point where it seems cheesy. But overall I think it was good, even though it had its flaws.

Now I'm reading books about the Holocaust and whatnot, y'know, the Holocaust Remembered series and stuff

[cynderfyre]

I recently started reading more science fiction classics. The last one I read was The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, which apparently is like the quintessential Bradbury book to read or whatever. It's good stuff. Also, I just got and started some kind of volume of books called The Once and Future King by T.H. White which is like four books in one or something, the first one being The Sword in the Stone. Also really good.

[limepie20]

Also, I just got and started some kind of volume of books called The Once and Future King by T.H. White which is like four books in one or something, the first one being The Sword in the Stone. Also really good.

Hey, I recently read that for English class. I didn't like it too much because I don't care about medieval times and wizards and stuff I guess. But I can see how people would like it; it's enjoyable. I actually did like Book IV a lot. It's the only one I did truly like. III was pretty good too. (II sucked!)

Edit:
Oh also I did like the themes a lot because they were very well developed and thought-provoking.

[limepie20]

Time for me to post my book stuff.

My two favorite books currently are Animal Farm and Of Mice and Men. I also like 1984, but Animal Farm is better because it is more effective, concise, and focused I guess. They are though about slightly different things. Also, I read The Stand by Stephen King a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed that. I then read The Shining and ehhhh not as good. I have Misery but haven't read it, and have no plans to in the near future (but will sometime).

I am currently reading:

Euclid's Elements. What can I say? Logic is beautiful. I'm on Book Eight if anyone cares (and plan to read all thirteen).

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This is on my upcoming Summer reading list and I'm starting on it early. I'm only fifty pages in and like it so far. It's the easiest book ever to read because Huck is the narrator, and he's like 12.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Well, I'm not currently reading it; I just finished it a few days ago, but whatever. This is a nontechnical book on generative linguistics. Or in laymen's terms, if you want to know how language actually works, pick it up. Language is not just cultural; a lot of grammar is inside the brain. Pinker talks about this and million billion other things about language that are all just super interesting (including a very entertaining chapter of his haranguing of grammar nazis).

[Ashan]

I don't read a whole lot, but when I do I like to read biographies.

Last one I read was Just Don't Fall by Josh Sundquist. Basically about the guy getting cancer when he's 9, getting his leg amputated, and growing up to become a Paralympic skier. It was pretty good, I'd recommend it if you can get your hands on a copy of it.

Right now I'm reading Not Taco Bell Material by Adam Carolla. I don't even know how I found about the book; I found the Amazon page for it in my bookmarks randomly, so I found the preview on the Play Store, read through it, and once the preview ended I just kinda bought it. It's been pretty good so far, so uh. Yeah. I might update when I'm done it.

[limepie20]

I just read Godel's Proof by Nagel and Newman in a day. It's an introductory text to Godel's incompleteness theorems, which prove that axiomatic systems cannot prove their own consistency and that all complex axiomatic systems are incomplete in that their are unprovable truths. From what I read it seems like the most brilliant thing ever, and I'm gonna go ahead and read the actual proof now, so I can completely understand it.

[cynderfyre]

(II sucked!)

Really? I thought it was okay (just finished it). It's definitely not amazing, but whatever. Also, I recently got a book called "History of the Reformation Vol. II" by some old guy no one knows (T.M. Lindsay). For whatever reason I'm really into the history of the splitting of the church, and what I've read is pretty interesting.

[limepie20]

I didn't like II because I got kinda lazy and was reading badly which wasn't very conducive to all the G-names. It's probably my fault but I still thought the plot wasn't as entertaining. Keep in mind, I don't really like the book as a whole, this is just my least favorite portion.

Edit:
And yes I know the plot not being entertaining is literally the worst reason to dislike a book. I'll save myself by saying the theme is much more exemplified in the last two books.

[TheVulpineHero1]

Edit:
And yes I know the plot not being entertaining is literally the worst reason to dislike a book. I'll save myself by saying the theme is much more exemplified in the last two books.

Eh, everyone has different reasons for liking or disliking books. I rarely notice themes all that much since I don't actively analyse -- what I look for in a book are engaging characters and a good style. Plot is a distant last priority for reading enjoyment. That's just how I read, though.

Lately, I've been eating through the short stories collected in Angela Carter's Burning Your Boats. The way she writes is very interesting; it veers quite close to being purple prose in how verbose and descriptive it is; her vocabulary tends towards high syllable density and such. However, usually, she manages to create a good story despite that, and stays the right side of the purple boundary a surprising amount of the time. Really, I'm reading it for The Bloody Chamber collection, which is a bunch of short stories with a fairytale motif. As someone who writes as a hobby, I find fairytales very powerful in terms of inspiration and aesthetics, and I enjoy reading stories that riff off them (Red Riding Hood in particular is a favourite). I found Neil Gaiman's Blood, Glass and Apples very enjoyable, but then again, Neil Gaiman is like my second favourite author behind Terry Pratchett (with Raymond Chandler and Joseph Heller enjoying third and fourth).

Obligatory notice: if you haven't read Catch 22, go and do so. Either it will confuse the hell out of you and you will hate it, or you'll giggle your way through most of the book until you realise what's really going on amongst the absurdity.

[limepie20]

Edit:
And yes I know the plot not being entertaining is literally the worst reason to dislike a book. I'll save myself by saying the theme is much more exemplified in the last two books.

Eh, everyone has different reasons for liking or disliking books. I rarely notice themes all that much since I don't actively analyse -- what I look for in a book are engaging characters and a good style. Plot is a distant last priority for reading enjoyment. That's just how I read, though.

I just want a book that'll make me think!

Obligatory notice: if you haven't read Catch 22, go and do so. Either it will confuse the hell out of you and you will hate it, or you'll giggle your way through most of the book until you realise what's really going on amongst the absurdity.

I've been meaning to read that, and I will as soon as I can, which will probably be like mid or late summer or around there.