(shouting)

book's

here's a good place for FRIENDLY, ENJOYABLE, and otherwise very GENERAL discussion!
Post Reply
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

book's

Post by Mata Hari »

This is the thread for talking about books. Books are important to read. You should try it.

Yesterday I finished reading Let the Right One In and I enjoyed it a lot. Oskar and Eli's relationship is very sweetly portrayed even as Eli precipitates horrific things. It's funny how you don't perceive her as the villain even though she obviously is when you think about it. Arguably she even ruins Oskar's life,

but at least he doesn't have to worry about bullies any more.



Mind you, most of the horror stuff didn't really bother me except when

Lacke snaps the neck of one of the cats attacking Virginia. I have a cat myself, and I'm the first to admit I'm a crazy cat lady, but I still don't know how to feel when I care about fictional cats more than fictional people.

Oskar getting bullied is also a little affecting since, unlike vampires, bastards like that exist IRL.

I also wonder why Eli chooses to present as female. Is he/she a crossdresser? Transgender? Was being castrated just a coincidence? Or is presenting as female a self-defence mechanism? Even nowadays people tend to think of girls as more innocent than boys; it's a marginal advantage, but one that would add up after 200 years. I guess it's open to interpretation, unless there's an explanation in Let the Old Dreams Die, which I have but don't plan to read until after La Belle Sauvage.

User avatar
aka Cthulhu
Totally not a murderous tentacle. You can trust him.
Posts: 195
Joined: 7 years ago

Re: book's

Post by aka Cthulhu »

Re-reading for the who-knows-how-many-times the Discworld novels. Already at Men at Arms.
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Mata Hari »

aka Cthulhu wrote: 6 years ago Re-reading for the who-knows-how-many-times the Discworld novels. Already at Men at Arms.
Are you really reading all of them in order? The only ones I haven't read are the ones I don't really have any interest in reading. Which is sad. But then it's not like there aren't a shitload of Discworld books anyway.
User avatar
aka Cthulhu
Totally not a murderous tentacle. You can trust him.
Posts: 195
Joined: 7 years ago

Re: book's

Post by aka Cthulhu »

Mata Hari wrote: 6 years ago
aka Cthulhu wrote: 6 years ago Re-reading for the who-knows-how-many-times the Discworld novels. Already at Men at Arms.
Are you really reading all of them in order? The only ones I haven't read are the ones I don't really have any interest in reading. Which is sad. But then it's not like there aren't a shitload of Discworld books anyway.
More or less. I might have messed up the exact order once or twice, though.

Also, found a novelization of Metal Gear Solid 2 on a bargain bookstore. It's been forever and a half since I played the game, but reading through it I am pretty dang sure that every line of dialogue in that novelization is word for word the dialogue in the game. Oh well. At least it's cheap.
User avatar
Coryman
The road to nowhere leads to me
Posts: 420
Joined: 8 years ago
First name: Cory
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: Canada

Re: book's

Post by Coryman »

Why are novels in English classes always so depressing? We read Monkey Beach (very tragic), then the first part of Maus (less tragic but still way more than most books). With both books, I read them in basically one sitting, then stayed up late watching youtube to cheer myself up
raocow wrote: In a world where shag carpeting wins a fight against a helicopter, we spend a lot of time reading and comparing numbers.
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Mata Hari »

I think people tend to assume that more depressing stuff is more intellectually worthy. Which obviously isn't really true. But I get why they'd assign Maus, because learning about the Holocaust is a good idea. I haven't heard of the other one.
User avatar
Coryman
The road to nowhere leads to me
Posts: 420
Joined: 8 years ago
First name: Cory
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: Canada

Re: book's

Post by Coryman »

Monkey Beach is about an indigenous community on the coast of BC, I think it was assigned to teach the foreign students about their history in the area.
I used to believe the whole thing about sad stories being more meaningful or intellectual or whatever, but in my grade 12 English class we studied a book with- believe it or not- a happy ending. It started off a bit dark but it got better
raocow wrote: In a world where shag carpeting wins a fight against a helicopter, we spend a lot of time reading and comparing numbers.
User avatar
Kshaard
Dodo/
Posts: 130
Joined: 11 years ago
First name: mac5565
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: by, with, or from

Re: book's

Post by Kshaard »

Dave Bulmer - you may remember him from such all-time hits as "Not Roy" and "two Brentalfloss collaborations" - did/is somehow still doing a video series in which he goes through the first Stormlight Archive chapter by chapter. After watching that series for about two years without the faintest idea what was going on, I thought I may as well get the book. Read the first two in about a month instead of revising for A levels. Now I've fallen deep down the Cosmere rabbit hole and am currently about halfway through Warbreaker. AMA!

don't

Image
This is someone's signature.

"I don't like that universe I just created by accident . . ."
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Mata Hari »

I just finished La Belle Sauvage and, well... the second half was a lot more enjoyable than the first. The first half was basically a massive exposition dump that really exposed the clunkiness of his dialogue. And a lot of it was exposition that doesn't have payoff in the book itself.

Relf and Malcolm's parents and all that just disappear after the flood and doesn't come back.

I assume it's stuff he's saving for the other two books, but it was still definitely a bit much to just... drop,

especially since the second book, at least, isn't going to come back to it right away

. He definitely could've done with trimming the first half and expanding the second half.

The second half, after the flood, was a lot more interesting, but it was very... episodic. It basically felt like dude was saying 'and then what happened? And then what happened? And then what happened? OK I can't think of anything more to happen, time to wrap it up.' It didn't all come together to create a coherent trajectory.

Bonneville just pitches up and dies within about five seconds. While there were definitely points in the story where Bonneville and the CCD felt like proper threats, they had very much deflated by the end.

The ending itself was far too brief and, as I said, left way too many plotlines hanging.

I mean I did actually enjoy it. Dude has always had rock-solid concepts. Was it overhyped? Yes, but considering the hype it got over here, that was inevitable.

e: Having looked into it apparently Malcolm appears as a minor character in a supplemental story to His Dark Materials. Considering that I haven't read any of the HDM supplement stuff, and how friggin long it's been since I've actually read HDM itself, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of references I was missing, potentially including stuff he doesn't come back to in LBS. But I dunno.
User avatar
HamsterZerg
True Pacifist or bust.
Posts: 241
Joined: 10 years ago
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: Oh, don't mind me. I'm just contacting you from the distant past. Carry on.

Re: book's

Post by HamsterZerg »

Personally, I feel that Captain Underpants is more intellectually worthy than The Hunger Games, at least in part because it doesn't pretend that it doesn't reduce humanity to a species of blithering idiots for the sake of its storytelling. And from what I can tell, humanity in Captain Underpants is more intelligent than humanity in The Hunger Games, because for all the poor decisions people make in the former, it doesn't lead to a situation where they feel that ritual murder disguised as a competition is a good idea. Also, there's still quite a bit of intelligence from characters that actually bother to show it in Dav Pilkey's signature book series, from the scientist introduced in the fourth book, to one of the more prominent bullies throughout the series, to the two kids who brought the titular character to life. The Hunger Games... yeah, everybody going along with it and only protesting when they're chosen to take part in the slaughter is not a good sign.

tl;dr- Go read Captain Underpants, not The Hunger Games.
Image
Image

Avatar by Skully (artwork) and bkamakaze (size). Thanks, guys!
Soma Cruz, Linkara, and Olimar for SMBX 2.0

Game King-style Story Briefs, a forum game by me
User avatar
Ashan
The world has become a place
Posts: 2804
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: Canada
https://ashan.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Ashan »

Captain Underpants was my jam back in the day

I even did my own comics back in like 3rd grade
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
Mata Hari
Posts: 2522
Joined: 14 years ago
https://matahari.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Mata Hari »

Captain Underpants is good yea.

Harold is canonically gay, in the last book they go to the future and he has a husbando.
User avatar
Ashan
The world has become a place
Posts: 2804
Joined: 14 years ago
Location: Canada
https://ashan.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Ashan »

Oh great so now my parents hate Captain Underpants too
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
Ivy
Posts: 2387
Joined: 10 years ago
Pronouns: any
Contact:
https://ivy.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Ivy »

Image
3DS FC: 2793-0650-7690 | Switch: SW-2766-9108-9399 | Steam: ivysaur1996 (ivy)
Rixithechao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BODxOghVmko
Posts: 1812
Joined: 10 years ago
First name: Mack
https://rixithechao.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by Rixithechao »

One more thumbs up to Dav Pilkey. Also the Spelunky and Earthbound entries in the Boss Fight Books series are good reads, the former especially as a game design resource.

Oh, I did a bunch of reading for my fantasy literature class last semester too -- finally got to The Little Prince (I had seen the movie beforehand but hadn't read the original book) and Kafka's Metamorphosis. Went through a few offerings from Julio Cortázar and Edgar Allan Poe as well.
Delightful Adventure Enhanced is out now!

Image

There's an official ASMT Discord server! Check it out to discuss Demo games and follow their development! thread, invite link

(Entry requires verification, either with a connected Youtube/Twitter/Twitch/etc account or manually by the server staff.)


Itch.io (albums and eventually games), Youtube (dofur pass and I guess other videos)
User avatar
Awoo
~wan~wan
Posts: 1522
Joined: 6 years ago
Pronouns: he/him/his
Location: your area

Re: book's

Post by Awoo »

Ivy wrote: 6 years ago Image
For the longest time I always thought his name was "Dave Pikley". My 4th grade reading list is a lie.
ワンワン
Image Image
Image Image
Image Image
User avatar
Kleetus
Contrary to popular belief, dying is NOT cool.
Posts: 386
Joined: 5 years ago
Location: Under a starless sky (due to light pollution)

Re: book's

Post by Kleetus »

Awoo wrote: For the longest time I always thought his name was "Dave Pikley". My 4th grade reading list is a lie.
I read an interview with Dav Pilkey, years ago I think it was on his website. The interview asked Dav about his name and he dispensed the secret lore.
Mr Pilkey got a job at a Pizza Hut, and when the got him his uniform, the "e" stamp for making name tags had gone dry. There was already a David working at the restaurant so he couldn't have that on his tag.
From that day forth he was called by his new name "Dav"

I can't believe I remembered this dumb piece of trivia.
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
Kleetus
Contrary to popular belief, dying is NOT cool.
Posts: 386
Joined: 5 years ago
Location: Under a starless sky (due to light pollution)

Re: book's

Post by Kleetus »

Since I just found this thread I might as well say that few months ago I read the Colour of Magic, the first Discworld book, because I figured with how big of a pop culture thing Discworld is, I needed to read at least one of the books.
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rena
type 2 invested entity
Posts: 669
Joined: 7 years ago
First name: cat
Pronouns: spider
https://rena.talkhaus.com/

Re: book's

Post by rena »

if you like epic fantasy read these Image

its like game of thrones but not horribly depressing
admacXx2
freelance duck
Posts: 13
Joined: 3 years ago
First name: Adam
Location: American

Re: book's

Post by admacXx2 »

I'm currently reading both a manga and a 'normie' book.

Sakura Hime, which so far is pretty enjoyable the art style is nice. And I'm also slowly but surely making my way through The Rise & Fall of The Third Reich by William Shirer.
Post Reply