Books

[Calax]

A cruel wind still

 

Plots within plots within plots it's so complicated I have to take a break every so often to chew it over.

[Aristes]

I'm reading Jack Smith's LA by Jack Smith.

[Laozi]

I'm reading Jack Smith's LA by Jack Smith.

 

 

Did Jack Smith have something to do with that one?

 

 

I'm reading Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner which I've been told repetitively is a really good book.

[Tigranes]

Oh, it is. Much better than the film, as per the standard, too.

[Blank]

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, By Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

[Aristes]

I'm reading Jack Smith's LA by Jack Smith.

 

 

Did Jack Smith have something to do with that one?

 

 

It was a gag Christmas gift from my sister and brother. Inside joke, but the book really isn't all that bad. Jack Smith was a newspaper man from LA.

 

I recently finished a biography of John Adams. I've read several, and I'll probably read more. He's my favorite revolutionary, after George Washington perhaps.

 

After the Jack Smith book, I think I'll choose between two other books I received for Christmas. One Million A.D. and Ender in Exile. I think I already own the Ender book, but I'll start it and see. The 1MAD book doesn't look like my cup of tea, but I'll give it three chapters or 50 pages, whichever is longer. Have to be willing to try new things, after all.

[Kor Qel Droma]

I'm about three quarters through The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not sure what to make of this book so far. It's pretty bleak.

[Walsingham]

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, By Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

 

I really liked this book, actually. Good adolescent wake up call fodder.

[Oerwinde]

Currently reading The White Order. Annoyingly I read Colours of Chaos first, then found out it was a sequel to The White Order, so I went back to read that. Very well written considering nothing happens in either of them really, but I can't put them down. After that I have The Rule of Two by that dude at Bioware, and then I'll start the War of the Spider Queen.

[Calax]

Finished "A Cruel Wind" and started on "A Fortress in Shadow" which is the prequel that was written after the previous books. These are omnibuses by Night Shade Books of one of Glenn Cooks creations. The intro to Fortress in shadow is by Steven Erikson and I liked one of the lines he used.

 

"You could picture some long-lost prince, stepping in from the usual mill of fantasy writing, his plate armour bright and polished, his fair hair luffing in the wind, his teeth bright and his **** boldly bulging his breeches (okay scratch that last part), stepping into one of Glen Cook's stories, standing there at the roadside, and some ragtag, exhausted, grim-faced troop of soldiers ride past, every hoof kicking mud and horse crap and worse all over the hapless bystander."

 

It's interesting because Cook did the same thing as George RR Martin is doing currently 20 ish years ago, the Dread Empire trilogy was early eighties, then he created Black Company (also in 2 omnibuses) and finially a supernatural detective The garret files.

[Rosbjerg]

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

 

A strange book about a strange book. It's actually pretty good.

 

From a review: "The End of Mr. Y is a thought experiment wrapped in a contemporary adventure novel that asks questions about thought, language, destiny and the very limits of being and time."

[Darth InSidious]

About to re-read The Loved One. Brilliant, if rather dark comedy.

Edited January 8, 2009 by Darth InSidious

[Guard Dog]

Now reading Mark Twains Following the Equator and Stonewall in the Valley by Robert Tanner. That one is about my second favorite American hero. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

Edited January 9, 2009 by Guard Dog

[CoM_Solaufein]

Tolkien's Unfinished Tales.

[Matthew Rorie]

I reread pretty much all of Raymond Chandler's novels over the break (not as intimidating as it sounds; he only wrote 7 of them), and am now working on The Raymond Chandler Papers. Some interesting stuff in there; one of his paragraphs on movies in the 40s would probably apply to game development now. I liked this bit, too:

 

"My wife came from New York. She likes California except during the hot months, but I think she agrees with me that the percentage of phonies in the population is increasing. No doubt in years, or centuries to come, this will be the center of civilization, but the melting-pot stage bores me horribly. I like people with manners, grace, some social intuition, an education slightly above the Reader's Digest fan, people whose pride of living does not express itself in their kitchen gadgets and their automobiles."

[Shryke]

Currently reading The White Order. Annoyingly I read Colours of Chaos first, then found out it was a sequel to The White Order, so I went back to read that. Very well written considering nothing happens in either of them really, but I can't put them down. After that I have The Rule of Two by that dude at Bioware, and then I'll start the War of the Spider Queen.

 

how's colours of chaos?

 

i got given the white order ages ago, and from all i've investigated from everything else in the series, it's really bloody confusing as to what book comes where chronilogically

[Meshugger]

Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"

 

Some of his rambling are so abstract that they can be applied to any form of structural planning. Pretty nifty.

[Guard Dog]

I don't know if you guys have been following this but it looks like Brandon Sanderson has completed the manuscript for the 12th and final Wheel of Time book A Memory of Light. It still has to go through an editorial cycle and there is bound to be some revision but it looks like that 8/2009 release estimate might be pretty close.

 

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/

[Shryke]

so it's finally gonna be over

 

the series definitely went downhill, but once i started it, it's just frustrating not being able to finish it

[Oerwinde]

Currently reading The White Order. Annoyingly I read Colours of Chaos first, then found out it was a sequel to The White Order, so I went back to read that. Very well written considering nothing happens in either of them really, but I can't put them down. After that I have The Rule of Two by that dude at Bioware, and then I'll start the War of the Spider Queen.

 

how's colours of chaos?

 

i got given the white order ages ago, and from all i've investigated from everything else in the series, it's really bloody confusing as to what book comes where chronilogically

 

I liked Colours of Chaos more than The White Order, but its really just one story split in two, chronicling Cerryl's rise from peasant boy to high wizard of the white order and his unique view on order/chaos because of his love for a black mage.

 

From what I've gathered from the wiki, Modesitt Jr just does what strikes his fancy, fleshing things out in the backstory or moving forward, but he insists the series is best read in publication order rather than chronologically. I've only read 4 of the books, Fall of Angels, The Chaos Balance, and the two about Cerryl, and it was neat seeing how things happen in FoA and CB, then seeing the exerpts in the Cerryl books detailing the history written by the white mages about how Nylan, the main character in FoA and CB, was this horrible evil person who destroyed a bastion of peace and harmony.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Oerwinde

[Shryke]

good to know, cheers

 

i may just have to track down a copy of colours of chaos then

[Llyranor]

Currently reading A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan. Great book on Market-Garden, both as a well-researched history book and as simply a good piece of literature.

 

Also going through A Storm of Swords (third book of A Song of Ice and Fire by G. R. R. Martin) - my favorite Western fantasy novel series at this point.

[Calax]

Currently reading A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan. Great book on Market-Garden, both as a well-researched history book and as simply a good piece of literature.

 

Also going through A Storm of Swords (third book of A Song of Ice and Fire by G. R. R. Martin) - my favorite Western fantasy novel series at this point.

Read the Black Company, It did what Song of Ice and Fire is doing 20 years ago.

[Calax]

Would have added it to my previous post, but I was 60 seconds to late

 

Started "A Fortress In Shadow", first two chapters have the start of a reformation in a Arabic styled nation, A boy "El Murid" (translated: The Disciple) starts preaching ideas that challenge the foundation of the current religion, In the second chapter this ends up with him being tossed out of the nation, only problem is that his followers promptly riot, deface a series of shrines, and El Murid's right hand man is a military genius. In Casting El Murid out the Nation ends up causing the very thing they didn't want to happen, the youthful generation rebels and converts.

 

I know how this ends because it's a timeline prequel to "A Cruel Wind" but was published after that series. Three words "El Murid Wars".

 

Cruel Wind and Fortress in Shadow are omnibusses that collect a series of books. Cruel Wind mainly has to deal with how the "Western" (European) world fights off invasions by Shinsan (an Idealistic version of Asia. Shinsan has the best infantry and some of the most powerful sorcerer generals). Somtimes my head starts to spin after reading about everything that happens.

 

The Black Company series is by the same author.

[Rosbjerg]

Anyone read "Valis" by Phillip K. D ick?

 

That's one trippin' book!