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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Approx 500 pages along in Kings Under the Dome and loving it so far. I can't remember when was the last time I read a book this long that stood this firmly to the point and kept growing the intesity without going down on distracting ramblings beside the main storyarc. And for a King book, there's surprisingly little abnormalities involved, but more a focus more on how the people behave in the situation they're put in and the "horror" being more human than supernatural.

 

Hopefully the the book keeps on getting more and more interesting, like it has done so far, as it goes on and doesn't disappoint with a tacked on ending or dry out.

Perkele, tiädäksää tuanoini!

"It's easier to tolerate idiots if you do not consider them as stupid people, but exceptionally gifted monkeys."

Posted

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Deborg. Amazing. It only took 154 pages to change our world. Guy Debord's manifesto/book length essay that is truly a masterpiece of writing that borders on the poetic. It is also a crystal clear view how culture is formed in the 20th (and of course the 21st) century.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Now reading The Illiad & The Odyssey. I've always meant to read this for myself and I've finally gotten around to it. I'm over 1/2 way through The Odyssey. I'm finding it slow going (the Iliad was rough but this is much better) but I am amazed the affect these stories have had on western language and culture some 2800 years later.

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

Now reading Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. It's about the assasination attempt on James Garfield and the aftermath. It takes a talented writer to make a true story read like a WEB Griffin novel but Ms. Millard did a jam up job with this. Worth checking out if you have an interest in post reconstruction US history.

 

I'm also reading A False Spring by Pat Jordan which is just one of the best baseball books ever written.

 

I just ordered The Song of Achillies a modern retelling of the Illiad. I don't normally go for that but it has gotten really good reviews.

 

Plus I was thinking about giving the Dune universe another look. I thought the series jumped the shark after The Children of Dune but Franks son has added a lot of "fill in" and pred-sereis work that might be worth a look. Have any of you read any of Brian Herberts additions?

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

Plus I was thinking about giving the Dune universe another look. I thought the series jumped the shark after The Children of Dune but Franks son has added a lot of "fill in" and pred-sereis work that might be worth a look. Have any of you read any of Brian Herberts additions?

 

If you thought it jumped the shark after book 2.5...yeah..I suggest don't read anything written by his son with the abominiation that is KJA. Just don't.

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

Posted

Plus I was thinking about giving the Dune universe another look. I thought the series jumped the shark after The Children of Dune but Franks son has added a lot of "fill in" and pred-sereis work that might be worth a look. Have any of you read any of Brian Herberts additions?

 

If you thought it jumped the shark after book 2.5...yeah..I suggest don't read anything written by his son with the abominiation that is KJA. Just don't.

 

Yeah the reviews on Amazon agree with you for the most part. I think I'll pass.Too bad.

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

Bought the first novel in a long while, The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh. Sold me when page 3 named a character's indigestion-driven habits Tridib's Gastric.

 

Indian writers tend to be a bit of hit and miss for me, sometimes the books really work well in turning all the Indian-British minutiae into a powerful illustration of ambiguities, other times I just feel like I'm reading more Indian we-are-postcolonial blargh. I felt the latter about The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, while I still really want to try A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, which had a very good first 50 pages.

 

In university, one of the more interesting things I recently read was a chapter on French folktales in 17/18th centuries - how earlier versions of well known tales like Little Red Riding Hood often involved things like the wolf tricking the girl to eat the grandmother's flesh, then jump in bed with the wolf dressed as grandma, take off all her clothes, then get eaten by the wolf.

Posted

Now reading Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. It's about the assasination attempt on James Garfield and the aftermath. It takes a talented writer to make a true story read like a WEB Griffin novel but Ms. Millard did a jam up job with this. Worth checking out if you have an interest in post reconstruction US history.

 

I'm also reading A False Spring by Pat Jordan which is just one of the best baseball books ever written.

 

I just ordered The Song of Achillies a modern retelling of the Illiad. I don't normally go for that but it has gotten really good reviews.

 

Plus I was thinking about giving the Dune universe another look. I thought the series jumped the shark after The Children of Dune but Franks son has added a lot of "fill in" and pred-sereis work that might be worth a look. Have any of you read any of Brian Herberts additions?

The Butlerian Jihad and Prelude to Dune books are... okay. Not very well written, but at least they add something to the Dune universe and are not complete cash-ins like all other books they churned out.

 

The sequels to Chapterhouse: Dune that actually wrap up the main series are abysmal.

  • Like 1

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

Posted

Anyone want a like new copy of The Song of Achillies? It stinks. Now reading National Geographic Magazine March 2012 issue. This is the only subscription I've never cancelled.

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

The Mister Gum series of books for kids by Andy Stanton. Reading them with my son, they are too good and too funny for sprogs.

sonsofgygax.JPG

Posted

Now reading "Hockey Night in Dixie" about life in the ECHL & CHL minor hockey leagues in the southern US. Great book!

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

I just orderd 27 books for my Kindle. I'll be busy for a while.

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

I'm reading The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governer. About 1/3 the way through it and it's great. I like how it ties into the comic although you don't see Rick's group, the events usually happen just before Rick's group turns up at certain points. Little things that you see in the comic are explained in the book. Great stuff.

Posted

In book related news.. Apple is apparently being hit by the American legal system over attempts to fix the price of ebooks

 

Department of Justice hits Apple with e-book price fixing suit

 

YahooNews - US accuses Apple and publishers over e-books

 

The U.S. government sued Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and five publishers, saying they conspired to fix the prices of electronic books, and reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers.

 

The settlement reached with three of the publishers will allow Amazon (AMZN.O) to resume discounting books, and will terminate the "most favored nation" contracts with Apple.

 

Amazon said in response to the settlement that it plans to lower prices on books associated with its Kindle e-reader

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

Posted

Amazon is a five hundred pound gorilla, the Google of publishing / e-books. Apple is the axis of tech-evil. What did you expect.

 

An e-book is almost as expensive as a physical copy with hardly any of the overhead costs. The reader is getting screwed as are writers. The winners are (quel surprise) apple and Amazon.

sonsofgygax.JPG

Posted

Amazon is a five hundred pound gorilla, the Google of publishing / e-books. Apple is the axis of tech-evil. What did you expect.

 

An e-book is almost as expensive as a physical copy with hardly any of the overhead costs. The reader is getting screwed as are writers. The winners are (quel surprise) apple and Amazon.

 

Amazon started off with massive discounts on Kindle, but when Apple moved in like that they had to raise the prices and actually appologised to customers for having to do it...

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

Posted

The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven. Robert Young Pelton

 

Trips to three warzones, chatting to colourful types and so forth. Pelton has been in this game for years and I've never heard an unkind word against him. He has written several books which I have read, but this one is easily the simplest to get 'into'. Strongly recommend it.

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

             -Elwood Blues

 

tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Hm, and for the sweetness.. Amazon Kindle are doing some great collections of some classic authors.. :shifty:

 

Robert E Howard - Collected Omnibus 99 Stories,

The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft

The Collected Works of Jules Verne

 

And assorted others, all from around $1.50-$3.. or so

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-Robert-Howard-Omnibus-ebook/dp/B003O86R5M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335198634&sr=8-1

 

Groovy. Methinks a bit of loose change will be spent...

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

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