ThunderPeel2001

Books, books, books...

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You'll find yourself comfortable with it eventually. I seem to remember getting used to it around page 300. He uses it to great effect, especially in book 3.

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I've started reading my super-cheap book of every Shakespeare play. I loved some of the movie adaptations I saw so I am curious how the plays read. So far I've read The Tempest, which was fun. I'm not going to analyse any of this, I'm reading it because I want to enjoy it and for the achievement of it.

Of course, I couldn't read Prospero's quite famous monologue without in my head hearing Patrick Stewart from Extras episode 6 (season 1) gravely breathing life into the matter. By my so potent art!

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Finally finished The Tin Drum. Only took me half a year or something when I usually read one book in a month or two. The ending was good but doesn't make up for the horrible time I had with the rest of the book.

Looking forward to enjoying books again.

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Would any of you be interested in starting a book club? I feel that discussion and being forced to clearly articulate my thoughts and ideas about what I read really helps me learn from and think about literature - the closes you can get to literary. Due to my inclinations I'd prefer "literary" fiction (by that I don't mean obscure postmodernists or arcane Restoration-era poets but rather good adult stories with some style) which we would decide on and read together.

What do you think?

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I'd be interested, though my reading is ofter erratic. I too read only classic literature. Feel free to propose something!

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I finished reading Perelandra today, it's the follow up to Out of the Silent Planet I mentioned earlier.

I really enjoyed it, but a few off putting things has left me feeling perplexed to the whole affair. Out of the Silent Planet was great as it told a really touching tale of survival, wonder, and human nature. While it had a little bit of a religious parallel to it, I found it interesting because it was first and foremost science fiction and the similarities between "deities" was just interesting flavor and sort of backed how certain religions came about... but it wasn't the main purpose of the story, it was just there.

However, with Peralandra, the main purpose is that it is a religious parable. So much so, they take what was flavor from Out of the Silent Planet and extends it so far where he purposely interchanges the alien words for earthly religious ones... which sort of loses the fantastical, scifi nature of everything.

But once you get over that, it's an oddly paced book. It's less full of wonder and much of it is absolutely terrifying and infuriating at times. The majority meat of it is simply a conversation between the earthly visitor(Same character from Silent Planet) and an alien. Eventually a third part joins the conversation and it becomes not so much a debate but a verbal battle... it's really quite incredible.

Not to give too much of it a way, but Lewis has way to paint a picture, to be so articulate with words as to put a very precise image into your head that I found my self legitimately nervous or awestruck at times. This just doesn't happen to me often, so I wanted to point out that I cant ever recall where I was actually kind of terrified by a fictional image someone wrote, but there are countless times where it happened in Perelandra.

Anyway, overall I am having mixed feelings as it was such an oddly paced book and the religious overtones weren't exactly welcome, as I believe he could have told the same story using the same terminology as the first book and just let the reader interrupt whatever they want. On the other hand the main purpose was a parable, so I guess he wasn't trying to hide anything and just went full hog on this.

The next book is That Hideous Strength, which sounds like it gets darker, but I'm really kind of nervous to find out how dark it can go as Perelandra has already illustrated evil well enough for my liking.

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I'd be interested, though my reading is ofter erratic. I too read only classic literature. Feel free to propose something!

Alright, sorry busy with work for a while there.

I'd be interested in reading something American; perhaps Pynchon, Nabokov or Bellow? I've read V., Lolita and More Die of Heartbreak (as well as some of Bellow's essays) and I'm interested in more from all three. Otherwise Coetzee interests me. Or if you are not adverse to poetry, I could settle for a headache and Milton? :fart:

But this is just me looking at my shelf, tell me where your interest lies?

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On second thought, I don't think this is going to work, really. My tastes are way too specific and my reading time too erratic for this to succeed. A problem is that I don't want to buy books unless I know I want to keep/store them. I'm currently reading Shakespeare and a book about the 'future war chronicles' from early 20th century Japan.

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I'd be interested in reading something American; perhaps Pynchon, Nabokov or Bellow?

What exactly is this proposal logistically? A monthly 'official book' of this thread, or something else?

I am theoretically interested in this proposal, but tend to be busy and forgetful when not on vacation.

If you wanted to force the issue, you could pick a scene from Lolita, write some commentary, and make a thread inviting more. Rinse and repeat with other good scenes and short stories.

But that also sounds like a lot of work.

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Finished William Gibson's Count Zero. Not as good as Neuromancer but very entertaining. I still like the fact that I don't have to wait until the last quarter of the book for things to start happening. Following the three seemingly unconnected plotlines was pretty annoying at first, but at least they were tied together quite nicely in the end. How does Mona Lisa Overdrive compare to the first two books?

I find it very interesting that the premise of one of the branches of Count Zero is almost exactly like that of Pattern Recognition.

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I got a Nook for Ecksmas! I want to use this to get back into reading. I don't know what I want to read, though. Ahh!

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I got a Nook for Ecksmas! I want to use this to get back into reading. I don't know what I want to read, though. Ahh!

What genres do you want?

I've just started reading The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder on my Kindle, it's a pretty cool Steam Punk novel.

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Just finished The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles. I think it's a new favorite for me. It's set in Victorian England but was written in 1969 and uses sort of Faulknerian narrative techniques to tie the paradoxical nature of 1860s Western culture to that of the modern age. Sort of an existentialist fable that is also just a good story in its own right.

Just for the hell of it since I mentioned favorites...some of my other favorite books:

The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

God: A Biography by Jack Miles

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Shakespeare: The World As Stage by Bill Bryson

The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway

And More...!

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What genres do you want?

I've just started reading The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder on my Kindle, it's a pretty cool Steam Punk novel.

(Real) steampunk is pretty cool.

I dunno, I'm kind of open to anything. Although I say that, there are things I dislike. It's not so much specific genres that I dislike, though...

For example, Dickens. I have no problem with the genre or setting or characters. It's mostly the way he writes? But I might like it these days? Last time I tried was when I was FORCED to try in high school.

I'd like to get into more nonfiction reading, but I don't know what exactly.

I did dump the Wheel of Time series on there because I wanted to read it again and also finally read the new books, which I own but haven't actually read. I'm a fan of hard sci-fi, like The Mote in God's Eye, Red Mars. (Two pretty different takes on the genre.)

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*snipped*

That's a great list. :tup:

I can't say I've read as many good novels as you have, but I can vouch for Michael Chabon. I've only read The Yiddish Policemen's Union, but it is superb. A character driven alternative history with insight into human nature and brimming with ideas. The prose is beautiful too:

A ganef wind has blown down from the mainland to plunder the Sitka treasury of fog and rain, leaving behind only cobwebs and one bright penny in a vault of polished blue. At 12:03 the sun has already punched its ticket. Sinking, it stains the cobbles and stucco of the platz in a violin-colored throb of light that you would have to be a stone not to find poignant. Landsman, a curse on his head, may be a shammes, but he is no stone.

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I dunno, I'm kind of open to anything. Although I say that, there are things I dislike. It's not so much specific genres that I dislike, though...

Knowing nothing about your taste, I might recommend Christopher Moore. He is modern (so you'll have to shell out), but is good enough that he he and Raymond have something in common. Start with Lamb.

For older stuff Mark Twain is always good, and very accessible. Maybe start short. Grandfather's Old Ram is a personal favorite. For novels Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is great, though it finishes super-dark.

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Knowing nothing about your taste, I might recommend Christopher Moore. He is modern (so you'll have to shell out), but is good enough that he he and Raymond have something in common. Start with Lamb.

That sounds neat. The first review snippet's mention of Adams and Vonnegut are encouraging. I like them both.

For older stuff Mark Twain is always good, and very accessible. Maybe start short. Grandfather's Old Ram is a personal favorite. For novels Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is great, though it finishes super-dark.

I think I liked Mark Twain when I was younger, so I might do this.

Examples of authors I like: Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, H.G. Wells, Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman.

Those are all fiction, and generally deal with sci-fi or fantasy (or simply the fantastic). That doesn't mean I'm exclusively interested in those two genres, though. Like I said, I'm trying to branch out. U:

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I just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides and really loved it. It's set in the early 80s and is essentially a modern take on the 19th-century marriage plot novel, but with something of a self-awareness that such a plot is utterly unworkable in modern society. It doesn't come off as gratingly meta or postmoderm or whatever though, it's very humanly told. I found it full of moments that could easily have been cliches but weren't executed as such. If it is ever turned into a film, I suspect it will not manage to straddle that line.

My only major complaint, ultimately, is that the female protagonist is ultimately not as fully realized as her two male suitors. It's not a damning issue, as she was believable and sympathetic to me, but as the reader I didn't feel as enraptured by her as the two men did. Perhaps that's part of the point?

---

Before that I read Ruth Rendell's late-90s novel A Sight for Sore Eyes, followed by its 2011 sequel, The Vault. Those are the first Rendell novels I've read and my opinions of them differ radically. A Sight for Sore Eyes I found to be an incredibly well observed and gripping piece of ostensible crime fiction, whereas The Vault (which, unlike its predecessor, she shoehorned into her long-running Inspector Wexler series) was a much more conventional and bland genre piece. I was surprised.

Here are my fuller thoughts after finishing The Vault: http://chrisremo.tumblr.com/post/14273126251/the-vault

---

Yesterday I started Murakami's newest, 1Q84. I'm only about 120 pages into this thousand-page behemoth, and I have a feeling it's not going to Blow Me Away. I've never been able to quite determine whether the stilted feeling I get from Murakami's dialogue is part of his style--a detached tone to accompany the surreal tinge of many of his stories--or if it just comes with being translated into a foreign language. In either case, I've found it a frustrating part of his books, which I otherwise enjoy, and I suspect it's going to wear thin on me as I progress through another 800+plus pages.

Edit: Merged into one post

Edited by Chris

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1Q84 caused some minor hysteria in Japan, but every person I know who's read it seems to dislike it. I'd be interested in knowing what you ultimately think of it.

--

I haven't been reading much outside of technical books (it takes me ages to get through one and I'm reading three simultaneously), but I've been dipping into New Hope for the Dead, by Charles Willeford, for quick chapter reads before I doze off at night. It seems interesting, if slow, so far. It is, however, quite funny; the main character's dry sense of humour makes for hugely entertaining reading. I can't wait to go on break so I can read more of it. The plot seems to be as interesting as Miami Blues's, so yay.

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So, Ringworld. Yeah. Hmm. I'm not entirely sure what to say on it. I really liked it, no doubt there. It was certainly interesting. But I'm not sure there's much I would want to discuss about it. I'd certainly recommend it, if you're into sci-fi, and for some reason haven't read it. But I'm not really sure how to describe or discuss it.

:tup::tup:

I've got the entirety of Known Space on tap, so maybe I'll be back with some more coherant thoughts when I've read more of the universe. It's just sort of disquieting to me that this is the first book I've ever read that I've just thought "Yep, that was a book" No emotions one way or the other, just want to read the next part. Maybe that's a good thing?

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Does anyone else get the feeling that once you read one of Murakami's books you are done with him?

I'm getting that feeling now.

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Huh. And here I was thinking about reading 1Q84.

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Huh. And here I was thinking about reading 1Q84.

Read a shorter one first. 1Q84 is nearly a thousand pages, no need for it to be your introduction to Murakami.

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