(Is clearly not part of the rest of the world as hadn't even heard of them never mind read them)
Book Club + What Are You Reading? (Late October + November 2018)
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Oh, I thought The Book Thief was pretty much a global breakout hit by now.
You should read it then if you've not, superb stuff.
Still reading Moby Dick. It's been excellent so far and even broke through my depression enough that I look forward to reading more of it. It helps that I met someone that's really passionate about the book and we've started reading it together. I haven't enjoyed reading this much for a few years now. Glad to get back into it.
I'm midway through Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction and read like a couple chapters of Moby-Dick.
Ha ha. To be fair I read a fairly narrow band of fantasy/science fiction mostly with a smattering of other genres here and there.
I just looked it up. I recognise the cover to the film they made of it I haven't seen at least :p I'll add it on my Amazon wish list though, always interested in new things to broaden my horizons a little.
Finished
And holy shit. I fucking loved it! I've been looking around for an interesting, intriguing scifi/space opera mystery book where the central mystery and conflict isn't just another random alien threat from the deep space, and I certainly didn't expect one from Sanderson, but he pretty much delivered everything I wanted and then some.
He fucking nailed the mystery part. So many intriguing mysteries and questions with satisfying reveals and answers absolutely perfectly distributed throughout the book, starting out slow and getting more and more frequent towards the end until it was just reveal after reveal.
Characters were mostly great, maybe a bit too quirky-wacky at times, M-Bot in particular sounded like a teenager's tumblr page rather than a character a bit too often, but overall I came out liking pretty much all of them.
The battles were, like with the other Sanderson books I've read, the weakest part for me. People seem to really like the way Sanderson handles fights and I always see them praise the cleverness with which he navigates the strict rules he sets for himself and the book, but nothing ever really seems to stand out about them to me. They're fine. That said, the battles were fast-paced and short and you could always tell what's going on, so none of it was bad by any means or anything like that. Just not something I really care about.
And some spoilery thoughts:
Sorry, I tend to start rambling when I post about shit I liked. All in all a very satisfying book and conclusion by itself, but I'll be sure to pick up the sequel next year either way. Day one.
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I think I'll move on to Alloy of Law now. Want to give more Sanderson books a try thanks to loving this one so much.
And holy shit. I fucking loved it! I've been looking around for an interesting, intriguing scifi/space opera mystery book where the central mystery and conflict isn't just another random alien threat from the deep space, and I certainly didn't expect one from Sanderson, but he pretty much delivered everything I wanted and then some.
He fucking nailed the mystery part. So many intriguing mysteries and questions with satisfying reveals and answers absolutely perfectly distributed throughout the book, starting out slow and getting more and more frequent towards the end until it was just reveal after reveal.
Characters were mostly great, maybe a bit too quirky-wacky at times, M-Bot in particular sounded like a teenager's tumblr page rather than a character a bit too often, but overall I came out liking pretty much all of them.
The battles were, like with the other Sanderson books I've read, the weakest part for me. People seem to really like the way Sanderson handles fights and I always see them praise the cleverness with which he navigates the strict rules he sets for himself and the book, but nothing ever really seems to stand out about them to me. They're fine. That said, the battles were fast-paced and short and you could always tell what's going on, so none of it was bad by any means or anything like that. Just not something I really care about.
And some spoilery thoughts:
I knew beforehand the book wasn't standalone and that it'll get a bunch of sequels so I expected a lot of unanswered questions, but I was very happy to find out almost every question was actually answered. The only interesting major questions left for me are "what is the exact nature of the nothingness" and "what is the incredible evil that lurks in that nothingness". I guess I'm also curious about the not-that-funnily-named Doomslug, since it's so VERY obviously tied to the nothingness and Spensa's ability. I expect we'll see more Doomslugs later on and humans without the "defect", or the ability, start using them as means of teleporting around.
Speaking of the evil lurking in the nothingness, I fucking LOOOOOVED the eye/hearing the stars stuff. It was so beautifully, spine-tinglingly creepy.
"Do you ever see anything… strange, Spin?" he asked. "In the darkness?" "Like what?" "Eyes," he said softly. Perfect.
Considering the fucked up society, I was hoping for a bit more explicit character growth from Spensa. I wish she would've dropped the coward shit in particular earlier, if she ever really even dropped it. Maybe in the sequels.
Speaking of the evil lurking in the nothingness, I fucking LOOOOOVED the eye/hearing the stars stuff. It was so beautifully, spine-tinglingly creepy.
"Do you ever see anything… strange, Spin?" he asked. "In the darkness?" "Like what?" "Eyes," he said softly. Perfect.
Considering the fucked up society, I was hoping for a bit more explicit character growth from Spensa. I wish she would've dropped the coward shit in particular earlier, if she ever really even dropped it. Maybe in the sequels.
Sorry, I tend to start rambling when I post about shit I liked. All in all a very satisfying book and conclusion by itself, but I'll be sure to pick up the sequel next year either way. Day one.
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I think I'll move on to Alloy of Law now. Want to give more Sanderson books a try thanks to loving this one so much.
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Both ended up having a very similar trajectory on my enjoyment through reading. Where both started out really amazing and both sort of faltered as I went on.
With The Outsider by Stephen King it was case of King seeming like he wrote himself into a corner and realized when he got to 400 pages and wasn't sure how to move things toward the end he just brought in a character to suddenly explain everything out of nowhere. Then later on he tries a weird dumb way to explain it as some kind of good higher power that got the character there just to balance things out.
Overall I still really enjoyed it, but the last 200 pages or so were just kind of a cop out.
With The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock it was a case of the book expanding too much and not really having a core to invest in past the first quarter of the book. The Devil All the Time was amazing. It had a core 5 or 6 characters and you were with them throughout the book and things basically got dark and more and more fucked up as it went along. With The Heavenly Table we start with two families but after a short time with them it kind of just branches out to a lot of different characters that either are just one off chapters, or had short run ins with the two families, or loose connections. It just sort of felt like Pollock had the idea for a collection of short stories connected by a town different than Knockemstiff and instead turned it into a novel. On top of how the characters played out this book just didn't have much of that Pollock edge, which was really missed. Almost every character had some shitty or horrible side story, don't get me wrong, but for the most part it just seemed like it was more out of necessity than it being thought out characters and story.
I still love the way Pollock writes and I wanted nothing but more of the two main families, but a good third of the novel were from perspectives I largely never cared about and barely understood why we were even seeing from their perspective.
I'd still give both of these books a decent 4 star rating, but they were both books I was well on my way into and absolutely loving but they both ended up somehow disappointing.
Both ended up having a very similar trajectory on my enjoyment through reading. Where both started out really amazing and both sort of faltered as I went on.
With The Outsider by Stephen King it was case of King seeming like he wrote himself into a corner and realized when he got to 400 pages and wasn't sure how to move things toward the end he just brought in a character to suddenly explain everything out of nowhere. Then later on he tries a weird dumb way to explain it as some kind of good higher power that got the character there just to balance things out.
Overall I still really enjoyed it, but the last 200 pages or so were just kind of a cop out.
With The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollock it was a case of the book expanding too much and not really having a core to invest in past the first quarter of the book. The Devil All the Time was amazing. It had a core 5 or 6 characters and you were with them throughout the book and things basically got dark and more and more fucked up as it went along. With The Heavenly Table we start with two families but after a short time with them it kind of just branches out to a lot of different characters that either are just one off chapters, or had short run ins with the two families, or loose connections. It just sort of felt like Pollock had the idea for a collection of short stories connected by a town different than Knockemstiff and instead turned it into a novel. On top of how the characters played out this book just didn't have much of that Pollock edge, which was really missed. Almost every character had some shitty or horrible side story, don't get me wrong, but for the most part it just seemed like it was more out of necessity than it being thought out characters and story.
I still love the way Pollock writes and I wanted nothing but more of the two main families, but a good third of the novel were from perspectives I largely never cared about and barely understood why we were even seeing from their perspective.
I'd still give both of these books a decent 4 star rating, but they were both books I was well on my way into and absolutely loving but they both ended up somehow disappointing.
Finished:
Both ended up having a very similar trajectory on my enjoyment through reading. Where both started out really amazing and both sort of faltered as I went on.
With The Outsider by Stephen King it was case of King seeming like he wrote himself into a corner and realized when he got to 400 pages and wasn't sure how to move things toward the end he just brought in a character to suddenly explain everything out of nowhere. Then later on he tries a weird dumb way to explain it as some kind of good higher power that got the character there just to balance things out.
Refresh my memory on the last line with a spoiler tag please?
Basically the last chapter of the book, the characters talk about the slip of paper from the restaurant in Ohio and how it made no sense that it was there in the van. That without it being there Holly would have never got involved (Not really true when the kid was arrested and they matched the vehicle to him when he was arrested) and that Holly thought there was some kind of Good out in the world trying to balance out the bad and that that slip of paper was put in place by the good so that she would be involved.
Just seemed like a shitty hand wavy explanation for something that in and of itself hand waved a large part of the book.
Just seemed like a shitty hand wavy explanation for something that in and of itself hand waved a large part of the book.
Oh okay. Thanks.
My memory sucks so I'd forgotten about that specific part.
Up next I'm going a bit out of my comfort zone with a little more hard sci-fi and contemporary Lit. Not sure which one will end up taking more of my attention.
Up next I'm going a bit out of my comfort zone with a little more hard sci-fi and contemporary Lit. Not sure which one will end up taking more of my attention.
They are both worthwhile. Hope you enjoy them.
It became available at the library the other day, hours after I'd been there, so I picked it up yesterday while at a meeting. Going to start it today, and excited to say the least.
A review copy I requested for GoodReads also arrived today. They'd said they'd send it, but I had no idea if it would arrive anytime soon, so I went with the library book just in case.
*Sorry the image is so big. It was hard to find a good one.
I'm oddly excited to check out Freedom, Three-Body has me curious and kind of intimidated. I have a hard time following Sci-Fi a lot of times.
I found a first edition, I think, of Thinner yesterday. It was $2. I couldn't pass it up. I've never read it, but do have a newer copy. It'll be nice for the King collection.
Also Hold Tight by Coben, for $1. I love charity thrift stores. I buy great books for great prices there, and donate mine.
Also Hold Tight by Coben, for $1. I love charity thrift stores. I buy great books for great prices there, and donate mine.
I'm only 69 pages in so far as I'm only reading before bed but it's been most of the more entertaining rock bios I've read to date.
It's refreshing to have it written from the perspective of Keef and its been pretty fascinating and informative as a amateur guitarist as well. As I've only just gotten to where he first met Mick, it's only going to get better from here.
Don't be. It should read much like most social, philosophical and political threads on ERA.
It became available at the library the other day, hours after I'd been there, so I picked it up yesterday while at a meeting. Going to start it today, and excited to say the least.
A review copy I requested for GoodReads also arrived today. They'd said they'd send it, but I had no idea if it would arrive anytime soon, so I went with the library book just in case.
*Sorry the image is so big. It was hard to find a good one.
Interested to see your take on it.
Ever read a book and it just takes forever to get through because you keep putting it down and allowing days or even weeks before picking it back up again? Then the ending sneaks up on you and you feel like it would have been more effective if the rest of the book was more fresh in your mind?
Today I *finally* finished Iain Banks' "The Use of Weapons," the third Culture book and the third I've read in a row.
This one took me the longest to finish of the three. I thought it was great but it was slow and meandering and for most of it I had a hard time getting excited to read more because it never felt like it was going anywhere.
Then I read the ending and it brings the whole book together and retroactively made everything that came before 100x more interesting.
I wish I could have read it all in a week instead of over months, I'm sure it would have hit me so much harder. But it's a damn good book.
Today I *finally* finished Iain Banks' "The Use of Weapons," the third Culture book and the third I've read in a row.
This one took me the longest to finish of the three. I thought it was great but it was slow and meandering and for most of it I had a hard time getting excited to read more because it never felt like it was going anywhere.
Then I read the ending and it brings the whole book together and retroactively made everything that came before 100x more interesting.
I wish I could have read it all in a week instead of over months, I'm sure it would have hit me so much harder. But it's a damn good book.
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Looking at the description will you spoiler if it's kind of similar Revival in vibe and scope? Probably my favorite of recent King and I'd love for more of that.
I abhor spoilers, so I promise you that I will spoil tag anything that comes close to a spoiler. I always try to.
I own but have not read Revival yet.
Truth be told, the only King book I'm now missing is The Mist. I haven't read a lot of them yet, though, because I've been holding off. As said earlier, I sometimes have trouble paying attention and focusing because my mind wanders a lot, so I want to improve that and work on trying medication before I tackle most of King's stuff, including the classics. I want to get the full effect and not do them a disservice.
Sorry if I post too much here, guys. Let me know if you'd like me to tone it down.
Nah, you're good. I was more wondering if Kill3r7 would actually tell me if it's similar as it would move it significantly up my TBR pile as it seemed like he had read it already. I just wanted him to spoil it for people who hadn't read Revival or didn't want to know if it was similar to Elevation.
As for posting too much, I'm the same way. I'm in a crazy book binge right now and basically only want to talk and read about books. So I'm refreshing like crazy.
Thanks for the answer!
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The short answer is no. It is a novella focusing on interpersonal relationships, understanding and unity. I would argue it borrows more from Thinner than anything else. There is no "horror" here.
So is your aim to own a copy of every book King has ever wrote?
I'd like to see a picture of your collection once you've finished it!
Yes, exactly. I want to own and read them all. It's a big undertaking for sure, given how long some can be.
I got into collecting Stephen King after getting several for Christmas, and deciding to take on something I'd wanted to do for years: read all of his stuff. Since books are generally cheap and used ones can be found pretty cheaply, I've enjoyed searching bookstores for them, but also bought some new to treat myself. BookOutlet and BookDepository really helped, as did sales (of up to 40% plus 10% off for signing up another email to their mailing list) at Chapters. I almost bought The Mist the other week, when it was buy three get one free or buy two get one free, but already had four books.
I have some duplicates. Like two copies of the Halloween Editions because I assumed my BookDepository ones were lost in the mail and there was a boxed set on Amazon for less than I paid. A guy I know said he'd buy the others if they arrived, but now says he doesn't know if he has the money right now. Also a few of the white covered edition of Bag of Bones, because I bought one used at a book store but wasn't happy with the condition and ordered a new (very cheap) one from BookOutlet that came well damaged and with a coffee stain to boot. They sent me another.
Plus it's in the Halloween Editions. So I've offered to give my friend one and will probably donate another to the charity thrift store once I read it.
I can't find my old copies of The Running Man or The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, both of which I got during high school and read. I picked up a hardcover of the latter with a friend's credit that she offered me because she's not a reader but had donated a lot, and also got The Running Man in a used copy of The Bachman Books which I almost got t-boned after buying.
Then there's the Thinner first edition, a few different versions of IT (one of which was given to me, along with a bunch of other books including the six separate Green Miles and the hardcover of The Regulators, among others -- up to 15 or more books) and whatnot.
Now that I think of it, I also don't have Eye of the Storm (not sure if it'd even be needed) or Danse Macabre, which I forget about.
I don't have anywhere to display the collection right now. My apartment is small, and since I have a cat I have the books I care about in 9 different plastic containers I bought from the dollar store. Seven are piled on top of each other. Almost each one is full of King books, but they're not huge containers.
I like to have a reading copy and one to keep in collecting shape, but not enough to go out of my way to buy duplicates of all of his books. But if I find a second copy, another edition maybe, cheap, I usually pick it up. My friend got me a second copy of Under the Dome, used, and it's my reading copy now since I don't want to damage my hardcover. It's also pretty much my favourite book.
I don't go out of my way to buy other books new, and don't really plan to buy many more books. But if I see a good deal then I take advantage of it, given that I know of places where they can be had for 25 cents a piece, or 50 cents for hardcovers. Closer to me is the thrift store, where nothing is more than $2 in terms of books, and they always have a great selection. I have boxes full of used books I've picked up for next to nothing, or also been given.
Lots to read.
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Finished
And holy shit. I fucking loved it! I've been looking around for an interesting, intriguing scifi/space opera mystery book where the central mystery and conflict isn't just another random alien threat from the deep space, and I certainly didn't expect one from Sanderson, but he pretty much delivered everything I wanted and then some.
He fucking nailed the mystery part. So many intriguing mysteries and questions with satisfying reveals and answers absolutely perfectly distributed throughout the book, starting out slow and getting more and more frequent towards the end until it was just reveal after reveal.
Characters were mostly great, maybe a bit too quirky-wacky at times, M-Bot in particular sounded like a teenager's tumblr page rather than a character a bit too often, but overall I came out liking pretty much all of them.
The battles were, like with the other Sanderson books I've read, the weakest part for me. People seem to really like the way Sanderson handles fights and I always see them praise the cleverness with which he navigates the strict rules he sets for himself and the book, but nothing ever really seems to stand out about them to me. They're fine. That said, the battles were fast-paced and short and you could always tell what's going on, so none of it was bad by any means or anything like that. Just not something I really care about.
And some spoilery thoughts:
I knew beforehand the book wasn't standalone and that it'll get a bunch of sequels so I expected a lot of unanswered questions, but I was very happy to find out almost every question was actually answered. The only interesting major questions left for me are "what is the exact nature of the nothingness" and "what is the incredible evil that lurks in that nothingness". I guess I'm also curious about the not-that-funnily-named Doomslug, since it's so VERY obviously tied to the nothingness and Spensa's ability. I expect we'll see more Doomslugs later on and humans without the "defect", or the ability, start using them as means of teleporting around.
Speaking of the evil lurking in the nothingness, I fucking LOOOOOVED the eye/hearing the stars stuff. It was so beautifully, spine-tinglingly creepy.
"Do you ever see anything… strange, Spin?" he asked. "In the darkness?" "Like what?" "Eyes," he said softly. Perfect.
Considering the fucked up society, I was hoping for a bit more explicit character growth from Spensa. I wish she would've dropped the coward shit in particular earlier, if she ever really even dropped it. Maybe in the sequels.
Sorry, I tend to start rambling when I post about shit I liked. All in all a very satisfying book and conclusion by itself, but I'll be sure to pick up the sequel next year either way. Day one.
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I think I'll move on to Alloy of Law now. Want to give more Sanderson books a try thanks to loving this one so much.
Welp, I was planning on reading the remaining mistborn books, but I might just go to this one first haha.
I'm really liking Alloy of Law but I feel like I'm getting swept up in the hype for Skyward lol.
Question for you. Does this book require reading any other Sanders books first? I've heard people say to read certain other books before getting into Way of Kings. I might consider picking this up if it works standalone.Finished
And holy shit. I fucking loved it! I've been looking around for an interesting, intriguing scifi/space opera mystery book where the central mystery and conflict isn't just another random alien threat from the deep space, and I certainly didn't expect one from Sanderson, but he pretty much delivered everything I wanted and then some.
Skyward is not related to Sanderson's Cosmere universe, which is the overarching setting that many of his books (like Mistborn, The Way of Kings, etc.) take place in. You're good to go.
Sweet, thanks.
Edit: picked up a digital copy. I think I'll start reading it in December or January.
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Read the first 70 pages or so of Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and so far I'm really liking it. It took a couple minutes to get used to the writing style and to kind of figure out the narrative structure, but once that was figured out the book just really flowed and I really liked it.
Just finished Warbreaker, I like it as much as I like Final Empire.
Final Empire is the better book, but I like Warbreaker concept more
Next I'm gonna read
Final Empire is the better book, but I like Warbreaker concept more
Next I'm gonna read
Can't say there's one genre I prefer but I've realized I really love non-fiction that explains how we got here and/or how we're fucking everything up (Technopoly, Guns Germs and Steel, Sapiens). Otherwise my small Audible collection has true crime, Spanish language, philosophy and various fiction.
I guess I could go for some Sci fi with very good narration. Wish Foundation had a better narrator, though I've only heard a sample
Glad you mentioned it. I had meant to ask for Roadside Picnic a while back as a gift but forgot.... so, just used a credit to snag it.
Yeah this is why I got Lincoln in the Bardo
Thanks for the replies, guys
Done! Great suggestion, thanks. Maybe this will inspire me to finish A Feast for Crows.
Ok 0 credits now - can cancel my Audible subscription. Maybe I'll renew if I ever get through these books...
Enjoy, The Stormlight Archive is way above anything else he's written, including Mistborn.
Reading chapter 1 and I got confused with the stormlight magic system. English isn't my first language and I'm having problen visualizing this one.
I know there would be explanation like final empire and warbreaker, but allomancy and biochroma were easy to visualize.
Don't worry, I had difficulty with it too. The first chapter isn't really your proper introduction to it.
So I finished The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter which I really enjoyed. Then started reading Under The Pendulum Sun which I'm also enjoying so far.
However, my dad passed away very suddenly last week. So I'm putting that down for a bit to read one of his favourite books and one of the books that he gave to me as a kid that helped start a love of the Discworld series.
Reaper Man
However, my dad passed away very suddenly last week. So I'm putting that down for a bit to read one of his favourite books and one of the books that he gave to me as a kid that helped start a love of the Discworld series.
Reaper Man
So I finished The Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter which I really enjoyed. Then started reading Under The Pendulum Sun which I'm also enjoying so far.
However, my dad passed away very suddenly last week. So I'm putting that down for a bit to read one of his favourite books and one of the books that he gave to me as a kid that helped start a love of the Discworld series.
Reaper Man
Sorry about your dad - that must really suck, especially when there's no warning.
So I ended up buying Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, and I've read a bit. I've gotten to page 70 so far.
This is a much lighter read than I was expecting. I feel like I could chew through 100 pages without breaking a sweat. It's a pretty light and fun read so far, though I tend to like a little bit more meat in my stories. Still, it's enjoyable enough to keep going. I think I will blow through it pretty quickly.
This is a much lighter read than I was expecting. I feel like I could chew through 100 pages without breaking a sweat. It's a pretty light and fun read so far, though I tend to like a little bit more meat in my stories. Still, it's enjoyable enough to keep going. I think I will blow through it pretty quickly.
I started my Culture binge after picking up Player of Games recently. The kindle version availbility of later books is a pain that took me 20 minutes to circumvent region restrictions.Ever read a book and it just takes forever to get through because you keep putting it down and allowing days or even weeks before picking it back up again? Then the ending sneaks up on you and you feel like it would have been more effective if the rest of the book was more fresh in your mind?
Today I *finally* finished Iain Banks' "The Use of Weapons," the third Culture book and the third I've read in a row.
This one took me the longest to finish of the three. I thought it was great but it was slow and meandering and for most of it I had a hard time getting excited to read more because it never felt like it was going anywhere.
Then I read the ending and it brings the whole book together and retroactively made everything that came before 100x more interesting.
I wish I could have read it all in a week instead of over months, I'm sure it would have hit me so much harder. But it's a damn good book.
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I preferred the previous, first book Consider Phlebas but the sheer weight of the ending of Use of Weapons made it the best of the first three books.
If you want to read the books in the order they were published then don't forget The State of the Art, which is a collection of short stories, two of which are set in the Culture. The titular story is the longest and the main character is one of the characters in Use of Weapons, though the stories themselves are not related.
As for circumventing regions, well, a whole lot opens up with Calibre + Google
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