A book thread

[thegayhare]

Well I know thewre is a thread for sci fi classics but It's been silent for a while and I'm not actualy talking about scifi, or classics just books.  Have you read a good book lately?  Tell us about it here. maybe you'll add it to some one elses to do list

I'm an avid reader who lately doesn't have alot of time to read, but I have been listening to audio books on my 3 hour walks.  And because of this I'm sort of forced to listen to what ever I can find.  So I'm going to suggest one of these books I've listened too

The book is Mr. B. Gone By Clive Barker

Man I wish I'd actualy read this one it's such an interesting format.

See The Book is about a demon and his life story.  But the really cool concept is that the story is told in his own words.  And I mean that literally since the Demon is trapped inside the book you are reading and the whole story is played out as a onesided conversation (or confession) between the deamon and you the reader.  In fact the very first words you read is Mr. B imploring you to "Burn this Book!"

And besides the unique format it's a truly interesting story following the life and times of a rather lowly demon.  His trials, and tribulations and his loves and losses.

Other then this after listening to the first 4 dresden files novels I might have to get them in dead tree format

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Notes from Underground. Fyodor Dostoevsky.


It's brilliant, a rambling, haunting, first person account of a Russian official whose neurotic tendencies have driven him to hide in his basement. Go read it. Now.

[superluser]

I got through the Iliad and the Odyssey on tape.  I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet, since it was intended to be read aloud.  Same goes for Beowulf.

Further, librivox has some public domain audiobooks.

And finally, I haven't updated my reading list in a while, but I'm reading Goethe's Faust.  Thus far, it's pretty good (unlike Marlowe's version, which you may recall I hated).  It's written in play format, and as such, I think it would adapt well to audiobook, but it takes something like 21 hours to perform the play, so that might not be for you unless you really want to read it.

Also, if you want to read about psychologically unstable people, I've got two books for you: The Eden Express by Mark (son of Kurt) Vonnegut, and Memoirs of my Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber.  Both were written by schizophrenic people.

[Janus Whitefurr]

My brother let me borrow Mister B. Gone months ago. It's one of the only novels I've read that read in that particular, technically-second-person format. It's slightly confusing because I was simply not used to reading story in that peculiar fashion. While on the topic of Clive Barker, my brother hooked me on both a slightly more fantastical novel set of his ("Abarat") and a rather creepy set that begins with "The Great And Secret Show". (Bonus notes, Barker is also responsible for the Masters Of Horror episode "Valerie On The Stairs", about a struggling writer. It's.... interesting.)

Recent reading not so much interesting has happened. For a dystopic book, M.T Anderson's "Feed" is an interesting one - it's for one of my classes this semester and it examines the idea of having the internet chipped into your brain, complete with advertising. It is... not as cool as geeks might think the concept sounds, believe me.

I also finally finished off my collection of 007 novels and while Fleming is outdated by today's standards, the stories are fabulously gritty (I hesitate to utter the term 'realistic' of course) compared to the lighter tones of many of the movies.

I also heartily suggest several Australian authors who no-one else will have heard of - namely Isobelle Carmody's "Obernewtyn Chronicles" and Joel Shepherd's android trilogy "Crossover", "Breakaway", and "Killswitch". He also has a fantasy series running currently ("A Trial of Blood and Steel") of which I have two books. These novels all contain something I find relatively interesting in literature, and that is a female protagonist who will happily be capable of Kicking Your Ass as opposed to being a side-character.

...

I'll shut up now.

[ooklah]

I've been reading The Wheel of Time series.. for the last year and a half... and I've got three more years to go.  (I'm not joking either!)

Obviously I'm enjoying it otherwise I would have stopped a long time ago.  Here's a summary: The Dragon is reborn, the ENTIRE world goes through the s*%^ fan. I also think it's rather funny, but then, my sense of humor may be broken. The song "It's the end of the world as we know it" would fit so very well to this series.

Unfortunately, it put me behind on other books, as I've still been picking them up and now not reading them.
If you like long epic stories, fleshed out worlds and what not, this may be one to try. The world may be more detailed then LOTR.

I am thinking about looking into this 'diskworld' series that I know nothing about.

[thegayhare]

Further, librivox has some public domain audiobooks.

Some of the HP lovecraft stories I listened to were Libravox recordings (some were rather bad quality too) so I'm not sure I wanna go back there to ofetn

But did you ever realize how creepy it is to be out walking through a small town at 11 at night while you listen to at the mountains of madness, or the dunwhich horror.


Janus
I got hooked on Barker through his movies first.,  one of his cool but little known movies called the Breed is on of my faorites

I've read the books of blood, and weave world, as well as hell bound heart and cabal  so I consider him to be one of my favorite writes

Pluss Barker and his boyfreind hold a killer haunted house most years, and man that would be s damn cool to see

[Janus Whitefurr]

I got hooked on Barker through his movies first.,  one of his cool but little known movies called the Breed is on of my faorites

I've read the books of blood, and weave world, as well as hell bound heart and cabal  so I consider him to be one of my favorite writes

Pluss Barker and his boyfreind hold a killer haunted house most years, and man that would be s damn cool to see

You'd really love Valerie On The Stairs if you're a fan of Barker's work. I'm the reverse - I always considered him to be an author and just an author, and to find out he works on movies was a bit of a surprise to me. (Also seeing him in interviews about the making of Valerie, he's both charmingly cute and British!)

[superluser]

Forgot to mention Life, Inc.  I'd definitely recommend it.

Libravox recordings (some were rather bad quality too) so I'm not sure I wanna go back there to ofetn

I quite agree.  I got their version of Henry IV, Part I, and was rather upset by the fact that they kept referring to some place called Shroo's Barry.

But did you ever realize how creepy it is to be out walking through a small town at 11 at night while you listen to at the mountains of madness, or the dunwhich horror.

Oh, wow.  I've got to try that.  Mountains of Madness would take forever, but Dunwich Horror would be awesome to do that way.

I am thinking about looking into this 'diskworld' series that I know nothing about.

You haven't read Pratchett?

Get out and buy The Color of Magic right now!

I'll wait.

[thegayhare]

I am thinking about looking into this 'diskworld' series that I know nothing about.

You haven't read Pratchett?

Get out and buy The Color of Magic right now!

I'll wait.

I've read every prattchet book put out there, atleast the discworld ones and good omens,  I'm looking for his other books too

[Baal Hadad]

Currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia--never read them before, but am finding them interesting. 

[silentassassin]

I must admit to reading Contact Harvest *Joesph Staten* a novel set prior to the big war in the halo series. A friend let me borrow it and I do like it quite a bit. Another one that I've been adoring is Band of Brother by Stephen Ambrose and while I also love the miniseries this adds much more depth and many more events to it. Neither of them are currently finished but I am reading them quite viciously. I also have World War Z but haven't been able to get more than a few pages into it at the moment. An author I've been meaning to check out is Orson Scott Card after playing Shadow Complex and learning of the novel Empire. Ender's Game looks like an interesting series by Card also.

[Tapewolf]

You haven't read Pratchett?
Get out and buy The Color of Magic right now!

That doesn't always work.

Currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia--never read them before, but am finding them interesting.  

They were okay, but I found the last one horribly depressing.  I seem to recall it did the "and one of them died but he was only a wolf and didn't count" thing as well, which did not endear me to it very much.  Then again you're no doubt much older than I was when I read it, so...

[Baal Hadad]

Currently reading The Chronicles of Narnia--never read them before, but am finding them interesting. 

They were okay, but I found the last one horribly depressing.  I seem to recall it did the "and one of them died but he was only a wolf and didn't count" thing as well, which did not endear me to it very much.  Then again you're no doubt much older than I was when I read it, so...

Probably, yeah.  Anyway, I have different opinions about the different books.  So far I've read the first three (as published, not in-universe chronology), and my least favorite so far is Prince Caspian.

[Sunblink]

Currently reading Three Cups of Tea for school. It's made me a Greg Mortenson fangirl and he's not even a fictional character; he's just awesome and I will keep plugging his awesomeness.

[silentassassin]

I'm reading Cynthia Voight's novel Homecoming for school. I must say I can't really seem to find it interesting.

[JackTheCubiWolf]

I just finished a pretty good book series called the Mortal Instruments. Very good series.

[TheJimTimMan]

...Wow. A lot of these I've never heard of; makes my current reading pile feel somewhat constrained in its focus.
Anyway, when I'm not reading To Kill A Mockingbird for school, I've got 2010: Odyssey 2 on the go with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency lined up behind that.
On the subject of Discworld, I'm quite frankly amazed Mr. Pratchet is still going considering his Alzheimer's. But yes, read them. There be exploding dragons.

[Janus Whitefurr]

Bonus short literature notation: I just finished reading Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis for one of my classes.

I am now depressingly sad. Someone hug me.

[thegayhare]

*hugs the janus...Hugs again,  and one more time...  brushes himself off and clears his throat* 

Well I'd just like to...

*pauses and pounces and hugs the janus again"

Dirk gentlies is good but so is long dark tea time of the soul... though both books are rather confusing

[superluser]

Bonus short literature notation: I just finished reading Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis for one of my classes.

I am now depressingly sad. Someone hug me.

Awww...  

It probably won't help, but one thing that people who haven't read the story don't seem to understand is that Gregor Samsa was always a bug, and that his metamorphosis was more or less to make him appear to be what he always was.

[Janus Whitefurr]

It probably won't help, but one thing that people who haven't read the story don't seem to understand is that Gregor Samsa was always a bug, and that his metamorphosis was more or less to make him appear to be what he always was.

I didn't even want to bother analysing it or philosophising about it for class tomorrow, really. I just found it really depressing all up. I'd heard rumours about the "was it a dream / was it real / was he a bug all along" et cetera, but just reading it makes me sad, and slightly horrified. He still had cognitive functions but just couldn't talk to anyone. Now then...

*hugs the janus...Hugs again,  and one more time...  brushes himself off and clears his throat* 

Well I'd just like to...

*pauses and pounces and hugs the janus again"

*throws himself into more bunnyhugs to clear the depressing story thoughts away*

[Mao]

I'd offer to hug you, but I think that would depress you more.  Instead I will just say:  Read the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy. G. Kay.  It is teh sex.  His other stuff was pretty good too, but reread the tapestry regularly.

[silentassassin]

I'd offer to hug you, but I think that would depress you more.  Instead I will just say:  Read the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy. G. Kay.  It is teh sex.  His other stuff was pretty good too, but reread the tapestry regularly.

What does "teh sex" mean?

[bill]

If you need to cheer up, Richard Yates is well known for making feel-good novels; I recommend the light comic masterpiece that is Revolutionary Road

[Tezkat]

A few weeks ago, I got my paws on a CD containing most of David Weber's Honor Harrington series. (Buy one, get them all! Oh, those crazy people at Baen...) I've been devouring a novel every few evenings--I'm currently on the tenth book. It's always interesting to be able to read a long series in one go and see the evolution of characters and writing styles. Despite glaring problems with the writing (e.g. mounds upon mounds of horribly infodumpy exposition which regularly creates absurd dialogue or interrupted action sequences), the books just seem to work. He's captured the feel of historical naval adventure in a space opera.


Speaking of long series about interesting people in ships, I'm gradually making my way through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin epic. You do need to bone up on old British naval vernacular to make much sense of the prose--O'Brian makes little attempt to coddle the 20st century landlubbers among his readership--but anyone who makes the effort will be rewarded with some excellent historical fiction.


And since we're on a kinda naval theme here... I can heartily recommend Richard Zacks' The Pirate Hunter and The Pirate Coast. Although both are non-fiction biographies (of William Kidd and William Eaton, respectively), they're written as historical thrillers, and they're very engaging. Zacks really did his research, and he offers some very fresh and interesting perspectives on past events and famous personalities.

[Janus Whitefurr]

Addendum to earliest post re: Joel Shepherd. "A Trial Of Blood And Fire" is now officially a trilogy as I found the third book in the series while out shopping today.

[Aisha deCabre]

Hum.  I have a few books in my collection that are cool enough to talk about, but sometimes it's hard to choose.  Let's see...

I guess one to choose and talk about shall be Patricia Briggs' "Cry Wolf".  Part of an interesting modern fantasy series methink...basically it's about werewolves, but not spun on a horror edge, more like a magic and mystery edge.  It also makes mention of people who inherit a magical nature and who choose to be witches, as such.

This particular story is told about woman who was recently "turned" to a werewolf.  The book lets you follow her story as well as gives you a look into the society, strengths, weaknesses, magic, and the powerful bond that a pack family of human-turn-wolves have with each other...as well as what normal-seeming humans have to deal with, with a wolf in their heads.  She and her fiancé/mate, an assassin of sorts, are sent out to find and kill a dangerous rogue wolf only to find there are much darker workings involved.

The book appeals to me as most fantasy novels do; especially as it's set in the modern world with the added twist of a small look into a world of magic.  And because it also puts a new eye to what werewolves are.  They are treated more like the powers of the wild wolf are a gift (or curse, depending on who you talk to) given unto humans, rather than powers that turn into monsters.  Some elements remain, for example silver wounds them worse than any other metal weapon.

And it's appealing because I've always liked wolves and what they represent as well, I confess. x3

[rabid_fox]

I've been re-reading "The Gap Sequence" by Stephen Donaldson - where nothing good ever, ever happens and every character is morally bankrupt and horrible.

God, I love Donaldson.

[Janus Whitefurr]

Part of an interesting modern fantasy series

And seeing that line made me think of Night Watch and its subsequent sequels by Sergei Lukyanenko (yes I had to look at the book to spell that last name right). Russian fantasy take on the whole vampires/werewolves/ magic / the supernatural thing. (Also involved a much Better use of the word "Twilight".)

[bill]

I am currently reading Pale Fire, which is probably the only literary "Choose Your Own Adventure" book ever.

I've actually only read it once, but the book apparently completely changes tone depending on how you read it.