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Author Topic: Read Any Good Books Lately?  (Read 4679 times)

Kogan Loloklam

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #15 on: September 26, 2012, 08:35:21 pm »

Star Corpsman by Ian Douglas(William H. Keith, Jr.). He's not a bad writer, for a Squid.

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varnish

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #16 on: September 26, 2012, 08:45:44 pm »

I'm reading The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. Enjoying it so far.

I think i prefer science fiction where the science is a framework for exploring social ideas to the "harder" stuff, if that makes sense.
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Zrk2

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #17 on: September 26, 2012, 09:22:15 pm »

So the more philosophical ones?

Have oyu ever read L E Modesitt? He looks at philosophy some with his books.
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Nega

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #18 on: September 27, 2012, 06:39:15 am »

In English class we're reading Fahrenheit 451. It's pretty good.
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Yoink

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #19 on: September 27, 2012, 07:01:18 am »

I've been reading up on Depression-era outlaws.

First I purchased and read Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough, which is definitely far, far better than the movie. I made a point of not watching the movie after learning how many liberties the dumbass scriptwriters took with what was supposed to be 'based on a true story'. Seriously, don't watch the movie, read the book. 'Tis excellent. (Also it is non-fiction yet manages to be far more outrageous and exciting than a lot of completely false action stories. It's amazing just to think this stuff truly happened, and less than a century ago!)

Then I read (unrelated) Powder River by Ralph Cotton, the sequel to While Angels Dance. It was enjoyable, although more light-hearted than the first book, and consequently not quite as emotionally charged. I recommend reading While Angels Dance first, definitely.

Then I read Handsome Harry by James Carlos Blake, which was an enjoyable, fictionalized take on the life of Harry Pierpont, one of the aforementioned Depression-Era criminals. For the most part the dialogue and characters were very believable, although it was written... I'm not sure how to describe it; the whole thing is written from Harry's perspective via his confessions. Erm, what I mean is it's written like speech, rather than your standard novel format. Does that make sense? :-\ I enjoyed it, however the hell it was written.

Now I'm reading Go Down Together by Jeff Guinn, which is an enjoyable, detailed non-fiction account of the lives of Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. Sadly my copy is in large print, but oh well. Their story is fascinating, and the book features a whole slew of photographs I'd not seen before. :)

Oh, before I started reading up on my current topic, I think one of the last books I read was Crime and Punishment. Holy cow that was a great book. Always nice to read 'classic' literature that truly deserves its revered status. Even if a lot of the references to 1800s politics etcetera went over my head, and some of the archaic structure was a little hard to figure out, it was still a thrilling ride. I cried at the end. I shall not comment on how manly my tears were.  :-[
« Last Edit: September 27, 2012, 07:04:03 am by Yoink »
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Skyrunner

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #20 on: September 27, 2012, 08:44:35 am »

The Odyssey is an awesome book. I actually had fun reading it. Interesting story and pretty well fleshed out events and characters, like modern novels. :D
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Flying Dice

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #21 on: September 27, 2012, 09:48:49 am »

Need to get started on the first Otherland volume. I've got it sitting on my desk. :|
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i2amroy

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #22 on: September 27, 2012, 11:44:05 am »

Need to get started on the first Otherland volume. I've got it sitting on my desk. :|
I have like the first 4 of these for a couple of years now but haven't ever actually gotten around to reading them. Always seem to have something else above them in the stack. :P
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varnish

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #23 on: September 27, 2012, 10:16:04 pm »

So the more philosophical ones?

Have oyu ever read L E Modesitt? He looks at philosophy some with his books.

I haven't, but I'm always up for something new.

Huh. I like his wikipedia page. His themes apparently include such things as time travel, nanotechnology, the galactic empire, love of food, overheard conversations, and Mormons. And internalized information networks!

Very diverse.
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sneakey pete

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #24 on: September 27, 2012, 11:00:54 pm »

I recently finished A Wanted Man. not bad.

I have a problem with books though, I binge on them, it isn't healthy. For example, this book, at midnight on Saturday night, i turned off my PC... and decided to start reading it. All the way through till 5am. slept a bit and finished it before 10am. Not exactly good for my health, literally.
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Mutagen

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #25 on: October 09, 2012, 04:34:45 pm »

Oh, before I started reading up on my current topic, I think one of the last books I read was Crime and Punishment. Holy cow that was a great book. Always nice to read 'classic' literature that truly deserves its revered status. Even if a lot of the references to 1800s politics etcetera went over my head, and some of the archaic structure was a little hard to figure out, it was still a thrilling ride. I cried at the end. I shall not comment on how manly my tears were.  :-[

I second that. Crime and Punishment was truly a profound experience for me. The OP's handle reminded me, while I haven't read it  recently, The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay is one of my all-time favorites.
« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 04:37:36 pm by Mutagen »
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Flying Dice

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #26 on: October 09, 2012, 06:20:16 pm »

Need to get started on the first Otherland volume. I've got it sitting on my desk. :|
I have like the first 4 of these for a couple of years now but haven't ever actually gotten around to reading them. Always seem to have something else above them in the stack. :P
Yeah, only about a quarter of the way in, but I'm already intrigued. Probably going to be the sort of thing I read bit by bit, rather than in an afternoon.

For a class this term I have to read The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, Confessions, and The Divine Comedy.

I'll probably have to wait until winter break to finish rereading Shogun :C

Reccomend me one at the end.

Massive slowpoke here, but Metamorphoses was an excellent read. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was possibly one of the best mandated readings I've ever done, enough that I kept it on my "re-read at least once per year" shelf.
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Nadaka

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #27 on: October 09, 2012, 06:34:15 pm »

Spook Country, Snow Crash, the first 5 books of A Game of Thrones.
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Durin Stronginthearm

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #28 on: October 09, 2012, 07:15:49 pm »

I'm reading House of Suns atm - its a scifi, about people who clone themselves and travel the galaxy at relativistic speeds in cold sleep.

I love that book - Reynold's best, I think, even better than the Revelation Space series.

I'm reading The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. Enjoying it so far.

This is even better though. It would easily get in my top ten speculative fiction novels, and quite possibly in my top 10 regardless of genre. Le Guin is a brilliant writer, I strongly suggest checking out some of her other novels if you haven't already.

I just finished Carl Jung's The Undiscovered Self (a bit disappointing, he seems to talk around the individuation process rather than about it) and am currently reading Dicken's Hard Times. I've never really like Dicken's style, but Hard Times is the set text for my next module, so I'm familiarising myself with it ahead of time. I am enjoying it, for the most part - he seems to have reigned his love of convoluted sentences in for this one.

Next up is James Joyce's Dubliners, which I loved about ten years ago but haven't read since, and I'm hoping it's still got the magic, and then The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, which I've wanted to read for a long time but have never got round to.

Oh, and I really want to reread Demian, because it's a bit of a spiritual text for me and some recent events in my life have thrown a new slant on it for me, but it'll have to wait.

I fucking love reading :)

« Last Edit: October 09, 2012, 07:17:40 pm by Durin Stronginthearm »
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Meansdarling

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Re: Read Any Good Books Lately?
« Reply #29 on: October 10, 2012, 12:31:40 am »

We do have a books thread that was active no too long ago. Currently I'm rereading The Malazan Book of the Fallen, and it's amazing.
I'm reading that right now too!
It's really good. I'm going to re-read it a month or two after I finish it.
I'm reading is based on it's supposed re-readability according to tvtropes.
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