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[Flying Dice]

Halfway through Dune.  While entertaining in a way, it is exactly the kind of fantasy I don't quite get into.  That and I think the dinner party scene was 'out of this world'.  Good enough, but not going to reread it any time soon.

Whatever you do, don't read any of the other Dune novels. Even if you loved Herbert's original work, just don't. Except the long-past prequel trilogy, maybe. They weren't as bad, if only because of their massive distance from the source material. Sort of like how Matt Ward would be more tolerable if all the fluff he wrote was set in M6 or something.

[pisskop]

bizzare then?  Like alternative history book bizzare or Alice in Wonderland bizzare?  Alice in Wonderland is extremely bizzare, esp for its timeperiod.

[Sappho]

Just picked up Seven Emus, an Australian novel I grabbed at a secondhand shop, and read straight through it in three hours. I didn't read it all in one sitting because it was good - I did it so I wouldn't have to think about coming home to read more of this crap tomorrow. The introduction promises insight into the struggles of the Aborigines and plenty of humor to go with it. What I found instead was page after page of obnoxiously blatant racism (and no humor to speak of). I kept reminding myself that the book is 50 years old and written by an old white guy who genuinely believed in his understanding of the "blackfellows" and their misguided, uncivilized ways, but it didn't help much. Worse was the pacing, plot, and writing itself. It was difficult to read because nothing was happening. There is absolutely no story for the first 50 pages, and nothing interesting happens for about 25 pages after that. The bulk of the actual plot takes place within the last 30 pages, and even that is longer than it needed to be. The whole tale could have been told (and more effectively) in about ten pages written by any undergraduate student of creative writing.

The introduction to the book compares the author to Mark Twain and calls the novel "one of the most refreshingly original pieces of English prose to come out of any country within recent years." I'd describe it more as an example of how wrong things can go when the myth of the White Man's Burden (to civilize and educate the primitives of the world and protect them from themselves) is employed in the writing of fiction.

Spoiler: Completed So Far (click to show/hide)

[spoiler]Junky (William S. Burroughs) - 256 pages
Sourcery (Terry Pratchett) - 270 pages
The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm (Nancy Farmer) - 310 pages
American Gods - Author's Preferred Text (Neil Gaiman) - 650 pages
Hell (Robert Olen Butler) - 232 pages
Seven Emus (Xavier Herbert) - 175 pages

[RedKing]

Halfway through Dune.  While entertaining in a way, it is exactly the kind of fantasy I don't quite get into.  That and I think the dinner party scene was 'out of this world'.  Good enough, but not going to reread it any time soon.

Whatever you do, don't read any of the other Dune novels. Even if you loved Herbert's original work, just don't. Except the long-past prequel trilogy, maybe. They weren't as bad, if only because of their massive distance from the source material. Sort of like how Matt Ward would be more tolerable if all the fluff he wrote was set in M6 or something.

Just to clarify, are you saying all of the Brian Herbert stuff, or anything past the book Dune itself? Because I'd have to quibble hard on that last one. Dune Messiah is essentially an epilogue to Dune, and Children of Dune is straight-up awesome.
 
God-Emperor is the one that tends to be either a love it or hate it, because it's very little action and a shitload of philosophy and dialogue and people plotting within plots but Leto knows their plots and is plotting a Xanatos Gambit to counterplot their plots to plot the plot plot.

Heretics and Chapterhouse were kinda weak for being as massive as they are, but I still enjoyed them.

[Dutchling]

My wallet absolutely hates this thread. Just ordered 50 euros worth of books.
I really need to find some place to get books for cheap >.<

[Sappho]

Library? Secondhand shop? Any of those available to you? I don't buy new books 'cause they're too expensive.

[Dutchling]

I just really like having books, preferable new ones, so it's mostly my fault I am spending so much money.

I can lend a lot of books from my brother though. He has a lot of classic literature, and also a lot of (also classic) Russian literature, so I can get most of the 52 books for free I suppose.

Actually, I think I can get my parents to order some books for me, since we kinda completely forgot the whole gift thing at Christmas. Yay for late Christ,as presents.

[fqllve]

My wallet absolutely hates this thread. Just ordered 50 euros worth of books.

<_< How terrible is it that I don't even think that's much money to spend on books...

I prefer new books too, but I generally don't buy fiction or biographical stuff new, because you can usually get very good quality used copies for cheap. Unless it's something I plan on reading over and over, or feel like I'd particularly enjoy, I don't really see the point of getting a new copy.

[FearfulJesuit]

My wallet absolutely hates this thread. Just ordered 50 euros worth of books.

<_< How terrible is it that I don't even think that's much money to spend on books...

I prefer new books too, but I generally don't buy fiction or biographical stuff new, because you can usually get very good quality used copies for cheap. Unless it's something I plan on reading over and over, or feel like I'd particularly enjoy, I don't really see the point of getting a new copy.

How many books do you have? I have about 750. It's an extensive and expensive collection.

[fqllve]

No clue. Couple hundred at least, but I lost all my books in a fire about four years ago. Actually almost lost it all again in a fire about a month ago. Luckily there wasn't any damage to the house other than the siding, and I was at home this time so I could have saved all the most important ones.

I don't even want to imagine how much money I've spent on it, an embarrassing amount no doubt, because I own not a few $50+ books...

[FearfulJesuit]

No clue. Couple hundred at least, but I lost all my books in a fire about four years ago. Actually almost lost it all again in a fire about a month ago. Luckily there wasn't any damage to the house other than the siding, and I was at home this time so I could have saved all the most important ones.

I don't even want to imagine how much money I've spent on it, an embarrassing amount no doubt, because I own not a few $50+ books...

It's even worse when your specialty of choice is linguistics. Such curiosities as A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian or The Dravidian Languages will run you $30-$40 used, if you're lucky.

[fqllve]

Hehe. That is in fact my specialty of choice (or rather, was), although I focus more on English grammar than foreign. Wait til you get to collections of papers, at that point you're basically obligated to use a university library. One collection I was looking for ran no less than $300.

I think that's true of any field though. For example, several books I've been looking at on medieval textile go for about $40 and up. Academic books are expensive, which is continually disappointing because those are the best books.

[Cthulhu]

Just finished my first book of the year, about 20 days later than I would've liked that to happen, The Octopus.  Really good, I was surprised.  Also a surprisingly positive final note, though the meat of the ending is a horrendous punch in the gut.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The railroad monopoly takes over all the farms, their agents get in a shootout with the ranchers and almost all of the ranchers die.  Hooven's family goes to the city, where his wife dies of hunger exhaustion within days and his daughter becomes a prostitute.  Hilma has a miscarriage from the trauma of Annixter's death, who himself had just finally had his great triumph of character.  Magnus is financially and emotionally ruined, and ends up working for the railroad.  Presley comes out traumatized but presumably recovers, Vanamee has the only really happy ending of all the characters.

[Dutchling]

No clue. Couple hundred at least, but I lost all my books in a fire about four years ago. Actually almost lost it all again in a fire about a month ago. Luckily there wasn't any damage to the house other than the siding, and I was at home this time so I could have saved all the most important ones.

I don't even want to imagine how much money I've spent on it, an embarrassing amount no doubt, because I own not a few $50+ books...

It's even worse when your specialty of choice is linguistics. Such curiosities as A Grammar of Boumaa Fijian or The Dravidian Languages will run you $30-$40 used, if you're lucky.

You clearly never read historical books. Those regularly cost 120+ euros.

[Kansa]

Finished my 2nd book of the year, Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks. Reading this book reminded me why he is my favorite science fiction author, the climax of the book is simply amazing and it is probably one of my favorite endings

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

1. Dune
2. Consider Phlebas