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Author Topic: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013  (Read 58865 times)

Realmfighter

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #630 on: August 10, 2013, 02:00:33 am »
Spoiler: 27/52 completed (click to show/hide)
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Sappho

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #631 on: August 17, 2013, 02:38:29 am »
Spoiler: 1 through 30 (click to show/hide)

Book 31: A Canticle For Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.

This was my third time reading this book. It's a very good one. I get something new out of it every time. This time what struck me most was how the Catholic church structure actually has very little to do with "being religious" and "believing" and its true purpose is simply a mechanism for telling people exactly what they should be doing all the time. The people deeply involved with it, like the monks in the book, have everything planned out for them and they know their place. Small wonder they seem quite happy with the system and object to outside forces trying to alter it.

Anyway, 5/5, highly recommended.

Total pages read: 9820
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i2amroy

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #632 on: August 19, 2013, 03:09:46 am »
Stepping up my reading a bit as the end of my summer vacation approaches. 8 more books go down, 2 more from the Wheel of Time series and 6 more from the Toaru series.

Spoiler: Books Finished 48/52 (click to show/hide)
Total Pages: 20,708
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Vector

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #633 on: August 20, 2013, 08:22:06 pm »
Spoiler: 37/52 (click to show/hide)

Strong recommendation of The Gift for anyone who has writer's block.  Just sit down and read it until it works.  Yes, I know, it's kind of boring--but read it until it works.  Just trust me on this one.  It's worth it.

Six Records of a Floating Life is a pretty obscure Chinese piece, and I can't say it's especially artistically rendered--but there's something extraordinarily clear and genuine about it.  It's basically the recollections of an unsuccessful secretary from a declining family as his wife, parents, and children die, but he still manages to find beauty in it all--and because he's not self-conscious about finding that beauty, it's refreshing in its lightness and sincerity.


Next... I'm reading Understanding Media, which I currently don't understand at all, Norse Poems by Auden, and Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow.  They all seem pretty dull, but hey, whatever.
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vagel7

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #634 on: August 21, 2013, 02:26:50 am »
Spoiler: 24/52 (click to show/hide)

The Fifty Shades books are truly horrible, they aren't as horrible as I thought that they are, but they are still the worst piece of literary junk that I have ever read in my life. It's like some 13 year old teenage girl just started writing down her love/sex fantasies. The style makes you want to kill yourself, it is that horrible. How this thing ever got published or popular is beyond me. Only read them if you're feeling masochistic. But I read them while being bored at the beach.
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Sappho

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #635 on: August 21, 2013, 12:16:45 pm »
Spoiler: 1 through 31 (click to show/hide)

Book 32: The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

This was my first new Gaiman book in a long time. It was a very quick read, and a very good one. Highly recommended.

Total pages: 10,144
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Flying Dice

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #636 on: August 21, 2013, 04:43:26 pm »
Quote from: vagel7 on August 21, 2013, 02:26:50 am

The Fifty Shades books are truly horrible, they aren't as horrible as I thought that they are, but they are still the worst piece of literary junk that I have ever read in my life. It's like some 13 year old teenage girl just started writing down her love/sex fantasies. The style makes you want to kill yourself, it is that horrible. How this thing ever got published or popular is beyond me. Only read them if you're feeling masochistic. But I read them while being bored at the beach.

It did start as a Twilight fanfic, after all. Oh, and I'm being bad. I've got close to a dozen half-read books sitting around with forlorn looks. :|
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Dutchling

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #637 on: August 24, 2013, 09:05:54 am »
Finished book #19, Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks.
It was a good book. I expected something better, but I still liked it, 4/5.

It's pretty obvious I am not going to make the 52 book goal though... Still, that's no excuse to stop reading ;)

Probably going to start with To Kill a Mockingbird now, although I might finish some of the other books I'm reading as well.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2013, 06:12:36 pm by Dutchling »
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Kirbypowered

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #638 on: August 24, 2013, 04:15:29 pm »
Quote from: varnish on August 06, 2013, 12:25:44 pm
I just read Titus Groan. That was amazing.
My day is made better knowing someone else got to experience that story, and that I might have had a role in making it happen. :)

Anyhow, took my time finishing up Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. Didn't find myself enjoying it quite as much as The Heroes at first, but as I got further into it, I found myself quite engrossed within its story. The main characters are filled with questionable morals and do questionable things, and the presence of a hero is as questionable as ever. Questionably a good book, depending on whether or not you like questions. 'tis worth mentioning that I do.

Spoiler: 7/40 (click to show/hide)

So, coming up next, Rothfuss again with The Wise Man's Fear. Just short of 1000 pages, and I've got about seven days in which to complete it before heading off to the land of study. It will probably be the most I've read in so short a period of time if I'm successful.
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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #639 on: August 25, 2013, 01:09:46 am »
Spoiler: 38/52 (click to show/hide)

Ragtime was good and has convinced me that a sufficiently talented author could make me read just about anything.  Not good enough to keep, though.  I suspect I didn't understand the point of it largely because I am not especially good at the hermeneutics of historical fiction.

Now reading Just David (about halfway through, very fast read albeit quite putrid), Meridian (fuck yeah Alice Walker), Understanding Media, Norse Poems.  I'll post again once I've finished three more books... I was just proud to have survived my third Doctorow.
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"The question of the usefulness of poetry arises only in periods of its decline, while in periods of its flowering, no one doubts its total uselessness." - Boris Pasternak

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Dutchling

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Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
« Reply #640 on: August 25, 2013, 06:26:45 pm »
    Spoiler: 20/52 (click to show/hide)
    Finished book #20: The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.
    I originally bought this book as a surrogate history book. The real stuff was too expensive so I might as well buy this :P. Turns out to be not about the Vietnam War at all. I mean, it kinda was, but it was mostly just 'war sucks, people dying also sucks'. There was no real continuous story, although some parts I really liked. Especially the beginning and the end. It's just too bad that halfway through he he just keeps repeating the same death over and over again and it get's really tiresome to read. 3/5.
    « Last Edit: August 30, 2013, 08:13:05 am by Dutchling »
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    Sappho

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    Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
    « Reply #641 on: August 26, 2013, 01:47:08 pm »
    Spoiler: 1 through 32 (click to show/hide)

    Book 33: John Dies @ The End - David Wong

    I devoured this book. I had wanted to buy it for ages (as a huge fan of David Wong's articles on Cracked.com) but it was just too expensive to get it here. Fortunately I managed to get a used copy sent to my mother before she came and she delivered it for me. I don't want to spoil a single thing about this book because it was just so fantastic. Think "Shaun of the Dead" except with better characters and plot and narration and everything. It's horror, and it's comedy, and it's "have to have to have to know what happens next" compelling. I lost productivity because of this book. I will definitely read it again.

    I had dismissed the idea of getting the sequel (This Book Is Full Of Spiders: Seriously Dude Don't Touch It) because it's too expensive, having only recently been released as a paperback, but now I think I will have to get it after all.

    Total Pages: 10613
    « Last Edit: August 26, 2013, 01:49:06 pm by Sappho »
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    Pnx

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    Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
    « Reply #642 on: August 26, 2013, 02:43:11 pm »
    I don't know if you know this, but that book was released one chapter at a time online. Hence why every chapter ends on a crazy cliffhanger. Because David Wong loves screwing with his readership.
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    Sappho

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    Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
    « Reply #643 on: August 26, 2013, 02:46:54 pm »
    He describes his publishing process at the end of the book. Says he just wrote a silly story and was surprised people were reading it, asking for more. That he had never published anything before, never thought he could make money writing. No idea if that's completely true or not, but if so, he's got some kind of crazy talent to just pull this out of his ass with no experience. It's certainly an inspiring idea, that you can get famous and successful just by being a good writer and releasing shit on the internet bit by bit!

    In any case, the final product is really fantastic.
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    jhxmt

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    Re: The Official Bay12 - 52 books challenge 2013
    « Reply #644 on: August 26, 2013, 04:41:47 pm »
    Okay, so I started this last Saturday (17 August 2013)...so I won't hit 52 by 2014(!), but hopefully by that date next year.  :P

    Spoiler: 2/52 (click to show/hide)

    Starting book 3 today - Wasp, by Eric Frank Russell.
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