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[de5me7]

Oh. I've read this maybe three times already, and somehow managed to miss the setting being Canada altogether. Perhaps it never seemed important for the plot.
Also, Tarkovsky's movie(Stalker) is an interesting, if overly artsy at times, adaptation - you might want to see it.

just finished it. The endings a bit unconclusive, but then the story never seems to be the main focus of the book

[Vector]

I never read the book, but the Battle Royale movie was amazing. How similiar were they?

Never saw the movie, haha.  Book is well worth it, though.

[Renault]

Based off of what little I know of it, Battle Royale seems to be something of a niche appeal. Is that a fair assumption? The general idea, what with the bloody high-school slaughter thing, seems to be a little...quease-inducing.
I guess what I'm asking is if the violence is as extreme as it sounds.

[Grakelin]

Let's just say that they never could have made this after Columbine.

Although they did. Both the novel and the movie.

[KaguroDraven]

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud is one of my favorate series of all time. I have no idea why to be honest, I just love the books.

[Vector]

I guess what I'm asking is if the violence is as extreme as it sounds.

It is.  As for niche appeal... dunno.  I know a number of people who liked it, and it isn't really that much worse than Lord of the Flies.

[Renault]

...But I hated Lord of the Flies. D:
The pig scene. I was...bothered.

[Vector]

... ITT Vector loves everyone's least favorite books and has not read the others' favored literature >_>

...But I hated Lord of the Flies. D:
The pig scene. I was...bothered.

In that case, I would strongly suggest against reading it =)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Seeing as we're talking about books that could never be made after Columbine, I might bring up Stephen King's Rage. He actually had it pulled from the market after a few shooters were found to have owned copies, which is a shame considering how good it is. As such, I was lucky that my father still owned the copy of it he bought before it got pulled.

While it would otherwise be an unremarkable work, I found it to be excellent for one reason above King's normal standard: Not only do the characters begin to exibit Stockholm Syndrome, I found that in a way, I was exibiting it as I read through book. Stockholm Syndrome is characterized by being entraped by someone (in a way, determination to continue reading is a sort of self-entrapment) and feeling sympathy for the person who's holding you hostage (the interesting motives of the main character keep me reading, and he's most certainly sympathetic). Just my random thoughts on it in the middle of the night.

[Acanthus117]

I finished rereading some of my dearly loved books.

A list!

• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Jesus Christ, this book made me bawl like a leetle baby man.
• Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman. Absatively delightful.
• Slumdog Millionaire, or Q&A, by Vikas Swarup. I prefer this to the movie, but the movie's good too. If they'd stuck true to the novel, I'd bet it'd be rated R or something.
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Great book, and I kinda cracked up when I kept on reading the parts when he was speaking like a bona fide military commander dude to his 'army' as I realized he's younger than 10 years old.
• I Am The Messenger, by Markus Zusak. Such a great book, I love Ed's characterization. The Doorman's pretty frickin' cool as well.
• Water For Elephants, by Sara Gruen. I was never into the circus, but I'd love to visit the Depression Era circus portrayed in this wonderful yarn.
• A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. I wish I could speak Nadsat, but thankfully, it doesn't exist.
• And lastly, Animal Farm by George Orwell. Man, this was such a depressing book. I kinda felt my faith in humanity drop when I found the RL parallels to the animals in the book. D:

[ECrownofFire]

Ooh, I have a copy of Anansi Boys. How good is it? Ender's Game is definitely my favorite Sci-fi book. Hitchhiker's Guide is probably my second. I should find the sequels for those two. Anybody have an opinion on them? I've heard the Ender's sequels aren't as good, but the Guide sequels are apparently really good.

Also, has anybody read the Mortal Instruments (starts with City of Bone) series by Cassandra Clare? It's not really the best series I've read, but I think it's worth it, if you can read past the sappy bits. It's heavily influenced by the Bible, but manages to stay clear of Christian stuff. It really only involves angels, demons, and things like that.

[Acanthus117]

Dude, READ IT NAO OR I KEEL CHOO.

Mortal Instruments is laaaame.

[Rose]

God, spider guy is such a freaking ass, you wouldn't believe!

[Aqizzar]

A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess. I wish I could speak Nadsat, but thankfully, it doesn't exist.
And lastly, Animal Farm by George Orwell. Man, this was such a depressing book. I kinda felt my faith in humanity drop when I found the RL parallels to the animals in the book. D:

I know I shouldn't make a point of crapping on books other people enjoyed, but I think I was expecting more from these books than I got.  Of course, I read Animal Farm in junior-high, so maybe some of it was lost on me, but the whole "hey, we're talking about how much Stalinist Russia sucked" was so on the nose I couldn't enjoy the idea of animals running their own farm, or any of the actually rather interesting characterization and interaction.

Clockwork Orange I actually did enjoy.  It was clear a lot of though and consideration went into writing it, and Burgess' egotistical screed about how it was edited was the icing for me.  Although I can accept the "ending" and character progression, the last chapter still felt tacked on to me, and I can understand the old publisher's decision to drop it.  I watched the movie at the same time, to write a paper analyzing the differences in tone and meaning between them, and I greatly preferred the style and substance of the book.

[Mindmaker]

Although I can accept the "ending" and character progression[...]

Not to sound rude or anything, but where did you see the character progression?
I was actually dissapointed that there was none.
Right when you think the character has learned his lesson, he gets reverted back to how he was before.

That book was really a dissapointment to me and I was angry that I was forced to read it at school.