Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ChairmanPoo]

I want to reread Jurassic Park.

I'm recalling that the ending of the first novel was far more ominous than any of the upcoming sequels could live up to (with the island destroyed, but it being heavily implied that many dinosaurs, including a velocirraptor pack, are already loose in the mainland).

[Starver]

I'm very nearly finished with LOTR, which I can summarize as Gandalf is awesome. I'm going to watch the movies next, after I read the appendices. Does the Silmarillion add substantially to the experience? Because I plan on reading that anyway.

Someone's going to come down on me like an enraged Uruk Hai for saying this, but... I've read both the Silmarillion and Tree And Leaf and (to the annoyance of a friend of mine) can never remember which is which.  It should be easy.  Far easier than working out whether Bruce Willis was in Armageddon or Deep Impact[1].

Anyway, you may take from this that it doesn't really matter to have read either/both of these, but I related above only my confusion between which book tells which stories that I want to convey.  There's some interesting stuff in both of them, if you're already deep enough within LOTR-lore to appreciate them.  And it seems like you are, so go ahead!  Nice to hear that someone's considering doing that, takes me back a couple of decades to when I was very much in your position (and aforementioned friend had already read absolutely everything Tolkienesque several years ahead of me, and to this day can recall even minor character details, and roughly which page to find their first appearance/mention when prompted...).


[1] Armageddon?  Probably not, as that's just a guess.  But if I assume I'm wrong and switch, it'll have been right.  (sings)#Let's call the whole thing off...#

[Siquo]

"Kafka on the shore" by Haruki Murakami.
It's so good.

I also need to make an apology: Japanese traditional culture, food, and writers are actually okay! It's just the pop culture that needs to die a slow miserable death.

[Vector]

Hehe.  Have you read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles?  It's the only Murakami I've read.

[Siquo]

No, this is my first. Couldn't put it down the first day and read halfway through it.

[Roundabout Lout]

Having finished my backlog of The Dark Tower and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I need a new book to read.

I'm thinking maybe Catch 22, or any sort of classic I haven't read yet. Any suggestions?

[Realmfighter]

Reading The Algebraist because Iain M Banks is the best kind of human being.

[nenjin]

"How to Program C++" by Dietler & Dietler.

This may be the hardest material I've ever had to learn, of any kind. And I haven't even gotten to the part where you apply it. :|

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The Kite Runner, which got disturbing surprisingly fast. Especially since it was assigned by my school.

[Lectorog]

I'm thinking maybe Catch 22, or any sort of classic I haven't read yet. Any suggestions?

Catch 22 is amazing. I'd put it as a priority read.
I read a group of "college-bound" books, as mandated, a short while ago. They were, to surprise me, very good. I'd recommend to you, then: 1984, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World. To read in that order. It's fun to compare 1984 and Brave New World; there's a lot to consider there. And Lord of the Flies starts out slow, but it gets good; definitely worth it.
Of course, if you've read these, there's nothing new here. I'd also recommend some Ray Bradbury, specifically Something Wicked this way Comes. I liked it; worth a read, IMO, and it's fairly short.

I'm still trudging through Deadhouse Gates. I just read a beautifully described battle; I can't really put into words how I felt when I read it. Except, his writing skills are rather lackluster. Steven Erikson isn't a great writer; his thoughts are absolutely amazing. The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is surprisingly unique.

In English class, we're reading The Scarlet Letter. I'm asking sincerely: Has anyone here actually read and enjoyed the book? And why? I try, but I just can't grow attatched to this author's writing. His style is repelling, his character design is predictable and lacking, his structuring is uninteresting, the setting is dull, and the progression of events is pretty boring. The only thing I can put as a good thing so far is the plot, though I may change my opinion later; for now, it's working nicely. That said, I'm only a few chapters in. I'm avoiding reading it, but at least I'm not like my classmates, who cannot (and don't bother to) understand it, and look at SparkNotes when we're supposed to be actually reading.

[Roundabout Lout]

Thanks Lectorog, I was struggling with the decision.
And I like to walk out of a bookstore with a whole pile of reading material. Nothing quite like fussing over which book I already own to read next!

[fqllve]

Anyway, you may take from this that it doesn't really matter to have read either/both of these, but I related above only my confusion between which book tells which stories that I want to convey.  There's some interesting stuff in both of them, if you're already deep enough within LOTR-lore to appreciate them.  And it seems like you are, so go ahead!  Nice to hear that someone's considering doing that, takes me back a couple of decades to when I was very much in your position (and aforementioned friend had already read absolutely everything Tolkienesque several years ahead of me, and to this day can recall even minor character details, and roughly which page to find their first appearance/mention when prompted...).

Oh thanks! I hadn't even heard of Tree and Leaf, but I'm definitely going to have to read that at some point too.

So I think I'm going to wait and watch the movies until I've read the Silmarillion and then I can pick at every niggling detail. :DD

"Kafka on the shore" by Haruki Murakami.
It's so good.

I have been meaning to read that an Hard-Boiled Wonderland for like three years now. There are just so may other books.

[RedWarrior0]

Slowly working through Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Next up is House of Leaves. Then I need to find a new book after that.

[Vector]

I'm asking sincerely: Has anyone here actually read and enjoyed the book? And why?

I fucking loved it.

This is partially because I ship Dimmesdale/Chillingworth, and partially because I generally enjoy novels about guilt, forbidden passion (less Harlequin romance and more Hunchback of Notre Dame or Cyrano de Bergerac) the resolution of guilt, keeping secrets, etc.  I also enjoyed the multi-layering and decentering of the novel, so that the author made it very clear that he was creating a nebulous situation which necessitated interpretation.  I liked the metaphors.  I liked the turns of phrase.  I liked thinking about the natural state of man, about the "American-ness" of the novel, and a potential illicit love affair between Nathanial Hawthorne and Herman Melville.  It was just fun, kind of like Moby Dick or The Great Gatsby.  There's so much space for speculation and imagination, and the imagery, if you read slowly and let it sneak up on you, is marvelously clear.  The lighting metaphors were also really nice.  Gave me a very clear picture in my head.