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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 7:54 pm
This is totally justifiable as being in a different topic than Favorite Books shut up don't judge me.
I tend to read in spurts -- I do enjoy reading, but for whatever reason I'll go through a solid period of reading non-stop and finishing mountains of books in a matter of weeks, and then I'll suddenly have my fill and not read much at all until I go to raid the library again. I'm on the MUST READ AFGAGFHSHF part of the process right now, and was wondering what books you guys are currently reading/have just read/are about to read.
I just finished Blindness by José Saramango and The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The books were similar in weird ways (none of the characters in either were described or had names, the dialogue was unstructured, and both at one point or another had an apocalyptic feel), but I liked both of them for different reasons. Blindness, in particular, I really recommend. I read it and enjoyed it, and then threw it at my mom who also read and enjoyed it. It's about an epidemic of "white blindness" (when the people go blind, they see white instead of seeing nothingness/black) -- those "infected" with the spreading blindness are quarantined, the system slowly breaks down, social chaos emerges, etc. The narrator is "the doctor's wife," who can see and has faked blindness in order to stay with her husband in the quarantined building. It did a nice job of showing how awful people can be, but how good they can be, too, I think.
Next on my list is A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. d**k. I've seen the movie (which was interesting but not quite my cup of tea) and have read some of d**k's other work, so I'm interested in how the book is going to turn out.
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:08 pm
Lately I've been reading in spurts, too. Like, this summer, I was reading like a fiend, right? And then I started reading A Game of Thrones and just sort of gave up altogether. I guess the last thing I read all the way through was Vampire Hunter D, and that was only because it was so laughably bad I didn't really have to pay attention to it.
But I guess I still have A Game of Thrones, Deep Secret, The Thief Lord, Inkheart, and some other I can't bring to mind right now on my list. And the enormous book of Sherlock Holmes short stories I'm still working through.
I dunno, I'll get back to you when I actually read something. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:14 pm
Isn't VHD fantastically horrible? I have another three from the series to send your way sometime if you want, too.
It is frightening to think, though, that the book was written seriously and is probably supposed to be taken seriously.
And The Thief Lord is still one of my favorite books, although I've always been a bit iffy on the ending.
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Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 11:26 am
I probably had more fun telling people my version of VHD than actually reading it. You know, the version where all D wants is to play chess on Doris's back. biggrin
I might try to read something during the remainder of winter break. I'll probably bump Deep Secret to the top, since it's been almost a year since I've read anything by Diana Wynne Jones, and I really should have it read before The Enchanted Glass is released in the US.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 3:28 am
I finished, not long ago, Mr. Skulduggery Pleasant and Mr. Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire, by Derek Landy. I'd read the third book (if I'm not mistaken, the third book is The Faceless Ones), but it's not translated yet, and I can't find the English version of it. MEH.
And, being a nerd/fan/obsessive-compulsive lunatic/fantasy writer, I'm reading the first book of Histories of Middle-Earth, by J.R.R.Tolkien.
I'd read more books, but a ghost/dragon/monster ate the light in my bedroom and my artistic production is off.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:16 am
Fun coincidence! I'm reading Roverandom by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Well, actually, it's one of four books I checked out at the library last week, none of which I've actually started reading in earnest. The other three are an anthology of short stories by Poe, an anthology of short stories supposedly Poe-esque (I'm on this track because we read don Juan stories in Spain), and an historical novel called Music and Silence by Rose Tremain.
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:53 pm
Yeah, I know I'm posting entirely too much.
I just bought a stack of kids' books from Savers (my guilty pleasure). Some of them are ones I read years ago (like Howliday Inn, by James Howe), and some I'll have to read eventually. Soooo right now I'm reading The Jewel Princesses and the Missing Crown, and then The Ruby Princess and the Baby Dragon, and then I'll pick up Deep Secret again. Which isn't so bad, considering the Jewel Kingdom books each take less than an hour to read.
Seems like every time I go to Savers I wind up with another odd British children's fantasy novel by Ibbotson. First The Secret of Platform 13, now Island of the Aunts. And I almost bought Which Witch? because it had a flamboyant-looking wizard on the cover, but then I decided I didn't have the budget for any more flamboyant-looking wizards.
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Posted: Sat Jan 09, 2010 11:41 am
A Scanner Darkly is slow-going for me, so I'm balancing it out with a bit of William Gibson ( Spook Country, which is intriguing but also suffers a heavy case of me not knowing what the ******** is going on) and Y: The Last Man which is a comic series I'm about halfway done with. I linked that last one because it's really neat so far and is fairly easy to find floating about the internets in .cbr format. I would get my reading pile finished a lot faster if I hadn't suddenly started binge playing PSX games. sweatdrop (In related news, my Digimon World partner Digivolved to Unimon and pummeled the rookies in Rank D at the arena, and my new Legend of Mana character just finished her first Niccolo quest. *_*) edit: Finished A Scanner Darkly and it was meh -- I quite liked the writing style but the plot bugged me as much as it did in the movie. The movie was very true to the book, though, so if you like the movie I do recommend the book. I still don't know what's going on in Spook Country, and I finished Y: The Last Man last night. A few complaints (what THE ******** was up with the Agent 711 suicide prevention s**t) but overall it was really fun.
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:35 am
I'm currently reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (: I'm also reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith as well as And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer. If you couldn't tell, I have book ADD. >.>
I was reading Spook County too! It's on my floor right now under a pile of other random books... I never finished it though. I might go back to it later. (I do that.)
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 12:27 pm
Currently reading Jane Eyre on the advice of a friend. I tried to read Howl's Moving Castle first because I know the University Library will probably have all the classics, but the style was not what I was looking for at the moment, and Roverandom's style even less so. But yeah.
By the by, how is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? I'm told it's supposed to be funny, but I haven't been able to pry it out of the steel grip of whoever's been keeping it overdue.
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:17 pm
@Carnemire: I love Cormac McCarthy, although I've never read that one. Tell me what you think of it when you're finished! And I've kind of stalled on Spook Country, although I have hopes of power-reading it in a few days before I have to chuck it back at the library.
@irian: Jane Eyre is a fantastic book and everyone should read it.
I've read P&P+zombies and liked it, by the by. I mean, it's pretty obviously trying to appeal to the Zombie Survival Guide "I AM PREPARED FOR THE APOCALYPSE GUYS LOL" crowd, but it was a solid parody, in my opinion. Also lines like "Woman, I am cleaning my musket mad " and "Girls! Pentagram of Death!" made me chuckle.
edit: Also, has anyone ever read 13 Reasons Why by, uhhh, Jay Asher, I think it is? Someone recommended it to me so I skimmed through it and holy s**t that book made me want to steamroll babies. I haven't wanted to punch a female character in the face that badly since I first played Final Fantasy VIII.
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Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:55 pm
@ Irian: I realized right after you left that I actually have a spare copy of HMC I could have lent you.
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:07 am
Reading Good Omens. One of the best books I've ever read. Seriously.
I'd have more but playing through FE:Shadow Dragon is eating my soul.
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:22 pm
I've never heard of Good Omens, I don't think.
I finished my stack of Cormac McCarthy, though, and am currently reading the ******** out of some fluff reads. I went to the used bookstore and bought the novelization of the first Resident Evil game, and also the two GI Joe spinoff books that are published. They are stupid so far, but excellent.
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:25 pm
I just finished reading The Talented Mr. Ripley. I can't really give an accurate analysis of my enjoyment of it, though, because I was reading it for a class, which actually made it better for me. This is because after reading every ten chapters or so, I got to sit around for an hour and fifteen, essentially gossiping about Tom Ripley. And we all know how I like to gossip about nonexistent people, mine or otherwise.
Even without the class discussions, I found it relatively engaging. The ending did literally have me on the edge of my seat. And Tom was just enough of a woobie to have me cheering him on almost all the way.
Not sure what I have to read for class next. Still listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
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