| 30 JAN 2011 at 7:52pm |
New WolfboySpace Cadet
Posts : 133
Joined: 27 JUL 2010
Status : Online | I am currently reading more of Clive Barker's books. The local 2nd hand bookshop is closing, and had a massive clearout, I was able to get my hands on The Damnation Game, Weaveworld, Galilee, Cabal, and so on
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| 30 JAN 2011 at 8:24pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Zanafarr (30 JAN 2011 7:52pm)
The local 2nd hand bookshop is closing, and had a massive clearout,
Ooh, good thing I was not around...- book sales like those tend to leave me with a hole in my bank account and a headache re where to pack all my new prizes... [smiley=cool.gif]
I'd be interested to know what you think of Weaveworld. That one is apprently more fantasy than horror. It's sitting on my own shelf too, but unread, along with Imajica and The Great and Secret Show. I've read Barker's Books of Blood 1 & 5; - I loved 5 but after #5, I was disappointed with #1.
@ Terry: Sorry to hear you've been having so little free time, but also glad to see you around on the forums rather more frequently, lately .
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 31 JAN 2011 at 10:49pm |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | I hate the British postal service They have lost 2 books that I ordered since mid December. I don't know why it always takes longer when I order things from GB than say Italy, Spain or Germany. Heck, even ordering from the US takes a comparable amount of time as ordering from GB.
The books that are lost (never to be seen again?) are Gravity's rainbow (I did at least get refunded for that one) and Hegel's the Philosophy of Righ.
Oh well, I'll bump up Ender's game to the top of my fiction list instead.
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| 1 FEB 2011 at 6:29am |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | That's a nice clearout, WB. I loved Weaveworld! It's a strange and wonderful fantasy. I also read Imajica, which, if I remember it correctly, was dark and rather sexy. I read them so long ago that they've come around on my reread list.
Had you read Ender's Game before, Fnord? It's a classic.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 3 FEB 2011 at 3:34pm |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | No, it is one of those sci-fi classics that I've not got around to read (until now).
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| 22 APR 2011 at 11:59am |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | I finally found the time to finish Ender's game (finding the time & energy to read while you have course literature to worry about is not always that easy), and I promised to give my opinion on the book.
I quite liked the book. Unlike many sci-fi books, this one was quite good at conveying emotions, and I actually felt sorry for Ender at some points (which i guess was the point). I could not help but feel that the side story about his brother & sister, that opened up later into the book, was a bit forced. Overall, it was a good book, but not one of the absolutely best (in my opinion, most sci-fi top 10's seem to disagree with me).
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| 22 APR 2011 at 2:49pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's I shall wear midnight and I'm enjoying it but I only read it at lunchtime.
We have lost two bookshop chains, Borders and Angus & Robertson so I've been to the clearance sales and bought some books. Today I went to a warehouse sale and bought 6 books for $20 - all non-fiction. LOL
Blooming English - observations on hybrids of the English language
Liar's Landscape - collected writings & notes from Malcolm Bradbury
The Politics of Pleasure - biography of Bejamin Disraeli
Dreaming of East - western women who explored the east
After the Victorians - history 1901-1953
Tales of the Country - true life account of a family moving from London to the country.
Now.... ask me when I'll find time to read these books and I'll just point you to the full sized bookcase that houses my 'books waiting to be read'.
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| 22 APR 2011 at 7:09pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Fnord (22 APR 2011 11:59am)
I finally found the time to finish Ender's game (finding the time & energy to read while you have course literature to worry about is not always that easy), and I promised to give my opinion on the book.
I quite liked the book. Unlike many sci-fi books, this one was quite good at conveying emotions, and I actually felt sorry for Ender at some points (which i guess was the point). I could not help but feel that the side story about his brother & sister, that opened up later into the book, was a bit forced. Overall, it was a good book, but not one of the absolutely best (in my opinion, most sci-fi top 10's seem to disagree with me).
I agree with you about the brother and sister bit. I thought parts of that was really over the top.
I found this a very hard book to nail down as to exactly what I thought of it. I liked some parts and I liked other parts less.
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 22 APR 2011 at 7:19pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By LadyKestrel (18 DEC 2010 5:00pm)
JKing,
I quite liked I, Claudius and Claudius, the God, and the television series with Derek Jacoby as Claudius is marvelous.
Caroline,
I can never walk away from a bookstore with just one book. I have a Barnes & Noble MasterCard which earns me gift cards, and I never spend just the gift card, either. It's definitely an addiction.
I'm headed off to the library to pick up The Fall of a Sparrow. Maybe I'll actually get to finish it!
Which The Fall of a Sparrow were you referring to there, LadyK? There seem to be quite a few of the same title by different authors.
I went back in the thread's history to try and find the place where you mentioned reading Jeffrey Deaver's 'The Bone Collector' because I'd recently watched the film, and wanted to ask you how similar the film was to the book.
Anyway, then I saw the post above. I've just started watching the I, Claudius series, and it looks like it will be keeping me busy for a long time!
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 22 APR 2011 at 9:43pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By placeholder (22 APR 2011 7:18pm)
Which The Fall of a Sparrow were you referring to there, LadyK? There seem to be quite a few of the same title by different authors.
It's the one by Robert Hellenga.
I went back in the thread's history to try and find the place where you mentioned reading Jeffrey Deaver's 'The Bone Collector' because I'd recently watched the film, and wanted to ask you how similar the film was to the book.
The book was good, but I haven't seen the movie.
Anyway, then I saw the post above. I've just started watching the I, Claudius series, and it looks like it will be keeping me busy for a long time!
The cast is superb, isn't it?
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 23 OCT 2011 at 9:36am |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By LadyKestrel (22 APR 2011 9:43pm)
Originally Posted By placeholder (22 APR 2011 7:18pm)
Which The Fall of a Sparrow were you referring to there, LadyK? There seem to be quite a few of the same title by different authors.
It's the one by Robert Hellenga..
Ordered.
I went back in the thread's history to try and find the place where you mentioned reading Jeffrey Deaver's 'The Bone Collector' because I'd recently watched the film, and wanted to ask you how similar the film was to the book.
The book was good, but I haven't seen the movie.
Movie's also good, I thought.
Anyway, then I saw the post above. I've just started watching the I, Claudius series, and it looks like it will be keeping me busy for a long time!
The cast is superb, isn't it?
Yip. The books and TV series starts rather slowly, but things really start to heat up when Caligula takes the throne.... [smiley=zombie.gif] (The scene with his sister is probably one I'll not forget for a loooonggg time....)
LadyK, plz let us know what you think of Perdido Street. I have a few by China Mieville, but haven't read him yet. Might as well start with this one if it's good.
As to what I'm reading, I took an Eng lit classics course this term, and found the Chaucer and George Eliot (Middlemarch) we had to read eminently boring. I guess Milton's Paradise Lost is good, but it's sooo loooonggg.... I think I need a break from the classics...
There has been mention of Neal Stephenson's new book in another thread. Sadly I find I dislike what exposure i had to Stephenson's style when i tried to read Anathem. Ugh, all those made-up words are so artificial and just feels silly to me. Each to his own, and apologies to those who love Stpehenson (I know there's many on this forum). Don't be angry with me. I'll try again with Snowcrash. :-/
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 23 OCT 2011 at 1:56pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By placeholder (23 OCT 2011 9:36am)
There has been mention of Neal Stephenson's new book in another thread. Sadly I find I dislike what exposure i had to Stephenson's style when i tried to read Anathem. Ugh, all those made-up words are so artificial and just feels silly to me. Each to his own, and apologies to those who love Stpehenson (I know there's many on this forum). Don't be angry with me. I'll try again with Snowcrash. :-/
I'm not really surprised you have such a reaction to Anathem: I, too, disliked the made-up words, and the first few chapters were a slog, and I wasn't sure whether I'd give up on it. After a while, though, the setting pulled me in, and Stephenson has a way of introducing technical concepts so that you as a reader are either nodding along at these nerdy things you're privy to, or patting yourself on the back as you unravel the salient points behind this new technical things you're not familiar with.
I do intend to read Reamde soon (I'm currently busy with another Stephenson novel, "The Confusion", and I expect I'll enjoy it very much.
Snow Crash might indeed be more to your liking---or at least a more gentle introduction to Stephenson. It's admittedly not anything special in the cyberpunk subgenre (Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and Max Barry's "Jennifer Government", for instance, are broadly similar), but it has Stephenson's usual sensibilities without too much opaqueness. His novel "The Diamond Age" is also set in a quasi-anarchist society, and while the ending falters, I found it a fairly easy read.
This reminds me I need to read more by Margaret Atwood. In school her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for half the English classes in eleventh grade, but I instead was stuck reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge", an absolutely dreadful and boring tome. Ah, well.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 23 OCT 2011 at 2:10pm |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By JKing (23 OCT 2011 1:55pm)
This reminds me I need to read more by Margaret Atwood. In school her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for half the English classes in eleventh grade, but I instead was stuck reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge", an absolutely dreadful and boring tome. Ah, well.
I never read that either, though its been on my to-read list for ages. If you put that on your list for somewhere in late November or early December, provided Skyrim doesn't keep us too busy, we can read it more or less at the same time and make comments on Goodreads as we go.
I haven't read The Mayor of Casterbridge either, but since it's by Thomas Hardy, it could not have been half as bad as Middlemarch; I quite enjoy Hardy's style in comparison to Eliots... at least he is less preachy and less visible as narrator than she is. : It could also not have been as boring as A tale of 2 Cities, which is what i had to read in 11th/ 12th? grade...- a novel i suspect i might enjoy more now than then, but it's about 600th on my list, so chances are not great that i'd be re-reading it soon...
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
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| 23 OCT 2011 at 2:18pm |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By placeholder (23 OCT 2011 2:09pm)
Originally Posted By JKing (23 OCT 2011 1:55pm)
This reminds me I need to read more by Margaret Atwood. In school her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for half the English classes in eleventh grade, but I instead was stuck reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge", an absolutely dreadful and boring tome. Ah, well.
I never read that either, though its been on my to-read list for ages. If you put that on your list for somewhere in late November or early December, provided Skyrim doesn't keep us too busy, we can read it more or less at the same time and make comments on Goodreads as we go.
Oh, yes, let's! Let's aim for early December, shall we? Skyrim won't keep me busy during my daily reading time to and from work, but I suspect it would be unfair of me to expect you to put aside the same time when you actually have a choice. A month or so should be enough to get the bug out of our systems somewhat, though. I don't expect we'll be done the game after a month (I hope not, anyway!), but still.
I haven't read The Mayor of Casterbridge either, but since it's by Thomas Hardy, it could not have been half as bad as Middlemarch; I quite enjoy Hardy's style in comparison to Eliots... at least he is less preachy and less visible as narrator than she is. : It could also not have been as boring as A tale of 2 Cities, which is what i had to read in 11th/ 12th? grade...- a novel i suspect i might enjoy more now than then, but it's about 600th on my list, so chances are not great that i'd be re-reading it soon...
Truth be told, I might enjoy it more today: lately I have been mock-criticized for enjoying very long and boring novels, so who knows? I don't think I'll give it a try, though. Too many other things to read! [smiley=angel.gif]
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 3 NOV 2011 at 4:03pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | I've started reading I'm over all that by Shirley McClaine. She's a prolific writer and a very enjoyable raconteur. And yesterday I picked up the hardback version of Snuff which may turn out to be Terry Pratchett's last book or possibly his penultimate. I accept great writers must die - I just don't like them getting Alzheimer's. Another decade and they'll probably have adequate medication for that disease. 
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| 3 NOV 2011 at 10:09pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | I finished Snuff a couple of days ago, Caroline, and really liked it. Although it is one of his more thoughtful stories, there's still plenty of the Pratchett humor we know and love.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 8 DEC 2011 at 9:54am |
FnordSchattenjger
Posts : 2752
Joined: 15 SEP 2008
Location: SE, Stockholm
Status : Offline | I "finally" finished Moby Dick. That was not a very fun book to read, in I doubt I'll read it ever again. Mellville was critizised when the book was first released for its pointlessly complicated prose, and I can see why. The entire thing did, to be honest, feel a bit pretentious.
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| 8 DEC 2011 at 12:03pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | We spent eons on Moby Dick when I was in high school, Fnord. It is not high on my list of classic favorites.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 8 DEC 2011 at 9:14pm |
AndromusGuild Master
Posts : 5538
Joined: 6 NOV 2002
Status : Offline | I found Moby Dick to be one of those books that when it was good, it was very good, but when it was bad, it was very bad. There would be an engrossing chapter with a lot going on, and all of sudden you would come to the next chapter....and switch over to a dull treatise on 19th century natural history.
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| 10 DEC 2011 at 4:32am |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By JKing
This reminds me I need to read more by Margaret Atwood. In school her novel "The Handmaid's Tale" was required reading for half the English classes in eleventh grade, but I instead was stuck reading "The Mayor of Casterbridge", an absolutely dreadful and boring tome. Ah, well.
(........)Oh, yes, let's! Let's aim for early December, shall we? Skyrim won't keep me busy during my daily reading time to and from work, but I suspect it would be unfair of me to expect you to put aside the same time when you actually have a choice. A month or so should be enough to get the bug out of our systems somewhat, though. I don't expect we'll be done the game after a month (I hope not, anyway!), but still.
Oops, I was just going to peep at Handmaid's Tale while I was convalesceing, and before I knew it, the book was finished. It's very very short, almost rather a novella; so you'll probably be able to quickly read it this weekend, JKing.
Well! That book ended so suddenly that I'm quite at a loss as to what to read next.
Oh, nevermind, I'll finish re-reading The book of the new Sun by Gene Wolfe. I've already re-read the first 3 books, - now on to Citadel of the Autarch!
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
Last edited by Traveller : 10 DEC 2011 4:41am
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| 10 DEC 2011 at 7:20am |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | I'm sad we couldn't read it together, but I won't blame you for enjoying it. We'll have to come up with something else to read together, though!
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 10 DEC 2011 at 7:54am |
TravellerGuild Master
Posts : 4040
Joined: 3 JUL 2010
Location: US
Status : Offline | Reading something along with the book-clubs at Goodreads used to be a rewarding experience for me when i still had the time to do so. I guess it would be nice to read something in pace with one other person and not have the pressure of keeping up with the whole group an their set timetable. Our goodreads discussions sometimes took hours of my time.
Say, haven't we played at least one game simultaneously, JKing? It was Syberia, IIRC. ..and we might have roughly corresponded our Amerzone playthrough as well? I loving doing games in groups. We should try and stage another group playthrough here on JA, an Adventure one when Skyrim fever has died down a bit more.
* * * Just call me Trav. * * *
“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.” - Robert Bloch
"They are not reciprocally sublated--the one does not sublate the other externally--but each sublates itself in itself and is in its own self the opposite of itself" (Hegel, from The Doctrine of Being)..."
Last edited by Traveller : 10 DEC 2011 8:15am
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| 10 DEC 2011 at 8:13am |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By Traveller
Say, haven't we played at least one game simultaneously, JKing? It was Syberia, IIRC. ..and we might have roughly corresponded our Amerzone playthrough as well? I loving doing games in groups. We should try and stage another here on JA, an Adventure one when Skyrim fever has died down a bit more.
Those two, yes, and also Diamonds in the Rough. I think A Vampyre Story as well. It was lots of fun!
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 13 DEC 2011 at 9:57pm |
CrisGerSchattenjger
Posts : 2539
Joined: 28 APR 2007
Location: US
Status : Offline | Gene Wolfe is a great read, i read those long ago and really enjoyed them Trav
I am reading Roman historians, Sallust at the moment just finished Tacitus's Agricola and The Germans, also re reading some of one of my favorite childrens series of all time, the Swallows and the Amazons, by Ransome, i even went to visit his lakeside home where he placed many of the stories, wonderful books from the 1930s illustrated by him.
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