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What are you reading? - Page 328

post #4906 of 5200
11/26/12 at 9:35am
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Originally Posted by Matt View Post

Im on this too now.
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Originally Posted by Matt View Post

Ghosts of Belfast was hard to put down, did it in a night. Think I will read Life of Pi next before I see the movie....

I'd be curious to hear your opinion on a couple of points. Several reviews I read claimed that Neville depicted all the Irish in a very negative light, all the characters being thugs, criminals, etc, and that the author ignored the root causes of The Troubles that caused the men to do what they had.

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Originally Posted by Rambo View Post

World War Z was ok but the book really ran out of steam toward the end.
On to this:
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Originally Posted by YOLO EMSHI View Post

I hate it when books have horrible covers

I refused to read these books for years, despite high praise, because the covers were so shitty. I read the trilogy earlier this year and really enjoyed it. I've actually moved onto Weeks' next series (which also has shitty cover art and, one book in, isn't quite as good).
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post #4907 of 5200
11/26/12 at 9:43am
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Originally Posted by javyn View Post


I really enjoyed this when I read it in HS.
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Originally Posted by clockwise View Post

Anyone in this thread want to join the 50 book challenge in 2013? No pics of book covers required over there just hard fu work.... biggrin.gif

Considering I started the 20111/12 editions, half-heartedly started the former and did nothing toward the latter (other than read a few dozen books) sure.

Books I finished the week before last on vacay:

The Art of Fielding
In Search of Silence
Inside the Red Mansion
Meat Eater
One other but I can't remember what.

Now I'm reading The Black Dahlia. With fiction I often have a hard time moving through books for no apparent reason, this is one of those times, even though I know the writing is excellent, there are fantastic characters, great techniques etc. Although now that he seems to have finally cracked the case I'm kinda stoked.
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post #4908 of 5200
11/26/12 at 12:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by YOLO EMSHI View Post

I hate it when books have horrible covers

This is one of the main reasons why I buy all my fantasy and 90% of my SciFi books on Amazon. I feel like I'm buying porn whenever I bring one of those books to the counter at a store.
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post #4909 of 5200
11/26/12 at 12:49pm
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Originally Posted by edinatlanta View Post

I really enjoyed this when I read it in HS.

Your HS is pretty damn badass if they made you read any part of this. I was big into drama club in HS, and we got stopped out in UIL by another school doing an act from this play. I was amazed, even back then. Been meaning to read it ever since. Screw Angels in America. heh.
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post #4910 of 5200
11/26/12 at 5:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by javyn View Post

Your HS is pretty damn badass if they made you read any part of this. I was big into drama club in HS, and we got stopped out in UIL by another school doing an act from this play. I was amazed, even back then. Been meaning to read it ever since. Screw Angels in America. heh.

Read it on my own. I think I read every Pulitzer Prize for drama from like 88-93, it was something like that.

AinA is exponentially better, with "Perestroika" being the true heavyweight of the two, HBO even did a very respectable version of AinA. Really want to see it live.

Many of the Pulitzer winners did NOT hold up well, IMO.
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post #4911 of 5200
11/27/12 at 3:46am


Had a fad on Chandler (and Hammett) last year, but still a few left on the Kindle to get through....
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post #4912 of 5200
11/27/12 at 4:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reynard369 View Post

I'd be curious to hear your opinion on a couple of points. Several reviews I read claimed that Neville depicted all the Irish in a very negative light, all the characters being thugs, criminals, etc, and that the author ignored the root causes of The Troubles that caused the men to do what they had.
I enjoyed it, and absolutely flew through it as a mystery/crimey novel with a redemption twist to it. I didn't read it as a work of history that needed to go right back through all the who did what to who stuff (indeed if it did, it'd be a 4000 page book that I probably wouldn't read anyhow), I just took that as a given, and read it as a story of a fucked up dude from a fucked up time and a fucked up place who did fucked up things in a circle of fucked up people. I managed to read Trainspotting without assuming that all Scots are smackheads as well, so no, I don't really accept that criticism.

I was a groomsman in the wedding of a guy from Ballymena, Northern Ireland two weeks ago, and managed to read this entire book without thinking 'hey, that's where Chris is from' other than when the characters went through Ballymena while driving to a hotel - so no, I didn't read it as 'all Irishmen are batshit crazy just cos this guy and these 4-5 other guys certainly are'. You could also make a case that not all the characters were thugs - the 12 ghosts are butchers and mothers and children and so on....
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post #4913 of 5200
11/27/12 at 5:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt View Post

all Irishmen are batshit crazy

Well... we are.
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post #4914 of 5200
11/27/12 at 5:41am
I'm currently reading Haruki Murakami's autobiography "What I Talk About, when I Talk About Running" and enjoying it.
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post #4915 of 5200
11/27/12 at 8:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt View Post

I enjoyed it, and absolutely flew through it as a mystery/crimey novel with a redemption twist to it. I didn't read it as a work of history that needed to go right back through all the who did what to who stuff (indeed if it did, it'd be a 4000 page book that I probably wouldn't read anyhow), I just took that as a given, and read it as a story of a fucked up dude from a fucked up time and a fucked up place who did fucked up things in a circle of fucked up people. I managed to read Trainspotting without assuming that all Scots are smackheads as well, so no, I don't really accept that criticism.
I was a groomsman in the wedding of a guy from Ballymena, Northern Ireland two weeks ago, and managed to read this entire book without thinking 'hey, that's where Chris is from' other than when the characters went through Ballymena while driving to a hotel - so no, I didn't read it as 'all Irishmen are batshit crazy just cos this guy and these 4-5 other guys certainly are'. You could also make a case that not all the characters were thugs - the 12 ghosts are butchers and mothers and children and so on....
I agree. I thought they were silly criticisms. The story concerns members of the criminal underground, so of course they're going to be unsavory people... It's the first in a series, apparently, so I'll be reading book #2 (Collusion) sometime in the near future.
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post #4916 of 5200
11/28/12 at 1:34pm
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Originally Posted by Connemara View Post


This was very funny. A witty and brutal skewering of the Washington culture. Buckley is unparalleled in his ability to write this kind of novel. (Jeffrey Frank comes close)
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post #4917 of 5200
11/28/12 at 1:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Connemara View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by Connemara View Post


This was very funny. A witty and brutal skewering of the Washington culture. Buckley is unparalleled in his ability to write this kind of novel. (Jeffrey Frank comes close)

The movie is awesome as well.
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post #4918 of 5200
11/29/12 at 11:06am
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Originally Posted by Gradstudent78 View Post

I've been thinking about reading this, how is it?

Better late than never, LOL, but yeah, Great God Pan was okay. Good story, pretty creepy, but it definitely shows its age as far as the writing goes. I'd recommend it but don't expect anything as good as something by Lovecraft or Blackwood.

Anyway, putting off the Kentucky Cycle for a bit because I just got The Quest (I love Daniel Yergin)

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post #4919 of 5200
11/30/12 at 8:13am
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Originally Posted by Rambo View Post

por que?
Because it's good.
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post #4920 of 5200
11/30/12 at 8:28am


Which is the sequel to this outstanding spy novel:

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