Reading thread

[ManofKent]



... and at work I'm about to finish Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus and replace it with Martin Amis' The Rachel Papers.

I enjoyed Hocus Pocus, but then I've not read any Vonnegut I didn't like.

The Rachel Papers isn't bad - a lot lighter than his later stuff. I think Amis hit his peak with Money and London Fields. His later stuff is very so so.

Just finished The Windup Girl. holy **** that book was good.

Starting Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as I'm a bad nerd and haven't read it yet.

I really enjoyed 'The Windup Girl' - I've got one his other books on the unread pile, must give it a go soon.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is great fun, although the sequels do become increasingly patchy. The original radio series is still the benchmark though


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Just read 'Manhattan in Reverse' by Peter F Hamilton - like most short story collections it's a little patchy, but a decent read.

Currently finishing off 'Live By Night' by Dennis Lehane. I'm not a big fan of American crime novels, but Lehane is an exception. The central idea of a gangster who is basically a good man shouldn't work, but somehow he pulls it off.

 

[LonerMatt]

Spin was an excellent read. It tells the story of three childhood friends (Tyler, Diane and Jason) who witness the start of the "spin". The Spin is an alien membrane that encapsulates Earth slowing it down dramatically - so that for every second that passes on Earth, several hundred years pass in the Universe.

Faced with the prospect of galactic extinction in 40-50 years, many people turn criminal, many tuen religious and some turn to science - conducting experiments to repopulate Mars, etc, made possible only by the changed time.

Tyler is the protagonist of the story, and the various quirks and curiosities that make up his experience are appreciated and thoughtful. No part of this story was rushed, and it was one of the better SF books I have read (recently, if not at all). Beautiful, unhurried, satisfying and realistic (in a sense) I recommend this for anyone.

 

[Portland Dry Goods]

Picked up Taipei by Tao Lin for my airport downtime via market week - one of the better book's I've read in a long time. I could see the book being polarizing to its audience, but I feel like it nails down the idea of a "20-something" creative type in 2013 pretty perfectly.

 

[Lionheart Biker]

Got my copy of "Blood Meridian" yesterday. I´m 3 pages in and there already like 10 words I don´t know

It´s gonna be a tough read.

 

[Ecstasy]

Wow, I didn't know there's a reading thread... And in Streetwear of all places.

Are there any fans of The Hitman Diaries by Danny King?

Any recommendations for similar novels?

 

[rjbman]

Got my copy of "Blood Meridian" yesterday. I´m 3 pages in and there already like 10 words I don´t know

It´s gonna be a tough read.

Best polish up your Spanish too.

 

[dwyhajlo]



Picked up Taipei by Tao Lin for my airport downtime via market week - one of the better book's I've read in a long time. I could see the book being polarizing to its audience, but I feel like it nails down the idea of a "20-something" creative type in 2013 pretty perfectly.

I liked Shoplifting From American Apparel.

 

[Working Stiff]

Just read Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and it was wonderful - flowery and plangent science fiction dreamy all fantasy no science - "They had a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea..."

 

[Distorbiant]

Just read Bradbury's Martian Chronicles and it was wonderful - flowery and plangent science fiction dreamy all fantasy no science - "They had a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea..."

Keep in mind in the era it was written we had no clue what the atmosphere of Mars was like.

Check out "Frost and Fire" next.

 

[LonerMatt]

I just finished Throne of the Crescent Moon - here's a review I wrote on another site.

Throne of the Crescent Moon is undoubtedly an amazing novel. Saladin Ahmed manages to weave together powerful human stories of love, loss, duty, selfishness and age within a Caliphate-context. Saladin's society is overtly Islamic, which adds quite a lot to the story - making both the setting and the characters easier to relate to.

The story follows a troop of people engaged in stopping an evil magician, but the story rarely (if ever) focuses on the magic. The evil/fantasty elements are, if anything, simply a vehicle for the much more human elements of the story to be told and, like all great fantasy, magic is used sparingly, rarely and never lazily.

The key protagonist - Abboud - is a ghul hunter who is seriously past his prime and this was one of the main draw cards of the story - the sense that this was as much a quest for Abboud to prove that he was still relevant to the world as much as a quest to stop excessive murder/destruction.

Highly recommended.

 

[noob in 89]

Evan Dara has a new book out (or coming out?), for those seeking the ne plus ultra of raw human psychological belletrisms. For reals: his Lost Scrapbook had a pretty small run, but is essential reading, IMHO. Grab it. Grab the new one. Live. Love. Profit!

(Also, srry robinson, my response to your post on Lot 49 seems to have not gone through )

 

[rjbman]

Just finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness. Incredible book, highly recommend it. It epitomizes the classic sci-fi books that I love so much. The writing is just at that point where it's not quite modern but still quite good, the setting is quite good and the "twist" (Gethenians have no gender) is quite well thought out in how it would affect life. Some excellent discussion on sexuality (I found the use of masculine pronouns for the book to be annoying as I kept finding myself thinking of them as male).

Top 10 for me, for sure.

 

[GraphicNovelty]

Finished Hitchhiker's Guide. Paradoxically, I thought it was really good but didn't actually enjoy reading it--I'm not that much of an anglophile and the quirkiness, while cute, didn't resonate with me. I want to give it to 13 year old me who would go crazy for it, but 25 year old me is kinda like "meh"

Reading "The Scar" by China Mieville now. I like it way more than perdido street station.

 

[DividedWay]

Just finished Yiddish Policeman's Union. Chabon is a great author. Not much more to say.

 

[LonerMatt]

That's such an excellent post.