Reply With QuoteI've read Flashman and The Dragon and lordy was it entertaining. Not sure about his historical facts though, not entirely at least. Ripping good yarn though.
Hello all.
I have just finished the last of the Flashman Papers that I had left to read, Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald Fraser. Very enjoyable if you like history and an “Absolute Bounder and cad” for a main character.
Now I am reading The Last Bature by Kenneth C. Ryeland. It’s about a policeman in ex-colonial Africa in the 60s. Intrigue, spies and mad military governors, amongst other things. I am not too far in at the moment but it’s off to a good start.
I've read Flashman and The Dragon and lordy was it entertaining. Not sure about his historical facts though, not entirely at least. Ripping good yarn though.
I read this; it was fun. Much later I saw Matthew Broderick's movie Infinity and realized it's basically a dramatization of this book. If you liked the book then you should like the movie.Originally Posted by Muzman
Nah, I was thinking of chick writers mostly.
...loved Garp, hated Meany--go figure.
Dolores Claiborne - Stephen King
finished it today ayuh
The potrait of the artist as a young man - James Joyce
It gets really tiresome when he repeats the same old heaven/hell imagery over and over and over and over and over again.
Isn't Joyce the one with the dirty love letters? Read those and I bet the heaven/hell imagery gets more amusing.
Kinda, but that's sort of the point: it has a profound impact on the rest of his life.
Neil Gaimans "American Gods", which I loved the first time, but I'm struggling a little at the moment.
I'm reading this thread.
Bless your heart. That's a particularly dense word thicket to hack away at as an introduction. He isn't exactly known for concise what with page long run on sentences but the majority of that one is stream of conscious via cousin baby idiot. The end of a family line might be tragic but it comes off signifying nothing to me.
I do recall enjoying his discription of honeysuckle arbors which were common for courting in this area but he only alluded to thier use which was annoying. Anyway, I would have suggested "The Reevers" if for nothing more than the mule description as a starting point. Plus I know his world intimately so when he mentions his Sunday liquor run I know he is going to Motee Daniels house and follow along in my minds eye. Okay, now I'm streaming it.
Eh. The last thing I read was Clive Barkers "Weave World". I do not recommend it but it was forced on me with such insistence I could not say no and had to pick something good to say of it afterward. It did not make me want to burn my eyes out but I wish my friends had as excellent taste in literature as they do in friends.
I'm reading "Breakfast of Champions" now because this thread reminded me I haven't.
Kurt Vonnegut, now there's an American God
How Wilde!
Finished re-reading recently 'If At Faust you don't Succeed' by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley. Now it's Stanislav Lem's "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub". I am half through the book and still having a hard time figuring what's the book is actually about. I love him and hate him for this.
I'm up to the third section now and I'm not finding the run on sentences too hard to follow, I don't try and understand every single thing, more just get the 'feeling'. The thing that can make it tricky is the complete lack of punctuation ie commas in some of those monster sentences.
Good old Player Piano
Currently re-reading The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, though for the first time in a translated version. Before that, I read Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel, whose main plot is about the murder of a little girl in a small French town during WW I. The story and the characters are sometimes a bit overdrawn, and at times Claudel tends to get a little self-indulgent in his own art des belles lettres. But it's by no means a bad book, as these issues are rather small, and I quite liked the ambiguous resolution of the murder mystery.
My magnetic resonances to the brain X'D It seems that have no physical damages, luckily
We have to celebrate
I'm reading LOTR to my girl to put her to sleep, but that last part never works.
It's worth looking at a timelined version to keep things straightI'm up to the third section now and I'm not finding the run on sentences too hard to follow, I don't try and understand every single thing, more just get the 'feeling'. The thing that can make it tricky is the complete lack of punctuation ie commas in some of those monster sentences.
http://www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/main/index.html
What I liked about the first section was Benjy couldn't even speak coherently he was so mental, but his perspective and inner thoughts could be carefully described, almost as if there were another guy in there reporting on them on his behalf, saying "I", being honest to what Benjy is feeling, but still you wonder ... it's a fishy "point of view". But at the same time it's so interesting to have that such honest, inside access to a mind like that.
The Quintin section was also interesting to me.
Last edited by demagogue; 3rd Jun 2009 at 12:07.
Reading Lirael by Garth Nix, part two of the Old Kingdom trilogy. I read the first part in high school, it was called Sabriel and then I thought it was pretty mature for my high school library to have it. But anywho it's a pretty interesting novel set in technomagic steampunk world(similar to the setting of Arcanum) and the plot mainly involves the Abhorsen(people who use Death Magic to fight against necromancers and put the dead to rest using bells) and their enemies the necromancers. This part mostly concerns Lirael(a girl that comes from a group of clairvoyant people called.......the Clayr, duh) who's trying to find her destiny and Sameth(prince and son of Sabriel, an Abhorsen and heroine of the first book). Their stories sort of intertwine at the end and it gets pretty intense when Sam has to survive against the minions of the enemy necromancer using his limited knowledge of magic. For a fantasy book it's very nicely set out and has some great characters and isn't too focused on action.
The next book I'll be reading is Neuromancer by William Gibson.
For the moment I'm reading Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist. Mostly because my brother loves his stuff and keeps trying to convince me to give it another try (first one was Magician: Apprentice, just couldn't get into it).
I have to say that I feel like a bit of a philistine looking at the books some of you are reading; my 'To read' stack is mostly comprised of fantasy/scifi fluff.
I just received my copy of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the complete 1922 Oxford text. I've been wanting to read it for years. w00t
Kerouac-On the Road
And a non-fiction training book, The Dog Whisperer by Jan Fennell
Oh yeah, I just finished John Grisham's A Painted House. Damn good book.
I finished up Roadside Picnic finally. I think I'm going to start on Kim Robinson's Three California's triptych, which I've had for over a year and never actually read.
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