Conversation's dried up a bit, so I hope you don't mind this contrived little attempt at getting a discussion going, but...
What's everyone reading at the moment?
I've got two books on the go at the moment. The first is The Secret Agent by Conrad. Right at th beginning of this, but so far so good. And the second is The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. The story hasn't really taken off yet, but I really loved her other book, The Secret History so I decided to give this one a go.
Has anyone read any of these books? What did you think?
Also, how many of you usually have more than one book on the go at any one time? The ony reason I have at the moment is because TLF is a dirty great hardback and I can't be arsed to carry it around with me when I go out, so I read TLF at home and the pocket-sized TSA when I'm out of the house.
Discuss.
LotR, FotR. I finished the trilogy ages ago and going back a second time. (More precisely, I finished the book). I've never managed to complete The Hobbit though.
I'll probably have more time soon, right now reading (except for my degreee, which is stuff about early photography) is sort of on pause.
I'm mid:
N. Stephenson - Snow Crash
C. Palahniuk - Rant
and, only because I got the book as a gift, so I feel kind of obligated to read it, Dan Brown - Lost symbol, it's also ok as game plot inspiration.
Yeah, usually more than one book, but I concentrate on one when it's interesting.
This thread.
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Mon 05/07/2010 17:54:33
This thread.
This post.
And my economics textbook. I feel that I should really be reading more than just when my school makes me. I'll watch this thread for any good suggestions.
Juggler of Worlds, by Larry Niven.
I've never been a very enthusiastic reader.
But revenge came with my college, I study slovak/english literature, so I MUST read more than I actually can. This leaves little time for anything else.
Anyway, I'm a really picky reader. I don't jump on random books, I usually need a recommendation to read something. This way, I've read very few books in my life, but I found almost all of them great.
What I like are things filled with sarcastic humor (Catch 22 type of book, I also remember another great one, How I won the war, I don't remember the author though) and sci-fis (favourite is Aldiss' Nonstop), but also funny short stories (Leacock). I am also a very slow reader (excluding the speedy school readings). I have also never read two books at the same time.
I continue to read most kinds of classic short horror fiction that I can get my hands on.
Just finished a lot of Arthur Machen and Robert Bloch.
Currently reading Robert E. Howard.
I´m Currently reading Hemingway´s "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
It is not hooking me as much as I had thought. :-\
EDIT: Actualy, I´m also reading Bob Bates, Scarpia, Blake Speers and something else regarding to Puzzle creation. ::)
Hm, I've not really read anything lately. The last thing I read was The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights. Can't remember the author or anything. I'm more interested in writing lately than reading.
A mix of technical and fictional books at the moment:-
"Don't Make Me Think" By Steve Krug
and
"Flashman and the Dragon" by George MacDonald Fraser
I decided to "remember my younger days" and re-read Jack London's stories, simply without any certain reason.
Also reading Lovecraft a little bit, for game-making inspiration mainly.
Also a book on C# ;)
I have a pirate...err legally downloaded library of sf and fantasy, and use a text to speech app to read it faster than I normally would (I usually crank it up real fast). I also have a selected lib on my phone so I can read on the go. No books at the moment, but the last book I finished was "A Matter for Men!" by David Gerrold. I pick random books from the library and try to suprise myself.
Quote from: Mr Jake on Mon 05/07/2010 21:15:10
"Flashman and the Dragon" by George MacDonald Fraser
/me approves
I love reading, and have a huge collection that I constantly revist. But as for new stuff, I'm currently reading Paul Theroux's "Blinding Light".
Also, I saw a copy of "Frankenstein" in a second-hand bookshop recently, and realised I've never read an unabridged version of it (read a children's version long ago). So I picked it up and realised it was a 1895 edition! I ended up buying it for about $3.5. I'll be getting to it as soon as I finish the Theroux one...
I've been reading The Castle by Kafka in German until April, but then got focused on developing Snakes of Avalon and haven't gone back to it yet.
Later I've been reading from time to time classic short detective stories. For example, a few of the most favored Sherlock Holmes stories as I never read those before. Also, started reading The murders in the Rue Morgue by Poe, but despite its shortness I found it to be the only of Poe's stories so far that I don't feel like finishing.
In the meantime I've been getting into the only pulp fiction book ever committed by the experimental writer Witold Gombrowicz. It's called The Possessed (or Opętani in original).
That was May and early June, and since then I have stopped reading fiction.
It seems I've been reading nothing but technical books forever, but I have been reading some Discworld after all these years of meaning to. Only on the 3rd book so far (Equal Rites), but I've been enjoying them so far.
Shot by Shot.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Nah, nothing really. :(
I have 3 graphic novels checked out of the library:
Shutter Island, Tom Strong Delux Edition, and Zombies
Got a couple nonfiction I've been off and on reading.
The Difference Engine, but a little slow since I just came off Anathem.
Post Captain, and another book (can't remember the name) by Jonathan Stroud, but only because I quite liked the Bartemaus trilogy.
Just finished reading Guards! Guards! and Pyramids, since the local library only just got them in.
(yes, I always read several books at the same time)
Decided to rediscover classics from the 19th century, and I had several excellent surprises :
French litterature:
- "The Masterpiece", by Emile Zola --> Should be read by any artist! That guy understands you better than you do.
- "In search of the lost time", by Marcel Proust --> That guy mixes fantasy and reality in the most incredible way, considering it was in the 1900's. I also recommend the movie "Time Regained" by Raoul Ruiz ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Qguem4NDA&feature=related )
English-speaking litterature:
- "Two old men", by Leo Tolstoi --> Kind of obsolete nowadays. A historical value, though.
- "The selfish gene", by Richard Dawkins --> If you haven't read that, you know nothing about the human being. You can just get rid of your beliefs (both religious and philisophic).
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a 800-page full collection of all SH novels.
Love it!
I've recently started hearing audio books in my car, since I have long drives, and it's been really cool, the books are being read by volunteers, so some recordings are better than others.
I'm currently hearing The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins which is really nice.
And when I get home (and feeling brave enough) I read The Shining.
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Tue 06/07/2010 08:49:56
- "The selfish gene", by Richard Dawkins --> If you haven't read that, you know nothing about the human being. You can just get rid of your beliefs (both religious and philisophic).
Meh, the guy is overrated as a writer and scientist. I've read "The Blind Watchmaker" which is supposed to be his best intellectual take on evolution, but it's all just repeating "believing in evolution makes a lot of sense" for several hundred pages. The only topics appearing in the book that are remotely interesting are briefly touched upon and never get a deeper analysis.
Skin - Mo Hayder (eBook)
Holes - Louis Sachar (audioBook)
The plains of passage - Jean M Auel (old-fashioned paper version)
Quote from: Leon on Tue 06/07/2010 11:52:54
Skin - Mo Hayder (eBook)
How are you finding that? I read her
Tokyo and really liked it, and I started
Ritual a little while ago, but never did get round to finishing it.
I think it's great. Haven't read any other work from her (although I probably might after this one) but must say I really like it. I like how you're dragged into the story from the start. After some time it gets a bit more shallow but still good enough to want to get to the end. She knows how to create suspense.
Also taking into account that the book plays in the area where I live, the detailed writing makes it good reading. Now only the time to read it :-)
What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray Rothbard is the most recent book I've read. I've been wanting to get The Creature from Jekyll Island for awhile now but it's a bit too expensive.
Quote from: InCreator on Tue 06/07/2010 09:10:39
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a 800-page full collection of all SH novels.
Love it!
Nice, I've also read this. Only you realise then how poor the films are in comparison.
Quote from: Ascovel on Tue 06/07/2010 09:20:39
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Tue 06/07/2010 08:49:56
- "The selfish gene", by Richard Dawkins --> If you haven't read that, you know nothing about the human being. You can just get rid of your beliefs (both religious and philisophic).
Meh, the guy is overrated as a writer and scientist. I've read "The Blind Watchmaker" which is supposed to be his best intellectual take on evolution, but it's all just repeating "believing in evolution makes a lot of sense" for several hundred pages.
Well, maybe he's a mediocre writer - which would mean no more than "he fails to captivate his readers", and maybe he's a mediocre scientist - which would mean no more than "he failed to produce any major achievement in his field"...
...But it doesn't change anything to the fact that the ideas expressed in "the selfish gene" should be the basis of any modern reflection on mankind. And one has no idea about all that unless one has read the book. That book deals with so much more than evolution!
Also, he is
not expressing a "philosophy". He's just writing down simple facts - but those facts change our perspective as strongly as did the theory of evolution 150 years ago. No need to be a good writer or to have discovered them to unleash the power of these ideas.
PS: On another note, it seems it's not unnecessary to repeat again and again to some people that every single fact on Earth proves evolution - you know who I'm talking about.
Just to let you know, in this page you can make your own "Virtual Shelve" to keep track of books you have read.
www.anobii.com
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Tue 06/07/2010 16:27:57
PS: On another note, it seems it's not unnecessary to repeat again and again to some people that every single fact on Earth proves evolution - you know who I'm talking about.
Well, with that I can fully agree. Also, there's no doubt Dawkins is a really driven fellow.
Quote from: InCreator on Tue 06/07/2010 09:10:39
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a 800-page full collection of all SH novels.
Love it!
Hey InCreator, do you have an edition with all the original illustrations from the 'Strand Magazine' by Sidney Paget? They're stunning!
Love Sherlock Holmes! Bought "The Original Illustrated 'Strand' Sherlock Holmes" hardcover from Wordsworth about 20 years ago. The cover art is perfect. Hope image is ok (?)- just had to show you guys. Unfortunately this version is not in print anymore. The most precious book I own. ;D Must've read it around twelve times.
(http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1264354443l/1740649.jpg)
1126 pages of bliss...
I'm slowly getting around to reading Physics for Game Developers, which I had bought used a few weeks back.
I actually got it so I could improve my programming. Learn techniques I never knew. Etc.
Such a nerd, I am.
Aside from textbooks, I haven't had the energy to read much while i've been doing my degree. Now that i'm finished, I picked up the first book in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher: Storm Front. My partner got it for my birthday back in April and I picked it up just recently, finishing it in two days. I've now devoured the second book, Fool Moon, and i'm on the third book, Grave Peril, with the fourth, Summer Knight, sitting on my shelf. I like supernatural stuff and all the crime dramas on tv so it's right up my street=)
I tend to read sci-fi/fantasy stuff normally though I don't pick up new books as often as I should. I've got The Engines of Light trilogy by Ken McLeod and The Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton. Both of which i'd recommend. I'm also two books into Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy. It's an interesting story but it's been over a year since I last read it so I need to start again. Oh of course George Orwell's 1984 and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley have to be in there too=)
On the fantasy side anything with magic and wizards etc. My favourite book of all time is Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. I read it in school many years ago but I absolutely adore it even today. It's part of a series of five books, and they're all great, but I only discovered the rest a few years ago. The first one is the best though=)
I've also enjoyed the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, and the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini, though i've yet to read the last book, Brisingr (its over there on the shelf). I even enjoyed the Harry Potter series, but i'm a couple of books behind. I'd also recommend the His Dark Materials books by Philip Pullman, though I haven't watched the film adaptation as i'm sure it won't compare.
For a bit of light relief I like to read The Numa Files by Clive Cussler. They centre around Kurt Austin, rather than his more famous creation Dirk Pitt (haven't read any of those). It's all silly swashbuckling adventurous fun. Oh and there's always Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for a laugh=)
Whoops! Sorry for going on and on..hopefully something in there can help keep the discussion going=S Aside from reading a novel to unwind and reading a games design/programming book for learning, I don't normally read more than one book at a time. I like to stick with one book and see it through to the end of the whole series. I've tried audiobooks in the past but I didn't find it as appealing as the real thing. I like to fold the pages in my books=)
Re. Mati256's suggestion of http://www.anobii.com/ (http://www.anobii.com/) for keeping a virtual library: Haven't used it myself, but my partner (who is a much more prolific reader than me) uses LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/) (seems you have to pay after 200 books though >:(), while I use Delicious Library (http://www.delicious-monster.com/) on the Mac.
...don't mean for this too sound like I'm some Nazi or something similar, but damn it, there's too much books for my wallet and my reading speed.
I mean, there's A FREAKING LOT of books. Like, you cannot imagine how many books there are in the world.
Is this a good thing? Everybody gets to rad what they like etc. I don't know...but there's a lot books, lots of great stories...who reads these books, or writes them for that matter...I mean it's almost to a point of getting the sense of wonder from the amount of people in the world that write stories and how small and insignificant one being is...makes me feel sad and happy at the same time. Extra sadness comes from the fact that I won't be able to read them all nor to write anything as good as some are.
I know what you mean. I could say the same about games: I have SO much catching up to do.
Quote from: straydogstrut on Wed 07/07/2010 00:59:27
I know what you mean. I could say the same about games: I have SO much catching up to do.
Yeah, but books sounds more intelectual. ;) ;D
I feel the same... You walk into a library or a bookshop and, yeah you can dismiss half of them for being chick-lit or 'not your cup of tea', but that still leaves hundreds, if not thousands that ARE your cup of tea, with many more being published each week. There's no chance in Hell of reading them all, even if you're a fussy reader.
Even my own bookshelf is full of books that I've bought but will probably never read now.
And yet, despite all this, it's apparently difficult to get published :-(
Since its expensive getting English books here in China, I'm reading lots of stuff from Project Gutenberg/Feedbooks. See http://sugarlandren.blogspot.com/search/label/eBooks for some more on that.
I'd definately recommend Cory Doctorow for sci-fi fans and Rafael Sabatini for Pirate fans.
Quote from: Stupot on Mon 05/07/2010 17:39:15
I've got two books on the go at the moment. The first is The Secret Agent by Conrad. Right at th beginning of this, but so far so good. And the second is The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. The story hasn't really taken off yet, but I really loved her other book, The Secret History so I decided to give this one a go.
Has anyone read any of these books? What did you think?
I am a huge fan of Conrad, and
The Secret Agent has some of his best work in it, although it's a bit uneven and hard to get into (like several of his novels). I'm currently sort-of reading another of his books (it's also hard to get into), with a very un-PC title... let us call it
The Black Gentleman of the 'Narcissus'. I've put it aside for the moment to read
Kim by Kipling.
I also enjoyed
The Secret History, though the whole setup is a bit cliché (the whole "tight clique of brainy, romantic student outsiders turn cultish and homicidal." I am a sucker for that formula, though; for good Tartt-inspired fun, see 'The Last Supper' with a young Cameron Diaz,
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl,
The Magicians by Lev Grossman, and
The Likeness by Tana French).
The last book I finished was
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I quite enjoyed her first novel,
Sharp Objects, pulpy and gimmick-twisty as it was. Its depiction of pig farming made me a reluctant, frequently relapsing vegetarian. This new book isn't quite as distinctive, but it's a perfect airport or beach novel. You can finish it in about an afternoon.
Quote from: Ryan Timothy on Tue 06/07/2010 18:34:52
I'm slowly getting around to reading Physics for Game Developers, which I had bought used a few weeks back.
Those old theoritical books are sooo good. You rarely understand everything or put everything in application, but it helps so much acquiring new ideas. And it's thrilling the way they mix abstract concepts/algorithms, clever optimization ideas, and implementation methods.
You don't see so many of them anymore, because of the Internet. I have a few of them, they're like Bibles (e.g. "Zen of graphics programming", by Michael Abrash). Nowadays, when you go to a book store, you have hundreds of "Word for dummies" - a real pity.
Even here in Dublin, in the "Chapters" bookstore (that used to be a HUGE bookstore full of used books), they have divided the size of the IT books shelves by 3 a few weeks ago :'-(
For native English speakers who read Conrad, how do you evaluate him purely from the standpoint of his language style?
He's very much my idol as being Polish he managed to learn literary English to such great proficiency. And he did it while he was working on ships!? :o
Yet here in Poland his language skills' praises may be exaggerated, so I'm curious what do think people who are capable of evaluating Conrad's style themselves.
Of course Conrad is also a terrific storyteller, but that's another topic.
I'm not a native speaker, but for my money he's a terrific stylist, and writes excellent English. Of course, he had editors and sometimes collaborators to help him out should he occasionally slip up. In the annotated edition of Under Western Eyes they note places where the published version differs from Conrad's manuscript, and it's almost always a correction of some obvious error, usually punctuation-related.
I love Conrad stylistically. He writes gorgeously. I can never really get into his stories as stories, though, just because the style of his writing is so dense and full of symbolism and whatnot.