What are you reading?

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yuzuriha
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by yuzuriha »

Oh yeah, I found out about that a while ago. Broke my heart. Glad I still have my originals.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

[quote name='yuzuriha' timestamp='1348237729' post='134380']

Oh yeah, I found out about that a while ago. Broke my heart. Glad I still have my originals.

[/quote]



I could have bought the originals awhile back, but I thought, "no, I'll wait."



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Sabaku Ika
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Sabaku Ika »

I think I may have the first two Scary Stories books at my parents house. Those illustrations were the best and I did not sleep well as a child because of them. On windy nights, especially.



As for books for Petit's cousin, maybe he'd like this or this. I'll probably think of more later.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

Thanks Sabaku! I ordered "So You Want To Be A Wizard" for him! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thumbsup:' />



When I went to my aunt's house she let me look at his book collection. He had this book. She said he bought it himself with a giftcard. WTH. Either he doesn't understand most of it, or his reading level is above what I thought it was. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... nfused.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':confused:' /> I'll probably get him the LOTR set for Christmas if he's reading stuff like that already. (I would gift the His Dark Materials trilogy, but my family is Catholic and when the movie came out Catholics had a seven minute hate about it...)



And while I was looking for books for him at the store, I was rather impressed with the variety and imagination in the YA Fantasy section. It has its tropes, but the scenarios as a whole are way more varied and interesting than the ones in the adult section. I wonder why that is. Anyway, there's a new series by the guy who wrote the Percy Jackson books that I'm getting on payday. Hopefully it's a quick, fun read! (And I'll give it away when I'm done. My books always look like new when I'm done reading them, so it's okay~)



The Kindle Paperwhite looks amazing. I could finally get rid of my minilight over my kindle! But I still don't know if I want to upgrade to it... the glowing screen is the primary reason I want it...
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Tsuki »

Oh, I must have missed your post earlier Petit, but let me second the choice of So You Want to be a Wizard. I basically grew up on Diane Duane's books, she has a great mix of sci-fi and fantasy, the magic is "realistic", it's presented as highly grounded in actual science. My personal favorite book in the series is High Wizardry, the computer-related magic is a little dated, but I still find it a great read. I'm not sure if I would recommend the Dark Materials for a 10 year old though, even at a high reading level for that age. LOTR is a good way to go though.



You know, I'm a YA librarian, so this shit is like, my forte, haha. I'm still learning the ropes and getting around to reading more books (there's a lot more of them than I ever expected), but if you have anymore questions or need more books for him I can look around tomorrow, can't think of anymore off the top of my head this late at night.
Last edited by Tsuki on Mon Sep 24, 2012 9:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Wapiko »

I am blazing through the Pretty Little Liars series <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /ph34r.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':ph34r:' /> My cousin owns the first eight books so she lent them all to me before she went off to college. The goal is to have them all read by the end of October, when I see her again. She mentioned a new one came out though due to the popularity of the TV show (o_o) So I guess I'll be reading that too!
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Gerald »

[quote name='Petit Hulk' timestamp='1348529943' post='134553']

His Dark Materials trilogy

[/quote]

Words can't describe how badly written this series is, cardboard characters, huge gaping holes in the plot, ideas plagiarised borrowed from other books. I mean this shit is worse than Dan Brown.



I'm a voracious reader and these are honestly the worst books I have ever read, I ploughed through them just to see if they could get worse as they progressed, they did.



Yeah, I wasn't very taken with these books.



What am I reading at the moment I hear you ask....this.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

[quote name='Tsuki' timestamp='1348545238' post='134562']

Oh, I must have missed your post earlier Petit, but let me second the choice of So You Want to be a Wizard. I basically grew up on Diane Duane's books, she has a great mix of sci-fi and fantasy, the magic is "realistic", it's presented as highly grounded in actual science. My personal favorite book in the series is High Wizardry, the computer-related magic is a little dated, but I still find it a great read. I'm not sure if I would recommend the Dark Materials for a 10 year old though, even at a high reading level for that age. LOTR is a good way to go though.



You know, I'm a YA librarian, so this shit is like, my forte, haha. I'm still learning the ropes and getting around to reading more books (there's a lot more of them than I ever expected), but if you have anymore questions or need more books for him I can look around tomorrow, can't think of anymore off the top of my head this late at night.

[/quote]



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I never really did the whole YA thing outside of 2-3 grade. When my parents found out I was reading at a "high level" they would give me books they read (probably so they wouldn't buy me books because I usually read them in a day or so). That usually meant crime books full of gore and sex. (Or in my Aunt's case, VC Andrews books) I'm old enough to know that stuff isn't appropriate for that age. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/rofl.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rofl:' />



I didn't know you got the YA section! That's awesome~ :3 Since he likes to read I'll gift him books often. I'm going to make him the same offer I made with the other kids in my family, none of which have redeemed it. If they want a book, I'll buy it. Only one book per week, but any book they want, I'll get it. I'm of the opinion kids don't read enough anymore, so I want to at least take the "I don't have any books" excuse away.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by aine »

I've been reading A LOT recently, now that my work commute is nearly an hour one way. I must have read more books in the few months since we moved to the new apartment than I did in the previous few years haha. Needless to say, this makes me quite happy.



Some of my recent reads:



Metro 2033 - a big fat pig of a book, I hated carrying it around. But I enjoyed reading it thoroughly. It is REALLY rambly in a few too many times, where the characters just sit down and start shooting their off-topic stories that span pages... But it actually does help you get immersed in the universe. As the book was apparently written online with the readers' participation, it also makes sense how it ended up like this. I'm sure a good editor could have halved it in length without too much harm to the plot itself, but it's a blessing that they didn't.



It's difficult to compare it directly with the game (I'm sure you know the game), since the book has like 10x more material. The game is also a rather loose adaptation and strays a lot from the original material. But after reading the book I'll be definitely re-playing the game soon.



I could complain about a few things related to the English edition, like the translation being wonky and spotted with mistakes, or the metro map printed on the cover not making any sense, but those can be overlooked. Still, if you can read the original, do yourself a favour and avoid the translation, as some storytelling magic is definitely lost in it.



Fight Club - after the phenomenal cult film, I had worries that the book would actually be a lot of pretentious crap. And, guess what, it was full of pretentious crap. Fincher is a much better director than Palahniuk is a writer. If you have lived under a rock for the last 13 years and still haven't watched the movie, do yourself a favour and read the book first. In the reverse order, the book looks terribly pale with its lack of coherent plot and the disjointed scenes being just pretexts to pull some oh-so-deep-and-edgy one-liners out of a hat ("we're both human asswipes therefore fuck me so I can carry your abortion" durr). It's quite disappointing. The book is apparently a satire on consumerism and a portrait of the 90s men going through a crisis of their masculinity, and it does indeed like it deeply belongs in the 90s. In other words, it feels dated and it has aged poorly. So really, if you've been putting it off, read it as soon as possible, before it becomes completely obsolete and unreadable with any reference to today's reality and problems. Thankfully, you can read it in a day or two if you try.



VALIS - I'm a little past half-way through this one now. It's yet another PDK's novel that I picked in desperation, because I only really wanted to read his "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", but it's never on the shelf when I visit the library and I'm too cheap to pay 75c to reserve a copy. While the previous books of his I read were tolerable, with this I was like "oh fuck NOT another sci-fi 70s California dopehead novel"... I've never been this close to actually walking out tossing the book away without finishing. The beginning is really so dull and frustrating with his narcotic pseudo-religious rambling. But then it suddenly makes a 180 turn from ramblings of a madman into a work of a genius. Perhaps a mad genius, but still. While his other novels I read ("High Castle", "Flow my tears ...", "A Scanner Darkly") were just plot-driven distractions, this one operates on a much higher level. OR, it has actually driven me insane as my subconscious started to question the nature of the universe. I'll never know, but I can't wait to see the ending.



I'll catch up reviewing my previous reads later. Maybe.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Vikitty »

I'm reading A Feast for Crows! A Storm of Swords BLEW MY MIND omg. These books are getting soooooooooooo good.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Tsuki »

Aine: I thought I wrote about VALIS before, when I was on my Philip K Dick ... uh, kick, but I guess I didn't. Good god I could not get into it. I had it as an anthology of a bunch of his later books but VALIS itself was so rambling and weird and while I slogged through the rest of it, I did not gain much from the reading of it. It was dreadfully long and was only good as a glimpse into a really acid driven theological "breakthrough". I enjoyed almost everything else he's written, but VALIS was just too much ... just, everything for me.



Being a librarian apparently has awoken some sort of reading monster in me, because I have probably read more books in the last 4 months than I have in the last 4 years. And I'm reading four books concurrently, something I have never ever done before.



Of all the books I've read so far though, I would probably recommend Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books, there's a number of them, and I'm only on book two, but they're very very imaginative. It's like combining literary works with science fiction/fantasy (time travel, prose portals (you'll understand), vampires/werewolves/demons, genetic engineering), and a quirky writing style (he does interesting things with his characters and the actual writing of the books, like the main character has a conversation with someone who is speaking to her through the footnotes). It's all condensed into one very interesting alternate universe but it manages to not overwhelm the reader. You're more than willing to believe in a universe where pretty much anything is possible, but still have to follow rules of physics and science.



I also started to read the Harry Potter books and they're very well written. I can see why kids of that age loved them so much, I would have too if I had been a bit younger when they first came out.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by AEUGNewtype »

Silent Hill: The Terror Engine



Just recently read through this book, its available online for free through that link. This also inspired me to start reading a whole bunch of other essays and articles about gaming as a horror medium and why it excels at it more than the other mediums. If you're a fan of the series or just of survival horror in general, this is one of the best reads I've had in a long time. Major warning of spoilers if there are any of the SH games you haven't played.



It studies the psychological aspects of not just the stories and games themselves, but also the motivations of the developers and why their techniques are so effective and have shaped the genre as a whole. Tons of interesting discussion to be had on the subject of why video games are the best, most effective and most versatile medium in the world today when it comes to entertainment.
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Re: What are you reading?

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Right now I'm reading Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It's kind of confusing because of the anachronic order -- and normally I'm used to that sort of thing, I was able to fully follow the jumping plotlines in Invisible Monsters -- but there are parts of it that are really vivid and beautiful. If you're interested in Native American literature, it's a pretty good read.



Also I buckled and checked out the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy at the library, because I saw the movie and was curious. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... smooch.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='=3=' />

SO MANY DESCRIPTIONS OF FOOD HOLY CHRIST don't read it on an empty stomach like I did.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

[quote name='Kalle' timestamp='1352386285' post='137270']

Right now I'm reading Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. It's kind of confusing because of the anachronic order -- and normally I'm used to that sort of thing, I was able to fully follow the jumping plotlines in Invisible Monsters -- but there are parts of it that are really vivid and beautiful. If you're interested in Native American literature, it's a pretty good read.



Also I buckled and checked out the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy at the library, because I saw the movie and was curious. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... smooch.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='=3=' />

SO MANY DESCRIPTIONS OF FOOD HOLY CHRIST don't read it on an empty stomach like I did.

[/quote]



Don't read Like Water For Chocolate on an empty stomach either. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... >/rofl.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rofl:' /> I'm also fond of George R.R. Martin's descriptions of food. (We all know that man love to eat)
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by freezingkiss »

[quote name='The Turtle Moves' timestamp='1348569799' post='134573']

[quote name='Petit Hulk' timestamp='1348529943' post='134553']

His Dark Materials trilogy

[/quote]

Words can't describe how badly written this series is, cardboard characters, huge gaping holes in the plot, ideas plagiarised borrowed from other books. I mean this shit is worse than Dan Brown.



I'm a voracious reader and these are honestly the worst books I have ever read, I ploughed through them just to see if they could get worse as they progressed, they did.



Yeah, I wasn't very taken with these books.



What am I reading at the moment I hear you ask....this.

[/quote]



What? These are brilliant. I love Pullman. I thought they were enchanting.



Currently reading The Sacred Band by David Anthony Durham, third in the Acacia trilogy, it's good but it's very drowned in politics and character description and the plot takes a looooooooooooooooong time to get somewhere.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

No kindle daily deals, stop. I wish my library had electronic lending. Hopefully the library in the rich town will have it. (but can I borrow from there?)

Bought Water for Elephants, Notorious Victoria, Bridge to Terabithia, and got a book called King of Swords for free. I've read BtT, so I'm doing a chapter of each abd picking the winner lulz. I've been working my way through Michael J. Fox's autobiography too, but it's not really grabbing me yet. I'm on his career summary right now, and I wanted to know more about him in the times he's "disappeared"in media. The condition started in his early 20s though. Wow.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

HAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GUYS REMEMBER THIS THREAD?????
 
 
I was thinking, maybe we can start a BBS Book Club? Like, we can vote on and pick a book for us to read that month and discuss it?
 
I'm reading Pale Fire right now. I finally worked my way through the books friends (really only two) rec'd, most were bad, one was okay/sorta good (The Name of the Wind). They're all first person though. :| I don't write in first person, I'm not really fond of reading it, but it has given me a lesson in how to write it. Pale Fire makes me so upset because it's made me realize how shit my vocabulary has become. I really need to get back into reading more difficult books so I can "level up" my vocabulary again. I'm forgetting words I knew. That's so upsetting to me and embarrassing considering that I call myself a writer!
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Ap2000 »

[quote="Petit Melon"]
HAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GUYS REMEMBER THIS THREAD?????
 
 
I was thinking, maybe we can start a BBS Book Club? Like, we can vote on and pick a book for us to read that month and discuss it?
 
I'm reading Pale Fire right now. I finally worked my way through the books friends (really only two) rec'd, most were bad, one was okay/sorta good (The Name of the Wind). They're all first person though. :| I don't write in first person, I'm not really fond of reading it, but it has given me a lesson in how to write it. Pale Fire makes me so upset because it's made me realize how shit my vocabulary has become. I really need to get back into reading more difficult books so I can "level up" my vocabulary again. I'm forgetting words I knew. That's so upsetting to me and embarrassing considering that I call myself a writer!
[/quote]
 
I actually finished Murakamis 1Q84 a few weeks ago, but completely forgot to post about it. It was pretty good, but too drawn out.
 
From my experience, whenever people on this board want to read something together, absolutely nothing comes out of it. Remember when AEUGN gave us that Idol book ? lol
Last edited by Ap2000 on Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are you reading?

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[quote="Petit Melon"]
I'm reading Pale Fire right now. I finally worked my way through the books friends (really only two) rec'd, most were bad, one was okay/sorta good (The Name of the Wind). They're all first person though. :| I don't write in first person, I'm not really fond of reading it, but it has given me a lesson in how to write it. Pale Fire makes me so upset because it's made me realize how shit my vocabulary has become. I really need to get back into reading more difficult books so I can "level up" my vocabulary again. I'm forgetting words I knew. That's so upsetting to me and embarrassing considering that I call myself a writer!
[/quote]
I remember I was going to read "Pale Fire" after I finished "Pnin" which I started reading after I finished "Lolita". I made it several chapters into "Pnin" then I had to return the book. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nabokov-Novels-19 ... 11191">The book I read from</a> contains Vladimir Nabokov's novels from '55~'62 with the addition of the screenplay script for Lolita. My library doesn't have separate coppies of the individual novels and doesn't have volume 1 or 3 of the Library of America's "Nabokov" series.) I could have renewed it again with the library since I was the only person to check it out in several years, but I had already renewed it 8 times at that point. I'm thinking about checking it out again and finishing those two.
 
Also, I have yet to read "To Kill A Mockingbird" which I have to read for 9th grade honors english. I really should get started on that seeing as the summer is coming to and end soon.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by yuzuriha »

"To Kill a mockingbird" was one of the few school assigned books I enjoyed. (For the record, I've always loved to read, I just hate being told WHAT to read).
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

I....liked most of the books we were required to read in school.
 
Except Dickens. FUCK DICKENS. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate HATED every single book. ESPECIALLY GREAT EXPECTATIONS.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Ap2000 »

I didn't actually really read many of the books we were required to read in school. =P
In German class we mostly had poems, which were all bullshit.
 
In English we had some OK ones like Brave new world and one really good one, Catcher in the rye. I don't remember any others, but we only had ~1 book per semester anyway.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by star »

Along the lines of poetry, I love Edgar Allen Poe. I'm hopping that we read a fair share of his work in Honors English, but we'll most likely get stuck with boring long-ass novels.
 
I'm fine with reading, but as long as its something that I want to read. I've read almost none of the books we were supposed to read for class. 
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Ap2000 »

The only Edgar Allen Poe thing I know is part of The Raven, because it was featured in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WneLTZo_3Q">startup of Eternal Darkness</a> (unfortunately they cut it off before "dreaming dreams no mortal has ever dreamed before").
But that thing was burned into my brain and I will probably never forget ever.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by yuzuriha »

I hated every war book we had to read.  Now that I'm thinking about it I was wrong, I loved most of the books we read for school.  There's just these two that stick out to me: Killer Angels and April Morning.  Killer Angels was so boring no one in the class really read it.  I still managed to pull Cs on the quizzes because I actually at one point had an interest in the (American) Civil War and used that knowledge (which is completely gone).
 
Anyway as for what I'm reading right now?  I hate myself so I am making myself finally finish "Fifty Shades Darker".  For those of you who don't know I wanted to read the first one to see what the big fuss was about, but accidentally bought the last one first.  And since I have this horrible thing that makes me read all books in a series (except I still haven't read the last Twilight) I bought the other two.  Ugh it's sooooo bad.  I wrote better in middle school.  But once I finish this (and Mockingjay which I am halfway through but can't find!?) I am allowed to start either Dexter or A Song of Ice and Fire.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by arcobaleno »

I also have that must-read-all-books-in-a-series disease, too! That's how I've ended up with all of the Harry Potter and Heroes of Olypmus series so far (heh).

Even being homeschooled, I still had to read other books, so that kinda sucked. There was a lot of Dickens involved (I feel your pain, Petit Melon), which probably would've been easier if they had translated it from old English into more modern English, because I seriously hate having to look at all of these footnotes to see what stuff meant not only in old English, but old British English to boot. Most of the ones I had to read in homeschooled high school were those depressing angsty teenage books, and that was torture.

ANYWAY.

Right now I'm (re)reading the Heroes of Olympus series, just 'cause I love it so much.
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Vikitty »

If you want another really good YA series, please read the Pendragon series. :3 There are ten books and it doesn't get the attention it deserves. They're SO GOOD.
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Melon
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Melon »

[quote="yuzuriha"]
I hated every war book we had to read.  Now that I'm thinking about it I was wrong, I loved most of the books we read for school.  There's just these two that stick out to me: Killer Angels and April Morning.  Killer Angels was so boring no one in the class really read it.  I still managed to pull Cs on the quizzes because I actually at one point had an interest in the (American) Civil War and used that knowledge (which is completely gone).
 
Anyway as for what I'm reading right now?  I hate myself so I am making myself finally finish "Fifty Shades Darker".  For those of you who don't know I wanted to read the first one to see what the big fuss was about, but accidentally bought the last one first.  And since I have this horrible thing that makes me read all books in a series (except I still haven't read the last Twilight) I bought the other two.  Ugh it's sooooo bad.  I wrote better in middle school.  But once I finish this (and Mockingjay which I am halfway through but can't find!?) I am allowed to start either Dexter or A Song of Ice and Fire.
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I didn't like Dexter too much. The first book is like the first season, and I liked watching MCH more than reading the book. The writing style was boring imo. I know the later books change things (I believe his kids are also "dark passenger" carriers) but the first turned me off so I haven't read them.
 
ASOIAF starts off pretty slow, but I found the books a great read.
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yuzuriha
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by yuzuriha »

Well my sister is reading them and is also in love with Dexter so I'll at least give them a shot.  It depends on if my mom is done the first Story of Ice and Fire by the time I'm ready for a new book.
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Madara
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Madara »

[quote="aine"]
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VALIS">[b]VALIS[/b]</a> - I'm a little past half-way through this one now. It's yet another PDK's novel that I picked in desperation, because I only really wanted to read his "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", but it's never on the shelf when I visit the library and I'm too cheap to pay 75c to reserve a copy. While the previous books of his I read were tolerable, with this I was like "oh fuck NOT another sci-fi 70s California dopehead novel"... I've never been this close to actually <del>walking out</del> tossing the book away without finishing. The beginning is really so dull and frustrating with his narcotic pseudo-religious rambling. But then it suddenly makes a 180 turn from ramblings of a madman into a work of a genius. Perhaps a mad genius, but still. While his other novels I read ("High Castle", "Flow my tears ...", "A Scanner Darkly") were just plot-driven distractions, this one operates on a much higher level. OR, it has actually driven me insane as my subconscious started to question the nature of the universe. I'll never know, but I can't wait to see the ending.


 
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As someone who's totally at home with books written in the paranoid conspiracy mindset (most of them purporting to be nonfiction), I enjoy Philip K. Dick's books from this phase of his career, including Valis. Unfortunately I can't remember what the other titles were. I read them a long time ago. But I like them better than his more plot-driven SF. Radio Free Albemuth was probably another one. (I just looked up a list of his books, but I didn't see any others that were familiar to me from his Valis phase, even though I could swear there were more.)
 
I want to recommend The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, probably the most influential book I've read as an adult. It's ostensibly science fiction, but is a whole lot more as it deals with a host of conspiracies from the 20th century and much older and intertwines actual historical figures into the narrative along with the fictional characters. The point of the book is to make you question what you think is real. As someone who considers THE MATRIX a documentary, I have no problem with that.
 
Last edited by Madara on Mon Jul 15, 2013 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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