What book are you reading atm??

IvyTheTerrible

If you're going to skip the songs, and the Council of Elrond, why bother reading the book? Just watch the film or read the Cliff Notes.

The Young Wan

Going to start the Divergent series tonight.

bnt

Lollipops23 wrote: »

Just started reading The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker.

About a female journalist embedded in Afghanistan in 2001-2003.

Good so far!

That book was just made in to a movie, too: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey as Kim Baker (r?), is in cinemas now.

Just finished Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. The hardest of hard SF, he has some harsh words for those who think we will inevitably travel to "nearby" stars and colonise them. Not that that's going to stop us from trying, some day ... :cool:

Mesrine65

Mario Puzo's The Godfather - The Lost Years by Mark Winegardner

Covering the years between 1959-1962 & the early life of Michael Corleone from 1920-1945 in flashback scenes.

It's actually a very good read.

Wichita Lineman

A book from 1999 about film maker George Lucas and while it's obviously not going to have anything recent what I've read so far is incredibly detailed, well researched and interesting.

UsedToWait

bnt wrote: »

The hardest of hard SF, he has some harsh words for those who think we will inevitably travel to "nearby" stars and colonise them. Not that that's going to stop us from trying, some day ... :cool:

I'd say we'd be almost guaranteed to fail.. nearby planets, though...
possibly :pac: [/pedantic pat]

Chain Smoker

Arghus wrote: »

Coincidentally, so have I.

The only advice I've been given is to not be overwhelmed by the length of it. Just concentrate on making sure you read something of it Every.Single.Day. That way you'll eventually get through it, well hopefully.

Yep, putting as little pressure on it as I can. Not getting overly fixated on understanding everything and reading in short bursts. Some fierce meandering drivel and some lovely really relatable bits so far, it seems to be coming together okay.


It's perfect for an ereader too, doesn't weigh several kg and you get quick access to footnotes and a dictionary!

UsedToWait

Chain Smoker wrote: »

Yep, putting as little pressure on it as I can. Not getting overly fixated on understanding everything and reading in short bursts. Some fierce meandering drivel and some lovely really relatable bits so far, it seems to be coming together okay.


It's perfect for an ereader too, doesn't weigh several kg and you get quick access to footnotes and a dictionary!

I'm not an ereader fan, but if any book was to push me over to the dark side it's this one [Infinite Jest] - I put it down for both the above reasons.. will definitely go back to it, but probably only on a kindle etc

bodice ripper

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. Not that far in it yet though - possibly because I keep pissing about on boards.ie

Arghus

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

If you're going to skip the songs, and the Council of Elrond, why bother reading the book? Just watch the film or read the Cliff Notes.

If you want the complete experience then by all means dive deep into it, poetry and songs and all, but I think you can read it and gain a lot from it, as a piece of literature, even if you skip the parts I've mentioned. You will - without question - get more out of it, if you decide to read the whole entire lot, but I don't think excising a proportion of it negates the entire benefit of it as a book. I don't think it means you're getting the same thing essentially as the film's; there's still a hell of a lot therefor any reader to enjoy.

I've read it twice and the first time I read everything - Introduction, poetry, appendices: everything. So yeah, I do think, read everything if you can, but if you're struggling through it...

Chain Smoker

I was under the impression that if you can't handle the poetry, songs and whatever other forms of relentless backstory there are, Tolkien probably isn't for you?

It's a long long time since I read it, but my general feeling towards it was that I knew it wasn't for me when I got to Tom Bombadil and it was ridiculous to continue.

bnt

UsedToWait wrote: »

I'd say we'd be almost guaranteed to fail.. nearby planets, though...
possibly :pac: [/pedantic pat]

[slap] Nope - we're definitely talking about stars here, not planets, and the "we" is the human race, not individuals such as you or I. Aurora is an examination of the "generation ship" concept - a ship big enough for a journey of a hundred years or more. If you start the voyage, you personally won't reach the destination, but your grandchildren should - that's the plan. It's not all plain sailing.

Greenmachine

Reading 'Grapes of wrath' about 1/4 of the way through. Enjoying it so far, haven't read a book in so long maybe 5 years. , I have never been a huge reader except when I was a kid.

Lavinia

Night & Day of Virginia Woolf. Just started recently really so cannot say anything accept that it keeps me reading...

gutenberg

Greenmachine wrote: »

Reading 'Grapes of wrath' about 1/4 of the way through. Enjoying it so far, haven't read a book in so long maybe 5 years. , I have never been a huge reader except when I was a kid.

I love the Grapes of Wrath, excellent choice! Steinbeck's East of Eden is also great, if you enjoy Grapes.

I'm re-reading Life of Pi at the moment. It's a book I loved, and I've been in a bit of rut reading-wise lately. Enjoying it a lot!

RhubarbCrumble

Marian Keyes "Making it up as I go along" Absolute rubbish. I didn't buy it, I got it as a present so I said I'd give it a go. I used to enjoy her novels maybe 15/20 years ago when she started writing first, but I gave up on them quite a few years ago. If I'm honest, I just find her very false.

kirk buttercup

Chain Smoker wrote:

It's a long long time since I read it, but my general feeling towards it was that I knew it wasn't for me when I got to Tom Bombadil and it was ridiculous to continue.

I loved the book but so many people have told me when they got to the tom bombadil bit they thought no thanks. At the time I had my reservations around that part but was so glad I kept at it

Niemoj

I'm rereading Room after watching the film.

First read it over 2 years ago and it's a great read.

KH25

Took me 3 tries to read Lord of the rings. I think the fellowship is the toughest book to get through myself. once you pass the council of elrond it gets better.

hairyprincess

RhubarbCrumble wrote: »

Marian Keyes "Making it up as I go along" Absolute rubbish. I didn't buy it, I got it as a present so I said I'd give it a go. I used to enjoy her novels maybe 15/20 years ago when she started writing first, but I gave up on them quite a few years ago. If I'm honest, I just find her very false.

I feel exactly the same about her. Thought her books were brilliant when she started out first, but a book she had out about 6/7 years ago really bored me, I found it very repetitive. She's had a few books out since and I haven't as much as sniffed at them.

Chain Smoker

kirk buttercup wrote: »

I loved the book but so many people have told me when they got to the tom bombadil bit they thought no thanks. At the time I had my reservations around that part but was so glad I kept at it

Oops, just to be clear, I read the whole thing and hated it. Like, it was ridiculous to continue beyond tom bombadil... but I did anyway.

The Helpful Engineer

Just finished I am Pilgrim. I enjoyed it alot but too many coincidences for my liking and it died a little on the middle

brinty

The Helpful Engineer wrote: »

Just finished I am Pilgrim. I enjoyed it alot but too many coincidences for my liking and it died a little on the middle

Great read helpful engineer
Agree with your analogy of dip and coincidences
for a tome of a book it read very quickly

I'm back into the final book in the century trilogy by Ken Follett and its about the time of the Cuban missile crisis

conorhal

I've been ploughing through the 'Arisen' series like a crack addict!

I like a bit of zombie fiction, so it was reccomended to me by a friend after I moaned that I was ditching The Walking Dead because it was so stupid, dreary and repetitive, filled with characters that I just wanted to see eaten.
He put me on to Arisen suggesting that might just be the antidote I needed. Initally I was cautious, the whole jar-head specal forces vs. the zombie apocalypse didn't quite appeal to me, but bloodly hell it's such smart, well written and heart in your mouth exciting that the books are impossible to put down. Best of all, they ditch the constant nhillism of zombie fiction in favour of a plot about going out to reclaim the world rather than just surviving in it.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/84669-arisen

PS.

The audio books (something I generally have a distate for) read by RC Bray are better then a movie.

GLaDOS

Mentioned a while ago I was reading 2001: A Space Odyssey, needless to say I loved it. Are the sequels worth bothering with?

entropi

Going to start reading The Dark Tower series soon enough, really looking forward to that.

py2006

entropi wrote: »

Going to start reading The Dark Tower series soon enough, really looking forward to that.

I've tried the first one 3 times and had to put it down. I just couldn't get into it and I'm a huge King fan.

Belle E. Flops

'Wise Man's Fear' by Patrick Rothfuss. It's the second in the Kingkiller Chronicles fantasy trilogy. I read the first last year and loved it and really enjoying this one too so far.

entropi

py2006 wrote: »

I've tried the first one 3 times and had to put it down. I just couldn't get into it and I'm a huge King fan.

From the info I've been given, the first one is basically an introduction and it'll fly by. The story really begins in the second book.

The Helpful Engineer

py2006 wrote: »

I've tried the first one 3 times and had to put it down. I just couldn't get into it and I'm a huge King fan.

I felt the same. I read the first dark tower book and was very disappointed. Didn't bother with the rest.