Turtyturd's reading log.

Turtyturd

Have been meaning to start this for a while but never really got around to it until now. I am also quite possibly the slowest reader on the planet, although when the commute to college starts back I hope to pick up speed a bit and maybe get through a book ever week.

Don't really plan on focusing on one particular genre and have a good mix of books on my Kindle although a lot of it will be based around tie ins to TV shows, movies, and comic books that I like. As well as some books taken from Ioxy's reading log which seems to be a good source. First of it's....

At The Mountain of Madness: H.P Lovecraft



Read this mainly after reading comments by Guillermo Del Toro about how it was pretty much the story which Prometheus had been based on. I dunno if it works as a better story when read with the rest of Lovecraft's work but personally I found it a bit boring. Lovecraft is very descriptive, kinda overly so at times but all the description leaves very little room for action or suspense.

The story is over 80 years old though so maybe it's just showing it's age, and in a world where we are exposed to much more it's hard to invest in the story.

Turtyturd

Next up was....

Darth Plaegius: James Luceno



A lot of expanded universe stuff tends to be hit and miss but this was actually decent. Despite the title it seems that a lot more of focuses on Palpatine and his ascension to the position he holds when the Star Wars prequels kick off. It fills in a lot of details and actually explains some of the more confusing elements of the prequels, as well as offering a theory for

Anakin's immaculate conception

.

Decent enough and fairly short.

Turtyturd

To bring me up to date with where I am now (after beginning around mid July) is...

A Game of Thrones: George RR Martin.



...to prove the whole thing about being a slow reader my OH has managed to read through 5 Harry Potter books in the amount of time it has taken me to read through this:D.

Really enjoyed this, had seen the TV show a few months prior and was glad to see how closely it followed the books, most of the change that occur are subtle although from what I have read this changes more in the second season/book.

I really like a good fantasy story where you can immerse yourself in the world, with LOTR being the standard for me but this is a worthy rival, it lacks the depth and details of LOTR so far, but this is only the first book of the series and I am sure this will be built upon. I also like the approach of each chapter being told from a different character's perspective. Having seen the tv show a lot of the suspense was removed as I knew what was coming next but it was also helpful as if I was reading it cold I probably wouldn't have been overly interested in Daenery's storyline and to a lesser extent Jon's, as they seem to get in the way of the main storyline.

Good read definitely recommended.

Turtyturd

Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the soul.



Enjoyed this, the first couple of chapters are a bit heavy on the philosophy aspect and lacking on the Batman front, if I wasn't already familiar with a lot of the terms and ideas I would have be inclined to put it down, which probably isn't the best compliment for a book whose aim is to grab the attention of general readers. After that it picks up and for the majority of it strikes a nice balance between the two before drifting back into the philosophy heavy side for the last couple of chapters. There are also flaws in some of the writers thinking but that's for another time and place. Ordered Breaking Bad and philosophy on the back of this and looking forward to reading that.

Turtyturd

Crooked Little Vein: Warren Ellis.



Was never really pushed either way on the comics work of Warren Ellis but this might have pulled me over into the fan side. The story revolves around down on his luck 'sh*t magnet' detective Mike McGill (although he is alike to Ellis' most famous creation Spider Jerusilam) who is approached by the heroin addicted US Secretary of Defense to retrieve a secret second constitution. This leads to a journey across the US in which Mike and his partner, a young woman writing a thesis on weird sex fetishes find themselves in situations which can only be described as f*cked up.


I really enjoyed this, first time in a long time that a book has actually made me laugh out loud. I have no doubt that the majority of things McGill encounters on his adventure actually occur on some level, and the book questions why we are socialised into thinking of these things as so strange, would it be for the best if we could repress them or should people be entitled to express themselves freely? The only real let down for me is the ending which I feel gets wrapped up too quickly and lacks any real suspense.

Turtyturd

Brave New World: Aldous Huxley



Just looking through some of the mentions this book has got on boards it seems to be...quite devisive, to put it mildly. Personally I had, for some bizarre reason always associated this book with the Colin Farrell movie, which I have since found out is called 'A New World' and as such have been hesitant to read it....how wrong was I?:D

I fall in with the people who love this book, and feel it really should be compulsary reading for every Sociology class. I can see the criticisms of those who didn't enjoy it though, the first few chapters, in particular the description of the labs which are quite tedious (and kinda reminded me of Lovecraft at times), as well as a lot of the characters seeming really dated won't grab the attention of everyone. But to counter act this there are instances such as

Linda's death which is so well written and full of emotion.

Even for the scope of the ideas involved I would recommend it to other people. It seems to draw a lot of comparisons to 1984, so I guess after something light in between that will be my next read.

Turtyturd

Sh*t My Dad Says: Justin Halpern.




Think someone in AH posted the link to the twitter account of this a year or two back and I found it pretty funny. Dragging out the stories to more the 140 characters doesn't work to well and a lot of them are not really funny, although there are moments which had me laughing to myself as I read them. I can only imagine that dragging the joke out to a half hour tv show will dilute it even further to the point where it is just sh*t.

Edit: I actually wish I had a copy with the Chelsea Handler quote on the front of it, that would have been a warning sign that it wasn't very good.

Turtyturd

Boston Noir: Various



I am generally a fan of short stories, in particular the work of Phillip K Dick. The only thing is that most collections tend to be hit and miss and this one is no different. Noir would be one of my preferred genre's but it can also be one which slides into parody if it's not done well, which despite the introduction explaining that Noir is more than a woman walking into the office of a private detective, is a scene and parody that becomes more and more familiar as the book goes on. There are a couple of good stories the standout one being by Denis Lehane, but overall it's a mixed bunch.

Turtyturd

Have been slacking on this lately....and still haven't gotten around to 1984.

American Psycho: Brett Easton Ellis.



I really enjoyed this, the New York it portrays is the first kind of memories I have of New York through films and TV, a dirty city filled with Wall Street yuppies and full of crime. I found it to be a hard read at times and constantly found myself guessing as to whether the book

was non linear, or Bateman suffered from multiple personalities

. Also I know it's an integral part of the book, and its commentary but I did find myself skipping over the constant descriptions of clothing and goods after a while, and while it could never be considered to be grounded in reality I found it became a bit too fantastical around the part where

Bateman kills the saxophone player and the ensuing police chase/shootout, and this for me is where I kinda sided with the argument that everything transpires in his head.

. But as I said, overall enjoyable and I will probably give it another read in a year or two, gonna dig out the film over the weekend too and see how it transfers over.