Current book being read/just finished

[IanMoran]

Based on my quick glance of this thread... it appears that the majority of you enjoy sci-fi / fantasy / unrealistic type books.... If something is too far fetched I lose interest, and quickly

[Gaucho]

Just finished The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. Wiki sez: Greenblatt tells the story of how Poggio Bracciolini, a 15th-century papal emissary and obsessive book hunter, saved the last copy of the Roman poet Lucretius's On the Nature of Things from near-terminal neglect in a German monastery, thus reintroducing important ideas that sparked the modern age. Gaucho sez: Excellent read.

Now reading the complete Hemingway again for some reason, then I'm going to check out Michael Connelly.

[dodint]

Based on my quick glance of this thread... it appears that the majority of you enjoy sci-fi / fantasy / unrealistic type books.... If something is too far fetched I lose interest, and quickly

Wanna catch a movie sometime?

[IanMoran]

Based on my quick glance of this thread... it appears that the majority of you enjoy sci-fi / fantasy / unrealistic type books.... If something is too far fetched I lose interest, and quickly

Wanna catch a movie sometime?

Haha, I've never ventured into the movie thread... can't tell if you're mocking my lack of diversity in movie taste or you're similar

[obhave]

Rereading all of Neil Gaimans novels and short story collections. American Gods still tops my list of favorite books.

[dodint]

Based on my quick glance of this thread... it appears that the majority of you enjoy sci-fi / fantasy / unrealistic type books.... If something is too far fetched I lose interest, and quickly

Wanna catch a movie sometime?

Haha, I've never ventured into the movie thread... can't tell if you're mocking my lack of diversity in movie taste or you're similar

You're my Craigslist Missed Connection. I looked across the internet and spotted you hating fantasy. Our eyes locked, and then you were gone. Wanna catch a movie? *swoon*

Or something.

[eddysnake]

watched a documentary last week on netflix called Dear Mr Watterson. It didn't really have too much to say other than how great Calvin and Hobbes, but it reminded me that I need to pull out all my old comics. I sat down with my kids and read a good bit of Calvin and Hobbes this weekend. Last night I came down stairs (already put kids to bed) and my 6 year old was up reading "There's treasure everywhere" to her little brother and today when I went home for lunch, she was already half way through an essentials collection. This put a big smile on my face. Rereading them this weekend made me feel like a kid again and I found that I discovered C&H in an entirely different light, because a lot of that stuff had to have gone right over my head when I was little. What a magnificent comic!

[Digitalgypsy66]

Yeah, my 8 year old loved the Calvin and Hobbes collections I brought home from the library (they were actually from my father-in-law, who died a few years ago. His widow gave me the books and figured they would be better shared via the library rather than sit on a shelf in my house). He blasted through the 3-4 that we had and now he wants more. So, so, good.

I wonder if Spy vs. Spy would hold up?

[eddysnake]

I got Nobody's Son from the library, but didn't much care for old Shakespeare language so it's going back. I read Neil Gaimans Ocean at the End of the Lane and really enjoyed it, I'm thinking about getting another of his. American Gods seems to be tops on his list. Graveyard Book and Neverwhere also look good. Any suggestions on Gaiman?

[Shyster]

Just finished the Brandon Sanderson Mistborn trilogy, which I purchased as a Kindle bundle. Good books, although they could be a little long-winded at times. I thought the characters were well-developed and interesting, the world was unique, and the magical elements in the story were well done. "Magic" in the series—called Allomancy—is based on metals; people have inborn abilities to consume metals in order to produce certain specific effects. For example, someone using brass can soothe or guide other people's emotions, someone using pewter gains increased strength, and someone using steel can "push" on nearby metals, which if the metals are lighter then they are will make them fly through the air away from them, and if the metals are heavier the push will propel the user away from the metals. This is a good fantasy series.

[obhave]

I got Nobody's Son from the library, but didn't much care for old Shakespeare language so it's going back. I read Neil Gaimans Ocean at the End of the Lane and really enjoyed it, I'm thinking about getting another of his. American Gods seems to be tops on his list. Graveyard Book and Neverwhere also look good. Any suggestions on Gaiman?

In terms of novels I suggest: American Gods, Neverwhere, Graveyard Book, and also Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett).

American gods is just wonderful. One of my favorites and I read it at least once a year. It's so imaginative. Each time I read it, I discover something new or find a new quote that I adore. Can't recommend it enough.
Neverwhere is strange. Don't know how to describe it, besides strange. I think it is a good book to follow American Gods, they have a lot of parallels.
Graveyard Book will take only a few hours to read. Somehow Gaiman wrote a book for children that also is not boring to adults. It's cute yet creepy.
Good Omens is incredible. It has so much wit and British humor. If you enjoy British humor, this is a fantastic book.

[eddysnake]

Library didn't have any of those in, I got smoke and mirrors and the wife picked up stardust

[eddysnake]

I got Nobody's Son from the library, but didn't much care for old Shakespeare language so it's going back. I read Neil Gaimans Ocean at the End of the Lane and really enjoyed it, I'm thinking about getting another of his. American Gods seems to be tops on his list. Graveyard Book and Neverwhere also look good. Any suggestions on Gaiman?

Graveyard Book will take only a few hours to read. Somehow Gaiman wrote a book for children that also is not boring to adults. It's cute yet creepy.

Sounds like Clive Barkers the thief of always

[obhave]

Library didn't have any of those in, I got smoke and mirrors and the wife picked up stardust

Stardust is a very different sort of book for him, still good, but not the same darkness. I saw the movie first (which he wrote I believe). The book is so much better and told in a different way.

Man, some of his short stories are so so creepy and terrifying. I like Smoke and Mirrors more than Fragile Things, his other short story collection.

[eddysnake]

Library didn't have any of those in, I got smoke and mirrors and the wife picked up stardust

Stardust is a very different sort of book for him, still good, but not the same darkness. I saw the movie first (which he wrote I believe). The book is so much better and told in a different way.

Man, some of his short stories are so so creepy and terrifying. I like Smoke and Mirrors more than Fragile Things, his other short story collection.

Wife read it last night and really enjoyed it. I'm going to start it tonight. We both really liked the movie. If it's not back in the library in the next couple weeks, I'll probably just end up buying American Gods. Thanks for the tips

[dodint]

I've read probably 90%+ of Stephen Kings novels. I was certain that I had read Pet Semetary when I was a young teen, but decided to reread it. I don't remember anything at all about the story other than what I saw in the movie, so I think I assumed wrong. Great, it's a book I can enjoy as new now and it'll help me take my mind off of the final projects/exams I have to finish up this last 10 days of my semester.

It's a dark book. It's just dripping with discussions about death, which I don't mind at all. But after reading about 25% of it each night for the last two nights, something clicked in me at 2:30am. I woke up an hour after falling asleep and reasoned with myself that I'm going to die soon, I'm 32 and my life is over anyway, so why even bother trying with anything at all anymore. Then I woke up every hour on the hour for the rest of the night. I've been sleeping great since I went on vacation at the beginning of July, came back last week and have been doing great.

I'm not worried about it, just thought the whole dialogue I had within myself was abnormal enough to mention. I have school wrapping up next week, I'm trying to shift my career so I'm putting in job applications non-stop, I'm trying to get myself healthier, and my wife is finally coming out of her cancer treatment. I think all that anxiety was just in there and the book tapped into it. Just weird.

Good book, though. A+, would read again.

[IanMoran]

I read John Le Carre's Our Kind of Traitor, from 2010. Good, solid work...not a Smiley novel, but very entertaining.

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Just finished it. Well written / I semi-enjoyed it, but it just didn't have enough action for me. Felt like entire book was just building up for about 20 pages where things actually happen...

[Digitalgypsy66]

I read John Le Carre's Our Kind of Traitor, from 2010. Good, solid work...not a Smiley novel, but very entertaining.

.

Just finished it. Well written / I semi-enjoyed it, but it just didn't have enough action for me. Felt like entire book was just building up for about 20 pages where things actually happen...

A lot of recent novels have been like that...but very enjoyable.

Let's see...finished "City of the Sun" a light, very light historical novel set in Cairo in 1941. Spies, Nazis, you get the picture. Entertaining and a quick read.

Next up is Neptune's Inferno, by James Hornfischer, recommended by someone in this very thread. Hornfischer is a great writer, making the naval battles of Guadalcanal leap off the page. Not an easy task. Using the bibliography, I found one of the primary sources - a book by a UPI reporter, published shortly after the war, about the U.S.S. Astoria - titled the Through the Perilous Night: The Astoria's Last Battle." I borrowed it from a nearby library, and it hadn't circulated since 1957.

[Gaucho]

Very much enjoying Michael Connelly. Not much flash to his writing style, but plotting and timing are exceptional.

[Dickie Dunn]

Very much enjoying Michael Connelly. Not much flash to his writing style, but plotting and timing are exceptional.

Which is why I've always liked him. For me, writers with a "flashy" style make reading more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. Which book(s) have you read?

[Shyster]

Next up is Neptune's Inferno, by James Hornfischer, recommended by someone in this very thread. Hornfischer is a great writer, making the naval battles of Guadalcanal leap off the page. Not an easy task. Using the bibliography, I found one of the primary sources - a book by a UPI reporter, published shortly after the war, about the U.S.S. Astoria - titled the Through the Perilous Night: The Astoria's Last Battle." I borrowed it from a nearby library, and it hadn't circulated since 1957.

That's a rare book your local library has. I checked on abebooks.com, and the cheapest copy for sale of Through the Perilous Night has a price of $95, with the most expensive copy going for $225.

If you track down a copy of Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara, you can read about the same battles described by Hornfischer from the Japanese perspective. Hara was in command of IJN Amatsukaze during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Hara and the Amatsukaze were also participants in the Battle of the Java Sea, which means they were also on the opposing side of the events described early on in Hornfischer's other book Ship of Ghosts.

[Gaucho]

Very much enjoying Michael Connelly. Not much flash to his writing style, but plotting and timing are exceptional.

Which is why I've always liked him. For me, writers with a "flashy" style make reading more of a chore than an enjoyable experience. Which book(s) have you read?

So far, I've read Trunk Music and The Closers. Trunk Music was very good, although the ex-gf/future-wife angle made me cringe a little (maybe 20 years ago it wasn't as much of a cliché yet). The Closers, written about 10 years later I think, is fantastic. I knew I'd like it the moment I saw Bosch was now in Open/Unsolved.

[Troy Loney]

I haven't read much non fiction lately, and those that I have read either read like a novel, (In Cold Blood and Homage to Catalonia) or David Foster Wallace essays.

I've been working through the Fifties by David Halberstram. I either think the fifties are a truly fascinating period, or Halberstram just did an excellent job recounting people and events and capturing their importance.

[dodint]

Authentically, or how white people choose to remember those good old days?

[Troy Loney]

Authentically, or how white people choose to remember those good old days?

It's just super dense and basically gives an equal amount of attention to every development of the decade from:

The H Bomb Debates, Brown vs Board, The election of Eisenhower, the ascent of Nixon, the development of suburbs, mcdonalds, and franchising. Motels and the spread of the highway system. The growth and power of GM. Television - Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan. The beats. Eli Kazan and Brando's relationship. Just read the elvis passage, and stopped at james dean today.