Youth N Asia Posted June 30, 2005 Report Posted June 30, 2005 I just finished Bobby Hennan's first book, it was pretty good, but I'd already heard a lot of those storys from shoot interviews. I'm reading Debiase's book now, just don't have much interest in it yet
snuffbox Posted July 8, 2005 Report Posted July 8, 2005 Jack Kerouac - The Town and the City <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Im really struggling to get through this book...which is upsetting because Kerouac is both my favorite writer and my inspiration to write and travel. This was his first book and Im reading it after already enjoying On The Road, Big Sur, Desolation Angels, Scattered Poems, Dharma Bums, etc so its just really dispointing. And, Kerouacs misogynistic (more apathetic than sadistic) outlook on life is blatant in his first book.
gWIL Posted July 10, 2005 Report Posted July 10, 2005 A Certain Chemistry by Mil Millington, great book btw.
Gary Floyd Posted July 12, 2005 Report Posted July 12, 2005 The anthology "Children of Cthulhu" which contains a series of Lovecraft inspired tales from a newer generation of Authors. Haven't read it in a while, and it's still the best Lovecraft inspired anthology around. Includes stories from Poppy Z. Brite, John Pelan (aka Old School John), Tim Lebbon, Richard Laymon, Westron Ochse, Yvone Navarro, and more.
ZGangsta Posted July 12, 2005 Report Posted July 12, 2005 Just finished finally reading "Watchmen" for the first time. Damn
snuffbox Posted July 21, 2005 Report Posted July 21, 2005 I couldnt make it through Town and the City. Im now reading Kerouac's later effort Maggie Cassidy... a much better, energetic, unique, and (to me anyway) poignant story. Im simultaneously reading Theodore H White's Breach of Faith about the fall of Richard Nixon.
Guest xSarahx Posted July 21, 2005 Report Posted July 21, 2005 Dracula by Bram Stoker. I've been plowing through it, but haven't really been able to totally get into it. BTW, I've been debating on whether or not to pick up the Harley Race book. Has anyone read it? Is it worth the money or skip it?
LaParkaYourCar Posted July 23, 2005 Report Posted July 23, 2005 I just finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and now I've decided to read The Stand by Stephen King. Yeah I know I'm behind the times, but it's been on my "to read" list for awhile.
Edwin MacPhisto Posted July 23, 2005 Report Posted July 23, 2005 Dracula by Bram Stoker. I've been plowing through it, but haven't really been able to totally get into it. That's because it's not a very good book. You're not missing much; Stoker had good ideas but he was a hack novelist.
Henry Spencer Posted July 23, 2005 Report Posted July 23, 2005 Naked Lunch, again. William Burroughs is the greatest literary genius of all time. Disagree with this, and you are wrong. There is nothing that another writer could do that he couldn't do better.
snuffbox Posted July 23, 2005 Report Posted July 23, 2005 William Burroughs probably was the smartest writer ever. Somehow, despite his years as a narcotics afficianado, he still spoke with an inteligent eloquence into is 70s. He was like a smaked out Adlai Stevenson.
zyn081 Posted August 11, 2005 Report Posted August 11, 2005 Right now I'm working through the Bounty Hunter Wars, only because I have the third book and never read the first two. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> How can you read a trilogy back to front. Jeter's style is a bit different to what Star Wars fans normally get and takes a bit longer to get into but how can you not love Boba Fett. Timothy Zahn is the best Star Wars author though IMHO. "The Plague" by Albert Camus & "Drawing for Dummies" Just finished Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" not too long ago. Could anybody recommend some other good sci-fi/fantasy series in this vein? I like LOTR and the Dark Tower but I haven't read anything else in this genre. Definitely Song of Ice and Fire. I've never met a single person that read it and didn't love it. The first book is Game of Thrones. Here's some posts from a different board to make you want to read it. After much careful deliberation, I have determined that it would be absolutely impossible to over-hype Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series. I would best describe it as historical fantasy. It takes a little while to really get into it, but god damnit after about 200 pages I was absolutely, hopelessly addicted. This guy throws in more plot twists than anyone I've ever read before. He develops his characters (and great googly moogly, are there a LOT of characters) with incredible skill. Every single character is....real. There are no good guys or bad guys. Just individuals with many layers. Martin gets you inside their heads to see what makes them all tick. Every character has at least one trait that EVERYONE can identify with. This series had, and has, me firmly in it's grasp. I'll be one of the countless dorks waiting at the bookstore for them to put the first batch of "A Feast For Crows" onto the shelves. The only reasons that I can think of that someone who reads the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series would not really like it are that: 1) they suck at reading and hate it, regardless of what they are reading. 2) they hate fantasy to the point of refusing to read ANY of it. 3) they are easily offended by sex, violence or profanity. Martin has genre-hopped for over 20 years and aSoIaF is his first epic fantasy series. If you read quotations from him regarding the series and read interviews that he has given (he is extremely accessible to his large fan base) you will see that he revered Tolkien but despises pretty much every fantasy writer that has written since then. While the novels are fun and exciting and really well-plotted, they definitely are closer to historical fiction than they are to swords and sorcery fantasy. You may not even notice how mediocre and shallow most epic fantasy is until you read aSoIaF. Most epic fantasy is fluff. It can be fun and interesting and it provides decent entertainment but it isn't hard-hitting or intense or brilliant. Martin's intended his series to be sort of the 'anti' epic fantasy series and he has succeeded so far. The plotting is fucking mind-boggling. In a series this long, with such a huge and varied (but interesting and unique) cast of characters he manages to make few, if any, mistakes or allow inconsistencies. Not only does he not fuck up or overlook things, he stays multiple steps ahead of the reader. No matter how hard you try you can not predict what will happen. That said, you never get the feeling of "Oh, that was gay, he pulled that out of his ass." You find yourself going "OMG, I can't believe that just happened" and then a few minutes later going "How did I NOT see this?" Everything is consistent and logical and the actual involvement of 'magic' is minimal and mysterious. I have been absolutely blind-sided by plot twists more than once but I have yet find an instance of him 'cheating' or doing something that is out of character for the characters or out of sync with the universe in which the story is set. Off the top of my head, I am not sure I have ever read ANY epic series (fantasy, sci-fi, or otherwise) that had such brilliant and flawless plotting. I have a bad habit of reading books in one sitting. I read pretty fast so the average 400 page book takes me about 8 hours, assuming the prose isn't REALLY difficult or slow (for example, Gene Wolfe) and maybe ~80-100 pages/hour on easy reading stuff (say a Star Wars book, a BattleTech book, etc.). I was so into a A Clash of Kings that I ended up trying to read it all in one sitting but that would be over 10 hours of reading. I just couldn't put it down. I never fell asleep but about 150 pages from the end my eyes were burning so bad that I was literally crying. My vision got so blurry that I couldn't read so I stopped for a minute to blink and try and refocus my eyes and once my eyes started watering it burned like a motherfucker. I think that that is the only time I have ever been where I literally couldn't read anymore even if my life depended upon it. The fucking bastard has each chapter from a specific character's point of view so if there is something exciting happening when a chapter ends then you have to wait for that character's next chapter to continue that particular part of the story (since it is spread over a large geographical area and also over time, in a sense [it isn't flashbacks so much as a function of the slow speed at which information travels across great distances in that universe in which the story is set]). He only uses the POV of 4-5 characters per novel though (not always the same ones, plus you never know who will be around for the next novel) so it doesn't get confusing but it keeps you turning pages frantically for 4 more chapters just to see what happens next with a particular character. Fucking bastard. BTW, the first novel might start a little slow. I didn't mind it but I guess that I can see how others might. I have a hard time understanding how anyone who got through, say, half of the first novel could not be hooked though. To me, it is a lot faster and more enjoyable to read than LOTR (I loved LOTR but I did think that it dragged on at times, which is the only real criticism that I had of it) but your mileage might vary. i think THE most amazing thing about a song of ice and fire by george rr martin is that the series actually gets better as you read more of it. you'd think that after the second book or so, he would fall into the trap that so many other authors have encountered (ROBERT JORDAN SNOOZEFEST) because of how long and large it is but heck no. wtfs. write feast for crows already you slow ass bastard yeah. George RR Martin fucking rules house. its 3 books right now...and i think its been about 17 years that weve been waiting for Feast of Crows to come out. he keeps delaying it. the book series was fucking amazing. its the one series that i DIDNT fly thru. i normally read books in a few day...some in a day cuz i get captivated. i FORCED myself not to do this so i could fully enjoy the books. they fucking rock. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ive read A Song of Ice and Fire and I enjoyed it a lot, but I feel that the story could have been written better. I disagree with one thing Martin did at the end of A Game of Thrones. I feel that there are too many characters and to say that there is no bad guys in the story is untrue. Im personally reading The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thorton. Its a hard book to get into and is based on old Anglo-Saxon folklore, but a good fantasy read nonetheless. If your a fan of fantasy books, you have to read everything written by David Eddings, especially The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Elenium and The Tamuli. I read the latter 2 whilst sitting for my O'Levels and the former 2 during my As they are fantastic.
Rendclaw Posted August 16, 2005 Report Posted August 16, 2005 Eragon, by Christopher Paolini Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey and if I can get around to it, Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind I had a co-worker describe what Martin's work is like and no, I don;t need to have my brain bent past a certain point, or burn through 4-5 chapters to get to the character that grabs my interest. I was going to buy The Two Swords, but after reading quite a few unflattering reviews by those who ponied up for the hardcover, I think I will pass. It was rather evident in the first two books, but I think that Salvatore has lost his way.
Guest JMA Posted August 19, 2005 Report Posted August 19, 2005 Dracula by Bram Stoker. I've been plowing through it, but haven't really been able to totally get into it. That's because it's not a very good book. You're not missing much; Stoker had good ideas but he was a hack novelist. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm afraid that I have to disagree. I consider Dracula to be a classic horror novel and Count Dracula himself to be one of the great villains in all of literature.
Vyce Posted August 19, 2005 Report Posted August 19, 2005 "Outside the Dog Museum" - Jonathan Carroll It's probably the fifth book or so that I've read by him, and while I find him to be a very good writer, and the plot to this one is interesting, sometimes he just infuriates me with his characters; real people just aren't like this.
snuffbox Posted January 24, 2006 Report Posted January 24, 2006 Tom Robbins - Another Roadside Attraction
Angel_Grace_Blue Posted January 26, 2006 Report Posted January 26, 2006 The last book in Harry Harrison's Eden trilogy, Return to Eden. They're pretty good books and I might try and check out his Stainless Steel Rat series. And maybe also Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis for Soylent Green.
BruiserKC Posted January 28, 2006 Report Posted January 28, 2006 Dan Brown- "The Da Vinci Code" Almost done with it and then I will start with "Big Russ And Me: Father and Son-Lessons Of Life" by Tim Russert.
Angel_Grace_Blue Posted February 2, 2006 Report Posted February 2, 2006 Ken Follet's Whiteout. He's Mr. Suspense and whatnot.
vivalaultra Posted February 3, 2006 Report Posted February 3, 2006 Right now, I am reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, alternately with The Cell by Stephen King. They're both wonderful, but for different reasons. I'll go out on a limb and say that Garcia Marquez is the finest writer of fiction ever.
Gary Floyd Posted February 4, 2006 Report Posted February 4, 2006 I Am Legand by Richard Matherson. One of the greatest horror stories ever written.
Guest Famous Mortimer Posted February 6, 2006 Report Posted February 6, 2006 I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. One of the greatest horror stories ever written. Fuck yeah. "The Great War For Civilization" by Robert Fisk. Pretty interesting so far.
Gary Floyd Posted February 15, 2007 Report Posted February 15, 2007 No one's posted here in a while so what the hell The Travelling Vampire Show by Richard Laymon. I highly recommend this, because it's awesome.
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