that book is pretty bad

Which one? And in what way?

recently finished A Mathematician's Apology, hardy was so great :)

Just finished Stephen King's Cujo, oh how a masterful freak like him can weave a scary book. I had a couple Horrorgasms, which is why I keep coming back to him.

Now I'm moving onto Dante's Inferno and Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Elements of the Philosophy of Right by Hegel.

Don't let the title fool you; it's actually really boring.

:lol

The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan. The strangest little paperback I've ever "read". I would almost have thought it written recently, except for the fact that it predates anything resembling the internet.

Finished 69 Things, have begun Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille and The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis. I also plan to start and finish Passages by Ann Quin in the next couple of days. It's quite short.

Also, I read a tiny bit of Beckett's Trilogy and gave up. Not in the right frame of mind for it.

69 Things was not particularly enjoyable, but it wasn't meant to be, and I found it quite interesting.

I was talking about 69 things. I found it to be far from interesting and a horrible read.

How do you read so many books in such a short period of time? Do you forsake school or work to read or have some awesome job where ur paid to read books?

I do an english degree that I'm about to finish and read pretty much all day every day.

whats one of your favorite books?

Ulysses by James Joyce is my favourite book. WHY?

isnt the story of the eye

I haven't got that far yet, but based on what I have read it sounds likely.

I re-read Of Mice and Men, and had a mental image of a huge retarded guy snapping Tadao's neck..

:lol

:lol

Currently Reading: The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall.

Still haven't made any progress with the Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Have a quarter of The Color of Magic to read.
Still on The Restaurant at The End of The Universe.
Just started Neuromancer.

Hooray for reader's ADD!

why the fuck not? Its called finding out what others find to be good reads so you can read them yourself. I don't have unlimited time like you to read thousands of books so I like to read ones that people have suggested to me in order to avoid shitty books.

>:

I thought you were asking to be a dick. Well, it's a good book.

Never heard of it, who's the author

Fat Mario Heads

Choke by Chuck "Shades" Palahniuk.

I was going to start another thread for this but I think I'll just ask here. I've been trying to remember the name of a book that was recommended to me a while ago. The story's told from the perspective of a mean, bitter old woman whom the book is also named after. I'm pretty sure it's an older novel but I'm not sure about that. Also the word Aunt might be in the title but once again I'm not certain.

Finished Richard Matheson's 'Incredible shrinking man' & 'Nightmare at 20000 feet' short story collection during my stay with the folks.

Starting Joseph Heller's Catch-22 again, trying to finish it this time

I really want to read Catch 22. It took me a long time to sit down and watch the movie which I loved. Once again though I'm sure the book is tons better.

I just finished Look to Windward by Ian M Banks about 5 minutes ago, it's the second last in his The Culture series, the last being Matter, which I have ordered and am hoping it arrives here soon.

I guess I've got a few days to kill before it gets here, so I'll probably slip back into pointlessly reading War and Peace, or some boring shit about economics, knowing my next Sci-Fi fix is just around the corner.

I just finished The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind. I am surprised how far after his original series he went with this. While I liked it, I thought the ending was far too abrupt and I would have liked to see the story dragged out to a three book series like he did with the Chainfire storyline.

The Aamzing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, good stuff.

Breathers: A zombies Lament. Excellent book, thought it was going to be terrible. It is however quite good. I'd recommend it.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

George Carlin's Napalm and Silly Putty.

I might have that book. All I remember is when I read it I thought to myself, 'He told these jokes in his stand up already'

I just gave my copy away to the goodwill, if i had wanted recycled material i would have bought a book by dennis miller

Bram Stoker's Dracula

One of the few books that was adapted to a movie perfectly. I swear that the movie is word for word.

^ That's what I've heard, I've only seen the opening 20 mins of it and that was years ago. Probably going to watch it when I'm done reading it.

how have you not seen that movie by now? your missing out

Its just one of those movies that I'm sure its good but everyones raves about it so I feel inclined to not watch it.
This also goes for:
Memento
Godfathers
Gladiator
Troy.....pretty much any sword and sandal movie in the last 15 years
King kong
A bunch others

When I'm done reading fear and loathing in las vegas I might read the rum diary or finish 1001 nights

Rum Diary was really entertaining.

Just started North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and will soon be starting The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor.

Arabian Nights.

B as in Beauty by Antonio Ferreras (another lame fat girl finds self esteem novel, oddly not written by a woman)

The 'about the author' blurb was funny. A first novel by the performance artist know as "Dr Truth" who sets up booths to answer peoples questions with brutal honesty.

I'm reading The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor and I'm ashamed that I haven't read any of her writing before. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Flannery O'Connor is great. Another southern, female writer from that time period I like is Carson Mccullers.

Tried to read The Road by Cormac Mccarthy but I couldn't get into it.

I picked up the 1st book of the new dragonlance trilogy and I just can't get into it.

How did you like 1001 nights?

I'm only on part three so far. Don't really remember which night that is because there are so many stories inside stories inside other stories around other stories relating to other stories.

I have a bad habit of starting books without finishing them.

Books I have started that need finshing:

The two towers
Carl jung's Man and his symbols
1001 nights
that new dragonlance book
how to speak spanish(possibly te toca a ti)
Becoming a category of one.

Going on vacation next month, maybe I'll finish up one of them at the beach.

Becoming a category of one?

That title sounds dreadful.

It really was. It was some book from my work they wanted everyone to read.

1001 Nights is hilarious. It's the ultimate frame story.

The Myth of Sisyphus.


Only just started but I might wait until the end until I end my life.

by camus? :O

Oui.

'Bout done with Blood of the Fold, moving on to Temple of the Winds soon. Terry Goodkind has some good stuff out if you're into fantasy.

The series really gets good with Faith of the Fallen. Just make sure you have it handy when you finish Soul of the Fire because the ending of Soul kind of pisses you off. I read them as they came out on hardback and when I got to the end of SotF I was like, "That's it? You're ending the book like that? I am pissed!"

Oh and book 7 (Pillars of Creation) goes off on a huge tangent but the story gets back on track in book 8

oh shit, i forgot there was a thread like this

East of Eden
Log from the Sea of Cortez (again)
As I Lay Dying
Cabal (again)

and i just finished Cannery Row, Tortilla Flat, and The Pearl (all again), as well as Books of Blood (complete), King's Danse Macabre, Supernatural Horror in Literature and Shadowland... still not sure why Peter Straub is a big deal. Maybe if i finally read Ghost Story

I'm reading Jennifer Government, A Clash of Kings, Guards! Guards!, and Player's Piano right now. I just bought Neil Gaiman's American Gods. :eek

guards! guards! is fucking hilarious, how is american gods so far? I've never given two tin shits about gaiman, but i've heard good things about that one from some very smart people

You gonna go t Monterey soon or something?

I don't know mang, I just bought it :eek But I'm a very smart person as well so I let you know the good things when I get to it.

And Guards! Guards! is amazing. I'm reading the series in chronological order so I had been looking forward to this one

Both American Gods and its sequel (of sorts) are quite good. Not as good as Good Omens.

Pretty much the entire Pratchett library is good. "The Nation" was a bit boring, but readable. It wasn't standard fare for Pratchett, so that may have lessened my enjoyment.

Before American Gods I was with you on Gaiman. I had tried Sandman a few times and found it to be boring as hell. Then went back and picked up some of his other works and found that it's his COMICS writing that I don't care for. He was made for novels.

Good Omens is a fantastic book, otherwise I wouldn't know who the fuck Gaiman even is. Neverwhere looked interesting too but I was too poor to buy both :(

I always buy my books used off of Amazon or Half.

I'm about to read The Faggiest Vampire as soon as it gets here. :)

Ha. Had to look up if that's real. Looks like it is. Along with the author's other works: The Baby Jesus Butt Plug, Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shitting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere and Satan Burger

Me ma just read Tortilla Flat and she said it was really good. How's East of Eden?

all of steinbeck is good. critics generally have serious issues with it, because they're cocksuckers. it's not as good or well-constructed as grapes of wrath so far, that's true, but it IS a great american novel, just as Steinbeck's a great American author.

dude, everyone on these forums knows that I'm practically gay for John Steinbeck

which is why it's particularly embarrassing that I've never read east of eden before

THERES A HORRIBLE MUSEUM IN MONTEREY DEDICATED TO JOHN STEINBECK

THE GRAPES OF WRATH WAS WRITTEN ABOUT BAKerSFiELD WHICH IS WHERE I LIVE RIGHT NOW :O HIS book WAS BANNED HERE FOR A LONG TIME :lol

Yeah, I've heard that it's smaller than a bedroom.

"The Winter War" by William Durbin. He's my uncle so it's pretty much the only reason I'm checking it out. Most of his novels are for the younger crowd. Historical novel, Soviet Union invading Finland in November 1939.

That's very cool. Historical fiction is very tough to do well.

Just finished the last Scott Pilgrim book.

God, what a let down. Wangst got cranked up ("it felt like I was trapped in a river..."), the fights were stupid (and not funny stupid. Just stupid) and the pacing was horrible. I missed reading a fun comic about a guy fighting even exboyfriends with occasional game jokes tucked away in a few pages. Not stupid melodrama. Now I definitely don't want to see the movie.

I've never read a Stephen King book before, so I'm going to try The Stand and see how it goes

Well ok I've read Thinner but that's a Richard Bachman book w/e :rolleyes

It's gotta be one of the best, really. The Shining and It are good, too.

"Richard Bachman's" greatest contribution to entertainment was when The Running Man became a movie :lol

Though the best work that King wrote while he was writing as Bachman was The Long Walk. I loved that shit.

Make sure you start at the begining of his career and work your way through while giving us one line reviews.

I was thinking about doing that with I-Mock members in reverse alphabetical order

:lol

as soon as i saw the crack about the running man the FIRST THING i thought of was WHAT ABOUT THE LONG WALK

Some shitty webcomic called Wayward Sons.

At least you're reading.

Meanwhile I've been reading Lackadaisy Cats with my daughter. The author gave me a book at SDCC, and it's some pretty amazing stuff... I'm not typically into anthropomorphic stuff, but the artist has real talent which gets me past that barrier. I can recommend it.

I also started reading an interesting Webcomic called OUT THERE from R.C. Monroe. He was at my booth, and I got a chance to peruse his stuff. Again, not the typical fare I'd read, but pretty good focus on characterization, not artwork.

I picked up several novels from the Del Ray and Tor booths as well, but haven't dove into those just yet.

The thing that frustrates me with Stephen King is... he's brilliant at creating concepts and characterization... but he FAILS to outline his plots or where to take them.

So it's invariably enjoyable right up to the climax, and then the whole thing seems to meander and fall apart. He has great beginnings and middles, but AWFUL endings.

I don't think I've EVER read a Stephen King book (and I've read a lot) and gone, "What a satisfying ending..." The best I've managed to say was, "Well... that was... different."

I'm going to say you are wrong because of Shawshank Redemption


Which is more of a novella, but still

Yeah I mean novels since that was what was being discussed. His novellas are typically better constructed... Guess I should have specified.

Mind you, I enjoy them overall, but disappointed in the finales.

I like a lot of his non-supernatural thriller stuff. Fo' realsy

Well since I'm the kind of person who enjoys reading books and cares more about the journey than the destination, I'm not going to be put off by bad endings as long as most of the overall book is good. I'm about 400 pages into the Stand and it's incredible so far, btw.

Trashcan Man is one of my favorite characters in anything ever.

Bombedy bombedy bomb.

The Dark Tower series was very cool in that it tied a lot of his books together into one kind of psuedo-continuity. Ending sucked tho... which, he even SAYS will suck with a disclaimer for anyone reading it. Seriously. Kind of insulting.

Still, there's no denying he's a good writer... he just needs an equally good editor to pin him down to endings that make sense and he'd be a perfect writer. LOL.

Everyone needs a sounding board... in my opinion. Unfortunately (as demonstrated by Lucas) when you're surrounded by sycophants and yes-men... too afraid of upsetting the 800 lb gorilla... you're left with bland creative from otherwise talented people.

I don't think it's easy to end a magnum opus.

the dark tower series is very simple. as soon as stephen king wrote himself into it, as a character, it solidified as crap.

It's archetypal Dune Syndrome; everything gets too damn big, everything gets explained even as more questions are raised, the explained again, everything gets lost in the muddle, everything gets ridiculous in a hurry and then the whole damn series collapses in on itself in a ludicrous, quivering pile of What The Hell Was THAT Crap

psuedo-continuity, my ass. Occasionally, continuity wouldbe briefly hinted at in books like Cujo (yes... and It). From there, connections were firmly established in Insomnia.

Unfortunately, all that was just too damn interesting and subtle, so we get beaten over the head with ZOMG ROLAND ACTUALLY MET STEPHEN KING AND TOLD HIM THAT EVERY STORY HE EVER WROTE WOULD ACTUALLY BE ABOUT THE DARK TOWER LET'S ALL GO TO BARNES AND NOBLE AND GEEK OUT TOGETHER