Easygoing Eyebeast Goldengirl Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 I've been busy over the vacation. Read two books, one called Tobacco, which is about this curious weed named after a court physician, and its relation with Man. Goes from the uncertain discovery of tobacco's properties in South America, to its arrival in Europe with the Spaniards, all the way to the present day. The writer, Iain Gately, has written one other book, a novel. As such, even though the book could be incredibly dry, he really makes it come alive as a story; as every history book should do, in my humblest of opinions. Highly recommended. The other book was the eigth installment of the Edge Chronicles, The Winter Knights. As usual, Paul Stewart weaves a tale full of imagery, rigor, and even combat; his beautiful portrayal of life upon a giant, floating stone that is freezing to the core is only amplified by Chris Riddell's masterful artwork. Also highly recommended, though it is better to start at the beginning. Now, I'm reading a memoir by a historian, Stephen Ambrose. To America is a book stretching from the bravery of figures such as Jefferson and Washington all the way to the present. In each chapter, he details the objects of his study, how he studied them, and short, humanistic personal insights. So far it is excellent, and I only hope to be so learned as him in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 I wanted a cultural experience, so I read Consider Phlebas. And, well, I am. —Alorael, who isn't sure if he really encountered all the deep themes and meditations on human nature hidden within. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Micawber Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Banks's books do run deep - consider Inversions, which can be read on many levels. I tend to just relax and enjoy the humour. Incidentally has anyone read anything by Kevin J. Anderson? I'm rapidly running out of books here. Edit: I'm talking about his original stuff, not the star wars/dune tie-ins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Swimmin' Salmon Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Originally Posted By: Thuryl Man, what an unfortunate name. Did people call him Dickie Bird in school? They probably called him by his middle name, Evelyn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Sudanna Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 The Tesseracts Series. Tesseracts Eleven, to be precise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Xaiya Posted July 25, 2008 Share Posted July 25, 2008 Originally Posted By: Excalibur Originally Posted By: Iffy ...I will soon have nothing to read. Golden Compass is good, if you haven't read it already. If you mean "The Golden Compass" as in, the trilogy which also has "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass" than... Yes, I have read that trilogy. I still have nothing to read. SurraAgob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Toby-Linn Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Read Lloyd Alexanders Prydain Chronicles books, they're really good. I also recommend David Eddings' "The Belgariad", which comprises six books, and the sequel "The Malloreon" which is five books. Both are part of the adventure/fantasy genre, and both recommendations are about boys who become part of tumultuous events and, of course, are very important though they don't know it. If you don't mind a female protaganist, I would also go for Mercedes Lackey's "Queen's Own" series, which takes place in her world of Valdemar (which has lots of books about it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Callie Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Originally Posted By: Toby-Linn Read Lloyd Alexanders Prydain Chronicles books, they're really good. That series tends to deter people because the first few chapters of the first book are boring. It's pretty strange that any good author would do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Toby-Linn Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I don't find them boring, they introduce us to the main character, and give us backstory. All books can't go straight to the action. I guess it's just a matter of taste really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Randomizer Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Try Viva Max! by Jim Lehrer written in 1966. It's about a group of Mexican soldiers under the command of General Maximillian retaking the Alamo and holding off the US forces. The movie with Peter Ustinov is great too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Misc Staple Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I finished off The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah. I think I should have read the previous five volumes, because this book put me to sleep. All anyone did was wander from place to place, talk about what happened in the previous books, talk about what they might do in the future, and do some wandering around. I'm not certain, but the first hundred pages consisted of them taking a walk to a cave. Turtle statues brainwashing people was kind of fun, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Misc Staple Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Double post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Originally Posted By: Toby-Linn If you don't mind a female protaganist It's a bit sad that people feel the need to say this, isn't it? I don't ever recall anyone apologising for recommending to a woman a book that had a male protagonist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 And yet that seems to be the case for many in today's society. Speaking of Mercedes Lackey's books and the world of Valdemar, give the last Herald-Mage series a try, if you don't mind a gay protaganist. (haha). Speaking of female protagonists, there is this book i read recently called The Naming that was pretty good. Protaganist finds out she has magic, but doesn't care about using it, that old jazz, but it's pretty well written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Sleeping Dragon Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Originally Posted By: Thuryl It's a bit sad that people feel the need to say this, isn't it? I don't ever recall anyone apologising for recommending to a woman a book that had a male protagonist. It just goes to show men have a harder time understanding the opposite sex than women do, and they're not afraid to admit it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk nikki. Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 How the freaky freak can you say you have "nothing to read", Iffy. People have been writing for centuries. If just one book a week was published since the invention of the printing press in 1439, that's 29588 books. If you read one a day, it'd take over 80 years to read them all. The last book I finished was "The Dice Man" by Luke Rhinehart (George Cockcroft). It was fun. At the moment, I'm reading Dante's Inferno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I would suggest the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Matanbuchus Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Yeah. The sheer amount of filler text in the Wheel of Time-series will keep you occupied for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Toby-Linn Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 ezAndy: how can you read the Song of Susannah without reading the other volumes? I could never come into a series in the middle, unless it was a standalone story. To Thuryl, Sleeping Dragon, etc: I wasn't really apologizing, I just assumed that Iffy was a young teenage male (as so many are on these boards) and assumed he wouldn't want to read about females.....that was a lot of assumptions on my part, I apologize for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Iffy, if you're out of things to read, just head to the library and start pulling books off the shelf. You'll find something interesting soon enough. And if you don't, you clearly aren't bored enough. Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Misc Staple Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Toby-Linn: The library I went to had only Books 6 & 7. Also, I believe that a good author should have their books written in a way for the reader to jump in at any point in the story and not be completely confused. I also finished "Red Dragon" by Thomas Harris, the first of the Hannibal Lector (in order of publication). Having Lector used _sparingly_ was a good idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Kelandon Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 A nice ideal, sort of, but when there've been literally thousands of pages of preceding text, it's pretty hard to write a satisfying stand-alone that also continues the story. I've been having a hell of a time recently with non-stand-alone stories, because I've been trying to read the X-Men comics from start to mid-1990's. Only problems are the cross-overs and extra X-Titles and limited runs. I really just want to read Legionquest with full context, but to do that requires tracking the entire history of Legion, and (much worse) the entire history of Professor X and Magneto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast Dintiradan Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Last book I read was The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Meh, its age shows, I think. Went to the second hand bookstore today and bought Neuromancer by William Gibson, Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell, and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams. But before I start those I have to finish off my Crichton backlog - Next and The Terminal Man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Tyranicus Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series is indeed quite good. IMHO, though, only the first book in the Queen's Own set is really good. Arrow's Flight and Arrow's Fall are necessary to the plot of the overall series, so they should be read, but I would hardly call them great. I loved Arrows of the Queen though. My favorite Valdmemar book would probably be Brightly Burning, which can be read without any prior knowledge of the series. It also has a male protagonist, if such things actually matter. I hope she hasn't decided to stop writing in Valdemar novels. It's been 5 years now since Exile's Valor came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Balladeer Posted July 27, 2008 Share Posted July 27, 2008 While at the grandparents's house I read at least 300 pages of children's books out loud every day. My favorite? A Bad Case of the Stripes. It was cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Dikiyoba just finished the Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ineffable Wingbolt Upon Mars. Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Starting the" inisde the russian army" . Is Soldier Son good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 They were okay. Not spectacular, but not awful. Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Andraste Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 I just finished reading "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and have just started on "Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Evnissyen Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 I just looked up those two books on Amazon, just to satisfy my skepticism, and I've found that, in fact, Andraste is not joking. At the moment I'm reading a couple books by Russell Edson. "The Song of Percival Peacock" and "The Reason Why the Closet-Man Is Never Sad". People: Go find this guy's stuff and read it. It's hilarious. Classic Absurdism. And not for children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk nikki. Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 Finished "The Inferno". I want to get a decent copy of the rest of the poem - the only reason I got this one was because it was £1 and I had a long train ride. Next, I've acquired "The Metamorphosis" by Kafka, so I'll try that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Evnissyen Posted July 28, 2008 Share Posted July 28, 2008 The Trial was my favorite of his novels. Amerika was the silliest, and he knew it. Kafka wanted to write something that would sell. But he knew almost nothing about America except what he read from, I think, a book by Ben Franklin, and something else. Maybe I'll take a look later and find out the full info. And... I think The Burrow was probably my favorite of his shorter stories. ...Either that or Description of a Struggle. The Castle I read so long ago it's hard to remember. It had a spooky atmosphere but I think I also remember the book rambling a lot. I really should re-read that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted July 29, 2008 Share Posted July 29, 2008 Originally Posted By: Tyranicus Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series is indeed quite good. IMHO, though, only the first book in the Queen's Own set is really good. Arrow's Flight and Arrow's Fall are necessary to the plot of the overall series, so they should be read, but I would hardly call them great. I loved Arrows of the Queen though. My favorite Valdmemar book would probably be Brightly Burning, which can be read without any prior knowledge of the series. It also has a male protagonist, if such things actually matter. I hope she hasn't decided to stop writing in Valdemar novels. It's been 5 years now since Exile's Valor came out. I like the Last Herald-Mage series, which takes place back when people still had the Mage-Gift. No idea what happens in the arrows books though. EDIT: First book is Magic's Pawn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan La paix Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene and then his other book The Fabric of the Cosmos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Feo Takahari Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Every once in a while I find a book somewhere but am unable to buy it, and wind up spending years looking for it. I have finally tracked down and am about to read The Roaches Have No King (the title roaches try to get the main character to get a new girlfriend because his current girlfriend is really tidy and doesn't leave out any food they can steal.) Next up: The Gods Hate Kansas, which could be harder to find. (amazon.com is selling it for a hundred bucks!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Artila Farrun Dragon Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 reading, eh? now that im an expert at. (though maybe not typeing) here's a couple to try- -"Sabreil" -Deltora quest series (lower reading level though) -any "great/junior great" books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Sudanna Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 Finally got around to reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and it's sequels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 I have been reading the Myth-Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve, and also the Swordf of Truth series which i just bought all of the rest of except for Confessor. These 7 new book and a couple new games are why I have been missing for a week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Drew Posted August 13, 2008 Share Posted August 13, 2008 I've been reading "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin, and loving every minute of it. I'm very excited for the other two books in the series. EDIT: err, three books, with more forthcoming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Yeah, I need the third book out of that series. I also need to read past book 6 of the Wheel of Time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Tyranicus Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Quote: I also need to read past book 6 of the Wheel of Time. You really don't. I can sum up all 5 of them for you right here: Rand is cleansing the source and going mad. Nynaeve and Min are helping Rand. Mat is wandering around with Thom and Tuon. Perrin is trying to rescue Faile from the rebel Aiel. Egwene is leading the rebel Aes Sedai to besiege the White Tower Elayne is trying to hold her throne. There, that saves you from reading thousands of pages of tedium. Seriously, after Lord of Chaos, the Wheel of Time really starts to suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 wow, thanks a lot....how very....kind of you to insult the series....you know, I think I'll read them anyway and find out for myself.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 Just finished Eulalia and ugh, the Redwall series should have ended several books ago. Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Brock The Archmage Posted August 14, 2008 Share Posted August 14, 2008 I never liked Redwall. Oh well see y'all tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unflappable Drayk Sleeping Dragon Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Hey, Redwall was good stuff! I stopped after Marlfox, though, so I don't know how it went after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rotghroth Rhapsody Feo Takahari Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Originally Posted By: Brock The Archmage I never liked Redwall. Someone has GOT to introduce you to the "Depthford Mice" series by Robin Jarvis. If you hated Redwall, it will be perfect for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnificent Ornk Dikiyoba Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Quote: Hey, Redwall was good stuff! I stopped after Marlfox, though, so I don't know how it went after that. Downhill, and fast. Lord Brocktree and the middle section of The Legend of Luke are worth a read. Possibly Rakkety Tam too, but all the others since Marlfox are terrible. Dikiyoba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyshakk Koan Ghaldring Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Dikiyoba: Quote: Downhill, and fast. Lord Brocktree and the middle section of The Legend of Luke are worth a read. Possibly Rakkety Tam too, but all the others since Marlfox are terrible. Dikiyoba. I don't think Jacques has ever heard of pushing the envelope. His books are so mind numbingly repetitive. Every book consists of hordes of big bad irredeemable slaver vermin attacking the poor innocent non-vermin. Usually it's an attack on Redwall or Salamandastron. And just when you think Redwall/Salamandastron is going to fall, oh look, here comes the relief army of otters/long patrol hares to save the day. Hooray! What a load of cack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug AaronC Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Charlie Wilson's War and Black Hawk Down, couldn't recommend them strongly enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Well-Actually War Trall Andraste Posted August 15, 2008 Share Posted August 15, 2008 Originally Posted By: Drew I've been reading "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin Crazy. Sporefrog and I are reading it too. Good, but too much incest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.