Read Any Good Books Lately?
Comments
-
I guess I'm one of the few who didn't like Confederacy of Dunces either.
I like Martin Amis. Money was hilarious.
Denis Johnson is pretty good.
Currently reading Search for Captain Zero by Weisbecker.
Fun surf/travel story.
Please Kill me, This Band Could Be Your Life, and Get in the Van are all great music books.
Maybe try the BBC top 100 list? -
Lexie Z wrote: the curious incident of the dog in the night. mark haddon (excellent short)
a friend of mine read this and said that she did not like it because it was written too simplistically, as though the narrator was retarded or something.
sigh, reading comprehension fail. -
vidro3 wrote: [quote=Lexie Z]the curious incident of the dog in the night. mark haddon (excellent short)
a friend of mine read this and said that she did not like it because it was written too simplistically, as though the narrator was retarded or something.
sigh, reading comprehension fail.
oh. my. god. "fail" does not begin to describe what happened there . . .
i lent my mother a copy of the winter of our discontent once and she told me she couldn't get into it because "it was too wordy." i said, "wha?" and she said, "i don't know, it just seems like he's using too many words." still haven't figured out what that was all about. -
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (Part of the "Song of Ice & Fire" series)
this series is the best one out there IMHO -
david mitchell - number9dream (esp if you're a murikami fan), cloud atlas is amazing.
-
hasawaknow wrote: A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (Part of the "Song of Ice & Fire" series)
The first 3 in the series are good, but I'm finding the 4th one is totally dragging. I'm reluctant to finish it, except that I've already invested this much time in the series, and I want to find out how it ends. Also, is the 5th book ever coming out?
this series is the best one out there IMHO -
"Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell entertained me recently. Kind of like ER meets The Sopranos. Its about a doctor in a witness protection program.
-
Flo wrote: "Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell entertained me recently. Kind of like ER meets The Sopranos. Its about a doctor in a witness protection program.
Oh, that looks good (just read about it on Amazon), but it's not out in paperback yet. I added it to my list. Thanks! -
what about the books that the series Dexter was based on? I dunno if they are good or not but if you like the series you might want to check them out.
and then tell me all about them. -
Orientalism - Edaward W. Said
Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
On Thermonuclear War - Herman Kahn -
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - this was one of the best books I read last year, it's out in paperback now. So much of it is set in Brooklyn (Flatbush area, along with Floyd Bennett Field) and it really has a sense of place, for both Brooklyn and NYC.
-
arrbecca wrote: Netherland by Joseph O'Neill - this was one of the best books I read last year, it's out in paperback now. So much of it is set in Brooklyn (Flatbush area, along with Floyd Bennett Field) and it really has a sense of place, for both Brooklyn and NYC.
oh yea wanted to read this -
Netherland: it is seriously so good.
-
Netherland. I think I wanted to read this too. This is the book with cricket in it, yes?
-
Yes, cricket (but don't let that scare you away).
-
"Doghead" by Morten Ramsland
-
So, I just finished the latest Sedaris and every story I read felt very familiar. Turns out that almost all of them were published in the New Yorker. I think there were only 2-3 new stories. Don't bother if you read the New Yorker!
-
Subject: Good Books
Latest: My Life as a Man, by Philip Roth. Hilarious. -
Carnivore wrote: Have you read Pattern Recognition by Gibson? Or Accelerando by Charles Stross?
Pattern Recognition was good, and I thought that Glass House was even better than Accelerando. Halting State was decent, too.
One of my favorite reads in the last couple of years is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Another that deserves similar recognition is Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight (two volumes). Wolfe has a knack for unfolding stories rather than creating them, and they're usually deceptively simple.
Spin was excellent.
Currently, I'm reading Excession, by Iain M Banks - very good so far. I'm glad that his work is seeing fresh distribution, I've been in need of a new author to read through. So far, Matter has been my least favorite, and one that I can't recommend to someone that's not a completist. The Player of Games was good and Use of Weapons was great. -
I LOVE Iain M. Banks, and have all his books, although I haven't read Matter yet (it's on deck- I also have Halting State but haven't read it yet). The only ones I didn't like were the ones written as Iain Banks instead of Iain M. Banks (the non-SF ones). If you haven't read Against A Dark Background, Feersome Endjin, Consider Phlebas, Inversion, or The Algebraist, you should pick them up (or PM me if you want to borrow one).
Also, if you like British space opera type Sci Fi, you should definitely check out Alistair Reynolds (I also have tons of these I could lend you).
I haven't read those Gene Wolfe books but I like Shadow/Claw and Sword/Citadel. -
I'm going to pimp House of Leaves again. (emphasis mine)
Bret Easton Ellis
A great novel. A phenomenal debut. Thrillingly alive, sublimely creepy, distressingly scary, breathtakingly intelligent -- it renders most other fiction meaningless. One can imaging Thomas Pynchon, J. G. Ballard, Stephen King, and David Foster Wallace bowing at Danielewski's feet, choking with astonishment, surprise, laughter, awe.
—(Bret Easton Ellis)
A rollicking Pynchonesque oddity, a Nabokovian linguistic obsession, and a Borgesian unreality. House of Leaves jumps and skips and plays with genre-wrecking abandon, postmodern panache, and an obsessively imaginative scope that absolutely shames most books on the market today.
-San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
Jonathan Lethem
This demonically brilliant book is impossible to ignore, put down, or persuasively conclude reading. In fact, when you purchase your copy you may reach a certain page and find me there, reduced in size like Vincent Price in The Fly, still trapped in the web of its malicious, beautiful pages.
—(Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn) -
Carnivore wrote: I LOVE Iain M. Banks, and have all his books, although I haven't read Matter yet (it's on deck- I also have Halting State but haven't read it yet). The only ones I didn't like were the ones written as Iain Banks instead of Iain M. Banks (the non-SF ones). If you haven't read Against A Dark Background, Feersome Endjin, Consider Phlebas, Inversion, or The Algebraist, you should pick them up (or PM me if you want to borrow one).
Feersome Endjin is near the top of the list (as are a few others that you've mentioned), but not yet acquired - I'll take you up on your offer in another 200 pages. I'll lend you The Knight and The Wizard in exchange.
Also, if you like British space opera type Sci Fi, you should definitely check out Alistair Reynolds (I also have tons of these I could lend you).
I haven't read those Gene Wolfe books but I like Shadow/Claw and Sword/Citadel.
My opinion on Matter may have been (forgive me) a matter of perspective - I know that many Banks fans think very highly of it. It was only my second Banks/Culture novel. It may be that it's just a bad place for an early Banks reader - his unannounced jumping from thread to thread, all while trying to wow you with increasingly fantastical worlds, can be a little... perplexing.
A few others worth checking out -
Anything by Ursula K. LeGuin - I'm still shocked that she's not a household name.
Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. It's been 12 years since I read it, but it's still special. For me, it's Card's best work by a good margin. Fair warning - the first 150 pages or so can be a bit of a slog.
M. John Harrison's Light - I still can't honestly say what struck me about it, but something did... and it left a lasting impression. -
Lush Life, by Richard Price
-
I used to love Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game is a modern classic), but his politics have turned me off so much of late that I can't bring myself to buy any more of his books. Maybe the library for the next one.
-
Yeah, two things contributed to my move away from Card - his (in-book) heavy-handedness with religion and the whole multi-book series in progress that takes so long to conclude (as in, for the author to finish writing) that you've forgotten what the hell happened five books ago... it was his Alvin Maker series that made me decide to never again start reading a series that wasn't already complete OR weren't composed of books that were sufficient stand-alone pieces.
Oh, oh, oh! Tad Williams, Otherland - very good and very long. It's called a series, but it's really one long fucking book that's split up in to easy-to-carry volumes. If you're an avid reader, it'll take 3-6 months, but I thought that it was very much worth it. -
The 5th R.R. Martin book "should" be out in August. Heard rumors it might be about 1,300 pages. I'm guessing it comes with shoulder straps for "easy" carrying.
-
hasawaknow wrote: The 5th R.R. Martin book "should" be out in August. Heard rumors it might be about 1,300 pages. I'm guessing it comes with shoulder straps for "easy" carrying.
After how much this 4th book is dragging, I'm either getting the 5th one at the library or waiting for paperback. -
I just read volumes 1- 9 of The Walking Dead comics, how's about some zombies? Or volume 1 of Hatter M: The Looking Glass Wars? Nothing but the classiest books for me!
-
If you've never read Zelazny's Amber series (starting with 9 Princes in Amber), do it ASAP. Also Lord of Light.
-
Ack! I need one more book for free Amazon shipping.
I've read so much this summer!
Currently reading: "Finding Nouf" (ok so far)
Finished:
"White Tiger" (decent)
"House at Riverton" (crap)
"Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (liked it, but almost gave up on it in the beginning)
"Skeletons at the Feast" (liked)
"When you are Engulfed in Flames" (didn't realize that most were already published in the New Yorker and I had already read 80% of the book)
"Cost" (eh)
"Olive Kitteridge" (blah)
"City of Thieves" (loved)
I have "The Hour I First Believed" and "Netherland" in my cart. Really want to read "Beat the Reaper", but it's not out in paperback yet.
HALP!
Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
- 40K All Categories
- 27.1K Neighborhoods
- 5.1K Crown Heights/Prospect Lefferts Gardens
- 7.1K Prospect Heights
- 2.3K Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy
- 8K Park Slope
- 549 Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- 442 Flatbush/Midwood/Ditmas Park
- 657 BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens)
- 151 Red Hook
- 104 Gowanus
- 304 Bay Ridge/Bensonhurst
- 130 Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay
- 270 Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Downtown
- 598 Windsor Terrace / Kensington
- 673 Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park
- 749 Brooklyn and Beyond
- 6.3K Stuff
- 86 Brooklyn Back When
- 1.2K Brooklyn Pets
- 257 Brooklyn Kids
- 241 Brooklyn Eats
- 51 Brooklyn Booze
- 3.6K The Lounge / Random Stuff
- 611 Brooklyn Politics
- 122 Brooklyn Sports and Fitness
- 111 Brooklyn Photos
- 339 Site Issues
- 8 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- 6.2K Listings
- 1.1K APARTMENTS and REAL ESTATE
- 1.3K Sales Openings Events
- 2.3K The Classifieds