BOOKS. whatcha readin...?

[darkwingduck]

the next science fiction book im looking to read is...City by Clifford D. Simak.

[Ramen]

do you guys fuck with ebooks at all? reading on a tablet is just weird to me.

[alpha]

has anyone read galveston by pizzolato(the writer for true detective)?

[Kid That's Lifeless]

It's decent. Definitely not what I expected from a storytelling standpoint as I thought it would be waaaaay weirder and it's very straightforward. Very quick read. Like True Detective, I thought the ending was weak.

There's a little quirk that the main character shares with Rust that you'll catch. It's in the first chapter, I believe.

[ric]

do you guys fuck with ebooks at all? reading on a tablet is just weird to me.

oh the answer to this question is no.
agreed 100%. the tablet thing is like barely reading to me. the physical book is super important.

also id have to buy all my shit new so fuck that shit. i dont make enough to afford a billion books even at discount prices

[Kid That's Lifeless]

Yeah, fuck tablets.

[darkwingduck]

tablets suck. nothing better than a hardback!

[ChaMerZ]

All things considered, I prefer reading off a screen. I have no difficulty at all reading from either my tablet or my laptop. Actual books are great, but unfortunately they are not very practical for me. I read voraciously so if I were to physically keep every book I've purchased over the years I'd quickly run out of space. Of course I could just borrow the books from the library, but more often than not, they're in poor quality. For example, the only copy of Enders' Game that my local library had was literally falling apart.

[drizzle]

Definitely not what I expected from a storytelling standpoint as I thought it would be waaaaay weirder and it's very straightforward.

LOL starting too think this dude is way too invested in pictures of himself on the backcover looking tough with rolled up black tshirt sleeves to ever unclench his asshole and get really weird with it

[Kid That's Lifeless]

Definitely not what I expected from a storytelling standpoint as I thought it would be waaaaay weirder and it's very straightforward.

LOL starting too think this dude is way too invested in pictures of himself on the backcover looking tough with rolled up black tshirt sleeves to ever unclench his asshole and get really weird with it

[Joe Pesci]

Kafka On The Shore

First time reading anything by Murakami and enjoying it so far. Although about halfway through I'm finding the side storyline with Nakata and the cats more interesting than the main plot. That chapter with the Johnnie Walker guy and the cats

[gallax]

Going through Elmore Leonard's catalog after reading this article on Grantland
http://grantland.com/features/elmore-le ... t-dickens/
Really digging the plot twists, and the conversations are some of the most natural I've ever read. I do get the feeling he uses the same 'trick' in his plot development, but that might be also because I'm reading them all in one go.
My favorites so far:
Glitz
Escape from Five Shadows (didn't know he wrote westerns, and he's pretty great at it)
Cat Chaser
I'm pretty sure that list will change along the way though.

So far, only Djibouti has been a disappointment.
Any tips on which one to read next?

[360]

Republic of Thieves. The third installment in the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. He builds some excellent worlds but what is really incredible is his marked improvement in writing with each book in the series.

[ric]

Republic of Thieves. The third installment in the Gentlemen Bastards series by Scott Lynch. He builds some excellent worlds but what is really incredible is his marked improvement in writing with each book in the series.

Read that this had thievery. Psyched to check it out. I love thievery

[ChaMerZ]

Still trying to struggle through Stokely Carmichael's Autobiography. This is a heavy, heavy tome, not even just by size, but by sheer content and depth. The middle third of the book is a bit slow too.

[drizzle]

Yea it sucks how Stockely totally didn't get into enough shootouts and car chases in the 2nd act of his life, and focused on gay ass relationships and character building instead

[ChaMerZ]

Yea it sucks how Stockely totally didn't get into enough shootouts and car chases in the 2nd act of his life, and focused on gay ass relationships and character building instead

Have you read it? Overall, it was a great read. Quite illuminating to say the least. Learned a lot about Stokely, MLK and how their tactics diverged over the years. Also Stokely's experience in Africa was interesting to read. I am now currently reading Black Bourgeoisie by Franklin Frazier, Idoru by William Gibson and a non-fiction Bioinformatics book.

[Joe Pesci]

Gravity's Rainbow.

Shit is thoroughly confusing.

[ChaMerZ]

Idoru by William Gibson

I can't seem to find this anywhere

[ric]

finished hunger games trilogy a couple days ago....

book one was my favorite
book two second favorite
book three may have actually been my favorite at the outset (but ends up being the worst by far) and had a ton of potential but following my recommendation (below) probably would have been better and they would have split up into a couple books or just made it larger

cause heres the thing...i hate that the author ended it the way she did and made it....so fucking dumb for so much of the book. the only thing that drove the book along at some point was katnisses angst. i mean through the whole book fucking angsty ass katniss being a dumb teenager all day ere day. and yeah i understand the psychological shit - i get it. but A) dont let it ruin the goddamn narrative and dont let it be really the ever-present catalyst of almost everything this character does and B) the book could have been so much better planned out in terms of the sequence of events; everything gets shoved together basically unnaturally. i liked the trilogy but hated where the book went. could have had a really similar ending but been much much better.

i mean by the end of the second book (especially with the way that one ended in the arena) you could tell the author was kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel there but if youre going to do some 'providence' type shit at least actually let that thread continue. you dont even have to do it super super super sweet and tie everything with a furry cuddly bow and shit for the third one but you know its just too disappointing the way the author works it all out. i understand how this can be a movie ok? but i hope the filmmakers realize how fucking ridiculous all that garbage is. get out of katnisses head for fucks sake. GAWD. contrived contrived contrived. shut the fuck up.

started on this newish space book called Leviathan because i couldnt find the first locke book at barnes and noble. will return.

[zappy]

Looking for some good sci fi books. I don't read much of this genre so please recommend some of the obvious ones and also some more obscure jawns too.

thanls bros.

for me the essentials are the original 6 dune books by frank herbert and the foundation series by isaac asimov.

dune is a pretty deep dive, foundation is light reading, but both are really good, and definitely worth reading.

[zappy]

i ended up starting a fantasy series that another friend of mine recommended to me (sorry chamerz, i'll probably get to your recommendations when i'm done with this one.), the malazan book of the fallen by steven erikson.

i'm on the sixth one now(out of ten, it has ended), and i'm really loving it. it's ten books long, but it's not dragged out at all like some other series (cough, wheel of time). pretty much every other book is about a brand new set of characters, but it builds up the overall plot.

[Echo Leader]

Just finished this:



Great read. Pretty short (120 pages or so) but relentless. This is the second book I've read by Murakami (Ryu, that is) and I think I liked this a bit more than Coin Locker Babies. Thoroughly demented look at youth culture in Japan in the 70's.

Just started on this:



Pretty awesome so far. John Waters has a great writing style and is, quite frankly, hilarious. Chapter on Little Richard is great (you can easily find that one online if you're curious).

Also, ordered this one from Mike IX's website yesterday. Can't wait to dive in:

[ric]

waters book is probably amazing.

finished Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey. shit was actually pretty tight. far from perfect but great sci fi read from someone who thinks the genre is mostly ridiculous bullshit. i am contemplating picking up the next book in the (currently unfinished) series. its just....

the way the information is delivered is too...limited. theres a couple methods of delivering information and making things happen and i dont know if i want to read another installment of the same formulaic shit. or even get the second one and commit to it when im already kind of tired of it. even if they change the formula its probably still going to be formulaic

re-read Enders Game and just started up Speaker for the Dead. uh....im gonna probably read it through to do it proper (and maybe it just starts slow) but...........im not really digging it too much right now to be honest. first few chapters in.

[ChaMerZ]

re-read Enders Game and just started up Speaker for the Dead. uh....im gonna probably read it through to do it proper (and maybe it just starts slow) but...........im not really digging it too much right now to be honest. first few chapters in.

thanks for the heads up man. i must have sixth sense, because speaker for the dead, has been sitting on top of my washing machine for the past three months, unread. i will probably get rid of it. i read ender's game and wasn't a big fan, but most of you already know that.

[ric]

@chamerz
Yeah. Finished it....Pretty sweet....

when people say the books get more 'philosophical' they basically mean that thoughts are explained a lot and a few ethical/existential ideas are really played with in the writing as major part of the narration. I mean...that's about it. Some cool shit happens but.........not that much cool shit happens. Let me just put it like that. A lot of character exploration. A ton of it.

Let's just say I'm glad I read it cause it's easy and cool and short....but enders game is a whole nother thing on a whole nother level and enders shadow was also pretty sweet if a bit contrived at some points. However I'm not gonna read more sequels of either branch of enders shit.

Next book; probably either Spy Who Came In from The Cold or Genghis Khan bio or Cthulhu/lovecraft compilation

[ChewbaccaUncircumcised]

Been a minute since I read a good fantasy novel that wasn't just rehashed Tolkien. This book is pretty cool. Sort of like if Frank Herbert and H.P. Lovecraft wrote a book together.

[Echo Leader]

Been a minute since I read a good fantasy novel that wasn't just rehashed Tolkien. This book is pretty cool. Sort of like if Frank Herbert and H.P. Lovecraft wrote a book together.

Thx Chewie, looks awesome.

[LilLeftBrain]

finished hunger games trilogy a couple days ago....

re the third one, prims cat + katniss co-existing/mourning together tho

[wizeguy]

Just finished 'Darkness at Noon' by Arthur Koestler. It's a masterpiece. I don't get how I haven't heard about it before. It's right up my alley.

I've started 'Red Plenty' by Francis Spufford. It's interesting so far. Here's a synopsis from Amazon:

Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the twentieth-century magic called “the planned economy,” which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away; about the brief era when, under the rash leadership of Khrushchev, the Soviet Union looked forward to a future of rich communists and envious capitalists, when Moscow would out-glitter Manhattan and every Lada would be better engineered than a Porsche. It’s about the scientists who did their genuinely brilliant best to make the dream come true, to give the tyranny its happy ending.

Red Plenty is history, it’s fiction, it’s as ambitious as Sputnik, as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant, and as different from what you were expecting as a glass of Soviet champagne.