What are you reading?

I've begun a TDE novel called "Riva Mortis". I wonder how it will turn out ?
 
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The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger. Idk what's the big deal with the book honestly. The main character is retarded and nothing interesting happens... "Oh look I'm going to my History teacher"..."Oh look I am having a totally boring conversation with totally boring characters" >.>

For the love of god !!! Why is this even considered a "classic" ?

But then again I didn't like "Lord of the Flies" either. That's another "deep" and profound book that totally sucks ass.
 
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"Lord Of Flies" is about social interaction, on power and on social structures and how they evolve and rise.
That's why it is called a "classic".

You will often find that so-called "classics" are called so because of their meta-stuff.
Not because of the literal text.
 
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There's a very interesting passage in Orwell's "1984" about social structures. Those 10-15 pages alone are more interesting that the entire "Lord of the Flies". I always though that people acclaim this book for the fact that the protagonists are children but even so, there's nothing special about the actual action. I'm probably missing something but I really don't see the big deal behind the entire social structure thing. It's a mediocre dystopian novel at best.
 
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Now I'm reading Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children. At the very least, I'd call it quite odd, lol. It has the weirdest photos in it, some are downright creepy!!


-Carn
 
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I'm re-reading Neuromancer and strangely not digging on it so much this time around. I decided it would be a good first book on my kindle but, despite loving it the first time around, I'm finding it to be quite dated and less cool than I remember. I've read a shite load of Philip K Dick in the intervening years though and I suspect he's ruined me for all others - oh Philip, how I miss you!
 
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I'm going to start reading Brandon Sanderson's works. He's being praised for great world building, among other things.

The last two Wheel of Time volumes were incredible and reviews on his other books are very positive as well. There's Mistborn, in a world full of ash with a well-crafted, metal-based magic system; Alcatraz, a fun series aimed at a younger audience which works for all ages; and The Stormlight Archive, a fantasy(-scifi?) epic with a slight steampunk vibe, taking place in a world continuously ravaged by super-storms, that is supposed to become a 10 volume series.

Did anyone read something by him other than the two Wheel of Time books? I remember dte reading Sanderson's Elantris. How was it?
 
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I rather enjoyed the Mistborn series, and he just put out a new one in that world, but I think it has different characters in it. I'll be picking it up this weekend and hopefully starting it soon.



-Carn
 
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I remember dte reading Sanderson's Elantris. How was it?
Pretty good, actually. The concept was fairly original and the writing was solid. Overall, the experience was good enough to get me to purchase Mistborn (which I haven't started yet).

Haven't posted in quite a while, but we'll skip to recent times.

The Strain by Del Toro and Hogan
Grabbed it mostly as a cheap change-of-pace when the local Borders was closing, and pleasantly surprised. The story and characters are decent, but not great, but the impressive thing was the pacing. The book is quite the pageturner and keeps you reading late not so much because the story is engrossing but rather because the pacing makes the experience like riding a train—lots of inertia and hard to get off.

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny by Simon Green
I do enjoy my Nightside books. About 2/3 thru this one so far, and Green seems to be pulling out of the slump he went thru for a couple books. I noticed that, between Nightside and the Deathstalker series, I'm reading a lot of Green's work. Hadn't really considered him a "favorite author", but maybe that should change.
 
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Finished "the name of the wind", following dteowner advice.
High level and quality writing.
Second book already at my hands.

Thank you dteowner
 
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Finished "the name of the wind", following dteowner advice.
High level and quality writing.
Second book already at my hands.

Thank you dteowner
Glad you enjoyed it. You'll have to tell me if the second one maintains the level of quality. I'm waiting for paperback to come out before getting it.
 
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Pretty good, actually. The concept was fairly original and the writing was solid. Overall, the experience was good enough to get me to purchase Mistborn (which I haven't started yet).

I have, now, and am liking it a lot. It's a real page turner for me. So far I read The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension and have just started with The Hero of Ages. Fun magic system, relentless pacing, interesting and twisty plot. The books don't feel as heavyweight, figuratively speaking, as some of the more well-known fantasy works; in that regard they reminded me a bit of the Shannara books (series of trilogies, that's what Mistborn is planned for as far as I know). But I can't put them down.
 
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"Egyptian Gardens", catalogue to a small exhibition at the local "Römisch-Germanisches Museum" in Cologne, Germany, it is in German languuage.

Everyone knows Pyramids, Mummies, the Nile, Ramses, Tut ... but Gardens ?

The catalogue provides background information (and is imho much, much better than the now closed exhibition itself !) on gardening in ancient Egypt. It provides information on plants used, ggardens, their use and their architecture, and flower bindings used to lay down on mummies. ONe o the highlights of the exhibition was the reconstruction (colourful ones !) of flower bindings/necklaces used for Tut. [Tut = Tutanchamun (name used within Germany) = Tutankhamun (name used in English-speaking territories]

This is a web page of Cologne showing such a flower binding/necklace, apparingly one used during the funeral ceremonies of young Tut, but not for himself : http://www.koeln.de/koeln/museum_zeigt_die_liebe_der_aegypter_zur_blumenpracht_481426.html
Direct link : http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_9EmTLH-MlyCjU-Qf2fYRl68fvXiUKxUAJLA6ccJV-c2D0axT
 
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Grabbed The Hunger Games Trilogy when Amazon had a price-error for a few hours (entire trilogy for <$3) and Barnes & Noble price matched ... reading now on my Nook Touch, and will likey finish on my Kindle Fire ;)

Half-way through the second book. First one was quite good, but getting bogged down on what feels too much like a 'team edward/team jacob' thing right now ...
 
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I completed Neil Gaiman's "The Dream Hunters", and now I started H.P. Lovecraft's The Complete Fiction book.

At first it contains the introduction about the life of the famous author. And I completed the first of all his novels "The Monster in the Cave". No wonder he was so good with his first novel as he impressed everybody about his writing and literature skills at his early age. I'm going to start the 2nd of them all. ^^

i might get any ideas of creating new scenarios or novels for my own. I'm currently writing 3 novels. Still yet to get to the end.
 
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Begun with the book I bought as a birthday present for myself : "Das Labyrinth der träumenden Bücher", the sequel to "Die Stadt der träumenden Bücher" by Walter Moers.

The first book was so weird it appeared to me as the work of some sort of genius. ;)
The world is - as weird as it gets - still believable in itself. And that's imho the fantastic thing of it : WITHIN this world, EVERYTHING sounds believable - even if it looks as utter nonsense in the first place.

I just looked : The first book is already translated : http://www.amazon.com/City-Dreaming...1116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320926318&sr=8-1

If you have some time for reading - GET IT !!!!!
 
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Began reading " The Hunchback of Notre Dame " by Victor Hugo. It had a criminally boring and uninteresting intro, ( full of names I knew nothing about. ) but I'll just keep on reading to see where it goes. I always liked the background of the story.
 
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