172 replies to this topic

[BigWigRah]

Just finished Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" It took me forever because I read 11 other books after starting it, but I'm glad I finished it so I can put Richard Adams to bed for a little while. I'm really excited about what I'm moving on to.

Just started reading the "Necronomicon" collection of short stories by H P Lovecraft. I remember there being a topic about this on the boards a LONG time ago, and am just now getting around to reading him. I really like it so far. Considering I'm a huge fan of the old gamecube title "Eternal Darkness," these stories resonate with me pretty well.

[Shadow]

I'm reading Lovecraft as well. Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Finished reading Space Eaters, one of my favorites oddly.

[Ratty Randnums]

"A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In past years I've enjoyed the ridiculous fun of the the first two Tarzan books ("The Beasts of Tarzan" was quiet a slough though) they're interesting as historical windows into what was popular in the early part of the 20th Century. "A Princess of Mars" though is, eeeeeh it's just dumb. I mean really dumb. Which is normal for Burroughs, part of what makes it interesting historically and fun as campy adventure, but John Carter isn't nearly as interesting a character as Tarzan, and the book seems much more plodding. I'm 50 pages in and there's only been one fight scene between our hero and the mighty white gorillas of mars, something is wrong here.

Be ready to hear a lot more about this later by the way as Pixar has been developing a movie based on the property for some time and has adjusted things to meet your post-avatar expectations. I'll just let Frank Franzetta sell it to you like he does on the cover of my copy:

[furrykef]

"Frazetta". Someday you'll get the spelling of his name right.

[Ratty Randnums]

"Frazetta". Someday you'll get the spelling of his name right.

Lol perhaps kef but old reflexes, which developed from when I first heard his name always mispronounced at around 8 years old are hard to break.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you're too much the optimist

[Rosy]

In regular books: The Host by Stephenie Meyer.

In manga books: A Record of a Fallen Vampire & also reading Black Bird.

I alternate between the two whenever I read.

[MistressAli]

I got bored with Terry Goodkind's 'Sword of Truth' series and had to take a break from it for a while. I think I was on book 5 or 6...
But yeah, now I've stocked my kindle up with fan-fiction I've been meaning to read Currently reading Darkwing Duck and Escaflowne stuff. UM YAY?

[Velvet D'Coolette]

So then, The Neverending Story ended?

You know what, kef? I so don't think this is funny any more, but I just went through a dozen pages of Very Demotivational just to get it. So you're going to laugh when you see this.



Laugh like an angry kookaburra. Now.

In other news, I've been reading Decipher by Stel Pavlou.

Blurb: Ten thousand years before Christ, there was the Flood. Now, twelve thousand years later, a confluence of events affecting the Sun and the Earth point towards a repeat performance. A small group of scientists must decipher an unknown language discovered in Antarctica to make sense of the sudden awakening of ancient sites if humanity - and its home - are to survive the ultimate catastrophe.

^^ Now that is why I bought the book. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Such potential!

What an effing waste of time!

A friend recently pointed out to me that an author cannot write a character more intelligent than themselves. This book is a prime example of an author attempting to write professors, admirals and scientists... and failing, because of a glaring lack of even remotely parallel intelligence. The characters all sulk and gripe like teenagers on a particularly pubescent day. Every last one of them. Since there's a lot at stake in the story - everything from humankind's future to shedloads of money, the kid-gloves are off for these professionals, but there is a distinct playground bully edge to it all. I don't tend to mix with these types very much in real life, but I'm almost certain that even American professionals don't say 'God damn' that much.

And the dialogue. So much dialogue, and so little actually happening. I'm 200 pages in and we're not even past the initial mystery stage of this story yet.

I'm not particularly well-up on the science in this book either, but I suspect there are holes in it. Certainly when the characters start explaining various bits and pieces of the science one needs to know for the sake of the story, they do so badly. Very badly.

And the whole thing feels like's been written as a plan for a film. The 'visuals' of the book are not presented very well as a book; they'd work well as a film, I think, but not as a book.

It reads so, so clumsily. Honestly, it's like reading Dan Brown, only worse. Very clunky sentence structure - in fact, clunkier, if you can imagine such a thing. Still, at least the lead female character isn't 'beautiful' and 'mysterious' like Dan Brown's always seem to be. Nope. She's a grumpy so-and-so. I've flicked through to see what happens further on in the book and she ends up being the reader's darling, somehow. Or judging by the way Stel has written her, that's how one is supposed to feel. But the waspishness she's been invested with up until page 200 (and probably further), he'd have a lot of turning around to do to make that believable.

[furrykef]

"How NOT to Write a Novel", by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman. I hate admitting to myself that I don't already know everything about writing, but it must be admitted nonetheless.

Honestly, it's like reading Dan Brown, only worse.

I know it's trendy to knock on Dan Brown, but I gotta say it anyway: worse than Dan Brown? Damn, that's bad!

[Kain Blackwood]

Just finished "Last Human" by Doug Naylor (more serious than the original Red Dwarf books, but an okay sci-fi read) and am about to start "Backwards" by Rob Grant. I've been meaning to read these for years, but didn't out of equal parts too-lazy-to-order and just not wanting the story to end.

After watching "Inception" and "Total Recall" back-to-back, though, I'm getting a really strong jones to read Phillip K. Dick again, so maybe he'll be the next thing on my list.

[furrykef]

"Predictably Irrational", by Dan Ariely. It's about how humans constantly make irrational decisions, but they do them in consistent ways. I bought it mainly with the intention of understanding human behavior for the purpose of modeling human personality for a video game. I thought it was only going to be a minor help, but the first chapter alone (which deals with how all human thought is relative, never absolute) has already done more to adjust my thinking than I thought the entire book would. The second chapter is not so easily applicable, but I'm sure there are applications. I guess we'll see how the rest of it goes.

[Rosy]

I just read some of the 'Scott Pilgrim' books and seriously.... I can't help but wonder why people like this story. The main character is a dick, he lied and cheated on his girlfriend, and just seems to be an utter loser. The girl Ramona Flowers just.... Is a whore. I mean she dated twins at the same time, and even a girl? WTF? And 7 ex boyfriends, plus maybe one or two that weren't evil, but still a dick as she says? I mean she's only 24 and had this many? I mean Scott just started dating Knives Chau, and yet jumps at dating Ramona the moment he can and almost has sex with her that night, and doesn't break it off with Knives right away, thus really cheating on both girls. Hell when Ramona isn't around when he just thinks she left him, which she didn't, he offers to have sex with Knives just as casual.... This guy just really doesn't have any morals or ties does he? How can you even care about this moron? I was CHEERING when he was killed, and BOOING when he remembered he had a 1UP and came back to life, I was seriously groaning. That's bad when you're revolted at the main characters.

I mean just the fact this guy has to fight her seven ex boyfriends just to date her is a stupid plot, meant to be based on video games sure. But at least the creator could have tried to make the characters more likable. Ramona is emotionless through most of this, like 'you have to do this to prove you wanna date me' attitude. Even it is said that Ramona cheated on some of her ex boyfriends... Yeah these two sure are perfect for each other, they're both pieces of $#*%...

I couldn't even stand to really read this all the way, the characters made me sick and honestly I tried to keep going hoping it would get better when in fact it got worse and as it went on I just kept finding more reasons not to like it. I love video games yeah but this premise would had worked so much better if the characters were better people.

Well anyway this is my opinion on the books, say what you like but keep in mind I'm sticking to my opinion.

[DarthGamer]

I recently finised Lost Symbol by Dan Brown for summer reading and I did enjoy it. For my own pleasure (please don't flame me or accuse me of being a scientologist) BattleField Earth A Saga of the year 3000. I really enjoyed it to be honest.

[henryiii]

Wicked by Gregory Maguire and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

[BigWigRah]

Finished "The Unbroken Web" (Adams again). Moving along in the same vein to "Fire Bringer." (yes, I have a thing for semi realistic Xenofiction). I'll finish Lovecraft later since I needed a break from him.

[BigWigRah]

Stephen King's "The Stand, Complete and Uncut." First venture into Stephen King, and it's friggen awesome.

[MistressAli]

Right now I'm reading the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.. yeah it's in the YA genre (hey I like that genre even if I'm an old hag) Actually I've read this series before but got the urge to read it again. Heard it might be coming out as a movie next year which could be good if done right, of course.

[furrykef]

The Little Schemer, a programming textbook. Got about halfway through it before and stopped for some reason, so I'm starting over and I'm already near where I was before.

[Rosy]

I just read recently the two volumes of Millennium Snow aka A Thousand Years of Snow.

This manga is just so awesome I can't even find the words. This is by far the best vampire story I ever read, and I'm not much of a fan of vampires, so it surprised me how much I love this story. It's sad that the manga only lasted 2 volumes because the creator stopped it to focus on a much less interesting manga.

Now, the Twilight fanatics try to say this story is too close to that and a rip off, but hey, reality check people - This manga was published in Japan back in 2001, so it came first, and in my opinion is a better story. The female is a by far more likable character and not someone you wanna smack, more feel sorry for as she's sickly but trying to live her life to the fullest. The vampire isn't possessive or tries to enforce things onto her, in fact he learns things from her. His rivalry with the werewolf is more comical, plus there is actually a bat in this series that can shape-shift.

Just these characters are much more deep, more emotion to them, and there's more redeemable to them. The only thing I was aggravated was how this series was ended with a cliffhanger because the author promised to get back to it!

But really this I could say has become one of my all time favorite mangas, I would love to see this series as an anime as I've been rereading it everyday for a week I'm so engrossed in the story.

[Perreault]

Stephen King's "The Stand, Complete and Uncut." First venture into Stephen King, and it's friggen awesome.

Oh man, I have read that book, it is one of Stephen King's best! My favorite Stephen King novels are the seven Dark Tower series books, those were friggen awesome! I think my favorite Stephen King novel is "'Salem's Lot" mainly because I like vampire stories.

Okay, my turn... what am I reading right now, I'm reading "Inside Delta Force" written by Command Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney, one of the first members of American's elite Delta Force. It's detailing his brutal selection process (how out of 163 recruits to start, only 12 passed) and what he did beyond that.

In fact, when I read it, I'm imagining it as Tails going through his training as a freedom fighter LOL, imagine that.

Forgive me, I'm a very "military" person.