Bloodstock Community

I'm a pretty shit reader in a sense that I get easily distracted... very easily. Sometimes I tune into my tinnitus way too much to be able to concentrate. Every now and then I'll start thinking about something to do with irl, or I'll just become "too concious" to take in what I'm reading. And well, sometimes I just fall asleep.

Atm I'm working my way through The Hunger Games (in English, never Swedish). The second and third book arrived yesterday, and I started on the second this morning - kind of proud to say that I'm about 50 pages from finishing it

thehairyone wrote:Hannah will no doubt recommend Malazan Book of the Fallen.

She will, but only in cautionary fashion. It's by Steven Erikson if you are interested and begins with Gardens of the Moon. To me they're about as perfect as fantasy gets short of Tolkien, but they're really not for everybody - the author himself has stated they're marmite books - love or hate, nothing in the middle.
Very VERY hard going for the first few books and you have to be prepared for the fact the author doesn't care when *you* want things explained - he'll do it when he damn well feels like it

Another one to consider would be Robin Hobb. Main ones are:

- The Farseer trilogy
- The Tawny Man trilogy (follows Farseer)
- The Liveship Trader trilogy (I started with this one but all of them are very good )

Also, having just finished the first one if you fancy something a bit lighter give The Lies of Locke Lamora (The Gentleman Bastard sequence by Scott Lynch) a whirl!


At the moment I'm plodding on with Notre Dame de Paris. If Hugo would shut up with all the unnecessary long drawn out explanations of concepts I already understood and got on with the damn story, it'd no doubt be a decent read

Gotta read this after Atlas Shrugged.

John Brunner - The Traveller in Black
Interesting and mildly philosophical story that remained interesting throughout. "Whimsy" was the order of the day in the general story, about a mysterious traveller tasked with turning chaos into order in a mildly fantasy based land. Enjoyable.
7/10

(Cheers for the recommendation)

Laurence O’Bryan - The Istanbul Puzzle
The first book by this thriller newcomer sadly lacked any real substance. Another plot where an archaeological dig blah blah blah man investigates mysterious murder blah blah blah aided by beautiful sidekick thrust into the situation against her will blah blah blah uncover amazing ancient secrets blah blah blah YAWN. The start was promising, but in the end it tailed off into vague explanations that, well, didn't really explain anything. I'll try his second one when it's released next year, but I won't hold my breath.
4/10

Reading Commentarii de Bello Gallico - Julius Ceaser's commentaries on the Gallic Wars. So far I'm finding it very interesting. Just finished reading Cunliffe's contribution to the "A very short introduction" series on Celts as a bit of basic background before my modules on Celts this year, that was also pretty interesting.

Halfway through The Stand and by fuck is it awesome. The first 150 pages or so are like "Oh, it's a normal world and a few people a cold" but after that it gets insane.

Forge of Darkness - Steven Erikson.

The first in the prequel Kharkanas trilogy. Published within a year of the last Malazan book - this from an author who said he "needed a break."

Sorry Alex, but were he unmarried and I single, I'd probably willingly have his children. Good God can this man write.

Finally finished reading The Hunger Games- Catching fire.
Brilliantly written book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

About to start reading the final book, Mockingjay

Started reading Mistborn - The Final Empire. Loving it so far

Ordered three of David Mitchell's other novels off Amazon. 'Ghostwritten', 'Number9dream' and 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet'.

Just bought the new James Herbert, Ash, today. Will make a start on that one after I finish reading the Richard Laymon I'm on at the moment, Alarums.

All my Hardback copies of Walking Dead are coming through the post

Starting a re-read of most of my library (a spare room in my house so full with books I couldn't get in there) after tidying it up.

Begin with a little David Eddings for now & then we shall see. Will have to delve into Tolkien before the first Hobbit movie is released, even though I know them backwards.

Hopefully that should keep me going for 12 months or so before the next trip to purchase some other stuff.

SashVicious wrote:All my Hardback copies of Walking Dead are coming through the post

Read pretty much all of the graphic novels but I'm tempted to buy Rise of the Governer, especially seeing as he's making an appearance in the next series of the show.

Just finished reading Embassytown by China Mieville. Really starting to love his stuff, it's really strange but also kind of awesome.

Gonna start reading the first Malazan book by Stephen Erikson next...