The Book thread

[MetalBeast]

I'm about 5 chapters into Atlas Shrugged. The fifth chapter was beyond parody. Total elitist claptrap, especially the parts going on about how some people are better than everyone else at everything and don't have any flaws and never have any difficulty doing anything.

[AnnihiSlateR]

Yeah, it's very idealistic to say the least. I think I mentioned before, I enjoy the fact that it makes me think, but not necessarily in agreement.

My only criticism would be I found it a bit anticlimactic. It's like the first 800 pages are leading up to something and once it happens it seems very unspectacular and almost rushed when put in contrast with the scope of the rest of the book.

[Rwand]

I'v recently downloaded fifty shades of grey after hearing quite abit about it and wondering what the fuss was about..but then my kindle broke

[CrappyMike]

that's a sign everything i've seen of it shows it to be very poorly written. basically women only like it cause its got sex.

[Tet]

Have you read Times Without Number ? Great book with an alternative take on Time Travel.

I'm not normally a fan of books featuring time travel, but I'd recommend AE van Vogt's "The weapon makers" and "The weapon shops of Isher". Along with most of the rest of his work, actually.

[Rwand]

that's a sign everything i've seen of it shows it to be very poorly written. basically women only like it cause its got sex.

There's loads of books out there with sex in them if thats what they're looking for they just have to look in the right places. There's mills and blooms but they're more romances.

[thehairyone]

that's a sign everything i've seen of it shows it to be very poorly written. basically women only like it cause its got sex.

There's loads of books out there with sex in them if thats what they're looking for they just have to look in the right places. There's mills and blooms but they're more romances.

I downloaded the sample, then the whole book to make sure. It truely is an utterly terrible book, with some of the worst, and creepiest, writing I have ever encountered. I worry for anyone at all who can say it is at all titillating.

[MetalBeast]

that's a sign everything i've seen of it shows it to be very poorly written. basically women only like it cause its got sex.

There's loads of books out there with sex in them if thats what they're looking for they just have to look in the right places. There's mills and blooms but they're more romances.

I downloaded the sample, then the whole book to make sure. It truely is an utterly terrible book, with some of the worst, and creepiest, writing I have ever encountered. I worry for anyone at all who can say it is at all titillating.

The best thing about it is the parody potential:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K1RcKJVbHA

http://youtu.be/i9G0XFVBVuI

http://youtu.be/leT-4Y1l7NY

[fitz]

Well, finished Neuromancer. Thought it was good in places but not as spectacular as a lot of reviews make it out to be. Maybe you had to be there at the time.... or really into sci-fi literature! Found it difficult to keep up with all the terminology and Gibson's descriptions of places and settings in the book were not clear most of the time, but maybe that's just me being dull. But on the whole the tech and characters were sufficiently developed, and a few of them were pretty cool.

Could really benefit with an index of terms and what they mean (maybe the latest editions do have that I don't know). Wasn't all bad though, I could see where The Matrix and the like got a lot of influences from anyway. I think I might read it again someday, but next time I'll wiki what half the technology and stuff IS before I start reading it again. Phew.

Anyway, started reading Haruki Murakami's 'Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World', and I have to admit so far, so good! Really like his writing style, even if it is translated from the original Japanese.

[Drian and Amz]

re-reading naked lunch. now im a bit older I have a slightly better chance at being able to understand what the fuck is going on. still just as grim as i remembered

[keera_envenomed]

Anyway, started reading Haruki Murakami's 'Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World', and I have to admit so far, so good! Really like his writing style, even if it is translated from the original Japanese.

Good call. I think the translators have put a lot of effort into preserving his style for the English versions (and possibly other languages) as it seems essential to the stories themselves if you get what I mean.

2 chapters in to 50 Shades of Grey and its making me angry.

[CrappyMike]

Finally finished Atlas Shrugged. Only took me a year an a half. Though to be fair I did read a third last week, so I'f I had put my mind to it, it would have been over a lot quicker.

I have to say chapter 27's 56 page monologue was one of the most difficult things I've ever read. Simply because it's unrelenting, paragraph after paragraph of speech. No directions, no movements, no reactions, no descriptions, just 56 pages in very small print of one man talking.

I won't give too much away as I think it was metalbeast said he wanted to read it.

My next book is going to be SE Hinton's The Outsiders. Hopefully this won't take quite as long.

the outsiders is really good. i had to read it for english at school and expected to hate it like the rest of the books we had to read, but it was one of the few i enjoyed.

[Littlemissmetal]

expected to hate it like the rest of the books we had to read, but it was one of the few i enjoyed.

Did anybody else find that? You as a general rule didn't enjoy things you had to read, but then if you read them afterwards they were a lot better?

Exceptions for me included most of the Shakespeare we studied (except Romeo and Juliet, because I can't stand that play), Dracula and the Canterbury Tales, because I thought they were quite good fun.

[Tet]

Did anybody else find that? You as a general rule didn't enjoy things you had to read, but then if you read them afterwards they were a lot better?

Not really. I didn't much like any of the books we had to read, with the exception of "The hobbit" and "The Otterbury incident", and in both cases, I liked them from the outset.

[ribbons69]

Anyway, started reading Haruki Murakami's 'Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World', and I have to admit so far, so good! Really like his writing style, even if it is translated from the original Japanese.

Good call. I think the translators have put a lot of effort into preserving his style for the English versions (and possibly other languages) as it seems essential to the stories themselves if you get what I mean.

2 chapters in to 50 Shades of Grey and its making me angry.

I have nothing but praise for 50 Shades. My girlfriend is halfway through the second one,and it has achieved two things. Firstly it keeps her quiet on the sofa all night,and secondly,when we go up to bed she is like a bitch on heat!