|
|
Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 2/3/2010
Posts: 10
|
Conceptually yours... wrote:Finally finished off Atlas Shrugged, er... Oh. I know I'm a bit late, but what did you think of it? When I first read the book, I thought nothing amiss. Sure some of the ideas seemed to have been laid out a bit too strongly, but I found there to be some nuggets of gold in there somewhere, and it was surely thought-provoking if anything. After reading more of Rand and about her, I became pretty disenchanted though, but I won't let them tarnish my initial view and interpretations of the book. I was wondering, what you might think. You would imagine no one really gives me much of an answer about the book itself, but rather of their distaste for Rand. Also, just finished Stephen King's IT. The book was great up until the ending, which in my humble opinion, began to fall apart into absurdity. And had a very vulgar scene I feel ashamed for even having read. Now on to the complete works on Sherlocks Holmes volume 1. Just started and I'm in the middle of "A Study in Scarlet". I do enjoy Doyle's use of language and Holmes is a pretty interesting character already.
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
Hi, well I did enjoy it, it was super thought provoking and as you said had some really good stuff in there but she does over-hammer things sometime, it took me sooooo long to read it but I do feel a sense of achivement now its finished.
I actually decided to read it after reading something about it being an idea that the computor game Bioshock had been based on and then reading that it was one of the most influencial books written??
However I am now reading something more basic Alice in Wonderland pt/book 2, Automated Alice and The Prophecy by Chris Kuzneski.
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/21/2010
Posts: 11
Location: America
|
Broken_Drum wrote:Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec at the moment. I also just finished Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I have wanted to read Life: A User's Manual since Italo Calvino talked about it... is it any good?
|
|
Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 35
|
IsthereaMissesNobody?1123 wrote:Broken_Drum wrote:Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec at the moment. I also just finished Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I have wanted to read Life: A User's Manual since Italo Calvino talked about it... is it any good? I'm still crawling my way through it (I'm an insanely slow reader) but it's brilliant so far. It's really quite amazing how Perec manages to describe the life of a character through the character's surroundings - each object tells a story. I'd definitely recommend it. I started Super-Cannes by J.G. Ballard recently. I forgot how much I love that man. Always such a disturbing, surgical prose style.
"In his dream, which he later forgot, he found himself alone in a room, firing a pistol into a bare white wall."
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
Hi guys, kind of off subject a bit but I have an offer? I have a couple of books I want to go to good homes and I am offering them free... yes free (depending on cost of postage)
If you are interested pm me with your home country and I will check postage and get back to you.
The books are: Paul Auster Timbuktu
Steven Baxter H-Bomb girl
Murakami Sputnik Sweetheart
Ken MacLeod Execution channel.
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/7/2009
Posts: 96
Location: Sweden
|
I'm finally finished with the Otherland series! Truly a good book series. well worth those ~3500 pages.
Now I jumped right into Species of spaces and other pieces, by Georges Perec (by Stevens recommendation). The first little work (species of spaces) is really a fun read, although a little hard to follow at times.
If Life: a user's manual is anything remotely like species of spaces in terms of writing I think I'll love it! @Broken Drum: Do you know if it is?
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
Finallly finished Automated Alice, it was quite good will pick up some more of his works.
Just started Steven Fry, How good??? I cannot put it down...
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
The Fry chronicles done, brilliant. More Murakami now with After dark.
Still have a couple of books free to good homes:
Steven Baxter H-Bomb girl
Murakami Sputnik Sweetheart
Ken MacLeod Execution channel.
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Bede Shark
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 256
Location: Canada
|
After Dark = soooooo good. : ) Hope you enjoy it!
|
|
Rank: Unspace Science Committee
Groups: Shoal
, Unspace Science Committee
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 134
|
Just finished reading and recommend two books from Otherworld Publications (http://www.otherworldpublications.com/), which is a relatively new small publishing company that seems to be promoting new authors.
Transubstantiate by Richard Thomas
Stay God by Nik Korpon
both were quick reads... dark, modern, edgy, sleek.
next up will be:
Out Of Touch by Brandon Tietz
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
After dark was cool, now on Johnny Neumonic... well it has to be done.
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
Wow!!! how good is Norweigan Wood?? I can't put it down.
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Unspace Science Committee
Groups: Shoal
, Unspace Science Committee
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 134
|
Murakami is a genius. I've been waiting for 1Q84 to be translated and released in English... which will hopefully be in October this year!!
|
|
Rank: Unspace Science Committee
Groups: Shoal
, Unspace Science Committee
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 215
|
I just finished reading Makers by Cory Doctorow. The man really has a unique sense of perspective. Great stuff.
|
|
Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 2/28/2011
Posts: 5
Location: Here
|
Just started "The New York Trilogy" by Paul Auster. looking forward to it!
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 85
Location: Glossop Manchester
|
Norweigen wood done and highly recommended, absolutely great book, Kerouac's on the road now, interesting...
Books to good homes:
H-Bomb girl - S Baxter
Execution Channel - Ken Mcleod
The Tesseract - Alex Garland ... message me. :)
See in black and white, feel in slow motion....
|
|
Rank: Fry
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 2/17/2009
Posts: 3
Location: Portland
|
I just read an advanced copy of Tobacco-Stained Moutain Goats by Andrez Bergen. Set in Post-apocalyptic Melbourne, Australia. If this was written 40 years ago it would be made into another classic Charlton Heston film.
Ghost&FlowerAnother Sky Press
|
|
Rank: Deconstructive Piranha
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 5/7/2009
Posts: 96
Location: Sweden
|
Conceptually yours... wrote:Norweigen wood done and highly recommended, absolutely great book, Kerouac's on the road now, interesting...
Books to good homes:
H-Bomb girl - S Baxter
Execution Channel - Ken Mcleod
The Tesseract - Alex Garland ... message me. :) Started reading Norwegian Wood too this weekend... I really like the start, been reading about 50 pages... feels really like he writes about himself so far, or at least many aspects of his life are reflected in characters and ages and hobbies...
|
|
Rank: Bede Shark
Groups: Shoal
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 256
Location: Canada
|
I don't have much time to read anything other than obligatory university lit, but I read Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer for a class. It was a great read, and I was totally satisfied by it. It's basically a story of the Ukrainian Holocaust, but coupled with a modern mystery-adventure and unlikely romance. It's also got some neat formatting which i really liked. So, I recommend it. Also, I wrote an essay on Virginia Woolf's short story A Haunted House a little while back. I think that some of you might find it interesting. It's quite the puzzle for such a short piece, but really thought provoking. There's a constant change in character and point of view, and an uncanny instability of perspective. I already wrote a whole paper on it, so I won't go on for too long, but I just thought it was neat how she wrote a typical gothic haunted house story not through plot, but through formatting and style. I tried to prove that the suspense and fear of the story comes from how the story is formatted and how it makes us feel lost and even ghostly. The same sort of affect that was used in TRST -- fear not solely from the story/plot, per se, but from the way the words work with each other on the page. If anyone wants to chat about it, I'd be more than willing! : ) : ) Anyways, finals are done in just over two weeks and I'm seriously looking forward to spending most of my time with a book this summer. I think my first book will be On the Road by Jack Kerouac. And then I'm going to try to tackle Infinite Jest, considering his last work was just released. I wonder how "unfinished manuscripts" work...? Oh, one last thing... I've been checking up on MZD, but haven't really been following him for a while. Does anyone know anything about The Familiar, and what it is, when it's coming out, and what his plans are with it? I checked the MZD forums, but it's hard to get a handle on thing when you haven't been there in a while! All I know is that it's got to do with a cat, and that pretty much makes my heart sing! : ) Hope everyone's doing well! Best, M.
|
|
Rank: Unspace Science Committee
Groups: Shoal
, Unspace Science Committee
Joined: 1/24/2009
Posts: 215
|
Sorry if this is information you already have but I can sum up what we know about The Familiar for you. Awhile ago one of MZD's cats died. Her name was Sybill. Not sure if The Familiar started after that or if her death changed what he was currently working on but all we know is that its going to be a 27 volume piece about a twelve year old girl who finds a cat. MZD has sent the first five volumes to publishers. After that we haven't heard much. Some quotes from The Familiar have been posted to his twitter and facebook accounts. Those quotes, along with quotes from his other work, have been collected in the Quotes thread in The Familiar forum. Just look for the #TF accompanying the quote. Hopefully that's helpful. Sorry if its redundant. I loved Infinite Jest and I'm looking forward to The Pale King. It's waiting for me on the bookshelf. Currently reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and The Information by James Gleick. Loving both.
|
|
|
Guest |
