Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (9 Viewers)

[igbomb]

I'm so angry and disappointed you did not like Confederacy of Dunces I'm tempted to ruin the ending of Life of Pi for you. Definitely not kidding.

Sorry. I'm beginning to wonder if fiction just isn't my thing. Since I did my FFA 100 books list, I've read from that list:#5 Slaughterhouse Five. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story, but I don't feel like it was great. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe as I read more Vonnegut it will grow on me. Maybe I need to read it again, but I wouldn't rank it #5 for my tastes.

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

#7 Faranheit 451. A good book. It wasn't special to me, and I felt like it was missing a little more meat to the reasons and events.

#9 Conferacy of Dunces. Like I said, I really hated this book. I forced myself to read it because it was so highly recommended. I figured that it would get better at some point, but it never did. I can see the potential in Ignatius' character, but I don't feel that it was realized at all.

#16 Brothers Karamazov. I never liked his work so it's no suprise that I didn't love this. I can see how many people would, but it's just not me. I wouldn't bash it, though. I just didn't love it.

#19 Catch-22. It didn't move me. It wasn't great. Yossarian was a very interesting and entertaining character. The rest didn't do anything for me and the overkill of sillyness became a bore after awhile.

#25 Breakfast of Champions. I really didn't like this one that much. It makes Slaughterhouse Five look like the greatest book in history. I just didn't feel like I was reading a story at all. It was too much Vonnegut, and I know that will make no sense to some.

So, since April 28 when I started that thread I've read these 7 books because of the recommendations, and am on Life of Pi now. Of the 7, the best to me was Enders Game, and second place isn't close. CoD was definately the bottom of the group. The themes and stories are all different, so it isn't one particular genre that I don't like - on the contrary I enjoy dystopian stuff, comedy, and all the rest. I can do without 400 pages of anti-American our culture is crap self loathing that Vonnegut pulled in Breakfast but other then that......

I don't think it's necessarily fiction you have a problem with, you're just reading a lot of the classics. I went on a similar tear of reading classics only in my early 20s and really burnt out on reading challenging, often dry novels and trying to understand what the hell the big deal was. Try reading some more contemporary stuff (Life of Pi is a perfect example). Try reading some genre novels. But don't give up on fiction because you're getting bogged down on classics, it happens to a lot of us.

 

[igbomb]

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

Excellent book. You must read Ender's Shadow.

Actually, Ender's Game should really be followed by Speaker of the Dead. I've read both the Ender and Bean novels, and Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead are far and away the best of them. I enjoyed all of them, but those two are some of the best sci-fi I've ever read.Speaker for the Dead is also next in publication order, earning Card the Nebula and Hugo for two consecutive years.

 

[kbreaker]

Perhaps only fantasy geeks will recognize the name, but apparently David Eddings has passed away. He was one of the biggest names in fantasy over the last 20+ years.

David Eddings, Dead at 77

 

[Tough As Nails]

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

Excellent book. You must read Ender's Shadow.

Actually, Ender's Game should really be followed by Speaker of the Dead. I've read both the Ender and Bean novels, and Ender's Game and Speaker of the Dead are far and away the best of them. I enjoyed all of them, but those two are some of the best sci-fi I've ever read.Speaker for the Dead is also next in publication order, earning Card the Nebula and Hugo for two consecutive years.

I agree with igbomb. The Ender books >>>> Bean books.

 

[The_Man]

I am reading an absolutely great book right now, "The Zero" by Jess Walter. He also wrote "Citizen Vince" which is a fun, quick and rewarding read. But comparing it to "The Zero" is like "Bugsy Malone" compared to "Godfather, Part II."

Basically 9/11 noir, it's dark, funny, sad, and increasingly scary. I've been sitting here at work thinking about it a lot today.

Also, just heard that all 656 pages of "Blood's A Rover," the conclusion of James Ellroy's Underworld USA trilogy will be out Sept. 22. "American Tabloid" is one of my favorite books. "The Cold Six Thousand" is one of the biggest disappointments of my reading life. Am hoping for redemption with part 3.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Since I've mentioned it a few times here, below is the recommended list from the FFA as per my thread a few weeks back. They are in order of recommendation. This list has focused me on reading several books, as mentioned, that I never read - some I never heard of - before. To date, I've read 8 new ones and overall I've gotten to 44 on the list. So there is much work to be done.

1 1984 George Orwell

2 The Stand Stephen King

3 The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkein

4 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

5 Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut

6 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card

7 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

8 Huckelberry Finn Mark Twain

9 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole

10 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexander Dumas

11 Lord of the Flies William Golding

12 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

13 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey

14 Animal Farm George Orwell

15 Life of Pi Yann Martel

16 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dosoyevsky

17 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

18 Brave New World Aldous Huxley

19 Catch-22 Joseph Heller

20 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dosoyevsky

21 Guns, Germs & Steel Jared Diamond

22 100 Years of Solitude Gabriel Marquez

23 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess

24 A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson

25 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut

26 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut

27 David Copperfield Charles Dickens

28 Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

29 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

30 The Road Cormac McCarthy

31 Welcome to the Monkey House Kurt Vonnegut

32 1632 Eric Flint

33 1776 David McCollough

34 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn

35 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy

36 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell

37 Dune Frank Herbert

38 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter Thompson

39 For Whom the Bells Tolls Ernest Hemmingway

40 Founding Brothers Joseph Ellis

41 Harry Potter and the Gobelt of Fire J.K. Rowling

42 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince J.K. Rowling

43 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban J.K. Rowling

44 In Cold Blood Truman Capote

45 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo

46 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut

47 Player Piano Kurt Vonnegut

48 Still Life with Woodpecker Tom Robbins

49 The Kite Runner Khalid Hosseini

50 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving

51 A Scanner Darkly Philip ****

52 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Remarque

53 American Psycho Bret Ellis

54 Another Roadside Attraction Tom Robbins

55 Autobiography of Malcom X

56 Bluebeard Kurt Vonnegut

57 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes

58 Foundation Isaac Asimov

59 Freakenomics Levitt and Dubner

60 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon

61 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets J.K. Rowling

62 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling

63 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J.K. Rowling

64 Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone J.K. Rowling

65 It Stephen King

66 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurty

67 Neuromancer William Gibson

68 On the Road Jack Kerouac

69 Palm Sunday Kurt Vonnegut

70 Siddhartha Hermann Hess

71 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison

72 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert Heinlein

73 Swan Song Robert McCammon

74 The Fair Tax Book Neal Boortz

75 The Odyssey Homer

76 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut

77 The Stranger Alfred Camus

78 The World According to Garp John Irving

79 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemmingway

80 A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man James Joyce

81 A Rumor of War Philip Caputo

82 Aesops Fables Aesop

83 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand

84 Battlefield Earth L. Ron Hubbard

85 Benjamin Franklin Walter Issacson

86 Contingency, Irony & Solidarity Richard Rorty

87 Dracula Bram Stoker

88 Great Expectations Charles Dickens

89 Gullivers Travels Jonothan Swift

90 Hamlet William Shakespeare

91 House of Leaves Mark Danieliewski

92 If On a Winters Night A Traveler Italo Calvino

93 Immortality Milan Kundera

94 Into Thin Air John Krakauer

95 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

96 Ishmael Daniel Quinn

97 Lamb Christopher Moore

98 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov

99 Shantaram David Gregory Roberts

100 Shogun James Clavell

101 Snow Crash Neil Stephenson

102 The Art of War Sun Tzu

103 The DaVinci Code Dan Brown

104 The Federalist Papers Hamilton, Madison & Jay

105 The Godfather Mario Puzo

106 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

107 The Hobbitt J.R.R. Tolkein

108 The Jungle Upton Sinclair

109 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco

110 The Omnivores Dilemma Pollan

111 The Power of One Bryce Courtenay

112 The Prophet Khalil Gilbran

113 The Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis

114 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins

115 The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemmingway

116 The Talisman Stephen King

117 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera

118 Ulysses James Joyce

119 Undaunted Courage Stephen Ambrose

120 The Bible Various

 

[oso diablo]

Playing with the Enemy - an amateur novelist's touching memoir of his father's baseball dreams, interrupted by WW2.

Y23F, glad you're liking Pi. Its theme is one i think about in everyday life all the time. Trying to get my teenager to read it, but she says "i'd rather read Twilight"

 

[Tough As Nails]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

You might not think this in about 5 pages...

 

[D_House]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

 

[kupcho1]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

Get ready to be disappointed. (Although, since you seem to be pretty bright, you've probably already figured out the "twist" ending.)How this book ranks 15th on any list is a mystery, if not an outright travesty. It would have made a great short story, but a 300+ page book? Instead the author turns in one of the most ham-handed attempts at an allegory I've ever read. Thankfully he threw in a lot of politically correct preaching.

What could possibly make this any worse?

He stole the idea! And when called on the theft, claimed that he got the idea from a review that was (purportedly) never written.

Check out Max and the Cats, written in 1981.

Originally published in Brazil in 1981, Scliar's novella tells, with a sharp eye but a glancing touch, the story of a boy at the mercy of terrible forces, who grows into a man similarly powerless, until he commits an act of violent defiance. German Max Schmidt, son of a brutish furrier and a gentle mother, is "morbidly sensitive," imagining escape to exotic climes. At university, Max befriends a troubled socialist and rekindles his affair with libidinous Frida, the fur store clerk who had deflowered him. But Frida is now married to a Nazi, who learns of the relationship, and Max must flee on a ship bound for Brazil. When the ship sinks-sabotaged by its evil captain and the owner of the menagerie of animals in the hull-Max barely survives, only to find himself in a tiny dinghy in the company of a jaguar, whom he imagines has been sent to torment him. Max is rescued and makes his way to Brazil, where he lives in relative comfort until he spies a man in a Nazi uniform across the courtyard. He flees again, this time to the hills, where he becomes a moderately successful farmer, marries a native and has a daughter. Max can be an irrational, not entirely likable hero, and in this slight but somber fable, there is little time for him to win readers' hearts, though he earns their sympathy. When another Nazi moves onto the hillside above him, Max finally stands up to fate and the forces of evil. Scliar's affecting story about the power of fear has what purports to be a happy ending, but the darkness lingers.

Sound familiar?

I give this book zero stars.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

You might not think this in about 5 pages...

Maybe. He just got to the algae island.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Ok, the end of Life of Pi was.... not very satisfying. Best way I can describe it. The book was still wonderful though. I think the ending would have been better if it just ended without the interview stuff and final few chapters. But what do I know. I rank it higher then Confederacy of Dunces, that's for sure.

Started up with The Count of Monte Cristo last night. So far, it's rather boring. But I have about another 990 pages to go so I'm guessing it gets better.

 

[igbomb]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

You might not think this in about 5 pages...

I had no issue with the ending of the book. Thought the entire thing, start to finish, was phenomenal.

 

[igbomb]

Ok, the end of Life of Pi was.... not very satisfying. Best way I can describe it. The book was still wonderful though. I think the ending would have been better if it just ended without the interview stuff and final few chapters. But what do I know. I rank it higher then Confederacy of Dunces, that's for sure.Started up with The Count of Monte Cristo last night. So far, it's rather boring. But I have about another 990 pages to go so I'm guessing it gets better.

You seem to like (and dislike) a lot of the same books I do. Be sure to keep posting your thoughts so I can keep getting ideas.Suggestions based on what you've liked (or not) from your recent reads:The Shadow of the WindShantaramThe Time Traveler's Wife

 

[D_House]

I'm almost done with Life of Pi. It might be one of the more beautiful stories I've ever read.

You might not think this in about 5 pages...

I had no issue with the ending of the book. Thought the entire thing, start to finish, was phenomenal.

However, I didn't know about the plagiarism claim.... Sounds like the other book had a whole lot more going on than the stowaway with a dangerous animal thing though. That definitely hurts my estimation of the book, and that's too bad because I really think it's one of the best things written in the last few years. I didn't feel it was preachy or ham-handed at all. And I liked and did not expect the open ending. I'm fairly well read too.

 

[flysack]

Any post-college must-reads? I need to sharpen the few brain cells I still have.

"Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace is essential post-college reading. I'd also recommend "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."

Anything else anyone recommends??

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell. Massive novel made up a series of loosely interrelated storylines spanning from the late 19th century to the distant future. Incredible work of fiction. Mitchell captures each age he writes in perfectly.

David Mitchell is phenomenal. I'll read everything he writes (short of a book of poetry). His next novel is tentatively titled Nagasaki and is due next year.

I read his first three novels. Didn't read the fourth autobiographical one.His first was good, not great.

His second, Number9Dream was a mediocre effort and a classic sophomore slump novel. Not worth reading.

Cloud Atlas was his third and an absolute homerun.

 

[D_House]

Just started another pulitzer winner, All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

Life got in the way of me finishing this one and I had to put it off. Recently started over and finished it in a week. Outstanding work of political fiction. A lot of themes that I am sure are as old as politics and are now a touch cliched in terms of books and film but were probably fresher at the time of the writing. It's supposedly a fictionalized account of Huey Long's governorship of Louisiana in the Depression era.

But is is a beautifully written book. From looking at his bibliography on wiki, it looks like Warren mostly did poetry, and that shows in his writing. Really highly recommended.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Ok, the end of Life of Pi was.... not very satisfying. Best way I can describe it. The book was still wonderful though. I think the ending would have been better if it just ended without the interview stuff and final few chapters. But what do I know. I rank it higher then Confederacy of Dunces, that's for sure.Started up with The Count of Monte Cristo last night. So far, it's rather boring. But I have about another 990 pages to go so I'm guessing it gets better.

Almost half way through with Count of Monte Cristo. The first 40 or so pages were rather dull and not much to write home about, but from roughly that point to where he gave the boat owner the money was some of the best story telling I've ever read. Just a magnificant tale to that point. Then after that it seemed to me to go off on a tangent, and at that point I thought to myself - great, this is why it's 1000 pages long, because there are side stories just to make it bigger.But, I've gotten over that as I have seen the initial part of that first side story (the guys in Rome) becoming part of the overall story. I could probably due without some of the filler in each chapter, but that's just because I'm so caught up in the story I can't wait to see what happens next. Very very novel so far. It might end up being more liked by me then Life of Pi was. It isn't at Ender's Game level yet. I applaud the people who made this recommendation, though. To see that many pages is a little daunting but if you let it capture you, it does.

 

[kupcho1]

Almost half way through with Count of Monte Cristo. The first 40 or so pages were rather dull and not much to write home about, but from roughly that point to where he gave the boat owner the money was some of the best story telling I've ever read. Just a magnificant tale to that point. Then after that it seemed to me to go off on a tangent, and at that point I thought to myself - great, this is why it's 1000 pages long, because there are side stories just to make it bigger.

Next up, Don Quixote

 

[shuke]

Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank

Thought this was good, but not great. Felt like it was missing something, like a couple hundred pages or so. 6/10Next up: The Ruins by Scott Smith. Not great reader reviews for this but I really liked A Simple Plan.

 

[pantagrapher]

Almost half way through with Count of Monte Cristo. The first 40 or so pages were rather dull and not much to write home about, but from roughly that point to where he gave the boat owner the money was some of the best story telling I've ever read. Just a magnificant tale to that point. Then after that it seemed to me to go off on a tangent, and at that point I thought to myself - great, this is why it's 1000 pages long, because there are side stories just to make it bigger.

Next up, Don Quixote

I like how early in Part II, the narrator apologizes for telling too many side stories in Part I.

 

[Sundays Rule]

Still on a fantasy kick, starting up Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy.

 

[Facecow]

This is a very helpful thread.

Finished "American Psycho" a few weeks back and it's still on my mind. I couldn't bring myself to fully read some parts but I think I enjoyed it.

"Savage Season" is the first of the Hap and Leonard books from Lansdale and was a very good time. Looking forward to more in the series.

On to "Relic" now and after a few chapters this should be a good summer read.

 

[gmbacm]

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Ok, the end of Life of Pi was.... not very satisfying. Best way I can describe it. The book was still wonderful though. I think the ending would have been better if it just ended without the interview stuff and final few chapters. But what do I know. I rank it higher then Confederacy of Dunces, that's for sure.Started up with The Count of Monte Cristo last night. So far, it's rather boring. But I have about another 990 pages to go so I'm guessing it gets better.

Almost half way through with Count of Monte Cristo. The first 40 or so pages were rather dull and not much to write home about, but from roughly that point to where he gave the boat owner the money was some of the best story telling I've ever read. Just a magnificant tale to that point. Then after that it seemed to me to go off on a tangent, and at that point I thought to myself - great, this is why it's 1000 pages long, because there are side stories just to make it bigger.But, I've gotten over that as I have seen the initial part of that first side story (the guys in Rome) becoming part of the overall story. I could probably due without some of the filler in each chapter, but that's just because I'm so caught up in the story I can't wait to see what happens next. Very very novel so far. It might end up being more liked by me then Life of Pi was. It isn't at Ender's Game level yet. I applaud the people who made this recommendation, though. To see that many pages is a little daunting but if you let it capture you, it does.

Finished The Count of Monte Cristo last night. 10 days to read a book is slow for me, and part of it was that it did start to drag at the end.I must say that after hundreds of pages of build up the ending chapters weren't as satisfying as I anticipated them being. I was envisioning a rather superb revenge game being completed, but it didn't get there.I will agree that it was a fairly amazing book. I would like to say that of the 1000 pages you could get rid of 400 of them and still have a great story, and you probably could, but I also don't feel like too many, if any, of the pages were wasted like a Moby **** type story.With Enders Game being the A+ book on the list I've been working on, Monte Cristo was definately a B+ maybe higher. But having said that, I don't envision myself reading it again. Just too much work.On to Cat's Cradle......

 

[Yankee23Fan]

About three quarters of the way done with Cat's Cradle.

Is there a point to anything in this story or is just going to finish up being nothing more then yet another anti-Ameircan, anti-war, anti-religion diatribe from Vonnegut?

 

[roadkill1292]

About three quarters of the way done with Cat's Cradle.Is there a point to anything in this story or is just going to finish up being nothing more then yet another anti-Ameircan, anti-war, anti-religion diatribe from Vonnegut?

I thought he was just scornful of Hoosiers in that book, which would be a good thing. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I read it and I was doing drugs at the time.

 

[Scotch Rocks]

I'm so angry and disappointed you did not like Confederacy of Dunces I'm tempted to ruin the ending of Life of Pi for you. Definitely not kidding.

Sorry. I'm beginning to wonder if fiction just isn't my thing. Since I did my FFA 100 books list, I've read from that list:#5 Slaughterhouse Five. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story, but I don't feel like it was great. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe as I read more Vonnegut it will grow on me. Maybe I need to read it again, but I wouldn't rank it #5 for my tastes.

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

#7 Faranheit 451. A good book. It wasn't special to me, and I felt like it was missing a little more meat to the reasons and events.

#9 Conferacy of Dunces. Like I said, I really hated this book. I forced myself to read it because it was so highly recommended. I figured that it would get better at some point, but it never did. I can see the potential in Ignatius' character, but I don't feel that it was realized at all.

#16 Brothers Karamazov. I never liked his work so it's no suprise that I didn't love this. I can see how many people would, but it's just not me. I wouldn't bash it, though. I just didn't love it.

#19 Catch-22. It didn't move me. It wasn't great. Yossarian was a very interesting and entertaining character. The rest didn't do anything for me and the overkill of sillyness became a bore after awhile.

#25 Breakfast of Champions. I really didn't like this one that much. It makes Slaughterhouse Five look like the greatest book in history. I just didn't feel like I was reading a story at all. It was too much Vonnegut, and I know that will make no sense to some.

So, since April 28 when I started that thread I've read these 7 books because of the recommendations, and am on Life of Pi now. Of the 7, the best to me was Enders Game, and second place isn't close. CoD was definately the bottom of the group. The themes and stories are all different, so it isn't one particular genre that I don't like - on the contrary I enjoy dystopian stuff, comedy, and all the rest. I can do without 400 pages of anti-American our culture is crap self loathing that Vonnegut pulled in Breakfast but other then that......

Spare yourself the pain of reading any further. I'll end the suspense for you and give you a reading list for life, all in one fell swoop:You're too intellectually inflexible for literature. This post, plus your subsequent comments regarding Dumas, tell us two things quite clearly. One, you're only interested in young adult fluff. (Ender's was conceived and written to be a morality tale for teens, and Monte Cristo was a weekly serial that has since been relegated to the juvenile shelves in every library worth a damn.) Two, you're only interested in authors who stuff their preachy, conservative or libertarian messages down the reader's throat.

Tragically for you, 99% of great literature has been created by (and represents the viewpoints of) liberals. Fact. And one by one, you toss out your one sentence reviews about how little these classic tales do for you. No shock there.

Stock up your shelves with Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. You'll be far happier. They'll tell you exactly what you want to hear, and won't expose you to any more dangerous mind-expanding ideas that might suggest anything other than the primacy of the U.S.A., God Almighty, and the omnipotent power of the heroic individual to overcome the heinous forces of small-minded intellectualism.

I assume you've done the Ayn Rand thing.

Then, move on to W.E.B. Griffin, Robert Heinlein, Tom Wolfe, and Joseph Conrad. Read Camp of the Saints -- there's a guy who really hates immigrants, so it should resonate. If you get bored with popular works, Lynne Cheney and Lewis Libby wrote novels that will tell you your worldview is unassailably correct.

I fully expect you to hate the messenger, but you really ought to embrace the message. Your future reading hours will be far rosier, and no more of our mornings will be sullied by your wondering how works of anti-America hippie tripe became so popular among the thinking populace.

 

[gmbacm]

I'm so angry and disappointed you did not like Confederacy of Dunces I'm tempted to ruin the ending of Life of Pi for you. Definitely not kidding.

Sorry. I'm beginning to wonder if fiction just isn't my thing. Since I did my FFA 100 books list, I've read from that list:#5 Slaughterhouse Five. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story, but I don't feel like it was great. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe as I read more Vonnegut it will grow on me. Maybe I need to read it again, but I wouldn't rank it #5 for my tastes.

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

#7 Faranheit 451. A good book. It wasn't special to me, and I felt like it was missing a little more meat to the reasons and events.

#9 Conferacy of Dunces. Like I said, I really hated this book. I forced myself to read it because it was so highly recommended. I figured that it would get better at some point, but it never did. I can see the potential in Ignatius' character, but I don't feel that it was realized at all.

#16 Brothers Karamazov. I never liked his work so it's no suprise that I didn't love this. I can see how many people would, but it's just not me. I wouldn't bash it, though. I just didn't love it.

#19 Catch-22. It didn't move me. It wasn't great. Yossarian was a very interesting and entertaining character. The rest didn't do anything for me and the overkill of sillyness became a bore after awhile.

#25 Breakfast of Champions. I really didn't like this one that much. It makes Slaughterhouse Five look like the greatest book in history. I just didn't feel like I was reading a story at all. It was too much Vonnegut, and I know that will make no sense to some.

So, since April 28 when I started that thread I've read these 7 books because of the recommendations, and am on Life of Pi now. Of the 7, the best to me was Enders Game, and second place isn't close. CoD was definately the bottom of the group. The themes and stories are all different, so it isn't one particular genre that I don't like - on the contrary I enjoy dystopian stuff, comedy, and all the rest. I can do without 400 pages of anti-American our culture is crap self loathing that Vonnegut pulled in Breakfast but other then that......

Spare yourself the pain of reading any further. I'll end the suspense for you and give you a reading list for life, all in one fell swoop:You're too intellectually inflexible for literature. This post, plus your subsequent comments regarding Dumas, tell us two things quite clearly. One, you're only interested in young adult fluff. (Ender's was conceived and written to be a morality tale for teens, and Monte Cristo was a weekly serial that has since been relegated to the juvenile shelves in every library worth a damn.) Two, you're only interested in authors who stuff their preachy, conservative or libertarian messages down the reader's throat.

Tragically for you, 99% of great literature has been created by (and represents the viewpoints of) liberals. Fact. And one by one, you toss out your one sentence reviews about how little these classic tales do for you. No shock there.

Stock up your shelves with Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. You'll be far happier. They'll tell you exactly what you want to hear, and won't expose you to any more dangerous mind-expanding ideas that might suggest anything other than the primacy of the U.S.A., God Almighty, and the omnipotent power of the heroic individual to overcome the heinous forces of small-minded intellectualism.

I assume you've done the Ayn Rand thing.

Then, move on to W.E.B. Griffin, Robert Heinlein, Tom Wolfe, and Joseph Conrad. Read Camp of the Saints -- there's a guy who really hates immigrants, so it should resonate. If you get bored with popular works, Lynne Cheney and Lewis Libby wrote novels that will tell you your worldview is unassailably correct.

I fully expect you to hate the messenger, but you really ought to embrace the message. Your future reading hours will be far rosier, and no more of our mornings will be sullied by your wondering how works of anti-America hippie tripe became so popular among the thinking populace.

 

[kupcho1]

I'm so angry and disappointed you did not like Confederacy of Dunces I'm tempted to ruin the ending of Life of Pi for you. Definitely not kidding.

Sorry. I'm beginning to wonder if fiction just isn't my thing. Since I did my FFA 100 books list, I've read from that list:#5 Slaughterhouse Five. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story, but I don't feel like it was great. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe as I read more Vonnegut it will grow on me. Maybe I need to read it again, but I wouldn't rank it #5 for my tastes.

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

#7 Faranheit 451. A good book. It wasn't special to me, and I felt like it was missing a little more meat to the reasons and events.

#9 Conferacy of Dunces. Like I said, I really hated this book. I forced myself to read it because it was so highly recommended. I figured that it would get better at some point, but it never did. I can see the potential in Ignatius' character, but I don't feel that it was realized at all.

#16 Brothers Karamazov. I never liked his work so it's no suprise that I didn't love this. I can see how many people would, but it's just not me. I wouldn't bash it, though. I just didn't love it.

#19 Catch-22. It didn't move me. It wasn't great. Yossarian was a very interesting and entertaining character. The rest didn't do anything for me and the overkill of sillyness became a bore after awhile.

#25 Breakfast of Champions. I really didn't like this one that much. It makes Slaughterhouse Five look like the greatest book in history. I just didn't feel like I was reading a story at all. It was too much Vonnegut, and I know that will make no sense to some.

So, since April 28 when I started that thread I've read these 7 books because of the recommendations, and am on Life of Pi now. Of the 7, the best to me was Enders Game, and second place isn't close. CoD was definately the bottom of the group. The themes and stories are all different, so it isn't one particular genre that I don't like - on the contrary I enjoy dystopian stuff, comedy, and all the rest. I can do without 400 pages of anti-American our culture is crap self loathing that Vonnegut pulled in Breakfast but other then that......

Spare yourself the pain of reading any further. I'll end the suspense for you and give you a reading list for life, all in one fell swoop:You're too intellectually inflexible for literature. This post, plus your subsequent comments regarding Dumas, tell us two things quite clearly. One, you're only interested in young adult fluff. (Ender's was conceived and written to be a morality tale for teens, and Monte Cristo was a weekly serial that has since been relegated to the juvenile shelves in every library worth a damn.) Two, you're only interested in authors who stuff their preachy, conservative or libertarian messages down the reader's throat.

Tragically for you, 99% of great literature has been created by (and represents the viewpoints of) liberals. Fact. And one by one, you toss out your one sentence reviews about how little these classic tales do for you. No shock there.

Stock up your shelves with Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. You'll be far happier. They'll tell you exactly what you want to hear, and won't expose you to any more dangerous mind-expanding ideas that might suggest anything other than the primacy of the U.S.A., God Almighty, and the omnipotent power of the heroic individual to overcome the heinous forces of small-minded intellectualism.

I assume you've done the Ayn Rand thing.

Then, move on to W.E.B. Griffin, Robert Heinlein, Tom Wolfe, and Joseph Conrad. Read Camp of the Saints -- there's a guy who really hates immigrants, so it should resonate. If you get bored with popular works, Lynne Cheney and Lewis Libby wrote novels that will tell you your worldview is unassailably correct.

I fully expect you to hate the messenger, but you really ought to embrace the message. Your future reading hours will be far rosier, and no more of our mornings will be sullied by your wondering how works of anti-America hippie tripe became so popular among the thinking populace.

And here I thought I came off as condescending.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

I'm so angry and disappointed you did not like Confederacy of Dunces I'm tempted to ruin the ending of Life of Pi for you. Definitely not kidding.

Sorry. I'm beginning to wonder if fiction just isn't my thing. Since I did my FFA 100 books list, I've read from that list:#5 Slaughterhouse Five. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book. I enjoyed the story, but I don't feel like it was great. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe as I read more Vonnegut it will grow on me. Maybe I need to read it again, but I wouldn't rank it #5 for my tastes.

#6 Enders Game - this was fantasic. I can't praise this book enough. I couldn't put it down. Blown away with how good it was.

#7 Faranheit 451. A good book. It wasn't special to me, and I felt like it was missing a little more meat to the reasons and events.

#9 Conferacy of Dunces. Like I said, I really hated this book. I forced myself to read it because it was so highly recommended. I figured that it would get better at some point, but it never did. I can see the potential in Ignatius' character, but I don't feel that it was realized at all.

#16 Brothers Karamazov. I never liked his work so it's no suprise that I didn't love this. I can see how many people would, but it's just not me. I wouldn't bash it, though. I just didn't love it.

#19 Catch-22. It didn't move me. It wasn't great. Yossarian was a very interesting and entertaining character. The rest didn't do anything for me and the overkill of sillyness became a bore after awhile.

#25 Breakfast of Champions. I really didn't like this one that much. It makes Slaughterhouse Five look like the greatest book in history. I just didn't feel like I was reading a story at all. It was too much Vonnegut, and I know that will make no sense to some.

So, since April 28 when I started that thread I've read these 7 books because of the recommendations, and am on Life of Pi now. Of the 7, the best to me was Enders Game, and second place isn't close. CoD was definately the bottom of the group. The themes and stories are all different, so it isn't one particular genre that I don't like - on the contrary I enjoy dystopian stuff, comedy, and all the rest. I can do without 400 pages of anti-American our culture is crap self loathing that Vonnegut pulled in Breakfast but other then that......

Spare yourself the pain of reading any further. I'll end the suspense for you and give you a reading list for life, all in one fell swoop:You're too intellectually inflexible for literature. This post, plus your subsequent comments regarding Dumas, tell us two things quite clearly. One, you're only interested in young adult fluff. (Ender's was conceived and written to be a morality tale for teens, and Monte Cristo was a weekly serial that has since been relegated to the juvenile shelves in every library worth a damn.) Two, you're only interested in authors who stuff their preachy, conservative or libertarian messages down the reader's throat.

Tragically for you, 99% of great literature has been created by (and represents the viewpoints of) liberals. Fact. And one by one, you toss out your one sentence reviews about how little these classic tales do for you. No shock there.

Stock up your shelves with Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. You'll be far happier. They'll tell you exactly what you want to hear, and won't expose you to any more dangerous mind-expanding ideas that might suggest anything other than the primacy of the U.S.A., God Almighty, and the omnipotent power of the heroic individual to overcome the heinous forces of small-minded intellectualism.

I assume you've done the Ayn Rand thing.

Then, move on to W.E.B. Griffin, Robert Heinlein, Tom Wolfe, and Joseph Conrad. Read Camp of the Saints -- there's a guy who really hates immigrants, so it should resonate. If you get bored with popular works, Lynne Cheney and Lewis Libby wrote novels that will tell you your worldview is unassailably correct.

I fully expect you to hate the messenger, but you really ought to embrace the message. Your future reading hours will be far rosier, and no more of our mornings will be sullied by your wondering how works of anti-America hippie tripe became so popular among the thinking populace.

I see that you have the same physical ability that LHUCKS does in that you are able to self felate. Bravo.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

About three quarters of the way done with Cat's Cradle.Is there a point to anything in this story or is just going to finish up being nothing more then yet another anti-Ameircan, anti-war, anti-religion diatribe from Vonnegut?

I thought he was just scornful of Hoosiers in that book, which would be a good thing. Admittedly, it's been a long time since I read it and I was doing drugs at the time.

The plane scene was fairly entertaing. I wish he stayed there a little more.I will say this, though. Having almost finished this one and having finished Breakfast of Champions I can now say that I really did like Slaughterhouse Five. I think I'm stacking these ones up to it and they aren't coming close.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Finished up Careless Love over the weekend. It's the second of Peter Guralnik's two-part biography of Elvis Presley (Last Train To Memphis being part one). This one follows Elvis from the early 60s on to his death.

I thought I knew how screwed up Elvis was before I read these books, but my God........

And Colonel Tom Parker (who really has a costarring role in this book) has to be the most brilliant promoter in show biz history. The deals he pulled off - even was Elvis had lost a ton of his popularity - were absolutely amazing.

Guralnik's a fantastic writer & researcher (I think it took him 15 years to write these two volumes). He doesn't pull any punches (in fact, he editorializes very little on any subject but the music, which he's certainly qualified for being a pro rock critic), but neither is he interested in a smear job. 99% of this book is facts or direct quotes from others.

I'd recommend these to anyone interested in Elvis (duh), rock and roll in general, show business (lots & lots of stars and deals), or just reading about fascinating lives.

Don't know where I'm going next. May do a re-read of something.

 

[beer 30]

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Just recommended to me by my pastor, anybody read it? Thoughts?

 

[pantagrapher]

Finished Sentimental Education. The omniscient narration detracted from the story. Knowing with certainty every character's feelings and motivations kind of ruins it for me. It's like a TV narrative explaining why people are doing what they're doing as they do it in case the viewers are stupid. That said, the descriptions of Paris against the ebb and flow of the revolution were excellent. And the three central characters—Frederic, Madame Arnoux and Rosanette—were developed beautifully.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Just recommended to me by my pastor, anybody read it? Thoughts?

Depends on what you are looking for. It's a good read if you don't want in depth theological discourse. It's really no different then anything Joel Osteen has put out or anything of that variety. It's better written then Joel, though.

 

[Justloveit]

Hey guys,

I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton's earlier works. Can someone recommend some authors that are similar to him in style and genre?

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Hey guys, I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton's earlier works. Can someone recommend some authors that are similar to him in style and genre?

Which aspect do you like - the science, espionage, etc..?

 

[Justloveit]

Hey guys, I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton's earlier works. Can someone recommend some authors that are similar to him in style and genre?

Which aspect do you like - the science, espionage, etc..?

I like the science involved in it, i like how it seemed well researched and although it was in all liklihood fiction it seemed that the science behind the story was real and I was actually learning something. Even Dan Brown's more popular books, i liked how i was learning about the illuminati or about mary magdelene and the templars etc etc, as i siad, i realise its prob all fiction but i like that when i read a book.

 

[Justloveit]

some books ive liked.

gladwell's stuff

crichton's earlier stuff

bringing down the house

da vinci code + angels demons

shantaram

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Here's a list on Amazon under "techno thrillers", which has some Crichton & Dan Brown books on it along with a bunch of other authors (Tom Clancy being one). I'm not very knowledgeable about the genre (other than having read some of Crichton's stuff), so I can't help separate the wheat from the chaff but read some of the professional/reader reviews & see what you might enjoy.

Link

 

[Justloveit]

Where's the list sorry?

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Where's the list sorry?

Link added now

 

[beer 30]

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

Just recommended to me by my pastor, anybody read it? Thoughts?

Depends on what you are looking for. It's a good read if you don't want in depth theological discourse. It's really no different then anything Joel Osteen has put out or anything of that variety. It's better written then Joel, though.

Thanks, ordered it today form the library

 

[skol asylum]

Hey guys, I'm a big fan of Michael Crichton's earlier works. Can someone recommend some authors that are similar to him in style and genre?

Which aspect do you like - the science, espionage, etc..?

I like the science involved in it, i like how it seemed well researched and although it was in all liklihood fiction it seemed that the science behind the story was real and I was actually learning something. Even Dan Brown's more popular books, i liked how i was learning about the illuminati or about mary magdelene and the templars etc etc, as i siad, i realise its prob all fiction but i like that when i read a book.

If you like Dan Brown, check out James Rollins.

 

[flysack]

Finished "American Psycho" a few weeks back and it's still on my mind. I couldn't bring myself to fully read some parts but I think I enjoyed it.

This has only happened to me in two scenes in two separate books -1. The nose job scene in Thomas Pynchon's V.. The crazy part is it's written with high comedy and excruciatingly precise medical detail. It turns your stomach while also trying to make you laugh. I trudged through it, but I felt like throwing up.

2. The scene in the Marquis De Sade's Justine, when a group of libertine monks rapes several nuns. I got to the part where they suspend a pregnant nun over a small flame (if she slips, she gets burned), and proceed to violate her with various objects. Couldn't trudge through that. The Marquis won. I flipped pages and never looked back.

I guess I have an iron stomach/mind when it comes to fiction, because I never understood the uproar over Ellis' American Psycho. Was it graphic at points? Yes. But the author's satirical stance was always clear to me, so I was never turned off by it. The pathos of the narrator (unconscious to him) was always 'there' for me.

 

[Chadstroma]

Finally getting my way through The World is Flat by Friedman.

 

[Broncoholic]

Just finishing Hidden by Victoria Lustbader. A reading assignment from my wife. Normally her books are Meh...But I've really enjoyed this book. It reminds be of Dangerous fortune by Ken Follett.

 

[sirelfman]

Last book I finished reading was Boys Adrift by Dr. Leonard Sax. I'm currently in the middle of Signal by Kevin Randle. I'm looking to buy Dr. Sax's first book Why Gender Matters? and read it this summer. Probably will also give Lisa Randall's Warped Passages: Unraveling the Universe's Hidden Dimension a try at some point this summer also.