KarmaPolice
Footballguy
I haven't read that one - what's the beef about the Everest book?
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Whatcha readin now? (book, books, reading, read) (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter shuke
- Start date
Tough As Nails
Glave Master
The beef is just about his account of what happened. A number of people have disputed a few of the things he wrote about. But really, that's neither here nor there. I don't think I've ever heard anybody say that Into Thin Air wasn't a very engrossing book. If you just realize it's one man's account and opinion about what happened, I don't see how there would be any problems at all. It's a really entertaining and fascinating book.
EDIT: To add that Canticle for Leibowitz is fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation from this thread. As far as post-apocolyptic fare goes...this one is right at or near the top of the list. Canticle tackles all kinds of issues (religion vs. science in particular) in fair, reasonable, interesting ways. The exchanges are great and the author get points across without being preachy or taking sides.
I also read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It's kind of creepy and has a great pace to it. Just when you think you can't take the bickering and immaturity of the Hailsham students any longer...he gives you a brand new perspective on everything. Fast read, worth your time.
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igbomb
Footballguy
I'd rather he stick to Tillman's story instead of going into the history of Afghanistan so much. Of course, that's probably due more to having just recently read the book he seems to be using as his source material, The Looming Tower (fantastic book by the way). Hasn't really grabbed me yet, maybe closer to Into the Wild (which I thought was just okay) than to Into Thin Air (which I thought was great).
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pantagrapher
Footballguy
I loved An American Tragedy and Sister Carrie when I was younger, but I wouldn't enjoy them nearly as much today. I think I've become more interested in the craft than the plot. I decided to give up on Augie and read Ada instead.
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
That's the beef that I had with Into the Wild - I thought there was too much of his life in the book, which I didn't find compelling at all.
Tough As Nails
Glave Master
One of the few times where the movie WAS as good, if not better, than the book. The book was ok...the movie was really good.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
LOL, yeah I just read The Looming Tower too and see he is using it as a source. But I don't mind the review that much. Tillman was a very interesting guy, that's for sure.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
As TAN says, others have disputed his account or said he was too "easy" on his role. However, I've read 3 other books on that incident and I think his view, as far as it can be, is pretty accurate and he does blame himself for sending someone the wrong way on the mountain. I think most of the backlash is really from the other professional climbers who wanted their own account to get out there first instead of a writer's who had never been in that situation before and didn't have the "empathy" that a pro climber might have. Regardless, it's a great book.
TheFanatic
Footballguy
I'm reading Game of Thrones by George R Martin. I;ve got one word to describe it: Epic
Ash
Footballguy
Agreed, I was thinking the whole way through about how I could protect my kids in the same situation.
piratemike
HARRRRRLite™
Next on my list.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Word of warning: I'm sure you know this but the series isn't finished yet. Only 4 of the (proposed) 7 books have been published, with book #5 looking like a 2010 release. That'll be 5 years since the 4th book was released (and that book was 5 years after #3). I'm not trying to discourage anyone from reading Martin's books, as I think they're wonderful, but you're not gonna get it in finished form for several years. I happen to think the final two books will happen faster than the most recent two since just about all of this "middle" period had to be rewritten - I think he's always know where he wants to go, just had to change how he got there.
flysack
Footballguy
One of my all time favorite novels.If you're feeling the Dostoevsky, I recommend The Idiot. The first 200 pages are some of the finest writing Fyodor did. Then it hits a dry spell for a 100 pages or so. Stick with it. The last third is as brilliant as the opening.
igbomb
Footballguy
Just wrapped this up today. Fortunately, after the first 100 pages the Afghan history portion dropped off and he concentrated on Tillman. Ended up really liking this book, only in a really frustrating way. Like The Looming Tower, reading about the crap our government pulls can be infuriating. All in all, extremely well told. While there are some things about Tillman I don't think I would have liked, there is no questioning his bravery. And his wife and mother come across as two fantastically strong women.
Voltaire
Footballguy
I just finished it this morning. If you're a big time Bush guy, then you will absolutely hate this book. No one will confuse me for a neocon but even I had to step away a time or two because of his negativity toward the previous administration. But that's probably not too dissimilar to the kind of case he made in Into the Wild (one of my top 10 favorite books ever). Krakauer seems to love to blame people in his books. His history of the Afghan people from right before the war with the Soviets until today was very good. I thought there would be major holes in it, but he did a fine job of that.
Don't go into this book expecting to hear flowery things about how Tillman was a war movie hero. Krakauer deals with reality more than the Tillman legend. If you are into history or politics this is a great read.
D_House
Footballguy
Halfway through Wicked now. I'm really enjoying it.
D_House
Footballguy
For those that buy books, amazon.com is having a decent sale on paperbacks - 3 for 2. They do this fairly often, but they have some pretty great titles for sale this time. I just picked up three books I've seen recommended here (Murakami' The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, McCarthy's Blood Meridian, and Chandler's The Big Sleep) for $21. Not too shabby.
Bull Dozier
Footballguy
Just finished this (yes, I take a long time to read books).I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this type of story. It starts to drag in the middle, but it is actually a great symmetry to the story. The end is great and you are so emotionally involved in the story you feel the same relief even though you know it is coming.
saintfool
Dead sexy
went to one of my favorites authors - Martin Amis - for a new read. all of our books are still in storage and i've been subsisting on a weekly New Yorker diet. i had a few minutes in a book store and grabbed London Fields. i like pretty much all of his work and reading him amounts to comfort food for me.
i need to get a public library card. i need books to read without giving up storage space in my home.
i need to get a public library card. i need books to read without giving up storage space in my home.
TheFanatic
Footballguy
I did not know that. I just started the second book. Maybe 60 pages in. But at close to 1K pages I'm not finishing it, or the series so far, anytime soon. The first one was powerful. So many twists and turns. I hate predictable books and while some things are foreseeable the vast majority of the twists are just amazing. Oh, and HBO is making a series out of it called Winter is Coming I think. The guy that played Baromir (Sean Bean) is playing Eddard and the wife of King Leonaitas in 300 will play Cersai Lassiter. I'm looking forward to seeing her as a blond. I'm actually considering ordering HBO because of this.
Osaurus
Footballguy
Reading Haunted Heartland by Beth Scott and Micheal Norman. Collection of ghost stories around the midwest broken down by states. I figured it appropriate being near Halloween. Interesting stories and it gets into how a lot of these stories perpetuate most of which having no real foundation in the paranormal.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
You ain't seen nothin' yet on twists & turns. If your experience is anything like mine, Martin will have you jumping at shadows by about half way through book 3.HBO's casted for the pilot & I believe it starts shooting in a month or so. Other than the two actors you mentioned, I am onl;y familiar with two more - Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn & Peter Dinkelage as Tyrion. Most (all?) of the main roles are filled by Brit actors I've never heard of but the fan boards seem really high on just about everyone.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
Thanks, yeah I'm a little more than halfway through and loving it. As igb says in the post above yours, Krakauer may blame some people, but after reading enough books about this time period, including the fantastic Looming Tower, I'm inclined to believe that Bush/Cheney are very much at fault with a whole lot of bad things.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
I'd love to meet Marie. She sounds great.
pantagrapher
Footballguy
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trader jake
Footballguy
D_House
Footballguy
Finished this. Thoroughly entertaining, well-written, and thought-provoking.
D_House
Footballguy
Finished Anansi Boys recently and agree with both of you. Fun is a perfect way to describe this one, much less dark in tone than American Gods.Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
A decent fantasy story.
Excellent book. Really a fun read.
The_Man
Footballguy
Nice. I like Amis a lot -- and London Fields is probably my favorite of all his books. Even better than Money.I just got the new James Ellroy - "Blood's A Rover." It's the conclusion to his Underworld USA trilogy. "American Tabloid" was a great book. The sequel, "The Cold Six Thousand" was terrible. One hundred pages in, this one's skewing toward Cold 6K. Ugh. Somewhere along the way he got so caught up with plot and dropping in famous historic personages that he forgot things like story and character.Anyone ever read the USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos? In some ways I think that was the inspiration for Ellroy's trilogy. I've never heard him say that, but the similar titles seem to make it clear. Loved the Dos Passos -- back when they were all writing, I heard that he was considered on par with Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. But, for whatever reason, he fell out of critical favor in the years that followed while the reputations of the other three continued to grow.
facook
Footballguy
Well, the earlier reviews of The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown were spot on. Ugh. As a piece of humanist/universalist propaganda it was pretty bad. As a novel it was even worse. The Shyamalan moment was obvious about 1/4 in.
Now onto David Ignatius' The Increment. Pretty cool modern espionage revolving around Iran and nukes. Ignatius is the guy that wrote Body of Lies, which was made into a Leo/Russell Crowe movie.
Now onto David Ignatius' The Increment. Pretty cool modern espionage revolving around Iran and nukes. Ignatius is the guy that wrote Body of Lies, which was made into a Leo/Russell Crowe movie.
Pooch
More Yang than Yin
One of my all time favorite novels.
If you're feeling the Dostoevsky, I recommend The Idiot. The first 200 pages are some of the finest writing Fyodor did. Then it hits a dry spell for a 100 pages or so. Stick with it. The last third is as brilliant as the opening.
for both of these books. Great novels.I finished reading The Caine Mutiny last week and liked it quite a bit. Not as much as Wouk's later books The Winds of War and War and Remembrance but good nonetheless. My wife picked up the DVD for me yesterday. Surprisingly, I'd never seen it even though Humphrey Bogart stars in it.Next up for me is Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. First volume of the Baroque Cycle. Looks interesting.
pantagrapher
Footballguy
Congratulations!
kupcho1
Footballguy
I know I'm in the minority here, but I prefer mine grilled. Lightly salted with a bit of olive oil. Seriously though, congrats
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
Don't waste your time. At 3 AM with a screaming baby in your arms, you're not going to remember what you read anyway. Congrats.saintfool said:
saintfool
Dead sexy
thanks. i'm more trying to figure out all the necessary crap that you have to have once you have a baby. car seats, cribs, changing tables, gliders, etc
The_Man
Footballguy
Congrats! My wife hated "What to Expect When You're Expecting" with a white-hot fury. It would say things like: "You've been doing a good job sticking with your diet, so go ahead and splurge sometimes. For example, once every month, replace your daily portion of brown rice with white."After the first trimester, I would read it myself and then only share aloud with her the parts that wouldn't make her mad.saintfool said:
I just read a great child development book called "NurtureShock." Would recommend it to anyone with kids, from newborn all the way to teens. It's a Malcolm Gladwell-style book in which a couple of journalists cull through all the latest research studies and try to draw conclusions and/or apply their findings to child rearing. It's a really good read.
Here's a link to the New York Magazine article that became the first chapter of the book:
http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/
If you like the article, you'll like the book.
flysack
Footballguy
Anyone ever read anything by Robert Olen Butler?
Just heard about him via link to Grove/Atlantic publishing and decided to order one of his older books - Tabloid Dreams: Stories.
They're all short-short stories inspired by ridiculous supermarket tabloids. Sounds gimmicky, but critics generally thought he pulled it off.
I guess he started out writing about his experiences in Vietnam, won a Pulitzer in 1993, but lately has moved toward an obsession with celebrity and pop culture. Many of his novels in this decade are characterized by humorous spins on the famous, both current and historical.
Just heard about him via link to Grove/Atlantic publishing and decided to order one of his older books - Tabloid Dreams: Stories.
They're all short-short stories inspired by ridiculous supermarket tabloids. Sounds gimmicky, but critics generally thought he pulled it off.
I guess he started out writing about his experiences in Vietnam, won a Pulitzer in 1993, but lately has moved toward an obsession with celebrity and pop culture. Many of his novels in this decade are characterized by humorous spins on the famous, both current and historical.
igbomb
Footballguy
This is the first I've heard of this book. Just read the article and some reviews of the book and went ahead and ordered it. Thanks for the recommendation!
Darth Cheney
Footballguy
American Lion.....an Andrew Jackson bio. Jackson was a cool guy.
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oso diablo
Footballguy
Iain Pears - Stone's Fall
If you liked Pears' Instance of the Fingerpost*, then get this one. Some are calling it better than Fingerpost. I'm starting it today, after the pleasant surprise of seeing it in the new book section at the library. (overlooked facook's post back in May)
* See post 72 in this thread, which launched what would have otherwise been a 71-post (and long-pruned) thread into this 2800-post FFA treasure.
If you liked Pears' Instance of the Fingerpost*, then get this one. Some are calling it better than Fingerpost. I'm starting it today, after the pleasant surprise of seeing it in the new book section at the library. (overlooked facook's post back in May)
* See post 72 in this thread, which launched what would have otherwise been a 71-post (and long-pruned) thread into this 2800-post FFA treasure.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
SimonMoon
Footballguy
I went to the bookstore the other day...Had my hands on The Road...because of your comments.
Put it back down...because of your comments.
Didn't think I was in the mood for a "haunting"-if-you're-a-parent type ride, you know? Lately I've been loving my kids a little too much or something...
Anyway, what I did pick up was another Neal Stephenson book: Anathem
Holy Store High In Transit! It's purt-near a thousand pages, and it makes my brain hurt, but it is a great, great read. And apparently, "They" are making a movie for this one. G'head, look it up.
It defies categorization. It's fiction, but as usual, its ideas are real, and mathematical, and philosophical...and a little romantic...and huge in scope...
I know I've probably painted myself as a Stephenson fanboy by now, but I honestly believe that he is the finest American author we've seen since...well, I don't know who or when. (Trying to cut down on my hyperbolic pronouncements lately.) I just know he makes me THINK. All the time. I dream in Stephensonian space. It's a little messed up, really, but...it be what it be.
Anyway, add Anathem to The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon in Stephenson's ARRCAL (Arsenal of Reasons He Rules Contemporary American Literature.)
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kupcho1
Footballguy
I thought Anathem was OK, particularly as compared to the Baroque Cycle. BC > C > AI went to the bookstore the other day...Had my hands on The Road...because of your comments.
Put it back down...because of your comments.
Didn't think I was in the mood for a "haunting"-if-you're-a-parent type ride, you know? Lately I've been loving my kids a little too much or something...
Anyway, what I did pick up was another Neal Stephenson book: Anathem
Holy Store High In Transit! It's purt-near a thousand pages, and it makes my brain hurt, but it is a great, great read. And apparently, "They" are making a movie for this one. G'head, look it up.
It defies categorization. It's fiction, but as usual, its ideas are real, and mathematical, and philosophical...and a little romantic...and huge in scope...
I know I've probably painted myself as a Stephenson fanboy by now, but I honestly believe that he is the finest American author we've seen since...well, I don't know who or when. (Trying to cut down on my hyperbolic pronouncements lately.) I just know he makes me THINK. All the time. I dream in Stephensonian space. It's a little messed up, really, but...it be what it be.
Anyway, add Anathem to The Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon in Stephenson's ARRCAL (Arsenal of Reasons He Rules Contemporary American Literature.)
Damn, that looks like a proof or something.
Weapon of Mass Instruction
Watch my feet!
I've been reading the Dennis LeHane series with the Kenzie character. They are great. He wrote Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River.
SimonMoon
Footballguy
I'd have to agree that it both looks like one, and is sound math.kupcho1 said:BC > C > A
Damn, that looks like a proof or something.
As someone said in Anathem, with regard to religion: "If someone actually proved, mathematically, that God existed, we'd simply say, 'Nice proof,' and start believing in God." (paraphrased slightly)
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
It's very gut-wrenching book for a father to read, but it can only make you appreciate your relationship with your kids more.SimonMoon said:I went to the bookstore the other day...Had my hands on The Road...because of your comments.
Put it back down...because of your comments.
Didn't think I was in the mood for a "haunting"-if-you're-a-parent type ride, you know? Lately I've been loving my kids a little too much or something...
Weapon of Mass Instruction
Watch my feet!
You should read it.It's very gut-wrenching book for a father to read, but it can only make you appreciate your relationship with your kids more.SimonMoon said:I went to the bookstore the other day...Had my hands on The Road...because of your comments.
Put it back down...because of your comments.
Didn't think I was in the mood for a "haunting"-if-you're-a-parent type ride, you know? Lately I've been loving my kids a little too much or something...
