Return of the Book Thread

[Evildrider]

I burned through all of the dresden files in the past few weeks. Audiobooks for the first 4, then text, then audio for 10, then text for 11. Strange they did 10 before 5-9. I guess I'll have to wait until April for book 12. A terrific series, I heartily recommend it. I read 5-9 in two days.

The series (and the audiobook version especially) captured me in a way that I haven't experienced for a couple years. Big shoes to fill, and sadly, going back to Stephen King's just not doing it for me. I have sort of a 'complete audiobook collection' of his and listened to The Tommyknockers, Four Past Midnight, and part of Cell before I started on Dresden. It's sort of a catch-all library I hit when I have nothing better to listen to.

Looking back on it, the difference is remarkable. I doubt I'll ever finish Cell. There's simply no comparison. I'll have to rummage around for something new, I guess.

I love the Dresden Files, Butcher just can't pump out books fast enough for me. 

[Samwise]

I got a book called Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds for Christmas and blazed through it last week.  

Sounds neat!  Been meaning to read up on ravens/crows...  The last two years, we've had huge flocks (murders?) of hundreds to thousands of crows that are supposedly "commuting" together into and out of the city to find food.  Good link here: http://www.crows.net/roosts.html

The first couple of chapters of the book talk almost exclusively about the dynamics of raven roosts, why they form, how they benefit their members, etc.  I'll try to resist the urge to derail the thread with regurgitation of bird facts, though.    Definitely worth checking the book out.

[Viin]

I love the Dresden Files, Butcher just can't pump out books fast enough for me. 

His fantasy series is good too.

[Evildrider]

I love the Dresden Files, Butcher just can't pump out books fast enough for me. 

His fantasy series is good too.

I haven't started those yet, mainly cuz I've been burnt out on Fantasy novels.  I'll probably get around to them though.

Also on the Dresden Files thing.

The opening line of Changes has been reported by Butcher to be:

[Ironwood]

New Pratchett was crap.

[Reg]

That's too bad do you think the early onset Alzheimer's is affecting his writing? I hope he's smart enough to retire before he embarasses himself...

[Endie]

I've decided to read some of the books that I can't believe (and am mildly ashamed) that I've not read yet.  I started with Ender's Game, which I loved.  Especially as I thought I was being so clever at the end and in fact had been tricked.  Great fun, although I'm kinda wary of how he eaks seven more books out of it when that one appeared to leave Ender's story so complete.

Now it's the Great Gatsby, which I tried to read at about 11 or so and found tediously grown-up at the time.  Now, I'm delighted with Fitzgerald's ability to draw believably grotesque characters.  I'm rather glad I saw so much of BBC Four's season on the 1920s recently, though: it's a Penguin Classics edition but they no longer have the introduction and footnotes that they used to, so one is on one's own with the topical references.

[AutomaticZen]

I love the Dresden Files, Butcher just can't pump out books fast enough for me. 

His fantasy series is good too.

No, Codex Alera is better.  And sadly, done.  The last one just came out.  I love Dresden, but Alera is hands down better in my opinion.  Perhaps because he had an endgame in mind. 

[bhodi]

I've decided to read some of the books that I can't believe (and am mildly ashamed) that I've not read yet.  I started with Ender's Game, which I loved.  Especially as I thought I was being so clever at the end and in fact had been tricked.  Great fun, although I'm kinda wary of how he eaks seven more books out of it when that one appeared to leave Ender's story so complete.

What happens when the most brilliant military minds humanity has ever produced leave their little habitat and return to their own countries, whose alliance was predicated on a grave external threat that no longer exists?

Of course that was only the later one, which I thought was decent: ender's shadow. The rest? Meh.

[Ard]

No, Codex Alera is better.  And sadly, done.  The last one just came out.  I love Dresden, but Alera is hands down better in my opinion.  Perhaps because he had an endgame in mind. 

Codex Alera started out much much worse though.  The first book nearly stopped me from reading the rest.  He even admitted he sucked at writing normal fantasy during that period.  The remaining books made it worthwhile though.

Butcher does have an end in mind for the Dresden books, and he's definitely building to it slowly in the last few books.  He stated that he was aiming at 20 books in the main series, and a 3 book apocalyptic end trilogy to cap it off.

[bhodi]

Listening to Superfreakanomics. This book is incredibly compelling. If I had read this as a kid, I suspect I'd have become an economist instead of compsci.

[Evildrider]

No, Codex Alera is better.  And sadly, done.  The last one just came out.  I love Dresden, but Alera is hands down better in my opinion.  Perhaps because he had an endgame in mind. 

Codex Alera started out much much worse though.  The first book nearly stopped me from reading the rest.  He even admitted he sucked at righting normal fantasy during that period.  The remaining books made it worthwhile though.

Butcher does have an end in mind for the Dresden books, and he's definitely building to it slowly in the last few books.  He stated that he was aiming at 20 books in the main series, and a 3 book apocalyptic end trilogy to cap it off.

I agree, the Dresden books are supposed to be spread out over a long arc.  Each book has always pushed the story forward imo.

[Viin]

Listening to Superfreakanomics. This book is incredibly compelling. If I had read this as a kid, I suspect I'd have become an economist instead of compsci.

I haven't read that yet (but I will!), but I'm already interested in economics from what I've been reading (and univ classes). Naked Economics is an easily accessible book that covers real-life uses of economics, I'd recommend it if you want a bit more but don't want to read a grad school text book.

[Endie]

OK, the Great Gatsby was more... poignant... than I expected.  It's like Brideshead Revisited through an American looking-glass.

[Samwise]

I've decided to read some of the books that I can't believe (and am mildly ashamed) that I've not read yet.  I started with Ender's Game, which I loved.  Especially as I thought I was being so clever at the end and in fact had been tricked.  Great fun, although I'm kinda wary of how he eaks seven more books out of it when that one appeared to leave Ender's story so complete.

What happens when the most brilliant military minds humanity has ever produced leave their little habitat and return to their own countries, whose alliance was predicated on a grave external threat that no longer exists?

Of course that was only the later one, which I thought was decent: ender's shadow. The rest? Meh.

Speaker for the Dead is right up there with Ender's Game as far as I'm concerned.

[dd0029]

Just read Purple and Black by KJ Parker.  This was really good.  It's fairly short and Parker works to cram in a lot of clever world building within the frame work of pair of school friends exchanging letters.  The friends happen to be an emperor and provincial governor.    The story is  thin and the work to insert the world into the letters made the twists and turns obvious.  But it was still very good.  And it does boast perhaps the best line I have read in a while:

"A man will betray his honour, his country and his friend, but the bond between two people who share a common devotion is hardcore porn is unbreakable."

[Stormwaltz]

Read nearly all of Scalzi's Old Man's War over Christmas break. I like the way he thinks.

I also started Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, which I've wanted to read for about ten years.

[Johny Cee]

I just found my copy of On Liberty!  Been looking for that for ages.

[Margalis]

Listening to Superfreakanomics. This book is incredibly compelling. If I had read this as a kid, I suspect I'd have become an economist instead of compsci.

The authors have gotten into some trouble over the part of the book related to solar cells. (Shoddy and inaccurate)

[Endie]

I finished Jane Austen's Mansfield Park last night.  Until thirty pages from the end I was in awe of Austen: this was, I was sure, going to have been my favourite of all her books.  I was impressed at the unconventional denouement that I felt sure was coming, although as the remaining pages became fewer and fewer in number I was increasingly aware that there had to be some element of "and with one bound she was free", whatever the end turned out to be.

It kinda feels like she decided that the book was getting too long (I think it must be one of her longest) and the resolution is sudden, compressed, unsatisfactory and largely recycled from another of her books (I won't say which, although you will soon see that it's not Persuasion).  She even seems to feel a touch aware of these shortcomings in her rather epilogue-ish, final chapter summary.

It's not on a Quincunx level of unsatisfactory.  It was just a little disappointing at the end, when i thought that it was going to be so very different from the arc that every modern rom-com steals from her and Bronte.  For the bulk of the book, I felt that the characterisation and her sly, observational wit was at a level unmatched elsewhere in her writing.

Unfortunately what I thought was Vile Bodies in my laptop bag turned out to be Persuasion when I got on the train, so it's back-to-back Austen for me.

[Murgos]

...so it's back-to-back Austen for me.

I love how the Scottish insist that kilts aren't really skirts.

[Endie]

...so it's back-to-back Austen for me.

I love how the Scottish insist that kilts aren't really skirts.

Given that my intention was to read Vile Bodies, and that my edition (Penguin, I think) has a famous picture of a bunch of effete transvestites (of both sexes) on the cover, I cannot but feel I dodged a bullet, then.

[Mosesandstick]

The authors have gotten into some trouble over the part of the book related to solar cells. (Shoddy and inaccurate)

I wonder if anyone will do a further critique of their books. I can't remember that much about freaknomics, but whilst it was an interesting read and they had justifications, nothing really screamed causation as opposed to correlation. The whole thing about solar cells really goes against the authors' MO of looking out for interesting trends and relationships.

[Sky]

Just finished In the Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn. Secret society uses babbage machines to predict and manipulate the future. Really good foundation, but he kind of squandered it. While it was still an enjoyable read, I was hoping for more of the old west action and early technology stuff.

Wandered through the stacks a while ago and just nabbed any book that looked interesting, whittled it down to a half dozen. Up next is Iain Bank's Feersum Endjinn, which starts out very oddly.

[bhodi]

The authors have gotten into some trouble over the part of the book related to solar cells. (Shoddy and inaccurate)

I wonder if anyone will do a further critique of their books. I can't remember that much about freaknomics, but whilst it was an interesting read and they had justifications, nothing really screamed causation as opposed to correlation. The whole thing about solar cells really goes against the authors' MO of looking out for interesting trends and relationships.

I had an economist rant at me about the global warming thing at a party on Saturday. It was still entertaining, if not completely accurate. I have no doubt some of the things weren't highly researched, and when any complex issue is involved, there are many differences of opinion, each with reams of facts backing them up.

[Mosesandstick]

I don't want to bring up global warming because this shit will just get denned. The authors are supposed to be "rogue economists" (or Levitt is supposed to be). His specialty appears to be looking at data and finding trends and relationships that other people would not have spotted. If he wants to look at climate data thats fine, it's what he does and he can be as right or wrong as he wants. It's not his usual sort of combination of social sciences and economics, but whatever. Look at the data. However, when the book goes on about things like the stratoshield, what does that have to do with what the book's supposed to be about?

[dd0029]

Tried to read Julian Comstock : a story of 22nd-century America by Robert Charles Wilson.  Only got about half way through.  An interesting world can only get you so far if there is no story or the characters aren't compelling in the least.  I much preferred Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson.  They are both future histories of a collapsed world wherein the conservative fantasy is realized for good and ill.  Both have very strong parallels with older writing styles.  Wilson sets his sights squarely on Mark Twain and Judson is more of a pastiche of similar time frame writers.  Where Wilson goes wrong is he seems to have gotten stuck on his Christian ascendant post apocalyptic world and Twain homage and gone no further in the process.  By about halfway through, nothing has really happened.  The story is pretty much, this happened, then this happened, then this happened.  Any opportunity for dramatic tension is avoided.  There's a large Civil War style battle which should have been interesting in some way, but was not.  There was also a literal rooftop escape and a train hijacking.  Both completely boring. The book would be readable if the characters could really make up for the lack of a story.  But they don't.  For all that he is the titular character, Julian Comstock is paper thin.  The author/narrator, Adam Hazzard is not much better.  This might have been better as a short story or a novella.  At the least, it should have been heavily edited.  There are a great many words for not much going on.

[Vision]

Im reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, it is extremely fascinating to see how he compares various myths to the unconscious maturation process of an individual.

[Khaldun]

I also enjoyed Fitzpatrick's War--definitely worth a read.

[bhodi]

Im reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, it is extremely fascinating to see how he compares various myths to the unconscious maturation process of an individual.

I find myself unconsciously ticking off parts of the hero's journey in movies and TV that I watch.

I finished Cell after all - ending was shit. Not one of his better books. He did 'end of the world' much better in The Stand. Maybe I'm just bitter that it's not Dresden.

[ghost]

I just bought God Emperor on audiobook to listen to while I drive.  I'm sure it will be dangerous, but great fun at the same time.

[NowhereMan]

Re-read Dune over the holidays as well as a load of older Pratchett books (mostly Watch books). They were almost surprisingly as good as I remember them. Now I need to start looking into reading some more classics having never really touched Austen, although I could always reread Three Men in a Boat first...

[murdoc]

Read 'The Road' on a long flight last week. I had already seen the movie and I think that influenced my reading of it too much. Wish I had read it first, as it didn't pack the punch it would have.

[Xuri]

Went on a small spree at the bookstore a few days ago, and bought
Ender's Exile by Orson Scott Card
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
Princeps' Fury by Jim Butcher
And a dictionary on Pirate lingo :P

Wanted to buy Turn Coat (latest Dresden book) but they didn't have it in paperback version, and I have all the other ones in paperback, so...*shrug*

Almost done reading Ender's Exile right now, and enjoying it greatly. The man can definitely write.

[Endie]

I finished Austen's Persuasion last night.  A long way from being her best book, it leaves one in no doubt throughout who will end up with whom, nor what its ultimate resolution shall be.  The correct people end up with each other, the villain is confounded and good faith is rewarded.  None of which stopped me enjoying it for a single second.

Now I'm reading Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh.  And none too soon.  The glut of Austen meant that I had begun to affect a perceptibly Georgian mode of speech, with quite excessive use of the subjunctive.  That happens to me rather quickly if I read too much from a certain period.