The Literature Thread

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Lex-Man
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Lex-Man » Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:09 pm

Moggy wrote:
lex-man wrote:
Moggy wrote:
lex-man wrote:I'm half way through the third book in the song of fire and ice sersis,a storm of swords. I quite like the story, but I find the writing long winded and it's definitely slightly spoiled by having seen the TV show. That said it's interesting to see the differences in the book.


Book split. :x


:?: :?: :?:


Sorry, when you said you had watched the TV show I thought you'd have read the thread here. TV split is what Ad7 calls anyone that dates to even mention the books exist. :lol:


Ah fair enough. I tend to watch the shows after it's all aired on telly so I can binge watch it. So I don't really bother with the thread.

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Sun Jul 31, 2016 4:25 pm

Apt Pupil

:dread:

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Squinty
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Squinty » Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:43 pm

Irene Demova wrote:
Squinty wrote:You Olmos made me laugh there.

I'm reading that Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. It's strawberry floating wank. I have an almost irrational hatred of first person narratives.

Prince of Thorns is hilarious in it's desire to be edgy and controversial (and it ends up being really tame compared to other books)

I'm currently really fed up with multiple-pov's in fantasy. Every book has it since ASoIaF became huge but so few writers can do more than one PoV well.
I read a book that was pretty fun for action fantasy (Blood Song) and then for some reason the sequel went from one detailed perspective to something like five different ones, now nobody feels like an actual character.


It takes a really special author to pull that off. I'm not sure GRRM does it that well, but that is understandable seeing as he has a ridiculous amount of POV's to manage.

Regarding Prince of Thorns, I have no idea why I'm reading this book. I will finish it though, while it's bad, it is not offensively so. The story being set after a post apocalyptic event is slightly interesting to me, but then I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Denster » Mon Aug 01, 2016 2:13 pm

Memento Mori wrote:Apt Pupil

:dread:


Just re reading this.

Great but very unsettling.

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Parksey
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Parksey » Tue Aug 02, 2016 1:12 am

Any recommendations for horror, specifically a collection of short stories? Need it for a birthday present, and it's not a genre I've ever dabbled in.

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King Chaz
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by King Chaz » Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:24 am

Squinty wrote:
Irene Demova wrote:
Squinty wrote:You Olmos made me laugh there.

I'm reading that Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. It's strawberry floating wank. I have an almost irrational hatred of first person narratives.

Prince of Thorns is hilarious in it's desire to be edgy and controversial (and it ends up being really tame compared to other books)

I'm currently really fed up with multiple-pov's in fantasy. Every book has it since ASoIaF became huge but so few writers can do more than one PoV well.
I read a book that was pretty fun for action fantasy (Blood Song) and then for some reason the sequel went from one detailed perspective to something like five different ones, now nobody feels like an actual character.


It takes a really special author to pull that off. I'm not sure GRRM does it that well, but that is understandable seeing as he has a ridiculous amount of POV's to manage.

Regarding Prince of Thorns, I have no idea why I'm reading this book. I will finish it though, while it's bad, it is not offensively so. The story being set after a post apocalyptic event is slightly interesting to me, but then I'm a sucker for that sort of thing.


The sequels are a bit better, I'd stick on with it.

Currently reading the 3rd book in Joe Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy and loving it. Not sure what to go on to next. A friend suggested The Painted Man, anyone read that?

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Rex Kramer
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Rex Kramer » Tue Aug 02, 2016 6:57 am

Parksey wrote:Any recommendations for horror, specifically a collection of short stories? Need it for a birthday present, and it's not a genre I've ever dabbled in.

Stephen King has written several short story collections (though I've only read the 80s ones). M R James is your classic ghost story collection and maybe Lovecraft?

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Wed Aug 03, 2016 8:02 pm

Parksey wrote:Any recommendations for horror, specifically a collection of short stories? Need it for a birthday present, and it's not a genre I've ever dabbled in.

Skeleton Crew by King has Survivor Type ( :dread: :dread: ) so that.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:18 pm

King's Night Shift collection is also decent. Several were made into films.

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Pan
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Pan » Sat Aug 20, 2016 8:25 pm

Cuttooth wrote:Started with Ulysses, which I still know I won't read any time soon


Have you read Portrait of the Artist? An essential prerequisite. As is Dubliners.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by St Nick » Sun Aug 28, 2016 11:44 pm

Picked up the new illustrated version of Neverwhere recently for my first time reading the story.

Finished it this evening, it gave me the feels. I was so pleased when he managed to return to London Below..

De Carabas :wub:

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Rex Kramer » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:25 am

St Nick wrote:Picked up the new illustrated version of Neverwhere recently for my first time reading the story.

Finished it this evening, it gave me the feels. I was so pleased when he managed to return to London Below..

De Carabas :wub:

I love this book quite a bit (though not quite as much as Stardust whose film is definitely a guilty pleasure). Just noticed there's a Marquis related short story on Amazon for £1.99/£0.99 kindle (How the Marquis got his coat back), tempted.....

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Pan » Tue Aug 30, 2016 7:29 pm

SugarDave wrote:It's a broad question but does anyone have any recommendations for history books? I'm not looking for anything in particular, I'm more interested for the sake of learning in general so if you have a favourite, throw it out there and I'll take a look. Wars, the rise and fall of empires, various eras, I don't mind.


Christopher Hibbert's book The French Revolution is a great non-fiction account of one of my favourite periods from history. Full of loads of interesting titbits about each character.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Cuttooth » Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:10 pm

Have just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which is just as haunting and unsettling as billed, with a childlike naivety and futility running throughout. Having also read and immensely enjoyed (the also very unsettling) A Pale View of Hills am I right in thinking the rest of Ishiguro's novels are generally not as well regarded?

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Pan » Sun Sep 04, 2016 7:13 pm

Cuttooth wrote:Have just finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, which is just as haunting and unsettling as billed, with a childlike naivety and futility running throughout. Having also read and immensely enjoyed (the also very unsettling) A Pale View of Hills am I right in thinking the rest of Ishiguro's novels are generally not as well regarded?


Remains of the Day is both highly regarded and worth a read.

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Cuttooth
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Cuttooth » Mon Sep 05, 2016 5:37 pm

Knew I forgot a big one in there, thanks!

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Pan » Wed Sep 07, 2016 8:44 pm

Reading Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.

Darkly comic. Brave, considering his about the holocaust (kinda).

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Tue Sep 13, 2016 10:06 am

Memento Mori wrote:DT reading list


Quick Dark Tower reading list update...

Finished IT, eventually. Really struggled to get through it - found myself getting really distracted. I've always considered it to be my favourite book, and it was still amazing, but I think it's a book you need to read when you're younger and can fully relate to the kids. That said, in a neat parallel with the narrative itself, there were huge chunks I'd forgotten about. Actually, most of it. I guess that's the whole point, isn't it? Adults forget things.

So I flicked onto the first page of Insomnia, which I have also read previously, and... I ran out of steam. :lol:

I skipped it, read Everything's Eventual* and Little Sisters of Eluria, and now I think I might need to take a break from SK for a little while. I read The Girl on The Train (I know, I know...) and it was nice to read some pure, easy-going trash for a bit.

I might just skip Insomnia altogether, even though you said not to. I can't remember much about it, which is the problem. I'm just quite keen to move on with the direct DT stuff. Little Sisters... gave the me the taste for more Roland.


* I did have to google EE to see how it was DT-relevant - got my answer without seeing any major spoilers :simper:

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:44 am

Insomnia is a difficult one to explain without giving spoilers. It is skippable to the larger DT story but you wouldn't appreciate it if you haven't read DT. If you've read it before and can't remember much I think that's fine. Were I doing a DT re-read again though I would read it.

I'm currently making my way through James Ellroy's Underworld USA series and he's become one of my favourite writers. If you want to take a break from King pick up The Black Dahlia which is the first of his LA Quartet.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Captain Kinopio » Sat Sep 17, 2016 1:38 pm

Finished Plutopia recently which was an interesting look at the societies that were built around the US and Russia's race for nuclear armaments. Will probably read more around this if I can find it as it's fascinating. Would like to find something from the Uranium miners perspective.

After that I read the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play. The story really was great, it surprised me how much of a page turner I find it, it's like I'd not been away from the book universe for well over a decade. The flip side to that is that some of the dialogue exchanges are absolutely appalling. Motivations and backgrounds are often ludicrously basic with huge swings in mood taking place over the course of a matter of words. In addition to that I'd kind of forgotten how little sense the wizarding world makes sense. I mean it doesn't really matter because it's for children but some of it is laughable. Nevertheless, great story and well worth a read for any Potter fan.

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