On the bookshelf

Donnor wrote:

I just finished (for the third time) "Heavier than Heaven, the Kurt Cobain Biography. It was a really informative read, I tend to stay away from fiction. I love a good true story about nearly everything. My favorites though are reading about other peoples problems. It makes me realize that sometimes my problems are not nearly as bad as what other people had gone through

lol made me think of this




oooooh double post FTW

i have a trio set of fresh novels i bought but it will be very sad to read as it is all about real child abuse cases. it may get too graphic for me but one day shall actually read it as it is sitting in my room, bought it, opened it and left it.

*poof*. http://helpingpsychology.com/bystander-effect-theory i just find it incredibly interesting to hear or read things and how they went about. (edit: btw this pyschology site link is really good!!! even if you're bored wanting to learn something random?)

Zakku wrote:

oooooh double post FTW

ROFL...Zak has bieber fever!

Terry Brooks. Children of Shanara.
almost got them all now.

And when I'm homesick I read The Game Rangers from Jan Roderigues. Some parts in the book make me sad I'm not home some part simply give good memories.
One of my best friends David is game ranger in Kapama and whenever I have a change I'm there to go to the bush with him. Rooftent on my landrover ( not real mine, my sis and me we share. thanks daddy) Picture of last september when we found a lion family. Male two female and three baby's. Next day the male and one female were gone to make more baby's. When lions do it they do it good, can last for several days.

the_flame wrote:

Elois wrote:

Haven't really enjoyed books in a while. Can't seem to focus. Decided goal is to read the entire Bible so that if anyone ever asks me, "Have you actually read the Bible?," I can say yes and ague point by point since it seems to be the most debatable book ever written. So far, there's nudity, murder, floods, incest, offering up daughters for gangrape, mass destruction, old ladies having babies. And I'm not even done with book 1.

hehe, bible is dirty book i havent read all, but did read apocalypse, it's interesting even if you aren't believer. and once in rk i made a list of apocalipse heroes (pale horse etc), instead of writin 1,2 3 for free spots and everybody was askin how do i know so many pplz damn uneducated rk players lol

I read some form of the bible, it's fune... And isn't the bible so debated because it wasn't written in english so the translators were all like "im nearly sure he meant that when he said that"

As for what else i've read, only Where's Wally for me

Am the only one who found Catch 22 a bit shit then?

Definitely agree with Cat's Cradle being Vonnegut's best too, though like was said Slaughterhouse Five is great too.

Currently working my way through a few of the Isaac Asimov collection.

apparently it is bad saying i read dan brown books. that's what my tutor said, not to mention it or mention it last. i was like hmm ok i think angels& demons was amazing but sure i would have to agree digital fortress was stupidly bad, read that in a few days in high school when bored. i read it fast because it was so bad i was cussing it, pretty sure i even made a blog post poiinting out how the plot made no sense also how the little riddle in it was surely easy to solve.

lol then i go to my mates hey was your tutor meetings one hour long too? mine was quite helpful and on topic, they were like lol no and i was like oops. ended up talking about books and past heritage jobs as it turns out her daughter worked in same place, whether the tutor's kid followed her psychology background etc. i was like oh man i quite like dan brown have a lot of work to do though on what the meeting was about

Mick wrote:

Am the only one who found Catch 22 a bit shit then?

Definitely agree with Cat's Cradle being Vonnegut's best too, though like was said Slaughterhouse Five is great too.

Currently working my way through a few of the Isaac Asimov collection.

What didnt you like about Catch-22? Not picking on you or anything just curious about your take on it. Also are you reading Asimov's Foundation series? I just read the first two books not too long ago and thought they were pretty good * the first was much more interesting IMO*


Lets see as for me I just finished 2 books the first was " MockingJay" the last book in the Hunger Game series, which was much better then I expected, there was still some odd silliness in it but other then that it was a interesting read. The other was " Legion of the Lost" which is about the authors experience in the French Foreign Legion. I had passed this book quite a few times at the library but last week decided to give it a chance and I was pretty happy with it. All I have to say is that those fuckers are freaking brutal yo, that and that apparently European women are freaks in bed lol

I have not had time at all to pick up a book the last week or so ...but have been making a list to work thru from this thread lol thanks!

I must say that here we think Lukjanenko is a freak now. Well, we think that anyone who is popular enough is fuckin freak... Tho his "Reflections labirynth"s worth reading. Not really cyberpunk, but worth...

Asimov's Ugly Little Boy is a good read. There's the original short story and a 1992 novelization. Pretty sure I read both.

Catch 22 blows chunks. All I'm saying.

I finished ready the latest Kathy Reichs mystery novel "Spider Bones". Great read!

once again can anyone tell me WHY they didnt like it? I dont need a deep philosophical answer a simple * I though the writing sucked ass* would suffice

Quote :

What didnt you like about Catch-22? Not picking on you or anything just curious about your take on it. Also are you reading Asimov's Foundation series? I just read the first two books not too long ago and thought they were pretty good * the first was much more interesting IMO*

Hard to say really. I big part of it was probably the fact that it'd been hailed as one of if not the book of the century on most lists I'd seen, I just sorta found it underwhelming. I can't really say that the "writing blew chunks", it clearly didn't and some of the dialogue was very sharp. I thought the middle of it dragged big time though. I guess shit was the wrong word to use, but I just didn't think it lived up to the hype.

I read the "I, Robot" collection of short stories, and then went on to the Foundation series yeah.

I think Mick has a point.

To say that Catch 22 "blows chunks" (really, you Americans) is way wide of the mark. It probably helped to read it a lot nearer its release, and definitely before they made the movie, which certainy did, er, blow something or other.

As soon as a book becomes a "modern classic", and people start reading it because they have to, it is a slow slippery slide to being berated as rubbish. It certainly has a hard-to-grasp style, and does make itself hard to understand throughout, which is a pain to the casual reader. Nonetheless, it needs to be read in context with its contemporary events, and what other novelists were trying to get at at that time.

Can I recommend "Last Exit to Brooklyn", which I read at about the same time, and definitely will NOT find its way onto High School reading lists, purely because of the explicit subject matter.

I read both books when I was young, and they had a profound effect on me.

Mick wrote:

Quote :

What didnt you like about Catch-22? Not picking on you or anything just curious about your take on it. Also are you reading Asimov's Foundation series? I just read the first two books not too long ago and thought they were pretty good * the first was much more interesting IMO*

Hard to say really. I big part of it was probably the fact that it'd been hailed as one of if not the book of the century on most lists I'd seen, I just sorta found it underwhelming. I can't really say that the "writing blew chunks", it clearly didn't and some of the dialogue was very sharp. I thought the middle of it dragged big time though. I guess shit was the wrong word to use, but I just didn't think it lived up to the hype.

I read the "I, Robot" collection of short stories, and then went on to the Foundation series yeah.

good enough for me Thanks Mick

Boris wrote:

I think Mick has a point.

To say that Catch 22 "blows chunks" (really, you Americans) is way wide of the mark. It probably helped to read it a lot nearer its release, and definitely before they made the movie, which certainy did, er, blow something or other.

As soon as a book becomes a "modern classic", and people start reading it because they have to, it is a slow slippery slide to being berated as rubbish. It certainly has a hard-to-grasp style, and does make itself hard to understand throughout, which is a pain to the casual reader. Nonetheless, it needs to be read in context with its contemporary events, and what other novelists were trying to get at at that time.

Can I recommend "Last Exit to Brooklyn", which I read at about the same time, and definitely will NOT find its way onto High School reading lists, purely because of the explicit subject matter.

I read both books when I was young, and they had a profound effect on me.

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH! Canadian!

I will defend my stance against Catch 22 and keep it on the "blow chunks" pile along with "For Me and My House" (I swear, I wanted to chew thru my wrists after reading it) as well as the entire "Anne of Green Gables" series. Fucking hell, if Anne Shirley was in my class in grade school, I'd have beaten up her goody two shoes ass. Each and every day. I much preferred the "Emily of New Moon" series by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Ziona wrote:

Boris wrote:

I think Mick has a point.

To say that Catch 22 "blows chunks" (really, you Americans) is way wide of the mark. It probably helped to read it a lot nearer its release, and definitely before they made the movie, which certainy did, er, blow something or other.

As soon as a book becomes a "modern classic", and people start reading it because they have to, it is a slow slippery slide to being berated as rubbish. It certainly has a hard-to-grasp style, and does make itself hard to understand throughout, which is a pain to the casual reader. Nonetheless, it needs to be read in context with its contemporary events, and what other novelists were trying to get at at that time.

Can I recommend "Last Exit to Brooklyn", which I read at about the same time, and definitely will NOT find its way onto High School reading lists, purely because of the explicit subject matter.

I read both books when I was young, and they had a profound effect on me.

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH! Canadian!

I will defend my stance against Catch 22 and keep it on the "blow chunks" pile along with "For Me and My House" (I swear, I wanted to chew thru my wrists after reading it) as well as the entire "Anne of Green Gables" series. Fucking hell, if Anne Shirley was in my class in grade school, I'd have beaten up her goody two shoes ass. Each and every day. I much preferred the "Emily of New Moon" series by Lucy Maud Montgomery.

I am disappoint....

You like Anne of Green Gables? If you haven't read the Emily of New Moon series, give it a try. Emily is a more rounded character and doesn't make me feel violent.

no I dont particualry like Anne of Green Gables I just would like to know why you dont like Catch-22. Not because I'm trying to defend the book I am just actually interested in what other people thought of it.

Also New moon reminds me too much of that crappy twilight series to make me want to read it LOL

Canadian, American... whats the difference?

I'd like to draw the difference between a book that is bad, and a book that you don't like. I have a list of books that are good, but that I didn't like, and books that are bad that I read time and again.

The promise of energetic sex wouldn't persuade me to read Anne of Green Gables...or anything by Jane Austin, or the Bronte lezzers for that matter, but I can't call them bad books.

On the other hand, I'll sit and read anything with killer rats, or giant spiders, or similar over and over, but I have never mistaken them for literature.

Trust me. I write bad books. I know what I am talking about.

Thankfully, Emily of New Moon is nothing like the Twilight series. I read Twilight to figure out why my friend's daughter was nearly apoplectic over the novel, series, movie, and what the devil "team Edward" meant. Oh god what a yawnfest. I think at least 2/3s of the book could've been edited out and the story would've been exactly the same, the writing still a mess of angst and the characters still brooding, but much shorter.

Catch 22 was assigned reading in uni. Probably didn't help that the prof read off his notes in a monotone voice and wore a beret at a jaunty angle. But the real reason I didn't like the book was, I just didn't like the book. It bored me, I didn't care about the characters, I chuckled occasionally, and then it was over.

Jane Austen actually puts me asleep. Pride and Prejudice is a horrid bore of a book. Even the version with zombies.

I liked Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre but I read it when I was 13 and in the middle of my "ain't love grand?" phase. " She marries the shaggy, blind, one armed guy at the end! It's sooo terrific!" I'm pretty sure I said that in the schoolyard the next day.

Sorry, "Team Edward"? I really, truly have no idea.

Brooding teenage sexual angst has always been popular, so has the pubescent obsession with death. All the way back to Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webser et al. I mean, there's lycanthropy in the Duchess of Malfi, as well as blood-drinking, corruption in the church, incest and lots of other lovely stuff. This clever woman appears to have put it all into a modern wrapper, and hit her target audience right between the eyes.

Best of luck to her, I say.

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff.

Great thread!

I read ALOT of novels and well, ever since my friend passed away with my library card in his possession ... I haven't had the heart to re-new my membership

hehe sorry, too much info , but having said that ... I now spend my hard earned cash on shit to read. I am pretty much a victim to whatever is on sale and whatever the store is marketing to me.

My findings have been hit or miss until recently ...

My newest favorite novel!

Kockroach
Tyler Knox

http://kockroach.com/content/index.asp

"Darkly funny look on humanity. Yes, he has read Kafka. I'm no longer creeped out by cockroaches!" says the Plutogirl Times

Tim Severin "Viking: Odinn's Child" . Ever wondered whatever happened to Leif Ericsson's son, Thorgils? It's a 3 volume adventure from Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland, and Western Europe that chronicles Thorgils' adventures when he was a boy til as an old man writing his life story in a monastery library. So far, so good.

Sophie Kinsella "Mini Shopaholic". Silly fun.