Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 551899 times)

Archer77

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 14174
  • Team Shizzo
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #825 on: September 19, 2013, 06:13:09 AM »
People dismiss this book as Heinlein juvenalia. I get that, but it really echoes with Vietnam, and the times, etc. No wonder that Joe Haldeman wrote/responded with 'The Forever War.'     

Highly enjoyable book.   Readers should turn the BS and propaganda detector to 11.  I recently purchased the expanded version of Stranger in a Strange Land and plan to start reading it in a couple of weeks.
A

funk51

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 39674
  • Getbig!
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #826 on: September 19, 2013, 09:01:19 AM »
lex lugar's book wrestling with the devil. next up roger clemens the rocket that fell to earth.
F

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #827 on: September 27, 2013, 08:41:08 PM »
Went to a lunch/reading thingee with Will Schwalbe, the author of ' The End of Your Life Book Club.' He was pretty cool. The food was alright; got my two books signed, licketky-split, and met up with a bud for a few pints.

/mum really liked the book. i haven't even looked at it.

King Shizzo

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 34189
  • Ron crowned me King because I always deliver.
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #828 on: September 27, 2013, 11:52:56 PM »
Dr. Chimps outed in this thread.

Mr Nobody

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 40197
  • Falcon gives us new knowledge every single day.
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #829 on: September 28, 2013, 05:43:07 AM »
Dr. Chimps outed in this thread.
He is just warming up in the batter's box.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #830 on: September 28, 2013, 09:28:06 AM »
Dr. Chimps outed in this thread.
Took you 33 pages to figure that out!? DeVry might be right for you, my friend.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #831 on: September 28, 2013, 09:29:49 AM »
He is just warming up in the batter's box.
Ha! Never warm up. Just get set and wait on the first pitch. Softball; not MLB.    ;D

Roger Bacon

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 20957
  • Roger Bacon tries to be witty and fails
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #832 on: October 08, 2013, 01:24:10 AM »
Let's talk about the Dark Tower Series, I'm on book two.

 :o

Do we find out later what the deal with Meijs is? ???

Did the writers of 'Being John Malkovich' completely rip off The Drawing of Three?

 :o

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #833 on: October 08, 2013, 06:48:32 PM »
These Harry Bosch novels are terrific. Michael Connelly is a great police-procedure type of writer, great crime thrillers. I know this shit ain't deep, but man, you just breeze through them. Reading "The Concrete Blonde" right now, the third in the Bosch series. Maybe the best yet. I'm gonna read 'em all, I love this shit.

Archer77

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 14174
  • Team Shizzo
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #834 on: October 09, 2013, 05:24:17 AM »
I'm currently rereading Starship Troopers. Someone mentioned Starship Troopers I decided to read it again.
A

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #835 on: October 09, 2013, 01:00:18 PM »
These Harry Bosch novels are terrific. Michael Connelly is a great police-procedure type of writer, great crime thrillers. I know this shit ain't deep, but man, you just breeze through them. Reading "The Concrete Blonde" right now, the third in the Bosch series. Maybe the best yet. I'm gonna read 'em all, I love this shit.
Just last week picked up a copy of his `The Poet`on your recommendation. Dealer said it`s a harder-than-normal-to-find Connelly 1st. It`s on the stack, so I`ll let you know in a month or two.    

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #836 on: October 09, 2013, 02:57:01 PM »
Just last week picked up a copy of his `The Poet`on your recommendation. Dealer said it`s a harder-than-normal-to-find Connelly 1st. It`s on the stack, so I`ll let you know in a month or two.    

Ok, but don't hold it against me if you think it sucks.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #837 on: October 10, 2013, 05:26:49 AM »
Congratulations to Alice Munro, this year's Nobel Laureate for literature. Great choice! Superb, almost flawless, body of work and popular to boot - not some political choice, or some unknown writer that only the Academy knows. Good stuff.    :)

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #838 on: October 11, 2013, 01:23:48 PM »
Just last week picked up a copy of his `The Poet`on your recommendation.

Just to clarify:

Quote from: dr.chimps on August 10, 2013, 05:29:20 PM
I love him. He's a superb writer. Never read 'The Poet,' tho. Is that a Bosch title, or the reporter guy or sidekick girl?   

Me:
Reporter. Great first 400 pages, fell apart at the end. Reading The Narrows now (Harry Bosch).


Don't want you to think I lead you astray.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #839 on: October 11, 2013, 01:39:52 PM »
Just to clarify:

Quote from: dr.chimps on August 10, 2013, 05:29:20 PM
I love him. He's a superb writer. Never read 'The Poet,' tho. Is that a Bosch title, or the reporter guy or sidekick girl?    

Me:
Reporter. Great first 400 pages, fell apart at the end. Reading The Narrows now (Harry Bosch).


Don't want you to think I lead you astray.
Oh, fer fuck's sake. It's just a book.    :)

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #840 on: October 11, 2013, 01:44:25 PM »
Oh, fer fuck's sake. It's just a book.    :)

Yes. Yes it is.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #841 on: October 14, 2013, 07:21:43 AM »
Sad news. It's been reported that Oscar Hijuelos has died. Won the Pulitzer for Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, and wrote across genres. I remember meeting him years ago at a signing and he seemed suave and charming. His blonde wife hovered near by, like she was his minder.

phreak

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 5084
  • Food is amazing
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #842 on: October 14, 2013, 07:31:36 AM »
"Er ist wieder da - Timur Vermes. Long time since I read something in German, so finally a book I won't finish in 4 hours.  ;D

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #843 on: October 15, 2013, 05:01:58 PM »
Congratulations today to Eleanor Catton, the winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize with her title, The Luminaries. This doorstop has 832 pages, so it remains to be seen whether sales will match this critical acclaim.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #844 on: October 16, 2013, 01:04:20 PM »
Hey, The National Book Awards (NBA) shortlist has been announced:

Fiction

Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers (Scribner/Simon & Schuster)

Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)

James McBride, The Good Lord Bird (Riverhead Books/Penguin Group USA)

Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge (The Penguin Press/Penguin Group USA)

George Saunders, Tenth of December (Random House)

Non-Fiction:

Jill Lepore, Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)

Wendy Lower, Hitler’s Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

George Packer, The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 (W.W. Norton & Company)

Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief
   

James28

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4347
  • toilet roll of peace
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #845 on: October 18, 2013, 04:08:52 PM »
I'm flying to New Zealand next Tuesday and have Bill Bryson's latest book and David Gemmell's Troy series at the ready on the Kindle. Just light reading.
*

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #846 on: October 20, 2013, 02:05:03 AM »
Anyone read "The Name of the Rose" by Eco?

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #847 on: October 20, 2013, 06:43:17 AM »
Anyone read "The Name of the Rose" by Eco?
Yup. Been years, but I remember it being a bit of a symbology slog, rather than the biblio-mystery suggested in the movie. I could return to it and see what I missed on my first pass, I suppose, but I don't see it happening. 

The Ugly

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 21286
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #848 on: October 20, 2013, 02:21:53 PM »
Yup. Been years, but I remember it being a bit of a symbology slog, rather than the biblio-mystery suggested in the movie. I could return to it and see what I missed on my first pass, I suppose, but I don't see it happening. 

Ok, people just keep bringing it up is all, wondering if I was missing anything.

dr.chimps

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 28635
  • Chimpus ergo sum
Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #849 on: October 21, 2013, 02:40:57 PM »
Just finished an early Michael Connelly title, The Poet. Book concerns itself with reporter Jack McEvoy, not the usual Connelly hero/antihero Harry Bosch, as he tracks down the murderer of his homicide detective twin brother. Phew. That's a lot to deal with. Add in some clunky dialogue, some pilferings from Robert Harris and Brian DePalma, and tack on an overly-convoluted and kinda silly denouement and you end up with a frustratingly unsatisfying read - that is, if you have read the latter Connelly books which are usually models of precise plotting and almost perfect writing. If you haven't read his latter books, you might just suspend your disbelief for this one, but I doubt it.