The Books/Reading Thread

[requiem]

Bought this off Amazon:

Looking forward to cracking this open soon

I have this!! It's a little dense as it written in the 60s i think before the wave of popular non-fiction hit, but it's very detailed and informative. It bypasses the simplistic viking platitudes for instance and gives us the facts.

I'm currently reading the Penguin Cossoc version of 'Early Irish Myths and Sagas'. The Icelandic and Northern European sagas are some of my all time favourite pieces of literature. *penguin classic

 

[TageRyche]

I gave up on the Wheel of Time series in book 6 or 7 when I read more than 300 pages and nothing damn happened.

Robert Jordan's Conan novels and his Revolutionary War trilogy written as Reagan O'Neill were far more concisely constructed and there was no dragging things out.

 

[SentinelSlain]

The Manipulated Man - Esther Vilar

 

[no country for old wainds]

i only read the first wheel of time when i was a kid, didn't care for it. doubt i would now either.

 

[CiG]

The Manipulated Man - Esther Vilar

Great book.

 

[MasterOLightning]

Man this thing is 804 pages with a nice foreword from Prof. Black. Probably the most essential book on underground fanaticism I've seen, but to answer your question yeah it does contain heaps of shit and some incredible thought pieces as well as interviews and stuff..this is a real labour of love.
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Knowing Prof. Black personally, I'm sure it's a very thoughtful piece. I recommend every analysis he has contributed to.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I just finished 1Q84 today. Love Murakami, but I thought this was a real crowd pleaser. I mean, after 900 pages, it wasn't a non-ending, but it wasn't the way a visual medium would end.

 

[requiem]

I gave up on the Wheel of Time series in book 6 or 7 when I read more than 300 pages and nothing damn happened.

Robert Jordan's Conan novels and his Revolutionary War trilogy written as Reagan O'Neill were far more concisely constructed and there was no dragging things out.

Robert Jordan wrote Conan novels? That's a worry, although you're giving them the green light so I'm definitely curious. I'm a massive Robert Howard fan.

Also, this is why I stopped reading the Wheel of Time series after book 2 - the series just got so long that I would shudder at the thought of following half-baked Tolkien rip off characters ad infinitum. I'm probably being unfairly cynical, but I thought the first book was really derivative of Tolkien. Fucking fantasy - no genre has so blatantly ripped off the originators (Robert Howard/Tolkien etc). Every fantasy book has maps with forests and mountain ranges and place-names that have simply rearranged a letter or two from those in Middle Earth. God almighty, where do they get off. Having said all this, I'm a big fan of David Gemmell.

 

[requiem]

i only read the first wheel of time when i was a kid, didn't care for it. doubt i would now either.

Amen brother. Except I read two of them.

 

[EspaDa]

Has anyone experience with Marcel Proust's creativity?

 

[no country for old wainds]

have i ever mentioned i was literally named after a character from feist's MAGICIAN

(no not pug you cunts)

 

[TageRyche]

Having said all this, I'm a big fan of David Gemmell.

I really enjoyed the first four books in the Drenai Saga story and then the various sequels to the Waylander book.

 

[requiem]

I really enjoyed the first four books in the Drenai Saga story and then the various sequels to the Waylander book.

Yeah, there's just something about them. So easy to read and sort of comforting I think. He doesn't fill his books up with weaklings and characters with too much self doubt. They exist, but they're not the focus on his books. I love it how the emphasis is on a 'defend at all costs' ideal. Apparently he based some of the characters on people he knew and respected, his father I think being one of them. So there are all these larger than life men willing to die. The book 'Quest for Lost Heroes' is a great example. It's amazing. It also features a gay couple, incidentally, which is pretty interesting, and not in a hammy or sensationalist way. Gemmell was seriously the man. Massive fan.

 

[requiem]

have i ever mentioned i was literally named after a character from feist's MAGICIAN

(no not pug you cunts)

Thomas by any chance?

 

[no country for old wainds]

tomas, to be exact. not that most people remember that.

 

[requiem]

tomas, to be exact. not that most people remember that.

You're exact name begins in lower-case? That's amazing.

 

[CiG]

 

[tagradh]

I'd forgotten about Battlecruiser 3000AD.

 

[TageRyche]

I finished reading the Troy Soos mystery novel Murder at Fenway Park last night.

 

[TageRyche]

Yeah, there's just something about them. So easy to read and sort of comforting I think. He doesn't fill his books up with weaklings and characters with too much self doubt. They exist, but they're not the focus on his books. I love it how the emphasis is on a 'defend at all costs' ideal. Apparently he based some of the characters on people he knew and respected, his father I think being one of them. So there are all these larger than life men willing to die. The book 'Quest for Lost Heroes' is a great example. It's amazing. It also features a gay couple, incidentally, which is pretty interesting, and not in a hammy or sensationalist way. Gemmell was seriously the man. Massive fan.

Yep, The Quest For Lost Heroes was one of the first four books in the Drenai Saga so I definitely loved it. The only problem I ever had with his books was when he kept adding to the Druss The Legend series. The first book was enough, the rest really didn't work for me.