The Books/Reading Thread

[monoxide_child]

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Cousin gave this to me as a must read.

 

[Dak]

 

[monoxide_child]

 

[JontRevolting]

Heaps of new occult/forteana/cryptozoology books to read,just finished one of Nick Redfern's monster hunt books and Josh Gates's Destination Truth book and am currently onto 'The Beast Of Boggy Creek' which documents the Fouke Monster.I literally can't put the books down once I start,I brought 3 books away to sea and have nearly read them in the first week.

 

[Zephyrus]

 

[Summerian]

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Was good.
But not as good as I had hoped.

There's a movie out. - World War Z (2013) with Brad Pitt.
Anyone seen it?

 

[Einherjar86]

There's a movie out. - World War Z (2013) with Brad Pitt.
Anyone seen it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdHGSXmOMqE

 

[Zephyrus]

 

[Eligos]

Once I finish my workload for the day I'm gonna get started on Neuromancer. From what I understand, this book conceptualized the internet and inspired The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell. Can't wait to read it.

 

[Einherjar86]

Neuromancer is great fun, and incredibly relevant; Gibson's work is one of those fantastic literary nexuses where postmodern intensity meets the SF subculture. If you enjoy Neuromancer, you should check out Pattern Recognition.

 

[Eligos]

Yeah his list of works is quite extensive. I'm hoping to open Pandora's box here like I did with Terry Pratchett a year or so ago.

 

[Einherjar86]

I've read the first twenty-five pages of Seo-Young Chu's Do Metaphors Dream of Literal Sleep? : a Science-Fictional Theory of Representation. It's a great read thus far, if you're into literary theory.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

Going to start Wittgenstein's "Philosophische Untersuchungen" (Philosophical Investigations). It was recommended by a friend.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Finished A Clash of Kings the other day. Decided to finally start this. I find that Tolkien's letter explaining his reasons for writing the Silmarillion to be better than the book itself. But I haven't even begun the Silmarillion-proper in the book. Still reading the Valaquenta.

 

[monoxide_child]

http://pages.simonandschuster.com/once-crowded-sky

 

[Summerian]

Finished A Clash of Kings the other day. Decided to finally start this. I find that Tolkien's letter explaining his reasons for writing the Silmarillion to be better than the book itself. But I haven't even begun the Silmarillion-proper in the book. Still reading the Valaquenta.

There are some lord of the rings moments.
But it should have been 3 books just as thick as Silmarillion, not just one.
And not enough Sauron.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

It's not about Sauron silly. It's about the ancient wars of Morgoth, the fall of the Elves, and the rising of the Numenor.

 

[Matt]

Decided to finally start this. I find that Tolkien's letter explaining his reasons for writing the Silmarillion to be better than the book itself. But I haven't even begun the Silmarillion-proper in the book. Still reading the Valaquenta.

Yeah, the book is incredibly dry..there are some interesting things in it, but I was glad when I finished it. Children of Hurin is my favorite Tolkien book, aside from the LOTR trilogy. I own all of his works.

 

[Einherjar86]

I don't really think we can study Tolkien as a novelist, because I don't think he wrote novels. He identified his task as mythopoeia, and I think he was writing myths; his work specifically draws on source material that is pre-novelistic (i.e. Nibelunglied, Icelandic Sagas, Poetic Eddas, etc.). Even if The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion were all marketed as novels, they are anachronistic as far as the history of the novel form goes. His style is in debt to the epic tradition as well, even though prose dominates more than poetry; if you compare Tolkien's work with that of later fantasy authors, it's so different.