By the end of my night shift I should have finished Choices of One by Timothy Zahn. Then I am current with my Star Wars reading in as much that all newly bought books that occur before my timeline point are read. If you get what I mean.
By the end of my night shift I should have finished Choices of One by Timothy Zahn. Then I am current with my Star Wars reading in as much that all newly bought books that occur before my timeline point are read. If you get what I mean.
At Coast con this year Mr Zahn revealed what his next star wars novel is gonna be. "All I can say is Han Solo and Oceans Eleven". He said it is suppose to come out around X-mas.
Finished The Wind Through the Keyhole (A Dark Tower Book) by Stephen King last night.
I have no idea what I'm going to read next.
It's been a while since I read the original Dragonlance trilogy ... maybe.
I have been putting off reading The Wind through the Keyhole. Mainly cause I am worried it is gonna suck.
While it doesn't suck ... it was ... well ... it was ok. It's a decent story. While it adds to the world, it doesn't add really much of anything to Roland's story.
Finished The Wind Through the Keyhole (A Dark Tower Book) by Stephen King last night.
I have no idea what I'm going to read next.
It's been a while since I read the original Dragonlance trilogy ... maybe.
I have been putting off reading The Wind through the Keyhole. Mainly cause I am worried it is gonna suck.
While it doesn't suck ... it was ... well ... it was ok. It's a decent story. While it adds to the world, it doesn't add really much of anything to Roland's story.
Might have to read it soon. Got in Mail Order Mysteries by Kirk Demarais and A New World by A.J. Penn today.
By the end of my night shift I should have finished Choices of One by Timothy Zahn. Then I am current with my Star Wars reading in as much that all newly bought books that occur before my timeline point are read. If you get what I mean.
At Coast con this year Mr Zahn revealed what his next star wars novel is gonna be. "All I can say is Han Solo and Oceans Eleven". He said it is suppose to come out around X-mas.
I believe its already announced, and will be called "Scoundrels", although I stand to be corrected. I shall wait for a reduced price this time, as Choices... was not exactly upto the standards set by Heir to The Empire
I'm re-reading Neal Stephenson's 'Quicksilver' for the third time. It's the first volume in a HUGE three book series. I recommend the series (The Baroque Cycle) to everyone I know who reads, but no one has ever taken me up on it. I suppose I get it; they are tremendously long books. But I genuinely believe they're three of the best books in modern literary history.
That's a bold claim, my interest is piqued. How about a longer review of why it's worth ready this lengthy tome.
Holy cow...where to start....Maybe some spoilers, I don't know. I'll try and remain very general. This is my third time through 'Quicksliver', and I think I'm appreciating it a great deal more than I did previously. The stories are all thematic recapitulations of one another. 1713 Daniel is dealing with the same fundamental issues as 1670 Daniel. Several groups vying for control and positions of power, one group attacking then repelling various other groups. Both timelines deal with the physical and conceptual complexities of power dynamics, each leaning towards one aspect then the other, not unlike the tidal flow of the repelling and attacking forces that are so comprehensively depicted in the central action of the narrative.
Also I never caught the dual meaning of the title and its direct connection to the themes of the work before. "Quicksilver" refers to both the element mercury, the ultimate signifier of scientific wonder at the time, and to silver coinage, representing the newly minted world of high finance and its potential for easy money to be made ("quick silver". I love it!). What is additionally intriguing is Stephenson not only created the double entendre to encapsulate the similarities inherent in the fanatical pursuit of both fields of inquiry, pursuits that have only increased in intensity in the ensuing centuries, but to also highlight the sort of unstable detente between them has always existed, based on suspicion, and even disrespect. The business types look at the scientific types as "luftmensch" who waste their energies over beakers and retorts sifting through reams of data to no discernible profit, and the scientific types look on the business types with disdain because they squander the capacity of their minds in the quest for monetary gain. An increase of which gains the mind, and by extension the breadth of human knowledge, nothing at all.
Then, in the last half of the book, you get more thematic parallels as we read the story of "half cocked" Jack and Eliza, whose escapades continue to explore and exemplify the same themes of scientific inquiry and high finance, but with a reverse distribution of weight. Whereas in the first part of the book "Natural philosophy" takes center stage, with the the pursuit of wealth playing a supporting role, with Eliza and Jack, the roles reverse, and business, money, and the making of money takes the primary role.
This book, and the rest of the series, is overflowing with historical significance and relevant parallels to our own time. Over and over again I see the same power dynamics depicted in the book being repeated in the world around us. For example, the rivalry and battle for credit over who conceived of Calculus first, Newton or Leibniz, is a clear parallel to the events depicted in 'The Social Network', in both implication and consequence. I could also mention correlations of economic problems, class issue, gender tensions, etc. But even if you read this with no anthro-cultural or socio-economic analogs in mind, it's still a supremely entertaining read.
Bryan mentioned he read this and wasn't impressed. My experience could not have been more the opposite. I don't think I'll ever stop being impressed by these books.
About half way through Wind through the keyhole and so far it is pretty good. It just sucks that the book is 300 pages and the hardcover cost 30 bucks. And I don't even want to say what I paid for the limited edition.
I have about a hundred pages to go in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. I really liked this series and it's too bad Stieg Larsson the author passed away. I would have liked to see more from him. But the books have gotten me interested in the original Swedish adaptations of the books. I loved the American version that was released.
As for what I'm going to read next either Ready Player One or The Passage. I've heard good things about both.
I just finished reading a Clash of Kings and am planning to take a little break before reading the next book in the series. I'm about a hundred pages into American Gods, this being my first experience with anything written by Neil Gaiman, and I'm really enjoying it so far.
Re: The Hunger Games series – I enjoyed the first one, The Hunger Games, in spite of the premise which really got to me emotionally. I LOVED the second one, Catching Fire. I’m having difficulty getting through the third one, Mockingjay. It has its moments but compared to the other two, it really drags for me.
Re: The Hunger Games series – I enjoyed the first one, The Hunger Games, in spite of the premise which really got to me emotionally. I LOVED the second one, Catching Fire. I’m having difficulty getting through the third one, Mockingjay. It has its moments but compared to the other two, it really drags for me.
See I read the first two books in about 2 days each. Mockinjay took me over 2 weeks to finish.
Right now I am reading the October Country. It is a series of short stories written by Ray Bradbury.
You'll have to let me know what you think of the book. I've read Fahrenheit 451 by him and the Illustrated Man and enjoyed both. However, in reading the Illustrated Man a lot of the short stories really showed their age in the verbiage that he used. So I'm curious if those short stories seem more current or dated.
Just finished The Wind Through the Keyhole (dark tower 4.5). I enjoyed it in as much as it is fun to talk with an old buddy. But my buddy didn't have a lot new to say. Still fun to chat though. Also just wrapped up The Prestige by Chris Priest. Ahhhh, good not great... Need to start The Mercury 13 about the women pilots participating in the space program. Kelly sue Dekonnick (sp) (Captain Marvel writer). Mentioned it on Word Balloon and I picked it up. My dad worked on the Mercury project at McDonnell Douglas so I already had an avid interest.
does anyone read James Patterson's Alex Cross series? I know there's abunch of complaints about him using nursery rhyme type titles, I always looked at it as "Someone has to do it, why not him?" - anyways, I must say the characters and villains are delightful, and they keep ya guessing, I'm late in the game but I'm on book 3 (Jack & Jill). I posted on here previously that I was going through Storm of Swords (and right after that I zoomed right through A Feast for Crows). Desperately waiting for paperback version of A Dance with Dragons to match my collection >.<
Just finished The Wind Through the Keyhole (dark tower 4.5). I enjoyed it in as much as it is fun to talk with an old buddy. But my buddy didn't have a lot new to say. Still fun to chat though. Also just wrapped up The Prestige by Chris Priest. Ahhhh, good not great... Need to start The Mercury 13 about the women pilots participating in the space program. Kelly sue Dekonnick (sp) (Captain Marvel writer). Mentioned it on Word Balloon and I picked it up. My dad worked on the Mercury project at McDonnell Douglas so I already had an avid interest.
I just got to the part in The Wind through the keyhole where Roland is telling the Wind through the keyhole story to the young boy. Normally I would have had the book read in 3 days but I have been busy babysitting my two little cousins this past week.
I've heard people complaining about the story within a story farmework but I liked it. It reminded me of 1001 Arabian Nights. I find that with all blogs and tweets and articles an snippets that I really have to force myself to sit and read. So don't sweat taking some time.
I've heard people complaining about the story within a story farmework but I liked it. It reminded me of 1001 Arabian Nights. I find that with all blogs and tweets and articles an snippets that I really have to force myself to sit and read. So don't sweat taking some time.
Well see I can normally read about 100 pages an hour. But right after I got the book. My two cousins,one who is almost 5 and the other who is 10 ,came up to visit for a week. So I spent most of my free time with them. I do like that with this novel we are getting more of Roland's back history. And the skin man concept is interesting.
Just received the second volume of Tony Diterlizzi's Wondla series from Amazon. The first one was really good. Became a Diterlizzi fan back in the mid 90's when my group was running a Planescape campaign. He illustrated some of the books for that setting. The Wondla series has illustrations sprinkled throughout.
Hard to find time for fun reading while taking classes, but that's not stopping me from attempting to juggle Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (can't believe I've never read the whole thing before now). Both are good so far, and easily read in bite-size chunks which is good when you have a crazy schedule and lots of for-school reading to do.
Comments
At Coast con this year Mr Zahn revealed what his next star wars novel is gonna be. "All I can say is Han Solo and Oceans Eleven". He said it is suppose to come out around X-mas.
Drake has been a favorite of mine for years but I really, really miss new Hammers Slammers books.
I shall wait for a reduced price this time, as Choices... was not exactly upto the standards set by Heir to The Empire
You can't go wrong with that.
Bry
This is my third time through 'Quicksliver', and I think I'm appreciating it a great deal more than I did previously. The stories are all thematic recapitulations of one another.
1713 Daniel is dealing with the same fundamental issues as 1670 Daniel.
Several groups vying for control and positions of power, one group attacking then repelling various other groups. Both timelines deal with the physical and conceptual complexities of power dynamics, each leaning towards one aspect then the other, not unlike the tidal flow of the repelling and attacking forces that are so comprehensively depicted in the central action of the narrative.
Also I never caught the dual meaning of the title and its direct connection to the themes of the work before. "Quicksilver" refers to both the element mercury, the ultimate signifier of scientific wonder at the time, and to silver coinage, representing the newly minted world of high finance and its potential for easy money to be made ("quick silver". I love it!).
What is additionally intriguing is Stephenson not only created the double entendre to encapsulate the similarities inherent in the fanatical pursuit of both fields of inquiry, pursuits that have only increased in intensity in the ensuing centuries, but to also highlight the sort of unstable detente between them has always existed, based on suspicion, and even disrespect.
The business types look at the scientific types as "luftmensch" who waste their energies over beakers and retorts sifting through reams of data to no discernible profit, and the scientific types look on the business types with disdain because they squander the capacity of their minds in the quest for monetary gain. An increase of which gains the mind, and by extension the breadth of human knowledge, nothing at all.
Then, in the last half of the book, you get more thematic parallels as we read the story of "half cocked" Jack and Eliza, whose escapades continue to explore and exemplify the same themes of scientific inquiry and high finance, but with a reverse distribution of weight. Whereas in the first part of the book "Natural philosophy" takes center stage, with the the pursuit of wealth playing a supporting role, with Eliza and Jack, the roles reverse, and business, money, and the making of money takes the primary role.
This book, and the rest of the series, is overflowing with historical significance and relevant parallels to our own time. Over and over again I see the same power dynamics depicted in the book being repeated in the world around us. For example, the rivalry and battle for credit over who conceived of Calculus first, Newton or Leibniz, is a clear parallel to the events depicted in 'The Social Network', in both implication and consequence. I could also mention correlations of economic problems, class issue, gender tensions, etc. But even if you read this with no anthro-cultural or socio-economic analogs in mind, it's still a supremely entertaining read.
Bryan mentioned he read this and wasn't impressed. My experience could not have been more the opposite. I don't think I'll ever stop being impressed by these books.
Bry
As for what I'm going to read next either Ready Player One or The Passage. I've heard good things about both.
I posted on here previously that I was going through Storm of Swords (and right after that I zoomed right through A Feast for Crows). Desperately waiting for paperback version of A Dance with Dragons to match my collection >.<
I've heard people complaining about the story within a story farmework but I liked it. It reminded me of 1001 Arabian Nights. I find that with all blogs and tweets and articles an snippets that I really have to force myself to sit and read. So don't sweat taking some time.
Bry
Bry