Spin-off of What you are listening to... (http://forum.team17.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30034)

Terry Pratchett - Witches Abroad (for the goodness knows how manyth time)

"By gor', that's a bloody enormous cat."
"It's a lion," said Granny Weatherwax, looking at the stuffed head over the fireplace.
"Must've hit the wall at a hell of speed, whatever it was," said Nanny Ogg.
"Someone killed it," said Granny Weatherwax, surveying the room.
"Should think so," said Nanny. "If I'd seen something like that eatin' its way through the wall I'd of hit it myself with the poker."

Hehehe, I love that book, I love most of the Discworld books actually. Thinking of which, are you planning to watch the Hogfather at all? I'm interested to see how it's turned out.

I'm currently reading An Old Captivity by Nevil Shute, although not very fast, I seem to be too tired to have much time to read before I go to bed at the moment, hopefully I'll wake up over Christmas.

I doubt this thread'll be quite as busy as the music one though, most people don't get through books as fast as tracks.

I have got into Neil Gaiman (a terribly unfortunate name) lately and burnt through Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and a small chunk of American Gods. All the Author's Preferred Text editions, naturally.

This would be obvious to anyone who read my NaNo, but that's largely because only I have read it and I know what I read.

I hope this thread isn't so busy. Might get a proper discussion eventually.

I recently finnished reading Fight Club..

I am reading "The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes" by Bill Watterson.

I am reading "Winterdance", by Gary Paulsen.

I am the only person my age I know who has books in his room. Now there's a grammar nightmare for you. And it used to be worse.
I hate how everyone my age seems to think reading is boring. It's only boring if you don't have enough of an imagination.

I'm reading this thread. Ohohohoho. :p

I am reading "Winterdance", by Gary Paulsen.

I am the only person my age I know who has books in his room. Now there's a grammar nightmare for you. And it used to be worse.
I hate how everyone my age seems to think reading is boring. It's only boring if you don't have enough of an imagination.What is your age? Perhaps you severely underestimate the enjoyment people your age take from reading.

What is your age? Perhaps you severely underestimate the enjoyment people your age take from reading.17. It be on his profile, yar.

Still Witches Abroad, obviously, but responding to conversation.

Thinking of which, are you planning to watch the Hogfather at all? I'm interested to see how it's turned out.It's something I keep forgetting about and then remembering. I want to, but I'm just never very good at remembering about TV.

I doubt this thread'll be quite as busy as the music one though, most people don't get through books as fast as tracks.We could always quote recently-read passages we particularly enjoy.

"It's terrible... terrible," muttered one of them. "A terrible thing."
Magrat lent him her handkerchief. He blew his nose noisily.
"Could mean a big slippage on the fault line and then we've lost the whole seam," he said, shaking his head. Another dwarf patted him on the back.
"Look on the bright side," he said. "We can always drive a horizontal shaft off gallery fifteen, We're bound to pick it up again, don't you worry."
"Excuse me," said Magrat, "there are dwarfs behind all that stuff, are there?"
"Oh, yes," said the King. His tone suggested that this was merely a regrettable side effect of the disaster, because getting fresh dwarfs was only a matter of time whereas decent gold-bearing rock was a finite resource.

I am reading "The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes" by Bill Watterson.
:D I love Calvin and Hobbs
I am reading "Winterdance", by Gary Paulsen.

I am the only person my age I know who has books in his room. Now there's a grammar nightmare for you. And it used to be worse.
I hate how everyone my age seems to think reading is boring. It's only boring if you don't have enough of an imagination.Do you go to a school/college/educationaly placey then? There are hundreds of similar computer games / books / pratchett fans at my new college.

I tend to have little-too-no motivation when it comes to reading.. once I reach the half way point I just loose interest. Even if I want to know what's going to happen it just stops seeming fun to read it. I want to continue, I need to know what happens, but I just can't gather the energy to do it. The book will alwase be available, so it just doesn't seem important that I get to it right away. Might as well save it for later. (As soon as that happens and I've forgotten what was going on in the book where I left off, it's impossible to continue)

I recently finnished reading Fight Club..

Is that good? I liked the film a lot, but then I liked The Shawshank Redemption too, and the book of almost the same name was something of a disappointment after that. It didn't seem as well constructed (though in fairness the film was made afterwards and there's no excuse for making it worse.

I am the only person my age I know who has books in his room. Now there's a grammar nightmare for you. And it used to be worse.
I hate how everyone my age seems to think reading is boring. It's only boring if you don't have enough of an imagination.That's bull, I'm your age and I've read books. Well ok, I do think of it as excrutiatingly boring, but I dol read them if they're actually any good.

Anyways, I used to be reading "Watership Down" by Richard Adams, but then my mom tidied up my room and I haven't found it since. :(

You mum tidies your room for you?! Wow! No-one bar me will touch my room without a barge pole.

Although there are an awful lot of boring books, good books aren't boring. Personnally I loved Watership Down, but quite a lot of people don't seem to like it.

I'm probably exaggerating.
It just seems like the people who don't like books are the only ones who speak up about their preference on reading books.
I think that I grew up just right. I read and drew a lot when I was younger, so my imagination was good. Then I watched TV more when I was 8-10 or so, and I got inspired by Pokémon to make my own creatures and stuff.
Then, Pokémon gradually became a crappy show, and I moved on from that to drawing my own original stuff.

I read Watership Down all the way through recently. Good, that.

I've always really enjoyed reading, but don't always get around to it. I like popular science & maths books and other non-fiction (recently read a book about Poyais and another a jewel theif wrote about his career). Also detective books & fantasy books, and Tad Williams' Otherland series was very good too.

Currently reading The Simpsons And Philosophy, which has lasted for months because I haven't done much reading lately. I've got a stack of about 6 more books waiting to be read too. :cool:

I really don't read a whole lot of books. I have the whole Hitchhikers saga bound into one volume here, but I got it a couple of days before I got my PSP, if you catch my drift.

Is that good? I liked the film a lot, but then I liked The Shawshank Redemption too, and the book of almost the same name was something of a disappointment after that. It didn't seem as well constructed (though in fairness the film was made afterwards and there's no excuse for making it worse.

Yes, the book is very good. I can't say wich version is the best. The movie does of course have more atmospheare and doesn't require any imagination, but the book has signifigant differences in the story which is fun.

My father always said, “Get married before the sex gets boring or you’ll never get married.”
My mother said, “Never buy anything with a nylon zipper.”
My parents never said anything you’d want to embroider on a cushion.

I've been reading the official 1994 football world championship sticker collection album from Panini this morning.

signifigant differences in the story which is fun.

That's quite odd.

Though the Memento DVD has the short story is claims to be based on on the menu somewhere and the film blows it out of the water. Aside from anything else, it's not really based on the story at all. The author mentioned to his brother, who made the film, the basic premise and he asked if he could make a film of it. They didn't confer after that and they ended up with two utterly different takes on the same idea. For my money, the film was better in just about every way.

I wonder what a book of The Matrix would be like. Hmm.

Aside from very, very short?

Yes, completely aside from that. That couldn't even be considered.

You could put all three films into one book, but that would ruin it rather.

You mum tidies your room for you?! Wow! No-one bar me will touch my room without a barge pole.

Although there are an awful lot of boring books, good books aren't boring. Personnally I loved Watership Down, but quite a lot of people don't seem to like it.My mom gave up on not touching it at the worry that it'd attract cockroaches or something.

I liked it. I ran into it from the the "crappy kid cartoon" (as people call it) and the book is indeed much better.

Aside from very, very short?Unless you kept the slowmotion scenes.

"And then Neo jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp pppppppppp
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeee
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddd"

The Second Book of Lankhmar, by Fritz Leiber.

The series described by the author as a sort of anti-Tolkien.

Well, I'm reading it IN THEORY. While reading it, I grabbed the Eberron Campaign Setting from the Gamers' Library. And then a friend statred lending me books.

I finished all seven within a week and a half. And they were good books.

He's gonna be weighed down when I return them, though...

Unless you kept the slowmotion scenes.

"And then Neo jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp pppppppppp
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeee
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddd"You seem to be forgetting that books usually contain more details that aren't in films. If your idea of what The Matrix book would be like is like that, you haven't read many books. Have you ever heard of Star Wars books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_books)?

There's only so much extra detail you can add, though. The fact is that the story of the Matrix can be quite adequately summed up in two sentences or so. It's an action film; it was made for fight scenes, and special effects, and to scare you just a little. It's not a story-driven piece, so turning it into... well, into a story might not be the best thing to do for it.

That's probably why it's been an animation and a videogame and a comic book, but never a novel. Those media suit it a lot better.

Amelie would make a better novel. (Though it also made a better film in a great many eyes, so perhaps it's a bad example.)

Amélie would make a good read, I'm sure! :)

I also think you missed the whole point of The Matrix' story. It's no use debating, though, considering how stubborn I know we both are in our opinions. I'll let you have yours.

I have got into Neil Gaiman (a terribly unfortunate name) lately and burnt through Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and a small chunk of American Gods. All the Author's Preferred Text editions, naturally.

Neil Gaiman is superb. You need to check out the "Sandman" and "The Books of Magic" graphic novels. My kids love "The Wolves who Live in the Walls", "The day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish" and "Coraline". Also I recommend Mirrormask, his surreal and beautiful film.

Neil Gaiman is superb. You need to check out the "Sandman" and "The Books of Magic" graphic novels. My kids love "The Wolves who Live in the Walls", "The day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish" and "Coraline". Also I recommend Mirrormask, his surreal and beautiful film.

I shall bear that in mind. I've heard of precisely none of those. I only really tried his work because I saw an advert for Anansi Boys and thought "Hey, that's that guy who wrote the other half of Good Omens". If you don't know, Good Omens was Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's story of a botched apocalypse, and one of the best books I've ever read. I'd recommend it repeatedly to anyone within earshot.

I've finished Witches Abroad now, and I'm on to Wyrd Sisters.

... yes, I know I'm reading them backwards. Your point is...?

"When shall we three meet again?"
[...]
"Well, I can do next Tuesday"

"And then Neo jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp pppppppppp
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeee
dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd dddddddddddddd"That's probably the funniest thing I've read all week.

Not reading anything at the moment, but I'm looking for a book. Any suggestions?

I shall bear that in mind. I've heard of precisely none of those. I only really tried his work because I saw an advert for Anansi Boys and thought "Hey, that's that guy who wrote the other half of Good Omens". If you don't know, Good Omens was Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's story of a botched apocalypse, and one of the best books I've ever read. I'd recommend it repeatedly to anyone within earshot.

...

Never heard of Sandman? Huh. Most of the time, I mention Sandman and people say "I LOVE Sandman!" What about Transmetropolitan?

To define both of them: graphic novels.

I read Coraline as well. It has a recommendation by Terry Pratchett on the cover.

Just finished Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green. Which means that I've read books 2-6 of his Nightside series. In reverse order.

And Carpe Jugulum now.

What? I read fast.

*On the rare maps of the Ramtops that existed, it was spelt Überwald. But Lancre people had never got the hang of accents and certainly didn't agree with trying to balance two dots on another letter, where they'd only roll off and cause unnecessary punctuation

Which means that I've read books 2-6 [...] In reverse order.Ah, a man after my own heart.

I am the only person my age I know who has books in his room.

Take heart. I, too, have many books in my room (a good few of which are overdue library books).

Take heart. I, too, have many books in my room (a good few of which are overdue library books).Oh snap, that reminds me, I have some overdue games lying on my shelf.

I have a collection of somewhere from 30-40 books (collected volumes [of novels] included) in my room, all of which I own. Books are wonderful.

Psh, amateurs. I've got three bookcases and an overspill shelf in the spare bedroom. And that doesn't count the Terry Pratchetts, which live in our wall unit downstairs.

Anyway, still Carpe Jugulum, but I have some nice quotes to share:

Nanny took the torch. The flames illuminated a crude sign nailed to a tree.
'"Don't go near the Castle!!"' Nanny read. 'Nice of them to put an arrow pointing the way to it, too.'
'Oh, the marthter did that,' said Igor. 'Otherwithe people wouldn't notithe it.'

She pointed to a sign painted on a rock.
'"Don't take thif quickeft route to the Caftle,"' she read aloud. "You've got to admire a mind like that. Definitely a student of human nature."
'Won't there be a lot of ways in?' said Magrat as they walked past a sign that said: 'Don't go Nere the Coach Park, 20 yds. on the left.'

A sign near the drawbridge said, 'Laft chance not to Go near the Caftle', and Nanny Ogg laughed and laughed.

Heh. Amateur, eh?

I've got one bookshelf in my room, and a drawer of books.

And an overflow bookshelf outside on the landing. And another two downstairs. And another in my parent's room. And yet another in the study.

Granted, not ALL of them have some of my books. And most of them (except the landing one and one of the downstairs ones) have only one or two books.

Ah, a man after my own heart.
I wouldn't aspire that high...

:D

Just finished Brave New World.
Interesting how many aspects are exactly the opposite of 1984.

But they're bookshelves. In terms of bookshelves, I've got about 16, including the Pratchetts.

Anyway, Wintersmith, for only the second time

'Mebbe, but this one is a terrrrrible piece o' work. They say she's got a fearsome demon in her tattie cellar.'
[...]
'I dinnae want to disappoint ye, but we's in a cellar right here, and it's full 'o tatties.'
After a while a voice said: 'So where izzit?'
'Mebbe it's got the day off?'
'What's a demon need a day off for?'
'Tae gae an' see its ol' mam an' dad, mebbe?'
'Oh aye? Demons have mams, do they?'

Just finished Brave New World.
Interesting how many aspects are exactly the opposite of 1984.Ah yes, good book. The thing about that and 1984 is that 1984 was written after the war, and I doubt Aldous Huxley could have imagined anything quite as horrific as some of what the Nazi regime did.

One of these days I'll get around to reading Brave New World Revisited, which was written by Huxley a few decades later and apparently parts of it compare his book to Nineteen Eighty Four.

But they're bookshelves. In terms of bookshelves, I've got about 16, including the Pratchetts.

Ummm... I meant free-standing shelving units.

In terms of SHELVES... two shelves in my room store my PC games. And Munchkin and the Paranoia Mandatory Bonus Fun Card Game, and some DVDs.

And I've got about 11 or 12 shelves, and two drawers. And under my bed.

Where the wild things live. :D

Where the wild things live. :DAh, what a wonderful classic. Of course, you mean, "Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak, right?

Edit: Oh, I just skipped to the end of your post without reading what you said before and quickly wrote this post. Sorry. Now I see what you were saying.

Charles Robert Darwin - "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life"

To define both of them: graphic novels.
Which is why I've not heard of them. I don't even know where I'd look for graphic novels.

My dad has a lot of books on tape, and I've begun to listen to Everything is Illuminated. I'm really enjoying it and will probably buy Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

I am reading "The Authoritative Calvin And Hobbes" by Bill Watterson.

I got The Complete Calvin & Hobbes for Christmas. It is every Calvin & Hobbes strip ever in chronological order; it weighs a tonne!

I am currently reading that and should imagine I still will be come next Christmas. :D

Also, I've just finished reading volume 5 of The Walking Dead. I highly recommend it. By "it" I mean The Walking Dead, not just volume 5, of course.

Richard Feynmann - "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmann!"
Richard Feynmann - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
Richard Feynmann - QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter

... sort-of concurrently.

I have an essay to write for History and Development of Communicating Science, and I chose Feynmann as my subject.

I just got some books from the library:

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilites for Our Time by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
China Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World by Ted C. Fishman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman (recommended in this thread)

Richard Feynmann - "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmann!"

Had a flick through that a bit ago. He was a lot more interesting than he'd been when I was at university.

Okay, now I'm reading Catch 22. It's fun.

I have ordered Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day" two days ago. It should arive in 10 days.
The original English version as (a) the German translation hasn't been released yet and (b) Pynchon has used lots of German words embedded in his language in some of his previous works.

I have to say, I'm finding American Gods very heavy going.

I mean, Neverwhere was great. No problem. Anansi Boys, no problem, aside from a couple of extended "realms of the gods" sections. Good Omens, fantastic (but hadly counts as it's 60% Pratchett anyway). But American Gods is very hard to get through, for me. What I had thought of as the main plot seems to be trundling along in the background, while the main character sits around for days on end doing coin tricks and having impenetrably strange dreams. I feel sure it's far cleverer than I'm appreciating, but I'm just not getting into it like I do with most books.

It doesn't help that it's one of the thickest paperbacks I own.

Okay, now I'm reading Catch 22. It's fun.

I read that a bit ago. I kept getting funny looks. Turns out, very few people realise Catch-22 is satire, so whenever I laughed out loud people shot me withering looks. That just made it funnier. I think I read it in September. I'm judging mostly from this: http://apathysketchpad.com/index.php?id=col/nan06

Currently, I have about three books on the go.

Frank Zappa: The Biography by Barry Miles
QI: The Book of General Ignorance by Stephen Fry (not really, he wrote the foreward)
Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?: And 114 Other Questions by Mick O'Hare

I was reading.
Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews by Jonathan Cott
But, I guess I lost intrest in Bob Dylan's music abit.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, for something like the third time.

Probably the worst HP book so far, but I'm still enjoying it.

I WAS reading Raymond E. Feist's Magician. Finished it a few days ago.

Not bad at all!

Now I'm deprived of books, though. :(

I'm reading "Hominids" by Robert J. Sawyer. It's great so far. I'm about half-way through.

I have to say, I'm finding American Gods very heavy going.

I mean, Neverwhere was great. No problem. Anansi Boys, no problem, aside from a couple of extended "realms of the gods" sections. Good Omens, fantastic (but hadly counts as it's 60% Pratchett anyway). But American Gods is very hard to get through, for me. What I had thought of as the main plot seems to be trundling along in the background, while the main character sits around for days on end doing coin tricks and having impenetrably strange dreams. I feel sure it's far cleverer than I'm appreciating, but I'm just not getting into it like I do with most books.

It doesn't help that it's one of the thickest paperbacks I own.
I finally read this book a few days ago after it sitting around my room for a while, and yeah. There's just so many weird plots that twist and turn into each other. I was strongly considering putting the book down at the beginning at the part with the cannibal vagina and then again around page 300 (out of about 460), but I managed to stick it out. In the end, I'm not sure if it was entirely worth the time investment. Some of the stuff was just so weird. I did like Gaiman's style, but at times it felt slightly disjointed. Are his other books better?

Also, I went to Borders in Chicago yesterday and got two new books at bargain price:
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
The Closers by Michael Connelly

I finally read this book a few days ago after it sitting around my room for a while, and yeah. There's just so many weird plots that twist and turn into each other. I was strongly considering putting the book down at the beginning at the part with the cannibal vagina and then again around page 300 (out of about 460), but I managed to stick it out. In the end, I'm not sure if it was entirely worth the time investment. Some of the stuff was just so weird. I did like Gaiman's style, but at times it felt slightly disjointed. Are his other books better?

Hard to say, really. I did like Neverwhere, though it was in many ways pretty similar to American Gods (though I think it benefited by being so much shorter), and Anansi Boys, which is almost a sort of followup to American Gods, I thought was great -- it's why I bothered with his other books. I expect there are people who say it's the best and the worst thing he's ever written. Try Anansi Boys; only a couple of plots in that, and everyone loves Anansi. That's what he's for.

I've got almost to the end of American Gods now, and it has picked up enormously. I think it was well worth the time; the resolution was fantastic. It's just the long sequences that don't actually advance the plot at all that get me. Aside from anything else it meant I was reading the book for so long that a lot of the clever back-references and foreshadowing were lost on me, as I had forgotten about them.

I like the world Gaiman created in American Gods, though. I've read most of the Discworld books (I had read them all but someone keeps writing more) and I like the idea of taking things like gods and dragons and dropping them into a world to see how they would actually work, and I'd got so used to Pratchett's model that it was nice to see an alternative.

That seems a little odd after saying I liked the world those sequences built. Nonetheless, that's what I think.

I didn't mind the disjointedness of it much. After reading Ghostwritten (a work of genius by The Other David Mitchell) American Gods seemed positively linear.

I'm not sure if this counts, but the last thing I read was the colected Ghost in the shell manga.

I'm still niot sure if it's a work of genius or a lot of confusing techno-babble.

Oh, and while you're talking about Niel Gaiman, I'd verry much like to recomend the books of Tom Holt and Robert Rankin.

I'd verry much like to recomend the boks of Tom Holt and Robert Rankin.

Too late. Read 'em all.

Why do you think I started on Gaiman?

I've got almost to the end of American Gods now, and it has picked up enormously. I think it was well worth the time; the resolution was fantastic. It's just the long sequences that don't actually advance the plot at all that get me. Aside from anything else it meant I was reading the book for so long that a lot of the clever back-references and foreshadowing were lost on me, as I had forgotten about them.
I agree, it definitely gets better toward the end. Still, I can't say that it was a fully satisfying read.

I've just started "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami and it's really good so far.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Although I've read the best bit the Quidditch World Cup bit.

I give my self a pretty pitiful amount of reading time so I'm only just starting to wrap up Kafka on the Shore. At Borders I picked up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (also by Murakami) and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Infinite Jest is the most daunting book I've picked up but the first few pages were extremely funny, so I'll probably read that once I finish Kafka.

I'm reading Ishmael.
And it's fantastic.

I just played a really fun multiplayer game of Civ IV: Warlords with Ben and Dan.

Well, they probably enjoyed it more, but I won :p. We'd set it up for a modern era start, and while Dan and Ben decided to expand and repeatedly throw nukes at India, I just sat there with the three cities I started with (well, and some random Chinese city I culture-captured) and won a Cultural Victory with about 20 turns to spare.

A top-notch display of sneaky, poker-faced perfectionism and pacifism, if I say so myself ;).

Wrong thread. :p

Wrong thread. :pWell, it was three in the morning and all these "What you are ____ing" threads look the same to me... :p

Umm... I just got through the first of the three books in the Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection. :p

Nice. I think I've read all of Calvin & Hobbes by now. Or at least I can't find anything new on GoComics.

I started in on The Castle by Franz Kafka a few days ago, and I am enjoying it immensely. My dad disliked the character of K., who I love.

I will pick up Infinite Jest later, it was becoming quite a chore to read - I was 136 pages in, there was no discernible plot, and the straw that broke the camel's back was the page-and-a-half long virtually comma-free sentence with every third word misspelled that it threw at me.

Picked up a few books from the library today.

The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot
Failed States by Noam Chomsky
Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen
Getting It Right by William F. Buckley Jr.
Term Limits by Vince Flynn

I had the first two on hold, and I got the third because I really enjoyed Sick Puppy. The last two I just picked off the shelf because I liked the description on the dust jacket - I have no idea how good they are going to be.

Also checked out a couple of books to teach myself PHP/MySQL.

Also checked out a couple of books to teach myself PHP/MySQL.I actually found the freeby tutorials on the web were fine for that job. The one on the W3schools was pretty good.

But they assumed you already had a vague knowledge of how to use functions and stuff, I've no idea where the books'd start from.

The Littlest Hitler by Ryan Boudinot

This book is seriously blowing me away right now. It's a collection of short stories, all of which are incredibly, darkly hilarious. You owe it to yourself to read it.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Rather interesting and amusing.

Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen

More classic Hiaasen. This book is ridiculously funny, and the quality of the characterization is incredible. He literally juggles 10 or more ensemble characters, all of which are strong and engaging.

I started in on The Castle by Franz Kafka a few days ago, and I am enjoying it immensely. My dad disliked the character of K., who I love.

I will pick up Infinite Jest later, it was becoming quite a chore to read - I was 136 pages in, there was no discernible plot, and the straw that broke the camel's back was the page-and-a-half long virtually comma-free sentence with every third word misspelled that it threw at me.

...Wow, it took me nearly a month to finish it (I blame not taking nearly enough time out of my schedule to read, and putting it on hiatus due to being assigned a book from school that I didn't want to be distracted from). It was a great break from the stuff I get at school and the fantasy/comedy stuff I had been reading up to that point (even though there was a bit of humor in it). I was expecting it to be a bit more surreal because of Kafka's reputation, but I still found it pretty enjoyable.

I'm about 120 pages into Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and I'm really loving it. For some reason it reminds me somewhat of William S. Burroughs' Naked Lunch.

The Almost Totally Complete I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.

The Book Of Evil

Or, to give it its official title, Derren Brown - Tricks Of The Mind

I now know how to memorise a deck of cards, but I've not dared try it.

I'm back in The Three Investigators mode. Read a good number of them over the last week or so. Anyone else a fan?

Yeah, I like The Three Investigators. I've read plenty of them over the years.

HEY

GUESS WHO FINISHED "Gravity's Rainbow". This kid. It was really very good. I'm going to read V. now, because they only had Catch-22 in hardcover at the bookstore.

HEY

GUESS WHO FINISHED "Gravity's Rainbow". This kid. It was really very good. I'm going to read V. now, because they only had Catch-22 in hardcover at the bookstore.
Damn!
I have to finish "Against The Day" someday soon. That is, read past page 3 or something like that.
Maybe I should have waited a few months and bought the German translation, but I wanted to get the original Pynchon. :-/

I need to get a copy of Christopher Buckley's "Boomsday", but haven't yet. Until then, there's a whole bunch of unread stuff on my bookshelf right now. This is going to be a good summer.

Damn!
I have to finish "Against The Day" someday soon. That is, read past page 3 or something like that.
Maybe I should have waited a few months and bought the German translation, but I wanted to get the original Pynchon. :-/

I'd ask you how it is but you're only 3 pages in
I should probably buy it anyway since I can get it for $7 (marked down from $35) from Amazon.com.

But god damn that is a thick book.

I can get it for $7 (marked down from $35) from Amazon.com
Meh, I paid €35 in a shop.

After enjoying Louix Theroux's documentaries, I ordered "The Call of the Weird" from Amazon.com this morning. It's only $4.80 at the moment.

Technically? Notes.

Once I'm done with them, rereading the Paranoia rulebook, the W:A manual, and Fifth Elephant.

Got some books from the library today.


Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Naked by David Sedaris
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk

Also bought a copy of Al Gore's new book, "The Assault On Reason," yesterday. It's pretty good so far.

Just read volume 6 of The Walking Dead graphic novel. I have to wait for issue 37 now! :eek:

I still strongly recommend it. Even better if you can get all the issues; the cover art is gorgeous.

Rice Boy
http://riceboy.jho-tan.com/

Why have I never read this before?
It's exactly the kind of comic I like.

Oooh, I haven't checked Rice boy for a while.

Looks like there's a hefty chunk of book three now.:)

Watchmen

Actually, I guess it's "read" Watchmen.
I finished it off in one day because I couldn't get AWAY from it.

Just finished Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows.

Now, I don't like giving out spoilers, but this one I feel is a necessary public service to stop people feeling as depressed as I did as they work their way through it. Obviously if you don't want to see the spoiler, look away now.

SPOILER
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Rowling was lying: two of the three main characters (Harry, Ron and Hermione) don't die. The death toll is pretty high, but the real number of main character deaths is somewhere between 0 and 1 (It's complicated). Whether this was a change of heart on her part or whether her statement was simply to drum up publicity, or maybe whether it was to ensure that people remain stoked up while they continue to read the book, I couldn't say.

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END SPOILER

Put the spoiler in an image, upload it to Imageshack and post the link instead.

Actually, I'm going to avoid this thread anyway. :p

Harry kills Ron, then kills himself.

D'oh. Never would have guessed.

... SH!T.

Why did I READ this thread!? God. I spend so much time here that I just click on all of the bold threads without thinking about it.

DAMN IT.

Hopefully there will be more to it than that... and NO don't say anything else.
Spoilers don't work very well on a forum without spoiler tags, everyone.
I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE, PAUL DOT POWER. Or Pikkul. I'm not really sure who's at fault the most but REVENGE. :mad:

:p

... SH!T.

Why did I READ this thread!? God. I spend so much time here that I just click on all of the bold threads without thinking about it.

DAMN IT.

Hopefully there will be more to it than that... and NO don't say anything else.
Spoilers don't work very well on a forum without spoiler tags, everyone.
I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE, PAUL DOT POWER. Or Pikkul. I'm not really sure who's at fault the most but REVENGE. :mad:

:pY'do realise Pickleworm was joking, right? ;)

I figured he might've done that. :p
No good way for me to check, though.

I was surprisingly calm about it, though (That post was tongue in cheek). I was actually pumped to find out what would drive Harry to kill Ron.

Aparently Dumbledoor dies.

AGAIN.

Sheesh... :rolleyes:
Of course noone dies. It's a silly kiddy's book which needs a happy end.
That is, a happy end for J. K. Rowling, which in this case is an open end for her to be able to continue the saga whenever she likes (or a money shortage forces her to). :p
(Although, prequels will probably sells just as good.)

Note that I only have partially watched the first movie and thus no nothing whatsoever about the stories.

Sheesh... :rolleyes:
Of course noone dies. It's a silly kiddy's book which needs a happy end.Oh, lots of people die.

(Hopefully that's vague enough not to count as a spoiler)

Note that I only have partially watched the first movie and thus no nothing whatsoever about the stories.

People have been dying since Book 1 (People always seem to forget Quirrell. I mean, shouldn't Harry technically have been able to see the Thestrals after that, let alone the death of his parents? I appreciate this is technically a spoiler. However, it's a spoiler for something that - chances are - you should know by now already, if you're remotely interested in HP). Good guys have been dying since Book 4.

I need to start reading the Tale of Genji for uni, but it's scarily big. And I'm not much of a reader.

(Although, prequels will probably sells just as good.)


You mean, prequels about Harry Potter's perfectly unremarkable life in London? (As I understand it, never having read any of the things)

also I got myself a new Neil Gaiman book: Fragile Things. It's a collection of random stories and poems and it's fantastic. I've been reading it in a random order.

Good guys have been dying since Book 4.

What was the film that just came out? 4 or 5?

What was the film that just came out? 4 or 5?5.

And to get over the character limit:

Five, Cinco, Cinq, Pump, Funf

I've just finished First Among Sequels. Damn, I'd forgotten how brilliant Jasper Fforde was.

I'm reading "The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear" at the moment.
The original German version of course.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/13-2-Lives-Captain-Bluebear/dp/0099285320
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/features/bluebear/main.htm

I'm reading 'The most amazing man who ever lived."

Yet another bloody confusing Robert Rankin book.

I'm reading 'The most amazing man who ever lived."

Yet another bloody confusing Robert Rankin book.He does that, doesn't he?

It's a good job we've got Terry Pratchett.

It doesn't help that the main bad guy is the secondary good guy from at least three of his other books, only this time there's five of him.

don't get me wrong, I love this stuff. It's just a little awkward when I have to read a paragraph 5 times because I have no Idea of what the hell just happened.:p

I have just finished reading "River God" by Wilbur Smith.

Now I'm reading, "The Portable Door" by Tom Holt.

And then I will read, "Excession" by Iain M Holmes

I am nearing the end of Catch 22. Yes, I am that slow of a reader. A few pages a week, if that.

Now I'm reading, "The Portable Door" by Tom Holt.

I've Driven past 70 (is that the number? I forget.) St Mary's Axe a couple of times.

There's a Starbucks there.

"Making Money", by Terry Pratchett.

Wheeee.

Oh, is it good?

"Making Money", by Terry Pratchett.

Wheeee.

Envy! Going to have to get that myself, but there's much that needs reading first.

Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality", for one. Nasty title, I know, but the basics of the string theory have to be dealt with. Slowly but surely. :confused:

I'm in the process of finishing up the last book of The Dresden Files. love this series :D

"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. Slow going so far. I'm reading too much Sci Fi at the moment lol.

The Children of Húrin arrived today.

Because I hate not finishing books I'm in the middle of, I'll probably get to it in a month, if that. This makes me very sad. Looking at the cover will have to do until then. It's almost enough. Almost. :)

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières. I have only just started reading it but it is already way better than the movie.

I've read Making Money. Fairly good, but I thought Going Postal was better.

I'm trying to read "Ulysses" by James Joyce

There's a whole lot I don't understand but even when I don't understand it it's really beautiful

I'm trying to read "Ulysses" by James Joyce

There's a whole lot I don't understand but even when I don't understand it it's really beautiful
lol good luck with that

i haven't been reading anything lately except for the grapes of wrath for english class :(

Actually, never mind! I went to the bookstore today (after the power went out at my house for some reason and I needed a place to study), and bought a copy of I Am America - And So Can You! by Stephen Colbert. Pretty funny, but also a bit exhausting.

I need to read/listen to 9 nine books for english class this year.

any suggestions?

I need to read/listen to 9 nine books for english class this year.

any suggestions?read The Dresden Files. it's a series of 9 books so far and there's a good mix of action and sarcasm so that the series is always fun to read. assuming you like fantasy-based mystery novels (granted, I don't like mystery and I still loved the series).

I need to read/listen to 9 nine books for english class this year.

any suggestions?
are there any criteria for what exactly you have to read

if collections of short stories are kosher, the littlest hitler is fantastic

Ender's Game and the sequels thereof is an excellent one, if Sci-fi counts. I think there are like 7 in the series? Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the Giant. I guess it's 8. I've only read the first 5 so far.:o

I think I'm going to try Ulysses again in a few years.

But I've started re-reading Gravity's Rainbow and it's still very good :)

I'm working on "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" right now. I'm barely anything into it but it is pretty interesting right off the bat.

I'm reading a ******* of an author by the name of Steven Erickson. I'm on his second book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, called Deadhouse Gates.

the guy writes without explaining to the reader most of the events, and presents some of the most major "HOLY CRAP!" moments just in the middle of a paragraph as if they were nothing special at all. unfortunately, he's such a friggin good writer that the books are completely enthralling, so I'm actually wanting to put up with confusion...:-/

This week I have mostly been reading Σmas cards.

This. (http://escherichia-coli.deviantart.com/art/Autobiography-79524643) :)

i'm currently plugging through the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy books again and they're even better than i remember them being, but damn does it get depressing toward the end

Got a package in the mail from California.
"Ben Paddon? I know that name, but from WHER- oh right."

COMIC.

I'm reading boatmurdered (http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Boatmurdered/). Anyone interested with Dwarf Fortress should read it. :)

The His Dark Materials trilogy. I appreciate I'm some way behind the curve here, but you know how it is. Took me ages to start reading Discworld and Harry Potter, too. Anyway, I've finished Northern Lights and I'm a few chapters into The Subtle Knife. Pretty good stuff.

The His Dark Materials trilogy. I appreciate I'm some way behind the curve here, but you know how it is. Took me ages to start reading Discworld and Harry Potter, too. Anyway, I've finished Northern Lights and I'm a few chapters into The Subtle Knife. Pretty good stuff.now go watch the movie and compare :p

Just finished Dostoievsky's Memoirs from the House of the Dead.
I bet for the next weeks I'll be reading a few ODEs books

Just finished Dostoievsky's Memoirs from the House of the Dead.
I bet for the next weeks I'll be reading a few ODEs books
hey dim worm, what's up

Just finished Dostoievsky's Memoirs from the House of the Dead.
I bet for the next weeks I'll be reading a few ODEs books
Your last post before was on 4 Sep 2006, 00:01.
Have you been reading since then? ;)

Riceboy (http://riceboy.jho-tan.com/) has finished.

And I am reading it.

Riceboy (http://riceboy.jho-tan.com/) has finished.

And I am reading it.

Hah. I was reading Dresden Codak last week and he mentioned Riceboy had ended in the comments, so I read it all in one sitting. Quite bizarre, the artwork is awesome. Although it felt a bit short. :p

The City of Dreaming Books (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_Dreaming_Books)

Riceboy (http://riceboy.jho-tan.com/) has finished.

And I am reading it.Ohh missed that, last I checked I was on XXXV. Fun read.

Why are there still unfeeded sites? :(

I'm reading books incredibly slowly nowadays, being as it is that I usually read for half an hour or so every other night (I'm using pre-bed time to catch up on some of the DVDs I haven't watched yet, namely the entirety of Buffy and Angel), but I've nearly finished Dave Gorman in America Unchained which has been a brilliant read so far. I shall miss it when it's finished. I also have Making Money sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read, as well as Richard Hammond's autobiography and the remainder of the American release of Danny Wallace's Yes Man.

Yes Man, incidentally, is one of those books that I will buy a copy of every now and then, write an email address on the inside of the cover, and leave somewhere public for someone else to find. It's a treasure, and I'd be lying if I said it hadn't had some positive impact on my life.

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Jim Carey 'adaptation' of said Yes Man?

From what I've heard, Danny Wallace himself is quite pleased with what he's seen so far. I'm at Cautious Optimism at the moment.

Japanese avant-garde/horror comics. I'm not really sure why. I am feeling a smidge more cultured though. I just read some stuff by Junji Ito and it went between being really weird to being really oddly funny.

Funny van Dannen - "Neues von Gott"
Douglas Adams - "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

David Sedaris - When You are Engulfed in Flames

:cool:

David Sedaris - When You are Engulfed in Flames

:cool:

Ooooh how is that!

Ooooh how is that!

I love it.

Yep.

I love it.

Yep.

I listened to him reading his other books. I love his voice :p

I wonder if this one is out as a book-on-tape yet or if I'll actually have to read it.:eek:

I listened to him reading his other books. I love his voice :p

I wonder if this one is out as a book-on-tape yet or if I'll actually have to read it.:eek:

We got the CD version before the book.

I actually prefer reading it, but I agree that he does have quite the voice.

right now i'm in the middle of deep economy by bill mckibben. it talks about how the globalization of the economy is unsustainable, and proposes community-based models as the way of the future. it's a bit hippie, but good so far (i'm about halfway through)

i also just ordered four new books on amazon.com:

the post-american world by fareed zakaria - basically this one talks about the impact of the end of american global hegemony, and what will happen to the world once america isn't the only superpower anymore
supercapitalism by robert b. reich - discusses the impact of the wildly out-of-control american version of capitalism and its impact on society
when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris - self-explanatory, really
god's harvard - it's about some freaky fundamentalist college just outside of washington that is training the future fundie leaders of america (this book was on sale as a bargain book for like six bucks)

also with this order i bought fischerspooner's album odyssey, which is great

If stuff on the Internet counts (and heck, I created the thread, so I say it does), this website is awesome, and a shot in the arm for jaded Sonic fans (http://www.smile.talktalk.net/sj_index/nss/nss_index/)

The transition into 3D has not been smooth for Sonic: Whereas the original Sonic games were once considered the pinnacle of gaming excellence, new Sonic games struggle to offer even an average quality experience.

Games critics and Sonic fans frequently makes lists of how to improve the Sonic games, but these often consist of flimsy observations such as ‘more speed’ or ‘less characters’. Although such statements highlight the immediate problems of the Sonic series, they offer little guidance as to how developers can overcome these problems.

These comments may also have a negative effect, by encouraging developers to focus just on speed and so neglect the other more subtle elements that were responsible for making the classic games enjoyable to play.

The goal of Sonic Science is deconstruct the classic games to identify and define the exact mechanics that made them video gaming master pieces. By making these mechanics better known, Sonic Science hopes to assist the discussions of both critics and fans, so they can more accurately convey to developers the specific changes that are needed to return Sonic back to his glory days.

It's incomplete, but the "Speed", "Choice" and "Challenge" sections that are already there cover the majority of game design issues that the modern games suffer from, how the classic games did it better, and how to improve any new games. Furthermore, it does it all in a disinterested, informative tone that, while making it a little dry to read, gets to the heart of the matter better than any "top ten things Sonic Team should do" list (the site does contain a "top nine" list, but only as a summary page for TL;DR types. And I'd guess the list would get longer as the site grows).

God damn, I've been waiting for someone to make something like that for ages.
And it's fantastic.

I absolutely love how the whole thing in such a dry tone, yet each section has a secondary name like "Gigantic Angel Zone". :p

Crap.
I just found out that that Sonic Science site hasn't been updated since February 2007.
Year long hiatus = not a good sign.

Yeah, I noticed that not long after writing my Peripherals article about it :(

Has anybody read "A Reality Dysfunctional"? It seems quite epic.

That reminds me, I recently read Watchmen.

I was pretty cool, I hope the movie turns out better than V for Vendetta.

That reminds me, I recently read Watchmen.

I was pretty cool, I hope the movie turns out better than V for Vendetta.
what are you talking about, v for vendetta owned

I'm reading a Dave Berg comic book.
A re-issue of some ancient one, but still funny in the 21st century.

what are you talking about, v for vendetta owned
I can't bring myself to watch the film as it reputedly missed the point of the comic entirely.

I could be wrong and it might stand up well on it's own but as an adaptation of the comic it fails completely.
It would be a shame if something similar happened to the Watchmen movie.

Just finished Nation. It took longer than I anticipated, because University kept getting in the way. Pretty fantastic, though.

I'm currently reading Watchmen, in preparation to the movie. I'd never even heard much about it before I saw the trailer, which was just awesome.
On Chapter 7 and so good so far.

Finished reading it.


O_O

Okay. Now that I don't have an english class I'm going to read The Recognitions. I'm making this post so I can see how long it takes me to read it.

Hey, don't feel too bad.

I recently read half of The Importance of Being Earnest. Soon I will read the other half.

I got my girlfriend 100 Classic Books or whatever it's called for Christmas and that's what I used it for.

I'm also reading watchmen.. on my laptop.
I recently read Cages, by Dave McKean, who's done the art for many of Neil Gaimans comics, like Sandman. Cages is awesome.

And today I finnished reading Cat's Cradle. :)

Hey, don't feel too bad.

I recently read half of The Importance of Being Earnest. Soon I will read the other half.

I got my girlfriend 100 Classic Books or whatever it's called for Christmas and that's what I used it for.

I think the internet kind of ruined The Importance of Being Earnest for me, the comedic potential of muffins being already used up. All the same it was a nice break from the usual assigned reading fare :p

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett :D

*revives thread*

Just got back into reading again, with Day of the Triffids. I've realised that after I finish this I've no idea what to read next. Anyone got any suggestions? I rather like Pratchett, the mortal engines series, Nevil Shute, Micheal Criton. Any good books from any genre would be welcome.

I'm currently reading On the Origin of Species. Good read.

i'm reading the Bagavad Gita atm. interesting read. the commentator is a nut case, but the actual writings are intriguing.

I'm currently reading On the Origin of Species. Good read.
i'm reading the Bagavad Gita atm. interesting read. the commentator is a nut case, but the actual writings are intriguing.
Those two books are standing next to each other on my shelf. :)

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8719/p0202100001.th.jpg (http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/8719/p0202100001.jpg)

http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/

I just read this this article and I think it should be recommended reading for anyone who owns a computer, which obviously includes you. OK, so it's about 5 years old now, but it's still all true. Go read it now.