OT: Watcha reading?

[Lion Hound]

Bigfoot, Wildmen and Giants by David Paulides.

Not because I believe in Bigfoot. Im the skeptic that is fascinated that people continue to say they see things in the woods. This book is strictly a historical account of newspaper clippings from across the globe from 1680-1922 of people who saw Bigfoot, or Wildmen or whathave you in the woods. The accounts are so similar it's makes you scratch your head.

 

[TheBloodyNine]

Just finished Book 5 in the Wheel of Time series. If any of you are thinking about getting into this series, I have some advice for you: DON'T. It's not worth it. 9 more books to go and I'm dreading it.

 

[IDvsEGO]

Just finished Book 5 in the Wheel of Time series. If any of you are thinking about getting into this series, I have some advice for you: DON'T. It's not worth it. 9 more books to go and I'm dreading it.

.

As someone who finished with that series, Jordan wrote it as if he was getting paid by the word. There's a ton of extraneous stuff in there.
But it also happens to be one of my favorite book series of all time.

Watching a MC slip into insanity is an amazing journey. Also as bad as this is to say, Sanderson did an amazing job with the last 3 books.
Also there's some amazing scenes that take place that you haven't gotten to, such as dumai Wells.
Amazon is doing a series and I think it should be amazing.

 

[TheBloodyNine]

.

As someone who finished with that series, Jordan wrote it as if he was getting paid by the word. There's a ton of extraneous stuff in there.
But it also happens to be one of my favorite book series of all time.

Watching a MC slip into insanity is an amazing journey. Also as bad as this is to say, Sanderson did an amazing job with the last 3 books.
Also there's some amazing scenes that take place that you haven't gotten to, such as dumai Wells.
Amazon is doing a series and I think it should be amazing.

I find that there seems to be a pattern with his books. Interesting beginning that sucks me in, the middle is a SLOG where I am all but yelling at the book SHUT UP GET TO THE POINT ALREADY, and a ending that happens at break-neck speed that sucks me back into it. Fires of Heaven has some stuff that happens off page (Couladin) that made me almost stop reading it. Pages and pages of non-sense but you leave that off-page? Ugh. I've already bought the next one so I'll at least read that.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Yeah, I've seen it several times since it came out. I found the books absolutely terrifying, could not put them down for a second.

They really are terrifying. His writing style easily transports you to another space. Makes it a little too easy to visualize.

 

[Raspewtin]

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney and The Threat At Home by Seth Shulman.

very avid non-fiction and history reader.

 

[IDvsEGO]

I find that there seems to be a pattern with his books. Interesting beginning that sucks me in, the middle is a SLOG where I am all but yelling at the book SHUT UP GET TO THE POINT ALREADY, and a ending that happens at break-neck speed that sucks me back into it. Fires of Heaven has some stuff that happens off page (Couladin) that made me almost stop reading it. Pages and pages of non-sense but you leave that off-page? Ugh. I've already bought the next one so I'll at least read that.

Yeah Lord of chaos sadly has almost more of a slog. The next 2-3 books are almost entirely skipable if you read a summary. Lot of braid tugging and snorting sadly.

 

[True Blue]

Just finished Book 5 in the Wheel of Time series. If any of you are thinking about getting into this series, I have some advice for you: DON'T. It's not worth it. 9 more books to go and I'm dreading it.

I actually loved the books. Wait until the last one. It is a breathtaking sprint.

 

[Shadowtron]

Reading Nos4A2 by Joe Hill and Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams.

 

[SA16]

Reading Nos4A2 by Joe Hill and Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams.

I just tried to start Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn a few weeks ago and found the writing style so awkward and bland and gave up.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

I just tried to start Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn a few weeks ago and found the writing style so awkward and bland and gave up.

I LOVED it as a kid – tried it again a while back and couldn't make it past the middle of the Dragonbone Chair. Tastes/styles change, I think. (Try LoTR again – the second quarter of Fellowship is painful.)

 

[TheBloodyNine]

Yeah Lord of chaos sadly has almost more of a slog. The next 2-3 books are almost entirely skipable if you read a summary. Lot of braid tugging and snorting sadly.

Which is crazy because I keep hearing how 5,6,7 are amongst the best in the series.

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

.

As someone who finished with that series, Jordan wrote it as if he was getting paid by the word. There's a ton of extraneous stuff in there.
But it also happens to be one of my favorite book series of all time.

Watching a MC slip into insanity is an amazing journey. Also as bad as this is to say, Sanderson did an amazing job with the last 3 books.
Also there's some amazing scenes that take place that you haven't gotten to, such as dumai Wells.
Amazon is doing a series and I think it should be amazing.

Yeah Lord of chaos sadly has almost more of a slog. The next 2-3 books are almost entirely skipable if you read a summary. Lot of braid tugging and snorting sadly.

I actually loved the books. Wait until the last one. It is a breathtaking sprint.

Which is crazy because I keep hearing how 5,6,7 are amongst the best in the series.

So interesting. I consider 1-5 amazing, among my favorites of all time; 6-8 I loved (but think are a step down); 9-11 his editor desperately needed to step in; 12-14, I appreciate Sanderson driving the plot home in only 3 books, but he did it in his characteristically plot-heavy style, and as someone who loved Jordan's narrative style in 1-8, it was a let-down for me.

 

[SA16]

I LOVED it as a kid – tried it again a while back and couldn't make it past the middle of the Dragonbone Chair. Tastes/styles change, I think. (Try LoTR again – the second quarter of Fellowship is painful.)

I have the same problem with the writing in LoTR. I far prefer Sanderson/Jordan.

 

[True Blue]

So interesting. I consider 1-5 amazing, among my favorites of all time; 6-8 I loved (but think are a step down); 9-11 his editor desperately needed to step in; 12-14, I appreciate Sanderson driving the plot home in only 3 books, but he did it in his characteristically plot-heavy style, and as someone who loved Jordan's narrative style in 1-8, it was a let-down for me.

The last book was great. Just felt like a full on sprint.

 

[Shadowtron]

I just tried to start Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn a few weeks ago and found the writing style so awkward and bland and gave up.

I tried for so long to get through Dragonbone Chair. Those first 200pgs or so are tough going. But I thought the book was smooth sailing after that. In the end I really enjoyed the ride. The writing style for me, felt like a bridge between Tolkien and what we see today. A bit on the whimsical side. But I also feel that when Tad starts dipping into the darker aspects of the story, the style darkens as well. Not your cup of tea...but I would say you should give it another go one day. There is some good storytelling in there. Just my two cents.

 

[eco's bones]

A general theory of oblivion--Jose Eduardo Agualosa. An Angolan writer of Portugese descent. I love titles like that and it's a great book.

From the blurb:

'On the eve of Angolan independence, an agoraphobic woman bricks herself into her Luandan apartment, where she stays for thirty years, living off vegetables and pigeons, burning her furniture and books to stay alive, and writing her story on the apartment's walls. The outside world slowly seeps into her life through snippets on the radio. voices from next door, glimpses of a man fleeing his pursuers, and a note attached to a bird's foot. The history of Angola unfolds like existential gossip through what Ludo glimpses through her window.'

It's an Archipelago book. Archipelago pretty much does literature in translation and their books are always produced with a lot of care.

 

[bl02]

The Endurance by Alfred Lansing. I've read quite a few books about survival in spite of horrific odds but talk about a story of survival!!! Nothing compares.

 

[eco's bones]

The Endurance by Alfred Lansing. I've read quite a few books about survival in spite of horrific odds but talk about a story of survival!!! Nothing compares.

Shackleton?

 

[foe8406]

Bernard Cornwall
The Last Kingdom: Burning Land (halfway through the series)

-I'm a history guy and great story of a guy who is in between his English birth and being raised by Vikings as he has to regain the lands taken from his family but is caught between both cultures. Also a TV show which is pretty good.

 

[bl02]

Shackleton?

Yep! Amazing story.

 

[eco's bones]

Yep! Amazing story.

I thought so---there are a number of books on it and I've seen two or three documentaries. It's a wild story. T. S. Eliot references Shackleton's journey over the glacier in the Wasteland with the line 'Who is the third who always walks beside you?'

 

[bl02]

I thought so---there are a number of books on it and I've seen two or three documentaries. It's a wild story. T. S. Eliot references Shackleton's journey over the glacier in the Wasteland with the line 'Who is the third who always walks beside you?'

Did you read any of the books on the Ross sea party that preceded Shackleton's voyage?

 

[eco's bones]

No--I've read a bit about them though. I run into fictional works here and there about 19th and early 20th century polar explorers in the Arctic or Antarctic. There was a John Franklin and a Norwegian Asmundsen. Perry. Reading some of this stuff--there is no way that I would have been a part of that. I was in the Coast Guard--it didn't take me long to figure out I didn't really like being out to sea and as far north as I ever went was off of Nova Scotia. I like the sea or the ocean but day trips out or from the shoreline.

 

[True Blue]

Bernard Cornwall
The Last Kingdom: Burning Land (halfway through the series)

-I'm a history guy and great story of a guy who is in between his English birth and being raised by Vikings as he has to regain the lands taken from his family but is caught between both cultures. Also a TV show which is pretty good.

Is that the same show that is on Netflix? I thought about giving Cornwall a try.

If you are a history guy and a fiction one, try Turttledove. Some very interesting alt history stuff.