The Book Thread

So, I thought I would start off a book thread as I haven't seen any around and I thought it would be interesting to hear your views on various books you have read, or even reader reviews on books (see what I did there )What are your favourite works? Authors or even genres of books?

This can be the place that you can find out what to spend those O'so tedious book vouchers that you recieve instead of money ( I love them personally) or just stop by and find out what the hype is for the latest books.

As an avid reader myself I have much to contribute (later) but I would like to see how many of you pick up books and read them cover to cover. It doesn't just have to be text books, could be manga, comics, art or picture books.

Enjoy!

(P.S. is there a chance that this could be either sticky or official?)

As a kid I used to read all the time! Then I stopped, I don't know why. I just no longer have the drive to read something unless the premise really intrigues me. Like I read Battle Royale after watching the film and loved it! And more recently I've read Ring and Spiral (I, once again, didn't have the drive to read Loop). I loved them too. I guess having to read Shakespare and other "greats" in school has tainted my view of the pastime and has forced me to resent leisure reading. I'm going to start again though (unless procrastination kicks in). The Dexter books are lying around my house and my sister really recommended them. I'm also waiting on my Death Note manga, delivery is taking ages for a local-ish shop!

Last book I read was Michael Crichton's Terminal Man. Not his best.

I really like(d) Crichton. Jurassic Park is epic.

Now I'm reading an omnibus with Irish Fairy and Folk tales. Stories are interesting, writing is decent.

Next up: Die Unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story in its original language: German; I hope to improve my German with this), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn.

Thats the thing. When you study english in school it ruins books for you by over analysing and things like that. I've always read loads, for instance I took 5 books to read on a 3 week holiday last year, I'd finished them all by the end of the first week

I finished yesterday "American Gods" by Neil gaiman. It was a great read and really gripping. Confusing and understandable at the same time considering it dabled it myths, real life and fantasy which I really enyjoyed.

I'm currently making my way through the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, the first time i've read a genre other than thriller, so the i'm rather impressed. I usually stick to authors like Clive Cussler, James Rollins, Jeffrey Archer, Matthew Reilly and Dean Koontz.

New Matthew Reilly book on the 20th of October, can't wait

I read Map of Bones (james rollins) on holiday and really enjoyed it so I just bought another of his books called "sandstorm". Is it any good seeing as you like rollins mage?

Weird - I was thinking about making this very thread earlier in the day but the footy was too soon for me to get it sorted.

Anyway I finished reading Yes Man a few days ago and I thought it was brilliant. I never thought of Danny Wallace as much of an author but this was a fantastically humorous and enlightening read. If you haven't read it I highly advice you to!

A few of my all time favourites... (and I've just decided that Yes Man has been inducted into this ) - Sonny's Blues (James Baldwin), The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini), The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath), The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger), The Time Machine (H.G.Wells)

Echoes221 said:
Thats the thing. When you study english in school it ruins books for you by over analysing and things like that. I've always read loads, for instance I took 5 books to read on a 3 week holiday last year, I'd finished them all by the end of the first week

I'm on the opposite side of the fence on that one Echoes. I think being able to analyse books in-depth often brings out a whole new level within them - that is as long as they're deep enough, ie real literature . In my opinion, a good book is only enriched when its analysed, considered and reflected upon. Obviously it's a different story (*nudge, nudge*) if you're methodically breaking everything down and trying to come up with something. Which I guess a lot of classrooms probably do.

The thing is, I don't mind analysing the books, but I just get sick of the book as we get to the half way point. I've been studying english literature for so long now that when I read a book I'm analysing it in my head and therefore get alot of enrichment from it. Obviously not as indepth as A level, but a necassary amount. Most texts are deep these days (particularly american gods) and offer so much to the average reader, but the avid reader can get so much more from it.

I might try Yes Man, I saw the film which I thought was brilliant so I'll spend some of my book vouchers on it once I finish Cavern of Black Ice (JV jones) and Sandstorm (James Rollins)

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb has been pretty awesome so far, lots of overlapping plots.

TheStratMan said:

Echoes221 said:
Thats the thing. When you study english in school it ruins books for you by over analysing and things like that. I\'ve always read loads, for instance I took 5 books to read on a 3 week holiday last year, I\'d finished them all by the end of the first week

I\'m on the opposite side of the fence on that one Echoes. I think being able to analyse books in-depth often brings out a whole new level within them - that is as long as they\'re deep enough, ie real literature . In my opinion, a good book is only enriched when its analysed, considered and reflected upon. Obviously it\'s a different story (*nudge, nudge*) if you\'re methodically breaking everything down and trying to come up with something. Which I guess a lot of classrooms probably do.

I think studying books is interesting if you\'ve already read the book in your own time before hand. If the first time you see a book is during the English class, then it\'s not so fun. Fortunately I read quite a few classics long before I had to study them in English.

Short books such as Of Mice and Men are really interesting to analyse in class, so long as you\'ve already read it at your leisure.

I haven\'t really read anything in years though unfortunately. Used to read all the time...

( Edited 23.03.2009 00:48 by Ikana )

I'm working my way through Terry Pratchetts Discworld series. Again. I think these books are brilliant, satirical and in places just laugh out loud funny. I've read them so many times before, but can still go back to them and enjoy them.

I don't really like anything else he's written, maybe because I'm so used to the style of Discworld I find other things odd.

Real shame he's got Alzheimers though.

Also, 'Are you Dave Gorman?', in which Danny Wallace and his flatmate go around the world in search of people with the same name. And 'Join Me' by Danny Wallace. Heck, anything with him involved is worth a look.

And the inevitable Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. All worth a read, even with the dip in quality. Way better than the film/tv show/any form of media except radio

I recently finished Isaac Asimov's 'Foundation', and have since moved on to 'I, Robot'. I wanted to dive straight into 'Foundation and Empire', but my local library didn't have it.

It did have 'The Naked Sun', though, which I yoinked. I'd love to read the Foundation/Empire/Robot series' in their respective publication orders, but I might just give in and take what I can get.

Anyone else read any of Asimov's work? S'hard to believe it's taken me this long to get round to it given how much of a sci-fi nut I am. I highly recommend Foundation, it's excellent.

I've been reading the Percy Jackson Series. It's a bit childish, but it's on that border between the ages. I love it for some reason; it can't be explained. Good stuff, it is. Yoda I am.

Many of you probably aready knew this, but I'm really not much of a reader. I don't know why it is, but I would rather do something else than read (thats my philosophy for everything ;p) It could be that the amount of reading we had to do in school (and I mean primary school) put me off it. I've never had a problem with reading for educational purposes, and I do enjoy books once I get what they're about (Shakespeare's plays take a long tiem to understand, but they're good once you know them) but I wouldn't choose to read them. The only book I have ever really chosen to read is Harry Potter. Is that supposed to be a guilty pleasure or something? Critically acclaimed at first, but everyone seems to hate it now. Personally I really like it. It's probably the same reason as always, I get attatched to the characters and world.

So probably, all it would take for me to get into reading another series would be to get into a new one, but I've found that a bit hard I read the first 2 chapters of Hitchiker's Guide, and then never went back to it. Maybe it's because I find it really hard to be comfortable while reading... Almost contrarily, I love games with shitloads of reading involved (Ace Attorney especially). As far as I'm concerned, the more reading the better, voice acting is irrelevant, yet there are some people that don't like games with huge cutscenes.

Maybe it's because my brain wants to get from games what it would otherwise get from books? Who knows...

I know how that goes, SuperLink. In fact, up until a few years ago, all I really read were: school assignments, the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings series, and a chunk of Star Wars novels (love 'em!)

I had always liked the idea of reading a book a week, but I, like you, found it difficult to set aside the time. Even now I tend to save reading for "just before bed" which obviously limits how long I end up reading for.

The fact that you actually enjoy text in games bodes well, though. You'll find that lots o' people used Harry Potter as a "gateway book," too, so there's a ton of good advice out there regarding a good next step.

Alternatively, break all the rules - go to the library, judge some books by their covers (and blurbs), and just see what happens! It won't cost ya anything, and you might just find the next author/genre/style that hooks you.

Bonus: it's always nice to have another hobby that isn't as expensive as gaming.

Recently read:
Jurassic Park- Much more in depth story line then the film. A pretty good read, but I don't think I would have been able to get into it had I not seen the film (about a million times).

Surely you're Mr. Feynman- brilliant book. For those who don't know Feynman was a semi-famous physicist. The books a bunch of anecdotes from his life (stories include practical jokes, pulling women, cracking a safe that holds information on how to make atomic weapons). Highly recommended for a bit of light relief.

Karlology- book my Karl Pilkington. Another funny book, although this time it's for his absurd logic. Pilkington is clearly a very...unique character. Although some of the Monkey News on xfm makes me convinced he's partly stupid and it's partly an act.

Spydarlee said:

Bonus: it's always nice to have another hobby that isn't as expensive as gaming.

HAHAHA! Your kidding right? I spend probably much more on books that I do games o_0. As decent games come out every couple of months, there is always something I want to read like fortnightly and it's a bitch when they are only in hardback!

Its not that I don't like to analyse books. I love going over a book with another reader after I'm done. The problem with school work is that I tend to dislike the works of Shakespeare and being forced to do anything usually leaves me to resent it.

So how do you guys feel about biographies? The only one I really enjoyed was one on Hugo Chavez. The rest, i.e. actors and musicians, seem to below par writing and are fairly boring to follow.

Angus said:
Its not that I don't like to analyse books. I love going over a book with another reader after I'm done. The problem with school work is that I tend to dislike the works of Shakespeare and being forced to do anything usually leaves me to resent it.

My favorites are probably 1984, Animal Farm, The Hitchhiker\'s Guide to the Galaxy series, and The Time Machine (been a few years since I read it, though).

I hate that school forces you to read \"classic literature\" that you probably don\'t like. I\'ve gotten to where I just read spark notes for the books for class so that I can read the books that I want to read. My other grades in the class help keep my grade up.

Right now I\'m reading The First Men on the Moon by H.G. Wells. It\'s taken me about two years to read it because of school! I checked it out once a couple of years ago because we had a bit of free time where we didn\'t have to read something and I needed something to do in study hall. Then I had to turn it in about a week later because I got busy with school work. Same thing happened the next year (but I found out I actually remembered a lot of what happened, so I more or less jumped right where I left off). Now I have the book and I\'m reading it on my own time. I\'m on the last chapter. About time!

It was tricky, but I managed to squeeze in time for Brave New World before reading The First Men on the Moon. Brave new World is a good book, but I don\'t like it as much as much as 1984, which are compared a lot.

Posibble minor spoilers if you\'ve not read Brave New World or The First Men on the Moon.

I'm currently in the middle of Mister B. Gone by Clive Barker. I need to finish Lisey's Story & Just After Sunset, both by Stephen King. I also need to finish Inside Out, the Pink Floyd biography by Nick Mason.

mage_mccloud said:
I'm currently making my way through the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

I love to read. Originally it started off as something I'd do to make me tired and sleep, that no longer works so well as I really enjoy reading now. Sadly I haven't really read anything for a while. I had been reading many classics prior to little break, but I guess they just became to heavy, cynical and tedious. I would love to get back into reading, but something more light-hearted and modern, I get enough deep readings from uni.

Echoes221 said:
I read Map of Bones (james rollins) on holiday and really enjoyed it so I just bought another of his books called "sandstorm". Is it any good seeing as you like rollins mage?

Haven't read sandstorm yet, i have a pile of around 16 books next to my bed, and its around the middle. At the moment i have Dark Tower IV, V, VI and VII on the top followed by The Husband (Dean Koontz), then The Judas Strain and Sandstorm by James Rollins

The amount you read it's like your a man after my own heart!
Sandstorm is good so far. I only have one quarrel with his writing though, He repeats phrases and actions alot I noticed it in map of bones and I notice it in sandstorm. e.g. how many times can you knead the tension from your shoulders in map of bones....

So, having read half of the Discworld novels in my nearly annual read through of the series from start to end (and usually with the latest one at the end of it), I've decided to take a break, and go back to one of my all time favorites: The Hobbit. In fact, I've never got past chapter 5 as I get too bored of it. I tried to read it before the film came out, and then again each year but couldn't get further into. But with the Hobbit, I could read it in one sitting if I had time.

When I read, I tend to stick to what I know however, as when I try new things I usually don't tend to like them as much/at all. This means I in no way read a large variety (Discworld (and I hate Pratchett thats not Discworld, except Small Gods), Hobbit, HHGTTG, Bond, Harry Potter, Philip Pullman, ...and that's about it).

Based on my tastes, can anyone maybe recommend some more. I'll only be getting them from my library until I'm sure I'll like them. And my Library takes ages to get new books, so it's pointless to recommend newish releases.