piglet
Barfly
Gender: 
Posts: 1076
|
 |
« Reply #600 on: June 09, 2011, 05:28:18 PM » |
|
God Eric you and I are going to have SO MUCH FUN I loved the Shadow of the Wind too!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord
|
|
|
tomhume89
Barfly
Gender: 
Posts: 186
|
|
« Reply #601 on: June 10, 2011, 01:05:26 AM » |
|
Both my posts here are very negative, but I really didn't like Shadow of the Wind! I found the characters predictable and the story so contrived. Sorry. I got the book as I was told it was like Borges, the master of magic realism, but I was thoroughly disappointed.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
piglet
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1076
|
|
« Reply #602 on: June 10, 2011, 08:28:51 AM » |
|
not really like Borges but a fun read.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord
|
|
|
El Macho
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 786
东北人都是活雷锋!
|
|
« Reply #603 on: June 10, 2011, 12:37:01 PM » |
|
I'm reading "On China" by Kissinger. Not someone I greatly respect or admire, but it is an interesting read so far.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Stil
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 3995
|
|
« Reply #604 on: June 12, 2011, 07:37:44 AM » |
|
I do a lot of my 'reading" by listening to audiobooks and I just finished:
"World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" by Max Brooks
It's a pretty good book but a great audiobook with different readers playing parts. The style of the book with an interviewer travelling the globe talking to people with different accents is perfect for an audiobook.
Some of the readers:
Max Brooks - The Author is the inteviewer
Mark Hamill
Henry Rollins
Alan Alda
Carl Reiner
Rob Reiner
John Tuturro
Jürgen Prochnow
and many more excellent readers I don't know.
Btw, The book opens in Chongqing
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
porcuswallabee
|
|
« Reply #605 on: June 12, 2011, 01:58:04 PM » |
|
I Loved World War Z and it sounds like it would be worth it to listen to the story a second time. Cool Beans.
But the story which currently has my complete and undivided attention is Ishmael by Dan Quinn.
It's like that scene in the Matrix where Neo first meets Morpheus and learns the truth about the world except in this book Morpheus is a giant Gorilla (Ishmael) and Neo is the nameless protagonist.
The author's goal was to explain how Humanity blundered horribly when it adopted an agriculturalist lifestyle while also outlining how and why we need to go back to tribalism (though he's not advocating returning to being Hunter/Gatherers).
It's one of those cases of the right book at the right time in one's life. It has a lot to do with why I was (and still am!) on here looking for some kind of wwoofing or permaculture farming lifestyle opportunity.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever had a notion of 'saving the world'.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"The soldiers carry our hatred for us, and they do our killing for us. So do the police. We carry morality for them."
|
|
|
piglet
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1076
|
|
« Reply #606 on: June 13, 2011, 05:06:12 AM » |
|
Oh right just discovered I have this one in the torrent collection I downloaded for my kindle and I had never heard of it.
Great!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord
|
|
|
china-matt
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1017
|
|
« Reply #607 on: June 14, 2011, 02:35:37 PM » |
|
On to my next book. I was disappointed by Spaceland. Yesterday I just read a few short stories. Today I'm trying to decide between Hemingway and Salman Rushdie.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway." -Calvin Terracotta Typewriter: a literary journal with Chinese characteristics http://www.tctype.com |
|
|
piglet
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1076
|
|
« Reply #608 on: June 15, 2011, 01:59:02 PM » |
|
Rushdie Rushdie Rushdie  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord
|
|
|
china-matt
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1017
|
|
« Reply #609 on: June 15, 2011, 03:36:48 PM » |
|
Yes, Piglet, I chose Rushdie's Satanic Verses. So far, it's wonderful.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway." -Calvin Terracotta Typewriter: a literary journal with Chinese characteristics http://www.tctype.com |
|
|
becster79
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1575
|
|
« Reply #610 on: June 15, 2011, 04:40:12 PM » |
|
Just last night finished reading 'The Girl Who Played with Fire' (2nd in the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series). Don't know what everyone else who's read them things, but this series has seriously jumped the shark in book terms!
1st book- Took me 100 painful pages for the story to actually get interesting!
2nd- Straight into the story, only the '100 pages' was spread throughout the book. It's the resulting climax that really annoyed me and ready to throw it out the window!
3rd- Won't even bother!
Next up on the bookshelf: 1984!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
piglet
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 1076
|
|
« Reply #611 on: June 15, 2011, 05:07:40 PM » |
|
Intereseting,I did wonder what all the hoo hah was about when I saw the movies. I thought they were like sub standard Hollywood style whodunnits.IF they had not been set in Scandinavia nobody would have paid them any attention IMHO
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
For people who like peace and quiet - a phoneless cord
|
|
|
Stil
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 3995
|
|
« Reply #612 on: June 16, 2011, 12:15:24 AM » |
|
Kraken by China Mieville
Sort of urban fantasy kicked in the balls. The sneaky bugger has taken an interesting "who done it" and turned it into a literary (though deeply warped) work. I've never read his work before so can't compare but I like Kraken.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Crippler
Barfly
Gender:
Posts: 129
Dangerous place to post
|
|
« Reply #613 on: June 16, 2011, 03:07:40 AM » |
|
Song of Ice and Fire series. Just watched HBO miniseries, Game of Thrones, and decide to try the book series.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
latefordinner
Barfly
Posts: 2013
|
|
« Reply #614 on: June 16, 2011, 03:20:04 AM » |
|
my wife and i are watching the game of thrones a bit at a time online. Like Tolkein on crack. I can't decide whether its worth the time or not. Certainly not the best stuff to come from HBO, but not bad either. Let me know how the books work out, I might just dip into them.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
