What book(s) are you reading?

[Eric P]

typos!

[Cormacaroni]

dunno man, that could be cognitive dysfunction induced by adrenal downregulation, best get a blood panel done and check your glutathione lvls /paleo humor

[Eric P]

shit that's probably the case.

i sat next to someone who ate a hot dog today so that may be destroying my gut as we speak

[chronovore]

Finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, recommended by Prole.

Holy shit, this exactly what I wanted to read, mature, no coming of age, anti heroes. Great stuff, I read 300 pages in one go last night. Went out today to buy the second book in the trilogy, Before They Are Hanged. Already 70 pages in...

I'm reading Best Served Cold, by the same author. It's pretty gruesome, so if you're liking Joe, that's kind of his thing.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Gonna finish reading this trilogy first then see whats next.

Im wondering if my GF will like these books or if they are too sadistic and gruesome in some areas.

[Eric P]

I'm reading Byron Crawford's Mindset of a Champion.  Crawford is a long time hip hop blogger and this book is essentially grimey street tails about being a blogger.  Pretty funny stuff to read.  Very short, very fast read. 

His blog is also great if you like Hip Hop
http://www.byroncrawford.com/
NSFW though.

[chronovore]

Reading Tina Fey's autobiography, Bossypants. It has been making me laugh a lot, to the point where Japanese people nearby think I'm probably dangerous. Or crazy.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm reading Byron Crawford's Mindset of a Champion.  Crawford is a long time hip hop blogger and this book is essentially grimey street tails about being a blogger.  Pretty funny stuff to read.  Very short, very fast read. 

His blog is also great if you like Hip Hop
http://www.byroncrawford.com/
NSFW though.

Crawford has never taken any shit from anyone, dude is boss

[Eric P]

I've just started reading The Giant Thief in which a fantasy ne'er-do-well never does well and steals a giant, which in this book is treated as a semi intelligent mech.  The book is light, almost like Terry Pratchett without the puns and asides and acts as an antidote to the current GRIMDARK flavor of a lot of recommended fantasy books.  I picked up the book because Lavie Tidhar told me too calling it "slacker fantasy."

http://lavietidhar.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/introducing-slacker-fantasy-david-tallermans-giant-thief-and-the-reluctance-of-agency/\

The Western tradition of genre writing has certain demands. It requires plot – it requires action – it requires active, not passive, heroes.  And while Giant Thief fits into the recognisable mode of traditional Western fantasy it also… doesn’t.

I’ll call it Slacker Fantasy. I’m not quite sure what to call this novel. It might have the feel of sword and sorcery, but it has little interest in either sword or sorcery. It isn’t really a Biblical epic. It isn’t really epic in any sense of the word, certainly not Epic Fantasy with its multiple cast of characters and large scale fantasy-world (usually the size of Wales, admittedly) conflict.

There isn’t even much conflict as such in this book. There’s just Damasco, the thief, dragged along into events he has no control over and no real interest in. Even Bilbo Baggins set of to steal a treasure of his own volition. Easie, here, just wants to be left alone.

And this is interesting to me. This is not Thomas Covenant battling the question of reality, and it isn’t the everyman character who discovers a magical London or wherever and is dragged into its mysteries.

More than anything, what Giant Thief does with its reluctance of agency is resemble a host of slacker movies, featuring sympathetic but essentially passive characters. Dude, Where’s My Car? or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure seem to me to be the precursors to this tale of slacker fantasy.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I'm reading Byron Crawford's Mindset of a Champion.  Crawford is a long time hip hop blogger and this book is essentially grimey street tails about being a blogger.  Pretty funny stuff to read.  Very short, very fast read. 

His blog is also great if you like Hip Hop
http://www.byroncrawford.com/
NSFW though.

I read this book in its entirety throughout the day today.  Amazing read.

[Eric P]

i can't believe i used the wrong "tales"

[Cerveza mas fina]

Isnt this slacker attitude a bit hard to enjoy in a book form? I don't know if I could read a whole book where the main character only wants to chillax with a bong.

[Eric P]

Well he basically just doesn't have any overreaching goals other than "try to survive on a day to day basis."  He's in the situations but they're not of his doing.  He just wants to chillax but life won't let him.  I'm about 40% of the way through and it's fairly entertaining.  It's not a major work of fiction or anything, but it's a fun little romp.

[ToxicAdam]

I always thought an interesting fantasy 'hook' would be to tell a story from the perspective of a weapon maker. Someone who helps facilitate wars, hero quests, death, murder, etc. But has an intimate relationship with the people he provides to.

 

[Bacchus7]

Paradise Lost and Don Quixote (Edith Grossman transl.).

[Cerveza mas fina]

So dude would just sit in his forge all day, forging n shit. Could be cool if they keep it short/novel style.

[Madrun Badrun]

Paradise Lost

[Cormacaroni]

Well he basically just doesn't have any overreaching goals other than "try to survive on a day to day basis."  He's in the situations but they're not of his doing.  He just wants to chillax but life won't let him.  I'm about 40% of the way through and it's fairly entertaining.  It's not a major work of fiction or anything, but it's a fun little romp.

That does sound basically like the Arthur Dent/Rincewind template though

[Cormacaroni]

I always thought an interesting fantasy 'hook' would be to tell a story from the perspective of a weapon maker. Someone who helps facilitate wars, hero quests, death, murder, etc. But has an intimate relationship with the people he provides to.
 

until the day when the man who has renounced war must once again take up the sword he has forged! The one so good he never let any of the other fucks use it! AND KILL KILL KILL

[Van Cruncheon]

abercrombie's "red country," which is a fantasy western. so far, so good.

[Eric P]

Well he basically just doesn't have any overreaching goals other than "try to survive on a day to day basis."  He's in the situations but they're not of his doing.  He just wants to chillax but life won't let him.  I'm about 40% of the way through and it's fairly entertaining.  It's not a major work of fiction or anything, but it's a fun little romp.

That does sound basically like the Arthur Dent/Rincewind template though

Yeah actually. Closer to Rincewind. I realized that was a near perfect analog earlier.

[fistfulofmetal]

kinda embarrassing but i'm reading the recent Halo book. Primordial

yeah yeah

[Bebpo]

I finished Cloud Atlas.  Interesting book.  Didn't completely love it as there were some pacing issues and some tales were better than others, but the overall scope and way it played together was quite impressive and I'm very glad to have read it.  Once I finished it, I picked it up again at page 1 because I had some time to kill and the book left me thinking.

Going to see the movie on Saturday night (it's ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND A THEATER STILL PLAYING IT ARGHGHH) and then will have more thoughts.  Kind of going to put it on the low burn until I see it. 


I did watch the 4 min theatrical trailer #1 right after I finished it and my eyes were swelling up because it was SO PERFECT in terms of it felt like I was watching what I had just read come to life.  I'm quite excited to see it this weekend.  I think the book is one that will be even better on 2nd read, and the movie will be my 2nd passthrough.

[Eric P]

abercrombie's "red country," which is a fantasy western. so far, so good.

i have that on my kindle ready to go but i dunno if i can jump from fantasy to fantasy

[Cerveza mas fina]

abercrombie's "red country," which is a fantasy western. so far, so good.

i have that on my kindle ready to go but i dunno if i can jump from fantasy to fantasy

this is only possible if you're jumping up

[Eric P]

yeah but i just spent the past year in a crazy fantasy world with no connection to reality. #electionyear

[Joe Molotov]

Got this biznas loaded up on my nook and ready to go.

[Robo]

I'm reading Cloud Atlas too and really enjoying it.  No interest in seeing the movie, however.

[chronovore]

abercrombie's "red country," which is a fantasy western. so far, so good.

Bookmarked, thanks. I'm enjoying one of his right now, "Best Served Cold."

Interesting: no Kindle version, only HB, PB, and Audible.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

[Eric P]

I'm currently reading Adam Nevill's The Ritual which just won the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror and it's kind of fucking me up.

4 dudes in their 30s who have been lifelong friends take a hike together in Sweden.  The weather is awful, half of them are out of shape, so they're having a miserable time the other half are tired of putting up with the fat half and to make things worse they get lost in a fairly primeval part of the forest looking for a shortcut that doesn't exist.  Then they come across the totem and shit goes downhill really fast.

I'm about 20% in but it's already gotten my attention with the characters, the situation and some fairly brilliant perspective shifts into 2nd person when BAD THINGS are happening.

it should still shit the bed, of course, but daaaaaaaaamn so far this is pretty great.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I saw that book somewhere in a bookshop but thought it might be tripe... might have to reconsider now.

Has anyone here ever read any Clive Barker stuff? I'd like to try out but don't know where to start.

[Joe Molotov]

I saw that book somewhere in a bookshop but thought it might be tripe... might have to reconsider now.

Has anyone here ever read any Clive Barker stuff? I'd like to try out but don't know where to start.

His kiddie stuff, the Abarat series is actually pretty good.



He also did the illustrations.

[Cormacaroni]

I saw that book somewhere in a bookshop but thought it might be tripe... might have to reconsider now.

Has anyone here ever read any Clive Barker stuff? I'd like to try out but don't know where to start.

I think Imajica is a stunning piece of work. I've read it about 4 times. It's a huge epic fantasy though, and you don't seem to like those so much. Weaveworld is a similar thing but a tad more grounded and smaller scale. If you just want horror, then the Books of Blood are the place to start.

[chronovore]

I saw that book somewhere in a bookshop but thought it might be tripe... might have to reconsider now.

Has anyone here ever read any Clive Barker stuff? I'd like to try out but don't know where to start.

I think Imajica is a stunning piece of work. I've read it about 4 times. It's a huge epic fantasy though, and you don't seem to like those so much. Weaveworld is a similar thing but a tad more grounded and smaller scale. If you just want horror, then the Books of Blood are the place to start.

I thought it was just "the chosen one" tripe style of extruded fantasy product that was off limits. Imajica is epic, but not trope-riddled.

[Phoenix Dark]

I'm currently reading Adam Nevill's The Ritual which just won the British Fantasy Award for Best Horror and it's kind of fucking me up.

4 dudes in their 30s who have been lifelong friends take a hike together in Sweden.  The weather is awful, half of them are out of shape, so they're having a miserable time the other half are tired of putting up with the fat half and to make things worse they get lost in a fairly primeval part of the forest looking for a shortcut that doesn't exist.  Then they come across the totem and shit goes downhill really fast.

I'm about 20% in but it's already gotten my attention with the characters, the situation and some fairly brilliant perspective shifts into 2nd person when BAD THINGS are happening.

it should still shit the bed, of course, but daaaaaaaaamn so far this is pretty great.

The Amazon description/preview sound awesome, ill have to check this out

[Eric P]

I used to love H.E.R. Clive Barker.  I think that you can't really go wrong with Imagica, The Books of Blood (it really can't be said how important these works are to contemporary horror), The Damnation Game, and I'd like to give a shout out to Coldheart Canyon which is a wonderful little love letter to old Hollywood.  Well, a love letter with lots of ghosts and orgies.

[Eric P]

my book took a turn for the weird.

now it's into a totally other trope and has basically become a second novel.

[Cerveza mas fina]

There seems to be consensus around the Books of Blood, duly noted.

I saw that book somewhere in a bookshop but thought it might be tripe... might have to reconsider now.

Has anyone here ever read any Clive Barker stuff? I'd like to try out but don't know where to start.

His kiddie stuff, the Abarat series is actually pretty good.

(Image removed from quote.)

He also did the illustrations.

Oh man I remember I started to read this, enjoy it , but never finish it. Might have to give it another go.

[Van Cruncheon]

the damnation game is a little raw, but it's the best post-industrial vampire tale on the market.

[Eric P]

the damnation game is a little raw, but it's the best post-industrial vampire tale on the market.

i am legend is post-industrial.

[Eric P]

finished The Ritual and really liked it even if the ending was happier than I like in horror.  It seemed a bit too optimistic concerning all which had come before.  Yes horrible things happen to everyone and the book takes a turn for the normal at the half-way point but even as the book threatens to slide into mediocrity, it keeps a Joe R Lansdale level of seemingly constant violence and threats of violence going.  Highly recommended.

I've been reading off and on Scalzi's Red Shirts, it's a cute little meta-homage to the thankless ensigns who regularly meet their death in Star Trek.  Cute but nothing world shattering.

Started to read this small short story collection entitled Jagannath translated from the Swedish by the original author, Karin Tidbek.  The first story was amazing.  About a man who falls in love with an airship and a woman who falls in love with a steam engine and their uneasy relationship to each other.  The second story was also good but not as good about a girl putting together her dead father's affairs at the commune where she grew up. 

[Eric P]

The Last Policeman, a book I very much enjoyed, is $3 on Kindle right now

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076Q1GW2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0076Q1GW2&linkCode=as2&tag=boiboi0b-20

no idea how long that price will last

[Barry Egan]

just started, but I do appreciate the spare prose and the almost instant sense of loneliness Chaon creates.

[Eric P]

I enjoyed that book quite a bit though I didn't really like the ending.


And yoooooooooooooo Between Two Fires is amazing.  It is basically the tale of a disgraced excommunicated knight on a quest, to protect a girl while she makes her way to Avignon during the plague years.  It treats both the Heavenly Host and the Fallen as unknowable cosmic horrors with humanity caught in the middle between two uncaring factions in the absence of God.  Things which are "good" cause madness as just as well as those things which are "evil."  It's a really interesting take on both Paradise Lost and Cosmic Horror.  So if you're a fantasy nerd, you should probably check this out, if you're a horror/Lovecraft/Cosmic Horror nerd, you should probably check this out and if you're a Lapsed Catholic you should check this out.  I'm not finished with it, but it is VERY GOOD and gets my recommendation thus far.

[Cormacaroni]

The Last Policeman, a book I very much enjoyed, is $3 on Kindle right now

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076Q1GW2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0076Q1GW2&linkCode=as2&tag=boiboi0b-20

no idea how long that price will last

the price has gone back up. The lesson is clear - next time, don't stop to post at the Bore, just gift it to me

[Eric P]

Still showing it on sale for me, so I just gifted it to you.

[Freyj]

The Twelve

Got this biznas loaded up on my nook and ready to go.

Feel overwhelmingly "meh" about this one. I liked The Passage, more than it probably deserved, but man

spoiler (click to show/hide)

so little actually happens across a vast majority of the book. Guilder, Lila and Gray's shit is boring in 0 and 97 A.V. I enjoyed the other 0 A.V. characters, but for their entire purpose to be "Alicia's Grandparents" is sort of a shitty payoff. If Cronin starts the next book with another 40% of 0 A.V. I'm going to be angry.

Peter wanders around to a few different places, Michael joins up, Hollis joins up, Tifty joins up. Everyone meets at the Homeland after very little else has actually happened. Bomb. Now it's just Zero, Amy and Carter. Come back next time.

[close]

Despite all the complaints, I guess I didn't mind the book. Eh.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Sure to be a much better read (tonight!):

[fistfulofmetal]

I enjoyed that book quite a bit though I didn't really like the ending.

http://0.tqn.com/d/scifi/1/0/p/y/0/-/Between-Two-Fires_Buehlman.JPG
And yoooooooooooooo Between Two Fires is amazing.  It is basically the tale of a disgraced excommunicated knight on a quest, to protect a girl while she makes her way to Avignon during the plague years.  It treats both the Heavenly Host and the Fallen as unknowable cosmic horrors with humanity caught in the middle between two uncaring factions in the absence of God.  Things which are "good" cause madness as just as well as those things which are "evil."  It's a really interesting take on both Paradise Lost and Cosmic Horror.  So if you're a fantasy nerd, you should probably check this out, if you're a horror/Lovecraft/Cosmic Horror nerd, you should probably check this out and if you're a Lapsed Catholic you should check this out.  I'm not finished with it, but it is VERY GOOD and gets my recommendation thus far.

I've been reading Apocalypse Z and almost done. This will be what I move on to next. So thanks.

[Cormacaroni]

Still showing it on sale for me, so I just gifted it to you.

Muchas gracias!

[Eric P]

20 pages from the end of Between Two Fires.  I was hoping to wrap it up last night but ended up being out later than anticipated.

On the train this morning I started this

Which naturally got me some double takes.  I'm only 20 pages in but the book is going to try to explore minstrelsy and show that though it was used by whites to confirm stereotypes that it's also a legitimate form of expression with some extremely complex history within the black community.

bonus: Judy Garland in blackface

[Freyj]

(Image removed from quote.)

  Butcher

So much better than Ghost Story.

[Eric P]

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/12/43-sffh-kindle-ebook-deals-under-3/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Sfsignal+%28SFSignal%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

SciFi signal has compiled several scifi / horror / etc ebooks which are under $3

I just wanted to plug 999 which is one of my favorite horror anthologies and is honestly the one book which made me get back into horror after a several year absence

Several good stories with a few stinkers (it is an anthology so it comes with the territory) by several luminaries of the field

[Joe Molotov]

Had to do some test monitoring today, which is code for "sit quietly for 2 hours", so I picked up this:



It's a light, breezy read about mysterious bookstores, strange codes, and cute girls that work at Google. I plowed through about half of it.

[Eric P]

I've seen that around.  Is it worth reading?

[MrAngryFace]

These are always fun to read

[Cormacaroni]

The Art of Learning, by Josh Waitzkin (the chess master profiled in 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', now all growed up and a world champion in tai chi, and budding BJJ competitor...)

Really enjoying this. He has some concrete insights into the learning process that explain a lot of things I've wondered about for years. Also just a fascinating story about a very unusually accomplished and charming individual.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

[Eric P]

it's awesome.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

To break up the string of dry non-fiction history books I've been reading as of late: