Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading?  (Read 660270 times)

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TVC15

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #120 on: January 30, 2009, 07:35:25 PM »
I doubt you'd make it 50 pages in.
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Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #121 on: January 30, 2009, 07:49:38 PM »
You're right.  It sounds to lame to finish.  I doubt I'd make it 10 pages in.

Joe Molotov

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #122 on: January 30, 2009, 07:51:01 PM »
It's awesome when it takes time to mock the reader, the critics, and/or the authors without even breaking the narrative.
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Fresh Prince

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #123 on: January 31, 2009, 12:28:28 AM »
I am reading Foucault's Pendulum, which I'm enjoying a lot.
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chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #124 on: February 01, 2009, 10:42:08 AM »
God, it's been forever since I read Foucalt's Pendulum. I loved the nonsense with the numerology.

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing "Gardens of the Moon." A thoroughly enjoyable book, if a bit thick.

Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #125 on: February 01, 2009, 08:23:00 PM »
God, it's been forever since I read Foucalt's Pendulum. I loved the nonsense with the numerology.

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing "Gardens of the Moon." A thoroughly enjoyable book, if a bit thick.

you say that NOW. You'll look back at it as a mere fleeting prelude.
vjj

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #126 on: February 01, 2009, 08:38:33 PM »
God, it's been forever since I read Foucalt's Pendulum. I loved the nonsense with the numerology.

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing "Gardens of the Moon." A thoroughly enjoyable book, if a bit thick.

you say that NOW. You'll look back at it as a mere fleeting prelude.

Well, thanks for the gift again, in any case. I have been hovering over the "Buy Now" button at Amazon on it, but am also reading World War Z; pretty good so far, though compared to Gardens of the Moon, the intentionally pedestrian language is jarring.

Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #127 on: February 01, 2009, 08:41:09 PM »
World War Z is one of those books I feel like I've read already. Actually reading it would feel like an afterthought at this point.
vjj

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #128 on: February 01, 2009, 09:24:06 PM »
I can't really parse that. You've not read it, but you've heard so much about it or from it that it feels like you've read it?

I'll tell you one thing, I read a scene in it where families waiting, clustered in a church are being sieged by a horde of zombies. When the zombies break through, a few of the matrons freak out and scream "Don't let them get the children! Keep them away from the children!" and proceed to pick the smaller children up by the ankles and swing the heads of the children at walls, and choking the larger ones. Killing them to spare the possibility of being eaten alive, becoming infected, reanimating.

I'd read that in the genocides in Africa that they would kill children that way, but had a hard time believing it. It's difficult to believe that even with a dehumanized view of the world that anyone could kill children, much less their own. But then I read about the recent Lupoe and Rajaram family murder/suicides, apparently entirely motivated by financial problems, and realized that the world can bemore fucked up than I give it credit.

Phoenix Dark

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #129 on: February 01, 2009, 09:31:22 PM »
God, it's been forever since I read Foucalt's Pendulum. I loved the nonsense with the numerology.

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing "Gardens of the Moon." A thoroughly enjoyable book, if a bit thick.

you say that NOW. You'll look back at it as a mere fleeting prelude.

Still holding out on starting that book.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
adwd 09 or bust
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010

Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #130 on: February 01, 2009, 10:06:31 PM »
What I means is, I'm sick of WWZ before even reading it. Don't you ever get that way with movies - you see the trailer so many times, which give away so much of the story, that it feels like there's no point actually watching it?
vjj

Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #131 on: February 01, 2009, 10:07:38 PM »
God, it's been forever since I read Foucalt's Pendulum. I loved the nonsense with the numerology.

I'm about 50 pages away from finishing "Gardens of the Moon." A thoroughly enjoyable book, if a bit thick.

you say that NOW. You'll look back at it as a mere fleeting prelude.

Still holding out on starting that book.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
adwd 09 or bust
[close]

oh, shit or get off the pot
vjj

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #132 on: February 01, 2009, 11:26:28 PM »
What I means is, I'm sick of WWZ before even reading it. Don't you ever get that way with movies - you see the trailer so many times, which give away so much of the story, that it feels like there's no point actually watching it?

...And unknowingly, I just added to that. Sorry!

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #133 on: February 02, 2009, 12:11:13 AM »
What I means is, I'm sick of WWZ before even reading it. Don't you ever get that way with movies - you see the trailer so many times, which give away so much of the story, that it feels like there's no point actually watching it?

i can totally relate, pretty specifically to that book as well

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Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #134 on: February 02, 2009, 12:36:27 AM »
What I means is, I'm sick of WWZ before even reading it. Don't you ever get that way with movies - you see the trailer so many times, which give away so much of the story, that it feels like there's no point actually watching it?

...And unknowingly, I just added to that. Sorry!

Japanese etiquette is rubbing off on you if you think you need to apologize for that ;)
vjj

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #135 on: February 02, 2009, 01:16:25 AM »
You said Erikson's subsequent books in that world are good? Are they sequential? Wikipedia hints at "no."

Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #136 on: February 02, 2009, 01:34:57 AM »
Was Gardens of the Moon internally sequential? The other books are approximately that sequential ;)

It's not uncommon for him to set chapters hundreds of thousands of years before the next one, and just expect you to to flip back and forward. Part of the fun is reconstructing the timeline in your own head. You mind find yourself running out of RAM first though. You really get out of it what you put into it.

vjj

TVC15

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #137 on: February 02, 2009, 01:39:18 AM »
Just finished Beyond Freedom & Dignity today.  It was like having a commie behaviorist jizzing absinthe directly into my anus.
serge

jiji

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #138 on: February 02, 2009, 02:15:59 AM »
Just finished the appendices of :bow From Hell :bow2, and now I'm reading this:



Love it so far. Aside from some of the punctuation/dialect, the strip feels totally current.

Oh, as far as "real" books, I've put a small dent in A People's History of the United States.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2009, 02:18:02 AM by jiji »
OTL

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #139 on: February 02, 2009, 11:05:52 PM »


edit:   :'(  hotlink didn't work
« Last Edit: February 03, 2009, 06:39:43 PM by Father_Mike »

Kestastrophe

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #140 on: February 06, 2009, 09:42:32 AM »

Just picked this up last night. 500+ page story on the four most influential bankers during the great depression era. Told like a fictional story, kind of like Devil in the White City.
jon

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #141 on: February 06, 2009, 10:55:27 AM »
i saw that book in the book store here and it looked interesting.

i'm still reading Faceless Killers

Tonya

CajoleJuice

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #142 on: February 06, 2009, 11:25:47 AM »
"Space is not the only void"

I immediately thought "anus"

goddamn you, TVC
AMC

Joe Molotov

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #143 on: February 06, 2009, 08:59:59 PM »


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Cormacaroni

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #144 on: February 06, 2009, 10:03:31 PM »
Finished Kundera, and after 4 serious books in a row I decided it's time for some entertainment:

(Image removed from quote.)


i've had this on my shelf for a couple of years now :(

I started it and quite enjoyed it but it was amazingly dense and technical. After a week or so, i had completely forgotten all the details of the 100 pgs or so I read and couldn't go back to it. aargh. Feel so guilty now....
vjj

ch1nchilla

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #145 on: February 08, 2009, 04:48:33 PM »


Reading it for a class... I need to finish it before I can actually pass judgment on it, but so far it's completely fucked up (and a bit challenging to read -- hence the 'Senseless').

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #146 on: February 09, 2009, 10:27:54 AM »
currently 50 pages into The Savage Season by Joe R Lansdale.
Tonya

Tieno

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #147 on: February 09, 2009, 02:15:26 PM »
(Image removed from quote.)

I read 90 pages in one sitting, at this rate I will finish this one in 2/3 days. Yummy.
Read that one a few months ago. It's interesting, intellectual and enjoyable, but ultimately not my thing. I do recommend you see the movie after you've finished the book. Very slow, understated and long (3 hours), but I think you'll appreciate it when you've read the book.

need to get into reading again.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2009, 02:18:03 PM by Tieno »
i

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #148 on: February 09, 2009, 02:20:25 PM »
woo

Borders had The Laughing Policeman and The Man on the Balcony available today so i snagged those

<3 Martin Beck <3
Tonya

Tieno

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #149 on: February 09, 2009, 04:01:33 PM »
Started in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Bought it a few years ago and always wanted to read it, but never got around to it.
Joseph Heller's satirical war novel Catch-22 depicts the absurdity and inhumanity of warfare through the experiences of Yossarian, a bombardier pilot stationed on the island of Pianosa (near Italy) in World War II. Heller does not tell Yossarian's story chronologically. Instead, the novel revolves around episodes in Yossarian's life (particularly the gruesome death of Snowden, a young airmnan) and employs flashbacks and digressions to jump back and forth between events.

i

CajoleJuice

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #150 on: February 09, 2009, 04:02:45 PM »
I'm reading that. ABout halfway through. Took me a while to get into it.
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Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #151 on: February 09, 2009, 04:16:25 PM »
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/lee_02_09/

The link between The Turner Diaries and modern apocalyptic Christian fiction
Tonya

ch1nchilla

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #152 on: February 09, 2009, 06:54:58 PM »
Finally nearing the end of Empire of the Senseless... not liking it at all.

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #153 on: February 10, 2009, 11:19:12 AM »
i finished The Savage Season last night and was kind of adrift with wanting to read something.  I had a few books in hand that all looked interesting and i thought i'd read a chapter or two and see which caught my interest the most

i picked up the third book in the A Story of Crime series of books, The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo.  Next thing i knew it was 1 AM and I was well into the book.  This is the BEST of these books I'd read so far. 

I'll get into more detail in a bit
Tonya

Tieno

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #154 on: February 10, 2009, 12:17:06 PM »
You mean the imdb link or...?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096332/


Stopped in Catch-22, I'm not in the mood atm for such a book...so I'm going to start Foucault's Pendulum. I really liked The Name of The Rose.
i

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #155 on: February 10, 2009, 06:36:14 PM »
"Dreams from my Father" - Obama's memoir from 1995, re-released in 2004, and a new printing recently in light of certain electoral events.

Joe Molotov

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #156 on: February 10, 2009, 08:07:44 PM »
Foucault's Pendulum is a pretty tough read so far.
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chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #157 on: February 10, 2009, 09:18:10 PM »
Also reading "Swag" ("Ryan's Rules") by Elmore Leonard. I'm kinda pissed off at Hollywood for casting Burt Reynolds as the character in the movies. Even though I've never seen them, I keep picturing smirking Burt winking at the camera while I'm reading. A young Tommy Lee Jones is much closer to the character portrayed. :-(

Phoenix Dark

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #158 on: February 11, 2009, 11:56:36 PM »
Still reading Blood Meridian, which is awesome. Awesome and confusing; I'm constantly looking things up and re-reading passages. Like for instance (spoilers imminent):

spoiler (click to show/hide)
I just finished the part where Tobin tells his story of how the company came to meet the Judge. Much of the story details a huge encounter with indians. It took me awhile to "get" what happened with the gun powder, ie the Judge creating a large supply which they used to reign down terror on the indians, which were apparently in an extinct volcano according to Wiki. I could barely picture that entire scene in my mind's eye and read it multiple times.

Also concerning the first encounter with the Judge and the Delawares: what happened there with the bats and shit? They camped in a cave, lighting fires at night...then used the gunpower to shoot the indians as they spilled over the mountain top?
[close]

And the whole tarot card scene totally threw me off
010

ch1nchilla

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #159 on: February 12, 2009, 01:50:13 AM »
Still reading Blood Meridian, which is awesome. Awesome and confusing; I'm constantly looking things up and re-reading passages.

Awesome to hear this is good. I'm starting to read it for my modern lit class on Friday. :)


ch1nchilla

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #160 on: February 12, 2009, 03:24:49 AM »
Still reading Blood Meridian, which is awesome. Awesome and confusing; I'm constantly looking things up and re-reading passages.

Awesome to hear this is good. I'm starting to read it for my modern lit class on Friday. :)


god it's good.  you're teacher has good taste.

I would tend to fully agree besides fucking Empire of the Senseless, which has an interesting point but is still nearly incomprehensible and not at all worth reading, IMO.

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #161 on: February 12, 2009, 10:13:40 AM »
i'm 70 pages into Dan Simmons's The Terror, a historical novel about a failed attempt to cross the norther passage

with added mention of a "white thing" in the snow

i thought it was going to basically be a polar bear but now I'm not so certain.
Tonya

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #162 on: February 12, 2009, 10:14:24 AM »
I'm working on downloading this right now:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3778378/Sci-fi_and_Fantasy_Library

It's a 5.83 GB torrent of a shitload of sci-fi and fantasy e-books. I'm sure I'll end up deleting 90% of it, but there are some great authors listed in there.

i like that there's some fritz leiber in there, but kind of curious as to why no john wyndham

it's the great ebook torrents out there that kind of made me wish i had a kindle
Tonya

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #163 on: February 12, 2009, 10:25:01 AM »
Torrenting books is like really low. There are already so many legal ways to get books cheap/free.



well, project gutenberg is a great primary source of classics

there are some great readings available from that site

Tonya

Tieno

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #164 on: February 12, 2009, 10:44:35 AM »
How do you read them? On a computer screen?

I once tried reading a book on a computer screeen, couldn't get passed the first page. Local library is where I go.
i

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #165 on: February 12, 2009, 10:53:42 AM »
So like really old stuff, thats cool I guess. Ill check it out once I have internet at home.

Personally I prefer a hardcopy of a book.

same, but the issue with books is that if it's out of print and has been for a while you tend to be out of luck unless you can find a used copy

as publishers have this thing called "returns" where a bookseller can send back unsold books for a refund after a period of time (where the books are then pulped) it's not like these things tend to stay on shelves for as long as you'd like

thankfully the internet makes things a bit easier in that regard but in others it's a bit nightmarish

i JUST found a copy of Graham Greene's This Gun for Hire, a book I'd only heard about previously randomly at The Strand, a huge used book store (boasting 18 miles of books) and he's an internationally famous writer.

Science Fiction and Fantasy are far worse for mid period classics.  Unless they were written be someone really,r eally, really well known, there is a HUGE chance that they may be long out of print.
Tonya

Madrun Badrun

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #166 on: February 15, 2009, 11:28:39 AM »
I read like two pages of Spinoza's Ethics yesterday.  Maybe I can go up to four today  :'(
« Last Edit: February 15, 2009, 12:02:54 PM by Father_Mike »

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #167 on: February 15, 2009, 11:58:11 AM »
i'm about a quarter of the way through Dan Simmons's The Terror
Tonya

Eric P

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #168 on: February 15, 2009, 01:02:01 PM »
underworld is supposed to be excellent but i haven't read it myself
Tonya

Phoenix Dark

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #169 on: February 15, 2009, 01:03:36 PM »
Blood Meridian is great. Definitely has some sentences that make you scratch your head, but overall the writing is rather poetic.
010


Junpei the Tracer!

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #171 on: February 15, 2009, 05:03:03 PM »
I recently finished Let Me In which was terrifically amazing. Gonna start Slaughter House Five next.
Boo

ch1nchilla

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #172 on: February 15, 2009, 07:39:26 PM »
Reading Blood Meridian now and enjoying it quite a bit.

drohne

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #173 on: February 15, 2009, 10:04:44 PM »
libra's my favorite delillo. by far

drohne

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #174 on: February 15, 2009, 10:14:08 PM »
i realized that i don't even remember running dog that clearly -- i was just in the habit of saying it's my second-favorite delillo book. definitely read libra. it's like...the intensity gap between that book and delillo generally is as big as the intensity gap between delillo and contemporary novelists generally

Great Rumbler

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #175 on: February 15, 2009, 10:31:12 PM »
Still reading through The Dirty Pair Strike Again. It's a really short book, but it's going to take me over a year to finish.  :'(
dog

drohne

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #176 on: February 15, 2009, 11:18:17 PM »
bloom isn't especially hostile to genre fiction anyway -- i know he's written about ursula leguin

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #177 on: February 16, 2009, 02:26:54 AM »
Anyone else reading Pub 17 from the IRS? I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 :piss Tax season :piss2
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chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #178 on: February 17, 2009, 03:59:27 AM »
Blood Meridian is great. Definitely has some sentences that make you scratch your head, but overall the writing is rather poetic.

That's something I really liked about The Road. Parts of it were like reading T.S. Eliot in novel form.

I've heard so much good stuff about The Road that I'll have to grab it. However, I'm unwilling to read it and play Fallout 3 concurrently, else I start to disbelieve that the real world exists.

chronovore

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Re: What book(s) are you reading?
« Reply #179 on: February 17, 2009, 04:00:12 AM »
Still reading through The Dirty Pair Strike Again. It's a really short book, but it's going to take me over a year to finish.  :'(

Is that the Adam Warren one? I like his take on the pair better than the original series, most days.