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Kroms · 03/01/2010, 02:25 pm

I loved Harry Potter as a kid, but think the quality dipped a little towards the end. Rowling got lazy. Hallows had some great parts, but Prince fumbled the ball, tripped over it, smashed its head on the ground and then barely made it to the finish line. The last chapters are great, but for the most part the book's rather empty. (Or maybe I dislike it because a bunch of annoying pre-teenage girls I was related to kept blabbing about Radcliffe, and I couldn't get the cast out of my head as I read the book.)

No Cease Fires · 03/01/2010, 02:34 pm

Just finished Don DeLillo's Great Jones Street. It's about a young rock star who gets sick of the celebrity life and opts for obscurity in some NYC apartment. Spins out into Pynchon-esque conspiracy craziness.

DeLillo's a hell of a writer. He writes in fragments but they are beautiful, funny, insightful fragments. I find I write my best stuff when I'm reading a book of his. His work is endlessly inspirational.

Great thread, Kroms!

Ignatius · 03/01/2010, 06:36 pm

Im with "The Guermantes Way" the third book of "In Search of Lost Time"

3 done, 4 to go.

Avistew · 03/02/2010, 12:10 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

I would highly recommend reading the Harry Potter books before the 2 movies about the final book comes out.

I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that the decided to make two movies for the one book that has as a main point "nothing happens and it's driving the heroes crazy".

I mean I know lots happens at the beginning and at the end, but the point is that nothing happens in the middle. And that's the one they want to make two movies out of? You can definitely tell that they went all "oh crap, that's the last book, we won't have books to make movies out of anymore! Let's make two out of the last one!"

If the had chosen book 4, which is the one where the most things happens, I would have understood...

Anyways, I've said from the start that I thought Harry Potter would be best adapted as a series, one season per book (it's not like all series have to have 26 episodes, especially British series).
But I realise it wouldn't have made them as much money. And often that's really what it is about.

Leak · 03/02/2010, 12:35 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by avistew

(it's not like all series have to have 26 episodes, especially British series).

Well, the same goes for quite a few US series - Burn Notice (12, then 16 episodes per season), Dexter (12) and True Blood (12) immediately come to (my) mind...

EDIT: Come to think of it, as far as the thread topic is concerned I've been enjoying the novels by Charlaine Harris that True Blood is based on quite a bit lately...

Avistew · 03/02/2010, 02:34 am

True, I was just thinking that most US shows are 24-26 episodes longs (or so it seemed to me) while major British series (Dr Who, Black Adder) tend to have less. But yeah, shows from North America sometimes have short seasons too.

In book-related news, I've also been re-reading some Werber.
I believe only two of his books have been translated into English. First "Empire of the Angels" which I don't really recommend because it's a sequel and the first book, The Thanatonauts, apparently hasn't been translated... Shame since it's my all time fav by this author. And then "Empire of the Ants", originally "The Ants", his first book, that they probably thought "hey, let's name it similarly to that other book he wrote ten years later so people know it's the same author!"...
I DO recommend (Empire of) the Ants, even if it's the first in a trilogy and the only translated one (although it's stand-alone, the other two are just sequels that weren't planned at first, and even if you can read French I don't recommend the third one all that much anyways)

Oh, maybe I should explain what the book is about. Well, first, I should explain that Werber's unique style intertwines several stories, with artiles from various sources in between. In Les Fourmis (Empire of the Ants), one story revolves around a man who inherits a place from his uncle he barely knew, and his uncle leaves a message "DON'T GO TO THE BASEMENT". His uncle was studying ants.
The second story has ants as main characters, and is a thriller. A male is part of an expedition, all other ants die, he tries to warn the anthill but nobody listens to him, and soon he's chased by rock-smelling ants from the colony trying to kill him, which is insane as they're part of the same organism.
The articles here and there relate to ants and other social insects, and sometimes to various pieces of informations about just anything.
Oh, and the two stories ARE related. His stories always end up being related to each other even if it's not always obvious at first just how.

PecanBlue · 03/02/2010, 05:45 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chyron8472

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

Yeah, I'm currently reading the whole Ender trilogy now and I recommend it too. It's pretty good.

H.P. Lovecraft's stuff is wonderful if you want some good ol' nightmares.

My favorite books as a little kid were the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. They're really good if you want some simple reading, and can try and ignore the allegories. (If that sort of thing bothers you.)

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is HUGE and can have some incredibly tedious parts that will bore you to death, (I actually bought a version where they took most of these out) but I found that it's worth it because when it gets good it gets GOOD.

I also recommend House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and V. by Thomas Pynchon.

Avistew · 03/02/2010, 07:27 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by PecanBlue

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is HUGE and can have some incredibly tedious parts that will bore you to death, (I actually bought a version where they took most of these out) but I found that it's worth it because when it gets good it gets GOOD.

I think saying Hugo is long-winded is an understatement. If the main character is going to walk past a man, Hugo will first tell you about that man's whole life story, what he likes or dislikes, and so on, but the man will actually never show up again after being walked past.

Most of it I found incredibly interesting because I just love Hugo. However I skipped the whole Waterloo part, apart from apparently, as I have been told since then, the one paragraph that actually matters (that wasn't even on purpose, I guess I was lucky).

But yeah, about two thousand pages is pretty long. I don't suggest getting a one volume edition if they exist, I think buying it as 5 books like they were originally released is much more practical. I guess an abridged version might make sense for you, although I really loved the complete one (apart from Waterloo, but that part looked too much like a history book for me to enjoy it).

Anyway, Hugo wrote a LOT both within one story and overall (poems, plays, novels, you name it). He's actually famous for sentences like "his blue coat was green" because he wrote so much he was bound to make mistakes that went uncorrected, as opposed to for instance Baudelaire, who only ever released one poetry book, but as a result it's perfect (well, I think it is at least, but I just adore Baudelaire).

Lennie Melvin · 03/02/2010, 09:01 am

Dr Zhivago by Pasternak is my absolute favourite book followed closely by Last of the Mohicans by JF Cooper and The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. Actually anything by Dostoyevsky is great!
Reading The Brothers Karamazov at the mo' but it's taking a while

taumel · 03/03/2010, 05:59 am

0111 recommendations from me (random thoughts order):

Perfume (Patrick Süskind)
Alastor, Cugel's Saga, ... (Jack Vance)
Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
The Flying Sorcerers (Larry Niven & David Gerrold)
World of Tiers (Philip José Farmer)
Chess Story (Stefan Zweig)
Elisabeth II (Thomas Bernhard)

and many many more. Oh and of course The National Inquisitor, issue 29.3.1997.

Purp · 03/04/2010, 11:45 pm

I love the Harry Potter books. She knew what she was doing. (P.S. I am not a kid, I am *cough, cough* years old). Also, I am rereading the Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun, which has all the realism of a hallucination, but they're very...comforting books, I guess. I do like Stephen King's early stuff, especially 'Salem's Lot. Now THAT was a good book.

Chyron8472 · 03/05/2010, 02:39 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Purp

I love the Harry Potter books. She knew what she was doing. (P.S. I am not a kid, I am *cough, cough* years old). Also, I am rereading the Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun

I admit to being 31yo, and not only do my wife and I love the Harry Potter series and have read it several times, but my wife also loves reading the Cat Who books.

My wife also likes reading the Twilight series, but she admits that many a fanfiction story based on it is actually better than what Stephanie Meyer wrote. For myself on the subject, I have said publicly that the canon books in the series are dull up until the wedding in book 4, which means that 3 and 1/4 books of the story are boring to me. I can cite why, but I'm not sure anyone here cares.

Avistew · 03/05/2010, 03:27 am

I love Harry Potter too. Sure, I'm 25, making me "only" 14 when I started reading them, but still, I don't see them as "kid books".
And even if they are, well so what, I still love Roald Dahl. His books are great. I loved Coraline (the book. I didn't like the movie as much).
Good books are good books, just because they're targeted to someone who isn't me doesn't mean I won't like them.

But as far as Harry Potter goes, I've always known more adult fans than kid fans, so it's hard for me to call it "children books".

Chyron8472 · 03/05/2010, 06:28 am

Same goes with Narnia.

oh, and The Hobbit was also written as a kid's book.

Secret Fawful · 03/05/2010, 06:11 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lennie Melvin

Dr Zhivago by Pasternak is my absolute favourite book followed closely by Last of the Mohicans by JF Cooper and The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. Actually anything by Dostoyevsky is great!
Reading The Brothers Karamazov at the mo' but it's taking a while

Yes! Awesome! The Brothers Karamazov is my favorite book ever! I love Dostoevsky! It's one of the most complex wonderful stories ever. It's got stories inside the story; that's how good it is! The movie wasn't too bad either; it had William Shatner as Alyosha, Richard Baseheart as Ivan, and Yul Brenner as Dmitri. My favorite casting was Smerdjykov, who was wonderfully portrayed. While reading the book I heard Peter Lorre in my head, and the guy they got was really close in manner and voice to Lorre. There was a more recent film version made in the Czech Republic that I hear is fantastic as well I want to see.

Purp · 03/05/2010, 07:54 pm

Another book series I enjoy is Lawrence Block's "Burglar" series with Bernie Rhodenbarr, and S.J. Rozan's Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series as well.

brunner · 03/05/2010, 08:34 pm

The Areas of My Expertise and More Information than you Require by John Hodgman are personal favorites.

Anything by Stephen King is good, but my favorite novel of his is called Bag of Bones. He also has a great non-fiction book called On Writing that I recommend very highly to anyone who wants to make a living with words.

The 7th Son trilogy by J.C. Hutchins is extremely immersive. If you haven't looked into the Podiobook subculture, you should start with 7th Son: Descent.

I am a huge Thomas Harris nut, but my favorite book of his is called Hannibal. It differs quite a bit from the movie. If you've already read Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, check this out for sure.

Lovecraft was completely and utterly insane, but he writes incredibly unique prose. If you've never read any of his novels, The Call of Cthulhu is always a great place to start.

As for biographies, my favorites would be the Autobiography of Malcolm X and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.

03/03/2010, 05:59 am	#50
taumel Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 2,654	0111 recommendations from me (random thoughts order): Perfume (Patrick Süskind) Alastor, Cugel's Saga, ... (Jack Vance) Faust (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) The Flying Sorcerers (Larry Niven & David Gerrold) World of Tiers (Philip José Farmer) Chess Story (Stefan Zweig) Elisabeth II (Thomas Bernhard) and many many more. Oh and of course The National Inquisitor, issue 29.3.1997. Last edited by taumel; 03/03/2010 at 08:06 am.

03/04/2010, 11:45 pm	#51
Purp Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 24	I love the Harry Potter books. She knew what she was doing. (P.S. I am not a kid, I am cough, cough years old). Also, I am rereading the Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun, which has all the realism of a hallucination, but they're very...comforting books, I guess. I do like Stephen King's early stuff, especially 'Salem's Lot. Now THAT was a good book. __________________ Let's Dance!!

03/05/2010, 07:54 pm	#56
Purp Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 24	Another book series I enjoy is Lawrence Block's "Burglar" series with Bernie Rhodenbarr, and S.J. Rozan's Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series as well. __________________ Let's Dance!!

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03/01/2010, 02:25 pm	#41
Kroms Knows Pi backwards. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 774	I loved Harry Potter as a kid, but think the quality dipped a little towards the end. Rowling got lazy. Hallows had some great parts, but Prince fumbled the ball, tripped over it, smashed its head on the ground and then barely made it to the finish line. The last chapters are great, but for the most part the book's rather empty. (Or maybe I dislike it because a bunch of annoying pre-teenage girls I was related to kept blabbing about Radcliffe, and I couldn't get the cast out of my head as I read the book.)

03/01/2010, 02:34 pm	#42
No Cease Fires Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Posts: 4	Just finished Don DeLillo's Great Jones Street. It's about a young rock star who gets sick of the celebrity life and opts for obscurity in some NYC apartment. Spins out into Pynchon-esque conspiracy craziness. DeLillo's a hell of a writer. He writes in fragments but they are beautiful, funny, insightful fragments. I find I write my best stuff when I'm reading a book of his. His work is endlessly inspirational. Great thread, Kroms!

03/01/2010, 06:36 pm	#43
Ignatius Reilly Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Argentina Posts: 486	Im with "The Guermantes Way" the third book of "In Search of Lost Time" 3 done, 4 to go.

03/02/2010, 02:34 am	#46
Avistew I<3>1 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: France Posts: 5,051	True, I was just thinking that most US shows are 24-26 episodes longs (or so it seemed to me) while major British series (Dr Who, Black Adder) tend to have less. But yeah, shows from North America sometimes have short seasons too. In book-related news, I've also been re-reading some Werber. I believe only two of his books have been translated into English. First "Empire of the Angels" which I don't really recommend because it's a sequel and the first book, The Thanatonauts, apparently hasn't been translated... Shame since it's my all time fav by this author. And then "Empire of the Ants", originally "The Ants", his first book, that they probably thought "hey, let's name it similarly to that other book he wrote ten years later so people know it's the same author!"... I DO recommend (Empire of) the Ants, even if it's the first in a trilogy and the only translated one (although it's stand-alone, the other two are just sequels that weren't planned at first, and even if you can read French I don't recommend the third one all that much anyways) Oh, maybe I should explain what the book is about. Well, first, I should explain that Werber's unique style intertwines several stories, with artiles from various sources in between. In Les Fourmis (Empire of the Ants), one story revolves around a man who inherits a place from his uncle he barely knew, and his uncle leaves a message "DON'T GO TO THE BASEMENT". His uncle was studying ants. The second story has ants as main characters, and is a thriller. A male is part of an expedition, all other ants die, he tries to warn the anthill but nobody listens to him, and soon he's chased by rock-smelling ants from the colony trying to kill him, which is insane as they're part of the same organism. The articles here and there relate to ants and other social insects, and sometimes to various pieces of informations about just anything. Oh, and the two stories ARE related. His stories always end up being related to each other even if it's not always obvious at first just how.

03/02/2010, 09:01 am	#49
Lennie Melvin Nice monkey suit Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Ye Olde England Posts: 737	Dr Zhivago by Pasternak is my absolute favourite book followed closely by Last of the Mohicans by JF Cooper and The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. Actually anything by Dostoyevsky is great! Reading The Brothers Karamazov at the mo' but it's taking a while

03/05/2010, 03:27 am	#53
Avistew I<3>1 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: France Posts: 5,051	I love Harry Potter too. Sure, I'm 25, making me "only" 14 when I started reading them, but still, I don't see them as "kid books". And even if they are, well so what, I still love Roald Dahl. His books are great. I loved Coraline (the book. I didn't like the movie as much). Good books are good books, just because they're targeted to someone who isn't me doesn't mean I won't like them. But as far as Harry Potter goes, I've always known more adult fans than kid fans, so it's hard for me to call it "children books".

03/05/2010, 06:28 am	#54
Chyron8472 Killer Walrus Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Tulsa, OK, USA Posts: 4,070	Same goes with Narnia. oh, and The Hobbit was also written as a kid's book.

03/05/2010, 08:34 pm	#57
brunner Messiah Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Delaware Posts: 83	The Areas of My Expertise and More Information than you Require by John Hodgman are personal favorites. Anything by Stephen King is good, but my favorite novel of his is called Bag of Bones. He also has a great non-fiction book called On Writing that I recommend very highly to anyone who wants to make a living with words. The 7th Son trilogy by J.C. Hutchins is extremely immersive. If you haven't looked into the Podiobook subculture, you should start with 7th Son: Descent. I am a huge Thomas Harris nut, but my favorite book of his is called Hannibal. It differs quite a bit from the movie. If you've already read Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, check this out for sure. Lovecraft was completely and utterly insane, but he writes incredibly unique prose. If you've never read any of his novels, The Call of Cthulhu is always a great place to start. As for biographies, my favorites would be the Autobiography of Malcolm X and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs.