jaxadam
Well-Known Member
I revisited Eye of the World a few years ago and it just did not have the same magic as when I was in the 6th grade huddled in the corner of a dark stormy library after being dropped off of the activity bus after school.
Books you've been reading/listening to
- Thread starter Lorcan Ward
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I revisited Eye of the World a few years ago and it just did not have the same magic as when I was in the 6th grade huddled in the corner of a dark stormy library after being dropped off of the activity bus after school.
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wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
I'm avoiding reading it until the show wraps up precisely because I've heard from a lot of fans of the book series that the show is disappointing for them. I'm enjoying the show and I'm going to let it stay that way. The books are def on the list though.
Has a slow pace at the beginning but each protagonist's story is really good.
Highly recommended if you want to learn deeply the tools for making your own program and basically every program for the rest of your training career.
RP stuff is really good, i've used some of their templates before seitching to their app.
TedEH
Cromulent
I've been doing a decent bit of reading over the last year, but forgot this thread existed. I read Dirk Gently and it was... ok? Kinda boring. Took too long to do anything that kept my attention. I read a bunch of Matt Haig stuff a while back - it's nothing super deep, but found that it hit the notes I wished Dirk Gently had hit.
More recently I've been making my way through Two Solitudes - which is a novel from 1945 that deals with the tension between the English and French in Quebec around that time. It's centered around a family that lives in a little parish just outside of Montreal, each member of which has a different nuanced relationship with the culture of the time.
I ended up picking this up because of where my office is situated. I work in the Old Montreal area, and nearby there is a square (Place D'Armes) that sits between the Notre-Dame Basilica and the Bank of Montreal. On opposite corners of the square there are statues called "the two snobs". One is a French woman with her nose turned up at the bank. The other is an English man with his nose turned up at the church. They're each holding a dog, and the dogs are trying to get at eachother, ignorant of the dispute between the two characters. The plaque under the statues calls out the novel as a direct inspiration.
en.wikipedia.org
More recently I've been making my way through Two Solitudes - which is a novel from 1945 that deals with the tension between the English and French in Quebec around that time. It's centered around a family that lives in a little parish just outside of Montreal, each member of which has a different nuanced relationship with the culture of the time.
I ended up picking this up because of where my office is situated. I work in the Old Montreal area, and nearby there is a square (Place D'Armes) that sits between the Notre-Dame Basilica and the Bank of Montreal. On opposite corners of the square there are statues called "the two snobs". One is a French woman with her nose turned up at the bank. The other is an English man with his nose turned up at the church. They're each holding a dog, and the dogs are trying to get at eachother, ignorant of the dispute between the two characters. The plaque under the statues calls out the novel as a direct inspiration.
The English Pug and the French Poodle - Wikipedia
Drew
Forum MVP
Sixth grade? You slacker, I read it in 4th.
(I agree... but it was also still very, very good, and I thought held up well as an adult).
I wouldn't worry about it - the series is 13 books long, and most weigh in around 900 pages. No way in hell they get to the end of the series before Amazon pulls the plug, unless things get a LOT better. Some of the casting was really remarkably good - Logain was unexpectedly good (for someone who barely features in the story until quite a bit later), Lan was amazing, and Rosamund Pike as the highest profile actor or actress shouldn't be a surprise but was great. Rand, honestly, was pretty good as well, and I liked the original Mat. A lot of the rest of the changes though were, well... wondering if Rand or Egwene could be the Dragon Reborn is kind of nonsensical, in canon, since the Dragon was a man and a woman who could channel wouldn't go insane.
jaxadam
Well-Known Member
Bro I'm like... two years older than you!
MFB
Banned
In a complete twist of events, I broke out my tablet this evening and went back to finally properly read House/Powers of X omnibus I bought some years ago. Needless to say it's just NOT the same reading it on a black and white Kindle, compared to a full size color tablet.
My God, the things Hickman set up in that honestly makes you feel downright stupid for just being a regular human; like, the limits to what mutants can do when they stop looking at their powers on the micro level and combine them at the macro? They straight up solved dying, they can create new bodies and speed up the maturing process, as well as reimplant their personality into these new bodies - there's no end unless you want there to be one. Or I guess if the whole system gets taken out, but you'd have a system in place so that doesn't happen.
I'm very curious to see where Dawn of X goes from here though
My God, the things Hickman set up in that honestly makes you feel downright stupid for just being a regular human; like, the limits to what mutants can do when they stop looking at their powers on the micro level and combine them at the macro? They straight up solved dying, they can create new bodies and speed up the maturing process, as well as reimplant their personality into these new bodies - there's no end unless you want there to be one. Or I guess if the whole system gets taken out, but you'd have a system in place so that doesn't happen.
I'm very curious to see where Dawn of X goes from here though
ThePIGI King
Jiu Jitsu Enthusiast
I'm normally not a book person, but I'm listening to Jack Carr's book series. I'm on book 2 - True Believer. Pretty good so far. Inspires me to train more lol
wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
I wrapped up Hyperion on Tuesday morning (in the middle of a flight without having downloaded the next book to my kindle, UGH), already well into Fall of Hyperion. The dated tropes continue but I'm still really enjoying it.
Fall of Hyperion is where things start to become more dynamic but also more intricate.
The first book is mainly the backstory of each main chatacter (loved the Kasseem and Sol).
I'm almost halfway through Endymion which is even bigger ( my edition Is a behemot of 1k pages, definitely not plane friendly).
nightsprinter
resident pat metheny fanatic
Oh shit we have Dan Simmons fans here? Dude has written some classics. Song Of Kali & Summer Of Night are killer. I have a backlog of his books here @ the house to get to. The Terror is likely up next.
nightflameauto
Well-Known Member
Never seen that edition. Love the red page edges against the white hardcover.
I love Hyperion / Endymion. Despite its "product of its time" vibe, or maybe because of it, I don't know that anything will ever knock that entire story off the top of my favorite list. I should really revisit them again. It's probably been five years or more since the last time.
wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
I'm doing most of my reading on a kindle these days, and being able to adjust the text size means page count is just a "suggestion." Planning to keep reading until I finish or get tired of it.
I also have the same edition for Hyperion. It's the only one available in Italy.
I love it but it's massive and it's very hard to just lay down on your bed and read
I'm very tempted to go kindle, but I always read at home and I don't need the portability, plus I have a fetish for book covers and seeing my bookshelf stacked up.
p0ke
7-string guitard
I just finished the Folk metal big 5 book the other day. It's kinda like the combined autobiography of Ensiferum, Finntroll, Moonsorrow, Turisas and Korpiklaani. It's very interesting to see how intertwined those bands have been and how much hard work they put into becoming and staying that big.
MFB
Banned
Boy, I sure did mis-remember how DotT ends
I remembered Roland returning to our world, but I do NOT remember that the third person he visits isn't Jake but in fact the man who ruined Odetta/Detta's life by hitting her with the brick, and later pushing her in front of the A-Train. I was trying to peace together how he brings Jake back as the kid would rightfully be apprehensive of him for y'know, letting him fall to his death (even if he did accept it at the time), but then less and less it was leading there because that's just not what happens. I also thought he did bullet magic on the two women to get them to confront the other, but I guess not, although the way King describes Roland returning to Midworld for that one doesn't seem to line up with when he did it for Eddie/Odetta; in those instances there was a door he returned through, but in Jack's he just killed the guy when he jumped in front of the train which also sent him home? Maybe I misread it but I got the jist and it's not my first time either.
So now it's onto Wastelands!
wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
90% of my kindle usage is in bed. The little cover flap allows it to rest on its side so I can read in bed while in my natural sleeping position, I fall asleep reading most nights. Not the best for my reading comprehension, I often end up re-reading the last few pages the next night, but it really helps me quiet the monkey brain and get to sleep. Also you can totally email pirated PDFs to your kindle because fuck capitalism.
TheBlackBard
SS.org Regular
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Been something of a mixed bag but a big part of my reading has been sword and sorcery with some grim dark and a dash of Stephen King.
First off.
I've been reading some of the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and not long after having rewatched Conan the Barbarian. The world in the books is MUCH richer than the movies have portrayed thus far and completely changed my perspective of Conan the character, albeit in a fantastic way. I'm having a lot of fun reading these and funnily enough, I read a letter where Tolkien himself enjoyed Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. Just an interesting little tidbit. But yes, it's been interesting reading about the character and the world with the Middle Eastern/Eastern influences.
Also by REH, Solomon Kane. These follow a more Gothic style about a Puritan who slays demons and devils and such, although some of his targets have been human if they are particularly evil, as Kane spent years going after one man whose posse ransacked a village and left a girl a victim (use your imagination). Solomon Kane influenced the look of Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing from the 2004 movie of the same name. There are some fantastic Gothic horror elements in these stories.
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. I'm almost halfway through the first book of this trilogy and I'm enjoying myself, just not quite as much as the aforementioned stories I've been reading. I find the characters interesting but the writing repetitive. Not necessarily to the point of putting it down, but these are some annoyances. It flows pretty well apart from that, though it being a grimdark series, I'm expecting everyone to die by the end of the trilogy.
It mainly follows four characters and I'm guessing that they will come in conflict with each other at some point. One is a judgmental asshole captain, another is a barbarian, a professional torturer with the title of Inquisitor, and the fourth is a magi of sorts. Not bad, I just hope the prose improves.
The Long Walk by Stephen King. The premise is that a hundred teenage boys sign up for a walk in which the last person standing gets whatever they want. If they fall below a four mile per hour walk speed, they are warned up to three times by which if they still are not up to speed, they are shot. I feel like SK kinda fucked up on the 4 MPH part, I don't think that's a walk, that feels almost like a jog to me. Could be wrong. This book left me exhausted, physically and emotionally. Think about all the bodily functions you perform on a day to day basis, now imagine having to do them under threat of death if you don't keep an appropriate speed. Great read, though.
Finally, I'm starting another sword and sorcery collection known as Elric of Melnibone. I'm very new to this so far, but it seems to be the anti-thesis of Conan. Instead of big muscly warrior swinging a big fucking weapon, we have a tall slender, frail being that uses sorcery. I don't know much yet as I have only read about thirty pages but it's interesting so far.
First off.
I've been reading some of the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard and not long after having rewatched Conan the Barbarian. The world in the books is MUCH richer than the movies have portrayed thus far and completely changed my perspective of Conan the character, albeit in a fantastic way. I'm having a lot of fun reading these and funnily enough, I read a letter where Tolkien himself enjoyed Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. Just an interesting little tidbit. But yes, it's been interesting reading about the character and the world with the Middle Eastern/Eastern influences.
Also by REH, Solomon Kane. These follow a more Gothic style about a Puritan who slays demons and devils and such, although some of his targets have been human if they are particularly evil, as Kane spent years going after one man whose posse ransacked a village and left a girl a victim (use your imagination). Solomon Kane influenced the look of Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing from the 2004 movie of the same name. There are some fantastic Gothic horror elements in these stories.
Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. I'm almost halfway through the first book of this trilogy and I'm enjoying myself, just not quite as much as the aforementioned stories I've been reading. I find the characters interesting but the writing repetitive. Not necessarily to the point of putting it down, but these are some annoyances. It flows pretty well apart from that, though it being a grimdark series, I'm expecting everyone to die by the end of the trilogy.
It mainly follows four characters and I'm guessing that they will come in conflict with each other at some point. One is a judgmental asshole captain, another is a barbarian, a professional torturer with the title of Inquisitor, and the fourth is a magi of sorts. Not bad, I just hope the prose improves.The Long Walk by Stephen King. The premise is that a hundred teenage boys sign up for a walk in which the last person standing gets whatever they want. If they fall below a four mile per hour walk speed, they are warned up to three times by which if they still are not up to speed, they are shot. I feel like SK kinda fucked up on the 4 MPH part, I don't think that's a walk, that feels almost like a jog to me. Could be wrong. This book left me exhausted, physically and emotionally. Think about all the bodily functions you perform on a day to day basis, now imagine having to do them under threat of death if you don't keep an appropriate speed. Great read, though.
Finally, I'm starting another sword and sorcery collection known as Elric of Melnibone. I'm very new to this so far, but it seems to be the anti-thesis of Conan. Instead of big muscly warrior swinging a big fucking weapon, we have a tall slender, frail being that uses sorcery. I don't know much yet as I have only read about thirty pages but it's interesting so far.
