Book Club

Walker · 10-09-2009

We've had a few threads about books before, but I feel the need to make a thread specifically to talk about what books we've read recently.

I just finished "Martian Time-Slip," by Philip K. Dick, which was typically bat****, and after that "The Sunrise Lands" an alternate history/future by S.M. Stirling. Both were good, but very weird, especially Time-Slip.

I also just started "Unseen Academicals," the new Discworld. It's... I don't know. I like it so far, but it seems... a little different from the others for some reason.

Anyone else read any of these? Have any of your own to discuss? Come on in an find something to argue about!

Welcome to Book Club. Please break the first rule.

Firis · 10-09-2009

Jsut started Dune...

Recently read:
Plague
Halo: COle Protocol
Lirael

Walker · 10-09-2009

OOoh! Lirael! I love Garth Nix. Lirael is the second one, right? Did you read Sabriel first, or just come across Lirael? They're both pretty damn good. So's the sequel, Abhorsen. And the short story, Creature in the Case.

I haven't read Cole Protocol yet-- I actually hear that it's pretty bad. What do you think?

I also tried to read the Dune series at one time in the past, but I never really liked it. Too long of a series, and I didn't read it all at once, so I ended up reading bits and pieces and forgetting where I was and what was happening and what I had and had not read.

Firis · 10-09-2009

I LOVE Dune so far... And crap, didn't mean Lirael, I meant the third one... Abhorsen I think? LOVE the author, I hope they make a movie of it jsut to get it out to more people. Cole isn't all that good imo... I am not a very big reader usually, I have to be in the right mood... But I do love reading more than most anything else when I am in that mood.

Walker · 10-09-2009

Yeah, Abhorsen is the third one. I do like the author. Some of what he's written is a little bit too young for me by now (The Seventh Tower series) but Keys to the Kingdom is still good, and the standalone novel, Shade's Children, was also entertaining. Keys to the Kingdom actually reminds me of Artemis Fowl, in that it seems almost like it's targeted at a younger audience, but is still entertaining for older.

Glad you're liking Dune. I think I enjoyed the first book, but it got confusing after that.

I haven't really looked into Cole that much-- who does it focus on, Sgt. Johnson?

EDIT: And yeah, I'm a HUGE bookworm. This semester of college has eaten into my reading time, but I'm still addicted.

Firis · 10-09-2009

No, that was Contact Harvest, Harvest focused on Dadab the grunt, Lighter Than Some the Engineer, Johnson and Jenkins (Yay!) COle protocol follows Cole, Keyes and Spartan Gray Team if memory serves... Keyes was still cool but other than that? Meh...
yeah, I have always loved Dune, just never got reading the books until today.

PhilistineEars · 10-09-2009

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should be on your list 'will reads'.

Edit: Speaking about the Douglas Adams version and not the made from movie version like they do sometimes.

Walker · 10-09-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firis

No, that was Contact Harvest, Harvest focused on Dadab the grunt, Lighter Than Some the Engineer, Johnson and Jenkins (Yay!) COle protocol follows Cole, Keyes and Spartan Gray Team if memory serves... Keyes was still cool but other than that? Meh...
yeah, I have always loved Dune, just never got reading the books until today.

Oh, okay. I read Contact Harvest but all I really remember was the cargo linear accelerator being turned into a MAC gun, and a militarized bulldozer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilistineEars

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should be on your list 'will reads'.

Yeah, I like Hitchhiker's guide. I actually just listened to it on audiobook a few weeks ago, and I liked it better than when I first actually read it, but maybe that was just because Reaver was reading it. Seriously, though, it worked better out loud than read, even if I didn't have the original radio play.

cheezMcNASTY · 10-09-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhilistineEars

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should be on your list 'will reads'.

Edit: Speaking about the Douglas Adams version and not the made from movie version like they do sometimes.

agreed, my favorite quote from the author:

Warning, this is a spoiler!

along with the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series several other favorites of mine include
1984 - George Orwell, Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (pah-lah-nick), and some assorted tales of HP Lovecraft...the guy who created Cthulhu

my most recent read was Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk... it was very interesting, and as much as i love his writing style, he tends to dwindle a little too much in the surreal reality of the main characters mind in some of his less famous novels. While interesting, some of it can't help but make you wonder how many drugs these people must be on.....the guy in Choke (another book turned movie, same author) gets convinced that he's the reborn Christ for gods sake...anyway i'm drifting off topic now
/post

Firis · 10-09-2009

Loved Fight Club...

PhilistineEars · 10-09-2009

@ Cheez The only thing to reply about the drugs with is: Hunter S. Thompson. Literary genius, but I'd consider him the "Mick Jagger" of authors when it comes to that subject.

Walker · 10-09-2009

I've never read... Palahniuk, but I get all the written-in-one-week-while-wired-on-meth goodness from Philip K. Dick. Who has something like ten of his books and short stories made into movies, starting with Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and going from there.

And yeah, Douglas Adams is very quote-prone. But wait, what book did they base off the movie? I know they re-released the book with a new movie-inspired cover, but as far as I know they didn't bother novelizing it.

And if you like Fight Club, you better for read the comics I linked to in the first post. I'm assuming that is a parody of the same thing.

PhilistineEars · 10-09-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker

And yeah, Douglas Adams is very quote-prone. But wait, what book did they base off the movie? I know they re-released the book with a new movie-inspired cover, but as far as I know they didn't bother novelizing it.

I was covering myself in the case they published a book based off of the movie. I couldn't find it myself, but that does not mean it wasn't done. If you never heard of it either, then I would say that it most likely wasn't.

I wanted to elaborate and specify that I was speaking about the first book published in the series and not any made from movie version they may have synthesized.

Too many instances of seeing a book adapted from a movie that was adapted from a book. The Green Mile comes to mind, which was originally S. King's work, then made into a movie that was then republished into a novel based off of the movie.

Tyloric · 10-09-2009

Books I've finished in the last month:

Weather Warden Series (All of them)
Outcast Season: Undone
Doctor Who: The Eyeless
Doctor Who: Beautiful Chaos
Doctor Who: Prisoner of the Daleks
Doctor Who: The Slitheen Excursion
Life of Pi
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Daemon Eyes
Daemon: Book 1
Star Trek Enterprise: Kobayashi Maru
Ghost in the Mirror
Haunted America
The Zombie Survival Guide

What? I like to read.

PhilistineEars · 10-09-2009

^ Zombie Survival Guide... Greatness