See you then...I'll post again in a year.
"What are you reading?" thread.
- Thread starter HoboNinja
- Start date
Ever have a book that took you forever to finish? I finally finished FRANKENSTEIN & PHILOSOPHY tonight. It's a collection of philosophy essays on, well, Frankenstein.
I liked it, but I had to be in the right mood for reading such an essay. I've had it for years.
What didn't help is there wasn't a great deal of variety in the essays. I've read other "& PHILOSOPHY" books, but they were on broader subjects.
There's only so many times you can read essays about one book before a lot of them feel they're repeating themselves.
I found even THE MATRIX & PHILOSOPHY had more variety of essays. And it's not to say the essays here were uninteresting. But they'd, say, pull the same quotes.
I liked it, but I had to be in the right mood for reading such an essay. I've had it for years.
What didn't help is there wasn't a great deal of variety in the essays. I've read other "& PHILOSOPHY" books, but they were on broader subjects.
There's only so many times you can read essays about one book before a lot of them feel they're repeating themselves.
I found even THE MATRIX & PHILOSOPHY had more variety of essays. And it's not to say the essays here were uninteresting. But they'd, say, pull the same quotes.
I started The Fellowship of the Ring in 3rd grade. Still haven't finished.
I will be starting the Handmaid’s Tale with my oldest. She’s easing it for school and I have it on Kobo and forgot to finish it so win/win 
I've lost count of the number of books I started and never finished. I meant books that you finished, but it took you an ungodly amount of time to finish for whatever reason.
That might be Tong Lashing, then. It and the other two books in the series are full and well-written, but they are not what I would call "satisfying." And I know that's on purpose, and I cursed Peter David for making me actually want to finish reading them in spite of what was happening with the characters.
--Patrick
I think my record might be A Dance With Dragons, at around two years. I remember reading the last few hundred pages running on hate and spite on a 6-hour bus ride home because my sister wanted to borrow it and I was determined to FINISH the bloody thing before I lent it.
But it was an ordeal.
But it was an ordeal.
Love, agree, first bump... Yeah.
It's fine, I'm just unhappy with how something in the middle of the book happened.
Have you read the short story anthologies btw? There's one short story in Brief Cases called Cold Case which is very significant to what is going on with Carlos.
I highly recommend you do so. It makes every interaction Harry has with Carlos *so much worse*.
Brandon fans, there is a new Stormlight novella called Dawnshard out that takes place between Oathbringer and Rhythm of War that I recommend you pick up before the next book comes out on Tuesday.
Also, you can read the first 19 chapters of Rhythm of War on Tor.com, or listen to the audio book from Brandon's YouTube channel.
That said, if you haven't yet, I *strongly* recommend you read Warbreaker before you read Rhythm of War (and probably Dawnshard).
Also, you can read the first 19 chapters of Rhythm of War on Tor.com, or listen to the audio book from Brandon's YouTube channel.
That said, if you haven't yet, I *strongly* recommend you read Warbreaker before you read Rhythm of War (and probably Dawnshard).
Dresden starts getting good around book 3, but read a summary of the first two books because there are details that come up later. Especially from the second book.I've been looking for a new series to try and get engrossed in. The Dresden books sound like I might enjoy them, but, well, there's a lot of them. Any suggestions for reading/buying order? Series of 10+ books are often not at their best when being read from the top
Dresden really is supposed to be read in order as details from one book will get referred back to later. If you must skip about in the reading order there are 2 ongoing plotlines that crop up regularly - these are the vampire war books 3, 6, 9 & 12 and the denarian books 5, 10, & 15 which will refer back to earlier books in that storyline.I've been looking for a new series to try and get engrossed in. The Dresden books sound like I might enjoy them, but, well, there's a lot of them. Any suggestions for reading/buying order? Series of 10+ books are often not at their best when being read from the top
Also absolutely DO NOT read any book past number 12 until you read that book. It is called Changes for a reason.
Comics, yo!
Dracula, Montherf**ker! - Weird, pulpy vampire story set in LA in the seventies. Super short, but the art is terrific.
Slaughterhouse Five, the Graphic Novel: I just started this, but I love Vonnegut and the original book, and judging from the tone of the first few pages (which are about Vonnegut and this book), I think it's going to be perfect. It doesn't hurt that it's adapted by Ryan North, who has yet to do anything I haven't enjoyed.
Dracula, Montherf**ker! - Weird, pulpy vampire story set in LA in the seventies. Super short, but the art is terrific.
Slaughterhouse Five, the Graphic Novel: I just started this, but I love Vonnegut and the original book, and judging from the tone of the first few pages (which are about Vonnegut and this book), I think it's going to be perfect. It doesn't hurt that it's adapted by Ryan North, who has yet to do anything I haven't enjoyed.
Dave
Staff member
And every one of them will be worth reading.
Dave
Staff member
I'm currently rereading the Safehold series by David Weber. It's got an interesting premise but god DAMN do you have to like naval battles, tactics, and engineering. Holy shit just pages and pages of dry problem solving. And not like "The Martian" level of entertaining, but very dry and involved. I suspect Pat would really like it.
Pretty sure he's admitted to deliberately writing lots of padding so the same story gets stretched over multiple extra books in order to put his kids through college.
Probably not (though I still haven't read/seen The Martian). I enjoy a good unraveling and/or dissection of strategy, mystery, or technical hurdle (Burke's Connections series, for instance), but boring is boring. If I wanted to read long, dry, tedious prose about the machinations of the establishment, I'd go read something nonfiction, like a history of taxonomy or something.
--Patrick
figmentPez
Staff member
I wonder how Issac Asimov would chart like this. I didn't immediately find a total word count for him, but he did top 7.5 million words in the first 19 years of his publishing history, and wrote for another 23 years.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, the first 19 years has about the same trajectory as Stephen King, using those numbers.
figmentPez
Staff member
King's first book was Carrie in 1974, by that chart he hadn't even passed 6 million by the year 2000, 26 years later. So, no, they aren't the same trajectory.