OOHHHHHH I read Robin Hood from that series!
"What are you reading?" thread.
- Thread starter HoboNinja
- Start date
Pfft, I'm 25 and I just found out I didn't read Robinson Crusoe TODAY.Are you referring to the Moby Books series? I had that whole series when I was younger and stupidly believed that I'd actually read all those classics until I was in my teens
*edit* There were no illustrations in the one I read, as far as I recall. I don't remember the colour of the spine either, but I remember the cover was green.
Mine weren't all colored like the lower ones, but could've very well been the top ones.
All of my set (yes, I had them all) where the white and red ones. It's not a bad way to introduce kids to the classics.
Nah, you're about 10 years younger than Dave, and about 6 younger than I am. There are a couple of other 40ish ages around here also.
GasBandit
Staff member
Holy shit. I had so many of those.
Also, I tried reading Treasure Island again recently too but... Well, see, when I read, I'm also reading out loud, because I'm reading TO the little woman. And she couldn't understand what was going on because of the archaic english (she's originally from Holland). So it didn't work out because I had to stop after almost every line and say "That means ...."
YAAY! You're literally my 4th convert to the series, the other 3 are also now addicted and read ALL books in a matter of weeks. Butcher is awesome.
I'm currently finishing up 'Road to Reality' by Roger Penrose (I think I'll need to read it again). Just started "Damned" by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm in the middle of "SAS Survival Handbook" by an ex SAS member named John Wiseman. I'm also in the middle of Full Dark, No Stars by Stephan King (finished two of the four stories).
Reading, in between other things, My Momma is smart. She had me! by John Aten. Collection of anecdotes and stories from a science teacher in our local high school. Basically the title comes from an incident where a pregnant female student accuses him of lying to her about the umbilical cord.
/delurk
5th convert. Just so you know
I drive a ton for work (41k miles in the last 17 months) so I downloaded the Dresden Files audiobooks from the local library and consumed all 13 in six weeks. Soon as my Audible subscription rolls over I'll be getting Side Jobs.
Anybody ever read any Joe Abercrombie? I've heard he's good, but brutal - and I don't think I can handle much more after having finally read GRR Martin up to current.
I feel bad taking a break from Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, but his writing can really weigh on the reader sometimes and I need to come up for air. (Also, so far not seeing this as his greatest work like everyone says; I'm still holding The Moor's Last Sigh in that regard.)
Was going to download The Hunger Games for my brand new Kindle, but then I did a book preview--it's all in present tense?! How has no one mentioned this before? How can an entire trilogy of 3-400 page novels be all written in present tense? That's... just so annoying. I really wanted to read this, but now I don't know.
Was going to download The Hunger Games for my brand new Kindle, but then I did a book preview--it's all in present tense?! How has no one mentioned this before? How can an entire trilogy of 3-400 page novels be all written in present tense? That's... just so annoying. I really wanted to read this, but now I don't know.
I think I was about two-thirds of the way through Snow Crash before I realized that it was written in present tense. Maybe that was because it was an audiobook, though.
I finished Searching for Bobby Orr last Friday and started Gretzky's Tears. So far its a lot less interesting. Maybe I just should have gotten another fantasy novel or something inbetween.
Joe Abercrombie might be the one author that rivals GRRM in brutality. Holy shit.
Here's a great summary (ALERT: SEMI SPOILER-ISH KIND OF in a metaphorical way -- if you want to be completely in the dark about the series do not read the following paragraph) from http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2011/02/12/the-bankrupt-nihilism-of-our-fallen-fantasists/:
“Think of a Lord of the Rings where, after stringing you along for thousands of pages, all of the hobbits end up dying of cancer contracted by their proximity to the Ring, Aragorn is revealed to be a buffoonish puppet-king of no honor and false might, and Gandalf no sooner celebrates the defeat of Sauron than he executes a long-held plot to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth, and you have some idea of what to expect should you descend into Abercrombie’s jaded literary sewer.”
That being said, it was a fantastic series. I enjoyed the hell out of it. It's definitely in my top 10, maybe even top 5, favorite fantasy series ever -- but it takes a lot of the fantasy tropes and completely twists them into something soul-crushing and awful.
Not too thrilled with Hellboy volume 7. Usually I really love the short story/issue collections, but half of these have pretty much ended with "and then the sun came up". Great ideas being completely wasted left and right just so Hellboy can punch more things. I really think he needs to be back with the group, because I'm enjoying BPRD a lot more (just finished volume 5 of that).
Also just started The Hunger Games this morning. I stopped noticing it was present tense after a page, so that's a relief. I like how much detail about this world's situation came through in just a few pages without much of an exposition dump. I have a 10-hour round trip this weekend, so I expect I'll get through quite a bit of this in that time.
Also just started The Hunger Games this morning. I stopped noticing it was present tense after a page, so that's a relief. I like how much detail about this world's situation came through in just a few pages without much of an exposition dump. I have a 10-hour round trip this weekend, so I expect I'll get through quite a bit of this in that time.
Peter and The Starcatchers:
It's a children's book for sure, but I had so much fun reading it! It's an origin story of Peter Pan, in case anyone was wondering. I quite liked it, it's a fun, easy, read. If you're looking for a silly adventure book, I would definately recommend this. With Dave Barry co-writing, it's going to be a winner. It's got some pretty funny moments and the 'how' is pretty interesting as well. Since it's just the first book in the series, I'll definately be picking up the others.
It's a children's book for sure, but I had so much fun reading it! It's an origin story of Peter Pan, in case anyone was wondering. I quite liked it, it's a fun, easy, read. If you're looking for a silly adventure book, I would definately recommend this. With Dave Barry co-writing, it's going to be a winner. It's got some pretty funny moments and the 'how' is pretty interesting as well. Since it's just the first book in the series, I'll definately be picking up the others.
Thanks to long bus trips, I finished The Hunger Games in about two sittings technically, maybe three. For the most part, it was pretty good. I was hoping for more of a post-apocalypse feel and less dystopian, since that's how everyone describes it, but it went fine. I had to laugh at the author's vision of the future--it was very reminiscent of how 50s sci-fi expected the future to be, with lots of buttons that could make anything happen, rather than realistic expectations we've grown accustomed to with how modern day tech has turned out with touch screens, voice commands, etc.
My only real complaint was how long it dithered on a certain sub-plot, and I'm very concerned about how the movie is going to be. A lot of what Katniss does is for the sake of the people watching the Hunger Games, be it her family she loves or the Capitol people she despises, but we can only get that because the narrative is her voice. In the movie, we will be people watching the Games, and so I'm not sure how they'll get that stuff across without either crappy voice-over monologues or having Katniss visually betray her real motives/feelings, which undermines the intelligence and calculating nature of her character.
That said, while I felt that certain sub-plot dragged down the first book, it really shows its impact now that I've started Catching Fire. So bad for the first book, but good for the series. Overall though, I enjoyed the book and I'm enjoying the sequel.
My only real complaint was how long it dithered on a certain sub-plot, and I'm very concerned about how the movie is going to be. A lot of what Katniss does is for the sake of the people watching the Hunger Games, be it her family she loves or the Capitol people she despises, but we can only get that because the narrative is her voice. In the movie, we will be people watching the Games, and so I'm not sure how they'll get that stuff across without either crappy voice-over monologues or having Katniss visually betray her real motives/feelings, which undermines the intelligence and calculating nature of her character.
That said, while I felt that certain sub-plot dragged down the first book, it really shows its impact now that I've started Catching Fire. So bad for the first book, but good for the series. Overall though, I enjoyed the book and I'm enjoying the sequel.
That's exactly the impression I had that made me avoid it for the last couple of years, but upon reading it, it's kind of a mish-mash of a lot of things. You can still pick out where different inspirations came from, but they're different enough when piled together that it's not intrusive. There's a culture to the book because of the world it creates that makes it feel more to me sort of like Brave New World meets Fallout.
It reads pretty simplistically, is fairly evidently aimed at a young adult audience, and is (rather distressingly) turning out to have a rather rabid fanbase of Twilight-esque proportions... of which my wife is a member.
For all that, though, it's a decent read, and worth the half a day it takes to rip through the first book. Subsequent re-readings might come up with more detail than that... don't know if I'm going to invest that much effort into it, though.
For all that, though, it's a decent read, and worth the half a day it takes to rip through the first book. Subsequent re-readings might come up with more detail than that... don't know if I'm going to invest that much effort into it, though.
I feel myself slipping into that fan base, although not in a "Team Favorite Boy" type of way. I actually really like the world Collins has created, even if its pieces are somewhat derivative.
Finished "Gretzky's Tears" yesterday. It got easier to read towards the end, but overall I didn't enjoy it as much as the same author's "Searching For Bobby Orr". While both were focused on the business dealings and the impact the palyers had on the NHL, the Bobby Orr book looked at Orr's career more closely than the Gretzky book. It wasn't until the end, when his trade to LA was finalized and the book began looking at the reprecussions that trade had on the NHL in the United States, that I got really into it.
Not sure what I'm going to read next.
Not sure what I'm going to read next.
Just bought book one of the Dresden files. Haven't started reading it yet though. That begins on the commute tomorrow.
(I also bough Batman: Year One and The Killing Joke. These are the first Batman comics I've ever purchased)
(I also bough Batman: Year One and The Killing Joke. These are the first Batman comics I've ever purchased)