The Books thread.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 2:10 am

The 70's copy I bought was in immaculate shape, so it does have its pay off.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:38 pm

Been reading books out the wazoo.Here are my reviews.

The Searchers, by Alan LeMay:

The film doesn't do it justice, and while Blood Meridian is far out in front in terms of the underbelly of the west, The Searchers journeys down there and gets pretty dark at times. It begins as a classic ranching tale of cowboys vs. indians, but eventually becomes an exploration into obsession as the two main characters continue their search against all hope. The exploration of the driving forces behind these men is what gets very interesting as the journey goes on and on, and although they begin with the same goal, there is conflict that arises as time makes them question that goal. I recommend it for anyone who liked Blood Meridian, enjoys westerns in general, or anyone who likes westerns but can't stand the plodding ranch drama where the cowhand falls in love with the boss' daughter. Love is something that's run over by loyalty in this one. There are scalpings, commanche kidnappings, and shootouts. I give it three mccarthies out of five.

Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke:

This was a mind bender and it was something I had to work up to as I'm somewhat of a noob when it comes to sci-fi. The synopsis is that in a time when man is only beginning to colonize his solar system, an enormous astroid-sized alien ship enters the system and one space crew is sent out to meet it. The descriptions of the ship itself can get confusing at times as it defies our laws of gravity, propulsion, etc., but if you stick with it you will be rewarded with an expansive tale that gives a clear vision of just how insignificant man is when facing all of existence. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to get into sci-fi. I think where Rendezvous with Rama stands out is in its philosophy about the role of man. You have Lovecraft, who believes we will lose our minds when faced with the universe, and then you have Clifford Simak and others who believe we will fit right in with some alterations, but here we find that we are all just left scratching our heads. It's fun. Four Ramas out of five.

11.22.63 by Stephen King

I don't know what's going on with Stephen King, but dare I say he is getting better with old age. Time travel is kinda silly imho, but here it is done very right. There is a massive leap of faith that needs to be made right off the bat, but once you buy into the method of traveling through time, you will find this to be a great adventure with the sort of sick twists and violence that King is known for. The guy's writing really helps you buy into time travel. While he is less respoected then alot of authors it shows here why everybody from highschool teens to housewives read his stuff. It's good and goes down easy and you will enjoy it even if you aren't a hardcore stephen king fan. Myself, I am by no means into all of his stuff. I think he becomes overly hokey at crucial parts and his obsession with small town people who are almost unnaturally trusting gets on my nerves. Those small town people return in this book, but he sort of makes them believable by setting them in a time when there was alot more trust to go around. I highly recommend this one probably more than I would recommend anything else by Stephen King besides Skeleton crew. Four time travels out of five.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:05 pm

Been reading Emmanuel CarrÃ¨re's Limonov. It's an insightful trip through the Russian mind.

I also got hooked on Bernhard Gunther's crazy investigations in nazi Germany, with Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy and it's sequels. A must read.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:55 am

'The Odd Brain' - was supposed to be a survey of brain conditions and facts, is more of a survey of psychological and psychiatric snippets; still somewhat fun to read.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:08 pm

Read Rendezvous with Rama and a few Philip K. Dick books spiced up with several books I've had to read for my history classes, like Justinian's Flea and Goodbye, Darkness. Overall pretty cool stuff.

DML, Rama's ending was near perfect. The whole thing was so damn alien it felt awesome. It wasn't explained, it just was, and humanity was trying to make sense of it but couldn't. Awesome book. Wasn't recommended to read the others, so I'll stop at the first, kind of like stopping at Second Foundation and not reading the sequels that weren't released until twenty years later which weren't needed.

Also I binged and read all of the Game of Throne books over the summer, so I'm waiting for the sixth to come out eventually.

jimmypneumatic · Post by **jimmypneumatic** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:18 am

oiam in heaven jack mckinney is my word manga of wisdom

Cimmerian Nights · Post by **Cimmerian Nights** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:40 am

SenisterDenister wrote: Also I binged and read all of the Game of Throne books over the summer, so I'm waiting for the sixth to come out eventually.

These are fun reads. Never thought I'd like them, but the TV series piqued my interest. Seem like they downshift in book 4 & 5 though.

Can't think of a series since maybe Dune with such a well fleshed out universe of peoples/cultures/history etc., except that Dune is more philosophical, and GoT is more chartacter/plot driven.

Any thoughts on China Mieville?

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:14 am

I wouldn't say the books downshift in 4 and 5. They're happening simultaneously, so really it is a lot going on, and the books aren't filler or anything, they're like nothing but climbing action.

Book 6 is going to be a fucking shitstorm of a hurricane when everything comes to a head.

I haven't read any China Mieville. I just looked him up, it all seems pretty cool. Gonna have to give him a try.

I've read a Canticle for Leibowitz, which was a really good book. Probably my favorite post-apocalyptic book simply because it focuses so much on the world that happens after ours. I love it and I wish more fiction actually did this with the post-apocalyptic genre instead of it all feeling obligated to take a page out of Mad Max or something. I thought it was funny, more than anything. A dry satire on the human spirit, everyone prone to making the same mistakes and no one learning from anything. Cyclical history and all that. Good read.

I'm starting Ringworld. After that I'm reading A Mote in God's Eye, and after that Exegesis of Philip K. Dick.

I've also been reading a lot of Hellboy, which is easily my favorite comic book series.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:18 pm

I've read a book by Mieville, about some bird guy who has lost his wings. It's not bad, the universe is original and there's plenty of things that seems interesting but I had the feeling it could have been sooo much better. The ending was pretty bad. Like he sets up tons of stuff and then it all ends suddenly, you close the book and you're like "what happened?". I hate it when all the paths of a story all magically tie in together all at the same time at the end. There's nothing I hate more then a good/okay book that ends like shit.

rad resistance · Post by **rad resistance** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:26 pm

Retreat to the Reich really shows how "sane" hitler was towards his generals. Their is 4 pages in the book filled with senior German officers either killed, captured, mortally and critically wounded, relived of command or sacked from June 6th to Sept 17th. My reaction was holy christ on a cracker!

jimmypneumatic · Post by **jimmypneumatic** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 8:32 pm

Cares? Uh, I met a cop yesterday named kampf. It was lovely.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:09 pm

so what were your favourite books you read in 2020? I mostly read non-fiction and won't bother listing stuff but I read Darkness at Noon for the first time, and it was excellent, in my top 5 fiction maybe

(to give you an idea of the kind of stuff I enjoy: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Slaughterhouse 5, Heart of Darkness, Roadside Picnic, Kafka. Things like that)

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:20 pm

Favorite books in general? I'd probably have A Canticle for Leibowitz, Blood Meridian, The Night Land, Starship Troopers, and Dune. Hard call, honestly. Roadside Picnic is top choice but it's only a novella so I don't know if it counts as a book book.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:45 pm

heart of darkness is a novella as well and i prefer kafka's short stories anyway, they got pages and shit, it's all good mang. how does the blood meridian compare to the road in your opinion?

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 2:46 am

Blood Meridian is generally considered McCarthy's best work. It's more metaphorical than The Road, but equally as disheartening and depressing.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Wed Jan 20, 2021 8:08 pm

going on my ever-growing list then, cheers

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:36 am

What if I told you that the most popular sticky on a forum called "Sex, Jet and Rock 'n' Roll" was a thread called "The Books thread"?

:bluepill: :viagra: :sexualinnuendo:

I only read Playboi and rock out with my c*ck out you friggin nerds :sanitarium: :viagra:

ExtremeDrinker · Post by **ExtremeDrinker** » Sun Feb 07, 2021 10:20 pm

I just started The Paper Magician series and finished another series called Razorland. Razorland was pretty nice..Post-apoc, mutants, fighting. Some parts were great, but it ended up being more of a love story. It's more for teens, but that also means you can read the whole series in a couple evenings. Paper Magician is kinda...not what I was expecting. Not sure if I'll read them all.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Fri Apr 23, 2021 10:40 am

I have now read 3 books by Camus, should have stopped after the first one as I clearly don't like his writing. He tackles interesting subjects but the writing fucking sucks

Also been reading the Steppenwolf, I had read Siddhartha before, with both books I like the first third and then it just goes nowhere it seems.

I have never read Dostoyevski before but looking forward to getting started once I get a few unfinished books out of the way

ExtremeDrinker · Post by **ExtremeDrinker** » Wed May 26, 2021 8:32 pm

Reading the Nekropolis series right now. It's nice. Also just re-read the Ender books. I know there were a few others thrown in there including one about an unknown cataclysmic event causing super-winter that was great, but I can't remember off the top of my head what it was called. The Last Human was good...Definitely needs a sequel. Zombie Road series was surprisingly well written. Oh, yeah: Zombie Fallout was a good fast read.