Craster wrote:
She should really tell people that she was looking for an S&M book and accidentally got Twighlight fan fiction. It's less embarrassing that way round.
So it seems.
Quote:
James's prose is unequivocally dreadful – it's repetitive and grammatically ick. Everything is "intoxicating", "beguiling" and "exquisite". We're told that Anastasia bites her bottom lip so often that it's impossible to visualise the heroine without calluses on her face. The characterisation is two-dimensional: Anastasia is supposed to be highly intelligent and quick-witted, but she never behaves like it. Consequently, Christian's proclamations that she's "the most fascinating woman he has ever met" give the impression that Mr Kinkballs doesn't get out much.
Mr Kinkballs?
Read the whole of "Sh*t my dad says" on the train back from that London, was giggling like a simpleton all the way home...people were staring.
Morte wrote:
Read the whole of "Sh*t my dad says" on the train back from that London, was giggling like a simpleton all the way home...people were staring.
Better than the awful sitcom then.
Curiosity wrote:
Morte wrote:
Read the whole of "Sh*t my dad says" on the train back from that London, was giggling like a simpleton all the way home...people were staring.
Better than the awful sitcom then.
Can't comment as I've never seen it but the book is a chuckle.
I know this is a week old, but I've only just read it (the thread not the books)
I know this is three months old, but I've only just read this thread and didn't realise that 'mar' said 'mar' and not 'may'
I read book 2, though "this is ok", so read books 1 and 3. Overall they're ok. Book 1 is bsically Star Wars: Fantaasy edition. Don't go past book 4, they're shit. The first half of Book 5 and all subsequent books onwards is LITERALLY nothing but a recap of the previous books. I was skipping enitre chapters out near the end, just to get to "new" stuff. Those books are nothing but filler.
The books are full of dues ex machinas where Richard and his Righteous Raging Sword of Truth manage to always just-about save the day by smiting thousands of people, his girlfriend is continually getting captured/nearly raped, even through she had the world's most powerful magic or whatever. Richard, who is the most peaceful man on the planet and is some kind of embodyment of love, kills hundreds and hundreds of people just to protect his girlfriend per books.
The 'Empire' thingy that springs up around book 3 is the most ridiculous strawman for communism I've ever seen. Which ever book is the book about the statue is the worst in this regards as it's nothing but drivel telling the reader why communism is bad. The plot is pretty hilarious: Richard gets imprisioned by commies, breaks out, makes a statue named 'freedom' or some shit from marble which causes everyone who sees it to start shed tears of joy and immediately revolt against the communist overloads.
From what I remember of that books, the reasons communism is bad is because in a capitalist society the bread makers can make x loaves of bread a day and charge y amounts of money, but under the communist regime they're suddenly only capable of making x/10000 loaves of bread a day and can't charge anything for it, and so everyone starves.
If you're wondering WHY I kept on reading, I have literally no idea. I think it's because I bought 6 onwards all at once in some mega sale and felt justified in reading them all.
That's the second one.
I know this is three months old, but I've only just read this thread and didn't realise that 'mar' said 'mar' and not 'may'
Bobbyaro wrote:
I am currently reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth' series. They are bollocks, don't read them. They are appallingly written, the characters are hateful and idiotic and the entire thing is riddled with plot devices and series extending bullshit. That said, I want to know what happens so am 5 books in (of 13 
). it is kind of like Lost, in that you can anly hope there is a solution that is good because otherwise you have wasted so much time.
). it is kind of like Lost, in that you can anly hope there is a solution that is good because otherwise you have wasted so much time.I read book 2, though "this is ok", so read books 1 and 3. Overall they're ok. Book 1 is bsically Star Wars: Fantaasy edition. Don't go past book 4, they're shit. The first half of Book 5 and all subsequent books onwards is LITERALLY nothing but a recap of the previous books. I was skipping enitre chapters out near the end, just to get to "new" stuff. Those books are nothing but filler.
The books are full of dues ex machinas where Richard and his Righteous Raging Sword of Truth manage to always just-about save the day by smiting thousands of people, his girlfriend is continually getting captured/nearly raped, even through she had the world's most powerful magic or whatever. Richard, who is the most peaceful man on the planet and is some kind of embodyment of love, kills hundreds and hundreds of people just to protect his girlfriend per books.
The 'Empire' thingy that springs up around book 3 is the most ridiculous strawman for communism I've ever seen. Which ever book is the book about the statue is the worst in this regards as it's nothing but drivel telling the reader why communism is bad. The plot is pretty hilarious: Richard gets imprisioned by commies, breaks out, makes a statue named 'freedom' or some shit from marble which causes everyone who sees it to start shed tears of joy and immediately revolt against the communist overloads.
From what I remember of that books, the reasons communism is bad is because in a capitalist society the bread makers can make x loaves of bread a day and charge y amounts of money, but under the communist regime they're suddenly only capable of making x/10000 loaves of bread a day and can't charge anything for it, and so everyone starves.
If you're wondering WHY I kept on reading, I have literally no idea. I think it's because I bought 6 onwards all at once in some mega sale and felt justified in reading them all.
dimrill wrote:
the nuns were all evil and he had to kill them. Was it Temple of the Windy Bottoms? Can't remember. I gave up on Goodkind at around book 5 or 6. Hell's Bells has read them all though.
That's the second one.
Polished off Catcher in the Rye last night. I thought it was pretty good overall. Glad I've got it under my belt. I suppose I can sort of see why some folk saw it as some kid whinging all of the time, but I definitely thought a lot better of it than that.
Not sure what to start next - got my final exams coming up starting next week, so might have a break from reading "for fun".
Not sure what to start next - got my final exams coming up starting next week, so might have a break from reading "for fun".
I'm reading the first book in the Jack Reacher series (The Killing Floor by Lee Child). It's quite good so far.
Grim... wrote:
I'm reading the first book in the Jack Reacher series (The Killing Floor by Lee Child). It's quite good so far.
I've read that. I quite enjoyed it, if I recall.
Grim... wrote:
I'm reading the first book in the Jack Reacher series (The Killing Floor by Lee Child). It's quite good so far.
My brother and Dad love those books.
Of course, in the movie adaptation, the enormous, bulky, muscular, physically imposing hulk of a man will be played by...
... Tom Cruise.
Grim... wrote:
:facepalm:
Another book ruined.
Just trying to get a few books lined up on my kindle for some holiday reading. So far I've got a couple of James Patterson ones because I've seen the two big films but never read any of his novels, and a trilogy by Robin Hobb as I've never read anything by her. Anyone got any good recommendations?
Before Curiosity pops up and says The Knife Of Never Letting Go or The Gone Away World, I read them last time at his recommendation and very good they were too. In fact, I'm not sure I ever read the final Patrick Ness one...
Before Curiosity pops up and says The Knife Of Never Letting Go or The Gone Away World, I read them last time at his recommendation and very good they were too. In fact, I'm not sure I ever read the final Patrick Ness one...
"Shipbreaker" and "The Drowned Cities" by Paolo Bacigalupi.
And "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness, though it is liable to make you cry.
On the subject of Mr Ness, the trilogy that starts with "The Knife Of Never Letting Go" is being turned into a Hollywood movie by the folks who did "The Hunger Games".
On the subject of Mr Ness, the trilogy that starts with "The Knife Of Never Letting Go" is being turned into a Hollywood movie by the folks who did "The Hunger Games".
Curiosity wrote:
"Shipbreaker" and "The Drowned Cities" by Paolo Bacigalupi.
For goodness sake, could his name be anymore awkward for searching!
Curiosity wrote:
And "A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness, though it is liable to make you cry.
On the subject of Mr Ness, the trilogy that starts with "The Knife Of Never Letting Go" is being turned into a Hollywood movie by the folks who did "The Hunger Games".
On the subject of Mr Ness, the trilogy that starts with "The Knife Of Never Letting Go" is being turned into a Hollywood movie by the folks who did "The Hunger Games".
Oh, that's quite interesting. I'll keep an eye out for that. I've checked, and I haven't read the final one. Might wait 'til I get back though.
I just read "Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter". It wasn't much cop. I was expecting something a lot more fun and fighty and Lincoln-punching-a-robot-Jefferson-Davies-on-the-roof-of-a-burning-fireworks-factory, but it was a fairly luke-warm, dry book written in sort of documentary style, which I don't think really worked.
Ignoring all the other hacks that everyone else is suggesting, I'd like to recommend two very high-brow autobiographies.
The Hardest (Working) Man In Showbusiness and How To Make Love Like A Porn Star by Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson respectively. Ron Jeremy's is better (probably because it has a lot less about his life and upbringing and a lot more about how porn works), but they both make for interesting reading.
The Hardest (Working) Man In Showbusiness and How To Make Love Like A Porn Star by Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson respectively. Ron Jeremy's is better (probably because it has a lot less about his life and upbringing and a lot more about how porn works), but they both make for interesting reading.
Reading "Porn & Pong" at the moment. Lots of errors in timelines for game release dates, but the most GALLING mistake is in describing Akira as "a film where three teenage gang members battle a monster made of pure energy". *grinds teeth*
Grim... wrote:
I'm reading the first book in the Jack Reacher series (The Killing Floor by Lee Child). It's quite good so far.
I have read about 8 now.
Started Simon Pegg's book 'Nerd Do Well'.
It's not very good so far. He keeps interspersing it with a fiction story about him and his robot butler.
It's not very good so far. He keeps interspersing it with a fiction story about him and his robot butler.
I finished Iain M banks's "Surface Detail". It was OK. Usual Banks flaws. Some good ideas but not too well explored, quite a shallow book,a couple of semi pointless characters. Best AI ever, though, in the form of Falling Outside the Normal moral Constraints.
I have fallen into the trap of reading Doctor Who novels. This can't end well.
MaliA wrote:
I finished Iain M banks's "Surface Detail". It was OK. Usual Banks flaws. Some good ideas but not too well explored, quite a shallow book,a couple of semi pointless characters. Best AI ever, though, in the form of Falling Outside the Normal moral Constraints.
Hmm. I think I disagree. I enjoyed it a lot. It rather depends on whether you think the last word in the book changes everything you read before (which I do)...ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
I'm now re-reading Excession, and I may do Use of Weapons and Player of Games after that.
I've gone off Iain (M) Banks a lot over the last few years. Recommend me something that will bring me back into the fold.
I've only ever read The Wasp Factory. It was good. I remember "greasy cock and balls" being quite a good phrase.
Surface Detail. I enjoyed Look to Windward too. I can't remember much about Matter, worryingly, though I'm sure I read it (I often find Banks' intricate plots difficult to remember after the fact though).
Or Transitions, which is an Iain Banks but is sci-fi anyway (confusingly).
Or Transitions, which is an Iain Banks but is sci-fi anyway (confusingly).
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Or Transitions, which is an Iain Banks but is sci-fi anyway (confusingly).
Did he forget which way round it's meant to be? I am just about to finish 'The Outfit' which is a history of the Chicago mob and it's role in the development of the modern US. It's a really interesting read especially the stuff about the origins of organised crime in the 19th Century, how when Chicago was developing a lot of the city was built on stilts as they reclaimed land from the marshes and all the criminal elements met in the 'underworld' beneath the city, hence the term. It's gets less interesting once it starts going on about Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedy Presidency but it's a cracking read and well researched.
Who knew for instance that the heir to Capone was a Welsh man? Murray Humphries, the nice gangster and legal mastermind.
Who knew for instance that the heir to Capone was a Welsh man? Murray Humphries, the nice gangster and legal mastermind.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
MaliA wrote:
I finished Iain M banks's "Surface Detail". It was OK. Usual Banks flaws. Some good ideas but not too well explored, quite a shallow book,a couple of semi pointless characters. Best AI ever, though, in the form of Falling Outside the Normal moral Constraints.
Hmm. I think I disagree. I enjoyed it a lot. It rather depends on whether you think the last word in the book changes everything you read before (which I do)...ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!
Quote:
I'm now re-reading Excession, and I may do Use of Weapons and Player of Games after that.
I enjoyed the beginning of the book very much, but thought it sagged in the middle. Some of the bits with Prin were too long, and a bit repetitive. That could have been tighter.
I rarely read sci-fi terribly deeply, if I'm missing things, I think it's the author's fault. Mind you (Ho, ho. Well done - Ed), it did raise some interesting points regarding afterlives. Sometimes the descriptions were overegged, and I feel it was written in such a sadistic fashion to appeal to a demographic.
My main complaint of his writings is the sexual aspect of lots of things. It seems crowbarred in most of the time, and generally add nothing. It seems to occour more in his later books,from memory (Matter had this especially). I didn't mind too much with Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints, as that was done well to set his character, but there were a couple of times I was annoyed with "Yeah, I get it, he's rich and has whores. You've made this point several times over!" or "I get it, she's neutered herself, you mentioned this about a chapter ago".
Overall, the main character was well written, the main AI superb and the two in hell were OK. Yime sort of jsut trundled along a bit, and the woman in the little spaceship was a bit dull.
Kern recommended me a book like so:
It's an account of a US marine's first hand expereinces at Peleliu and Okinawa. it's very, very good, although somewhat harrowing at times.
Kern wrote:
It's an account of a US marine's first hand expereinces at Peleliu and Okinawa. it's very, very good, although somewhat harrowing at times.
I read the first two parts of The Dark Knight Returns last night. Considering it's frequently found in top 10s and stuff for greatest graphic novels ever, it isn't exactly inspiring me to buy more graphic novels, if I'm totally honest. I mean, it's alright... I think I'll just stick to books. Comics ain't my thing.
Have you read Watchmen?
Yeah, that's genuinely great. The exception that pro- never mind.
But yeah I enjoyed that. I've also read one of the Sin City books which was alright. And some 2000AD that belonged to my dad. I guess I'm just not a comic book guy.
I mean, I've always loved British humour comics - both adult and the kiddy stuff when I was younger - but the superhero malarky doesn't do it for me.
(I'm talking mainly Viz and Whizzer and Chips. Both staples of my childhood.)
But yeah I enjoyed that. I've also read one of the Sin City books which was alright. And some 2000AD that belonged to my dad. I guess I'm just not a comic book guy.
I mean, I've always loved British humour comics - both adult and the kiddy stuff when I was younger - but the superhero malarky doesn't do it for me.
(I'm talking mainly Viz and Whizzer and Chips. Both staples of my childhood.)
From Hell. Read it. Love it.
Preacher is also good.
I'll have a look. My problem with DKR is it tries to use sort of film storytelling techniques and it makes it a little confusing as to what the chuff is going on! I can see what he was trying to do, but if I have to re-read half a page of panels to "get" it either I'm retarded or it's not working properly.
WTB wrote:
if I have to re-read half a page of panels to "get" it either I'm retarded or it's not working properly.
::types:: ::deletes:: Quiet, you!
The problem I have with comics is that it isn't ever clear which order to read the panels in, and in one panel, which order to read the speech bubbles in.
MaliA wrote:
The problem I have with comics is that it isn't ever clear which order to read the panels in, and in one panel, which order to read the speech bubbles in.
Left to right, top to bottom - like books.
Yeah there's a bit of that as well. DKR is set out like a storyboard for a movie though. The problem is you don't have a script to go with it and explain the random jumps to different scenes - often before the scene you were reading was finished. This works in film, not so much in a comic where the art is pretty, erm, "stylised".
It also doesn't help that he keeps referring to a "Jason", who upon Googling I discovered used to be Robin but he died. Guess it'd help if I knew some of the background story. Also also! Gordon and Bruce look identical with their taches at the beginning of the comic, which is also confusing. I dunno, I think maybe the art is just shit. But then what do I know? Everything I've read about it praises the "amazing" artwork.
In its defence, the story is pretty good.
In its defence, the story is pretty good.
Batman: Year One is probably a better place to start. -edit- although it was written after!
The Dark Knight Returns isn't brilliant (and neither is Sin City for that matter); I really wouldn't write off an entire medium based on it. It'd be like swearing off books because of Dan Brown.
Fair dos, I won't write them off then!
WTB wrote:
It also doesn't help that he keeps referring to a "Jason", who upon Googling I discovered used to be Robin but he died.
Further thoughts: it's a general issue with superhero comics that they end up referring to other character or situations you might not know about. When I got back into comics years ago it was Vertigo stuff I read and was utterly baffled by the popularity of the 'capes & tights' books. Even acclaimed stuff like Morrison's JLA run did nothing for me at all as I barely knew the characters or back-story. They're sort of like the longest running soap opera in the world which makes it really difficult to break into them. Once you do it all becomes more rewarding but it's a big ask for a new reader to get it all no doubt.
There's loads of other comics that don't use existing properties like Batman etc and if you're dipping your toe in the medium then I'd go with that kind of thing instead. I, and I'm sure other people here, could recommend stuff if you're bothered.
MaliA wrote:
Kern recommended me a book like so:
It's an account of a US marine's first hand expereinces at Peleliu and Okinawa. it's very, very good, although somewhat harrowing at times.
Kern wrote:
It's an account of a US marine's first hand expereinces at Peleliu and Okinawa. it's very, very good, although somewhat harrowing at times.
Aye. I've got to the Okinawa chapters. Not pleasant reading at all, but very, very well-written. Recommended
WTB wrote:
I guess I'm just not a comic book guy.
From Hell, that Dimrill mentioned is a belter & Maus is well worth a read too.Best to read Maus wearing a long sleeved jersey or something though, as Mr Spiegelman has hidden onions among the pages!
I am currently rattling through "Skagboys", which is Irvine Welsh's prequel to Trainspotting. It is simultaneously harrowing and hilarious. Personally, I think it's better than Trainspotting.
I note with interest that WTB is claiming to be reading Dracula. The first four chapters of Dracula are good. The rest of it is terrible, melodramatic bollocks.
I note with interest that WTB is claiming to be reading Dracula. The first four chapters of Dracula are good. The rest of it is terrible, melodramatic bollocks.
Page 5 of 21 [ 1040 posts ]