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What's The Last Book You Read?


John Crichton

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Nightscape94 check out White Fire by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. It is a great homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a lost Sherlock Holmes tale.

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You can read them out of order but there is a beauty to the order they are in but White Fire is one of the more stand alone books.

 

11-22-63 is perhaps my favorite King novel even more than the Stand or It.Of course my love of JFK helps.

 

Speaking of JFK in last night's X Files I loved Mulder quoting Kennedy about going to the moon.

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, Drax said:

People can't read anymore. That's why colouring books are now popular.

I was a tad horrified to find out a couple of months ago that the number one non-fiction best seller in our biggest local bookstore was indeed an adults directed colouring book. Luckily people have come to their senses and now it has dropped to place 5 at the non-fiction bestseller list. The fad I hope is dying out.

 

The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Both quite tragic and humorous account of the obsession of gambling and where it can lead men (and women).

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52 minutes ago, Incanus said:

I was a tad horrified to find out a couple of months ago that the number one non-fiction best seller in our biggest local bookstore was indeed an adults directed colouring book.

 

Can't wait for the movie adaptation of that one.

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2 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

 

Can't wait for the movie adaptation of that one.

"Based on a true story that will bring colours back into your life. A life affirming tale of self-empowerment, relaxation and crayons."

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Finished Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was excellent (part surprisingly brutal, part relateably melancholic) and started Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake.

 

Anyone here on Goodreads (aside from those of you who were added to my friends list automatically through Facebook)?

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A very good friend presented me with this absolutely wonderful edition of Dune

 

http://www.foliosociety.com/book/DFH/dune-frank-herbert

 

I've read the book several times, as it is probably my favorite novel (with 20000 Leagues Under the Sea), but this edition is a work of art

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I finished reading Jurassic Park for about the fifth time two weeks ago. Still a page-turner.

 

I'm now a little over halfway through The Lost World, which is turning out to be a much more tedious read.

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33 minutes ago, Mr. Breathmask said:

I finished watching Jurassic Park for about the fifth time two weeks ago. Still a delightful romp.

 

I'm now a little over halfway through The Lost World, which is turning out to be a much more tedious view.

 

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Read both books in the 90s, liked them both, want to read both again.  I think I read JP twice, actually.  Great stuff

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Finished The Lost World. Meh.

 

I read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but I might have read the Potter books a few times too often.

 

Thinking of revisiting His Dark Materials instead.

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9 minutes ago, Mr. Breathmask said:

Finished The Lost World. Meh.

 

I read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but I might have read the Potter books a few times too often.

 

Thinking of revisiting His Dark Materials instead.

Go for Steven Erikson's 10-book fantasy series Malazan book of the Fallen. Very very epic.

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5 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

"Epic". I like that word. It's a good word.

In Erikson's case it actually has some connection to its original meaning rather than as a throwaway phrase to describe everything someone thinks to be great or cool.

 

But the work is bewilderingly complex in plot, characters and world building. I should re-read it as my memories (as with something like Martin's Song of Ice and Fire) of the intricacies of the plot are now hazy.

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3 hours ago, Mr. Breathmask said:

I read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but I might have read the Potter books a few times too often.

 

I series of books I read and enjoyed but have no desire to re-read.

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The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins

 

read it many times but this was the first in a few years. Though the outcome is never in doubt the build-up and denounement is well done. Indeed on this latest read it occurred to me that it's not until about 200-odd pages (of 383) that the Germans finally get to England to go after Churchill. Once there naturally it all goes pear-shaped. The Germans are mostly written in a way as to feel for them, certainly when one by one they get knocked off by the US Rangers in the church.

The film adapts it mostly well though certain parts naturally go the way of the Dodo not least the British traitor who is sent along on Himmler's say so, a member of the then mostly unknown British Free Corps. Or that Neumann survives (alone of the band) unlike in the film where the E-Boat doesn't make it past the defences.

A good read overall unlike the un-needed sequel, The Eagle Has Flown.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A great (and lucrative) find! Who would have thought there is yet another piece of writing from Lovecraft left undiscovered for so long. :)

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Possibly even positively non-Euclidian in its unearthly bibliometrics.

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Dead Man's Folly by Agatha Christie: Continuing my journey through every Poirot novel ever written this entry is rather formulaic but keeps you guessing quite late in the game in another murder/missing person scenario where once again true identities and dark past play a major role. Poirot is part of the plot right from the start which is surprising as Dame Agatha tended often to leave Poirot's appearance into the story to about midway through the novel (she of course had her occasional bouts of dislike towards her famous sleuth) and he is paired with the author's semi-alter ego the befuddled crime writer Ariadne Oliver. While clearly a middling entry into the bibliography of Christie it is still quite an entertaining read throughout.

46 minutes ago, Richard said:

"Great Expectations". It wasn't all that I'd hoped for.

I think the sequel should have been called "Lowered Expectations" for just such reason.

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Come on!

 

On Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Richard said:

I read "Great Expectations", the other day. It wasn't all that I hoped for. In fact, it gave me the pip.

 

On Wednesday, March 23, 2016 at 4:57 AM, Richard said:

"Great Expectations". It wasn't all that I'd hoped for.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski: Two very entertaining short story anthologies from the Polish fantasy author who has in the last decade or so become gradually more famous outside his native country due to the incredibly succesful The Witcher video games that are based on the world and novels of Sapkowski. The short stories in these collections present fairly worn fantasy and fairy tale tropes but give them an addtional twist or a new spin, often showing that all is not what it seems on the surface and giving the fantasy a darker, gritty and more tangible slant even though the events take place in a high fantasy setting with its monsters, wizards and magic.

 

There is also knowing humour and funny references to the well-known folk tales and stories that Sapkowski plucks from our own folklore and uses extensively the universal and his native Slavic folk lore and myths as inspiration for the tales and especially the legendary monsters encountered by the main character Geralt of Rivia, a man of a dying breed of professional monster hunters known as witchers, who are almost as shunned and reviled (wrongfully) as the creatures they are hired to slay.

 

Geralt could easily have become just another sword waving hero wading through enemies through the power of his muscles and his superhuman witcher powers but luckily in the hands of Sapkowski he is a complex character with troublesome past and relationships with the people around him. He is in a way a stoic hero (or rather an antihero) who in Philip Marlowe style lands in hurdles almost above his head, gives often sullen observations, commentary and philosophizes on the nature of men, monsters and witchers and fights on the good fight according to his own code of honour. Some of his good intentions blow up in his face, some of them are watered down by people's fear and prejudice of him and sometimes he is just hard on his luck or wrong whether it is a matter of fight or love.

 

This outsider status makes him an ideal vehicle for the author to give some depth to his discussions on the nature of man and life in general through the eyes and mind of the witcher, which brings a nice layer of meaning to these often melancholy stories that might otherwise reduce to the basic tropes of the genre where swords flash, heroes defeat villains and save the world. In Sapkowski's writings black and white truth is often hard to find and every situation is more complex than in many of the run of the mill fantasy novels but despite the grittier setting and darker shaded handling of the stories the work still retain often a certain sense of fantasy fun to it all, which makes it a refreshing and entertaining read. I can't wait to continue with the Witcher novel series.

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  • 1 month later...

Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski: The first three novels of the Witcher pentalogy. Thus far the story has been very entertaining. Sapkowski has a knack for creating memorable characters, and interesting situations.

 

I'll be reading the fourth novel The Swallow's Tower next.

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  • 1 year later...

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan, Deceived, Fatal Alliance, and Annihilation by Drew Karpyshyn, Paul S. Kemp, and Sean Williams. 

 

Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn.

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