951 replies to this topic

[Chaac]

Yes.

Personally, I loose track of the narration with an audiobook. It ends up tiring me, or going too fast, or too slow (when I read, my rythm and speed vary accordingly to the story). Plus I like listening to some music when I read.

And if it's in English I find it a bit harder to follow than in written form, as I'm not a native speaker. If it's a particularly complex text I need to read it at my own speed going back and forth.

[Ren]

Has no one listened to Jim Dale!?!?!? He's incredible.

[Quint]

From the Carry On movies?

[Wojo]

Has no one listened to Jim Dale!?!?!? He's incredible.

I read the first three Harry Potters in paperback, but completed the series by listening to his narration in the audiobooks. They were superb.

[Joey]

I hate audiobooks.

why, they are wonderful.

I love them. They are great for books you simply cannot get into.

I wonder if audiobooks is an American thing. I mean, I don't know anyone here in Europe who listen to audiobooks (even children).

Audiobooks is something I don't understand, personally. I can read. Why would I let anyone read a book for me?

because there is something magical about being read too.
Audiobooks are great for long trips. I don't know how many of you Europeans actually drive for hours upon end but some of us do over here. When I drive to see my mom I can usually listen to about 1/3 of an audio book, 6 hours or so. I get tired of music. An audio book forces me to concentrate and I get less tired on long drives.

Wojo is correct, the Jim Dale read Harry Potter novels are superb.

[Jason LeBlanc]

The last book I read was Ender's Shadow

For a book that more or less covers the same events as Ender's Game, there's almost no overlap or redundant passages at all. Bean's story is a captivating one, I was hooked from the very first few pages. It is very interesting to read this story from the eyes of a super-super-genius surrounded by super-geniuses. It's interesting how much he figures out on his own and how it never feels forced. The only problem I had with the book was the end. Everything was paced beautifully up through when Ender leaves for Command School, then all of a sudden the book becomes rushed and flies past many parts only referring to them in a minor way. You wait the whole book to see what happens when Bean gets to lead Dragon Army, then it gets there and all his battles are just talked about after the fact. Disappointing. Overall though, a terrific book. I'm almost afraid to continue on with the shadow series, because I have a feeling they won't live up to this at all. I am more interested in Bugger stories than civil war on earth and political procedings

[Trent Hoyt]

Assholes Finish First by Tucker Max

This is the second book of his. He has one more in the 'fratire' genre. These books are simply stories of him drinking and hooking up. It's like 50 Shades of Grey for guys.

[Chaac]

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali.

Brutal narration about the end of the Andalusians at the hands of the Castilian conquerers, right before they turned to America to continue the same thing. The pace of the narration is slightly awkward at times but I didn't care. It's more worried about getting you in the head of the people and the ambience of the Granada of the time than in developing a complicated story, which I appreciate given the complexity of this part of our history.

[Romão]

That sounds fascinating. Is it an historical novel or an historical narrative?

[Chaac]

It's a novel, it's centered around a fictional family within the historical events.

[Romão]

Thank you for this, I'm going to check it out

[ShowUStheHOOK]

Mary Reilly ( by Valerie Martin )

[Luke Skywalker]

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali.

Brutal narration about the end of the Andalusians at the hands of the Castilian conquerers, right before they turned to America to continue the same thing.

???

good riddance! Andalusians were the conquerors here...

It's not the same as in america.

BTW, why are we always the badguys?

[Chaac]

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree by Tariq Ali.

Brutal narration about the end of the Andalusians at the hands of the Castilian conquerers, right before they turned to America to continue the same thing.

???

good riddance! Andalusians were the conquerors here...

When the Imazighen / Arabic army entered the Peninsula they weren't Andalusis. They became so later through cultural synchretism. First, the southern romance didn't stop being spoken, and it was written in the Arabic alphabet. The population largely adopted a form of Maghrebi Arabic that differenciated itself from the African forms in several ways, including influence by romance languages, thus the appearance of Andalusi Arabic (presumably the word Andalus comes from a Gothic word for the Baetica). Most of the population were the previously existing Latins being included within the Islamic/Arabic world. In my opinion the invader armies were too small to destroy and repopulate the land, and it was too fast through a very large territory.

Of course we can indeed say the Andalusi armies caused destruction in the North, once we have the Andalusis themselves. And there came a lot more of Imazighen/Bereber from Northern Africa, I think.

BTW, why are we always the badguys?

We aren't. The bad guys are religion, ignorance, ideas of cultural superiority or inferiority, conviction of revelation and absolute knowledge, destruction of languages and literature...

[Luke Skywalker]

yeah i suppose i generalised...

neither the castillians or aragonese 'reconquered' any territories... since they didnt exist when those were lost...

i suppose it all ends viewed from the point of view of islam vs catholicism

[Wojo]

The bad guys are religion, ignorance, ideas of cultural superiority or inferiority, conviction of revelation and absolute knowledge, destruction of languages and literature...

Don't forget smallpox blankets.

[Chaac]

Heh, I just googled that. Ugh.

[Chaac]

I picked up again Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (1993), which I had left aside. The novel wants to be a serius chronicle of the colonization of Mars, from a classic perpective. I don't like everything in it: some sections lack rythm and there's a boring and somewhat irrelevant mystic aspect to a few moments. However, there's some fascinating material on this book. The characters are well developed although archetypal. It's easy to find someone to appreciate, or someone to hate (and I suspect that it would be different for everyone.) As I keep reading, I find that there's some incredibly powerful ideas. And I think a film adaptation of this material could be mindblowing.

I want to get the new 2312 by the same guy.

[Chaac]

Starting Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian.

[Wojo]

I'm in the middle of at least two books. Game of Thrones is at my apartment, and the second book of The Engineer Trilogy (Evil for Evil) is at my parents' house when I visit. I rarely take the books back and forth. I also began a nonfiction book about Hoover Dam last year, but loaned the book to my father when reading for my classes required my concentration; I'll complete it when he's done with it. Depending on how I feel after GoT will determine whether I buy the rest of the series up to this point, or move on to what I really want to read next, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

[Alexander]

The Hobbit

It was great. An excellent story, told in a way only Tolkien can.

After that I began reading "Dangerous Skies" by Suzanne Fisher Staples, but I can't read any further. I don't like her style of writing. It's too childish for me.

[ShowUStheHOOK]

well since I left my copy of Mary Reilly on the plane headed to New Mexico lol ( I kid you not ). I had to find a book while on vacation to read on the way back, and stumbled across a copy of THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

Anyone who liked the movie and hasn't read it, I recommend it. Usually its either a case of, " oh, the book was better" or " eh, it was a better film than it was book". In this case its " The movie was great and this is even more so"

[KK.]

I never read the book, but I thought this was one of those cases where the movie was a lot better.

[Wojo]

I never read the book, but I thought this was one of those cases where the movie was a lot better.

It certainly is one of those cases. Normally you have to read the book before you can say the movie is better, and forgive me for going all Joey-meets-Alexcremers on you, but allow me to just say it for you.

...a copy of THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

Anyone who liked the movie and hasn't read it, I recommend it. Usually its either a case of, " oh, the book was better" or " eh, it was a better film than it was book". In this case its " The movie was great and this is even more so"

Really? The book's primary gimmick is that it functions as an abridgment of a complete book that doesn't exist anymore, but which everybody famous knows and quotes from. That joke got old the first few times that it was told, but nobody seems to have told Goldman/Morgernstern/whatever his name was that information. The book was too pretentious to be funny or even enjoyable. The only really noteworthy to say about the book is how such an excellent movie could be made from such a godawful book. I hate this book so much with every fiber in my body that I pretend the Berlin scene in The Last Crusade was filmed using copies of Goldman's book.

[Koray Savas]

The last book I read was The Portrait Of Dorian Gray a few months back. It was awful. There was one chapter that was something like a quarter of the books length that jumps decades into the future describing all this irrelevant nonsense. I wanted to stop there but decided to at least finish it after putting the previous effort in. It put me off reading for awhile, but I'm looking forward to getting back into my pattern once I get the Kindle Paperwhite.

I need to finish my Hemingway.

[ShowUStheHOOK]

I never read the book, but I thought this was one of those cases where the movie was a lot better.

It certainly is one of those cases. Normally you have to read the book before you can say the movie is better, and forgive me for going all Joey-meets-Alexcremers on you, but allow me to just say it for you.

...a copy of THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

Anyone who liked the movie and hasn't read it, I recommend it. Usually its either a case of, " oh, the book was better" or " eh, it was a better film than it was book". In this case its " The movie was great and this is even more so"

Really? The book's primary gimmick is that it functions as an abridgment of a complete book that doesn't exist anymore, but which everybody famous knows and quotes from. That joke got old the first few times that it was told, but nobody seems to have told Goldman/Morgernstern/whatever his name was that information. The book was too pretentious to be funny or even enjoyable. The only really noteworthy to say about the book is how such an excellent movie could be made from such a godawful book. I hate this book so much with every fiber in my body that I pretend the Berlin scene in The Last Crusade was filmed using copies of Goldman's book.

Regarding Goldman's book. First time I read it, I agreed with what you are saying. I still do. I think the first time I didn't get any further than the first few chapters. This time, however, I largely ignored Goldman's " editor's notes" throughout and was able to tolerate it more. I do agree its shocking the movie is as good as it is when compared to the source material. At least the memorable lines from the film are in the book as well. One of the best being

" you keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it does"

[Wojo]

Fair enough. I rather enjoyed Moby Dick when I skipped all the chapters that explain how to kill whales.

[Trent Hoyt]

Live From New York

A history of Saturday Night Live told by those involved. The book is ten years old, they should do an update.

[KK.]

I never read the book, but I thought this was one of those cases where the movie was a lot better.

It certainly is one of those cases. Normally you have to read the book before you can say the movie is better, and forgive me for going all Joey-meets-Alexcremers on you, but allow me to just say it for you.

Maybe I will someday. And what I said was never my personal opinion of the book, I just read in some other thread that it was supposedly better and pointed it out. Guess I should have phrased it differently.

Ahh...the woes of internet communication.

[Wojo]

I know all that. You were simply mentioning someone else's opinion, but not making an effort to claim it for your own. It's going to be all right.

[Marian Schedenig]

Fair enough. I rather enjoyed Moby Dick when I skipped all the chapters that explain how to kill whales.

Including the one that explains, in details, why a whale is a fish and not a mammal?

[Wojo]

I do not remember every chapter I skipped in a book I have not touched since 1994 or 1995.

[Koray Savas]

Got my Kindle Paperwhite today, was looking forward to diving into a new book, but the bottom of the screen was discolored and looked like it suffered some bleeding. Replacement should be here on Tuesday.

[Trent Hoyt]

Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore

Typical political book but he is funny enough to make it readable.

[ShowUStheHOOK]

Stephen King's: The Shining.

Why? I don't know. Just suddenly had the urge to read this one again.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Read the first chapter of The Hobbit on my phone last night, free sample from Google Play store

[BloodBoal]

Best first chapter ever!

[Koray Savas]

Will finish Casino Royale whenever I pick it up again. All the Bond books free for Prime members? I shall partake.

[Jason LeBlanc]

Wait, really? Holy shit. Do you need a kindle to view them or are they like PDFs? Cause I was just telling my GF how I would love to read the Bond books. I'm a prime member but have only ever taken advantage of the free shipping, not any of the other random stuff they give to prime members. hmmm

[Koray Savas]

Random stuff? Like free movie and TV streaming? That's how I've been watching Fringe.

Certain books are free to rent. Prime has had a library aspect to it for a little while now. You can check out one book per month and take as long as you want to read it. You do need a Kindle though.

Otherwise they're $7 a pop.