What are you reading? V1

[packerstk7]

11 hours ago, beekay414 said:

Yep. I'll be in the middle of reading a series and see a whole new series and do the whole "ooooh I need that" or I'll go see a movie and then buy the auto biography of the person that I just saw the biopic of. I need a god damn bookshelf lol.

I have 2 large bookshelves in the basement that are full of books I’ve half read or haven’t read. Could be worse habits though.

[thrILL!]

[Ty21]

The Cabin at the End of the World 

Spoiler

Wen just died and I don’t think I can finish it now. That was a curveball. 

 

[Ty21]

On 7/22/2023 at 10:02 AM, packerstk7 said:

I have 2 large bookshelves in the basement that are full of books I’ve half read or haven’t read. Could be worse habits though.

Same, my office is chock full of books idk if I’ll ever get to

[Ty21]

I sucked it up and finished Cabin at the End of the World 

Spoiler

•it was the first novel I’ve read about gay main characters and in my youth, I was fringe homophobic in that I wouldn’t have wanted to read for that reason. In my sage-like old age, I don’t care about that, people are people, love is love. And the fact that they were gay actually made their arc more compelling than the bland old Hetero nonsense we’ve always had. Each of them were well written and beautifully complex, and I say beautifully complex because I just watched the dumbest ****ing movie with absolutely no depth to the characters

•Wen was a fun, inviting child that was definitely far too precocious for her age and too scientific and intelligent to believe at times, or maybe I was just a dumb ****ing kid. 
•The decision to kill off Wen was so bizarre for Tremblay. It really took the story off the tracks for me and made it hard to finish  it made me think of something George RR Martin said, where he referred to himself as a gardener, tending to a story as it grows by itself rather than forcing it to develop by himself. In that respect, if he felt her death was a natural occurrence that had to happen, fine, but it felt inorganic and made me not care as much about a conclusion. Although the conclusion we got was certainly more unique.

•I appreciated the idea that each apocalyptic event was significant and terrible for humanity, but it was also natural enough that it felt like it could’ve been irrelevant from what the four horsemen of the apocalypse were preaching, leaving Eric, Andrew, and Wen to wonder the entire time how legitimate it could be. Even the horsemen themselves were given depth and comprehension to question the validity, but also the sense of accountability and duty to realize they had no choice in enforcing their structure.

•I watched the movie first. I think Leonard’s casting was good and it’s what I thought of while reading, even if it defies Leonard’s character descriptors. I also preferred the movie’s order of operation and the movie’s different ending, even if it was far more traditional. The book’s ending is kinda reminiscent of The Mist in that it’ll stick with you. Wen’s death was jarring and unnecessary, although if you’re trying to write real and not fantasy works of literature, things don’t have to happen and not happen based on rhyme and reason, sometimes things just happen. Then the decision to not make the sacrifice and walk the decimated world together and alone was a bit of a surprise as well. Andrew is a literal, serious person that is okay with denying what doesn’t feel right, even though he had made a career of the exact same subject. Eric is more empathic and clouded due to his concussion and ends up agreeing with Andrew not to act, which may contradict how he would’ve acted clearheaded. The whole story was gearing towards Eric’s acceptance of reality and sacrifice and then he threw it away.
•In the end, to save everyone would you be able to sacrifice yourself or the person you care about most for the greater good? These hypotheticals are always easy to answer when you’re sitting on the couch with no weight behind it, but everything changes when it actually happens to you. If there’s a killer chasing you, you very well might run up the stairs too to where you know is a locked door, even if you criticize the same decision in a scary movie. 

 

[MikeT14]

I got about 30% through The Three Body Problem years ago, but never finished it. I'm gonna try attacking it again.

Audible will probably be Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I'm finishing up The Poppy War there now. Kinda hate it. 

[Malfatron]

Dead mans walk from larry mcmurty

Excellent

I would put it on par enough with lonesome dove

[Daniel]

I almost never have the time to read now, with a baby consuming most of it, but I finally finished Freddy's Book by John Gardner.

It's a frame narrative, but a pretty unique one in that the frame is never returned to.  The basic premise is it's a book within a book written by the title character, Freddy, the reclusive giant son of a professor.  It's read by the narrator, another visiting professor named Winesap.  Once the book is introduced, the remainder of the novel is just the book within a book, with no return to the frame, something I've never seen before.

The story within a story is called "King Gustav and the Devil," and is set in medieval Sweden, featuring some historical figures and the literal Devil.  The protagonist, Lars-Goren, goes on a quest to kill the Devil.

Really interesting if you like the idea of a unique narrative form and literary criticism being written into the story itself.  Not as good as Grendel, but what is?

[Malfatron]

The Things they Carried. Its good

[Malfatron]

I just started it, but Comanche Moon might be my favorite in the lonesome dove series so far

I really liked the previous ones Dead Mans Walk and Lonesome Dove.

 

[JohnChimpo]

On 9/5/2023 at 11:02 PM, Malfatron said:

I just started it, but Comanche Moon might be my favorite in the lonesome dove series so far

I really liked the previous ones Dead Mans Walk and Lonesome Dove.

 

Good to know. I loved Lonesome Dove, but I haven’t felt the urge to read the others yet.

[Malfatron]

1 hour ago, JohnChimpo said:

Good to know. I loved Lonesome Dove, but I haven’t felt the urge to read the others yet.

Its well worth it, in many ways the earlier ones (prolouges) are better

I read them in order

Lonesome Dove (3rd)

Dead Mans Walk (1st)

Comance moon (2nd)

And saving the streets of loredo for last

 

Thats the correct order imo

Lonesome dove first because it was the classic first book, and then go back to dead mans walk where they are in their teens, and then comance moon when they are 35-40.

And i will save the one where they are super old for last as a coda

Edited September 8, 2023 by Malfatron

[MikeT14]

 

Had no idea what it was about, but someone heavily recommended it to me. I am about 65% through and am really enjoying it. 

Quote

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have read before.

 

[D82]

Finally sitting down to read Holly, Stephen King's new book 

[packerstk7]

Any fiction out there there that’s accessible and will change my life?