Re: The Official Book Thread

[CBarca]

To Kill a Mockingbird is amazing.

Thank you Harper Lee for it.

One of my favorites. A true classic that appeals to people of all nationalities, of all ages, and at any point in time. A beautiful novel, with many layers.

Do as McLewis has done and read it again at a later point and you will be surprised what new takeaways you get from the book at a different point in your life. The best novels do this. One of the greats of American literature for sure.

[RealGunner]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an all time great. One of the most widely used books at high school in the UK

[LoveSlug]

My news years resolution this year was to read more books and since January I have read these all on my kindle (& a few actual books that I can't remember of the top of my head)

I am the secret footballer

Deliver us from evil

A lion's tale: around the world in spandex (a Chris Jericho book)

Shocking wrestling plans you won't believe almost happened

Al Jazeera how Arab TV news challenged the world

Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger

A spy among friends

Death of WCW

The shankill butchers: a case study of mass murder

Hardcore truth: The bob holly story

The secret race: Inside the hidden world of the tour de france: doping, cover-ups and wining at all costs

Probably the most books in a single year that I have ever read.

[RealGunner]

Need to read Dark Tower before the film comes out

[LoveSlug]

Need to read Dark Tower before the film comes out

I think there is a fair few of them, the first book was really good, I really need to get round to reading the second one.

[Kaladin]

The Drawing of Three, The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass (King's best book IMO) will not disappoint

[CBarca]

Finished Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Fascinating book, especially for someone who enjoys genetics and history like me. Anyone who is interested in genetics should check it out. Or history, as it reads more as a history nonfiction about genetics than delving very deep into the science itself. Anyone who is interested in learning more about themselves as people should read it too--I've come away with a completely separate view on nature vs nurture and the incredible power of our genome on our fates as humans and our own identity as my self.

Next I am to read "The emperor of all Maladies" by the same author. It seems as if it reads similarly to "Gene" but it is focused on cancer. I look forward to reading it. I've read the first couple pages and I can tell it will be brilliant.

[Vlad the Impaler]

Finished Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Fascinating book, especially for someone who enjoys genetics and history like me. Anyone who is interested in genetics should check it out. Or history, as it reads more as a history nonfiction about genetics than delving very deep into the science itself. Anyone who is interested in learning more about themselves as people should read it too--I've come away with a completely separate view on nature vs nurture and the incredible power of our genome on our fates as humans and our own identity as my self.

Next I am to read "The emperor of all Maladies" by the same author. It seems as if it reads similarly to "Gene" but it is focused on cancer. I look forward to reading it. I've read the first couple pages and I can tell it will be brilliant.

Thank you!

I want to read Gene: An Intimate History because I am interested in every aspect you described about it.

[Sri]

Started reading Shogun by James Clavell. It is amazing. It's protagonist (John Blackthorne) is a man loosely based off William Adams, the first British navigator to reach Japan, and he is thrown in to the inner politics of the island in full force, as well as external politics by the Portuguese & Spanish who are also competing for influence and trade with the Japanese. The politicking actually makes this very reminiscent of GRRM's series, even though it has no fantasy aspects at all. One of the things I most like about it is that the Europeans are not described as bringing "civilization" to them, as you might expect from this "white man travels to exotic place" tale, but instead the Japanese and Europeans are both described fairly with both having more technological and institutional advances in different areas.

Have been meaning to pick Shogun up for quite a while now. In fact, I already have a whole bunch of Clavell on my Kindle waiting.

--

I am in a phase of easy reading at the moment, after I finished the Enchantress of Florence a couple of weeks back. I just finished Career of Evil (I know, finally, etc) - was a tad disappointed.

Thinking of reading the James Potter series, while this phase lasts. Thoughts?

[Sri]

Seriously, no one?

I finished 2 of the books now. It has its flaws but I am beginning to see why many think it is the closest fan fiction can get to the real series.

[RealGunner]

Only potter I know is Harry

[El Gunner]

Finished Toni Morrison's Sula, now I have to write an essay on it which is due Friday.
And then after that it's on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road

[CBarca]

Finished Toni Morrison's Sula, now I have to write an essay on it which is due Friday.
And then after that it's on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Let me know what you think about The Road. I haven't read it

[BarrileteCosmico]

Just finished reading Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. Easily one of the Top 3 fantasy books I have read, and it might be the best. Highly recommend it.

[El Gunner]

Finished Toni Morrison's Sula, now I have to write an essay on it which is due Friday.
And then after that it's on to Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Let me know what you think about The Road. I haven't read it

Totally forgot to get back to you.

It's real good, for sure. You can see why it won McCarthy the Pulitzer. I would suggest watching the movie first before reading, just to get some of the post-apocalyptic frames and colours in your mind, even though McCarthy constantly describes the landscapes and environment the Man and Boy travel around, I think all the information will be a bit too overwhelming and as a result turn out vague if you don't have an image in your mind already. (Or maybe that's just me again preferring visual storytelling over written form every day of the week)

I gotta say though I watched the movie again after reading the book, and the movie which I rated so highly felt a bit underwhelming, I must say. I initially thought the movie was slow ( a good kind of slow ), but after reading I realised they left out a good bunch in the movie making the movie only seem like a flash of the whole story more than anything else.

[El Gunner]

I think I found my literary hero. I agree with most of his ideologies to a certain extent, and I completely relate to his approach to writing.

Maybe that's why I sometimes find academic writing difficult. I hate it when my markers return my feedback on essays, and underline colloquial terms. And saying some of my phrases aren't in academic register. Who even decides these registers ffs. Just technical jargon so that just separates the ordinary from the tertiary educated and promotes elitism more than anything else.

[RealGunner]

Have you read 1984 or animal farm?

[El Gunner]

Haven't read a legit copy of Animal Farm, but I know the whole story of it, because it's around in school syllables. And many references get made to it. And I've actually just today watched an old movie made of it.
So so so so relevant now, back then and will be forever. Amazing allegorical and socio-politcal satirical writing, and so simple and plain while at it as well.

I plan on getting my hands on a 1984 copy though.

[El Gunner]

Finally ended up reading 1984 a few months ago, as it turns out I also did it in my English seminar last quarter. Similarly to Animal Farm, it is a timeless classic. Incredible writing. Loved the attention to detail, however for some reason Part 3 of the book didn't do it for me. I mean I understand why he wrote it that way, it certainly makes a more horrific story, but just in lead up to it, I was expecting a different ending. As I was reading through it I also thought to myself that this is not how I would have ended the book as a writer. Also didn't like the use of the book within a book. Needless exposition, if that term is also relevant in literature.

I also did another classic last quarter, a graphic novel to be more specific, and boy oh boy did I love that one. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. You should all read it if not yet. Jumped right up to being probably my favourite book of all time. Incredible, incredible book and writing.

[CBarca]

I don't recall the "book within a book" thing, could you explain?

Anyway, 1984 is terrific. What would you change about the ending? I loved the ending

[El Gunner]

Goldstein's apparent book that O'Brien gave to Winston, and then later on in the special room he reads it, and Orwell writes the contents of that book within the book itself and it goes on pages for pages. The book basically explained what "Goldstein's Brotherhood" stood for, but that information given could have already been inferred through the description of Goldstein and his clan that Winston and Orwell gave us prior in the book.


TBH, CB, I don't know how I would have ended it. But I expected Julia to feature more in Part 3. Often the interrogation methods felt repetitive and the whole scenery was reduced to this underground rooms in the Ministry of Love, except for the last chapter of course. I guess mainly it was just the change of scenery from the countryside and dystopian cityscapes toward essentially a few tools, O'Brien and Winston's mind.

Like I said though, it was still executed well, and I fully understand why Orwell did Part 3 that way and he was successful in his aim of total horror.

[M99]

Finally started The Witcher series. Finished The Last Wish, it was really *bleep* good.

Geralt is quite different from the games though.

[Kaladin]

Everyone needs to read the Stormlight Archive, book 3 is coming out next month, currently reading the preview chapters, please just listen to me and do it

[BarrileteCosmico]

Yo @Kaladin you reading the excerpts?

[Kaladin]

Yep, i read up all the preview chapters on TOR, so hyped, im going bookstore hunting after work as i heard lots of bookstores are selling it/broke the street date according to reddit

[BarrileteCosmico]

FFS kindle lowerrace representing

I was pretty against reading the excerpts, but then I re read books 1 and 2 and was simply unable to stop reading after that. So now I look forward to them a lot

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