Books

Non-neopets general discussion.
Joey
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Re: Books

Post by Joey »

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18505085

Just spent the morning not studying for finals and trying to remember the last 150 or so books I've read. I know I'm forgetting a ton that I'll find on my bookshelf when I visit home next week, but I think I've got a good list built up so far! I added you as a friend Fury if you don't mind :D

The last thing I read was called Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami Haruki. I had to read one of his short stories for class and the professor recommended some of his other books during lecture, and this one sounded pretty interesting. And it was indeed awesome.
Fury
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Re: Books

Post by Fury »

Joey wrote:http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/18505085

Just spent the morning not studying for finals and trying to remember the last 150 or so books I've read. I know I'm forgetting a ton that I'll find on my bookshelf when I visit home next week, but I think I've got a good list built up so far! I added you as a friend Fury if you don't mind :D

The last thing I read was called Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami Haruki. I had to read one of his short stories for class and the professor recommended some of his other books during lecture, and this one sounded pretty interesting. And it was indeed awesome.
Not at all, thanks for the add! I like seeing what other people are reading and want to read, it gives me ideas for my own lists!
Fury
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Re: Books

Post by Fury »

Image

I bought a Kobo Mini. Look how adorably small it is.

I finished reading Deranged: The Shocking True Story of America's Most Fiendish Killer! by Harold Schechter which is a blow-by-blow account of the notorious child murderer Albert Fish's crimes and proceeding court case. I'm really interested in true crime and was familiar with Albert Fish prior to reading this but it contained a lots of details that I was unaware of. It seems he really was an anomaly in terms of sexual psychopathy and although completely disturbing and horrifying to read about, also very, very interesting. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

I'm now reading Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith which is the second in the Mr. Ripley series. I've read the first and, bizarrely, the third (before I realised how many there were and the order in which they were supposed to be read) but the stories make good reading in their own independent rights. I'm over a quarter of the way through and I'm hooked. I remember The Talented Mr Ripley being a page-turner and it seems this will be too!

I've downloaded a shit ton of books to read on my new Kobo so it's going to be difficult to decide what to choose next. It's a great feeling though, as I'd slipped out of the habit of reading for a while, so I'm excited to have all of these greats books at my disposal.

What's everyone else reading at the moment?

(Add me on Goodreads! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4743878-alice)
Jazzy
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Re: Books

Post by Jazzy »

Books I've read recently and enjoyed:
The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga - the story of a self-described Indian entrepreneur, about his way out of poverty. It's quite crude in places but has some amazing descriptions of India and an interesting premise (the story is told as a set of letters to Wen Jiabao).

Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris - about an office during the early-2000s collapse of the dotcom boom. A mixture of dark and hilarious. It's the best book I've read in a long time.

Machine of Death - a collection of short stories based on the premise in this Dinosaur Comic: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=675 . I've promised myself the sequel (This Is How You Die) once I've done my pharmacy exams.

Books I have read recently and not enjoyed:
pharmacy law books.
Fury
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Re: Books

Post by Fury »

Cool sounding books Jazzy! I like the sound of "Then We Came to the End".

I've just finished The Last Victim: A True-Life Journey into the Mind of the Serial Killer by Jason Moss and I've gotta say I thought it was really good. Another page-turner, really difficult to put down and made all the more real by my just finding out that the author committed suicide in 2006. It is the true story of Jason Moss, an 18 year old American college student, who takes it upon himself to start writing to famous serial killers on Death Row. Amazingly he manages to strike up a relationship with a few, the most frightening and intimate relationship of all being with John Wayne Gacy, who begins writing to him every week and even phoning his house. Jason was very brave in creating a fictitious persona that he thought would excite Gacy - so much so that he actually gets an all-expenses paid flight out to Illinois (paid by Gacy himself) to visit him in Death Row.

I won't spoil what happens next but if you have any interest at all in true crime then I urge you to read this book. It is a fascinating insight into the criminal mind and how dangerous it can be to get involved. I had no idea of the author's fate before reading this and I was shocked to discover it just a few hours ago - although his suicide remains somewhat of a mystery, with no definite explanation left as to why he killed himself.

5 stars on Goodreads!

Anyway, after a couple of rather intense true crime books this week, I fancied something a bit more lighthearted. I'm now reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. I am a big fan of his other novels (Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons etc.) and recently discovered his most recent novel Inferno was set in Florence, which got me rather excited. However I'd forgotten about this novel and wanted to read them in order, so here I am.

tl;dr yay books
Joey
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Re: Books

Post by Joey »

So I finally finished the Animorphs series back in June. I don't hate the ending, but there were a lot of things that could have been done much better. I think it should have ended like one chapter sooner. But it's good to be done!

Admittedly I don't read as much in the summer, I never have. But I've been in the middle of a Harry Potter reread, just finished book 4 on Friday. I'm kind of dreading book 5, it's my least favorite, so I might put it on hold since two more books I'm looking forward to are coming out Tuesday: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson, a superhero dystopia type thing, and Stonecast by Anton Strout, the second book in an urban fantasy series I picked up awhile back. Looking forward to both of those.
Fury
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Re: Books

Post by Fury »

The Lost Symbol was great; it didn't disappoint as a typical Dan Brown-esque 24 hour fast-paced thriller, jam packed with intriguing bits of masonic trivia in between the exciting narrative. I actually swore out loud when
Spoiler: open/close
Mal'akh revealed himself to be Peter's son. The thought had actually briefly crossed my mind much earlier on but I dismissed it as impossible. Dan Brown was very clever in how he described Zachary's death in the Turkish prison - it convinced me that it had indeed been him who died that night.


I'm really excited to read Inferno but I may save it for my upcoming solo holiday to Greece which is in less than 2 weeks time.

I chose Different Seasons by Stephen King as my next book. It's a collection of 4 novellas, one of which being the basis of the film 'The Shawshank Redemption'. I'm now on to 'Apt Pupil', which I'm enjoying and find myself wondering how it's going to end.
Madge
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Re: Books

Post by Madge »

I read the Ender's Shadow series a few months ago! I found them amazing. I'm not normally interested in war and political intrigue but the gay-hater himself OSC did a damn good job writing it. Real page turners, the lot of them.

Recently finished Earth Afire, his newest book in the Enderverse. Good as well, but not as good.

(rest assured, I pirated all the books. Not giving that guy money.)

At the moment I'm reading the Wild Magic series by Tamora Pierce. I read a couple of her series in high school and she's actually coming to a nerd convention in my town in about six months so I'm wanting to brush up.
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