The Reader's Lounge

[Celaquil]

The Reader's Lounge

This thread is for the discussion, recommendation, rating and reviewing of
books and literary works. Like with all the other discussion threads, and all
threads in general, we expect civilized behaviour. Respect that someone
may have a different opinion than you, and rather attempt fronting your
own opinions instead of raging at theirs.

Happy reading!

__________________________________________________________

Recommended by the Community:

Fiction

Fantasy	Science Fiction	Fiction
Game of Thrones by George RR martin Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Geralt Saga by Andrezj Sapkowski Immortal Series by Allyson Noel Dragon Lance by Richard A. Knaak Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Eragon by Christopher Paolini The Demon Cycle Series by Peter V. Brett	Dune by Frank Herbert Three - By Jay Posey Legion by Brandon Sanderson The Girl with All the Gifts by Mike Carey Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov The Martian by Andy Weir	Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Cry Freedom by John Briley

Non-Fiction

General	Biography
How to write a Thesis by Umberto Eco Vision by David Marr Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer by Rob Manning	Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson On The Road by Oliver Sacks

 

[Deathcom3s]

Honestly, I read the books and every time a sex scene would come up, I found it amusing. Most of the time, it felt like a dirty old man just needed a thrill. It felt... immature, to be quite frank. I have no problems with sex, per se, but rather George RR Martin's use and portrayal of it. To me, sex is an intimate portrayal of love and affection towards a very special individual. In GoT, it feels like it was thrown in there, just because he could. Almost as if he asked himself, "How can I make this all dark and gritty? Oooooh, I know! Sex! lots and lots of sex!" And then he justified it as a means to advance the plot, or whatever. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

To each his own, I suppose.

Either way, I got tired of the books (felt like they're going nowhere, feels like he hardly has a plan, and in general keeps chasing random tangents and threads and generally takes an eon to write the next book, which just involves more running around) Because I got tired of the books, I have no interest in watching the show.

 

[Celaquil]

Honestly, I read the books and every time a sex scene would come up, I found it amusing. Most of the time, it felt like a dirty old man just needed a thrill. It felt... immature, to be quite frank. I have no problems with sex, per se, but rather George RR Martin's use and portrayal of it. To me, sex is an intimate portrayal of love and affection towards a very special individual. In GoT, it feels like it was thrown in there, just because he could. Almost as if he asked himself, "How can I make this all dark and gritty? Oooooh, I know! Sex! lots and lots of sex!" And then he justified it as a means to advance the plot, or whatever. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

I'm pretty sure he did it that way thinking he'd be a modern day Robert E. Howard, or even better.
Game of Thrones is a nice praise to the old-school dark fantasy genre. And, excluding The Gentlemen
Bastards sequence by Scott Lynch, is also one of the better dark fantasy stories I've watched/read
lately.

I certainly see your point, as far as the books go, though.

I read 3/4 of the first one and quit reading, part because I knew what would happen
and part because, well. It's more of a visual story than an imaginary one.

I love the show, because it's good story-telling, great acting and nicely directed.

 

[Deathcom3s]

From the little that I've seen of the show, it does appear to be well-done. I just feel that it suffers in a few areas due to the use of weak story-telling devices on the part of the author. If it were just a show that didn't rely upon the books, I might actually enjoy it as it would allow for a lot more creative freedom.

 

[Gilles]

Also, as I suspected, the link you provided clearly states "may cause the brain to
shut down" - Apparently it isn't an exact science, and you shouldn't present it as such.

You're right, I did overstate it, or at least didn't explain it well enough.

I understood what I meant, can't see why you all don't understand the entire article from my one sentence. /s



Anyhow, not TV or film yet, but everyone should read the Mistborn novels and start the Stormlight Archives.

 

[Celaquil]

Admittedly, I haven't read the entire article, yet.
So there might be something about it I don't get.

Books. Maybe we should have a sticky for
recommendations and discussions of that.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Mistborn and the Stormlight Archives are fantastic. Brandon Sanderson does some great work. Maybe one day i'll be able to enroll in the creative writing class he teaches at the University south of here.

Another recommendation? Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

 

[Gilles]

Should tag books with Genres. Mistborn Series [Fantasy] - Stormlight Archive [Fantasy].
For something a little different from Sanderson: Legion [Sci-Fi]

Also Deathy, you read the Reckoners as well? I was disappointed with the length of Firefight [Sci-Fi]. Loved reading it though. I think I may like it that series more than mistborn (but not as much as Stormlight).

Edit: I don't really like the tags look. But I still thnik we need to somehow provide genres for the books we recommend. Also, classifying Sanderson can be hard. Firefight and Legion are not really what I think of as Sci-Fi.


Props to Keiji for doing his moderator thing and making this from the ramblings.

 

[Nuclear]

Looks like the first posts of this thread were pulled from the TV thread (for the confused).

Latest book I've read is Game of Thrones, which I'm about 90% through.

Before that I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation (sci-fi) trilogy's first book, which was pretty good. Since it tells a story about the development of a society, it consist of multiple smaller stories set in different eras and with different characters. Each story has a protagonist that will somehow solve the crisis they're facing at that time.

Anyone not familiar with Asimov (and everyone else too) should read this short story:

http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html

 

[Celaquil]

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. One of the best books I have read in a long time.

Just finished "A Wise Man's Fear," the second book in the Kingkiller Chronicles, and I'd
like to quote Scott Lynch on those books:

I'm thinking the guy really needs to kill a king one of these days. Two books, no dead king. One chance left, Kvothe.

They're good books, but they're far from the best books I've read, even if they are
great

The Mistborn sounds intriguing, I might consider giving it a go.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Name of the Wind - Review

From my point of view and in my opinion, the book itself isn't about just him killing a king particularly. If anything, it's a look at how stories, mythology, fairytales, etc. have, at the very least, a small grain of truth. It's a story about stories and the evolution of those stories, beginning with the stories surrounding Kvothe, and expanding to the Fae, Chandrian, etc. That's why I find it interesting, personally. It also looks at language, and how stories are mutated and changed in the process of translation and as different cultural filters are applied (as any bilingual person knows, there is almost always information lost in the process of translation. "Lost in translation" is usually a very accurate phrase.) As an aspiring author, and someone who loves learning new languages, that all appeals to me.

I just finished "The Slow Regard of Silent Things", the side-story about Auri from Name of the Wind/Wise Man's Fear. Definitely different, for sure.

Gilles, I actually just barely began reading Steelheart. I enjoy it so far, but I haven't had as much time to read lately so I can't form a solid opinion. But, if there's one thing Brandon Sanderson does well, it's twisting typical genre tropes and magic systems (ala Mistborn/Stormlight Archives) so I imagine this will be just as good, possibly better.

 

[PROXY]

Just going to throw this in here: if you haven't read Andrezj Sapkowski's "Geralt Saga", do it. It was the best series of books I've ever read. Everytime one came out, I've devoured it in 2-3 days. You fall in love with the characters, his writing-style, his humour, his whole world.

And if you haven't, play the "The Witcher" games afterwards. They continue the story and if you have read the books, they enhance the gameplay immensely.

 

[Kazeon]

I used to read novels about romance. Well, not really, cz the only series I have followed is Immortal Series by Allyson Noel. But at least I loved it. The time when I stopped reading books was the first time I learned about programming c:

Oh, and I read Goosebumps novels too if you know them. They are ridiculously good, childish but very nice.

 

[Orcnet]

Ah, this is a nice spot to post about books I like it, kudos to Keiji-kun!

I couldn't remember some of the titles I've read so far now, but I'll just name drop the Authors so that some of the guys here can trace their published works.

Alright let's see, I'll start with Richard A. Knaak - He's best at writing story lines based on fantasy-based games such as Dragonlance and Warcraft, my best pick is the War of the Ancients storyline and his duo collaboration of making a Warcraft Manga called the Sunwell Trilogy. I lost my copy of the Sin War for the Diablo franchise so I might pick up one again when I get some deep free space time again.

Then there's Rick Riordan, for creating a fun adventure supernatural story "Percy Jackson" that molds Greek Mythology and modern day theme, I actually manage to finish all 5 novels for just 2 days during a vacation. The film-adaptation though sucks.

I also manage to completely finish J.R.R Tolkien's the hobbit and lord of the rings novels and yet I'll do a time table for getting the Silmarillion and that little story about just Hobbits doing thug life I guess, lol.

This also goes for J.K Rowling's Harry Potter novels, R.L Stine's Goosebumps(lol 90's shit was good dope), and K. A. Applegate's Animorphs.

There's quite more here than I really want to express, but I mainly focus on fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, and modern military like Tom Clancy. I'll probably re-assemble my library again if I can squeeze a space for my desktop and gaming stuff.

 

[Celaquil]

From my point of view and in my opinion, the book itself isn't about just him killing a king particularly. If anything, it's a look at how stories, mythology, fairytales, etc. have, at the very least, a small grain of truth. It's a story about stories and the evolution of those stories, beginning with the stories surrounding Kvothe, and expanding to the Fae, Chandrian, etc. That's why I find it interesting, personally. It also looks at language, and how stories are mutated and changed in the process of translation and as different cultural filters are applied (as any bilingual person knows, there is almost always information lost in the process of translation. "Lost in translation" is usually a very accurate phrase.) As an aspiring author, and someone who loves learning new languages, that all appeals to me.

Those are certainly fascinating aspects, and educational, but personally I think Patrick
Rothfuss has something of a problem with his pacing. He dwells too much on certain
parts of the book, and simply rushes by others, and I'm not always agreeing with which
he does what with. That said, there are great parts and good story-telling, I'm just
being the bastard critic I've always been.

I also manage to completely finish J.R.R Tolkien's the hobbit and lord of the rings novels...

Why are you saying this as if it's some sort of achievement? As if you're saying:

"They were really horrible, but I read through to the end anyway!"

Admittedly, I find LoTR a little too grand and a little too flexed with scattered and
useless details for my liking, but there is no denying that it's a damned amazing story.
The Hobbit, on the other hand, is one of the best stand-alone stories I've ever read.

-

The Lies of Locke Lamora (Series) - Review

Personally, I would like to recommend a book called "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and all
it's sequels in the "Gentlemen Bastards Sequence" written by Scott Lynch. But be wary,
these are adult books, and is not meant for children's eyes or of those who are easily
offended. It's a book series about a con-artist and his little gang of hustlers in a
marvellously designed fantasy world, a great fiction with a touch of Oceans 11 and an
over-abundance of the kind of jokes you find in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Throughout the book series, so far, you'll experience daring heists, with death, magic
and daggers waiting at every corner, you'll experience piracy and gambling, there's
theatre and even the rigging of a political election. And everything makes sense.

Suffice to say, this is my favourite book series of all time,
and I really think you should read it.

 

[WhiteFang]

just going to throw this in here: if you haven't read Andrezj Sapkowski's "Geralt Saga", do it. It was the best series of books I've ever read. Everytime one came out, I've devoured it in 2-3 days. You fall in love with the characters, his writing-style, his humour, his whole world.

And if you haven't, play the "The Witcher" games afterwards. They continue the story and if you have read the books, they enhance the gameplay immensely.

I agree with this.I have read the books and have played The Witcher 1 and 2.Saving up for 3

 

[Orcnet]

TWhy are you saying this as if it's some sort of achievement? As if you're saying:

"They were really horrible, but I read through to the end anyway!"

Actually no I wasn't I think you misread it, I actually enjoyed reading all of those books in a manner that I seem to finish all of them, and yeah your right with the part where it seems like the writing can be off in some parts but its quite a good read.

I'll look up for those Scott Lynch books, whenever someone recommends me some book titles, I get this invisible excitement that I couldn't understand, probably a book-gasm? haha alright then.

 

[BlackEnvyX]

So I lost a bet and now have to read the entire 50 Shades trilogy, wish me luck.

 

[N.Knight]

I have not been able to read any book in recent times due to a very tight schedule.
I started on a book some time ago but gave it up midway (which felt disgusting) and I decided that I will now only pick up a book to read if I will have the will to finish it.

The last book I had read was some two years ago, Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. It was a moving experience as I was going through a spiritual void in my life which the book had filled in a miraculous way. Though I fear, many won't find it appealing as the ideas within it are conflicting with modern lifestyle.

 

[BlackEnvyX]

I really haven't been able to read anything from modern times either until this. In fact most of what I read is from at least before 1990. I'm incredibly hyperactive so as much as I love reading it's hard for me to sit down and just read without electronic distractions in the background. ADD can be a bit annoying.

 

[chobibo]

I've been reading my older brother's book '８０８６/８０８８/８０２８６ Assembly Language', very entertaining. I skipped stuff I couldn't understand though (almost 80%) lol.

 

[Ash]

What're you reading right now?

This always gets a good bit of attention...

What're you reading right now? I have a couple of books on the go, so I'll throw out my favourites:

Fiction:

• I'm re-reading Cry Freedom, a great book about the apartheid era in South Africa

Non-Fiction:

• How to write a Thesis by Umberto Eco, actually a fantastic and easily accessible book.
• Vision by David Marr, a really good monograph on how the visual system works, and a lot of the computational issues it discusses are still central to my science even 30 years after the book's publication.

I could list a few more, but I think this is a pretty good start. What're you all up to?

 

[Cherrymage]

Warrior, a fiction book written by Chinese-Malaysian teenager Isabelle Lee M.Z.

 

[Wasabee]

Collins wild guide: Weather by Storm Dunlop

The book was about introducing weather with colored illustrations.

 

[DEAD FiSH]

Just finished Hobbit.
I'm thinking of re-reading Frankenstein next or staring to read Solaris.

 

[Winimasker]

I'm reading THW's threads as books.

I also have read a nice sentence.

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.

 

[Ralle]

My most recent read was The Martian because I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie. Holy crap, what an awesome book. Take a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue4PCI0NamI. The book is exactly that. Awesome.

 

[Zombie]

Jordan Belfort - The Wolf of Wall Street

 

[Gilles]

I've got another Sanderson novel on the go with 'Warbreaker'. So good.

I just got into D&D and I'm reading Princes of the Apocalypse campaign. Gonna try being a DM after only like 4 sessions of D&D ever. : P

I haven't been reading it lately, but I was, and plan on, reading 'On Being and Essence' by Thomas Aquinas.

 

[nhs325]

I remember reading a book about 3 kids in a school that train the students to kill monsters, and each monster has their own "rating" (1 star the weakest, 5 is the strongest) (No, its not Percy Jackson, this book came out longer than that). It was good back in my days, but I can't remember what's the name of the book.

 

[Wasabee]

Is that book happen to be one of the Goosebumps series?

 

[nhs325]

Is that book happen to be one of the Goosebumps series?

no, I have read Goosebumbs before, so I can comfirmed it's not.
I think it got 4 prime monsters, and a person named "Mother". It only have 2 books (parts).

 

[Celaquil]

So, time to spark some life into this dusty, tiny, library.

I quite recently finished all four Mistborn books, the first trilogy was great,
and the fourth book was a genius change of, well, everything.

I must agree with what I think Gilles stated some pages ago, that Brandon Sanderson
has devised a magical system that is both unique and extremely intriguing. For me,
because it has sort of a more "science-y" tack to it and because the culture he's created
around it, with the prophecies, religion and people in general, gives off a sort of x-men
sort of vibe, in a good way.

The change of pace from the first three books, which develops extremely quickly, and the
fourth book took some getting used to. Admittedly, before I went into this series, I was
more used to the slower paced kind of reading like the fourth book. Misunderstand me
correctly here, though, I'm not saying "The Alloy of Law" was slow paced, I'm saying it
was... More minimalistic. I don't really know how to better explain it without concrete
examples from the books, and I'm trying to avoid spoilers here.

Anyway, thanks Death and Gilles for the recommendation, I'll be sure to pick up some of
his other works as well, especially considering I came over this rumour that most of his
works apparently are somehow tied together, and will eventually, possibly, flow over
one another.

-

Dune - Review

Currently, though, I'm in the process of readin Frank Herbert's "Dune" series, roughly
halfway through the first book. And I must say, for being a book I've had standing on
my bookshelf for approximately one year, mocking me, it turned out to be a damned
enjoyable read when I finally mustered the courage to pick it up.

For those who are unfamiliar with it: Dune is a sci-fi book series which takes a very
interesting tack on the sci-fi genre in general, building upon many real ideas. Most
prominently among the real things he uses is Islam and Christianity, religion plays
a very big role in this, and it is apparent that Frank Herbert was extremely inspired
by both religions, though I may venture to guess that Islam was his major inspiration.

It is, as I previously stated, a sci-fi book series that revolves around the planet of Arrakis,
Dune. A planet that has extremely few natural sources of water, and this poses an
interesting take on how the planet is inhabited and the culture among the Fremen, the
natural inhabitants of the planet. You get to see this all mainly through the eyes of Paul
Atreides, the son of a duke of a partly rich house among the galactic empire who comes
to this planet on a quest to "tame" it, by royal decree of the emperor.

Given that Paul is from a planet very similar to ours, called Caladan, or something like
that, you are given a very authentic cultural shock through the eyes of a person who
would mostly react the same ways as you would yourself to such a situation.

As I stated, I'm only halfway through the book as of now, but it's extremely interesting
thus far, with loads of intrigues and politics to rival even Game of Thrones. (Even though
Dune came years before GoT.) I'd recommend it.

 

[Ralle]

I always had the idea that Dune was boring. I may give it a try.

I am listening to Eragon since yesterday. I am three hours in and am hooked. The reader has a cool voice for the dragon (spoiler!).

 

[Ash]

I absolutely loved Dune. The spice must flow! I was very young when I read it, and I think my favourite idea that came out of it was that of Mentats. I fancied myself as one when I was younger (show me one kid that has never had a megalomanic episode).

I've took a non-fiction turn at the moment, and am currently reading Oliver Sack's fantastic autobiography On The Road. I shan't be reading it for long, though. I only picked it up a couple of days ago and I've only a few pages left! Oliver Sacks has been, and continues to be, a huge inspiration for me and my line of research. I can highly recommend any of his work.

 

[Celaquil]

I always had the idea that Dune was boring. I may give it a try.

It could be. Depending on what kind of reader you are, it certainly isn't as fast-paced as
the Mistborn books, but then, little is. It is, also, a very "old-school" book, as you'll notice
when you read it, but that mostly has to do with the fact that it is... Old.

I think my favourite idea that came out of it was that of Mentats

I'm still rooting for Hemat. And yes, Mentats are damned amazing, but then, Muad'dib
is better

 

[Ralle]

It could be. Depending on what kind of reader you are, it certainly isn't as fast-paced as
the Mistborn books, but then, little is. It is, also, a very "old-school" book, as you'll notice
when you read it, but that mostly has to do with the fact that it is... Old.

When I listened to LotR I found the pace just fine. Is Dune faster or slower than this?

 

[Celaquil]

"Listened"... *shudders*

Audio books and kindles will one day be the death of paperbacks...

Anyway, I'm not sure, really. They're different, neither is directly "slow" but they're both
packed with more information than is strictly necessary, for most readers, I won't say
"If you appreciated LotR then you'll like Dune" - But I will recommend it still.

Oh and,

I was very young when I read it

I'm extremely happy I'm not young now, as I imagine a lot of points
and interesting things would fly straight across my head when I was younger.
It's really a book to appreciate for the details and hard work put into world-building
by Frank Herbert. And I'm sure I couldn't appreciate it in an appropriate way as a
kid.

 

[Ash]

I think the reason many percieve Dune as slow is because the details are metaphysical and beyond our bodily understanding. With LotR, while dwarves and elves aren't real at least all the detail is grounded in a world not too dissimilar to our own.

 

[DEAD FiSH]

You guys should try Lovecraft for the other-worldly feel.

 

[WhiteFang]

H.P.Lovecraft?He is the one behind Cthulhu right?

 

[Rex.]

I read "How to be Rich". Don't criticize me, I know someone will!

 

[Celaquil]

H.P.Lovecraft?He is the one behind Cthulhu right?

Correct, I have a hardback-cover of all his collected works, roughly 1000 pages.

I've also read a smaller compilation, including Mountains of Madnass, The Hound,
Call of Cthulhu, the Whisperer in the Darkness and some other works. By far
one of the best authors I've read when it comes to settings, omnipresence and
pure chilling horror. I've honestly never read anything purely text-based that was
equally frightening as his works.

"The Festival" also comes to mind, which I think is the one I enjoyed the most
when I read the smaller compilation.

I'm planning to read the entire 1000 pages compilation.

EDIT: Also, updated the logo

And, me and Gilles has been talking privately about adding a "Library" to the
main post, with listed recommendations in proper code and fancy categorization
and such cool details. Is this something we'd all want to have?

 

[Celaquil]

Update:

Added a "Recommended by the Community" part to the main post,
I'll try keeping the list updated, and I'll also look into hyperlinking to
decent reviews among these posts, when I get the time to do so.

Thanks to Gilles for setting it up ^^

 

[Ralle]

I would like to add something to the list:
Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer by Rob Manning (not fiction)

This is a very exciting account of the project about the curiosity rover by the manager of the project. It explains how people in the project scrambled to get things done, how they interacted and what went wrong and right. At some point there is a problem with the rover's computer. It would not start up properly the next time it restarted (it turned off at night to save power) which means they would lose it forever. So they had a single day (I think) to do something about it. It was really exciting.

 

[Gilles]

Thanks to this thread, looky what I found at a used bookstore on my way home today!

 

[Celaquil]

Atta' boy

Also, I added hyperlinks to the few "reviews" we've got in this thread.

You guys should write more of them, we should really have at least one
review per book, methink. And, besides, you'll get some publicity if you do

 

[Ralle]

Thanks to this thread, looky what I found at a used bookstore on my way home today!

You will love it. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about it.

I am still churning away listening to Eragon book 2. It's great.

 

[DEAD FiSH]

Just wanted to share my photo of my copy of the Necronomicon, this is the Commemorative Edition. I bought this in August of 2014 when I went on Beer Fest.

Hidden

This is the only book that I own that is not localized meaning it is the only book I have in English, only book that is original print and not licensed for translation.

I haven't read much of it over the year because I was reading other things. And I have a lot of stuff to read, mostly comics.

 

[Celaquil]

So, basically...

It's a show-piece?