Books

[weirdboy]

Oh, I forgot to mention what I've been reading lately. According to my phone, I've read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which was an excellent read that I really enjoyed, as well as recent re-reads of Tolkien's The Hobbit and Old Man's War by John Scalzi, which are also excellent page-turners. If you like Heinlein stuff and haven't read the Old Man's War series, you really ought to.

Lately though I have been reading the somewhat pulpy Jack Reacher series. I like the actiony bits, but whenever the author tries to write "mystery" or "suspense" stuff I get annoyed because it's always so plainly obvious what the author is trying to lead up to, and then I have to slog through 100-200 pages of eye rolling where the protagonist uncovers more and more blindingly obvious "clues" before they finally figure out what's going on. Stick to the action bits, Lee.

 

[Lushife]

I picked up The Gunslinger today, I didn't get to crack it yet. I'll probably have to barricade myself in the bathroom tomorrow to get a few pages in.

 

[oldstyle69]

i forgot about another series that i liked alot. Mickey Zucker Reichert's "Last of the Renshai".

 

[DrunkleJon]

Must agree on the Jim Butcher Dresden series and the Princes of Amber series by Zelzany. I am attempting to reread the WOT series as it is all out now. King books, yes please.

 

[teal]

I got the Oxford Companion to Beer for Christmas and I'm going to eventually read every word from that but that will be an undertaking.

Make sure you read the corrections wiki - there's more than a bit of bad info in that book.

Corrections Wiki

Issues according to Martyn

Martyn's first blush at it

Ron's take

Jeff's take

I bring them up, not to slag Garrett - he was given an impossible task but because I also really respect Martyn's and Ron's work. SUPER well researched blogs on the history of various beers. The book DOES have some very legitimately criticized holes and inaccuracies.

I bring up Jeff's because he does make a good point:

Take the category of brewery. Obviously, not every brewery on the planet warrants a mention. But doesn't the fifth largest American craft brewery? It's Deschutes, and it gets none. The 25th, Rogue, does get a mention, though. I started comparing the list of the 50 largest American craft breweries to the list in the book. The further west of New York the brewery was located, the less likely it was to be in the book. Notable exceptions omissions include Widmer (top ten), Bell's (8th), Alaskan (12), Stone (14), Full Sail (18), Summit (20). Perhaps not by coincidence, the editor's own brewery, Brooklyn (16), is included.

I questioned my own judgment here--bias runs both ways, after all, and Pac Ten guys always complain that the New Yorkers neglect them. But then I looked at the "brewing regions" Oliver deemed critical to our understanding of beer. It mainly includes countries and a few key cities or regions (Burton Upon Trent, Flanders), but also four five American cities/boroughs. They are: Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. If your inner researcher is tingling with anxiety, join the club.

 

[rhinoceroceros]

Just finished a book called "Beat the Reaper" by Josh Bazell. Awesome story about a new MD who had mob ties. Really interesting medical stuff tied in with tense action. I just wish it was longer!

 

[Darwin18]

Finished the Hangman's Daughter - it was cheap on Kindle and fairly good. It's set in the Middle Ages in Germany and the main character is the town executioner.

Working on Book #8 of the Wheel of Time Series - A Path of Daggers. At this point in the series Jordan's writing style and lack of plot movement are infuriating. I find myself skimming through chapters instead of reading them in the hopes that something, anything, significant will happen. Some scenes, especially chapters with the Forsaken are well written, but most of the book is still about how Rand/Perrin/Mat don't understand women, Egwene/Nynaeve/Aviendha/Elyane (let's be honest they're the same character but with different hair color) don't understand men, and how the Wise Ones/Aes Sedai dislike each other. Jordan must have been paid $100 for every reference he made to smoothing skirts, characters glaring at each other, or even in depth descriptions of the color of grass. I know this series gets better...at some point, and the fact that Brandon Sanderson wrote the final book is my motivation.

 

[passedpawn]

Chomping through yet another Demille book, The Lion's Game. Mediocre writing style but great scripting. Like Grisham.

 

[CloverBrew]

just bought and finished a book i originally bought for my son by Neil Gaiman..... The Graveyard Book. sooo good. loved the sandman comics, and ordered Good Omens.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Finished the Hangman's Daughter - it was cheap on Kindle and fairly good. It's set in the Middle Ages in Germany and the main character is the town executioner.

Working on Book #8 of the Wheel of Time Series - A Path of Daggers. At this point in the series Jordan's writing style and lack of plot movement are infuriating. I find myself skimming through chapters instead of reading them in the hopes that something, anything, significant will happen. Some scenes, especially chapters with the Forsaken are well written, but most of the book is still about how Rand/Perrin/Mat don't understand women, Egwene/Nynaeve/Aviendha/Elyane (let's be honest they're the same character but with different hair color) don't understand men, and how the Wise Ones/Aes Sedai dislike each other. Jordan must have been paid $100 for every reference he made to smoothing skirts, characters glaring at each other, or even in depth descriptions of the color of grass. I know this series gets better...at some point, and the fact that Brandon Sanderson wrote the final book is my motivation.

Yeah there is a lot of that. It is because he comes from a reniasonce background where the clothing really matters. I am ready to scream due to all the good stout two rivers woolens, calming a dancing horse, etc, but it does get better. And there are more than 1 sanderson written book.

just bought and finished a book i originally bought for my son by Neil Gaiman..... The Graveyard Book. sooo good. loved the sandman comics, and ordered Good Omens.

Good Omens was great. I especially like how it was co-written by Pratchett and they would send chapters to each other to see who could crack the other up most.

 

[Darwin18]

Ah excellent, I had thought Sanderson had only written the final book for the Wheel of Time Series. He needs to get back to The Way of Kings series pronto!

 

[Jukas]

I've always been a fairly avid reader, but since getting my kindle I've really upped the frequency at which I read. Lately I've been chewing through the Dresden files (up to #9) and according to goodreads I've read 10 books so far this year.

 

[DromJohn]

I'm DromJohn at LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/profile/DromJohn

Favorite authors: Anthony Burgess, J. V. Cunningham, Graham Greene, Søren Kierkegaard, Thomas McGrath, Michael Walzer, Robert Penn Warren, and Roger Zelazny.

And to me, "Gunslinger" is the spine title of Slinger by Edward Dorn, a five out 5 stars epic poem to be read aloud.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Ah excellent, I had thought Sanderson had only written the final book for the Wheel of Time Series. He needs to get back to The Way of Kings series pronto!

Yep he wrote books 12-14. I am working on 9 now in my reread. If I remember correctly it gets better again in Crossroads (book 10).

Now you all may enjoy my most recent find detective series the Kenzie and Gennaro series which some of you may have seen the fourth book of in the movie Gone Baby Gone. Well written.

 

[Grannyknot]

I was recently sucked into the Game of Thrones books. I'm towards the end of Clash of Kings right now.

I'm also reading Brian Jacques Redwall series to my son, and I'm enjoying them as much as he is.
When I was a youngster, there was maybe 5 books in that series....now there's like 20!

 

[Darwin18]

Ah good old Redwall! Now that was a series that I loved when I was a kid.

Game of Thrones is tremendous as well. I definitely recommend a re-read when you're done - there are so many little details that I missed the first time through.

 

[DrunkleJon]

hopefully we don't lose him before the story is done. I hate unfinished stories.

 

[Grannyknot]

hopefully we don't lose him before the story is done. I hate unfinished stories.

Assuming you are talking about George RR Martin, I read on his website that he has given all his notes & rough drafts to his editing team, who apparently now have all the info that would be needed to basically finish the series for him should he pass.

There is also talk of HBO getting access to the notes in order to finish the tv series, but that is just rumor. It is apparently massively expensive to do a season, and a slump in ratings would likely end the show.

 

[Jukas]

Assuming you are talking about George RR Martin, I read on his website that he has given all his notes & rough drafts to his editing team, who apparently now have all the info that would be needed to basically finish the series for him should he pass.

There is also talk of HBO getting access to the notes in order to finish the tv series, but that is just rumor. It is apparently massively expensive to do a season, and a slump in ratings would likely end the show.

It costs roughly 70M a season, 6-7M per episode, that's uhm.. $115k per minute

GoT has a bigger budget than ROME, which is a concern as it was production costs that caused that series to be cancelled after only 2 seasons. GRRM has stated tat he's given the basic plot outlines for the series to the producers so that should he die they could finish the TV show. I have no such hope for the books.. I'm afraid if he dies before finishing the books the only conclusion we'll get will be the television interpretation.

 

[Darwin18]

That would be a shame. GOT is by far my favorite fantasy series.

 

[Upthewazzu]

I don't read a lot, but when I do it's usually something about history. I'm currently reading Cronkite on my Kindle. I'm about 47% of the way through, but the narrative is already up to the late '70's so I'm not sure what in the world the second half of the book plans to talk about.