Books / Literature

H

Hovis!

Vampire Ninja
This might not be the most popular of threads, but this is for anyone who wants to discuss the books / literature they are reading (or have read) be it fiction or non-fiction.

I'm currently reading a non-fiction book called Introducing Chomsky.

For those who don't know and are interested, Noam Chomsky has produced a lot of interesting theories in the field of linguistics and language in general. Thought I'd share that.
 
I just finished "Abarat" by Clive Barker. It's a pretty cool fantasy story (the first in a planned series) about a teenage girl transported to a fantasy world where time flows in weird ways; every island exists as an hour, so one island is midnight (where all the evil people hang out) and another is say 1pm. It was pretty damn good :)
 
I`m currently in the second half of The Redemption Of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings. Its a hugh single volume fantasy epic and pretty much keeping in line with their style as shown in the Belgariad/Malloreon series and their new series The Dreamers. A bunch of mixed character types on a quest against vast ancient evil leading armies to battle and under hand dealings a foot. The basic formula as set out by J.R.R.Tolkien. Its probably my third or fourth reading so kinda plodding my way through now as all the details rush back of the upcoming story and ruin the ending for me. Apart from that its still a bloody good read.
 
Really into Terry Pratchett books, currently have all of them and have read them so many times but just can't get enough of them. I'm now waiting for his next book Wintersmiths to be released.

Also Jasper Ffordes books as there set in Swindon and Reading near me, very cool books about an alternative version of the present time.

Also Eoin Coin (think thats how you spell it) who writes the Artemis Fowl books they always put a smile on my face.

Finally Neil Gaiman, I love his dark outlook in books, my personal fave is Good Omens which tells the story of Damien son of the devil and what would happen if he was adopted by the wrong family
 
Hovis! said:
currently reading a non-fiction book called Introducing Chomsky.

For those who don't know and are interested, Noam Chomsky has produced a lot of interesting theories in the field of linguistics and language in general. Thought I'd share that.
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I know of this fellow, had to study him when I took English Language at college (soooo not the course I thought it would be, I was hoping for easy but got heavy theory). He has some very interesting arguments for the theory of language, is it learned or inherited or simply copied to achieve our own goals (e.g. monkeys only learn symbols for food not because they have any real need to learn it for themselves).
 
Well this week I have read quite a few books, but not as many as normal ^_^
I have just finished re-reading The sight, which is an amazing book that I love and have read about 7 times over and over XD
I have also read Memoirs of a Geisha, very diffrent from the the film. I think I much prefer the book.
I also read two very intresting books that are very diffrent from my normal genre one is called " Elsewhere" anouther called " The five people you meet in heaven" Both book based on peoples views of heaven and what they belive happen to you. Elsewhere's ending was rather dispointing but was a very good book ^^
I also finished reading Empress Orchid. It was very slow to start off, but once you got into it it had a very good storyline ~^^~
I'm about to finish Priestess of the white and hope to read the sequal last of the wilds by next week ^_^

I read alot of books ^^
 
Guyver 0 said:
I'll read anything by Philip K. Dick. He's a sci-fi genius. I want to be like him and maybe one day i will.....
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It's funny you should say that since I've been going through a 'Philip K Dick' phase in the past few weeks! After finishing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and A Scanner Darkly I'm now onto The Man in the High Castle. It's quite a departure from his usual stuff in that it's more of a historical/political thriller than science fiction: it's set in a 20th century in which we lost WW2 and as a result the Nazis rule half the world and Japan rule the other. It's quite chilling but fascinating at the same time.
 
The Warlord series by Bernard Cromwell, the author of Sharpe takes on the the legend of Arthur in this three part trillogy, currently on the third and I have to say that its one of the best series of books that ive ever read 8)
 
ConcreteBadger said:
Guyver 0 said:
I'll read anything by Philip K. Dick. He's a sci-fi genius. I want to be like him and maybe one day i will.....
Click to expand...
It's funny you should say that since I've been going through a 'Philip K Dick' phase in the past few weeks! After finishing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and A Scanner Darkly I'm now onto The Man in the High Castle. It's quite a departure from his usual stuff in that it's more of a historical/political thriller than science fiction: it's set in a 20th century in which we lost WW2 and as a result the Nazis rule half the world and Japan rule the other. It's quite chilling but fascinating at the same time.
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Yeah, IIRC The Man In The High Castle was his first work, and extremely controversial as it was written in 1947... It's not as polished as some of his later works, but a lot more accessible than some (ever read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch? What the hell...).
I was really amazed how totally different Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was from Blade Runner, the movie that was based on it. They're practically different stories. Personally I preferred the book - a lot more focus on the psychology rather than the action.
There was a period when I was reading a lot of Philip K. Dick books, but I stopped when I got to The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. I just needed something a little more down to earth...

A book I finished recently was Musashi by Yoshikawa Eiji (I think...)apparently the Japanese samurai epic. It's not all hack-and-slash as some people may expect, but a more character-driven drama. The cultural side of the story is much stronger than in any anime, so I found that pretty interesting too. As a negative point, it seems quite clear that some of the quality has been "lost in translation" as it were, but it's still a worthwhile read.
 
I'm reading Tales from Earthsea at the moment. I was going to read it after the film came out but after finding out the film might not come here till 2010, I decided read it!

I recently finished Maximum Ride: School's out forever by James Patterson. It is now my favorite book ^ ^
 
I'm reading "In Search of Lost Time 1 - The Way By Swann's". On the whole, I wish that Proust would hurry up some.

Part of a reading list of novels or proto-novels that on the whole, I wish would have hurried up. Oroonoko, The Princesse de Cleves, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Robinson Crusoe, Madame Bovary, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Mrs Dalloway and The Portrait of a Lady. So far, the only novel I really loved was Great Expectations (which really surprised me, because I was always under the impression that Dickens was a long winded writer).
 
Book I'm reading

Just finished reading Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto and it is such a funnily sarcastic book. You can't go half a page without laughing - it really is that good. I know this was also turned in to a movie and a manga, but I have only read the book so far. I just wish they would translate his other books into english soon.

My non-fiction book of the moment is: Japan's Changing Generations. It's an anthropoligy book and the authors have spoken to young japan to see the challenges they are currently facing. It picks up on some interesting themes like the meaning of identity, and how young people are trying to create their own path in a conservative society. Fascinating stuff.
 
I bought two books today...the wrestler Edge/Adam Copeland's autobiography, and a silly-looking novel called "Big Apple Take Down" about WWE wrestlers working as secret government agents to take down a meth lab which is funding terrorism.

Sounds very daft, but should be fun. 8)
 
I've been in my regency romance phase for a while now, so i very recently finished reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (want to watch the film now), and hopefully i will go on to Sense and Sensibility when i can buy the book.
I seem to be quite into reading again at the moment, so after that who knows, i might actually start reading some of the many books i havn't got around to reading yet, like His Dark Materials Trilogy
 
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