Shut up

You bitches can pat yourselves on the back about finishing Infinite Jest and mainlining the Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged), but I just finished reading this thread from page 1.

I've popped in a time or two over the years, but a month ago I decided 300 unread books on my kindle wasn't enough, so thanks to this thread I've added 450 books to my library wish-list. The Los Angeles Public Library is awesome. Of the books I wanted to add, probably less than half a dozen weren't in the LAPL system. And almost all had ebook options.

I've enjoyed reading a bunch of your book reviews, with a special shout-out to ChaseNutley and RussellTorintino (yes, I know that's not your name, but it is to me). You too, kioshk, even though I think I hate you. I don't know how Chase gets these deep insights from audiobooks. I've discovered I have the attention span of a gnat if I'm listening. I got about 25% through listening to Count of Monte Christo and had to give up and switch to the ebook after the umpteenth time I realized I'd been listening for an hour and had no idea what was going on or who was speaking.

Best part was seeing all the love for Patrick Rothfuss from 2014. "The first two books are awesome and the next one is due any day now!"

Haha awesome post, Deucekicker. I can take a little hate here and there.

Speaking of the talkie books, I'm in the middle of the Innocent right now, Scott Turow's sequel to his excellent bestseller Presumed Innocent, which owned the 80s. And I was there to witness it. It seems a worthy successor, we've got ambitious conscientious legal stud Rusty Sabitch fighting the good fight to save his ass again. I'm a sucker for well-written intelligent bestsellers. Turow is himself a bigshot lawyer iirc; he definitely seems to know the terrain.

Knocked out 2 of the 12 discs last night while I played Bejeweled2 on my computer, reading made easy!

I have never done an audio book. It seems foreign to me. I like to couple reading with soothing music, usually classical. If I were listening to a book I would feel like I should be reading something and that wouldn't work

One thing to try if you have any desire to get into audiobooks is to listen while you read along.

Likely the single greatest accomplishment in this thread!

Quicksilver turns out to be my least favorite Neal Stephenson book so far. The story never gains momentum. Mostly it's geniuses sitting around talking about geniusy things, which is itself interesting at times, but there's not much tension to the plot.

Writing Fiction for Dummies reached it's target demographic with me. Written by Peter Economy and Randall Ingermanson (the snowflake guy), it's actually one of the simplest, most straightforward, and practical writing guides I've picked up. I feel like many books on writing fly off somewhere into the stratosphere with their lofty ideas, so it was refreshing to come across a more basic nuts and bolts approach.

Here are a few of the books I've read recently which I don't think were mentioned in this thread:

Playing With Fire, by Lawrence O'Donnell. It's about how the 1968 conventions changed the way conventions have been done since, covering the time from JFK's assassination to Nixon's resignation. It was very informative for someone like me; a political neophyte with no knowledge of political history.

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Toles. The central character is a Russian aristocrat after the revolution who spends three decades under house arrest in a luxurious Russian Hotel. The flouncy main character didn't seem Russian at all, and the entire plot was too unbelievable. Hated it and didn't finish.

The Alexander Cipher, by Will Adams. Sort of a modern-day Indiana Jones without as much 1940s Hollywood action. An archaeologist stumbles upon evidence which leads him to what may be the tomb of Alexander The Great. Nothing special, but still a serviceable action/thriller. I guess it was good enough that I read another of his books, The Exodus Quest, about the search for the tomb of Moses.

Assassin's Fate, by Robin Hobb. I'm a huge fan of hers. This is the conclusion of the third trilogy (a trilogy of trilogies) about FitzChivalry Farseer and The Fool. There's also a tetrology set in the same world about different characters, and it's all joined together in this final set. Hobb loves to torture her heroes. If the first panel of the Charlie Brown comics showing Lucy holding the football got you excited, this series is for you.

Is that a book title?

I'll take the bait. What do you mean?

Sorry, I ninja-deleted my post as it was unproductive

I read Caesar's Last Breath by Sam Kean. It's a pop chemistry book that puts forward the notion that it's entirely possible you're currently inhaling an atom recycled from the Ides. The book is more entertaining than it is informative, relying more on anecdotes than science. As I know almost nothing about chemistry, I still learned a thing or two.

Finished Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich starts strong and finishes weak, but along the way, she has some interesting ideas and valid criticisms of the "let's see if we can find something wrong with you, something to treat" approach to medicine.

Does In Cold Blood become easier to read? I'm like 20 pages in and feel like I am back in high school lit class

It's been a while since I read it but I don't remember it being a difficult read at all. Stick with it fella.

ICB is boring pretty much the whole way through. Read it a few years ago.

I really liked it. It was the first Capote book I read and I remember going out and buying Breakfast at Tiffany's and a book of his short stories afterwards.

Breakfast at Tiffany's [base on a Capote book) is a great movie. Glad I got the opportunity to mention that in this book thread.

Don't read Capote - He is a worthless hack and spewed nothing but garbage. Read William S. Burroughs instead.

Or Miller

William Burroughs should of course be read but I'd imagine if someone is finding In Cold Blood a difficult read then Naked Lunch could be a bit challenging (and I don't mean any disrespect to the person reading ICB)

City of Fortune...Roger Crowley...How Venice Ruled the Seas...enthusiastically reviewed here some months ago is as good as advertised.
TS Eliot was probably thinking of Venice when he wrote “History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors and issues,/deceives with whispering ambitions, guides us by vanities”
Rather than biography I like my history shaken not stirred. The chunks of time hold together better for me than say a life and death of Ben Franklin. Ian Toll’s Six Frigates is an example
“Before Venice became the wonder of the world, it was a curiosity...without land there could be no feudal system, no clear division between knight and serf. Without agriculture, money was its barter. It’s nobles would be merchant princes who could command a fleet and calculate profit to the nearest grosso. The difficulties of life bound all its people together in an act of patriotic solidarity that required self-discipline and a measure of equality—like the crew of a ship all subject to the perils of the deep.”
Blind 95 year old doge (leader) on the prow of the lead ship going into battle, spies, continuous trouble with the pope...let me lower the tenor of this review for SF guys, the fantasy lovers...the book could have been an outline for Game of Thrones with the Vogon bureaucracy mixed in.

Finished Aunt Jeanne by Georges Simenon. One of Simenon's "psychological" novellas, it is bleak and holds little hope for humans.

Mortal Engines: A Post apoc series where cities are mobile and basically fight/'eat' other cities in the future for resources and technology. This is going to be a movie by Peter Jackson:



I'm almost done with the first book and it's alright. I did not know that it was a young adult series going into it and there is a lot more that could be done with this book in terms of the descriptions and dialogue. This book and series had the potential to really develop a cool/massive world, but I have yet to see it. Still a cool storyline and world; just wish there was a bit more detail.

Finished The Truth about Bébé Donge by Georges Simenon. Another romans dur by Simenon and the least interesting one I've read.

I'm reading Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Things are extremely eerie in this little village, not quite sure why everybody's being so mean to this eccentric lady narrator. I'm scared, somebody hold me!

Love me some Shirl.

Title always reminds me of Jack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiZ-XgJKAIk