What Are You Reading, Part 2

[Sunbird she/her]

I'm gradually trudging my way through Contact by Carl Sagan. I seem to remember the movie being much more interesting...

[Left he/him]

I finished The Gift of Asher Lev. I really can't explain how much I've loved reading Chaim Potoks books. In the four I've read, I've just found so much to relate to. I feel like he writes about me, even though I'm not very like his main characters at all. I think that takes a real gift. 

 

Is anyone aware of a Muslim author similar to Potok? I've gained a lot from reading great Christian and Jewish authors, and I'd love to try some from the third Abrahamic faith. 

[Straw he/him]

My goal is to finish The Wheel of Time, The Lightbringer, The Malazen Book of The Fallen, A Song of Ice and Fire and Discworld by the time Oathbringer comes out. I am currently on The Fires of Heaven, The Broken Eye, Gardens of The Moon, A a Game of Thrones, and Pyramids.

[Jondesu he/him]

4 hours ago, Straw said:

My goal is to finish The Wheel of Time, The Lightbringer, The Malazen Book of The Fallen, A Song of Ice and Fire and Discworld by the time Oathbringer comes out. I am currently on The Fires of Heaven, The Broken Eye, Gardens of The Moon, A a Game of Thrones, and Pyramids.

A lofty goal.  How are each of those?  I've read all of WoT and ASOIAF, but I couldn't get into the Discworld series and haven't looked at the other two yet.

jW

[Straw he/him]

Discworld is great. The Malazen book of The Fallen is complex but also great. Lightbringer is fantastic.

[DSC01 he/him]

Yeah, Lightbringer is really good. The approach to magic is Sanderson-esque, for sure. I keep meaning to get back to Malazan eventually. I gave up partway through the first book because I hated all of the characters and didn't have any kind of a grip on what was going on in the world, how the magic worked, etc. But I've definitely heard good things. Allegedly, the payoff in the last book is well worth it.

[Dunkum he/him]

1 hour ago, DSC01 said:

I keep meaning to get back to Malazan eventually. I gave up partway through the first book because I hated all of the characters and didn't have any kind of a grip on what was going on in the world, how the magic worked, etc. But I've definitely heard good things. Allegedly, the payoff in the last book is well worth it.

Honestly, I didn't think it was.  I still liked the series, but the last book might be my least favorite.  the first 4 or 5 all feel like they are building to something, but the back half of the series never really felt like it fully got where it was trying to go.  I'm not saying it is bad, by any stretch, but if you didn't like the first book, and are expecting the last book to make the whole trip worthwhile, then I would warn you against it.  that said.  the magic and the world in general does get a bit more of an explanation throughout the series, so a lot of the confusing things from the first book will get explanations later if you do give it the time.

 

[Briar King]

It's worth it.

[Sunbird she/her]

Started reading the latest from Victoria Schwab, This Savage Song, tonight, and have made it about a third the way through. So far very enjoyable.

[StormingTexan he/him]

Finished Path of Daggers which (besides the fact something seemingly really bad happens to a main character at the end of the last book and then is just never addressed in this book) was a pretty good read. I think the book being a little shorter helped. Anyway I liked it more than A Crown of Swords. I have however reached the limit of my ability to keep up with all the characters besides the main ones. 

 

On to Winter's Heart. 

[Left he/him]

I'm well into Demons by Dostoyevsky. It's different... It's readable... Maybe it's good? I'm not sure what the plot is. 

 

I got Children of the Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay from the library. I've never read one of his books but I've heard his name a lot so I thought I'd try it out. 

[Jondesu he/him]

Tried to start Dune while my other books are on hold. So far not feeling into it that much, but I'm only a chapter or two in so far, so I'll keep going. I know it's a classic, but I don't always like the classics.

jW

[StormingTexan he/him]

2 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

Tried to start Dune while my other books are on hold. So far not feeling into it that much, but I'm only a chapter or two in so far, so I'll keep going. I know it's a classic, but I don't always like the classics.

jW

One of my favorite books. 

[Briar King]

27 minutes ago, Jondesu said:

Tried to start Dune while my other books are on hold. So far not feeling into it that much, but I'm only a chapter or two in so far, so I'll keep going. I know it's a classic, but I don't always like the classics.

jW

Keep going. The 6 Frank bks are some of best though can get complex Scifi bks in print. Truly great reads.

[Sunbird she/her]

1 hour ago, ScottLeft said:

I'm not sure what the plot is.

I think the very fact that you are saying this about it is an indication that it's probably not a very good book.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

10 hours ago, Sunbird said:

I think the very fact that you are saying this about it is an indication that it's probably not a very good book.

Not at all. Plot is only essential for mediums such as films. Books do not need them. Particularly if what Dostoyevsky can accomplish what he wants focused more on, say, character.

[Pestis the Spider she/her]

Books don't need plot? Since when books don't need plot? The only books that didn't have plot that I read where my iniversity textbooks, and they were boring as hell. Probably because of lack of plot.

[DSC01 he/him]

13 hours ago, Jondesu said:

Tried to start Dune while my other books are on hold. So far not feeling into it that much, but I'm only a chapter or two in so far, so I'll keep going. I know it's a classic, but I don't always like the classics.

jW

It took me a while to get through the beginning of Dune myself. Once you push past that, it's fairly easy going, as I recall.

[Orlion Blight he/him]

30 minutes ago, Pestis the Spider said:

Books don't need plot? Since when books don't need plot? The only books that didn't have plot that I read where my iniversity textbooks, and they were boring as hell. Probably because of lack of plot.

The purer works of literature tend not to have them And if they do, it's not really central, more like part of the setting. Some examples:

A lot of Dostoevsky, but particularly Crime and Punishment & Notes from the Underground.

A good portion of James Joyce such as Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.

Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End takes place almost entirely in the heads of the characters.

Any memoir or memoir like book will tone down or have no central plot. See A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.

The Gormenghast Books by Mervyn Peake.

Kafka. I would say just Kafka.

All of these certainly have little to no conventional plot (say, something that can be divided into three acts). That's not to say "nothing happens". You can recount events, like say in a history textbook. But one would not define that history as having a plot.

[StormingTexan he/him]

Speaking of Dune I think it is possible the winner of the worst film adaptation ever. There are bad ones but it has got to be top of list. 

[Jondesu he/him]

1 hour ago, DSC01 said:

It took me a while to get through the beginning of Dune myself. Once you push past that, it's fairly easy going, as I recall.

I don't doubt it. It's more my own life that's bogging me down anyways, and I've had trouble reading at all sometimes lately.

jW

[Dunkum he/him]

4 hours ago, StormingTexan said:

Speaking of Dune I think it is possible the winner of the worst film adaptation ever. There are bad ones but it has got to be top of list. 

I haven't seen it, so withholding my judgement for now, but I'm not sure anything can compete with the atrocities that are the Peter Jackson hobbit movies

[Sunbird she/her]

Worst film adaptation ever, hmm... I haven't seen Dune so I can't really comment on that one, but both the Percy Jackson movies totally butchered the books. Eragon was also badly adapted, but at least as just a movie it was still entertaining. The Vampire's Assistant was awful. I thought Inkheart was kinda lame but not as bad as some of the others.

Also @Orlion Determined maybe it would have been more accurate if I had said "A book with no plot is not a book I'm interested in reading."

Edited July 20, 2016 by Sunbird

[DSC01 he/him]

Well, I finished The Wheel of Time again. I'm moving right on to The Great Ordeal. I won't bother rereading the other five books now. The Unholy Consult comes out in one year, and there should still be two more books yet. I'll hold off on a reread.

Edited July 20, 2016 by DSC01

[Who Sharded?]

16 hours ago, Dunkum said:

I haven't seen it, so withholding my judgement for now, but I'm not sure anything can compete with the atrocities that are the Peter Jackson hobbit movies

You must not have seen many film adaptations if you think the Hobbit movies are the worst.