What Are You Reading?

[Gradius]

#gulp

Socialist bastard. What's it like contributing nothing to society at large yet still reaping the benefits?

[TheEconomist]

I've actually grown quite fond of the Squibb. He's quite the useful idiot. He has been of great use for the revolution and he will be rewarded under the glorious dictatorship of the proletariat. Of course, afterwards he will need to be disposed of, We may be Socialists but we cannot abide incompetence.

BUT UNTIL THAT GLORIOUS DAY!!!

I am continuing to read the books I had started (namely Promise of Blood and Snow Crash) and I'm still going at the novelization (~100 pages in) but I've also got the strangest urge in me to replay some old PS1 JRPGs and zone out to the soundtracks. Strange. Can't seem to shake my childhood. Damned attachments. Going to try to knock out of few of the classics before classes start again. I might have spent the entire break playing games and reading, but it's been one of the most productive times of mine in recent memory .

[Nissa]

I've been reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. While she's not the best historical writer, this story is really good. It's the story of Louie Zamperini, an olympian who was drafted into WWII, then ended up floating on a raft with two crewmen due to plane failure. Yeah, the thing the movie's based on. Strangely enough, it deals with faith too, particularly in the raft. There were three men on the raft. Phil (a Christian) and Louie (an....agnostic, sort of...not really) are the ones that lived, while the one who was depressed and didn't appear to believe in anything, died. Though there's other circumstances involved, like how the third guy ate all their emergency chocolate the first night and felt miserably guilty about it. Unlike what Econ said, Louie's stay in the prison camp didn't serve to convert him. That came years later after alcoholism, nightmares, and depression.

Complexity.

[Visions of Khas]

I just checked out Mistborn by Brandeon Sanderson, and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. (I was looking for The Brothers Karamazov, but the library didn't have it. )

[TheEconomist]

Reading through the first book of Mistborn right now. Still working on Snow Crash too. Fantastic book. More on these later.

Unlike what Econ said, Louie's stay in the prison camp didn't serve to convert him.

I said that in concentration camps or war zones, or whatever, EVERYONE (for the most part) is looking for God, not that they will magically be converted with a 100% success rate. Pretty sure its somewhere its an empirical fact that the vast majority of conversions stories involve some period of hardship, though, BUT NOT A CERTAINTY.

[Visions of Khas]

I said that in concentration camps or war zones, or whatever

Camp Concentration was a good book.

[Jconant]

I've been reading 2 books pertaining to joseph campell, the power of myth [based on an interview of him] and "the hero with a thousand faces" [which he wrote]. Although I picked up a book on Abraham Lincoln- Team of Rivals

- - - Updated - - -

I've been reading 2 books pertaining to joseph campell, the power of myth [based on an interview of him] and "the hero with a thousand faces" [which he wrote]. Although I picked up a book on Abraham Lincoln- Team of Rivals

[TheEconomist]

Here's something a bit interesting:

http://io9.com/at-long-last-kim-stan...bec-1639413250

The Mars colonization series is getting a TV show. This is a series I've been hearing about nonstop from le leet scifi readers for years now. I've really been meaning to read it. I bought it, and it's on my phone ready to read, but, as I've said before, I keep getting side tracked with other series. So, I'm excited about both reading the books and watching the TV series, which is what the scifi tv series genre really needs. With The Expanse TV series and this, it seems scifi TV might be getting a bit of a revival, I hope.

[Nissa]

I'm not familiar with those books, but I'll have to give them a try. Maybe my work has them.

Right now I'm reading Taking Sex Differences Seriously, which explains the genetic differences between men and women. It's a very deep book, explaining that the differences in the genders are genetic, not largely alterable by outside circumstances, and begin inside the womb. It's a nice rebuttal to feminist nonsense, Econ.

[Hawki]

Starship Troopers

Only Heinlein book I've read. I consider it "good," but don't particuarly like it. On one hand, it delves into some interesting concepts, but that's also its biggest weakness. It's basically an excuse for Heinlein to convey an idea, and with everything being secondary to that. Characters? Flat. Worldbuilding? Vague (it pretty much reads "oh, by the way, we've been at war over the past few chapters, here's the lowdown). What's a shame because "message books" (Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, etc.) have managed to have interesting characters along with the interesting ideas. But no, we're at war with the Arachnids, because...Communism (seriously, the parallels are about as subtle as a brick).

Again, consider it "good." Far as I'm concerned, fans of the book have every right to hate the film adaptation. But it's the film adaptation I prefer at the end of the day. It sacrifices the intellectual stuff, but gives us characterziation, sattire, and action as an offset.

Gardens of the Moon

Read this recently. And it's unoqivably one of the worst books I've ever read. Heck, it's a textbook example of how NOT to write a fantasy novel. I half expected to see Terry Dowling pop up from the CCE writing courses I did and ask "now what did the author do wrong here?"

Plot, all over the place. Characters, bland. Dialogue, terrible. Worldbuilding? Haphazard. It isn't helped when the author's preface can basically be summed up as "oh, you just don't get how amazing this story is, and how if you don't like it, oh, you just don't understand it."

I've heard people say that it gets better onward, but no, I'm not falling for that again. With The Expanse and Wheel of Time, I at least gave the first two books a try before more or less giving up on them. But this...no. I'm done.

Snowcrash

Um...there was a guy at the start delivering pizzas...and something about the Tower of Babylon...that's pretty much all I remember.

Sorry, another terrible book as far as I'm concerned. The writing is all over the place, Hiro's unrelatable, and the Metaverse thing is interesting, but feels dated at this point in time.

Interstellar

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/foru...age=2#21620665

That's all I have to say. Seriously, after the excellence of Gravity, this was such a disapointment, and indeed, the worst film I saw in 2014.

Solaris

Only ever seen the film. Even worse than Interstellar. If anything, it has the opposite problem. Interstellar spends too much time on its plot (which is riddled with plotholes) and not enough on its characters. Solaris spends too much time on its characters (which aren't interesting) and not enough on its plot. Go figure.

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Ah, finally something positive. What I'm currently reading.

The Economist is right, it does go through the motions of fantasy. It doesn't do anything particuarly new - even allomancy, while an interesting system, is still basically magic. Still, well written, entertaining, and I love the word-painting.

- - - Updated - - -

Starship Troopers

Only Heinlein book I've read. I consider it "good," but don't particuarly like it. On one hand, it delves into some interesting concepts, but that's also its biggest weakness. It's basically an excuse for Heinlein to convey an idea, and with everything being secondary to that. Characters? Flat. Worldbuilding? Vague (it pretty much reads "oh, by the way, we've been at war over the past few chapters, here's the lowdown). What's a shame because "message books" (Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, etc.) have managed to have interesting characters along with the interesting ideas. But no, we're at war with the Arachnids, because...Communism (seriously, the parallels are about as subtle as a brick).

Again, consider it "good." Far as I'm concerned, fans of the book have every right to hate the film adaptation. But it's the film adaptation I prefer at the end of the day. It sacrifices the intellectual stuff, but gives us characterziation, sattire, and action as an offset.

Gardens of the Moon

Read this recently. And it's unoqivably one of the worst books I've ever read. Heck, it's a textbook example of how NOT to write a fantasy novel. I half expected to see Terry Dowling pop up from the CCE writing courses I did and ask "now what did the author do wrong here?"

Plot, all over the place. Characters, bland. Dialogue, terrible. Worldbuilding? Haphazard. It isn't helped when the author's preface can basically be summed up as "oh, you just don't get how amazing this story is, and how if you don't like it, oh, you just don't understand it."

I've heard people say that it gets better onward, but no, I'm not falling for that again. With The Expanse and Wheel of Time, I at least gave the first two books a try before more or less giving up on them. But this...no. I'm done.

Snowcrash

Um...there was a guy at the start delivering pizzas...and something about the Tower of Babylon...that's pretty much all I remember.

Sorry, another terrible book as far as I'm concerned. The writing is all over the place, Hiro's unrelatable, and the Metaverse thing is interesting, but feels dated at this point in time.

Interstellar

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.864661-How-Interstellar-Crashes-in-Its-Third-Act?page=2#21620665

That's all I have to say. Seriously, after the excellence of Gravity, this was such a disapointment, and indeed, the worst film I saw in 2014.

Solaris

Only ever seen the film. Even worse than Interstellar. If anything, it has the opposite problem. Interstellar spends too much time on its plot (which is riddled with plotholes) and not enough on its characters. Solaris spends too much time on its characters (which aren't interesting) and not enough on its plot. Go figure.

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Ah, finally something positive. What I'm currently reading.

The Economist is right, it does go through the motions of fantasy. It doesn't do anything particuarly new - even allomancy, while an interesting system, is still basically magic. Still, well written, entertaining, and I love the word-painting.