What Are You Reading?

[Nissa]

Really? I found Hunger Games to be pretty weak. Sure, it had some good concepts, but the narrative wasn't great, and the plot direction in the third book was questionable.

[Visions of Khas]

Really? I found Hunger Games to be pretty weak. Sure, it had some good concepts, but the narrative wasn't great, and the plot direction in the third book was questionable.

Oh no doubt. My favorite was Catching Fire. Mockingjay was essentially an exercise in teenage angst and an author floundering for direction and plot.

The third Divergent book, Allegiant, was by far Veronica Roth's best -- thematically, pacing, prose, characterization. I consider the first two books simply lead-ins to Allegiant.

[DemolitionSquid]

I honestly cannot remember the last novel series I read. I think it was the Starfire Sextilogy but that was a few years ago. I mostly just read news and articles these days.

[TheEconomist]

I think you might want to read some of these books, Squibb:

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_...ywords&x=0&y=0

[DemolitionSquid]

I would prefer not to be bored to tears by systems that are clearly not working.

[TheEconomist]

1) These systems aren't being tried. Its the incorporation of the principles of socialism that are causing the problems you semi-pickup on today.
2) These systems were tried, but only during the most successful times of American/European history.
3) There is a strong correlation between the higher wealth of the countries which use elements of these systems and the relative poverty of those that don't.
4) Socialism has also been tried too, but it died out, therefore, even if capitalism weren't working now, it still worked for hundreds of years longer than socialism.
5) Not the thread for your dumb shit. Ended.

[Nissa]

Today I read Volition Agent, a pretty terrible book that I only got (won as a prize) because I have a model friend who was photographed for the cover. Well, to be fair, it had really good thriller/action concepts. Just horribly bad execution.

[Jconant]

I picked up Feast of crows in my attempt to stay ahead of the Game of Thrones Curve. I keep stopping at Sam because it tends to bore me how spineless he is. HBO has taken Sam and put fertilizer on his Character development, as he seems to have grown far bolder and courageous from his experiences despite his faults depicted in the book.

[Visions of Khas]

I picked up Feast of crows in my attempt to stay ahead of the Game of Thrones Curve. I keep stopping at Sam because it tends to bore me how spineless he is. HBO has taken Sam and put fertilizer on his Character development, as he seems to have grown far bolder and courageous from his experiences despite his faults depicted in the book.

Funny you should say that, I just started re-reading it last week. I'm nearly done with it now. The thing about Sam is, yeah, he's a coward. But he does brave things from time to time, though it's easy for his internal monologue to sway the reader's opinion of him. But he still does the things he's afraid to do. It's a small, everyday sort of courage introverts and shy people can appreciate.

[TheEconomist]

Still dealing with the fallout of overdosing on waaaay too much complex sci fi so I'm reading easier novels to deal with. Right now, in addition to continuing my Conan reading, I'm also re-reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight of the Dragonlance series. That was an old favorite from my younger days. The first serious novel I ever read of my own volition so I have lots of fond memories. I'm surprised that it's actually still good since I was so sure it was pure nostalgia clouding my judgment. Also, starting to get to some Forgotten Realms novels, namely, Homeland, the first Drizzt novel. Pure action and adventure as opposed to long expositions and complex character interactions, sign me up.

In other news, I'm also doing my first lore, single player oriented play through of Diablo 3. I've started a new character (Witch Doctor) and am playing through from the beginning and trying to soak up all the lore and environments. It's going alright so far. No, it hasn't magically turned itself into a decent story line but there's some enjoyment simply from the experience. Must go with my current trend of dumber is better than smarter fiction right now.

Finally, I'm contemplating giving StarCraft another go around soon. I feel like I'm finally recovering from the Summer of 2010 and ready to start getting back out there and enjoying life again. I'll start with the original game, of course, Gradius/Mass Recall style, and see how I feel from there. Might even start reading some of the books that have been released since I left. Oh, and maybe, just maybe, I can start adding to discussions here now instead of taking away or dodging completely.