[Book Chat] "What's Everyone Reading" Thread

[forkinyoureye]

I read part of the Wheel of Time once. Any series that take four thousand pages to determine whether or not its protagonist is the mythical figure of legend is too long for me.

[Fish]

You know who is great? Neil Gaiman. He is "cool." American Gods is intellectually and emotionally riveting.

Hopefully successful diversion from the Introduction thread where he and Terry Pratchett are a regular topic of discussion.

[a totally real doctor]

Agreed.
I deem this diversion successful, even though nobody will post after me and I will likely kill this thread simply by being in it.
To recap from the intro thread: Smoke and Mirrors = amazing stories.

[ilikeoctopus]

I just finished American Gods and I really want to just reread it right now, but I have a friend who is pressing me to read The Legend of Drizzt, so that is what I am doing now...

[Fish]

Is that one of the R. A. Salvatore novels, or one of the other affiliated authors? I read a few of those when I was young, but the books had an unfortunate effect on the number of Drow Renegades in pickup games, so I don't really have much appreciation for them any more. I much prefer the series about the fall/rebirth of Mezoberanzan or however the fuck it's spelt (here we go). Those drow are irredeemably evil.

Wow that was a weird thing to be reading at thirteen or whatever.

[Freack]

You know who is great? Neil Gaiman. He is "cool." American Gods is intellectually and emotionally riveting.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

There are different kinds of good writing. I am of the mind that some authors create great characters, or worlds, or plots. And any decent writer can pull off all of them, but they all have one that they are BEST at.

Neil Gaiman is best at writing sentences. Some books are wonderful, but have one really truly great chapter, or descriptive segment or whatever.

Never before in my life have I gone back and re-read a single sentence ten or twenty times before moving on.

[Bohandas]

Is that one of the R. A. Salvatore novels, or one of the other affiliated authors? I read a few of those when I was young, but the books had an unfortunate effect on the number of Drow Renegades in pickup games, so I don't really have much appreciation for them any more. I much prefer the series about the fall/rebirth of Mezoberanzan or however the fuck it's spelt (here we go). Those drow are irredeemably evil.

Wow that was a weird thing to be reading at thirteen or whatever.

There's something that has always struck me as pretentious about the Forgotten Realms setting; although I mostly deal with this stuff through games rather than novels. Either way, I much prefer Eberron, Dragonlance, and Planescape.

[Fish]

Yeah haha Forgotten Realms is pretty big. Or it was. Like Greyhawk's immediate successor? Part of the thing is that it is a lot built by one guy named Ed Greenwood who is coincidentally possessed of a rather large ego.

I really liked Eberron when I was young, and it still is pretty cool, but I got more into the Pathfinder campaign setting. Which is sort of like Planescape in the way each area is different? Their novels are not as good as I remember the Drizz't ones to be, though.

[Tirgo]

only books i ever really read was harry potter and hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and artemis fowl and a ton of misc. books i forget

had a few animorphs

yeah i dont really like reading but i like harry potter so thats why i reread the whole series constantly

oh and i like tom clancy i guess?

[ilikeoctopus]

Is that one of the R. A. Salvatore novels, or one of the other affiliated authors? I read a few of those when I was young, but the books had an unfortunate effect on the number of Drow Renegades in pickup games, so I don't really have much appreciation for them any more. I much prefer the series about the fall/rebirth of Mezoberanzan or however the fuck it's spelt (here we go). Those drow are irredeemably evil.

Wow that was a weird thing to be reading at thirteen or whatever.

Yup, it was Homeland, I believe. So far, the writing style seems a bit too lavish and it is a bit hard to get into. I think I am going to read some more Terry Pratchett after this.

[Gzar]

Yes. Yes. Yes.

There are different kinds of good writing. I am of the mind that some authors create great characters, or worlds, or plots. And any decent writer can pull off all of them, but they all have one that they are BEST at.

Neil Gaiman is best at writing sentences. Some books are wonderful, but have one really truly great chapter, or descriptive segment or whatever.

Never before in my life have I gone back and re-read a single sentence ten or twenty times before moving on.

Gaimen is really good at taking his time to characterize his worlds. When reading his stories, it just feels like he's having fun developing and exploring the universe he's made with all of its rules, lore and their implications. It's very immersive.

[Quirk]

I just picked up Rendezvous with Rama and A Canticle for Leibowitz at a used book store today.

It is good day.

[kaoticAntagonist]

Hey can I talk about old books?

I wanna talk about old books.

I think my favorite old book is The Westing Game.

Its about this mystery/competition between these dudes in a hotel for this dead dudes inheritance.

it came out in the 80's i think?

I am pretty sure it is the book for me when it comes to mystery. I mean, i doubt its the best but it certainly was one of the first i read and it is probably one of the books that means the most to me?

i stole both copies that i have.

I am done talking about old books.

[nostalgebraist]

it came out in the 80's i think?

That's old to you?

Man, I came out in the 80s.

[Bohandas]

i stole both copies that i have.

As long as it is a copyrighted work I see no problem with stealing it. This is what Hollywood and the record industry's BS has done to my moral code.

[Tren]

A Confederacy of Dunces came out in 1980 apparently.
Huh.
I thought it was a little older than that.

[nostalgebraist]

A Confederacy of Dunces came out in 1980 apparently.
Huh.
I thought it was a little older than that.

It is: it was written in the 1960s, but Toole couldn't get it published, and it was published after his death when his mother asked Walker Percy to read it and Percy really liked it.

(I read that book last month. It was okay I guess but I don't see why some people love it so much.)

ETA: I wrote about it here

[Triangle Man]

I decided to try something completely different for once and read a crime/thriller novel called The Manhattan Hunt Club.

The plot - a young man is falsely accused and convicted of a horrible crime, but a series of events causes him to end up in the tunnels underneath New York rather than a prison. The situation escalates when it becomes apparent that someone has turned the tunnels into a twisted 'hunting ground' and he soon finds himself fighting for his life.

I haven't gotten very far into it yet and it has a few flaws (for example, the author sometimes dumps information about characters all at once and in incredibly awkward ways), but I've found it to be quite enjoyable so far and it's hooked me in enough to want to know what will happen next.

Although I do have some suspicious about what's going on right now...

[chimericWilder]

Ive heard quite a few people recommending American Gods, but the title itself makes me roll my eyes, as americans have no original gods of their own, not counting the former natives.

Anyway, what i want to know is, what is the matter with that, does the book just use other culture's gods in a well-presented manner, keeping their traits according to the original myths and so forth, or does it take liberties with these things? Or, ofcourse, does it simply use unique characters?

[Freack]

It does use some really great other culture's gods, and I have not done all that much research, so I could not tell ou how exactly accurate it is, but it seems really accurate.

And as for the American Gods, they are things like Road ways and Television. It seems sort of silly when said that way, but if you read it, it is eerily accurate to how we treat these things in our culture.

[Fish]

American Gods is basically about the gods that immigrants imported, and how they aren't doing too well in modern America. Neil Gaiman is pretty good at sticking to mythologies so I wouldn't be too worried about terribleness. But it is Inspired by stuff, not like 100% true facts.

[Tren]

Ive heard quite a few people recommending American Gods, but the title itself makes me roll my eyes, as americans have no original gods of their own, not counting the former natives.

Anyway, what i want to know is, what is the matter with that, does the book just use other culture's gods in a well-presented manner, keeping their traits according to the original myths and so forth, or does it take liberties with these things? Or, ofcourse, does it simply use unique characters?

As the others have said, it's about the gods people brought with them to America and the new ones they've invented along the way.
Neil Gaiman is pretty spot-on with most of his myths. It's kind of his specialty.

Oh and there's a familiar face or two from his other books. (I'm looking at you, Anansi.)

[nostalgebraist]

Ive heard quite a few people recommending American Gods, but the title itself makes me roll my eyes, as americans have no original gods of their own, not counting the former natives.

That weirdness is entirely deliberate. The title is supposed to sound paradoxical. I don't know enough about mythology to tell you exactly how closely Gaiman follows the original characterizations of the gods he uses, but I know he does get a lot of praise for his accuracy from people who do know enough to judge.

I'm pretty ambivalent about Gaiman myself. He writes charmingly on a moment-to-moment level but he doesn't build satisfying overarching plots or universes, and he uses too many deus ex machina twists. (Neil Gaiman: putting the "deus" in "deus ex machina.") American Gods had its moments, I guess.

[forkinyoureye]

I just finished the book I Hunt Killers. It's about the son of the world's most infamous serial killer and his efforts to keep from becoming like Dear Old Dad. I really liked it.

[Gzar]

Ive heard quite a few people recommending American Gods, but the title itself makes me roll my eyes, as americans have no original gods of their own, not counting the former natives.

Anyway, what i want to know is, what is the matter with that, does the book just use other culture's gods in a well-presented manner, keeping their traits according to the original myths and so forth, or does it take liberties with these things? Or, ofcourse, does it simply use unique characters?

It's a clever thing Gaimen does. The gods as presented are all true to their myths, but liberties are taken with them and they're presented not as their original characters, but as the way they've been transmuted by our growing distance from belief in them.