Favorite Reads

[beardown07]

That is what deterred me from reading for so long. Reading boring crap my teacher made me read that were so called 'classics'. As a kid you think Frankenstein is a bad ass but really its a freaking snooze fest.

Oh dude. I read technical shit, that is not literature. Mountains of it.

 

[theboardref]

Oh dude. I read technical shit, that is not literature. Mountains of it.

I assumed you meant something like that, but I mean it makes sense to me. When I read boring crap it made me have no urge to read.

 

[beardown07]

I assumed you meant something like that, but I mean it makes sense to me. When I read boring crap it made me have no urge to read.

I love reading stuff that interests me, and I love non fiction(learning) but when that's all ya do....it's tough to fit it in.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

I love reading stuff that interests me, and I love non fiction(learning) but when that's all ya do....it's tough to fit it in.

I love reading for pleasure. I ride one of our ferries, it;'s my pocket book I'm reading, not fucking about with some stupid phone....

Currently reading a 4 book series by Thomas Harlan. Alternate history fiction. Back in Roman times. All kinds of shit going on, wizards, werewolves, vampires, Amazon ladies, rejuvenated Caesars and Alexanders back from the dead, Mohammed discovering his lord, bad Persians, two Roman emperors, East and West, you name it.

Great stuff. I almost like it more than Game of Thrones.

Oath of Empire series by Thomas Harlan

 

[H2S]

I know this post is three years old, but if you're still looking for something that contains sic-fi, dystopian, and military all together; I would recommend the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. Red Rising came out in 2014, the sequel, Golden Son in 2015, and the finale Morning Star this February.

I read Red Rising about a year ago in two weeks; Golden Son immediately after in two weeks. Fucking bad ass. It's like Game of Thrones mixed in with The Hunger Games mixed in with Elysium. I haven't read Morning Star yet because I've been so busy. In the summer, I'm going to re-read the first two and then Morning Star. They're also making it into a movie.

Red Rising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I recommended a couple to @Clayton three years ago - am delighted to say 'thanky' for the RED RISING suggestion.
S'weird, I just picked up a copy of THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT/2002 by Kim Stanley Robinson...
quickly noted that his RED MARS/1993 copped a Nebula, the sequel GREEN MARS/1994 copped a Hugo and the series' last book BLUE MARS/1996 also earned a Hugo (that's a lot of acclaim for a trilogy)

 

[H2S]

I'll next be reading Inferno by Dante

lol. I loved the original, but this rendition was pretty entertaining:

 

[H2S]

I hated reading for years, and I saw The Drop on the 5 dollar pile in Barnes and Nobles. Since then I have read up to the middle of City of Bones, including Blood work as well. The man is an incredible writer. My biggest regret is I am reading his books too fast, worried about running out.

lol. s''why I started this thread.
oh, and btw, the 'mans' name is Cassandra Clare.

 

[H2S]

I read all day long for a living. The most boring fucking shit possible.



Add two kids under 5......can't remember the last book I read.

v'said it before, but for you? hell yes, I skrongly suggest: A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING/2003 by Bill Bryson. Shit's so you it's skeery.

 

[H2S]

Currently reading a 4 book series by Thomas Harlan. Alternate history fiction. Back in Roman times. All kinds of shit going on, wizards, werewolves, vampires, Amazon ladies, rejuvenated Caesars and Alexanders back from the dead, Mohammed discovering his lord, bad Persians, two Roman emperors, East and West, you name it.

LOLOL. Awesome! Sounds like Vonnegut on meth. Gots to check that shit out, thanky sir!

 

[Hank Kingsley]

LOLOL. Awesome! Sounds like Vonnegut on meth. Gots to check that shit out, thanky sir!

I almost thought my post would die.

They are good reads.

I also recommend John Ringo and his Posleen...

 

[H2S]

old <sfx: sigh> very old bidness, DEPT...

@HammerDown - Did you ever finish the Clavell books? determined which one(s) you liked the most? did you include Asian Series #5 - WHIRLWIND/1986? (did you find his account of 1979 IRAN as informative, engrossing and tragic as I did?) Oh, btw, I fucking loved WHEN THE LION FEEDS (several years back.)

@Edonidd - I picked up a copy of THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE...got through the Introduction, started to worry halfway into the Table of Contents, quit reading within 10 paragraphs...lol...was like meeting someone for the first time who you just. fucking. detest. from the getgo (totally unfair, but...) and, btw, didja ever follow up on MAGISTER LUDI or GRAVITY'S RAINBOW?

 

[theboardref]

lol. s''why I started this thread.
oh, and btw, the 'mans' name is Cassandra Clare.

View attachment 119484

Actually Michael Connely is a man.

 

[Edonidd]

old <sfx: sigh> very old bidness, DEPT...

@HammerDown - Did you ever finish the Clavell books? determined which one(s) you liked the most? did you include Asian Series #5 - WHIRLWIND/1986? (did you find his account of 1979 IRAN as informative, engrossing and tragic as I did?) Oh, btw, I fucking loved WHEN THE LION FEEDS (several years back.)

@Edonidd - I picked up a copy of THE DARKNESS THAT COMES BEFORE...got through the Introduction, started to worry halfway into the Table of Contents, quit reading within 10 paragraphs...lol...was like meeting someone for the first time who you just. fucking. detest. from the getgo (totally unfair, but...) and, btw, didja ever follow up on MAGISTER LUDI or GRAVITY'S RAINBOW?

I can see that. You're the only person I have ever recommended it to, a handful of the quotes you have posted here just had the same feel as a lot of his stuff. But maybe small quotes didn't give me an accurate frame of reference.

And no, I haven't read anything. Since the last time I posted in this thread I believe I didn't pick up a single book until 3-4 weeks ago. And despite that book being by Erikson, my favorite author, I've only read like 1/4 of that book. His books tend to take me 3-4 days to read thoroughly, I just haven't really been in a reading mood or something.

 

[H2S]

From: SLOW SCULPTURE/1970 by Theodore Sturgeon

He came out into the entrance court and contemplated his bonsai.

Early sun gold-frosted the horizontal upper foliage of the old tree and brought its gnarled limbs into sharp re-lief, tough brown-gray creviced in velvet.

Only the companion of a bonsai (there are owners of bonsai but they are a lesser breed) fully understands the relationship. There is an exclusive and individual treeness to the tree because it is a living thing and living things change—and there are definite ways in which the tree desires to change. A man sees the tree and in his mind makes certain extensions and extrapolations of what he sees and sets about making them happen. The tree in turn will do only what a tree can do, will resist to the death any attempt to do what it cannot do or to do in less time than it needs. The shaping of a bonsai is therefore always a com-promise and always a cooperation.

A man cannot create bonsai, nor can a tree. It takes both and they must understand one another. It takes a long time to do that. One memorizes one’s bonsai, every twig, the angle of every crevice and needle and, lying awake at night or in a pause a thousand miles away, one recalls this or that line or mass, one makes one’s plans. With wire and water and light, with tilting and with the planting of water-robbing weeds or heavy, root-shading ground cover, one explains to the tree what one wants.

And if the explanation is well enough made and there is great enough understanding the tree will respond and obey—almost. Always there will be its own self-respecting highly individual variation. Very well, I shall do what you want, but I will do it -my way. And for these variations the tree is always willing to present a clear and logical explanation and, more often than not (almost smiling), it will make clear to the man that he could have avoided it if his understanding had been better.

It is the slowest sculpture in the world, and there is, at times, doubt as to which is being sculpted, man or tree.

file:///C:/Users/ndliblnc/Downloads/slow_sculpture_volume_xii_the_complete_stories_of_theodore_sturgeon.pdf

 

[beardown07]

v'said it before, but for you? hell yes, I skrongly suggest: A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING/2003 by Bill Bryson. Shit's so you it's skeery.

So, is this cuz i'm a simpleton that needs shit broken down into retard-talk?


I accept my role in life.

 

[H2S]

So, is this cuz i'm a simpleton that needs shit broken down into retard-talk?
I accept my role in life.

SHORT HISTORY'S chock fulla interesting reality that a well-grounded straight-shooting seriously-serious fellow like you should light up on...stuff like this:

“Your pillow alone may be home to 40 million bed mites. (To them your head is just one large oily bon-bon). And don't think a clean pillow-case will make a difference... Indeed, if your pillow is six years old--which is apparently about the average age for a pillow--it has been estimated that one-tenth of its weight will be made up of sloughed skin, living mites, dead mites and mite dung.”



mites

 

[chf]

I recommended a couple to @Clayton three years ago - am delighted to say 'thanky' for the RED RISING suggestion.
S'weird, I just picked up a copy of THE YEARS OF RICE AND SALT/2002 by Kim Stanley Robinson...
quickly noted that his RED MARS/1993 copped a Nebula, the sequel GREEN MARS/1994 copped a Hugo and the series' last book BLUE MARS/1996 also earned a Hugo (that's a lot of acclaim for a trilogy)

I 'met' her and her husband 'Spider' Robinson at a Writerfest event here in Calgary years ago. Along with G.G. Kay.

In hindsight, I shoulda' got her to sign something too.

 

[H2S]

Kim Stanley Robinson is a guy married to In 1982, Robinson married Lisa Howland Nowell, an environmental chemist. They have two sons. Robinson has lived in Washington, D.C., California, and during some of the 1980s, in Switzerland. He now lives in Davis, California.



In 1975 Spider Robinson married Jeanne Robinson, a choreographer, dancer, and Sōtō Zen monk, who co-wrote his Stardance Trilogy. They had a daughter, Terri Luanna da Silva, who once worked for Martha Stewart.

Robinson has lived in Canada for nearly 40 years, primarily in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia. He formerly lived in "an upscale district of Vancouver for a decade," and has lived on Bowen Island since approximately 1999. He became a Canadian citizen in 2002, retaining his American citizenship. Spider and Jeanne's only grandchild, Marisa, was born in 2009, as Jeanne was undergoing treatment for "a rare and virulent form of biliary cancer". Jeanne Robinson died May 30, 2010. Their daughter Terri died on December 5, 2014, of breast cancer.


(as long as none of them wrote another book titled CITY OF BONES, I'll be happy )

 

[chf]

Heh, I stand corrected. Damn sexually ambiguous names!

 

[Comeds]

The new Philip Kerr book featuring Bernie Gunther, The Other Side Of Silence, is pretty good. The books are historical fiction about a private eye / ex cop in Berlin in the years before and during (then after) WW2. The first three packaged together as Berlin Noir are excellent.