Not a novel, but I bought a reference book - 100 years of fashion illustration. It was expensive, but it's comprehensive, interesting and very beautiful. Anyone with an interest in illustration or fashion or design would probably enjoy it. The last novel wassss god I can't even remember. I think it was just KIDBOOKNOSTALGIAR. I intend to read Vile Bodies. It's sitting on the nightstand glaring at me.
The testicle eating was one of the many things that put me off Goodkind. It was completely unnecessary, there are other, much better ways to establish the evilness of a character without going for the gross-out. He does seem to overuse rape ridiculously as well.
Too many people had told me to read Charlaine Harris so I read most of Dead Until Dark at work; I'm about three-quarters of the way through. It's far better than any work revolving around vampire sex and heavy-handed social commentary has any right to be. I'll have to watch True Blood at some point too.
That's exactly why I don't like much of Kafka's work, but I recently read his story, The Metamorphosis from a book collection and I found it so endearing. It's interesting how he likes to personify animals. Even in his story, The Burrow.Originally Posted by P4ine
The Metamorphosis is one of the best novels of all time.
And to think, he hated everything he did.
Everything by Kafka I've read has been pretty much perfect. I should really read The Trial one of these days. It would be nice if my German was lessty so I could read the originals, but alas, I'm too lazy to work on it that much.
Yeah, it was my least fav of the lot. Probably my absolute fav is everyone's least favorite which is Many Waters with just the twins as the main characters in the Noah's Arc story. I think it was only my fav because when I was a kid I thought the cover picture of the twins was HOT . . . but not really, cause I wasn't gay . . . :P
(SPOILER)
You can't tell, but they totally looked like Zach from Saved By the Bell (during the last season) but way more ripped. And then the second time I read it, it was in this copy, where they looked just cute:
(SPOILER)
I can see that. I think his aim was to write it as simplistically as possible, to make it feel like a fairytale. I had qualms with the book. I felt it was trying too hard to rip off The Neverending Story and failing. Also, I felt like the darkness of the violence was in utter contrast to everything else. But maybe that's what he aimed for? And so it was effective? Yet not quite my cup of tea.
Speaking of other books I thought I'd like but didn't which totally ripped off The Neverending Story: Inkheart. I HATED it. Not only was it far too dark and gloomy and repetitive, it felt rather amaturish. Maybe it's just the English translation.
Aaaaaaanyway, I've been re-reading my fav fantasy series I read when I was in middle school: The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. I've been too afraid to re-read it all these years thinking it couldn't stand up to the awesome stuff I'd been reading in the years to follow. Well, it's still pretty awesome as far as your generic scifi/fantasy goes. Nothing too outstanding, but a good light read. I just started on book five, Hand of Chaos, where things get VERY interesting.
Last edited by Bastian; 01-04-2010 at 06:05 AM.
That's one of the most interesting things. My copy of The Metamorphosis has letters that he's written to people saying how he like completely boffed up the ending and how he should burn it as opposed to publish and I'm just like, no no no!
I wish the The Trial gripped me was much as The Metamorphosis. I stopped reading in the middle when I got a few new books and I never started reading again. I have to get onto it.Everything by Kafka I've read has been pretty much perfect. I should really read The Trial one of these days. It would be nice if my German was less
I'm in the middle of reading Supreme Courtship - so far it's a pretty great comedy/parody of Capitol Hill. I picked it up because it looked like a something Augusten Burroughs would write, if he were political.
Kills me. XDSenator Mitchell's Judiaciary Committee staff investigators were known on Capitol Hill as the Wraith Riders, after the relentless spectral, house mounted pursuers of hobbits in The Lord of the Rings. It was said in hushed tones on Capitol Hill that the Wraith Riders could find something on anyone: could msake it look like Mother Teresa had run a whorehouse in Calcutta; that St. Thomas More had been having it off with Catherine of Aragon; or that Dr. Albert Schweitzer had conducted ghastly live medical experiments on helpess, anesthetized African children on behalf of Belgian drug companies.
However, faced with the blemishless Judge Cooney, the Wraith Riders were left to whinny there was nothing with which to hang him, not even an unpaid parking ticket. He was an exemplar of every judicial virtue. Not one of his decisions had been overturned by a higher court. As for his personal life, he was so reasonable and wise that he made Scorates sound like a raving, bipolar crank.
Dig deeper, Senator Mitchell told the Wraith Riders. Or dig your own grades. Off they rode, shrieking.
And so, on day two of the Cooney hearings, Senator Mitchell, smiling pleasantly as usual, began: "Judge Cooney, you are, I take it, familiar with the film The Kill A Mockingbird?
Judge Cooney answered yes, he was pretty sure he'd seen it, back in grade school.
"Is there anything about that you'd care to... tell the committee?"
Judge Cooney looked perplexed. Tell? He wasn't quite sure he understood the question.
Senator Mitchell held up a piece of paper as if mere physical contact with it might forever contaminate his fngers.
"Do you recognize this document?"
Not from this distance, Cooeny replied, now thoroughly perplexed.
"Then let me refresh your memory," Senator Mitchell said. The vast audience watching the proceedings held it breath, wondering what radioactive material Senator Mitchell had unearthed to incriminate this spotless nominee. It turned out to be a review of the movie that the twelve-year-old Cooney had written for The Beaverboard, his elementary school newspaper.
"The the picture is overall OK," Senator Mitchell quoted, "it's also kind of boring in other parts."
Senator Mitchell looked up, took of his glassed, paused as if tfighting back tears, nodded philosophically and said "Tell us, Judge, which parts of To Kill A Mockingbird did you find quoteunquote boring?"
In his concluding statement several grueling days later, Senator Mitchell said in a more-in-sadness-than-in-anger tone that he could "not in good conscience bring myself to vote for someone who might well show up at the Court on the first Monday of October wearing not black judicial robes but the white uniform of the Ku Klux Klan."
I read Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper. I was pleasantly surprised as I expected a very generic reading experience. The flow of the story was good, and there were many interesting twists along the way that kept the narrative tight and exciting. I enjoyed reading the chase scenes which showed how clever many of the characters were as they tried to fool each other, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.
There was quite a bit of character development for such an action-heavy novel; many characters were portrayed humanly with no one really being truly heroic or villainous, and the story revealed more and more about them in a very nice way as it progressed. The clearest villain, Magua, had a rather touching backstory which to me justified his brutal actions, and in general I really liked the way how he managed to fool pretty much everyone throughout the story.
I was also pleasantly surprised how the author portrayed Native Americans in a sympathetic light, neither justifying their actions nor preaching against them either and instead just subtly showed their different way of seeing and doing things.
Overall the novel was worth a read and very exciting, and I hope I'll get to read the author's other novels featuring Hawkeye someday in the future.
How I met your mother, Donald Duck's parents style! Love at first temper tantrum!
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I just read Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov, I thought it was brilliant, such a dark topic but writtern so romantically. Main characters you can pity, enjoy and despise all at the same time.
...It is because there is a limit to time that we wish for nights that never dawn.Eternity is just an empty illusion and is why feelings of being able to believe in one another are born...Remember that well.
The Way of Shadows - Brent Weeks
A mate recommended I read it, because he's into assassins and such like..LOVED IT, currently reading the 2nd book of The Night Angel Trilogy and I have to saynot quite as good as the first, but that could just be because (SPOILER)I freakin adored Durzo Blint who gone and damned got himself killed..quite blatantly could have lived but *sobsob*what did he have to live for
Nothing but praise for this book, personally I can't floor it other than (SPOILER)the best god damned man in it god damned dies
I am not a man
That's still my favorite book. Have you read anything else by Nabokov?
Got "The Original of Laura" for christmas and "Laughter in the Dark" is on its way in the post, should be here in the next couple of days (but we have severe weather warnings so it might be delayedThat's still my favorite book. Have you read anything else by Nabokov?), then i think i will get another one, I just love the way he writes
...It is because there is a limit to time that we wish for nights that never dawn.Eternity is just an empty illusion and is why feelings of being able to believe in one another are born...Remember that well.
The Lovely Bones comes out in theatres here on the 15th so I'm rereading it right now! I love the book so much. The main character is so amazing. Sure it deals with afterlife and heaven and such things but I think anyone could really enjoy it... that is, if you don't throw the book and start crying like a baby after the first chapter or two... GOSH.
I flipped through The Original of Laura in stores because it costs like 25 dollars for a skeleton of a novel that's less than fourty pages. I really want to buy it once it's paperback.Got "The Original of Laura" for christmas and "Laughter in the Dark" is on its way in the post, should be here in the next couple of days (but we have severe weather warnings so it might be delayedThat's still my favorite book. Have you read anything else by Nabokov?
An Invitation to a Beheading is really great!
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