The Mother Fucking Book Thread (No Comics Allowed)

[Lagduf]

In March I finished We and Kallocain.

We was really interesting and kind of weird. I enjoyed it. Kallocain was short and sweet but I actually really, really liked it. It's not the greatest book ever but I like the sort of realizations some of the people of the World State came to, or rather, what they caused Kall to realize. Sure it was somewhat heavy handed, but meh. Really liked that one.

So I didn't read any books in April. Started one on the Industrial Revolution but it was...bleh. Didn't hold my interest.

So I bought some new books tonight after poking around dystopian fiction in wikipedia:

Player Piano
The Iron Heel
Welcome to the Monkey House [got for a particular short story - but I have a feeling I may be reading more Vonnegut in the future after this and Player Piano)
The Handmaid's Tale (Actually saw the movie for this many years ago but was only somewhat watching it - I recall it being an interesting idea at the time)

So yeah, more dystopia for the time being. I need to get some Dredd. I'll leave that for the comic thread. I need maybe look at some Utopian novels. I dunno, we'll see where the dystopian journey takes me.

EDIT: I see Iron Heel mentioned above my SML, lol, that well read motherfucker. Many thanks to him for all the books he has recommended to me so far.

 

[Pope Sazae]

Just finished reading "The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story" again. Holy shit this book really is terrifying, when published it was considered fiction but as time has passed and more has been learned about viruses like Ebola it has since been labeled non-fiction. I have worked in the health care field in a certain extent for a while now and seeing how things like this virus have progressed and how dangerous they really are is very eye opening.

Richard Preston's follow up "The Cobra Event" is all fiction but just as horrifying since it is presented in such a way that it seems like it could really happen. For anyone that likes medical thrillers I cannot recommend these books enough.

 

[rarehero]

I'm reading the calligrapher's daughter,
historical fiction about occupation era Korea from a girl/woman's perspective.
It's interesting from the perspective of gender roles and how they're treated in Korea at the time.
It's my lunch time book,
so it'll take awhile to get through it.

 

[CrackerMessiah]

I'll bite.

I gave up anything for a monitor for Lent. No computer, no TV, or anything attached to either one. Work was an exception. This left a lot of time for reading.

That allowed me to finish The Powers that Be by David Halberstam, written/published in 1979. It's non-fiction that covers the ascendency and maturation of Time magazine, CBS, the Washington Post and the LA Times. What's great about it is that not only do you learn about the institutions themselves, but you learn about the people that ran them. You get the context in which they came about in addition to the histories that surrounded them. You'll learn fascinating things that include how pro-Chang the founder of Time magazine was and its influence on foreign news coverage, as well as how the Los Angeles Times never covered anything related to the democratic party until the 1960s.

If you have any desire to learn about how US media matured through the 20th century, this is one of the book to read. Be warned, though, as it clocks in at over 700 pages.

At the moment, I'm reading another of his books, War in a Time of Peace, which so far appears to be about the US' foreign policy shift to fighting wars NOT defined by the Cold War, and the calamitous consequences therein. Good times!

 

[Magician]

I recently read Mel Nicolai's 2010 novel The Shake. The tale of a modern vampire and his day to day life. When Shake takes the time to look through the personal belongings of his most recent "donor" he becomes interested in an unsolved murder case. It's was an interesting, entertaining story. If you enjoy vampire lore or stories as I do I recommend you pick it up.

 

[Normdog]

Currently reading The Poetry of Pablo Neruda.

 

[fake]

In March I finished We and Kallocain.

We was really interesting and kind of weird. I enjoyed it. Kallocain was short and sweet but I actually really, really liked it. It's not the greatest book ever but I like the sort of realizations some of the people of the World State came to, or rather, what they caused Kall to realize. Sure it was somewhat heavy handed, but meh. Really liked that one.

So I didn't read any books in April. Started one on the Industrial Revolution but it was...bleh. Didn't hold my interest.

So I bought some new books tonight after poking around dystopian fiction in wikipedia:

Player Piano
The Iron Heel
Welcome to the Monkey House [got for a particular short story - but I have a feeling I may be reading more Vonnegut in the future after this and Player Piano)
The Handmaid's Tale (Actually saw the movie for this many years ago but was only somewhat watching it - I recall it being an interesting idea at the time)

So yeah, more dystopia for the time being. I need to get some Dredd. I'll leave that for the comic thread. I need maybe look at some Utopian novels. I dunno, we'll see where the dystopian journey takes me.

EDIT: I see Iron Heel mentioned above my SML, lol, that well read motherfucker. Many thanks to him for all the books he has recommended to me so far.

Player Piano was a looooong read. Did you like it? I thought it was pretty boring but overall OK, especially considering it was his first book.

I finished Roadside Picnic, which was decent. It's so short that I can't not recommend it. Aliens visit Earth but have no interaction with humans. They leave as quickly as they came, leaving a ton of junk behind. "Stalkers" break into the landing sites and steal the junk so that they can sell it on the black market. Very little action, but lots of tension and atmosphere.

I also finished A Crack in Space by Philip K Dick. Spike Jonze needs to make this into a movie. A car repairman finds a portal to an alternate Earth in a corrupt surgeon's car.

I'm currently reading Dune Messiah. It's been a year or so since I read Dune so I forget a lot of the details, which is a bummer because there's no way I'm going back and re-reading the original. Way too long.

 

[Lagduf]

I got Iron Heel about three days before I received those other books, so I haven't read Player Piano yet. If it's long that's okay.

I'm really enjoying The Iron Heel a lot even though London's plea for socialism through his characters is, how shall we say, a bit heavy handed. The argument Everhard puts forth is certainly one I can sympathize with. It's interesting how London presents socialism as the next "logical" or "evolutionary" step in the organization of man and attempts to ground his characters in reason and logic first and foremost.

I'm still early in the book and haven't got yet to where the "Oligarchy" emerges in the United States (and around the world) but based on what has been hinted (and what little I've read of the book) it's definitely an interesting take on a possible dystopian future what with the rise of super corporations/trusts, etc. Certainly a future people are still apt to draw parallels to today in our own society.

That said it's an absolutely fascinating look at one man's view of what was wrong with America in the first decade of the 20th century. I've particularly become interested in the era in the United states from say 1865-1914.

I really want to find out what London thought of subsequent reforms that occurred in the USA during say the next decade he published this book, though it appears he died somewhat young. I wonder what his take on the Soviet Union would have been. Certainly many Socialists felt Lenin and Stalin co-opted their cause, but I digress.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever had as much fun reading fiction as I have once I started reading this dystopian stuff.

 

[Lagduf]

Iron Heel was fascinating until it became exceedingly boring, and then fascinating once again towards the end when London began to describe what he thought ensuing riots and (attempts at) revolution under a capitalist Oligarchy would have looked like.

After I read that I read through Player Piano which I really enjoyed. Vonnegut's writing style in that book was fantastic and I truly enjoyed it. His characters were great and the book had an excellent sense of humor. Didn't have the ending I expected by any means. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

Today I just finished The Handmaid's Tale. Really a great book right there. I was at first struck by how much her work appeared to me to be a reaction to the Iranian revolution and almost overnight installation of a theocracy. That and perhaps the rise of the evangelists and so called "Moral Majority" in America. I suppose along with the sense of impending societal doom that so often appeared before an easing of tensions in the cold war.

I really liked the style of her writing. I liked how the main character (ofwhatever) could be speaking of the present, describing events, and then transition seamlessly into a tangential or even unrelated memory, back to the present, and back to a memory without the reader becoming confused or unable to tell past from present. I don't know if you would call it stream of consciousness but it seemed very natural, as if she put down on paper the way most of us think.

The ending was interesting, since you find out the book is but a manuscript from the past, revealed only at the end. Kind of like in Kallocain and Iron Heel.

Anyway I have a collection of Vonnegut short stories I suppose I'll read next, then I don't know what's next.

 

[Late]

^Cat's Cradle is my fave Vonnegut novel.

*edit* If you liked the Handmaid's Tale, then also check out Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, but it's a comic so it doesn't really belong here.

 

[Lagduf]

I saw the film adaptation and read through part of the actual Persepolis graphic novel.

 

[SonGohan]

Finished The Running Man a couple days ago. I was really surprised how drastically different it was than the movie. I really felt a surge of tension every time he managed to escape a situation where he was trapped. I really enjoyed the ending, although it felt like it came on a bit too quick. The novel deserves to have a movie based based fully on it.

 

[Lagduf]

I'm going to have to check that book out. I never thought that the movie was based on a novel. Mmmm more Dystopia.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

I have a long commute these days so I got a kindle last month. So far I've read these books:

1. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
2. Diamond Age - Neil Stephenson
3. The Great Gatsby
4. Player of Games - Iain M Banks
5. The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K Dick
6. Dune - Frank Herbert
7. Dune Messiah
8.Children of Dune
9.Wool Omnibus 1-5
10. God Emperor of Dune
11. The Jewel in the Skull - Michael Moorcock

I've really dug all of those, especially the Dune books. I'm going to read Heretics of Dune next.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

The Difference Engine is ridiculously boring.

Inherent Vice is hilarious though. It's about a stoner hippie PI in Manson-era CA.

I had to force myself to finish the Difference Engine. It took me a long time and I was pretty shocked at how dull it was, especially compared to the Gibson books. I need to read his last three books.

 

[Average Joe]

i already told Wes this but i'll tell everyone else too:

Ready Player One

 

[SonGohan]

I'm going to have to check that book out. I never thought that the movie was based on a novel. Mmmm more Dystopia.

The only thing the movie shares with the novel is the title, and two characters: Ben Richards and Damon Killian --and Killian isn't even the game show host in the book, he's like the producer or something. Like...everything is different... how Richards gets involved with the show, how the show is formatted, the hunters, and Richards as a person (he's more of a MacGuyver than a Terminator). It's kind of stressful reading that story and feeling Richards' desperation as he runs between each state.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

i already told Wes this but i'll tell everyone else too:

Ready Player One

I read this for a second time a few months ago. I love it so much. It's a bit corny, but it moves at such a fast pace and I'm the exact intended audience.

Ernest Cline is on his second book right now, I sounds pretty rad.

Apparently in the print copies there's a puzzle to figure out. I never got it or found a website that would outright tell me.

 

[Lagduf]

I just ordered Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan.

The only thing the movie shares with the novel is the title, and two characters: Ben Richards and Damon Killian --and Killian isn't even the game show host in the book, he's like the producer or something. Like...everything is different... how Richards gets involved with the show, how the show is formatted, the hunters, and Richards as a person (he's more of a MacGuyver than a Terminator). It's kind of stressful reading that story and feeling Richards' desperation as he runs between each state.

That sounds even better than the movie.

 

[fake]

I had to force myself to finish the Difference Engine. It took me a long time and I was pretty shocked at how dull it was, especially compared to the Gibson books. I need to read his last three books.

Totally. I just finished the main part of the book today. I haven't finished the indexes at the end or the commentary from the authors. Super boring, but I guess I'm glad I read it.

I finished Dune Messiah a few weeks ago. I definitely liked it, but it was far less - and I hate this word - epic than the original Dune. The first one takes place over several years. This one took place over like a week. Much less diversity in characters and scenery. I guess the first one focused so much on a sense of exploration whereas this one focused on pseudo-political drama.

Next up is the Crying of Lot 49. Gulp.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Totally. I just finished the main part of the book today. I haven't finished the indexes at the end or the commentary from the authors. Super boring, but I guess I'm glad I read it.

I finished Dune Messiah a few weeks ago. I definitely liked it, but it was far less - and I hate this word - epic than the original Dune. The first one takes place over several years. This one took place over like a week. Much less diversity in characters and scenery. I guess the first one focused so much on a sense of exploration whereas this one focused on pseudo-political drama.

The Dune books are amazing. Each one moves further and further away from the original epic feel of the first book. I really recommend continuing. The books get stranger, but they get deeper and seem to have a unique internal logic and style of story telling. I really enjoyed God Emperor of Dune, but it felt like a drug trip and there were no massive set pieces like in the original Dune.

I went back and watched the David Lynch film. I've always been a fan of the movie, but reading the books made me like it even more.

So far the fifth book, Heretics of Dune, is great.

 

[fake]

The Dune books are amazing. Each one moves further and further away from the original epic feel of the first book. I really recommend continuing. The books get stranger, but they get deeper and seem to have a unique internal logic and style of story telling. I really enjoyed God Emperor of Dune, but it felt like a drug trip and there were no massive set pieces like in the original Dune.

I went back and watched the David Lynch film. I've always been a fan of the movie, but reading the books made me like it even more.

So far the fifth book, Heretics of Dune, is great.

Yeah, I definitely will continue with the series. I planned on reading the third book, since, as I understand it, that wraps up the original trilogy and the other three are just a sort of... not a money grab, but a less pure continuation. But maybe I'll read all of them. The David Lynch movie will be my punishment for finishing the first trilogy.

 

[Late]

I love Dune Messiah, it has, for my money, the best depiction of what it would really be like to know the future.

 

[Lagduf]

Funny the last posts were about Dune. I just picked it up today on a whim. Was in need of something to read and figured I'd see what Dune was all about. I know almost nothing about the series and have not seen the movie at all. If I like it I take it it would be worth picking up other books in the series?

After I finished Sirens of Titans I read the other books in the Ender "Quartet" (Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind.) Speaker for the Dead is probably the best of them, though I really enjoyed Xenocide as well. I could reccomend reading Ender's Game on its own but if you pick up Speaker for the Dead and like it you may as well read the other books IMO, though some of the "science" gets a little out there towards the end. Although I liked in Children of the Mind where they posit that maybe humans are the ones incapable of living with other sentient life. Heh.

Anyway Sirens of Titan was a weird book and I found it interesting Vonnegut again seemed to explore some of the same ideas he did in Player Piano.

I'm reading A Canticle for Lebowitz right now and enjoying it immensely. Really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Today I also picked up some more Vonnegut; Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle.

Anything by Heinlen any good? Was looking for a copy of Starship Troopers but couldn't find one.

 

[2D_mastur]

Finally got around to reading Animal Farm. I don't know what feelings it's supposed to create, but I laughed a lot and was pissed- off the rest of the time. The ending made me feel extremely angry, then I sunk into a day long depression. The book was dead on, as least when it comes to describing American society. As for the purpose of this little novel, and it's historical context, I know nothing... hence, I automatically applied it's message ( rather, what I perceived to be it's message ) to today's world. Basically, it made me hate average Americans even more.

A couple months ago I also finished Ham On Rye. Fucking, the most entertaining book I've read in a long while. It had me howling, Chinaski's childhood/adolescence wasn't too far off from my own.