Good books thread
H'okay, so I searched the forums and there's no book thread. Considering that a large part of adventure games' appeal lies in the writing, and that I'm assuming a lot of you like adventure games, it's not unreasonable to conclude that some of you like books.
So, got any good ones? Both fiction and non-fiction count; if it's fiction, a good story is a must, and good prose, dialogue and characters earn you an extra virtual pat on the back.
The last two books I read that I put down thinking were spectacular were The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, and Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I'll stick to The Big Sleep, just to give you a good first impression of this thread by keeping it short.
Although convoluted, the story's good and the mystery's interesting enough to keep you plowing, but the style and atmosphere of the thing are excellent. The characters and dialogue deserve a special shout-out as well. This book largely influenced Tim Schafer when working on Grim Fandango, and for good reason. And it's funny - very funny. Here's the first paragraph:
Read a bit here.
So, got any good ones? Both fiction and non-fiction count; if it's fiction, a good story is a must, and good prose, dialogue and characters earn you an extra virtual pat on the back.
The last two books I read that I put down thinking were spectacular were The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler, and Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I'll stick to The Big Sleep, just to give you a good first impression of this thread by keeping it short.
Although convoluted, the story's good and the mystery's interesting enough to keep you plowing, but the style and atmosphere of the thing are excellent. The characters and dialogue deserve a special shout-out as well. This book largely influenced Tim Schafer when working on Grim Fandango, and for good reason. And it's funny - very funny. Here's the first paragraph:
It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.
Read a bit here.
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Waiting for Angel Time to fall into my mailbox. Currently reading Blackwood Farm. Her attention to detail and her way of writing and storytelling is so magnificent.
Also, another book I just recently read: Kafka on the Shore. Fantastic book, perhaps my favourite book so far. I'm not such an avid reader, and I was surprised I read through it. But I read more and more, and so far Anne Rice and Murakami (Kafka OTS) are my favourite writers. Anyone know what else Murakami has written that's well worth reading? Anything quite as good as Kafka?
Of recent books, I highly recommend The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, about a little girl living in Germany during WWII. It's an incredibly moving story the struggle of life and the power of words. It's bound to make you cry by the end, but it's not as bleakly depressing as you might expect from the subject matter.
I tend to like reading books 'bout random information, so I think both Book of General Ignorance and Book of Animal Ignorance are good, and Why Do Men Have Nipples? was interesting.
The Hunger Games is cool, Dave Barry is funny, Bill Bryson is funny and a traveler, but he's written some science-y and English-y stuff. (A Brief History of the World is interesting, and nice to look at if it's the special one with images and stuff and god I'm horrible with words.) You've probably heard of Douglas Adams and his Hitchhikers books/radio/TV/movie, but he's also written Last Chance to See, which is basically about endangered species around the world (better than it sounds, I swear). If you find it, read The Meaning of Liff and tell me how it is.
There's a hell of a lot of authors whose stuff I've not read, and I can't say I've read many 'classics' but I read for my enjoyment and if that is found in some old kids book which I've loved since I was a child then what's wrong with that.
It's a social network about books, here's my library:
http://www.anobii.com/gozzoman/
(You can choose to see only English books, selecting the proper option in the left column.)
Cheers
What MalkyTop said. x40.
The Maltese Falcon
To Kill A Mockingbird
White Fang
Rendezvous With Rama
And am currently on three other books:
Making Money by Terry Pratchett
House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Shogun by James Clavell
My favorite book is The Brothers Karamazov, and I also recommend the Space Odyssey series, the Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child collaborations, anything by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, and classics from any era.
Next I plan to tear into Crime and Punishment and The Old Curiosity Shop.
I also like reading old pulp novels like the Shadow and Doc Savage.
I'm reading the James Bond series by the creator, Ian Fleming. Bond is a lot more interesting in the books than in the films, you really get inside his head and get to know him (or want to be like him):o. Be warned though they are very different in pacing than the movies, but more rewarding, in my opinion.
There's actually a famous quote by Chandler from a review he did of the first bond novel Casino Royale:
"Bond is what every man would like to be and what every woman would like to have between her sheets."
Last Chance to See is one of my most favourite books ever. Adams has a wonderful style. It's amazing how funny that book is while at the same time being beautifully poignant.
This. To the maaaaaax.
The last book I read that wasn't Pratchett was probably "The Hobbit". Very good read, that.
The only book I'd willingly read one day is the Alphabet of Manliness, by Maddox.
I have that, and it's quite genius. Made me genuinely roar with laughter a good few times
Before I got on my Powers kick I was reading The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z by Max Brooks.
Anne Rice is great - but she lost her touch after Memnoch the Devil, if you ask me. Granted, I haven't read her Christ the Lord series, which I hear is great. I heard Angel Time got bad reviews - but I've never been one to follow those. Interview with the Vampire, Lestat, Queen of the Damned (my favorite) - those three I think were her best. I did enjoy the Witching Hour (couldn't get into Lasher), but once her vampires and witches got together I lost interest. Most of the rest of her Vampire books bored me and didn't grab me. I read all of them just to keep up, but I didn't read Blood Canticle, the last one. I don't know why, I just didn't care by the time she decided to wrap it up. But, to each his own.
I just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The movie comes out this week, I can't wait to see it. Read the book - you'll finish it in just a few hours, the style of writing is very easy and fast to read. Great book.
And I love the Dark Tower and Sherlock Holmes stories.
Here is mine:
http://www.anobii.com/gaston
The uncut edition? 'tis rather large! Still, it's one of my favourite books (I'm talking top 3 here) of all-time.
Yep, the uncut edition. I'm too tired to get into any kind of descriptive analysis, but the book wasn't as good as it could've been, I think, because the payoff wasn't as good as, or worthy of, the setup. The book basically goes off the rails after
So, while I enjoyed the novel and can recommend it, it's just not good enough for me to call it one of my favorites. On the other hand, it's consistently great in the first 800 or so pages, and the early parts, such as
So, mostly fun, quite scary, but not my favorite novel ever.
(Sorry this was long. I could go on and on and on about anything and analyse it back to back, and I tend to get carried away a little, even on a short skim-of-the-surface analysis like this.)
Also, The Stand was made into one of the few King-based films that I enjoy. It cuts wide swaths through the book's nuances, but it's still an entertaining watch.
H.G. Wells
Jules Vernes
Douglas Adams
Kurt Vonegut
Orson Scott Card (not that classic, but still good)
However, one summer day I was bored, and stuck for something to do, I pulled the first book from the shelf. At first, I thought it was going to be the usual pulp, fantasy story which any old hack could write. However, I soon noticed that this was something entirely different. Superb. I finished the three books in the same amount of days, and went to meet George himself in Glasgow and got him to sign all of them plus the fourth which I walked out of the shop without paying! Genuine mistake, never meant to nick it!
Word of warning though. Unlike most books in this genre, these are very adult themed. There are occassional sex scenes, lots of swearing, and extremely gory. Also, if you like the good guys to win all the time, you will be in for a disappointment, and you never know which character is going to get the chop next!
Give them a try and let me know what you think.
Fun fact: There was a doctor who reference in Brisingr.
Chris Columbus (director of the first two Harry Potter films) is making it a movie, so I reccamend that you read the first book "The Lightning Thief."
However, my favorite series has to be the Starbuck Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell's series about a Northerner fighting for the South in the American Civil War. Excellent stuff, though not complete due to the increased focus on Cornwell's nevertheless brilliant Sharpe series in recent years.
At the moment, I'm trying out the recently translated Witcher books by Sapowski.
I recently read Charles Willeford's Miami Blues, in my opinion one of the best crime books ever written. These guys excerpted the first two chapters. Check it out.
I also read Dark of the Moon, by John Sandford. As far as mysteries and plot go, it's your run-of-the-mill crime novel, but Sandford's light-hearted and has fun with it, which keeps it fresh. The main character isn't the cliched alcoholic, but a rock-loving optimist. (Rock being the music.) He's not The Dude, nor is he trying to be, but it's a nice change of pace. The story goes off on the occasional tangent, but it's a decent thriller. A beach book, in other words. I'd recommend it for <$15.
I'm reading V, by Thomas Pynchon. I'm only one chapter in, but here are some thoughts:
- Thomas Pynchon has a great handle on prose. I've gotten back into writing and seen how bad my work's gotten, and this has been an injection of pure, unadulterated jealousy. That's the second guy (after Erik Wolpaw) to get me raging in the one month I've been writing. I'm going to have to write some serious, honest, heartfelt but hard-hitting stuff to even begin approaching half the quality those two have dished-out. Yowza. My arteries pulse with anticipation, though my future pulses with misfires. It's wonderful.
- I was surprised at how funny it's been so far. I expected Pynchon to be a literary "elite" (l337), holier-than-ye-low-cultured-swine Harold Bloom-type, talking about neo-classical trans-somethingism. I didn't expect "nipple taps" (they're sailors in a bar, figure it out).
- It's a little wordy, but only if you stop and think about it. Mid-sentence, it feels like every word's measured and there for a reason. I find this rather impressive.
- how hilarious they are
- how much I remember while reading it, which for some reason makes it even more enjoyable
I actually have memories from performing the plays in primary school, from watching them being performed in the theatre, and so on, as I read. Which is really how you're supposed to enjoy plays anyways.
Oh, also, the edition I downloaded has the original text, in old French, while the ones I studied were converted to modern French. It's pretty much the same except the "ai"s that are written "oi". To give a comparison, imagine a text in English that would use modern expressions and language but have "eth" tackled a bit everywhere.
Makes the whole thing even funnier if you ask me.
- Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
- The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon series,) by Christopher Paolini
I would highly recommend reading the Harry Potter books before the 2 movies about the final book comes out.
Also, I am currently reading Eldest, book 2 of the Inheritance cycle (otherwise knows as the Eragon series.) I haven't seen the Eragon movie, but my brother-in-law has read the books and seen the movie and he says that the movie sucks and has nothing at all to do with the plot of the book. I personally can say that the books are wonderful, and book 4 isn't out yet.