Most Recent Book(s) You've Finished + What You Thought Of It

I've just read, 'This way for the gas, ladies and gentlemen' by Tadeusz Borowski

I think blistering is one word to describe it.

 

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner - I didn't like this as much as The Sound and the Fury. This dealt with a family who was traveling to Jefferson, Mississippi to bury their recently deceased matriarch. Throughout the novel, each of the children react to the death of their mother differently. It's told in a first person narration that jumps between each character, which I thought was interesting. For example, the name "Darl" will appear in bold, and he's the narrator. Then, the name "Cash" will appear, and Cash has taken over the narration duty. Like The Sound and the Fury, this really difficult to follow, and I found myself rereading certain parts of it over and over again to fully comprehend what was going on.

 

Shadowvale a gothic rendevous.
it is a free novel on line. I am not sure yet what I really think of it.
Some people can change into animals have seen a wolf and an owl so far.
strictly fantasy but there is also a romance. It is the romance I am not sure about. But
I am only on the 2nd chapter.
The pictures that go with it are great.
Will let you know how it goes.
finished it and it was not worth the read.
in bookform it probably would be very good but the internet version was poorly set up and kept
going back to earlier parts of the story. It says there is a book 2 but you have no way to access it.
so all in all not worth it.

 

A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen - I had to read this for Literature class. The first two acts were pretty good. Then, the third act came along, which ruined the entire play for me in the space of a couple of pages. The main conflict of the story went right out the window, and the rest of it was this meaningless diatribe. I don't think I'll be reading anything else by Ibsen for a while.

 

Falling Behind, How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class by Robert H. Frank - I had to read this for class. It was really dry and I found it to be a struggle to sit there for two hours straight and read it from cover to cover. Somehow, I managed to do that. I won't go into any description as to what the book is about, as I'm sure the title does that for me.

 

East of Eden by John Steinbeck - For the past three years, I've wanted to read this book. Last Saturday, I decided that I was going to buckle down and finish it, and now I've done just that. Somehow, I managed to get through all 600 pages in five days. That being said, I'm glad I did it. It was a wonderful book, and it was by far the best of John Steinbecks writing that I have ever read. I liked this more than The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. The novel is about two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons. It tells their story across three generations that are full of rivalries, suicide, love, hate and many other things and it is definitely worth reading.

 

Bourne Identity is pretty cool

 

I finally made my way through 'The DaVinci Code', The movie spoiled it for me, but the book was by far superior; both in content and presentation.

 

Just wrapped up "Duma Key". I think I can finally say I like King now after this read. Definitely recommend it!

 

Really? I got 120 pages into Duma Key and thought it was okay, but I haven't revisited it for awhile. I felt, like with most of his new "character-driven" stories that the characters actually felt forced. Especially Wireman. But I know it'll get much better later on.

 

Yeah... I just thought the plot was very interesting, and while not very scary, the story was nice to follow.

I am trying to like King though, and before Duma Key I had only read 2.75 of his novels (Green Mile, Cell, and almost finished with Lisey's Story... what a challenge that one is), so maybe my opinion shouldn't be taken too much to heart

 

Well the critics loved Duma Key so you're on the money.

You should read some of King's earlier work because it's much better than the newer ones you tried. Lisey's Story was an abomination.

Hopefully you end up really getting into Stephen King.

 

I would suggest reading "The Stand." It is simply amazing.

Anyways, I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's "Shadow of the Giant." It was good, but the ending was severely lacking in substance. It almost seems rushed. I did enjoy it, though, for the most part, even though it's probably my least favorite installment of the Ender series.

 

Care to fill me in on the sequence of those novels? I read Ender's Game, and while I thought Ender's Shadow was the "sequel" to that, I took a gander at the local Barnes and Nobles and realized that there are at least a hundred books in the series.

What comes after "Ender's Game"?

 

The Ender series and the Shadow series are parallells, but here is the order I would read them in.

Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and finally, Children of the Mind

 

Ah, okay.

thanks

 

I just read Eragon.

Needless to say, it did not live up to the hype. It was almost as if he was writing straight out of a thesaurus. Serioiusly, how did this guy even get published.

Can I please have the last 2 days of my life back?

 

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut. I haven't read any of his works before, but my English teacher loaned it to me for a field trip (nearly an hour drive). It was short enough to finish in an hour, but it was really enjoyable. It felt like very light reading but it wasn't. (Don't ask me to explain.) It was incredibly humorous - "If you want to upset your parents and you don't have the nerve to be gay, at least be an artist."

 

Man, Kurt Vonnegut is the best. I've read most of his books, and they're all just so damn enjoyable.



The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - This isn't the first time I've read it. I went through it once shortly after tenth grade, but I'm glad I re-read it. While it wasn't as good as East of Eden, it's still really well written. The only thing is that it has to be one of the biggest downers I've ever read.

 

Once I get my paycheck I'm picking up some Steinbeck and Vonnegut!

 

I hear Eragon is bad... I'm never one to bash it till I try it, though, the things I hear about it... I should mabye say away from that book.

Chistopher Panni does not sound like a good writer in any real sense of the word.

 

That's a good plan.

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut - This isn't the first time that I've read this. It's without a doubt my favorite book by Vonnegut, but if you haven't ever read him, I wouldn't recommend starting here. This is probably one of the greatest books I've ever read though. You need to read Slaughterhouse-Five, then Cat's Cradle and then this, or you are committing a grave injustice against yourself.

 

Last book I read was animal farm. It was a good book, although I didn't expect it to be written like a children's story until I begun. I kept making parallels between it and my knowledge of Russian history.

 

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway - I liked this more than any of his other writing I've read aside from A Farewell to Arms. This book deals with expatriates in France and Spain following the first World War.

 

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - I've been re-reading all of Vonnegut's well known books lately, since it's been so long since I first read them. I'm surprised that I didn't like this as much the second time through. When I was younger, this book was incredible, but now it only came off as really good. So it goes.