What Are You Reading Now.

The info dumping geek-power-fantasy aspects are annoying as hell. Now really feeling it at the moment. Hoping it turns around at some point, though, I'm not sure that'll happen. Seems I'm not in the target crowd for this kind of stuff.

Was this review of Century Rain on point then? https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1739501948?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1

 

Might have been, I read it probably a decade or so ago. What I do remember is that

Spoiler: massive spoilers, possibly misremembered

it was based on the premise that Earth had been grey-gooed by nanomachines, so everybody lived in orbit. The main group were called "Threshers", with no explanation, but they somehow managed to survive without the use of computers. They communicated with each other through old-fashioned interoffice vacuum tubes. In a massive space station in orbit. Their antagonists were called "Slashers" and had scary looking, angular ships, and we don't learn why they were called that until

Spoiler: super duper spoilers

we find out that "Thresher" stands for "standing on the threshold" of computer technology. The Threshers were some sort of orbital Amish who were afraid to use computers lest they become nanomachines and wreck everything else. The hairy, scary, evilish "Slashers" were called that because of "slashdot", and ancient computer code, and they were the arm of humanity that had gone to the stars.

And that bit took place in the long exposition (repressed memories are coming back now) that that reviewer talked about. I was like "What? You made me sit through that whole improbable story for that? Bite me."

 

Decided to revisit a series that I started reading years ago: The Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan. It's an Australian series so it might not be that well known, but my teacher read the first book to us years ago and I recently bought the first three books. I think it's aimed at a slightly younger age group than myself, but I've still found the first book enjoyable.

 

I'm guessing you've seen Blade Runner. If so, don't expect DADoES to feel like the same. The book felt much lighter to me and I got no sense of the dark, grittiness of BR.

Still a great read, though.

I nearly bought Snow Crash when I was in Manchester the other day, but the synopsis suggests it might not be totally up my street.

 

I'm just finnishing Stephen King's End Of Watch. When I started I didn't realize it was a follow up to Mister Mercedes, so now I have to go get that one too.

 

I read the first 3 or so of those a while back, but they are written for a pretty young audience, so I didn't finish the rest. I enjoyed the read, they were just too juvenile for me in the end.

 

I agree that it's for a young audience, but I've still enjoyed the first book so far. Maybe it's the nostalgia factor since I loved the first book so much when I was younger, seeing as I still enjoy the Harry Potter books even though the early ones are clearly for a much younger audience.

 

Just finished A Game of Thrones and am starting A Clash of Kings, both in the ASOIAF series by George R. R. Martin. Really good books, though I watched the show before reading them.

 

I just got As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner from my community library thing where you take a book and leave a book. What's cool is that it's full of highlighting and notes that pertain to my communication major, which means I can justify reading this instead of literature on my train rides.

Edit: It also fits my "about 300 pages" rule I have for deciding what books to read. So yay.

 

I've been reading 'The Pillars of the Earth' for close to half a year. Have read about 30 other books while reading this, because I just can't get through it. I don't care what exact shape a roof is going to be. I don't care how deep the hole in the ground is now compared to five pages back. I just DO NOT care. It's far too many exact details. Only 700 more pages to go... But quite frankly, I don't give a bleep about this church, and whether they finish building it or not. This book easily could have been only 500 pages, and still be the exact same story, only less uninteresting details.

 

This book just MUST have been written by Stephen King.

 

Am currently reading a story called "N" by the great writer Stephan King. Its very interesting.

 

If you feel this way about this one, you should probably stay away from the sequel.

 

I bought both books at the same time, so I'll have to read it. But thanks for the warning.

 

I liked that one overall, but get what you mean; it's like the cathedral is the main character. A lot of people were raving about that book. The person who recommended it to me was really in love with it. Need to recuperate before tackling the sequel.

I just finished 'The Quest' by Wilbur Smith (Egyptian #4), which I gave 3/5 on Goodreads, though wanted to give it 2.5/5 really. Currently reading 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Power of Now'.

 

I laughed reading this. I've never managed, in anything I've written, to be right on the nail with descriptions/digressions. I either inflict death by exposition or am so vague as to make champion cryptic crossword solvers scratch their head. Some of your plight's on yourself though @Samunderthelights — 700 pages to go....that's got to be a clue that the author might be prone to waffle on!

 

I'm currently reading 'Dubliners' by James Joyce.

I studied it at school and thought I would die of boredom. But that was longer ago than I'm comfortable thinking about. This time around, I have to say, I think it's one of the finest collections of short stories I've ever read.

- R

 

With a mere 84 pages left, I've officially given up on William Gibson's Nueromancer. I can stand no more.

I started to lose track somewhere around the third chapter, and never really got it back. It's almost impossible to visualise and I have no idea what role the vast majority of the cast play. The same characters keep cropping up, but I have no idea whether they're good bad or ugly.

I'm baffled as to why it's held in such high esteem. In my opinion it's a complete mess of a book.

 

Called in at Fopp today. They're doing 2 for £5 offer on books so I bought Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale (only ever heard good stuff about it) and one of Philip K Dick's - Our Friends From Frolix 8.

 

Handmaid's Tail puts a whole new spin on the book.

 

Well done for spotting my deliberate mistake, Graham.

 

I'm currently reading Bram Stroker's Dracula. I'm only three chapters in, but I love it already, I love all the descriptions of the castle and the feeling of Jon being trapped inside such an ancient building.

 

Dracula is great. It's sad what the vampire genre has devolved to nowadays. Stoker's original vision was so much weirder and, IMO cooler.