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Grimms Märchen, continuing with my efforts to brush up my German.
This certainly helps a lot:
"Dat is nu all lang heer, wol twe dusend Johr, do wöör dar en ryk Mann, de hadd ene schöne frame Fru, un se hadden sik beyde sehr leef".
I do understand it all right, but I have the feeling I was taught the wrong German all the time. This one looks better to me.
 
Niall Kielt said:
Just finished The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Great stuff. Its historical battle type fantasy. Not totally full of magic and whatnot, more bloody battles and a healthy dose of gallows humour. I highly recommend it if you like to read about people being cleaved in two by swords.
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I am a big fan of the First Law books, not just the original trilogy, but I am getting into the follow-on "standalone" books too, including Best Served Cold and Heroes. Fans of George RR Martin/GoT will probably like these books, which are very adult-oriented with morally ambiguous (or worse) lead characters. Fun fact: the author, Joe Abercrombie, was a film editor before his career as an author, and he edited The History of Iron Maiden, Part I: The Early Days.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
I am a big fan of the First Law books, not just the original trilogy, but I am getting into the follow-on "standalone" books too, including Best Served Cold and Heroes.
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I read some of Joe Abercrombie's books. Plotwise I enjoyed them but there was something about the writing style that stopped me from engaging with his books. I always felt a bit distant from the plot and characters for some reason.

My most memorable experience reading one of Joe Abercrombie's books was a chapter describing some fairly kinky sex with the man asking the woman to piss on him. I was reading this chapter on a train and read it as quickly as possible in case someone at the table noticed the current content of the book.
 
I loved The First Law trilogy and Heroes as well, haven't read the others. It was a couple of years ago but I think I remember the 'distance' you talk about, Wizard but I still enjoyed them a lot. It was the first fantasy I had read since finishing Robin Hobbs Fitz stuff and I certainly didnt 'engage' with First Law as much but I just put that down to the fact that the Fitz/Hobb stuff was so good.
I see there is a new book out, A Little Hatred, the first in a trilogy set in the First Law world. I'll have that. Heres hoping for much violence and the occasional golden shower.
 
I am currently reading the seventh installment of Malazan Book of the Fallen, Reaper's Gale and I also began my belated re-read of Jane Austen with Sense and Sensibility (naturally).

I wonder - is a proper acquainting with Terry Pratchet in order? I am discouraged by the sheer volume of his work and IIRC, so far I have mostly enjoyed only Erik (which is said to be not very typical of his work), Maskerade (since I'm a bit of a opera fan myself) and the Death books (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music). I must have read other books as well (at least four or five), but I hardly recall them at all and I remember I failed several times reading The Fifth Elephant (never got past the first hundred pages or so). So is it really worth it or - as is usually the case with someone that prolific - is it really hit or miss?

P.S.

Magnus said:
Aloisie Rychlíková: A Twentieth-Century Moravian Village Diary

Heartily recommended.
Regardless if you're interested in Central European history or not.
Available here, free, and legally so:

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:ok:
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I wonder - is a proper acquainting with Terry Pratchet in order? I am discouraged by the sheer volume of his work and IIRC, so far I have mostly enjoyed only Erik (which is said to be not very typical of his work), Maskerade (since I'm a bit of a opera fan myself) and the Death books (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music). I must have read other books as well (at least four or five), but I hardly recall them at all and I remember I failed several times reading The Fifth Elephant (never got past the first hundred pages or so). So is it really worth it or - as is usually the case with someone that prolific - is it really hit or miss?
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I think up until about The Truth (book 25) the whole series is excellent. After that Pratchett seemed to drop some of the quirkiness in favour of social commentary. The last bunch of books are all good but not as fun as the earlier books focusing on the witches and Rincewind.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
So is it really worth it
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I'd say yes.
Some of his latest books - when he was already diagnosed with Alzheimer's - are not him really, but most are very definitely worth it in my opinion. I'd especially recommend Lords and Ladies, Small Gods (strong anti-Christian / anti-Church sentiments there but I think you'd enjoy the intellectual challenge), and the first two or three Tiffany books: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full Of Sky, and Wintersmith. And The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.
Oh and avoid translations by all means.
 
@JudasMyGuide have you read any of the Watch books in the Discworld series? They are my favourire ones, mostly. If you aren't convinced by what you have read, maybe these will do it. Or maybe Pratchett just isn't your bag!

Discworld - Ankh-Morpork City Watch Series by Terry Pratchett

An inner series in the Discworld saga. This set of books are about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.See also:- Discworld Companion Books- Discworld Maps-...
www.goodreads.com

Ah, I see.the aforementioned The Fifth Elephant is a Watch book. Ive read them all but cant remember whats what, for the most part.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
I wonder - is a proper acquainting with Terry Pratchet in order? I am discouraged by the sheer volume of his work and IIRC, so far I have mostly enjoyed only Erik (which is said to be not very typical of his work), Maskerade (since I'm a bit of a opera fan myself) and the Death books (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music). I must have read other books as well (at least four or five), but I hardly recall them at all and I remember I failed several times reading The Fifth Elephant (never got past the first hundred pages or so). So is it really worth it or - as is usually the case with someone that prolific - is it really hit or miss?
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Less hit and miss and more of he just covered a lot of ground. Don't try to read them all just for the sake of it but the fact you've already enjoyed a few suggests he's worthy of further investigation I think. And you can just follow the threads which most appeal to you.

When I started university all my coursemates were reading various Pratchett books and I liked the ideas I was hearing but was somewhat intimidated by the apparent fact that he could write them faster than I could read. I did a bit of research found that The Colour of Magic is the first so I started with that one but found it a bit hard to get into - it seemed like it couldn't decide whether it was trying to be funny or just clever.

The following year I met the boyfriend who is a massive Pratchett fan. He suggested that TCOM isn't the best place to start, as it is the first and his style hadn't settled yet, and lent me Hogfather (another Death and Susan story). I've never looked back.
 
Small Gods and The Hogfather were the first ones I read. I liked them a lot, especially the latter, which made me look further in and I was irreversibly
hooked. I can't decide which my favourite series is because I am torn between the Witches and the Watch, so I think that whichever book you pick from one of these series would be fine. Try Men at Arms, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad or Guards! Guards! for starters.
 
I just read "A Doll House" by Ibsen for school, I liked it a bit. And I remembered the teacher told us there was also an alternative ending he was forced to write so I sought it. What a dumb thing. That ending just ruins the original idea, moreover it doesn't even make sense?

So she stays after 10 pages were her talking how made up her mind is? And what will happen the next day, how will the house operate now? She just forgets everything and business as usual?
 
So after about 2 YEARS I finally finished The Postman. Guess the hospital stay wasn't a complete waste.

It is VERY different from the movie and that's not only the norm with adaptations, but I actually don't mind it. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. The movie did a good job of the post-apocalyptic wasteland and keeping to the main story of Gordon pretending to be a Postman to gain entrance into an outpost and how that lie grew into so much more. The book has a Wizard of Oz moment with a super computer, super mutants and a contingent of women scouts... none of which are in the movie. Verdict? IF you can still find it, I got it out of used books bin, definitely worth it. While a friend who is a fan of the book hates the movie, I still love it. The best thing about the book is how well-written it is, something rarely found in mass produced novels. The only other novel to impress me with it's level of writing was Chuck Hogan's The Town (Originally Prince of Theives). Unlike the Postman, the movie adaptation of The Town SUCKS beyond belief.
 
Went through Ursula K. Le Guin's The Unreal & The Real two volumes of selected short stories. Fantastic - and I don't mean the genre. Also The Left Hand of Darkness, first time in English and much better than I remember it from decades ago. Grimms Märchen not finished yet (and I was surprised to find out I understand written Bavarian less than written Plattdeutsch); right now reading two books simultaneously - Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus (metro / underground / subway and pub), and Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (home, bed). Wolfe's melancholia and Dick's paranoia produce an interesting cumulative effect, I must say. (Drowning by numbers?)
Also recently - tipped by my brother-in-law - read Grisham's Playing For Pizza which is hilarious, especially if you're on an amateur team playing a football code that's next to unknown in your country.
 
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