NOW READING

[!--QuoteBegin-Ascendancy+Dec 13 2005, 06:51 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Ascendancy @ Dec 13 2005, 06:51 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] my teacher says that we have to read adult books that are actually challenging literature.
[snapback]124963[/snapback]​
[/quote]
Read something like 1984 or Brave New World. They challenged literature in very different ways than "action novels" do.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Conor+Dec 13 2005, 06:53 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Conor @ Dec 13 2005, 06:53 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Read something like 1984 or Brave New World.  They challenged literature in very different ways than "action novels" do.
[snapback]124964[/snapback]​
[/quote]
I was actually looking for Where Eagles Dare (for obvious reasons) and I may read Dune at some point. My parents have plenty of "challenging" books here, it's just that most of them (especially my mum's) sound absolutely dreadful.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Ascendancy+Dec 13 2005, 07:51 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Ascendancy @ Dec 13 2005, 07:51 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]don't expect any long, intellectual conversations about Jack Higgins.  [!--emo&:blink:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/blink.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'blink.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
[snapback]124963[/snapback]​
[/quote]
Why does this make me laugh? [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

I love Jack Higgins' books, but I'm not sure it's possible to talk intellectually about them; they're just action books.

The film of The Eagle Has Landed is great too. Michael Caine as a Nazi?! Never!
 
I was Cristmas shopping, and I stumbled upon an excellent book. Bored of the Rings. Seems it's been around for almost 40 yrs. I'm not going to give any hints, but I bet you guys can't guess what it is a parody of.
 
My bro got me Brave New World. I was there with him while he got it for me. I know it's avalible for free on this very site, but I can't stand reading books on the PC monitor, and plus, this one's in romanian...
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Black Ace+Dec 24 2005, 11:59 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Black Ace @ Dec 24 2005, 11:59 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]My bro got me Brave New World. I was there with him while he got it for me. I know it's avalible for free on this very site, but I can't stand reading books on the PC monitor, and plus, this one's in romanian...
[snapback]125805[/snapback]​
[/quote]

That's a great book, and very meaningful. When I read it, I had the uncomfortable feeling that Bernard Marx is my alter ego.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Pineapple Hunter+Dec 25 2005, 11:40 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Pineapple Hunter @ Dec 25 2005, 11:40 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Well, I have just re-read 'The Catcher In The Rye'.
It is my favourite book of all time.
Just fucking brilliant.
[snapback]125822[/snapback]​
[/quote]
I remember reading that way back in school, and yeah it's a brilliant book. Probably about time I read it again. [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
I don't know if I could pick a favourite. I can definitely pick favourites, but not a favourite...
I'm currently reading a biography of Lord Nelson I got for Christmas.
 
I've read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Amazingly witty book with all the sharp humour you expect from Adams although the ending was quite confusing at first. Great book all in all - it really should get more attention than it does. I also got the follow-up - The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - for Christmas so I'll read that soon as well.

In fact much of Douglas Adams work is very underrated. People think he wrote nothing besides the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series but his other books are well worth reading. For starters, check out [a href=\'http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/\' target=\'_blank\']http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/[/a] for some excellent pieces.
 
Just finished State of Fear by Michael Chricton and i've got to say it is.... different. The way he sets up the plot and presents his information is very clumsy and sometimes it even seems irrelevant. However being a long time Michael Chricton fan i still enjoyed it yet was left devoid of meaning and satisfaction at the end... still HIGHLY recommended for the following reasons:

1. He claims to present "real facts" in his fictional story about global warming and other subjects like cannibalism.
2. because of this claim his book has been highly criticized in all circles for being erroneous in its claims like:
3. denying global warming exists or if it does it isn't as big of a deal as the media and "pundits" make it out to be.

It takes the reader nearly 500 (out of 600+) to find out why the title of the book is State of Fear and I have to say I was disapointed to say the least. I've liked Crichton books because he is the modern Jules Verne, he usually is ahead of everybody because he is so well informed, however this is a VERY old idea. He explains that states rule their people through fear, if not fear of an external enemy like in the cold war or fear of the weather thus stupid made up claims like "global warming" get coined. In his defense he lists all his sources for you to make up your own mind, which is why it is still highly recommended because I told a friend about it and he said "the information in that book is way wrong". He hasn't read to book... his first mistake, taking someone elses word for it being his second. I give it a 6 out of 10
 
ADRIAN MOLE ROCKS!!!
I really like the series of books and you may call me a cissy, but I can't stop laughing at the new book I got for Christmas, "Adrian Mole and the weapons of mass destruction".
Really worth a try if you like reading at all. Not the most challenging of books but a bit of light hearted banter won't hurt anybody.
 
Finished Brave New World. As Perun said, it's a very good book. I liked it a lot. It had it all:visions of a fucked up system, love, and some philosophy at the end. I may write my impressions on the society on the topic I created about it...
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Conor+Dec 27 2005, 07:57 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Conor @ Dec 27 2005, 07:57 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]ADRIAN MOLE ROCKS!!!
I really like the series of books and you may call me a cissy, but I can't stop laughing at the new book I got for Christmas, "Adrian Mole and the weapons of mass destruction".
Really worth a try if you like reading at all.  Not the most challenging of books but a bit of light hearted banter won't hurt anybody.
[snapback]125954[/snapback]​
[/quote]

I read The Growing Pains in school. It was quite funny, and I might pick up one of the later volumes out of interest in the commentary on the contemporary world.


For now, however, I have read Dark Water by Koji Suzuki (yes, the same guy who wrote The Ring). I have not seen the film, but from what I know about it, it is only about one part of the book. The book has seven stories, some of which are classic psycho-horror stories, while others are rather drama. Let it be said that there is very little involvement of the supernatural in these stories, and they are all told in a way that they seem likely- they could happen (although some are a bit too much fantasy for that).

The first story is about a lady and her small daughter who moved into a new appartment and finds a red bag of a deceased child on the roof. She forbids her daughter to pick it up and it is eventually thrown away; only to reappear on the roof. It is also revealed that a family used to live in the appartment whose daughter suddenly vanished two years ago. This is the story the film appears to be based on (although from what I read, it's rather different).

The second story deals with a person who is invited to a deserted island in the bay of Tokyo on which tresspassing is forbidden. He gladly joins, because a girl he met ten years ago was reportedly banned there, bar all clothes and means to survive by a friend of his- or that is what he told before he died.

The third one is about a fisherman who wakes up on one morning and his wife is gone. He can't find her. He eventually decides to give up the search (she'll either return or not) and goes out fishing.

The fourth one is about a yacht expedition that turns bad when the yacht suddenly stops moving, one hundred metres from the shore. The yacht, of course, does not have a radio transmitter on it.

The fifth one is about a fishing ship on its way back home that finds a deserted yacht and is assigned to bring it back to the mainland. The protagonist is sent to the yacht to make sure nothing happens. Obsessed with finding out what happened on the boat, he reads the log.

The sixth one, although it lacks any supernatural involvement, is the least believable one to me. I know what it tries to tell me -and that part is constructed really clever- but the resolution does not work properly in my mind. It is about a theater group and a member who was kicked out of the play and is now a light assistant at the play's premiere. He is sent upstairs because there is a water leak right above the stage.
The whole story falls a bit out of the frame of all others too.

The seventh one is the best in my opinion. It deals with two hikers who discover an unknown caves in the mountains and, against better knowledge, decide to explore it. One of them is later crushed by a falling rock, and the other one is trapped down in the cave with only one possible way out: an underground lake with an assumed connection to the outside.

The stories have several things in common. They all take place in or around the Tokyo Bay and all except one have small children in a more or less prominent role. This is because the frame of the book is a grandmother who tells these stories to her granddaughter -which is pretty absurd to me considering most of these stories are very unsuitable for small children- and they were apparently inspired by things this grandmother found washed to the shore. The last story has an involvement of the grandmother herself, although she does not actively participate in the happenings themselves, therefore it is not clear if the story itself happened the way it did.

Oh yeah, and they all deal with water more or less, but that is pretty obvious.

All in all, it is a great book, well worth reading, both to give you the creeps and to have something to think about.
 
Are you finished Moby Dick yet Perun?
I'm nearly finished but I find it a tedius task more than a leisurely read. The difficult language and over lavish descreptions destroy the plot for me. I'm sure the book would be better for somebody who could cope with all the flowery language but I have never liked over-complicated books like LOTR or Moby Dick.
 
LOTR imho isn't a complicated book. Pretty stnadard mythologicall plotline, not so many characters, and they represent stereotypes from folklore, so it's not all that difficult... Pretty long, yes, but not complicated...
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Conor+Jan 3 2006, 04:47 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Conor @ Jan 3 2006, 04:47 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Are you finished Moby Dick yet Perun?
I'm nearly finished but I find it a tedius task more than a leisurely read.  The difficult language and over lavish descreptions destroy the plot for me.  I'm sure the book would be better for somebody who could cope with all the flowery language but I have never liked over-complicated books like LOTR or Moby Dick.
[snapback]126265[/snapback]​
[/quote]

I haven't continued reading yet. I wouldn't say it's not a leisurely read, but it's quite honestly too deep for me right now. I'm in the need for some superficial entertainment, I've got the whole rest of the year to get my brain steaming [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Black Ace+Jan 3 2006, 04:36 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Black Ace @ Jan 3 2006, 04:36 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]LOTR imho isn't a complicated book. Pretty stnadard mythologicall plotline, not so many characters, and they represent stereotypes from folklore, so it's not all that difficult... Pretty long, yes, but not complicated...
[snapback]126274[/snapback]​
[/quote]
I would disagree. I think it is complicated because it goes into too much detail about minor things that have little relevance to the plot. For example, explaining the language of elvish and describing in minute detail the geographical relevance of every location, and the history of every race and creed. The detail is immense and really bores me, I don't really want to know the history of Dwarves or the fall of human reign in Middle Earth etc. it may be different for you but I prefer to read books that I can relate to in terms of the world today, real life.
 
I've almost finished reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts by Douglas Adams (I've got one episode left). For Hitchhiker fans like me, this is a real gem. This is where it all started, the original twelve epidodes (six in the first series, one Christmas special and five in the second) - all broadcast between 1978 and 1980.

It's quite profoundly different to the later book versions. The first four episodes - which became the first book - are more or less the same but after that the storyline takes a very different turn. Most of the stuff in the book is there but in a different order and there's a lot of excellent scenes exclusive to the radio version. I must say I prefer the book's storyline though - the radio series doesn't quite flow since Adams was making it up as he went along without any plans for the next episode.

All in all it's well worth reading but I recommend reading the book versions first. If you haven't experienced The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before you'll probably feel a bit lost.
 
Back
Top