The Syndicate

Hedgeowl wrote:We watched Divergent this weekend, so I decided to finish reading the trilogy and find out what happens. I just finished this evening. WTF Veronica Roth, you fail. The movie wasn't super good either. :/

I haven't read any of it, but I rarely put my faith in trilogies written by a young 20-somethings.

My favorite book is Popco by Scarlett Thomas.

I am currently reading The End of Mr Y, also by Scarlett Thomas.

Epignosis wrote:

Hedgeowl wrote:We watched Divergent this weekend, so I decided to finish reading the trilogy and find out what happens. I just finished this evening. WTF Veronica Roth, you fail. The movie wasn't super good either. :/

I haven't read any of it, but I rarely put my faith in trilogies written by a young 20-somethings.

I should not expect too much, but I am a sucker for YA fantasy. On the plus side she actually has a degree in writing and can spell, unlike that Twilight author.

Next up, the Archived...

I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

A Person wrote:I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

I for real did it. Now I don't know what to read next.

In this moment I am reading the Corpus Hermeticum. Also read the first book of the first book of the Illuminatus trilogy. Also halfway through rereading the Artaud Anthology.

A Person wrote:I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

I read that book. I really liked it.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

A Person wrote:I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

I read that book. I really liked it.

Me too, I really need to read more Murakami.

A Person wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

A Person wrote:I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

I read that book. I really liked it.

Me too, I really need to read more Murakami.

I read another auto-biography he wrote on his running. I found it enjoyable, and unique compared to other such books I have read. But I don't know how it would appeal if you don't like running.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is supposed to be good, and I'm planning on reading that one sometime.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

A Person wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

A Person wrote:I'm for real finishing Kafka on the Shore now, I've read 100 pages per day for the past 3 days.

I read that book. I really liked it.

Me too, I really need to read more Murakami.

I read another auto-biography he wrote on his running. I found it enjoyable, and unique compared to other such books I have read. But I don't know how it would appeal if you don't like running.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is supposed to be good, and I'm planning on reading that one sometime.

I don't have much interest in running but given his writing style I could possibly enjoy it.

I plan on reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle next, supposedly it is his best.

Currently, I'm reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

I am currently reading Game of Thrones. I don't plan on watching the TV series, but the book has been good so far.

Last year I started a quest to read every single book that my wife and I own. I'm still working on the first book:

Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary- Tenth Edition (1996)

I may have bit off more than I can chew.

G-Man wrote:Last year I started a quest to read every single book that my wife and I own. I'm still working on the first book:

Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary- Tenth Edition (1996)

I may have bit off more than I can chew.

lol, maybe just a little.

I'm doing the same thing G-man! but luckily for me moving to a different country weeded out books like that. I left all the boring manuals of geriatrics and other reference books back in NY

Crime and Punishment

I adore Dostoyevsky. I must read him again soon.

Epignosis wrote:I adore Dostoyevsky. I must read him again soon.

do you have a preference for translation? I was reading online and I heard people saying things like "oh this translation of Dostoyevsky is the best" and I guess I just never considered who translated it when picking out a copy. I was just curious if you have noticed any differences in your reading

fingersplints wrote:

Epignosis wrote:I adore Dostoyevsky. I must read him again soon.

do you have a preference for translation? I was reading online and I heard people saying things like "oh this translation of Dostoyevsky is the best" and I guess I just never considered who translated it when picking out a copy. I was just curious if you have noticed any differences in your reading

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

fingersplints wrote:I'm doing the same thing G-man! but luckily for me moving to a different country weeded out books like that. I left all the boring manuals of geriatrics and other reference books back in NY

Crime and Punishment

I tried to read that novel a few years ago. Every so often I used to go after a long book for the sake of reading a long book. I gave up after 20 pages. Maybe it's because I had no context to go on nor any prior experience with Russian literature. Something just wasn't clicking with me and it seems really mundane and hyper-detail oriented. Seeing you guys suggesting the importance of the translator, I wonder if that was part of the problem too.

Finished:

Patty Smith, Just Kids
John Fante, Dreams from Bunker Hill

Reading Peter Hobbs, In the Orchard, the Swallows

Struggling to even pick up Alex Shteyngart's Absurdistan the past weeks. I only ever failed to finish a few books in my life, but maybe I should reconsider in this case and read some Rimbaud instead.

I just finished Dune this week (too me a year. I is slow. )

I'm reading The Way of Kings by Sanderson, and I'm also reading the awesome web serial Worm

Epignosis wrote:I just finished Dune this week (too me a year. I is slow. )

That's my favorite book ever. The sequels are shit, but the original is the absolute best.

I avidly read all six books when I was young, but I now hardly remember anything. I liked them up to the Children, but after that, especially the last (official) one, they were pretty dire indeed.

I need help, Syndicate! I just got back from a wonderful two week vacation during which I did no reading at all. Before I left, I had just finished book 6 of Paradise Lost. While I was on vacation, however, I found in a book store "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" by JRR Tolkien, and obscure piece of nerdity that I've been wanting to get my hands on for a number of years. It's a lovely day outside and something needs to be read. Do I continue with Milton, or do I indulge in my Tolkien excitement?

Sloonei wrote:I need help, Syndicate! I just got back from a wonderful two week vacation during which I did no reading at all. Before I left, I had just finished book 6 of Paradise Lost. While I was on vacation, however, I found in a book store "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" by JRR Tolkien, and obscure piece of nerdity that I've been wanting to get my hands on for a number of years. It's a lovely day outside and something needs to be read. Do I continue with Milton, or do I indulge in my Tolkien excitement?

Finish Milton first. The Adventures of Tom Bombadll is okay, but it is far from Tolkien's most interesting work. Personally, I regard Paradise Lost as the finest poem in the English language.

you're the mod!

I'm pleased to see you have such excellent taste in literature.

I like a good story
I'm reading Paradise Lost mainly because i'm about to graduate college with a degree in English, but i've gone my entire academic career without reading it, one of the biggest fixtures in the English canon. It did not feel right. I have enjoyed it so far.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

A Person wrote:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

I have read Kafka on the Shore, and plan on getting to that book at some point.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

A Person wrote:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

I have read Kafka on the Shore, and plan on getting to that book at some point.

Yeah reading that made me really like his writing style so I wanted to read this too. Still enjoying his writing a lot.

I think both those books are among my favourite of his, although I'm slowly forgetting anything from his books except for Kafka, which I've read twice. I'm anxious to buy his new IQ84 trilogy, because I hear it's pretty caarp.

Yeah I hear a lot of people really dislike it, but some people love it. I was interested in tackling it eventually but he has plenty of other books that I want to check out before that.

Ricochet wrote:I think both those books are among my favourite of his, although I'm slowly forgetting anything from his books except for Kafka, which I've read twice. I'm anxious to buy his new IQ84 trilogy, because I hear it's pretty caarp.

Yeah I have read Kafka twice, one of my favourites. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle was really good also. I read the full 1Q84 trilogy and it didn't live up to my expectation of him as an author. It was much much too long. The story itself wasn't exactly terrible and I did enjoy many aspects of it. The format brought it down imo -- it focused on the main 2 characters the firt two books and each chapter was written from one of their perspectives and then in the third book a third character perspective was brought it. A lot of times, escpecially in the third book, there was an over lap with characters and you would just the same scenario from the other perspective -- so there was a lot of repetition. Typical Murakami style there was also charachters asking themselves a lot of questions, but the various characters were asking themselves a lot of the SAME questions and the multiple characters samey internal dialogues got a bit tedious.

I'd check it out if you could get it out of a library or something. Some people think it's amazing, but it's a big book (or series of books) so I wouldn't really pay a fortune for it.

Has anyone read his newest book?

Oh, also reading Ship of Magic the first book in the Liveshi Trilogy by Robin Hobb. I read one of her books last year and was hooked and have since read most of her fantasy series, albeit slightly out of order.

Neverwhere wrote:

Ricochet wrote:I think both those books are among my favourite of his, although I'm slowly forgetting anything from his books except for Kafka, which I've read twice. I'm anxious to buy his new IQ84 trilogy, because I hear it's pretty caarp.

Yeah I have read Kafka twice, one of my favourites. The Wind Up Bird Chronicle was really good also. I read the full 1Q84 trilogy and it didn't live up to my expectation of him as an author. It was much much too long. The story itself wasn't exactly terrible and I did enjoy many aspects of it. The format brought it down imo -- it focused on the main 2 characters the firt two books and each chapter was written from one of their perspectives and then in the third book a third character perspective was brought it. A lot of times, escpecially in the third book, there was an over lap with characters and you would just the same scenario from the other perspective -- so there was a lot of repetition. Typical Murakami style there was also charachters asking themselves a lot of questions, but the various characters were asking themselves a lot of the SAME questions and the multiple characters samey internal dialogues got a bit tedious.

I'd check it out if you could get it out of a library or something. Some people think it's amazing, but it's a big book (or series of books) so I wouldn't really pay a fortune for it.

Has anyone read his newest book?

I haven't read him in a long while and am not always up to date with his new works (IQ84 was an exception, since all the bookstores were plastered with it). So far I've read:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - which I remember liking very much
Dance Dance Dance - among my least favourite
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Kafka on the Shore
South of the Border, West of the Sun
What I Talk About Wen I Talk About Running
...and A Wild Sheep Chase...I think?

Ricochet wrote:What I Talk About Wen I Talk About Running

Did you enjoy this one? This is the only one I've read side from Kafka, and I enjoyed it. But running is a hobby of mine, so I am curious if it still entertains for the non-runners.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Ricochet wrote:What I Talk About Wen I Talk About Running

Did you enjoy this one? This is the only one I've read side from Kafka, and I enjoyed it. But running is a hobby of mine, so I am curious if it still entertains for the non-runners.

I can also jog once a day for 30 minutes without having a heart attack.

Very funny you should ask, though. I enjoyed him sharing so much about his hobby and the challenges he faced, but I didn't find any other literary qualities in the book, as a biographical excerpt/journal/whatev.

Rico wrote:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
South of the Border, West of the Sun
A Wild Sheep Chase

I want to read these, as well as Sputnik Sweetheart and Norwegian Wood. Next up though I'm planning on reading Gravity's Rainbow, Henry made me want to read it years ago but I've never got around to it.

I also got a recommendation from a non-Henry person to read it, but it must be like 3000 pages long and mneh, not in the mood yet.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

Ricochet wrote:What I Talk About Wen I Talk About Running

Did you enjoy this one? This is the only one I've read side from Kafka, and I enjoyed it. But running is a hobby of mine, so I am curious if it still entertains for the non-runners.

I can also jog once a day for 30 minutes without having a heart attack.

Very funny you should ask, though. I enjoyed him sharing so much about his hobby and the challenges he faced, but I didn't find any other literary qualities in the book, as a biographical excerpt/journal/whatev.

It is different from a standard running memoir. Normally when I've read books about running, the struggles are focused on the difficulty of the workouts, or severity of injuries and overcoming them. This one was quite different in that it focused on the personal interest, and the shift in that interest as his life continued to change its course. It was nice to read a book about running from a non-competitive runner because of this.

I've been reading Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1996) for almost exactly a year and a half now. Last night I finally hit and blew past the halfway point. It's all downhill from here, right? Right?

G-Man wrote:I've been reading Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1996) for almost exactly a year and a half now. Last night I finally hit and blew past the halfway point. It's all downhill from here, right? Right?

No. You have R-S-T on the back 13.

Have fun.

Epignosis wrote:

G-Man wrote:I've been reading Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (1996) for almost exactly a year and a half now. Last night I finally hit and blew past the halfway point. It's all downhill from here, right? Right?

No. You have R-S-T on the back 13.

Have fun.

R and T don't scare me much but P and S are the two longest sections. It only becomes insufferable when I get stuck in a long stretch of words with the same prefix. I can see that happening in both P and S.

Back in high school a friend introduced me to the Mortal Instruments series and I rather enjoyed it, but never got to finish the series. I think the 5th book hadnt come out yet. That was quite a few years ago. So recently I got a library card and am starting to re-read teh series from the beginning.

Started Dune Messiah yesterday.

A Person wrote:

Rico wrote:Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
South of the Border, West of the Sun
A Wild Sheep Chase

I want to read these, as well as Sputnik Sweetheart and Norwegian Wood. Next up though I'm planning on reading Gravity's Rainbow, Henry made me want to read it years ago but I've never got around to it.

I am doing this now. Not very far in though.

Ricochet wrote:Struggling to even pick up Alex Shteyngart's Absurdistan the past weeks. I only ever failed to finish a few books in my life, but maybe I should reconsider in this case and read some Rimbaud instead.

Still struggling.

I'm reading Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. It's the first part of a trilogy. Think Indiana Jones but an all women group and now it's a horror instead of an adventure.

I'M OBSESSED