Book Discussion Thread

[Heero]

My idea for a whole forum about this probably wasn't such a well-received idea, but the thread that several people mentioned seems too good to pass up. If someone made this thread while I was away just post a link to it and lock this.

This thread has been created with the intent of providing a place for members of this forum to discuss, debate, review and recommend any manner of literature, though the discussion of pronographic magazines may not be encouraged by the moderators. Furthermore, I humbly request that if you intend to flame me or this thread you make a thread in the approproate section, because it is my belief that a whole forum about flaming people was created to keep the flaming out of threads such as this.

Now it would not be very logical to leave this thread on such a wide and general subject, so I shall narrow it down a bit to one series that I finished reading today that I find absolutely delightful, Harry Potter.

There is still one book that is not published, but I myself would enjoy discussing what we all think is going to happen in it, and particularly how big everyone thinks it will be.

I myself have been pondering Professor Snape's role, and can find only two conclusions. Taking into account that Dumbledore trusted Snape probably more than any other person on the planet, I find it hard to believe that Snape could really be loyal to Voldemort. I think he was accting on behalf of Harry when he killed Dumbledore in order to be as close as possible to Voldemort to help Harry. And also to avoid being killed by the Unbreakable Vow. Snape no doubt made that vow to prove himself to Voldemort so he would be trusted. However I also find it equally likely that he is just an evil bastard and has been Voldemort's pet all along.

[Digital Limit]

Michael Crichton FTW!

[Smapdey]

I've been enjoying the Hyperion Cantos recently, among many school books. I'm going to be reading a lot of Thomas Merton over my winter break, and I'm starting to get into John Irving, although I think that there are far funnier writers out there like Joseph Heller, for example.

Has anyone read any Norman Mailer?

[Digital Limit]

Posts like that make me feel like reading... and then I go play videogames.

[Digital Pimp]

Hey Smap after you read Hyperion try out Ilium, its by Dan Simmons as well. Its really hard to explain, and even a normal explanation makes it seem more wierd than it is. Just imagine the Iliad taking place but on an alternate Earth with the "Greek Gods" watching from Mars and are on the brink ripping the universe apart with Quantum Teleportation and the only ones who can stop them are these sentient AI robots from the moons of Jupiter set from Earth hundreds of years earlier. Earth is in a wierd Dark Age of humans using technology they have no knowledge of other than the fact it just works for them. They all collide together not only in the end of the book but in its follow-up Olympos. Very well written and highly recommended, it combines my two favorite things, deep sci-fi theories and Western Literature.

[SuperDavidGT]

i say dumbledore isnt dead. im not going to explain why, just read through all the books and get the clues

i hear that seeing as the two of them are so linked together, that if harry does kill voldemort in the next one, then he will die too. sounds good to me

Limitz, if you like Crichton, try "Ice Station" by Matthew Reilly

[Digital Limit]

I'm not a huge fan of snow - how snowy is this book?

[SuperDavidGT]

its not snowy, its icy. duh. besides, it has more guns and crazy fucks shooting each other than snow or ice

[King Speedy]

I'm getting back into the science/math books that I was high on a few years ago. I'm about halfway through Faster than the Speed of Light, which I'm starting to realize is a bit more pop-science than I thought. Afterwards, I'm gonna try once more to get through Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which I must have started three or four times before getting distracted by something else. I'm also re-reading The Dumas Club (on which the movie The Ninth Gate was based). Aside from that, not much.

[Digital Limit]

Is it a book?

*looks at thread*

Shit, I'll see if I can get around to that.

[StormyPeak]

I sometimes listen to un-abridged audio books so I can do other things such as gardening, or cross-stitching or when I'm driving. I usually end my evening by reading a chapter or two of a book, usually science fiction.

The audio books have also led me to 'read' books I probably wouldn't have chosen in a 'page turner' format.

For example, I just finished an audio book called "COD" by Mark Kurlansky. A book about a fish...lol... I almost didn't check it out just because it sounded so ridiculous....but the back of the audio box said it filled with a lot of details about history, and I love history so I checked it out and listened to it and I'm glad I did.

I learned that the Basques were only 30 years behind the Vikings in getting to America...and they (the Basques) fished the shores of Newfoundland for almost 1,000 years before some English fishermen followed their ships to see where the Basques were getting those fish...as no fishermen in European coastal ports had ever seen them fish in Euro waters.

The Basques came, found Cod here, and kept their secret....the English weren't so tight lipped and rumors found their way to the explorers Columbus and Cabot and the race to the America's was off and running...and many historians now think that Columbas knew for a fact that America was to the west, but he also thought it was a small enough land mass to sail around to get to India.

Anyway, that's just one of hundreds of little history lessons in the book that I sure didn't learn in high-school or even later. I knew about the Vikings getting here first, but never ever heard anything about the Basques.
If you like history, I really do recommend this book, inspite of the fishy title. ;)

As far as the science fiction book I read, I think my favorite author is C.J. Cherryh and her 'Foriegner' series. I've also read all the Dune books by both Frank Hubbert and his son who picked up the series after his dad died.

Stormy

[wmgreer]

how do you do spoilers?

[san_pali]

Quote me and look the spoiler tags. Beware, another thread has been crapped because of this(see the machinist)

[General Edor Crespin]

Lately I've been reading Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. Uber-history of Earth, mainly reading it so I know the background for Star Maker.

It's dry, but a great read nonetheless.

[RacerX]

I have never been a Harry Potter fan so I have no inclination to read the books.

I would highly recommend The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver. It has a pretty neat plot about a pair of hackers that are homicidal killers and how they use hacking techniques to select "targets". I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's lots of references to ICQ communications, the working's of the Internet, and different hacking terminology. I guess the author got hacked a few times because he was visiting hacker sites while doing research for the technical aspects of the plot. It's a fictional work but has references to a lot of real world technology. Worth the reading in my opinion.

Beyond that, I've read some of the classics like the Sherlock Holmes series. The Virginian by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an excellent story about a cowboy in the old west, I really got into it. I've read Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy - great novel but very looooong.

I should definitely do more reading, it's been about 4 years since I've read a novel. This is a good thread and I hope to get some suggestions from it.

[bxx]

who the fuck reads book?

[Heero]

This brings up another theory of mine. Harry is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. It would make sense because Dumbledore said that Voldemort does have a connection with them even if he doesn't notice it anymore. And because Harry can send very powerful emotions across the link he forces Voldemort to notice.

Also, has anyone here read Moby-Dick? I just can't get past the third chapter, very hard to understand.

And one more thing. Has anyone heard of Eragon by Christopher Paolini? He started writing it when he was 15 and when he was 19 it was #1 New York Times Bestseller. A very good book, though not written as well as it could be. Nice little tale about a boy finding something and fighting an evil dictator. The second book of three was out in the summer and I am eagerly awaiting the third.

[burnart]

omg OMG!

[TopSecretBoy]

I highly recommend you all ready "A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors"

Since it was banned it can be found here:

http://ftp.die.net/mirror/hitman/

[Striker]

And one more thing. Has anyone heard of Eragon by Christopher Paolini? He started writing it when he was 15 and when he was 19 it was #1 New York Times Bestseller. A very good book, though not written as well as it could be. Nice little tale about a boy finding something and fighting an evil dictator. The second book of three was out in the summer and I am eagerly awaiting the third.
I read that one about two months back. I enjoyed it a lot, though I don't normally read fantasy-type novels. I hadn't read the first part of the series, so I missed out on a few aspects of the story, but it explained it well enough that I wasn't comletely lost for any portion. Excellent book, in my opinion, and I can't wait for the final one. When is it supposed to come out, any idea?

[Hobbes874]

I'd hit it.

[Digital Limit]

Anyone read State of Fear by Crichton?

I saw it when I was at work, and was curious if it was worth my while.

Hrm, I'll check out some reviews.

[WhoGivesARatsAss]

The only books I read were Lord of The Rings and Hobbit. I think I may have read a lot of Enid Blyton stories in school. And some hardy boys and well yeah, that about it.

[SuperDavidGT]

Eragon was a great book, I think it was well written mostly because it was so simple, but it was also a highly addictive read. I think the second book was much better but the final battle was, in my mind, rediculous; it was lazily written, rushed, and really didn't do the ending justice. the duel between Eragon and his then-revealed brother could have been better, as with the battle itself. I think the only real thing about the ending that kept up with the rest was the alliance with the ogres, and Eragon getting over his racism

has anyone seen the stuff for the Eragon movie? I dont know about you, but I'm sure as hell not going to see it.

I picked up the whole 7-in-1 of the Narnia books yesterday, so i started on Lion Witch and the Wardrobe before seeing it boxing day, and I have to say, for a kids book it's really great. Simply written, but in a way highly symbolic.

Stormy mentioned Dune - what did you think of the newer ones, compared to the older ones? I thought the original novel was great, but all those sequels just got more and more boring by the minute, so i never read Chapterhouse: Dune. Prelude and Legends, however, I thought were kick-ass right to the end, except Battle for Corrin, which I thought was in some way nowhere near as good as the first two in the trilogy.

Oh yeah, and if you guys like fantasy, ask the bookstore for His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. It's like an older, more modern version of Narnia crossed with some other elements I can't quite touch on, but it's definitely one of my favourites (and I generally hate fantasy with a passion)

Anyone out there reading Nelson Demille?

[StormyPeak]

Stormy mentioned Dune - what did you think of the newer ones, compared to the older ones? I thought the original novel was great, but all those sequels just got more and more boring by the minute, so i never read Chapterhouse: Dune. Prelude and Legends, however, I thought were kick-ass right to the end, except Battle for Corrin, which I thought was in some way nowhere near as good as the first two in the trilogy.


I kind of have the same opinion about some of Frank Herbert's Dune sequels, but over all for me they finished up the story quiet nicely about what happened after Paul's son (can't recall his name at the moment) became the God-Worm. Chapterhouse I thought was ok, btw.

His son, Brian Herbert does a fine job of giving a 'pre-history' of how the Harkonnen's and the Artriedes (sp) became enemies and how things came to be that led up to the final battle on Dune. Thankfully, his books move right along, and while he gives good descriptions and details about a planet, or a spaceship or what ever....at least it doesn't go on for pages and pages the way Frank would sometimes do in his books.

The only thing I don't like about Brian's books is there's so much, and too much detail about some of the tortures that are inflicted upon some of the charactors....it makes me a bit ill reading (even if it's just fiction) about someone being hurt.

If you like the Dune series, I highly recommend C.J. Cherryh's Forienger series. The first 20 pages of the first book is kind of slow, but after that when the charactor Bren, is introduced it moves on very nicely....lot of action, political intrigue. It's my all time favorite sci-fi series.

I plan on looking into some of the book suggested by others here. This is a great idea for a thread.

Stormy

[Trustkill]

I tried reading Anne Rice "Vampire Lestat". It's fucking lame and her own arrogance shows through in her writting. I dropped it after about 150 pages and moved onto skimming "The Universe in a Nutshell" - Stephen Hawking. It's relatively good. Ha, I kill me. HA! I'M SO FUCKING FUNNY! HA! FUCK ME! SWOLLEN EYES!! HA!! BITE EM TO THE BONE! HA! THAT'S THAT! HA!

[Heero]

Following the pattern that Paolini has set down with these two I'd say the third book is coming out in 2007. A bit slow but worth the wait I'd say.

[schnitzel_bob]

I read the original Dune series this summer and liked it but the ending of Chapterhouse Dune confused me. Lately the only books I've read have been for research projects. One book I would recommend to history buffs is Paris: 1919 (It's called The Peacemakers in europe) by Margaret MacMillan. It's a comprehensive and interesting study of the Paris peace conference that resulted in the treaty of Versailles at the end of WWI.

I also just started reading Shake Hands With the Devil by Roméo Dallaire. It's his memoire of the Rwandan genocide. He was the UN general in charge at the time, and after coming back he became depressed and tried to kill himself. I saw him speak at my Uni and was really impressed.

[Smapdey]

I highly recommend you all ready "A Technical Manual for Independent Contractors"

Since it was banned it can be found here:

http://ftp.die.net/mirror/hitman/

This was written by a housewife who did her research by watching movies.