What are you reading?

I'm currently reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

However, I'm almost more excited by the prospect of me soon getting my hands on On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin. Colvin appears to have been a truly exceptional person and writer so I'm very much looking forward to reading this book. Nota bene, she also looked like a female version of Snake Plissken:

120223ColvinMotherEditor_5856210.jpg
 
I'm reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. I came across this book on my last trip to the library and since I liked 2666 quite a lot I decided to borrow it. I'm about 120 pages (about 1/6 of the book) in and somehow it feels as though the story is just getting started.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished A Dance with Dragons on my lunch break, and started reading Snow Crash. I was going to start reading Neuromancer, but my fiancee's friend loaned me Snow Crash, so I'm going to save Neuromancer for later.
 
I just finished Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography Total Recall. I really enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the chapters about his youth, bodybuilding career, early movie career, and (surprisingly) his time as governor.

The worst parts of the book were the ones that dealt with Maria. It was fun reading about how they met and the early days of their relationship. It was also neat to get a glimpse into the world of the Kennedy family. But he talks about Maria like she's the personification of perfection. He gushes over how amazing she is, how perfect their wedding was, blah blah blah. The man is clearly in love with his wife. I can't fault him for that. But he lays it on thick. A little too thick. Some reviewers have suggested or outright stated that he really wrote the book specifically for Maria in an attempt to win her back. I think it would be hard to refute that claim.

Tied into that is the second to last chapter, ominously titled The Secret. It's the chapter that probably sold the most books, the one about his affair. Like most interested people I was looking for some TMZ-esque details. But the chapter's a bit of a dud. The affair itself is limited to two sentences. The rest is about his wife confronting him and the familial fallout. And even that's only about half of the chapter itself. That probably makes sense though since it's an ongoing drama.

The final chapter is called Arnold's Rules. It deals with advice/"rules" to live by if you want to be successful too. It's actually pretty cool. Even if you don't want to read the book I recommend hitting up a bookstore and at least reading that chapter (it's short). It couldn't hurt, right?

All in all, if you're a huge fan of the Austrian Oak like I am it's a must read. If you're interested in a successful immigrant story or looking for something to inspire you to greatness I highly recommend reading it.

Now I'm moving on to Nikos Kazantzakis's Zorba the Greek.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Just started reading Urasawa's Monster. Viz recently began releasing "perfect" editions of the series with two volumes in each release, with nice thick covers and quality paper. The story isn't necessarily blowing me away yet, however I can already tell that it is a work of superb quality.

Every time Viz goes and pulls a clutch move like this, it makes me wonder what could have been if they'd secured the US publishing rights to Berserk, instead of Dark Horse...
 

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
Walter said:
Just started reading Urasawa's Monster. Viz recently began releasing "perfect" editions of the series with two volumes in each release, with nice thick covers and quality paper. The story isn't necessarily blowing me away yet, however I can already tell that it is a work of superb quality.

Every time Viz goes and pulls a clutch move like this, it makes me wonder what could have been if they'd secured the US publishing rights to Berserk, instead of Dark Horse...

The ending will infuriate you to no end. But then again, nothing could ever live up to such a build-up. Endings are hard, man. Ask anyone but John Carpenter. That dude knows how to end shit.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
NightCrawler said:
The ending will infuriate you to no end. But then again, nothing could ever live up to such a build-up. Endings are hard, man. Ask anyone but John Carpenter. That dude knows how to end shit.

That's too bad. But as long as the entire story doesn't hinge on some BIG REVEAL at the end, and there's actual quality to the bulk of the story, I'll probably be okay with a mediocre ending.
 
Walter said:
That's too bad. But as long as the entire story doesn't hinge on some BIG REVEAL at the end, and there's actual quality to the bulk of the story, I'll probably be okay with a mediocre ending.

Except Pluto, all Urasawa's stories doesn't end properly. It's a unfortunate tendacy, he's sharing with Tezuka, his greatest influence. Unless you already red it, you should try Pluto which is (a tribute to Astroboy through a personal interpretation of ''The Greatest Robot on Earth'') in my opinion, Urasawa's best work so far.

Walter said:
Every time Viz goes and pulls a clutch move like this, it makes me wonder what could have been if they'd secured the US publishing rights to Berserk, instead of Dark Horse...

It's almost 10 years i'm living in Montreal and for years i searched some good english publishers and i was pleasantly surprise when i discover the work of Viz. I also really dig what Vertical Inc. (own by Kodansha and Dai Nippon Printing) is doing.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
NightCrawler said:
The ending will infuriate you to no end. But then again, nothing could ever live up to such a build-up. Endings are hard, man. Ask anyone but John Carpenter. That dude knows how to end shit.

He knew how to do a lot of things he doesn't get much credit for but that are common practice today. I guess that's one trick people can't copy so easily, unfortunately. BTW, Childs allegedly wasn't breathing at the end of The Thing and it was intentional. I swear, you guys!

Walter said:
That's too bad. But as long as the entire story doesn't hinge on some BIG REVEAL at the end, and there's actual quality to the bulk of the story, I'll probably be okay with a mediocre ending.

The Sopranos, Mass Effect 3, and Breaking Bad demand absolution. =)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
He knew how to do a lot of things he doesn't get a lot credit for but that's common practice today. I guess that's one trick people can't copy so easily, unfortunately. BTW, Childs allegedly wasn't breathing at the end of The Thing and it was intentional. I swear, you guys!

The Sopranos, Mass Effect 3, and Breaking Bad demand absolution. =)

The Sopranos doesn't belong in that list, but yeah, I'm probably guilty of holding mediocre endings over the other two :sad:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
The Sopranos doesn't belong in that list

Granted, I'm counting it's last 3 seasons as "the end."

Walter said:
, but yeah, I'm probably guilty of holding mediocre endings over the other two :sad:.

What's interesting is those endings are disliked for opposite reasons, one for not being very mind blowing and the other for trying to be in the worst way. I think Bad's ending is perfectly fine on paper, but safe and it didn't go out with the bang people expected and knew the show was capable of at its best.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Granted, I'm counting it's last 3 seasons as "the end."

What's interesting is those endings are disliked for opposite reasons, one for not being very mind blowing and the other for trying to be in the worst way. I think Bad's ending is perfectly fine on paper, but safe and it didn't go out with the bang people expected and knew the show was capable of at its best.

The first 80-90% of Mass Effect 3 is solid. The last bit... Well, it just didn't feel natural at all, to me. Breaking Bad had a fine ending. It's hard to grudge it for what it did. But the show's final season was such an insane roller coaster; it had built expectations so high by that point that a passing grade just wasn't enough to wow me.

True Detective ended really well, I thought. But ironically that show disappeared from my headspace as soon as it was over, while things from Breaking Bad's finale still haunt me
(mainly that amazingly subdued scene of Junior arriving home, while Walt looks through broken glass from a distance)
. That could just be the dad factor for me, though :farnese:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
The first 80-90% of Mass Effect 3 is solid. The last bit... Well, it just didn't feel natural at all, to me.

Hard to argue with that because it was totally unnatural. I get that's what they were going for, but I still don't quite understand why except they were trying to live up to the promise of the first one's premise... in the last 10 minutes of the series. Whoops! And it was so tacked on they basically had to release a paper (the extended DLC) explaining and massaging it, "Oh, well, what we really meant to say was... ...isn't that deep!?" I pretty much just chose to appreciate the moment instead. Also, whatever they say, the real ending is Shepard destroying the Reapers and somehow surviving, ending on that revived breath. =)

Walter said:
things from Breaking Bad's finale still haunt me
(mainly that amazingly subdued scene of Junior arriving home, while Walt looks through broken glass from a distance)
. That could just be the dad factor for me, though :farnese:

It's not just you, that episode and all those kinds of moments they managed to seamlessly cram in it age very well. In retrospect, it's impressive they had the discipline to focus on that and didn't just go for the kill the whole time. I think we all wanted Ozymandias x2 though.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
If the show ended with Ozymandias, I wouldn't have had any major qualms.

I understand the sentiment, that was climax of the story as we knew it for five (six) seasons, the final two episodes basically being the definition of falling action and resolution, respectively. Still, I think as filmed that would have been more than a little unsatisfying, "WELL, THEN WHAT HAPPENED!?" Even if they altered it there wasn't time for much else, unless they threw up (
gutsbarf.gif
) a text screen stating that Walter died alone of cancer or something. Yeah, that wouldn't have been good either. =) I really think it comes down to the fact that they were forced to cut it off at that point, not that they had organically arrived at their final destination or were done, creatively speaking. When you hear all the different ideas for what could have been just after Ozymandias (like Walt truly living a new life somewhere), they clearly had a lot more storytelling left in them that they didn't get to explore (though it did make for some fantastically jam packed season 5 episodes). Hopefully Bad's loss will be Saul's gain.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Of course more could have been said, but it would have been such a bold punctuation mark that I doubt I'd have much cause to complain. It was all wrapped up relatively well by that point, albeit in perhaps the gloomiest way possible. So it wouldn't have been akin to David Chase's cut to black maneuver. Again, it's not something I lament, or wish had happened. Just that I can guess what my reaction would be, and it's not bad.

I'm going to have to merge this thread with BB now... :azan:
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Walter said:
Just started reading Urasawa's Monster. Viz recently began releasing "perfect" editions of the series with two volumes in each release, with nice thick covers and quality paper. The story isn't necessarily blowing me away yet, however I can already tell that it is a work of superb quality.

Every time Viz goes and pulls a clutch move like this, it makes me wonder what could have been if they'd secured the US publishing rights to Berserk, instead of Dark Horse...

Hmm, I always wanted to read this. With the release of these Perfect editions I might do just that =)

And yea, I think Berserk is long overdue for similar treatment. Dark Horse must raise their game.



EDIT- I was wondering if anyone has read Alan Moore's book Voice of the Fire? If so, is it any good?
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I finished Snow Crash months ago and loved it. I just finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia (I'd get about halfway through them as a child before moving on to something else, and I wanted to have it finally checked off my list) last week. Despite being books for children, I really enjoyed them.

I like to take complete 180s after reading something, or at least jump into a different genre, so I did both and started reading American Psycho. It's really good so far.
 
Unfortunately I don't read as much as I used to (not that I read all that much to being with,) but about a year after starting it I finally finished The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. One of the reasons it took me so long to finish it was that it took a while for me to get into the story; the first part wasn't all that interesting to me, but once I got past the first part I got hooked. I'm glad I did read it through, it was well worth it.

At the moment I'm in the middle of The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, which is a book that I haven't found all that easy to get through. After I'll finally read the Sherlock Holmes books, which for some reason I haven't read yet.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I got about two thirds of the way through American Psycho before I started feeling ill. It got to the point where I was dreading the next chapter, so I decided to take a break from it and get back into my Japanese language studies.
 
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