This Old Neon Forum

Kreegs wrote:Books 5 and 6 rock my socks off every time. I continuously go through all 7 of them and am currently on book 6.

The writing is so much different than the first two books. The 3rd book was where I started to notice a difference.

Yeah I remember the third movie being the tonal shift for the series so I'm hoping the same happens with the books! Will probably start it tonight.

I started reading The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen and The Great Divergence by Kenneth Pommeranz. Both are required reading for history graduate school.

I also do some pleasure reading now and then though. Before I go to sleep I often read a few chapters of Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Renaissance World, usually on topics that I am less familiar with. For example, a few days ago I read about Edward I, Llywelyn the Last and William Wallace, among others. Intermittently I've also been reading some essays from a book called China under Jurchen Rule regarding the Jin (Jurchen Jin) dynasty.

Jordan wrote:I started reading The Comanche Empire by Pekka Hamalainen and The Great Divergence by Kenneth Pommeranz. Both are required reading for history graduate school.

I also do some pleasure reading now and then though. Before I go to sleep I often read a few chapters of Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Renaissance World, usually on topics that I am less familiar with. For example, a few days ago I read about Edward I, Llywelyn the Last and William Wallace, among others. Intermittently I've also been reading some essays from a book called China under Jurchen Rule regarding the Jin (Jurchen Jin) dynasty.

Great choice! I start reading "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.

I just finished The Shadow of the Torturer, the first book in Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun tetralogy. I'm moving straight on to The Claw of the Concilliator and will very likely plow through the full series without a rest. This is excellent stuff with a strong narrative voice and rife with ambiguity.

Highly recommended thus far.

Currently working my way through Ulysses for a seminar. It's a trip. This is my first time, and so far I really don't think it's as tough going as people make it out to be. Maybe I'm just used to not knowing what's going on in my literature. Parts of the first section were goosebump-inducing. Still, this isn't as much of a mindblower on a first read (at least so far) as were Dubliners and A Portrait.

Also on a Shakespeare kick. Richard II, 1 Henry IV, Henry V. Just finished Romeo and Juliet for the first time since I was fifteen. That play really is out of this world. I think it's way more complex—at least thematically—than people give it credit for.

FD wrote:Currently working my way through Ulysses for a seminar. It's a trip. This is my first time, and so far I really don't think it's as tough going as people make it out to be. Maybe I'm just used to not knowing what's going on in my literature. Parts of the first section were goosebump-inducing. Still, this isn't as much of a mindblower on a first read (at least so far) as were Dubliners and A Portrait.

Also on a Shakespeare kick. Richard II, 1 Henry IV, Henry V. Just finished Romeo and Juliet for the first time since I was fifteen. That play really is out of this world. I think it's way more complex—at least thematically—than people give it credit for.

I just love Romeo and Juliet...

Ulysses is good. I didn't know people generally made it out to be difficult... I think it's some of his more straightforward work. Check out Finnegans Wake when you're done if you still have an appetite for Joyce.

I'm still working my way through 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It's excellent so far. Very well-structured and -paced. It approaches its central conceit in a much more natural and ingenious way than I expected it would, so full credit to Murakami—and I haven't come close to finishing yet. The way the drama unfolds is quite satisfying.

Kong Wen wrote:Ulysses is good. I didn't know people generally made it out to be difficult... I think it's some of his more straightforward work. Check out Finnegans Wake when you're done if you still have an appetite for Joyce.

Sections of it seem difficult. More difficult than Dubliners and A Portrait anyway. I think the issue is not that it's "difficult" per se, but that people see it more as an obstacle to be overcome than as a work of art to be enjoyed. My professor was saying you can find many copies of it in a used book store, all very well perused until around page forty. I don't know if that's true, but sounds about right.

I've read some Finnegans Wake! Actually pretty awesome. I hope to read it all the way through some day.

A quick catch-up on subsequently read books. I'll double-post so I can recap 2016.

Steven King's Insomnia - I started this because I was up for four to five days in the hospital despite sleep aids. Ended up being a really engaging and interesting book. More outstanding King.

Terry Brooks - The Wishsong of Shannara - I have like five copies of this book. And this is by coincidence only my fifth read I believe. Pretty fun book made much more fun through knowing the characters and history a little.

Robert Heinlein - The Cat Who Walks Through Walls - I reread this for my second time. It's one of my favorite books ever. It still is. My second read was just as good as the first.

Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim - This was a pretty good book though I did have some difficulty getting into it. I'd only read his Heart of Darkness previously. Am glad to have read this.

Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book - I had never read this one before and indeed had never considered it before receiving a copy in the mail. It was surprisingly good. I am going to watch the recent film of it to see if it is anything like the book.

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay - This was a chore to read. It's huge and detailed. But I am glad I read it and it gave me more respect for its authors and how dedicated they had been to designing and implementing a republican system that would function not just for itself but for its people. I doubt I'll ever read this again, though. It kicked my ass.

Breakthrough by Michael Grumley - This is the worst book I've ever read in my entire life.

I'm about to start Madame Bovary, which will be a first read for me, and am working on Stephen King's The Shining.

2016 Share Recap!

This year was a great year for reading. One of the biggest things for me was being introduced and getting to know Stephen King. What was I thinking to postpone his work this long? I have lots to read to catch up but will enjoy every page of it.

I also spent a good deal of time in a hospital this year which enabled me to read like I had in college if not even more aggressively than that. It's good to know I can still do that given the opportunity and it was a wonderful activity for me as I pursued my healing.

Now for highlights! I think my favorites for the year include Paol Anderson's Tau Zero, which is just a science fiction masterpiece. Another favorite is Stephen King's The Stand. I bet he'll beat that for my favorite King book at some point but he hasn't yet and I've read like four or five of his books this year alone. I also had a good re-read of Wishsong of Shannara and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls - old favorites - and had a good first read of Isaac Asimov's Second Foundation.