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read any good books lately...
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refugee View Drop Down
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Points: 7026 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote refugee Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 26 2007 at 08:39
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson is every bit as good as the critics say.

At the moment I´m rereading Gormenghast. Those of you who don´t know Mervyn Peake should start with Titus Groan, book one of the Gormenghast trilogy. I would call his style an original mixture of Dickens, Kafka and Lewis Carroll with a dash of Tolkien. Very dark, yet extremely funny.
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"The Eight" by Katherine Neville. (I can't make that infinity sign she uses for the title).

Also "Tower Struck by Lightning" by Fernando Arrabal.

Both books deal with chess a lot. Arrabal has two grandmasters fight for the title of world champion; the game they play has a diagram after each move by a player and is actually a game wold champion Capablanca played in a tournament once (up to a certain move, the crisis of the book, where one of the players deviates from Capablanca).
Arrabal knew a lot more about chess and the way chess players think than Stefan Zweig, who wrote the famous book "Die Schachnovelle" (English titles: "Royal Game" (formerly) and "Chess Story" (a newer translation). For anyone who has ever played chess in a club (as I have done) it is obvious that Zweig had no idea about how chess players think; he probably didn't even play chess himself, or if so, very badly only. The way he describes the thought processes of a chess player is the way a non-player imagines chess players to think.
Arrabal, on the other hand, was an excellent chess player himself and captures the thought processes that are going on during a game of chess very accurately.


Edited by BaldFriede - June 29 2007 at 16:36


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I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.  Nice little page-turner. 
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I've had an extremely good time the last month reading the so acclaimed masterpiece of spanish literature ever!:

DON QUIJOTE DE LA MANCHA

from Miguel de Cervantes.

Approve

Tremendous book, recommended to anyone!

Actually, I'm with another widely known long book, the roman epic LA ENEIDA (don't know how it's called in Engligh) from Virgilio.
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Lian Hern's 'Across the Nightingale Floor'
tale of love , honor, magic in mediaeval JapanStern%20Smile
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Been on a Steven Pressfield kick lately,he writes books about ancient warfare,which is a passion of mine.I re-read Gates of Fire(about the Battle of Thermopylae),and just finished The Virtues of War(about Alexander the Great) and have just started his newest book,which is about Alexander's Afghan campaign in 330 B.C.
 


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I've been reading Dante Alighieri's "La Divina Commedia", and I'm nearly finished in the last chapters of paradise. Many of the references to the ancient myths, persons and events are foreing to me, but somehow the text is interesting, though I'm not a religious person. I think the book gives a nice overview of the view of the world of an European middle-age intellectual man. Also the descriptions of the different unearthly spheres are fun, and the 19th century illustrations are neat. I guess the book was quite daring in it's time, as there are many popes and bishops being baked in the the place, where one can abadon every hope! LOL
 
Edit: Here's the book in electronic format: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1000 (I fear there are not illustrations in it)


Edited by Eetu Pellonpää - June 29 2007 at 02:29
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Having read it when I was 16, I am re-reading Ann Frank's Diary.(some 20 odd years later!) with only a few pages to go, I am finding myself very loathed to finish it, to get through those last pages.

Powerful, powerful stuff.
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Originally posted by Eetu Pellonpää Eetu Pellonpää wrote:

I've been reading Dante Alighieri's "La Divina Commedia", and I'm nearly finished in the last chapters of paradise. Many of the references to the ancient myths, persons and events are foreing to me, but somehow the text is interesting, though I'm not a religious person. I think the book gives a nice overview of the view of the world of an European middle-age intellectual man. Also the descriptions of the different unearthly spheres are fun, and the 19th century illustrations are neat. I guess the book was quite daring in it's time, as there are many popes and bishops being baked in the the place, where one can abadon every hope! LOL
 


Read it myself last year, extraordinary, simply extraordinary universal writing. One of my favorites. Thumbs%20Up
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I don't know if anyone's heard of this series, but I just got into Discworld. Think of it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Middle Earth"
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Originally posted by 1800iareyay 1800iareyay wrote:

I don't know if anyone's heard of this series, but I just got into Discworld. Think of it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Middle Earth"

An excellent series, I've read all but Small Gods and Eric from the main series (of which the last book, Thud!, was number 30) and several of the side books.

Which ones have you read so far?
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Originally posted by sleeper sleeper wrote:

Originally posted by 1800iareyay 1800iareyay wrote:

I don't know if anyone's heard of this series, but I just got into Discworld. Think of it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Middle Earth"

An excellent series, I've read all but Small Gods and Eric from the main series (of which the last book, Thud!, was number 30) and several of the side books.

Which ones have you read so far?
I have read several of them and can't decide which are the most funny ones: The books about the Night Watch, the books about the Witches, the books about the Grim Reaper, or the books about Rincewind. My favourite character is Angua, the female werewolf in the Night Watch. I just ordered "Jingo!", the 4th book of the Night Watch series.


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Just finished John Gardner's Grendel, which I chose to read for summer reading.  Great book, as usual the summer reading catalogue has a book that is more enjoyable than the one's we're forced to read in class.

I'll be buying Richard Adam's Watership Down for my second summer reading book, and will hopefully buy more books for personal leisure afterwards (if I don't blow all my money on music, that is).
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Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by sleeper sleeper wrote:

Originally posted by 1800iareyay 1800iareyay wrote:

I don't know if anyone's heard of this series, but I just got into Discworld. Think of it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Middle Earth"

An excellent series, I've read all but Small Gods and Eric from the main series (of which the last book, Thud!, was number 30) and several of the side books.

Which ones have you read so far?
I have read several of them and can't decide which are the most funny ones: The books about the Night Watch, the books about the Witches, the books about the Grim Reaper, or the books about Rincewind. My favourite character is Angua, the female werewolf in the Night Watch. I just ordered "Jingo!", the 4th book of the Night Watch series.
If you enjoyed Terry Pratchet, (I don't), you may like Tom Holt - similar style of books, but a little more grown-up (and with better jokes!) 
 
 
 
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Originally posted by BaldFriede BaldFriede wrote:

Originally posted by sleeper sleeper wrote:

Originally posted by 1800iareyay 1800iareyay wrote:

I don't know if anyone's heard of this series, but I just got into Discworld. Think of it as "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Middle Earth"

An excellent series, I've read all but Small Gods and Eric from the main series (of which the last book, Thud!, was number 30) and several of the side books.

Which ones have you read so far?
I have read several of them and can't decide which are the most funny ones: The books about the Night Watch, the books about the Witches, the books about the Grim Reaper, or the books about Rincewind. My favourite character is Angua, the female werewolf in the Night Watch. I just ordered "Jingo!", the 4th book of the Night Watch series.

Jingo is probably the funniest of all the City Watch books, though Night Watch is probably my favourite. Hard to pick a favourite charector/series as Pratchetts written a lot of good ones.

Speaking of which, he normally has a new book out towards the end of summer, should be something to look forward to.
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Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's collaboration, Good Omens, is a hilarious tour-de-force.  Recommend it to everyone !
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Originally posted by TheProgtologist TheProgtologist wrote:

Been on a Steven Pressfield kick lately,he writes books about ancient warfare,which is a passion of mine.I re-read Gates of Fire(about the Battle of Thermopylae),and just finished The Virtues of War(about Alexander the Great) and have just started his newest book,which is about Alexander's Afghan campaign in 330 B.C.
 

Very good writter with StarStarStarStarStar
I read Gates of Fire meny times and i love it . Tides of War i find boring and heavy !
But Last of the Amazons whell ....Big%20smile
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Originally posted by Melomaniac Melomaniac wrote:

Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's collaboration, Good Omens, is a hilarious tour-de-force.  Recommend it to everyone !


Good Omens I find is not only funnier, but better, than Pratchett's Discworld books (the ones I've read).

I've only read the first four Discworld novels though and I am halfway through another one.


Edited by Geck0 - July 01 2007 at 20:49
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I've read every discworld novel up to Thud! including the offshoots like Maurice... and I think they're all quite good. I used to love them but my appreciation waned as I found more literate classics, whereas you can lie down and be through a Discworld novel in a matter of hours. Feet of Clay is my favourite and I love the Vimes character.
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Originally posted by Geck0 Geck0 wrote:

Originally posted by Melomaniac Melomaniac wrote:

Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's collaboration, Good Omens, is a hilarious tour-de-force.  Recommend it to everyone !


Good Omens I find is not only funnier, but better, than Pratchett's Discworld books (the ones I've read).

I've only read the first four Discworld novels though and am halfway through another one.
I read Good Omens years ago and thought it totally briliant. Then read some Pratchett and thought "What? - it must have been that other bloke who was the funny one." So I read all the Neil Gaiman I could find - he's not a comic writer, but I prefer his wry take on things. I have since read that all my favorite characters from GO were written by Gaiman (Crawley and the Four Horsemen are his)
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