What Are You Reading?

Slow Show

Is The Lovely Bones book better than the movie? I've seen the movie and I didn't think it was too creepy, granted I'm not exactly very squeamish so that kinda thing goes way over my head, but I quite liked the movie and if the book's any good I can pick it up for peanuts in HMV.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

bythewoods wrote: »

My friend gave me "Never Let me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro to start next. I'm really excited to get into it, he's meant to be a fantastic author, and I've never read his stuff. So yay for new books!

I read The Remains of the Day back in school and its one of my favourite books, if his other work is anything like that you won't be disappointed.

Pigwidgeon

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I finished "Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh last night. Would anyone like to talk about it with me?

I've been reading it for a while, about half way through it at the moment. I can't really get into it tbh. I find the book in general quite disjointed or something, I'm hoping it all makes sense once I finish it.

degausserxo

Never Let Me Go is lovely. Even when nothing particularly sad was happening, I always felt a sort of background sadness. Must dig it out and reread. Reading More, Now, Again by Elizabeth Wurtzel atm.

Lawliet

Slow Show wrote: »

Is The Lovely Bones book better than the movie? I've seen the movie and I didn't think it was too creepy, granted I'm not exactly very squeamish so that kinda thing goes way over my head, but I quite liked the movie and if the book's any good I can pick it up for peanuts in HMV.

It wasn't anything gruesome that creeped me out, it was the attitude the film had towards the girls death. It was like the film was saying she was better off dead; she gets this magical world with new friends, and can watch everyone she knew dwell on how great she was! Just seems like a messed up message to be sending.
Not to mention the bit at the end where

she possesses that other girls body and makes out with the guy she had a crush on -who of course has never forgotten her or moved on.

It was made out to be this heart-warming moment but I just thought it was disturbing.

Slow Show

Lawliet wrote: »

It wasn't anything gruesome that creeped me out, it was the attitude the film had towards the girls death. It was like the film was saying she was better off dead; she gets this magical world with new friends, and can watch everyone she knew dwell on how great she was! Just seems like a messed up message to be sending.
Not to mention the bit at the end where

she possesses that other girls body and makes out with the guy she had a crush on -who of course has never forgotten her or moved on.

It was made out to be this heart-warming moment but I just thought it was disturbing.

Heh, I seem to have missed out on most of that, I wasn't exactly paying close attention during the film, but I can definitely see how messed up that all seems. I think I'll just read the book, gonna read Never Let Me Go too.

Still on Catch 22...it's good, it really is, but I have no motivation to read it and I feel like spacing it out is bad because of the big cast of characters and I keep forgetting people. I think I might leave it and start again in summer.

yerayeah

I read Trainspotting a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I found that there was a great energy to it, that doesn't really let up as you read through it and some great stories. I ended loving most of the characters in it as well!

Read because I'm gonna be spending some of the summer in Edinburgh, think I'll be steering clear of Leith!:D

EuropeanSon

Anna Karenina. It is awesome, one of the better books I've read.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I really need to start reading books for college on time and not 2 weeks before my exams

Anyway I've started The Name of the Rose and its very good so far. Unusual book, its a detective novel set in a medieval Italian monastery with a lot of detailed references to the religion and literature of the time. Also Kilkenny was mentioned in it

Fergus_

The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan

SarahBeep!

Lawliet wrote: »

It wasn't anything gruesome that creeped me out, it was the attitude the film had towards the girls death. It was like the film was saying she was better off dead; she gets this magical world with new friends, and can watch everyone she knew dwell on how great she was! Just seems like a messed up message to be sending.
Not to mention the bit at the end where

she possesses that other girls body and makes out with the guy she had a crush on -who of course has never forgotten her or moved on.

It was made out to be this heart-warming moment but I just thought it was disturbing.

It was just

her death and what lead to it

that creeped me out. Not that it was badly written or anything, it was literally just the content. It really did turn my stomach.



Has anyone here ever read Go Ask Alice?

Ally7

I'm halfway through A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, I'm really loving it! I'd like to know how accurately it depicts life in Afghanistan because it makes me genuinely sad to see how tough women have it in the book.

Namlub

I'm reading the Secret History because I copy everything Your Text Here does I discovered that my sister has it. Liking it so far, I keep getting two of the characters mixed up though >_<

Corkfeen

Well, I was reading Breakfast of Champions but alas I was forced to start studying for my exams next week. So, I reread The Picture of Dorian Gray which is awesome. The play Endgame by Samuel Beckett which I view as Beckett's top secret love for 50s sci-fi (He probably wouldn't agree with me.). Lastly i've read the first few tales in "The Canterbury Tales", it's rather entertaining but middle english can be rather annoying.
Just to give ye an idea of how the bastardising middle english is.

Whilom, as olde stories tellen us,
Ther was a duc that highte Theseus;
Of Atthenes he was lord and governour,
And in his tyme swich a conquerour,

At least I don't have to do old english is my logic. Now, I really should return to procrastinating.

Jackobyte

Jackobyte wrote: »

I just finished Twilight.

I hate that I might have actually enjoyed it. /cringe

bythewoods wrote: »

To make it worse, I just finished the entire series, all 4 books of it. I started reading it because of the Alex reads Twilight youtube series. I thought it would be funny how bad it was and I just got into it. I enjoyed it even. It definitely shouldn't be counted as a romance though, the parts that are clearly meant to be romantic just aren't.

Fergus_ wrote: »

The Thin Executioner by Darren Shan

I read that when it first came out, it was amusing, completely different to his other books.

Seren_

Namlub wrote: »

I'm reading the Secret History because I copy everything Your Text Here does I discovered that my sister has it. Liking it so far, I keep getting two of the characters mixed up though >_<

Still haven't finished it yet!! Silly finals distracting me :pac:

Corkfeen wrote: »

The play Endgame by Samuel Beckett which I view as Beckett's top secret love for 50s sci-fi (He probably wouldn't agree with me.).

Interesting! Why do you think that? And I doubt he would agree with you

Slow Show

Spent my afternoon reading The Great Gatsby. Pretty good book, nothing amazing, but it was well worth reading in my opinion, and it was fairly easy-going and quick to read. After finally finishing a book for the first time in ages, I've got a bug to spend crazy amounts of time reading. And school starts again tomorrow...Yay.

Just read Dune and The Last Four Things. After my exams I'm going on to The Elfstones of Shannara.

Insect Overlord

Slow Show wrote: »

Spent my afternoon reading The Great Gatsby. Pretty good book, nothing amazing, but it was well worth reading in my opinion, and it was fairly easy-going and quick to read.

I read that last year, I think I can remember enjoying it! Curse my short memory.

I also fulfilled a 3 year old ambition this weekend and read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The film Apocalypse Now was based on it, albeit with a change of setting/time-scene. What a book.

Seren_

Slow Show wrote: »

Spent my afternoon reading The Great Gatsby. Pretty good book, nothing amazing, but it was well worth reading in my opinion, and it was fairly easy-going and quick to read.

Just started The Great Gatsby earlier! It seems alright so far I like your mention of it as easy-going - I miss easy-going books.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I also fulfilled a 3 year old ambition this weekend and read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The film Apocalypse Now was based on it, albeit with a change of setting/time-scene. What a book.

Really not sure what I think of HoD. Absolutely hated it when I read it a few years ago, but I re-read it recently for an essay and I enjoyed it a bit more. Hmm.

Finished The Secret History yesterday. It is SAVAGE!

Namlub

Your Text Here wrote: »

Finished The Secret History yesterday. It is SAVAGE!

Ooh, I finished it the other day. Could not put it down. I didn't really see the point of the epilogue though but meh...
Reading Memoirs of a Geisha now, it's way better than I expected. So good.

A Neurotic

Bitta this:


Bitta that:


Walking Dead is amazing. Really engrossing, character-driven stuff. Downloading the TV series as we speak.

Corkfeen

Your Text Here wrote: »

Interesting! Why do you think that? And I doubt he would agree with you

More so , my boredom from all the study combined with my obsession with Sci-fi. I don't actually consider it his love for sci-fi.

Reading "God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens at the moment so it's a mixture of that and studying Cold War history. In regards to Hitchens, it really is a loss to the world that he's dying of cancer. One of the great minds who's entirely willing to speak his mind.

Went into Chapters today and saw all Jim Butcher books with a certain cover were 4.99. I thought "score!", since Aoibheann recommended The Dresden Files here aaaaggesss ago.

The first book was only available with the more modern, expensive cover. Damn. Still bought it.

Aoibheann

Yay! I've loads of them at home so feel free to borrow as many as you wish! It's the one series I can think of where the writing actually improves from book to book, and it starts off pretty well so just think about how awesome it is now (book 13 )!

Insect Overlord

I picked up a book of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories last night, and read "The Tell-Tale Heart". Some of you may recognise it from a reference in the 1994 episode of the Simpsons, "Lisa's Rival".

Creepy. As. Feck.

Found a nice adaptation of the story from the 1950s, a century after it was written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4s9V8aQu4c

Jamie Starr

Insect Overlord wrote: »

I picked up a book of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories last night, and read "The Tell-Tale Heart". Some of you may recognise it from a reference in the 1994 episode of the Simpsons, "Lisa's Rival".

One of the few parts of first year in college I enjoyed. The Masque of the Red Death, The Gold Bug, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Premature Burial... brilliant short-stories that seem longer and better than some books I've read. Not to mention the exellence of his poetry. I first read the Pit and the Pendulum when I was about nine. Truly one author I'd recommend everyone take a look at. And he was only 40 when he died! *raves for hours more about how great Poe is*

musical.x

going postal by Sir Terry Pratchett amazing writer. has such an interesting way of describing things and people.

scoopmine

Rereading superchick by Stephen J Martin. First of three all three are a fantastic read and very Irish humour!

Lawliet

Went to a second hand book store and got books 5-8 in the wheel of time series. That should keep me going for a while