Poor Books :(

NP, I can’t read that article. I tried, and can’t get past the first one. People talking about the destruction of books is just too horrifying to me.

That article made me want to run screaming through a library, grabbing all the books.

Terrible as it sounds, I can somewhat see the point. Finite space, and books that have thousands of copies elsewhere- what to do with them? Selling them would require a great deal of effort. Even giving them away would be complicated :(

I understand the whole issue with hard copy books, especially as this is now the electronic age and hard copy books would eventually disappear. But still, I don’t want to one day say: “I remember when we had books as hard copies – paper, ink, cover and all! Can you believe that!?” and see (if we’re lucky) some precious hard-cover books in museums and rare collections.

:’(

Oooh, I've been meaning to read Divergent. Derek Landy recommended it!

I just finished rereading Silksinger, the second book in the Dreamdark series by Laini Taylor, and I'm now working on A Wizard Alone, by Diane Duane, which is the... sixth? book in the Young Wizards series.

I also mean to reread The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy sometime soon.

I’m reading Revolutionary Road for fiction class. I like it okay so far. Somehow the two main characters are both horrible and pitiable at the same time.

Does anybody else always read the introduction/foreword/analysis/whatever else is before the main text of a book? I love those- they always get me into the mood of reading that book.

The reason I say this is because I just read the introduction to my book of Tennessee William’s plays AND I LOVE HIM ALREADY.

Oh, those do suck. The Williams ones were production notes, which only betrayed a few thematic elements, and an essay talking about how much he doesn’t like being successful.

Just finished A Wrinkle in Time.

....Was I the only one who didn’t think it was anything special? I mean, tell me if you think I’m wrong, but….I really don’t see how it became a classic.

Yeah? I read The Lost Hero and didn’t like it much. Is Son of Neptune any better?

Well, I kinda liked “The Lost Hero”, although there were some definite issues with it. “Son of Neptune” does step it up a notch though.
Riordan continues with the heroes-who-have-deep-dark-hidden-secrets thing, but not as much as TLH. One good thing is that this story doesn’t have Piper and Jason swooning over each other every chapter. Hazel and Frank (the new heroes) are the obvious love interest in this book, but don’t follow the constant “OMG He/She’s So Hot!” inner dialogue of TLH. Percy is back in action, but since readers already know his history the whole amnesiac thing isn’t told the same as Jason’s. For Percy, memories surface randomly, just beyond his full grasp.
So far, I’ve really enjoyed “Son of Neptune”.

I finished Revolutionary Road last night. I liked it, overall. The characters were jerks, but they were sad jerks.

I do not think Dante’s Inferno is overrated any more. One bus ride and I’m just under halfway through.

Terry Pratchett is a genius.

Yes. Yes, he is.

Revolutionary Road

Is that the book of the movie that everyone made such a fuss about (because it was the first film starring both Kate Winslet and Leonardo di Caprio since Titanic)?

Zorba the Greek.

I’m reading Dracula and enjoying it…I’m liking it so much I keep forgetting I know the story!

I mentioned above that Dante’s Inferno is awesome (in a roundabout way). Well… We’ve just reached the inner edges of the Rottenpockets.

Yes, Theo. You do.

I just wish the Commedia had been finished properly before Dante’s death. What I wouldn’t give for a cloth-bound copy of Purgatorio, Paradisio and Inferno as a single glorious volume.

Anyway, here’s what’s on the page I just finished: (hidden for vulgarity)

I love Inferno. It was my go-to book in high school when I needed to write English papers on books.

Just finished Divergent. It was kind of disappointing, given the promising start. Oh, well. Gonna read Howl’s Moving Castle next, then it’s The Tale of Genji.

I just started reading The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon on a recommendation from my English teacher, which might be a bad idea because we have really different taste in books. Has anyone here read it?

@Soupnazi – I love Howl’s Moving Castle so much. I saw the movie at my friend’s house and immediately bought the book (I think it was like two days later) and fell hopelessly in love with it. I like the movie and all, but… the book is just even more awesome.

FREE BOOK?!

Read through Night Watch, Small Favor, and Room these past 3 days. My mind is full of time-travelling, Christian mythological, child abusive fuck.

Eeee! I finally got Death Bringer! Reading it now, and it is AWESOME.

Also, sort of reading the Tale of Genji still, but what can I say—it kind of bores me. :P

Also, sort of reading the Tale of Genji still, but what can I say—it kind of bores me. :P

Genji was the world’s first anti-hero.

Genji don’t give a fuck, lady. Genji is too busy being Genji.

Good.

sansafro187: What—no. I’m, like, thirty pages in? Checks HA, exactly 30 pages.

swenson: (Totally late on this whatever) Yeah, the movie is what made me try the book, but I couldn’t get into it and so I stopped reading. I’ll try it again later when the movie isn’t so fresh on my mind.

I started Death Bringer yesterday while a friend was over and I’m already over 300 pages in. Anyone else read the Skulduggery Pleasant books? Because you all should. Though you’ll have to read the five books preceding it, I think the pretty much direct response to Twilight the Valkyrie/Caelan storyline is awesome enough alone to warrant a read. I mean, look at this:

“Then I will remain beside you as I sleep.” [Caelan said.]
“My folks will love that,” Valkyrie said with a chuckle. He didn’t smile. “You’re not going to watch me sleep.”

I actually like Davos. He’s kinda Eddard 2.0. Also, what about Sam? He’s awesome.

^ Tru dat. Also, he’s living proof that calling someone “just” might not be a compliment.

Just read through The Scar. None of it made sense to me at all.

China Mieville

Okay, now I’m listening…

Yeah, mostly in the “I want to make sure my king does the right thing, not the easy thing” (best demonstrated by his actions near the end of Storm of Swords ) and being extreamly loyal to said king. Basically, he’s one of the few truely decent characters in the series.

Basically, he’s one of the few truely decent characters in the series.

I love decent characters. ...I was reading the wrong series, wasn’t I? No wonder I gave up.

No, no, I meant the meaning you meant to mean.

^^I’ve only read the original Percy Jackson series, which I loved. For some reason, I’m not that interested in reading the new one, though I have wondered about whether I should read it or not.

Unrelated thing. I read Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel for a class. I have to say I’m not a fan. I read review on Amazon that said you keep waiting for the story to start and it ends before it actually does (it’s a bunch of short stories, and they’re pretty much all like this). That review is very, very near the experience I had while reading it. Before that we had to read Jesus’ Son, which I had already read for a class last semester and refused to buy/read again because I didn’t like that either. It sucks because the reading for this class had been pretty good for most of the semester.

Next up for class is Blindness, which I read on Wikipedia doesn’t put quotation marks around dialogue and often substitutes commas for periods. I was excited for this book until I read that. Has anyone read it?

And for fun reading, I started Thirteen Reasons Why, which is really engrossing, but I’m more interested in Hannah’s part than Clay’s.

Saramago, right? I haven’t read it, but someone in my AP Lit class did. She said that you have to read it really carefully, or else the lack of punctuation will screw you over. Also, nobody has names. But she still said that it was a good book.

Yes, that’s the one. I think the story sounds interesting, but it just annoys me when authors decide they can just piss all over grammar because they are the almighty and special author. Hopefully, I will be able to look past his specialness and enjoy the book. It still maybe being a good book is encouraging though, so thanks.

I forgot that I read that nobody has names. That’s kind of annoying as well.

Currently reading A Canticle for Liebowitz. You were right, Inky; it’s awesome.

I like the idea of Tale of Genji (what with it being the first novel and written in secret by a woman and all that jazz), but I’ve never actually read the thing.

^^ I looked up those books, and they both sound really interesting.

My APEL teacher likes Game of Thrones!

Your teacher has great taste. That’s always something to be happy about.

He said Christopher Paolini and Terry Brooks

Ooo, awkward.

But he likes Neil Gaiman too

There’s hope for him yet.

Ha ha. On the subject of China Mieville, I was reading Perdido St Station on the train, and I got to that part where those moths are mating over the city, in the process of fighting for the privilege of being the female moth that the others mate with. I swear, one of the train guy worker people was reading over my shoulder. It was very awkward, because words such as mancarrot penis and velvet glove vagina were all over the page. Not a euphemism in sight. Or perhaps I just imagined it, because after all, when you read a book like that, you start thinking those words are glowing red and everyone can see them. Very embarrassing.

Starting A Streetcar Named Desire.

We studied and performed scenes from that play for Drama last year. I had a couple of problems with it. a) I SUCK at Southern accents, and suck badly. b) it’s depressing. c) every kind of perversity and depravity imaginable is contained within this thing.

And yet it’s so readable.

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, one of the Discworld book that I skipped before.

When I asked a librarian in the children’s section of the library for it, she squee~d and started telling me about how it was her favourite book. Why do I get a feeling that’ll be me in 10 years?

Just read Death Note 1-8

Gonna get the rest soon, but 8 kinda sucked without 1-7 were amazing, though, so obviously I’m sticking it through until the end (besides, I DO want to know how it ends.)

I hope 9-12 suck less than 8.

And I really really wish my library had them so I can read the rest and find out what happens NOW.

Everybody already knows. Next, you’re gonna say that Edward being a vampire is a spoiler.