[MtGrizzly]

phredmojo, on Mar 29 2009, 11:46 AM, said:

nah, thats not a lot of pages. you want a lot of pages then you need to read robert jordans wheel of time

Jordan needed a better editor. Great story but there are hundreds of pages in a few of the books that are completely irrelevant to the story line. And his little diversions from the core story line are pretty damn boring to boot. Still a worthwhile read.

Steven Erickson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series is getting pretty damn long now. The second book "Deadhouse Gates" is one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Gotta love an author that will kill off lead characters like Erickson will.

[DannyCore]

phredmojo, on Mar 29 2009, 11:46 AM, said:

nah, thats not a lot of pages. you want a lot of pages then you need to read robert jordans wheel of time

I'm pretty sure they are close, 11 books each. All huge.

[phredmojo]

DannyCore, on Mar 30 2009, 09:05 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure they are close, 11 books each. All huge.

with the 11 volumes, yeah pretty close. but you also have to throw in jordans prequel New Spring at 330+ and the 12th book that comes out next year which is being finished by brandon sanderson off of jordans notes which might dwarf all the other volumes in size

[phredmojo]

MtGrizzly, on Mar 30 2009, 05:55 AM, said:

Jordan needed a better editor. Great story but there are hundreds of pages in a few of the books that are completely irrelevant to the story line. And his little diversions from the core story line are pretty damn boring to boot. Still a worthwhile read.

Steven Erickson's "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series is getting pretty damn long now. The second book "Deadhouse Gates" is one of the best fantasy books I've ever read. Gotta love an author that will kill off lead characters like Erickson will.

erickson's in my library to read. i tend to like to own all the books in a series before i read them. but the days of tirlogy's seem to be gone with jordan, goodkind, erickson, modessitt, farland and many others now taking series to 5-6-7-12 books lol. probably start them soon

[MtGrizzly]

phredmojo, on Mar 30 2009, 02:34 PM, said:

erickson's in my library to read. i tend to like to own all the books in a series before i read them. but the days of tirlogy's seem to be gone with jordan, goodkind, erickson, modessitt, farland and many others now taking series to 5-6-7-12 books lol. probably start them soon

I know! I'm the same way - after the fourth Wheel of Time book I got pissed and said that I would never again start a series until the whole damn thing was written. I lasted a long time too. Then I was recovering from a nasty bout of achilles tendonitis two years ago when I picked up the first of the Malazan books and the first of George RR Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" books. Now I'm stuck waiting for the next installment in both series. Two tremendous fantasy series, too.

There is actually a prequel to the Erickson Malazan books by his friend and collaborator Ian Esslemont titled "Night of the Knives". He's also got another book called "Return of the Crimson Guard" that takes place between the sixth and seventh Erickson books. I haven't read either of them yet because they were only released in Europe, although their American release is supposed to be pending.

Kind of a weird dynamic there - two friends that collaborate on creating the 'verse and the framework for the epic story and then they both write about it, with some overlapping of characters even.

Erickson is a strange writer for me to read. I spend the first 20% of the book trying to follow what the hell is going on, the middle 60% completely absorbed in the story and the last 20% awake at 4am unable to put the book down. Every single one of them is like that. Weird.

[BISON]

"The Element" by Ken Robinson. Very interesting to me...basically elaborates on a concept of our perception of intelligence that I have always thought, but never heard articulated. And well!

[Griffey Come Back]

At the moment, "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks of the famous father. I'll probably roll right into his other Zombie book "World War Z" next.

Waiting for George RR Martin as well, but he's too busy going to conventions and creating miniatures to write. Sorry George, just a joke.

Recently finished "Kavalier and Klay", great recommendation from Kev, and Have "Yiddish Policemans Union" on my desk.

Also have a few Cormac Mccarthy novels laying around that I picked up after reading "The Road".

Finished some other pulpy crap recently, but nothing worth mentioning, da vinci code-ish poopoo.

I also recommend Umberto Eco for anyone who wants a little challenge. He makes me feel stupid when I read him, but that's only because he's a real smart dude.

[phredmojo]

MtGrizzly, on Mar 30 2009, 03:42 PM, said:

I know! I'm the same way - after the fourth Wheel of Time book I got pissed and said that I would never again start a series until the whole damn thing was written. I lasted a long time too. Then I was recovering from a nasty bout of achilles tendonitis two years ago when I picked up the first of the Malazan books and the first of George RR Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" books. Now I'm stuck waiting for the next installment in both series. Two tremendous fantasy series, too.

There is actually a prequel to the Erickson Malazan books by his friend and collaborator Ian Esslemont titled "Night of the Knives". He's also got another book called "Return of the Crimson Guard" that takes place between the sixth and seventh Erickson books. I haven't read either of them yet because they were only released in Europe, although their American release is supposed to be pending.

Kind of a weird dynamic there - two friends that collaborate on creating the 'verse and the framework for the epic story and then they both write about it, with some overlapping of characters even.

Erickson is a strange writer for me to read. I spend the first 20% of the book trying to follow what the hell is going on, the middle 60% completely absorbed in the story and the last 20% awake at 4am unable to put the book down. Every single one of them is like that. Weird.

if you don't want to wait for night of knives. it is avaibale here now and for a good price.

http://www.bookclose...=9780593057827B

[MtGrizzly]

Griffey Come Back, on Mar 30 2009, 07:08 PM, said:

At the moment, "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks of the famous father. I'll probably roll right into his other Zombie book "World War Z" next.

I skipped the Zombie Survival Guide but did read World War Z - liked it quite a bit. I read that Brad Pitt's production company bought the movie rights but I have a tough time seeing how it would make a good movie. Maybe an HBO series or something but not a regular movie.

[DannyCore]

Why do I have to include something that doesn't exist yet?

[Griffey Come Back]

MtGrizzly, on Mar 30 2009, 10:46 PM, said:

I skipped the Zombie Survival Guide but did read World War Z - liked it quite a bit. I read that Brad Pitt's production company bought the movie rights but I have a tough time seeing how it would make a good movie. Maybe an HBO series or something but not a regular movie.

I think I read they are creating a character, a journalist type who would have traveled to all the disparate locations and spoken to all of the different protagonists from the book. Haven't read it yet so I don't know how feasible/true that is.

I was going to read World War first (I heard about it first), but then saw he had a previous book and figured it wouldn't hurt to start there.

[Orlandu]

I'm working on "Only the Ball was White" right now.

[senior octobre]

I heard the authors on the radio talking about their book,

"The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists" by Mike Gastineau, Art Thiel, and Steve Rudman, 2009 (Running Press Book Publishers, 2300 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19103).

It sounds like a great book to have around, coffee table, book shelf, night stand, and as Lonnie puts it, the throne. The guys talked about some of the stories. It's well researched and it's funny.

amazon

[MtGrizzly]

Reading "The Strain" by Guillermo Del Torro and Chuck Hogan. It's quite good, although if I had known that it was the first book in a trilogy I would have waited to pick it up.

It's a vampire horror novel - sort of a reaction to the cutsie vampire lit like Twilight. His vampire is as romantic as an intelligent, malevolent, 200lb mosquito.

[senior octobre]

Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle by Murray Morgan, (Viking Press, 1951)

This book came out on the 100 year aniversity of the Denny Party landing at Alki in 1851. I have not started it as of yet, but it is considered the best book on early Seattle. Murray Morgan passed away in 2000. He has written many books but this is his most popular. I'll try to write a review later.

edit: great book. The city officials of now a days would like the history and past of Seattle go away. Morgan paints of a picture of early Seattle that the city is based on gambling and prosititution. Mayors would run on a platform of an open city; gambling and prstitutuion or a closed city; no gambling and prostitution.

The author has a section of Doc Maynard and his contributions to the young town. The first and only general strike happended in Seattle. The author writes of Dave Beck and his rise from a laundry truck driver to a teamster boss.

a good read.

This post has been edited by senior octobre: 07 March 2011 - 05:55 AM

[shields]

I've never been a big reader, but I've been trying to get into it and have found some interesting works of fiction over the last few months.

The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg - A book I literally couldn't put down. A series of letters to all sorts of people written by a guy teetering on the brink of suicide while trying to find himself and his roots.

Then We Came to the End - Dark comedy about office antics.

Those blurbs obviously don't do them justice, but I thoroughly enjoyed both of them.

[BISON]

Just finished "Life of Pi" and just started "A Prayer for Owen Meany"

[senior octobre]

senior octobre, on Jul 21 2009, 04:55 PM, said:

Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle by Murray Morgan, (Viking Press, 1951)

This book came out on the 100 year aniversity of the Denny Party landing at Alki in 1851. I have not started it as of yet, but it is considered the best book on early Seattle. Murray Morgan passed away in 2000. He has written many books but this is his most popular. I'll try to write a review later.

The book starts out with a story of Doc Maynard coming West. Murray Morgan has a nice flowing discriptive style. It's a easy read. So far, very enjoyable.

[CoastieM]

Just Finished "the saddest day of the year" by Dean Koontz (my favorite) and started "Waking Lazarus" by T. L. Hines. He's a Christian author who has written a Murder/Mysterie/Thriller with a Christian take on it all. So far it's great.

[senior octobre]

at the used store, just picked up "Lou Gehrig, Baseball Legends" by Norman L. Macht (Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1993). Introduction by Jim Murray. Senior Consutant, Earl Weaver.

The Baseball Legends Series is directed towards younger readers but there are a bunch of cool pictures from Lou's younger days in High School and at Columbia all the way to his days with the Yankees. Nice Chronology, Statistics, Further Reading and Index.