For those of you who do read, figured we could pool our literary preferences into this thread. Just picked up the short story collection When the Nines Roll Over by David Benioff. Same author who wrote 25th Hour (movie adaptation featuring Edward Norton) and who currently is the show-runner for Game of Thrones. He's a great writer.
Hot damn--he wrote a short WWII novel called City of Thieves which was one of the better books I've read in years. I'm going to buy those short stories this week for a trip I have coming up. Am reading The Martian--a buddy said to read it before I see the movie and it's a pretty interesting read. _
The Martian was good. I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm currently slogging through Leaves of Grass by WW (thanks a lot Breaking Bad). Not quite poetry, not quite essays. Long and slow, not terrible, but not terribly good either. I read Child of God by Cormac McCarthy which may be his most disturbing book (hard to imagine). Read Color of Magic by Pratchett. Maybe it was lowered expectations since everyone said it isn't that great (and it isn't) but I enjoyed it. The humor really came through and I don't particularly like humorous books. Read Man in the High Castle by Philip Dick and thought that was just ok as well. I plan on reading Armada by Ernest Cline next, but I've only heard bad things (Ready Player One was excellent though).
Just finished Euphoria by Lily King, a fictional story of three anthropologist in New Guinea in the 1930s. Very good book. Currently reading Moby Dick for the first time.
Totally fucked up. LOVED No Country, struggled with Blood Meridian (started and stopped 3 times) and absolutely hated The Road. I actually put a comment on Amazon or BN that I wanted by $14 back. What a piece of trash that took him about 3 days to write. I felt as if he was filling his quota with his publisher. _
I enjoyed The Road, more than liked Blood Meridian (it is a struggle) and thought No Country was just ok. I'd put All the Pretty Horses between Road and Meridian. All of his books are difficult to read in my opinion, but they are typically pretty good. I also read Moby Dick for the first time semi-recently. There is a lot to distract from the actual plot of hunting and killing the great white whale, and it isn't all good.
LOVED City of Thieves. Need to re-read it. Evenually I will get to the Martian. Saw the movie already though so...meh. Going to read Gone Baby Gone before I see the flick though.
Lehane is a gifted storyteller. Have you read any of the Jack Reacher novels? I thought about giving them a shot. I just finished The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva. Might stick with that series unless Reacher can draw me away
I read the first one, loved it, then read a few more and after a while they kind of run into one another. Another series like that is the Will Robbie series by David Baldacci. Brainless stuff but entertaining. For a better version of those types, try I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hughes. Pretty good lone wolf hero with a much deeper plot and character development. _
Yeah heard the first Reacher was the best and a few others are solid. I will read some but won't take on more than a few probably. Been reading some John Sandford. I read somewhere someone said it was like junk food for your brain. I would agree. Hughes sounds familiar. I will check it out. East of Eden is on my reading list. Really need to get to it
I don't read a lot of the literary classics--I find them boring, pedantic, stuffy. East of Eden is one of best written novels I have ever read. _
Likewise. I'm much more inclined to read the short story classics...Melville and Hawthorne specifically. And Poe of course.
Best summer read I've ever done--if you are looking for a massive project: Winds of War (invasion of Poland to Pearl Harbor) and War and Remembrance (Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima/Nagasaki) by Herman Wouk. Almost 2000 pages total, THE historical fiction account of WWII. Outstanding. _
