/me looks up from rereading The Cardinal of the Kremlin
you're not talking about me there, are you?
Clancy is soooo 1980s.
What book are you currently reading?
- Thread starter Kyriakos
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Clancy is soooo 1980s.
sophie
Break My Heart
Oh, no.
I rarely read literature in any other language than Finnish. I prefer the language to be the most familiar one to reading the exact words of author. I'm not that much word orientated reader anyway. If that makes any sense.
Hope it doesn't ruin the book for you, because the first half was superb!
It didn't. It's not that I hate the book. It's beautiful, his use of the Spanish language is just incredible. It's just that the text is so bloody dense that it takes forever for me to get through it. (I timed myself once and it takes me a good hour to an hour and a half to make it through 15-20 pages, and after I finish it I feel so mentally drained that there is quite simply no way for me to will myself to read anymore. It is one of the most frustrating things I've ever read.
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Cardinal of the Kremlin is definitely my favorite Clancy novel.
I actually think It had an interesting insight into childhood, specifically childhood friendship, bullying and fears although I'm not holding it up as an example of classic literature.
Hey i never said he is not successful, obviously he is and extremely so. But i am indeed used to more intricate, detailed, elaborate, psychological plots, such as in Guy De Maupassant, ETA Hofmann, Dostoevsky, Knut Hamsun and a few other writers.
Even in the horror genre you have Poe and Lovecraft so it is not that much out of the question to judge King in comparisson with such writers
That said i only read three stories up to now, and liked one considerably (the other two i found ok, but not really my kind of thing)
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
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- Apr 25, 2006
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- 9,408
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R,Martin. Finally !
I'm now at the first Davos chapter and so far I'm not disappointed.
The passage where John Snow accidentally kills Sansa when Littlefinger tries to murder him was heartbreaking.
I'm now at the first Davos chapter and so far I'm not disappointed.
The passage where John Snow accidentally kills Sansa when Littlefinger tries to murder him was heartbreaking.
Spoiler :
Save_Ferris
Admiring Myself
Brave New World.
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R,Martin. Finally !
I'm now at the first Davos chapter and so far I'm not disappointed.
The passage where John Snow accidentally kills Sansa when Littlefinger tries to murder him was heartbreaking.
Spoiler :
They went to Switzerland?
I agree, and I think King - at his best - is actually pretty good at providing some insight into human behavior. Nostalgia, memory, identity, grief, love, relationships, and loss are all common themes in his works. Some of the scariest books he's written come from his understanding of love, for example - take Pet Sematary. Are undead kitties really all that frightening? No, of course not. On that surface level it's not scary at all. But reading that as an adult, you recognize exactly what the main character is going through after losing his son and then his wife - he knows what the Micmac burial ground will do, he knows it's a horrible mistake to go through with this, but there's the inexorable pull of love, grief, and loss that move him to make these terrible decisions, one after another. The lengths that we'll go to for love can be absolutely terrifying.
I'm aware - you name-drop highbrow writers pretty regularly.
Even in the horror genre you have Poe and Lovecraft so it is not that much out of the question to judge King in comparisson with such writers
Lovecraft is a pretty lousy writer with some great ideas. One might say the same thing of Stephen King.
Thing is, I try not to limit myself; these either/or choices are false dichotomies. You don't have to read Poe OR King, you can read both! Crazy, innit? King is very prolific, and unfortunately that means that a lot of his novels and stories aren't very good at all. (Much of the work in the latter part of his career has been lackluster.) No question about that. All I'm saying is just approach the stories as stories, on their own terms. You may be surprised at how much you enjoy some of them.
Oohforf
Praise loud, blame soft.
Queen, Empress, Concubine.
Just finished The War that Came Early: the Big Switch by Harry Turtledove, which is finally getting the series on its feet. I'm now reading Bob Delaney's Covert, the story of his time spent as a New Jersey State Trooper working undercover to take down the Mafia.
Tecknojock
Keeping the world running
I just got a couple Graphic Design books that I'm working my way through:
The Non-Designers Design book
Quick Solutions to Great Layouts
The Digital Type Design Guide
The Non-Designers Design book
Quick Solutions to Great Layouts
The Digital Type Design Guide
TheDanish
Prince
Just finished A Dance With Dragons. Now I'm bookless, but I'll probably pick up a few more Terry Pratchett novels.
Made a run to Borders on the occasion of the going-out-of-business sale wrapping up. Picked up the following:
David Halberstam - The Breaks of the Game
Dominic Lieven - Russia Against Napoleon
and the Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika.
David Halberstam - The Breaks of the Game
Dominic Lieven - Russia Against Napoleon
and the Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Started on The Making of the English Working Class by E. P. Thompson. History from below, yum yum! 
GoodSarmatian
Jokerfied Western Male
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- Apr 25, 2006
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- 9,408
Finished A Dance with Dragons today and boy was it good 
. So much better than A Feast for Crows.
Of course it ended with some pretty nasty cliffhangers and now I have to wait 2 -10 years for the resolution
. So much better than A Feast for Crows.Of course it ended with some pretty nasty cliffhangers and now I have to wait 2 -10 years for the resolution
