Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[jackelgull]

Shame on you. Read Walter Moer's City of Dreaming Books as penance.

I recommend Walter Moer because he is good at writing non traditional fantasy. I don't know what he smokes, but I want some. I swear he must have some kind of connection to a dimension of infinite creativity to come up with the half the stuff he does. However, he tends to be over descriptive, but that is part of his charm. You either like it or you don't.

Have you read this yet, Terx? Has anyone taken me seriously and read this?

 

[sophie]

what do these people all have in common? a great smile.

 

[bhavv]

This really has to be the worst of all possible fates. Ewwww.

 

[Andree Thorp]

I'm now reading Ashley Bell: A Novel.

 

[Agent327]

Finished Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and Hawking/Mlodinow's The Grand Design. Pretty much sums up recent cosmology (although the second actually has copied paragraphs from the first, which is a bit sloppy).

< snip >

Such epic artwork.

I've seen better. Also, this is a book thread. But feel free to start a 'graphic novel' thread.

 

[Arakhor]

Oh, don't be elitist, Agent. It's still a book.

 

[bhavv]

I've seen better. Also, this is a book thread. But feel free to start a 'graphic novel' thread.

Book: a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.

Also what I posted was from the 70s.

 

[Flying Pig]

I suppose if we're not going to exclude anyone who wants to admit to reading Mills and Boon, we can't be snooty about graphic novels - though is just a pretentious name for comic books?

 

[bhavv]

They actually have a fantastic and rich story and suspenseful / addictive plot lines.

I would have been happy to read X men novels entirely in words without the comics, and had spent ages doing so and trying to dig up as much info as I could scour from the internet on the many story lines within. But unfortunately nothing comes close to reading the actual comics themselves.

You could try watching these hour long documentaries to gain an understanding of less than 1% of what the Marvel universe has on offer:


Link to video.


Link to video.

 

[Arakhor]

I suppose if we're not going to exclude anyone who wants to admit to reading Mills and Boon, we can't be snooty about graphic novels - though is just a pretentious name for comic books?

It's a more customer-friendly name, yes, especially for grown men who don't want to be thought to be still reading comics.

 

[JohannaK]

Graphic novels I understand as the larger, fully self-contained tomes like Watchmen, V for Vendetta, or Akira. Comics as the paperback shorter bits of story, self-contained but inextricably linked if not dependant on a series continuity.

 

[Glassfan]

Michio Kaku's The Future of the Mind. Interesting, informative and a bit scary.

For the record, I vote no on comic books.

 

[sophie]

I suppose if we're not going to exclude anyone who wants to admit to reading Mills and Boon, we can't be snooty about graphic novels - though is just a pretentious name for comic books?

Would you classify Maus or Persepolis as a comic book?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Have you read this yet, Terx? Has anyone taken me seriously and read this?

Nope. I am drowning in books I own and/or want to read. To wonder weather I have read a particular single book after a few weeks feels outright silly to me, as a consequence. However, I will move it more into focus on my radar after you are so insistent on encouraging it.

What I have is an anecdote regarding Wizard's First Rule and the ideology it represents.
In one scene, a wizard is demonstrating how egoism was utmost natural by referring to how trees fought each other for resources.
And it just so happens that I have recently learned that trees actually can and do cooperate. It seems to have been discovered that in times of drought, a tree sitting right at a water source reduces its consumption so surrounding trees have better odds. Not making this up. This is part of how in recent years science has found massive forms of communications between plants. Something similar exists to fight off other threats, such as parasites.
Turns out that evolution has not only instilled cooperation and the care for others in animals and given that the author probably thought that by referring to plants he could circumvent that obvious element of the human condition, I was most delighted.

 

[Flying Pig]

Would you classify Maus or Persepolis as a comic book?

Instinctively, yes - to my mind, it's a comic book if it tells the story primarily with images, even if those have quite a lot of text. However, I can understand why someone writing a serious and heavy-going story in pictures might want to mark it out as different from the superhero comics they used to sell for 10p.

 

[jackelgull]

Nope. I am drowning in books I own and/or want to read. To wonder weather I have read a particular single book after a few weeks feels outright silly to me, as a consequence. However, I will move it more into focus on my radar after you are so insistent on encouraging it.

What I have is an anecdote regarding Wizard's First Rule and the ideology it represents.
In one scene, a wizard is demonstrating how egoism was utmost natural by referring to how trees fought each other for resources.
And it just so happens that I have recently learned that trees actually can and do cooperate. It seems to have been discovered that in times of drought, a tree sitting right at a water source reduces its consumption so surrounding trees have better odds. Not making this up. This is part of how in recent years science has found massive forms of communications between plants. Something similar exists to fight off other threats, such as parasites.
Turns out that evolution has not only instilled cooperation and the care for others in animals and given that the author probably thought that by referring to plants he could circumvent that obvious element of the human condition, I was most delighted.

I didn't realize you were so overloaded. I'm sorry for upsetting you.

I will say I have never given Terry Goodkind's philosophy that much serious thought. It's basically childish and immature, and Terry basically spends his time creating straw mans to attack and make his point.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

You haven't upset me, I was merely amused, and not on your account but for my own sake.
The tree-example did not require much serious thought. It just sprang to mind and was so ironic I wanted to share it, requiring more words than I took to have that moment of irony.

I'll tell you when I have read City of dreaming books. Really curious right now.

 

[jackelgull]

Now I'm afraid I've overhyped the book for you. It isn't without its flaws, but they did not ruin the book for me.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Let's make a bet.
If I like it - I send you a copy of one of my favorite books (already know or at least fairly know which one).
If I don't - you do.
Will you trust me to be honest?
I would trust you.

 

[jackelgull]

Let's make a bet.
If I like it - I send you a copy of one of my favorite books (already know or at least fairly know which one).
If I don't - you do.
Will you trust me to be honest?
I would trust you.

Sure. I trust in your honesty. But how would we send books to each other?