What Do you Read

Fuzzy Birds said:
Currently working my way through a five-volume collection of Philip K Dick's entire set of short stories. Each one blows my mind just a little bit. Such a great author. And I'll say it myself before anyone wittily interjects; yes, I love Dick.
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I borrowed V4 or 5 of that for my LA trip. Great way to get in the right frame of mine on the plane ride out there.
 
Just finished reading About a Boy by Nick Hornby. Classic 'lad lit'. I recommend it to any and everyone.
 
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I just spent about P4,800 pesos on book sales this weekend and came home with tons of books. Picked up:

  • [*]The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, essentially a love story between the elderly Nikola Tesla and a hotel chamber maid;

    [*]Environmentalism by David Peterson del Mar, from the "a short history of a big idea" series;

    [*]Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran;

    [*]East, West, a globally flavored collection of short stories by The Satanic Verse's Salman Rushdie;

    [*]Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis' debut fiction novel about a private investigator (and his sexy assistant!) in search of a secret Constitution;

    [*]In The Shadow of Two Towers by Art Spiegelman, which centers on post-9/11 angst;

    [*]Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, about a coolhunter and her obsession with an enigmatic series of Internet video clips, and the massive subculture that follows it;

    [*]Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser, an investigative look at the industries of porn and marijuana and the economic universe that drives them;

    [*]The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, an hypothetical proposition of the planet's future without humanity. I'm normally not keen on environmentalist rhetoric that potentially endorses a view of anthropocentric collapse, simply because I think it's a view that's fundamentally outdated, but it looked well written enough, and if it turns out I disagree well I'm always up for 'oppositional' reading.
    ​
 
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I just picked up the paperback of Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The second part of the finale to Frank Herbert's original Dune series, its not bad so far. Nowhere near as intelligent and thought-provoking as Frank's originals, but Brian H. and KJA seem to finally be hitting their stride with their versions (course, it only took eight novels :roll: ). Anyway, a large part of that could be due to this and the previous book being based on notes, outlines, and summaries by Frank before his death.

But either way, its a decent read.
 
ourchair said:
I just spent about P4,800 pesos on book sales this weekend and came home with tons of books. Picked up:

  • [*]The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt, essentially a love story between the elderly Nikola Tesla and a hotel chamber maid;

    [*]Environmentalism by David Peterson del Mar, from the "a short history of a big idea" series;

    [*]Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran;

    [*]East, West, a globally flavored collection of short stories by The Satanic Verse's Salman Rushdie;

    [*]Crooked Little Vein, Warren Ellis' debut fiction novel about a private investigator (and his sexy assistant!) in search of a secret Constitution;

    [*]In The Shadow of Two Towers by Art Spiegelman, which centers on post-9/11 angst;

    [*]Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, about a coolhunter and her obsession with an enigmatic series of Internet video clips, and the massive subculture that follows it;

    [*]Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser, an investigative look at the industries of porn and marijuana and the economic universe that drives them;

    [*]The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, an hypothetical proposition of the planet's future without humanity. I'm normally not keen on environmentalist rhetoric that potentially endorses a view of anthropocentric collapse, simply because I think it's a view that's fundamentally outdated, but it looked well written enough, and if it turns out I disagree well I'm always up for 'oppositional' reading.
    ​
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Tell me how Crooked Little Vein and Reefer Madness are when you're done reading them, please.

I'd ask about the Rushdie short stories too... but it's Rushdie, so I know it'll be good.
 
Zombipanda said:
I'm not entirely sure.... but I am interested in seeing how Ellis does with prose.
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I'm pretty sure. If anything, it should be interesting. And with non-comic fiction, I expect him to have more "room" to flesh out and really work his awesome ideas into something worthwhile.

I think its definitly worth checking out, for me anyway.
 
DIrishB said:
I'm pretty sure. If anything, it should be interesting. And with non-comic fiction, I expect him to have more "room" to flesh out and really work his awesome ideas into something worthwhile.

I think its definitly worth checking out, for me anyway.
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hm.... Well, whatever the case, it should be interesting.

But prose is an incredibly different medium from prose. The little bit I read of Crooked Little Vein seemed a little sensationalist, but that may just be the people who pick the passages picking the most outrageous parts from the book.

Anyway, I hear Alan Moore's novels have been pretty good.
 
Zombipanda said:
hm.... Well, whatever the case, it should be interesting.

But prose is an incredibly different medium from prose.
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Is it really...hmmmm. Never would have guessed such a thing.

;)

The little bit I read of Crooked Little Vein seemed a little sensationalist, but that may just be the people who pick the passages picking the most outrageous parts from the book.
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Eh, thats not a turn off to me. Just the opposite, as long as its backed up with some interesting ideas (and Ellis' comic work always is, so I expect the same from his prose).

Anyway, I hear Alan Moore's novels have been pretty good.
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No surprise there. Moore's the Word-Jesus, after all.
 
I have started the 2nd book of Mike Carey's Felix Castor trilogy.

The first one was pretty awesome and in the same vein as Hellblazer.
 
Both Crooked Little Vein and Voices of the Fire have been in my Amazon cart for over a month now. Just need to get around to actually completing the order.
 
Zombipanda said:
Tell me how Crooked Little Vein and Reefer Madness are when you're done reading them, please.

I'd ask about the Rushdie short stories too... but it's Rushdie, so I know it'll be good.
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I found Crooked Little Vein to be good, but pretty typical Ellis. There's nothing in there that you haven't seen in one of his comics or on his website, its just in a new medium for him which he used well. I particularly liked the one sentence chapter.
 
Baxter said:
I found Crooked Little Vein to be good, but pretty typical Ellis. There's nothing in there that you haven't seen in one of his comics or on his website, its just in a new medium for him which he used well.
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Thats about what I expected. Looking forward to checking it out.

I particularly liked the one sentence chapter.
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That sounds interesting. Was it an extremely long run-on sentence, or merely just a regular length sentence (and very short chapter)?
 
Baxter said:
I found Crooked Little Vein to be good, but pretty typical Ellis. There's nothing in there that you haven't seen in one of his comics or on his website, its just in a new medium for him which he used well. I particularly liked the one sentence chapter.
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I've read some preview excerpts before, and I imagine that is EXACTLY what I'll get when I read it. I think Ellis himself admitted that he wasn't trying to shatter the planet when he wrote it, but apply himself to a commercial novel-length bookform piece of fiction as an exercise, so he didn't try to reinvent himself at all.
 
ourchair said:
I've read some preview excerpts before, and I imagine that is EXACTLY what I'll get when I read it. I think Ellis himself admitted that he wasn't trying to shatter the planet when he wrote it, but apply himself to a commercial novel-length bookform piece of fiction as an exercise, so he didn't try to reinvent himself at all.
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And why should he (reinvent himself and his writing style)? I highly enjoy it in comic form, and don't think its necessary for any drastic changes in the transition from comics to novels. As said, I'm definitly going to pick it up.
 
DIrishB said:
And why should he (reinvent himself and his writing style)? I highly enjoy it in comic form, and don't think its necessary for any drastic changes in the transition from comics to novels. As said, I'm definitly going to pick it up.
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A writer should constantly be reinventing himself.

Any artist should.

That's all.
 
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