Literature - It's a fancy word for "books"

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Momoka
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Literature - It's a fancy word for "books"

Post by Momoka »

So, what're you guys reading?

I'm a bit into "When You Are Engulfed in Flames", the last book I'll ever read for school (!)*

In pleasure-reading, there's a big pile of comics I've yet to read: Sandman volume 3, Bone, House of Mysteries. I'll probably read them after my finals. Currently, I'm reading comics of the more Superhero-y genre: Battle for the Cowl and the Green Lantern books, the latter of which has given me a game idea.

I have a big stock of books without pictures, too, but I'm saving them for the summer. Need to get back into Discworld, etc.

*Turns to camera* What about you? What do YOU read for pleasure?

*Graduating, not dropping out
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Post by Spoonweaver »

I'm reading "The Crystal Shard" by R. A. Salvatore, which is book 4 in the legend of Drizzt books. I'm unfortunately borrowing it from Jason (aka GBA), because they were missing books 4 and 5 in the store and library, and after seeing Jason's copy I came to understand why the library didn't have it.
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Post by Uncommon »

I'm between books at the moment, but I usually have something with me on the bus to and from work and during my lunch breaks. Most recently it's been a giant anthology of detective fiction (including Dashiel Hammett's three Sam Spade short stories, which I didn't know existed before this) and Please Kill Me: The Oral History of Punk, which is a really fantastic book for anyone who cares about the '70s New York scene as much as I do.

A few of my favorites are Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, Kurt Vonnegut's books (God Bless You Mr. Rosewater especially, it is hard to find a story quite so deeply human, aside from Dostoevsky at least), and the articles of Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark being a really good collection.

As a comics enthusiast (and DC loyalist to boot) the mere mention of Battle For The Cowl makes me cringe. I can't see it as much more than another unnecessary summer blockbuster written by a guy who should stuck to drawing, which is especially egregious by them holding three of their biggest writers (Paul Dini and Greg Rucka, being personal favorites, the third being Grant Morrison) back to start to start titles I'd much rather read until the thing's over with. Just give the thing to slime and be done with it, no battle needed!

Though my deepest Battle For The Cowl related fear is the new Batgirl series starting next month, the identity of whom is as yet unrevealed. I swear to slime, if they put Babs back in the cape, I don't know what I'll do. It's hard to deny the possibility, though, with Birds Of Prey being canceled and no announced plans to use the characters elsewhere, and the Oracle mini-series ending just in time to lead into it. I just...urgh.

Green Lantern is going interesting places though, and I am looking forward to Blackest Night, much as I don't like crossovers.
There's also a pretty cool Solomon Grundy mini-series going on right now, the third issue of which came out this week. I'm enjoying it.

Outside of the Big Two, anything by Mike Allred I love unconditionally. Madman Atomic Comics got me back into buying monthlies. I just read Sam Kieth's two Zero Girl books, and I can't recommend them enough, especially to anyone who liked The Maxx.
My collection of Scott McCloud's black and white run on Zot! has also become one of my favorite books ever. There are so many comics that make me happy, I could be here forever talking about them.
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Nice thread.

Currently I'm reading A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, and Machine Man by Max Barry.

A Confederacy of Dunces is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about some crazy characters in New Orleans, including a brainiac sloth who thinks of clever ways to sabotage his dead-end jobs so that he can get back to being a sloth. Sad at times, but pretty funny in a sick way most of the time. On a side note, the author killed himself before he ever sold his book which sucks for him. A good author exercises endurance.

I'm almost finished with this one.

Boomsday is from the author of Thank You for Smoking and follows a slight continuity from that novel (it references the lead character anyway). Christopher Buckley is well known for his sick political satire and this book's no different. It's about a blogger who posts a "Modest Proposal" to handle the Social Security crisis through a euthanasia incentive program.

I should probably be ashamed for liking it. But I do. And I'm not.

Machine Man is actually an online book that's updated one page per day. It's a strange convention, but it's working out so far. Each page ends on a joke, so it's friendlier with time management than reading a whole book chapter by chapter. Anyway, it's written by my favorite author currently, so it's all good.
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Momoka
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Post by Momoka »

Boomsday is from the author of Thank You for Smoking and follows a slight continuity from that novel (it references the lead character anyway). Christopher Buckley is well known for his sick political satire and this book's no different. It's about a blogger who posts a "Modest Proposal" to handle the Social Security crisis through a euthanasia incentive program.
I was not aware Thank You For Smoking was based on a book. I am highly interested in both of these novels, now.
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Post by camdog »

On the subject of comics, I've recently experienced a revival in my interest towards the medium when I discovered they didn't have to be about superheroes wearing tights. I'm sure most of you have heard of Maus, but if you haven't, you should really check it out. Another in this vein that I loved is Blankets, by Craig Thompson, which is a really beautiful story about a kid's first love (sounds cheesy, but it's great).

On the more traditional literature front, one of the best books I've read this year is Middlesex, which is a huge sprawling epic about a hermaphrodite and his/her family.

I'm currently working on Heinlein's "A Stranger in a Strange Land." Right now the thing that strikes me about it most is how thoroughly it's stuck in the 60s, both in terms of dialog and attitudes towards gender. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, just that it has a very different feel to it than what I'm used to. I've been assured it's a great read, though, so I have high hopes.
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Post by Momoka »

camdog wrote:On the subject of comics, I've recently experienced a revival in my interest towards the medium when I discovered they didn't have to be about superheroes wearing tights. I'm sure most of you have heard of Maus, but if you haven't, you should really check it out. Another in this vein that I loved is Blankets, by Craig Thompson, which is a really beautiful story about a kid's first love (sounds cheesy, but it's great).
I approve of these choices. I'd also check out Bryan Lee O'Malley. "Lost at Sea" is kind of similar to Blankets, and is my favorite book, comic or otherwise. The Scott Pilgrim books (getting made into a movie that actually looks good!) are just over-the-top awesome.
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Post by Shadowiii »

I've been reading Brandon Sanderson's young adult series "Alcatraz verses..." They are kinda like a less witty version of Series of Unfortunate Events, but has an interesting premise that is pretty funny.
I'm also reading them because I took a class from him, and because he's writing the last Wheel of Time book(s).

I'm also attempting A Game of Thrones, but I'm not sure how interested I am in it.
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

=JUST FINISHED=

Stephen King's "Night Watch". Enjoyed it very much. This is the first time I have read any substantial amount of Stephen King.

<a href="http://www.zincland.com/menoetius/">Menoetius</a> by Jeff Lait. Good programmer-friendly sci-fi.

=CURRENTLY READING=

Pepsi Ranger's draft of his Powerstick Man Novel. (I think the first chapter is still available in the Powerstick Man XE zip file, for the curious) I am really having a good time with this one. Jimmy Knightly is a great character.

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Man-Underground-K ... r=1-1">The Man Underground</a> by Kenneth Cook. Kenneth Cook's writing is fantastic. I simply cannot recommend it enough. he is a master of the kind of suspenseful fiction where you know in the pit of your stomach that everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong, but the story grips you and you can stop reading because you want to find out how much worse it will be than you expected. His books are also really hard to find. Only one of them has ever been published outside of Australia, and even within Australia, they are all out of print.

Stephen King's "IT" This one is on the back burner right now.

=WAITING TO READ SOON=
"Nation" by Terry Pratchett. Looking forward to this. I think it is his first non-discworld novel in a long time.
"Rusalka" by C.J Cherryh - Read this before ages ago. Russian folklore with just a hint of lovecraftian horrors

=COMIC BOOKS=
<a href="http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/">Girl Genius</a> by Phil and Kaja Foglio
<a href="http://www.airshipentertainment.com/buck.html">Buck Godot</a> by Phil Foglio
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Post by 8bifit »

Pepsi Ranger wrote:A Confederacy of Dunces is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about some crazy characters in New Orleans, including a brainiac sloth who thinks of clever ways to sabotage his dead-end jobs so that he can get back to being a sloth. Sad at times, but pretty funny in a sick way most of the time. On a side note, the author killed himself before he ever sold his book which sucks for him. A good author exercises endurance.
YES!! This book is fantastic! I love the letters he writes to his lady-friend. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.
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Post by Momoka »

Just picked up Fables and House of Mystery. But I also got Persona 4, so it might be a while before I read 'em.
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Post by msw188 »

Well, I haven't been feeling fiction much lately (may also contribute to my lack of progress on my game). The book I just recently finished was on classical dynamics (physics of macroscopic motion at speeds slow compared to light), basically an advanced undergrad/beginner grad level text that did a pretty good job of spicing things up with some historical accounts involving whatever the mathematics was addressing at the time (the best was the description of the British screwing up the Coriolis Force effect in the Battle of the Falkland Islands because they hadn't fought naval battles in the southern hemisphere before). I'm currently trying a book on partial differential equations on about the same level, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to manage it.

My favorite fiction is probably still Lord of the Rings, despite the somewhat overwrought writing style. I like Vonnegut too, and have to read more. If I had to pick a favorite book, it'd probably end up being "Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning" by George Polya - if anyone out there has finished his or her 200-level math courses and is interested in what mathematics and/or scientific 'thinking' is REALLY all about, this is the book for you. I am still amazed when I read his account of Euler 'discovering' the sum of the inverse squares, or Bernoulli's 'discovery' of the Brachistochrone, or especially Archimedes' invention of the concept of the integral calculus to compute the volume of the sphere, hundreds of years before Newton or Liebniz came along.

I enjoyed the X-Men comics when I was young, but I haven't done comics in a long time.
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Post by 8bifit »

Vonnegut:

-Breakfast of Champions
-Slaughterhouse 5
-Cat's Cradle

Read them in that order.

I was also really into my Cambridge Latin textbooks. I would add funny little speech bubbles to the illustrations. Caecilius est pater. Matella est mater. Cerberus est jerkoff.
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Post by Uncommon »

Eh, while those three are his biggest, I definitely have a bigger soft spot for God Bless You Mr. Rosewater. It is the most human book from a guy known for writing very human books.

for the record, the order i read them in was
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Player Piano
The Sirens Of Titans
Breakfast Of Champions
Cat's Cradle
Slaughterhouse-Five

I found the top three in various used bookstores, the latter three in the library. In retrospect, I'd actually (read: <i>definitely!</i>) recommend reading Breakfast Of Champions last, especially after GBYMR and SH-5.
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Post by msw188 »

While I've heard ideas and quotes from some of the big ones, the only one I've read in its entirety is the late-period set of short mini-essays. I can't remember the name at the moment - A Man Without a Country, perhaps? Something like that. I understand that his actual novels are different, and I am excited to experience them, but I'm not sure when I will get around to doing so. Cat's Cradle may be the first I pick up, but I have no compelling reason to follow any set order to be honest, until perhaps I look into the later stuff again and want a good feeling for the 'recurring' characters, if they can even be called that.
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