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The Book Thread Book • Page 38

Discussion in 'Entertainment Forum' started by Melody Bot, Mar 13, 2015.

  1. Vivatoto

    Royal Court of Princess Donut Prestigious

    Ah the order I was looking at had Rage before The Stand, only reason I asked. That compilation is my favorite compilation ever, as we've discussed previously, haha.
     
  2. Deanna

    Trusted Supporter

    Ah okay. Yeah my mom has the Bachman books collection after the Talisman. I'm just going in the order of the publishing dates on the books and not separating out all of the short stories. She started buying the books back in the 80s I think and the more current stuff has landed in my room since we're both pretty much out of bookshelf space haha.
     
  3. Vivatoto

    Royal Court of Princess Donut Prestigious

    Oh that totally explains it, I was looking at when each Bachman book came out.
     
  4. Deanna

    Trusted Supporter

    Yeah so I guess technically it's not quite in chronological order haha. But it's close enough and the books are already in a specific order on the shelves.
     
  5. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    After all the King books I bought this summer my goal for 2018 is to read them all and in chronological order.

    Also, because of @Vivatoto i picked up Jerusalem. Sounds pretty interesting.
     
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  6. Vivatoto

    Royal Court of Princess Donut Prestigious

    Awesome! I'll be really curious to hear your thoughts on it. Book 1 is pretty brutal, you're going to learn every single corner of every single alleyway in Northhampton better than the back of your hand. The hardest part about it is its about 400ish pages where every single chapter follows a different character and are written in completely different literary styles. The stories rarely intersect early on so it's just all new information. Book 2 is awe-inspiring, one of the most incredible things I've ever read, there's really no way to describe it. It follows a single character and starts connecting the dots so if you're having trouble with Book 1 you just gotta push through. The best way I can think to describe it is he describes the indescribable. Like in HP Lovecrafts work when he flat out says a creature or an area is indescribable, it's like Alan Moore takes that as a challenge and intends to describe things you can't even imagine in intricate detail.
     
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  7. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    Interesting... curiosity is peaked. I already had an idea for what I wanted to read in November and I don't think I want to delay this beast, but also feel like it has to be the "right" time as certain books require. Also I'll be listening to Infinite Jest in November / December and that's massive enough. Don't think I want to try and juggle the two!

    I'm not too worried on the different characters and completely unconnected storylines. On a much smaller scale I love how David Mitchell does that in most of his works so that's definitely something I enjoy in literature. Straightforward works tend to bore me unless it's super interesting or well written.

    How long did it take you to read Jerusalem?
     
  8. Vivatoto Oct 30, 2017
    (Last edited: Oct 30, 2017)
    Vivatoto

    Royal Court of Princess Donut Prestigious

    I know exactly what you mean about right time, I've had it since the day it came out like a year ago and it never felt right. For one I wanted to finish any long running series I had like the Wheel of Time. There's a review on one of the books that calls Ulysses and "introduction" to this, so that might give you a hint of what to expect, lol. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try Infinite Jest sometime soon, I know nothing about it besides the praise it gets in here.

    Yeah, David Mitchell is actually a pretty good example of what to expect when it comes to the narrative structure, though he turns that up to 11. I'm usually fine with a lot of different characters and whatnot but it's hard to see connective tissue in the first 400ish pages and that's a long way to go being in the dark. Just want you to be prepared for that and know that if it's weighing on you, it gets better.

    Well I'm still reading it. I'm on book 3, about 1080 pages in, its been about 2 weeks but on Wed and Thurs I read new comics so I didn't read it any of those days.

    edit: oh and by the way, if you got it digitally or ordered it and don't have it yet and are wondering why I'm referring to it in books, it comes as a box set split into three books.
     
  9. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    whoa. that's some crazy super-daunting "introduction". hot damn.

    thank you for the insight into the long, dark road of nothing coming together. that can get super frustrating at times and having that section alone be 400 pages might be infuriating even knowing that it eventually ends and serves a purpose haha.

    allegedly Infinite Jest is the same way (very disconnected for a long time) but i could only make it about 350 pages or so before it just got too ridiculous. it's not the greatest piece of literature ever. there's a lot wrong with it, but i hate knowing i never finished it so i'm hoping the audiobook makes it easier to digest. like, there's one section that was at least 25 fucking pages of explanation for some made up goddamn game some kids in the book play. it serves no purpose and is never addressed again in the book (from the bit of Googling i did about it to see how much other people hated that section). it was literally insufferable and made me throw the book in the corner and go do something else. that's not cool. also, the font is like size 5 and the pages are a foot tall. it's a beast. i tried to read only about 10 pages a day because it was gonna be so daunting and while certain PARAGRAPHS were really awesome at times, it soon floundered into "what the fuck is happening and being talked about".
     
  10. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    also, is anyone reading The Familiar series by MZD?

    Volume 5 comes out tomorrow! pretty excited to get to it sometime this year yet. although getting a little sick of the cliffhangers that aren't really addressed / just glossed over. and i've never been a fan of Jingling's indecipherable passages and now it seems like he's gonna be a major character (villain?).
     
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  11. Vivatoto

    Royal Court of Princess Donut Prestigious

    Lol yeah you're going to find some very similar stuff in Jerusalem and probably have a similar reaction. Before I started it I saw on Goodreads someone asked a question where they heard that 11 chapters of it were a character choking on a cough drop. That's sort of true, but a gross simplification, you'll see. The hardest part I had to read was a 40ish page chapter in book 3 where it's told entirely from an unrelentingly broken english that I guess is used by shaman's when communicating with spirits, Moore did some stuff like that in Promethea. Here I chose some sentences at random "The bride-green yawns strich all orerrnd her, wid the poplores, erlms and faroof bildungs all roturnin' in her planetree obit, undherstood still art the cindre like the Son, the veri soeurce of lied"...That's actually a pretty easy sentence comparatively, and I didn't misspell anything, haha. I had to look up a translation for that chapter, thanks internet. I actually wrote out another sentence but I realized if you figured it out it was super sexual so I chose another, ha.

    It's funny you mention the Familiar, because that's the closest thing I can think of to it. There's a lot of Jingjing style writing, haha. I totally forgot the next book comes out tomorrow, that's awesome. I love the series.
     
  12. Colby Searcy

    Is admired for his impeccable (food) tastes Prestigious

    I did see the illustrations but didn't even pay attention that close. Glad that they're still working together
     
  13. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    Aw man. That type / style of writing is my Achilles heel! Hate that stuff and all I can think while reading it is how much of a pain in the ass it must be to type and how often Word tries to correct you haha. Infinite Jest has those moments too, surprise surprise. When I reach those in Jerusalem I may have to just Google it to get through it.

    As for JingJing I feel like it's getting easier to understand or maybe I'm just picking up on the writing / dialect of the character better, which is weird to think about.
     
  14. awakeohsleeper

    I do not exist.

    Read Ritter’s book last week and really enjoyed it.
     
    Deanna likes this.
  15. Dave Diddy

    Grief is only love that’s got no place to go Supporter

  16. Philll

    Trusted

    Just finished The Bell Jar by Plath, and it was excellent. It must have been so ahead of it's time released 50 years ago, it felt such a modern approach to discussing mental health. Really glad to have read it.
     
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  17. awakeohsleeper

    I do not exist.

    Yes! I read it for the first time earlier this year and thought it was fantastic. So sad though, considering what happened to Plath herself and the semi-autobiographical nature of it.
     
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  18. Deanna

    Trusted Supporter

    Read Bonfire in two days and started Murder on the Orient Express yesterday. I finished about 1/3 of that so it should be a fairly quick read.
     
  19. awakeohsleeper

    I do not exist.

    What did you think?
     
  20. Deanna

    Trusted Supporter

    Very good debut novel from Ritter. I like that she took her time building up the story. Hoping to get my review for it up tomorrow. And then I'll still have my Artemis review to write, but that's not out until 11/14 so I have a little more time on that one.
     
  21. Dave Diddy

    Grief is only love that’s got no place to go Supporter

  22. Garrett

    i tore a hole in the fabric of time Moderator

    I just don’t have money to make purchases but I appreciate them
     
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  23. awakeohsleeper

    I do not exist.

    I’m the same - I mainly get everything from the library nowadays. That or free classics out of copyright on the Kindle.
     
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  24. Deanna

    Trusted Supporter

    Finished up Murder on the Orient Express and wow, I loved that. First Agatha Christie book I had read and I'm thinking I'll end up reading a lot more of hers.
     
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  25. marsupial jones

    make a bagel without the hole Prestigious

    Read "And Then There Were None" last year, which was my first Christie novel and really enjoyed it. Definitely mean to look into her works more. She just has so so many.
     
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