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[linkogecko]

Watchmen

Funny how, when facing such obvious a masterpiece, you just can't help looking for every tiny little mistake and plothole you can find (or THINK you can find), even amongst the having to put down the work in question because it's so overwhelmingly good, the chuckles at thinking "fuck, these guys are geniuses" and the "yeah, I'll never make something like this"s.

But in the end, even after finding and exaggerating all these little things, they're just not worth mentioning in the grand scheme of what's so undoubtedly a timeless (from its release and onwards) masterpiece. Also, the cast for the movie seems quite good so far, but the impossibility of adapting the Under the Hood and Tales of the Black Freighter stuff make me think there's no way a filmic adaptation will live to the graphic countepart, it may end up being a good movie, but a good adaptation, I really doubt so.

Also, the quips not worth mentioning will be mentioned next: how did Laurie actually figure out her father's identity? Her resolution in forgiving Ozymandias was a tad too fast. A psychic's brain, seriously?

[HotRobotChick]

"Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk.  Sarcastically funny and disturbing at the same time.  Humans are starving for attention and he feeds right into it in this book.  Everybody wants to be a fucking victim and a hero at the same time. Whoa is me.

[oball]

Whoa is me.

You're Keanu Reeves?

[HotRobotChick]

Whoa is me.

You're Keanu Reeves?

Only on Thursdays.  Today I'm a monkey.

[Deadhead18]

Richard Brautigan's "Revenge of the Lawn" and "In Watermelon Sugar".

Brautigan may be my favourite writer now. Either him or Kafka.

[sr3116]

A Confederacy of Dunces, which to me did not live up to the hype. It is very funny, but not in the side splitting way it was described to me.

Batman: The Long Halloween.
Simply stunning, an excellent comic and I'm happy to know that The Dark Knight is going to be partially based off of it.

I am currently re-reading Watchmen
I hold Watchmen as the second best graphic novel ever, right below Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and now rereading Watchmen, I am in awe of Alan Moore's talent. There are so many bits of foreshadowing and symbolism in the first few pages of the book, he practically spells out the ending for you yet anyone reading it for the first time will still be shocked.

The Zombie Survival Guide.
I enjoyed all the methods and techniques Max Brooks described, but I was sort of disappointed in the lack of humor in the book, it kinda had a depressing I Am legend tone to it. I will hopefully soon begin reading World War Z, which I've been told is much more entertaining.

[Phil Carey]

The Fourth Hand by John Irving.

I wanted to like this book, and I tried, but I just couldn't do it. The premise seemed stretched from the start, I didn't really care what happened to the main character, and I couldn't fathom his reasons for falling in love with or pursuing the emotionally distant "love interest". The subplot with the doctor was probably the most interesting part of the book for me, but it tied up a quarter of the way into the novel, never to be seen again.

Maybe I missed something - in some ways, I hope I did. I count some of John Irving's novels among my favourites, but this one never got off the ground for me.

[Seanzi]

"Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk.  Sarcastically funny and disturbing at the same time.  Humans are starving for attention and he feeds right into it in this book.  Everybody wants to be a fucking victim and a hero at the same time. Whoa is me.

I actually finished reading it this week myself. I liked it a lot.

The only thing I didn't like is how every short story is supposed to be written by each different character. That being the case, we're lead to assume that each of those characters write exactly the same, and exactly like Chuck Palahniuk. I always noticed that he wasn't the greatest at giving characters their own voices in his books, which I forgave due to the million other great things in his writing. I just feel that introducing that concept in his book actually focussed on one of his only weak points. The stories are great, its just the idea of each story being written by a different person is way to ambitious for his writing style. He's not much of a character writer. By that I mean, he can create an interesting character with background story and situations, he just can't create a believable character with dialogue.

[Phil Carey]

I've finished a few since my last post here - a couple by Charles Bukowski and a couple by Cormac McCarthy - but the one I felt compelled to mention is The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I picked it up based in part on the recommendations of other members of these forums, and I found it very compelling. A non-fiction account of the Chicago World's Fair of the 1890s and the murderer who worked in it's shadow, it shows a great deal of the transition of the nineteenth century making way for the twentieth.

I'm grateful to those board members who drew my attention to the book. Good show, all.

[Pirates Wrath]

I just finished reading Monster Nation, by David Wellington. This is the 2nd in a trilogy, the first being Monster Island. I had been looking forward to finishing this and was not disappointed in the least. It was a great zombie novel, giving the zombie genre a breath of fresh air and not sticking to every cliche. Anyone who enjoys zombies whould read this.

The books can all be read online here: http://www.brokentype.com/monster/

[MirandaMW87]

I just finished "The Curious Incident with the Dog in the Nighttime" by Mark Haddon

This was actually recommended to me after I read House of Leaves and loved it....

I loved this book!
It was really a one of a kind, it is written from the perspective of a child with autism. It was really fascinating to see Haddon's interpretation of a autistic child. The best thing about this book is that you still get the dialogue from the out side (his father, mother) and you can see how he perceives it and they things he can understand and the emotions he can't. I think that every parent with an autistic child should give this a read.
Another thing I liked about this book, is that it touched on how trivial our lives are, to Christopher (the child) things are so black and white, but we complicate so many things with our emotions. It was a really neat way at looking at not only mental disorders, but just everyday people.
I would recommend this to anyone.

[Funkasaurus Rex]

I just finished reading "What we talk about when we talk about love" by Raymond Carver. I found myself identifying with way too much of it, which made me feel kind of bad, but a beautiful collection which is definitly worth reading.

[Nicol]

1984 by George Orwell. I was surprised at how the book didn't turn out how I expected it. Also, the way that conformity in the society was presented, the mechanics of the government and their policies (when they were revealed) were incredible. The bit that stays with me is when the main character was forced to believe that two plus two was five. The feeling of desperation, and of there being no means of escape, physically or mentally makes this really strong as a dystopian novel.

then:

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I had heard that Vonnegut had a unique style, and after reading this, I completely agree. Vonnegut writes amazingly well. The description was vivid, and the plotting and portrayal the characters made this book addictive. At the end, I felt so sorry for Billy Pilgrim, and Kilgore Trout - well, nearly all of the characters. This book has been the best so far at doing this.

[Milli]

Heh, funny a whole bunch of people are rereading Watchmen, was just about to do the same thing after I finish rereading Preacher.  Some of the pictures from the Watchmen movie look pretty cool, though I'm not going to hold my breath because I wasnt overly impressed with From Hell or even to a certain extent V for Vendetta, we shall see though.

Anyways book wise I've just about finished reading 'Seth Speaks' by Jane Roberts.  I liked it.  Anyone else read any of the Seth books?

[Juan_Arteaga]

I just finished reading Shadows Over Baker Street.

It's an anthology where the writers were asked to write a short story about Sherlock Holmes having an adventure in Lovecraft's horror universe. The idea sounds like pure gold, but damn, this book got boring pretty quickly.

Except for a few stories, very few at that, most of the stories follow the same paces and they all feel samey. If you read one, then you have read the others. Not to mention that the writers are convinced that putting random references to Lovecraft and Doyle stories is entertainment enough. See? See? It's the Shub Nigurath! Who gives a crap, your story is shit. Honestly, it feels like a horror version of Epic Movie or something like that.

 I know anthologies usually have a few gems and some crap, but I think this one has a very unfavorable crap to gems ratio. I only liked three stories here: A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, who was original compared to the others and wrote a story where Sherlock's London had been completely conquered by Lovecraftian monsters; There was also a story written by Poppy Z Brite (Was he a cast member of My Little Pony) which was pretty good; and the last story in the book about Moriarty trying to use the Necronomicon to take over the world.

The rest? Crap.

[Oosik]

I just finished David Brin’s first Uplift trilogy.  I hadn’t read these since high school (~15 years ago) and was curious to see how I’d like them now.  I found the first book, Sundiver, to be quite poor this time around, which kind of shocked me considering how much I liked the series as a teen.  I think I must be more critical of prose and realism in SF now.

However, I think Brin found his writing voice in the second book as it was a considerable improvement on the first.  He really hit his stride in the finale, The Uplift War, which I probably enjoyed as much this time as last.  Damn fine book.

I’m looking forward to re-reading Glory Season now, as that was my favorite of his.

[cherrycoke]

A Confederacy of Dunces, which to me did not live up to the hype. It is very funny, but not in the side splitting way it was described to me.

Amen to that. i seriously don't get what all the fuss was about. it was kind of funny, but an all time classic?

I just finshed Neverwhere and i loved it. i'm halfway through american gods as well (it's my at home book, neverwhere was my out-and-about book that i kept in the car). Re-read good omens a month ago and enjoyed it just as much as the first time. Can't wait for my copies of making money and The Da-Da-De-Da-Da Code.

[Winkelman]

Bonehunters, from Malazan Book of the Fallen series, amazing series, amazing book. If you like the sci-fi/fantasy genre...pick this entire series up.

[IllBeatz]

Bonehunters, from Malazan Book of the Fallen series, amazing series, amazing book. If you like the sci-fi/fantasy genre...pick this entire series up.

Me too. But personally I found it - and the two preceding books, House of Chains and Midnight Tides - pretentious, preachy, and long-winded. Which was a real shame because I reckon they would have been awesome if they were about 200 pages shorter.

I notice everyone's been posting about good books they've read, and apologise if I've missed the point... But I did pick them up based on advice from this forum...

[BondFiction]

The release of the film version recently spurred me to read Scott Smith's The Ruins.

I've had it for like a year. Why did I not read it sooner? It was fucking awesome.