Books

[Kathy Li]

Thud! went on sale Tuesday. I got my copy!! Also, Only You Can Save Mankind has been reissued. Yay! I am now ready for the signing.

[Kristina]

Tatiana- I loved your signiture! The Princess Bride is such a good book!

Over the summer I read Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. It was amazing! It is a very fast paced story, full of action, adventure, and romance. There are a few clichés...but you will never guess what comes next.

[Kathy Li]

So, went to the Terry Pratchett signing on Saturday and a great time was had by all. The store sold out of Where's My Cow?, and PTerry told us he's about two-thirds of the way through the third Tiffany Aching book Wintersmith, and that the fourth one's bubbling in his head (I've forgotten the title but it had something to do with wearing black), but that that may be the last of them, as YA books, since he's been aging her by one year per book, and by then she's old enough to appear in the adult Discworld series. The idea he's kicking around for the next Discworld is Unseen Academia, where it's set in the Unseen University and they have to field a soccer [he kindly translated from football for us Americans] team. Rincewind is obviously a wing. And who better for goalie than the Librarian?

Blast and a half. Oh, and he asked us if Neil Gaiman was going to be signing there soon, and when this was answered in the affirmative, he said, "Tell Neil 'Terry says hi.' I've been planting this one in all sorts of places..."

Snee.

[kaiba4ever]

Kristina said:
Over the summer I read Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. It was amazing! It is a very fast paced story, full of action, adventure, and romance. There are a few clichés...but you will never guess what comes next.

I. LOVE. THAT.BOOK! Crown/Court Duel was my favorite books (beside YW and Harry Potter), for a time, and it's still one of my favorites.

Lisa said:
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things - Carolyn Mackler (I actually want to read this. Strange behaviour for me.)

My sister read that. Wait, maybe she read The Day My Butt Went Physco... or them both...


We're reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Great expectations in school right now. I wish we'd only read one book at a time, because this raises the number of books I'm reading at once to like six (I'm presently reading DN Angel 9, Furuba [fruits basket] 12, a guide to women's hunting and fish...) Anyway, Charles Dickens bores me, and he refers to "food" and "wittles," such this book was written a while back and in England, but still, how the heck am I supposed to know what a "wittle" is??

[worlebird]

Taking off on a tangent...
I just read somthing I recently discovered, and I wondered if anyone here has read it, and if so, what your reactions were.

For starters, I love Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot". It's a collection of short stories written (mostly) before his "Foundation" series. They are loosly knit together with a common backstory, but mostly unrelated. You are probably aware of the movie of the smae name starring Will Smith loosely "inspired" by this book. While I enjoyed the movie for it own sake, it was a big dissapointment as an interpretation of the book.

That being said, I recently read "I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay" by Harlan Ellison. It is a film screenplay based on Isaac Asimov's book, written by Harlan Ellison back in the '70s. It is apparantly often referred to as the greatest science fiction movie never made. While it had some weird parts that I would have altered or dropped, overall it was an excellent interpretation of Asimov's work. It would have, with some work, made a fantastic movie.

So, has anyone read it? What did you think? If you haven't read it, you should, though I recommend reading Asimov's original first, for perspective. It's a little odd, reading a screenplay; the format is quite different from standard prose. It's a short read, roughly the time it would take to watch the movie.

Comments, anyone?

[Kathy Li]

So, I just finished the new Song of Ice and Fire book, A Feast For Crows, and it ate my brain. It's kind of weird compared to previous volumes in the series, because of the fact that George R.R. Martin was pretty much forced to cut the book he meant to write in half for publication (the page count was getting so big, the full book couldn't have been bound in a single volume). So, the usual thing he does where you seen an event, and then slowly hear all the weird waraped rumors and garbed accounts of the event that reach other people wasn't happening. You were just getting the garbled accounts, and having to pray such-and-such wasn't true, and that so-and-so WASN't dead.

There was also one bit where I got impatient and read ahead, and came right in on a scene where someone tells how a major character died in his arms, and I was all, "NO! YOU CAN'T KILL HIM OFF SCREEN!" But when I read it all through correctly, I saw where I'd missed a certain clue...

All in all, this one might be a little disapointing given the five-year-wait and the huge structural disturbance caused by the split, and that we only get to see half the cast when we're used to seeing everybody at once. But it's just as twisted, blood-drenched, back-stabbing, heart-wrenching, and wonderful as the rest of the series.

Small note for the Robert Jordan fans: GRRM has named one character, the Lord of Tor as Lord Trebor Jordayne. [snicker]. For the Jack Vance fans, we've had many a Lord Vance in the background as well.

Warning: this is definitely an R-rated series, with bags of sex and violence. But also dragons, knights, heroes, wights, villains, princesses, outlaws, assassins, rangers, spies, pirates, mammoths, giants, undead, wildings, and history-steeped-in-magic. It's very good stuff. The first volume, A Game of Thrones can be found for $3.99 in paperback. Evil, evil, publishers...

[mythbusterfan]

I have gottem myself addicted to a new series of books. The Earthsea series. It's awesome. I can't believe thougth that the main characthers name is Ged. It's silly.

Ice and Fire?? that reminds me of a poem written by some guy called Fire and Ice

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire i'll hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to parish twice,I think I know eneough hate, to know that Ice is also great,and would suffice."

[Birdhead]

I have gottem myself addicted to a new series of books.

"New" being an awfully relative term. The Earthsea Quartet, by Ursula LeGuin (for those who aren't familiar with them, also know as HEATHEN PAGANS, get thee to a bookstore) are AWESOME, although the first one will probably always be my favourite one. Highly recommended.

Fire and Ice is also a very awesome poem, and it's by... um, Robert Frost, I think. Hang on. *googles* Yeah, here we go:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

-- Robert Frost

Frost is also excellent.

[Kathy Li]

Just to be silly, while Frost is indeed excellent, Yeats kicks serious butt. And George R.R. Martin turned one of Yeats's best ("The Second Coming") into a rock song in his (I guess the term these days would be urban fantasy) novel, Armageddon Rag. Which is about a band that calls itself the Nazgûl...

I haven't read Earthsea in AGES.... I think I found the Earthsea books about the same time I did Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" sequence.

[Wilf]

I have just come to the end of Eldest, the squeal to Eragon (by Christopher Paolini), and it's received a lot less hype than Eragon did. (Though most of that was because Paolini hit the bestseller lists while still a teenager). This is a shame as I think it is a better book. For those of you have read Eragon: the sequel follows the parallell lives of Eragon, and his brother-by-adoption, Roran (and the villagers Eragon left behind). Anyone else read it.

Due to the length of the book and busyness of my life, I've taken best part of a month to read it. Mostly it's been 30 mins before I go to sleep, and not very often at that. (Total reading time: about 10-12 hours... though hard to judge).
However this is a good thing. As a poor hardup student, I only buy one new book per month... Eldest was October's (Thud!, the latest Discworld novel was Sept.'s). So now I've finished, I can buy November's book. :-)

[Birdhead]

The Second Coming- that is some seriously disturbing imagery there. Generally more straightforward poetry is more to my taste, I'll admit- Jenny Bornholdt's my favourite poet EVER (you won't have heard of her. Tourists Often Stop and Being a Poet are two of my favourite by her) and I'm also a Cilla McQueen fan, but that's really awesome. And it does more for making me want to read GRRM than anything else has- ASOIF has always been a bit daunting to me. Maybe I'll hunt down Armageddon Rag sometime instead...

[Kathy Li]

So, I found something that is a first for me: a murder mystery novel that comes with a CD of the music described in the book. Only Rupert Holmes. I'm really enjoying the heck out of Swing. It's a murder mystery book set in 1940 in the California Bay Area, about a saxophone player in a big band at the Claremont Hotel.

Then again, I used to play saxophone in my high school's jazz band, I went to school in Berkeley, and I was just at the Claremont last September.

Have you ever read a book that seemed like it was tailored/written just for you?

P.S. Yeah, he's the same Rupert Holmes who wrote "The Piña Colada Song."

[Mel]

Kli6:
Have you ever read a book that seemed like it was tailored/written just for you?

Yes, yes, and YES!! Inkheart by Cornelia Funke was like that for me. Meggie is just like me: Glasses, brownish hair (dirty-brown is close enough), has so many books they trip over them, reads books so that she's late for school..heh heh..

Kli6:
So, I found something that is a first for me: a murder mystery novel that comes with a CD of the music described in the book. Only Rupert Holmes. I'm really enjoying the heck out of Swing. It's a murder mystery book set in 1940 in the California Bay Area, about a saxophone player in a big band at the Claremont Hotel.

Sounds good... I'll have to think aboot that one..


I'm just got hooked on Pendragon. Pretty good. And the main character acts like a real kid would. He's no warrior; quite the opposite. THat's was I like it. it's real.

WEll, my 2cents worth on the last post because I don't feel like reading the rest. XD

[alla]

Have you ever read a book that seemed like it was tailored/written just for you?

Yes... SYWTBAW . Well the first few times through anyway. Just that bit at the beginning "Indeed one sign of a good wizard is the inability to get to sleep without reading something first". Or something like that. But yes, other than that, I can't think of any at the moment.

I got a copy of Eldest yesterday - for $10. I was in one of my fav. second hand bookshops, checking to see if their supply of Doctor Who novels had been replenished since I had last raided it , and there was this bright red trade paperback that bit my hand instead. Oh, and a copy of AWAb to give to one of my friends I'd be hooked already, but I haven't really started it.

Earthsea Quartet... I keep meaning to read that, but other things keep coming up, such as... well there's been too many new books released since I first tried to read that, but yeah. Maybe after exams - and after I've read Eldest and HP6 and W@W again.

[Cassi]

I have just read a really great trilogy, so I feel I need to put my two cents in here (why two cents, why not 5??).

It's a trilogy by Felicity Pulman called Shalott and it's about five teenagers who are zapped back in time to King Arthur and Camelot etc. through a virtual reality machine.

This trilogy was really good and its probably best to read them in order (although I read the second, then third, then first because I was so sick of not being able to find a copy of the first.)

They were recommended to me by my friend Anna and they are fantastic (I wonder how many times I've 'sung the praises' of this trilogy already?)

Anyway, everyone should read them, they are really, really good.

Personally, I would be if you didn't like them.... but each to their own.

Whew..... I can't believe that when I was writing that I didn't get writer's block once