Books
-
Can't add much to Michael's analysis (he does this sort of thing for a living, after all), but I will say that when I read LOTR, it was a slow, tough slog. The Song of Ice & Fire series, especially the first 3 books, ripped along, even on subsequent re-readings.
-
Totally, it (LOTR) can be a slog for the modern reader. I read it first when I was eleven, in the '80s (yep, forty this year!), and it seemed like nothing could ever be more wonderful. I've read a lot of books since then. Thankfully I don't do the copy editing in my current job - apologies for the typos above. Tired eyes and typing on a long train journey…
-
If you want truly awesome, mind bending fantasy that makes GRRM look like an easy read, go get some Steven Erikson as well.
-
Totally, it (LOTR) can be a slog for the modern reader. I read it first when I was eleven, in the '80s (yep, forty this year!), and it seemed like nothing could ever be more wonderful.
Again, I echo this- read the Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy at about the same age and utterly loved it. Tried it again as an adult and gave up halfway through The Two Towers.
I'll have to look into Erikson, Michael. I'm currently at a lull in my fiction reading, and since Patrick Rothfuss won't have his next book out for a couple of years, I need to find something to fill the time.
(GRRM won't finish his next book until at least 2018, so I just put him out of my mind…)
-
Chris, LOVED LOVED LOVED Rothfuss' books!!!!
Why must all the good fantasy take forever to be released? Agreed, they were some of the best modern fantasy I've read in a long time.
Slightly different, but anyone into Salman Rushdie? His newest book, The Enchantress of Florence, is interesting if a little high-minded.
-
Of course, what you all really need is a bit of this:
Muskets, magic and mayhem…
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
-
Don't do it man! Read that and you'll have to watch the show again, and no matter how many times you watch it, they'll still cancel it after five series (the bastards!).
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
feck knows where else to place this. It's like a short novel, but a fascinating article…So book related it is....
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201304/buzz-bissinger-shopaholic-gucci-addiction
In the past few years, I've bought eighty-one leather jackets. Dozens of boots and leather gloves. I've purchased pants that cost $5,000. I own a $22,000 coat. This winter I took a tour of Milan's Fashion Week (all expenses paid by Gucci, in appreciation of my many, many purchases), where I spent tens of thousands more and began to seriously grapple, once and for all, with a compulsion that could cost me more than just my life savings. My name is Buzz Bissinger. I am 58 years old, the best-selling author of 'Friday Night Lights,' father of three, husband. And I am a shopaholic
-
I owe you £20
-
Hasn’t anybody mentioned James Ellroy in here- The Demon Dog of American crime fiction?. He’s a great crime-noir writer, probably best known for LA confidential which was made into a great movie. I’ve read all of his books at least twice. I recommend checking out his LA-quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential and White Jazz) and his Underworld USA-series (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand and Blood’s a Rover). All great crime novels. Check him out, you won’t be disappointed!
Anyways, I read a lot of books across most genres. Some of my favorite writers are Haruki Murakami, Umberto Eco, William Gibson, Hunter S. Thomson (before he became senile), Knut Hamsun, Abo Rasol and Michel Foucault.
A few posts back, Michael was talking about old school SF and I would just like to add Isaac Asimov to his list, especially The Foundation-series. Asimov made me read SF.
I’m a bit embarrassed but at the moment I’m reading the last book in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. The series started quite well off, but it started going downwards around book six. I guess it was just stubbornness and curiosity as to how it would end that made me read all the 13 books before the one I’m currently reading.
