Anybody read a good book lately?

NGM · February 11, 2007, 10:35:12 PM

I'm in.

phattymatty · February 12, 2007, 03:14:53 PM

Quote from: phattymatty on January 27, 2007, 06:04:54 PM
Right now I'm reading a book called How Soccer Explains the World

Finished this about a week or two ago and it was great.

Cerevant · February 12, 2007, 03:22:55 PM

I'm currently reading The Princess Bride by William Goldman and it is fantastic. I always figured they hammed up the script a bit to make it more funny, but the book has the same language and humor as the movie - big shocker, when the screenplay was written by the author of the book.

mussa · February 12, 2007, 04:44:56 PM

Quote from: rjs246 on February 11, 2007, 09:02:59 PM
Quote from: rjs246 on January 18, 2007, 09:03:04 AM
I just ordered this, The Best Book Concept Ever .

Finished World War Z a few days after I bought it. Written by Max Brooks, who is Mel Brooks' son. Amazing. A really excellent 'thought exercise' story. Completely entertaining. Loved it.

Plus its about farging zombies. Buy it. Now.

nice. i need a new book. sounds awesome

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 10:54:46 AM

This is next on my agenda:

Gates of Fire

mussa · February 20, 2007, 01:11:21 PM

picked up world war z, scar tissue and the gunslinger 1 sunday.

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 01:13:21 PM

The Gunslinger is a great series. Actually, the first 5 books were great and then King sort of lost it until the last book. Anyway, the first five are some of my favorites and definitely my favorite King novels.

You know my thoughts on WWZ.

phattymatty · February 20, 2007, 01:18:58 PM

Started reading No Country for Old Men the other day. I had never heard of Cormac Marcarthy until I heard some of you talking about him and Borders had it in their 3 for the price of 2 new releases so I picked it up. It's pretty awesome. At first it's a little annoying because he writes with a lot of "he did this, he did that" without names, so sometimes it takes a full page until you realize who he's talking about, but once you get used to it it's no problem. anyway, it's pretty awesome so far, i'll probably finish it in about 3 days.

might have to pick up his earlier shtein.

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 01:22:33 PM

Blood Meridian, by McCarthy was one of the most impressive novels I've ever read.

mussa · February 20, 2007, 03:46:26 PM

Quote from: rjs246 on February 20, 2007, 01:13:21 PM
The Gunslinger is a great series. Actually, the first 5 books were great and then King sort of lost it until the last book. Anyway, the first five are some of my favorites and definitely my favorite King novels.

You know my thoughts on WWZ.

Yea I read the Gunslinger series also. I let a friend borrow book one and never got it back, so I picked it up since it was cheap. I think its the most amazing series of books Ive ever read. Its Kings masterpiece for sure. I though they just got better and better. I can see why you thought the last book wasn't as good, but I think its his own weird way of ending the series. I enjoyed them all and would highly recommend.

WWZ is pretty good so far

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 04:03:26 PM

My problem with Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susanna and The Dark Tower was that King inserted himself into the story as a god figure. Which was unnecessary and ridiculously self-absorbed and took him WAY too far outside of the world he had created with the other characters.

I actually like the way he ended the story and The Dark Tower was better than the other two I just mentioned, but none of them can even come close to the first five books.

Diomedes · February 20, 2007, 04:11:50 PM

If people are still around in 500 years, they'll be reading and studying Cormac McCarthy. They will not be reading or studying Stephen King.

The former is a master, one of the greatest American writers ever. The latter is a decent and prolific story teller, but there's nothing great about his work.

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 04:16:57 PM

For the vast majority of King's work I would agree with you, Dio. But I do think that The Stand and (the majority of) The Gunslinger series stand out as exceptional works.

But for the most part, you're right. He is what he is, which is a great 'storyteller', and not a great 'writer'.

Diomedes · February 20, 2007, 04:26:31 PM

Maybe he'll be read by a few fans of the genre, or studied as part of studying the times in which he lived, but I don't think he's written anything that could be called great. Not to say he's trash...just that McCarthy is writing on a level that blows most writers out of the water. His writing is permanent and eternal and timeless...it doesn't require knowing anything about the times in which he wrote, or about which he wrote. Blood Meridian is flat out great literature. It will always be relevant.

I'm repeating myself. You get the point.

rjs246 · February 20, 2007, 04:31:02 PM

Of course. They aren't in the same ballpark. I just didn't want to minimize the few extraordinary achievements that King has under his belt.