Anybody read a good book lately?

[rjs246]

Sexy.

Oh, I also read The Hunger Games trilogy, the first two of which were surprisingly good. The third was hot garbage but tied up the story so whatever.

Read the second Guilermo Del Torro vampire book, The Fall. Total brain candy crap but enjoyable in the same way that all books about swarming supernatural baddies are fun.

Just started White Noise. Already annoyed by it.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Agreed on "Mockingjay." Took forever to get through some of the menial stuff. Quickly rushed through important stuff.

I am hoping they split up "Catching Fire" into two parts for the movies, instead of "Mockingjay." Also, I'm glad we can both talk about the teen girl novels we read.

[phattymatty]

you should both delete those last two posts and keep this stuff to yourselves.

[hbionic]

I would be inclined to agree with you Phatty...but picturing the both of them talking to each other on the phone, while twirling their hair as they lay on their stomachs on their bed, kicking their feet up and down as they talk is getting me a little turned on.

[rjs246]

Since my last post I read another 50 pages of White Noise and have decided that I love it. Fickle.

Also Hunger Games / Catching Fire were totally enjoyable. On the one hand, I'm mildly embarrassed to join FF and the legions of apalachian teenaged girls who enjoyed the books. But on the other hand, eat my balls. 

[rjs246]

White Noise ended up being great. Social commentary was spot on, but more importantly the climax was amazing as the slow burn of American cultural nonsense turned into an outburst of psychotic flailing about.

It stole too many themes from Gravity's Rainbow and there were times where I thought that it could have been written by a 14 year old, but all in all I ended up really liking it.

Currently reading The Rum Diary.

[Munson]

I've read Dead City and Apocalypse of the Dead in the last two weeks, by Joe McKinney. Very good zombie books. Nothing ground breaking but just very enjoyable reads. I have the 3rd book, Flesh Eaters already and the 4th one apparently came out this past Spring.


I've also picked up on two zombie series' aimed towards teenagers, Rot & Ruin by John MAAAyberry, and The Enemy by Charlie Higson.. The writing is simplistic and obviously geared towards a younger crowd (especially The Enemy series) but I still got enjoyment out of the books.

[rjs246]

Are the McKinney books 'good' or just fluff filler summer read turn your brain off type shtein? I'm not sure which answer would make me more or less likely to read them but I'd like to factor it in to the equation.

Finished The Rum Diary. Meh. It was his first book and clearly he was holding back and trying to be serious. It was fine and touched on some of the same themes that he championed with his later writings, but it wasn't anything I'd go out of my way to read.

Currently reading Infinite Jest and, even though it will probably take me the next year to finish it (not even remotely exaggerating), so far it is one of the greatest things I've ever read. I can't say enough good things about it and I now have a small dude-woodrow for the late David Foster Wallace.

[Munson]

Dead City is pretty much non-stop action, minus the first few pages where you're introduced to the character. It would, IMO, make a decent zombie movie. Apocalypse of the Dead is almost twice as long and is a bit more involved, following a bunch of different groups and people and POVs.

I'm not book nerdy enough to know what would qualify as 'good' vs. fluffer....But if you mean substance, AOTD has more of that while Dead City is more "fluff".

[SD]

"No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden" hits stores September 11th. It's written by a Seal Team 6 member who was in the room when Bin Laden was shot. It's the real account of the story, not the crap the media has told us. Should be a good read.

[ice grillin you]

cool that a seal is writing it but i dont know how much more stuff he can have than whats already out there...they stormed the compound the helicopter fell and they shot bin laden...the detail will be much more precise obviously and he will have a lot on the preperation for the raid which i guess could be interesting...

also i thought seal team 6 was not allowed to talk about themslves much less missions...i thought i saw a quote somewhere from one of them that said we cant talk about seal team 6.....there is no seal team 6

personally im much more interested in the years that led up to the raid....the intelligence aspect of it and the search for obl is much more fascinating to me than the raid on the compound...probably the difference btwn someone who has been in the military and someone who hasnt

[SD]

The book wasn't vetted by the white house and they're not too happy he wrote it, but the Seal had a guy who worked for the CIA review it thoroughly to make sure there wasn't any tactical or security violations revealed when he wrote it. The Seals contention is that what the media coverage regarding the raid was completely wrong and the book is about the year leading up to the raid from what I understand. So everything you want is contained in the book.

[DH]

I'd be curious to hear some of your thoughts on this..

http://chronicle.com/article/An-Academic-Ghostwriter-Comes/133904/#disqus_thread

I went to college with this kid, and have probably chill w him 2 times a year. Good dude, I honestly had no idea he was doing this till our mutual friends told me. Made me wish I knew back in college.

[rjs246]

That looks really interesting, DH. And Tomar is right about our institutions of higher learning. Prices go up and up and up and the results remain static. Or, when you consider how little a college degree gets you now compared to what it got you 20 or 30 years ago, the results have even decreased.

Anyway, looks like an eye-opening peak behind the curtain.

[ice grillin you]

does sound interesting but perhaps more as an expose than an entire book