Chatterbox: Literature Edition

You could just renew it.

I enjoyed House Of Leaves, but I can't say it gave me nightmares or anything.

^^ I've actually checked it out in September, and kept on renewing it without actually reading the thing. They won't let me do that any more.

Downloaded (excluding nonfiction):

• One Thousand And One Nights
• At The Mountains Of Madness
• The Mahabharata
• "Nergal & Erishkigal"
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
• Accelerando (already read this one)
• Candide
• Don Quixote
• "Eureka: A Prose Poem"
• Metamorphosis
• Move Under Ground (On The Road meets HP Lovecraft)
• Notes From Underground
• The Canterbury Tales
• The Gods of Pegana (has a macron, I can't type it)
• The King In Yellow

Gods bless the public domain. What should I read first?

Isn't the Mahabharata insanely long?

Yeah, I did a word count, it's a few million words or so as I remember. It makes up about a third of what I downloaded, and it's raw text.

Read Notes From Underground. It is funny, in only the way curmudgeonly Russian novellas can be. The absurd meaninglessness of it all... hilarious. ;)

I picked it up and read about a page, once, before deciding that it was way too depressing. I was having a bad day though it should be fine now.

Candide is pretty funny. In a Black Comedy kind of way.

Speaking of Dostoevsky, I finally finished The Brothers Karamazov over Christmas break. And left it at the parents' place, so hopefully my mom can read it some time. Loved it. (I read Pavear and Volokhonsky's translation.)

For an encore, I went and finished Poul Anderson's Annals of the Time Patrol. Cool plots and interesting ideas, but the characterization was a bit flat... except for the last novella, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth", which just rocked.

I got waaay too many good novels for Christmas. I started on Anathem, and I'm glad I read The Name Of The Rose before this book. The setting, though in a different culture on another planet, is still strikingly familiar. Since the premise is what hooked me, I thoroughly enjoyed the slow, first hundred pages of what was essentially worldbuilding. Now after part 4, the plot's starting to kick into higher gear.

I also got books for christmas.

Reading "After the long Goodbye" right now, which is a sequel to Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence.

Very interesting. Especially all the sci-fi stuff. For example, how an e-brain works is explained in greater detail.

Just read Beau Geste.

Also reading through Sherlock Holmes.

Just finished Alara Unbroken which turned out to be a decent book. Also, I started Agents of Artifice, which is actually good thus far, surprising for a book from Magic, which typically aren't bad but are rarely good.

I've dropped Kafka On The Shore. Certainly not my kind of book.

Now that I've got The Gathering Storm, it's time to re-read The Wheel Of Time (yes, the whole series).

Am preparing to reread Dune for the first time in several years.

I'm trying to get back into science fiction. Not working, though I am enjoying the book I'm reading right now, Greg Bear's Quantico. I can't say I like his writing style but the story he tells is really interesting.

I'll probably try to read Kafka again after that or maybe finally finish The Brothers Karamazov (I never can read too much of that without turning to another book—not out of lack of interest but more of a desire from a break from reading the same author night after night). I'm unsure as to read more nonfiction (I've been on a streak with that over the past two months).

Whatever.

edited 4th Jan '10 7:00:14 PM by Dookie2

That's about my opinion of Bear as well. Also occasional Writer on Board.

edited 4th Jan '10 6:58:37 PM by Tzetze

There were at least two parts where I put the book down and asked "When was this written? Oh 2005, very near the height of the Bush/War on Terror hysteria. Okay."

I'm reading Discworld, in no particular order than what seems interesting.

So far: The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Men At Arms, Thud!, and Soul Music.

The King In Yellow is much better than expected. I like the stories that don't even involve the Brown Note.

Eye Of The World finished, getting The Great Hunt from a friend today.

When I re-read the re-read, I see that Robert Jordan really is a master of Chekhovs Guns.

It is really strange. Some of the stories in The King In Yellow not only don't involve the horror at all, but have no fantastic elements whatsoever. Strange how books are remembered... I'll be doing a lot of work on that page.

My lack of understanding or masonry is hampering my enjoyment of Ivan Denisovich. What's the string for?

I just had to* spend a few hours in a bookstore and bought three more books! I haven't even finished the ones from Powell's yet! ;_;

I'm gonna YKTTW the plot of one of 'em, though, I've seen it three times.