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Read any good books lately?


Gabez

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The ending was basically the same in both cases. Besides I don't have anything against there being a happy ending in The Dig. It's just that the one there created didn't seem convincing. Why did Boston didn't get trapped in the alien dimension again? Because he wasn't as intelligent as the aliens?

I didn't think the ending in the game was convincing either, but in the expanded version in the book, the reason that he didn't get trapped is very convincing. :)

 

The Cocytans tell him to become used to the dimension, because he's going to be there forever. He tells them that he's leaving, and they don't believe that he can.

 

He tells them that he can "see the exit right over there", and heads over to it and tells the Cocytans that if any of them want to leave, then follow him. A few hundred believe him, and head out, and then when the other Cocytans see them leave, they follow as well.

 

Boston has a different biology from the Cocytans. Because of this (and the fact that he can make out the tiny exit due to his experience in shuttle commanding, something most humans couldn't do even though they would have the right biological make up to physically see it), his eyes can see what theirs can't.

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Man, David Foster Wallace was such a genius. This video is amazing, but if you're unfamiliar with him just listen to the first short piece which is about 8 minutes long.

 

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  • 1 month later...

So, what have you guys read lately?

 

I re-read excerpts from some childhood favourites today, and got washed by an unexpected and not-unwelcome wave of nostalgia. I suddenly felt very cold, sad and angry, and yet happy and grateful at once - the very definition of "bittersweet," although I can't tell which was which. These were the Harry Potter books, Nicholas Nickelby, A Christmas Carol, Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Winnie the Pooh.

 

I'm reading The Stand - very slowly, because it's freaking me out. A lot of the themes it explores are things that I think about on a daily basis - for example, how utterly ****ed I'd be if I ended-up in some remote area of the world and been told to survive on my own (I'd be dead 15 minutes in), and this book takes those fears and just runs with them. I think I'll be reading something a bit more light-hearted next...Still another 600 pages to go.

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Alternating between The Iliad and Haruhi Suzumiya in Original Japanese. I can't understand it yet, but sooner or later those classes will pay off. And Fagles' translation of Ilium is just unreal. It's probably the greatest thing ever written, no lie. Even the boring parts are beautiful and entertaining. Homer remains genius.

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Again I've been mostly listening to audiobooks... recently 'The Mysterious Mr. Quin' by Agatha Christie, which is a really interesting book. Quite different from her usual murder mysteries; it's very mysterious in itself. Also, I'm working my way through the audiobook of Don Quixote.

 

As for reading, mostly study books, but not anymore. I've decided to quit studying shortly after starting the Research Master. I'd much rather be doing things, writing for actual people, than sit in an ivory tower looking down on everybody and enjoying the company of my fellow know-it-alls.

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I utterly love The Stand. It (the one with Pennywise) is still my favourite Stephen King (which I've got a signed hardback copy of!), but The Stand is a close second.

 

At the moment I'm reading the new Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy novel, And Another Thing... by Eoin Colfer. I'm still morally disgusted by the whole idea, but I can't deny that he's (so far) done a pretty good job. He's no Douglas Adams of course, but he's got the style right, is both entertaining and occasionally funny, and doesn't keep reusing stuff from the other books. That's the best I could've hoped for. Although I still would've preferred it not to exist at all, now that its out there, I'm happy with it.

 

So far.

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I'm looking for suggestions on a good adventure novel. I don't know what I mean exactly, but something that's, well, an adventure. Where you feel scared for the characters but feel completely engrossed in the story.

 

I ordered On Stranger Tides, but any more suggestions would be great. I'm thinking of things like Harry Potter, Bone, Peter Pan, maybe the bigger Sherlock Holmes novels, the first His Dark Materials book.

 

I utterly love The Stand. It (the one with Pennywise) is still my favourite Stephen King (which I've got a signed hardback copy of!), but The Stand is a close second.

 

It's finally gotten to the point where I see how the different threads will converge. I'm still around 600 pages in, but yeah: great story at work here, even if it is scaring me a tad bit more than books usually do. A while back I got past the point where

Mark dies because of his swollen appendix; it captured everything that freaks me out about a post-apocalyptic/pre-modern ages world

.

 

I have It in my closet, but since I could do with less freaking out I'll wait before I get around to reading, uh...it.

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I think I've suggested them before, but either Joe Abercrombie starting with The Blade Itself, or my new personal favourite author Scott Lynch starting with The Lies of Locke Lamora. If you can get past the first chapter of that book and not be hooked I'll be very, very surprised.

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"The Stand" is my favourite Stephen King book by far. After that, I remember happily reading through four or five more Stephen King novels before I realised they were all pretty much the same. "It" would have been better if it weren't for the ending, Pennywise is one of the creepiest bad-guys ever.

 

I am currently burning through the Dresden Files, which are very good. Not exactly high literature, and Jim Butcher maybe isn't as funny as he thinks he is, but I love the world that he's created, and I've been finishing most of the novles in a few sittings. I'd recommend them, anyway. Start with book #3, though, the first two are pretty standalone and not the best in the series.

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I'm looking for suggestions on a good adventure novel. I don't know what I mean exactly, but something that's, well, an adventure. Where you feel scared for the characters but feel completely engrossed in the story.

 

I ordered On Stranger Tides, but any more suggestions would be great. I'm thinking of things like Harry Potter, Bone, Peter Pan, maybe the bigger Sherlock Holmes novels, the first His Dark Materials book.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, The Lost World by Michael Crichton... those are a few I can think of off the top of my head.

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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown has just been obliterated in 3 days.

 

Before that Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (no... really. It's terrific. One of the best books I've ever read.)

 

Next up: On Stranger Tides, and it's about time I got to it.

 

I'm also slowly getting through A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, although this is more a sort of chapter-at-a-time thing.

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I'm not sure if it counts as a book, but it definitely has great literary value. I recently read Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Enjoyed it a lot, the very best of Frank Miller and probably the best Batman story I've seen so far (including movies, series and what have you).

 

I'm currently (slowly) reading:

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier (the oddest, format-wise, of the series so far. If you enjoy 19th century english literature, you should check LoEG out)

Understanding Comics (the comic book bible)

God's Debris (this thing bends my mind)

 

Oh, I also very quickly finished The Gashlycrumb Tinies. It is delightful and perfect for halloween.

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I just started reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I'm on book 6, and so far, I'm into it. I like the style alot. A shame the author died before finishing the series, hopefully the new guy does a good job.

 

This series very well could have been mentioned elsewhere in the thread above me....There you go.

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I just read On Stranger Tides and it was great. I certainly hope the new PotC movie is gonna be based on this book, I loved it.

 

It had a lot of adventure, voodoo and hot smelling iron in the story. I mean, if a book has those three things it just has to be a great book.

You should have a look at The Anubis Gates by the same bloke. It's got the same classic qualities wrapped up in an even better story!

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  • 2 months later...

So, what have you guys read recently? I only finished The Princess Bride in the last few months, which is somehow both a very funny satire of swashbuckling adventures, and an excellent example of swashbuckling adventures. It's probably one of my new favorite books.

 

I'm reading The Dead Zone (Stephen King). It's good, but the story's not the kind you have to read on a daily basis to remember. I won't be picking it up again until Tuesday, for example, but I will probably remember everything that's happened before. That doesn't happen very often.

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I've just finished a collection of Pushkin stories (Dubrovsky, The Queen of Spades, The Squire's Daughter, The Blizzard, and the sadly unfinished Peter the Great's Negro). Highly enjoyable, especially if you like romantic stories. Now I've started in Gogol's Dead Souls, which I find quite hilarious already.

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I'm currently reading volume one of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in other words, the very first ninja turtles) and it is as entertaining as it is disturbing. If TMNT was as much a part of your childhood as it was of mine, then you should check it out. The quality of it is certainly questionable, but it is very interesting nonetheless.

 

You can read it online for free, over here.

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