counting_pine Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 When I saw a new post in this topic, I have to admit, given the timing I was expecting something else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted July 25, 2007 Author Share Posted July 25, 2007 HARRY POTTER! I loved it. Anyone else a fan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 I got my copy late (Tuesday) but that has been the least of my problems. Ho ho, force majeure ¬¬ [this message was posted from: Cheltenham] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Definitely a good read. I've now gone high-brow and I'm reading a collection of Kafka's short stories and novellas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 I got my copy late (Tuesday) but that has been the least of my problems. If you got it by post (from Amazon say), due to the floods, most post offices didn't get orders in until Saturday when they were meant to be sent out. I didn't get mine till Monday. Very good read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Despite the floods, my copy did actually arrive on Saturday. So did my girlfriend's. Neither of us actually got it because at 8am on Saturday morning, when it was delivered, we were in a taxi that we had been sat in since 10pm on Friday, from Bristol (normally an hour's journey at most.) It was a taxi because the train was cancelled, and I hope it cost Mr. Branson a great deal of money. *sigh* Anyway, my copy was here but it wasn't actually delivered because some git at Amazon had hilariously cut the address-sticker a little too close to the actual address, and whilst you could still make out the name of my street, you couldn't make out my name, or indeed my house number. *sigh* When it did eventually get here I didn't even care because I haven't had a shower since Monday, and I'm drinking water that came out of a Goddamn bowser in the middle of the street. I've only read 200 pages of it so far, I'm going to read the rest tonight - in theory, anyway. Does that book have Metamorphosis in Remi? I know that's the most obvious Kafka book of all time, but (and also probably because of that) it's the only one I've read. Good stuff :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Well in that case I won't ruin it for you... except to tell you that Dumbledore was in fact the Giant Squid in animagus form and the Weasley's flying car is a horcrux. Oh, and Harry ends up dating McGonnagle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Does that book have Metamorphosis in Remi? I know that's the most obvious Kafka book of all time, but (and also probably because of that) it's the only one I've read. Good stuff :-) It does indeed -- the contents can be seen here. I'm currently in the middle of "Meditation," and while I'm not always 100% sure exactly what's going on, I've come to terms with that simply being -- wait for it -- Kafkaesque. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Yes! I've finally finished HP! I'm such a slow reader, I guess! It's taken me 6 days to get through it. Anyways, very good! Not sure about the epilogue, though. Can't say any more without spoiling it for someone, so I won't. I actually feel like going back and re-reading all the other now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted July 27, 2007 Share Posted July 27, 2007 Not many liked the epilogue actually, it felt almost like wish fulfillment on JKR's part, but if you put a lot of thought into it, it does make sense that it should have been written like that and more importantly what should have been written in it. I won't spoil it for others, but if you're after all the information you thought would be in the epilogue, but wasn't, JKR's recently done an interview filling in a few more details here (which will obviously include spoilers). Again, almost like wish fulfillment, but I don't think we could have seen it any other way. I read all the other books again in the run up to this one. I feel I've now had my fill of Harry Potter for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 I'm not sure what you mean. I personally just felt the whole idea of an epilogue was a bad one, full stop. I think it would have been better to leave the characters (who survived) how you knew and loved them. To me that would have been perfect, rather than jumping forward and seeing them as people you don't know anymore. I wouldn't have minded Rowling just explaining her thoughts on where everyone ended up in interviews and such, or maybe in another Comic Relief thing, but it just seemed horribly tacked on to the end of book 7, after all that happened. Maybe I'll give it a day or two and see how I feel about it. (PM me if you can't say more without spoilers being involved!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted July 28, 2007 Author Share Posted July 28, 2007 I think she wanted to have a definate ending, which the epilogue achieves. I would have liked something a bit more like the epilogue in Middlemarch, which goes into lots of detail, and mentions how some of the characters later die (this is a hard point to express: if you've read that novel you may get what I mean, however... for others, you can see the style I like by reading the Middlemarch ending here, though there are obviously spoilers). I'm not at all disapointed with any of it, though. I'm glad we found out a bit more about what happens to the characters, and I thought the dreamy style worked well. I would have liked a better last sentence, but what we've got really isn't bad at all, and overall the story was very very enjoyable. I also loved the Order of the Phoenix film! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven_Q45 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 I read Star Wars Republic Commando - Triple Zero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 I've recently been reading a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman called "Smoke and Mirrors" which are fairly good and interesting to read and think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tingler Posted February 22, 2008 Share Posted February 22, 2008 Have I recommended The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch yet? If not, read it. It is by far and away the best book I've read in the last few years - if not my favourite book ever! At turns dark, gritty and believable mixed with moments of utter hilarity, some of the best and most likeable characters ever written and a plot that twists and turns like the proverbial twisty-turny thing. Lynch's releasing one book in the series a year. The second book, Red Seas Under Red Skies, should be of particular interest to us as it's mostly a pirate novel! The third book and a collection of short stories by Lynch are both out this year. As for right now, I'm reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Pretty good so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadYorick Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Ive been reading Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Which is a very good book. I also finished The Long Walk by Stephen King which was also good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted February 25, 2008 Share Posted February 25, 2008 Libra, by Don Delillo, was recommended to me by my dissertation supervisor and it's fantastic. It's about the Kennedy Assassination, but the prose is incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadYorick Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 I finished Planet of the Apes and have moved on to Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. After that I plan on reading Robinson Crusoe. Yes I like the classics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elTee Posted February 26, 2008 Share Posted February 26, 2008 Gulliver's Travels is one of the best books I've ever read. It's so unbelievably satirical, I had no idea from reading the ladybird version when I was a kid. It's absolutely hilarious, I think Swift was a genius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted February 26, 2008 Author Share Posted February 26, 2008 Just finished "War in Heaven" by Charles Williams: a metaphysical and theological adventure where an Archdeacon, a Duke and a publisher are in a conflict against a group of Satanists for the holy Graal. The writer was an Inkling, so in the same group as J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Also reading Watership Down (Richard Adams) which is probably the best animal literature I've ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 It's been a while since a ridiculously good book so I'm just going to say the first ten that occur to me. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk The Shining - Stephen King Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain - Max Wallace and Ian Halperin lost boy lost girl - Peter Straub Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Red Dragon - Thomas Harris By the way, Gabez, The Prisoner of Zenda is the first of a trilogy; it's regarded as the best of the three but it's kinda like Monkey Island, in that you'll get a different answer on different days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabez Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 I've always been tempted to go for the other Zenda books -- it's good to know that there is some difference of opinion about the sequels. I heard from one source that Zenda is easily the best, and like a fool excepted that as fact. I also read The Mysteries of Udulpho recently (you will know it if you have read Northanger Abbey -- Austen attacked it viciously, and completely unjustifiably!) which is simmilar to Zenda and the Princess Bride being part of the Romance/Gothic/women who cry all the time and men who swordfight on castle parapets genre (which I love!) All the books on your list look like books I'd like to read also -- with the exception of Trasure Island, which I have already read (and can very much recommend). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I'm reading Grimm's fairy tales currently. It's great fun to read one story each night before going to sleep, and I can't ever look at a Disney film that's based on a fairy tale without thinking of the superior original stories. Other books I have read recently include Pride and Prejudice - I know that's considered a girl's book, but I love the way Jane Austen paints her characters. Another book I recently read and greatly enjoyed, is The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes and Watson are a perfect duo, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a master of suspense. I'm definitely going to read the other Sherlock Holmes collections some time in the future. And all for free, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHOP-E Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I'm reading Grimm's fairy tales currently. It's great fun to read one story each night before going to sleep, and I can't ever look at a Disney film that's based on a fairy tale without thinking of the superior original stories. And all for free, too. I just finished reading the Grimm's, I did the exact same thing but some of them are really friggin' creepy like the original snow white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHOP-E Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 It's been a while since a ridiculously good book so I'm just going to say the first ten that occur to me. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk The Shining - Stephen King Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain - Max Wallace and Ian Halperin lost boy lost girl - Peter Straub Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess Red Dragon - Thomas Harris fight club is probably my favorite book of all time with anything by william s. burroughs a close second Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.