Sven_Q45 Posted April 26, 2009 Share Posted April 26, 2009 Just finished The Dig. The book if you don´t know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelstein Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 Nostradamus for Dummies Where War Lives Hate Crimes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 I'm just done listening to The Secret of Chimneys, which is one of Agatha Christie's earlier books. It's quite nice, though nothing really special. Still, I enjoyed it, if only for Christie's masterful characterization. And there's a nice air of mystery around Chimneys, the manor where the story takes place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 I am almost done reading Angels & Demons and it has been excellent so far. I probably have 100 or less pages left. I read The Da Vinci Code but that was a couple years ago now and it's great to read another Dan Brown novel. Can't wait to see how this one finishes up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted May 20, 2009 Share Posted May 20, 2009 I did a bit of reading last week and finished two books. I'm also reading three at once, but they're collections so that's OK. Finished: The Lost by Jack Ketchum: So this is my third Jack Ketchum, and it's pretty good. Some people might find it a tad unbelievable, but I thought it worked quite well, meaning that I could see it happening. It's completely opposite the last book of his that I read - the gory, infinitely disturbing Off Season - and screws around with your psych a little to slowly submerge a sense of foreboding, before yanking the chain and getting to its climax. If you love good horror, then this is for you. The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum: Typical Ludlum. Conspiracy, super soldiers, backstabbings and triple-crossings. This was nonetheless a pretty interesting novel to read and I enjoyed it. If you like a spy novel with so-so characters, pretty bad handling of how relationships develop and terrible dialogue but good suspense, interesting ideas and a high body count piled next to higher stakes, then this is for you. Reading: How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen: just a bunch of essays on things like the Chicago postal office during the 90's, why we should bother with reading, and an account of his father's battle with Alzheimer's. Not exactly a walk-in-the-park to read, but I find it interesting and intelligent. Main Lines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader by Lester Bangs: a collection of articles by acclaimed critic (yeah critics acclaim critics) Lester Bangs. Most of it is pretty good, and also pretty funny. If you want to know if Bangs is for you read his review of Lou Reed's terrible Metal Machine Man. Night Shift by Stephen King: collection of short horror stories. Superb. It's pretty amazing how he manages to start a story, make it scary and end it in 7-20 pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascovel Posted May 20, 2009 Share Posted May 20, 2009 Picture of Dorian Gray. Nicely written, but a bit disappointing considering the controversy it created some one hundred years ago. Slowly (very slowly) I'm progressing in OZU and The Poetics of Cinema, which is a truly great book, also as a source of information about Japanese culture in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldblum Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 I cannot get my head around some of Oscar Wilde's writings. He is such a man of flowery language. Meaning that he has a knack for just going on and on about a minute detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascovel Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 I cannot get my head around some of Oscar Wilde's writings. He is such a man of flowery language. Meaning that he has a knack for just going on and on about a minute detail. I only read Gray, but based on it I agree about flowery language (meaning a kind of dandy's exaltation about the way things look on the outside) and it indeed can be a bit tiring. However, at the same time I actually felt the author gives very little attention to details. Most things are described in very general terms. The book even becomes boring because of that sometimes - we are given long lists of supposedly emotional events, but they don't have any life to them. The best thing about Gray for me were the cynical dialogs between Dorian and Henry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldblum Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Oh no, I liked the dialogue he wrote, but the pacing in between just dragged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Well, just finished Red by Jack Ketchum, which also had the lovely novella The Passenger tucked in. Top notch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icebox Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Bluebeard By Kurt Vonnegut. Somewhere Below Cat's Cradle and above Slaughterhouse Five. It's Like Barton Fink meets Metal Gear Solid. First got into him based on a recommendation by Schafer, and gladly KV doesn't dissapoint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urluckyday Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 ^I do not have good memories of Vonnegut's works from High School...*sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Bluebeard By Kurt Vonnegut. Somewhere Below Cat's Cradle and above Slaughterhouse Five. It's Like Barton Fink meets Metal Gear Solid. First got into him based on a recommendation by Schafer, and gladly KV doesn't dissapoint. Yeah, I got into Vonnegut that way too. Great stuff. You can clearly see his influence on Schafer's work as well. I've already read Slaughterhouse-Five and Deadeye Dick, both of which I can recommend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spoon_man Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Ask the Dust by John Fante. He's Bukowski's biggest influence. Not much happens in it and it's a very easy read, but I loved every word of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sven_Q45 Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haggis Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 I recently read three comic books that I ordered from the Telltale store. The first one was Further Grickle. It's really amazing how a comic with cartoony graphics can be so real, yet at the same time manages not to become so real that it's not funny anymore. I love how Graham Annable has the guts to sometimes put 10 identical frames in a row, and gets away with it. Stuff like that makes his comics really feel like you're reading an animated movie. And like his animated shorts, it's really out there, but not so much that it gets so avant garde that it's not funny and cool to normal people. Great book. The other two comics were the first two Bone books. Fantastic. The fact that I had already played the games didn't matter too much I think, the comic is really an entirely new experience. In a way, playing the games helped, in that they provided the voices for the characters in the comic - I think that generally, the casting was really good. Now I want to actually get all the other Bone books too, I've fallen in love with the series! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickelstein Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Count Of Monte Cristo. It took a while for Edmond to get his revenge but when he finally got back at Morcerf, Danglars and Villefort I was so happy . Edmond Dantes you sneaky bastard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 I've been reading everything from Jack Ketchum to history books and programming articles. I've easily been reading for 6, 7 hours a day now. On Let the Right One In, which is rather good. It's a bit more in-depth than the excellent film (the same guy wrote both), so it loses a bit of the minimalist charm but adds a bit of menace that works well. About Telltale's comics: I've always wanted to read Fox Bunny Funny, which is apparently amazing. I'll give Bone a shot later as well. Edit: Woah, the book has a couple of twists the movie only hinted at. Read it. Watch it. Love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroms Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Done with Watchmen. I take back everything I ever said about it. It completely deserves its reputation. Just great, great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Tingler Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 Yes, most definitely. You said bad things about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenni Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 I finally found The Dig novelisation by Alan Dean Foster. It was in my local library the whole time. I really liked the book. The only odd thing I found about it was the Cocytans, who spoke amongst themselves unheard by the human crew from the moment the crew landed on the planet. I know that Alan Foster was trying to convey that their thoughts were intertwined, but the way that it was written was really weird (ie: "one thousand agreed with the first group of twelve"). I don't think someone could go into the book without having played the game first without getting confused. But, as a companion to the game, it's a great read. A lot of things are expanded upon. We get to see the president of the United States' dilemma about using nuclear devices in space, as well as get a taste about how the asteroid is a world issue and not a US only issue. NASA uses Russian nuclear detonators that were developed to be used for mining excavations and to have as little fallout as possible. Brink is brought in because of the Russian involvement. The international Space agencies want someone there who is not American as well, since the success of the mission determines the fate of the entire Earth. Most of the changes in the book revolved around puzzles in the game, such as how Boston got the doors open (in the book little robots open the doors for him). But, there is one change early on that I liked a lot. Maggie was not part of the detonation team. She had little training, so she should not have been handling nuclear devices. The best part of the book in my opinion is the very end. It goes into detail about why Boston is able to get out of the eye when none of the Cocytans can. The book also explains why Brink has aged so much and that its not a bad thing in the end. Maggie and Boston are given extra long lifespans, and Brink is also given a long lifespan despite his increased age. He won't live as long as Maggie and Boston, but he will live long by human standards. I liked Brink's line that he likes his look since his collegues don't take anyone seriously in scientific fields until they reach an older age. I'm glad I finally got a chance to read this book, since it actually makes me enjoy the game more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascovel Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 To be honest I never believed in the final events of The Dig being real. It just seems to me that Boston lost his mind in that other dimension and had delusions of a weird, but happy ending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giant Graffiti Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 But what if you used the life crystal to bring Maggie back to life? Would you accept that as an ending because it's slightly less happy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascovel Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward van Helgen Posted August 21, 2009 Share Posted August 21, 2009 To be honest I never believed in the final events of The Dig being real. It just seems to me that Boston lost his mind in that other dimension and had delusions of a weird, but happy ending. Interesting view on the ending, I never thought of anything like that. In the game I thought the ending was a little too happy for my taste. Brink coming back to life seemed a little weird to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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