Metal Reviews

Naked Lunch is cool; it just doesn't have a plot line and you sort of have to take your own meaning out of it.

I'm either reading Bukowski or Kerouac's On the Road next I can't decide. Has anyone read the new 'On the Road: the original scroll'? I was wondering if it was very different from the edited version.

Okay, two facts should be established.
1) I'm reading a Dutch copy, so I translated the Dutch title literally.
2) I had been drinking and playing cards the entire day. Mixing up decades with centuries, fookin' hell

Did you read the original six books or the reworked, cropped version? I can imagine the original to be a bit tedious in its detailings, I have a version of about 950 pages with various passages left out or synthesised, still very tiny print. And while some of the things are tedious, such as the detailings of the organisation of the functionaries of early Christianity, I find the rest to be an impeccably written, thoroughly ironic and inquisitive book that should find its way to every (amateur) historian's bookshelf.

Ha, good times, man- I thought there might be a translation thing there. But ya, 950 pages is a far cry from the whole work- the version I read was something like 2,300 pages, and was still abridged in parts. Its not that Gibbon is tedious- as a stylist, he's excellent (as it should be, being based on Tacitus)- there's just so much information, though, that I found it hard to read more than 20 pages at a time. And I agree that anyone studying ancient history needs to read Gibbon- even if I disagree with most of his conclusions, his work has impacted the study of the late Roman empire and eastern roman empire to a huge degree.

Didn't care much for Naked Lunch.
Just finished Factotum by Bukowski... good ol' Chinaski.
Before that: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Good read.

Re-reading The Basketball Diaries.
Funny as hell.

That's what I meant with it being tedious. I never skip parts when I read a book, but some passages just don't enthuse me however well-written they are. The result is a trudging half-read on my part.

I just read fear and loathing in las vegas. Now I'm having to read the Canterbury Tales for school and on the side Bukowski Tales of Ordinary Madness.

Joe Abercrombie- Before They Are Hanged
Ammianus Marcellinus- The Later Roman Empire
Seneca- Apocolocyntosis

Dan Simmons - Hyperion

An amazing book. Prepare to be depressed.

The God Delusion.

Being my second time reading it, Dawkins could really use being a little more objective and probably focus on some of the argument more in-depth and not disregard some he has which would have been easily to refute. The first time I read it, I was so excited there was an atheist book I didn't truly recognize how ridiculous some of you said he was. Now that I know he isn't the first or the last to write a book about the subject matter, it is easier to be critical about him and recognize his mistakes which of there are plenty.

The chapter refuting the claim that morality comes from the Old Testament is awesome though.

A Game Of Thrones. Not bad at all so far, bit hard keeping up with all the various characters though...

at first you'll find yourself flicking to the map and appendix a lot, but after a while you'll feel like Robert or whoever is your next door neighbour.

he gives out very little information about certain people or places, though, to keep an aura of mistery about them (and it works )

I'm hooked, don't worry. Already I can feel the plot threads weaving together, this kicks Wheel Of Time's arse.

Finished Fellowship of the Ring... moving on to The Two Towers

Use that back section like crazy! Haha. It takes a bit before you don't have to look there so much, but all the hype is well justified. The series is awesome. Books one through three are outstanding, and book four was a bit slow for the first half. But that was likely just the impression I got when stacking it up against the first three, which were insanely good.

I swear, at the end of every chapter I went, "What the fuck?"

How is it? I am eagerly awiting it in the US - March 25th. Finished The Blade Itself last month - great read...

Just started The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

Locke Lamora is a very fun book- I love it and its sequel. Lynch writes damn good dialogue.

BFTAH is very good so far (though I'm only 100 pages in, due to schoolwork). I liked TBI quite a bit, but I was expecting something great from all the hype, and I don't think it delivered- so I'm hoping that BFTH builds from the great set up and does something excellent. And it really sucks for you Americans- for some reason, your publishers are so slow on these things (as March is when Book 3, The Last Argument of Kings, comes out for the rest of the world).

Norman Finkelstein - The Holocaust Industry
Niccoló Machiavelli - Il Principe

Markus Lutteman - El choco

.:crast:.