Metal Reviews

Galapagos was genius in its satire.

I just started Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. So far, it seems like overrated NY Times bestseller corny bullshit.

I never read anything on the best-seller list. You can guarantee it'll be trash.

I need some help. In my grade twelve english class, our independent study is based on two classic novels in which we have to compare or contrast in an essay.

I need help finding two good books to read for it, that i'd actually be interested in. It must be two classic novels though, with secondary sources.

Last year, I read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the year prior I read one of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia. As you can see, I'm interested in fiction.

So if you could help, it'd be really appreciated!

Anyway, as of today I'm reading "Les Filles De Caleb" by Arlette Cousture. In my spare time I've been reading "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld.

As opposed to nonfiction novels?

Anyway, you might want to be more specific with your tastes? Do you want something satirical and farcical like Alice in Wonderland? Try Gulliver's Travels and Huckleberry Finn and you could compare the ways they tackle social issues. Do you want something serious and dark? Compare the conclusions made about human nature in Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies. You can compare Tolstoy's conclusions on attaining happiness in War and Peace and Anna Karenina, or even one of his novellas like The Cossacks. You can examine the ways in which The Good Soldier and Mrs. Dalloway use stream of consciousness prose to showcase their thematic depth. If you're allowed to use classic plays, compare Aeschylus' Oresteia and Euripides' Orestes. Do some research, and try to see what kind of novel you enjoy and would like to read- doing these kinds of papers with books you hate sucks.

haha. Sorry, i'm terrible at shit like that. I guess that was pretty dumb. Uhhmmm. I don't know how to explain my taste.

But yeah, I love Alice in Wonderland-ish type things.

Thanks for your help mang, awesome. I'll for sure look out for those books and do some research.

Penthouse and Playboy. Count the appearances of boobs and draw conclusions about the real sexuality of the readers.

It doesn't count as now reading, but I read Flow, My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K Dick in one day on Monday. I'm finally making enough money to buy brand new books on rare occasions, and now I have no new books left, just my stash of secondhand wonders.

It was supposed to be science fiction with clones being used for organs but that wasn't a big part of the story.

Now reading: Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole. So far it is a critique of American materialism which makes it rather depressing.

Go with Dante, and compare it to Beowulf.

ooh sweet Jesus.

So I kind of wanted to do my essay on Pride and Prejudice, since I've read it a billion times, and it's my favourite movie. har har.

And so I mentioned it to my teacher, and she got super excited, and now I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and...

Little Women.

Fuck.

I have no way out of that one either. My teacher is way too excited for my essay... Eugh.

greaaaat.

Just finished Enders Game, pretty damn good.

Why couldn't you just do Sense and Sensibility or one of the Bronte sister classics?

One of my favorite series. Be sure to read "Ender's Shadow", which is told from Bean's point of view. Both "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" have like three or four sequels...I've read them all.

Whats not said is that while Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow and Speaker For the Dead (the real sequel to Ender's Game) are all awesome, basically everything that comes after them sucks horrible penis. Well, Xenocide is okay, but Children of the Mind is one of the worst books I've ever read, and the rest of the Shadow books are all pretty shit.

Currently been reading: Re-reading George RR Martin's A Storm of Swords, while re-reading Herodotus' The Histories, reading The First English Empire (1093-1343), and just finished reading Hesiod's Theogony, all for school, along with assorted textbooks.

Not been in this thread for a while, but I have been busy reading.

Recently finished Germinal by Emile Zola. Wow, this book was metal considering its about French Miners in the late 19th century. Some surprisingly gory parts and really painful descriptions of working in a coal mine that make you squirm to read them. Also its one of the bleakest novels I've read. It's also a very political book, all about workers' revolution and class struggle etc. Recommended to anyone interested in those subjects, highly.

Now reading a couple of books at once. World War Z by Max Brooks. This is really great, addictive and compelling and much more intelligent than you'd expect. A truly worthy follow up to the zombie survival guide, and way more representative of the true zombie movie spirit than any actual zombie FILM I've seen in ages and ages.

Also JK Galbraith- The Affluent Society. This is an assessment of the history of political economy and asks a lot of questions about assumptions we make under capitalism. Although its pretty old, it still makes you think about stuff differently.

Damn you and your super-critical opinions...

WOT 5: The Fires Of Heaven - Robert Jordan

I hate big fantasy books with small print. So far so good, though.

There is another sequel on the way isn't there?

He died yesterday

I wonder what they'll do for the last book.

May he rest in peace. This took me by such surprise when I found out this morning- he was always so positive about his illness that I took it as a given that he would be all right. Fantasy has lost a great- despite the flaws in some later books, Jordan's series was incredibly ambitious and revolutionary, and I have derived hours upon hours of pleasure from reading his books. My condolences to his wife and family.

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose.... The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time.
But it was a beginning."

As for his last book, RJ began writing it, and left extensive notes and instructions to his wife and cousin- chances are it'll be given to another writer, hopefully one who can do RJ justice.

Wow.. thats really upsetting, great writer. He definately created something he will be positively remembered for and Im sure he and his family can be proud of that.

Im currently stuck in book 7 of the series and have been for about a year, I probably would have finished it, but I got into George Martin.