Metal Reviews

i hadn't even heard of it, but now i am intrigued. meanwhile i found the same cheap and well-presented edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and picked that up so i'll start there.

this one http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/C ... 0007350827

also bought The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. english language books are surprisingly cheap here.

Roughly 100 pages into a Feast for Crows.

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Or the first half at least.

Fuck you.

Trust me, it doesn't get better.

Finished The Gods Themselves. I liked the asshole scientist power struggles in the first part and the alien threeways in the second but the moon stuff/end of the story in the third was a bit weak. Now reading Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus and it is making me fill the staff room with chuckles.

World War Z: Max Brooks

Joyland: Stephen King

Horns: Joe Hill

Quiet: Susan Cain

Only about 140 pages into it now. I wouldn't say it's terrible, just not the same. The last book was just epic chapter after epic chapter, this not so much.

Some of the new characters just aren't very compelling, I would say.

I finished The Illiad. At first I loved it but then got bogged down in so-and-so killed so-and-so and looted his corpse, then such-and-such god took pity on him and forged him a suit of the finest armour etc etc and I was kinda happy when it ended. First and last chapters had nice emotion goin' on.

Starting William Gaddis' JR tonight :-]

Iain Banks - Dead Air

'The Fall Of The House Of Usher' - Edgar Allen Poe

I started writing lyrics inspired by this tale a few months back and I'm getting back to it now. I'm awful at finishing things I start.

The Wheel of Time-series. A couple of pages into book two now.

Also read Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself (1st part of the first law triology) this summer. It was cool. Also Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic.

I should read some Poe today.

Half way through Pure by Julianna Baggott.. My wife bought it for me so I am giving it a shot.. It's post apocalyptic in nature, but really really far fetched.. It is an interesting enough story but sometimes I just go, "what the fuck???", after reading a scenario...

how is the colour of magic?

The First Law trilogy is awesome. very gritty. interested in the guy's other books based on the same universe. The Wheel of Time i didn't pick up because it drags on at one point apparently and then the author died without finishing it it.



it's the war seen from the people's perspective, especially on the Brienne chapters. it had to slow down, it could never be as intense as A Storm of Swords. the real disappointment for me was book 5, especially the Danny chapters. holy shit so much time wasted.

finished Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". started in january, stopped just before i got halfway through. it was pretty boring for the first half, but picked up quickly in the second half. liked it for the second half, but the pacing was just terrible.

I don't think A Storm of Swords is the best book in the series anyway. Yes the last 400 pages or so are excellent, but a lot of time is wasted before that. Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings have less 'filler' as books. The Brienne and Arya chapters are utter garbage in book 4, excepting some of the background stuff. And no way, book 5 is better than book 4. I agree with you that the Dany stuff is boring, but Dany stuff always is boring. What makes book 5 better than book 4 is the North chapters. Everyone is tense about the approaching battle, and I think Martin captures that apprehension well. Those chapters actually feel creepy and suspenseful, which is more sentiment than I can say about anything in book 4.

Reading Tristram Shandy and thinking it's cool that someone from 300 years ago can be so hilarious.

EBD (let's not get a mega quote thing going)

even the Northern chapters... so much time is wasted trudging about in the snow. ugh. just as Danny is wasting time being stupid and indecisive, and Tyrion asks himself where whores go way too often. the whole pale mare thing also came out of nowhere. quentyn angles were an utter waste of time. only useful for the insight into Volantis and a bit on Dorne.

MILD SPOILERS




Yeah, the Tyrion stuff was boring too, which is surprisingly given how much I liked his character in the first 3 books. Yes, agreed on Quentyn too. Basically everything in the East is a snoozefest.

The snow storm stuff was clearly there to put off the big battle until book 6, which is annoying, sure, because book 4 was a bridge book too. But on the other hand, I found Reek's terror at Ramsay well written, as was the creeping fear in Winterfell that Roose experiences in keeping his allies together while awaiting the army of Stannis.

And that epilogue was awesome! So put me in the camp of perturbed at books 4 and 5 (especially 4), but still hopeful that book 6 will redeem Martin.