What good books have you read recently?

[Bella]

I'm reading a book my daughter gave me.  It's called "The Villian's Guide to Better Living."

This little gem has chapters on home decorating and improvement, health, work issues, social life, and travel. Now I just have to decide whether I want to go with the poisonous garden, the carnivorous garden, the endless living labyrinth hedge maze......or all three. It's so hard to decide.

[hooplala]

I just started Joyce's A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man, and am enjoying it immensely.  It's very surreal.

[Z³]

Oddly enough, I've been way into Dick right now.

Insert obligatory snark attack here.

And did anyone here make it through "House of Leaves" by Mark Danielewski?  I got a copy as part of my "Christmas bonus" at work, and I've heard it's one of those fascinatingly fucked-up reads, so I'm excited.

I read that... or at least, I think I did. Its kind of hard to say, I mean, the book doesnt exactly read like a book. I dont think its something that you can read cover to cover very easily, because nearly half of the book is written in appendices and footnotes. I mean, it gets to the point where you have two different cohesive forms of thought sharing a same page, and it breaks down into absolute nonsense after a while. I suggest that you be very tired when you try to read this book, most of the time I woudlnt even pick it up unless I was seeing those weird insomnia induced shadows at the periphery of my vision.

Its kind of neat.

[Toots]

I have been reading I, Robot, which for some reason I had never read, but had always been meaning to.  Anyway, it's highly enjoyable.

Ahhh, good ol'Asimov. Have you given the Foundation series a try? It's a pretty big time commitment to read the whole set of books but IMO highly worth it.

I'm reading Diary by Chuck Palahniuk right now. I heart Chuck, he doesn't dissapoint. Not the most challenging read, but enjoyable. My favourite thing about Palahniuk are stories I read about him and his friends attending open houses just to raid people's medicine cabinets and get high. Must be a discordian at heart.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I have been reading I, Robot, which for some reason I had never read, but had always been meaning to.  Anyway, it's highly enjoyable.

Ahhh, good ol'Asimov. Have you given the Foundation series a try? It's a pretty big time commitment to read the whole set of books but IMO highly worth it.

It's CRAP!

[Zurtok Khan]

I have been reading I, Robot, which for some reason I had never read, but had always been meaning to.  Anyway, it's highly enjoyable.

Ahhh, good ol'Asimov. Have you given the Foundation series a try? It's a pretty big time commitment to read the whole set of books but IMO highly worth it.

It's CRAP!

This is the correct motorcycle.

Asimov is boring.

He should also stop trying to make himself sound smart.

[Jean-Paul Fartre]

I have been reading I, Robot, which for some reason I had never read, but had always been meaning to.  Anyway, it's highly enjoyable.

Ahhh, good ol'Asimov. Have you given the Foundation series a try? It's a pretty big time commitment to read the whole set of books but IMO highly worth it.

It's CRAP!

Crap is too harsh, thinkest I.  He's exuberant in his storytelling even if his language lags to Joyce or Nabokov.  Nobody's perfect, not even ol' mom and dad, t'is true, sniff, sniff, etc...

Funny you should ask: I've finished reading Paul Auster's City of Glass and was quite satisfied with both prose and plot.

In closing, cut Isaac some slack, Jack.  Y'dig, fool?

(spin around 360)

JPF

[hooplala]

I have been reading I, Robot, which for some reason I had never read, but had always been meaning to.  Anyway, it's highly enjoyable.

Ahhh, good ol'Asimov. Have you given the Foundation series a try? It's a pretty big time commitment to read the whole set of books but IMO highly worth it.

It's CRAP!

Crap is too harsh, thinkest I.  He's exuberant in his storytelling even if his language lags to Joyce or Nabokov.  Nobody's perfect, not even ol' mom and dad, t'is true, sniff, sniff, etc...

Funny you should ask: I've finished reading Paul Auster's City of Glass and was quite satisfied with both prose and plot.

In closing, cut Isaac some slack, Jack.  Y'dig, fool?

(spin around 360)

JPF

Fartre, you sound familiar . . .

[Cain]

I didn't mind Asimov, it was worth the read, but hardly genius.  Rather like Dune, which I have just finished.  Slow start, but overall not bad.  I think equating it to Lord of the Rings as its sci-fi equivalent is abit much, but its certainly readable.  Just dont believe the hype.

[Jean-Paul Fartre]

For me, the Dune, she is my favourite sci-fi book.  

The fantasy, the Lord of Rings... too many elves, not too many Mentats.  The Dune has the giant worm kings, too.

How can you not like?

[LMNO]

How can you not like?

Because it's boring?

Favorite Sci-fi book:  "A Scanner Darkly", by PKD.

Actually, almost any PKD book, to be honest.

[Rev Thwack]

I still say one of the best sci-fi books I ever read was "Cosm" by Gregory Benford. Not something that I would consider light reading though... It's like he wrote it while trying to also finish his doctorial thesis for particle physics and quantum mechanics.

[Jean-Paul Fartre]

How can you not like?

Because it's boring?

No, because it is not boring, silly man.

I do agree with your taste in Dick.  Who does not like Dick, I ask you?

[Toots]

I hear lesbians don't like dick much. (obvious joke, so true, but it's earli in the morning and I have not had coffee yet so what the hell, it's amusing to me)

Methinks Asimov does deserve to get get some slack. Certainly I would not put him in the same category as Dick or Lem, but I found the Foundtation Series to be a really enjoyable read. The man invented a science which predicts the future...

[One-Eyed Thayne Magee]

i'm reading a book called 'doc.tor weep and other strange teeth' by gary barwin. it's a collection of short stories, but i'm seeing a common thread in the way he uses the same words over and over. can't help but notice that the characters have interchangeable sizes. i never heard of this guy before but it looks like he's written a lot of stuff so i'll have to dig up some more of his books one of these times.