What Books are you reading?

[MadeManG74]

I finished reading Shaun Micallef's 'Preincarnate'


Absolutely hilarious book, he manages to use the medium to tell a story that just wouldn't work in any other. It's very intricate and just contains machine-gun rapid jokes all the way through. This just re-confirms my thoughts that Shaun Micallef is an absolute comedic genius.

I think this guy from the Micallef forums sums it up very nicely:

Just finished reading both the book and some scathing reviews of the book. Where to begin?

Firstly, it's entirely not what I expected.
Secondly, I think it's a work of narrative genius, and is immeasurably rewarding.
As someone who likes to think they're an expert on writing, having attended a semester course in creative writing at a dodgy bogan university, I think his manipulation of tense and timeline is really something that should be singing praise from academics everywhere, but isn't. Why? People think it's supposed to be a funny novel, or a spoof. Here's the thing:
The humour does not drive the story - it's not supposed to be a laugh-every-minute gag fest (though I found it to be).
What it is:
A pure, undiluted piece of Micallef genius (and also !Chronoloco!). There's nothing quite like reaching the end of the book, only for something to transpire that renders the entire events of the book meaningless. It's truthfully what I should have expected, but didn't, and I was still marvelling at the book's simple genius for days after.
I've read it twice now, and on the third read I'm going to go chronologically through the chapters, just to spruce things up. I consider it to be money well spent - it will no doubt demand another 3 reads on top of that before I put it down for a couple of months and return to read it for the seventh time.
Now I've heard quite a bit of negative feedback from a few people, mainly people I know who like to take stabs at Micallef because they realise it cuts me deep. They tell me they couldn't finish it, it wasn't narrative, it was "Shaun's collection of things he's interested in cobbled over a feeble premise"... and it's time like these where I back hand them all and utter the immortal phrase I stole from a blog two years ago:

"If you don't like Shaun Micallef, then you probably don't deserve to."

With that, I finish by saying I loved Preincarnate, and it's up there on the top shelf with the Discworld series, To Kill a Mockingbird and Twilight*.

-PPP
*Only to keep the dust off the other books.

I've also just read "I have no mouth, and i must Scream"


I've only just read the title story, not the others in the collection. Extremely dark and twisted, the most bleak thing I've ever read. More horror than science-fiction, and very very good.

[Barry the Nomad]

Rereading the Harry Potter books, halfway through book 1. Apparently, Harry is a wizard!

[max_cady]

I've also been doing some re-reading.

This time I'm reading The Lost World, the sequel novel to Jurrasic Park and... well... It made me realize just how good the original was and how dissapointing this sequel novel is.

Spoilers inside...
[spoiler]I'm OK with the fact that they had retconned Malcom's death, but the new characters are just meh...

Arby and Kelly are a little less annoying than Alex and Tim were in the original. Throne, Harding and Eddy are OK characters. But I hate Levine, what an a**-hole.

Dodson's plan was suicidal and made little sense, I mean bringing just 2 other people along to snatch dinosaur eggs? What would he think it would happen? At least the Lost World movie does it better by bringing in a huge crew and an actual hunter.

I also feel strange at how they portray Dodson in this novel, in the original, people felt like real people, even the antagonists were just people with their own motivations and had reasonable arguments about why they did what they did.

In this, Dodson is given a sinister, almost machievelian edge, reduced to a mustache twirling boogeyman whose actions and dialogue just feels a little out of place.

And Levine chasing a T-rex on a bycicle? With all due respect, did Crichton even took a second glance at his script and thought this was normal?[/spoiler]

[Emmett The Crab]

The first Jurassic Park read like a screenplay.  I hated how all the dialogue lines ended with "said mathemetician dude" or "said park owner dude" (I forget their names).  I read it when it first came out.

[Snowcat]

About the third time ive read it....

[max_cady]

@EmmetTheCrab

That's the way every single thing Crichton has ever wrote reads like(except maybe The Great Train Robbery which is written as an historical documentary), an action movie script.

Back to The Lost World:

[spoiler]I finished reading this yesterday and frankly I'm very dissapointed.

Again, Dodson's character is so comic book evil that it makes him more of a caricature than an actual person.

The story is kinda OK, despite the fact that three or four people that were largely unexperienced manage to get through a small island with no barriers, barely any physical obstacles to keep the dinosaurs at bay, and survive is stretching it.

I would appreaciate Malcom here, but in the last chapters he gets high on painkillers and ends up just rambling non-stop.

Towards the end, I was also disturbed at how the characters were unpreocupied over the fact that at least 5 people died, Dodgson's team, including himself. Also Eddie Carr and Levine's hiking partner.

They had nothing to do with Dodgson's team, but how are they going to explain Eddie Carr's death and Diego's dissapearance?[/spoiler]

[Emmett The Crab]

I guess that's why I never read any more of his novels after that one.

I just finished Steven King's Salem's Lot.  Now I'm reading What to Expect When You're Expecting because when your wife is pregnant, you'd better read the book.

[Nathan]

Currently reading a play by Aristophenes called "The Clouds" for my Philosophy class, as well as The Symposium and The Republic by Plato.

[SOUP]

I guess that's why I never read any more of his novels after that one.

I just finished Steven King's Salem's Lot.  Now I'm reading What to Expect When You're Expecting because when your wife is pregnant, you'd better read the book.

I enjoyed Andromeda Strain.

[max_cady]

I finished reading the prequel novel to Death Troopers. Red Harvest.

All around, nice read, ocassionally spooky, but if you've read the first novel, you kindof already know what to expect and how it plays out.

It's roughly the same story as the original, except that this takes place in the Old Republic Era and for the most part, completely unrelated to events of Death Troopers.

The main problem I have with this novel, is that unlike the original, there are far more characters here, I had a hard time keeping track of all of them and some of the Sith names I can barely remember or pronounce.

The other silly thing...

[spoiler]OK, I understand that in the original novel, there weren't any forc users, so it felt kinda tense. But here, a whole academy crawling with Sith appreantices and masters and they can barely hold their own against these zombies? What the hell? These are dark lords, not clueless stormtroopers.[/spoiler]

[Sharky]

The Book of Lost Things -
Just finished this book, it's an adult take on various childhood fairy tales all stringed togeather in one story. It follows the story of one kid whos mother has died and his father has moved in with another woman and the jealousy of having a new younger step brother. I would say it was pretty good but a slow start.

The Search for Wondla-
This book is about a girl who grew up in a confiend futuristic underground vault looked after by a robot, she is being trained to one day go to the surface but when she does the world is completely different to the training she was given and there are no humans left, only strange landscapes and creatures.
I liked this story a lot! Recommended.

[cube_b3]

The Alan Wake Files!

[max_cady]

I finished reading a couple of horror novels from M.R. James. They are pretty creepy to be honest.

[tarpmortar]

I am working on Fool's Crow for a school assignment, and my leisure reading is The Wind Up bird Chronicle written by Haruki Murakami, I liked his other book Norwegian Wood (which I largely bought because of the Beatles reference) so I grabbed this one.

[George]

Game of Thrones. Can't wait weekly for the show.