Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194188 times)

Steven O. Selsnik

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #460 on: May 25, 2010, 02:29:41 PM »
The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night-time (Mark Haddon)

I'd heard of this book years ago and was always intrigued by the concept. It met every expectation. The writing is so simple and direct. Every twist in the story shocked me. Loved it.

I recently read this as well. Loved the concept but by the end was more rooting for it to be over. Liked the first 3/4 of the book. The last 1/4 of the book lost me.

StarCarly

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #461 on: May 30, 2010, 03:34:48 PM »
How To Be Good (Nick Hornby)

The first few chapters take on some of my favorite themes: infidelity, sex, guilt, entitlement. I was sure that this was going to be he best.book.ever. Then it takes a very strange almost magical realist turn. Hornby's writing style is so comfortable and easy to read that I still enjoyed the book immensely, but it was not exactly the experience I was looking for.
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Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #462 on: June 05, 2010, 11:09:13 AM »
Two comics. One good, one horrible.



This was the good one. It tells the story of the author who had a not so great family life and not-so-greater health issues. The story goes pretty much how you would expect, but the emotional impact was there. Not the greatest but not bad, either. And it looks great.

B-.




This book was highly recommended. Everybody seems to love it. They're all wrong. It's the worst comic book I've ever read. There are the modern day parts of the story that serve only to explain in very obvious and boring ways the intricacies of logic and the ways it works. It reads like the creators think their audience is dumb. Let me tell you something, if you are writing a comic about Bertrand Russel and the foundations of logic, you aren't going to get people that lol at Family Circus. Assume a degree of intelligence. They even bring in an expert to explain everything again. NOT GOOD.

And the actual story is told in the worst way possible. We see Russel's life as a series of flashbacks which occur as he gives a speech in pre-WWII America. So for a good portion of the book we just see and hear BR talk to people. Also boring. The author says in the book that he is trying to make a story about the characters and the relationship of logic and madness. He says this several times. Unfortunately, with such a poorly written story I didn't care about anything. And the ending! The modern-day author/collaborators characters go to see a dress rehearsal of the Orestia. They then talk through the dramatic ending of the play (whose dialogue also seems dumbed down, though I haven't read the source) about how the ending parallels the ending of their story. Not good, NOT GOOD.

This is probably the worst thing I've read of my own volition. The only reason I finished it is because comics go really fast. Skip it at all costs.

F.
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oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #463 on: June 06, 2010, 12:28:53 AM »
The Absolute Sandman, Vols. I and II

The Sandman was released as a comic, and then released as a set of graphic novels.  Now it is being released as it should: one long epic, in chronological order. 

I have read a number of the graphic novels before, as I have been able to obtain them, in no particular order.  That was not the way to read the epic.  This is.

Neil Gaiman is amazing and this is one of his very best works.  Sure, the illustration is wonderful, but not usually jaw-dropping.  But Gaiman's story is intense and surprising and fantastic (in both senses) and deeply revealing about humanity. 

The Sandman is must reading for any reader of fantasy.  Or any reader of graphic novels.  Or any reader.

5/5

I still have the third volume to read.
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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #464 on: June 06, 2010, 04:35:51 PM »


After the two mediocre comics (luckily on loan from the lieberry) from a day ago, Blankets is a breath of fresh air. It is, perhaps, the best comic I've ever read. It's an autobiographical tale of growing up in Wisconsin during the 70's and 80's. We get three main stories, that of Craig and his brother, Craig and his first love, and Craig and God. These stories intertwine beautifully and the writing feels both natural and profound.

And the art! This is how you do black and white drawings. It's gorgeous.


Seriously, if you want to read something great, pick this one up.

A+.


The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis.

I re-read this for the first time since childood (we're talking pre-teens here) and it was great. A lot of fun ideas and clever writing going on. I will certainly be finishing the series.

A.
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oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #465 on: June 06, 2010, 11:30:25 PM »
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis.

I re-read this for the first time since childood (we're talking pre-teens here) and it was great. A lot of fun ideas and clever writing going on. I will certainly be finishing the series.

A.
You should have started with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. :(   Since you've read them before I guess it's not that big a deal, but still.

Glad you enjoyed this so much though! :) I love Narnia.

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #466 on: June 06, 2010, 11:45:13 PM »
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis.

I re-read this for the first time since childood (we're talking pre-teens here) and it was great. A lot of fun ideas and clever writing going on. I will certainly be finishing the series.

A.
You should have started with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. :(   Since you've read them before I guess it's not that big a deal, but still.

Glad you enjoyed this so much though! :) I love Narnia.

This is the order the box set I had when I was a kid came in. I didn't even know that there was another order until much later. This is what Lewis has to say:

Quote from:
I think I agree with your [chronological] order for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last, but I found I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.

And I always loved The Magician's Nephew.
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oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #467 on: June 06, 2010, 11:55:21 PM »
The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis.

I re-read this for the first time since childood (we're talking pre-teens here) and it was great. A lot of fun ideas and clever writing going on. I will certainly be finishing the series.

A.
You should have started with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. :(   Since you've read them before I guess it's not that big a deal, but still.

Glad you enjoyed this so much though! :) I love Narnia.

This is the order the box set I had when I was a kid came in. I didn't even know that there was another order until much later. This is what Lewis has to say:

Quote from:
I think I agree with your [chronological] order for reading the books more than with your mother's. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn't think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last, but I found I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published.

And I always loved The Magician's Nephew.
Yes, I read that Lewis quote, too, but I also read this in the Wiki article after it:

"However most scholars disagree with Harper Collins' decision and find the chronological order to be the least faithful to Lewis's intentions[3]. Scholars and readers who appreciate the original order believe that Lewis was simply being gracious to his youthful correspondent and that he could have changed the books' order in his lifetime had he so desired.[5] They maintain that much of the magic of Narnia comes from the way the world is gradually presented in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They believe that the mysterious wardrobe, as a narrative device, is a much better introduction to Narnia than The Magician's Nephew — where the word "Narnia" appears in the first paragraph as something already familiar to the reader. Moreover, they say, it is clear from the texts themselves that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was intended to be read first. When Aslan is first mentioned in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for example, the narrator says that "None of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do" — which is nonsensical if one has already read The Magician's Nephew.[6] Other similar textual examples are also cited.[7]"

If you read them when you were a kid as they were re-ordered by Harper Collins', of course, there's not much you can do about that now. I didn't read them them way, so I'm sure that has a lot to do with my preference.

However, I do like the idea of reading them in the order that Lewis imagined them. And he imagined LWW first.

Also, I think it's much more interesting to dive into the Narnian world as it's fully formed rather than beginning from its beginnings. Think, for example, how awesome something like The Matrix is when we are just thrown into that world. We get the history of it later with Neo, but there's an immense rush and gratification for a viewer when your mind is brimming with questions, questions that are gradually answered later once you've already experienced the world a little bit.

And don't think I'm dissing the Magician's Nephew! I love that book. I love all of them.

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #468 on: June 06, 2010, 11:58:44 PM »
My other big issue is that LWW isn't really my favorite. It's the one I know the most and with the movie I felt like I needed a new place to start. I do like the sense of wonder jumping right into Narnia, but I also love Aslan's song and that whole thing. And the world between worlds is a fantastic idea. I'd love to see an adaptation of it where justice can be done to the ideas. It's full on fantasy at its best.
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oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #469 on: June 06, 2010, 11:59:18 PM »
Lewis was not a reader of his books, only the writer (as if that isn't enough) and I think that TLTWATW is the best introduction to Narnia.  The Magician's Nephew is fine, I suppose, as an intro but the land itself isn't so wondrous as presented in Lucy's book.  It builds so well, with Aslan as the climax of the land.  And it does matter what order they are read.  The trilogy Caspian-Dawn Treader-Silver Chair really ought to be read that way because the children change and the reasons given are in order.  The Horse and His Boy must be read after TLTWATW because there are small spoilers there.  And, of course, The Last Battle must be read last.
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