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Author Topic: Rate the last book you read.  (Read 194190 times)

Steven O. Selsnik

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #510 on: July 19, 2010, 10:10:05 AM »


it is a book twinkie. not much nitritional value but it tastes great.

the story sucks you in and patterson's 3 page chapters really make you read 1 more, then 1 more, next thing you know you have been reading for 3 hours.
See the name at the bottom of the cover.  He wrote the book.  Patterson comes up with a story idea, hires a writer, and edits the final copy.  He's not really a writer at all.  He plays a lot of golf though, on your dollar.

This isn't to say the book is good or bad or a twinkie or whatever.  
yeah, i know, but the style is Patterson. Back when he actually wrote his books it was like that as well. Besides, it is easier for me to remember James Patterson than peter De Jonge or whomever is writing this month's book.
« Last Edit: August 03, 2010, 12:09:04 PM by pixote »

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #511 on: July 19, 2010, 03:10:21 PM »
The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

The man read this book. While reading, he thought back to the days before the great fires. As a child, his mother read "Robinson Crusoe." The Man liked that book. The man liked this book too, but it wasn't as good as that book. The man liked the boy in this book. The boy perfectly captured the spirit of a child. The man put the book down for a while after the kettle scene. It was a bit too much for the man.

The man thought he should rate this book, but he didn't. The man would only say that it kept the fire going, and that was enough.

tinyholidays

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #512 on: July 31, 2010, 05:14:42 PM »


Well, that was beautiful/wonderful/memorable/understated/lovely. Recommend. Recommend very much.

Guess I need to read that Ghost World thing.

oldkid

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #513 on: July 31, 2010, 08:29:38 PM »


This was simply amazing.  I love it when a book has such excellent pacing.  And the art was well done as well.  It reads just like the movie, which is good, but I need to see the film again to note the differences.  Which I will, since it's on my Top 100 Marathon.
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Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #514 on: July 31, 2010, 09:43:50 PM »
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville.

Only my second or so voyage into the urban fantasy/sci-fi genre and boy does Mieville go heavy on the city-building. Damn. I can't say I really got a sense of where things were in relation to others (though admitedly I didn't try that hard, didn't look at the map provided once), but it was hugely successful in creating a mood of the city. New Crobuzon is a hodge-podge, hot, smelly, breaking down city and the descriptions piled on top of each other go a long way to create the mood. Then there's the story, which is also pretty cool. There's a fat scientist as the lead, which is something that doesn't happen often. The sci-fi elements are great, crisis engines that are fueled on things going wrong and a small cleaning robot that may be more than it seems. And the fantasy elements are wonderful, especially all the different creatures that inhabit the city like the cactus men and the Weaver, a god-like spider that travels through multiple dimensions at once and speaks in one long monologue. And there's even a glimpse of Hell.

And I haven't even gotten to the whole idea of the book. There's a moth, see, and it's big and it eats people's subconscious. That's a great concept and it works well, though some of the portions where we see the world from their point of view could have been more... strange than they were. For such a radical creature their sections should be crazier, I'd think. Anyways. It's a huge book and I wasn't really ever tired of it. There are some truly scary scenes, especially those that describe human evils rather than the monster ones. If there's one idea in this book that stands out it's that of the Remade. You know those places where you get your hand chopped off for stealing something? The Remade are humans that are punished by having their arms replaced by robot arms or praying mantis arms or their heads are twisted around 180 degrees and even more horrific things. There's a story about a woman who kills her baby and what her Remaking is will stay with me for quite some time.

Mieville's world-building status cannot be denied. He's a master at it and the story and emotions are present and well done. As this is the first of three books set in New Corbuzon I'm sure I'll be checking out the others shortly.

A-.
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tinyholidays

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #515 on: August 01, 2010, 01:41:25 AM »


I hate it when I don't know that a film was derived from a book.

Junior

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #516 on: August 01, 2010, 02:12:47 AM »
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Written by J. K. Rowling, read by Stephen Fry)

A new year and a new mystery.
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ses

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #517 on: August 02, 2010, 08:23:51 PM »
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (by Stieg Larsson, narrated by Simon Vance)

Listened to the audio version of this.  I thought it was a great book.  The story was intricate and interesting and there was good character development. Warning, it is a bit graphic at some points, but that doesn't normally bother me.  I also thought it dragged on a bit at the end, but now that I have started the second book The Girl Who Played with Fire, I can see that Larsson was setting up the next part of the story.  I thought the narration was also very good.  I am going to check out the film this weekend, and I look forward to the next two books.

Just finished The Girl Who Played with Fire on audiobook.  I enjoyed this story as well, though not as much as the first.  I figured out parts of the story well before they were revealed, and thanks to the movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I knew what "all the evil" was.  It was still gripping and entertaining though.  On to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
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oneaprilday

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #518 on: August 02, 2010, 08:54:35 PM »
ses, did you ever say what you thought of P.D. James? I remember you starting a book of hers a while back?

ses

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Re: Rate the last book you read.
« Reply #519 on: August 02, 2010, 08:57:31 PM »
ses, did you ever say what you thought of P.D. James? I remember you starting a book of hers a while back?

I read her first Adam Dalgliesh novel, Cover Her Face.  I thought it was a light, fun, very British detective crime novel.  You don't learn much about Dalgliesh, rather you spend time more with the characters involved in the murder mystery, I do want to read more in this series, just haven't been able to yet. I hope to learn more about Dalgliesh, because he seems like an intriguing character. 
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