What Books Are You Guys Reading?

[frautotenkinder 1,025]

Just started Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. I'm really enjoying it!

[LadyGrey 6]

(I haven't seen any version of the movie. I really don't see how this book could ever work as a movie since everything that's interesting takes place in HH's head. The book is about psychology as much as anything else, and a movie that doesn't intimately detail his thoughts and opinions of the world and other people would lose a lot. Also, I imagine that in making a movie, it would be way too tempting to show sex, which would ruin the whole story).

If you look at what I said, I described the film as being great independent of the book. It's silly to write off a film you haven't seen because you know it won't be a completely faithful adaptation of the book you enjoyed. I would argue that the film does show a lot of the characters' attitudes and perspectives, which is one reason why it is a great film. Of course, it cannot go into the descriptive detail of a book, but it doesn't need to, since it's merits lie in other areas, like fantastic character portrayals and acting, excellent cinematography and mise-en-scene, and so forth. Even the first shot (of Lolita's foot) has immediate impact, just as the first passage of the book does. You may watch the movie and dislike it, but to say that you "really don't see how this book could ever work as a movie" is just silly. Watch the film, then say it doesn't work, if you still feel that way.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

You may watch the movie and dislike it, but to say that you "really don't see how this book could ever work as a movie" is just silly. Watch the film, then say it doesn't work, if you still feel that way.

Yeah, I didn't mean to say that the movie can't be good or that it would be impossible to make a good movie out of the book. What I really meant (and should have said) was that to make a literal, one-to-one translation of the book would completely fail. The movie would have to be clever and deal with things in a way that is very separate from the book (which you say it does). I really want to see the movie (the Kubrick one), so I'll let you know what I think if I see it in the next week or so.

[vbnautilus 48]

Just finished: Ender's Game by Orson Scott CardI asked a couple friends to suggest a science fiction book, and they both suggested Ender's Game. Of course, the book is great. How its' existence escaped my awareness for this long is beyond me. I remember in college, years ago, a friend of mine saying something about how "the enemy's gate is always down." Now, I get it.

Just finished this one myself. I resisted reading it for a long time, although I'm not sure why. I thought it was really good. Very satisfying to have such a smart protagonist.Anyone read the sequel, Speaker For The Dead?

[RonBurgundy 0]

just finished brothers karamazov. all in all, it's a little bloated, but is definitely epic in the best way.

[David_Sklansky 1,903]

I just read Lolita for the first time, and holy crap. That's one hell of a book. It completely blew me away. I can't do it justice by trying to describe it, I don't have nearly the eloquent brilliance of Nabakov. But if you haven't read it, please pick it up. It's pretty much a perfect book in every way. I knew I'd love it from the opening chapter. I think it does as good a job as anything could at summarizing why this book is so good:Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns. The whole book is funny, frightening, and excellent.

I may or may not have liked it.

[PokerPiper 0]

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

[SweetDee 0]

The Cowboy Way. It's the book version of the movie The Cowboy Way, with Kiefer Sutherland. Riveting. In one part of the book the two heroes go to a classy restaurant and order a steak by asking the waiter to "wipe it's nasty ass, put it on the grill and bring it to the table." I can't put it down.

[Randy Reed 0]

OH geez, let's see.Scarpetta - Blah.Terry Goodkind (Chainfire series)new book called The Book of Nines which picks up the series a couple thousand years in the future. It was Okay.Dawkins- Greatest Show on EarthRichard North Patterson Exile (very good) The Candidate (also good) and will read more of his.Some lady that has a mystery series that i'm reading a the last 2 of and I can't think of her name and no one here would be interested anyway.Senior Fitness (dammit Napa)A James Patterson called Sail (to pass the time driving)Just ordered End Game or whatever you guys were talking about and downloaded another of his books for next week.Probably some others but I can't think of them right now.

[SuitedAces21 2,722]

Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets

[SlapStick 0]

Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets

Getting my hands on that ASAP

[PokerPiper 0]

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

[solderz 0]

I am now reading this:

[solderz 0]

And of course, the sequel.

[Tactical Bear 3]

Just finished this one myself. I resisted reading it for a long time, although I'm not sure why. I thought it was really good. Very satisfying to have such a smart protagonist.Anyone read the sequel, Speaker For The Dead?

I've read the entire Ender saga (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind), as well as the Bean/Ender's Shadow saga (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant). None of them are even a quarter as good as Ender's Game. Card had a fantastic idea for a story, and built one of the more compelling characters I've ever read in in Ender Wiggin, but I just didn't love a 35 year-old Ender from 3,000 years in the future as much as the original. Card tries to recapture the Baby Geniuses magic with the Bean/Shadow series, even though some of the Bean stuff is fun to read, it's just not the same. Not fair to expect that, though.Note: I actually have not read Ender in Exile. I didn't even know it existed. Apparently it was published like 1.25 years ago.

[LongLiveYorke 38]

I'm probably going to have to read Nine Stories sometime soon.

[frautotenkinder 1,025]

I'm probably going to have to read Nine Stories sometime soon.

My favorite is A Perfect Day for Bananafish.

[dna4ever 2]

about 1/4th through Breaking Dawn, finished Eclipse a few weeks ago. Having to take a break from Breaking Dawn because my life coach has me reading The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box by The Arbinger Institute.

[JoeyJoJo 18]

my life coach

Elaborate?

[LongLiveYorke 38]

Elaborate?

[dna4ever 2]

Elaborate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaching#Life_coaching

[hank213 1,823]

I've read (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind), None of them are even a quarter as good as Ender's Game. Card had a fantastic idea for a story, and built one of the more compelling characters I've ever read in in Ender Wiggin, but I just didn't love a 35 year-old Ender from 3,000 years in the future as much as the original.

Concur. I'm finishing Children of the mind now and none of the books after Game pulled me in nearly as well as that one.

[Southern Buddhist 1]

On the plane going and returning from LA, I read two books: Curse of the NarrowsIt's about the 1917 Halifax Explosion. The Mont Blanc, a ship loaded with high explosives destined for the WWI front, was struck by another ship in the dangerous narrows between Halifax Harbor and the Bedford Basin. The burning ship then drifted into a pier and exploded, obliterating the northern end of the city. It was the largest explosion ever unleashed by human hands until Hiroshima.Two sentences from the book, one about the human suffering and one about the physical force of the blast, really stuck with me:

I saw my aunt, who was expecting a baby, dragging her little six-year-old boy by the hand. Her eyes were both blown out of her head and she was telling him to hurry; he was dead but she did not know it.

All 6,880,627 pounds of the Mont Blanc's iron hull shot up over a thousand feet, roiling within the initial fireball until much of it vaporized.

The other book I read was The Other Side of the Night: The Carpathia, the Californian, and the Night the Titanic Was Lost. The title is pretty self-explanatory, but it's an excellent close examination of the two ships closest to Titanic when she went down. Butler makes a solid case that the Californian was actually within sight of the sinking ship, watched her fire eight distress rockets, and didn't do a damn thing. It was a shocking violation of maritime rules (and ethics) about coming to the aid of a ship in distress. The Californian[/i was a mere eight miles away. Survivors saw it sitting there doing nothing. Between the time the [i]Titanic struck the berg and the tim it sank was two hours, twenty minutes. The Californian could have been there in time to rescue hundreds more people.The Carpathia, on the other hand, was 43 miles away from the Titanic and was a ship that could not make the journey in less than five hours. Yet when the captain picked up the ship's distress call (they were not close enough to see the rockets), he shut off the heat and water to the rest of the ship so that he could put every bit of power to the engines. He tore across the water, dodging ice, at a speed the ship was never rated for, had never reached before, and would never reach again. Then he displaced his own crew and passengers to take the 700 survivors he found in the lifeboats aboard, and cared for them as best he could until they reached New York. The Californian picked up no survivors, and claimed they saw no bodies to pick up [a blatant lie, since plenty of other ships saw and recovered bodies for several days afterward.]Both outstanding histories. I also started Bart Ehrman's God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question -- Why We Suffer, but I haven't gotten far enough into it to have formed an opinion.

[Randy Reed 0]

I've read the entire Ender saga (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, and Children of the Mind), as well as the Bean/Ender's Shadow saga (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant). None of them are even a quarter as good as Ender's Game. Card had a fantastic idea for a story, and built one of the more compelling characters I've ever read in in Ender Wiggin, but I just didn't love a 35 year-old Ender from 3,000 years in the future as much as the original. Card tries to recapture the Baby Geniuses magic with the Bean/Shadow series, even though some of the Bean stuff is fun to read, it's just not the same. Not fair to expect that, though.Note: I actually have not read Ender in Exile. I didn't even know it existed. Apparently it was published like 1.25 years ago.

sorry I read this. I am halfway through Ender's Game and it's friggin' fantastic. I did just order the 2nd one though and will surely read them anyway.Finished Ender's Game and starting the 2nd one tonight. Hopefully it's still good. EG was a pretty awesome.

[Iphonenkinder 558]

Just finished Game Change and loved it. Also, I'm caught up with the Jack of Fables and the Fables - Jack crossover. That series is so so strong. I'm thinking of starting the Walking Dead series next.Quick thanks to jury duty today, who made some of this reading possible.