Topic: summer reading (Read 12666 times)

Allybee · « **on:** 24 May 2010, 23:21 »

I just picked up some tob robbins and a few books about buddhism for the summer. I'm actually reading reviews of these books on buddhism on amazon and it's amazing how heated people get about something that I regard as personal and up for at least some interpretation. anyways, I'm kind of lost as to what else to look into. I think I'll have a lot of free time this summer and I thought that seeing what other people are going for might jog my memory or inspire me. so what are you reading? is it light or dense? fiction or nonfiction? what is your favorite summer (ie, for pure enjoyment) book?

Avec · « **Reply #1 on:** 25 May 2010, 05:06 »

I recently finished Looking for Alaska by John Green. Its a fairly quick read and probably worth the few books it'll cost used. The person who suggested the book to me advised that I don't really read into the synopsis and just go at it without any prior knowledge. It definitely worked.

Inlander · « **Reply #2 on:** 25 May 2010, 06:31 »

If you're on a Kerouac kick I'd highly recommend Desolation Angels, if only for the amazing beginning section which describes him sitting on top of Mount Desolation being a fire watcher, and then coming down from the mountain to get a lift back into the city.

scarred · « **Reply #3 on:** 25 May 2010, 10:06 »

I've been working my way through the Dune series. It's interesting to see how well Frank Herbert's prose and storytelling abilities evolve with each volume. Dune, as much as I love it, seems stilted and juvenile compared to Children of Dune. It probably could've benefited from an additional hundred pages or so. Additionally, Dune Messiah is about half the length of any other book in the series and also has a noticeably larger typeface - it's essentially an extended prologue to Children of Dune.

I'm halfway through God Emperor of Dune now, and it's a fascinating take on religion. Herbert's also gotten a lot better at articulating his views on gender roles in society, so he seems much less like a bigoted prig in the later volumes.

After I'm done, my next conquest will be China Miéville's The City & The City, a book I've been stoked to read for a while, but only recently came out in paperback. However, it might be a while considering there's still Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune to complete. I'm a little OCD about reading series.

But I'm not gonna fuckin' touch the abominations that were spawned by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Fuck those guys.

mberan42 · « **Reply #4 on:** 25 May 2010, 13:25 »

If you want something to stay up late thinking about, House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is a fantastic, mind-boggling read.

In terms of non-fiction, I have The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Making Globalization Work by Joseph E. Stiglitz on my to-read list.

Right now, though, I'm plugging through the Wheel of Time series again, 'cause the new book came out recently and it's been years since I've read any of these books, so I want to be fresh when I read it. I'm on Lord of Chaos right now. Next on my fiction list is to re-read Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I read Red last summer and Green over Christmas break (along with the first 3 WoT books), so it's about time I read Blue again. Now that I've graduated from grad school, I actually have time (and energy) to read books for pleasure.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #5 on:** 25 May 2010, 14:04 »

I plan on finishing this massive book of H.P. Lovecraft stories I've been reading as well as probably Maus (assuming it wins the book talk poll thingy).

Beyond that, I've been thinking about rereading Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House which is a collection of his short stories, some of which are gloriously fan-fucking-tastic. Also been thinking about rereading 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea but I'm not sure if I'm ready for page after page of detailed scientific descriptions of mundane ocean life again (I only read it last summer, I think, for the first time)

There's also a new Dan Simmons book that sounds pretty interesting. I forget the name, but it's about a Native American boy who touches the dying General Custer's body and is possessed by his spirit (or something). Should be interesting; I've been enjoying the historical fiction phase Simmons has been going through lately.

BlahBlah · « **Reply #6 on:** 25 May 2010, 14:33 »

Quote from: Jeans on 25 May 2010, 06:17

It looks like this is going to be Beat Summer as far as my reading is concerned - I just finished On The Road and got The Town and the City for my birthday, and might try to pick up The Dharma Bums and The Subterraneans, maybe even collected poems. After that I was thinking maybe Hemingway or H.S. Thompson! I'm not sure though. First of all I'll have to finish whatever book the book club comes up with.

Read some thompson! He's probably my favourite author. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and fear and loathing on the campaign trail are both brilliant. Get The Great Shark Hunt after those, it has most of his best articles in it - kentucky derby, aztlan, etc.

I'm on a big David Foster Wallace kick right now. I read Infinite Jest a few months ago but just started the broom of the system this week and ordered some of his short story collections. I'd highly recommend Infinite Jest, it's a wonderful and completely enthralling novel. Don't let the length put you off.

Hoping to read a book every day or two in the summer.

De_El · « **Reply #7 on:** 25 May 2010, 14:33 »

My first read of the summer was Ender's Game, which I had never read before, but an abundance of free time and a pushy best mate finally convinced me. It was quite good! I don't really feel obliged to read anything else by Orson Scott Card, though, with the possible exception of Speaker for the Dead. I feel like filling in too many extraneous details, or associating lesser sequels or companion series with the book I liked so well may sour its charm.

Since then I've been slogging my way through book four of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, A Feast for Crows. It's definitely enjoyable reading, but it is a long book, and because of the way Martin split the plot and perspectives between this and the perpetually forthcoming 5th book, there's a lot less to make me want to tear through it like I did the first three books. Especially after the sheer number of game-changing events in the preceding book, A Storm of Swords, this book is much less easy to get through. It's not difficult reading, of course. There're just way fewer sympathetic characters and it feels like not as much is happening.

After that, I'm not sure! I picked up an old pulp thriller by John D. MacDonald at a thrift store on a whim, but I dunno if I want to go straight to another kind of genre fiction right after reading sci-fi and fantasy. It'll certainly be a much quicker read, but then I just have to wonder what to read again.

smack that isaiah · « **Reply #8 on:** 25 May 2010, 15:47 »

Quote from: De_El on 25 May 2010, 14:33

My first read of the summer was Ender's Game, which I had never read before, but an abundance of free time and a pushy best mate finally convinced me. It was quite good! I don't really feel obliged to read anything else by Orson Scott Card, though, with the possible exception of Speaker for the Dead. I feel like filling in too many extraneous details, or associating lesser sequels or companion series with the book I liked so well may sour its charm.

Although, the parallax novel to Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, is amazing. All of my friends who have read it prefer Shadow over Game. It follows Bean around, and reveals a lot. It's amazing, truly. I didn't like most of the books following Ender's Game too much, but all the ones about Bean (the Shadow series) were great.
And, Speaker for the Dead takes place centuries later, anyway, I don't think it fills in all too many details (although, it has been a while since I read it, perhaps it does).

De_El · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 May 2010, 09:42 »

Yeah! The fact that the narrative of Speaker for the Dead is so removed from that of Ender's Game is what made me think it had the most potential. I guess I may give Ender's Shadow a try, but not for a while yet.

scarred · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 May 2010, 11:05 »

Yeah, Ender's Shadow is good, but definitely not if you've immediately read Ender's Game preceding it. I spaced it out by a period of a few months and liked it a lot.

DavidGrohl · « **Reply #11 on:** 28 May 2010, 07:54 »

Starting to read The Dark Tower series. I'm not quite sure I like King's writing styles so far.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #12 on:** 28 May 2010, 16:05 »

just randomly picked up a book about Teddy Roosevelt at the grocery store on my lunch break.

that should be interesting.

Ozymandias · « **Reply #13 on:** 28 May 2010, 18:34 »

Quote from: De_El on 25 May 2010, 14:33

My first read of the summer was Ender's Game, which I had never read before, but an abundance of free time and a pushy best mate finally convinced me. It was quite good! I don't really feel obliged to read anything else by Orson Scott Card, though, with the possible exception of Speaker for the Dead. I feel like filling in too many extraneous details, or associating lesser sequels or companion series with the book I liked so well may sour its charm.

Speaker for the Dead is a drastically different book and may as well be the beginning of a quite different series. I enjoyed the series, unlike many, due to its xenobiology theories, but its religious and metaphysical themes still left me sour.

Metope · « **Reply #14 on:** 28 May 2010, 23:44 »

I read the first part of In Search of Lost Time by Proust in class a couple semesters back and I really liked it, so I've decided to spend a fair bit of the summer reading the rest. Or at least some of it, kind of a huge project seeing how I don't read much nowadays. I plan on changing that though, so we'll see.

a pack of wolves · « **Reply #15 on:** 29 May 2010, 09:52 »

Quote from: scarred on 25 May 2010, 10:06

After I'm done, my next conquest will be China Miéville's The City & The City, a book I've been stoked to read for a while, but only recently came out in paperback.

I just looked that up because the title intrigued me. I think I'll have to get it now, the concept sounds excellent.

De_El · « **Reply #16 on:** 29 May 2010, 09:59 »

the library I go to is closed till Tuesday, but when it opens up I'm borrowing a copy of Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor.

Zingoleb · « **Reply #17 on:** 29 May 2010, 10:55 »

Quote from: Allybee on 24 May 2010, 23:21

I just picked up some tob robbins?

Do you mean Tom Robbins? Because the really amusing thing is I was about to start a thread basically going "TOM ROBBINS WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK OF HIM" and just happened to glance in here first.

Johnny C · « **Reply #18 on:** 29 May 2010, 14:11 »

infinite jest is right after blood meridian on my list

KaosPilot · « **Reply #19 on:** 29 May 2010, 15:39 »

This summer I'm taking Thoreau's 'Walden' and 'Civil Disobedience' to the US with me. After that it's whatever the library in Old Forge has.

rynne · « **Reply #20 on:** 31 May 2010, 12:06 »

Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 25 May 2010, 14:04

There's also a new Dan Simmons book that sounds pretty interesting. I forget the name, but it's about a Native American boy who touches the dying General Custer's body and is possessed by his spirit (or something). Should be interesting; I've been enjoying the historical fiction phase Simmons has been going through lately.

Is Simmons' book out yet? I don't know much about him but picked up The Terror for cheap this winter and enjoyed it quite a bit. Also, which HPL collection are you reading (I ask 'cause he's my favorite author)?

Right now I'm reading some of Algernon Blackwood's John Silence stories. I just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray. I have lined up Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (re-reading, as it’s my favorite Pynchon novel); Borges' "Library of Babel", Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory; and a collection of Ambrose Bierce's ghost/horror stories. Also as the mood strikes me, I'm reading bits of Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #21 on:** 31 May 2010, 15:05 »

Yeah, I just saw it at the book store, I think it was called Black Hills.

and the HPL is some sort of "anniversery" (or something) edition of Necronomicon. It's poorly binded in shitty faux-leather with gilded lettering on the front and a picture of a cthulhu statue.

rynne · « **Reply #22 on:** 31 May 2010, 15:36 »

Yes, I've seen that Lovecraft book in stores. It looks like a good collection: it's got all of his major works, though the ordering perplexes me a bit.

If you're interested in Lovecraft, I recommend seeking out "The Mound," which he ghost-wrote for Zealia Bishop (it's available in The Horror in the Museum, a collection of his revisions). IMO, it stands with the best stories he put out under his own name, and contains the germs of themes he later expanded upon in At the Mountains of Madness and "The Shadow Out of Time."

Lines · « **Reply #23 on:** 31 May 2010, 17:28 »

My summer reading right now consists of mostly comics: Maus, Scott Pilgrim, Sandman, and a few others. I'm also planning on reading some books I haven't read, but have been meaning to for quite a while, such as Neuromancer, the other books from Quirk, and The Hitchhiker's Guide series.

Currently I'm working on The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, next will be Maus (for the discussion thread!), and then Persuasion so I can officially have read all of Austen's books.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #24 on:** 31 May 2010, 18:06 »

alright, I just ordered Maus and the new Simmons book.

woohoo

Inlander · « **Reply #25 on:** 31 May 2010, 18:12 »

It being the first day of winter here, I'm finally going to get around to reading Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman.

smack that isaiah · « **Reply #26 on:** 31 May 2010, 18:22 »

My personal summer reading list right now consists of Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons. Due to how little and how slowly I've been reading recently, that may end up being all I read.

However, I would love to read more Iain Banks, and plan on doing so eventually. I also want to reread Ilium and Olympos by Simmons. There's just so much to do and I always have so little time

Barmymoo · « **Reply #27 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 01:23 »

I'm reading Persuasion at the moment, I think I read it once before actually but I don't remember, and then I will maybe buy Maus too. I've never actually read a comic...

Barmymoo · « **Reply #28 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 01:52 »

I just bought Maus! And I've read bits of comics...

Barmymoo · « **Reply #29 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 01:52 »

I've read the Beano!

Barmymoo · « **Reply #30 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 02:12 »

... I saw the film...

StaedlerMars · « **Reply #31 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 05:50 »

I just bought the necronomicon. yay!

look out! Ninjas! · « **Reply #32 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 07:07 »

Quote from: Barmymoo on 01 Jun 2010, 02:12

... I saw the film...

Doesn't count.

Buttfranklin · « **Reply #33 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 09:35 »

Bone is a delightful comic book series, as well. Very accessible to both children and adults, and just as good and compelling to either.

pinkpiche · « **Reply #34 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 12:05 »

I'm reading Garrison Keillor - Lake Wobegon Summer 1956, just because it's so darn good and "elicit(s) a summer smile" as it says in the opening poem..

Other than that Sophie Calle - M'as Tu Vue..

Zingoleb · « **Reply #35 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 13:20 »

Quote from: Jeans on 01 Jun 2010, 02:35

The film didn't mention anarchism once despite it being the central theme of the entire comic! Evey was a prostitute accidentally approaching a policeman, she wasn't going on a romantic date after curfew! And the roses were violet carsons, not ruby wedding! Basically Hollywood screwed it almost as badly as they did with Swamp Thing (which is another comic you should read, once you get a little more into it).

This is why I watched the movie first. I wanted to thoroughly enjoy the movie before I thoroughly enjoyed the comic. One way street there.

yellowfoliage · « **Reply #36 on:** 01 Jun 2010, 21:00 »

I'm going to (finally) read Huckleberry Finn this summer. And now you guys are making me think I should reread Maus, which would provide a nice contrast to all the silly superhero nonsense I have been into lately. And of course Blood Meridian has been sitting on my Reader for some time...

LTK · « **Reply #37 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 11:34 »

Right now I'm going through Maus at a fast pace, and next I have another Terry Pratchett in the mail, as well as Mass Effect: Ascension. That should be interesting. I've also bought my dad For Crying Out Loud by Jeremy Clarkson for Father's day, so I'm likely to read that as well. Don't you like gifts of mutual enjoyment?

I'm also really loving Play.com, where I can get all these books for next to nothing, where they have sales every other day that are so massive you'll often have trouble finding a non-discounted article on the site.

Lines · « **Reply #38 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 12:27 »

I started to read Neuromancer, but I couldn't get into the dialogue style so I took it back to the library. Maybe I'll try again some other time, but I've got a stack of books waiting for me right now and I didn't want to finish it if I wasn't enjoying it. Yesterday I started Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I love it so far. I'll probably try to finish the series this summer. I'm waiting for Volumes 1 and 3 of Absolute Sandman from the library (I have 2 and 4 from there already) and when one of my friends comes back into town, I'll be borrowing Maus from her. I'm excited.

scarred · « **Reply #39 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 13:43 »

Gibson has some cool ideas but for the most part his prose kind of sucks.

Alex C · « **Reply #40 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 15:07 »

My problem with Gibson is that he can't really write characters who are ignorant or who even just wear their hearts on their sleeve very well. His detached tone and penchant for grabbing random details to fixate on works fine for a Case or a Turner, guys who are knowledgeable about the world they live in and who seem well-equipped to deal with any problem but their own internal issues. Maybe they're not the most interesting characters, but they're rarely jarring.

But when he has to lighten things up and write for the Chevettes and the Bobby Newmarks of his books, I find myself cringing a bit because it comes off as a li'l condescending a lot of the time. I have the same issue with Neal Stephenson.

scarred · « **Reply #41 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 15:22 »

I haven't read much Stephenson, apart from Snow Crash, and that was ages ago. Though I remember enjoying it rather thoroughly.

Alex C · « **Reply #42 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 15:26 »

Both Gibson and Stephenson rub me the wrong way sometimes. It's inevitable, I suppose; hypothetical cultures are their stock and trade, so I guess that some characterizations (and especially phrases) won't ring true for everyone.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #43 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 19:25 »

Gibson is pure cyberpunk, the original indeed, thus much of his prose is dehumanising. You'll notice that, apart from describing implants, most characters in the Neuromancer get more time dedicated to describing their cigarette lighters than their faces. I like that sort of style quite a lot. I think Gibson helped introduce a certain vicerality into sci-fi literature that has born much good fruit. There's also something inherently sexy (in a fetishistic way) about the way he describes things.

Stephenson is just Gibson turned up to 11.

Lines · « **Reply #44 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 20:16 »

It wasn't so much the prose itself or the characters/landscape that bothered me, it was the actual dialogue between characters. And sometimes certain bits of action were underdeveloped, such as Linda Lee's death. Some of the descriptions of Chiba were pretty awesome, but the dialogue brought it down for me. I guess I just don't like cyberpunk lingo.

JD · « **Reply #45 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 20:45 »

The Demonata is a fun series.

Alex C · « **Reply #46 on:** 12 Jun 2010, 20:49 »

I should probably stress that my earlier criticisms mostly apply to Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. As far as protagonists go, I feel like Case did the best job of fitting Gibsons' strengths. He's not a big talker and or even a very engaging character, per se, but that's sort of the point, since he's a guy for whom normal life had lost its flavor.

Buttfranklin · « **Reply #47 on:** 13 Jun 2010, 23:08 »

Quote from: Linds on 12 Jun 2010, 20:16

It wasn't so much the prose itself or the characters/landscape that bothered me, it was the actual dialogue between characters. And sometimes certain bits of action were underdeveloped, such as Linda Lee's death. Some of the descriptions of Chiba were pretty awesome, but the dialogue brought it down for me. I guess I just don't like cyberpunk lingo.

Agreed. I liked the opening description of the sky being the color of a television turned to a dead channel, but when he had to repeat it three times over the course of how far I got into the book, I thought to myself, "this guy kind of sucks at prose writing." I found the entire thing pretty boring and uninteresting. I didn't finish the book so I can't judge the whole thing, but my experience of it was one of mostly disappointment considering how influential the novel was.

You may want to check out Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. It's pretty crazy and off-beat but in a way I found engaging, not off-putting. It's like Neuromancer (the good bits), H.P. Lovecraft, the Maltese Falcon and... I don't know, I don't read a lot of surreal stuff, but it reminds me a little bit of Milan Kundera when he got more interested in writing about ideas and character-ideas than he did actual plot or story.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #48 on:** 14 Jun 2010, 16:50 »

I'm a couple of chapters into Dan Simmons' new one Black Hills and I'm really enjoying it. The style is absolutely nothing like any of Simmons' previous work (that I've read anyway), which is refreshing after the marathon that was Drood (excellent as it may have been, it was nothing short of some sort of literary endurance marathon).

Oddly enough, the book that it reminds me of the most is In The Face of My Enemy, which is an older pulp sci-fi book about an immortal, shape-shifting caveman as he lives through the millenia.
while we're on the subject, you should all try to find a copy of In The Face of My Enemy because you can prolly get it super cheap (it's out of print, but it's not very popular). It's no masterpiece but it's one of my favorite sci-fi books I've ever read.

Buttfranklin · « **Reply #49 on:** 14 Jun 2010, 18:37 »

Speaking of Sci-Fi, any self respecting fan of the genre should read The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. Love it or hate it, without it there would be no cyberpunk. I kind of chortled reading Neuromancer, thinking "Wow this guy just wants to be a hip Alfred Bester."

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Author Topic: summer reading (Read 12666 times)

Zingoleb

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