I love the book, but I just don't seem to be able to read it for any prolonged period of time. I'd be completely engrossed in the book for like an hour, then I won't touch it for a week or so..... Maybe I should consider the audio option too
I have a feeling if I were reading it then I would be doing the same as you. Listening to it for my 30 minute commute and 45 minute treadmill run helps get through the rambling parts.
I read Angels and Demons when it came out and actually like it more than Da Vinci Code. Seemed to me to be a nice SF novel unusual for the genre. At the time, I couldn't have imagined that the man would write a novel that would "blow up" the world of literature, having an impact far beyond the quality of the work would merit, at least from where I sit. Maybe the reaction comes from the agnostic in me. I'd like to add that I've been getting into audio books. Great for a commute, on the road, or working out.
Are you a member of audible.com? We have been for years and are currently paying $13.95/month and get to download 2 books each month.
Unfortunately, I don't think the same offer is still around, but you should be able to find some plan that costs significantly less than any one audio book.
I had high expectations for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I fully expected to finish the last page and say "Wow, that was ****ing rad". So I finished that book in a few days, put it down and said that very thing. It's genre fiction, but it's genre fiction at the top of its game. There were so many cool plot threads, and they were tied up pretty nicely by the end. As others have said Lisbeth Salander is a bad ass. I wanted to pick up the sequel, but I have a book club on Monday and needed to read some Salinger. I wish it would have been Catcher in the Rye, but instead we got a pair of his novellas Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenter and Seymour: An Introduction. The second was a rambling esoteric essay that was hard work to slog through. The first was at least a story, but the rambling style turned me off. If my flight back to Seattle hadn't been delayed for 3 hours, I doubt I would have finished this. Reading shouldn't be so much work. I had always kind of wanted to go back and read Catcher in the Rye. I hated it when I was 14, but I'd like to think I've got better tastes in novels 24 years later. After this brief look at some Salinger's other work, I'm no hurry to read anything else of his for quite a while. So now I'm back to Steig Larsson and am reading The Girl Who Played with Fire. I'm about halfway through and am hoping to blaze through the rest tonight. These stories are like crack. You definitely want to finish it so you know how it will all turn out. .
Great series. I've finished five of the six so far, and have two others (Ben Kane's "The Silver Eagle," and Kim Stanley Robinson's "Fifty Degrees Below") to read before I get to the sixth.
There's something about that series that gives me pause. I'm a bit more picky with my fantasy these days after reading so much schlock for so many years. I like the Dresden Files, but they're very formulaic. To some degree if you've read one, you've read them all. I also have issues with the convoluted faerie, wizard, vampire hierarchies. I'm worried how that might translate into a straight fantasy setting. After seeing what GlassHalfFull and kgw said about it, I might have to try keeping an eye out for them at the used book store.
Spade & Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON, by Joe Gores. This is really 3 connected novellas. I just finished the first and loved it. Rather than attempt to explain the premise, I'll leave it to James Elroy. Dashiell Hammett died in January, 1961. Alfred A. Knopf and Joe Gores were thus unable to seek his approval for the writing of this prequel to The Maltese Falcon. The publisher’s announcement for Spade & Archer pissed me off for that reason. Knopf had kallously kashed in on the Raymond Chandler centenary with a volume of Philip Marlowe short stories, written by various contemporary crime writers; I thought the Falcon rip-off would be more of the same. I am delighted to tell you that it is not. The first difference is that the Hammett estate authorized Spade & Archer. The second difference lies in the singular distinction between the two writers. Chandler was a florid gasbag and was easy to imitate and satirize. A wise-cracking knight, a steady stream of similes and punchy one-liners. A burning hatred of authority often expressed in jejune riffs and a constant barrage of pique. Chandler wrote the man he wanted to be. Hammett wrote the man that he was afraid he had become. Chandler told you everything that Philip Marlowe was thinking. Hammett did not describe Sam Spade’s thought processes. Spade’s actions and spoken words implied who he was. His murky interactions with a range of mendacious characters filled in the remaining blanks. Questions hovered on the last page of The Maltese Falcon. We were not sure how this ruthless, skeptical and occasionally sentimental man developed the mental survival skills and moral stamina to successfully and ambiguously mediate the horrible events of the preceding pages. We wanted to know why--but Hammett never told us. Now Joe Gores does. And in doing so, he justifies Knopf’s kash-in. He has written a prequel that honors and enhances the legendary volume it enshrines, and seamlessly describes how Sam Spade got to the existential dead-end of the Black Bird. We now know enough. Gores is too skilled a writer and too deft a Hammett scholar to tell us everything. Spade & Archer is a revelatory novel that still plays its cards close to the vest. Gores was presented with two dramatic mandates: tell an engaging, stand-alone story and get us to the Bird. Take us to the crux of Spade’s divided loyalties and plumb his adulterous heart. The Maltese Falcon gave us Miles Archer’s death and the tenuous resolution of Spade’s affair with Ida Archer. We now know more. The soul-cracks we barely perceived in Falcon are that much harder to discern. We’re starting to get it. At its best, Spade & Archer is the stoic’s credo as whodunit, and the retroactive announcement that Hammett will soon launch the hard-boiled style. This novel feels pre-aged more than dated--as vintage Hammett often does to today’s readers. Gores has superbly recreated Hammett straddling the romantic novel and the urban novel in extremis. The language of the 1920’s seems properly tough and authentic, properly pallid when compared to modern gangster-speak. It’s the language of the Boom. The façade of the time and place will soon crack. Gores is warning us of what Hammett will imply to us, but never preach to us in the end. This is a very fine novel. Respectful, but too mindful of the source to be reverent--Spade & Archer exalts Dashiell Hammett, codifies his life’s work and decorously affirms the master’s serious intent. http://www.amazon.com/Spade-Archer-Prequel-Dashiell-Hammetts/dp/0307264645
Just started reading Hunter S. Thompson's The Rum Diary. It's a short book and a fun read, so I think this will be one I knock out in a day or two. Looking forward to the movie coming out later this year.
Much like the Dresden Files, there's nothing earth shattering about them, but they're pretty entertaining. One thing that's different is that you can tell there is a definite story arc to this series instead of it just being one off stories set in the same universe. I've read most of both series and would say I like the Dresden files slightly better.
Break-Through Rapid Reading by Peter Kump I wish I had read this book in college, would have been immensely useful. 20 mins a day (for the most part) for 4 weeks and I have increased my reading rate from about 400wpm to about 650 wpm with retention being a lot better. Recommended for college students or people who read a lot. Not sure If I would want to speed read books for enjoyment though.
I kind of developed a bunch of speed reading techniques as a voracious teenage reader. It has always been one of my most valuable personal skills. It is a useful trait for personal reading for enjoyment. I find I can devour a lot more stories that way. I will slow down to savor juicy bits or memorable scenes when I come across them. It is also difficult to leverage on dense or abstract reading. I read about 100 books a year, and there's no way I could do that without speed reading to some degree. With 2 small kids, there just isn't enough time.
The 2nd in the series doesn't reach the heights the first one does. I'd say Fire is just an above average read, whilst Dragon is truly a classic imo. Just finished 'The Help'. I couldn't put it down until the last page. Very well written considering its the author's debut novel. http://www.amazon.com/Help-Kathryn-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274127932&sr=8-1
I b****ed about having to read Salinger for a book club. We had the book club last night, and I was surprised that we had a pretty lively discussion about the material. It tended to veer off into more theoretical discussions, but I was still quite impressed that we were able to keep a discussion going for nearly 2 hours. I think I'm going to like this new book club. We're reading Middlesex for our next book, which I've had on my bookshelf for far too long. Of course it doesn't hurt that the club meets at a James Beard winning chef's house. We had kobe beef, some beautiful asparagus, and premium French wine last night. Good literature is good literature, but good literature goes down better with good food. :grin:
i think it would be interesting to be in a book club. it just seems like the people might be a little off. i live in austin though, im sure there are a ton of them.
I hated my last book club. It was 6 couples (all with 2 kids). We had a rule that books couldn't be more than 300 pages because people wouldn't read them. It pissed me off because only 4 people would read the books anyways. The conversation was all about the kids. Maybe we'd talk about the book for 5 minutes. Lame. We quit\got fired from the book club, which was welcomed by my wife and me. All 5 other couples send their kids to a preschool, which we've been locked in a 4 legal battle with. That made for some awkward conversation. "The kids like the school." "That's a shame. Department of Early Learning is investigating them and might shut them down at any time." It helps to have people that have somewhat similar tastes in books. Another problem I had with the previous club was the diverse tastes. We'd read non-fiction followed by classic followed by weird Sci Fi. There were equal numbers of hits and duds with those selections. I think after this Salinger misstep, we'll be selecting books that are more to the group tastes. We kind of have a rule that you can't suggest a book unless you've read it. If your book is the next book to be read, you need to have some discussion topics prepped for the club meeting. Luckily a lot of recent publications come with book club discussions topics printed in the back of the book. If you can't get a group together, most book stores have a number of book meetings over specific books or genres. I know Barnes and Noble does them. It is nice to discuss a good book with other people. I talk with co-workers about movies or TV shows, but I hate when I read a top notch book and have nobody to compare impressions with.
I knew the gist of the book before and had seen some of the PBS special but its still a very good read.
