Reading any good books? - Page 40

Gwaimir Windgem · 01-18-2007, 12:56 AM

Finished Boethius; he was really cool. He operates in the grand Socratic tradition of making numerous logical fallacies and saying great things with them. I didn't like some of what he said, but most of it was v. good, and his personification of Philosophy as a great lady using rhetoric, poetry, and music, was great fun. I'm currently reading the Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, Veritatis Splendor, an encyclical by HH Pope John Paul II of blessed memory, and The Collar, a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the inside of a seminary. I'm also going to start reading the Divine Comedy soon.

Finrod Felagund · 01-19-2007, 03:22 AM

Just got the Complete Sherlock Holmes and am quite enjoying it.

***RÃan*** · 01-20-2007, 07:12 PM

Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - read it in one sitting, couldn't put it down!

The first time the "change" happens is reeeeely creepy!!

Curubethion · 01-20-2007, 07:27 PM

Heh, funny coincidence! I'm about halfway through that myself! It's a sad, very haunting story...and I agree, the "change" is pretty creepy.

EDIT: Finished it...needless to say, the ending was really good. Intense. And it left me thinking.

***RÃan*** · 01-21-2007, 11:34 PM

yes, it's very thought-provoking!

Lief Erikson · 01-22-2007, 01:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curubethion

No worries about that in Martin. Pretty much all of the threads key into the main plot, which...well, I can't really tell you, because it's a spoiler, spurred on by something that happens at least midway through the book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

I'd suggest Martin as well. He writes long books like Jordan, but is much better at self-editing. Probably because he spent a lot of time as an editor throughout his life.

From purely the standpoint of prose, I'd say he's arguably the best fantasy writer I've read. His only shortcoming, in my point of view, is that he could add a bit more "big picture" fantasy into his series, but that might be addressed later, since there is still more to come.

I'm definitely looking forward to trying out his fantasy books, now

. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll inform you both how I like it, when I get around to reading it.

***Earniel*** · 01-22-2007, 05:39 AM

I read two of the three Ring World novels by Larry Nivel over the weekend. They were enjoyable enough.

Lief Erikson · 01-22-2007, 12:34 PM

Two books in two or three days? Yes, they must have been "enjoyable enough"

. That's a large block of hours.

***Earniel*** · 01-22-2007, 01:00 PM

They were okay. I have no problem sitting holed up with a book for several hours and I had the whole Sunday to do so. We also lit the fireplace in the library and it's very comfy in there then, so not at all difficult to stay put for a few hours.

Lief Erikson · 01-22-2007, 01:03 PM

I'm glad you had fun. I enjoy reading for many hours on end too, but I usually don't do it unless I am greatly enjoying the book.

Except for a couple times where I read the book all the way through just because I'd already gotten a long way into it, even though I wasn't enjoying it much.

Curubethion · 01-23-2007, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownjenkins

I'd suggest Martin as well. He writes long books like Jordan, but is much better at self-editing. Probably because he spent a lot of time as an editor throughout his life.

Or because he doesn't have a wife as an editor...

Snowdog · 01-27-2007, 04:27 PM

The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich

Its a good read into the life of German soldiers on the Russian front as they retreated from Stalingrad in 1943.

Curubethion · 02-26-2007, 10:11 PM

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. A very interesting read, and a good psychological novel! The epilogue was great!

I feel extraordinary today.

hectorberlioz · 02-27-2007, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curubethion

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. A very interesting read, and a good psychological novel! The epilogue was great!

I feel extraordinary today.

Thats because you don't have to spend half your life in a Siberian prison

***RÃan*** · 02-27-2007, 01:08 PM

I'm re-reading Kipling's Just So Stories to the kiddos - really charming little collection of pieces, meant to read out loud, too. We just read "The Beginning of Armadillos" last night.

elven dragonrider · 02-27-2007, 10:27 PM

I'll have to say my favorite book/trilogy is the Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Closely following is the Inheritance trilogy by Christoper Paolini (Eragon and Eldest). Currently I am reading A Seperate Peace for school, and it is getting really depressing. Every book assigned this year is depressing.

Gwaimir Windgem · 02-28-2007, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

I'm re-reading Kipling's Just So Stories to the kiddos - really charming little collection of pieces, meant to read out loud, too. We just read "The Beginning of Armadillos" last night.

I loved those stories; they're marvellous.

Grey_Wolf · 03-01-2007, 05:03 AM

At the moment Im reading The Battle For Scania which is about the Swedish conquest of the Eastern province of Denmark.

***RÃan*** · 03-01-2007, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

I loved those stories; they're marvellous.

Oh, I'm glad someone else here has read them!

I love the "Best Beloved" that the reader says - "This, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off Times." ... "And so that was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?" etc.

tolkienfan · 03-06-2007, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curubethion

Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. A very interesting read, and a good psychological novel! The epilogue was great!

I feel extraordinary today.

I just finished Crime and Punishment this morning. It was great, I really liked it.

01-18-2007, 12:56 AM	#781
Gwaimir Windgem Dread Mothy Lord and Halfwitted Apprentice Loremaster Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA Posts: 10,820	Finished Boethius; he was really cool. He operates in the grand Socratic tradition of making numerous logical fallacies and saying great things with them. I didn't like some of what he said, but most of it was v. good, and his personification of Philosophy as a great lady using rhetoric, poetry, and music, was great fun. I'm currently reading the Four Loves by C. S. Lewis, Veritatis Splendor, an encyclical by HH Pope John Paul II of blessed memory, and The Collar, a fly-on-the-wall perspective of the inside of a seminary. I'm also going to start reading the Divine Comedy soon. __________________ Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis. Nulla talem silva profert, fronde, flore, germine. Dulce lignum, dulce clavo, dulce pondus sustinens. 'With a melon?' - Eric Idle

01-19-2007, 03:22 AM	#782
Finrod Felagund King of Nargothrond Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Canada! eh? Posts: 2,002	Just got the Complete Sherlock Holmes and am quite enjoying it. __________________ "THE EAGLES ARE COMING, THE EAGLES ARE COMING......AND A MOTH!!!!!"

01-20-2007, 07:12 PM	#783
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	Just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - read it in one sitting, couldn't put it down! The first time the "change" happens is reeeeely creepy!! __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

01-20-2007, 07:27 PM	#784
Curubethion Fenway Ranger, Lord of Red Sox Nation Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: College! Posts: 1,976	Heh, funny coincidence! I'm about halfway through that myself! It's a sad, very haunting story...and I agree, the "change" is pretty creepy. EDIT: Finished it...needless to say, the ending was really good. Intense. And it left me thinking. __________________ Adventure...betrayal...heroism... Atharon: where heroes are born. My wife once said to meâ€”when I'd been writing for ten or fifteen yearsâ€”that I could always go back to being a nuclear engineer. And I said to her, 'Harriet, would you let someone who quit his job to go write fantasy anywhere near your nuclear reactor? I wouldn't!' (Robert Jordan) Last edited by Curubethion : 01-21-2007 at 06:16 PM.

01-21-2007, 11:34 PM	#785
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	yes, it's very thought-provoking! __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

01-22-2007, 05:39 AM	#787
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	I read two of the three Ring World novels by Larry Nivel over the weekend. They were enjoyable enough. __________________ We are not things.

01-22-2007, 12:34 PM	#788
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	Two books in two or three days? Yes, they must have been "enjoyable enough" . That's a large block of hours. __________________ If the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. ~Oscar Wilde, written from prison Oscar Wilde's last words: "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do."

01-22-2007, 01:00 PM	#789
*Earniel* The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium) Posts: 14,363	They were okay. I have no problem sitting holed up with a book for several hours and I had the whole Sunday to do so. We also lit the fireplace in the library and it's very comfy in there then, so not at all difficult to stay put for a few hours. __________________ We are not things.

01-22-2007, 01:03 PM	#790
Lief Erikson Elf Lord Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Fountain Valley, CA Posts: 6,343	I'm glad you had fun. I enjoy reading for many hours on end too, but I usually don't do it unless I am greatly enjoying the book. Except for a couple times where I read the book all the way through just because I'd already gotten a long way into it, even though I wasn't enjoying it much. __________________ If the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. ~Oscar Wilde, written from prison Oscar Wilde's last words: "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do." Last edited by Lief Erikson : 01-22-2007 at 01:04 PM.

01-27-2007, 04:27 PM	#792
Snowdog DÃºnedain Ranger of the North Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: The Ruins of Arnor Posts: 892	The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich Its a good read into the life of German soldiers on the Russian front as they retreated from Stalingrad in 1943. __________________ "I am an outlaw, I was born an outlaw's son. The highway is my legacy, on the highway I will run."

02-26-2007, 10:11 PM	#793
Curubethion Fenway Ranger, Lord of Red Sox Nation Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: College! Posts: 1,976	Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky. A very interesting read, and a good psychological novel! The epilogue was great! I feel extraordinary today. __________________ Adventure...betrayal...heroism... Atharon: where heroes are born. My wife once said to meâ€”when I'd been writing for ten or fifteen yearsâ€”that I could always go back to being a nuclear engineer. And I said to her, 'Harriet, would you let someone who quit his job to go write fantasy anywhere near your nuclear reactor? I wouldn't!' (Robert Jordan)

02-27-2007, 01:08 PM	#795
*RÃan* Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!) Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Not where I want to be ... Posts: 15,254	I'm re-reading Kipling's Just So Stories to the kiddos - really charming little collection of pieces, meant to read out loud, too. We just read "The Beginning of Armadillos" last night. __________________ . I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ã‘Ã¡ Ã«?* Ã³Ãº Ã©Ã¤ Ã¯Ã¶Ã¼ Ã–Ã± Ã‰ Ãž Ã° ÃŸ Â® Ã§ Ã¥ â„¢ Ã¦ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lÃ³mÃ«! AurÃ« entuluva!

02-27-2007, 10:27 PM	#796
elven dragonrider Elven Warrior Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Confusion Lane, on the back of a dragon, or on horseback. Posts: 186	I'll have to say my favorite book/trilogy is the Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. Closely following is the Inheritance trilogy by Christoper Paolini (Eragon and Eldest). Currently I am reading A Seperate Peace for school, and it is getting really depressing. Every book assigned this year is depressing.

03-01-2007, 05:03 AM	#798
Grey_Wolf Elf Lord Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mirkwood, well actually I live in North-west Scania, Sweden Posts: 9,481	At the moment Im reading The Battle For Scania which is about the Swedish conquest of the Eastern province of Denmark.

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