Book jam - what you all reading?

Punchy said:
Halfway through the Divergent series. If it weren't skewed towards teenage girls it'd be better, but it's alright for what it is.

:facepalm:
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I read the Hunger Games trilogy and thought those were decent. I'm not too convinced on any of the Divergent stuff... looks a wee bit "Twilight" for my tastes.
 
baimun said:
I read the Hunger Games trilogy and thought those were decent. I'm not too convinced on any of the Divergent stuff... looks a wee bit "Twilight" for my tastes.
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It's def not as good as Hunger Games, but it's no twilight either. We'll see. The premise has promise, but I'm kinda tired of the heroic teen books.
 
I understand the demographic.... but you can only empower the teens so much. They're not ALWAYS the hero, always right... sometimes their elders actually know what the fuck they're doing.


The "We actually know what we're doing, you lazy iHippies" games.

Hmm.... maybe I've just come up with a premise for a book. :embarrassed:
 
Just this
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baimun said:
I read the Hunger Games trilogy and thought those were decent. I'm not too convinced on any of the Divergent stuff... looks a wee bit "Twilight" for my tastes.
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I watched the 1st 2 movies ( which I enjoyed a lot more than I'd expected to) then read the 3rd book to see how it finished.

It was all a bit twee and angsty for my liking but anything that gets kids reading is great in my opinion.

We need someone to come up with a series that boys will like.

Not really similar but if you're into you're kind of weird teeny books I started reading the Tunnels series a few years back. It's about a kid and his dad who dig tunnels and end up unearthing this mental underworld where mole like people hate humans.

I got to book 4 or 5 and then missed the next updates but they're actually really good and I pretty much never like fiction so take that for what it's worth.
 
I'm reading the Graham Nash memoir. Not a huge fan of his, but I got the book for my Dad (an autographed copy!) for Christmas and he and my mom finished it so I'm giving it a go. Graham's a bit of a twat at times, but the content is interesting.
 
RE: Hunger Games/ Divergent

Drummergirl got me to read both of these. I've finished Hunger Games and have seen the 2 movies that are out. I read the first of the Divergent Series.

So far, I agree with the comments here. Hunger Games was better. Both could use a little less of the "teen girl" shit, but that's who it's designed for. But Divergent is definitely worse than that. To me it read like this:

"Title Character girl does this thing to develop the plot. Oh, look at Title Character Boy. He makes me feel like this. He's doing that. Does he like me? Does he notice me? I don't like him. No, now I do like him. I'm so confused and teenagery. [7 more paragraphs] Oh wait, now I'm forced to do something to develop the plot. [2 paragraphs] OK, now, where was I? Oh yeah! So more about Title Character Boy and how he makes me feel inside and how confused I am about these weird "down under" feelings. [15 paragraphs]"

The funny thing is, I thought Hunger Games were OK. At least for a book I was only reading to have something to talk to drummergirl about and to have a reference for when we went to see the movie. But then she read Divergent and was raving about it and how much better it was. And if I liked Hunger Games at all, I was going to LOVE Divergent!! ... Not so much.

Anyway, I just finished How To Brew by John Palmer, as mentioned in my Home Brew thread. That and Divergent are the only books I've read all year. :embarrassed: I've been really bad about reading so far this year. So I'm currently between books and not sure what to choose. I might do the second Divergent book, just for a quick book to put another notch on the bed post, and get the series over with. There are tons I've been meaning to get to though. While I decide I'll continue reading a few essays from Arguably - Christopher Hitchens.

Some on the bookshelf that I've been putting off for awhile:
Ender's Game
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bryson
Several history books on Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln, etc.
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Art of Fielding
...

Shit I just need to stop listing. There are too many and not enough time. I just need to pick one up and start reading.
 
I just got finished reading all 4 of the Robert B. Parker 'Cole & Hitch' westerns: Appaloosa, Resolution, Brimstone, & Blue-Eyed Devil.

I loved the dry humor the two main characters have. The movie Appaloosa was almost exactly like the book other than where the big gunfight took place at (plains town in a corral vs. a big Spanish mission), but the movie didn't convey the dry wit both Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch had.


Now I am reading 'The Iron King' by Maurice Druon. Written in the 1950's about the time period in France right after the French King killed all the Templar Knights.

I only bought it because it has a quote from George RR Martin on the cover: "This is the original Game Of Thrones"

We'll see….
 
Chicken Man said:
I'm reading the Graham Nash memoir. Not a huge fan of his, but I got the book for my Dad (an autographed copy!) for Christmas and he and my mom finished it so I'm giving it a go. Graham's a bit of a twat at times, but the content is interesting.
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I got that on my Kindle. I am a big Graham Nash fan, but felt that the book didn't really reveal anything new. All the CSN&Y stuff has been been often told. I would have liked more on his solo work, which he pretty much dismissed.
 
I almost forgot.... When I was watching True Blood on TV, I saw that it was based off of a series of novels. I picked up the first one and...... :annoyed: :facepalm:


Absolutely the worst dreck I've ever seen put to page. I have never read a harlequin romance novel but I can't imagine they're worse than this dribble. All the male characters were Adonis Gods and the "women done wanted ta jump all their bones." The "vampire" part was less developed than Twilight (if that's possible). Wow. I didn't even finish the first book. I had to read some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker to jump start my brain again. :embarrassed:
 
baimun said:
I almost forgot.... When I was watching True Blood on TV, I saw that it was based off of a series of novels. I picked up the first one and...... :annoyed: :facepalm:


Absolutely the worst dreck I've ever seen put to page. I have never read a harlequin romance novel but I can't imagine they're worse than this dribble. All the male characters were Adonis Gods and the "women done wanted ta jump all their bones." The "vampire" part was less developed than Twilight (if that's possible). Wow. I didn't even finish the first book. I had to read some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker to jump start my brain again. :embarrassed:
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I love reading mystery novels by women; I got a quarter of the way into the first novel of that series and gave up. I rarely start a book without finishing it, but that rated that treatment.
 
Agreed Gary. I didn't even sell it at a local bookstore... I'm saving at least one person from reading it. :)

My Mom loved Agatha Christie novels.... You?
 
Agatha Christie is good. I also like Dorothy Sayers, Marcia Mueller, Sue Grafton, and a bunch of others who write mostly Kindle ninety-nine cent books. Most of the current male mystery writers are more into suspense and gore rather than mystery. For male writers I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books, Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbar series, Ellery Queen, and Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason and the Donald Lam series he wrote as A.A. Fair.
 
I just don't have a whole lot of time to read but have been slowly getting through Dan Brown Inferno. I've been wanting to get into the Game of Thrones books but again it would take me months to read them.
 
@eloydrummerboy - yeah, that's pretty much it. If you can tell yourself to break the Divergent series though, Ender's Game is more worth the reading time, in my opinion, even though Card is a bit of a tool.
 
Punchy said:
@eloydrummerboy - yeah, that's pretty much it. If you can tell yourself to break the Divergent series though, Ender's Game is more worth the reading time, in my opinion, even though Card is a bit of a tool.
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Actually that's a good choice. It should be a quick enough read (at least quicker than the beer book was during chapters while reading about alpha and beta amylase reactions with short and long strain sugars, water PH and how to modify it with salts and calcium solubles, etc. etc.) Plus there's a movie coming out (out already?). I enjoy reading books then seeing the movie. I think I'll go ahead and start it soon. I'll save the 2nd Divergent book for later in the year. Find a good mix between reading it soon so as to not forget what was in the first book, but waiting long enough so I remember it by the time the 2nd movie comes out.
 
Enders Game movie came out already. I rented it on Redbox a week or two ago. It's been several years since I read the book and it did deviate a bit, but successfully captured the spirit of the book.
 
I really need to get back into recreational reading, but finding the time to dig deep into a novel is hard these days. I like to get so immersed I spend hours and hours.

Best I've done lately is revisited some old favorites from this

Essential-Ellison.jpg
 
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