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Post by Calvinball on Feb 6, 2018 20:39:57 GMT -5
Well 14 books and 4.4 million words later I have finally finished The Wheel of Time. The two big criticisms about this series is books 8-10 are a bit of a slog and Robert Jordan doesn't do a good job of portraying his female characters, and both these criticisms are totally fair. However it's considered a staple of the genre for a very good reason, with a fantastic cast of characters, tremendous worldbuilding, an incredible magic system, and a roller coaster of a story I had a blast with the time I spend in this world.
If anyone has an interest in epic fantasy and is curious in WoT but is put off by the size of the series I would say give it a whirl anyway. The first book can work nicely as a standalone and the first three can work well as a trilogy, if you don't love it after three books just put it down, but if you find yourself enjoying it strap in because it only gets better.
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mikexpresley
Life is not a product to be consumed. Refuse to be part of murder. Wash the blood from your hands.
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Post by mikexpresley on Feb 13, 2018 15:04:45 GMT -5
I'm about to finish a book called Project Animal Farm. It's about animal agriculture. Last book I read before this was called Glow Kids. It's about how technology and "screen time" does horrible shit to young children's minds. Must read if you're a parent. My next book is Diet For A New America. Also about preachy vegan shit haha.
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Post by tao on Feb 19, 2018 14:14:51 GMT -5
Finished "The Clockwork Dynasty", which was excellent, and now moving on to this:
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Post by aquafina on Feb 26, 2018 12:43:25 GMT -5
I'm about to finish a book called Project Animal Farm. It's about animal agriculture. Last book I read before this was called Glow Kids. It's about how technology and "screen time" does horrible shit to young children's minds. Must read if you're a parent. My next book is Diet For A New America. Also about preachy vegan shit haha. I am going to pick up Glow Kids. My son is 2.5 and my wife and I battle so hard with the screens and letting him use anything like that. Before I was a parent I was all about I will never let my kid use an ipad or any of that buttttttttt that was before I knew how hard it was to be a parent lol. I am going to check it out though for sure.
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mikexpresley
Life is not a product to be consumed. Refuse to be part of murder. Wash the blood from your hands.
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Post by mikexpresley on Mar 1, 2018 9:37:27 GMT -5
I'm about to finish a book called Project Animal Farm. It's about animal agriculture. Last book I read before this was called Glow Kids. It's about how technology and "screen time" does horrible shit to young children's minds. Must read if you're a parent. My next book is Diet For A New America. Also about preachy vegan shit haha. I am going to pick up Glow Kids. My son is 2.5 and my wife and I battle so hard with the screens and letting him use anything like that. Before I was a parent I was all about I will never let my kid use an ipad or any of that buttttttttt that was before I knew how hard it was to be a parent lol. I am going to check it out though for sure. We were the same before my son was born. Swore to never let Finn stare at the TV and play on our phones, etc. Then, like you said, it's easy to get shit done if you can let them "zone out" for a while. After a while they end up constantly asking for screen time and video games and such. At about five his behavior started to get really nasty and he'd throw INSANE fits when you'd try to get him to put down the ipad or wii or whatever. It always ended up being a big deal. Then my wife picked up glow kids, read it, made me read it and almost completely eliminated screens. He's almost ten now and I think we're on three years of nearly zero screen time. It sucked at first because he resisted so hard. It's like crack to their fragile little brains. He hasn't played on our phones or an ipad since. No video games at home. Only arcade shit if we're at a birthday party or something. We watch a movie together as a family on Friday night and maybe an hour or two of TV(always together) on the weekend if it's shitty outside or something. No more dvds in the car either. His behavior improved greatly almost immediately. I can't recommend this book enough.
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Post by grimkvnt on Mar 4, 2018 2:12:00 GMT -5
Just finished up Brandon Sanderson's "The Way Of Kings" from his series "The Stormlight Archive" great book, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series!
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Post by Calvinball on Mar 4, 2018 20:57:41 GMT -5
Just finished up Brandon Sanderson's "The Way Of Kings" from his series "The Stormlight Archive" great book, and I'm excited to read the rest of the series! Oh oh oh, you have just opened up an entire can of worms, Stormlight Archive is my favorite series ever! Have you read any other Sanderson stuff or is this your first trip?
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Post by Calvinball on Mar 18, 2018 16:44:43 GMT -5
Just finished Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, it's the first book of Malazan Book of the Fallen. I've heard a lot about this book and this series before jumping into and it common theme was the first book is TOUGH, you're dropped right into the middle of the action with little explanation of what's going on or why we go here, you're just exposed to the magic system and it's not very well explained. And all of that was accurate, I found at times I was just lost didn't know where I was or how I got there, the cast is so huge that a lot of the times I got characters mixed up or didn't know who was on what side. That being said this book has upside, there is no fluff and no bullshit, the humor is subtle and enjoyable, and I'm left intrigued. I heard this series get's much better or more fleshed out as it goes on and a lot of people consider it to be the finest series they've ever read so I'm excited to move forward. But as far as this one goes 3.5/5.
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mikexpresley
Life is not a product to be consumed. Refuse to be part of murder. Wash the blood from your hands.
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Post by mikexpresley on Mar 19, 2018 7:42:25 GMT -5
Just finished another book. "Always Looking Forward" by Walter Bond. It's a group of essays by a dude who's in prison for arson. He burned down a leather factory, a mink place and a restaurant in the name of Animal Liberation. Super interesting read if you're Straight Edge or Vegan or interested in either. I can't say I agree with him on all of his points of view but it definitely got me wanting to listen to Firestorm and do 90s shit haha.
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Post by Glitch on Apr 2, 2018 11:24:37 GMT -5
Now reading: Gucci Mane's autobiography
Together with Walden and John Joseph's Evolution of a Cro-Magnon. Gotta up my reading attitude.
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Post by Calvinball on Apr 4, 2018 19:06:30 GMT -5
I dnf'd a few things. Firstly I think I'm going to DNF Malazan, there's just too much going on and I can't keep track of things I would like to keep track of. I also got Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, I really like this author as a person he's very active on reddit and in the community but this book was just sad, everything about it was sad, MC wanted to kill his enemies MC wanted to kill his friends, MC wanted to kill everyone. I'm cool with grimdark but I need more to the story than just dark.
Think I'm going to start the Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin here soon.
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Post by Velocity on Apr 5, 2018 0:02:54 GMT -5
I dnf'd a few things. Firstly I think I'm going to DNF Malazan, there's just too much going on and I can't keep track of things I would like to keep track of. I also got Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, I really like this author as a person he's very active on reddit and in the community but this book was just sad, everything about it was sad, MC wanted to kill his enemies MC wanted to kill his friends, MC wanted to kill everyone. I'm cool with grimdark but I need more to the story than just dark. Think I'm going to start the Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin here soon. Noooooooooooooooooo!
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Post by Calvinball on Apr 5, 2018 12:18:29 GMT -5
I dnf'd a few things. Firstly I think I'm going to DNF Malazan, there's just too much going on and I can't keep track of things I would like to keep track of. I also got Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, I really like this author as a person he's very active on reddit and in the community but this book was just sad, everything about it was sad, MC wanted to kill his enemies MC wanted to kill his friends, MC wanted to kill everyone. I'm cool with grimdark but I need more to the story than just dark. Think I'm going to start the Three-Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin here soon. Noooooooooooooooooo! I tried man I tried, my reading pace has slowed down and I'd have to force myself to pick up my kindle to get through it. I learned a lot about myself and when I need to DNF a novel or a series. I'm not going to say it's a bad series because it's so beloved but it's just not for me.
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Post by essien on May 17, 2018 11:50:08 GMT -5
I just finished reading ZOO by Otsuichi. It's a collection of dark short stories, along vaguely similar lines to Palahniuk's Haunted (but without an overarching narrative). It relied quite a lot on literary gimmicks (unreliable narrators/twists towards the end of the stories) but I found it enjoyable and disturbing in equal measure. It was originally written in Japanese and while it's a good translation, there was a typo towards of one of the stories which totally ruined what had been a great story until then.
Also this year I've read Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata, which is a classic Japanese novel about a romance between a geisha and a wealthy businessman. It might be because I wasn't familiar with the form of this novel or it might have been a poor translation but I found it pretty difficult to follow at times. I found it interesting from a cultural perspective and there were a few really poetic parts that resonated with me, but I can't really recommend it.
Before that, I read Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami, about a woman in her 30s who strikes up an unusual relationship with her former teacher. I'm a huge fan of Haruki Murakami and I've been chasing the dragon ever since I finished his works, trying to find another author which struck a similar chord with me. I think this novel came pretty close in style, although it's grounded in reality and without the magical realism/dark Lynchian vibes of Murakami. Planning to seek out more of her writing.
Next up I'm going to read I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, a true crime book about the Golden State Killer. I'm fascinated by this case and it was recommended by another marsher in a separate thread.
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Post by Zeke on May 17, 2018 16:13:43 GMT -5
Finally finished Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. I've been struggling on it for literally 5 months. Next up probably The War of Art.
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