Browsing the library shelves

Post by **Impenitent** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:58 am

Vison, that is an interesting response to Strange and Norrel; I found it un-put-downable and absolutely gobbled it up! (Felt like a kid again; after my beloved grumbled that it was 2 in the morning already and could I please put out the light, I got my itty bitty book torchlite and read it half under the covers.

)

The book was borrowed from a friend and it is now returned - so I must buy my own copy next time I have saved up enough in my book-buying kitty.

Post by **vison** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:47 am

Impenitent wrote:Vison, that is an interesting response to Strange and Norrel; I found it un-put-downable and absolutely gobbled it up! (Felt like a kid again; after my beloved grumbled that it was 2 in the morning already and could I please put out the light, I got my itty bitty book torchlite and read it half under the covers. )

The book was borrowed from a friend and it is now returned - so I must buy my own copy next time I have saved up enough in my book-buying kitty.

Well, I haven't got the concentration I used to have. I just can't sit that long any more. I once could read for 8 or 9 hours, with only bathroom breaks, and not many of them. And this book hasn't drawn me in the way it did you. I wish it had!

But I am enjoying the book, just the same.

Post by **SilverScribe** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:09 pm

Has anyone else read The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin? It's up next on my reading list (well, right after P&P

) and I was wondering if anyone has any (non-spoiler) information as to what I can expect.

The first chapter was mesmerizing, so I'm wondering if the book will follow suit . . .

Post by **Meneltarma** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:30 pm

I just finished Iron Council by China Mieville. I'm not as impressed as I expected to be. I loved the earlier books set in his fantasy world - he's very gritty and political, while being very innovative. But the other books both touched me, and this one only managed that in a few places. I think maybe I was expecting too much out of it, if I hadn't been constantly comparing it to Perdido Street Station and The Scar I might have liked it a lot more. Has anyone else read anything by him?

Post by **Sassafras** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:37 am

*raises hand*

Only Perdido Street Station, which I thought an utterly innovative and brilliant subcreation, and The Scar ... a slightly lesser work IMO. I'm sorry to hear that this new book doesn't measure up. I had great hopes for Miéville.

Can you say why that is? Is it still set in New Crobuzon?

Post by **Meneltarma** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:05 am

I actually liked The Scar better than Perdido Street Station, though I read PSS first, and it had more of an impact. Iron Council is set partly in New Crobuzon and partly outside - there's a war with Tesh and an internal revolt, which somehow seems too much. His psychology is realistic, his politics are brilliantly written, but somehow it's neither as gripping or as draining as the other Bas Lag books. I was completely exhausted by the end of Perdido Street Station.
But as I said, if I hadn't read his other books I probably would have thought this was a lot better than I do. It is worth reading.

Post by **Sassafras** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 4:22 am

Hmm.

I'll probably buy it.

I think the reason I slightly prefer PSS to The Scar is becauseI read it first and the impact was enormous ... it was all so startlingly different than any fantasy I had read before. In fact, I didn't even think of it as 'fantasy'. I was sucked right in. And, as you say, the psychology is real and the fact that he weaves genuine politics into the narrative is brilliant. But when I read The Scar, I was already familiar with his world and so it lost a little of its power to astonish, though none of the magic.

Post by **TIGG** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:29 pm

Pearl, Birdsong, I really enjoyed that book. I read it about 6 years ago I think, and I gave it away, I wish I had kept it, as it is a book I suspect that will reveal more with a second reading.

I am half way through " Set this House in Order" by Matt Ruff.

I was late for work this morning, becasue I couldn't put it down. and I have it on my desk right now, scooping up chapters of it before taking a break surfing between boards.

It is described by the Daily Telegraph as 'A gripping novel of suspense that could have come from Stephen King at his best' .

I wouldn't know - I have never read Stephen King, and I don't normally read suspense novels.
It is a story of a young 'man' with Multiple Personality disorder, who has 'set his house in order' and his encounters with a young woman who is beginning to realise that she has a problem. Halfway thorugh the book, he is helping her find her 'many selves' and has encountered a slight problem of his own.

A riveting read.

back to the book....

Post by **Meneltarma** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:44 am

I just finished The Manticore's Secret by Samit Basu. It's the second part of his trilogy and was released about a week ago. (The first book is titled
The Simoqin Prophecies). He's very funny and Pratchettian - lots of references to famous moments in fantasy. I'd almost stopped reading fantasy (Tolkien, Peake, etc don't count - they're literature.

) and this is making me experience it all over again.

I'm not sure I should recommend it here, though, you'd need to be familiar with Indian history and mythology to get a lot of the references. But I had great fun with it.

I'm rereading Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake because I plan to use that in my project (due on Friday! Eep!) too. I love Gormenghast.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:39 am

Meneltarma wrote: I'm rereading Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake because I plan to use that in my project (due on Friday! Eep!) too. I love Gormenghast.

Probably the only book in years that I started and never finished. I found it interminable (Gormenghast in total, not just Titus Alone). I did enjoy the BBC production though.

Post by **Meneltarma** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:16 pm

Gormenghast isn't for everyone, people seem to either love it or hate it. There was an old thread on TORC about it where both sides seemed very passionate.

Titus Alone is nowhere near as good as the first two as far as the quality of the writing goes, but his health was failing at the time and he never had time to finish it before he died. I love it for its ideas and language, though. I can see the flaws, but I love it for them. (

)

The BBC production would have been awful if not for the inspired casting.

Post by **TIGG** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:35 pm

Finished 'Set This House in Order' last night, - interesting twists - and are now 2 chapters into : ' The Lost letters of Aquitaine' by Judith Koll Healey.

Did I ever tell you TIGGers have very eclectic reading habits???

Both these books were purchased by my daughter, she is an even more voracious reader than I am, and as she finishes them she loans them to me to read.

She seems to tend towards historical 'royal' novels and also books on the Japanese and Chinese. i.e. Geisha

We both have purchased books recently which involve the Knights Templar, and I am interested to see that this book 'The Lost Letters of Aquitaine' does as well.

Post by **truehobbit** » Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:44 pm

Not starting a new thread for this, although I'd love to discuss the book, but I don't think anyone knows it.

I've just finished reading "Job" by Joseph Roth.
(That's "Job" as in the Bible, not "job" as in "work" - LOL, I hate it that it's the same word in English.)

I found it in a bookshop a few weeks ago, and on reading the first paragraph thought I might like it, as it seemed quite well written.
It's quite short, only 200 pages, and tells the story of the life of Mendel Singer and his family in the early 1900s.
It's captured me from the start, and this afternoon I couldn't put it down anymore before I finished it. It even made me cry at one point, and that's very rare with a book.

I thought it was breathtakingly well told - the pace, diction and overall structure was just perfect! It's such a short book to tell a whole life, one might think, and yet there's time for intense detail and poetic phrasing, I don't know how the author did it in such a short space.

The book has been translated into English, though I couldn't find it on amazon - http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php ... e&UID=5705
of course I don't know whether the language is as powerful in a translation, but I recommend it to all to read and if anyone knows it, I'd love to talk about it!

Post by **TIGG** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:14 pm

long time since this thread surfaced

I am currently reading : The Swan's War trilogy by Sean Russell. and quite enjoying it. I found the first two of the trilogy on my bookshelf, purchased some time ago, but never opened. I finished the first book last night and are two chapters into the second book. Funny thing is whenever I read fantasy now I look for familiar plots.

I hope I can find a copy of the third book somewhere now. I hate that when I buy the first part of a series and it takes forever for the rest to be published, or I miss its release and then its not readily available.

Post by **Inanna** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:55 pm

vison wrote:I'm about to start The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime.

I read that book around a year back. Did you like it? I did... found the perspective very interesting.

Just finished "Everything is Illuminated", one book of which I actually saw the movie before I read the book.

Post by **Griffon64** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:59 pm

Curious about what vison thought of "The Curious Incident of the dog in the nighttime" too. I read it a while back and did find it interesting, though there was a few sticking points for me too!

And I tend to think less of a book I blitz through in an evening / afternoon. I can't help it! I like a book thick enough to keep me busy for a day or two

Post by **truehobbit** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:16 am

Hehe, I thought I'd killed it - thanks for reviving it, TIGG! I do think it's a lovely thread for introducing books you don't really expect to get a full discussion.
Might move my recently started book topic in here, as it seems no one knows the book after all.

I had already forgotten it had been almost a year that I read "Job" - I just gave it to a friend for Christmas. I'm curious if she reads it. (I tried to give her fun books before, but she always recommends more depressing stuff to me, so I thought "Job" might be the thing for her.

)

Post by **Glawariel** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:07 am

I am currently in the middle of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire Series (book 3- A Storm of Swords) and I am loving it. I'm usually quite a slow reader and am very surprised by the speed at which I'm plowing through an over 1000 pg. paperback

.
A couple of months ago I was reading the first book on the subway in London (sorry, the tube) and actually gasped out loud when Martin did something absolutely unacceptable to one of the characters I really liked (it would be the first of many more times

) and I had to quietly remind myself that I was in public.
The real kicker is that I have only one more book to go and will have to wait for yet an other 'next installment' to be published, as if waiting for Harry Potter and the Whatever of Whatever isn't hard enough.

Post by **TIGG** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:24 am

oh dear, just like me wating for waht ever comes after Eragon and Eldest.

by the time it comes out I will need to re-read the first two.

Post by **Alatar** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:44 am

Heh, I bought the Song of Ice and Fire for Mrs Alatar a couple of Christmases ago. She was disgusted when she found out it wasn't a trilogy! I'm witing till they're all out before I start.