Literature

[Saru Inc]

To go back to Tolkien, any recommendations for similar fantasy books? Planning to finish up the LOTR trilogy first, but after that will be more or less out of books that interest me.

 

Reading fast sucks :cry:

 

Try any in the redwall series? Might be aimed at kiddies in the 4th grade, but its fantasy, and there's a lot of them.

 

 

hah. those boooks were my favorite, like 15 years ago. Seems a bit silly now. Real animals eat meat, not mushroom scones. Still, I mean, I really did like it when I was into fantasy.

[unkn0wnwarrior]

Brave New World was a better book, no doubt.

 

I would say he was a superior author, Brave New World the masterpiece of an "amused Pyrrhonic aesthete".

 

Hitchens:

For some decades after this review was written, many people might have been inclined to say that Orwell was right, and that the "true" threat was one of jackboots, tanks, bombs, and bullies. Nonetheless, Huxley never went out of style. Something about his work seemed to tug at our consciousness.

I'm still looking for a copy of that one.

 

Animal Farm > 1984. Just sayin'.

I read that one almost a year ago. I don't know which I liked better, though.

 

 

Also, I am currently reading a book formerly titled I Learned Kung Fu From a Bear Cub. It's a collection of travel-gone-wrong stories compiled by Matt Jackson. Some of them are hilarious. I'm almost done it, though, so I have to pick a new one to read soon.

[Skeptical]

Animal Farm > 1984. Just sayin'.

 

Agreed. It was interesting, although I have to say that that such a depressing outlook on the world is hardly sustainable.

[MonkeyChee]

I've been told that as part of my uni course, I will be reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. I know very little about the book having never read it before, though it seems a very interesting read. Has anyone read this, and what did you think of it?

[Harakiri]

I never could read through the whole LoTR trilogy. I read through the first book somehow, but I can't stand fantasy like it. I don't know the exact title of that genre of fantasy but books like Thomas Covenant and Shanarra I just can't read because I get so bored. They are sloggy and ultra-descriptive. Plus, I like fantasy with lots of human characters. The Malazan Book of The Fallen are the only fantasy books I have really, really, really enjoyed.

 

Decided to continue reading the Dune series, starting with God Emperor. Never read it. Never hope to read it again. I somehow got through it in three days but it was so boring, so mind numbingly hard a read...I seriously had a headache the three days I read it because it was so...philosophical, nonsensical, political. It's bad enough most of the book is philosophy, but add a story that makes absolutely no sense and it just becomes the most brain exploding book I've ever read.

 

On Heretics of Dune now and it is not hard at all. It's as if someone else wrote God Emperor. None of the previous books in the series were that hard to read. Sure, they had some tougher sections, but God Emperor was just pure and simple pain.

[Serpent Eye]

Finally finished The Fellowship of the Ring, and have cracked open The Two Towers.

 

It's really odd because like I said a few posts ago, I read both the first and second books of the trilogy before -- and half of Return of the King -- but I literally remember NOTHING of reading The Fellowship, haha. Maybe I was so bored with it at the time that I blocked it out of my memory.

 

I may randomly stop reading Two Towers in order to read something a bit quicker first -- probably Betrayal at Falador :P

[tripsis]

I'm itching for a good book.

 

I was in the bookstore (Borders) for over an hour tonight just looking for something good... and I failed :( I did flip through a book about how Avatar was made/filmed and it was kind of interesting :lol: And then I read about 15 pages of a science fiction book that sounded good but it didn't catch my interest that much in the first few pages so I didn't buy it. But The Lost Hero should be arriving soon (I ordered it online a few days ago) so I have that to look forward to :thumbup:

 

SerpentEye - If you do read Betrayal at Falador, let me know how it is :lol: It's sitting on my bookshelf at university, still unread.

[Jeffwilson99]

I may have asked this already, but is anyone here a Wilbur Smith fan?

[Pkmastachaos]

I've been told that as part of my uni course, I will be reading 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. I know very little about the book having never read it before, though it seems a very interesting read. Has anyone read this, and what did you think of it?

 

 

I've read this book, I can't say I enjoyed it too much though. Setting was brilliant, author was very descriptive as well; although I found myself waiting for it to get better but it never really did. It's a slow book to say the least, plot is lacking (my opinion), but it's an easy read overall. I read lots of hype surrounding the book like you might have but ultimately fell short of my expectations. Not a terrible read by any means, just try to keep an open mind when reading it.

 

If I had to rate it.. 3/5 ish.

[Greg295]

Sleepers - Lorenzo Carcaterra

An unknown book to most, but a very good story about a group of teenagers going to jail and getting revenge as adults on their prison guards that sexually assaulted them.

A little dark, but my favorite book.

 

Harry Potter Series - JK Rowling

 

Eragon Series - Christopher Paolini

 

Don Quixote

 

Anything by Edgar Allen Poe

[re4p3r1]

i just read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald, its a short story and the inspiration for the movie, and i use inspiration loosely. the movie is nothing like the short story. it really annoys me when Hollywood does that. If you are going to use a piece of literature as a springboard, fine but at least have the decency to change the name at the very least. Don't get me wrong the movie was great and so was the short story but they are just too different to share the same title.

[Dupin]

Blah. I know it belongs in Varrock Library, but the thread did so much better in Off-Topic. VL has so little traffic that the thread will probably just die here.

 

OT: Almost done with 2nd Chance. I'm a bit disappointed that the guy I wanted to be the murderer turned out to just be a nice guy, but there are still a few pages left :pray: Excuse me for not being specific, I'm trying to avoid giving away the plot.

[tripsis]

Blah. I know it belongs in Varrock Library, but the thread did so much better in Off-Topic. VL has so little traffic that the thread will probably just die here.

You never know :) The Varrock Library could potentially pick up the pace quite a bit now that we're allowing literature discussion.

[Serpent Eye]

Blah. I know it belongs in Varrock Library, but the thread did so much better in Off-Topic. VL has so little traffic that the thread will probably just die here.

You never know :) The Varrock Library could potentially pick up the pace quite a bit now that we're allowing literature discussion.

I think the topic is doing really good because people are interested in the topic, and not so much because it was in Off Topic.

 

Yes, Off Topic ensures that there is more traffic involved in people viewing or reading the topic, but for the people who show a geniuine interest in the subject matter -- aka the handful of people who bother to post -- I don't think they'll mind hopping over the Varrock Library to discuss something they love.

 

Imagine trying to make a new topic in OT about the Percy Jackson and the Olympians novels. I would think it would get locked pretty quickly for being out of place. :P

[Dupin]

Fair enough. It will be good to get more traffic for VL anyways.

 

I finished 2nd Chance, and am currently in between books. I'm not sure if I want to start something new or finish up one of the many books I read half of and then got distracted from.

 

Oh, and I have an english assignment where I get extra credit if I analyze a Romantic story that we didn't read in class (e.g. anything by Poe). I'm gonna blow this thing out of the water :razz:

[Hawks]

Started 1984 today, so far I'm very happy with it.

 

Have to memorize 'To be, or not to be,' for AP Lit... I wanted the one from act 4.

[Harakiri]

I'm reading Rules of Deception by Christopher Reich at the moment, though very slowly. It's very good so far.

[Mr_Adam]

Whoa, we moved to the Library - I haven't been on the forum at all for few days.

 

Anyway, I've began At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. Picked up slow (my reading habits are all screwy nowadays) but I could barely put it down once I began to really read it.

 

Also, I finished a short story for Creative Writing, but I doubt I'll post it. It's 12 full pages, single spaced, on Microsoft Word :blink: I'm impressed with myself.

[Nexaduro]

Brandon Sanderson.

 

'Nuff said.

 

I liked The Way of Kings better than anything else in my fair fantasy library (1001 pages of suspense and action, hell yeah! And it's a series!), Mistborn was awesome if often depressing, Warbreaker was a good break from the norm with its witty fronts hiding dark secrets, and Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians was a comedic feat worthy of Douglas Adams himself.

[Dizzle229]

Although it's well below the general level of this board, I want to ask something that has been bugging me ever since I first read the Chronicles of Narnia series back in early 2007.

 

Is it just me, or are several of them completely [bleep]ing unnecessary? The Horse and His Boy and Voyage of the Dawn Treader come to mind.

[tripsis]

Although it's well below the general level of this board, I want to ask something that has been bugging me ever since I first read the Chronicles of Narnia series back in early 2007.

 

Is it just me, or are several of them completely [bleep]ing unnecessary? The Horse and His Boy and Voyage of the Dawn Treader come to mind.

Yeah... I haven't read all of them for that very reason. I think I read four of them and for 2 or 3 I was just like "okaaaaay this is pointless and nothing is really happening." I got bored of them and never bothered to finish the series.

[Skeptical]

Funny, because The Horse and his Boy, along with Voyage of the Dawn Treader are the only two in the series that I found quite memorable.

[Nom]

Funny, because The Horse and his Boy, along with Voyage of the Dawn Treader are the only two in the series that I found quite memorable.

 

I quite agree. Those are my two favorites, even though The Horse and His Boy is the most side-story-ish installment of any series ever. Dawn Treader is just a fantastic little book.

[Guest Rob]

Woah, there's a thread in the library with 22 posts? :o

 

Oh, wait, it was started it off topic, wasn't it?

[Skeptical]

Yea, but as soon as it was moved, it just died.