Books are good for you.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

So what are you lot reading, lately?

Me, I just finished reading Flatland, which is a lovely story about a two dimensional universe inhabited two dimensional people, and the joy of discovering three dimensional existance! It was written back in the 1880's or so, I believe, and is entertaining if only because half the book is explaining how life actually works there.

Presently, I am reading the first couple Flashman novels by George Macdonald Fraiser, which are about a drunken and cowardly bully who manages to achieve a great deal of acclaim in the 1800's via cunning and dumb luck. It is exactly as unenlightening and amusing as it sounds =]

[ARES]

Currently reading Vonnegut - Bluebeard, I think the 5th of his I've read. It's good, in a very different style from his usual.

Recently finished Invitation to a Beheading by Nabokov, which was awesome. Oh, and The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox.

I just packed most of my books into boxes, the woman and I are moving... in with her mother. Just for a few months until we buy a house, hooray!

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

I've heard the Alphabet of Manliness is so juvenile it becomes absolutely hilarious. This strikes me as a good and proper thing.

LET ME SUM UP FLASHMAN!



Nothing expresses it better than that.

[Gamemusicfreak]

I've read plenty of novels, but not in a long time. These days my reading has consisted mainly of comic books:

Batman
Beet the Vandel Buster
Wildcats
Onslaught Reborn
All Star Batman & Robin

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Books are what killed comics for me. The stories are told so much better, which more perninent detail, and usually with less melodrama. Unless you're reading a melodrama. But I can did on how it's not for everyone. This is the only comic book I consider an equal to proper books.

Another book I recently read was The Assassination of Julius Caesar, a People's History of Rome. It is, for lackof better words, the events around it being presented from a very socialist/communist point of view, more or less depicting (validly, mind you) the Republic as Aristocracy more or less intent of fleecing the common people, and the backlashes the Republic visted upon those who tried to reform it to be more fair. In particular, it went into how the prejudices of the Republic that were shown by the orators and writers of that era were reflected today in spite of facts (such as Cicero being all about the republic and freedom, when he often ignored it to serve his interests).

I'd love to find a legitimate criticism of it somewhere, to see what other historians think of it, and what they take umbrage with, and why.

[FM-77AV]

mp83 said:

Visual novels are more to my liking.

Yeah, that's really comparable to books.

[Cyhirae]

I recently finished up the available Temeraire books by Naomi Novik. Those were rather interesting. They're fantasy, but semi-historical fantasy in rewriting how the world and the war between France and England woulda gone if dragons had been involved.

No magic, wizards and all that- just dragons and every bit as intelligent as the humans involved..in some cases. Some are quite bright, others are er...yeah. Musta fallen outta the egg headfirst, the way we know some people musta been dropped the minute they entered this world.

Some nice- if rather unflattering- society comparisons going on too in the later books regarding how the dragons are viewed from one land to the next. It's fantasy but not empty fluff type fantasy like Eragon.

Need to go raiding my mom's Andre Norton books again soon....

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Oo, that sounds interesting. Are we taking like man to horse sized-dragons, or castle-sized engines of doom dragons? How many were there (A couple, dozens, hundreds)? Did they dig on the Romans?

[Cyhirae]

They vary actually. There's some smaller types of dragon that are just a bit bigger than horses- then there's the type they refer to as "regal coppers' who are incredibly huge. There's a good many breeds- some actually bred like animals in some areas- others cross naturally depending on the view taken of them. Europe seems deadset to the idea that the dragons are closer to animals than people- while as you start to head out toward middle Europe and out to Asia, society accepts them more readily as being people of a different type rather than as mere animals.

And the Romans & Egyptians seem to be the founding point for the idea of breeding dragons for use in fighting and the like, such as they do in France and England of these books. So yes- the slavery issue also comes up (as it takes place during the time frame in which slavery was still prolific worldwide) in the second book.

The names of the books are: "His Majesty's Dragon", "The Jade Throne" and "The Black Powder War". It's rather interesting seeing how the tactics used in the Napoleanic wars woulda gone if flight had been possible.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Know what? Once I burn out on Flashman (Seems to be well over a dozen of those), I may have to give that a try.

[Lumi]

My last good read was about a month and a half ago, when I finally got around to reading The Princess Bride.

Recently I've read White as Snow, a rather odd retelling of the Snow White storyline by Tanith Lee. It wasn't bad per se, but there was really no attachment to the characters in the least. It was a bit too abstract for my liking.

Now I'm slogging with great pain through Vampire Hunter D. I don't know if it's simply the original writing itself, or the fault of the translator-- or both-- but it's just so stylistically BAD that it feels like I'm reading fanfiction rife with maudlin melodrama. And we just won't talk about the fight scenes. Thank goodness it's not a LONG novel.

Not sure what'll be next on my reading list...

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

The Princess Bride is everything good about literature. =]

I recommend The Slient Gondoliers, if you liked The Princess Bride. It's a very different sort of story, more of a fable than an adventure, but it's pleasing to the senses, I think.

[Lumi]

The Princess Bride is one of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time, both for simple story and nostalgia factors, but mostly in style. The writing itself was just fun to read.

And I'm not averse to fables. My library consists of a lot of fairy tale collections and retellings, among other things. I'll have to look into that one.

[ARES]

I recently purchased two non-Hitchhicker novels by Douglas Adams, and I'm looking forward to reading them.

Also I read 300 by Frank Miller the other night. Good stuff. Makes me want to sing some S.O.D.

WE MARCH
until you die
WE MARCH
until you fry
YOU THINK
that you can try
but can you do
THE SPARTAN MARCH

...

I'm really sorry about that. I drove 100 miles to go see ISIS tonight and I'm quite tired. It was VERY much worth it. The venue held under 150 people. Keen.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

300 is like Gates of Fire, but less good.

[ARES]

I still need to read Gates of Fire.

It loved to happen.

I mean how can that line not rule immensely?

[afiqys]

I'm currently reading "life and Times of Michael K" its a tragic story...so i've heard. i've only read the beginning bit, but so far its very good, recommend for people who likes drama/tragic novels.

[Lumi]

Moved on from the painful reads (I gave up. ) and now I'm starting Jim Butcher's The Furies of Calderon. So far I rather like his writing style. Odd, though, that I opted to pick this one up instead of the series he's better known for presently, I think. =P (i.e. The Dresden Files) Ah well.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

I have finished Flashman, and am entirely pleased with the whole thing. It covers the the First Afghan War, and Flashman's role in it amidst the bungling and incompetance of General Elphinstone. All I can say is that it's terribly amusing.

Now, I have begun on Lord Dunsany's Last Book of Wonder. Lord Dunsany, for those of you who don't know, is one the major influences on H.P. Lovecraft. Their prose is very similiar, but where Lovecraft wrote about a universe where civilization and sanity are products of raw luck, and existance is a terribly hostile thing, Lord Dunsany writes of wonder and discovery. His stuff is very much like modern faerie tales, often with fun plot twists and such to them. His writing style makes me happy indeed!

[Lumi]

;_; I looked for Lord Dunsany works at the book store like you once told me to, and they had nothing! (Or else I wasn't looking in the right place, bwah...)

Faerie tales = MUST HAVE. ;_;