Reading anything?

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

And since I haven't posted any reviews in a while, and since I have several more I can post in the future. this will be a double post.

Nicholas Sparks' "The Last Song"

Sometimes you just have to read something you wouldn't normally read.

I see that he's listed on the cover of the paperback, that he's the #1 Romance Author in America.

Which surprises me in a couple of ways. (1st) It has always been my opinion that while men write the best action, women write the best romance. Thus, there's that. And (2nd) he uses his own name. While there are not many male romance writers out there, there are more than one supposes, as they are often forced to use a female pseudonym to get their work published and read.

As for the book itself, not an unpleasant surprise, but a surprise how much religion is in the book, which may be why he is the #1 Romance Author in America.

And he is definitely a product of the old South, as the calls it The War Between the States. Not many people call it that, not even in the South, as if calling it that makes it less than a civil war, which it was.

Simpson Comics by various authors

A republishing and repackaging by HarperCollins of five or six issues first published between 1999 and 2008.

When did the Simpson stop being funny? Were they ever funny, but certainly, the lack of humor could be note at least a decade ago, when the first of these were published. I can see their attempt to be funny, but it doesn't work. At least for me.

Next time: Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

[ChaosTheory]

When did the Simpson stop being funny?

1998.  Brad Bird (who was a creative consultant and occasional episode director) left, Phil Hartman died, the writing staff started taking their cues from "hip" new shows like South Park and, later, Family Guy.  Many fans of the show cite the "Homer's Enemy" ep as the turning point, as it is the first episode where Homer's oafish tendencies are viewed as an amusing thing to be tolerated, rather than a character flaw that he has to try to overcome; and the quality does begin to drop off from there.  Seasons 9 and 10 had a few bright spots but once they killed off Maude Flanders they entered a dimension of suck that they've never come back from.

Anyway, back on topic....
I'm about halfway through The Passage by Justin Cronin.  So far it's really really good, reminds me a little of The Stand.

[InformationGeek]

I've been through Grant Morrison's works recently.  Here's how I rank them in order from best to worse:

+ Batman and Son (I certianly wasn't confused when reading it, unlike the rest of the works this guy did...)
+ Batman: R.I.P. (VERY CONFUSING, but it was a blast to read with some great twists and pure moments of awesome)
+ Batman: The Black Glove (Very interesting mystery, but I certianly need to read more in the Batman mythos more)
+ Final Crisis (Oh my god.  I've never been so confused and lost at the same time.  There's some great moments here for characters, fights looked great, and I liked it a bit.  However, this is ultimately just purely crazy and hard to follow)

These are all fun to read, but you seriously need to do a lot of research to follow all of these stories and even then, these comics are pretty hard to understand.

[Mofo Rising]

I've been reading Grant Morrison for almost 20 years now. It's a weird tick of fate that he has become DC's go-to guy. He's a great writer, but he's a die-hard counter-culturalist whose personal philosophy is colored by lots and lots of drug use. Final Crisis is split amongst so many comics, even I can't make sense of it.

His recent Batman stuff is great, though. Especially the Black Glove, but that may have to do with the phenomenal work of J.H. Williams.

I am currently reading:

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I finally finished up my second reading of Gravity's Rainbow (with annotations), so a new 1100 page novel is right up my alley.

Medical Biochemistry. Yet another textbook.

Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov. Just a sci-fi book I picked up for fun.

Information: The New Language of Science by Hans Christian von Baeyer. I got interested in information theory. I don't think this book will be very illuminating, but you have to start somewhere.

[The Burgomaster]

   This is one of the Nostalgia Venture reprints which include full uncut adventures plus additonal information, usually interviews or essays by pulp historians. They put out The Shadow adventures too and I highly recommend them all.

I have the entire collection of Doc Savage paperback books from Bantam Books and I've been reading them over a period of years.  I recently finished #34 MAD EYES.  Next up is #35 THE SQUEAKING GOBLIN.  (Of course, the books aren't numbered in the same sequence as the stories were originally published).  These are great books to read on airplanes because you can usually finish an entire book on one flight (more than one if the flight is long enough).  I also have all but one of THE AVENGER paperbacks.  The last one I read was #3 THE SKY WALKER.  Up next is #4 THE DEVIL'S HORNS.

[indianasmith]

Just finished IMPEACHED: THE TRIAL OF ANDREW JOHNSON AND THE FIGHT FOR LINCOLN'S LEGACY.

Johnson was once portrayed as a heroic martyr who was persecuted by the vicious radicals who wanted to further punish the broken, bleeding South after the Civil War, and his impeachment as an unconstitutional assault on the executive branch by the Congress. Now he is seen more as a brooding racist, a "hater when the nation needed a healer," who was determined to let the Rebels in the South regain power and do nothing to stop the mass murder and violence committed against the newly freed slaves.

This is an excellent book, well worth the legalese you have to wade through, to get a picture of the country at the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction.

[Rev. Powell]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I finally finished up my second reading of Gravity's Rainbow (with annotations), so a new 1100 page novel is right up my alley.

An impressive and imposing book.  My advice is to consider each segment as a short story; if you expect all the different threads Wallace creates to come together in the end in a satisfying way, you may be disappointed.  I did like the entire Don Gately arc a lot.  Another tip: once you reach the end of the book (which should occur sometime in 2014), go back to the beginning and re-read the very first segment. 

[Vik]

I'm done with Bird by Bird. It's great non-fictionnal, funny book on writing. If you're into writing I definately recommend it, it has some good advice.
I'm gonna read some quick screenplays now, ( Juno, John Carpenter's The Thing, Arcade, From Dusk till Dawn ) when I get them. I'm also planning on reading ' Mary Mary ' by James Patterson.

[AndyC]

Still reading Koko. I'm enjoying it a lot, but it's longer than it seems. I'm not nearly as far along as I would have expected for the time I've spent reading.

Not that I mind. It's a good book, and my usual complaint with thrillers is that they're over too quickly. This is one I can savour a bit.

[Rev. Powell]

"Altered States: Creativity Under the Influence."  Not so much about artists and drugs as it is about the author's belief in paranormal phenomenon and his interest in any kind of fringe, New Agey spiritualism.

[BTM]

I just NOW (as in five minutes ago) got down reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. 

It tacks place sometime in the future where the United States has been divided up into the Capital and twelve districts.  As continual punishment for a long ago rebellion, the rulers make each district send two participants, a boy and girl chosen by lottery, to compete in The Hunger Games, a battle royale where there can be only one survivor.  When her younger sister's name gets drawn, Katniss volunteers to take her place.



The book is a bit like Battle Royale and Death Wish 2000, only not as graphic.  It's a great read, and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279255848&sr=8-1

[Vik]

After a couple of screenplays I started reading ' Mary Mary ' by James Patterson yesterday.

It's good so far.

[BeyondTheGrave]

[The Burgomaster]

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

[BoyScoutKevin]

Ye-es.

But, first I want to thank Chaos Theory for answering my question, as I now see I'm not missing anything by not watching "The Simpsons."

Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland."

I had read it before, but after seeing the film, I thought I'd read it again. And while there was nothing like it before, there's been nothing like it since.

Not only is it a children's book, but it is also . . .

a book of puns and puzzles . . .
a poetry book . . .
and a book of parodies.

I had forgotten how short it was, as it runs only about 100 pages.

And while I read an unannotated version, I'd recommend "The Annotated Alice" by Martin Gardner, as it explains alot of what is going on in the book.

Next time:  "A. V. Club's Inventory"