I hit the halfway point in War and Peace so I took a few days off and completed “Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole” I enjoyed the book, but to me it was a good book, but I really didn’t feel at the end of the book that I had just read a profound classic. It may get so much acclaim because of the portrayal of New Orleans than the content of the actual story. It also could be the “Suicide Syndrome” and it just was lauded as great because the author was already dead when it was published.
I started reading last year but honestly just got so distracted by other stuff that I just couldn’t keep up with it like I wanted to. Luckily I now worked in a reading schedule that will let me finish books within a week and half. I’m currently reading the new malice fantasy books that I got for Christmas.
I’m down for a book club thing though or at least providing recommendations and such. I’ll probably get through this 2nd book in the series (finished the first one just now) before the end of the month so I’m always interested in new books if you guys wanna share. My interest is sci-fi/fantasy and preferably something modern and current from at least the last few years.
I think a book should be chosen by the decades. With obvious genre switching.
I wanna read this so bad but I couldnt find a copy all summer. It’s a 1966 crime novel. Yes I’ll read the whole thing in a wife beater and pomade in my hair.
Awesome I’ll give it a look after I’m done my current book.
As for the rules of this book club…hmmm maybe we could do months by genres. The only rule being as stated above is that the same genre can repeat twice or too many times.
I like the idea of starting the year off with crime.
Haven’t read any crime/thriller stuff since high school, but was thinking of picking some up again after hearing about the death of PD James last month. Fantastic British crime writer.
Found Don Carpenter’s Hard Rain Falling on Audible, so I’m down.
It’s also on kindle/eBook so is relatively available and at a fair price.
Have you ever read Neal Stephenson? I don’t think you’ll like his writing style very much, honestly, but his vision and scope is massive. I enjoy his writing, though. It’s edge of the seat, “don’t move, I’m gonna shoot something off of your head” writing. I can’t get enough. It’s sweet when it needs to be, brutal when it has to be, and never exggerated, even when it’s intended to be.
I love everything I’ve read from him, and I suggest you check out The Diamond Age or Cryptonomicon.
I read Neal Stephenson’s “Reamde” a while back. A story about how a gamer in an mmorpg accidentally causes a real world war between Chinese hacker clan, an eastern European mafia, a government and a terrorist faction.
You hit the nail on the head though; as compelling as his stories were in Reamde, his writing style was a little off for my tastes.
I find the characters and locations to be quite poorly researched and it kinda kills the immersion. Would definitely read another though. The whole story went from 0-100 in no time at all. Refreshing change from the norm.
I liked Zula from that book a lot actually. I’ll admit it was one of the first books I picked up after H2G2 a couple years ago so I wasn’t being very critical
edit: Cryptonomicon is much better. Like far and away the superior stephenson book.
I struggle between choosing Cryptonominicon, The Diamond Age and Snow Crash as his best because each of them have their merits (some being particularly dear to me on a personal level), but I’d be a fool not to see the great genius in Crypto for what it is. It’s the story of his that I most want to see adapted for film.
That said, 2/3’rds through The Baroque Cycle, vol. 2 so far, and mutha-fucking Roger Comstock!! I might have a new favorite Stephenson character.
