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diedan
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Currently reading American Pyscho by Bret Easton Ellis. Its certainly interesting but I wouldn't exactly say I'm enjoying it. It's mostly just detailed descriptions of what people are wearing, inane chatter at expensive restaurants, occasional interjected by with sex scenes or acts of horrific violence (both of which are described in uncomfortably graphic detail.

 

I'm an English Lit. student though, so once I get back to uni I'll be reading a whole load of books for my course (the only books I can remember right now from my reading list are Frankenstein and Maus) and won't really have time to read for pleasure.

 

I've been interested to start getting into the Discworld series but would have no idea where to start.

 

I've read all the Discworld novels B) and my personal favourites are the ones that centre around the City Watch (the first is Guards, Guards). The series does go in chronological order (the order they are written in), except for a the odd one or two, but each story is self contained so it shouldn't matter too much. Probably the best thing to do is follow one storyline chronologically through the series, for example read all the City Watch books in order, or all the Death books in order. Hope that made sense.

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I just finished a marathon of Discworld books, which I had never read before. Since the beginning of November I've read all of the Death and Watch book series (I read the Hogfather just before Christmas, appropriately) and about a third of the Wizards (Rincewind) series. Now I'm taking a break and reading a bunch of stuff about the history of broadcasting regulations in the US.

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OmnivoresDilemma.jpg

 

I average about 2 books a week. Yeah, I read a lot (compared to most, anyway.)

 

On The Walking Dead, I hate the show. Can't stand it. I've read every comic and honestly, if you adore the comic like I do then you'll probably just get pissed off when you watch the show. I can't view it from an objective perspective because I'm unable to tell if it's not a very good show or if I don't like it because it's drastically different from the comic. Every episode I watch I just sit there going "no wait, that's not what happened, what the fuck stop ruining my favorite comic" and end up getting angry.

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Yeah since about.....The Truth he's really got in the swing of things. Discworld, ankh-morpork especially has really taken shape. So it kind of sucks that he's now got alzheimers. I'm really wanting to see where he's going with the Axle (was that what it was called). Waiting on "Raising Taxes".

 

btw we had a thread on the old place on Pratchett/discworld. I could set up another.

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*snip*

 

I love Discworld!! They're my favorite fantasy novels. :wub: Death is my favorite character, so his books are naturally my favorites too. I know it is a bit past the season now, but if you liked Hogfather, I'd recommend checking out the movie based on the book.

 

I've noticed that the tone of Pratchett's writing has changed in recent years (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Some of his best writing is his most recent IMO. It is kind of bittersweet in a way, since I'm happy to have more Discworld, but also sad to know that it could be ending soon due to his diagnosis with Alzheimers. :(

 

Having read a huge number of his novels close together I can definitely see changes in his style. I mean, the early wizards novels are kinda painful after reading all the Death and Watch books. I've heard the last few Discworld books he's written aren't that great, either. I'm excited, though, to start in on the witches series in a week or so.

 

I've been looking about for a suitable copy of Hogfather. Wasn't able to do it in time for this Christmas, but I'll get a copy before the next one.

 

I just hope Terry takes it easy and enjoys himself as much as he can. Alzheimers is a terrible disease and he should only spend his remaining time writing if it doing so gives him pleasure or joy. Luckily, I think it does.

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I've heard the last few Discworld books he's written aren't that great, either.

 

I haven't noticed a drop in quality at all, if anything the exact opposite. I like that the newer books are more satirical than the straight-forward fantasy parodies/pastiches that he did (although they were still great).

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*snip*

 

I love Discworld!! They're my favorite fantasy novels. :wub: Death is my favorite character, so his books are naturally my favorites too. I know it is a bit past the season now, but if you liked Hogfather, I'd recommend checking out the movie based on the book.

 

I've noticed that the tone of Pratchett's writing has changed in recent years (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Some of his best writing is his most recent IMO. It is kind of bittersweet in a way, since I'm happy to have more Discworld, but also sad to know that it could be ending soon due to his diagnosis with Alzheimers. :(

 

Having read a huge number of his novels close together I can definitely see changes in his style. I mean, the early wizards novels are kinda painful after reading all the Death and Watch books. I've heard the last few Discworld books he's written aren't that great, either. I'm excited, though, to start in on the witches series in a week or so.

 

The thing to remember about Discworld is how much volume there is. Discworld starts off as parody, turns into Troperiffic straight comedy writing that becomes increasingly character driven, then slides increasingly purely satirical. Depending on what your taste in comedy is, how well you understand the underlying material for the parody, and how you feel about the topic or topics being satirized, you are bound to like one or another time to a different degree. I almost hesitate to call it stylistic development on his part, because of how many books there are and how widely things have ranged. This can make it confusing to talk about quality, because his writing becomes a victim of its own success.

 

I think that his last (main Discworld) book was one of the weaker ones (it feels like an attempt to rewrite the main concept of two or three of the earlier books), and people seem to be strongly divided as it comes to Moist. However, the Tiffany Aching series, of equal recent vintage (and shelved in the YA section to try and capture that market) is amazing, and functionally a continuation of the Witches series, (which I think he may have put off there because of how poorly received the last few of the Witches books were).

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Whoops. Forget to actually write anything in here. Let's start with some massive quotage.

 

Yup, the exact book that inspired Ron Gilbert to create the Monkey Island series

 

Also what they're loosely basing the next Pirates of the Carribean film off, I believe.

 

Has anyone read The Witcher books? Are they any good?

 

The short stories collection is very good. The main series shows promise, but there's only been one book translated so far.

 

Currently reading American Pyscho by Bret Easton Ellis. Its certainly interesting but I wouldn't exactly say I'm enjoying it. It's mostly just detailed descriptions of what people are wearing, inane chatter at expensive restaurants, occasional interjected by with sex scenes or acts of horrific violence (both of which are described in uncomfortably graphic detail.

 

Yeah, I've read that. The idea is that Patrick Bateman is obsessed with what people wear and such so EVERY TIME a new person shows up, he HAS to describe EVERYTHING. I can see what BEE was going for and how its satire works. But it is not a very 'fun' read.

 

I've read Glamorama too, which had some interesting ideas (one of which seems to have been taken for Zoolander of all films!) but was also a garbled mess. I'm just not a fan of his style, I guess.

 

 

As for me, I'm currently reading more non-fiction stuff but I do intend to, like Hatch, reread Catch-22 very soon. As well as, A Confederacy of Dunces.

I need to read more books a bit like those. So recommendations are welcome.

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Oooh what's the books connection to the Dude's world?

 

@Phallus- I'm reading American Psycho, too! Well, in between Daisy Miller, the Picture of Dorian Gray, and War of the Worlds (lit student here, too, Jala). Did you watch/enjoy the film? I'm finding the book to be very funny in a veiled kind of way- I think if you've experienced that kind of Yuppie culture it would seem brutally scathing and hilarious. To someone like me, totally detached from that, it's a slightly dull read interspersed with really interesting social commentary. I haven't reached the brutal violence yet :P but I can imagine it considering how much was apparently left out of the film.

 

@Jala- I found with the Walking Dead if I just watch it and enjoy it as it's own show- only inspired by the comic, not based on it- it's incredibly enjoyable. Great series imho, and it's pretty critically acclaimed so I think a lot of others like it too (although I can't say how many of those have read the books).

 

 

Why is everyone suddenly taking a massive interest in The Hobbit and Discworld? I enjoyed the couple of Discworld books that I've read, but the Hobbit. Man, that is one hell of a classic.

 

EDIT: @Strife: You serious? You just haven't found the right one yet, that's all. There are a lot of books in the world, and they're more varied than any other art form, I'd say.

Edited by kenshi_ryden
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@Phallus- Did you watch/enjoy the film?

Haven't watched the film yet, if I'm going to watch a film and read the book it was adapted from I like to read the original work first.

 

It's the movie rewritten in Shakespearian English and the plot set in Elizabethian times.

I was sceptical but I just found a 3 scene preview on the books website (and read the afterword on the Amazon books preview thing) and it's actually really enjoyable and not as corny as I was expecting it to be. Just for the sake of criticism though, there's too many stage directions for a Shakespeare play. :P

 

Edit: American Psycho is briefly on hiatus while I read Maus. Maus II in fact, I finished the first book last night. Everything about the comic is so beautifully understated - form the art to the narrative - that it makes the horrific moments in history it portrays all the more poignant.

Edited by withoutphallus
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