I picked up a copy of the TFA novelization from my local library yesterday.

I read chapter 1 last night; it was wholly predictable and meh. I’ll find out if the story gets any more interesting further in later tonight.

No, I haven’t seen it yet. It’s gonna be a while before the movie’s out on DVD, though, and I’m not going to pay to see it in theatres, so this is the next best option.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I picked up a copy of the TFA novelization from my local library yesterday.

I read chapter 1 last night; it was wholly predictable and meh. I’ll find out if the story gets any more interesting further in later tonight.

Don’t you already know the story? I know you haven’t seen the film but if you know what happens I can see why it would be predictable.

I’m interested to hear how you take to the story from just the book. I haven’t read the book yet so I can’t attest to its quality, but I will say Star Wars is a franchise that works much better on the screen than the page.

DominicCobb said:

Don’t you already know the story? I know you haven’t seen the film but if you know what happens I can see why it would be predictable.

I know the basic spoilers, but not exactly how they all fit together.

I will say Star Wars is a franchise that works much better on the screen than the page.

I agree with you when it comes to novelizations. Original stories, on the other hand …

Right now, Green Shadows, White Whale: A Novel of Ray Bradbury’s Adventures Making Moby Dick with John Huston in Ireland. I just finished The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos. Thinking about finally getting around to The Stand when I’m done the Bradbury, but the page count has me skittish. I’ve also been reading George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas between novels as a sort of palate cleanse.

joefavs said:

Thinking about finally getting around to The Stand when I’m done the Bradbury, but the page count has me skittish.

I share your trepidation.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I picked up a copy of the TFA novelization from my local library yesterday.

I read chapter 1 last night; it was wholly predictable and meh. I’ll find out if the story gets any more interesting further in later tonight.

Well, I continued reading the book. After halfway through – eight chapters, to be precise – I quit.

I’ve never been very good at putting my thoughts into words, so I’ll simply say this: It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t engaging, and it wasn’t compelling. What it was, though, was tedious, scant of detail, and somewhat aggravating. All the while I was reading it, I felt like I’d rather be reading something else – particularily The Paradise Snare by A. C. Crispin. Now that’s a SW book which has been exciting, engaging, and compelling.

Before anyone asks, no, I’m not going to judge the movie by the book. I’m certain many of the plot problems in the latter are rooted in the former as well, but there are certainly other elements – visuals, performances, etc. – which the novelization utter failed to capture which I imagine would make the film a better experience than this bundle of toilet paper.

I went ahead and started The Stand. I’m 300-ish pages in and starting to lose momentum. Part 1 ends at around the 480 page mark, so I might put a pin in it there and read something else.

Been reading a lot of books on my phone. THE WITCHER: The Last Wish; The Dunwich Horror and Herbert West: Reanimator by H.P. Lovecraft (Obviously. Have 171 Lovecraft books on my phone); STAR WARS: A New Dawn, Dark Disciple (After I finish The Clone Wars Legacy reels.), all the current canon STAR WARS books I have on my phone except for Tarkin but no YA novels; Master and Commander Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O’Brian.

Really looking for an epub reader for my Windows computer since I have the enhanced versions of The Making of STAR WARS, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi by J.W. Rinzler. No tablet.

Also been meaning to read more Heinlein, Stephen King, Asimov, Clarke, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I do have the fully complete Sherlock Holmes), Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, L. Frank Baum (Have all of his OZ books on my phone), and more.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

I re-read all of the Percy Jackson books (including the Heroes of Olympus ones). I remember quite liking all of them when I was 11 so it was weird when I found that only two (out of ten) of the books were any good.

Welcome to the nostalgia-violating hell that is adulthood.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

I re-read all of the Percy Jackson books (including the Heroes of Olympus ones). I remember quite liking all of them when I was 11 so it was weird when I found that only two (out of ten) of the books were any good. The Lightning Thief was an 8/10, and The Titan’s Curse was 7/10. Apart from that, they were all pretty rubbish. If I were to rank them (my favourite hobby!) it would go like this:

Is the 2001 in your name the year you were born in, then?

moviefreakedmind said:

I’m reading the new book, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham. I love reading biographies about great leaders. I recommend Truman by David McCullough and Eisenhower: Soldier and President by Stephen Ambrose. RicOlie_2 don’t you appreciate learning about history?

I do, indeed. Maybe I’ll give those a look once I’ve finished some of the other books I’m reading. When I had the time to do so, I ended up reading 40 books at once. I’ve since pared it down to about 20, but I’m still trying to finish all those before I pick up something new… 😛

LuckyGungan2001 said:

RicOlie_2 said:

LuckyGungan2001 said:

I re-read all of the Percy Jackson books (including the Heroes of Olympus ones). I remember quite liking all of them when I was 11 so it was weird when I found that only two (out of ten) of the books were any good. The Lightning Thief was an 8/10, and The Titan’s Curse was 7/10. Apart from that, they were all pretty rubbish. If I were to rank them (my favourite hobby!) it would go like this:

Is the 2001 in your name the year you were born in, then?

Yes. To a fourteen year old your eleven year old personality was a completely different person.

Tell me about it. Well, I guess I’m no longer the youngest regular on the forum.

Coming to the end of Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams, which I’ve been enjoying immensely. I picked up The Dragonbone Chair shortly after finishing the existing A Song of Ice and Fire books when I read that Williams was a major influence of Martin’s, and I liked it a lot, but I found it very slow and I ultimately put off the second book for a year and a half. Book two doesn’t suffer from the pacing issues at all. These novels do an excellent job of evoking Tolkien without aping him, which is a tricky proposition in the world of high fantasy. I love me some George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss (and I’m warming to Steven Erikson), but sometimes I have an itch for something more traditional, and I’m happy to have Mr. Williams as an alternative option to rereading LOTR for the umpteenth time.

Just ordered Pastoralia by George Saunders after hearing a story from it read on NPR the other day. That’ll probably arrive just as I’m finishing Stone of Farewell, so I plan to jump right into that.

After that, I guess I should get back to the second part of The Stand; I don’t want to leave that up in the air for too long. I might squeeze in a Nabokov novella first, though. I’m about due to read something else by him.

RicOlie_2 said:

Well, I guess I’m no longer the youngest regular on the forum.

After several months of on-and-off-again reading, I’ve finally finished reading The Paradise Snare. It was a pretty solid read, I have to say. Han may not have been as morally gray as I imagined him to be at this point in his life, and Bria’s

SPOILER ALERT!!!

desertion of Han towards the end of the novel came a little out of left field. I became engrossed in Han and Bria’s developing romance regardless, however, and the mystery surrounding Han’s parentage is perfectly befitting of the character. My appetite to read the rest of the Han Solo Trilogy has certainly been whetted.

Likewise, I have finally finished reading Starship Troopers since picking the book up back in the summer. It was certainly an interesting read – the tidbits pertaining to the arachinids were particularily captivating – but the second-to-last chapter was pretty boring, so it put a damper on my reading experience.

I’ll say this: It’s better than the film adaptation – which still remains interesting in its own right – but the re-read factor just isn’t there; I’ll be donating my copy to a thrift store sometime in the near future.