What are you reading? — Page 10

The Hunger Games. After seeing and hating the film I was wondering if the book really was that bad. Turns out it's actually pretty good. finished part 1, on to part 2.

I've been trying to read 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King recently, but I've currently lost interest in the story, so I don't know when I'll get through it.

Decided to stick with the original, even though I found out shortly after I started that there's a "revised" version. I'm about 20 pages from the end.

asterisk8 said:

Decided to stick with the original, even though I found out shortly after I started that there's a "revised" version.

doubleofive said:

 

Johnny Ringo said:

The Hunger Games. After seeing and hating the film I was wondering if the book really was that bad. Turns out it's actually pretty good. finished part 1, on to part 2.

I love that even though you didn't like the film, you still decided to give the books a shot.

 

Well, It's made me hate the film even more. But I'm digging the books..

darth_ender said:

The Silver Chair - I got around to finishing the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia.  I was nervous about this one because we lost all the Pevensys as protagonists, and now had to rely on "Scrubb" and "Pole."  I actually liked this book quite a lot, and really enjoyed their, uh, optimistic travel companion, Puddleglum.  That character really added a lot of charm to the story.

I began The Horse and His Boy, but I really felt like jumping to a different series again, so I will finish it later.

Well, it took a long time, but I finally started over with The Horse and his Boy and finished it.  It was a charming tale.  There wasn't anything terribly memorable in it, but it was a nice addition to the series.  Kind of fun to get entirely new characters and see a story set during the Golden Age of Narnia when the Pevensie family reign in Cair Paravel.  It also further set things up for the final book, The Last Battle, wherein the bad guys of this book return to take a far more antagonistic role.  It doesn't surprise me that the Calormene are interpreted as racist stereotypes, but it must be remembered that C.S. Lewis was a man of his times.

I also have read The Magician's Nephew, which shows the creation of Narnia (of course another parallel to the biblical telling of the Creation of the world), how the witch Jadis came to power there, and shows how Professor Digory, with whom the Pevensie children stayed during the London bombings and at whose house they had their first adventure, played a large role in all of this.  I really enjoyed this book.

Now I'm about 2/3 done with The Last Battle, the final book in the series.  I can't believe I read the first book for the first time in 5th grade, yet it's taken me all these years to finally get around to finishing the series.

Finally finished The Chronicles of Narnia.  Can't write much of a review, as I'm going to take my NCLEX exam very soon, but it was a fine ending.  I find it interesting how many of Lewis's personal theological views differ with mainstream Protestantism and align more closely with LDS doctrine (he is the most oft-quoted non-LDS author in my Church, interestingly).  Enjoyable as parables of Christianity, but enjoyable stories as well.

After finishing all the Rudy Rucker Ware books I've moved backwards and I'm re-reading the Frank Herbert Dune Books. I haven't read these since my twenties and I'm actually enjoying them much more now.

I first read Dune before the film came out and had a blank canvass to paint the world with.

This time I find my mind's eye glimpsing not just on my earlier impressions but sometimes on bits of the Lynch film and the Sci-Fi miniseries.

The character that emerges untainted most is Guerney who is so unlike Patrick Stewart and sounds so differently to P H Moriarty that I have a fresh impression of him.

Count Fenring is now more like Freddie Jones's Thufir (because of the speech patterns).

Any impressions I had of Yueh first time have been replaced by Dean Stockwell.

He looks in the film much like he does in the book (only with a longer limp moustache).

It's kind of weird but wonderful go back to Arrakis.

It makes great analogies for your present views on world affairs too, no?  :)  I love the first book, but as I've said before, I've been hesitant to go on.

I'm currently reading Dune (talk about synchronicity!), and I don't really know what to say about it other than that it's a surprisingly easy read, I'm more-or-less halfway through it, it's fun to pick up which elements Lucas took and adapted when he went to make Star Wars, and that I'm surprised Lynch was able to make his movie as coherent as it was with so much detail from the novel jettisoned.

As with darth_ender, I'm not sure if I'm going to read any of the sequels.

You might as well read Dune Messiah as it's such a tiny book compared to the first one.

And then...

Honestly I love Frank's books in my view they get more interesting as they go on (I would have loved to see Lynch try and make the God Emperor work) but nothing will compel me to read any of the non-Frank books.

And Darth Ender if you want to understand politics (or indeed much of what I post) reading Herbert Snr and Robert Anton Wilson are good primers.

Aha, now I have the key to your code, because I'd say I don't understand about 40% of your posts.  Now I know I what I need to do ;)

They say of the Illuminatus! trilogy if you can get past the first 100 pages Eris sends you a prize. 

If you finish them three times you get your own customisable universe.

darth_ender said:

I also have read The Magician's Nephew, which shows the creation of Narnia (of course another parallel to the biblical telling of the Creation of the world), how the witch Jadis came to power there, and shows how the Pevensy children's uncle played a large role in all of this.  I really enjoyed this book.

Now I'm about 2/3 done with The Last Battle, the final book in the series.  I can't believe I read the first book for the first time in 5th grade, yet it's taken me all these years to finally get around to finishing the series.

I've never been a fan of The Magicians Nephew, and it really annoyed me when they change the series numbering to make this the first book (when I was a kid, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe was #1 and The Magician's Nephew was #6, modern publication make them books #2 and #1, respectively). TLtWatW is a much stronger introduction to the series, and I feel like the The Magician's Nephew ruins a lot of the charm of the earlier book by explaining things that were once intriguing mysteries that added to the feel of Narnia, like the origins of the Jadis, the lamp post, and especially the magical wardrobe.

Also, not to be pedantic, but Digory is not the Pevensie children's uncle. During the bombings of WWII, children were evacuated from the city. Digory is just some old Professor with a big home out in the country who took on some children for shelter.

The Silver Chair and A Horse and His Boy are the runner ups for my second favorite Narnia books. Voyage of the Dawn Treader will always be my favorite.

Glad you finally got around to finishing the series. About time!

If you're not tired of the author yet, Lewis' Ransom Trilogy (also known as the Space Trilogy, or the Cosmic Trilogy) is great fun too! Since you seem like you're a fan of sci-fi novels, you should check them out. They're aimed at an older readership, rather than being children's books like Narnia.

No, you're not being pedantic; of course you are correct, he is not their uncle.  I knew that of course, but after not having read the series for so long, then starting again, I suppose I introduced that element in myself.  I'll fix the post.

I can see why you wouldn't like The Magician's Nephew.  Indeed, spoiling the mystery in stories often detracts from their charm.  But for me, it was surprisingly fun.  I honestly liked a lot of it, except perhaps the lamp post.  I agree, there was no need for an explanation, and I didn't like that particular explanation anyhow.

I too agree the TLTWATW was a much stronger start.  It probably is my personal favorite.  I'm not a fan of the renumbering either, and I'm glad I read them in the original order.  It's kind of like watching Star Wars from Episodes I-VI, when clearly the better order was the release order (if you have to watch the PT at all--gotta remember where I am ;)  ).

They're not hard books to read, but my reading time is limited, so I gave priority to other books.  I actually "read" these as audio books while doing yard work.  Actual real reading is devoted to Star Trek novels at the present.  That said, I'm interested in the Ransom Trilogy.  I'm obviously pretty ignorant as to Lewis's writings I suppose, but I didn't realize he had written more fiction.  I was only aware of Narnia, plus his theological treatises.  I'll have to check out the Ransom Trilogy, as I'm sure I'd enjoy it, both as to their audience and as to their sci-fi subject matter (you are correct that I enjoy sci-fi).

Just looked up the Wikipedia article.  Have you read The Dark Tower to go along with the trilogy?  How do you like the series as a whole?

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions :)  I wish I could read more, as I love it.  If I could even put in an hour a day, I sure could cover a lot more ground after having not read enough fiction in the past.  But alas, life gets in my way.

BTW, I'm not sure if you're a fan of Orson Scott Card, but if you enjoy religious parallels in spite of your views, you may enjoy the Homecoming series, which is sci-fi parallel to the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  May not be your thing, but I thought I'd suggest it.

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

Frank Herbert was a bit of homodisrespectus too but he is dead.

I don't mind sending money to the dead.

Bingowings said:

Sadly I paid money for Orson's work before finding out he was a bigoted nutcase.

Frank Herbert was a bit of homodisrespectus too but he is dead.

I don't mind sending money to the dead.