Avid Readers?

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Flint the Dwarf
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by Flint the Dwarf » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:18 pm

irriadin wrote:Here are all the books I have yet to read. Well, actually not true. I'm probably not going to finish ... the Belgariad (heard it's really generic).
The Belgariad/Mallorean books are pretty generic, but they were among the first books I ever read (along with Terry Brook's Shannara books which are also pretty generic, the Chronicles of Narnia, and LotR) and I think they're great books to read when you're young. I haven't read them in something like 10 years, though, so I'm interested in reading them again to see what I think now.
Kusoyaro: We don't need a leader. We need to SHUT UP. Make what you want to make, don't make you what you don't want to make. If neither of those applies to you, then you need to SHUT UP MORE.

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irriadin
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by irriadin » Sun Mar 18, 2012 6:35 pm

Flint the Dwarf wrote:
irriadin wrote:Here are all the books I have yet to read. Well, actually not true. I'm probably not going to finish ... the Belgariad (heard it's really generic).
The Belgariad/Mallorean books are pretty generic, but they were among the first books I ever read (along with Terry Brook's Shannara books which are also pretty generic, the Chronicles of Narnia, and LotR) and I think they're great books to read when you're young. I haven't read them in something like 10 years, though, so I'm interested in reading them again to see what I think now.
Yea, I got that impression from what I've heard. I read the Shannara books ages ago, I doubt I'd enjoy them much now. Actually, I kept reading Terry Brooks until he published the book "Straken" upon which I decided that I would never read another book by him ever again.

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LopezAMV
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by LopezAMV » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:24 am

Emong wrote:
LopezAMV wrote:I recommend it :up:. Reading philosophical works is often incredibly tedious and I always find myself having to re-read everything at least a couple of times before I can fully understand it. Not sure why but I'm not particularly interested in Kant's work - while it has its merits, I found it considerably less interesting than the works of Locke, Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, and Plato.
I see you've been digging some important historical works in philosophy :up: Shame on me! I haven't read any of those. The oldest philosophical work I've read was Capital (vol. 1) by Marx. I should really get to the roots at some point. Too bad I've got enough books piled up on my bookshelf to last until the next year and most of them are very much contemporary philosophy. During the last few years I've been reading Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and, out of some even more contemporary ones, Dennett, Zizek, Habermas and Bourdieu, although the last two are more on the side of social philosophy/sociology. You probably know/have read some of these names :D I would really recommend this one.
I figured it would be best to start from the bottom up :P unfortunately I developed a preference over older material because of it. I don't really know much about modern philosophy since I haven't got that far but I'm slowly making progress. I'll definitely look into your suggestion though, I've been meaning to read something "new" for a while now :up:

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Rendakor
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by Rendakor » Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:39 pm

irriadin wrote:Here are all the books I have yet to read. Well, actually not true. I'm probably not going to finish Kushiel's Dart (prose is lol), Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (padded out, boring etc) or the Belgariad (heard it's really generic).

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Also, that stack of books is perilous and Shadow's Edge has a bad habit of falling down after I hit my alarm :dino:
Lot of nice stuff you've got there; Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy is excellent. Hobb's Soldier Son trilogy on the other hand was godawful.
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aesling
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by aesling » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:37 pm

I've come to the conclusion that Robin Hobb has forgotten how to write. The Soldier Son trilogy was terrible and boring, and she started a new series set in the Rain Wilds that was also terrible and boring.
:ying:

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Rendakor
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by Rendakor » Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:46 am

I'd heard about that series but decided to give it a pass after how bad Soldier Son was. The first SS book wasn't totally awful (I liked the fantasy equivalent of boot camp), but the direction she took in the second and third was just...not good.
Spoiler :
If the main character had recovered, become a successful cavalry guy, and rode off to smite some specks instead of becoming a fat druid thing, it might have turned out better. Alack and alas.
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aesling
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by aesling » Fri Mar 23, 2012 1:19 am

Rendakor wrote:I'd heard about that series but decided to give it a pass after how bad Soldier Son was. The first SS book wasn't totally awful (I liked the fantasy equivalent of boot camp), but the direction she took in the second and third was just...not good.
Spoiler :
If the main character had recovered, become a successful cavalry guy, and rode off to smite some specks instead of becoming a fat druid thing, it might have turned out better. Alack and alas.
Spoiler :
Hell, if he had done anything other than whine about how fat he was for the entire second book it might have been better. I feel like Epiny should have been the main character, she was much cooler. The themes of colonialism and cultural identity were interesting, but the main character was such a useless boob that I couldn't stand him. As for the Rainwilder book, all of the characters were either not interesting, completely unlikeable, or both, in addition to the plot moving at a snail's pace.
:ying:

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Warlike Swans
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by Warlike Swans » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:07 am

Robin Hobb... I've read the 1st Soldier Son and Assassin's Apprentice, and I while I finished both I felt not the least bit inclined to picking up the next book of either trilogy.

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Haus Haberdasher
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by Haus Haberdasher » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:12 pm

I’m currently making my way through A Song of Ice and Fire (just started A Storm of Swords), as well as the Dark Tower series. Ever since I got my kindle, I’ve been reading a lot of e-published novellas, mostly steampunk and horror. I read a lot of English history as well. I’ll read anything by David Starkey. I’ve got a to-read list that’s about 30 books long.

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irriadin
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Re: Avid Readers?

Post by irriadin » Sat Mar 24, 2012 1:53 pm

Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors. Then again, I've only read her Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Trilogy, and the Tawny Man trilogy. All of which I consider top-shelf fantasy. I've heard bad things about Soldier Son, but I guess I'll have to see for myself.

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