Main Menu

Whats everyone reading?

Started by Paul faplad Finch, 30 March, 2009, 10:04:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Mardroid

#990
Quote from: Cthulouis on 08 February, 2010, 10:50:10 PM
At Christmas I got into an argument with a guy who claimed Leonardo Da Vinci was born "ahead of his time". The fact that I was pissed out of my head prevented me from 1) walking away, and 2) providing an articulate argument against his point.

Actually a lot of the designs in his sketches were pretty prophetic*. Not that he got practical versions to work, (his 'flying machine design didn't work for example, although it's very interesting)  but I believe he even drew a tank of sorts!

Anyway, back to books. On my chug through the Wheel of Time series I'm now on Lord of Chaos. I think this is where the story tends to slow down a lot and puts some people off, but I still find it interesting.

I'm also reading a GN Gotham Central: Dead Robin.  On first look it appears to be a Batman book. While he certainly appears in it, the story is mostly told from the point of view of the Gotham City Police Department. It's basically a cop story featuring superheroes, and (certain clichés aside, particularly in dialogue, etc) it works very well!

Oh, and in my lunch break today, I went to the 99p shop in Eltham. I found there volumes of Charles Dickens hardback books going for (guess it) 99p! I picked up the Pickwick papers. (This version is in 2 volumes, but for £2 that's pretty good!)

I tend to keep mostly to fantasy and horror when I read (I'm open to sci-fi, but I seem to prefer that on TV programmes/films and comics for some reason) but I do like some Dickens, particularly David Copperfield and Great Expectations.

*Prophetic is probably the wrong word. But just as many sci-fi authors have predicted things that have since come about, the same is true for his sketches. It's understandable he would be thought ahead of his time in that regard.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Mardroid on 11 February, 2010, 01:18:27 AM
I'm also reading a GN Gotham Central: Dead Robin.  On first look it appears to be a Batman book. While he certainly appears in it, the story is mostly told from the point of view of the Gotham City Police Department. It's basically a cop story featuring superheroes, and (certain clichés aside, particularly in dialogue, etc) it works very well!


The Gotham Central collections are something I'm eying very keenly just just about holding off buying. The team of Brubaker, Rucka and Lark is a winner and the concept is one that really intrigues me. I've no doubt I'll buckle soon and buy them and would be interested to hear what other people think of them?

Cthulouis

Quote from: Mardroid on 11 February, 2010, 01:18:27 AM
Quote from: Cthulouis on 08 February, 2010, 10:50:10 PM
At Christmas I got into an argument with a guy who claimed Leonardo Da Vinci was born "ahead of his time". The fact that I was pissed out of my head prevented me from 1) walking away, and 2) providing an articulate argument against his point.

Actually a lot of the designs in his sketches were pretty prophetic*. Not that he got practical versions to work, (his 'flying machine design didn't work for example, although it's very interesting)  but I believe he even drew a tank of sorts!

Perhaps, but he was still a product of the culture he grew up in. If he was born at any other time, at any other place, he probably would have been equally brilliant, but not necessarily in the same way. The guy was arguing that people in the past were thick, then along came Leo, and people were still thick, then in the 20th C, we all became brilliant. Gah.

As you say, back to books:

I am reading this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolution-Extinction-Dinosaurs-David-Fastovsky/dp/0521811724/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265913736&sr=8-1

I got it for Christmas, having put it on my wish list on the strength of the 2 star review. A book on evolution, apparently "Overly Devoted to Cladistic Studies". Well, fancy that. I found myself reading this "bad" review and thinking "But, that's surely what you would want from a book with that title". It's certainly what I wanted. Good stuff.

Dandontdare

My new word of the day - CLADISTIC (and since I looked it up, add "phylogenetic" to that list!)

House of Usher

My favourite word of today is 'voivodship.'

At work I encountered this word in a response from a foreign correspondent who used the word as an approximation of an English term which turned out to be 'domain.'

Brilliant!  :lol:

I've long known what a Voivod was, but I'd never given any thought to what one might call the territory that lies within his purview.
STRIKE !!!

das

just back from vacation in florida
and a nice 80f it was
and i got a tiny tiny bit caught up on my reading;
Burroughs' Port of Saints
a biography of raymond roussel
and a bunch of ashley wood graphic novels

best is getting back home, being an evil american, i have only in the last few months completed by 2000ad collection
and am in the middle of a run covering 2001- 2006 some 300 progs !!!
just wallowing in prog after prog

lovely overdose indeed !
Confusion is Better Than Sex

HOO-HAA

Having another whack at Stephen King's DUMA KEY.

Got bored towards the middle, last time I tried reading it. But I'm kinda in the mood for a bit of King, at the minute...

Taryn Tailz

Got my hands on the Judge Dredd book "The Savage Amusement" so have just startd reading it.  :)

IAMTHESYSTEM

Started 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. I'm hooked already!
"You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension."

http://artriad.deviantart.com/
― Nikola Tesla

HdE

I just blew through the second collected volume of ABC Warriors - The Volgan War.

Dang it - awesome stuff! I do get the sense that things may be building to something with a note of finality to it for the Warriors, which fills me with dread.

And a point of interest - I do believe I've fallen in love with the model who plays the p[art of Lara   :-[
Check out my DA page! Point! Laugh!
http://hde2009.deviantart.com/

Richmond Clements

Quote from: IAMTHESYSTEM on 22 February, 2010, 10:07:19 PM
Started 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. I'm hooked already!

I'm halfway through it- but hadn't had time to pick it up over the past couple of weeks, I just dipped in again this morning and by god it's bloody good.

strontium_dog_90

Under The Dome is brilliant, a total return to form - I'm quite chuffed that a review of it I wrote has just been posted online, too  :)

Just read "Haunted" by Chuck Palahniuk, which is a great read, a novel made up of horrible and satirical stories, and an Iron Man prose novel called "Virus," which was fun, if a bit padded.

I, Cosh

Some Ursula Le Guin. Read The Left Hand of Darkness at the weekend and I'm halfway through The Dispossessed now. Good stuff. This is what people mean when they talk about sci-fi being used to explore our own society, but I'm worried it might turn me into a feminist. Fear of Flying next.
We never really die.

Cthulouis

Late to the party I know, but I just read Maus.

Bloody hell, that was a bit good.

Richmond Clements

Quote from: Cthulouis on 24 February, 2010, 11:35:47 AM
Late to the party I know, but I just read Maus.

Bloody hell, that was a bit good.


Shamefully, I've not read it yet! Well, I've read the first couple of chapters so far- but I'm in the middle of a shit load of review stuff.