Book thread

Chat about non-baseball topics. No political discussions!
Post Reply
Freed Roger
Seeking a Zubaz seamstress
Posts: 26227
Joined: September 4 07, 1:48 pm
Location: St. Louis

Re: Book thread

Post by Freed Roger »

WTH, they made a movie out of Walk in the Woods. Robert Redford as Bill Bryson?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178665/

Vidor
You've just been hit by...VidorSmarm™
Posts: 22965
Joined: June 10 10, 7:50 pm

Re: Book thread

Post by Vidor »

Freed Roger wrote:WTH, they made a movie out of Walk in the Woods. Robert Redford as Bill Bryson?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1178665/
I heard about that, man, must have been 10 years ago.

User avatar
Tim
Consider him admonished
Posts: 8350
Joined: March 25 15, 9:59 am
Location: The South

Re: Book thread

Post by Tim »

Crazy Love by Francis Chan

User avatar
Donnie Ebert
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 5463
Joined: June 15 06, 9:11 am
Location: Reading The Boat Rocker by Terence Mann

Re: Book thread

Post by Donnie Ebert »

tlombard wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Radbird wrote:I may read The Passage again. It was that good.
I took your recommendation and am quickly hooked.

The book is long, but moves along with the author's efficient story-telling.
Now that I find out it's full on vampiry book, I'm outta here.
I started the book and got through a bit but I have to agree. As soon as they started talking about guys hanging upside down and gutting rabbits I got a lot less interested. I will go back to it eventually but I moved on to something else for now. I am in the mood for something a little more space-y so I switched over to Constitution by Nick Webb. I'm not even really excited about that but some of the other books I am wanting to read (continuations of series) either aren't out yet or in other cases I just can't bring myself to pay for them until I finish the books I already bought.
I'm a third of the way through The Passage (or 35%, according to my Kindle), and I'm also on the fence. The book has moments that I really like, and then others just seem to stall, mostly because I'm not feeling any attachment to the characters. The action seems to be picking up now though. I will keep at it, though I don't feel like I can get any momentum going like I do in other books that grab me early.

The Stephen King blurb on the cover is interesting to me, because it definitely has a King vibe to it.

Also, the author seems to have some connection to St. Louis, because the city gets mentioned far more often than it should, given that none of the action (so far) takes place there. Also, there was a character named "Pujol".

Freed Roger
Seeking a Zubaz seamstress
Posts: 26227
Joined: September 4 07, 1:48 pm
Location: St. Louis

Re: Book thread

Post by Freed Roger »

Donnie Ebert wrote:
tlombard wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Freed Roger wrote:
Radbird wrote:I may read The Passage again. It was that good.
I took your recommendation and am quickly hooked.

The book is long, but moves along with the author's efficient story-telling.
Now that I find out it's full on vampiry book, I'm outta here.
I started the book and got through a bit but I have to agree. As soon as they started talking about guys hanging upside down and gutting rabbits I got a lot less interested. I will go back to it eventually but I moved on to something else for now. I am in the mood for something a little more space-y so I switched over to Constitution by Nick Webb. I'm not even really excited about that but some of the other books I am wanting to read (continuations of series) either aren't out yet or in other cases I just can't bring myself to pay for them until I finish the books I already bought.
I'm a third of the way through The Passage (or 35%, according to my Kindle), and I'm also on the fence. The book has moments that I really like, and then others just seem to stall, mostly because I'm not feeling any attachment to the characters.
I may have bailed too soon on it (200 pages or so) but when
[SHOW]
it suddenly started going clairvoyance and ape [expletive] and the vampire convicts things got loose and are invincible killing off almost all the characters that it previously developed (except the Girl/chosen One of course) - I didn't want to devote time following this newly created existence.

I'm not interested in plausibility so much, but there needs to be some sort of constraints to work with. By this point, I realized anything goes. When I quit, it kind of hinted like some sort of reining in/salvation/reprieve/order (daylight?) -but it doesn't interest me to go another 500 pages (and sequel novels?!).
It's too bad, I was digging the writing and initial pacing and how the author would get characters up and running on the pages
I'll think twice next time Radbird pimps something.

tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: Book thread

Post by tlombard »

I finished Constitution yesterday on my ride home and wanted to start on The Martian but then I remembered that the book I bought after hearing about it here wasn't actually The Martian but a freaking study guide on the novel (which is why I hadn't already read it). I am still too mad to suck it up and pay for the real novel now. I was going through Kindle Unlimited last night and kept seeing The Martian and the author's name and then right at the last minute would notice that in tiny writing somewhere it would mention that it was a trivia guide or analysis, etc. I'm gun shy on trying to buy an actual copy because on Kindle they are so sneaky with the part where they tell you that it isn't the actual book.

So instead I had to go back to the volume of 50 classics that I have on my Nook app as emergency reading material and I started reading The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. I haven't gotten very far but I'm pretty surprised at the writing and enjoying it as far as I've gotten. I'm still very early in the book when he is just getting back into town and trying to meet General Yepanchin. I figured a book written nearly 150 years ago in Russia would have a style that was harder to follow than it is. After I got home I downloaded a few other books but I think I'm going to actually finish The Idiot before I start on any of them.

Edit: Of course I also have no idea when the version I am reading was translated and how much that translation changed things so that probably explains why it has been such an easy read.

User avatar
redbirdjazzz
Perennial All-Star
Posts: 4952
Joined: April 17 06, 10:50 am
Location: Columbia, MO

Re: Book thread

Post by redbirdjazzz »

tlombard wrote:I finished Constitution yesterday on my ride home and wanted to start on The Martian but then I remembered that the book I bought after hearing about it here wasn't actually The Martian but a freaking study guide on the novel (which is why I hadn't already read it). I am still too mad to suck it up and pay for the real novel now. I was going through Kindle Unlimited last night and kept seeing The Martian and the author's name and then right at the last minute would notice that in tiny writing somewhere it would mention that it was a trivia guide or analysis, etc. I'm gun shy on trying to buy an actual copy because on Kindle they are so sneaky with the part where they tell you that it isn't the actual book.

So instead I had to go back to the volume of 50 classics that I have on my Nook app as emergency reading material and I started reading The Idiot by Dostoyevsky. I haven't gotten very far but I'm pretty surprised at the writing and enjoying it as far as I've gotten. I'm still very early in the book when he is just getting back into town and trying to meet General Yepanchin. I figured a book written nearly 150 years ago in Russia would have a style that was harder to follow than it is. After I got home I downloaded a few other books but I think I'm going to actually finish The Idiot before I start on any of them.

Edit: Of course I also have no idea when the version I am reading was translated and how much that translation changed things so that probably explains why it has been such an easy read.
The Martian is on sale for $1.99 on Kindle today.

tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: Book thread

Post by tlombard »

Why didn't I see that sale back in August!!!

Anyway, if anybody stumbles across Underneath the Moon... don't bother.

The story idea itself is interesting enough but good lord. The author just makes some stupid logic jumps that make no sense. First of all, the 'new propulsion system' that was invented in the book completely violates the laws of physics.

Then you really expect me to believe that it took the guy three years to enhance photos from the moon taken by the Apollo crews and find an ancient alien city made of glass that is 2,000 miles wide and goes 100 miles or more high? But then him and a few people he meets within days can build a freaking flying saucer from the design phase to complete and tested in a year?

And that they can fly it around the United States at 6,000 miles an hour, nearly cause a small private plane to crash and the government has NOTHING to say except for eventually scrambling F-16s to try and get them to follow back to a base but then they just let it go when they evade the missiles even though the government knows where they keep the thing?

And that they can get to the moon in 4 hours in that flying saucer?

And then things really get stupid when they get to the moon city. They notice an area surrounded by walls and the inside surface is curved. Then they notice three things that look like satellite dishes all aimed at the center of that area. So immediately they realize that the area was the mold for the glass panels that made up the dome of the city and the dishes were actually reflectors that focused a laser beam from Stonehenge into the mold to melt the moon sand into glass. WHAT???? They literally see an area with three dish looking things pointing in that direction and the logical leap is that Stonehenge (which wasn't mentioned ONE previous time in the book) was a big laser?

That is where I finally gave up on it as I was reading this morning. I'll probably still finish the book since it will only take another half hour or so just to see if things can get even more stupid.

tlombard
tl;dr
Posts: 5053
Joined: May 21 09, 12:41 pm

Re: Book thread

Post by tlombard »

I finally sucked it up and paid $8.99 for The Martian and while I wish I had known about it when it was free on the author's website or even $.99 on Amazon, I don't regret paying a lot more for it as much now that I've gotten into it. I started on my way home yesterday and will be finished by the time I get home tonight. Great book so far. Love the author's sense of humor. Some of the journal entries where he sums up conversations sound just like how a conversation would go with me and some of my friends (the ones that end with somebody simply calling the other person a dick).

Vidor
You've just been hit by...VidorSmarm™
Posts: 22965
Joined: June 10 10, 7:50 pm

Re: Book thread

Post by Vidor »

Bill O'Reilly has written another godawful "Killing" book, this one "Killing Reagan". Apparently it is as crappy as all his other crappy books, but this one has gotten George Will mad.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... story.html

Post Reply