What are you reading?

[Cthulhu]

Of somewhat note, still reading FfC at a decent rate, should have it finished in a month or so, after which I'll finally read DwD. Maybe they'll have a paperback matching my existing (and well-read) set by then .

 

[Ⓐaron]

The lack of resolution bothered me, but honestly, it sounds like Martin is going to be a lot more focused on finishing the series now than he was before, so I'm not really terribly bothered that the book ended on some of the most gigantic cliffhangers he's written to date. Martin has explicitly confirmed that the next book will open with two major battles (I'm assuming

Spoiler

one is the battle at Winterfell, and the other is the battle at Meereen; also, Martin's response to a question a fan asked sounds like it implied that Ramsay lied about at least half the things in his letter, although I've only read a first-hand account of the signing where he answered the question

), so that should be great. What we got in Dance was more than enough to tide me over for a couple of years; we finally got to see the continent of Essos developed in as much depth as Feast gave us for Westeros, and several major mysteries about the backstory were resolved (who are the children of the forest? who is the three-eyed crow? what happened to Valyria? etc.)

Spoiler

Bran, Davos and Theon

's chapters alone made the whole book worth the price of admission to me. And Wyman Manderly is one of the biggest badasses in the entire series.

 

[Cthulhu]

Wait, what continent of what essos?

 

[Ⓐaron]

The eastern continent. There's also a continent called Sothoryos below Essos, but it's almost entirely uninhabited (or at least unexplored) and basically hasn't figured into the story at all.

 

[Cthulhu]

Ah right, now you mention it, it was always referred to as 'across the narrow sea', . But still largely unexplored, granted. Plenty of references to what's out there though.

I like the difference between the two continents though. Westeros is pretty much a classical ye olde medieval kingdoms continent (with wild stuffs up north), whereas this Essos one is vastly different and diverse and wild and unexplored and shit.

 

[Hisako]

Spoiler

implied that Ramsay lied about at least half the things in his letter,

Spoiler

The moment I read that bit I thought Ramsay was completely bullshitting, and that he was just bluffing his ass off just because he was pissing himself scared,

After all, we're talking about a guy who marries a woman just so he can steal her lands and lock her up in a dungeon to let her starve and eat her own fingers off. He seems the sort of guy who would get off on taunting people.

I find Roose's treatment of him pretty incomprehensible, though. I'd probably disown a kid like that

 

[Ⓐaron]

Spoiler

Basically Roose is afraid of what would happen if he were to die while his heir was really young, otherwise he'd disown Ramsay. He apparently thinks a completely insane heir is better for his house than a really young one.

 

[Elisa Maza]

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Stunning writing for very disturbing material: the mind of a pedophile. The ending, I think does take sides against Humbert, even though it does leave many things free to interpretation.

Halfway to the novel, I was seriously thinking that Nabokov genuinely had pedophile tendencies... the characterization left me gaping. Here's a sick and twisted man, making puns and poke fun at his sickness, as if it was a laughing matter, a natural thing. 0_0 And even though the illusion that Nabokov could ever have such sickness quickly evaporates, I was left with the doubt. Here's to an amazing writer.

Now, I want to read something light and innocent. I NEED to.

 

[Zee]

I can't seem to read just one book at a time. Right now I'm finishing up a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories while I'm starting on American Gods.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness

I'm not done with it yet but it's so damn good. You really get into the head of the protagonist and the tension and action is excellent. I'd recommend it.

 

[movwills]

noting special at this time

 

[Elisa Maza]

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW??????

This book is an acid trip, if I ever had one. American culture, with Norwegian mythology, Leprechauns that make golden coins out of nowhere, high technology, personal data theft and walking, disappearing zombies.

WHAT IS THIS BOOK DOING???? 0_o

I love it until now, in case you were wondering.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Ending is brilliant.

 

[bettycocker]

The Book of the Law Liber AL vel Legis.

I've read it quite a few times, I'm open to a lot. Good read.

 

[Zee]

I just finished Storm of Swords.



................................WHAT JUST HAPPENED..........I HAVE ALL THESE FEELINGS...

 

[Hisako]

I just finished Storm of Swords.



................................WHAT JUST HAPPENED..........I HAVE ALL THESE FEELINGS...

Three things:

Spoiler

Catelyn Stark, Robb Stark, Barristan Selmy.

OT: Reading The Ashes of Worlds, Kevin J. Anderson.

Not as well-crated as Martin's epic, but there's more in common than people might think. One of my favorite sci-fi series so far.

 

[Marle]

Finished the Death Cure. I am enamored by The Maze Runner Trilogy but the romance was terrible, i won't lie

About a few hundred pages into a Game of Thrones now. Very much disturbed by the twincest. Very much. O_O

 

[Cthulhu]

Currently reading The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss, as recommended by a scholarly colleague of mine (I believe he used to be a professor at an university for quite some time) at a presentation of his last week. At the time, I figured it'd be some sort of self-help book where you get taught magic tricks to make women melt.

It's much more awesome than that though. It follows the investigation of the author into an online community of pickup artists - probably through newsgroups or something - that boast highly of their techniques in picking up women. He goes forth to find out everything.

As it turns out, the pickup artists are nerds. I mean huge, giant herp-de-derp nerds. The lead pickup artist, Mystery, is a goth with black fingernails and a wizard robe. There's another nerd still living at home that finds out how to wank properly at age 26 and describes his first time having sex - which is very disappointing.

Anways, tl;dr: It's a great laugh. Nerds that not only objectify women into a simple combination of hair color and grade (brunette 7, blonde 10), but the entire process of human interaction into a formula, a set of techniques, and some wizards tricks. There's another guy (from the Speed Seduction technique) that used hypnosis.

So far, all I see is the lead nerd flaunting his power and collecting phone numbers with his wizardry, and he's having problems with his current girlfriend because she doesn't want to become bisexual for him. Ah fuck it, here's some lulzworthy quotes from the book.

"Can't you go out with Patricia?" I asked. Patricia was Mystery's girl¬
friend, the one pictured in her negligee in his pickup resume.
"She's mad at me," he said. Mystery had met Patricia four years ago,
when she was fresh off the boat from Romania. He tried to mold her into
his ideal girl—he talked her into getting a boob job, giving him blow jobs
(which she'd never done before), and taking a job as a stripper—but she
drew the line at bisexuality. For Mystery, this was a dealbreaker.
Everyone has their own reason for getting into the game. Some, like Extramask,
are virgins who want to experience what it's like to be with a
woman. Others, like Grimble and Twotimer, desire new girls every night.
And a few, like Sweater, are searching for the perfect wife. Mystery had his
own specific goal.
"I want to be loved by two women," he said. "I want a blonde 10 and an
Asian 10, who will love each other as much as they love me. And Patricia's
heterosexuality is affecting my sex life with her, because unless I imagine
another girl there, I can't always keep my boner."

Waiting seven hours or more is what Mystery calls solid game. But oc¬
casionally a woman either goes out with the specific intention of taking
someone home, or can be easily led to sex in a shorter amount of time. Mys¬
tery calls this fool's mate. I had spent an hour with this girl at La Salsa and
two hours at the bar. I was about to experience my first fool's mate.
She put the card key in the lock of her room and the green light
appeared—an omen, I felt, of the night of passion to come. She opened the
door, and I followed her inside. She sat on the foot of the bed—just like in
the movies—and pulled her shoes off. First the left, then the right. She was
wearing white socks, which I found rather endearing. She flexed the toes of
both feet upward, then curled them downward as she collapsed backward
on the bed.
I took a step toward her, prepared to fall on her in an embrace. But sud¬
denly the foulest smell I have ever encountered assailed my nostrils. It liter¬
ally pushed me backward. It was the exact rancid-cheese smell that
homeless alcoholics on New York subways have. The kind that clears the
whole subway car. No matter how many steps back I took, the intensity of
the smell did not diminish. It filled the entire room, every available space.
I looked at her, lying back on the bed, wanton, oblivious. It was her feet.
Her feet were stinking up the room.
I had to get out of there.

And a bunch more. It's excessive lulz and I'd definitely watch the movie they're making of this - the characters are pretty much all caricatures and the exact opposite of what you'd think a pickup artist looks like / is like.

And okay fine, it does tell the reader a thing or two about approaching women and what can make them tick. But on the other hand, is turning the entire process into a neatly choreographed and studied routine really needed? I haven't figured out why the nerds pickup artists do what they're doing. To get laid? They don't seem particularly successful in that area from what I've read so far. And despite studying and learning the ropes, the author himself still struggles with his baser fears, repressions, past experiences (or lack thereof), etc. The author's personal explanation of what he's like is awfully recognizable to me too, I'm afraid to admit.

sdfa. Good read, go read it, . I has a piracy link if you need it.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Inheritance - Christopher Paolini

Yes I know it's a childrens book but I like the series OK!

 

[Zee]

YES GOOD

I'm in the middle of Feast for Crows right now (I'm taking my time with this one). Goddamn all these characters are so well written it hurts.

 

[Cthulhu]

Finished reading The Game.

Purely as a non-fiction book itself, it's a very good read - hordes of nerds hitting on girls using SCIENCE, the concept alone is roflworthy and I'm confident they can take the concept into a movie. A romantic comedy movie with nerds, that is.

It's also a book about self-discovery, in a sense, especially for the author.

But as I sorta expected, the end conclusion is about as follows:

Spoiler

The author spends two years in the pickup artist community and learns pretty much everything there is to learn about seducing women - shallowly, that is, a fixed routine to get women to give him their numbers and/or sleep with them, as well as transforms him from a generic writer nerd that doesn't get any to Mr. Popular, both in clubs and in the online pickup artist community.

By the end of the book, after things have gone ridiculous with the top pickup artists all living together in a big house in Hollywood together with, of all people, Courtney Love, and things are all falling apart, the author realizes that it's pretty much all bullshit. The ability to pick up pretty much any woman you want makes one shallow and hollow; it's a way to fill up a gap inside, but only permanently. This is mostly obvious in the main pickup artist the author follows, Mystery, who has multiple emotional breakdowns and drops back into depression in the book; a fucked up childhood made him into what he is, and his rational thinking and things were unable to truly fix it, especially after he loses women he really cares about (but neglects, 'cause that's how he works).

tl;dr. By the end of the book, the author meets the guitarist (or something) of Courtney Love's band, who he takes a liking to. Problem is, she's impervious to the whole set of pick up artist techniques. Eventually, turns out she does like him, but only if he's himself and loses all the pickup artist bullshit techinques.

So again the basic concept is regurgitated: Just remain yourself. (cleverly omitting the fact that if the author didn't go on his quest and slept with hundreds of women in that two year period he would never have ended up the ridiculous situation he was in and met that woman, but w/e).

I remain unconvinced of that, but eh . Good read, go get it for the lulz.

 

[Elisa Maza]

Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause.

My God, an interesting enough premise, destroyed by a fail!author, who in the end writes Twilight before Twilight existed.

Why am I doing this to myself?

 

[Strangelove]

About to start either the first Song of Ice and Fire or the first His Dark Materials.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Shadow's Edge (Book 2 in the Night Angel Trilogy)

Really enjoying it so far. It's much more openly vulgar than the first book that hid most of its more explicit content behind elloquently crafted words, but this one openly addresses those things.


X

 

[OneWingedDemon]

Call of Cthulhu
...well, technically I just finished it. Recs, anyone?