Author Topic: Book Thread  (Read 50015 times)

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Offline Kevrock

  • Posts: 13788
  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #550: September 04, 2014, 10:18:30 PM »
I'm considering starting ASoIaF after having watched Game of Thrones (through season 3 so far).

Can anyone comment on whether it's worth it if you've watched?  (No spoilers pls).

Better than the show, which I quit watching. Some of the most readable books I've ever read.

Offline mitlen

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  • We had 'em all the way.
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #551: September 04, 2014, 10:21:00 PM »
This may seem corny as hell but I enjoyed "The Leatherstocking Tales" by James Fenimore Cooper.

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #552: September 06, 2014, 06:14:41 PM »
Better than the show, which I quit watching. Some of the most readable books I've ever read.

I've been (slowly) working my way through the show on the Apple TV after having read all five books first. (We do not have HBO.) I'm glad I read the books first. I usually prefer books to TV/movies anyway, and in this case I think I like my own mental images of many of the people and places compared to the TV adaptation (two notable exceptions: the Wall as seen on TV looks far bigger than I visualized, and the sky cells look even more insane than I'd imagined). I had a mental image of Catelyn Stark being WAY better-looking than the actress who plays her on TV, for example (I suppose that's not saying much, though!).

The books are far more complex than the TV adaptation. You have to have some level of commitment to be willing to read the whole series.



I just finished reading the Riyria Chronicles by Michael J. Sullivan, who apparently lives in Fairfax. This duology is the prequel to his Riyria Revelations series (originally six self-published books subsequently re-published by Orbit as a trilogy). Far less complex than Martin's work but still reasonably entertaining, a quick and easy read. The second "Chronicles" book is about 350 pages and I read probably two-thirds of it while at the mechanic the other day waiting for my car.

(Sullivan apparently pronounces "Riyria" as "rye-ear-ah." I had sounded it out as "rear-ee-uh" when I started the first book. I still think that seems more logical in view of the "-ia" ending.)

Offline Nathan

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #553: September 06, 2014, 07:47:03 PM »
Is there a kindle version?  Which book is first?

Offline Kevrock

  • Posts: 13788
  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #554: September 06, 2014, 07:55:45 PM »
Get the actual copies instead of the Kindle version. It comes in handy for quick flips to the genealogy and maps.

The first book is called A Game of Thrones. They took the first book name for the series name because it's more marketable / sounds better.

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #555: October 02, 2014, 05:53:16 PM »
Book It! for adults! (no, not that kind of adult Book It.)

http://bookitprogram.com/bookitalumni/

Offline 1995hoo

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #556: October 02, 2014, 06:27:00 PM »
I just finished The Battle for Breezy Point. Borrowed it from my mother. It's about the neighborhood in New York where most of our relatives live that was hit by a huge fire during Hurricane Sandy. Very difficult for me to read it due to the subject matter since I grew up visiting Breezy Point all the time. The book was written by one of the volunteer firemen who were there that night and who was heavily involved in the cleanup work.

I have no idea what to read next. I'm kind of not in a reading mood after that book.

Offline Nathan

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  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #557: October 02, 2014, 06:54:25 PM »
Book It! for adults! (no, not that kind of adult Book It.)

http://bookitprogram.com/bookitalumni/

Still get a free personal pan pizza from pizza hut :lmao:

Offline DPMOmaha

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #558: October 14, 2014, 05:42:53 PM »
Just finished Fahrenheit 451. Fascinating and frighteningly prescient. I think I'm going to go read it again.

Offline varoadking

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #559: October 14, 2014, 05:45:20 PM »
Just finished Fahrenheit 451. Fascinating and frighteningly prescient. I think I'm going to go read it again.

Good thing you got to it before they burned it...

Offline welch

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  • The Sweetest Right Handed Swing in 1950s Baseball
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #560: October 14, 2014, 10:02:25 PM »
Get the actual copies instead of the Kindle version. It comes in handy for quick flips to the genealogy and maps.

The first book is called A Game of Thrones. They took the first book name for the series name because it's more marketable / sounds better.

I read the kindle versions. There is a website with maps and genealogy, although the GoT world is so large that the maps won't. Lots of scrolling.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #561: October 14, 2014, 10:04:50 PM »
My girlfriend mentioned that they're bringing back the Pizza Hut BookIt! program...  after discussing it briefly, I found myself craving pizza.

Well played, 80's Pizza Hut.  Well played.

Offline welch

  • Posts: 16289
  • The Sweetest Right Handed Swing in 1950s Baseball
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #562: October 14, 2014, 10:22:49 PM »
Meanwhile, reading:

- Jim Brosnan, "The Long Season", the first of the baseball diaries, and a fine book. Helps that I had a complete set of 1959 Topps cards, so I knew the players on every team

- Julian Stockwin, Thomas Kydd series: "yet another" Royal Navy series set 1793 - 1815. Unusual in that Stockwin centers on the complexity of keeping a sailing ship floating. Also that Kydd starts as a pressed "landsman", learns his seamanship, and, by the third novel, is a commissioned lieutenant. The description of a hurricane hitting a 3,000 ton ship-of-the-line reminds me of my Dad's stories of surviving Typhoon Cobra off the Phillipines in 1944...except that Dad's ship was a 10,000 ton escort carrier, steel hulled and oil driven. Even in 1944, the hull was "oil canning" and aircraft were breaking loose, threatening to punch a hole through the ship. Kydd has a similar problem, but with a loose 32-pound long gun, rather than a loose dive-bomber.

- "Moby Dick". I Moby and "Walden" every ten years...this is a Moby year. Ten years is long enough that I've forgotten details and learned enough to understand more.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #563: October 14, 2014, 10:29:46 PM »
Just finished Fahrenheit 451. Fascinating and frighteningly prescient. I think I'm going to go read it again.
I read it for first time earlier this year. Great book.

Also recently read Tale of Two Cities. Recommend that. 

Have been trying to make my way through Atlas Shrugs. It goes on and on but I will make it all the way through one day.

Offline DPMOmaha

  • Posts: 22875
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #564: October 14, 2014, 10:31:11 PM »
I read it for first time earlier this year. Great book.

Also recently read Tale of Two Cities. Recommend that. 

Have been trying to make my way through Atlas Shrugs. It goes on and on but I will make it all the way through one day.
I picked up "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens this afternoon. Going to read that after Thanksgiving. I've wanted to do that for a couple of years, but never got around to it.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #565: October 14, 2014, 10:41:30 PM »
I picked up "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens this afternoon. Going to read that after Thanksgiving. I've wanted to do that for a couple of years, but never got around to it.
Sounds like a good idea. Probably have it around the house somewhere.

Offline Nathan

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  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #566: October 14, 2014, 11:19:34 PM »
If you have a reader or don't mind using a computer, it's in the public domain.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46

Offline dracnal

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #567: October 15, 2014, 09:31:17 AM »
Just finished Fahrenheit 451. Fascinating and frighteningly prescient. I think I'm going to go read it again.

The funny thing? Ray Bradbury insists the book isn't about the importance of free speech or a warning about giving government too much power and control in our lives.  It's about the fact that he thinks TV sucks.

Offline blue911

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #568: November 05, 2014, 01:58:04 PM »
Ted Williams The Science of Hitting. Free PDF version.

http://vk.com/doc-39793297_139073954?dl=5aefb561b71984598a

Offline dracnal

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read a book!
« Reply #569: May 10, 2015, 12:21:07 AM »
Don't remember seeing a thread devoted to books in the years I have followed this forum but we have one for movies, tv, music, and pro wrestling. I figure it can't hurt to have one for the print medium.

An currently reading and enjoying "ready player one" with my wife. We alternate trading chalets aloud. It is an interesting mix of cyber punk and eighties pop culture. Great read for anyone in their forties and a good bet for any one plus or minus a decade. Mistaken and VaRK... umm... yeah...sorry.

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: read a book!
« Reply #570: May 10, 2015, 07:44:04 AM »
I think there is a book "redin" thread or something like that.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: read a book!
« Reply #571: May 10, 2015, 09:43:23 AM »

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #572: May 10, 2015, 12:52:07 PM »
Bump

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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  • babble on
Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #573: May 10, 2015, 01:33:40 PM »
Last two books were "In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette" (title speaks for itself) and "The Magus" (which I had already read a couple of times, but hey i was in Greece).

I find myself not remembering the title of a lot of books I'm reading these days. The kindle effect perhaps. Yeah, that's it  :lol:

Offline Natsinpwc

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Re: Buk Reedin' Thred (Book Thread)
« Reply #574: May 10, 2015, 04:38:47 PM »
Recently read the Lost City of Z. Enjoyed it.  Interesting story of an explorer quest in the Amazon and the author's following in his steps.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_City_of_Z_%28book%29

Have also been reading the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Story of a cro
Magnum girl adopted by the Neandrathals (or flatheads as the cro
Magnuns call them).  The first one was around the house. Think daughter must have read it when younger. Didn't enjoy the second one as much but on to the third. Think there are six in the series.