I usually find any of the Discworld books with Death, Rincewind or Sam Vimes/City Watch to be the best. Some of the early ones like Colour of Magic/The Light Fantastic, Mort and Guards! Guards! are all good.
That's interesting because from what I have seen most people prefer the later books in the series.
So I'm nearly finished with the Colour of Magic and it's been pretty good. It starts off a bit slow but once it hits it's stride it's really good. I'll be getting back to the library soon to pick up another one in the series.
Started reading this last night. I'm only two chapters in but it is very well-written. I'm not the most scientifically literate when it comes to the hard sciences but the first two chapters do a very good job of breaking down the concept of space and the electromagnetism in an understandable context. I'm excited for the rest of the book.
I read A Brief History of Time which was good but I think this book has more potential for reaching out to the average reader because it is so accessible.
I have forsaken LOTR's Fellowship of the right about 75% in.. May return to it when im in the mood to finish it off, but im sure that it will nearly impossible for me to muster up the interested to continue on into the latter two volumes.
Ive started reading Michael Connelly's new novel The Black Box, which is the latest Harry Bosch story. Ive read a couple chapters so far, not enough to gage its quality or direction.
This was a quick, enjoyable read. Neil McCormick was a highschool friend of Bono's and the leader of a pop band which had some limited success before the formation of U2. McCormack spent the 80s and 90s desperately and futilely trying to become famous while his pals were becoming the biggest band in the world.
McCormick eventually becomes a successful music critic and writer and finds happiness once he exorcises his desires for fame and fortune.
A great inside look at the harsh realities of the music business and a treatise on friendship, family and what is truly important in life. What surprised me the most was how nice of a guy Bono comes across. You want to hate him but after reading this book you just can't.
I'm only 15 pages or so into the book (prologue) and in the first 3 pages there has already been a young boy molested and then him killing his molester. So, I'd say those descriptions above are so far at least pretty accurate.
I'm at 100 pages in so far. Haven't had a lot of free time lately, turned into a shitter book, but it's kept me on the shitter longer than needed on more than one occasion.
The names are a bit of a task but nothing awful. kind of slow to this point, mostly just introducing some characters and setting up what appears to be the conflict of the plot... HOLY WAR!! There are those that believe in and practice religion and those that believe in and practice magic. The magic school (School of Mandate) has sent one of their own to talk to a former student into becoming a spy. The new "Pope" (that's not what they call him) is going to declare a holy war but the School of Mandate aren't sure against who.. I just got to the page where the magic school's spy (The one sent to talk to a former student and main character to this point) is in the crowd and now listening to the "Pope" tell who he is declaring war against.
Pretty interesting, but I'm hoping to see things pick up a little more. Been some pretty cool things so far, don't get me wrong but still a little slow. Spies after spies.. people taking out spies. Some guy got his lips ripped off and thrown into a river to die. So like I said, not boring just a bit slow but that is to be expected with only being in the very beginning of the book.
I'm reading "Tremendous Trifles" by G.K Chesterton, one of my favorite authors. It's a collection the best essays he wrote for a newspaper in the early 1900's. Great read. Chesterton is intelligent and can be funny some times.
And also "Game of Thrones" from the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Good, fun and esasy to read book.
And I didn't even get it from the library that I reserved it at over 4 months ago. My buddy bought it and let me borrow it. That's crazy.
Anyway it's good thus far. I expected nothing less from Riordan, although the dialogue has backtracked a bit. The narrative voices of the different narrators gets grating at times because Riordan has tried just a smudge to hard to make them seem like it's not an adult writing them.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien - 6/10
Reading FOTR it doesnt take long to see how its influenced many fantasy novels of its future. Yet, reading it as something from the past, it is a frustrating task. Its narrative is not an easy read, for it was written in a way that makes it seem as if the author was revealing his story to children who need to be walked through every mood and emotion. His storytelling becomes lethargic and a troublesome task as he proceeds to describe every detail of each territory that the characters encounter, to the very last excruciating detail. The book is 70% description with a paltry 30% of actual story containing dialog or action. Tolkien was in love with minutia. It was difficult enough getting through Fellowship of the Ring that I cant even imagine reading the latter two novels.. The first book is bogged down with so many names and details and lacks vivid narrative clarity.. that I will have to search for a cliff notes web site just to make sure if I recall all the important details that I should. The book is filled with so much info that its difficult to see what exactly is crucial to maintain focus in the remaining parts of the story.
Just read an academic paper titled "Liberalization, Moral Hazard in Banking, and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough" by Hellman, Murdock, and Stiglitz that was really cool. Basically the paper finds that increasing capital requirements can actually give banks the incentive to gamble on riskier investments. The suggestion it makes is that limiting the way banks can compete through the savings rates offered to depositors can constrain the risk taking of banks. Basically, too much competition can be a bad thing in banking. So a kind of perverse situation would arise where regulation w ould limit the return we can receive on our bank deposits in order to protect us from financial crises caused by excessive risk taking by banks. Interesting stuff to think about but it really highlights how counterintuitive banking regulation can be and why we should be cautious about the regulations we propose.
Im sure nobody will bother reading it but i recommend it to any fellow econ nerds.
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien - 6/10
Reading FOTR it doesnt take long to see how its influenced many fantasy novels of its future. Yet, reading it as something from the past, it is a frustrating task. Its narrative is not an easy read, for it was written in a way that makes it seem as if the author was revealing his story to children who need to be walked through every mood and emotion. His storytelling becomes lethargic and a troublesome task as he proceeds to describe every detail of each territory that the characters encounter, to the very last excruciating detail. The book is 70% description with a paltry 30% of actual story containing dialog or action. Tolkien was in love with minutia. It was difficult enough getting through Fellowship of the Ring that I cant even imagine reading the latter two novels.. The first book is bogged down with so many names and details and lacks vivid narrative clarity.. that I will have to search for a cliff notes web site just to make sure if I recall all the important details that I should. The book is filled with so much info that its difficult to see what exactly is crucial to maintain focus in the remaining parts of the story.
The 2nd book is much better and has one of the best cliff hangers in literature imo.
The 2nd book is much better and has one of the best cliff hangers in literature imo.
I was hoping that was the case..lol... I may start reading it and just take at the same moderate pace that I read the first one. Ill let the quality create my momentum..lol.. I hate leaving series hanging as well, so its an inevitability that ill end up reading them out of pure OCD.. haha
Re: What are you reading?
