Poll: BOOKS!!!

[Koroviev]

I love reading, but I can never find many books that interest me, I just never know where to look.

What interests you? What books have you read and enjoyed?

I love a good supernatural or sci-fi story (Moongazer and Changeling being my favorites but aren't very popular). The problem is I tend to like the pacing and fantasy worlds found in the young adult books and want more mature characters and deeper plots.

I'd give Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World a look. It's by Haruki Murakami and it's a surrealist affair. What I found compelling, and continue to find compelling, about Murakami's work is his emphasis on the main character's thoughts. I've also heard great things about The Book Thief, which is a young adult novel in America, however, was targeted at adults in its native Australia.

Thanks for the recommendations, the first one does sound extremely interesting and I'll have to check that out.

I'd read the preview on Amazon. You might find yourself confused by the second chapter, but it makes much more sense as you go further along. The odd chapters concern the Hard-Boiled Wonderland, while the even chapters concern the End of the World. I won't spoil the details for you, but the book deals with the relationship between these worlds.

 

[Koroviev]

I'm awful at reading books quickly, which usually results in me not finishing them. Between the internet and well... the internet, I have enough media to keep me intrigued when I'm at home or in my dorm at college.

However, when I'm separated from all that, it becomes much easier for me to read.

When I was in Peru for two months with no available or crappy tech, I managed to read through Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead which is quite the behemoth in under three weeks.

(If your wondering, I read it because of Bioshock, thought it was amazingly intriguing at the time, loved how addictive the writing was, understood the metaphorical significance of the sexual content, but still thought it was awkwardly handled, and several months ago debunked its theory as humanism bastardized by neoliberalism which amounted to a wet dream for the return of oligarchy.)

Besides that, I've only managed to read the first three books of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Money Secrets by Dave Barry.

Everything else has been mandatory school reading. I still enjoy reading, its just that its hard for me to dedicate enough time to reading anything that doesn't have me either totally intrigue me or make me laugh a lot.

I was reading Ayn Rand's Anthem, but I didn't finish it. At first I was rather intrigued by the presentation, however, at a certain point it just became too heavy-handed. It's not particularly long, so I may still set aside some time to finish it.

 

[Koroviev]

Those archaic wood pulp methods of transferring stories are...well, outdated. I don't need them to get the stories...if I want to read them in the first place. Reading does tend to bore me. But when I get a burr up my ass I'll just get a DRM-free e-book and read that.


That being said I do keep a few actual genuine books on hand. Specifically, the Haynes manuals on the vehicles my family owns. Kinda hard to read my CRT when I'm on my back underneath a minivan wondering just what the fuck just fell off and hit me in the head...

I don't necessarily agree with that. Have books been around for a while? Sure they have, but then so has the spoken language. Every form of media has its own pros and cons.

What I meant by outdated is the physical medium. Books are stone-aged tech. We have better ways to transmit the stories they contain. Books are heavy, they take up a ton of space, they're a fire hazard and they're pretty fragile. I much prefer getting the same exact text in another format. My 1TB harddrive takes up the same physical space as a single paperback, but I could fill it with an entire library's worth of books.

It's like a laserdisc copy of Star Wars V. The movie may not be outdated, but the medium on which it is transferred sure as hell is.

Video Games
Cons: Often not as deep as other media

This drives me nuts because I insist my games have a good story.

Ah, I see. While I look forward the expansion of the e-book market, it is not without its faults. One major problem, at least as it concerns copyrighted content, is that distributors such as Amazons can view, and even remove, your purchases. In one particularly ironic instance, Amazon fessed up to removing a certain version of 1984 from Kindles. It's unnerving to think that the technology is still such that distributors can restrict access to items you have already purchased.

 

[Mr.France]

Yeah, I do read ocasionally, right now I'm reading The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
Some authors I apreciate: José Saramago, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Hesse (Demian might be my favourite book ever), I can't say Tolkien because I haven't read The Lord Of The Rings (my great shame)... at least not yet.

 

[Amy Sorel]

I read the Harry Potter books up to the 5th, and then i got bored.

 

[Koroviev]

Ah, I see. While I look forward the expansion of the e-book market, it is not without its faults. One major problem, at least as it concerns copyrighted content, is that distributors such as Amazons can view, and even remove, your purchases. In one particularly ironic instance, Amazon fessed up to removing a certain version of 1984 from Kindles. It's unnerving to think that the technology is still such that distributors can restrict access to items you have already purchased.

That's why I said DRM-free e-books. They can't do that if there's no DRM that lets them.

Yes, that's true.

 

[Caligulove]

I try to read 5 (non school related) books a year.

Right now, I'm reading Lord of Light [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light] by Roger Zelazny.

I had to read it when I read an interview with Neil Gaiman (favorite modern author) where he named it as one of his favorite novels

 

[Koroviev]

I try to read 5 (non school related) books a year.

Right now, I'm reading Lord of Light [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_Light] by Roger Zelazny.

I had to read it when I read an interview with Neil Gaiman (favorite modern author) where he named it as one of his favorite novels

That book sounds really interesting. It's on my to-read list now.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

I found the 'World War' series but Harry Turtledove to be really enjoyable.

 

[Paksenarrion]

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...

I would disagree on this particular definition of a book as you propose it for this thread. Comic books, manga, and graphic novels are actually harder to decode (for readers) and create (for authors) than what we generally accept as "a regular book".

I have read all sorts of texts (books in the traditional sense, comic books, manga, graphic novels) and have recently finished the ""Hunger Games" Trilogy, and "The Giver" Trilogy.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I LOVE BOOKS.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

I definitely enjoy a good read. over the past few days I've read most of Towers of Midnight (book 13 in the Wheel of Time series). As in, I'm on page 791 and it's been about three days.

 

[nico74]

Just got a Sony E-Reader now I can take several books with me at all times...

 

[Romblen]

I read mostly non-fiction, in that category, most of what I read is War related. Currently I'm on Decision Points. It's definitely interesting, the writing could be better, Bush is not exactly a master at words, but he still gets his points across.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

You read them?

BTW, by "books" I mean at least 100 pages without pictures...
Just wondering how many Escapists read...

Other Topic: What are some good books?

So by your definition, "Anthem" by Ayn Rand doesn't count as a book? It's only 93 pages, so is it a short story? That's quite a long short story.

 

[SoranMBane]

Books are my second favourite story-telling medium after video games, so, yeah, I do a lot of reading. I tend to like science fiction and fantasy more than anything else, but I occasionally make exceptions if the book is by Ayn Rand.

Also, I'm extremely glad that no one picked the "I've never read a book all the way through" option. It's just comforting, you know?

 

[Charisma]

i will typically read a novel per week. or less.

and every book written by chuck palahniuk is the best book ever.