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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Amph What are you reading right now?

Discussion in 'Community' started by Gandalf the Grey, Jan 3, 2006.

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  1. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 11, 2008
    Only two books at a time? I can barely do one book at a time. :p
     
  2. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 25, 2002
    Yeah, I'd rate the three as Terror first, then Drood, and then Black Hills a distant third.
     
  3. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002

    I think the early ones went through a "we're out of print" stage a while back.
     
  4. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 12, 2000
    QGR: I'd been doing three for over a year... since September 09 or so. So 2 doesn't feel like much at all now :p
     
  5. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    When I'm on break, I can do two or more at a time. When I'm not on break, I'm struggling to keep up with one. Which is the case right now. I'm currently reading A Lion Among Men, but I have too much reading and work for school to do and keep getting sidetracked by the stack of plays on my shelf I have to read for class.
     
  6. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 11, 2008
    It's Drood, then Terror, then Black Hills for me, LAJ. Have you read Ilium or Olympos?

    By the way, there's a film version of Drood coming out next year or the year after that's set to be directed by Guillermo del Toro. Simmons is also writing a script based on Ilium and Olympos, and there should be a film in the next couple of years. :D

    Have you read any particularly awesome plays lately, Idri?
     
  7. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 12, 2000
    Speaking of Simmons, QGR, how important is it to read the 2 Hyperion books before the 2 Endymion books? I know Hyperion comes first (or at least that's what I understand), but right now I only have the Endymion ones and haven't seen the Hyperion ones in stores anytime I've checked, which has been several times at least. If its important to read them in order, I'll just wait until whenever I do get the others, but if not I may go ahead and read the two I have.
     
  8. ImpKnight

    ImpKnight Jedi Master star 3

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    Jun 16, 2008
    Beyond the Shadows, the last book of the Night Angel Trilogy.
     
  9. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    I've usually got at least two going at once - one with me and one in my room.

    I've been making time to read before bed, if only for my sanity - which, unfortunately, leads to not enough sleep (the Starbucks people are going to LOVE me . . . and I've only had two weeks of class :_| )
     
  10. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 11, 2008
    Not important at all. You can read the two duologies independently and the story won't suffer one bit.
     
  11. LAJ_FETT

    LAJ_FETT Tech Admin (2007-2023) - She Held Us Together star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 25, 2002
    I've read both Ilium and Olympos - they were pretty good.
     
  12. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 12, 2000
    Ok, those will move up the schedule, then. Should get to them in a couple weeks or so, I'd guess.
     
  13. JEDI-SOLO

    JEDI-SOLO Force Ghost star 6

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    Feb 12, 2002
    Hmm I dont know where my post went....Im on Olympos now. I know I posted it in here???
     
  14. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    [face_laugh] How are you liking it?
     
  15. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 12, 2000
    Finished the Alvin Maker series... the beginning and end weren't as strong as most of Card's work, but the middle four books were pretty good. Next up is Hidden Empire. QGR, did you ever get to read that?

    Up to Road of the Patriarch now among Salvatore's books... still flying through those :p
     
  16. JEDI-SOLO

    JEDI-SOLO Force Ghost star 6

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    Feb 12, 2002
    Liking it alot so far. Although sadly Im not far into it at all. I suffered from a 30+ hr long migraine the day after I started it and just started feeling better yesterday. Bummer.
     
  17. NYCitygurl

    NYCitygurl Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jul 20, 2002
    Yikes [:D] :(

    I'm reading Trudi Canavan's Age of Five trilogy again - then probably back to Salvatore.
     
  18. Garth Maul

    Garth Maul Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    May 18, 2002
    Are you kidding me? Absolutely disagree. Not as bad as say, watching the PT before the OT ;) but I think you'll have a far greater understanding of the significance of Endymion after having gone through the Hyperion duology?

    You can read Endymion first, but really not sure why you'd want to. Also, the Hyperion duology is better. [face_thinking]
     
  19. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jan 12, 2000
    o_O Hmm.

    Well, if I wait to get the other two before reading them, it could be a while.
     
  20. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    As You Like it continues to be tremendously awesome. "Good my complexion! Dost thou think, though I am comparisoned like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my disposition?" and "Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak" and all that - Shakespeare has wonderful comic timing. Such as the moment (in the same scene as the above quotes) where Rosalind starts panicking about Orlando and demands Celia tell her everything, but with one stipulation: "Answer me in one word." [face_laugh] I love Rosalind. [face_love] Which is probably a good thing, because I'm playing her and all that jazz. :p

    The show I'm currently in is a pretty awesome play about the Halifax Explosion - Shatter, by Trina Davies (Canadian playwright). I'm off-book, so I can't say I'm reading the play, per se, more like living it. :p

    Also reading Angélique (by Lorena Gale - it is about a black slave in Old Montréal, Marie-Joseph Angélique, who was executed for setting fire to her owner's home) and re-reading Elizabeth Rex (by Timothy Findley; Queen Elizabeth orders Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's Men to entertain her on the eve of the Earl of Essex's execution, which leads to some very interesting discussions). I'm also re-reading Becektt's Waiting for Godot (in both French and English since I have a bilingual edition), Endgame, Happy Days and Not I and Eugène Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, The Chairs and Rhinocéros. I would tell you what they were about, but in true fashion of the Theatre of the Absurd, they're kind of about nothing, or the meaning of nothing, or the meaning of being in nothing, and don't really have any sense of plot, or if they do it's in a very circular, non-linear kind of way, so... yeah. :p

    I'll probably be breaking out Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead sometime soon, because it's always good for a laugh and does happen to fit in (kind of) with my current Theatre of the Absurd studies.

    Does that answer your question? :p
     
  21. Rogue...Jedi

    Rogue...Jedi Administrator Emeritus star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jan 12, 2000
    Finished Hidden Empire, which was good, but not nearly as good as Empire, IMO. Maybe it was just that Empire hit closer to home, in a sense - felt more likely.

    I've started another OS Card book, Pathfinder. Only about a third of the way into it so far, but its been quite good. Only picked it up because it was 60% off and even as a hardback was cheaper than paperback price. So far I haven't been disappointed in that decision.

    Up to Lone Drow now in Salvatore's FR books, will definitely finish it tonight and get started on the last Hunter's Blades book. Then comes the Transitions trilogy, which I think I'll count in both categories since its both new and a continuation of the series in the "re-read" category. Probably will finish that trilogy by this weekend, then on to the Cleric Quintet :)
     
  22. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Usurper of the Sun

    The mysterious Builders have brought humanity to the edge of extinction; can they be reasoned with, or must they be destroyed?Aki Shiraishi is a high school student working in the astronomy club and one of the few witnesses to an amazing event?someone is building a tower on the planet Mercury. Soon, the Builders have constructed a ring around the sun, threatening the ecology of Earth with an immense shadow. Aki is inspired to pursue a career in science, and the truth. She must determine the purpose of the ring and the plans of its creators, as the survival of both species?humanity and the alien Builders?hangs in the balance.

    And

    Biomega #1

    Searching for the key to save a world beyond hope. Tsutomu Nihei's sci-fi horror epic! Zoichi Kanoe plunges into the depths of 9JO-an island city in themiddle of the Pacific Ocean-in search of Eon Green, a girl with the power to transmute the N5S virus. He's not the only one looking for her, though? Agents of the Public Health Service's Compulsory Execution Unit are also in hot pursuit. Zoichi and his transhuman allies have no time to waste; the countdown to the zombie apocalypse has begun!!



    This is my first manga book. I shall get the rest in this series and since it is a prequel I may get the series that follows it.

    [image=http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/7769/biomegav01c001p001.jpg]

    That goes 666 km/h.
     
  23. Qui-Gon_Reborn

    Qui-Gon_Reborn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Dec 11, 2008
    I disagree on both counts. I really, really don't think anything would be lost by reading the Endymion duology first, and I actually found the Endymion books to be far more enjoyable. Even if the Hyperion books are based around a much more brilliant and much more complex concept. So I dunno, RJ. Do what you want. :p

    You'll be happy to know that I'm planning on reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead as soon I get half a second. :D And I actually wrote a short story once that was somewhat Theatre of the Absurd-ish. But I'll never do that again, because it was pointless and depressing. :p
     
  24. tjace

    tjace Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 11, 2008
    Just finished She Is the Darkness, and it blew my mind. Hopefully I'll be picking up Knight Errant tomorrow at the bookstore.
     
  25. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2005
    :oops: :rolleyes:

    Theatre of the Absurd is not pointless or depressing! It's about pointlessness and depression (or, if you prefer, contemplations on the human condition and the meaning of being). :p There's a difference. Existentialism, on the other hand, is depressing and fairly pessimistic, because it's theatrical purpose is to prove to the audience that life is pointless and depressing. Theatre of the Absurd feels that it does not have to prove that point, but rather expresses and shows a world where pointlessness is a fact of life. You could say that Existentialism tries to prove something (i.e. life doesn't necessarily suck, it just has no purpose), Theatre of the Absurd lives in it (life has no purpose, but we do stuff anyway! Yipee!). :p And it is therefore much, much more entertaining. I hear a lot of complaints about how nothing happens in Waiting for Godot, but that's exactly the point - the point is that nothing happens. :p

    The thing about Theatre of the Absurd is that it doesn't follow the rules of the dominant theatre conventions, so when you judge it by the dominant conventions, it is not looked upon fondly.

    Plot? No way!

    Three-dimensional characters? Pfft!

    Witty dialogue? Are you crazy?!

    Meaningful metaphors? Well...

    "Do you think death could possibly be a boat?"
    "No, no, no... Death is... not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat."
    "I've frequently not been on boats."
    "No, no, no - what you've been is not on boats."

    (this dialogue occurs on a boat)


    Catch my drift, savvy? o_O

    (Unless your "pointess and depressing" comment meant that your short story was pointless and depressing, and therefore I can't help you there. :p If that's the case, also feel free to disregard my improvised lecture on Absurdism :p )
     
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