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

Chic, IL What Book Are You Reading Right Now?

Discussion in 'MidWest Regional Discussion' started by Bosh_Talk, Jun 24, 2003.

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  1. DarthAstuart

    DarthAstuart Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Re: Walking Dead...by "overwritten," I mean there are just so many gigantic word balloons packed to the brim with line after line of dialogue. Any time a sentence or single line would do, Kirkman writes about seventeen. It was just distracting and annoying me to the point where I couldn't get myself into the story, which was pretty good, as was the art, especially on Volume 1. I love Tony Moore and am enjoying his stuff on the Fear Agent books with Rick Remender.

    Anyway, it's a bit odd, as people probably say the same about Bendis...yet it doesn't bother me with him. Maybe because he's paired with artists who work around the weakness, I dunno.
     
  2. kosure

    kosure Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    It's funny that you say that. I found myself at the comic book shop and (despite your non-recommendation) bought volume six anyway. I noticed that there were a bunch of overly verbose expositional bubbles. I brushed it off as clearing up the backstory for Johnnys-come-lately...until then end, when a newer character had the self-same bubbles giving his blah blah blah blah. It was a little tiresome, but the action, and plot advancement is still outweighing it for me.
     
  3. DarthAstuart

    DarthAstuart Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Sorry to ruin the vibe kosure...for whatever reason, that really turned me off the book from the start, so I couldn't even get too far into the story.

    I realized last night I think I have the same problem with Invincible, although it's not quite as bad so I'm giving it more of a chance. I swear, there was a panel in Invincible #1 devoted to the kid telling his mom to turn on the TV.
     
  4. JediAutobot

    JediAutobot Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 3, 2000
    It's funny that you say that, I don't get that overwritten vibe, but I'm read both Walking Dead and Invincible monthly, maybe it's overwhelming as a trade.

    Another monthly book that is on my top three is Fable, I think it does a great job of fairy tale references with a good story.
     
  5. kosure

    kosure Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    No problem Dartha, I rarely pay attention to you opinion anyway.

    Carrie, I didn't know you were of the zombie persuasion. Awesome!

    I've recently slogged back into Pynchon's V. which is a slog indeed.
     
  6. Hazmatt

    Hazmatt Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    The Horus Heresy - I typically stay away from media-jumpers; I mean, I'll see a movie based on a book and vice versa, but rarely movies based on video games, video games based on books, or especially books based on video games. And I stood in front of the shelf at B&N for a good 30 minutes before I decided to get this book. I didn't have high hopes, but this story is such a seminal moment in WH40K lore that I felt I needed to be aware of what the official story contained. Apparently it will be part of a trilogy (and why wouldn't it be, everything else is) which cheers me a little. We get to see Horus be Warmaster and the favored son before his betrayal, but it's starting off really slow. And since "in the 41st millennium there is only war," the parts of the story that don't include bullets and explosions seem a bit forced.
     
  7. kosure

    kosure Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    a bit of nepotism (and I got it for free): I'm reading Gnostic Contagion: Robert Duncan and the Poetry of Illness by Peter O'Leary. It's a barn-burner!
     
  8. Hazmatt

    Hazmatt Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    I just finished Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card, the first book in The Tales of Alvin Maker. It's an alternate reality America in the 1600 and 1700's where witchcraft, hexes, and charms really work. It has an excellent cast of characters and is well written.

    If you like "realistic" witchcraft or colonial America at all, I highly recommend that you pick it up. I'm going to Amazon right now to get the rest of the series.
     
  9. Bobafemme

    Bobafemme FF Jedi Council Member, Chicago IL RSA Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2000
    His book Pastwatch is really good too. Scientist from the future watch C Columbus' arrival in the Americas and the impact on the indigenous populations.
     
  10. DarthAstuart

    DarthAstuart Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Last week was eBook week, or something--someone on a mailing list told me about it.

    I took the opportunity to make sure some decent eBook software was loaded up on my Blackberry Pearl and I read Space Prison by Tom Goodwin. Recommended by Warren Ellis, it is truly one of the more messed-up SF works I have consumed--there are killer unicorns, several centuries of pure hatred, and off-world conditions so severe that they basically kill hundreds of people a day. It's really something.

    Right now, though, I'm working my way through Ellis' Stormwatch run, which isn't quite as great as I remembered it was, and have a boatload of other stuff on tap to consume.
     
  11. kosure

    kosure Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Mar 5, 2004
    Re-reading Ellis' Glamorama
     
  12. Le_Penguin

    Le_Penguin Jedi Youngling star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 26, 2000
    2008's "One Book, One Chicago" selection is "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler. I can't recommend "The Long Goodbye" (or any Chandler novels beside "Playback", for that matter) highly enough. Dahsiell Hammett may have christened the hardboiled genre, but no one lived and breathed its essence like Chandler.

    The spring and summer will be full of book-related activities and discussions, including Chandler-written or -based films at The Music Box. More info here:

    http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/oboc/chandler/introduction.php


    "The streets were dark with something more than night."
     
  13. DarthAstuart

    DarthAstuart Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I just started Warren Ellis' attempt at a novel, Crooked Little Vein, yesterday--only about six pages in but it's good so far. Classic Ellis, if you're into that sort of thing.

    On my phone, I also recently finished Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow. He's a pretty decent sci-fi writer whose work has the virtue of being available free as electronic documents of varying descriptions. Down and Out was good, but not great; I liked the world and the characters a lot, but the plot left something to be desired.

    I also finally read Ghost World yesterday, which was a revelation; I don't know why I'd dismissed Daniel Clowes in the past, but no more.
     
  14. Bosh_Talk

    Bosh_Talk Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 29, 2000
    [image=http://images.amazon.com/images/P/044669231X.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg]
     
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