These were my thoughts halfway through the book:... and they haven't changed much. The second half kept with the one narrative and didn't digress very much. But it was still kinda hard to care, because it just didn't go anywhere. The ending was a dull thud, rather than a resounding boom!

Terry Pratchett is a dull thud.

I remember you bringing up that you thought Pratchett was pedestrian before. What books of his have you read?

I'm going to take a wild shot in the dark and say the early ones.

The early ones.

He got better over time. the early ones are good in their own way, but the golden age starts at Moving Pictures. Once you read Night Watch, it's like a totally different author than Color of Magic.

I actually really liked Colour of Magic. It wasn't the best book I've ever read but it was still fun.

Color of Magic is a quirky fantasy parody. It's still a fun book, but it doesn't even compare with what Discworld eventually becomes.

Oh, the Discworld guy. Everyone seems to love the hell of those books. What am I missing out on?

My first Discworld books were The Amazing Maurice and Wyrd Sisters.

I’m not sure at what point in his career they were written but they’re good.


A very good sense of humor.

Maybe when I'm done with Hitchhiker's I'll try one of them.

He's definitely to fantasy what Douglas Adams was to sci-fi.

Wings is right. Discworld started as a joke, but Pterry grew to care for his characters, and you will too. The basic formula, so much as there is one, is taking a parallel fantasy-reality of about 200 years ago and introducing some modern societal issue - the internet, racism, wartime indoctrination etc. all the while laced with a sort of understated Dickensian humour.

Wyrd Sisters is the sixth book. There's still two not-so-good books after it (Pyramids and especially Eric) before you got to Moving Pictures and consistently fantastic territory (For that I think Ridcully plays quite a big part. He very much grounded the magical aspect of the universe which was very unfocused in the first nine books) but at that point it's definitely the best one so far. Mauriece is smack in the middle of the genius run in the 20's. Right between my two personal favorites (Thief of Time and Night Watch).

I thought Discworld was good but his latest book was about poop and that made it GREAT

I finished the first, uh, sub-volume of the third volume of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It was still fun, but Jesus Christ all those references clogged up the narrative structure a ridiculous amount. It wasn't so much a story as it was Alan Moore's Great Victorian Fanfic.

Rouse Up, O Young Men of The New Age! by Kenzaburo Oe. I read it a few years ago because it was a grad present but didn't really stop and try to appreciate it. Giving it another go because it's exquisitely written and helped to temper some distasteful ideas that had entered my head around the first ttime I was reading it.

I've just started Parasyte.

http://z.mfcdn.net/store/manga/588/0.../ki01_012a.jpg

I think I'm going to like this one.

Oh my fucking god you're me. Stop.


I'm reading something called Brave New Worlds. A dystopian fiction collection featuring the works of Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick, and other people I really like.

Also reading through Transmetropolitan, something I feel I should have done years ago. As well as Sandman. I've been on a comic binge for the past year or so. Also pre-ordered Gaiman's new book with my fingers tightly crossed hoping it'll be amazing all the while knowing that of course it will be, stupid.

Also very recently finished A Hundred Years of Solitude which made me physically ill, albeit in a positive way, and made me very proud to be part of my culture. It's a nice feeling.

Without my computer and before I remembered I have DS games other than pokemon, I was marathoning a book called 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami.

And it is perfect.

I mean, holy shit. I can't think of any other way to describe this ridiculous silly epic. It's perfect. Characterization is perfect, plotting is amazing and the writing style is such a sumptuous delicacy to read I am shocked every paragraph that this is actually a translated novel. The translator deserves five rounds of applause. No novel has made me feel this way since American Gods and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

This is the second Murakami book I've read, and having read and not really understood Kafka on the Shore I wasn't really expecting that much but really holy shit.

I read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle about five years ago. I really, really enjoyed it. If you are going to try another of his books, I recommend that one.

I'm moving on to Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Interestingly Boromir's last scene in the Fellowship movie is actually the first chapter of the Two Towers book. Right now I'm up to the bit where Aragorn chats with the horse lords.

Eomer: "I would cut off your head, Dwarf, if it stood a little further from the ground"

reading Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs: The Question of Alien Minds. i'm obsessed with animal intelligence and why they haven't evolved and replaced man yet. i WILL become a lunatic scientist with my own private army of super-intelligent animals. WATCH THIS FUCKING SPACE

I MEAN IT. we will overthrow the corrupt conspiratorial governments of the human world for the greater good, and begin anew.

Is it an interesting read? I love that sort of stuff as well but sometimes I find it hard to stomach the heavy science behind it. Do they have anything about squid in there too? Fucking squid, man, fucking squid.

I should finish Dominion at some point, if anyone has read Fatherland or...a bit of stretch but, 1984/ BNW, you'll probably like it. It's about what might have happened if England had surrendered to Germany in 1940 (I think because of Dunkirk). Interesting, chilling stuff and the background fluff is at times, more interesting than the main plot.

My Life, which is a long interview with Fidel Castro edited into a book and amended by Castro himself.
I never realised his dad was Patrick Stewart.

it's very interesting, and isn't too heavy. the book seems to be the first stepping stone into the somewhat philosophical world of robotics and animals (alien minds). i'm reading it mainly for information on understanding animal minds, but the robotics side is just as intriguing and very closely related. the two together help you understand the book as a whole.

long story short, it's a decent book. sometimes the reading gets a bit heavy, but it's all information at the end of the day. the more of that there is, the better.

also what's that about squid? i'm curious. squid aren't mentioned in this book, unfortunately.

what? Patrick Stewart is Fidel Castro's dad?

or is this one of your dodgy jokes again?

Less than a minute's googling would have provided you with this:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_YV2gEA9DNh...gelCastro1.jpg

My jokes are all absolutely legitimate. I don't appreciate this calumny.

Squid have gained the ability to pass on information to one another, information which can be passed down from generation to generation, this could mean complex puzzle solving skills or learning how to traverse open ground between tide pools. Sometimes you'll see squid 'walking' across beaches to get back to the ocean and there's a possibility they learn how to do it either through self-awareness or by watching other squid, or both!

that's incredible.

give me a squid.

EDIT:
i Google'd 'Fidel Castro Patrick Stewart' and just found shit loads of American Dad links. didn't think to Google 'Fidel Castro's dad' like any normal human being.

then let me calumniate you some more.

I thought that was Patrick Stewart for a second then.

Right now I'm reading the Inheritance cycle and Planet TAD.

I recently read Volume 1 of The Walking Dead, it is awesome. I am currently reading a web-comic called Homestuck. It's good and I don't know anyone that reads it.

Josh does. So does someone else but I can't remember. Everybody knows what it is, though.

What, are you on about Homestuck?

Homestuck is old enough to be a hipsterish ragging target. That's all I know about it.

If you're saying only hipsters read it you are wrong.

But you read it, and you're a hipster.

Right now I'm between these two:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ps2cda97cc.jpghttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ps01afa2a6.jpg

No, I'm saying hipsters pride themselves on not reading it.

I don't read it because I'm on page 1300 of Problem Sleuth and I keep forgetting to go back to it.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan. and parallel to that I am watching the series. it's like he's reading it out for me. I love this guy.

http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-cont...2/05/sagan.jpg