Books You're Reading/Intend to Read

[psychic]

During the long days of summer, it's always great to kill some time by reading a book or two. Are you reading anything now, or have any books you want to read?



Currently I'm reading Stormqueen/Hawkmisstree by Marion Zummer Bradley. The story is interesting, the lack of description and emotional description really annoys me.

I actually still haven't read the last Harry Potter book, and I actually waited in line for it at midnight, so I need to get to that. Plus I need to steal a new copy of the new Twilight book...

There are a couple series I never finished reading, like Narnia and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, plus I have a ton of books from a trip to the book store that are still sitting on my desk waiting to be read.

Of course, I'm in a literature program in my college, so when I return to school I'll be back to reading, so I better read the rest of it fast. XD

~Psychic

[Neko]

Uhg, Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've read her 'Mists of Avalon' once, and it really annoyed me. I only read the whole thing (a whopping 1000+ pages), because I had to for school. It's basically a retelling of the Arthur saga, but every single character was the same: they were all whining, backstabbing wusses with bonding issues.

And I do mean EVERYONE. Even Arthur.

Right now, I'm reading a different Arthur story, 'The Once and Future King' by T.H. White. It's the book they based the animated Disney movie on and it's great! It's funny, it's captivating and it really paints out the world. It does have a slightly dated writing style, but the book is over 40 years old, so that's hardly surprising.

Before that, I read the 'Kite Runner'. That's a great book, but it's a very sad story. In the end I was only slightly bothered by all the coincidences in the story, but the author himself also made some remarks about that, which made it humorous again.

[psychic]

Aug 4, 2008 7:55:31 GMT Neko said:

Uhg, Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've read her 'Mists of Avalon' once, and it really annoyed me. I only read the whole thing (a whopping 1000+ pages), because I had to for school. It's basically a retelling of the Arthur saga, but every single character was the same: they were all whining, backstabbing wusses with bonding issues.

And I do mean EVERYONE. Even Arthur.

o.o I wasn't expecting Bradley to be someone that other people read. Wow. And lol, yes, now that you mention it, her (assuming it's a woman) characters DO seem whiney. I mean, at times they have perfectly fine things to angst/be upset over, but she's really not very good with portraying emotions - everything seems very shallow and annoying.

And omg, have you noticed that her books have A MILLION SPELLING MISTAKES IN THEM?! Makes me feel like I'm reading a fic! I can't believe it was edited so badly. D'you know if the one you read was like that?




The one you're currently reading is actually fully based off The Sword in the Stone? Woah, cool. o.o

~Psychic

[Neko]

Yeah, I've read it. But only because I had to. And yes, Bradley is a woman. Just google her name and you'll find her picture. And her characters are always like that. In 'The Mists of Avalon' all her characters (and there were a lot of characters) were wallowing in self-pity and they were always going on and on about their sense of duty. It went something like this:

'Oh, I MUST do so or so for the kingdom/God/the Virgin Mary/the godess/my parents/my lover/etc., but I am SO conflicted about it, because I must betray my own feelings... Blah-blah-blah... Woe me! I will do it anyway, even though it will ruin me and everyone I love. And everyone will hate my guts! My burden in life is sooooo heavy!'

Etc. Etc. Etc.

They are all like that, they all make stupid mistakes which horribly mutilate their social relationships and there is absolutely NO good reason for why they do it, other than because they think it is their duty. *barf*
Oh, and there is no trust whatsoever between anyone. It's like a soap, you know? Half of a soap's airtime it filled with the characters eyeing each other suspiciously.

*cue dramatic close-up of stunned main character X looking at main character Y*

"What do you mean, 'we're brothers'?!"

And all that...
It was so annoying, I made this picture of Gwenhwyfar (Bradley spells all the names differently from anybody else, so just ignore that): blue-uncia.nl/pages/gallery/var009.shtml
In my opinion, she won the Annoying-cup hands down.

I don't really remember if there were a lot of spelling mistakes. Maybe, I don't remember. There were at least some. I think my book must have had a really good editor, if Bradley really makes as many mistakes as you say she does.
Whether or not a book is full of mistakes really depends on the editot too.


Pfft... I really prefer the 'Once and Future King'. Yes, Disney's 'Sword in the Stone' was based on it. Or at least on the first volume of it.

[captn]

I intend to read 'The Storm Mage', 'The Elements of Style' and... some other one I forget the name, but only because I got them from the library and don't want to return them unread. o.0 Anybody ever read those? The Elements of Style is nonfiction and deals with how to write and such, which will definitely come in handy for me considering how much I like to role play. And I wasn't taught much about grammar and rules in my English classes. o.è Silly French program.

[igsey]

Well, for my birthday I got a £40 Amazon.co.uk voucher from my Auntie in America, and with it I've ordered four books, which I will read when the postman finally decides to deliver them. I probably would have got them today if it wasn't a bank holiday, but it is, so I *should* get them tomorrow.

Being a paper boy, I now have a hatred towards postmen around here. They deliver to less houses per round than us, get paid waaay better, don't work bank holidays and don't actually deliver until about 9am. Although this holiday, he usually arrives about 1pm, which just sucks.


Oh yeah, the four books are:
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters (Rick Riordan);
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse (Rick Riordan);
The Sirens of Surrentum (Caroline Lawrence);
Secret of the Sirens (Julia Golding).

[Neko]

Got a thing for sea creatures, eh?

[mew304]

Hmm... I'm into Philsophical Fantasy books myself...

I just finished reading Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" and I'm now reading (now that I got it back from someone who was borrowing it...) "Soul of the Fire" by Terry Goodkind for the second time. It's part of my all-time favorite series .

Sword of Truth ftw!

[captn]

I have to admit, it's been a sad, long year since I last read a complete novel... [this coming from the girl who used to stay up 'til 4 in the a.m. to read....]

But just recently I got a few books for Christmas and have sat down to read once more.
And I have to say - it's absolutely GREAT <3 I can't believe how much I've missed it...

Anyways, back on topic, the book I'm currently reading is the last to a series of five , called Shelters of Stone, by Jean Auel. It's set waaaaaaay back when and deals with discoveries and interactions of humans around the ice age, something like that. Some parts in the books are probably not something some parents would want their kids to read, but putting that aside, the description's very nice and the characters rather likeable and realistic.

^^ Eh, either way, I quite like the series. I've already read this one, though, I realized about a chapter or two in, but it still feel sfresh to me xD oh well.