Books!

nice!
I like how you toss in a random C. S. Lewis at the end.   

Thankyou Figgs ! Ive not thought of it as that good ? & Ive only read *cough* 7 or 8 out of that lot, not very good if your supposed to like Tolkien !  And yes, Forest, had to sneak in something !  

That's a pretty great collection, Azriel!

Thankyou Eldo    

I just love books really, not the kindles or tablets etc doing the rounds. books are so tactile & the imagination just pours off the pages because they get MY imagination going, something I just dont get from anything electronic .

azriel wrote:
















Heres my book collection, Ive got plenty of the usual PJ style "film of...." books etc, Video's, dvd's, ornaments, cassettes. I gotta read them tho !   Ive even got a Japanese, I think it is ? dvd ! Have'nt even looked at that ! gawd knows what its like !  

Great Collection azriel!

  

Thankyou  

I would post pics of my Tolkien collection, but my camera seems to have packed up, and I can't find the spare battery.

Does your phone have a camera? That's how all the cool kids take pictures these days.

My phone cost me 7 quid so no!

You youngsters and your toys...

Im lucky Ive found such lovely books, & some of the illustrations are stunning, now, if I saw these in a book,  Id read the stories to.

I have both of those books   They are worth the illustrations alone

It's annoying the LOTR illustrated trilogy went out of print, I don't like buying second hand books and it's very very pricey...

Im fond of Alan Lee's work, I like how he captures the real, raw, how it is look.

I love sci-fi fiction; biographies are a complete no-no.
Sci-fi fiction is considered to be cheesy by some, but I love it and can't get enough of it. I guess it's because of all those gizmos, doodads and thingamajigs, which take you on a journey to this make-believe world. And those robots are really exciting, even though you know they exist only in books. All in all, it makes the future look so bright!

Rose23 wrote:I love sci-fi fiction...All in all, it makes the future look so bright!

Yeah...
You must read far pleasanter Sci-fi literature than I have, Rose23!

Off the top of my head I did enjoy the Mars trilogy quite a lot. (Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars)
Sometimes I pick up an edition of the Years Best Science-Fiction from the library or off a friend, those always contain at least a few excellent stories. And of course Douglas Adams is wonderfully comforting.

I would add that "Sci-fi Fiction" is redundant, as the "fi" stands for fiction.
Anyway thanks for the thoughts!

I've been trying to read more high fantasy fiction recently since A Dance with Dragons left me wanting more, but I'm finding myself back in the same place I was several years ago when I used to read more, which is to say that I'm having a hard time finding much epic fantasy that gives me the same level of enjoyment as LOTR, ASOIAF, and a small handful of others.  Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson seem to be the most-recommended recent authors, so I've tried out both of their works.  I read through the beginning of Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, but the writing style (massively overwritten purple prose) was very offputting to me, and what I know about the character and the overall story does not really interest me much.

Brandon Sanderson's books seemed a bit more interesting when flipping through them, so I borrowed The Way of Kings from the library a few weeks ago.  I got about 400 pages into it, but unfortunately the book is 1200 pages long (and is planned to ultimately have nine sequels, though only one has been published so far), and I'm just not feeling it.  Sanderson seems to be often praised for his magic systems, but magic has never been what really gets me excited in fantasy.  There's lots of worldbuilding, but there's a some things that don't make much sense to me and others that are just too weird (semi-sentient grass, visible spirits everywhere, etc.) for the world to be relatable.  But the main issue is that the story and characters just aren't interesting enough for me to slog through such a long and slow book.  The pictures sure are pretty, though.

Other than these two, I've read a little bit of Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself (book one in The First Law trilogy) with my brother while hanging out in a bookstore, but we both found it to be pretty giggle-worthy, which is not a good thing considering that it's supposed to be a really gritty, hyper-violent fantasy.  As a result, I've sort of given up on looking for current fantasy and am beginning to explore some older authors who I haven't read before.  Gene Wolfe seems to get a lot of praise from the more artistic-minded side of fantasy fandom, so I've been reading through the beginning of The Shadow of the Torturer and it seems interesting so far. I'm not sure if it's worth buying, though, and the local library system doesn't carry it.

I've not heard about any of those, I'm afraid, but perhaps I can recommend you another one - since I finished ASOIAF I've been reading The Gunslinger, the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I finished it yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. It's something completely different from anything else I've read. It's a Western-ish story set sometime in the future, after the world as we know it has ended, and all the first book really is about is the gunslinger chasing a man, and while he's chasing him we get to know him through flashbacks. I'm usually not a big fan of that way of telling a story, but I thought it worked very well in this book. And the final chapter/pages are just fantastic - reading the book is worth it for the ending alone

There was someone here who had read the entire series, was it bungo? I've already bought the second, and if that one is as good I'll probably read all of them. Would be fun to share some thoughts with someone who've read them

ok, first, sorry for not commenting on your posts, it was just a lot of text. i just have a short question and i'm looking for a short answer  

we've re-arranged all the books in our house and i saw this book and started reading it. I picked it because it seemed short and the author's name was really funny to pronounce. Ian McEwan. the book is called Amsterdam (which reminds me of the Faults in our Stars, because they went to Amsterdam). but yeah, anyone read it, or read Ian McEwan, and  have any short thoughts in the matter?

edit: not such a short question after all.. but i still want a short-ish answer

Ringdrotten wrote:I've not heard about any of those, I'm afraid, but perhaps I can recommend you another one - since I finished ASOIAF I've been reading The Gunslinger, the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. I finished it yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. It's something completely different from anything else I've read. It's a Western-ish story set sometime in the future, after the world as we know it has ended, and all the first book really is about is the gunslinger chasing a man, and while he's chasing him we get to know him through flashbacks. I'm usually not a big fan of that way of telling a story, but I thought it worked very well in this book. And the final chapter/pages are just fantastic - reading the book is worth it for the ending alone

There was someone here who had read the entire series, was it bungo? I've already bought the second, and if that one is as good I'll probably read all of them. Would be fun to share some thoughts with someone who've read them

I really liked Gunslinger, too. The next book (The Drawing of the Three) really opens up the connection between Roland's world and ours, and the third book (The Wastelands) is really good. I'm stuck on book four, it's all flashback, learning about Roland's youth. I'm halfway through book four and haven't gotten back to it in a few years. I feel kind of bad because I really like Stephen King. But now that I'm trying to get through ASOIAF, I don't think I'll be getting back to Wizard and Glass for a while.

I've been told that the ending of book seven (the final book) is a real let down for some people, but others love it. I don't know the ending, because I want to get there eventually and experience it myself.

Edit: I guess the best way to describe what happened to me with these books is that book three really picked up the pace and had a lot of good action, and then book four just puts the whole adventure on hold. Kind of disappointing in my opinion.

And Ringo, I don't want to dissuade you from continuing reading the books, that was just my personal experience. I hope you enjoy the books!

bungobaggins wrote:Edit: I guess the best way to describe what happened to me with these books is that book three really picked up the pace and had a lot of good action, and then book four just puts the whole adventure on hold. Kind of disappointing in my opinion.

I don't want to discourage you from continuing with ASOIAF, but you might be getting a strong sense of deja vu fairly soon.

I saw the mediocre reviews for A Feast for Crows.

Makes me nervous for the tv series as well.

Fortunately A Dance with Dragons is better, but

very vague spoilers:

I'm worried for the show too, but I also think this is its opportunity to do something significantly better than the books did, which is rather exciting IMO.

why are you not discussing GOT in the GOT thread?

Well I haven't read Amsterdam, but Ian McEwan is an excellent author. I loved his short story On Chesil Beach, which is about two newlyweds who simply cannot overcome their awkward British attitude towards sex and

Ending spoiler:

On a more serious note, he wrote Atonement, which is an excellent book that has been made into a similarly excellent film. (Bendydick plays a small part in it!)
I haven't read much else of his, but I would highly recommend anything you have. Amsterdam sounds good, from the reviews I've read. I did read half of Saturday before I had to return it to a friend. I never finished it, but it was satisfyingly strange and intriguing. If one needs a break from Fantasy, then some Ian McEwan is a fine choice.