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Books you couldn't put down

mdf

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Plus we're following any number of British mysteries on Roku.
We watched the BBC drama set in a newspaper (or was it tv news?) A few years ago.
"What did he say?"
"I don't know. Rewind it."
"Huh? Again."
"Wha...? I give up. Hope it doesn't matter. "
 

Sibhusky

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We watched the BBC drama set in a newspaper (or was it tv news?) A few years ago.
"What did he say?"
"I don't know. Rewind it."
"Huh? Again."
"Wha...? I give up. Hope it doesn't matter. "
That's what subtitles are for. Of course, sometimes I understand better than whatever mechanism generates the subtitles. I was watching one the other day where none of the subtitles was right for several sentences.
 

mdf

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Someone upthread mentioned the Jim Butcher "Harry Dresden" books. I'm a big fan of those. They are fun and have a lot of unexpected twists. I also like the Patricia Briggs werewolf series (the more action oriented Mercy Thompson ones. I have steered clear of the Alpha and Omega series, which she says on her website are more romance-novel oriented). Those are both quick, light reads for the gym or the beach.

Another favorite, which I would consider "higher quality" fiction, is Neal Stephenson. "Reamde" was fanstastic. I think you have to have a certain specific background to love "Anathem", but I do. I even liked the over-long "system of the world" trilogy. I am bothered, however, by the way the big setup with a young Isaac Newton at the start never seems to have any payoff, or even relevance, later.

There were a couple of minor plot points, really just throw-away diversions, that get a quick, low-key reference a couple of hundred pages later. They cause a fun "oh, wait... oh, I know" reaction, then they are gone.

Actually, if I get that far, pretty much any novel in the last 50 pages is a book I can't put down.



[Edit - as cantunamunch reminded me, the right name is "Baroque Cycle." System of the World was one of the three books.]
 
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cantunamunch

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. Mostly because for the past two years anything that takes me out of the present and into a different age is what I'm looking for. So I've hit the Lymond Chronicles and House of Niccolo,

I love her 3- 4- sometimes 5- layered puns and allusions (In Game of Kings the redheaded woodpecker crying "Pleu! Pleu!" had me hoarse with laughing as cut on Will Scott's french education), but sometimes she is just plain irritating (see if you notice any musical anachronisms like songs nonexistent at the time of the Rough Wooing) and sometimes she just disappears up her backside (the dowsing element in Niccolo).

Have you ever tried David Liss?

Someone upthread mentioned the Jim Butcher "Harry Dresden" books. I'm a big fan of those. They are fun and have a lot of unexpected twists..

I started reading those back when Death Masks came out but gave up by the second short story collection. It got waaaaay too Easter Eggy after Proven Guilty and when he promised ~19 full novels I was like 'gah'.

Talking of Neal Stephenson, @Sibhusky might get a real kick out of his Baroque Cycle. I thought the payoff on young Isaac was really in Confusion? The arc from young Isaac to the depressive who cannot decide to take the Comptroller job as a counterpoint to the arcs of the scene-central Jack and Eliza?
 
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MarkP

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Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (way back in my flashlight under the blanket youth)
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series, JRR Tolkien
The Stand and the Dark Tower series, Stephen King.
The early books in the Xanth series, Piers Anthony
The Discworld series, Terry Pratchett
 

noncrazycanuck

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just rereading Winston Churchill's 4 volume set on second world war - probably at least the 4th time (want to be sure how it ends)
all of his many books are well written although he did say everything he learned about writing was stolen from Kingslake.
 

cantunamunch

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I was watching one the other day where none of the subtitles was right for several sentences.

You know what's absolutely hilarious? Spanish movies with Mexican closed captioning. Not only are they not right for several sentences, they are intentionally re-phrased. For multiple scenes on end. :roflmao:
 

mdf

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[Butcher's Harry Dresden] It got waaaaay too Easter Eggy
Well sure, it ain't great literature. That's why I put it in the "beach read" category.

Talking of Neal Stephenson, @Sibhusky might get a real kick out of his Baroque Cycle. I thought the payoff on young Isaac was really in Confusion? The arc from young Isaac to the depressive who cannot decide to take the Comptroller job as a counterpoint to the arcs of the scene-central Jack and Eliza?
Well sure, Isaac comes back around, but what of the hidden immortals who are grooming him in the first few pages?
 

François Pugh

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Someone upthread mentioned the Jim Butcher "Harry Dresden" books. I'm a big fan of those. They are fun and have a lot of unexpected twists. I also like the Patricia Briggs werewolf series (the more action oriented Mercy Thompson ones. I have steered clear of the Alpha and Omega series, which she says on her website are more romance-novel oriented). Those are both quick, light reads for the gym or the beach.

Another favorite, which I would consider "higher quality" fiction, is Neal Stephenson. "Reamde" was fanstastic. I think you have to have a certain specific background to love "Anathem", but I do. I even liked the over-long "system of the world" trilogy. I am bothered, however, by the way the big setup with a young Isaac Newton at the start never seems to have any payoff, or even relevance, later.

There were a couple of minor plot points, really just throw-away diversions, that get a quick, low-key reference a couple of hundred pages later. They cause a fun "oh, wait... oh, I know" reaction, then they are gone.

Actually, if I get that far, pretty much any novel in the last 50 pages is a book I can't put down.



[Edit - as cantunamunch reminded me, the right name is "Baroque Cycle." System of the World was one of the three books.]

I read two of Stephenson's books - given to me by my daughter who enjoyed them also: Cryptonomicon and Anathem. I decided to read them in the order in which they were written. Although both had me reading when I should have been sleeping, I liked Anathem more.
One of the best lines from Anathem....
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs," I said. "We have a protractor."
 

chilehed

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Tolkein's Hobbit and LOR trilogy.
C. S. Lewis: the Space Trilogy, Till We Have Faces, Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce.
Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo.
Dickens: Tale of Two Cities.
Mark Twain - everything.
St. Therese of Lisieux: Story of a Soul.
 

cantunamunch

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Well sure, it ain't great literature. That's why I put it in the "beach read" category.

I get "beach read". What I'm saying is that there's a disconnect between "beach read" and 'one misses great swaths of story if one doesn't dig out the buried bits at a Sherlock Holmes with OCD level'. Then when one digs through 9 novels, two short story collections, a novella and a graphic novel to only find...beach read - one doesn't really feel motivated to read 10 more novels and unknown further alt-formats. Which renders the whole experience rather flat, in a "Ishmael and the whale-sized meat pie" way.


Well sure, Isaac comes back around, but what of the hidden immortals who are grooming him in the first few pages?

My takeaway was that during System Isaac was meant to be an operator with free will, in contrast to Eliza. I saw Jeronimo as an an Isaac-in-miniature. What Jeronimo did, what Isaac did with Fatio, is exactly what Eliza could not do with Louis. System then became a comparative analysis in unforeseen consequence management. In terms of writer craft I was perfectly ready to allow the limited-third person viewpoint (Daniel's limited perspective) which is how we get Isaac's story.
 
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luliski

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy-also made me cry
Barkskins by Annie Proulx-my current read. Only reading right before sleep, and it's keeping me up late.
 

Powder High

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List the books that once you started you couldn't put down.

I have read many, many books. So many that I have a hard time these days finding a good book to read.

Right now, I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the third time in my life. I read it once years ago, again a few years back, but it just doesn't seem to want to escape my mind go so I'm reading it again, more slowly. Also starting Way of the Peaceful Warrior, but that's much harder because it's obviously fiction.

Books that I couldn't put down? Actually none, but quite a few came close. One was The Hot Zone by Richard Preston shortly after it came out. Also there was a book about 10 years ago about genetic engineering. Absolutely amazing. The author said that in the near future, we'll be able to sit down and write a new life form at our keyboard. And of course, select certain traits for our children.

And so many more.
 

cantunamunch

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I'm sorry to report the last two Dresden novels are not worth reading.

Yeh, I left the whole Dresden ecosystem just after Cold Days, having been with it from the beginning.

Have you looked at Greg Egan yet? I just did a re-read of Quarantine.


I am completely sick of shardware/trencadis non-fiction - yes I know people loved Cod and Salt and Perfect Storm and Krakatoa and Into Thin Air. I'm sorry, I simply can't be bothered to construct continuous narrative from your published heap of 3x5 cards/ Powerpoint slides. And so I dropped Richard Preston's The Wild Trees off at the LFL after ~5 chapters.
 
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Crank

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Yeh, I left the whole Dresden ecosystem just after Cold Days, having been with it from the beginning.

Have you looked at Greg Egan yet? I just did a re-read of Quarantine.


I am completely sick of shardware/trencadis non-fiction - yes I know people loved Cod and Salt and Perfect Storm and Krakatoa and Into Thin Air. I'm sorry, I simply can't be bothered to construct continuous narrative from your published heap of 3x5 cards/ Powerpoint slides. And so I dropped Richard Preston's The Wild Trees off at the LFL after ~5 chapters.
Similarly, I could not get into Salt.
 

mdf

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That's what subtitles are for. Of course, sometimes I understand better than whatever mechanism generates the subtitles. I was watching one the other day where none of the subtitles was right for several sentences.
Subtitles really bother me. I have such a reading reflex that I can't watch the picture. These days I watch with them off, except to rewind and decode problematic bits of dialog and then turn them back off.
 

dbostedo

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I recently finished this one:


Really good, though not Larson's best IMO - that one is all about Winston Churchhill and those around him during the blitz. But I'd recommend most all of his books. He writes about historical events, but usually weaves in other more personal or smaller things that occur at the same time, or to the same people. They're written much like novels, and less like history books. (I've read Dead Wake, Isaac's Storm, Devil in the White City, and In the Garden of Beasts.)

His most famous book is probably Devil in the White City, which talks about how the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago came about and went, but also weaves in the story of the mass murder H.H. Holmes who operated during the fair.
 
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Sibhusky

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Have you ever tried David Liss?
Just saw this. Downloaded Conspiracy of Paper.

Speaking af Dorothy Dunnett, I tried King Hereafter and only got to 58% before giving up. I could not keep track of any of the characters and there were so many allusions to historical events that I wasn't familiar with I just was forcing myself to keep reading. I had read daily for several hundred days and it ended up putting me off reading at all for months. The book needs some character lists and a glossary or something.

I went through (and still on) a Bernard Cornwell binge, have read most except for the Saxon series, which we've been watching on TV so I didn't want to be comparing them, and the Civil War series. Have also been ignoring the ones he wrote with his wife. Recently downloaded Stonehenge.
 
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