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I waited until Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson came out in paperback. When I obtained the copy I was still in the thrall of Michael Moorcock's The Dreamthief's Daughter and The Skraeling Tree, so I was unable to start the 763 page mass market tome. I came to a point in The Skraeling Tree where Oona's tale and point of view were ending, and the POV shifted to a first person of Elric.
I had been reading Moorcock for several thousand pages at this point. It was time to shift gears. I reccommend Moorcock highly, but I can always pick up that last novel from that point. Friday I began Years of Rice Salt
I am entranced with this novel. I am only a few chapters in (playing Bloodrayne for the cube:D), but it is rich in memes, and I find that the storyline of a soul drifting through time is intriguing.
But this isn't the first time that I've loved books right upon opening them for the first times. I mean adoration of the text. I'm sure that you've all experienced this as well.
So that is what I would like to cover in this thread. What books have been like that for you in the past?
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I can't think of a book right now but I want to ask everyone why you didn't FORCE me to go out and get Tool's Lateralus a couple of years ago when it came out??? I just now got it and it's SO GREAT! From the very first listen from beginning to end I was entranced all the way through. Yeah, yeah, I know you've been telling me this for two years now but you didn't grab me by the throat and half-throttle me with excitement like you should have done to convince me earlier. Posts: 968 | Registered: Sep 2003
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East of Eden, by John Steinbeck The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende The Wild Shore, by Kim Stanley Robinson Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Peace, by Gene Wolfe
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I can't stop listening to Jason Mraz' "Waiting for my Rocket to Come". Really. It's ridiculous. I always think to myself, "Well, time to listen to something else as I cook dinner, something other than Mraz" and then I can't make myself take it out of the cd player. 0_o I may be ruined for everything else.
On books, just about anything by Charles DeLint grabs me by the throat until I finish it. I just read "The Onion Girl" last month, and it made me cry like a baby.
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I was this way with Martin's A Storm of Swords, and with Pullman's The Golden Compass.
I've also been entranced with almost every novel that Octavia Butler has ever written (the Patternmster series, with the exception of Wild Seed, excluded)
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Erik, I loved The Years of Rice and Salt too, but as the book wore on I liked it less. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll avoid saying more for now, but once you've finished it I'd love to talk to you about it. I read it awhile back, though, so I think I'll reread it while I'm waiting for you to finish (maybe--I just found a couple of George R. R. Martin books that I didn't have in a used bookstore, and I'm in the middle of a couple of history books, so I may not get around to it before you get done).
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I have had a year where i must have ten half-finished books in a pile in my room. I don't understand why. Even books that I know I would usually be lost in are just dull to me. Why? Help!!
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I was like that with The Lord of the Rings... I loved that book, I lost myself in it, had dreams of small hobbits in vast green woods... It was beautiful. I read it long into the night.
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Yeah, give me a few weeks to discuss it Noemon. With the video game and actually doing art 'n' stuff, I think it will take somewhat longer than usual.
Ryuko: I read The Hobbit in one night. Same goes for Lord of the Flies as well, but that was much smaller.
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The Dark Is Rising Sequence, by Susan Cooper. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenent the Unbeliever, by Stephen Donaldson. Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King.
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Oooh, yeah, The Dark is Rising. I love that book. The rest of the series ranges from okay to pretty good, but The Dark is Risingis absolutely captivating. It was a huge contributor to the mythic landscape of my childhood, but it remains riveting to this day.
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Cryptonomicon is worth moving up to the front of your list if for nothing more than the description of Pearl Harbor from the eyes of a Rainman-like (Autistic Savant, but not to that degree) Glockenspiel player from the band on the Nevada.
One of the most priceless passages ever, with a potently moving combination of humor and pathos.
I also have to put this under "great openings"
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Passing infatuation recently with All Tomorrow's Parties, but will settle soon for Pattern Recognition (when it's out in mass market paperback, I'm trying to save money.)!
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That's one of the books in his Uplift series, right? Those never did anything for me. Brin's two best books, to my mind, are The Postman and his newest, Kiln People. The latter, by the way, is an enormously fun book, at which I laughed aloud several times.
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that one has a special place for me as it was hand picked by my father when he decided i was ready to move on from kids books. one that merit, it's first read was captivating.
years later, i can still reread and find it a captivating place without that association.
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Are you just busy with other things Elizabeth? Is your life particularly stressful these days? Are you having trouble with other things you used to enjoy seeming dull?
About a year ago, my wife just stopped enjoying fiction. She still reads constantly, but it's almost all non-fiction. She'll pick up a novel that she'd have loved in the past, read the first 10 pages, put it down, and never go back to it. The only exception to this was the 5th Harry Potter book, which she read in record time.
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Sorry, Elizabeth, the only cures I can think of are the books we're recommending (but I'm not a particularly creative problem solver, either).
Oh, and yes, Startide Rising was the second part of the Uplift Saga, but the best part and stands alone well... maybe you were colored/jaded by the first one?
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Funny, Harry Potter 5 was one I finished, as well as some young adult books I read during silent reading at school.(I am the teacher)
I KNOW I would love Lonesome Dove, got it from the library, and never made it past page ten.
Now, I have Book One of Memory, Sorrow, and Storm, recommended by that Sean Russell-hating Tom Davidson. I SHOULD be ignoring everything in my life to read it, and even that is not doing it.
And, also funny is the fact that I have picked up a bunch of biographies, and love them.
So, MY suggestion, in the nonfiction world, is "Life is so Good," by George Dawson. It might be the most inspirational book I have ever read.
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*giggle* Elizabeth, its "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn"
I have that trouble too every now and again. I half finish quite a few books even when I'm enjoying them. The trouble usually with me is that I start a book and then change moods so I start another type of book and there are so many to read! Right now, for some reason, I've turned towards mysteries. Its been a strange progression through sci-fi, fantasy, pulitzer-prize/NY best sellers, and mystery! *laugh* Go figure.
I am very empathic, and I really do connect to what I'm reading strongly. However, I've never been a binge reader. I can pick up a book a week later and be just as into it as I was when I left off. Tom, on the other hand, won't put down a book until he's finished.
I almost read slower when I'm getting to the end of a book because I hate to finish. That world just sort of goes away and it makes me sad.
Edit: might be nice to get your name spelled right, sorry!
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I remember having had a lot of books do this for me, but the only one that comes to mind recently is The Eye of the World. I borrowed it from a friend shortly after it came out (having no idea it would be a series), and it was so engrossing that I ended up staying up all night under the covers reading it.
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I read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age and thought it had a lot of great ideas and things. But ultimately it failed to satisfy. The ending was very weird and seemed just wrong to me. And the other very unpleasant thing was near the start when I had to spend a long time inside the head of a person who was a total creep. He was a very believable creep, and an interesting one, but I still find it an extremely repulsive experience to have to be inside someone's head who is creepy like that. I almost didn't make it past that part, which, thankfully, was not repeated once that one guy was mercifully dead. but I'm a little bit afraid, if I read his other books, of possibly having to go through that again.
I did like it that Neal Stephenson knew a bunch of words I didn't know. I kept finding them every so often throughout the book. That always impresses me when an author knows words I don't know.
I was almost thinking, even, of maybe getting Snowcrash someday. Cause someone quoted a very funny bit from it the other night. And because I've always heard good things about it. But I don't know. I don't really think Neal Stephenson is the author for me. But I'm certainly open to being converted. By throttling or otherwise.
[ October 06, 2003, 06:44 PM: Message edited by: ana kata ]
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"I had to spend a long time inside the head of a person who was a total creep."
That is how I felt reading the Thomas Covenant series. I just hated him. Something pulled me through to the end of the trilogy, though, and the story still stays in my head.
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Cryptonomicon's only creep is a bad guy and you don't have to spend much time in his head. You do get to spend some time in the heads of unique heroes, though. The only people I could see being offended at Cryptonomicon are overly politically correct professors who cannot stand to be caricatured or people so prudish they fail to realize that military men tend to be very coarse at times.
Snow Crash is fun, but Cryptonomicon is genius and a fitting tribute to the information warriors of World War II (though it is much more than that as well).
[ October 06, 2003, 07:12 PM: Message edited by: T. Analog Kid ]
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Elizabeth, yeah, Thomas Covenant was hard for me too. I really was angry and frustrated with Thomas. He seemed so determined to be miserable no matter what. But before the end I think I had some sort of respect or love for him, did you? Almost against my will. And reading that series was one of the most potent defenses against despair I've ever found. Despair is maker's work. (Not maker like Alvin but the maker of the mud people, or Lord Foul.)
I think that was a great series, but I don't know what it really was saying. I don't think I ever got my head around it completely. Foamfollower, though, and Pitchwife I'm am very very glad I have known. And it definitely helped me to reject despair as a response to the world once and for all time.
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AK, I didn't like poor Tom, even in the end. I thought he was pathetic. What stayed with me, now that I think about it, is the concept of "The Land." I feel very strongly about land, and when I am in the place where I grew up, the Adirondacks, I feel completely connected to everything in my life. Energized. At home. I also got patience and hope from the tale. Here is this total jerk who comes in and has to be the hero, but refuses to be the hero. Everyone else(well, not everyone) patiently waits for him to get his stuff together, and he does, sort of, eventually. He is so young, and disconnected, and they are so deeply rooted in hope. As you said, they rejected despair.
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By the way, if you like spending time in the heads of remarkable yet ordinary people, check out G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday which is freely availible on the web and *way* cool (substitue the word "terrorist" for "anarchist" everytime you see it to get the proper impact, as "Anarchist" today seems to merely mean "fan of Rage Against the Machine").
[ October 06, 2003, 10:43 PM: Message edited by: T. Analog Kid ]
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The Man Who was Thursday is an excellent book. I love Chesterton.
Elizabeth, if you're still having trouble getting into fiction, I recommend that you find a good collection of short stories. I personally try to avoid many of the recent short story collections, because I can't stand most of the avant-garde crap that is popular with editors today.
As far as full-length books go, I read different things depending on my mood. Russian literature can be really powerful, but if I'm at all tired it puts me right to sleep. I frequently just want to be entertained, and my favorite author to read in this situation is Lois McMaster Bujold. She's an incredible writer--as good as any in the business--but she's an even better storyteller. Her books are all at once clever, witty, and fascinating. I would recommend her to anyone with fiction-exaustion.
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Also, frankly, I have to peel myself away from this dang computer. I think that is the real issue. Or, at least, it is the issue that is covering over an underlying one. ha ha.
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A few years ago I had the same problem, Elizabeth. I had just finished Kim Stanley Robinson's Green Mars which lead me to waiting for the sequel. Nothing seemed to satisfy.
But my life was busy, busy, busy! Video Games, halfway decent television, collectable card games, new board games, and other entertainments.
I settled on collections of short stories, as Taberah suggested above. When there was an occasional short story that did'nt thrill me, I could skip it and find another more compelling one.
When Blue Mars came out, I was in the middle of this lull. I actually put off reading it for a couple of years. But it was also the novel to break me out of my slump.
Now I'm back to devouring lengthy fiction. I think the situation's much like insomnia. If you can't read, don't. Do something else for a while. When you are ready to read again, you will.
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Unicorn Variations, Frost and Fire, and The Last Defender of Camelot by Roger Zelazny are all three pretty good short story collections.
Anything by Ray Bradbury is probably good for this as well. A particular cure on that count might be The Martian Chronicles which is a series of short stories which make one coherent work when taken together... though you might want to try to transport yourself back to a 50's-60's version of knowledge about Mars.
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Erik, You know, I wonder... The last book I was ecstatic about was the second of "The Swan Wars" trilogy. I waited and waited for August to arrive. When I tried to order the third book from B and N ealry, in July(I think), I realized THERE WASN"T ONE. I was so depressed to have to wait another year. Two? WHAT THE HECK?
And, funny thing, my writng has turned from fantasy to true stories. You made me realize that.
TAK, "The Martian Chronicles" is one of my favorite all time books to read. Some of the images from those stories are seared in my memory. Time to read it again.(Read THEM again.)
Thanks you guys and gals, for helping me figure this one out a little better, and for your great suggestions.
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I was just going to mention the ones that always spring to mind for me: Tad Williams' City of Golden Shadow (Otherland), any Discworld book with the City Watch in it, etc.
But then I thought a little longer, and I came up with one that I picked up because I thought I wanted to be able to say I had read it (the same reason I picked up For Whom the Bell Tolls). Catch 22 grabbed me from the very beginning. I don't know why. I think part of it is that so much of it is written backwards in time, through flashback, so that in the beginning there's a lot that doesn't make sense, but in a really intriguing way. I kept reading to find out if the answers would come, which they did, and also because I couldn't believe some of the silliness I was seeing.
I'm in the middle of the first book of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and I just can't get past the tolkien similarities. I would Like the story, I even care about the main character, but everytime something reminds me of LOTR, I want to throw the book across the room.
My problem here is I can'tmake myself stop reading a book once I've started it.
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I'm reading The Angel Of Darkness by Caleb Carr, and I like it quite a bit. I recommend it to you, my fellow Hatrackers.
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I'm rereading "Dune" so that I can go on to the second book, which I bought a few weeks ago. Recently I finished "Streets of Laredo" the sequel to "Lonesome Dove" and "Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood. Both were great books.
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I spent yesterday in bed and read cover to cover The Giver by Lois Lowry. Wow. A little too intense for my 11 yr old but that was an awesome story. It gave me a lot to think about.
Before that I finished Blind Alley by Iris Johansen. That was a great story. Too much language though. I don't know if my favorite authors are just using more language now or if I'm becoming more sensitive to it.
Before that I finished R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton.
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