I read it on your recommendation.
My guess is this one probably won't change your opinion.
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I read it on your recommendation.
My guess is this one probably won't change your opinion.
Every year, there's a few books I might give 8 tentacles to, indicating I really, really liked it a lot. I very rarely do reruns in books or movies, so if I remember that I both liked a book (or movie) a lot and can remember why, it's a candidate for an all-time favorite list. If I do re-read or re-watch something and still experience a high degree of enjoyment, that would make it a candidate, too. On my list, 2 of the 5 were read twice.coopasonic wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:20 am
I've found that top X lists are very challenging to me. My opinion tends to be much more binary. Either I like it or I don't. Degrees of like are harder to determine. LIke some people have a ready answer for favorite book, food or movie and I simply don't.
Does the book include Cuba Gooding Jr.?Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 11:32 am Best I can do is list a book no one has provided yet. It's definitely in my top something of something.
What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson.
Don't judge the book if you've only seen the movie. I liked the movie, but as usual,, the book spoke to me first.
Mieville can be tough. I differ from a lot of opinions I've seen in that I like Perdido Street Station better than The Scar. The Scar has a ton of cools concepts, ideas, and characters. Unfortunately the book is told from the point of view of a boring character who does almost nothing. I would have liked it much more from Doul's perspective. I think Perdido has a better story than Scar. At the risk of offending a ton of people, I think of The Scar the same way I think of The Big Lebowski. A collection of awesome scenes, characters, and lines. I can watch youtube clips all day long. But the movie as a whole is not that great. Mieville can be the same. Awesome characters, ideas (I mean how cool is the possible sword, awesome concept), and scenes. But the novels as a whole are not always that great.
I cringe every time I see that written.
But I’ve come to believe that Pet Sematary left me with a deeper scar, a psychic affliction more profound than the one from the flashbacks about the emaciated sister, or from the cat’s multiple deaths, or from “No fair! No fair! No fair!” The damage is in the title itself: Sematary. An obvious misspelling, maybe—most of us probably know the real word starts with a C. But can you spell the rest? It’s not cematary or cemetary. It’s cemetery. And it is a word I will never be able to write with confidence because of my fateful early exposure to King’s gruesome vision (of his characters’ spelling abilities). I have since learned I’m not alone.
....
This horror is real. And it is international. In France, where children should be writing the word as cimetière, posters are telling them it’s Simetierre. In Portugese, it should be properly be written Cemitério, but posters are advertising Samitério de Animais. (Strangely, Germany and Spain seem to be spared. I guess some countries still care about their young people.)
It was the first SK book I ever read. I saw the movies of Carrie, The Shining, Dead Zone and I think Cujo and wondered what the fuss was about, as I didn't find any of those movies especially noteworthy (I tend to recall the comedic elements the most - so, "Heeeer's Johnny!" and "Redrum!" from the Shining are the mos memorable from The Shining, for example). I find his books far more interesting though and with Pet Sematary I thought "holy shit, this guy can write!"LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:41 pmI cringe every time I see that written.
It is a good book though.
recent years i've gone back to books i couldn't finish the first time around and completed them. this is one i abandoned partway through and will _not_ be going back to, ever.
Out of curiosity, why? I'm not going to go on some kind of fanboi rampage - just wondering.hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:43 pm lots of reminders here of books i need to actually put on the reading queue listrecent years i've gone back to books i couldn't finish the first time around and completed them. this is one i abandoned partway through and will _not_ be going back to, ever.
I agree with the first sentence (since I mentioned Ender's Game as one of my choices for a book that I have read many times.
Mentioning Waterloo makes me think of Sir Walter Scott which leads me to Robert Louis Stevenson who I can't believe I left off my list. Might have to drop Hemingway for "The Master of Ballantrae"xenocide wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 1:48 pm Jean Valjean's stories is one of the best of all time. I did read the Unabridged Audiobook, 60.5 hours. However, Jean Valjean's story only makes up like 1/5th of the book. Most of the book was great but there were some parts I could have done without. The two I remember most are the ungodly amount of time spent at the beginning with the priest's sister and the Waterloo section. All I remember about the Waterloo portion was the narrator says something along the lines of "better historians than me have written all about Waterloo so I don't need to tell you the details.." then he goes into a long detailed description of Waterloo.
My mother is a fish.hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:42 pmmy mother would agree with youLordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:41 pm My vote for least favorite book I could not finish of all time is As I Die Reading.
if you haven't read the Seamus Heaney translation, do so
writing was godawful and sociopolitical slant was yucky. but mostly the writing sucked. that's unpardonable. i gave up _Ready Player One_ for also being terribly written and pandering to its target audience.
That one doesn't make my list but I remember it as surprisingly good.
I haven’t, but I’m now going to put it in my queue!Jolor wrote:'Washington Black' is high on my "want to read list". Have you read 'Half Blood Blues', by any chance?
Dude, I included Dragonlance on my list. No judgement here.
Deathly Hallows is on my list and I'm now 53. I still watch the movie marathons when they are on.
Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2019 7:58 amI haven’t, but I’m now going to put it in my queue!Jolor wrote:'Washington Black' is high on my "want to read list". Have you read 'Half Blood Blues', by any chance?
Haha! I read the first couple of dragonlance trilogies a decade or two ago. When it comes to Weiss/Hickman I preferred the Death Gate cycle, but yes I did enjoy those original Dragonlance books. (As someone who never played D&D outside of a computer game.)
They did such a great job with those movies as well. Amazing how well casting the 3 main kids went. It's also amazing to compare the look and feel of the first movie to the Yates ones since they look and feel so different. But of course it was all so tonally consistent with the books. I still need to upgrade the first 4 movies to blu ray.
I have read that as well. The strange thing is Mark Frost made his name writing books about golf. At least one of which has been made into a movie. The Greatest Game Ever Played.
I'd heard of Shelby Foote, but never read his books on the Civil War. A few hours into Vol. 1 now, and greatly enjoying the detail provided and writing style.
Niven/Pournelle's The Legacy of Heorot was a pretty interesting SF take as I recall.