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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 6:24:12 AM

Aylee

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kalikshama

I enjoyed the first Codex book but the second was reminding me of "The Name of the Wind" and since Patrick Rothfuss is a better writer than Butcher, IMO, decided to reread that instead.

I generally have about 5 books going at any given time.

Have you read the second book? I am waiting for the third.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 6:28:50 AM

Aylee

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

+1s for a lot of writers already mentioned: Wodehouse and Gaiman (who is not cyberpunk in any way shape or form) in particula.

I said that I did not read cyberpunk. Gaiman was the best I could come up with.

I may have been thinking of Spidar Robinson though.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 6:38:03 AM

Moonhead

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No worries. Gaiman's great if you like urban fantasy, anyway. About the closest thing we've got to a replacement for Angela Carter at the moment...

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 6:42:43 AM

Kana

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Criminey-I forgot China Mieville-Perdido Street Station is steampunk at its apex

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 7:06:20 AM

GreedyTop

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Kana: I mentioned Patterson because his books are, to ME, fun to read. perfect for vacation, no heavy thinking required.

Someone mentioned Carl Hiaasson, which I wholeheartedly agree with! Quirky!!

(and I am almost halfway through Miss Peregrine.. I'm trying to drag it out and make it last, it's THAT good!!)

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 7:45:07 AM

FrostedFlake

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1/ Evening in the palace of reason.

Bach versus Frederick the Great in a musical mano a mano. Biography of both of them. Good history.

2/ The nature of technology. What it is and how it evolves.

Title pretty much says it. Explains the origin of the economy as a facet of technology. Technology, being a captured phenomena put to a purpose, the economy being a purpose.

3/ My pet goat.

Highly recommended by a former president.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:02:42 AM

Moonhead

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Yeah, that's definitely a very good one: great to see a British genre writer who's more interested in doing M John Harrison than Ramsey Campbell for a change...

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:20:35 AM

Kana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: GreedyTop

Kana: I mentioned Patterson because his books are, to ME, fun to read. perfect for vacation, no heavy thinking required.

Someone mentioned Carl Hiaasson, which I wholeheartedly agree with! Quirky!!

(and I am almost halfway through Miss Peregrine.. I'm trying to drag it out and make it last, it's THAT good!!)

Is all good, GT-Ya know I luvs ya's
I speed read, like 100-150 pages an hour. When I was a kid, I plowed through anything and everything, trash, classic, fiction, non, whatever.
But as I've gotten older my tolerance for BS has diminished and dwindled to the point where it's just not there anymore (Maybe that comes from writing a novel of my own. All of a sudden, when I realized how tough real writing was, I lost any and all respect for writers who won't make the effort necessary), so I just can't hack the, well, hacks of the world.
It kinda sucks in a way. The young me would have plowed through Alex Cross, and Lincoln Rhymes and tolerated the crap and formulaic writing for the sake of the plot-now I just shudder...and it's really narrowed down my reading list, to the point where I have trouble finding stuff to occupy me anymore.

Which is much sads, because I love, as in lovelovelovelove reading.
The bright side is that most of what I do now read either enlightens or challenges me, which means I grow as a person. So that's good.

edited to add-Oh yeah, Hiaasson rocks. South Florida's voice of outrage, written with biting satire and bitter humor.

< Message edited by Kana -- 12/22/2011 8:23:07 AM >

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:23:54 AM

Moonhead

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I like some of Hiaasen's stuff, but he's no Elmore Leonard, is he?

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:27:14 AM

GreedyTop

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Kana.. have you read any of Eric Flint's Grantville books? Alternate history with a dash of - I don't know what to call it - time/space(?) travel in it! Great fun! I'm not a historian (I did ok in US history, but these books don't take place in the US..much..LOL). I *could* be wrong, but the first one is called 1632 (I think? I may have the year wrong)

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:30:39 AM

GreedyTop

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Moon, Hiaasson is a respected journalist here ( I am pretty sure he is nationally syndicated), and anyone who has ever spent much time in Florida can pretty much relate to his books (as far as his outrage at the ever-decreasing natural beauty and resources of the state). In some ways, he's a more modern MacDonald/Travis McGee (with a lighthearted twist) story teller, IMO.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:49:47 AM

Moonhead

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It's actually the journalism thing that puts me off his fiction a bit, GT, or at least stuff that's probably arisen from that. I'm sure he's a talented hack (the nasty sense of humour certainly can't hurt any), but I think he's overcompensating a bit in his fiction for stuff that doesn't happen in the stories he's sent to cover. If all there is to a thriller is some utter shit who's more or less beyond the reach of the law getting a well earned comeuppance, then that isn't really enough to keep me happy, however good the jokes are. I like a bit of moral ambiguity, and people not necessarily getting what they deserve in a thriller, rather than delineation between the insufferably self righteous good guys and the unspeakably loathsome bad guys that's so overdone even George Lucas would find it morally simplistic.

IMO, that's the big problem with Hiassen, and it's where any comparison with MacDonald or Leonard breaks down completely. If I wanted black and white moral judgements, I'd be reading Stephen King, not a thriller.

There was a guy who did a few rather good legal thrillers set around Miami in the '90s. I wish I could remember his name offhand, as there's a really nice sense of place in those as well.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 8:50:42 AM

Kana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

I like some of Hiaasen's stuff, but he's no Elmore Leonard, is he?

I was referring as much to his columns as his novels. The stuff he wrote for the Herald was scathing in it's indictment of Miami politics.
Now, if you wanna go throw down modern crime or noir writers, there's James Ellroy, and then there's the rest of the pack.
Ellroy is insane, as in way way round the bend. The man oozes talent, killer in plot, style, and writing. And he dreams and creates big, as in big themes, huge mammoth characters and he writes with balls of steel.
Nobody walks deeper or better into the seamy side of mankind.
Wanna blow your mind-read White Jazz. He essentially invents a brand new kind of writing. It's an amazing novel, written in stream of consciousness jazz/beat/noir poetry.
But do yourself a favor, do the 50's right, read the first 2 books(Black Dahlia, LA Confidential) of his LA trilogy before WJ, then move onto the 60's with his underworld trilogy (American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Bloods a Rover)

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 9:07:04 AM

Moonhead

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Oh, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with James Ellroy. If there's a real heir to Cornell Woolrich, Ellroy's the boy. Amazing writer.
Have you read any Derek Raymond? He's probably the closest thing to a British equivalent, which isn't all that close, but he does have a good eye for seaminess.

I've not read any of Hiaassen's journalism. If it has been collected, I'll have to get hold of some.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 9:10:40 AM

Kana

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Never heard of him-thanks for the suggestion. I will look into Mr Raymond.

Hiaassen has some of his columns collected in a book called, appropriately enough, Paradise Screwed.
Sadly, the Miami Herald is a pay sight, so you can't access the archives for his columns unless you fork over.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 9:18:31 AM

GreedyTop

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~FR~ Moon, are you thinking of Stuart Woods?

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 9:25:08 AM

Moonhead

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Sorry, I don't think that's the guy. Looks interesting from wiki, though...

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 10:14:54 AM

GreedyTop

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I actually prefer Hiasson to Woods.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 11:07:30 AM

Moonhead

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You can prefer whoever you like.

I just find Hiaassen insufferably shrill and want to slap a lot of his characters until their faces fall off a la Daffy Duck...

Thanks for the tip, though: Woods definitely looks worth some research.

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RE: Reading suggestions for my failed vacation... - 12/22/2011 11:42:40 AM

GreedyTop

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ok, fair enough.

How about Zelazny? LOVED the Amber series (and mourns because there will be no more!!)

early Piers Anthony (my late Grandfather was an INCURABLE punster.. )

I know that Nora Roberts is a chick author, typically, but her alter ego, JD Robb is kinda fun (still falls into the romance genre, but not as romance as the NR books.. futuristic detecting, fun and lite reading).

I aslo enjoy Dean Koontz's Frankenstein books.

There is a book (possibly series?) by L.E> Modesitt which are scifi, and address racism.

Patricia Cornwell/Tess Gerritson; detective stories that include the forensic aspect. (the show Rizzoli and Isles is based on Gerritson's books).

the Bones stories (forget the author): forensic anthropology (seriously different from the TV show)

Vince Flynn / David Baldacci : former US gov't folks being anti-heros.

Clive Cussler.. always fun!

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