What's the Last Book You Read/Finished? - Part 1 Page 1 Chapter 1 Paragraph 1 Line 1

[chrisguyver]

Just finished reading dune, dune messiah, dune god emperor, within the last two weeks and just about done with heretics of dune can't put them down.

 

[POWdER-man]

Just finished Eldest and I am on Brinsingr right now.

 

[Wyrminarrd]

I´m reading "Chronicles of the Black Company" by Glen Cook. This is a omnibus and so far I've finished the first two books and have started on the third. Great series and I can see why Steven Eriksson cites it as a major influence on his books.

 

[Max J Power]

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

I wasn't engrossed in the character or themes but Johnson's prose is top-notch.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

A really good end to a really good series. It's thematically powerful and nothing wraps up too neatly. [blackout]I was glad that Collins didn't refrain from killing some of the important characters. Especially Prim.[/blackout] That made the book all the more resonating.

 

[ComicChick]

im halfway through left behind book 3

 

[LofCharlemagne]

Going after Cacciato by Tim Obrien. Its so good and in depth! I love the atmosphere he has set up, and the story in general is very realistic.

 

[Marvolo]

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

 

[ComicChick]

75% done with Left Behind, and im about halfway into 50 shades of gray, only because my friend is nagging me about it and i didn't want to have an opinion about it without reading it. so far, my opinion was right, its terribly written

 

[BigSams50]

I just finished Carrie by Stephen King. Loved it

 

[Marvolo]

The Broken Ones by Stephen M. Irwin

 

[ComicChick]

finished both left behind #3 and 50 shades of grey last night

started 50 shades darker today but i think i'm gonna start something else too. i can't read this one for long before the writing style gets me

 

[redhawk23]

Finished reading Octavia Butler's "Lilith's Brood" trilogy(formerly published as the Xenogenesis trilogy). Great science fiction that really shows how much of an original perspective she brought to the genre.

After that I read Stephen King's Pet Semetary. Good stuff.

 

[Victarion]

The Blade Itself by Abercrombie. Black Dow and Bayaz are pretty cool guy. I recommend it if you want a noirish fantasy novel where one person is bad and the other is simply worse.

 

[ComicChick]

finally finished letters to juliet today

 

[JewishHobbit]

C'mon, CC! Read Cicada Song

It's getting good reviews localy. I'd love to have some hypsters check it out

 

[Slushy]

I ordered Red Dragon, Silence Of The Lambs, and Hannibal. I love all three movies, but I've never read the books before. I can't wait. Goody, goody!

(Yes, I intentionally left out Rising. Not a fan of prequel stories.)

 

[obin_gam]

Have just finished reading the Bible! yeehoo! Will certanly have to read certain sections again before the exam but it should be easier now that I know the gist of all the books there.

(note: this is a review purely from a literal story pov. i'm not bashing any religious stuff)

I must say first and foremost that OT is much much better than NT. I especially like when God goes around doing stuff and tells people to do things, and without any reasons too, like a BAWS

One thing that bothered me a bit is why fish never is mentioned before the flood destroys everything. It's only after the water has settled that fish are even mentioned. I dont know, does not seem entirely logical that the fish would not exist before. Another strange continuity thing here is that God divided the water from one mass to two. This doesnt make any sense since rain is freshwater and the sea is salt-water. I guess it could be explained that he separated the two types that existed in the one... ball... of water in the beginning.

Then another thing, that applies to both the OT and NT, are that all ordinary people are really whipped and naïve. No one ever questions neither God nor Jesus on what they do or say. If they are supposed to be the main characters, give us readers at least one reason for wanting to care for them. Perfect characters without any arc becomes very boring to read about in the long run. And if the point of these books are that we should learn something from the characters, then let us know the characters! Let us get under their skin and learn that way instead, give them at least some depth. As it stands now, both God and Jesus are as characters no deeper than cardboard cut-outs.

Gospel of Mark is probably the best in the NT, but not because it is good and exciting, but only because all other books are so incredibly miserable and boring. Especially what Paul writes, he should just stop. Seriously you have to be a pure sadist if you think that for example Romans and the Apostle creeds are entertaining reads.

Unlike from the other Gospels, Mark is short, concise and to the point. Unnecessary fluff are not noticeable (good riddance) here (unlike yours, Paul!) which raises the score a lot. I also need to bring up the giant plot hole in the ending of the Gospels, Judas is a completely superfluous character if you think about it. The romans already know where Jesus has his gatherings, and he has already blasphemed straight to a jewish priest face when he tells him the golden rule. So why did they not take care of him right then and there?

So if the Bible had only been OT + Mark + Revelation, it had gotten a much higher rating, now unfortunately it is stuck with a lot of fuzzy unnecessary bulls**t that I advise people to skip completely (especially everyhting Paul writes, master of the BOOOOOORE !)

6/10 Better than I thought, but still full of problems and plot holes.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Heh, funny. I've never seen someone try to review the Bible entirely as a literary work. There's so much to it that is so easily missed that I'd imagine it'd be hard to really capture as a complete story. Heck, I've been reading the thing for 16 years and I still learn of literary portions of the story that I've never caught before. I'd imagine that the more you read it, the more you learn and the more connections you make, the more the review of it would change.

And again, as obin gam said... from a literary standpoint, not a religious standpoint.

 

[Why So Sirius?]

Just finished reading Brisingr.

 

[ComicChick]

finished 50 shades darker. not in any hurry to start the 3rd haha. writing is terrible

 

[JewishHobbit]

My wife couldn't put those books down.

 

[Vengeance of Bane]

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

 

[redmarvel]

Just finished "A Painted House" by John Grisham. Now this claims to be a "bestseller", but the reviews at the beginning of the book were more interesting than the story itself. Seriously, it was boring. It was like a watered down, slightly more modern version of "Grapes of Wrath". It is NOT a book I would recommend to anyone. I have no idea how John Grisham managed to get the reputation he has as a writer if he's putting out tripe like this. A killing, a murder and an illegitimate child and still not a lick of suspense or anything to tickle my anticipation.

 

[ComicChick]

My wife couldn't put those books down.

there was potential there, it was just horribly put together and written. i think with a better writer/proofreading etc it could've been better

and i hope now that she's a millionaire, she should get her a real nice thesaurus so she doesn't use the same words every single page

 

[jonathancrane]

-Currently am working through a reread of Last of the Mohicans.
-And am almost finished with Bendis' Avengers, Volume 2. It has been a really good read.