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  • 2 weeks later...

A huge thanks to the people that recommended Murakami's 1Q84, halfway through, and I just can't put it down. Thanks.

 

Before that one, I read A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. Tough read, probably the most emotionally draining book I ever read. Still can't figure out though if I liked it or not, which does not often happen. At the very least it made you feel a ton of stuff.

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I just finished reading Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey", far more conventional than the movie but nowhere near as enthralling as Kubrick's interpretation. I just ordered my next 2 reads, Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" and Poul Anderson's "Tau Zero", the latter of which I read a year ago when I lent it from my local library and quickly became one of my favorite books (except for the very Hollywood-esque ending!) 

 

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38 minutes ago, xylem1 said:

I just finished reading Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey", far more conventional than the movie but nowhere near as enthralling as Kubrick's interpretation. I just ordered my next 2 reads, Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" and Poul Anderson's "Tau Zero", the latter of which I read a year ago when I lent it from my local library and quickly became one of my favorite books (except for the very Hollywood-esque ending!) 

 

Norwegian Wood is great, accessible Murakami. If someone is just starting getting into his stuff I would suggest either that or The Wind Up Bird Chronicles as first books. :)

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1 minute ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

Norwegian Wood is great, accessible Murakami. If someone is just starting getting into his stuff I would suggest either that or The Wind Up Bird Chronicles as first books. :)

I've read a number of his works, Wind Up being one of them. I was very impressed by it, hugely engrossing from start to finish! My favourite of his is probably either 1Q84 Part II or Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I love how he manages to make such coherent and conventional fiction in such an unconventional manner, I also think that sums up a lot of his characters!

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6 minutes ago, xylem1 said:

I've read a number of his works, Wind Up being one of them. I was very impressed by it, hugely engrossing from start to finish! My favourite of his is probably either 1Q84 Part II or Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I love how he manages to make such coherent and conventional fiction in such an unconventional manner, I also think that sums up a lot of his characters!

Those are my two favorites too!

Wind Up was the first of his I read, and I read Norwegian Wood last. I should finish Dance, Dance, Dance this weekend :)

My rotation right now is Murakami, graphic novel, Murakami, graphic novel, etc. and I'm finishing off his novels I haven't read yet in order. Next up: Hellboy vol. 6, South of the Border, West of the Sun, Preacher book 5, Sputnik Sweetheart, Preacher (final book), After Dark. I have no idea what to read after those though! Probably Hellboy vol. 7 and then to find a new author to read.

 

Taking suggestions for my next author!

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1 minute ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

Those are my two favorites too!

Wind Up was the first of his I read, and I read Norwegian Wood last. I should finish Dance, Dance, Dance this weekend :)

My rotation right now is Murakami, graphic novel, Murakami, graphic novel, etc. and I'm finishing off his novels I haven't read yet in order. Next up: Hellboy vol. 6, South of the Border, West of the Sun, Preacher book 5, Sputnik Sweetheart, Preacher (final book), After Dark. I have no idea what to read after those though! Probably Hellboy vol. 7 and then to find a new author to read.

 

Taking suggestions for my next author!

Well I'm not sure what you'd be in to, my favourite authors, apart from Murakami are Arthur C. Clark (Read "The City and the Stars" and "Rendezvous With Rama"), Leo Tolstoy (try "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection" ) and William Gibson (try The Bridge Trilogy). As for graphic novels, I've only ever read the Ghost in the Shell mangas 1 and 1.5: Human Error Processor, but if you haven't read them I highly recommend them!

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2 minutes ago, xylem1 said:

Well I'm not sure what you'd be in to, my favourite authors, apart from Murakami are Arthur C. Clark (Read "The City and the Stars" and "Rendezvous With Rama"), Leo Tolstoy (try "Anna Karenina" and "Resurrection" ) and William Gibson (try The Bridge Trilogy). As for graphic novels, I've only ever read the Ghost in the Shell mangas 1 and 1.5: Human Error Processor, but if you haven't read them I highly recommend them!

How different is Ghost in the Shell manga from the movies/show?

 

Arthur C. Clark is pretty rad, and I dig sci-fi stuff for sure (Frank Herbert is one of my favs and I really like Heinlein's stuff too). Maybe I should dive in to Tolstoy. I've never given him much of a chance. I don't know that I've ever heard of Gibson before. I'll give him a look.

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1 hour ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

How different is Ghost in the Shell manga from the movies/show?

 

Arthur C. Clark is pretty rad, and I dig sci-fi stuff for sure (Frank Herbert is one of my favs and I really like Heinlein's stuff too). Maybe I should dive in to Tolstoy. I've never given him much of a chance. I don't know that I've ever heard of Gibson before. I'll give him a look.

I'd say that the manga feels more intelligent, the ending in particular is less cryptic and more vocal when it comes to discussing the philosophies behind the story. Plus it's far more pornographic than the movie was allowed to be.

Gibson is basically considered to be a legend in Cyberpunk fiction, he actually predicted (albeit accidentally it seems) the recent rise of Japanese vocaloids by about 20 years in his novel "Idoru" (part 2 of the Bridge Trilogy). I really must check out Frank Herbert's work soon, I was put off by the movie Dune because it seemed so nonsensical to me!

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Macho Man, if you haven't already, go for some Philip K. Dick. I have always felt that Murakami was quite inspired by him. Books are cerebral, clever, and funny, and even when they feel dated they're still pretty great. Ubik and Man in the High Castle are my top but I've only read 5 or 6 (and there are lots too). 

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  • 1 month later...

Finally finished reading all of Murakami's fiction novels. Even when I start out not loving one, it sucks me in by the end. I think my least favorite was After Dark. It seemed like it wasn't a fully finished product. I don't mind a book that ends with no resolution, but this one just felt like it wasn't ever going anywhere.

 

anywho. Just ordered three of the four BPRD Plague of Frogs omnibi, since that's where I am in the mignolaverse right now. Gonna power through those and snap up some other Hellboy stuff soon.

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  • 3 months later...
1 hour ago, Eliminator Jr. said:

That's seriously great news. Just read 'When The Wind Blows' for the very first time and plan on rereading all his other novels this year. 

 

My favorite author of all time? Pretty much. 

I'll probably reread some of my favs this year. I've made my way through all of his novels, but I'm not much of a short story guy, and I haven't delved into his essays yet. I hear the "running" essay is worth checking out though.

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12 minutes ago, The Ghost of Randy Savage said:

I'll probably reread some of my favs this year. I've made my way through all of his novels, but I'm not much of a short story guy, and I haven't delved into his essays yet. I hear the "running" essay is worth checking out though.

It definitely is. Got his autobiography (in lack of a better word, since its not really a biography) for Christmas, so that's the next one on my list. 

I'm mostly looking forward to giving 1Q84 a 2nd go. I loved it so much that I read both books in three days and been in a state of trance for a good week after. 

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I think my favorite Murakami is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Compared to the other ones I've read I like it most because it didn't have this crazy metaphysical layer with magical forests or scary creatures (e.g. in Kafka or Hard-boiled...).

 

Currently reading Orhan Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind and loving it...

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5 hours ago, Sasan said:

I think my favorite Murakami is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Compared to the other ones I've read I like it most because it didn't have this crazy metaphysical layer with magical forests or scary creatures (e.g. in Kafka or Hard-boiled...).

 

Currently reading Orhan Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind and loving it...

Need to read Colorless....  I've read about a half dozen Murakami books, though none in the past couple of years. 

 

 

Just finished a whole slew of books (audiobooks)

 

NOFX - Hepatitis Bathtub - as someone who listened to them a lot as a teenager but not so much anymore, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it for the most part. It is overly long and at time drags, but a pretty decent multi-member memoir (and each gets about equal time to share).

 

Ann Patchett - Commonwealth - Pretty good. Not her best, but definitely a decent read.

 

Anne Valente - Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down - This book had so much promise. The idea of it was so fascinating - right after a high school mass shooting, several houses of the families of the victims are lost to fire. Four survivors of the shooting try to figure things out. 80% of the book is great. It's almost not worth reading the ending....

 

David Sax - The Revenge of Analog - looks at the resurgence of vinyl, moleskine notebooks, film cameras, watches, etc. A very decent look at where analog technology fits into a digital world, without making it about analog vs. digital. Digs just the right depth into the popularity of vinyl without going into audiophile arguments (probably better that he stayed away from that).

 

Christopher Scotton - The Secret History of the Earth - great and really interesting book about a teenager overcoming grief and bonding with his grandfather in a small Kentucky town.

 

Rob Sheffield - On Bowie - I love Sheffield's work (Love is a Mixtape is essential reading), and this book is kind of a nice love letter to Bowie, without being too much of a biography or a total fanboy geekfest. It works because he's a strong writer.

 

Nathan Hill - The Nix - THE best book I have read in the last two years. Absolutely hilarious, compelling, fucked up, and so topical. Basically, this 60-year-old woman throws rocks at a republican presidential candidate. The media circus around it gives the politician increased coverage. Meanwhile, the son of the woman she abandoned twenty years earlier is a struggling writer obsessed with a video game called Elfscape (basically WoW), and unable to write the book his massive advance had allowed him. When faced with being sued for advance money, he agrees to write a tell all book about his estranged mother in order to help the public image of the politician, even though he doesn't know a thing about his mother, then needing to delve into her complicated past. Somehow, it's 600 pages and doesn't feel like it, and it just works so well. 

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