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-- HabsWorld Official Book Thread --


Doktor Kosmos

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I absolutely devoured Eddings' books. Don't take long to read, but since there are so many of them you can still emerge yourself completely for a good while if you're up looking for that.

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I'm loving The Brooklyn Follies, I put down the puck at 2:30 last night/this morning.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished Bradbury the other day. I had a hard time getting into the book, but about one third through things started to pick up and when I had finished it, I really liked it. 4/5.

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So I finished A Game of Thrones and just started A Clash of Kings and shit is heating up! I'm really liking the series so far and my calls have been pretty accurate. Things I'll call for later books:

- Arya is attacked (probably by some wildlings in a forest) and Nymeria comes out of nowhere and saves her in the nick of time.

- The Others will become the #1 threat to the world and some enemies will band together to fight them off.

- In the end, it'll be Daenerys's dragons that burn all the Others to "death."

- At least one of Ned's kids dies - for me it's between Bran and Robb and I'm going to say Robb though it'll probably have to wait a couple of books.

- A hell of a lot of Littlefingers and Yorens and Janos Slynts will die. (secondary characters)

I think that's it. I know some of you guys have already read all the books.

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Has anyone read the Deverry series of books by Katherine Kerr? It's one series I stumbled across while I was searching for good fantasy books a couple weeks back and I'm really interested in reading them. Got a lot of reading to do though, the 13th book comes out this year (or came out, I guess).

Got a Potter question for you too BTH since I decided to start Deathly Hallows over again and noticed something I can't remember an answer to. Is it ever explained why Harry's wand acted all on its own while Voldemort is chasing them?

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Yeah, I believe Dumbledore explains that at King's Cross. It's all about the complicated story of wands and how you get their allegiance. Voldemort took Lucius's wand and became the true master of that one. Harry's wand recognized the master of it's twin and fought against it. This whole wand story gets very tricky - Malfoy disarms Dumbledore and that is enough to gain the Elder Wand's allegiance and then later, at Malfoy Manor, Harry grabs Malfoy's actual wand from him and by that he gains the allegiance of the Elder Wand that Malfoy has never even touched before.

Malfoy gets the Wand by beating the wand (disarming him), but then not beating the master (Snape comes in and kills Dumbledore) while Harry gets it by beating the master (grabbing a different wand from Malfoy) but never even coming into contact with the wand. It seems like there are a whole bunch of rules and that every situation is different. Really, it just looks like Rowling needed a way to make it all work and had to stretch the rules a bit.

As to how the wand sent out a bunch of gold flames - magic that Harry could clearly never do on his own - that is from when Harry and Voldemort's wands reacted to eachother in the graveyard at the end of Goblet of Fire. In that moment, Voldemort transferred some of his powers towards Harry's wand, just like he did the night he killed Harry's parents: he gave him the Scar, the ability to speak parseltongue, a passage into his mind, even some of his characteristics like determination. I think the actual magical ability was given in the graveyard, not on that night though.

That part you just read is my favourite part of the whole series I think. The book gets off with such a bang in that The Seven Potters/Fallen Warrior scene.

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Right, right, I'd totally forgotten about that whole "allegiance" storyline with the Elder Wand in the book, that makes sense. I always kind of zone out when I get to that King's Cross scene so I still don't fully understand whats going on. I remember the first time I got to it, I had to keep re-reading it. Read the whole chapter with "wtf is this" going through my head. The transition into it seemed a little off IMO.

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  • 1 month later...

A Song of Ice and Fire is now my favourite series, I've been up to date for a couple of weeks now.

Favourite character: The Hound

Prediction: Bronn winds up King of Westeros (happens to be my second favourite character but this is my ultimate crackpot prediction)

I also have this dream where all my favourite characters form an alliance - AKA All-Star Team - and start kicking everyone else's ass even with an army of like 15 people.

It would look something like this:

Chief of Ass-kicking: Sandor Clegane (Chief Ass-kicker in Training: Arya Stark)

Assistant ass-kickers: Oberyn Martell, Bronn

Comanders: Jaime Lannister (two-handed), Brienne of Tarth, Barristan Selmy, Jon Snow, Garlan Tyrell

Soldiers: Gregor Clegane, Robert Baratheon, Strong Belwas (Yes!), Beric Dondarrion, Loras Tyrell

Advisors: Tywin Lannister, Petyr Baelish

Resident Jester: Tyrion Lannister

Other advisors: Resident Eunuch - Varys (one of my favourites)

So A Storm of Swords is my favourite book (not just of this series).

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I've been reading wrestling biographies lately, interesting as hell (as long as you're into the whole pro-wrestling thing)

Wrestlers I've read so far:

Mick Foley (only Foley Is Good, haven't read Have A Nice Day yet)

Shawn Michaels

Bret Hart

The Rock

Lita

Edge

I know at the very least Koz has read some wrestling books, I remember him mentioning Foley's books (which was years ago though, 3 I think) so if anyone knows of other good ones, let me know.

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I've been reading wrestling biographies lately, interesting as hell (as long as you're into the whole pro-wrestling thing)

Wrestlers I've read so far:

Mick Foley (only Foley Is Good, haven't read Have A Nice Day yet)

Shawn Michaels

Bret Hart

The Rock

Lita

Edge

I know at the very least Koz has read some wrestling books, I remember him mentioning Foley's books (which was years ago though, 3 I think) so if anyone knows of other good ones, let me know.

who the hell is Lita ???

Mick Foley bio has to be the best out there. He is from far the best/crazyest/most awesome wrestler of all time.

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who the hell is Lita ???

Mick Foley bio has to be the best out there. He is from far the best/crazyest/most awesome wrestler of all time.

Seriously? Real name is Amy Dumas? She and the Hardyz formed Team Extreme? She guest-starred on Dark Angel where she broke her neck, put her out for a year? 4 time Women's Champ? One of the more influential female wrestlers ever?

Anything ring a bell?

So, after reading that biography, my question is this Jets: What is the Rock cooking?

You should already know this one Colin. He likes to cook pie and/or strudel.

Only reason I read that one was because he signed on with the Calgary Stampeders in the early 90s and I wanted to see what that experience was like for him. Turns out it sucked and was what convinced him to try wrestling.

Edited by jetsniper
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  • 4 months later...

Since the start of the school year:

Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky

Watership Down - Richard Adams

The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay

Twilight - Stephenie Meyer

The Adventures of Duddy Kravitz - Mordechai Richler

This Year in Jerusalem - Mordechai Richler

Stranger In a Strange Land - Robert Anson Heinlein

The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

re-read of LOTR - JRR Tolkien

re-read of Battle Royale - Koushun?

The Time Machine - HG Welles

War of the Worlds - HG Welles

and I've got The Eye of the World (Book 1 of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time), Book 1 of the Malazan series, a couple more Mordechai Richler books and a ton of Anne Perry books (my mom seems to have bought a dozen books of hers and I like the idea of reading a whole bunch of books by the same person) at my house, next in line. The next book I take out from my library will be Crime and Punishment.

A whole bunch of diversity on that list. Good books, bad books, long books, short books, realism, comedy, fantasy, ...

Edited by BTH
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Haha, you read Twilight? Did you hate it as much as I did?

I just read it this week. Probably one of the worst books I've ever read, as in: mediocre writing, cheesy dialogue, way too perfect characters, ... but - I still enjoyed it and I'm going to have to finish the series eventually. Very mediocre but still fun. What Tropic Thunder tries to be. :lol:

Oh, and I haven't read very many bad books so the above claim sounds a bit over-dramatic but it's true.

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I just read it this week. Probably one of the worst books I've ever read, as in: mediocre writing, cheesy dialogue, way too perfect characters, ... but - I still enjoyed it and I'm going to have to finish the series eventually. Very mediocre but still fun. What Tropic Thunder tries to be. :lol:

Oh, and I haven't read very many bad books so the above claim sounds a bit over-dramatic but it's true.

*ahem* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942385/awards

Anyway, Twilight sucked and the series gets worse. I'm 3/4 of the way through Breaking Dawn and it's all just some of the worst fanfic ever that some moron decided would be a good idea to publish. They've got the single most annoying main character ever while Edward is boring as hell. The only remotely interesting characters are

the werewolves and they don't get nearly enough attention until the last book. Specifically, Jacob, Seth, Leah and Alice were all ok.

Everyone else I wanted to go die in a fire.

I mean, Robert Pattinson (the guy playing Edward) has even said the books are drivel. I forget the exact quote but he said it was like reading the fantasies of a depressed woman who was picked on in high school. The books come across EXACTLY like that. She saves the stupidest plot twist for the end though. Well, two of them.

The only reason I'm torturing myself through the series in the first place is because I don't want to be an asshole to my sister. I was genuinely interested at first but Twilight killed that and every book since has continued to beat it to a pulp.

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I know it sucks but I need to finish it anyway. My sister's already told me how the series ends, with

Edward chewing through Bella's stomach and stuff.

I still enjoyed reading the first one though.

I love Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart interviews. They're both so awkward, it's rare to see stars, even young ones, that don't have a built-in obsession with the spotlight. My goal in life is to one day become a director, work with Kristen Stewart and somehow seduce her on the set. It's a can't-miss plan. Flawless.

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A Song of Ice and Fire is now my favourite series, I've been up to date for a couple of weeks now.

Favourite character: The Hound

Prediction: Bronn winds up King of Westeros (happens to be my second favourite character but this is my ultimate crackpot prediction)

I also have this dream where all my favourite characters form an alliance - AKA All-Star Team - and start kicking everyone else's ass even with an army of like 15 people.

It would look something like this:

Chief of Ass-kicking: Sandor Clegane (Chief Ass-kicker in Training: Arya Stark)

Assistant ass-kickers: Oberyn Martell, Bronn

Comanders: Jaime Lannister (two-handed), Brienne of Tarth, Barristan Selmy, Jon Snow, Garlan Tyrell

Soldiers: Gregor Clegane, Robert Baratheon, Strong Belwas (Yes!), Beric Dondarrion, Loras Tyrell

Advisors: Tywin Lannister, Petyr Baelish

Resident Jester: Tyrion Lannister

Other advisors: Resident Eunuch - Varys (one of my favourites)

So A Storm of Swords is my favourite book (not just of this series).

If only the guy would finish the damn series...he's as bad as Robert Jordan.

For anyone looking to read an interesting non-fiction book The Ego Boom is a decent one I'm reading right now...

I'd also recommend for anyone into biographies/memoirs that they read Alan Greenspans The Age of Turbulence...also should be required reading for every kid in an economics class and anyone who outright blames him for the current economic mess.

My favourite book is Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury...a little short but just a really well written. EDIT - LOL...guess I said this in an older post within this thread.

I also highly recommend the entire James Clavell series of books...started with the novel Shogun. They're all pretty good...hardest one to find is Whirlwind which I had to find in a used book store. It occurs during the oil crisis of the 1970's and his style of writing really leads you to a view of the culture in the middle east while entwining historical figures into the story lines...just great, great storylines. If you like the epic style of writing by guys like Martin and Jordan then let Clavell show you how it's done properly...without becoming a giant roving storyline that's all about their next best-seller and pissing off fans who just want to get closure to their series.

Edited by Zowpeb
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You know what, I might as well ask. I'm looking for a good fantasy book (even a series works since we just put out the patio furniture so I could do some reading after the weekend as well) for my vacation. Something with magic and knights and dragons and all that stuff.

I guess I'd be looking for the middle ground between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. And I don't want to read His Dark Materials or Eragon. HDM because I saw Golden Compass and liked it so I know I'll read the book and the movie will be nothing like it which will just dissapoint me. Eragon just because I've heard they're all terrible books (movie sucked too)

I actually always liked the Dragonlance Chronicles, which of course was a big part of the whole Dungeons and Dragons scene. Been about 17 years since I first read it...and I probably read it 3 times. That trilogy is very much what you describe and it's decently written...certainly it pulls you into the storyline. Has all the knights, dragons, magic, gods and every type of villian and hero you can write an archetype around.

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan is pretty decent for the first 5 books and then he annoyingly seems to drag out the story with meaningless plot-lines. Last book starts to tie the loose ends up and he's also really taking way too long to finish it off...been a few years since the last book.

A lot of people really like Terry Goodkind, no dragons or knights but still in the genre...I found his theme became a little too preachy but their decent books still.

Also, nothing wrong with a few classics like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

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If only the guy would finish the damn series...he's as bad as Robert Jordan.

Robert Jordan was doing just fine until he up and died. Wife is working with his notes and the publisher to finish the last book - which he had sketched out and partially done.

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Robert Jordan was doing just fine until he up and died. Wife is working with his notes and the publisher to finish the last book - which he had sketched out and partially done.

Except that was the fear of many fans of the series...he dragged out the story for dollars for years and it was obvious. It should have finished around book 9 as a max. Instead he was on, what, book 11 with the end barely in sight? Truly sorry to hear about his fate but I do believe it became about how much dough he could drag out of the series. It likely wouldn't be the same but there are a lot of decent authors who would probably love the chance to try and finish the series...look at all the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books that are authored, co-authored and have multiple writers in every series? Sure, some are garbage but some a pretty solid...

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Currently reading Animal Farm. It's a lot shorter than I imagined and will likely finish late tonight or tomorrow morning.

Yeah but all of Orwell's works should be compulsory reading for the lefty political crowd around here...lol

Anyone ever read Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky? One of the hardest books to get through that I've ever read...I can read a 500 page novel in about 3-4 days and that book, which is not long, took me weeks. The classic russian authors seem so heavy on describing every small detail in their story that they drag out for eternity.

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