Rate the Last Book You Read

@forkboy: It would be a terrible book to read in school in it's current form, which is why I said that it would require quite a savage editor - of course we're way past that point so it's not really a big deal. Objectivism is interesting in the same way communism is interesting - these philosophies that have no chance of ever working in the real world but are fascinating studies of the human condition. I think Atlas Shrugged speaks to a very specific type of person who has experienced very specific events. When I started reading The Fountainhead I was finishing up an architecture degree and could relate to a lot of the "injustice" described in that novel. I never fancied myself a brilliant architect above reproach but seeing people that were barely squeezing by, oftentimes plagiarizing designs wholesale, with zero creativity or passion for what they did somehow pull the rug out from under you and snatch up job openings left and right again and again made me resonate with those absurd fictional characters she depicts. Similarly my mother, who was raised in communist eastern europe, loves Atlas Shrugged because to her it's like hearing someone speak aloud everything that she thought and was not allowed to say while growing up under the weight of a system that kept trying to smother her at every turn.

Is it a great book? Lord no. The way she hammers her singular point across ad nauseam over the span of a 1000 pages is maddening. Is it a great philosophy? Not at all, no real human being could possibly ascribe to it without serious social consequence! Yet together, as a package, I think it's all very fascinating - but thats just me of course.

Finished Four Roads Cross by Max Gladstone. Necromantic Lawyers both protecting and attacking Gods via magic that is contractual in nature and mixed with great prose and a thriller pacing. If you've never read Gladstone and like Fantasy, I highly recommend starting with Three Parts Dead, one of my favorite new authors of the last ~5 years.

And as for rating it, 4.5/5

@triplestan thanks for the reply. I read slaughterhouse 5 a couple of years ago and have wanted to read another kurt novel since then. Because I have such high standards off the back of slaughterhouse 5, I was unsure which would be a good next book to go to. Mother Night is not one I have heard of so it could be a good one coming in from left field. I was tempted by Breakfast of champions or Sirens of Titans but perhaps I will leave them to later.

@grizzledwolf thanks, you have confirmed for me that Sirens should be one of my next reads. I will try and track down a copy of Mother Night first and go for Sirens after...

In contribution to the overall forum, the last book I read how called "The Dog Who dared to dream." I have been trying to get out of my comfort zone on the types of books I read. My normal books are sci-fi, fantasy and Terry Pratchett. So, I go to the bookshop and get a book from one of the random display shelves that has a good title and nice art work (avoiding any "book club" books) I then read the blurb and if it sounds cool I get it. The book itself is by a south Korean author and reminds me of a traditional tale, like a fairy tale, where it has some sort of life meaning, but does not delve to deep. The book is only about 168 pages long and takes about 3-4 hours to read. I would recommend for someone who wants a book that is light, has heart and meaning. If anyone else has any book recommendations for east Asian authors I would be happy to look it up.

Currently I am reading The Sorrow of War, by Boa Ninh who is a Vietnamese author who fought in the Vietnam war on the side of the North. I will report back on this when I'm done!

No one left to lie to: The Values of the Worst Family. Seems like the only issues the US has with Hillary is her lack of opinions or enthusiasm. We know Trump is a dumpster fire. I needed this to stay as terrified of Hillary as I should be. It worked. The read was alright if a bit terse. More informative than enjoyable. I prefer Hitchens' Thomas Jefferson: Author of America.

@davidh219: I have enjoyed Niall Ferguson's writings in the past and intend to read the ascent of money. Not necessarily agree with his interpretations but his prose is quite engaging.

Ficciones by Borges (4 stars). A collection of short stories, some much better than others.

I also read Ender's Game right before that (4.5). Card's conservative politics initially discouraged me from reading, but it really is a great book.

I recently read the entire Rama series:

Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke: 5 out of 5. The sense of wonder, mystery, and discovery is pitch-perfect. It actually reminds me a lot of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness in that you have explorers in a place built by beings much more advanced than our own species, with no indication of how, or why. It raises many questions but few answers, and leaves you with a sense of wonder and the feeling that we are just a small speck in the cosmos.

All the rest: consistently 1-2 out of 5. Arthur C Clarke teamed up with Jet Propoulsion Lab scientist Gentry Lee to write more books in the series (Rama II, The Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed), and Gentry Lee eventually took the reigns and wrote two novels that take place in the same universe (Bright Messengers, Double Full Moon Night). I read them all. Almost every book ends on a cliffhanger that only serve to set up another limp story. Despite the fact that the characters Clarke & Lee create are quite compelling and interesting, and they unravel mysteries involving other compelling and interesting extra-terrestrial travelers, they sought to answer all the questions introduced in the first book (and questions introduced by the subsequent sequels), but the answers are flat and dull and, honestly, are just are a big wet fart that completely ruin all the sense of wonder you have after Rendevous with Rama. Don't get me wrong - some of these books were 3-4 out of 5 for a good section of the book before nose-diving into "I'm going to finish this book because fuck you, book, you are not going to beat me" territory. There were characters and storylines I enjoyed, but overall they all went to total shit at some point before reaching the final page.

As a result: Rendevous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke after reading the rest of the series: 2 out of 5. It's good, but who even gives a shit anymore? The mysteries are explained and the answers are lame as hell. N o point on every trying to go back and re-experience the feelings the book gave me before I committed the folly of reading the sequels.

This is the first time I have ever experienced a sequel to something actually ruining the original work for me.

Hey, everyone! I recently read "The Alchemist", and I am absolutely in love with it. Such a beautiful tale, it is a story that has captured my heart.

I am glad that I did because it is among one of the best books I have ever read (which is probably the reason why it has already sold millions of copies around the world).

It tells the simple tale of a shepherd who journeys to the pyramids of Egypt to find his treasure is truly timeless. The lessons told of the discovery of your personal legend, being your one true purpose, and of understanding omens, are ones that speak to all people regardless of religion.

5 out of 5.

Reporting back in from the Malazan mines. I just finished book 5, Midnight Tides. This series just keeps getting better and better. Book 5 may not have any of the characters that I know from earlier books, but it's probably the best self-contained story in the series so far. I did miss Karsa Orlong, but it did establish a bunch of great new ones, like Tehol Beddict and all the Sengar brothers. Learning a lot more about the Tiste Edur was super interesting and the Letharii are an interesting culture as well. Can't wait to dig into book 6.

@whitegreyblack: That's a bummer :-(

I've only ever read the first Rama book (several times now), and (despite thinking about reading more) I think I'll now just leave it at that.

@arjailer: Definitely; I recommend stopping at the first one since it was among my favorite sci-fi books I have ever read. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news about the sequels.

edit: One of the biggest bummers I had about the sequels is that there are some really genuinely great characters introduced in the sequels about whom I was enthralled to read about their journeys (and a main character I was happy to follow throughout these books because she was well written and believable)... but the books always took a real dive at some point and the overall 'grand answers' were really... well, bad.

@whitegreyblack: No, don't be sorry. I'd rather keep the mystery :-)

David Spade - Almost Interesting, A Memoir

8/10, pretty funny but barely 200 pages

Arnold Schwarzenneger - My Unbelievably True Life Story

8/10 - awesome as far as bodybuilding and movies, boring as hell as far as politics. Its 650 pages long

@arjailer: As an aside, try out Voice of Vamana. It's a short game that really evokes the sense of scale, isolation, and discovery Clarke writes about in Rendevous with Rama. It's kind of neat and has a great soundtrack. https://connor-sherlock.itch.io/voice-of-vamana

@whitegreyblack: Voice of Vamana was great - really enjoyed that - thanks for recommending it :-)

Edit: Only negative thing (and it might have been deliberate) was that I couldn't make out any of the radio messages - too muffled and quiet behind the music, even with headphones on - they still added nicely to the atmosphere though :-)

The Familiar by Mark Z Danielewski.

Rating it at this point in time is hard for me as I'm still digesting it but as of now I'm gonna say 3/5. I'm one of those big House of Leaves fanboy weirdos and I don't think he managed to catch that kind of lightning in a bottle again but it's an enjoyable read.

Saturn Run (John Sandford and Ctein) - 4/5 stars

The first four-fifths of this is brilliant, believable science fiction about mankind's race to make first contact with aliens near Saturn. It weaves its necessary near-future science exposition smartlyinto the narrative by including lots of dialogue between various experts on alien culture and space tech about what to expect. It's also largely well researched, though it does rely a bit on make-believe when it gets tot he alien technology.

What really makes the novel great are the characters and their interactions on the long trip to Saturn. Unfortunately, the book loses a lot of that magic when it comes time to include a limp, uninteresting thriller scenario in its last quarter. Had the spotlight returned back to the characters for a longer period of time after the resolution of the climax, it might have been a fine conclusion, but instead, everything is wrapped up fast, the goodbyes are said far too quickly, and a large portion of the diverse and fun cast are forgotten about.

It's worth reading if you liked The Martian or the like. I think it's probably the best thing I've read this year, apart maybe from Sleepless.

Salem's Lot - 7/10

Really good in the middle, but the ending is anti-climatic and the start is a little bit too slow.

Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History Of A Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich

It's a very haunting book filled with first hand testimonies of people who were there when the meltdown occurred. A lot of the stories are just heartbreaking while there are one or two that are funny in a dark sense. It's quite a piece of history and is chronicled very well in this book.

5/5

An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments. Details a list of common logical fallacies used in conversation/argument with cute animal illustrations. Pretty sure trump has used all of these at some point. It's very short, but accessible and a high quality hardcover book. Essential ready on the basics for anyone who cares about making good arguments and what you should avoid.

30 straw men out of 5

Just finished Foundation and Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov. On the third book in the trilogy, Second Foundation. Always been into science fiction, but never got around to reading any of his work, despite being familiar with most of it. It moves quickly and in spurts, but the protagonists are each heroic in their own way and the science is just believable enough to serve its purpose. The themes are simple enough to survive the breadth of the series without becoming overly complicated or overwrought.

I'm also sensing Asimov was big into naturalism or predeterminism after getting through Foundation and Empire, but I haven't done too much research into him. He leaves a lot up to the imagination. You don't get a lot of details about each setting except those parts which are necessary to get his point across (ex: his description of the Empire capital planet, Trantor!). If you're into cultural anthropoly or statistics or sociology, there is an interesting dichotomy of mob rule vs individual agency that is just perfectly laid out.

Last one that I completed was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Boy, that was a trip. I absolutely mythology, and having it tie into modern times is great. Definitely one of the best books of this century. His storytelling and knowledge of Mythology knows no bounds.

If you mean last one I read some of, that would be Stephen King's Dark Tower 3: The Wastelands. I'm not too far in it, about 100 pages, but its got so much more upfront, quick action than the past couple. Its weird, I feel strong deja vu to the Shakdir part of this book, and to the start of the 2nd book. Which is strange because I know I never owned the books before I bought them a couple weeks ago. Still, 9/10 so far, this series is shaping up to be one of my all time favorites.

What has everybody been reading?

At Swim-Two-Birds.

It's a book about a student who lives with his simpleton uncle, and spends his days sleeping, drinking and writing a book. In his book, which is a work-in-progress, he has a character writing morality propaganda and westerns, but the characters he's writing about, don't quite appreciate the things he has them doing, and so they take measures to rebel against him and gain control over their lives.

Random quote:

We must invert our conception of repose and activity, he continued. We should not sleep to recover the energy expended when awake, but rather wake occasionally to defecate the unwanted energy that sleep engenders.

That might be done quickly - a 5 mile race at full tilt around the town, and then back to bed and the kingdom of shadows.

You're a terrible man for the blankets, said Kerrigan.

5/5.

Just finished Raymond Carver's 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love'. It's a short-story collection about, well, love, but examined in all angles and in all meanings of the word. I find especially masterful how the author manages to make the scenes come to life and set the mood by paying attention to the most seemingly mundane details. The genuineness of the stories is disarming.

The best book I've read is: "The curious incident of the dog in the night". I'd give it a 10/10.

Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship.

4/5.

Never Let Me Go - 2/5

Outside of the central mystery regarding what was going on it was incredibly dull, and even that felt more and more underwhelming as more was revealed. Hated all the characters, found a lot of it poorly written, and it didn't really feel like it had a lot to offer. I know what it was trying to get across regarding the characters' blind acceptance of what was going on, but they just came across as morons. Sure, their situation was normalised to them, but it's not like they were actually brain-washed or anything; it's ridiculous that not a single one of them put up a fight when they got old enough to think "hey, this is actually kind of bullshit." Egregiously overrated book.

Just finished Devin Townsend's autobiography "Only Half There" that I pre-ordered months ago and finally received last week.

I'd give it a 4/5

He really dives deep into his psyche most of the time throughout the book with a few humorous stories and asides. I really wish he would have talked more about how each album was recorded and his relationship with some of the people he collaborated with (especially on the Deconstruction album by the Devin Townsend Project) It was a fun read though. Not sure if you can purchase it anywhere right now though if you didn't pre-order it way back in... April? It's been a while.

This doesn't factor into my rating at all, but a pre-order bonus was you can have your name printed in the book, which is kind of neat.

@ultragamerockx: What is that book about?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - 9/10

I love the dry british humorisms in the book. Also, the footnotes and world building inside of an alternate history England really bring the world to life, almost convinced me that English magic did once exist.

I've been bingeing on some slightly...I don't want to say trashy fiction so lets say light genre fiction. It's been a massively nice change from reading mainly non-fiction. Namely I've been blasting through a couple of series of historical fiction, firstly the Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris, covering the adult life of the famous Roman politician through the eyes of his slave & secretary Tiro, and now I'm on the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, which are focused on the fictional Uthred of Bebbanburg and his tales in the real Saxon kingdoms around the time of the Great Heathen Army of Halfdan, Ivar the Boneless and Ubba, and King Alfred the Great of Wessex. Uthred is the son of a Saxon lord who is captured as a child by Dane who ends up taking a liking to him & raising him as his own son. So he's got a foot in both camps, Dane & Saxon. Cornwell is not beholden to the real history, and is willing to take liberties for the sake of story telling.

Last one I read I just finished this afternoon, was the 5th in the series, The Burning Land. Not my favourite of the books so far but a very fun page turner none the less. A solid 3/5, with the context that there's not too many books I'd rate as 5s. The whole series just makes me want to dig into the Saxon era of English history & find out more because, well, as a Scot I can't say that period has been something I'd ever really gotten into before now.

@agathies: are you reading this on Unlimited or did you get the books? I wanted to read these awhile ago but couldn't figure out where it started and which books to buy so gave up ;_:

I'll do the last two I've read, since the last one was my fifth or sixth time through it-

Iron Maiden: Running Free by Garry Bushell- 5/5

A completely insane and time-and-place official biography of the band Iron Maiden. Written with copious amounts of 80s British slang and humor, it can almost seem to be nonsensical if you aren't familiar with things like Cockney rhyming slang. It was a tough read my first time around, but I've read it so many times now that I don't even notice it. A fascinating look at the history of my favorite band, right from the formation up to the Powerslave-era, with a lot of awesome photos and things that I've never seen anywhere else.

The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks- 5/5

The second book in Weeks' Lightbringer series, and now quite possibly my favorite book of all time. I was obsessed with Weeks' Night Angel trilogy when I was in high school, so I immediately bought The Black Prism, the first of the Lightbringer books, when it released. I was, unfortunately, underwhelmed. It wasn't bad, certainly, but I felt it lacked any of the punch or hook that the Night Angel trilogy had. I still bought a signed copy of The Blinding Knife regardless, since I still overall loved his work, but my disappointment in the previous book put me off from reading it for so long, but, when I did, I was blown away. I loved pretty much everything about it, and am now soooo, so glad I bought a signed copy. I have a lot of catching up to do, though, as I believe the fourth(!) book of the series came out literally yesterday.

The Gospel of the Rauschmonstrum 5/5, great short read for any people into the flying spaghetti monster.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Guys, it worth reading

@billmcneal: I'm not going to spoil it for you, maybe you could buy it and read it, then get back to me and tell me what you think of the book.

@ultragamerockx: ok

@billmcneal: Let me know how you get on with it.

Recently finished Dune.

It was fine. Not great, but I can see how influential it must have been at the time it released. Think of it as a Game of Thrones in space, in the sense that a lot more thought is given to the politics and interactions than to the setting and pacing (or, more accurately, the setting is given slightly more thought than most science fiction settings in the 60s). I think my main issues are (spoilers ahead) that nothing is really explained (the melange is simply a way to justify all the fictional stuff, it could have been called mana or mutant powers for all the consistency it had); that it has some issues with its pacing (the book spends entire chapters explaining each character, or each interaction, or the setting; but when it comes to the final war that turns the protagonist from an exiled underdog to religious leader and emperor of the entire known universe, it only lasts 3 chapters/50 pages) and that some of the conflict is brushed out by way of their "powers" and just accepted.

For example, early on they talk about an elite army of ubersoldiers (think of them as an army of Kratos) that the emperor of the universe has, and fear of them by the rest of the universe (even by the protagonists) is the only reason why holds power; later on we learn of a group of desert nomads that are able not only of fighting them, but clearly outclass them (a group of dozens wins over an army of hundreds and only loose a handful people). When the protagonist (a 15 years old boy) and his mother (a slender looking cleric) are ambushed by these nomads, they fight and defeat them so impressively that they are invited to they base, under the condition that they teach them "their amazing fighting skills". Several people are described as being so intelligent and logic bound that they make our supercomputers look like kids toys (their words), a lot happens from the perspective of one of the greatest in the universe (their words again), yet he is as prone to emotional manipulation and flawed reasoning as every other character. In fact, there are individuals that are not these kinds of "super intelligent humans" that are occasionally depicted as a lot more detached and intelligent than any of this race of specially breed superhuman. As such, there a are a lot of moments where some character skills tends to grow or shrink depending of the situation.

Just reread Siddhartha after 5 years. What a phenomenal book that is. A beautiful reminder that life is transient and pleasantly cyclical. Also, for those spiritually inclined, it's a must read. Imo

I've just finished Lemmy: The Definitive Biography by Mick Wall.

Overall it's alright - there's some crossover stories from White Line Fever (Lemmy's own autobiography) which I found better told in his own book. Aside from that there's also an attitude of the author that after Ace of Spades / Iron Fist all of their later material is lacklustre and a shadow of the band's former glory. The tone just comes across wrong, not to mention he spends very little time discussing the band and his life from Iron Fist up until his death.

If you only want to read on Lemmy story just watch the documentary Lemmy and read his autobiography White Line Fever.

I think you might find Asimov's robot novels interesting after Foundation The Caves of Steel (1953), The Naked Sun (1955), The Robots of Dawn (1983), and Robots and Empire (1985) make up the Elijah Baley (sometimes "Lije Baley") series. There is slightly better characterization in them, and the last two novels are quite good even in a modern sense.

Uh, I think the last book I read to completion was the CompTIA A+ All-in-One Exam Guide by Mike Meyers. I used it to help cram for the exam over the summer. It is a fine resource for anybody interested in that certification.

Station Eleven - 5 billion stars out of 5

Read. This. Book.

It's ostensibly about the end of civilization due to a superflu (sound familiar?), but it's really about the relationships and the funny way the universe has of tying things together. The description going in might sound like a post-apocalyptic novel, but that's not what you should expect. it tells the loosely related - and sometimes directly related - stories of several survivors and victims of the plague, with some of the richest, most beautiful writing I've read in a very long time.

Emily St. John Mandel has such an incredibly discerning touch with the difference between hamminess and beauty. Her writing - in this novel, anyways, but I intend to find out if it's true of her other works as well - shows a knack for picking and choosing precisely the right moments to add details and descriptions and seemingly meaningless little scenes that add layer after layer to the rich characters she's created. Everyone is flawed, everyone is lovable, everyone is beautiful. I can't tell you enough - go read this.

Thanks dude, I picked it out of curiosity, finished it this week, and thought it was great.

@monkeyking1969: Thanks for the suggestions. I will be sure to check them out.

I just read Lord of the Flies by William Golding and i love the story 5/5.

neuromancer

punch deck/5

this book is just all together fucking rad, even if it is a bit dated. just reading all this cyberpunk stuff when it was so fresh and visionary is cool, and it's just got this awesome sort of noir vibe to it. fairly short but oh so dense. it is still sort of convoluted to me (still don't auite get what happened when they met up with riviera) but i don't care. i dig playing find-the-influence-on-later-day-scifi with it.

should read count zero and whatever the other one is too maybe. and maybe move on to gibson's other works sometime.