Rate the last book you read
 

In honor of the movies/tv forum name change, here is the first official thread on the subject of "books." Talk about the last book you read and rate it using any type of rating system you feel would be best suited for your purposes.

I'm in favor of having "Lit" added to the title of the forum, since we can discuss novels/comic books/etc. in here and it's not really movies/tv

movies/tv/"books" forum

woah, it's already there. When did that happen?

It -7.5/10

Triple A granted the forum Name Change Request I made in Casual. I thought about "Lit" but I thought that could sound pretentious. I also didn't want people to think it was a forum about the band Lit.

Good thing to because when Jeritron mentioned Lit. The band was the first thing I thought about.

Yea I could see how people would find it pretentious. I tend to just use it as a blanket term, but that's probably because I was an english major. If you asked me a few years ago I probably would have scoffed at it

My Own Worst Enemy

Also, if Triple A made a typo and forgot the "L" in "Lit", people may have thought it was the It forum, and their confusion would be further fueled by the first book rating in this threads.
A plethora of Pennywise related threads and posts would probably begin to pop up, and Zeeboe would run wild

If he left out the "i" we'd be getting the google hits from Lawrence Taylor's alleged rape.

The "Li" forum would be too mellow for me.

I have a feeling this thread will be dominated by a handful of posters. Perhaps it could evolve into the first ever TPWW Book Club

Are we old women now?

Hopefully it will go better than Jura's movie club, but I would be in for that.

Do you want in the Book Club or not, McLegend?

Our first read will be The Five People You Meet In The Tech Forum

Of course I want in.

It just might be a little effeminate that's all.

Divine Comedy: Inferno - 10/10 - I had the Penguin Classics edition and it was helpful because it tells you who all of the guys Dante meets are and draws your attention to connections between Cantos as well as between the Inferno and the later books.

This isn't the version I read, but here is one if you want to look at it:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy/Inferno

I am going to tackle The Dark Tower series this week. I've been reading Stephen King books for a couple months now. I will probably take a long break from them after I read the DT series.

I want to get around to reading a bunch of classics that I only read, or was supposed to read, in high school.
Most of them I either skimmed or cleverly got around reading, and I think I would enjoy going back and actually giving them my time.
Animal Farm, 1984, Catch 22, Faranheit 451.

Also, The Hobbit.

Double Indemnity 9/10

It was short and fun.

Stephen King - UR

6/10 standard King fare

How to become a Famous journalist by Steve Hely- 10/10

Slaughterhousefive - 8/10

Tropic of Cancer
9/10

Other recent reads:

Chuck Klosterman - Downtown Owl - 6.5
Douglas Coupland - Microserfs - 7

I read JPod and Microserfs back to back. They are fairly similar and I think I have merged their plots together in my head. I think I ended up thinking JPod was the better book, but I think it's because I read it first.

I read Generation X and I hated it but I gave this one a chance and it was ok.

I haven't read that, but I have read Hey Nostradamus! which was good. More serious than the other ones I have read by D. Coupland.

Unfortunately, I do not have time to read books for personal reasons anymore. The last book I read was a monograph on Medieval brewers for a seminar. Not a bad read if you are interested in the history of beer.

Christopher Rice's Blind Fall - 7/10

Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn

10/10

Great book. I want more of Twain's books.

Why the fuck can't you just say literature instead of "lit"

Nunder reads books!?!? Who knew.

The World Without Us -Alan Weisman - N/A -10

I didn't finish this book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly what I anticipated. It takes a few divergences that were not fitting with what I was promised by the book jacket. I would have finished it, it wasn't unreadable, but I'm in the middle of another book that I would rather read.

Green Eggs and Ham - 7/10. Very inspirational.

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 9/10

Really liked that the science fiction elements of the story were left in the background and that some of the specifics were left unexplained. Hard novel to talk about without revealing the "plot" but I highly recommend it.

I like these types of threads as it gives an insight into a persons personality.
http://www.gss.ucsb.edu/projects/hes...urney-west.jpg

Very good eastern epic, I had a little bit of everything: joy, love, action, even toilet humor. 10/10

The Last Templar: 6/10

Can I rate the last short story I read for the first time, or do I have to finish the whole anthology and rate that?
I need to operate on rules.

You can do whatever you want. Just as long as you don't rate any magazines.

Especially the ones with those new glossy pages that leave fingerprints on them

Can I rate the FIRST book I read?

I don't remember the title, or what it was about, but the pictures were fairly entertaining.

5/10.

The Bruins - McFarlane - 8/10

100 Years of Glory - Jenish - 9.5/10

Both bookd had an indepth behind the scences look at NHL clubs, The Canadiens one was an exceptional read.

Tom Clancy - Red Storm Rising 7/10

First read it about 15 years ago. Although now dated to a degree (technologically speaking) it is still quite current (politically) even though the Communist Union is now defunct. Probably my favourite Clancy read.

Now reading Michael Crichton - Congo. About a third of the way through. Have read all of Crichton's books except this one. Again, one of his earlier works and has dated somewhat however not a bad 'adventure' read at the moment.

Loved Congo. Shame what happened with the movie.

What rating would you give Congo? (no spoilers please).

I would put it just under Jurassic Park and maybe tied with Sphere. I can't really numerically assign it because it was like ten years ago that I read it. Liked it more than Terminal Man and Rising Sun.

Sphere - now that brings back memories of the first time I read that.

I remember sitting up in my lounge room reading it at about 3:00am. Thunderstorm raging outside.

Just as I got to the exciting/scary bit (don't want to spoil anything here) I heard a noise outside the window. I gingerly walked over to the curtains and pulled them aside quickly just as a bolt of lightning struck. I saw a 'man' looking at me from the other side of the window and screamed like a girl...until I realised it was my reflection. :$

Another great Crichton that was made into a "meh" movie.

Yeah, movie promised so much but delivered so little.

Was Tazz Dan based on a Michael Crichton book?

The Abyss was both an enjoyable movie and book. Probably because the book was written after the movie and simply extended the personal story lines of the movie.

Tazz Dan is a work of fiction. Similar to the Amtrak timetable.

I don't think I read anything beyond Airframe because at that point it started to get not so good. But someone told me that one of the newer books was good. I cannot confirm this, nor do I know which one.

Timeline was a good book. Again, the movie didn't do it justice.

I can recommend Prey - I think you would appreciate the science.

Those both sound like they could have been the one actually. Maybe both were mentioned at different points. Will check out.

The only others after Airframe were State of Fear and Next I think.

Neither of those I would rate above the previous two.

Light in August - William Faulkner - 9/10

I'm about to start reading The Satanic Verses

stay tuned

Atlas Shrugged

9/10

Under The Dome - Stephen King

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Dome_Final.jpg

If you like The Stand you will love this, more of the same. Without giving too much away, as with a lot of Kings novels, the build up was far better than the pay off, but 7/10 from me

http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com/ha...-bookcover.jpg

One of the best books I've read in a while. Burned through it ever so quickly. If you're a baseball fan, pick it up.

re-read Edmund White's Forgetting Elena

not one of his better books but it was alright

the main character spends most of the book struggling with amnesia

Finally finished 1984 by George Orwell. Can't believe I didn't read it before that. Definitely one of the best book I have ever read. 10/10

I don't remember that bit.

And The Hippos Were Buried In Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

9/10, amazing book.

Reading God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut now as I have not read a Vonnegut in like 3 years now.

I have that. We could do a mini-book club with it.

The Leafs - McFarlane

Never realize just how goddamn fucking stupid the Leafs organization was and continues to be until you read this book.

The Golden Compass/Northern Lights - 7/10. Not exactly epic, but I would definitely read again. It was fun and mostly well-paced, and despite the hype around the movie the Church is nowhere near the mustache twirling villains I expected/people claimed. Nearing the end, however, I couldn't help but feel it could be so much more. Maybe the rest of the series is, though. I've got other shit to read before I buy the next, however.

Do it up

Finished Congo - it was OK 7/10. Probably if I had read it 25 years ago I would have been more impressed. I find it humourous when they talk about this fantastic computer they have with a 256K memory.

Am now about half-way through another Michael Crichton book - The Terminal Man.

The Satanic Verses - 10/10

probably the best written book I've ever read

Yeah great book, meant to reccomend it when you made that thread earlier, but I have this thing where I don't post. Have you read Midnight's Childen Skippord?

I haven't, but I can pretty much guarantee that I'll read all of Salman Rushdi's books now

Damn, I have been wanting to read both a Kerouac and Burroughs book, so this seems good. Should I read this first or do you recommend any other books of theirs to read before? Kinda want to read "On the Road." Was just reading about how he took a "shit load" of amphetamines and just wrote it all on one gigantic scroll in a few days.

ne1 else also please feel free to answer/suggest

Just finished 1984 finally, obviously loved it.

Starting Golden Compass

The Road - 8/10

Really good story, but the kid kind of annoyed me and I don't like the way Cormac McCarthy formats his books

It's a good one to start because it is mad accessible. I feel like you would like Naked Lunch though. Just a complete clusterfuck of ridiculous imagery with no cohesive plot.

On The Road is a good starting place too, everyone loves that book. I think it's slightly overrated but I do enjoy.

I haven't read anything in a few months now. I feel like a piece of shit everytime I see this thread because I am used to reading so much and have so much time/things I want to read.
Just haven't been motivated lately. Need to do something about this

naked mr. america, burning frantic with self bone love, screams out: "my asshole confounds the louvre! i fart ambrosia and shit pure gold turds! my cocks spurts soft diamonds in the morning sunlight!"

I've currently been reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

so far I rate it 6/10

I agree with what you said completely, would also give it 7/10.

"Eeeee Eee Eeee" by Tao Lin - 9.8/10

This book was amazing to me. Read the entire thing in one sitting last night, feeling really good after each page.

Seems like a book that if someone else who knew me read it, they would say to me, "damn, you definitely should read this book. You would definitely like it."

Kinda Holden Caulfield/"Kafka-esque," to describe it in a cliched way.

<3 this.

I thought you've never read Catcher In The Rye??

I have.

Star Wars The Thrawn Trilogy 90/100.

someone lone me some money to buy books so I can post in this thread

loan*

Someone loan Skippord a library card

boy was that imbarrassing

Bret Hart Book 8/10

Very good book. Very well written. However, there were some moments in the book I really didn't care about and Bret did not make me care about.

Without Fail by Lee Child.

Love the Jack Reacher series and this one didn't disappoint.

dynamite kid's autobiography

3/10

poorly written and half the time i had no idea what the hell he was talking about

Steig Larsson - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - 9/10.

Was recommended to me by a work colleague. Had never heard of him before but thoroughly enjoyed this book. Cleverly intertwines two underlying themes in the storyline and delivers a good mix of crime/suspense/mystery. Seriously had trouble putting this book down at times.

A very good translation into English by Reg Keeland. Quite often I have been disappointed with poor translations but this version was excellent. If anyone decides to read this book make sure you get the Keeland version.

Have now begun reading the next book in the trilogy The Girl Who Played With Fire.