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comment by kuli
kuli  ·  4497 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Book club
briandmyers, mk, b_b, sounds_sound, winston, JakobVirgil, AnSionnachRua, lessismore, caio, thenewgreen, insomniasexx

It's August---anybody else finish the book and have thoughts? Did you like it? Are you still interested in the book club? Who is going to pick next?





insomniasexx  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I really liked the beginning. I highlighted a few passages (my kindle is at home) especially the way Birch describes the animals. The writing is interesting but the story itself isn't. I loved how Birch was saying the things she was saying...but I didn't feel compelled to read the stuff in between the passages of brilliant language. That "stuff" was filler to me, even though it was the plot. Oh well. I only made it halfway through. I assumed it was because between work, a new man, and summertime but reading these comments I guess we are all in the same boat.

I propose SciFi next. I'm still in my singularity/scifi mode from 99 days ago: http://hubski.com/pub?id=27349

I took b_b's advice and read The Man in the High Castle. Something along those lines.

b_b  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Did you like it?
insomniasexx  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I loved it. I want to read it again in a year or so. It has so many layers, I think I missed a lot of it the first time around.
b_b  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I'm glad. You always feel bad when you love something and recommend it, and the person hates it. Its hard not to take it personal. The good thing is that its short enough you can read it several times and not feel like you're wasting time. One thing I think that Dick was really good at presaging is the merger of corporatism with government. Obviously this was happening when he was writing, but its gotten out of hand in the last 30 years. He--and a lot of other SciFi writers, I suppose--saw this coming and tried to warn everyone. Sucks for us that we didn't listen.
caio  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Hey, I read that one! It was some time ago and I didn't quite understand it much. I'm guessing, from my other FKD readings -- 'The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch' and 'Ubik' -- that it was about their reality fusing with ours? Something like that?

I remember enjoyed mainly the geopolitics of the book.

winston  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I read the book and agree with what seems to be the general consensus; it was good but a bit void of character development.
thenewgreen  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I read to the point when they reach the Islands in search of the Dragon. I think I'll actually have a chance to finish it tonight. So far, I enjoy the language of the book but I agree with AnSionnachRua that it isn't exactly captivating. I recall you (kuli) having a conversation here about how the characters weren't that captivating and that you didn't have an emotional connection with them. So far, I would agree with this. From my perspective thus far, Tim is the most interesting character and this is only because he is such a little shit. Dan Rymer is starting to become more interesting as a character too. Still, I'm not terribly motivated to continue. I'll see how much I can knock out tonight.
AnSionnachRua  ·  4497 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I feel bad about it, but I didn't actually finish the book. I got six or seven chapters in and stopped because, frankly, it didn't really hold my interest. I ended up reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman instead...

I just couldn't get into it. There was a great amount of focus on the Victorian England setting and, to be honest, I started to get tired of it - that and the plot just didn't seem to be moving anywhere. But I can't speak much about it because I only read about a quarter of the book.

Sorry! I'll read the next one even if I don't like it.

kuli  ·  4497 days ago  ·  link  ·  
That's ok! Since I chose it, I consider it partly my fault :)

After reading it, I was a bit surprised that it was a Booker finalist (as I have partly eluded to before)---it wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn't bad either. I read the other book I proposed---In a Strange Room, which was better and would have offered more to discuss. Oh well!

Did you like American Gods?

AnSionnachRua  ·  4497 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Oh don't worry; you're not at fault for picking a book I might dislike.

I still haven't finished it (not putting aside enough time for fiction lately) but I really like it so far. I like the feel of having a totally normal guy in the normal world but with supernatural beings and strange events happening around him - it kind of reminds me of some of Haruki Murakami's writing.

caio  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Oh, man! Thank you! I was feeling so bad! As you, I got 'till chapter 6, but my attention was winding down. When they said they were going to find a dragon, it went up again, but reading in the desktop, in my not-so-legal copy, was so tiresome that I gave up.

Pity. I was making some annotations. I made a little dramatis personae, and a few connections with other works -- anyone think of the The Tyger poem when Jaffy mentioned his encounter with the feline beast?

FWIW, I'm reading Dracula now. I found a dramatic reading of it on LibriVox.

lessismore  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I got totally caught up in a project that I did not even have a chance to read the book. My supposed month away ended up being a month in front on the computer working. :)
mk  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Similar scenario here. Our 4 mo is putting us through the paces. She's not a very good napper. :/ I'm doing my best to finish the book I started before she was born.

I do want to get in on this though. I love discussing books.

caio  ·  4496 days ago  ·  link  ·  
Is that 'the gathering storm'? I remember you talking about it. How's that going?