I discovered Banks's sci-fi stuff in 2008, and decided I wanted to read the lot. So I went on a bit of a library spree in 2009. But I've been saving Matter up because I didn't want to run out of Culture novels too quickly. Once I've read this, there'll only be Against a Dark Background (which isn't a Culture novel) left.
I read two Banks novels last year- one fiction, the other a Culture novel. I liked it okay, but I don't know how much I'd want to read the rest.
Despite the hype Camilla is obsessively trying to create, which I know is offputting for some people, I do think you'd enjoy The Gone-Away World a lot. It is super-cool. The beginning drags, but by the end you will see why it had to, and it is so worth it.
Interesting. I don't like hearing that it drags at the beginning, though, because I'm so moody. If I'm not like, immediately hooked, I generally put the book down.
1. Stardust- Neil Gaiman
Awesome. And so much more poignant than what the film turned it into. Did you read the illustrated version or the prose version? I tell everyone who will (or won't) listen to read the illustrated version, despite the higher cost.
I read the prose version. I must say, I started Gaiman with Neverwhere and loved it. Then I couldn't finish American Gods, disliked Good Omens, and Stardust left me kinda meh.
4. The Blade Itself- Joe Abercrombie
7. Before they are Hanged- Joe Abercrombie
8. Last Argument of Kings- Joe Abercrombie
I really want to read him. Is he good?
If you're a fantasy fan, yeah. I've heard people call him "violent," which I guess is true to an extent. Less overall than ASOIAF, I think- it's not enough to be off-putting. Nobody gets what they deserve in the end, which is what makes it both good and bad, I thought. I'd recommend them.
15. The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
I first read this in French (skiing in the French Alps, finished my book early, needed to get something quickly), and enjoyed it. Then Silje told me she had thought it was really childish, and I realised she was right – I just hadn't noticed it before because my brain was sufficiently occupied, not by the concepts but by translating it as I read. I am now a bit dubious about Coelho. Also, I know a girl who takes her entire philosophy of life from The Alchemist. I find this quite pathetic. What did you think of it?
LOL! I don't know. I think that maybe if I had read it back in high school, like when I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, I would have enjoyed it more. As is, I think I'm too cynical now to appreciate it fully, though I do appreciate it nevertheless.
19. Watchmen- Alan Moore
Awesome. Don't you just love this quote?:
"Come... dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly."
I'm trying to remember where this line is from exactly.
I liked Watchmen, but not as much as I wanted to. I thought the movie was better because the ending made a bit more sense. And both endings were anticlimactic for me. Rorschach's character made the whole thing for me.59. Servant of a Dark God- John Brown
I've never heard of this, but it has a seriously awesome title.
Hehe, yeah. It's a debut novel I got an ARC for from librarything. At the end of this book, I felt very similarly to what I felt at the end of Sanderson's first Mistborn book, even though it wasn't quite his debut. I thought, this could really be a good story, depending on where this author goes with it. I don't know when it comes out, but look for it- I also think you'd enjoy it.
Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position. - Bill Maher
50-book challenge complete!
- 31/12/2009 10:02:42 PM
2000 Views
What did you think of Three Men on a Boat? One of the more underrated comedies out there, IMO. *NM*
- 01/01/2010 12:02:36 AM
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I think Jerome K Jerome was brilliant, and wish there were more like him.
- 01/01/2010 11:21:07 AM
800 Views
Good job, Tim!
- 01/01/2010 01:09:20 AM
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Not only that: my current read is Matter, the last Culture novel.
- 01/01/2010 11:16:34 AM
838 Views
Me too.
- 01/01/2010 11:53:57 AM
894 Views
You counted a book about contract law???
- 01/01/2010 04:16:53 PM
804 Views
fnords!!!!!
- 01/01/2010 07:29:09 PM
710 Views
by the way
- 01/01/2010 07:30:04 PM
715 Views
Three. If they were originally published separately, the fact that someone collected them into...
- 01/01/2010 11:55:22 PM
844 Views
The Night Watch series just got progressively worse. I liked all of them, though. *NM*
- 01/01/2010 10:18:15 PM
348 Views
Of course. It's the 50-book challenge, not the 50-SciFi-or-Fantasy-book challenge.
- 02/01/2010 12:14:59 AM
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I would never have considered case books "books" for purposes of the 50-book challenge.
- 02/01/2010 05:41:02 PM
880 Views
It's a textbook, not a case book.
- 02/01/2010 08:43:42 PM
1018 Views
I think even books we called textbooks were essentially case books.
- 03/01/2010 05:42:45 PM
792 Views
Re: You counted a book about contract law???
- 04/01/2010 10:30:24 AM
731 Views
We both speak Spanish already. 
- 04/01/2010 02:00:06 PM
725 Views
- 04/01/2010 02:00:06 PM
725 Views
Do you really figure...
- 05/01/2010 01:57:54 AM
825 Views
I don't think it would take less time than for Portuguese or French, but...
- 05/01/2010 04:53:27 AM
840 Views
I think you should teach her Koine before French 
- 05/01/2010 04:01:44 AM
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- 05/01/2010 04:01:44 AM
727 Views
If I could convince my wife, I would 
- 05/01/2010 04:57:05 AM
772 Views
- 05/01/2010 04:57:05 AM
772 Views
There's always Amharic, I suppose
- 05/01/2010 07:32:50 AM
912 Views
For some reason I always want to read that word as though it were in Gaelic
- 05/01/2010 01:49:44 PM
723 Views
Well, at least it's not Klingon!
- 05/01/2010 11:30:48 PM
729 Views
I have a cursory knowledge of Old Persian and a smattering of Gatha Avestan...why do you ask?
- 07/01/2010 06:09:20 AM
697 Views
Oh, come on. Finnish is all kinds of awesome.
- 05/01/2010 05:01:16 PM
735 Views
I know the word "omenapiraaka" means "apple pie" - I went to the Helsinki McDonald's.
- 07/01/2010 06:10:49 AM
754 Views
Since 50 and a half seems to be quite a popular number this year, here are mine.
- 01/01/2010 04:38:09 PM
920 Views
I think I managed, too. However, after that, my reading just... ceased.
- 01/01/2010 06:02:16 PM
803 Views
What did you think of Foucault's Pendulum?
- 02/01/2010 08:42:02 PM
732 Views
Because I'm not American.
- 03/01/2010 05:50:36 AM
675 Views
Yes, but you lot have lost so much more...
- 03/01/2010 06:03:38 AM
696 Views
Is the subjunctive any more alive in America than in Britain?
- 03/01/2010 06:23:09 AM
725 Views
Not in any meaningful sense. I suppose there are some irregularities which could be subjunctive...
- 03/01/2010 09:54:46 AM
764 Views
Would y'all ( ) say it's the same situation as with French (and I think Spanish)?
- 05/01/2010 02:05:59 AM
704 Views
) say it's the same situation as with French (and I think Spanish)?
- 05/01/2010 02:05:59 AM
704 Views
Not exactly
- 05/01/2010 04:00:04 AM
719 Views
All I know about French is what's in Louisiana, and it's just completely incomprehensible.
- 06/01/2010 08:20:53 AM
686 Views
Aaah.
- 03/01/2010 09:04:45 AM
739 Views
I should have mentioned...
- 03/01/2010 11:39:27 PM
758 Views
Illuminatus! is so great. I finished the trilogy last year, I think.
- 05/01/2010 06:58:14 AM
718 Views
If this will be your first Eco, I definitely recommend The Name of the Rose rather than FP. *NM*
- 05/01/2010 11:13:07 AM
315 Views
I finished with 90 books.
- 09/01/2010 09:45:29 PM
794 Views