Starting the 1st book of The Wheel of Time. 13 more to go.

reading send me a sign - tiffany schmidt

I am a cat-soseki natsume

Anyone like japanese author? I have read some books of eiji yoshikawa and haruki murakami. Anyone has recommendation?

The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury

Fortunately, the Milk. Neil Gaiman.

I know its a children's book but its actually interesting enough for adults to read as well.

Holy cow... you're actually doing it. I actually bought most of the WoT books at last year's BBW but the thought of having close to a year of my life dedicated to one series puts me off.

just finished the whole series of '50 shades of grey'

off topic abit: i find that this sub forum is really quiet. Does this mean majority of Malaysians don't read? but yet I see huge crowd every year during BBW book sale.

Ya waited for the final book then start the series. Been reading this one and one other non-fiction book at the same time so don't feel like spending a long period on one series.

Guide to investing by Robert.T.Kiyosaki .Finished 2 of his Rich Dad's book and I'm on his 3rd book.

This post has been edited by trowapeter: Oct 15 2013, 06:55 PM

It's... I won't say it's worth it. The middle books got very draggy, but the beginning of the series, and especially the end (the 3 books that Sanderson wrote) are masterpieces.

I just finished Sanderson's Steelheart over the past two days. It's considered a young adults book, but it's very well written. I enjoy most of Sanderson's books, and his planned epic, the Stormlight Archives, looks to be amazing, but it is his shorter reads that really come through as 'unputdownable' to me. Alloy of Law I read in 2 days as well.

Now about a quarter through Republic of Thieves. Scott Lynch is right up there with Rothfuss and Sanderson as the torchbearer of modern fantasy. Too bad everyone is stuck on Game of Thrones. No disrespect for Mr. Martin, and I personally love the series, but it's been hyped to kingdom come and then some. Thanks, HBO!

To be fair to George, he isn't new-age fantasy but he was a breath of fresh air to the genre. The popularity of aSoIaF has reinvigorated the fantasy genre. However, his books aren't traditional fantasy and attracts a wider audience than just fantasy fans. I wouldn't say the series has been "hyped to kingdom come" because that would insinuate that the series doesn't deserve the hype. It truly does. Not since Tolkien has there been a figure in the fantasy genre so universally admired.

Having said that, Lynch, Rothfuss, Abercrombie and Sanderson are the new-breed of "stars" in our genre. And they all bring something different to the table. Sanderson is by far the most prolific and his world building skills are second to none - but he also writes more traditional fantasy than the rest (hence why he was chosen to complete WoT).

Rothfuss, Lynch and Abercombie (especially Abercrombie) have gone down a different path and torn the script up a bit. No longer is fantasy black and white, the magic systems are no longer the main focus and the stories are far more gritty. Because of the pace of his writing, I believe Rothfuss will spend the vast majority of his career on the Kingkiller series. I believe Lynch has a good writing pace and if he can get over his health issues, we might see him do some great things. The Gentleman ******* series though, is pretty long and it may turn into a career long project rather than a career-making project. Abercrombie seems the most likely to be the breakout artist. He writes at a ridiculous pace (almost the same speed as Sanderson) and like Sanderson, he also is capable of writing different genres. He may not have Sanderson's world building skills but what Abercrombie lacks in world building he makes up for in character building. He's so good at it, George RR Martin considers him the heir to his throne. And he has done immensely well to keep the First Law trilogy short and made the rest of the books standalone.

Don't get me wrong. George Martin has done a great deal to bring fantasy back to the forefront of fiction. He is a capable writer, and his ability to tell a good story is top notch. I enjoyed the first three books of aSoIaF greatly, and reread them multiple times while waiting for the forth book. His old short stories were amazing, as were books like Fevre Dream and Dying of the Light.

A Feast for Crows, however, was frankly, disappointing. Martin seems to have lost his sense of pacing. Instead of keeping everything tight and moving the story forward, he meanders with subplots, minor characters, and doesn't seem to know how to advance his story to the next point. He is an 'exploratory' sort of writer; he probably has a few milestones he aims to hit, but otherwise he has no concrete idea on how to get there. The fact that he took so long to write book four and five is an indication of this; more than once, he has admitted to throwing out huge chunks of work because it simply went nowhere.

My worry is that the aSoIaF series will become yet another WoT. No one, not even the biggest fans, will call the middle part of WoT good books. They were boring as hell and felt pointless. I'm hoping for something more like the Malazan books, with tightly paced plotlines, events galore, and enough 'what the hell just happened?' moments to keep me turning the pages.

You are correct. GRRM has said even said so himself with his famous gardener vs architect line.

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.” - GRRM

Having said that, I don't think aSoIaF will turn out like WoT for two reasons:

1. GRRM has also "completed" the story in his head. He has said so himself. He already knows the fate of all the characters. What holds him up is actually tying everything together and to bring closure to the many minor plots.

2. This is probably the more important; the HBO show. There no deal in place that states that forces HBO to wait for the books. The execs already know how the story ends so they may actually overtake him which is something GRRM is very worried about. GRRM has not promised a certain number of books but he is trying his level best to finish it with the next two books because he knows he's running out of time.

Personally, I think we'll see 3 more books - The Winds of Winter (which is about halfway done) and A Dream of Spring which I think will be divided into a Part I and Part II (with a massive fight scene in each book dealing with both major "wars"). But I don't think any of the books will be "slow" books.

You have to understand that book 4 and 5 were very difficult books to write for George because he had to tear up his script. The plan was to fast-forward 5 years into the future but only after writing hundreds of pages of text did he realize it didn't work. So the 4th and 5th books has a lot of character building (as opposed to the fast paced all-action nature of book 3). While many fans found it "slow", it's integral to the story so we understand the characters' evolution better heading into the climax of the series. He had to cover the character growth of so many major players that he needed TWO BOOKS within the same timeline.

Just finished with Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (featured pun in The Internship )

ALso just done with Brain Rules - John Medina. Good read to understand brain mechanism.

Currently on Sparks - John J Ratey. Also on brain but focus more on how exercise actually relate to brain power.

Haruki Murakami 1Q84...though you've probably read it..
try out Keigo Higashino...and Stieg Larsson though you've probably finished reading it as well

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

just finished Inferno by Dan Brown. might re-read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol or Stephen King - The Stand

Just watched Hunger Games 2 aka Catching Fire not having read any of the novels prior to watching the movies but now as i found out that the third book Mockingjay is going to be split into two movies ala Harry Pothead and the Twiglet saga i found myself contemplating on whether to buy the book or just waiting till November 21 2015 to find out what happens to Ms Everdeen!

15 (of 19) chapters later i have to admit in making the right decision and it is a nice readable book . May even consider reading the first two as well! My niece tells me to pick up the Divergents but having seen the trailer i cannot say i am bowled over by it.

Have you read any of Gaiman's other stuff? I picked up Ocean at the End of the Lane after hearing a lot of hype about the book. This was my first Gaiman novel and sadly it just didn't wow me. I actually felt a bit disappointed by the time i reached the end of the book.

Maybe i was expecting more given that the BFM Book Club were raving about his collection of work. So it could have been the wrong book to start with. Would you recommend that i follow it up with Milk?

fess

Currently on Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely