Matt
This might sound silly, but this small book of simple language confounded me. The story is told, not just by a Neanderthal, but by the dumbest Neanderthal in the book. His struggle to comprehend the changing world around him and to pin down the advanced technology of modern humans with concepts he could understand made parts of this story completely baffling. He sees boats as logs and paddles as leaves and representations of things as the real things they represent. It's a testament to Golding's brilliance that he could stage a whole book this way. This is definitely something I'm going to have to read a second time and maybe then I can give it a better rating.
I have a rough idea of what happened in this story. I was often lost from panel to panel, but understanding was secondary here. Trad Moore's art is astonishing. I'm on board for whatever he wants to do.
This is a book everyone needs to read. It articulates ideas that I've been forming about corporations over the last couple of years. It's pro-capitalism while being anti-corporatism and points out the biases of a central currency vs. a local one. A fantastic, easy-to-read and mind-opening book!
I'm not a reader of horror, but after listening to an interview with the author, it sounded good and I got the book as a kindle deal. The first part of the book was fantastic. There's something akin to a sexual thrill hearing the supporting characters lay their ids bare to the protagonist and revealing their most horrible desires. It slows up a bit with the backstory, although the backstory is necessary in order to give the characters and the book some depth. There were a few cool twists, and although I don't know if it's a story that's going to stick with me, it was a very entertaining read.
Like most of Asimov's work that I've read, really cool ideas are the only thing that save this book from one star. The writing is eighth grade, as always.
Best book I've read this year. I feel like it was written specifically for me and I didn't want it to end. Morrison tells the history of comic book superheroes and hits all the stopping points we've been familiar with but his analysis of these points is incredibly entertaining. He makes makes brilliant points as well as hilarious ones and his love for superheroes is undeniable. He also shares his autobiography as it relates to superheroes and writing. Unlike the dark vogue I've seen in far too many comics of the last twenty-five years, Morrison is essentially optimistic about the future and about humanity.
A great book, even though I read most of this on MacLeod's blog, this is the kind of information a creator should recommit to memory every so often.
An okay book, but I thought I'd be getting forest adventure. Instead I got an episode of Law and Order.
I love Orwell as both a stylist and a thinker. This is one of the most important books ever written and I'm glad it's required reading at a lot of our local high schools. The book has as many quotable lines as Hamlet. Politically brilliant.
From the first section of the first chapter, Slattery astounded me. Spaceman Blues rocks with the people of New York City, bringing heat from cold steel and concrete. In the actions of thousands of unnamed characters, the city itself comes to life. The characters who are named experience a surreal odyssey, full of longing, passion, music, death, and of course, impending alien invasion. Spaceman Blues goes up on that too-light shelf of books I'll read again and again just to find out how the authors do what they do. Go read and enjoy.
When people talk about books that changed their lives, they usually talk about novels. The power of fiction is incredible and stories like “[b:The Lord of the Rings 34 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) J.R.R. Tolkien http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1156043001s/34.jpg 3204327]” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” resonate for decades. But if someone asked me what book changed my life, I'd have to point to “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.” Yes, I'd immediately be branded a super-dork, but this book transformed my work like nothing before or since. For ten years, I'd been struggling with “Show, Don't Tell.” Everybody said it, but nobody explained it. “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers” took my hand and guided this dumb little pup through example after example, telling me exactly how to improve my writing. The difference between my before stories and my after stories is remarkable. This is one of the only books I recommend to people who ask me about writing. It's clear. It works.
Not great literature and I didn't expect it to be. Entertaining and a lot of fun. It took me back to my science fiction adolescence. I've had some problems with a few of Harrison's novels because of dialogue, but the dialogue here was good enough that it didn't pull me out of the story.
A beautifully told science fiction story about one man's journeys through far future Europe and the Middle East as Earth pays for its past sins. The ending lifted me out of a funk I was in.
A good primer for anyone who's not sure what the hell went on in the movement. It offers lots of info on where to take your Beat reading from here.
I enjoyed the book a great deal, even though it seemed to contain too much and too little information at once, trying to juggle the lives of a couple of dozen creative, restless, and troublemaking people. Their work was groundbreaking and they were also terribly shitty people to many of those around them. Lots of sex, drugs, travel, and writing. Stereotypical bohemians. Part of me envies part of them.
McKean's art makes this book. I only read this once, maybe fifteen years ago. The image of Maxi Zeus still sticks with me. Two-Face's tryst with the I Ching was a fun idea.
I really enjoyed this one. I like alternative takes on age old characters. This Batman gets his poor ass beaten nearly to death multiple times and that's fun. Futuristic, with a unique take on the history of Batman which I also liked and I absolutely loved the costume. Imagine Batman on a budget. Beautiful art, though sometimes hard to follow.
I wanted this particular book because it breaks the work of The Beatles down song by song in chronological order and gives details on when each was recorded, who played what, who wrote what parts (as far as can be ascertained), and so on. These are things I've curious about for years.
In addition, the author???in a lengthy but interesting introduction???floats the theses that the sixties and The Beatles are inextricably linked, that LSD sparked the cultural and societal changes of the latter half of that decade, and that the focus on new-found individualism and freedoms in the sixties ultimately led to the consumer culture of the nineties (when the first edition of this book was released). In appropriate places along the timeline he also discusses important events and turning points in the band's creative direction. Overall, this is great stuff and I recommend the book to anyone who wants some insight into the making of the music.
The author injects large doses of opinion into much of the text, letting us know which songs were brilliant and which were dreck. I found myself disagreeing as often as not, but, hey, it's his book. The main reason I didn't give the book five stars was that some of his statements on the psychology and motives of the major players were obviously made up out of whole cloth and made me wonder what else might have been fabricated. He's also got something against George Harrison's songs, only one of which he seems to feel is of any quality. So enjoy the book, but read it while wearing your critical thinking cap, as you should any piece of nonfiction.
I read the e-version of the book, which seems to have been scanned from the print, but not thoroughly proofread and there are potentially confusing typos throughout.
Much better than 1969, I think, but the second book of a trilogy always suffers a bit. 2009 was faster moving, enjoyed a wonderful Antichrist, and his foe was delightful. As always I know there were references that went right over my head, but I'll never be able to keep up with Messrs. Moore and O'Neill. That's what the Internet's for. I hope there will be more of the League to come, no matter what the period.
