Author Topic: The Literary Thread  (Read 3404 times)

i think storm of swords was the best game of thrones book


The ending of the third book is loving depressing
I don't remember what happens but i heard it was a happy ending

The ending of the third book is loving depressing

the end was more of a "and everyone lived happily ever after" thing which loving sucked

I left my Roald Dahl book on the bus at LAX. It had an original-issue Kraftwerk CD in it. :s

The ending of the third book is loving depressing
Yeah, I didn't enjoy the third as much as the other two

Yeah, I didn't enjoy the third as much as the other two
I didn't read the other 2 but I read the first.

I'm currently at an awkward moment where I've fallen out of love with reading.
This happens sometimes, for varying lengths of time. Currently at about 3~ months without being in the mood to read.

I do however have to read the Aeneid, by Virgil, for my Classical Civilisation's class.
It's a terrible read, IMO, as far as classical epic poems go.
If you knew the backstory of it, and have read Homer's The Odyssey, you'll see how the style of Homer was just completely copied by Virgil, but in a way which just isn't as good.
It's supposed to be related to the story of the Sacking of Troy, started in the Illiad and followed on in the Odyssey, by Homer, but instead follows the story of the defeated Trojans and how they make their way to Italy to lead on to found Rome.
It's all very political and religious and full of hidden meanings which reference life in the late 1st century BC and AD.

If you like Roman/Greek mythology and like those sorts of stories, then I recommend Homer's Illiad and Odyssey, but wouldn't recommend Virgil's Aeneid.


Other than that, however, I've got a great big backlog of books to eventually read (which is probably what is putting me off reading).

I have to start and finish George R. R. Martin's Dance with Dragons.

I've got James Herbert's The Secret of Crickley Hall, which is apparently a brilliant read. My mother and Aunt recommended the book to me, and there was recently a 3 part Drama based on it on the BBC, which I watched, which I thought was brilliant.

I would like to finish the J. R. R. Tolkien's The Two Towers and then The Return of the King. I was originally reading another book, but lost it half way through, and picked up my Dad's copy of The Lord of the Rings.
I started to read it and completed the Fellowship and got halfway through The Two Towers.
I've seen the films and I know the story and all, but I'd like to finish it off.
I only stopped because I found the book I had lost, and ended up at a complete muddle of which to complete, which ended up with my ditching reading for some time. I didn't truly get back into it until a couple years ago when I picked up Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and finished that, and then got into George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

The set of books I got into, and did enjoy, but then lost and picked up LoTR instead, was Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt, which were difficult for me to get into, but I soon found myself loving them.
However, I got all the way into book 3, Blood of the Mantis, when I lost it.
I started Lotr, got half way through, found Mantis, gave up on both out of confusion.
When I wanted to get back into Shadows of the Apt, I was deterred, because Tchaikovsky had released about 5 more books since.
I only started the books since I won the first two in a competition, which was to celebrate the release of the second book. Tchaikovsky just pumped out books exceedingly rapidly.
I'm just really weird with books. I like to read them, so long as I don't feel like I have to. It's like a chore that I can enjoy, so long as it's not piled on top of me.


The final set of books I want to finish, are the latest two of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series.
I've been reading them for years and have thoroughly enjoyed them, since being a child.
I have a good friend who was also greatly into reading them too.
And then I got his second latest one (I think) for a Christmas present, and my friend had told me he had it too.
But he had given up on it, because he found it too childish. I wasn't sure if this was just because he had grown up from them, or if they had taken a more childish route.
Eitherway, I've yet to get into them, mostly out of fear that the latest ones will disappoint me.
My parent's still buy me them when they come out however, as they bought the first 3 for me originally.

If anyone is into childish, although quality stories, then I really recommend Artemis Fowl, as well as many of Eoin Colfer's other books. I've read a lot and enjoyed them. My favourite non-Fowl book is likely The Supernaturalists.

^ Can I add that to the OP in a quote?

Also, I have a little bit of info

Children's books I liked:

-All Roald Dahl books
-This is not my hat

Young Adult books:
-Flight by sherman alexie
-The true adventures of a part-time indian
-Artemis Fowl
-GODLESS (oh my god that's a great book)

Travel:
-Not for tourists

I dont have many others off of the top of my head.



Damn, has nobody read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four? I thought high schools required you to read that now.

Damn, has nobody read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four? I thought high schools required you to read that now.
I want to. started by brave new world and was disheartened because brave new world was hard to read.

Damn, has nobody read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four? I thought high schools required you to read that now.
It came up as a theme in a piece of literature coursework for my English Literature class before.
We didn't need to read it, although I did.

I did enjoy it, until it gets to the point where the character is reading that one book.
At which point, you're reading a very very long book, inside a book, that is all about political/social views and things.
I get that the whole book is based on these sorts of themes, but at the time, it went right over my head, it bored me, and I got nothing out of it.
So, I skipped that part of the book.

It might not even have been that large of a section of the book, but it was too long for me. I know I tried to read it all, but I had to give up in the end.

Now that I'm older, and have a somewhat better head for grasping politics now, I might find that it would mean something to me, if I went back and re-read that part.


I did however read all of Orwell's Animal Farm. Which is just as political, but if you're not big on reading political texts and things, then it's a much easier book to read.
It's so much more managable.
I would recommend reading both of them, but if someone personally can't handle such long passages on pure political/social ideologies and whatnot, then maybe give 1984 a miss or feel free to skip out certain parts.
If the character's not doing anything, then you're fine to jump ahead a bit.


Sadly I've not read too many of Stephen King's books, although most of them are pretty good and unusual.

They're very very peculier at times. And it really confuses me why there are so many movies that are based on his most unusual books. And I mean the ones that are just too weird for film, or just can't be given justice on film.
Like The Mist.


One of his books I have read and did thoroughly enjoy though, was Cell.
It's got it's own bizzare King storyline, but more than that, it's the unusual vibe he can create through the entire thing.
In brief, the story is that mobile phones have spread some form of virus that turns people into psychotic zombie-like monsters (although I don't think they are flesh-eating?). And of course, set in modern times, everyone is attatched to their mobile (cell) phones at all times.
I would greatly suggest people give it a read. But as with all King books, it's likely not for everybody.