Catchup time. Like ketchup, but not as good on sandwiches.

I think the first thing I read after Invisible Monsters was I, Lucifer by Glenn Duncan. The basic jist of the story is that God has decided that soon Earth's time will draw to a close, but before then he wants to see if he can convince Lucifer to repent and come back to the kingdom of heaven. In order to achieve this, God sends angels to Lucifer and says that he can spend one human month occupying the body of a depressed writer. If Lucifer can live this month as a good person and learn to see the value in humanity, he can return to heaven if he chooses; or he could just say no altogether.

Of course, Lucifer agrees to God's proposal, and the story begins. On the face of it, it is an extremely original, innovative story, and Duncan plays it out as such; but a story can only take a book so far.

The wit in this novel is immense, and it had me properly laughing a fair few times. Duncan takes the character of Lucifer presented to us in the Bible and gives him a modern, sharp, relentlessly funny voice. His reference to the Archangel Michael as 'once a carrier pigeon, always a carrier pigeon' is classic.

I had a really big problem with this book though, and that problem was the author. Glen Duncan is utterly a writer's writer; the whole book is bound up in writing cliches and scenes in the office of a publisher. The writer whose body Lucifer occupies is that of Declan Gunn, which must be the most transparent anagram of 'Glen Duncan' in history. The story gets lost quite a lot, with Duncan steering Lucifer off to explore a modern issue with all the literary grace of a tractor, or to contemplate the fate of the writer yet again.

Lucifer's tales of the kingdom of heaven are ascerbic and achingly funny. His voice is sexy and relentlessly entertaining. However, Duncan's voice occaisionally slips through and just makes you angry; meanwhile, he takes a brilliant idea for a plot and steers it into the ground time and again. But I did keep reading until the end.

After that I read The Book of Dave by Will Self. Again, a magnificent idea; a deranged taxi driver whose life has completely unravelled loses the plot and writes his own version of how the world should be. He buries this book, The Book of Dave, in the soil of Hampstead Heath in London. Hundreds of years later, after most of London has been submerged by rising seas, the book is found and becomes the dominant religion. Brilliant!

However, what Self does to this concept is bizarre. He chose a staggared chapter structure, which is fine if it suits the story; but his takes leaps of hundreds of years, changes of character, I assume with the intent of keeping the reader asking questions. It goes 2550, 2002, 2530, 1987, and so on. It isn't really confusing, but instead of keeping you guessing it just gets annoying.

Then there's the plot. Self spends a lot of time explaining why Dave is the unhappy man he is, and wrings out the facts of a sad life to the point of utter tedium. Self seems to think that he's the first man who's discovered this niche and seeks to explore it. It feels condescending, the way he refers to Dave's life as a working class phenomenon. Overall, Self speaks of this kind of life exactly like most rich people do: he has never lived like that, and has never sought to understand someone who has except for his own ends.

I didn't finish the book. That is rare. I spent a lot longer reading it that I should have, simply because it wasn't enjoyable; but I wanted to continue, because he spent time writing it and I wanted a fuller understanding. I skipped the penultimate chapters of both the new and old words and skipped straight to the unsatisfying end with a few questions remaining; not questions about the book itself, but questions that Self posed to the reader himself and then didn't answer. Like the Motos. Motos are these apparently half-car/half-human creatures that the people of the Heath live off. Very early on Self lets us know that each of these creatures has the brand 'CalBiotech' burned onto their skin, and in the next chapter Dave the taxi driver meets a man who works for that same company, a shady looking business. And then that idea is completely dropped and forgotten.

I really didn't like this one.


After that I moved swiftly on to a book I'd been saving for myself : Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. And oh my!

This book is stunning. Wonderful. It begins an unassuming story about a man in a mystery elevator going to a mystery interview; within pages strange things have started. Before long the simple life of a worker has unravelled in a way he could never have imagined.

There are two worlds in the books, and the chapters alternate between them, much like the Book of Dave but without the mindless time shifts and pomp. The first world is that of a simple, nameless computer worker working on the side of the System in the information wars. The other world is a magical place called The End of the World, a Town walled in and populated by monotonous, happy people and magical beasts.

The characters are well drawn and, despite none of them having names beyond labels, believeable and whole. Their conversations are witty and realistic. You feel like you know them at the end of the book, and when the main protagonist makes his final choice at the end of the novel, you're left feeling like you understand; his choice is a beautiful, deeply complex one that really leaves you thinking.

If there is one problem with this book, it is that the real-world story is so well paced and intriguing that you might find yourself paying less attention to a few End of the World chapters than you really should just because you want to find out the next twist in the real world.

Murakami deals with some very big ideas in this book, and does so with such subletly; he leaves breadcrumbs for you to follow, and you feel yourself learning as the protagonist does.

I adored this one. It was stunning. I can't wait to read it again.

[PurpleDiamond]

Books I finished in 2009 ^^

1. The Warrior Heir- It's an epic battle between good and evil when a boy named Jack figures out a startling truth about himself =3...
2.The Wizard Heir- Second book to the Heir trilogy...In this book the main character is Seph McCauley who's forced to go to a private school in the middle of nowhere for causing a tragic fire at an after-hours party...
3. The Dragon Heir- Third book to the heir trilogy...this one contains the point of view of a few of the main character in their battle to protect the town they love =]...Warning: All three of these books contain magic and wizardry...which is why I loved them ^^
4. The Looking Glass Wars- This books is like Alice in wonderland with a bit of a twist and in my opinion was an magnificient book =]
5. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ^.^

Currently re-reading Harry Potter at this moment then after that I'm going to re-read Keys to the Kingdom since the final book in the series is coming out in September ^^

*Will edit this post whenever I read more books =]

[Calvan]

So far this year i have read.

The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower pt.II - Stephen king -Roland,The Gunslinger has to form seek the help of three chosen, Don't mess with Lobstrocities.

Star Wars- The Clone wars - Karen Traviss- If you've seen the movie you know what happens.

The Wastelands: The Dark Tower pt.III - Stephen king- The Gunslinger and his party begin to forge their path to the Dark tower.

Darth bane The path of destruction - Drew Karpshyn- Dessel is a Cortosis miner, He kills someone and joins the sith army, Later to learn of his affinity for the dark side of the force he becomes a sith lord. Darth bane.

Darth bane: The Rule of Two - Drew Karpshyn - Bane takes up an apprentice and kills a bunch of jedi.

Not very many i know.

So I finished The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The ending sucked, mostly because ol' Fyodor took the 'paid by the page' concept really to heart and spent the best part of fifty pages summing up the boring parts of the story in a clunky style. I admit, I skipped most of that part.

The one gem waiting at the end of the book was Ivan's chat with the Devil (also, have a sneaking suspicion that that was where Glen Duncan stole the idea for I, Lucifer from. My ire continues).

Overall, though, The Brothers Karamazov was a winner. Every character had found their resolution by the end, except perhaps peripheral ones like Lizaveta. The final verdict on Fyodor Pavlovich's murder is another Dostoevsky metaphor about crime and guilt, which you will know is a repeated theme of his if you've ever been within sniffing distance of Raskolnikov and his St Petersburg rants.

I think Dostoevsky was saying that a world without God, even if he doesn't exist, would be unimaginable. Take Alyosha: not into God for God's sake, but into God for the sake of unity, togetherness, and mutual belief. He was the happiest. Ivan decides against God, and ends up talking to the Devil. Fyodor and Mitya, the voluptuaries who have nothing to do with God proceedings, end up dead and pretty much dead. Father Zosima dies happy, surrounded by friends, and proceeds to rot; but he wasn't sad. The women, as per usual, are pretty much plot devices who succumb to 'hysterics' once every few pages and then serve some tea.

There were no weddings though. I wanted Ivan and Katerina Ivanovna to get it on, and maybe they will after Ivan gets sane again, who knows. Despite Alyosha being my all-time favourite, his love interest annoyed me to death (and was also, what? 14? 15?). I long for the days of Avdotya Romanovna and Razumikhin on that front.

Overall, now that it's over, I miss my boys already. I will go back to them one day. Another stunner from Dostoevsky.

After that, I consumed (that's the only word that fits) American Gods by Neil Gaiman. And oh wow. Basic jist is that every god brought to America by the immigrants (think Odin, Anansi, Loki) is still living there, though all are suffering from a lack of belief, and a lack of power. They're not happy. Add into this the new gods, the fat kid who is the internet, the coiffed Media, and their guns and cars, and you've got a war on your hands between the old and the new. However, this war will require some persuasion, as the old gods don't fear the new; and the man with the plan is the mysterious Wednesday, a chain-smoking, grinning con-man.

In the middle of this we find Shadow. Recently released from prison, he finds himself working for Wednesday as he sets about rallying the old gods for war.

I loved Shadow. By the end you really feel like you know him. With this book, it's hard to divulge much without giving the entire plot away. The eventual outcome took me by surprise, even if I had it nailed a few pages before Gaiman actually said it. Superb.

The old gods are great travelling companions, and each is as unique as their name. They in-fight like old men, and Shadow observes them with a wry keenness while fighting to sort out his own life.

Interpersed with the story chapters are little stories with titles like 'Coming to America' and 'Meanwhile...' I loved these bits. Each was just an individual tale about the current life of a god in America, or about how a god came to America. The first one makes your face go a bit funny when you realise what Bilquis is doing to the guy, but the quality is still there.

Add into this the fact that Gaiman's a pretty funny writer; he has a cute, kind of Pratchett-but-less-out-there turn of phrase, and sometimes from nowhere will produce nuggets such as, 'Opiates are the religion of the masses.' Gaiman's writing style, which masters the art of being deep while being completely accessible, will keep you readng even if the story doesn't (though I guarantee you, it will).


So, all in all, I've found two new favourites. Good times.

[Lithium]

As of right now I am only going to post the list of books I have read over the period of 2 months.

• Twlight
• New Moon
• Eclipse
• Breaking Dawn

• the Host

• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 1: The Lonely Ring Finger
• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 2: Left Hand Dreams of Him
• Only the Ring Finger Knows Novel 3: The Ring Finger Falls Silent

[Chez Daja]

Ring - Koji Suzuki.

I really liked this book but I hated the translator. The story itself was impecible, but the wording was sometimes gritty and horrible. It didn't flow like a normal book should. That said, I appreciate the fact that it's a translation and take it that the original is much better.
It's a novella of the film and tells you the story of a middle aged newsreporter who watches a cursed video tape and is warned that he has only seven days to live. From there, he has to find out what exactly it is that he needs to do in order to save his life.

Spiral - Koji Suzuki.
Sequel to Ring, Spiral has the same shitty translation as Ring did. That said, I couldn't just stop reading the books because of various errors. I enjoyed this, but it seemed to drag on forever, sometimes relaying useless facts that later held no significance. It's basically a rehash of Ring, with differing characters and a slight relay on the first book.

[AAARGH!!!]

The books I've read so far this year:

• Dagon (and Other macabre Tales) by HP Lovecraft
• Blaze by Stephen King
• Cell by Stephen King
• Darkfall by Dean Koontz
• Shattered by Dean Koontz
• Slash's Biography
• The Truth by Terry Pratchet
• Making Money by Terry Pratchet
• Mort by Terry Pratchet
• Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchet
• Shade's Children by Garth Nix
• The Beast House by Richard Laymon

At the moment I'm reading Quake by Richard Laymon.

[DragonHeart]

My goodness, I've fallen quite behind in my updates.

Let's see if I can remember them all...

Goblin Quest
Goblin Hero
Goblin War

A fun trilogy that both pokes fun of fantasy and tells a good story with lots of humor. Told from the point of view of the first god-worshipping (in a manner of speaking) goblin, chronicling his many misadventures among humans, dragons, orcs, and other goblins.

Dragon Outcast
Dragon Strike

The next two books in the Age of Fire series. The crippled Copper finds his place and the three siblings are united as adults against their most fearsome enemy yet. As much as I enjoy the series, Dragon Strike felt underwritten to me. It felt too short, almost condensed. There was so much potential in the Red Queen and it was wasted, imo. Ah well, still very good stories.

Way of the Shadows

Dark, gritty, bloody, and awesome. It's like Assassin's Creed on crack, with magic.

Silver Phoenix: Beyond the Kingdom of Xia

I've already spoken about this one several times, it's a beautiful read.

Cold Fire

My first Dean Koontz book. I enjoyed it though it did get really weird at the end. I'd definitely read another.

Green Rider
First Rider's Call
The High King's Tomb

Reread the entire trilogy...I just really connected with something in these books. That's my second full reread, not to mention how often I read each one while waiting for the next. It's actually fairly unusual for me to reread that much.

~DragonHeart~

So I had a graphic novel phase.

Very recently I read Maus by Art Spieglman. I can't even put into words how good it was. It's about the Holocaust, and tells the story of Spieglman's Polish Jew parents. It begins with their happy life in Sosnowiec, and unravels to the point where his father, Vladek, finds himself in Auschwitz and his mother, Anja, in the horrific Birkenau. So close, but so far.

As well as drawing the stories from Poland and Germany, Spieglman lets us see his father telling him the story. His father has become the stereotypical mean, money-tight Jew, and Art laments this as he writes. What makes Maus so good is not the horrific tale of the Holocaust, but the modern parts. We get to see the effect that the Holocaust continues to have on Art and his girlfriend, on their families and the other camp survivors who live near Vladek in the old people's complex. We get to see that even though Art himself wasn't there, it still touches every aspect of his life. Vladek and Anja had another child before the war, called Richieu; he didn't make it, but one photograph of him did. Art spent his childhood competing with a photograph of a child who was happy and easy to love, born in a time of peace and prosperity for the Spieglmans of Sosnowiec.

The art was wonderful. The Jews are drawn as mice, the Nazis as cats. The Poles are pigs. Even in the modern sections, Art and Vladek, as well as Art's girlfriend and Vladek's deranged Auschwitz-survivor wife Mala, are mice. The Americans are Labradors, cuddly and trusting but ultimately a bit dim.

I'm rambling here. I can't put it into words. Just read it. It really makes you think. I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau once a few years ago, and it horrified me. I couldn't finish the tour, but never really got why; was it horror, disgust, or just misunderstanding? Now I know. While the barracks in Auschwitz itself may have been converted into storytelling exhibition panels, they never really allow you to understand just what it was like. While they are graphic, they're almost too real, and they sort of make out like once the Russians arrived everything was alright again. Maus just shows so much more.

What a thing to do on the part of Art Spielgman. Maus is so personal and often horrifying, even in the modern sections; you find yourself contrasting Vladek's 19-strong household in Sosnowiec with Art and Francoise's unwillingness to stay with him for even a few weeks. But I can see why it was done this way; it exposes you to the full horror, but also to the full guilt, awkwardness, and struggle to rebuild and then continue a life once you've stepped over the dead at war, in the camps, on the deranged starve-them-out-before-the-Red-Cross-get-here train journey. It exposes the longevity. Read it.


And then, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This graphic novel tells the story of Marjane, or Marji, growing up in Tehran. Of how they revolted to replace the horrible Shah, and ended up with something so much worse.

Satrapi is witty, and she uses her art to convey that. Her distaste for the burqa is also revealed; her teachers are drawn as just black shapes with mean faces. From the inside out she shows us how wearing a denim jacket can be rebellion. She and her friends struggle with Islamic repression; Marji's parents worry about her so much that they send her to live in Austria. She speaks French, and attends a French school there.

What she finds shocks her. People think of her as a fundamentalist, and she is horrified to find herself denying her Persian nationality. She tells stories of war, and people say she is making it up. They spoilt teenagers she finds herself with think of her as a curiosity. For all their talk about Marx and war, it becomes offensively clear how little they understand.

Young Marji is an outsider wherever she goes. Too outspoken for Tehran, too defensive for Vienna. Again, the art beautifully reflects this.

It's really hard to describe just why Persepolis draws you in like it does. I can't define it. The themes of family, of self-expression, of loneliness and love scream and sing to you in equal measure.

It's not as good as Maus, but for a graphic novel beginner, it was great. It really helped me to understand just what drove the Islamic Revolution in '79, and how their world was clamped down after it. I imagine Satrapi was on the streets recently, and based on what she says of her family, I bet they were too; and I wish them the very best. What Satrapi really emphasises is that she thinks Persians are different to everyone else; not necessarily better, but very different nontheless. After reading her book I agree with her, though I can't understand how a country so vibrant lets itself continue so repressed. I'm sure they'll get fed up and start to meddle in it soon though. They're Persian, it'll get sorted when they decide it'll get sorted and not before. I for one wish them the very best of everything. Not fundamentalists, obviously; I mean Satrapi's Persians, those who partied under the Shah and then the Ayatollah. More power to them.

I am scouting for more graphic novels. But I bought the Grapes of Wrath to read next. I'm having a history phase just now. Holocaust, Iranian history, WW2 in China, the Great Depression...I'm really learning with these books. Might revisit On Green Dolphin Street to get my dose of love-based Cold War drama. Oh! I have Birdsong actually, someone gave me it. That can come after GoW. Sebastian Faulks' writing style always irritates me at points, but I got used to it in On Green Dolphin Street so I dare say I can do so again. Will have to revisit White Swans by Jung Chang. Now THAT is a book and a half.

[Unknown Entity]

Books I've read since the start of the year are:

~ Sabriel(Garth Nix)(I love this book - I've read it four times now).
~ Lirael (Garth Nix)
~ Labyrinth (Kate Mosse)(Re-reading now because I missed loads and read another book halfway through it - I'm stupid like that).
~ Getting Over It (Anna Maxted)(Another re-read - its a good book).
~ Falling (Sharon Dogar)
~ Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)(****ing hard to read on your own, but I got there!).
~ Looking For JJ (Can't remember)(I've lost it somewhere... I have a hunch my friend has it).

Total page count: 2655. (Labyrinth is 702 pages. Excluding Looking For JJ, so There is more than that anyway).

[Waterdragoon]

Let me see... Ive only read one serie's this year:

Warrior's: Midnight
moonlight
Dawn
starlight
Twilight
and Sunset.

It's a great serie's.But this is just the 6 book's, in the new phroficy. Ive also read the Manga version:
the lost warrior
Warriors refuge
and i forgot the rest of the manga's name.
But this serie's is about Cat's ^^ Yes cute kitty cat's... here's SOme of their name's in the last book:
thunderclan

leader- firestar

deputy- graystripe

medicine cat- leafpool

warriors- dustpelt sanstorm

That's not all the warrior's but... Most of the Warrior's have apprentice's. They train them to become warrior's. Each cat must go through training.
There are 4 main clan's:
Shadow
Thunder
river
wind
There are also some other clan's but i dont want to spoil it ^.~
I recimend it ^^
In U.S. It is 36.99
in CANADA it's 39.99
Idk how much it is in U.K or even if they sell it there.

[DragonHeart]

Adding some more...

Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer. First nonfiction book I've read in awhile.

Dog Days, John Levitt. Urban fantasy, not usually my thing but the author is part of the writing forum I frequent and it looked interested enough to try. I wasn't disappointed.

New Tricks, John Levitt. Sequel of the above. Good, fast-paced reads.

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins. Post-apocalyptic world meets modern reality show.

Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins. Sequel, now with higher stakes and hints of something much larger going on.

Still not reading nearly as much as I should be but once the cold weather sets in I intend to be doing a lot more of it.

~DragonHeart~

[Psiko]

Ho-ly shite people. Dracula is absolutely amazing. As i read each classic piece of literature like this, I ask myself why I didn't read this sooner in my life. The way Stoker tells the story entirely through journals of the characters is brilliant! I've never read anything quite like it, and I imagine you have not, either. Do yourself a favor and read it. Right now. I don't want to hear excuses why you can't. Or won't.

Besides, its freaking DRACULA. This is before vampires became all emo and mainstream. Thank you, Twilight.

[Anachlirium]

Originally Posted by Psiko

Ho-ly shite people. Dracula is absolutely amazing. As i read each classic piece of literature like this, I ask myself why I didn't read this sooner in my life. The way Stoker tells the story entirely through journals of the characters is brilliant! I've never read anything quite like it, and I imagine you have not, either. Do yourself a favor and read it. Right now. I don't want to hear excuses why you can't. Or won't.

Besides, its freaking DRACULA. This is before vampires became all emo and mainstream. Thank you, Twilight.

Dracula is amazing. =P I read it for the first time when I was ten, and since I've built up a collection of six copies. xD. I'm actually re-reading it at the moment for an assignment, but I just about know it cover-to-cover, off by heart.

And indeed... Twifags, read Dracula and get a grip. It makes me sad when I see people saying that Twilight is the new Dracula. [Particularly when I know very, very few people who've read both.]

[RamesesII]

Okey dokey let me see the latest series i have just finished is 'Soldiers Son trilogy' by Robin Hobb i absolutely love her series such as Farseer trilogy, Liveship traders and The Tawny man trilogy she has a new series out called The Rainwilders trilogy which is sort of a branch off from The Liveship Traders bt i think i will wait till all of the series is out so i don't have to wait.

Anywho back to the topic I just finished Soldiers son Trilogy and it was awesome I love Robins series because she centers around one character like most authors but she also starts the series from when the are young so the series are always following this main character through their life and the trials etc the face through out their journey and of course she throws some magic in and the main character is always torn between different choices that can change everything.

For example Nevare grows up as a new nobles son his father was the soldier son to his father but was then granted nobility for acts in war and in this religion the first son of a noble is the heir to the estate etc the second is the soldier and the third the priest any way Nevare is his fathers pride and joy and is going to follow him into the famed ranks of the Cavala (Cavalier) soldiers until an encounter with a native of the lands that can delve into the magics of the lands. Once an enemy of Nevares people Dewara leads Nevare on a quest to rid the Plainspeople another native people who also use the magic but Nevare doesn't encounter what he expected and from that day forth the magic has claimed him as its tool to use to rid the Specks of Nevares people (Gernians0 from the specks doorstep as the Gernians strive to drive a road throw the Specks land and ultimately destroying their forests and ancestors in which their spirits reside in the trees. And so the battle begins not on the outside but on the inside as two different sides of Nevare strive to serve each ones people.

[Aerith Heartilly]

In the last year,I have read:
Twlight by Stephenie Meyers(sry if misspelled)
New Moon ^
Eclipse ^
Breaking Dawn ^
------------
Evermore by ???(Sry I can't remember the author,I am so stupid!)
Blue Moon ^

Also just me asking,but would anyone mind recommending a good book with vampires,romance,and fantasy??That isn't Twilight.LOL Thx!

[DragonHeart]

Furies of Calderon
Academ's Fury

Both are part of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, books 1 and 2, respectively. While I've not read his far more popular Harry Dresden books, this one is quickly becoming a favorite. I've already ordered the next three books with the intention of reading them as soon as they get in the door. My only real complaint so far is that it's far too easy to see where he's going with certain characters. There's also a lot of 'saved at the last moment' going on which I'm not overly fond of.

Overall though, very good reads. I really love how Butcher isn't relying on the standard milieu of fantasy beasts and races. I love the classics but lately I've been leaning more towards the original and lesser used concepts.

~DragonHeart~