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The Book Thread


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Wow this thread kinda died. So bump I guess.

 

So I finished Starship Troopers. And I am not really sure what to make of it. My expectations going in were of a sci fi, space opera with these big alien war set pieces (based on the film) and that is like 10% of the book. The rest of it is just military life proselytizing (at least that is my read on it) and its just kinda falls flat for me when it does that. It has this weird combination of the author really meandering (almost endlessly) over some aspect of the military and yet despite that for the most part it manages to be pretty readable and occasionally quite engaging. So I guess I would call it well written, even if the intent and the subject doesnt grab me.

 

This had been on the to do list forever. Everyone recommends this and I just cannot see why. It did absolutely nothing for me.

 

Anyway. Started The Last Mughal afterwards. About a third of the way in and holy moly that is a good book. Fascinating.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished call of the wild and white fang. Awesome short books, loved both of them esp. the strong main character.

Anybody here read biography of Genghis Khan ? Thats what i want to read next, lords of bow by conn iggulden looks nice.

Oh finished love in ancient india by M.L. Varandpande too. Interesting book on sex rituals, sex & love related themes. Explores lives of kings, gods and various form of arts expressing humanity's one of the primal drive. Book Needed more content though.

P.S. our ancestors were really kinky :P

Edited by SpearHea:D
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Its not bad. I mean as long as you are ok with reading a mostly fictionalized account of a real person then its an entertaining read, a really entertaining read. And honestly when it comes to Genghis, there isn't a lot of first hand sources. The only difference is actual historians aren't just making sh*t up. :P

 

It is kinda funny though, Conn Iggulden really tries, like super hard, to paint Genghis as not an evil person. At least initially anyway. There is almost always a justification for his actions. LOL.

Edited by Aftrunner
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Recently finished the Thirty Years War by CV Wedgewood. Fascinating book about the war and the writing was pretty accessible. Before this the only thing I knew about it was it was a thirty years war :lol:

 

Now I'm going to try to tackle Poe. Been meaning to for a while but time is such a bitch.

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  • 11 months later...

^^ Some of the books in the above list are pretty long ones.  You sure you can read 'em all ? Esp, wheel of time & the dark tower series.  I haven't read any of it, but I wanted to read name of the wind, seems to be the most accessible with just 3 books in the series.  

 

On topic, I'm reading this book called 'Annihilation '  by Jeff Vandermeer.  I'm not really liking it so far.  I hate books which get overly descriptive and keep beating around the bush.  

Edited by Ne0
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On 12/6/2016 at 12:59 AM, Aftrunner said:

Wow this thread kinda died. So bump I guess.

 

So I finished Starship Troopers. And I am not really sure what to make of it. My expectations going in were of a sci fi, space opera with these big alien war set pieces (based on the film) and that is like 10% of the book. The rest of it is just military life proselytizing (at least that is my read on it) and its just kinda falls flat for me when it does that. It has this weird combination of the author really meandering (almost endlessly) over some aspect of the military and yet despite that for the most part it manages to be pretty readable and occasionally quite engaging. So I guess I would call it well written, even if the intent and the subject doesnt grab me.

 

This had been on the to do list forever. Everyone recommends this and I just cannot see why. It did absolutely nothing for me.

 

Anyway. Started The Last Mughal afterwards. About a third of the way in and holy moly that is a good book. Fascinating.

I had the same expectation when i picked  up StarShip Troopers a couple of years back...and it was like nothing i expected, i guess we have seen too many space operas and should have read this prior to all that, book came out in 1959 so we have to keep that in perspective!! but it is enjoyable inspite of all that military commenatry on troop management etc!

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if you guys want some high fantasy with some great characters and lot of epic heroic battles and depth in story and the  world it is set in, i would recommend to pick up The Legend of Drizzt by R A Salvatore. I enjoyed the first 6 books, The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, throughly entertaining!! the next 6 books are also highly regarded to be great and i have purchased them too.

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7 minutes ago, pbpoovannagamer said:

if you guys want some high fantasy with some great characters and lot of epic heroic battles and depth in story and the  world it is set in, i would recommend to pick up The Legend of Drizzt by R A Salvatore. I enjoyed the first 6 books, The Dark Elf Trilogy, The Icewind Dale Trilogy, throughly entertaining!! the next 6 books are also highly regarded to be great and i have purchased them too.

quick question - what's high fantasy ? does it indicate the fantasy novels featuring a dragon ? 

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31 minutes ago, Ne0 said:

quick question - what's high fantasy ? does it indicate the fantasy novels featuring a dragon ? 

 

High/epic fantasy means it is set in a fantasy world that isn't cognate with our world. Low fantasy can be compared to ours to some extent. World within a world. 

 

 

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Always nice to see this thread get bumped.

 

Currently reading A train to Pakistan. About halfway through it, its pretty short though so expect to run through it in a day or two. Really enjoying it. I really love how a lot of the stuff is just a direct translation of Indian sayings/common phrases to English. It must have confused the ever loving f**k out of any Non Indians reading it. Other than that, its really good. Very readable and definitely recommended. 

 

Also reading The great war for Civilization by Robert Fisk. Just started it but its already gripped me completely. Will finish it and report back. 

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Just buy the cheapest version. Its the same content with different cover/page size. 

 

That is kinda expensive though, I remember picking up the trilogy on Flikparkt a while ago for like 500 Rs. 

 

Its also not that good. :P

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6 hours ago, DinJo said:

I was looking to purchase mistborn but there are 3 edition paperback,mass paperback and another paperback 

 

https://www.amazon.in/Final-Empire-Mistborn-Book-One/dp/0575089911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513101944&sr=8-1&keywords=mistborn

 

I see only two paperbacks in that link.

Anyway, I'm surprised to see the mass market paperback priced higher than the normal paperback (although only by a smidge). From my experience, I've usually found the paper used in MMP books to be of cheaper quality.

I'd go for the normal paperback.

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