[bucky]

(02-25-2018 09:40 PM)Alsos Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 12:11 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 12:20 AM)bucky Wrote:  

I tried the first Song of Fire and Ice book and thought the writing was terrible. Turned me off so much I haven't tried the TV series. Then I saw a picture of the author and his obesity turned me off even more.

I watched the first episode; Sean Bean was good in it, but otherwise it felt corny, and I like fantasy stuff.

Friends try selling me on this series by describing it as a "modern" Lord of the Rings, which boils down to it being cynical, nihilistic, and full of rape and incest. And they can't understand why they're not persuasive.

I'll second the observation about Martin. He's viscerally repulsive, even for a mainstream SF/F author.

Yes, from what I hear of GOT I also get the impression that it leans heavily on shock value (graphic rapes and violence, incest, etc.) whereas Tolkien got it done with, you know, good writing and interesting stories and characters. The fact that people are calling it a modern American LOTR and Martin "the American Tolkien" says a lot about how far we've fallen.

Good point too about Martin being physically repulsive even for a sci fi author.

[Super_Fire]

(02-25-2018 09:40 PM)Alsos Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 12:11 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 12:20 AM)bucky Wrote:  

I tried the first Song of Fire and Ice book and thought the writing was terrible. Turned me off so much I haven't tried the TV series. Then I saw a picture of the author and his obesity turned me off even more.

I watched the first episode; Sean Bean was good in it, but otherwise it felt corny, and I like fantasy stuff.

Friends try selling me on this series by describing it as a "modern" Lord of the Rings, which boils down to it being cynical, nihilistic, and full of rape and incest. And they can't understand why they're not persuasive.

I didn't even get that far, but I'll believe. Zero interest in GoT. The only good thing I can say about is that they knew how to build a big, beautiful wall to keep out the bad hombres!

[TooFineAPoint]

This thread should be retitled to "I want the Cole's Notes to everything".

Seems that most of these books are getting hated on for being descriptive, comprehensive, and exhaustive.

If brevity is your primary arbiter of value, I suggest Borges (truly; he is the master of the brief masterpiece).

[Piankhi]

Is Wilbur Smith overrated?

[Buddydowrongright2]

Senlin Ascends is getting massive hype in the sci fi and fantasy community, but I couldn't make it past the 50% mark. Boring plot. Interesting premise but to me it failed in the execution. A lot of books drag in the middle, but for me to finish a story, I really need to know WHY I should continue. The main character is annoyingly weak and pathetic. I didn't have any reason to want this guy to get his wife back after she runs away from him in Babel Tower. He's a dorky, physically unimpressive, conflict-averse school teacher, and she's a sassy hot girl who is many years his junior. That was the most fantastical part of this book.

[Richard Turpin]

(02-26-2018 03:20 AM)Piankhi Wrote:  

Is Wilbur Smith overrated?

Possibly, depending which one you pick up, but I love the early Wilbur Smith books. They don't write them like that anymore. I found his worldview to be very 'red pill' and 'realist' and to my mind it comes across on the page of all his early books. After finding the red pill, I've been surprised that his name hasn't cropped up any more than it has, given the fact that his characters often display very RP traits in their dealings with women.

His African books in particular also contain a lot of historical and political knowledge. They are full of action and adventure, with heroic, but flawed men doing manly things, and beautiful women being beautiful women. Lots of violence, lots of sex. Great quotes as well.

I'd recommend 'When The Lion Feeds' as a starter.

As with so many authors, the later works aren't always up to par, and in fact he doesn't even write his own books anymore, as he's 84 now and lives on his own island with more money than he knows what to do with and a wife who's 39 years younger than him!

Bonnier Zaffre has just poached rights to his books from HarperCollins in an eight-figure deal, described as "one of the biggest in publishing history".

[godfather dust]

Finnegan's Wake. Every so often I read a page, laugh and put it down. Gibberish.

The Qu'ran: Mostly reads like a legal document, lacks stories/parables.

Timothy Leary Psychedelic Experience: subject yourself to MK Ultra voluntarily.

Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance: bored me to tears.

Tony Robbins, anything: don't buy into NLP

David Icke, anything: Dryly written by a satanic nutcase.

[fokker]

^ I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a month ago. It was OK, although the philosophical parts of the book did get a bit boring at times.

[heavy]

I ask forgiveness of the greatest novelist of all time, and I know this is Stephen King's self-proclaimed best book, and I'm a fan of every other book of his I've read, but...

Stephen King's IT

Made it about halfway, put it down. I've been told it gets better once they get old or something, but I gave it a try and couldn't finish. And I've read like 30 of his other books, a huge fan.

[Super_Fire]

(04-25-2018 08:26 AM)fokker Wrote:  

^ I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a month ago. It was OK, although the philosophical parts of the book did get a bit boring at times.

If it's anything like Alan Watts, it would perhaps be too crude an understanding of Zen as well.

[Bluto]

(02-25-2018 10:24 PM)bucky Wrote:  

(02-25-2018 09:40 PM)Alsos Wrote:  

(02-21-2018 12:11 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:  

(02-19-2018 12:20 AM)bucky Wrote:  

I tried the first Song of Fire and Ice book and thought the writing was terrible. Turned me off so much I haven't tried the TV series. Then I saw a picture of the author and his obesity turned me off even more.

I watched the first episode; Sean Bean was good in it, but otherwise it felt corny, and I like fantasy stuff.

Friends try selling me on this series by describing it as a "modern" Lord of the Rings, which boils down to it being cynical, nihilistic, and full of rape and incest. And they can't understand why they're not persuasive.

I'll second the observation about Martin. He's viscerally repulsive, even for a mainstream SF/F author.

Yes, from what I hear of GOT I also get the impression that it leans heavily on shock value (graphic rapes and violence, incest, etc.) whereas Tolkien got it done with, you know, good writing and interesting stories and characters. The fact that people are calling it a modern American LOTR and Martin "the American Tolkien" says a lot about how far we've fallen.

Good point too about Martin being physically repulsive even for a sci fi author.

Every popular Fantasy writer is "The New Tolkien." I remember reading that Robert Jordan was the new Tolken twenty years ago, and before that David Eddings or Terry Goodkind, Tad Williams, etc. So whenever I read that, I roll my eyes and move on.

I am sure that I have said it before either in this thread or a different one, but I am not fond of Martins Work. I find it to be a clunky read that hardly makes sense, there are barely any elements of fantasy in it to keep it in the genre, and it takes forever to read through. I don't recommend it at all. I have a bigger problem with the SJW tripe that wormed its way into his writing in later books, and his conscientious objector status, than his weight.

[RIslander]

Almost any required public school reading in my opinion is garbage.

I just finished Heinlein's Starship Troopers... absolutely fantastic. The battle scenes made you feel like you were there but most important was the political philosophy. Chapter 8 was as red pilled as it gets. Its worth its own thread... which I may do.

I saw some hate a few pages back for "Old Man in the Sea". For whatever reason, I love that book. Its literally the Seinfeld of fiction... its a "book about nothing" but at the same time I always enjoy reading it.

[YoungBlade]

Everything by Faulkner

[Alsos]

(04-28-2018 09:41 PM)Bluto Wrote:  

... I have a bigger problem with the SJW tripe that wormed its way into his writing in later books, and his conscientious objector status, than his weight.

I wasn't referring to his weight, but his overall appearance. I can't see a picture of the guy without thinking of the sick pedo underbelly of SF/F. He makes my skin crawl.

[Bienvenuto]

(04-25-2018 09:24 PM)Super_Fire Wrote:  

(04-25-2018 08:26 AM)fokker Wrote:  

^ I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a month ago. It was OK, although the philosophical parts of the book did get a bit boring at times.

If it's anything like Alan Watts, it would perhaps be too crude an understanding of Zen as well.

Plus one on that.

Alan Watts is infamous in Buddhist circles for banging on about buddhism when he himself seems to know jack shit about it.

I regard him as a fraud.

[Super_Fire]

(05-16-2018 12:30 AM)Bienvenuto Wrote:  

(04-25-2018 09:24 PM)Super_Fire Wrote:  

(04-25-2018 08:26 AM)fokker Wrote:  

^ I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance a month ago. It was OK, although the philosophical parts of the book did get a bit boring at times.

If it's anything like Alan Watts, it would perhaps be too crude an understanding of Zen as well.

Plus one on that.

Alan Watts is infamous in Buddhist circles for banging on about buddhism when he himself seems to know jack shit about it.

I regard him as a fraud.

Alan Watts was like the quintessential "Asian studies" guy who was all theories about conformity stemming from neo-Confucianism and how all Asians are deeply concerned with preserving the "wa" and are all Buddhists but aren't theists and how Zen masters who have attained enlightenment are technically incapable of wrong thoughts or deeds and so it's totally OK when they hurl abuse and smack you because they operate on a higher plane, but had never been to Asia.

[Chetthebaker]

The Grapes of Wrath.

Steinbeck's all boring moralism and generic plot devices. And then the pointless interstitial chapters meant to serve as a metaphor...
Very good example of commie propaganda from that era that's still taught today.

[Bluto]

(05-15-2018 09:29 PM)Alsos Wrote:  

(04-28-2018 09:41 PM)Bluto Wrote:  

... I have a bigger problem with the SJW tripe that wormed its way into his writing in later books, and his conscientious objector status, than his weight.

I wasn't referring to his weight, but his overall appearance. I can't see a picture of the guy without thinking of the sick pedo underbelly of SF/F. He makes my skin crawl.

Agreed, I would use his picture as an example of who not to take candy from, even on Halloween. As far as the weight goes, I guess that I was referring more to Bucky's comment than anything else.

[brianmark]

(07-10-2013 08:05 PM)2Wycked Wrote:  

A Dead Bat In Paraguay.

Dead Bat in Paraguay is my favorite Roosh book. I'm a traveler.

[Al O'Peesha]

Off the top of my head:

Naked Lunch - Horrible degenerate shit. I actually felt unclean after wading through 80 or so pages and didn't pick it up again;

Sons and Lovers - Not a fan of DH Lawrence, especially this one. Vaguely autobiographical if I remember correctly. All my sympathies lay with Walter, a flawed character but bullied and goaded by his snooty, manipulative wife who turns their kids against him and whose relationship with her son vaguely implies incest;

Ulysses - great in places, but reams of irrelevant gibberish make it a chore to read all the way through;

The Color Purple - Vile.

[Alsos]

(06-11-2018 09:20 AM)Al OPeesha Wrote:  

...
The Color Purple - Vile.

You never look at frogs the same way again after that.

[Pride male]

I am struggling to read Dickens A tale of 2 cities.

[Bluto]

(07-30-2018 06:04 AM)Pride male Wrote:  

I am struggling to read Dickens A tale of 2 cities.

It does get slow in the middle part, as I believe that it is in 3 parts. Part 3 does pick up.

[BlackHussar]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
EXTREMELY boring, slow, nothing happens, bland, no action, nothing. Really feels somehow lazy for a spy novel, as if all characters are giving their 10% when doing anything at all.

Harry Potter, if you're older than 10.

I second Catcher in the Rye, like 15 people already have...

The Sorrows of Young Werther. Holy shit, did I hate that fucking book. Stupid beta cuck main character, oneitis, cry cry cry, suicide. Literally inspired and taught generations of young boys to be cunts instead of men.

Oh, and any French novel ever, except for those written by Voltaire.
Pretentious bullshit.

[debeguiled]

^
^
Yeah, he has been praised through the roof, but I find Le Carre unreadable.