TheKingOfTheDragovians 305 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 (edited) Started reading Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. First four chapters follows the main character Tsukuru looking back on his old friend group, with color coded names, Ao, Aka, Shiro, and Kuro. It explains how he always felt accepted yet different, hence "Colorless." It has him recounting his experiences with them and his eventual estrangement, depression, and how that changed him into a different person. Haven't formed a real opinion on it yet but I'm willing to keep reading because I've been wanting to read Murakami for a while. As my interest in him through the character of Eto in Tokyo Ghoul has made clear. Edited July 13, 2018 by TheKingOfTheDragovians Link to post Share on other sites
Plattym3 2,589 Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Damn, sounds like a book Allison Mack will write in a few years. Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 17 minutes ago, Plattym3 said: Damn, sounds like a book Allison Mack will write in a few years. I feel like since you’re mentioning Allison Mack you’re talking about The Girl Before, not Colorless. My mind is still boggles that she was involved in something like that. Link to post Share on other sites
Plattym3 2,589 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 I feel like since you’re mentioning Allison Mack you’re talking about The Girl Before, not Colorless. My mind is still boggles that she was involved in something like that.Yes. I meant to quote you, then put the phone down and I got passed up by King Drag. It is mind-boggling, yes. Link to post Share on other sites
Dwaine 1,175 Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Allison Mack? Oh yeah, that's that one actress. She was cute. Wonder what she's up to these da- Link to post Share on other sites
cprmauldin 549 Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 A Dragon Reborn. About 90 pages in. Getting a bedside lamp has ensured I read at least a few pages every night before turning in. So far, I really like the book. I feel like it has a lot more action that the previous two in the series. Link to post Share on other sites
Brother Jaybird 529 Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 Finished another Doc Savage novel last week. Meteor Madness, which is about an underworld conspiracy to conquer the world by using a meteor to drive people insane. Not bad, but it seems to me that the twists were kind of telegraphed (kind of a problem with a limited cast of characters). Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Let this be a lesson to you: sometimes you should stick it out when you’re considering dropping a book. I picked up To the Bright Edge of the World because I liked The Snow Child by the same author but I really dislike books written as journal entries and letters and a lot of the terminology and character names and the shifting perspectives (it’s told from the POV of two characters: a husband and wife) made it such a slog. I was gonna drop it but couldn’t find a replacement book so I kept reading until it finally clicked. Right about the time the crew in Alaska finds the native village and his wife at home becomes interested in photography. At that point I became totally absorbed by it. Link to post Share on other sites
Plattym3 2,589 Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 8 hours ago, Liamland said: Summary: Hell. Pure, hell. And lots of laughs and giggles. Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 Oh, damn, it’s my signature quote. He quotes this specifically because he played Hamlet in college. Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted September 1, 2018 Share Posted September 1, 2018 So I wasn’t a big fan of 1Q84, I think I mentioned in the past. I got almost halfway through it, I think. I actually read a few pages of Norwegian Wood by the same author a couple years ago and like what I read and the buzz around the author, Haruki Murakami, has made him out to be a genius writer with an amazing bibliography. I figured maybe 1Q84 was his bad book. It was overly long and his other novels were a more average length. Opinions seemed pretty split on it after all. I figured I’d have another go and read Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Yikes. Okay, to start, it’s not a bad book. It was so addictive I read it faster then most books and never really felt the urge to drop it or had to force myself through it. That being said, it exhibits all of his worst traits and then some that were on display in 1Q84. First of all, the protagonist is the most nondescript human being on the planet. He doesn’t hate his job, but doesn’t love it. No friends. A girlfriend he has some passion for but we see so little of her despite her being so important to the book’s plot (if he sorts out his problems, she’ll get serious with him). He lives a boring and regimented life. I don’t know if I should blame the translator or not, but the whole thing read flat and stilted. Very matter-of-fact. He also kind of just tells you the point of something. He writes what people call magical realism, but when the weird stuff happens and you’re left to wonder what it signifies, he goes “maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that.” All that being said, his writing is very breezy and I actually thought the last chapter was a very well written summation of the novel, and I probably enjoyed that part the most. But this is the absolute worst. The plot is, when he was in college, Tsukuru’s friends cut him out of their lives, seemingly out of nowhere. When he spoke to one of his friends for the last time after the decision was made, the friend told him that he should know why if he thought about it, or something along those lines. I figured it would be sort of a High Fidelity situation where he met up with each of these old friends and would slowly piece together a portrait of what’s wrong with him and he’d grow as a person. No, instead, we come to learn one of his friends accused him of raping her, with no motive ever being given, just that she was mentally ill. It’s mentioned she did genuinely experience this incident, but why she blamed Tsukuru will forever be a mystery (she died before he decided to track them down again). It is speculated that she did it to break up their friend group so she wouldn’t be hurt as badly as she could when it broke up eventually later on down the line. I could not believe someone would come up with a poorly thought out false rape plot with no explanation given for her reasoning aside from crazy logic and her being mentally unstable. I don’t know what’s worse: that his friends believed her but also didn’t (she described it in horrifically exact detail with genuine emotion but they weren’t sure it was true because of the person she was accusing, which is a #$*!ed up idea on its own), or that they simply cut him out of their lives and didn’t consider going to the police, just telling him to stay away from them. Despite this long rant, I’m still gonna read some of his works. I would like to finish Norwegian Wood and After Hours looks like it would be up my alley. Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Per the season, I’ve been reading spooky scare horror novels! First, I read My Best Friend’s Exorcism, a novel that was way better then it deserved to be. Then, I followed that up with the author’s earlier book Horrorstor, which presents itself as making fun of IKEA, but I felt deep cuts and related very strongly to these characters and their work environment, so it’s more of a mockery of retail in general. I’ve currently totally switched gears and have been reading Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. A slow burn, but some of the best horror is, so I’m gonna stick it out. Link to post Share on other sites
cprmauldin 549 Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 Finally FInished Dragon Reborn and dove into The Shadow Rising (Book 4 in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series). These books are very long, but absolutely fantastic. At book 4 of 14, I feel pretty damn attached to all of the characters. I can't wait to see how the tale continues to unfold. Link to post Share on other sites
Liamland 775 Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 I'm half way through Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics, a series of fictional vignettes, retelling of the creation of the universe, told from the perspective of personified mathematical equations and elements. It's a real trip, and intensely creative. Link to post Share on other sites
DrippySlimeStar 302 Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 A few things on and off. "The Legend of Dragon Quest" on my lunch breaks, I have volume 3 of the DQ Monsters+ manga to start, and I'm about half way through volume 2 of the Pokémon Adventures manga. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
cprmauldin 549 Posted June 25, 2019 Author Share Posted June 25, 2019 Still working on Shadow Rising. In between, I picked up an old novel called “Command the Morning.” It’s about the invention of the Atom bomb. Pretty badass. Link to post Share on other sites
Slimeknight 76 Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 (edited) I am reading Firefox, the Bible, and Dragon Quest Monsters Manga Volume 2. I read the Bible before. I got far in the Legend of Dragon Quest but I quit for the time being because I have not beat DQ8 for a long time and I want to keep the experience fresh. I have also yet to beat Dragon Quest 11. Edited June 28, 2019 by Slimeknight Link to post Share on other sites
eal 2,695 Posted June 25, 2019 Share Posted June 25, 2019 1 hour ago, Slimeknight said: I am reading Firefox, the Bible, and Dragon Quest Monsters Manga Volume 2. I read the Bible before. I got far in the Legend of Dragon Quest but I quit for the time being because I have not beat DQ8 for a long time and I want to keep the experience fresh. I. have also yet to beat Dragon Quest 11. These three things are the most dissimilar things you could possibly pair together lol. Link to post Share on other sites
DrippySlimeStar 302 Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 On 6/17/2019 at 10:36 AM, DrippySlimeStar said: A few things on and off. "The Legend of Dragon Quest" on my lunch breaks, I have volume 3 of the DQ Monsters+ manga to start, and I'm about half way through volume 2 of the Pokémon Adventures manga. Reading more of The Legend of Dragon Quest lately and it's really starting annoy me with the mistakes it's making. At one part when talking about Dragon Quest 3 the author says you ARE Ortega who is a descendant of Roto. Like...wtf. Plus there seems to be sentences out of place every now and then. Just kind of wears on me after it happens a few times. Link to post Share on other sites
YangustheLegendaryBandit 3,697 Posted June 28, 2019 Share Posted June 28, 2019 5 hours ago, DrippySlimeStar said: Reading more of The Legend of Dragon Quest lately and it's really starting annoy me with the mistakes it's making. At one part when talking about Dragon Quest 3 the author says you ARE Ortega who is a descendant of Roto. Like...wtf. Plus there seems to be sentences out of place every now and then. Just kind of wears on me after it happens a few times. Guess it’s a good thing I haven’t boughten the book yet. If the author can’t fact check everything and make sure he’s being accurate with what he’s talking about, that’s an instant turn off. Link to post Share on other sites
DrippySlimeStar 302 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 On 6/28/2019 at 6:14 PM, YangustheLegendaryBandit said: Guess it’s a good thing I haven’t boughten the book yet. If the author can’t fact check everything and make sure he’s being accurate with what he’s talking about, that’s an instant turn off. The beginning parts about Yuji Hori's history is awesome and fascinating. It's when it gets to actually talking about Dragon Quest it falls apart. Link to post Share on other sites
cprmauldin 549 Posted August 20, 2019 Author Share Posted August 20, 2019 Finished Command the Morning a while ago. It was a fun little read, definitely made me do some thinking. Still working on Shadow Rising from the Wheel of Time. Slowly but Surely. At this rate, I'll finish it by early next year (no I am not joking). Link to post Share on other sites
AustNerevar 810 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 The beginning parts about Yuji Hori's history is awesome and fascinating. It's when it gets to actually talking about Dragon Quest it falls apart.Maybe its because that's the part where you can recognize the innacuracies? Who's to say wrong the Horii parts are.Sent from my LG-H871 using Tapatalk Link to post Share on other sites
cprmauldin 549 Posted August 26, 2019 Author Share Posted August 26, 2019 Still plugging through Shadow Rising. Around page 400 of about 1000. I keep the book in my work bag so it is absolutely torn the hell up. But then again, most of my paperbacks end up that way. Link to post Share on other sites
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