Philotic Web

Maybe because it's like reading my own type of nonsensical, tangential, word-association style rambling but I think Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) is one of the most hilarious books I've ever read.

About halfway through the Comic-Con book; it's not bad, it even got more interesting after the Intro, but I wanted something lighter for a bit, so I'll be getting back to this soon.

And I read The Girl Who Owned a City, both chapter book and graphic novel, which had an interesting premise considering when it was written, and it even takes place in western Chicago suburbs (I swear I didn't realize this until the main character mentions a few things that I recognized), but the writing was lousy. The progression of the story was lousy. The ending, while not really a resolved ending, was unbelievable. The only thing I liked from either was that the art in the graphic novel was pretty amazing, though it also aged the kids to look like mini-adults/teenagers even though no one is older than 12.

The only book that I think of that is based in Chicago (that I've read) is The Jungle. I really liked it AND it's a classic. Have you read it?

In theory. For my 11th grade English H class. I even wrote a paper on it.

Total number of pages read in actuality? One if you count the title page.

Aww, well reconsider...it's good (but sad).

I think I still have my copy of it in AZ, so I'll check when I go back next month. I can't promise I'll read it or if I do, it'll be anytime soon, but I'll think about it.

And hey, you read Divergent, didn't you? That doesn't mean you think of it when you think of books based in Chicago but it takes place here and that's probably the first book that comes readily to mind when I think of books that do.

In theory. For my 11th grade English H class. I even wrote a paper on it.

Total number of pages read in actuality? One if you count the title page.

Same story for me. But we discussed what "we read" every day in class so I feel like a read the whole thing

I read The Girl Who Owned a City,

I remember really enjoying this book... but I read it in early middle school when

but the writing was lousy. The progression of the story was lousy. The ending, while not really a resolved ending, was unbelievable.

Didn't really matter or bother me much, heck I probably listened to it on tape because I couldn't read fine print. Bad writing is harder to spot when listening to cool voices I was actually thinking of reading it again at some point..

Teresa, I think my hangup was that it seemed to talk down to the reader. I've read really strong books aimed at the same age group but this style of book does have its audience, so I don't think it should not exist. It's just the type of book that irritates me.


I'm finishing up a fluff book but then I'll be moving on to Scorpio Races by Stiefvater. I've heard so many amazing things about this, so I'm excited. I've also not let myself get any more books - a challenge, let me tell you- because I was starting to stress myself out with trying to get through all these books that were perpetually piled up waiting for me.

Since i took my plane to Beijing, i finally got down to read A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm starting now with A Clash of Kings. Really cool reading!

Have I talked about Scorpio Races by Stiefvater yet? I'm halfway through, so I can't speak to the ending but if it holds up, this will be One of Those Books for me...like the Chaos Walking trilogy; not a life changer like EG was years ago but a solid, utterly fascinating, better-than-the-average sort of book that I wish everyone would read.

There have been some comparisons to Hunger Games, which I can sort of see, but this one feels like a stronger story so far.



I also finished up 1-4 of the Amulet graphic novels by Kibuishi yesterday, with hopes of snagging one of the two copies of 5 that came in at work last week that are awaiting processing. Not as fun as the Daisy Kutter gn but also telling a very different story.

After some years of good intentions, I've started reading The Wind-Up Bird Chromicle. So far I'm really enjoying it.

I finally started Catching Fire and am also reading The Storytelling Animal, and I'm rereading The Darkness that Comes Before.

Alea, I have Scorpio Races on the way from the library. Looking forward to it!

Yay! I can't wait to hear what you think. I can see this book being very much Love It or Hate It for people. In fact, when I finished, I hated the ending at first but thought on it for a while and decided it was a great way to end it.

So, for some reason people have been asking for recommendations from me outside of work lately, which hardly ever happens, so I'll just post a list of some of the best stuff I've read this past 8 months.

Top 5 SF/F - Most Appropriate for adults as well as teens
Scorpio Races - Stiefvater
The Age of Miracles - Walker -> Realistic dystopian (yes, I'd say many aren't quite real enough despite attempts)
The Only Ones - Starmer
Ashfall - Mullin (Part one in at least two part series)
Tempest - Cross -> Liked Jumper by Gould or the movie Butterfly Effect? Should love this

Best Comeback in a Series - Delirium, the first, was not as interesting as its sequel
Pandemonium - Oliver

Funniest Non-Fiction/Memoir I've Read In a Long Time, If Not Ever - Warning: Lots of Foul Language + Slightly Crazy Author
Let's Pretend This Never Happened - Lawson

Best Graphic Novels - Second one has some nudity and has anthropomorphic cats
Daisy Kutter - Kibuishi -> Gave off a Firefly/Serenity impression to me
Blacksad - Diaz Canales

Best Austen-esque Book/Series (This Past Year or So) That's Not Flat-out Austen
Shades of Milk and Honey & Glamour in Glass - Kowal

Added lots to my "to read" library list. Thanks!

Ready Player One. Oh my word.

The television, movie, music, video game, etc. references were abso-freaking-lutely amazing and while most references pertained to the 80s, not all of them did - Firefly, for instance. The entire book was like experiencing a video game -kind of intense at times, full of adventure and risk- only I actually enjoyed this.

And made by the creator (or one of the creators) of Fanboys, apparently.

Just finished Xenocide, which reminded me I hadn't been around pweb in a long time. Also, I think, now that I'm older and was able to focus on the book more and therefore understand the concepts more, Xenocide has become my favorite book in the whole Ender saga.

I'm hoping to read Earth Unaware in the coming weeks during my lunch breaks.

I've been reading all the Wizard of Oz books. I'm on 12 of 14. Overall, the general plot is crazy stuff goes down and life lessons are learned.

Just finished Xenocide, which reminded me I hadn't been around pweb in a long time. Also, I think, now that I'm older and was able to focus on the book more and therefore understand the concepts more, Xenocide has become my favorite book in the whole Ender saga.

human. posting is a lot less interesting than another person admitting a love for Xenocide. One of us! One of us!

Gooble gobble.

Yes! My favorite (of the Speaker trilogy)!

Just finished Xenocide, which reminded me I hadn't been around pweb in a long time. Also, I think, now that I'm older and was able to focus on the book more and therefore understand the concepts more, Xenocide has become my favorite book in the whole Ender saga.

human. posting is a lot less interesting than another person admitting a love for Xenocide. One of us! One of us!

According to xkcd there are seven of you (us? I need to reread them all and assess again).

Xenocide has always been my favourite aside from EG itself. I remember enjoying it so thoroughly the first time I read it that as soon as I finished I immediately went out to purchase a copy of CotM because I couldn't wait to continue the story.

I've been reading all the Wizard of Oz books. I'm on 12 of 14. Overall, the general plot is crazy stuff goes down and life lessons are learned.

I really love the Oz books. I only read the first seven, I believe. My favourite of them was The Marvelous Land of Oz.

On which note, one of my favourite comics Skin Horse has some Ozian themes.

Finished Catching Fire, aside from the disappointment of basically jumping into a very similar formula (and oh my Katniss is stupid if she didn't know how Gale felt, lol) as the first book, the second games were a fascinating revisit of similar material, interesting to see her in a group setting. Also, I'm continually reminded during these books how much I dislike First Person books, it's a shame, and one of the things that makes the movie a lot better, to me.

In any event, both were terrific and pleasurable reads on my kindle.

Then I went and got Mockingjay.

And it's got some sort of awful formatting that makes it much harder to read because it overrides all my text settings. I feel like I'm doing nothing but tapping the screen continually and that I'm reading something like a second grader's book with double spaced lines, gigantic text and 4-8 words per line. Ugh.

Then I went and got Mockingjay.

And it's got some sort of awful formatting that makes it much harder to read because it overrides all my text settings. I feel like I'm doing nothing but tapping the screen continually and that I'm reading something like a second grader's book with double spaced lines, gigantic text and 4-8 words per line. Ugh.

This happened to me with Catching Fire on my Nook. It was either super tiny text that's impossible to read, or giant, second grader text!

So I finished A Song of Ice and Fire and it was all good and there's really nothing I can say that others haven't. Feast for Crows was the most difficult to get to, gasp when character I like are seemingly killed off, etc.

Then I read John Dies at the End, just over this past week. It was fun and interesting in its way. I described it to my friend as "if Supernatural was rewritten to have two idiots [read: us] as the leads," and I guess that's good enough: two guys, one a complete slacker with a troubled past who is also our narrator and his crazy goofball best friend fight random supernatural forces that they encounter. This morning I remembered that it's all an adaptation/rewriting of a webnovel/blog type thing, which made the weird pacing all make way more sense. The climax and conclusions aren't very satisfying, but it really makes sense with the overall "themes" (if you can call them that) the novel has. Very fun, hilarious at points, actually kind of scary in a Lovecraftian/Stephen King way, but it softens the blows with lots of poop and bad sex jokes.

So, for some reason people have been asking for recommendations from me outside of work lately, which hardly ever happens, so I'll just post a list of some of the best stuff I've read this past 8 months.

Top 5 SF/F - Most Appropriate for adults as well as teens
Tempest - Cross -> Liked Jumper by Gould or the movie Butterfly Effect? Should love this

I'm part way through this and just realized it is the first in a trilogy that is yet to be completed. You didn't warn me!

Hmm, either I knew that when I was reading it and didn't remember or I didn't ever know that. Either way, sorry! I know some people don't like to start these things until all/most are out.

Just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a bit more diary-like than I was expecting, but I don't know if that's good or bad.

Just finished A Clash of Kings. Onwards to A Storm of Swords!

Spoilers!

I've spent the whole book feeling sorry for Sansa. It looks like everything goes out of their way to punish her for her stupidity in the first book. At least Tyrion is sympathetic to her... and well Dontos... i dunno, i don't really trust him.
And i trusted Theon... i hope he dies painfully and soon

Arya is a bit to OP (overpowered) but she's really cool. I hope that her gone-mildly-bitter deal with Jaqen doesn't come back to bite her in the ass, and that he still regards her friendly.
Anyway... is Stannis dead? is Jaime dead? why isn't Jeoffry dead, for goodness sake!

And Jon again eating the s***** of having to turn coats...
Talking about turncoats, did i mention i hate Theon Greatjoy?

Winter is coming!

I very much enjoyed the Song of Ice and Fire books (in spite of the scenes that made me want to throw the book across the room and/or punch George R.R. Martin in the face).

I'm currently reading Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi, after finishing the first book in the series, Old Man's Mar. The stories themselves aren't amazing, but he's created a really interesting universe and explores a lot of cool ideas. I did also discover an added benefit of having a nook as opposed to dead-tree books, as much as I do love them.

Pre-nook:
1. Friend recommends a new book
2. If I have pen and paper, I might write it down
3. Go to the book store 2 weeks later, already completely forgotten about it
Chances of actually reading the book: 5-10 %

With nook:
1. Friend recommends a new book
2. 5 minutes later, I've read the free excerpt and downloaded the full book.
3.

I very much enjoyed the Song of Ice and Fire books (in spite of the scenes that made me want to throw the book across the room and/or punch George R.R. Martin in the face).

Any examples from the first two books you'd like to share?

I don't know why I keep reading the Todd McCaffrey/Anne McCaffrey Pern collaborations. They just aren't the same.