What book(s) have you read recently?

[Rennir]

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

[Queen darkness]

I have a long list:
Bleach
Naruto
Girls got game
Hunter x hunter
Hunger games
Nobody's princess
Nobody's prize
Vampire knight
Rosario + vampire
Blood relatives
Dramacon
Angel cup
Loveless
Fullmetal alchemist
Case closed
Her majesty's dog
Genju no seisa
Fullmetal panic
and much more

[Kittenlady]

And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave.

I think a little bit of my soul died with that.

[Rhythm]

Battle Vixens. xD Gotta say, It's some good reading.

Originally Posted by Dextro

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Read it in less than a day, couldn't stop. Now I want the movie and/or the next novel... STAT! :P

Serious? I must get myself a copy asap.

[JRendell]

Re-reading the Serpentwar Saga books by Raymond E. Feist. Absolutely brilliant.

I'm also starting up my collection of all of his works in hardcopy

[ganbaru]

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert.

[OgodItsKanon]

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It's a great book, plus, Umineko no Naku Koro ni's based off it so bonus points for that(:

[Hooves]

Manga-wise just read all the recent chapters of Vampire Knight that I dint read

[roriconfan]

I finished the second Harry Potter book. I will admit it was more enjoyable that the first because the jokes were far better both in quality and numbers. The story itself was more complicating and grim too. But besides those improvements, the actual pacing suffers from the same bullshit as before. And if am to compare the points from the first book…

1) Harry Potter’s legend spreads even further and now he becomes the symbol of freedom for all oppressed people in the magic world, as spoken by Dobi the house elf. Once again, for no reason at all. Double the lameness.

2) He is still dumped to live with a family that hates him and mistreats him. You’d think “the greatest hero of all times for not doing anything” would at least be rewarded by choosing to move to a better place but noooo! Once again the very wizards who are supposed to adore him, dump him in that hellhole and again contact him only to tell him to go to school. How wise of those wizards.

3) This part is actually no longer a problem. We are officially told those pricks at Slitherin are snobs. Took 500 pages for a simple word but it’s now resolved. But that STILL does not explain how such people are tolerated by the school or the magic world in general. They are clearly aiming to kill all impure creatures (that is most of the world) and treat anyone like shit. Why are the rest letting them go on like this? Do they have a death wish?

4) Again, Harry doesn’t waste 5 seconds before breaking any rule he is told to follow. And once again he is constantly rewarded handsomely for it. Facepalming… I bet if he nukes the school, they will make him an emperor for his dreadful massacre of thousands of people.

5) Well, this time the bad guys don’t target Harry directly but try to slander his image by framing him for things he did not do. At least they learned their lesson. That still doesn’t excuse how ten times in a row a crime would be committed and the very first eye-witness to the scene would always be Harry. Always! Half the times, by complete luck. Way too far-fetched.

6) Security is once again child’s play to brake, as killer monsters petrify students and house elves throw hexes on people and there is a secret chamber nobody could find for a thousand years. The wizards in the school are busy sleeping, drinking tea or not doing their job to actually notice all these and do something about it.

7) And then comes the final confrontation with the evil descendant of Slitherin, who once again has the courtesy to explain all his evil plans to Harry before he finally remembers that all he wants is to do with him… is to simply kill him. Duh!

8) So then Harry needs to face the monster of the book, a huge reptile that can kill you with a simple stare. And this time mommy can’t help either. So here you are expecting a great showdown where he gets to show his talent.
And you get shit!
Because all the hard work was done by a bird the archwizard sent there to aid Harry. I’m not joking, the bird did all the work.
- It blinded the monster
- It gave Harry its tears that work as an antidote
- It gave him a sword
- It leaded him away from there
- It teleported everyone away from the dungeon.
All this time, Harry was busy crying in a corner. Yet in the end, he gets all the credit for defeating the monster. What a load of crap! So what if Harry killed the monster himself? It was blind and scared and practically fell on the blade. It was closer to suicide that defeat.

9) The finale leaves us with the wizards thanking Harry and expecting him to return for the next year, as if all that happened where unimportant. Yeah, having a dozen students almost killed and the school closed permanently was just a rouse. Nothing to see here, go home.

10) And what kind of a stupid game is this Quidditch? The rules are completely lame and the game is unfair as well. Why would the team bother scoring normally when the game only ends by capturing the golden sphere? Why not just have all the guys hunting the sphere and be done with it? And what’s with the flying broomsticks being so unfair? A team is allowed to have the latest model while the other one still has old and average in performance equipment? Where is the fairness in here? It’s not talent that matters but who gets more money to buy better flying broomsticks. Would you agree to compete in a race where you have an old rusty bike while the others have brand new motorcycles? I think not!

11) Plus, the solving of the mystery behind the attacks came out of nowhere. Seriously, Harry had no idea how the monster attacked yet didn’t manage to kill anyone and suddenly in the end he gets an epiphany and gives a complicating explanation that even Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t be able to figure out. Not only that, but we had a character who was being brainwashed and did several things during the story we were not told or hinted about it. Actually we learned all that only after it was all over through the villain’s inability to shut up and just kill Harry. No hints, no foreshadowing, no way to even dream it was happening as such.
Plus, Harry was literally finding clues by total accident that for some reason were invisible to everyone else FOR OVER A THOUSAND YEARS. What a crock!

So once again, the story was lame. If it weren’t for the witty humor, the book would be equally dreadful as the first.

[Haak]

Um, roriconfan, you already made this same post almost three months ago:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...postcount=1603

What the hell are you trying to do here? No one could be arsed arguing with you the first time and no one will be arsed arguing with you this time either. Just go away.

[NorthernFallout]

The Evolutionary Void, Peter F. Hamilton. The last in the Void's Trilogy and god dammit was it an epic end to an epic series.

Now moving onto Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko.

[roriconfan]

Originally Posted by Haak

Um, roriconfan, you already made this same post almost three months ago:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...postcount=1603

What the hell are you trying to do here? No one could be arsed arguing with you the first time and no one will be arsed arguing with you this time either. Just go away.

No problem, I edit it to be about the second book.

[Vexx]

Seriously, save yourself a ton of time and stop now If you didn't enjoy the first or second book it isn't going to get better over the next 10,000 pages or so. Just find some summaries or cliff notes.

I found her writing turgid and felt like she was getting paid by the word to maximally pad every book. It was quite painful even skimming the last few books. My wife is trying to reread the last book now before the movie comes out and is wondering why she ever started the series (she loved the first few books).

Last book I read was my monthly selection of manga (Kimi no Todoke, Dance in the Vampire Bund) and tried out Omamori-himari #1 (and was unimpressed, artwork was competent but I've read several dozen stories like it).
About to start reading Stephen Hawking's latest book: The Grand Design.

[roriconfan]

^ Too late for that. I'm mid-way to the fifth book and plan to read it all just for making a nerdraeg review XD

[Gintoki Aizawa]

Just finished the Diary of Anne Frank a few weeks ago. I don't think I can accurately describe the way that book made me feel. It was such a strange, overwhelming mix of emotions.
I dare anyone who cares to give In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (the entire album) by Neutral Milk Hotel a listen after they read the Diary. Your heart will never feel so heavy.

[MakubeX2]

One of the thing I love about Warhammer Fantasy is the unrelentingly grim background. It's one of those rare genre where bad things happens to good people and virtue does not always triumph.

So hence in the end, even if the bad guys does not win outright, it tends to be a Pyrrhic Victory where the heroes always be scarred for life.

[tensashinigami]

I'm in between books; Jurassic Park: Last World, Star Trek Voyager: Shadow, and Greatest Salesman in the World(<-- class reading )

[JMvS]

Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo.

[roriconfan]

Harry Potter third book. Overall it was a lot darker and less funny than the second one. In theory that would make it better but unfortunately the same problems that plagued the story so far are still here to make it funny even when it’s trying to be serious.

1 & 2) Nothing new here; Harry is still famous for no reason and still lives with his hated foster parents. He starts taking a stand against them but only by BREAKING the rules and using magic outside the school. He gets a shot at leaving them to go to another house but it all went to hell because someone didn’t take his cough medicine. For real!

4) Once again, Harry doesn’t think twice before breaking any rule he is told to follow. And it gets retarded too this time as he is clearly told there is an assassin outside the school that awaits to kill him. Yet he tries his best to sneak out from there because he wants to buy some sweets from a candy shop near by. He doesn’t even care about his life or his friends telling him that they will bring him sweets themselves. Duh! And yes, once again he eludes punishment even when caught and is constantly rewarded handsomely for it.
Here is a thought. Let the teachers use reverse psychology.
You are allowed to go outside. You are not allowed to be obedient. And so on.
Since Harry has a thing for breaking the rules, I bet this way he would become a fine example of a student. But no, it’s so hard to do that; let him keep mocking all their efforts to help him and let them keep forgiving him for crimes others went to prison for it. Why? Because he is Harry freaking Potter, the guy who didn’t do anything to deserve special treatment or have assassins after him.

6) Security is still child’s play to brake. But this time it actually works against the very people it’s supposed to protect. You see, in order to protect the school from the assassin the teachers bring in a hundred life sucking fiends. Those fiends were supposed to be able to find the assassin in no time, while keeping the school impregnable from outside attacks. Only thing, the only people they attacked throughout the book was Harry and a few other innocent students. For real! Plus, they still did squat to prevent Harry or the assassin from getting in and out from the school, like, A DOZEN TIMES! Yeah, great guardians my butt. It’s like the teachers were carrying guns for protection and just shot themselves in the foot with them.

Not only that, but for God’s sake, the same fiends were responsible for keeping the same assassin imprisoned in the highest top secret dungeon of the magic world, from where nobody ever escapes. And guess what, the assassin escaped from that very place, guarded by thousands of these creatures without leaving a trace. So I ask you, would you use the same guards who failed as watchers against the same person that escaped their attention in an environment that offers less security and far more open places to infiltrate from? I think not; you would use somebody else. Preferably, someone who doesn’t like attacking innocent children and sucking their lives dry just for the heck of it.

And not only that. Yes, I hardly said half of how laughable the security in that place is. Imagine that all doors open by mentioning a password. How hard is it for an outsider to learn the password simply by listening a student mentioning it? Or even better; just stealing the paper on which all the passwords are written on? Yes, piece of cake.

Furthermore, those fiends that were supposed to protect the school? They could all be scared away by using a high level spell. Now I ask you, would you use as guards a bunch of creatures any experienced wizard could learn a way to scare away? After all, we are talking about an elite assassin here; how impossible would it be for him to just use the spell?

Going further, there actually are magical alarms in this story. And they are cheap to acquire too. A few students had one of those, which was glowing every time someone was using magic near by to hide something. So I ask you, how hard would it be to just buy a dozen of those damn alarms and place them throughout the school? They sure did a lot more work than a hundred fiends.

Unfortunately, the characters in this story were all retards, so no matter how much the alarm tried to warn them, they kept not paying attention to it. It was like “Watch out! Danger near by! Prepare yourselves!” and all they said was “Hm, what for dinner?” Retards I say!

And there is more! This story introduces a time machine. Yes, you heard me right, that piss poor method of fixing all that went wrong by simply going back in time. You would assume such a powerful artifact would only be used in the gravest of moments (destruction of the world or something) and only by the most powerful wizards (heroes or ministers of magic). But no; it was actually given to a greenhorn student, just so she would use it to attend all classes of various magic lessons. WHAT KIND OF RETARDS WOULD USE TIME TRAVEL JUST TO BE IN 5 CLASSES AT THE SAME TIME??? And not only that, she is specifically told to not use it for anything too dangerous. Well, what a surprise, she actually used it to prevent an execution and help two convicts to escape JUST BECAUSE SHE FELT LIKE IT. Yes, very responsible uses of time travel here. I bet they use it when they forget to close the lid of their oven at home too. Yet for some weird reason they never use it to prevent crimes of the highest order. Or none of the criminals ever thinks of, I don’t know, abuse one of those just so he can get away every time he is cornered. Facepalming and footpalming at the same time.

10) Quidditch keeps making less sense as you keep looking at it. Besides the unfairness about the broomsticks, now you get the weather being not an issue during play. I mean, if there is a tornado raging on, wouldn’t the teachers cancel the match? Why did they allow it and had so many students almost getting themselves killed? Not only that but those hundred fiends literally entered the playfield and started attacking the players and the on lookers. Wouldn’t logically the teachers have canceled the match? Guess what, they didn’t. They even allowed one team to have a valid win, despite the obvious fact that the fiends ATTACKED THE OTHER TEAM AND KNOCKED OUT THEIR PLAYERS. The fairness of this game simply does not exist. A hydrogen bomb could explode in the middle of the field and for all we see the teachers would simply allow the match to continue.

11) There was mystery in this story as well. But this time, the characters were complete retards and could not figure out anything right before it was too late. I mean, if you have a magic alarm crying out bloody murder and you keep not paying attention to it, you are just a retard. Not only that but imagine looking for the identity of (I will use an irrelevant example just to prevent spoiling the plot) a vampire amongst the people living in the school and so happens to have a newcomer who hates garlic and whose name is Dracula. Obvious or what? Where did Harry’s ability to reach conclusions not even Sherlock Holmes could, went to? On vacations I guess. Along with my sanity after reading this crap.

7) And then comes the final confrontation with the assassin, who once again spends 50 pages explaining all his plans to Harry, who by the way was filled with rage and wanted nothing else but to kill the assassin yet sat down to listen to his life’s story, while drinking some tea and eating some cookies. Brrr, bad Naruto flashbacks! Get away from me! I told you it was a rip off, didn’t I?

8) Anyways, there was no major showdown this time. The real guilty person responsible for everything was not some powerful wizard or beast and thus surrendered on his knees as soon as he was uncovered. Lame, no battle with a top assassin and just a pitiful crybaby is all we got! So then all Harry needs to do is take this guy to the teachers and he can have the very nice bonus of moving away to a better home with a person who is both a wizard and does love him a lot. But no, another retard forgot to drink his medicine and the weak guilty guy gets away in the commotion. Yes, that’s right; powerful wizards and monsters get killed when facing Harry but frail little weaklings manage to escape. Very consistent.

9) Same as before, the finale leaves us with the wizards thanking Harry and expecting him to return for the next year, as if all that happened where unimportant. Yeah, having a dozen students almost killed by the internal security and assassins roaming free was just a rouse. Nothing to see here, go home.

[tensashinigami]

Originally Posted by roriconfan

------

Same as the author, it sounds like you are getting paid by the word or just long winded like J.K. Rowling commencement speech at Harvard or somewhere, long and drawn out. lol Don't take it to heart, just messing with you.