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Post by randomact on Aug 31, 2013 18:17:09 GMT -8
My Goodreads account is Loathe. I can never be bothered writing a review, but I have been rating/updating the books I've read recently. Feel free to add me as a friend or whatever.
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Post by firebolt153 on Aug 31, 2013 20:21:17 GMT -8
I'm also on Goodreads as Kate Riccardi. I don't do reviews either, just ratings lol. Just let me know who you are when you add me so I'm not all who the heck is this?
I suffered through 50 Shades of Grey, all three of them, for science. I read them on my phone using my friend's Kindle account, and I had to refrain from throwing my phone across the room so many times because of how angry they made me.
I just finished "The Cuckoo's Calling" and I must say that I enjoyed it much better than "The Casual Vacancy." Knowing how Rowling set up her Potter series, I knew she'd write an excellent detective story, and I was pleased to see that I was right. Lovely characters, good set up, and of course, a surprising ending.
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 1, 2013 21:35:20 GMT -8
Sent requests for RA and FB. About 60% through Wicked. Holiday weekends are great.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 2, 2013 22:01:51 GMT -8
I don't see a request from you, Leif. Maybe it didn't go through?
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 3, 2013 5:35:42 GMT -8
Hmm. I tried again and it said I have to answer a question. But there's no question? I dunno.
Y'all are welcome to add me, I believe mycoats would work.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 3, 2013 10:38:32 GMT -8
Weird. I checked my profile settings and it wasn't required, so I dunno, Goodreads being weird again I guess
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 3, 2013 10:50:25 GMT -8
I'm about 90% sure I've read that Vlad: The Last Confession book on your "Want to Reads" FB, I just need to get home and make sure.
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Post by Jolyma on Sept 3, 2013 12:28:45 GMT -8
Al I know about Goodreads is that I started getting stuff in my email like I had an account with them, and yet, I had never heard of them before, let alone created an account.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 3, 2013 20:35:05 GMT -8
That's always fun, Joly :-p. As for the Vlad book, Leif, I forget who recommended it to me, but it's not available in my local library system so I'm going to have to get it through the interlibrary loan system, which I discovered the other day. It was like the clouds parted and the sun came through, and all the books I thought would be on my "to read" list forever were suddenly available to me. Sadly (though I understand why--it costs the library money) there's a three book limit at a time, so it will have to wait a bit. I also decided to be funny and change my hold shelf alias name (our holds shelf is accessible to the public--we just pull the books from the shelf and use the self-checkout machine) from my last name + first two letters of my first name (the default) to "Buffy Summers." I hope someone on the staff laughed .
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 4, 2013 10:47:12 GMT -8
Finished Wicked last night. This was a pretty good book, with more going on that I expected. It's the story of Elphaba, better known as The Wicked Witch of the West. If you're expecting the musical, it's not here. You can see where some of it comes from, but it's really a somewhat different story.
Oz is not the happy carefree place you remember from the movies. The good queen Ozma has been deposed by a foreign Wizard. The countryside is strip mined for rubies. Whole segments of society are relegated to forced labor and slavery. Elphaba is a spiny free-thinker and social activist whose life is told mostly with a focus on several key segments. Her first couple of years, university, then on to post university activities, and after that in a couple of later forays into Vinkus. This was an enjoyable book and provided a different take on a familiar setting. There's some big themes of class struggle and faith, as well as forgiveness, fate and alienation.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 4, 2013 12:58:31 GMT -8
Part of the reason why I hate Wicked, the musical, is because I despised the source material. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I read it (I was probably around 16 or so), but I just remember being bored by the middle section. Elphie's origins are interesting enough, and I did like how it focused on her, and seeing how she became friends with Glinda, but I think the expansion of the universe just wasn't for me at the time. Not sure if I would go back and reread it now.
Just call me Rinni of the Finicky Readers :-p
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Leif
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Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 4, 2013 13:20:55 GMT -8
Understandable. I thought it did sort of drag through the latter Vinkus sections. That was really the only bit I think I'd say that about. I did like the later interactions with Nessarose and the Wizard, as well as the buildup at the end.
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Post by Jolyma on Sept 4, 2013 19:53:01 GMT -8
Really, if you like the Land of Oz, there was a whole set of them written by Baum himself. I went through all the ones our library at home had when I was a kid. Over the years, I've far preferred the original vision he had over anything anyone else has ever come up with.
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Post by Luvessy on Sept 4, 2013 21:04:38 GMT -8
I'm on Luvessy here because I seem to have gotten the other password wrong again. Seriously, passwords are awful. I'd rather be on Misty.
On to books, I'm KacyO on Goodreads, apparently. I'm really enjoying rating books and having my to read list readily accessible.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 5, 2013 3:08:28 GMT -8
I have totally forgotten my password for the DT. Since we're all here for the time being, I'm not too worried about generating a new one lol.
I think what I like about Goodreads best is seeing the book lists of others and getting ideas for things I might not have normally read.
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 5, 2013 6:13:59 GMT -8
So... Shambling Towards Hiroshima is a really short book. Syms Thorley, a B Movie actor, is cast in the role of a lifetime. If he can pull it off, his acting efforts will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people by forcing the Japanese out of WW2 early. What role is this? It's Godzilla. See, the US developed 2 possible methods to end WW2. There's the infamous Manhattan Project which brought about the Atom Bomb. There was also the much less well known Project Knickerbocker, which was a biological option. They produced gigantic specially bred iguanas. Firebreathing iguanas. Basically Godzillas. Thorley is to star in a propaganda piece to convince the Japanese of their destructive power before they are to be unleashed on the world.
Most of this book is deeply amusing to me. It's written very much a "Hollywood" kind of style, with Thorley giving the pedigrees of various members of the cast and crew all the while making reference to his triumphant performances as mummies or Frankenstein-type monsters. Those familiar with James Morrow's work will not be surprised to find a strong anti-war, specifically anti-nuclear weapon, message here.
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Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
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Post by Taelac on Sept 5, 2013 8:19:16 GMT -8
Okay, couldn't find the Goodreads login info I thought I had, so set up a new profile under TEAckerson. Have sent out a few requests, but haven't trolled through the thread to find all of the usernames, yet, so if you see this and don't have one, kick one my way, or I'll eventually get caught up.
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Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
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Post by Taelac on Sept 5, 2013 8:25:07 GMT -8
I did accidentally find out that if a challenge question is required, you get to that by clicking the username.
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Leif
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Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 5, 2013 8:53:03 GMT -8
Tae, I've heard really mixed reviews on Ready Player One, so I'm curious for yours. People seem to either love it or hate it.
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Taelac
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Post by Taelac on Sept 5, 2013 9:14:03 GMT -8
I loved it. It was a fun read overall, and for those of us who were teens or young adults in the 80s, it's basically an overview of the culture that shaped our generation. If you enjoy YA literature, or if you played actual arcade games at an actual arcade as a kid, I'd recommend it.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 5, 2013 13:03:33 GMT -8
Hah. If I didn't know that was Tae before, I'd know by all the gardening books <3
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Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
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Post by Taelac on Sept 6, 2013 6:49:26 GMT -8
*snrk* The irony is that every single gardening book on there is a Want to Read, not something I've already read.
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Furare
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ROMS Encyclopaedia
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Post by Furare on Sept 6, 2013 7:28:03 GMT -8
Has read: Seed Catalogues.
I've had Ready Player One on my to-read list since someone gave me a copy of the audiobook last year. Alas, I just don't get on with audiobooks at all. Even ones read by Wil Wheaton.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 6, 2013 14:15:19 GMT -8
I can't concentrate on audiobooks, plus I always find that they just never measure up to the narrating voice in my head. It would probably be a good option for me if I drove a lot for work or something, but I feel like if I got distracted for five seconds, it's more hassle to rewind back and try to find the right place than to just glance down at a page.
Although I must say, Sam Jackson reading Go the F*ck to Sleep is so unbelievably wonderful.
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Furare
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ROMS Encyclopaedia
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Post by Furare on Sept 7, 2013 8:48:56 GMT -8
Oh yes. That one is an exception, for sure.
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Taelac
Officer
Be bold. It makes your enemies hesitate.
Posts: 357
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Post by Taelac on Sept 9, 2013 6:04:16 GMT -8
That might well have been the pinnacle of Mr. Sam L.'s career. And I've definitely never sent it to Furare when she was still awake at 5am her time...
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Leif
Senior Chatterbox
Posts: 600
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Post by Leif on Sept 9, 2013 7:28:48 GMT -8
So I finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood this weekend. This story is set in a post-apocalyptic world, and focuses on Snowman, possibly the last human alive. He serves as a sort of adviser to a group of genetically modified "humans". The past and present wind together as Snowman scrounges for supplies and remembers how he wound up where he is today.
This was an interesting book. On the whole it held my attention well, but it did at times feel a little dull. The parts of the book focusing on the past paint an almost cyberpunk view of clean, nice corporation enclaves surrounded by a teeming mass of humanity in the filthy "pleeblands" in between. Throughout the book there's a strong undercurrent of societal commentary, from the evident rich/poor divide to nonsustainable lifestyles to Big Pharma. I think it's fair to say that's a big part of the book here. I'm going with 3 stars here, I think.
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Furare
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ROMS Encyclopaedia
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Post by Furare on Sept 9, 2013 8:03:14 GMT -8
That might well have been the pinnacle of Mr. Sam L.'s career. And I've definitely never sent it to Furare when she was still awake at 5am her time... She really didn't. It was only 4:30am. >.>
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 9, 2013 8:11:22 GMT -8
I'm surprised no one's ever sent it to me during my "stay up til 7am" benders.
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Post by firebolt153 on Sept 11, 2013 8:15:09 GMT -8
So I just watched the movie "Warm Bodies" and I am pleased to say that it followed the book almost to a T and was just as good. Hooray!
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