Books Read: 2011

[dsheinem]

Last year's Games Beaten thread motivated many of us to play more games, so here's hoping this thread motivates us to read more books this year!

So what have you finished lately? What did you think?

Post the title, author, and maybe a few words of reflection in this thread. Keep a running list and see where you end up by December 31st

[noiseredux]

nerd.

[Opa Opa]

here's hoping this thread motivates us to read more books this year!

This is something I can get behind.

A major title I read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a novel about a post-apocalyptic future. The story revolves around a man and his son trying to survive. The world is in complete and utter ruin like there was a nuclear fallout, however, the true cause of the state of the world is never explained which I liked. The story wasn't about the world or international struggles; it was about the pure dread that the man and boy experienced daily while searching for food.

I'd like to say more but I'm afraid I'd give too much away in case somebody is interested in reading it. Overall, it wasn't terribly depressing like a lot of novels with the same atmosphere but the people I talked to thought the story was the saddest they've ever read...
It wasn't that sad really...

Edit: Don't watch the film... It sucks... Read the book and forget a movie adaptation exists...

[Bootaaay]

I'm in the process of reading After London by Richard Jefferies, which was written in 1885 - it's an account of the state of the world surrounding London two hundred years after an apocalyptic event. The book is divided into two halfs; the first being a detailed description of every aspect of the environment, from which animal species remain and are dominant, to the changes in geography and plant-life and the breakdown of human society. The second half is a narrative about an inhabitant of post-apocalyptic London, but I'm just touching the surface on this half so far, although even without it the first half is a well imagined and interesting concept and doesn't suffer from the dated nature of the prose in the second half.

[dsheinem]

I appreciate the responses already, but this is meant to track books that are done - not in progress

Check the Games Beaten thread from last year or this as a guide for posting...

[Bootaaay]

Meh, well it'll count when I finish it in a day or two

[Flake]

I just finished Harry Turtledoves 'Great War Part 3: Breakthroughs' this morning.

Fantastic book finishing up a trilogy examining World War I if the Federal forces had not been able to keep the Confederacy from leaving the union during the civil war. I will probably just move on to the next trilogy that examines the same characters and world but during the 1920's and 30's.

[indecks]

here's hoping this thread motivates us to read more books this year!

This is something I can get behind.

A major title I read was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a novel about a post-apocalyptic future. The story revolves around a man and his son trying to survive. The world is in complete and utter ruin like there was a nuclear fallout, however, the true cause of the state of the world is never explained which I liked. The story wasn't about the world or international struggles; it was about the pure dread that the man and boy experienced daily while searching for food.

I'd like to say more but I'm afraid I'd give too much away in case somebody is interested in reading it. Overall, it wasn't terribly depressing like a lot of novels with the same atmosphere but the people I talked to thought the story was the saddest they've ever read...
It wasn't that sad really...

Edit: Don't watch the film... It sucks... Read the book and forget a movie adaptation exists...

I haven't read the book but I want to. I liked the movie. Why do you say it sucked?

[Opa Opa]

After reading the book and then watching the movie I was disappointed by the translation.
There was too much pointless back story and I felt the child character portrayed in the film had too much emotion for what is really an emotionless existence.

If you liked the film you'll probably love the book.

edit: This is turning into a book club.

[jmbarnes101]

Do Graphic Novels and comic TPB's count as books?