Lardlad
El Dandy
Live reaction to @WWE #WWENetwork
Posts: 8,248
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Post by Lardlad on Dec 24, 2023 13:51:57 GMT -5
Holly by Stephen King This is going to be my last SK purchase which is quite sad since I own them all I actually had to make myself finish this book. Never ending mentions of covid, vaccinations and his hatred for Donald Trump had me rolling my eyes and wishing he'd stop. He used this book and character to put out his hatred towards Trump and his supporters and anyone that dare question getting a covid vaccine. I'm not a huge political person and would not have purchased this book if I would have known that I'd be subjected to King's personal bias. It was not needed in the book and contributed nothing to the story. The "good / smart people" are "double vaxxed" and he even had to state what brand of vaccine they got - ugh. The "stupid bad people" didn't get the vaccine. Beware of reading this book if you don't like politics constantly being needlessly mentioned in a story. I wish I would have known before spending money on this book; hopefully I save someone else the pain.
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Post by bibboid on Dec 29, 2023 17:02:07 GMT -5
The Corridors of Time by Paul Anderson
A woman gets a man out of prison to recruit him in a war that stretches across all of Earth’s history (but is mostly in Denmark). The science was vague and randomly thrown in. The hero just kind of bumbled his way through 90% of the story until he finally wised up and did the right thing. There were a few twists and swerves but I guessed just about all of them long before they were revealed. Not a bad book but not a great book.
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Dr. T is an alien
Patti Mayonnaise
Knows when to hold them, knows when to fold them
I've been found out!
Posts: 31,361
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Post by Dr. T is an alien on Dec 29, 2023 18:50:01 GMT -5
Holly by Stephen King This is going to be my last SK purchase which is quite sad since I own them all I actually had to make myself finish this book. Never ending mentions of covid, vaccinations and his hatred for Donald Trump had me rolling my eyes and wishing he'd stop. He used this book and character to put out his hatred towards Trump and his supporters and anyone that dare question getting a covid vaccine. I'm not a huge political person and would not have purchased this book if I would have known that I'd be subjected to King's personal bias. It was not needed in the book and contributed nothing to the story. The "good / smart people" are "double vaxxed" and he even had to state what brand of vaccine they got - ugh. The "stupid bad people" didn't get the vaccine. Beware of reading this book if you don't like politics constantly being needlessly mentioned in a story. I wish I would have known before spending money on this book; hopefully I save someone else the pain. There’s a time and place for that, and that’s coming from someone who enjoys King’s shit-posts on social media. Letting it bleed into work, however, is too much. It’s one thing if he writes political commentary books, but for novelists it’s completely different. If anything, it’s best to have your main character be as average as possible. Let your readers be capable of imprinting their own personalities onto the main character. When you are too far up your own ass too do that, that’s a real problem.
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Post by sarkerpolseng on Dec 29, 2023 19:09:37 GMT -5
Holly by Stephen King This is going to be my last SK purchase which is quite sad since I own them all I actually had to make myself finish this book. Never ending mentions of covid, vaccinations and his hatred for Donald Trump had me rolling my eyes and wishing he'd stop. He used this book and character to put out his hatred towards Trump and his supporters and anyone that dare question getting a covid vaccine. I'm not a huge political person and would not have purchased this book if I would have known that I'd be subjected to King's personal bias. It was not needed in the book and contributed nothing to the story. The "good / smart people" are "double vaxxed" and he even had to state what brand of vaccine they got - ugh. The "stupid bad people" didn't get the vaccine. Beware of reading this book if you don't like politics constantly being needlessly mentioned in a story. I wish I would have known before spending money on this book; hopefully I save someone else the pain. There’s a time and place for that, and that’s coming from someone who enjoys King’s shit-posts on social media. Letting it bleed into work, however, is too much. It’s one thing if he writes political commentary books, but for novelists it’s completely different. If anything, it’s best to have your main character be as average as possible. Let your readers be capable of imprinting their own personalities onto the main character. When you are too far up your own ass too do that, that’s a real problem. I just finished The Shining.
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Post by doomish on Dec 30, 2023 2:58:54 GMT -5
Today I finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann and Dirtbag by Amber A'Lee Frost. I didn't care for Killers of the Flower Moon, it just never grabbed my attention. I've been wanting to see the move, so I made myself push through and finally finish it. On the flip side, I loved Dirtbag.
Now I'm going to dive into some real literature and read Tod is God.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,455
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 30, 2023 10:20:48 GMT -5
Finished the Tracy Smothers book Thursday.
Really good. Few small mistakes,mostly spelling or names being wrong.
Didn't expect the show where we all met Tracy to be mentioned. Smothers talked about it,how he ran out during the main event in a dress and attacked Bill Dundee. Then Tracy get's the promoter's first name wrong,He said Jerry and it is Jimmy Blaylock(yes the guy that appears on the Weekly Memphis TV still sometimes).
Slow book reading year for me. Actual books,not comic TPB or HArdcovers,was 25.
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Post by 6pathsoftommy on Dec 30, 2023 11:49:45 GMT -5
Finished the Tracy Smothers book Thursday. Really good. Few small mistakes,mostly spelling or names being wrong. Didn't expect the show where we all met Tracy to be mentioned. Smothers talked about it,how he ran out during the main event in a dress and attacked Bill Dundee. Then Tracy get's the promoter's first name wrong,He said Jerry and it is Jimmy Blaylock(yes the guy that appears on the Weekly Memphis TV still sometimes). Slow book reading year for me. Actual books,not comic TPB or HArdcovers,was 25. I'm going to miss my reading goal of 40 books this year. I was doing great but slowed down during the fall.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,509
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Dec 30, 2023 13:49:06 GMT -5
Stunts by Charles L. Grant. It was...not good.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,455
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 30, 2023 20:11:29 GMT -5
Finished the Tracy Smothers book Thursday. Really good. Few small mistakes,mostly spelling or names being wrong. Didn't expect the show where we all met Tracy to be mentioned. Smothers talked about it,how he ran out during the main event in a dress and attacked Bill Dundee. Then Tracy get's the promoter's first name wrong,He said Jerry and it is Jimmy Blaylock(yes the guy that appears on the Weekly Memphis TV still sometimes). Slow book reading year for me. Actual books,not comic TPB or HArdcovers,was 25. I'm going to miss my reading goal of 40 books this year. I was doing great but slowed down during the fall. For years I averaged 100 books read in a year. Slowed down a few years ago. This year if you count Comic TPBs I am over 50.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,258
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Post by agent817 on Jan 23, 2024 18:25:02 GMT -5
I read a comic book recently, and I just finished with a novel.
"Blue is the Warmest Color" by Jul Maroh. If you are familiar with the film of the same name, this is the basis for that film. I just found out that not only did Jul Maroh write it but they also illustrated it. Of course, it was translated into English. Anyway, the story itself was well written and the artwork was fine. I will say that in comparison to the movie, it was rather sad, especially with how it ended. Also, I had to go back a bit to see how the story was framed because a lot of it was told in flashbacks and the narration was done as if they were journal entries. It was interesting, but if lesbian romance is your thing (or if you're open to it), I would recommend it. If not, then don't read it.
"Hostage" by Robert Crais. In the past, I had watched the 2005 Bruce Willis film of the same name and I also learned that it was based on a book. This book, in particular. Not too long ago, I was in the mood to watch the film, and I did, but I also wanted to read the book. So I did that. Now that I have read it, the story plays out the same, but there are also perspectives from various characters. Also, many sequences were more intense than in the film, and one of the villains is even more evil than his film counterpart (in the film, he is still bad, but there was more to his character in this one). I enjoyed reading it. I started it last week but finished it today.
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Post by bibboid on Jan 26, 2024 18:21:22 GMT -5
Mission Earth: Black Genesis by L. Ron Hubbard
The second book in Hubbard’s Mission Earth series (of ten books total). Our protagonist (Heller) makes it to Earth and starts assembling friends and allies who can help him complete his mission. Meanwhile, our antagonist (Gris) observes Heller and plans how to stop/kill him.
These books are terrible. Every character is some sort of wildly racist stereotype, (corrupt cops, evil lawyers, strung out drug addicts, murderous mafiosos, money hungry Jews, angry lesbians) and the names he gives them are like something a fifth grader would think of. The story just meanders along, taking its sweet time getting to whatever is going on. I started at book two so I missed like the first 500 pages of this story and I still have a good idea what is going on. And if I still have eight books to go, that means I have another 4000-5000 pages of this crap waiting for me.
And yet….the damn thing is totally readable. The story is constantly moving along, even if it isn’t getting anywhere. It tiptoes right along the line between mind-numbingly stupid and very entertaining.
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Sam Punk
Hank Scorpio
Own Nothing, Be Happy
Posts: 6,307
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Post by Sam Punk on Jan 28, 2024 4:10:09 GMT -5
Atomic habits! Also the bible.
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Post by bibboid on Feb 3, 2024 15:32:06 GMT -5
The Deathworms of Kratos by Richard Avery
A team of disgraced military officers and criminals (aka Expendables) are sent to see it the planet Kratos is fit to be colonized. Wanna take a guess what they find?
The story moves well and the science is pretty simple and believable. I found it totally unnecessary that most of the team members started hooking up by the story’s end. This was supposed to be the start of a series but I’m not sure how far it got. If I can find more I will give them a read.
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Post by YAKMAN is ICHIBAN on Feb 3, 2024 18:43:37 GMT -5
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
A ship’s AI embarks out, illegally, in a synth human body, trying to find her place in the world. There is a parallel narrative of one of her companions experience as an escaped genetically modified child laborer slave.
Tremendously great sci fi, wonderful world building. Book 2 of the Wayfarers series.
Can’t recommend enough.
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Post by nevthebassist on Feb 4, 2024 6:01:12 GMT -5
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker.
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Post by bibboid on Feb 18, 2024 15:53:11 GMT -5
The Enemy Within - the third book in L Ron Hubbard’s Mission Earth series.
Our hero’s story drops to the background as we follow the adventures of our Villain, Soltan Gris. These include buying a girlfriend and trying to make her fall in love with him, opening a hospital, and flying to America to personally advance his plan of destroying Heller. New characters include money grubbing doctors, sleazy lawyers, manipulative women, Howard Hughes style multi-billionaires, and frantically hyperactive advertising executives. The humor is still childish and stupid…
…and yet I will continue the series.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,258
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Post by agent817 on Feb 18, 2024 22:19:59 GMT -5
I will list the ones I finished.
"Real" by Katy Evans. I was mostly interested in reading a story about underground fighting but I saw that this was a romance story. I didn't mind the story, in fact, I enjoyed it. But a lot of the story was focused on the main character's feelings for the main guy. I did like the subplot involving her sister, though. I enjoyed reading it, but I am not sure if there was any accuracy to how the author portrayed bipolar disorder.
"Beastly" by Alex Flinn. After watching the movie of the same name before the year ended, I told myself to check out the book version. The version I read, however, included some extra content like "Lindy's Diary," which was a spin-off of this book, and there was a really short story involving another character. It was called "Sloane: Up Close and Personal." There were some rather off-putting moments (if rather creepy) in the main story of "Beastly" and in "Lindy's Diary." It wasn't as weird in the movie, which I kind of enjoyed. However, I still liked how the romance was written between Kyle/Adrian (or Hunter, in the movie version) and Lindy was written. They had believable chemistry.
I might check out the other stories in this series, as they are different takes on other fairy tales.
"Mad Max: Fury Road" prelude comic. It was a trade paperback of stories that take place before "Fury Road." I liked the artwork, and the stories were well written, especially with the framing being one character telling about said characters.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,509
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Feb 19, 2024 8:38:18 GMT -5
The Haj by Leon Uris. Certain aspects of the book was not particularly objective but all in all a very fascinating and informative novel.
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Post by bibboid on Mar 2, 2024 15:25:31 GMT -5
Rogue Ship by A. E. Van Vogt
What started as a set of short stories got sewn together into one rather disjointed book. Each of the stories is fine on its own but the science is contradictory between them. And this is the second of his books I have read where he treats women as little more than property.
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agent817
Fry's dog Seymour
Doesn't Know Whose Ring It Is
Posts: 21,258
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Post by agent817 on Mar 7, 2024 20:02:14 GMT -5
"Clockers" by Richard Price.
Oh, man. Where do I begin? The first thing I will say is that I liked the Spike Lee film adaptation of this book with its grit, and also some techniques that Spike Lee used in his direction worked in the film. I had wanted to read the book when I found out the film was an adaptation. However, I wasn't sure considering it went up to 600 pages. I know there are longer books than that, but reading through this book made me have to slow down a bit, even though I had an idea what was happening in some scenes. I also saw that there were more characters in the book, and there was also more focus on the detective character.
It took me a few weeks to finally finish it. I started it in January, but then got to reading a couple of other books and then got back to reading this book in February. While it was long, I was not bored. There were times when it dragged, but at the same time, there were scenes that touched more on the two central characters' lives, so I wasn't bothered by that. Even though there was some description to some of the characters that differed from their movie counterparts, I still imagined Mekhi Phifer, Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington, Keith David, and some of the other actors who played the roles of prominent characters in the film in this book. Hell, I couldn't help but hear their voices when reading dialogue.
Overall, I may have complained about the length and stuff, I did think it told a good story. I might have to see about reading another long book soon. Until then, I will read some others I got from the library.
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