Hey Bookworm, What Are You READING?

[stillman]

It's on wikipedia. Professor D had a wanderful relationship with that other wizard who he was friends with while searching for the 3 itemz before thier famous duel.

@Vivi, For the ultimate experience in movies that deviate from the book, I recommend Stephen King's The Running Man and The Lawnmower Man.

Omg, let me describe The Lawnmower Man: a fat guy is hired to mow some guy's lawn. The homeowner looks out and sees fat guy is crawling around on all fours alongside the autopilot lawn tractor, and he is EATING the grass that comes out! What the...? King was totally whacked out on skunk weed.

Spoiler

Oh, and the homeowner gets eaten too.

As for The Running Man...

[Vivi]

Hm, I don't go watch movies I haven't read the book of and I can't be interested to read Stephen King anymore...

[stillman]

The Sword of Shannara

It's pretty much a carbon copy of LotrR. Fun to read, but I feel betrayed after watching the LotR movies and realizing just how much money people owe Tolkien. Here is what wikipwedia had to say about it:

Wikipedia: "Sword and The Lord of the Rings
The Sword of Shannara has drawn extensive criticism from critics who believe that Brooks derived too much of his novel from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In 1978, the influential fantasy editor Lin Carter denounced The Sword of Shannara as "the single most cold-blooded, complete rip-off of another book that I have ever read".[27] Elaborating on his disapproval of the book, Carter wrote that "Terry Brooks wasn't trying to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and complete cast of characters, and [Brooks] did it with such clumsiness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your nose in it."[27] Roger C. Schlobin was kinder in his assessment, though he still thought that The Sword of Shannara was a disappointment because of its similarities to The Lord of the Rings.[28] Brian Attebery accused The Sword of Shannara of being "undigested Tolkien"[29] which was "especially blatant in its point-for-point correspondence"[29] with The Lord of the Rings. In an educational article on writing, the author Orson Scott Card cited The Sword of Shannara as a cautionary example of overly-derivative writing, finding the work "artistically displeasing" for this reason.[30]

Assessing The Sword of Shannara three decades after its publication, the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey agreed with Attebery, as Shippey found that the novel was distinctive for "the dogged way in which it follow[ed] Tolkien point for point".[31] Within Brooks' novel, Shippey located "analogues" for Tolkien characters such as Sauron (Brona), Gandalf (Allanon), the Hobbits (Shea and Flick), Aragorn (Menion), Boromir (Balinor), Gimli (Hendel), Legolas (Durin and Dayel), Gollum (Orl Fane), the Barrow-wight (Mist Wraith) and the Nazgûl (Skull Bearers), among others.[31] He also found plot similarities to events in The Lord of the Rings such as the Fellowship of the Ring's formation and adventures, the journeys to Rivendell (Culhaven) and Lothlórien (Storlock), Gandalf's fall in Moria and subsequent reappearance, and the Rohirrim's arrival at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, among others.[31] Avoiding direct commentary on the book's quality, Shippey attributed the book's success to the post-Tolkienian advent of the fantasy genre: "What The Sword of Shannara seems to show is that many readers had developed the taste ... for heroic fantasy so strongly that if they could not get the real thing they would take any substitute, no matter how diluted."[31]

[BRKO]

Have just finished Fury by Salman Rushdie, a random pick from local library.
SR is my most favourite author though this book is somewhat different from his previous ones I enjoyed a lot.

Set in New York the usual india-ness of Rushdies characters is a bit weak. But again interesting people with peculiar tastes including doll making tell story of a guy whose marriage "expired" and who goes mad for no reason.

[kavlor]

I remembered reading The Chronicles of Thomas Convenant by Stephen Donaldson during my student years, and was quite impressed with the overall story.

There are three books from the First Chronicles, three more books from the Second Chronicles, and presumably four more books from the Third Chronicles. The last two books from the Third Chronicles have not been published yet, but the eight books that were published are definitely worth reading.

Ive read the first 2 trilogies but having a hard time getting to start these new ones so many years later.Ive also read(Also my Stephen Donaldson) the Gap series and The Mirror of her Dreams which were also enjoyable.The Gap series is more cliched but not in a bad way and the ending was good,its a scifi theme and centres around 3 main characters 2 men and one woman the woman being the central character.

By the way look up Thomas and Covenant and you can see how he came up with that name.

[Knarlfist]

I seem to end up re-reading the first Covenant trilogy almost every other month... but I couldn't make it more than 2-3 chapters into the last books that have come out.

Says a lot if you ask me >.>
Donaldson has gotten a little too repetitive with the themes and his world is getting stale. He should have just quit with the first 6 books ;-)

[BobCox2]

All wizards prefer wands....this is more or less specified in Unseem Academics by Terry Pratchett. An elaboration of a previous mention in the series, which was about a song called more or less "A wizard has a wand with a knob on the end"

Neither Pratchett nor Rowling enlightens us as to what sorceresses prefer. Explains them going from here to there in *crowbar swings*

Well Witches sing that song too but seem to like
Headology best.
Hats and Shoes play a part in it.

[BRKO]

Shogun by James Clavell

Well not exactly a thrilling book, not exactly precise history-wise narration but nice and easy reading about feudal Japan around 1600. People ignorant of japanse history may learn a few things.
Story focuse on relationship Japan had with Europeans at that time. The Portuguese already established in the empire as priests and traders, fisrt ever Englishman and a few Dutchmen arriving/shipwrecking on the coast, the battle of Sekigahara about to take place...

[TheOgreMan]

The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss came out one week ago and was a great sequel to The Name of the Wind. Some people seem to be disappointed by the seeming lack of true antagonist or climax but the books do well without them...considering that they are narratives of the main character's life. I can't recommend them enough.

[nicro tower]

Is the Mistborn Trilogy good? I'll start reading it once I finish Blood of Elves.