Hi Friend! Yes, I need to visit your library. Haven't been in Houma in ages!

posted by msugovdoc at 3:32 pm (EST) on Apr 28, 2008

Which Thursday night? What time?
School is not being kind to me lately. I don't know that I will get very far in this book by then. It is rather lengthy. I will do what I can.

posted by adam-paul at 1:49 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2008

Haunting

posted by adam-paul at 2:49 pm (EST) on Feb 4, 2008

It's okay. We of the Cool Club need no excuses. We do what we want.

posted by adam-paul at 4:31 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2008

Really? What happens? I just added one without a hitch.

posted by adam-paul at 12:21 pm (EST) on Jan 29, 2008

Well, you know whom to call if you do. And I am not speaking of these "Ghostbusters."

posted by adam-paul at 12:01 pm (EST) on Jan 4, 2008

Thank you so much for telling me about The Kite Runner! It took three recommendations and an upcoming theater release to finally get me to read it, but I finished it in a couple days because I couldn't put it down. I am getting Ali A Thousand Splendid Suns for Christmas, but now I think I will read it, too.

posted by adam-paul at 2:04 am (EST) on Dec 23, 2007

Pregnancy isn't easy. Take it from me.

posted by adam-paul at 6:04 pm (EST) on Dec 3, 2007

The point I was originally getting at, before I went off on major tangents, was that the good authors don't rely on the plot twist -- that wretched device. I'm sick of twists. In fact, by association, I'm tiring of plots. I just started Invisible Cities, which is just a book where Marco Polo describes cities that don't exist, pretending to have visited them. As far as I can tell, there is no plot whatsoever. And I like it.

posted by adam-paul at 6:35 pm (EST) on Oct 22, 2007

Yea, I don't read science fiction much either. I'm just saying it's my preference of the two. Older science-fiction was often allegorical, so it lent itself to more ingenuity. Reading Dune, I find it hard to keep the Gulf War out of mind. Solaris ... well, there was something to that, but I generally don't listen to Dr. Macdonald. And now I'm getting into this interesting book that my Librarything friend Alex suggested, Hard to be a God that is (I think) about men from Earth covertly infiltrating budding civilizations, trying to rush communism against the Marxist view that it history happens in sequence.

I feel that sci-fi is more open-ended, whereas if you are writing a vampire book, there are characteristics x, y, and z that comprise what a vampire is, what it isn't, and what is expected of it. It's limiting.

I'm biased though, as I don't read much of either genre. If I didn't read so slowly, I'd open my horizons to more genre fiction, but it takes so long for me to get through an average-length book that I want each and every story to blow my mind. I sometimes have unrealistic expectations, so don't take it as me knocking genre.

posted by adam-paul at 5:15 pm (EST) on Oct 22, 2007

I just don't see the appeal. These generic fantasy characters (vampires, werewolves, witches, elves, ogres, etc.) are overplayed. I can only hear the same recycled stories so many times. Just not my thing, I guess. When it comes to fantasy, I rather science-fiction because it's (usually) more unique and surprising.

posted by adam-paul at 11:42 am (EST) on Oct 22, 2007

Well, how's Dune?

posted by adam-paul at 3:42 pm (EST) on Sep 29, 2007

Adam is right: Brian can't write.

posted by alexnisnevich at 8:44 pm (EST) on Sep 21, 2007

Honestly, he is. Almost any Dune fan will tell you so. Then again, a lot of fans don't even like Frank's sequels. I think the first few are good (some great, some just decent).

I've just never known you to read epic sci-fi. Bradbury is completely different. But you should try it!

posted by adam-paul at 4:47 pm (EST) on Sep 11, 2007

You should NOT read ANYTHING with the name Brian Herbert on it. He is the devil. He absolutely cannot write.

If you read Dune at all, read the original by Frank. I'm not sure it seems much like something you'd be into, but if you liked the original Star Wars, that was essentially a simplistic copy of Dune made to be more of a Good Vs. Evil thing, whereas there are multiple factions at work on Dune. Dune's more morally ambiguous.

The book is filled with politics, conspiracy, economics, philosophy, etc...
Please do not watch any film version of it, if you haven't yet. They're horrible.

posted by adam-paul at 4:28 pm (EST) on Sep 11, 2007

How is The Box Man not tagged as "Life-Changing"?

Tell me you still look at boxes the same way. Go ahead, tell me.

posted by adam-paul at 12:16 pm (EST) on Aug 16, 2007

"sitation"?

I was referring to the books you borrowed from me: Kanagaroo Notebook, etc.
Unless you bought them later on??

posted by adam-paul at 10:16 am (EST) on Jul 27, 2007

You cheated. You don't actually own some of these.

posted by adam-paul at 10:07 am (EST) on Jul 27, 2007

Right, that was the issue in the big Camus versus Sartre fight.

posted by adam-paul at 10:00 am (EST) on Jul 27, 2007

I very much disagree with your comment about Camus and Everyman. Everyman gives off the distinct impression of someone who wishes he were Camus, but clearly is not.

Also, HTML sucks.

posted by adam-paul at 7:36 pm (EST) on Jul 26, 2007

I have more books than you.

Plans for tomorrow: Read Kite Runner. I started Everyman, but it's kind of boring and doesn't seem to have good stopping points, which is for some reason a big issue to me.

posted by adam-paul at 8:26 pm (EST) on Jul 20, 2007

Your messages on my page (and my message on yours) are for some reason disappeared.

Anyway, I borrowed Everyman and The Kite Runner from the library. My cousins from Dallas came in for the weekend. My cousin Melissa who was an English major and is now a technical writer for some software company also recommended Kite Runner to me, so I guess I must read it.

More news as it breaks.

posted by adam-paul at 10:49 pm (EST) on Jul 2, 2007