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| Topics | | messages | Last message | | | 75 Books Challenge for 2008 : Hello, and Books dcozy has read, is reading, and will read in 2008 | | 51 | dcozy, Yesterday 10:24pm |  |
| 50 Book Challenge : SaraHope's 2008 Book Challenge | | 36 | SaraHope, Sunday 7:58pm | |
| Science Fiction Fans : 5 most reread sci-fi books/authors | | 64 | anneh, Friday 10:53am | |
| 50 Book Challenge : Susan's 100 books | | 86 | laytonwoman3rd, Thursday 8:38am | |
| What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 5 July 2008 | | 264 | Whicker, July 15 | |
| Author Chat : Ori Brafman, author of Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (June 30-July 11) | | 5 | PurpleCar, July 10 | |
| Dewey Decimal Challenge : Lahochstetler's Dewey Decimal challenge | | 13 | lahochstetler, June 10 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : The Mundane Movement in Science Fiction | | 63 | VisibleGhost, May 7 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Your Clunkers of 2007 | | 123 | Vonini, February 8 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : sussabmax's 83 books | | 85 | Beary_Bookwormish, January 20 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : What You're Reading In The Genre Q4 07 | | 85 | Shrike58, January 14 | |
| Dormant: 888 Challenge : Elise's 888 | | 4 | CEP, December 2007 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : Hi I'm Mike, I'll go for fifty! | | 44 | Bookful, November 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : Spook Country | | 11 | kd9, November 2007 | |
| Dormant: 50 Book Challenge : grizzly.anderson's challenge | | 9 | grizzly.anderson, October 2007 | |
| Dormant: Science Fiction Fans : What You're Reading In The Genre Q3 07 | | 76 | CliffBurns, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: What did YOU buy today? : What did you buy Today? August 2007 Edition | | 86 | thioviolight, September 2007 | |
| Dormant: PinoyThing! : Powerbook's Anniversary Sale | | 11 | shewhowearsred, August 2007 | |
| Dormant: Spies & Spy Fiction : William Gibson | | 1 | eldritch00, August 2007 | |
| Science Fiction Fans : What are you reading? Q2 2008 | | 219 | lssian, June 30 |
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| What Are You Reading Now? : What You're Reading the Week of 5 April 2008 | | 195 | lindsacl, April 23 |
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| The Green Dragon : Tell us what you are reading now, part III | | 394 | WillSteed, February 14 |
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| Dormant: The Green Dragon : Have You Bought Any Books Lately Part 3 | | 362 | maggie1944, January 11 |
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| Dormant: What Are You Reading Now? : What books came into your home today? - August 2007 | | 176 | Cariola, September 2007 |
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... facts you'll be able to repeat for the amusement of friends & family for at least the next couple weeks. I also read Spook, her follow-up about science and the afterlife, and I didn't find it nearly as engaging or funny. Her newest, Bonk, is on my TBR, and I can't wait.
**hmm, ... ... I might even add that some other science books have become fairly popular, such as Mary Roach's Bonk, Stiff, and Spook. Do you see this as unusual (as do I) and if so, why do you think this is happening now? Any particular zeitgeist? Spook Country - William Gibson. I really did not enjoy the book - it was not exciting enough as a spy thriller, nor were there enough ideas for me to enjoy it as a SF novel. And to spend half the book doing next to nothing is a travesty. 2.5/5. 100:
129- Spook by Mary Roach
133- The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol Karlsen
155- The Wild Boy of Aveyron by Harlan Lane
170- Ethics by Aristotle
193- The Gay Science by Friedrich Nietzche
I'll second that--Pattern Recognition is great. But, I didn't even get through Spook Country once; I just didn't care about those people. I loved PR, though. It started me on a bit of a Gibson reading binge.
I am reading Shadow's End right now, which I could have sworn I owned and have ... ... good central idea - how superhumans (Slans) would be treated by normal humans. Fast-paced pulp SF reading. 3.5/5.
On to Spook Country next - I want to see what "popularist" SF is like. >20 I may try Spook Country again one of these days. I don't know, though. I went right to Count Zero after attempting SC, and loved it, so it's not like I just wasn't in a Gibson mood. I do have to be in the mood for him, generally (I can only take swaggering, hyper-cool superiority at ... ... been thinking about re-reading Snow Crash and Diamond Age recently...
6. William Gibson, although I didn't like Spook Country at all
Wait, that's more than 5! I was just getting started, too. ... stuff. I loved Rainbows End, for instance. Also, Pattern Recognition, although I couldn't bring myself to care about Spook Country. I read the short story form of Air by Ryman in a Tiptree Award anthology, and I liked that. I am not sure who else to turn to, now. I have been ... ... that out. But, take William Gibson--Pattern Recognition was fantastic, but I just couldn't force myself to read Spook Country. So, I am not feeling so optimistic about near future stuff, either. I can't believe no one is doing interesting things in SF, though. Where is the stuff ... ... auspices of the Philosophy and Theory group I decided to take a break this weekend with a thriller, William Gibson's Spook Country. Here's what I wrote about it:
I'm aware of no one writing now who produces thrillers as satisfying as William Gibson's. His taut narrative lines are ... ... pgs) and now im starting the second part of Gravity's Rainbow. when i have to take a break from GR i may read gibson's Spook Country ... Cadavers by Mary Roach
This book was absolutely fascinating! I'm definitely going to look out for Roach's other books, Spook and Bonk, which I feel should be called Boink, but whatever.
22/120 Books
3/20 Non-fiction Books
Stiff page count: 292
Total page count: 7678 ... also feeling a sense of dislocation, of not belonging. A reviewer talks about Gibson creating a vivid hyper-real world in Spook Country - however it is one that eluded me. It seemed less vivid, there was less life, less spirit in it than I expected. As far as hyper-real it seemed to me to be ... ... of a community who feel jilted and must lash out in any manner possible?
Read your own thread that you started on Spook Country. Are you now saying that yours was a gushing endorsement for the book. The critics you just cited were right and you were wrong? The reviews for Spook Country ... ... but doesn't so much anymore is Dark Reflections by Samuel R. Delany. There is not a shred of SFness to it. Try it and Spook Country and see which one comes off as a well written book. Some might not like the content or storyline of Dark Reflections but I can't see many calling it a poorly ... ... computers... Do you need to be interested in astronomy to set a story in a galactic empire? :-)
Populist crap... well, Spook Country may be a best-seller, and many people might not think it is very good... but that's not what I meant :-) I was referring to the sort of derivative, badly-writt ... kd9, I too loved Pattern Recognition, but not Spook Country. I didn't get very far into Spook Country before I had to stop--I just didn't care about what happened to any of those people. I thought Pattern Recognition was a little too precious in parts--allergic to brand names? come on--but I ... ... strong, but except for one early short story "Forever, Said the Duck", I've disliked them all. I also was disappointed by Spook Country, since Pattern Recognition is one of my favorite books.
I'm a little annoyed at writers who abjure the SF designation (Kurt Vonnegut included). Just ... ... well-known among the general public.
But I agree I did enjoy Earth and The Difference Engine. I didn't enjoy Spook Country however (and I am not alone in that). ... by Shalom Auslander
Ghost Plane by Stephen Grey
Lucky by Alice Sebold
Nine Parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks
Spook by
Jerusalem by Karen Armstrong
8 Social Commentary/Issues
Blaming the Victim by William Ryan
Class Acts by Rachel Sherman
Cold Intimacies: The Making ... Agreed. Though Pattern Recognition is still one of my all time favorite books, I just barely finished Spook Country and I am involved in new technology art. These characters are BORING. Having, at last, finished Spook Country (slightly disappointing) I feel the need for something fast and easily chewable. Thus I now will embark on rereading The naked sun, and I predict that I will post again on this thread VERY soon, announcing another choice - a choice I'm effectively ... ... in the mood for Gibson, but I really liked that one. I cared about those characters right away. So it is definitely Spook Country. I started Spook Country awhile back, but 60 or 70 pages in, I realized I just didn't care about any of the characters. Thinking that maybe I just wasn't in the mood for Gibson, I tried Count Zero next, and I loved that. I really want to like Spook Country--I loved Pattern Recognition, so I ... I made up my mind - when I browsed the shelves I realised that I bought Spook Country some time ago with the intention to read it immediately. So that's what I'm planning to do, albeit a bit late ;-)
The others (mentioned in #322) will have to wait. 73. Count Zero by William Gibson
I started to read Spook Country, Gibson's latest, and about 60 pages in, I realized that I just didn't care about any of the characters. So, I wondered, am I just not in a Gibson mood, or do I really not like this book? I had Count Zero sitting on my ... ... myself that I would have to read some TBRs first... ;-)
As of today this promise is broken. I went off and ordered Spook Country, and when I was at it thought that I just as well could pick something from my TBL (to buy-list) so I ended up with ordering Downbelow station as well.
No ... 41. Spook Country-William Gibson ... too, but it's possible to take a facility with them to imply general writing capability, which is not true, I think.
Spook Country is in some sense lighter than Pattern Recognition. I found it much easier to read than any previous Gibson novel. It's not as good (Pattern gets five stars ... You either love this sort of thing or you don't, I suppose.
Me, I LOVED Pattern Recognition; I have Spook Country out of the library, and - on the strength of that review - I'll try to move it up in my queue.
Thanks. Four stars from me, here's my review:
Spook Country by William Gibson
Spook Country is the second book in a trilogy that began with the terrific Pattern Recognition, but the connection is slight and you don't need to have read the first - although you should.
Here the plot is less ... ... I think. It's not that nice, to be honest, but hey, it's free with an accumulated book purchase!
William Gibson's Spook Country seems to be out of stock in most branches, so the titles I picked up since the last time include the following paperbacks:
Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod ... I am also now reading Spook Country. Don't know if it counts as genre, but it certainly counts as William Gibson - which is OK by me.
The time frame is established on the page before the first text page: it says "February 2006." He did an interview on our local NPR station, and noted that ... I looked at Spook Country this weekend, but couldn't decide whether to buy it or not. I really like him, but I don't know if I am in the mood for him or not. He is too aggressively hipper than everyone else, which gets on my nerves. When I first tried to read him in college, I had to stop. Now ... Just done with William Gibson's Spook Country , liked it, if only for the new concepts or combination of new media Gibson offers in every novel. It's more a thriller than a sf-novel, and well written in Gibson's lyrical style. His earlier work was more provoking to my imagination, I guess the ... ... same books, at nearly the same time.
Recent Purchases/Finds/Whatevers
Free From Work (Since today is my last day)
Spook Country
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Song Of Susannah
The Redwall Cookbook
A Mother For Choco
Show Way
Before You Were Mine
The Book That Jack W ... Spook country! I've been ogling that one but decided I had to read at least this book, then two more, before I was allowed to buy anyting else...
DICIPLINE
I'm trying to teach myself that those books won't run away if I don't buy them the instant I get the idea that they belong to me ;-) Curse the corporate bookstore (and the take shelves).
Song of Susannah
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Spook Country
Disgrace
Shadow of the Wind
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Total cost? $17.39
Also - met a lovely man who was lost, wandering by my desk carrying a package. Personal ... F WORD!
Just went to the corporate bookstore, since my internship ends tomorrow.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Spook Country by William Gibson
Disgrace
Shadow of the Wind
The Omnivore's Dilemma
Song of Susannah
Total cost? $17.39
Also - met a lovely man who was lost, ... ... of Trash - reviewed
Abu and the 7 Marvels
Kop by Warren Hammond - reviewed
Stardust
The Places In Between
Spook Country
Sky Horizon
M is for Magic - reviewed
Susan Cooper
- The Dark Is Rising
- Greenwitch
Saw a preview for the movie of The Dark is Rising and ... ... a contemporary thriller than his more obviously SF previous work.
This leads us to his latest release due this week: Spook Country. The title is a big selling point for those of us here, and here's ...
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