Weekly Entertainment

[new_to_liirness]

Since everyone THREADED LIKE MADMEN yesterday, I'm gonna make this simple.

Book recs: things you've read lately, old favorites, things you can't believe aren't represented in the game, whatever you'd like. Tell me what to reeeeeead.

Comments

[raspberryturk]

I have issues with wandering attention, so more often than not, I end up starting a book, making it halfway through, and then putting it down again to collect dust.

But I have gotten through books in the past! Real ones, with words and everything, honest!

Christopher Golden's Of Saints and Shadows totally ate my brain. Because, really, dark, different twists on vampires are just full of shiny. But not sparkly. That's the wrong series entirely.

I'm a sucker for Richard Adams, too. Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, about cute, fuzzy animals though they may be, were both excellent reads. And I might have cried at the end of Plague Dogs. Shh.

Douglas Adams! Give me some Hitchhikers Guide any day of the week, and there's a book I'll breeze through with ease.

And manga. Because it is shiny. Granted, all I've been reading lately is Genju no Seiza. But it's pretty. So ner. *shakes fist*

[new_to_liirness]

I am no stranger to this.

I will pick something up, read halfway, and then OO SHINY something else. I have recently grabbed Monster Blood Tattoo as I'm finally done with Tomorrow's Magic (which, OMG, so good, I loved it and how much I want to hug Earl Bedwas must be measured in mega-whatevers). I also have a tendency to start one and then go "...lalala reread something old and familiar." Somehow, reading Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age books required that I go and read the entirity of the Elenium in the middle.

Christopher Golden? Really? ...I've only ever seen him do crappy novelizations. But I'm always willing to give people another shot and I love twists on vampires. *hugs Night Watch, etc to her chest*

Never read Adams.

...I know, I'm a heathen.

What's Genju no Seiza? *is all curious*

ETA: The Watership Down stuff, not Douglas! *HEARTS DOUGLAS ADAMS* *...pops in Key To Time arc now just because she feels the need to*

[raspberryturk]

You know, I was surprised to get through the first book of Golden's vampire trilogy to learn that I had actually enjoyed it? And then I bought the second? And the third? It's kind of a book that forced me to suspend any religious strings I was grasping to desperately, as he does pick at some things that could easily offend many Christian readers, but overall, it was worth me buying all three books in the trilogy. I haven't actually read the continuation on the series, though. It's one of those things that I want to say is well enough left alone. (Also, I would have great squee if someone apped Will Cody to FH someday. Because the world needs a vampiric Buffalo Bill. Ssh.)

Genju no Seiza is by the same person who did Petshop of Horrors, and it is pretty. Also, it's about a kid who grows up to find out that he's some sort of high priest to a country that's somewhat on the elusive side, and there are animal-god guardians, and issues. The kid has issues. But there is shiny

[new_to_liirness]

Ooooooooooooo.

*goes to read*

[unddann]

You know, I still haven't read Watership Down? I should get around to doing that. Of course, I'm the girl who was recommended to read The Phantom Tollbooth in third grade and didn't get around to it until she was 24. . . .

[new_to_liirness]

You too?

[unddann]

Yep. I actually missed out on a lot of books by wanting to read the stuff my brother and sister -- three and six years older than me, respectively -- were reading. And both of them were advanced, so I skipped a whole lot of the typical childrens' novels completely.

[new_to_liirness]

I don't know what happened with me, since I'm the oldest other than my step brother, but yeah, there's a bunch of stuff I just skipped. I think cause I just ended up going in a WEIRD direction and pillaging my grandfather's old bookshelf full of stuff like *points up* The Allan Quartermaine books and the classic lit and stuff.

[unddann]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with reading weird stuff.

Just got to catch up on it, now!

[raspberryturk]

POLITICAL BUNNIES. *waves the book around* BUNNIES.

*sits down, shuts up*

[new_to_liirness]

...you know my best friend has two bunnies and will frequently squeak about the BUUUUNS the BUUUUUNS.

...so this is not so odd.

[raspberryturk]

I live with a rabbit. I cannot be in the same room as the rabbit while I am reading this book. I start thinking maybe I should set it free before it starts frothing at the mouth or something. o.0

[unddann]

Dude, I said it was on my list, didn't I? Well, okay, not explicitly, but: It's totally on my list. As for Douglas Adams, have you read any of his non-Hitchhiker works? Because I totally think Fandom needs a Dirk Gently.

[raspberryturk]

Hooray, list!

You know, I haven't read any of his non-Hitchhiker stories. But if you rec me some titles, I'll add them to my list. It isn't a terribly long list. Yet. :)

[unddann]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and its sequel The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. For quicker reads, check out the posthumously published Salmon of Doubt, which includes a lot of his nonfictional lectures, letters, memoirs, and some short stories. It's basically a collection of all the random unpublished stuff on his hard drive after he died, and it's quite excellent by itself.

Dirk Gently and Tea Time, by the way? They're like giant Rube Goldberg machines. I swear, every single detail of those books eventually matters in the climax. They're seriously masterful, and the reason why I hold Adams up as the sort of author I aspire to be.

[raspberryturk]

Salmon of Doubt is chilling out casually after the five Hitchhiker's Guide books in a shiny hardcover. I'll poke through that first, if only because it's already there.

Thanks for the recs!