First Monday Book Day

First Monday Book Day: Wheel Keeps on Turnin’

56 Comments

The paperback edition of Towers of Midnight finally came out a month or so ago, so I pounced at last. Yes, I am a cheap @ss. I waited a whole year just so that I wouldn't have to pay those exorbitant hardback prices.

Unfortunately, the year-long wait meant that I'd lost track of many of the threads in the gigantic Pattern that is the Wheel of Time saga. Fortunately, Brandon Sanderson's work in this, his second installment of his concluding volume (hah!) was engaging and remarkably fast-paced, considering its 1,218 pages.

I've been frustrated at times through the long, long series by Robert Jordan's rather ridiculous characterizations of Perrin, Mat and Rand. Thankfully, some of that ridiculousness is at last being sloughed off in this work, whether as part of Jordan's plan or due to Sanderson's stewardship. Whatever. I'm ready for this thing to end, and I was glad that this volume actually seemed to push the plot forward -- at almost breakneck speed compared to its predecessor, The Gathering Storm.

This book was a much easier read than the other book I finished (at last!) this month -- Dan Simmons' Drood (featured last month in this space). Of course, that's an unfair comparison. Simmons' book was meticulously researched, incredibly literate, and, well, convoluted as hell, whereas, Jordan's whole series is about as complex as a grilled cheese sandwich. Still, I'm a sucker for this sort of swords-and-scorcery swashbuckling. It was a fun and quick read, whereas Simmons' book was a challenge that nearly overwhelmed me (even as I very much appreciated his artistry).

What are you reading?

56 thoughts on “First Monday Book Day: Wheel Keeps on Turnin’”

    2. I'm considering Stieg as well, but I'll wait until someone here gives me a recommendation before diving in.

      1. It's like a cross between Grisham and Silence of the Lambs.

        I liked the first one but it took about 200 pages of background before it moved. I didn't like the second one and never read the third.

      1. Maybe I'll come back to that one. I struggled through the first bit of 'Cloud Atlas' before getting distracted into some other reading and never picking it up again.

        1. I saw your comment on Goodreads; based on what I know about the book (but not having yet dipped into it), I could see struggling through the first portion. If you get back to it I'll look forward to your comments.

          1. I will admit to being a bit frustrated when the first story stopped in mid-sentence. And then again in the next. And so on. And the middle portion is really a slog. But as he deftly resolves each of the stories, while weaving in certain elements and refrains from the others, I couldn't help being blown away by what he had done. I know that both of you guys have read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami. Cloud Atlas might be the closest a book has come to filling me with a sense of wonder and amazement since that title. Give it another shot, Mak. The payoff is rich.

  3. Just about done with The First Tycoon. Extremely well-researched and fascinating look at Commodore Vanderbilt. I also read The Extra Two Percent, but found nothing particularly earth-shattering in the book.

          1. Yea, pretty much. 🙂

            TJ is a 2nd or 3rd or 4th degree black belt in Japanese Karate, however. So its good to criticize his writing from a distance 😉

  4. I'm thinking of picking up the Horatio Hornblower series. I want to get hardback, but I'm trying to decide on a particular publisher/edition to go with. Hard to believe there has never been a boxed set of the series.

        1. Me too, though I've only read O'Brain or non-fiction so far. Law school, bar preparation, job hunting, and now fatherhood have really gotten in way of further exploration.

  5. It's amazing how much more reading I do when there's no baseball. I read The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon. Entertaining "how-to" book about cottage farming, sustainable agriculture and rural economics interspersed with some great social commentary.

    I also knocked out a couple of titles by "America's Storyteller", Mr. L'Amour: The Ferguson Rifle and Jubal Sackett (for the 3rd time). The man sure had some fun mixing his historical research (and theories) into novels and short stories. He can get repetitive, but I especially enjoy books about the first Europeans men and women settling America and pushing west; what they would have seen and done, how they would have lived.

    Just about done with Ambitious Brew. Finally. Well researched book about the history of brewing in America. It has changed my perception of what BudMillerCoors represents...or represented.

    1. The Ferguson Rifle is one of my favorite L'Amour books, along with Lando and Last of the Breed. Fun, quick reads that tell simple stories with plenty of action.

        1. I think the series is going to force me to get an e-reader, as some of the physical (hardback) copies I have are gargantuan. And one of the paperback versions is huge.

          1. i had a friend that had the complete wheel of time series on an e-reader. it was something like 11,000+ pages long (another reason i'm reluctant to start it).

            1. I just finished reading The Towers of Midnight for a second time. In between, I read the entire series over again. My reading capacity has increase significantly with my Nook. I am currently reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

              I am also reading The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle on the Kindle app I got for my smartphone. It is an sensational read studying talent hot beds and why they produce the talent they do. The role of Myelin (the insulation wrapping our neurons) and it's role in talent aquisition is also examined.

              Great book for you coaches and Dads out there.

              1. I get the feeling his Stormlight Archive series is going to be gigantic. Though, just looking at the first book should be enough.

  7. I just recently finished Lord of Chaos and have now started in one A Crown of Swords. Lord of Chaos seemed to take forever to get moving, but the last quarter of the book was entertaining. The pacing in A Crown of Swords is better so far and it seems likes its heading in a similarly entertaining direction. A

    After that, it'll be on to the next in the series. I'll get caught up one of these years.

  8. Well, let me see- I read a fantasy trilogy, The Godless World, by Brian Ruckley. The books are Winterbirth, Bloodheir and Fall of Thanes. Solid, descriptive writing with no major twists or plot developments, I've read better but I've read far, far worse.
    Also read some more off the Baen free books site, starting with Andre Norton- Time Traders and Star Soldiers, which I had read in middle school and vaguely remembered. They definitely seemed more enjoyable to me then, but I didn't mind the re-reads.
    More from the Baen site- Vats, Rats and Bats, and The Rats, the Bats and the Ugly by Eric Flint and Dave Freer. I really liked both of these, but they are full of quirky social/legal/military commentary. The first book was better than the second, but it's obviously meant as an open-ended series, which always takes a little of the suspense away for me.

  9. finished up a dance with dragons. i'm thinking i'll have time to re-read the series before the next book comes out.

    finally read american gods, as per the WGOM book club selection. i can definitely say i enjoyed it. good, not great. i really had no idea what the book was about when i started reading it (i generally like that, to be honest), and was a little weary when the "point" of the book was revealed, but i still think gaiman did a decent job pulling it off. the only thing that really bugged me was all the plugs gaiman threw in there to other books and music. it usually annoys me when authors do that because it kind of ruins the illusion of the book as you can tell it comes straight from the author rather than the characters.

    started reading l.a. confidential this morning. already saw the movie, but a random mention of the book made decide to read. first 17 pages were pretty good at least.

    1. and speaking of american gods, i'm not sure if anyone ever mentioned this nugget i saw on the wikipedia page:

      In April 2011 it was announced that American Gods will be adapted into a series for HBO by Playtone (Tom Hanks' production company), with Robert Richardson & Gaiman writing the pilot.

      1. I did know that, as I follow all things Gaiman. He's had awesome projects fall apart, though, so I'll withhold too much excitement. On the other hand, if Playtone is "in," it's not likely to fall apart now.

    2. for me, the Martin series is far superior literature to the Jordan series. Much better characters, much tighter plotting. But I didn't let that stop me from reading the entire Wheel saga to this point. "Guilty" fun.

        1. I thought the first book was very engaging. A lot happens in that volume, and it reads pretty quickly 'cuz it ain't, you know, deep.

  10. I went on a bit of a reading binge this month.

    I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells - Quick Halloween read. The sociopath as narrator thing doesn't always work for me (see: Darkly Dreaming Dexter, which was 'meh') but this one was pretty good. Apparently it's the beginning of a series. Maybe I'll read some of the other books, undecided right now.

    Room by Emma Donoghue - Kind of disappointed in this one. I think I expected something more literary than what this turned out to be. The child narrator wasn't the most interesting part of the book for me (I think the author intended him to be), rather I thought watching the mother deal with the situation was more powerful than anything else. Then the last third of the book moved away from that. Oh well.

    The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman - Really enjoyed this. Loved the world created here, and hope that the sequel gets even more into the mythology and origin of this world. The Line and the Gun are two sides of the conflict, but neither seems to be the good guys. I have an inkling where things are headed, but I really can't wait to see how it plays out.

    Hunger by Knut Hamsun - E-6 recommended this a while ago at the old basement. There is no plot, so you're essentially watching the narrator starve himself. It's kind of disturbing, but not overly so. A real interesting look at artistic drive and sacrifice. I can see why this is so well regarded.

    There Is No Year by Blake Butler - Another one where the plot was hard to discern. Dreamy and disturbing - it brings to mind both the desolation and hopelessness of Butler's 'Scorch Atlas' (which I found really really interesting) and Danielewski's 'House of Leaves'. The themes are very different than 'House', but the malevolent house at the center of this one is perhaps more off-putting (which is no mean feat). Very well done (again). I'll continue to read whatever Butler puts out. (I haven't read 'Ever' - his debut - yet. It's on my to-read list)

    The Golden Age by Michal Ajvaz - This book took me about 6 months and multiple pick-ups and put-downs to finish. For all that, I liked it. Didn't love it, and it tested my will to finish - but I'm glad I did. A lot of reviewers compared it to 'If On a Winter's Night, a Traveler', and I can see it, but I prefer Calvino.

    The Wild Kingdom by Kevin Huizenga - Short graphic novel / comic book / wtf? I can't really describe this. I read it twice through in one sitting. It made me chuckle at various points. I have no idea what it's trying to say. Commercialism, nature, death were the obvious themes. There is no narrative, which isn't so much a problem, but there's not really any connective tissue that holds the whole thing together. Still, I'm certainly intrigued by it, and I'm sure it will continue to insert itself into my thoughts now and again in the next few weeks.

    After 4 books in two weeks that lacked clear narratives, I figured it was time for something a little less high-minded. As mentioned above, I'm starting Stieg Larsson's trilogy (hoping to finish at least book one before the movie comes out over Christmas). I'm about 200 pages in, and it's pretty good, much easier to figure out what's going on than most of the books mentioned above.

    1. Hunger by Knut Hamsun - E-6 recommended this a while ago at the old basement. There is no plot, so you're essentially watching the narrator starve himself. It's kind of disturbing, but not overly so. A real interesting look at artistic drive and sacrifice. I can see why this is so well regarded.

      I would also recommend it. One of my favorite books.

      1. This is one I've had sitting on my shelf since 2001 or so, knowing I should read it, but never finding myself in the mood to read a book about starving oneself. But I know I have to read it, so hopefully one of these days I'll be in the mood.

    2. Stieg Larsson's trilogy

      i've been meaning to get to that to see what all the fuss is about.

      1. It took David Fincher and Trent Reznor getting involved to make me finally pick them up (also the in-laws had the whole trilogy on their bookshelf at Thanksgiving), but yeah, Dido.

    3. DG, don't you have a wife, kid, and tenure to worry about? How the h3ll do you get so much pleasure reading done in a month?

        1. Kid's not due until next year

          uh, did i miss this one? congrats, dude. with all the dads around here, we should start some sort of fatherhood column-- oh, right.

  11. I just started Power of One. Was that recommended by someone here?

    I know it gets happier but I'm having trouble with the Nazi Lord of the Flies. I think it is because I have a 5-year old boy and I realize how young and fragile a kid is at that age.

  12. Oh man, I missed the book post. I read a bunch of stuff when my computer was broken. I recap when I get back from errands. Not like any of you guys are up yet anyway.

    2. So, here are by books. I'm sure I've mentioned working on some of these before. This is everything I finished in the last month:

      The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Collections of short stories about Holmes. Dad's always been big into Holmes, and that rubbed off on me. The stories are entertaining enough, and in easily read bite-sized stories. I have found that after reading 3 or 4 it starts to affect my own speech and writing. I get all old-timey.

      The Hornet's Sting by Mark Ryan: I got this when it was in the Kindle specials bin (it's since back to $13 for the Kindle edition). It tells the story of Thomas Sneum, a Danish spy in WWII. It was a pretty good read if your into that sort of history. I definitely feel I got my money's worth at $3, but I'm not sure about at $13.

      American Shaolin and Tapped Out by Matthew Polly: An excerpt of Tapped Out on Deadspin led me to Polly's works on Amazon. I got both Kindle samples, and ended up buying them both. I read American Shaolin first on a night when I couldn't sleep. I ended up reading about 85% of it overnight. The first thing I did when I got up was finish the rest. It's Polly's story about how after 3 years at Princeton, he packed up and moved to China to study kung-fu. He ended up spending 2 years at the Shaolin Temple. Fast forward a couple of years and Polly is an overweight, out of shape writer. So as a writing project, he takes up MMA. Tapped Out culminates in Polly's first (and only) amateur fight. I really enjoyed both, and I would suggest reading them chronologically as Polly mentions things from AS in TO.

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