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Post by hengest on May 26, 2022 13:28:15 GMT -5
You gotta cut this out! You are making us look bad for not reading(19 yrs or so since I red a book w one exception). I'll work on it! 🤣 I barely even read books anymore. I just read "stuff" and not even that much of it. I don't feel bad about it, but it is odd to feel such a change. Oh well, I can live vicariously through this thread!
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Post by simrion on May 26, 2022 16:41:57 GMT -5
I found the Lensman series on thriftbooks. I have the first one on my wishlist since I've always been interested in trying it out. I also found the Horseclans series but daaaang they are up there! I have worn my Lensman books out and I do have a complete set of the Horseclans series (I might be missing short story or two, but I think that is it). Both series are to my taste and I recommend them. Lensman are like the old Cowboy movies, good guys and bad guys are clearly defined. Perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy the beginning of the Lensmen, approached it all wrong. Have to give it a revisit in this light.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 28, 2022 13:46:51 GMT -5
I have worn my Lensman books out and I do have a complete set of the Horseclans series (I might be missing short story or two, but I think that is it). Both series are to my taste and I recommend them. Lensman are like the old Cowboy movies, good guys and bad guys are clearly defined. Perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy the beginning of the Lensmen, approached it all wrong. Have to give it a revisit in this light. simrion, one thing about the Lensmen is that you need to get through the first book and get into the second book, the first book is the background, while good, IMO it is the weakest of the five books in the series. But one thing to remember is that anything you think is cliché, etc., has to be tempered by "this was the first space opera ever and none of these things were cliché, until these books were imitated a lot."
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 28, 2022 13:48:28 GMT -5
I don't read as many books as I used to, but part of that is because of the my online time which partly consists of reading 50,000+ words a day on a wide variety of topics.
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Post by mao on May 28, 2022 15:21:14 GMT -5
I barely even read books anymore. I just read "stuff" and not even that much of it. I don't feel bad about it, but it is odd to feel such a change. Oh well, I can live vicariously through this thread! When I was a teenager I read so so much. But discovering RPGs I mostly left books behind.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 28, 2022 16:16:40 GMT -5
I have read roughly 35.000 - 38,000 books in my lifetime. Of course, a lot of books these days are 600-1,000 pages each, where roughly 200 (150-250) page books used to be standard length. At a time when books were shorter I could go through 5 or 6 books in a day at time. I have read the LotR Trilogy in one sitting. I read tons of books during my school years and when I was young, single, and had a job I traveled out of a suitcase 30-40 weeks a year I also read tons of books. While I don't do so, there would IMO be nothing wrong with counting a 1,000 page novel as five books. If I made that adjustment then you could add about 20,000 to my total. During my 20's (23-30) when I traveled all the time on the job, I was reading about 1,000 books a year. Yeah, during that part of my life, I worked and I read and didn't get out much otherwise, I spent a lot of time in hotel rooms reading rather than watching TV. But all of that reading went into my D&D idea hopper. Right now I am getting ready to start re-reading some books that I last read in the 7th grade, when I was 12 years old. They are in alphabetical order: A Brave New World Catch-22 Catcher In The Rye One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest I am also going to re-read The Wolfen by Whitley Strieber - out of print and hard to find, but I have a copy. The Bantam edition came out in 1979 and I read it that year. EDIT: To be clear the above is only discussing the fiction I have read. My reading of non-fiction is much smaller comprising about 2,000 books not counting things like the Havard Classics, the World Book Encyclopedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica. The first I have read pretty much in its entirety and I have read everything of interest in the latter two, comprising about 50% of the content. Sadly I do not have a photographic or eidetic memory. Also sadly, my first 12 years of schooling was in an rural Appalachian school with the inherent limitations of that kind of schooling. Not to say there were not also benefits, but in the first 8 grades having one teacher responsible for all subjects for two grades per classroom and the principal teaches 7th & 8th grade, so 4 total teachers for grades 1-8 does have some limitations with about 40 kids per classroom. The teacher would alternate back and forth between one grade and the other progressing through all subjects each day. Our day as I remember was six and a half hours, less a half hour lunch and two 15 minute recesses. and the remainder was teaching times split between two grades and all the subjects. My dad only went to the 8th grade and that was all in a one room school with only one teacher. Oddly enough on some things they were superior to here and now. For instance they learned 6 ways of calculating interest, based on a full year and learned about compound interest. My schooling only had one way to calculate simple interest based on a 360 day year in my 7th grade math book. He learned the times tables to 12x12 and we only had 9x9, of course my dad on a lot of these things said that is not good enough and held us to the standard of what he had, anywhere it was higher. I have heard some school did times tables to 15x15.
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Post by hengest on May 28, 2022 16:20:39 GMT -5
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 28, 2022 20:30:30 GMT -5
I added an edit. And thank you!
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Post by simrion on May 29, 2022 6:12:45 GMT -5
PD, I'm guessing there was a lot of practical application learning in your more concentrated educational experience, as was likely for your father as well? Necessity being the Mother of Invention and all that ;-) I stand in awe of your reading volume! I tend to reread books I've previously enjoyed and, like you, find myself engaging with more of the classics and history. Some regrets I didn't take more of an interest in those at a younger age though. Probably would have had a different outlook on the whole formative educational experience.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on May 29, 2022 14:22:14 GMT -5
PD, I'm guessing there was a lot of practical application learning in your more concentrated educational experience, as was likely for your father as well? Necessity being the Mother of Invention and all that ;-) I stand in awe of your reading volume! I tend to reread books I've previously enjoyed and, like you, find myself engaging with more of the classics and history. Some regrets I didn't take more of an interest in those at a younger age though. Probably would have had a different outlook on the whole formative educational experience. I re-read the best of books. I read Come on Seabiscuit in 5th grade. I read it over 30 times. Janet & I saw the movie together, they did a pretty good job with it. Yeah, there was some practical application stuff to. I have read about how to do things and I have done a lot of that with computers, except they keep changing the OP System on me and everything I learned is now obsolete.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 27, 2022 17:45:42 GMT -5
Children of Dune by Frank Herbert [4.5 stars]
I've heard many people say they preferred this book over the previous entry in the series. I was a little concerned at first because this book seemed to be a much slower read at the beginning. As the pages flipped by, I did become more and more interested in the story of Paul's Children. I found I was making time during my workday to read chapters at break and before shift even. I would read it again. With the first 3 books in the series completed, it is apparent that Dune has staying power. I'm continuing on with the rest of the original 6 books and then will decide on the prequels and sequels after that. The only "ding" against this book is the slow start.
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Post by simrion on Jul 27, 2022 18:00:48 GMT -5
I have a few books I've worn out myself. I actually found quite a few of the Horseclans series at a very cool used bookstore in Clarksville, TN when I was in the Army. I had something like 1, 4-9, 13, and a few more. Even though I had the first novel I never got around to reading it for some reason. I do know that I intended to buy 2 and 3 before I read the first one. Somehow those Horseclans books came up missing. I still don't know what happened to them. It's a shame because they were all in pretty good shape and I believe they were 50 cents to a dollar each. Now they command much higher prices on the used market. Yeah, you used to be able to get used books really cheaply and I bought thousands that way and traded them back for more. Sadly many of the used book stores in my area have come and gone. Thrift stores abound and occasionally I'll find a gem there. Not that I need any more books but I DO love them ;-) Currently among the dozen or more I'm working on are some SciFi
Chalker's Lords of the Four Diamons Poul's Mote in God's Eye The second of three Traveller The New Era novels (can't remember the author and third book only available as a download from DriveThru RPG.) Writing decent so I may just plunk down for #3
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Post by arjen on Aug 1, 2022 11:14:58 GMT -5
Now that I work from home I hardly read anymore. I used to have a commute of 10 minutes by bus and a 10 minute walk and I would walk to the bus-stop, reading, read in the bus, walk to work reading.
I did recently finish re-reading the Fellow ship of the Ring and currently reading the second book of the Black Company (Glen Cook): "Shadows Linger", which is a very good serie.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Aug 1, 2022 17:38:21 GMT -5
Now that I work from home I hardly read anymore. I used to have a commute of 10 minutes by bus and a 10 minute walk and I would walk to the bus-stop, reading, read in the bus, walk to work reading. I did recently finish re-reading the Fellow ship of the Ring and currently reading the second book of the Black Company (Glen Cook): "Shadows Linger", which is a very good serie. I've been meaning to check out The Black Company but I haven't started it yet...
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Post by arjen on Aug 1, 2022 18:48:59 GMT -5
Now that I work from home I hardly read anymore. I used to have a commute of 10 minutes by bus and a 10 minute walk and I would walk to the bus-stop, reading, read in the bus, walk to work reading. I did recently finish re-reading the Fellow ship of the Ring and currently reading the second book of the Black Company (Glen Cook): "Shadows Linger", which is a very good serie. I've been meaning to check out The Black Company but I haven't started it yet... It's good, I can recommend it. Btw. If any of you are looking for specific sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks; let me know, every 1-2 months I go to a great second hand bookstore that has loads of paperbacks for $1,- each. Send me your wish lists
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Post by shooter on Aug 1, 2022 19:55:53 GMT -5
I've been meaning to check out The Black Company but I haven't started it yet... It's good, I can recommend it. Btw. If any of you are looking for specific sci-fi/fantasy paperbacks; let me know, every 1-2 months I go to a great second hand bookstore that has loads of paperbacks for $1,- each. Send me your wish listsWOW!
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Post by shooter on Aug 1, 2022 19:57:31 GMT -5
I have to say that I could never get into Dune, I started it three times and finally gave up on it. Same reason I don't use purple worms in D&D, they are way less believable for me than giant flying fire breathing dragons.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Oct 23, 2022 19:08:55 GMT -5
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert [4 stars] I took longer than I would have liked to finish reading this book. It had nothing to do with the quality of the writing or something similar. We worked a ton of mandatory OT this summer and I was just too tired to spend long periods of time reading. I'm not going to lie. I was napping. This book is a big change. Arrakis is no longer a desert planet, but it is green with life. Paul's son, Leto Atreides, is still alive and transforming from merging with a sandworm and rules as God Emperor of Dune. I enjoyed it but I may have enjoyed it more if I could have read it in a shorter time. At this point, I need a break from heavy reading and I'm going to probably complete the remaining two MARS books by John Carter in my big hardback of the first five novels. Then I will return to more heavy reading. At some point I AM going to read The Silmarillion; it will be one of the next 5 books I read.
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Post by hengest on Oct 23, 2022 19:24:02 GMT -5
God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert [4 stars] I took longer than I would have liked to finish reading this book. It had nothing to do with the quality of the writing or something similar. We worked a ton of mandatory OT this summer and I was just too tired to spend long periods of time reading. I'm not going to lie. I was napping. This book is a big change. Arrakis is no longer a desert planet, but it is green with life. Paul's son, Leto Atreides, is still alive and transforming from merging with a sandworm and rules as God Emperor of Dune. I enjoyed it but I may have enjoyed it more if I could have read it in a shorter time. At this point, I need a break from heavy reading and I'm going to probably complete the remaining two MARS books by John Carter in my big hardback of the first five novels. Then I will return to more heavy reading. At some point I AM going to read The Silmarillion; it will be one of the next 5 books I read. Very interested in your take on The Silmarillion.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jan 16, 2023 16:11:10 GMT -5
I am drawing this thread to a close & locking it since 2022 has ended and 2023 has begun. Tell us what you're reading in the 2023 Reading thread.
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