DVDizzy Forum

100 pages in on Clive Cussler's Raise the Titanic! Very good so far.

Stephen King's Cell. I couldn't help but compare it to The Stand, (the greater of the two, I think) but that isn't to say Cell wasn't enjoyable, it was. I felt that there was more plotline going on in The Stand, as well as a deeper connection with the characters (obviously, The Stand was absolutely massive). And the ending of Cell was disappointing.

I recently started reading the first book of the Song of Ice and Fire series; A Game of Thrones (my third attempt at reading it) while watching the HBO series around the same time. It's an enjoyable fantasy book, though a bit boring in some areas.

I just began reading Light in August by Faulkner (I've read the first chapter so far). I don't have the best thoughts about his writing (I've only read The Sound and the Fury and I wasn't a fan of it at all), but so far I'm actually really enjoying Light in August; it's different from The Sound and the Fury and I quite like Lena Grove (she is "right kind"). I have to read like 250 more pages of it though for Monday, so I better get off and read a few more chapters before bed.

Just finished The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It didn't really live up to my expectations. It went by extremely fast, I would have liked for it to have been a bit longer.

I've started reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins; it's a really fascinating, eye-opening book.

Voyages of Discovery (Tony Rice) - An interesting account of several European voyages to North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. It's illustrated with the adventurers' own notes and drawings, and although it's title has a very colonialist sound to it, the book is really just about the journeys. I got a sense of what the various travellers were like.

Upside Down World (Penny Olsen) - An account of early European reactions to Australia's wildlife, illustrated with paintings and sketches. It was interesting and heartbreaking to read about how these innocent creatures were reduced in numbers (and in some cases, driven to extinction)due to ignorance and superstition.

I am now in the middle of A Clash of Kings the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire.

PixarFan2006 wrote:I am now in the middle of A Clash of Kings the second book of the Song of Ice and Fire.

I still need to start the series so I can see how they compare to the HBO show.


I'm now reading Beloved for my English 290 class; I've read it before and didn't really like it, and I'm not really liking it that much this time around either.

I finished Beloved on Friday morning before class; I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it was this time around. I still don't like it all that much, but it certainly isn't bad whatsoever. I wonder why I hated it so much in high school? Anyway, I had to read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House for Monday and I just finished it. I'm not one for ghost/haunted house stories (which, coincidentally, is what my class is about), but Hill House was actually pretty good. I did see what was going to happen in the end, but it was interesting to see how it played out. Thankfully that's the last novel I have to read for the class, and I now need to start working on my 12 page research paper...

The Diamond Queen (Andrew Marr) - A detailed (but not gossipy) biography of Queen Elizabeth II. I am pretty much a Republican, but the current Queen has done a splendid job.

I've given a Fellowship of the Ring a second chance; I'm up to Chapter 16 now.

I am FINALLY finished with A Clash of Kings, which is book 2 of the Game of Thrones series. It was pretty slow in some spots (ESPECIALLY with Davos' chapters), but still enjoyable. Now, onto Book 3, A Storm of Swords(I was going to read The Name of the Wind, AKA The Kingkiller Chronicles #1, but I decided to put that aside for now).

Since I last posted, I've read (mostly through a Lit class) :

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald- I didn't care for it while I was reading it, but upon reflection, I think I like it better now.

A Separate Piece by John Knowles- Fascinating, and terrifyingly relatable.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare- Second reading. I appreciated it (and liked it) much more than I did then.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- As charming as ever. Can't say I've ever cared for the film, though.

Animal Farm by George Orwell- Great satire. Not much else I can say.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy- Too melodramatic for my tastes. However, oddly enough, it's left me with wanting to read more Hardy. I'm particularly interested in Far From the Maddening Crowd, Jude the Obscure, and The Dynasts.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde- Had only been familiar with The Importance of Being Earnest before reading this novel. I've always meant to, but Gray has convinced I must pick up some more Wilde.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- It was a surprisingly entertaining read. Although it bothers me that the type of violence that the book protests seems to also be the book's hook.

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen- Had absoultely no previous knowledge of this play before I read it, and it proved to be a wonderful read.

And I'm currently reading Our Town by Thorton Wilder.

I'm now reading The Stand by Stephen King (700 pages down... 400 to go! ) and The Great Gatsby by, of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Those are my primary books, but I'm also reading Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch, and a few others I obviously am not enjoying enough to remember.

The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins) - An amusing, uplifting, and fearless book. It cemented my Atheism when I read it originally a few years ago, and I just had to reread it.

Disney Geek wrote:The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)

Dr Frankenollie wrote:

Disney Geek wrote:The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins)

You've reminded me...

http://www.dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=500

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Richard Dawkins) - Another Dawkins book that I have read twice now. It is filled with compelling evidence for evolution, and unsettling information about the active denial of the truth. A much needed book.

Got three books from the library a week ago. Finished The City of Ember and beginning Jane Eyre. I also got a three-book Oz collection with a preface by Gregory MacGuire, but these aren't the first books in the series, so I'll probably take it back and read the others first.