Former Introduction Thread Showing 1,551-1,600 of 6,846

[Aloha]

I'm sorry to hear that. Good luck with everything, Rachel.

[Aloha]

I can believe that institutions have their prejudices. What I can't believe is that somebody would get picked on for reading SciFi or Fantasy. I can see somebody thinking you're immoral for reading Erotica or brainless for reading Romance, but SciFi and Fantasy?

[[deleted user]]

I can't believe people label you something based on what you read...

[Aloha]

I bet what was not said was that they dressed up in swords and daggers aping the characters as they were reading the books. Those costumed people waiting in line for the Star Wars movies were definitely beat-up worthy.

[Queldroma]

Hi,

I am 25 years old and right now I am a avid reader of anything that will grab my interest while I am at work. I work as a security officer, and as you can imagine I have a lot of uninterrupted reading time. I blow through books so fast that I have to actively slow myself so I can still have something left to past the time.

I just finished reading the Hyperion quadrilogy in like 2 weeks. I get my books from my very small library and if not from there I buy what looks good.

My honorable mentions:
Ender's Game
Dune Saga
Superluminal
The Telling
Lilth's Brood
Snow Crash

[[deleted user]]

Hiyas and welcome, Queldroma.

[Aloha]

Welcome, Queldroma! I guess in SciFi and Fantasy, there are going to be a lot of curious names. Where did Queldroma come from? Is that your name or a character's name?

[Dan]

Hi. I'm Dan, 33, and joined because I told Jonathan I'd read Hyperion if he'd re-read the Dark Tower in April. I read more crime and mystery than sf and fantasy these days but I'm still very much a fan. Recent favorites include
The Walrus and the Warwolf by Hugh Cook
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Kraken by China Mieville
Finch by Jeff Vandermeer
Veniss Underground by Jeff Vandermeer
The Spiral Labyrinth by Matthew Hughes

[Queldroma]

Aloha wrote: "Welcome, Queldroma! I guess in SciFi and Fantasy, there are going to be a lot of curious names. Where did Queldroma come from? Is that your name or a character's name?"

It is pretty much the name I used all over the internet for 10 years. It is an obscure Star Wars universe character. Read about him in a book long ago and it stuck with me.

[Dan]

Queldroma wrote: "Aloha wrote: "Welcome, Queldroma! I guess in SciFi and Fantasy, there are going to be a lot of curious names. Where did Queldroma come from? Is that your name or a character's name?"

It is pret..."

Wasn't his first name Ulic or something like that?

[Queldroma]

Dan wrote: "Queldroma wrote: "Aloha wrote: "Welcome, Queldroma! I guess in SciFi and Fantasy, there are going to be a lot of curious names. Where did Queldroma come from? Is that your name or a character's ..."

yes indeed now a days you can find quite a few who get the name, now with anything SW doing so well

[Dan]

Queldroma wrote: "Dan wrote: "Queldroma wrote: "Aloha wrote: "Welcome, Queldroma! I guess in SciFi and Fantasy, there are going to be a lot of curious names. Where did Queldroma come from? Is that your name or a ..."

It's funny how nobody would admit to liking Star Wars in the early to mid 90's.

[Aloha]

Welcome, Dan! I love the Star Wars movies, although I like the earlier ones better than the later ones, even if the later ones were terrific visually. I've been wanting to read Kraken, because the topic of octopus and the potential for tako sashimi sounds good.

[Dan]

Aloha wrote: "Welcome, Dan! I love the Star Wars movies, although I like the earlier ones better than the later ones, even if the later ones were terrific visually. I've been wanting to read [book:Kraken|69312..."

Kraken was great although I didn't quite understand what was going on part of the time.

[Aloha]

I heard that Mieville talks down to people, and makes things more complicated than need be. I was going to read The City & The City but got distracted by the Hyperion series.

[Dan]

Aloha wrote: "I heard that Mieville talks down to people, and makes things more complicated than need be. I was going to read The City & The City but got distracted by the Hyperion series."

I didn't feel that way reading Kraken. There was just so much going on I started taking notes. The City & The City is on my radar. I think I'll enjoy it since I read a ton of detective fiction these days.

[Dawn]

I didn't feel that way reading Un Lun Dun.. But that's my only Mieville to judge by.

[[deleted user]]

Aloha wrote: "I heard that Mieville talks down to people, and makes things more complicated than need be. I was going to read The City & The City but got distracted by the Hyperion series."

I've never found that. He's got a wild and lovecraftian imagination that crams so much inventiveness into his fiction that it can seem overwhelming at times, but I've found that it forces me to pay better attention and so I get more out of it. Do give it a try.

[Aloha]

Dan, if you like detective novels, then you would enjoy The City & The City, based on what I've read so far. It's smartly written, since Mieville is an intelligent writer.

[Aloha]

I was going to read Mieville despite what others have said about his complexity. I think he's one of the must authors to read, along with Charles Stross.

[Al "Tank"]

Queldroma wrote: "Hi,

I am 25 years old and right now I am a avid reader of anything that will grab my interest while I am at work. I work as a security officer, and as you can imagine I have a lot of uninterrupted..."

Howdy. If your reading habit is that hard to feed, it must be time for you to get an eReader of some type. They'll hold more than you can read in a year and most of the eBooks on the market are less expensive than their paper counterparts (and some really great ones don't even exist in paper). One that will keep you busy for a few nights is the Fighter Queen saga by John Bowers. One of the books (Star Marine) is half the size of War and Peace (the rest are somewhat shorter, but still hefty). You can get the entire 5-book series for a bargain at AKWbooks.com or buy them separately on Amazon, et al.

There are thousands of titles that might appeal to you and if you haunt Project Gutenberg, you can pick up tons of free classics that are out of copyright (volunteers scan old books into ePub format). Not always "pretty", but the words are there.

[Aloha]

If you get a Kindle, Amazon has a terrific supply of free eBooks.

[Queldroma]

Al wrote: "Queldroma wrote: "Hi,

I am 25 years old and right now I am a avid reader of anything that will grab my interest while I am at work. I work as a security officer, and as you can imagine I have a lo..."

I know but problem is that I can not use a e-reader at work, no electronics. (rules are rules)I already have an extensive e-book library, but I can not use any of it, so it is either buying books or library

[Aloha]

Strange that a work place does not allow electronics, especially since we're so reliant on them.

[[deleted user]]

I can see military installations or maybe some sort of security firm not allowing electronic devices of any sort.

eta: also, I thought I recognized the name Queldroma...

[Lesli]

Hi my name is Lesli Nelson, I was born in Willows Ca. Its a small country town. I am 45 yrs old but I love to read Sci-fiction and Fantasy books all the time. I work at a public library that we have were I live. I see all the new books that come in.

I am reading Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.

[Sandy]

Hi, everyone! I must have signed up for this club ages ago and forgotten about it. :-( Just got a notice that I wouldn't get any more notices until I visited the club. Double oops. Sorry. I noticed the discussion way up above about the stigma attached to reading scifi/fantasy. One exists, held by those who read literary fiction and books with "socially redeeming or uplifting or otherwise more important" themes. (It was certainly held in the writing group I was once part of.) Literary snobbery. Truth is, many sci-fi and fantasy books have great societal relevance. How about 1984? A Brave New World? All of Ursula LeGuin's work. And Orson Scott Card? Tons and tons of sci-fi authors march to a higher and more soul fulfilling drum. Try the book: The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy It's 99 cents as a Kindle.

[[deleted user]]

Welcome Lesli(can I call you Shirley?) and Sandy :)

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Welcome all...no movie jokes here, I'll leave that to Ala. :)

[Aloha]

Welcome everybody! I agree with you, Sandy, not only literature has social relevance. I read everything, so I will defend literature, but I will also defend other writing that's not in the literature camp. I'm not even sure what literature is supposed to mean. Since I'm not working on a literature degree, I only care whether I enjoy a book or not. For me to enjoy a book, it has to be entertaining along with being well-written, imaginative and thought-provoking.

[Sandy]

Hi, Aloha and all––I just looked up literature on Word. #1 definition: 1. written works with artistic value. Boy, there's a can of worms. Defining artistic value could run the gamut. Sounds like your definition "a book … has to be entertaining along with being well-written, imaginative and thought-provoking," covers the bases. My reading group recently read a Pulitzer prize winner. It was so dull I thought I'd die. When I was about half finished, the shadow of something happened. That's all––it never got more than a shadow. Argggh! That's high literature in our society. These days, I want a book to captivate me, whether it's Bright of the Skyor a crime thriller like Faye Kellerman's. I want to be charmed and enlightened.

[Aloha]

I studied art, and that is a big can of worms. Luckily, in writing, it's the mass audience that determines what sells. In the art world, it's the art snobs that determine what is popular, and they dictate to the people with money who has pretensions of taste. Whether to the masses seeking mostly entertainment, or to people with refined and educated taste, it's limiting to the people doing the creating, if they are also worried about making money off of their work.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

My wife was an artist. She had been for as long time when she enrolled in some night classes at a local college. (I was there working on my technology degree). She talked me into taking a class her. It was some basic painting class. The "art majors" were very dismissive of the older students. Everything Jeanie painted sold (though she was bad not ask what they were worth). It was a little annoying to me, though I don't think she really noticed it all that much, she just enjoyed painting wherever it took place. Later she taught some kids classes and participated in a local art group, but I doubt the art establishment would have recognized her as an "artist".

What I write I call brain candy, frankly I don't worry much about how artistic a book is deemed to be and that pretty much goes for anything else, painting, sculpture, etc. if I like it, I like it. If someone wants to sneer, they're free to.

[Aloha]

I've come the conclusion that the most important thing about art is that people attempt to create something that they care about. It's not what the art establishment think or whether it sells. Creating is nourishing to the soul. We should all be encouraged to create.

[Sandy]

The in-group/snob/literati thing crosses many boundaries. My daughter was a creative writing major in college. She said it was sort of like high school. The teachers had favorites, who changed from time to time unpredictably and without apparent reason. If you were out, you were out. The groupies of the moment ran the show. What was considered good writing was dictated by these people and the teacher. In many cases, good writing was about artfully describing really awful, gross things.

I just write what I write. My work will find its audience. That's sort of what Mike is saying, I think.

[Aloha]

You'll drive yourself crazy trying to cater to an audience. I don't mean we should ignore the responses to our work, but we shouldn't let it rule what we want to do. I also don't believe that we create in a vacuum. Creating is an interactive process with your audience, especially when you're trying to find a market for your work.

[Sandy]

Absolutely. We have our inner voice/creative process. To my mind, being true to that is key to good writing. There's a lot more to it, writing skills, for instance. But we do have to interact with and pay attention to our readers. For instance, I've discovered that readers need a positive thread in a book, not all gloom and doom. I take care that I include that now.

[Aloha]

I recently received a book recommendation from a friend. It's a depressing dystopia, . It had bad reviews. I asked him why did it receive such a bad review. He said it's probably because the people who give it a bad review are into light entertainment, not depressing dystopias. I like depressing stuff myself, so I'll give it a try, if I can find the book. It doesn't look like it'd be in the popular section.

[Aloha]

And it's available in French at Amazon at the cheapest, a total cost of $29! C'est trop cher pour moi! Je suis désolé, Jurgen.

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Aloha, have you read Julius Winsome: A Novel? I don't like depressing reads in general, but if there is a real reason for it in the book that's obviously different. I don't know but you might like it.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... that's my review, there is a spoiler in it though.

[Aloha]

Great review, Mike. I put it in my to-read. I didn't read the spoiler, though. There's a book that I think you might enjoy, since you are a dog lover, Dog Boy. I was going to buy the eBook version of it. It looks great!

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Looks interesting. I may have to brace myself. It looks like an emotional one...

[Aloha]

When I was looking at reviews for some of the Russian books I was interested in, I noticed you gave them bad ratings because they were too depressing for you. LOL

[Mike (the Paladin)]

I a Russian book I find a happy ending is where the entire cast of characters dies quickly, with a minimum of suffering....

[Aloha]

LOL!

[Mike (the Paladin)]

Oops! Sorry typo, that should have been "In a Russian book" Not "I a Russian book" my bad... :)

[Sandy]

Has anyone read Independent People by the Icelandic Nobel Laureate Halldor Laxness? This makes Russian novels look like California in springtime. It's my favorite book. Brilliant and deep––and dark.

[Aloha]

I've never heard of it. It looks great. I put it in my to-read. My to-read is toppling it's getting so tall! That's why I came here, to get great suggestions.

[Sandy]

Yeah. That's what participating on-line does: Grow your to-read list. Independent People is a masterpiece, but it is dark. I just finished reading most of Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus series. The first book is The Ritual Bath. It's about a tough LA cop and an orthodox Jewish woman who fall in love. Fascinating. I got hooked on this series and couldn't stop reading until I read most of them.Some got not so hot reviews, so I skipped those. I'm in withdrawal, though.

[Aloha]

I hate it when I'm hooked onto a series and it ends. But I prefer short and sweet in a series rather than a slow death.