Books - What're ya reading?

I've got the first two Witcher books, which were short story collections of Geralt's adventures, and enjoyed them pretty well (one was a riff on Beauty and the Beast) but i haven't delved into any of the narrative-focused ones.

I'll try and look into Dragon's Blood, though i've noted older sci-fi/fantasy books can be hard to get hold of, which is frustrating. 

I remember I used to have time for reading. I used to read a 300-400 page book a week, sometimes more.   Now I just have difficulty finding the time much less anything I find interesting enough to read.  I'm sure I'll get back onto something eventually but I've been hard into a video game mood for a while now and I just don't have the time with work, kids, etc.

I've got a non-fiction book about the history and events leading up to and during the American Civil War called Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson that's actually a really good read.



I've started it a couple times and only ever gotten about half way through. To be fair to me here it's like 800 pages so it's not exactly light reading.   It's one of those books full of inconvenient truths for the "the war was all about slavery, you can't change my mind" people.  It does a really great job of setting the stage for what was going on in the 20 years or so leading up to the war culturally, economically, socially, politically... even going so far as to talk about the job market shifting from family owned subsistence farms to people working predominantly for other people, changes to work ethic and the work week and how that affected people's outlook on the methods of production, politics, and their views of what direction the country should be taking moving forward.

This book almost reads like a character study in today's politically charged environment.  I still hold true that we never resolved any of this conflict, only stopped the shooting war.  The victors walked away obfuscating the issues under the cloak of white knighting about the end of slavery and thus just sweeping under the rug the real honest issues that pushed brother to kill brother and pitting North against South.  The same issues are still hanging over us, some I would argue in even more pronounced forms today.  But you don't dare talk about that because people with a grade school education are convinced of South evil, North good... white man bad... you're a Nazi if you say otherwise REEEEEEEEE!!!

Katzenbalger



And now:  Reviews for Eat Them Alive from around teh interwebz!


Is it good? No. Is there anything else like it out there? No. Singular and ridiculous, like getting a note from the prison cell of your least favorite third cousin after he's arrested for having sex with a corpse. You can't throw it away, but do you really want to read it?


Rating this book is a challenge. If one rates it according to the quality of the prose, the richness of the narrative, and the depth of its characters, the review is a lowly one star. It fails miserably on all of these levels. If, however, one examines the book purely as a specimen of 1970s trash fiction, embracing the book's many warts as part of its ugly charm, then it's a classic of the genre deserving of five stars. Tricky.



Simultaneously the best and worst book I've ever read. It's poorly written, repetitive, absurd, vile and entirely original. Come for the giant trained mantis with a breast fetish; stay for the babies getting their brains sucked out.


I may as well quit reading because nothing will be this good again. I spent 75 dollars on this and regret nothing.


I bought this book when it first came out; I very nearly went back to my local bookstore and bought all the other copies so that no other poor bastard would have to read them. I remember the name of the book and the author's name after all these years and still hate both book and the author. I hope his warthog gives him herpes, genital warts and crabs.

I cycle back around to this one frequently.  Still hold it up as my favorite.

Fuck yeah, I LOVE Helldivers!