sperg about normal books here - it's like the comic books thread but without the pretty pictures

[God's strongest milkman]

I've been trying to finish Atlas shrugged on and off for a couple weeks now. I can't really think of another book that comes this close to being a political philosophy story and also a Bodice ripper. It's just "Fabio and his gleaming muscles" but he's also a leader of industry and hates those damn commies.

It can be very fun at times and very tedious at others, Ayn Rand really liked herself a long speech. I actually had trouble finding time to sit down and read so I bought the audio book for Atlas Shrugged and I kinda love it. It's like an older man who does audio books professional but the main character is a young woman and he does voices so like 60% of this audiobook is an old man doing a breathy woman voice and it adds a weird charm I think.

I recommend it for a unique listening and reading experience and not actually for any political reasons but I will warn you that in the audiobook the john galt speech chapter is an actual hour long. Just an hour of yelling at new Yorkers that they're lazy and communist.

 

[Vecr]

A related note on books that go on too long, if someone wants you to read Gödel Escher Bach (GEB) remember that most of the stuff that it's cited for is in the first 500 pages. The book keeps going, but you don't have to. Not exactly a normal book, but at least it's in order.

 

[ArthuriusMartyrius]

I've been trying to finish Atlas shrugged on and off for a couple weeks now. I can't really think of another book that comes this close to being a political philosophy story and also a Bodice ripper. It's just "Fabio and his gleaming muscles" but he's also a leader of industry and hates those damn commies.

It can be very fun at times and very tedious at others, Ayn Rand really liked herself a long speech. I actually had trouble finding time to sit down and read so I bought the audio book for Atlas Shrugged and I kinda love it. It's like an older man who does audio books professional but the main character is a young woman and he does voices so like 60% of this audiobook is an old man doing a breathy woman voice and it adds a weird charm I think.

I recommend it for a unique listening and reading experience and not actually for any political reasons but I will warn you that in the audiobook the john galt speech chapter is an actual hour long. Just an hour of yelling at new Yorkers that they're lazy and communist.

Atlas Shrugged becomes a lot funnier if you imagine Ayn Rand writing it with one hand.

 

[Tuxedo_Zemus]

I just got the loveliest set of leather bound, Bible sized editions of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I'm halfway through the Hobbit and it really does take me back in a pure, innocent way. I really love this set.

 

[Mayor Cody Travers]

I was really into Michael Crichton’s novels when I was in middle school. Sphere still holds up as his best I think.

I'm with @McMitch that Jurassic Park is his best, it's a novel I never get tired of reading. I have a fondness for Eaters of the Dead/13th Warrior and Pirate Latitudes though - the former reminds me of my halcyon days enjoying Civilization II and learning about the different playable nations therein (of which Nordics-as-"Vikings") were one, and the latter of Sid Meier's Pirates! I'm a sucker for historical thrillers apparently.

Speaking of Crichton, has anyone noticed big-time thrillers, especially sci-fi, have fallen by the wayside since his death? I can't think of any such authors that cemented themselves as his clear successor. Part of it I think is brick-and-mortar stores dying out, but I also wonder if society becoming terminally online and everything in it becoming mired in enshittification is playing a part... I've heard sci-fi isn't as popular a genre lately because we ARE living in a sci-fi cyberpunk dystopia and thus looking for escapism, or something to that effect.