The Good Books Thread/ATARnotes Book Club!

[DisaFear]

And so I've munched down the whole Inheritance Cycle in just over a week. Beautiful read, Inheritance tied up a good number of loose ends. (Left two gaping enigmas though, I was much perturbed by that  )

Definitely pick it up if you enjoy a good fantasy series. 9/10 

[nisha]

Read Fight club. 8.9/10

[brenden]

So.... bump?
With the aim of reinvigorating this Topic I've chosen three books from memory that were brilliant reads and many may enjoy regardless of genre preference.
1. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay. This book and it's sequel are on my favourite's list.
2. The Secret History - Donna Tartt. I read this a while ago and I remember it being brilliant. I'm not sure if my memory is making it better than it is though (a bad habit of mine)
3. The Talisman - Stephen King and Peter Straub.

Also, has any one read the Iliad or Atonement? These two books are at the top of my list now that the Psych exam's done.

Edit: Who's up for a sort of "Book Reading Challenge" over the holidays? Year 12's are soon and I'm sure uni students have coinciding holidays? I'm not even sure how it would work. Maybe a read as much as fast as you can type thing. We could flesh it out when we know who's interested.

[DisaFear]

Also, has any one read the Iliad or Atonement? These two books are at the top of my list now that the Psych exam's done.

I tried reading The Iliad last year, died 20 pages in

Currently been reading my way through the Star Wars novels, having complete around 15-20 of them in the past 3 months. Never having watched any of them, the novels are pretty awesome, I understand why Star Wars has such a nice fan base

Favourites: Episode I, II, III, Han Solo Trilogy
Books to avoid: Red Harvest, Death Star
Next on reading list: X-Wing Series

[Russ]

Also, has any one read the Iliad or Atonement? These two books are at the top of my list now that the Psych exam's done.

Atonement is fantastic, read it. It got a lot of love earlier in the thread from memory. The iliad...well...if you get a good translation it's pretty good (I had Fagles) but unless you're really into that story it's kinda dry. I read a bit of it for year 12 classics and enjoyed it what we did do, but I wouldn't want to set myself the task of reading the whole thing for fun.

If you want to do a book club style thing, give people a book to read and then allow them to post about it up to certain chapters (eg first day, only post about first chapter etc.)

[brenden]

Didn't grab your attention?

Funnily enough the Star Wars novels are ones I've never read despite being a huge fans of the movies. Does anyone knows whether or not the movies are based on the novels or vice versa?

Yeah I might go get my hands on Atonement later today.

If you want to do a book club style thing, give people a book to read and then allow them to post about it up to certain chapters (eg first day, only post about first chapter etc.)

How would that work with a large book? I generally pick a book and finish in 3 days max.

[Russ]

Well you scale it to the book. If you read faster than other people you just have to limit yourself to discussing what they're up to. If the book is really long then you have those discrete 'only discuss up to chapter 5/page100 type things'

[Lasercookie]

Funnily enough the Star Wars novels are ones I've never read despite being a huge fans of the movies. Does anyone knows whether or not the movies are based on the novels or vice versa?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_canon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Expanded_Universe

When it comes to absolute canon, the real story of Star Wars, you must turn to the films themselves—and only the films. Even novelizations are interpretations of the film, and while they are largely true to George Lucas' vision (he works quite closely with the novel authors), the method in which they are written does allow for some minor differences. The novelizations are written concurrently with the film's production, so variations in detail do creep in from time to time. Nonetheless, they should be regarded as very accurate depictions of the fictional Star Wars movies.

For episodes I to VI, the films are considered the 'canon'/the core. Most of the other stuff can be considered to be spin-off works / apart of the 'expanded universe'.

[WhoTookMyUsername]

Also, has any one read the Iliad or Atonement? These two books are at the top of my list now that the Psych exam's done.

Atonement is fantastic, read it. It got a lot of love earlier in the thread from memory. The iliad...well...if you get a good translation it's pretty good (I had Fagles) but unless you're really into that story it's kinda dry. I read a bit of it for year 12 classics and enjoyed it what we did do, but I wouldn't want to set myself the task of reading the whole thing for fun.

If you want to do a book club style thing, give people a book to read and then allow them to post about it up to certain chapters (eg first day, only post about first chapter etc.)

Is fagles the penguin one?
I read it last summer holidays and i quite enjoyed it (for ransom in year 12)

far easier to comprehend than shakespearer IMO

[charmanderp]

If you read Atonement and enjoy it, definitely check out the rest of the Ian McEwan oeuvre. Between the Sheets, Enduring Love, Solar, etc. All fantastic texts.

[JellyDonut]

Don't read the Illiad unless you are already accustomed to greek lore or have some sort of guide. I went in blind (for fun) and found in really dry. It's not a bad book per se (did good work depicting war), but it makes literary allusions which requires some in-depth historical knowledge to really get it.

From experience, book clubs always fail. But hey, I'll jump in if the chosen book is good. Also, don't do a long book, since people tend to have varying reading speeds and time they are willing to put in. Furthermore, you don't want a situation where the gaps between readers are too large

[DisaFear]

In keeping with my pact with gossamer, I read "The Final Empire" by Brandon Sanderson (guy who is continuing the Wheel of Time series), the first book in the Mistborn Trilogy

Gosh.

What a ride it was.
I haven't read fantasy for a while, but this was fantastic. Solid plot line, characters with depth, some good philosophical content, romance that isn't awkward, and the magic used was completely different to any book I've ever read

Started second book, pace doesn't drop, good to see 

Definitely recommend, 10/10

EDIT: I also read the first book in the X-Wing series, Rouge Squadron. Awesome book, wish the other books in the series were available. 9/10

[Russ]

I loved Final Empire and then couldn't get into the next book so ymmv

Nina also has a love affair with mistborn (I take credit for that)

[duhherro]

Deltora quest , Goosebumps , Choose your own adventure when I was a kid . I miss them

[MonsieurHulot]

Atlas Shrugged. Seriously.