What are some books that you’ve read recently?
(Title, Author, Short Description plz!)
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Dianna Wynne Jones
Both the book and the movie and different, and both are wonderful. I highly recommend both.
Witches, Wizards, War, Love, and one hell of a great story. It’s a small book, but very worth it.
(The movie can be found on Google Video, actually, here’s the link. Howl’s Moving Castle
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
Pretty much the most inspiring post-apocalyptic horror novel ever.
It never really says what happened to the earth, but everyone is trying to make their way towards the equator where its warmer, it follows the story of a dying man and his son as they walk along a freezing world.
theres a book? i thought myazaki made the story…the comparisons to Disney that keep being drawn to ghibli return like a half brick to the head
anyway, i like books by Christopher Moor, such as The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal and A Dirty Job
Yeah, I thought the exact same thing. 0_o Miyazaki doesn’t strike me as someone who would do anything that wasn’t an original work (unless you count Nausicaa, which was adapted from his own manga, anyway). I’m thoroughly surprised…
Well, let’s see…I’m currently reading one book on the side and a series. The book on the side is called “Spin” and is by Robert Charles Wilson. It’s very good. I’m seriously considering picking up some of his other works. The series I’m reading is the Vampire Earth series by E.E. Knight. I’m currently in limbo on the series, having just finished “Way of the Wolf,” the first book in the series, and getting ready to read “Choice of the Cat” next.
Another series that I heartily recommend is Kenneth Oppel’s “Airborn” series. I haven’t read the third one yet, but it’s next on the chopping block after “Spin” and the Vampire Earth series.
Btw, these all contain some sort of Sci-Fi element. I’m big on Science Fiction. “Spin” relies on the Sci-Fi for plot development, but so far the Sci-Fi aspect is somewhat minimal compared to the actual plot, which involves the Sci-Fi quite a bit, but merely as a driving backstory. The real story is in the characters, and how they develop. It’s very good.
The Vampire Earth series is full-blown Sci-Fi, with most of it revolving around the idea of an Earth under management by Aliens which practically harvest humanity in controlled amounts so as to sustain themselves for immortality. Not only is that the driving force behind the plot, it is probably the most influential plot element (at this point, at least. I’ve just barely gotten into the series).
The Airborn Series isn’t as Sci-Fi as much. it more or less is just a slightly different version of what I sort of view as a mid 1930’s atmosphere (without Nazi Germany, however. or the Depression in America). The best way I can manage to explain it is that it’s what the world would’ve been like if air transport had been invented much earlier on, and the world began to revolve around that air transport. This isn’t a very good description, however. It’s very good, though. I thoroughly enjoyed the two out of three I read. Can’t wait to get my hands on the third one.
So yeah, I find it a little odd that if this topic had shown up about 6 months ago, I wouldn’t be able to contribute anything to it. I hadn’t read anything until about October of last year. I used to be big on reading, and am just now getting back into it.
I recommend the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, anything by Kurt Vonnegut, or Catch-22. I’m not actually a fan of books though. They’re too much work for too little information. All you get out of serious books is a moral one or two sentences long. Funny and pointless books, sure, but I get really bored with satires or allegories.
I like the Percy Jackson books. Written by Rick Riordan.
They’re good books, about a kid who is Poseidon’s son, and he has to fight monsters from Greek Mythology. Sounds lame, but hey, they ARE good books. The fifth and final one is coming out in May. Check em out at a library maybe.
Don’t hate me for saying so, but ‘Wicked’ is one I really enjoyed.
Also,
‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry
‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini
and ‘Shogun’ by James Clavell (It spends an entire chapter describing in detail how the Japanese Army boiled a man in such a way that his skin melted and his organs boiled into a soup, the man still alive.)