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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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 Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:00 pm
I noticed that most or all of the books that people are discussing on here are of the Fantasy or Sci-fi genre.
While that is absolutely fine, and fantasy is also my favourite genre, does anyone read any general fiction or historical fiction?
My favourite non-fantasy book is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. It's such an emotional piece of literature, and it really allows you to relate to the character of Charlie.
I'm also in a book club in real life, that's held once a month in my local bookstore, and we're currently reading The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.
Is anyone else in a real life book club as well? What are you reading?
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:39 pm
I haven't read any of the books ur describing, but if you can would you suggest a couple to maybe look into cause i want to read more than fiction novels. Oh and also the one with the wolves sounds interesting if u can can u pm me the books if not thats fine.
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:16 pm
I read quite a variety of stuff. Not too much classic fiction since I finished college, but I have been reading quite a few mystery/thriller books this year. Karin Slaughter is one of my favorite "new" authors this year with her Grant County series set in Georgia.
I also discovered I like the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. I think he'd be classified as general fiction, though there seems to be a supernatural element in all of his stories.
I also try to read at least one nonfiction book a month, on any subject that interests me...topics ranging from World War I to ultramarathons to a study of rats in New York City.
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:29 pm
stormseer I haven't read any of the books ur describing, but if you can would you suggest a couple to maybe look into cause i want to read more than fiction novels. Oh and also the one with the wolves sounds interesting if u can can u pm me the books if not thats fine. The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney is like a Historical fiction novel. It's set in Canada in 1800 and something... I can't remember the date. But yeah. I'm pretty sure that the author is British, like myself, but the book is set in Canada.
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:32 pm
clovereffect I read quite a variety of stuff. Not too much classic fiction since I finished college, but I have been reading quite a few mystery/thriller books this year. Karin Slaughter is one of my favorite "new" authors this year with her Grant County series set in Georgia. I also discovered I like the Japanese author Haruki Murakami. I think he'd be classified as general fiction, though there seems to be a supernatural element in all of his stories. I also try to read at least one nonfiction book a month, on any subject that interests me...topics ranging from World War I to ultramarathons to a study of rats in New York City. I've read a lot of WW1 fiction, such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, Strange Meeting by Susan Hill, The Regeneration Triology by Pat Barker, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks etc. You read any of those? I've read some non-fiction on the same subject too. I've read some Vera Brittain stuff ... I read most of Testament of Youth (I wouldn't recommend it), and Letters from a lost generation (which I would recommend).
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:20 pm
Gary Paulson & Wilson Rawls writes some good fiction.
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:42 pm
Vogue Muffin___x [I've read a lot of WW1 fiction, such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, Strange Meeting by Susan Hill, The Regeneration Triology by Pat Barker, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks etc. You read any of those? I have not, but perhaps I should look them up. I actually did my senior seminar in college on World War One Poetry and it's given me quite an interest in the period. Have you seen the movie Regeneration? Among other things it shows the real life meeting of the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen at Craig-lockhart hospital. I did my own thesis on Edward Thomas...he was a somewhat respected writer before the war, but very poor. He enlisted as a private at the age of 37, and was later killed at Somme. You can see a shift in his poetry from flowery bits on nature, to some very bitter and painful material in his last year. Anyway. Speaking of historical fiction, I am planning to start the Stars and Stripes series by Harry Harrison, which is an alternate history where the American civil war ended very differently.
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 10:37 am
clovereffect Vogue Muffin___x [I've read a lot of WW1 fiction, such as All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque, Strange Meeting by Susan Hill, The Regeneration Triology by Pat Barker, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks etc. You read any of those? I have not, but perhaps I should look them up. I actually did my senior seminar in college on World War One Poetry and it's given me quite an interest in the period. Have you seen the movie Regeneration? Among other things it shows the real life meeting of the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen at Craig-lockhart hospital. I did my own thesis on Edward Thomas...he was a somewhat respected writer before the war, but very poor. He enlisted as a private at the age of 37, and was later killed at Somme. You can see a shift in his poetry from flowery bits on nature, to some very bitter and painful material in his last year. Anyway. Speaking of historical fiction, I am planning to start the Stars and Stripes series by Harry Harrison, which is an alternate history where the American civil war ended very differently. I haven't seen the film, but it appears that the film is based off the books by Pat Barker. Sassoon is the main character. The novel is actually started by a non-fictional document. It's started with Siegfried Sassoon's Soldier's declaration. A lot of the poets' poetry changed during the course of the war. Many were patriotic and spoke of the beauty of man kind and nature, but once they got to the war and saw the reality of what was happening, they changed their tune. Wilfred Owen was another similar case, I believe.
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:39 am
Vogue Muffin___x A lot of the poets' poetry changed during the course of the war. Many were patriotic and spoke of the beauty of man kind and nature, but once they got to the war and saw the reality of what was happening, they changed their tune. Wilfred Owen was another similar case, I believe. The various poets all have their own stories I guess. From what I remember, Wilfred Owen idolized Keats, the romantic poet, so his early poems were (in my opinion) empty and flowery nonsense. To be fair, he was just a kid at the time. He is only famous for the poems in the last year of his life. Sassoon is very different. He was already a famous poet before the war, and lived to be an old man, so the war poems are only a small part of his writing. He was never a flowery romantic, but he also was never as graphic and bloody as Owen became, either.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 5:14 am
I read some mystery and various science books and history books. I'm currently working on Norse mythology, Viking culture, the evolution of the christian hell, and parasites.
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:33 am
clovereffect Vogue Muffin___x A lot of the poets' poetry changed during the course of the war. Many were patriotic and spoke of the beauty of man kind and nature, but once they got to the war and saw the reality of what was happening, they changed their tune. Wilfred Owen was another similar case, I believe. The various poets all have their own stories I guess. From what I remember, Wilfred Owen idolized Keats, the romantic poet, so his early poems were (in my opinion) empty and flowery nonsense. To be fair, he was just a kid at the time. He is only famous for the poems in the last year of his life. Sassoon is very different. He was already a famous poet before the war, and lived to be an old man, so the war poems are only a small part of his writing. He was never a flowery romantic, but he also was never as graphic and bloody as Owen became, either. Yeah, I suppose you're right. Sassoon is an exception from what I've found. Most of the poets I read for my course were famous for their poetry of the war, and again, most of them died during the course of the war. Sassoon however, lived through the war, and obviously the topics of his poetry wandered a while after the war. I HATE romantics poetry >< Errggh. As well as having to study extensive literature of the Great War, I also had to study Wordsworth and Coleridge. Wordsworth really did believe that sitting on a log and staring at Nature could teach you more than a book could, and that if you read too much your soul would be damaged. He was such an odd-ball.
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Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:58 am
What non-fantasy books have people been reading?
11 people have voted yes in the poll, so we still have a few posts to come wink
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 12:39 pm
Bump - because I felt like it smile
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 2:48 pm
Wow, looking back on what I've read this year I read very little general fiction. The vast majority of what I read is sci-fi, followed by Fantasy and Mystery. The only general fiction books I can remember reading this year were Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas both of which are amazing books.
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Vogue Muffin___x Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2009 9:36 am
Anja Sedai Wow, looking back on what I've read this year I read very little general fiction. The vast majority of what I read is sci-fi, followed by Fantasy and Mystery. The only general fiction books I can remember reading this year were Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas both of which are amazing books. Yeah, I've actually read very little general fiction this year, other than what I read for my Literature course (all the Literature of the Great War stuff that I mentioned earlier in the thread). What I have read has been very different from my usual fantasy. I've read Angels by Marian Keyes, which is a Chick-lit book, and I've read Before I die by Jenny Downham, which is like a life-drama. They were both very good, but different from my usual reading. I loved Marian Keyes though, I have some more of her books. I would recommend her if you're someone who can read Chick-lit without getting bored ><
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