Bad Books, Good Times discussion

So what about books we actually like, yeah? What are you reading now that's good?

The Name of the Wind... it is preciously good written :D

"The Cuckoo's Calling" by Rowling is all right. It's a bit dull though, and I don't get why Strike is supposed to be such an amazing, compelling creation. I liked him. He's a good character. But there was nothing that made him stand out to me in particular.

I think my problem is that, over three quarters of the book in, there really has been no conflict. Strike got every interview he was looking for. There were no real threats directed at him. And solving the mystery has pretty much consisted of Strike going interview to interview and taking notes. Probably realistic, but also boring.

And yet, I'm still reading it, so I do like SOMETHING about it. It's not a BAD book. It's decent. It keeps my interest. I just don't get all the raves.

Also reading Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" books and stories, which vary wildly in quality but are great at best. After "His Last Vow" (THAT WAS TOO GREAT) I'm back into my Sherlock Holmes fanboy ways. One of my all time favorite characters.

Hey guys! Looking for something to read? Try my portfolio! Some of my writing in it is good, I think! Some is pretty bad! Some is meh! Which piece of writing is which? Who knows! You can find out here: http://www.writing.com/main/portfolio...

If you have nothing else to do, solve the mystery of my mediocre writing today!

It's sad, but I'm really enjoying doing a lot of non-fiction reading. Like I'm reading The Art of SEO right now, and it's awesome and fascinating how search engines work and decide what information is relevant and trustworthy. Somehow some of our posts were deemed relevant and trustworthy when searching things like "Fifty Shades Excerpt," so that's weird and hilarious.

Bellomy, I plan on checking out your stuff! Also, have you thought about writing any more guest posts? The Animorphs/Host one was great, and people really enjoyed it.

Thanks for saying so, Ariel. I'll try and think of something clever.

So I finished the Cuckoo's Calling a couple days ago. The final maybe fifty pages or so were a billion times better than the rest of the book. Why? BECAUSE THERE WAS A TIME CLOCK. All of a sudden when the mystery needs to be solved and you're running out of time things get way, way more interesting.

This goes back to my point: For the majority of the book, there were no threats. It was just interview after the interview. I had no reason to be really invested in what was happening.

The ending was clever at first glance, but on inspection it was a bit wooly, though I don't remember why right now.

You can see the bones of Rowling's writing in there: Good characters, good but not spectacular prose, good but not spectacular dialogue, highly erratic pacing that can be extremely exciting when it picks up, and a plot that impresses you with it's cleverness but doesn't really expect you to stop and think.

(Side note- Rowling has a reputation as a brilliant plotter, but her plots actually have a fair amount of holes in them. She gets the reputation because people become so wowed by some of her shocking twists, and so convinced by how well she manages to make them fit into the story, that they don't even realize that Harry didn't even have to enter the tournament all along, because seriously HOLY CRAP IT WAS BARTY CROUCH JR. People tend to remember the brilliant bits, which can be brilliant, and ignore or completely miss the holes.)

3 of 5 stars.

That's what I thought of that book. It dragged painfully until the very end where it finally felt like there were actual stakes.

I just read Stone's Fall I really liked the pace, and the way the story unfolded backwards through time. Very creative, and surprisingly suspenseful for a story about a turn of the century finance mogul...

I did give the book 3 of 5 stars, because by the end of it I realized that I actually was interested in reading more of those stories. Mostly because of those last fifty pages.

I somewhat recently read Deathless by Catherynne Valente, and it's become one of those books that I've been annoyingly recommending to all my friends.

My favorite books tend to be mysteries (especially cozy ones) and so I find it hard to recommend them as the genre can be an acquired taste. That said, Agatha Christie is by far my favorite author and I've enjoyed all of the books I've read by her. 'Crooked House' is the one I recommend most because I think it's absolutely brilliant!

Another good book I read a few years back was 'I Am the Messenger' by Markus Zusak. As I said though, I haven't read it in a few years and I'm almost afraid to reread it now in case it isn't as good as I remember it being.