Has Anyone Ever Read:
by Here is where we can ask for recommedations of books we think we might like to read.
For example, I read the following reviews for:
His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass
By Philip Pullman
The three novels in this series have everything: amazing plot, theology, metaphysics and heartrending romance. I started the first, The Golden Compass, and read the whole lot in about three days, and when I finished I was absolutely bereft. I'm so jealous of people who haven't started them. The last novel, The Amber Spyglass, has the most beautiful speeches about love. My now husband, Len, and I hadn't even set a wedding date when I was sobbing all over the book, thinking I must turn this page down, because when we do marry we'll somehow use that particular passage. I showed it to him and he burst into tears, too, and it became the first reading at our wedding. ~ Kate Beckinsale
Some books I just devour. I think about them all the time, read them during every spare minute, and am bereft when I finish them. It's kind of like being in love. I read The Golden Compass fast and feverishly, as if I were sick. I loved it so much that I vowed not to read Pullman's next book for at least a month in order to ration the pleasure. I lasted two days then gulped down the second and third books in a frenzy.
The trilogy unabashedly grapples with moral questions in a way few contemporary novels dare to. It's about two children who learn to defend human beings' right to leave behind innocence and gain experience. Set in a stunningly imagined world made up of past, present and future elements, the trilogy demonstrates the limitations of the labels "fantasy," "science fiction," and "children's writing," and carves out its own place as a modern classic. Lord of the Rings, move over—your seat has been taken! ~ Tracy Chevalier
But I'm not totally sold. Have any of you read these books?
UPDATED TO ADD
12/7/04-OK, I'm sold. Last night I read The Golden Compass in one sitting. It only took me 3 hours, not too shabby. I like it so far. Interesting characters. I will begin the second novel after the meeting tonight and see how far I can get. I would recommend it to anyone that likes fantasy/sci-fi. It is a children's book, no doubt, but it's got some intriguing ideas. I especially like one character, Iorek Byrnison, an armored bear. The main character is Lyra Belacqua (Harp Pretty-water?! Name etomology is so cool!)~s
12/10/04-I'm done. The series took a negative turn. The content is pretty controversial actually. I would no longer recommend it, but I did enjoy the writer's style and imagination. He creates not one but several interesting universes.
AI Summary
34 Comments
can you even remember anything reading something in 3 hours? I just can't comprehend this at all
summer reads crazy fast and still comprehends everything
haha the more i get to know about summer the more i find we are alike. haha
I read the entire LOTR trilogy in about two days..? skipped some parts of ROTK tho cos the movie didn't come out yet and i wanted to be at least a little surprised.
Read the hobbit in like.. i duno 2-3 hours
it's nutty
i miss it, i used to reaad like 2-3 books a day when i didn't work
That's pretty intense. I'm fairly fast..but not that fast. I read twice as fast as my sister, so when reading the LOTR trilogy together I read it twice over by the time she was done the first time. I miss stuff sometimes cause I read so fast so I just read it twice. I enjoy it more that way.
yeah it's weird too cos this was like 2 years ago and i remember a LOT of details from those books, like things that weren't in the movie, exact quotes, descriptions, etc.
I've always wanted to actually learn speed-reading.. but then i don't think it would be as enjoyable
holy crap.
yeah, I can't imagine reading like that.
I read so slow. I read as if I'm reading a story out load to someone.
I read slower than THAT. I read like I'm reading out loud to a group of mentally challenged infants or something.
oh yeah? well actually I can't read. so I read a book as if I'm trying to teach myself how to read. cause I can't. and its really slow.
haha. Yeah. We had just gotten married. I was looking for a job. We didn't have Tv or internet. I would walk to the library (down the road) and take out like 2-3 books a day cos otherwise I had nothing entertaining to do but cook and clean..
Thats insanely fast. I can do 100 pages in a day. But 3 books in a day. My head would melt.
lets find a crazy long book and have a race! my most amazing accomplishment was reading the otherland series (4 books 792+675+784+1066=3317 pages) in five days. of course, i didnt sleep.
wow. that would have taken me something like a month and a half or two months.
what are those books about anyway?
would have taken me about 3 years.
the series is set a few years in the future when you can literally plug yourself in to a vr web so theres neat techie stuff. plus theres bad guys and conspiracy and its all mysterious. its like sci-fi (emphasis on the sci) plus suspense. see link in comment #33.
Otherland series? This sounds interesting. Explain.
they are awesome. my friend ben told me about them. heres a link:
http://www.tadwilliams.com/volume1.html
speaking of which i have to borrow that...
js has #1 and ld has the rest. i kinda want to rebuy.
i read the golden compass when i was younger and i remember not liking it. i donn't remember specific reasons why i didn't like em but i'll tell ya that i didn't. then i read the other ones and i liked them more.
i liked the golden compass better than the others. in fact, i liked the series less with each book.
so how did you like it in general? worth the read?
it was well written and interesting, but also sort of blasphemous. i wouldnt recommend it bc of the content. its so hard to describe a book without giving away the plot. its starts out straight fantasy/scifi then has some biblical references that build and are inflamatory and false. was it a good read? yeah. was it a good thing to read? prolly not, imo. did i read it? yeah.
yeah, I guess thats what I was asking, thanks.
this is like me with the bourne identity trilogy. i absoluely loved the first one. its great. i was really excited to read the next one and was supremely dissapointed. maybe because it involved asia and i don't know a lot about that culture. i'm told the 3rd one is much the same of the 2nd but ihaven't decieded if i should read it yet.
They're fairly juvenile, but are very very well written and deal with a few mature themes [not THOSE mature themes, people]. They're making the movies soon.
i love childrens/young adult sci fi/fantasy. madeline l'engle (a wrinkle in time) is my fav author. alot of adult sci fi seems to loose the fantasy aspect to me. i like that part. earnest sci fi is boring.
now that ive finished the books, i know what you mean. thanks for not spoiling it for me. i dont mind some biblical references but this one went a little overboard for me. the multi-world concept was really interesting as was the whole dust/shadows/conscious thing. ive avoided "growing up" and lately its become somewhat ridiculous-to myself and maybe to others. the mary malone (scientist/ex nun)character was easy for me to identify with.
No, but I'll borrow. =)
one down. two to go. they should be available to borrow by the time you arrive.
sounds like a good read. probably not my taste. This reminds me, I need to go buy books. I'm so sick of television.
haha, i totally didn't realize i was reading a quote from kate beckinsale. when i got to the "my husband" part, i was like, WHAT! when did summer get married?!
put those in quotes or italics or something, silly
good call. im always up for clarity.