This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)

#1 | Back to Top10-21-2006 03:53:10 PM

Yasha
Bitch Queen
From: Edmonton, AB, Canada
Registered: 10-15-2006
Posts: 6031
Website

Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I'm an absolutely rabid reader. I devour books of all kinds when given the time. I'm always looking for new books to read, too-- I've worn a lot of my library to pieces rereading for lack of money to buy new books, and never seem to manage to keep lists of things to buy around for when I do have money.

So tell me about your books! Favorites, books you're reading, and books you think will be good!



For my part, right now I'm reading The Blood Countess, by Andrei Codescu. It's a fictionalized work about the historical figure Erszebet Bathory (anglicized as Elizabeth Bathory)-- a name that no doubt all of the vampire aficionados on the forum are familiar with. This book opens with Elizabeth Bathory's murderous rage against a young girl, a singer, whose voice has been deemed a gift from God. It soon switches to a plotline in present day; Drake Bathory-Kereshtur, a descendant of Elizabeth's, accuses himself of a murder in Hungary, the home he has been long exiled from. He believes that Elizabeth is haunting the future, and influencing his actions from behind the veil of death.

The story seems to be based more in legend than historical fact; many of the accusations against Erszebet are not supported by the actual evidence we have from her trial. What this story does have, however, is a look at the richness and violence of Hungarian history and belief, and as with a lot of the books I like, a heaping helping of sexuality and psychotic behavior. The writing style irks me for reasons I can't put my finger on, but on the whole, it's a book I enjoy very much.

Recommendation: This book is for people who like the legend about Erszebet Bathory bathing in the blood of young maidens to preserve her beauty forever. It's the linchpin the story turns on, and anyone who is attracted to the image will enjoy most of this book. It helps if you like European history.

Edit: Great idea, Gio. Please link amazon pages in your posts so's we can see which books you are talking about!

Last edited by Yasha (10-21-2006 09:58:47 PM)


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#2 | Back to Top10-21-2006 04:26:25 PM

Suncat
Touga Topper
From: Minnesota, USA
Registered: 10-18-2006
Posts: 53
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I just finished (like, 15 minutes ago!) The Sharing Knife: Beguilement by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is volume 1 of a promised 2-volume story.

Bujold is one of my favorite authors. I've liked everything I've read from her, which is difficult for me to say about most anyone. Her books, I will buy sight unseen. She is most known for her Miles Vorkosigan science-fiction novels, and then more recently the Chalion fantasy books. Sharing Knife opens yet another distinct world.

It feels to me like a future Earth, possibly post-apocalyptic. It's very much a romance, with much of the interest coming from the fact that the two lead characters are from two culturally isolated groups. These peoples live side-by-side, and interact reasonably peaceably, but almost never inter-marry. So the reader learns about the two cultures as the leads learn about each other, and live in turn within each group. We also learn bits about the lingering threat from the disaster that destroyed the ancient precursor culture, about which more will be revealed in the second book, I hope.

I tried to read Blood Countess once, got it from the library. I am something of a vampire afficiando, but I couldn't read that one either.  It just ... annoyed me. Might have been the style, as I couldn't pinpoint anything in the plot to bother me.


Laurie

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#3 | Back to Top10-21-2006 07:16:21 PM

Ivy-chan
Unfulfilled Juror
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 232

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I mainly read fantasy with a sprinkling of sci fi, but historical novels about interesting, (and mainly female, I'll admit) historical figures interest me, too. I unfortunately haven't had a lot of time to read for pleasure, but I speed read and try to read a new book at least once a week.

I just finished reading Poison Studyby Maria V. Snyder. I wasn't expecting too much from the book to begin with, but poison and poisoners have always interested me, and though the book didn't go into too much detail about the kinds of poisons used here, I did enjoy reading this. It takes place in a former kingdom Ixia, a monarchy overthrown by a man called Commander Ambrose. It' a pretty fascist society with trict laws called The Code of Behavior, complete with uniforms for all professions. (Jobs are assigned.) The main character, Yelena, is offerred a reprieve from the noose if she becomes the new food taster for the Commander, and it goes on from there. We have intruigue, magic, and even some romance here. It was a good light read.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend. I can say that it was a hilarious read if you disconnect yourself and not take it seriously. I didn't like the fact that the main character engulfed the plot and overshadowed the importance of the apostles and hanged Judas Iscariot after he betrayed Jesus, but the whole thing was somehow immensely funny, in a bluntly insulting, sarcastic way. It's clearly a parody work, so I can let a lot of Stu-ishness pass. This is a bit like American Pratchett without the fantasy. Profanity, sexual situations, and Biblical innacuracy. However, we see Jesus mastering Nirvana among Buddhist monks.

(Edited: Why did I orignally write religious figures? Strange.)

Last edited by Ivy-chan (10-21-2006 09:38:57 PM)


If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
-Isaac Newton

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#4 | Back to Top10-21-2006 09:20:51 PM

hyacinth_black
une personne horrible
From: Waiting at the window.
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 3301
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

My favorite book in the world is The Winter People by Phyllis A Whitney!

ITS SO GOOOD!

Unfortunately, it's out of print now...

The Winter People is a very gripping mystery... I'm no good at writing book summaries so I'll give you one from the book jacket...

When Glen Chandler first removed the combs from Dina's pale hair and said, "You're my winter girl," Dina seemed to surrender her will to him forever. She married Glen without even seeing High Towers, the remote Victorian estate whose windows, like eyes, still watched the lake where Glen's mother had once drowned. A summer person herself, Dina did not know that the Chandlers were winter people-as cold is the ice around High Towers. She did not know they could turn her very heart to ice.

Dina had often heard of Glen's father, the world-renowned portrait painter. Glen himself had once shown great promise as a sculptor, and he seemed obsessed with the alabaster head he was doing of her. Yet before their marriage, Glen had kept the all-important fact from Dina: he had a twin sister. It is soon clear that it is to Glynis, his twin as dark as Dina is fair, that Glen listens. Always inseparable, always united, they seem to stand as one against Dina-as if playing some wild game of their own.

Dina soon finds herself in mortal terror. Yet what Glynis' evil influence can do to Glen and to her marriage is only the beginning of the high danger Dina will face. For this novel might be said to be about demon possession. And all those at High Towers are haunted, possessed.

~~~

Sounds good, ne?

I'm in the process of getting permission from Random House so I can make this into a graphic novel... Slave Labor Graphics is going to publish me!  *so happy* emot-biggrin emot-biggrin


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#5 | Back to Top10-21-2006 09:37:12 PM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I'm presently reading The Falcon of Palermo, by Maria Bordihn. It's a historical novel about Frederick II, the Norman ruler of Sicily then Holy Roman Emperor than a whole bunch more because he just kicked ass like that. It's set in the middle ages, and the author's attention to culture and detail is absolutely fantastic. I like historical novels because they offer, when well done, a better glimpse of the time period than a dry history text, and this one's definitely pulled that off beautifully. The parts set in Sicily are especially great to me because the region was such a mishmash of cultures and so far removed from the rest of medieval Europe; Frederick learns the habit of bathing from the Saracens (Arabs) and so is considered effeminate in the German regions where bathing wasn't a big thing at the time. (Also, my roots are predominantly Sicilian, so take my interest with a slight grain of salt, but give me credit for attempting objectivity.)

The lead character, Frederick, well...etc-love. He had incredibly progressive views on religion and art for the time, and he's portrayed as equally openminded about sex, though this I'm not sure is documented so much as assumed from his upbringing. So far I'm having an absolute blast watching him kick up the religious and cultural dust that collected all over the middle ages.

Unfortunately I'm a hopelessly slow reader, partly because I'm out of practice, and partly because I've just never been good at speed reading. Really need to work on that.

Oh, and because it was such fun, the last book I read was At Home with the Marquis de Sade, by Francine du Plessix Gray. A biography about, well, a very kinky dude. emot-wink I honestly rather liked the Marquis de Sade before (Quills is one of my favorite movies), but by the end of this biography I liked him a whole lot more. He's been demonized by history, and not without reason because he's quite a pervert and does pretty nasty things aside from writing all that smut, but about halfway into the book you just start forgiving him. He turns out a childish result of the hideous spoiling awarded to the French aristocracy at the time, plus, well hey. Naughty priests go back a long way. Also I found his ruthless food snobbing to be quite adorable.

(Hey, links to the amazon.com pages would be awesome, even if you don't buy on amazon they put a lot of info on their pages like page number, blanket price, publisher, etc., and a lot of books have a few pages you can sample read.)


Akio, you have nice turns of phrase, but your points aren't clear and you have no textual support. I can't give this a passing grade.
~ Professor Arisa Konno, Eng 1001 (Freshman Literature and Composition)

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#6 | Back to Top10-22-2006 01:09:29 AM

Coin
Wakaba Wrangler
From: Northern CA
Registered: 10-18-2006
Posts: 12

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I just finished re-reading Dune by Frank Herbert.  Damn, it's good every time! "Fear is the mindkiller.  I must not fear..." emot-dance
It's hard to nail down a favorite but the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin is awesome.
Oh, does anybody else like H.P. Lovecraft and the Cthulu Mythos?  If you haven't heard of it but you think you might like pulp horror from the 1930s give it a try!
http://www.the-reelgillman.com/trivia/innsmouth.html <--- A link to The Shadow Over Innsmouth.  It's one of Lovecraft's best known stories.  There are immortal evil fish people! You can't go wrong! school-devil 
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Last edited by Coin (10-22-2006 01:10:07 AM)

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#7 | Back to Top10-22-2006 05:49:00 AM

Clarice
Well hello, Clarice...
From: New Zealand
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 3102
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Giovanna wrote:

Oh, and because it was such fun, the last book I read was At Home with the Marquis de Sade, by Francine du Plessix Gray. A biography about, well, a very kinky dude. emot-wink I honestly rather liked the Marquis de Sade before (Quills is one of my favorite movies), but by the end of this biography I liked him a whole lot more. He's been demonized by history, and not without reason because he's quite a pervert and does pretty nasty things aside from writing all that smut, but about halfway into the book you just start forgiving him. He turns out a childish result of the hideous spoiling awarded to the French aristocracy at the time, plus, well hey. Naughty priests go back a long way. Also I found his ruthless food snobbing to be quite adorable.

...I loved Quills myself -- I think I am going to have to go and find this one myself.

Yesterday I just started reading The Firemaster's Mistress, which I will reserve judgment on in the meantime because I'm about three chapters in and haven't formed an opinion yet. I picked it up because it's a semi-historical novel set around the Gunpower Plot that was set up to kill a certain king od England, and since moving to England I have felt rather guilty about not knowing, say, the difference between Mary I and Mary, Queen of Scots (hey, it's EMBARASSING to go to Westminster and not have a fucking clue whose effigy you're looking at!). I ended up reading a lot of Philippa Gregory as I am no fan of proper history texts and am bright enough to take what I read with a grain of salt; I just want the general idea of what went on. This book here is published by Gregory's publishers and she said something nice about it herself, but I am not quite convinced I like it yet. I also bought Arthur and George at the same time, but I haven't started on that. It's set partly in Edinburgh. That's why I bought it. I am a whore for Edinburgh.

...speaking of which, I reread a bunch of Diana Gabaldon the other day, which is usually worth the read. Not a huge fan, but...it's Scotland. Scotland is my friend. emot-keke

Other books I've read lately that I wouldn't mind hearing people's opinions on are The Historian and Labyrinth -- has anyone else read them? The former I can't decide if I like because of the ending, and the latter I would like to talk about with anyone who has read both Labyrinth itself and the ubiquitous The Da Vinci Code because I can't decidce which actually works better as a story and a piece of literature...and it bugs me.

And hey, I just remembered two months ago I bought a Doctor Who audio book I still haven't listened to. [scratches head] I never listen to audio books; I only bought this because it was David Tennant reading it. Hell, what is everyone else's opinion on audiobooks? I read anything from the dictionary to Eliot to Nora Roberts to FHM to manga to physics text books to fairytales, but I can not for the life of me LISTEN to an audiobook. Even though I loved having stories read to me as a kid. Goddammit, where's my iPod at?


It takes forty-seven New Zealanders eight months to make just one batch of 42 Below Vodka. ...luckily, that leaves one of us free to be Prime Minister.

Beyond The Silver Leaves

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#8 | Back to Top10-22-2006 08:24:44 AM

hyacinth_black
une personne horrible
From: Waiting at the window.
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 3301
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Ooh! I also have to mention a few classic books that I adore & everyone will end up reading through high school or college...

Cyrano de Bergerac (so funny!), Catcher in the Rye (also so funny!), In Cold Blood (a very intellegent book!), Flowers for Algernon (*sniff* it was a sad beautiful book), The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (err... dunno if I spelled it correctly... but I loved it anyways), Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (who doesn't love these books?), Farenheight 451 (O_O scary how our society is turning out like theirs...), & anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Oh, he is a GENIUS!)

I, in the meanwhile, shall be checking out The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Blood Countess (Erzebets story fascinates me, so I shall be equally enthralled with the book!), At Home with the Marquis de Sade, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend, & others that are suggeted...

As far as audio books go... I always see a little anime movie inside of my head while reading books, so if somebody else is doing the voiceovers, I can't stand it!  I really detest audiobooks.  No offense to anyone who needs them (i.e. the blind), but I just don't like them at all.


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#9 | Back to Top10-22-2006 08:39:10 AM

.deep.blue.
Miki Molester
Registered: 10-18-2006
Posts: 36

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Well, hoping that I'll be able to read Japanese text one day, my next favourite book that I would like to read is "Schell;Bullet"

It's another one of thsoe mecha-comic books that is Gundam-ish with politics and stuff. I dont know much because I dont know how to read Japanese xD


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emot-keke

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#10 | Back to Top10-22-2006 09:49:57 AM

Dallbun
Tour Guide to Crawling Chaos
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 719

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

.deep.blue. wrote:

Well, hoping that I'll be able to read Japanese text one day, my next favourite book that I would like to read is "Schell;Bullet"

It's another one of thsoe mecha-comic books that is Gundam-ish with politics and stuff. I dont know much because I dont know how to read Japanese xD

You realize that Utena director Kunihiko Ikuhara co-wrote Schell Bullet with Mamoru Nagano? Or is it just bizarre cosmic coincidence? emot-wink

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#11 | Back to Top10-22-2006 11:58:05 AM

homogenized
Wakaba Wrangler
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: 10-16-2006
Posts: 19
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I'm reading Startled by his Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison right now. It's the seventh book in the Georgia Nicolson series, which is funny as hell (I'm too lazy to list the others because they all have really long names). After that, I'm going to read Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser. That book is pretty hefty, but I actually kinda like hefty books as long as they're interesting.


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#12 | Back to Top10-23-2006 05:19:45 PM

Hinotori
The Notable Death Mantis
From: Soviet Ohiostan
Registered: 10-23-2006
Posts: 1335

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Roooarrroorororrurur. Proast.

I loves me sum Lady Bathory, but I haven't read this one yet but I'd like to. My tastes are all over the road, but I'm currently reading The Diamond Age, Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson, because I like Stephenson alright as far as writing goes (not my favourite, but not my least favourite either) but I positively devour steampunk. I loved it before I even knew what it was, and a lot of people see this as genre-defining, but I'm not really picturing it. emot-gonk I love 1800's/early 1900's science fiction for that exact same reason, even though there isn't that much of it. (mmmm Wells)


Hinotori made this post, and then went back and changed it later. Such is life.

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#13 | Back to Top10-23-2006 05:38:16 PM

Melusina
Wakaba Wrangler
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 19

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I am the biggest Anglophile Victorian nerd ever. It's really quite sad-- and I love anything that has to do with historical fantasy. A Great and Terrible Beauty, Sorcery and Cecilila, Neverwhere, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell-- good stuff. I also love A.S. Byatt (anybody read her fairytales? They're delightfully ghoulish and elegant), L.M. Montgomery, Jane Austen, Patricia C. Wrede. I'm reading The Crimson Petal and The White right now. I adore Virgina Woolf, Sarah Waters, Neil Gaiman. . . actually, if it's been written, I should be all over it. xD

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#14 | Back to Top10-23-2006 05:46:11 PM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Melusina wrote:

Neverwhere

Don't start on him or I may never shut up. etc-love etc-love etc-love


Akio, you have nice turns of phrase, but your points aren't clear and you have no textual support. I can't give this a passing grade.
~ Professor Arisa Konno, Eng 1001 (Freshman Literature and Composition)

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#15 | Back to Top10-23-2006 06:46:37 PM

Melusina
Wakaba Wrangler
From: Salt Lake City
Registered: 10-17-2006
Posts: 19

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Giovanna wrote:

Melusina wrote:

Neverwhere

Don't start on him or I may never shut up. etc-love etc-love etc-love

Everytime we squee about Neil, a angel gets its wings. emot-biggrin

Er. Or something. But one really must love the man.

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#16 | Back to Top10-23-2006 07:20:34 PM

Mylene
Fighting Evil By Moonlight
From: Next to Paradox
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 3704

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I just finished reading Wuthering Heights over the weekend.  I enjoyed it, but it's not exactly a favorite.  I try to read one or two classics a year, and fill in the rest of the time with fluff fiction or, more often than not, various non-fiction books related to cultures, mental health, etc. 

Anyway, one of my favorite books is definitely Norwegian Wood by Murakami Haruki.  It's a very slow-paced drama about two people coping with the suicide of a friend.  Or at least that's sort of what it's about.  Murakami's books are always really hard for me to explain.  I'm also quite find of Goodbye Tsugumi by Yoshimoto Banana (very ethereal feel to it), and Geisha (non-fiction) and Tale of Lady Murasaki (historical fiction) by Liza Dalby.  Great anthropologist/storyteller.

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#17 | Back to Top10-23-2006 07:42:22 PM

mercurynin
Flourishing Verderer
From: Honolulu, HI
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 638

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Clarice wrote:

And hey, I just remembered two months ago I bought a Doctor Who audio book I still haven't listened to. [scratches head] I never listen to audio books; I only bought this because it was David Tennant reading it. Hell, what is everyone else's opinion on audiobooks? I read anything from the dictionary to Eliot to Nora Roberts to FHM to manga to physics text books to fairytales, but I can not for the life of me LISTEN to an audiobook. Even though I loved having stories read to me as a kid. Goddammit, where's my iPod at?

Ohhh, David Tennant...  *wipes drool*  It breaks my heart that they won't let him keep his accent as the Doctor, but I get to see him in my TV box every week (as opposed to my computer box), so I'll suck it up.  Please let me know if they let him use his accent (read as: SPEAK NORMALLY) while reading the audiobooks.

And the only audiobook I've ever bought is America (The Audiobook).  I should probably pick up the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio plays one of these days...

In other news, I'm doing research for my Women in Japanese History research paper, due at the end of the semester--I'm writing about geisha from just before the Meiji Restoration to the present day.  I've had a thing for geisha since I don't know when (and no, it was not fueled by that crappy novel; you know the one).  My favorite book so far of all my source material is Bad Girls of Japan, which is a serious scholarly work that manages to be a fun read.

I also really like Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D series.  I can't stand the overuse of passive voice in the translation, but I've been wanting to read the novels since I found out they existed.  It's total crack, and I like seeing how Western horror has influenced Japanese ideas about what is scary.  I'm currently reading the fifth of who knows how many, The Stuff of Dreams.

Last edited by mercurynin (10-23-2006 07:57:26 PM)


You know our hearts beat time out very slowly.  You know our hearts beat time -- they are waiting for something that'll never arrive.

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#18 | Back to Top10-23-2006 09:31:07 PM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Melusina wrote:

Everytime we squee about Neil, a angel gets its wings. emot-biggrin

I've covered well over half the heavenly host, then. That man could sneeze on a napkin and I'd read it and think it was fantastic. etc-love

mercurynin wrote:

I also really like Hideyuki Kikuchi's Vampire Hunter D series.  I can't stand the overuse of passive voice in the translation, but I've been wanting to read the novels since I found out they existed.  It's total crack, and I like seeing how Western horror has influenced Japanese ideas about what is scary.  I'm currently reading the fifth of who knows how many, The Stuff of Dreams.

emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa
I had NO idea these were translated! I just doublecame. etc-wankgirl etc-wankgirl

Is the translation very grating then? Are they good books? Tell me more!


Akio, you have nice turns of phrase, but your points aren't clear and you have no textual support. I can't give this a passing grade.
~ Professor Arisa Konno, Eng 1001 (Freshman Literature and Composition)

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#19 | Back to Top10-23-2006 10:13:09 PM

mercurynin
Flourishing Verderer
From: Honolulu, HI
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 638

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Giovanna wrote:

emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa emot-aaa
I had NO idea these were translated! I just doublecame. etc-wankgirl etc-wankgirl

Is the translation very grating then? Are they good books? Tell me more!

Dark Horse Publishing licensed them, and the one I'm reading is the most recent translated novel.  The best part, I think, is Yoshitaka Amano's covers and illustrations.  The translations are okay, I guess.  I guess passive voice irks me because I'm studying journalism and writing in passive voice is a big no-no.  I wish I knew how Kikuchi originally wrote them so I could tell exactly how the translation compares.

Content-wise, they're not bad.  I find myself zoning out during combat scenes, though, but that might just be me.  Kikuchi LOVES making young women the protagonist-du-jour.  At the rate D is traveling, I'm going to insist on a map of the Frontier one of these days--man covers some serious ground.  It's also both fascinating and frustrating how Kikuchi inserts background into the stories, especially anything to do with the Capital and the scientific, technological and cultural advances the Nobility made while they were in their prime.

Just as a point of reference, novels one (self-titled) and three (Demon Deathchase) are the ones that the two movies are based on, (tiny spoiler) though Demon Deathchase has a significantly different ending from Bloodlust.(/tiny spoiler)


You know our hearts beat time out very slowly.  You know our hearts beat time -- they are waiting for something that'll never arrive.

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#20 | Back to Top10-24-2006 07:34:23 AM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Well I might have to give them a scan; they're short, it seems, and wow VHD. My first anime. etc-love (Also between D and Alucard from Symphony of the Night...well ending up between them sounds like a whole lot of fun, let's just say that. etc-wankgirl Dracula's got some lovely kids.)

As for other books, there's a Demian thread picking up in the SKU forum, so I guess I'll be reading that again soon. emot-smile


Akio, you have nice turns of phrase, but your points aren't clear and you have no textual support. I can't give this a passing grade.
~ Professor Arisa Konno, Eng 1001 (Freshman Literature and Composition)

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#21 | Back to Top10-27-2006 02:17:29 AM

Joku_Krypfto
Saionji Slapper
From: Finland
Registered: 10-27-2006
Posts: 21

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Right now, I'm in the process of reading The Waste Lands, by Stephen King. I guess I'm kind of late into the whole Dark Tower bandwagon, huh? In any case, it's a mighty awesome series, though the constant "foreshadowing" really annoys me. After a dozen cases of "that was the last time he saw her alive", it really starts to lose its effect.

The book I read before that one was Principia Discordia, by Malaclypse the Younger and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. Hail Eris! Kallisti! All Hail Discordia!

The book I'm going to read next is Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett. Nac Mac Feegle wha hae! It's been a while since I've gotten a chance to chomp down on a Discworld novel, so I'm really looking forward to this. Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be fooled again!

Favourite authors:
- Umberto Eco
- Terry Pratchett
- Neil Gaiman
- Hermann Hesse
- George R.R. Martin
- H.P. Lovecraft


Originality is nothing.
Hypertextuality is everything.
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#22 | Back to Top10-27-2006 02:54:16 AM

vitupera
New Student
From: Collegetown USA
Registered: 10-27-2006
Posts: 9
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

Oooh, Umberto Eco.  Always good for a solid month of "Wait, what?  Oh, awesome."  emot-keke

A friend recently gave me Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts, by Julian Rubinstein, which is even more crazy and hilarious than it sounds.  It's apparently a fairly true story (although the guy is a crime writer, and presumably knows how to really play it up) about a part-time hockey goalie, part-time pelt smuggler, often-time bank robber in the early 1990s, just as Hungary was transitioning from Communism to capitalism.  The events of the book are hilarious (I am exercising all my self-restraint in order to not quote passages at you), and the author's dry editorializing makes everything even funnier.  Then, it's also pretty fascinating-- it reads like something out of the Wild West, what with heists of a style that just couldn't happen in America anymore, period, but the events are apparently accurate and took place only a little more than a decade ago.

Then, too, I've been to Hungary, and the descriptions from the outsider-looking-in perspective are so terribly true that you just have to laugh.  They really have spent nearly all their history being overrun by someone-or-other, and their national anthem really does sound like a funeral march.

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#23 | Back to Top10-31-2006 10:13:50 AM

MissMocha
Bettie Page Princess
From: Tallahassee, Fl
Registered: 10-19-2006
Posts: 4632

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I've been rereading Hannibal by Thomas Harris for possibly the umpteenth time, I love it soo, soo much. I'm thinking about picking upRed Dragon because I'd like to round out my collection. I also just got the new anniversary edition of Good Omens, so that was shiny happy fun. I had to get it, my paperback feel apart. emot-frown Uhmmm...  I loooove, love, love Terry Pratchett's Small Gods. Marvy novel, that one. So far I've been really pleased by anything Kay Hooper writes. Basically, psychic FBI agents, although it's written from such a scientific point that you don't think it's far out there or anything. Uhm...also, Mary Roach's Stiff: The Lives of Cadavers is good, although nonfiction, which I'm not always about.

Totally not a book, per se, but is anyone reading Neil Gaiman's 1602? 'Cause I'm really digging that.


The first time you looked at her curves you were hooked
And the glances you took, took hold of you and demanded that you stay
And sunk in their teeth, bit your heart and released
Such a charge that you need another touch, another taste, another fix

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#24 | Back to Top10-31-2006 11:04:49 AM

Giovanna
Ends of the Fandom
From: Edmonton, AB
Registered: 10-12-2006
Posts: 8797
Website

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

morosemocha wrote:

I've been rereading Hannibal by Thomas Harris for possibly the umpteenth time, I love it soo, soo much.

Hannibal etc-love You must be reading up in time for Hannibal Rising! And if you're not, well obviously you should be! Hannibal, both the book and the movie, has to be one of my worst guilty pleasures. Mmm. Classy, intelligent, psychotic cannibal snobbing it up in Florence. etc-love

morosemocha wrote:

Totally not a book, per se, but is anyone reading Neil Gaiman's 1602? 'Cause I'm really digging that.

It's on my to-do list. Gaiman's comic work is basically like reading a novel anyway, it's just with pictures. I've also got a lot of his older stuff to read, although I'll admit with a little shame that the next comic I look at will probably be the last issues of Lucifer.


Akio, you have nice turns of phrase, but your points aren't clear and you have no textual support. I can't give this a passing grade.
~ Professor Arisa Konno, Eng 1001 (Freshman Literature and Composition)

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#25 | Back to Top10-31-2006 01:44:58 PM

Lightice
Azure Paleontologist
From: Finland
Registered: 10-21-2006
Posts: 1255

Re: Favorite books/Books you are currently reading

I'm currently reading Umberto Eco's Focault's Pendulum. It's great fun, making witty fun of conspiracy theorists and occultists.

My absolutely favourite writer is R.A. Wilson, the co-author of Illuminatus-trilogy and author of Schrödinger's Cat-trilogy, Historical Illuminatus Chronicles and Prometheus Rising among other things. A great satirist and commentator of contemporary values. And I have a feeling that he could teach even Akio a thing or two about manipulation and sex, if his books are anything to judge. cool

Now, I'm not a great fan of most conspiracy-theories, or books about them, as they tend to turn people's attention away from real issues, but Eco and Wilson know how to deal with them and damn well.

H.P. Lovecraft had brilliant ideas and I love his stories for them, but his actual writing style is sadly medicore. That's why he remained poor and only became famous after his death, unfortunately. When he is mentioned, Clark Ashton Smith should be mentioned, also, along with Robert W. Chambers. And getting into the era, Arthur Machen, Ambrose Bierce and Lord Dunsany are neccesary to be aquainted with, as well. Herman Hesse has also been mentioned, no surprise in an Utena forum.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are obviously household names. Alan Moore should be with them, as well.

Hannibal, both the book and the movie, has to be one of my worst guilty pleasures.

I enjoyed Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, both books and movies, but I never managed to like Hannibal. It feels like disgrace of the character, giving Hannibal childhood traumas and he really doesn't feel like the same person, any more. Sorry, but I think that he's at his best while he's aiding detectives behind bars, instead of being on the loose. emot-wink


Hei! Aa-Shanta 'Nygh!

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