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Still plan on going through the rest of his novels and all the other miscellaneous novels I have over time. Picked up the rest of the 'Game of Thrones' novels the other day, I bought 'Solo' for $4 online (after reading the mediocre reviews, I figured this was a fair price for a hardcover version), and I found two Penguin edition Fleming Bond novels that I never owned on eBay for only $4 (DAF and OHMSS, I believe. I got so mixed up in searching for them all, I couldn't even recall which ones I bought.) I'm really looking forward into acquiring as many as I can through this publisher so I can dive into them again.
I just finished 'Road Work,' definitely a tough one to get through. I felt like I got endless paragraphs and pages of exposition and dialogue that could've been totally removed, and the whole "plot" - to me, anyway - seemed to be set up in the first 280 pages, with it kicking off in the last 15-20, which was a shame. But, it's finally done, and I plan on taking a break and starting with 'A Game of Thrones' once it arrives in the mail. I'll return to King shortly with 'Cujo,' I think! I wanted to start with his shorter novels first, and save the epics ('It,' 'The Stand,' the 'Dark Tower' series, etc.) for later on.
This is easily one of my favourite authors.
I decided to start 'SOLO' since it looks like I won't have 'A Game of Thrones' for a week or more.
by Alan Dean Foster
It's a novelization by one of the more famous "novelizers" in the world of sci-fi. Many of us know the story of Alien enough to where reading a novelization seems quite silly. But since it was based on the film script, not on the edited final cut, some things turn out a little different than the film and quite interesting because of that. This isn't first class literature but I'd say ADF handles it well.
(I'd have preferred the original cover, but this is how my paperback edition looks like.)
The Big Short
by Michael Lewis
I had never actually read financial journalism before. This is a non-fiction book about the housing and credit bubble that started financial crisis from 2007 onward when it started to burst... and then truly did in September 2008. My initial interest in reading the book came from the upcoming movie based on this book. (Filmed from March to May this year.) I had seen one interview with the author, and he made me laugh. An entertaining guy. That was promising. And the book had been a success and was highly praised as well. So, despite the somewhat challenging subject matter I decided to tackle it.
I know nothing about the money market, that whole world is just some weird alien territory. Well, I have seen Wall Street (1987), American Psycho (2000), and The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013), but I don't think any of those clarified much about the actual business side of it... ;) Not surprisingly, I struggled at times to fully understand some terms and concepts in the book, but I didn't let that stop me, and I would say that even though some stuff remains fuzzy to me, I still know a lot more about that whole mess and the financial world in general than I did before reading this.
Lewis writes very well. He describes characters and events in a way that had me grinning a lot (literally from page 1 of prologue), and several times just laughing out loud. The story is tragic and kinda scary in lots of ways, it really is incredible that stuff like this can and does happen. :-O But there is inevitably comedy in it, too, and many characters are fascinating and at times very funny. Especially the way the story is told by Lewis. A good thing he decided to leave Wall Street and became a writer instead.
I wondered at some point how the heck anyone managed to write a script out of this, but I'm very curious to see the movie. Far more now than before reading the book, though I was always going to see it anyway. I may need to read more of this guy's books. I certainly enjoyed this one.
I'm rather, how shall I put it, 'ignorant' in matters of finance. Could I enjoy The Big Short?
Like I said, I'm ignorant, too. For the first time in ages I kinda wished for a while that I had a translation available, though I'm not sure how much more I would have understood about some of the stuff. Then I got over that, and just read on. I felt I understood enough not to feel completely lost about the finance side of things, and I did find it genuinely interesting how crazy the whole thing is in many ways.
Regardless of if one knows anything about it or not it can still influence our lives in various ways. The amount of money the taxpayers ultimately paid for that financial crisis was gigantic. Some lost jobs, some investments, some homes, some companies went under. While some got very rich - including many of those responsible for screwing up beyond belief out of recklessness, stupidity and arrogance. And besides, beyond any specifics, the book gave some insights into financial system and its flaws and vulnerabilities. None of us are immune. If banks fall we're in trouble, but when they are saved with taxpayers' money, that's obviously not ideal, either...
Many of the characters (=real people) in the story are described in a colourful and fun manner, and like I said Lewis writes well. He also does a good job trying to make the money market stuff comprehensible to people who are ignorant of it. I don't know if you'd enjoy it, but I did. I thought it was an entertaining as well as educational read, and I'm happy I took the challenge. (And now I want to read more on this stuff...) If you feel at all interested I'd recommend you give it a try. It has not too much special jargon, he explains stuff well, and the book is funny.
Never heard of this Jordanian author, bought it on a hunch and do not regret it. It tells the life story of a 72 year old Lebanese woman. Full of references to American, European and Arabian litterature. Recommended.
A psychopath works in a nursing home. Fossum is always good.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Pheonix
Very disturbing book, and part of the series featuring Detective Konrad Sejer.
Graeme Cameron - Normal
plus a few others on Kindle
It was a small filling station with a small quantity of books catering for a wide audience. The cashier did look at me a tad funny when I gave him this book to scan after telling him I had £60.00 of Diesel at Pump 6 ("the one with the horse box" said I). I can't imagine why...
Lol ..that's wrong.