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I'm chewing through The satanic verses (it was on the bookshelf in my rented apartment).

I think the only reason it won all those prizes & acclaim is for its very controversial title.

It's pretty boring as a story so far, slow and the language really gets on my nerves (Rushdie is an author who occasionally likes to use colloquialisms and combines words to make something nonsensical on first pass).

I've read a ton of books since moving to Sweden though:

The lost symbol - Dan Brown (7/10)

Life, the universe and everything else - Douglas Adams

So long and thanks for all the fish - Douglas Adams

The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams

The restaurant at the end of the universe - Douglas Adams

Dirk Gently's holistic detective agency - Douglas Adams

The long, dark tea-time of the soul - Douglas Adams

All a good 8/10.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time - Mark Haddon (6.5/10)

The face - Dean Koontz (7/10)

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The curious incident of the dog in the night-time - Mark Haddon (6.5/10)

I read this one, too. Thought the author did a great job of making a comical sort of book out of a kid with autism, he stopped short of making fun of the kid, but had everything the kid did seem like fun. It was really well done, IMO. :)

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It must be a sign of my getting old but I never remember (as a child) Green Lantern looking like Bat Man during St. Patrick's day.

I don't recall him wearing a cape, much less a cowl w/pointy bat ears. I realize that it's most likely Bat Man in an episode of Green Lantern.

I can't deny the wonderful artwork! It's candy for the eyes and Emerald

:)

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  • 3 months later...

I read two of Lisa See's books: "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Shanghai Girls". Both of them dealt with friendship between women in two very different eras (1800s China and 1900s China), but both were completely engrossing, and I had a hard time putting them down 8.5/10

Now I am reading "Say You're One of Them" by Uwem Akpan, a collection of short stories set in Africa and told through the eyes of children. I have two stories to go, and I am engrossed, enraged and saddened by this book. Wonderful. 9/10.

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I've read through a few short stories in a compilation called "Magic for beginners" by Kelly Link and some of them are pretty good, the others are just darn weird/creepy.

I also downloaded 100 free ghost stories for my phone and have been reading through them on my morning train journeys - some of them are quite old but are still creepy. I guess the slightest thing was considered scary before Hollywood came along and changed everything.

One really good book I finished reading on the weekend was "The lovely bones" (Alice Sebold). I also noticed it was made into a movie - has anyone perhaps seen it?

I tried to watch the movie version of one of the books I finished a few weeks ago (Runaway jury - John Grisham), and was so disappointed with the interpretation. The whole subject matter was essntially changed and the characters were nothing like described in the book.

Unimpressed!

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Sue, I saw the movie version of "The Lovely Bones". It was changed a lot from the movie, I would say for the worst, but it was a tough book to tackle anyway. If you're curious, go ahead, it isn't terrible, but it's certainly not as good as other book adaptations have been.

I finished "Say You're One of Them" and have moved on to "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri. I am heading to the library today, so I'll see what else I can get from my long reading list.

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Oh boy - I'm off to the video store right now :grin:

It's disappointing when you get really emotionally involved with a character in the book, and the movie just doesn't allow you to feel that connection because of the adaptation. I don't really know why they bother making movie adaptations that don't at least honour the book as much as possible :/

I started reading a new book today, it's kinda old but it should be a decent one (it's by Minette Walters and she's usually good). We have a wash room down in the basement where we all share the machinary, and people end up taking their books down for others to read (mind, most are in Swedish :P )

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I think it's a really nice thing to do - a lot of people don't keep books after buying them (apartments are tiny here so anything that takes up space is bad) so they get binned. In the UK they would usually go to charity shops, but I think there is a better way of recycling them too and letting others have a read before they get carted off.

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I think it's a really nice thing to do - a lot of people don't keep books after buying them (apartments are tiny here so anything that takes up space is bad) so they get binned. In the UK they would usually go to charity shops, but I think there is a better way of recycling them too and letting others have a read before they get carted off.

Sue, nobody said anything about carting these dear people off. Tsk, tsk.

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I just finished reading, Apathy For The Devil, by Nick Kent. Kent was a music reporter for London based New Musical Express in the early 70's. The book is filled with stories about The Stones, Bowie, Captain Beefheart, Led Zeppelin, The Sex Pistols, music critic Lester Bangs and Kent's girlfriend at that time Chrissie Hynde. He also talks about his dark fall into heroin addiction and his subsequent rebirth from drugs. The book is raw and compelling, and takes you to the seedy side of the music business. A great read.

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I finished "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri and "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards.

The books I read previous to these were either set in exotic locations and/or had some major tragedy at their center. These were books more centered on the small events in people's lives, but they were just as engrossing.

"The Namesake" told the story of Gogol Ganguli and his experience as a first generation american. "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" dealt with one man's big decision and the impact it had on several people's lives. I give both a 9/10.

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"A Dance With Dragons," the 5th in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Soooo good. I stayed up late reading it and took breaks during the day to read it, and at 959 pages, it took a while nonetheless.

Now that I'm done reading it, I can't wait for the next installment! These are hands down the best series of books I have ever read. Plus, I haven't seen the HBO series yet, which I've got to wait for on Netflix since I don't have HBO. I heard it's ridiculously good.

20/10 yes, they're that good.

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Three novels (big ones) by two friends.

The life of Alma Mahler gropius (by another friend)

"Ten years ago, Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash were alive. Now, we got no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash" (today, on facebook)

Oh, ye,s and the biography of Stephan Zweig (by himself. So sad)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finished "The Reader" earlier this week. It's about a 15 year old German boy who gets involved with an older woman. Years later, he finds out that she was involved in the Holocaust, and that she has another secret.

Interesting, not too long and a good read 8/10.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finished "Water for Elephants" last week. I started reading it one night when I couldn't sleep and wound up staying up all night. It's the story of Jacob Jankowsky, a verterinary student at Cornell who is suddenly orphaned and ends up running away with the circus and falling in love with one of the performers. A great read! 9/10

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I agree that was a good one. I haven't seen the film, but from what I have seen I think they turned into much more of a romance than the book was. Obviously the romance was the story, but there was so much more in the book. It rates 9/10 with me as well.

I'm currently reading the 1941 James Cain novel Mildred Pierce and at the halfway point it's an all around 10.

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Just finished "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel. It's a memoir of her girlhood in Moorehead, Indiana, a town of only 300 people. It's written more as a series of anecdotes than a straight chronology. Here's what childhood was like before video games, real;ity shows, computers and all that other crap filled up our time. Funny and cute 8/10

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