Books: What have you been reading?

[JediMindTrick]

personally Brandon Sanderson s timetable puts me off, it suggests to me he is going to write the books whether he has good ideas in time or not. I want Grrm out there taking his time and living life, so that he meets people to inspire characters as good as brienne and tyrion, and goes to places as powerful as the ones that inspired the wall and eyrie. Writers need ideas, getting a book down shouldn't be a chore like painting kitchen.

Sanderson just genuinely enjoys writing whereas I think Martin views it as a chore. If you follow Sanderson on facebook he near daily talks about how much time he was able to get in writing that day and you can tell he's bummed if he can't get several hours in.

Personally I'd rather have a good writer who is prolific and occasionally writes something great vs a writer like Martin who can't seem to be bothered anymore to write even if what he writes is usually marginally better than most other people. While Game of Thrones (the first book, not the TV show) is probably better than any book Sanderson has written the sum total of Sanderson's good far outweighs Martin thanks to five (soon to be six in a few weeks) Mistborn books, two (soon to be three in a few weeks) Reckoners books, two Way of Kings books, and a bunch of very good semi stand alone stuff (most of Sandersons stuff has loose connections much the way Stephen King's works all had loose connections).

P.S. For those who haven't read his Reckoners series it would likely be of interest to comic book fans. Its about a world where an event causes ordinary people to gain superpowers but those powers also warp the people to be evil and they take over and rule the world. Regular humans, known as Reckoners, fight back. Its a planned trilogy with the final book coming out in few weeks. It's classified under the YA genre but that doesn't make it any less fun.

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

John the Balladeer - Manly Wade Wellman

[batnbreakfast]

John the Balladeer - Manly Wade Wellman

I think Mike Mignola recommended reading MWW in some introduction to a Hellboy trade iirc.

[Ragdoll]

Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners books. Going to power through them as audiobooks over the next couple work days. SO far I am really digging book 1. It reminds me of Mark Waid's comic Irredeemable (best superhero book evah, even better than the glorious Invincible).

[JediMindTrick]

Brandon Sanderson's Reckoners books. Going to power through them as audiobooks over the next couple work days. SO far I am really digging book 1. It reminds me of Mark Waid's comic Irredeemable (best superhero book evah, even better than the glorious Invincible).

I'm eagerly awaiting the final book which comes out shortly.

[Ragdoll]

Caught up on Reckoners, it was amazing.

Now reading the Hunger Games series. Just finished the 2nd and loved it, hopefully the big finale is cool in book 3. I have a bad feeling one of Jennifer Lawrence's male suitors is gonna die.I never saw the movies, but it's still hard not imagining Jennifer Lawrence as I read the books. She's fine!

I'm eagerly awaiting the final book which comes out shortly.

Yeah, I'd been working through Sanderson's bibliography, and when I heard the new one was coming soon, I prioritized reading Reckoners ASAP so I could get in on the discussion when the ending comes out.

Something I didn't know about Sanderson until recently: he is a very devout Mormon and tight with Orson Scott Card.

[JediMindTrick]

Double post.

[JediMindTrick]

Something I didn't know about Sanderson until recently: he is a very devout Mormon and tight with Orson Scott Card.

He is also a teacher at BYU and is friends with Stephanie Meyer (Twilight) as she came out of the same group of creative writing students that Sanderson did.

Sanderson, unlike Card, is open about his faith but pretty much keeps it to himself politically.

Sanderson seems to be a genuinely nice guy who loves his fans. I've met him a few times at signings including one years ago just after he got the Wheel of Time gig but no one really knew him yet so I literally walked into the signing that had no line and got to chat with him for a few minutes with no one pushing me to move on. He also regularly plays Magic (card game) with fans. And he's the anti GRRM in that he almost always finds time to write no matter what else is going on. Even on his busiest convention days he tends to write at least a little according to his facebook.

[Ragdoll]

EDIT: glitchy site made me post twice, mods can delete this extra post if they deem fit

[Ragdoll]

Finished the Hunger Games books. Books 1 and 2 were good, but 3 was boring and tedious.
Now reading Stephen King's Needful Things. As a huge Stephen King fan, I've kept a couple of his books intentionally unread to save for rainy days. Well, a blizzard is here so today's the day.

Sanderson, unlike Card, is open about his faith but pretty much keeps it to himself politically.

Yeah, even if odds are Sanderson doesn't like gay people, he learned his lesson from Card to keep that crap to yourself and not put it out there in interviews.
Also, with Card it would spill over into his books, with snide comments about gay people.
And weird racism against China, making them the villains in all his books accompanied by long rants about China's history. IDK enough about China to know if to what extent their government is corrupt, but Card just hates Chinese people period and talks smack about their culture and society all the time.

[batnbreakfast]

Finished the Hunger Games books. Books 1 and 2 were good, but 3 was boring and tedious.
Now reading Stephen King's Needful Things. As a huge Stephen King fan, I've kept a couple of his books intentionally unread to save for rainy days. Well, a blizzard is here so today's the day.

Do you like On writing from King? Imo its very entertaining and I've read it twice. The Stand is a personal favourite and I really like Joyland and Doc Sleep. He seems to be a nice person on top of that.

[Ragdoll]

Do you like On writing from King? Imo its very entertaining and I've read it twice. The Stand is a personal favourite and I really like Joyland and Doc Sleep. He seems to be a nice person on top of that.

The Stand is one of my top favorites for sure, but the completed Dark Tower series is my favorite King. It's just such a good summation of everything that every other King book has either hinted at or tried to achieve.
On Writing is cool too, especially for a non-fiction, it is more engaging than most books of its type.
And King seems like a wicked cool dude IRL. That's the difference between King and the legit crazy horror writers like Lovecraft, whose inspiration is drawn from a place of real insanity that makes them very offputting to fans. King has dealt with his own mental illnesses, but has always been more connected to humanity and in touch with the common man's spirit.

[JediMindTrick]

Finished the Hunger Games books. Books 1 and 2 were good, but 3 was boring and tedious.
Now reading Stephen King's Needful Things. As a huge Stephen King fan, I've kept a couple of his books intentionally unread to save for rainy days. Well, a blizzard is here so today's the day.

Not sure if your aware of it or not but Needful Things is a semi sequel to another of his book (The Dark Half if I recall). You don't have to have read the Dark Half but one of the main characters in Needful Things (the sheriff) was in DH and references events there many times. I listened to Needful Things last year and while I know I read the Dark Half long ago I can't remember a thing about it. I was still able to follow Needful Things but at the same time I had no clue what the sheriff character was talking about some of the time.

[JediMindTrick]

The Stand is one of my top favorites for sure, but the completed Dark Tower series is my favorite King. It's just such a good summation of everything that every other King book has either hinted at or tried to achieve.
On Writing is cool too, especially for a non-fiction, it is more engaging than most books of its type.
And King seems like a wicked cool dude IRL. That's the difference between King and the legit crazy horror writers like Lovecraft, whose inspiration is drawn from a place of real insanity that makes them very offputting to fans. King has dealt with his own mental illnesses, but has always been more connected to humanity and in touch with the common man's spirit.

So many of King's books were semi autobiographical with lead characters struggling with addiction issues.

[Ragdoll]

Almost done with Needful Things (loving it).
Next I will probably read book 4 of The Expanse series (I hope you guys are watching the show on SyFy).

Not sure if your aware of it or not but Needful Things is a semi sequel to another of his book (The Dark Half if I recall). You don't have to have read the Dark Half but one of the main characters in Needful Things (the sheriff) was in DH and references events there many times. I listened to Needful Things last year and while I know I read the Dark Half long ago I can't remember a thing about it. I was still able to follow Needful Things but at the same time I had no clue what the sheriff character was talking about some of the time.

I've read all but like 4 King books, and The Dark Half is one of those books lol. Thanks for the info, I didn't realize. I'm not done reading yet, but in typical King style foreshadowing, he just revealed that the town of Castle Rock will not survive this novel, and Castle Rock has been the setting of so many King books, so I'm betting that this is full to the brim with references to older books. Once I finish reading I have been planning to do some google research on Castle Rock's long fictional history and find easter eggs I missed.

So many of King's books were semi autobiographical with lead characters struggling with addiction issues.

I love that aspect. I love how the kid in The Shining was based off his son, and Doctor Sleep was all about how his son grew up and went through similar mental issues as his father. SO I'm assuming King's kid (probably Joe Hill LOL, his books are sick) went through a drug phase as well.

I just love how interconnected King's entire bibliography is. Sonce this is a website for mainly DC/Marvel discussion, I can;t be the only one who appreciates the tight worldbuilding. I do love that Marvelverse, but Dimension King is the GOAT fictional world. Doesn't Marvel put out the Dark Tower comics? Marvel and King's worlds both include a multiverse, so is it so inconceivable to request Roland joining the new ANAD Marvel post-SW world?