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[Tito]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lulu_Jane @ Mar 3 2007, 06:13 AM) [snapback]281697[/snapback]</div>

For a good epic poem, I really recommend The Fearie Queen, by Edward Spenser. It's a brilliant satire and comment on the court of the English queen Elizabeth the First, and her court, thinly disguised as fantasy.
[/b]

Never heared about that one. But for what you say it shows similarities with "Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift, that great critic of english societiy disguished as a children's tale. I'll have to try the one you mentioned.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Japofran @ Mar 3 2007, 08:32 PM) [snapback]281757[/snapback]</div>

I've just remembered a delicious little book (really short) called "Tales from King Arthur", by Andrew Lang (ed.), edited by Wordsworth, Classics collection. It's a compilation of legends. Few are heavy going, just the hero performing ever harder but stupid exploits just to prove that he's the h3R0z. But most are very good, with this charming flavour, compelling and dramatic, especially at the end with the death of Arthur and whatnot. By the way although the book is quite short it covers the whole time span of the Arturic cycle.
[/b]

Yeah, knight books are great fun, although usually quite silly. I read some of them before starting "Don Quijote", just to know something about the genre that book so critisizes, and I ended loving them even more than "Don Quijote" itself.

[chainsoar]

I just finished Stephen King's epic Dark Tower series a couple of weeks ago. What a monster! The ending nearly burned me alive it was so hot. Roland Of Gilead is one of the best characters in any book, EVAR.

[Abi79]

I've just finished reading 1984 by George Orwell. What an unpleasantly sad book... and the end was so unsatisfying.

[crazedloon]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Abi79 @ Mar 5 2007, 11:19 AM) [snapback]281923[/snapback]</div>

I've just finished reading 1984 by George Orwell. What an unpleasantly sad book... and the end was so unsatisfying.
[/b]

How can there be an end? The enemies of freedom want to wear down Oceania by thousands of years of gnawing, insidious corruption, remember.

Question: will America's intervention to bring peace by deposing Saddam Hussein's regime bring an end to 6000 years of war between Shi'ites and Sunnis in the Gulf, or will it make the situation worse? Answers on a postcard (with embedded iris scan). Don't worry about the chopper outside your window - a terrorist could be someone you've known for decades, or your own mother. It could even be you, if you've been corrupted by Goldstein's book or have unwittingly associated with a thought criminal. Big Brother Is Watching You to protect you even against yourself.

I thought the book had quite a positive message: watch Big Brother.

[Japo]

1984 is a great book, anyway the best part is the description of the fictional world and even the appendix on neolanguage. The story itself is okay I guess but the interesting part is the world it takes place in.

[Abi79]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(crazedloon @ Mar 5 2007, 02:13 PM) [snapback]281935[/snapback]</div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Abi79 @ Mar 5 2007, 11:19 AM) [snapback]281923[/snapback]

I've just finished reading 1984 by George Orwell. What an unpleasantly sad book... and the end was so unsatisfying.
[/b]

How can there be an end? The enemies of freedom want to wear down Oceania by thousands of years of gnawing, insidious corruption, remember.

Question: will America's intervention to bring peace by deposing Saddam Hussein's regime bring an end to 6000 years of war between Shi'ites and Sunnis in the Gulf, or will it make the situation worse? Answers on a postcard (with embedded iris scan). Don't worry about the chopper outside your window - a terrorist could be someone you've known for decades, or your own mother. It could even be you, if you've been corrupted by Goldstein's book or have unwittingly associated with a thought criminal. Big Brother Is Watching You to protect you even against yourself.

I thought the book had quite a positive message: watch Big Brother. [/b][/quote]
Very well put. I never thought of it this way. I'm always dissapointed of the ending of some movies, and the book's ending made me think nothing actually happened. Still, I liked the part where he said he won a fight with himself, since he now loved the Big Brother.

[Grinder]

Terry Pratchett's The Light Fantastic. I started it yesterday when it arrived - I had finished The Color Of Magic the day before.


Loving it!

[BlindMonk]

It's slow going, though. The author was a member of parliament for many years and writes (heavily) from that perspective. Admittedly, nearly the whole of Churchill's life was immersed with the British political system, but the hundreds of details which arise from the author's proximity to governmental process are sometimes a chore to work through.

[muaddib]

Right now I'm reading the newest Dune book, it has been years since I've read the previous books, so sometimes it feels like you don't know what the hell is going on, but mostly it's explained nicely in the book itself.

The author probably knew he should've written it much faster :P

[#BlakhOle#]

Unfortunately I just got Final Fantasy XII, which is both a blessing and a curse . I don't think I'll be doing too much reading for a while yet...