I just read...

[Nick]

I just finished the Hunger Games (On audio book) series and would recommend it to everyone.

It offers captivating tale of hardship overcome and love lost and gained.

My only gripes about it (other then the author not knowing how electricity works) are small, but still bothersome. 
       Spoilers![spoiler]Like how a people who can make mutant creatures of great size and power don't ever do it for their own defense. Or the other bizarre ways they decided to defend their city. Really? You have hovercraft and fire-ball shooting trees but chose to use crates of bees and elaborate booby traps to ward off invasion? How about remote controlled turrets on a closed network? No? Too practical? Hows-a-bout just a few force-fields to incapacitate any would-be invaders then?[/spoiler]


Anyway. I am just now starting the Game Of Thrones series. I am only 6 or so chapters in and already have but only the vaguest of ideas who any of the people are in the constant parade of new names being tossed about. I can keep track of people by what they are doing and who they are with (mostly by descriptions of what the other people are doing) but cant put names to characters yet.

[Brad]

Are you book stalking me? I also just finished the Hunger games and very recently completed the first book in the Song of Ice and Fire series Game of Thrones.

The ending of Hunger games kind of annoyed me though... [spoiler]They dropped Katniss' sister in the middle of the war even though we've hardly even seen her the entire book... and then promptly killed her. It was so out of nowhere and I guess they'd never built up the character of Primm enough for me because I had a hard time feeling tragic about it. Not when they killed off a bunch of more interesting characters in lame ways a couple of chapters earlier.[/spoiler]

I think keeping track of characters in a game of thrones gets easier towards the end... a bunch of them die off too so you don't have to keep track of them anymore.

[zourtney]

I'm not reading those spoilers. Which makes watching this thread kind of odd.

Eve read the Hunger Games but didn't care for it much. I haven't had the chance.

In fact, you know what I get to read now? "Practices of an Agile Developer". Wish me luck.

I was also reading the Steve Jobs biography. Let's just say I'm glad I never met the guy. :-P

[Nick]

Can you recommend the developer book? Or is it namby-pamby hippy programming?

Concerning Game of Thrones...
I think I have got a handle on all the characters (I was mentally able to recall all of the major Starks in my head last night. Not sure what prompted me to do it though). But I am only half way though the book and recent events have started introducing scores more people into the story. But the most annoying one to date (Whaaa! Don't wake the dragon! Whaaa!) [spoiler]Just got killed in a gruesome fashion.[/spoiler] A few more little snots need to bite it and then things might go a little smoother.  [spoiler]I was rather dissapointed when Mr.Sword play (The water dancer. Cerio?) got killed.[/spoiler]

Oh. And, Brad. Was Finnick you favorite character?

[zourtney]

So far the book has been a decent read. If it's hippy programming, then hippies make sense for once. I'll let you know as I get more into it, though.

[Brad]

That annoying "king" was the only character I was glad to see gone. Sheez he was stupid and annoying. His sister becomes a more interesting character later.

Yeah, I thought Finnick was one of the better characters. Considerably less whiny than both Katniss and Peta. [spoiler]It sucked that he got a lame death after being one of the few characters to finally achieve some kind of happiness (with his insane girlfriend).[/spoiler] The ending was mostly just blah for everybody still alive... Not happy to go around.

_{Edit by Nick: Added spoiler tags. Just in case.}

[Nick]

I thought the ending was bitter sweet. You cant do what Katniss did and expect any kind of leniency, yet that is what she got. And she got [spoiler]Peta. And her old home. [/spoiler] She had lost so much and she is so broken by the end of the books it might be best for her to sit things out for a good while. 

Finished Game of Thrones on my way back from Newport this last weekend. Quite the ending. [spoiler]Though I was expecting Daenerys' children since the eggs showed up.[/spoiler]

So much going on. So many armies and so many scheming individuals. Defiantly a rich story in an awesome universe.


Pssst... Hey read this if you are interested in listening to these books... its not really a spoiler.
[spoiler]I would be happy to share my Audibl account with any of you (provided that you are not a random internet-person. It can have three devices on it at a time and I am only using my phone. Or you can always rent them off some pirates I know. [/spoiler]

When will there be a netflix for audiobooks? Pay a monthy fee and stream them but not own them. I don't need to buy a book that I will only listen to once or perhaps twice. With the second listening being 5-10 years later.

[zourtney]

A Netflix-type service for audiobooks is a great idea. ----overpricing / copyright / free-market rant removed ----but I'd gladly pay a reasonable fee for access to them.

And I'm still chugging away on my non-fictions.

[Frioevie]

Yes I did not care for hunger games I would like to try and read the game of thrones book, I have a sample book of it in my book al thing on the iPad. I heard the tv show is good.

Sent from my {amazing windows phone} using Board Express

[Brad]

If you are interested in Fantasy type books "Mistborn: The Final Empire" by Brandon Sanderson is quite good. The takes place thousands of years after the dark lord (basically a Sauron type character) has won.The Final Empire reigns and all of humanity has been crushed and enslaved.

It's starts with a thieving crew attempting to perform an Ocean's 11 like heist but becomes a lot more than that. The "magic" system is different than most anything else I've heard of and Sanderson does a good job of world-building. This is the first book of a series, so I guess that sets the stage well for continuing books.

[Nick]

Sounds good. I am on the last Ice and Fire (Game of thrones)  book and will be looking for something new soon.

You ever finish the 'Thrones books?

[Brad]

I still have the last one to read. I needed to take a break and read some less depressing books. Like horror novels.

I'll probably read it in the next month or so.

[zourtney]

Sounds interesting. I need to make time to start reading again. Usually by the time it's quiet enough to do so, I'm sleepy and/or want to program something. But still, yeah.

[Nick]

If your up for some soul crushing, I can recommend the GoT books. Just don't get too attached to any of the likeable characters

I'm on the last book (the last one yet written anyway) and the best two characters left are a bitter dwarf and Daneries. And she is starting to go from awesome to miss do nothing. But over all it has been consistently good. And some of the more interesting characters that got ignored last book are starting to pop back up. So there is that.

Hmmm.  I need to get the spoiler stuff working on the mobile theme.

[Brad]

Just don't get too attached to any of the likeable characters

[spoiler](spoiler)You can always hold out the hope that they'll come back as pseudo-zombies ala the Lightning Lord.[/spoiler]