Does anyone here read books?
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And by books, I mean things other than manga, graphic novels, or subtitles to your favorite anime. :P
If so, what do you read? I'm currently bookless, and recycling through some of my favorites for the third, fourth, or tenth time. I read almost anything, and I would love to discuss some of what I've read with anyone here who is interested.
Once my life slows down a little, probably after May, I would also be willing to start a book club type thing for anyone who wants to read some fantasy series with me, as long as the Admins have no objections. Just let me know here, or you can PM me if you're interested.
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Sadly, I don't read many books that isn't manga. I used to back in middle school with Hank the Cowdog, Baby-Sitters' Little Sister, and Captain Underpants (rarely). I would count Harry Potter books as well (back when there was only four books) but I only read them to get a better grade. I also read The Joy Luck Club in High School but that's pretty much it.
As for your book club, I hope you'll succeed in your goal.
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I know you said graphic novels don't count, but what about light novels? That's basically the type of material I've been reading recently. I haven't read any Western books since college, and even then most of the books I read back then, besides textbooks of course, were required reading material for classes.
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Don't light novels depend on drawings and graphics to move the story along?
Ultimately, reading is reading, and all reading is a GOOD THING. That being said, what I was hoping to discuss here are books that draw all their pictures with words. I don't mean to exclude anyone! This seems to be a relatively intelligent community, and I was hoping to engage that intelligence and see what thoughts and opinions I could garner on some of my favorite works of fantasy fiction.
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Had me interested until you mentioned engaging intelligence. Nothing I hate more than having to think :/ As a slightly more serious reply, I used to read novels quite a bit, though have dropped to nearly none in recent years. I am, however, making efforts to start again. To that end, I certainly wouldn't mind suggestions or discussions, though my motivation may wane.
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LOL! I'm not asking you to think that hard! I just want to hear what you like or don't like about whatever story you've read lately. What did you like to read in the past?
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Don't light novels depend on drawings and graphics to move the story along?
Sure, light novels have a few illustrations, but the story is not at all dependent on said illustrations. I like to think of light novels as primarily words with a few pictures, and manga and graphic novels as primarily pictures with a lower amount of words.
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Sure, light novels have a few illustrations, but the story is not at all dependent on said illustrations. I like to think of light novels as primarily words with a few pictures, and manga and graphic novels as primarily pictures with a lower amount of words.
Ah! Then I realize that I've never seen a light novel in bookstores in my area. There are HUGE manga sections, but I've not seen light novels.
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Yeah, they likely group manga and light novels in the same section; at least that's the case at Barnes & Noble.
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OK, please include light novels in the book discussions in this thread. I won't be able to include them in my book club until I start reading them myself, though.
What light novels have you enjoyed?
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What light novels have you enjoyed?
I am currently following both of Reki Kawahara's series, Sword Art Online and Accel World. I'm also looking forward to his third series, called The Isolator, which comes out at the end of June; from the brief synopsis I read about it, it plans to venture into uncharted territory.
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I've seen the anime based on SAO. How was the light novel?
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A lot more description is put into the details. It definitely took me longer to go through book 1 than it did with the manga adaptation; I breezed through that in a single day.
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I've seen the anime based on SAO. How was the light novel?
If it's anything like the anime, probably extremely shitty.
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Hey, I resent that! In fact, I'd probably argue that the light novel is actually a bit better than the anime because there's more description put in the details, which in turn leads to more development toward the characters.
And this is coming from someone who actually saw the anime first.
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I like reading, fantasy and mystery are my go-to genres, I just haven't had a whole lot of time for it lately. Most of my reading is either accounting textbooks or manga. :\
I've got a huge stack of Spice and Wolf light novels to work through, and Yen Press has Pandora Hearts Caucus Race and Durarara coming out soon, so I'll be working on those as soon as I have time to just sit down and bury my nose in a book.
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What did you like to read in the past?
I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy (primarily sword and sorcery and/or high fantasy, though there is some interest in any of the sub-genres). I also tend to prefer series or franchises as opposed to one shot or stand-alone novels and short stories.
I am currently following both of Reki Kawahara's series, Sword Art Online and Accel World.
I read a fair amount of manga, but I've yet to read any light novels, and there's something I've been curious about in general with them. Though I suspect it might vary greatly, so in this case I refer specifically to SAO. That would be how well done is the english writing? By that I mean does it seems to flow and sound as natural as a native english work, or is it somewhat more mechanical? Is it clear that english was not the original language?
I like reading, fantasy and mystery are my go-to genres
Aside from Sherlock Holmes stories I don't recall reading much straight-up mystery novels (closest might be some of what might be better described as thrillers/suspense), but it is a genre I think would contain many interesting stories. Any favorites? Or ones you would eagerly recommend?
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I read a fair amount of manga, but I've yet to read any light novels, and there's something I've been curious about in general with them. Though I suspect it might vary greatly, so in this case I refer specifically to SAO. That would be how well done is the english writing? By that I mean does it seems to flow and sound as natural as a native english work, or is it somewhat more mechanical? Is it clear that english was not the original language?
It sounds natural for the most part, but there are several places where you can tell that the book was translated into English. For instance, there's a point near the beginning of SAO Book 1 where honorifics are explicitly mentioned.
As another example, there are some points where you see a paragraph that is essentially one word that is not in quotation marks. This most often occurs where the narrative is that someone is about to do something, however something happens that undermines the process completely. In this particular case, the word "however" is its own separate paragraph.
Lastly, I should point out that even though a good effort was put into proofreading after the translation, I still noticed a few typos.
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I mostly read sci-fi and fantasy (primarily sword and sorcery and/or high fantasy, though there is some interest in any of the sub-genres). I also tend to prefer series or franchises as opposed to one shot or stand-alone novels and short stories.
What's your favorite fantasy series? Have you read any urban fantasy at all?
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Aside from Sherlock Holmes stories I don't recall reading much straight-up mystery novels (closest might be some of what might be better described as thrillers/suspense), but it is a genre I think would contain many interesting stories. Any favorites? Or ones you would eagerly recommend?
I haven't read any recently enough to have any favorites or recommendations, and the few books I've read in the past few years have been fantasy. :\ And more accurately I tend to like supernatural and thriller mysteries, not pure or traditional mystery.
