The Zone

by **Ribbons** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:37 am

Now with poll!

Also...

Seppuku wrote:
Ribbons wrote:The Last Unicorn, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World and The Call of Chtulhu are the non-comic book suggestions. Click on the title to see a description... or else!!!

Herc?

B4NN3D!

by **ChaoticMoira** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:40 am

YAY! I want my "I voted" sticker!

by **Ribbons** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:41 am

It's in the mail...

(No promises it won't get lost though)

by **minstrel** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:20 am

DaleTremont wrote:Since I haven't read it yet I'm also going to vote for The Last Unicorn. Even though it was a total guilty pleasure (emphasis on pleasure, haterz!) I need something to get the taste of Stephanie Meyers' prose out of my mouth.

You ate her prose? Interesting way to read - I'll have to try it.

Seriously, I've never read her. Is she really that bad?

by **ChaoticMoira** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:05 am

Reading a nine year old GIRLS book IS NOT reasonable people!

by **DaleTremont** on Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:19 pm

minstrel wrote:
DaleTremont wrote:Since I haven't read it yet I'm also going to vote for The Last Unicorn. Even though it was a total guilty pleasure (emphasis on pleasure, haterz!) I need something to get the taste of Stephanie Meyers' prose out of my mouth.

You ate her prose? Interesting way to read - I'll have to try it.

Seriously, I've never read her. Is she really that bad?

As far as writing ability- yes, she's terrible. As far as storytelling- I disagree with most on that point. I think she does quite a good job re-working vampire legend and as the series goes on she kind of embraces the harlequin romance side of herself that was getting watered down by that Chicken Soup for the Emo Soul shit she liked so much in the first book. By Breaking Dawn it was so lurid and bizarre I'd venture to say it could actually be called a "good" book.

by **Ribbons** on Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:01 am

ChaoticMoira wrote:Reading a nine year old GIRLS book IS NOT reasonable people!

YOU'RE not reasonable!

by **ChaoticMoira** on Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:00 pm

It seems the majority agrees with you Ribbons.... sigh

by **instant_karma** on Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:00 am

Ribbons wrote:
ChaoticMoira wrote:Reading a nine year old GIRLS book IS NOT reasonable people!

YOU'RE not reasonable!

Agreed x 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

by **Ribbons** on Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:44 am

ChaoticMoira wrote:It seems the majority agrees with you Ribbons.... sigh

Well, the poll doesn't close until Sunday, so there's still time for those standings to change

by **ChaoticMoira** on Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:45 am

If I offer to flash my tits will someone vote for "Brave New World"?

P.S. Karma is stupid! And he smells like pencils!

by **The Todd** on Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:02 pm

Well, since the only two books that The Todd hasn't read are Brave New World and Last Unicorn, The Todd is voting UNICORN-FIVE!!!!!

And seeing that The Last Unicorn is winning, I would like to throw this out to fellow reading Zoners:

I don't know how many of you buy online as opposed to getting it in the store, BUT if you are planning to participate and purchase The Last Unicorn online, I would like to suggest you buy it from Conlan Press (http://www.conlanpress.com/). Due to problems/legal issues with royalties and the original publisher, Peter Beagle (the author) only gets his cut if the book is purchased from Conlan Press.

Just a suggestion...

by **Ribbons** on Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:06 pm

That's pretty messed up, The Todd. Why doesn't he get any money otherwise?

by **The Todd** on Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:31 pm

Well, The Todd originally heard this from someone else, but what I've been able to find is this:

While everyone (such as Ballantine Del Rey, Souvenir Press, Viking, and Penguin/Roc) have been able to publish copies, or versions, Conlan Press is Peter Beagle's affiliated American Publisher for books and movies. They, and only they, pay him any royalties.

It goes back to an unresolved dispute with ITC Entertainment, which was then purchased by Granada Media International. It seems there might be a settlement in the works with Granada Media though. I have also found out that Beagle got screwed out of his rights for his screenplay to Rankin/Bass's LOTR cartoon. BUMMER-FIVE!!!!!

by **Ribbons** on Sun Nov 30, 2008 5:51 pm

BUMP!

Last day to vote is today, so if you guys want your book to win, gets ta votin!

by **minstrel** on Sun Nov 30, 2008 6:04 pm

I can see that, while everyone likes to claim that they're Lovecraft fans, nobody actually wants to read his book BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO TERRIFIED HAHAHAHAHA!!

by **Ribbons** on Mon Dec 01, 2008 3:11 am

Okay, the poll shook out thisly:

'The Last Unicorn' by Peater Beagle 8 57%
'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury 2 14%
'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley 3 21%
'The Call of Chtulhu' by H.P. Lovecraft 1 7%

by **Kutulhu** on Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:06 am

minstrel wrote:I can see that, while everyone likes to claim that they're Lovecraft fans, nobody actually wants to read his book BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO TERRIFIED HAHAHAHAHA!!

Well, compared to the other three, it is very short. Its not one of Lovecraft's longer pieces like: At The Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, or Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

by **ChaoticMoira** on Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:19 pm

April anyone???

I am putting Brave New World out there again because, well, I have it. Also I am about to read it, so it is convenient.

by **spock of the walk** on Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:11 pm

have yall done night watch yet?

by **spock of the walk** on Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:22 pm

had my head up my ass and didnt see it had its own thread

by **Ribbons** on Sun May 03, 2009 2:38 am

thomasgaffney wrote:I'll start off by nominating The World Without Us by Alan Weisman (sorry Sepp!). A look at humanity's effect on the planet by envisioning the Earth if mankind suddenly disappeared, but left our entire infrastructure in tact (buildings, roads, domesticated pets, etc).

Hey, what timing! I just picked up The World Without Us at the bookstore the other day. :wink:

But yeah, it sounds like a pretty interesting read; can't wait to start it.

by **darkjedijaina** on Fri Aug 14, 2009 7:57 pm

so, um, when we gonna has another book of the month?

by **Peven** on Fri Aug 14, 2009 8:01 pm

i stopped trying to participate a looong time ago after none of my suggestions were ever even considered :twisted:

by **Ribbons** on Sat Aug 15, 2009 11:36 am

Hey don't be like that! I considered your nominees, I've even got them written down and everything, but sometimes you just got to listen to "the winds." Same reason there hasn't been a book club month in a while btdubs

by **justcheckin** on Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:28 pm

I want to read with the book club... what is being read right now? is anyone doing it?

by **Maui** on Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:04 pm

Doesn't seem like there has been a book club discussion in over a year. Last one I recall that was half decent and had several participants was World War Z.

I'd be up for another one.

by **justcheckin** on Sat Oct 17, 2009 11:56 pm

Waits for our leader... "Ribbons"

*cough cough cough*

by **Ribbons** on Sun Oct 18, 2009 12:11 am

I can set something up for you guys if you want. Do you guys have any books in particular you want to nominate?

by **justcheckin** on Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:18 am

I want to read the new King book when it comes out... but I think that is in November. It is called 'Under the Dome.' I am good with anything right now...

by **Pacino86845** on Sun Oct 18, 2009 11:39 am

The What Are You Reading? thread is the most active book thread here... which isn't so bad, it's kind of like having a thousand book clubs but everyone's in them at different times so instead of having one large discussion about one book you have many little discussions about many books, spread out over a longer period of time of course.

I'm not trying to discourage any Book Club attempts but that other thread can always give you a fix... and I'm pretty sure at least one other Zoner will read that new King book when it comes out. Not me, but probably Ribbons, he never lets folks down!

by **Maui** on Mon Oct 19, 2009 11:18 am

Pacino86845 wrote:I'm not trying to discourage any Book Club

Party pooper!!! :evil:

I'm just kidding, sorta.

by **St. Alphonzo** on Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:22 pm

minstrel wrote:
St. Alphonzo wrote:How about Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow". Then minstrel and I would have no futher excuses to not read it

Ah, yes. It is an intimidating tome, sitting on my shelf and sending intimidation rays at me whenever I chicken out and read something else. One of these days, I will have to pick it up and conquer it.

C'mon! Gimme an excuse!

So I finally did it... two years later. I can now say that I've read "Gravity's Rainbow". Can I say I understand it? Definitely not. Can I say I enjoyed it? Hell yes.
It would certainly make for an interesting book club selection. But I have no idea how one would even start a discussion about it...

by **Ribbons** on Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:39 pm

I think it would begin something like... "Boy that Gravity's Rainbow sure is confusing!"

by **stereosforgeeks** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 11:54 am

Umm Gravity's rainbow takes way more than a month. It took me about a yr off and on. If you sit down and really read it id guess it would be about 6 weeks worth of reading time to really delve into it.

by **St. Alphonzo** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:10 pm

Agreed. Once I finally sat down with it, it took about eight weeks (and that included two business trips with lengthy flights).

Definately too big for a monthly book club... unless we scheduled it several months out.

Mostly I just wanted to give a "woo-hoo" to myself for finally reading the thing!

by **stereosforgeeks** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:29 pm

St. Alphonzo wrote:Agreed. Once I finally sat down with it, it took about eight weeks (and that included two business trips with lengthy flights).

Definately too big for a monthly book club... unless we scheduled it several months out.

Mostly I just wanted to give a "woo-hoo" to myself for finally reading the thing!

Next task: Infinite Jest?

by **Maui** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:37 pm

stereosforgeeks wrote:
St. Alphonzo wrote:Agreed. Once I finally sat down with it, it took about eight weeks (and that included two business trips with lengthy flights).

Definately too big for a monthly book club... unless we scheduled it several months out.

Mostly I just wanted to give a "woo-hoo" to myself for finally reading the thing!

Next task: Infinite Jest?

Bahahahahaha!

by **St. Alphonzo** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:47 pm

stereosforgeeks wrote:
St. Alphonzo wrote:Agreed. Once I finally sat down with it, it took about eight weeks (and that included two business trips with lengthy flights).

Definately too big for a monthly book club... unless we scheduled it several months out.

Mostly I just wanted to give a "woo-hoo" to myself for finally reading the thing!

Next task: Infinite Jest?

Ghaaaaaaahhh!!!!
*Runs from the room*

After Gravity's Rainbow, I'm thinking I'll stick with Dr. Suess for awhile....

by **stereosforgeeks** on Wed Oct 21, 2009 1:49 pm

St. Alphonzo wrote:
stereosforgeeks wrote:
St. Alphonzo wrote:Agreed. Once I finally sat down with it, it took about eight weeks (and that included two business trips with lengthy flights).

Definately too big for a monthly book club... unless we scheduled it several months out.

Mostly I just wanted to give a "woo-hoo" to myself for finally reading the thing!

Next task: Infinite Jest?

Ghaaaaaaahhh!!!!
*Runs from the room*

The language is a lot easier to tackle than Gravitys but it's still daunting.

After Gravity's Rainbow, I'm thinking I'll stick with Dr. Suess for awhile....

by **justcheckin** on Sat Oct 24, 2009 4:46 pm

Ok... This is what I am going to read next.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro

by **TheBaxter** on Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:47 pm

justcheckin wrote:Ok... This is what I am going to read next.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro

i reviewed that book here

by **justcheckin** on Sun Oct 25, 2009 12:24 am

TheBaxter wrote:
justcheckin wrote:Ok... This is what I am going to read next.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro

i reviewed that book here

Cool, thanks! :wink:

by **The Todd** on Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:34 pm

Ok-five.....

What are people's opinions on restarting the Zone's Book of the Month club, say, after the holidays? Say, a poll in January for a book of the month for February? Perhaps, we could do a Book of the Month for Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct? It seems we got about 5-6 books done a year in the past.

Not sure if The Todd missed any, but that's the previous BotMs that I've been able to find. If times are tough for people (The Todd is budgeting-five!), we could start with something that would be readily available in just about every library.

Thoughts-five?????

by **justcheckin** on Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:29 pm

The Todd wrote:Ok-five.....

What are people's opinions on restarting the Zone's Book of the Month club, say, after the holidays? Say, a poll in January for a book of the month for February? Perhaps, we could do a Book of the Month for Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct? It seems we got about 5-6 books done a year in the past.

2006 January Heart Of Darkness Joseph Conrad
2006 February A Scanner Darkly Philip K. Dick
2006 March 1984 George Orwell
2006 April Cell Stephen King
2006 October The Prestige Christopher Priest
2006 November Flicker Theodore Roszak
2007 February Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Douglas Adams
2007 March King Dork Frank Portman
2007 August Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
2007 September World War Z Max Brooks
2007 October Crying Of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon
2007 December Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn
2008 January Easy Riders, Raging Bulls Peter Biskind
2008 February The Door Margaret Atwood
2008 March From Hell Alan Moore
2008 October The Haunting Of Hill House Shirley Jackson
2008 December The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle

Not sure if The Todd missed any, but that's the previous BotMs that I've been able to find. If times are tough for people (The Todd is budgeting-five!), we could start with something that would be readily available in just about every library.

Thoughts-five?????

I really want to! I am in!

by **stereosforgeeks** on Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:53 pm

sounds good to me!

by **The Todd** on Sat Dec 19, 2009 12:04 am

Cool-FIVE!!!!!

The Todd will ask for suggestions in the beginning of January.

by **The Todd** on Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:38 am

January-FIVE!!!!!

So, The Todd would like to have a February Book of the Month thread going. And have people participate. So, we'll need a REALLY good book that people across the board can get into.

At this point, The Todd is open to any and all suggestions. The BotM for February will NOT be genre-specific, so start throwing up your entries and we'll get it narrowed down to a short list for voting purposes.

Thanks-FIVE!!!!!

by **stereosforgeeks** on Sat Jan 02, 2010 11:43 am

I'll just throw out some books Ive been meaning to read:

Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. Supposedly one of Murakamis best.

Red Mars / Green Mars / Blue Mars. Ive been wanting to go through this trilogy for awhile.

Cryptonomicon.

by **The Todd** on Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:15 pm

There seems to be a lot of Murakami love lately, so lets keep that in mind.
Kafka on the Shore - Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.
As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.
literary awards World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2006)

We've read Ender's Game previously, so I'm okay with putting the first book of a trilogy/series on the list.
Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) - In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of three novels that will chronicle the colonization of Mars.
For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.
John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers, and Arkady Bogdanov lead a mission whose ultimate goal is the terraforming of Mars. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness; for others it offers and opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. And for the genetic "alchemists, " Mars presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life...and death.
The colonists place giant satellite mirrors in Martian orbit to reflect light to the planets surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth and melt the ice. And massive tunnels, kilometers in depth, will be drilled into the Martian mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves, and friendships will form and fall to pieces--for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.
Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.
literary awards Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1994), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1993), Locus Award Nominee for Best Novel (1994), Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee for Best Novel (1994), and British Science Fiction Association Award (1994)

Cryptonomicon is a book that I've wanted to read forever, so that gets The Todd's early vote.
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson enjoys cult status among science fiction fans and techie types thanks to Snow Crash, which so completely redefined conventional notions of the high-tech future that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if his cyberpunk classic was big, Cryptonomicon is huge... gargantuan... massive, not just in size (a hefty 918 pages including appendices) but in scope and appeal. It's the hip, readable heir to Gravity's Rainbow and the Illuminatus trilogy. And it's only the first of a proposed series--for more information, read our interview with Stephenson.

Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods--World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, cryptanalyst extraordinaire, and gung ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first.... Of course, to observe is not its real duty--we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed.... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes--inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe--team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.

Cryptonomicon is vintage Stephenson from start to finish: short on plot, but long on detail so precise it's exhausting. Every page has a math problem, a quotable in-joke, an amazing idea, or a bit of sharp prose. Cryptonomicon is also packed with truly weird characters, funky tech, and crypto--all the crypto you'll ever need, in fact, not to mention all the computer jargon of the moment. A word to the wise: if you read this book in one sitting, you may die of information overload (and starvation).
literary awards Locus Award (2000)