Joshua’s Comments (group member since Jun 16, 2012)

Joshua’s comments from the The Dapper Gentlemen of Letters group.

I'm still in, too. I'm currently reading "Ready Player One", which people would probably like if they enjoyed Reamde. Now, I will say its a pretty quick read (about 365 pages) and I'm breezing through it pretty easily. However, I would not say this is destined to be a classic of American Literature.

Breezed through this. I enjoyed it, although it wasn't great. I'm glad I read it, was entertained, and might read other stuff by the author. I was going "please don't cop out and make him Mr Black. " Alas, it was not to be. and Mothman ex machina was a bit disappointing. and yet, I don't regret spendin $4.99 on this.

Okay, this is definitely my sort of book. I'm blazing through it and expect to finish this weekend. Of the 3 I've read through the club, this one has the "best" style for my tastes. Good choice, whoever chose it. :)

So, what about February/March?

Okay, so a bit more expounded. I honestly looked at it as a "man's inhumanity against man" theme (much like AJ). You have the stronger natives against the weaker natives, the Europeans against the natives and the Goose against Ewing in the 1st story. Ayrs holding power over Frobisher. Seaboard holding power over the country/Luisa Rey, the nursing home holding power against Cavendish and the other residents, the corpocracy against the fabricants and, coming full circle, the stronger natives against the weaker natives.

I never thought any of the stories were fictitious, I think they all had descended to the category of legend by the time the next story was written. The Ewing journal seemed fantastic for everything that happened to him. Frobisher's stories - Well, there was a lot going on there, and it seemed more grounded in reality, and, as AJ also pointed out Luisa buys the Cloud Atlas Sextet, so it seemed real. For Luisa Rey, I assumed that either a) the book was based on historical events (although, why "Buenas Yerbas instead of San Francisco?) or b) she became a famous investigative reporter and there were other mysteries in which she was involved. Cavendish also seems like a movie was made based on his adventures...the guy was a publisher, after all. And Somni was seen in the orison, so seemed to have been real.

I want to see the movie now, to see how they handled this, although in the edition I read, his notes say that they stories are blended differently because they didn't think audiences would react well to a constant restart. Will I remember the book? Sure, OCD does that. :) Will I want to rush back and read it again? Probably not.

is anyone tracking the songs on the radio? I wonder if they have any meaning.

okay, started this. really enjoying the writing style.

finished it at ladt. Liked it, although pacing was spotty at times. will comment more when not on a tablet.

As mentioned elsewhere, I am still working on Cloud Atlas. I'll jump onto this when I can.

I'm finally back to reading this again...I got it as an ebook from the library, it was about 2 months between checkouts. I have about 140 pages left. The book almost lost me at a few points, and at the mid-way point it really picked up. I'm now in the 2nd half of Cavendish, I'm not sure how much more I have to go in it.

I'm still in the 2nd story, I definitely like it better than the 1st, and I'm beginning to see how it ties into the 1st. Hopefully I'm knocking off 100 pages or so on my flight tomorrow.

Just started this yesterday. Its my new treadmill book. Not a huge fan of the writing style so far. Nothing has grabbed me yet, however I'm only about 15 - 20 pages in, so that means very little.

Oh, I didn't realize this was the decision...I'll buy this one.

Alas, even with reading fast, I still need the time to read. Plus, I got tired of all the exposition and had to put it away for a while.

Okay, I just saw that the poll is closed. Of the 3 (since they tied with 3 votes apiece), the Windup Girl seems most interesting to me, fwiw. None of them seem like horrible choices.

I'm reading Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like it in the World about the men who built the railroads. Not a super long book. Very interesting to me, I'm not sure if would have wide appeal.

I think Stunt had a poll, I'll go check that out.

I finally finished this book this morning. I stalled around page 600 and put it away for about 10 days before starting up again. It just got to be too much. I enjoyed it, although I got tired of the constant geography lessons. Frankly, I think this would have been a great 400-600 page book. At 1,000+, I just wanted it to end.

As others have said, I think the MMO portion was underused. Did anyone every hurt Egdod? How did the WoR turn out? Did da G shou ever get money? I really thought the MMO aspect was the main plot, and as mentioned a while ago, when the whole terrorist plot thing was thrown in, I kind of groaned, because from there on out it was throwing in every coincidence possible.

Unlike some, I thought the characters were pretty well developed. I agree Marlon was under developed, and I got a good feel for Richard, Zula, Csongor, Sokolov, etc. It was kind of annoying that a lot of this was seeing who would pair up with who (whom?). Maybe that was fanboy appeal, who knows.

Was it just me, or did Jones never mention the prep for the car bombing? And we never did find out what he was planning in (presumably) Las Vegas.

I enjoyed this, I'd hardly call it a classic.

Just finished Part I. Again, the book is engaging and flows well, and it is really straining even my suspension of disbelief. That all these various people could end up in the same story is incredulous.

The e-reader is charging. More reading later. Tonigh's goal is page 600.

It is unwise to underestimate how quickly I read. I am on 368 now and will likely be at 450 before the end of the evening. Knocking out 100 pages a day is not tough. The flip side of ADD is the ability to hyper-focus.

I'm about 300 pages in and I'm annoyed that he's thrown in an entire new plot. The book is engaging, and it seems like he just wanted to reach a page count.