What I've been reading

[sarahmichigan]

"Carrie" by Stephen King. I liked the themes and the character development, but he gave away too much too early, and it wasn't as suspenseful as it could have been.

and

"Caves of Steel" by Isaac Asimov. Super cheesy and pulpy, but fun. I had to think ol' Isaac could have done a little better with some of his predictions about future life, but it's been amusing to listen to it (and mock it, occasionally) with J., as we've been listening to it as a book on CD during our commute.

My full comments on both books here:

http://community.livejournal.com/50_in_08/11313.html 

Comments

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I read both as a teenager and liked them a lot, actually...I'd certainly recommend the sequels; if I recall, one ('The Naked Sun') was written straight after, in the 50s, and is much of the same style, and the other sequels are of much later origin and have kind of a different feel to them.

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Also, if you've not read them, I'd also recommend 'The Gods Themselves' and his non-sci-fi detective story 'The Death Dealers'/'A Whiff of Death'.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that Carrie was the first successful commercial book he had. Also, place it in the context of what else was being written at the time.

I agree that the book had its weaknesses. Still, it's an order of magnitude better than the movie.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

The themes and the character motivation were the best parts for me. The teen angst, the scape-goating, the screwed up ideas from repressive religious upbringing, the anger that could build up after so many years of being the butt of jokes... that was all good, very believable.