1984: I first read this book during my senior year in high school and I now occasionally try to read it on and off. The book is about living under a “Big Brother” that keeps an eye on everything and uses his power to keep the people rallied behind him. He has newspapers re-written and history books as well to portray their government in a positive way. They use thought police to read the minds any potential people who could pose a threat to their society. This of course leads to the main character to go into hiding as he seeks to find “Big Brother”.

Lord of the Rings: I didn't specify a book for a reason as I am just a huge fan of the entire series (Hobbit included). I don't think many people can argue about that fantasy world that Tolkien created. I can see though how people find his writing boring and hard to read. He uses a lot of made-up words to fit the lore he has created, often goes on and on in descriptions and breaks out into songs and poems frequently. However, this is exactly why I love his writing, because it allows you to see exactly what is in his mind.

Post edited 8:51 pm – May 13, 2013 by griff

Not having time to read because of school seems pretty backwards ass to me. lmao. I try to always have a book that I'm reading, some days I might be to busy but generally I ready every day. Right now I'm reading a book I picked up at a thrift store called “Aspects of Antiquity” it's pretty good, and is essentially a collection of essays on ancient Greece. Before that I read a great pulp novel called “A Touch of Death” by Charles Williams.

Well obviously that's not true, you have time to play Civ5.

Yeah, there is no excuse not to be reading something. I personally like to read a lot of non-fiction, but I mix fiction in every now and then. My taste on fiction is usually pretty hit and miss, I find a lot of popular books & authors to be pretty shitty.

That kinda stuff is not for me lol, just looking at what his books are about I can tell you for sure I wouldn't like them. If I'm reading fiction it's probably going to be a classic, something very well written, or a mystery (and even then, I can't stand most mainstream stuff in this genre, I like older pulp novels and older mystery novels).

Lol, you kids and your fantasy novels. I cannot get into that kinda stuff, maybe it's because I've ready so much psychology/mythology that none of those genre novels can even come close to equalling? Also, I like sci-fi (which is a form of fantasy, I guess) but most of it is crap too, lol.

Post edited 5:20 pm – May 16, 2013 by dystopia

Well, there is some debate in that area about what is and isn't scientific. I would argue that it is, but that really doesn't have much to do with it's correlation to mythology and religion which is clear and present. That's where I think a lot of fantasy gets it wrong, it's mythology for mythologys sake, with little development of that psychological connection.

Some things you can't measure, while you are right most sciences would frown on that there is a science to the mind it's just much more complicated, it's really more of an art. That being said, I would still argue it's a science, but this isn't the thread for that lmao.

The lack of any real psychology in most fantasy is what pushes me away from it, as I started. From what I usually see people write in those settings just because it's 'fun' or whatever, which in my book isn't really 'writing' it's just crap books for the purpose of making some quick scratch. Just like how popular music is crap music for making quick scratch, and movies.. etc.