Topic: Nintendo Life Book Club

few of my favorites here:

Over the past couple weeks I've been reading Tom Clancy's Power Plays: ruthless.com (Fiction) by Tom Clancy & Martin Greenberg.

I bought it at a thrift shop years ago, and just never got around to it until now. I'm about halfway through it as of now, and it's writing is high quality, but I don't think it's gelling with my personal tastes. Like most Tom Clancy novels, it's military related, but not directly about the military this time around.

Rather, it's about a corporation facing a corporate takeover, and they have tech that could turn the world stage upside down if it gets into the wrong hands. A lot of the "action" takes place between businessmen plotting behind desks (which, while interesting if you're really into the story, can naturally be a bit dull), and the rest focusing on assassins & pirates moving behind the scenes (these sections can be extremely gripping, but are a bit smaller in scale than I'm used to experiencing in a Clancy novel).

Again, while it can be a bit slow at times, it's occassionally gripping as well, and I'll go ahead and try to finish it.

Finished up Tom Clancy's Power Plays: ruthless.com (Fiction) by Tom Clancy & Martin Greenberg.

Well written corporate thriller, but I don't think the genré is for me. Like I mentioned before, a lot of the "action" takes place in offices, boardrooms, & press conferences, with corporate rivals making bold moves in terms of business strategy & cunning, and while the well written story keeps things moving, it just was never too exciting for me. Too it's credit, there's also a side of the story following the more exciting exploits of corporate espionage, and all the shady criminal activity that goes along with it, and while these segments can be gripping, they're all too often broken up by the slower paced sections of the book. Furthermore, there's the ever looming threat of a larger military conflict (which they do a lot of groundwork for), but it just sort of fizzles out in the end, resolving in the last 1-2 chapters rather anti-climactically. Apparently it is related to a PC strategy game of the same name, and it was kind of neat seeing them advertise the ancient spec requirements for the game in the last few pages (as well as a tie in ad for a new AT&T internet service).

Also, with some Amazon credit I got for Christmas, I ordered the other 3 books in the Inheritance Cycle, so I should be able to start Eragon soon, which I'm excited about!

Anyone else get any books over the holiday season?

Haha thank you for reviving this. I was considering doing it myself! My Christmas was almost entirely book-oriented.

I got my first e-reader for Christmas, a Kindle Paperwhite. I already love it. It's so neat and beautiful, and with the cover I got for it it is almost the best thing ever (without it I was afraid of even using the thing).

I managed to put the Resdient Evil books I bought earlier this year on it, which makes reading them a lot better. Already finished the first and I'm about 1/4th into the second one, Caliban Cove, which I'm enjoying.

With the gift card I bought to go with the kindle, I also bought other video game and movie novelizations. Including, Bioshock: Rapture and the first two Alien novels. Also both Jurassic Park books, although this time in Spanish (I have the real books in English).

And gosh I also downloaded like 30 free books and fragments. Like, wow, all the classics are free... To be fair, the only one I've started is "H.P. Lovecraft The Complete Fiction". I read The Nameless City, which was short and creepy.

Whenever I get some more amazon credit, I think I'll get the Hobbit (never read it before) and the novelization of Alan Wake, since I liked the free trial... Though maybe I should actually read the ones I already paid for first...

@gizmoto
its a fantastic read and it tells how to get ahead in this rough economy these days

I couldn't resist and read the last five or so chapters of Caliban Cove before sleeping yesterday.

That was an interesting original novel, the writer was wise to keep things so self-contained. The zombies featured there are more like ganados than traditional zombies, so it would mess things a bit if it leaked into the "main" canon (though to be fair, the novel series "ended" before RE4, darn).

It also did its best to be like the games, with puzzles and items, but on a simpler scale (which makes sense since the puzzles were designed for the zombies).

The ending was a bit underwhelming, since it... Simply ended. No big boss monster or anything like that. But well, I guess that's a bit fresh for the series. It just lost steam by the end.

Now I'm off to book 3, City of the Dead, which is based on Resident Evil 2. It's my favorite game in the series, and it's also a bit longer than the first two books, so it should be fun.

Yay! My copies of the Inheritance Cycle books came in today!

Started on Eragon, and while I'm only 1 chapter (and the prologue!) in so far, it feels like I'm back in high school, lol. Maybe I should fire up InuYasha on Netflix & Kingdom Hearts 3D: DDD (in lieu of the fact I no longer have the original) to complete the illusion...

I noticed the whole The Lord of the Rings trilogy was on sale for about five dollars for the kindle, so I went ahead and cancelled my Breath of the Wild preorder to free up the gift card credit.

I also added Alan Wake and The Hobbit, because why the heck not. I'll keep an eye on Breath of the Wild to see if the price goes down to what I have left now, if not, then I'll just add another small gift card later.

About the Tolkien books... Any recommendations on which should I read first? The Hobbit, or TLotR?

almost done reading this.
i felt like i wrote it since its based off my family after all.
im proud to see my bloodline tradition has been documented all this time.
kurt kalata sir, you make me proud...proud to be in the vampire hunting business.

@Meowpheel: Read The Hobbit first. It chronologically happens before TLotR trilogy and introduces the infamous ring that drives the plot in the later books.

@Tyranexx I guess that makes sense. Thanks.

I'll read the Hobbit once I'm done with City of the Dead. Then maybe I'll continue with Bioshock...

So much to read. Sheesh.

I finished City of the Dead some time ago and have been slowly reading the Hobbit.

City of the Dead left me a little bit underwhelmed, it was a bit over simplified and it follows the Leon A-Claire B storyline- which is easily the least interesting path of the game (even capcom considers it to be non canon). But well, I guess it's also a bit refreshing to see the least used sequence get some attention.

I'm five chapters into the Hobbit and, aw not the ponies. Why the ponies.

Just finished up Eragon (Fiction) by Christopher Paolini!

It had me just as enthralled as it did back in high school. upon going back to it, I can understand why some would say it's hard to get into (it takes about 100 pages, or roughly 1/5th of the book, for him to leave his home town and truly start the adventure), but overall it was a small roadblock to my enjoyment, and I'm glad to be back into the series.

I started to read the second Harry Potter book, but it was so scary. I was petrified by it

Don't worry, your secret won't leave this chamber.

Spoiler: The basilisk dies.

I've been (slowly, as I've been trying to push through my game backlogs bit more) continuing to read The Heroes of Olympus series. I'm currently about halfway done with The Son of Neptune.

I read books. It might not seem like it, but I read books >: P I read the entire series of unfortunate events series, and idk, maybe I'm just thinking of reading them all over again, and just typing about it here just so I can remind myself to do so!

I read Facebook, so much drama.
To be honest though, I haven't read an actual book in awhile, unless you count "National Geographic's Guide to State Parks of the US"

when did they start reading in minnesota?

@SheldonRandoms, have you checked out the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events yet? (This goes out to everyone else, too)

It was a bit more silly than I remember the books being (then again, I read them as a kid so they could have just seemed more serious), but overall I liked it, and would recommend it. I felt like they did a great job capturing the look of the series in set & costume design, it's paced better than the movie that was made years ago (each book has 2 episodes dedicated to it), and it was nice being re-acquainted to the world.