Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Quickies

Journal nizo's Journal: Book quicky: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle 30

Journal by nizo

I had been meaning to read this book for ages, and I finally picked up a copy. I read it in two days (it is a quick read). Totally different from either movie (but I can certainly see where it influenced both of them). I have been reading like a fiend lately, which in turn is making me want to write (which is a good thing). What is everyone else reading right now?

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Book quicky: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle More

Book quicky: Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

Comments Filter:
  • Nothing... Sorry... I really need to pick up some books again. Last book I read was technical. Doesn't really count. It was "Computer Networks" from Tanenbaum. That guy would make a *great* Slashdot commentator. Sometimes I was just laughing and thinking "this would get a +5, Funny on slashdot"
    That said, I probably need to reduce my slashdot intake ;-)
    • You know, I must easily have 50+ technical books at home and at work, and I have never read through a single one of them. I use them for reference all the time, but as far as sitting down and reading through one; well I shudder at the thought. Then again I am the kind of person who, upon getting a new electronic device, simply starts playing with it until I run into something I can't do and THEN I start rummaging through the manual. Or if I am learning something totally new I would rather read a little bit
  • /.

    Actually, just finishing a book called "The Third Option". so-so spy novel.

  • Great book ... if you know a bit of history, it makes an in teresting read. Ditto if you like whodunnits.
    • Yeah my other (less evil) half read that and liked it, once her friend gives it back I want to read it. The had a nifty program about it on either PBS or the National Geographic Channel, I can't recall which.
    • You really liked it? I found it so boring it was difficult to finish; an inferior and rather ill-written mishmash of Foucault's Pendulum (which I recommend, btw), Holy Blood, Holy Grail and a run-of-the-mill thriller, say, Absolute Power.

      Considering how extremely well the book is selling just about all over the planet, I realise that I'm pretty alone in this.

      I'm curious, what did you like most about it?
      • Well, there was the way that a lot of history got thrown into it (though a lot of that was not exactly accurate, but that's another story). Try "Pillars of the Earth".

        Also, daVinci is a fascinating character in his own right. I liked the clues - was able to guess a few of them, as well as one or two of the plot twists (including the final resting place), but there were a lot of surprises - of the "okay, now how the hell do they move the plot forward".

        Sort of like the last 2 minutes of the movie "Saw". Foo

        • Yes, definitely my pet peeve No. 1 with the book was that I mananged to figure our pretty much all of the plot at around page 150-200 (or something) and then spent the rest of the read trying to persuade myself that it really couldn't be that way, a plot twist would pop up and confound me ... and was disappointed at every turn when this didn't happen.

          I think maybe I have simply read too much about the subject-matter (defined very broadly) before reading the da Vinci Code?! Read and, should I say, played: G
          • What's really bad is when you go back to re-read a book you *loved* as a kid, and, upon re-reading it, it's nowhere near is good as you remember it. For example, a *lot* of Asimov's writings fall into that category.
            • Yes, but it's worse when you re-read a book you only read some years ago, as an adult, and you end up thinking What on earth was I thinking? I must have been mad! ... Barbara Tuchman's The March of Folly comes to mind.
            • Movies are that way too; I remember seeing Enemy Mine as a kid and thinking, "Wow what a profound movie with deep implications". Watching it about 10 years later I thought, "Wow what a load of crap". Good thing for Louis Gossett he had alot of makup on to hide his face sheesh. But then again I like Starship Troopers because it is so way over the top, so I guess I still have braindamage.
            • as it happens, the same has been said by Azimov himself! Alot of his work, especially the earlier stuff, was hit-and-miss (and then some of the later stuff, one might not enjoy too, but considering how much he wrote, it's not surprising that there's stuff that isn't top notch). What I really enjoyed, though, is the later Foundation novels, and how it ended up being tied into the Robot novels---my favorite books by far of his were Robots and Empire and Foundation and Earth . . . the titles may sound deriva
              • try on not liking Harry Potter . . . that takes alienation to a whole new level, it does!

                Quick, burn the heretic!!! :-) Actually I don't mind Harry Potter, I figure anything that gets kids to read these days is ok (well, assuming it isn't teaching kids how to build pipe bombs or something).

  • Split Second [barnesandnoble.com] by David Baldacci.

    He is also the author of Absolute Power [david-baldacci.com], which later became a movie [imdb.com]. He's been one of the authors I've been returning to ever since.

  • I'm about half way through the second book in the Baroque Cycle.

    good stuff if you like Neal Stephenson's writing. It's amazing how he makes the creation of modern banking processes interesting.
    • I just finished that one and I'm about to move on to The System of the World. The books are pretty lengthy, not a bad thing for me since I like to read and I like the amount of details Stephenson puts in to his writings, but I've read very few books that can make me grin as much as the first two have, especially given the subject.

      That man is a genius...
  • I have several in progress. Unfortunately, the time that I have available for reading is broken up, so I tend to pick up whatever book is at hand.
    • Relatives, by George Alec Effinger. Effinger died two and a half years ago, way too young. I'm working on tracking down his work in used bookstores. His Budayeen trilogy is well worth reading. This one is good, so far, but not great.
    • Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy books. I found ten at Half-Price Books a couple of months ago, and I'm working my way through the
  • Svålhålet by Mikael Niemi, It's a collection of humorous sci fi short stories. Has a bit of a Stanislaw Lem feel to it.
  • I found a copy of "The complete sherlock holmes treasury" at a second hand store. Now I see what all the fuss is about Sherlock Holmes. What a good collection of books. I'm not much of a reader, but I love this book.
  • I had just finished a book called "Einstein's Cosmos" which is a biography of his life and a look at how visualization was critical to his theories. I've always had a fascination with gravity, so I'm now reading "The Meaning of Relativity" and have a couple other books to work from there.

    I also have several fiction books. I tend to read one non-fiction and one fiction simultaneously - much like eating dinner and desert. My latest one is "Onion Girl" - fantasy, though I forget the author's name.
  • Things i've read lately (ie inside the past week or so) that are worthy of mention:

    The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (the paradigm of paradigm shift)
    George Washington's False Teeth by Robert Darnton (lovely essays about 18th century France)
    The Petty Demon by Fyodor Sologub (the story of a mean person going insane)

    Currently "busy" reading about three or four more books.

  • Pierre Boulle wrote that novel as well as "Monkey Planet".

    One of the episodes of the short-lived, but IMO excellent, "Lone Gunmen" involved a secret government research facility, with super-intelligent apes. The inside joke was that it was the "Pierre Boulle Primate Research Center", or reasonable equivalent.

    • Sorry, BotRK is not what I am reading. I just thought the connection between Boulle's work was interesting. I am re-reading Gene Wolfe's excellent "Urth of tne New Sun".

    • Actually that is the book I just finished reading: it was just re-labelled after the last movie (probably so it would sell better?). The interesting thing is both new and older movies are barely like the orig. book at all. In fact the latest "remake" is probably closer to the book than the old 60s/70s movies, but still a long way from the book. I too found it interesting he wrote BOTRK, which I haven't read but will have to at some point :-)

Slashdot Top Deals

Most public domain software is free, at least at first glance.

Close