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comment by johnnyFive
johnnyFive  ·  2940 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski's intermittent, inconsistent, posted whenever, by whoever, bookthread

I've mostly gotten bored with One Hundred Years of Solitude. I enjoyed it at first, but now that we're into a new generation, I just find a lot of the magic is lost. One of the themes of the book is the cyclical nature of things, but that also means that the second half of the book feels very much like the first. I may go back to it eventually.

In the meantime, I'm continuing with the Dune Chronicles, and am about halfway through the third book (Children of Dune). Still love this series.

I also started re-reading The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway, which is one of my favorites ever. I'm not sure how to describe it...imagine a modern-day magical realist book that is part Mad Max, part old school kung fu flick, with an apocalypse in the middle. It has no business working, but it's brilliant.

Finally, I've just begun Los señores del narco (The Drug Lords) by Anabel Hernandez, a journalist with El Universal. It's a history of the Mexican drug trade for the last couple of decades, up to and through the capture of El Chapo. Her descriptions of what northern Mexico is like in the introduction are themselves amazing, and I can tell there's a lot that I'm going to learn.

Also finally, I'm still studying Greek, so occasionally reading some excerpts from the Bible.





someguyfromcanada  ·  2939 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I have read most if not all of GGM's books and Hundred Years is my least favorite.

You might like his News of a Kidnapping, a non-fiction book by the former journalist, which recounts the kidnapping of a handful of prominent figures in Colombia by the Medellín Cartel in the 90s.

I recently reread it after watching Narcos, which portrays the kidnapping of journalist Diana Turbay, which is also discussed in the book.

johnnyFive  ·  2938 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh cool, that sounds like it'd be worth reading for sure.

I saw a not-100%-verified quote on Wikipedia where he says No One Writes to the Colonel is his favorite book that he's written, and I certainly enjoyed it the most so far.