Deathconscious
12.10.16 | Reading Ancillary Justice atm. Only 100 pages in so its obviously too early to judge but its pretty decent so far. |
InfamousGrouse
12.10.16 | The Sellout. Given me a fair few laughs, although I'm slightly labouring towards the end. It starts very strongly, but the latter half isn't quite as venomous or smartly written imo |
dimsim3478
12.10.16 | reading Laura Jane Grace's bio. NOFX's was better
watch out for John Darnielle's new novel next year |
Rik VII
12.10.16 | Reading Dostoevsky at this time, plus some short stories by Heinrich v Kleist for college. Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe are always worth a rec though. |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | Oh shit, im not a huge Mountain Goats fan but hes an interesting guy. |
Astral Abortis
12.10.16 | You should read Darnielle's novel Wolf In White Van. It's an absolutely devastating read, so strangely paced but it really hits hard. |
Astral Abortis
12.10.16 | Right now I'm reading Neuromancer. |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | had no idea Darnielle was a novelist. is Wolf fiction? and Neuromancer is something ive been meaning to get to for awhile. |
Astral Abortis
12.10.16 | Yeah it's fiction |
Chortles
12.10.16 | ah i've heard really good things about wolf in white van, need to give it a go soon
reading City of Thieves by David Benoif currently and it's very good |
TheWrenKing
12.10.16 | a little life - hanya yanagihara
and
the mark and the void - paul murray |
Rowan5215
12.10.16 | just finished Stevey King's Dark Tower series, reading Different Seasons right now but I think I'm a bit burnt out on the dude after the thousands of pages I read
any horror/black comedy/surrealism fans itt, highly recommend Robert Shearman - Remember Why You Fear Me. dude is making those genres his bitch rn |
TheWrenKing
12.10.16 | haven't read WIWV yet but i got it for my girl friend for her birthday a few months ago, looking forward to sneaking a read |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | "just finished Stevey King's Dark Tower series"
aww shit, what did you think? favorite thing from King that ive read, except for maybe The Shining. |
Astral Abortis
12.10.16 | The Shining is the best book King has written or ever will write.
Almost the best book ever written, period, if it weren't for Watership Down. |
Rowan5215
12.10.16 | pretty good, there was a huge-ass slump in books 5 and 6 where nothing really happened and the only thing that really kept me goin was how invested I was in the characters. 7 picked it back up, some of the villain reveals were disappointing af (the Crimson King was lolbad) but all the character deaths were handled super well and I fuckin loved the ending for Roland. Waste Lands and Wizard and Glass are definitely in his top tier of books, overall wasn't quite Shining/Stand/IT level for me but close. goin crazy waiting for a trailer for the movie like it comes out in two months where's some fuckin FOOTAGE |
Rowan5215
12.10.16 | Shining is his best horror book, for sure, dunno bout best overall |
Mort.
12.10.16 | The Gormenghast Trilogy |
Zig
12.10.16 | Just finished a collection of experimental poetry, by Ana Hatherly.
Now, want to start reading Repetition, by Soren Kierkgaard. |
ScuroFantasma
12.10.16 | Revolution by Russell Brand and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. |
insanedrexl1
12.10.16 | Currently reading alot of H.P. Lovecraft |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | ^ yes |
Rik VII
12.10.16 | Lovecraft is pretty awesome at times, but in the long run he's extremely repetitive. Out of the stories I read by him, I liked The Music of Erich Zann best. |
Egarran
12.10.16 | I was too young when I read Watership Down. It's a very 70s book, as in "kids must share the horrors of adults, so I will use rabbits to demonstrate the evils of society".
Currently reading The Descent by Jeff Long. Spelunking horror-sci fi, kind of related to the movie. |
Sinternet
12.10.16 | kazuo ishiguro - never let me go is what i'm reading currently
when i finish that i'm gonna read slavoj zizek - trouble in paradise
thoroughly recommend never let me go if you haven't read it btw |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | "Lovecraft is pretty awesome at times, but in the long run he's extremely repetitive."
ive pretty much only read the Cthulhu mythos. not interested in much else. |
worthlessscab
12.10.16 | Ulysses
The Man Without Qualities
Pornografia (1960)
Insatiability (Witkiewicz)
real patrician stuff |
ZippaThaRippa
12.10.16 | I should start reading again god I'm such a piece of shit |
Egarran
12.10.16 | "ive pretty much only read the Cthulhu mythos"
How about The Case of Charles Dexter Ward? Essential.
I also strongly recommend The Mind Parasites by Colin Wilson. |
hal1ax
12.10.16 | slavoj zizek -- the sublime object of ideology |
hal1ax
12.10.16 | "Of Spirit - Derrida"
the synopsis for this sounds really interesting. gnna chck |
calmrose
12.10.16 | currently re-reading King Lear
I haven't read a book book in awhile though, it's basically just been poetry for me, hoping to get back into heavy reading this winter |
rabidfish
12.10.16 | "the castle" by Kafka
Pretty good. |
Trebor.
12.10.16 | I am currently reading Revolutionary Road. I dig it, not as much as I thought I would but hey
Just read The Picture of Dorian Gray which I loved, and Bernie Sanders' new book which was good |
porcupinetheater
12.10.16 | Reading The Melancholy of Resistance right now, really strange book, but as good as capturing a dreary mood/atmosphere as any I've read. Definitely recommended if you can deal with a total aversion to paragraph structure. |
calmrose
12.10.16 | ^this sounds really interesting |
theBoneyKing
12.10.16 | Wish I had more time to read these days.
Just read Brandon Sanderson's novella Edgedancer from his recently released short fiction collection, he's one of my favorites so it was a nice treat. |
GeorgeWBush
12.10.16 | I'm currently reading The Godfather. Have been for a while. My favourite is Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk.) I would recommend it to anyone ever. |
Rik VII
12.10.16 | "Just read Brandon Sanderson's novella Edgedancer from his recently released short fiction collection, he's one of my favorites so it was a nice treat."
Edgedancer is a Stormlight spin-off, isn't it? Haven't had the chance to read it yet (it's fairly hard to get novels like that one in Germany, even in English). Sanderson is one of my favorites, too. Stormlight rules and Mistborn has kinda been a part of my life for several years from 2010 on, so yeah, props! |
SCREAM!
12.10.16 | "I'm currently reading The Godfather. Have been for a while. My favourite is Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk.) I would recommend it to anyone ever. "
Loved both of those books. Nice
Started reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Still too early to give a proper opinion on it but I'm enjoying it so far.
Was finally getting around to checking Lovecraft before that (read Dagon and The Call of Cthulu) |
zaruyache
12.10.16 | Finished the Wool Omnibus, now I'm on to the new Expanse book (Babylon's Ashes). Hype.
"Started reading The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. Still too early to give a proper opinion on it but I'm enjoying it so far."
I thought it was fairly tough to get into with all the Hindi(?) jargon and the way it was written, but it was definitely an "interesting" story, both literally and symbolically. |
Deathconscious
12.10.16 | anybody read the Hyperion series? ive been thinking of picking that up after im done with the current series im on. |
Anthracks
12.10.16 | Babylon's Ashes by James SA Corey and After Dark by Haruki Murakami |
zaruyache
12.11.16 | The first 2 Hyperion rule so much they're some of my all time favs. |
Deathconscious
12.11.16 | what about the other ones? |
Gameofmetal
12.11.16 | i haven't read anything in a while except for stuff for my lit classes, but im thinking i might re read steven erikson's malazan series |
zaruyache
12.11.16 | they're basically a different story and I didn't like them as much because they played out differently, but they were still good. Like book 1 is basically "Canterbury Tales in space," book 2 is a continuation/conclusion of the initial story (less Canterbury Tales flashbacks, more plot development), and books 3-4 are a hundred years later, essentially all new people, and "fully" wrap up the stuff that was intentionally ambiguous in the first two books. |
Sinternet
12.11.16 | I also recently read Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness, fantastic read if anyone's looking for something slightly shorter than your average book length |
Asdfp277
12.11.16 | i don't read books that's why i'm so illiterate, but john dies at the end tbh, and todos los fuegos el fuego |
DrMaximus
12.11.16 | 120 days of sodom |
Astral Abortis
12.11.16 | Heart of Darkness is a whole bunch of boring stuff with some interesting bits |
GhostOfSarcasticBtrd
12.11.16 | Does it have dancing monochromatic bits? |
theBoneyKing
12.11.16 | "im thinking i might re read steven erikson's malazan series"
That's no small feat lol |
Deathconscious
12.11.16 | @zaru ill probably end up reading all of them then. |
YakNips
12.11.16 | enjoying the fountainhead very much |
Egarran
12.11.16 | "The first 2 Hyperion rule so much"
Confirmed. He should have stopped there. |
BigBlob
12.11.16 | I just finished reading a book written by a person who lived in a north korean labour camp. about to start a book about the civillians that got caught up in mass killings in Belarussia during WW2. happy stuff |
BigBlob
12.11.16 | the north korean book is the aquariums of pyongyang. its really gud |
demoncleaner
12.11.16 | Reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, really good mix of bizarre stories about the inhabitants of Savannah and a pretty morally grey true crime story so far. |
voltairesangryglove
12.11.16 | working my way through the boxcar children series |
Deathconscious
02.23.20 | im finally getting to Dune. 120 pages in and im pretty immersed so far. |
Thalassic
02.23.20 | Tried Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian yet? |
Deathconscious
02.23.20 | @thal nope, ill add it to my list.
@flatlanderwoman "The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech."
sounds really interesting, ill add that to my list as well. |
budgie
02.23.20 | currently: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18607841-the-transformation-of-the-world |
robertsona
02.23.20 | Claude McKay — Amiable with big Teeth |
Get Low
02.24.20 | Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabokov. I've been on a huge Nabokov kick lately. |
Get Low
03.08.20 | Currently reading: Pnin, by Vladimir Nabokov |
JohnnyoftheWell
03.08.20 | Ooh was planning on picking that up to read abroad |
alamo
03.08.20 | i read books |
Get Low
03.08.20 | @Johnny Definitely do. It's a really funny novel. |
JohnnyoftheWell
03.08.20 | Mmm tasty. Need to find my copy of Pale Fire too, need to finish that (had so much fun that I took my time and somehow never got round to it) |
notagenius
03.08.20 | I am reading a book about the music industry , but have no idea whether it is good or not
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18404238-cowboys-and-indies
|
Get Low
03.08.20 | "Need to find my copy of Pale Fire too, need to finish that"
Absolutely love that little masterpiece. |
JohnnyoftheWell
03.08.20 | Has anyone read the book where the protagonist's parents are mountains and there's some shit with wifi networks in Canada (/can anyone remember the title and/or content more accurately)? |
Get Low
03.08.20 | Sounds K A F K A E S Q U E |
theBoneyKing
03.08.20 | Finished The Dragon Republic by RF Kuang the other day. Now starting on The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin. |
Gallantin
03.08.20 | Finishing up A Canticle for Leibowitz at the moment, figuring out what to read next. Think about reading Territory of Light, that new Jeff Vandermeer novel, Dark Emu, or maybe In the Name of the Rose. I hate picking books to read because I always have too many to choose from. |
Gallantin
03.08.20 | Might not read any of those and just read Che Guevara and Fidel Castro biographies back to back |
WeepingBanana
03.08.20 | Graham Green - The End of the Affair |
Deathconscious
03.08.20 | "Has anyone read the book where the protagonist's parents are mountains and there's some shit with wifi networks in Canada"
uhhh, no, that sounds weird as fuck, but now i wanna know what it is too so i can read it. |
JohnnyoftheWell
03.08.20 | found it! "canada mountain parents washing machine book" the google search I never knew I needed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someone_Comes_to_Town,_Someone_Leaves_Town
sounds like it'll either be excellent or boring, but at least easy to get hold of |
JayEnder
03.08.20 | Bookmarking this thread for future reference. |
Get Low
03.10.20 | Currently reading: Heart of Darkness, by Joesph Conrad |
Deathconscious
03.12.20 | Reading through Dune ive realized how many references ive been missing. The Motion Mosaic had a song called Muad'Dib, the grindcore band Sayyadina, both Wilfred and the Earthworm Jim cartoon quoting the "fear is the mind-killer"thing. |
theBoneyKing
03.12.20 | Dune is one of thost books I feel like I should read but have never been that interested in it. |
Get Low
03.14.20 | Currently reading: Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky |
Get Low
12.01.20 | Currently reading: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy |
MiloRuggles
12.01.20 | Oh my, the literary brigade. I request membership this instant.
Currently reading: Sophie's Choice. The writing is full of verve, fancy words, and hilarious sex stuff (and, you know, some not-so-hilarious stuff). |
zaruyache
12.01.20 | Decibel just put out a book about american black metal, so i might read that if i can get motivated. |
Get Low
12.01.20 | Membership granted. Don't forget to bump frequently (as I have failed to do for the past eight months). |
naughtcturnal
12.01.20 | Reading the Parasyte manga series at and attempting to read Paradise Lost on the side but I am having a hard time. Last book I finished was Peter Hook's Substance and it was great |
BaloneyPony
12.01.20 | I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked by Upton Sinclair. Some nice parallels I'm noticing with America's current landscape. Also dude is mad hilarious at times. |
CruelDouglas
12.01.20 | reading Piranesi rn |
combustion07
12.01.20 | Reading Gerald's Game by Stephen King for fiction and Mother Night by Estes for nonfiction atm. Both are pretty great so far. Gerald's Game is wild wish I wouldn't have slacked on it so long |
Minushuman24
12.01.20 | The Plague, Albert Camus |
MiloRuggles
12.01.20 | Will do my very best. Oh yeah, non fiction. Also reading Robert fisks the great war for civilisation |
Deathconscious
12.01.20 | @zaru you might also be interested in Rotting Ways to Misery, a book about Finnish death metal coming out. |
WeepingBanana
12.01.20 | Finally got around to Solaris by Lem. It’s as great as the hype. The only down side is you start to realize how many other works shamelessly rip from it so it might make you like those works less
Now I’m trying to read Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction Under Late Capitalism by Martin Arboleda. It’s very interesting but also very dense so I might wanna break it up with something lighter and dumber |
robertsona
12.01.20 | Erich Auerbach - Mimesis
to help write my research proposal for phd apps |
Pheromone
12.01.20 | love the wilco album at 5 |
Get Low
04.03.21 | Currently reading: War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy.
Will bump again next year when I'm finished. |
zakalwe
04.03.21 | On the second book of the Gentleman Bastard Series. Good stuff. |
Deathconscious
04.03.21 | Still working my way through the Dune series lol. |
FabiusPictor202
04.03.21 | Marcel Mauss -- The Gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies |
Get Low
05.17.21 | Currently reading: Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palaniuk |
naughtcturnal
05.17.21 | La Supplication by Svetlana Alexievich (french version of Voices of Chernobyl.)
Recommended to me by a friend after having told him I finished the chernobyl mini-series. Book is leaving me even more fucked uo than the series did
|
naughtcturnal
05.17.21 | @GetLow: are u reading the remix edition or the originally published edition? |
AlexKzillion
05.17.21 | Finished Marc Spitz's David Bowie biography earlier today. A little long but I'd recommend it.
Just started Shea Serrano's "Basketball (and Other Things)"
I've read 6 books this year... which is prob already more than 2016-2020 combined |
Anthracks
05.17.21 | read the gods themselves, beatrix potter collection, rape of nanking, and wuthering heights this month so far. almost half way through in search of lost time and critique of pure reason as well |
americanohno
05.17.21 | orlando furioso by ludovico ariosta |
Jasdevi087
05.17.21 | @anthracks what did you think of Wuthering Heights? I've read the first half but can't really get into it |
Sharenge
05.17.21 | rereading the last book of the Dark Elf Trilogy of the Legend of Drizzt series... the absolute pinnacle of literature |
Get Low
05.17.21 | @Naught Reading the original. I actually had a hell of a time finding it because Barnes and Noble AND Books a Million only had that freakin' remix edition. I finally called up some random used bookstore like 40 min away and they had four copies of the original. |
Get Low
05.17.21 | @Jas Wuthering Heights is ass. Jane Eyre is the superior Bronte sisters novel. |
Anthracks
05.17.21 | the second half is better than the first, but every character is a venomous and terrible person intent only on manipulating and backstabbing - even as children. it's a romance but there is no love. i don't dislike it but i wouldn't say i particularly enjoyed it. it's really not a novel that's supposed to make you feel good and it gets better once you realize it's a character study of heathcliff. it helped that i read the folio society edition which had beautiful illustrations. |
Keyblade
05.17.21 | no joke, I'm trying to read Animorphs again lol |
Jash
05.17.21 | Freedom - Johnathan Franzen
Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
Girls Against God - Jenny Hval
White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Life After God - Douglas Coupland
The Stranger - Albert Camus
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Dune - Frank Herbert |
Jasdevi087
05.17.21 | @get low going into them I had anticipated it being the other way around but i think you might be right |
dbizzles
05.17.21 | Just finished Red Rising, which was okay. About to start Calvino’s Cosmicomics. |
dbizzles
05.17.21 | @jash I have the audible version of Shantaram on deck for this summer. |
WeepingBanana
05.17.21 | Haven’t read Cosmicomics but I read If on a winters night a traveler recently and loved it. Prob gonna crush baron in the trees and invisible cities soon |
Deathconscious
05.17.21 | @bizzles Pierce Brown? Yeah the first book was ok but undwhelming. The next two are much better i think. |
rabidfish
05.17.21 | baudrillard. Lots.
very interesting take on our current morality and the way we construct alterity and relate to otherness. It's been very illuminating. |
Deathconscious
05.20.21 | Starting Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal by Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin. |
brainmelter
05.20.21 | Haruki Marukami - A wild sheep chase
And
John Truby - the anatomy of story |
OSEL
05.20.21 | >Wuthering Heights is ass. Jane Eyre is the superior Bronte sisters novel.
ya this is entirely true |
Let
05.20.21 | Robert Paxton - The Anatomy of Fascism
Micheal Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Philip K. Dick - A Scanner Darkly
I wanna get into 40k but there's so much of that shit
|
Anthracks
05.21.21 | opposite feelings for pierce brown series. red rising was entertaining and pretty promising. series devolves into michael bay-esque ridiculousness after that point. the third book is particularly bad. you can tell the dude read a song of ice and fire was like whoa man yeah lemme do that but in SPACE! problem is it has none of the depth of asoiaf and tries to be shock for the sake of shock |
Get Low
05.21.21 | Philip K. Dickhead |
Deathconscious
05.21.21 | I mean yeah, theyre not high art or anything, i just found them to be a good time. |
BigTuna
05.21.21 | So, five years later what are your thoughts on the Ancillary series? |
Deathconscious
05.21.21 | I hardly remember them, all i remember is thinking the first book was promising and then being disappointed by the last two. |
wham49
05.21.21 | I'm reading Travels with Charley- In search of America from John Steinbeck interesting to see his view point of America circa 1960 and his view in that time that USA is losing its regional culture, also losing its social tendencies and religion, as well as political parties getting farther and farther apart sounds very familiar in this day and age, nice quick read
next of the list is Infinite Jest, which sounds awesome but is 1500 pages, so we will see how long I can go on it |
Let
05.21.21 | That brick of a book has been lying on my bookshelf for abfuckin year lol, havent touched it yet. Have read some of dfws essays though |
Snake.
05.21.21 | new jim crow by michelle alexander |
Sharenge
05.21.21 | lol |
Get Low
05.21.21 | I'm gonna try and tackle Infinite Jest soon as well. |
Deathconscious
05.21.21 | I think the biggest book ive ever read was 1200 pages, shits fat. |
Sharenge
05.21.21 | unabridged Count of Monte Cristo for me, and I don't think I'll ever be topping that record (though a reread could be in order) |
Anthracks
05.22.21 | Infinite Jest is up there as easily one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Enjoy. |
Let
05.22.21 | Anyone read Proust though? Good god |
Anthracks
05.22.21 | I’m halfway through In Search of Lost Time right now. It’s really great |
porcupinetheater
05.22.21 | Only writers that have really ever justified the marathon-length that I've read are the dead Ruskies. David Foster Wallace is too far up his own ass to ever maintain that. Dude writes some incredible short stories and essays (when he's not being a pompous misogynist), but Broom of the System's the only one of the 3 novels that's worth picking up, and even that's just relative to the later 2 |
Let
05.22.21 | @Anthracks Oh yeah I still remember reading part of Swan's Way yeeears ago, the prose was incredible. I'm reading Alain de Botton's book on Proust and it's making me want to revisit.
@porcupine I think you might like some of Mark Fisher's essays if you dig DFW's. Then again I badger everyone to read him |
porcupinetheater
05.22.21 | Never read any of his stuff, thanks for the rec! Are there any ones that've stood out to you as particularly interesting? |
Anthracks
05.22.21 | don't forget racist as fuck, re: dfw
reading that book is like being trapped in a pitchfork writer's brain circa 2009 |
porcupinetheater
05.22.21 | Great point,
Fuck DFW |
Let
05.22.21 | @porcupine
No One is Bored, Everything is Boring
Exiting the Vampyre Castle
These are a bit more steeped in contemporary socio-political discourse but he is first and foremost regarded as a culture critic, and think he was reaching for a sincerity much like DFW. I got into him years ago reading about his thoughts on hauntology (think artists like Burial, with whom he had a rapport and gave early support, or the Caretaker) |
Get Low
05.22.21 | My literary critic forefather Harold Bloom also thought DFW was a hack so perhaps there is some truth to that. |
porcupinetheater
05.22.21 | Wouldn't say he's a hack, dude was a preternaturally gifted writer, who made the mistake many authors (more often than not white males) in that group do, and behaved like that made him infallible and justified anything he chose to write and excused of most what he chose to do. It led to the massively unwieldy zeitgeist chasing of Infinite Jest, it led to a smug condescension towards women and sex workers, erasure and exotification of non-white characters, and the much more disturbing abuse of women in his personal life, that gets reflected in all sorts of ways in the stuff he wrote.
He was a brilliant writer, with brilliant writing but very little great work, and an inexcusable personal life. (He also did what so many similar artists that make their self-awareness/intelligence a focal point of their work do - use acknowledgement and self-excoriation as a substitute for the difficult work of actually dealing with and changing that behavior). |
Get Low
05.22.21 | Well now I'm more interested than ever to read his work. |
dbizzles
05.22.21 | ‘Pierce Brown? Yeah the first book was ok but undwhelming. The next two are much better i think.’
‘ opposite feelings for pierce brown series. red rising was entertaining and pretty promising. series devolves into michael bay-esque ridiculousness after that point. the third book is particularly bad. you can tell the dude read a song of ice and fire was like whoa man yeah lemme do that but in SPACE! problem is it has none of the depth of asoiaf and tries to be shock for the sake of shock’
Duality.
|
Deathconscious
05.23.21 | Btw, if anyone is interested in music related books, Rotting Ways to Misery is on the Finnish death metal scene of the late 80s and early 90s. If you want to read it and you live in America you may want to jump on the chance, its a limited release here.
Crying In H Mart is a memoir by Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast and formerly Little Big League. Both of these have very recently come out, im stoked to get to them. |
Deathconscious
05.27.21 | Finally starting Children of Dune, took me forever to get through the first two, i fell out of my reading phase for a while. Getting back to it now. |
MiloRuggles
05.27.21 | Ah, I wish DFW was discussed less and with less hyperbole from both camps (pos and neg). Everything porc said about his personal life and problems with his work is right, but IJ is a really fun read(without being the greatest book ever, chill out people).
Reading the sound and the fury atm, and I've never felt so stupid while reading a book. 80% of the experience is inference. It must have been a nightmare to write. Good so far though, excited to see how it pieces itself together as it goes on.
Also finished the age of surveillance capitalism recently. If it was half the length (who edited this thing and let all of the retreading points slip through) and didn't regularly do things like comparing Google to murderous conquistadors it would be quite an amazing work. As it stands, it's still worthwhile though |
WeepingBanana
05.27.21 | Reading Hyperion rn. Thought it was dumb at first but I’ve been enjoying it more the past couple days |
Deathconscious
05.27.21 | Picked it up at a used bookstore when i happened to stumble upon it, ill be getting to it at some point. |
MiloRuggles
05.27.21 | Forewarning: you'll want to read the sequel soon after (I enjoyed them both. Storytelling better in the first, scale/scope better in the second) |
EyesWideShut
05.28.21 | Was gonna ask for some book recs myself, currently reading Raymond Carver's Where Im Calling From.. I dig this guy's writing, real minimal short stories about everyday life. Some ups, most downs, and a few in between. |
Get Low
06.01.21 | Currently reading: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, by Victor Hugo |
porcupinetheater
06.01.21 | Woah small world, I'm reading the Hunchback of Notre-Dayyyum by Victor Hugh Jass |
kalkwiese
06.01.21 | Currently reading:
J R R Tokkien - The Lord of the Rings
Leo Perutz - The Master of the Day of Judgement
Theodor Fontane - Effi Briest (audio book)
|
twlight
06.01.21 | I'm a star wars lover and I'm reading "Darth plagues" pretty intersting how evil he was. Spioler elert:. Palps kills him |
Anthracks
06.01.21 | "Reading the sound and the fury atm, and I've never felt so stupid while reading a book."
Have you read any Thomas Pynchon? |
Josh D.
06.01.21 | Last: The Sword and The Shield, contrasting MLK and Malcolm X's evolution during the Civil Rights era
Currently: The Civil War and the United States, articles and letters about the war written by Marx and Engels during it
Next: either Inevitable Revolutions, a history of US imperialism in Latin America, or Stony the Road, a journey of black struggle after slavery through Reconstruction to Jim Crow |
Anthracks
06.01.21 | taking a break from proust to read venus in furs and yvonne orji's book |
kalkwiese
06.01.21 | "I’m halfway through In Search of Lost Time right now. It’s really great"
I have heared it's a tough one. Is that true? Looks like it's worth while at least |
theBoneyKing
06.01.21 | Currently reading Hyperion (which I see some other folks here have been on too). I'm at like 60% and really enjoying it so far! |
Anthracks
06.01.21 | it's only tough due to the length and the fact that it's not really telling a story (i assume people have trouble keeping interested). not tough like academically, unless you have trouble with lots of commas and tangential thoughts. there's so much knowledge in the prose though, even with how mundane it is |
budgie
06.01.21 | look at all these nerds reading books lmao |
MiloRuggles
06.01.21 | >Have you read any Thomas Pynchon?
Yeah, he's my favourite author. I've read everything but slow learner. If we're talking Faulkner comparisons as far as digression and POV/temporal fuckery go, the sound and the Fury's fragmentation makes it a lot harder to piece together. I'm about halfway through now, so adjusting to the style and learning from repeated phrases etc, but it's jumping around is more constant/extreme than Pynchon imo.
Plus there's less dick jokes. You into Pynchon? |
Let
06.01.21 | @josh those all sound right up my ally. I finally decided to crack open Capital, would be interested to know their thoughts on the civil war. Inevitable Revolutions sounds great too, I have the tangentially related book Killing Hope on my radar, and How to Hide an Empire next on my read list.
Reading The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber rn
@Milo Have you read the Crying of Lot 49? I bought it, havent read it yet though. |
porcupinetheater
06.01.21 | Just jump in with Gravity's Rainbow, coward |
MiloRuggles
06.01.21 | >@Milo Have you read the Crying of Lot 49? I bought it, havent read it yet though.
Yeah, I reckon it's an odd starting point. Although it's short and focussed (comparably) it also has the most...specific and obscure(?) reference points in terms of the history it digs into etc. His B I G three (Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, Against The Day) deal with some pretty big moments in history, so I found them easier to parse as a whole despite their size. Loads of people disagree with me here though. If I were to determine the 'safest' place to start I'd say Inherent Vice, but it's pretty far removed from the all-in style that he built his legacy on.
>Just jump in with Gravity's Rainbow, coward
Honestly not a horrible shout. Maybe V. first, but Gravity's Rainbow's a lot more entertaining |
Josh D.
06.01.21 | "those all sound right up my ally. I finally decided to crack open Capital, would be interested to know their thoughts on the civil war"
They viewed slavery through the lens of the wealth it provided to the slaveowners, so it's a capitalist critique in that way (for example, how it would effect the cotton trade). They saw slaves in a similar way they did to serfs in Europe, a working class that could rise up and create social change, all part of the global socialist revolution in that sense.
But they and all the European radicals, like German revolutionaries, that left for America after the failed revolutions of 1848-49 and served in the Union army also of course opposed slavery like they did any oppression. The writings are grouped in such a way as to show how their thoughts changed on various things over the course of the war. |
MiloRuggles
06.01.21 | I take back everything I said. Read Pynchon in historical chronological order - Mason & Dixon -> Against The Day -> Gravity's Rainbow -> V. -> TCoL49 -> Inherent Vice -> Vineland -> Bleeding Edge
Mason & Dixon will probably scare you off, but you must persist. I think the only one that might sit awkwardly is V.. Let me know how it goes in a couple years xx |
Let
06.01.21 | Thanks for the advice milo, I've heard all types of things about how obtuse his writing can be, but I love cormac's so I dont think that'll diminish my enjoyment of it lol. Good to know I might need some context to understand his books.
@Josh yeah I remember reading about Marx on Americas slave trade a while back, think it was a different essay. Wasn't aware of the expats that went to fight in the union army, that sound super interesting. I'm reading weber right now, and he briefly referred to some 'inefficiency of unfree labour', in reference to slavery, and I was like I'm not sure what the fuck he's talking about lol. |
Josh D.
06.02.21 | Unfortunately there seems to be a dearth of books about it, but yeah a lot of Germans came to the US in the 1850s after the revolution. Some like August Willich were Prussian army officers, others just left radicals of various stripes. In places like Ohio and Indiana they enlisted and many rose to commanding ranks, training and leading regiments south. More than 200,000 native Germans fought with the Union. |
Get Low
06.02.21 | Lot 49 rules |
Anthracks
06.02.21 | Interesting. I don’t find Faulkner anywhere near as complicated as Pynchon. Both are among my favorite authors, but I’d definitely put Pynchon as one of the most demanding authors out there. I think he’s the only novelist that reaches Hegel-level brain fuckery |
protokute
06.02.21 | I've been reading Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse |
kalkwiese
06.02.21 | Oh yea, I have read Steppenwolf twice. What do you think of it? |
Lasssie
06.02.21 | Just finnished Reading Inferno by August Strindberg |
MiloRuggles
06.02.21 | Yeah anthracks I'll happily concede that Pynchon's subject matter and range of topics is infinitely more complex, but it's the way that the sound and the fury messes with form that's really tripping me up. The first third of the book is a minefield of not only who's speaking, but when they're speaking, and it takes a while for the kaleidoscope to start forming recognisable shapes. I've found it very demanding haha , but enjoyable |
protokute
06.02.21 | I'm still on the beginning of it, curious to see how the magic theater turns out |
kalkwiese
06.02.21 | I'm not gonna spoil anything then. :) I really enjoyed it back then. Poeple say Hesse is something for young and for old people and people in between tend not to care. I kind of agree, but I personally enjoyed Hesse so far, having read Demian and Steppenwolf. |
Scheumke
06.02.21 | Currently reading the Faithfull and the Fallen series by John Gwynne (Game of Thrones'y with quicker plot and less pages). Thinking of jumping into Murderbot next, hearing a lot of good things about it. |
protokute
06.02.21 | I've read Siddharta and absolutely loved it, turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read |
theBoneyKing
06.02.21 | @Scheumke, haven't read Faithful and Fallen but I'm really interested in Gwynne's new book The Shadow of the Gods. |
OSEL
06.02.21 | Hesse is great
I just read The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. Incredible, instantly one of my favs. Onto Thesiger's Arabian Sands next |
EyesWideShut
06.02.21 | Gonna start either Butcher's Crossing by John Williams or Hard Rain Falling by John Carpenter next. |
Sharenge
06.03.21 | it's Don Carpenter, isn't it? 'cus I was gonna say.... "I didn't know John Carpenter did novels - are there any pies that guy doesn't have his fingers in" |
EyesWideShut
06.03.21 | Yea it is Don Carpenter haha.. A John Carpenter novel would be nice tho. |
Scheumke
06.03.21 | @theBoneyKing: If you like that kind of stuff give Gwynne's other books a go, Malice is a little slow but hooo boy when it gets going it doesn't stop for the rest of the 4 books. I'm in the middle of Ruin atm and the pacing and tension is brilliant. |
kalkwiese
06.03.21 | @Scheumke: I have heared good things about murder bot :) I would be interested in your opinion on it |
heck
06.03.21 | been reading The Last Book on the Left |
ReefaJones
06.03.21 | Good Omens, for the 4th time |
Deathconscious
06.18.21 | Picked up a bunch of books even though i already have plenty i havent read yet. Mostly a bunch of sci fi shit.
Ringworld by Larry Niven. Thought it would be interesting to read the book with the concept that Halo ripped off of.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelanzy. Far future where technology has allowed a band of men to gain godlike powers and rule as the gods of the Hindu pantheon? Aight, ill give it a shot.
Got the second Hyperion book (havent even read the first yet).
Got Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. Havent ever read anything of his other than 1984, it seemed interesting. Also got Animal Farm, somehow never read that book and figured i should check it off.
The Man In the High Castle and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K Dick of course. Only ever read Ubik, Valis, and The Divine Invasion years ago. I wanted to finish the Valis trilogy, and i plan on doing a dive into his works in general. Love his batshit crazy acid trip false reality schtick.
Understanding Power by Noam Chomsky. Ive read a little Noam but i always see people recommending this one so im gonna give it a go. |
wham49
06.18.21 | Sweet Chaos , the Grateful Dead's cultural Journey, Golf in the Kingdom, and Travels with Charley, well I finished Travels at the beginning of the week. |
Get Low
06.18.21 | Currently reading the poem The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos Williams. |
Egarran
06.18.21 | I made it through like 30 pages of The House of the Dead by Dostoyevski.
Not recommended.
Ringworld is so good, I should read that again. |
kalkwiese
06.18.21 | Oh, I started Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
Three chapters in and it's pretty cool and funny. Some tasty sentences, a very rich vocab (making things harder for non native speakers lol) and a cool setting so far. Lesbian Necromancers in space. Sounds like fun. |
Egarran
06.18.21 | Sounds good gotta admit.
Anyone like China Miéville? Kraken was sweet. |
Let
06.18.21 | Oh yeah I've been meaning to get into his stuff. About to start on The Hillbilly Manifesto by Jim Goad. Looks edgy and entertaining |
Josh D.
06.18.21 | Currently reading a biography of Stokely Carmichael, next will be something about how James Baldwin's words are still of use today, then about how sugar has been a scourge to the planet from slavery to obesity. |
OSEL
06.18.21 | >I wanted to finish the Valis trilogy, and i plan on doing a dive into his works in general. Love his batshit crazy acid trip false reality schtick.
I admire your fortitude. I'm going the opposite direction and reading Journey to the West
|
heck
06.19.21 | got a stack of pretty cool textbooks for free at my job today. giving Language and Gender by Mary Talbot a read |
Deathconscious
06.19.21 | @egarran have you read the sequels? |
budgie
06.19.21 | look at all these nerds reading their nerd books |
WeepingBanana
06.19.21 | I love VALIS. Need to read others in the trilogy, and also more PKD in general of course. Only ever read that, Man in the high Castle, Androids, and Three Stigmata I believe.
Been in such a slump reading tho, haven’t finished anything in months but I’m close to the end on a couple long bois |
Deathconscious
06.19.21 | I have Androids as well, havent gotten to it. I think im going to take a break from the Dune series when im done with Children of Dune and read some PKD. I just ordered Radio Free Ablemuth since apparently that was the book that was going to be VALIS but ended up being released posthumously. So there are actually four VALIS books, something i only just discovered recently. |
Egarran
06.20.21 | >@egarran have you read the sequels?
Nope. Not sure why, but it's the same with Dune. I really should. |
Deathconscious
06.20.21 | A lot of people seem to think there was a big drop off in quality after the first one cause its just a bunch of talking and political shit, but idk, Herbert has such an intriguing way of writing. The first Dune is definitely the best so far, but he keeps me interested.
Bought yet another book this weekend (i really should stop), The Complete Cthulhu Mythos Tales. I always wanted a book that compiles all of the Cthulhu related stories, and here it is. |
Egarran
06.20.21 | Awesome! Had a decade long Lovecraft obsession, love that dude. |
Get Low
06.21.21 | The only Lovecraft story I ever read was one about a witch named Kezia, that I read as research for a theory "paper" I did on the Protest the Hero album Kezia. |
Deathconscious
06.21.21 | I found Meditations on First Philosophy in one of those community book shelves. Ive never read any Descartes, anyone know if this is a good place to start? |
Egarran
06.21.21 | “It is good to be a cynic — it is better to be a contented cat — and it is best not to exist at all.”
Oh HPL you old charmer |
porcupinetheater
06.21.21 | @DC
Meditations is pre much the Descartes philo piece, that’s the one where he dives all into the “think therefore I am” idea (but then winds up trusting in God anyway ‘cause he ain’t tryna get tortured by the Catholic Church) |
Deathconscious
06.24.21 | Ahh, thanks for explaining. Decided to go with Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy before i dive into that. I havent read much "western" philosophy. Checking off Animal Farm while i wait for it in the mail. |
Get Low
06.24.21 | Currently reading The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green. |
Anthracks
06.25.21 | next up: giovanni's room by james baldwin, kindred by octavia butler, the prophets by robert jones jr, at night all blood is black by david diop, and wheel of time book 9 |
Ryus
06.25.21 | baldwin rules, ive only read go tell it on the mountain but it was terrific. love his prose |
Get Low
06.25.21 | I read that Baldwin short story about the black dude getting lynched for like four different classes in college. |
Deathconscious
07.06.21 | Animal Farm was pretty great, i see why its a classic. The version i got had Orwell's preface that was originally omitted, so that was cool to read.
Finished The Transmigration of Timothy Archer as well. Started out promising, became underwhelming, and then redeemed itself in the last stretch. It was pretty moving.
Now im on the final VALIS book, Radio Free Ablemuth. |
Get Low
07.07.21 | Currently reading The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine |
MetalMarcJK
07.07.21 | If you like great philosophy, read Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s First and Second Discourses, and The Social Contract. |
Lasssie
07.07.21 | Was on a fucking roll last month an read "After Dark", "Sputnik Sweetheart", "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" bu Haruki Murakami + "Doctor Glas" by Hjalmar Soderberg, "Inferno" by August Strindberg and "Victoria" by Knut Hamsun. Think thats everything lol. Been trying to read "Posthumous Papers From of A Living Author" by Robert Musil but it seems my brain needs a break from books since i cant seem to concentrate lately lol
edit: also read two books With excerpts from Franz Kafkas diaries |
WeepingBanana
07.07.21 | Bought way too many books recently
Anna Kavan short story collection
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin
People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi
The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Kraznahorkai
Wittgenstein’s Nephew by Thomas Bernhard
Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me by Richard Fariña
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
And I got a few other I need to crush before I start this stack, which I’m sure will also be interrupted cause my reading schedule changes every day |
WeepingBanana
07.07.21 | Anyone read any good releases from this year? Thinking about getting Abundance by Jakob Guanzon. I’m really bad at keeping up with current stuff |
kalkwiese
07.07.21 | Finished The Lord of the Rings recently. Was worth it, even though it took a while to get going.
|
Deathconscious
07.07.21 | I might have to give LOTR a go again, i got 100 pages into The Fellowship of the Ring and gave up. I rarely do that once i start a book, but i was bored out of my mind. |
kalkwiese
07.07.21 | It's like a 4th or a 3rd until the story really gets going. It's not a perfect book at all, but after Rivendell stuff gets going. |
EyesWideShut
07.07.21 | @Weeping that Abundance book looks p interesting, think ill keep that in mind |
EyesWideShut
07.07.21 | Finished Butcher's Crossing by John Williams, really solid western/adventure about the hardships and endurance of surviving a near mythical buffalo hunt. Same author who wrote Stoner. |
porcupinetheater
07.07.21 | Just finished The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, really interesting undercutting patriarchal narrative structures with a shifting 3rd person POV
Bout to jump into Machado’s In the Dream House |
kalkwiese
07.07.21 | Oh btw, when I said '3rd or 4th', I was talking about the whole trilogy. I got it in one book |
Jasdevi087
07.08.21 | just got finished reading the great american novel and now my brain is crammed with 19th century whaling lore that i can never use |
AlexKzillion
07.08.21 | Just started Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman |
Get Low
07.08.21 | ^ Read that like ten years ago but don't remember anything about it. I think it was good, though. |
Deathconscious
07.08.21 | Well, Radio Free Ablemuth was batshit crazy as expected.
Trying to decide whether to continue my PKD kick and read Electric Sheep or finish the last Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, i started that series years ago. |
Keyblade
07.08.21 | "I might have to give LOTR a go again, i got 100 pages into The Fellowship of the Ring and gave up. I rarely do that once i start a book, but i was bored out of my mind."
I think I was just starting 2 towers and just stopped, can't even remember why. there was a lot of plodding |
WeepingBanana
07.08.21 | Read fellowship and only fellowship last year. Realized all I really care about is elf and hobbit lore so I decided I’ll just read Silmarillion soon |
Egarran
07.08.21 | GL I never made it through |
MiloRuggles
07.08.21 | @jas it's good, huh? the prose about queequeg's eyes widening/weakening like ripples in water (and that whole scene) is just astonishing writing.
@banana go hard, the silmarillion's the best of the lot if you don't mind dry prose
reading the dispossessed atm and it's unsurprisingly super thoughtful and exciting |
Winesburgohio
07.08.21 | just finished Immortality by Kundera and honestly he's like if Sebald was the horniest man in Czechoslovakia |
Get Low
07.08.21 | Queequeg rules |
Drifter
07.08.21 | "I might have to give LOTR a go again, i got 100 pages into The Fellowship of the Ring and gave up. I rarely do that once i start a book, but i was bored out of my mind."
It gets better trust |
kalkwiese
07.09.21 | Yea, the Two Towers and The Return of the King are constantly great. Even the slow beginning of The Fellowship mostly pays off. The book isn't perfect, but really good |
Deathconscious
07.09.21 | Alright, ive been convinced, ill do it, eventually. |
EyesWideShut
07.11.21 | Finished Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter, excellent book. All time favs. |
Ryus
07.11.21 | white noise by don delillo |
Hyperion1001
07.11.21 | just got gifted this, gonna go through it tomorrow
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56015023-this-is-your-mind-on-plants |
Anthracks
07.12.21 | Personally don’t think LOTR will click for you if it hasn’t already. It continues to be dry for its entirety and frankly the ending is awful. Tolkien has no clue how to end anything. Silmarillion is my favorite Tolkien book easy. |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | Silmarillion is terrible, what? No interest in reading the red yarned corkboard style fake encyclopedia/history textbook |
Anthracks
07.12.21 | Tolkien only works as a textbook. He can’t write narrative / prose for shit. |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | Idk, the prose is pretty excellent, it's just the structuring (or total lack thereof) that knocks it down. Most fantasy writers are terrible at both so he's still comin' out ahead in the pimple book race |
Anthracks
07.12.21 | True enough |
Ryus
07.12.21 | there have been at least 10 times where i start a fantasy series ive heard so much about and the prose is just so bad |
Ryus
07.12.21 | just not a fan at all of dudes like brandon sanderson who are obsessed with world building but cant figure out how to actually write a damn book |
Anthracks
07.12.21 | Sanderson’s problem is that his characters and dialogue are pretty much shit. The worlds and storylines aren’t bad. Definitely limited by its inherent childishness, and unfortunately I don’t think Sanderson will ever take a stab at grit. |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | Lmao at these Sanderson takes. He has his flaws for sure but on the whole he’s one of the best out there if you’re into the kind of thing he does. If it’s not your bag that’s fine, but he absolutely knows how to “write a damn book” (I’d ask you to elaborate on that but tbh that’s such a pretentious thing to say idk if it even warrants explanation) and while he won’t ever be grimdark it’s definitely not fair to say his work lacks grit (which, as a literary element, is definitely overrated by many, and I don’t think the absence of it is inherently limiting). If you don’t like his characters I won’t argue, but many of his are among my favorites ever. I’ll give you dialogue though, that’s definitely a weaker area for him.
Regarding prose, I think that depends a lot on what you’re trying to get out of the reading experience. Personally I don’t mind plainer prose (e.g. Sanderson) as long as it isn’t awkward, and honestly I would generally take that over something overly purple the majority of the time. |
Ryus
07.12.21 | my point: his prose sucks ass, his characters and dialogue are pretty much shit [2]. it sucks because his worlds truly are great. thats it |
Ryus
07.12.21 | and obviously "sucks ass" is subjective, but its worse than plain to me |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | His prose is inconsistent but in general I think it’s actually great for what it’s trying to do. It’s worse in his YA/middle grade books where he kinda dumbs things down even more. Occasionally in his adult works there are sentences I think could have been edited and that take me out of the story (this was a particular problem in the Dawnshard novella he released last year which was severely rushed and clearly under-edited) but for the most part it flows well and conveys information succinctly and vividly and becomes almost invisible. There are definitely modern fantasy writers with much better prose than his and many others who attempt the same style as him and do it worse but it doesn’t bother me personally. To each his own. |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | Regarding LOTR, the structure and pacing are certainly unconventional and can make it tough to get through on first pass (though less so if you treat it as one book instead of a trilogy, which is how it should be approached), but I think if you approach it as something to be taken in small chunks and savored it works really well, especially on rereads. A thriller it ain’t. |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | A theme you can probably see in my previous comments is that I generally value ideas and worldbuilding above most other elements so I can tend to apologize for a lot of the more technical things in the execution a story, so take that as you will. |
Colton
07.12.21 | fiction is weird you're basically just sitting down and immersing yourself in the thoughts of some dude |
Sharenge
07.12.21 | but JK Rowling is a gril |
Ryus
07.12.21 | "A theme you can probably see in my previous comments is that I generally value ideas and worldbuilding above most other elements so I can tend to apologize for a lot of the more technical things in the execution a story, so take that as you will. "
you better not tell me lyrics matter |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | Guilty as charged |
Ryus
07.12.21 | damn lmao thats actually wild to me. i like good/interesting prose a lot but dont really care about lyrics unless i want to |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | Good Lord good prose and the way language conveys ideas is the most interesting thing about fictional writing. Who gives an ass about world building? We have functionally immortal dust mites living on our planet, I’ll take an encyclopedia if I want to learn about an interesting world |
Ryus
07.12.21 | anyone here like nonfiction? i need recs for stuff. i like urban planning, architecture, US history (not really interested in the super military-focused stuff), food, sociology, music obv |
Colton
07.12.21 | world building is the most masturbatory aspect of fiction, might as well just go on omegle and watch some guy jerk off |
nol
07.12.21 | bannedolton |
nol
07.12.21 | I read Flatland in the hospital. Quirky mathematical book that goes thru multiple dimensions. Author goes out of his way to explicitly not bore the reader with pointless world-building, so that’s nice. |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | Ryus, you read any Oliver Sacks? Just finished The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, really interesting compellingly written essay collection about different case histories of people with neurological conditions |
Ryus
07.12.21 | a while back porc, it was really interesting. sacks is great. he has a book about music that ive been meaning to read |
nol
07.12.21 | did he write a story about me |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | I’m not saying I don’t love and appreciate prose and language, I studied linguistics and am an English teacher, I just primarily enjoy reading SFF (it’s probably an escapism thing) because I really enjoy world building and the way it intertwines with interesting stories. Obviously if the writing is poor enough that will be an unforgivable problem, I just don’t think “plain” writing is the same thing as bad writing. |
Colton
07.12.21 | you obviously don't appreciate language |
nol
07.12.21 | The Hobbit is dope. LOTR is a slog, just watch the movies. I failed a class cuz those books were so boring. |
Rowan5215
07.12.21 | bought Klara and the Sun yesterday and got an order in for Crying in H-Mart, can't wait |
nol
07.12.21 | I’m writing a book about Rowan actually |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | Does it include the bullshit twist where Rowan’s name ISNT ACTUALLY ROWAN |
Get Low
07.12.21 | "there have been at least 10 times where i start a fantasy series ive heard so much about and the prose is just so bad"
Welcome to genre fiction, where writers don't know how to write. |
Scheumke
07.12.21 | Alright rec'ing fantasy that (in my humble opinion) has good prose:
- Gentleman Bastards series (Scott Lynch)
- Discworld (Terry Pratchett)
- Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss)
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steven Erikson)
- Everything from H.P. Lovecraft (fantasy horror but I say it counts)
- I've heard a lot of good things of the prose from Robin Hobb but haven't read anything by her yet |
kalkwiese
07.12.21 | I love good prose, but tbh there is so much more to a good book than prose alone. I'll take a good craftsman style over overtly purple prose any day. If you think fantasy in general has bad prose you probably don't know where to look. Scheumke is spot on.
YA fantasy can be reeeaaally bad though. I'll never try a book by Trudi Canavan again lol. That's bad writing imo. I have heared too many good things about Sanderson to believe he sucks. Gonna try Mistborn some time in the future |
wildinferno2010
07.12.21 | I tried reading the wheel of time and the prose really turned me off
@Kalk I've read some Sanderson, he's pretty fun. First Mistborn book was very action movie-y, but good overall. He had one story called The Emperor's Soul that I studied during a fantasy lit course though, super good. Highly recommend |
porcupinetheater
07.12.21 | yeah overtly purple prose is mostly bad prose though. good prose ≠ using as many words as possible for each idea. Unless it's Djuna Barnes or something, give me those warbly poetic gut punches and "what-in-the-god-damn-hell-are-you-talkin-about"isms any day.
And sure there's good fantasy prose out there, just by a numbers game. I haven't read 'em, got no interest in pouring through the dumpster of shitty fantasy writing to find the banana peels that have compressed into a diamond to hear a slightly better take on all them creatures with pointy ears and war recountings that are mostly just half-assed retellings of the Battle of Agincourt |
Scheumke
07.12.21 | Yeah Sanderson is a master in world (and magic) -building and plot (the man is foreshadowing for days), but his prose and writing style are very vanilla. I can see people being put off by that. It makes me love his stories but I've noticed that I'll never get as attached or hyped as the Malazan books do.
Good prose is not the end all be all, but I do notice that I really miss it if it's lacking. Almost finished the Faithfull and the Fallen series and it's like A Song of Ice and Fire but faster paced. In every way I should love it, but I notice it won't be one of my favorites simply because the prose is really lacking and it makes me get less sucked into the story. |
Scheumke
07.12.21 | "to hear a slightly better take on all them creatures with pointy ears and war recountings that are mostly just half-assed retellings of the Battle of Agincourt"
If that is your view of the entire fantasy genre than I get you. I highly recommend picking up something like 'Mort' from Terry Pratchett or The Lies of Locke Lamora in that case to get you off that notion ;). |
kalkwiese
07.12.21 | Small Gods is probably my favorite Discworld. It takes everything that makes Pratchett great to the max |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | Scheumke’s recs of Lynch, Rothfuss, and Erikson are great examples of good fantasy prose, though each has their own quirks as writers that can be off-putting. Need to check out Pratchett and Hobb. I also love the prose of Joe Abercrombie, Tad Williams, and Bryan Staveley. |
Scheumke
07.12.21 | Yeah late Abercrombie got a lot better on that front, picking up The First Law trilogy won't really make a strong case for good prose though. |
theBoneyKing
07.12.21 | True true, the first couple books in the first trilogy can be rough at times but he has really refined his style over time into what is probably my favorite writing style in the genre. |
Meridiu5
07.12.21 | Great recs here
Name of the wind is good fantasy
The white plague for sci fi |
Anthracks
07.12.21 | The worst part of Sanderson isn’t even the bad characters / dialogue or average prose. It’s that his books feel YA, always. Even his non-YA stuff. I am fully up-to-date on Stormlight Archive and the amount of times I cringe is kinda crazy. It’s also a testament to his storytelling because he does keep me interested despite his very glaring flaws.
Klara and the Sun is really good. A better version of Never Let Me Go, IMO. Doesn’t come anywhere near The Remains of the Day or The Unconsoled though. |
MiloRuggles
07.13.21 | All this talk of prose and fantasy is reminding me
Has anyone read The Vorrh? The opening chapter or two have the most amazing, mysterious prose and imagery. The book drives itself off a cliff as it goes on and becomes more plot-driven, but if anyone has recs that pang of that book's opening, lemme know.
Just finished The Dispossessed last night. Stunning stuff. Only two books in, but I love the Hainish cycle's standalone stories set in the same world. Little easter eggs all over the shop. Le Guin is a fucking master of discussing ideals and politics in the midst of an engaging story. Shevek is a lovely fellow |
Get Low
07.16.21 | Currently reading Infinite Jester, by David Foster Wallace |
Ryus
07.16.21 | the Enlightened man's choice |
Lord(e)Po)))ts
07.16.21 | Lol "Infinite Jester"
I was reading Southern Reach: Authority but I don't know where I put it so I started The Wasp Factory |
Anthracks
07.16.21 | wasp factory was total shit imo |
zaruyache
07.16.21 | jeff vandermeer's an odd duck. or odd bear-man, whichever. |
Relinquished
07.16.21 | I’m not really reading these days
but i’m totally checking you out |
Rowan5215
07.16.21 | got my copy of Crying in H-Mart finally |
porcupinetheater
07.16.21 | Yo come back with news how it is Pseudo-Row
Gonna get into some Nabokov, been putting him off too long. Easin' in with Pnin and hitting up Pale Fire after that |
Anthracks
07.16.21 | despair is my favorite nabokov |
EyesWideShut
07.16.21 | "I don't know where I put it so I started The Wasp Factory"
Haven't read Wasp Factory in over a decade but I remember diggin it, made me wary about flying kites |
Get Low
07.16.21 | Pnin and Pale Fire rule. I also recommend Invitation to a Beheading |
Egarran
07.16.21 | I read The Wasp Factory when I was like 16 and thought it was a masterpiece. I rec'd it recently to my friend who loves Banks' sci-fi... and he was not impressed.
So that was a bummer.
Currently reading Letters From And To Groucho Marx. Because mother said I should. |
budgie
07.16.21 | look at these stupid nerds reading books haha |
rabidfish
07.16.21 | Just got a copy of Gottfried Semper's Der Stijl. Very technical art history and architecture stuff. Gonna take a while, but it's very very interesting, eye opening stuff. |
Anthracks
07.16.21 | Wasp factory is definitely a book only an adolescent edgelord could love. Impossible to look past how poorly written it is |
EyesWideShut
07.16.21 | what other books are of the adolescent edgelord genre ? |
cordwainerbird
07.16.21 | readin the satanic bible atm
i rec ppl new wave speculative fiction. harlan ellison and pdk are the best |
Anthracks
07.16.21 | Dunno I try to avoid those at all cost. Unfortunately wasp factory gets recommended a lot. I’d probably put house of leaves in the same category though now that I think about it. Another absolute joke of a book with zero depth |
porcupinetheater
07.16.21 | No no see with House of Leaves the depth is *constantly shifting* |
kalkwiese
07.16.21 | Is House of Leaves that bad? I'm always fascinated by books playing with the concept of what a novel can be |
Anthracks
07.16.21 | house of leaves is a 100% gimmick and a literal waste of paper. it plays with what a novel can be to the same level of effectiveness of an RL Stine choose your own adventure book |
kalkwiese
07.16.21 | Oh damn. Gotte get into Nabokov then. I wanted to do the same thing as porc actually, and ease into Nabokov with Pnin and then read Pale Fire. Still not sure if I'm gonna read the latter in English or German. I want the real experience, but he has the reputation of a word virtuoso and that sounds like a tough thing to read for a non-native tbh |
porcupinetheater
07.16.21 | Hell yeah Sputnik Nabokov book club
Does Pale Fire only have one German translation, or do you have options to do a comparison? |
kalkwiese
07.16.21 | I can only find one from 2008. Good novel are great even with mediocre translations though. But I try to push into og language, with English at least. It worked with simpler prose (A Game of Thrones), but when it gets more complex and uses more obscure words, it costs a lot of energy |
Deathconscious
07.16.21 | From The Hound: "dissonances of exquisite morbidity and cacodaemoniacal ghastliness"
Needs to be a death metal song. |
Egarran
07.16.21 | >adolescent edgelord
If I had read Fight Club when I was 16 I would probably have joined some urban guerilla cell. |
Anthracks
07.18.21 | ^ great call, would definitely add that one to the list
finished book 9 of the wheel of time. man it's gonna be a great feeling to be done with this series. i don't think the payoff will be anywhere near worth it, but how can i stop now?
resuming in search of last time (at sodom and gomorrah), then reading watchmen, dying of the light by george rr martin, science of being and the art of living |
Scheumke
07.18.21 | Owh boy and you're coming up on Crossroads of Twilight then. Good luck I had the same. The payoff starts after that one and is three and a half books long so it was worth it in my opinion. Read the first three again this year to refresh my memory before the tv series hits later this year. Very curious to see what they make of it. |
FabiusPictor202
07.18.21 | origin of species - charlies darwin |
Sharenge
07.18.21 | I liked it |
Get Low
07.18.21 | Yeah there are so any nuances in Nabokov's prose that I feel like anyone would be better off reading it in their native language to potentially get the most out of it. |
kalkwiese
07.19.21 | Mh, makes sense. Like, I am a great admirer of Günter Grass and he was a berserk in some of his books. I would recommend reading Grass in translations (at least the english ones should be good) because of that. I have the suspicion Nabokov might be a little similar to that |
EyesWideShut
07.20.21 | Finished Cormac's Outer Dark. Not my fav from Mac but still an interesting southern gothic story. |
Ryus
07.20.21 | cormac is the man |
aydross121
07.20.21 | House of Leaves does indeed fit into the adolescent edgelord genre, kinda like say Donnie Darko or Fight Club. Although I'd still call all three movies/books good and worth checking out at least once. |
EyesWideShut
07.20.21 | "cormac is the man"
Yea Suttree is my all time fav book, there's a myth that he's working on something new |
Ryus
07.20.21 | havent read that one, only read the road, no country, blood meridian, and all the pretty horses. should get around to reading some more by him, no country for old men is one of my favs for sure. love his style |
Get Low
07.21.21 | I read Blood Meridian and I couldn't stand his lack of punctuation in his writing. Novel was otherwise great but I'm not in a hurry to read anything else by him. |
Ryus
07.21.21 | haha yeah his style isnt for everyone for sure. the lack of quotation marks also takes getting used to |
WeepingBanana
07.21.21 | Just started The Left Hand of Darkness the other day, pretty good |
Anthracks
07.21.21 | outer dark is one of my favorite of mccarthy's and super underrated |
Get Low
07.25.21 | Anyone here ever read anything by Tao Lin? |
porcupinetheater
07.25.21 | Yeah, Shoplifting from American Apparel is big time bad. All the people talking up above about how long-winded prose is the worst oughta check it out and see some bare bones writing every bit as artless. |
Get Low
07.25.21 | American Apparel sucks but everything he's written since has been ace. His new novel Leave Society is coming out next month and I'm hyped. |
kalkwiese
07.25.21 | Bad bare bones prose is just boring. Bad long-winded prose is close to unreadable. Both sucks hard tbh |
Piglet
07.25.21 | Reading some Brandon Sanderson at the mo, way of kings. Great shit. love alternating plot lines and hectic gladiator survival of the fittest shit. Still can't get over how perfectly his books could be adapted into a tv show, with the characterization, plot, pacing, dialogue etc. |
porcupinetheater
07.25.21 | "Bad bare bones prose is just boring. Bad long-winded prose is close to unreadable. Both sucks hard tbh"
Word, but also boring is such a soft word for how aggravating it can be lmao. And usually the bullshit long-winded stuff at least has the heart to muster up some compelling images here and there |
kalkwiese
07.25.21 | Mh, agreed. I remember when I read The Magician's Guilt by Trudi Canavan, a prime example of watered down super generic ya fantasy. It made me absolutely angry when the same few lame descriptions repeated over and over ... damn. |
Get Low
08.15.21 | Currently reading: Leave Society, by Tao Lin |
kalkwiese
08.15.21 | Recently finished Gideon The Ninth (Tamsyn Muir). Great prose! It funny how the high level vocabulary (at least for me as a foreigner) is juxtaposed with memes and stupid humor. Great characters, a quite standard plot, but it's so well executed. Grandiose finale! Looking forward to the next installment in the series.
Also finished At The Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft. Quite cool, I enjoyed it. It's devoid of any tension in the classic sense, but that's nit what you want when you read Lovecraft, I guess. An interesting experience |
Egarran
08.15.21 | Teke li li!
It's best if you've read read the other mythos stories first.
Also people, esp. del Toro, have been trying to turn it into a movie for many years, may it never happen. |
kalkwiese
08.15.21 | Yea, it was referencing stuff I didn't know. I'll do more Lovecraft in the future, but I like to jump around from book to book a little |
Scheumke
08.16.21 | I have Lovecrafts collected works in a very nice hardcover and read maybe a third of it, need to revisit and read the rest. Quite a couple of classic tales in there, Shadow over Innsmouth remains my favorite I think.
Switching between Discworld and the Expanse series on a book by book basis atm, both are very enjoyable for very different reasons. |
dedex
08.16.21 | Shadow over Innsmouth [2]
I should go back to the Discworld series, Pratchett was so damn funny
Currently reading The Name of the Rose, good shit but man does Eco love descripting shit |
kalkwiese
08.16.21 | Just finished the audio book of Journey to the center of the earth by Jules Verne. I listen quite a lot of audio books lately, because you can digest them, while you do things that don't allow reading. But I guess you always miss some bits with audio books. It's so easy for the mind to wander off |
Scheumke
08.16.21 | Owh yeah I usually do a 50/50 between audiobook and reading. On a weekday I get at least an hour extra in there while travelling. If you want a good one kalk you should give the Dresden Files audiobooks a go, James Marsters = Harry Dresden for me. Its a bit pulpy, especially the first few books, but boy does it pick up later in the series. At first its just enjoyable tales, until all of a sudden you realize it's gradually become seriously epic. |
kalkwiese
08.16.21 | Oh, I have heared good things about the Dresden Files. :) How do you listen to audio books? I use what I can get on Spotify. I'm also kinda limited to audio books in german, I started reading books in English though. Maybe I'll get into audio books in English one day |
Scheumke
08.16.21 | I download them *shame*. Yeah if you want to pick up Dresden Files do it as a light easy read. The first few are enjoyable enough but it slowly builds up and until book 10ish every book gets better than the one before it. The real overarching storyline kicks in with book 3 I believe. |
Josh D.
08.16.21 | I'm reading Spencer Ackerman's Reign of Terror, which couldn't have been released at a more appropriate time with regards to Afghanistan. |
CottonSalad
08.16.21 | Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
Partially a story about places we inhabit. Partially a criticism of philosophy/psychology regarding inhabiting - replacing both of those ways of thinking with poetry. Partially a brainstorming device to daydream through.
Ive been reading it while on vacation this past week, it’s been really great. |
dbizzles
08.16.21 | Finished Shantaram on Friday. It was excellent. Going to read The Jungle next. |
Anthracks
08.16.21 | the master of go by yasunari kawabata, then back into proust while on vaca |
Keyblade
08.17.21 | got the deluxe edition of Dune ahead of the movie. i loved the shit out of this book like 10 years ago, let's see if I still do |
Anthracks
08.17.21 | it's a classic bt def has some glaring weak points |
Scheumke
08.18.21 | Tried it but couldn't really get into it. Might try again though at some point. Super hyped for the movie! |
Jasdevi087
08.18.21 | found Dune an absolute slog to get through but Messiah was slightly easier |
Keyblade
08.18.21 | I remember it starting slow, but once you get in the groove and figure out what all the jargon means (good thing there's a glossary), it gets pretty good. not a fan of the whole messiah shit, but the geopolitics was intriguing |
dedex
08.18.21 | What Keyblade said. The geopolitics parts clearly were my favs |
Get Low
08.30.21 | Currently reading: The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy |
MiloRuggles
08.30.21 | Just finished The Fifth Head of Cerberus the other day. Amazing stuff if you like your literature fucking chockablock with puzzles. All sorts of stuff hidden in the text that are never clearly/definitively answered, but thoughtfully suggested. Absolute must-read for Le Guin fans |
combustion07
08.30.21 | Currently reading some King since it's close to Halloween. Just started Carrie a few days ago. Gonna start an audiobook at work Monday too. Might go with Koontz or something idk yet |
Keyblade
08.30.21 | i used to love fear nothing. read it randomly in highschool and it slapped |
porcupinetheater
08.30.21 | Running through Virginia Woolf chronolog
About to wrap The Voyage Out and on into Mrs. Dalloway |
AlexKzillion
08.30.21 | Gonna start Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild when I get off today |
twlight
08.30.21 | I'm reading Dune and The Bible |
Get Low
08.30.21 | the bible slaps |
twlight
08.30.21 | God definitely slaps the shit out of humanity in the old testament |
Get Low
08.30.21 | they deserved it, the way them jews were disobedient and shit smh |
kalkwiese
08.30.21 | Reading a collection of short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Gotta say, the early ones are not very good imo. Long, drawn out stories where nothing happens, but people feels a lot. Definitely not my thing. It's the typical stories a young writer tells, when he oves writing, but still needs do develop his story telling skills, and has nothing to talk about, but his own vage misery.
I hope it gets better with the later stores. They're arranged chronologically. I'm basically watching the master grow. :) One Hundered Years of Solitude was such a perfect read.
Also started A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. His dry prose makes this an easy read in the original language for me. I appreciate that tbh. |
Keyblade
08.30.21 | it's pretty funny when Martin tries his hand at exposition. like an alien trying to pass as human |
MiloRuggles
08.30.21 | O shi porc, I'm doing a pleb's run of the major works, so let me know how you get on! I've only done Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse so far, but completely loved them both. Straight fucking P R O S E and a hugely empathetic worldview |
aydross121
08.31.21 | Been checking Fictions by Luis Borges in spanish slowly. The prose is confusing and obtuse but the man had some cool af ideas, very clever stuff |
porcupinetheater
08.31.21 | Even just through Voyage Out it’s obvi not as fully formed as the mastapieces but it’s so cool seeing these waves of instinctive abstraction and cerebral strangeness periodically wash over this roundelay of manners thing it’s got going. Fucking so stoked to get the full-ons (and capping with The Waves o fuck o fuck) |
Ryus
08.31.21 | never read any king but working my way through the tome that is "it" |
Rowan5215
08.31.21 | wow that's a hell of a King to start with ryus, godspeed
reading The Stand again myself |
kalkwiese
08.31.21 | @Keyblade: I'm curious, what exactly do you mean? English isn't my native language, so I might be blind to awkwardness here. But I thought the prose was perfectly serviceable for book 1. It's just a bit dry, but it makes it more accessible for me |
Scheumke
08.31.21 | On Caliban's War atm. Leviathan Wakes was a really nice start to the series. It helped that I'm watching the series alongside it haha. |
zakalwe
08.31.21 | 2nd book of Joe Abercrombie’s ‘Age of Madness’ series which is absolute quality. |
Zig
08.31.21 | Marketa Lazarová, by Vladislav Vančura. |
Scheumke
08.31.21 | @zak, Abercrombie is always good. His character work is S-tier. His book titles are always stellar as well, 'The Wisdom of Crowds' just gives me chills thinking about all the implications this can have. |
zakalwe
08.31.21 | Yes mate.
Love how he can make you sympathise with absolute arseholes.
He is also responsible for writing one of the best characters of all time in old Logen Ninefingers but Rikke in this series is bloody superb as well.
I actually prefer Age of Madness to the First Law as it stands, amazing stuff.
|
Scheumke
08.31.21 | I've always been more of a fan of Glokta than Logen haha. Haven't read the Age of Madness yet, but I can imagine it being better than First Law. Recently did a reread on the the first trilogy, but found it lacking in the plot department for me and I have a couple of issues with it. It's all about the characters though and that easily makes up for it luckily. |
EyesWideShut
08.31.21 | The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Collection of short stories by Johnson while he's on his way out. Yes he's dying literally and fictionally so the stories deal with mortality, odd and darkly funny situations, and odd ball characters. I can see fans of Bukowski digging this and even the comedy of Louie CK. This is one of Nick Cave's favorite books too. |
Keyblade
08.31.21 | @kalk, if memory serves u mostly see this in later books, but basically every once in a while he'll try his hand at some flowery prose for exposition and it just reads weird. prob why the first book is my favorite, like u say it's more direct |
WeepingBanana
08.31.21 | “ I can see fans of Bukowski digging this and even the comedy of Louie CK. This is one of Nick Cave's favorite books too”
I couldn’t imagine a more repellent description |
kalkwiese
08.31.21 | Ah, gotcha. A friend of mine published a pretty exciting and engaging book with a few issues. One of them were the few instances when she tried to be clever in terms of prose and it just backfired lol. Writers have different strengths, i guess, and you just have to play to your strengths for most of the time. |
porcupinetheater
08.31.21 | Yo Zig come back about how Marketa is, the movie adaptation is like my favorite motion pictcha period, super curious to Czech |
WeepingBanana
08.31.21 | Yooo I gotta watch more Czech new wave films. Seems like there’s so much good shit |
porcupinetheater
08.31.21 | Best film movement in history, straight up. Back in school (lol) took every chance to twist long form research essays to tha CNW
Even most of the iffy/less than great movies fail in a way that’s interesting |
WeepingBanana
08.31.21 | It’s not really New Wave but The Fabulous Baron Munchausen rules |
porcupinetheater
08.31.21 | Gotta peep, those Czech animators are on another one. Keen to tear down my house and solicit Svankmajer to rebuild it in clay |
EyesWideShut
08.31.21 | "I couldn’t imagine a more repellent description"
I mean who doesn't like Louie CK or Nick Cave ? |
porcupinetheater
08.31.21 | Largesse is basically the opposite of Bukowski though in that it has more than the thematic depth of a middle school notebook brought into the “adult” bookshelves cause of the misogyny and defensive “I suck too”-isms
Largesse is good but no sooner way to make a book sound like shit than fucking Bukowski comparisons lol |
EyesWideShut
08.31.21 | ah ok, yea I totally see what you mean. Fuck Bukowski lol its a solid book. |
Get Low
09.22.21 | Currently reading - The Authoritarian Moment: How the Left Weaponized America's Institutions Against Dissent, by #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Ben Shapiro |
Egarran
09.22.21 | Haha, nice. Dude is ...complicated. |
zakalwe
09.22.21 | Halfway through the 3rd and final part of the Age of Madness trilogy. Not quite as good as ‘the trouble with peace’ but if it can round things off satisfactorily I’ll throw my hat on it as the greatest thing I’ve ever read. |
porcupinetheater
09.22.21 | Amazing how someone who ostensibly reads so much could still be as big an idiot as Get Low |
kalkwiese
09.22.21 | Mh, reminds me I wanted to get into Sanderson and Abecrombie too, but atm I just don't have the time.
One third into A Clash of Kings by George Martin and it's great. Really immersive, very good character work.
Also 25% into that short story collection by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I've got to say, his very early work isn't that great, that one story "the woman who came at 6 o'clock" was very good and hints at his future greatness. Since the stories are ordered chronologiacally, you can basically watch him grow.
Also started the audio book for "Crabwalk" by Günter Grass and I'm halfway into it. It's basically his last work of fiction and it deals with the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff during the end of WW2, where around 9000 german civilians died. It's written in a very report-esque style, so it's not very vivid or immersive, but it's also quite dramatic at the same time imo. Grass' last work of fiction was pretty good, even though it's very serious and not as funny as The Tin Drum |
Cryptkeeper
09.22.21 | Reading Dune now after finishing the Stormlight Archives, can recommend both strongly |
Cryptkeeper
09.22.21 | People who say Herbert has bad prose don't know what that word means |
ReefaJones
09.22.21 | Going Postal by Terry Pratchett |
Piglet
09.22.21 | Going Postal was one of my favourite Discworld books. Gud stuff.
Yeh Herbert is a sci fi god. Anyone bagging his prose is just missing the point.
With Sanderson I sometimes wish there was more personality to his characterization and setting and whatnot, but it's probably something to do with him being from Nebraska. Moreover his plots and pacing are fantastic. Am very curious about reading some Joe Abercrombie or Applecrumble or whatever his name is, but Robin Hobb will probs come first.
I'm just finishing up The Wise Man's Fear by Pattywagon Rothfuss myself. I vaguely remember reading it 5 years ago on my phone, but only had a recollection of Kvothe ploughing that fairy bitch lol. But yeah his books are just sheer fast food. The literary equivalent of a fat fucken greasy triple zinger burger from kfc. Just wanky self-indulgent wish-fulfillment fantasy in a milquetoast setting that could only be penned by an American. And if I had a cumsock for every time a character "blushed" or "flushed" because some nonce said something vaguely mean or sexual to them i'd have a literal fuckton of cumsocks. There's so many ways I could be cynical and pick it apart. Yet I love it lol. It's good to not be an elitist snob when it comes to modern fantasy or anything really and just enjoy something for what it is; in this case a pageturner with a unique video-game like gratification. I think a lot of credit has to go to Rothfuss for boiling down his writing to it's most interesting, directly actionable sequences. He knows what the reader will care about and how to set the hook. |
Cryptkeeper
09.22.21 | I think Sanderson's characters are good for the most part but he has a really bland style that trades flair for accessibility and clarity. As much as I dislike his lack of style I do think he has his niche in commercially successful epic fantasy, and adding anymore more would muddy the plot which is getting incredibly complex right now |
Get Low
09.26.21 | Currently reading: Animal Farm, by George Orwell |
Egarran
09.26.21 | Ah, the allegorical criticism of how capitalist farming makes animals communist. |
Cryptkeeper
09.26.21 | George Orwell is the kinda dude to warn you of the surveillance state and then report you as a subversive when he delivers lists of potential dissidents directly to MI5 |
Get Low
09.26.21 | It's written almost like a children's book lol it's so cute. |
Anthracks
09.26.21 | reading moonraker by ian fleming. bond really is the white male fantasy |
Asdfp277
09.26.21 | orwell a lil bitch |
Get Low
09.27.21 | dope writer agreed |
Egarran
09.27.21 | He obv has some immortal quotes, like
"When I joined the militia I had promised myself to kill one Fascist — after all, if each of us killed one they would soon be extinct." |
WeepingBanana
09.27.21 | Reading The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. 3rd Calvino of the year for me. Not liking as much as If on a winter’s night a traveler, or Invisible Cities, but it’s still keeping me entertained. Still gotta read Cosmicomics |
Meridiu5
09.27.21 | the most important book of your lifetimes:
the white plague by frank herbert |
Get Low
09.28.21 | Currently reading: Charlotte's Web; written by E.B. White, illustrated by Garth Williams |
Josh D.
09.28.21 | I am reading All-American Nativism to learn more about our awful country's horrific immigration approaches. |
Deathconscious
10.01.21 | Anybody got some fantasy recommendations? Preferably ones that dont include a bunch of sequels. Like 3 books or under is ok. |
deathofasalesman
10.01.21 | haven't read in a while but i plan to get a new copy of "sayonara, gangsters"
absolutely bonkers japanese novel that is honestly inspiring in how creative it is |
Source
10.01.21 | eaters of the dead |
Get Low
10.01.21 | Currently reading: The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. I wanted to get the original version with illustrations by Ernest Shepard, but unfortunately my local Barnes & Noble only had a "Barnes & Noble Classics" edition, which I otherwise try to avoid. |
Get Low
10.01.21 | Also Deathconscious, The Wind in the Willows is a fantasy novel. I haven't read it before so I can't attest to how good it is yet, but since it's made its way to "Barnes & Noble Classics" status, then I'm sure it's worth a read. |
Jasdevi087
10.01.21 | reading William Hope Hodgson's stuff, dude was chad af |
Scheumke
10.01.21 | Just finished Caliban's War, was pretty good but I'm not sure if the Expanse can keep me entertained for the entire duration. Will def give Abaddon's Gate a shot though. For now reading Dune cause I had a great time with the movie. |
EyesWideShut
10.05.21 | Night Train: The Sonny Liston Story by Nick Tosches
Ali might have been the greatest, Tyson was a terror, but Sonny Liston was the baddest motherfucker in and out the ring. |
porcupinetheater
10.05.21 | Sonny Liston rubbed some tiger balm into his glove
Some things you do for money and some you do for love love love |
dedex
10.05.21 | currently reading both The Handmaid's Tale and the Tao te Ching. neato. |
zakalwe
10.05.21 | Last few pages of The Wisdom of Crowds.
Bloody loved it, absolutely amazing trilogy can’t recommend it enough. |
Colton
10.05.21 | books suck cause they're uncomfortable to hold |
WeepingBanana
10.05.21 | Reading One Hundred Years of Solitude cause it seemed like a pretty huge cultural blind spot and a logical primer for other Latin American fiction I wanna read soon |
Deathconscious
10.18.21 | Ended up giving Fellowship of the Ring another shot after reading The Hobbit (which i liked). Im enjoying it this time around, although i just got past the part with Tom Bombadil and the whole thing seemed really unnecessary, i see why they cut it from the film. |
quetzal
10.18.21 | never been able to finish lord of the rings, most boring and dry books i've ever read. for classic fantasy, gormenghast is infinitely superior.
currently reading middlegame by seanan mcguire which is awesome |
Veldin
10.18.21 | Reading Stephen King’s The Stand (uncut, about 200 pages in) and Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run |
Veldin
10.18.21 | @Colton - if you’re serious, try Kindle, it’s a lot more comfortable |
quetzal
10.18.21 | the original abridged version of the stand is the better version, the stuff that was cut should've been cut.
new x-men is an all time great though |
Veldin
10.18.21 | Two of my mates recommended i go all in on the uncut version. Eh, I’m enjoying it and don’t mind more King, so I’ll keep going with it, but I can see the original release being perfectly good enough. Yesss love Morrison and I’m like 8 issues into New X-men and really enjoying it. I’m getting Scott Snyder’s Nocterra in the mail tomorrow and I’m gonna binge read it after work tomorrow |
Veldin
10.18.21 | My friend is reading novelization of Alien and said it’s really fun |
Egarran
10.18.21 | >Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run
I love Morrison almost religiously, but those unfortunately left me cold. |
Anthracks
10.18.21 | averno by louise gluck, when we cease to understand the world by benjamin labatut, wheel of time book 10 |
kalkwiese
10.18.21 | Peeling the Onion by Günter Grass. His memoir from the start of WWII to the release of The Tin Drum. Definetly moved me, as I am already attached to his work (even though not all of it is that good, but I am still fascinated by it).
One of his best imo. It's definetly of interest for someone who liked The Tin Drum. |
Deathconscious
10.18.21 | How do you know if you have the cut/uncut version of The Stand?
Edit: oh, i guess the version i have is the uncut version, i didnt notice it said that on the front. Im excited to get to that one. |
Josh D.
10.18.21 | I am reading Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer, which is the entire history of Cuba beginning with Columbus. |
Deathconscious
10.18.21 | Sounds interesting. |
Jasdevi087
10.19.21 | just got finished reading Fear and Loathing and i have to say, it was one of the books
Reading Veronika Decides to Die atm and it's fucking trash so far, is Paulo Coelho one of those authors that secretly is shit? |
Anthracks
10.19.21 | I don’t think it’s a secret - isn’t that author universally maligned? |
Ryus
10.19.21 | just started kafka on the shore by murakami |
Piglet
10.19.21 | @cryptkeeper re: Sanderson's blandness, yeah i think its also partly a symptom of how manuscripts are edited in publishing houses in general. Speaking from experience, they butcher your writing and boil it down to the point where it just reads like a screenplay for a netflix adaption. Which makes for enjoyable reading in it's own right, but cuts out the personality and colour from the prose, world building etc. in any case, my main gripe with Sanderson is having gudkunt characters like Kaladin just BROOD for quite literally hundreds of pages. The guy is supposed to be a gladitorial gudkunt, a natural leader of men and yet all the bloke does is BROOD lol. It's his entire personality |
Piglet
10.19.21 | Speaking of brooding, I just finished Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb, the 2nd book in the Farseer series and I got to say [BIG SPOILER ALERT]... jesus fucking christ what a morbid ending. It's quite possibly the only time I've ever read a book where the ending just ruined my enjoyment of the series altogether and now I don't even feel motivated to read the 3rd installment because of how masochistic and eternally depressing the whole thing is lol.
For one thing, the shakespearean influence is blatant, whether you're talking about the characterization (which is mostly brilliant), or the tragedy or the royal plotline, or even the romeo and juliet esque romance. I mean how fkn sad is it that Fitz is so deeply in love with Molly to the point where hundreds of pages are dedicated to her and he can't stand the thought of an arranged marriage with a pretty noble girl.. and this frilly lil clown diva bitch just leaves for another guy because of the sacrifices Fitz has to make to just for them both to stay alive, and for the greater good of the kingdom itself. And she doesn't for one second believe him. AND then all of those sacrifices are ALL in vain anyway, because the Macbeth cunt, Regal, fucking kills the king, fakes the King-In-Waiting's death and then tortures Fitz to death. And that's the ending, that shit stain of a resolution. What the fuck. It literally the worst thing that could've happened and it could've been prevented every step of the way if some of the supporting characters weren't so fkn stupid. Another irredemable thing is the gaping plotholes riddling the entire book to the point where it punctures your suspension of disbelief. But I got to say, the first book Assassin's Apprentice is an absolute masterpiece and I love reading epic fantasy from a woman's perspective. It really is unique and driven by different sensibilities. And the characters, including the protagonist, are so believably flawed that they feel like real people drawn from her personal life. So yeah it's great shit, but fuck me, I don't want to read a book again where the protagonist's soulmate fucks off with another guy and everyone else close to him either fucks off or dies until he does as well, before he magically gets resurrected as a wolf. Clown writing |
kalkwiese
10.19.21 | Do I get this right (I didn't want to spoil the plot for me, so i didn't read very closely)
You think it's great, but it was also a discouraging experience? Interesting, but probably sucks a fair bit |
Anthracks
10.19.21 | i have the jaw-dropping folio edition of farseer trilogy. didn't read your post because i don't want to be spoiled and i've only read the first entry. hobb is really hit or miss for me though. i enjoy the feeling of her books more than i enjoy the story or experience if that makes sense |
Jasdevi087
10.19.21 | "I don’t think it’s a secret - isn’t that author universally maligned?"
he's one of the best selling authors of all time |
porcupinetheater
10.19.21 | And 13 Reasons Why did massive streaming numbers. Society’s so uncomfortable that it wants to front sympathy with suicidal ideation without the work to understand it.
Working on a book rn called I’m Sorry You Want to Paint with Your Brains But If You Do You’ll Hurt Your Loved Ones, You Selfish Monster.
Gonna break sales records |
Jasdevi087
10.19.21 | i had long suspected Coelho was a garbage author, since "self-help" books are the bane of my existence, but i now feel very vindicated |
Ryus
10.19.21 | coelho does, indeed, suck |
Anthracks
10.20.21 | I’m sure you can appreciate, on a music website, that bestselling does not equate to best |
quetzal
10.20.21 | Robin Hobb is one of the all time goats and the end of the last Fitz book is literally the only time where I cried like a little baby because of a book
don't worry about the ending of Royal Assassin, things turn around for Fitz but he still has some super dark days ahead of him
would not say Hobb is hit or miss, every single book she's written is wonderful. Rain Wild Chronicles in particular is just incredible |
Jasdevi087
10.20.21 | "I’m sure you can appreciate, on a music website, that bestselling does not equate to best"
literally not what I've been saying at all chief, just hace never heard that this author was "universally maligned", considering everyone seems to love him. i work in a retail store and his books are always in our top 100 and we sell copies of The Alchemist every day |
Get Low
10.20.21 | 13 Reasons Why rules
Actually the book was trash, but the Netflix series rules, except for the last season |
Jasdevi087
10.20.21 | no |
Egarran
10.20.21 | This thread is giving me conflicting messages. |
Anthracks
10.20.21 | Let me be specific then. Coelho is universally maligned by anyone with a functioning IQ level or any semblance of literary taste |
WeepingBanana
10.20.21 | Why is Coelho not liked? Just general lameness or is there a more specific reason? I think I read the alchemist like 15 years ago but I can’t remember a single thing about it. Dude gives strong mom-book vibes |
Egarran
10.20.21 | Lights Out in Wonderland by D.B.C. Pierre is definite sputcore. |
MillionDead
10.20.21 | Rn I'm doing political movement work in Hattiesburg, MS, and I'm reading the book Hattiesburg: A City in Black and White by Dr. William Sturkey to give me an idea about how to educate people of the area. It's just sort of an anthropological exposé on the history and development of the area through a racial lens. Interesting stuff but I'm usually more into crazy fiction. |
combustion07
10.20.21 | Reading Norm Macdonald's book again. Hilarious stuff and he was my favorite person to ever live and I'm mad sad that he is dead. I'm also starting Dune. Surprisingly will be my first read through it even though I've known about it forever and it has my name written all over it. Looking for a good horror book to dive into since it's October but I don't know what to go for so if anyone has any awesome recs I'd appreciate it. Might make a list to acquire some recs on that cuz I need a to get book list anyhow |
Anthracks
10.20.21 | If someone recommends house of leaves just ignore them |
combustion07
10.21.21 | Thank you for the information! Lol |
quetzal
10.21.21 | n0s4a2 by joe hill is a really good horror book, if you've never read clive barker then the great and secret show is probably the best horror book of all time imo
for stuff with strong horror elements, harrow the ninth by tamsyn muir or anything by jeff vandermeer but those aren't straight horror by any means
i would not recommend house of leaves, it's like 33% fantastic, 33% alright, 33% jesus christ i fuckin hate this |
kalkwiese
10.21.21 | Oh, reading Harrow The Ninth atm and loving it. It's language is quite elaborate, so it's not an easy read for me as a non-native speaker, but it's the kind of thing I miss in fantasy tbh |
quetzal
10.21.21 | if you like harrow the ninth you might like the library at mount char by scott hawkins |
Get Low
10.21.21 | I read Horns by Joe Hill maybe close to ten years ago now and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I doubt I'll ever read anything else by him though because I've sort of moved on from popular horror. |
Piglet
10.21.21 | @kalk, yeah you really just have to read the books yourself to get where i'm coming from. Hobb gets you so emotionally invested in the characters and there's always so much conflict, it's really unforgiving at times
@anthracks, 100% know what you mean. She captures emotions and character interactions so vividly where other fantasy writers fail miserably. Not only that but her prose is so goddamn neat and readable, and never short on little necessary details. To the point where you don't care so much about the pacing or plotholes or whatever
@quetzal big agree on her being a goat of fantasy. can't wait to read something by her which doesn't involve bluddy Regal. and yeah i just bought the third book today and am preparing for the worse haha. But [SPOILER ALERT] it was defs reassuring at least to find out that Fitz doesn't continue being a halfwitted wolf and that molly is actually preggers with his kid and not gallivanting around like an absolute harlot. |
quetzal
10.21.21 | @Get Low horns is the only book i haven't read by joe hill except for short fiction and his novella collection, plan on at some point though. n0s4a2 and locke and key are easily better than the rest of his stuff though.
@Piglet, you're in for a treat with assassin's quest, book is one of the best fantasy quest adventure novels i've read. regal is still in it though. does not have as dark of an ending as royal assassin though, that's one of the lowest points in fitz' life. fitz will continue making stupid errors though, that's part of his charm. |
MiloRuggles
10.21.21 | Just finished Suttree this fine eve.
That might have been the most BITTERsweet book I've laid hands on. Fucking hopeless, tragic, and somehow heartwarming and funny? Big shades of Faulkner, and consequently I'm excited to reread in a few years, maybe take notes on side characters/locations next time through.
Official Cormac rating for what I've read so far: Blood Meridian>= Suttree >> No Country For Old Men >>> The Road |
Egarran
10.21.21 | >anything by jeff vandermeer
After reading Annihilation I was so excited for the rest of the trilogy. I made it almost halfway through the second. It's one of the most boring books I've ever read.
A surreal office drama moving at snail's pace was not what I needed. |
quetzal
10.21.21 | wtf authority is the best book in that trilogy and one of the absolute best books i've ever read. the creeping sense of dread leading to the spectacular finale was pulled off better than i've ever seen before. such a ridiculously amazing ending. it's easily better than annihilation. |
Egarran
10.21.21 | OK that's the first time I've heard that. And believe me, I have read MANY reviews for it, to be sure I wasn't wrong.
But great for you! |
WeepingBanana
10.21.21 | If you like Annihilation read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. I like Annihilation but it rips of Solaris so blatantly it’s insane |
EphemeralEternity
10.21.21 | Thomas Ligotti - Teatro Grottesco (anthology of short nightmarish horror stories, highly recommend it...they're very surreal and visceral)
and Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens (he had better command of language than possibly anyone else whose ever lived)
|
Anthracks
10.21.21 | But Hitchens doesn’t even rhyme with Faulkner |
porcupinetheater
10.21.21 | Have u ever heard of Stee van King? |
Egarran
10.22.21 | It's too bad Hitchens didn't live to see the conclusion of the Afghanistan invasion. |
Anthracks
10.22.21 | finished crossroads of twilight - TERRIBLE
next up: my heart is a chainsaw by stephen graham jones, dracula by bram stoker, final volume of in search of lost time |
Cryptkeeper
10.23.21 | Remember when Hitchens waterboarded himself because he believed it wasn't torture and wanted to prove it?
Very funny guy |
Get Low
10.23.21 | Currently reading: The Canterbury Tales, by Jeffrey Chaucer; translated to normal English by some guy from Oxford University |
Anthracks
11.13.21 | finished in search of lost time and a tale of two cities. now doing: new spring by robert jordan, the stonemason by cormac mccarthy, a hero of our time by mikhail lermontov |
theBoneyKing
11.13.21 | Recently finished The Wisdom of Crowds. Absolutely amazing. Abercrombie is the best in the game. |
kalkwiese
11.13.21 | Just finished "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" by Haruki Murakami. This is a welcome contrast to 1Q84. It's lean, it's concise, and it keeps its promises. I liked it quite a bit.
Still on the other books I named above. Don't have that much time for reading, but I'll get there, slowly and steadily. |
Anthracks
11.13.21 | colorless is one of murakami's best and very underrated |
theBoneyKing
11.13.21 | I’m curious Anthracks, did you enjoy the earlier Wheel of Time books? |
Mythodea
11.13.21 | Colorless was fun, and with a great twist, but I wouldn't call it one of his *best*. It's good though...
Say guys, other than goodreads, is there any book/author database that you know of and it's simple and tidy? Most book sites just have tons of details and things which I find really distracting, and not much practical for users. |
Anthracks
11.13.21 | i haven't truly enjoyed any of the wheel of time books, lol. i would say The Great Hunt is the best one so far, but I rated it like 7/10? which was pretty generous given jordan's obvious flaws as a writer. i feel an unfortunate obligation to see the series through to the end given that it's one of the "classics." despite the time i'll never get back.
goodreads is the only decent one i'm aware of, and being property of amazon it's purpose is more about generating book sales. there are some pretty reliable reviewers out there, though. but all the algorithms for finding books are terrible and based solely on what's selling hot |
theBoneyKing
11.13.21 | That’s fair, ‘Thracks. I got into the books when I was like 13 and they were the first “adult” fantasy I’d tried other than Tolkien so I love them even if just for nostalgia now. Obviously they’re “objectively” quite flawed but the core elements are all great. And I love all the characters so much even if just from Stockholm Syndrome after spending so much time with them. I’m seriously hyped for the show. |
theBoneyKing
11.13.21 | And yeah, Goodreads is the closest to a decent book database in the vein of Sput/RYM. Honestly I wish Sonemic would add a book site to their network since I think they’ve pretty much perfected the art database/tracking format with RYM/Cinemos/Glitchwave. They just would have to add a way to track current reads like Goodreads has. |
kalkwiese
11.13.21 | @Mythodea: I actually wanted to go with Wind-Up Bird for my next Murakami, but I found Colourless Tazaki in an open book shelf and got it for free, also I am quite occupied with the books I already started, sooo ... It was quite nice and I feel much better about going into one of his great works :) |
EyesWideShut
11.13.21 | Read Thomas Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer in October. Weird lucid dream horror, keep this guy away from mannequins. |
Mythodea
11.13.21 | @theBoneyKing Yes, it's a pity that book databases are stuffed with information. I'd rather have a simple site, in the vein of Sput, showing only author, genre tags and the work in chronological order of first edition (why include ALL POSSIBLE EDITIONS, THAT'S NOT EVEN REMOTELY HELPFUL TO TRACK SOMEONE'S WORK - I CAN'T EVEN...!!)
@Kalkwiese It's definitely a great book, and you are better off having read it, but compared to Wind-Up, it's mediocre |
Egarran
11.13.21 | At last I'm reading The Swamp Thing by Alan Moore. Gawd I love that man. |
Deathconscious
11.13.21 | Finished Fellowship of the Ring. I did like it this time. It did tend to drag and there were some parts that didnt need to be in there at all, but it really did feel like a long, arduous journey through a detailed world. Over 100 pages through Two Towers and it definitely seems like things picked up right away. Im enjoying this one more, will be a 5/5 if things continue this way. |
kalkwiese
11.13.21 | Yea Death, things definetly pick up there. You got the worst part behind you, from there on it's just a good book. And maybe by the end you'll even find some unnecessary episodes not so unnecessary at all.
TLotR won't become one of my favorite books though, I guess. But I'm glad I finally read it this year |
Anthracks
11.14.21 | despite my mixed feelings (trending toward the negative) for the wheel of time books, i'm really looking forward to the series because 1) even if a fantasy series is poorly done, it's still enjoyable to watch (witcher, etc) and 2) they have a chance to eliminate a lot of the worst aspects of the books and create something with a much more concise, effective vision. the showrunner already stated he's condensing the middle books significantly to make the show work for tv (meaning he's probably skipping 90% of 7-10). |
quetzal
11.15.21 | never been able to drag myself through LotR, i would not say Fellowship is the worst part. The Return of the King is always where I lose steam and give up. i'd rather just read Gormenghast again than read another page of Tolkien's writing.
doing a WoT re-read, i never finished the series, and man this stuff was so much better when i was 15. i'm on the dragon reborn, really wondering if i'll be able to marathon through it. wondering if i even should. |
Anthracks
11.15.21 | i would say it's definitely not worth it especially if you've already read it. if you're already frustrated you're going to be mental at books 7-10. maybe pick up the wheel of time companion book and re-live it that way? or just watch the series |
Jasdevi087
11.15.21 | just got done with The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knaussgaard
wasn't good |
quetzal
11.15.21 | "i would say it's definitely not worth it especially if you've already read it." last time i tried was probably 20 years ago and i made it to either book 7 or book 8, i can't recall which it was. i remember the last scene i read though (someone in a chest being rescued by a group of channeling men) so i'll remember when i get there. |
porcupinetheater
11.15.21 | "just got done with The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knaussgaard
wasn't good"
Big L for Mein Kampf |
Anthracks
11.15.21 | i'm so turned off by the idea of ever reading that guy. everything i've heard makes me think it's just adolescent, angsty proust (who is already very angsty but wise too). |
WeepingBanana
11.15.21 | Finished Ice by Anna Kavan a few weeks ago, really loved that. Reading Berg by Ann Quin now, very similar vibes in many ways. Any recs for other depressing experimental 60s novels about delusional weirdos would be appreciated |
Jasdevi087
11.15.21 | i liked Ice but it might be my leasft favourite Kavan I've read so far, all about Sleep Has His House bb |
Jasdevi087
11.16.21 | "Big L for Mein Kampf"
yeah bol mein kampf ist muscling through nearly 700 pages of charicatures meandering through everyday situations acting as mouthpieces for the author whose stories all end inconsequentially unresolved |
WeepingBanana
11.16.21 | I have Machines in the Head by Kavan, gonna read that soon |
Anthracks
11.28.21 | reading flags in the dust by william faulkner and then leviathan falls (expanse final book) comes in
also, back on the topic of wheel of time. very pleasantly surprised by the show. it's shaping up to be much better than the books. to me wot was always about potential, and it's early, but so far the books are correcting a lot of the issues i have with the books and taking the liberties that needed to be taken |
kalkwiese
11.28.21 | Finished Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (book 2 of The Locked Tomb Series). Holy shit, it's something I longed for in fantasy. Muir definitely didn't shy away from some massive risks here. A big part is written in second person and it's, like, reframing the world from book 1 completely. For a long time you don't really get how everything fits together. And then everything falls into place and it's just so satisfying. Great experience and I'm sure a reread must be even greater. |
Egarran
11.28.21 | >wheel of time. very pleasantly surprised by the show. it's shaping up to be much better than the books
mf you're gonna make me watch this, despite my best intentions |
JoylessBastard
11.28.21 | Currently reading some Murakami. It's delightfully strange in a very charming way while still being immensely relatable which makes it compulsive reading atm |
Anthracks
11.28.21 | i just got murakami's new book about his favorite t-shirts. he's discovered that he can literally publish anything and people will buy it |
Mythodea
11.28.21 | I just read an awesome little book, called ''Elena Knows'' (Elena Sabe) by Argentinian author Claudia Piñeiro. It's a great book, structured around the logic of a whodunnit, but it's an amazing drama de-constructing the genre. The writing is smooth like a butter. Really recommend it.
I'm about to start ''Narcopolis'' by Indian poet/writer Jeet Thayil. Anybody read it? |
AlexKzillion
11.28.21 | Reading 'Healing From a Narcissistic Relationship' by Margalis Fjelstad
Sometimes self-help books aren't that bad? |
kalkwiese
11.28.21 | Yea, they can feature some thoughts and strategies one didn't already have. Stuff like that can help. |
Get Low
11.28.21 | I just found out that the lead singer of The Birthday Massacre wrote a young adult novel a few years ago, so I'm going to try to get ahold of that. |
combustion07
11.28.21 | Just finished Sati by Christopher Pike. Got sucked in big time and read it in a day. Good stuff |
Mythodea
11.28.21 | what's it about? |
combustion07
11.29.21 | A truck driver finds some beautiful lady sitting by the road in the desert and he takes her home and wakes up the next morning and she's had one of his employees pass out all of these flyers with the news papers claiming that she is God and announcing meetings that she is going to host. She ends up gaining a pretty big local following and the book is essentially him and his group of friends trying to determine if she is really God along with chapters of her giving her philosophy on life and explaining what God is. It was a blind buy from the horror section at hpb. Wouldn't call it horror but it did suck me in and the ending was something |
Mythodea
11.29.21 | Sounds pretty eerie. Were the philosophy bits interesting or pedestrian level? |
Egarran
11.29.21 | Here's a quote, you decide:
“Enjoy your life. No curse hangs over you, nor did it ever. No devil chases after your soul. Sing and dance and be merry.” |
Mythodea
11.29.21 | Haven't heard anything as deep since Coelho's last book |
someone
11.29.21 | Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose |
dedex
11.29.21 | ^ nice, read it some months ago
currently reading Sophie's World, great philosophy intro turned into a novel |
Pheromone
11.29.21 | Just finished "Men Who Hate Women" and that was great, albeit depressing
|
Mythodea
11.29.21 | Sophie's World is an amazing read, and now that Christmas is coming I suggest you read A Christmas Mystery (it's a bit more on the fairytale side, but it's still pretty sweet) |
Egarran
11.29.21 | Love Eco. Every Uni student should read How to Write a Thesis by him.
But the last of his books I tried reading was The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana and it's pretty terrible. DNF 43%. So that was sad.
|
someone
11.29.21 | love the book so far, really got dragged into the setting, even though it's not my cup of tea usually, and the detective story is super intriguing |
someone
11.29.21 | but i have to translate latin or greek like twice a page, cause they just keep mixing languages ffs |
combustion07
11.29.21 | Philosophies are mostly just basic "living in the moment is key" kind of stuff. Main thing that made the book interesting for me was moreso the friend group aspect of the plot. There was a chapter of the more philosophical stuff that felt a little deeper to me though speaking on death and comparing it to bubbles in water. Idk short read though. I dug it for what it was |
Mythodea
11.30.21 | Eventually I might give it a shot. Thanks for the info @combustion |
LunaticSoul
11.30.21 | “Enjoy your life. No curse hangs over you, nor did it ever. No devil chases after your soul. Sing and dance and be merry.”
Who even thinks this lol. |
Deathconscious
11.30.21 | "just be happy, bro." |
LunaticSoul
11.30.21 | I don't know, sounds like a shitty quote. "no curse hangs over you" says probably a man with no chronic illness, cancer, neurological disorders lol |
Egarran
11.30.21 | I did choose the worst quote I could find. Maybe it is supposed to be vapid.
For some good post-messianic life rules, I recommend Stranger In A Strange Land. |
dedex
11.30.21 | ^ this one is waiting for me on my nightstand woop woop |
WeepingBanana
11.30.21 | Stranger in a Strange Land sucks ass. Jubal Harshaw is maybe the worst and definitely most annoying character in the history of books. Insidious PragerU primer bullshit. Fuck Heinlein and all other conservative goons that have cursed sci fi for forever |
Egarran
11.30.21 | You seem tense
but we'll have to see if dedex agrees |
WeepingBanana
11.30.21 | Maybe it’s cause I accidentally got the unedited version and that has more of his birdbrained nonsense. The passage about how “all wealthy men deserve to be wealthy because they all worked really hard for it!” part almost made me quit |
dbizzles
11.30.21 | Since I last check in, I have read The Jungle (depressing as all hell), 5 volumes of Dorohedoro (awesome), Silence of the Lambs (not as good as Red Dragon, but still great), Count Zero - Book 2 of Sprawl Series (just as good as Neuromancer, tbh), and The Shadow of the Torturer (awesome, but just the first of four books).
I've been too busy listening to the Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast to start another book, but next I'll probably check out Waylon Jennings' autobiography or read Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro. |
dbizzles
11.30.21 | I read Stranger in a Strange Land a couple years ago and liked it well enough, but not sure what I even look for in sci-fi so whatever. |
Get Low
11.30.21 | I am currently addicted to video games and not reading anything, which makes me feel shitty about myself. I'm hoping the compulsion to read again kicks in soon. |
Anthracks
12.01.21 | just read murakami t today |
Anthracks
12.07.21 | finishing up Leviathan Falls (Expanse #9), then diving back into Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. I started that one at the same time as Proust, which was of course a mistake. I had to put one of them down until I finished the other. Flags in the Dust was also really great Faulkner. probably after will be the Abigail graphic novel and thomas pynchon's vineland |
Josh D.
12.07.21 | I am on Greg Grandin's Empire's Workshop because I spend half my reading time on US imperialism in Latin America. |
EyesWideShut
12.07.21 | Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze. Good noir/caper you could see Robert Mitchum play the lead. |
Egarran
12.07.21 | I just ordered
I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You’ve Ever Heard, by Tom Reynolds
|
Get Low
12.07.21 | That sounds good |
Piglet
12.08.21 | so yeh I finished Royal Assassin (3# Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb a while ago. I'll just say.. it's not surprising to me that Hobb was a postwoman. Because the entire book felt like the protagonist was just pottering around delivering parcels. Especially the last couple hundred pages, fuck me dead. You can just tell when an author is creatively bankrupt and is just shitting out words to meet a daily quota, and doesn't really know how to form a resolution to the plot. And said resolution was possibly the most unfulfilling thing I've ever read, especially after dedicating thousands of pages to get to it. It's so stripped of joy, just fucking awful writing that's pointlessly, endlessly sadistic and I feel forced to read it because the book is otherwise crafted so well and the characters are so visceral. Also, large swathes of this book was still sum bluddy great immersive shit. I'd definitely rather read her understated prose than the likes of Sarah J Maas as I'm now discovering. 3.6/5, bjork utopia tier |
Piglet
12.08.21 | Also I'm about halfway through The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie and I don't remember feeling so conflicted about a book before. For one thing, the dialogue is mostly great, I really rate the characters, there's a bit of cheeky humour, the universe is orlright, the plot as far as I can tell seems to be good... yet I have no motivation to read it, or care about anything barring that lil handicapped hobgoblin Glokta. It's the opposite of a page turner to me. Maybe simply because it's just a revolving door of plotlines, like as soon as I get invested in one character in one situation, we suddenly fuck off to another, so there's no sense of continuity. Also a lot of the dialogue and characterization feels too gaudy and confected for my taste, not to mention Jezal just seems like he'd fit here on sputnik way too well. But it's definitely not a bad book or anything and the plot has the potential to develop into something i care about. 3.3/5 Mudvayne - Mudvayne tier as stands |
Josh D.
12.08.21 | Just started a bio of Thaddeus Stevens, a goat of Civil War politicians |
kalkwiese
12.08.21 | I just read On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. It's a fragmentary kind of novel that has a very poetic kind of nature and also some essayist characteristics. I was sceptical at first, but at the end I just fell in love quite a bit. Not a hot, passionate kind of love, but it's a lovely little book about a lot of stuff actually. The protagonist's mother and grandma came from Vietman, survived the war, but got traumatized. Trauma is a big factor, why his mother beats him. He is also gay and falls in love with another boy, but since they're all poor, there is also a lot of drug that get harder and harder ...
Idk, all these things added up. The book is written as a letter to the mother, but she can't read, so it's his way to confess to her in a brutally honest way, because she won't read it anyway. This relationship to the mother is distant and very close at the same time, if that makes sense. Also the relationship to that boy is full of ambivalences. Good stuff. |
Anthracks
12.08.21 | i think at one point or another that book was on a list of books i might read |
Egarran
12.08.21 | Damn, kalky, that's some adult shit. I don't want reality in my fiction. |
someone
12.08.21 | i've heard great things about Ocean Vuong, but feel like it'll be a little too heavy for me.
i need some relax, feel good, softy cuddly bs nowadays.
but i want to read his stuff in the future, when i'm more emotionally stable |
outliers
12.08.21 | reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Currently the author is explaining how cannibalism was widespread during the Holodomor (Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1933-1934 directly caused by Stalins policies) and it was not uncommon for parents to eat their youngest children. it's a tough read to put it mildly |
Scheumke
12.09.21 | I completely feel you on both Piglet. Dnf'd the first of the Fitz books because it was so dry and felt like it was going nowhere. Also not a big fan Abercrombie, even though my favs would suggest him to be right up there. Yet I never found the stories themselves to be interesting enough to stay invested, which is a shame because his character work is great. |
Mythodea
12.10.21 | @Kalkwiese Ohh I was recommended this book as well recently, I hope to read it next year |
kalkwiese
12.10.21 | Nice, I'd like to hear your thoughts on it :) Not my favorite book ever, but it's ambitious and I will always appreciate that |
CugnoBrasso
12.10.21 | Just finished Gravity's Rainbow yesterday. |
kalkwiese
12.10.21 | What do you think about it? |
CugnoBrasso
12.10.21 | Pynchon's sense of humor is right up my alley, and I think we don't talk about it nearly enough. Of course it's a difficult novel, but I loved that feeling of constantly being made fun of by his extravagance!
I read it alongside a couple of friends and that really enhanced the experience. We understood different sections of the book and we helped each other fill the holes... Not a pleasant read of course (I'm not even a native English speaker as you might have guessed, that didn't help...) but I absolutely loved it! |
Get Low
12.10.21 | I wish I had friends who enjoy reading :'( |
Jasdevi087
12.10.21 | why wouldn't anyone wanna be your friend? |
Egarran
12.11.21 | Dread it, run from it, Sputnik is your friend. |
Jasdevi087
12.11.21 | neeeeaaarly finished Gai-Jin by James Clavell and it's easily the worst of those asian saga books so far |
insomniac15
12.11.21 | Recently finished Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Excellent sci-fi read |
CugnoBrasso
12.11.21 | A friend of mine is reading the Three-Body Problem. I've always had a problem with him because he seems to support the Party and the racist policies of the regime against ethnic minorities, but this friend of mine says that all his statements regarding the topic have been vague and that he problably doesn't want problems with authorities, since he still lives in China.
I think I'll check him out sooner or later, but I haven't read much SF so far and I'm still catching up... I have never read Philip K. Dick. |
Pheromone
12.15.21 | reading Said's 'Covering Islam' or more-so beginning now if anyone has did done a read |
Deathconscious
12.15.21 | PKD is essential. |
Anthracks
12.15.21 | remembrance is really good. significant leap in quality from book 1 to 2. the other books i've read by him and the offshoot of remembrance were pretty bad though |
Get Low
12.22.21 | Currently reading: Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult, because a school shooting novel is just what I need for the holidays. |
rabidfish
12.22.21 | i'm getting the 2 Wittgenstein books he officialy wrote (tractatus logico-philosophicus and philosophical investigations) as presents for christmas, gonna start up on that shit since i find it infintely interesting. |
Mort.
12.22.21 | i studied wittgenstein pretty extensively for my bachelors, the phil department at my uni (UEA) specialised in him. have fun with the tractatus, it can be pretty baffling without the right context/help. and if your copy comes with the preface by bertrand russell you should be warned hes widely considered to have missed the point of the book and thinks its answering questions it really isnt. |
Mort.
12.22.21 | also, i asked for Wittgenstein on logic as the method of philosophy by Oskari Kuusela for christmas. Oskari was my dissertation supervisor and i also took some modules on analytic philosophy/wittgenstein with him. I dont know what resources there are of his online, but he was extremely helpful in getting me to understand Wittgenstein. if you can get your hands on anything hes written it would be v helpful. |
rabidfish
12.22.21 | @mort lol yea i've been doing my prep, i understand it's a complicated text, but for what i've been told and from what i gathered from my own small research i think it'll be fine as long as i don't rush into it. |
Mort.
12.22.21 | yeah you should be fine then. reading slowly is basically rule 1 for philosophy lol |
Egarran
12.22.21 | >I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You’ve Ever Heard, by Tom Reynolds
Hm this is very divisive. Some people find it hilarious, other people like me find it somewhat lame and annoying.
But I bet some sputnikers would love it, so check it out if you can. |
Anthracks
12.22.21 | Finished knife of dreams (wheel of time 11) and definitely not seeing this payoff fans rave about. Jordan is such a terrible horny writer |
Mort.
12.22.21 | what did you think of the series as a whole anthracks? i see that getting reccomended all the time, even as a fantasy book that non-fantasy fans should try. depending on who i speak to, its brilliant or a big overrated pile of shit that dumb fantasy nerds latch onto. |
Anthracks
12.22.21 | Definitely the latter. Jordan’s writing is legitimately terrible. The world building is pretty good for its time, but doesn’t make up for all its faults. After reading 12 out of the 15 books I have it rated at 4.7/10 average rating for the entire series. So not good. |
Josh D.
12.23.21 | Over the holiday I'm taking a break from politics, historyu, and world events books and reading Frankenstein. |
CugnoBrasso
12.23.21 | First year in my life in which I've been more into books than music. |
MiloRuggles
12.23.21 | >Pynchon's sense of humor is right up my alley, and I think we don't talk about it nearly enough
Fuck oath, his novels are the most fun I've ever had reading. Everyone touts his shit as impossible and then it's like 50% toilet humour and puns, what a fucking riot
Loved Three Body Problem, hated the sequel, never read the third. Really appreciated the historic angle in the first, and the threat was more interesting in its mystery
Reading Omensetter's Luck atm and it's wildly good. Gass can turn a fucking sentence, whew boi |
JohnnyoftheWell
12.23.21 | the WoT books were awesome semi-mindless comfort reading when i was a teenager until they became boring semi-mindless comfort reading and i stopped. tv series has reminded me by contrast how hilariously bad Jordan is at writing women, but after a certain point that just became part of the semi-mindless comfort
and pynchon is very fucking funny in so many lovely ways and i suddenly miss him big
have been booking slightly harder than usual (i.e. 0) lately. gotta finish my current read because my dad sent me a copy of Crime and Punishment for Christmas which made me happy because we don't talk much (which is okay and not sad!) and i don't have much really any memorabilia of him here in Japan, but *then* it was unsuccessfully delivered while i was in hospital and i fucked up and missed the redelivery application deadline and then a week past until i felt sad/guilty enough about it to call the mail company just to get the closure that it had been returned to the UK, but THEN they said that they still had it and could redeliver it to my door for free within 2 literal hours and now i am really happy and it is on my desk, still in packaging until Christmas (obviously!!!), but holy shit wtf is this country
|
Mort.
12.23.21 | i read crime and punishment for the first time just a couple of months ago, youre in for a treat (duh)
get ready for some casuistry son |
Get Low
12.23.21 | Crime and Punishment riffs ahrd |
Egarran
12.23.21 | Can I get an example of casuistry? |
Mort.
12.23.21 | in crime and punishment specifically, or in general? |
theBoneyKing
12.23.21 | Currently reading The God Is Not Willing by Steven Erikson. Been a while since I read Malazan, but am editing it so far. |
Egarran
12.23.21 | I want both mort |
Mort.
12.23.21 | in crime and punishment nearly all of raskolnikovs reasoning regarding his crime and justification for it is casuistry. its a lot of educated bullshit to justify what was at the end of the day a really pathetically primal, hateful and confused crime. At one point in the novel it comes to light that Raskolnikov wrote a journal article where he posits that there are men of history, who are entitled to transgress laws and norms (funnily enough the novel itself is maybe more accurately translated as transgression and punishment, as that captures that aspect of 'stepping over' the lines which constitutes a major theme of the novel). the article itself is a perfect example of casuistry, as its just smart rhetoric aimed towards an absolutely pathetic justification for being an edgy nihilist dumbass (eg there are great men who are great because they have the courage to transgress laws and social norms to fufill their goals, and then there are plebs who should follow the laws. you are a great man if you have the courage to transgress these laws in the first place. youre therefore justified to transgress the laws because you transgressed the laws. the crime justified itself)
thats my completely out of the ass probably partly wrong explanation.
im gonna go back to reading my nice and easy ray bradbury now. some boys are going to a carnival. it seems nice
|
anarchistfish
12.23.21 | "Recently finished Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Excellent sci-fi read"
this was the last series I read. really thrilling. 3rd book was a bit...bleak though |
Egarran
12.23.21 | That was great Mort, thanks a lot.
Bradbury ftw |
Anthracks
12.24.21 | the wheel of time subreddit is so cringe with how many people are losing their shit about all the deviations from the books, like the books are a literary work of genius to begin with. it's so ridiculous lol |
Mort.
12.25.21 | yeah fantasy nerds and their imaginary worlds are pretty anal.
everything meaningfully fits together for them in this world, so when you deviate from it your basically demonstrating you dont understand the complicated tapestry (lol), which theyve decided has value due to its complexity (world building is the measure of a good book for ppl obsessed with sci fi and fantasy when its really just a small part of what makes literature worthwhile. its also nowhere near as impressive as they think it is to make a 'living breathing world' or whatever cliche is currently most common) |
Deathconscious
12.25.21 | I wouldnt say its a "small part", depending on what kind of book it is. |
theBoneyKing
12.25.21 | Also “what makes literature worthwhile” is subjective. Let other people enjoy what they enjoy in the media they enjoy and enjoy what you enjoy in what you enjoy. |
kalkwiese
12.25.21 | Yea, also the world building part definitely is interesting, it's just not that crutial for having an enjoyable read overall. Personally I am not that interested in world building either, but it is kind of a genre defining characteristic there. |
porcupinetheater
12.25.21 | Fuck that 90% of art appreciation is pissing in other people's cornflakes
Like who the fuck eats cornflakes, tasteless fucks |
Hyperion1001
12.25.21 | sittin in the park reading some good short stories.
https://imgur.com/a/uJHmk0N |
Mort.
12.25.21 | Ignore this comment I'm trying to quit smoking and it's making me grumpy |
Voivod
12.25.21 | Philip K. Dick - Radio Free Albemuth |
kalkwiese
12.25.21 | Lol, okay Mort. buddy, I wish you all the strength you need |
kalkwiese
12.25.21 | Continuing on A Clash of Kings (A Song Ice and Fire #2). I definitely enjoy the easy prose (as a non-native reader) and I enjoy these characters, but I have to admit the pacing sloooow. Got to adjust to that again, because I always enjoyed reading these books so far. |
Deathconscious
12.26.21 | Radio Free Ablemuth was some crazy shit, as is to be expected from PKD. |
Anthracks
12.26.21 | reading king, queen, knave by nabokov for my final read of the year. then i'm gonna try to finally finish up metroid dread and halo infinite before the new year. |
WeepingBanana
12.26.21 | About to hit my year end goal of 30 books. Idk if that’s impressive to any of you but I’m happy with it. Past many years I top out at 20ish. Next year I might bump my goal down to 20 and only focus on big boys |
TheAntichrist
12.26.21 | books are tree queefs with pretentious human inscriptions and fairy tale bullshit about how god is supposedly real which he isn't, scientific literature about as transparent and easy to understand as women, or the all of the above shit like useless instructions on how to live your pathetic existence which doesn't fucking matter when you're buried six feet under which is my life's dream, all done for the sole purpose of financial gain at the expense of the oppressed and retarded
|
Anthracks
12.26.21 | how'd you find my high school journal |
Get Low
12.26.21 | "About to hit my year end goal of 30 books. Idk if that’s impressive to any of you but I’m happy with it. Past many years I top out at 20ish. Next year I might bump my goal down to 20 and only focus on big boys"
30 is definitely solid. Since graduating from college a few years ago and actually having time for leisure reading I've been hitting between 20 and 30 per year. |
Deathconscious
12.26.21 | "scientific literature about as transparent and easy to understand as women"
Oh no... |
Egarran
12.26.21 | I hoped we would all agree to ignore that. |
kalkwiese
12.26.21 | Ignore what?
30 books are solid, also these numbers don't mean anything, since books vary in size quite heavily.
I consumed some very small ones this year and got to idk 33 or something like that. Thanks to audio books |
someone
12.26.21 | so i read some Camille Paglia
she is very aggressive, but at least in good humours about it. often self-contradictory, kind of a messy speaker
on to Germaine Greer |
dbizzles
12.26.21 | This is probably the first year in the last 10 or so that I didn't get a single book for Christmas. |
Mort.
12.26.21 | i got Platos early dialogues and The Left hand of darkness by ursula k le guin
|
CugnoBrasso
12.26.21 | The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut is going to be my last book this year, my 39th,
My first year as a reader by the way. |
Anthracks
12.26.21 | I hit 62 this year, with an asterisk because one of them was proust |
Mort.
12.26.21 | The Sirens Of Titan is extremely underrated, absolutely love that book
|
porcupinetheater
12.26.21 | I hit 62 this year too! With an asterisk because 47 of them were The Magic Tree House |
rabidfish
12.29.21 | trying to read some of Derrida's "Gramatology" because my master's director sugested it... I fucking hate books now. |
WeepingBanana
12.29.21 | Just started David Graeber and David Wengrow’s new book. Basically about the roots of inequality but moreso about the roots of the concept of inequality. Barely into it but it’s really really good. Graeber’s style was definitely not everyone’s cup of tea but at the very least he really gets you thinking and questioning things you’ve taken for granted. Big time RIP |
Anthracks
12.29.21 | squeezing in my folio edition of waiting for godot |
WeepingBanana
12.29.21 | Def read Edward Albee if you haven’t already |
Emim
12.29.21 | Calvin and Hobbes |
CugnoBrasso
12.31.21 | Just finished The Sirens of Titan, incredible book! I think Vonnegut might be my favorite writer at this point. |
Egarran
12.31.21 | He's a great choice. |
dedex
12.31.21 | Calvin and Hobbes [∞] |
Anthracks
01.20.22 | started the year off with madame bovary by gustave flaubert, house of the sleeping beauties by yasunari kawabata, the face of another by kobo abe, and vineland by thomas pynchon. starting the gathering storm (wheel of time 12). sanderson's prose (while obviously nothing amazing) is already light years ahead of jordan's. sanderson taking over might be the best thing that ever happened to WOT (insensitive opinion). we will see. |
theBoneyKing
01.20.22 | I finished The God Is Not Willing last night. Excellent return from Erikson, I’m excited to see where the series goes from here. The more focused storytelling is a refreshing change of pace for him while still having a similar emotional scope to the main Malazan novels. Some may think he’s “dumbing things down” or whatever but it’s still got more going for it than most fantasy out there.
Will be starting Evershore, the last of the co-written companion novellas in Sanderson’s Skyward series. I’m not too hot on this series, mostly just going for this out of some morbid sense of obligation at this point. |
MiloRuggles
01.20.22 | > The Left hand of darkness by ursula k le guin
One of my recent favourites, Mort - let us know what you think!
Finished Omensetter's Luck, and the last third was just straight lyrical haymakers alongside actual significant character development and some seriously thoughtful plotting. Have just forced my library to buy a copy of The Tunnel, looking forward to moving onto that
Reading Titus Groan atm, seems aight |
theBoneyKing
01.20.22 | Honestly Anthracks, I truly hate to say it too but much as I love Jordan’s books, you may be right that in some respects Sanderson’s close to the series may well be a better overall product than what Jordan may have produced. Obviously it’s terrible he couldn’t finish it himself though. Book 12 is really great though, probably the best of the latter half of the series (excluding 14 which is one of my favorites overall but kind of impossible to rate on its own as the whole thing is a climax for the whole series). |
JeremiahBullfrog
01.20.22 | Reading LOTR for the first time, great books but boy does that guy go on for paragraphs about how the weather was and actual events are done in a sentence. |
MiloRuggles
01.20.22 | how'd ya like vineland, anthracks? |
TheAntichrist
01.20.22 | i read doctor sleep it was fvckin' awful so i just slept with my doctor and made her shine after i plowed that broad she was like oh danny oh danny and i was like i'll jack up that fvckin' oyster after i bash your brains in |
JeremiahBullfrog
01.20.22 | nice |
Mythodea
01.20.22 | what the hell are you talking about? |
Anthracks
01.20.22 | vineland was really good. are you a david lynch fan? it's his wild at heart. it doesn't avoid heavy topics or anything, but the emphasis is definitely on the humor |
Mythodea
01.20.22 | Never have, but I will shelve it as ''to-read''. Recently finished ''The Old Man who Read Love Stories'' by Sepulveda and quite liked it (it was very short though), and now almost done with Salinger's ''Franny and Zooey'', which flows so damn well it's astonishing |
EyesWideShut
01.20.22 | Crash by J.G. Ballard, it was cool. Better than the Sandra Bullock movie. |
Anthracks
01.20.22 | what about the david cronenberg movie? |
Scheumke
01.20.22 | @boney: I need to jump into the new Malazan books. Read the main 10 + a couple of the Esslemont books, but there's quite a few I haven't read yet. Probably my favorite series of all time though.
Finally really diving into Rhythm of War. I really love the Stormlight books but damn can they be a daunting task when you see that monster lying on your shelf lol. Don't know why because the moment I pick one up I'm hooked. |
gryndstone
01.20.22 | I dont read books. The literature format of the now is Visual Novels |
CugnoBrasso
01.20.22 | Finishing the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami, and Against the Day by Pynchon is next. |
zakalwe
01.20.22 | Still on the Abercrombie stuff as a result of loving the Age of Madness so much.
Best Served Cold - Loved it
Heroes - Enjoying it.
|
Feather
01.20.22 | New John Darnielle (mountain goats singer) book incoming in 5 days. His past 2 have been really good/interesting. |
Mythodea
01.20.22 | > Finishing the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami
Tell us what you think of it when you're done |
zakalwe
01.20.22 | I bought that when it first came out. Had absolutely no idea how wanky it’d be some 25 odd years later. I really enjoyed it at the time. Can’t remember a thing about it now other than pasta, a cat and a well. |
Mythodea
01.20.22 | that sums Murakami p well, if you also add jazz or classical |
theBoneyKing
01.21.22 | @Scheumke: This was the first Malazan I’d read in a while and I think you can dive right into it! I’ve read the whole Book of the Fallen series and a few of the Esslemont books as well, but not his newer ones, and had tried the first Kharkanas book like 5 years ago but couldn’t make it through at the time. I’m sure I’m missing some subtle references to the newer Esslemont books but The God Is Not Willing was perfectly comprehensible for someone who at this point has only a more general recollection of the plot details of the original series.
@zak: Had you read Age of Madness without the First Law trilogy, or just not the standalones? Either way all the Abercrombie books are great stuff.
@Feather: I def want to read the new Darnielle too, loved Wolf In White Van, may wait for this new one in paperback though as I tend to only buy hardcover from absolute faves or series entries.
|
Mort.
01.21.22 | 'Reading Titus Groan atm, seems aight'
i love gormenghast, amazing trilogy (3rd one is a bit weird but understandable, he had dementia i believe). |
BaloneyPony
01.21.22 | Wind Up Bird definitely tries your patience at times (Murakami sometimes just likes to wander) but it's so worth it. |
evilford
01.21.22 | 666th comment |
Deathconscious
01.21.22 | Nice m/ |
Mythodea
01.21.22 | you guys read a lot of book series, don't you? |
kalkwiese
01.21.22 | I've got to be honest, book series aren't really my thing, which sucks, because I like me a good fantasy novel. But I just prefer standalone books |
Get Low
01.21.22 | Only book series I've ever read in my life was The Hunger Games, because my sister begged. I don't regret it though; it was actually pretty solid. |
Mythodea
01.21.22 | Ι've read the usual suspects, Harry Potter, Narnia, Series of Unfortunate Events, and then some lesser known... Drizzt Do'Urden's life on Forgotten Realms, Zafon's Cemetary of Forgotten Books and Murakami's 1Q84... But most of them I read in my childhood / early teens years |
FR33L0RD
01.21.22 | "From Bacteria to Bach and Back" by Daniel C Dennett. |
BaloneyPony
01.23.22 | Hainish Cycle is a fascinating series of books. |
Rowan5215
01.23.22 | nearly finished Station Eleven. fucking incredible novel |
Shuyin
01.23.22 | Finished reading Animal Farm last week, brilliant little book. I'm now halfway through Munich by Robert Harris. Loving the Murakami love, he's my favourite writer and Hardboiled Wonderland is easily my all time favourite book |
DocSportello
01.23.22 | On the tail end of The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffman by Angela Carter. Then I've got The Illusions of Postmoderism by Terry Eagleton, and then I think I'm *finally, after staring at it for months* going to read/skim Knowledge and Human Interests by Jürgen Habermas. And then I'll probably do something like Tim O'Brien, idk. I'm deep in the grad school blues :( Read The Buried Giant over the holidays tho, and that was cool |
BaloneyPony
01.23.22 | Yessss, I'm on page 50 of Hardboiled and I'm really loving it so far. Very different from the other Murakami I've read. |
ToSmokMuzyki
01.23.22 | de rerum natura and the politically incorrect guide to the british empire |
Deathconscious
01.23.22 | Had a slump in my reading habits, i think i needed a break from the LOTR world, so i started George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia. Pretty interesting stuff so far. |
Jasdevi087
01.23.22 | Finished the great and secret show, now I'm on Annihilation. weird fiction fucks |
Tunaboy45
01.23.22 | How's Annihilation? I've been meaning to read it.
Nearly finished Men Without Women by Murakami, then onto Mort by Terry Pratchett |
kalkwiese
01.23.22 | On the last 100 pages of A Clash of Kings. I've got to say, reading in og language makes me tired way faster, but the chapters are just really really good. I will need a break from ASoIaF after every volume, but I definitely want to continue. Book of this size make me appreciate shoter books way more though lol. Reading the same book for months can be taxing somehow, even if it's great
|
Mythodea
01.23.22 | >then onto Mort by Terry Pratchett
Mort is a brilliant book, one of my Pratchett favourites! (but let's be honest, all books I've read by him are awesome - most of all Mauris and his Educated Rodents)
>Catcher In The Rye
Just finished Franny and Zooey by Salinger, and it was pretty engaging. Probably should also read Catcher |
kalkwiese
01.23.22 | Tbh not all the disc world books are great. They got significantly better as they got on improved massively imo. It's not like the first few ones aren't entertaining, but the satire definitely got better and sharper. Small Gods is just unbelievably good. |
Tunaboy45
01.23.22 | This is my first foray into Discworld, I plan on reading the Death books first. I have a friend who's very much into it, his favourite mini-series is the Moist von Lipwig books, I'll probably get onto those after Death.
|
Piglet
01.23.22 | Yeah i was just about to say, the Moist von Lipwig stuff is great. Both Going Postal and Making Money. Remember enjoying Guards! Guards! and Men At Arms a lot as well.
Also, Good Omens, the book he and Neil Gaiman wrote together is sum lovely jubbly shit |
ToSmokMuzyki
01.23.22 | catcher is a 5 from me |
Tunaboy45
01.23.22 | I'm super excited to dive into it all, thanks for the recs too |
Egarran
01.23.22 | >How's Annihilation? I've been meaning to read it.
Really good. The two next books of the trilogy not so much. Unless you're really into surrealist bureaucracy. |
Tunaboy45
01.23.22 | That's extremely niche but you've piqued my interest |
Mythodea
01.23.22 | I've not read everything from Discworld, around ten books or so, but was never disappointed
Good Omens has a decent tv series as well |
kalkwiese
01.23.22 | Yea, there is lots of good stuff with Discworld :)
I'm not that crazy about stuff like The Colour of Magic or Eric (well the Rincewind stories in general it seems, but it gets better when he isn't doing solo adventures anymore). |
Jasdevi087
01.24.22 | "How's Annihilation? I've been meaning to read it."
Brilliant. It's written like almost like a field journal rather than a sci-fi adventure/horror. narrator is vague enough to feel impartial but has enough depth to be relatable. If you're expecting it to be an intense read, you'll be disappointed because it's such a slow burn that it's more of an ambient glow. Think "dread" moreso than "terror", and it's almost more "fascinating" than it is horrific. |
WeepingBanana
01.24.22 | I enjoyed Annihilation a lot but you really should read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Crazy how much Annihilation rips from that book. I would imagine Roadside Picnic (the book that Stalker is based on) too but I haven’t actually gotten around to reading that, but the Stalker vibes are strong |
Mythodea
01.24.22 | Solaris is magnificent, absolutely agree |
Tunaboy45
01.24.22 | Roadside Picnic is on my list! I plan on reading that sometime this year (hopefully) |
Egarran
01.24.22 | Also the title - Annihilation - makes a lot more sense in the book. |
WeepingBanana
01.24.22 | Almost done with Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and it’s been really great so far. Extremely depressing and fucked up but written so incredibly well. Reads like Laszlo Krasznahorkai basically |
BaloneyPony
01.25.22 | It's crazy that a Mort movie was planned by Disney at one point but eventually scrapped. |
Mort.
01.25.22 | yh i havent even done that much with my life |
Tunaboy45
01.25.22 | Those Sky 1 Discworld specials were fun, I'm kind of glad Disney hasn't touched it. They have a tendency towards blandness that doesn't really suit Pratchett's work.
Just started reading The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Mishima |
BigTuna
01.25.22 | Just two tunas, reading books. |
Jasdevi087
01.25.22 | "I enjoyed Annihilation a lot but you really should read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Crazy how much Annihilation rips from that book. I would imagine Roadside Picnic (the book that Stalker is based on) too but I haven’t actually gotten around to reading that, but the Stalker vibes are strong"
Roadside Picnic has been on my to read list for a long time, so i will at some point
totally see the Solaris elements tho! |
Tunaboy45
01.25.22 | Books and Brine, the tuna literature club |
Egarran
01.26.22 | Nature is healing |
EyesWideShut
01.27.22 | "Almost done with Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor and it’s been really great so far. Extremely depressing and fucked up but written so incredibly well. Reads like Laszlo Krasznahorkai basically"
I read that one last year but didn't really care for it by the end, it was well written tho. |
WeepingBanana
01.27.22 | Yeah the 2nd half was a lot more brutal than the 1st, and I kinda preferred the still fucked up but more reserved mood of the 1st half |
EyesWideShut
01.27.22 | I remember thinking the town that took place in was meant to be a take on Sodom and Gomorrah |
Anthracks
01.30.22 | finished gathering storm. definitely the best book in the series, but still only like a 6/10. it's not better necessarily because of the events in the book, but because sanderson actually has energy in his prose and i don't feel like i'm decaying or losing brain cells reading it. still hate how 70% of the cast in this series has literally just been waiting around for the final climax to occur. there is zero character development beyond what they contribute to the "last battle." |
budgie
01.30.22 | finished mazower's nazi book in the middle of froissart's chronicles |
Josh D.
01.31.22 | Just finished the book about Smedley Butler, now starting The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson |
Anthracks
01.31.22 | reading the gardener's son now, which is the last mccarthy thing i have to read :( |
theBoneyKing
01.31.22 | Finished Evershore, now starting Endymion. |
Anthracks
01.31.22 | any thoughts on who the new wave of great authors are going to be? i'm not staying hopeful about reading a new mccarthy (16 years) / pynchon (9 years) / martin (11 years) novel any time soon and i need someone else modern to read other than murakami and ishiguro. each time i scoop up some of the esteemed modern novels of the last few years they end up ranging from terrible to average |
Get Low
01.31.22 | I highly recommend Tao Lin. Otherwise I don't read any modern/younger authors unless I have a specific reason to. |
Mort.
01.31.22 | ishiguro is really the only modern author i consistently read. otherwise im far behind.
been reading somthing wicked this way comes by bradbury. its alright. was reading gullivers travels but dropped it cos its pretty boring |
Mythodea
01.31.22 | @Anthracks I just finished ''Siete casas vacías'' (Seven empty houses) by Samanta Schweblin. Its a collection of short stories that are built around the notion of unfamiliar. Everything seems to slip away in those stories, and they always end with an abrupt erruption of tension and unease. It's the first thing I read by her, but I think it's marvellous. So, yeah, check out Samanta Schweblin.
Also, I recommend Carlos Ruiz Zafon, who wrote the famous series ''The Cemetery of Forgotten Books'', the first starting in 2001. He died of cancer in 2020, only 55 years old. |
Anthracks
02.14.22 | finished: time is the thing a body moves through by t fleischmann, notes from a dead house by fyodor dostoevsky, longing and other stories by jun'ichiro tanizaki, a brief history of time by stephen hawking, a pale view of hills by kazuo ishiguro, and man's search for meaning by viktor frankl
next: the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde |
WeepingBanana
02.14.22 | Reading Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar currently. Not sure how I feel about it but I’m only like 100 pages in (plus the ‘expendable’ chapters). At first I was gonna ignore them and then reread them the ‘hopscotch’ way but it pretty quickly became clear to me that I probably wouldn’t get anything out of that so like 10 chapters in I started hopping around. I like his writing but Horacio can be pretty cringe |
WeepingBanana
02.14.22 | That’s my in-depth analysis of this classic text |
Scheumke
02.14.22 | Just finished Maus. Don't have any words for it really. Impressive I guess, definitely left a mark and something I don't think I'll forget soon, if ever.
Just go read it if you haven't. |
Egarran
02.14.22 | Did not finish: The Making of Incarnation by Tom McCarthy.
I applaud anyone who makes it through this. It's deep, it breaks boundaries, it plays nicely with sci-fi, and there's a whooole lot about the origin of movement.
Right now I'm considering how my keyboard use corresponds with the ritualistic, archetypical movements of ancient man. And how I can use this knowledge to build a better spaceship.
Also I should patent the way I press vowels. |
Get Low
02.17.22 | Currently reading: Alice and her Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. |
dedex
02.17.22 | > Just finished Maus
nice man, def one of the best comic books I've ever read
currently reading The Nickel Boys - great read so far |
budgie
02.17.22 | i didnt care for maus |
Ryus
02.17.22 | reading some borges in spanish for school. some absolutely incredible stuff |
kalkwiese
02.17.22 | Oh, Borges is on my list too, but who knows when I'll finally read it. Too many unread books in my room.
I recently finished the collected stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was a ride, because it featured some very early, very not good stories where nothing happend and nothing meant anything. But then you could watch Marquet become better and better and the second third of the stories was good to great and the last third was just amazing.
Currently reading Measuring The World by Daniel Kehlmann. It's a fictional biography of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauß, two geniuses who are presented as polar opposites in so many ways, but united in their science and genius. It's like a light hearted, philosophical adventure novel. Really fun. |
Anthracks
02.17.22 | reading the employees by olga ravn (mix of sci-fi / poetry; a description of the 22nd century workplace told through 100+ brief testimonials by human and robot workers) and the free bastards by jonathan french (gears of war / pornhub style grimdark fantasy where they ride on boars instead of horses) |
budgie
02.17.22 | pornhub style grimdark fantasy>?> |
WeepingBanana
02.17.22 | Read Borges (in English) last year and yeah, very unique stuff. You kinda forget you’re reading fiction (which i guess is the point) |
Egarran
02.17.22 | Nice, didn't think I'd see an Olga Ravn reference here. She's great. |
Get Low
02.18.22 | Currently reading: The Complete Poems of Pablo Neruda. This guy is a treat. I'm even enjoying the Spanish-language poems and I don't understand a lick of that language. |
Mort.
02.18.22 | Borges is great and is almost writing thought experiments at times |
rabidfish
02.18.22 | the cool thing about Borges is that it makes you want to get into reading other things, too: Kafka, Qaballah, Coleridge, Greek mythology, Arabic poetry, Don Quixote, Emerson... and a lot of other cool stuff. |
Mort.
02.18.22 | yeah borges scholarship is very interesting for that reason, tends to cover a wide range of material
also ive never seen kaballah spelt like that, interesting |
Egarran
02.18.22 | Don't know why I never read Borges. I'm an Eco fan and they sound pretty related. |
Josh D.
02.18.22 | Y'all read more non-fiction NOW |
Mort.
02.18.22 | ive got so much philosophy to read theres too much
should have stopped at plato |
Deathconscious
02.18.22 | No, fiction is better.
I switch between fiction and non-fiction though. |
kalkwiese
02.18.22 | I guess non fiction can be good too lol
But I prefer fiction as of now |
Josh D.
02.18.22 | No. |
Ryus
02.18.22 | @egarran check him out for sure. his stories are mostly only a few thousand words, but they're usually philosophical and powerful. one of the best writers ever |
budgie
02.18.22 | non fiction ist superior |
kalkwiese
02.18.22 | Your mom is superior |
Anthracks
03.01.22 | fiction all day. i do read a lot of philosophy but most of it is just dudes that were just the right amount of wrong to advance thinking forward a literal notch.
reading towers of midnight (wheel of time 13 - almost done thank god), pebble in the sky by isaac asimov, and much ado about nothing by william shakespeare |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.01.22 | much ado about nothing
best shakespeare |
budgie
03.01.22 | BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS |
Josh D.
03.01.22 | Currently Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution |
Anthracks
03.01.22 | just watched brandon sanderson's stream where he announced that he wrote 5 new novels during pandemic. dude is a benchmark for efficiency |
theBoneyKing
03.01.22 | Sanderson is an absolute beast. Already signed up to get the books next year because I'm a shameless devotee, though I admit I'm a bit worried due to the somewhat less polished nature of some of his recent works; I just hope these ones don't feel too rushed. |
EyesWideShut
03.02.22 | Clockers by Richard Price, 4.5/5.. If you dig The Wire this book will bring you back to the corner, Price was a writer on that show. |
Ryus
03.02.22 | reading "the moons at your door" which is a british horror anthology compiled by david tibet of current 93. some excellent weird gothic stories mostly from the turn of the century |
Jasdevi087
03.03.22 | been interested in those two anthologies of his, how are the stories so far? |
MiloRuggles
03.03.22 | Finished When We Cease to Understand the World recently and thought it was pretty fucking great. Good bait/switch non-fiction to fiction ratio, could easily see squares like Josh being tricked into reading things that aren't true but enjoying themselves :):):):):)
Reading Consider the Lobster atm and it's p fun (it's fine that his views are outdated, kids. he's pretty thoroughly past his best by date at this point). Good insight into the head of a cleverboi
Also just started Rocannon's World and it's a lil rocky compared to the other Le Guin I've read (to be expected) but v excited to read further nonetheless.
Titus Groan was pretty great! Very unusual in what fantasy tropes it does/doesn't utilise, and some lovely bursts of prose (alongside some awkward experimentation). Gonna give it a rest before jumping into Gormenghast |
Ryus
03.03.22 | "been interested in those two anthologies of his, how are the stories so far?"
mostly really good, i've already read some of them but it's very stylistically cohesive. like any anthology there are some weaker ones but i've been impressed so far |
Mort.
03.03.22 | gormenghast is fantastic, wish it was more well known. i also wish neil gaiman would make the adaptation that was mentioned a few years ago |
Pheromone
03.03.22 | kafka |
dedex
03.03.22 | am at roughly 60% of Bourdieu's Distinction. wondering when I'll actually finish it, it's way too dense to actually read it without reading another "easier" book |
Pheromone
03.03.22 | it's funny you mention Bourdieu because the article im reading for uni right now opens with "I adapt Bourdieu’s concept of “bureaucratic field” to capture the
symbolic import of punishment as a means of reality production and I stress the contingent nature of penal resurgence, against conspiracy theories and the functionalist vision shared by Marxist and Foucaultian analysts"
help me |
dedex
03.03.22 | woah uh very roughly
The bureaucratic field is the "field" (a very Bourdieusian concept) that testifies to the emergence of the state, which accounts for the formation of an autonomous social space through which a new form of thought was generated, the so-called raison d'État, which gradually distinguished itself from that other vision of the world which was the 'domestic reason'.
So basically the state imposes its own reason, which exemplifies with prisons and all that shi, and I know that Foucault is all about prisons and punishment
Not sure how to integrate the whole 'reality production' and Marx bit tho |
Pheromone
03.03.22 | wow u legend < 3 |
dedex
03.03.22 | anytime love |
Egarran
03.03.22 | Bourdieu on Sputnik:
“Taste is first and foremost distaste, disgust and visceral intolerance of the taste of others.” |
CrisStyles
03.03.22 | Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing |
dedex
03.03.22 | exact-fucking-ly Ega |
Jasdevi087
03.04.22 | "Finished When We Cease to Understand the World recently and thought it was pretty fucking great."
That book is fucking awesome. never thought i could be spun into existential dread by maths |
MiloRuggles
03.04.22 | nice jas! was very impressed with using mathematical paradoxes/unknowns as a constant source of existential dread for each protag
hate to be a stereotype here, but pynchon is very good at spinning existential dread from maths... |
porcupinetheater
03.04.22 | dam id prefer to drink a bourdieu |
kalkwiese
03.04.22 | Since Johnny bullied me to read more: I am currently reading Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. I'm like two chapters in, so I have no idea what's going on, but shit already feels mysterious and that's cool |
Anthracks
03.06.22 | Wheel of time update: 700 pages into the penultimate book and I’m in disbelief because it still feels like nothing is happening. What do the fans see in this series? I was promised pay off by so many if I just stick through it, but nothing particularly interesting has ever happened. I’m mindblown that this series is held as sacred |
Jasdevi087
03.07.22 | think I've finally reached the end of my rope with James Clavell's asian saga with King Rat. Shogun has it's charm for the time but the rest of these books are just fucking trash |
Anthracks
03.08.22 | NYTimes just confirmed Cormac McCarthy is publishing two novels by the end of the year ahhhh |
WeepingBanana
03.09.22 | I’ve think I’ve brought it up before but Solaris is so good
Why would you read like 10000 pages of something you don’t like? |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.09.22 | idk im on the 9th outlander book even tho its gone downhill from dragonfly |
Anthracks
03.09.22 | Because fandom always hypes things up and it’s not as easy to trust or distrust fans of books as it is with more easily consumable mediums. |
MiloRuggles
03.09.22 | >NYTimes just confirmed Cormac McCarthy is publishing two novels by the end of the year ahhhh
oh shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii |
porcupinetheater
03.09.22 | Anything that's part of a series is suspect tbh
Anything that's more than a trilogy is a hard no-fly zone |
Jasdevi087
03.09.22 | if i pretend Dune is actually two separate trilogies (which it kinda is), i can rationalize it |
TheSpaceMan
03.09.22 | told myself i'd read more this year. i've been trying to move along through some classics that i've always wanted to read. so far i've finished: moby dick, fear and loathing, the odyssey, and the king in yellow
i'm currently 600 pages into crime and punishment and hot damn is it a page turner |
porcupinetheater
03.09.22 | Them dead Russians sure did know what they was doing |
kalkwiese
03.09.22 | "I’ve think I’ve brought it up before but Solaris is so good"
This keeps me motivated. I like the story so far (one third into the book), but my version suffers from a translation that's maybe a little too word by word sometimes and an overabundance of exclamation marks. |
Mort.
03.09.22 | yeh that sounds like a translation issue, i read solaris a few months ago and dont remember there being really any exclamation marks |
kalkwiese
03.09.22 | I try to ignore all the "!!!" and "?!", but damn, they make my blood pressure rise hahaha |
Egarran
03.09.22 | Yall read The House of the Dead by Dostoyevsky yet?
It's possibly amazing but I lasted ten pages. |
kalkwiese
03.09.22 | The first of the great russians I'm gonna read is Bulgakov, I guess |
Mort.
03.09.22 | Dostoevsky is at the top of my list to get to .only read crime and punishment so far , loved it. Have a copy of demons floating around somewhere |
WeepingBanana
03.09.22 | Hmm idr much in the way of excessive punctuation, but the point of the story to me is the deliberately dense subject matter, and the futility of understanding anything
My copy’s translation was credited to Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox |
kalkwiese
03.09.22 | Yea, the story is the point and I like it. These other things are a distraction though. My version was translated from Polish into German, I don't think too many people here will have read the same version hahaha |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.09.22 | pre soviet russia best russia |
TheSpaceMan
03.09.22 | Which crime and punishment translation have you guys read? I have 40 pages left cant wait till my lunch break lol |
WeepingBanana
03.09.22 | Aren’t Pevear and Kolokhonsky considered the ultimate Russian lit translators? I think I read a good chunk of C&P years and years ago translated by them but I was in a reading funk and didn’t finish, even tho I was enjoying it just fine
I’ve only read The Orchard Keeper and The Road by Cormac and didn’t really like either. Is there a “breezy” book of his (relatively speaking) that could get me into him. I know I should try Blood Meridian at some point, I’d that just the answer? Everything I’ve read of his and everything I know from other people just make him seem like one of the dullest writers ever idk |
Ryus
03.09.22 | "NYTimes just confirmed Cormac McCarthy is publishing two novels by the end of the year ahhhh"
the king is back |
Ryus
03.09.22 | @weeping, maybe try no country for old men, from what i remember it's more easily digestible than most of his stuff. |
porcupinetheater
03.09.22 | "Aren’t Pevear and Kolokhonsky considered the ultimate Russian lit translators?"
For Dostoyevsky specifically that's what I've heard (don't speak a lick o' Russian so there's a lot of taking it on faith), but I've heard a lot more debate around Tolstoy translations. Haven't read either the Mauds or Anthony Briggs' translations there, but have heard arguments for both of those being better than P&V for Tolstoy's work |
Piglet
03.09.22 | pevear and kolokhonsky are indeed the ultimate translators for dostoevsky. tolstoy is a chore no matter who's translating
source: my brain |
WeepingBanana
03.09.22 | @ryus yeah I’m just reticent to read that one since I love the movie so much I’m already super familiar with the story. I’m sure the book achieves things the movie doesn’t but I just get the feeling I’ll like the movie more no matter what. I don’t mind harder to digest stuff but his style to me is so wooden I just have a hard time connecting
But anyways I just blew thru Wittgensteins Nephew by Thomas Bernhard in like 2 days and I really enjoyed that. So totally bitter and anti-social but still yearning for, almost as if burdened by, a desire for human connection. Gotta read more Bernhard for sure. Now I’m reading Debt: The First 5000 Years |
MiloRuggles
03.09.22 | Yo weeping, the film for no country basically uses the book as a screenplay. There are some crazy similarities, it's very well adapted, so yeah maybe skip it.
Honestly, jump straight into Blood Meridian. Ignore the opinions of those around you; it's anything but boring. The prose is on another level |
Anthracks
03.09.22 | no country book was equal quality if not a little better than the movie but they were both nearly perfect. there were some aspects that worked better in each medium. i think there are more quotables in the book obviously and mccarthy's pace is pretty relentless for his standards (which worked well for the movie). he could have turned the story into 700 pages if he wanted |
Anthracks
03.09.22 | i read house of the dead earlier this year. in my bottom two dostoevsky out of the ten i've read so far.
bulgakov is pretty overrated. i love master & marg in theory but not practice |
Egarran
03.09.22 | > in my bottom two dostoevsky out of the ten i've read
Well that's a comfort. Well done for making it through.
Love how highbrow this thread has become. |
Deathconscious
03.09.22 | I love queefs. |
someone
03.10.22 | currently finishing up "My Policeman" by Bethan Roberts. a romance triangle set in the 50s.
i really like these heartbreak gay romance novels from a different age ("Call Me By Your Name" type) |
MiloRuggles
03.10.22 | Finished Rocannon's World by Le Guin. Was pretty fun, and hinted at ideas that are more thoroughly explored in LHoD and Dispossessed. Breezy wee 3/5, looking forward to seeing her style develop
Started A Ghost in the Throat and the opening chapter was quite entrancing |
someone
03.10.22 | u on a LeGuin binge? |
kalkwiese
03.10.22 | "bulgakov is pretty overrated. i love master & marg in theory but not practice"
Interesting. I guess I'll have to see myself. I also got an audio book of Anna Karenina here, so I won't stop at Bulgakov for russian literature :) |
MiloRuggles
03.10.22 | not directly, someone. slowly been working through her stuff in between a handful of other authors/new releases etc. gonna read everything of hers eventually, though, cause i love those LHoD and Dispossessed (forced my library to buy the whole Hainish cycle, churr) |
WeepingBanana
03.10.22 | I fucking love LHoD. Lathe of Heaven is also cool. Gotta read more of her |
Get Low
03.14.22 | Currently reading from William Carlos Williams' Collected Poems, and lately have been on a poetry-reading grind, after actively avoiding the artform for the first thirty years of my life. |
Josh D.
03.14.22 | Just started The Shattering: America in the 1960s |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | finished towers of midnight... absolutely dreaful slog. i can't believe that's one of the more revered entries in TWOT (love that that's the acronym for this terrible waste of time series). book 14 in a 15 book series and almost nothing happens. i've been duped by fantasy nerds |
kalkwiese
03.14.22 | I am surprised tbh, I never read a page wheel of time, but I thought a lot of stuff must happen there |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | 12,800 pages... i could have read faulkner's entire bibliography twice over |
kalkwiese
03.14.22 | This is why long series intimidate me a bit. ^^ And I am a slow reader. So I prefer standalone novels, but I really like Fantasy ... and Fantasy often has series. A bit of a conflict for me |
Ryus
03.14.22 | along with the david tibet horror anthology i mentioned, i just started crime and punishment. very excited, my first dostoevsky |
dedex
03.14.22 | > i just started crime and punishment. very excited, my first dostoevsky
dude after I finish Poor Economics I'll dive into that one too, sooooooooo excited |
WeepingBanana
03.14.22 | Lol that you wasted 95% of that 12800 pages worth of reading time is 100% on you. I mean I respect your perseverance I guess but just, why?? I’m still kicking myself 10 years later for getting tricked into reading ASOIAF cuz “dude book 3 is insane!!!!” |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | Yes, totally. Because you can know a book is good or not without reading it. It’s totally the same as listening or sampling a 40 minute album or watching a 90 minute movie. |
kalkwiese
03.14.22 | Gotta say, I enjoyed ASoIaF book 1 and 2 alot
Book 3 is next |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | ASOIAF is wonderful and still the only truly great Fantasy series I’ve read |
porcupinetheater
03.14.22 | "Yes, totally. Because you can know a book is good or not without reading it."
Sure sure but like
that ain't really what Banana said now, is it?
More like you can prob suss out if a series is good or not if you'd read through thousands of pages worth of books and not thought any of 'em equated to a proper good book.
Don't succumb to the sunk cost fallacy. Be the change. Throw Robert Jordan and Friends in the trash. |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | For better or worse, I’m not really a quitter. It took about five or six books before it got truly terrible, and I’m also of the opinion that I learn just as much from reading a bad book as from reading a good book (from the perspective of writing). So, despite my drama, it’s not really a waste of time. I don’t really stop reading a book simply because it’s bad - it has to be truly repugnant for me to quit it. Also, the fan base for TWOT is incredibly rabid and is forever hyping up the conclusion. Being one of the titanic series of Fantasy, I felt an obligation to read it. |
ChrimzonCanine
03.14.22 | Currently reading Gears Of The City. Probably one of the best obscure steampunk novels imo |
porcupinetheater
03.14.22 | Fair enough, hope there's some redemption in the last 600-ish pages to pull it back from WHEEEE-ing along the downward spiral |
theBoneyKing
03.14.22 | I love Wheel of Time but I highly doubt the last book will make a big difference |
Anthracks
03.14.22 | Up next is Middlemarch by George Eliot and fires by Raymond carver |
Ryus
03.14.22 | didnt think i would like middlemarch that much but its one of my favorite books. eliot is just an incredible writer |
WeepingBanana
03.14.22 | Lol we’re not talking about one book, we’re talking about 12800 pages. Did you think 12799 pages of something you either thought okay or hated was gonna change on that last, glorious page? Again, who am I to judge your reading habits, but why put yourself thru that? What are you “learning” from this probably very stupid and terrible pulp fantasy series lmao? New ways to hate yourself?
Also I know I’m not gonna change any minds but ASOIAF is so, so bad. 1st book is like, huh okay that’s kinda cool. 2nd book is maybe the most boring thing I’ve ever read. 3rd was written by a 12 year old (I mean they all were but especially this one). 4th was boring but in a way I didn’t really mind at this point. 5th was the 3rd but 100 times worse |
Ryus
03.14.22 | i gave up halfway through the second asoiaf book, tbh. the first book was pretty good but i just got bored |
MiloRuggles
03.14.22 | asoiaf is very fun and gratefully not that big a timesink (discounting the fact that it's not finished). it's obviously not a prose masterpiece and obviously edgy trash, but it's got some great characterisation and decent payoffs |
WeepingBanana
03.14.22 | The first one leads you to believe “well this is stupid but maybe at least it’ll be a fun story” and then it just sucks harder than anything I’ve ever read. So joyless and cynical. Character conflicts/political drama are so superficial. Whenever I see a writer credited as “great at world building” I hear “writer has the mind of a child”
Of course there are some writers like Le Guin who genuinely ARE great at world building, but it’s not really talking about as redeeming her cause she’s shitty otherwise, as is the case with GRRM |
WeepingBanana
03.14.22 | Whatever I don’t wanna sound like a dick, I don’t care what people like or don’t like, it’s just boggling my mind that there are people out there who waste dozens and dozens of hours of their lives doing something they hate for the sake of completionism and then get mad at the author/universe/anyone but themselves |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.15.22 | lol i read got of ASOIAF 7 years ago and gave it 3/5 and havent touched it since lmao |
Anthracks
03.15.22 | Why ask me questions that I’ve answered in a previous post? Also, TWOT tells one story over those fifteen books, so yes it isn’t complete until you’ve read them all. It’s ironic that you’re complaining about GRRM being too cynical, but your recent posts are 100% edgy and negative. If you don’t want to sound like a dick, don’t be one. Pretty simple. |
Jasdevi087
03.15.22 | idk, from a literary criticism standpoint, commiting to reading as much of something you aren't enjoying provides you with more insight. I don't necessarily see it as a virtue to refuse engagement with something you don't agree with, if anything it's kind of a bad habit because you're less likely to be able to articulate why you don't like something and how you'd do it differently or build alternative ideas. |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.15.22 | sometimes u just want to finish a book to say u did it and gain bashing rights |
porcupinetheater
03.15.22 | I was just saying committing to finishing a book is one thing, committing to finishing a 15 book space opera series as an intellectual exercise is another |
ToSmokMuzyki
03.15.22 | yea well how will u face off the wot nerds if they keep giving u the excuse the next one is worth it |
WeepingBanana
03.15.22 | You didn’t answer my question about what you’re learning, you just said that you’re learning something from finishing it. It’s not about “agreeing” with the text lol we’re not debating Spinoza here. We’re talking a popcorn fantasy series, mostly engaged with for the very purpose of wasting time in an enjoyable way. Like porcupine is saying, it just makes me wonder if 12800 isn’t your limit, what is? Cause there’s *gotta* be some limit right? And I don’t really understand your argument that “it’s not a 90 minute movie, therefore I need to finish it all”. When I’m halfway thru a movie and decide I don’t like it, yeah, I’ll probably stick it out just to say I saw it and maybe have some thoughts. If you ever catch me halfway thru something as big of a time sink as the wheel of time and hating it, please ask me how my life is going and if I need help |
TheSpaceMan
03.15.22 | @ryus fuck yeah dude, just finished it last week for the first time. incredible ride. its psychologically exhausting but in the best way |
Egarran
03.15.22 | The last season of GoT was indeed the greatest disappointment of the century.
It was a strong symbol for everything that is wrong with the world. |
Ryus
03.21.22 | i assume youre talking about crime and punishment spaceman. im about a third of the way through it and im really enjoying it. dostoevsky is really adept at showcasing raskolnikov's mental state, i love the frantic paranoid monologues. the russian names are kind of rough but my edition has a helpful list of characters |
TheSpaceMan
03.22.22 | yep i was! agreed 100%. as far as the names, i had to make pneumonic devices up to remember a bunch of them. my biggest issue was how characters would be referred to by what im guessing is first name or middle + last name (probably based off formality?). for example Pyotr Petrovitch or Luzhin. made remembering peoples names a lot trickier for me |
TheSpaceMan
03.22.22 | i have to admit there were a few instances where i didnt know what character was talking and was too lazy to figure it out and just rolled with a guess until the context made it obvious lol. theres two particular scenes where i remember that happening, but i wont mention them to be sensitive to spoilers |
Anthracks
03.22.22 | Truly bizarre that you’re so fixated on my motives for reading the wheel of time. Idk what to say at this point other than get over it.
About halfway through Middlemarch and starting The Unvanquished by Faulkner |
WeepingBanana
03.22.22 | Oh okay sorry for asking you about your reading habits on the Books thread of a message board
Had a nice haul recently and got:
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino (800 page anthology of Italian Folktales collected and told by him)
Warlock by Oakley Hall
The Makioka Sisters by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki |
kalkwiese
03.22.22 | I wish Makioka Sisters wasn't out of print in Germany. The Key was so good. |
WeepingBanana
03.22.22 | I honestly can’t even remember what drew me to it or how it ended up on my list of things to read but I’m pumped |
Deathconscious
03.22.22 | I feel like Neuromancer's ideas were much better than the execution, i was disappointed by it. Was still interesting to read such an influential book though. |
WeepingBanana
03.22.22 | Yeah it’s one of those things that I just feel like I should have read by now but haven’t for some reason. What you said I’ve heard from several other people so I’m not expecting to get my mind blown |
Anthracks
03.22.22 | every tanizaki i've read is great. i actually have the movie on deck this week |
Jasdevi087
03.22.22 | I've heard Neuromancer is easier to appreciate once you've read the other two |
Egarran
03.22.22 | Anyone for Snow Crash by Stephenson? Loved it way more than Neuromancer. |
Deathconscious
03.22.22 | Adding to my to-read list. Sounds a little Ready Player One-y though. |
AlexKzillion
03.22.22 | Gyro's bowie discog run has inspired me to finally read Bowie's Bookshelf by john oconell. Basically goes through bowie's personal top 100 books list he published prior to his death one by one with a couple pages on how each of them shaped a part of Bowie's life/persona/music/etc in some way. List can be found online. Hoping to actually read some/a lot of these books going forward too |
Egarran
03.22.22 | > Sounds a little Ready Player One
I only saw the movie of that, but Snow Crash is on another level. It is from 1992 though, but so many of its concepts have become reality.
Most importantly, it's just very entertaining. |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | Started Crying In H Mart. Its a little uncomfortable, like reading someones private diary. Raw and honest. Love it so far. |
kalkwiese
03.29.22 | Finished Solaris and it was cool, if a little dry and the translation issues didn't make the stream of consciousness parts any nicer tbh. But it's a great story about contacting beings that are radically different from humans and that's cool as shit.
Also read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it was the palate cleanser I needed. I know Pratchett is a deciple of Adams, but the novel reminded me a bit of the lesser, very plot heavy Disc World novels, like the first few ones with Rincewind.
And currently I am reading "Eines Menschen Flügel" by Andreas Eschbach. I couldn't find an englisch translation of the title, so I guess there isn't any. It's a 1260 pages long novel about humans on a far away planet in the far away future. The ground belongs to a deadly thing called "Margor" so the ancestors gave their children wings with their genetic technology, like 1000 years ago.
The novel starts with a boy who want's to see the stars, but the sky is covered by a thick layer of clouds so the stars are never actually visible. He starts training and actually breached the layer, which causes trouble once he tell the the other people ...
It's such a great stroy so fat (like 250 pages in), very immersive with many characters and great prose. It's the thing I didn't know I was craving atm lol.
The interesting thing about the narration is how the POV characters are changing constantly. It's not like you have 5 protagonists or something like that, they change with every chapter and Idk if the book will actually return to one of them. They're around though, so the story doesn't become a slog despite of that. It is really about the world and how the people interact with eachother (plus the stuff about the stars etc.) It huge and all the better for it. You can look at the book as Sci-Fantasy, I guess, but really the genres don't matter that much. It's not a hero's journey.
I really hope this gets into translation some time, because Eschbach is a big deal here in Germany and he is very talented. |
Storm In A Teacup
03.29.22 | They are having a book fair at school today. I hope the kiddo finds something awesome. 🥺 |
kalkwiese
03.29.22 | Oh nice :3 |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | Hitchhikers is so fun, the first three are gold.
@storm idk what theyre into, but Chronicles of Narnia singlehandedly got me into reading. |
Storm In A Teacup
03.29.22 | She has her eyes set on a certain series but i think we will need to order that one online. I have all the narnia books and have been waiting to give to her. It's about the right age now for that. |
Josh D.
03.29.22 | Halfway through The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. Stop reading fiction. |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | I thought you were half joking before, but I can just delete your comments if you want to be obnoxious. |
MiloRuggles
03.29.22 | Halfway through a podcast about true crime and the nature of evil. Stop listening to music. |
Ryus
03.29.22 | lmao
josh d srsly embarrassing himself itt |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | "Over the holiday I'm taking a break from politics, historyu, and world events books and reading Frankenstein."
Stop reading fiction. |
Josh D.
03.29.22 | I did. |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | Like 3 months ago? Not good enough. |
Josh D.
03.29.22 | I made the rule, man. |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | And im enforcing it. |
Josh D.
03.29.22 | How the turn tables... |
porcupinetheater
03.29.22 | Don’t read fiction but keep up with your sitcom references |
Josh D.
03.29.22 | I will if you keep getting them! |
porcupinetheater
03.29.22 | So it goes!!! |
Deathconscious
03.29.22 | Just watched a movie, stop watching sitcoms. |
MiloRuggles
03.30.22 | Halfway through a fuck. Stop masturbating. |
naughtcturnal
03.30.22 | just watched big band theory. stop breathing |
TheSpaceMan
03.30.22 | someone paste his 5s i bet theyre cringe |
Jasdevi087
03.30.22 | some of those non-fiction books are basically fiction anyway. stop reading |
Deathconscious
03.30.22 | I just peed, stop pooping. |
naughtcturnal
03.30.22 | good one |
Anthracks
04.01.22 | Finished Middlemarch (outstanding, felt like I was inside the book), and the unvanquished (by far the worst Faulkner I’ve read)
Onto dandelions by yasunari Kawabata then the final wheel of time book |
Shuyin
04.04.22 | Just bough 2010 - The Second Odyssey, they're releasing the new versions here in Portugal, which is great because I've never read the books. I always loved both movies, so when I saw the 2001 book on sale last year it was an insta buy, and I absolutely loved it. Hope they release the complete series.
Also bough a bunch of Junji Ito books: No Longer Human (5/5, almost as good as Uzumaki), Frankenstein and Fragments of Horror |
Egarran
04.05.22 | 2010 is great.
Love Uzumaki, never heard about the others. Ito's so productive.
Gyo was... weird. Didn't really care for it.
Museum of Terror was good. |
Shuyin
04.07.22 | I honestly love the weirdness of Gyo, deliciously insane manga. Frankenstein was.. odd, I never read the original so I went into this knowing only the synopsis of the story. It's a bit bland but the last 10 pages are pretty disgusting, absolutely loved it and I'm not even a fan of gore. The book has a bunch of extra stories which I have yet to read.
Oh man, I can't wait to read 2010. I liked the movie a lot! Of course its not as good as 2001 but it was still great and Roy Scheider is a badass |
Jasdevi087
04.07.22 | finally getting around to some Mishima |
Egarran
04.07.22 | > the last 10 pages are pretty disgusting
DRR... DRR... DRR... |
Ryus
04.09.22 | finally finished crime and punishment and it was about as incredible as i could have hoped. i took my time with it since it's so dense and rife with references. i adore dostoevsky's style, and the philosophical/psychological richness is unbelievable. ive heard some bad things about some of the other translations, but the one i read (oliver ready) was mostly excellent. |
Winesburgohio
04.09.22 | 100 years of Ulysses, of which I owe so much to in style and in inspiration. here's an amazing radio play adaptation from 1982 if it feels too daunting to read! i've had it on the last couple of days and i've found it extremely helpful with passages i find difficult, something about hearing it aloud. https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0610/1146705-listen-ulysses-james-joyce-podcast/ |
budgie
04.09.22 | has anyone read postwar (tony judt)
it's so dense with info tungsten dense |
budgie
04.09.22 | actually i have a real q here. every couple years i read through the REH conan stories. anyone know of quality low fantasy stuff like that. dark serpent gods barbarians evil shadow beasts apedemons liches etc. |
Get Low
04.10.22 | Ulysses is goated |
Get Low
04.11.22 | Currently reading: The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus, translated by Marvin Meyer, and interpreted by Harold Bloom. |
Jasdevi087
04.11.22 | @wines yeah man's gonna try cheeing on The Dubliners first before tackling the big bois |
Tunaboy45
04.11.22 | With me having less free time at the moment I'm reading the Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story, my favourites so far being either Come Rain or Come Shine by Kazuo Ishiguro and Remember This by Graham Swift. |
ReturnToRock
04.11.22 | A Fort of Nine Towers. A memoir by an Afghan who grew up in the faction war and Taliban takeover. Gripping stuff, though not very well written. Some parts seem too convenient to have gone down exactly like that, but I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in that regard. Nowhere near as well-crafted as Khaled Hosseini's stuff, but, with about 35 pages to go, I do not consider the £1 it cost me to have been badly spent. 3.5/5
Also reading Reflections of Eden, another memoir, this time by Birute Galdikas, the Jane Goodall/Dian Fossey of orangutans. Drags a bit in the parts not directly relating to the apes (which are all 'when I was having lunch with Alice Cooper one time...'-type stuff) but fascinating whenever they take centre stage. Will not rate it yet as I am only about halfway through, but it is looking like a 4/5.
Recs-wise, I am not sure what style you like, but I would easily recommend any of the early stuff by Stephen King, as well as anything by Khaled Hosseini or Jane Austen, along with the below:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Green Mile
Pride and Prejudice
It
Millennium Trilogy
Scottsboro
Holes
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Disaster Artist (audiobook version)
Fight Club
The Myths series by Robert Asprin
Gorillas in the Mist
Hardball: A Season in the Projects
Hitman: My Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Idiot
Michael, Brother of Jerry
Just off the top of my head...
|
ReturnToRock
04.11.22 | Watership Down bored me stupid when I read it as a 35-year-old adult.
Wizard and Glass is basically a huge-ass detour from the main plot of TDT. Keep meaning to read the rest, but ain't nobody got time for that, too many books still to read. Never Let Me Go was okay, I guess. Wouldn't read a second time. |
Get Low
04.11.22 | Uncle Tom's Cabin being listed twice made me lol |
ReturnToRock
04.11.22 | Oops - fixed. |
Deathconscious
04.11.22 | Wizard and Glass was probably my least favorite. |
Ryus
04.11.22 | re-reading brave new world. haven't read too many dystopian novels but the ideas in brave new world are the most enticing to me out of all the ones i've read |
Anthracks
04.14.22 | finished the wheel of time.
next up is the best short stories collection by dostoevsky and the luzhin defense by vladimir nabokov |
Ryus
04.14.22 | kinda wanna do a dostoevsky discog run after reading crime and punishment. maybe the best book i have ever read |
Ryus
04.14.22 | im reading slaughterhouse five for the first time. loved cat's cradle and breakfast of champions so i have high hopes
next up is east of eden |
Get Low
04.14.22 | The Brothers Karamazov is calling 4 u |
Ryus
04.14.22 | yeah mang im super excited to read it. ive heard its basically the culmination of his ideas/themes so i wanna read some more stuff by him first |
WeepingBanana
04.15.22 | I’m a good chunk into The Savage Detectives and I’m enjoying it but I haven’t been able to get myself to read more than like 25 pages a day of it for some reason. Maybe cause baseball season started and instead of reading on my lunch breaks I watch baseball hmmm |
Get Low
04.18.22 | Currently reading: Puddinghead Wilson, by Mark Twain |
Anthracks
04.19.22 | reading dawnshard by brandon sanderson then i am a cat by natsume soseki |
Get Low
04.24.22 | It looks like Adolph deleted a good majority of his lists; I'm glad he didn't delete this one.
Currently reading: The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan |
MiloRuggles
04.25.22 | yo bananaboi, does it meander into prosetown like 2666 or is it more direct in line with its length?
finished Perdido Street Station recently and it was a fun wee romp, very easy to read with some cool ideas. if i ever read the word 'furtive' again i might just seppuku tho
started The Tunnel recently. about 60 pages in and holy fucking shit it's basically already guaranteed to enter my s-tier pantheon
|
Jasdevi087
04.25.22 | started the new Emily St. John Mandel joint |
ReturnToRock
04.25.22 | @Anthracks you read the WHOLE THING? How long did it take you? RIP your free time.
@Get Low I usually really like Twain but that one did not leave much of an impression, for some reason. |
Get Low
04.25.22 | "@Get Low I usually really like Twain but that one did not leave much of an impression, for some reason."
I quite enjoyed it; it was a bit more serious than his usual stuff, though. |
Egarran
04.25.22 | I strongly rec The Mysterious Stranger by Twain.
In which he suspects that he may be a satanist. |
BlushfulHippocrene
04.25.22 | 'started the new Emily St. John Mandel joint'
Just finished after making my way through all her other novels. Very short but extremely satisfying. |
Rowan5215
04.25.22 | reading Annihilation by Vandermeer atm. interesting so far |
Anthracks
04.25.22 | wheel of time took me 4 years overall. i spread it out a lot. i read 3-4 entries per year, one per quarter basically. individually each one only took about 7 days to read |
Egarran
04.25.22 | Annihilation is great. Good luck with the sequels!
“The map had been the first form of misdirection, for what is a map but a way of emphasizing some things and making other things invisible?” |
ReturnToRock
04.25.22 | @Anthracks bravo. I couldn't read a doorstop like that in 7 days (I did read Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix in about that long, but it is not quite as dense.)
I used to own most of the series that I picked up scattershot from charity shops, but ended up giving them away unread, as the task of reading all those doorstops in a row was nothing short of daunting (and no, I can't bring myself to break up a series unless I don't physically own all the books yet. If I do own all of them, they're getting read in sequence. It's why I haven't started The Dark Tower yet despite having owned the entire series for years. Read Wizard and Glass when I only had that one, then Wind Through the Keyhole, then got all the other ones, and now I can't bring myself to ever start them.) |
protokute
04.25.22 | It's been difficult to have a constant reading habit. But I've been reading Hermann Hesse's Demian |
WeepingBanana
04.25.22 | @Milo, I haven’t read 2666. I’d say TSD is pretty focused in its objective but still very much stretches it’s legs in the process. It’s told in the form of journal entries (more or less) from dozens of characters peripherally related to the main characters. So while it definitely gets scattered and it definitely does a shit ton of hyperspecific/hyper-referential name dropping, it never feels like it’s getting lost up its own ass. Which is pretty counterintuitive I guess. I’m definitely enjoying it a lot tho |
kalkwiese
04.25.22 | @protokute: I am curious about your thoughts on Demian. Read it a while ago and I liked the coming of age bit in the beginning, but everything else was a bit too much religious-esoteric fuckery for me. Hesse's dichotomies (in the case of Demian it's the "world of light" and "world of darkness" stuff) is quite a but of a turnoff for me tbh. I liked Steppenwolf though, it had a bit more going on for me.
I am curious about his other stuff like Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha and Under The Wheel, but I just get to it in the last few years. |
kalkwiese
04.25.22 | Reading 700 to 1000 pages chunkers in 7 days, that's amazingly fast. I am such a slow reader and I have a lot of stuff to do, I would read it in a month, maybe two. |
Anthracks
04.25.22 | I read a minimum of 70p per day and 200+ on most days off |
protokute
04.26.22 | Siddhartha might be one of the most significant and enriching reading experiences I ever had |
WeepingBanana
04.26.22 | The only Hesse I’ve read is Narcissus and Goldmund, which is really really loved |
kalkwiese
04.26.22 | Nice, both of those are on my list! Any thoughts about Demian? |
someone
04.26.22 | Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
i love how disorganised the narrative chronology is, how messy and unreliable the narration is. but simultaneously it is not confusing. it's not trying to weave mystery and set red herrings. everything is very clear, it just takes plenty detours to a point of lacking any unitary a-plot, on purpose.
so far it's fantastic, albeit sometimes tiring |
Egarran
04.26.22 | I gave that book to my mom. She never opened it ): |
Anthracks
04.26.22 | I’ve only read steppenwolf so far but I plan on reading more from him. Is his other stuff subtly surreal as well? |
someone
04.26.22 | "She never opened it ):"
that's unfortunate. it's a very dense book, but it has a lot of wisdom in it. not to mention the fact that there are plenty of unusual cultural insights that i, for example, did not know of |
Egarran
04.26.22 | Insanity hovered close at hand, like an eager waiter at an expensive restaurant. |
Jasdevi087
04.28.22 | Y'all missing out if you haven't picked up Sea of Tranquility |
Anthracks
04.30.22 | i got that but i probably won't get to it for maybe a month or two. i read new releases between scheduled stuff and i'll be reading young mungo and memory's legion before i read sea of tranquility.
did just finish time is a mother by ocean vuong |
Jasdevi087
04.30.22 | ooh, I'm picking up Young Mungo next payday. I've heard it's pretty similar to his first book, but i haven't read it, so that won't be an issue for me lol. Our edition has this super gnarly gay bloke kiss as the cover that I'm absolutely in love with; our high income, white christian retiree constituency is yet to purchase a single copy lol |
ReturnToRock
04.30.22 | Finished the orangutan book. It was a 4/5 as expected.
Started A Town Called Alice by Nevil Shute today. 40 pages in (midway through chapter 2) and the plot is just starting to move, after some pretty well-done story set-up. Will report back. |
Anthracks
05.15.22 | finished i am a cat by natsume soseki, an ideal husband and de profundis by oscar wilde, the professor and the housekeeper by yoko ogawa, nightflyers by george rr martin, helgoland by carlo rovelli, and the maids by jun'ichiro tanizaki
next up an artist of the floating world by kazuo ishiguro |
Jasdevi087
05.15.22 | finished Young Mungo
7/10 would never visit Scotland |
kalkwiese
05.15.22 | I recently read Wilde Ride Through The Night by Walter Moers. It's a little fantasy novel constructed around illustrations by Gustave Doré, who is famous for his illustrations of the Bible, Don Quijote, Paradise Lost, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and many more. The kid Gustave dies and Death wants to take his soul, but offers to let him live if he can do six challenges. A fun little ride indeed.
Also another book by Moers, title translated is something like "The Book Dragon" , but I doubt there is an English translation. It was little appetizer and more like an additional episode, even though nothing essential. Still good fun.
Also read "Real Life" Adeline Dieudonne. It a breathless little novel about a girl who grows up with a violent father who beats the mother. She tries to escape his influence as good as she can and to save her little brother as well. It's great at telling the story and being absolutely focused on the main plot. It has beauty, violence and some grest sentences as well. Good prose, even though definitely trimmed for maximal readability. It's the kind of book that goes straight to the point, no bullshit. And that's great. |
someone
05.15.22 | hey how fast do you read? and do you have any tricks to read faster without losing comprehension?
thanks aplenty |
kalkwiese
05.15.22 | I read ver slowly tbh. I try to do audio books as far as I can (I'm not an Audible person so far, I get stuff from my library, because I'm still studying and I shamelessly copy as much good stuff as I can hehehe). I also take a book everywhere, to the train, to the toilett, even to my friends when I visit them, just in case there is a time interval where I can't do anything for 10 minutes or something like that. Reading in short bursts is essential when you don't have long time intervals for reading.
That way I get through some stuff even though I am a slow reader and don't have much time because of my studies.
|
someone
05.15.22 | and do you ever have these moments when you just cannot read? not that the book is unengaging or there are even distractions around. you just cannot take in the information you are reading |
kalkwiese
05.15.22 | There are moments when I have to read the paragraph three times lol. Some days aren't as easy as others that's for sure |
Anthracks
05.15.22 | reading productivity is about consistency moreso than speed. like kalk said reading in the cracks between time, and even scheduling time to read. i have a certain number of ppd that i read myself. for me reading is calming no matter the content, so if it's an engaging read or not doesn't matter as the act of reading itself is what is bringing me satisfaction |
Mort.
05.15.22 | 'I recently read Wilde Ride Through The Night by Walter Moers. It's a little fantasy novel constructed around illustrations by Gustave Doré, who is famous for his illustrations of the Bible, Don Quijote, Paradise Lost, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and many more. The kid Gustave dies and Death wants to take his soul, but offers to let him live if he can do six challenges. A fun little ride indeed.'
oh damn im reading don quixote at the moment and my edition has one of Dore's illustrations, this sounds really interesting. |
Mort.
05.15.22 | also, my profile pic (the 'funeral diner - underdark' artwork) is one of Dore's prints for Paradise Lost. been a big fan of his work for ages. |
Egarran
05.15.22 | Yeah Doré ftw. I need more shirts with his artwork. |
Mort.
05.15.22 | wow i never realised you could get t shirts with his art (seems obvious now), thanks for the idea Egarran |
kalkwiese
05.15.22 | @Mort: If you're interested I should add that Wilde Ride Through The Night is an absurdist story in the vein of Disk World or Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, so don't expect anything too serious :)
Concerning Walter Moers in general my recommendations would be Rumo And His Miraculous Adventures and The Alchemaster's Apprentice. These are my favorites by him. |
Get Low
05.15.22 | Don Quixote top 5 novel of all tim
of all tim |
YoYoMancuso
05.15.22 | fuck books. books are for pussies. go hit the gym. |
kalkwiese
05.15.22 | If you want pussy you got to go where the pussys are. So read books and get some pussy |
FR33L0RD
05.15.22 | Do both, hit the gym and after relax with a good book. |
YoYoMancuso
05.15.22 | https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NBfIPUHicpI |
WeepingBanana
05.15.22 | I’m a pretty slow reader but I find the best way to read faster is just by reading more. Like anything else, you get better and faster with practice. Also, worry less about how slowly you’re reading and just enjoy it |
rhinocerosmilk
05.15.22 | Dr. Zhivago |
Mort.
05.16.22 | '@Mort: If you're interested I should add that Wilde Ride Through The Night is an absurdist story in the vein of Disk World or Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, so don't expect anything too serious :)'
i love discworld so that sounds great! |
MiloRuggles
05.17.22 | Don Quixote top 5 novel of all tim [2]
when pancho make poop a laff
but also my soul was touche |
Anthracks
05.17.22 | i actually have don quixote lined up to read next month myself. really excited for it |
Scheumke
05.17.22 | Starting a reread of Malazan. Hot damn Gardens of the Moon is a million times better the second way through. |
someone
05.17.22 | bought Scum Manifesto and I Hate Men.
can't wait for the happy-go-lucky uplifting reading experience |
dedex
05.17.22 | just started crime and punishment, first part was already very good and I expect the rest to be better, woooo |
Mort.
05.17.22 | Crime and punishment is amazing, read it for the first time in the last year and I'd happily already read it again |
Anthracks
05.23.22 | finished disrupting the game by reggie fils-aime ghost forest by pik-shuen fung, the color purple by alice walker
started memory's legion by james sa corey and the golden age book 1 by roxanne moreil |
CugnoBrasso
05.23.22 | Crime and Punishment is very good, but there's some kind of family lunch sometimes in the second half that I don't remember fondly.
I'm 300 pages into Infinite Jest and I'm not enjoying it all that much. |
Mort.
05.23.22 | Yes Raskolnikov sits down with his mother and sister and maybe razumhikin and that guy who wants to marry his sister |
Get Low
05.23.22 | Infinite Jest is miserable; I'm likely not ever reading another word written by Wallace. |
Get Low
05.23.22 | Also I just started Tender Is the Night, by Fuckedyourmom Scott Fitzgerald. |
Ectier
05.23.22 | Nothing atm.
But do reccomend the invisible life of Addie La rue by V.B schwab. Every Heart is a doorway by seanan something. The Ocean at the end of the lane and American gods by Neil Gaimen |
Jasdevi087
05.23.22 | cheers bro imma skip all of those |
Anthracks
05.23.22 | Infinite Jest is terrible (I’m sure I’ve said this multiple times in this thread already but it bears repeating). If you don’t like it by now don’t waste your time finishing it. It doesn’t get better and despite what the absolutely insane following will tell you there are no meaningful revelations at any point |
someone
05.23.22 | gonna finally be finishing God of Small Things and planning to move on to The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
expecting some Power of the Dog meets Of Mice and Men vibes with a more feminine viewpoint |
Egarran
05.23.22 | I was a Gaiman fan until American Gods. For some reason that book annoys me a lot. |
Josh D.
05.23.22 | Just started Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, an 800 page, 2 pound 14 ounce behemoth of a biography. |
WeepingBanana
05.23.22 | Finally got around to Neuromancer a few weeks ago. Gotta say I didn’t love it. Some cool stuff but it just got so scattered toward the end I had no idea what anyone’s motive was anymore. Just “this happens and then this happens and also this because it just happens okay?” Idk maybe I needed my handheld a bit more. I like a good challenging sci fi book where you’re just thrown into a world and gotta figure stuff out, but halfway thru writing it it seems he forgot basic storytelling skills. I didn’t entirely hate it and I can see why it’s a classic, but it kinda pissed me off
Almost done with My Son’s Story by Nadine Gordimer. She’s such an outstanding writer |
Egarran
05.23.22 | Agree with that Neuromancer take. I recommend Snow Crash by Stephenson, it's both prophetic and awesome. |
someone
05.23.22 | yeah i loved Gibson's "Bridge" series much more tbh |
CugnoBrasso
05.23.22 | I gotta say I'm actually surprised that I'm not enjoying Infinite Jest. I absolutely adored Gravity's Rainbow, so much so that I thought I was a sucker for pretentious books... But apparently not. |
Anthracks
05.23.22 | probably because wallace tries really fucking hard to be like pynchon and fails miserably |
Mort.
05.23.22 | have made it my lifes mission to never read a single word of wallace purely because of how obnoxious his fans are |
porcupinetheater
05.24.22 | Wallace has got some really good short story work, but as soon as he expands he tries to slip into so many different shoes and just trips flat on his face.
Most of his essays are pompous garbage, too, double when they're being grossly condescending and misogynistic. |
Mort.
05.24.22 | hmmm i will check out some of his short stories then |
Scheumke
05.24.22 | Just finished A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie. He really has stepped up his game since the First Law trilogy, which I was lukewarm about at best. The characterwork was always top tier, but the plot just gets better and better with each book I read from him. |
theBoneyKing
05.24.22 | I love all the First Law world books, but the Age of Madness trilogy is really something.
I have been slogging my way through The Rise of Endymion (final Hyperion Cantos book) for a while now and it's pretty much put me in a reading slump. I really loved the first two books and even Endymion I thought was a great read but man this book just kinda sucks, the worldbuilding is still interesting (even if retcons so much of the first duology) but the plot, characters, and pacing are just not doing it for me at all. I have about 200 pages left and I feel like I need to slog through it at this point but I'm losing steam. |
someone
05.30.22 | this Four Winds book by Kristin Hannah is really difficult to get into |
Egarran
05.30.22 | I hear you Boney. I never made it through Endymion.
Ever read any Banks Culture books? It's the good stuff. |
Anthracks
06.01.22 | finished up the golden age book 1 which is a pretty great diversion, hamlet told disney style with incredible art direction and movement and color. also read sea of tranquility by emily st john mandel which was alright - interesting concept but i felt like she did absolutely nothing with it? reminded me of stephen king in that way. i don't think it will age well since it's definitely a pandemic novel. also read memory's legion by james sa corey (expanse short story collection), heaven by mieko kawakami (brutal / beautiful story of school bullying told in modern japanese coldness), and happy birthday, wanda june by kurt vonnegut (very funny)
may was pretty incredible for me because i read the most books i've ever read in a single month - 16 |
MiloRuggles
06.01.22 | Man, people love to hate Infinite Jest. I don't think it's the best book of the 21st century or anything, but I definitely enjoyed my time with it and have recommended it to a couple of people.
I guess I've only ever met two people that have read it (and enjoyed it) so maybe I'm not so driven toward anti-hype sentiment given I'm not surrounded by people with long hair wearing bandanas or whatever.
Nearing the ass-end of The Tunnel and oh my word I have no idea where we're headed, but I'm gearing up for tragedy for this tragic protagonist (Culp is my idol) |
kalkwiese
06.01.22 | Currently reading The Rat by Günter Grass. It's a postmodern mosaic of stories and it's from 1986 (before Tschernobyl). Basically, a nameless protagonist that resembles the author gets a rat for Christmas. Every night he dreams of his rat telling him stories of how humanity ended itself, how the rats tried to stop them, how much they miss humanity etc. He refuses to believe that and tells stories to convince himself that humanity still lives. In those dreams he is the last human, circling the earth in a tiny space capsule.
Günter Grass always changes his approach, so the form of this mosaic book is very fresh to me. I am either in awe or bored to equal measures tbh, but I am always fascinated. It's deeply rooted in the contemporary of 1986, so not sure how much other people would get out of it.
And as an audio book I am listening to Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I actually wanted to check Wind Up Bird Chronicles next, but I found this one in an open book shelf, sooo ...
This is the book of his I like the most so far, knowing only 1Q84 (huge disappointment) and Colourless Tazaki (quite good, but people tell me it's pretty average Murakami) |
Jasdevi087
06.01.22 | "also read sea of tranquility by emily st john mandel which was alright - interesting concept but i felt like she did absolutely nothing with it?"
depends what you mean? i felt like a big part of the book was a way of her expressing the weird metafiction of something you create in a story manifesting in the real world. obviously for St. John Mandel this happens in two ways: her blatantly transparent self-insert character describing an incident where a fan showed her a tattoo of a quote from her novel, which in the novel, within the novel, is a tattoo within said novel---and then this again is a stand in for the real authors actual real novel, Station Eleven, which is a book about a pandemic, written before a real pandemic took over the real world, which then became popular during said pandemic. Then she makes it even more meta because one of the other sections in Sea of Tranquillity is a soft-sequel to one of her other real novels.
In a lot of ways I think that self-insert character is the most important part of the novel, and was a way for her to confess quite openly her experiences as a female writer in today's climate, I found her quite comforting and approachable in these sections (though in general all her characters were likeable, if a little paper thin). I thought it was pretty fun tbh and I'm glad the novel is as light on content as it is, because the fact that it's also on top of that, fundamentally, a time travel novel, leaves it vulnerable to over-elaboration or becoming bogged down in all the wrong things, and thankfully it doesn't do that. I think she says just enough about what she wanted to discuss, at least on the topics which (seem to be) most important to her |
Anthracks
06.01.22 | Yeah, the newest scream movie was similarly driven by meta self-inserts - not really a fan. Give me good storytelling, prose, characters, dialogue, etc. the meta / crossover obsession of the last decade or so doesn’t do anything for me personally. Sot didn’t really have much of a story, despite being so plot-focused, just references and references to the references. An anomaly happens and the story is basically the anomaly being reiterated and reobserved. Characters are quite thin, and dialogue doesn’t step outside the plot focus. I enjoyed reading it and it definitely hooks you, I just don’t think it has any exceptional qualities other than that |
Jasdevi087
06.01.22 | i guess maybe it depends on what you're happy to get out of it. I didn't particularly see it as overly plot-focused personally, i felt it was more like the plot and characters were simply framing devices for the discussions the author wanted to have, and i kinda like reading books like that every now and then |
Rowan5215
06.01.22 | started Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy yesterday, got the first book free on a voucher. it's very good |
Mort.
06.01.22 | i am still reading don quixote cos its big
sancho be whining about whipping his ass and having to shave maidens, 10/10 who said classic lit was dull |
kalkwiese
06.01.22 | Hahaha, yes, some of the classics contain piss and fart jokes too, I love it. I would definitely recommend The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, it's heavily inspired by the picareque novel and it was great fun. There are multiple translations into English, so one should probably do a little research on which one is the best
Now I am even more hyped up for Don Quijote |
Mort.
06.01.22 | yeah theres a lot of lewd humour in don quixote. sancho and don quixote end up throwing up in eachothers faces while experiencing diarrhea at one point.
the ancient greek comedies also featured a lot of crude humour (i recall flatulence playing a big part pretty often) but its been years since ive ready any of them, really need to revisit them.
'The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen' - just looked this up and it looks fascinating, thanks for the rec! definitely adding it to my to-read list |
BaloneyPony
06.01.22 | Y'all should read Tristam Shandy...if you can get past the first 50 pages or so. |
kalkwiese
06.01.22 | I have it on my radar actually :) My pile of unread books is huge though |
BaloneyPony
06.01.22 | Yes, mine too. A little too big for my liking. |
Anthracks
06.06.22 | read the bluest eye by toni morrison, queer by william s burroughs, the golden age book 2 by roxanne moreil, and less than zero by bret easton ellis over the weekend. really don't like BEE, but i kind of expected that
starting don quixote now and reading another collection of dostoevsky novellas in-between |
Mort.
06.06.22 | Anthracks you read as much as I'd like too. Really need to cut out shitty time wasting TV and social media scrolling so I can get back to reading as much as I used to.
I'm still reading Don Quixote , got like 200 pages left still . Thinking of reading paradise lost afterwards
Let me know what you think of Don Quixote and what translation do you have? |
Anthracks
06.06.22 | i have PA Motteux. when it comes to bigger books i usually go with everyman's library or a similar publisher since i feel they're more trustworthy especially with translations. don't know anything about which translation is best for cervantes though |
Ryus
06.06.22 | whatd you think of the bluest eye anthracks? one of my favorite books ever |
Anthracks
06.06.22 | it was really good - one of my favorite reads of the year so far. i've read three morrison books so far (sula and beloved the other two) and it's definitely my favorite and has the strongest themes and message. especially for a debut novel it shows incredible sophistication. her structure is almost always faulkneresque which is a big w for me. i can see why it's on many mandatory reading lists because it's one of those books that really forces you to adopt the perspective of someone else and see through their eyes. unfortunately, i think the difficult structure makes the point lost on a lot of people. i didn't love beloved, though. |
Anthracks
06.06.22 | also, finally got to shop at the strand over the weekend. picked up thirteen books and basically had to be forced to leave. pickups:
yasunari kawabata // the izu dancer and other stories
italo calvino // if on a winter's night a traveler
philip k dick // the man in the high castle
jun'ichiro tanizaki // some prefer nettles
italo svevo // zeno's conscience
james baldwin // go tell it on the mountain
philip roth // the plot against america
isaac asimov // the stars, like dust
ling ma // severance
jane austen // pride and prejudice
abdulrazak gurnah // paradise
ernest hemingway // a farewell to arms
louise gluck // poems 1962-2012 |
Ryus
06.06.22 | glad to hear you dug it. her style is one of my favorites, and it probably has one of the most emotionally affecting endings of any book i've read. i like beloved, but the bluest eye is easily my favorite of hers.
"also, finally got to shop at the strand over the weekend."
in nyc? sweet i was there the weekend before haha. go tell it on the mountain is the only one of those i've read, it's super powerful and spiritual. wonderful book |
Mort.
06.06.22 | 'philip k dick // the man in the high castle'
i have tried to get through this multiple times and just get bored for some reason. i am sort of interested in reading his 'exegesis' at some point. mystical epiphanies are pretty fascinating |
InfernalDeity
06.06.22 | I just started The Blade Itself |
alamo
06.06.22 | i read books |
Anthracks
06.06.22 | I’ve never read dick. I have a feeling I’ll like his short stories more than the novels but that’s based on almost nothing |
BaloneyPony
06.07.22 | anthracks have you ever read naked lunch? I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I think I am having a stroke. |
Anthracks
06.07.22 | Yes naked lunch is still the most fucked up book I’ve ever read |
BaloneyPony
06.08.22 | Burroughs was wild. |
Anthracks
06.10.22 | finished the dostoevsky collection. bobok might be my favorite short story of his. the eternal husband novella is a bit strange for dostoevsky in how airtight, fast-paced, and i suppose common it is. almost like his version of a potboiler - felt more like a play in prose form. still good, but just strange within his canon.
halfway through don quixote - finished part 1. starting the "sequel" tomorrow. all the long-winded anecdotes when new characters were introduced definitely brought the story to stasis, but the book is old as fuck and the dude practically invented the novel so i can't complain. most of the stories were interesting (like the curious impertinent), but some were just painful (the slave's history). i've read the second part is much more serious, which serve as a nice counterpoint to the very funny first. the first third in particular is among the funniest works i've read. it really turned into something else beyond that though. |
CaliggyJack
06.10.22 | I don't read many books but if I like an author I will usually read their stuff whatever it is.
Authors I read
Dan Brown
Cassandra Clare
Kazushige Nojima
I also read James Bond novels, including Post-Fleming ones. Cold isn't written by Fleming but is one of my favorite Bond novels ever.
I'm also a fan of 1950's-1970s Science Fiction, with Heinlein's Starship Troopers being my fav novel ever.
I also enjoy Enchantress from the Stars and a 2004 childrens novel called the Star of Khazan.
I'm a big fan of the first 3 books in the Stravaganza series, but I don't care for the series past that point. |
theBoneyKing
06.10.22 | Finally finished The Rise of Endymion last night. Man that one sucked. I mean there were a lot of interesting ideas scattered throughout it but just like structurally it was such a mess. Really sad because I truly loved Hyperion/The Fall of Hyperion and even thought Endymion was mostly great for what it was.
Next up is Piranesi. Looking forward to a quicker read. |
Scheumke
06.10.22 | Piranesi is high on my tbr as well, let me know if it's any good!
I'm still slogging through the Midnight Library but I don't get the hype. Will probably push through one of these days to witness the payoff, 'cus so far it feels like it's headed in a very obvious direction and I'm not really invested in the main character. It kinda reads like a depressing 'baby's first philosophy' book. |
Get Low
06.10.22 | "Authors I read
Dan Brown
Cassandra Clare
Kazushige Nojima"
This list made me laugh because of how casually it was the whitest male name and the whitest female name followed by a Japanese af name
|
CaliggyJack
06.10.22 | Yeah it seems weird but that's all I read these days aside from james bond
I wish Kojima would write some original works some more. His Final Fantasy novels are the best specially his FFX works. |
Jasdevi087
06.10.22 | oh christ he found it |
Mort.
06.10.22 | 'halfway through don quixote - finished part 1. starting the "sequel" tomorrow. all the long-winded anecdotes when new characters were introduced definitely brought the story to stasis, but the book is old as fuck and the dude practically invented the novel so i can't complain. most of the stories were interesting (like the curious impertinent), but some were just painful (the slave's history). i've read the second part is much more serious, which serve as a nice counterpoint to the very funny first. the first third in particular is among the funniest works i've read. it really turned into something else beyond that though.'
extremely true. some of it is extremely easy to read and quite enjoyable. then theres all the long winded digressions that bored me to tears
and yes the second part is quite different and a bit more serious and philosophical.(tho still plenty of farce).
interestingly 'meta' for its time as well (ewww i hate that word)
and yeah i count it as one of the funniest books ive ever read. |
Egarran
06.10.22 | > fan of 1950's-1970s Science Fiction
Me too. Modern sci-fi just isn't the same, not sure why. |
kalkwiese
06.10.22 | Damn Anthracks, you're burning through it, do you? Nice to know you enjoy it overall.
Still on The Rat by Günter Grass, but have like 80 pages left. It's a weird book, but a good one, even though it's postnodern mosaic style can drive you nuts at times and Grass always has boring passages. I guess I am more fascinated than everything else by his work, but I definitely enjoy it too |
Get Low
06.10.22 | @Anthrax Does the version of Quixote you're reading have any explanations about Sancho Panza's donkey randomly disappearing from the story in part 1? The translation I read (by Edith Grossman) went into detail about it. |
Mort.
06.10.22 | anthracks hasnt got to part 2 yet
and i though he explains sanchos donkey dissapearing but forgets to explain its reappearing?
|
Get Low
06.10.22 | it's the other way around iirc, and also I'm pretty sure all that happens in part 1
it's been a few years since I read it tho so it's not fresh in my mind
|
Anthracks
06.10.22 | I think when the fellowship (for lack of better) set out on the quest to reclaim queen micomicon’s esteem (before all the serendipitous reveals), Sancho randomly saw some dude riding his donkey. He went on some big speech about the person returning his donkey, but it was unnecessary as the individual started handing it over the moment he began. I don’t recall exactly when it disappeared, but I vaguely remember it being mentioned. I feel like one of the slaves that they freed took off with it |
Get Low
06.10.22 | Apparently Cervantes wrote a scene where the donkey was stolen while they were sleeping, but he removed the scene in editing the novel and kind of forgot to acknowledge it later on. |
WeepingBanana
06.10.22 | Fuck Heinlein |
CaliggyJack
06.10.22 | stay mad weep |
Mort.
06.10.22 | how old are you caliggy? |
MiloRuggles
06.10.22 | @scheumke Piranesi was a mixed bag for me. Thete's a lot of mystery that's really fun to try to unravel, and then just about everything gets explicitly explained by the end - that's either your thing or it's not I guess |
WeepingBanana
06.10.22 | I love golden age sci fi too but there were wayyyy too many writers who were just disgraceful shoe shine boys for the ruling class and Heinlein was the leader of that particular pack of dummies |
Egarran
06.10.22 | > wayyyy too many writers who were just disgraceful shoe shine boys for the ruling class
Well that's a new one. |
Mort.
06.10.22 | kissy kissy bum bum |
WeepingBanana
06.10.22 | http://www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SFWAVietNam.jpg |
Mort.
06.10.22 | list on the right is pretty stacked tbh |
WeepingBanana
06.10.22 | Even PKD who believed that Stanislaw Lem was a made up soviet psy op is in the right column |
Mort.
06.10.22 | hmm just looked that up, seems interesting. dick really was quite paranoid huh |
WeepingBanana
06.10.22 | Lol slightly
He can actually write tho haha |
Egarran
06.10.22 | Hm, seems most of my favorite authors were against the Vietnam war.
I think this means something. |
Mort.
06.10.22 | Reminds me I read Le Guin's anti Vietnam war novel a while back, was a good read. She writes hateable fascists very well |
ToSmokMuzyki
06.11.22 | i like buks |
TheAntichrist
06.11.22 | i read a fake vegan cookbook by jessica seinfeld, and now i'm in the mood to pay someone to slaughter chickens so i can have some kfc with extra mayo tonight |
Scheumke
06.14.22 | So, finished the Midnight Library. Was thoroughly underwhelmed, the ending sadly didn't change this (it was very predictable). It wasn't a 'bad' read by any means (5/10 I'd say), but it did not live up to the hype at all in my opinion. |
Jasdevi087
06.14.22 | have avoided that book like a plague. male self-help author writes female suicide story? no fucking thanks |
Anthracks
06.14.22 | Shallow and disappointing 21st century lit? You don’t say |
Mort.
06.14.22 | everyone should just read the classics and gormenghast, these are the only two sorts of book |
kalkwiese
06.14.22 | @Anthracks Do you think 21st century lit is shallow generally or do you mean 21st century lit that is shallow too specifically? |
Anthracks
06.14.22 | definitely generalizing, but i find it very difficult to find well-written, worthwhile and meaningful literature written post-2010. it's more because there is just so much trash being pushed by publishers that it's hard to discover the actual great writers. i think a lot of today's best writers are doing television, movies, or memes. |
Jasdevi087
06.14.22 | would you say the decline of physical book sales has contributed to publishers taking far less risk? |
Anthracks
06.14.22 | i'd wager more with writers being drawn to other mediums than the publishers not being risky. i'm sure both are factors. book reading isn't as ubiquitous as a form of entertainment as in past generations and thus you could probably assume that audiences are bit more predictable in what they're looking for. it seems publishers are depending on eye-catching cover art, juicy backcover blurbs, and author quotes to garner book sales. a book isn't something someone can just glance at and make an accurate determination on whether they'd enjoy it or not, like with a movie / tv trailer, or song.
i think the screenplay is to us what the novel was to generations previous. not that movies haven't been around for a very long time already. |
Scheumke
06.15.22 | I do think it depends on your definition of meaningful literature and your genre preferences. I honestly think that some of the best fantasy has been written since the 2010's for example. Joe Abercrombie, R.F. Kuang, Fonda Lee, John Gwynne, Brandon Sanderson, to just name a few, are all excellent story tellers, some with excellent prose and great messages.
If all the great writers are working in TV these days, why is literally everything being made right now either a book adaptation, or a failure with horrible writing. Great original TV shows are few and far between these days or I'm missing a lot. |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | I read a lot of fantasy and 21st century lit, and even a lot of the best fantasy authors are not something I would consider to be great literature. Fun and interesting, sure, but for instance Brandon Sanderson is actually pretty terrible at writing dialogue, and lately all of his stories have become crossover obsessed (eg Marvel) rather than telling an interesting story and moving things forward. His characters are paper thin, and he’s a primary example of someone who tells and doesn’t show (eg constantly saying a character is funny in prose, but never actually writing any funny material for that character). It’s quantity over quality with a lot of them. I’m basing only off of my experience and I can’t read everything in the world to make anything resembling an objective statement, but my experience is the only one I have. |
Mort.
06.15.22 | yes Brandon Sanderson appeals to the crowd obsessed with 'world-building'. its hard to deny the quanitity over quality point either when he churns out books like a hack working for coffee and cigarrettes.
any of the fantasy fans here read Gormenghast? think i mentioned it a couple of times in this thread. if theres any fantasy book that deserves to be much more well known its that. get the illustrated edition with the introduction by chine mieville and Peake's own illustrations if you can. |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | It’s a good point about all the book adaptions, but the 21st century shows I’m referring to are those like: deadwood, twin peaks return, the wire, the sopranos, mad men, succession. I don’t find many of the book to tv adaptations to be very successful. Very often I find that I enjoy movie adaptations more than the book (eg bond movies and the face of another - I’m also one who prefers the lotr movies to the book |
Mort.
06.15.22 | speaking of adaptions, there was an adaption of gormenghast by the bbc in the early 2000s with an all star cast and they partially butchered it. neil gaiman is supposed to be making an adaption but i think not much has been heard about it for the last few years |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | Okay fine I will put it on my wish list |
Mort.
06.15.22 | my work is done |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | Awesome timing. Folio Society just announced five minutes ago a $1,150 edition of Gormanghast limited to 750 copies. Looks incredible. |
Mort.
06.15.22 | Oh good looks incredible . Shame they're not using peakes own illustrations, they're fantastic and the only ones I really care about . Good to see gaimans writing the introduction, maybe he mentions the adaption and what's going on
I recommend the illustrated edition by vintage classics, (, I think) in hardcover . Has a sort of red cover and peakes own illustrations . He was a very talented artist in many ways .
|
outliers
06.15.22 | just finished Unbroken, which is about Louis Zamperini. highly recommended to you guys who like WW2 history. man somehow survived a plane crash, being lost at sea, and a POW in Japanese empire for multiple years |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | about 100 pages left of don quixote so i'll probably finish tomorrow. i haven't been so disappointed in a 'part 2' since reading faust. i think this book is a good idea of why you don't listen to your detractors. lifeless. hopefully it ends well. |
Mort.
06.15.22 | yeah i still havent finished don quixote because of how much of a chore it becomes. still consider it good overall, but part 2 wildly varies from great to nonsense |
Anthracks
06.15.22 | Part 1 is probably a 9 (or at least strong 8), Part 2 like a 5 at best (so far) |
Get Low
06.16.22 | Physically pained by these takes. Front to back it was just so effortlessly enjoyable to me; it didn't even feel like I read a 1k page book after I finished. |
Get Low
06.16.22 | unlike war and peace good god mate |
Mort.
06.16.22 | yeah but whats your gormenghast opinion cos thats really all i care about |
MiloRuggles
06.16.22 | Don Quixote part 1: GOATed
Don Quixote part 2: almost GOATed
Titus Groan: GOOD
Gormenghast: ?
Wedded, Bedded, and Betrayed: 8===========D~~~~~~ |
Get Low
06.16.22 | sex, drugs and cocoa puffs by chuck klausterman 11/10 |
Mort.
06.16.22 | (when i say gormghast i mean the whole trilogy btw)
titus groan is great
gormenghast is perfect
titus alone is great but sorta strange and muddled cos of alzheimers |
Anthracks
06.16.22 | The main problem with part 2 of DQ is that he stretched out a handful of lesser adventures or “sallies” to absurd lengths. The 100+ pages of Sancho preparing to be a governor until the point where he abandons his post would have occupied 20-30 pages in part 1. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if they weren’t much less interesting or funny scenarios. Don Quixote being scratched by a cat? How many times can Sancho spew terrible proverbs before it isn’t funny anymore? He didn’t evolve the jokes in part 2, so even when it tried to be farcical it kind of fell flat.
War and Peace is the superior book, not that there’s any reason to compare them other than length. |
Mort.
06.16.22 | yeah sancho pronouncing words wrong for the fiftieth time gets pretty boring |
Mort.
06.21.22 | in the last couple of days I read the memoir 'Look me in the Eye' by John Elder Robison, an engineer lived with undiagnosed autism (aspergers) until his 40s.
really interesting and quick read. recounts his life working as an engineer for some pretty famous musicians (Pink Floyd and Kiss for example). hes actually responsible for setting up the elaborate guitars Kiss used. his brother (Augusten Burroughs) has also written a memoir (Running with Scissors) that was made into a film as well. interesting family. |
VlacDrac
06.21.22 | Currently reading Rayuela. Has to be one of the most well written and creatively structured books ever. |
WeepingBanana
06.22.22 | I read that a few months ago (in English). I liked it. It annoyed me sometimes but it was pretty cool I guess. First half kinda dragged for me a bit. I can get down with really pretentious shit but after like 200 pages of nothing but these narcissists sitting around listening to jazz I was like okay enough. There are a couple pretty funny scenes that come to mind in the 2nd half. Most of the time it felt like the “hopscotch” chapters were adding absolutely nothing tho, but maybe I’m too dumb to appreciate |
WeepingBanana
06.22.22 | If you like that tho definitely read The Savage Detectives. Very obviously inspired by that and I think it’s a better book |
VlacDrac
06.22.22 | Los Detectives Salvajes is a fucking masterpiece, one of my favorite books. Bolaño is my favorite writer. |
VlacDrac
06.22.22 | Loved the characters on that book, a lot of them were inspired by people Bolaño knew when he used to live in Mexico in his late teens. Also I like how lively Mexico City is described in the book, even if I wasn't even alive in the seventies, you can clearly imagine how the city was back then. I still feel bad for Quim Font, one of my favorite characters along with Amadeo Salvatierra and Barbara Patterson. |
VlacDrac
06.22.22 | And as you previously mentioned, the book is cñearly inspired by Cortázar's ouvre. He was Bolaño's favorite writter, also you can check his influence on other stuff such as the short story "Labyrinth", it's about a group of writters in Paris that could be pretty much inspired by The Serpent Club from Hopscotch, he also mentions how Paris is such a Labyrinth just like Cortázar did in the aforementioned book, also the characters smoke Galoise which are Oliveira's favorite cigarettes. |
Anthracks
06.22.22 | latest reads were the mystery knight graphic novel by george rr martin, lincoln in the bardo by george saunders, young mungo by douglas stuart.
next up is all the lovers in the night by mieko kawakami |
Mort.
06.22.22 | im still reading the second part of don quixote, have moved to a snails pace. jesus christ im so bored |
WeepingBanana
06.22.22 | Vlac straight up bodying me on Boom author knowledge
Been in a serious slump lately. Trying to get myself to read Chekhov plays rn and it just ain’t working for me |
VlacDrac
06.22.22 | I just like the tidbits behind the author's lives and works, especially if they have included easter egg's in their works; much of Bolaño's work is like that. |
VlacDrac
06.22.22 | @WeepingBanana If you enjoyed Hopscotch, I highly recommend you to read "Blow-Up and Other Stories" which is comprised by short stories originally found in "Bestiario" and "Final del juego", it has some of Cortázar's best short stories. |
WeepingBanana
06.22.22 | Lol nah I def appreciate the recs and the minutiae, I think my buddy also said he prefers Cortazar’s short stuff |
kalkwiese
06.22.22 | Started reading the manuscript of a friend. He is a talented storyteller imo. Very much a deciple of Pratchett.
Also stared reading Master and Margarita by Michail Bulgakow and it very great so far. Very much like a play tbh, funny and with a lightness I didn't not expect |
Storm In A Teacup
06.22.22 | Should i post my list of semi rare books im going to sell if anyone is a big book collector? |
Mort.
06.23.22 | cant see the harm in it |
Get Low
06.23.22 | please do |
Storm In A Teacup
06.23.22 | Cool. Will do when i get home tonight |
AlexKzillion
06.24.22 | just started the art of war |
kalkwiese
06.24.22 | Okay, finished Norwegian Wood by Murakami. My favorite so far (Tazaki and 1Q84 are the other ones I know). Next Murakami should be Wind-Up Bird |
theBoneyKing
06.24.22 | I finished Piranesi last weekend. Loved it, though not quite as much as I hoped I might. As someone mentioned, pretty much all of the mystery in the story gets explained by the end but I think there’s enough thematic and symbolic ambiguity in the story that it still leaves a lot open to interpretation. It was a superbly written, quick read that helped get me out of the slump I was in.
…However I’m now back in a tiny bit of a slump again. I’m reading The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne, and based on what I’d read I was hoping this would be a hit for me but so far (about 40%) my feelings are pretty mixed. The world building is pretty well done but that’s about it. The writing is pretty weak; he uses lots of awkward sentence fragments and really weird or sometimes nonsensical similes that break my immersion. I don’t mind and often even prefer basic/non-flowery prose (as I’ve said before, Sanderson is one of my favorites) but that kind of thing works best when it’s economical, and Gwynne’s is definitely not that. The plot and characters are also weak so far and while I don’t necessarily mind a slow start to a high fantasy book, there needs to be something either in the characters or world building that hooks me (ideally both) and neither has done so to the extent I feel it should have at this point. I’ll push through the rest of it because I’m on break and don’t have much else to do but unless the ending is amazing I doubt I’ll be picking up book 2. |
Mort.
06.28.22 | finished don quixote. dont know what im going to read next
part 2 of don quixote gets sort of awful then slightly redeems itself towards the end. is a good book overall. have marked a couple of jstor articles to read about it then will be moving on. overall book's like a 4/5 |
Mort.
07.09.22 | just read Plato's Protagoras. attempting to very slowly go through all his dialogues, while reading at least one journal article relating to each dialogue. nice to be reading philosophy again after taking such a long break
other than that reading Ursula K Le Guin - The left hand of darkness |
Anthracks
07.10.22 | last read almond by won-pyung sohn and twelfth night by william shakespeare
currently reading royal assassin by robin hobb and resurrection by leo tolstoy |
Ryus
07.10.22 | 100 years of solitude in spanish. making very slow progress but really enjoying it |
robertsona
07.10.22 | Reading “The Electric Edge of Academe” rn |
Lord(e)Po)))ts
07.10.22 | 90s hood classics rev when Bob
U owe me |
Ryus
07.10.22 | that sounds fascinating bobby |
Sharenge
07.10.22 | rereading Jurassic Park for the first time in almost twenty years... apparently, if brought back from extinction, dinosaurs eat people |
loveisamixtape
07.10.22 | i just bought neuromancer by william gibson. will be my first fiction read in a while |
grannypantys
07.10.22 | not a bad book although i'm not sure i empathized with any of the characters |
Mort.
07.10.22 | 'twelfth night by william shakespeare'
ah thats one of my favourite shakespeares. got some great insults in that if remember correctly |
Observer
07.10.22 | The Border by Don Winslow, my fifth by him this year and the final in a trilogy. Guy's prose and story telling are really good.
He released one this year called City on Fire and it was awesome too |
Josh D.
07.10.22 | I'm halfway through Postwar by Judt because someone mentioned it in here, but he spends too much time on culture. I do not care about movies now let alone movies from 1950. Trying to get through it because in a few weeks a book called The Viral Underclass is coming out that everyone should probably read. |
Jasdevi087
07.11.22 | if everyone should read it imma definitely skip tbh |
Mort.
07.11.22 | i have that attitude towards tv tbh |
Egarran
07.11.22 | popular stuff is cringe |
Mort.
07.11.22 | with a few exceptions, yes |
Josh D.
07.11.22 | It's not "popular stuff". |
kalkwiese
07.11.22 | Yea, the correct term is "normie shit" |
Mort.
07.11.22 | just looked it up, does seem very interesting |
Egarran
07.11.22 | >with a few exceptions, yes
Really? Name one. |
Mort.
07.11.22 | fuck you got me |
MiloRuggles
07.11.22 | Food |
MiloRuggles
07.11.22 | PS Borges is a mad dog, I can't wait to read smart people analysing Ficciones once I finish (in three stories or so) |
Mort.
07.11.22 | i wrote an essay on borges as an example of fiction as thought experiment but am not smart so cant help
but basically stories like funes the memorious can be read (pretty explicitly) as responses to specific philosophical positions such as nominalism. there are plenty of good academic essays out there that outline this position in borges work, and a whole journal dedicated to borges thats free to browse
heres a specific essay about funes the memorious.
https://www.borges.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/0206.pdf
here the journal site
https://www.borges.pitt.edu/journal |
Ryus
07.11.22 | oh fuck yeah milo, maybe the best work of literature out there. are ya reading it in spanish or english? |
Mort.
07.14.22 | just finished The left hand of darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. dont have much to say that hasnt already been said, brilliant sci-fi novel that is touchingly humanistic.
over the last few days have read Alcibiades Major, Alcibiades Minor and Rival Lovers by Plato. can see why some consider them spurious as theyre pretty mediocre by Plato's standards. However it could just be they were early dialogues written by a younger Plato who hadnt worked out his craft yet so who knows. |
Mort.
07.14.22 | have just made the mistake of looking at Goodreads reviews for Left Hand of Darkness and apparently its racist and misogynistic. jesus christ people are stupid |
Ryus
07.14.22 | the goodreads community is probably the stupidest on the entire internet. usually the quality of a book is inversely proportional to its rating on there |
Mort.
07.14.22 | when it comes to YA i would agree with that but theres enough people on there rating 'classics' that are actually decent sufficiently high enough. like 'the left hand of darkness' has about a 4/5 average and thats about right
but that does probably make it worse rated than harry potter so i fully get your point |
Mort.
07.14.22 | ok yeah i just checked and all the harry potters have like 4.5s give or take which is completely mental |
InfernalDeity
07.14.22 | Im on book two of the blade itself trilogy and its pretty awesome. |
ToSmokMuzyki
07.14.22 | >goodreads community is probably the stupidest
next to sput of course |
MiloRuggles
07.14.22 | Cheers for the links Mort! Will get onto it soon. I read it in English, Ryus, as I'm a monolingual simp. Super mysterious and compelling read front to back, loved the story about the serial killer and the Garden of Forking Paths particularly.
Goodreads is a shithole haha. It's crazy that people take forward-thinking lit like LHoD and say it doesn't go far enough or fit their particular standards. Nobody builds a world (and its peoples) quite like Le Guin. Try The Dispossessed next if you haven't read it, it's a banger.
Just started Breasts and Eggs. Very easy read compared to the last few I've done so I'm flying through it. Pretty good so far. |
kalkwiese
07.14.22 | I finished Master and Margarita by Bulgakow yesterday and I fell in love. This could have been written by Terry Pratchett, it's very reader friendly and whimsical, while it's also dark at times. I had a blast reading it. |
Mort.
07.15.22 | 'Goodreads is a shithole haha. It's crazy that people take forward-thinking lit like LHoD and say it doesn't go far enough or fit their particular standards. Nobody builds a world (and its peoples) quite like Le Guin. Try The Dispossessed next if you haven't read it, it's a banger.'
their problem was with the fact that Genly Ai mentions that Gethenians cant pronounce their ls properly, which is apparently racist becuase thats a stereotype about asian people. they then pointed out all the instances were gethenians used words with l in them as evidence of Le Guins lack of consistency. apparently the fact that this was an alien world being translated into the language of the reader was lost on them. also, because Genly Ai said some vaguely gendered stuff, the book itself is misogynistic.
and yeah ill be sure to read more of her work, really enjoyed what ive read of her so far. |
Egarran
07.15.22 | What are some good book communities? |
Mort.
07.15.22 | this one : )
|
HelloJoe
07.15.22 | I think Goodreads is a website that happens to attract a wide demographic of readers. So the problem is less that 'X book has a higher rating than Y' book because said books may attract vastly different audiences. The audience of the website isn't as drilled down or specific as one like this website.
So Harry Potter having very high ratings is likely because Harry Potter books attract more casual and nostalgic readers. It's a different demographic because Goodreads is used by many different readers. |
Egarran
07.15.22 | I don't want to diminish your consternation but a quick glance at goodread's LHoD page is filled with 4 or 5 stars reviews. It seems you have to make an effort to find the woke negative reviews. |
Mort.
07.15.22 | are you talking to me? im well aware its an outlier bro i just thought it was a funny review |
HelloJoe
07.15.22 | I suppose no website nor community is perfect. Helps to shop around and keep multiple places in mind. Like, the database on this website is particularly small when compared to a website like Discogs.
I think Goodreads has a pretty robust database and it also has a very broad community which might not attract a particular type of reader. |
Mort.
07.15.22 | yeh goodreads is a like imdb in a lot of ways. vast database with a very broad community |
HelloJoe
07.15.22 | Definitely, yeah. I think with Goodreads, it's best to find a specific author you like to read rather than take the aggregate as being representative of anything. Same goes for any aggregate, I suppose. It's just that the Goodreads community is so broad that attitudes tend to be more positive when it comes to popular and accessible books.
Discogs is kind of odd that way, too. The DB is so well curated but it's also very rare to see any album rated below 3/5. I think album entries are more inclined to attracts fans of said album who do a great job keeping the pages curated rather than representing a cross-section of music listeners. |
kalkwiese
07.15.22 | Started the audiobook of Don Quijote
I have the book here too with all the annotations, so it's a multi media experience lol. I am like 3 chapters in atm and reading the annotations took so much longer than reading the chapters. But on the other hand the information is very useful and makes the story way richer. Somehow the story seems to work without that additional information as well and that's great |
protokute
07.15.22 | Almost finishing E.M. Forster's Maurice. I really like the James Ivory film adaptations, and I've been meaning to read Maurice for a while, and finally gave it a go this last month after finding a reasonably decent epub, it has a few mistypings, and some British words that I'm not that well familiarized, but nothing that stopped me from understanding. It's a good book, set in a very different cultural context from today, but it's interesting to see how gay and queer people still go through all of this same similar dramas until this day. |
Egarran
07.15.22 | >im well aware its an outlier bro
>Goodreads is a shithole haha.
>the goodreads community is probably the stupidest on the entire internet.
Ah it wasn't completely clear that you disagreed with these takes. |
Mort.
07.15.22 | yeah i have problems with goodreads but wouldnt word them as strongly as those.
i just finished hippias major, another Plato dialogue. out of his early works this is probably one of the better ones. the reasoning is clear, theres some early attempts at proper logic, and its pretty funny at times.
|
Anthracks
07.17.22 | people in general tend to be pretty forgiving with book ratings because reading a book is such an investment for your regular person. average adult only reads about 12 books a year (which is probably inflated by the people who read one or more weekly - most people i know read one a year, if that). if people don't like a book, they usually won't rate it because they didn't finish it. if they did finish it, they will end up rating it high since it was an investment for them, on average. it's also more of a skill to comprehend and dissect a book than an easily digestible, 40-minute album or 90-minute movie. due to the time investment and effort required, they are also more likely to be picky with selecting a book that they are pretty sure they will like in the first place. it's not so much that the people on a community are "stupid" - I think the medium lends itself to more blind appreciation. there are also a lot of people who simply enjoy the act of reading in itself, or consider reading a book an accomplishment in itself as an activity, regardless of how well written or complex the book is. |
Mort.
07.17.22 | i would say thats a pretty fair and accurate assessment |
Egarran
07.17.22 | I esp appreciated goodreads when I did not finish the sequel to Annihilation (Authority) bc I found it mindbogglingly boring.
Many users confirmed my findings, in elaborate ways, and it was nice. |
WeepingBanana
07.18.22 | Gonna go ahead and say the average (American) person reads wayyyy less than 12 books per year lol because (this is a guess) the majority of the adult population reads 0. I would bet money on that. And I’m not even trying to shit in ppl who don’t read, but it’s just how it is |
FellHanded
07.18.22 | imagine reading BOOKS when not being forced to by teachers.... LOL! |
Anthracks
07.18.22 | Oh, I agree anecdotally. Just quoting the only research I found. |
Mort.
07.18.22 | read hippias minor today and started One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest |
MiloRuggles
07.19.22 | Very correct rant above anthracks. I guess my big gripes about goodreads are:
a) bezosmoneyz
b) many shit reviews packed with gifs
c) anything vaguely literary getting dunked on for being boring
d) anything boring barely every getting criticised
Anyway, here's my goodreads account, add me up: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/81726589-bobb
And here are my same stats on a better site that y'all should join: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/pattyrishan
|
kalkwiese
07.19.22 | isn't goodread a meta site? so it's suckerbergmoneyz, right? |
kalkwiese
07.19.22 | I am gonna look into that alternative to GR, that site just doesn't really try to be well designed sometimes |
Jasdevi087
07.19.22 | won't add you on goodreads cause I'd doxx myself, might check that other site
was gonna dunk on you for enjoying a Rand novel but then remembered I had a Clavell one 4'd as well so it'd cancel out, so instead i'mma spread positivity and go with big ups for Girls Against God |
kalkwiese
07.19.22 | Ew Ayn Rand |
Anthracks
07.19.22 | goodreads is owned by amazon (i believe) and 1000% exists to bolster book sales
still a great database |
Mort.
07.19.22 | yeah i just checked, amazon owns goodreads |
kalkwiese
07.19.22 | kk, so it's amazon
maybe that's why gr is so complacent |
MiloRuggles
07.19.22 | lolol I fully agree with the hatred for Rand's ideologies but I simply enjoyed reading The Fountainhead (except for the weird rape thing). I've read a fair bit since, wouldn't be surprised if it no longer holds up for me. Still, I want to read Atlas Shrugged too to see what everybody's all upset about |
Mort.
07.19.22 | yeah ive never read any rand and am pretty sure i will despise it but im interested in seeing just how bad it supposedly it is |
MiloRuggles
07.19.22 | Also just to see why it had so much appeal and who for, ya know? Then I can have a real basis when I cast aspersions
Oh, also have you read Paradise Rot, Jas? It's also quite good |
Jasdevi087
07.19.22 | "lolol I fully agree with the hatred for Rand's ideologies but I simply enjoyed reading The Fountainhead"
yeah that's me but with Shogun lol
from what I've heard, Atlas Shrugged is the ultimate libertarian/anarcho-capitalist dystopia in every way you can possibly imagine it would be |
Jasdevi087
07.19.22 | nah haven't read Paradise Rot but will someday cause Girls Against God was glorious |
Jasdevi087
07.19.22 | "Also just to see why it had so much appeal and who for, ya know?"
unfortunately the "and who for" part is a whole lot of powerful people |
WeepingBanana
07.19.22 | For those looking for a goodreads alternative there’s an app called StoryGraph that I know ppl like and I think you can import your goodreads info into it |
kalkwiese
07.19.22 | Importing it would be nice, because adding everything manually would be tiresome lol |
Egarran
07.19.22 | I refuse to believe anyone has made it all the way through Atlas Shrugged. |
Ectier
07.20.22 | Im reading and re reading codependent no more and its a harsh reality check but am hoping it will help with some issues |
protokute
07.21.22 | I like Goodreads for finding about different books from similar stuff I already like |
Mort.
07.21.22 | i just finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. had read it a few times as a kid but this was the first time as an adult. read it one sitting, took about 3 hours.
i enjoyed the dry humour and unique formatting, with the chapters jumping between the actual plot and the main characters internal thoughts and opinions. but overall i liked it less than i remember. its such a caricature of autism and sort of baffling that he decided to write from the perspective of someone with aspergers without being on the spectrum himself. |
Jasdevi087
07.21.22 | certified neurotypical moment |
Mort.
07.21.22 | From me or the author? Cos you don't know whether I'm neurotypical or not
And the autism community is pretty unhappy with the depiction in that book |
parksungjoon
07.21.22 | i would read books by mort.
would you read books by mort? |
kalkwiese
07.21.22 | At least some intense research would be needed to write the perspective of someone with aspergers convincingly. I don't think you need to be on that spectrum yourself, but if you are writing something like that would be much much easier of course |
Mort.
07.21.22 | Yeah he admitted he did some research but not loads. The main character is just very stereotypical. Has savant levels of maths and physics understanding, can count the objects in a field in a glance perfectly . Is extremely logical and largely unempathetic. Almost no sense of humour. Breaks down on the floor crying and screaming when overwhelmed. Won't eat certain foods for strange reasons . And a lot more
It's like the author saw a list of autism traitsand went "I'll take it all and ramp it up to ten" |
kalkwiese
07.21.22 | A friend of mine has aspergers and he definitely has a sense of humor, even though you sometimes don't get it or it's mega cringe lol.
Yea, it's like when germans are mentioned in a story and they're living in Berlin and everyone wears lederhosen. Like, I hate the "stay in your lane" argument, BUT to write a different culture or neurodivergent people you need to do some serious work and that's not for everyone.
I guess pushing works from more diverse authors might help break down stereotypes and make it easier for everyone, authors included, to get the perspectives of people who come from different cultures or are neurodivergent etc.
It's like female authors were always good at writing men, but men who were good at writing women were very few, and that's probably because these female authors grew up reading books written by men with good male characters.
Well, just some thoughts from me |
Mort.
07.21.22 | Yeah I fully agree with you
Oh another thing that annoyed me. Not only can he do big maths equations in his head he also has more or less perfect memory and can remember what his mother was wearing on 6th June 1993 or whatever . And the author had the gall to claim it wasn't specifically Asperger's and he regrets the word being on the blurb even though he's clearly coded as autistic. |
Jasdevi087
07.21.22 | "From me or the author?"
I kinda figured it'd be implicit that I meant the author, considering they were the very last thing you mentioned in your comment, which i was responding to. but i guess nothing can be taken for granted on sputnikmusic.com |
InfernalDeity
07.21.22 | Has anyone here read infinite jest? I'm about 100 pages in and I'm trying to stay committed to it but it's getting difficult. |
Mort.
07.21.22 | Sorry Jas I genuinely couldn't tell |
Jasdevi087
07.21.22 | it is ok, clarity has been achieved and we can now face the void free in the knowledge |
Anthracks
07.22.22 | infinite jest is terrible but i don't get tired of saying it |
Egarran
07.22.22 | Goodreads has some good 1 star reviews of that. |
Mort.
07.22.22 | i mainly refuse to read anything by david foster wallace because i cant take men in bandanas seriously, regardless of their reason for wearing them |
kalkwiese
07.22.22 | I have to say, I get a bit curious about Infinite Jest. What makes it so miserable? It is a beloved book, that must come from somewhere |
Egarran
07.22.22 | fair dos mort
kind of agree |
Jasdevi087
07.22.22 | can't trust a man with three names that get progressively worse |
Get Low
07.22.22 | Infinite Jest will be forgotten in a couple of decades |
Anthracks
07.22.22 | Infinite jest is like the poster book for pseudo intellectualism that just rips off a bunch of postmodern, sci fi, and beat writers shamelessly. The fan base is genuinely frustrating but I’m being negative
Like apparently everyone else I’m reading piranesi by Susanne Clark and when I’m gone, look for me in the east by Quan barry. Traveling to Vancouver so picked some lighter reads |
Mort.
07.22.22 | could you explain what exactly you find pseudo-intellectual about it Anthracks? genuinely curious, have never read any Wallace but i see that criticism levied against his writing a lot. |
ToSmokMuzyki
07.22.22 | damn anthy never thought id ever seen some actual intelligence in this thread |
Mort.
07.22.22 | multiple people itt have agreed with anthracks on infinite jest ? |
Pheromone
07.22.22 | reading the ragged trousers philanthropist |
Pheromone
07.22.22 | also not a big wallace fan in any way but his cruise essay is tier good |
Mort.
07.22.22 | looks interesting phero |
PotsyTater
07.22.22 | I’m reading God Is Dead by Ron Curry Jr., which would be a lot more interesting if it would give an actual insightful reason as to why society would instantly fall into shambles if god died rather than just assuming it |
PotsyTater
07.22.22 | “just finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. had read it a few times as a kid but this was the first time as an adult. read it one sitting, took about 3 hours.”
Thought this book slapped when I was like, five years old. Though I remember not a single thing about it I have little doubt that it didn’t age well on premise alone. |
Mort.
07.23.22 | yeah it didnt age well premise wise. the occasional glimpses of dry humour are the only thing it has going for it. otherwise its just your standard 'rude autistic white guy with savant skills' stereotype.
also, the main character is depicted as not knowing really quite simple english phrases and idioms. while it is certainly a trait of aspergers to take idioms and the like literally, from what i understand by the age of 15 people with aspergers tend to understand what they mean through context, even if they dont think theyre particularly logical or make sense. but hes depicted as not understanding anything unless it extremely literal. its so dumb
|
combustion07
07.23.22 | I need to start reading again. Been awhile since I've picked anything up.
Think I'm going to get The Old Testament on audible and start going through it. Don't know why but I've had a strange urge to check it out lately |
PotsyTater
07.23.22 | The Old Testament slaps I like the part where it talks about who begot who for like 5 hours like who would have thought that Joshua begot David, Paul, Ezekiel, and Kevin who begot Trevor and Steve who begot Bob who lived to the age of 476 |
ToSmokMuzyki
07.23.22 | and then he died |
combustion07
07.23.22 | Comments got me too hype. Appreciate it bro |
PotsyTater
07.23.22 | 👌 enjoy the ride bro |
Egarran
07.23.22 | If it says anywhere why God created humans, let me know, cos I've been in doubt. |
Piglet
07.23.22 | Yeh i recently read The Old Testament and gotta say, The Book of Kings absolutely slapped. Love the fact that it was coloured less by priestly, zealous wank and more concerned with the historicity of it all. I mean more generally when The Bible stops being Bible-y and more "oh btw dis dude reigned for 54 years, fugen fought off teh barbs and was an absolute siqkunt", I thoroughly enjoy it. The Book of Proverbs though, what an ardent slog of wankery. It's just a bunch of live, laugh, learn quotes from a bunch of dehydrated goat herders who believe cutting your dickskin off and being distrustful of pig meat is an act of divine intercourse. |
Josh D.
07.23.22 | I finished a book on the Black Panthers and now on a book about Tito/Yugoslavia. |
Egarran
07.23.22 | Men will literally cut their children's genitals instead of going to therapy. |
Josh D.
07.23.22 | Cutting my son's dick is therapeutic. |
Josh D.
07.23.22 | really wish I hadn't posted that |
Mort.
07.23.22 | i wish you hadnt posted that |
Get Low
07.23.22 | "oh btw dis dude reigned for 54 years, fugen fought off teh barbs and was an absolute siqkunt" [2] |
PotsyTater
07.23.22 | Bruh moment itt |
Get Low
07.24.22 | I just started The Beautiful and Damned by Fitzgerald and I wish I hadn't. The protagonist is such an insufferable twat (inb4 "like you, Get Low?") |
Jasdevi087
07.25.22 | like you, Get Low? |
Get Low
07.25.22 | Yes. I'm enjoying it, though. |
Anthracks
07.28.22 | piranesi was pretty terrible. typical bestseller bullshit mixed with house of leaves (which i hate). the buddhist book i read on my flight was pretty good but had a few shitty modern tropes.
next up the sound of waves by yukio mishima and the latest thor gn |
Mort.
07.28.22 | your fault for reading a book released in the last couple of years (just looked it up and it doesnt sound like my cup of tea but wow people seem to adore it)
ive just been carrying on my Plato reading, am beginning the middle period with Symposium now. also still have One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest on the go |
MiloRuggles
07.28.22 | Piranesi really just explained way too much by the end. I was enjoying it, but it's like it wanted you to forget all about it as soon as you closed the book.
Finished Breasts and Eggs. Pretty emotionally affecting; I thought the melancholy heavily outweighed the hope that the book ended on and was left feeling pretty exhausted. Maybe overlong and packed with a lot of useless descriptions of skies and bodily reactions to pent up emotions. Somewhere between a 3-3.5 for me.
On to Train Dreams now, which has made a good first impression after 30 pages or so |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | as much as i'd love to exclusively read lauded literature from past centuries, i would lose a lot of context into the overall canon if i just completely avoid anything that comes out today. i would also lose insight into what literature of the 21st century "means." I would also lose any right to respectfully critique or praise anything of this century if i am not actively reading the century. so while my enjoyment rate is indeed pretty low with contemporary books, it is worth it overall for the context. as an added bonus, reading the bad stuff helps me to appreciate the good stuff so much more - just like with any other art. if i was to only read the "good," i would have no concept of what that actually means. |
Get Low
07.29.22 | Tao Lin and Yann Martel are the only modern authors I've been able to get into.
I still stan John Green from my YA lit days in high school but that doesn't count. |
MiloRuggles
07.29.22 | I rarely see people say nice things about Tao Lin. Haven't read him personally, so curious as to what about his writing appeals to you if you don't mind sharing.
Not sure where else to put this but feel like sharing: Crimes of the Future is some fucking great Cronenberg. |
Get Low
07.29.22 | Tao Lin is the only author I've encountered who captures the full essence of living as an American Millennial. His novels, all of which are semi-autobiographical, have protagonists who are essentially lonely drifters who are searching for any sort of meaning in their otherwise bleak lives wherever it can be found, with varying results. His prose is effortlessly easy to read, and he has an incredible talent for character development. He also writes purely for aesthetic value as opposed to being politically motivated, which is a big seller for me personally, and is becoming increasingly difficult to find in modern literature. |
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | Recently read Kalmann, a novel by Joachim B. Schmidt, a swiss author living in Iceland. It's a crime novel set in Iceland with a mentally disabled protagonist, who constantly gets involved in the police work, but not always in a pleasant way.
It's not full of tension, but it lives on the loveliness of the protagonist and his naive wisdom. Was quite funny and cleverly done, even though one could ask "why is this necessary at all?" a few times. It is though, you just need to trust the author.
I guess I won't start a new novel for a few days, because I am still proof reading a friends novel and listening/reading Don Quijote (plus the annotations, that takes quite some time too). |
MiloRuggles
07.29.22 | Cool cool, thanks for sharing! Is there much variance across his books? |
Get Low
07.29.22 | Well he self-published a lot of his early work while he was in college before he had really "found his voice", so there's a steady improvement in quality up until he wrote Taipei, which is where I feel that he mastered his craft. You can look up plot summaries on his books yourself, but if you're going to start anywhere with Tao, read Taipei, and if you like it, check his newest book Leave Society, then go back and read his older shit if you're still interested. |
Get Low
07.29.22 | He also has a non-fiction book about psychedelics if you're into that; that was a fun read. |
Mort.
07.29.22 | 'as much as i'd love to exclusively read lauded literature from past centuries, i would lose a lot of context into the overall canon if i just completely avoid anything that comes out today. i would also lose insight into what literature of the 21st century "means." I would also lose any right to respectfully critique or praise anything of this century if i am not actively reading the century. so while my enjoyment rate is indeed pretty low with contemporary books, it is worth it overall for the context. as an added bonus, reading the bad stuff helps me to appreciate the good stuff so much more - just like with any other art. if i was to only read the "good," i would have no concept of what that actually means.'
i completely agree with this (my comment was only half serious). after basically being disappointed with most modern lit except for a few authors i just find myself only reading new releases after theyve been new for 5 years or so or if theyre from someone im interested in (like Ishiguro). i often worry that just by reading classics i will slowly find myself ridiculously out of touch with no idea of what modern lit is even like.
hmm yeah thinking about it china mieville and ishiguro are two of the only living authors that come straight to mind that i read
|
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | @Anthraks and Mort: What is it that is missing for you in modern lit? |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | there is a lot that's different about it. but some of the main things that i do not like that are very prevalent: ultra-short chapters arbitrarily divided, too much of the author as a person in the books (so many books feel autobiographical and these authors run out of material very quickly), constant flashbacks between past and present (as opposed to showing a character's past through their actions, tendencies, dialogue), focus on descriptive prose rather than insightful prose (push toward realism and authenticity), predictable structures, withholding information from the reader and calling it a story only to over-explain everything in the end. probably much more |
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | I see. Some of this is probably due to commercialization of writing, marketing pressure ... sucks. I don't like when I feel like a book made for max. mass appeal.
I don't really have an issue with flashbacks, but I also feel a good author should be able to make up a story from their imagination and not too heavily rely on autobiographical material.
I don't know, I really love David Mitchell's books, but I don't think they would appeal to you, I guess.
When you say "insightful prose", what would that be? I get the descriptive prose thing, but not the other one. |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | like using the moments of prose to make observations of reality other than those visual (think like how pynchon uses prose, not that i'm expecting every author to be pynchon - there just doesn't seem to be a reach to do anything other than describing scenery).
i've read utopia avenue by mitchell and absolutely hated it so you're probably right |
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | Well, UA is probably the book of his that relys the most on the references to his other books. I would redommend The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet instead, even though I really enjoyed UA.
Ah yea, I guess I get the prose thing now |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | you've just brought up another thing i don't like that's been popularized by marvel comics / movies and people like brandon sanderson: works becoming over-reliant on references to and connections with their other material. it's cool if there's like a nod or something, but for something to be story-dependent on a book that is not a canonic prequel is just silly and tiring. at a certain point i give up on all the work in that universe because i don't want to have to read everything they've ever written |
Mort.
07.29.22 | ' too much of the author as a person in the books (so many books feel autobiographical and these authors run out of material very quickly),'
yes this is maybe the thing i dislike the most about modern lit. i feel like this is the consequence of several things. there is this idea that an individuals trauma or 'personal story' is inherently interesting or 'deserves to be told'. now obviously an authors life will inform a story, thats a given. but theres a point where it becomes self indulgent (for lack of a better word. i dont want to put down people getting genuine catharsis from putting their trauma to paper).
personally, i think the most interesting literature involves what Iris Murdoch describes as 'loving depictions'. basically the idea that love involves seeing people as they are, without any of our prejudices getting in the way, and in a similar way good authors have the ability to depict characters as fully fledged individuals with rich inner lives with all the faults and virtues that people tend to have. a work of literature then sets to setting these characters on their paths with their different motives and beliefs and personalities and seeing how it plays out, without pandering to an audience with nice safe endings or fan service or twists or bla bla
thats a very rough and inaccurate description but you get the general gist of it |
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | Yea, I am not a fan of that too tbh and it drags down the Jasper story line in UA imo. The Thousand Autumns stands well on its own imo though, it's only nods there.
I am not even a fan of book series tbh, I prefer stand alone novels. |
Mort.
07.29.22 | 'works becoming over-reliant on references to and connections with their other material. it's cool if there's like a nod or something, but for something to be story-dependent on a book that is not a canonic prequel is just silly and tiring. at a certain point i give up on all the work in that universe because i don't want to have to read everything they've ever written'
yes the obsession with world building is another thing i cant really stand. it doesnt really do anything for me and it feels often like pure escapism (which is fine if thats what you want but it doesnt make good literature, this makes you an elitist to most people but im completely fine with that) |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | i think maybe a small factor into the autobiographical thing is that our current culture makes writers afraid to write anything that isn't authentically experienced by themselves. e.g. how can a man write a woman if they've never been one? how can a white man write a black man if they haven't been one? i think that's a real thing. i personally think people should write whatever characters they want whether they have the lived experience or not. doesn't do well to box up creativity, as we see in modern literature creativity in prose, characterization, etc is really lacking compared with past generations. |
Anthracks
07.29.22 | i think that's also why we are seeing so many writers gravitate toward tv, where you have this group of people involved in character development. same with fantasy, i'm sure many would rather create an entire culture by themselves than feel the pressure of having to write something they don't have authority or experience to |
JWT155
07.29.22 | Currently reading 1776. |
kalkwiese
07.29.22 | @Anthracks, you're onto something there imo. I have these exact thoughts in my own writing. The only thing to pull off a different culture you don't really know is by doing a lot of research and that's hard to do, but not impossible. |
Mort.
07.29.22 | yeah we were basically talking about this with autism a week or so ago.
i think its a difficult balance and something that is completely doable but needs to be handled sensitively. i remember that advice for writing women from a male perspective that goes along the lines of 'write a person and THEN make them a women'. i like that advice but i also have some significant issues with it. but im tired and cant be arsed to go into it now will post tomorrow maybe |
MiloRuggles
07.29.22 | The obsession with the intimately personal is so much less interesting than the eternal battle of using language to create new meaning. I definitely feel you on criticising that — while I tend to walk away from books like this happy to have gleaned some perspective, there's so much less emphasis placed on the more 'technical' facets of writing- whether that's rich prose or unique forms or whatever- and more emphasis on whether the writer in question has an important story to tell. For me, this makes the marketplace geared less toward people that stand out from their peers (read: writers) for the quality of their writing.
It's probably a cynical overview of the zeitgeist, really. I'm sure if I swam through the Booker longlist or something there'd be plenty of simultaneous cake-having and cake-eating and it's great news that literature is no longer a domain occupied by a select few, but by the same token I'm also far more interested in letting five years pass and seeing what works retain their status. That said, I'll be buying McCarthy's new book in a jiffy. |
Mort.
07.29.22 | on that note milo there was some interesting philosophy regarding the intimately personal trend in literature that i thought was quite interesting. ill try and find it |
Mort.
07.29.22 |
not all strictly relevant but the second paragraph definetely is. this is from Zizek
"I’m ready to shoot people who claim an enemy is a person whose inner story we don’t know. The idea is clear: We hate someone, but if we were to know his universe from within we would see that he also has his side of the story, his experience to tell. Maybe! Maybe! But the truth of this is extremely limited. Because, if you take even the greatest criminals–Hitler, Stalin, whatever, murderers–I’m quite sure that each of them will be able to tell you a very authentic inner story, and so on. You have this deep inner story, to avoid confronting the horror of what you are doing. Our inner truth is the lie we construct to be able to live with the misery of our actual lives.
I never believed in the emancipatory potential of this gesture, “Let’s peel off the masks.” When you really open up yourself, you know, this really pathetic moment: “This is what I am, these are my dreams, my deepest fears, desires.” Then, you really lie. I never believed in, you know, getting deep into a person. If I go into anyone I discover shit. We are all filthy egoists, whatever. It doesn’t interest me. The truth is out there. [W]e have to avoid our true inner self. Our true inner self is full of shit, it’s misery, whatever. There can be more truth in the mask if you adopt one then in your real inner self. I always believe in masks".
also relevant is Percival Everret's 'Erasure' which satirises works like Push by Sapphire |
ToSmokMuzyki
07.29.22 | how can u write about a cat if u never be'd one |
Anthracks
07.30.22 | Very few are willing to take on that challenge |
Jasdevi087
07.30.22 | i will do it |
MiloRuggles
07.30.22 | Something about the casual bitterness of zizek is entertaining on a base level |
Jasdevi087
07.30.22 | it's somehow a pretty good take and a really bad take
a schrodinger's take
it's goodn't |
Anthracks
08.01.22 | i meant to follow up on resurrection. it was my favorite tolstoy. i finished it with a heavy sadness because the exact thing he was fearful of and was so hopeful against with the novel is the exact country that russia became. |
MiloRuggles
08.02.22 | Finished Train Dreams and I think the intermittent pangs of deep melancholy have knocked about five years off my life. Great, quick read, thoroughly recommend 4.5 |
Mort.
08.02.22 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3I8PPzhiO0
this video confirms all my sanderson opinions |
Pheromone
08.04.22 | just smashed through the book 'crippled' by Frances Ryan.
non-fictional account of the horrid consequences of austerity for the disabled in britonia mort read it |
AlexKzillion
08.04.22 | 2/3s the way through 'the fifties' by david halberstam... great (though very american-centric) dissection of the political/economic/cultural shifts of that decade.
anyone know any similar books for other decades? i quite like this format |
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | "this video confirms all my sanderson opinions"
Sounds like fun tbh. I always wanted to read Sanderson, but I have so much other stuff here ... Gave the Mistborn trilogy to my brother for christmas, I am curious about his opinion there. He isn't that much into literature, but likes some mainstream fantasy.
Also, I said multiple times my next Murakami would be Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Welp, I found Kafka on the Shore in an open book shelf yesterday. I guess that one will be the next Murakami for me.
Started reading The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili. (Eighth is such a weird word ...) It's a family chronicle of a georgian family spanning over the 20th century. There are phantastic elements here, as there is a perfect hot chocolate, that makes people addicted and brings them misfortune.
It is told by an aunt to her niece, hoping the young one (the eighth person in this family saga) might break free from the family's curse.
I am expecting something like One Hundered Years of Solitude here lol. Definetly excited. Haratischwili likes to write in a, idk, dramatic, a bit pompous way, and that might be a great or bad thing as the book continues. I enjoy it so far. |
Jasdevi087
08.04.22 | Actually just finished the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle not long ago. Kinda gets a little lost in itsekf unfortunately, but it definitely has its moments
also Murakami needs to figure out a less incel way to introduce and talk about his female characters |
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | Yea, I feel like there is always at least a slight misogyny, it's super weird sometimes |
Anthracks
08.04.22 | i don't really agree with too much of the sexist critiques of murakami. i understand them completely, but i just don't agree. |
Mort.
08.04.22 | reading symposium and one flew over the cuckoos next |
Jasdevi087
08.04.22 | "i don't really agree with too much of the sexist critiques of murakami. i understand them completely, but i just don't agree."
that's ok. you're wrong tho, but it's cool, we'll keep you around |
Mort.
08.04.22 | never read any murakami but the critique that hes a sexist is so pervasive its put me off reading him
|
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | It's weird. He treats his characters with warmth most of the time, like most good lit does, but then his women act like in a fantasy of a horny man. Sex scenes are weird and clinical. In 1Q84 there is a sentence, I read it in German, so I will translate it: "It was so unbelievably sad that her two friends had left this world and with them their beautiful boobs." Seriously, it's mentioned in the same breath. I had to laugh in disbelief. |
Jasdevi087
08.04.22 | he probably has novels where it's easier to be like "ugh, yeah whatever" but certainly for wind-up bird I found it massively distracting |
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | But I enjoy his portrayl of urban boredom and his weird phantastical elements. |
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | Norwegian Wood was fine, I guess. There was so much talk about being wet and Midori acted like a sex addict, but apart from that it's great |
Mort.
08.04.22 | 'It was so unbelievably sad that her two friends had left this world and with them their beautiful boobs.'
i can imagine there being a context where thats a funny line due to the sheer absurdity but yeh its not hard to see how ppl think hes creepy |
kalkwiese
08.04.22 | The thing is, there wasn't a context making it funny. It's a serious sentence in a serious situation. She was grieving |
AmericanFlagAsh
08.04.22 | I am currently reading Crying In H Mart and it's fucking amazing |
Mort.
08.04.22 | 'The thing is, there wasn't a context making it funny. It's a serious sentence in a serious situation. She was grieving'
well yeah hes a dumbass then |
Egarran
08.04.22 | I'm reminded of Cat in Red Dwarf. He doesn't want to die because it would deprive the world of his sweet ass. |
wutang4ever
08.04.22 | im currently reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Oxford Press 1927 edition, it smells good |
Get Low
08.08.22 | Jennette McCurdy has a memoir coming out tomorrow called I'm Glad My Mom Died which apparently details the creepy shit that Dan Schneider did to her. |
Mort.
08.08.22 | Yeh I saw an excerpt from that looks interesting
Mad how he just managed to get away with being a predator |
Pheromone
08.08.22 | yeah murakami too horny mans |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | I would take the murakami sexism complaints more seriously if a) the men who make them weren’t ritual porn watchers and b) if it was an author’s primary job to be sensitive to gender equity as opposed to presenting realistic characters. His characters create a viewpoint, and to deny that there are people with that viewpoint in the world is absurd. He’s not saying women are terrible or base (which, for the record, would be fine because it’s a real viewpoint that real people have in the real world). His characters just tend to really focus on physical attributes and get attached to wish fulfillment. Which is NOT an unrealistic mindset in a male human (thusly it should be represented in literature). Please don’t let political correctness infiltrate literature we have enough gutless writers as is. I hate the idea that someone can only write what is agreeable to them as opposed to attempting to explore these different psychologies |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | Do we blanketly accuse cormac McCarthy of being murderous or misanthropic or hateful because he consistently creates evil characters with such aberrant viewpoints? Do we accuse him of sexism because the only female who speaks in blood meridian is a prostitute? No, because he’s providing a valid viewpoint. Do we accuse Thomas Pynchon or Vladimir Nabokov of being pedophiles because they have written the viewpoint? I think it’s an easy and lazy criticism to make, but doesn’t actually degrade from the work as a piece of literature. |
Pheromone
08.08.22 | I would take the murakami sexism complaints more seriously if a) the men who make them weren’t ritual porn watchers |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | Man you know I’m right these guys whip out their official decree on an author’s official stance on feminism after cranking one out to a drugged out 18 yo getting triple penetrated on a moving bus
Only half joking |
DePlazz
08.08.22 | Currently reading Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones in French, 300 pages in and about a 1000 to go.
Book is mayhem. |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | finished up fathers and sons by ivan turgenev, vera or the nihilists by oscar wilde, and the sandman book one by neil gaiman
working on the stars, like dust by isaac asimov and assassin's quest by robin hobb |
Mort.
08.08.22 | continually impressed by your reading stamina
still on One flew over the cuckoos nest and my Plato read through.
Plato is taking a long time cos im taking notes (would be sort of pointless if i didnt) but i have no excuse for one flew over the cuckoos nest. have been getting back into painting warhammer so been doing that in my free time
|
Anthracks
08.08.22 | there's just so many books i want to experience |
Jasdevi087
08.08.22 | @anthracks the difference between all those examples and Murakami's sexism is that generally when these mindsets are presented in a text, and we don't believe the author holds these viewpoints themselves, there's usually a counterview somewhere that challenges the characters on this somewhere. Murakami ALWAYS writes his characters like this, they are never challenged on this; ergo, Murakami is actually making sexist writing, not inhabiting the mindset for me, the lucky reader's, "enjoyment". Wind-up Bird Chronicle has a character who we are to understand has been raped; this is the first thing we are told about her. When we meet her subsequently throughout the book later, it is almost always through sexual encounters with the main character, i don't recall there being much if any resolution to this either. The mc also strikes up a friendship with a schoolgirl,who later in the book writes him this weird letter where she imagines a hypothetical scenario where he rapes her and what she would do; it is not very nuanced. Also, the mc in this story, is actually not a raging consumer of the female body otherwise, these are just things that happen in the book.
Murakami's characters being sexist does not, in any way, enhance his stories. it is not a "lazy criticism" to call out sexism when a text would genuinely be improved without it |
FreakMachine
08.08.22 | Recently, Pale Fire and Anna Karenina. Nabokov is my favourite writer ever, followed closely by Dostoyevski, then Tolstoy. |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | again, i completely disagree and i've also said all i care to on the subject.
freak, i just bought four more tolstoy books (two short stories compilations totaling 1800 pages), the cossacks, and childhood boyhood and youth. i've read his three novels and want to finish his canon for sure. |
Jasdevi087
08.08.22 | ayy fuck it let me circle back on that shit, cause it'll piss me off all day if I don't. I just think it's kinda funny that you lead off a rant that concluded with bemoaning "lazy criticism" of calling sexist work sexist with what basically amounts to a no true scotsman fallacy. kinda just makes you look like a reactionary, especially if one of the examples you're gonna use to defend your position is fuckin Lolita, a novel for which you could make a pretty compelling argument has been more of a net negative for pop culture in spite of the author's intent (btw, the reason good faith actors don't call Nabokov a pedo is because Dolores's behaviours in the story suggest pedophilia is not an act he sympathises with, and i think you know this but you used the example anyway so oh well) |
Anthracks
08.08.22 | If you want something more from me on the subject, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. My opinion is not much more complicated than I’ve laid out, and no amount of elaboration will benefit anybody. It’s obvious we disagree. Conversation over. I’m not here to invalidate you or your opinion, or to assert that mine is the correct one. My opinion is my opinion. |
FreakMachine
08.09.22 | Anthracks, I think I stumbled into thewr ong argument here haha |
Get Low
08.09.22 | Anthracks you are the GOAT of this thread in pretty much every way |
Pheromone
08.09.22 | if you have get low on your side like
😬 |
kalkwiese
08.09.22 | Yea, I am very much with Jasdevil here, didn't find the other side of the argument convincing at all. |
FreakMachine
08.09.22 | Who really cares, if you can't separate theme from art in a novel like Lolita, then don't read it. It's clearly fucked up on multiple levels, but then also absolutely hilarious and phenomenally well crafted. Just don't read stuff if you can't separate the two. |
Tunaboy45
08.09.22 | Impromptu re-read of Jane Eyre, then onto Penguin's Japanese Short Stories Collection. Thinking maybe The Beach by Alex Garland after that. |
kalkwiese
08.09.22 | This isn't about Lolita though, no one said Nabokov was a pedo or anything, and I definetly want to read Lolita, because I can easily see how the author and his characters are two seperate things.
This is about Murakami and his weird tendencies to depict women in certain ways. |
Tunaboy45
08.09.22 | As someone who considers themselves a big Murakami fan, I also agree that his characterisation of women can be extremely limited, and his tendency to introduce them by their their breasts is incredibly frustrating. It's the one criticism I always have of him, and it does make me hesitant to recommend him to other people. I understand that the 'mysterious aloof woman' is one of the tropes on the Murakami bingo card, along with jazz, ears and missing cats, but just because it's a trope he uses in every book that doesn't mean it's exempt from criticism. |
AlexKzillion
08.09.22 | flying through 'awopbopaloobop alopbamboom' by nik cohn rn. published in 1969, its the history or pop and rock music up to that point from the point of view of a dude who is only like 25-30 himself at the time of writing. i find most media covering music from the 50s and 60s kinda drab and uncritical as its always boomers circle jerking the good ole days... but the book reads like doof or zak wrote it lmao, very opinionated and informed and wordy and just a little bit edgy |
Get Low
08.14.22 | About to start reading "The Two Lolitas", which is a short book by a literary critic who discovered a short story called "Lolita" by a previously forgotten German writer, that was published while Nabokov was living in Germany before he started writing his Lolita. |
FreakMachine
08.14.22 | "About to start reading "The Two Lolitas", which is a short book by a literary critic who discovered a short story called "Lolita" by a previously forgotten German writer, that was published while Nabokov was living in Germany before he started writing his Lolita."
Aint one of them enough lmao |
Get Low
08.14.22 | https://arlindo-correia.com/lolita_de.html
Here's an English translation of the original Lolita short story by Heinz von Lichberg. It's only a 5-10 minute read, and it's not like sexual or anything like Nabokov's novel. It reads more like a horror flash fiction than anything. |
FreakMachine
08.14.22 | Nah i'm not clicking that aha. I've read the Nabokov one, no interest in clicking anything with that in the title |
Get Low
08.14.22 | You know, as much as I love Nabokov's Lolita, I totally get your reluctancy lmao |
FreakMachine
08.14.22 | "You know, as much as I love Nabokov's Lolita, I totally get your reluctancy lmao"
Dont get me wrong, its a sensational piece of work. The unreliable narrator is set out from the get go just by having a foreward by someone whose initials are literally Jr. Jr. and I had to study it for uni, and the writing and wordplay is exceptional. I also think that its really bleakly funny also, but I just don't wanna be immersing myself into something else with that title lmao. |
FreakMachine
08.14.22 | I will say that the remake movie, with Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain (probably the hottest 40+ on the planet btw) was really fucking well done. It kept that really bleak humour, and totally conveys that its pure abuse on Dolly's part but that Humbert doesn't see it that way. Exceptional movie, probably not one i'll ever watch again though |
Get Low
08.14.22 | Yeah I'd probably force myself to watch all three Human Centipede movies before I'd watch a film adaptation of Lolita |
FreakMachine
08.14.22 | "Yeah I'd probably force myself to watch all three Human Centipede movies before I'd watch a film adaptation of Lolita"
Yeah and those three movies can eat a fucking crease. Literally made me wanna vomit |
Observer
08.20.22 | Gonna start re-reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History soon. Loved my first read of it like crazy. I need to join a bookclub just for that one. |
Observer
08.20.22 | Yeah, i havent started Golf Finch yet by her either, which i will, but Secret History definitely affected me in a big way. One of my favs as well. |
Ignimbrite
08.20.22 | starting Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, heard nothing but good things |
Get Low
08.20.22 | Currently reading Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison |
WeepingBanana
08.22.22 | Almost done with The Melancholy of Resistance by Laszlo Krasznahorkai. So fucking good. Both this an Satantango are perfect books imo, but I need to let some time pass before I read more of him. Just too brutal |
Get Low
08.22.22 | I visited a new bargain books store that opened near me yesterday, and their selection of classic literature was dreadfully small except for they randomly had a bunch of Nabokov's less-popular novels. I picked up Ada or Ardor, Mary, King Queen Knave, and Laughter in the Dark. I'm about to go to town as soon as I'm done with Invisible Man (which is fucking incredible btw). |
Josh D.
08.22.22 | How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr, I like reading about empire |
Anthracks
08.24.22 | finished: the izu dancer and other stories by yasunari kawabata and yasushi inoue, when we were orphans by kazuo ishiguro, the carrying by ada limon, the city & the city by china mieville, and life ceremony by sayaka murata
next up: white noise by don delillo |
Mort.
08.24.22 | what was your opinion of the city and the city? i thought it was a really interesting concept, enjoyed it very much. the influence on disco elysium was pretty clear.
also how was When we were orphans? one of the few ishiguros i havent got round to. |
MiloRuggles
08.25.22 | Went about 70 pages deep into A Confederacy of Dunces and it became the first book I've given up on in a hot minute. Ignatius is a funny character for sure, but the supporting cast fell short of becoming half-decent caricatures and I got sick of not laughing :(
Reading Gormenghast now (having read Titus Groan already) and my man Prunesquallor has already made me laugh more than Confederacy did. The opening is just great melodramatic prose. These professors also have potential. Seems more tightly plotted already too, as I thought there was a bit of dead air in Titus Groan.
Slowly reading through The Dawn of Everything too, and it feels like a beautiful cold air blast of confirmation bias brand catharsis for my worldview, so obviously I'm enjoying that. |
Mort.
08.25.22 | Ayyy man yes gormenghast is the best in the series, brilliant book and yes very funny |
Mort.
08.25.22 | 'Reading Gormenghast now (having read Titus Groan already) and my man Prunesquallor has already made me laugh more than Confederacy did. The opening is just great melodramatic prose. These professors also have potential. Seems more tightly plotted already too, as I thought there was a bit of dead air in Titus Groan.'
one thing i absolutely love about that series is the names. so memorable. rottcodd, prunesquallor, flay, swelter, steerpike, sepulchrave etc |
Anthracks
08.29.22 | the city & the city was good. very alluring concept though the magic fades a bit once you realize there isn't much narrative potential. the author took it to the logical conclusion which is good, i suppose. strictly story-driven but tight dialogue, bit of a lack of characterization. overall does exactly what it aims to and enjoyable. i haven't played disco elysium - what's the connection?
when we were orphans is definitely one of the lesser ishiguro novels. it's by far his most straightforward. he even goes as far as to explain what little mystery there is in the plot. larger sense of scope than typical with him regarding the larger cast and timeframe - he experiments only for a brief moment in the narrative. enjoyable overall but i would leave it for last. my only ishiguro novel left is the buried giant. the breadth of his catalogue is still so impressive. it was basically a detective novel (of course in his style) |
Mort.
08.29.22 | 'i haven't played disco elysium - what's the connection?'
the writers have just said theyre all fans of china mieville and its sort of apparent in disco elysiums setting and some of the language. also disco elysium is after all a detective game, and the city and the city is a detective novel. both feature weird politics and a city that is in a sense one of the characters.
(not sure if ive mentioned this before but china mieville was heavily influenced by gormenghast, he even wrote the introduction to the illustrated edition. peridido street station is extremely gormenghast-esque (but spread over a whole city rather than a castle)
and yeah that roughly links up with what ive heard about When we were Orphans. The Buried Giant is one of his better ones imo. an interesting take on fantasy
|
Anthracks
08.29.22 | i love ishiguro's subtle twist he puts on every genre. the main genre is ishiguro and he's just dipping it slightly into whatever genre he's writing. he's so cool. i want him to do more surrealism (the unconsoled) and i'd love him to do sci-fi or dystopia that isn't YA-esque. never let me go felt YA and klara was basically a pixar storyline. i'm always so eager to see what he'll do next.
i will check out more mieville in due time. i was a bit curious to see that he's publishing an analysis in support of the communist manifesto |
Josh D.
08.29.22 | Surprisingly I have not read Zinn's People's History, but I'm about to, bitch |
Mort.
08.29.22 | 'never let me go felt YA' lol yeah for sure but it wasnt marketed as ya and managed to avoid some of the tropes. deffo has a ya tinge to it tho
read the unconsoled last year and thought it was brilliant. one of the few things outside of kafka that actually deserves to be described as kafkaesque.
|
Observer
09.03.22 | Reading The Way The Crow Flies by Ann-Marie Macdonald. I read Fall On Your Knees by her earlier this year and loved it (dark, sad disturbing story, but triggers aside, very good stuff), so figured this next of hers might be worth it.
I need to re-read the Hyperion Cantos soon, I think. I started A Memory Called Empire on audio recently, and it's put me in a space opera mood.
feel free to add me on goodreads, i keep it fairly up to date: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144507872?ref=nav_profile_l |
EyesWideShut
09.04.22 | reread Suttree from Cormac. I still dig this one |
AlexKzillion
09.04.22 | reading the best and the brightest by david halberstam rn and gotta say i really dig books about wars and militaries and shit |
DocSportello
09.11.22 | Just finished reading two Don DeLillo books (Libra and The Names) both of which blew me away. I'm writing my dissertation rn and have a chapter on DeLillo and encountering these two books forced me to revamp my entire chapter. Excellent lil cultural thrillers, highly recommended! |
CugnoBrasso
09.11.22 | I'm reading "A Visit from the Goon Squad" and it's sooo good, but I struggle to remember who's who. |
CugnoBrasso
09.11.22 | Makes sense that a user called Doc Sportello likes DeLillo, I'm planning to read Underworld in the future. |
DocSportello
09.11.22 | Underworld is great but kinda overstuffed. The prologue is the best part. White Noise is the obv go-to for first-time DeLillo readers. I'm actually very excited for the film tbh |
DocSportello
09.11.22 | I remember really enjoying "Goon Squad" until I didn't, near the end. Whipped thru it pretty quickly on a bus so take this with a grain of salt |
TheSpaceMan
09.14.22 | so i adore Blood Meridian, 10/10 book, and so i was pointed to faulkner since he was apparently an inspiration to mccarthy... so i read As I Lay Dying. great book, but i found it hilariously ironic that its like absolutely stuffed with quotation marks since its such a dialogue driven plot. just wanted to share that lol |
combustion07
09.14.22 | Blood Meridian is definitely one of my favorite books of all time. Amazing read. Love the author in general.
Currently reading Ozark Folk Magic by Brandon Weston. Grew up going to the Ozarks frequently and it's been very interesting learning some of the folklore and obscure traditions of the area. |
combustion07
09.14.22 | I need to check out some Faulkner tbh. I know he's held very highly and I've heard nothing but great things but I've never picked up anything from him. I think I have As I Lay Dying on my shelf though so I'll have to crack it open |
TheSpaceMan
09.14.22 | Yep Blood Meridian is another level of good. Like it's crazy how much you can dig out of that book.
And I will say, even tho im a very avid reader and soend a ton of time reading these days, I'm probably considered a slow reader (ppl like to brag about finishing books quickly but I always take my time to milk everything out of a book and often reread pages cause my mind wanders constantly)... but I managed to crush As I Lay Dying in a few days. It's got a very small word count. Most difficult part of the book for me was the souther dialect and the unorthodox was the plot is presented since its done first person through 15 or so different characters |
CugnoBrasso
09.14.22 | I'm also reading it on the bus Doc, what a coincidence. |
rabidfish
09.14.22 | gonna start reading Christopher Alexander from the start, with "Essay on the Synthesis of Form". I love some of his ideas, but always had my reservations on the dude's criticism of modern architecture, but i never really dwelled too deep into his thought. |
combustion07
09.14.22 | Just started listening to the audiobook There Are No Children Here. It's amazing so far. A true story that follows the lives of two kids growing up in a housing project in Chicago in the late 80's |
Mort.
09.14.22 | read Lysis yesterday, read the word 'friend' enough times to melt my brain, plato needed an editor |
Observer
09.15.22 | Reading empire falls by Richard Russo.
Audiobook listening to my brilliant friend by elena furrante |
robertsona
09.15.22 | read Antigone the other day, sophocles got bars |
Anthracks
09.16.22 | light in august is my favorite faulkner, though it's on the less experimental side
recently read diary of a void by emi yagi, severance by ling ma, the wild palms by william faulkner, exiles by james joyce, and the plot against america by philip roth
now reading 2001: a space odyssey by arthur c clarke in beautiful folio hardcover |
Egarran
09.16.22 | >2001
Such a good book - the sequels too. He just got the year wrong. |
combustion07
09.16.22 | 2001 is such a classic! Haven't gotten around to the sequels but I really need to get on it |
Anthracks
09.18.22 | so the consensus is that the sequels are worth reading? this is only my second clarke experience, but rama is my favorite ever sci-fi book |
Anthracks
09.22.22 | read tokyo ueno station by yu miri and onto mason & dixon by thomas pynchon |
Egarran
09.22.22 | The sequels are indeed good and I believe this is a consensual opinion.
Last thing I read by Clarke was a collaboration with Stephen Baxter called The Light of Other Days. It's about using wormholes to look at the past. Is good. |
combustion07
09.27.22 | I really need to check out more of Clarke's stuff. I've only read 2001 but I love it so much.
Finished up that audio version of There Are No Children and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in following the life of a family with young children growing up in Chicago in the late 80's/early 90's. It sucked me in immediately and gave really great insight on the experiences that the children especially went through. Great stuff. Definitely going to check out more of the authors work |
Observer
10.02.22 | Starting Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge. Started it last year but couldnt get into it so hoping for better luck this time |
Get Low
10.02.22 | I read Jennette McCurdy's book, and it was fantastic. Her mom was a complete sociopath, and Dan Schneider is a creep. |
Minortimbo12
10.02.22 | lord of the rings |
Anthracks
10.04.22 | still trucking along on mason & dixon. might be the longest i've taken on a book this year. very dense, though not nearly as impenetrable as gravity's rainbow.
i did read king henry vi, part i by shakespeare to break it up |
Josh D.
10.04.22 | I'm over halfway through the extended edition of A People's History of the United States. I guess I can see why reactionaries and the like have such ire for it, but based off its reputation among those types it's not as "radical" or whatever as I expected. It's just simple history. |
Mort.
10.04.22 | read a book called The Philosophy of beards. more of a historical recounting of beards importance throughout religions and history and features fuck all actual philosophy. also less of a book and more of a victorian lecture on masculinity and hygiene
but it was mildly funny and interesting so 3/5 |
combustion07
10.04.22 | For fiction I started Intercepts: A Horror Novel. Pretty interesting so far. Seems like a fairly decent story so far. Really loved how it opened up.
Thieves in the Night: A Brief History of Supernatural Child Abduction: a deep dive into fairy folklore and stories of children being abducted by fairy/aliens. It's interesting. Idk why but I've got a fascination with fairies so I bought this book when it came out but I'm just now getting around to it |
Egarran
10.04.22 | Ooh you should read Little, Big by John Crowley. There's a nice subplot with that. |
Frost15
10.04.22 | The Invisible Rainbow.
Perfect to understand how electricity and electro magnetic radiation fields have been increasingly fucking with our health since their inception but nobody seems to talk about it because money 🤑 rules. |
Anthracks
10.04.22 | Wow imagine our life expectancy if we didn’t have electronics! |
combustion07
10.04.22 | Just read the summary for Little, Big and a few reviews and good reads and it sounds pretty damn awesome so I've definitely bumped it to the top of the to get list! Cheers for that one |
Get Low
10.09.22 | I just finished The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren, and man that thing was one heck of a tour de force for being a children's fantasy novel, god damn. Very dark book, but apparently Swedish children have adored it for decades now. |
Observer
10.09.22 | Listening to the Cyteen trilogy on audio by C.J. Cherryh and really love it! I may have to check out Downbelow Station by her after it. |
Mort.
10.09.22 | started reading Perfume by patrick suskind
smells good |
Jasdevi087
10.10.22 | one of the smelliest book out
was cobain's fav apparently |
Egarran
10.10.22 | Oh yeah Astrid Lindgren is HUGE up here in Scandinavia and we all grew up with her stories, and were traumatized by Brs Lionheart.
Thankfully most of her books are very wholesome.
Perfume is fantastic. |
Josh D.
10.10.22 | I am reading Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America, which is a cool piece of history, but the book is written like a high school newspaper article. Luckily it's short. |
CugnoBrasso
10.10.22 | I'm planning to finish Fictions by Borges tomorrow, probably starting Gospodinov's Time Shelter in the next few days. |
combustion07
10.10.22 | Oh man Gangsters vs. Nazis sounds way up my alley! |
Josh D.
10.10.22 | I got it partially because I was already aware of Lansky and Luciano using their crews at the docks to weed out German spies, especially helpful for Luciano to get out of prison in return. He was let out on the condition he deport to Italy. He eventually made his way back to Havana to continue trying to run the hotels and casinos the mafia had set up there before the revolution, but was found out and sent back to Italy again.
So when I came across this, I was immediately interested. But the writing is kinda goofy. |
Egarran
10.10.22 | At three a.m. we passed
through the Great Pit
and our boat, which had always been creaky
withdrew instantly
into a dark fainthearted
silence
while we floated atop thousands and thousands of meters of horrors
That was all, I tell it as I lived it
the Great Pit
the darkness of three a.m.
enveloping the boat decked out profusely
in paper lanterns and floodlights
sailors and passengers
united
by youth and by fear
- Bolaño |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | read no longer human by junji ito, the duchess of padua by oscar wilde, and the divine comedy by dante. reading mostly trashy horror books for the rest of the month and first up is salem's lot by stephen king |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | how does Junji Ito's version compare with Dazai's? |
Get Low
10.13.22 | Salem's Lot is bottom tier King |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | i enjoyed it about the same. the tone is pretty different, but the art style is really cool. it was actually the first manga i've ever read, so i'm by no means an expert on what makes good manga. it stayed true to the story of the book, but took some liberties that made it more "exciting," such as the horror elements and there was a lot of sex
bottom tier king? sounds like a horrible time - i hate all stephen king i've ever read |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | currently reading The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima. Really wish I could know how much intangible gets lost in translation, cause even this english translation's imagery is stunningly poetic. wonder how much more attenuated that is in japanese |
Get Low
10.13.22 | I loved SK in high school but I can't tolerate him anymore because I've read so many authors since then who actually know how to write for more than plot.
He's entertaining though if you want to turn your brain off while reading, which is what I imagine you're aiming to do. |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | that is probably my favorite mishima and a great october read |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | yeah I haven't given King much thought since high-school either |
Egarran
10.13.22 | >the divine comedy by dante
A good follow up to that is Goethe's Faust. |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | i read faust awhile ago and loved it. faust part 2 was dreadful though |
Trifolium
10.13.22 | "Goethe's Faust"
Loved this one! My grandma has a super nice, big version of it in archaic Dutch, with an enormous amount of (occasionally HUGE) engravings in it. Totally lovely.
Just finished The Brothers Karamazov this morning. That was an intense read. Perhaps some Stephen King next to cleanse my palette. |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | rip mishima you would have loved the manosphere |
Egarran
10.13.22 | >faust part 2 was dreadful though
Classic sequel phenomenon. But yeah I also gave up somewhere in part 2.
Trif, sounds sweet! You know what edition it is?
“Fill your heart to overflowing,
and when you feel profoundest bliss,
then call it what you will:
Good fortune! Heart! Love! or God!
I have no name for it!
Feeling is all;
the name is sound and smoke,
beclouding Heaven’s glow.” |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | mishima is a great example of a person whose ideologies i disagree with almost unanimously but still love reading his writings and his positions |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | I think what happens when reading Mishima is the understanding that there's valid pain under all those layers of awful, and it's quite astonishing to see a man create an ideology from his context that was so incredibly disfunctional when it absolutely did not have to be |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | well said |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | like boss somehow managed to choose the illogical extreme for almost every facet of his beliefs |
Mort.
10.13.22 | 'mishima is a great example of a person whose ideologies i disagree with almost unanimously but still love reading his writings and his positions'
oh so you dont want to enter a military base in central Tokyo with members of your militia, take its commandant hostage and unsuccessfully try to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to rise up and overthrow Japan's 1947 Constitution?
poser. |
Jasdevi087
10.13.22 | it's not a top priority, no |
kalkwiese
10.13.22 | Even the great poet's prince Goethe wasn't safe from the sequel slump. Faust II has some interesting themes for its time, though Goethe was well aware critics would hate it and hiw artsy it was, so didn't want it to be published while he was alive. Kind of speaks for itself, I guess. |
Anthracks
10.13.22 | f2 is just plain unreadable i can't even imagine how it would have been on the stage. there are like 5,000 characters |
CugnoBrasso
10.19.22 | I'm reading Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut and there are no champions and maybe only one tiny irrelevant breakfast wtf |
DocSportello
10.19.22 | Currently deep in dissertation work, so some of these reads are deep cuts but all potentially worth someone’s time
Megan Abbott — The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir
Joan Barker — Danger, Duty, and Disillusionment: The Worldview of Los Angeles Police Officers
Yuval Noah Harari — 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
James M. Cain — Double Indemnity
|
Jasdevi087
10.19.22 | admittedly the ending of Sailor Who Fell... felt like a bit of an eyeroller, but the writing was still fantastic.
gonna finish off The Age of Football by David Goldblatt which I've been slowly chipping at all year, then it's on to Mrs. Dalloway boys |
CugnoBrasso
10.19.22 | Mrs Dalloway is good, I read it last year. |
DocSportello
10.19.22 | Mrs Dalloway is soooooo good! I read To the Lighthouse, like, 6 years after Dalloway and couldn’t understand the hype, MD felt so much more alive and interested in life. Also I remember it being fun to read, which Lighthouse was not |
Jasdevi087
10.19.22 | from what I understand they're two very different kinds of modernist novels. fwiw I loved To The Lighthouse and am hoping to read all of Woolf's stuff eventually. I have the vintage classics woolf works editions of both these books and they're gorgeous, it's a shame i already have the shitty orange penguin classic of A Room of One's Own |
DocSportello
10.19.22 | They are very, very different novels. I get the sense that Woolf styled To the Lighthouse in partial response to her reaction against Ulysses as a noble but dreadful failure, which might account for the extreme sense of distance balanced against a more “literary” style, where even the “play” feels dusty and cold by design. I appreciated it but I couldn’t help but feel like it was an example of reactionary aesthetics dictating the shape of a really good human drama |
Get Low
10.19.22 | I wrote like three different papers on Mrs. Dalloway for my undergrad because practically all of my professors wanted to teach that novel. |
DocSportello
10.19.22 | That was me, but with Hamlet lmao |
Get Low
10.20.22 | I wrote my senior thesis on Hamlet, and I feel like Shakespeare packed so much shit into that one play that he made it incredibly easy to write about. |
Minortimbo12
10.20.22 | my 29 year old sister reads warrior cats |
Jasdevi087
10.20.22 | one of my old bosses still reads ranger's apprentice. some adults just be shopping out the 8-12 section i guess |
Veldin
10.20.22 | Reading Grant Morrison’s first novel, Luda. Just finished Graig Thompsons Habibi. |
kalkwiese
10.20.22 | Did anyone here read Orlando by Virginia Woolf? Heared good things about it and that it's supposed to be not as depressing as her other books. I want to include more female writers to my class. lit. diet lol. |
Egarran
10.20.22 | Did you write about how Hamlet was one of the first characters to have an internal dialogue?
That always fascinated me. Hamlet gave a whole new dimension to fiction.
>Reading Grant Morrison’s first novel, Luda
Is it good? I love that guy. |
MiloRuggles
10.20.22 | Yeah kalk, it's good (and quite prescient), and was a self-desribed writer's holiday for Woolf. As such, the prose doesn't reach such heady heights as in Miss Dalloway or To The Lighthouse (the only other two I've read), but it's still a great read. There's even some reflexive stuff in there where she takes the piss out of herself.
Just finished Gormenghast. I think the scene with the death and all of the professors in the first third is one of the most hilarious and well-constructed scenes I've ever read. Whole thing was great; prose in abundance and much more character progression than Titus Groan. Certainly wouldn't like to do a feminist reading of the thing, but so it goes. How's the third one? Worth the ride? |
Mort.
10.20.22 | the third one is bonkers, written while he was in the early stages of dementia. also very clearly affected by the second world war (he was present as a war artist for the liberation of one of the concentration camps). i reccomend it just for finishing the trilogy. dont bother with the fourth book finished off by his wife.
i do reccomend looking up mervyn peake himself a bit, or at least reading his wikipedia. fascinating guy |
Mort.
10.20.22 | 'i reccomend it just for finishing the trilogy' gives the wrong impression tbh, the book is good and worth reading, just keep in mind that he was losing his mental faculties. he misspelled some characters names i think, and some of the chapters are really short and quite obviously unfinished. things move at lighting pace at times |
DocSportello
10.23.22 | Just read The Road (my first McCarthy, shockingly) in preparation for The Passenger. Loved it, unsure if I wanna watch the movie tho |
CugnoBrasso
10.23.22 | Finished reading Breakfast of Champions last friday and wtf was that ending???? Lmao.
Starting Time Shelter by Gospodinov next. |
Mort.
10.24.22 | its been a while since i read breakfast of champions, how does it even end? vonnegut is amazing tho and i highly reccomend Sirens of Titan if you havent read that one yet |
CugnoBrasso
10.24.22 | I read slaughterhouse 5 and sirens of titan, breakfast of champions might be my least favorite so far.
In the epilogue, Vonnegut himself tries to convince Kilgore Trout that he wrote the book he's in, but ultimately gets attacked by a dog. |
Mort.
10.24.22 | ah fairs. yeah i dont even remember that at all
ive read galapagos, god bless you dr kevorkian, mother night, god bless you mr rosewater, cats cradle, sirens of titan, slaughterhouse 5, breakfast of champions, and armageddon in retrospect
its been a long time since ive read anything else by him. hes a writer whose works i want to experience over a long stretch of time. i have player piano and bluebeard somewhere to read i think |
Josh D.
10.24.22 | Just began The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne |
CugnoBrasso
10.24.22 | Yeah Vonnegut is probably my favorite writer at the moment, he seems to have understood something important about life. |
DocSportello
10.24.22 | New Cormac leaked, reading now ;) |
MiloRuggles
10.25.22 | Wut? Madness. Has the purple re-entered his prose? Please say yes |
Get Low
10.25.22 | I never even thought of book leaks being a thing |
ToSmokMuzyki
10.25.22 | whats a books |
Jasdevi087
10.25.22 | "New Cormac leaked, reading now ;)"
"I never even thought of book leaks being a thing"
*le superimposed transparent unabomber mugshot*
|
DocSportello
10.25.22 | I mean, technically it should be out-out now.
I'm 3/10 chapters deep and it's . . . kind of like the extreme opposite of The Road? |
Egarran
10.25.22 | So super happy and uplifting? Nice, I am craving books like that. |
DocSportello
10.25.22 | It’s made me lol a surprising amount, tbh |
rabidfish
10.25.22 | reading Emerson's "Nature". Great read, very interesting ideas and put into words consicely and clearly. Good stuff. |
ToSmokMuzyki
10.26.22 | struggling through just for you (little critter) by mercer mayer. never finished it before but im determined |
Anthracks
10.26.22 | read the life of lazarillo de tormes by anonymous, life is a dream by pedro calderon de la barca, the only good indians by stephen graham jones, something wicked this way comes by ray bradbury, the lusiads by luis de camoes, and the pearl by john steinbeck
now reading dracula by bram stoker in brilliant folio edition |
Mort.
10.26.22 | Anthracks what did you think of Something Wicked This Way Comes?
tried to read it a few years ago and was put off by the language, tried again a few months ago and loved it once i just accepted it for what it is. i guess at first i found it too um purple? if thats the right term
|
Anthracks
10.26.22 | i think i know exactly what you're trying to say. the language is far too ornate for the story it's telling. i know it's a fairly seminal work in modern allegorical horror, but it reads like goosebumps dressed up as shakespeare (not that it's even remotely either of those things).
i still found it enjoyable and the overall messaging was strong.
the best from that batch was definitely Life is a Dream - a very strong early spanish play and i highly recommend. i read it on vacation in seville, which was awesome |
Egarran
10.26.22 | > too um purple? if thats the right term
I'm afraid you will have to elaborate. |
Anthracks
10.26.22 | "In literary criticism, purple prose is prose text that is so ornate or flowery as to disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to an extravagant style of writing as it diminishes appreciation of the discourse or story overall. Purple prose is characterized by the excessive use of adjectives, adverbs, and metaphors." |
Mort.
10.26.22 | purple prose |
Get Low
10.26.22 | the opposite of minimalism |
Egarran
10.26.22 | >purple prose
Ah yes, the overly ornate prose text that may disrupt a narrative flow by drawing undesirable attention to its own extravagant style of writing, thereby diminishing the appreciation of the prose overall.
Never thought that of Bradbury though. |
Mort.
10.26.22 | bradbury wise ive only read fahrenheit 451 and something wicked this way comes, and while its not so much an issue in the former it deffo is in the latter
|
Mort.
10.26.22 | although i do think its still a good book and bradbury is better than most at that style of writing. you can sort of indulge in the luxuriousness of it |
DocSportello
10.26.22 | Dandelion Wine will always be my fav Bradbury |
WeepingBanana
10.26.22 | Almost done with Warlock by Oakley Hall. It’s been fun/depressing |
ToSmokMuzyki
10.27.22 | all of my prose is purple |
Observer
10.27.22 | The Cyteen trilodgy by C. J. Cherryh has been extremely good, def have to recommend it for any scifi, space opera fans |
kalkwiese
10.27.22 | I recently read Frankenstein and, yea, it was alright. Not my favorite thing and I need a nice and fun read now or I'll slide into a reading slump. |
Josh D.
10.27.22 | In a solitary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated from all the other apartments by a gallery and staircase, I kept my workshop of filthy creation; my eyeballs were starting from their sockets in attending to the details of my employment. The dissecting room and the slaughter-house furnished many of my materials; and often did my human nature turn with loathing from my occupation, whilst, still urged on by an eagerness which perpetually increased, I brought my work near to a conclusion.
Love that bit though. |
DadKungFu
10.27.22 | Dracula's the superior classic horror imo. That scene where Harker sees Dracula crawling down the castle wall headfirst is still creepy af |
kalkwiese
10.27.22 | I mean, it's a fine read. But I didn't see any quality there I loved. |
Anthracks
10.27.22 | frankenstein is great because there are so many allegorical meanings to it (my favored being that it's a tale of incest) |
SheWatchedTheSky
10.27.22 | Murakami - Wind Up Bird Chronicle
It's a bit depressing tbh but still a great book |
kalkwiese
10.28.22 | It was mostly boring to me, probably just not my type of book. I like allegorical stuff though |
CugnoBrasso
10.28.22 | I liked TWUBC especially the parts set in Manchuria and the Soviet Union. I didn't know that Japan made so many shady things during WWII and the cold war. |
Mort.
10.28.22 | started perfume: the story of a murderer earlier this month, then barely touched it at all until two nights ago, ending up reading the whole thing in two nights. very entertaining book with a great premise. could definitely see there being some interesting reads of the protagonist being a sort of autistic savant. also thought it seemed inspired by the relationship between science, religion and man, with each of those being the center or birthplace of meaning for different characters
trying to decide what to read next and im fully stuck |
Josh D.
10.28.22 | Go for Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano |
Mort.
10.28.22 | that looks very interesting, will add it to my to-read list
already got some non-fiction on the go tho and i cant do two at the same time |
DadKungFu
10.28.22 | Doing Red Sorghum by Mo Yan and it's a little strange how it mythologizes such a brutal conflict as the Sino-Japanese war, with incredible violence written in such poetic, larger than life terms. An interesting reading of a family history as myth, but I'm not sure how well that concept translates to modern conflicts where violence is more easily documented than mythologized, and mythologizing it is almost tasteless in the face of the documented reality. |
CugnoBrasso
10.30.22 | I've got a Mo Yan book in my library, definitely in my 2023 to be read list. |
Mort.
10.30.22 | started Neuromancer by William Gibson
very cyber. very punk
very neotokyo |
Shuyin
10.31.22 | I'm currently reading book 3 of Murakami's 1Q84 and I have to say, as a huge Murakami fan, I'm slightly disappointed at how dull and dragged out this story is getting
"Murakami - Wind Up Bird Chronicle"
Brilliant book, highly recommend Kafka on the Shore and, my all time favourite, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World |
Anthracks
11.01.22 | i like 1q84 a lot but it could have been trimmed by several hundred pages. doesnt really hamper my enjoyment though because i like the feeling of being stuck in a murakami world
finished dracula, which was great and really dark even for today's standards, and the new hulk vs thor gn, now onto the passenger by cormac mccarthy |
WeepingBanana
11.01.22 | Blazing thru Roadside Picnic right now. What a cool book. As cool as Stalker is I appreciate how this book is less serious and philosophical and more into just being weird as fuck. Need to read more Strugatsky brothers and more Russian sf in general |
DadKungFu
11.01.22 | Roadside Picnic was such a fun read, totally different experience from Stalker |
kalkwiese
11.01.22 | Yea, 1Q84 is pretty dull and far away from good storytelling imo. The weird thing is how easy these 1500 pages flew by (german translation, audiobook) and yet how disappointing the whole thing was for me.
Started Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro today. Heared good things about it, also that it is supposed to he pretty wholesome. I like me a good, cozy read atm. Also reading it in English, let's see how rusty my reading in that language got lmao. Should be fine judging by the first few pages though. |
WeepingBanana
11.01.22 | “ Roadside Picnic was such a fun read, totally different experience from Stalker”
Still haven’t watched Tarkovsky’s Solaris, but I love that book, and I’m curious to see his interpretation compared to how he interpreted Roadside. Both books rule, both kinda cut from the same cloth idea-wise |
CugnoBrasso
11.01.22 | I'm planning to read Roadside Picnic before the end of the year. Solaris is probably my favorite scifi book, the movie is also good but much of the philosophy behind the plot is lost in translation in my opinion. |
Observer
11.04.22 | Gonna start Pynchon's Against the Day. |
CugnoBrasso
11.04.22 | I read the first 333 pages of Against the Day and it was epic! I stopped because a friend of mine FORCED me to read Infinite Jest, which I hated and made me stop reading altogether. But man, I'll have to re-read AtD one day, every chapter is a jigsaw piece of an enormous puzzle. |
Observer
11.04.22 | i wasnt a fan of infinite jest my first go either, but im keeping my copy in case my opinion changes when im older |
WeepingBanana
11.04.22 | I’ve had the Makioka Sisters on my shelf for a while, will prob start it somewhat soon |
CugnoBrasso
11.04.22 | I read Siddhartha two years ago. Legends say he wrote that book in a restaurant which is still open today, I ate there maybe four years ago, cool place. |
kalkwiese
11.04.22 | I got my hands on a copy of Makioka Sisters, which makes me happy, because it's out of print in German. Didn't come around to reading it yet though |
Anthracks
11.04.22 | I can’t see anyone’s opinion of IJ improving as they get older…
Finished the passenger now onto Washington by Ron Chernow |
CugnoBrasso
11.04.22 | A friend of mine is loving IJ and I really struggle to understand its appeal. There are books like Gravity's Rainbow which, as much as you might hate them, it's easy to understand why so many people love them (GR is one of my favorite books), but IJ is just flat-out boring. I did enjoy some parts of it, such as the story of how Orin's father died, but it's like three pages every 200, it's just not worth the hassle. |
Anthracks
11.05.22 | Do it. Passenger is top-tier mccarthy and i will leave it at that |
Observer
11.05.22 | Any Jonathan Franzen fans here?
I really really love The Corrections and his most recent Crossroads is up there. |
Get Low
11.06.22 | does cormac still not use commas when he writes |
Anthracks
11.06.22 | Didn’t really notice tbh you kind of get lost in the prophetic prose |
Observer
11.08.22 | Against The Day has been surprisingly accessible so far... at least compared to the other Pynchon ive read. Only on page 80 tho. |
someone
11.08.22 | reading Woman on the Edge of Time
so far a little uncomfortable to read, but still a blast |
CugnoBrasso
11.08.22 | Against the Day is very accessible compared to GR or even TCoL49 (I found it even more accessible than Inherent Vice). It's about to become even more engaging! |
Shuyin
11.10.22 | I'm on book 3 of 1Q84, 300 pages in and absolutely nothing happened. What the hell, Murakami-san? |
kalkwiese
11.10.22 | Oh damn.
Currently reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, but I am mostly concentrating on a friend's manuscript |
Jasdevi087
11.10.22 | just breezed through Sinead O'Connor's memoir
starting The City & The City by China Mieville cause a collegue told me I'd like him |
Observer
11.12.22 | Got a reading guide for Against the day, but for when i want lighter reading i decided to begin East of Eden |
Shuyin
11.18.22 | I've read a short novel by Jack London called The Scarlet Plague, excellent choice to clean the bad taste left after 1Q84. And now I'm halfway through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which is absolutely brilliant. |
combustion07
11.18.22 | Got the audio version of Blindsight by Peter Watts and I'm getting going listening to it. Extremely interesting concept and I enjoy the way he writes. Very excited for this series all around and the author in general. Seems to be top tier sci Fi so far |
Mort.
11.18.22 | 'starting The City & The City by China Mieville cause a collegue told me I'd like him'
great book, love mieville. need to see if the bbc adaption is any good
finished Neuromancer the other day, moving onto Stoner by John Williams |
Egarran
11.18.22 | But have you read Kraken by Mieville yet? |
Mort.
11.18.22 | nope, only read Perdido street station and The city and the city |
Egarran
11.18.22 | I love it.
Never got through Embassytown though. |
Anthracks
11.20.22 | just finished with about 1,700 pages of history (washington: a life by ron chernow, autobiography of benjamin franklin and other writings, the constitution and declaration of independence, the soul of america by jon meacham, and king henry vi, part ii by william shakespeare)
now onto my 100th read of 2022: the bell jar by sylvia plath in beautiful folio edition |
Jasdevi087
11.20.22 | love The Bell Jar
Plath has more of sense of humour than i think she got credit for? like i never here people talk about how snide some of it is. though i guess that's overshadowed by the fact that you spend the entire book fills you with a blanketing sense of anhedonia because being a neurodivergent woman sounds like hell on earth |
Mort.
11.20.22 | i just finished Stoner by John Williams. I dont really have much to say other than its good, and it made me sad, and it might even be good because it made me sad. |
Egarran
11.21.22 | Ever read Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis? Sounds like some of the same themes, only less sad. |
Sharenge
11.21.22 | lol my brother bought me that book 'cus he thought it would be funny to give me a book called "Stoner"... the copy is in German though so I've never attempted to tackle it and considering it's an American novel I don't know that there'd be a whole lot of point I dunno guess if I ever wanted to brush up on my German |
Sharenge
11.21.22 | did you learn what it means to be a Mensch? |
WeepingBanana
11.21.22 | Just read Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and I gotta say I didn’t really like it. It won the Nobel Prize lol. It seemed directly up my alley: small, economically depressed village in Eastern Europe with a seedy underbelly. I normally gobble that shit up but I just found it so uninteresting |
Anthracks
11.25.22 | i don't really think there's much humor in the bell jar. i guess i can see why some people think so early in the novel, but the idea that this person is trying to erase herself at literally any cost is incredibly sad. the fact that she is entirely indifferent to it and views it as inevitable makes it even more depressing.
finishing up the month with nocturnes by kazuo ishiguro, the scarlet gang of asakusa by yasunari kawabata, and the satanic verses by salman rushdie |
Anthracks
12.06.22 | finished: winter recipes from the collective by louise gluck, the happy prince and other tales by oscar wilde, saga volume 10 by brian k vaughan and fiona staples, novelist as a vocation by haruki murakami, king henry vi part iii by william shakespeare, and their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston
next up: stella maris by cormac mccarthy |
Josh D.
12.06.22 | I am reading Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival, but I also found a supposed 1894 printing of Tennyson works, so I browsing through that as well. |
Shuyin
12.06.22 | Finished Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, I found the premise extremely interesting and the narrative itself left me intrigued and curious the whole way through, but when the main character sat down to read the reports it felt a bit boring. fantastic book nonetheless, highly recommended.
Currently reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, about halfway through, enjoying the childish storytelling tone so far |
MiloRuggles
12.06.22 | Finished Denis Johnson's The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (short story collection) and is was as good as expected. He's such a precise writer that the shorter format takes nothing away from his characters; they're all so fully realised and embodied.
Also finished De Lillo's White Noise before Baumbach inevitably fumbles it. It was probably the most readable and addictive piece of post-modern lit I've read. That's not to say I think it's the best, but it's very focussed and fun. Does a great job of balancing serious commentary with humour.
One big takeaway that really set my brain to ticking was to do with the prevalence of information and how we process it. Where the Pynchons of this world use this information to understand and outline complex processes and systems in order to enhance their/our understanding of reality (and his characters and their knowledge tend to reflect this) De Lillo uses this onslaught of information as a breeding ground for soundbites that sound authoritative, contain all the right jargon, yet lack any form of meaningful understanding or engagement with the topic(s) at hand (and are often entirely off base haha). Cool stuff.
While I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in between these approaches (and Pynchon gets far closer), it certainly makes for fun reading. Hopefully that makes sense, I'm tired and not editing whatever I've just said. |
Mort.
12.06.22 | read Horus Rising, fun lil bit of 40k pulp.
now reading 'An Artist of the Floating World' by Ishiguro
so far is incredibly slow and ruminative as ishiguro tends to be |
DadKungFu
12.07.22 | If you haven't already and you're still in the mood for slow and ruminative Japanese novels after Ishiguro, Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata is tragically beautiful |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | im like 150 pages into The Passenger and the tonal shifts are supper jarring but im into whats going on. a lot less "whoa thats a dope sentence"-s than i usually expect from him but a few did make me smile |
rabidfish
12.07.22 | 1st time reading McCarthy, chose Blood Meridian. Pretty fun, tbh. It's kinda brutal but the violence is told in such a matter of fact way, and the action is always moving, feels biblical at times. Liked the part when they all have to piss into a volcano before they get de-scalped. |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | thats one of my favorite books ever like no contest |
Jasdevi087
12.07.22 | mans on that Crime and Punishment shit |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | also one of the best books ever lol |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | i just finished The Brothers Karamazov and while it hits you harder in like every way possible and will stick with me forever and is the most profound piece of literature i ever tackled, i prefer Crime and Punishment over it cause the narrative is way more interesting to me. i love how its structured, with the climax arguably happening super early on |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | but fuck man The Brothers Karamazov is like living through the entire human race's collective experience at once. it even feels like forever when you read it cause its so damn massive lol
both books made me cry at the end and no other author has even gotten me close like that. Dostoevsky is unparalleled |
Anthracks
12.07.22 | White noise is great. One of only three 10/10 reads for me this year |
Jasdevi087
12.07.22 | i also have the brothers karamazov, but i wanted to read C&P first just in case Brothers Karamazov is the best book of all time and C&P just doesn't hit the same lol |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | reading C&P first will also help you understand TBK way more. i think anyone diving straight into TBK without any experience with Dostoevsky or maybe even 19th century Russian lit would have a tough time getting through it, even beyond it being just a tough read. theres so much nuance to what it accomplishes. i could go on forever about it but i think you're smart in reading those in that order and hopefully you'll agree when you are deep in TBK |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | im biased though because thats the same order i did. for me, going into C&P blind was a psychological mindfuck so it gets a bonus for going first too! |
Anthracks
12.07.22 | I think TBK is the better novel than C&P. My personal top 3 for big D is TBK, Underground, and The Double |
Trifolium
12.07.22 | I really loved both Dmitri and Ivan in TBK. They're here to stay in my list of super real non-real persons in my head.
Haven't read C&P yet, but it certainly is on my list. Also really enjoyed The Idiot, that ending was hair raising. |
kalkwiese
12.07.22 | I wonder if the idea for Brothers Karamasov is taken from the brothers in the tavern at the end of Don Quijote Volume 1.
Dostojewski sounds like something I would like. That's something I will read in the future |
Trifolium
12.07.22 | Oooh nice! I looooved Don Quixote, and it could very well be indeed. Its influence can be felt everywhere. |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | I think C&P is more concise, more realized, and way way way more unique in its tone which is why I prefer it. I have more issues with TBK than it (the court scene feels like a taxi driver running out the meter, despite it also containing some of the most important themes of the novel), but when TBK hits you literally feel closer to God, or further depending on who's talking lol |
Trifolium
12.07.22 | Interesting. Conciseness indeed is not something one could resent TBK for. I'll get around to C&P one day for sure. |
TheSpaceMan
12.07.22 | i'm not criticizing TBK for its lack of conciseness for the record, i'm just saying C&P feels more pin pointed with what its doing which my brain prefers. theyre going for different things. one of Karamazovs best qualities is how... fragmented it is? idk the word. it just makes the experience feel so much more *real*. like its stripping away narrative. shit just happens unrelated to one another just like in real life but ultimately it shapes everyone into who they are just like the book |
Trifolium
12.08.22 | Yeah I know! Your love for it jumps from the screen, don't worry. And agreed, it really felt like a very complete experience and I don't think it should have been different in any way. |
TheSpaceMan
12.08.22 | Totally agree! It's almost couldn't be any different. I read somewhere that he was writing a sequel to it when he passed. Could you imagine? |
Egarran
12.08.22 | I think it's only Zak and me who are fans of Ian M. Banks' Culture series.
But I just started re-reading Use Of Weapons and it's just wonderful. Even if you're not a sci-fi enjoyer.
I recommend starting with this. Because you probably want to read them all afterwards. |
Trifolium
12.08.22 | "I read somewhere that he was writing a sequel to it when he passed. Could you imagine?"
Oh yeah, read this too! Would be super weird and I don't know if I'd want to know what that sequel entails.
Just like with Catch 22, which does have a published sequel, but the ending of the original was so good I don't want to ever read it (probably... (maybe...)). |
Trifolium
12.08.22 | Where should I start with this series Eggy? |
Egarran
12.08.22 | They're all stand-alone which is nice. But I recommend starting with Use of Weapons because it kind of reads like a historical drama and I know you like those. |
Trifolium
12.08.22 | Nice. On my list of 'to read' it goes! |
Anthracks
12.08.22 | I was worried that Stella Maris wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as The Passenger, but god damn mccarthy goes hard as fuck in this |
Anthracks
12.08.22 | Also if anyone finds any great theories or explanations about the Blood Meridian connections in these books, please share. I won’t be able to re-read them for a while yet |
combustion07
12.08.22 | Blood Meridian is one of the greatest books of all time imo. Absolutely love it. Not sure what books are being discussed as being connected with it but I'd be interested in checking them out.
Got the latest installment of John Dies At the End. Excited to dive into it. One of the only kind of comedic series that I've actually gotten into |
combustion07
12.08.22 | I'm dumb. Guessing comment right above mine is listing the books with connection lol |
TheSpaceMan
12.09.22 | Anthrax I'm like 200 pages into The Passenger I'll hopefully finish both before the end of the year but I'm a slow reader |
Sharenge
12.09.22 | need to check me out some more of McCarthy's novels... I've only read The Orchard Keeper and The Road (and of course I've seen the film for No Country for Old Men but never read it)
recently discovered Ben Nichols' The Last Pale Light in the West and I've been jamming it quite a bit lately - dude pretty much made a little uh concept album about Blood Meridian or whatever you would call it
but yeah that combined with hearing the talk about his recent new books has kind of got me itching to make a trip to the emporium to get some more of his works (would probs be looking for a copy of Blood Meridian mainly) |
TheSpaceMan
12.09.22 | blood meridian is absurdly good i recommend it |
DocSportello
12.09.22 | if you've only read the road and/or no country for old men you have no idea what mccarthy is capable of, and i'm envious you have the opportunity to experience that for the first time. his newest ones are fantastic and a shock to the system |
Anthracks
12.09.22 | my cormac ranking is
Blood Meridian
The Crossing
The Passenger / Stella Maris
All the Pretty Horses
Cities of the Plain
No Country for Old Men
Child of God
Outer Dark
Suttree
The Road
The Orchard Keeper
i'm sure most would place suttree higher than me and no country lower than me n thats ok. i don't really know what the general reception is on the new one(s) (they are absolutely one novel in my mind) - but they are definitely top tier mccarthy and more than the sum of their parts |
Sharenge
12.10.22 | lol so apparently I've read the two worst of his novels |
Sharenge
12.10.22 | lol that was the longest book I'd ever read for the longest time
honestly a pretty easy read though outside of the sheer length... was one of my favorite King novels back in the day, dunno if I'd still feel that way or not... probs |
twlight
12.10.22 | the bible
dune
pillars of the earth |
twlight
12.10.22 | im trying to get through the old testament and wow, that's a journey
mostly disagree with what it says but i think it's good to read
sputnik bible club sundays? lets go! |
Sharenge
12.10.22 | we bibin |
DocSportello
12.10.22 | ecclesiastes goes hard |
Egarran
12.10.22 | Matthew 25:31-46 ftw
tl;dr: we're all going to Hell |
DadKungFu
12.10.22 | Finished Molloy by Beckett, much more enjoyable than Waiting for Godot tbh, the running theme of deterioration and the black humor throughout make it a pretty morbid experience |
AlexKzillion
12.12.22 | do you all write in your books??
reading the selected poems of frank o'hara write now and have really enjoyed researching these obscure (for me at least) names and phrases and annotating the pages [in pencil]... never tried it with a non-poem book tho |
Josh D.
12.12.22 | The only thing I do is put those neon colored 3M tabs on pages to denote certain things I may want to find easily later. Like one color for quotes, one color for a general passage, etc. I mostly read history, so things that really catch my attention get marked. |
Mort.
12.13.22 | 'do you all write in your books??'
yeah i write definitions next to words i dont know and i also make notes about everything and anything. also keep a lil black book where i write down my thoughts after each book, even if its just a stream of keywords
|
Egarran
12.15.22 | Ooh sounds good.
I'm currently fighting my way through Moore's Providence. It's good, but the handwritten notes at the end of each chapter are taxing. |
Anthracks
12.15.22 | finished up the buried giant by kazuo ishiguro (my last ishiguro cry), first snow on fuji by yasunari kawabata, and ace: what asexuality reveals about desire, society, and the meaning of sex by angela chen
up next is i'm glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy |
Mort.
12.15.22 | what did you think of the Buried Giant? id say its up there with Remains of the Day and The Unconsoled for my fav Ishiguro |
Anthracks
12.15.22 | it is definitely among his best work. very strong in atmosphere and strong overall messaging. his prose doesn't fit fantasy at all but it's part of what makes it work so well. my ranking for ishiguro is something like:
The Remains of the Day
The Unconsoled
An Artist of the Floating World
The Buried Giant
Klara and the Sun
A Pale View of Hills
Never Let Me Go
When We Were Orphans
Nocturnes |
Mort.
12.15.22 | ah based on what ive read of ishiguro we have very similar rankings. currently on artist of the floating world. havent got round klara, orphans or nocturnes yet
he seemed like he a very nice guy when he visited my uni (where he did his masters) after his nobel prize win. really humble |
Anthracks
12.15.22 | i was interested to read that he re-wrote the buried giant from scratch when his wife told him she didn't like it. lol |
Anthracks
12.18.22 | reading finnegans wake to top off the year cya bitches |
Egarran
12.19.22 | Now that's a flex. |
Josh D.
12.19.22 | When I finish what I'm on now in about a week, I'm gonna fuckin' do it: I'm reading Moby Dick. |
kalkwiese
12.19.22 | A huge flex indeed. Please tell us if it was somehow in any shape or form enjoyable |
ToSmokMuzyki
12.19.22 | its more of a 19th century encyclopedia on whales but if u take that all out the 200 or so pgs of narrative arent bad |
ToSmokMuzyki
12.19.22 | o the wake. i mean if u like dr seuss ye |
TheSpaceMan
12.20.22 | https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/679/chapter-30-the-pipe/ |
TheSpaceMan
12.20.22 | ^best chapter ever written |
TheSpaceMan
12.20.22 | stands on its own, like 500 words and no spoilers. its the best prose ever and it actually blows me away everytime i read it. |
MiloRuggles
12.20.22 | Moby Dick is unreal, enjoy dawg
I need to get me another copy of the wake, mine got w e t and I wasn't very far in!
About half way through the passenger atm, gonna read the recognitions next |
Anthracks
12.20.22 | im enjoying finnegans wake a lot so far actually. it's not nearly as daunting as its reputation would suggest, especially because i don't think it's intended to be fully understood. the subject matter is not particularly deep and it's really just this funny visceral dream trip. i think anyone with a lackluster vocabulary will struggle to pick up what joyce is putting down but it's a lot of fun. we will see if it wears off after 600 pages though |
Josh D.
12.20.22 | Herman Melville was whaling out of New Bedford when Frederick Douglass arrived after escaping, so I've had interest in it in a while. There's no proof they ever met, but I'm hoping reading it gives me a sense of time and place from real life experience, etc. |
Mort.
12.26.22 | asked for books for christmas and books were what i received!
got the following:
jg ballard - the atrocity exhibition
jg ballard - empire of the sun
anatole france - revolt of the angels
pd james - children of men
kingsley amis - the alteration
ursula k le guin - the dispossessed
|
Egarran
12.26.22 | Nice haul. Only read Children of Men. Interestingly, the movie was better.
The only literature I got was Book 3 of Swamp Thing. |
CugnoBrasso
12.26.22 | In 2023 I'll have to read tons of crap for my job, so yeah... See you in 2024 great literature. |
Anthracks
12.28.22 | finished finnegans wake which i actually really loved. it is fairly inconsistent and the first 200 pages are by far the strongest at what he's doing, but that's kind of a given with how long it took him to write it. there are a few sections (2.1, 2.2, 3.3) where i have almost no concept; i think 2.2 was joyce using absolutely frustrating structure to make you FEEL the frustrations and complexities of love as opposed to understanding them. fellow dark souls lovers... reading this book is the equivalent of hitting tomb of the giants right from the start - you're going to comprehend about 5-40% of what's happening and that's by design. like being the hook in a large body of water, a profound thought will grab you suddenly and severely and then back to ignorance. my interpretation of the book is that it is all of a man's thoughts being released at once upon death and we are reading that instant of time. i haven't read any of the analysis and idk if i will. i felt like my brain was being replaced by the end of it. an experience i will remember forever.
finishing up a confession and other religious writings by leo tolstoy and that will probably be it for the year |
Egarran
12.28.22 | Well done, sounds amazing. One of my gurus, R.A. Wilson, did an interview about FW - maybe you'll appreciate:
https://youtu.be/Gh2qMf2f8qo |
Anthracks
12.28.22 | idk if i can commit to an hour and a half of someone else's interpretation of the book haha. i'm sure it's a great listen, but i'm really loving where it's sitting in my mind and i don't feel the need at this point to understand what other people have mined from it, no matter how esteemed.
FW wasn't the hardest book i've read this year. that title goes to the Lusiads (old portuguese epic poem). i guess the main reason is because FW isn't meant to be understood, whereas you are expected to follow the writing in the lusiads. i will say i think a lot of the people looking for narrative in FW are kinda missing the point (throughout the text he is repetitively rhapsodizing about the futility of attempting to understand anything in life). the readers who get stressed out seem to be the ones who HAVE to understand everything and i think joyce was intentionally sending those readers on a fruitless (matter of perspective) quest
but of course the true measure of any work is how it leaves itself open to multiple interpretations, so that is its greatness. |
Egarran
12.28.22 | Very understandable. One day I shall attempt to open it. |
Anthracks
12.29.22 | Anyone got Goodreads btw? I use that app a lot for tracking reading |
kalkwiese
12.29.22 | Yea, me too |
UpwardSpiral
12.29.22 | just finished Peace by Gene Wolfe for the 4th time I think, one of my all time favourite books. |
Mort.
12.29.22 | https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/33693865-dean-rutherford
my goodreads if anyone wants to add me |
Anthracks
12.29.22 | added!
heres mines
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/22556951-pyramids-ubiquitous |
kalkwiese
12.30.22 | Added both of you, but I am shying away from sharing my own link |
Josh D.
12.30.22 | 100 pages into Moby-Dick, I like it fine thus far, aye. |
Jasdevi087
01.01.23 | Crime & Punishment fucks
we're on to Naked Lunch now and boy is this the fucking novel |
kalkwiese
01.01.23 | My last read of the year was The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Was a nice way to end the year |
Anthracks
01.01.23 | final book count for 2022 was 116. will definitely not read as many in 2023.
first read of 2023 is folio's mindblowing edition of Neverending Story by michael ende |
WeepingBanana
01.04.23 | Finally stepping to Underworld, loving it so far. Been moderately iffy on DeLillo but this is definitely changing my mind |
frozencarl
01.04.23 | i need to stop reading such long books. 2022 was pretty much spent reading the first Wheel of Time book and Pillars of the Earth.
Wheel of Time was okay, didnt feel super inspired to read more despite having found the entire box series on the side of the road a few years back. Havent finished Pillars of the Earth yet but digging its intricacy so far, feels much more epic than WoT despite not being high fantasy |
AlexKzillion
01.04.23 | "final book count for 2022 was 116."
lmao mine was only 16. hoping to at least double that in 2023
reading jane eyre currently... my goal this year is to get acquainted with a lot more classics |
MiloRuggles
01.07.23 | Finished up The Passenger (cool, yup, if tonally inconsistent) and Stella Maris (oh my fucking word that was good and will probably make me flick through The Passenger again).
Fuckin with some Keri Hulme short stories atm and have just started The Recognitions; it is difficult, it is fun, it is funny! |
Ryus
01.07.23 | a collection of short stories by chekhov. next up is leaves of grass. never read any whitman and i cant wait |
robertsona
01.07.23 | Chekhov’s plays r prob my fav plays |
CugnoBrasso
01.13.23 | I almost forgot that life is meaningless, so I'm reading some Buzzati. |
Mort.
01.13.23 | reading the Atrocity exhibition |
DadKungFu
01.13.23 | Doing The Sound And The Fury, really good, can't understand why Nabokov didn't like Faulkner |
Anthracks
01.14.23 | finished david milch's memoir life's work, which was really good and heartbreaking. he was way too smart for the tv industry. also finished poor folk and the landlady by fyodor dostoevsky
next up is tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by gabrielle zevin |
DePlazz
01.14.23 | Finished Littell's "Les Bienveillantes", which improved my French but did very little to improve my appreciation of humanity. Sick novel. |
Mort.
01.14.23 | i would like opinions on gillian flynn and whether she is boring or not. i think she is very boring. others seem to disagree. |
porcupinetheater
01.15.23 | Do not trust authors you find in airport bodegas |
Anthracks
01.15.23 | i doubt she's a very talented writer but gone girl made an entertaining film |
Mort.
01.15.23 | ok thank you mr pine |
BMDrummer
01.15.23 | reading st augustine's confessions, fun stuff lol. just got derrida's specters of marx and hopefully gonna read that next, read all of mark fisher's stuff years ago and excited to explore the origins of hauntology more |
Mort.
01.19.23 | just finished The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard. probably my favourite experimental novel (although i havent read many). has Ballards classic medical detached vocab. pretty funny in parts, especially in his annotations.
reading The Children of Men next |
MiloRuggles
01.19.23 | >Do not trust authors you find in airport bodegas
I recently bought Stella Maris at one such establishment
but I like this imperative |
Mort.
01.19.23 | prescence is airpot bodege due to newness should be excepted/accepted |
Anthracks
01.20.23 | aren't airport bodegas like 80% new releases? |
Anthracks
01.26.23 | finished the hamlet by william faulkner and happening by annie ernaux (2022 nobel winner)
next up the seven moons of maali almeida by shehan karunatilaka (2022 man booker winner) |
Mort.
01.26.23 | reading The Alteration by Kingsley Amis
|
DePlazz
01.26.23 | What happened to The Children of Men |
DePlazz
01.26.23 | Reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr |
Mort.
01.26.23 | just decided i wanted to read The Alteration next instead. Children of Men will probably be after that
enjoying The Alteration so far, didnt even know castratos were a thing. Finding some of the very catholic terminology hard to follow without constant googling. Going to add Lucky Jim to my to-read list |
Shuyin
01.26.23 | Isaac Asimov - Foundation |
Ryus
01.27.23 | working my way through the complete walt whitman as i also start my pynchon journey with V. |
Anthracks
01.29.23 | enjoy. i'm finishing pynchon's canon this year once i read against the day and bleeding edge. i've been doing 2 every year to stretch it out. hope he's got one left in him |
AlexKzillion
01.29.23 | reading the plague |
Anthracks
01.30.23 | Seven moons of maali almeida was surprisingly good since I usually hate anything written after 2010. Gay photographer mysteriously dies and has 7 days to investigate his death from the afterlife. School of Rushdie all the way
Up next is the rabbit hutch by Tess gunty (national book award 2022) |
robertsona
01.30.23 | sometimes you see cool authors in airport stores: when I flew to LAX I got to pick up a copy of "Afterparties"...
DePlazz, what do you think of the Doerr? It's so readable, but the plot and characters and the unfolding of things between them seem so easily categorized as "manipulation": illness, war, family trauma, and none of them represented with a particularly light hand. And yet it was the first book in over a year at the time that I was able to finish... |
Anthracks
02.02.23 | read james joyce's poems on his birthday
did not like the rabbit hutch. always a red flag when a debut novel wins a major book award that's not exclusively for debut novels
next up is song of solomon by toni morrison |
kalkwiese
02.04.23 | That's interesting. Why is that a red flag? Does that mean it's a certain type of book? |
Ryus
02.04.23 | up next: the power broker by caro. been on my list for years, but for obvious reasons i've put it off until i've felt like i have the time to dig into it. so excited. can't wait to learn just how badly moses fucked up my dear hometown |
Anthracks
02.04.23 | it's a red flag for many reasons. what could an early 20s year old writer possibly have to say that has the capacity to impact the world? it happens yeah but most people haven't experienced much by that age. most authors spend their first few works developing a style and narrative voice. in fact, i think every single author i love their first books were either writing exercises or mediocre - but even more prominently they're almost never about anything meaningful because they know they have to work out the kinks before tackling any worthwhile subject matter. also, there are so so so so so many modern authors whose first novel is a sort of pseudo-autobiographical book based on their "hometown" or time spent doing x and more often than not that author has difficulty with thematic inspiration beyond the first work; it usually ends up being a regurgitation of their autobiographical material and you realize their insight isn't very universal at all. sure i can think of more reasons why but those are the main ones. there are of course always exceptions. |
Mort.
02.04.23 | 'there are so so so so so many modern authors whose first novel is a sort of pseudo-autobiographical book based on their "hometown" or time spent doing x and more often than not that author has difficulty with thematic inspiration beyond the first work; it usually ends up being a regurgitation of their autobiographical material and you realize their insight isn't very universal at all. sure i can think of more reasons why but those are the main ones. there are of course always exceptions.'
big truth |
Mort.
02.04.23 | also why i have not read any sally rooney and probably wont for a long time |
kalkwiese
02.05.23 | Okay, I see your point and it definitely makes sense to me. Thanks |
Mort.
02.05.23 | finished the alteration, just started children of men
pd james is not amazing at dialogue but otherwise this is great |
Mort.
02.07.23 | just finisbed Children of men. very very good. tad sentimental but i sort of expect that from christian fiction. easily one of my favourite reads from the last couple of years |
DadKungFu
02.07.23 | Hitting up D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers, pretty good so far |
Ryus
02.07.23 | nice dad i just bought that for $3 from my local bookstore yesterday |
Anthracks
02.08.23 | song of solomon was my favorite morrison so far
read the evidence of things not seen by james baldwin which is a fantastic essay and black and female by tsitsi dangarembga |
Anthracks
02.19.23 | read pride and prejudice by jane austen and breasts and eggs by mieko kawakami
next up is if on a winter's night a traveler by italo calvino |
Mort.
02.19.23 | have been slacking on reading the first QI book (really just a long list of random factoids) in favour of tackling some sudoku and cryptic crosswords
|
Parallels
02.19.23 | @DadKungFu D.H. Lawrence is one of my favorites. Love how his books illuminate the interior workings of relationships. I just got a trilogy of his novellas I'll be reading next. The Fox/The Captain's Doll/The Ladybird |
Parallels
02.19.23 | also just got
Ian Rankin - The Complaints
Yoko Ogawa - The Memory Police
Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing
Patrick Suskind - Perfume
Jose Saramago - Blindness and Seeing
any opinions please advise for discussion purposes |
MiloRuggles
02.19.23 | Just finished The Remains of the Day and it was fucking hilarious and sad. Love how limited the narrator's perspective is and how Ishiguro manages to navigate through that to reveal things that the protaganist completely misreads, great stuff 8/10 |
Mort.
02.19.23 | remains of the day is a 10/10 for me. perfectly encapsulates some very english approaches to life.
@parallels, i read Perfume last year and came across an interesting perspective online which was that the main character can be read as a sort of cipher for an autistic person (and also as a cipher as a 0, a blank space that others find disconcerting). something to keep in mind while reading it. |
Ryus
02.19.23 | the power broker is amazing so far. anyone read it? |
Colton
02.19.23 | i'm reading Eragon and Artemis Fowl |
Anthracks
02.19.23 | Remains of the day is a perfect novel. Great character study and great historical analysis. The best example of Ishiguro’s powerful restraint |
Mort.
02.19.23 | speaking of Ishiguro, Del Toro is supposedly going to make a stop motion adaptation of The Buried Giant
i am very excited
and also, the film Remains Of The Day is brilliant and one of my favourite adaptations. |
Parallels
02.19.23 | Thanks Mort, I'll keep that in mind about Perfume |
frozencarl
02.21.23 | @Ryus I want to, but having read Death and Life of American Cities by Jane Jacobs and getting a master's degree in city planning in NYC I feel like I'm a bit burnt out on Moses lol |
Anthracks
02.21.23 | if on a winter's night a traveler did not disappoint. my first 10/10 read for the year.
next up is folio society's stunning edition of the book of the new sun by gene wolfe
i'll also be reading a house of pomegranates by oscar wilde and the eye by vladimir nabokov to break it up |
Jasdevi087
02.22.23 | getting kafka'd rn, but also just finished Frankenstein in Baghdad, which was kinda cool but structured in a weird way that makes it a somewhat unsatisfying journey |
Ryus
02.22.23 | @frozencarl dude that is incredibly cool, definitely a path that i could have taken in another life. are u trying to work for the city when u graduate? honestly idk what other types of jobs there are for a degree like that lol. |
robertsona
02.22.23 | I've read a good amount but definitely not all of the power broker. it's incredibly written, the intro spectacular, but set off in me a lifelong desire not to see shit like "he yawned" in a biography or history book. how the fuck do you know he yawned? |
robertsona
02.22.23 | been reading An Immense World from last year which is really cool |
Egarran
02.22.23 | Out Of The Ruins: An Apocalyptic Anthology.
When I wake up in the night and can't fall asleep again, I read one of these stories. Works like a charm. |
Mort.
02.22.23 | 'book of the new sun by gene wolfe'
had never heard of this, looked it up and it sounds great |
combustion07
02.22.23 | Had a few credits stacked up on audible and went ahead and grabbed the first book in the Book of the New Sun series and I think I'll get Out of the Ruins too. Surprised I've never heard of Out of the Ruins considering Clive Barker has a story in it |
Zig
02.22.23 | Calvin & Hobbes is such great literature! |
Egarran
02.22.23 | Ah combustion beware. I also noticed Barker's name but he only contributed with a small poem:
The Hour! The Hour! Upon the Hour!
The Munkee spits and thickets cower
And what has become of the Old Man’s power
But tears and trepidation?
The Hour! The Hour! Upon the Hour!
Mother’s mad and the milk’s gone sour
But yesterday I found a flower
That sang Annunciation.
And when all the Hours become Day,
And all the Days have passed away,
Shall we not see- yes, you and me-
How sweet and bright the light will be
That comes of our Creation? |
combustion07
02.22.23 | Ah I see. That's slightly disappointing. Was hoping for an awesome apocalyptic tale from him! Might still give the collection a go anyhow though |
frozencarl
02.22.23 | @ryus yea thats basically what I did, graduated this summer and am now working for the city. for how long, thats another story- city work is a bit....soul crushing (not to mention the "pay"). but it is very cool to work in a position that directly counters everything Robert Moses was about. have you read any Jane Jacobs? |
WeepingBanana
02.22.23 | @carl and @ryus do you have opinions on Mike Davis? I thought City of Quartz was fantastic and I’ve been meaning to read more, but I’d imagine it’s pretty in line with Jacobs and The Power Broker type stuff
Definitely trying to read more nonfiction/theory about various human ecology topics this year |
MillionDead
02.22.23 | Recently finished Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Honestly I had a wonderful time with it. He had a great writing voice; wrote some crazy run on sentences though. |
frozencarl
02.22.23 | @weeping I haven't read any of his books but I really ought to, gonna add City of Quartz to the list. his work definitely came up in class though. my program was very NYC-focused but there is much to learn from the abject planning failure that is LA. |
MiloRuggles
02.22.23 | Woah, peeps checking Wolfe! If you're feeling super keen, rereading BotNS is quite rewarding.
butbutbut fucking read The Fifth Head of Cerberus, it is crazy good |
unclereich
02.22.23 | check Thomas Wolfe |
Egarran
02.23.23 | woah are they related? |
PumpBoffBag
02.23.23 | About halfway through Bret Easton Ellis’ new book. It’s pretty great but I am a huge fan of his writing style, so a bit biased |
combustion07
02.27.23 | Just revisited No Country For Old Men in audio form and man it's such an amazing book. The ending of the Wells portion and the sheriff's moments looking back on Nam and speaking about God are some of the best things ever written imo. So damn good. Gotta go watch the movie again too since it's probably been at least 8 to 10 years since I last saw it |
combustion07
02.27.23 | Having read No Country, Blood Meridian and The Road what should I get next from McCarthy? Those 3 are all favorites of mine. I think Blood Meridian is my favorite overall but man you just can't go wrong with any of them tbh |
Anthracks
02.27.23 | i'd say outer dark or child of god. a nice short dark one - then dive into the entire border trilogy in succession. then hit the other (child or outer dark) that you missed... then hit suttree. passenger / stella maris should definitely be last |
Jasdevi087
02.28.23 | just finishing up A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiongo, fantastic novel.
Gonna be starting McCarthy in a bit, but it's The Crossing. Seeing Anthracks recommend doing the entire border trilogy in succession makes me all the more certain that wilin out by starting in the middle is absolutely the best course of action |
Anthracks
02.28.23 | i mean it's better than starting the third one first. they are absolutely meant to be read in succession. first two are only vaguely related and serve as a sort of counterpoint to each other (crossing hits much better after reading horses), but def need to read 1 and 2 before 3 |
Mort.
02.28.23 | starting The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin |
PumpBoffBag
02.28.23 | The Dispossessed is great, all of the books in that series are. Love the Earthsea books too |
CugnoBrasso
02.28.23 | Against the Day is taking quite a bit of time |
PumpBoffBag
02.28.23 | I've read V., Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow but not that one, is it worth it? |
Mort.
02.28.23 | yeah hadnt read le guin until late 2021. so far ive only read The Word for World is Forest and Left Hand of Darkness. loved both of them. looking forward to making my way through her works over the years |
DadKungFu
02.28.23 | 50 pages left in Sons and Lovers and holy shit Griffith's insights into the dynamics of relationships are impressive. Great read |
CugnoBrasso
02.28.23 | It's 100 % worth it. The prose in GR and TCoL49 is much more inaccessible, AtD is a light read in comparison (prose-wise I mean, but it's still convoluted beyond comprehension when it comes to the plot). |
PumpBoffBag
02.28.23 | Nice, will pop it onto my reading list. Cheers mate |
Jasdevi087
03.01.23 | @anthracks aight, you've twisted my arm. cities of the plain it is |
rabidfish
03.01.23 | Gonna start reading the red book by Jung. it's free on Internet Archive, that shit is so convenient for poor 3rd world dwellers like me! |
Egarran
03.01.23 | His autobiography is also sweet. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. |
Parallels
03.04.23 | @combustion07
Def read All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing after that |
Anthracks
03.07.23 | reading three at once again with folio's beautiful edition of Philip K Dick's selected stories, tress of the emerald sea by brandon sanderson (kickstarter book 1), and david and goliath by malcolm gladwell |
frozencarl
03.07.23 | just finished Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. truly a masterclass in good writing and uncanny spookiness. not sure how I feel about the ending just yet but I feel more inspired to delve into the literary horror genre |
Jasdevi087
03.13.23 | so I've just started Gravity's Rainbow (about 45 pages in) and boy this is the fucking book
i literally want to read the parts I've already just read again cause they're that good |
MiloRuggles
03.13.23 | It's definitely one you'll revisit! I've only read it once, but I occasionally pick it up and read a passage or two. Thinking I'll have another fully fledged crack at it in the next year or two
Still working through The Recognitions. Boy, she is long and I am still managing to miss plot points despite being 800+ pages deep. Grateful for section synopses on ye olde Gaddis Guide. Good stuff all in all, but a very particular brand of challenging |
Jasdevi087
03.13.23 | the passage right at the start where he's describing Prentice on the roof seeing the rocket being fired over the english channel before the sun rises... like, i swear i've been there in a dream, gave me chills |
CugnoBrasso
03.13.23 | Gravity's Rainbow is probably my favorite book. Currently reading Against the Day. |
DadKungFu
03.13.23 | Keep wanting to do Mason & Dixon but GR still remains my only Pynchon |
theBoneyKing
03.13.23 | Haven't updated this in a while but I recently finished The Witchwood Crown, the first book in The Last King of Osten Ard, Tad Williams' sequel series to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. Great stuff, slow af but deliberately so.
Taking a brief break from the chunky epic fantasy to read Devil House, John Darnielle's latest novel. |
DocSportello
03.13.23 | been on a McCarthy kick, read Child of God late last week and doing Suttree now. Hilarious and dark |
CugnoBrasso
03.13.23 | M&D is also on my list, and I'm planning to get V as well. I love Pynchon, he throws such a ridiculous amount of stuff at you that you can't possibly make sense of what's going on. I can understand why people hate him, everything he writes is chaotic and bewildering, but if you're into that kind of stuff, than he's your favotire author. |
DocSportello
03.13.23 | M&D is tied for my favorite novel I obviously love Pynchon |
DocSportello
03.13.23 | "the passage right at the start where he's describing Prentice on the roof seeing the rocket being fired over the english channel before the sun rises... like, i swear i've been there in a dream, gave me chills"
the whole novel has this insane fractal feeling to it |
CugnoBrasso
03.13.23 | Yeah judging by your nickname you must simp quite hard for him.
Every now and then I re-read the passage in which Katje's great-great-grandfather goes to Mauritius and mass-baptizes all the dodos, wild shit! |
Jasdevi087
03.15.23 | i feel like my post-grad subject being behaviour analysis and the fact that i just read a 900 page book about ww2 earlier in the year are doing me a massive favor in navigating parts of Gravity's Rainbow so far. |
porcupinetheater
03.15.23 | Nice, Boney, liked Devil House a lot. Takes a really interesting track to subverting the ethics of the true crime genre |
Mort.
03.15.23 | just finished The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin.
i loved this. 5/5. will be reading Le Guin in the future for sure. Only thing that i could criticise her for is that she tends to get a bit didactic at parts, especially in the long dialogues of back and forth philosophising common to utopian/dystopian novels (or more accurately, common to 'novels of ideas' or more broadly 'philosophical fiction')
But her philosophising is very interesting so its less obvious and unwieldy than others when her characters start going back and forth for multiple pages in ways that people very rarely do in real life |
Ryus
03.15.23 | needa get into some le guin
reading the city and the city interspersed with the power broker interspersed with beckett's three novels |
theBoneyKing
03.15.23 | Yeah porc, I'm 50-something pages into Devil House and digging it so far. It's perhaps a bit obvious in its themes at this point but I understand that it changes stylistically and gets more complicated and ambiguous after the first part so I'm looking forward to that. |
DadKungFu
03.15.23 | Ryus, where are you with Beckett? |
Mort.
03.15.23 | 'reading the city and the city '
love me some Mieville. check Gormenghast, Mieville is a big fan |
Jasdevi087
03.15.23 | how are you finding the city and the city? thought it was a cool idea, but didn't do much for me personally, just felt like an offbeat crime and thriller novel |
DocSportello
03.15.23 | decided to pick Knausgard back up for bedtime reading, started vol 2 last night and had a really fun time with his meditations on angels, light, and greed |
Mort.
03.15.23 | 'how are you finding the city and the city? '
know you werent asking me but id like to but in and say i largely agree with your assessment. its a good book with a cool concept. but its certainly not amazing.
i believe he wrote it as a gift his dying mother who was a big fan of crime novels. so i could be cynical and say its a genre that his heart really isnt in
i enjoyed Perdido Street Station tremendously so get the feeling his sci-fi/fantasy is better |
MiloRuggles
03.16.23 | Fiiiiiiiiiiiinally finished The Recognitions! Despite the onslaught of esoteric theology, furtive plotting, and incognito characters that undoubtedly passed me by, Gaddis very much lands the plane. The whole epilogue section is just loaded with dense, shithot prose that brings every storyline to a noteworthy close (even if I'm blanking on the significance of many particulars). Certainly won't revisit this any time soon, but I'm looking forward to letting my thoughts and feelings bake for a bit and then reading every learned opinion I can find on this tome.
Now to finish up Dubliners and Rabbit, Run, and then I'm very much looking forward to reading something more fun and something less somberly masculine.
Reading is cool, tell your friends. |
Egarran
03.16.23 | Kraken best Mieville |
Mort.
03.16.23 | just starting The Diary of Anne Frank. also restarted my Plato studies with Euthydemus |
dedex
03.16.23 | started The Need for Roots by Simone Weil. heavy stuff!! |
dbizzles
03.16.23 | Finished Breakfast of Champions. Not my favorite Vonnegut, but always a pleasure to read his stuff. Starting Maxwell's Demon by the guy that wrote Raw Shark Texts. |
Mort.
03.16.23 | “started The Need for Roots by Simone Weil. heavy stuff!!“
I love Simone Weil. Studied her pretty extensively while I was getting my philosophy bachelors. Let me know what you think of her
Read recently that were she alive today she would have most definitely been given an autism diagnosis and I have to agree. She very much fits the bill. Her personal life was fascinating |
porcupinetheater
03.16.23 | Oh dear Milo just say no to John Updike
Just found part 2 of In Search of Lost Time at a used book shop down the street. Have had a real bear finding anything past Swann's Way out here for some reason, hip hip hooray |
MiloRuggles
03.16.23 | Reading it on the recommendation of the only friend I have that actually reads good books, so obliged to see it through. Pretty handy wee writer, but I was very taken aback when a colleague told me that Rabbit is allegedly the hero of the tale—it's very much reading like a character study of an asshole so far.
Is there a Proust translator that's better than the rest, or is it all fine?
Mort, have you read Anne Frank before? I was in tears when I visited the house in Amsterdam. Such a powerful text.
Oh ye, also wading through Plato's Republic. Turns out statecraft and propaganda are real bumbuddies |
DocSportello
03.16.23 | @Milo I’ve only read the Moncrieff translation and I think the general consensus is that other translations may be more accessible/polished but Moncrieff captures Proust’s nuances best of them all |
porcupinetheater
03.16.23 | Think the Moncrieff & Kilmartin, later revised by Enright are generally considered the all around translated go-to
Only ones I've ever read as well, but they read very nicely
Best of luck wallowing through one of the worst eras in American literature, that morass of Roth/Updike sub-Brooklyn anti-Beatnik horny misogynists |
Mort.
03.16.23 | 'Mort, have you read Anne Frank before? I was in tears when I visited the house in Amsterdam. Such a powerful text.
Oh ye, also wading through Plato's Republic. Turns out statecraft and propaganda are real bumbuddies'
nope never. one of those books ive been meaning to get round to for a very long time.
and lol yeah. The Republic is incredibly authoritarian. in context of what Plato had spent his life doing and what hed experienced it made sense. people are fucking morons and athenians had first hand experience regarding democracies shortcomings.
personally i find the most interesting parts of it to be the parts regarding art and the epistemology/metaphysics. his actual politics is a bit boring
Highly reccomend Iris Murdoch's 'The fire and the sun: why plato banished the artists' for further reading. |
MiloRuggles
03.16.23 | >other translations may be more accessible/polished but Moncrieff captures Proust’s nuances best of them all
ooohhh intredasting, I'll peep some excerpts and see where I land
>Best of luck wallowing through one of the worst eras in American literature
tyty, I'm sure I'll be okay! I don't really mind reading disagreeable content tbh, means I get to hash out my own thoughts more accurately.
>in context of what Plato had spent his life doing and what hed experienced it made sense
Yeah, I'm not turned off or anything—it's pretty mindblowing thinking about the influence of these thoughts in the development of civilisations since. Cheers for the rec, shall add it to the list |
dedex
03.17.23 | @Mort, indeed her personal life was amazing, but yeah I can def feel the autism diagnosis stuff. She basically was the most fragile and stubborn person that went everywhere there was shit happening. So far L'Enracinement is great, but so far I preferred the working-class uprooting part to the peasant uprooting one (not sure at all about the wording, I'm reading it in French) |
Mort.
03.17.23 | yeah there was her stubborness, emotional fragility, desire to be accepted in the face of her realisation that she was different to other people (i always remember her quote that basically said were she to stumble upon a group of people passionately singing nazi anthems she would have struggled not to feel caught up in the feeling of brotherhood), her clumsiness, black and white thinking (she was capable of recognising the complextiy of human feeling yet said some genuinely vitriolic stuff about israel) the fact that one of her mentors literally called her The Martian as if she wasnt a human like everyone else
i could go on
|
Egarran
03.17.23 | >one of the worst eras in American literature, that morass of Roth/Updike sub-Brooklyn anti-Beatnik horny misogynists
Please say some more about that. I've always been intuitively against reading those guys, without exactly knowing why. |
Mort.
03.20.23 | anne frank's diary is making me sad |
Parallels
03.20.23 | >The Republic is incredibly authoritarian.
"Justice’s value is in its use to protect the things that aren’t being used at that moment."
I triple-taked reading that |
Mort.
03.21.23 | finished Anne Frank's diary, moving on to Count Zero by William Gibson, the second book in the Neuromancer trilogy |
Jasdevi087
03.22.23 | finally got through the first part of Gravity's Rainbow lol, uni work fucking killing me like i knew it would
and for all you seething nerds out there, i did actually find a copy of All the Pretty Horses. same 90s picador edition as The Crossing too so gonna look nice on the shelf when I'm done. rip trying to find Cities of the Plain in that edition tho |
Parallels
03.22.23 | man i just bought Gravity's Rainbow for fun |
MiloRuggles
03.22.23 | Final thoughts on Anne Frank's diary Mort.? I haven't read it in a decade or so, but it very much sticks with you.
Jas I have two of the trilogy in the same edition and haven't found the third yet haha no rush till I startem I guess
Geddit Parallels, keep us posted. Post excerpts. And nudes. |
Parallels
03.22.23 | I know you're still titillated from my latest review Milo but you missed the nude debut by at least 6 years |
kalkwiese
03.22.23 | Getting into Infinite Jest now. This one will take months, I can feel it.
And Nona The Ninth. That's something I need right now |
Parallels
03.22.23 | you dont need to feel that one, just lift it |
MiloRuggles
03.22.23 | Also Jas don't you dare be raiding For the Love of Books, that's my haunt and all the literature belongs to me (some bloke in Masterton sold me some sick versions of the OG Earthsea trilogy, so I think I'm reading that as me next winddown)
Parallels at least share your OF geez
|
Mort.
03.22.23 | 'Final thoughts on Anne Frank's diary Mort.? I haven't read it in a decade or so, but it very much sticks with you.'
i thought it provides good insight into the thoughts of a teenager. Brought up memories of being a confused teenager who wants to be older than they are.
I think the argument around the its importance as holocaust literature is very interesting. I know some people dont like the fame its attained because they think it portrays the horror of the holocaust in a sort of sanitised, almost romanticised way. Its not a diary of the concentration camps after all. Its the diary of a teenage girl complaining about her family and her love for a boy (although obviously apart from that it still contains its fair share of suffering and reasonable woes). Also that it allows people to package away and conceptualise the awfulness of the whole situation under the experience of one person, when millions were suffering.
But its impossible to really conceptualise/get a sense of the suffering of millions people, which is why these individual stories are important in the first place (reminded of that quote 'The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million a statistic')
it also reminded me of the pandemic. People stuck indoors having nothing to do but eat, talk, read and wile away the time. Obviously very different situations but i wouldnt be surprised if its a comparison that gets drawn on more in recent years |
Egarran
03.22.23 | Woah Samuel R. Delany had a sweet story in the post-apocalyptic anthology. It gave me a true feeling of alien-ness. I've never read anything by him but I must change that immediately.
So I just ordered Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. Any of you read anything by him? |
Jasdevi087
03.22.23 | @milo fugg, roadtrip time *devil emoji*
we are now locked in a battle for nzs only white spine picador copy of Cities of the Plain |
WeepingBanana
03.23.23 | I’ve read a handful of Delany, but not Starts in my Pocket. Enjoyed Nova, and Einstein Intersections, but thought Babel-17 wasn’t that great, but that probably could be chalked up to my headspace at the time. Great sf writer, but also some of his critical theory work is interesting. Time Square Red, Time Square Blue is great |
Mort.
03.23.23 | finished Euthydemus yesterday
turns out bad faith dickheads have always been a nuisance
actual argument in euthydemus:
'you have gods right?'
'yes'
'and to have means to own'
'err sort of'
'so you own your own gods? so youre above the gods?'
'what' |
kalkwiese
03.23.23 | That looks like a very toxic relationship these characters have tbh |
Egarran
03.23.23 | Thanks a lot Banana. Delany seems like an overall fascinating dude. |
Anthracks
03.28.23 | finished up stephen hero by james joyce, sirens of titan by kurt vonnegut, hell screen and other stories by ryunosuke akutagawa, uncle's dream by fyodor dostoevsky, the cossacks by leo tolstoy, and the friend by sigrid nunez
just started up richard iii by william shakespeare and victory city by salman rushdie (his newest novel) |
AeniasGaming
03.28.23 | oh hey a book thread. trying to read more this year, might as well pitch in
Slowly working through a lot of stuff right now. In the middle of a few Warhammer books (Horus Rising, The First Wall) - trying to get through the Siege of Terra so I don't spoil myself for whenever End and the Death gets to paperback. Aside from that I'm about a third of the way done with Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury. |
Deathconscious
03.28.23 | Almost 2/3rds into Children of Men. One of the few times I thought the movie was better. |
Mort.
03.28.23 | @anthracks - thoughts on Sirens of Titan? thats my favourite vonnegut
@deathconscious - honestly i found it hard to compare the movie with the book. the movie has to be a attention grabbing in a way the book doesnt have to be. hence why the movie is way crazier. PD James was apparently very happy with the film and thought it was a good adaption.
i like both versions quite a lot |
Deathconscious
03.28.23 | Sure, but even so, the suspense and sense of danger is pretty lacking in the book, considering the nature of the story. Also the overtly Christian message of the book just kind if grosses me out. |
Mort.
03.28.23 | i mean, the film was overtly christian aswell |
kalkwiese
03.28.23 | I am coming to the conclusion that Infinite Jest is a living in the moment kind of book where the vignettes are interesting on their own, but there isn't a classic plot. One should really know this before getting into the book |
Deathconscious
03.28.23 | @mort i dont think so, they kept some elements of it but it felt more open to interpretation. It felt like a secular movie using Christianity as a theme rather than a Christian movie with a Christian message, if that makes sense. Id have to watch it again for a better explanation though. |
Egarran
03.28.23 | >I thought the movie was better.
Agree. That movie is a christian miracle. |
someone
03.28.23 | read Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.
phenomenal metafictional work. now on to At Swim-Two-Birds |
MiloRuggles
03.30.23 | Finished Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. This was the closest I've come to enjoying something tangential to self help—there were a couple sections that floored me. Ultimately a simple and calming read.
Also finished Dubliners. It's best stories were really great, but a few didn't really do it for me. I'm not convinced that its historic specificity lands in a way that elevates it above its period beyond a few instances. Anyway, I'm excited to finally read Ulysses and see Joyce get a bit more playful with his ambitions. |
Jasdevi087
03.30.23 | yeah that was more or less how i felt about Dubliners too. there were parts that were a little too fixated on capturing minutae where they kinda just become banal snapshots from an old family photo album. But it does have several very strong short stories.
I'm gonna read portrait of the artist before doing ulysses, kinda feels like I'd be skipping part of a series |
MiloRuggles
03.30.23 | Been a while since I read Portrait, but I remember having similar impressions (although the scope is much more intimate, which sells that stuff a bit more convincingly I guess). Again, there is some really great stuff in amongst it though. I'm sure some passionate soul in here will tell me I missed the point, and I probably did too. |
DocSportello
03.30.23 | maybe an unpopular take but I've read portrait 3 times and each time I like it less, easily my least favorite Joyce |
Jasdevi087
03.30.23 | I mean I must admit, i'm not exactly looking forward to reading it. but at least it's pretty short, like it'll take me 5 days max, 3 days if it's mid-trimester break |
Tunaboy45
04.01.23 | books wot i read recently n that
Wuthering Heights
The Death of Bunny Munro
Currently reading Jude the Obscure |
someone
04.01.23 | Dubliners really need to be read through a slice-of-life lens with emphasis on the historical context. Joyce was attempting at bridging the gap between slights of Irish population at a time of great divide, showing the countryside and small town folk that those in the big cities were to great extent to their great likeness, much like what many contemporaries like Yeats, Kavanagh and Lady Gregory did the other way around. |
Parallels
04.01.23 | Jude is tragic, its like a relationship/religion/morality version of The Jungle |
Anthracks
04.02.23 | interesting take to have a least favorite joyce novel. he essentially wrote the same novel three times with three different writing styles and three different viewpoints (in that he kept increasing the strength of the microscope from the person to the day to the moment). they all deal in the exact same autobiographical material. all three novels are a perfect 10. reading stephen hero was an interesting glimpse at what Portrait was supposed to be, which would have been something similar to what Proust achieved with In Search of Lost Time but a bit more edgy
sirens of titan is really good. this was my little blurb on gr for it:
The Sirens of Titan is one of Vonnegut's stronger works. The intentions of his absurdism can be difficult to pinpoint, but this book seems to offer a meta-analysis of this: "Either you understand at once what it is, or there is no sense in trying to explain it to you." Sirens takes on the idea of meaning itself, whether it's the meaning of a work such as this or life itself. It tells the story of an individual who sees beyond this search for meaning and takes advantage of the reality of things; while everyone is searching for meaning or awaiting divine instruction or intervention, this person is seizing the exact existence they have chosen to seize (and usually stepping over those others in the process - he even further establishes that this is not necessarily a bad thing). He does utilize the absurdity of religion to assert this point and deals also with the idea that greatness (even to divine scale) is primarily a matter of chance. This character understands what he has control over in each moment. There's a sort of angle about determinism versus free will as well, particularly with the Malachi Constant character.
One of the best aspects of Vonnegut's work is that while there is a deeper meaning if you want to look for it, the story is just as enjoyable if you don't think too much about it. Sirens of Titan does a really good job of presenting that balance that he would perfect in novels like Slaughterhouse-Five. The thing about revelations is that there will always be a new revelation, so what's the point in understanding any of it? In the final analysis, Vonnegut succinctly boils down the meaning of life to the reader in asserting that, "A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."
also finished the comedy of errors by william shakespeare and another oscar wilde short story collection |
Anthracks
04.02.23 | on the subject of joyce i'm going to ireland this year and am excited to visit the ulysses places and museums, though i know he hated ireland mostly |
Mort.
04.02.23 | 'One of the best aspects of Vonnegut's work is that while there is a deeper meaning if you want to look for it, the story is just as enjoyable if you don't think too much about it. '
yes this is an aspect of vonnegut that gets overlooked sometimes. if let alone that philosophical aspect of his work, hes still a joy to read |
Tunaboy45
04.02.23 | I love Vonnegut for his expert balance between compelling prose and lofty philosophical ideas, and the fart jokes. |
Tunaboy45
04.02.23 | @Parallels I'm having to pace myself with Jude more than any other book, I'm reading it when the right mood finds me. |
budgie
04.02.23 | "i feel like my post-grad subject being behaviour analysis and the fact that i just read a 900 page book about ww2 earlier in the year are doing me a massive favor in navigating parts of Gravity's Rainbow so far."
hastings? |
Jasdevi087
04.02.23 | Beevor |
budgie
04.02.23 | oook beevor
i read the 900 page hastings ww2 tome and hated it
beevor is also a "british military historian" im pretty sick of british historians tbh |
Jasdevi087
04.02.23 | he tries to be reasonably balanced, but he does make some silly consessions to the british during the book. like right after talking about the bombing of dresden he feels he needs to qualify allied atrocities with "ok but the germans killed more!" which is a hilariously british take that they've historically used yo justify the crimes they committed during colonialism too, so it's funny reading a british historian do the same thing for the fucking air raids on Germany.
overall though he does make an effort to reflect on the human casualties of ww2 (he certainly doesn't pull punches re: the japanese and the russians, the Ukrainians get dragged a lot too), but it is mostly interested in detailing the war via military movements, which can get pretty tedious |
Mort.
04.02.23 | lol yeah that sounds like british military history to me
|
budgie
04.02.23 | re ukrainians: the jews hanging from lamp posts on streets throughout odessa? i think i read about that in a mazower book, straight horror fiction |
Jasdevi087
04.02.23 | the long and short of it is, the Ukrainians for the most part sided with the nazi's, as they saw it as an opportunity to escape soviet control. unfortunately the also saw it as an excellent opportunity for pogroms. they had big trenches where they'd march jews to and mass execute them. I think Ukraine had one of the largest proportional Jewish murder rates in the whole of occupied europe or something crazy |
CugnoBrasso
04.06.23 | I wanted to buy "The Book of Disquiet" by Pessoa, but the number of pages is either 280 or 540 depending on the edition, does anybody know why? |
Mort.
04.06.23 | 'It was to Bernardo Soares that Pessoa ascribed his Book of Disquiet, first made available in English in a briefer version by Richard Zenith in 1991.'
i see this on the wikipedia page. perhaps its simply a shorter version? |
AlexKzillion
04.06.23 | finished the trial of henry kissinger by christopher hitchens today, starting lolita after work |
CugnoBrasso
04.06.23 | Huh, weird choice. Also, the English translation is not the only one to be so ambiguous, that seems to be the cases with most versions.
A book so mysterious that you don't even know which edition to buy. |
AlexKzillion
04.07.23 | had no idea what i was getting myself into, just trying to become more well versed in the "classics". 25 pages in i see what you mean lmao
edit: now realizing you were replying to mort |
Anthracks
04.14.23 | usually length of book is distended if there is are appendices - like each time there's a reference in a poem it directs you to an appendix. happens a lot with philosophy definitely less common with poetry in my experiences. some publishers also simply try to conserve pages and won't do one poem per page* like it's intentioned.
i took a short break from reading, but now i'm starting the lake by yasunari kawabata. this is the final translated work i have to read from him before the translation of The Rainbow comes out in november. |
Jasdevi087
04.19.23 | finished Gravity's Rainbow and I don't know if it's a hard 5 or a hard 1 and I think it would be incredibly on brand to suggest it's both at the same time.
have started All the Pretty Horses and reading it immediately after labouring through Gravity's Rainbow for over a month experiencing both the peaks and nadirs of human thought, reading this feels like that relief after having a ferociously impacted wisdom tooth pulled |
Mort.
04.19.23 | damn i really need to get a copy of gravitys rainbow
havent been reading much last couple of weeks as i decided to watch the sopranos instead. good show. gonna read some journal articles about it when i get the chance |
Sharenge
04.19.23 | recently picked up All the Pretty Horses but dunno when I'll get around to it, probably not for some while - plan to read Blood Meridian first, and probably won't read them one after the other but we'll see
Sopranos has lots of nice supplementary content to check... would recommend probably any interview with David Chase... also Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa (actors that play Chrissy and Bobby) had a fairly recent podcast where they went through the whole series and every episode of the podcast focused on an episode of the show (and if I remember correctly, most or all episodes were introduced with an interview with another member of the cast first before they would dive into whichever episode they were on)
o yeah, books right |
kalkwiese
04.19.23 | 40% into Infinite Jest
It's quite satifying to see the threads connect, but it's also quite an undertaking
Nona The Ninth is so much fun in comparison. Muir as great humor and just knows how to use words. I haven't enjoyed a book series this much in a long time tbh. |
Sharenge
04.19.23 | finishing up reread of The Hunt for Red October... guess I should probably start the copy of Red Storm Rising I recently picked up after that since that was the whole reason I decided to reread this in the first place (even though I know you don't really have to read Tom Clancy novels in order and while I know some of his novels have overlapping characters and whatnot ie take place in the same 'universe', I'm pretty sure Red Storm isn't connected to his first novel at all but whatever)
guess I might also give the movie a watch then since I've never seen it... be cool to actually see some of the stuff... nuclear-powered submarines lurkin' and stuff |
AlexKzillion
04.20.23 | finished fast food nation by eric schlosser
will start money by martin amis later today
been averaging a book a week for the past month feels good |
dedex
04.20.23 | reading Seneca's letter. cool stuff but my stoic ass prefers good ol' Marcus Aurelius.
"been averaging a book a week for the past month feels good"
that's hella based, good for you |
MiloRuggles
04.20.23 | The Sopranos is probably in my top 10 art of all media. Plenty of production flaws (particularly early on) but it has an outrageous amount of great characters/performances
Finished The Wizard of Earthsea and it was a solid 3.5. Some of the most economical plotting I've read in a while. Excited for the world to expand a bit with the sequels
Finished Rabbit, Run. There's some amazing writing as far as domestic horror goes; bodies and house interiors weaponised against characters who are in pretty dire shape. Not so awful as some suggested re: awful sexism/toxic masculinity, as it very much scans as a condemnation of most of Rabbit's shitty behaviour. From what I understand this unravels a bit with later novels in the (((series???!!!))) which I won't bother reading anywhomst
Reading Stonefish by Keri Hulme as a warm-up for The Bone People, which I've been desperately looking forward to ever since I stole a friend's copy and read the opening pages. Stonefish been gud, all the short stories feel very connected by her style/themes and I'm a happy boi
Gonna read some Gene Wolfe next, oh yes |
Mort.
04.20.23 | just finished count zero by william gibson. dont know what i will be reading next but i might just finish off the trilogy. |
rabidfish
04.20.23 | gonna read Moby Dick.
that shit better be good. |
ToSmokMuzyki
04.21.23 | hope you like sperm |
Jasdevi087
04.21.23 | my favourite part about Moby Dick was learning how fucking long microscopes have been around and therefore how long we've known blood carries oxygen |
rabidfish
04.21.23 | I like shooting it out, yea |
ToSmokMuzyki
04.21.23 | nope moby dick is all about consuming sperm |
Sharenge
04.21.23 | lol when that one dude falls in |
TheSpaceMan
04.21.23 | 'gonna read Moby Dick.
that shit better be good.'
its good |
Anthracks
04.23.23 | i read she and her cat by makoto shinkai, go down, moses by william faulkner, and folio society's Thor collection
next up is les miserables by victor hugo which i am going to break up with marigold and rose by louise gluck and look at the lights, my love by annie ernaux. also have a work read thrown in entitled crucial conversations |
Jasdevi087
04.23.23 | All the Pretty Horses ruled, I wish horses were real |
Shuyin
05.02.23 | The surreal Murakami books have been among my favourite works so far, and I've recently picked up The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I'm about 150 pages in and at a loss for words at just how good this book is |
Mort.
05.02.23 | I read the unconsoled a couple of years ago. Great work, very kafkaesque
My birthday was last week. Got a lot of books:
Completed Dostoyevsky (all the major novels plus a couple others )
The scar by chine mieville
Dracula by bram stoke
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Mr pye by mervyn Peake
|
Egarran
05.02.23 | Finished Out Of The Ruins, the Apocalyptic Anthology.
These stories are not as I thought - I expected depictions of how our society would collapse and what we would do afterwards. But there's very little of that. Instead these stories are strange. Deliciously strange. Like Twilight Zone sci-fi or cosmic horror with surreal twists that makes things feel _strange_ - but at the same time light-hearted.
It's very refreshing and apparently part of a whole New Weird literary movement. I had only read that in Mieville and VanderMeer (Annihilation) form before, but Mieville's contribution here gets outweirded by most of the stories. |
MillionDead
05.02.23 | About to start reading Planet Joe by Joe Cole after I finish Learning Good Consent: On Healthy Relationships and Survivor Support edited by Cindy Crabb. Apparently Planet Joe's a good companion piece to Henry Rollin's Get in the Van. |
AlexKzillion
05.02.23 | "will start money by martin amis later today"
this ended up being one of my fav novels i've read. really reminiscent of nabokov (or at least lolita) i thought in terms of writing style which i really enjoy
powering through frankenstein rn |
CugnoBrasso
05.03.23 | Holy shit, I love Against the Day by Pynchon! Kit and Reef Traverse just visited my hometown, I couldn't believe what I was reading! |
TheSpaceMan
05.03.23 | 'powering through frankenstein rn'
idr what version i read cause it was edited heavily at one point but i liked the copy i had |
90m80s
05.03.23 | Ishiguro best to worst (what I've read): Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go, Pale View of Hills, Unconsoled, When We Were Orphans, Nocturnes, Artist of the Floating World, Klara and the Sun. |
AlexKzillion
05.03.23 | @space reading the edited 1831 version yeah. think the only major difference is its a bit longer (the preface expanded on it a bit more but that was the gist of it). |
MiloRuggles
05.03.23 | Watched the remains of the day adaptation and it was great. Cool to see the story detached from the subjectivity and the sets/costumes were gorgeous. Great wee pairing for the book (read the book first). A much needed surprise given the disappointment of the last literary adaptation I watched (white noise) |
90m80s
05.03.23 | Only watched the remains movie once but great acting and I agree a solid adaptation. The never let me go movie is pretty good too. |
Shuyin
05.05.23 | I've got Klara and Remains of the Day in my library, haven't read them yet but heard a lot of praise for both books. loving every page of Unconsoled rn
Next reads: I, Robot - Isaac Azimov
The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa
The Man in the High Castle - Philip Dick
His Master's Voice - Stanisław Lem |
Mort.
05.05.23 | 'Watched the remains of the day adaptation and it was great. Cool to see the story detached from the subjectivity and the sets/costumes were gorgeous. Great wee pairing for the book (read the book first)'.
god i love that film. one of the best book adaptations ever |
Observer
05.06.23 | Any philip roth fans?
I'm doing American Pastoral. |
TalonsOfFire
05.06.23 | The I, Robot collection of short stories is fantastic. Ishiguro is one of my favorite authors. In the middle of Klara now and really enjoying it. I need to get his previous one The Buried Giant, really curious about it. I think I watched Remains of the Day when I was little, but should see again now that I’d be able to understand more if it and having read the book. The Never Let Me Go movie is good but miscast I thought, and doesn’t really compare to the experience of the book, a top fav of mine. |
DocSportello
05.07.23 | Buried giant rules |
90m80s
05.07.23 | Pale View of Hills is flippin heartbreaking |
Get Low
05.07.23 | I haven't been reading lately, but I went to the bookstore today and decided that I would give my first go at Haruki Nakamura, via Men Without Women. I'm expecting nothing less than an onslaught of misogyny and cringe. |
90m80s
05.07.23 | i think u meant Murakami. ive read another short story collection of his, The Elephant Vanishes, which was full of fairly memorable stories. not a bad read.
|
Storm In A Teacup
05.07.23 | I learned today a 35 year old in my city last month was sitting at the library desk reading and a man he didnt know at all came up behind him and blew his head off. So sad. |
90m80s
05.07.23 | youd think reading books would be inoffensive and peaceful enough to everyone but america |
Get Low
05.07.23 | I meant Murakami my b |
90m80s
05.07.23 | havent read Men Without Women but Murakami doesnt strike me as the type to write incel screed. if im wrong plz report back lol |
kalkwiese
05.07.23 | Murakami has a weird way to wrote women though. It's quite stereotypical like they're not real people but sexual fantasies. It's mostly slightly weird and cringe imo |
Jasdevi087
05.07.23 | yeah it's pretty much put me off ever bothering with Norwegian Wood tbh, and it was quite distinctly distracting while reading Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (though that book was excellent otherwise). Still gonna czech Kafka on the Shore though, but going off the premise I'm not naive enough not to expect to have exactly the same issues again lmao |
Get Low
05.07.23 | Read the first story in Men Without Women and Murakami is aware of the fact that women have breasts, confirmed |
Parallels
05.07.23 | >Any philip roth fans?
my fav is portnoy's complaint for the lacivious comedy |
90m80s
05.07.23 | bewbs are kewl |
CugnoBrasso
05.07.23 | I have exactly the same criticism about Murakami's women, they exist just to give the main character a handjob. That's a pity, because there's so much to be loved about his narrative style. |
90m80s
05.07.23 | i think the fems call that 'the male gaze' |
CugnoBrasso
05.07.23 | The male gaze is a very widespread phenomenon but Murakami goes well beyond that. In NW, the protagonist can't walk 20 feet without meeting an aroused girl, not to talk about KotS, in which he basically fucks ghosts. |
90m80s
05.07.23 | i agree it cheapens the writing |
Anthracks
05.07.23 | Yeah because analyzing a woman’s attractiveness upon first passing her is so uncommon and unrealistic… this incredibly uncommon phenomenon experienced by essentially nobody has no place in literature which is a documentation of the human experience |
90m80s
05.07.23 | in the context of murakami's works, i have read prob 6 or 7 of his books, the argument can be made, and already has been here, that all his women are sexual objects. im not sure i would go so far to say that myself, but im entertaining the idea of murakami's over usage of sexualized women. im not a feminist but the male gaze goes deeper than the simple definition of gaze. interesting stuff even if you dont buy into all of it. |
MiloRuggles
05.07.23 | >im not a feminist
have a look into the definition of that term and take a moment to reconsider |
90m80s
05.07.23 | i treat everyone pretty damn well all things considered, but i still wouldnt label myself a feminist. way more baggage than a dictionary definition would suggest. |
Jasdevi087
05.08.23 | "Yeah because analyzing a woman’s attractiveness upon first passing her is so uncommon and unrealistic… this incredibly uncommon phenomenon experienced by essentially nobody has no place in literature which is a documentation of the human experience"
ahh fuck here he comes again with the weird Murakami defense again.
see but here's the thing my breatha
we know
that's hardly the issue
it is one thing for a male author (some female authors do this too, oddly though this also only seems to be with regards to women) to write, as flowery as they might, "those tits were bussin quite respectfully". However, and we've had this conversation in as many words before, Murakami is doing quite a bit more than this.
|
Jasdevi087
05.08.23 | As with before, my perspective is coming entirely from WUBC and I've not read any literature or journalism re: other's observations of Murakami and women, so I'm hardly steelmanning my position, but I think it's pretty clear from other people's takes itt, including from a self-proclaimed "not feminist", so I feel reasonably assured that I'm not loosing my mind here.
Murakami's male protagonist brought out the full male gaze on pretty much every female character, without fail. one of these character's whole deal is that they (at least as far as the main character and the reader know) are an SA victim. This character then just goes on to give the main character blowjobs for the rest of the book. Murakami seems utterly fixated with exploring his female characters sexually, even the one that's a literal child gets to write awkward sex-fixated letters to the main character. the entire interaction with the weird rich lady in the 3rd part of the chronicle is also very sexually suggestive, as is most of his interaction with his estranged wife, who is also interestingly fixated on sex (with or without him).
from a story-telling and thematic perspective, I struggle to see how Murakami's fixation with sex is anything other than wish fulfillment, especially since myself and, by the sounds of it, pretty much everyone else seems to find this distracting, rather than engaging. it's not like his characters learn something about women from these interactions, or that they're unpacked in any kind of intellectually stimulating kind of way, they're literally just "here's a wacky interaction and the protagonist gets a blowjob now I guess, pretty cool". and look maybe you're just a bit fucking odd and that's enough for you or something, but I personally think that male-centric media has a real fucking weird and icky relationship with sexualising women (even or especially when the topic they're discussing is r***), always has, and doesn't seem to be moving away from it at any kind of encouraging rate. in Murakami's writing it just feels childish and distasteful, rather than artful. like holy shit bro just let your characters hang out together and have wacky adventures, we know women have boobs, i don't need to you to elaborate that you think it would be nice to mash pissers with every one of them you see, i'm an adult |
Jasdevi087
05.08.23 | I'll be honest, it strikes me as kinda weird that you specifically want to white knight Murakami on this issue, especially since you seem entirely unwilling to engage why he is uniquely singled out for this more so than most other male authors |
Jasdevi087
05.08.23 | and again, this is all without me having actually read any of the actual proper critiques that agree with me on this issue, this is just observational at this point |
Jasdevi087
05.08.23 | also i feel like your position is kinda doing us hetero boys a little dirty, cause it implies that our default position when examining women needs to functionally always be an assessment of them as a potential sex partner lol |
90m80s
05.08.23 | maybe murakami's muse is an incorrigible man child so the only way he can get the surrealist prose out is to push that button. read Underground to see what I mean. never seen a more boring account of a homicidal cult in my life. |
Piglet
05.08.23 | Only read the Wind Up Thing by Murakami and it struck me as an oddly inscrutable whole lot of nothing. Anyway
I've polished off all but Oathbringer in da Stormcunt Archive by that beaver fuck Brandon Sanderson. It's a fucken good time, with just a bunch of stoic blokes being stoic. And if they're not being stoic then they're brooding or delivering witty one liners grimly. It does veer dangerously close to reading like a bunch of threadbare screenplays for better or for worse, and for the life of me i'll never understand all this toady gibbering people do about Sanderson's bespoke "worldbuilding" - a term that seems to just be a catch all phrase for "stuff's going on innit". Reality is his "worldbuilding" is a travesty and it's no surprise he spawned out of some tin shed in bumfuck nebraska because that's exactly how I imagine all but 3000 pages of his series. Just some dusty old prairie with a bunch of larpers and designated spaces for RVs. Oh and yeah, I can't think of a bigger waste of time and momentum than his random interludes where you as a reader you have to pretend to care for 30 pages about some peasant crab woman on the other side of the world being a milquetoast girlboss.
But yeh, beaverfuck brandon's real strength is the plotlines he devises. It is eerily similar to how a beaver builds a dam. In Oathbringer you start to feel there's a bit more spitballing going on in terms of the narrative but other than that, the perfectionism dis brudda has for the storyboarding in his books is elite. Would give Words of Radiance in particular a cheeky 4.3/5, the way of kings 4.6 for both volumes and Oathbringer a 4.1 (fucken beavercunt brandon won't stop fiddlefucking us around with clown ass interludes). |
kalkwiese
05.08.23 | Lol Pig lmao
Well said Jasdevil |
porcupinetheater
05.08.23 | Ooh are we talkin' bout how Murakami is the most overrated hack in contemporary fiction? Sign me up
Just finished Tender is the Flesh. One of the worst books I've ever read, literally does everything wrong you could possibly do wrong from thinking through a premise, to character, to the prose itself.
But at least it wasn't Murakami |
kalkwiese
05.08.23 | I am slow atm, but I finished Nona The Ninth and I am just happy to enjoy a fantasy series so much atm. Good stuff, even though it's a bit confusing sometimes |
Shuyin
05.08.23 | Big Murakami fan here, although I was very disappointed with 1Q84.. there was, however, a female character in that book (Fuka Eri) that was very quirky, extremely interesting and, imo, well written.. up to a certain point where the book falls apart and he does nothing with her except a weird sex scene. Almost there, but no cigar. I still love his bizarre worlds and narrative, KotS and Hardboiled Wonderland are absolutely fantastic |
AlexKzillion
05.08.23 | halfway through 'the outsider' by colin wilson currently... never really read anything resembling "literary criticism" on my own before but i really dig it and feel like i'm getting a decent biographical overview on a lot of the names i've seen itt along the way |
90m80s
05.08.23 | bout to read Derrida's Specters of Marx |
90m80s
05.08.23 | certainly an impressive feat the level to which Norwegian Wood is a pastiche of The Catcher in the Rye |
TalonsOfFire
05.08.23 | 90m80s it looks like you’ve read everything by Ishiguro, and you ranked Klara last, making me nervous cause I’m over halfway through and enjoying it a lot! Planning on reading Buried Giant soon after.
Just finished In the Lake of the Woods and kinda scratching my head over it. It was beautifully written but not exactly what I’d call satisfying. If anyone here has read it and loved it or anything feel free to drop your thoughts. |
90m80s
05.08.23 | Klara is pretty good... memorable. I felt it was the most shallow and underwritten from him yet. I enjoyed it too. Though not much impact overall. |
90m80s
05.08.23 | Thinking about it a bit more. The robot perspective is a good idea, maybe in theory, but the narrative really suffers compared to the depth and insight I found in the books I liked from him the most. Tbh I hated NLMG so freakin much the first time I read it. The narrator's complacency pissed me off constantly. I reread it and loved how Ishiguro could troll someone like me so hard. Damn. I have been a fan ever since. |
TalonsOfFire
05.09.23 | I feel like he’s using a similar perspective in Klara as he did in NLMG, with this sheltered, naive protagonist slowly learning about our world in a near future society that doesn’t really value them and the progression of the story will kind of bring all that to a head in a really brilliant way, which is what happened with NLMG and I suspect might be a similar kind of thing with Klara. I’m at the part where after she’s been telling characters her secret plan to save Josie and *mild spoiler if u haven’t read it* it’s just to pray to the Sun, which she sees as a god since she’s solar powered, and also kill the “cootings machine” she saw at the beginning. So yeah, not looking good! |
90m80s
05.09.23 | nlmg world had so much more detail though. klara feels like a collection of underdeveloped threads revolving around a very plain robot with its robot problems. good i guess for a light scifi-ish read. a plain mcchicken is good once in a while too ngl. |
TalonsOfFire
05.09.23 | Yeah a lot is kept more vague in Klara, very small scale and intimate. Much as I like it I feel like it could’ve also worked as a short story, but who knows. I’ll report my fully informed thoughts when I finish it. |
90m80s
05.09.23 | If you're a fan of Franz Kafka, Ishiguro's The Unconsoled is pretty much unapologetic Kafka worship. It might move up in my ranking on rereading. I highly rec The Unconsoled. |
TalonsOfFire
05.09.23 | Interesting, I’ll keep that in mind! I do like Kafka a lot, was a philosophy major so I read all that stuff. |
90m80s
05.09.23 | had to learn and use a lot of philosophy myself via literary criticism in grad school. enjoy! |
Anthracks
05.09.23 | i'm not white knighting murakami. i think he has a right to write whatever the fuck he wants same as every other author because that's what literature is. what's weird is people trying to cancel him for completely commonplace fixations. it's the laziest complaint about his writing, which has so many other flaws you can choose from. |
90m80s
05.09.23 | like what? |
kalkwiese
05.09.23 | It everyone's right to dislike this aspect about his writing lol. And I definetly don't cancel or boycott him, because I still think his books are enjoyable.
If his women aren't convincing characters, that's a big flaw. |
Get Low
05.09.23 | "like what?"
Idk if it's just poor translations, but his use of cliches sticks out like a sore thumb (cliche used intentionally) |
kalkwiese
05.09.23 | Cliche in a sense of word choice or metaphor? |
90m80s
05.09.23 | i've often thought about the translation matter and that myself as an English reader was really not ever getting pure murakami on the page |
Get Low
05.09.23 | @Kalkweise Cliched word choice is what I'm referring to
@90m Alas, that is how I feel about reading any author in translation |
90m80s
05.09.23 | so many great authors to read in translation, though a bad experience warrants benefit of the doubt? maybe for the writer. still, if the words on the page aren't great why not read something youll enjoy instead. life is too long to bog yourself down in books you dont personally get something out of. |
porcupinetheater
05.09.23 | Lmao talking about "cancelling Murakami" what a fucking idiot, he's one of the best selling authors out there right now, every book release is a fucking event. Your ventriloquist persecution act is insane.
We're just talking about how he sucks and his work is consistently gross to read beyond your garden variety cishet dude writing women benchmark, while existing alongside one of the more exhaustingly formulaic cerebral dreamscape practitioners. |
Jasdevi087
05.09.23 | using "cancel" like that is the easiest way to signal to everyone that you're in your 30s |
Jasdevi087
05.09.23 | also like, what would be valid for me to criticize then? can i talk about the fact that the majority of the story threads in wind-up bird chronicle literally go nowhere or completely fizzle out? which is is weird, cause he wrote and released it as three books over an extended period of time? or is it also his perogative to aimlessly riff on vibes, cause he's allowed to write whatever the fuck he wants? |
90m80s
05.09.23 | are yall punching down cuz murakami's asian or up cuz he's rich, and tag who u guys are blastin plz |
porcupinetheater
05.09.23 | I have it out for mf's who build their egos on classical music and long distance running |
90m80s
05.09.23 | didnt read the music one. the running one kinda sucked. it was ok i guess. i dont remember much from it other than marathons and pacing yourself to write longer works. its been a long time. |
Jasdevi087
05.09.23 | do y'all reckon Murakami jams Schoenberg or nah? |
kalkwiese
05.10.23 | Finished Infinite Jest
Wow, that was a weird ride
Really, any rating is appropriate here |
MiloRuggles
05.10.23 | Finished Castleview by Gene Wolfe. Was a strange mixture of too direct and too obtuse, and alla you King Arthur nerds up there would pull a lot more out of it than I did (feel free to order me to catch up on that shit - where do I start re: translations if that's the vibe). Anyway, pretty mindbendy 3/5
Currently reading The Bone People by Keri Hulme and The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Leguin and some Susan Sontag collection and lowkey rereading The Passenger.
*Potential infinite jest spoilers* remember when they dug up his dad's head? Hmmmmm |
kalkwiese
05.10.23 | I actually didn't remember, so thanks for the reminder! I am sure the book is full of riddles you don't see before reading it a second time |
DocSportello
05.10.23 | was it necessary to have 400 pages of don gately morbing all over the tennis? |
kalkwiese
05.10.23 | I can't remember that part either lol |
MiloRuggles
05.10.23 | My 6k IQ take is that Don Gately secretly really likes ballet and Jim's wraith is just a complicated denial system his hyper-masculine id has created. |
Ryus
05.10.23 | been feelin kinda burnt out so gonna do rereads of some favorites: omensetter's luck, some walt whitman, the bluest eye and 100 years of solitude in english this time |
Jasdevi087
05.10.23 | I just read The Bluest Eye the other week. My edition had a little afterword by Morrisson where she discusses her choices of narrative voices and aspects of this she was and was not satisfied with regarding the end result, which I found really interesting to read |
Ryus
05.10.23 | do you know which edition? would love to read that
edit: nvm i found it online |
porcupinetheater
05.10.23 | The Bluest Eye is incredible, Morrisson was maybe the best writer at capturing America as it is |
Jasdevi087
05.11.23 | on the topic, has anyone else read The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois? I fucking loved that, The Bluest Eye definitely must have been an influence since it touches on a couple of the same beats |
90m80s
05.11.23 | which part of The Bluest Eye really moved you the most? |
Winesburgohio
05.11.23 | The Spanish cover of IJ is incredible - type in la broma infinita to collect your reward. I picked a copy up in MXC, which I effectively had to smuggle back due to strict airline baggage allowances, which made me strong, |
Jasdevi087
05.11.23 | @90m hard to pick one moment specifically. a lot of the stuff in the back stories of the parents is quite confronting and heart-breaking. the scene where the girls temporary befriend the white girl, but it all falls apart the second she feels confronted and all her internal prejudices unravel out stuck out to me too |
90m80s
05.11.23 | The Bluest Eye was really a rough read for me. Especially the descriptions of abuse. Very graphic. |
Jasdevi087
05.11.23 | the part right near the end that goes through the actual event of the rape is particularly tough to get through yeah, the mother trying to rationalise it is pretty rough too |
90m80s
05.11.23 | Her idea of rememory really didnt land for me. My first impression was that it was unnecessary to explore. Not sure where it really came up, Bluest Eye, Beloved, or an essay. It's been a minute since my Black Literature class. Anyway, years go by and it finally seemed like a vital idea. Prob with a little help from Lynch and Ishiguro works in the memory dept. How a memory is of a memory. I mean you may remember an actual event once, buy every time after you remember the memory instead. It keeps changing along the way. Anyway, understated greatness I wasn't able to appreciate immediately. |
Get Low
05.11.23 | "100 years of solitude in english this time"
I'm jealous that you can read Marquez in Spanish. I've read three of his novels in English (The General in His Labyrinthe, 100 Years, and Love in the Time of Cholera), and I always feel like I'm missing some of his humor due to certain wordplay not translating properly to English. |
Get Low
05.11.23 | Also, obligatory Bluest Eye praise post, incredible little book |
Anthracks
05.13.23 | bluest eye is amazing for sure
finished up behemoth les miserables by victor hugo which was fantastic. following up with the call of cthulhu and other weird stories by hp lovecraft (beautiful folio edition) and to the lighthouse by virginia woolf |
kalkwiese
05.13.23 | I started rereading Infinite Jest
Also Nona The Ninth was pretty great, I just love the series |
AlexKzillion
05.15.23 | reading 'the river and the gauntlet' by s.l.a. marshall... very in-the-weeds retelling of the battle of chongchon river (korean war) in which the u.s. got their ass kicked pretty handily. very dry read (as military history always seems to be) but it has a particularly nauseating quality unlike any non-fiction i've ever read. history written by the defeated |
Mort.
05.15.23 | read Charmides
still reading mona lisa overdrive |
TalonsOfFire
05.16.23 | I finished Klara and the Sun, enjoyed it a lot. *mild spoilers* The ending was unexpectedly hopeful for the human characters I thought, and the seemingly magical healing of Josie was… curious, and I guess coincidence in the reality of the book but of course from Klara’s perspective the Sun literally healed Josie and her praying to it worked. That contrast with pagan worship of the Sun by a robot in the future was a great concept I thought. Despite the optimistic ending for the humans, the melancholy nature of the story rears it’s head with that epilogue and Klara’s ultimate fate, which I think echoed the frank ending of NLMG, but more reserved and less tragic than that one. Overall it kind of reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Her, which had a similarly vague, realistic future setting more interested in a small scale story that explores themes of love and the nature of AI, tho different since it’s a romance in that case. |
90m80s
05.18.23 | ^ Hadn't any interest to see Her so nice to hear a connection I won't be able to make. I finished Klara and the Sun pretty soon after it released, which tells me it was better than many books I've come across and not completed. We already touched on the way it sits in Ishiguro's body of work. No need to rehash. Def consider more from him because most of his stuff is great and much more rereadable. |
TalonsOfFire
05.18.23 | Her is the best movie of the 2010s imo, and I’m planning on reading The Buried Giant soon as I can. |
90m80s
05.18.23 | I'm currently rereading Journey to the West |
robertsona
05.19.23 | I read The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, and Beloved for a class. Beloved is definitely the best one but they're all good |
Winesburgohio
05.19.23 | We can and should touch on Ishiguro as much as anyone pleases. One thing I noticed is that Klara and the Sun (reader I wept) is dedicated to his mother, and there is an element of allegory of The Maternal and so much more!
Re-reading Crime and Punishment. It still kinda sucks but I think I like the translation (Jessie Coulson) better than whatever the other one was |
Winesburgohio
05.19.23 | Would like to s/o Fitzcarraldo Editions, who are nailing it at the moment. Wildly consistently great |
Mort.
05.19.23 | you think crime and punishment sucks? how come? |
Mort.
05.19.23 | finished mona lisa overdrive, completing gibsons sprawl trilogy
very good. will have to read more gibson. think ive read his disneyland with the death penalty essay a long time ago.
started karen armstrong - a history of god |
Anthracks
05.20.23 | to the lighthouse was one of my absolute favorite reads of the year so far
reading three more at once: the complete stories of franz kafka, 2010: odyssey two by arthur c clarke, and how high we go in the dark by sequoia nagamatsu
|
TalonsOfFire
05.20.23 | Yeah Wines Klara was very motherly and caring to Josie. And Josie’s mother sure had a lot she was dealing with too. Have you read The Buried Giant? If so what did you think? I need to get that one. NLMG is in my top 5 contemporary novels I think, and Remains of the Day is great too. |
Egarran
05.20.23 | Love 2010 |
90m80s
05.20.23 | ellison's invisible man ftw |
DocSportello
05.21.23 | The crowd at the ball game
is moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them–
all the exciting detail
of the chase
and the escape, the error
the flash of genius–
all to no end save beauty
the eternal–
So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful
for this
to be warned against
saluted and defied–
It is alive, venomous
it smiles grimly
its words cut–
The flashy female with her
mother, gets it–
The Jew gets it straight– it
is deadly, terrifying–
It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution
It is beauty itself
that lives
day by day in them
idly–
This is
the power of their faces
It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought |
memnite
05.29.23 | anyone here into china mieville? just finished reading 'the scar' and it's all i've been able to think about lately lol |
MoM
05.29.23 | I haven’t read anything of theirs, but I’ve heard that name in a few compilations of speculative fiction and am curious to learn more. |
porcupinetheater
05.29.23 | Yeah not familiar with their work, what’s the approach?
Also starting in on Woolf’s The Waves, everytime I go awhile without reading her it’s like magic stepping back in |
AlexKzillion
05.29.23 | reading madame bovary now |
Cryptkeeper
05.29.23 | Decided to read the final three Expanse books after finally finishing the series. Very good books, but man politically it's the most boomer book imaginable |
memnite
05.29.23 | mieville's stuff is (endearingly) strange lol. i've seen a lot of people describe his work as 'weird fiction' and it honestly fits pretty well. most of his stories are a kind of sci-fantasy riff on different genres, but his imagination and prose elevate them to something really special, imo. lots of really unique things that you won't find in other stories (people with bugs for heads, a city that is basically just a bunch of boats stapled together, moths that eat and shit dreams, a giant spider that lives between dimensions and is obsessed with scissors). it all comes so naturally that it never has that obnoxious, twee, 'oooo look how quirky and different this is!!!' feel that some authors go for.
a friend of mine told me to check him out bc i love jeff vandermeer and i can say it was a perfect rec, if that helps |
Jasdevi087
05.29.23 | literally reading Perdido Street Station rn lmao |
MoM
05.29.23 | Sounds excellent! Thank ye! I love that type of shit. Speculative fiction and bizarro and uncanny and weird and slipstream etc. etc. etcRA. I love it! Anything you got, I’ll gladly take recs! Thanks so much |
memnite
05.30.23 | lol! small world!
and yeah MoM i think if you're into spec fiction/'weird' stuff this should be right up your alley :^)
if you wanna read mieville 'perdido street station' is probably the place to start and if you wanna try vandermeer i'd rec his southern reach trilogy or 'borne.' |
MoM
05.30.23 | Oooh delightful! I’ve got my audiobooks for when i work and this is gonna be good! |
MoM
05.30.23 | I do say, what books are you reading? What do you think? Book club? |
Get Low
05.30.23 | Currently reading Night in the Lonesome October, by Richard Laymon |
memnite
05.30.23 | sputnik book club hell yeah
i'm about to finish 'the city and the city' (also by china mieville lol) and then i'm gonna try and tackle 'endymion' by dan simmons. what's on ur list atm? |
MoM
05.30.23 | Just finishing up Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, hot off the heels of Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea. Gonna go toward Camus’ The Stranger before stopping off at Perdido Street Station with Mieville |
Ectier
05.30.23 | Man finished the book i was reading. It was sequel that didnt need to happen. The plot and main romance kicked in about the last 3rd of the book. Read a good psychological thriller recently though "The silent patient" was pretty darn great do reccomend |
MoM
05.30.23 | Oooooh, going to read a brief description now |
Ectier
05.30.23 | It was great! MoM. Bit of a slow burn but it was a goodie one od my favs from the ones ive read this year |
MoM
05.30.23 | I’ve got the audiobook coming to me in about 2 weeks i am stoked! Kinda spooked too, cause reading a bit about it was eerie. Years ago, before meeting my wife, i was involved with a married woman named Alisha and her husband was named Gabriel. They had a very volatile relationship, but i didn’t hear of a murder, but this still sent chills |
Ectier
05.30.23 | Omg that would send some chills, thats really eerie |
MoM
05.30.23 | That’s what i thought! Like, I’m getting uncanny vibes just thinking about it. Am i to find more parallels? I’m so curious |
Ectier
05.30.23 | Its set in the UK so if you are there maybe! With books ive been stuck in the UK for about 4 books now haha |
Mort.
05.30.23 | bit late but i read perdido street station a couple of years ago and the city and the city this year
mieville is very good. dude is obvs into planescape:torment and mervyn peake (i know hes into peake for sure because hes written an introduction to gormenghast) |
Mort.
05.30.23 | im reading Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake at the moment, its his first non-gormenghast work ive touched. funny and charming so far |
MoM
05.30.23 | @ Ectier
I’m not, I’m eastern US, but this does remind me of something interesting! Speaking of speculative fiction, there is an author in the US named Nicholas Royle who wrote a book on the subject of The Uncanny (named as such). Now, in this book, under a section called “Doppelgänger” He recounts how there was confusion amongst some because there is also ANOTHER author named Nicholas Royle in the UK, of similar age and who writes in speculative fiction as well, and they had been unaware of each other for quite some time and have absolutely no relation, but the mere eerieness of this confusion and what similarities there are, is interesting. This has been spooky
A lot of similar names and locations and weird |
MoM
05.30.23 | Mr. Pye sounds charming, I’ll have to add that to my list as well! Hope you all are doing well! Book club sign ups will, as usual, be in the foyer! |
memnite
05.30.23 | damn that reminds me i need to play planescape torment lol
also i gotta buckle down read the satanic verses - it's been on my list for ages |
MoM
05.30.23 | If you do, i hope you enjoy! The audiobook, at the very least, i find to be excellent and quite humorous! |
Egarran
05.30.23 | >anyone here into china mieville?
I believe I have told people to read Kraken about 15 times. So far no luck.
Currently reading Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman. |
MoM
05.30.23 | Kraken, eh? Hmm… The Mountain in the Sea was about cephalopods as well… Kraken getting bumped up on my list as it’s also immediately available! Thank you, sir Egarran! |
memnite
06.01.23 | added kraken to my list too - started dan simmons' 'endymion' last night and it's p fun so far. not as good as the hyperion books but will any sci-fi ever be |
90m80s
06.01.23 | i was a mega fan of the herbert dune books and hyperion didnt do anything for me. pkd books were a better match for me in scifi. eventually the writing itself in dune read too stiff and plain, even if the events and things described were imaginative. oh well no big loss. lynch's dune movie is way better when you arent comparing to the book the whole timr. |
memnite
06.01.23 | man i've had a copy of dune sitting on my shelf for like a year and i just haven't gotten around to it. i loved the first hyperion book, but also haven't really dug into nearly as many of the other 'classics' as i should have so my frame of reference is a little smaller than it should be lol
hard agree that lynch's dune is underrated! |
90m80s
06.01.23 | hell yeah lynch dune fans is good company to be in |
MoM
06.02.23 | Finished The Silent Patient and Camus’ The Stranger, and both were enjoyable! Delightful! Started Kraken as well and enjoying!? How’s it going all? |
Egarran
06.02.23 | Yeah you're enjoying.
Woah. Venomous Lumpsucker just referenced COVID-12. I'm not used to reading new books. |
MoM
06.02.23 | Can relate. I’ve been trying to find books, as of late, that were written in, and take place in, at least the 1980s onward. The classics are great, but I want a change of pace in regard to timeframe. A bit more relatable socially and technologically and all |
Egarran
06.02.23 | Well if you're into how capitalism can profit from environmental collapse, that's the book for you. Not sure I'll finish it though, I prefer escapism. |
MiloRuggles
06.02.23 | Sounds interesting. Is there prose? |
Parallels
06.02.23 | delving into historians and all their cool facts and exaggerations atm
Herodotus' Histories
Josephus' Antiquities
Guns, Germs & Steel
and Inferno by Max "us brits did all the work" Hastings |
Anthracks
06.03.23 | expanse being boomer is such a wild take. don't see it at all and have no idea what that's even supposed to mean
finished deadwood by pete dexter and the two gentlemen of verona by william shakespeare
next up is catch-22 by joseph hellurrr |
Ryus
06.03.23 | finally snagged a copy of moby dick i am very excited |
ReefaJones
06.03.23 | Rereading the City Watch series by Pratchett atm |
90m80s
06.03.23 | picked up a complete Kerouac novels the other day. should be good after finishing my Journey to the West reread |
Anthracks
06.04.23 | i still have to pick up where i left off with kerouac |
MoM
06.04.23 | Journey to the West sounds very interesting! Might have to add that to my list.
Finished Kraken and that was a lot of fun and was very different than i was expecting to be, in a very good way. Started Vandermeer’s Annihilation. I love the movie, so hopeful for this one! |
Jasdevi087
06.04.23 | please nobody tell them anything about the sequels, i want real time reaction |
robertsona
06.04.23 | finished my former professor (b. 1942)'s book terrible honesty (1995), one of two she's ever written (first one 1977; in THEORY working on a third, about film noir)
terrible honesty is a crazy dense cultural history of 1920s manhattan. there exists no epub of it and no pdf online because it has never been reprinted and it won't be because aside from there just being pages where she's like "and you KNOW Irving Berlin was a huge fan of his job performing down at N-word Mike's on Pell Street in 1904" and it's the real N-word but even less defensible is that she like genuinely in 1995 makes the decision over and over to call things/people/movements the less-bad N-word to like make it seem like she's taking on the vernacular of the time maybe but I dunno
I guess she sees it as fitting in part because of the format she takes on which is the same format as the 1977 book which is that it's a wide-ranging cultural history where she draws on huge ideas of psychoanalytic trends (which in this book of course involves the advent of psychoanalysis itself which is not a factor in the 1977 book due to its selected time period) and social shifts but in a way that's anchored almost entirely in little funny almost gossip raggy anecdotes that follows one figure (Babe Ruth? Woodrow Wilson? Gertrude Stein?) for three pages before they "encounter" either literally or theoretically someone else who you then follow for a while ad infinitum. you learn insane shit in Terrible Honesty this way and it's super fun to read despite being 500 pages (with like 200 pages of notes--she has a source for everything). the analysis itself is insanely racially inclusive and yet super honest--not a lot of books these days are gonna have paragraphs that go on in brutally honest fashion about how nobody black or white really read the harlem renaissance books (though people paid attention en masse to other harlem ren and -derived shit) but the book nonetheless traces in just about every relevant (and some considerably more marginal) black american artist in NYC at the time and describes soberly and usually with incredible insight how putatively black and white american cultures mixed in 1920s urban spaces and generated some of the most interesting manifestations of modernist thought and art available to us today as well as some shit surely that sucked, some shit that was ok |
robertsona
06.04.23 | the 1977 book is called wait for it "THE FEMINIZATION OF AMERICAN CULTURE" and is about how the disestablished and increasingly women-ran clergy and the literary culture of victorian america (in the 1800s, if you were reading books in america, you were probably a woman, and the book was probably a Woman's Novel [romance] etc.) collaborated to create a more "sentimental" culture in those particular realms more about subjective experience and the possibility of positive intervention on a life rather than calvinist doom or something idk I remember that book less well. also conditioned on an insane mix of gossip and theory and mostly just really interesting stories
but fr this bitch is saying fully out of line shit in that 1995 book |
Mort.
06.04.23 | wow my former lecturers books are a lot drier than that lol
'wittgenstein on logic as the method of philosophy: re-examining the roots and development on analytic philosophy' isnt anywhere near as zany |
robertsona
06.04.23 | I like when Wittgenstein says that if something is boiling in a pot then we see steam rising out of the pot and in a picture of something boiling in a pot we see picture-steam rising out of the picture-pot but what if we insisted there must be something inside the picture of the pot
Or whatever |
ScuroFantasma
06.04.23 | I’ve been reading Moby Dick lately, you guys probably never heard of it |
Mort.
06.04.23 | 'I like when Wittgenstein says that if something is boiling in a pot then we see steam rising out of the pot and in a picture of something boiling in a pot we see picture-steam rising out of the picture-pot but what if we insisted there must be something inside the picture of the pot'
i dont remember this but that sounds very much like later wittgenstein lol |
robertsona
06.04.23 | Dudes fam had so much cash |
robertsona
06.04.23 | Ann Douglas - Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (1995)
Gayatri Spivak - A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (1999)
Oliver Simons - Literary Conclusions: The Poetics of Ending in Lessing, Goethe, and Kleist (2022)
Debashree Mukherjee - Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City (2020)
George Lewis - A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (2008)
Farah Griffin - In Search of a Beautiful Freedom: New and Selected Essays (2023)
Eleanor Johnson - Staging Contemplation: Participatory Theology in Middle English Prose, Verse, and Drama (2018)
Zainab Bahrani - Mesopotamia: Ancient Art and Architecture (2017)
Jonathan Crary - 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (2013)
W. B. Worthen - Drama: Between Poetry and Performance (2011)
Edward Mendelson - The Things That Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life (2007)
John Gamber - Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins: Waste and Contamination in Contemporary U.S. Ethnic Literatures (2012)
Helene Foley - Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides (2019)
Susan Pedersen The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire (2015)
Nancy Worman - Landscape and the Spaces of Metaphor in Ancient Literary Theory and Criticism (2015)
Jenny Davidson - Reading Style: A Life in Sentences (2014)
Andreas Huyssen - Miniature Metropolis: Literature in an Age of Photography and Film (2015)
Manan Ahmed - The Loss of Hindustan: The Invention of India (2020)
these are all professors I took in college. suddenly felt like doing this. enjoy |
90m80s
06.04.23 | I def had professors who used the hard r as well. I never adopted that. Never will.
When it came to lit crit philosophers my fav was prob Derrida. Love me some postmodernism. |
Mort.
06.04.23 | reading Mr Pye and ive just come across the line 'and if im wrong you can call me beetlejuice'
the book predates the film but im completely lost as to what this means. cant find any info on a beetlejuice idiom or anything. doesnt help that the film dominates searches to try and understand |
90m80s
06.04.23 | looks like a homonym of betelgeuse |
Mort.
06.04.23 | yeah but even then, whats the purpose behind choosing it? just a silly name? |
DadKungFu
06.04.23 | Louise Glück's poetry. Shit slaps. |
90m80s
06.04.23 | i dunno people have odd senses of humor sometimes people think they are witty when they are really droolbags |
porcupinetheater
06.04.23 | 'I like when Wittgenstein says that if something is boiling in a pot then we see steam rising out of the pot and in a picture of something boiling in a pot we see picture-steam rising out of the picture-pot but what if we insisted there must be something inside the picture of the pot'
Alain Robbe-Grillet loves his Wittgenstein no doubt. In the Labyrinth feels like a literalization of this whole premise |
Jasdevi087
06.04.23 | @mort afaik beetlejuice was named after the star, and the star is called that because someone centuries ago fucked up the arabic spelling. uhhh, so yeah i guess just a funny name? |
Egarran
06.04.23 | Yay MoM, glad you liked it. |
Parallels
06.05.23 | just bought Kraken for later reading, thanks to the users who gave it the shoutout since I had forgotten it existed, despite seeing it sell in bookstores all the time back in the day |
Egarran
06.05.23 | Everything's fit to be worshipped. |
Parallels
06.05.23 | Press X to Doubt |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | Speaking of Dune, they're releasing the whole series in Portugal properly translated to Portuguese. Next month we're getting God Emperor of Dune, I can't fucking wait!
So far I've read the original and Dune Messiah, and love both books almost equally, the story and "plans within plans" of the first book are insane and I LOVED the ghola on the second book, awesome stuff |
90m80s
06.06.23 | Are you using a translator to post here? By your writing it seems like you might be able to handle an imported English copy. Dune really isn't high level English, it just uses a lot of unique Dune words. |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | I've read a few books in English, it was alright, but the last one was a complete disaster (H. P. Lovecraft - Mountains of Madness), I had a hard time following the narrative and had to read several paragraphs multiple times. I also read a lot on public transports and sometimes it's hard to focus because of noisy people/subway train DJs. I guess it's just more relaxing to read in my native language even with our translations having MASSIVE spelling errors.
I'm so looking forward to the 4th Dune tho, shit's dope! Also hyped for the new movie |
90m80s
06.06.23 | God Emp is good. The last two tho... very hit or miss. Def not the same level of focus as the first four. |
Egarran
06.06.23 | What a shame that you were turned off by Mountains Of Madness. I only associate it with cosmic wonder. |
90m80s
06.06.23 | i didnt care for mountains of madness personally. im not as impressed with lovecraft as many seem to be these days. |
kalkwiese
06.06.23 | Yea, it is wonderful and a joy
Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!
I finished Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett today. It might be the best Rincewind novel so far in the series tbh. Rincewind isn't an interesting character, but this time everything else was so compelling, that Rincewind was a lot of fun to follow as well. Good stuff |
Egarran
06.06.23 | “It is absolutely necessary, for the peace and safety of mankind, that some of earth’s dark, dead corners and unplumbed depths be let alone; lest sleeping abnormalities wake to resurgent life, and blasphemously surviving nightmares squirm and splash out of their black lairs to newer and wider conquests.”
I would like to inject this into my veins. |
MoM
06.06.23 | Have yet to read any Dune. The most i know of it being the reference in South Park “The spice melange”
Finished Annihilation. Thought it was a good read. Started Perdido Street Station and this dude in the book went to scratch his ass and crushed a bug in his crack, looked at it rather benignly, then flicked it away |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | It wasn't that I was turned off, it was just hard to follow and I think it's mostly because I was reading it in English. I found the location and mythos to be very interesting |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | Currently reading Asimovs I, Robot btw |
90m80s
06.06.23 | Understandable. I think readers project onto lovecraft more than they want to admit. I probably liked "Herbert West- Reanimator" the most from him. Sounds like you're into scifi rn. Philip K. Dick is good don't overlook his A Scanner Darkly and Flow My Tears The Policeman Said. |
Egarran
06.06.23 | MoM what we are anxious to know is, will you read the Annihilation sequels?
And Dune is amazing, you must read asap. |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | I've read some of his work. Ubik and Electric Sheep are both brilliant! You're right, I love sci fi, my favourite writers are Asimov, for his Foundation series and Clarke for 2001 and Randezvous with Rama |
90m80s
06.06.23 | I've been on the fence about reading Philip K. Dick's last books, the VALIS trilogy. I hear they are bizarre and psychedelic, but also self-indulgent in a bad way. I'm a sucker for postmodernism done right and if I even get a hint that's inside, I'm likely to try whatever it is. No time for it now, but eventually. |
Shuyin
06.06.23 | Ubik was.. unique and offered something new, I found the first half to be medíocre but the second was phenomenal. I can't say the story was amazing or anything, but he presents a bizarro land that sucked me in. I love when writters just let their imagination run wild, that's why I can unironically enjoy stuff like Junji Itos Remina |
90m80s
06.06.23 | hell yeah I've read a lot of Junji Ito. No Longer Human is ultra disturbing. The manga collections are pretty hit or miss though unfortunately. |
Shuyin
06.07.23 | The original NLH is also worth a read, and although I loved Junjis version I still prefer Uzumaki because its a showcase off his insane imagination even if its lacking in its plot |
90m80s
06.07.23 | Uzumaki definitely is among Junji Ito's best works. His book that made the strongest impression on me, however, was Gyo. The gross sensory overload with apocalyptic story developed masterfully yet unassumingly. Seems like Gyo gets overlooked. |
MoM
06.07.23 | @Egarren
Eventually, i will read the rest of the series! Not sure just yet when, but ideally, it’ll be soon |
Shuyin
06.07.23 | Gyo is a lot of fun, again taking a single idea and going batshit crazy with it. It was my introduction to Junji as well, it does get overlooked and it's a shame. A good manga that's all about creativity is Blame!, I highly recommend it, put on some cyberpunkish ambient music, something similar to Blade Runner 2049 OST, and enjoy the experience
Yea, I love bizarre and dark sci fi |
Egarran
06.07.23 | Huge Uzumaki fan, but didn't really dig Gyo. I think it's not cosmic enough. |
90m80s
06.07.23 | Shuyin, have you read the original Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM) series? |
AlexKzillion
06.07.23 | reading 'crabgrass frontier: the suburbanization of the united states' by kenneth jackson right now
really interesting but also slightly disconcerting how our communities since the 1800s have been built and organized to generate the most amount of money not only for the builders but for corporations, even down to seemingly minute details like gardening. way more strategic and competitive than i ever would have thought |
Ryus
06.07.23 | that sounds rly interesting alex will add it to my list |
Shuyin
06.07.23 | Yea! I got the deluxe editions of Battle Angel. Easily one of the best cyberpunk manga out there, Last Order was enjoyable but not as good as the original, imo |
90m80s
06.07.23 | Nice. I have the hardcover deluxes as well. Last Order has better art from a technical standpoint though it often seems like something vital is missing. |
Anthracks
06.07.23 | uzumaki is actually the next book i'm reading. looking forward to it |
90m80s
06.08.23 | ^ your first Junji Ito? |
CugnoBrasso
06.08.23 | I just wanted everyone to know that I just finished reading Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. |
Winesburgohio
06.08.23 | Any of my tr00 homies fucking w/ Fitzcarraldo Editions in a major way? Such a cool imprint |
Winesburgohio
06.08.23 | @cugno hell yes huge effort! glad you have seen The Light |
kalkwiese
06.08.23 | Getting into Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I love how modern yet old school his narration style is
My first Gaiman if you don't count Good Omens |
90m80s
06.08.23 | what are yalls reading preference? more specifically, do u read ebooks or physical copies? go to the library or purchase reading materials? |
AlexKzillion
06.08.23 | i strictly buy physical copies, always prefer paperback. i like buying books in bulk at used book stores especially, can buy like three months worth of reading material for $20, and i think it creates motivation for me in that i already have the next 5-10 books i'm gonna read on my shelf
feel like everything i do including work involves me looking at a screen of some sort and physical books take me away from that. also sometimes like to write in my books / don't always take the best care of them so i refrain from going to the library really |
CugnoBrasso
06.08.23 | The number of this comment of mine is the same as my year of birth. |
MoM
06.08.23 | “ do u read ebooks or physical copies? go to the library or purchase reading materials?”
I’m a fan of both ebooks and physical. I love having a physical copy, but for portability, ebooks became my go-to. I prefer to purchase, but i also enjoy being able to go to the library, or use my library’s internet services, when wanting to be a bit frugal or if i can’t find a copy for what feels like a reasonable price. |
CugnoBrasso
06.08.23 | Seriously considering e-books since I have silverfish in my house. |
DocSportello
06.08.23 | cugno flies toward grace |
90m80s
06.08.23 | that sux doc |
Ryus
06.08.23 | physical copies. i buy a lot of used stuff from my local store which has one of the best used sections ive ever seen. |
Egarran
06.08.23 | Physical, mostly from the library. |
Anthracks
06.08.23 | it is my second ito experience. i have read his adaptation of no longer human |
90m80s
06.08.23 | right on. i feel he has more impact with longer works. |
TalonsOfFire
06.08.23 | I always read physical books, couldn’t imagine using a screen like on a Kindle or something. I stare at screens enough as it is and I like having physical books and collecting. |
Anthracks
06.08.23 | starting up my vacation with lady windermere's fan by oscar wilde, meditations by marcus aurelius, and uzumaki by junji ito |
Jasdevi087
06.09.23 | all my homies buy used physical copies
kinda sucks though when you want to read a book that literally no one's ever bought before so you gotta go online |
bellovddd
06.09.23 | Vampires by John Steakley. fun read. |
90m80s
06.09.23 | just finished a quick reread of Hunter x Hunter vol 32 as a slight detour from book currently focused on: Journey to the West |
Anthracks
06.10.23 | uzumaki sucked me right in
against the day by thomas pynchon is next, with childhood's end by arthur c clarke and roadside picnic by arkady and boris strugatsky both in beautiful folio to break it up |
90m80s
06.10.23 | uzumaki def one of his best. love his longer stories. |
TalonsOfFire
06.10.23 | I’m a little way through The Buried Giant and it’s interesting so far. Not sure if I should start Kindred or Wool next too, been wanting to read both for a while. |
MoM
06.10.23 | “ Hunter x Hunter”
I’m so curious if this will come back. Would love to know what’s going to happen next in the series |
90m80s
06.10.23 | more than happy with the hxh that exists, but obvs more would be cool |
MoM
06.10.23 | For sure! Really dug the newer anime, and kind of feel like where that ends off would’ve been a good open ended conclusion, but it’s all good either way |
90m80s
06.10.23 | i got started on hxh with the old anime and i really love that era and style, so the new anime took a while to grow on me. i like it a lot now. prefer the manga over both, but think the new anime is the superior anime hxh. yer right the new anime left off at a good spot. hoping they do some ovas to cover more manga material. |
MoM
06.10.23 | I fucking love that 90s anime style. Some OVAs would be great for sure. I’ve been lagging on reading the manga, damn |
90m80s
06.10.23 | the manga kicks ass def worth it |
Anthracks
06.10.23 | I love that “Pynchon’s most accessible novel” is an 1,100 page brick. Is that the joke? |
90m80s
06.11.23 | crying of lot 49 is less than 200 p and pretty damn accesible imo |
Anthracks
06.11.23 | his short stories are also very accessible. and vineland for the most part |
90m80s
06.11.23 | i tried Slow Learner but it wasnt for me |
MiloRuggles
06.11.23 | Bleeding Edge and Inherent Vice are definitely Accessible Pynchon. Against the Day is pretty damn wild, especially near the end.
Started The Bluest Eye since y'all were raving about it, very good about 50 pages in |
Anthracks
06.11.23 | Well according to us here, the larger percentage of Pynchon works can be safely categorized as accessible thus making him an accessible author overall. I must recommend him to my mother |
CugnoBrasso
06.11.23 | Just started Mo Yan's "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" and it's weird.
Talking about Pynchon, it really depends on what we mean by accessible. Gravity's Rainbow is pretty damn unreadable at some point, and so is TCOL49 (despite what everyone says... Don't tell me you guys really understood what was going on in the theater scene halfway through the book).
Against the Day's prose is much more accessible, and some chapters read like a normal book, but the plot is so complex that you can't remember who's who or who knows whom, or why some people are in central Asia, where they came from and so on. In that regard, it's probably Pynchon's least followable book, if that makes any sense. |
MoM
06.11.23 | “ Just started Mo Yan's "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" and it's weird.”
My mother had given me a copy of this years ago, figuring I’d like it based on the name and cover. She was right. I thought it was a weird, but very enjoyable book. I hope you like it! |
CugnoBrasso
06.11.23 | I am so far! The cover of my edition also has an interesting painting https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b5/72/ca/b572ca293ef1b6a59f0656760357b407--sei.jpg |
MoM
06.11.23 | That’s so cool!! Mine has the red cover you see when you google it. Might give it another read |
DadKungFu
06.13.23 | Strange affection for Rip Torn both for Freddy Got Fingered and for trying to beat Norman Mailer to death with a hammer on camera |
Mort.
06.13.23 | just finished Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake
gonna read The Scar by Chine Mieville next |
Azazzel
06.13.23 | going to start a summer reread of Don Quixote w/ Grossman translation. years DQ holds up as a topster but, apparently some translations are abominable and I don't know which I read back then!
what better time then, such an excellent breezy humorous joyful book for summer |
dbizzles
06.13.23 | Lost a good one today. RIP Cormac.
NPR article is a nice little tribute. |
Anthracks
06.13.23 | Fucking fuck me fuck |
Ryus
06.13.23 | RIP to one of the modern goats |
kalkwiese
06.13.23 | Seems like the US is no country for old men amirite? |
dbizzles
06.13.23 | 'Getting into Stardust by Neil Gaiman
I love how modern yet old school his narration style is
My first Gaiman if you don't count Good Omens'
Huge Gaiman nerd, but Stardust is the only one I haven't read (I did see some of the movie for some reason). Would recommend American Gods, Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book (audio), and of course, Sandman. |
kalkwiese
06.13.23 | Nice, I will definetly look deeper into his work
|
Mort.
06.13.23 | i will not be reading Neal Gaiman until he gets on with that gormenghast tv adaption i was promised years ago |
MiloRuggles
06.13.23 | Big RIP to McCarthy. Unbelievable writer. Still coasting through a reread of The Passenger and I'm very glad he released these books before passing on. |
BaloneyPony
06.14.23 | Dang, I've always wanted to read Blood Meridian but kept telling myself "one day, one day." |
90m80s
06.14.23 | never understood his appeal |
MiloRuggles
06.14.23 | Great contribution user 90m80s |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | visited some of my favorite book stores in NYC and picked up 18 new books oops |
90m80s
06.14.23 | Read blood meridian 1 time and felt it fed into many outdated stereotypes i honestly wasnt entertained, i guess the mood of the text was OK tho, tbh im not into westerns |
solrage
06.14.23 | Just about to finish Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun tetralogy. Seems like it's been decades since I've read really great fantasy fiction, and this is really great fantasy fiction... hell, it's really great literature in general. I can see why Wolfe was a favorite of Gaiman and le Guin, the latter of whom called him "our Melville." Strangely enough, the book reminded me of Dark Souls: obscure, purposefully archaic, archetypal, but with a palpable, hypnotic atmosphere that's cryptically compelling and beautifully written.
Some other recent reads:
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Marry Me & The Coup by John Updike
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Under the Net by Iris Murdoch
The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth
VALIS Trilogy by Philip K. Dick
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing |
solrage
06.14.23 | As for my reading habits, it's 99% digital these days. I use Calibre and have over 6500 books downloaded so no matter what I'm in the mood for, I have it. Love the convenience, especially being able to just click on a word to look up a definition, or search Google images to see examples of what's being described. The ability to highlight and comment without marking up physical books is a huge plus as well. I get the appeal of physical books, but I just can't justify spending the money and space for them anymore. I still have a pretty large physical book collection for stuff that's not available digitally. |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | Is blood Meridian a western? |
90m80s
06.14.23 | have u read it? |
MiloRuggles
06.14.23 | Bloom calls it something akin to the last western. As such it contains a rather significant skew on western tropes |
YoYoMancuso
06.14.23 | I'm gutted. I had always somewhat liked reading but no one has ever made an impact on me with their words like McCarthy has. Pretty much every song I've ever written has a thinly veiled reference to something he wrote |
90m80s
06.14.23 | Prob like saying evangelion isnt a mecha show |
Supercoolguy64
06.14.23 | RIP McCarthy I’ve never finished any of his books except No Country. I bought Suttree so maybe I’ll finally finish that one to make up. |
MiloRuggles
06.14.23 | Perhaps today's not the day for your searing takes on a just-deceased literary legend 90. Eva is clearly a romcom anyway
Suttree is wildly good. Made me laugh many times |
90m80s
06.14.23 | Why not? I didn't criticize the man. I don't know much at all about him so you should be safe with your feelings this time. |
Sharenge
06.14.23 | if you don't want your copies of his last books I'll take them |
Sharenge
06.14.23 | check Ben Nichols - The Last Pale Light in the West |
solrage
06.14.23 | I shamefully haven't read any McCarthy, but I was ambivalent about what I wanted to read after BotNS so I may give Blood Meridian a shot. |
90m80s
06.14.23 | solrage# what did you think of VALIS trilogy??? I've been considering picking it up awhile now |
solrage
06.14.23 | "Eva is clearly a romcom"
No, you're thinking of Kare Kano, the series Hideaki Anno did after Evangelion. ;) |
solrage
06.14.23 | @90m80s:
I loved it, but it's very weird and really messy even by PKD standards. It would NOT be what I'd recommend to someone for their first PKD. For one, it's not really a trilogy; there's almost zero continuity between them beyond their thematic interest in a very idiosyncratic theology/philosophy. VALIS especially feels as much an exercise in explaining part of a theophany with a very loose (though intriguing) story tacked onto it; reminding me a lot of William Blake's visionary works and James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover. The Divine Invasion is the most typical of PKD, returning to his favorite themes of alternate realities, though even it has a very unusual structure. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is, IMO, not just the best of them, but the best thing PKD ever wrote, though it's also very typical in having almost zero sci-fi/fantasy elements, but is really just a character study in a really poignant story about grief and loss, which is another theme all these works (and A Scanner Darkly) share.
At the very least, Timothy Archer would get my highest recommendation, and it can easily be read in isolation. If you do want to read the trilogy, just keep in mind that love or hate VALIS (the novel) it's not indicative of the other two novels. |
90m80s
06.14.23 | Good to know. Apprec the write up. |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | How can you not see the disrespect of saying you didn’t care for somebody on the literal day they died. Like how is that a worthy contribution in your mind? You could just not say anything
BM is way too mythical to be considered a western in my mind, but if the only requirement to be labeled western is that it take place in the west then sure. The genre makes certain assumptions that aren’t present in the work and it’s commonly labeled anti-western. I would just blanket it historical fiction. |
Mort.
06.14.23 | how is going 'rip' a 'worthy contribution'??
in fact, id say 90m80s giving their opinion on mccarthy is more of a worthy contribution than the rip posts
|
Mort.
06.14.23 | 'Perhaps today's not the day for your searing takes on a just-deceased literary legend 90.'
holy shit braindead comments itt
'Read blood meridian 1 time and felt it fed into many outdated stereotypes i honestly wasnt entertained, i guess the mood of the text was OK tho, tbh im not into westerns'
omg dude how dare you say this?!?!?!?! fucking hell youd think he wrote several paragraphs slagging mcarthy off |
kalkwiese
06.14.23 | And I thought by joke would rub people the wrong way lmao
He is a Passenger now on The Road to becoming a Child of God |
Mort.
06.14.23 | i would like to apologise for the meanness of my comments |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | nonono, there is a value to withholding information that is better left unsaid, or left to be said on any day other than that which the subject has died. you don't have to impulsively speak or write every single thing that you think. in fact, you'd be better off not doing so in so many cases.
rest in peace is absolutely a worthy contribution when someone has died. the phrase is an utterance of respect for the individual that has passed away. what is wrong with you? |
Mort.
06.14.23 | 'what is wrong with you'
lol ok i rescind my comment, get a grip |
Mort.
06.14.23 | youre very much working off an ambiguous and generous definition of 'worthy contribution' here |
Mort.
06.14.23 | and this is a discussion thread where we talk about our opinions on authors and their works. i dont see why discussion should be shut down entirely in favour of rip posts and positive thoughts on this works. saying 'huh i didnt really get it' is just as contributing. maybe you could have responded to that user by asking them some questions about their thoughts on mcarthy and giving yours? |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | "ambiguous and generous definition?"
worthy
having worth or value : estimable
honorable
contribution
something contributed.
a post (contribution) honoring the recently deceased literally = a worthy contribution by definition
??? |
Mort.
06.14.23 | oh shit lol you got me, sorry, forgot the dictionary exists
you should go tell everyone, im sure it would clear a lot of issues up |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | anyway. now that we've proven ourselves incapable of honoring one of the greatest writers to ever exist upon their unfortunate passing, here's a list of the books i picked up in NY. broadening my experience with theater and manga a bit
goodnight punpun by inio asano
strange weather in tokyo by hiromi kawakami
ptsd radio by masaaki nakayama
the magic mountain by thomas mann
the box man by kobo abe
tar baby by toni morrison
the wild geese by ogai mori
the flowers of buffoonery by osamu dazai
lost time: lectures on proust in a soviet prison camp by jozef czapski
prometheus bound by aeschylus
fear and misery of the third reich by bertolt brecht
the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett
cherry orchard by anton chekhov
the crucible by arthur miller
a doll's house by henrik ibsen
a streetcar named desire by tennessee williams
kirby manga mania |
90m80s
06.14.23 | yall seem to go HAM everytime I go to sleep. anyway, nothing to add that i havent already said. Enjoying my reread of Journey to the West. |
Azazzel
06.14.23 | hope you didn't get the antiquated stuffy Lowe-Porter translation of Magic Mountain. if you read much of those German idealist watch out! Most prefer John E. Woods
https://www.db-thueringen.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/dbt_derivate_00009503/chapter2.html |
Ryus
06.14.23 | a dolls house is amazing |
Azazzel
06.14.23 | What poets should I read to inspire writing about music |
90m80s
06.14.23 | Who do you normally read to feel inspired to write? |
Anthracks
06.14.23 | edit |
AlexKzillion
06.16.23 | just started the iliad |
MoM
06.16.23 | Bumping!!! |
Egarran
06.16.23 | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Good aspiecore. |
Mort.
06.16.23 | pretty bad aspie representation that features an aspie with basically savant like abilities
if i remember correctly hes amazing at maths and physics and also has an almost perfect memory but wont eat certain foods due to their colour, has meltdowns all the time, cant understand social interactions in the slightest, and wont do anything all day depending on the colour of the cars he sees on the way to school
its like someone took a list of asperger symptoms, bundled every one into a character and ramped them all up to 11
|
Mort.
06.16.23 | When that book came out it got marketed as an autism book and people reacted badly due to how extreme the character is but Haddon didnt like that seeming as christopher is never definitively said to be autistic
regardless, i loved that book as a kid and now i really have a lot of issues with it
but i mean
|
Mort.
06.16.23 | finished The Scar by China Mieville today. thought it was just as good and maybe even better than perdido street station. Really think 'new weird' might be a movement i want to read a lot more of in the future
he could have done with culling the odd page and he really fucking loves the word puissance |
MiloRuggles
06.16.23 | And furtive! |
Jasdevi087
06.16.23 | "he could have done with culling the odd page and he really fucking loves the word puissance"
he has a handful of words in all of his fucking books that he can't seem to stop using. It's "russet" and "etiolated" in Perdido Street Station |
Mort.
06.16.23 | ayyyyy he uses etiolated a few times in the scar as well
the man adores mervyn peake who was constantly using obscure or esoteric words so its no surprise. in fact when i read first read mervyn peake i started writing down all the words i didnt know. i lost that document but recently started a new one, partly due to mieville
|
Mort.
06.16.23 | two that stick out to me was disphotic and euryhalinic
|
solrage
06.17.23 | Finished Blood Meridian; the first book since Conrad's Heart of Darkness I read and then re-read back-to-back days. Some thematic correlation between them too; I'm starting to think I have a bias for really bleak novels about the evil within the hearts of man. Definitely deserving of its masterpiece status, and I love how McCarthy basically synthesizes the polarized styles of Faulkner's stream-of-conscious, run-on, sensuous syntax and descriptions with Hemingway's more streamlined, concise style, frequently juxtaposing them to good effect. My only reservations are the long stretches where the Kid basically disappears from the novel only to have him emerge near the end at the pivotal climax, and the ending where McCarthy turns things into a metaphysical-allegorical fantasy that feels slightly dissonant tonally with the rest of the novel. Obviously the Mephistophelean undertones are there throughout, and I'm not sure the reasoning for making them so overt/explicit. I have to believe McCarthy got the ending idea from Gounod's ‘Le veau d’or’ aria from his Faust in which Mephistopheles sings about Satan leading people in a dance to their death for worshiping false idols. |
90m80s
06.17.23 | bloody hell |
Get Low
06.17.23 | The climax of Blood Meridian reminds me of Othello, with the villainous Judge, much like Iago, triumphing in the end. I don't have the book in front of me rn but I believe the judge chants "I will never die, I will never die" as he's dancing, which echoes back to Iago basically getting out of his deadly trickery scot-free. |
90m80s
06.17.23 | simpsons did it |
Egarran
06.17.23 | Nice mort. Hoped someone knew that book.
It's true he has more or less ALL the symptoms and is almost a caricature.
Also the two aspies I know more or less hate all descriptions of aspies.
Still I like the way he's told. He had a description of clouds I really resonated with. |
JohnnyoftheWell
06.17.23 | read Quicksand by Junichiro Tanizaki (finally got through the Makioka Sisters and wanted to see something from the racy side of his corpus) the other day - most definitely the best short novel i've read about a greasy conman blackmailing his way into a 1920s bisexual love triangle out of insecurity for his micropenis. would recommend |
Mort.
06.17.23 | 'Nice mort. Hoped someone knew that book.
It's true he has more or less ALL the symptoms and is almost a caricature.
Also the two aspies I know more or less hate all descriptions of aspies.
Still I like the way he's described. He had a description of clouds I really resonated with.'
yeah theres parts of that book i really enjoy and love but i struggle to not find it a bit ridiculous and over the top in its depiction of a specific form of autism
i must have read it so many times as a kid. i have a lot of nostalgia for it
|
Egarran
06.17.23 | Huge clouds could be spaceships in disguise. |
90m80s
06.17.23 | transformers are robots in disguise |
memnite
06.17.23 | loving the mieville appreciation in this thread
my sister gave me a copy of the open curtain by brian evenson for my bday last week and i'm super excited to crack it open. anyone familiar with his work? i'm completely clueless and want to go in blind but i'd love to read some Takes |
Anthracks
06.17.23 | Just walked into a random bookstore and copped a first edition of the crossing and cities of the plain for 18 bucks each |
90m80s
06.17.23 | nearly finished with journey to the west vol 1, then gonna start on my library of america kerouac novels |
DadKungFu
06.17.23 | Invisible Cities right now, how is Calvino not more well known? Dude should be up there with Umberto Eco but I’ve almost never seen anyone talking about him |
BaselineOOO
06.17.23 | "Dude should be up there with Umberto Eco"
No. |
MoM
06.17.23 | I love Invisible Cities, but have never read any of his other work |
DadKungFu
06.17.23 | Baseline is that a knock on Calvino or praise for Eco? |
Egarran
06.17.23 | My bet is praise. Tool and Foucault's Pendulum go hand in hand.
But be warned: Do NOT read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Shit's bad. |
Anthracks
06.17.23 | i haven't made it too far into their biblios but from what i've read calvino is significantly stronger than eco. but they're also quite different writers so im not sure a comparison is even warranted |
DadKungFu
06.17.23 | Italian structuralists with a penchant for semiotics and "historical" fiction. Stylistically they're miles apart but I think the comparison's there. |
Anthracks
06.21.23 | against the day still has 95% of what makes pynchon so inaccessible. he uses less intimidating words this time around, though, so that must be what people mean when they say his most accessible? that or it is an actual joke as 1,100 pages of pynchon is just brutal regardless. the absolute disregard for cogitable structure or narrative and voluminous roster is all there. only 33% done, but it seems even harder to discern thematically than some of his other major works. you never know what he really is intending when he writes some of this shit because it always reads like there are four layers of sarcasm behind it. |
MiloRuggles
06.21.23 | Yeah, you're completely right. I don't know why people are making that claim in here. Fortunately you can do alright for yourself if you clue on to a couple of the main thrusts (development of war tech (many atrocities are signposted, A-bomb imagery is everywhere), anarchism vs. capitalism (surprise, surprise - more on the nose here than in any of his other works), and the usual shit about power ranging from personal to societal). Otherwise you can pretty much scan genre stuff as loving pastiche and just enjoy the absurdity. Very good prose tucked away in pockets too. |
MoM
06.21.23 | I’m about to read The Rape of Nanking by Iris Ching. Gotta get mentally prepared!
Also, anybody got any recs, any genre, preferably written in the last 30-40 years or so. I’d really appreciate it! |
DadKungFu
06.22.23 | MoM let me rec Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer is dope |
kalkwiese
06.22.23 | Just got into The Hobbit and I really appreciate the humor |
Egarran
06.22.23 | Finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
I liked it. It's a fascinating kind of heart-breaking because the main character isn't aware of it.
I think most sputnik users can somewhat relate to Christopher.
Now I have to find my Lovecraft collection. Apparently The Temple is a good companion to trapped in a sub narratives. And that's one of the few I haven't read. |
DadKungFu
06.22.23 | "I think most sputnik users can somewhat relate to Christopher"
lol |
Egarran
06.22.23 | *starts groaning* |
kalkwiese
06.22.23 | True tho |
Shuyin
06.23.23 | So... I finished reading Valis by Phillip Dick, it took me 2 weeks which is a lot. I have no idea what to say about it, some parts and ideas are very interesting, even brilliant at points.. but the book itself is filled with so much nonsense that it feels more like an LSD trip rather than an actual narrative. For the first time I have no idea how I feel about a book, either love it or hate it.
If any of you are wondering about PKD, since his novels are well known and highly recommended, my advice is do not start with Valis. |
MoM
06.23.23 | Thanks, DadKungFu! I used to own a copy but never got around to reading it! That’s going on my list! |
Anthracks
06.24.23 | ATD is my least favorite Pynchon so far by a significant margin (only other one I haven’t read yet is Bleeding Edge). I’m hoping it somehow miraculously upswings in the second half? By far his least funny, least compelling, least penetrating work with his most uninteresting cast of characters and not even any really good dialogue. Overall nothing to keep the read interesting despite its behemoth length. Hate to say it because I’ve loved every single thing I’ve read so far. Neverending slog |
Ectier
06.26.23 | I finished a trilogy set in medieval Russia based on like folklore and stuff was pretty great. Now Im something called Girls against God and its got some cool black metal references and stuff with Norway. Its fucking frustrating because the synoposis of the book.made me: Go fuck yeah! Black metal, witchy shit, bleak outlook Im here for that. Reality: stream of conciousness writing style and almost mastubatory monlouges of shit "I hate god, i love to HATE, captilisim sucks, im so deep and intropspective" which can fucking work but when theres nothing really happening feels more like an Essay than a novel. Whats worse is theres some really good bits and passages but then it circles back on itself and repeats the same shit. Its only 230 pages |
MoM
06.26.23 | “ mastubatory monlouges of shit "I hate god, i love to HATE, captilisim sucks, im so deep and intropspective" which can fucking work but when theres nothing really happening feels more like an Essay than a novel. Whats worse is theres some really good bits and passages but then it circles back on itself and repeats the same shit. ”
This sounds absolutely awful 😦 |
Jasdevi087
06.26.23 | I will not stand for Jenny Hval slander, go 5 Viscera and then go back and finish that book without reading as a point a to point b folk horror novel |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Its just bizzare MoM. Im just confused because on the surface if this was actually told in a more conventional narrative form there could be something good here. Of a girl growing up in 90s Norway loving black metal and having a bleak hateful outlook on life. Navigating the goods and bad of the scene and the controversy with it and the clash with religion/nazis/hatespeech, drawing the line between Misanthropy and hate speech. But no its this weird bullshit thing thats self indulgent |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Still not the worst book ive attempted to read this year not even close those two books arent being topped anytime soon. This is at least experimental and trying something different in its presentation which i can respect and its well written and again has some really good bits |
MoM
06.26.23 | Ahhh, somehow that still feels so unfortunately typical black metal |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Ive found the most frustrating form of bad media be it an album/game/book etc is one where its clear there is a good foundation and there could have been something good. Or you know that the creator is capable of doing a far better job than the actual end result. Where as when somethings just awful you can laugh at it and go well "they tried" |
JohnnyoftheWell
06.26.23 | Against the Day has some a load of laugh out loud moments wtf. Core roster is cartoonish even by Pynchon's standards so I get ragging on characterisation and dialogue, but I don't think that hampers his screwball chops at all
"Invisible Cities right now, how is Calvino not more well known? Dude should be up there with Umberto Eco but I’ve almost never seen anyone talking about him"
From irl experiences as a former student of Italian, I thought Calvino had highly established word-of-mouth value tbh, surprised he doesn't get as much discourse. Man's imagination is absurd (hit those Cosmicomics if you haven't already, excellent follow up to Invisible Cities) and his range is on point (Path the Spider's Nests hits raw). Gorgeously translated too
Off to Greece with no laptop, couple of short novels from Mieko Kawakami and Yasunari Kawabata, and a copy of the Satanic Verses to chew on if there's time. Been reading much more in the last few months and want to rly knuckle down for a week or so |
MoM
06.26.23 | @ Ectier
I agree. That’s how i feel about Ari Aster’s movies. So much wasted potential. But, if it’s what they want, it’s their art and our opinions are just that 🤷 |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Ive hit 26 books so far this year I think. Going to keep on churning through them atm. Wasted potential is the most frustrating thing, but you are right sometimes its what the creators make i guess 🤷♀️ |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Also after that Russian trilogy, Russian names are insane |
MoM
06.26.23 | I have such a hard time trying to pronounce them. Makes it such a pain to try and remember them. Got any book recommendations? Of any genre? |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Uhhhm I remember saying The Silent Patient awhile back to you. The psychological thriller one. I burnt through V.E Schebs Shades of Magic trilogy not long ago. Ill have a check in a bit and get back to you. Had a wholesome low stakes fantasy novel about two women settling down and starting a Tea shop (cant spell treason without Tea, i thinks the name) Was cute and just chill. Lapvona i think is a darker book i tried before but didnt click immediatly, so will return to it. Slewfoot was a good witchy novel set in Puritan America was expensive af though |
MoM
06.26.23 | Witchy is good! The tea one sounds great too. I liked The Silent Patient! Thank you! |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Its a cute lesbian little love story thats just low stakes and nothing like world breaking. "The Way I used to be" was a book that stuck with me from a few years back its a heart crusher and deals with heavy subject matter (rape,drugs,booze). My top and fav from this year is Our Crooked Hearts by Mellissa Albert |
MoM
06.26.23 | Sounds good! I’ll be looking into these! |
Ectier
06.26.23 | Also "if he had been with me" is another heart crusher with a somewhat unreliable narrator which was good and makes me want to re read it with that in mind. |
DadKungFu
06.26.23 | E.E. Cummings collected poetry. Often brilliant, just as often frustrating."nobody, not even the rain/ has such small hands" is one of the great lines of the 20th century if not all time |
Anthracks
06.26.23 | least funny =/= not funny at all. i certainly disagree with "loads" of funny moments, unless they are all in the last third of the book, but i didn't say it was without humor. most of the jokes are too childish (not in the great ironic way he can usually pull off). |
Egarran
06.26.23 | >nobody, not even the rain/ has such small hands
Is it a Trump reference? |
DadKungFu
06.26.23 | La Dispute reference |
DadKungFu
06.26.23 | Also I refuse to let you ruin that line dammit Egarran |
Egarran
06.26.23 | Yeah sorry
I'm such a pleb ):
(Cummings is fantastic.) |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Jesus fucking christ this books agony (Girls Against God by Jenny Hval). I only have 100 pages left or so. So Im at that point of its too short to drop the book and im almost done |
Jasdevi087
06.27.23 | look so I'd love to talk in good faith with you about Girls Against God, but look I'm seeing the anime adjacent avatar and the 100% metal piechart and... idk kid go read something else i guess |
Ectier
06.27.23 | The avatar showed up? Also neither my music taste nor the avatar ive chosen have anything to do with why im struggling with this book or finding it challenging.
My problem is this isnt at all what i expected the novel to be, it in essence is experimental which is fine. My problem stems from it being almost incoherent and more being a collection of musings rather than a novel telling a story. The author clearly makes her points and some of it makes sense and the links she makes on subjects for the most part work but it gets drowned in "pseudo im very intellectual shit". Which again i can admit can work but the problems arise when its done too much and too often. Which then drowns the reader in this muddied mess and makes this short book feel like a slog. Which coupled with the repetition of the main characters "I hate god, i hate south Norway, I love to Hate" it again makes the book a slog. Theres a lot of good parts and passages of this book but its just a challenge and frustrating when its drowning in wank |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Will also admit its not for me, but want to finish it
Edit: this isnt a bad book by any means, its just strange for me |
MoM
06.27.23 | Yeah, a piechart and avatar aren’t any indicator about book taste (sincerely, not sarcastically). And it’s pretty condescending and pretentious and dismissive to then follow it up with “kid” |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Maybe im just not at a point in my life to understand this book or have enough background to fully grasp all of whats being presented. If you enjoyed it Jasdevi am glad for you but I am finding it frustrating obviously by the points ive written out. |
Egarran
06.27.23 | I appreciate your review and want you to finish. |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Oh im finishing it for sure. Its not like the writing is poor quality at all or that its an offensively bad piece of work. Its just a tad hard to process and feels directionless to a degree. The author has seen some very odd movies/media and she must write some beastly essays and clearly has a brilliant mind. |
MiloRuggles
06.27.23 | If it helps I thought that the ending was the strongest section by a decent margin (but I liked it at large too) |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Oh great looking forward to it, have put it down for today though. Im not hating it to be honest, it is good but i think a lot my issues stem from hoping/expecting a more concrete story than this artistic, experimental flow of conciousness piece. I think if i ever revisit it ill be able to understand it more |
Jasdevi087
06.27.23 | i guess it's just pretty annoying to see someone having a kneejerk dismissive reaction to something because it wasn't what they were expecting and is a prose style they're not familiar with (the author probably didn't have final call over the blurb just as a side note). Hval's approach to writing in that novel is valid and it's pretty condescending to be characterising it as wank when it's more than likely just not your kind of writing.
sorry about the "kid" thing though, that wasn't particularly cash money and was not bringing chill vibes
i will however double down on the piechart thing though come on it's 2023 |
Ectier
06.27.23 | If I was dismissive of it i wouldnt be committed to finishing the book. I fully admit i am out of my depth here with it. Im not calling the entire text or style wanky, i feel like parts of it got away from her and she doubles down on some elements and stuff gets muddied in the intellectual/conceptual parts. Hval is clearly a bloody good writer. Also the blurb on the real book didnt match up at all with the online store description. While its been a frustrating book for me its also been a learning experience. |
Ectier
06.27.23 | We all have moments where we go: The fuck is this??? Then later come back or find something similar and go: Im an idiot. I feel this may be a case for me with it |
Anthracks
06.27.23 | "i guess it's just pretty annoying to see someone having a kneejerk dismissive reaction to something because it wasn't what they were expecting"
this describes probably 97% of the comments on sputnikmusic... lol
kneejerk reactions are valid... perhaps the most valid because it's what you most viscerally feel
reevaluating a work in hindsight as the frustrating aspects become less pervasive is also valid
gatekeeping / tasteshaming because someone has different view than you totes not valid though
imagine how boring everything would be if we all agreed on everything yuck |
Anthracks
06.27.23 | with that said i'm hoping&praying against the day becomes better for me in hindsight. ill be finishing soon and it's a 5/10 for me |
Ectier
06.27.23 | Hope it gets better Anthracks! Idk how i would even rate Girls against God out of 10 to be honest. I dont think im comfortable assigning it one as its left me a tad confused and unsure with it. Its been a good experience overal |
Jasdevi087
06.27.23 | lol w/e anthracks eat my ass (consentually) |
Ectier
06.28.23 | I have finished Girls Against God. I am very confused and weirded out. What a bizzare adventure that was. Maybe will revisit it later in the future. |
Shuyin
06.28.23 | "imagine how boring everything would be if we all agreed on everything yuck"
I can't state how much I agree with this, it's something I say all the time. I think people usually act like jerks when someone either has a different point of view or just disagrees with them. It's great to argue our position without being nasty and also listening to different opinions on things, I feel like our world is kinda going nuts because people just don't talk anymore.
Reading The War of the Worlds atm, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. When I was a kid I had a huge collection of Disney comics (mostly Donald Duck and his uncle), one of those comics was an adaptation of WotW and it was awesome. Then a few years later the Spielberg movie came out and I genuinely liked it, I think the premise is kind of a cliché nowadays but still.. it's a classic |
Jasdevi087
06.28.23 | that's literally not what i was saying tho, all i was responding to was what i perceived to be an unfair mischaracterisation of a book i like, why are we responding to this like i was advocating for sterilising children or something? |
Jasdevi087
06.28.23 | so like, people are allowed to have different opinions, but then I'm not allowed to disagree with the person disagreeing with me? what kind of ass backwards shit is this |
naughtcturnal
06.28.23 | too scared of playing Alien: Isolation so I’m reading the novelization |
Ectier
06.28.23 | Glad you like the book though JasDevi even with my conflicting thoughts on it. |
Jasdevi087
06.28.23 | hey, glad you turned down the heat a little on how you were characterising it, even if it didn't change your position (it was the former, rather than the latter, that i was focused on)
czech natural snow buildings |
Ectier
06.28.23 | I will! Atm going to take a small break from reading for today. Until i address my monstrous to be read pile and find something a bit easier to digest. Like i said she isnt a poor writer at all |
solrage
06.29.23 | Recently read:
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
The Maples Stories by John Updike
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
All three were excellent. I was surprised by how well Robinson Crusoe held up after 3 centuries of other media copying its "crash landing on a deserted island" template. The Maples Stories are, outside of the Rabbit novels, the best I've read from Updike and a great introduction; very beautiful, graceful, understated snapshots of a marriage over several decades told through ~20 short stories. Death in Venice is one of those "nothing happens, but everything happens" books. Mann makes Venice itself a character and there are probably at least a dozen ways to interpret the protagonist's obsession with a beautiful adolescent boy. A great novella if you're like me and love philosophically dense and interpretatively ambiguous stuff. |
dedex
06.29.23 | currently reading Michael Parenti - Blackshirts and Red
lacking some BIG SOURCES but boi it's a fun read |
Anthracks
06.30.23 | i think it's more the fact that you completely disregarded their opinion because of their taste in music and avatar and then called them a kid - i don't know if that really qualifies as a respectful or productive disagreement. disregarding =/= disagreeing |
Ectier
06.30.23 | As the "kid" on question, lets put an end to this silliness so we can get back to talking about books!!
Firstly, while my critisicms may have been harsh or knee jerky. They where my opinion of them and in no way did i say it was a poor book. I tried to explain why i felt the way i did in a clear way. Perhaps i was a tad aggresive with it due to my frustrations, Ive admitted my faults with my comments and that i may just not get the book or understand it yet
Jasdevi: You are also entitled and have your own opinion! But i think the take away which im sure you have realised now, is the intial point of interaction we had, is the problem. Which is the root of the this whole overblown thing. We all have our own opinions and tastes in things and a right to express them
Lets shelf this and get back to talking about books and being civil and chill |
Anthracks
06.30.23 | i agree with shelving it, but you absolutely do not need to apologize for having an opinion
finishing against the day tonight and then jumping into some america inspired reads as i do every july... first being john adams biography by david mccullough |
Ectier
06.30.23 | Im thinking od reading Dead Poets society or One for my enemy By Olivive(may have this wront) Blake |
Rowan5215
07.01.23 | started Child of God tonight, can tell I'm gonna tear through this |
MoM
07.01.23 | Currently reading The Forty Rules of Love, really enjoying it. Great stuff. And Coraline, also really good |
Egarran
07.01.23 | Reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Some good old new sci-fi with a nice concept, only problem is the main (and basically only, like in The Martian) character is a shallow dude who goes 'gee whiz!' on every other page.
Although, something just happened that could make the novel take a sharp turn into cosmic horror. Which would be a nice twist.
Actually that would be a nice twist for any novel. |
CugnoBrasso
07.01.23 | Anthrax congrats on AtD, I finished it last month. |
Ectier
07.03.23 | So One of my Enemy by Olivie Blake is shaping up to be fan fucking tastic and up there with my top picks of the year. Halfway through and its been a ride. Sort of Romeo and juliet with witchy russian families in New York and loads of vengence |
kalkwiese
07.03.23 | Started A Storm of Swords (Book 3 of A Song of Ice and Fire). It's definelty gonna take me 2 months, I feel it, but coming back to Westeros feels good |
Ectier
07.03.23 | I feel thats a series id want to get but i have a feeling I would never get around to reading it |
CugnoBrasso
07.03.23 | What I meant when I said that Against the Day was more accessible than Gravity's Rainbow is that it's more readable, "accessible" might not be the right word.
AtD is way more complex and way harder to follow than GR, but prose-wise you rarely have no clue of what's going on. Gravity's Rainbow's prose is impenetrable at times. |
kalkwiese
07.03.23 | I am really bad this book series tbh
I started it in 2020 and from there on I read a bit less than 1 book a year. Every time I finish one, I need a long break.
It's really good though, at least what I read so far, which is book 1 and 2. It's also really bleak and dark, so you have to decide whether or not you like that.
It's worth a try, just don't expect the series to ever get finished |
Ectier
07.03.23 | Yeah, im into that. I think im turned off by book series that have a load of books to them now. You are right on that one though I doubt Martin will finish it. Im just glad Berserk is getting finished after its author died so at least that will have an ending |
DadKungFu
07.03.23 | Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun. Avoided Hamsun so far because of the fascist jerk thing but it's a tremendous story with a lotta pastoral beauty and ANGST |
CugnoBrasso
07.03.23 | I've always been very reluctant to read Hamsun for that very same reason. I read "Hunger" in the end, and I didn't even think it was Nobel-worthy.
Same reason why I never read Mishima. |
DadKungFu
07.03.23 | Mishima was a lot easier for me to get into because his whole malignant death fetish made the consequences of his thought process that much more open |
Squiggly
07.03.23 | I finished House of Leaves a couple of weeks ago and remember hearing about Pynchon and Gravity’s Rainbow while looking into the background/community around that book. I may look at AtD as well. |
CugnoBrasso
07.04.23 | "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out" is great, I just read the part in which the farmer finds out that his bull is masturbating, then the bull is so ashamed that he commits suicide by banging his head against a stone wall. Books about Chinese communism are the best! |
solrage
07.05.23 | Recent reads:
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Typhoon by Joseph Conrad
The Prague Orgy by Philip Roth
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
Dr. Futurity, Vulcan's Hammer, and Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Of these, Tropic of Cancer and Their Eyes Were Watching are the best. Miller's style is just so captivating, and he may be the origin of the kind of "slumdog ghetto poetry" later popularized by The Beats and Bukowsky. Not the most pleasant read (plenty of graphic depictions of sex and other bodily functions), and the characters aren't terribly likable, but the power of the prose more than makes up for it. Their Eyes Were Watching God was excellent too. Love Hurston's blend of a beautifully poetic "literary" voice and the demotic vernacular of poor black people in the south ca. the early 20th century. Great characterizations and a consistently compelling narrative. The Calvino was equal parts fascinating and frustrating; fascinating in its themes and originality of conception, frustrating in that it seems a novel devoid of any emotional substance ("all head, no heart" to put it succinctly). Typhoon and The Prague Orgy are both among the weakest I've read from both Conrad and Roth, two authors I dearly love. Of the PKD's, Solar Lottery was surprisingly great, but the other two were more typical of the older pulpy sci-fi that PKD would move away from. |
Ryus
07.05.23 | their eyes were watching god is terrific, yeah. |
kalkwiese
07.05.23 | The Hobbit was cute and whimsical :3 Can definetly recommend it to people that think LotR moves too slow
Started The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. It deals with heavy topics or holocaust guilt and sexual abuse, even though I don't think Schlink thought about it as abuse but love lol. I can see it as a twisted and unhealthy kind of love though |
dedex
07.05.23 | started The Accursed Kings, boi it's gonna be epic |
Ectier
07.05.23 | I really want to finish book im on but am so sleep deprived its hard to concentrate |
dedex
07.05.23 | go to sleep then :] |
Ectier
07.05.23 | Heres hoping for tonight to knock me the fuck out. Got some meds from doctor to help. Book (One for my enemy by Olivie Blake) has been really good |
Mort.
07.05.23 | reading aesops fables |
Rowan5215
07.05.23 | finished Child of God that was a hella bleak ride. some strange reading for work breaks lmao. gonna start Suttree tonight |
MiloRuggles
07.05.23 | Suttree is second best McCarthy, maybe best if you far prefer characters to spectacle. Glhf take your time xx
Finished The Bluest Eye and it was heart breaking. Certain sections were better than others, but very good all in all.
Reading Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor now, still working on The Bone People which unfortunately falls off a bit after an amazing start. Still very much enjoying though |
Anthracks
07.05.23 | house of leaves is so awful. i can't believe anyone mentions gravity's rainbow as relative to that book |
kalkwiese
07.05.23 | But maybe ... GR is awful too lelele
I will try Pynchon at some point, so I'll find out :) |
JohnnyoftheWell
07.05.23 | "even though I don't think Schlink thought about it as abuse but love lol"
studied that book to death aged 17 (good novel but never want to see a copy again lol), and although it's definitely framed that way at first, the way their relationship relates to the *spoilers withheld* second half of that book invites a more insidious reading; see you on the other side
started the Satanic Verses the other day and am *quenched* by Rushdie's prose style. man's too saturated to be properly bingeable, but boi does he have the knack for vivid contour. love how much vitality he demands on the part of the reader - absolutely perfect balance of parsing and howling |
Mort.
07.05.23 | oh youre quenched are you? getting quenched from a book? go back to tumblr |
JohnnyoftheWell
07.05.23 | if you haven't been quenched by the reams you've spent sucking off plato, your entire character arc has been a waste of time |
Mort.
07.05.23 | plato was actually all about that soul quenching so i have probably failed him |
Anthracks
07.05.23 | my lil review of ATD that i post on goodreads & my final take for now. from reading the review it sounds like i enjoyed it a lot.
'Pay no attention to the many sources that claim this as Pynchon's "Most Accessible Novel." It is among his most difficult, though for different reasons than his immortal Gravity's Rainbow. Almost all of the ingredients that make Pynchon's work so difficult to grasp are present, including an impossibly large cast of characters and no resemblance of a coherent plot; timelines are all jumbled, sometimes even on the same page. The language is simpler, but Against the Day is quite possibly Pynchon's most overwhelming and overstimulating work. Compound this with a daunting 1,085-page length, and you have a very demanding novel in your hands.
My experience with Against the Day was as frustrating as it was enlightening. Aside from very small pockets in the narrative, almost every single chapter was frustrating to make it through. Given the nature of the book, I believe this is by intention. Pynchon wants the reader to feel entirely uncertain and overstimulated, and pushed through a threshold of frustration. Inherent in this book is the idea of a rapidly developing world culture and the impossible nature of grasping all of that culture's developments or ideas. With the technological advances of the early 20th century and beyond, nearly every person is thrust into having to worry about so much more than their individual existence and what they contribute to their direct community; now they must worry about how they fit into a larger picture, one of unfathomable scale. This is made most clear with the narrative insignificance of World War I, an impossible, society-morphing colossus event, despite the allusions in the text and the warnings of its importance. The truth is that World War is a mere footnote in the mundane dramas of our superficial and silly characters. It gives shape to the idea that we are simply too preoccupied to deal with something as unimportant as World War. It translates to our modern existence as well, where global tensions are a disturbance to our ability to live mundane lives; the importance is only made clear when it is chronicled into the past. (tbc) |
Anthracks
07.05.23 | Against the Day, like Mason & Dixon, displays how much progress begins as a mythical superstition, and only through experimentation does that mysticism translate into science. All novel ideas are absurd because they don't have precedent in the present. It isn't until it is an agreed upon truth, until it is chronicled into an agreed upon past or history, that it has any merit. The novel takes on the idea of "home" or of nomadism or migration. It contends that man will always answer to a corrupt master and that he possesses no true liberty, no matter where he lives. It shows some of our characters seeking to solve this by uncovering secrets of space-time. Our characters attempt to secede through lateral time and space (as symbolized through their airship), but even this solution will always be anchored in an agreed upon and dominating past. This temporal independence, physically manifested through civilizing the sky, is the only path to liberty from the frenetic onrush of progress and advancement which are to be weaponized by those in power; this is established with a revisionist understanding of how we've seen life-changing implications of quantum understanding turned toward evil devices (nuclear weapons), how light and electricity are utilized to create more capital overnight, and now again how mass media and the internet, tools that exist to bring us closer together, are being utilizing to misinform, to brainwash, and to drive us apart. All of our advancements that exist to move our society forward are used to further subjugate us. Against the Day seems to assert that true liberty is an equation to remain unsolved.
The concepts of Against the Day are incredible, but the execution is frustrating. Though it is by design, I can't ignore how frequently I had the idea of shelving it. It isn't until now, now that the book has been chronicled into my past, that I can appreciate its staggering concepts and innovative structure. The novel is a kaleidoscopic all-at-once snapshot of existence in a satirical lens; the details of its plot are similarly provided all-at-once and yet sequentially over the course of its 1,085 pages. It is a book rife with impossibly boring mundanities and revenge plots, but it all exists for a greater purpose as difficult as that can be to comprehend while reading. I think that the passage of time will only further sweeten my appreciation of Against the Day, but for now I wish I had read it in a lateral space-time.' |
CugnoBrasso
07.06.23 | Yahhp your review sums it up very well. |
Rowan5215
07.06.23 | finished the watermelon fucker chapter in Suttree and this is already my favourite McCarthy lol. so good |
DadKungFu
07.07.23 | Yo Hamsun is literally just the RETVRN TO TRVDITION meme irl like lmao it's very hamfisted in Growth of the Soil, dude's about as subtle as Upton Sinclair and a lot more gross politically, but it's still a good story |
Ectier
07.07.23 | One for your enemy was good but felt the first half was better than the second. Overall a good book, moving onto Okay Days by Jenny Mustard |
AlexKzillion
07.07.23 | started 'a hard rain: america in the 1960s' by frye gaillard this morning. i read david halberstam's book on the 1950s last year and really really enjoyed it, trying to read a book covering every decade now |
Anthracks
07.09.23 | the john adams biography was fantastic. written with a lot of veneration but he was a true distillation of the american spirit
reading thor, volume 5: the legacy of thanos by donny cates and common sense and other writings by thomas paine |
MiloRuggles
07.09.23 | Wow Anthracks, really good review up there. Always nice to see somebody really engage with something even if it's not your thing, and it seems not much of it slipped past you. |
solrage
07.10.23 | Recent reads:
Nostromo by Joseph Conrad
The Counterlife by Philip Roth
Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
All three are close to the best I've read from each author. Nostromo is an incredibly rich, sprawling epic story of a community that builds around a colonial mining operation in a fictional South American country, with Conrad demonstrating his usual strengths of detailed world-building and characterization. The Counterlife is the peak (thus far) of Roth's metafictional Zuckerman novels, with each chapter offering an alternative take on the lives of its characters and being arguably Roth's best explorations of his themes of Jewishness, identity, and their relationships with fiction. Rabbit is Rich is the third and probably the best (thus far) entry into Updike's decennary Rabbit series about the life of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom. It's a quiet, beautifully written "slice of life" (more "the whole cake" given its length) story with Updike showing why he's one of the genuine prose masters of the English language. |
MoM
07.10.23 | Couldn’t make it through the review after a couple tries, i apologize. It might just be my head space. Own a couple Pynchon books, but I’ve never made it through one, or felt like it was the right time for it. I feel like there is a more “on paper…” quality of Pynchon that in reality is underwhelming for me, though I’d like |
Anthracks
07.16.23 | finished up my folio of interpreter of maladies by jhumpa lahiri
next up is the sea elephants by shastri akella, who is a friend of mine |
Ectier
07.17.23 | I finished "Okay Days" by Jenny Mustard and it was quite good. Starting "Tomorrow, Tomorrow Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin which has a lot of hype and good things about it so heres hoping it lives up to it |
Jasdevi087
07.17.23 | finally around to The Crossing and if anything happens to this wolf i will be fucking devastated |
Anthracks
07.17.23 | Tomorrowx3 was pretty terrible tbh |
Ectier
07.17.23 | So far its alright but i doubt its going to live up to the "OMG best thing ever/stunning/amazing" hype it has behind it |
AlexKzillion
07.18.23 | anyone read anything here that isn't books? like magazines, newspapers, substacks etc? |
Ectier
07.18.23 | I dip into manga but thats still books i guess |
bellovddd
07.18.23 | ye i dabble in some graphic novels and comics still. |
TheSpaceMan
07.18.23 | @jasdevil also starting the crossing rn! |
Ectier
07.18.23 | Only manga ive been keeping up withs berserk atm |
MiloRuggles
07.18.23 | >anyone read anything here that isn't books? like magazines, newspapers, substacks etc?
i try to get a good range of journalism up me, but feel like i have to flit between 15 websites to find one good piece or just find stuff that's been amplified by social media (RIP reddit, don't @ me). anyone have any publications/journalists they follow for current events/investigative stuff? |
dedex
07.18.23 | currently subscribed to Le Monde Diplomatique to get my fix of investigative stuff, liking it a lot |
Bedex
07.18.23 | Le Monde Diplo [2]
Courrier international can be pretty good too, and both have versions in various languages |
Jasdevi087
07.18.23 | "finally around to The Crossing and if anything happens to this wolf i will be fucking devastated"
fuck |
Egarran
07.18.23 | We are not extremely surprised. |
Ectier
07.19.23 | Tomorrow x3 is turning out to just be fine i guess? While ive only recently hit page 100 (screaming nephews, fathers heart having a moment detracted from my usual pace) its got some great passages that are relateable for long/complicated friendships and relationships but its overall its just kind of average. Its use of language is a bit weird, like it sometimes uses fancier words than are really necessary to get the point across. I feel this is a case of "why is this lauded as the best thing ever its just fine". Maybe it changes later on but so far kinda middling. |
bellovddd
07.19.23 | I'm currently reading Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. Shits WACK but I love it. A very interesting read |
MiloRuggles
07.19.23 | >Le Monde Diplomatique
lookin good lookin good but uuhhhh are you fullaz paying for this or is there a schneaky option? i'm strictly anti-subscription or my life will fall apart |
Anthracks
07.19.23 | nope it definitely gets worse the longer it goes on. i think it's only popular because it makes people feel like they understand video game culture or makes them feel hip or something. i really have no idea why it's so popular because it's literally just about annoying people being friends and making shitty rip off video games and inaccurate video game references (such as mario ground pounding a goomba on the NES game...what?) |
dedex
07.19.23 | "lookin good lookin good but uuhhhh are you fullaz paying for this or is there a schneaky option? i'm strictly anti-subscription or my life will fall apart"
your life will fall apart then: i pay to get the old-school newspaper in my mailbox every month. disappointing i know |
DadKungFu
07.19.23 | Got a subscription to Ploughshares as part of the fee for entering in a contest and my only thought so far is holy hell is this middlebrow and pedestrian where are the good literary journals |
Mort.
07.19.23 | 'where are the good literary journals'
if youre looking for more highbrow or academic stuff you can get access to 100 free articles a month on jstor at the moment. no idea if thats what youre looking for but i use it often to do secondary reading on novels/philosophy |
DadKungFu
07.19.23 | Awesome thanks mort |
BaselineOOO
07.19.23 | I only read banned books because I seek to extend my way of thinking rather than reinforce social norms.
(Mostly Italian right-wing propaganda btw.) |
DadKungFu
07.19.23 | lol |
Egarran
07.20.23 | Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary. Possibly the worst sci-fi novel I have ever read. |
DadKungFu
07.20.23 | Calvino - If on a winter's night a traveller, might be even better than Invisible Cities
also are we about due for a new books list? I've got a lot of scrolling to do to get to the bottom of this one
|
Ectier
07.21.23 | Tomorrow x3 was good, kinda frustrating in parts. Dont know how to describe it really. Kind of felt like it dragged on and on especially near then end. |
Jasdevi087
07.21.23 | Tomorrow x3 was one that we had a reader copy of for aaaaages at work (like almost a year before it came out) and then when it finally came in, it did not sell at all |
Ectier
07.21.23 | Like it wasnt bad but there was sections that sory of dragged on and just seemed overall unecessary. Like it had some hype behind it (i thought) so i was like okay this will eithet be quite good or exaggerated shit. Overall it was good but i think thats because I connected with it on a personal level more than it being actually a good book. It was just the book i happened to pick up after having a fight with the person i love the most and have a complicated friendship with. So i think thats partly why i found it to be good. Idk |
MiloRuggles
07.21.23 | Dya work at a book shop jas? |
Jasdevi087
07.21.23 | yeah i work for whitcoulls, it's my weekend job |
AlexKzillion
07.21.23 | "started 'a hard rain: america in the 1960s' by frye gaillard"
just about finished with this. not as halberstam-esque as I hoped. mostly just follows the doings of jfk, mlk, rfk, and lbj... and despite being obv non-fiction it has a novel-esque sense of finality in that 3/4 of these guys are dead by the end of the decade, and the one still alive basically retires |
Egarran
07.22.23 | Does he mention that they were killed by the occult branch of CIA? |
MoM
07.22.23 | Damn the Illumishawty!!! |
AlexKzillion
07.22.23 | 700 pages and barely any mention of the cia... something smells fishy 🤨 |
Egarran
07.22.23 | Pretty sure Frye Gaillard is an anagram for something sinister. |
Anthracks
07.24.23 | reading the adventures of huckleberry finn, which is my first mark twain experience as an adult |
Ectier
07.24.23 | My next book is Sirens and Muses by Antonia Angress. When i find the mental state to read |
solrage
07.25.23 | Recent Reads:
Eye in the Sky & The World Jones Made by Philip K. Dick
The Double & The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
As I Lay Dying was the best of these and between it and The Sound and Fury has already made Faulkner a top 5 author for me. Beloved was superb and has me super-interested in reading more Morrison. One Hundred Years of Solitude I'm going to have to reread as it was just too much to take in a single read, especially the way I did over the course of a single 5-6 hour night, but it was immensely impressive in terms of how much substance Marquez crammed into a relatively short novel (given other similar generation-spanning novels I've read). Return of the Native, Mrs. Dalloway, Tom Sawyer, and Return of the Native were all really good/solid. A Bend in the River was a great "companion" piece to other African colonialism novels like Things Fall Apart and Heart of Darkness, though not a personal favorite. The PKD were early works and not as good as his later stuff. The Dostoevsky's were OK but nothing special IMO. |
MiloRuggles
07.25.23 | on ya jas, hope you get those sweet sweet book hookups on the regular
enjoyed this article: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a44496450/literary-fiction-death-digital-age/ |
MiloRuggles
07.25.23 | finished The Bone People last night and feelings remain conflicted. there's a lot to like (particularly stylistically) but thematically things are pretty muddled (and maybe even silly). dunno, i'll have to think on it for a bit and read some articles, see what got by me. was nice when the scope of it started to widen near the end, but it took too long to get there methinks.
still on some Flannery O'Connor short stories atm, then think i'm gonna hit Underworld by Delillo. |
Anthracks
08.10.23 | read recently a farewell to arms by ernest hemingway, cato by joseph addison, cannery row by john steinbeck, animal farm by george orwell, love's labour's lost by william shakespeare, and a woman of no importance by oscar wilde
next up is currents of space by isaac asimov |
Jasdevi087
08.10.23 | finished The Crossing and No Country for Old Men and... I know it's a pretty hot take and there's probably a recency bias at play, but I kiiinda preferred No Country for Old Men to Blood Meridian tbh.
Currently reading The Road and then I've got no more McCarthy's left on my shelf. I'm really liking The Road so far, probably my least fav though but that's saying very little about how much I'm enjoying it |
kalkwiese
08.10.23 | I just finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab and it sucked pretty hard. So many pages of just banal statements wrapped into flowery language to cover up the nothingness. Too many flashbacks that mirror events but add nothing. 2 dimensional characters. A very conveniently selective use of her "invisibility". A very predictable plot. How did this get all these favorable reviews? |
AlexKzillion
08.10.23 | plowed through herzog by saul bellow last week
currently reading the feminine mystique by betty friedan
also just picked up a collection of fernando pessoa poems in lisbon, and affinities by brian dillon in barcelona |
AlexKzillion
08.10.23 | "Currently reading The Road and then I've got no more McCarthy's left on my shelf. I'm really liking The Road so far, probably my least fav though but that's saying very little about how much I'm enjoying it"
will also be reading this relatively soon |
Anthracks
08.10.23 | kalk, you just described so many books on modern "bestseller" lists. beats me. |
kalkwiese
08.10.23 | Anthracks, I had to think about your opinions on modern lit why it frustrates you, and I really felt it. Holy crap, I guess my tastes are old school |
Anthracks
08.11.23 | the modern reader is just kind of an interesting thing. one of my friends is in a book club with about 15 other people. said they tried reading 1984 but no one made it through it because "nothing happened"
shrug |
Azazzel
08.12.23 | In as many days and nights as it would take me to enumerate a full accounting of the beauty of lady Dulcinea del Toboso I have completed my reading of Don Quixote parts 1 & 2. Books in which there are more stories than feathers on a chicken and more wisdom packed within those feathers than an old owls nest.
Nobokov in his lectures on DQ: "Both parts of Don Quixote form a veritable encyclopedia of cruelty. From that viewpoint it is one of the most bitter and barbarous books ever penned. And its cruelty is artistic.
fun fact, Shakespeare and Cervantes lived and wrote at the same time and actually died within days of each other |
DadKungFu
08.12.23 | the chapter in DQ where sancho pukes and shits himself is genuinely hilarious |
Anthracks
08.14.23 | i was really blown away by invisible cities by italo calvino. here's my lil gr review i wrote when i finished it:
"It is difficult to believe that a book as perfect as Invisible Cities is real. Calvino is the master of form and structure and presents meditations on purpose, perspective, and place. The entire book is quotable and is infinitely re-readable. Invisible Cities, maybe more than anything else, embraces the interrelation of all things and the permanence of nothing; that even our past, commonly mistaken to be immutable, is constantly reshaping itself as it relates to our present experiences or desires, which are always evolving. Invisible Cities acknowledges the inadequacy of memory and language in their attempts to immortalize our consciousness.
Every so often, you read a book that just gets it. Gets everything. It's overwhelming and it's beautiful and it's unspeakable and Invisible Cities is one of those books. There were moments that I had to put it down for its wonder as well as for the piercing perspicacity of its ideas. It left me silent in reverence, paralyzed equally in melancholy and edification. Invisible Cities is appreciable not only for its unparalleled sagacity in the face of life's most complex puzzles, but for its ability to bring these places into our memory as though we have experienced them ourselves. Calvino has an ability to confidently assert and convince the reader that we know these nonexistent places just as well as we know any place that exists. The marvel isn't in his succinct descriptions, but in the idea asserted that all cities are invisible cities, unknowable in time's endless shaping. That the cities of this book are an apparatus to interpret our experience or consciousness, a representation of life and experience itself. It is a marriage of the mundane and the vital, the simple and the complex, to be read with patience and digested like poetry."
tied for my favorite read of the year with another calvino book. safe to say he's launching into my favorite authors |
Minortimbo12
08.14.23 | How does one achieve a list with 2265 comments |
DadKungFu
08.14.23 | Hell yes Anthracks, hell yes |
kalkwiese
08.14.23 | Back on A Storm of Swords and - finally - the second book of Don Quijote. This should be a lot better than the book before
|
Anthracks
08.15.23 | Pretty fascinated by ‘state atheism’ and particularly how some of the most professedly atheist nations (seem to be) those operating under the rule of dictators. Anyone know any books that investigate state atheism? |
Anthracks
08.16.23 | read intruder in the dust by william faulkner and i am ecstatic to share that it is among his greatest works. i'm reading him chronologically and he had a mid-career spell of lacking works (compared at least to his great novels such as light in august, as i lay dying, and sound & fury) where it almost felt like his powers were dwindling (though the tiniest bit of research tells me that in this phase he was having difficulty making ends meet and opted to create more palatable works and work on movie scripts). i am now excited again to enter into his late career era
next up is some prefer nettles by jun'ichiro tanizaki |
MiloRuggles
08.16.23 | finished a cheeky reread of The Crying of Lot 49. great stuff, very internally cohesive and studiously works away at building various motifs throughout. last time i read it i knew very little about Pynchon and his themes, was interesting this time around thinking on that DARPAnet shit. still much relevance to today's communication wars (read: not culture wars). am i a bad person for really wanting Musk and Zuck to fight (and maybe accidentally simultaneously suffer some kind of cathartic career-ending mishap?)? |
MiloRuggles
08.16.23 | also read The Skull by Jon Klassen (pretty cool) and almost all the way through that Flannery O'Connor short stories collection. also started reading Hell's Angels by Hunter Thompson with the missus.
next up is Wise Blood |
Winesburgohio
08.16.23 | just finished Javier Marias' last work, Tomas Nevinson, and am thrilled to announce it's killer. such a great author. miss him |
Jasdevi087
08.16.23 | lol Milo i saw The Crying of Lot 49 out in the wild a couple if weeks back and was shooketh at how small it was considering how much of a monster Gravity's Rainbow was |
Anthracks
08.17.23 | finished my sixth book in as many days, lol. time to slow down a bit with some fantasy: all the seas of the world by guy gavriel kay. first time reading him. |
MiloRuggles
08.17.23 | haven't touched any Marias, what's a good starter monsieur wines?
it's not the size Jas, it's how he /uses/ it (less violently digressive?! i prefer his long works)
you're a bloody monster anthracks haha i wish i could read a book a fortnight |
Anthracks
08.20.23 | ggk was very good. i really like his style of fantasy and how he does more than just create interesting worlds. he has a literary quality to him which is pretty tough to find in fantasy. i'll check some of his earlier stuff. i read louise gluck's first poetry collection, firstborn. and now i'm beginning a dream of red mansions aka story of the stone which will take me a while because it's 2,600 pages. going to break it up over four months |
Ryus
08.20.23 | reading a collection of herman melville’s short stories. purely in terms of prose, he’s becoming one of my favorite authors |
DadKungFu
08.20.23 | Doing Mason & Dixon rn, second Pynchon after GR. The richness of the historical research is mind boggling and it's also incredibly funny, like laugh-out-loud at moments ( the Learned English Dog is such an oddball bit). Don't know why I don't invest more time in Pynchon, it's so worth it |
Jasdevi087
08.20.23 | nice Ryus i've got Typee sitting on my shelf waiting for me to get around to it, hope to find time to re-read Moby's Dick as well |
ReefaJones
08.20.23 | Reading Guards Guards right now. Again. Still every bit as good as I remember |
AlexKzillion
08.21.23 | decided to knock out a few shorter texts after reading mostly "longer" books this summer. read the time machine by hg wells currently going through the waste land by ts eliot while more actively researching/analyzing things along the way. |
Azazzel
08.21.23 | Ryus would rec Billy Budd for 1st Melville? sounds appealing to me but idk what's in his other shorts. no I will not be reading the homo fish book |
kalkwiese
08.21.23 | I didn't expect to be so emotionally invested in Don Quijote, but I am having a blast right now. Fuck Addie LaRue, this is the good stuff
|
Azazzel
08.21.23 | emotional? I would've though you didn't expect to laugh so much! it is top tier comfort book, imo best savored leisurely given it's episodic nature. like a reliable old friend. binged my reread+book 2 this summer from the library and wish I'd just bought a copy and just read a chapter at a time when life so befits |
kalkwiese
08.21.23 | I think it's genuinely funny! But I also empathize with Don Quijote and hope he can accomplish at keast some of his delusional goals. It's a cruel tragic comedy I would say. |
DadKungFu
08.21.23 | I think Nabokov described DQ as either cruel or sadistic can't remember which but I feel that |
kalkwiese
08.21.23 | Yea, he probably said both tbh |
Jasdevi087
08.21.23 | read the homo fish book pussy |
Anthracks
08.30.23 | finished up the frugal wizard's handbook for surviving medieval england which is definitely the worst brandon sanderson book i've read, as well as venetia by georgette heyer in classy folio.
next up is romeo & juliet by william shakespeare and underworld by don delillo |
Sinternet
08.30.23 | uh im reading the miki berenyi memoir rn shits tight |
frozencarl
08.30.23 | your praise has made me want to read Invisible Cities, Anthracks. i read If on a winters night a traveler years ago and really dug it, but havent read much else by Calvino besides Six Memos for the next Millenium.
finished Blood Meridian recently, shit slaps. still like the story of No Country for Old Men better, but the biblical prose of Blood Meridian was fun to read. reading On the Beach by Nevil Shrute now and really enjoying it. feels like a Ray Bradbury scifi shortstory that was fleshed out into a full novel |
Jasdevi087
08.30.23 | we now have The Crying of Lot 49 and Against the Day in the collection |
Egarran
08.31.23 | Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield.
Very intriguing and I guess if you were super vulgar, 'homo fish book' would be a good description. |
Mort.
08.31.23 | 'finished up the frugal wizard's handbook for surviving medieval england which is definitely the worst brandon sanderson book i've read'
the title sounds great, just wish it wasnt written by sanderson |
Ectier
08.31.23 | Im lazily re reading Normal people by Sally Rooney
My close friend recently got around to it and said they are loving it so i decided to reread it to see if my thoughts had changed. Im going to say kind of? Rooneys writing is still painfully dry and knowing that the characters barely grow at the end doesnt help. The main girl is the worst offender and just seems to be there to be treated like shit rather than showing she can grow as a person and escape said shit people. For books with similar premise Alone with you in the Ether is still my preffered option. Going to try another Rooney book later to see if she can change my opinion of her being overrated. |
Anthracks
09.04.23 | The wheel of time show is so much better than the books. It’s hilarious how butthurt the fan base is because the show is skipping the hundreds of pages of people literally doing nothing and decided to add dimensions other than ‘brat’ to all the kids. Still not a great show, but it’s good escapism |
Hawks
09.04.23 | I recommend Pillars of the Earth and Fall of Giants both by Ken Follett. Probably the best books I've read to date. |
MiloRuggles
09.04.23 | read Bartleby The Scrivener and was heftily entertained, big recommend
found a copy of the first two titles in the Book of the Long Sun series! we on! |
Jasdevi087
09.04.23 | I'm reading Typee rn Milo, how much other Melville have you explored thus far? |
MiloRuggles
09.04.23 | only Moby Dick, which i reallyreally loved, so i shall do more exploring! how's Typee? |
Jasdevi087
09.04.23 | I can't say it's immediately compelling. I'm about 70 pages in and he's only just met the Typees. You can see where Moby Dick came from quite clearly already, cause he's very interested in setting the story up by detailing as much as he can about prior European relations with the Marquesians, but not quite as comprehensively as he details whaling in Moby Dick.
It's uhh... i guess interesting is the word, that in order to convey his feelings about Polynesians and how misguided European perception of them was, he deliberately downplays how advanced their civilisation actually was at that point in order to make them seem sufficiently "primitive" to contrast with what he saw the follies of European life to be. It's a really good example of the noble savage mindset, although Melville obviously is strikingly progressive in his attitudes towards them than his contemporaries presumably were, though of course he has to misrepresent their society in order to do this |
Jasdevi087
09.04.23 | oh, and one cool thing you'll spot straight away is how much overlap the Typee's language has with Te Reo! Melville transcribes them with a kind of eye-dialect, but i've spotted nui, Atua and whenua so far. and it also never occurred to me before that tapu and taboo probably have the same etymological root! |
Jasdevi087
09.04.23 | colton if you were to be ripped in half by a polar bear, would you rather vertical or horizontal? |
ScuroFantasma
09.04.23 | I’m about 100 pages off finishing Moby Dick right now, super good book. |
Squiggly
09.06.23 | I just finished Pillars of the Earth. When the plot started to pick up I became so enamored with it I read the last 400 pages in 3 days. I finished it at 2:30AM and when I was done I cried. Maybe one of my favorite books in recent memory. |
CugnoBrasso
09.06.23 | I had a huge crush on a girl whose favorite book was Pillars of the Earth and she broke my heart, I ain't gonna read that shit but cool that you loved it.
Probably going to start 'The Master and Margarita" in the coming days. |
frozencarl
09.06.23 | Pillars of the Earth is so fucking good.
Hawks, is the sequel really that good? i want to check it out eventually but the 1000+ page length is putting me off again |
Squiggly
09.06.23 | Oh holy shit i didn’t even see Hawks’ comment until now 😂 What a coincidence! |
AlexKzillion
09.07.23 | humenities |
Jasdevi087
09.15.23 | damn no one told me there was a new Benjamin Labatut! had to drop everything and go and get it, RIP Typee |
Anthracks
09.15.23 | finished up underworld by don delillo, paradise lost by john milton, and monkey by wu cheng'en which were all varying degrees of great
now reading childhood, boyhood and youth which is my last "longform" tolstoy. all i have left is his short stories after that (which there are many) |
CugnoBrasso
09.16.23 | I'm 25 % into 'The Master and Margarita" and it's so intriguing! |
kalkwiese
09.16.23 | Yea Master and Margarita is just fun |
Anthracks
09.18.23 | Killers of the flower moon is up next before the movie cums out |
Deathconscious
09.19.23 | Almost done with the first Witcher book (The Last Wish), it shows promise. Looking forward to reading the novels. |
Anthracks
09.27.23 | killers of the flower moon was phenomenal and frustrating. should make a great movie
putting in some work on dream of red mansions, finishing volumes 2 & 3
breaking it up with the young man by annie ernaux and the last oscar wilde play that i have to read (salome). then it's spooky reads time |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | The MANIAC was another stroke of brilliance from Labatut. Kinda hard to compare it to When We Cease to Understand the World, since the scope of it is vastly different, though its thesis is quite similiar. Definitely gave me that same feeling that's somewhere in between fascination and regret at what we've achieved scientifically. One of my main takeaways really is that it's gonna be really fucking sad when we inevitably get AI to the point where it surpasses us in the arts, and it's really strange and weird that people are fixated on making these programs so human in that way, and that tech slimeballs like Peter Thiel are more than happy to keep throwing money at it if their speculation pays off eventually |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | dunno if i'm gonna go back and finish Typee yet though lol, i might put that off for a bit cause The Crying of Lot 49's been staring at me kinda saucy from my shelf
also got a reissue of England's Hidden Reverse on the way too so that will inevitably be prioritised too lol. Suffice to say I don't think Typee is one of Melville's more compelling works lol |
MiloRuggles
09.30.23 | Does Labatut's new one also do the semi non-fiction thing? Loved his last, will prolly check either way. Thanks for the interesting blurb! |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | yes, it does indeed do the semi non-fiction thing, but in quite a different way to WWCTUTW. The first and last parts of the tryptic have that Sebaldian voice that WWCTUTW does, but the central part about John von Neumann actually takes the form of a series of perspective pieces told by people that knew von Neumann, either intimately or from a distance. This gives him quite a bit of license to fictionalise the events which gets away from the dryness a science biography would ordinarily have, as well as allowing him more room to tell the story in a way that's illustrative of the novel's grander thesis. I didn't find he fell into the Knausgaard trap either of taking multiple perspective voices, but having them all just end up being author surrogates, you really do get a sense of how the differing relationships affect the perspective the reader gets on von Neumann, it's really good
Edit: it also does away with all the psychosexual stuff that gets kinda egregious in WWCTUTW, a change I welcomed personally lol |
MiloRuggles
09.30.23 | Oh heeeelll ye, thanks for the breakdown, I'm all the way in. I'm usually into psychosexual stuff (?~(. ~ .)~!) but I can't remember this from WWCTUTW so I'm guessing it wasn't too flash haha |
Sinternet
09.30.23 | saw some people discussing her earlier in the thread but whats the best entry point for emily st john mandel's stuff? |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | iirc there were parts where Erwin Schroedinger's (fictionalised afaik) sexual attraction to a teenager the Swiss spa resort culminates in a weird monster-sex dream and another part where Heisenberg gets his junk consumed by Kali lol. The prose in both of those scenes is pretty good and Heisenberg's Kali vision has a kind of emotional payoff in a way, though I feel the Schroedinger stuff was over-indulgent and disquieting. Plus I'm a psych student and most things freudian tend to bring out a reflexive eyeroll lol |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | "saw some people discussing her earlier in the thread but whats the best entry point for emily st john mandel's stuff?"
imho her latest one. The Glass Hotel is pretty shit and Station Eleven is conceptually interesting but overall rather directionless and feels very twee and precious |
Sinternet
09.30.23 | sick noted, maybe i'll work my way backwards
i can deal with twee thankfully, i've heard from people she's more of a conceptual author than a character author which is kind of the vibe i've been wanting to get back into recently |
Jasdevi087
09.30.23 | well then you'll definitely like Sea of Tranquility I imagine |
Anthracks
10.01.23 | sea of tranquility is the only emily i've read and it was very covid novel |
Anthracks
10.06.23 | has anyone read our latest Nobel winner Jon Fosse? i instantly bought three books after the announcement. looking forward to reading him next year. |
VaruunZealot
10.13.23 | Horus Heresy 3 - Galaxy In Flames for the second time in my life. When they get to Istvaan it gets so brutal |
Sharenge
10.17.23 | "what is this obsession people have with books!? they put 'em in their houses like they're trophies... what do you need 'em for after you read 'em!?" |
Deathconscious
10.17.23 | So that they can sit around for years and years, all the while telling yourself that you'll re-read them eventually. |
Hawks
10.17.23 | "Pillars of the Earth is so fucking good.
Hawks, is the sequel really that good? i want to check it out eventually but the 1000+ page length is putting me off again"
Absolutely and so worth it. Even crazier than Pillars and a cool kind of transition. Also just got World Without End in the mail which is another one that is 1000+ pages but he never bores you. The guy is 100% my favorite author at this point. |
Anthracks
10.17.23 | read a couple books while vacationing in ireland: don't fear the reaper by stephen graham jones, which was terrible and put me off from ever reading him again, and misery by stephen king which is the first stephen king book i have enjoyed.
also made sure to buy a book from a local author in each city that i visited in ireland. picked up the wren, the wren by anne enright, prophet song by paul lynch, brooklyn by colm toibin, and weave by oein debhairduim and deirdre sullivan.
visited the james joyce tower museum (which is the setting of the first chapter of ulysses) as well as the irish museum of literature (where copy #1 of ulysses is kept). also saw a play at oscar wilde's childhood home during his birthday weekend and purchased some soap that is mentioned in ulysses (still the same recipe and packaging) |
Mort.
10.17.23 | that sounds like a pretty good holiday not gonna lie
ive lived in england all my life and have still never made the very short journey to ireland.
am still reading Viriconium by M John Harrison |
Anthracks
10.17.23 | The surprising highlight of Ireland was the hiking. Mt Kilclooney loop is one of the greatest hikes I’ve ever done |
Anthracks
11.01.23 | finished off october with monstrilio by gerardo samano cordova, junji ito's frankenstein and other stories, the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde by robert louis stevenson, and edgar allan poe's complete stories (surprisingly terrible). monstrilio was my favorite of the bunch
reading king john by william shakespeare and finishing a dream of red mansions once and for all |
Mort.
11.01.23 | 'edgar allan poe's complete stories (surprisingly terrible).'
yes i read this a year or 2 ago
was not impressed overall. apparently gave it a 2/5 on goodreads
|
Egarran
11.01.23 | Yeah the Poe hype was strong growing up, his actual stories do not really deliver. |
kalkwiese
11.01.23 | I recently finished A Storm of Sword. The pacing in A Song of Ice and Fire is agonizingly slow, at least for a slow reader like me
Also finished Don Quijote and to me it really is one of the greats
Also did Wuthering Heights in Oktober and it just fit into Autumn like nothing else. What a ride
|
Mort.
11.01.23 | yeah some of the imagery is brilliant and i love the general vibe
but the work hes influenced is better
also a lot of good adaptions of his stories
|
Mort.
11.01.23 | 'Also finished Don Quijote and to me it really is one of the greats'
how did you find sanchos malapropisms towards the end lol. i know some people really tire of them |
kalkwiese
11.01.23 | I am a really silly person, so I had a lot of fun with it tbh :D |
Hawks
11.01.23 | Currently reading World Without End which is set I believe 200 years after the events of Pillars of the Earth and holy fuck I'm not too far in yet but it's amazing. Follett does not miss bros. |
Zac124
11.01.23 | i am still attempting to read The Essence of Christianity by Ludwig Feuerbach. |
kalkwiese
11.01.23 | I also started Midnight's Children the other day. This is gonna take a while lol |
Anthracks
11.02.23 | reading that one next year, as well as his new memoir that comes out in april about the assassination attempt |
Ectier
11.02.23 | Reading conversations with friends by Sally Rooney and am unsure if im going to enjoy it. Thankfully its a pretty easy and cruisey read. Prioriy of the orange tree was a bit too dense for me atm. A lot of things to follow and keep track of |
Ectier
11.02.23 | These characters have their head so far jammed up their arse omfg. I remember now why i was eh on Rooneys other book, they are all pretentious twits. |
MiloRuggles
11.02.23 | Rooney's got exactly the sort of skeletal and joyless prose that I abhor maybe more than a little. That said, I've only read a couple handfuls of excerpts here and there, maybe they stack up to something (not that the show did beyond occasional glimpses of good acting (and some STEAM oh yes)).
Finished Litany of the Long Sun (which comprises 1/2 of the Long Sun quadrilogy) and the first book was kinda like pulling teeth (that is one loooong heist!) but built well into the second which really just lifts the lid on Actual Goings On in sort of un-Wolfelike fashion? Good shit anyway, looking forward to finding cheap copies of the other half, prolly a 3.5 overall so far.
About halfway through Breakfast of Champions and it's pretty great for reasons I'm sure have been discussed to death. Quite repetitive and veryveryvery monotonous in tone though. Not sure Vonnegut is quite my guy. I feel like he's got a brilliant brain and a fun way of communicating, but never quite looks to transcend. Like, build on your machine metaphor as you go, brutha, don't just say the same thing a million times.
Much love (to angry Vonnegut fans),
Milo |
DadKungFu
11.02.23 | Breakfast of Champions is among my least favorite Vonneguts with Mother Night probably on top but yeah your criticism rings true |
MiloRuggles
11.02.23 | That being said
we have entered the realm of first person and Kurt the Lad is now taking aim proper. the heart of the book is pure and true. when its last laboured pump sputters its ventricles into inquity and the whole hot mess congeals, i shall return with (probably) praise to accompany my criticism |
Ectier
11.02.23 | Rooneys prose is easy enough to read but its so dry and dull. Also her character dont feel like actual people with the way they talk/think, like randomly talking politics with a woman they just met or being a 21 year old who randlmly muses about some theorist dudes ideas. |
Ectier
11.04.23 | Okay im partially wondering if Rooney just writes the same book over and over. I want to give this more of a chance before throwing it on the Dnf pile |
Get Low
11.04.23 | Currently reading Sex Plus, by Laci Green |
unclereich
11.05.23 | The sorrows of Satan |
Anthracks
11.07.23 | i'm finally free from the clutches of a dream of red mansions. such a bummer when a 2,500 page novel is not very good.
next up is the box man by kobo abe! |
Deathconscious
11.09.23 | Counterweight by Djuna is cool so far. |
Ectier
11.12.23 | Im reading Eileen by Otessa MoshFegh now, so far its pretty good but a bit repetitive here and there. The main character kind of reminds me of the MC from Girls against god. Ive come to the descion with Sally Rooney, that I like what stories she is telling and the relationships she shows. Also characters randomly bringing up politics at the weirdest of times. I just dont like her prose and writing style as its so dry and droll
I.e he said i like to watch paint dry, Me too i said. I drank the rest of the wine in my glass. We then had sex, him holding me against the painted wall, what do you think of the political struggles in the middle east he said as he entered me. I think they are like the struggles in my mind and both subjugate and eliminate freedom i said taking him in. The sex was fine, perhaps there is a relationship between the sex we had against the wall and captilisims opression. I sighed, he sighed. |
Anthracks
11.13.23 | one month out of each year i read a ton of japanese authors. this month i read (in addition to the box man):
the wild geese by ogai mori
kappa by ryunosuke akutagawa
the flowers of buffoonery by osamu dazai
ptsd radio, omnibus 1 by masaaki nakayama
strange weather in tokyo by hiromi kawakami
weasels in the attic by hiroko oyamada
next up is the rainbow by yasunari kawabata (freshly translated work) and the other guest by helen cooper (for a book club) |
AnimalForce1
11.13.23 | Currently attempting to make my way through Mistborn. When I'm not swamped with work and school, that is |
Winesburgohio
11.17.23 | had a weird and wonderful time recently sleeping """rough""" in WGTN's botanic gardens and every morning I'd wake up at 7:30, get two espressos head to the university library for 9-5 reading. something just clicked in me and I managed to read with enthusiasm, focus and abandon rare to me in my older years! anyway, completed:
-The Tunnel (audacious! a bold venture)
-David Peace's "Tokyo Trilogy" (gripping and weird! browsing through the thread and I think this would appeal to many of you dear darling readers)
-50 pages of Finnegan's Wake, read along with The Skeleton Key (cheating but actually does help)
-Nicotine, by Gregor Henz (absolutely the best, funniest, most accurate treatise on smoking since Zeno's Conscience)
-Shuggie Bain (not sure how it won the booker tbh)
...and then I found a place to sleep at a second-hand bookshop... |
Egarran
11.17.23 | The Double by Jose Saramago
“We all know, however, that the enormous weight of tradition, habit, and custom that occupies the greater part of our brain bears down pitilessly on the more brilliant and innovative ideas of which the remaining part is capable, and although it is true that, in some cases, this weight can balance the excesses and extravagances of the imagination that would lead us God knows where were they given free rein, it is equally true that it often has a way of subtly submitting what we believed to be our free will to unconscious tropisms, like a plant that does not know why it will always have to lean toward the side from which the light comes.”
This is probably the shortest sentence in the book. |
Anthracks
11.20.23 | reading my final Pynchon, Bleeding Edge :( |
Anthracks
12.17.23 | read ship of magic by robin hobb - she continues to be one of the best fantasy authors
also read knight's gambit by william faulkner and netochka nezvanova by fyodor dostoevsky which is my 15th novel by each author.
next up is a slew of i think eight plays by ibsen, miller, brecht, beckett, aesychlus, &c |
rellik009
12.17.23 | Reading "The Inner Game of Music" by Barry Green and Timothy Gallwey, absolutely stellar book for anyone looking to kickstart their music skills into the stratosphere, though really the book's concept can be applied to anything |
rellik009
12.17.23 | anyone in here who managed to read Finnegan's Wake in full? I didn't even get past the first paragraph |
rellik009
12.17.23 | http://finwake.com/01/01.htm |
Anthracks
12.17.23 | yes it's one of my favorite books all three joyce novels are perfect |
Azazzel
12.17.23 | checking out some George Saunders for some satire and feeling pretty disappointed
any recs? for something with that old writers depth of human insight and humorous wit and/or more contemporary affairs that isn't utter puddle deep mainstream topical dross |
Anthracks
12.21.23 | finished up:
prometheus bound by aesychlus
the cherry orchard by anton chekhov
a streetcar named desire by tennessee williams
a doll's house by henrik ibsen
the crucible by arthur miller
endgame by samuel beckett
fear and misery of the third reich by bertoldt brecht
my favorites from the bunch were endgame and streetcar
next up is small things like these by claire keegan and a christmas carol by charles dickens |
Ryus
12.21.23 | i love a doll's house
just started robert caro's lbj bio so i should be occupied for a while lol |
FowlKrietzsche
12.21.23 | This was the year I got into Cormac McCarthy. Blood Meridian hasn't left me since I read it, and upon completing it I pretty quickly devoured No Country, The Road, and Child of God. BM is an easy 5/5 and I don't think I'll ever be able to not write like a cheap imitation of him. Truly a master of the English language.
I've been reading more academic stuff this last month and am about halfway through Bart Erhman's How Jesus Became God. |
mouldypigeon
12.21.23 | I am reading The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany |
artificialbox
12.21.23 | damn I've been waiting for someone to bump this thread.
I just started reading books again for the first time in years lol and I'm goin on a huge sci fi binge. Just read Neuromancer and Count Zero, and am currently reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep while I wait for my copy of Mona Lisa Overdrive. |
MiloRuggles
12.21.23 | Krietzsche my brother in [the death of] Christ, you must absolutely consume Suttree ASAP. It's quite easily his second best work (and his firstmost humane work).
Shit wines, I want to talk about The Tunnel real bad. Please give me your most nagging critical thought regarding that baybee (I hope the Botans treated you good xx) |
Azazzel
12.21.23 | Ryus hits 10 years on the site and immediately turns into a halls of congress obsessed grandpa lol. I'd rather read a more holistic account like Rick Perlstein's Reagan/Nixonland |
Gameofmetal
12.21.23 | Suttree is McCarthy's second best novel, yes. |
Egarran
12.21.23 | Alamut by Vladimir Bartol
Feels like being let in on a secret. 4.5/5 |
Ryus
12.21.23 | "Ryus hits 10 years on the site and immediately turns into a halls of congress obsessed grandpa lol. I'd rather read a more holistic account like Rick Perlstein's Reagan/Nixonland"
lol, i finished up the power broker this year and it was amazing so i'm excited. will prob take in chunks and read some other stuff in between the volumes. never read any perlstein but he's on my list |
frozencarl
12.21.23 | picked up a copy of Underworld for $1 and read the prologue, but found it hard to keep reading beyond that (could have been bc I was daunted by the size, didnt want to commit just yet). will probably get back to it. his writing reminds me of Haruki Murakami (or at least 1Q84, since its the only one ive read of his).
read Fellowship of the Ring for the first time just recently, and am now on Two Towers. really enjoyable reads |
Anthracks
12.21.23 | suttree is a wonderful character study, but doesn't nearly have the scope or importance of something like the border trilogy |
Anthracks
02.07.24 | no one wants to talk books this year my brothers?
read ten in january:
yumi and the nightmare painter by brandon sanderson
ptsd radio, vol. 5-6 by masaaki nakayama
plays one by jon fosse (2023 nobel winner)
prophet song by paul lynch (2023 man booker winner)
blackouts by justin torres (2023 national book award winner)
trust by hernan diaz (2023 pulitzer prize winner)
the wager by david grann
collected stories of william faulkner
2061: odyssey three by arthur c clarke
the taming of the shrew by william shakespeare
the jon fosse took the tops. didn't like most of them, actually. currently working on mad ship by robin hobb (liveship 2), collected fiction of borges, and a poetry collection by mary oliver |
Egarran
02.07.24 | Fear not, there's a new thread: https://www.sputnikmusic.com/list.php?memberid=1117664&listid=205187
Impressive list though. |
kalkwiese
10.21.24 | The only true book thread on sput. I am reading Dracula atm and also rereading The Locked Tomb series. Harrow The Ninth is still an astonishing novel. |
Get Low
10.21.24 | Wish people would stick to one book thread instead of popping up randomly and making new threads. |
CugnoBrasso
10.21.24 | I'm reading 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa' by Walter Rodney. |
EyesWideShut
10.23.24 | Finishing up In the Heart of the Heart of the Country by William H Gass.. Hard to believe such a nice man can write with so much venom in a very beautiful way. |
Observer
10.23.24 | Ever tried The Tunnel by him? It's a trip |
EyesWideShut
10.24.24 | I think The Tunnel is getting reprinted in 2025 but tbh idk if I really wanna spend that much time with Mr Gass haha. |
Anthracks
10.31.24 | lots in october:
weave by oein debhairduin and deirdre sullivan
tomie by junji ito
the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne
i, tituba, black witch of salem by maryse conde
the immortal thor, volume 2 by al ewing
the devil takes you home by gabino iglesias
the use of photography by annie ernaux
the full moon coffee shop by mai mochizuki
sleep donation by karen russell
the house on marshland by louise gluck
pet sematary by stephen king
goosebumps: welcome to dead house by rl stine
finn family moomintroll by tove jansson
the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson
conundrum by jan morris
the village of stepanchikovo by fyodor dostoevsky
goosebumps: night of the living dummy by rl stine
think again by adam grant
hill house and use of photography were my favorites. the devil takes you home was the worst by far |
kalkwiese
10.31.24 | I just finished Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. It might be the best Discworld novel so far, but Small Gods does still exist, so that's a tough race |
Get Low
11.01.24 | I just finished The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and hated it. With that being said, an English translation of Murakami's newest novel The City and It's Uncertain Walls is dropping this month and I'm probably gonna pick that one up.
Starting Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng tonight. |
DadKungFu
11.02.24 | Just started Kafka on the Shore and guys this Murakami's prose suuuuuucks maybe a translation problem but this is actually bad so far |
Get Low
11.02.24 | Reading Murakami feels like watching a great anime with a poor dub. |
kalkwiese
11.02.24 | Murakami's prose is butter smooth though |
Observer
11.03.24 | Anyone hate Norwegian Wood by him too? One of the worst books ive ever read tbh |
Get Low
11.03.24 | Norwegian Wood is one of my favorite books all time lol |
kalkwiese
11.03.24 | I mean, NW is way better than 1Q84, so I won't be too harsh to it. Murakami's writing might be bland or not saying much at all, but I enjoy his stories anyway |
Voivod
11.03.24 | Having read several of its books, Norwegian Wood is one of Murakami's 2-3 really good books.
But yeah, Murakami quickly became repetitive over time. |
Anthracks
11.03.24 | hating on murakami has become a boring cliche zzz. he's well above par in any measurement, especially against the average 21st century writer
currently reading alexander hamilton bio by ron chernow |
DadKungFu
11.04.24 | It's a good story, the clunky prose is easy enough to get over |
JohnnyoftheWell
11.04.24 | Kafka on the Shore is comfortably the best Murakami imo, and although he's v much a content writer whose primary (only? discuss) concern with prose style is clarity, it's never grated much on me in translation (I vaguely recall Hard-Boiled Wonderland and After Hours being the worst in that dept, but I was far less engaged with the narratives of both)
never read him in the original other than an extract in a comprehension textbook (which had the same flavour - ungarnished economical sentences, exclusively plain syntax outside of dialogue) |
DadKungFu
11.04.24 | That was actually my big question reading: does the prose work better in the Japanese. Some translated Japanese authors have incredibly beautiful prose, Kawabata, Soseki, yes, Mishima, but ig that's just not what Murakami's focused on. But even when he gets poetic, the similes and metaphors he's using feel stilted and almost robotic, even if the story itself isn't. |
JohnnyoftheWell
11.04.24 | Kawabata's translated prose is impeccable, keep meaning to read more from him but his novels are mostly at the length where I don't feel I have much of an excuse not to tackle them in the original (currently on that road with Mishima with an English copy for backup)
Drop a citation re. stilted figure? Think the fairest takeaway on Murakami's writing for better or worse is that his works are eminently bingeable at the cost of very little, which suited me just fine when I was into him several years ago |
Anthracks
11.05.24 | i've read every single translated kawabata book and the prose isn't really in a totally different league, enough to warrant such a contrast. yes, he's really fucking good (i wouldn't have read all 13 translated works if he wasn't), but he still has the sparse, restrained prose that many japanese authors have (when translated). it's very rare in my readings for a japanese author to be ostentatious or showy with their prose. it's generally very straightforward and simplistic. |
Observer
11.05.24 | Anyone use Everand/Scribd, as opposed to, or with, Audible?
Everand has changed their subscription model within the last week in the US apparently (with other countries to follow), and members are pissed... |
JohnnyoftheWell
11.07.24 | don't think the implied contrast was over ostentatious/showy prose as much as (for me) depth of suggestion, strength of figurative language, elegance of descriptions, insightful character observations etc.. plenty to chew over there beyond syntax
anyone here read the Forty Days of Musa Dagh? |
unclereich
11.08.24 | no but I read the song of bernadette at university and really loved it |
Anthracks
11.29.24 | november reads:
alexander hamilton by ron chernow
last argument of kings by joe abercrombie
the sunlit man by brandon sanderson
the city and its uncertain walls by haruki murakami
fav was the hamilton bio, least fav was sunlit man |
Krpa
11.29.24 | I'm reading Barrowbeck, a folk horror novel by Andrew Michael Hurley. An ambitious collection of short stories set in the titular village throughout centuries, spanning from its beginning to the near future. The novel also includes more than just the horror genre, sometimes dealing with issues like social isolation and persecution. So far it's pretty interesting, but one needs to appreciate its fragmented structure and read attentively to see the connections between tales. |
kalkwiese
11.29.24 | How die you like the new Murakami?
I finished Dracula and I thought it sucked after one third tbh. There steam was compleltely gone.
The Odyssey is much better, I am 1/3 into it atm. It's quite a banger |
artificialbox
11.29.24 | Just read A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine and am already a hundred pages or so into the sequel - A Desolation Called Peace. Absolutely brilliant books that should be on every sci-fi lovers shelf. Perfect blend of political intrigue, deep well written characters/cultures, aliens, and cool technology. |
s0nicx
11.29.24 | Currently picking back up House of Leaves, after that will be going through The Way of Kings. |
Voivod
11.29.24 | When Haruki Murakami Takes His Own Magic for Granted
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/11/haruki-murakami-takes-his-own-magic-granted/680812/ |
Anthracks
11.29.24 | I love the concept behind the new Murakami book more than I love the book. It is a development of the short story that he already developed into Hard-Boiled Wonderland, so essentially it’s the same novel written forty years apart and all that might entail. |
Asdfp277
11.29.24 | almost a decade later, i'm still illiterate smhg |
Anthracks
12.30.24 | december reads:
children of dune by frank herbert
the wild duck by henrik ibsen
tis pity she's a whore by john ford
king henry iv part 1 by william shakespeare
king henry iv part 2 by william shakespeare
mother courage and her children by bertolt brecht
sweet bird of youth by tennessee williams
the misanthrope by moliere
happy days by samuel beckett
the stormlight archive v: wind and truth by brandon sanderson
shame by annie ernaux
the immortal thor, volume 3 by al ewing
puts me at 102 total for the year m/ |
kalkwiese
12.30.24 | So what do you think about the first half of the Stromlight Archive? I still haven't read any Sanderson tbh, but I always think I should give him a shot |
artificialbox
12.31.24 | You’re a beast, Anthracks. I think I’ve read about 15 books this year which is a new record for me.
Just finishing up the last couple chapter of The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin right now. Not even finished it and it’s already my favourites book of all time. |
Anthracks
12.31.24 | before you read sanderson just know he is the Marvel cinematic universe of books / fantasy and his action / plotting is more akin to popular anime than other fantasy at times. it's definitely not among my favorite series, nor is he among my favorite fantasy authors, but i feel like i have to read all of his books or i might miss something. |
kalkwiese
12.31.24 | Well, I don't really enjoy the MCU, but I like anime. Sounds like it could go either way for me |
artificialbox
01.02.25 | finished The Dispossessed the other night. Hard to even put into words how much that book impacted me. Holy shit. Hands down the best I’ve ever read.
onto The Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe. Few chapters into the first one and it’s giving huge Dark Souls vibes, love it. |
AlexKzillion
01.02.25 | i completely fell off the wagon when summer ended and trying to hop back on
got lots of cool stuff stacking up that i've yet to read. starting the year off with a layup: the old man and the sea |
artificialbox
01.24.25 | just finished The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. The original 4 book at least. I ordered the 5th one but it’ll be about a week til I get it. That was a crazy story though holy shit. |
Anthracks
01.31.25 | january reads was
the god of the woods by liz moore
king henry v by william shakespeare
orbital by samantha harvey
a girl's story by annie ernaux
the vegetarian by han kang
king henry viii by william shakespeare
madness & civilization: a history of insanity in the age of reason by michel foucault
james by percival everett
journey to the end of the night by louis-ferdinand celine
my favs were king henry v, a girl's story, and the vegetarian |
MiloRuggles
01.31.25 | NICE box! A lot of people don't like Urth because it provides too many answers to the puzzles laid out in the OG rather quickly...I personally appreciated this thoroughly.
Just finished Solenoid and it is a 5/5 exclusively for dreamers, wafflers, scabietic science voyeurs, and Jack Gladneys. Get these words across your eyeballs immediately |
Egarran
01.31.25 | Nice, Anthracks - what are the key takeaways from Madness And Civilisation? It seems very relevant these days. |
Anthracks
01.31.25 | It’s just a tour of how mankind has handled what they’ve deemed as insanity throughout the centuries starting with leprosy. It is unnecessarily pretentious and I actually didn’t like it at all |
Egarran
01.31.25 | Haha, thank you.
The current wave of madness is very interesting though. I blame capitalism. |
DrMaximus
01.31.25 | Dead Souls |
kalkwiese
01.31.25 | I recently read book 3 of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, book 5 of Skullduggery Pleasant, Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.
I also started La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (very good so far) and I am at the very start of Tale of Genji (also quite good, but I can hardly tell at this point) |
WretchedCacophony
01.31.25 | "before you read sanderson just know he is the Marvel cinematic universe of books"
Wow this is a brutal comparison lol. I hate MCU but I'm mostly finished with book 3 of Stormlight and I'm loving it. I do feel like it's similar to the Magic the Gathering universe too in some ways which I wasn't crazy about.
No one in 4 years of this thread has mentioned Naomi Novik and her Temeraire series. It's the first series that ever made me enjoy reading back in high school. It's a historical fantasy retelling the Napoleonic wars from the English perspective and in this universe there are dragons that can speak. Her writing is more compelling than Sanderson's imo and the subject matter is slightly more original (not much originality to be had in re-writing historical events but a lot of very interesting things do happen) |
artificialbox
02.01.25 | "NICE box! A lot of people don't like Urth because it provides too many answers to the puzzles laid out in the OG rather quickly...I personally appreciated this thoroughly."
I was a bit worried about that tbh. Dan Simmons did the same thing when he wrote the Endymion duology. He over-explained a lot of the mysteries of Hyperion in a very unsatisfying way. I still enjoyed the story though. The end of Citadel of the Autarch is so perfect as it is, but I just can't live knowing there's more to the story!
|
MiloRuggles
02.01.25 | Ah, I never moved onto Endymion, but I wonder whether it's a different beast given how different the style of writing is (Hyperion is beautifully direct, Simmons is such a natural storyteller). I still had plenty of questions after Urth too.
Anyways, looking forward to hearing what you think! |
artificialbox
02.10.25 | Well Milo I just finished Urth… I am at a loss for words tbh. I found the first half a little too abstract and wishy washy with spiritual imagery, but after Severian returned to Urth it all started coming together, and the end was just brilliant. Couldn’t think of a more perfect way to cap it all off. And I totally wasn’t disappointed by any of the “explanations” it provided. If anything it just gave me even more to question while providing context for some of the larger themes. The whole series is a 5/5 for me.
Anyway I’m going on to read Book of the Long Sun now. Quite excited. |
Ocean of Noise
02.10.25 | Farseer Trilogy right now. So far it is unbelievably slow. The writing is great though |
Anthracks
02.10.25 | hobb is all about the slow burn and she builds tension / characters like few other fantasy authors. i've made it through two trilogies so far and unfortunately she isn't good at following through with good endings, but it doesn't diminish the journey entirely. royal assassin is one of my favorite fantasy books. i'm reading Fool's Errand next month |
Hyperion1001
02.10.25 | just ordered the Hyperion trilogy because i figured i should finally read it after all these years of people asking me if I’ve read it lmao |
artificialbox
02.10.25 | Hahaha sick. Hyperion is a wild ride, I hope you enjoy it. |
frozencarl
02.10.25 | hyperion is sick, hope you dig it.
in a serious reading funk. no longer have to take the subway to work 5 days a week so the bulk of my reading time is "gone". sucks |
ReiniEden
02.10.25 | I'm reading Masquerade by O. O. Sangoyomi, a historical literary fiction story set in 1500s Timbuktu, I'm already halfway through, it's pretty good. |
Egarran
02.20.25 | The Body Illustrated - A Guide For Occupants by Bill Bryson.
I swear this dude is a stoner. Everything is like 'woah that's some mysterious shit, but you would be dead without it, crazy huh?' |
DadKungFu
02.20.25 | Back to Foucault again, looking forward to Agamben whee! |
rabidfish
02.21.25 | everything is full of gods. Haven't finished it yet. The format it is written in (socratic dialogue, with a "modern" twist) is not to my personal taste. It is also pretty repetitive and the thread of argumentation is not ideal, imho. But it's still pretty interesting. |
Anthracks
03.01.25 | february:
the nickel boys by colson whitehead
the message by ta-nehisi coates
if beale street could talk by james baldwin
the underground railroad by colson whitehead
sense and sensibility by jane austen
the fifth season by nk jemisin
the amen corner by james baldwin
fifth season and beale street were the highlights |
Anthracks
03.31.25 | march: (man none of yall reading out here)
descending figure by louise gluck
simple passion by annie ernaux
septology by jon fosse
the possession by annie ernaux
rosmersholm by henrik ibsen
the philosophy of zen buddhism by byung-chul han
the passion according to GH by clarice lispector
a shining by jon fosse
the melancholy of resistance by laszlo krasznahorkai
murakami manga stories, volume 3 by haruki murakami
the obelisk gate by nk jemisin
septology, GH, and melancholy were all 10/10 |
artificialbox
03.31.25 | I’m still working my way through the Solar Cycle. Finished Book of the Long Sun which is made up of 4 books and now I’m about half way through the Short Sun trilogy. Definitely experiencing a bit of Gene Wolfe fatigue but luckily Short Sun is a lot quicker paced and more of a fun adventure than Long Sun. My TBR pile has been getting out of control in the meantime. |
Gameofmetal
03.31.25 | Ive knocked out Stephen King's IT and Glen Duncan's werewolf trilogy so far this year, liked all of these except the third in the trilogy, really sucky ending. Now checking out the new Hunger Games book, which of course has really boring YA prose but still some keen political commentary. |
klauswagon
04.09.25 | new punchon lfg!! |
Anthracks
04.09.25 | awesome news. and comes out the same day as the new fosse and ernaux books. blessed. |
artificialbox
04.15.25 | Finally finished Book of the Short Sun and thus wrapped up the whole Solar Cycle. Gene Wolfe is a damn genius. I've added a bunch of his other books to my TBR now, but in the meantime I'm trying to tackle some of the smaller standalones in my physical stack, starting with A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. |
Gameofmetal
04.16.25 | Just read The Daughter's War by Christopher Buehlman. My favorite fantasy read since the early 2010s when i was getting into ASOIAF and Malazan, very warhammer esque grimdark but with a really keen human empathy at its heart. |
Egarran
04.24.25 | Blindsight by Peter Watts
Hard first-contact sci fi about how ill-eqipped the normal human is for that kind of thing, if the alien is operating on just a slightly different wavelength.
The narrator is completely joyless, which is a point in itself, but it doesn't make for very good reading. |
Azazzel
04.24.25 | @Gameofmetal you are not the first I've heard make such claims and comps! enticing. still need to knock off Dust of Dreams and maybe Kharkanas, sounds like more of what I enjoyed about Book of the Fallen. |
artificialbox
04.24.25 | Blindsight is sitting on my shelf but I’m trying to get through some of the “easier” books in my pile first before I get to it. I’ve heard very polarizing opinions about it but I’m very excited to read it. |
Egarran
04.24.25 | I definitely missed some things in it. There are a lot of high-level concepts, all wrapped in bleakness. |
WretchedCacophony
04.24.25 | definitely checking into Blindsight after having read a little about it... |
Josh D.
05.05.25 | My 2025 so far:
Because Our Fathers Lied by Craig McNamara
America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by HW Brands
The Myth of American Idealism by Noam Chomsky and Nathan Robinson
The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins
Oil! by Upton Sinclair (well, half of it anyway, I did not enjoy it)
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
Watch by Keith Buckley
Currently: America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin |
artificialbox
05.05.25 | last two:
Virtual Light by William Gibson (2/5)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (4/5)
Currently reading Man In the High Castle by PKD |
Anthracks
05.07.25 | never posted my april reads:
vanishing world by sayaka murata
the stony sky by nk jemisin
stoner by john williams
playground by richard powers
late light by michael malay
the flow by amy-jane beer
othello by william shakespeare
entangled life by merlin sheldrake
stoner, vanishing world, and entangled life were all great |
zakalwe
05.07.25 | Just finishing up The Wager which has been a bloody enjoyable read
Going to get stuck into Joe Abercrombies latest one The Devils. |
theBoneyKing
05.08.25 | Yeah zak, stoked for new Abercrombie |
artificialbox
05.28.25 | recents:
Man in the High Castle by PKD (2.5/5)
End of the World and Hardboiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami (4/5)
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (3.5/5)
think I’m gonna finally take a crack at Embassytown by China Mieville |
Egarran
05.28.25 | Stay away from that book. Read Kraken instead if you haven't. |
Egarran
05.28.25 | 175 pages into Mason & Dixon! What a chore and I'm definitely missing all kinds of postmodern references, fortunately it's really good.
The last chapter started with a romance at a cheese-rolling competition, then veered sharply into an intertextual ghost story, then abruptly ended with astronomically-flavored imperial grief under the maddening winds at St. Helen. |
artificialbox
05.28.25 | lol did you not like Embassytown? right now I own copies of that one and The City & The City but I’ll keep an eye out for Kraken next |
Mort.
05.28.25 | I thought embassytown was better than Kraken but that neither of them lived up to his bas lag trilogy which is brilliant
King rat was dreadful
The city and the city was good
Haven't read the rest
Currently I'm reading The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James |
Mort.
05.28.25 | My problem with Kraken was that it just drags on and on and gets more and more complicated and heady
He was obvs enjoying playing with all these new magic concepts and this little world (which I admit, was very endearing for the first couple hundred pages, reminded me of the better YA stuff I read as a teenager like Darren Shan), but it just goes on and on and the novelty wears off. |
zakalwe
05.28.25 | Coming to the end of The Devils and I have enjoyed every page.
Sweet St Beatrix it’s the bollocks. |
kalkwiese
05.28.25 | I am slowly getting through The Tale of Genji. Good books, very mundane, very slow. So I take breaks and read shorter book or listen to audiobooks to feel that satisfaction of finishing a book.
Among these books were:
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer (pretty meh, rather bad than anything else)
I also read Fourth Wing. It sucked.
I am currently reading Kafka On The Shore, which is pretty great so far.
|
DadKungFu
05.28.25 | Summer reading list:
W.G. Sebald - Austerlitz
Adolfo Casares - The Invention of Morel
Jose Saramago - Blindness
Robert Bolano - The Savage Detectives
John Barth - Giles Goat-Boy
William Gaddis - JR |
robertsona
05.28.25 | Been teaching Hamlet. Good stuff. Harder than I thought to tackle the density though |
DadKungFu
05.28.25 | I wanna teach Hamlet so bad damn the middle school curriculum |
zakalwe
05.28.25 | ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’
1600s > |
artificialbox
05.28.25 | “I also read Fourth Wing. It sucked.”
Oooof hahaha. The romantasy craze is terrifying. |
kalkwiese
05.28.25 | I was prepared to throw away all my prejudice tbh, but the story was in parts illogical, the writing was flat out stupid, the main character just was gifted so many things (dragons, magic, a hot guy) and the last chapter switched to the love interests first person perspective. Like, that's either a clever postmodern trick or just a stupid idea. Turns out it wasn't clever. The love interests voice was exactly the same as the MCs voice, but with more swearing. And the thought she was highly intelligent, while the story showed she wasn't. It's ... I am baffled. t's pretty much objectively a bad book in general, let alone a bad fantasy book. But it does the romance drama thing pretty well, and people who love the book don't seem to like fantasy very much
Huh. My rant is over
I will gladly read some good romantasy though |
artificialbox
05.28.25 | Nice analysis. Yeah I’m definitely not opposed to a good romance thread in a fantasy or sci fi book but a lot of the most popular ones out there are just way too shallow. |
Egarran
05.28.25 | Mort darling! How nice to see you, it only took a literary disagreement.
artificialbox, it seems you should read neither book. |
artificialbox
05.28.25 | Ermmm alright. |
Mort.
05.28.25 | Hello Egarran
So far this year I've read
1. Butchers Crossing by John Williams
2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
3. Songs of a dead dreamer and grim scribe by Thomas Ligotti
4. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
5. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Salty nights end
6. The lonely Londoners by Sam Selvin
7. The stepford wives by Ira Levin
8. Kraken by China Mieville
9. We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson
10. Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman
11. The men who stare at goats - Jon Ronson
12. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson
13. Wittgenstein:the duty of genius by Ray Monk
14. The stars my destination - Alfred Bester
15. Hamlet - Shakespeare!
I'm also right at the end of Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein and halfway through the Iliad
The Iliad is incredibly dull and I can't be bothered to finish it. Only so many times I can read that this so and so from such and such a place speared so and so, son of him from over there through the neck until he was dead |
Egarran
05.28.25 | Awesome! 4 is best. |
Mort.
05.28.25 | Oh dear.
4 was quite literally my least favourite of all of those! And I love Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes
Just so many of the stories fall incredibly flat and I don't think his writing style lends itself to short stories. Quite a lot of the unimaginative sci fi rather than the weirdness of Something Wicked or pessimism re mass media in Fahrenheit 451
On another note I highly recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death! I thought it's thesis was very strong and well argued for. And it's arguably only got more relevant
What have you been reading? |
Anthracks
05.28.25 | my may reads:
self-portraits by osamu dazai
wildcat dome by yuko tsushima
the beggar student by osamu dazai
mornings without mii by mayumi inaba
hunchback by saou ichikawa
kirby manga mania, volume 2 by hirokazu hikawa
butter by asako yuzuki
no one knows by osamu dazai
the woman in the purple skirt by natsuko imamura
the premonition by banana yoshimoto
mild vertigo by mieko kanai
mina's matchbox by yoko ogawa
austerlitz by wg sebald
saga, volume 12 by brian k vaughan and fiona staples
the unworthy by agustina bazterrica |
Confessed2005
05.28.25 | Currently perusing Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche. |
Asdfp277
05.28.25 | 2025-05 update: I'm still illiterate |
Egarran
05.29.25 | > I highly recommend Amusing Ourselves to Death!
That was on the schedule at university, they more or less centered a whole semester around it - so I have only skimmed it. Just not into social realism.
What did you think about Bradbury's Martian Chronicles? |
CugnoBrasso
05.29.25 | Socialism Betrayed by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny. A book about how the Soviet Union collapsed, extremely well researched. |
DadKungFu
05.29.25 | lmk how you like Austerlitz Anthracks |
Gameofmetal
05.29.25 | reading a lot of Otessa Moshfegh; My Year of Rest and Relaxation (awesome) Death in her Hands (pretty cool) McGlue (cool so far) |
Mort.
05.29.25 | "Just not into social realism."
Doesn't have anything to do with social realism as far as I'm aware? Maybe I don't know what you mean by that term as I'm not familiar with it
|
frozencarl
05.29.25 | reading Throne of Glass and Red Rising at the behest of an office book club and a couple friends' recommendations, respectively. both are pure YA booktok slop and i'm having the utmost difficulty pushing through but I am determined to finish em. yeehaw |
Anthracks
05.31.25 | austerlitz was good. i'd give a 7 or 8 /10 |
DadKungFu
06.03.25 | I need Baseline to know
Calvino>Eco
Calvino>Eco
Calvino>Eco |
Azazzel
06.05.25 | don't say that, I've had a nagging itch to seek out another collection of Calvino short stories but am reading Eco's 'Baudolino' right now |
artificialbox
06.15.25 | Last three reads:
Embassytown by China Mieville - 3.5/5
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (Mirra Ginsburg translation) - 5/5
Blindsight by Peter Watts - 4.5/5
I loved Blindsight so much I’m considering ordering a copy of Exhopraxia to read ASAP, but I might also take a crack at the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake in the mean time |
Egarran
06.15.25 | Metaprocesses bloom like cancer, and awaken, and call themselves I. |
DadKungFu
06.16.25 | How's Mason & Dixon? |
Mort.
06.16.25 | 'I might also take a crack at the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake in the mean time'
Please do, 10/10 trilogy |
s0nicx
06.19.25 | Still reading The Way of Kings right now with some Divine Comedy on the side. |
MiloRuggles
06.19.25 | Mason & Dixon is great Dadfu. It was my favourite book when I finished it, but (as is standard with the Pynchon epics) it's rife with potential frustrations - I know two other people that have deigned to read it, one was a DNF and the other was far more enamoured with V.'s more grounded approach. For me though, the language is amazing, the humour and insight are next level, and the titular characters are probably Tommy's best.
Currently reading Europe Central by William Vollmann (v good about 500 pages in), Open by Andre Agassi (very gripping in a morbid kinda way), Plato's Republic (have been reading it when I shit at home for about 3 years), In Green's Jungles by Gene Wolfe (Short Sun is so much better than Long Sun but I suppose seeds were sowed), just started Pride and Prejudice.
Recently finished Delirious by Damien Wilkins. Super economical prose loaded with feeling and was literally the first thing I've ever read that's set where I'm from. Strange feeling! Very gentle and lovely despite some difficult subject matter. Characterisation could've been jazzed up outside of the ostensible protagonist but hey |
artificialbox
06.19.25 | “Short Sun is so much better than Long Sun but I suppose seeds were sowed”
Yes yes yes. Ohh I’m so excited for you to finish it. I think I liked Short Sun even more than New Sun tbh. It is a little more emotionally compelling, and I have thought about it almost every day since I finished it in April (esp. after just finishing Blindsight which reinforced the fact that vampires in science fiction is indeed sick as hell)
Also mort, my copy of Echopraxia arrived sooner than expected so I decided to jump straight into it, but I’ll be hitting Gormenghast next for sure. I’m excited. |
Egarran
06.19.25 | >How's Mason & Dixon?
I'm on page 246! Up and down. Obviously it's great literature, I can't even begin to understand how you write a book like this.
Sometimes I notice the negatives, it's all basically about M&D traveling and meeting people. No plot. Veeery little progression, they aren't even in America yet! And then the massive amount of references and strange words. It feels great when you understand them, but about 1/4 of them just whooshes by and I ignore them instead of looking them up because then I would NEVER finish this. Some passages are complete nonsense to me.
So I've been thinking about giving this a pause and reading something else but then invariably comes some wonderful chapter and I want more.
What, no fucking? |
Egarran
06.25.25 | Here's an example of passage that makes increasingly little sense to me:
"Without agreeing to it they find themselvs, if but for Form's sake, out roistering in what proves to be a sort of sustain'd flow of Strong Drink, in which Mason will obscurely recall being included Gin, and Gin's _Hogarthian Society_, winding up a Fortnight later in the unpromising Streets of Falmouth, a Town dedicated to Swift Communication, all Hurry, huge Sums at Stake, Veterinarians in Coaches-and-six, Brokers of News to and fro at the gallop, last-Minute Courier's Pouches, dilatory Visitors swimming back to shore from another precise departure, even as the next Packet after her makes ready to put to sea." |
Christbait
06.25.25 | You're gonna have to probably research a little bit of 18th century vernacular to be able to understand what Pynchon's writing. But that passage, at least to me, is talking about Mason going on a bit of a bender through Falmouth with Pynchon then offering a brief description of a very wheeling-dealing sort of port city. I don't read Pynchon (for the reasons you mentioned), but that's how I'd interpret it. Sums at stake, coaches-and-six, etc. are all 18th century terms and descriptors. Ironically, I'm reading through Chernow's Washington bio and (not only do M&D get a mention), but Chernow frequently employs 18th century terminology which I've had to Google a few times since starting it. |
kalkwiese
06.25.25 | I finished Kafka On The Shore recently, and I must say, I am simply not impressed. The characters are so passive, they need to be told what to do all the time. Side characters act as plot devices or as representatives of story telling elements? (Johnny Walker, Colonel Sanders, the stone.) It's just really lame to me apart from some truly magical moments. So far the surreal Murakami books let me down. It's like Murakami creates screens you can project on whatever you are carrying with you. I would have been blown away, had I have read this as a teenager, but I don't think this really works for me tbh |
Anthracks
06.25.25 | unique take on murakami...
didn't read too many books in june and probably won't finish any further ones. here's what i did though
the song of achilles by madeline miller
open, heaven by sean hewitt
confessions of a mask by yukio mishima
juneteenth by ralph ellison
james joyce by gordon bowker
didn't particularly love any of them but obv reading about joyce was great |
kalkwiese
06.25.25 | Yea idk, I like his writing and I don't mind most of the stuff other people criticise. Maybe I should go straight for Hardboiled Wonderland or Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I wanted to love KOTS and I loved the weird magical moments, like when Kafka goes into the limbo in the woods. But these were moments, it's not enough to make a novel. Nakata's plotline was so boring after Johnnie Walker, there was the need for a new protagonist to take over |
MTObsidian
06.25.25 | Pardon me, just dropping a comment in here so I can flag this convo to come back for book recommendations.
I do appreciate all of the Murakami discussion in here, though. His work is definitely hit-and-miss for me. Norwegian Wood? Great. 1Q84? Concept was fun but it was very long. Kafka On The Shore? Eh... alright, I guess. |
kalkwiese
06.25.25 | I read all of those and I agree.
My ranking would be NW > 1Q84 I and II > Colourless Tazaki > KotS > 1Q84 III
Part III had lots of waiting and redundancy (Ushikawa). I have warmed up to the book being a love story tbh, but book III was such a let down |
MTObsidian
06.25.25 | Yeah, once I kinda "got into" the core story of 1Q84, I also thought it was very good--but some of the fat could have been trimmed for sure. I also didn't like that Murakami just left some of the ideas hanging (i.e. the little people and the air chrysalis), but it has been a LONG time since I read that sucker so maybe I missed some of the threads getting tied up during that first read-through.
I also want to give a consolation prize to Killing Commendatore: that one was pretty fun! |
kalkwiese
06.25.25 | Interesting, I saw many people disappointed with Killing Commendatore. I have the audiobook, but it will take while for me to come back to Murakami, because other books are waiting on my shelf.
I read some stories by Clark Ashton Smith as always his writing is a delight. I might go with something really stupid next. I am about to jam Iron Flame and get my fix of steamy dragons and angsty, steamy Xaddy |
Josh D.
06.25.25 | Time for some heresy: I'm reading One Hundred Years of Solitude and not enjoying it much. I like his use of language, but he will describing a character's story and then switch to another mid-paragraph and I have to keep adjusting my imagination to keep up. It doesn't help that all the characters are named after each other. |
kalkwiese
06.25.25 | I get how this makes the story hard to follow, but for some reason I had an easy time reading it tbh, I have no idea why. I love that book so much, but you need to vibe with the narrative distance, which many readers of today aren't adjusted to, I guess. A wonderful book, but if you don't love the first fourth or so, you probably won't like the rest. It's pretty consistent |
Josh D.
06.25.25 | I guess I'm also impatient, I've been waiting for it to settle in. The first 100 pages essentially span a couple generations, and it's felt like it should be exposition and not the whole book. But so far that's the case. |
Egarran
06.25.25 | Thank you Christ and indeed I get the gist of it, but usually with this book the obscure references aren't packed so tightly.
Hogarth painted scenes of appalling alcoholism, apparently it's absurd that Veterinarians should ride in Coaches-and-six, dilatory visitors swimming back to shore means that the ships leave so early that people on them have to swim ashore, and a Packet is a mail ship. Falmouth had not been mentioned before and probably never will again.
Seven HUNDRED pages of this. |
Christbait
06.25.25 | Yeah bro I'm passing on that book lol. I think I tried Gravity's Rainbow a long time ago and realized I wasn't smart enough or patient enough to digest his works. |
kalkwiese
07.02.25 | I just dnf'ed Iron Flame. It's all the bad of Fourth Wing, but this time, it's painfully slow and repetitive. One 4th was enough.
Short stories by Clark Ashton Smith need to restore me now |
MTObsidian
07.02.25 | Finally started Hyperion after putting it off for a long while and I'm already hooked! I can already tell why it's considered a classic. |
Anthracks
07.28.25 | july reads
the king of elfland's daughter by lord dunsany
the immortal thor, volume 4
east of eden by john steinbeck
a fable by william faulkner
of mice and men by john steinbeck
east of eden and a fable were stellar |
MTObsidian
07.28.25 | East of Eden is one of my all-time favorites, what a phenomenal book |
Azazzel
07.28.25 | does Elfland's daughter hold up as a read in 2025 or is it just "important" |
Anthracks
07.28.25 | i think it's both important and has an extremely unique atmosphere that reminded me of the recent green knight movie. if you read for plot though there isn't much there |
Anthracks
08.27.25 | august reads:
julius caesar by william shakespeare
antony and cleopatra by william shakespeare
the triumph of achilles by louise gluck
ararat by louise gluck
ghosts by henrik ibsen
the book thief by markus zusak
the complete short stories of ernest hemingway
paradise by abdulrazak gurnah
life: a user's manual by georges perec
life and julius caesar were the highlights this month |
Josh D.
08.27.25 | Just finished The Fort Bragg Cartel, 300 pages in about 3 days cuz I couldn't put it down. |
Shuyin
10.01.25 | Finished Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Looking at todays social media, tiktok and youtube shorts, I have to admit the author was onto something with this. Highly recommended |
Josh D.
10.05.25 | Vineland - did not like, all over the place |
Anthracks
10.30.25 | recent reads:
the garden of the finzi-continis by giorgio bassani
separate rooms by pier vittorio tondelli
carrie by stephen king
gyo by junji ito
nightwood by djuna barnes
a frozen woman by annie ernaux
the other girl by annie ernaux
shadow ticket by thomas pynchon
the sandman: book three by neil gaiman
the thief of always by clive barker
carmilla by joseph sheridan le fanu
nightwood, frozen woman, and finzi-continis were tops |
Anthracks
11.30.25 | nobuddy's readin lately i see
read in november:
hedda gabler by henrik ibsen
love life by matthew hussey (book club read, dreadful)
as you like it by william shakespeare
the sandman: book four by neil gaiman
the immortal thor, volume 5 by al ewing
kirby manga mania, volume 3 by hirokazu hikawa
satantango by laszlo krasznahorkai
a month in the country by ivan turgenev
a month in the country by jl carr
the castle of crossed destinies by italo calvino
highlights were satantango and both month in the countrys |
Brabiz
11.30.25 | Just read Weaveworld (favorite book i’ve read so far), Shadow of The Torturer (also incredible), and now i’m reading Wuthering Heights |
Rowan5215
12.01.25 | nice I just finished Weaveworld the other day too. currently on The Great and Secret Show, Barker's early stuff was just so good |
artificialbox
12.01.25 | everything i've read since my last comment here in july:
echopraxia by peter watts
hothouse by brian aldiss
the fifth head of cerberus by gene wolfe
pedro paramo by juan rulfo
europe central by william t. vollmann
moderan by david r. bunch
the drowned world by j. g. ballard
2666 by roberto bolano
roadside picnic / tale of the troika by arkady and boris strugatsky
labyrinths by jorge luis borges
vertigo by w. g. sebald
the king of elflands daughter by lord dunsany
american abductions by mauro javier cardenas
ice by anna kavan
machines in the head by anna kavan
the melancholy of resistance by laszlo krasznahorkai
downward to the earth by robert silverberg
the word for world is forest by ursula k le guin
where late the sweet birds sang by kate wilhelm
currently reading:
miss macintosh, my darling by marguerite young
the crying of lot 49 by thomas pynchon |
MTObsidian
12.04.25 | Haven't had time to read lately :( But I do come back here for recommendations/ideas for when I have time.
Also, @artificial Roadside Picnic was such a fun book to read |
Christbait
12.04.25 | I've been going through the All Souls trilogy at the request of my wife. Been enjoying it a lot although I've been very nit-picky about the magic systems and plot conveniences that are a little overt at times. However, there is some great historical fiction in the 2nd book once they timewalk to 1590 and interact with Christopher Marlowe, Walter Raleigh, and other notable 16th century figures.
Probably will transition back into biographies once I've finished book three. Right now I'm eyeing Chernow's new Mark Twain biography, McCullough's book on the Brooklyn Bridge, American Prometheus, or Jean Edward Smith's biography on FDR. If anyone has read these and can suggest one over the other, I wouldn't mind. I'm flush with options. |
Devastator
12.04.25 | Re-read LotR and finished The Road as well. The Road is now one of my top 5 favorite books. |
Christbait
12.04.25 | McCarthy is a hell of an author. I got The Road on Christmas and finished it in about 2 days. Had me absolutely hooked. |
MTObsidian
12.04.25 | Agreed about McCarthy. I read The Road a while back and I was in the same boat: could not put it down. |
Christbait
12.04.25 | Child of God fits that mold too. It's disgusting and perverted but very compelling. It's short enough to finish in a single sitting too. |
MTObsidian
12.04.25 | Oh lordy I just read the wikipedia synopsis for both "Child of God" and "Outer Dark". Good God, where did Cormac get his ideas for stories?? |
AlkemestRedux
12.04.25 | The Road is solid, extremely bleak but it's a vibe. Outer Dark is good too. I think my favorite McCarthy is still The Crossing though. It's like a slow-moving emotional nuke going off. I think I like it more than Blood Meridian honestly. |
MTObsidian
12.04.25 | "The Crossing" was excellent as well--I was not sure how to feel after reading that one. A mix of depression and awe, I think. |
AlkemestRedux
12.04.25 | That's a good description I think haha |
Devastator
12.04.25 | What are your recs for the next McArthy book? I wanna read Blood Meridian but I feel it's cliche lol. |
AlkemestRedux
12.05.25 | I haven't read all of them, but the Border Trilogy is fantastic. Blood Meridian kicks major ass too and deserves all the attention it gets. I just love The Crossing more. The nice thing about the Border Trilogy though is it doesn't matter whether you read The Crossing or All The Pretty Horses first, just read Cities on the Plain last and you'll be fine. |
Hertzy
12.05.25 | I couldn't get into Blood Meridian at all. DNF at 60 pages from the end. I didn't understand anything while reading. English is not my native language and I read it in English, so that might be why but damn, definately the hardest book I've ever tried to read for me. |
Deathconscious
12.05.25 | Scored a Kurt Vonnegut bundle on eBay for $20, never read any of his work. Got Player Piano, Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Jailbird. |
Christbait
12.05.25 | Oh Hertzy, trying to read McCarthy as an ESL (or, if English is your 3rd or 4th language--I don't know how brilliant you are) is a huge task. Especially because he doesn't adhere to many standard rules when writing. He doesn't include punctuation for dialogue nor does he typically indicate who is speaking. You have to pick it up within the context of the scene. As a native speaker and hobbyist writer, McCarthy is still difficult to read for me at times too but it helps to know and understand McCarthy's writing style. |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | McCarthy prose is goated.
The truth about the world, he said, is that anything is possible. Had you not seen it all from birth and thereby bled it of its strangeness it would appear to you for what it is, a hat trick in a medicine show, a fevered dream, a trance bepopulate with chimeras having neither analogue nor precedent, an itinerant carnival, a migratory tentshow whose ultimate destination after many a pitch in many a mudded field is unspeakable and calamitous beyond reckoning. |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | The world soon to be largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes and the cities themselves held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell. |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | and the wind blew in the night and fanned the last smoldering billets and drove forth the last fragile race of sparks fugitive as flintstrikings in the unanimous dark of the world. |
Christbait
12.05.25 | McCarthy's prose is basically a combination of Faulkner, Hemingway, and Walt Whitman. Once you adjust to it, it flows like honey.
"He dreamt that night that he rode through the woods on a low ridge. Below him he could see deer in a meadow where the sun fell on the grass. The grass was still wet and the deer stood in it to their elbows. He could feel the spine of the mule rolling under him and he gripped the mule's barrel with his legs. Each leaf that brushed his face deepened his sadness and dread. Each leaf he passed, he'd never pass again. They rode over his face like veils, already some yellow, their veins slender like bones where the sun shone through them. He had resolved himself to ride on for he could not turn back and the world that day was as lovely as any day ever was and he was riding to his death." |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | They rode on and the sun in the east flushed pale streaks of light and then a deeper run of color like blood seeping up in sudden reaches flaring planewise and where the earth drained up into the sky at the edge of creation the top of the sun rose out of nothing like the head of a great red phallus until it cleared the unseen rim and sat squat and pulsing and malevolent behind them. |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | Blood lay in dark tongues on the floor and blood grouted the flagstones and ran in the vestibule where the stones were cupped from the feet of the faithful and their fathers before them and it had threaded its way down the steps and dripped from the stones among the dark red tracks of the scavengers.
alright I'll stop |
Hertzy
12.05.25 | @Chrisbait I wish I could say I'm super smart but I'm pretty much average haha. I already read No Country For Old Man before Blood Meridian and I was aware of his writing style but I thought it would be in the same ballpark than No Country. Boy was I mistaken haha |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | Unfortunately I think, like with anything, a translation would do a disservice to reading it.
The only short story I've ever written was basically me going in and out of doing Cormac imitations. |
Christbait
12.05.25 | No Country for Old Men is, I think, his most approachable work. Dialogue is a bit more modernized to reflect the time period and a relative small cast of characters. The Road is also fairly approachable but is bleak as hell from beginning to end, as others have said. I have his duology that he released before his death but have yet to start it. Not sure if others have read them (The Passenger and Stella Maris) so I don't know how those measure up to his classics. |
Josh D.
12.05.25 | Of the border trilogy, NCFOM is definitely the easiest. All the Pretty Horses isn't difficult, but easily the worst of the three. |
Hawks
12.05.25 | Just started reading the first Dune book. |
AlkemestRedux
12.05.25 | Yee All the Pretty Horses was my least favorite of the trilogy, but they're all fantastic books. And Blood Meridian is a pain to read, even for a native English speaker honestly. I gave up the first time I tried reading it and like a year later came back to it and forced myself to push through. You almost have to let the writing wash over you because otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy trying to read a two-page paragraph lol
And hells yeah Dune! They're on my list too but I've been kind of intimidated getting into a whole series. |
