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Maklershed · Feb 1, 2016

Number45 · Feb 1, 2016

My resolution for February is to finish Monte Cristo and AT least one other book!

NeoGiff · Feb 1, 2016

I'm loving it so far, perhaps more than the first book. I suppose it helps that Fitz seems to think very much like I do - overanalysing everything, incredibly introspective, and prone to procrastination.

Maklershed · Feb 1, 2016

Finished The Machine by the incomparable James Smythe. Since I'm yet again in the mood for southern noir I started reading The Bottoms.

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale

GK86 · Feb 1, 2016

Seeing as how it is Black History Month, I'm going to be reading one or two books from or about African Americans. Still haven't picked out a book. I will look at a few lists and pick one.

AngmarsKing701 · Feb 1, 2016

About 40% through The Passage. I *think* I like it so far?

Jintor · Feb 1, 2016

A little more than halfway through Apollo (about the Apollo program at the ground level). Fascinating.

Haly · Feb 1, 2016

Brunhildr more like Baehildr.

legend166 · Feb 1, 2016

Jintor said:
A little more than halfway through Apollo (about the Apollo program at the ground level). Fascinating.

Who's the author? I watched The Right Stuff for the first time last week and I've been wanting to pick up something on the space program.

Mumei · Feb 1, 2016

Haly said:
Brunhildr more like Baehildr.

Do you recommend it?

Haly · Feb 1, 2016

Mumei said:
Do you recommend it?

I'm actually reading this translation and I have no complaints, but I rarely read translated stuff, nor do I know German, nor am I versed in opera, so I wouldn't know how to judge.

I'm enjoying it though, as someone who likes mythopoetic stories.

Code:

Rhinegold! 								Rhinegold! 
Rheingold! 								Rhinegold!
Leuchtende Lust,							Light-bringing joy, 
wie lach&#8217;st du so hell und hehr! 					how bright and sublime your laughter! 
Gluhender Glanz 							A glowing gleam breaks awesomely [forth 
entgleist dir weihlich im Wag! 						from the gold in the seething waves! 
Heiajahei! 								Heiajahei!
Heiajahei! 								Heiajahei! 
Wache, Freund, 								Awaken, friend, 
wache froh! 								awake to joy! 
Wonnige Spiele								Gladdening games
spenden wir dir: 							we'll play for you now: 
flimmert der Flus,							when the river glows
flammet die Fluth, 							and the flood is aflame, 
umfliesen wir tauchend, 						your bed we encircle, diving
tanzend und singend, 							and dancing and singing,
im seligen Bade dein Bett.						in blithely blissful abandon!

I like reading the rhymes in German and seeing how they translate/if they translate. Makes me appreciate the whole localization thing more.

Jintor · Feb 1, 2016

legend166 said:
Who's the author? I watched The Right Stuff for the first time last week and I've been wanting to pick up something on the space program.

Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox.

Very good so far, though occasionally a little technical.

Grenouille · Feb 1, 2016

I'm reading some Junot Diaz. How come a writer that references superheroes and other nerdy things so much was able to win a Pulitzer? I thought academics frowned upon such things. Not anymore i guess.
Anyway, his very informal style is something different. I had watched some of his speeches on youtube before reading his fiction, and he seems to write exactly as he speaks.

IAmtheFMan · Feb 1, 2016

Just finished the first Mistborn book. Pretty good though Sanderson seems to be making up and tweaking the rules of his "Allomancy" as he goes along.

Kawl_USC · Feb 1, 2016

After wrapping up the Count of Monte Cristo and the audiobook of Sandman Slim (decent urban fantasy I suppose, doubt I'll continue with the series though) getting back into The Traitor Baur Cormorant which I had stopped about a quarter of the way through. It grabbed me pretty well but I fell off when I lost my kindle and I've been struggling to get back into it.

I saw someone posted about Terms of Enlistment, general consensus on that is that its at least a fun read?

GK86 · Feb 1, 2016

^It was a fun read. It isn't heavy on the SciFi stuff (that happens more in the second book), though.

I found it to be engaging and interesting.

fakefaker · Feb 1, 2016

Plowing through Countdown City by Ben H. Winters and the mystery so far has been kinda underwhelming, but the countdown to doomsday really gets into your head. Its subtle but effective.

Nappuccino · Feb 1, 2016

I'm flipping through a shitton of books for my First Year Exam and the creative writing workshop I'm in. If I'm bored later tonight, I might compile a list of texts I'm using for the hell of it

The couple new books are Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Mike Meginnis's Fat Man and Little Boy.

legend166 · Feb 1, 2016

fakefaker said:
Plowing through Countdown City by Ben H. Winters and the mystery so far has been kinda underwhelming, but the countdown to doomsday really gets into your head. Its subtle but effective.

Hah! I'm reading that too. I read the first a couple of years ago but have only just got around to Countdown City. Like you said, the mystery isn't that great but it's such a great setting and premise I enjoy it anyway.

I have to imagine someone will make it a mini-series at some point.

Big Blue · Feb 1, 2016

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson. Bout 65% of the way through it.

woodland · Feb 1, 2016

Just finished:

City of Stairs
City of Blades
Percy Jackson/Carter Kane crossovers
Magnus Chase
Barsk
A Darker Shade of Magic

Months ago:
Traitor Baru Cormorant
Marie Brennan's dragons science series
Darwinia

I really need to finish Dracula too. Been at 80% for probably a year now, but I always forget it and never pick it back up. Really excited for all the books coming out this year

Cyan · Feb 1, 2016

woodland said:
Marie Brennan's dragons science series

I'm listening to first one of these on audio. Fun so far!

Also reading Sabriel by Garth Nix, which someone recently cited as one of their favorite YA books--Pau, maybe?--and I grabbed at the library.

Nymerio · Feb 1, 2016

Still making my way through Brothers Karamazov

MilkBeard · Feb 1, 2016

Still working on The Buried Giant. I'm at page 110. Should finish it well before the end of the month.

Next I'm going to check out All the Birds in the Sky, based on what someone posted in the previous thread.

brawly · Feb 1, 2016

Started yesterday:

Atraveller · Feb 1, 2016

Half way through City of Blades, I think Stairs is better, maybe the second half would change my mind.

Cade · Feb 1, 2016

Still reading Revival but I'm burning through it now. I like the references to Joyland but I have to say not a whole lot has happened despite me being over halfway through.

Tawney Bomb · Feb 1, 2016

Jumped from Blood Meridian back to the Mistborn trilogy, and I'm 91% done. Guess I needed a break, wasn't liking The Hero of Ages as much as the first two books, but now in hooked.

Deleted member 125677 · Feb 1, 2016

Books I read in January

SPQR: A history of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard

A solid book on early Roman history, treating mostly the founding of the city of Rome, the early kingdoms, the republic, and the early empire. One annoying thing about almost all modern approaches to ancient history is the need to time and time again unravel all the myths of the classical antiquity. This is a praiseworthy effort, but historians have been doing almost nothing but exactly that for the last 50 years or so. Basically: we know this already. No, Romans did not all wander around around their plazas in their tunics, debating rhetoric and philosophy. No, the Romans where not unusual in their ambition to conquer neighboring states and cities. Yes, there were violence all around and Romans where not unusually blood thirsty in their warfare and ways of upholding civil order. etc. etc. etc. Apart from this, the book is insightful, interesting and very, very readable.

China in World History (New Oxford World History), by Paul S. Ropp

Without a doubt the most disappointing book of last month. It's not really that it is a terrible introduction to Chinese history over an extremely long period of time though. It really isn't. The problem with this book is that it promises so much more than it keeps. The New Oxford World History is a series that is part of the new wave of global history. The series aims to break from the old regional, or national stories, and instead tries to place - in this case China - in a global setting. China as part of the world, it's relation to other parts of the world (Mongolia, Central-Asia and India). This is what it says in the introduction. This is what I'm expecting as I start reading. But. Instead the book is a perfect example of classical haupt und staatsaktionen story telling, where the focus of the narrative is exclusively on the succession of emperors and dynasties, with a lot of details about the particularities, strength and weaknesses of each emperor and ruler, and how many mistresses they kept or how they were just or cruel or whatever. There's even very little of what you expect of at least a good focus on economical and social history of the region in general, much less of how the region interacted with other regions. I'm not an unreasonable reader, I understand the challenge of writing this sort of history from a region where the sources are usually about the life and opinions of this and that emperor. But then please don't promise me you'll do something that you wont bother to do, or are not capable of doing for a number of reasons. Thanks.

The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara

Good ol' Norton. A weird book that deals with very serious topics. Basically the story of a scientist who travels with a small team of social anthropologists to a remote pacific island and discovers a hitherto unknown tribe who has supernatural long life for unknown reasons. Norton soon discovers that the unnaturally long life is connected to a specific species of turtles living exclusively on this Island, the opa'ivu'ekes, and that although the inhabitants live for hundreds of years, their mind seem to deteriorate at a natural pace, leaving the oldest inhabitants more or less like automatons wandering about in the forest, where they are abandoned by their younger cohabitants. They also discover some disturbing rituals among the inhabitants, involving the defloration of young boys by the village chief and other senior male citizen of the village. When Norton starts adopting dousins of young children from the island and ends up with a household of 43 adopted u'ivuan children, things start going terribly awry, in a tale of a rigid and cold Nobel prize winning scientist that goes native in the worst possible way.

The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus

Another weird book, about a somewhat post-apocalyptical american society where first the sound of childen's speech becomes toxic to adults, before eventually all forms of exposure to language becomes poisonous and something to avoid at all cost. As it says on the book's goodread page: "The Flame Alphabet invites the question: What is left of civilization when we lose the ability to communicate with those we love?" The book tells the story of how a family with a teenage daughter gradually lose the ability to communicate with each other and in desperation at last have to abandon their child and escape from society altogether. A very timely book to read in an age where everything is communication, and communication is everywhere.

RepairmanJack · Feb 1, 2016

My reading took a huge hit because I'm on a comic book binge right now.

Still reading through Hero of Ages here and there but it's going slow.

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2016

Grenouille said:
I'm reading some Junot Diaz. How come a writer that references superheroes and other nerdy things so much was able to win a Pulitzer? I thought academics frowned upon such things.

Diaz IS an academic and has been a lit darling from the get-go. Good on him, I say...

Atraveller said:
Half way through City of Blades, I think Stairs is better, maybe the second half would change my mind.

Well, crap, then I'm out. Stairs was good, but not great. Doesn't sound (so far) like Blades is blowing people's hair back...

And I'm re-reading the one, the only:

God, what a shit cover for the 20th anniversary. So many good ones were submitted, and this is what they went with.

I got a good jump on the first week of Infinite Winter's page count. It amazes me that I've read the first 100 pages so many times and I STILL find stuff I missed on each previous reading. I've never successfully completed a re-read, so I'm in it this time for the long haul.

pa22word · Feb 1, 2016

Power wars by Charlie savage

Very inside baseball look at Obama's presidency, particularly at his foreign policy and national security stuff. Interesting read if you want to get a better look at his presidency and how he thinks.

Ultimately, it touches upon one of the more damning aspects of his presidency imo with his handling of the surveillance issues and his complacency in the ever expanding reach of the executive branch. I mean yeah it might not be politically expedient to let more checks be placed on the executive when your party is looking mighty fine on the ec charts for a good while and the opposition has a stranglehold on the house for a while due to gerrymandering, but all it takes is one bad election and we get another W if not worse....

Kinda frightening when you think about it.

Nappuccino · Feb 1, 2016

Grenouille said:
I'm reading some Junot Diaz. How come a writer that references superheroes and other nerdy things so much was able to win a Pulitzer? I thought academics frowned upon such things. Not anymore i guess.
Anyway, his very informal style is something different. I had watched some of his speeches on youtube before reading his fiction, and he seems to write exactly as he speaks.

Its not just what he does, but why he does what he does.

Polishin8r · Feb 1, 2016

Finished Salem's Lot an excellent book and moving on to The tipping point first non fiction book in a long long time

Coppanuva · Feb 1, 2016

I'm working my way through 3 things (man it's so long when you think of it that way...):

Non-fiction:
The Introvert Advantage: How Quiet People can Thrive in an Extrovert World- Reading this with my fiancee who wanted to read it. Parts of it are interesting but it's very non-technical in a way that makes me feel like a lot of research is being misrepresented here.

Comics:
Hawkeye Matt Fraction run (I dunno if this counts, but I'm reading it as part of that NeoGAF Comic Club thing). Pretty entertaining so far.

Audiobook/Fiction:
Station Eleven. I'd heard a lot about it, so far it's pretty good but I'm not huge on the narrator's voice. Enjoyable enough, and it keeps you curious by not saying too much too quickly.

Once I finish one of those I'll probably start up on All the Birds in the Sky.

Soulfire · Feb 1, 2016

Coppanuva said:
Non-fiction:
The Introvert Advantage: How Quiet People can Thrive in an Extrovert World- Reading this with my fiancee who wanted to read it. Parts of it are interesting but it's very non-technical in a way that makes me feel like a lot of research is being misrepresented here.

I would recommend Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain it's much better.

wild wild rice · Feb 1, 2016

Currently reading Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon for the first time. So far, so good. Surprisingly good actually, considering this one doesn't get as much shine as most of his other novels.

New Don DeLillo, new Cormac McCarthy, and new Michael Chabon all coming out in 2016. I think all three are past their prime, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.

Coppanuva · Feb 1, 2016

Soulfire said:
I would recommend Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain it's much better.

Noted. She seems to be enjoying this one enough, but if she wants another book later on I'll see if I can pass that one by. I just can't enjoy this lady's writing style right now, it's very basic, I feel like I'm being lectured to by an elementary school teacher. Looking on Amazon that one seems to be much better so... I'll try to suggest it.

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2016

wild wild rice said:
Currently reading Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon for the first time. So far, so good. Surprisingly good actually, considering this one doesn't get as much shine as most of his other novels.

Is ATD what really began Pynchon's latter 'accessible' phase? Not accessible in size, mind you, just him being not so quite 'out there'. I have it, but haven't read it yet. Having said that, I found Bleeding Edge (his last) not all that difficult, which I think is the general consensus.

Kill3r7 · Feb 1, 2016

Finished The Shadow of the Torturer moving on to The Claw of the Conciliator

fakefaker · Feb 1, 2016

legend166 said:
Hah! I'm reading that too. I read the first a couple of years ago but have only just got around to Countdown City. Like you said, the mystery isn't that great but it's such a great setting and premise I enjoy it anyway.

I have to imagine someone will make it a mini-series at some point.

Actually last night I read a good chunk into the 2nd half of the book and the mystery part just takes off. Mind you I was feeling pretty tired so I could be biased, but I couldn't stop reading.

Jaja, this trilogy should be a show for sure. Maybe we should petition Netflix or something.

wild wild rice · Feb 1, 2016

sparky2112 said:
Is ATD what really began Pynchon's latter 'accessible' phase? Not accessible in size, mind you, just him being not so quite 'out there'. I have it, but haven't read it yet. Having said that, I found Bleeding Edge (his last) not all that difficult, which I think is the general consensus.

BE is the only Pynchon novel I haven't read yet so I can't compare directly. Supposedly ATD is classified as being one of his more accessible books and I can more or less agree with that. If you like Pynchon, you'll like it. Only about 100 pages in, I'd put accessibility on the same level as Vineland.

After an initial bombardment of many characters being rapidly introduced that would probably intimidate the shit out of any casual reader, it has settled into a nice and fairly straight forward narrative.

Thematically it is pretty clearly about labor and capitol in America after the Civil War (so far, anyway), which is a bit of a contrast to, say, Mason & Dixon or Gravity's Rainbow where the themes are much more densely layered. Nothing as abstract at V. As far as being 'out there', there's been plenty of weird philosophical digressions, some silly and amusing, some challenging and enlightening. Erudition is still there. If you're familiar with Marxism and at least interested in science you'll get more out of it.

Just noticed you're rereading Infinite Jest. I've been meaning to do that...

8BitsAtATime · Feb 1, 2016

I read Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning yesterday. This is next up

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti

XShadows69 · Feb 1, 2016

Never read the Dark Materials trilogy as a kid so I'm going through those right now. Currently on The Subtle Knife. Enjoying it so far! Next book will probably be Son of Sedonia or The Alchemist.

sparky2112 · Feb 1, 2016

wild wild rice said:
BE is the only Pynchon novel I haven't read yet so I can't compare directly. Supposedly ATD is classified as being one of his more accessible books and I can more or less agree with that. If you like Pynchon, you'll like it. Only about 100 pages in, I'd put accessibility on the same level as Vineland.

Cool. It'll be a while, though. I'm the dummy who insists he has to read Infinite Jest more than once, so I'll be at that a while and won't want to go near another slab for a while (knowing me, though, I'll last all of 5 minutes).

Mumei · Feb 1, 2016

I finished The Passage. I quite liked it, though it did start to rely rather heavily on the "Someone is about to die, maybe - let's cut away to a new scene and come back to find that they have been saved / saved themselves / the ending was a misdirection all along. It didn't take long for me to start saying, as soon as a scene ended like that, "Well, I'm glad she's going to live."

Still, it was a lot of fun.

Roboleon said:
The People in the Trees, by Hanya Yanagihara

Good ol' Norton. A weird book that deals with very serious topics. Basically the story of a scientist who travels with a small team of social anthropologists to a remote pacific island and discovers a hitherto unknown tribe who has supernatural long life for unknown reasons. Norton soon discovers that the unnaturally long life is connected to a specific species of turtles living exclusively on this Island, the opa'ivu'ekes, and that although the inhabitants live for hundreds of years, their mind seem to deteriorate at a natural pace, leaving the oldest inhabitants more or less like automatons wandering about in the forest, where they are abandoned by their younger cohabitants. They also discover some disturbing rituals among the inhabitants, involving the defloration of young boys by the village chief and other senior male citizen of the village. When Norton starts adopting dousins of young children from the island and ends up with a household of 43 adopted u'ivuan children, things start going terribly awry, in a tale of a rigid and cold Nobel prize winning scientist that goes native in the worst possible way.

Well, I don't see how anyone could think differently.

LordAmused · Feb 1, 2016

I am still reading Infinite Jest by Foster Wallace. It's awesome. I like it as much if not more than any other Pynchon novels.

Still a month to go before I'm done with it.

Mifune · Feb 1, 2016

Since we're on the subject...

Tom Bissell wrote the introduction for the 20th Anniversary Edition of Infinite Jest. It's a thoughtful piece and about a million times better than the Eggers intro from my copy.

Fluvian · Feb 1, 2016

[/IMG]
Two volumes left, can't believe I'd never read Sandman before, it's truly ground breaking, and one of the few none Alan Moore comics that could easily be discussed in academia.

studyguy · Feb 2, 2016

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