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What are you reading? (January 2015)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
Trust me you're not alone.
Yeah, I read Zen... as well. Sad thing is his son actually ended up killing himself in his early 20s. I also read Man in the High Castle some years back. I liked it, but I was kind of confused by the overall theme/message. I know Amazon just released a pilot episode for the tv series based on that book.
It didn't click with me immediately, either, though if you've put 150 pages into it and still aren't enjoying it it probably isn't going to.
Tragicomedy
Member
PassiveObserver
Member
Reading Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill. Everything is written in short paragraph form. Getting a heavy Vonnegut vibe, I was expecting a "so it goes" tossed in every chapter or so. It was a New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year, and I am quite enjoying it so far. Should be a quick read.
Haven't attempted Catch 22 since about two years ago when I got it.. I didn't like it, but ill try it out soon again
You had me at Vonnegut
I enjoyed it, though I can't speak for how accurate a representation of current religious historical scholarship on the era and Jesus in particular. Aslan did seem to go to great lengths to present alternate interpretations in the notes, though.
Alright, I'm going to go for it. Thanks.
That's a real black eye for you there.
Switch Back 9
a lot of my threads involve me fucking up somehow. Perhaps I'm a moron?
Pop me into that list as well. Highly recommended by people with very similar tastes to me, and I rarely leave a book unfinished, but yeah just didn't grab me at all and o totally didn't get the humOur.
Oh well.
SPEAKING of not "getting" things, does anyone smarter than me have any theories or enlightening secrets regarding the Southern Reach trilogy? I mean, I knew the ending was going to be like that but I feel like I totally missed out on something obvious. Anyone want to share their two cents with me?
70% into Well of Ascension, the second Mistborn book. I am LOVING this book. I've read that a lot of people find it somewhat weak compared to the first one, but I think it's great. A large focus on politics and a less focused plot make it not QUITE as good, but fantastic character development, along with mystery and intrigue regarding the Deepness, the kandra spy within the ranks, and what happened in the well of ascension more than make up for it. And, man, I love the conversations between Vin and OreSeur, because it's so interesting to learn about this bizarre, foreign species.
Argh such a great book.
Argh such a great book.
Finished The Brothers Karamazov. What a sublime book. The balancing of characters to create a cogent moral philosophy argument was well executed.
I am left a little bit haunted. And it will take a while to fully comprehend this story I feel. But regardless of my final view on it, it is a great book; a seminal example of how to go about commenting on the human condition.
I am left a little bit haunted. And it will take a while to fully comprehend this story I feel. But regardless of my final view on it, it is a great book; a seminal example of how to go about commenting on the human condition.
A Highstorm approaches!
whatevermort
Member
I did not get a Vonnegut vibe even slightly. Loved it, but it's SUPER literary and quiet and not even slightly weird SFF or whatever.
/DEAD
Evo Shandor
Member
This month, I have read:
- "Rabbit Redux" by John Updike
- The Confessions of St. Augustine
- The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
- "For They Know Not What They Do" by Slavoj Zizek
And am currently reading:
- "Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship" by J.M. Coetzee
- "Stranger Shores: Essays 1986 - 1999" also by J.M. Coetzee
- "Rabbit Redux" by John Updike
- The Confessions of St. Augustine
- The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
- "For They Know Not What They Do" by Slavoj Zizek
And am currently reading:
- "Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship" by J.M. Coetzee
- "Stranger Shores: Essays 1986 - 1999" also by J.M. Coetzee
Ally of Justice
Member
About halfway on Last of the Amazons by Pressfield. Planning to finish it this week if not today. Pretty entertaining, took it without thinking from my house in order to read something after being bored by Laberinto de Soledad.
It's pretty interesting, but sometimes I get lost on who's who because of the names of the amazons.
I'm planning to take the 52 books challenge, I've read two so far this year (Slaughterhouse V and La Cabeza de la Hidra by Carlos Fuentes), three if you consider The Little Prince (Which I don't), but that's because I love that book.
But I don't know what to read next.
It's pretty interesting, but sometimes I get lost on who's who because of the names of the amazons.
I'm planning to take the 52 books challenge, I've read two so far this year (Slaughterhouse V and La Cabeza de la Hidra by Carlos Fuentes), three if you consider The Little Prince (Which I don't), but that's because I love that book.
But I don't know what to read next.
Haha, perfect. I'll just imagine I'm riding out a Highstorm.
Thoughts? He's an interesting essayist and critic but never quite as captivating as when he's analyzing himself and his own works in semi-biographicals like Summertime. Unlike his novels I haven't read all the non-fiction, though.
Yeah, it's all good. Said before how much I enjoy seeing the varied tastes in these reading threads, really wide spectrum of stuff.
Always pleasant to hear from a fellow fan of Fyodor Mikhailovich, he's well represented here.
Incandenza
Banned
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
All that time spent being confused by books 1 and 2 is actually starting to pay off now. I'm only a quarter of the way in and already there's been some pretty neat reveals and the setup for what's to come seems very promising.
Also it has raptors with swords for hands and if you don't want to spend your time reading about raptors with swords for hands then I don't know what to tell you.
Another update!
Read:
Currently reading:
An Empire of Wealth had some stuff I liked, but it was outweighed by the tiresome boosterism and handwaving of racism. I don't recommend it. Earth's Deep History was fantastic, though the regular digs at atheists "hijacking" science was tiresome. It was no surprise that he revealed that he chooses to live in a faith tradition, as he put it, because he clearly had an axe to grind in that respect. When he was talking about the history, though, it was thorough and engaging. He just doesn't seem to understand that the conflict between science and religion is epistemological; it isn't that a religious person can't adopt the epistemological worldview while practicing science, and use a different one as a religious person. We're all capable of these sorts of cognitive dissonances, after all. In any case, it did affect my personal enjoyment but not my recommendation.
Please Save My Earth continues to be a very engaging read. It's almost like reading it anew; I have only read it once before and about ten years ago at that. What's more, I did not read the actual release at the time, but scans that were translated by a translation group who I later learned is notorious for inaccurate and overly flavored translations. I think the story makes much more sense now. Still, I'm not counting it as a new read so these aren't showing up on my Goodreads. For manga or comics, I'm not sure what I'll focus on once I finish this. I'm thinking Vagabond or Banana Fish, but it may be something else entirely.
The Path of Daggers is ... well, it wasn't as bad as I had been given to expect. I didn't enjoy it as much as earlier books in the series, but since it was only 500 pages it also was a much faster book to read through than some of the 700 - 900 page books in the series. And Cadsuane is indeed great.
Read:
Currently reading:
An Empire of Wealth had some stuff I liked, but it was outweighed by the tiresome boosterism and handwaving of racism. I don't recommend it. Earth's Deep History was fantastic, though the regular digs at atheists "hijacking" science was tiresome. It was no surprise that he revealed that he chooses to live in a faith tradition, as he put it, because he clearly had an axe to grind in that respect. When he was talking about the history, though, it was thorough and engaging. He just doesn't seem to understand that the conflict between science and religion is epistemological; it isn't that a religious person can't adopt the epistemological worldview while practicing science, and use a different one as a religious person. We're all capable of these sorts of cognitive dissonances, after all. In any case, it did affect my personal enjoyment but not my recommendation.
Please Save My Earth continues to be a very engaging read. It's almost like reading it anew; I have only read it once before and about ten years ago at that. What's more, I did not read the actual release at the time, but scans that were translated by a translation group who I later learned is notorious for inaccurate and overly flavored translations. I think the story makes much more sense now. Still, I'm not counting it as a new read so these aren't showing up on my Goodreads. For manga or comics, I'm not sure what I'll focus on once I finish this. I'm thinking Vagabond or Banana Fish, but it may be something else entirely.
The Path of Daggers is ... well, it wasn't as bad as I had been given to expect. I didn't enjoy it as much as earlier books in the series, but since it was only 500 pages it also was a much faster book to read through than some of the 700 - 900 page books in the series. And Cadsuane is indeed great.
GavinUK86
Member
Just finished reading:
Took me bloody ages with it being so long and drawn out. Good though. Not the ending I expected.
Now I'm onto this:
People over in the TV show thread told me it's pretty good so I got it from Amazon. Good so far. Feels weird having such a light book in my hand after months of that Stephen King monster.
Took me bloody ages with it being so long and drawn out. Good though. Not the ending I expected.
Now I'm onto this:
People over in the TV show thread told me it's pretty good so I got it from Amazon. Good so far. Feels weird having such a light book in my hand after months of that Stephen King monster.
Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson
All that time spent being confused by books 1 and 2 is actually starting to pay off now. I'm only a quarter of the way in and already there's been some pretty neat reveals and the setup for what's to come seems very promising.
Also it has raptors with swords for hands and if you don't want to spend your time reading about raptors with swords for hands then I don't know what to tell you.
That's my favourite Malazan book. The Seguleh kick ass.
Evo Shandor
Member
Admittedly, his essays (or transcripts of his lectures) can be hit or miss. The essays in "Giving Offense", though older, are much more pertinent to today and of a generally higher quality than "Stranger Shores", where he writes a large amount about Dutch authors, some of which I have never heard of.
I find a weakness of his essays is that he will often state explicitly a goal or topic of the essay and, by the end, he will have went off onto another topic entirely. It can leave you wondering if you've missed something. The only exceptions to this, I think, are when he is writing about the authors he most admires: Kafka, Dostoevsky, DeFoe, and Rilke. Here, he can be quite insightful and, surprisingly, often funny. Much like his fiction and semi-auto-biographical works, he is at his best when he directs his powerful insight onto himself or character that act as avatars for either himself or elements of his personality.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
Very good. If you liked Gone Girl you will enjoy this one.
Having just finished Gone Girl: There are people who liked Gone Girl‽‽ I mean, I know what you mean, but that book has left me so pissed off. I'm going to have to give those kinds of books a break for awhile and stick to something easy, something that can't piss me off. I know, I'll start that book about the conspiracy theory nuts. That won't make me angry at all! /s
sparky2112
Member
The regular news makes my blood boil. This would, no doubt, kill me.
And the quote prefacing it is pretty good, too.
Inside the Doomsday Machine? Hah, it definitely feels like it. Throughout the book, you are just thinking, my god, how can everyone be either so stupid, so greedy, evil, lazy, or oblivious? It has really cemented my views that the vast vast majority of investors on Wall St have no idea what the hell they are doing and generate profits from fees and the opaque confusing shit they create.
It was pretty interesting to read this book after The Half has Never Been Told due to the comparison that that book made between the 1837 and 39 crash and the one in 2008. Moral Hazard is a bitch, especially when you are putting into hazard the most important part of the economy.
Yeah, still good, but strange.
Started reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. About 100 pages in and really liking it so far. It does take some getting used to with everyone being referred to as her, but it is interesting.
Oh, no. I meant the Tolstoy quote that I have as my tag!
Oh, I don't think they read that on the audio book version. I guess that is why I was rather confused, haha
PassiveObserver
Member
Gonna try to read one chapter of this a day.
