Lawen posted:I know this is pedantic and I haven't read the book, so maybe it is in fact post-modern but what you described sounds a lot like what Cervantes did in Don Quixote and its sequel. In fact, Radiolab did a show recently where they compared meta-narratives in Cervantes and pro wrestling that's worth a listen, the episode is called "La Mancha Screwjob". I haven't read Quixote yet so I can't really comment on what it does, but you might be hitting at a reasonable point. Binet writes HHhH as a partial thesis saying that the whole "historical novel" is inherently problematic as a way to describe true moments in time - something the author brings up repeatedly. Binet also comments on his own obsession with the subject matter at hand and how challenging it is to give every single true fact its proper due when telling a cohesive narrative. HHhH has an interesting tale to tell and I'd recommend it, but I guess at the end of the day I like my historical stuff written more straightforward. The City & the City by China Mieville is the latest book I've finished. I didn't really dig it. The ending felt rushed and almost every character felt undefined for the most part. The whole overlapping cities aspect of the novel was INCREDIBLE though, and Mieville's visual ideas are pretty astonishing. I look forward to reading more of his stuff despite my lukewarm response to this one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 11, 2015 14:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 08:19 |
|
|
Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan - well written and very bleak novel about Australian POWs being used by the Japanese as slave labor to build a railway during WWII. The author's really good at describing all the horrendous suffering and the daily murderous grind of the POW camps, as well as other truly monstrous wartime atrocities.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2015 01:57
|
|
|
Captain Hotbutt posted:
Honestly despite the fact that Perdido Street Station has this reputation of being incredibly weird it's much more logically set out than C&C. It just has bug people.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2015 02:03
|
|
|
The Last Refuge by Gregory Johnsen. This book explains how Al Qaeda cells developed in Yemen up until 2012 or so, ultimately becoming known as AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula). While it does cover some familiar ground (Osama bin Laden etc) there are lots of fascinating details of the Houthi tribe, which is particularly useful now that the Houthis have taken over Yemen. This history is intertwined with descriptions of tribal culture and traditions that play a large role in how certain events go down. It also covers a few drone strikes orchestrated by the Obama administration which resulted in lots of civilian casualties, and how US intelligence generally had no clue what the gently caress was going on, which I always find enjoyable. Overall I found the book fascinating and very helpful in understanding what is going on in Yemen.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2015 04:02
|
|
|
Been a while since I posted here! Feels nostalgic somehow. Just finished The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero, who is one of the principal actors in The Room. It's well-written (not sure if that's Sestero himself or his co-author) and one of the funniest, most bizarre books I've ever read. I suppose in reality I've read weirder books, but the fact that this one is ostensibly a true story takes it to new levels. It's kind of amazing that Tommy Wiseau exists, that's all I have to say.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2015 17:23
|
|
|
Yeah, i read that last year. Remarkable story of a bizarre guy. Excellent stuff.
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2015 21:46
|
|
|
Last week I started and finished Guards! Guards! in a couple of days. Liked it much better than Mort, my previous, first, Discworld book. Now I'm sucked in for the entire series.
|
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2015 06:55
|
|
|
Just finished Chuck Wendig's Double Dead and Patricia Brigg's Dead Heat. The first is involves a zombie apocalypse where the protagonist is a vampire who realizes his feeding habits are going to have to change. As a bonus, the story includes an encounter with a post-apocalyptic society run and populated by juggaloes. The second is one in a series of urban fantasy books (Alpha and Omega) that is a cut above that of other authors in the genre. Briggs writes characters well, and the world in this series and the concurrent Mercy Thompson books is very grounded and well-thought-out. If you want to give urban fantasy a try, I highly recommend Briggs' novels. Wizchine fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Mar 18, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 13, 2015 10:27
|
|
|
I just finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I can honestly say it's the creepiest thing I've ever read but you can gets hours of fun from it. Well I say that but in actuality most of the people who got fun out of it was my literature class who kept taking it from me and ogling it like some strange alien being. The less I say about the plot the better but I can say it's about a man who finds a mysterious record and investigates it. I should also mention it's quite a chore to get through as the formatting is all over the place, narrators constantly change and there are footnotes throughout. But you know the book you're reading is going to be great when the first sentence is "This is not for you".
|
|
#
?
Mar 17, 2015 16:19
|
|
|
I recently finished a pair of books on the development of popular video games, Masters of Doom and Jacked. Both by David Kusher. Masters is about Doom and the two John's Carmack and Romero, it details their childhoods, starts in programming and their partnership which lead to Id and then the resulting drama that brought it all down. Its a factual narrative which makes what was potentially a dull biography about outsiders typing in code all day into a very readable tail about human foibles. Jacked is pretty much the same only about Grand Theft Auto, it also has some very interesting titbits about Jack Thompson, however I think this book was rushed through QC, at one point the book details a 2004 discussion with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown... and the epilogue has a different footnoting system to the rest of the book. Still both were pretty interesting.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2015 15:31
|
|
|
Just finished Submergence by J.M. Ledgard. Holy poo poo. This book basically knocked me on my rear end. It's not especially long but it is especially detailed, painting these incredibly rich portraits of things as diverse as terrorist lodgings in Africa and things living at the bottom of the ocean that's never seen light. Reading it is sort of like being made aware of how big the world really is, but also how small and fragile everything is at the same time, and how meaningless most things actually are. I've heard it called "postmodern airport fiction" and it kind of is — the two main characters, a British super spy and a globe-trotting, genius oceanographer — seem like they'd be at home in a Clive Cussler novel, but Ledgard delves so deeply into their psyches and their personal histories that they arrive at a kind of three dimensionality that's rarely seen in popular novels. The plot, such as there is, is nothing special — it's about a man captured by terrorists thinking back on a short relationship he had with a woman. But it's sort of like Moby Dick — the book is actually about it's many diversions, rather than the plot, so it doesn't matter that nothing much actually happens. Linguistically, it's interesting — Ledgard sort of builds it up from a lot of short declarative sentences that describe what's happening but leave it to the reader to assign meaning to it. It jumps freely through time and place, but it's not quite stream-of-consciousness, and it never gets hard to read. Easily the best book I've read in months.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 00:33
|
|
|
Pear-Drop posted:I just finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I can honestly say it's the creepiest thing I've ever read but you can gets hours of fun from it. Well I say that but in actuality most of the people who got fun out of it was my literature class who kept taking it from me and ogling it like some strange alien being. The less I say about the plot the better but I can say it's about a man who finds a mysterious record and investigates it. I should also mention it's quite a chore to get through as the formatting is all over the place, narrators constantly change and there are footnotes throughout. But you know the book you're reading is going to be great when the first sentence is "This is not for you". This is still my favorite book. It's awesome that a paperback full color book this large and fantastic is only $9.99 on amazon. I have given it out as gifts to the right people. I've probably read it three times in full and still find myself reading the introduction by Johnny Truant every once in a while because it is just downright creepy as gently caress. If anyone in here has not read this, they absolutely should. The story at the end, the "I have nothing left, except this..." one about Dr. Nowell that Johnny got in Seattle.. That poo poo had me in tears for some reason.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 02:43
|
|
|
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. I don't read much fantasy outside of Terry Pratchett and Lev Grossman these days, but this was really good and has me itching for more like it.My goodreads review posted:This is a standalone, which is one of the reasons I picked it in the first place, but now I've come to the end, I wish it was the beginning of a series!
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 04:12
|
|
|
Rasputin: The Untold Story by Joseph Furhmann In a word: godawful. I thought this would be a somewhat enjoyable and diverting read, but I often found myself wondering why reading a book with 240 pages of content feel like reading a 1000-page medical textbook. In a nutshell: Fuhrmann's writing style is tedious, he doesn't use footnotes to cite sources (which makes the whole thing feel like gossip), he spends a ridiculous amount of time wallowing in obscure political details and then, when he gets to the interesting part (Rasputin's assassination), gives it a quick gloss-over and wraps it up with the most student-level summary imaginable. gently caress you. 0 out of 5 stars IT BURNS fucked around with this message at 04:54 on Mar 19, 2015 |
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 04:51
|
|
|
I just finished Wolf In White Van which I learned about accidentally in the "pretty book covers" thread. It's written by the lead singer of the Mountain Goats and it's loving good. Not a lot of things HAPPEN in it, it's just sort of a reflection on this guy's life and what he was like as a kid and it's brilliant.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 14:06
|
|
|
Nevvy Z posted:I just finished Wolf In White Van which I learned about accidentally in the "pretty book covers" thread. It's written by the lead singer of the Mountain Goats and it's loving good. ^^ I think i was the one that posted the cover in there, I liked it Just finished Flatterland by I don't remember, already got returned. More or less a "sequel" to Flatland, just a hundred years later. I never read the old one but had seen the film
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 14:58
|
|
|
Pear-Drop posted:I just finished House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I can honestly say it's the creepiest thing I've ever read but you can gets hours of fun from it. Well I say that but in actuality most of the people who got fun out of it was my literature class who kept taking it from me and ogling it like some strange alien being. The less I say about the plot the better but I can say it's about a man who finds a mysterious record and investigates it. I should also mention it's quite a chore to get through as the formatting is all over the place, narrators constantly change and there are footnotes throughout. But you know the book you're reading is going to be great when the first sentence is "This is not for you". I got about three pages into House of Leaves and found myself in full agreement with the first sentence. Danielewski is the 21st century's answer to James Joyce. I am rereading Discworld.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 16:23
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:04
|
|
|
Yeah, he's nuts. It's obviously Brandon Sanderson.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:25
|
|
|
Fart.Bleed.Repeat. posted:^^ I think i was the one that posted the cover in there, I liked it Flatland is pretty good, not sure where a sequel can go though. Could you do a spoiler synopsis I'm interested?
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:33
|
|
|
Hahhaha
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:36
|
|
|
Fart.Bleed.Repeat. posted:Just finished Flatterland by I don't remember, already got returned. More or less a "sequel" to Flatland, just a hundred years later. I never read the old one but had seen the film
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 21:41
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 22:21
|
|
|
This is the 21st century's answer to Roy Lichtenstein.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 22:25
|
|
|
Kevsop posted:I just finished reading The Martian by Andy Weir. Tried it out by recommendation of a friend and it was pretty good. Its about an astronaut who gets left on mars when a near-future mission goes wrong, and has to deal with surviving as long as he can. I would recommend it if you're a space nerd. I liked this and Ready Player One for the Sci-Fi/humor blend. I need more books that are nerdy, funny, and have some action. A friend has me reading The Sparrow and so far so good.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 22:26
|
|
|
I've been an a massive re-read of some of my favourite books/authors from the 1980s, starting with all of David Brin, because I had just finished Existance. Glad to say that all his books held up very well. (Although I haven't yet dug out The Practice Effect and Sundiver. Blood Music, by Greg Bear, didn't hold up quite so well but is still a good story. well worth reading. I had forgotten the "Um, really?" parts of Courtship Rite, by Donald Kingsbury, but remain impressed. Mary Gentle's Golden Witchbreed is still a powerful book, remarkable and engrossing. I disavow any knowledge of the sequel. I'm about to start Snow Queen, by Joan Vinge, and hope it's as good as I remember. So far, I'm quite pleased that my favourites are still holding strong as favourites.
|
|
#
?
Mar 19, 2015 23:05
|
|
|
rock2much posted:I liked this and Ready Player One for the Sci-Fi/humor blend. I need more books that are nerdy, funny, and have some action. A friend has me reading The Sparrow and so far so good. Definitely check out The Book of Strange New Things by M Faber. It's a beautiful book and is along the same lines as The Sparrow.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 00:58
|
|
|
Tina fey. And her book. Both good
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 02:31
|
|
|
Dirty Frank posted:Flatland is pretty good, not sure where a sequel can go though. Could you do a spoiler synopsis I'm interested? Not even going to bother with spoilers since you already know the premis of Flatland. Basically picks up 100 years later with a distant relative of A Square finding a copy of Flatland(or Romance of Many Dimensions, or whatever it was called internally). She meets her own guide through various dimensions and they hit concept by concept. Obviously since 1880's there have been radical advancements in mathematics- things like black and white and worm holes, perspective and projection, speed of light, topology, etc. It's not so much a single story as the framework to talk about the different concepts and then move on to the next rock2much posted:I liked this and Ready Player One for the Sci-Fi/humor blend. I need more books that are nerdy, funny, and have some action. A friend has me reading The Sparrow and so far so good.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 19:50
|
|
|
Fart.Bleed.Repeat. posted:
Yup that's the one.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2015 22:16
|
|
|
Just finished re-reading On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I say re-read as we read it in literature class about a year ago- I have never read of book so divisive in my life. Most of the crap we read was pretty standard. Taming of the Shrew? Yeah Petruchio is a dick. But this book had some of my classmates boiling with rage and not because it was bad. On first glance it doesn't seem like the kind of book to get people annoyed- it's about a couple in the 60's going on a honeymoon. A lot of the book kind of drags but it had a lot of emotional power especially towards the end, an ending my teacher cried at. But it's an ending that had my whole class split and really told me a lot about some of my classmate's opinion's on sexual assault- let's just say some of them were very adamant it was the victim's fault.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 03:49
|
|
|
I just finished Temps, a superhero fiction anthology edited by Neil gaiman and Alex Stewart that's now out of print. Very cool, most of the short stories are interesting early 90s British takes on superhero stuff. One of the stories, pitbull Brittan, happened to be both the longest and worst, but a lot of the other stories varied from good to stellar. Also finished the miracle of castel Di Sangro by joe McGinnis. Very good book about an American author that gets bit with the soccer bug in the 90s and follows an Italian lower division team from a small mountain town that miraculously made it to Serie B the season before try to stay there. He's kind of a dick, but credit to him for portraying himself that way. Apart from the early chapters which spent too much time justifying how An American could like soccer and explaining what, for example, a corner kick was, it was an engrossing read.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 20:00
|
|
|
Double post.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 20:01
|
|
|
xian posted:I just finished Temps, a superhero fiction anthology edited by Neil gaiman and Alex Stewart that's now out of print. Very cool, most of the short stories are interesting early 90s British takes on superhero stuff. One of the stories, pitbull Brittan, happened to be both the longest and worst, but a lot of the other stories varied from good to stellar. Pitbull Britain is a direct spoof of 70s boys' war comics like Battle and Warlord. If you haven't read those you won't get the joke.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2015 20:44
|
|
|
Well that explains that, then!
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 01:25
|
|
|
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk. Very wacky sci fi involving sex toys.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 01:29
|
|
|
Is it new? Edit: Oct 14, so yeah. Excellent, thanks. I'm a big fan of his work.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 01:31
|
|
|
Hollywood Causes Cancer by Tom Green. He's very love it or hate it as a performer/actor/etc but I've always liked his stuff but even if you don't like Tom Green the book goes into the production of his stint on MTV which is pretty fascinating as a behind-the-scenes narrative. I'd recommend it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 03:05
|
|
|
What If? by Randall Munroe. It's a book where the description on the front cover of it reads "Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions". Munroe's qualifications for this book are he was a graduate of MIT and former mathematician at NASA, and has basically already had to work out similar stuff for his former occupation. The book is filled with humor as well as scientific fact, with simple stick figure drawings that illustrate what that paragraph or the following passages are basically about. If the book is at all interesting to you I'd advise you to check out either his well-known webcomic, XKCD or his equally well known blog, What if?, a weekly blog on which the book is based on
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 18:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 08:19 |
|
|
Just want to second the awesomeness of What If? I only read xkcd if someone links it on Twitter or something, but I saw that book on a lot of best of lists, picked it up, and didn't put it down till it was done
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2015 19:22
|
|