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Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book. I think you could keep some of the broader categories (history, poetry, collection of short stories) and tweak some of the others (the color green instead of red, or something).
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# ? Nov 26, 2015 17:53 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 08:13 |
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12. Something dealing with space - Packing for Mars by Mary Roach So for “space” I definitely wanted to read some non-fic about space; I’ve read my fair share of space sci-fi and whatever but this seemed like a better opportunity. I did some searching and landed on Packing for Mars, which is a pop science book about the challenges of sending humans into space for long periods of time. It was really cool and interesting, she interviews people from a few different countries’ space programs and relays a lot of really cool stuff. There was a ton of funny and interesting observations, but my favorite bit came from a footnote in a chapter about the challenges of creating custom or standard issue suits/equipment for astronauts of different body types. Apparently in the original Apollo missions, back when they were using bladders for the astronauts to urinate into, they had three different sizes for the piece that fit over an astronaut’s penis, but in order to protect egos they were labelled “large”, “extra large” and “extra extra large”. It just struck me as funny that some of the most important and brave men in history still had to compensate. 13. Something dealing with the unreal - In the Realms of the Unreal: Insane Writings edited by Joan Oakes So again I hit google just to explore what this could possibly cover, and one of the first hits when you type in “unreal books” is Henry Darger, who wrote a book called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. The title and description sounded perfect, except that it is a 15,145 page book that has never actually been published. So reading more about Darger, I decided to try and find a book about him instead, but this lead me to this book, which is a book of works by people institutionalized for insanity. It was actually a bit disappointing in that I should have expected the subject matter - a lot of rambling essays and poetry about feeling trapped and misunderstood. I was hoping for more colorful and wild imagery along with some fiction, and while there was a bit of that it was more mundane than I expected. It was also obviously very hit or miss, leaning toward miss. It definitely isn’t something I would have ever discovered or considered reading if not for this challenge, so while it didn’t fit it to the letter I consider it a success. 15. Something published this year/past 3 months - Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates I usually don't read books right when they come out so I was excited about this challenge, I wanted to wait for something to pop up on the NY Times best seller list that appealed to me, and when I saw this start to pop up on my Facebook feed it was really a no-brainer. I have read some of Coates articles and been amazed at how he writes so beautifully while also making his perspective easy to understand. I was psyched to be able to talk with people on social media, at work, and on SA about a new book that felt really important and relevant to our times, on an issue that basically every human has a perspective on. I’ve already reread it once and skimmed it a few more times, I have a feeling this is one I will be going back to a lot partly because it is so short anyway but it also had something every few pages that challenged my world view and caused me to simultaneously want to put the book down to digest it and also to plow ahead.
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# ? Nov 26, 2015 19:22 |
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Corrode posted:I liked the challenge. Even if some of my selections weren't super clever it got me to stretch a bit in what I was reading which was cool. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Let's do a similar challenge but you could mix it up a bit and create some of your own categories. Sure that I can do. I'll look at what Stravinsky posted and see what I can take from it. Mr. Squishy posted:Change all the challenges apart from reading A Blind Owl. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Not that The Blind Owl doesn't warrant a reread, but I would personally prefer that, if there's another "read this specific book" part, it's a different book. Not big on rereading stuff like a year after I first read it most of the time. I'll think of something else that's long like Infiniate Jest or The Portriat of an Artist as a Young Man or something like that. ulvir posted:I liked the challenges, but I wouldn't mind swapping some of them out for next year (absurdist, dealing with space, etc) for something equally challenging and creative. I had a really fun time trying to pin down the unreal one The Berzerker posted:Yeah I liked the ones that were vague ("the color red" led me to read a book on color theory that I likely would never have touched otherwise). The categories helped me stretch out a bit from my usual stuff which I really liked. I'll post my update this weekend but I finished the Booklord challenge about 2 weeks ago by finishing off A Confederacy of Dunces for the first time, which was a hilarious book. I'll fix some of the vagueness and see if I can tweak them or replace them. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them here.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 03:12 |
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I liked the challenge, and would do one again next year, but would definitely prefer new categories. I like the categories that are more open to interpretation (like 'the color red') rather than the more rigid ones. I would prefer to not be ordered to read a specific book though - what if I've already read it?
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 03:39 |
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I feel like one rigid challenge isn't so bad, and Blind Owl is good and something a lot of people hadn't read so it was good! For sure don't have like Catch 22 or Slaughterhouse Five or something a ton of people have already read.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 04:07 |
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Guy A. Person posted:I feel like one rigid challenge isn't so bad, and Blind Owl is good and something a lot of people hadn't read so it was good! I guess it would be ok as long as it wasn't something that everyone has read or something so long that no one will ever actually get around to reading it. The Blind Owl was both relatively obscure, and also short enough that I was willing to take a chance on it even though it had never been on my radar before. Infinite Jest, for example, would be a terrible choice. Not only is it commonly read, but it's over 1000 pages long. I think the wildcard category should stay.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 04:38 |
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Yeah the wildcard category was dope.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 11:42 |
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screenwritersblues posted:I'll fix some of the vagueness and see if I can tweak them or replace them. please keep some vagueness to them, figuring out what book would fit/constitute as what was really enjoyable and practically half the fun (apart from reading good books). I only meant I'd love for something similar, but with newer categories, to keep it fresh seconding to keep the wildcard too
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:25 |
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Yeah the wildcard category was dope. Absolutely.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:25 |
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The Year So Far... 1) Ghostwritten by David Mitchell 2) Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper by Diablo Cody* 3) The Dark Defiles by Richard K Morgan 4) Off Season by Jack Ketchum* 5) The 39 Steps by John Buchan* 6) The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey* 7) Feed by Mira Grant* 8) Old Man's War by John Scalzi* 9) The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan* 10) Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov* 11) Pronto by Elmore Leonard* 12) Brothers by William Goldman* 13) Flashman and the Tiger by George MacDonald Fraser 14) Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin* 15) An Act of Courage by Allan Mallinson 16) Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek* 17) Fly Away Peter by David Malouf* 18) The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross* 19) Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks* 20) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin 21) Trouble is My Business by Raymond Chandler* 22) Sharpe's Sword by Bernard Cornwell 23) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson* 24) Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley* 25) A Model World and Other Stories by Michael Chabon* 26) By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart* 27) The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen Donaldson* 28) The Prince by Machiavelli* 29) The First Person and Other Stories by Ali Smith 30) The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater* 31) Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson 32) First Love, Last Rites by Ian McEwan* 33) Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by Bell Hooks* 34) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie* 35) Close Quarters by William Golding 36) At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson* 37) Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng* 38) Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin 39) The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman 40) The Sandman, Vol. 2: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman 41) The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman 42) The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman 43) The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman 44) The Sandman, Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections by Neil Gaiman 45) Nightworld by F Paul Wilson* 46) The Children of Men by PD James 47) The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien* 48) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy* 49) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 50) The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton* 51) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein* 52) The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro* 53) The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman 54) Dark Visions by Steven King, Dan Simmons and George RR Martin 55) The End of the Affair by Graham Greene* 56) Filth by Irvine Welsh* 57) The Sandman, Vol. 8: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman 58) The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman 59) The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake by Neil Gaiman 60) Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link* 61) How to Be Both by Ali Smith 62) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood* 63) Get In Trouble by Kelly Link 64) High Rise by JG Ballard* 65) The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman 66) The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson* 67) Aquarium by David Vann* 68) Jagannath by Karin Tidbeck* 69) Kindred by Octavia Butler 70) Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters* 71) 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill* 72) Ariel by Sylvia Plath* 73) The Wilds by Julia Elliott* 74) Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson 75) Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L. Hannett* 76) The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis* 77) Slade House by David Mitchell 78) Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden* 79) July's People by Nadine Gordimer* 80) Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond* 81) Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner* 82) Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner 83) Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor* 84) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Booklord Challenge 10. The Blind Owl 14. Wildcard: The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert (Reading) High Warlord Zog fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Nov 27, 2015 |
# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:36 |
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Update through November. Previously: 1. Menneskefluene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 2. Teckla by Steven Brust. 3. Ultima by Stephen Baxter. 4. Satellittmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 5. REAMDE by Neal Stephenson. 6. Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky 7. Annihilation by Jeff VanDermeer. 8. The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov. 9. Njålssoga (aka Njåls saga, the Saga of Burnt Niall, etc. in various translations) by unknown author. 10. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. 11. Katalysatormordet by Hans Olav Lahlum. 12. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. 13. De Fem Fyrstikkene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 14. Pastoralia by George Saunders. 15. Kameleonmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 16. Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker. 17. Straits of Hell by Taylor Anderson. 18. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. 19. My Real Children by Jo Walton. 20. Forrådt ("Betrayed") by Amalie Skram. 21. Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. 22. On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds. 23. Landfall by Stephen Baxter. 24. The March North by Graydon Saunders. 25. The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and (probably mostly) Stephen Baxter. 26. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. 27. Castaway Planet by Ryk Spoor and Eric Flint. 28. Ørnens Sønn by Olaf Havnes. 29. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross. 30. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. 31. Spring's Awakening by Frank Wedekind. 32. Poseidon's Wake by Alastair Reynolds. 33. Extinction Game by Gary Gibson. 34. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. 35. Havlandet by Olaf Havnes. 36. Svart Storm by Olaf Havnes. 37. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer. New: 38. The Faithful Executioner by Joel F. Harrington. Got this from the recommendation thread to fit the "biography" challenge; it's the story of an executioner in Renaissance-era Germany, based on various bits and pieces of documentation including the man's own journal. Fascinating look at life and crime and punishment in a society only somewhat alien to modern Europeans. Would recommend. 39. Hodejegerne by Jo Nesbø. A short and snappy crime thriller by one of Norway's biggest names in the genre, it starts out almost comedic and descends into incredible amounts of violence and horribleness. 40. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (technically only almost done reading it yet). Randomly selected to fit the "absurdist" challenge since Vonnegut sometimes comes up in google searches of that term. I read a ton of Vonnegut when I was young and impressionable but somehow managed to skip this one. Just loving read it already, it's great. So far: 40/40 overall goal, of which 1/5 allowed rereads 10/10 Norwegian books 5/5 nonfiction Booklord challenge points met: 1 (Got to 40 books) 2 (Forrådt; technically met earlier but saved for a book where the gender of the author was the POINT rather than an accident) 3 (Three-Body Problem) 5 (Njålssoga), 8 (Pastoralia) 9 (Cat's Cradle) 11 (My Real Children) 12 (Ultima) 13 (Teckla; teleporting sorceror-assassins aren't particularly real) 14 (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) 15 (Ultima again, published November 2014) 16 (Njålssoga) 17 (Spring's Awakening) 18 (The Faithful Executioner) 19 (Three-Body Problem) 20 (Spring's Awakening) 21 (De Fem Fyrstikkene) 22 (Menneskefluene). So, have a month left to hit the last few challenge points (and have stuff lined up for each of them).
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:38 |
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High Warlord Zog posted:[84) Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Buddy!
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 12:40 |
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I am very much behind, this year was busy as hell but I will try the challenge next year again and hopefully do better. I´ll also try to post monthly updates next time around. I also liked the wildcard category even though I didn´t get to read mine. I will read that (The golden rear end) on top of whatever categories there will be next year because It sounds really cool and I have never read something that old.
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# ? Nov 27, 2015 19:11 |
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ulvir posted:please keep some vagueness to them, figuring out what book would fit/constitute as what was really enjoyable and practically half the fun (apart from reading good books). I only meant I'd love for something similar, but with newer categories, to keep it fresh The vagueness will be kept to let you choose what you want. I might choose a certain book like the last book lord did, but I'm not sure. Currently deciding between two long ones, but not as long as Blind Owl.
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# ? Nov 28, 2015 04:26 |
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I set my number of books this year way too high (70) and I'm struggling to hit it, so I am going to fail the booklord challenge since I started reading books that I knew would be easier for me to hit my number. I have 6 books to read in the next month and I probably won't hit it, but at least I'll have read more books this year than I have before.
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# ? Nov 28, 2015 17:26 |
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[*]1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 109/100 [*]2. [*]3. [*]4. Philosophy [*]5. History [*]6. An essay [*]7. A collection of poetry [*]8. Something post-modern [*]9. [*]10. The Blind Owl [*]11. [*]12. [*]13. [*]14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read) [*]15. [*]16. [*]17. A play [*]18. [*]19. [*]20. [*]21. [*]22. [s] A mystery [*]23. 10% Rereads 12/109 [*]24. "Old Books" 7/109 [/list] Too long since my last update... 72-74 Sandman Volumes 1-3 Being a person who enjoys a good comic book every now and then, I've never sat down and read any Sandman. It was always one of those books with a ton of hype, but when I'd flip through it, I'd be rather unimpressed with what I saw. Having read the first three volumes, I really enjoyed it. I like that, instead of one large narrative that spans from volume to volume, it is a bunch of little stories. I am anxious to keep going, but it will most likely be a matter of when i come across them in the used bookstores. 75. Lee Child: Nothing to Lose: This particular book slowed me down. As far as a Reacher books goes, it was fine. Yet I had a hard time getting through it as an audiobook. In the end, it was a fine story, but there wasn't much special about it. 76. Michael Connelly - Trunk Music: Having started to read/listen to Connelly novels, I really, really enjoy them. They're quick, well written police procedurals. Probably my favorite series of the bunch. This sorta go me onto a string of Connelly novels. 77 - Richard Kadrey - Devil Said Bang: I totally skipped book three of the series, and did this one instead. I am thankful because now it means I don't have to read book 3, because these are all utter crap. Had they not been on sale on the Kindle store - I'd not have wasted the time.money. Avoid like the plague. 78 - Michael Connelly - Angel's Flight: another Harry Bosch novel. Solid police procedural writing. Enjoyable when you need a brain break. 79- 81 Michael Connelly - The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal - Having enjoyed the police procedural novels as much as I did, i decided to give Connelly's lawyer books a shot too. I loved them. I guess this is the year of my enjoyment of Michael Connelly books. If you dig legal thriller, these are among my favorite. 82 - John Grishman - The Confession - my enjoyment of legal thrillers didn't extend beyond Connelly. The Confession is an interesting book, but it just lacked the same speed and punch of the Mickey Haller books. As far as Grishman goes, it was interesting. A bit more realistic I suppose, but not as much fun. 83 - Patricia Cornwell - The Bone Bed: absolute and utter garbage. I've not read any of her other books, but I get the feeling that she's just trying to make a buck at this point. 84 - Dean Koontz - Shadowfires: I found a rare, illustrated edition of this book which was why I picked it up. I had to justify the cost by actually reading it. It is pretty standard 80's Dean Koontz. Techno/Mad Science/Horror without the god references or redemption. If you were to summarize Koontz's work at the time, Shadowfires would be what that summary looks like. 85 - John Connolly - Every Dead Thing: Did this on my Kindle and it took a long time because I read the Kindle before bed, and I just didn't have the time/energy to read much. While there are things about the book I liked, the biggest problem I had was that this was almost like two books jammed together. Connolly wanted the character to accomplish certain things in his first outing, and it just feels crammed and rushed. 86 - Mike Carey - The Devil You Know: A really solid bit of urban fantasy. I like how, for the most part, it kept things simple. Too many times to the writers of these books try to cram in a TON of supernatural stuff. This just focuses on ghosts, and it worked really well. 87-88 Michael Connelly - The Fifth Witness & The Gods of Guilt : the other two Connelly lawyer books. Just as good as the first three. I couldn't help myself. 89: Shane Kuhn - The Intern's Handbook: A fun and interesting little book about assassins. Not terribly realistic, but a light, fun read. 90-91 Michael Connelly; A Darkness more Than Night, City of Bones: The first one probably my least favorite Connelly book. He tries to jam characters from different books together, and it just didn't work as well. City of Bones was good.. but it is pretty much the first season of the TV show in book form. 92: Nick Cutter: The Deep: THE TROOP was awesome. This one was less awesome. It's basically Michael Crichton's "SPHERE" mixed with that Hellraiser in Space movie. Cutter will have some great things to offer in the future, but he's not quite there yet. 93 - Ben Winters: Bed Bugs: A confused mess of a book that isn't sure if it wants to be a visceral horror novel, or a psychological thriller. It ends up being a mess, but it was well timed as our little one brought home bed bugs from preschool right about that time. 94 - Jo Nesbo - The Leopard: I wanted to expand my police procedural reading around a bit. I like the Nesbo books, they have a very distinct feel. Perhaps it is because of how they are translated, but they come across as really quite dense though. 95 - michael Connelly - Lost light: more Harry Bosch. 96: Lee Child : Gone Tomorrow - more typical Jack Reacher, but a bit more exciting than the last one. 97 Tony Hillerman : The Blessing Way - I've heard good things about this guy and his books, but this one just didn't really work for me. 98: Stephen King - The Dark Half: Of all of the King books, this was one that stuck with me the least, having read it as a kid. I gave it a re-read. It is far from one of my favorites. I appreciate how it doesn't try to explain too much, its just not a strong book. 99 & 100: Jurassic Park & The Lost World : after seeing Jurassic World, the bug bit me. I gave them a re-read. I was surprised to see how strongly different the books and films were. The books are far more complex, and rely on these concepts of scientific theory. It was almost like the dinosaurs were afterthoughts to the bigger ideas that Crichton wanted to present. 101-102 Janet Evanovich: 16 & 17. These books really, really, really aren't good. They barely qualify as stories. But they make the drive to work each morning a little quicker, and they have a few amusing bits. it's like watching a cartoon. If you expect things of consequence to happen, you'd be disappointing. 103: Jeff Strand: Dweller - This book rips your guts out. In some ways it has a lot in common with those Boy and His dog novels, but in other regards it is this horrific story about a guy who ruins his own life. Strand has a way of writing that really hits you in the guts, He pulls no punches, and nobody is ever safe. It has the heart of Harry and the Hendersons, but at the same time it packs the same punch as the best horror novels. 104 - John Steinbeck: Travels with Charlie: I love Steinbeck, and I seem to enjoy books about travel. This one was a decent, solid read, but it didn't really stand out and impress the way Steinbeck usually does for me. 105 - Michael Connelly - The Narrows: another Harry Bosch novel. It isn't bad, but it is weakened slightly again, by trying to cram in characters from other books with Connelly's flagship character. To much tying up of loose ends. 106 - Jefferey Deaver: Solitude Creek: Jeffery Deaver never dissapoints! Really good mystery/detective thriller. other books.... I need to update more frequently... Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone Handling the Undead Armada - Ernest Cline Cold Granite Stuart Macbride Second Hand Souls Christopher Moore Deadline - John Sandford (somehow my numbers got all screwed up.. i should be at 109) I know I won't complete the entire challenge, but I have a few things lined up for A PLAY, HISTORY. at least. I gotta find a cheap copy of the WILDCARD I was given (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). I will have few weeks off for Christmas, and will break those out then.
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# ? Nov 28, 2015 18:11 |
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The blind owl is long?
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# ? Nov 28, 2015 22:52 |
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Roydrowsy posted:72-74 Sandman Volumes 1-3 [...] I like that, instead of one large narrative that spans from volume to volume, it is a bunch of little stories. It's sort of... both, really. There's a definite long-term story arch which comes to a conclusion (and it's one motherfucker of a conclusion); there's a lot of short and medium-sized stories which fit inside the framework of that arch.
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 18:43 |
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Stravinsky posted:The blind owl is long? Sometimes you might need to think about words while you read it and this artificially lengthens the book >.<
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# ? Nov 29, 2015 22:31 |
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November update: John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Mindy Kaling - Why Not Me? Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams Slow month, I have been doing 2 jobs at work since mid-October and when I do get free time I generally spent it playing Fallout 4 this month, so... either way, I have completed the ~*~ BOOKLORD CHALLENGE ~*~ which is great. I will definitely participate again next year. A Confederacy of Dunces was hilarious and I am glad it came up on a list of 'absurdist' books because it pushed me to read it. Mindy Kaling's book was something I read on the bus to work, it was just popcorn. The King collection is probably his worst short story collection, avoid it unless you're like me and read basically everything he puts out anyway. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 04:58 |
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Female authors: 21/24 Non-fiction: 12/12 Goodreads. This month I read two good books, two bad books, and one that wasn't particularly good but was quite enjoyable. And I'm still behind on my target, so hopefully I'll read a lot more than usual next month. I read Emma because I heard it was funny. And it is funny, but in a way that sometimes swings around to irritating. I really liked Emma herself though, and I liked the way it was shown how different people had different interpretations of events and motives. I wasn't keen on the ending though, with Emma's meddling in Harriet's life essentially excused by everything coincidentally turning out fine. It feels like she got away with that one where she really shouldn't have. But overall it was very enjoyable. I'd put off reading Crossfire for ages, because I've got low expectations for sci-fi, but it turned out to be really good. Good characters, believable technology, engaging story that never feel forced or like anything is thrown in out of nowhere as a convenient way to keep the plot moving. Maids of Misfortune is a decent mystery with pretty good characters and a solution that makes sense and fits the facts. The only real problem is that it's a bit too easy to figure out, so the story starts to drag a bit towards the end when you're just waiting for the characters to catch on, and there's a sort of B plot about the protagonist's financial issues that really should have been cut, I think. But I mostly enjoyed it. To Be or Not To Be was OK, I guess, but North's writing gets pretty grating, and the book is not nearly as funny as it thinks it is. The real stand-out this month though was The Culling. For a start, it's just really carelessly written. It contradicts itself all over the place (like one chapter mentioning a wolf attack and then a later chapter mentioning that wolves are extinct) and the author seems to use a lot of words incorrectly. It tries to keep your attention by just not explaining things, so if you want to understand what's happening you have to keep reading. The protagonist doesn't really do anything to advance the story (and is actually a prisoner for most of it). But all that is nothing compared with the creepiness of the setting. Earth has been taken over by blue-skinned mind-controlling lizard aliens who keep humans as pets - and have sex with them. The protagonist is constantly menaced by the possibility of being raped (by humans and aliens alike) and much is made of her attractiveness (apparently to lizard aliens as much as humans). The aliens are also known to eat humans, and make humans fight to the death for their entertainment. The only thing separating this from weird self-published Kindle porn is that there's no actual sex in it, but I got the impression the author probably has a second version rectifying that.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 08:35 |
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November update! 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (44/45) oliven posted:Currently reading Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams. 42. Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams: A collection of 26 video game related short stories by various authors. The majority of the stories had a sort of virtual reality "what is real, what isn't" theme and eventually it got pretty stale. A couple of the stories were downright bad but there were a few gems as well. 43. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn: I'm having a bit of a hard time making my mind up about this one. It's supposed to be a fantasy novel set in feudal Japan, but pretty much all the Japanese elements are terribly inaccurate (and sometimes insulting). There was a romance subplot that was straight up dumb. But ignoring those two things, I kind of really liked it? 44. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith: J.K. Rowling's first crime novel. I've seen some criticism regarding Rowling's language being unnatural or whatever, but I didn't really mind it. An enjoyable read for me. Currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 09:03 |
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Stravinsky posted:The blind owl is long? Yeah that threw me a bit too. That was a short book, and even if its thematic density made it take longer that its length would indicate, it still didn't take long to read. EDIT: let's do an update here even though I probably haven't read that many books since the last one. PREVIOUSLY READ: 1. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (reread) 2. The Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko 3. Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi 4. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller 5. The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero 6. The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss 7. Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer 8. The Martian by Andy Weir 9. Falstaff by Robert Nye 10. A Boy and his Dog by Harlan Ellison 11. Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst 12. One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak 13. The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat 14. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie 15. Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson 16. The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France 17. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi 18. The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster 19. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 20. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy 21. Inventing Human Rights: A History by Lynn Hunt 22. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris 23. The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman 24. The Human Division by John Scalzi 25. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi 26. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick 27. The Android's Dream by John Scalzi 28. The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley 29. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 30. The End of All Things by John Scalzi NEWLY COMPLETED: 31. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers Shamelessly copied from the Just Finished thread, with a minor addition: What a sad, gorgeous book. For real, though, it is crushingly sad - even when actively depressing events aren't happening, there's just such a pervasive sense of loneliness (duh, it's in the title) and not fitting in that weighs on all the characters. However, the characters we follow are all basically good people trying to live their lives, which alleviates it a bit. I loved how Singer, the character whom all the others look up to and project their own ideas onto, not only has his own inner life and problems, but also projects his own desires onto Antonapoulos, who, like Singer to the other characters, simply listens to Singer and gives vague responses. In a book about misfits trapped in their own lives, it's a compelling (and, again, loving sad) parallel. 32. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Shakespeare, so obviously I'm not gonna say anything here that hasn't been said a trillion times and better, but this is just a really hilarious little play. Puck loving rules. 33. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler Also from the Just Finished thread: The plot was fun and you can definitely see how many stories following this novel ripped it off wholesale. I loved the style; it reads like a parody of the genre to me because of how thoroughly it's been mined by this point, but the language is exceptionally good - it's not, like, hyper-eloquent like McCarthy or anything, but that wouldn't fit the tone of the book anyway so the evocative simplicity is enjoyable to read and supports the narrative. Honestly, the bits that put me off the most were the pervasive sexism and homophobia. Normally I guess I'd handwave it away with "those were the times," but it's hard to do that right after The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, an incredibly progressive novel that was published just a year after this one. Of course, it's also possible that the protagonist isn't supposed to be taken as a great moral authority (he covers up a murder to continue working his case and is pretty consistently described as unpleasant, both by other characters and in dialogue tags and such - "I grinned nastily," for example), but that's an iffy proposition when sexism and homophobia are prevalent even today and the 30's/40's certainly weren't better. Oh well, it was still quite enjoyable! But that definitely put a damper on it. 34. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey Nicely paced space opera with some tangential examination of the theme of information accessibility. The writing is alright - nothing really spectacular but it doesn't get in the way. My main complaint is that some of the early character development (mostly for Miller) is a little jumpy, but it smooths out as the book goes on. Definitely interested in seeing where the series goes from the end of this book. CURRENTLY READING: I'm still reading Stelle di Cannella, which I really just have to sit down and commit to. I look up words constantly because even though I understand the greater part of the meaning and could certainly follow the plot if I just plowed through, but I'd also like to learn more Italian vocabulary while reading. Unfortunately, this means that it's not really something that I can read on my commute, so next weekend I'm making it my mission to get really into it. Started Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells yesterday. About 15% done and very much enjoying it. BOOKLORD CHALLENGE: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books (45) in a year - 34 so far! 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. An essay 7. A collection of poetry 8. Something post-modern 9. Something absurdist 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Something banned or censored (IN PROGRESS: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood) 21. 22. REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am. Mahlertov Cocktail fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Nov 30, 2015 |
# ? Nov 30, 2015 12:30 |
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:33. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 15:21 |
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Prolonged Shame posted:1) The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory November: 92) High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed - Michael Kodas: I found the subject matter of this book fascinating, but I wish the author had organized it differently. It was difficult trying to follow all the different stories he was jumping around to in the course of each chapter. If each one had been given it's own section it would have flowed better. Still, a good read. There are lots of assholes on Everest. 93) The Other Queen - Philippa Gregory: Not as bad as some of the other ones, but you get three character POV's, and each one does nothing but repeat themselves nonstop throughout the book. Finally, at the end you get a little character development. 94) The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch: I loved this. I loved the world he built and the characters within it. I wish I'd picked this up sooner. 95) The Dakota Cipher - William Dietrich: This was ok. The story seems to be meandering a bit, and there is no good reason literally every female character the main character meets wants to sleep with him (other than author wish fulfillment) but overall it is a fun series. 96) In the Unlikely Event - Judy Blume: I loved Judy Blume growing up, and have enjoyed some of ther other adult novels, but this one just missed the mark for me. It has it's moments, bur ultimately I think it was spread too thin over many character POV's, to the point that it was hard to keep track of who was who. 97) The Johnstown Flood - David McCullough: An account of a deadly flood in early 1900's Pennsylvania. This got off to a really slow start, but once it picked up it was quite good. 98) Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World - Rosalind Miles: I was disappointed by this one. It was good, but I was expecting an actual history of women through the ages and the awesome things they did, both as individuals and as a gender, despite being almost universally oppressed. This was more a list of the oppressions women have endured in various times and places with very small (like, 2 paragraph) anecdotes of awesome, interesting historical women. Not bad, just not what I was looking for. 99) Being Nixon: A Man Divided - Evan Thomas: This was great. It gave a really complete picture of who Nixon was as a person, rather than just a listing of his public successes and failures like the last two presidential bios I read. 100) The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World - Michael Pollan: A short history of four plants whose destiny is intertwined with that of humankind: apples, tulips, cannabis, and potatoes. A great read. 101) Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped him Save Lives in WWII - Vicki Croke: The true story of 'Elephant' Bill Williams, who started as an employee of a Teak company in colonial Burma and developed a love for elephants. Wonderful, charming book. Total: 101/100 Done with the official goal! Presidential bios: 11/12 Last one for the year (Ford) is in progress. Non Fiction barring prez bios: 25/25 Done!
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 17:58 |
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Tiggum posted:Marlowe definitely isn't supposed to be taken as a moral authority. In his world there really aren't any innocents, everyone is corrupted to some degree and the best you can do is to sometimes avoid compromising yourself or your values more than you can stand. True, but then categorizing gay people as "corrupted" is pretty lovely. Note: this is never stated directly, but Marlowe makes several nasty jokes/comments that make the position clear, and nobody contradicts him. Again, those were the times, whatever, but it didn't make those little jabs any less uncomfortable to read.
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 18:12 |
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For challenge suggestions, maybe reread a book you read for school as a kid? I know some people aren't into rereads but I always find it interesting to go back to books years later and see how my understanding and opinion of them has changed. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am. Have you read If on a winter's night a traveler?
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 22:06 |
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:REQUEST: Could someone/several someones recommend me books for post-modern and absurdist categories? Preferably on the shorter side, considering how far behind on the quantitative challenge I am. Post Modern: Crying of Lot 49, Agape Agape Absurdist: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Metamorphosis
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# ? Nov 30, 2015 23:23 |
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Radio! posted:For challenge suggestions, maybe reread a book you read for school as a kid? I know some people aren't into rereads but I always find it interesting to go back to books years later and see how my understanding and opinion of them has changed. I have not! Absurdist or postmodern? Guy A. Person posted:Post Modern: Crying of Lot 49, Agape Agape I read Crying of Lot 49 last year and it's fantastic, but I haven't read Agape Agape so I'll check it out. Read both of the absurdist recs in high school, but they could certainly do with revisiting. Thanks a lot to both of you!
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:30 |
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:I have not! Absurdist or postmodern? Postmodern. Also excellent.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:42 |
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Radio! posted:Postmodern. Also excellent. Sounds good. Added it to my list!
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 00:46 |
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I enjoyed Carpenters Gothic as well, it's fairly short and post-modern.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 05:57 |
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My reading has slowed way down, and I think I've figured out why. In the warmer months, I'd take my son out to the park in the afternoon and read while he played. These days, it's cold -- and more importantly, dark -- pretty much as soon as I get home from work. I'm only one book away from finishing the Challenge, though -- a collection of poetry. The temptation is to read something by Service or Kipling, since of all the poets I was forced to read in school they're the only ones I enjoyed more than not, but the challenge is all about branching out, so maybe I'll read something completely new to me. I know my wife is a big fan of E.E. Cummings and has a collection of his work on her shelves; maybe I'll read that. Booklord Challenge Update posted:1. 94/96 books read; 16 nonfiction (17%), 26 rereads (28%) 90. The New Space Opera edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan A mixed bag, and more miss than hit, honestly. My favourite was probably Who's Afraid of Wolf 359? by Ken MacLeod; what I've read of his novels didn't do much for me, but I really liked this. The low point was -- unsurprisingly -- Muse of Fire by Dan Simmons. Like Hyperion, he spends so much time pointing out that he's read the classics that he forgets to do anything else. 91. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien A semi-autobiographical collection of short stories about the Vietnam War. Powerful stuff. Also prompted me to do some reading on the war, which I knew almost nothing about -- it's not really covered in Canadian history classes, or wasn't when I was in school. 92. Ancillary Justice 93. Ancillary Sword 94. Ancillary Mercy I can see why everyone loves these. This year has involved a lot of books ranging from "meh" to "it's ok, I guess", but very few that I greatly enjoyed and was hugely enthusiastic about. These are in the latter category. I think I actually liked Ancillary Sword the most overall, although my favourite individual scenes were in Justice (specifically, the bits where Justice of Toren is carrying on multiple conversations at once and the narrative is interleaving all of them). They're all great, though. I also finished The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg this month, but I'm pushing that writeup to next month when I can discuss it along with its sequels.
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# ? Dec 1, 2015 11:51 |
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November update, and a slow progress wrt booklord challenges. I do ahve a history book ready, but I really need to start finding an essay of sorts to read during December. 5. History - Finn Olstad (a book about the norwegian working class) 6. An essay - 1. Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami 2. Pinball 1974, Haruki Murakami 3. On The Beach, Neil Shute 4. Collected Poems by Per Sivle 5. History of the Siege of Lisbon, José Saramago 6. Wayfarers, Knut Hamsun 7. The Seed, Tarjei Vesaas 8. Morning and Evening, Jon Fosse 9. The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro, Fernando Pessoa 10. Doktor Faustus, Thomas Mann 11. Collection of poems, Gabriela Mistral 12. Doctor Glas, Hjalmar Söderberg 13. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez 14. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino 15. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon 16. Road to the Worl'd End, Sigurd Hoel 17. The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem 18. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad 19. The Clown, Heinrich Böll 20. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Lev Tolstoy 21. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev 22. A Theatrical Novel, Mikhail Bulgakov 23. Sleepless, Jon Fosse 24. Woodcutters, Thomas Bernhard 25. Confusion of Feelings, Stefan Zweig 26. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Heinrich Böll 27. The Elephant's Jurney, José Saramago 28. Shyness and Dignity, Dag Solstad 29. Krysantemum, Rune Christiansen 30. The Feast of the Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa 31. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 32. The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan 33. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera 34. Homo Faber, Max Frisch 35. Not Art, Péter Esterházy 36. Faust, Ivan Turgenev 37. Selected Poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley 38. The Russian Master and Other Stories, Anton Chekhov 39. Vinternoveller, Ingvild H. Rishøi 40. The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector 41. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor 42. Om høsten, Karl Ove Knausgård 43. Three Women, Sylvia Plath 44. Furuset, Linn Strømsborg 45. Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public, Kjell Askildsen 46. Rue des Boutiques obscures, Patrick Modiano 47. Herztier, Herta Müller 48. On Overgrown Paths, Knut Hamsun 49. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett 50. Rambuku, Skuggar: Two plays, Jon Fosse 51. Submission, Michel Houellebecq 52. Alone, August Strindberg 53. Life a User's Manual, Georges Perec 54. Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard 54/40 I'll edit in my thoughts about the books later tonight. Kierkegaard in particular is a rather tough nut to crack right now. Right. The books. Rambuku, Skuggar (Rambuku and Shadows) are two plays by Jon Fosse, with a common theme of uncertainty and possibly death. They both take place in a nondescribed place, and the important aspect of the plays are the common relations between the characters. Emotional, in a very dead-pan way, and also strongly existensial at certain points. Well worth a read (and maybe even a watch should anyone get a chance). Submission was a book that has gotten a, if not bad, then at least undeserved rap. I went into it nearly expecting a very anti-islamist story, akin to France in a sort of greater Eurabia. Instead what I got was a book dealing with hedonism, sex, a bit of critique of Academia and a protagonist reflecting himself through Joris-Karl Huysmans. Within it there were of course some commentary on Islam, but it was mostly innocent, and mostly very superficial and shallow. It seemed to me that the title was more about an individual himself submitting to a higher power, than, say, society submitting itself before militant extremism. I still have no idea why Knausgård went so far as to call Houellebecq a genius though. Alone, a Novella about a unnamed protag who feels sort of complacent with being alone. He spends a great deal talking about the difference between being alone and loneliness. Life a User's Manual was probably the most interesting book I read (completed) this month. The premise is that a painter wants to paint a portrait of a fictious block in Paris. The story, or rather, the book, leaps between the different flats (including the stairway, cellar and loft) according to the movement pattern of the knight in chess. Within it there's also a few parallell stories that centres around some of the people living in that block. The most captivating are the one about Bartlebooth, another about a down-on-his-luck doctor who tried his luck as an academic, and a judge and his wife who uses petty thefts as a way to spice up their sexlife. The novel constantly blurs the line between fiction and reality, as well. Everyone should read this at least once. Well, on to the most difficult bit so far, Fear and Trembling. This is probably the longest I spent reading a 140 page long book, but I couldn't imagine reading this in one go either. What I think Kierkegaard attempts to do here is to first try to define what faith, to the degree that Abraham exhibited, really is. Then whether or not Abraham's actions could ever be judged by "common" or "ordinary" concepts like ethics, and whehter or not there's a "duty to God". What it seemed like he was going for, is that religious faith is kind of a paradox, or something absurd in a way, in that the Self gets elevated to something higher than the ordinary, but at the same time remains absolutely ordinary. He creates (or discusses) a concept called Knight of Faith, which he puts in a dialectic contrast to the tragic hero (both of which are explained at length and in depth). Where the individual becomes this Knight by the movement of eternity, where they first resign completely and wholly from something (or someone) they love, but at the same time places absolute faith that, because God wills it, they will not lose it. And this absurdity, in itself, makes it impossible to understand the story of Abraham through concepts like ethics and right/wrong, because it presupposes that what drives him is his own volition and lust (for lack of a better word on my part). Where the tragic hero can choose to abort in order to save Isaac, or tell him what is about to happen, Abraham, as the Knight of Faith, cannot. Because he has already performed this resignation of Eternity, and have already both accepted that this is what he has to do unto God, but at the same time has complete faith in that, if God wills it, he will be with Isaac (in one form or another) later on. This also makes it impossible for someone to really understand his story, due to the paradoxical nature of it. I might have to read this book a few times more later on, I admit. But it was quite an interesting, albeit challenging, read nevertheless. ulvir fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Dec 1, 2015 |
# ? Dec 1, 2015 16:04 |
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November. 66. Cloud Atlas. David Mitchell. Some of the stories were kind of bad, mediocre in general... but I still liked it for some reason. 67. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This book felt like it was trying too hard. It's short, thankfully. 68. I Shall Wear Midnight. Terry Pratchett. The best Aching story. Great characters too, even the ones we thought one-dimensional for a moment. 69. Amberville. Tim Davys. Noir gone weird. Some twist were kind of unexpected, but it didn't had much to the story. 70. The Gods Themselves. Isaac Asimov. Three connected stories, one bad, one great, one regular. Good in average. 71. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper. Robert Bloch. Weird short story, I'm not sure if it was predictable or completely bonkers. 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year: 71/60 2. Read a female author: Jojo Moyes and others. 3. The non-white author: Khaled Hosseini and others. 4. Philosophy: Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 5. History: Monsters and Demons, Charlotte Montague. 6. An essay: Unless It Moves the Human Heart: The Craft and Art of Writing, Roger Rosenblatt. 7. A collection of poetry 8. Something post-modern: Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk. 9. Something absurdist 10. The Blind Owl (Free translation if your ok with reading on a screen or cant find a copy!) 11. Something on either hate or love: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver. 12. Something dealing with space: Transition, Iain M. Banks. 13. Something dealing with the unreal: Los mentales, Pgarcía. 14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read): Amberville, by Tim Davys. 15. Something published this year or the past three months: Mitos y Leyendas. Muy Interesante. 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time: Harry Potter and the Magician's Stone,J.K. Rowling. 17. A play 18. Biography: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet 19. The color red: Red 1-2-3, John Katzenbach. 20. Something banned or censored: Burmese Days, George Orwell. 21. Short story(s): Burning Chrome, William Gibson. 22. A mystery: The Prefect. Alastair Reynolds. Discworld challenge 38/41
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 05:20 |
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Mr. Squishy posted:1 One Third of a Nation by Arthur Arent and others. A play exploring the dire housing situation in depression-era New York. Agit-prop long past its sell by date but still fascinating, mostly for being in such a foreign style. (17) 58 The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg as translated by John and Ann Tedeschi. Short work of, I guess, pophi about a medieval miller prosecuted for heresy because he believed that God and the Angels emerged from the chaos of unformed world like worms emerge from cheese. Ginzburg is tilting against concepts of high and low culture by tracing how scholarly works found their way into the hands of this labourer. But mostly I read it because he manages to resurrect a likable weirdo. I'm classing this as history as time's running out. 5 59 Victory by Joseph Conrad. The interactions between Lena and Axel really stood out for me this read round. 60 The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad. Chapter 11 was really painful to read. 1 61 Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad. For people who think Conrad's really verbose and slow moving, this is the collection for you! because it'd 100% confirm your notions. The intricacies are good if you've got the time to take them in. 62 The Egoist by George Meredith. Really weird book, like a beefy Thomas Love Peacock, I guess. Feels sort of out of its time as well. 57/60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
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# ? Dec 2, 2015 11:09 |
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November! 116. City on Fire - Garth Risk Hallberg 117. Voyager (Outlander #3) - Diana Gabaldon 118. White Night (Dresden #9) - Jim Butcher 119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling 120. Shadows of Self (Mistborn #5) - Brandon Sanderson 121. Mystic River - Dennis Lehane 122. The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett 123. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra 124. The Red and the Black - Stendhal 125. Small Favor (Dresden #10) - Jim Butcher 126. Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1) - Robin Hobb 127. Freakanomics - Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner 128. The Winter of our Discontent - John Steinbeck Well, it turns out having a kid still allows you to read a good bit, especially if you take two weeks of PTO and he sleeps most of the time. Granted, a lot of what I read this month was light and fluffy - nothing too dense - but I did get a good bit read. The best book (which I read MOSTLY in October, but finished in November) was City on Fire, which is a 900-page behemoth about New York in the 70s. It follows several somewhat interlinked characters in their lives before the big NYC blackout of 77. While the trope of "here are some people who are vaguely related to each other but you'll see they are more closely connected than you'd expect!!" is overdone a lot, I really enjoyed this book. The story and characters were solid, and there were some interesting interstitials between sections - one a Rolling-Stone-esque article, another a letter from a father to his son, another a 'zine on the music scene of NYC - that gave the book some interesting variety. It's a well-hyped book, sure, but the hype was deserved. Another "here are some people, look how they're subtly intertwined!" book that turned out to be good was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, which followed three main characters in Chechnya from 1997-2004. Wonderful writing, and the way the plot came together reminded me a bit of Catch-22 - you'd catch something near the end that would explain everything you weren't catching before. ("Oh, so THAT happened to him...") A good month!
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# ? Dec 3, 2015 17:51 |
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November - 6: The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) Medea and Other Plays (Euripides) Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates) Ringworld (Larry Niven) Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty) Saturday's Shadows (Ayesha Haruna Attah) The Alchemist sure was a book huh. It was nice in the way a soft pillow is nice - it's pleasant and warm and makes you feel good but ultimately there's not much to it. I read Medea in school and I think we were supposed to study Electra as well but I never bothered because I was a really lazy student. I picked this up partly with the challenge in mind but also because I wanted to read the play again and explore the other ones in this collection (Medea, Hecabe, Electra and Heracles). It was cool to revisit something I really liked and remember how good ancient Greek theatre can be. Between the World and Me was loving incredible. I had it on my desk and thought I'd read a few pages to see how it went; ten minutes later I'd moved downstairs and onto the sofa so I could read it all in one go. It's lucid, intelligent and deeply, deeply angry. I liked Ringworld but I have absolutely no desire to read the follow-up series. The Ringworld is a cool idea, and I liked that Niven committed to the aliens being genuinely alien. I felt like the whole "breeding for luck" thing got kind of stupid pretty quickly though, and from reading the Wiki summaries of the follow-ups it seems like all the cool unexplained stuff which gives this book an air of mystery has been merrily filled in in excruciating detail which would ruin it. Capital is a big fucker. It's about as readable as it can be for what is a long piece of barely-pop economics. The ideas it suggests pose a pretty negative situation for the future and I only hope things don't work out as Piketty predicts, but I also can't see why they wouldn't. One thing which bugged me with the translation was that whatever the French was, hundreds of sentences started with "To be sure" which made it all weirdly Irish in tone. This was also my "sat on the shelf for a long time" book - I bought it when it came out, and it's taken me until now to finally convince myself to read it. Saturday's Shadows was alright. I feel like the best adjective for it is "competent" - there's a story told, the various pieces are moved around in a way which hangs together properly, and the various pieces intersect at the end. The book sketches out its barely-disguised Ghana effectively and builds a good feel for the place it's describing. Despite that it doesn't really manage to connect with anything; it all feels a bit light weight. A fine debut novel, but I'd hope Attah gets better. With the last two categories out of the way my booklord challenge is complete. Happy days. I'll probably hit 60 books for the year and may even top that, too. Year to Date: 56 01. The Establishment: And how they get away with it (Owen Jones) 02. Mussolini and Fascist Italy (Martin Blinkhorn) 03. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) 04. All You Need is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka) 05. Theft: A Love Story (Peter Carey) 06. Stalin (Kevin McDermott) 07. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) 08. Revenge (Yoko Ogawa) 09. The Good Soldier Svejk and his Fortunes in the Great War (Jaroslav Hasek) 10. The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro) 11. after the quake (Haruki Murakami) 12. The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett) 13. The Light Fantastic (Terry Pratchett) 14. The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope and Survival in Theresienstadt (Hannelore Brenner) 15. Equal Rites (Terry Pratchett) 16. Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino) 17. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 (Anne Applebaum) 18. Running with the Kenyans (Adharanand Finn) 19. Notes from Underground and The Double (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 20. First Novel (Nicholas Royle) 21. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz) 22. Mort (Terry Pratchett) 23. Schlump (Hans Herbert Grimm) 24. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard) 25. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer) 26. The Last Kingdom (Bernard Cornwell) 27. The Pale Horseman (Bernard Cornwell) 28. Beauty and Sadness (Yasunari Kawabata) 29. The Blind Owl (Sadegh Hedayat) 30. The Lords of the North (Bernard Cornwell) 31. Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder) 32. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson) 33. Selected Poems (Edgar Allen Poe) 34. The Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seierstad) 35. Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela) 36. We (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 37. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) 38. The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) 39. MaddAddam (Margaret Atwood) 40. Sourcery (Terry Pratchett) 41. The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) 42. A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe) 43. Wyrd Sisters (Terry Pratchett) 44. 3 Novels (Cesar Aira) 45. American Rust (Philipp Meyer) 46. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (Justin Marozzi) 47. Union Man (Jack Jones) 48. The Smartest Guys in the Room (Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind) 49. Lord of the Flies (William Golding) 50. Pyramids (Terry Pratchett) 51. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) 52. Medea and Other Plays (Euripides) 53. Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates) 54. Ringworld (Larry Niven) 55. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty) 56. Saturday's Shadows (Ayesha Haruna Attah) Booklord categories: 1 - 22
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# ? Dec 4, 2015 17:32 |
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Hit my 52 books for the year but I don't think I made the SA challenge. Read too many white dudes.
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# ? Dec 7, 2015 09:40 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 08:13 |
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RedTonic posted:My latest three: So I ended up hitting a wall with Infinite Jest. Looks like I only got 16/24 read this year, but I feel like I'm forgetting a few.
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# ? Dec 7, 2015 16:02 |