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im reading no longer human by osamu dazai. it's really good if you just read natsume soseki's i am a cat but it wasn't existentialist enough
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May 12, 2024 20:04
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im gonna read that soon. and the soseki one, kokoro is incredible
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May 12, 2024 20:08
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kokoro was really really good
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May 12, 2024 20:08
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I'm reading The Tunnel by William H. Gass, a huge tome of a postmodern novel it took the author 26 years to write. It's slow going, but quite good, and funny too. It's about a history professor who completed his life's work about the causes and effects of Nazism in Germany and needs only to pen an introduction to it. He keeps writing on and on until he foes into his own life and the rage and bitterness consuming him, tunnelling into his own life's history before he begins digging a massive tunnel in his basement.
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May 12, 2024 20:10
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Years back recalled enjoying the Otherland series by Tad Williams so I gave audiobooks a try, not terrible but haven’t aged great & forgot how his slow pacing is absurd. Some elements like villains are still interesting but his predictions of a giant virtual world from mid-90s feel dated. Also doesn’t help the white author has two major clunky characters who are Aboriginal Black men, one the main villain with magic powers & the other constantly telling wise folktales. Bailed halfway into the first book. Wondered if part of the problem was I had already read so knew how it ended, so tried first Dragonbone Chair book by same author. Not a train wreck but again horribly slow paced so I bailed after ten hours when felt like we were still in the prologue, & I guessed wouldn’t be worth committing when the big bad is established as a villain by killing a puppy.
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May 12, 2024 22:29
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R.L. Stine posted:im reading no longer human by osamu dazai. it's really good if you just read natsume soseki's i am a cat but it wasn't existentialist enough I’ve read everything of dazai’s that has been translated. Strong recommend. So emo.
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May 12, 2024 22:45
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kntfkr posted:I’ve read everything of dazai’s that has been translated. Strong recommend. So emo. how about soseki
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May 12, 2024 22:46
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cumpantry posted:how about soseki I never read Soseki but probably will at some point. I wound up reading a lot of Dazai while living in Akita. Another translated book I really liked was Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. But my favorite translated into English from Japanese book is probably The Cape and other stories from the Japanese Ghetto by Kenji Nakagami. I wish more of his stuff was available in English.
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May 13, 2024 01:44
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kntfkr posted:Another translated book I really liked was Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. this has been on my radar a while now, good to know it's recommended here. kokoro was my introduction to japanese literature and for a very very long time it was my absolute favourite. i think now i'm finding out they're all kinda my favourite, you read one again and there's always wordplay you didn't notice before that leads you to a sudden awakening of something entirely new. really beautiful
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May 13, 2024 01:55
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From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple It's a history/travel book where the author loosely follows in the footsteps of 2 6th century byzantine monks through eastern Europe, Turkey and the middle east. Covers stuff about early christianity, the fall of Constantinople, the crusades and links it to what was going on in 1994 when it was written. I've read a bunch of Dalrymple's history books, he mostly writes about India, he's good. There's some very 1994 opinions in it though
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May 13, 2024 02:00
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I really like "Devil and the White City" It's about America's first known serial killer and the Chicago world's fair. About half way in I changed gears and no longer gave a poo poo about the serial killer. Yeah, ok, whatever, he is going to kill another woman, tell me more about how they hosed up building this city and how did they fix it? It sank twice?
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May 13, 2024 02:07
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Wondered if part of the problem was I had already read so knew how it ended, so tried first Dragonbone Chair book by same author. Not a train wreck but again horribly slow paced so I bailed after ten hours when felt like we were still in the prologue, & I guessed wouldn’t be worth committing when the big bad is established as a villain by killing a puppy. Thanks - I had a library hold on the audiobook after seeing it randomly in a list when browsing books. I definitely don't want to read about puppy death or have the patience for that kind of writing. I recently finished The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. It's set in Florida in 1950, and a 12 year old black boy is sent to a reformatory school for boys. It's a mix of a historical fiction with supernatural/horror elements and is loosely based on the author's family member who died in a notorious reformatory school in 1937. Really griping read, really great writing, but it's pretty brutal and bleak.
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May 13, 2024 07:05
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EoinCannon posted:From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple I've been listening to his podcast on Empires, and it has been pretty good, too
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May 13, 2024 08:35
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Samovar posted:I've been listening to his podcast on Empires, and it has been pretty good, too Didn't know about the podcast, I'll check it out, cheers!
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May 13, 2024 10:15
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Hyrax Attack! posted:Wondered if part of the problem was I had already read so knew how it ended, so tried first Dragonbone Chair book by same author. Not a train wreck but again horribly slow paced so I bailed after ten hours when felt like we were still in the prologue, & I guessed wouldn’t be worth committing when the big bad is established as a villain by killing a puppy. That was my experience with The Dragonbone Chair. It seemed like nothing ever happened. I'm reading The Forge of God by Greg Bear and I'm enjoying it. It's scifi that takes place (so far) on Earth in the 90's and I guess I'm an old man now because it's really comforting to read about people who still rent movies and can't imagine a cell phone being confronted with extra-terrestrials.
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May 13, 2024 14:35
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bigperm posted:It's scifi that takes place (so far) on Earth in the 90's and I guess I'm an old man now because it's really comforting to read about people who still rent movies and can't imagine a cell phone being confronted with extra-terrestrials. Honestly, that was enough to get me to check it out on a whim. I was vaguely aware of its basic premise, but I assumed it had a future setting. I really enjoy a good fantasy/scifi story that's set before the last two or three decades of tech advancements, it adds an interesting layer of nostalgia in that I can remember those days but it feels like such a different time before ubiquitous computers/internet/smartphones.
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May 13, 2024 21:26
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Enfys posted:Thanks - I had a library hold on the audiobook after seeing it randomly in a list when browsing books. I definitely don't want to read about puppy death or have the patience for that kind of writing. Yeah, it was the literary equivalent of a movie having a character slow walk in while Sympathy to the Devil plays (John Goodman excluded), zero faith in the audience or being able to wonder if he’s bad. bigperm posted:That was my experience with The Dragonbone Chair. It seemed like nothing ever happened. Oh yeah I’m not opposed to door stopper books but this is late career Turtledove word count padding. On a positive note, reread George RR Martin’s Tuf Voyaging series. Still a delight, odd hasn’t been adapted.
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May 14, 2024 03:57
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Lol, I've been enjoying Forge of God so I looked up other Greg Bear novels to see what might be next, and his top three most popular are all stories in the Halo vidyagame universe. Maybe they're perfectly fine, it's just always funny to see some existing property like that for an author I've always thought of as more, I dunno, highbrow? For his original books, Darwin's Children sounds most familiar, although that turns out to be a sequel itself. Guess I have more research to do on his books, I'm also open to suggestions too, if anyone has read his other stuff.
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May 15, 2024 20:47
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cumpantry posted:watch it after it's very strange It was very good. Will watch at some point. Now reading Valis
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May 15, 2024 20:48
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A Scanner Darkly is a really excellent movie. I liked the movie a whole lot more than the book, but I'm not a huge fan of PKD's writing and I am a huge fan of Richard Linklater so  Great rotoscoping and some excellent performances and Linklater was the perfect fit to direct it.
deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 20:54 on May 15, 2024 |
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May 15, 2024 20:52
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Captain Hygiene posted:Lol, I've been enjoying Forge of God so I looked up other Greg Bear novels to see what might be next, and his top three most popular are all stories in the Halo vidyagame universe. Maybe they're perfectly fine, it's just always funny to see some existing property like that for an author I've always thought of as more, I dunno, highbrow? I've read quite a lot of his stuff but most of them were my dad's, so I don't have many to hand I can flick through and remind myself of. I know I enjoyed his series about the Way, starting with Eon, though they do tail off as the series goes on. I remember Hull Zero Three being good, and I'm pretty sure I liked Moving Mars though I can't remember the rest of that series.
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May 15, 2024 21:13
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Captain Hygiene posted:Lol, I've been enjoying Forge of God so I looked up other Greg Bear novels to see what might be next, and his top three most popular are all stories in the Halo vidyagame universe. Maybe they're perfectly fine, it's just always funny to see some existing property like that for an author I've always thought of as more, I dunno, highbrow? i mean he's been around for a long time, my dad still has a ton of Greg Bear novels from the 70s through 90s, well before the idea of videogame novelizations existed. but i'd bet those Halo novels made him more money than the entire rest of his output, probably allowing him to retire in actual comfort
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May 15, 2024 23:10
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Oh for sure, and I've read way too many tie-ins over the years (especially Star Trek) to really look down on it, I just had to laugh when it popped up. And I appreciate the recommendations, I have a good place to start looking now 
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May 15, 2024 23:25
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I’m reading A Court of Thorns and Roses and it’s trash and I love it. Smut, faeries, terrible characters, clunky writing. It’s all here, folks.
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May 16, 2024 00:12
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i read the haunted vagina for a quick mindless add to my 2024 book goal when i was sick and it wasn't even the worst book so far
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May 16, 2024 01:19
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R.L. Stine posted:i read the haunted vagina for a quick mindless add to my 2024 book goal when i was sick and it wasn't even the worst book so far you don't have to make up books just to make a point, there's no way somebody published a book with that title. Right? ...Right?? edit: I stand profoundly corrected 
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May 16, 2024 03:51
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I haven't read that one, but I instantly knew which author it was 
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May 16, 2024 03:54
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Anyone read "The Parable of the Sower" and following books?
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May 19, 2024 00:24
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madmatt112 posted:you don't have to make up books just to make a point, there's no way somebody published a book with that title. Right? ...Right?? I own a book called "Rampaging Fuckers Of Everything On The Crazy making GBS threads Planet Of The Vomit Atmosphere." There's no title too dumb to be published.
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May 19, 2024 00:43
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redshirt posted:Anyone read "The Parable of the Sower" and following books? Butler owns. I like Kindred.
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May 20, 2024 02:03
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XeeD posted:I own a book called "Rampaging Fuckers Of Everything On The Crazy making GBS threads Planet Of The Vomit Atmosphere." There's no title too dumb to be published. Been five minutes workshopping a funny reply to this, but I honest to god have nothing to follow it.
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May 20, 2024 02:15
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madmatt112 posted:Been five minutes workshopping a funny reply to this, but I honest to god have nothing to follow it. Non British Dude Response
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May 20, 2024 02:27
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redshirt posted:Non British Dude Response I’m Canadian, so like… only a teensy bit British
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May 20, 2024 03:27
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I’m reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Last week I stayed in a 16th century palace in Lisbon for a night, it was the perfect setting for just sitting with some wine and reading that book. Highly recommended.
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May 20, 2024 15:07
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"Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous" https://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Hoaxer-Whistleblower-Spy-Faces/dp/1781689830 Currently going into stuff about wikileaks and Assange, the discovery of botnets around the world in the early 2000s and the use of DDOS for digital activism. This also made me laugh.  Something Awful: Good posts through ridicule. TheMostFrench fucked around with this message at 09:40 on May 21, 2024 |
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May 21, 2024 06:05
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Reading through The Vampire Lestat and I really want to gently caress the Vampire Lestat.
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May 21, 2024 13:58
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Archer666 posted:Reading through The Vampire Lestat and I really want to gently caress the Vampire Lestat.
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May 21, 2024 14:33
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Archer666 posted:Reading through The Vampire Lestat and I really want to gently caress the Vampire Lestat. hell yeah
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May 21, 2024 14:34
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*self-described as exceptionally smart,
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May 21, 2024 15:06
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Archer666 posted:Reading through The Vampire Lestat and I really want to gently caress the Vampire Lestat. I was gonna reply that yeah they start getting extra horny with that one, then I checked and it is the second one lol I read them up to Merrick in high school
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May 21, 2024 22:11
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