|
Stravinsky posted:... There appear to be a few translations available for the book. Is there one you prefer/would recommend?
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2015 06:07
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:29 |
|
|
January Update. This year I'm going to do a month off/month on with the genre trash I like to read, starting (mostly) with a month off. The booklord has presented a challenge and who would I be to not participate.
1. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (yes, it is a low effort entry for "The color red".) The book is littered with verbose descriptions of everything the author can possibly describe, broken up only by the most heavy-handed symbolism he could conjure. 2-3. The Fellowship of the Ring & The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien (We were doing a big "Tolkien-Fest" on the podcast I host to celebrate the last of the Peter Jackson Middle-Earth movies, so I read what I could before the episodes.) The biggest thing about the fellowship that surprised me was the way the story is set up it lacks almost any sense of urgency. The descriptions of decades of living in the shire, the detailed descriptions of day after day of wilderness travel, the story slamming to a halt at Tom Bombadil's house, and the fact that when they stop anywhere they stay for an entire season. While all of it does add to the scope of the tale, it kills any momentum the story could build up. 4. Moby Dick by Herman Melville I honestly thought the whole "Whale encyclopedia" thing was just a commentary on the dry nature of the book. Turns out half of the book is an encyclopedia on whales and whaling. It reads like someone's first year NaNoWriMo story, with huge sections of padding that completely destroy the flow of the narrative. Speaking of the narrative, the beginning was really enjoyable, Melville does a great job making you feel the Nantucket winter while he waits for his ship to come in, and the last third of the story part of the book is exciting and does a great job depicting Ahab's madness, but I feel the middle third drags considerably. Would I recommend it? Yes, but I'd recommend finding an abridged that omits the encyclopedia. 5. Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative I liked it. I think the version I read was originally published in the 1930's, so I might have to search for a more up to date translation at some point. 6. The Autobiography and Other Writings by Benjamin Franklin A fascinating read. The autobiography benefits tremendously from being written as a letter to his son, as the conversational tone makes it easy to read and gives you a sense of Ben Franklin as a person. The back half of the book is selected writings of Franklin's on a variety of topics from family life to science to diplomacy. I'd heartily recommend this. 7. Paradise Lost by John Milton For the most part I enjoyed it, though I would have to say that Michael becoming the Archangel of Spoilers in the last two books went on a little too long. The edition I read included Gustave Dore's engravings, which were all fantastic. Overall I feel like I was a good effort for the first month.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 29, 2015 20:55
|
|
|
Challenge... of the Booklord!
Non-White Authors: 2 quote:January February is an “off the wagon” month where I relapse into the genre shlock. 8. A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters by Peter H. Aykroyd So it's a mostly history book by Dan Aykroyd's dad, based mostly on the journals of Dan Aykroyd's great-grandfather. So there's that. This book is firmly on the 'ghosts are real' side of things, validating claims and downplaying skepticism. It's a fair position to take (especially when several generations of your own family have grown up under the particular belief system.) It's also a pretty dry read, with a few interesting personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout what is basically a light history text. 9. Women of Wonder, the Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s by Pamela Sargent (Editor/Contributor) and twenty other women. Like most anthologies there were some great stories (Cassandra - C.J. Cherryh, And Wild for to Hold - Nancy Kress). some less than stellar (Abominable - Carol Emshwiller, At the Rialto - Connie Willis) and a load of middle of the road stories. 10. A Hunger Like Fire by Greg Stolze I have a weakness, a hunger that always burns inside of me, not for blood like the subjects of the novel, but for tie-in fiction. Often I'm left disappointed, because it's rare that an author cares enough about the setting or the subject to make the book great, instead settling for good, and more than often just good enough. A Hunger Like Fire may not be great, but it's author put in the effort to make it at least good. I felt like the story was pretty well written, the point of view characters had distinct voices, and it conveyed the setting well. 11. The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu Another reviewer on these boards compared The Lives of Tao to "Kung fu Panda meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and that is almost spot on. The biggest problem with that is while Po the Panda was endearing, Roen is not. Combined with the cliche-storm of an ending I don't see myself picking up the next part of the trilogy 12. No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late by Ayun Halliday A collection of travel memoirs about the author's "hilarious" travels around the world. It's ok, but nothing to write home about. 13. Threshold by Sara Douglass The first half of this does a great job setting up the setting, the characters, and the foreboding nature of Threshold that I almost feel bad basing the score on the overall book. The second half is filled with numerous exposition dumps and long, painful bouts of Tolkienesque travel sequences. 14. Stardoc by S.L. Viehl Three-fourths of this book is a decently written sci-fi medical thriller, but the part that kills it is the one-fourth that is a badly handled romantic love triangle which is resolved when the main characters alien husband dies and the main character fleas the planet with her rapist at the end. 15. Prey by Michael Crichton Awful dialogue, massive infodumps, a plot that almost works, and contrivances aplenty. I think my favorite bit of "tension" generating dumb in this hurricane of stupidity was the airlock that had no manual controls and *gasp* won't seal out the nanoswarm if everyone isn't standing perfectly still. 16. Dust by Joan Frances Turner It had a good take on zombies, it was a quick read, and I liked the POV character. The author managed to convey the gory parts of the story without going overboard or trying to go for the cheap shock. 17. Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp I'm a huge fan of time travel stories, and this was a fun one. It's not as derivative as "A Connecticut Yankee..." as I was expecting, mostly owing to the brief length and the fact that the book's protagonist isn't quite as marry-sueishly infallible like the Connecticut Yankee. Yes, there are some convenient coincidences, but in a book where the main character is transported back in time by a bolt of lightning that's to be expected. 18. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury A truly fantastic work, and something I’m going to have to read again. 19. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Because I didn’t think it was fair of me to so completely disparage the work without at least trying to read is first I read Twilight. From now on I’m just going to take people’s word when they say that a book is a complete piece of poo poo. This book is awful. The pacing is pure poo poo, the dialogue is worse, and it feels like I'm reading someone's terrible live journal blog. 20. Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster That wasn't bad. It takes your standard person from Earth gets pulled to fantasy land, adds a heaping helping of talking animals, sprinkles a touch of absurdity (with a Marxist dragon), and bakes the way that only 80s fantasy can. 21. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead by Don Borchert This is Tom Sawyer, but with zombies. It’s exactly the quality you would expect if you took Mark Twain and added zombies. It is however a quick read and the author does an ok job aping Mark Twain, but it's not as good as the source material and isn't really that interesting a twist on it either. 22. Make Your Own drat Movie!: Secrets of a Renegade Director by Lloyd Kaufman A great look at the practical side of filmmaking by someone who has been doing it on the cheap for over 40 years. It has solid advice, plenty of humor, and sidebars by the folks at Troma who have been working on films for years about every aspect of making a movie. 23. Sooner Dead by Mel Odom It was a fun little action-adventure yarn, heavier on the action than the adventure compared the other Gamma World novel. Decent characters, ok plot, things wrapped up a little quickly but on the whole I enjoyed it. March is going to be more literary. I've got some Shakespeare, I've got some Agatha Christie, I've got the Old Man and the Sea, and a friend told me I have to read the Great Gatsby and who am I to argue with her. 8one6 fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Feb 28, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2015 09:16
|
|
|
david crosby posted:ALSO: can I get a wildcard? thanks Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2015 00:18
|
|
|
thehomemaster posted:Can someone throw me a wildcard? The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2015 00:14
|
|
|
Chamberk posted:... Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
|
|
#
¿
Mar 5, 2015 07:30
|
|
|
Argali posted:So what are people gonna read for their censored/banned book? ... I picked up a copy of Fahrenheit 451 yesterday that I'm going to start on after I finish up the Rights of Man.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2015 21:26
|
|
|
ulvir posted:... Art of War by Sun Tzu I read the Ralph D. Sawyer edition/translation and would recommend it unless someone can recommend a better version.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2015 23:47
|
|
|
Can someone recommend me a wildcard to read? Edit: Could you also recommend a postmodern book? 8one6 fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Mar 23, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2015 03:58
|
|
|
Lumius posted:Wildcard - The Emigrants by Sebald. And ordered. Thank you. Edit: Since this ended up at the top of the page does anyone have a suggestion for a postmodern book? 8one6 fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Mar 23, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Mar 23, 2015 07:18
|
|
|
Challenge... of the Booklord!
Books by non-white authors: 2 quote:January Managed to finish one more book in February after my last update 24. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher I could make a joke about this book featuring not one, but four different kinds of werewolves, but it would be more than this book deserves. It's aggressively mediocre. Honestly, if everyone and their grandma didn't tell me that the series actually becomes good in book three I'd give up right here. Literature March! 25. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Ultimately I found it a boring story full of people leading meaningless lives, but I suppose you’ll tell me that was the point. 26. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare I liked it. I’ll have to see it live some day. 27. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Other than finding it well written I have no strong opinion about it. 28. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Fantastic work. It was tense for almost the entire length of the story. About midway through I had a suspicion of "whodunnit" but I was completely wrong. 29. The Last Days of Socrates by Plato It's the first time I've read Plato and it was actually a lot more engaging that I was expecting. 30. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine I probably should have read Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France" first because the first half of The Rights of Man is basically one big rebuttal of that piece, but it was still an interesting read. 31. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut I can't really do this book justice with a review. It's a humorous account of a man unstuck in time. It's also a heavy account of the firebombing of Dresden. The one kept leading back to the other and back again and you feel bad for laughing at the absurdities of war while on the same page a man finds himself in an alien zoo. I think this book is fantastic and I recommend you read if if you haven't already. 32. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A warning against an illiterate populace and a story of a censor who grows to regret the part he's played. This was a fantastic read. 33. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley A dark future where the tyranny of happiness has destroyed humanity, leaving only a factory fabricated substitute behind. The author did an good job building a dystopia, as the scenes Huxley painted for the reader were almost as believable as they were off-putting. This feels more heavy handed than 1984, like the author was standing over my shoulder going "see, see what radio and movies have in store for us? Look, there's literally an opiate for the masses! See what I did there." A lot of people have talked this up as one of the greatest English language novels, but in my personal opinion it's not as strong as 1984. April isn't going to be completely genre trash, as I'm going to start my The Emigrants by Sebald when it gets here and I'm most likely going to hunt down a copy of The Dictionary of the Khazars.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 26, 2015 09:26
|
|
|
If you haven't started to judge me based on my reading habits now would be a good month to start. Challenge... of the Booklord!
Books by non-white authors: 2 Non-fiction: 3 April I fell off the wagon hard. I started reading Trek tie-in books again. 34. A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson Memoirs of a Tailor. Andrew J. Robinson's performance as Garak over the years showed that he put a lot of thought into the character. With the series over he's written one of the best Trek tie-in books I've read to to tell the story of Garak's rise and fall that led him to become the plain, simple tailor of Deep Space Nine and also to give a glimpse of what has happened to Cardassia since the end of the series. 35. Nightmare on Clover Street by Andy Click Another awesome entry in the Werechaun series! The author has again created another fun story that combines action, humor, and the paranormal for a unique entry in urban fantasy. 36. The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones Poor descriptions, stilted dialogue, mostly unlikable characters, an unimpressive opening, and a supremely disappointing ending. The dinosaurs, by virtue of not being POV characters, are the best written part of this. When the dialogue and character thoughts aren't stilted they're just repetitive. I'll give the author one thing, he is really good at making some of these characters unlikable. I paid a dollar for this so you didn't have to. 37. A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking Hawking's general overview of Cosmology is an interesting read and great for someone like my who is interested in physics but is not a physicist. If you're interested in the universe at all I'd highly recommend this work. 38. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Reread. Its a little more dry that what I remember, but it was still a great read. 39. The Time Traders by Andre Norton A young adult cold war time travel adventure story. It was alright. I didn't really care for the main character for most of the book, but the premise is solid and it the author does a good job of keeping the story flowing. 40. Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh A long, mad dash to the finish line. This really felt like the author didn't realize how many loose ends they had until they sat down to write this. The characters repeat the same information over and over again and since absolutely everything is rushed and urgent it just all ends up feeling exhausting. 41. The Belly of the Beast by Dean Wesley Smith "My ship, whom I love like a woman..." is my favorite line from the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" because it is a perfect example of the majority of fan fiction. It's stilted, cliche, and renders the characters cardboard cutouts of the the characters from the original media. On every single page of this book I was reminded of that line. The dialogue is awkward and unnatural, the characters from the show are flat imitations, the new characters are uninteresting, and the mess is full of weird random blocks of exposition. Frankly this is not a promising start to the S.C.E. series. 42. Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton Cold war young adult/boy's adventure in time & space. A lot lighter on the cold war theme than the first book in the series, this one makes good on the promise made in Time Traders of space adventure as the team find themselves the accidental crew of a twelve thousand year old space ship's attempt to return home. I liked it. It was a fast read with a straightforward plot with a couple of interesting bits. 43. Fatal Error by Keith R.A. DeCandido The second SCE book picks up almost where the first book left off, but it appears that in the brief break between stories the da Vinci stopped at Starbase Competent Writer and resupplied on plot, dialogue, and characterization. The story is a bit of a homage to a few classic TOS episodes, with a massive central computer that controlled everything about an alien world and its civilization, but this time when things go wrong Starfleet is there to correct the issues and not talk the computer to death. Overall it was a fun little story that felt like it could have been slotted into one of the Trek shows. The author's exploration of the Bynar character's development without their bonded pair was a bit shallow, but that's to be expected from a 100 page long action/technobable story. Compared to The Belly of the Beast the characters are more lifelike, the dialogue is feels natural, and when the previous book left Geordi on the da Vinci Mr. DeCandido wisely put him in the background to let the new characters shine. 44. Hard Crash by Christie Golden It's not as bad as the first book in the SCE series, but it has put me off from wanting to read anything else by the author. Hard crash is the least action oriented of the SCE stories so far, but the characters haven't gotten enough development to carry a mostly dramatic story. While the premise is sound I think the awkward dialogue really turns this down to at best second tier daytime tv levels of melodrama near the end. The short length and steady pace are the only real saving graces of Hard Crash, so I'd recommend not bothering with this one 45-46. Interphase, Part 1 & 2 by Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore It looks like the "Even Numbered Trek" rule is going to hold firm with the SCE books as the fourth entry into the SCE series is well written, with natural dialogue (well, as natural as sci-fi dialogue can be), and characters who feel like they exist for more than to just push around plot bricks. The authors make good use of the existing Trek setting and some dangling threads from the Original Series to tell a fun and fast paced first half of a story. 47. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle It's slow, but hey, at least it's also boring. 48. The Big Time by Fritz Leiber An decent mystery, a well written main character, and a neat setting. I can definitely see why this won a Hugo. 49. 1632 by Eric Flint I really enjoyed this one. It's well written with varied and interesting characters, while the dialogue feels a little hokey in places it never feels forced, and while the technological superiority of Grantville is unquestionable it doesn't magically solve all of their problems. Not being well educated about the particular historical setting of the novel I can't say one way or the other whither or not it's at all accurate but except for a few info dumps throughout the novel the author does a great job giving you what you need to know for the setting. 50. Star Trek (Bantam Star Trek #1) by James Blish This first book in the series (simply named “Star Trek”) adapts “Charlie X” (under the episode’s earlier working title of Charlie’s Law”), "Dagger of the Mind", "The Unreal McCoy" (which was the working and IMO better title for a.k.a. "The Man Trap"), "Balance of Terror", "The Naked Time", "Miri", and "The Conscience of the King" This book, clocking in at 140ish pages, doesn’t much page count to the seven episodes it covers. The story “Charlie’s Law” is bereft of most description, (Blish apparently felt no need to describe the Enterprise in even light detail), but most of the other stories have some feature at least some light description at the beginning to set up the story. Thishis adaptation of “balance of Terror” is entirely from the Enterprise’s POV, which helps to convey the tense nature of the episode very well, though the story lacks much of the cat and mouse nature of the episode and ends rather abruptly and without the famous “In another life we could have been friends” line. The Naked Time has lost any of the emotional tones of the episode. Miri is short and too the point, cutting most of the interactions with Miri and the children (this may be to its benefit.) The Conscience of the King is short to its detriment, gutting all but the basic core of the story. There are a couple of instances where the author seems to have been functioning from the idea that ships in Star Trek function at relativistic speeds. (also the cover of the edition I read has nice big rocket plumes coming out of the back of the Enterprise. There are a few things about the book that make in an interesting read as a star trek fan, but its brevity and extremely shallow treatment of the episodes mean I can’t really recommend going out of your way to pick it up. However if you’re like me and you find it in the dollar bin of your local used book store I’d give it a read. 51. Star Trek 2 (Bantam Star Trek #2) by James Blish This edition of “Let’s summarize an episode of Star Trek” includes adaptations of Arena, A Taste of Armageddon, Tomorrow Is Yesterday, Errand of Mercy, Court Martial, Operation--Annihilate!, The City on the Edge of Forever, and Space Seed. I can already feel Harlan Ellison spinning in his grave. Arena is about how I remember it from the show. Blish does a good job setting the scene of the, well, arena world and the Gorn. A Taste of Armageddon is a brisk retelling, but the characters all feel accurate to the show. Tomorrow is Yesterday felt like one of those really loud 1960’s computers that Kirk used to talk to death spit out a summary of the episode “BEEP BOOP” The Enterprise goes back in time, picks up a jet pilot, then returns him, then returns to the future “BEEP BOOP” Errand of Mercy, Court Martial, and Operation--Annihilate! are all just brief run throughs of the working scripts of the episodes, nothing really impressive or groan-worthy. The City on the Edge of Forever has this little note at the beginning stating that the author tried to stay as close to the script Ellison sent him, and except for a missing scene or two and a change to the closing lines it’s a pretty solid retelling of the episode. Space Seed is about as quick a run through of Space Seed you could manage without actually cutting plot points. I guess the few extra pages for City on the Edge of Forever had to come from somewhere. Star Trek 2 is a collection that is very workmanlike. Nothing fancy, get the job done and do it quickly. I can only imagine the policies Blish was working under when writing these. Unfortunately the writing situation doesn’t cound for much in the final verdict. I’m giving this one two of five stars. Only really of interest to the most die-hard of Trek fans. 52. Star Trek 3 (Bantam Star Trek #3) by James Blish This volume in Trek Charm-ectomy includes The Trouble With Tribbles, The Last Gunfight, The Doomsday Machine, Assignment: Earth, Mirror, Mirror, Friday's Child, and Amok Time The Trouble with Tribbles has a few differences from the episode, like the joke at end is different. This is the first comedy episode Blish has adapted and he doesn’t do a good job conveying the humor of the episode at all. The Last Gunfight (aka the Cowboy Planet episode) was dunb on the show and is a waste of pages here. The Doomsday Machine lacks the tension of the episode and reads like a log entry of the events. Mirror, Mirror is the first adaptation in this collection I’d say was worth reading, but only just. It maintains Kirk’s fight to save the Mirror Halkans, the difficulty the crew have with maintaining the deception, and the impassioned speech to mirror Spock at the end, but to do so it cuts all but a mention of the agony booth and completely removes Marlena Moreau and the Tantalus field. Friday's Child is so forgettable an episode when I finished reading its novelization I still couldn’t tell you what it was about. Amok Time has a slightly different sequence and kills the Death of Kirk suspense by giving you his point of view while he passes out but is otherwise unremarkable. Star Trek 3 isn’t so awful that I want to give it one star, but I can’t really bring myself to give it anything else than that. At this point in history only the most enthusiastic Trek fan will want to read these, and three books in I already want to skip to the next series of books One Star out of Five. 53. Star Trek 4 (Bantam Star Trek #4) by James Blish The episodes novelized in within include All Our Yesterdays, The Devil in the Dark, Journey To Babel, The Menagerie, The Enterprise Incident, and A Piece of the Action. I’m pretty sure that All Our Yesterdays is the first Trek episode Blish has novelized where he keeps the multiple storylines from the episode. Within we follow both Kirk in ye olden not!London and Spock & McCoy in the Ice Age. It breezes through the story while being a solid retelling of the episode. The Devil in the Dark actually manages to maintain some of the mystery of the episode it’s based on while still condensing where it can. Journey to Babel is is the 2x speed version of the story. The Menagerie is actually just The Cage as the author’s forward to the story makes clear that the wraparound would have just been lost pages. I’d tend to agree with him as the novelization of the story manages to retain everything except the crew trying to blast their way into the Talosian base. I applaud Blish for managing to fit a rather dense episode into an extremely limited page count. The Enterprise Incident is shortened by mostly following Spock’s role in the story, a fair decision on the author’s part. A Piece of the Action is one of my favorite episodes and I’m glad to say the author does a pretty good job of adapting it to the short story format. Overall I’d say that this is a marked improvement over the previous three books and at three of five stars is something I’d recommend picking up if you stumble across it in a used book store somewhere. I'm planing on knocking out the last five books in the challenge in May.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2015 07:52
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 17, 2024 19:29 |
|
|
Lumius posted:read the sebald!!! My copy of The Emigrants arrived and is in my bag right now. I intend to start on it during lunch.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2015 21:48
|
|