|
 its a pretty interesting book about some people who drown and other people who do not kinda a generational tale about marstal, a town in denmark, that goes from the first schleswig war in the mid 1800s to the end of ww2 eonwe posted:Oh! Two more.  by the same author, so its just as well written, but it's about william dodd, a kinda frumpy rural dork who becomes the ambassador to germany from 1933 to 1937 and witnesses the rise of the nazi party
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 16:50
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 21:57 |
|
|
I hate all that soppy Victorian poo poo because I can't distance myself from the fact that their whole idle lifestyle was a direct product of the worst kind of slavery, imperialism, brutality, and massive systemic genocide that the human race has ever seen They're all villains
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 16:56
|
|
|
I'm reading Candide (slowly). Pretty funny so far. Funnier than I expected actually
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:01
|
|
|
eonwe posted:I'm reading Candide (slowly). Pretty funny so far. Funnier than I expected actually Voltaire is a fuckin G
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:02
|
|
|
mormonpartyboat posted:
I've meant to read his other book. Also 'We The Drowned' looks really interesting too. Dang, good suggestions.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:04
|
|
|
mormonpartyboat posted:
I prefer the Danes that didn't get drowned
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:05
|
|
|
So I did a test of some conversation heavy stuff - Asimov's Robots and Empire - and I read about a page a minute, which I dunno I guess is good according to this graph the page showed me. I have a trillion books I want to read though so I've been trying to increase my reading speed. There's not really any point to this, I'm just trying to break myself of the habit of subvocalizing and it's been really annoyingly hard so far and I wanted to complain
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:07
|
|
|
my sister took a speed-reading class a couple of years back and according to her it actually helped. apparently the majority of the material they were slated to absorb were nonfiction and technical manuals so i'm not sure how well it would translate to reading novels or biographies, but you could doubtlessly look up a bunch of the techniques online if you wanted to work with it.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:13
|
|
|
Coolguye posted:my sister took a speed-reading class a couple of years back and according to her it actually helped. apparently the majority of the material they were slated to absorb were nonfiction and technical manuals so i'm not sure how well it would translate to reading novels or biographies, but you could doubtlessly look up a bunch of the techniques online if you wanted to work with it. I've gathered from my research into "how did Teddy Roosevelt read so goddamned much despite everything else he did" that one of the big secrets to quickly reading fiction and biographies and the like is to skip the fluff. For books where you enjoy the fluff, there may be no alternatives Of course just reading a whole bunch speeds you up naturally I'd imagine so maybe that's my best bet. Next I'm going to try listening to music to kill subvocalizing because the 1-2-3-4 counting in my head method is too distracting
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:16
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:So I did a test of some conversation heavy stuff - Asimov's Robots and Empire - and I read about a page a minute, which I dunno I guess is good according to this graph the page showed me. I have a trillion books I want to read though so I've been trying to increase my reading speed. Its funny, I assumed this would be 90% Scifi, so I purposely didn't really recommend any, and there hasn't been a whole ton of it recommended period.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:19
|
|
|
eonwe posted:Its funny, I assumed this would be 90% Scifi, so I purposely didn't really recommend any, and there hasn't been a whole ton of it recommended period. I was probably too firm in my admonition to not just recommend dense scifi tomes but I'm not sad. There's good stuff of all types out there and this may expose people to some new and fun things I just started Foundation last night after having read through the whole arc up through this and he never ceases to surprise me at how engaged I can become in novels that are little more than people chatting in various offices
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:21
|
|
|
grant's memoirs are publicly available and also very good, though he doesn't write for anyone who isn't familiar with the people and places involved so it might be a good idea to read a biography first to get familiar
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:21
|
|
|
In any case, the best SciFi is speculative fiction and we've got plenty of that
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:21
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:I was probably too firm in my admonition to not just recommend dense scifi tomes but I'm not sad. There's good stuff of all types out there and this may expose people to some new and fun things have you ever read his short story pate de foie gras? imo its peak asimov ed: lmao the ocr for this sucks but the story is still good mormonpartyboat has issued a correction as of 17:56 on Apr 17, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:26
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:I've gathered from my research into "how did Teddy Roosevelt read so goddamned much despite everything else he did" that one of the big secrets to quickly reading fiction and biographies and the like is to skip the fluff. For books where you enjoy the fluff, there may be no alternatives obviously there are some books that don't translate over to the medium very well, but most do. Coolguye has issued a correction as of 17:36 on Apr 17, 2017 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:32
|
|
|
Coolguye posted:personally, listening to audiobooks was what really transformed my reading world. everyone has lots of transit time nowadays, whether it be in a car or on a bus/train, and listening to audiobooks fits perfectly into any lifestyle that has those delays. it's not like you can do anything more interesting than read a good book during your commute or your time running errands. what's your alternatives, listen to pandora for the hottest recommendations from teenyboppers or listen to NPR give the millionth "truth is in the middle" naval gaze report? please. like, my rec for the book club is 274 pages in paperback, but 11 and a half hours on audio form. i consumed the entire book, sans an appendix that is nothing more than the AIM transcript of a catfishing prank, in a week and a half just because i could listen to it when driving, when cleaning, when mowing the lawn, etc. i required no opportunistic quiet, lazy afternoons or rainy evenings where things got cancelled to get it done. it's really a hilariously straight win to simply find so much time to enrich your life with stories and language. Oh yeah, I've got hundreds of books on my Audible by now, love me some audiobooks. I generally have 2 physical books (I'm counting Kindle ones here) and 1 audiobook that I'm reading at any given time. Audiobook for dog walks and commutes, physical for everything else and 2 for variety
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 17:35
|
|
|
Speed-reader: http://spritzinc.com/
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 18:12
|
|
|
eonwe posted:Its funny, I assumed this would be 90% Scifi, so I purposely didn't really recommend any, and there hasn't been a whole ton of it recommended period. I would certainly recommend Last Call by Tim Powers if modern day, weird sci-fi is your thing (like Twin Peaks, or the X-Files without aliens). It's the story of a man whom was raised by a wizard in 1960s Las Vegas and got rescued from his abusive wizard-dad before wizard-dad could completely consume his ego and supplant himself into the protagonist's body. Now an adult, the dude has: - a dead wife that haunts him as a ghost and may actually be the physical personification of death - a friend with cancer that believes he can literally create his own luck by mentally processing incredibly complex calculus problems - a step-sister the protagonist totally wants to bang who is possibly the reincarnation of The Goddess here on Earth - a step-dad who is also a wizard and casts spells via the medium of playing hands of poker The central conflict is wizard-dad making a final play to possess the protagonist's body at the world series of poker. If you're at all familiar with Unknown Armies, this book is the best Unknown Armies fiction ever written that has nothing to do with Unknown Armies.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 22:10
|
|
|
Freaking Crumbum posted:I would certainly recommend Last Call by Tim Powers if modern day, weird sci-fi is your thing (like Twin Peaks, or the X-Files without aliens). Lol, well before I got to your last sentence, I was thinking "man, this sounds a lot like UA's postmodern magic."
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 22:12
|
|
|
that sounds really fuckin interesting
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2017 23:41
|
|
|
Coolguye posted:Devil in the white city owned, good one from eonwe. I read this book last night and it owned, also learned how skuas are horrible birds.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 00:57
|
|
|
I technically stopped taking submissions last night but I got dragged into meetings today and couldn't get it done so everything up until now is going to be included It's gonna be a clusterfuck, I wasn't expecting all these submissions, we may need to do a runoff
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:03
|
|
|
i presumed itd burn out before we get the first one to read so im just sharing things
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:10
|
|
|
mormonpartyboat posted:i presumed itd burn out before we get the first one to read so im just sharing things With enough participants we can survive a high attrition rate I just hope the first pick ends up being something not terrible that scares people away
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:12
|
|
|
mormonpartyboat posted:have you ever read his short story pate de foie gras? This is peak Asimov indeed and was great, read it at work b/c office jobs are lol
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:14
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:With enough participants we can survive a high attrition rate i submit 
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:14
|
|
|
SHE'S UP Let's see if this system I just cooked up while champagne basted works   ***FIRST ROUND OF VOTING IS UP***UP FOR 24 HOURS, TOP FIVE RUNOFF IF NOTHING GETS 50% WHICH THEY PROBABLY WON'T LIST OF BOOKS WITH DESCRIPTIONS HERE: https://pastebin.com/WdG34pGi VOTE HERE: http://www.strawpoll.me/12770539 THE RULES: 1) Vote for up to 5 you'd like to read 2) You cannot vote for your own. Honor system, DON'T gently caress THIS UP OR I'LL JUST GO DICTATOR
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:26
|
|
|
sorry if this has been discussed but are you planning to have people read a portion of the book and discuss, or read the whole thing and discuss? i'd vote the former personally.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:47
|
|
|
Fidel Castronaut posted:sorry if this has been discussed but are you planning to have people read a portion of the book and discuss, or read the whole thing and discuss? i'd vote the former personally. Plan on setting a "read by date" and enforcing a strict rule of spoiler tags in open chat in the meantime. It'll be less structured, but people have weird and differing schedules and times they can commit and I'd like open discussion as people progress to be a thing
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:55
|
|
|
read my lips: no new texas
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 02:57
|
|
|
did i gently caress something up or did u miss my book if so just put it in the next batch rather than redoing the poll
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:12
|
|
|
Peel posted:did i gently caress something up or did u miss my book I think I got them all but I may have missed it. Please yell at me next round and I will put it at the top
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:13
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:I think I got them all but I may have missed it. Please yell at me next round and I will put it at the top Yo you missed my Candide post but I guess I didn't explicitly say it was a recommendation. Throw it on the pile for next round I guess, no biggie.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:23
|
|
|
C-Euro posted:Yo you missed my Candide post but I guess I didn't explicitly say it was a recommendation. Throw it on the pile for next round I guess, no biggie. Yeah I went with explicit ones, plus like 3 people already read it in the time between then and now
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:25
|
|
|
Votes so far are shaking out differently than I expected but still v good
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:30
|
|
|
Epic High Five posted:Votes so far are shaking out differently than I expected but still v good nov 8th all over again
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:31
|
|
|
Baloogan posted:nov 8th all over again extremely schnork report voice]: don't fuckin arzy bro broward county always has returns coming in late mt dude
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 03:33
|
|
|
I hope it's ok I bumble over here from byob. I'm a librarian and I like books but a surprising number of librarians are burned out and don't like books, so I don't have many people to chat about my book thoughts with.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 09:32
|
|
|
all readers are welcome friend 
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 14:35
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 21:57 |
|
|
what a polite nest of goblins 
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2017 14:57
|
|