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haha yeah I've read books published after 2010 I have a big brain
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Dec 27, 2023 05:26
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Private Cumshoe posted:haha yeah I've read books published after 2010 I have a big brain I am genuinely confused about who you are insulting here
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Dec 27, 2023 05:30
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i'm rereading musashi. i like it because it is an epic adventure starring an indefatigable samurai who is the best at fighting. it's also boring enough to make it good for reading before sleep
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Dec 27, 2023 06:07
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Mumpy Puffinz posted:I am genuinely confused about who you are insulting here Me you loving moron why can't you read
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Dec 27, 2023 07:29
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I am reading 'A Murder of Quality' by John le Carre. I like that it's a very old fashioned whodunit, and there's a lot in it about the English class system that sounds outdated but I worry is really how our ruling class consider people. A lot of descriptions of people concentrate on their accent, and associated mannerisms associated with their class or where they come from. The entire book is centred on a fictional private school that is supposed to be Eton. The traditions and mindset of the place and how people who either teach or are students there are very alien to normal folk. Most of the current politicians that have made the UK a shithole went to Eton, so it's good to have an insight into their thinking. It's the second book in the George Smiley series, the first two books are whodunits, after this they turns into a much more realistic series about British post-WW2 spycraft. 'Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy' is the 5th book, if you've seen that movie.
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Dec 27, 2023 20:35
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Reading The Obsidian Path omnibus, by Michael R. Fletcher. On the third part, An End to Sorrow. It’s about a thousands-year dead, recently revived amnesiac evil emperor of a fantasy world. He’s comically evil, and all his attempts at resisting his evil nature are utterly futile, when he tries to be good he ends up being twice as bad. Reminds me of Elric, but with fewer positive qualities. The whole thing reminds me of Moorcock’s oeuvre, am guessing but am pretty sure it was intentionally written as like an homage. Anyway, you go, Khraen! You sacrifice those souls! You behead those wizards! Keep acting on impulse!
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Dec 27, 2023 20:51
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Two books: "Paradise Lost" by John Milton and Jim Butcher's, "The Olympian Affair," sequel to his, "The Aeronaut's Windlass." I bit off more than I can chew with Milton, the language used is just too flowery and archaic for me and it's been a slog to read, but at the same time I get most of his references and the general meaning if not exactly so, and it's on my "ought to read cover to cover" list so I'll get there eventually. The Olympian Affair is an absolute treat. Airships, magic, and people talking with cats. Just enough kitsch to have fun with, without fully turning my brain off. I've got mixed feelings about the map at the start of the book plainly being the Eastern US seaboard where instead of the setting being an imagined world, it's clear that it's our own after some cataclysm and that feels a little cliché and hacky to me.
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Dec 27, 2023 21:32
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neato burrito posted:Hocus Pocus by Vonnegut
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Dec 27, 2023 22:07
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Zugzwang posted:I like Vonnegut a lot because I think he does a better job than just about anyone at seeing through all the bullshit in the world but not letting it doompill him. Like his books are all about "haha yeah humanity is chock-full of stupidity and ridiculousness but you should still be kind to people goddammit." I went through all his books in my twenties and greatly shaped how I view the world. I love him.
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Dec 27, 2023 22:10
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Zugzwang posted:I like Vonnegut a lot because I think he does a better job than just about anyone at seeing through all the bullshit in the world but not letting it doompill him. Like his books are all about "haha yeah humanity is chock-full of stupidity and ridiculousness but you should still be kind to people goddammit." Well, Galapagos is kind of doompilled as I understand the term (because it’s about how civilisation collapses, and the remnants of humanity evolve into seal-like creatures), but also not really (because it makes being a seal-like creature sound great) I guess Vonnegut is maybe a challenge to the whole idea of doompilling really, in that way, being able to amiably accept all the horrors he himself has lived through. Like Vonnegut is pessimistic and fatalistic— but also seems to be pretty chill and happy?
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Dec 27, 2023 23:38
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He embraced absurdism and it worked for him.
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Dec 27, 2023 23:42
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vegetables posted:Well, Galapagos is kind of doompilled as I understand the term (because it’s about how civilisation collapses, and the remnants of humanity evolve into seal-like creatures), but also not really (because it makes being a seal-like creature sound great) I think that's the answer. Yes, we're doomed. Might as well enjoy life while we can. And help others when we can too.
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Dec 27, 2023 23:44
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redshirt posted:I think that's the answer. Yes, we're doomed. Might as well enjoy life while we can. And help others when we can too.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRqu0YOH14
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Dec 28, 2023 01:20
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Amazing video, thank you for sharing. Yes!
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Dec 28, 2023 01:27
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Lil Swamp Booger Baby posted:Before that it was a reread of Flow My Tears by Philip K. Dick which is just a great book. So good
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Dec 28, 2023 04:19
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just read The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson on the plane. Twain was a very funny guy
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Dec 28, 2023 05:06
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Nixonland It good
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Dec 28, 2023 05:37
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Just finished Orphan X. It's a fun Bourne Identity knockoff. Thinking to read the rest of the series.
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Dec 29, 2023 01:10
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WAR CRIME GIGOLO posted:Nixonland Fantastic book
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Dec 29, 2023 01:11
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I started The Glass Bead Game by Hesse but I haven't got very far because so far all it has talked about is how everything about The Glass Bead Game is too difficult to explain or be understood.
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Dec 29, 2023 01:18
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dreezy posted:norm macdonald based on a true story read by the author Yeah this is a very good listen!
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Dec 29, 2023 01:20
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deep dish peat moss posted:I started The Glass Bead Game by Hesse but I haven't got very far because so far all it has talked about is how everything about The Glass Bead Game is too difficult to explain or be understood. If you are hoping it will properly explain at some point, it won't. Not really. It's meant to be largely unfathomable and abstract.
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Dec 29, 2023 01:20
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Yeah I'm not expecting it to but I just want the prose about how complex and inexplicable it is to end!!!
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Dec 29, 2023 01:21
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goatface posted:If you are hoping it will properly explain at some point, it won't. Not really. It's meant to be largely unfathomable and abstract. I'm intrigued. Is it worth it, in your opinion?
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Dec 29, 2023 01:22
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It's been a few years, and I would not call it an easy book to read, but I think it is interesting and worthwhile if you like philosophical meditations on the nature of intelligence and educational seclusion.
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Dec 29, 2023 01:25
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goatface posted:It's been a few years, and I would not call it an easy book to read, but I think it is interesting and worthwhile if you like philosophical meditations on the nature of intelligence and educational seclusion. Depends on my mood. I will pick it up regardless to add to my vast and sprawling library. Crossposting on one my fave sci fi books I've read in the past 5 years or so: A Canticle for Liebowitz, by Walter Miller. An amazing book. Very dry though. But with some shocking turns, and some sporadic comedy.
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Dec 29, 2023 02:28
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deep dish peat moss posted:I started The Glass Bead Game by Hesse but I haven't got very far because so far all it has talked about is how everything about The Glass Bead Game is too difficult to explain or be understood. I'm also reading the Glass Bead Game and it's interesting so far. It's mostly talking about the game as a tool to understand life, transcending art. The introduction mentioned that the elevated tone was meant to be taken as ironic, and that lens helps move through any parts that may seem like a heavy slog. I'm also reading Heaven's Door by Keiichi Koike, which is a sci fi anthology in manga form which gives better twilight Zone vibes than any of its revivals. I also just finished the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud, and while I definitely get the sense of a teenage drunk that he was when writing, some of the images are evocative and really stick with you.
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Dec 30, 2023 15:01
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deep dish peat moss posted:I started The Glass Bead Game by Hesse but I haven't got very far because so far all it has talked about is how everything about The Glass Bead Game is too difficult to explain or be understood. if you haven't, Beneath the Wheel is decent read afterward.
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Dec 30, 2023 15:20
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hawowanlawow posted:just read The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson on the plane. Twain was a very funny guy Hell yeah, that's a good one. Mark Twain is my favorite author, then Vonnegut. I recently found, in a 'Little Free Library' box, an 1899 edition of The Writings Of Mark Twain Vol XXI so I'm starting on that. I thought I had read everything the man ever wrote but there's a couple stories in it that I don't remember reading before. The copy is in remarkably good condition. In the same box was an 1892 copy of The Works Of Edward Bulwer Lytton Volume 4, also in very good condition so I snagged that one too. Score!
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Dec 30, 2023 16:15
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Ulysses When I was a stupid teenager I absolutely hated stream-of-consciousness writing, but now that I am a stupid adult I think it's pretty neat what Joyce pulled off.Sometimes I even understand what is going on! Sometimes.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:26
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BeastOfTheEdelwood posted:Ulysses Are you REALLY doing it? I failed twice. Completly.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:28
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I mean, I'm taking my sweet time with it. I guess I shouldn't brag about it until I finish, though; good point. I think I'm on the Cyclops episode right now.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:33
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BeastOfTheEdelwood posted:I mean, I'm taking my sweet time with it. I guess I shouldn't brag about it until I finish, though; good point. I think I'm on the Cyclops episode right now. lol I like that you are bragging about it. This is higher society right here folks!
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Dec 31, 2023 04:36
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Wendigee posted:I liked the library at mount char by Scott Hawkins. i just started reading this and its quite enjoyable so far.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:38
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The Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan. It's the sequel to Blood Song, a book I really like and recently re-read for the third time. I bought the sequel when it came out but it got bad reviews so it sat shelved for a while. I'm enjoying it. Some of the most interesting characters from Blood Song are viewpoint characters now and it's nice to see them fleshed out a bit more.
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Dec 31, 2023 04:40
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I finished the book about Delhi and started 1835: The Founding of Melbourne & the Conquest of Australia by James Boyce. I like it because I live in Melbourne and the written history of the early city has been very white and elite for a long time, the book shows how messy the political situation was at that time of great change in England and how that was reflected in the colonies
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Dec 31, 2023 04:55
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BeastOfTheEdelwood posted:Ulysses I finished it this year. It took me about eight months, but it was a fantastic read. I would recommend (you may have found this already) getting a companion text either in print or online that connects the narrative between the long stream of consciousness reveries, and also explains the dense web of allusions to other texts as well as the places and people of Dublin and Ireland. It was a great read though. My favorite sections were Telemachus, Sirens, and Ithaca.
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Dec 31, 2023 17:55
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I barely touch physical books any more, but I'm constantly listening to audiobooks. The latest one was a bit of a surprise, Later Than You Think by Jack Williamson, a story following the main character investigating some murders and being drawn into a whole web of things like witches and werewolves secretly living among normal humans. The surprise part was that it's set decades ago, but because the audible cover is a new edition trying to make it look like any other mystery/thriller, I assumed it was an intentional stylistic throwback. But when it kept getting into older-seeming word choices and having noir-ish narration that leaned too far into old school sexism, I looked it up and, surprise, it was actually written in the 1940s. I can't really recommend it overall because it hits that kind of stuff from time to time, but its story is an interesting departure from the really pulpy sci-fi stuff of the day into something more serious and thought-out. It even goes into (too much) detail laying out how the genetics of lycanthrope populations would play out in the world, given the scientific understanding of the time. So, I didn't love it, but I thought it was an interesting historical curiosity after I figured out it was actually from back then, and not just aping the style.
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Dec 31, 2023 21:00
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I recently read Watership Down, which I had not read as a kid, though I saw the movie as an adult. It's adorable! I loved the rabbits' mythology and the details of their political maneuvering and relations with other animals, aspects which are understandably skimmed over in the film. My favorite bits compared to the film were when the narrator pauses to explain differences in how the rabbits socialized compared to people, making it a little different from simply anthropomorphizing the rabbits. (I'm on a tear of reading novels that have famous film adaptations. I reread The Virgin Suicides recently and am reading The Warriors now. Battle Royale will be next on my list.)
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Dec 31, 2023 22:13
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Holy poo poo the original Jurassic Park book is so fuckin good
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Dec 31, 2023 22:27
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