What are you reading? (August 2015)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Piecake said:
I finished this book and I thought it was excellent and will definitely do what he recommends while trying to get back my Chinese. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning a language.
Click to expand...

Huh. I'll have to check this out. I need to eventually learn a little russian if i'm ever gonna spend any time at all around my girlfriend's family.
 
Finally had some time the next few weeks to really read. Just finished American Gods, working on Snow Crash, next in my que is:

Dune (never read it)
Brothers Karamazov (halfway, need to finish it)
The Three Body Problem

Any thoughts on the order I should tackle the ones in the que?
 
fredrancour said:
Huh. I'll have to check this out. I need to eventually learn a little russian if i'm ever gonna spend any time at all around my girlfriend's family.
Click to expand...

You might be interested in reading this post where I explain what the book is about a bit further:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=176179506&postcount=747

And this post discusses a lot of the research in cognitive psychology and neural science on the best way to learn, which Fluency Forever is based on

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=176067303&postcount=680
 
sparky2112 said:
Well, I've obviously been aware of Dick for *years*, and Hollywood has certainly elevated him to god-hood, but he's also big with readers. I wonder if High Castle isn't very representative of his work as a whole.

Then again, I've read things saying that Lovecraft's ideas and influence FAR exceeds the quality of his writing, so I'm wondering if Dick is another such case...
Click to expand...


It is and it isn't, representative that is. PKD is probably the most creative sci fi writer I've read and that sometimes works against him because he'll throw 5 or 6 crazy elements in a book and they don't form a cohesive whole. For example, you may be wondering what the I Ching is doing in this book, there's no discernible "point" to how it pertains to other themes... because it doesn't.

Anyway, I don't think it's particularly representative because it's got a conventional, well established center. We are all familiar with alternate histories and the axis powers. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik are both remarkable, all time classics.
 
I am about 85% of the way through The Wise Man's Fear now. Given the length of the book, the plot sort of dallies all over the place without pushing the narrative ahead that much (if we are meant to be reading a 3-part life story). I wonder how Rothfuss plans on wrapping everything up in 1 books (plus the ~150 pages I have left in this one).
 
I finished Consider The Lobster by DFW. Dope collection of essays and I really enjoyed his writing about people hoping our politicians become leaders but how we never expect it, really fitting reading that during our current election cycle.
 
Piecake said:
I finished this book and I thought it was excellent and will definitely do what he recommends while trying to get back my Chinese. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning a language.
Click to expand...

I should give this book a go then. It would improve my Swazi, and heavens know, I need to work on that.
 
I finished Deathless last night, hadn't had a chance to read it basically since my last post but I really wanted to get through it. I really liked the whole thing, it's very disjointed but in a way that reminds me a lot of the Fairyland books but significantly darker. I really liked the end sections
With Marya realising she has failed both her husbands and caused their deaths. With Ivan talking about the three birds coming in turn as he dies of starvation and finally the travels through the world of death where nobody remembers her.

Next up: Fairyland book 3.

17261183.jpg
 
"Finally had some time the next few weeks to really read. Just finished American Gods, working on Snow Crash,
Click to expand...

Can I ask how Snow Crash going for you!? I jump on it recently started enjoying but I dropped just after the introduction of the metaverse.


Reading some Wastelands short stories, quite enjoying Salvage while I wait to start Warday and the Journey Onward
 
Started reading As I Lay Dying by Faulkner and I'm really impressed. Really like the language and the story structure. Enjoying it unfold.
 
Puck Beaverton said:
I finished Consider The Lobster by DFW. Dope collection of essays and I really enjoyed his writing about people hoping our politicians become leaders but how we never expect it, really fitting reading that during our current election cycle.
Click to expand...

I think Host is one of my favorite pieces DFW wrote.
 
Piecake said:
I finished this book and I thought it was excellent and will definitely do what he recommends while trying to get back my Chinese. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning a language.
Click to expand...

yes another miracle language book!

i keep reading these in the hope they can replace actual work. they can't, but they're still fascinating!

(my chinese is currently limited to "hao bu hao", "hao che" and other food-associated phrases)
 
Shin_Okita said:
Can I ask how Snow Crash going for you!? I jump on it recently started enjoying but I dropped just after the introduction of the metaverse.
Click to expand...

I really like it. I'm almost done with it now. It's amazing that this was written in 1992, he gets a lot of the technology aspects seemingly way ahead of most people in that day. It's a fun ride with lots of crazy action scenes. That said, there are some heavy expositional peices. I enjoy them, as they are basically little religious history lessons with some conspiracy mixed in. It's almost like a Matrix and National Treasure mashup (except with religion instead of politics).
 
Nuke Soda said:
About 200 some odd pages into It, really enjoying it.
Click to expand...

I was looking for a picture link or something and then I noticed the capitalization on "It". lol

Finished Blue Moon Rising by Simon R. Green. I don't remember if I saw the recommendation here or on /r/books but it was a really good book. The only nits I had: The ending was a little rushed considering the amazingly slow buildup to it. The passage of time wasn't clear - which was understandable at bits because "time moves different in the wood" - but in the bits where there wasn't a suitable reason it was annoying. The ending also left a fairly major point out of it and it was confusing to me whether Rupert
got his eye back or not. The first time it's used the Rainbow heals wounds but doesn't replace what was lost. But then you find out the unicorn horn wasn't lost, it was stolen, so of course it couldn't be replaced. But the eyeball? It could have, possibly, right? Also the unicorn horn, this thing that can heal anything, they could have used it too, right? Maybe I'm overthinking it.

But it was a really good read, fast too. I have to put the second one on hold but the local library doesn't have it so - just like this book - I'm going to have to wait awhile for the inter-library loan to come through. Gives me time to finish The Golem and the Djinni.
 
kinoki said:
Making my way through In Search of Lost Time, Volume 6: The Fugitive. Might finish it today depending on how much time I get. It's going to feel so empty when it's gone. It's been a happening for so long now.
Click to expand...

Well, you still have Time Regained! And then there is an unfilmed script by Harold Pinter. Not to mention al the literature about the series and Proust himself! Btw I am one book behind you!
 
I really like it. I'm almost done with it now. It's amazing that this was written in 1992, he gets a lot of the technology aspects seemingly way ahead of most people in that day. It's a fun ride with lots of crazy action scenes. That said, there are some heavy expositional peices. I enjoy them, as they are basically little religious history lessons with some conspiracy mixed in. It's almost like a Matrix and National Treasure mashup (except with religion instead of politics).
Click to expand...

Glad to hear it's a good ride!!! I started reading just after rendezvous with Rama and I think I got the wrong impression, for some reason I got mixed up and was expecting something with a lower and more explorational feel to it. Knowing it's a more action packed ride I'll definitely have a go at it again. And I was also pretty impressed on how he understands the technology at that time! Hoping to see if those Katanas are going to be used!
 
I finished the Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss today. I enjoyed the book overall, but I am not sure that it needed 1000 pages to tell the story that we got. I will withhold some judgement until the final book is out (as this was a middle chapter, and some of the events might set up the final chapter), but I finished the book feeling as though we didn't really progress as far into Kvothe's story as I would have expected.

I also find it sort of amusing that the tale Kvothe tells during one day of in-book time couldn't possibly be spoken word for word in 24 hours. Audible tells be that the audio version is nearly 43 hours long :P

TheOctodad said:
I really like it. I'm almost done with it now. It's amazing that this was written in 1992, he gets a lot of the technology aspects seemingly way ahead of most people in that day. It's a fun ride with lots of crazy action scenes. That said, there are some heavy expositional peices. I enjoy them, as they are basically little religious history lessons with some conspiracy mixed in. It's almost like a Matrix and National Treasure mashup (except with religion instead of politics).
Click to expand...

Snow Crash popularized the term Avatar for computer/internet identities. It also was one of the inspirations for the project that became Google Earth.
 
TTG said:
JackNicholson.gif

Follow it up with this.
Click to expand...
Yeah that is next on my list after I finish my backlog. My plan is to go through all of his nonfiction writing then short story collections and then finally his novels.
sparky2112 said:
I think Host is one of my favorite pieces DFW wrote.
Click to expand...
That one is really close to being my favorite. Perfectly articulated my feelings on talk radio and Ziegler is a character that I honestly don't know what I think about him, he sounds like a miserable prick that I would never want to be around but I think I understand why he is that way. Ziegler at least makes me feel better knowing there is someone even more cynical and miserable than me.
 
Just finished The Stand. Very good book, puts the mini-series to shame (to its credit it was condensing a book this long into only eight hours). Moving on to "It" now.
 
Jintor said:
yes another miracle language book!

i keep reading these in the hope they can replace actual work. they can't, but they're still fascinating!

(my chinese is currently limited to "hao bu hao", "hao che" and other food-associated phrases)
Click to expand...

The book never says that you can get away with doing no work. It is saying that you need to work smarter and thus reducing the time needed to learn the language and then actually remember it. And the way you learn smarter is to take what we know about how we actually learn through cognitive psychology and neural science and adapt that to language learning. It isnt some miracle cure based on bullshit.
 
Roboleon said:
haha, no worries! take your sweet time, reading is a slow science :)
Click to expand...

Most definitely taking my sweet time - it took me around an hour to read maybe ten pages this evening (how I wish I was exaggerating). Thoughts: wtf. Kinbote is bonkers. These annotations need annotations. Also I laughed out loud at " - four sets of different Children's Encyclopedias, and a stolid grown-up one that ascended all the way from shelf to shelf along a flight of stairs to burst an appendix in the attic."

Mumei said:
I also really enjoyed the poem. There's an interesting article in the New Yorker about whether the poem can stand on its own and the critical reaction to it, both positive and negative, as well as changing evaluations. There are spoilers, though even if there were none I would suggest putting it off if only to fully form your own opinion. But it is an interesting read when you're ready.
Click to expand...

Oh, thanks for this :) I'm very interested in reading it!
 
Just finished City of Thieves by Benioff and The Colour of Magic by Pratchett.

..Thieves is easily in my top 10 books. A truly wonderful book. Reminds me a bit of wartime Stand By Me.
The Colour Of Magic I felt was lacking but am I right in thinking that it was written as an introduction to the discworld? Just as Twoflower was a tourist, so is the reader? Once more characters are introduced and fleshed out fully it should be a riot.

Next up... Atonement by Ian McEwan and hopefully will have time to start the Iain Banks culture novels
 
Well, thanks to reading Make it Stick, I have decided to further reform how I read. I have decided that I actually want to learn and remember US history. I have read quite a bit of US history, but I find it very difficult to remember what I read after a decent amount of time. Even in subjects that I have read a lot on, like the Civil War, I had trouble recalling relevant points and evidence when we were going through that whole rush of Civil War topics on this board. That really annoyed me. I mean, I read quite a bit on it and I still couldnt recall a good amount of it?

So yea, I am going read and re-read some books on US history, take notes, create questions after every section, quiz myself, then put those questions and answers into Anki so that all of what I read will be permanently etched into my brain. I am actually kinda excited! I have a purpose, and doing anything with a purpose, I find, increases motivation. Before I just kinda read because I wanted to learn more and read what I wanted on interested topics, moved around a lot, etc.

So yea, here is the book list (The books that I have read are *):

Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Before 1776: Life in the American Colonies
The Faiths of the Founding Fathers
American Slavery, American Freedom
*The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-178
*Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815
*What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
*Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
*Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865
The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery
*The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom
*Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877
The Industrial Revolution
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
*Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945
*Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession
A Great Leap Forward: 1930s Depression and U.S. Economic Growth
*Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974
The History of the Supreme Court
American Religious History

Besides likely convincing a few of you that I am a bit insane and providing a nice, easy to return to outline for myself, I did have another goal. And that is recommendations!

I especially would like recommendations for books after WWII because I honestly wasnt too thrilled with Great Expectations when I read it. I also lack something from the 1910s-1929, so any good history book that covers that period would be fantastic.

Also, any book that you think I should read, or a book that is better than the ones I listed then please recommend away
 
Finished In Cold Blood (amazing). Now I'm reading To Kill a Mocking Bird for the first time...a little late to the party I guess, but it's great.
 
mu cephei said:
Most definitely taking my sweet time - it took me around an hour to read maybe ten pages this evening (how I wish I was exaggerating). Thoughts: wtf. Kinbote is bonkers. These annotations need annotations. Also I laughed out loud at " - four sets of different Children's Encyclopedias, and a stolid grown-up one that ascended all the way from shelf to shelf along a flight of stairs to burst an appendix in the attic."
Click to expand...

You'll definitely want to read that book I mentioned.

I'm working my way through The Illuminations today. I've had a much more productive second half of the month than first.
 
koopathecat said:
Just finished City of Thieves by Benioff and The Colour of Magic by Pratchett.

..Thieves is easily in my top 10 books. A truly wonderful book. Reminds me a bit of wartime Stand By Me.
The Colour Of Magic I felt was lacking but am I right in thinking that it was written as an introduction to the discworld? Just as Twoflower was a tourist, so is the reader? Once more characters are introduced and fleshed out fully it should be a riot.

Next up... Atonement by Ian McEwan and hopefully will have time to start the Iain Banks culture novels
Click to expand...

City of Thieves is absolutely terrific for sure.
 
Just finished The Illuminations by Andrew O'Hagan.

My personal rankings for the Man Booker longlist so far:

  1. A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
  2. The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma
  3. The Moor’s Account, by Laila Lalami
  4. A Spool of Blue Thread, by Anne Tyler
  5. The Illuminations, by Andrew O'Hagan
  6. Satin Island, by Tom McCarthy
I'm planning on starting A Brief History of Seven Killings tomorrow, which I have heard wonderful things about. Unfortunately the library does not have several of the other nominees - Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family, Anne Enright's The Green Road, Anuradha Roy's Sleeping on Jupiter, Anna Smaill's The Chimes, and Sunjeev Sahota's The Year of the Runaways.

Of course, some of these aren't even out in the U.S. yet. Like, Sahota's book isn't out until March of next year. Stupid international publishing shenanigans. >:(
 
5442.jpg
Click to expand...

I am currently reading this. The reason why I was interested in it is that you hear a lot of evangelical Christians claim that the US was founded on Christian principles and what they mean by that is that it was founded on their Christian principles. My understanding is that the the government and principles of the US largely come from the Enlightenment and our founders certainly weren't evangelical Christians, and quite a few of them were deists.

However, I do not know much specifics on the religious end, so hopefully that is what this book will provide. Step 1 on my path to actually remembering US history plan!
 
Reading the Harry Potter series for about the 100th time.

Not really sure why, as I basically have these books memorized, and they aren't exactly dense books to begin with, I'm really flying through it. But I'm enjoying them.

Finished Goblet yesterday.
 
Piecake said:
So yea, I am going read and re-read some books on US history, take notes, create questions after every section, quiz myself, then put those questions and answers into Anki so that all of what I read will be permanently etched into my brain. I am actually kinda excited! I have a purpose, and doing anything with a purpose, I find, increases motivation. Before I just kinda read because I wanted to learn more and read what I wanted on interested topics, moved around a lot, etc.
Click to expand...

How very interesting. Your purpose is to retain information. I think it's okay to be forgetful on the smaller details.

I do something similar with literary books. With the exception of quizzes, at the end of the chapter as you suggest. I do it because I really like getting more out of a book.

well. good luck anyway.

Vault Dweller 111 said:
Finished Goblet yesterday.
Click to expand...

For me it's all down hill from there. Till the Hogwarts battle at least. Or maybe just a little bit before then.
 
Ashes said:
How very interesting. Your purpose is to retain information. I think it's okay to be forgetful on the smaller details.

I do something similar with literary books. With the exception of quizzes, at the end of the chapter as you suggest. I do it because I really like getting more out of a book.

well. good luck anyway.
Click to expand...

Well, I am not going to remember ALL of it. That would just be an insane amount of work considering how many pages I plan on reading. I plan to just remember the important themes by creating questions out of those themes and then remember the facts that are associated with those themes.

So yea, I would agree. I don't plan on remembering the smaller details ;)
 
I just finished the Dune series (the ones by Frank Herbert only). I'd read the first three before, but not Heretics or Chapterhouse. After binging on the series, I have to say my favorites, in order, are:
Dune
Dune: Messiah
Chapterhouse:Dune
Children of Doom
God Emperor Dune
Heretics of Doom.

I really enjoyed Chapterhouse, and wish he hadn't followed his wife so quickly to the grave. Also, poor Duncan Idaho.
 
Mumei said:
I also really enjoyed the poem. There's an interesting article in the New Yorker about whether the poem can stand on its own and the critical reaction to it, both positive and negative, as well as changing evaluations. There are spoilers, though even if there were none I would suggest putting it off if only to fully form your own opinion. But it is an interesting read when you're ready.
Click to expand...

nabokov-pale-fire-ginko-press.jpg


*drools*
 
Old man's war.

Holy shit this is great so far. I love when a book just immediately pulls you in. Knowing I've got 5 more after this is also great. Had a few lol moments as well.

Well done so far Scalzi, well done.
 
509326.jpg

963623.jpg

629069.jpg


These 3 books certainly tied up the Deathstalker series nicely.
I was originally a little disappointed when I discovered the final 3 books were following a new group of characters. Fortunately it wasn't long before its indicated Owen may make a return and from that point my minor gripe that the story wouldn't pick up form where Deathstalker Destiny wasn't an issue anymore.

Next for me is this which was released yesterday

22886868.jpg


I would like to say I will take time and savour this last book by Pratchett but I know I'm not going to be able to prevent myself absorbing the book in a few hours.
 
Bazza said:
These 3 books certainly tied up the Deathstalker series nicely.
I was originally a little disappointed when I discovered the final 3 books were following a new group of characters. Fortunately it wasn't long before its indicated Owen may make a return and from that point my minor gripe that the story wouldn't pick up form where Deathstalker Destiny wasn't an issue anymore.
Click to expand...

after finishing the Blue Moon Rising book by him I was excited to read the continuing adventures of Rupert and co. I read the synopsis for the second book and they aren't mentioned at all. The third book? Nope, also a completly new set of people. And then I read that the 2014 book is not good. I'll start the 2nd but at least I don't have a "must finish the series" mentality on this one because it doesn't seem there is a series to speak of.
 
besada said:
I just finished the Dune series (the ones by Frank Herbert only). I'd read the first three before, but not Heretics or Chapterhouse. After binging on the series, I have to say my favorites, in order, are:
Dune
Dune: Messiah
Chapterhouse:Dune
Children of Doom
God Emperor Dune
Heretics of Doom.

I really enjoyed Chapterhouse, and wish he hadn't followed his wife so quickly to the grave. Also, poor Duncan Idaho.
Click to expand...

If you ever feel to read something bad, see how badly others can mangle something, read Brian Herbert's and Kevin J. Anderson's sequels.
The prequels are not that bad, if you regard them as stand-alone works, unrelated to Dune, ignoring generally bad writing. Kind of pulp scifi, i think.

...

Don't read any of them. Save yourself from that.
 
Apologies if old- the Kindle version of The Girl on The Train is $2 today. Been on my list for a while and figured I'd give a heads-up to this thread.
 
ryseing said:
Apologies if old- the Kindle version of The Girl on The Train is $2 today. Been on my list for a while and figured I'd give a heads-up to this thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I have been debating getting that book for a couple months now.

I started the Assassin's Apprentice today.
 
TheOctodad said:
American Gods - Done
Snow Crash - Done

Now trying to finish Brothers Karamazov before my Folio edition of Dune arrives
Click to expand...
What did you think of American gods. I had initially heard good things and added it to my top read list. Since then I have heard some negative things. Wonder if I should bother with it or go to other Gaiman books first (I have only read the ocean at the end of the lane so far)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

The Barkley Marathons is back baby! Are you read for pain & suffering?
3
326
Robot Carnival replied
What are your thoughts on humility?
32
966
CGNoire replied
What are you reading? |OT|
|OT|  2 3
103
7K
calistan replied
Naked Gun Trailer - August 1st.
News  2 3
124
6K
Hookshot replied
What are your core values?
2
54
2K
CompleteGlobalSaturation replied
Top Bottom