TheKaeptain
Banned
I'm reading Brave New World. So far it shits on 1984 and other books like it.
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What are you reading? (July 2015)
- Thread starter Maklershed
- Start date
420bits
Member
After finishing the third book of The Acts of Caine last month I needed a break before I finish the series. Didn't really like the third book as much as the previous 2 so til feel the urge to read the fourth book I started with something new instead!
Tales of the otori
I'm almost done with the first part of it and I like it quite a lot, going to be interesting to see what the other books will reveal
Tales of the otori
I'm almost done with the first part of it and I like it quite a lot, going to be interesting to see what the other books will reveal
Oh my god, I thought you were shortening The Brothers Karamazov, and I was so confused by your spoiler tag. Haha.
On another note, Mumei. M.U.M.E.I. Why didn't you have me start reading Fairyland first instead of John Prester? This book is significantly more enjoyable, and I'm currently loving the writer's prose and style. I seldom laugh out loud in book, and I'm doing so with this one. If it doesn't falter, it could be a 5/5 novel.
arglebargle
Member
i finished the swerve late last month. some sections are more compelling than others, but overall it tells a pretty interesting story. and lucretius's insights were very impressive considering he had them almost 2000 years before anyone else.
in keeping with my recent reading goal, i now alternate to a fiction title. i loved the road when i read it earlier this year so i decided to try blood meridian.
good so far but the violence and inhumanity can be a bit hard to take. maybe i just needed a longer break after the bleakness of the road. mccarthy really is an amazing writer though. his scenes come alive, his vocabulary is prodigious and interesting, and the style really matches the content.
in keeping with my recent reading goal, i now alternate to a fiction title. i loved the road when i read it earlier this year so i decided to try blood meridian.
good so far but the violence and inhumanity can be a bit hard to take. maybe i just needed a longer break after the bleakness of the road. mccarthy really is an amazing writer though. his scenes come alive, his vocabulary is prodigious and interesting, and the style really matches the content.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
I just suggested a couple of titles I had around, I think it was Buddenbrooks, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and one other title I can't recall. The plan was to co-read one of my suggestions, and let someone else go next. No one bit, but at least I got to read Tess
Y The Last Man series - it's fucking amazing!
That looks good judging by its cover! Do you have a goodreads link?
I just suggested a couple of titles I had around, I think it was Buddenbrooks, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and one other title I can't recall. The plan was to co-read one of my suggestions, and let someone else go next. No one bit, but at least I got to read Tess
Oh cool. I'm in as long as the books are relatively short. Mind you I've been doing this a few years... So I am kinda running out of short novels.
goodreads.com/ashes1396
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I'm reading 'three men in a boat' next, after I finish As I Lay Dying. Half way done with Down and Out in Paris and London.
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Buddenbrooks at 700 pages+ is too long for me. As I need to read a couple of books a week.
Blood Meridian was much more disturbing to me than the Road. At least with the Road, you had very human and sympathetic characters in the man and his boy.
Everyone is a bastard in Blood Meridian.
I'm nearing the end of 1776. My reading pace has slowed a bit in the last few weeks, so I will probably finish up on Friday. I'm not sure what I will be reading next.
I am currently about 1/3rd of the way through this and it is quite fascinating. Instead of a chronological narrative it instead takes a thematic approach and I am glad they did. Learning a great deal about the how and the why interests more than the what.
This isnt really thematic, but one thing that I found really interesting is that Burning of the Books and Burying of Scholars by the Qin Dynasty is really Han propaganda. There is no evidence besides that propaganda that the Qin actually did that, and there is a decent amount of evidence, by employing certain scholars and referencing supposedly banned books in government documents that they did neither.
..Damn. Well, if I'm not feeling it I'll just read the synopsis and your article, haha. Thanks.
Plasticine
Member
Just started.
Perfect Blue
Banned
Darknet by Matthew Mather
My first foray into modern science fiction. It's pretty good so far.
My first foray into modern science fiction. It's pretty good so far.
I mean, movie tickets are $10 and you don't even get to keep the movie.
And if you can't afford the already lower ebook price, there are innumerable other opportunities to get books for lower prices (sales / special offers, used bookstore) or for free (library). That said, I do get feeling like paying $12 is a lot to pay for something that you don't physically own - and frankly that's one reason ebooks wouldn't do it for me apart from anything: I really don't like paying that much for something I wouldn't physically own. And yet I think they should be that much, because I don't see how it would work if they weren't.
And I'm glad you agree A Little Life is worth $12.
Anyway.
I finished Outlander yesterday, and it was ... ugh. It's so rape-y and rape apologist-y. And it's annoying, because I like parts of it, but the rape-y parts ruin it for me. And it's not just that there are rape-y parts, but how those parts are done.
I'm about a quarter of the way into rereading A Wild Sheep Chase, and have been for several weeks now; I got sidetracked by working too many hours to feel motivated to read much.
The writing is exponentially more accessible than John. That's probably the biggest aspect. Having the kindle to look up definitions rather has been helpful. I might also have more wisdom than when I read John Prester (so many books read since that time).
Hoping to plow through 50% of the novel today. I want to get back to Mandela's autobiography before another library book becomes available.
Edit: I am impressed by September's lexicon.
I know nothing about Outlander besides it being super popular, especially among women. Have to say, kinda surprised that a rape apologist-y book became that popular.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
disastermouse
Banned
On audiobook, I'm listening to Shinzen Young's 'The Science of Enlightenment' again.
For nonfiction, I'm reading 'Wired for Story' (I'm an aspiring writer).
For fiction, I just finished Seveneves.
For nonfiction, I'm reading 'Wired for Story' (I'm an aspiring writer).
For fiction, I just finished Seveneves.
Live in Japan... Ah, I didn't know it's not out in paperback. I rarely buy hardcovers so spending $7-8 on paperbacks is what I'm used to. And id be willing to pay $12 for an author I already love but not for one I'm reading for the first time. Maybe I'll get her earlier book,
Syph Medwes
Member
Really? I personally found it inferior.
Anyway, after finishing The Stranger, my book of the day/week this time around is:
same lol
Yep! Fifty books. I've not been doing terribly well. But it is high time I kicked into second gear.
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On that note, I have finished As I Lay Dying. The beginning of the book is a mess. It is only when you get to about two thirds in that you realise why it was a mess. Hence why I went back to the beginning after reading nearly the entire book.
Much of the read was frustrating. And hard work. I have no qualms in admitting my difficulties. And though I will not be recommending this book with great enthusiasm, I want to say that I at least came to understand why this is seen by some as a seminal work.
Whether you talk about Faulkner utilising an almost chiastic style to demonstrate how the character's [or ours if you want to extend the commentary] thoughts change through the passage of time from a major event to his cynical commentaries on how different our inner and outer worlds are. To the more subtle portrayal of the poor's kindness and neighbourly conduct against the middle classes more errant ways. I would add to the litany of voices in claiming that yeah, he's darn good at what he does.
The Deep South serves as a good background to this cast of characters, or put another way the cast of characters shed some decent light on the workings of the Bundren family in the Deep South. I did in the end enjoy this part the most fully aware that this isn't what will grip most people - especially when a lot of readers will be from the American side of the Atlantic.
disastermouse
Banned
I'm so glad to hear you say that! I think that the world depicted in BNW is a more accurate representation of domination than that of 1984.
HORRORSHØW
Member
thinking of starting naked lunch for some research
31GhostsIV
Banned
I've just finished reading Stephen King's The Dead Zone as i've read bugger all this year and wanted something fairly easy to read to get back in the swing of it. A character in the book references 'that book 'Carrie' - Kingception! An enjoyable book for what it is and only the second King book i've ever read (the other being The Gunslinger).
Nick Cave's 'and the ass saw the angel' is next up, plus a couple of graphic novels (do we discuss them in here?) ordered: Neil Gaiman's 'Violent Cases' and the first volume of 100 Bullets.
Nick Cave's 'and the ass saw the angel' is next up, plus a couple of graphic novels (do we discuss them in here?) ordered: Neil Gaiman's 'Violent Cases' and the first volume of 100 Bullets.
Maklershed
Member
Deal alert: one of my favorite post-apocalypse books from one of my favorite authors is on sale today for the Kindle - Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I simply can't recommend it enough.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
RepairmanJack
Member
Had a boring day so I pushed through another 20% of this or so, it definitely picks back up but for a good quarter of the book it was boring as hell.
Well, the paperback is out, but it is perpetually sold out for some reason.
It's a time travel bodice-ripper romance-ish novel. I'm not exactly surprised by its popularity; I can see why there would be a sort of transgressive appeal for some women (and perhaps some men). But the way the whole thing just completely emphasizes her femininity, which in physical terms is defined by weakness and vulnerability, and in terms of her dependency for physical protection by male companions, which is pretty directly linked to her subordinate status (which isn't always directly demonstrated, but when it is... it is).... And then there are several scenes where a man and a woman in a relationship have sex, where the man forces himself upon the woman and she is clearly resisting or in pain (with phrases like "“I mean to make ye call me ‘master,"; “No!” I gasped. “Stop, please, you’re hurting me!”; "invading, battering"; "disregarding"; "forced to the edge of some total surrender"), and yet these scenes are never portrayed as rape within the story itself. It plays off the classic rape apologist trope of, "I don't want to have sex with you - wait now we're having sex and my body responded and I really wanted it the whole time."
Anyway, I don't recommend it. I do recommend that everyone read A Little Life, though! Clearly not enough people are biting on the suggestion, so if anyone would like a bit of a push, listen to episode #322 of Books on the Nightstand. It's hosted by two people who work for Penguin Random House in the Northeast (I think Massachusetts) as book sellers to bookstores, and they spend each episode talking about topics in publishing and upcoming books that they're looking forward to their audience reading. In this episode, for the first time, they featured just one book, A Little Life.
Christoff Yurievich
Member
Sigh. Just about every browser has the ability to highlight text, right click said highlight, and a "search" option in that context menu. I'm using IE9 (at work) and it has it. I just did that and the fourth link down is a goodreads link.
Started reading this one yesterday. Not very far into it but it's pretty funny. I hear him all the time on Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me so it's nice reading more about him.
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Grimløck;170653160 said:
thinking about going into heroin?
I just suggested a couple of titles I had around, I think it was Buddenbrooks, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and one other title I can't recall. The plan was to co-read one of my suggestions, and let someone else go next. No one bit, but at least I got to read Tess
The other book was A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I didn't bite because I've read Tess and Buddenbrooks, and I don't have Portrait. But I didn't realise the co-reader would get to choose the next book! I have ton of classics mouldering on my bookshelves I haven't read...
All right. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is bloody amazing. Utterly adored it. Valente is on my quality authors list now. Still doesn't mean I'll go back to John Prester. I'll continue with the Fairyland series in the near future. It's a novel if I ever have kids, I'll force them to read it to appreciate quality young adult literature.
Now I'll continue with A Long Walk to Freedom starting tomorrow morning.
Now I'll continue with A Long Walk to Freedom starting tomorrow morning.
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America
I never really had a good concept of how terrifying it was to be Black in the Jim Crow South.
I never really had a good concept of how terrifying it was to be Black in the Jim Crow South.
I told you it doesn't falter. :3
You also said I probably wouldn't like the novel!
Edit: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America sounds right up my alley. Tossing it in my backlog. Plus living in Florida for 25 years of my life, I should learn more about why my state is horrible.
Maklershed
Member
So you're this Florida Man I've been hearing so much about?
Well, I had no faith in your ability to appreciate the admittedly excessive prose, and you gave me good cause for that~
RepairmanJack
Member
Anyone have a suggestion for some dark ass noir style novel? Looking for something along the lines of True Detective or something like it. Trying to line up my next book after hopefully finishing 11/22/63 this weekend.
Maklershed
Member
Very dark, very noir ...
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
If you like this you have three more in the series and each book gets better and better!
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
yeah? Suggest a couple, and I'll try to pick it one of them up before I leave on vacation tomorrow
RepairmanJack
Member
Very dark, very noir ...
The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
If you like this you have three more in the series and each book gets better and better!
Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check this out.
yeah? Suggest a couple, and I'll try to pick it one of them up before I leave on vacation tomorrow
Ok
here are a few: Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment; Joseph Conrad - Nostromo, The Secret Agent, Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness; George Eliot - Silas Marner; Flaubert - Madame Bovary; Hermann Hesse - The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf; Vladimir Nabokov - Pale Fire; John Steinbeck - East of Eden, Tortilla Flat; Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth; Emile Zola - TruthBut I have more if none of those take your fancy.
Ok
But I have more if none of those take your fancy.
Pale Fire!