What are you reading?

[Mantra]

I suppose my question really is this; yes I understand editing the one post that cut and paste but why would any formatting edits show up in all posts if they are a new post (and not, say, a reply to the one with the formatting) and if it's showing up in each post but I'm not cutting and pasting from another source, what's going on and how to correct that​.

Your text is totally normal in all your other posts. It's only different in the ones where you copy and paste your review.

[allegate]

as promised:

https://i.imgur.com/RzrB9Nf.png

[MrLobster]

as promised:

Yeah, based on the examples, I'd say it was the cut and paste but not removing the formatting issue. The fun part is that for most of the cut and pasting, it was from the previous post... :)

[MrLobster]

Starting: "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (Folio Society edition (https://www.foliosociety.com/ca/the-hitchhiker-s-guide-to-the-galaxy.html)); probably my first real re-read of it since the late 1980s... although I've listened to the radio series many times since then. I'm intending to pick up all the Folio Society editions of his books (replacing the previous hard cover editions I already have of most of them; I've been a long term quest to replace as many of the paperback and trade editions I have with hard cover ones, if they exist, of all of my books).

[MrLobster]

Finished: "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams; still makes me laugh. Looking forward to reading the other four novels in the next two years (Folio editions aren't cheap).

Starting: "Agency" by William Gibson

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Agency" by William Gibson; I liked it, but I tend to like all of his novels... another trip 23minutes into the future, just maybe not our future. However, if you've read "Exegesis" by Astro Teller, the plot may seem familiar.

Starting: "Misadventure" by Millard Kaufman

[Shadaloo]

Got me the Knickerbocker release of the complete H.P. Lovecraft fiction collection. So much I never had the chance to explore before now. :)

[allegate]

https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/1227264562975645696

Holy shit. Wow, I was not expecting that.

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Misadventure" by Millard Kaufman; I liked it but it took a bit to get into... but once it did it grabbed quite well. SoCal noir with a raw feel to it.

Starting: "Discovering Scarfolk - For tourists & other trespassers".

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Discovering Scarfolk — For tourists & other tresspassers” by Richard Littler; if you extrapolate the darkest humour by Douglas Adams, you’ll have a sense of Scarfolk… I liked it.

Starting: “Gods Behaving Badly” by Marie Phillips.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Gods Behaving Badly” by Marie Phillips; a fun read. I liked it but I don't need to keep it.

Starting: "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh (ARC version)

[MrLobster]

Stopped: "Sea of Poppies" by Amitav Ghosh (ARC version); lovely writing style but not one that is grabbing me.

Starting: "Hunger's Brides" by Paul Anderson (sure I bought the HC 15years ago while the author was in "my store" but now I'll get to reading it...)

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Hunger's Brides" by Paul Anderson... that was a big book. It's a smart book that doesn't mind showing off being smart. I think it could have been 2 or 3 smaller novels and achieve the same effect it was going for. It's written a few different styles; modern prose, poetry, stream of consciousness/magical thinking, screenplay and diary (and while they each serve the novel, it may also just be another way keep the reader interested). Is it good? Tough to me say... but I did finish reading it, so there's that but I also won't be keeping it. It can go find another good home.

Starting: "The Sea Road" by Margaret Elphinstone

[MrLobster]

Finished: "The Sea Road" by Margaret Elphinstone... the life and times of an Icelandic woman making it to Vinland and back, and then on to Rome. It's not a complicated book, pretty basic in the narrative style (at least in comparison to "Hunger's Brides") but worth reading if you're into the sagas.

Taking a little break for my brainmeats while I wait for a book in mail (should be the end of the week).

[Sarah_Munn]

Lost Acre (Rotherweird Book Three) by Andrew Caldecott, False Value by Ben Aaronovitch and Shameless: a sexual reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber

[allegate]

I decided to use this COVID time to get every Humble Bundle book I've purchased and organize them in Goodreads and then read them all. I'm sure that anyone following me over there has been wondering at the depth and breadth of the selections, going from an entire IDW run of Transformers to books about python and the Sword of Truth books.

So far the hardest thing is finding reading orders for the comic books and getting them downloaded. Humble has a bulk option for downloading but it doesn't always work.

[somewhat_]

In a sci-fi mood - just finished the Atlantis Gene trilogy. Think I might read Dune next.

[allegate]

If you've read My Best Friend's Exorcism the author has put some notes and highlights (https://www.goodreads.com/notes/41015038-my-best-friend-s-exorcism/1578733-grady-hendrix?ref=bsfknh) up on Goodreads.


>Where everyone was desperate to be an individual, but they all were terrified to stand out.

I wrote the first draft of this book and gave it to my wife to read, then sat back and waited for her to fall over in awe of my genius. Instead, she waited until we were on the subway to tell me it was a dumpster fire. It was all clichés and stereotypes. The characters felt thin, the situations were predictable, the emotions felt second hand. When I finished having my little man tantrum, I realized she was right. Everything in that draft was lifted from a John Hughes movie or a horror flick. I’d regurgitated tropes from the high school books and movies I’d been consuming all my life. I had been playing with someone else’s toys. What I hadn’t done was the hard work of actually remembering what high school in the Eighties had felt like. So I sat down with all her journals and letters and photos from back then, and all my journals and letters and photos, and spent a few weeks just reading them. I copied letters over again to remember how it felt to write them. I did that so much my handwriting changed. And, finally, after a couple of weeks, I remembered what it felt like to sit on the Quad at lunch on a Spring day. I heard the seagulls and the conversations, I remembered what the wet grass felt like, and how I wanted to be seen, and who I was talking to, and what I wanted them to think about me. It was a perfect memory of a few seconds, but that memory led to another, then another, and pretty soon I had the beginnings of this book. That sentence about being an individual? That’s word-for-word right out of the diary I kept in 1990 when I was 17.

[Jinsai]

re-reading The Shining... anyone got any recommendations for horror or sci fi that deals with cabin fever?


In a sci-fi mood - just finished the Atlantis Gene trilogy. Think I might read Dune next.

Oh yes, you must read Dune if you haven't yet. It's maybe the best sci fi epic novel of all time. It's like the "Star Wars of books"
Everyone should read Dune.

[eversonpoe]

If you've read My Best Friend's Exorcism the author has put some notes and highlights (https://www.goodreads.com/notes/41015038-my-best-friend-s-exorcism/1578733-grady-hendrix?ref=bsfknh) up on Goodreads.

i was JUST telling a friend today to read grady's books. i can't wait for his new one!

[fillow]

re-reading The Shining... anyone got any recommendations for horror or sci fi that deals with cabin fever?


There's so much more S. King stuff that deals with being locked in a narrow space... Misery, Cujo, Gerald's Game to name a few

[Jinsai]

There's so much more S. King stuff that deals with being locked in a narrow space... Misery, Cujo, Gerald's Game to name a few

I guess it's just that once I've gotten through this I don't think I'm going to be in the mood for more King, and I've already read all of those. Has anyone read the novel "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" I'd be interested in reading that actually if it's any good.

[eversonpoe]

finished The Secret Chapter (book 6 in the Invisible Library series)

will be starting A Gathering Of Shadows (book 2 in the Shades Of Magic series)

[allegate]

https://twitter.com/TorDotComPub/status/1252221032922038281

This is a really fun and quick read and the whole series is going to be released for free this week because of the full-length novel being released. Each day a new book will be released so have at it.

[Jinsai]

I'm about to start reading Whatever Happened to Baby Jane... I'm diving into isolation horror. I guess I'll find out if it's any good.

[Tabris]

There was a 2 for 1 deal on comics / manga at Indigo and I had a spare gift card from Christmas so fuck yeah. Decided to catch up on some manga series.

Been reading:
Attack on Titan Before the Fall: 11-17
Demon Slayer: 4-11
Dorohedoro: 1 and 2

Also reading the book One Year After and been gradually rereading Attack on Titan (on book 6 atm.)

[MrLobster]

Back into the groove...

Started: "Radicalized" by Cory Doctorow

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Radicalized" by Cory Doctorow ... Whew, it's only fiction. *looks outside* Oh. Right.

Starting: "Decision at Thunder Rift" by William H. Keith, Jr. (1992 reprint). As you may know I quite like the space opera universe that Battletech has created for itself and as I'm still quite happy with the PC game, I figured I'd try collecting the novels as well. This is the first one.

[allegate]

yeah, he's got some ideas. check out Information Doesn't Want to Be Free next.

[MrLobster]

yeah, he's got some ideas. check out Information Doesn't Want to Be Free next.

Yeah, I'm familiar enough with the subject already, I'm good (long time Doctorow reader and generally agree with his takes... along with Bruce Sterling).

[Tabris]

Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 Vol 1. Fucking adore this series, it's just so charming.

[allegro]

Re-Reading “The Minds of Billy Milligan” by Daniel Keyes.

The true story of a guy with at least 24 distinct personalities (http://horrorfuel.com/2017/01/29/billy-milligan-24-others/), including one who spoke fluent German, one who spoke fluent Serbian, a lesbian woman, a young child, a teenaged English boy, etc. He was put on trial for several sexual assaults but was found not guilty due to his multiple personalities.

I’d just stumbled across an article stating he’d died of cancer in 2014.

This is an actual case, vs. “Sybil” which turned out to be fictional.

https://www.learning-mind.com/case-of-billy-milligan/

Leonardo DiCaprio was involved in the movie version, called “The Crowded Room,” playing Milligan, but it stalled in 2016.

Milligan was the inspiration for the movie “Split (https://horrorfreaknews.com/meet-billy-milligan-real-life-inspiration-movie-split/14739).” Although, this is a pretty bad characterization because I guess they make him out to be a demon, rather than what is now known as "DID" or dissociative identity disorder.


Also reading “A Warning” by Anonymous

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Decision at Thunder Rift" by William H. Keith, Jr. (1992 reprint). Well, I enjoyed it and it inspired me to set up a few single player skirmishes in the PC game (sure, take down a Marauder with a Shadow Hawk and Locust... it'll be fine).

Starting: "Beau Brummell -- The Ultimate Man of Style" by Ian Kelly, I'm waiting for more sequential Battletech novels to arrive and then I'll dive back into them...

[MrLobster]

Stopped: "Beau Brummell -- The Ultimate Man of Style" by Ian Kelly; it turns out I just don't care enough about the subject and the writing style wasn't connecting with me. So at 61pages, I'm tapping out...

Starting: "I Was A Teenage Katima-Victim! -- A Canadian Odyssey" by Will Ferguson ... I've started this book previously but wasn't dedicating the time for reading like I am now, so I'll start this one again.

[MrLobster]

Finished: "I Was A Teenage Katima-Victim! -- A Canadian Odyssey" by Will Ferguson ... it's funny and captivating. Like most of his works. I'm glad I finally devoted the time to get into it properly.

Starting: "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams (2011 Folio Society edition), this replaces my OG version and continues the Folio Society collected editions I'm going for... my beloved picked up this one as an anniversary present.

[MrLobster]

Finished: "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" by Douglas Adams (2011 Folio Society edition)... yup, still made me a laugh a lot.

Starting: “Life, the Universe and Everything” by Douglas Adams (2014 Folio Society edition), the only one of the five books I didn't already have in HC.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Life, the Universe and Everything” by Douglas Adams (2014 Folio Society edition) -- quite good and I the vague recollection that this was the first one of Adams books I had read, checking it out from the public school library in grade 7. In a lot of ways it was an awakenings book for me...

Starting: "Mercenary's Star" by William H. Keith, Jr.; some more of the Battletech novels I was waiting for showed up today, so now I can binge on the last two of those in "The Saga of the Gray Death Legion" trilogy. Yay.

[allegate]

Not going to do the other two books in the trilogy?

I mean I understand not doing the Eoin Colfer book. That was a one and done book for sure.

[MrLobster]

Not going to do the other two books in the trilogy?

When I collect the other two Folio Society editions, then I'll read them... but first my partner needs to order them (she's been buying them for me as presents, but we've accelerated the timeline on that because COVID times, just to be safe... but it's not the sort of thing we can really buy all at once, they cost "real money").

[onthewall2983]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/5187LPGYDQL._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[allegate]

man that's a great book. I also know there's no fucking way i could read it right now, it's just too intense.

[allegro]

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61rKa+3bGIL.jpg

[elevenism]

Shaun Atwood is giving away free kindle versions of his books, one a week, for the covid thing.

He an Englishman who writes about things like the CIA and the drug war, Pablo Escobar, and, my favorite, a trilogy about how he built a massive mdma and rave party operation in Arizona in the 90s, his time in Sherrif Joe's infamous county jail hell hole in Phoenix, and his time in federal prison.

Certainly not high literature, but they're fun to read, especially if you went to raves in the 90s, have ever been locked up, or are interested in drug criminal policy and misconduct, like the cocaine Contra affair.

[onthewall2983]

man that's a great book. I also know there's no fucking way i could read it right now, it's just too intense.

I'm just an intense kind of guy (actually Amazon had it on sale)

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Mercenary's Star" by William H. Keith, Jr.; yeah, I liked it. Not much more to say really. If you like BattleTech novels, you'll probably like this one but I would recommend reading "Decision At Thunder Rift" first. (and with that done, if I'm counting correctly, that's 33 books started and finished since last June... I'm okay with that)

Starting: "The Price Of Glory" by William H. Keith, Jr.; well... I need to finish the trilogy, don't I?

[MrLobster]

Finished: "The Price Of Glory" by William H. Keith, Jr.; it's my favourite of the trilogy. Maybe it's because the characters have grown or the story is more interesting but either way, my favourite so far.

Starting: "Wolves On The Border" by Robert Charrette

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Wolves On The Border" by Robert Charrette; quite the page turner I found and also enjoyed it.


Starting: “Warrior: En Garde” by Michael A. Stackpole.

[allegate]

I know this is a reading thread but it's an audiobook:

if you haven't read the book The Elementals (https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Elementals-Audiobook/B01HHB0VIU?ref=a_author_Mi_c19_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=1ae0e65e-ad09-4aa7-aa73-772cefb1b5e1&pf_rd_r=6RVRMQ8B20VQWRWRCW0E) by Michael McDowell then you should check this one out. It's $2.95 for today only and it's a really good read. It's gothic horror but with a twist of being in the sunniest place: the Gulf Coast of Alabama. I don't think I've seen a horror story set in a place where you can see everything so it was a change for sure.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Warrior: En Garde” by Michael A. Stackpole; took a bit to get into it but there are a lot of moving parts. Looking forward to volume 2. I also liked how there was a reference to the Saga of the Gray Death Legion in it... and how the cover art actually showed a scene from the book.


Starting: “Warrior: Riposte” by Michael A. Stackpole.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Warrior: Reposte” by Michael A. Stackpole — I liked it. References both an earlier BattleTech novel (Wolves on the Border; it was interesting to see the scene from a different perspective and if the reader didn't read Wolves, then it may come off as less than it is) and Buckaroo Banzai. Cover showed a scene but the Centurion looks weird to my PC game eyes.

Starting: “Warrior: Coupé” by Michael A. Stackpole, may as well finish the series. And then, if all my other stuff has arrived, I can take a break from BattleTech novels and maybe read comics. Yeah, comics.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Warrior: Coupé” by Michael A. Stackpole, I really enjoyed the conclusion of that trilogy. Referenced the Gray Death saga and the cover depicted a scene from the novel (always nice). I'm really enjoying reading these now..... (also, the comics haven't arrived yet, so there's that)

Starting: “Heir To The Dragon” by Robert N. Charrette

[allegate]

I didn't find a Brandon Sanderson thread but I saw this on Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragonsteel/the-way-of-kings-10th-anniversary-leatherbound-edition?ref=28cb1w) and it looks pretty dang cool. My brother in law is a big fan so we ordered it for Christmas 2021. You know, if we make it that far. Anyway. The tricky part is going to be asking him what his favorite order is and also making sure he doesn't find out about it.

Weird that the $200 version is either the book and a $10 gift card and nothing else or the book and all the extras but no $10 card.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Heir To The Dragon” by Robert N. Charrette; also good. References Wolves on the Border and the Warrior trilogy. Cover art depicts a scene from the novel (but not a very interesting one). References the saga of the Gray Death Legion as well.


Starting: “Lethal Heritage” by Michael A. Stackpole ... riiiight after a brief detour into 25 issues of Spawn.

[allegro]

Mary Trump’s book

[fillow]

I can't stop reading Remarque novels.

Just finished All Quiet on the Western Front, which was preceded in the last few months by Spark of Life, A Time to Live and a Time to Die, Shadows in Paradise

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Lethal Heritage” by Michael A. Stackpole … /now/ *that’s* a way to kick off a trilogy. Maybe I will go watch that BattleTech TV show after all… reference the saga of the Gray Death Legion and the Warrior trilogy. Cover depicts a tense scene in the book...


Starting: “Blood Legacy” by Michael A. Stackpole

[r_z]

Reading a 800 page book about WWI. Queued are a 1200 page book about the Renaissance und two books about the Thirty Years War, about 800 pages each.

See you in 2028.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Blood Legacy” by Michael A. Stackpole … Very enjoyable and a quick pace. Cover depicts a scene from the novel. Oh those Clanners…


Starting: “Lost Destiny” by Michal A. Stackpole.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Lost Destiny” by Michal A. Stackpole. … the right things happened to the right people. Quite engaging.

Starting: “Way Of The Clans” by Robert Thurston

[allegate]

Starting a re-read of Lovecraft Country since the series is out. I have a set of people I live with (you might even call them my wife and son) who don't like waiting for episodes so I'm not watching the series until it's over anyway so why not.

And since I'm here, I will also recommend one of his other books called "The Mirage".

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442342064l/12067161._SX318_.jpg


A mind-bending novel in which an alternate history of 9/11 and its aftermath uncovers startling truths about America and the Middle East

11/9/2001: Christian fundamentalists hijack four jetliners. They fly two into the Tigris & Euphrates World Trade Towers in Baghdad, and a third into the Arab Defense Ministry in Riyadh. The fourth plane, believed to be bound for Mecca, is brought down by its passengers.

The United Arab States declares a War on Terror. Arabian and Persian troops invade the Eastern Seaboard and establish a Green Zone in Washington, D.C. . . .

I'm also listening to "Glory Road" from Heinlein.

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362651116l/17561920.jpg

Man it has a dumb beginning. This book takes about two chapters to get started on anything other than minutia of the protagonist's life. And when you're thrust into situations he's always Johnny-on-the-spot with a literary reference (John Carter pops up a lot) and even at one point says "well I guess I'm in a story, I hope the author likes me" which is either really inside the baseball or on the nose about what this book actually is.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Way Of The Clans” by Robert Thurston … pretty sure (some names were really familiar and then the last 1/4 of the book was familiar as well, but I'm not 100% sure) this was the one BattleTech novel I read back in the early/mid 90s (there is the slim possibility that I've read one other but I'll know when get there). I liked it.


Starting: “Bloodname” by Robert Thurston

[magnolia]

I’ve never ventured into this thread before, but I just started “Juliet, Naked” by Nick Hornby. I absolutely adore “High Fidelity”, but other books of his I’ve hated, so I was ambiguous about reading this one. But I’ve been really tickled by it so far, as it’s centered around a music fanatic who posts to a message board of his favorite artist... anyone else here read this one?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MrLobster]

anyone else here read this one?

Nope. The only Hornby I've read were some of his McSweeney's books ("The Polysyllabic Spree", "Hosuekeeping vs. The Dirt" and "Shakespeare Wrote For Money").

[allegate]

Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein


eh. If it gave itself over to more of a satire it would be better. it takes itself seriously in places that should (could) have been better if it were satire but it's so serious. It's so serious that there are places where you just hope and pray that it's not but it so is.


I'm pretty sure this is what Terry Goodkind read to come up with the characters in his Sword of Truth books.

[MrLobster]

Finished “Bloodname” by Robert Thurston; I was wrong. It was this book that I had read previously. Much more familiar that “Way Of The Clans” (even the cover started to seem familiar, the yellow text on red)… still liked it.


Starting: “Falcon Guard” by Robert Thurston

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Falcon Guard” by Robert Thurston … it was interesting to see a Clan Jade Falcon perspective of the Inner Sphere invasion. I liked it.


Starting: “Wolf Pack” by Robert N. Charrette

[allegate]

finished the Hunger Games prequel. It was not a good book. I honestly don't know who this book was written for. It's like A Phantom Menace all over again. My review from Goodreads:



If you like the other three books stay away from this. as bad as the ending to that series was, this one is like "what if I tried even less than I did on that one?" in execution. seriously, it's like the whole chapter from the last book where Katniss was all "the whole thing is taking place over there and I don't know what they're doing and I don't want to know either" so you the reader are completely left in the dark as to the denouement of the story, except in this one they speak around it and there are time gaps and it's just like "ok well that's a couple hundred pages, I think we're good here" and it's done in an info dump. what the actual fuck.


and the constant "here's a easter egg for you!" things were annoying. "Oh, hey, here's a tuber and guess what it's called Katniss! I don't like the name everyone else calls it so I'm going to use that one all the time." really? and they just happen to go to the same District that we already know from the OG series so that there is zero expansion on the world building?


I did have three stars but I've talked myself into two now. And I know if I get started on the whole "Snow's a good guy at heart, until he isn't" I'll bump it down to one. So I'm going to conveniently forget that, much like several characters in the book.


God, that info dump at the end was just too much. And since I was listening to the audio book the constant 'songs' that dude just read instead of even trying were such a chore. at least if I had been reading the book I could have skipped them! some of them were long too. wow.

[eversonpoe]

finished the Hunger Games prequel. It was not a good book. I honestly don't know who this book was written for. It's like A Phantom Menace all over again. My review from Goodreads:

well, glad i was planning to avoid it. holy shit that sounds awful.

i feel like the hunger games and harry potter both have the same problem - terrible epilogue.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Wolf Pack” by Robert N. Charrette… quite the finish to this trilogy (even though it’s not consider one… all three books deal with Draconic Combine and the Wolf’s Dragoons).

Starting: “Natural Selection” by Michael A. Stackpole

[muad'nin]

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1381287623l/17841838.jpg

Great book. Roughly two-thirds of the way through. Some parts I need to read and re-read to get a handle on, but it’s endlessly fascinating.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Natural Selection” by Michael A. Stackpole … A nice continuation of the previous trilogy (Blood of Kerensky).


Starting: “The Finder” by Will Ferguson (just not quite yet, going to take a little break from my reading schedule and rest the brainmeats).

[allegate]

Finished this today.

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598907677l/55196513._SX318_.jpg


Here's the Goodreads link (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55196513-unspoken); also it's free with an Audible subscription.

If you have a kid, it's heart-breaking. If you're going to have a kid, it's heart-breaking. If you only have a sibling, it's heart-breaking. It's also pretty hilarious, so be fully prepared to laugh and then seconds later have tears in your eyes. It was a tough walk into work today with tears in my eyes and laughing at the same time. The chapter where he talks about getting his son ready to go at the end...Yeah, I just sat in the changing room and sobbed a bit. Really rough, but it is the best use of grief I've heard. Not sure how to recommend something like this, but it is a really good listen.

[Erneuert]

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1381287623l/17841838.jpg

Great book. Roughly two-thirds of the way through. Some parts I need to read and re-read to get a handle on, but it’s endlessly fascinating.

I suddenly want to read this too.

[muad'nin]

I suddenly want to read this too.

It’s so much fun. I have to restrict myself to only a bunch of pages per day, as some of the concepts are tough to get my head around, but if you’re a patient person I reckon you’ll dig it.

[MrLobster]

https://twitter.com/ericvondran/status/1319131501036879872

(normally I'd just post the way I usually do but I wanted an easy photo embed)

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Kitty Pryde and Wolverine" and I still like them. Took me 3 issues to remember why they are also kinda important to evolution of Kitty Pryde.

Starting: "Attack Surface" by Cory Doctorow...

[allegate]

I just finished The City We Became by J.K. Jemisin. Fucking brilliant. Quoting my goodreads review:


16 hours+ for the audiobook and only four days. That's a quiet indication that I couldn't put the, ah, headphones? down. The performance by Robin Miles is such that you feel the differences between the characters. And that third act surprise? that was aces.

I love this book. The way it shows people in power 'getting away with things' just by following the rules in place but also by letting those who need power not get it because they can't find anyone to enforce the rules? I feel that way frequently. And the way that people in power are allowed their...the word escapes me at the moment. But basically when you don't want to offend someone by telling them their idea is stupid and they're stupid for having it - legit stupid mind you, not just something you disagree with - so you don't say anything and then the idea is approved and acted upon? I feel that hard.

The same can be said of people with horrible opinions. The Borat movies show this to a degree where you have people in an awkward situation and just agreeing with him because he's the customer. Sure there's the possibility they're terrible people as well but also he just said he's going to buy $1k worth of stuff so yes sir, the sky <I>is</I> rather green today. This is most evident with the artists, especially manbun. The way the whole scene goes down with the social media posts and how they talk all the way up to the actionable line but dance around it? Polite society won't call anyone out on that because you can't just assume they mean the worst, they could be uninformed. They're never uninformed, they always know where the line is.

I saw a comic a few weeks ago - maybe it was a tweet? - anyway, the gist of it was there are two people arguing, left and right. The person on the right says "why don't you meet me in the middle? and the person on the left takes a step forward, because they want to be seen as ready to compromise. the person on the right takes a step backward and says "why don't you meet me in the middle?" The point being that the person on the left is so concerned with seeming nice and ready to work together that the person on the left will always bring them to their side eventually by all the damn compromises.

Also you can look into the names all you want, that's just where they were positioned. But if you're seeing it politically, well, maybe that's because that is also true.

The characters in the book are mostly fleshed out very well. I say mostly because there's a time or two when you're like "really?" Manbun for one, but then I'm not as online as a lot of people so maybe that's more truth than I'd like to admit.

I actually like how the entire group fails, it's a welcome change from happy ending books. The real world doesn't work that way, so why does most of fiction? I did however see the way out even while it was being set up, but all that was is me constantly running odds on storyline potentials while I'm reading, kind of like Queens and numbers. :) But it was well-earned in the story and didn't feel cheap.


In closing, I yield my time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hqx0oMCrg)

any ideas why a video linked as a shortcut is put into the post as an embedded video?

[MrLobster]

Finished: "Attack Surface" by Cory Doctorow... holy shit good. A lot dude techbros should read it. Powerful ethics arguments.

Starting: “Ideal War” by Christopher Kubasik; back into BattleTech.

[sketchymagpie]

Reading a book called "Other Minds" currently that's mostly about the cognitive function of cephalopods and some other animals. It's absolutely fascinating.

Sent from my HRY-LX1 using Tapatalk

[MrLobster]

Continuing my long term goal to replace my paperback with hardcover editions...

https://twitter.com/nscafe/status/1326968511097290753

A Bruce Sterling fiction anthology... not familiar with him? Well, how about William Gibson? Know him? Well, they co-wrote one book together and aside from that, Sterling writes in the same sort of near-future that Gibson does.

[holehead]

https://ibb.co/W0WVWVqRe-reading this life-changer - can't tell if it's in a good or a bad way. There's only one thing I can tell you: if you're over-thinking almost everything before reading this one, then you'll probably be over-thinking everything after reading it.

https://i.postimg.cc/rmfZhg8d/71f-PDYd-Qxo-L.jpg

PS: The only thing I cannot stand of this book is this F-in pencil trace on the cover, which I wish I could erase.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Ideal War” by Christopher Kubasik … quite good. I like the Knights of the Inner Sphere concept. Cover art had nothing to do with the novel… It might have been for “Decision At Thunder Rift” ("Ideal War" is Vallejo cover and the other two "The Saga Of The Gray Death Legion" novels have Vallejo covers but "Decision At Thunder Rift" does not... so... that's my theory... oh and no Marauder was ever mentioned in "Ideal War" and the cover for it features one prominently with the Gray Death Legion logo on the side).

Starting: “Main event” by Jim Long

[allegate]

Side note (which is weird because this is the first thing you're going to read) I'm cross-posting this because it's not just a review of the book, so apologies for that.

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571127808l/52894214._SX318_SY475_.jpg

This was without a doubt the best book I've read about parenting. Which is funny because there's a whole section about parenting books and the dumb people who recommend them.


See, I feel like those books and their message is based on a particular set of experiences and those don't happen universally. So if you get a book recommended to you and you're like "this is ridiculous" then the experiences they had to write the book don't match the ones you are having with your kid. Which makes these things difficult as far as recommendations go because no one knows what you're going through other than you so you have to read a bunch of books until you get the one where you're like "ah ha!". And for me, this is that book.


So here's the thing about that: my son is 15. So technically this book is "late" for me and any parenting tips should be wasted, right? Well, no. Because what this book did for me was put my fears and thoughts into a form that to me said "you aren't the only one who thought this, who went through this."


And if you watched the special on Netflix? Hey there's lots here that are extra. Sure some of the stories are verbatim from the show but so what? It is interesting piecing together where/when the stories here take place in regards to not only that show but also the other one "Thank God for Jokes". Which is only an aside but I personally like that meta info so I can place things. I'm weird, eh.


The nakedness of what he and his wife share in this book is at times both refreshing and also so intimate it's like you should be covering your eyes (ears?) or something. It's like you have private thoughts that you have and you don't share with anyone because you feel they are damaging and he's doing the audiobook equivalent of "I worked on this story for a year and he tweeted it out". And maybe I'm unique in this but my pet peeve is "Am I the only one who..." because when there are this many people in the world you aren't. Ever. So stop it! Anyway.


This part is the hardest for me to write about because they are deep thoughts of the sort you never say out loud because they scare you so much that you're afraid of scaring someone else when you share them. Like how when he mentions the story about him doing dishes? And then hours later in the book he talks about how there is never one side to a story and shares his wife's side where she says “You tell that story about me breast-feeding at the kitchen table. The only part that isn’t true is that you do the dishes.” And this leads him (condensing a bit here) to realizing that he needs to change as well. His wife changed from a wife to a mother and he doesn't feel like a father. So he changes a lot of things in his life and he becomes one. I can't say how slow or fast this happened, not all of the book has dates on it after all and it's his story-style to jump quickly sometimes, but it happens.


The only part of the book I was not a complete fan of was the poetry and that is only because I am not a poetry person. Some of them are just as nakedly honest as the book portion and that, I am ashamed to say, is part of it because it made me uncomfortable. This is not a good or bad thing, poetry does that, but in a review of a book that is at least a little bit about being honest with yourself and others it's important to say. And not in a conservative/ban-the-book kind of way, just in a way that art can make you feel sometimes. It's not a bad thing (I'm speaking to a figurative version of Mike's dad right now, I think) to feel like that, it's part of being a person.


The last thing I want to touch on is the "intern" aspect of being a father, as well as the “I get why dads leave.” I see a lot on the internet about dads and how they "babysit" their kids. (let's set aside the whole wife/husband/partner thing for this conversation just so I don't have to type it out every time; assume the correct descriptor for your situation as appropriate) This is (rightfully) derided when it is brought up. *You* aren't babysitting *your* kids - for one thing you're not being paid (https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fgiphy.com%2Fexplore%2Fbadum-tish&psig=AOvVaw3xe8ph3KSf5QZH3BrME9gZ&ust=1605725264599000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCND_3fSeiu0CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD)! - so his use of intern makes a little more sense at least, but seriously it's not something you should ever say. It's a partnership, you should be taking turns and trying to not hold each other back. (See: Vows, A. in the book) So if it seems imbalanced, it's not going to be that way forever. But it feels that way sometimes, especially when you're running on whatever fumes you have plus trying to not let things change your lives (see: Vows, addendum 1). You should have rational conversations about this, but I refer you back to the fumes you have to work with at this time. To describe it as a tight rope is being kind to the tight rope.


It's rough, and it can cause problems with both of you. Hmm, 'can' is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Can? Well, for a lot of people it's more like "will". And you can intuit from the book that it doesn't matter how settled you are in life. We were in our late 20s when we had a child and Mike was late 30s. Most of the experiences were the same, and we were way less OK in our life/work situation at the time. I remember telling my wife that he likes her way more than me. She was (and is) smarter than I though and said it would change. And it has. But the point is I readily identified with Mike when he says "I’m not in 'we' anymore? I'm a founding member of 'we'."


I've said a lot about this book. More than I think I've said about any other book here. The part that resonated with me the most is the end where he talks about what I've mentioned already, those thoughts that are so deep in yourself that you feel like exposing them would be akin to exposing yourself. But you have to share them with the person you're living with. If you don't, resentment can form. The first six years were fraught, the next couple were tense, but we have both grown to where we're way more honest with each other and it's due to the increase in sharing instead of bottling things up. Hell, there's at least two more paragraphs I could do about bottling things up but that's being drifty.


Also never ever use the babysitter argument! I wish I could go and take that argument back, to my eternal shame. College and exams are fleeting, spending time with your young child isn't. Well it is but it lasts for a nominally longer amount of time but then they just keep growing.


one final thought because it doesn't have anything to do with the book as a whole: the part where they talk about putting their cat down wrecked me. We had to put our cat of 18 years down in the spring of 2019 and the way he describes it is spot on. It's maybe the hardest I've ever cried and it was indeed a very naked feeling. The other time I'd cried that hard is at my dad's funeral, which surprised me because we weren't close but it just hit me because of the emotional turmoil of the previous three years plus other stuff sorta mentioned above. At any rate, I was driving while listening and it was raining and yeah it was tough to drive.


Ok two final thoughts. The opposite of the above happened frequently where I found myself positively cackling while listening to him describe a situation. I don't really do jokes so much as funny stories with some embellishment so I can really appreciate them when he cracks one off. The one about everyone in the YMCA hearing him 'brag' about his dad bod? As a man with a dad bod that had me going. I'm so glad I was alone while driving because it would have been weird to be near anyone who could hear me laughing that hard because I would have had to try to stifle it from fear of embarrassment.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Main event” by Jim Long … nice start to the Black Thorns but I’m wondering if there should have been an epilogue to wrap up what had happened on the planet. Seems like it was just cut short... maybe to have more impact of the final battle. I still liked it.

Starting: “Assumption Of Risk” by Michael A. Stackpole

[Mcenroy]

At the moment I prefer to listen to audiobooks as there is a huge deficit of free time. Now I am listening to Ben Elton's "Time and Time Again". Aa really great book! Strongly recommend to give it a go :)

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Assumption Of Risk” by Michael A. Stackpole … I liked it. Good to revisit those characters again. Cover does reflect the story but not at all in a way I expected (but I would have liked to have had a definitive conclusion to that plot branch).


Starting: “Blood Of Heroes” by Andrew Keith

[Jinsai]

The Sheltering Sky

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Blood Of Heroes” by Andrew Keith; took a moment to get into but I liked it. Nice to have more details on that plot branch from "Assumption Of Risk"; but it's still not done either. There's a dong typo on page 307.

Starting: “D.R.T.” by James D. Long.

(annnnd now I've started to mind map the BattleTech novels for my own clarity... and sense of geography and time. Sure, it means going back over the previous 20 novels and skim-reading them details but whatever, not like I was planning on anything for 2021 anyways)

[r_z]

Been listening to Moby Dick on my way to work and back every day for like a few weeks already. I wasn't expecting the kind of book it turned out to be. You know, the way he goes off on tangents and explains stuff about whales, ships, people, etc. for pages and pages.

It's a great book.

[MrLobster]

Been listening to Moby Dick on my way to work and back every day for like a few weeks already. I wasn't expecting the kind of book it turned out to be. You know, the way he goes off on tangents and explains stuff about whales, ships, people, etc. for pages and pages.

It's a great book.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS299VkXZxI

That video adds some context to the book that you might find interesting....

[r_z]

Yeah, I know about The Essex. Its story was turned into the movie Heart Of The Sea a few years back. Melville even mentions the incident in the book.

[halloween]

Can someone please give me a good reason to finish the last 10th of the book Anna Karenina? I've been white knuckling this book for soooo long. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is GREAT literature. It is wonderfully written and some aspects of the "Russian society of that time" is insteresting but....this book is not my type of book. Fantasy is more my world. The every day novel drama aspect is...ugh. Am I supposed to have cared for Anna Karenina? Because she annoyed me the same way almost everyone did. The one character I feel sort of invested in is Levin but....anyways, I put the book down and it takes me forever to pick it back up again. It's been sitting with me all year and I'm at the point where Kitty finally gave birth.

Should I care about how it all ends? Should I finish it just to say I finished it? I don't need reasons as to why I should "like this book" because I understand why it's good, I just also understand why it doesn't "capture my attention". The storyline is simply boring to me...

Anyways, to end this on a good note. What marked this year for me was reading The Road for the first time and it blew me away, it made me cry- it was that powerful. Now I'm re-reading American Gods and I'm loving it even more the second time around!

[MrLobster]

Yeah, I know about The Essex. Its story was turned into the movie Heart Of The Sea a few years back. Melville even mentions the incident in the book.

The video is also about the cultural context that gave rise to the industry which lead the Essex...

[r_z]

The video is also about the cultural context that gave rise to the industry which lead the Essex...
Yeah, that was great, thank you!

[r_z]

Can someone please give me a good reason to finish the last 10th of the book Anna Karenina? I've been white knuckling this book for soooo long. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it is GREAT literature. It is wonderfully written and some aspects of the "Russian society of that time" is insteresting but....this book is not my type of book. Fantasy is more my world. The every day novel drama aspect is...ugh. Am I supposed to have cared for Anna Karenina? Because she annoyed me the same way almost everyone did. The one character I feel sort of invested in is Levin but....anyways, I put the book down and it takes me forever to pick it back up again. It's been sitting with me all year and I'm at the point where Kitty finally gave birth.

Should I care about how it all ends? Should I finish it just to say I finished it? I don't need reasons as to why I should "like this book" because I understand why it's good, I just also understand why it doesn't "capture my attention". The storyline is simply boring to me...

Anyways, to end this on a good note. What marked this year for me was reading The Road for the first time and it blew me away, it made me cry- it was that powerful. Now I'm re-reading American Gods and I'm loving it even more the second time around!
You could say, the ending of Karenina's arc is important, because it's about wether she suceeds (or at least not fails) in having tried to break the rules of society.

Fun fact: There's a short story by Murakami called "Sleep". It's about a woman living a seemingly normal life with husband and children, who's suddenly unable to fall asleep. In her new spare time she goes on to read, as that's a time when everybody else is sleeping and nobody bothers her. The book she chooses to read over and over again is Anna Karenina!

[halloween]

I read Sleep! I loved it. It might have been the inspiration to finally pick up my copy of Anna Karenina after having on my shelf for a few years. Mmmm, I guess it will be interesting to see how society resolves itself in relation to Anna... Thank you!

[jmtd]

Just finished “troubled blood”. It was long

[MrLobster]

Finished: “D.R.T.” by James D. Long; another Black Thorns book. I liked it but Jereimah Rose is a fanatic. Cover art depicts an event in the story.

Starting: “Close Quarters” by Victor Milán

[elevenism]

Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge, by Mark Yarm.

This thing is fucking GREAT for people who came of age in the nineties. It's almost all made out of interviews, and chronicles the Melvins, Green River, and Mother Love Bone and such, as they give way to Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
It's REALLY fucking cool.

While I'm here, I wonder if anyone can recommend any other rock books. I'm normally a hardcore literature guy, but my favorite books of the past few years have been Maynard's book, Tricky's book, and Scar Tissue, by Anthony Keidis.
I just love this official (and unofficial) rock and roll stuff. When I was younger, I got a huge kick out of The Lives of John Lennon, a couple of Led Zep books including Hammer of the Gods, and even a few about Elvis: Elvis, Priscilla and Me, I think?
I also loved the John Belushi book, Wired, and the book about Nirvana called Heavier than Heaven.

I've got the Tom Petty biography on deck, alongside Matthew McConaughey's book.

Can you guys recommend any other rockstar/actor books?

[MrLobster]

https://twitter.com/ericvondran/status/1338928409024479232

[Jinsai]

Can you guys recommend any other rockstar/actor books?

Low Side of the Road about Tom Waits, the biography on Bob Dylan, and Life by Kieth Richards.. especially that last one, wow does that get entertaining.

[allegate]

Finished the audio book Second Hand Curses by Drew Hayes, narrated by Scott Aiello, Marc Vietor, and Tavia Gilbert as well as a whole host of other people for the random characters in the book. Brilliant story and a brilliant cast right up until it wasn't.

I had already read something about the book and the meta narrative surrounding it so there was something off about it that bugged me. still does. keeps me from enjoying it fully. I truly do love the book though and how well it trod the line of scoundrel and fair play and Narrative, it could make an excellent television show or something, like a medieval Burn Notice or something.

Hell, that just popped into my head but it really would work...Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, and Bruce Campbell as those three characters? Granted you couldn't do it now but prime Burn Notice years with today's CG tools? definitely.

[Jinsai]

I've randomly started reading this fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson called the Stormlight Archives. These books are obscenely long, and while I really am hungry for escapism, and they are very fun books (so far), I just don't know if I want to invest so much time into reading these.

[MrLobster]

I just don't know if I want to invest so much time into reading these.

Do it... :)

(haven't read the books but just endorsing the idea in general... think of it this way, if you're enjoying the books who cares how long each one takes, what's the alternative? Reading another book you like? It's still just pages and pages and pages and pages...)

[MrLobster]

Can you guys recommend any other rockstar/actor books?

Have a Nice Day by Mick Foley... wrestling is a form of acting, right? :)

[Magnetic]

I've randomly started reading this fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson called the Stormlight Archives. These books are obscenely long, and while I really am hungry for escapism, and they are very fun books (so far), I just don't know if I want to invest so much time into reading these.

Which one?

I started Hyperion to try some different Sci-fi, but it's kinda slow going so far.

[Jinsai]

Which one?

I started Hyperion to try some different Sci-fi, but it's kinda slow going so far.

The first book is called The Way of Kings. it's really good stuff, just each book is basically a brick

[Magnetic]

Not if you have a kindle. :p

[TinDefacto]

I've randomly started reading this fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson called the Stormlight Archives. These books are obscenely long, and while I really am hungry for escapism, and they are very fun books (so far), I just don't know if I want to invest so much time into reading these.

DO IT. I started the series earlier this year (each book took about a month) and am now in the middle of the fourth. If you're liking The Way of Kings, that's by far the least good in my opinion (though still good); it gets way better from there!! You also don't have to do it all at once, though if you're like me and forget an entire book's plot after 3 months, you may want to.

The Mistborn series by the same author is also amazing, and probably my favorite of his output. (Those books are also shorter, and a completed trilogy, as opposed to the 10-book behemoth to-be-completed-in-2040-or-later event that is the Stormlight Archive.)

And I didn't even know I liked fantasy before reading these...

[allegro]

Can you guys recommend any other rockstar/actor books?

"The Dirt" by Motley Crue. One of the funniest damned books I've ever read.

Also, "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk." I read it in one sitting, could not put it down.

[jmtd]

Which one?

I started Hyperion to try some different Sci-fi, but it's kinda slow going so far.

Hyperion gets recommended so much but I didn’t really rate it. I’ll give out an unsolicited sf recommendation: Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[Magnetic]

DO IT. I started the series earlier this year (each book took about a month) and am now in the middle of the fourth. If you're liking The Way of Kings, that's by far the least good in my opinion (though still good); it gets way better from there!! You also don't have to do it all at once, though if you're like me and forget an entire book's plot after 3 months, you may want to.

The Mistborn series by the same author is also amazing, and probably my favorite of his output. (Those books are also shorter, and a completed trilogy, as opposed to the 10-book behemoth to-be-completed-in-2040-or-later event that is the Stormlight Archive.)

And I didn't even know I liked fantasy before reading these...

That's it. I'm giving up on Hyperion for now. I want something that is exciting to read, and Hyperion just....wasn't.
I hope this one is good.

[TinDefacto]

That's it. I'm giving up on Hyperion for now. I want something that is exciting to read, and Hyperion just....wasn't.
I hope this one is good.
:D

I will say, though, that I didn't find the first book of the Stormlight Archive particularly "exciting" -- basically the whole thing was, in my mind, setting the scene for the the books to come (which definitely do get quite exciting). If you want exciting to start off with, the Mistborn series may be your best best! Just my two cents.

[Magnetic]

I hear ya. Just read the first 25 pages, and it’s a lot of world building and yet faster paced than the first 95 slog of Hyperion. Given the reviews that Hyperion is the setup book for the following 3, I’m not that impressed. I like fantasy as much as I do Sci-Fi, so I’m happy to bounce. It’s escapism I want, so whatever is easier to deep dive... If the way of Kings holds up for pace, I’m happy to read through for better books. I have some time off over Xmas, and I’m looking forward to a long adventure.

[Jinsai]

Magnetic it's definitely a long adventure, but it's super fun escapism for sure, and as has been said, it gets better as you go along.

[Magnetic]

So far, so good!

[halloween]

Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge, by Mark Yarm.

This thing is fucking GREAT for people who came of age in the nineties. It's almost all made out of interviews, and chronicles the Melvins, Green River, and Mother Love Bone and such, as they give way to Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
It's REALLY fucking cool.

While I'm here, I wonder if anyone can recommend any other rock books. I'm normally a hardcore literature guy, but my favorite books of the past few years have been Maynard's book, Tricky's book, and Scar Tissue, by Anthony Keidis.
I just love this official (and unofficial) rock and roll stuff. When I was younger, I got a huge kick out of The Lives of John Lennon, a couple of Led Zep books including Hammer of the Gods, and even a few about Elvis: Elvis, Priscilla and Me, I think?
I also loved the John Belushi book, Wired, and the book about Nirvana called Heavier than Heaven.

I've got the Tom Petty biography on deck, alongside Matthew McConaughey's book.

Can you guys recommend any other rockstar/actor books?

Ohh! Nice list! I don't have anything to recommend- wait that's a lie, I would recommend Patti Smiths' Just Kids, but I read it because I'm a huge Mapplethorpe fan.
I'm replying because I wanted to thank you for giving me a great idea! I've been trying to get my boyfriend to read something becuase I'm a huge reader and want to talk to him about books but the last book he read was Slash's book YEARS AGO (my boyfriend's popular nickname is Slash, heh) so I just read this list out to him and said if I could get him a book on a band, which would it be and he said Led Zepplin (which I'll be reading myself as well naturally...)

Yay I won christmas!

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Close Quarters” by Victor Milán … that was good. Nice to learn about some other Inner Sphere culture via Camacho's Caballeros. Cover doesn't thematically depicts a part of the book but specifically, it doesn't. Close... but doesn't.

Starting: “Far Country” by Peter L. Rice

[esomiso]

"The Brain That Changes Itself" - Norman Doidge, M.D.
Why? Because Neuroplasticity is fucking amazing. :D

Also, hello all. First post. Nice to meet you.

[MrLobster]

"The Brain That Changes Itself" - Norman Doidge, M.D.
Why? Because Neuroplasticity is fucking amazing. :D

Also, hello all. First post. Nice to meet you.

Hiya.

I enjoyed that book as well.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Far Country” by Peter L. Rice… not the average BattleTech novel, that’s for sure. Quite a satisfying read.

Starting: “Hearts Of Chaos” by Victor Milán

[eversonpoe]

1345880696380862469

i don't have this fancy version but i'm still very excited. sarah gave it to me for my b-day. turton's previous book, the 7 & 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle, is maybe the most fun i've had reading a book in a while.

[allegate]

that looks amazing, the way the cover art and the...side art?...go together.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Hearts Of Chaos” by Victor Milán … a Camacho's Caballeros adventure of tragedy, heartbreak and ultimately survival. The cover doesn't really depict a event in the novel but generally captures the feeling.

Starting: “Tactics Of Duty” by William H. Keith, Jr.

[Magnetic]

Finished the Way of Kings, which had a great ending/ setup for the next book. Starting on Words of Radiance tonight. :)

[Jinsai]

I randomly bought this book, The Devil and the Dark Water, after skimming this thread and thinking the cover looked nifty. I just started reading it and I'm liking it a lot so far.

[allegate]

Several people on my Goodreads list love that book, as well as his previous one The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.
Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense.

I want to read them, but my queue...sigh. Library books first because they have a time limit.

[eversonpoe]

Several people on my Goodreads list love that book, as well as his previous one The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle.

I want to read them, but my queue...sigh. Library books first because they have a time limit.

i think i said it earlier in the thread that evelyn hardcastle is probably the most INTO a book i've ever gotten. i was so rapt and on the edge of my proverbial seat the whole time.

[Shadaloo]

Just finished Lovecraft County. Great premise but it ultimately didn't say or do much of anything apart from waggle its finger and remind us that racism is bad. Kinda disappointing in that regard. I was hoping for more in the way of actual commentary on how to reconcile or come to terms with the fact that someone who's work you admire is a fucking monster (rather pertinent to me at the moment), but nope.

Got a few more on my reading pile. Debating between Ursula K. Le Guin's Lathe Of Heaven, a Prince biography, or In Heaven: Stories inspired by David Lynch.

[eversonpoe]

Just finished Lovecraft County. Great premise but it ultimately didn't say or do much of anything apart from waggle its finger and remind us that racism is bad. Kinda disappointing in that regard. I was hoping for more in the way of actual commentary on how to reconcile or come to terms with the fact that someone who's work you admire is a fucking monster (rather pertinent to me at the moment), but nope

i haven't read the book but i can say that the series was incredible. have you watched it?

[Shadaloo]

i haven't read the book but i can say that the series was incredible. have you watched it?


That's why I picked the book up instead - I wanted to, but up in Canada it's gated under Crave+HBO which means our regular Crave subscription doesn't cover it. And we don't want to shell out for multiple layers of programming, which is a bullshit practice.

[MrLobster]

That's why I picked the book up instead - I wanted to, but up in Canada it's gated under Crave+HBO which means our regular Crave subscription doesn't cover it. And we don't want to shell out for multiple layers of programming, which is a bullshit practice.

It's also available via iTunes in Canada (https://itunes.apple.com/ca/tv-season/lovecraft-country-season-1/id1532286966)

[dissonaut]

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk

The story is set in a small village in Poland and is ostensibly framed as a murder mystery but is really so much more. Thoughtful, insightful and oftentimes very funny.

[onthewall2983]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jjZI9DN2L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[REPLICA]

Today I finished the audiobook of Stephen King's The Stand.

Currently reading...
Scott Jurek - North
Craig Ferguson - Riding The Elephant
Ian Fleming - Casino Royale
Sir Peter De La Billiere - Supreme Courage

[allegate]

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1599537296l/43207719._SX318_.jpg

It was OK. There are certainly parts that make you laugh but there are also parts where you're pretty sure you're not smart enough to get the joke. I don't blame Moss for this at all because he had a much better education than I. And the constant usage of film-specific terms was a little off-putting but again that's on me as I'm reading/listening to a book about film so of course there's going to be some terms that are specific to that: he's entrenched in the film-making process so he would know them and use them in conversation without a second thought.


The analysis compared to other films was usually great, really enjoyed those bits. I was definitely primed for those with all the behind-the-scenes extras from DVDs. Which appear to be missing anymore, have you noticed? You put a DVD in and it's a static screen with four (if you're lucky!) buttons that look like they were designed in 1999. No modern aesthetic at all, just functional harshness. Which sounds like I'm doing a bit like he does in the book, now that I'm re-reading this...huh.


Anyway. It's not laugh out loud funny and you don't need to have seen the movie for it to work. That said, I do think you might need to have seen some of the films he compares it to just to get an idea of why he's comparing them. I mean that film in question is so milquetoast and by-the-numbers that you can picture every scene he describes! But the comparisons are important for the juxtaposition.

[allegate]

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528319853l/40409748.jpg

I would say this is 70% art history, 15% alt-history, 10% funny romp, and 5% anachronistic blather. I mean, I just don't think Toulouse-Lautrec was running around Paris talking about wanting to bonk prostitutes.

I hope that someone walked out of this with a Master's in Art History because it seemed very complete and complex in that category.

(I am glad I had the audiobook so I got accurate pronunciations of all of the artists, like Van Gogh)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubTJI_UphPk

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Tactics Of Duty” by William H. Keith, Jr. ... finally got this one done. I liked it fine, it advances the Gray Death Legion story and I wonder where it will lead to.

I was able to purchase (it still needs to arrive) the last remaining old school BattleTech novel that I didn't have (#2, never had been reprinted, so it was scarce and people were charging quite a bit for it...), so I think I'll take a little break from the continuity and wait for that one to arrive so I can read that and then continue.

[Jinsai]

A Confederacy of Dunces

[MrLobster]

Starting: "The Sword And The Dagger" by Ardath Mayhar ... okay, time to get back into the swing of things.

[talonius]

"The Brain That Changes Itself" - Norman Doidge, M.D.
Why? Because Neuroplasticity is fucking amazing. :D

Also, hello all. First post. Nice to meet you.

Howdy, I'd welcome you but I don't have the right -- 2nd post here.

I'll have to pick that up. I hope the brain can change itself. I'm a latecomer to DBT and if it doesn't help, I'm going to be lost.

I'm reading Heaven's River by Dennis Taylor, book 4 of the Bobiverse. The whole series is a rather fun romp, at least if you're old enough to get his references.

[MrLobster]

https://twitter.com/nscafe/status/1392174647618142208

this is what I'll be reading right after this BattleTech novel is completed... which might be Friday. So... this makes me happy.

[allegate]

this one's probably not getting a special release...

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327908458l/6359434.jpg

[MrLobster]

Finished: “The Sword And The Dagger” by Ardanth Mayhar … quite good. I wonder why it hasn’t been reprinted. Adds a new perspective to Hanse Davion and the Steiner-Davion alliance.

Starting: “So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish” by Douglas Adams... I had forgotten that I still had to read this one and then Mostly Harmless....

[[parasite]]

my new read…

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210610/efda22aeaeacadcba23f69b36d35228c.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[MrLobster]

Finished: “So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish” by Douglas Adams … still delightful, even the ending.

Starting: “Mostly Harmless” by Douglas Adams

[MrLobster]

https://twitter.com/nscafe/status/1405036388244807684

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Mostly Harmless” by Douglas Adams … you know, in all the ways the series could have ended, I’m still satisfied with it. Just like how it started.

Starting: “Star Lord” by Donald G. Phillips (back into the BattleTech swing of things).

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Star Lord” by Donald G. Phillips … I liked it. Was kind of hoping it was setting up for a sequel but no, it’s probably finished. Maybe Duncan’s Demons will show up again though.

Starting: “Operation Excalibur” by William H. Keith

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Operation Excalibur” by William H. Keith, Jr. … Another fine Gray Death Legion adventure.

Starting: “Bred For War” by Michael A. Stackpole

[elevenism]

I finally got hold of Clockwork Angels, the novelization of Rush's final album, written by Kevin J. Anderson and based on a story by Neil Peart. I'm not expecting literary fireworks, exactly, but I DO look forward to finally understanding the "concept" of Rush and Neil's final statement, a concept that still eludes my understanding, even after hearing the album 100 times or so.

Also on deck is Stephen King's recent novella for Hard Case Crime, Later. I LOVED the last one, called Joyland.

Finally, I've got Warren Zanes' Tom Petty biography and Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch, which I'm certainly willing to check out, but, lord knows what that will be like.

[antediluvian]

“The Lathe of Heaven”, started today, read 20-ish page. Bleedthrough might have had connections with it, but I almost immediately had the feeling that the book somehow inspired the Year Zero universe

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Bred For War” by Michael A. Stackpole … a whole lot goes on in this one. Lots of moving parts in many different aspects of the BattleTech universe. Excited for more. Cover art didn't seem to match any particular scene in the novel though...

Starting: “I Am Jade Falcon” by Robert Thurston

[Jinsai]

I finishing off Such a Quiet Place. It's short, got an interesting enough premise, but I don't know if I'd really recommend it. I've been looking for more female authors writing horror / thriller novels, but this still feels like a "whodunnit" mystery more than anything.

[M1ke]

Just finished "Normal People" by Sally Rooney.

Decent enough book, and seems realistic, but the man is an asshole and isn't good enough for the woman.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “I Am Jade Falcon” by Robert Thurston … lots of interesting bits going on. RIP Natasha Kerensky

Starting: “Highlander Gambit” by Blaine Lee Pardoe

[fillow]

I finally started Dune (with the intention to finish it before the movie comes out) and I can't fucking put it down.

[GulDukat]

Wuthering Heights and I love it. Never read it before.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Highlander Gambit” by Blaine Lee Pardoe … a satisfying book; lots going on.

Starting: “Malicious Intent” by Michael A. Stackpole

I've read 31 BattleTech novels and have 28 more to go... I'm reading them in date order as per the books (example; December 24, 3056 and the next being March 10, 3057) and not the publication order (June 1996 and August 1995 respectively of the first example). I figured I may as well sort order them that way to see how the over-arching plot(s) develop.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Malicious Intent” by Michael A. Stackpole. Quite interesting with everything going on. Cover art depicted a scene in the book.

Starting: “Binding Force” by Loren L. Coleman

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Binding Force” by Loren L. Coleman… I liked it. Still don’t really like the Capellans. Cover art sort of shows a scene.

Starting: “Double-Blind” by Loren L. Coleman

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Double-Bind” by Loren L. Coleman … I liked it. Cover art kind of describes a scene of the book but not really.

Starting: “Impetus Of War” by Blaine Lee Pardoe

[chuckrh]

"Fire & Blood" by George RR Martin. I'm seriously underwhelmed.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Impetus Of War” by Blaine Lee Pardoe … quite enjoyed it. Cover depicts a scene from the novel.

Starting: “Black Dragon” by Victor Milán

[allegate]

Finished "We Have Always Lived in the Castle". I'm not sure where to put this. It's not a horror story and if you read the afterward it's not considered one. It's a creepy story right up until you get to the part where you realise this is kind of just "The Good Son", which I hope isn't that much of a spoiler but come on, how many people are going to remember that movie unless they saw it - and there wasn't that many people who saw it, it only made $60M - so I'm good with the reference if you are.

The story is very carefully plotted and the way information is given to you is through an unreliable narrator. But also she isn't? I mean the second sentence of the story is "I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance." That's clear from the jump and yet I spent the entire rest of the story imagining her much younger because of how she is shown and she's the one doing the showing. So how can you take her seriously when she is clearly addled in some way?

I don't remember the moment that I thought to myself, "Ah ha, the underlying story/mystery that keeps coming up constantly in fits and spurts is actually _____" but I do know that suddenly a lot more things made sense. The fact that Constance had a weird agoraphobia though I never understood. The afterword says that it's one half of Shirley Jackson's life because she was diagnosed with it late in life but that's too easy, that's just weird story motivation and reading something in real life and making a leap to conclusions mat.

You know, Office Space? ah well.

The book has so much hiding around the corners that you are never given, only hinted at. I suppose this is what makes a compelling short story/novella, the ability to give you a world that feels lived-in in so few pages. It's not just the story that's happening to you at the moment but also the story that you can barely see at the edges. Kind of like in "The Ring" when they find the extra film on the film edge.

[Pillfred]

That time of year it seems.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20211112/f0106655628b90fb6568519628c38a20.jpg

[Jinsai]

finishing off reading Peril (the Woodward book about how Trump almost destroyed the world a thousand times).

After that I'm going to try reading The Final Girl Support Group again. The concept is nifty, but the first chapter didn't pull me in last time.

[[parasite]]

according to my kindle, i have 4hrs left of Dune


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[allegate]

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619701086l/57891607._SY475_.jpg (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57891607-ra)

Magic is real.

Discovered in the 1970s, magic is now a bona fide field of engineering. There's magic in heavy industry and magic in your home. It's what's next after electricity.

Student mage Laura Ferno has designs on the future: her mother died trying to reach space using magic, and Laura wants to succeed where she failed. But first, she has to work out what went wrong. And who her mother really was.

And whether, indeed, she's dead at all...
The part that got me interested up front is that the author is one of the SCP Foundation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCP_Foundation) people so I'm immediately into this. I'm 60% through the book and so far it's pretty good. It has some really hard sci-fi where magic is rooted in quantum mechanics and he doesn't waste any time on "in case you didn't get that" as it just charges forward. The magic language is made-up (more on that later) but has rules, most of which aren't explained but you kind of figure it out. OR if you're like me you just skim those parts of incantation because the language is made up and isn't explained until it eventually is and then you're like well fuck it I'm not re-reading those parts with this knowledge.

There's a lot that I like about the book. I was in the mood for a hard sci-fi story and this started hitting that spot. There's also some things that I'm finding...well, tedious isn't the right word but it's close enough. He does a lot of "this is this scene" and then after that shows you a scene previous to that. Not time travel, just giving you information from the - let's say 80s? - after you were introduced to those character's current iterations. So it's like backstory and motivations being given to you after those motivations have been realized. It's weird, it works, but it's weird.

So let's talk about that made-up language. Total spoiler if I get too detailed so I'll talk around it. There's another book series that I've read that also uses a made-up language for the magic casting, however that one is based on Esperanto - and actual made-up language, but one that people use. Once my brain made that connection - as well as a plot point or two in Ra that popped in the 50% mark or so - the book actually shifted perception for me. A lot more stuff made sense and now I'm viewing what is happening and what has happened differently. I've read a couple reviews on goodreads and I think that a lot of people would have a better time with the book if they were primed like I was with that other series.

Sadly there's no way to suggest that other series without spoiling this book. I mean, the main conceit of that other series is right there in the blurb and title for each book and Ra holds its cards very close to its chest for roughly half the book. It wouldn't be nearly as much fun if you knew the mid-point reveal before you even got there.

Speaking of fun that other series is written from a humorous point of view whereas this one is seriously serious all the time. It's like comparing James Bond and Austin Powers.

[otnavuskire]

I finished reading The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton last night. It's like a groundhog day murder mystery. So good. Highly recommend people just pick it up and read it without reading anything else about it.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Black Dragon” by Victor Milán… obviously I took my sweet time reading it. Just wasn’t much in the mood… but we’re done now. It was a good book, lots going on. Can’t go wrong with a Princess Bride reference.

Going to take a break from books for a bit while I do a deep dive into the comics I've collected for the past little while.

[Erneuert]

allegro elevenism, my Christmas presents.

https://i.ibb.co/tP07gHz/986-CECE0-704-B-4-B05-BD82-395-FE0-DAE6-EB.jpg (https://ibb.co/tP07gHz)

[allegate]

I know what I will be reading.

https://twitter.com/hering_david/status/1501293528550363138

[Virgil Long]

I started reading The Three-Body Problem - a science fiction novel written by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin. From the first sentences, from the first chapters, I understand that this is a masterpiece.

[Jon]

Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming by László Krasznahorkai

Who needs periods?

[MrLobster]

Starting: "Exodus Road" by Blaine Lee Pardoe.... time to get back on that BattleTech absorption and see where that grand narrative ends up.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Exodus Road” by Blaine Lee Pardoe … I liked it. Looking forward to the rest of the “Twilight of the Clans” series.

Starting: "Grave Covenant" by Michael A. Stackpole

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Grave Covenant” by Michael A. Stackpole … took a bit for me to get into it but was aptly rewarded when I did.

Starting: “The Hunters” by Thomas S. Gressman

[Jinsai]

The Chain by Adrian McKinty. This is the first book of his that I've picked up, and so far I'm really liking his style and pacing, and the basic concept behind the thriller device is simple but intriguing. Hopefully it stays on target, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick up his new book after I finish this regardless.

[MrLobster]

Finished: Starting: “The Hunters” by Thomas S. Gressman … enjoyed it but took my sweet time with it. Cover art depicted a scene in the novel.

Starting: “Freebirth” by Robert Thurston

[Jinsai]

re-reading The Fourth Hand by John Irving. Want some misanthropy up in this bitch?

The story starts talking about a very handsome man, who was known for being handsome. Women loved him, and they said they definitely would love to have sex with him at least once. And then his arm gets bitten off by a lion, and his ex-wife mocks his explanation of his pain.

Beyond that, no spoiler alerts.

[Jinsai]

I know this sounds pretentious possibly, but I'm reading The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I bought this truly beautiful (and sadly expensive) copy of it, and I wasn't sure if this was going to be an ornament or something I'd actually consume... and it is hard. It is a challenging read. It has passages like this...

"These [signs] may all indicate that one has fallen into the hands of the Lord of Death"

And I'm really digging it.

[allegate]

Ha! Speaking of pretentious, I'm starting the book Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/765167.Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity) because of a mention in the short story by Shirley Jackson: Seven Types of Ambiguity.

Revised twice since it first appeared, it has remained one of the most widely read and quoted works of literary analysis. Ambiguity, according to Empson, includes "any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language." From this definition, broad enough by his own admission sometimes to see "stretched absurdly far," he launches into a brilliant discussion, under seven classifications of differing complexity and depth, of such works, among others, as Shakespeare's plays and the poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Marvell, Pope, Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and T. S. Eliot.

[chuckrh]

Just finished Heat 2. Very good for first effort from Michael Mann. Hope they do a film of it. They'll have to get someone younger to play the Al Pacino part & the Val Kilmer part.

[allegate]

I thought I read that it was already optioned? or maybe it was just Michael Mann manifesting it into being?

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/michael-mann-heat-2-movie-exclusive/

I really want to watch it but I also really want to watch Heat again first. oh darn.

[Jinsai]

Ha! Speaking of pretentious, I'm starting the book Seven Types of Ambiguity by William Empson (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/765167.Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity) because of a mention in the short story by Shirley Jackson: Seven Types of Ambiguity.

I fucking love everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote. Don't get me started there; I love everything. The Witch is probably my favorite. (it's, naturally, a short story)
And I just assume you have read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but... if not, big recommendation

[allegate]

The short story collection I read was The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson:
I wish I could have liked this collection more but there were so many stories where two characters are in the same room as each other and talking at each other but not with each other. Two different conversations are happening and neither person seems that put out by it. Such a weird feeling reading those.

There were some standouts for sure though. The Tooth for example was such a surreal experience that it put you on edge because it never gave you something secure to hold onto. Got a Letter From Jimmy was similarly disconcerting because you didn't know why Jimmy was so ostracized and to be honest I don't think all of the characters in the story did either.

I feel like a cad because of the one thing I highlighted from the Introduction:

Grace Paley once described the male-female writer phenomenon to me by saying, “Women have always done men the favor of reading their work, but the men have not returned the favor.”

I read it but I didn't get it I guess. My fault more than hers, I just had issues with the way people talked. On that note there were at least two stories - the names of which escape me - where I was pretty sure if it were a play being performed it would have been perfectly fine because it would have sounded like people talking over each other but reading all the parts in a row it turns into a weird Cormac McCarthy of 'who's speaking now and why'.

As for We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I read that last October (spooky month!):
I'm not sure where to put this. It's not a horror story and if you read the afterward it's not considered one. It's a creepy story right up until you get to the part where you realise this is kind of just "The Good Son", which I hope isn't that much of a spoiler but come on, how many people are going to remember that movie unless they saw it - and there wasn't that many people who saw it, it only made $60M - so I'm good with the reference if you are.

The story is very carefully plotted and the way information is given to you is through an unreliable narrator. But also she isn't? I mean the second sentence of the story is "I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance." That's clear from the jump and yet I spent the entire rest of the story imagining her much younger because of how she is shown and she's the one doing the showing. So how can you take her seriously when she is clearly addled in some way?

I don't remember the moment that I thought to myself, "Ah ha, the underlying story/mystery that keeps coming up constantly in fits and spurts is actually _____" but I do know that suddenly a lot more things made sense. The fact that Constance had a weird agoraphobia though I never understood. The afterword says that it's one half of Shirley Jackson's life because she was diagnosed with it late in life but that's too easy, that's just weird story motivation and reading something in real life and making a leap to conclusions mat.

You know, Office Space? ah well.

The book has so much hiding around the corners that you are never given, only hinted at. I suppose this is what makes a compelling short story/novella, the ability to give you a world that feels lived-in in so few pages. It's not just the story that's happening to you at the moment but also the story that you can barely see at the edges. Kind of like in "The Ring" when they find the extra film on the film edge.

[MrLobster]

Finished: “Freebirth” by Robert Thurston … oh those pesky Smoke Jaguars. Cover art reflected a scene in the book (always nice).

Starting: "Sword and Fire" by Thomas S. Gressman

[wampa]

Not really reading, but currently listening to Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three. Finished The Gunslinger a couple days ago but enjoying the series so far. For Christmas I got "We Are Legion, We Are Bob" by Dennis Taylor, "The Storyteller" by Dave Grohl, and "A Perfect Union of Contrary Things" by Sarah Jensen and MJK.

[poinoup]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a8/How_Music_Got_Free_-_Book_cover.jpg

Been looking forward to this one for a while now.

[Jinsai]

I've been reading The Analects of Confucius. Right now, I'm sitting by the fire, it's raining outside, and I'm reading Confucius. It's this really beautiful edition of it, pages are sewn into the spine, its backing is real leather, the spine is ridged authentically, it has a silk bookmark... the edges of the pages are dipped in 22k gold... and you can open it to any page, and it says:

"Is there any one maxim which ought to be acted upon throughout one's whole life?"

The Master replied: "Surely the maxim of charity is such: 'Do not unto others what you would not they should do unto you."

This is a truly beautiful book, in every sense of the word

https://www.eastonpress.com/dw/image/v2/BDZH_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-full-catalog/default/dw0f2da9a3/images/hi-res/Analects-of-Confucius_3998-031_a_cvrS.jpg?sw=1150&sh=1150

[Jinsai]

I think for me I just had a really rough time and so I've gone deep into Buddhism as well. I'm sorry to hear about that.

I've found that Buddhism and philosophy have been very helpful for me. Tao Te Ching, now The Analects of Confucius, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I was gifted a Bible recently and I've appreciated the gesture enough to buy a copy of the Quran and read that as well. Up next I'm planning another deep dive into Kant's critiques.

[Jinsai]

I actually have not read Aurelius, though I’m familiar conceptually. Maybe that should be next

[chuckrh]

I hope all goes well for you, allegro . Prayers up for you. I've been living under a sword of Damocles for several years. It wears you out so be strong. The past few years have seemed like the downward spiral, to coin a phrase.

[Mister Squishy]

I know what I will be reading.

https://twitter.com/hering_david/status/1501293528550363138

I'm about 70 pages into The Passenger. Very interesting so far! Not at all what I expected given all the talk about McCarthy spending the last decade or whatever living with (?) a bunch of experimental physicists. It's cool that - so far, at least - whatever he absorbed at that institute is clearly informing the novel's themes, but kinda from the inside if that makes sense. Not as overtly sci fi or theoretical as I thought it might be. Feels like it's going to be a major headfuck in any case.

Pretty cool that a person can be at the end of their artistic career and totally reinvent themselves like this. That said, I haven't read anything before he started into the Western stuff, so maybe this is more similar to his first novels? Donno. I do know that I think he's one of a kind, both on the level of the sentence and the uncompromising moral / metaphysical vision that beams through everything he does. Blood Meridian is still the scariest thing I've ever read.

Did you start / finish these, Allegate? Thoughts? No spoilers please :)

[allegate]

I'm reading I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy and I just don't know how/what I'm supposed to be feeling here. So far I feel like this is a little one-sided in terms of how terrible the mom was. She's dead now so it's hard to get a second version of events. Though mom does sound - and I hate this word because of its overuse in news media - unhinged and truly awful. I’m at the Nickelodeon part of the book and the usage of The Creator was weird at first - she is a religious Mormon who thinks God is talking to her - but then I realized it was the creator of the show. And then I got sad because I remembered who that is. :(

[Jinsai]

Ringworld, by Larry Niven

[NIN64]

I finally picked up House of Leaves after having it recommended to me for decades…. Any advice on how to read this thing?

[allegate]

carefully.
The book is formatted by academic publishing conventions, including exhibits, appendices, and an index, as well as numerous footnotes. It is also distinguished by convoluted page layouts: some pages contain only a few words or lines of text, arranged to mirror the events in the story, often creating both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. At points, the book must be rotated to be read, making it a prime example of ergodic literature.

Format
Danielewski wrote the book in longhand and revised it with a word processor. He then flew to Pantheon's NY headquarters to do the typesetting himself in QuarkXPress because he only trusted himself with the book's vision.[6]

The book contains copious footnotes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, including references to fictional books, films or articles.[7]

Colors
House of Leaves includes frequent and seemingly systematic color changes. While Danielewski leaves much of the interpretation of the choice of colors up to the reader, several distinct patterns emerge upon closer examination.[8]

Notable examples include:

The word "house" is colored blue (gray for non-color editions of the book and light gray for red editions). In many places throughout the book, it is offset from the rest of the text in different directions at different times. Foreign-language equivalents of house, such as the German Haus and the French maison, are also blue. These colorizations even extend to text on the book's copyright page.
In all colored editions, the word minotaur and all struckthrough passages are colored red.
Many references to Johnny's mother are colored purple.
Font changes
Throughout the book, various changes in font serve as a way for the reader to quickly determine which of its multiple narrators’ work they are currently following. In the book, there are four fonts used by the four narrators. These are: Times New Roman (Zampanò), Courier (Johnny), Bookman (The Editors), and Dante (Johnny's mother).[9] (Additional font changes are used intermittently—Janson for film intertitles, Book Antiqua for a letter written by Navidson, and so on.)
But seriously, it's a dense book. There are, iirc, three different stories going on in it. There's the Navidson story, Johnny's story in the margins, and the letters at the end of the book. The main ones are of course the first two as they have interplay on the page but it can get daunting and confusing to read all of that at the same time. I think the easiest way to approach it is to read the Navidson parts first - they are the most dense when it comes to the formatting choices of the author after all - and then Johnny's so you at least have a backstory for what he's writing about.

On top of that there's a Poe album (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_(Poe_album)) that you can listen to while reading it. Also her breakout single was Angry Johnny (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Johnny) which, ah, does that sound familiar?
A two-second clip of "Angry Johnny" was included in the endpapers of the US hardcover version of Mark Z. Danielewski's novel House of Leaves, in the form of hexadecimal numbers that, when compiled in a hex editor, could be turned into an AIFF audio file.

There is a pretty good haunted house story buried in The Navidson Record outside of the weird stuff that Mark's trying to do within the format of a book.

And finally there's the television series that was started but ultimately did not go to production.
In 2017, Danielewski entered talks to adapt the novel into a TV series,[10][11] stating that if a deal was not made by February 2020, the project would be abandoned.[12] Ultimately, Danielewski published screenplays of three episodes online.[13] A sequel to the book, the screenplays both adapt the original story and extend it to the present day. Past sequences, depicted as filmed by a then-young filmmaker named Mélisande Avignon, contradict the book significantly: Zampanó's [sic] work, found by Truant, was not a manuscript but the actual film footage of The Navidson Record. This and Avignon's film are later seized, and public knowledge of them suppressed, by a "data disposal" company called Skiadyne. In the present, unknown forces steal both films from Skiadyne and return them to Avignon, leading to a high-stakes fight for control. The book House of Leaves, now academically studied as a work of fiction, becomes embroiled in a "fake fiction" scandal when Avignon publicizes its factual basis by leaking the films.

I love the book and it's probably one of my top ten. It will challenge you both in stamina and mental acuity and is similar to David Foster Wallace's books with the "what is a book, really" attitude.

[poinoup]

I watched the first 2 eps day of release, and I'm hooked. So this weekend's read:
https://dynamic.indigoimages.ca/v1/books/books/0358447844/1.jpg?width=614&maxheight=614&quality=85

[Jinsai]

Hell House by Richard Matheson. This is a fun book.

[allegate]

For the next >24 hours (I don't know when the sale started) all books by author Will Wight (https://www.amazon.com/stores/Will-Wight/author/B00D9S1IMO) are free on Kindle and then only $2 to add narration via audible. I recommend the Cradle series - the last book comes out next week, hence the sale - if you like fantasy books set in a somewhat feudal China but with magic.

This review sets the series up well enough:
Cradle falls into a genre that I've been aware of for some time, but that I wasn't necessarily sure of a name for, and until relatively recently I'm not sure it even had one that was agreed upon. Now, it does. Progression fantasy. The idea being that it falls into a sub-genre of fantasy in which the main character(s) steadily increases in power and/or skill as the series progresses. You typically see stories like this in anime, in xianxia/wuxia-inspired web novels, etc. So its emergence into the western sphere is more recent, and Wight's Cradle series is often pointed at as a good a place to dive in if you're craving that type of story. I am, in fact, craving that type of story.

Unsouled is not written in stand-out prose. Wight does not have a mastery of language, and he is not writing characters of limitless depth. But what he clearly does have is a mind for stories, a solid foundation for world-building, and a penchant for fast-paced plotting. I say it all the time; not every book has to have everything. Most just have to do one thing well enough to be engaging, and I think Wight achieves that here.I started reading the series for the first time on March 3rd and finished the last (at the time) book on April 14th so they're very fast reads. If you like over-powered anime fights you will probably like the series. I give them a 3.5 or 4 overall because they are fun, just missing some real stakes at times.

[Jinsai]

I realize I probably read too much Stephen King, but I find his stuff entertaining. I'd never read The Dark Half, and I'm about 75 pages in, but this feels... more twisted from the start than his other stuff. I hear that after writing this, he sobered up. Maybe he was struggling with some really messed up demons when he did this book. I wonder if it's one of the ones he doesn't remember writing.

[leftshoe18]

I lost my copy of The Witcher: Time Of Contempt so I started re-reading Alices Adventures In Wonderland. That book really captures the absurdity of what it feels like while dreaming and I love it.

[elevenism]

My Effin Life by Mr. GEDDY EFFIN' LEE!

I also got the audio version, as it's read by...GEDDY LEE! (and Alex Lifeson).

Good GOD, there's a chapter in there about his family and the holocaust, and it's SO fucking hardcore that there's a disclaimer: Ged warns the reader that the following chapter will be VERY intense, and it's ok to skip it.

I read it, of course, and it had me in tears.

But, yeah. I've honestly been into...well, more like OBSESSED with, Rush, since I was a fucking CHILD: I found my folks' copy of A Farewell to Kings at age 7 or so, was fascinated by the cover, threw that shit on the turntable and that was that. In like, 96, I took the tour book from Test for Echo, cut the pages out, and arranged them as a CROSS over my bed: like, fuck your this is MY religion. So this autobiography is a dream come true.

Here is an interview about the book:


https://youtu.be/BHkvpWMTuUI?si=HA8DL5I34ngJnOxt

[wampa]

Currently reading Salems Lot by Stephen King but not sure if I'm enjoying it. About 220 pages in.

[Timinator]

I just finished Doppelganger (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/720893/untitled-by-knopf-canada/9781039006898) by Naomi Klein. I really liked it.

It's different from Klein's other, more investigative books, it's more personal. She uses the fact that people started mixing her up with Naomi Wolf years ago, then covers how Wolf has slid down the dark hole of right-wing conspiracy theories, and then uses that doppelganger/mirror-image theme to frame the division between the world that most of us live in and the anti-vax/Republican/Zionist "mirror world".


https://mpd-biblio-covers.imgix.net/9780374610326.jpg?w=300

[chuckrh]

Currently reading Salems Lot by Stephen King but not sure if I'm enjoying it. About 220 pages in.
It's a good one.

[leftshoe18]

I reread the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book a couple weeks ago. I love that book so much.


Currently reading Salems Lot by Stephen King but not sure if I'm enjoying it. About 220 pages in.

I picked up Salem's Lot from a garage sale last month but haven't cracked it open yet.

[wampa]

I picked up Salem's Lot from a garage sale last month but haven't cracked it open yet.


I ended up enjoying Salem's Lot quite a bit!

[chuckrh]

Southern Man by Greg Iles. Latest in a series that is quite good. This one checks in at a hefty 1000 pages.

[Jinsai]

I’m reading Battle For the Bird by Kurt Wagner, a book about the establishment of Twitter, the rise of the platform, the acquisition by Musk, and the fallout from there. It’s been interesting, sometimes drags on too long… I guess it really depends on how it wraps things up in conclusion. I’ve just gotten to the point where Elon is offering to buy it.

[elevenism]

My Effin Life by Mr. GEDDY EFFIN' LEE!

I also got the audio version, as it's read by...GEDDY LEE! (and Alex Lifeson).

Good GOD, there's a chapter in there about his family and the holocaust, and it's SO fucking hardcore that there's a disclaimer: Ged warns the reader that the following chapter will be VERY intense, and it's ok to skip it.

I read it, of course, and it had me in tears.

But, yeah. I've honestly been into...well, more like OBSESSED with, Rush, since I was a fucking CHILD: I found my folks' copy of A Farewell to Kings at age 7 or so, was fascinated by the cover, threw that shit on the turntable and that was that. In like, 96, I took the tour book from Test for Echo, cut the pages out, and arranged them as a CROSS over my bed: like, fuck your this is MY religion. So this autobiography is a dream come true.

Here is an interview about the book:


https://youtu.be/BHkvpWMTuUI?si=HA8DL5I34ngJnOxt

I'm replying to myself. (Insanity meter:4/10. Quotes itself.)

But I'm STILL reading the Ged book. I'm only allowing myself a chapter or two per month, tho.

My wife got the audio version of The Stand, and I've listened to bits and pieces of it with her: we're both already Dark Tower nerds who have An-Tet engraved on the INSIDE of our wedding rings, but she'd never read The Stand! And, fuck me- . That one DEFINITELY holds up. Jinsai when was the last time you read it?

In the meantime, I've been reading, and acting on,.books on like,.food storage. I know y'all think I'm crazy, but,.when NATO starts issuing advisories regarding storing food, water, batteries, fleshlights, and radios, i.damn sure perk up.

Wait...oh shit. I'm scared it might have been FLASHLIGHTS. Anyway, ima do a Public Circus and lay some of these titles on y'all, once my paperwhite is charged.

[allegate]

Currently reading this. As far as I can tell it's not based on the movie but it kind of a prequel, I guess.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1703074736i/195608705.jpg

Currently listening to this. It's really good, love the characterizations.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1536990661i/13493042.jpg

[elevenism]

allegate good GOD, I love Dracula. It's so...well, there's no other way to say it: the thinly veiled sexual metaphors are unreal.

SO.
Ok so, everyone should have, at least, The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for.When Help.ISN'T on the way...and that shit is good to have in GENERAL, especially if you're rural.

When All Hell Breaks Loose by Lundin is at the top of my list for an all around guide. Godfrey's Store This, Not That! is the best food buying/storing book I've found.

I've also been reading (again) the Tao, the few Steinbeck books I somehow managed to miss, some Marcus Aurelius, some Camus essays.because of burnmotherfucker! , Dark Psychology Secrets (from Tower's Manipulation and Mind Control.series: he's mostly just aping Greene's Amoral Trilogy, but, it's fun).

I've ALSO been trying to work my way through the Nag Hammadi Library.The Collected Works of St John of the Cross, and, of course, as ever, the bible.

Sadly, bits and pieces has been the order of the day for.me, lately, because I am SO FUCKING TERMINALLY ONLINE. Fucking youtube.

[Jinsai]

The Stand! And, fuck me- . That one DEFINITELY holds up. @Jinsai (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=272) when was the last time you read it?

It’s been about a decade since I read The Stand. I’ve been meaning to re-read it; I’ve got a nice edition of it… It’s one of those early-series hardbacks they printed with the black and white photo art from 1990 (apparently the Pet Sematary one is worth a fortune). I’ve got Carrie, Night Shift, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, and The Stand.

I like nice books a lot. I feel like it impacts the reading experience significantly (I still can’t get absorbed in a book at all on a tablet or Kindle or whatever), and those editions are awesome. The print is large and clear, pages are thick, and the art is awesome.

They’re referred to by collectors as the Holdorf editions. They don’t go for too much, with the exception of Pet Sematary.

I think this should link to the version I’m talking about (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ebayimg.com%2F00%2Fs %2FMTIwMFgxNTk5%2Fz%2FXNQAAOSwuYBmTOXw%2F%24_1.PNG&tbnid=nbtKo0rOGtuGDM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F27647 5994854%3Fchn%3Dps%26mkevt%3D1%26mkcid%3D28&docid=sstcRYZkNcxcJM&w=400&h=300&itg=1&hl=en-US&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim%2Fm4%2F7&kgs=c804dfd604117b2b&shem=abme%2Ctrie)

Anyway, it’s dope.
And speaking of Dracula, and fancy pants book editions, I got this edition they put out that’s got Edward Gorey illustrations and bound with felt. (https://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Deluxe-Bram-Stoker/dp/1454944218/ref=sr_1_1?crid=347D42MTQAJDF&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.xa1V9ALFIxlKx21Ms-wK6In2oNY-WzWVIp2Uv3qPk2fY7bT1B0_6xysxuh54wBnLsS02dCymn8I7D0 qyAegJPZZ0aHPfvtpPTYAuxPoKps40RulCQdv1eAqaLQug-dPhMtYVwIp6bbwN3TkZANeYic_UCf23BbLanTSOWV4j8oucjnf pmTry-SGyWOwkrgd1to669-ti9UMDMW5N98BVO4Z0gSeq-9ZaiyWxwoQtoXA.UJKvzm8-K6FSrKHyshy6A827W0_kxk6lI4q4ne0MVKc&dib_tag=se&keywords=Dracula+Edward+gorey&qid=1718397151&sprefix=dracula+edward+gorey%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-1)

It is also dope.
But yeah, I’d like to re-read The Stand, especially now that I’ve completed The Dark Tower.

[elevenism]

Goddammit @Jinsai (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=272) ....I used to have ALL the first edition sk hard backs, but I gave them all away! You MUST, definitely, read Infinite Jest, tho (David Foster Wallace). You're one of like, ten cats to whom i would recommend it.

The title, obviously, comes from "yes, i knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest and most excellent fancy," but there is SO, SO much more to it than that.

You, too, allegate r...if you cats haven't already read it.

[Jinsai]

Goddammit @Jinsai (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=272) ....I used to have ALL the first edition sk hard backs, but I gave them all away! You MUST, definitely, read Infinite Jest, tho (David Foster Wallace). You're one of like, ten cats to whom i would recommend it.

The title, obviously, comes from "yes, i knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest and most excellent fancy," but there is SO, SO much more to it than that.

You, too, @allegate (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=1739) r...if you cats haven't already read it.

I own a copy of Infinite Jest, but I haven’t read it yet. That looks like one of those challenges; like Gravity’s Rainbow or Ulysses.

[allegate]

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1715891315i/197449225.jpg

Slowly plodding my way through this. Kind of a hard book to read when you are depressed, especially as many of the stories are a little too close to home. Not the weird celebrity stuff - I grew up in a place you could barely call a town, more like a hamlet given the sheer (lolpun) lack of size and govt - but the family strife.

[elevenism]

I own a copy of Infinite Jest, but I haven’t read it yet. That looks like one of those challenges; like Gravity’s Rainbow or Ulysses.

dude, i WOULD call it a challenge, but, it's easier to read, and understand, than ANYTHING by Pynchon, and...fuck...yeah: it's far more enjoyable/understandable than Ulysses.
also, imho, it's WHOLE hell of a lot more FUN than, say, The Crying of Lot 49 or whatever.

Think White Noise meets House of Leaves, but, in a more maximalist format than HoL, if you could believe that.

Man. Jinsai : tbh, i got such a kick out of it that it reminded me of like, childhood "activity books."
And, even if you miss 1% or 2% of it, well, that's what the interwebs are for, right? I damn sure don't think you'd miss much of it, though, and it's nowhere as DRY as the two you mentioned.

It's challenging, yes, but, again, it's FUN to read.

[Jinsai]

elevenism I’m ok with a literary challenge though. I was a lit major. Generally a huge waste of time and money, but I am equipped to handle Infinite Jest I think

[elevenism]

@elevenism (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=2475) I’m ok with a literary challenge though. I was a lit major. Generally a huge waste of time and money, but I am equipped to handle Infinite Jest I think

Oh, I certainly wasn't insinuating you WEREN'T. I mostly meant to say that it was far more ENJOYABLE, imho, than Pynchon, and quite a bit more easy to penetrate than effing Ulysses, but, it's also THE definition of a maximalist work: some call it encyclopedic.

I hope you didn't think I was discounting your fucking literary acumen when I said "I dug it like a childhood activity book," nor did I mean it was like a kid's book for ME, so you MIGHT understand most of.it: rather, I quite literally,. (no pun intended), meant that THAT'S how much I LOVED reading it. It honestly made me feel a childlike sense of wonder.

Also, there are whole fucking message boards full of people still arguing about what certain parts of it mean (which is what I meant about "not catching" a tiny percentage of it. I allegedly didn't, according to 15-20 assholes). ;)

I GODDAMN sure meant no offense, nor did i mean, at all, that you couldn't handle.it. Trust that i wouldn't
recommend that shit to just anyone.

Let me put it this way, though- you remember that I accidentally speed read?

IJ took me like, three months.

[Jinsai]

@elevenism (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=2475) lol no offense was taken. I was kidding around. I do plan on reading it, just my backlog of unread books is stacking up, and there’s some lighter stuff to go through. I still need to finish reading Ringworld… and I’m now in between reading stories in You Like it Darker and I just started Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay.. First book I’ve read by him, but I’m liking it so far

[elevenism]

@elevenism (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=2475) lol no offense was taken. I was kidding around. I do plan on reading it, just my backlog of unread books is stacking up, and there’s some lighter stuff to go through. I still need to finish reading Ringworld… and I’m now in between reading stories in You Like it Darker and I just started Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay.. First book I’ve read by him, but I’m liking it so far

Hey, I like to.write, when my hands allow it.

My backlog of books is...uhhhhh...idk if it's happening.

[leftshoe18]

I started reading House of Leaves. I'm about 100 pages in and I'm loving the way the story is layered. I got hooked from the introduction and haven't wanted to put the thing down!

[allegate]

hardcover version, right? the digital one would lose so much in translation.

[Jinsai]

@leftshoe18 (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=5507) House of Leaves is great.

I’m reading Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay, and I dunno… I’m a hundred pages in, and while the initial setup of the premise felt engaging, and I liked his writing style enough (it’s the first book I’ve read by him), it’s really stalling out here. It revolves around hiding some kind of revelation, but until we have some clue what that is, it’s just boring. I don’t feel curious enough yet to know what the big deal is… hopefully it turns around.

I’m almost tempted to look up spoilers on the internet.

[leftshoe18]

@leftshoe18 (https://www.echoingthesound.org/community/member.php?u=5507) House of Leaves is great.


It has been fantastic. It's one of the most unique books I've ever read while at the heart of it is a super interesting story. I'm close to the end now and I'm kind of bummed that it'll be over soon!


hardcover version, right? the digital one would lose so much in translation.

I grabbed a paperback from the library. I love the way pages are laid out to match the content of their chapters. The Labyrinth was crazy with the way the footnotes twisted and turned in and out of text. I also loved the SOS chapter with its morse code spacing that mirrors the cuts in the film at that part. Aah! This book is so damn cool.

[allegate]

Couple things about Mark:.

The singer Poe is his sister and there are some tracks that she did on her album for the book.

In 2000, Danielewski toured Borders Books and Music locations across America with his sister Poe to promote his book and her album Haunted, which has many elements of House of Leaves.[26] The album features Danielewski reading from House of Leaves on several tracks, as well as audio recordings that Tad Danielewski left for Mark and Poe,[27][28] which they found after his death. In 2001, a remake of Poe's song "Hey Pretty (Drive-By 2001 Mix)," which featured Danielewski reading from House of Leaves, reached #13 on Billboard's Alternative Chart. That summer, Poe and Danielewski spent three months as the opening act for Depeche Mode's 2001 North American tour. On this tour, he played Madison Square Garden.[14] He also composed the song "A Rose Is a Rose,"[29] which Poe sang on the Lounge-a-Palooza compilation album.

He was working on a HoL television show and it sounded promising:

In 2017, Danielewski entered talks to adapt the novel into a TV series,[10][11] stating that if a deal was not made by February 2020, the project would be abandoned.[12] Ultimately, Danielewski published screenplays of three episodes online.[13] A sequel to the book, the screenplays both adapt the original story and extend it to the present day. Past sequences, depicted as filmed by a then-young filmmaker named Mélisande Avignon, contradict the book significantly: Zampanò's work, found by Truant, was not a manuscript but the actual film footage of The Navidson Record. This and Avignon's film are later seized, and public knowledge of them suppressed, by a "data disposal" company called Skiadyne. In the present, unknown forces steal both films from Skiadyne and return them to Avignon, leading to a high-stakes fight for control. The book House of Leaves, now academically studied as a work of fiction, becomes embroiled in a "fake fiction" scandal when Avignon publicizes its factual basis by leaking the films.

Also there's another book in the HoL pantheon:

The Whalestoe Letters (2000), by the American fiction author Mark Z. Danielewski, is an epistolary novella which more fully develops the literary correspondence between Pelafina H. Lièvre and her son Johnny from 1982–1989, characters first introduced in Danielewski's prior work House of Leaves.

The letters are included in the second edition of House of Leaves, in Appendix II, under the name E – The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute Letters, although the companion piece includes eleven additional letters not found in House of Leaves.

His follow-up book, The Fifty Year Sword, was kind of a mess. It's pretty gorgeous to look at but the narrative has five different people and you have to do some intense reading of the book to keep everything straight. I figure an audiobook recording might be easier since there would be five different speakers.

Little is actually known about the inspiration for the story, or the exact time period during which it was written.

Haven't had a chance to check out Only Revolutions yet, mostly because of this:

The Familiar
According to Danielewski's comments before his reading/performance of "Parable #8: Z is for Zoo,"[55] he began work on The Familiar in 2006, he was finishing Only Revolutions. It was originally supposed to be a 27-volume project.[56][55] On September 15, 2010, Danielewski announced the work on his message board: "Later this month publishers will receive the first 5 volumes of Mark Z. Danielewski's 27 volume project entitled The Familiar. The story concerns a 12-year-old girl who finds a kitten. ..."[57] Danielewski expected the series to take him over a decade to complete. The first installment, The Familiar, Volume 1: One Rainy Day in May, was released on May 12, 2015.[58] Volume 2: Into the Forest was released on October 27, 2015,[59] Volume 3: Honeysuckle and Pain was published on June 14, 2016,[60] Volume 4: Hades was released February 7, 2017, and Volume 5: Redwood completed Season One when it was released on October 31, 2017.[61] On February 2, 2018, Danielewski announced via a Facebook post that The Familiar had been paused, saying "I must agree with Pantheon that for now the number of readers is not sufficient to justify the cost of continuing."
Yeah, not many people want to read 27 books about anything.

[elevenism]

Couple things about Mark:.

The singer Poe is his sister and there are some tracks that she did on her album for the book.


He was working on a HoL television show and it sounded promising:


Also there's another book in the HoL pantheon:


His follow-up book, The Fifty Year Sword, was kind of a mess. It's pretty gorgeous to look at but the narrative has five different people and you have to do some intense reading of the book to keep everything straight. I figure an audiobook recording might be easier since there would be five different speakers.


Haven't had a chance to check out Only Revolutions yet, mostly because of this:

Yeah, not many people want to read 27 books about anything.

regarding Only Revolutions, my advice is DON'T check it out.

idk. i appreciate its creativity, but it's just...it's like he's trying to outdo HoL in terms of style and form, but he forgot the substance.

Or, i mean, shit. YOU might see something in it i don't. i'll mail you my copy if i can find it, if you like.

[versusreality]

Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution by Jack Bogle

I've read a few of his books and enjoy watching his interviews on YouTube. I knew nothing about investing until a few years ago, when I randomly stumbled upon one of his videos on YouTube. I still have much to learn, but enjoy educating myself.

[allegate]

I am 25% of the way through. I am positive I am missing something that has people so upset he hasn't finished the series. I mean I see parts where it's like "oh this guy (Kvothe) is a bad-ass" but they are so far few and far between. He talks about his training but then spends a not-insignificant portion of the book so far as a street rat. uh, ok.

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication122/v4/b1/c1/79/b1c1798c-7184-93dd-57b3-551de5be41d2/9780575087057.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

[allegate]

I am on the second book of the series now and I'm no further in understanding the clamor; I am however understanding why he cannot find a way to finish the series.

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Publication122/v4/26/ef/3f/26ef3f1a-abd4-66ef-c085-90800e1f1308/9781101486405.d.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

[Jinsai]

Just started reading The Nineties, by Chuck Klosterman.

From the inner sleeve notes: A wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history

[allegate]

Finished the book this weekend and the last few short chapters all introduced so many things. Like, the main thrust of the story is interesting enough and now you have extra antagonists? And you color characters in whole new lights that weren't present at all for the rest of the story? Hell, what about the short chapter where "hey I've been telling you stories with minute details but suddenly I'm going to paraphrase several months of sea travel and the subsequent urchin life because it's not important".

Oh and the made-up phrases for things like the fighting moves? Man I do not care because you don't describe them so all of that was just noise that my eyes skimmed over. Same for the names of sex positions (and there are a lot of them!! wtf happened in the middle of this book, wow)

I dunno what to really think. Like I said about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice I haven't really liked any media in months and it's starting to grate on me. I don't like not liking things and I sound like a whiny fuck, even to myself, just finding faults everywhere I look. Hell, there are a lot of bits that I really liked but then it kept bringing me down with inanities.