What Are You Reading?

A place where you can chat about anything that isn't to do with games!
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GaijinPunch
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

I finished Hateshinaki Nagare no Hate ni (At the End of the Endless Stream) which didn't take as long as I thought, all things considered. It was a bitch though, to say the least, but very enjoyable. I think it could be made into a very enjoyable film.

As that one took me about 6 months, I went with something easier: Modern Romance by Azis Ansari. Read it on the plane + a bit more on a trip. Good stuff, although I knew most of it from experience.
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Hagane
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Hagane »

The untold history of Japanese game developers. It has terrible editing (rather, it has no editing at all and is mostly an interview dump) and some of the questions are rather dumb (what's with the obsession of making interviewees draw plans of the offices they worked at?), but there's some really interesting information in there. There's some insight on how tough the working situations were, the involvement of Yakuza in gaming companies and some bits of info I didn't know (such as TAD being formed by ex Data East employees and the president scamming them and running with their money).

The interview with ZUN was rather interesting too, dispelling some misinformation such as the origin of his pseudonym and his views on business models. If you manage to stomach the utterly awful editing you can find some very interesting info.
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MintyTheCat
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by MintyTheCat »

Hagane wrote:The untold history of Japanese game developers. It has terrible editing (rather, it has no editing at all and is mostly an interview dump) and some of the questions are rather dumb (what's with the obsession of making interviewees draw plans of the offices they worked at?), but there's some really interesting information in there. There's some insight on how tough the working situations were, the involvement of Yakuza in gaming companies and some bits of info I didn't know (such as TAD being formed by ex Data East employees and the president scamming them and running with their money).

The interview with ZUN was rather interesting too, dispelling some misinformation such as the origin of his pseudonym and his views on business models. If you manage to stomach the utterly awful editing you can find some very interesting info.
I picked that up last year and have read through a lot of it.

I found the interview with toriaki to be really useful - I had no idea that the man had written all those programming books. Also, he does a lot of running - seems like a humble guy and pretty cool.

I got hold of some of his programming books after reading this.

I agree, it is more of an interview dump but has some really insightful info to be had.
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Rob
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Rob »

Kirino #6 & 7. Not close to Out, Grotesque or Tokyo-jima. Will give her one more shot with Dark later. I want to be dragged into the mud again. 8)

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Blinge
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Just finished William Gibson - Count Zero

Man I love this cyberpunk shit. I think it's a better book than Neuromancer, but you have to read Neuro first to appreciate Zero.
The voodoo was the worst part, I guess. Maybe reading on trains after work wasn't the best way to take it all in.
I wanna play System Shock now.
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MintyTheCat
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Blinge wrote:Just finished William Gibson - Count Zero

Man I love this cyberpunk shit. I think it's a better book than Neuromancer, but you have to read Neuro first to appreciate Zero.
The voodoo was the worst part, I guess. Maybe reading on trains after work wasn't the best way to take it all in.
I wanna play System Shock now.
Great book. I was thinking of re-reading it last week.

I can recommend the Mona Lisa Overdrive next. The three make up the Sprawl series and I prefer the Cyberpunk stuff that Gibson did compared to the novels he did afterwards but still give them a read as they are not bad.

Burning Chrome and The Difference Engine worth getting to read too.
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Stevens
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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He penned a pretty good Alien 3 script.
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Blinge
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Yep, definitely gonna finish off the Sprawl trilogy soon.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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City of Blades, sequel to City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm loving this world he created.
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MintyTheCat
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by MintyTheCat »

Just bought a book about African Art and a Physics book in German.
I am reading The Reality Dysfunction at present and it is going pretty well.
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Xyga
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Xyga »

Recently I've heard the news about that possible huge distant 9th planet in our Solar system, and I immediately thought of Majipoor.

People who never read Robert Silverberg or just not this major sci-fi/fantasy cycle: absolutely read it before you die!
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MintyTheCat
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Xyga wrote:Recently I've heard the news about that possible huge distant 9th planet in our Solar system, and I immediately thought of Majipoor.

People who never read Robert Silverberg or just not this major sci-fi/fantasy cycle: absolutely read it before you die!
If you read up on the Zacharia Sitchin books this has been an idea for quite some time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zecharia_Sitchin

I had not heard of any Silverberg books but I shall have a look.

I tend to read only scifi and horror fiction wise.
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Immryr
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Immryr »

haven't been reading anything for a while now, but I just bought teatro grottesco by Thomas ligotti. hoping this will get me back into it.
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Obiwanshinobi
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Obiwanshinobi »

Xyga wrote:Recently I've heard the news about that possible huge distant 9th planet in our Solar system,
Just heard of it on the radio myself.

I've read two first tomes of The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek - another once unfinished reading of my youth.
At least in this here part of Europe - reads depressingly up-to-date, and I mean it personally (suddenly, it's as if all of it could happen to me very soon).
Also, this time it reminds me of Großes Solo für Anton a lot. (Just read Herbert Rosendorfer died A.D. 2012 - it's a moment of my particularly strong gratitude for his books.)
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soprano1
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by soprano1 »

Is The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb any good? I'm jumping either into the first book or Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
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Xyga
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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soprano1 wrote:Is The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb any good?
Badass. Although with some lenghts but the whole package is really great.
I didn't like the 'sequel' Liveship Traders trilogy though, it's more of a 'gaiden' with different characters.
If you like the Farseer I suggest skipping Liveship entirely and go directly for the Tawny Man trilogy, which is the real sequel.

PS: on that topic in my cuntry the Farseer and Twany Man were published as a single saga.
And Hobb's currently finishing a thrird trilogy following the Farseer and Tawny, but I don't know much about it.
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soprano1
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by soprano1 »

Xyga wrote:
soprano1 wrote:Is The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb any good?
Badass. Although with some lenghts but the whole package is really great.
I didn't like the 'sequel' Liveship Traders trilogy though, it's more of a 'gaiden' with different characters.
If you like the Farseer I suggest skipping Liveship entirely and go directly for the Tawny Man trilogy, which is the real sequel.

PS: on that topic in my cuntry the Farseer and Twany Man were published as a single saga.
And Hobb's currently finishing a thrird trilogy following the Farseer and Tawny, but I don't know much about it.
Badass, eh? Guess i'll go for it then.
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Xyga
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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soprano1 wrote:Badass, eh? Guess i'll go for it then.
It's great yes, but kind of an emotional challenge, it's not what you would call a fantasy action saga even if the essential themes are really there. The focus is more on the character's lives and challenges, don't forget the author is a woman. ^^
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GaijinPunch
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

I read Slaughterhouse 5 - my first Vonnegut book.
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Rob
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Rob »

Rereading THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Can't quite appreciate this kind of thing fully in high school (wasn't forced to read it, but still).
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Odyssey.
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Immryr
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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I read that Thomas ligotti book. it was amazing.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

On a trip to and from LA, I read Childhood's End. Hard to believe that was written in 1953. A few things definitely didn't pan out the way Clarke had imagined, but all in all it holds up amazingly well. I could see where it could have taken some seriously hokey turns but didn't. Super Good - glad I read it.

EDIT: I see it finally got made into a video. Any comment on if it's shit or not?
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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GaijinPunch wrote:On a trip to and from LA, I read Childhood's End. Hard to believe that was written in 1953. A few things definitely didn't feel pan out the way Clarke had imagined, but all in all it holds up amazingly well. I could see where it could have taken some seriously hokey turns but didn't. Super Good - glad I read it.

EDIT: I see it finally got made into a video. Any comment on if it's shit or not?


I picked up Childhood's End last summer, but didn't get around to reading it until after I watched the television miniseries.

I enjoyed the television series, but it has many changes. It adds more scenes with the existing characters, adds characters, removes characters, creates relationships that did not exist before, removes the links between some characters, and moves some actions from one character to another. The show generally tries to make the human side of things more dramatic, but explains less about what is happening on the alien side of things and you never get to see their homeworld.

I'm not sure how I would have reacted to the show if I read the book first. Some of the new scenes are kinda ridiculous, like
Spoiler
Karellan getting blasted with a shotgun.


I am currently reading Fool by Christopher Moore after a friend recommended the author. It is a comedic retelling of King Lear from the perspective of the court jester. I am enjoying it so far.
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GaijinPunch
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by GaijinPunch »

I enjoyed the television series, but it has many changes. It adds more scenes with the existing characters, adds characters, removes characters, creates relationships that did not exist before, removes the links between some characters, and moves some actions from one character to another. The show generally tries to make the human side of things more dramatic, but explains less about what is happening on the alien side of things and you never get to see their homeworld.
Thanks for the heads up. I guess I'll pass until I really need something to watch.
I'm not sure how I would have reacted to the show if I read the book first. Some of the new scenes are kinda ridiculous, like
Spoiler
Karellan getting blasted with a shotgun.
Spoiler
This probably wouldn't have bothered me so much. After seeing decades of people rioting over absolutely nothing (sports, anyone?) I thought if the book was to be updated there would have to be some attempts at violence to the Overlords...especially when they showed themselves.

I thought the ending was poetically bleak though... loved it.
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Stevens
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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I have been doing body weight exercises for the last three years, but hit a plateau with Primal Blueprint Fitness. Paul Wade's Convict Conditioning is about to change all that. This is the next step for me.

This book is going to change my life to the degree that Wheat Belly and The Big Fat Surprise did.
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Rob
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Rob »

The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet
Man, there really is a book for everything. :shock:

This woman is either slow or a fraudster. She makes a point of noting the lack of heart attacks with the Masai while not noting their extraordinarily low life expectancy (42 for men).

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.short
The intake of animal fat exceeds that of American men. Measurements of the aorta showed extensive atherosclerosis with lipid infiltration and fibrous changes but very few complicated lesions. The coronary arteries showed intimal thickening by atherosclerosis which equaled that of old U.S. men.
Atherosclerosis is not part of a healthy lifestyle.

Sorry - this kind of stuff gets me going. 8)
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Venom
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by Venom »

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race - Ligotti
Fascination...
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soprano1
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Re: What Are You Reading?

Post by soprano1 »

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Loved the "Way in the Middle of the Air" chapter.
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Re: What Are You Reading?

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soprano1 wrote:Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Loved the "Way in the Middle of the Air" chapter.
Aw it's all genius man. A Bradbury classic.

I'm reading Total Recall: Schwarzenegger's biography. It's really interesting. Even all that shit about bodybuilding (although it gets better when you get to Conan).
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