What Are You Reading?

[Obiwanshinobi]

I busted out Kesshou Seidan by Sakyo Komatsu. At 200 pages, and being a collection of short stories where the last is the title of the book, it's not too daunting. I should finish it in the next couple of days, just making the 1 year cut off. I really need to find a new J-author though.

When I was done reading Japan Sinks by him (pretty bad translation here, but I've no regrets), I picked up Silence by Shūsaku Endō, which I've had resting in my home library for about as long as the former. By a strange coincidence, I finished reading it soon before hearing the news about then-upcoming Scorsese's film adaptation. Apparently, between Japanese one and the latest, there was a Portugese* film as well.
Book (better translation this time) does not read like a material easy to adapt for the screen at all. Rather, it's practically begging for NOT doing the source material justice in a film form. Wouldn't make much sense without highlighting all the poverty and atrocities described, crucial to the character development, at a great risk of completely overshadowing the latter. Also, the epistolary form must tempt many a film director (such as Martin Scorsese of the Taxi Driver fame) into further off-screen narration, as if not yet enough harm was already made by this.

*) Reading about Os Olhos da Ásia now, its linking with Chinmoku seems to be quite loose.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

been reading Keiji Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness (which I really ought to finish but I'm too hyper focused on video games like a big idiot) and probably will hop onto something like Wittgenstein's Philosophical Grammar or somethin' next...or possibly Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains of Paradise.
Tried reading the sequel to Ringworld recently, but it was trash.

[rapoon]

been reading Keiji Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness (which I really ought to finish but I'm too hyper focused on video games like a big idiot) and probably will hop onto something like Wittgenstein's Philosophical Grammar or somethin' next...or possibly Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains of Paradise.
Tried reading the sequel to Ringworld recently, but it was trash.

How's Ringworld (not the sequel)? I've been meaning to read that. Have you read anything Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle worked on together, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer ?

Finished:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Likely one of the few members who hadn't read this. Thoroughly enjoyed every page. Wish I'd of read it sooner.

A Confederacy of Dunces - "Don Quixote of the French Quarter". Follows the adventures of the highly intelligent but slothful misanthrope, Ignatius J Reilly, and his attempt at obtaining gainful employment and the array of colorful characters he meets in the process. I've read a few reviews calling A Confederacy of Dunces the literary Curb Your Enthusiasm, and that's accurate but the only distinction I would make is that Igantius hates everyone. I found myself regularly alternating between wanting to hug Ignatius and punch him in the face, often on the same page, particularly during his scribbling in his Big Chief tablets which serve as a platform to launch his volley of diatribes against contemporary society. Reviews are polarized, and I'm in the camp that found it hysterical.

currently reading:

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Halfway through book one. A kaleidoscope of esotericism, occultism, sex, drugs, and rock & roll all wrapped up in a succulent conspiracy theory. Incredibly entertaining, but christ the writing is irritatingly confusing at times. Narration regularly bounces between 1st and 3rd person or entirely switches characters, or species. If there was ever a body of fiction deserving of Alan Moores interpretation.

[guigui]

Just finished The Terror by Dan Simmons.

Just let this book about 80 pages to start (80 Simmons pages, may be a bit long) but then you're in for a tremendous trip with those guys on their frozen boats, and will not come back the same.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

been reading Keiji Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness (which I really ought to finish but I'm too hyper focused on video games like a big idiot) and probably will hop onto something like Wittgenstein's Philosophical Grammar or somethin' next...or possibly Arthur C. Clarke's Fountains of Paradise.
Tried reading the sequel to Ringworld recently, but it was trash.

How's Ringworld (not the sequel)? I've been meaning to read that. Have you read anything Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle worked on together, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer ?

Finished:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Likely one of the few members who hadn't read this. Thoroughly enjoyed every page. Wish I'd of read it sooner.

A Confederacy of Dunces - "Don Quixote of the French Quarter". Follows the adventures of the highly intelligent but slothful misanthrope, Ignatius J Reilly, and his attempt at obtaining gainful employment and the array of colorful characters he meets in the process. I've read a few reviews calling A Confederacy of Dunces the literary Curb Your Enthusiasm, and that's accurate but the only distinction I would make is that Igantius hates everyone. I found myself regularly alternating between wanting to hug Ignatius and punch him in the face, often on the same page, particularly during his scribbling in his Big Chief tablets which serve as a platform to launch his volley of diatribes against contemporary society. Reviews are polarized, and I'm in the camp that found it hysterical.

currently reading:

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Halfway through book one. A kaleidoscope of esotericism, occultism, sex, drugs, and rock & roll all wrapped up in a succulent conspiracy theory. Incredibly entertaining, but christ the writing is irritatingly confusing at times. Narration regularly bounces between 1st and 3rd person or entirely switches characters, or species. If there was ever a body of fiction deserving of Alan Moores interpretation.

Ringworld is really dumpy and corny, but overall, it's a fun read. Also, I haven't read any of the collabs that Niven and Pournelle did, but The Mote in God's Eye has been one that has seemed like it might be pretty dang neato

[NYN]

Tom Sawyer is a jerk.
In honest, the last ten chapters nearly ruin Huck Finn for me. The antics of a dull boy who gets his friends into deep thick. Oh no, let's do it with prime style then. A load of truck. Cuss him. When you think the king and the duke are the biggest creeps in the adventures, hold on, no, it's the "best friend". Jump through hoops for me. Get skinned in the process. Yes, Mas Tom. Here's $40 for yo' trouble. Yes, money is magic and heals every wound. Twain takes a easy way out, protects Sawyer (Twain's persona?) and resets the ending to default. I rather let him have Jim and Huck operate a brothel in New Orleans. Away from that numbskull-village. Blame it!

[NYN]

Nameless by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham

What to write? I read the comic book. I'd buy the shirt. I'd ignore the movie.
Poking the fun out of smart-alecky readers with the I've-seen-it-before 'tude in the I-Age of media, there's this line further down, when the outline of the story seems clear. "IT'S LIKE THE GODDAMN 'EXORCIST' MEETS 'APOLLO 13'!". Right. No. There's a vortex of layers and references. Breaking it down to two names is violence. As is the anger of some, who might feel they're not smart enough for this. I got scared with a simple method, really. Till then I had my defenses up against the mutilations and atrocities. All it took was one page told in five panels. Depicting lab rats, the captions read like this: 1 [Friend far away.] 2 [Friend COME HOME!] [Friend!] 3 [Friend not same.] 4 [Friend sick.] 5 [All sick!] [Hide!] [Not me!]. Through the hairline fracture the horror seeped in. Nihilism is not cute. It's dread. But that's no way to deny the book its greatest trick, the underlying reverse psychology. From the mouth of the magician:

Spoiler

"Basically this whole book is urging girls to rise up, slaughter the rock star superhero warrior archetype and save the world!"

I'm going for Annihilator next.

[Xyga]

Lately I've read a few more of Asimov's novels that fit into the greater robots/empire/foundation hypersaga, and realized that I've actually read most of it (across a couple decades maybe), which is almost 20 books.
Gotta love Asimov, though you're not forced to read eveything in there, honestly his style and charaters appear repetitive, but it's a pleasure to connect the dots of the greater subplot and see the few traits of genius holding it together.
I've read a script has been floating around forver, but honestly this is no TV material, only a cleverly condensed form would do yet that'd be too much for most writers and film makers no matter what, failure guaranteed.

[Randorama]

Nameless by Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham

Excellent! Then again, I like the guy enough to have written about, and met with him (twice, even!).

I would suggest the bald bastard's early works, if you are not acquainted with them: Zenith, the 2000 A.D. stories, and of course Animal Man and Doom Patrol. I would add his Vertigo material too (The Filfth, in particular) but those are more polished but at the same time less genuine and brimming with wild, atomic-powered ideas thrown at the reader with no care about processing abilities and decency of imagination. Doom Patrol's run, in particular, is at the same time "standard J. Kirby's hero" fare (i.e. super, yes; heroes, sort of; with huge burdens, quite so) mixed with enough ideas and references to beg for a breather after reading each issue. Actually, the series does not feature references, but proper uses of ideas taken from one domain (say, recursion, alliteration, phantom limb hallucinations, talking monkeys, Belgian sit-coms) and plugged into the series as proper narrative themes ("tropes", if you wish). One thing is having one character citing Borges; another is using his ideas for a genuine story arc with a few punches in between (and there's Flex Mentallo and Danny the Street! Instant win!).

These days Grant Morrison (TM) has become a fairly mainstream guy, but Grant Morrison (the chief) has steered Heavy Metal into the right direction. His stories and editorials on the magazine are glorious: those who would gawk in horror at Savage Sword of Christ should be denied even the comfort of plain water, I dare say!

[soprano1]

Just finished the second First Law book. Character development was pretty great, i think. Glokta still the best.
I'll take on the third book sometime soon, i hope.

Almost two and a half years later, here I am starting it.

[Randorama]

Around 2002-2003, when I was 22-23, I decided to select a few SF authors and works that I had to explore at a later stage, when the scarcity of good works would/could have become an issue.


I am currently loving Iain M. Banks' books, and even enjoying his "plain" fiction work as Iain Banks.

I am then finding Robinson's Mars trilogy overall interesting but problematic in the way it uses (national, cultural) stereotypes instead of characters. Interesting bit: Border Down was clearly inspired by this trilogy (e.g. the city with the orbital elevator, in the game and in the books, is called "Sheffield").

I have a lot of works on the backbone (say, the whole Dune soap opera, almost every book by Neal Stephenson), but I am getting too old and easy to be trolled by games. I hope not to finish my reading list too soon

[NYN]

Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction

by Grady Hendrix.

Pretty much says it all. The attempt to cover an era of lurid paperback editions. No theme too worn out, no cover art too awesomely gruesome. Gives detailed desciption and more of an encompassing overview of motivations and backround of authors, with extra pages for selected cover artists. Though I'm not sure yet I would take a recommendation, some things sound like fun and far out at the same time. The tone of the text is generous, not too ironic, more admirable. If it was contemptuous, I wouldn't bother. All of it kindels the desire to read a book about the metal album covers that these stories and art inspired. That would be something.

[drauch]

You're much better off reading Will's blog, http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.com/, where a lot of that info comes from. I read a lot of paperback stuff and can't stand Grady's reviews; they often come off as too sarcastic and irreverent for me -- plus the dude rates his own books 5 stars on Goodreads, lol.

Will's really dedicated to horror, almost religiously. Not slamming PBFH at all, since I think it's great as a starter and even re-fueled interest in getting a group of titles that were out of print republished, but I'd take any of his reviews with a grain of salt, since I think he just skims through them (and has been called out on it).

[NYN]

Thanks for the retort.

Yeah, the blog gets mentioned in the introduction and Errickson gets the afterword. So I'd like to think the due is done.
I sure appreciate individuals who dedicate to a whole lot of stuff and share it with a blog, yet to be frank: at the end of the day ( and sofa ) I prefer some paperback in my hands, not a screen before my eyes.
About the snark and the skim; it's alright with me. When I read the third chapter WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK, I was close to be horrified to imagine myself reading through tales where the big bads are hordes of mantisis, locusts, ants, crabs ( a full 4 books series! ), worms, slugs, catterpillars, arachnid, or amphibious. Not that I'm skittish about any o' them. But my mind would be blowing like a hole. So some snark on that subject counts to me as self-defense.

Nevertheless, I am delighted that you seem to be more involved with all of it. Being ones own expert is the way to go.

[drauch]

Yeah, I hear ya with the Blogs. I read a handful, but I'm the same way; I'd much rather be reading a book. I tend to skim around when reading something like that online as opposed something I'm actually holding and more focused on. (Reading a blog on action novels in between my morning shmupping, actually!)

Haha, there's actually six crabs novels! And now more, including short stories. I've only read the first two. Second one is a snooze fest, but the first is pulp insanity, with the army being called in and tanks and all that. And don't forget the sex. The author is a real nut. It's great stuff. Hard to go wrong with anything regarding critters.

[BIL]

Fucking crabs. I grew up in a tropical climate and the motherfuckers would. not. STOP trying to get in our house! Clawing open window screens and shit. Big black toaster-sized things. I remember waking up a sunny Saturday and *clickclickclickclick* one skitters out from under the bed across the tiles and into the bathroom. You are being overly familiar, Mr. Crab! Never kept anything under there ever again. Went home this summer, was doing some gardening and picked up a refuse sack full of wet leaves. Fucking crab underneath staring up at me like a Garfield phone. Fell over backwards, could've utterly fucked myself if I'd landed on the rake. Imagine going to the ER with a severe bum injury on a Wednesday afternoon. They'll know what's up alright.

I know they're harmless. Less than harmless actually. Parts of them break off for no reason and when they die they stink to high heaven. No I did not kill either of the above.

I wonder how hungry the first motherfucker to eat one of these scuttling abominations must've been.

Only good crab #1

Spoiler

(Hysteric Empress GIF goes here)

Only good crab #3

Spoiler

(Vagrant Story had some neat crabs too!)

[Xyga]

So, according to some article I was reading, I've completely missed some major Fantasy references.
(probably because they have had poor coverage in my country and only partial translations)

And of course those are all many-volumes monster sagas, YUGE.

Wonder if any of these is really worth the time;

- Malazan Book of the Fallen
- The Wheel of Time
- The Riftwar Saga

Dunno what to expect from the first one as I'm not sure what they call 'epic fantasy' (smth a la Tactical-RPG ?)

The other two smell like basic high fantasy, I've already tasted a few chapters of WoT, and what's surprising is how much it plagiarizes LotR from the boot.
I mean lots of high fantasy novels do, but here it hurts, so I hope WoT quickly finds it own personality.

EDIT; my fear is that I engage and read a lot and find out it gets either too much into teenager themes a la Eddings, or overdoing the serious shit like Robin Hobb's perverse interest in miserable characters.

What about;

- The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant ?

[GaijinPunch]

Fucking crabs.

Some friends of mine my first year in Japan had a similar story. They all lived in a gaijin house... so like 10 people in 10 rooms that are about the size of a futon. Of course all the sheets are washed together and the futons hung out to dry together. Someone brought home crabs and the whole house had to use that special shampoo.

[BIL]

Yes, the skittering monstrosities of my youth at least had the courtesy of being easily-spotted at safe distance!

[FinalBaton]

Love the new avatar, Xyga. That cynical, wise cracking cat is my 2019 Personnality of the Year

It has spoiled me with many saucy rock and metal memes!

ftw

[Xyga]

And it's MINE (at least until the end of the year lol)

[null1024]

god, I just remembered how much I read the Hardy Boys Casefiles as a kid
and I really forgot how goofy it was that these were freaking Hardy Boys stories now that I'm going through them again

Like, I've got a couple more mundane ones where they're investigating a major CD piracy operation [and they nearly get blown up because the Casefiles are XTREEM AS FUCK ], or a murder at a magic show [which is actually pretty mundane compared to a lot of the others, but still entertaining]...
...but the series is mainly about EXTRA-RADICAL adventures where they're regularly stopping major terrorist plots [I have two stories here, one where a group is hijacking an airplane in the middle of a security trade show, and one where they're dealing with a rash of bombings and end up disarming a nuclear bomb] and flying experimental VTOL aircraft with laser weapons, all due to an organization known as the Assassins.
real original name there

Spoiler

no seriously, this shits' XTREEM as fuck -- Iola, Joe's girlfriend and Chet's sister, fucking dies in a bombing in the first book, which really sets the tone for the entire series

I love this quote I found on the Wikipedia page for the series: "Lines like "Joe! Hand me the Uzi!" are not out of character." The Hardy Boys!

also, I've read these to death and it's really goofy seeing the big warning stating that "The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized."
bitch, it had it when I bought it, I just read them so much that it came off

[BIL]

That sounds like a good time, reminds me of the X-TREEEEEEM Tom Swift novels from the 90s. I was surprised to find out how old and quaint the original character was, Tom was getting up to all sorts of mad shit in the grunge years. I don't remember any uzis or fatalities, but he was totally CYBORG KICKBOXIN' at one point!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

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

Classic Terry Pratchett. It's a short story and not a full-length novel, but it features his best written characters, the witches, and it's among some of his best writing.

[NYN]

Finished Cronenberg's Consumed. Similar to Videodrome and eXistenZ a body (!) of ideas is presented and gradually moved trough or scanned (!). Self-assuredly written and decidedly non-Sci-Fi. Not much shocked by, though one part made me a little queasy. I would very much like to read more, if it becomes a possibility.

At the moment it is A History of Canadian Horror Cinema.

[versionfiv]

I am re-reading Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card for the eighth time over the past 20 years.
his book Xenocide is my favorite book since I was about 11, and Ender's Shadow is close by, still. while reading this, I realized that I've used these books, Speaker For The Dead, Xenocide, Ender's Shadow, Children of the Mind, and the Shadow follow ups nearly as my personal bible since I was a kid. that's no exaggeration.
I still haven't read the Shadows In Flight from 2012 or any following that he wrote with Aaron Johnston. I remember when it was released I confused Johnston with Aaron Allston who wrote a bunch of X-Wing books that I read as a kid and still own. I ought to re-read those next.

I also like Orson Scott Card's science fiction take on the book of mormon called the Homecoming saga, they're extremely entertaining. it was one of the books on a list for English class when I was in middle school or maybe freshman year of high school, and I chose the first The Memory Of Earth based on knowing who the author was and glad I did. I'm not crazy about mormons but those books are great and highly recommended. most mormons don't even know those books exist and only if you knew ahead of time or were familiar with the stories in the book of mormon would you even know there was a connection.

[Marc]

'So Much For The 30 Year Plan', official Therapy? Bio.
About halfway through so far, some interesting stuff but also feels like they didn't want to rag on ex-members too hard, so breezes past a lot of stuff I'd have liked to know about in more detail.

I should post more here, on a good week I'll go through 3-4 books, but I've got to juggle music / books / gaming, and the latter two are taking priority at the minute. I'm the sort that pretty much needs peace and quiet when I sit down with a book.

[rapoon]

I should post more here, on a good week I'll go through 3-4 books, but I've got to juggle music / books / gaming, and the latter two are taking priority at the minute. I'm the sort that pretty much needs peace and quiet when I sit down with a book.

If you're reading that quickly, I wish you would; I'm always seeking new recommendations.

An alternative for any of us is create a goodreads account and share our profiles (I still need to create an account myself). Their algorithm for new recommendations is poor, but... it's a great platform for
finding those with similar ratings to your own and seeing their recommendations/reviews/ratings.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music by Blair Tindall* (an oboist). I'm grateful to books such as this one, or Klarinet i klarinetisti by Anton Eberst, for making me NOT regret not having learnt playing those instruments (or horn, or...) - no way I would have read all the books I had as a kid if I was busy learning all that.

I was already bookish, so no one would confuse me with the angelic cheerleaders who all played the flute. My nerd factor spun off the charts. I turned scarlet from blowing through the tiny reed; veins popped out on my forehead. Since no one picked the bassoon, I became band bozo by default.

*) Oh, Carolina...

[Blackfielding]

At the moment I am reading Ben Elton's "Time and Time Again". A friend of mine recommended this book to me and I must admit that although I usually ignore his reading tips but this time intuitively I felt that the book is worth reading and I didn't miss it.