What Are You Reading?

[NTSC-J]

RIP Mr. Hitchens.

Why'd he have to die on my birthday.

[Moniker]

Just finished up a Lovecraft kick. At BPzeBanshee's suggestion, now reading the first book of Hamilton's Void trilogy. Really enjoying it so far - extreme distant future abstract sci-fi with just enough human insight to keep it grounded.

[CMoon]

Fiction (is for kids): Knife of never letting go

Non-fiction: Death and Life of the American School System

Chess: Logical moves step by step, Silman's complete Endgame course

[sjewkestheloon]

How are you liking the Patrick Ness? I loved the trilogy, real coming of age adventure with a great cast.

I am reading 1Q84 which is enjoyable.

[CMoon]

I am not in love with 'Knife of never letting go', but it is compelling. Ness may be better at creating a good story than he is at writing, but he certainly isn't a bad writer by any means. His prose is accessible and there's a compelling immediacy to it, but I feel it lacks a bit of craft. At this point, I'm a little frustrated in the way he is rather obviously hiding the story from me (and this can be a very tiresome writer's tool), but the adventure itself keeps you turning pages, and you can feel Todd's frustration at being left completely in the dark.

that might sound like a negative review, but actually enjoying it quite a bit so far. My thoughts are that it isn't in the same league as Hunger Games, but still a notable entry in the whole YA SF movement.

I'd love to hear more about 1Q84; I've heard about this author before, and this book seems very popular at the moment.

Edit: Is there a best place to start with Murakami?

[sjewkestheloon]

A completely understandable reaction to the ffirst Ness book but thankfully is just gets better and better. The initial slow reveal gives way to a lot more content as the trilogy goes on, and each book is quite distinct and shows the author's development.

I have read most of Murakami's stuff and my favourite is The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, a big novel that really takes its time to expand. His work is rather odd in an almost 'magical realist' feel, and you have to take his excentricities as they are, but I find him wildly entertaining. 1Q84 definitely follows on from his other big novels in the way that it meanders with a slow introduction of wierdness with every new chapter. He is not a master craftsman in style (possibly a translation issue) but he is well worth sticking with.

I wouldn't recommend reading a load of his novels in a row though. His characters are very similar to each other and his themes are fairly consistent over the body of his work, similar to PK Dick in that sense.

[CMoon]

Did I mention Russell Hoban died a few weeks back? (Riddley Walker, Mouse & his Child, innumerable picture books, maybe my personal favorite--Pilgermann, etc.) Hope we can all live so long and be so artistically successful (all overshadowed by Hitchens and Kim Jong Il.)

Anyway, finished Knife of Never Letting Go; enjoyed it, will read the next. Not really overwhelmed by it, but I like its energy and grittiness if not it's more morbid obsessions. Still not really compelled by the whole 'sacrifice' business, but perhaps it will sort itself out in the next book.

[sjewkestheloon]

Glad you enjoyed it cmoon.

Got a real haul of books to work through:
Jorge Luis Borges. Total library, a selection of about 160 of his non fiction pieces. Bliss.
Robert Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, on my to read list for years and after dipping in I can see it was a worthy purchase.
Samuel Beckett. Collected works Grove Press set, one of my all time favourites and there is a lot that I haven't read yet. The poetry has been a real revelation as well as some of the later prose fragments.
Thomas Pynchon. Mason and Dixon, more Pynchon more glee.

Bliss.

[mesh control]

Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide by Linda Sexton
I'll be reading a lot more now that I have a light for my kindle. I can only read at night, i'd rather do other things during the day.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Red Cavalry by Isaac Babel - a thing about "red" Cossacks at war with "white" Poland in the year 1920.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELQgLWNWysk

Typically of the secessionist writing of the era, it seems too ornate for its own good, but is fascinating all the same as a portrait of now-extinct world. Makes one realise yet again how many Jews used to live in Eastern Europe. Them half-Jewish towns and all. Quite interestingly, the conflict itself is not all that remembered by any of its former sides. The Russes are not into celebrating their defeats, the Poles are not into celebrating their victories. Most recent Russian Red Cavalry reissues STILL bear marks of the Soviet censorship, as if anybody would give a damn anymore.
It still baffles me how just about EVERY significant writer of the era got imprisoned and/or executed in the USSR of the last century's thirties.

[Ed Oscuro]

It still baffles me how just about EVERY significant person of the era got imprisoned and/or executed in the USSR of the last century's thirties.

fixed that fer ya

Been reading "Is Paris Burning" again, a book from 1965 looking back 21 years to the liberation of Paris. Pretty decent, though the repeat reading left few enough surprises. I realized, on a repeat reading, that this is one of the things that really opened my eyes to the problems of knowledge - the book often uses a conceit of telling you what somebody saw, even in some cases where they have that information from somebody who was standing next to them (the actual person being killed). And some passages seem almost too cute to be true, but overall I've always been pretty comfortable with its scholarship; it doesn't try to hide the important stuff. I now have a slight advantage over my past self in reading it this time, since I've been to Paris now. Yep, it looks nearly as dirty as it did in the B&W photo plates from the book. Plenty of great stuff there though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

fixed that fer ya

At least it's not
The post above reminds me of my sister's female friend who, when they went to Paris, was like "it's totally like Kiev!" all the time.
Since I'm sweating like a drunkard right now, I should probably restrain from posting on here for a while.

[blackoak]

I just finished Mishima's Sea of Fertility series again. I took my time with the 3rd and 4th books this time, and enjoyed them much more. I definitely could relate to Honda's observations as he grows older and descends into a kind of nihilism. Runaway Horses is still my favorite, though.

I'm reading a book on Algebra now. I sort of abandoned math once I followed the path of Japanese and literature, so its stimulating to relearn it now. Its sad that we don't have two childhoods, since dedication to one path tends to preclude others. Watching Cosmos and other science docs, I really get frustrated having to "take at their word" the scientists' assertions... I want to understand the proofs of physics and mathematics first hand. I was never bad at math but this is going to take a longgg time...

[mesh control]

Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide by Linda Sexton
I'll be reading a lot more now that I have a light for my kindle. I can only read at night, i'd rather do other things during the day.

Haven't finished this.

Now reading an Introduction to Space Science book that I found in a thrift store for 5 dollars.

[CMoon]

This thread got resurrected at the right time. Just finished Collins' series she wrote prior to Hunger Games and am pretty satisfied with it. It seems regardless of what her premise, she always ends up somewhere pretty close to Grave of Fireflies The series is interesting for other reasons, but I enjoyed watching her get to what is in effect Hunger Games volume zero. Hopefully when she's done working on these movies she'll find something new to write.

[Acid King]

About halfway through the Dain Curse. Loving the old hard boiled stuff...

[Ed Oscuro]

About halfway through the Dain Curse. Loving the old hard boiled stuff...

I oughta pick that up.

Today, though, loads and loads of David Hume and Thomas Reid, for a response paper I'm writing.

[RNGmaster]

I'm speeding through A Song of Ice and Fire. I read the first 3 but never felt really passionate. This time I'm reading concurrently with my older sis - nice to have someone to talk about it with. I guess I'm also enjoying it a bit more because the second season is going to start on Sunday yeeeeeeee

[Randorama]

Ultra Geek post incoming.

I have been reading Kim Sterelny's main works, and a costellation of literature on Natural Language Semantics, by Philosophers (say, Ruth Millikan), interspersed with heavy metal computational linguistics stuff (don't ask).

I am developing a sort of personality disorder, by which I don't have a seizure, when I switch from the extremely precise and accurate explanations to the philosophical version of hand-waving.

I am on a serious sleep deprivation trend, too.

[gameoverDude]

I've just started reading Vince Flynn's Kill Shot.

KS is the latest in the Mitch Rapp series. Rapp hunts down those who helped cause the Lockerbie disaster. Having covertly assassinated some of these terrorists, he now prepares to take out his next target- but this one seems a little too easy.

They fear him like a T.Rex and those in their ranks worry about if and when he's coming for them- but now they've set a trap. Rapp takes this Libyan oil minister down in his sleep, but this guy turns out to be bait and the hunter soon becomes the hunted. Things get messy and the Paris hotel is soon littered with bodies from the ensuing gunbattle. That's just for starters- so far it's good.

If KS gets a movie adaptation, it needs to go for the R rating. Forget PG-13. In fact, American Assassin is in the works for 2013- so this is probably a matter of when. American Assassin is where the timeline begins, and Kill Shot picks up where that left off.

[Moniker]

Upon recommendation, I'm about to start Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

Recently finished up a lucky run of great science fiction - The Alchemy of Stone (brilliant feminist sci fi), Glasshouse (brilliant, mind/gender bending sci fi), The Mount (I'd recommend this to anyone - partially a treatment of dominant/submissive, but really an in-depth examination of will, belief, and adolescent development), and Oryx and Crake (post-apocalyptic biopunk - almost great, but not quite; very entertaining, however).

[CMoon]

I need to get back to reading Lem who is one of the few sci-fi authors I'm really happy with. I've been reading chess books lately.

[Ed Oscuro]

Looking forward to the arrival of Reason and Prediction by Simon Blackburn.

Kinda thinking about picking up some philosophy of language stuff too (like Randorama mentioned, specifically).

Still reading Hume and Reid. Also reading The Ghost In the Atom (I accidentally ordered it twice, but I am sure I will know somebody who wants the other copy) and some other cool stuff.

[finisherr]

The last fictional book I read was the Fountainhead. Please don't pass judgements, as I know people have volatile responses to this particular author (and it's usually without any sort of real understanding of what she believes). Rand happens to be a very good story teller.

Right now I'm reading Lion Server Essentials for work. After that I'll likely read some books on Objective-C for my own amusement (entertaining some interests in programming). Not too much time for fiction these days, sadly.

[Ed Oscuro]

Please don't pass judgements, as I know people have volatile responses to this particular author (and it's usually without any sort of real understanding of what she believes).

Back atcha. Please regale us with your deep knowledge of Objectivism. If you're interested, I have a nifty little lecture from a month back by a guy who looked into it and found that Objectivism is cobbled together from real philosophers' works, without attribution of course.

Rand happens to be a very good story teller.

Is that the one where the heroine enjoys a rape? Or was that Atlas Shrugged?

To be fair, I ought to read it sometime. I have a copy of "The Virtue of Selfishness" a student gave me a while back, rather piss-stained. I ought to read through it sometime.

[finisherr]

Ed, this may sound cryptic, but...if you find the time to read the Fountainhead and discover that you can relate to Roark in one way or another, then you'll realize that Rand isn't just some crazy Republican as most people often think. Roark rules.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Is that the one where the heroine enjoys a rape? Or was that Atlas Shrugged?

It's The Fountainhead. The book's description of it makes it more sound like just a bout of rough sex. Honestly, Dominique seemed to actually quite enjoy it. Not the sex I mean, but rather the prospect of being able to shout about how she was raped to anyone who cared to listen. Quite bizarre.

Roark rules.

I can't be bothered to point out everything that's wrong with that statement so I'll just steal from Amazon reviews of The Fountainhead as necessary.

"Her central character, Howard Roark, whom some think "is what all men should seek to become," is a creative enough fellow in architecture but has a peculiar blind spot where people are concerned (including himself). There isn't the slightest reason why a seeker of value can't seek, and find, value in the lives, health, and happiness of other people, nor any reason why a rational human being should deny his own emotional states; yet Rand's most die-hard fans mindlessly ape Roark's indifference to other human beings and his ruthless repression of his own feelings. Why? Probably because Rand herself had the same traits -- which she rationalized, and "objectified" as human "ideals," in (and by means of) tripe novels like this one.

As a projection of the ideal man, even of the ideal creator, Roark falls miserably short _even_ by the standards of rational egoism -- just as Rand herself did. Objectivists, wake up; this woman was the victim of numerous psychological disorders, and her philosophy shows their influence. Libertarians, beware; the ideals of liberty do _not_ depend on the ravings of this arrogant and megalomaniacal lunatic -- and whatever her lunatic admirers tell you, she was _not_ the first person in history to cobble together a philosophy of reason and liberty."

"As philosophy, it's even more horrendous, not to mention impractical and downright dangerous. The basic tenet of objectivism, when boiled down to its essence, is self-serving greed above all else. Howard Roark, the "hero" that Rand wishes her readers to idolize is a coldly intellectual, mysognistic sociopath and rapist with a superiority complex the size of Greenland. If THIS is the model objectivist, I can only conclude that Rand's philosophy is truly anti-human."

And from the crazy lady herself:

"To illustrate this on the altruists’ favorite example: the issue of saving a drowning person. If the person to be saved is a stranger, it is morally proper to save him only when the danger to one’s own life is minimal; when the danger is great, it would be immoral to attempt it: only a lack of self-esteem could permit one to value one’s life no higher than that of any random stranger."

Translation: self-sacrifice is immoral when it's for stranger, fuck any brave rescue workers who died, they deserved it for not being selfish enough. She goes on to say that if it's for a loved one it can be justified to be for your own benefit cause you wouldn't want to live without them around.

If you think narcissists or sociopaths rule then I can see why you'd be fond of Ayn Rand's protagonists.

[Randorama]

Ed: For Philosophy of Language, I'd suggest that if you don't know it, then you learn some basic modal logic, and read logically oriented authors (e.g. Max Cresswell, Johan Van Benthem, Bob Stalnaker, Jeff Pelletier, who is also an awesome guy).

The authors I cited suffer from Analytical Philosophy syndrome: they propose half-baked ideas with some poorly defined formalisms, and pretend that they have said some ultimate truth.

On top of that, their knowledge of Logic is usually obsolete. Somebody should give free lessons on Intuitionism, in US philosophy departments.

And sorry, bashing Rand is like bashing Intelligent Designers. Apologies to Intelligent Designers.

[finisherr]

It's pretty easy to bash rand. I have no interest in defending her. There is no point in talking straight to people who dislike her work without reading her work. Surely, her views are tendentious. Before going into the Fountainhead, I was very skeptical of the territory toward which I was heading. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its story and ideas. I don't agree with everything she has to say, but I do agree with her in a lot of ways.

One thing that I particularly liked about Roark is that he didn't get along in life by kissing ass and ladder climbing. He busted his own balls to make himself an excellent architect, albeit a nonconventional architect. He also refused to kiss ass, no matter how many times that would have been the easier thing to do. He's a man with ideals and self-respect. I can dig that.

Anyway, the way people bash Rand is similar to how really, really annoying people obtusely oversimplify and categorize shooters. "Oh, looks boring. All you do is shoot and dodge little bullets." It's so easy to do this sort of thing.

[sven666]

im halfway into 1984, something ive put off for a looooong time for no good reason.
i actually discovered the world of audiotape so im getting thru it while at work, gotta tell you, it feels like ive discovered gold in the streets!

great book, very dystopic!