What Are You Reading?

[Blinge]

Samuel Beckett - Malone Dies

I have the same problem with this as I did some of Joyce's work.. I can't focus. Find myself daydreaming, and looking back over two pages I've just read to realise I've taken none of it in. o_o

[Obiwanshinobi]

Beckett was a playwright and although I only saw Endgame on stage twice, I wouldn't mind third helpings of that staging. Thing is, the theatre staging it was burnt down at the time, so they ought to perform in a very cramped space for a pretty small audience (former Teatr Laboratorium chamber). I wonder if a more conventional settings wouldn't have blunted its edge. It was freakin' dynamite.

[jonny5]

Samuel Beckett - Malone Dies

I have the same problem with this as I did some of Joyce's work.. I can't focus. Find myself daydreaming, and looking back over two pages I've just read to realise I've taken none of it in. o_o

Sounds like you have some MU's(yes, from Scientology - look it up). Read back through those pages and guaranteed there was at least one word you didn't understand. Look up what the word means and re-read from there. Anytime you find yourself daydreaming or realize you have read pages and took nothing in, this is what happened. If going through those pages doesn't help, go back further.

One of the only good things I took from Scientology. Yes, it's a bullshit cult based around sheer nonsense and lies, but the learning tech has a lot of useful tools in it that I still find myself using daily even 20 years later.

And I don't care what anybody says - L. Ron Hubbard was a brilliant sci fi writer before he got too laced on the amphetamines and turned a short story into a religion

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm afraid if you can't focus on a text you are reading, usually it's not very well written. That is cool because everybody sometimes have their own reasons to read bad writing.

[Blinge]

I wouldn't dare to call something by Beckett badly written, having written precisely nothing myself. I also loved his other work, Murphy.

Shifts in focus, streams of conciousness or otherwise tangents and rambles can sometimes lose me. I'd assume it's a general lack of concentration rather than holes in my vocabulary, I've noticed very few unknown words in the whole book so far.

20 years later? Did you get into scientology, jonny?

[jonny5]

I wouldn't dare to call something by Beckett badly written, having written precisely nothing myself. I also loved his other work, Murphy.

Shifts in focus, streams of conciousness or otherwise tangents and rambles can sometimes lose me. I'd assume it's a general lack of concentration rather than holes in my vocabulary, I've noticed very few unknown words in the whole book so far.

20 years later? Did you get into scientology, jonny?

My parents got heavily into it when I was about 10 through about 14. I went to a Scientology based school during that time. Went back to regular school just before high school. My parents dropped it fully a couple years alter

The thing a lot of people don't realize is the really crazy stuff in Scientology doesn't come up until you are at least 10-15 years in, almost all of the early courses and learning packs are mostly self help based, mainly focusing on learning tools and self analysis tools. I think back then it was a lot easier for people to get drawn in without all the info and stuff we have on it through the internet now. All the stuff we now know about the upper level craziness just wasn't common knowledge back then.

The only reason I brought up MU's was because you exactly described the symptoms. It doesn't have to be a single word either, could be a phrase, idiom, just something you didn't fully understand.

[Satan]

I'd love to start a religion
You have to respect L.Ron, that's gangster.

[Blinge]

The only reason I brought up MU's was because you exactly described the symptoms. It doesn't have to be a single word either, could be a phrase, idiom, just something you didn't fully understand.

Oh yeah, this is probably true.
I'll sidestep part of the responsibility by saying that some of the references and concepts are contemporary to when it was written, as with a lot of Joyce's stuff. Some of that's definitely going over my head.

London's arcade crowd were prime targets for scientology for a while...

[Never_Scurred]

I wouldn't dare to call something by Beckett badly written, having written precisely nothing myself. I also loved his other work, Murphy.

Shifts in focus, streams of conciousness or otherwise tangents and rambles can sometimes lose me. I'd assume it's a general lack of concentration rather than holes in my vocabulary, I've noticed very few unknown words in the whole book so far.

20 years later? Did you get into scientology, jonny?

My parents got heavily into it when I was about 10 through about 14. I went to a Scientology based school during that time. Went back to regular school just before high school. My parents dropped it fully a couple years alter

The thing a lot of people don't realize is the really crazy stuff in Scientology doesn't come up until you are at least 10-15 years in, almost all of the early courses and learning packs are mostly self help based, mainly focusing on learning tools and self analysis tools. I think back then it was a lot easier for people to get drawn in without all the info and stuff we have on it through the internet now. All the stuff we now know about the upper level craziness just wasn't common knowledge back then.

The only reason I brought up MU's was because you exactly described the symptoms. It doesn't have to be a single word either, could be a phrase, idiom, just something you didn't fully understand.

My ex-girlfriend got into that mess back in the day and it screwed her up big time. We ended up reconnecting last year over FB. She got pressured into dropping out of school and moving to Florida. Told me she was bullied constantly by the staff members and made up her mind to leave after being diagnosed with cancer but too broke to pay for treatments. When she told me how much $$$ she lost over the years, I was like, "WTF? Where the FUCK you get all that money from? Damn!"

[GaijinPunch]

Haven't started it yet, but ordered:

Hateshinaki Nagare No Hate Ni [At the End of the Endless Stream] - Sakyo Komatsu

Before I forget Japanese, I figured I should read this. It makes every Top Ten SciFi books from Japan list, usually in the top 3. It was written in the 60's, but every review I've read said it uses a lot of themes/elements we're used to today. Any fan of Top wo Nerae (Gunbuster) will recognize the title, as the subtitle of episode 6 - a hat tip to this legendary novel. There is no English version available.

Thematically similar to Mitsuse’s epic, Komatsu’s story involves a young physicist shown an hourglass, the sand of which never stops flowing. Even stranger, the glass was discovered buried in a stratum associated with the Upper Cretaceous.

There's actually a spoiler in there I omitted. (hoping it's not the main part of the book... I doubt it, but it will probably help me in the long run as I don't think this is going to be an easy read ?).

[Rob]

Before I forget Japanese, I figured I should read this.

Oh God, it might make you feel like you already forgot it, never knew or want to forget.

Maybe it's just me, but that was hard to follow. Read with Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights (even harder to follow) and I think I'm done with sci-fi novels for life.

Finished 細雪（ささめゆき）/The Makioka Sisters recently, a tale of a fading upper class family pre-WWII to 1941.

Aside from length, surprisingly easy read, but needs some more of something (besides suitors for old maid Yukiko) to justify 900+ pages. The anti-haiku.

I need some good ol' Garfield or Natsuo Kirino.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sakyo Komatsu

Japan Sinks Polish translation I read was poor, but then I couldn't have shaken off the feeling it wasn't well-written to begin with.

I underwent a WHS course yesterday upon getting a new job and MAYN, was the lecture-giving fellow hard to follow. He'd spoken nothing out of the ordinary, but his wording showed some real, and I mean REAL anti-talent in this regard. Felt sorry for the guy, personally, as he wasn't trying too hard or anything; his way with words was just THAT no good.

Of little Japanese belles-lettres I've read, I liked Kaidan botan dōrō by San'yūtei Enchō best (Polish translation too, but a good one this time around). Way more like what I call "good writing", more digestible than countless other XIXth Century's "classics", regardless of their country of origins. Should be in some online library legit.

[Ed Oscuro]

And I don't care what anybody says - L. Ron Hubbard was a brilliant sci fi writer before he got too laced on the amphetamines and turned a short story into a religion

I have one of his books lying around. When I flipped it open, there was a caricature plantation negro character professing ignorance of a fire that apparently happened right nearby, with a nicely exaggerated linguistic rendering to top it off. To be frank it didn't strike me as top drawer stuff. I dunno, maybe I can try it again sometime.

[GaijinPunch]

Before I forget Japanese, I figured I should read this.

Oh God, it might make you feel like you already forgot it, never knew or want to forget.

Maybe it's just me, but that was hard to follow. Read with Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights (even harder to follow) and I think I'm done with sci-fi novels for life.

Finished 細雪（ささめゆき）/The Makioka Sisters recently, a tale of a fading upper class family pre-WWII to 1941.

Aside from length, surprisingly easy read, but needs some more of something (besides suitors for old maid Yukiko) to justify 900+ pages. The anti-haiku.

I need some good ol' Garfield or Natsuo Kirino.

Good to know. How hardcore is your Japanese reading? I'll admit, I've only read one other book (non-fiction) and it was a trudge. But then again, I was living in Japan and didn't really need it to keep my skills up. I also passed JLPT-N1 on a dry run (no studying) so I should be able to handle a book.

Also, how was Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights? It alwasy makes those lists, too!

[jonny5]

And I don't care what anybody says - L. Ron Hubbard was a brilliant sci fi writer before he got too laced on the amphetamines and turned a short story into a religion

I have one of his books lying around. When I flipped it open, there was a caricature plantation negro character professing ignorance of a fire that apparently happened right nearby, with a nicely exaggerated linguistic rendering to top it off.

Imagine that, from a writer who started publishing in the 30's.

He is widely acclaimed as a writer, especially for his role during the 'Golden Age of Science Fiction' in the 30's, 40's and 50's. Have a look at some of his early stuff, it's quite good. Albeit much later in his writing career, but Battlefield Earth was also a good read, if somewhat lengthy. The Mission Earth series was awesome! Ole Doc Methuselah is a good start if you want to check out some of his older short stories.

[Rob]

How hardcore is your Japanese reading?

Slow and steady. I still don't feel tough enough to read Mishima.



My little wall of books. A handful of them were painful, but most not so bad.

I think the best pick for entertainment value and ease of reading/language brush up would be something Higashino, like The Devotion of Suspect X.

My favorite modern author is Kirino (Out, Grotesque). Also on the easy-ish side.

Favorite classics so far: Woman in the Dunes, Edogawa Ranpo collection, Silence. These are more challenging.

Also, how was Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights? It alwasy makes those lists, too!

Yeah, I thought I'd try out the universally acclaimed favorites, but I did not like Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights. Would much prefer seeing a movie or cartoon adaptation, since I'm sure the Jesus vs. Asura Dragon Ball-style fights (or whatever is taking place) would make a lot more sense with some visual aids. It's wild, but very scattered.

[GaijinPunch]

Noted! I don't read much (English, or otherwise). I read a few books while on the job hunt, and now that I have one and am thinking of higher->higher education, I'm reading a lot of texts. It would still do me good to add some non-text books to it, hence, the order.

It may or may not be waiting for me at home. I'm out of town celebrating my independence from English tyrants, ironically, with an English friend. I'll know later tonight after a long drive through green pastures.

[broken harbour]

While I was on vacation last week I read Console Wars by Blake J Harris:

http://www.amazon.com/Console-Wars-Nint ... 0062276700

This was a surprisingly good read, it basically tells the Sega/Nintendo console war of the 80s/90s mostly from Sega's side. I was a 7 year old kid just getting into games when the Genesis was released and so I remember all the crazy advertising and stuff that went on at the time. It's pretty cool getting the inside story from the people who made it happen. If your earliest gaming memories are Gamecube/PS2 era then well... you probably won't get much out of this, but if you were there... great read.

[jonny5]

Finished the Sprawl Trilogy, then read Burning Chrome and Johnny Mnemonic, now I'm onto The Difference Engine. Once this is done I'm going to start into Gibson's Blue Ant Trilogy, more of a political thriller from the reviews I've read, and probably follow that up with his most recent release, The Peripheral, which is supposed to be back to his cyberpunk roots.

From there, not too sure. Was considering reading through the Shadowrun series of novels; havent read them since high school, but I really enjoyed them back then.

[MintyTheCat]

London's arcade crowd were prime targets for scientology for a while...

Hahahahaha - this brings back some funny memories.

The anti-$cientology crew would reside on the other side of the road and hang out at the pub.
I have fond memories of making my way along TC Road to the Casino Arcade to the sound of Rick Astlay's Never going to give you up as the demos were at large

It was pretty funny stuff and a worthy cause. They get lynched every time they are out in force in central Berlin and it is near to their HQ too.

Me and a few mates would often be down at the Casino when they had decent Shmups. I first saw tatsujin-ou in the flesh for the first time there and dogyuun. They had a few of the Cave Shmups too but I never saw ibara. I have not been in for years. Last time was around Halloween 2012 I think and they still had Progear and R-Type Leo.

The best anti-$cientology songs are one by a Brit and another by the German old-school EBM band Tyske-Ludder with the song Thetanen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXdJZmnKM68

To me this is in the good old spirit of Industrial before all this cyber bullshit appeared and watered it down.

Cheers,

Minty.

[MintyTheCat]

Finished the Sprawl Trilogy, then read Burning Chrome and Johnny Mnemonic, now I'm onto The Difference Engine. Once this is done I'm going to start into Gibson's Blue Ant Trilogy, more of a political thriller from the reviews I've read, and probably follow that up with his most recent release, The Peripheral, which is supposed to be back to his cyberpunk roots.

I loved Gibson's Sprawl series and was thinking of reading a couple again. Quite different to his 'Bridge' series I find.

DE is very good and I remember reading it whilst washing my clothes one late night at University eons ago It got me into Bruce's work too with Global Head as the first for me.

Ah, Cyberpunk - it reminds me of the early 90s

[null1024]

Just read Masters of Doom.
Supremely interesting, and I'm at a loss of words after reading it.
Tells the story of John Romero and John Carmack's rise to fame and glory right up to the early 2000s.

Gets kind of depressing, but it's kind of hard for it not to with how lame Daikatana was.

[sjewkestheloon]

Samuel Beckett - Malone Dies

I have the same problem with this as I did some of Joyce's work.. I can't focus. Find myself daydreaming, and looking back over two pages I've just read to realise I've taken none of it in. o_o

Nice to see this thread's still going

Blinge, have you read Molloy? I'd say it's essential to have read Molloy before Malone Dies, and then really The Unnamable and How It Is after that.

As a Beckett devotee, I can understand what you are saying, but I think the trick is finding the rhythms of the text and going with them. It is high concentration reading, and trying to go through it without being in the correct frame of mind is utterly pointless, exactly like with Joyce but for quite different reasons.

Joyce's writing is a piling up and piling on, with allusion and reference reigning above all else, and yet working towards a cohesion across each book. Beckett, especially from Watt onward, is a stripping back of content, and an attempted rejection of the richness of Joyce's language in favour of an examination of an attempt, through language as the only means that we have of communicating, of communicating the actual experience of life that can't be expressed with cumbersome words with their constant references to other words.

As for what I have been reading:
John Barth, Sam Beckett, Cesar Aira, P.K. Dick, Samuel Johnson, Roberto Bolano, H.P. Lovecraft, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Mark Danielewsk, Jorge Luis Borges, and a few others.

Also a shameless plug:
https://nosymbolswherenoneintended.wordpress.com/
https://www.justgiving.com/Mr-Jewkes

That's my blog and Just Giving page on which I am doing a 'Readathon' over the six week school holidays. I am reading at least one complete item every day for six weeks and writing a blog about what I have read. Usually it ends up being a handful of stories, a novella, a bunch of essays, or anything really. You can see my approach in my blog.

The aim is to raise money for several charities which provide books to seriously ill children while in hospital. There's lots of information in those two links so please feel free to have a look.

[Blinge]

Blinge, have you read Molloy? I'd say it's essential to have read Molloy before Malone Dies, and then really The Unnamable and How It Is after that.

Beckett, especially from Watt onward, is a stripping back of content, and an attempted rejection of the richness of Joyce's language in favour of an examination of an attempt, through language as the only means that we have of communicating, of communicating the actual experience of life that can't be expressed with cumbersome words with their constant references to other words.

I haven't read Malloy, only Murphy which I loved. I got more into Malone in the latter half of the book, and experienced many a hearty chuckle. The culmination of the insane asylum story towards the end was a real punch in the face too. In a good way..

Yep, your explanation of Beckett's purpose is spot on.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Anybody here read Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy D. Snyder? I saw the German edition the other day at work and its title alone seemed sorely needed to me. Let's just say if the book doesn't meet my expectations when I finally get to read it, I'll be very disappointed.

[Ed Oscuro]

Been doing a fair amount of reading recently.

Lots of ancient Chinese stuff in translation: Lucien Stryk / Takashi Ikemoto's book of zen poems in translation (mostly good, but some word choices are uninspired and unedifying - like rendering some sections "ABCDEF" or the like, without an explanation what kind of literary technique is used in the original it's impossible to appreciate a translation like this),
a translation of the works of Chuang Tzu, and Sun Tzu's Art of War,
and some other works with some kind of relationship to zen in my imagination: "Japanese Temple Buddhism" by Steven Covell, and the second edition of Washington Monthly's groundbreaking "Inside The System," a collection of pointed essays on government (mostly government-related shenanigans) as seen from the beginning of the '70s. Lots of easy lessons to apply to every aspect of politics today. Modern data- and test-obsessed political scientists might scoff at some of the articles' pugnacious and intentionally coarse attempts to capture important details (like the article which uses an active/passive style vs. positive/negative outlook framework as an excuse to discuss the history of some Presidents) but it's important to forget that "rough and ready" is often a valuable approach to making sense of the world.

At the extreme other end of the spectrum, "Japanese Temple Buddhism" is the most difficult of all the works; written strictly in passive tone and sometimes lending anonymity to the author's personal sources, it is packed - short summaries of the thinking of some scholar on Buddhist thought and the academic reviews of the same, Covell's reviews of official and unofficial statistics, news, politics, and statements from the modern sphere of Temple Buddhism, and his original fieldwork. It is easy to pick up, read, and come away with a concrete understanding of a small part of the story - the somewhat familiar yet ambiguous place Temple Buddhism holds in Japanese life. But often it is a very small part, because the book dives straight into every detail.

It actually bends my mind to think how much work goes into something like this, "life's work" or "masterwork" are the words that come to mind when talking about tackling a subject so large, especially a new one; Covell is a pretty young guy who was doing his field work in Japan from the late '80s through to about the early '00s, yet he's taking on an area that, at least according to the work, has been neglected in favor of studies of old-school Buddhism (whatever that may be). Yet he's right in line with the new era of scholars who have decided to drop the old grudges and actually open their eyes to the world once more. (to paraphrase a Stryk translation: "Don't you get the point? Moon in the water, blossom in the sky.") Despite some glowing reviews of the book, it seems that a work like this is hard-pressed to get the "masterwork" or "life's work" ribbons soon: Taking on a fairly orthodox - if vital - point of view even in his early fieldwork, in looking for the truth, and not simply arguing for his point repeatedly, the reader has to look very carefully indeed for signs of Covell's personal feelings on the debate.

What is this debate? Covell drops some hints, here and there, there is a fiction told by people who don't like the idea of Priests! Powerful and living worldly lives! that the kind of Buddhism found in old temples in Japan is only used to make money, and not on salvation, or charitable work, or whatever else it is people think that Buddhism should be about (unsurprisingly, there are many views on the subject). Many sections of the work clearly expose why it is that this tale has come to be and persist today, but the gently worded statements framing the book's purpose simply questions this view. Interestingly enough, the overall result of the work is that it would be quite acceptable for a political scientist to come out with - there's no sweeping normative declarations about what Buddhism is or ought to be, but reports of the same. At the same time, exposing cases where Temple Buddhism has indeed done people wrong, and presenting a sometimes-bewildering array of views from all comers involved in Buddhism, does not really allow there to be a voice saying "this is what Temple Buddhism has naturally come to be."

This dedication to methods and capturing the widest array of views certainly challenges any prejudices I might have about what actually goes on at the religious studies department. At the same time, we can find a few concrete statements from Covell. Not only is there an obvious sense that the status quo is not apocalyptic, occasionally I run into other statements. For example, in setting the boundaries at the opening, Covell briefly defends "magical thinking" in the context of a salvation regime, contrasting it with the historical prejudice against anything smacking of magic in the modern era, using topical references that broadened my understanding of just how serious the Meiji literati were about their project. At the same time, lot of facts (including reporting of what other scholars have argued) is just mentioned as "so-and-so have shown," which would be a minefield for those who don't share Covell's naturalistic view of the Temple-in-the-World, when there are many sources to potentially rebel against. Indeed, I get the strong feeling that many people will read this book and dispute that "so-and-so have shown."

Generally, the book is too surgical for a general reader who wants the feeling of easy accomplishment that comes from tackling a chapter and building off that knowledge, since every opinion and factor is thrown into the same pot as all the others. Not only this, but Covell denies readers the chance to really root for the author's criticism of the "Temple Buddhism is degenerate and wasteful" camp. This is, of course, because that's not really his goal; his goal isn't so much to try and move that view out of the center of discussions about Buddhism in temples, but to allow other views to be heard. As a source book full of anecdotes and reporting on real trends, illuminating what goes on in as broad a scene as an entire society's interaction with the many branches of its largest religion, there's a lot to love here - but these camps aren't crystalized for the reader, and searching out the limits and roles of each view seems as elusive as finding satori. Still, I find myself most upset that Covell is so reluctant to write more passages like the easy introductions to 'a day at a Temple,' scenes from New Year's Day in 1989 and 1999, which give more of that important but hard-to-account for intangible, verisimilitude.

[soprano1]

Perdido Street Station. Very nice story in a steampunk setting, but the ending is bad, imo.
Not sure what to go for next, since City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett only comes in January. Anyone ever read the Mistborn books by Brandon Sanderson?

[Stevens]

I just read Shibumi again.

You should too.

[Xyga]

Re-reading the Chronicles of Amber after about a decade.

This definitely could make a great TV show in our era.

[LordHypnos]

Recently finished reading The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. It really pulled me in hardcore from the start. Excellent writing. I'm sad that it's over now