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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 8:21 am 
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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 9:45 am 
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Witchcraft and Black Magic; Montague Summers
Xenocide; Orson Scott Card

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:27 pm 
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Goat wrote:
I liked it a lot, although the ending was a bit of a let-down. It is pretty slow-paced, but an enjoyable read all in all!


i really loved it, a delightful read. it's not one to power through, as it can get a bit to dry in sections, but overall it's fantastic. loved the descriptions of madness, and the way magic blended into the real world. she just generally weaved magic into the history of Britain so well it was seamless. the book left me with this wonderful feeling that there really had been magic in Britain, and that just like in the beginning of the book, it's simply lost/forgotten today. plus, a nice part of the story takes part in Portugal :)

and this quote:
Quote:
“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never would.”


read a bunch of stuff after that. standouts:
- Malazan Book of the Fallen Book #1 - good, but didn't fall in love with it and probably won't dive into the rest of the series. way too over the top for me (people transforming into dragons and shit), and the plot to kill the Bridgeburners just seems way too contrived.
- Prince of Nothing books #2 and #3 - loved them. disliked the parts from the female point of view, but the writing was impeccable. incredibly deep stuff in sections, and fantastic characterisation.
- Guns, Germs, and Steel - fascinating, even if it was rather... exhaustive at times.
- Brave New World - incredible on how some stuff was near-prescient (genetic manipulation and stuff), and interesting questions on the nature of happiness and stability, but the brave new world itself seemed to me both less believable and less interesting than for example the world in 1984. also, hard to sympathise with Bernard Marx, although perhaps that was never the point.

now i don't know. i would like to pick up something by Thomas Pynchon (been recommended The Crying of Lot 49) but it's been quite difficult. maybe Karen Russel's first book. maybe finally The Name of the Rose - have you guys ever read it?

also have His Dark Materials #1 might do that! my friend likes a lot of the same things i do, she loved it.

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Fri Mar 25, 2016 4:06 am 
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Patrick Bateman lives...in all of us?! The BBC's Nicholas Barber gives readers the skinny on American Psycho's surprising relevance to many of our current cultural sensibilities.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160317-why-american-psycho-has-never-been-more-relevant

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 9:41 pm 
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Currently reading Heaven & Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg. He is a 18th century Swedish mystic who wrote an enormous body of work and is most known for his theological writings and teachings but also published a fair amount of scientific papers as well. He is considered a master of every field he studied (of which there were many) and had his fair share of breakthroughs in the scientific community as well and was really a man ahead of his time and a universal genius by all accounts (IQ was at 205).

I also just picked up Snorre's King Sagas but i haven't started it yet. Viking poetry...should be interesting.


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2016 4:56 am 
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The Necrodude wrote:
Currently reading Heaven & Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg. He is a 18th century Swedish mystic who wrote an enormous body of work and is most known for his theological writings and teachings but also published a fair amount of scientific papers as well. He is considered a master of every field he studied (of which there were many) and had his fair share of breakthroughs in the scientific community as well and was really a man ahead of his time and a universal genius by all accounts (IQ was at 205).

I also just picked up Snorre's King Sagas but i haven't started it yet. Viking poetry...should be interesting.


I read Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which of course constantly references Swedenborg's work, curious what you'll think about Swedenborg now. I'm reminded of Ulver's not really metal but rather heavy techno rendition of Blake's poem, which I actually liked a great deal.


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2016 5:00 am 
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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2016 4:45 pm 
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North From Here wrote:
The Necrodude wrote:
Currently reading Heaven & Hell by Emanuel Swedenborg. He is a 18th century Swedish mystic who wrote an enormous body of work and is most known for his theological writings and teachings but also published a fair amount of scientific papers as well. He is considered a master of every field he studied (of which there were many) and had his fair share of breakthroughs in the scientific community as well and was really a man ahead of his time and a universal genius by all accounts (IQ was at 205).

I also just picked up Snorre's King Sagas but i haven't started it yet. Viking poetry...should be interesting.


I read Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which of course constantly references Swedenborg's work, curious what you'll think about Swedenborg now. I'm reminded of Ulver's not really metal but rather heavy techno rendition of Blake's poem, which I actually liked a great deal.


So far i really like what i've heard and read by Swedenborg. I discovered Swedenborg through Curtis Child's weekly webcast show called Swedenborg and Life on youtube sponsored by the Swedenborg foundation and for the first time i've discovered someone who's very much in tune with my own spiritual thoughts and ideas and it's very exciting. I thought i was one of the very few people who had such ideas but turns out i'm not alone in that department. Swedenborg was somewhat persecuted back in his days because his material was considered blasphemous and heretical even though it was firmly based on Christianity and Christian philosophy but this did not sit well the church at the time but ultimately all charges against him were dropped because he was so well respected. I've long called myself a non-denominational Christian but who knows, i might end up calling myself a Swedenborgian. I'd love to discuss Swedenborg with you next time we talk (hopefully soon)


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 5:13 am 
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Conan - The Hour of the Dragon

The full-length Robert E. Howard original and his only full length novel featuring the indomitable Cimmerian.

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 5:25 am 
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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:30 am 
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Just today finished the mammoth The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin. Words escape me in describing the mixture of sadness and loss I feel because there is no more, and the happiness the conclusion evoked in me.

I have read many great fantasy and scifi series...some have blown me away (The Kingkiller Chronicle; Hyperion Cantos; The Stormlight Archive, to name a few) but The Passage Trilogy is in its own league.

Read it...


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:26 pm 
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guys let's keep this alive whaddya say?

i've been reading a fair bit of sci-fi and fantasy this year. if you have any suggestions, let me know. some of my recent favourites below
ken liu - the paper menagerie and other stories
loved it! some are magical realism, some are sci-fi, most are excellent. the "paper menagerie" story proper is beautifully written, i admit i almost cried at the ending. that particular story can be read legally and for free here:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/5958919/read-ken ... asy-awards

ken liu - the grace of kings
fantasy world, battles, intrigue, fight for power. super fun. no magic, but there are gods and they do intervene, but most of the plot is still driven by normal people.
on the other hand, the tone is too much like a fable, characters are clearly good or clearly evil, no ambiguity or conflict, and the hero never gets betrayed, at most only misunderstood.

still, for grabbig a medieval-ish world and introducing techonological progress right in the story, it already does something that most fantasy books completely fail to even acknowledge (song of ice and fire, i'm looking at you).

the sequel, "the wall of storms", unfortunately showcases many of the worst habits Ken Liu showed in grace of kings, and it gets rather annoying. characters make you scream at the book like you'd scream at a horror movie character opening a door when they're obviously going to die. still, i'll keep reading the series :rolleyes:

adam roberts - the thing itself
fantastic stuff.
Quote:
You can’t see behind space, or beyond time. Everything you think and feel and perceive happens in those terms. It turns out there is something in the real reality, outside of our minds, something our minds perceive in terms of space and time. The thing itself, whatever it is, isn’t metres and kilometres, seconds and hours. Not that. It’s a mode of – amplitude – of a different kind. We look at the universe and see that it is vast, and that spatial vastness reflects something important about the thing in itself. It’s not a literal mapping from its spatial scale to our sense of space, though.


will definitely read more from him.

peter watts - blindsight
a meditation on the nature of consciousness and intelligence disguised as a story about a group of humans in a "first contact" mission to meet some aliens. will probably also read the sequel, Echopraxia.

i also finished the seventh book in the Prince of Nothing/Aspect-Emperor series, as recommended back in the dark ages by Brahm K. i loved the first 3 (The Prince of Nothing series), the last 4 frankly i could have done without reading. will likely be skipping the next series which i think the guy has planned. but guys, definitely do read The Prince of Nothing. fantasy but with lots of philosophy, excellent writing, incredibly characters, and a magic system that seems like it could almost be real.

i also wanted to point out some disappointments because ugh:
Cixin Liu's "three body" series. the first book was ok, the second was bad, will not bother with the third. no idea what people see in here. characters acting like fucking idiots, lots of conversations that read like speeches, and the whole "dream girl" thing in the second book was beyond fucking retarded.

patrick rothfuss's "the name of the wind" also sucked. the protagonist is a master of chemistry, magic, and combat, and is a skilled actor and musician to boot. has several ladies chasing him and is a prodigy who sails through school. no, i don't want a book about an average joe, but having flaws actually makes characters more interesting, no?

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 10:43 pm 
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Why not? A few of those I've heard of, think the Rothfuss and Liu's Paper Menagerie are on my Kindle waiting for me to get to them, I tend to buy books from a big wishlist when cheap so have quite a backlog! Will look into the others, esp Roberts and Watts.
Quote:
Cixin Liu's "three body" series. the first book was ok, the second was bad, will not bother with the third. no idea what people see in here. characters acting like fucking idiots, lots of conversations that read like speeches, and the whole "dream girl" thing in the second book was beyond fucking retarded.


That's disappointing, thought the first was excellent and have the second on my wishlist. A bit preachy and speech-y perhaps but lots of interesting ideas - loved the whole 'ufo cult actually traitors to humanity' storyline so far.

Currently reading:

Wolf Hall - Loving so far, the court intrigue stuff and general wittiness is coming over far better than in the (pretty great) tv show.
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) - enjoyed the Netflix show, which it turns out was very faithful to the book, so if you liked one you'll like the other.
Flowers for Algernon - As with a lot of classic sci-fi it can get a little preachy and heavy-handed, but definitely a classic of the genre with real emotional punch here and there.
Pompeii: Life of a Roman Town (by Mary Beard) - bit dry and academic despite her reputation, but never been a fan of hardcore history and it's interesting enough in small doses.
Also still working my way through The Gormenghast Trilogy.


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 11:59 pm 
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i'm happy with paying full Kindle price as long as it's not a total rip-off - up to £8 i can definitely do, even if it's annoying to pay an amount so close to the actual paper price. when i see Kindle books at £10 or 12 though.. wtf are they thinking?

i'm clearly in the minority with Name of the Wind so do give it a whirl... also how many books do you read at the same time? jesus. i do 2 at most and that's only if absolutely cannot wait to get started on the second.

Wolf Hall looks really cool. in a similar vein, this year i also read "The Iron King", first in the series that apparently inspired George RR Martin to make ASoIaF. it's a novelisation (i think that's the term?) of the real story of the French monarchs back in the 13th century. didn't quite grab me by the balls but will definitely try the second book at some point.

on 3 Body, there's a bunch of stuff that i didn't like:
- characters making speeches all the damn time
- the ETO's approach straight up telling people there are aliens and that they want to help them invade Earth, oh you heard our plan which we presented in a fucking cafe but don't like it? by all means yes feel free to leave. no, really, you're free to leave and even to call the police on us
- and especially, especially, all the times the author starts generalising... like when he says "rich people, because bla bla bla, were more..." i don't know i just hated that.

Ken Liu, who translated the first and i think third 3 Body books, also displays some of these bad habits in Grace of Kings and especially in Wall of Storms, wonder if he got them from Cixin Liu? this is especially vexing as Paper Menagerie and the other stories are seriously beautifully written.

also i read 4 samples to choose my next book:
bird box by josh malerman
speak by louisa hall
cryptonomicon by neal stephenson
lament for the fallen by gavin chait

the first 2 look great, Cryptonomicon too but:
1. it's 1000+ pages. there's a fair chance i'll end up hating and wasting my time
2. i started The Diamond Age and the constant in depth science explanations had my eyes glazed over after just a few chapters. then again cryptography and economics and math do seem a bit more interesting to me than nanotechnology, and i never really cared for steampunk like in TDA...

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:58 am 
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Yeah I tend to wait for sales and rarely pay more than 0.99/1.99 if I can help it. And I do tend to read a few books at once, always have heh. Like the variety, I guess.

Wasn't too impressed by The Iron King either, other than a few interesting bits like the poisoned candle. Like Neal Stephenson but yes his books are always too big.


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Sat Apr 14, 2018 4:10 am 
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Face The Music- Paul Stanley
Comes off as highly bitchy, but it is an interesting read so far.

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 2:47 am 
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Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (Just finished Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 is on order).
God is Not Great -Christopher Hitchens (No one writes a good polemic like the Hitch).

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 9:44 pm 
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haven't posted here in ages! have slowed down my pace a bit, as my jobs got successively shorter commutes lol.

i actually did end up reading book 3 of the 3 Body Problem and it was amazing. Cixin Liu's characterisation and his treatment of female characters in particular is terrible, but his imagination is boundless. i later tore through his Ball Lightning and the Wandering Earth short story collection.

some favourites since my last post here:
murakami - what i talk about when i talk about running
murakami talks about his running habits and significant moments in his athletic life and his general philosophy of how it these athletic pursuits fit into his life. i really liked it, definitely a must if you like his style and running or endurance sports in general.

the "Aspect Emperor" series by R. Scott Bakker, who wrote the Prince of Nothing series Brahm K raved about, and that i also went on to read and love, was quite disappointing. definitely read PoN (3 books), definitely consider skipping Aspect Emperor (4 books with a 5th and final on the way, i think).

Neal Stephenson:
- Cryptonomicon - amazing
- The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (co-written with Nicole Galland) - very good and very funny
- the Baroque Cycle, 3 books. second is amazing, first is pretty good, last is ok.
currently reading his "Reamde", so far so good.

Elena Ferrante's "Neapolitan Novels" (4 books), fantastic stuff. absolutely worth checking out. books 2 and 4 were my favourites. saw 3 episodes of the HBO adaptation, also very good.

Fonda Lee's "Jade City", really interesting. takes place in a fictional Taiwan-ish island in a 70's ish time, maybe 90's. not sure they had colour TVs lol. anyway, it's about a gang war in this Taiwan-ish place, where Jade gives certain people powers and stuff. very original, looking forward to the sequel.

read two of JK Jemisin's Broken Earth series and it's just not for me. i just can't deal with second person + present tense, for some reason. there is something to be said about how... oppressive it felt. honestly. for lack of a better word. like i'm travelling through actual stone and earth, like some of the characters do.

Claire North's "The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August" was very fun, even if the time travel-ish mechanism seems to fall apart under even a cursory inspection. her "84k" has a fascinating premise, but was super annoying to read. all stream of consciousness-like, with sentences

like these

that end and have abrupt endings and line breaks and eschew punctuation

but like all over the book

Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles is astounding. heartbreaking and beautifully written. looking forward to reading her "Circe" soon.

"The Gallows Pole" by Benjamin Myers was a very pleasant surprise, from an author i had never heard about. part in a sort of northern-ish dialect, and part in a wonderful, vivid, evocative tone, set in the Yorkshire countryside at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

EH Gombrich's A Little History of the World was wonderful. wish i had read it as a child. will definitely suggest it to the kids in my family.

We Sold our Souls by Grady Hendrix was pretty cool. a washed up metal guitarrist has to get her band back together as some downright demonic shit starts happening when a former bandmate and now mega rock star comes back to town. not amazing, but it did feel pretty damn metal.

Donna Tartt's The Secret History was fantastic. a novel about a group of very close Classics students at a fairly elitist college who kill one of their own, and the fallout from that event.

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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2019 10:17 pm 
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Azrael wrote:
Neal Stephenson:
- Cryptonomicon - amazing
- The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. (co-written with Nicole Galland) - very good and very funny
- the Baroque Cycle, 3 books. second is amazing, first is pretty good, last is ok.
currently reading his "Reamde", so far so good.


Enjoyed what I've read from him more or less (Anathem and Reamde both good if overblown and especially with the latter, drawn-out) but currently reading Seveneves and enjoying much more. The whole 'surviving in space' aspect is fascinating.

Azrael wrote:
"The Gallows Pole" by Benjamin Myers was a very pleasant surprise, from an author i had never heard about. part in a sort of northern-ish dialect, and part in a wonderful, vivid, evocative tone, set in the Yorkshire countryside at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.


On my Kindle and waiting for me!

Also currently reading The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (not bad, interesting for someone like me with barely any knowledge of baseball) and for lighter stuff, Morning Star by Pierce Brown (definitely one of the better YA 'dystopian future war-games' series, not least because it leaves it behind quickly rather than repeating it again and again a la Hunger Games).


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 Post subject: Re: Now Reading...
PostPosted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:13 am 
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The most clear-headed analysis of the Final Solution I've ever read. As good as advertised.

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