What Are You Currently Reading?

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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby DoglovingJim » Mon Jan 09, 2017 5:02 pm

DoglovingJim wrote:
BROWNRECLUSE wrote:
cmsellers wrote:
DoglovingJim wrote:I decided to read the 1954 copy of Dante: the Inferno as translated by John Ciardi.

It's a good book, but the sequels get increasingly disappointing. Purgatorio is somewhat interesting but a step down, while I couldn't even finish Paradiso.

Interestingly, the themes of the three parts of the Divine Comedy are basically: "bad things happen to bad people," "bad things happen to good people," and "good things happen to good people." What on Earth made him think anybody wants to read a book in the last category?


Read the contemporary versions by Marcus Sanders, Doug Harvey, and Sandow Birk.

They reimagine the entire scope of the Divine Comedy in a more modern setting. And Birk's woodcut-style illustrations are beautiful.

https://www.amazon.com/Dantes-Inferno-Marcus-Sanders/dp/0811842134


Thought you might like this recluse,

"Well, a brown recluse spider is the only kind to worry about, and it wouldn't build out in the open [...] The rest don't raise much of a welt"- Clarice Starling on spiders [silence of the lambs]



Anyway, about books.

I finished off Dantes: Inferno, begun reading Murder on the Orient Express and finished that too and now I'm reading The Silence of the Lambs.

For books I'm planning to read I got a whole crime collection book with several stories by Agatha Christie, some of those Jack Reacher books by Lee Child, From Russia With Love, several cowboy books that have been gathering dust in my bookshelf and the holy bible. And also, finally boxer dog lady is planning to lend her collection of Sherlock Holmes stories to me once I'm done with the Agatha Christie's crime collection so I also got those.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

In addition:

When walking the dog I was also lucky enough to find someone dumping several leather bound books from the likes of Shakespeare and Voltaire along with junk on the side of the road, so I took those with the only plastic bag in my pocket (thank the Lord my furry little friend didn't decide to take a crap in that walk). They'd make a good addition to my bookshelf (first I have to find out if they have termites, anyone got any advice on how to do that?)



I've finished The Silence of the Lambs and am now continuing to read my bible as I kind of promised boxer dog lady that I'd finish it off (as she made a resolution to do the same), in other news for Christmas she bought me The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas so I also have that to read.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby jbobsully11 » Mon Jan 09, 2017 6:41 pm

I finally finished The Island of The Colorblind, and after much deliberation (seriously, I have *counts* fifteen books still to read in all, some of which I've had since early last year), I started The Highly Sensitive Person, by Elaine Aron. It's kind of interesting, though a bit... preachy, I guess. Looking through the one- and two-star reviews on Amazon, I'm concerned about how the rest of the book will be (they don't just say "it sux lulz").
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby mancityfooty » Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:45 am

Pygmy by Palahniuk.
It's a hard read.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby 52xMax » Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:03 am

I'm ashamed to say that the only book I read in all of 2016 was the Humans, by Matt Haig. I started it in December 27th and finished on the 30th, by reading bits and pieces here and there on my kindle all over central Mexico, in between air flights, bus stops, bus rides, awkward meetings with family and the in-laws, and backpacking. It was a pretty interesting, funny read, just as I expected it to be.

Since then I've also re-read Ready Player One, because I always take at least one paperback on my trips just in case and that was the only one that was handy when I packed my bag 3 hours before the flight. I also felt I needed to have the story fresh in my memory in time for the movie...which I thought was coming out this year, but it turns out that's not happening until 2018, but it's a great read anyway.

I was planning on reading both Jonas Jonasson's third novel (Killer Anders and his friends (along with a few enemies)) or Carlos Ruiz Zafón final book in the cemetery of forgotten books series (The Labyrinth of Spirits), but I couldn't find either of those in any of the bookstores I went into, and I just got home last night and haven't had a chance to look them over here yet, and I can't get them on kindle because I think neither has been translated/published in English so far. But I think my next read is going to be something in the non-fiction category.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby CarrieVS » Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:55 pm

52xMax wrote:Ready Player One.


What did you think? My brother (not Alby) got me it for my last birthday and I really enjoyed it. Couldn't put it down once I got into it.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby iMURDAu » Wed Jan 11, 2017 12:02 am

I've been reading Wonder to my son. His teacher was reading it to the class and Dougie missed the ending when he was out for a couple weeks in November. Its so dialogue heavy that I feel like I'm putting on a one person play.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby 52xMax » Wed Jan 11, 2017 2:50 pm

CarrieVS wrote:What did you think? My brother (not Alby) got me it for my last birthday and I really enjoyed it. Couldn't put it down once I got into it.


It's one of my favorite things published within the last decade. I've read it twice and I also listened to the audiobook (read by *sigh* Wil Wheaton) and every time I've read it I've got more of the references, even if I was born almost a decade too late for most of them.

You should probably check out Armada, which is sort of a follow up except it takes place in a different world/continuity and it's even more focused on video games than RPO. And an army of alien robots who take the shape of video game characters, but it's more Ender's Game than Pixels (that horrible movie by Adam Sandler from last year).

iMURDAu wrote:I've been reading Wonder to my son. His teacher was reading it to the class and Dougie missed the ending when he was out for a couple weeks in November. Its so dialogue heavy that I feel like I'm putting on a one person play.


I read that book a couple years ago and actually liked it quite a bit. It didn't feel like a children's book most of the time, and the narrator/central character was very sympathetic/relatable. I also read The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time which is kind of similar except the protagonist is a teenager with Asperger's who tells the story as if it was a mystery novel. It's more of a young adult novel and deals with divorce, and the death of a dog, so it's probably not something you want to read to a kid, but it's a good read nonetheless.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby Aquila89 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:55 pm

I've just read The Troubled Air by Irwin Shaw. It's a 1951 novel about McCarthyism, (or maybe I should say Red Scare, since McCarthy is never actually mentioned). It's the first book in a while that really held my attention.

Pretty grim. (Shaw himself was blacklisted and after writing this he left the US and lived in Europe).
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby Malfeasinator » Wed Jan 25, 2017 1:10 am

mancityfooty wrote:Pygmy by Palahniuk.
It's a hard read.


Read that a couple years ago. Yeah, it is hard to adjust to the narration, and the events of the story make you go "wait, what?" a few times, where you have to backtrack to make sure you read what you thought you read.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby FaceTheCitizen » Fri Feb 10, 2017 4:48 am

...
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby jbobsully11 » Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:31 am

I'm slowly getting through The Highly Sensitive Person, but it's not very interesting. Despite the fact that I still have a pile of other books to read, I found The Brain's Way of Healing, by Norman Doidge, in a bookstore a few days ago and started reading it there. It's the sequel to his previous book, The Brain That Changes Itself, which I also really liked.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby CarrieVS » Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:06 am

Currently I'm rereading Sir Pterry's Sourcery, but if I'd got round to posting here earlier in the week like I meant to, I'd have been reading The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

It's the second instalment of Rothfuss' trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle, and I'm eagerly anticipating reading the third (it's in my local library, happily)which isn't out yet, although a side-story about one of the minor characters is and I expect I shall enjoy that too. It's a fantasy series, set in a world where magic is pretty well domesticated and supplies many of the wants of technology, such as refrigeration and light without flames. In that respect the setting slightly resembles the Discworld, but the story does not.

It's the story of Kvothe (pronounced nearly the same as "quothe"), who is best introduced in his own words, as he is both on the back cover and very near the start of the first book:
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

He's done a couple of those things as of the end of the second book. Or rather he's told us about a couple of them. He's done them all, and in the aftermath is relating his story, interspersed with chapters set in the here and now (that is to say his here and now, not ours. Perhaps it should be the there and then).

It's a dark story, and I don't expect a happy ending. I do expect Kvothe's story to reach the time and place where he's telling it, and then continue a little way.

I would probably reread the books sometime after finishing the series. It's an exciting story, the characters are compelling, and Rothfuss can't half string together a beautiful sentence. It's a well-written story all round, and the books are also chunky doorsteps that take me days to finish even when I'm thoroughly gripped and don't know how it turns out. I'm a fast reader, and when I'm in engrossed in a good story I've not read before I tend to spend a lot of time reading, so books are usually over far too soon.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby Malfeasinator » Sat Feb 11, 2017 5:11 pm

CarrieVS wrote:Currently I'm rereading Sir Pterry's Sourcery, but if I'd got round to posting here earlier in the week like I meant to, I'd have been reading The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

It's the second instalment of Rothfuss' trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle, and I'm eagerly anticipating reading the third (it's in my local library, happily)which isn't out yet, although a side-story about one of the minor characters is and I expect I shall enjoy that too. It's a fantasy series, set in a world where magic is pretty well domesticated and supplies many of the wants of technology, such as refrigeration and light without flames. In that respect the setting slightly resembles the Discworld, but the story does not.

It's the story of Kvothe (pronounced nearly the same as "quothe"), who is best introduced in his own words, as he is both on the back cover and very near the start of the first book:
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

He's done a couple of those things as of the end of the second book. Or rather he's told us about a couple of them. He's done them all, and in the aftermath is relating his story, interspersed with chapters set in the here and now (that is to say his here and now, not ours. Perhaps it should be the there and then).

It's a dark story, and I don't expect a happy ending. I do expect Kvothe's story to reach the time and place where he's telling it, and then continue a little way.

I would probably reread the books sometime after finishing the series. It's an exciting story, the characters are compelling, and Rothfuss can't half string together a beautiful sentence. It's a well-written story all round, and the books are also chunky doorsteps that take me days to finish even when I'm thoroughly gripped and don't know how it turns out. I'm a fast reader, and when I'm in engrossed in a good story I've not read before I tend to spend a lot of time reading, so books are usually over far too soon.


Yeah, it's pretty good, I mean no books are perfect, but I kind of hate the main character.

I feel like maybe Rothfuss fell in love with his own character so much that he just made him the guy that does all the things ever. And then to offset that he's like "Okay, maybe he can be kind of a social klutz sometimes."

In D&D terms, he'd be overly multi-classed. I'm not saying characters can't be complex or have unusual interests, but c'mon. If the book was called "Bard, Fighter, Thief, Mage", fans would feel duped that it was all the same person. Oh and he's also a ladies' man. Just out of the blue, that happened. He bumbles all his chances with the ladies until sex ex machina shows up (Deus Sex? Not sure which sounds better). He's like when "based on a true story" movies make a main character who is a composite of ten other peoples' stories. Even in the world he lives in, where there's magic and demons and fairy tales that turn out to be real, he just seems incredibly unlikely to exist.

He has friends at times, but they're more like background props. The story doesn't need him to have friends, though, because he's so awesome and amazing at everything that he can do it all himself. He stubbornly blunders through everything but that always turns out to be the right thing to do anyway because fuck that, Kvothe is awesome.

Still, I'm waiting on the third book. I think we all know it's going to end in tears. I'll try to keep pretending, in my head, that he's really a small elite squad of people and not all one dude.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby cmsellers » Sun Feb 12, 2017 6:20 pm

I've finally gotten around to reading L. Sprague De Camp's Lest Darkness Fall, which is part of a NESFA collection Years in the Making whose other components—all short stories and poetry—I've already read.
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Re: What Are You Currently Reading?

Postby D-LOGAN » Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:29 pm

This week I have been mostly reading ... the illustrated autobiography of Mr. Stan Lee. It's fuckin' awesome!

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Lemme tell ya, that man is an American treasure. I don't care what anyone says, and the joke of it is, most of the shit they did in the early days, that's become so iconic today, was just any aul rubbish they could throw together to meet a deadline. How'd you think he got started, he was just a young lad in the office.

"Can I write a Captain America comic?"
"Yeah whatever."

And a legend was born!
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