|
Hey y'all. I'm reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveler for the postmodern challenge and I'm loving it. Any recommendations for a good little collection of poetry? I could always pick up a little book of German poetry I have, but I'd probably end up petering out since reading poetry in another language, even a language I'm very good in, is hella difficult.
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2015 16:21
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 07:10 |
|
|
Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Hey y'all. I'm reading If on a Winter's Night a Traveler for the postmodern challenge and I'm loving it. Any recommendations for a good little collection of poetry? I could always pick up a little book of German poetry I have, but I'd probably end up petering out since reading poetry in another language, even a language I'm very good in, is hella difficult. I read a Naruda poetry collection and would recommend you do the same. PhD program is kicking my rear end. I'm doing well on book challenge but I'm going to need to read a lot in this 3 week break to catch up on total number of books.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2015 21:28
|
|
|
Dienes posted:I read a Naruda poetry collection and would recommend you do the same. Thanks, I think I will! Always meant to read some Naruda anyway. And yeah, part of the reason I'm also so behind is that my Master's program and internship have been keeping me pretty steadily busy. Gonna try to make time a few more books before the end of the year but I doubt I'll make the challenge. Oh well, that's why it's a challenge! 
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2015 10:26
|
|
|
quote:1. The Forge of God by Greg Bear 51. The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat 52. The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin With that I am done with my challenge for this year. The Blind Owl was tough, I still don't really know what I read. I'm just going to chalk it up to being way over my head and leave it at that. The Three Body Problem was a good, big idea kind of Sci-Fi. Like other books I enjoyed, I don't have a lot to say about it. Looking forward to next years book challenge! See you in the next thread! Booklord Challenge 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 04:05
|
|
|
Fellwenner posted:I had a decent couple of months for September and October, here's the score: Don't really feel like writing up elaborate reviews, so going to keep it really short. 44. A Matter of Magic, by Patricia Wrede. Ok. Plots were ultimately anticlimactic. 45. The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon. Really good. 46. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. Underwhelming. I get why people tend to like it, but the format just didn't do it for me. 47. The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat. Weird. Gotta read the introduction still, which I am told will help me appreciate it better. 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 3. The non-white author 6. An essay 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. A play 18. Biography [s]21. Short story(s) [s]22. A mystery
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 07:36
|
|
|
I think it's kind of sad that a few people are reading Blind Owl and just going "well I'm obviously not smart enough to get this", you are smart enough The Book Barn posters and I believe in each and every one of you.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 15:44
|
|
|
CestMoi posted:I think it's kind of sad that a few people are reading Blind Owl and just going "well I'm obviously not smart enough to get this", you are smart enough The Book Barn posters and I believe in each and every one of you. Thank you.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 20:06
|
|
|
Yeah I mean it's certainly dense in meaning but it's not totally inscrutable or anything.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 20:50
|
|
|
17. A play - Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller This (as well as a bunch of other plays) was recomended by Blind Sally. I had obviously heard of it before, but all I knew was the name “Biff Loman” and the thing about whistling on the elevator. I didn’t really know what to expect, except for the general theme of feeling used up and abandoned by the American Dream. I really liked Willy’s relationship with Charley and his son Bernard; actually the varied relationships between the characters was a highlight for me in an already good play. Highly recommended 18. Biography - Shakespeare by Bill Bryson I got this more because I like Bryson than because I was interested in Shakespeare. It was actually really fascinating though, I didn’t know how much of Shakespeare’s life we actually don’t know about: his actual date of birth, details about his early life, what he really looks like, even the exact number and order of all of his plays. Bryson is always really good about constructing an interesting narrative out of whatever he is writing about, so this managed to be informative and interesting.
|
|
#
?
Dec 9, 2015 21:58
|
|
|
Oh, I feel I totally got Blind Owl. It was a crazy and interesting ride. I also liked the prose when he was all doped up. A GR friend told me that I would perhaps appreciate it more if I read the introduction of the book as well, is all. I'll likely read the Three Drops of Blood collection next month.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2015 06:46
|
|
|
Found this thread a couple of days ago and I gotta say well done to all of you who made your goals, I'll join you in the new year for a new challenge and I'm already looking forward to it Heck, I've even ordered the blind owl already :P
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2015 23:23
|
|
|
I still am waiting on Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance to free up from the Chicago Public Library and I have about 300 pages left in Gravity's Rainbow but then I am done with everything! Also I read several essays this year but I want to pick one to actually talk about and apply to my goal.
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2015 23:28
|
|
|
Got a job and my goals went out the window. Most of my bookshelf remains unread, but I did read some books I wouldn't have read thanks to Stravinsky's booklord challenge, so props for that. Think I wanna try a new challenge next year...
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2015 08:50
|
|
|
I'm thinking about throwing the new thread up the Sunday after Christmas, this way everyone can finish their challenges/get their reading lists in order for next year. If you want I can put it up earlier, maybe the 20th at the earliest. It's up to you guys, I'm only the guy whose gonna be posting stuff.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2015 00:03
|
|
|
After Christmas sounds good.
|
|
#
?
Dec 12, 2015 12:03
|
|
|
Hitting month 12 strong with my first actual update and a request for a wildcard. I pulled back my arbitrary number of total books read from 50 to 30 because I got hit hard with work this year and I've been reading much longer books as opposed to a lot of shorter ones. I think I'll make the challenge by the skin of my teeth. 1. 'Day of the Triffids' - John Wyndham This had a really evocative and promising opening sequence, which was sadly the singular high point right out of the gate. The rest really let me down, pretty much setting the standard for the other sci-fi I would read this year. 'Triffids' is really brought down by a lot of meandering, and upon retrospect I believe it lacked a good, distinctive antagonist to compliment the Triffids, who represented more of an external complication for the protagonists to overcome. I can see where a lot of post-apocalyptic media was influenced by this work, it reminded me a bit of 'The Birds' and the seemingly wanton revenge of nature. 2. 'King Leopold's Ghost' - Adam Hochschild (*History book) I had read a lot of buzz about this prior to picking it up on sale, and it wound up being fairly good. It illuminated some horrific African history, most of which I had not even been vaguely aware of before reading this, so I have to give it credit for giving me a jumping-off point for other historical literature of the continent. I think Hochschild shoots himself in the foot when it comes to building up the stories of the major figures concerned with working toward ending Leopold's forced labor industry and the Congo Free State, and then later has a few chapters devoted to insipidly questioning what positive effect, if any, their intervention had on the Congo, especially in light of how its political infrastructure apparently just devolved from that point onward. I had some other issues with the book that I can't remember clearly anymore, I think chiefly with some of Hochschild's rhetoric, but on the whole it was definitely worth reading. 3. 'The Blind Owl' - Sadegh Hedayat (*The Blind Owl) I coincidentally read this two days after an incredibly frightening drug trip, so you can imagine how it might have struck me viscerally with its imagery and thematic repetition- I found it to be a fascinatingly immersive. I'm not good when it comes to criticizing these kinds of heavily symbolic stories and relating it with my own perspective, but this resonated with me in a specific, difficult-to-articulate way that nothing else I read this year did. 4. 'Flowers for Algernon' - Daniel Keyes Massively disappointing. Like 'Triffids,' an exceptional, slow-building introduction that later fumbles terribly in its follow-through. This would have made a far superior short story (and from what I understand, it might have been originally?). Instead, when it's not blatantly telegraphing its predictable story beats, it's weighing down its pace with tepid melodrama. This was definitely the worst book I read this year (thus far), and while I'm dogging on it pretty hard, it was really just mediocre and schmaltzy, but otherwise acceptable. Inherently I like the epistolary format and think it saves the book, even though it's kind of gimmicky and makes exposition more awkward. 5. 'The Big Sleep' - Raymond Chandler (*Mystery) This was my first Chandler, and as evidenced by the book I immediately followed it up with, it made a fantastic impression on me. Chandler's prose, his wordplay and metaphors, are simply remarkable. The plot is a convoluted hodge-podge with massive betrayals and revelations, as it ought to be in mystery novels, and Marlowe is the archetypal wry, compromised private detective that made me fall in love with noir in the first place. Kicking myself for not reading him sooner. 6. 'Farewell, My Lovely' - Raymond Chandler Had to follow up with another Phillip Marlowe. Just as strong, maybe even a bit better(?) than 'The Big Sleep.' I couldn't pin down exactly why, but I think this one had a more dynamic story. 7. 'Dracula' - Bram Stoker (*The Color Red) Apologies for the lazy challenge association. Unlike 'Triffids' and 'Algernon,' while this also had a defining opening section, I had more positive reactions for the remainder of the book other than 'boredom' and/or 'annoyance.' Epistolary again put to good use here, and I really enjoyed the meta-narrative of Mina collecting articles and other journals relating to Dracula and compiling everything to form the body of the book we're reading, that was a clever justification for changing up the perspective. Still a bit too long and a bit too repetitive- I think I remember a portion of the book where there's a whole lot of 'planning to get the Count' moments and then the characters gently caress it up in frustrating ways. Still, quite entertaining, and I think this had a genuinely exciting, albeit abrupt, climax. 8. 'The Metamorphoses' - Franz Kafka Equally somber and hilarious. I read 'The Trial' last year and preferred this for its succinctness, which I guess Roberto Bolano would posthumously call me out on later when I read '2666.' 9. 'Hunger' - Knut Hamsun Again, somber and hilarious. I love the protagonist's weird idiosyncrasies and his self-destructive adherence to his moral values. I actually seem to have read a few stories this year with similar, ever-suffering protagonists, chiefly 'Sot-Weed Factor.' This book ends with one of the most perfect and abrupt 'gently caress it, I'm out' moments. 10. 'The Odyssey' - Homer (*Unreal) It's 'The Odyssey,' it's really good.
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2015 09:40
|
|
|
11. 'Middlemarch' - George Eliot (*Hate or Love) Tremendously good- sprawling but comprehensive, with distinctive, believable characters and backgrounds. It's more or less a soap-opera in scope, only with the schlock replaced by genuine literary craft. What would strike me most would be Eliot's way of beautifully and succinctly expressing some kind of thought or feeling, typically relating to regret, retrospection, or reflection. One of my favorites this year, which is saying something. 12. 'JR' - William Gaddis (*Absurdist) I'm pretty astounded that this book exists, and even more astounded that it was written in the 1970's. Very entertaining, frenetic, and jarring. I can just sit back and reel off wonderful moments from this book, and it's all so densely packed and substantial, even if a lot of that substance is corporate financial bullshit jargon. My criticisms are that, by virtue of the characters' repetition and cutting each other off being a prominent schtick, 'JR' becomes pretty fatiguing towards the latter portion of the book. But what gets me worse is that Jack Gibbs' story feels distractingly separate from everything else in 'JR' tonally, where sits this weird pocket of Gibbs dealing with his friend's suicide that's only tenuously connected to the story at hand, then progressively overshadows it. Still, this is one I'm going to have to reread down the line. It's not perfect, but it's huge, funny, and hypnotic. 13. 'The Good Earth' - Pearl S. Buck (*Female Author) Not bad, although I'm kind of at a loss for what to say about it. It's a concise portrait of an incredibly flawed man's life. Buck has a certain way about instilling a banal disgust with Wang Lung in the earlier portion of the book, and then making you slightly sympathetic for him in the latter half, when the things in his life that elevated him slowly fall away, and how his genuine love, faith, and work put into his land is going to be impassively exploited for profit after his death by his sons. And now I'm beginning to remember a lot of things I liked about it, so yeah. 14. 'The Man Who Was Thursday - A Nightmare' - G.K. Chesterton I dunno if C'est Moi genuinely likes this book or not, but I was absolutely smitten with it. Chesterton captures the essence of a dream perfectly, and while being so drat brisk and entertaining. It's so short that it's really hard not to just recommend, read it in an afternoon and see what you think. One other thing I like about this is that all the covers for it awkwardly emphasize Gregory looking mysterious, and then he just gets thoroughly owned by Syme in the first three chapters. 15. 'Storm of Steel' - Ernst Unger (*Biography) My one re-read. Still a bare and brutal account of the war on Germany's side, although this was an inferior translation compared to my other copy. I have to respect Junger's impartial attitude when commenting on the fighting spirit of the opposing armies, and his practical, soldierly perspective of fighting for his country. 16. 'The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake' (*Short stories) This is some of the most poignant, beautiful prose and written imagery ever that caused me to feel utterly morose. 17. '2666' - Roberto Bolano (*Non-white author) '2666' is fairly hard to pin down. I rather liked it, for as much as it weighs heavy on the human spirit, and confounds with essentially being five different books in one. Suffice it to say I got a lot out of it, and It's the kind of book that would take an entire thread devoted to it to have a satisfactory discussion. 18. 'The Sot-Weed Factor' - John Barth (*Post-modern) 'The Sot-Weed Factor' gave a bad first-impression for me, when it must methodically set up Cooke's journey and the extensive political backdrop of Maryland, but once it gets going, it becomes amazing. This book has tremendous payoffs, and is stuffed with so much witty, vulgar, evocative moments and memorable characters. Eben Cooke is one of the most magnificent, terrible adventures ever written, and shares in the delighted, thorough destruction of innocence with 'Candide.' 19. 'Moby Dick; or, The Whale' - Herman Melville It's Moby Dick, it's really good. Seriously, though, it's nine different literary forms cobbled into one epic story, and it's masterfully written. 20. 'Candide' - Voltaire Another hilarious story where the young, naive protagonist is poo poo on at every turn just to learn a simple lesson. I started reading this before 'Sot-Weed' and subsequently became swept up in that monster before coming back to this, but for as good as 'Sot-Weed' was long and entangled, this is strong because of its sheer bluntness and brevity. 21. 'The Name of the Rose' - Umberto Eco (*Sitting on your desk waiting) Speaking of brevity, ha ha ha... This was great, if a little contrived in Adso's part-Watson, part-Robin role to William's Sherlock. Eco obviously knows his history and flaunts it extensively in the face of the detective plot, but it never deterred me from what was going on in the story, and it was all quite illuminating, besides. 22. 'The Dispossessed' - Ursula K. Le Guin (*Space) I'm pretty much 1 for 3 with Le Guin here. 'The Left Hand of Darkness,' while not perfect, was pretty good, I thought. This, on the other hand, I found really ponderous and stilted. I can identify with Shevek to a certain extent and with some of the concepts Le Guin puts forth here, but any genuine heart in this tale is surrounded with mounds of tepid, disinterested world-building and politics. I can visualize Shevek's journey and his character arc throughout the course of the story, cleverly told in a nonlinear structure which nearly disguises how boring the whole thing is, and it's not like nothing happens in the book, but that's certainly how it felt reading it. Here's my lovely critic soundbite for this book: "Dispossessed? Color me dissatisfied."
|
|
#
?
Dec 16, 2015 09:40
|
|
|
Bobby The Rookie posted:Hitting month 12 strong with my first actual update and a request for a wildcard. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2015 20:30
|
|
|
Guy A. Person posted:The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2015 21:40
|
|
|
thespaceinvader posted:1: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson I really enjoyed it. I'm going to have to motor if I want to read 15 books in the next two weeks though D:
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2015 20:15
|
|
|
quote:3. The non-white author Dude! It's December! Broaden your media-intake net-empathy! Do you need recommendations?
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2015 07:20
|
|
|
I haven't updated in a helluva long time, and finished the basic Booklord challenge back around May. drat good Booklord challenge. All hail the Booklord. My final bracket ended up looking like this: 2. [Female author] The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 3. [Non-white author] The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu 4. [Philosophy] The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli 5. [History] The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean 6. [Essay] A Special Supplement: The Question of Machiavelli by Isaiah Berlin 7. [Poetry] The Waste Land and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot 8. [Post-modern] The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 9. [Absurdist] The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton 10. [The Blind Owl] The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat 11. [Love or Hate] The Annotated Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 12. [Space] A Fire Upon the Deep by Verner Vinge 13. [Unreal] City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet 14. [Wildcard] Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 15. [Recently Published] The Way Into Magic by Harry Connolly 16. [That one book whats been sitting around] Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett 17. [A play] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard 18. [Biography] Bossypants by Tiny Fey 19. [The colour red] Rainbows End by Verner Vinge 20. [Banned or censored] American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 21. [Short storys] Theatre Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti 22. [Mystery] Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco Since then I've pushed my total up to 52. The following descriptions are brief, as this is basically a book dump, and my opinions grew less focused and less grand over the long span of months. 23. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett was like saying goodbye to an old friend. 24. A Key, and Egg, an Unfortunate Remark by Harry Connolly was interesting pacifist take on urban fantasy, that unfortunately didn't have a whole lot of substance. 25. The Wazir and the Witch by Hugh Cook was a decent, amusing, but forgettable entry in a series I'm working through like a pitch drop. 26-30. The Daniel Faust Series by Craig Shaefer was competently written and a whole lotta fun. I remember irritation at the first book due to it's "Just met now in love with a succubus" urban fantasy bullshit, but it's overall a pretty fun ride. 31-33. The Revelation Space Series by Alastair Reynolds was, overall, pretty good. Some parts were fantastic, but this is where my reading pace took a nosedive as I struggled to get through the third book in the series. So plodding. 34. Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds was great! I liked the standalone novel the most out of the Revelation Space stuff. 35. The Traitor's Blade by Sevastien de Castell was alright. The high praise I read did not translate into the novel, which I found kinda sloppy and trite, though enjoyable. 36. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross was fine, but my least favorite Laundy File novel. 37. Willful Child by Steven Erikson was a raucous space adventure, lovingly paying homage and taking the piss out of classic Star Trek. Pretty fun. 38 - 41. The Viriconium Series by M. John Harrison was a strange experience. Some of it was fascinating and unique, but a lot of it was a boring slog of language. Harrison felt like the opposite of Jack Vance, with the volume and depth of words blurring the meaning and only providing texture. Maybe that was the point. 42. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins was awesome, even if it did feel like watching someone else's master plan come together without stakes or danger. 43. The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard was fun, charming, and as entertaining as the rest of the series. 44. The Traitor Baru Commorant was probably my favorite "New" book this year, and the second in my trilogy of "Watch a Plan Come Together" novels. Only in this case, the stakes were high and the danger felt real. 45. Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher capped off my trilogy of "I tent my fingers; Everything is falling into place." novels. Pretty good. 46. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong was another favorite "New" book this year. I love his style of writing, and the mix of horrific violence and brutality with wry irreverance. 47. Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon was a boring picaresque. Chabon is a great writer, and the craft is apparent. I was just bored. 48-49. The Revance Cycle 1 and 2 by Craig Schaefer are low rent Game of Thrones books. They're fine. Competently written, well paced. Nothing special. 50. Shadows of the Self by Brandon Sanderson was alright. The action was fun, but I didn't care about any of the characters. Maybe his writing style has worn thin for me. 51. The Dispossessed by Urlula Le Guin was a good book that I... enjoyed? Very introspective, with a lot of important ideas and thoughts to mull over. 52. I'll Go Home Then, It's Warm And Has Chairs by David Thorne is a snarky book. David Thorne is a funny person. And that's basically my year! Most of the challenge books are read were pretty good. Listing the books from the Booklord challenge that I found fantastic would almost be like writing the whole list out again. I filled my non-challenge slots with a little more fun pulp. That said, The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Chasm City, and Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits were also loving fantastic. Pretty good year.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2015 08:04
|
|
|
20. Something banned or censored - Operation Dark Heart by Anthony Shaffer (also Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour) When I was looking for a banned/censored work I wanted to focus on those that have been challenged in the US and I noticed one Operation Dark Heart in particular since it was so recent. Apparently because of some potentially sensitive national security information, this was heavily censored prior to release. I wasn’t able to find an uncensored version unfortunately, although I did read a few articles which compared some sections that were uncensored to the final version. It was an interesting read since I know very little about this modern military, and this was written by an actual intelligence officer (albeit one who paradoxically seems to like attention) so it was worth the read. Seeing the page filled with blacked out information and wondering what was being withheld also made it an interesting reading experience. I also want to talk briefly about Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour. This book was interesting because it was specifically about censorship in Iran, more specifically about a writer's struggles with the Office of Censorship, and how he would need to craft his novel specifically to avoid the censors pen as much as possible while still telling the story he wanted to tell. It wasn’t the exact challenge (which I why I also chose ODH) but it was a fascination look at Iranian culture and the process of actual censorship. 21. Short stories - Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino I actually started this one over a year ago, but only made a concentrated effort to finish it this year for this challenge. These are a series of 200 very short stories collected and arranged by Italo Calvino. The links to more well known fairy tales were evident, and there is a ton of repetition, like:
22. A mystery - Who Censored Roger Rabbit by Gary K. Wolf I hadn’t realized the movie was based on a book, and when I found out in the book they are comic strip characters who speak in visible speech bubbles (which factor into the clues) it seemed like an interesting mystery. And it was for the most part, and it was easy to see how and why it was optioned for a film, but otherwise the movie outshined it by a bunch. In typical pulp detective fashion, most of the characters are unlikable schemers, including the PI himself and even the book’s namesake. The writing and story aren’t anything to elevate it above being a decent detective story with a fun gimmick.
|
|
#
?
Dec 21, 2015 04:18
|
|
|
marblize posted:Dude! It's December! Broaden your media-intake net-empathy! No thanks, I'm reading one right now.
|
|
#
?
Dec 22, 2015 06:10
|
|
|
thespaceinvader posted:1: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson Dead Famous was good as Elton's work is wont to be for me - it kept me guessing til right at the end. I mean, I guessed the twist pretty early on, but not the how of it, and he managed to obfuscate it more than well enough to leave me not remotely sure of whether I would actually be right by the end. My only real niggle with it was the big theatrical ending where the cop calls out the killer on live TV. I mean, great fun, but massively grounds for a mistrial, there's no way they'd ever come up with an unbiased jury at that point. And the fact that I was in the middle of reading it when a conversation about Gogglebox came up at work may have led to me saying some slightly inappropriately snide comments to my boss D: Twig has occupied a lot of reading time this year and bears mentioning. I think this is Wildbow's best so far. He's balanced well the overlong stories and overlarge cast of Worm with the rather perfunctory treatment of Pact to come out with what I feel is a pretty well-balanced ensemble cast story. I'm slightly disappointed with the direction it took - building to a series-long arc plot rather than being truly serialised with a monster-of-the-week style format - but I can see the logic of it. I like the characters, I really like the world, I'm enjoying the plot. Overall, good story.
|
|
#
?
Dec 24, 2015 18:32
|
|
|
A very busy year and just about completed the booklord challenge in time.  The challenge was very helpful as a goal to read some new and different books that I otherwise wouldn't have, so thanks to Stravinsky for putting it together. 47. Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz (Thomas Harding) This book was a dual biography of the lives of Rudolf Hoess (the Kommandant) and Hanns Alexander, the man who captured him after WWII. The format with chapters alternating between each individual covering roughly contemporary events in their lives worked well, the pace was good and the subject interesting. 48. Annabel (Kathleen Winter) Set in coastal Labrador in the late 60s, a baby is born of indeterminate gender. The story is about how the individual, family and community come to terms with this over the next 20 years. 49. A History of Western Philosophy (Bertrand Russell) This was a long read and can't say I understand why people are arguing about some of these things, some of it seems to be utterly unknowable though perhaps that is the point. At least I'm not completely ignorant on the subject of philosophy any longer. 50. The Diary of an Ordinary Woman (Margaret Forster) This is fictional novel structured/written like non-fiction. An author collates the lifelong diaries of a (fictional) woman, which cover most of the 20th century, into a book. The “diary” itself is interesting, the voice of the “writer” changes over time in what seems a realistic way. Enjoyable. 51. Lords of Finance (Liaquat Ahamed) A history of economic/monetary policy in the time leading up to the Great Depression, focusing on the dealings of the important central bankers of the time. Surprisingly entertaining. 52. Collected Poems (Patrick Kavanagh) I haven’t looked at poetry since I finished school and the only poet I studied that I liked was Patrick Kavanagh, so picked this up for the challenge. I tried to read this aloud for the most part to appreciate the actual sounds, kind of strange to find yourself thinking in verse after 30 minutes of reading.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2015 16:57
|
|
|
Inherent Vice - a novelisation of Altman's The Long Goodbye, with slapstick thrown in. Quite fun. Socialism for a skeptical age - not quite so much fun! 1. 11 Books. Wind up bird chronicle, Murukami Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky Mindset: how you can fulfil your potential, Carol Dweck Book of Strange New Things, Michael Faber Chavs, Owen Jones Skills-based Learning for Caring for a Loved One with an Eating Disorder: The New Maudsley Method, Treasure, Smith, Crane Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing Count Zero, William Gibson Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon Socialism for a skeptical age, Ralph Milliband 2. Female author - Dweck, Treasure et al., Atwood knees of putty fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Dec 25, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2015 17:49
|
|
|
Ursus Veritas posted:January August 17. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi October 18. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson November 19. Crooked by Austin Grossman December 20. So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson 20/20. Water Knife is pretty good. Not really all that memorable to me. Aurora is fantastic, the final section is one of my favourite things I've read all year. Crooked was super boring, this is Grossman's weakest work yet. And Publically Shamed was good as well. Mostly this year was spent at school and working, also reading a lot of short stories. They're available for free, what a fantastic value! My favourite book of the year was Vicious, and the worst was In the Woods. gently caress that book was terrible.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 02:26
|
|
|
December is, as always, one hella busy month. But I managed to get all the challenges done this year. I have a few days to spare, too, so I might re-read the blind owl just because anyway, final update 1. Hear the Wind Sing, Haruki Murakami 2. Pinball 1974, Haruki Murakami 3. On The Beach, Neil Shute 4. Collected Poems by Per Sivle 5. History of the Siege of Lisbon, José Saramago 6. Wayfarers, Knut Hamsun 7. The Seed, Tarjei Vesaas 8. Morning and Evening, Jon Fosse 9. The Collected Poems of Alberto Caeiro, Fernando Pessoa 10. Doktor Faustus, Thomas Mann 11. Collection of poems, Gabriela Mistral 12. Doctor Glas, Hjalmar Söderberg 13. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez 14. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino 15. Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon 16. Road to the Worl'd End, Sigurd Hoel 17. The Cyberiad, Stanislaw Lem 18. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad 19. The Clown, Heinrich Böll 20. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Lev Tolstoy 21. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev 22. A Theatrical Novel, Mikhail Bulgakov 23. Sleepless, Jon Fosse 24. Woodcutters, Thomas Bernhard 25. Confusion of Feelings, Stefan Zweig 26. The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Heinrich Böll 27. The Elephant's Jurney, José Saramago 28. Shyness and Dignity, Dag Solstad 29. Krysantemum, Rune Christiansen 30. The Feast of the Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa 31. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 32. The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan 33. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera 34. Homo Faber, Max Frisch 35. Not Art, Péter Esterházy 36. Faust, Ivan Turgenev 37. Selected Poems, Percy Bysshe Shelley 38. The Russian Master and Other Stories, Anton Chekhov 39. Vinternoveller, Ingvild H. Rishøi 40. The Passion According to G.H., Clarice Lispector 41. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor 42. Om høsten, Karl Ove Knausgård 43. Three Women, Sylvia Plath 44. Furuset, Linn Strømsborg 45. Thomas F's Last Notes to the Public, Kjell Askildsen 46. Rue des Boutiques obscures, Patrick Modiano 47. Herztier, Herta Müller 48. On Overgrown Paths, Knut Hamsun 49. Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett 50. Rambuku, Skuggar: Two plays, Jon Fosse 51. Submission, Michel Houellebecq 52. Alone, August Strindberg 53. Life a User's Manual, Georges Perec 54. Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard 55. À rebours, Joris-Karl Huysmans 56. Love's Knowledge, Martha Nussbaum 57. (roughly translated) The rise and fall of the Norwegian working class, Finn Olstad 57/40 Plotting some numbers for the heck of it, one third of all the books read this year were by Scandinavian authors, approx. 14% of all the authors were women, and a total of 44 all the books I read were from various cultures and places in Europe. 13 of the books were released in the 2000's, three of which published this year. And only 5 poetry collections this year. So I guess for next year, I'm gonna try getting more into poetry, in addition to reading War and Peace and a few other massive tomes, and I'll see if I can't up my percentage of women as well.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 14:36
|
|
|
I'll have the new thread up later tonight after I get home from work and also my final count for the year.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 17:45
|
|
|
I don't think I'm going to finish another book before the 1st so here's my list. 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 61/52 2. Read a female author Agatha Christie, Kate Chopin, Octavia Butler, Ursual K LeGuin, Mary Roach, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Annie Jacobsen, Hannah Arendt 3. The non-white author Sherman Alexie, Solomon Northup, Ken Liu, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, Sadegh Hedayat 4. Philosophy Hannah Arendt's On Violence (Turns out I hate Hannah Arendt. What a racist) 5. History I read like a million history books but I liked The Forgotten Fifteenth the most because it mentioned my grandfather's B-24 6. An essay Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility 7. A collection of poetry Maya Angelou's The Complete Poetry 8. Something post-modern Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried 9. Something absurdist Kafka's The Trial 10. The Blind Owl yup that sure was a book I read 11. Something on either hate or love Toni Morrison's Beloved 12. Something dealing with space Mary Roach's Packing For Mars 13. Something dealing with the unreal Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude 14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read) Roald Dahl's Over to You (I don't normally like short stories but these were great and managed to make a big emotional impact in a very short period of time) 15. Something published this year or the past three months Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (Actually ended up have to force my way through this because it just did not interest me at all for some reason) 17. A play Shakespeare's Othello 18. Biography Jamie Doran's Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin 19. The color red Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red 20. Something banned or censored Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago 21. Short story(s) Dahl's Over to You 22. A mystery Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye, Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Affair at Styles My full list is on my goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/2096532 Best book(s) of the year is a tie between Between the World and Me and The Gulag Archipelago. Both were superb eye-opening accounts of injustice that I still find myself thinking about pretty frequently.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 18:26
|
|
|
quote:
Hit my 52 book goal and most of the Booklord's challenge. Thank God for having nearly a 6 week winter break. Currently reading Finder's Keepers as my mystery, and my wildcard Solaris. I'm planning on Waiting for Godot for my play. Feeling pretty good about finishing everything by the 31st. Best books of the year so far: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Worm, The Girl with All the Gifts Worst books of the year so far: Micro, Blind Owl, The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances Absolutely game for it next year, though I'm going to shoot for a much lower number of books.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 18:38
|
|
|
Final update. Previously: 1. Menneskefluene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 2. Teckla by Steven Brust. 3. Ultima by Stephen Baxter. 4. Satellittmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 5. REAMDE by Neal Stephenson. 6. Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky 7. Annihilation by Jeff VanDermeer. 8. The Last Ringbearer by Kirill Yeskov. 9. Njålssoga (aka Njåls saga, the Saga of Burnt Niall, etc. in various translations) by unknown author. 10. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. 11. Katalysatormordet by Hans Olav Lahlum. 12. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. 13. De Fem Fyrstikkene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 14. Pastoralia by George Saunders. 15. Kameleonmenneskene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 16. Academic Exercises by K.J. Parker. 17. Straits of Hell by Taylor Anderson. 18. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. 19. My Real Children by Jo Walton. 20. Forrådt ("Betrayed") by Amalie Skram. 21. Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. 22. On the Steel Breeze by Alastair Reynolds. 23. Landfall by Stephen Baxter. 24. The March North by Graydon Saunders. 25. The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett and (probably mostly) Stephen Baxter. 26. Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. 27. Castaway Planet by Ryk Spoor and Eric Flint. 28. Ørnens Sønn by Olaf Havnes. 29. The Annihilation Score by Charles Stross. 30. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. 31. Spring's Awakening by Frank Wedekind. 32. Poseidon's Wake by Alastair Reynolds. 33. Extinction Game by Gary Gibson. 34. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. 35. Havlandet by Olaf Havnes. 36. Svart Storm by Olaf Havnes. 37. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer. 38. The Faithful Executioner by Joel F. Harrington. 39. Hodejegerne by Jo Nesbø. 40. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. New: 41. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Actually read in a Norwegian translation. Hit the "essay" and "philosophy" buttons for sure. Smart guy, that dead old Rousseau dude. 42. Planetfall by Emma Newman. An interstellar colonization story on the surface of it, where a small colony of humans from Earth exists on an alien planet at the foot of a great structure they believe to be (and name as) God's City. But there are lies, and lies within lies. Quickly goes to some rather dark psychological places. Great book. 43. The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat. Probably never would have read (or even been aware of) this thing if not for the specific booklord challenge. What a loving nightmare of a story; glad I read it; will probably revisit (and look at different translations as well). .44. Kipling: Poems by, obviously, Rudyard Kipling. Always thought Kipling was pretty cool (naturally I've encountered many of the better-known poems here and there, etc.) but such a concentrated dose... transcended "pretty cool" and ascended to "awesome", really. So far: 44/40 overall goal, of which 1/5 allowed rereads 10/10 Norwegian books 5/5 nonfiction Booklord challenge points met: 1 (Got to 40 books) 2 (Forrådt; technically met earlier but saved for a book where the gender of the author was the POINT rather than an accident) 3 (Three-Body Problem) 4 (the Rousseau) 5 (Njålssoga), 6 (Rousseau again) 7 (Kipling) 8 (Pastoralia) 9 (Cat's Cradle) 10 (The Blind Owl) 11 (My Real Children) 12 (Ultima) 13 (Teckla; teleporting sorceror-assassins aren't particularly real) 14 (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) 15 (Ultima again, published November 2014) 16 (Njålssoga) 17 (Spring's Awakening) 18 (The Faithful Executioner) 19 (Three-Body Problem) 20 (Spring's Awakening) 21 (De Fem Fyrstikkene) 22 (Menneskefluene). That's all of them. Challenge completed, thanks for the game. Have to say this year's challenge was fun, prompted me to read a number of things I probably wouldn't have thought of otherwise. Also I'm pretty pleased at my own ability to guesstimate how many books I could comfortably get through (my reading time is somewhat limited these days). See you all next year!
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 22:05
|
|
|
December - 6: John Dies at the End (David Wong) Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) A Brief History of Seven Killings (Marlon James) Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson) The Diving Pool (Yoko Ogawa) We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) I might finish one more before the technical year end but whatever, 62 or 63 is no difference. John Dies at the End I read on a couple of flights while I was away in Italy and Germany. It was good fun and had some cool ideas, but I feel like it could have done with being 100 pages shorter and the dialogue being thoroughly decheesed in some places. IIRC it started life as a web serial thing and you can definitely tell that. The twist at the end was pretty cool and done effectively, but yeah, see previous point - it seemed to go on past the point where Wong had a clear idea of how to end it and then fizzled out. Half of a Yellow Sun was great. I picked it up in a charity shop knowing nothing except that I'd seen a couple of Adichie's talks on Youtube. This is a fantastic book and it makes good use of the alternating early 60s/late 60s sections to build the drama. It captures the desperation of being on the losing side of a civil war, and the effect on these characters' lives. I thought the ending with the bait and switch of Ugwu's apparent death and subsequent return, followed by Kainene's real disappearance, communicated really effectively that kind of sense of things being just barely ok and then changing instantly. A Brief History of Seven Killings I doubt I can say anything about that wasn't said by the long list of prizes and nominations and a million reviews. I loving loved it and I'm keen to read more Marlon James. Aurora was a Secret Santa present. I really like KSR and I'll defend the Mars trilogy to the death, but I feel like this was 6/7ths of a great sci-fi novel which fails to stick the landing at the end. Much like I said about John Dies above, it feels like KSR wrote all this cool stuff about space colonisation and holding the ship together against the forces of entropy which come with hundreds of years of space travel, then realised he had to actually end the thing and didn't really know how. The Diving Pool is a collection of 3 Ogawa novellas, those being the titular Diving Pool, Pregnancy Diary and Dormitory. I really liked this. Ogawa's prose is amazing (allowing for the translation, which is done well) and she manages to create that horror-like tension without relying on staple monsters and magic stuff. We Should All Be Feminists at 45 pages barely counts but gently caress it it's a physical book on my shelf. An essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with the obvious subject, adapted from a TED talk she gave. The content wasn't surprising to me, but it was refreshing to read the argument put succinctly by someone who can really write. A half-hour read at best, but worth the time. That wraps me up for 2015 barring the possibility of one more book this week - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Sun-Mi Hwang. Given my original goal was 40, I've surpassed it by a mile (this is the most books I've ever read in a single year). e: finished it, so that's 63 this year. I've reached it without stress, too, and a few days ahead of time. I've read some amazing stuff this year - picking out a few, Revenge, American Rust, A Brief History, Between the World and Me and Theft were all fantastic - and nothing that I've really felt like was a slog or genuinely poor. I have 170+ books on my shelves I haven't read so I think my main aim next year is going to be to read through some of what I already have instead of reading at slightly less than replacement rate. Here's to 2016! Ee: read another so 64 total. Year to Date: 64 01. The Establishment: And how they get away with it (Owen Jones) 02. Mussolini and Fascist Italy (Martin Blinkhorn) 03. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) 04. All You Need is Kill (Hiroshi Sakurazaka) 05. Theft: A Love Story (Peter Carey) 06. Stalin (Kevin McDermott) 07. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) 08. Revenge (Yoko Ogawa) 09. The Good Soldier Svejk and his Fortunes in the Great War (Jaroslav Hasek) 10. The Buried Giant (Kazuo Ishiguro) 11. after the quake (Haruki Murakami) 12. The Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett) 13. The Light Fantastic (Terry Pratchett) 14. The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope and Survival in Theresienstadt (Hannelore Brenner) 15. Equal Rites (Terry Pratchett) 16. Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino) 17. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 (Anne Applebaum) 18. Running with the Kenyans (Adharanand Finn) 19. Notes from Underground and The Double (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 20. First Novel (Nicholas Royle) 21. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz) 22. Mort (Terry Pratchett) 23. Schlump (Hans Herbert Grimm) 24. Concrete (Thomas Bernhard) 25. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (William L. Shirer) 26. The Last Kingdom (Bernard Cornwell) 27. The Pale Horseman (Bernard Cornwell) 28. Beauty and Sadness (Yasunari Kawabata) 29. The Blind Owl (Sadegh Hedayat) 30. The Lords of the North (Bernard Cornwell) 31. Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder) 32. The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson) 33. Selected Poems (Edgar Allen Poe) 34. The Bookseller of Kabul (Asne Seierstad) 35. Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela) 36. We (Yevgeny Zamyatin) 37. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath) 38. The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood) 39. MaddAddam (Margaret Atwood) 40. Sourcery (Terry Pratchett) 41. The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende) 42. A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe) 43. Wyrd Sisters (Terry Pratchett) 44. 3 Novels (Cesar Aira) 45. American Rust (Philipp Meyer) 46. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (Justin Marozzi) 47. Union Man (Jack Jones) 48. The Smartest Guys in the Room (Bethany McLean & Peter Elkind) 49. Lord of the Flies (William Golding) 50. Pyramids (Terry Pratchett) 51. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) 52. Medea and Other Plays (Euripides) 53. Between the World and Me (Ta-Nehisi Coates) 54. Ringworld (Larry Niven) 55. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty) 56. Saturday's Shadows (Ayesha Haruna Attah) 57. John Dies at the End (David Wong) 58. Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) 59. A Brief History of Seven Killings (Marlon James) 60. Aurora (Kim Stanley Robinson) 61. The Diving Pool (Yoko Ogawa) 62. We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) 63. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly (Sun-Mi Hwang) 64. Random Acts of Senseless Violence (Jack Womack) Booklord categories: 1 - 22 Living Image fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Dec 31, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2015 22:31
|
|
|
screenwritersblues posted:16) Stranger Than Fiction by Chuck Palahniuk I think that I'm pretty much done for this year. So here's the last batch. 17) The Beautiful Indifference by Sarah Hall: A wonderful short story collection that barely uses any dialogue. It's written in mostly action, which at first is very strange, but flows very nicely once you're into it. 4/5 18) Brooklyn Was Mine edited by Valerie Steiker and Chris Knutsen: A pretty great collection from writers who are from Brooklyn. Shows that there's more to it than hipsters. 4/5 19) Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain: Not as solid as his regular writing, but still good. I felt he tried a little too hard to be like Elmore in this one. 3.56/5 20) More Curious by Sean Wilsey: More like more dull and boring. 2.56/5 21) In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume: Who says Judy Blume can only write kids books. She did a great job on putting fictional characters in a real event. I had to read this for a book club, so sue me. 3.75/5 22) Dirty Daddy by Bob Saget: Danny Tanner writers pretty drat well. It isn't all Full House related stories (Although I pray to go that either he or someone else involved in the show writes one). He told a lot of good stories and also gave some advice about breaking into comedy. 4.9/5 23) The Vacationers by Emma Straub: I initially thought that this was going to be a Chick Lit book, but it was better than I expected and also a very quick read. 3.74/5 24) So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures by Maureen Corrigan: I swear, this book felt like an NPR radio program, but it was still a solid read. 3.1/5 25) New Jersey Noir edited by Joyce Carol Oates: Anything in NJ is good to me. This one shows the Darker side of NJ, which is one that many don't get to see. 4.6/5 26) How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein: I really liked The Art of Racing in the Rain, which I read earlier this year, but this one was a bit of a let down.3.9/5 27) Brooklyn Noir 2: The Classics edited by Tim McLoughlin: I have a feeling that I should have read this series in order, but whatever. 3.74/5 28) Go Set a Watchmen by Harper Lee: Wow, this was a bad one. 2.36/5 29) We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy by Caseen Gaines: If you a BTTF fan, read this. It's a great inside look into how the movie was made and even gives you a really good look into why Gale wanted the Delorian. 5/5 30) The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsey Faye: While I do miss that Old New York, I don't miss one that tries to be a mystery, but fails to use the mystery part. 2.36/5 31) American Sniper by Chris Kyle: I liked this better than the movie. If felt like that Chris Kyle was standing right there with you and he's pretty funny at times too. I really wish he got pulled over in the movie like he did in the book. 4.89/5 32) American Gun: A History of the US in Ten Guns by Chris Kyle: A very interesting look at the history of American in the form of guns. We're pretty much a gun crazy culture. 4.66/5 33) Jalopnik's Book of Car Facts and History That Even Gearheads Don't Even Know edited by Jalopnik: A pretty good collection of articles that were feature on the website. 4.86/5 34) Gonzo Girl by Cheryl Della Pietra: Hunter S. Thompson's former assistant writes a book based off her experiences with Dr. Gonzo. I'm pretty sure that all of it really happened and that Thompson estate told her that she could only base it off of what happened. 4/5 35) Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari: Aziz made me feel very lonely. 4.76/5 36) House of Thieves by Kaui Hart Hemmings: A collection of short stories. Some of them good, some of them decent. But the imagery of Hawaii not being the place that most people think it is, is there. 4.98/5 37- 38) The Best American Sports Writing, Travel Writing, and Short Stories edited by by various: This year wasn't too bad for all of them. But as normal, there were a few snoozers. 4.75/5 for travel writing and short stories and 4.65/5 for Sports Writing. 39) I Never Knew That About New York by Christopher Winn: A good look at the stuff you never knew about New York. 5/5 The New Thread is up: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3757723 screenwritersblues fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Dec 28, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 01:53
|
|
|
Corrode posted:John Dies at the End I read on a couple of flights while I was away in Italy and Germany. It was good fun and had some cool ideas, but I feel like it could have done with being 100 pages shorter and the dialogue being thoroughly decheesed in some places. IIRC it started life as a web serial thing and you can definitely tell that. The twist at the end was pretty cool and done effectively, but yeah, see previous point - it seemed to go on past the point where Wong had a clear idea of how to end it and then fizzled out. I read his latest book recently (which I'm pretty sure was written from the beginning as a self-contained novel) and it also reads that way, so I think that's just how he writes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 02:09
|
|
|
thespaceinvader posted:1: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 17:52
|
|
|
Seeing as the new thread's up, I should probably post the final lot of books I read. 120/120 books read. Challenges completed: # of books, female author, non-white author, history, essays, post-modern, something on hate, space, unreal, something published this year, biography, something involving the colour red. #91: Exploring Music - Ernst Krenek: A collection of essays by the author on a variety of topics both musical and not and before and after he emigrated to America. The author was a 20th-century Austrian composer: readers of Alex Ross's history of 20th-century classical music may remember him as the composer of the popular opera Jonny Strikes Up. 3/5. #92: Men Explain Things To Me - Rebecca Solnit: Another collection of essays, this time on feminism and other related topics. 4/5. #93: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon: Two Czech Jewish cousins move to New York due to Nazis, become involved in the comics industry, grow up. 4/5. #94: The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing: The most well-known book by the Nobel Prize-winning author, in which a woman keeps four notebooks detailing various aspects of her life before merging those threads into the titular golden notebook. Worth reading if interested in feminism, communism, the middle of the 20th century. 4/5. #95: Zinky Boys - Svetlana Alexievich: I read this just before the author received the Nobel Prize for literature. The book details the experiences of the women connected to Soviet soldiers who died in the Soviet-Afghan War during the '80s. If anyone wants to gain some insight into the Soviet Union during the eighties and its follies, check it out. I cannot wait for her other two books to be available digitally. 4/5. #96: Y: The Last Man: Deluxe Vol. 1 - Brian K. Vaughan: In which an epidemic wipes out all of the world's males on Earth (across all species) except the protagonist Yorick and his capuchin monkey Ampersand. A good read, with some interesting insights on gender politics. 4/5. #97: Rat Queens vol. 2 - Kurtis J. Wiebe: In this edition, the titular adventuring party fight against a Cthulhu-esque deity. Not quite as good as vol. 1 (I prefer to read about the party interacting with people), but still worth a read. 3.5(3)/5. #98: Y: The Last Man: Deluxe Vol. 2 - Brian K. Vaughan: See previous entry, same score. #99: The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius: If you want to read one of the main primary sources of Roman history, go for it. Once I got past the parts about Julius Caesar and Augustus, the book became more entertaining. Worth a read if interested in Roman history, but do take it with a grain of salt due to author bias, history writing practices, etc. 4/5. #100: Saga vol. 5 - Brian K. Vaughan: The latest volume in the series. Still good so far. 4/5. #101: Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin: Way better than the movie based on it. If you saw the movie and were confused, read the book - the movie only adapts about a quarter of the total material and does a poor job to boot. If you're interested in magical realist-ish books set in New York City during various parts of the 20th century, have a look. 4/5. #102: Ms. Marvel vol. 3: Crushed - G. Willow Wilson: In which the Marvel version of a certain Norse trickster deity shows up, and afterwards Kamala Khan has to deal with a cute boy who turns out to be not-so-cool. 3.5(4)/5. #103: Under the Paw: Confessions of a Cat Man: In which the author writes about his experiences with life and cats. I picked this up because the author wrote a book about tooling around with some nu-metal kid, which I read when I was younger. 3/5. #104: Bitch Planet vol. 1: Extraordinary Machine: Kelly Sue DeConnick: The first volume of a graphic novel series which occurs in a dystopian future where women are imprisoned for being outspoken and opinionated. Worth reading if interested in feminism (particularly of the intersectional variety, i.e. non-white, non-heterosexual, etc.) 4/5. #105: Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm: The winner of the 1977 Best Novel Hugo Award, where a community has to resort to cloning in order to survive in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future. Worth a read if interested in the '70s, the Hugos, cloning, individualism. 4/5. #106: The Mountains of Mourning - Lois McMaster Bujold: Winner of the 1990 Best Novella Hugo Award. In this book, Miles Vorkosigan has to travel to a remote mountain community in order to solve a murder mystery involving a disabled baby, which connects to Miles' physical shortcomings. A good short read between Barrayar and The Vor Game (in the series' chronology). 4/5. #107: Golden Son - Pierce Brown: A distinct improvement over Red Rising, if only for the setup for book three. Continues the story of Darrow and the politics in his caste. 4/5. #108: The Wicked and the Divine vol. 1: The Faust Act - Kieron Gillen: A graphic novel series in which deities are pop stars and vice versa. Not entirely convinced by this first volume due to unclear storytelling, but it has the potential to improve. 3/5. #109: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? - Roz Chast: In which the author deals with the decline and death of her parents. Less depressing than it sounds. 4/5. #110: The Grace of Kings - Ken Liu: Can be summed up as Wuxia Game of Thrones, but with far less rape. A very good read: worth a look if interested in the beginning of an epic fantasy series which isn't the usual Whitey McWhiterson Tolkien knock-off stuff. (On the gender front: mostly a sausagefest, but there is more attention paid to gender politics than your average epic fantasy book). 4/5. #111: Beautiful Darkness - Fabien Vehlmann: A beautifully-drawn tale involving tiny people which can be summed up in a smiley:  , a.k.a surprisingly hardcore. Definitely worth a look if you can handle some violence. 5/5.#112: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison: One of the Best Novel Hugo nominees for this year, and if I'd read it in time for voting I'd have put it ahead of Ancillary Sword. I really enjoyed this book, especially the world-building and the political focus. 5/5. #113: Parable of the Talents - Octavia Butler: The sequel to Parable of the Sower. Similar to Native Tongue in that it will make you angry at men. There were going to be further books, but they didn't get written before the premature death of the author; however, the end of the book feels like a natural stopping point. 4/5. #114: Andre the Giant: Life and Legend - Box Brown: Graphic novel detailing the life of the wrestler (and occasional actor) Andre the Giant, from his childhood in France to his death in his mid-40s. On the whole it is a reasonably balanced portrait of the man, detailing his positives (his charisma and his wrestling activities) to his negatives (occasional racism, his lack of attention towards his daughter). I should watch The Princess Bride, it's on Netflix and everything. 4/5. #115: War for the Oaks - Emma Bull: One of the defining books in the urban fantasy genre. One flaw this book has is that it was written in the '80s and it hasn't exactly aged that well (in terms of fashion and music; there are also a couple of instances of the homophobic f-word, just a friendly heads-up if you really can't handle that word). Worth a look if you're interested in the genre's roots, but there are (probably) better urban fantasy books to read. 3/5. #116: Step Aside Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection - Kate Beaton: The latest collection of cartoons from Kate Beaton. Definitely worth a look if you're a fan, and even if you couldn't tell Kate Beaton from Mrs. Beeton you could probably get it out from your local library (if you have access, etc.) 4/5. #117: Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter - Nina MacLaughlin: In which a journalist decides on a whim to take a job in carpentry, which is more interesting than you might think. 4/5. #118: Bird Box - Josh Malerman: In which a disaster has rendered people unable to go outside without wearing blindfolds. Told in both the present and in flashbacks. Not so much scary as unsettling. 4/5. #119: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal and the Real Count of Monte Cristo - Tom Reiss: The Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the novelist Alexandre Dumas's rad dad. I know modern-day France can be pretty drat racist (sorry French people), but the fact that there aren't more statues of Alex Dumas is utterly disgraceful. Alex Dumas was a cool dude and worth ten Napoleons (especially in military ability. If you want to compare Napoleon to Julius Caesar, knock yourself out, but I'm fairly certain that Caesar was far more skilled in military matters). 4/5. #120: Dorothy Must Die - Danielle Paige: Young adult book in which Dorothy (as in the Wizard of Oz) is a dictator who has turned Oz into a dystopian nightmare, and she must be sorted out. I read this book in the middle of the year, but I only added it to my Goodreads challenge recently. Incidentally, of course there are sequels. 4/5. See you in the new thread. ZakAce fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Dec 30, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2015 03:28
|
|
|
Final update of the year.oliven posted:Currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. 45. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill: A lot of the time I get terribly confused by stories about time travel. Sometimes it's just because the subject is mind-bending, other times the story just isn't done very well. This one was done pretty well I think, and was easy-ish to follow. I enjoyed it! I completed my own challenge and the booklord challenge  Here's my entire list:1. Looking for Alaska by John Green 2. Otherbound by Corinne Duyvi 3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey 5. The Maze Runner by James Dashner 6. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 7. The Martian by Andy Weir 8. The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat 9. Anna på fredag by Helene Uri 10. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks 11. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 12. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk 13. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 14. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson 15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 16. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 17. Unwind by Neal Shusterman 18. Ubik by Philip K. Dick 19. The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson 20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North 21. Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson 22. Sphere by Michael Crichton 23. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day 24. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King 25. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson 26. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger 27. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 28. The Five Stages of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton 29. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 30. Samlede dikt by André Bjerke 31. George by Alex Gino 32. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 33. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 34. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 35. Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard 36. Asking For It by Louise O'Neill 37. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 38. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 39. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 40. The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly 41. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson 42. Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams 43. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn 44. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 45. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2015 13:08
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 07:10 |
|
|
Prolonged Shame posted:1) The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory Final check-in! 102)O Pioneers! - Willa Cather: I didn't love this as much as some of her other work, but it was still really, really good. 103) Inside the O'Briens - Lisa Genova: This was a fictional account of a family who discovers that their father has Huntington's Disease and how it affects him and the entire family. HD runs in my family, and the descriptions in this book are spot on. It hit really close to home, and was a great book. 104) Gerald R. Ford - Douglas Brinkley: This was an adequate bio of Gerry Ford. 105) Feed - Mira Grant: A pretty good take on the post-zombie-apocalypse world. It could have used some better editing, but it wasn't bad. 106) Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse #4) - Charlaine Harris: Still a good series. 107) Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brien: People weren't kidding when they said you need to know obscure nautical terms to read this book. Still, it was very good and I will likely continue with the series. 108) The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd: This was ok. It was a bit predictable and the characters seemed like caricatures of themselves, but it wasn't bad. 109) A Natural History of Dragons - Marie Brennan: The memoir of Lady Trent, the world's foremost dragon naturalist. Very good, though it could have used more dragons. 110) Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5) - Charlaine Harris: At this point the TV series has completely diverged from the books, so these are all new to me. Total: 110/100 Done with the official goal! Presidential bios: 12/12 Done! Non Fiction barring prez bios: 25/25 Done!
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2015 17:46
|
|
