Now Reading

  On 4/26/2015 at 12:17 AM, jellyrajah said:

 

  On 4/25/2015 at 6:02 PM, Berk said:

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

really nice book. which translation do you have?

 

yeah definitely. translated to dutch by Wils Huisman

Finally started Bleeding Edge after saying it's on deck for about 2 years.

 

Bechuga, I think I'll hit up your book after this. I'm convinced that it'll be pretty good based on the negative amazon reviews.

I dunno...it is kinda boring lol. Don't expect any explosions... The reviews are weird: one marks it down for being confusing, another marks it down for being too light. Which one is it, then? Do I make my next book complex or simpler? Who knows... And that five star review is bullshit too: I did no research whatsoever. It was written ignorant of fact checking.

 

Serious though, thanks for getting it and hope you enjoy it. I usually start to hate things I've made soon after I've made them, but I'm still fond of that book. Not perfect (90-95% imo), but content.

 

On my own kindle, I've finished Timequake and I'm moving onto a biggie: Infinite Jest. Even in digital form it weighs a tonne. Wish me luck!

  On 6/5/2015 at 9:30 PM, Bechuga said:

I dunno...it is kinda boring lol. Don't expect any explosions... The reviews are weird: one marks it down for being confusing, another marks it down for being too light. Which one is it, then? Do I make my next book complex or simpler? Who knows... And that five star review is bullshit too: I did no research whatsoever. It was written ignorant of fact checking.

 

Serious though, thanks for getting it and hope you enjoy it. I usually start to hate things I've made soon after I've made them, but I'm still fond of that book. Not perfect (90-95% imo), but content.

 

On my own kindle, I've finished Timequake and I'm moving onto a biggie: Infinite Jest. Even in digital form it weighs a tonne. Wish me luck!

 

 

BUT I WANT EXPLOSION

 

What kind of kindle do you have? If you have a touch kindle of some sort, Infinite Jest is made for it. I started with a standard thick trade paperback but after 100 pages I went ahead and kindled it, for even my manliest of wrists had grown tired. But on the kindle quickly hopping to the endnotes and back with a dainty and precise fondle felt so right.

Edited June 6, 2015 by baph

  On 6/6/2015 at 2:33 AM, baph said:

 

  On 6/5/2015 at 9:30 PM, Bechuga said:

I dunno...it is kinda boring lol. Don't expect any explosions... The reviews are weird: one marks it down for being confusing, another marks it down for being too light. Which one is it, then? Do I make my next book complex or simpler? Who knows... And that five star review is bullshit too: I did no research whatsoever. It was written ignorant of fact checking.

 

Serious though, thanks for getting it and hope you enjoy it. I usually start to hate things I've made soon after I've made them, but I'm still fond of that book. Not perfect (90-95% imo), but content.

 

On my own kindle, I've finished Timequake and I'm moving onto a biggie: Infinite Jest. Even in digital form it weighs a tonne. Wish me luck!

 

 

BUT I WANT EXPLOSION

 

What kind of kindle do you have? If you have a touch kindle of some sort, Infinite Jest is made for it. I started with a standard thick trade paperback but after 100 pages I went ahead and kindled it, for even my manliest of wrists had grown tired. But on the kindle quickly hopping to the endnotes and back with a dainty and precise fondle felt so right.

 

 

Yeah, I have a touch, and while it sort of works, it doesn't quite send me back to the right page. Not that I can't deal with that. Certainly better than lugging the book around.

  On 6/6/2015 at 3:47 AM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 6/6/2015 at 2:33 AM, baph said:

 

  On 6/5/2015 at 9:30 PM, Bechuga said:

I dunno...it is kinda boring lol. Don't expect any explosions... The reviews are weird: one marks it down for being confusing, another marks it down for being too light. Which one is it, then? Do I make my next book complex or simpler? Who knows... And that five star review is bullshit too: I did no research whatsoever. It was written ignorant of fact checking.

 

Serious though, thanks for getting it and hope you enjoy it. I usually start to hate things I've made soon after I've made them, but I'm still fond of that book. Not perfect (90-95% imo), but content.

 

On my own kindle, I've finished Timequake and I'm moving onto a biggie: Infinite Jest. Even in digital form it weighs a tonne. Wish me luck!

 

 

BUT I WANT EXPLOSION

 

What kind of kindle do you have? If you have a touch kindle of some sort, Infinite Jest is made for it. I started with a standard thick trade paperback but after 100 pages I went ahead and kindled it, for even my manliest of wrists had grown tired. But on the kindle quickly hopping to the endnotes and back with a dainty and precise fondle felt so right.

 

 

Yeah, I have a touch, and while it sort of works, it doesn't quite send me back to the right page. Not that I can't deal with that. Certainly better than lugging the book around.

 

 

Oh yeah, I sort of remember that being disconcerting on mine for a while (also a first gen kindle touch)-- what it would do (IIRC?) is return you to a new page, with the first word at the top of the page being the word immediately following the endnote link. Then if you get confused and page back in the main text, the formatting/page breaking reverts to how it initially was (or does it? foggy on that point).

Edited June 6, 2015 by baph

  On 6/5/2015 at 12:29 AM, th555 said:

I just finished The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Pretty cool.

 

But I came here to ask: what Lovecraft should I start with?

Pickman's Model is a great, quick introduction. The Colour Out of Space is great; Shadow Out of Time and Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family are personal favorites.

 

Those are more middle of the road selections...if you're interested in his dreamier stuff, or the more hardcore weird/horror, say and I can make some suggestions there as well. :)

 

Sent using magic space waves

  On 6/6/2015 at 3:54 AM, baph said:

  On 6/6/2015 at 3:47 AM, Bechuga said:

 

 

 

Yeah, I have a touch, and while it sort of works, it doesn't quite send me back to the right page. Not that I can't deal with that. Certainly better than lugging the book around.

 

 

Oh yeah, I sort of remember that being disconcerting on mine for a while (also a first gen kindle touch)-- what it would do (IIRC?) is return you to a new page, with the first word at the top of the page being the word immediately following the endnote link. Then if you get confused and page back in the main text, the formatting/page breaking reverts to how it initially was (or does it? foggy on that point).

 

 

That might be the case, will look carefully at the first word before the end note and see if that's what it does.

 

Technology is a marvellous thing, eh?

http://monoskop.org/images/c/cc/Raaijmakers_Dick_Cahier_M_A_Brief_Morphology_of_Electric_Sound.pdf

  On 6/6/2015 at 4:56 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 6/5/2015 at 12:29 AM, th555 said:

I just finished The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Pretty cool.

 

But I came here to ask: what Lovecraft should I start with?

Pickman's Model is a great, quick introduction. The Colour Out of Space is great; Shadow Out of Time and Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family are personal favorites.

 

Those are more middle of the road selections...if you're interested in his dreamier stuff, or the more hardcore weird/horror, say and I can make some suggestions there as well. :)

 

Sent using magic space waves

 

Thanks, I'll check those out.

  On 6/3/2015 at 10:58 AM, poblequadrat said:

 

  On 6/3/2015 at 1:21 AM, jellyrajah said:

 

  On 6/2/2015 at 10:18 PM, poblequadrat said:

how to draw manga vol 1

it's probably the most useful in the whole series

are you planning on drawing a manga?

 

I'd like to read it if that's the case

 

 

Yeah! I've got a script for the first 15 pages or so and am working on the storyboard right now. It's about a delivery girl that ends up delivering documents and stuff for someone who is trying to force the way the town they live in is going to be redeveloped, but the delivery girl doesn't really know so it's basically an excuse to draw people on bicycles and elaborate backgrounds. And to go out on field trips and not feel like I should be doing something else lol. I wanted to do something like Taniguchi's Aruku Hito but less contemplative and less boring and "younger" and with something resembling an actual plot if only vaguely, if that makes any sense.

 

It's gonna suck because my drawing skills are rather pants but I'll post it when I'm done! Thanks! : D

 

 

Sounds like it could be pretty good

Was right in the middle of reading (and quite enjoying)

 

PKD - The Man in the High Castle

Radical Cities: Across Latin America in Search of a New Architecture

David Graeber - Debt: the first 5000 years

 

when..

 

My kindle 3's screen broke while on vacation

 

Anyone like to recommend an e-reader that does pdf / ebooks well? Currently trolling craigslist for another e-ink kindle, i like their screen and longer battery life rather than going the tablet / lcd screen route.

Finished American Psycho recently. Some of the passages of him killed the girls were fucking grusome. I felt really awkward reading through them at work (skull fucking dead girl's heads after he cut out their tongues. Ooooohhh boyy). Nearly as awkward as reading about little boys fucking each other in William Burroughs' The Place Of Dead Roads whilst surrounded by my colleagues. Thank god nobody decided to read over my shoulder.

 

Moved on to To Have And Have Not by Hemmingway.

Edited June 13, 2015 by QQQ

I finished From Hell by Alan Moore a few hours ago. I enjoyed it, but like with all Alan Moore books I read I found myself over analysing everything on my first read and as a result finding it difficult to just let the story flow. I'll probably analyse it twice as much on my second read.

 

Starting Post Office next to let my brain relax a bit.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Twelvetrees

I've been kind of in between books at the moment. I started reading Remembrance of Things Past, but realized that it should be read in its original language. So I've been improving my French vocabulary by working through a bit of Le Comte de Monte Cristo. Most recently, I acquired a few old books (an 1880 collection of William Cowper's poems, an 1895 copy of Vicar of Wakefield, and an original 1925 copy of Tree of the Folkungs), so I'm not really sure what to read now.

 

The most recent books I finished are The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved on a personal level, and Dubliners, which I enjoyed though not extremely so.

  On 6/13/2015 at 7:50 PM, Marked x 0ne said:

PKD - The Man in the High Castle

How is it? I thought about reading it, but was kind of cautious about getting too interested as books like that have a tendency to be very biased or otherwise inaccurate. The Second World War is a subject that I try to avoid for those reasons. It's a subject filled with a lot of opinions.

Like nazis being bad?

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:44 AM, baph said:

Like nazis being bad?

Pretty much, yeah. Historians like to write about that war by just saying "the Germans were bad." Nobody seems to want to write an objective history of the Third Reich without either focusing on the Holocaust or, conversely, glorifying everything the National Socialists and Hitler did. All I want is to read a book about the political system of the Third Reich and how it functioned, but nobody wants to do that, it's just a battle of stupid opinions that I don't care about and don't want to read. So I'm just going to wait a few decades for the rest of the dust to settle before I try to do research on it.

Edited June 14, 2015 by drillkicker

I just started PKDs VALIS trilogy, curious to see how trippy it's gonna get.

 

Sent using magic space waves

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:54 AM, drillkicker said:

 

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:44 AM, baph said:

Like nazis being bad?

Pretty much, yeah. Historians like to write about that war by just saying "the Germans were bad." Nobody seems to want to write an objective history of the Third Reich without either focusing on the Holocaust or, conversely, glorifying everything the National Socialists and Hitler did. All I want is to read a book about the political system of the Third Reich and how it functioned, but nobody wants to do that, it's just a battle of stupid opinions that I don't care about and don't want to read. So I'm just going to wait a few decades for the rest of the dust to settle before I try to do research on it.

 

There ARE books from objective viewpoints, such as Rise and Fall of the Third Reichand more books by William Shirer, among a few others I can't name right now. My grandad was in the war, hated the Nazis, but he himself wished to know what made his enemies tick and read a good few books on the subject, interested in the reality of their system than propaganda. He even read Mein Kampf, liking parts of it but finding it overlong by a third. If I can remember other names, I'll come back to you. Have not read them myself so I cannot say whether they're objective enough.

 

Also--I'm not intending to start a debate, even if it sounds like it--but if you're waiting for a book / series to appear about the Third Reich without mention of the Final Solution, you may well be waiting a long time. That'd be like wanting to read a book about Elvis that doesn't mention music.

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:07 PM, Bechuga said:

 

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:54 AM, drillkicker said:

 

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:44 AM, baph said:

Like nazis being bad?

Pretty much, yeah. Historians like to write about that war by just saying "the Germans were bad." Nobody seems to want to write an objective history of the Third Reich without either focusing on the Holocaust or, conversely, glorifying everything the National Socialists and Hitler did. All I want is to read a book about the political system of the Third Reich and how it functioned, but nobody wants to do that, it's just a battle of stupid opinions that I don't care about and don't want to read. So I'm just going to wait a few decades for the rest of the dust to settle before I try to do research on it.

 

There ARE books from objective viewpoints, such as Rise and Fall of the Third Reichand more books by William Shirer, among a few others I can't name right now. My grandad was in the war, hated the Nazis, but he himself wished to know what made his enemies tick and read a good few books on the subject, interested in the reality of their system than propaganda. He even read Mein Kampf, liking parts of it but finding it overlong by a third. If I can remember other names, I'll come back to you. Have not read them myself so I cannot say whether they're objective enough.

 

Also--I'm not intending to start a debate, even if it sounds like it--but if you're waiting for a book / series to appear about the Third Reich without mention of the Final Solution, you may well be waiting a long time. That'd be like wanting to read a book about Elvis that doesn't mention music.

 

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich seems pretty contraversial. Although I don't suppose it's possible to write about that period of history without contraversy from some group of people. All I was really looking for is something that explains the political system of the Third Reich: how it functioned, how it was managed, how the resources and logistics of the war were carried out, the philosophy of the party, etc. I couldn't find any books that focus on that aspect of the country. Most of them are just about the Holocaust and the war, or how the goverment of the Allied powers functioned. If the book you recommended goes into detail about the topics that interest me, then I'll definitely look into reading it.

 

The Man In the High Castle interested me for these reasons.

The Man in the High Castle was the first PKD book I read without even knowing who PKD was, and as with many of his books, the alternative history thing is mostly the background for the trippy story of the characters more than the main focus of the book. So if you're looking for plausibly accurate historical fiction, this isn't the book for it

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2015 by ThatSpanishGuy

finished this, was wicked:

http://www.zero-books.net/books/Creepiness

recomend all his books

 

finishing off earthsea book 4, absolutely delightful!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthsea

 

might read this after

http://www.versobooks.com/books/1901-the-happiness-industry

Computer Crimes and Capers by Isaac Asimov

  On 6/14/2015 at 2:24 AM, drillkicker said:

 

The most recent books I finished are The Brothers Karamazov, which I loved on a personal level

 

Man this one was so good. Have you ever read Dead Souls by Gogol?