Now Reading

Finally gotten around to reading a book by Italo Calvino (If on a Winter's Night a Traveler). I'm enjoying it but I feel like I probably could have picked a better book to start with

I've still only read about 3/4s of that, must read it again.

What I had read was great though.

Picked up The Singer's Gun by Emily St John Mandel and Three Moments of an Explosion by China Mieville (Looking for Jake is probably my favorite thing he's done since Perdido/Scar, so). Fresh off my last reread of Wise Man's Fear. Summer is reading weather. Though after these two I should dip into some nonfiction to mix things up.

Where to start with Mieville? Ive read Kraken and one of his short story collections. Bloody hard work though his ghost story set in an Ikea children's play area was pretty deece bra (forum lingo last time i will use it.)

  On 7/7/2017 at 3:43 PM, Echolalia said:

Where to start with Mieville? Ive read Kraken and one of his short story collections. Bloody hard work though his ghost story set in an Ikea children's play area was pretty deece bra (forum lingo last time i will use it.)

Perdido Street Station, no bones about it. Might be intimidating at first as it's rather dense, but it's very rewarding. 

Plus then you can hit the Scar right after (it's set in the same world). 

Been digging into Murakami's 1Q84 lately- a bit slow to start but it's weirdly infectious after a while... I'd recommend for a slow burn.

  On 7/10/2017 at 4:38 PM, Waxlimbs said:

Been digging into Murakami's 1Q84 lately- a bit slow to start but it's weirdly infectious after a while... I'd recommend for a slow burn.

Mild spoilers. Murakami is hit or miss for me. I had trouble finishing the book, I felt the character development was handled very poorly. If a story has no development it can be frustrating, but his handling of Aomame was just strange. The strong person in the first two books just sort of vanishes and it becomes all about Tengo. I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something, though.

  On 7/11/2017 at 6:27 AM, kites said:

 

  On 7/10/2017 at 4:38 PM, Waxlimbs said:

Been digging into Murakami's 1Q84 lately- a bit slow to start but it's weirdly infectious after a while... I'd recommend for a slow burn.

 

Mild spoilers. Murakami is hit or miss for me. I had trouble finishing the book, I felt the character development was handled very poorly. If a story has no development it can be frustrating, but his handling of Aomame was just strange. The strong person in the first two books just sort of vanishes and it becomes all about Tengo. I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something, though.

 

Interesting, I'll have to relay what I thought once I finish it!

I came into this one after reading Norwegian Wood, which I loved so I didn't/don't really know what to expect.

i finished Blood Meridian today. it fully deserves the praise it gets - incredible. i could read about The Kid and Judge Holden forever.

Charles Dickins' Tale of Two Cities. It's long-winded in descriptions as these old novels are but my god could the man plot a plot!

Also just about to finish Being Dead by Jim Crace and it's good. Shout-out to Spiral for the rec.

I read Harvest by Jim Crace and couldn't get into it at all, is his other stuff better? Maybe it's just not to my tastes.

I picked up most of his books (including Harvest) from charity shops but so far only read Being Dead and Quarantine. Enjoyed both of those.

Will read that one next and let you know.

  On 7/11/2017 at 3:43 PM, Waxlimbs said:

 

  On 7/11/2017 at 6:27 AM, kites said:

 

  On 7/10/2017 at 4:38 PM, Waxlimbs said:

Been digging into Murakami's 1Q84 lately- a bit slow to start but it's weirdly infectious after a while... I'd recommend for a slow burn.

 

Mild spoilers. Murakami is hit or miss for me. I had trouble finishing the book, I felt the character development was handled very poorly. If a story has no development it can be frustrating, but his handling of Aomame was just strange. The strong person in the first two books just sort of vanishes and it becomes all about Tengo. I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something, though.

 

Interesting, I'll have to relay what I thought once I finish it!

I came into this one after reading Norwegian Wood, which I loved so I didn't/don't really know what to expect.

 

In Slovenia it was released in two volumes - book 1 & 2 in the first volume and book 3 in the second. As I understand, Murakami wrote the first two books as a finished whole, but then came back to the story because he felt he needed a happy ending. If you ask me, he should've stopped after the second book. As I read the first volume I thought this is the best shizzle ever, it really drew me in. I got the second volume as fast as I could. Big mistake - Murakami really blew it. It was just really boring. A large part of the third book was an uninteresting character finding out stuff that already happend in the first volume. I couldn't even read it all, I skipped over parts. A shame really :(

Currently reading the wise mans fear by patrick rothfuss

name of the wind and this book are quite fun reads, although high levels of neckbeard mlady tip tip from the main character kvothe, also denna is a shit friend and should quit the "manic pixie dream girl lol xD so random" thing she has going on, its cliche as fuck.

fela best girl

  On 7/21/2017 at 4:35 AM, kaen said:

Currently reading the wise mans fear by patrick rothfuss

 

name of the wind and this book are quite fun reads, although high levels of neckbeard mlady tip tip from the main character kvothe, also denna is a shit friend and should quit the "manic pixie dream girl lol xD so random" thing she has going on, its cliche as fuck.

 

fela best girl

yeah really fun breezy reads but the neckbeardy "nice guy" thing just gets worse and worse, esp in wmf

i think at one point he literally says not all men to a girl who was raped constantly for days, lol

jfc

Finished Being Dead, the ending was quite touching. Will definitely try more Crace.

  On 7/19/2017 at 9:33 AM, Dpek said:

 

  On 7/11/2017 at 3:43 PM, Waxlimbs said:

 

  On 7/11/2017 at 6:27 AM, kites said:

 

  On 7/10/2017 at 4:38 PM, Waxlimbs said:

Been digging into Murakami's 1Q84 lately- a bit slow to start but it's weirdly infectious after a while... I'd recommend for a slow burn.

 

Mild spoilers. Murakami is hit or miss for me. I had trouble finishing the book, I felt the character development was handled very poorly. If a story has no development it can be frustrating, but his handling of Aomame was just strange. The strong person in the first two books just sort of vanishes and it becomes all about Tengo. I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed something, though.

 

Interesting, I'll have to relay what I thought once I finish it!
I came into this one after reading Norwegian Wood, which I loved so I didn't/don't really know what to expect.

 

 

In Slovenia it was released in two volumes - book 1 & 2 in the first volume and book 3 in the second. As I understand, Murakami wrote the first two books as a finished whole, but then came back to the story because he felt he needed a happy ending. If you ask me, he should've stopped after the second book. As I read the first volume I thought this is the best shizzle ever, it really drew me in. I got the second volume as fast as I could. Big mistake - Murakami really blew it. It was just really boring. A large part of the third book was an uninteresting character finding out stuff that already happend in the first volume. I couldn't even read it all, I skipped over parts. A shame really :(

 

1q84 was my first Murakami, and I liked it but man it's the worst one to start on lol

I loved every minute of 1q84, was the first thing I read of him too.

re: boring stuff, Red or Dead by David Peace takes that to ridiculous lengths. would try your patience even as a Liverpool fan, but similarly there's a payoff to it as well.

i just finished Brave New World which was pretty boring to be honest. it reads like a lame PKD novel.

shrug.jpg

At work, I finished Cosmopolis by Delillo. Was entertaining, but not overly fond of books where the main character is a prize dong. Some good lines in there made it worth it though (and it's short).

Moving onto: H(a)ppy by Nicola Barker. It looks a little something like this:

At home: reading Phone by Will Self. Just as good as the previous two in this trilogy, Umbrella and Shark. Gonna be sad when it's finished.

looks like the Colundi book

Just found out about Elmo Keep's site, and man is she a goldmine of smart critique of the tech sector's unfortunate tendency toward magical thinking,  ideological  extremism and pseudoscience, from transhumanism, to Mars One to everything Peter Thiel ever said.  Wonderful stuff.

  On 6/4/2017 at 11:22 PM, RSP said:

I've only had time to get a few chapters in to The Box Man but so far it's devastatingly good. Best fiction I've read in years, new or old.

  On 6/5/2017 at 2:43 AM, doublename said:

Kobo Abe is that dude for real

I grabbed The Box Man at the library yesterday on the strength of this recommendation. For some reason I was expecting something more… I dunno, like, Ishmael Reed’s Hocus Pocus-esque, or something—maybe just because of seeing the interspersed news articles & images when I flipped through it. Still, I’m intrigued enough to push on with it, unlike Franzen’s Purity, which I sat and read about a third of before putting it back on the shelf. Boooring.

Recently read:

• Rendezvous With Rama (Clarke) — SF classic. Groovy cover art, too.
• Riddley Walker (Hoban) — One of my favorite SF books of all time. I actually read this twice in a row this time, cover to cover.
• The Weirdstone of Brisingamen & The Moon of Gomrath (Garner) — YA fantasy. Absolutely crammed with wizards, dwarves, goblins, all that good stuff, plus they’ve got some truly frantic, frightening sequences for children’s books. TBH though I only reread these because I’ve misplaced my Taran Wanderer series books (Alexander), which I adored as a kid.
• The Invention of Morel (Casares) — Really good read, though it’s kind of hard to know  whether to attribute its awkwardness to deliberate stylistic choices or naive/outsider artistic status on the author’s part. Weird & cool, & for whatever reason reminded me that I’d like to watch The Lobster again.

Next up: The Death of a Nobody (Romains), Locus Solus (Roussel), & Voice of the Fire (Moore), if I can get my hands on a copy.

Friends suggested I read Jitterbug Perfume. Story's ok but there is way too much flowery blathering, and so much stupid talk about genitals. Seriously WTF. Can safely say I'm not much of a Tom Robbins fan.

thanks to Lewps for recommending powell's books in portland. was finally able to track down this oop book which i've been trying to get for years