Now Reading

RIP Ursula K Le Guin

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/23/ursula-k-le-guin-sci-fi-fantasy-author-dies-at-88

nice little short story of hers I just read:

 

http://interconnected.org/home/more/2007/03/acacia-seeds.html

currently;

 

Pliny the Elder; Natural History Selections

 

Pliny the younger; letters of

 

Ovid, art of love

Alastair Reynolds - Elysium Fire.

 

only just stared it l, but so far it’s a great follow up to The Prefect spin-off within the Revelation Space series.

 

I hope Reynolds pulls his finger out his arse and writes more within the Revelation Space series. All his recent books have been really quite tame and slow going :(

  On 1/4/2018 at 9:07 PM, misc said:

I'm about 100 pages into Dhalgren after seeing a recommendation in this thread a while back. It's good! Some bits are a bit cringey but really enjoying the mystery of the whole thing.

 

This fuckin book.

 

Finished it about a week ago and not been able to get it out of my head. I really wasn't sold on it for maybe about 200 pages, but then suddenly I was completely hooked. Could not stop thinking about it. I have so many questions, and I'm sure none of them really have answers, but I don't remember the last time I was this wrapped up in a world created by a book. The mystery is so delicately woven throughout the pages that it becomes so difficult to distinguish what is important and what's not. Makes it feel like even the minutest detail is somehow relevant to unlocking what's going on. Also the sense of time is done so well. It's a long book of course, but it does such a great job of making you feel like you've been in bellona for a long long time. So many great characters as well. Honestly I can't recommend this book enough.

 

Anyone who's read it got any recommendations for similar sci-fi?

Finished Sourdough by Robin Sloan and I really enjoyed it. Kinda reminded me of a lighthearted Thomas Pynchon: mysterious people who may or may not be real, technology used for good and bad ends, a bunch of dudes saying dude...and a main plot about how to make sourdough. Oh, and a finale that is bizarre but, considering the rest of the story, realistic. And kinda terrifying, too.

 

Beware: makes you want to eat sourdough.

the australian economist richard denniss' level-headed, if somewhat dry & fluffy, take on how 2 fix the socio-economic, political f. up thats destroying ourselves & the planet.  

a user friendly, beginners guide 4 those of us willing 2 change.  clear & sober, he nudges his dear readers 2 use the facts at their disposal & encourages a common sense approach 2 affect cultural change, which will, in turn (he asserts) drive political & economic change.

no mention of guillotining bankers / 10

 

both wild & insightful, this is a unique, hard boiled cabin(fever) in the woods extended rant by the infamous hideaway & brainiac killer who blames technology for all our ills.

it offers a pertinent critique of  ‘industrial technological society’, its ‘power process’ & subsequent impact upon the human species.

however, his advocacy of a non-leftist, nature loving luddite revolution 2 destroy this system, w/o mention of replacing it w. anything is completely untenable & ludicrous.

no mention of kindness / 10

anyone read any big, decent, high fantasy recently? the last i read was the 10 books of the malazan book of the fallen, about 2 years ago. it was great in some regards, but the way he kept on introducing interesting storylines throughout a novel, then completely abandoning them in the next was kind of frustrating. great world building though. 

currently reading the death gate cycle.. is a real blast

Almost done with Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman.  It's quite good.

 

Just finished reading this novella. One of those amazingly brilliant concepts with an unsatisfying execution: Surrealist artworks come to life in Nazi-occupied Paris. Due to it being so reference-heavy, it would have made a better comic book or video game. Also, the graphic designer in me has problems with the mental imagery of distinct/clashing art styles coming to life and interacting on the same plane. His work is usually high concept and interesting (I recommend The City and The City & Embassytown). This one felt like pure plot. Slightly disappointed. 

Edited February 8, 2018 by gnarlybog

IQ84 for the second time, brings me right back to the time around when I first read it, brings me to cosy slow everyday Tokyo suburbs. The zelkova trees, the flurorescent lamp by the playground, surprisingly non Japanese meals/music. Organised and stayin on top of things by not procrastinating, secure but monotonous incubated life. Books with the ability to transport are good, this book is a good one. 

  On 2/7/2018 at 1:43 PM, messiaen said:

anyone read any big, decent, high fantasy recently? the last i read was the 10 books of the malazan book of the fallen, about 2 years ago. it was great in some regards, but the way he kept on introducing interesting storylines throughout a novel, then completely abandoning them in the next was kind of frustrating. great world building though. 

 

Alan Moore's Jerusalem is a huge slab of fantasy / surreal storytelling. He literally leaves nothing out, and is definitely a book you can lost in. He makes the idea of Eternalism very enticing.

 

As for pure fantasy, no idea. I hate elves and things with furry feet. [/troll]

  On 2/7/2018 at 3:16 PM, MIXL2 said:

currently reading the death gate cycle.. is a real blast

just finished it, is my second time reading it and I can't recommend it enough... truly breathtaking world and character building.. if you like fantasy this is up there with the best (to me soaring high above)

 

edit:

  On 2/7/2018 at 1:43 PM, messiaen said:

anyone read any big, decent, high fantasy recently? the last i read was the 10 books of the malazan book of the fallen, about 2 years ago. it was great in some regards, but the way he kept on introducing interesting storylines throughout a novel, then completely abandoning them in the next was kind of frustrating. great world building though.

quoted u for the recommendation is 7 books, by weis & hickman (who wrote dragonlance) Edited February 11, 2018 by MIXL2

  On 2/8/2018 at 7:34 PM, gnarlybog said:

 

Just finished reading this novella. One of those amazingly brilliant concepts with an unsatisfying execution: Surrealist artworks come to life in Nazi-occupied Paris. Due to it being so reference-heavy, it would have made a better comic book or video game. Also, the graphic designer in me has problems with the mental imagery of distinct/clashing art styles coming to life and interacting on the same plane. His work is usually high concept and interesting (I recommend The City and The City & Embassytown). This one felt like pure plot. Slightly disappointed. 

china meiveille is great, although i made the mistake of picking up Un Lun Dun without researching it and was disappointed to find a teenage other world novel i would have probably loved when i was 13, but not any more. embassytown was a nice premise, and i enjoyed his New Crobozun set aswell. you can find a bunch of china meiville words as my techno track titles. 

recent reads:

 

Nip the buds, shoot the kids (Oe)

Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut)

Americana (DeLillo)

Imperial Bedrooms (BEE)

A Clockwork Orange (Burgess)

 

worst to best:

 

Imperial Bedrooms - Americana - Cat's Cradle - Nip the buds - A Clockwork Orange

 

Imperial Bedrooms was really... not great. he's so hit and miss.

 

Americana was wrote well but the 3 parts are so incredibly different tonally it really doesn't mesh. it was at least 150 pages too long, too.

 

Cat's Cradle is too inoffensive and bland to be great, though it was good enough.

 

Nip the buds was good, though the writing is repetitive and somewhat childish. it is narrated by a child, so I'm not sure how intensional this is. if intensional it works well. he was young as fuck when he wrote it, so i'm not sure.

 

A Clockwork Orange is fantastic. going to rewatch the film later.

Edited February 13, 2018 by QQQ

Kubrick was right to lose the final chapter though.

 

Page break! This was referring to Clockwork Orange.

Edited February 13, 2018 by tec

wooterin heights

 

thank god emily bronte only tried to write one character with an accent, otherwise this thing would be completely incomprehensible

Finished Barkers Books of Blood volume 4 to 6, excellent (but not as excellent as volumes 1 to 3)

 

One third of the way through Helter Skelter (Bugliosi). I'm struggling a little with the sheer amount of characters involved especially when I've put the book down for a number of days and start up again its a bit tricky. I've always been fascinated with the Manson Family and cults in general so it's a book I'm not going to be disappointed with.

The Universal Baseball Association by Robert Coover was a really good book. Just the right amount of metafiction and still had an enjoyable story. And I completely relate to a character who spends most of the working day daydreaming about other things and being distracted.

and Labour wonder where it all went wrong, read for a dare, fucker better pay up

 

 

 

Metaphors We Live By..cog. science classic

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34459.Metaphors_We_Live_By

Edited March 2, 2018 by iococoi

are you kidding, who even reads anymore

https://www.xlr8r.com/features/2018/01/real-talk-mark-fell/

I love challenging books (Boulgakov’s « The Master and Margarita » might certainly be my very favorite one). Last year I finally completed reading Salman Rushdie’s « Satanic verses » : dense, intense, complex, delirious, shape-shifting, intricate, cleverly executed and incredibly well written.

 

But it feels almost easy to grasp compared to what I’m currently re ding. I’m 300 pages into Joyce’s « Ulysses » and it’s a fascinating read so far. I’m not sure I always understand what I read (I’m pretty sure Most the time I don’t, ha!) but it’s an incredible experience nevertheless. I loved « Portrait of the Artist as a young man » when I read it years ago, Joyce’s style is unique and lush af, certainly the writer I love the sheer style the most... bit damn it can be demanding!

And it feels like « Ulysses » is his elseq or Twin Peaks s03 ^^