Now Reading

  On 5/16/2020 at 12:48 AM, Bob Dylan said:

Read the entire Walking Dead comics, all 193 issues.  Good stuff in these days...

The full run of the series is currently available in digital from Humble Bundle for 16,5 €/$18, four days left to get them

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

It's really hilarious in a cynical way and I love it, weird how humor is so immune to time

  On 6/2/2020 at 6:00 AM, willochill said:

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

It's really hilarious in a cynical way and I love it, weird how humor is so immune to time

Dead souls is, indeed, hilarious.

Bernd Ladwig: Politische Philosophie der Tierrechte (political philosophy of animal rights)

A rather academic read

  On 6/9/2020 at 2:46 PM, dingformung said:

Bernd Ladwig: Politische Philosophie der Tierrechte (political philosophy of animal rights)

A rather academic read

You turning into some sort of animal rights activist or something?

Oh, I've always been interested in that topic. I find most forms of activism intrusive but I do think that animal rights are an issue. Intensive industrial life stock farming is not only a huge environmental damage but is also immoral in terms of animal cruelty and that on a very large scale and I'm interested to hear a sober voice on the political and moral philosophical implications of this issue instead of some highly emotionalised animal rights activist. Therefore I'm reading this book

That kebab though 

Ah, I see. Yes, I agree with you. Intensive livestock farming is horrible. It’s just that I stick to buying organic meat for now, not yet ready to start reading seriously heavy political philosophy about it.

finished:

now reading:

grabbed a small box full these hauntology approved ladybird key word books. 

XX by Rian Hughes

Fantasic postmodern sci-fi. Loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51075314-xx

that's so saposexual 

  On 10/18/2020 at 6:58 PM, dingformung said:

that's so saposexual 

I find your vocabulary very enticing!

current books on the go:

1. The Illiad (Chapman translation): re-reading this as part of my process of more thoroughly exploring ancient greek shit. Next upis Chapman's version of the Odyssey, which actually i don't think i've read that version of.  always forget just how violent this shit is, jfc

2. Being & Event (re-read, English version). This shit makes way more sense than it did last year, perhaps in part because I read a bunch of set theory stuff in between. really great book imo. Gonna read some supplementary material after this & then probably re-read Deleuze

3. The Three Musketeers in the original french. Good god this book is as beefy as the dude who wrote it. But yah I've been working on improving my french so I've been reading a lot of the classic fiction. I've also got some french philosophy in the original language (Bergson mostly) but i dunno when i'll be ready for that

4. Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi. Almost done. It's kinda hilarious how pretty much every few pages the translator adds a footnote basically saying "yeah even by the standards of ppl who take magic seriously this bit is just Levi talkin out the left side of his ass"

5. Endnotes volume 3. Been reading through these for a podcast. As far as communist lit goes next up is probably Capital volume 3 (already read the first two) or the quotations of chairman mao

1. the odyssey (Chapman): I appreciate how there's more variety in this one beyond just "the gods argued somemore, and then the mediterranian dudes killed each other some more". after this i'll probably be doing fables or aesop, although i hear there is a recent translation of the iliad which is apparently the first major translation of it by a woman? kinda curious to check that out

2. Mathematics of the Transcendental. Holy fuck Badiou we get it you like math

3. l'oeuvre d'art a l'epoque de sa reproductibilite technique. also read some bataille & adorno essays in french. for some reason i'm finding this much easier to get through than dumas

4. capital volume 3. joking aside though why does every book from the 1800s contain a large cardinal  number of pages

5. endnotes sitll, almost done with volume 3 now

Didier Daeninckx - Meutres pour Mémoire (1984)

  On 9/28/2020 at 6:20 PM, Extralife said:

XX by Rian Hughes

 

Fantasic postmodern sci-fi. Loved it.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51075314-xx

Tell me more, might be right up my alley :) 

About to finish War and Peace.

I just blasted through the first two books of Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem trilogy. Damn... mind-bending sci-fi. Strong recommendation.

  On 11/11/2020 at 3:20 PM, gnarlybog said:

I just blasted through the first two books of Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem trilogy. Damn... mind-bending sci-fi. Strong recommendation.

Dude hell yeah.  What did you think of The Dark Forest?  I went through all three of them this past Summer....as good as you think the second one is, the third one is even better.  I've possibly never read a better science fiction book in my life.  You're in for a treat.

That is awesome to hear! Loved the first one... was not prepared for it to go so psychedelic and technical towards the end.
The Dark Forest was incredible, although at times it felt like a bunch of cool ideas strung together. I think the english translation did not flow as well as the previous book. With that said, I read the last 200 pages or so in one sitting, haha. Looking forward to the third.

  On 11/12/2020 at 10:45 AM, gnarlybog said:

That is awesome to hear! Loved the first one... was not prepared for it to go so psychedelic and technical towards the end.
The Dark Forest was incredible, although at times it felt like a bunch of cool ideas strung together. I think the english translation did not flow as well as the previous book. With that said, I read the last 200 pages or so in one sitting, haha. Looking forward to the third.

Are the English translations good in general? I tried to read the German version when the first volume came out, but couldn't get into it. I suspect it might have been the translation; maybe I could give the English one a shot.

(I know it's hard to judge how faithful they are to the Chinese original; I guess what I'm asking is just if they're a good read.)

  On 11/11/2020 at 2:30 PM, Nil said:

Tell me more, might be right up my alley 

About to finish War and Peace.

It's really great if you are into reading postmodern novels a la House of Leaves.  Lot of changes in style, huge focus on typefaces and design, and heavy into the sci-fi.  Started very slow, but once it picked up steam I couldn't put it down.  Has sort of a pulp novel within a novel and a soundtrack written by Strictly Kev/DJ Food.  Hits all the right boxes for me

  On 11/11/2020 at 3:20 PM, gnarlybog said:

I just blasted through the first two books of Liu Cixin's The Three Body Problem trilogy. Damn... mind-bending sci-fi. Strong recommendation.

I read the first book and liked it, but it didn’t blow me away. Honestly was more into the descriptions of the Cultural Revolution era than “the Three Body Problem” itself. 
 

It’s supposedly being adapted into a Netflix series.

  On 11/12/2020 at 11:34 PM, Extralife said:

I read the first book and liked it, but it didn’t blow me away. Honestly was more into the descriptions of the Cultural Revolution era than “the Three Body Problem” itself. 
 

It’s supposedly being adapted into a Netflix series.

It gets way better, more cosmic and hell of a lot bleaker in the sequels.