What are you reading right now?

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

I watched the show they made for this without reading the book and it all seems very bullshit and very over-dramatized, is it just a bad adaptation?

I've never watched the show, so I can't say how much is different from the book. In addition to that, I'm not sure how much of the book is genuine to be begin with (it was written by a journalist after all). When I said it was good, I meant it was good in a story telling aspect. It was entertaining. Beyond that, its accuracy to the nature of journalism, prostitution, crime, law enforcement and general life in Japan is frankly, beyond me. I don't know much about Japan.

Since I did this once, I'll do it again because I have nothing better to do: here is my 2022 reading/audiobook (mostly the latter) list. I am honestly displeased with it being quite heavy with autism in my mind. Still, completing almost one a week is a nice rate to have maintained.

The more I think about it the more I'm judging myself.

I hope black library sent you a Christmas card.

Thread Tax: Fire Time by Poul Anderson


Not great, not terrible. Fire time is a decent read. A time killer if nothing else.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

When I said it was good, I meant it was good in a story telling aspect. It was entertaining.

I am actually reading it right now on epub. Definitely better than the show but still a bit funny sometimes. Like the part where a drunk senior just casually tells him "these are the 8 rules of journalism" and explains each one. I am thinking , come on now Edelstein, this wasn't a real convo, this is literary exposition.

 

[WhiskeyZuluLima]

I guess having a graphic like this is nice in principle, but why bother going to the effort? Just write a list.

Just a special needs thing for me, I guess, plus it also fills the time I have between jobs at the moment - I don't have a good rationalisation.

I hope black library sent you a Christmas card.

I also have another autistic habit, not just the amount of WH40k, I keep a spreadsheet to mock my own excessive audible library and the immense concentration of Black Library works. It's not great. Below you'll see the current numbers, it's not a great look.

Why I maintain this I don't know, and why I just piss away money like this I also don't know, guess I'm just a bit of a sped.

 

[glass_houses]

Just a special needs thing for me, I guess, plus it also fills the time I have between jobs at the moment - I don't have a good rationalisation.


I also have another autistic habit, not just the amount of WH40k, I keep a spreadsheet to mock my own excessive audible library and the immense concentration of Black Library works. It's not great. Below you'll see the current numbers, it's not a great look.
View attachment 4197842
Why I maintain this I don't know, and why I just piss away money like this I also don't know, guess I'm just a bit of a sped.

I respect your spreadsheet. I appreciate statistics in general and like going into too much detail for pretty much everything, so your record keeping is very admirable to my way of thinking. Every time I try to keep a record of what I'm reading I get bored or distracted, and I wish I had your ability to focus. Especially given that I have issues with my memory.

It's much easier for me to take information from text compared to pictures, so your collage is somewhat difficult for me to read. But if it works for you, carry on my dude.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I keep my own Excel spreadsheet of reading (and of a million other things), and an Access database of my library (for the actual useful purpose of tracking my physical books). It went back to a few years ago when I started getting serious about journaling and improving my time - self-cultivation is what I call it, going along with my outdoors/exercise/sports activities and my musical instruments - with more productive hobbies (reading is debatable, but it feels like it has more merit than gaming).

It's kind of gotten to be an obsession/problem, because I've gotten more into a mindset of hitting reading goals (which incentivizes shorter books and reading past the point of value) and I usually do my self-cultivation first thing, to the point where it crowds out other stuff. But it was definitely worth becoming a reader again. But, I managed to get my all-time average up to 5 books this past month (or 180 books total over the past three years), 2/3rds of it nonfiction (mostly history, I like to read a three-book rotation spread out in topics) and 1/3rd fiction (mostly historical, recently more science fiction). About half of them, I think, were very good.

Just a special needs thing for me, I guess, plus it also fills the time I have between jobs at the moment - I don't have a good rationalisation.


I also have another autistic habit, not just the amount of WH40k, I keep a spreadsheet to mock my own excessive audible library and the immense concentration of Black Library works. It's not great. Below you'll see the current numbers, it's not a great look.
View attachment 4197842
Why I maintain this I don't know, and why I just piss away money like this I also don't know, guess I'm just a bit of a sped.

I average $28.67 a month on books. A lot of them I can get from university libraries/online libraries, but the books that turn up on those tend to be dry academic piss.

Part of my reading motivation was one day when I was looking at my huge stack of books and realizing what a poser douche I'd look like if a guest saw it, because I hadn't read any of it. I just had this huge library built up from professors giving their libraries away for free, a neighbor giving hers for free, and special sales. It had accumulated considerably, at least 200. I set a goal of clearing out the whole library. Along the way I shifted out of reading that library and into reading stuff I wanted to read.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

Recently finished "Battle Royale" and I couldn't say I enjoyed it. Kids are retards(duh) plot twists are not so clever if you think about it. And Terminator-esque main antagonist was really cringe. No shit it could easily be translated into manga.

Now reading Alien's novelization. I'm expecting a director's-cut/screenwriter-cut extended version of the book.

Edit: retarded grammar

 

[Astro Loafo]

Just finished reading Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke.

I am not an avid reader. But this book gives me real discord groomer vibes. If you've ever been stupid enough to go to the darkest diaper ridden places. This book kinda captures it. The stupidity of both the groomer and groomed. The cancerous tumor the LGBT tries to hide from the public. While stating itself as a horror book. It's more gross than horror. Very gross. And while one could simply dismiss this as a fantasy. There was nothing fantasy about final fantasy house. And the disgusting putridness of these online freaks is really captured. Well I would think so. Full of delusion, desperation, and shit. A lot of shit. I do also like how some lines repeat themselves in your head. Almost like ptsd. Now this book isn't the best thing in the world. I only chose it because I was bored and decided hey I'll read something today. What's a good short horror book that I haven't heard of? And then the lines popped up, what have you done today to deserve your eyes? 👁 👁

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

The cancerous tumor the LGBT tries to hide from the public. While stating itself as a horror book. It's more gross than horror. Very gross.

A candidate for the fucked up books thread.

 

[Gnomes aren't real]

Reading McCarthy's The Passenger and

Spoiler

a tr0on shows up.

But I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

 

[Jyuu]

View attachment 4233784
Reading McCarthy's The Passenger and

Spoiler

a tr0on shows up.

But I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

I was thinking about reading some McCarthy. Is Blood Meridian worth picking up?

 

[Varsha Nagini]

I just finished reading No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and I've been mopey since, it's not a book I recommend as a definitive 'you need to read this' sort of thing, and I emotionally feel a little worse having read it, but I think it speaks to the overall quality and powerfulness of this self-insert lifestory from Osamu that it's worth it if you're ready to not experience joy for a while.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Finished The Iliad, working on The Odyssey. The Iliad was a fun read, Odyssey is pretty good so far.

 

[Mine is the Fury]

Just finished Matter by Iain M Banks. I really adore The Culture series of books and it's pains me to know that there won't be any more. Now on to The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu. I've heard it takes a while to get going, which is what I expected after finishing Three Body Problem. Hopefully my attention span lasts long enough.

Spoiler: Covers

 

[TexNash]

 

[Commander X]

From the wide world of reprints, two books originally published back in the 60s by Richard Wormser, Princeton man and author who contributed 17 entries in the pulp-era Nick Carter detective series, as well as several Westerns under the alias Ed Friend. Wormser also wrote two paperback originals for Fawcett featuring California police detective Lt. Andy Bastian. The first. Drive East on 66 .is a road-trip mystery, as Bastian is offered a thousand dollars to drive an industrialist's troubled teenage son to an asylum in Kansas. It's not stated what the kid's problem is but it may be some form of autism, as he's highly intelligent but prone to unexpected outbursts. Accompanying them on this trip is Olga, a psychiatry major hired as the kid's caretaker. She's trying to be a professional about this unusual assignment, and Bastian is the seasoned pro with a sense of humor. All seems routine, except for the maroon Buick that seems to be tailing them. Is it just an observer hired by the boy's father or are there people who don't want the kid to be delivered to his destination alive?

The second, A Nice Girl Like You, has Bastian investigating the assault on a teenage girl in his suburban community of Naranjo Vista, CA, a "three year old subdivision" that's home to a lot of the eggheads who work at local defense contractors. The search for the offender leads to Bastian's best friend, who has no alibi. Both books were reprinted via Endeavor Press in both paperback and e-Book format.

 

[Meat Target]

I got Between Two Fires for Christmas, but haven't started it yet.

Currently on Flight of the Eisenstein and Stanley Bing's corporate satire What Would Machiavelli Do?

 

[Gnomes aren't real]

I was thinking about reading some McCarthy. Is Blood Meridian worth picking up?

Absolutely. McCarthy is one of the best. Believe that.

 

[WolfeTone]

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

Just finished Matter by Iain M Banks. I really adore The Culture series of books and it's pains me to know that there won't be any more.

I've only read The Wasp Factory by Banks, is his sci-fi at all similar?

 

[Wampak]

Rig Warrior. Hoping it will live up to this cover.

I read a Johnstone horror novel awhile back, Rockinghorse, and holy shit it was bad. Like, "I can't believe an actual publisher let this out the door" bad. But it made up for it with how absolutely batshit insane it was. So far Rig Warrior is a lot more well-written (not really an achievement), but it's also a blatantly pandering power fantasy for older men with bad love lives who really want to beat up minorities.