What are you reading right now?

[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

Finished that. It was a good read. Characters were more fleshed out. World building on point, with new things not ruining things.

My next one is "Ranks of Bronze", recommended on this forum.

 

[Andrew Neiman]

Reading Melville's "Typee." It's very entertaining.

I'm currently reading "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities" by Michael Shellenberger.

I can't imagine what would possess anyone to pick up a book with a title like that. Glad to hear the content is better than the title would suggest, though.

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.

Presumably you've seen the film -- I think the film does an excellent job of preserving everything excellent about the book and excising its flaws. The fleshing out of the teacher character and the streamlining of the book's thousand-and-one subplots makes it one of the best works of book-to-film adaptation I can think of.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

Presumably you've seen the film -- I think the film does an excellent job of preserving everything excellent about the book and excising its flaws. The fleshing out of the teacher character and the streamlining of the book's thousand-and-one subplots makes it one of the best works of book-to-film adaptation I can think of.

Nah, haven't. Never intended to tbh. Good for you, If you liked the movie. I'm kind of done. Can't get over how irritating plot was in some moments(main ones).

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Currently debating within myself to either read Kurt Vonnegut or Akira.

In the meantime, I’m in the process of also sounding like Huckleberry Finn:

 

[Titty Figurine]

Grabbed a handful of things in a used bookstore a couple of days ago and I'm currently on Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell. I'm pleasantly surprised, it's decently funny and a lot lighter on the "Humans bad!" than I was expecting it to be from the premise. If you like YouTube countdowns of ruin porn cities and polluted places it'd be worth a library borrow or used copy for a couple bucks.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales edited by Sergei Zenkovsky. Older book which is a collection of histories, poetry, and Eastern Orthodox writings from the Christianization of the Rus to the beginnings of the Romanov dynasty. It's one of the more interesting pieces I've read recently, and it's a plus since I like reading about both Medieval and Slavic history. The book is structured well, and the one of the bigger standout bits for me so far was the brief histories about St. Olga of Kiev and the origin of the Slavs from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The book is fairly big, but I read pretty quick, so I'll finish it soon.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales edited by Sergei Zenkovsky. Older book which is a collection of histories, poetry, and Eastern Orthodox writings from the Christianization of the Rus to the beginnings of the Romanov dynasty. It's one of the more interesting pieces I've read recently, and it's a plus since I like reading about both Medieval and Slavic history. The book is structured well, and the one of the bigger standout bits for me so far was the brief histories about St. Olga of Kiev and the origin of the Slavs from the Eastern Orthodox tradition. The book is fairly big, but I read pretty quick, so I'll finish it soon.

Sounds like an interesting book. I'll have to put it on my list.

Currently working through the Divine Comedy. It's an interesting translation, but I appreciate the notes at the end of every canto explaining the context of the people and symbiology present. I'm also wondering why Dante classed all the people he supposedly respects and admires as sodomites (also, why he was apparently the only one to do so).

 

[Titty Figurine]

It's one of the more interesting pieces I've read recently, and it's a plus since I like reading about both Medieval and Slavic history.

Have you read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances and Joseph Gies? It's a little on the dry side but the material itself is incredibly engaging and seems like it might be right up your alley. I had it recommended as supplemental reading years ago for a class and it's squarely in the club of books that I just couldn't bring myself to sell back to the campus store and still revisit occasionally.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Have you read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances and Joseph Gies? It's a little on the dry side but the material itself is incredibly engaging and seems like it might be right up your alley. I had it recommended as supplemental reading years ago for a class and it's squarely in the club of books that I just couldn't bring myself to sell back to the campus store and still revisit occasionally.

No, but thanks for telling me. I'll look into it and see if I'm interested.

 

[Burt Ryan]

Casinò Royale.

 

[Ghostie with the Mostie]

I’m reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Trying to branch out and read some of the classics. It’s great so far, definitely recommend.

 

[Mister Mint]

Just finished Stranger In A Strange Land. Loved it, really great scifi/satire.

Now reading A Canticle For Liebowitz. Enjoying so far. A bit bummed it's three semi-related stories because I was enjoying the first one, but still good.

 

[Haffhart]

I read The Curé d'Ars Today (198 by Father George Rutler, a great book on the life of Saint John Vianney, the Curer or Healer of Ars. Because St. Vianney is well-known among Christians this book is not so much a narrative of his life as it is an explanation of why he's a saint and why it matters today. So it's part biography, part sermon, given in prose that's both elegant and ethereal, but often unclear. Father Rutler makes his points in paradoxes like G.K. Chesterton which I think is tiring and snobby. Ironically, the book is better as a summary of orthodox Catholic thought than as a biography, or at least it's more useful to me as the former.

 

[admiral]

Jake's Thing by Kingsley Amis. I found this book as part of an Amis omnibus at my parents' house and figured I had nothing better to do, since I've exhausted all of their Jeeves and Woosters. I've noticed that they have a lot of Tom Sharpe's books so I'll probably check those out next, since I really liked Porterhouse Blue.

This is the third book by Amis that I've read after Lucky Jim and Green Man, both of which I really enjoyed. The books is about a middle aged man with a fat wife trying to reignite his sex drive. The progression in Amis' style from early to middle to late periods of his output is striking. So far, Lucky Jim is my favourite, but that's probably because I'm a young person in academia myself so I find it very relevent to my own situation. Green Man affected me the most profoundly- it's such a melancholy novel.

So far I have to say that Jake's Thing is proper gross, but funny. I'd heard that his later books are mostly about old drunk people fucking or not fucking or complaining about fucking, and true enough Jake's Thing is living up to the hype. I can appreciate that there is absolutely no way you could be able to write a book like this these days as it is absolutely full of dirty old pervert shit- fatphobia, misogyny, racism, homophobia, etc etc. My mum really doesn't like Amis' later works and I think I can see why his books about sad old fat people might hit too close to home once you hit a certain age.

Other recent things I've read: Ninth Circle by Alex Bell (Bad), Strange Ink by Gary Kemble (Good). I want to read as many books as I can this year because I'm sick of looking at screens and figure that if i'm going to destroy my eyes I might as well mark some things off my goodreads while I'm at it. I keep meaning to read жизнь насекомых since I got the original Russian edition specially, but tbh Pelevin is a headache enough in English translation sometimes, so I'm feeling intimidated.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

"The Hobbit" and "The Longing Ring"

 

[Big Miss Steak]

Just finished Stranger In A Strange Land. Loved it, really great scifi/satire.

Now reading A Canticle For Liebowitz. Enjoying so far. A bit bummed it's three semi-related stories because I was enjoying the first one, but still good.

Canticle fell off during the second half for me. But I overall enjoyed it.

Reading "Let the Right One In." It's a page turner, but more pedophilia than I was expecting. I saw the Swedish film a long time ago.

 

[FatalTater]

I just finished rereading Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn on gutenberg.org since I couldn't bother to get my copy off the shelf.
I know the main character is supposed to be about 14, but the idea that this is a kid's book is absurd. What teenager is going to have the life experience to understand what's happening in half this story?

Read it, or reread it if it's been a while since the last time. It's a lot deeper than just a boy and a slave travel down the river on a raft.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Early 20thC Science Fantasy, or sword and sorcery not set in an ancient past but in a far future where mathematics has morphed into power words, flung about under a sun that has almost burnt itself out. Kind of pulpy, fun so far, like Conan but a little less tryhard.

 

[AnOminous]

The Dying Earth by Jack Vance. Early 20thC Science Fantasy, or sword and sorcery not set in an ancient past but in a far future where mathematics has morphed into power words, flung about under a sun that has almost burnt itself out. Kind of pulpy, fun so far, like Conan but a little less tryhard.

The magic system for D&D was ripped off from that book.

 

[Calandrino]

I finally frogmarched myself to the end of the Illuminatus trilogy and now I hate hippies and boomers and acidheads more than ever.