What are you reading right now?

I finished the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (finally)

Then I decided to read American Psycho. I gotta say, it’s probably one of my favorite books besides some of Gibson’s works. Very readable, a page turner for sure. Made me ponder if Bateman was just hallucinating or was an actual psychopath. This is further alluded near the end where he brings up the fact that there are no major newspapers discussing his alleged crimes
 
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Just finished the original Foundation trilogy. They were pretty good, definitely enjoyed the first one the most because it felt like it jumped between the important time periods and characters quicker. I was surprised to learn Isaac Asimov was 21 when he wrote the first one.

The basic premise is there's a galactic empire that's reigned for 12k years and one of its best scientists in a field called "psychohistory," which is basically sociology at a planetary level, measuring and predicting how enormous mobs will behave over time, predicts that the empire will collapse in 300 years due to various social and economic trends. He further predicts that all of the scientific knowledge of the empire will be lost in the collapse and take 30k years for galactic humanity to recover fully. He therefore sets up a group of scientists on a far away planet to create an all encompassing encyclopedia to preserve knowledge and avert a 30k dark age.

My biggest criticisms is the characters have very little personality, they are simply whatever actions they took that are relevant to history. It's interesting seeing how people in the 1950's thought of the future. Asimov wrote of basically everything being nuclear powered and tobacco use is still ubiquitous. Also I want to say the first female character doesn't appear until the second book iirc and she's a warlords wife whom is gifted jewelry.
 
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Sincere Irony LLC said:
Just finished the original Foundation trilogy. They were pretty good, definitely enjoyed the first one the most because it felt like it jumped between the important time periods and characters quicker. I was surprised to learn Isaac Asimov was 21 when he wrote the first one.

The basic premise is there's a galactic empire that's reigned for 12k years and one of its best scientists in a field called "psychohistory," which is basically sociology at a planetary level, measuring and predicting how enormous mobs will behave over time, predicts that the empire will collapse in 300 years due to various social and economic trends. He further predicts that all of the scientific knowledge of the empire will be lost in the collapse and take 30k years for galactic humanity to recover fully. He therefore sets up a group of scientists on a far away planet to create an all encompassing encyclopedia to preserve knowledge and avert a 30k dark age.

My biggest criticisms is the characters have very little personality, they are simply whatever actions they took that are relevant to history. It's interesting seeing how people in the 1950's thought of the future. Asimov wrote of basically everything being nuclear powered and tobacco use is still ubiquitous. Also I want to say the first female character doesn't appear until the second book iirc and she's a warlords wife whom is gifted jewelry.
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I read Foundation this year and really liked it, but I never got around to picking up the rest of the series. Thanks for reminding me.

Next on my list is Three Body Problem. I read the first chapter last night and it really grabbed me. Hopefully it doesn't turn me into a bugman
 
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I wanted to get back into reading and a friend recommended Red Rising. I was very skeptical because of the YA label, but I really enjoyed Red Rising and Golden Sun. Blitzed through them both in little over a week. I just completed the third book, Morning Star. I can't put my finger on it, but it felt like a definitive step down. I haven't gone on my regular review binge after finishing a book but I get the sense Pierce Brown listened to the criticism that the MC is too competent and made him much less so when that competence is a refreshing part of the narrative when most MCs are borderline idiots these days.
 
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Sincere Irony LLC said:
Just finished the original Foundation trilogy. They were pretty good, definitely enjoyed the first one the most because it felt like it jumped between the important time periods and characters quicker. I was surprised to learn Isaac Asimov was 21 when he wrote the first one.

The basic premise is there's a galactic empire that's reigned for 12k years and one of its best scientists in a field called "psychohistory," which is basically sociology at a planetary level, measuring and predicting how enormous mobs will behave over time, predicts that the empire will collapse in 300 years due to various social and economic trends. He further predicts that all of the scientific knowledge of the empire will be lost in the collapse and take 30k years for galactic humanity to recover fully. He therefore sets up a group of scientists on a far away planet to create an all encompassing encyclopedia to preserve knowledge and avert a 30k dark age.

My biggest criticisms is the characters have very little personality, they are simply whatever actions they took that are relevant to history. It's interesting seeing how people in the 1950's thought of the future. Asimov wrote of basically everything being nuclear powered and tobacco use is still ubiquitous. Also I want to say the first female character doesn't appear until the second book iirc and she's a warlords wife whom is gifted jewelry.
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Psychohistory is starting to exist now as cliodynamics.

Economics: Science of choice
Econometrics: Statistics applied to economics
Cliometrics: Econometrics applied to historical questions
Cliodynamics: Developing econometric models to predict the future.
 
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At the moment, working my way through a Richard Matheson collection. I've bought a shitload of books this year. Several Lovecraft collections, another by Algernon Blackwood, a couple by Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land), the entire Space Odyssey series by Clarke, some others. I read a lot as a kid, thanks to video games and the internet I kind of slowed down, and now that I'm burnt the fuck out on both, reading is even more enjoyable to me than before.
 
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I'm reading popular crap again. 'The Widow' by Fiona Barton. Many comparisons online to 'Gone Girl' and 'The Girl On The Train'. Only a few chapters in and I'm bored. I was interested in the premise- the socially isolated, codependent wife of a man accused of child rape and murder finally coming clean about what she knows after his death- but instead it's jumping from character pov and time to different character pov and time, and while I have read novels where that's an effective storytelling method, right now I'm just bored and kind of annoyed.

I'm an extremely fast reader and can knock over two or three basic bitch thrillers like this in a day if I'm taken in enough, but I get bored extremely easily and it's hard for me to force concentration if what I'm reading isn't compelling. Right now the reporter character is talking to the child's mother just after the child has gone missing, and the reporter is ruminating about her own kids. All very sad and emotional to be sure, but I'm here for abnormal psychology and a mystery, not family values and the politics and processes behind news media. I'm going to force another chapter or two, but I suspect this one is going back to the op shop I got it from.
 
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I will admit that I saw the movie before reading the book, but now this time, I’m reading the book to see what was changed:

IMG_7036.jpeg
 
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DoomsdayElite said:
At the moment, working my way through a Richard Matheson collection. I've bought a shitload of books this year. Several Lovecraft collections, another by Algernon Blackwood, a couple by Robert A. Heinlein (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land), the entire Space Odyssey series by Clarke, some others. I read a lot as a kid, thanks to video games and the internet I kind of slowed down, and now that I'm burnt the fuck out on both, reading is even more enjoyable to me than before.
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Here's an opinion: Matheson is the American Kafka. He taps into the anxiety and unhealthy desires of the normal person. And his writing style is top notch.
 
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It's spooky season, so I set aside my current readings (I was making my way through the Complete Peanuts, I'm at volume 12 right now) to read Halloween-themed books until 10/31.

The first one was was Hocus-Pocus and the All-New Sequel (I actuall cheated here, since I've started reading it at the end of September), by A. W. Jantha. Basically, in 2017 Disney asked Jantha to write a novelization of the movie Hocus Pocus, and to add a sequel. I think the book is solid and the sequel, with all its flaws, is still more enjoyable than that travesty of a movie that Disney produced last year. The characters from the first movie (now adults) are all present, and the Sanderson sisters are still evil and trying to conquer Salem.
The first part of the book focuses on the movie, following its plot pretty faithfully, with the addition of a new character, Elizabeth, a fourth Sanderson sister who is present in the first chapter of the book. She will be important in the sequel.

The second part takes place 25 years after that fateful Halloween. Max and Allison's 17yo daughter, Poppy, and her her friends Travis and Isabella have to fight against the Sanderson sisters for the lives of all the citizens of Salem. The witches have been brought back by Winifred's evil spellbook, who tricked the three kids into casting a spell that summons the Sandersons from Hell in exchange of three living souls: Max, Allison and Dani's. So Poppy, Travis and Isabella spend the rest of the night trying to save Poppy's family and to keep the witches from finding a magical stone that should make them immortal, while the sisters manage to call back from hell an army of witches... their Mother included.

The second part has several good ideas, but it can be also incredibly meandering: there's just too much exposition, while there are long scenes where the main characters are wondering "OMG what the fuck do we have to do?", that are very boring to read and slow down the action. Also there are too many "convenient" plot twists (EG, the way the spellbook was found by one of the main characters), and several plotpoints that could have been planned better. All in all I give it a 6.5/10

The second one is Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge. It's pretty short, so it took me a couple of evenings to finish. 1963. In a unnamed town in Mid-West teenaged boys are forced, after their 16th birthday, to hunt and kill a monster called The October Boy, that appears the night of Halloween.
In a small town where the main source of income is growing and selling corn, every year a ritual is celebrated at Halloween: teenaged boys from 16 to 19 years of age have to kill the October Boy, aka Sawtooth Jack, a monster with a Jack O' Lantern head that spawns in an abandoned field outside the town. The winner's family will be given a new house, a new car, and all their expenses payed for one year, while the winner himself will be able to leave the place. If the October Boy won't be killed before midnight and will enter the church, the whole town will "go to hell". Somebody is trying to ensure that this year the ritual will conclude with the October Boy's survival. During the story the reader is given several POVs, the main ones are: Pete McCormick's, a 16yo who is partecipating to the hunt for the first time; Dan Shepard's, father of one of the previous winners; Jerry Ricks', a police agent; and the October Boy itself.

This has been an interesting but unsatisfying read. This book left me with a lot of questions. In this case if the novel had been longer, it would probably have been better, because the writer left a lot of plotpoints unresolved... and there where charactes that IMHO deserved to be explored in depth. EG: it's never explained in detail why the kids have to hunt the October Boy or how the ritual originated, even though it can be surmised that it's all linked to the crops survival. Nobody can leave the town, but the writer never tells why: if by chance somebody manages to go away the authorities are willing to chase him/her for decades to bring them back (just like it happened to the father of one of the side characters). It's hinted that the town Harvesters Guild is the evil force behind the ritual but, aside a couple of names, the reader isn't properly introduced to them and their motivations.

The author also uses a few bizarre metaphors.
EG: "[the car] rear bumper tears lose, sparkling against the blacktop, disappearing beneath the tires of the prowl car like a gleaming switchblade driven into the belly of a two-tone cat"... ooookayyyy...?

7/10 because the idea is original and there were a few plot twists that I really liked.

Today I will start Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare.
 
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I'm looking for book recommendations if anyone has ideas.

I specifically enjoy reading books about characters (real or fictional) overcoming and healing beyond injury or trauma WITHOUT SJWism being involved. Without endless navel-gazing about twauma and endless mushy gushy scenes nor politicizing about "all the billionaires must die so that no one is harmed anymore! capitalism and sexism did this to me!"

My favorite book of this genre is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, specifically after the guy and his buddies return home after the POW camp, and it details how their families reacted to their changed personalities, what they did with their lives afterwards, etc.

Bizarrely I also think Frankenstein fits this sort of genre a lot, especially the chapters from the monster's POV where he talks about the horror of his own creature, gathers his bearings and decides on a course of action for his life.

Gundam War In the Pocket is also a perfect example. In the movie, the children start off pretty ignorant of the reality of war, but the main character learns about the nature of war, and you can sorta see the concept of "lost innocence" and his school friends not understanding why he doesn't think war is fun anymore. A changed person.

The ending theme hits hard with images such as children playing with spent shell casings, viewing bloody soldiers on the road, and posing alongside fallen enemy weapons. And it makes you the viewer also have that, "I am a changed person" feeling.

books that make you think of this vibe:
and as a thread tax, I've been reading this teenagers' devotional I got for free from a thrift store: If the Devil 'Made' You Do It, You Blew It! (But it Doesn't Need To Happen Again)
I couldn't pass up on a title like that. The amazon description is funny:
Advises teenagers on overcoming temptation, whether it be overeating on cookies, cheating on a test, or killing a policeman
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I also think it's funny that there are some Amazon reviews saying "Horrible book! You shouldn't blame the supernatural, that's so stupid!" When the book is literally about how if you're saying "the devil made me do it!"/"I couldn't help myself/it was the supernatural forces compelling me!", that you're WRONG and do have control over temptations.
 
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glass_houses said:
I'm reading popular crap again. 'The Widow' by Fiona Barton. Many comparisons online to 'Gone Girl' and 'The Girl On The Train'. Only a few chapters in and I'm bored. I was interested in the premise- the socially isolated, codependent wife of a man accused of child rape and murder finally coming clean about what she knows after his death- but instead it's jumping from character pov and time to different character pov and time, and while I have read novels where that's an effective storytelling method, right now I'm just bored and kind of annoyed.

I'm an extremely fast reader and can knock over two or three basic bitch thrillers like this in a day if I'm taken in enough, but I get bored extremely easily and it's hard for me to force concentration if what I'm reading isn't compelling. Right now the reporter character is talking to the child's mother just after the child has gone missing, and the reporter is ruminating about her own kids. All very sad and emotional to be sure, but I'm here for abnormal psychology and a mystery, not family values and the politics and processes behind news media. I'm going to force another chapter or two, but I suspect this one is going back to the op shop I got it from.
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Made myself finish it. It turned out okay but it was disappointing overall. It was a basic detective/reporter novel, but I'd been hoping for a really in depth abnormal psychology examination. The concept was compelling but it was ultimately wasted. Shame. I've read several other novels with roughly the same concept, but while they were okay, they were self published and it showed. I'd hoped that since Barton's work had gone through the professional publisher route that her novel would be better, but unfortunately it wasn't.

I've really gone off movies, tv and YouTube in the past few days. I think it's time to seriously hit the tbr pile, it's been out of control for quite some time.
 
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I'll be starting Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame tomorrow. Still not done with The Brothers Karmazov, but man, is it incredible. I'm pushing myself to wrap that one up so I can watch Michael Sangrue's video on it. I have half a mind to sketch the leads (I absolutely am enthralled with Alyosha in particular) but that'll be after I'm done reading.

Times like this makes me wish to study Russian, so I can enjoy the story in its original format.

I checked out another book (How to Read Literature like a College Professor) as well, so I'll be reading that and Hunchback back to back (pun not intended).
 
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