What are you reading right now?

[Abbadon's Gate]

About to pick up Blood of Elves again. Started a new Roleplaying server as a Blood Hunter and since that class is heavily Witcher Inspired, I wanted to go to the source and hear how its done right.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Was in the mood for an anthology. This has been on my list for a long time so decided to give it a go. About a quarter of the way through. It’s ok so far, some of the stories are fairly innovative and take a unique spin on the zombie theme. I like the stories “The Dead Kid” and “Stockholm Syndrome” in particular. There’s some shit by the usual suspects like Neil Gaiman and Poppy Z. Brite but so far it’s pretty decent if you’re looking for something light.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

I'm a huge fate fan so I've decided to actually read some Arthurian romance. I've already read through gawain and the green knight so I'm trying Tristan and isolde.

 

[Mega Black]

I've been slowly trudging through Richard K. Morgan's Thin Air but it is kind of a slog. My problem, I like his style, but the story is a meandering mess that hasn't gone anywhere for too long. There's too much technobabble and set dressing, I don't like worldbuilding as much as I like characters and a plot with momentum.

 

[skykiii]

Still on James Clavell's Shogun but ran across a line that just gave me Stephen King vibes:

he farted unintentionally as he pissed into the bucket.

There had been gross stuff before, but this just felt random and unnecessary.

 

[Commander X]

Rock of Ages by Timothy Hallinan, the most recent entry in Hallinan's series about Junior Bender, L.A.-based A-list professional thief who has never been caught, but also has gained a reputation in the underworld as a sort of detective shady people come to with problems, though he admits he is a detective only in the very loosest sense of the word.

Now he's having to do some more detective work. His "client" is once again nonagenarian Southern California crime boss Irwin Dressler. Dressler may be old but he's a dangerous and very influential man to owe favors to. Junior agrees to keep a wary eye on a shaky enterprise in which Dressler has invested heavily: a nostalgia tour of geriatric has-been second- and third-rate rock bands whose heydays were back in the 1960s and ’70s, and the collective grand finale will take place in L.A. He's invested $250K in this "Rock of Ages" tour, which has been organized by some of his fellow geezer gangland colleagues (“four of the killers, extortionists, leg-breakers, kidnappers, armed robbers, and threat specialists who made up his former social circle.") who have all owned pieces of and controlled the careers of a few dozen of these lesser rock acts for years, "bands that would have been past their sell-by date even if they'd spent the last thirty or forty years in vacuum jars". The four decided to make some real money off these people by putting a bunch of them together on a big tour, and with the nostalgia factor, and hitting mostly third-tier markets, the tour seems to be profitable and running mostly smoothly.

This tour has been less than a rock and roll love fest, plenty of the band members have been feuding for years, and unsurprisingly their collective decades of drug abuse and bad behavior have created health, wellness and legal problems for the musicians and managers. That's not Dressler's problem though. Even the two near-fatal accidents that have occurred during the tour that could have been assassination attempts don't bother Dressler. It's that one of his old cronies may be siphoning off major profits from the tour, and Dressler will not allow one of these schmendriks to steal from him and cause him to lose face and look weak.

"But it's not really about the money, or at least it's not only about the money, it's the principle. And if that sounds too noble, the principle, I mean is the one that says thou shalt not fucking rip me off."

Bender is given a single weekend to solve the case as the tour winds down in L.A. The investigation starts off quite well for Junior, who sees his tires slashed, ominous messages left on his car and to further complicate things his 19-year-old daughter Rina was already coming to spend the weekend with him, and she has no idea what he really does for a living...

It's a read that combines the depiction of the dark and vicious underworld Bender rolls in, with healthy doses of breezy humor and absurdity and Hallinan's knack for wordplay, and it culminates in a climax that is in some ways, surprisingly moving.

 

[Pomniman]

Most of the way through Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace. I wouldn't call it "good" as a whole but it's an interesting time capsule to the mid-late 80s in the form of short stories written by an overeducated suicidal autist obsessed with pop culture. I've already read most of his later stuff years ago so this is more of a personal curiosity than anything I'd recommend on its own merits.

 

[DJ Grelle]

I just finished "Always with honor" the memoires of Pyotr Wrangel, the last white Russian general of the Russian civil war.
While - like all memoires - they're biased and a bit self-serving, there are two things that shine through in the book. Wrangel's principled nature and his love for his nation.
It also gives an interesting view on how to build up a workable anti-communist coalition during a civil war, and why the white Russians failed.

 

[Flabba Wabba Jabba]

About to finish Elon's biography, also reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

Was going to pick up "The Conquest of Gaul" as my next read; anyone here read it?

 

[Sergeant Major Buzzkill]

Finished the Iliad. Enjoyed that one, too. I'm now onto Promenthus Bound.

What interests me most about Greek/Roman mythos is the portrayal of gods in them. This is my first time actually reading these types of stories, and so far, I find them cool.

 

[AnOminous]

About to finish Elon's biography, also reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.

Was going to pick up "The Conquest of Gaul" as my next read; anyone here read it?

I read it in Latin. It was the only thing I've read in Latin that was easy to read.

I've subsequently entirely forgotten Latin.

My impression is Caesar was a very clear speaker.

 

[Flabba Wabba Jabba]

I read it in Latin. It was the only thing I've read in Latin that was easy to read.

I've subsequently entirely forgotten Latin.

My impression is Caesar was a very clear speaker.

What version of Latin was it? From my understanding the "modern" Latin is very different from the Latin the Romans used, so how did you go about learning it?

 

[AnOminous]

What version of Latin was it? From my understanding the "modern" Latin is very different from the Latin the Romans used, so how did you go about learning it?

I took Latin in high school and it was the version Romans (and Caesar) spoke (and wrote in) at the time, not the weird Church Latin Catholics use. Still remember Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.

Almost like he wanted people to understand it. You could practically understand that sentence if you're just literate in English.

 

[William Murderface]

Right this minute I'm working on The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr. It's obviously a biography of the man but it isn't a hagiography. I'm a little over halfway through it, his baseball career just finished, and it pulls no punches. I'll finish it up this by the end of the weekend. I'm really enjoying it and recommend it.

 

[Flabba Wabba Jabba]

I took Latin in high school and it was the version Romans (and Caesar) spoke (and wrote in) at the time, not the weird Church Latin Catholics use. Still remember Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur.

Almost like he wanted people to understand it. You could practically understand that sentence if you're just literate in English.

Holy shit you're right, I got about half of that. Here's how I read it,

"Gaul is divided into 3 parts, 1st the Belgae, 2nd the Aquitani and the 3rd the Celtae, but named the Gauls".

Is that about right?

 

[glue eater]

City of God and Confessions by Augustinus. I have a tendency to read obscure shit like Meister Eckhart, I have always had an interest in the mystical. But now I decided I need to get back to the very basics, so I got some of the most popular Christian books ever written. I have had chaotic couple of weeks (covid, new job, surgery) so I felt delving into faith would give me more solid footing in the world.

 

[cold comfort]

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres

Man that takes me back. It was the first proper text we read, and I remember everyone loving it. Just imagine a class of 14/15 year old catholic school girls going: wow we're actually reading Caesar and he's praising our people, hell yeah.

For some reason I have "adparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto" (from the Aeneid) lodged in my brain.

 

[AnOminous]

For some reason I have "adparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto" (from the Aeneid) lodged in my brain.

The Aeneid was definitely not an easy read.

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

England's Dreaming by Jon Savage, the 'definitive' history of British punk. It focuses particularly on the Sex Pistols as a group and a 'phenomenon', going into all the characters you'd expect and the context of punk emerging in 1976.

It's pretty good but it's insanely detailed, probably too in-depth. It goes off on a lot of tangents, talks about the social/political context too much, and gives too much biography of side characters and bit-players from the English punk scene. I'm nearly 250 pages in and the Sex Pistols haven't even recorded their first album yet, they've only just been signed by EMI. It's a fairly easy read if you skim the extraneous detail.

 

[DDBCAE CBAADCBE]

I'm a huge fate fan so I've decided to actually read some Arthurian romance. I've already read through gawain and the green knight so I'm trying Tristan and isolde.

Artoria is a fucking tranny and deserves the noose.