What are you reading right now?

[DuskEngine]

Currently reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It and it's two sequels Green Mars and Blue Mars are all about the more socio-political aspects of extraterrestrial colonisation, which in this case would (obviously) be of Mars. It's kind of cool in that it doesn't make itself seem like the pulpy kind of science fiction you would expect, but starting out it's kind of dry, except in the first section when you get to the description of space sex and how everyone en route to Mars is forming a closed-in society where every man fucks every woman and vice versa.

I really want to get around to reading that series sometime. I read The Years of Rice and Salt and I thought it was great.

 

[TheAmazingAxolotl]

I really want to get around to reading that series sometime. I read The Years of Rice and Salt and I thought it was great.

You might also want to consider reading Aurora by the same author. While it's not in the Mars trilogy, it's basically the same socio-political thing but with colonising extrasolar planets.

 

[sugoi-chan]

I really want to get around to reading that series sometime. I read The Years of Rice and Salt and I thought it was great.

Genuinely loved Years. Robinson did a really good job crafting a believable alt-history that I wish he would write more in the setting.

 

[Aquinas]

This thread

 

[Connor Bible]

I'm just about done reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. After that, I hope to finish reading The Shining.

 

[AnOminous]

Halfway through Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco (and have been for about a year now, if I'm being honest). It's good, bit confusing, sort of long-winded at times, but mostly interesting.

I love this book and the first time I read it, got completely obsessed and did it in a single 24 hour sitting. It always struck me as a more intellectual Illuminatus.

I also loved The Name of the Rose but it is somewhat inaccessible because of the ridiculous amount of Latin in it. I was actually taking high school Latin at the time I read it and had a Latin teacher I could take difficult passages to, but I can't imagine that most people have this. There are now online commentaries that make it a bit easier, but it's a tough book.

 

[r00]

This week I have mostly been reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (which I fucking love. One of my new favourites. Does anyone have any recommendations of anything similar? Not necessarily by him, but that kind of style?)

Also I just got done reading A Place of Dead Roads by Burroughs. I didn't enjoy it so much as his other stuff, which is a shame because it seemed interesting - like a strange western pulp novel, but with loads of occult goings on and buggery. It's lurid and graphic and gay, even by his standards which felt a little excessive. The tone and setting was extremely cool, but it felt unfinished and kind of cobbled together.

Also, I had a crack at a book called Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilmore which was written in the early 1900s about a feminist utopia. It sucks, and I cant quite tell if its a satire or not.

Finished Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov) over the summer, couldn't put it down. Highly recommend it, it's a classic for good reason, and not because it's difficult to slog through.

Second that recommendation. Bulgakov is a BMFer. I picked up a second hand copy on whim last year and really enjoyed it.

I'm just about done reading Bram Stoker's Dracula.

What did you think of Dracula? I've always found that I liked the idea of those old Gothic horrors a lot more than the actual reality. Same deal with Frankenstein. It was an interesting read but not even slightly what I was expecting.

 

[AnOminous]

What did you think of Dracula? I've always found that I liked the idea of those old Gothic horrors a lot more than the actual reality. Same deal with Frankenstein. It was an interesting read but not even slightly what I was expecting.

I loved it, but then I'm a fan of epistolary novels in general.

Most people don't like those, apparently.

I generally like indirect methods of storytelling that require you to figure out what's actually happening on your own because you can't rely on the characters to tell the truth.

 

[Cunty Boo Boo]

@r00

One Hundred Years of Solitude is so, so good. Love it. I really just love Garcia Marquez. He's fantastic.

Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique is supposed to be very similar. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my to-read list at some point. Also, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, while a different kind of story, is magical realism like OHYOS.

 

[shartnado]

Slowly working my way through China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

Also reading The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need, but that's less for fun and more so I can be good at my job.

 

[r00]

Most people don't like those, apparently.

I generally like indirect methods of storytelling that require you to figure out what's actually happening on your own because you can't rely on the characters to tell the truth.

As much as I love a nice unreliable narrator, "epistolary" became something of a dirty word for me since I had to slog my way through Sorrows of Young Werther in my first year as an undergrad. It was one of those books that I could appreciate technically, I guess, but I hated reading every page of it up until the very last paragraph. Maybe I'm biased, or just lack an attention span, but I cant be dealing with the constant lack of immediacy. Admittedly I haven't read any modern equivalents, but in my mind "epistolary" means "slow paced and stuffy" and "you will be skipping chunks of this".

@r00

Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique is supposed to be very similar. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my to-read list at some point. Also, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, while a different kind of story, is magical realism like OHYOS.

Thanks! I'll check them out.

 

[sugoi-chan]

I loved it, but then I'm a fan of epistolary novels in general.

Most people don't like those, apparently.

I generally like indirect methods of storytelling that require you to figure out what's actually happening on your own because you can't rely on the characters to tell the truth.

I like them when they're good and manage to read like epistolary novels, as in, someone writing about events and conversations after the fact. Dracula managed to do this for most of it. But so many of them fail at that and end up reciting scenes and conversations in such exacting detail that not even the most anal-retentive person would write into their journal. They basically turn into first-person novels organized by dates instead of chapters.

But yeah, unreliable narrators are probably my favorite literary device. All of my favorite novels have elements of it.

To answer the thread's question, Those Who Walk Away by Patricia Highsmith, she of Ripley fame.

 

[Cosmos]

I loved it, but then I'm a fan of epistolary novels in general.

Most people don't like those, apparently.

I generally like indirect methods of storytelling that require you to figure out what's actually happening on your own because you can't rely on the characters to tell the truth.

I absolutely love epistolary novels and other unconventional modes of storytelling. Nice to see that other people appreciate the style, too!

As for me, I'm currently reading a couple of books. One is a memoir called Radhika's Story, which is about a young Nepalese woman who suffered through the worst human trafficking has to offer. It's not light reading, but I make a habit of reading "ugly" books like this because I believe it's really important to be aware of what's going on in the world. I'm also reading Let's Pretend This Never Happened, which is a much more lighthearted and humorous memoir.

 

[Hat]

Brave New World

 

[AnOminous]

As much as I love a nice unreliable narrator, "epistolary" became something of a dirty word for me since I had to slog my way through Sorrows of Young Werther in my first year as an undergrad. It was one of those books that I could appreciate technically, I guess, but I hated reading every page of it up until the very last paragraph.

Werther is kind of a fucking dick tbh.

 

[r00]

Werther is kind of a fucking dick tbh.

Was. lol.

 

[DuskEngine]

Got around to Cryptonomicon again. Hopefully I won't bounce off it this time.

 

[BatNapalm]

LA Confidential by James Ellroy and to a lesser extent, A Maze of Death by Philip K Dick

 

[GV 998]

Right now I'm reading "Parasite Eve" by Hideki Sena. If that title sounds familiar to you, it's probably because there is a video game that was made by Square for the PS1. The video game was made as a sequel to the novel .

I'm still trying to decide what I will read next. Maybe I will go with a "classic", or read something by my favorite author, Robert Heinlein.

 

[Cunty Boo Boo]

Right now I'm reading "Parasite Eve" by Hideki Sena. If that title sounds familiar to you, it's probably because there is a video game that was made by Square for the PS1. The video game was made as a sequel to the novel .

I'm still trying to decide what I will read next. Maybe I will go with a "classic", or read something by my favorite author, Robert Heinlein.

Hey, I'm currently listening to an audiobook version of Starship Troopers!