What are you reading right now?

[Screw Danlon]

I've been on a sci fi bent. Can't believe I've gone my entire life without reading Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke builds up crazy atmosphere and it's got just the right amount of golden age scifi vibes without being too cheesy.

Finally got into Stanisław Lem. The Futurological Congress was a bit tedious but it all fell into place at the end.

Solaris is fantastic. I'm getting huge evangelion vibes with the themes and imagery, turns out the book had a Japanese translation in 1977...

If you’re doing sci-fi and haven’t gotten to him yet, I’ve been reading Philip K Dick and was amazed by how much better his stories are than the movies based on them. Especially Minority Report.

 

[whitepumpkin]

Decided to start going through The Last Wish again. It's definitely not the greatest fantasy book ever written, but sometimes it's nice to just read an old shelf favourite.

 

[TurdFondler]

If you’re doing sci-fi and haven’t gotten to him yet, I’ve been reading Philip K Dick and was amazed by how much better his stories are than the movies based on them. Especially Minority Report.

Just finished that one actually, and I finally read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep a few weeks back.

I'm on the fence about Dick's work. It feels like he has a fantastic idea at the core of his works but then phones the rest in.

Minority Report was fantastic, he really had something good in the beginning, muddling paranoid delusions with actual conspiracy. It kind of resolved itself way too neatly though.

I'm going to finish reading the rest of the short stories in the Minority Report compilation and A Scanner Darkly after.

 

[shameful existence]

This one was quite fun. A personal, emotional but also well researched take on Chopin's life and music created on the background of his relationship to Poland and, later on, to George Sand. The author, a fellow pianist, might have overemphasized these two particular narratives, as she seems to be invested in some of it (even goes on a tangent about Sand's revolutionary gender bending), but the simplified focus on a few selected points makes Chopin somewhat easier to grasp.

Spoiler

 

[Andrew Neiman]

this, sir, is one mighty attractive book collection.
send book pics.

I'm afraid most of them were either ebooks or library checkouts. I'm putting off mass purchases of actual books until I settle down and buy a house or something like that. Here's "Nine Stories," though.

 

[TurdFondler]

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This one was quite fun. A personal, emotional but also well researched take on Chopin's life and music created on the background of his relationship to Poland and, later on, to George Sand. The author, a fellow pianist, might have overemphasized these two particular narratives, as she seems to be invested in some of it (even goes on a tangent about Sand's revolutionary gender bending), but the simplified focus on a few selected points makes Chopin somewhat easier to grasp.

Spoiler

View attachment 2880731

What is the appeal in Chopin's music? He's one of the only classical composers I absolutely cannot stomach. I'm basically tarded, and I've never studied music, so I don't know how to explain it, but it's like his music is just melody. It's all very pretty, but it lacks the kind of depth or something that I find in other composers. I'm probably missing the historical/cultural context or it's music for people who actually understand music.

 

[shameful existence]

What is the appeal in Chopin's music?

He remains popular for his romanticism and melancholia. I suspect he has many more female listeners than the vast majority of classical composers. Once you put his name into the youtube search bar, you'll start getting recommended all the "dark academia" lists of music for reclusive night-time loners, which is how he's being revived by zoomers. I'm fond of Chopin, but I'm not one of those analytical music enthusiasts who I'm sure prefer more "geometrical" composers like Bach or enjoy orchestra music which I don't.

 

[TurdFondler]

more "geometrical" composers like Bach or enjoy orchestra music which I don't.

What does this mean because I fuckin love Bach's clavichord concertos.

 

[shameful existence]

What does this mean because I fuckin love Bach's clavichord concertos.

I meant music in which people like to search for symmetries, fractals and other mathematical arrangements and find joy in some of its predictability.
But I'm also trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about.

 

[Not Jewish Wario]

Reading "Foundation and Empire" by Isaac Asimov. Wasn't too impressed by the first book, but this one seems off to an interesting start,

 

[Open Window Maniac]

I just finished re-reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's really good! I like Bilbo and the journey he took. Gandalf was pretty cool as well. My favorite part was when Bilbo saved the dwarfs from the spiders in Mirkwood. I also really liked it when he went into Erebor and riddled with Smaug. It suprised me that Smaug had so little "page-time" for lack of a better phrase. He's a big reason for the story happening and he isn't there for long. Granted, what is there for him is pretty awesome. It is also one of the few instances of a retcon being a good thing, because Tolkien changed Gollum's ring from being just a simple ring of invisibility to the One Ring when The Lord of The Rings was published.

 

[verissimus]

Currently reading The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean - The Ancient World Economy & the Kingdoms of Africa, Arabia, and India (yes that's the whole title) by Raoul McLaughlin. It's ok so far. Wish I got it at a better price so I can check other stuff out. I should be finishing this one book I have of the Maginot Line and then maybe next will be volume 1 of the 1001 Arabian Nights.

 

[Red Hood]

I'm starting the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy again. If Tolkien is fantasy's fine dining, then Dragonlance is an enjoyable if predictable chain restaurant.

 

[Pomniman]

Up to chapter 3 of The World According To Garp. It's pretty funny so far.

 

[Henry Bemis]

All About Me, Mel Brooks's memoir, is an absolutely breezy 500-page read, a handy way to have all his anecdotes in one place. It pretty exclusively focuses on his movies, so those who know something of his checkered stage career (or those who know he had a stage career beyond The Producers) might be disappointed.

In all, reading it, one gets the sense he is and always has been absolutely full of himself, and also that when he walks into a room, all that falls away and you end up with the privilege of sharing a room with a consummate mensch.

 

[not william stenchever]

I just read the final book of The Expanse series and I think those books are definitely worth your time. God I wish I could talk about how I think it reaches a satisfying conclusion without giving spoilers. Trying to get my brother to finish the series so I do have someone to talk about it with.

 

[Haffhart]

Just finished Stephen King's On Writing, and I'm currently re-reading Neuromancer because I want to read the whole sprawl trilogy with it fresh in my mind. I did not like the former overall because I find King to be somewhat preachy and didactic, even moreso than I would expect in a book of that nature. It did have a few good nuggets of information on the creative process, so it basically had the substance a 289-page hydewars episode. Neuromancer was one of my favorites when I first read it though, and still holds up years later. It's got a great aesthetic direction and it always entertains me to see more real-life parallels in it than one would with a more 'realistic' scifi novel such as something by Philip K Dick.

On Writing is still one of my favorite books about the craft of writing.

Damn, I was just coming to post this. It’s a great audiobook. I haven’t read it before but I love the tension and the atmosphere.

I was listening to the part where he describes paying for food with Kalshnikov bullets while grocery shopping and it really made me think about how different my worldview and experience must be from a man who could dream up a world like that.

The Virgin On Writing vs. The Chad On Writing Well. It technically about nonfiction but it's advice applies well to fiction. Zinsser also wrote more fiction oriented advice books (for example one about children's lit) but I haven't read those.

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That's a fine library you've got there. Though I've never been sure how I feel about Dahl's formula: "Once upon a time everything was fine but then things got twisted and weird the end." For his kids' stories he'd tack on a happy ending (usually). I mean it does make sense considering his life story.

 

[Screw Danlon]

The Virgin On Writing vs. The Chad On Writing Well. It technically about nonfiction but it's advice applies well to fiction. Zinsser also wrote more fiction oriented advice books (for example one about children's lit) but I haven't read those.

I put On Writing Well next to Strunk & White‘s as a book that everyone should be forced to read if they plan to do writing, but I don’t consider it a book about the craft in the same way as On Writing or Zen In the Art of Writing. Maybe I need to reread it,

for me OWW did more to influence my editing style than my writing style.

 

[AnOminous]

I put On Writing Well next to Strunk & White‘s as a book that everyone should be forced to read if they plan to do writing, but I don’t consider it a book about the craft in the same way as On Writing or Zen In the Art of Writing. Maybe I need to reread it,

Fun fact: E.B. White is the great-grandfather of Molly White, otherwise known as power janny SJW GorillaWarfare of Wikipedia, one of the few female ArbCom members without a penis.

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

In direct contrast with "No Gods, No Monsters"
A well-written Sci-Fi by a Queer writer, also with politics (but religious this time around)
"The First Sister" by Linden A. Lewis (first of a trilogy, only two chapters in)

Do attending webinars count? ("Slaughterhouse-Five")