What are you reading right now?

UselessPieceOfShit said:
I actually quite enjoyed HA and similar books by Delicious Tacos, while Houellebecq (God, what a name) did nothing for me. Mika Ma and DT are kinda self-ironic and not too serious, while Houellebecq left a bitter taste in my mouth. Eh, maybe I am too much of a pussy for that sigma mindset stuff.

On another note, I'm currently reading Dune and want to read all five books. I read the first one many years ago and maybe second one, too.
I'm not a fan of Mentats and other similar stuff in the setting thought. You know, this stuff that was popular years ago about how our brains only work at 65% of their capacity, so if you unlock your true brain power (preferably with some hard drugs) you can literally become a supercomputer or a psychic. It's so 60's. Ugh, don't know why but I don't like when sci-fi writers do this shit. But I'll give Dune a pass, since it's probably the best example of this trope in all of sci-fi.

Also, why books by Frank's son are so hated? Say, I want to know more about Dune setting. Is it worth reading them? Or it's better to just browse Dune wiki?
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To a lot of people, the first Dune is the only one worth reading. I think this is actually a bit harsh, it's more that after reading the first, you're expecting a lot that later books in the series just can't deliver. Next to most other science fiction, they're really good. I thought God Emperor of Dune comes closest to the greatness of the original. Towards the end of the lockdowns, I started rereading it because a big part of the plot is the Emperor restricting his subjects' freedom to travel among other things to destroy the empire's stagnant feudal system when people scatter to new worlds upon his death.
As for the works of Frank's son, I have never actually read them, but I have read summaries and reviews. Just based on that, they didn't even seem worth giving a try. Many details of the Butlerian Jihad were far different from what you would expect after having read anything from Frank Herbert, so it's not really in the same universe. They also just seem like mediocre fan fiction.
 
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Magicicada_septendecula said:
To a lot of people, the first Dune is the only one worth reading. I think this is actually a bit harsh, it's more that after reading the first, you're expecting a lot that later books in the series just can't deliver. Next to most other science fiction, they're really good. I thought God Emperor of Dune comes closest to the greatness of the original. Towards the end of the lockdowns, I started rereading it because a big part of the plot is the Emperor restricting his subjects' freedom to travel among other things to destroy the empire's stagnant feudal system when people scatter to new worlds upon his death.
As for the works of Frank's son, I have never actually read them, but I have read summaries and reviews. Just based on that, they didn't even seem worth giving a try. Many details of the Butlerian Jihad were far different from what you would expect after having read anything from Frank Herbert, so it's not really in the same universe. They also just seem like mediocre fan fiction.
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God Emperor is one of the greatest dystopian novels ever written. People write it off as "lol sad worm man" but it's a genuinely surreal and terrifying book. Like he's describing an existential hell there's no escape from.
 
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An audiobook. I expected this one to be depressing and political, but it's more of an honest and even semi-lighthearted testimony about what poverty looks like and how people survive it. Empathetic, often funny, with a bunch of stories from all kinds of dirty places including jails, homeless shelters and posh restaurants. One of the books that are currently being burned. I must have slept through the alleged antisemitisms, but I did notice Orwell wasn't fond of gays.
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A horror book by a young Dutch author. Quite an original idea, didn't translate into a a good scary story. My biggest problem with this one was that it reads like a young adult fiction and features way too many teenage characters. Gets darker and deeper in the second half though and ends up in a frantic apocalyptic mess. There was some new atheism style moralizing that annoyed me a bit. Overall, I wish someone grabbed the idea and made something truly great out of it.
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Finished The World According to Garp a couple of days ago. Mildly amusing, definitely not a bad book, but way too cute for my liking. Libra by Don DeLillo is up next if only because it was sitting in the pile of unread books next to the one I had Garp in before I read it.
 
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Crime and Punishment. I'm already really enjoying it but the Librivox narrator sounds really autistic and wimpy and it's moderately bothering me. Anyone know any better versions I can pirate?
 
ScamL Likely said:
Finished The World According to Garp a couple of days ago. Mildly amusing, definitely not a bad book, but way too cute for my liking. Libra by Don DeLillo is up next if only because it was sitting in the pile of unread books next to the one I had Garp in before I read it.
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john irving is very hit or miss for me. i recommend Until I Find You if you want to try something by him that you might like better. i’ve actually really disliked a lot of his books but that one i adore
 
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lady stoneheart said:
john irving is very hit or miss for me. i recommend Until I Find You if you want to try something by him that you might like better. i’ve actually really disliked a lot of his books but that one i adore
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I appreciate the recommendation, but I only ended up getting a copy of Garp because I liked a song named after it from a 1984 Al Stewart album. While it was acceptable as a novelty read stemming from that, I wasn't impressed enough with Irving's style to dig any further into his catalogue. As a contrast to that, when I read The Blood Oranges (the movie is apparently shit and I never watched it, in case anyone brings it up) years ago, I eventually ended up hunting down every single thing John Hawkes wrote. Irving does nothing to foster that impulse in me.
 
Black Dog Legends by Mark Newman. An indepth look into ghost dog sightings in the British Isles, and the psychology surround the legends. Looking for information that pertains to my wifes family as they have a black dog legend of their own.
 
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I just read The Status Game by Will Storr. If you ever wondered the psychology behind Twitter pileups, SJW purity spirals, and why the culture war is so fucked up, this book does a very good job of explaining it.
 
The Art of War, did read an english version a long time ago, but now i have a german translation.
its pretty dull in the way its written for a machiavelli book but its very interesting.
 
shameful existence said:
I must have slept through the alleged antisemitisms, but I did notice Orwell wasn't fond of gays.
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There are a fair few examples of anti-gay sentiment in Orwell's writing. I get the impression it was part of his insistence on being a "normal guy," in spite of being left-wing. You know -- "I'm just a regular joe! I slurp tea out of the saucer and sing along with the national anthem just like everyone else. I'm not a hippie or ivory tower intellectual weirdo." (I say this all as a big Orwell fan, and as someone who enjoys his half-affected stodginess.)
 
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At the beginning of this month I started Dostoyevsky's Demons. It's incredible so far. Several characters in it give me the impression that they'd be lolcows if they existed today. Verkhovensky is shaping up to be my favourite. It feels so good to be reading a Dostoyevsky novel after so long. :)
 
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shameful existence said:
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An audiobook. I expected this one to be depressing and political, but it's more of an honest and even semi-lighthearted testimony about what poverty looks like and how people survive it. Empathetic, often funny, with a bunch of stories from all kinds of dirty places including jails, homeless shelters and posh restaurants. One of the books that are currently being burned. I must have slept through the alleged antisemitisms, but I did notice Orwell wasn't fond of gays.
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A horror book by a young Dutch author. Quite an original idea, didn't translate into a a good scary story. My biggest problem with this one was that it reads like a young adult fiction and features way too many teenage characters. Gets darker and deeper in the second half though and ends up in a frantic apocalyptic mess. There was some new atheism style moralizing that annoyed me a bit. Overall, I wish someone grabbed the idea and made something truly great out of it.
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I've been meaning to read some of Orwell's novels (besides the obvious two). I've read his essays and articles a lot; and I always enjoy something he wrote BESIDES Animal Farm and 1984. The more I've read besides those two the more I've thought this guy is a great writer
 
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Kingsley Amis's novel The Old Devils. Old people in Wales with a troubled past, and a dull present which is about to take a turn, all in brilliant detail. Love the guy; username in fact comes from his first novel.
 
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Lucky Jim said:
I've been meaning to read some of Orwell's novels (besides the obvious two). I've read his essays and articles a lot; and I always enjoy something he wrote BESIDES Animal Farm and 1984. The more I've read besides those two the more I've thought this guy is a great writer
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"Homage to Catalonia" is great.
 
I spent the day listening to 'Alpharius: Head of the Hydra', written by Mike Brooks. If you've any interest in Warhammer 40k you will enjoy how unbelievably fucky the book is with your understanding not only of Alpharius-Omegon but also the entire founding of the Imperium.
 
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Just finishing "Witches, James I and the English Witch-Hunts" by Tracy Borman.

Damned thing's infuriating. I already knew the history and the social, economic, and political implications but THIS BOOK (if yer a woman) makes you wanna go out and KICK the first guy you find. With such lovely quotes from "authorities" as (slightly paraphrasing) "Woman are like chamber pots; something you want to hide away after a man has pissed in it." And other sage quips by a bunch of sadistic, perverted witch hunters, "holy" men, and fucking asshole medieval lawyers.

Now excuse me while I go stick pins in a buncha vaguely man-shaped blobs of wax.
 
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