What are you reading right now?

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I read Agatha Christie's The ABC murders and Murder on the Nile. Both are fantastic, the first one I partially got the culprit but thought it was a conspiracy of multiple people, in the second one I already noticed a lot of signs of whodun it, but couldn't piece out how they did it so I basically stumbled blind throughout the book. Overall I think the stories were better than Sherlock Holmes novels by having an actual cast and not veering into completely unrelated plot lines the second half. Murder on the Nile is better character wise, but ABC is probably the one that's more fun to piece out how the crime was done.
Now to see if I can order Ten Little Niggers.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Finished reading Descartes' Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy and really enjoyed it. I found my own ideas seemed to match his philosophy fairly closely. I'm Currently reading Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge and Three Dialogues. I'm not really sold on the concept of immaterialism, but I'm going to make it my goal to at least get to a point where I can at least defend it.

Overall I think the stories were better than Sherlock Holmes novels by having an actual cast and not veering into completely unrelated plot lines the second half.

I think some of the longer stories with disconnected second halves shows Doyle's weariness with the genre. He was basically forced to keep writing Holmes when he wanted to branch out and write different things (to the point where he tried to kill off the character, but was forced to clumsily bring him "back to life"). I honestly think that was his way of trying to do something different within his limitations; most of the unrelated plots could probably have been proper stories of their own if not shackled to a Sherlock Holmes mystery. I still genuinely like Holmes stories though, flawed as they can be.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I think some of the longer stories with disconnected second halves shows Doyle's weariness with the genre. He was basically forced to keep writing Holmes when he wanted to branch out and write different things (to the point where he tried to kill off the character, but was forced to clumsily bring him "back to life"). I honestly think that was his way of trying to do something different within his limitations; most of the unrelated plots could probably have been proper stories of their own if not shackled to a Sherlock Holmes mystery. I still genuinely like Holmes stories though, flawed as they can be.

It might be true for Valley of Fear, but the first two novels were before the character was killed and had that side plot, while Hounds is a fantastic novel without a huge side story dropped on the reader.
Holmes does work very well as short stories though.

 

[K!w!Fartz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9ZEt3UnJs&t=27503s pretty good audio book. lots of science fiction.

 

[ZazietheBeast]

Re-reading the entirety of Battle Angel Alita and its sequel, Last Order. While a movie does exist, its important to remember it changed the setting a shitton just to condense 2 volumes worth of plot points into one movie.

If I had to give a summary of the whole series its this.

Battle Angel Alita / Gunnm - involves Alita growing up as a cyborg in a horrible cybernetic dystopian hell managed by a megacorp and criminals. So expect to see technology abuse of all kinds. Such as purposely crippling someone just to see if they can overcome it and change their fate. Also how people would do all manner of terrible things in order to exist in such a society.
TL;DR: Mad Max with Karate in Bladerunner

Last Order - explores the concept above further but with far greater fish. You get to see how said dystopian society is the result of an overclass who are also subject to an ever-changing landscape of technology with their own issues above with literal stellar empires. But this particular series takes a gander at the price of immortality and the true cost of letting technology completely dominate your life as well as the fragility of governance thanks to ever shifting technology and all types of players that can wreck the game.
TL;DR: Someone trying to make a Space Opera story but new writers keeping getting shuffled in and scramble things around. In a good way.

Mars Chronicle - Alita's Backstory and how the galaxy became such a shithole.

The main reason I love this series is because it does a pretty good job exploring transhumanism and the human experience quite well. You can actually see the protagonist develop and evolve thanks to her evershifting circumstances. The girl you meet in Vol 1 won't be the same at Vol 5. And considering how the elites nowadays are obsessed with control and transhumanism, I can see this book series only becoming more relevant over time.

 

[Homo neanderthalensis]

REAMDE by Neal Stephenson. I am listening to the audiobook.

 

[Soseki]

Heart of Darkness. It's the first time I'm reading Conrad and I am in love with his style; simple at one point and complicated at another, but always dense and descriptive. If anyone has recommendations on what other work of his I should look into, I'd love to hear.

 

[Solid Rasky]

Currently reading Pynchon's "Inherent Vice". It's my first time ever reading anything by Pynchon and I have wanted to check his stuff out for years. I heard "Inherent Vice" was an easy way to get into him and I am enjoying it so far. It really reads as if it were a Tarantino film (as gay as that sounds lmfao). From the one-liners to the zany characters and jokes riddled about I can really see his appeal. Thinking of reading "Mason & Dixon" or "The Crying Of Lot 49" afterward.

 

[Solid Rasky]

Mishima's Life For Sale. Not a masterpiece but a doddle to a read. Very fun and humorous (vampires, suicide, and nihilism) and only recently translated. I also read Mishima's his very short story Star which I preferred over Confessions which I can't stand.

View attachment 3594787

I found it to be rather bland toward the end which made it hard to enjoy. I'm really glad you're finding it fun, Mishima is an excellent writer and very poetic with the way he describes appearances and surroundings.

 

[Open Window Maniac]

I recently finished The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton. I'd recommend it, it was a pretty fun read. I really like how things escalate with Smye's infiltration of the Anarchists' Council and him trying to crack the nut that is Sunday. I will admit I'm going to have to re-read it in the future because there was definitely some aspects I didn't get. I did enjoy it quite a bit and I'll be on the look out for more of Chesterton's work in the future.

Currently I'm reading To Have And Have Not by Earnest Hemmingway. Hemmingway's prose I feel is pretty breezier so it's easy to get swept up in his stories. It's about a fisherman down on his luck doing some human trafficking as a way to make some cash. I just got to the part where the main character Harry kills Mr. Sing. That was a little shocking to me because it just happens so casually. I was also a little surprised how casually the words "chink" and "nigger" are thrown about. I'm not here to cancel Hemmingway or anything, I just wasn't expecting that coming of his other works like Old Man and the Sea or For Whom the Bell Tolls. All that said, I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

 

[Hazel Motes]

Currently reading Pynchon's "Inherent Vice". It's my first time ever reading anything by Pynchon and I have wanted to check his stuff out for years. I heard "Inherent Vice" was an easy way to get into him and I am enjoying it so far. It really reads as if it were a Tarantino film (as gay as that sounds lmfao). From the one-liners to the zany characters and jokes riddled about I can really see his appeal. Thinking of reading "Mason & Dixon" or "The Crying Of Lot 49" afterward.

Despite its length, I would recommend Mason & Dixon over The Crying of Lot 49. The latter is too compact and requires re-reading.

I read Vineland first, but only because I found it cheap in a charity shop. It was OK. On the level of Inherent Vice. Nobody seems to talk about it, but I didn't hate it.

And as for your point about Mishima, I think he works better in shorter works. His endings (or rather moving towards the last few lines) are usually lackluster.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Honestly, I’m this close to reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of The Rings” series out of spite since every time I hear about the live action update, it’s just filled with negative press.

Also, is it true that his son Christopher did not like Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of the books? I keep forgetting that that was the case, but I personally had no issues with The Fellowship of The Ring or The Hobbit adaptations. It seemed a lot fun when I was younger, even if I didn’t read the books at the time.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

Also, is it true that his son Christopher did not like Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation of the books?

Yup, that's correct. He said something like "it's not my father work", too plebeian, I guess. Makes my noggin joggin, what he thinks about nigger elves?

In the meantime: Finished "Canticle for Leibowitz". It's a great book. Sad, melancholic. Just wait for plastic "Jesus". After that I'll give a shot a Dark Tower series by King. I don't have some high expectations to be hones. I'll power through "Roland", then read vol 2 and 3. I'm curious if it really does get better.

Side note: My edition of "Roland" has two forewords. I don't know why, but it made me laugh.

 

[AnOminous]

In the meantime: Finished "Canticle for Leibowitz". It's a great book. Sad, melancholic. Just wait for plastic "Jesus".

This won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Think about that for a minute and then think about the absolutely forgettable trash that wins that award now.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

This won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Think about that for a minute and then think about the absolutely forgettable trash that wins that award now.

I'd rather not. I don't wish to be sad.

 

[kaien]

This won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. Think about that for a minute and then think about the absolutely forgettable trash that wins that award now.

And it beat out some fuckin bangers for the 1961 award. "Rogue Moon" is one I really dug when I was younger, good quick pocket-book read if you can find it.

 

[Open Window Maniac]

Yup, that's correct. He said something like "it's not my father work", too plebeian, I guess. Makes my noggin joggin, what he thinks about nigger elves?

In the meantime: Finished "Canticle for Leibowitz". It's a great book. Sad, melancholic. Just wait for plastic "Jesus". After that I'll give a shot a Dark Tower series by King. I don't have some high expectations to be hones. I'll power through "Roland", then read vol 2 and 3. I'm curious if it really does get better.

Side note: My edition of "Roland" has two forewords. I don't know why, but it made me laugh.

Being meaning to get my hands on Canticle and read it for a while now.

 

[Kerr Avon]

Some fun stuff for once.

Walking Tall is pretty paint by numbers but still great fun

The Blues Brothers is one of those juicy movie novelizations packed with extra stuff that never made it to the final film , by a guy that used to report for Crawdaddy back in the day.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Just finished a great novel, "Delta-v."

The story is hard science fiction in the vein of "The Martian." The premise of it is that, about ten years into the future, NewSpace is having a private space race. One of the big tech billionaires (any people and companies past present day are fictional, anything mentioned before is true) plans to mount the world's first asteroid mining mission, manned, to Ryugu, supported by the world's first antigravity ship. The main perspective of the story is from one of the miners, an underwater caver recruited due to his extensive experience with managing artificial air/pressure and saving his crew from an earthquake (has the right stuff).

There's basically three main acts, boot camp (candidate selection and training), the expedition's start, and then the never-ending cavalcade of disasters and crises once the expedition is underway. Mind, the expedition takes four years in an environment where they have to play IRL Minecraft on the asteroid. Techbro turns out to be a massively corrupt and criminal fraudster whose machinations turn the expedition into Hell and force

Something that's interesting is that, written back in 2018, the book mentions the World Economic Forum and Davos by name (in positive contexts). There's a bit of usual sci-fi globohomo faggotry, mostly in the form of Chinese space wankery, cosmopolitanism, and climate change. None of those are distracting, though, it's not "woke."

Overall, weak and sometimes clumsy characterizations (a reflection of it being another space survival story, like The Martian), but very strong thriller with a very real-feeling world. Is a rare book that uses space law as a source of drama. 10/10, read the last 180 pages in a single sitting.

 

[WhiskeyJack]

Just finished a great novel, "Delta-v."

The story is hard science fiction in the vein of "The Martian." The premise of it is that, about ten years into the future, NewSpace is having a private space race. One of the big tech billionaires (any people and companies past present day are fictional, anything mentioned before is true) plans to mount the world's first asteroid mining mission, manned, to Ryugu, supported by the world's first antigravity ship. The main perspective of the story is from one of the miners, an underwater caver recruited due to his extensive experience with managing artificial air/pressure and saving his crew from an earthquake (has the right stuff).

There's basically three main acts, boot camp (candidate selection and training), the expedition's start, and then the never-ending cavalcade of disasters and crises once the expedition is underway. Mind, the expedition takes four years in an environment where they have to play IRL Minecraft on the asteroid. Techbro turns out to be a massively corrupt and criminal fraudster whose machinations turn the expedition into Hell and force

Something that's interesting is that, written back in 2018, the book mentions the World Economic Forum and Davos by name (in positive contexts). There's a bit of usual sci-fi globohomo faggotry, mostly in the form of Chinese space wankery, cosmopolitanism, and climate change. None of those are distracting, though, it's not "woke."

Overall, weak and sometimes clumsy characterizations (a reflection of it being another space survival story, like The Martian), but very strong thriller with a very real-feeling world. Is a rare book that uses space law as a source of drama. 10/10, read the last 180 pages in a single sitting.

Sounds similar to Michael Flynn's "Firestar", a book from 1996 that basically predicted SpaceX, right down to vertically landing reusable spaceships. Even has a female billionaire Musk-analogue, though with more of a libertarian-bent and a hatred of the public education system. Though they don't get around to the asteroids until the sequel, "Rogue Star".