What are you reading right now?

[YourFriendlyLurker 2.0]

I have completed Blindsight and Echopraxia by Peter Watts and holly molly I have so much to say and will have even more once the dust in my brain settles. Those are quite hard books to chew and the language Watts uses doesn't make it easier. If the things like “Chinese Room” or “Philosophical Zombie” do not ring any bells for you, my honest advice is to put those books away. If they do though, you are in for a ride.

Somehow it reminds me of The Passenger of McCarthy which I loved. However, if The Passenger (not Stella Maris) theoretically can be read just as psychological drama without the deep dive into the math, physics, philosophy, etc, or just be enjoyed for McCarthy's language, with Watts it’s not gonna work. You either get it or you close the book, especially, the Blindsight.

What I loved: General idea, characters, the horror side of the story, aliens (fucking good ones, fully justifying the word “alien”), and the fact that Watts put a “sources” clause at the end of the book referencing the concepts he used. Thanks to that, I have found there are a couple of things to read on concepts that got me interested.

What I didn’t love: sometimes the flow of events becomes obscure, bordering on a total loss. Language – the amount of terms makes the book hard to read. Not impossible of course, just hard.

PS: if you by any chance will read it, look HERE. Maybe those books will be adapted one day, but that alone is freaking piece of work.

 

[Professor G. Raff]

Just finished A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. Fantastic, I was disappointed when I finished it because I could have been reading a story like that for much longer.

This was on my maybe list for quite awhile, but due to running out of books to read just seeing your post pushed me over the motivation threshold to read it.

I like the book a fair bit, though it turned it out to be different than I thought only knowing the bare minimum. Probably good to know for those getting into it that it is the story of a world rather than a story focused on individual characters which I learned abruptly when Brother Francis got fucking 360 no-scoped between the eyes and eaten by a mutant. After that I knew what I was in for, though my predictions of things connecting didn't pan out since the time skips where far longer than I expected.

There are weird things in the story I don't really get which maybe is linked to Catholicism knowledge. I was really surprised they didn't follow up on Benjamin at all, it's weird to have this centuries old guy without explanation - I thought he was gonna be like an android built by Lebowitz before the flame deluge or something.

 

[Super Guido]

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I don't read much, but this one's got my attention.

 

[The Heartthrob]

A lot of kid books from the 90s. Right now I'm burning through the American Girl books. It's fun, easy, and nostalgic, but reading always felt like a jail sentence as a kid so it's nice to reclaim that a bit too.

 

[Frostnipped Todger]

I listen to audio books at work, so I always have a few on the go. Currently these are the three I'm listening to.

Edit; hopefully these are all thumbnail photos, I'm a phone poster.

 

[Teresa77]

I've been reading the Twisted Tales of the Disney stories. Yea, I know - Disney. But these books are really adult, even more than YA in a lot of ways. There is some imagery that was a bit shocking to me and there are a lot of really heavy subjects in the books I've read so far - "Part of Your World", "Once Upon a Dream", and "A Whole New World".

 

[glass_houses]

I've been reading the Twisted Tales of the Disney stories. Yea, I know - Disney. But these books are really adult, even more than YA in a lot of ways. There is some imagery that was a bit shocking to me and there are a lot of really heavy subjects in the books I've read so far - "Part of Your World", "Once Upon a Dream", and "A Whole New World".

The original versions of fairy tales, before the Grims 'collected' them, were often really fucking brutal and intended for adults. The Grim versions were still pretty nasty by delicate modern sensibilities. Good to hear that Disney is finally paying tribute to the source.

 

[Power Glove]

Stephen King - Desperation, I've always liked that book, certainly the beginning. Good for lazy evening readings far as I'm concerned.

 

[actually a cat]

Stephen King - Desperation, I've always liked that book, certainly the beginning. Good for lazy evening readings far as I'm concerned.

It's very good, it was actually written as a two part book with his other novel "The Regulators" which takes place with the same characters in an alternate universe. I tried to get into it, but I just couldn't. Desperation is much better.

Ninja edit> I forgot to add, you do not need to read one to read the other, each is a standalone story.

 

[Kerr Avon]

The Laidlaw series by William McIlvanney

Scottish crime fiction written on the late 70s to mid 80s and one in '91.

I've heard jt described as tartan noir but that comes across as faggy and pretentious. I came across these waiting for the next book in the Harry Mccoy series by Alan Parks.

 

[WolfeTone]

Time to go back through this utter insanity again
Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana

 

[glass_houses]

Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost. Manga by Kaori Yuki. She's been one of my favourite mangaka for many years. She loves European culture, mythology and fairy tales, and she always does these weird and massively fucked up spins on them. I have hope that her series about the 1880s German necrophile who had the fetish for dead chicks with big tits will one day get an official English language release, but I'm not holding my breath.

This new series is apparently a mash up of Beauty and the Beast and Red Riding Hood. The main character of course had an abusive and traumatic childhood, and there are also Yuki's trademark human flesh eating zombies. So far no incest but it's surely only a matter of time.

I really wonder about the way Kaori Yuki was raised. She writes and draws some really good shit, but I don't think she's entirely right in the head.

 

[Rickenbacker]

Being the Wendigoon simp I am I’ve started reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Wanted to read it before I watch his new video on it. Did the same with No Longer Human

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I finished two novels this month, one a while back but I didn't write about it here, I think.

Gangsters of Shanghai: The Most Dangerous Police Beat in the World was a middling book in that genre (doesn't have a name to my knowledge) of historical fiction that isn't schmaltz but isn't high literature either. The premise of it is that it is set in Warlord Era Shanghai and is about an International policeman from Ireland, Shanghai having been carved up among the Great Powers. It's the same setting as what Rockstar's planned "Whore of the Orient" would have been. The setting itself is wonderful - a bustling cosmopolitan metropolis set against the backdrop of a conflict that's both backwards and ancient-feeling (Warlord Era, Japanese conquest) and very modern. The thing just kind of wanders around, being part what I think of as biographical fiction (like the memoirs of a fictional character) and eventually detective thriller. The writing is perfectly competent, but where it lost me was that I just plain didn't like the conflict it wound up setting up, and near the end it just started becoming too goofy, the protagonist ends up going through three different romantic interests in succession in a book of less than 400 pages (none of them developed enough to warrant one book) and everything involving the Nazis/Jews near the end is pure cringe. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good either.

Straight Man by Russo was a lot more interesting to me for personal reasons. This book is basically a comedy about academia (English department), a department chair goes through something like a crisis. It's hard to describe because there isn't a plot, despite what the book initially leads you to believe. My interest in it came from it being adapted into a new TV show, Lucky Hank, and the character (pissed off academic in conflict with everyone around him, threatens to kill geese) resonated with me. What I liked, up until about the last sixth of the book, was that the thing is hilarious and fun. The department chair has this personality that he's sort of a jokester, often genuinely mean in his compulsion to dig at everyone around him, but with a genuine wit and humor towards life that makes him charismatic in a different way than many worse characters, but instead actually seems like a good personality. Someone that a person would want to be more like. The department is full of petty children in adults bodies that constantly scheme against each other like they're fighting for the Soviet throne while insulting and needling each other like high school girls (accurate).

What I love about it is that, aside from just enjoying the goofy crap that goes on (it's a lot like the literary version of a sitcom, mundane events of life that are elevated to absurdity through the clash of over-the-top personalities), it always has a story to tell about each character and place. That's something you see in a lot of good writing, the introduction of a character is an opportunity to springboard into a short story about something amusing from their past, that makes these people feel more real than real life.

Unfortunately, the book ultimately forgets it needs a plot. It sets up a lot of plots, and then just bumbles its way into ending. The last time this happened to me was The Unincorporated Man, which was top-notch writing that just fell apart because the author teased like there was a point to it. And so I'm left at the end, holding it, confused that nothing happened but a string of events. I still liked it, though. It may have shit the bed, but both of those books were still riveting for large sections of it.

 

[WolfeTone]

 

[Bravefart]

Gangsters of Shanghai: The Most Dangerous Police Beat in the World was a middling book

It's a pity you didn't enjoy this one much but I'm glad you told us about it. I would love a good adventure series of a fictionalised Fairbairn and his Reserve Unit but if all we have is an OK book then I'll take what I can get. I've attached a book about some of his real antics and, man, the potential is endless.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

It's a pity you didn't enjoy this one much but I'm glad you told us about it. I would love a good adventure series of a fictionalised Fairbairn and his Reserve Unit but if all we have is an OK book then I'll take what I can get. I've attached a book about some of his real antics and, man, the potential is endless.

Fairburn does appear as a minor character (the policeman is part of the Reserve Unit, but it's not the main focus) and it makes references to their training methods and martial arts.

Edit: Also, the protagonist has a lot of sympathy for Communists, not necessary Communism but individual people suffering under KMT. That doesn’t make the book bad (does a character have to share your biases?) but it bothered me more and more near the end.

 

[Meat Target]

Yesterday, I marathoned through about half of House of Leaves. I never thought a schizopost proto-creepypasta could be so compelling.

 

[Womble of Wimbledon]

I bought a cheapo copy of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for a long haul flight. Really enjoyed what I have read of it, it is a novel masquerading as a 14th century monastic manuscript about a murder mystery. I love that as a concept.

 

[AnOminous]

I bought a cheapo copy of The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for a long haul flight. Really enjoyed what I have read of it, it is a novel masquerading as a 14th century monastic manuscript about a murder mystery. I love that as a concept.

I loved this. It helped that I was also taking Latin at the time because it's really heavy on that shit. You could also pick up on some of the quirks of church Latin vs. classical.