What are you reading right now?

[Wodanaz]

I was reading Malice by John Gwynne but it's fucking terrible. Here's an excerpt:

According to the tales, Treasures had been forged from the starstone, seven Treasures–cauldron, torc, necklace, spear, dagger, axe and cup. Wars had been fought over them, culminating in Elyon’s wrath being stirred and dished out: the Scourging.

This is a description of world changing events in a fantasy setting. It is the most autistic and robotic way of describing such events. Culminating with the phrase "dished out". This is a god so powerful that it left gaping rents in the earth's flesh that are still visible hundreds of years later. You do not describe something like that with words like "dished out". I should have dropped the book there, but I continued for a bit longer before the will to go on completely deserted me. I suppose it's not the worst written prose I've ever read, but it is certainly mediocre as hell.

 

[Snazzy Sneedy Snake]

Currently reading The Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher for the third time (first was not long after Skin Game came out, second was before Peace  Talks released), on Cold  Days now. I always pick up more each time than before, which is pretty neat.

After I finish my reread of the series so far, I'm going to reread one of Butcher's other books, The Aeronaut's Windlass, before the next book in that series comes out. Think that's in November? I can't wait!

Husband and I are also listening to Andy Serkis narrate The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when we're in the car. He is honestly one of the best narrators I've ever heard - he does all the voices and songs with such vibrancy and enthusiasm that it just makes me smile.

 

[EclecticMermaid]

I haven't been in the mood for fiction at all, I've been sticking to nature articles and sites. I'm not sure why, but fiction hasn't drawn me in at all.

 

[Jewthulhu]

I haven't been in the mood for fiction at all, I've been sticking to nature articles and sites. I'm not sure why, but fiction hasn't drawn me in at all.

Nature the science journal or articles about nature?

 

[Commissar Fuklaw]

I haven't been in the mood for fiction at all. I'm not sure why, but fiction hasn't drawn me in at all.

I've been like this for a long time, it's why I started writing again. I read the blurb or the first page of new books and just give up, like there's something in my brain that doesn't want to deal with stupid fantasy names or gay plot lines or some shit and I just put it back on the shelf.

 

[Frostnipped Todger]

I just finished Blood meridian and The Road and they were just as brilliant as everyone made them out to be. Mccarthy's prose is amazing and he really captures the sheer terror of living in an apocalyptic world with no hope and describing the savagery of the American West in the mid 19th century. I might read No Country for Old Men next but which of his other books are classics?

I really enjoyed "All the Pretty Horses". I've spent a bit of time in northern Mexico, and his descriptions of the landscape and the towns were incredible.

 

[Pomniman]

Finished A Fan's Notes. Probably the only book I've ever read where the protagonist slowly goes from pontificating on "the plight of the negro" to drunkenly picking a streetfight with some random hipster and his black friend by calling him a nigger-loving faggot about a decade later.

 

[cold comfort]

The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton was pretty great. It's allegorical, dealing with the struggle between order and goodness vs. chaos, anarchy, and pessimism. Obvious christian symbolism as well, but never preachy because of the absurdity of the whole narrative. The writing is great, with lots of alliteration, and it's just fun to read on a moment-to-moment level as well.

I wasn't a fan of Lem's The Invincible. The mystery was intriguing at first (the Invincible uncovers unsettling clues when it travels to a remote planet to figure out what happened to their sister ship), but the eventual conclusion was underwhelming. Maybe it was an innovative concept sixty years ago but it's quite common now. On top of that the characters, writing, and the later plot are so barebones that it fell flat on every front for me.

Today, I started reading Flowers of Mold, a korean short story collection. I'm only two stories in, but I'm already seeing a lot of repeated or related imagery: rotting fruit and wilting flowers, dreams of flying, stopped clocks. Girls who feel betrayed by their own bodies. Really liking it so far.

 

[AnOminous]

I wasn't a fan of Lem's The Invincible. The mystery was intriguing at first (the Invincible uncovers unsettling clues when it travels to a remote planet to figure out what happened to their sister ship), but the eventual conclusion was underwhelming. Maybe it was an innovative concept sixty years ago but it's quite common now. On top of that the characters, writing, and the later plot are so barebones that it fell flat on every front for me.

One of my favorite Lem books is A Perfect Vacuum, which is a collection of reviews of imaginary books. It's almost Borgesian.

 

[Mythic]

Currently reading "How To Read And Why" by Harold Bloom. His lecture on Moby Dick was inspirational, I've seen other lectures of his throughout the years so I decided to see what else he would recommend. I want to get into reading more classical literature and it seems reading Shakespear and the Bible is the best way to start.

 

[Meat Target]

Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires. It's like TLOU or The Road, set during the Bubonic Plague.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

Just finished I am legend. A bit too short for me for bigger impact, but really liked it. As much as you can like sad story about human's mutating into vampire-like abominations.
Interesting read also for reason of getting into mentality of pre-goyslop brain rot.

Next one is Grombelardzka legenda. Wstęgi Aleru



I never expected to be a series' enjoyer.

 

[internet friend]

I'll be honest, I'm not much of a reader but I've decided to revisit City by Clifford Simak again. Something about his writing always felt very touching and human.

 

[Reverse Ideology]

Going to start reading Vestal by Charlee Jacob. If you want to read extremely graphic horror I can recommend her, but let me emphasis that she writes some seriously fucked up books. Try reading Dread in the Beast, spoiler: there is a lot of shit involved.

“Before tonight Dorien thought she understood what evil consisted of. It was graphic, intentional of blunt force and explicit with gore. It grinned as it turned cities into abattoirs, dancing without subtlety with blood splashed to further inflame already burning loins. Evil was extreme, unspeakable, relentless violence. Its aim was to dismantle you unto your most sacred atoms, rape your soul into uncreation, rip your sanity from asshole to lips, and snort the names of your most sacred beliefs until you were damned forever in the five-second high it enjoyed immediately after.”

 

[Quantum Diabetes]

Dungeon crawler carl book 6, the Eye of the Bedlam bride . The audible narrator already does a Patrick Warburton voice, and they got the real thing for a cameo

 

[Deogracias]

Worm, which is a, well, I guess you could call it a dark, superhero deconstruction story if you want to be a total nerd about it. It was good until it wasn't, but I'm willing to see it to the end anyway. But boy, to say that its reception is mixed is an understatement.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

Just finished reading The Sum of all Fears by Tom Clancy. Clancy is a classic for spy thrillers and this one is about a terrorist nuke. It was made into a movie in 2003 but I knew the plot was changed so I didn't think it would matter that I saw it. I was right, the book was vastly superior. And reading it makes it pretty obvious why Hollywood changed the villains to a made up neo-nazi org that made no sense whatsoever: Clancy goes pretty hard on Israel for a neocon boomer. He shits on them for being too paranoid to adapt to a new status quo, too proud to pay attention and know when to ask for help and too eager to try and take things into their own hands and talk back to the USA. He even mentions the USS Liberty in a passage! Sure the quote comes from one of the palestinean terrorists but still, you can tell that would never fly in a Hollywood movie!

My main criticism is that the ending feels a bit rushed, and the situation is resolved a bit too cleanly to be realistic to the point it strains any realism it was going for. I know the book is already pretty big but it could have used a few more chapters to evolve consequences, investigation into the attack and resolution of it. Not to mention the effects of such a thing happening in the USA.

 

[Safir]

I'm creeped the fuck out. I don't recommend it to anyone who has suffered at the hands of a narcissist or a sociopath. The close-up face panels, depiction of childhood trauma and mental illness, and seemingly ordinary slice-of-life facade, will make your flesh crawl.

God, that poor lady and her asswipe of a husband who lets the in-laws walk over his family.

 

[Commander Shepard]

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I by William Manchester. Manchester has pretty much cemented himself as one of my favorite biographers. I really liked his Douglas MacArthur (American Caesar). He's a very avid proponent of not judging a historical figure based on the standards of today, which seems appropriate considering how many people nowadays want to eviscerate every past statesman, from Churchill himself to fucking Abraham Lincoln of all people, that casts a long shadow.

I'm starting Volume II and will finish Volume III then probably dip back over to fiction before I find another biography or some more historical non-fiction.

 

[The Third Wright Brother]

I've been rereading Saint Augustine's Confessions again, and after diving far more deeply than the first time I read his works I can say that Augustine delivers both substance and form in this masterpiece. Ignoring the substance of his work (The utter travesty that would be), Augustine's prose can only be compared to a turbulent stream, the way it snakes through the pages of Confessions and deposits the rich sediment of his struggles, passions, and triumph). I've heard frmm more learned members of the Church that there are certain rhyming schemes in the original Latin that cannot be replicated in English. I will be learning Ecclesiastical Latin this year to compensate for this. Do any multilingual kiwis have any experience with rereading works in different languages than in their native tongue?