SugarFree
Finished the SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts. It stayed strong until the end of the books published so far in the series.
To finally quiet the people demanding that I read it so we could discuss it, I read The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson. I don’t know what is going on with Stephenson anymore. D.O.D.O. is either a horribly-ended book (a Stephenson specialty) or the beginning of a series I’m not all that interested in continuing. It cribbed and remixed a bunch of different time-travel ideas from a bunch of much better books (most notably, The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis,) brewed it in a cauldron with a few characters that are either poorly-written or just uninteresting, poured it into an epistolary framework that did no one any favors and served the concoction indifferently as a competitor to far superior libations. A few interesting ideas flaccidly toyed with. Blah.
I moved on to something I was more interested in, the new Charles Stross Laundry Files novel, The Delirium Brief. Delirium Brief brings Bob back to the center of the action and a villian we thought long dead and mixes in the storyline from Mo’s stand-alone book, The Annihilation Score, and the serious political fallout from the events of The Nightmare Stacks. I get that Stross doesn’t want to write the same book over and over again–and I don’t want him to write the same book over and over again–but the mounting themes of middle-age ennui and marital strife are a drag, Chuck; “Less artsy, more fartsy” as Homer Simpson so eloquently put it.
And then I got to the book I had been waiting for for a long time, the end of the Transformations trilogy by Neal Asher, Infinity Engine. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Asher is just all science fiction high concept, wide-screen, technicolor blowshitupism. Unfolding from the events of Asher’s stand-alone novel, The Technician, the Transformation series covers one man’s war of revenge against an insane Artifical Intelligence implicated in a monstrous war crime of which he is the only known survivor. Complications ensue–wonderful, violent complications that involve vast swaths of the Polity universe, Asher’s playground for fifteen of his novels so far. My only complaint is a small one: the series is not a traditional trilogy and is best read as one long book published in three parts; it should have been one massive tome.
Action-packed without being dumb, nuanced without being opaque, cosmic without disappearing up its own ass, Asher’s work is simply amazing. Read it. Read it now.
Brett L
I did my annual re-read of Taran Wanderer which is just about the most libertarian teen novel ever. If you have kids, or never got around to it, I highly recommend it. I also realized on this reading that I had long ago stolen a quotation from this book: “I’ve heard men complain about women’s work, and women complain about men’s work, but I’ve never heard the work complain about who does it.” I think my oldest is already tired of hearing: “the work doesn’t care who does it”.
Then I read The Blade Itself, by Joe Abercrombie. Now maybe I’ve just completely burned out on the Sword & Sorcery genre, but I found this a completely inoffensive novel with some fun tweaks of the genre. And I have absolutely no desire to read the sequel. The once great kingdom has fallen to decadence, heroes are proven and gathered, and they are — at the end of the book, ready to set off on a Great Quest. That I don’t care about in the least.
Old Man With Candy
Besides the rather dull technical books that I love, I’ve been on an American writer kick. So to get myself out of that rut, I’ve returned to one of my favorite British writers, the one and only Eric Blair. Coming Up For Air was written and set in 1939 England, with the war about to engulf the island. It is structured as a memoir of a man who is living the proverbial life of quiet desperation and attempts to regain at least a small taste of the past. The wonderful thing about this novel is to see Blair becoming Orwell, with now-familiar motifs being presented in beta form. Absolutely delightful.
Riven
Well, I finished up the Sandman Slim series, or rather I finished reading all of the books that have been published. The end of The Kill Society would have been fine if there had been another book to pick up after it, but since that wasn’t the case, I was pretty disappointed. It was definitely not what I would consider a “real ending,” where most of the plot is wrapped up, nice and neat. I’ve heard it said that there will be more books to follow, and I do look forward to reading them. I’m hopeful the series will wrap at some point in the next couple/few books because I can’t stand when a series goes on long enough that it languishes. I have definitely enjoyed the ride, though. As I mentioned last month, I really dig the universe in which the story takes place. The fact that God and Lucifer are both just a couple of jerks, more or less, cracks me up, and all of the faith-based shenanigans and tomfoolery have been very entertaining, especially given my already tenuous grasp on the subject.
I received two recommendations after I lamented the end of current reading material in the Sandman Slim series–one from HM and one from SF. Go ahead and guess who recommended which: The Skinner and Pimp: The Story of My Life. Usually I’m a one-book-at-a-time kind of woman, but I’m trying to read both of these at the same time. We’ll see how that goes.
jesse.in.mb
After last month’s WAWR I finished two more Audible audiobooks: Moby-Dick, which was 21 hours of unabridged audiobook…21 hours. I’m glad I’ve checked it off my list, but my interested waxed and waned quite while mainlining this over a few days. Much shorter was Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. After chancing on a collection of essays and short stories, I’ve been not quite on a kick, but paying more attention to Butler. Her works are still fresh and different (Wild Seed came out in 1980) without being so unconventional as to be pretentious or jarring. I highly recommend.
My Amazon’s Kindle First read was Soho Dead by Greg Keen. The novel was a light murder mystery in a seedy part of town and with seedy people who are trying to go straight.
Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. So I found out that there’s a potential chain of events that might lead to me moving on short notice right before Christmas and I figured now would be the right time to read a book on debulking. My main exposure to Kondo’s books—and the KonMari method in general—has been the strong responses, both cultish fandom and revulsion to her method. I don’t know that I completely buy into her position but she has decent advice on clearing away the cruft in one’s life and her perspective on our relationship to our stuff is an oddly Shinto-inflected utilitarianism, which keeps things interesting. For those who like more pictures and less text there is now The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story, which I’m half-tempted to read next.
I’m rereading the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe for the first time in about ten years or so. Which, considering my predisposition for depression, probably isn’t a wise decision. Oh well.
You should wash that down with some Kafka. To cheer you up a bit
And Malamud. Always good to tip you over the edge into full suicidal.
I’ve never read his stuff, but every time I’ve read Kafka (and I’ve read quite a bit) it takes me a full day to shake-off the feeling of despair and futility the pervades all of his work. He’s probably one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, but my God man, lighten-up Kafka!
I think this is actually one of the most (if not *the* most) common, widespread misconceptions and misreadings of any author
Kafka is actually *hilarious*.
What you read as depressingly grim, existential dispair…. is actually a very particular German/Jewish sense of humor which i think is hard for most modern Westerners to get. Especially intellectuals/academics
Its sort of like the old Road-Runner+Coyote idea of the 10,000lb weight being dropped on someone and smooshing them as flat as a pancake, and having them waddle off screen, paper-thin. Germans take that basic concept, but then extend it to existential/psychological trauma.
Its like the story of Job, only at the end he’s told there was a mixup with his paperwork and he’s going to have to start over.
Max Brod (K.’s friend and guy who saved his work from being destroyed) noted that Kafka would piss himself laughing when reading his own work aloud.
David Foster Wallace gave a speech in 1998 trying to explain Kafka’s humor; i haven’t read it, and glancing at it, he seems to get sort of hoity-toity intellectualish about it, but i assume he probably does do a good job breaking it down
https://harpers.org/wp-content/uploads/HarpersMagazine-1998-07-0059612.pdf
Oh, I get (((his))) sarcasm. Still depressing, though.
But, there is also the fact that his work is translated into English from German. So a lot of it may be lost in translation. I don’t know.
Then top it off with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
I’ve seen the flick….it was….yeah, that would do it.
Blood Meridian
Eh. You only live once!
Might as well be miserable doing it?
I’m just a Poe boy and nobody loves me.
(He’s just a Poe boy from a Poe family!)
Poe is the tits.
I think I’ll do the same.
These posts are triggering to those of us that are functionally illiterate
Not reading posts and commenting on whatever isn’t the definition of functional illiteracy. 🙂
Agree to disagree
Don’t let jesse fool you.
He’s reading the manga version because he’s a fucking pathetic weeb*.
*Video Related: That’s jesse.
I already linked the amazon page for the manga version. Considering my prior reviews of Shirtless Bear Fighter and Calexit, I’m totally down to read and review it. I just didn’t get to it this time.
The glasses really change his look.
Japan: A Short History by Mikiso Hane
Rereading the four texts on Socrates because the eldest son is in his first philosophy class.
It’s all thrilling stuff. ?
“eldest son is in his first philosophy class”
Keep him away from Hume
It’s a Catholic Classical school. They segue from Socrates to Aquinas pretty hard.
There will be a large section on Marx next year, but it’s not complimentary to him.
Are you sure? A lot of stuff on Marx is complimentary of his ideas, even if they decry the communist regimes that followed. Wrong people in charge, conditions were poor, you know the drill.
This school is most definitely not prog infested. But I follow the coursework all the same.
Is that one of the Chesterton Academies? There is a whole independent Catholic school movement that started in Minnesota that focuses on the old Scholastic teaching method. https://www.chestertonacademy.org/
No. It’s not affiliated with any program that I’m aware of. It’s heavy on classical method and Catholic faith. Western Civilization is held up as the standard to be measured against.
There is a distinct lack of those in places that aren’t subchrono timezones. Is the inter-house cup actually from older oxford traditions or did they just crib that shit from Harry Potter?
HOLY SHIT!
How do they allow this on Youtube? That’s some hot shit!
I have a personal rule not to click on anything that you link.
You can almost see bobs and vagene.
Don’t tempt me. I can’t trust your links
You show wisdom, Just Say’n.
*1000 yard stare*
I liked your post yesterday, Swiss. I only drove through Rockford once (on my way back from Galena I made a detour to Freeport to see the statue of the Lincoln-Douglas debate and decided to drive through Rockford), but the west side of the city reminds me of the suburb of Maywood which use to have a lot of industry nearby too (International Harvester use to employ 10,000 people there).
I see it is age restricted content. Should I log in to view it or not?
negatory
Thanks for the warning, I won’t.
I just started reading Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips. A short intro: it’s a mystery involving quantum physics, 7 dimensions, Fermi lab, and space travel. It grabbed me quickly and I’m half way through it already. It reminded me of a book by Clark or Bear. It uses a recent discovery in science, extrapolates some new theories based on the discovery, then builds a convincing mystery around it. The book spent little time on initial character development so far but a lot on Quantum Theory and a compelling story.
It is book one of the Quantum series, so I hope the others are already or will soon be completed. One big criticism so far is that the evil corporation seeking profit seems to at once be the villain, but at the same time drives the innovations needed to make a Great Leap Forward in knowledge and the future of mankind.
Try Diaspora by Greg Egan next. There’s none of the nonsense politics surrounding the plot.
Read it already. Thanks
Just finished A Fire Upon the Deep. Tremendous novel, very well written with some truly original ideas. I don’t understand how it didn’t beat out The Doomsday Book for both the Hugo (they tied) and the Nebula (it was nominated, but Doomsday won).
Loved it but was disappointed Vinge didn’t do more with the series. The prequel and sequel were good but not as good as the first.
The gave him the Hugo for the prequel which was written later, and at least as good. Also, if you haven’t read the stories collected in Across Realtime there’s some fun Libertarian Police stuff in there.
I have this in my library but haven’t read it yet. That’ll be my next read. Thanks for the tip.
Because Doomsday book has a college liberal arts major as the heroine
Huh I was just thinking about the tines today & what a fascinating species they are.
Finishing up Dead of Night by Randy Wayne White. Basic chill-out pulp.
I’m rereading There Will be War volumes 1 and 2 since they were free on Amazon with Jerry Pournelle’s passing. I’m listening to Warbreaker by Sanderson as I wait for Oathbringer to come out in November.
I used to have that entire series, pissed off that I can’t find like half of it.
That said I do somehow have 2 copies of A Step Further Out
Love those, and lost every one over the years.
Rereading the Complete works of Niven and friends,
Going to restart Man K’zin wars soon
Looks like “There Will be War” is a similar anthology format to “Imperial Stars” vol 1 & 2 – very interesting format of essays and stories focused on what sort of government actually functions in a interplanetary/intergalactic scale.
I’m about a quarter of the way through The Blade Itself and Brett’s review is perfection.
I enjoyed the trilogy. I don’t think it goes where or how you think it will and overall is really interestingly done. I would recommend finishing it.
Also, good job finishing Moby Dick. I tried to read it — I can’t pay attention to audio books — but stopped shortly into the second chapter. I had just come off a big Heinlein kick, with his straight to the point, no fluff style, and after the first chapter dedicated to mankind’s love of the sea and the first few pages of the second chapter spent describing a painting on the wall of the entrance of the inn the character was to stay at before ever meeting the crew, I just couldn’t care anymore. I’ve always meant to try again; I remember it was one of Nicole’s favorites and she always spoke glowingly of it.
I actually enjoyed a lot if it, but really wanted to chop it up and reorder it into an action packed novel with a series of appendices at the end with information whales and whaling. The cadence of the story works as a whole, but is aggravating in the moment.
Also it needed some more explicit Ishmael/Queequeg slashfic. It’s not like Melville requires you to read too deeply between the lines as he describes them waking up spooning like a married couple at least once…
Don’t forget the scenes with all the sailors drenched with sperm.
That book is seriously gayer than The Valley of the Penises
I’m glad I was listening to it alone in the middle of nowhere because some of the paeans to loads and loads of high quality sperm had me giggling like a schoolgirl.
I like the trilogy a lot, but the standalone books “Red Country” and “Best Served Cold” are a little better on the whole.
The interesting thing for me – since I first read them back in ’08-’09 – is that at the time at least – they were far darker toned than a lot of the other mainstream fantasy I’d seen. The characters make some very interesting turns as you go through the trilogy – don’t want to give away spoilers, but it’s worth getting through the whole thing – but I felt let down by some of the twists and character development. It’s solid storytelling, but even more twisted than Alan Moore and Mark Millar and Garth Ennis on their darkest days.
About time for another noir kick, I think.
Just re-read Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me. Very dark, very grisly, very awesome. Highly recommended.
The Killer Inside Me
SF’s version is also very dark, very grisly and very awesome, but the body fluids spilled are a bit different.
Have you ever read it? It almost reads like SF’s cut at a crime novel.
Nope. I’ve enjoyed the noir I’ve read but it’s mostly been Chandler with a sprinkling of other authors.
I love Chandler and Hammett, but Thompson, Cain, Woolrich, Ellroy are absolutely worth the time, as well.
I’ve got Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock in my sights next. Anyone read it?
Robert Crais did a pretty good modernized version. Well, I would read The Monkey’s Raincoat through L.A. Requiem, as everything after isn’t as good. Mostly because LAR is basically the end of the Cole/Pike (Cole being the protagonist, and Pike his partner) charater arcs. He writes more after that, but its not as personally invested IMO. Crais’s side novels into other characters aren’t as good.
Yeah, I read a bunch of those. Lehane had a similar challenge. The first few were very compelling (A Drink After The War comes to mind), but eventually the magic dies.
I went on a binge a few years ago and read all of Thompson’s books. (plus fistfuls of similar stuff) His M.O. – the ‘damaged protagonist’ – is formulaic, but rich. they’re all damaged, but damaged in different ways. not quite “evil”, but a not-too-distant relative.
my fave was “Pop 1280“. Similar to Killer Inside Me, but more humorous. I think its roughly based on his father, who was an Oklahoma sheriff (or cop of some kind).
another book in that genre which is worth reading is “Shoot the Piano Player“. I can’t speak for the movie, which i know about, but never watched. Read the book first because i think the movie took it in a very different direction.
Pop 1280 is great. Thompson was a really disturbed cat. After Dark, My Sweet is another favorite.
I read most of Thompson’s work in college. Very good stuff.
I aint reading shit (spits)
I’m sorry to hear you’re letting your copromancy studies slide, Gilmore.
*blinks*
*begins to applaud*
*claps*
Coprophagia gives you hepatitis and typhus, but not the clap.
“I can’t figure out what you’re doing tomorrow, but I can see that you ate some corn last night.”
I spent a couple days sick last week. While recovering, I read the Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris. If you are interested in the late Roman republic, it’s really good.
On my commute to and from work, I have been listening to
https://mises.org/library/pearl-harbor-seeds-and-fruits-infamy
Percy Greaves has been doing a good job so far on the history of the entrance of the U.S. into WW2. Also, it’s helping me hate FDR even more than I already did, and that’s always good. The last couple audiobooks I have listened to I have gotten off Mises.org. They have a pretty good free library, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
The Mises Institute is ‘problematic’. This is known
Mises does the best work on economics I have actually taken a fee of their free online economic courses and they are great. They are publishing a series of podcasts on the history of the drug war right now that are also really good.
What’s the gripe about Mises? Did they associate with an anti semite or something?
Any libertarian organization that doesn’t throw their weight behind the left and the resistance in the ‘era of Trump’ is secretly an alt-right Nazi-sympathizing group don’t you know.
Yeah, i figure. Mises is one of my favorite places on the Internet for content. They have a massive library of audio, video, articles, amd text. When I feel like learning about something, they are a great resource.
I listened to a multiple hour lecture on the realities of the Great depression that was given at auburn a few months ago. It was good stuff.
Harris’ work is good because, unlike other authors like Colleen McCullough, he doesn’t constantly suck Caesar’s dick when he shows up.
Caesar was pretty much the bad guy all through the Cicero series. I did learn something I was unaware of. Ceasar, (julius) was the first Roman politician to get legislation through the Senate that gave the entitlement of free bread to the Roman citizens. He is the one who started the panem part of panem et circeses.
I thought Publius Clodius Pulcher started that?
I think this is right.
Pulcher was a tribune of the plebs, not a senator. He was also an ally of Ceasar. Ceasar was the senator who introduced the legislation in the senate. (The legislation also included a land reform bill that gave many of Ceasars veterans farms in italy.) Tribunes had no vote in the senate, but could veto legislation. Pulcher was a vocal proponent of free bread, but as a tribune, had no power to implement it.Ceasar used his influence as a senator and as consul to pass the law.
I recently re-read “Across the Wide Missouri” by Bernard Devoto. It is a 1947 history of the “mountain era” of the Rocky Mountain west. The quality of the history is less than excellent compared to later histories but the story is well told. I have an early printing with prints of over 90 Alfred Jacob Miller paintings which helps make the book fascinating.
Because I had several trans-Pacific flights I could really do some reading. I read more of McPhee’s “Annals of the Former World” and now have only 2 portions of North America to go.
I also read PJ O’Rourke with “How the Hell Did This Happen?” His collected writings on the 2016 election followed by his thoughts post election. If you like PJ’s writing you’ll enjoy this tome.
Because I had a work friend stop reading the Norse Myths because he couldn’t follow them I found “Norse Mythology” by Neil Gaiman. His telling of the myths uses modern idiom and sentence structure. I found it okay, but I enjoy the older versions more. My mid-30’s coworker is enjoying this version.
Finally, I have almost completed “The Fleet at Flood Tide” by James D. Hornfischer. This is an account of the Central Pacific Theater of seizing the Marianas’s islands and the subsequent B-29 campaign. So far it is as very interesting account and well documented. For anybody thinking that seizing and holding the Chinese “islands” in the South China Sea would be easy or inexpensive- read this.
BF and I listened to Gaiman’s Norse Mythology on a roadtrip and we got back to his place just before Ragnarok, so I need to listen to the last 15 minutes or so. It’s great if you’re not familiar with the stories in other contexts, but it wasn’t thrilling with a fairly strong background in the tales already.
Oddly enough, I’m reading A Life Wild and Perilous on the same topic (mountain man era).
I’m taking a break from the heaviness of bloodlands to reread HS Thompson. I love that man
“the heaviness of bloodlands”
The best parts of that book were the parts where one batch of Communist murderers became the victims of the next batch of Communist murderers, who then became the victims of the next batch of Communist murderers as the political winds from Moscow shift.
Yeah, I think I have a pretty strong constitution but I only read it in pieces. There’s only so much death to absorb before it starts itching my soul.
I read part of the Kindle sample and just couldn’t keep going. Heavy book as you say.
It should be required reading in every high school in the country. If you can read that and still think communism is a groovy idea, you are beyond help.
“In democracy you have to be a player.”
Absolutely my favorite Thompson video.
He was a true blue dog democrat. Fascinating character and had the tolerance of a bull. I really enjoy his style
OT, but why not. everyone else does it.
I just read Robby’s piece on TOS about the chick who stole the MAGA hat and it is unbelievably bad. I’m having a hard time understanding how it defends libertarianism in even the slightest way. That article is nothing but progressive drivel.
Linky cause I’m lazy?
http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/28/this-video-of-a-student-stealing-a-maga
Thank you for enabling me. 😀
will not click.
Soave doesn’t defend libertarianism, I’ve never seen him actually articulate anything close to libertarian philosophy. The only time he’s close is when his vapid, whinging personal beliefs vaguely match up with a libertarian position, and even then he never connects the two.
This. The guy is a whiny bitch who I agree with once in a while.
From yesterday? Yeah I recall some folks giving him hell for it. Myself included.
The worst part? That guy was asking to speak about free speech as part of the Spiked ‘No Safe Spaces’ tour. ENB and Robbie are speaking at the events. With free speech advocates like that, you might as well just embrace Big Brother
As far as I’m concerned Brendan O’Neill balances them out significantly.
Of course then you get more depressed because you realize the Marxist is better on free speech than the self-professed ‘libertarians’.
Fist, ProLib, Diane, et al holding down the comments fort.
its really just the same thing it always is:
theoretical defense of stuff like speech + property rights….
….combined with condemnation of the person whose speech + property rights were being infringed upon, + insinuation that the person violating was ‘triggered’, which really makes it all the speaker’s fault in the first place.
its his “have cake/eat cake” method by which he can pretend to be defending libertarian ideas, while rhetorically showing support for progressive ones. its all he ever does.
I particularly liked his condemnation of the Jones Act waver as “belated.” Any bets as to the date Robby first learned of the existence of the Jones Act?
Man, even for what Reason has become that was some weakass shit. What, pray tell, does Robbie think is the appropriate reponse to someone stealing your property?
“To be sure, stealing is wrong, but until you have internalized your privilege, you are not morally superior to them. You have stolen by virtue of your privilege.”
@BRETT
I’ve read this book when I was on a serious fantasy kick (like I read a book a week) and it had the exact same effect on me.
Read them all (through my headphones) and I will tell you that they are worth the read. Since you have finished the first, you know that Abercrombie is not the regular hack fantasy. Nothing will play out like you think. Full of shocking violence, sex, treachery, and politics. At least as good as GRR Martin.
So the sex doesn’t seem like it was written by a 14 year old virgin, the violence has actual meaning and implications for the characters and the story, and it isn’t chock full of unimportant plotlines and characters that go nowhere and do nothing to move the story forward?
I’m with you F-Poods. I really liked the series.
GLIB GODS: I just submitted a hastily thrown together Firearms Friday links. Use it, or don’t. Up to you. But it’s totes there if you want it.
Cool. I think SF already has some afternoon links together and is taking the same “use it or don’t” attitude, so I think we’re going to be busily crippled by indifference until one of us gets boozed enough to be decisive, but don’t worry, Brett’s hard at work on that front.
dare i suggest a merger?
Link-Link Marriage (LLM) will make some people uncomfortable even though it has no impact on their lives.
As long as I’m not forced to bake a cake.
You can get out of the baking duty if you loudly and pre-emptively celebrate LLM, causing the litigious to look for suppliers they can feel woke in bullying.
I’m in the middle of Unciv’s Omnibus and enjoying the hell out of it – to my somewhat surprise as it’s not my normal milieu.
What story are you on?
In the middle of Shadowdemon.
Ah, okay. I hope you enjoy the rest of the collection.
I’ll probably have more thoughts in a review but here’s a couple:
1. It reminds me a little of F. Paul Wilson, which is good because if there’s anything I didn’t want to end it was the Repairman Jack series
2. I don’t think I’ve encountered the word “shitlord” in any other literature – well done
me too!
**Disclaimer** I searched through the comments to make sure Kristen has not posted this book already. I am not liable for hepeating if somehow I missed it.
Snow and Steel Battle of The Bulge 1944-45. Most in depth account I’ve read.
K probably just picked that up from the library.
Related-
I work with large group of fairly intelligent blue collar people. Most are highly skilled at what they do and possess above average intelligence. You would be surprised how many haven’t read a book since high school. I can’t tell you how often I have had a discussion on a topic with someone and they are genuinely interested in the subject. I will then say something like, “hey, I have a couple books that will really explain this. do you want to borrow them?”, amd will get the resonse, “nah, I don’t reat books.” It’s frustrating. People need to read more. It’s the single best way to expand your knowledge.
My best friend in high school was like that. Very smart guy, could take anything apart and put it back together, sociable, fun… Had never finished a book in his life except for Heart of Darkness which he read for a class and it took him a month and you’d think he was having his fingernails torn out.
“I read!”
“Books, Jerry.”
“(pauses) Big deal!”
I think people overrate book reading. If you think about it, reading articles on the internet is functionally no different than reading books. If you’re on the internet a lot (youtube and porn excluded) then by default you’re doing a lot of reading. You wouldn’t think someone that read the paper a lot was ignorant or unlearned, the internet is no different.
You have a point, but books tend to dive way deeper into any given subject than Internet articles and newspapers. On any given subject, a 500 page book is going to contain much more information than an Internet article can.
Depends on the website. If you read random wikipedia articles every day you’re going to be a pretty knowledgeable little shit.
Sounds like vhyrus doesn’t read many books.
Guilty. My last one was the Glock Biography several years ago. I recently bought Cody Wilsons book but I’ve been having a hard time finding time to read it. I have a trip coming up so hopefully I remember to take it with me.
Reason posted an interview with Cody Wilson a year or so back. I could listen to that guy talk for hours.
I’m actually embarrassed that someone younger than me can be so much more awesome.
Get used to it. It’s only downhill from here on out.
There are villains younger than you, hungrier than you, younger than you
Short form versus long form reading
If I go too long without reading a book, I find that the habits of internet reading make it more difficult to concentrate fully on the longer passages.
There is truth in this. The Internet makes me a little skatterbrained. It’s good to read books to remind my brain how to concentrate on a single subject for mare than 5 minutes at a time.
Yes, I liken it to training for sprinting vs training for a marathon. I had gotten so used to skimming research papers to find information I needed and whatnot I found it difficult to get back into long form reading. You have to keep it up to stay good at it.
No question. The internet has destroyed my attention span.
I was working a blue-collar job in Butner North Carolina when a co-worker loaned me some early Larry Niven works. Sent me on a serious SF tear.
Prison guard?
Trustee?
Shipping department at Newton Instrument Company.
I’m going through his collection again, He is very smart, and very funny,
Man K’zin wars!
He did one with Matthew Harrington (who’s written a few of the more interesting Man/Kzin tales, his involve a Pak) called The Goliath Stone. The book basically exists to convey in-jokes and references to fandom and other sci-fi, even as it’s ostensibly about nanotech, von Neumann devices, and their achieving sentience.
Not bad, but it’s exhausting to read a book where nearly every sentence is a riff on something else, and you’re expected to infer half the plot yourself. Plus, one of the main characters is practically Dr. Manhattan-esque, or at least Pak-esque.
Trying to get through Ready Player One; Martin Cruz Smith’s latest Arkady novel; and one of the MHI books, Siege, which is sixth in the series I think. I’m not reading them in order.
I can relate to the Internet, and message board posts, killing my ability to dive into a novel for long periods. My “get to the point, already” impulse has gotten really bad in recent years.
“You would be surprised how many haven’t read a book since high school.”
The reason most people don’t read is right there in the sentence. The model of “read terribly boring book, then spend weeks discussing why the curtains are blue and what that symbolizes” and only reading 8 books in a school year is essentially designed to destroy any enjoyment of reading.
A cynic would say that’s kind of the point of the American educational system.
I tried to go back and reread some of the dross I was forced to lie about reading in highschool. You know what i learned?
I hat lit-fic. Hate hate hate hate it. You know what I love? Heroic fiction. Give me Hercules going nuts, killing his family, and trying to recover from it. Or Thor cracking skulls and putting on ladies’ clothing. Give me Horatio Hornblower or Brian Robeson or Charles Wallace Murry if you aren’t going to let me read about Conan or Elric.
You can keep your Tolstoy and your Capote your Upton Sinclair and your God damned Grapes of Wrath. You don’t have to work hard to make a teenage boy feel maudlin. We feel that way any time our junk is still in our pants. Maybe, just maybe, you could show people that they love to read by letting them read a book that won’t make them want to slit their wrists open.
Toyota 2F Factory Service Manual, 1978.
That’s a good one. Check out the ’75 manual, it will change your life
Kidding aside, I should probably have that one too. my engine is a frankenbuild.
I’ll bet that maps really neatly onto Campbell’s archetypal hero narrative.
I think it could be argued.
That’s at least as interesting as dostoevsky.
Yeah, i said it.
dull technical books
That book by Nabokov?
Another month gone? Where did the time go?
Didn’t really get around to reading much, other than purchasing the latest Ian Rankin books. So those are gathering dust in the Kindle.
Did start HSK1 textbook & workbook to be ready for fall Mandarin class next month.
Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe.
I read it in my mind in his voice and it makes a good book excellent
Just finished Michael Malice’s “Dear Reader” It was hilarious and depressing at the same time.
I think that book is in my to-read queue.
And am currently reading Jeffrey Tucker’s “Right Wing Collectivism: the other threat to liberty”.
I want to read that, but I feel like I read the whole thing in Jeffrey Tucker’s exuberant and gentile voice.
anyone read The Bravest Battle: The Twenty-eight Days Of The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising?
my next read is either that or Death in the Long Grass.
I haven’t read that one, but I read “Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising”. I recommend it.
cool. thanks. i’ll check it out.
Afraid to open “Epistemological Problems of Economics” By Mises, but I feel like I’m being guilted into it by everyone here actually reading books.
Read a Book
YouTube comment gold:
Read a mother fucking book. What, like oedipus?
You could start a little slower with something like this.
Does it have pictures? I guess I could just get the audiobook.
Best review? “NOMINATED FOR THE HUGO AWARD!” XD
Holy shit, this book has almost 100 pages (lxxxi) of foreword and introduction. >.<
Maybe I'll just learn about space-raptor butt sex instead.
Are you a tactile learner?
Before What Are We Reading, my pace was actually a lot slower (months would pass without reading anything other than the internet). Knowing that I don’t want to be the asshole with a “reading playboy for the articles” thing under his name *stares pointedly at JW* has been very motivating.
Hey, I believe anyone who tells me they read playboy for the articles.
If they were in it for the porn there are much better magazines they would be “reading”
Hey man, Hef’s corpse is barely cold. Play nice.
If they were in it for the porn there are much better magazines they would be “reading”
Why would anybody read magazines when there’s the *cough*Internet*cough*
There’s an interview with Larry Flynt that I heard where he saw someone go on a website and download a pic of a naked chick back in like 1993 and he said it’s game over for his magazine empire.
“reading playboy for the
articleswrist exercise”“Epistemological Problems of Economics” By Mises
There are plenty of books you can read that are not an exercise in masochism. Even a few that are economics books.
I just finished reading “Havoc of War” the 5th book in the Warp Marine series by CJ Carella. It’s some high octane horror/space opera shit from a guy who use to be one of my favorite Role Playing Game designers.
Shabbat Shalom!
and i almost forgot..
GOM JABBAR starts tonight! we are all closer to the God Emperor tonight than the rest of the year.
So it’s a night different from all other nights?
And alechem shalom to you!
I just finished Monster Hunter: Nemesis. One of my favorites in in the series. Mostly because Owen Pitt only makes a brief appearance.
I’m still reading this book about Mark Twain. I like the book and the subject matter, but I just haven’t had as much time to read as I would have liked to have.
I read “The Technician” a year or two ago. It was good.
Reading “Vienna and Chicago: Friends or Foe”. Pretty good, I guess
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0895260298/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3480926728&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_ji4zpvfj9_e
Is this something about hot dogs?
Green Eggs and Ham. I know this story was posted last thread but check out the update at the bottom of this article. Classic. Guess it takes one to know one.
https://hotair.com/archives/2017/09/28/librarian-rejects-first-ladys-gift-dr-seuss-books-calling-racist-propaganda/
Thank you Kristen.
She’s had a rough day. We wonder why there are no female libertarians.
The Sneetches is explicitly anti-racists. You have to be a real cunt to find anything to complain about in Dr Seuss.
What about the fact that Dr. Seuss was alt-right? You didn’t think of that, racist
https://i.imgur.com/CgcAv18.jpg
Ouch. Lol
Sneetches get Steeches
Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings by Edward S Morse. It’s a survey of Japanese architecture, building techniques, carpentry, design, and decor. Written around the turn of the 20th Century, it is a fairly detailed look at life in Tokyo at that time. The language is old-timey, but it is still an enjoyable read. Beautiful illustrations and detail drawings as well. If you are a Japanophile, or like art/architecture books, check it out.
I picked up an architecture book I should probably read. I forget the title. I’d seen a used book store called “Bookleggers” and had to stop in. Don’t know what I expected, but it was just a bookstore.
Just noticed i had Shadowboy and Shadowdemon on my Kindle. I’ll finish them and get some reviews up on Amazon. Sorry bout that.
If I already have your money, all I can ask is that you be honest (and maybe tell people who might also like them…)
The Lawdog Files by Lawdog.
Some pretty funny short stories by a LEO (gasp) in the panhandle of Texas. Almost gives LEOs some humanity.
LawDog’s blog is excellent for anyone who wants to sample the writing.
Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog?
https://reason.com/blog/2017/09/29/au-campus-safe-from-title-ix-hate-speech#comment_6981655
Progressives shut-down Robbie and ENB. The irony is delicious. One would hope they would stop covering for these progressive tyrants, but, you know, cocktail parties and all
urge to laugh rising.
I see them as no different than the white antifa guy that got chewed up by his betters who told him “Just do the work, don’t take credit for it. This is your fault. You’re a white male.” No amount of appeasement will satisfy these people. No amount of blood will sate them.
I see this as a situation where you reap what you sow. ENB and Robbie kept skirting around defending free speech and now they get shut-down. Here’s hoping no one rises to their defense. They deserve this
I think it would be funnier if Milo came to their defense.
First they came for the reason writers…
And I said, “You know what? Fuck those guys.”
Skirting is a nice way to put it, especially with ENB’s ‘Shame this guy out of a job for making a sandwich joke’ bullshit.
Bravo! The wolves devour each other!
Wasn’t there a time when CJ was funny?
ENB did get the sadz when her commie boyfriend was one of the protestors.
when her commie boyfriend was one of the protestors.
No shit? Did he run when confronted this time too?
That magazine needs to leave D.C. very, very badly. Maybe not go full backwoods of Alabama, but dear Lord has that place forgotten what it was they were supposed to be doing. Oh, and fire pretty much all of its writers with the exception of, well, who really? Tuccille? Sullum? Does Jesse have any more conspiracies to unearth?
Let their writers go and do something more in line with their expressed interests.
Nah, I was just kidding.
I’m sure he’s 100% on the side of the protesters, though.
I just finished reading the facility policy governing the section that I work in. Then I had to read the facility policy on policies so that I can submit an formal policy update to the facility policy on my section in accordance with the policy on policies. Then…..
….I was voluntold to submit a formal policy update to the facility policy on policies because it too is up for renewal.
voluntold, very good
That sounds like a monty python skit.
I somehow became the guy responsible for putting together a Policy on Policies for my hospital. I must have missed a meeting or something.
Next up: Convening the Committee on Committees.
We had one of those last year.
I loved the Chronicles of Prydain books growing up. They were some of the first darker, more real novels I recall reading. My 8 y.o. son is making his way through _Taran Wanderer_ now. Glad to hear I’ve sent him down the (unpaved) road to Libertopia! I’ll ask him what he’s picked up on. Last night he was quite upset that Taran was setting off on his own, leaving his friends behind.
I like to pretend Stephenson only ever wrote Cryptonomicon.
Really? No love for Snow Crash or The Diamond Age? Granted, those don’t delve into the intricacies of currency for hundreds of pages on end but…
Love both of those books.
I liked Diamond Age and Anathem, and I really liked his historical fiction trilogy, but the man is absolute shit at endings.
Diamond Age and Anathem are my two favorites. I read Cryptonomicon but remember very little about it. I steered away from the trilogy, fairly certain I won’t be able to get into it.
I re-read Cryptonomicon last year and it was way better than I remembered. Maybe give it another shot.
Diamond Age is still my favorite.
I liked The Baroque Cycle,, besides Snow Crash, of course, but I confess to abandoning it somewhere around where Shaftoe is looking at fossils in a cave in Germany. More of that short attention span problem, I guess.
Maybe I’ll try Snow Crash or Diamond Age again. Didn’t like Anathema.
I actually think Cryptonomicon has a lot in common with Lord of the Rings – epic in time and space, character arcs that span both as well, a wizard with plenty of human limits, crypto-Christian, little bit o’ crazy (e.g. elf songs and the cap’n crunch thing).
(strike the superfluous “a” from Anathem….)
A bunch of stuff:
_The Art of the Argument_ by Stefan Molyneux. Good read so far, although Molyneux comes off as an obnoxious know-it-all at times.
_The Boys from Brazil_ by Ira Levin. I was familiar with the premise in a vague way, but I’m finding the actual story to be more interesting than I thought it would be. Also, Levin has a breezy pace that I like.
And that’s about it right now. I just finished _Horrorstor_, by Grady Hendrix, which has a fun premise (the book cover looks like an Ikea catalog, and each chapter begins with an ad for a piece of furniture) but the story pretty quickly becomes a run-of-the-mill haunted house story. Decent read, just not great. On the other hand, worth a mention because it’s so damned good, I’m going to re-read _The Secret of Ventriliquism_, by Jon Padgett, which is without qualification the best horror I’ve read in a long, long time. The author is a protege of Thomas Ligotti, and it comes through, but not in an imitative way so much as the sense of a different author with a distinct voice writing in the same realm. I cannot recommend it enough.
I’m reading up on how to avoid getting trapped in dungeon by Warty’s henchman. Prepping for October 6 yo.
Shouldn’t you pick a book written by someone that actually succeeded in not getting trapped in a dungeon?
Perhaps he escaped from the dungeon.
Warty doesn’t need henchmen, he comes for you himself.
That’s fucking hilarious.
…why would you want to avoid getting the Warty’s dungeon treatment? The man can crush the life out of you with his thighs and not even realize he flexed them…
*swoon*
The Doomcock is a macguffin Jesse.
*looks for kids to tell them about Santa*
Still working through City of God by Augustine of Hippo on audiobook. It’s a 50+ hour book, and I have to take a break every 10 or 15 hours, book-time. I’ve stopped all other reading to focus on spending a bit more time with Mrs. trshmnstr once baby trshmnstr goes to bed.
I tried doing The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkein, but it was waaaay too slow, so I canned it. I’ve also shelved Eddie’s book, because I can’t do two deep books at the same time. Maybe once I move to a lighter audiobook, I can finish his Civil War book.
I think my next audiobook is going to be Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History
I have been attempting to read it for over a decade now and I still have not made it 100 pages in.
Read it while listening to Corey Olson’s original Tolkein Class podcast from like 10 years ago. He helps you discard the less important aspects of the story to focus in on the meat. You can circle back to the peripheral stuff later.
Really old video (9 months ago) from Hagbard Celine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIs7dui3x30
He’s hilarious, and like one of my other favorite internet commentators (Sargon, though I feel he’s been falling off lately) is an anti-SJW, self-proclaimed leftist. Plus he has led an interesting life, he’s also kind of like Derpetologist in that he dives deep into some of the more deep pools of derp, like the We Waz Kangz movement, for example. I hope you all enjoy.
I always like these book recommendation posts to help find good stuff to read.
Just downloaded Asher’s Dark Intelligence from SugarFree’s recommendation. I have a feeling I’ll be rooting for the AI…
Also, good to know that Stephenson’s latest isn’t that great. I’m a total fanboy of his and will typically buy anything with his name on it. This last one did seem a bit off to me – glad I didn’t pick it up.
Does reading Scott Alexander count as book reading or just essays? Slowly working my way through Empires of Eve, a real history about fake wars.
Currently reading: Ringworld, the vintage Larry Niven novel. I’m only a fifth through so far so I won’t comment much, other than it’s always interesting to read someone’s idea of what the future will be like. And miss!
Just finished Boone’s Lick by Larry McMurty. Good, but meanders towards the end. It’s no The Last Picture Show, but Larry still has a way with words.
On the non-fiction side, I’ve recently finished:
Pirate Hunters: the search for pirate ship in the Dominican Republic, featuring my favorite deep sea diver John Chatterton. This book is nowhere as good as Shadow Divers, but still a good escape. John Chatterton is one impressive individual: reading the snippets of his life keeps me in awe. From Vietnam war medic to skilled diver, his exploits are, to be blunt, amazing – especially given his age.
The Art of the Con: Fakes and Frauds in the art world – where the conman tried to dupe the buyers into any number of artists, more likely the least popular ones. Writing style is a little brusque and most of the cons are similar, but still an interesting (and quick) read.
I still need to read the Ringworld series.
When I was a kid, Taran Wanderer was my least favorite of the series. I will have to reread it as an adult and see how I feel. I think the reason I didn’t like it was because it was a Boy Book and Eilonwy was barely in it (if she was in it at all?).
I do remember not liking the end of the series because I felt like it eradicated everyone’s free will except Taran’s.
Oh, and Gilmore, to answer your question from the comments in TOS’ review of Made in America: yes, Mel Gibson did do a movie where he was a CIA pilot running guns and drugs from Laos during the Vietnam War. It was Air America, co-starring Robert Downey Jr. Given the cast and the subject matter, it had great potential but it pretty much sucked.
Just finishing up the Aubrey-Maturin series for about the 5 time. I get more out of it every time. Inventively I find that the following reads lack something. Patrick O’Brian was a masterfull writer.
However, just finished the second book in a series by a local writer which I enjoyed. The first book is called Bohemian Gospel, book two is the Devils Bible, by Dana Chamblee Carpenter.
I really need to get around to reading those. See my rant above about heroic fiction.
1/2 of Sandman Slim – Ug, I was 15 once. I felt everything and had fantasies of having great power vengence. I grew out of it. Richard Kadrey apparently has not.
Words on the Move – This is a book by a linguist, writing for the non-linguist in an attempt to spread the basics of his field. I loved this book because it did not challenge a single one of my preconceived notions, but was still informative. They can’t all be like that, but sometimes its nice to read a book an not be challenged. After my previous book (see below), which was 100% challenges 100% of the time… I needed that. Picked this up after listening to the Econtalkwith the author, which was good on its own. The author performs the audiobook. Highly, highly recommend the audiobook. Parts of the book are about the way we talk, and hearing the author use intonation and accents properly is really nice. Portions of the book are literally laugh out loud funny. Like, I was eating lunch with my earbuds in and can’t stile a laugh with my mouth full in front of coworkers.
Finished The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas – A good book, but very challenging. Not much in this book that I don’t know about on an intellectual level. But difficult to hear it (audiobook) written out so well, and so eloquently, by someone who appears to have the classical liberal sensibilities and thoughtful Christianity that I strive to have.
A Letter Concerning Toleration by Locke – Shit, how did I get this far in life without reading Locke. Very good stuff, defending religious pluralism, egalitarianism, etc in a way that clearly shows up in the thinking of the founding fathers. You know – shitlord stuff.
Three Languages of Politics – Still the most illuminating book about political communication I’ve ever read. Me and all 17 other people that have read it. I picked it for my reading-club for last month (consisting of me, a progressive, and a “libertarian socialist”), and both of them said that it rang true for them too. Seriously, if you ever get frustrated by Robby the Teenage Heartthrob and TOS’s infuriating lurch, stumble, and roll to the left, this book provides a lot of insight on why/how/whatfors of that. They are operating on the oppressor/oppressed axis, libertarians operate on the liberty/coercion axis. READ THE BOOK ITS FUCKING FREE
Sounds like what I thought I was getting when I got a copy of “Speaking of Liberty” by Rockwell. I’ll note that theres also a free audiobook on that link, going to check it out now.
Having never read that book, I looked it up. The promo site states “Speaking of Liberty is long (470 pages), but it is the kind of book people will want to see in the hands of friends, family, and students. The book begins with economics, and explains why Austrian economics matters, how the Federal Reserve brings on the business cycle”
Jesus. No wonder there are so many autistic libertarians and no normies.
I try to read all series like this. I can’t read them the traditional way without having to re-read the previous ones over again every time a new one comes out.
His first book isn’t on Kindle. (WTF?)
Where should I start?