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Let's read some [books] during this vacation
credeiki
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I don't think I saw another book thread open. What are you reading right now? Do you recommend it?
I'm reading a spy book--The Peacock and The Sparrow, by IS Berry--instead of my normal fare, cause I read a WaPo article a while ago about how the CIA had given a hard time to the (ex-CIA) author, even though she didn't reveal any operational details or anything. My only reference for spy books are a couple of Le Carre novels, but in theory I'm into the concept.
This book is somewhere in between medium and well-written. The author has a huge vocabulary, which is unexpected and nice, and she provides a ton of sensory detail. And she drops a a bunch of arabic in with no translation, which I dig. But there are a few too many similes in a way that can feel a bit goofy, and the serious hardboiledness of it can feel a little trite. The setting--Bahrain during the arab spring--is super interesting. The character--a late-career disheveled unlikeable divorced alcoholic spy guy--eh. I mean I understand the type. And there is something interesting knowing the author is a woman who worked in the CIA, and in seeing how she renders a very blunt misogyny in this man's world. Lots of locker room talk, lots of objectification and instrumentalization (although that's part of the whole being a spy, too). The locker room talk/lech eye--I can't decide if it quite rings true or not. The bureaucracy/fed talk does ring true and I love that (always my pet peeve when people not from that world write about that world).
I am curious to keep reading it, but also have only really been reading a chapter or two at a time.
I'm reading a spy book--The Peacock and The Sparrow, by IS Berry--instead of my normal fare, cause I read a WaPo article a while ago about how the CIA had given a hard time to the (ex-CIA) author, even though she didn't reveal any operational details or anything. My only reference for spy books are a couple of Le Carre novels, but in theory I'm into the concept.
This book is somewhere in between medium and well-written. The author has a huge vocabulary, which is unexpected and nice, and she provides a ton of sensory detail. And she drops a a bunch of arabic in with no translation, which I dig. But there are a few too many similes in a way that can feel a bit goofy, and the serious hardboiledness of it can feel a little trite. The setting--Bahrain during the arab spring--is super interesting. The character--a late-career disheveled unlikeable divorced alcoholic spy guy--eh. I mean I understand the type. And there is something interesting knowing the author is a woman who worked in the CIA, and in seeing how she renders a very blunt misogyny in this man's world. Lots of locker room talk, lots of objectification and instrumentalization (although that's part of the whole being a spy, too). The locker room talk/lech eye--I can't decide if it quite rings true or not. The bureaucracy/fed talk does ring true and I love that (always my pet peeve when people not from that world write about that world).
I am curious to keep reading it, but also have only really been reading a chapter or two at a time.
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It’s pretty good, a bit cheesy in spots, but I really love the setting. The main character is decent but seems kinda inept for supposedly being an experienced intelligence officer? Her helper/muscle is rad
Anyway, in the past this one country, The Continent, was the most powerful because it had these gods, Divinities, that favored it and it only. No other lands had gods. So they enslaved other countries including Saypur. Well they treated the Saypuris so horribly that eventually this one dude science’d a way to kill gods and apparently killed them all, and so Saypur’s new technical prowess combined with a land that heavily relied on divine miracles no longer having gods meant Saypur took over and turned the tables, and they tried to erase any traces of gods and miracles
And then decades later a historian researching Divinities mysteriously dies…
I believe there’s a total of three books in the series, this is the first. I love how the world and the weird shit the gods did and made are explained, like Greek and Norse level strangeness and imagery
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My mum has enjoyed me chuckling to myself as I read in the corner, just like when I was young
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As with all his books I couldn't put it down, but I began to note some essences of the Sanderson Formula that I feel like I wouldn't have if this had been my first book of his. Line-art magic was also featured in his other book The Rithmatist!
Anyway I'm excited to finally, finally begin The Stormlight Archives
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Oh holy shit you’re in for a ride
I just picked up Warbreaker, a “short” novel that relates to The Stormlight Archives (and the Cosmere overall but I haven’t touched his other stuff) and may be kinda important before I start Wind and Truth
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Now Im taking a crack at the much-beloved 40K necron book The Infinite and The Divine and I like the setup but its not really getting hooks in me so I might move on, 20% in.
I was audiobooking Book of Kali but it also fell off wildly after the initial reveal for me. Too YA troped, idk.
Not sure what to try next.
What a weird book!!
But as I have the 1988 version it was fun to read the epilogue in which King just lays it out what writing this story is like, his doubts on ever finishing it, and how elements that he introduces in this first novel haven't even fully materialized yet in his heart & mind.
My partner and I are going to begin a book-club of the Witcher novels starting soon, but I do have The Drawing of Three next to my bed, as a solo-project for me when I need a break from white-haired beefcakes.
I’ll have to add that to the list
He wrote some other scifi thing that I read
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
I might even just do a whole Burroughs read through to start the year.
I love the original version of The Gunslinger. The ending is so much more evocative and wild in a way it was maybe always impossible for him to actually follow through on. The updated version is still good and adds a few things to tie into the final few novels but it feels less powerful.
Classes start on the 4th so I don't have high hopes for the rest of the year. But I do want to read A Prayer for the Crown Shy during the rest of my break at least.
This is why I've never gotten around to getting published. It would be a clear signal of moral decrepitude.
FWIW it has the most relevance to Stormlight Archive in terms of characters showing up. I have to take a long hard look at any character when color is mentioned because of it.
It might be my favorite magic system for just how weird it is.
Just give me an address, librarian
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Give me a difficult Shiba perspective
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
I feel like Middle Italian (and whatever specific dialect Machiavelli wrote in) is much more easily translatable than ancient clay tablets and such, so there are shorter leaps of insight. But of course there'll always been new translations/perspectives
You already know English so it's just a hop skip and a jump to Italian, and just shift a few vowels and bam, you're reading The Prince in the original middle Italian
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
I felt the same way, but I like Pratchett more now that I've come to terms with his writing in that the story is more or less constructed around whatever things he wanted to muse over.
I've now read the first dozen or so of the series and I'd say that none of them are about the characters themselves or a compelling plot. Instead, each one is about storytelling itself, or time, or religion, or tradition.
Good to know, I was mainly getting it because of Sword-nimi
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
I really should read some of Gibsons more recent work, are there any particular standouts?
and the gengars who are guiding me" -- W.S. Merwin
Reading them at a more leisurely pace is really enjoyable. The first run through I was rushing to get more revelations, more insight, more weirdness, etc.
I haven’t gotten there yet! I’m reading as fast as I can god dammit!!
!!!!!!1
And now this morning I got Buried Deep.
Novirdose!
It's honestly super close to modern italian, readable as is (just looking at this uploaded pdf https://skypescuola.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/machiavelli-il-principe.pdf )--I guess because Macchiavelli was from Florence and that's also basically where modern Italian has its roots.
I'm stunned by how modern it feels though. I have vague memories of reading it in the original like 20 years ago but I had convinced myself it was a version that had been updated to modern language, but now I'm thinking no. The sentence structure is really intricate/run-on, but all the words are basically the same, some use of 'li' instead of 'gli' for an article, or like 'aveano' instead of 'avevano' for "had".
1. Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History--the Blue Ant Trilogy--have understated but notable emotional arcs that I really appreciated on rereading. They're less out there, a sort of future from the 00s, and we've already seen so much of this future come to pass and that makes it so interesting and bizarre. There's a ton of fashion in them too which I love.
2. The Peripheral is phenomenal, mixing a near future rural US with a father future hypertech post-crisis scenario. The plot is exciting with bursts of violence and intrigue. --skip Agency though--it unfortunately got overwhelmed by the present when Gibson was writing it and turned out kinda bad.
It requires the exact level of effort i want to expend during a vacation on a book.
Got a nice collection of books to read with the highlights being Blacktongue thief, and The Bright Sword.
also something that i have always done through my life is the reread. there are a few books that i've really enjoyed so much that i like to go back to them every year and read them again. does anyone else do the yearly reread or am i a total mutant?
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Silverlock - John Myers Myers
Lord Foul's Bane - Stephen R. Donaldson
The Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson
On quick reflection, I think it's because it's a pleasure to read the prose and the plot, but it's not a heavy emotional workout. There are other books I adore, but they ask a lot because of my response to them (rather than an inherent challenge or process) and I don't want to invoke that. Or I don't want to engage with a different reading.
So some of my top books, I've only read once. (Lord of the Rings, for one.)
But I can see how regularly returning to a book specifically to experience what you had or see how it evolves would appeal. My brain just doesn't work to organize that in a fixed way.
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Is your house in order?
Why, yes, I do consider myself to be Gen X, why do you ask?
Paralysis is not a cogent analysis