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Read a [book].

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Posts

  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Hobnail wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I'm currently reading Strange Weather, Joe Hill's novella collection

    I've just finished the second story, Loaded, and I'm not sure I'm much of a Joe Hill fan anymore

    That shit fuckin sucks a dogs ass right? Like I had people try and talk me down from this in here before but that story sucks like a fuckib low flo toilet right

    I started it and thought to myself, "Well at least it's not Stephen King writing a story about gun violence in America, it could be worse."

    But I'm honestly not sure if it could. I think I might have actually preferred some King brand liberal centrism to what I got.

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    edited November 2021
    I dont think Steves version of that story would be worse it would be exactly the same, maybe more racist like maybe a spanish speaking person goes ay caramba every couple pages

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  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    In Steve's version
    The reporter's daughter would have had the shining and somehow escaped because of it

    But after she escaped she would make a promise to herself to like, also become a reporter to use the news to avenge her mother's death

    And the whole thing is about cycles of violence or something, y'know, both actual violence and also black people talking about bad things that white people do violence

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Urrrghh goddd it's like I've read a thing that doesnt exist

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  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    I put off mysteries of udolpho. It big. My worry is if it takes me basically the rest of the year there’s a couple of things I wanted to get to first.

    So I started song of Achilles last night.

  • GR_ZombieGR_Zombie Krillin It Registered User regular
    One day Joe Hill will “retire” from public life, and Stephen King will appear looking strangely rejuvenated, and write the novel that ends the world

    04xkcuvaav19.png
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    I'm a little over halfway through Persepolis Rising. Things are not going well. I can't wait to see how the Scooby gang get out of this one

  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    I picked up a copy of The Last Hero by Pratchett locally since there isn't a fancy UK hardcover copy and was looking through the pictures and saw Vetinari and he is not really what I picture. In my mind he is either Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington from the 1970 movie Waterloo or David Troughton as the Duke of Wellington from the first several Sharpe's episodes before he is replaced by Captain Hastings from Poirot. Examples seen below.
    tumblr_psp6zkDZL41qahdmvo8_r1_400.gifv
    Christopher Plummer

    zdzoe1kz93hz.jpg
    David Troughton

    I do not know what it says about me that my mind went to two different Wellington actors.

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  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    I can totally see the second but the first with the curly hair feels deeply wrong for Vetinari.

    No I don't have an explanation for that.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    I can totally see the second but the first with the curly hair feels deeply wrong for Vetinari.

    No I don't have an explanation for that.

    The hair isn't quite right but I'm thinking more Plummer's face shape and eyes.

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  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    I can totally see the second but the first with the curly hair feels deeply wrong for Vetinari.

    No I don't have an explanation for that.

    The hair isn't quite right but I'm thinking more Plummer's face shape and eyes.

    Just spent a minute or two GIS-ing for pictures of Plummer as Vetinari like and they're all either very old or have weird hair.

    If I think of it as him in Knives Out minus like 50 years I can dig it.
    xrs65280kgvg.png

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    Yeah, put Plummer in a skull cap with a Caesar cut and he's pretty much the Vetinari I've always pictured.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    Dang. Walking To Aldebaran just shot to near the top of my Adrian Tchaikovsky rankings. The whole thing feels like a riff on Dangerous Visions-era New Wave science fiction, including the voice and the pitch-black sensibilities and the expertly-executed double twist at the end. What a neat little book.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • David_TDavid_T A fashion yes-man is no good to me. Copenhagen, DenmarkRegistered User regular
    Oh, "Aldebaran".

    For a second, I thought it was a Star Wars novel.

    euj90n71sojo.png
  • A Dabble Of TheloniusA Dabble Of Thelonius It has been a doozy of a dayRegistered User regular
    Jedoc wrote: »
    Dang. Walking To Aldebaran just shot to near the top of my Adrian Tchaikovsky rankings. The whole thing feels like a riff on Dangerous Visions-era New Wave science fiction, including the voice and the pitch-black sensibilities and the expertly-executed double twist at the end. What a neat little book.

    It really is great and a nice quick read too

    vm8gvf5p7gqi.jpg
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  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User regular
    Christopher Plummer is just way too attractive of a man to play Vetinari, IMO. Although I’ve always pictured Alan Rickman, and he was not exactly ugly, either.

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    I can totally see the second but the first with the curly hair feels deeply wrong for Vetinari.

    No I don't have an explanation for that.

    Basic character design - Vetinari is Sharp. Bladed. Thin. Curly hair fights that, which is why it feels wrong (And why he's always drawn by Paul Kidby with sleeked back hair and a beard trimmed to a knife's edge).

    In some ways it's a bit of a shame the watch show has turned out so bad, because Vetinari as a woman is a perfectly good option too, and i fear that well will have been poisoned by association.

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    It's fucking basic but I always pictured Vetinari as Machiavelli but visibly sarcastic somehow

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

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  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    Important Wizard question. The hats of the wizards at the Unseen University. Are their hats like Gandalf’s with the wide brim or no brim kind of like a dunce cap? Rincewind is depicted as having a brim I think but I am I sure on the rest.

    I never thought about it until now but it would drastically alter my view of them.

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  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    Hobnail wrote: »
    It's fucking basic but I always pictured Vetinari as Machiavelli but visibly sarcastic somehow

    I can totally see this.

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  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    I'm definitely pro-brim there. Not sure if it is really made clear. Maybe some stuff about Ridicully's hat in....Hogfather? Maybe Lords and Ladies.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    I guess I’m thinking of the wizard from fantasia’s hat with no brim. Personally I think the brimless ones look more ridiculous and hence why the university wizards should wear them as they are all idiots.

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  • The Zombie PenguinThe Zombie Penguin Eternal Hungry Corpse Registered User regular
    I guess I’m thinking of the wizard from fantasia’s hat with no brim. Personally I think the brimless ones look more ridiculous and hence why the university wizards should wear them as they are all idiots.

    Well, as long as Ponder and Ridcully keep brims then because neither of them are idiots. (Ridcully is a bit slow, but even the books point out it's slow in the same way a steam engine is slow, once he's going watch out. Also he plays up his Hurr, Hurr country bumpkinish way, way more than everyone realizes - he can and does match wits with Vetinari, and is on first name basis with Vimes, which is impressive given Vime's disdain for social standing.)

    They're always depicted in Kibdy's illustrations as having brims, and i find Kidby's illustrations to be on point. I always like how Ridcully's hat is a full on... thing in of itself, with draws and compartments and the ability to become a small tent in an emergency.

    Ideas hate it when you anthropomorphize them
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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited November 2021
    I think that Charles Dance is pretty much perfect casting for Vetinari.

    EDIT: I mean just look

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMinUMCdc0g

    Munkus Beaver on
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  • SporkAndrewSporkAndrew Registered User, ClubPA regular
    I guess I’m thinking of the wizard from fantasia’s hat with no brim. Personally I think the brimless ones look more ridiculous and hence why the university wizards should wear them as they are all idiots.

    There's definitely brims. Well, Ponder Stibbons' hat has a brim, anyway. I'm 3/4 through Lords and Ladies with my son as his bedtime book and there's a part where Ponder and the Librarian fight their way out into the forest away from the gentry and his hat is described as having a threadbare and burned brim. So it must have been there to be burned away

    The one about the fucking space hairdresser and the cowboy. He's got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin
  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    edited November 2021
    I guess I’m thinking of the wizard from fantasia’s hat with no brim. Personally I think the brimless ones look more ridiculous and hence why the university wizards should wear them as they are all idiots.

    005j77bku4h2.png

    Brovid Hasselsmof on
  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    So due to a combination of cranial trauma, drug abuse and natural inborn poor judgement I picked up Joe Hill's 'The Cape' and if anyone is looking for something that sucks I would recommend 'The Cape' by Joe Hill

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

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  • Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    I'll let Ponder and Ridcully have brims but none of the rest of those yahoos. Especially the Bursar.

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  • furlionfurlion Riskbreaker Lea MondeRegistered User regular
    I have to say, even after the recommending of the thread, I did not expect Small Gods to be that good. Such a shame that I didn't start reading his books until after he passed because I would have sincerely liked to meet Sir Pratchett.

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  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    What can the harvest hope for but the care of the reaper man?

    God, Pratchett was so good.

    Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Tamin wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I liked Heart Shaped Box and N0S4A2 and Head Full of Ghosts and Locke and Key all quite a bit overall

    I didn't read the Fireman because I do not believe books should be that long


    what's the, er, upper limit on book length in Straightzi-land?

    I'd say ideal novel length is 300 pages or less, and by around 500 I'll start questioning the idea of reading it in the first place

    There are, of course, plenty of books longer than that in my library, but I need to be in a specific mood or have additional external motivation to dig into one of those generally

    It’s nice to find someone was enamored with brevity and relentlessly pruning stories as I am.

    It’s really tough for me to start something longer than that. Especially if it’s like, in a series.

    When it’s like, book one is a 5 book series and it’s like a thousand dang pages all I can think is “I highly doubt you had that many interesting ideas.”

    Basically I am a grump.

  • HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    I dearly love a brief tale a succinct tale but I will say after a strict short story diet you do somewhat often get to reading a short story and it just ends and it's like when you think there's one more step left on a staircase but you're already at the bottom

    Broke as fuck in the style of the times. Gratitude is all that can return on your generosity.

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  • StraightziStraightzi Here we may reign secure, and in my choice, To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered User regular
    Oh yeah I also generally avoid series as a rule, or just plain stop after reading the first

    Exceptions abound, but I want stories that can confidently stand on their own (which a good entry in a series, especially a first entry, should be able to do, of course)

  • GrudgeGrudge blessed is the mind too small for doubtRegistered User regular
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Tamin wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I liked Heart Shaped Box and N0S4A2 and Head Full of Ghosts and Locke and Key all quite a bit overall

    I didn't read the Fireman because I do not believe books should be that long


    what's the, er, upper limit on book length in Straightzi-land?

    I'd say ideal novel length is 300 pages or less, and by around 500 I'll start questioning the idea of reading it in the first place

    There are, of course, plenty of books longer than that in my library, but I need to be in a specific mood or have additional external motivation to dig into one of those generally

    It’s nice to find someone was enamored with brevity and relentlessly pruning stories as I am.

    It’s really tough for me to start something longer than that. Especially if it’s like, in a series.

    When it’s like, book one is a 5 book series and it’s like a thousand dang pages all I can think is “I highly doubt you had that many interesting ideas.”

    Basically I am a grump.

    I can very much identify with this. I have noticed that I'm becoming increasingly impatient with longer works. I have read a fair share of shambling series and meandering door-stoppers the past 30 years, but nowadays I find that I quickly start to lose patience when it seems like the story isn't going anywhere. Sometimes I feel like an elderly editor having to deal with enthusiastic young writers in love with their own voice so I constantly question "what does this sentence/paragraph/chapter" contribute to the story? can't we just cut it? what are you trying to say here?".

    To be honest I often feel the same when watching movies as well. "2 hours and 43 minutes? Really? This car chase scene here, is it really necessary? This protracted fight scene across the rooftops, does it really contribute anything to the story? Haven't we seen this before?"

    Maybe I'm just getting old.

  • QuantumTurkQuantumTurk Registered User regular
    Grudge wrote: »
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    Tamin wrote: »
    Straightzi wrote: »
    I liked Heart Shaped Box and N0S4A2 and Head Full of Ghosts and Locke and Key all quite a bit overall

    I didn't read the Fireman because I do not believe books should be that long


    what's the, er, upper limit on book length in Straightzi-land?

    I'd say ideal novel length is 300 pages or less, and by around 500 I'll start questioning the idea of reading it in the first place

    There are, of course, plenty of books longer than that in my library, but I need to be in a specific mood or have additional external motivation to dig into one of those generally

    It’s nice to find someone was enamored with brevity and relentlessly pruning stories as I am.

    It’s really tough for me to start something longer than that. Especially if it’s like, in a series.

    When it’s like, book one is a 5 book series and it’s like a thousand dang pages all I can think is “I highly doubt you had that many interesting ideas.”

    Basically I am a grump.

    I can very much identify with this. I have noticed that I'm becoming increasingly impatient with longer works. I have read a fair share of shambling series and meandering door-stoppers the past 30 years, but nowadays I find that I quickly start to lose patience when it seems like the story isn't going anywhere. Sometimes I feel like an elderly editor having to deal with enthusiastic young writers in love with their own voice so I constantly question "what does this sentence/paragraph/chapter" contribute to the story? can't we just cut it? what are you trying to say here?".

    To be honest I often feel the same when watching movies as well. "2 hours and 43 minutes? Really? This car chase scene here, is it really necessary? This protracted fight scene across the rooftops, does it really contribute anything to the story? Haven't we seen this before?"

    Maybe I'm just getting old.

    I have to remind myself a lot, "it's always someone's first time" can't be old hat to the kids who haven't seen anything yet. And it's old hat because it works, generally.

  • CoinageCoinage Heaviside LayerRegistered User regular
    I think having the patience for 1500 page fantasy epics is what's not normal.

  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    I think, broadly, that "normal" for interacting with any form of art is a weird thing to try and define.

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  • el_vicioel_vicio Registered User regular
    Baidol wrote: »
    I think, broadly, that "normal" for interacting with any form of art is a weird thing to try and define.

    That's what I always say, but they keep stopping me from putting sculptures up my butt
    jk I'm with you on this, although there is a legit question to be asked if certain books need to be as long as they are, or if they're that long because that's what the genre demands

    ouxsemmi8rm9.png

  • EnigmedicEnigmedic Registered User regular
    I think a lot of the books I have enjoyed recently were shorter. Every new way of kings book just feels like such an arduous task to finish. I don't mind the stories, but there is a lot of extra stuff. I liked the mistborn books, but warbreaker is my favorite book by him. And that is a pretty short read.

    I feel like once a book's size causes a physical book's structural integrity to fail when it is opened the book is too big.

    Then there's stuff like the wheel of time where he spends 7 pages to describe a leaf and it's corruption that the characters walked by. I have an imagination, I don't need or want that level of handholding. Just tell me the story.

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Working through the Rivers of London and I really like it.

    My favorite part is a like, three paragraph love letter to "The English Breakfast" which I am trying to find a restaurant nearby to get one.

    This shit looks insane.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
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