Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading? (Read 666577 times)

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2880 on:** May 19, 2018, 02:51:11 PM »

The Second Sex.

Wow, this book is not about premature ejaculation at all.

jakefromstatefarm · « **Reply #2881 on:** May 20, 2018, 10:58:42 PM »

Quote from: HardcoreRetro on May 17, 2018, 12:58:30 PM

My favourite part about reading Plato's Republic is reading reviews and seeing people acting offended by some of the stuff in it. Acting as if the damn thing was written yesterday.

"Golly gee willickers, this 2400 year old book isn't up to date with our current moral understandings."

Really?

howd this go by the way? And how’s de Beauvoir doing for you?

Snoopycat_ · « **Reply #2882 on:** May 21, 2018, 05:22:25 AM »

Finished reading the Stephen King and Peter Straub collaboration Black House. I've always liked it but the confrontation with Mr.Munshun is a letdown. All the focus went on Burnside who was ok but Munshun was more interesting and should have had a bigger role.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2883 on:** May 23, 2018, 05:04:47 AM »

Quote from: jakefromstatefarm on May 20, 2018, 10:58:42 PM

howd this go by the way? And how’s de Beauvoir doing for you?

It was pretty interesting.

If you look at a lot of what he wrote for his perfect state, it'd stil be applicable to this day.

You'd have to divorce yourself from basic modern morality real hard though. Like the thing about killing "defective" offspring. If you'd take it as only for the good of the state. It's a pretty solid idea. Look at it with any humanity in you, and it's abhorrent.

I don't agree about his plans for the arts either. The neutered versions he proposes would probably stifle character growth and not actually produce the best you you could be.

It basically read as a totalitarian state. The inhibition of most freedoms would probably lead to more negative outcomes than he assumes. But that's of course looking back from a position 2000 years in the future.

I'm only 100 pages into the second sex, so it's mostly been a historical look so far.

Bebpo · « **Reply #2884 on:** May 25, 2018, 04:28:27 AM »

Finished The Dark Tower VI: The Song of Susanah - was entertaining but definitely the least standalone novel and more just a short setup for the finale. Definitely like some of the prose Oh Discordia! and I’ve really grown to enjoy the characters and their interactions. The

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Stephen King is a character in his own story

[close]

Is wacky but doesn’t bother me much. I’ve been alternating books between DT books and non-DT books so next up is John Langan’s The Fisherman, and then it’ll be time to finish this wild ride of The Dark Tower that I started last year. And then I can watch the shitty movie!

Even though people say DT falls off hard and turns to shit in the back half, up until the final novel I don’t really have any problems with it. Yeah they’re not as good as the high points, but I don’t think they’re that much lower either. It’s still an entertaining read.

benjipwns · « **Reply #2885 on:** May 28, 2018, 02:52:57 PM »

organized part of the neverending list into a little makeshift faux trilology: Previously... -> Currently... -> Upcoming...

->

should find an (ideally conspiracy-focused) book about the JFK assassination to make this into a makeshift JFK trilology

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

EVOL · « **Reply #2886 on:** May 31, 2018, 02:31:55 AM »

Just finished The White Book by Han Kang, won't lie, I cried like a bitch after finishing it. I'm not sure how good the English translation is, but I highly recommend it. I really liked how sparse the prose was without being dry, a lot of the chapters would work perfectly as independent works of poetry .

Started on Tao Te Ching. I adore Zhuangzi, both as a work of philosophy and literature so I'm kind of excited to dig through this one.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2887 on:** May 31, 2018, 10:43:12 AM »

Quote from: EVOL on May 31, 2018, 02:31:55 AM

Started on Tao Te Ching. I adore Zhuangzi, both as a work of philosophy and literature so I'm kind of excited to dig through this one.

Had a hard time getting anything out of Tao Te Ching. It seems to be so steeped in eastern mysticism I had no clue what anything in it alludes to.

I guess not understanding anything about it, means I'm on the path to enlightenment.

Also, now that the wank dad thread is dead, can anyone tell me how shit the book "The Rational Male" is? The one alt-right friend is reading it. Seems it's from something called the Manosphere and MGTOW. What Magic the Gathering has to do with the book, no clue.

Edit: Reading Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Coelho right now. If it's as much up it's own ass as The Alchemist, I'll most likely hate it.

studyguy · « **Reply #2888 on:** May 31, 2018, 11:07:22 AM »

I just finished Best Served Cold by Joe Ambercrombie, working through some non-fiction, New Jim Crow and some memoirs now then back to fantasy/sci fi fuckery.

Bebpo · « **Reply #2889 on:** May 31, 2018, 05:17:05 PM »

Finished The Fisherman by John Langan. This was great. One of the best Eldritch Horror tales I've read in a long time. It was a well written and touched upon all the weird stuff I love. I think a lot of people here would dig this. Starts a little slow, but once it gets to the narrative within the narrative it gets good and then can't put it down.

VomKriege · « **Reply #2890 on:** June 04, 2018, 05:51:38 PM »

Reading some short stories from modern Chinese author Ba Jin. It's pretty good. Heart of a slave is an especially good one. They're mostly focused on pre-communist China and characters being crushed by society and / or communist activists (though it's often more suggested than at the center of the story).

Also read the Sun Tzu's Art of War. To be honest, the supplementals were perhaps more interesting than the text itself (a recap of the historiography and debates surrounding how old the text is, a short analysis on its influences on Mao Zedong, another about its influence in Japan and their tradition in such treatises.) but it's worth a read to get a sense of insight of how much strategy was well understood already then (notably on the articulation of politics and war leadership, the importance of espionage, etc...).

chronovore · « **Reply #2891 on:** June 05, 2018, 12:42:09 AM »

Quote from: Bebpo on May 31, 2018, 05:17:05 PM

Finished The Fisherman by John Langan. This was great. One of the best Eldritch Horror tales I've read in a long time. It was a well written and touched upon all the weird stuff I love. I think a lot of people here would dig this. Starts a little slow, but once it gets to the narrative within the narrative it gets good and then can't put it down.

If you like unsettling, eldritch stuff in the mostly-modern era and frequently set in the PNW, check out Laird Barron. So far I've loved everything by him.

TVC15 · « **Reply #2892 on:** June 05, 2018, 01:27:03 AM »

(Collected Works of Renzo Novatore)

This had been sitting under my bed for about a year and I’ve been picking through it slowly. I probably should have gotten to this sooner. He’s a much more stylistic writer than most other anarchists I’ve read. He’s actually enjoyable to read. As a matter of fact, I’m not so certain I’ve really learned anything new per se, but I think Novatore’s perspective is generally more enjoyable than wherever I picked up the original concepts.

VomKriege · « **Reply #2893 on:** June 06, 2018, 06:52:27 PM »

Finished the small Ba Jin collection. The post text mentions he was persecuted by the Gang of Four, a rather euphemistic way of saying the Cultural Revolution wasn't kind to him (many little things suggest the french translated copy I own is sanctioned by China and outsourced to a friendly / aligned small publisher).

Ba Jin was a longstanding anarchist (exchanged letters with Vanzetti, among other things) and advocate for Esperanto, but repudiated very publicly his former opinions once he settled in Communist China. While not a member of the Party, he was used as the spear point of a couple of campaigns directed at other authors for being enemies of the regime.

I'm interested in finding a couple of his novels. His stories are very touching and focused on human frailties and sentiments. The political aspect if ever present in the background but faintly enough it doesn't drag down his writing with morgue.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2894 on:** June 26, 2018, 11:07:40 AM »

I generally only read King's short-form works, but this is aight so far. I think I would like it better if it was an actual mystery and not "it happened because of some supernatural shit" but we'll see, I'm only a 1/3rd of the way into it.

Crash Dummy · « **Reply #2895 on:** June 27, 2018, 07:25:47 AM »

nyrb classics has a one day sale on - any recs? https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics

benjipwns · « **Reply #2896 on:** June 27, 2018, 08:04:22 AM »

admittedly the selection plus the prices are a bit off putting to build up a fivesome to get that discounts (a casual glance at amazon could net you a same set of the random five i picked for anywhere to 25% to 80% off the non-discount price) though i know nothing of the quality of their books in all the other ways...categorization on some books is a bit weird too, a number could have been in more categories and thus more easily "discovered"

but reading some of the sites descriptions alone is worth the price of clicking the link:

Quote

Stepping out of the darkness, the American emerges upon the stage of history as a new character, as puzzling to himself as to others. American Humor, Constance Rourke’s pioneering “study of the national character,” singles out the archetypal figures of the Yankee peddler, the backwoodsman, and the blackface minstrel to illuminate the fundamental role of popular culture in fashioning a distinctive American sensibility. A memorable performance in its own right, American Humor crackles with the jibes and jokes of generations while presenting a striking picture of a vagabond nation in perpetual self-pursuit. Davy Crockett and Henry James, Jim Crow and Emily Dickinson rub shoulders in a work that inspired such later critics as Pauline Kael and Lester Bangs and which still has much to say about the America of Bob Dylan and Thomas Pynchon, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

CRACKLES WITH THE JIBES AND JOKES OF GENERATIONS

A classic book for TVC and kris to read together in Vegas:

Quote

introduction by Christopher Hitchens

A Handbook on Hanging is a Swiftian tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilization: the hangman. With barbed insouciance, Charles Duff writes not only of hanging but of electrocution, decapitations, and gassings; of innocent men executed and of executions botched; of the bloodlust of mobs and the shabby excuses of the great. This coruscating and, in contemporary America, very relevant polemic makes clear that whatever else capital punishment may be said to be—justice, vengeance, a deterrent—it is certainly killing.

shosta · « **Reply #2897 on:** June 27, 2018, 10:07:54 AM »

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2898 on:** June 27, 2018, 07:17:02 PM »

Quote from: Crash Dummy on June 27, 2018, 07:25:47 AM

nyrb classics has a one day sale on - any recs? https://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics

buy the ones with naked ladies on the cover

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Alternatively

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Tasty · « **Reply #2899 on:** June 28, 2018, 09:33:27 PM »

Halloween Returns (2015) [Screenplay]

Michael gets put on death row, but shenanigans happen on the night of his execution (Halloween, of course.)

Halfway through now. Emotions for the first half:

benjipwns · « **Reply #2900 on:** July 01, 2018, 05:36:13 AM »

did you know that Ronald Reagan was an anti-communist New Dealer in the mold of FDR and Truman? that he strongly supported welfare, free education through college and civil rights? that Reagan barely agreed with Goldwater, but thought LBJ was a disaster?

and that when he said "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me" it was 100% true, as the Democrats tossed out those in the image of FDR and Truman to follow Henry Wallace's 1948 Progressive platform which desired to establish central planning and proto-communism and eliminate free speech and weaken the United States against the Soviet Empire?

it's all true! (And Trump is closer to Reagan's true conservatism, because he cares about the working class and rejects harsh ideology, than most elected Republicans who are extremist libertarians like Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Rob Portman!)

spoiler (click to show/hide)

i feel like i need to follow up by actually reading this now

[close]

benjipwns · « **Reply #2901 on:** July 01, 2018, 06:07:26 AM »

Quote from: Mandark

Quote from: benjipwns
wait, nobody told me we'd have to read a book
motherfucker we know what pundits you read, don't lie about having standards now

ohhh, this is the type of thing you were talking about...

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2902 on:** July 14, 2018, 01:49:39 PM »

Here's a book and drinking challenge for people. Read Trainspotting and take a shot every time the word fuck pops up in any capacity.

BisMarckie · « **Reply #2903 on:** July 14, 2018, 02:02:27 PM »

Very easy to read and presented in an accessible way. Easy to follow and if you are an idiot like me that doesn't know all that much about the'Glorious Revolution', I'd recommend it.

kingv · « **Reply #2904 on:** July 14, 2018, 02:08:03 PM »

Been listening to The Fifth Season by some chick in New York... nemispn or something like that?

Basically it’s a fantasy stories where peopl live on some Pangaea like continent with a bunch of earthquakes and has three interweaving stories of people who can do magic.

Sort of interesting in that it is a good bit different than a lot of fantasy tropes as it’s writteb by a black writer and thus most of the characters are not white. It also has a part where this chick goes hard in the paint for a yeast infection by banging a dude that just blasted a mans Asshole.

Weird ass sex in books is cringe to me and it’s my sole complaint, but otherwise I’m enjoying it (and there is only really one that I thought was bad but it gave me flashbacks to reading the shining).

Apparently it is the first of a trilogy.

Madrun Badrun · « **Reply #2905 on:** July 14, 2018, 02:12:12 PM »

Ya, its a trilogy.

benjipwns · « **Reply #2906 on:** July 17, 2018, 01:18:54 AM »

due to her birthday, been celebrating america

shosta · « **Reply #2907 on:** July 17, 2018, 01:35:09 AM »

What about the new Jeanine Pirro book?

benjipwns · « **Reply #2908 on:** July 17, 2018, 02:45:15 AM »

I actually don't read that Fox News garbage in book form because it's the same book over and over usually. Same for the progressive/Democrat side too. I did read them for a while and realized that they were temporarily very set in stone about the hot topics of the moment. Especially any by politicians except like Ron Paul since he'd write about the Fed or Foreign Policy over so many years or such. (Along with his campaign books.) But compare to one of his son's books, Government Bullies, it's like all 2012 election issues and solutions treated as if they're timeless. And his book is only tonally different from Ted Cruz's or Marco Rubio's or whatever. I especially assume that about his 2015 book which is an obvious presidential campaign book. Never touched the thing.

Sometimes if they look different, like Tucker Carlson's upcoming one seems to be a bit less "in the moment" but I'd have to look at it. Jonah Goldberg is usually decent at this, even if he'll use all current examples to the point that he changes the subtitle of his books multiple times. Ann Coulter's books were once written around themes, but after she tricked me into looking at just a collection of her columns for the second time, I haven't given her a third chance.

Hannity's books I read because I was skeptical of his literacy, and Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism and Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism were like literally the same book with the chapters reorganized, and a some more terrorism stuff in the 2004 book.

Really, Rush Limbaugh's two books from the 1990s are the only conservative pundit books I'd ever think to say "these are canon" because they have a sense of humor and he outlines basically all the positions they've held ever since. Everyone else's books are just treading that ground without any humor.

From looking up these, I saw these in the "customers who also bought" and they are amazing:

and this cover pose lol

benjipwns · « **Reply #2909 on:** July 17, 2018, 02:46:06 AM »

Oh, just saw this, this would be something more like I might actually read from one of these garbage types, even if the description is screaming "SKIP THE INTRO AND CONCLUSION CHAPTERS":

Quote

In these pages, you’ll learn the true stories of founders such as...

• Aaron Burr who is depicted in the popular musical Hamilton and in history books as a villain, but in reality was a far more complicated figure who fought the abuse of executive power.

• Mercy Otis Warren, one of the most prominent female writers in the Revolution and a protégé of John Adams, who engaged in vigorous debates against the encroachment of federal power and ultimately broke with Adams over her fears of the Constitution.

• Canasatego, an Iroquois chief whose words taught Benjamin Franklin the basic principles behind the separation of powers.

The popular movement that swept Republicans into power in 2010 and 2016 was led by Americans who rediscovered the majesty of the Constitution and knew the stories of Hamilton, Madison, and Washington.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2910 on:** July 17, 2018, 06:44:00 PM »

Constitution? Sounds like some Big Government bullshit. Where were the true heroes that fought for the Articles of Confederation?

TVC15 · « **Reply #2911 on:** July 17, 2018, 10:38:07 PM »

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

Tasty · « **Reply #2912 on:** July 17, 2018, 10:55:50 PM »

Quote from: TVC 15 on July 17, 2018, 10:38:07 PM

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

Starting this now.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2913 on:** July 17, 2018, 10:59:51 PM »

Quote from: TVC 15 on July 17, 2018, 10:38:07 PM

Read Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, The Cities” for like the tenth time on the way home and I’m pretty sure it’s my favorite horror/weird short story. In my book, it’s perfect.

That story is great, easily the best of his short stories from The Books of Blood.

Tasty · « **Reply #2914 on:** July 17, 2018, 11:03:56 PM »

It opens with a gay romance?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Tasty · « **Reply #2915 on:** July 18, 2018, 01:34:07 AM »

This story's pretty wild.

chronovore · « **Reply #2916 on:** July 18, 2018, 02:48:45 AM »

The Books of Blood are wonderful. They're like little gems. Rubies, specifically, I'd assume.

benjipwns · « **Reply #2917 on:** July 19, 2018, 11:18:34 PM »

this book on the Bill of Rights cites a professor from a Russian university

agrajag · « **Reply #2918 on:** July 19, 2018, 11:20:07 PM »

I can tell you what I'm not reading: Jordan Petersons dumb books, and neither is Assy.

benjipwns · « **Reply #2919 on:** July 27, 2018, 04:54:20 AM »

Quote from: benjipwns on May 11, 2018, 03:12:22 AM

Explores the mid-19th century wave of founding of what we'd now call "communes" especially in the western expansion of America providing cheap land, opportunity, and fresh starts combining with religious-political millienialist and/or collectivist concepts or fads. While touching on a pretty decent number as there were a shit load of these in the decades between Jackson and the Civil War, it is focused around these structurally:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaker_communities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Harmony,_Indiana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_Farm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_stirpiculture

Also, even for a casual or "amateur" history work (rather than academic) it's well-written in a relaxed style that has no problem with jokes let alone making fun of the more strange aspects of the subjects. My favorite example is his noting that in Charles Fourier's extensively described utopian phalanx there are 64 people "assigned" to grow pears, for some reason, eight of these people are "assigned" to grow crappy pears nobody wants to eat. We'll never escape the tentacles of the Big Shitty Pears lobby!

huh, at first i thought this was about this book, now i'm a little surprised there's two books about this topic released within ~6 months of each other and both setup the same looking at four/five utopian movements, although this one seems to be more about writers visions than setting up actual "communes" by people, the original idea writers or not: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/30/what-can-we-learn-from-utopians-of-the-past

also:

Quote

Nineteenth-century utopians offered a radiantly progressive vision, if you put aside the eugenics, anti-Semitism, and racism.

well, yeah if you put aside that kind of stuff probably lots of people were

archnemesis · « **Reply #2920 on:** August 02, 2018, 02:09:38 PM »

Land of Ghosts by E.V. Seymour is a spy novel inspired by Bond and Bourne. Something about the writing felt off, but I could never put my finger on exactly what it was. Neither the protagonist or his mission resonated with me. The only thing I liked about it was the depiction of Chechnya.

Paganinikontraktet (The Nightmare in English) was the only crime fiction novel by the pseudonym Lars Kepler that I hadn't read before. Once again the cops managed to solve mysterious murders in my hometown.

I also read two short books by Swedish physicist Bodil Jönsson pondering about time and work. They gave me some well needed perspective.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2921 on:** August 02, 2018, 02:48:31 PM »

Reading The Rebel by Albert Camus

Finished Mrs. Dalloway before this. That book was such a slog.

EVOL · « **Reply #2922 on:** August 15, 2018, 02:13:36 AM »

Reading Pale Fire by Nabokov.

I was already spoiled on the twist of the book, but it's so telegraphed that I think I would have been able to figure it out pretty early on anyway.

Quote from: HardcoreRetro on August 02, 2018, 02:48:31 PM

Reading The Rebel by Albert Camus

Finished Mrs. Dalloway before this. That book was such a slog.

I read that when I was in the peak of my Camus fanboy days back in high school but forgot most of it. Tell me how you found it when you're finished, I might revisit it.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2923 on:** August 15, 2018, 07:16:07 AM »

I liked it, but not nearly as much as The Myth of Sisyphus.

It looks at different historic rebellions/revolutions and then applies the absurdist way of thought from The Myth of Sisyphus to them. He argues that the rebels in the historic rebellions aren't true rebels, because once they've defeated their "evil" they become complacent in their own "good". One evil makes place for the other evil.

How'd the Tao Te Ching treat you? I still have no clue what to make of it. (Which means I'm on the path to true understanding, apparently.)

EVOL · « **Reply #2924 on:** August 15, 2018, 09:14:40 AM »

Quote from: HardcoreRetro on August 15, 2018, 07:16:07 AM

I liked it, but not nearly as much as The Myth of Sisyphus.

It looks at different historic rebellions/revolutions and then applies the absurdist way of thought from The Myth of Sisyphus to them. He argues that the rebels in the historic rebellions aren't true rebels, because once they've defeated their "evil" they become complacent in their own "good". One evil makes place for the other evil.

How'd the Tao Te Ching treat you? I still have no clue what to make of it. (Which means I'm on the path to true understanding, apparently.)

It was okay, it didn't really tell me anything I didn't know tbh. I liked Zhuangzi better.

I think it's not so much the content of Tao Te Ching that it's difficult, but rather it requiring a cultural background of Chinese fables to get. I was raised with that shit so the metaphors and riddle like structures were pretty easy to 'decipher'. I guess a Western equivalent would be some book relying heavily on Biblical references and structure in order to make it's point.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2925 on:** August 15, 2018, 10:28:37 AM »

Now reading Karl Ove Knausgard's first My Struggle book.

So far it's boring as hell. You'd expect something called Mein Kampf to have some edge to it.

I think I got both The analects and Zhuangzi somewhere. Reading those (more in general) will probably help me understanding other eastern philosophy.

chronovore · « **Reply #2926 on:** August 15, 2018, 10:46:41 AM »

Re-reading Gibson's THE PERIPHERAL, which is stunningly even better than the first read. It's as insightful as Neuromancer, and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.

EVOL · « **Reply #2927 on:** August 16, 2018, 11:32:28 AM »

Quote from: HardcoreRetro on August 15, 2018, 10:28:37 AM

Now reading Karl Ove Knausgard's first My Struggle book.

So far it's boring as hell. You'd expect something called Mein Kampf to have some edge to it.

I think I got both The analects and Zhuangzi somewhere. Reading those (more in general) will probably help me understanding other eastern philosophy.

Lol if you didn't get anything out of Tao Te Ching you won't be getting anything out of Zhuangzi, it's even more obscure and it's notorious for being even more difficult to interpret than Tao Te Ching.

It has some very beautiful passages in it though, so it might be enjoyable on that level.

shosta · « **Reply #2928 on:** August 21, 2018, 10:21:34 PM »

I used to love Pilgrim at Tinker Creek when I was in highschool. Tried picking it up again and it's lost all its magic. Somehow this makes me inconsolably sad.

Cerveza mas fina · « **Reply #2929 on:** August 22, 2018, 12:35:19 AM »

Quote from: chronovore on August 15, 2018, 10:46:41 AM

Re-reading Gibson's THE PERIPHERAL, which is stunningly even better than the first read. It's as insightful as Neuromancer, and if you disagree with me, you're wrong.

I couldnt get into the Neuromancer at all

It was too dense with all these terms he invented, like overkill.

Bebpo · « **Reply #2930 on:** August 22, 2018, 12:55:19 AM »

I finished up The Wolfman by Nicolas Pekearo

It's a werewolf detective book by a young author that died right before it came out sadly. Was a reserve police officer in NYC (aka no gun) and got shot in the head chasing a perp. There's even a short story at the end of the book written by him before his death about becoming a police officer and what it was like.

The Wolfman, being written by a young punk-y NYC/NJ guy is pretty raw and the main character narrates and talks like a fuck off everyone guy. The concept of werewolf detective is pretty fun and the pacing is pretty good and overall the book is enjoyable. My only nitpick is for a who-dunnit, the culprit is way too obvious, but once you get past that it's a good read, especially for a very early and in some ways amateurish book (I believe it was his 2nd book). If you like Werewolves it's worth a read.

Need to start looking for the next quality horror, under 400 page book for my book club. If you got any suggestions, lemme know. So far we've read House of Leaves (ok), The Social Affair (eh), The Thief of Always (alright), The Fisherman (quite good), Short stories by Charles Beaumont (mixed bag, some great, some good, some bad), and now The Wolfman (good). We implemented the under 400 page rule after House of Leaves because that was a fucking huge book and scared off most of the people interested in coming.

Bebpo · « **Reply #2931 on:** August 22, 2018, 01:28:49 AM »

Doing some searching, I'm gonna go with this. I definitely prefer Humor over about everything. So a comedy/horror nerd mashup that's actually good sounds like a winner.

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/15/535799772/in-meddling-kids-the-scooby-gang-grows-up-hard

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2932 on:** August 22, 2018, 01:12:11 PM »

The Cloven, Book 3 of the Vorrh Trilogy is out, so I'm reading that.

Bebpo · « **Reply #2933 on:** August 22, 2018, 02:10:41 PM »

Cool cover, what type of series is it?

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2934 on:** August 22, 2018, 02:43:24 PM »

Quote from: EVOL on August 16, 2018, 11:32:28 AM

Lol if you didn't get anything out of Tao Te Ching you won't be getting anything out of Zhuangzi, it's even more obscure and it's notorious for being even more difficult to interpret than Tao Te Ching.

It has some very beautiful passages in it though, so it might be enjoyable on that level.

Some of what I read of Zhuangzi seems to follow the same structure as the greek dialogues. Some pretty much read like fairy-tales.

It might not be any easier to understand, but it sure is a hell of a lot easier to read.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #2935 on:** August 22, 2018, 03:25:40 PM »

Quote from: Bebpo on August 22, 2018, 02:10:41 PM

Cool cover, what type of series is it?

Low Fantasy/Horror

It's about a colonial city in Africa on the edge of a primordial forest in central Africa, set in the 1920-30's. The forest is believed by some of the locals to be the Garden of Eden, and the creatures that live there are the remnants of the angels sent to guard it, but it's never been fully explored because the forest also causes everyone that enters it to lose their minds after a few days.

I read the first two books during the summer, they were pretty good, but I got roasted because I said they were whimsical.

Nintex · « **Reply #2936 on:** August 22, 2018, 03:47:56 PM »

The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850-1960

A book made by a 23 year old girl from Brazil who colorizes black & white photo's and an English historian who's skilled at describing the times and events that took place.
It basically shows the history of the world from the late 1800's all the way up to 1960 in color.
The quality of the images is just incredible. It's much easier to identify with or comprehend these events if they're in color.

The writing in the book is pretty good as well and it even got a shout-out from 'Hardcore History' Dan Carlin.
If you like history or just want an encyclopedia about how this world came to be I highly recommend this book.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2937 on:** August 22, 2018, 03:56:12 PM »

I'm also reading some history book.

The part that gripped me the most so far was seeing the way the Mayans got their elongated heads. It got a drawing of a child with his head stuck between two planks. There's a rock tied to the elevated plank to weigh the plank down and squash the child's head in the desired shape.

Made me laugh pretty damn hard.

HardcoreRetro · « **Reply #2938 on:** August 22, 2018, 03:57:50 PM »

I'm a Puppy! · « **Reply #2939 on:** August 24, 2018, 06:22:37 PM »

I took a break from the second Malazan book to read "It" to get hyped for Halloween.
It's my first time reading the whole thing (I started it back in high school and gave up).
I have to laugh at how stereo typically Stephen King it is. It starts off you're like "OK" about a quarter of the way you're like "Wow this is fun and well put together!" Then at the end it all comes unglued and falls apart spectacularly. I'm still butt hurt over how the Dark Tower series disintegrated, sorta funny to see how that happened again in It.

I'm also re-reading the Divine Comedy. I love Dante's arrogance and how he pulls it off. I love that in almost every circle of hell he puts someone he knew in there. It'd be like "Then I got to the prostitutes and I was like "Hey Mupepe! How's it going?!"

News:

Author Topic: What book(s) are you reading? (Read 666577 times)