Author Topic: Holy fuck, I missed reading books  (Read 6030 times)

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Himu

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Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« on: December 18, 2018, 01:53:23 PM »
So this past decade I lapsed in to decadence and my book reading really suffered as a result. I felt that my writing and English have suffered in these days of autocorrect and spellcheck, too. I partly attribute it to Kindle and e-books. I've learned that they're not my speed and despite their convenience, they don't force me to read and I don't find reading on them enjoyable. The result? I'd amass a lot of books on my kindle but didn't read them because it's just another tech device and I didn't have an urge to take it with me everywhere. There was one year I read 40 books in a year but it was an anomaly. So the past few months, determined to get back to it, I decided I was going to read one book a week minimum. It's been really working for me. Recalling a Warren Buffet quote about how he reads up to 500 pages a day, I knew that if I was to reverse the effects of my idleness that I'd have to read more, and read faster. I knew I couldn't read 500 pages a day but I felt that 100-200 pages would be a comfortable number for myself at least. I knew that with my old reading speed it'd be tedious so I researched ways to read books faster. Turns out I always read every word in my head to visualize the story or what I was reading. I started using my finger as a pointer and using my peripheral vision to read the sides of the text. I found my reading speed double or even triple and reading one or two books a week has become a simple task.

But more relevant to the thread is how much I've enjoyed it, reading books regularly again. The touch of the paper, and having a fresh, new book always around has been really great. I'm also quite spirited by the artistry of modern book covers. They almost always scream,"grab me!" which makes it easy to partake. I've hazarded to use my phone less in waiting times, and now pull the current book I'm reading out while waiting for something. This has helped me read 100 pages or more a day with surprise. One thing that reading more has also done is help be reacquaint myself with classical music. Another passion I had neglected. Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, and Glass fill my ears as I read. While driving, I listen to Podcasts like NYT's Book Podcast. I've never really gotten into Podcasts for whatever reason, opting instead to listen to music while on the road. But through my book podcasts I've also started to listen to NPR, WaPo, and NYT podcasts which have another layer to being informed in the world.

My simple but implicit goal of wanting to read more somehow is upending bad habits and re-establishing good ones.

Among the things I've read are some Philip K Dick, Isaac Asimov, Steven King. These are authors I've always wanted to get into but didn't. I honest found Dick to be...disappointing but King and Asimov have been a delight. I've also re-acquainted myself with love for fiction of the Bronte sister, Jane Austen tradition which I've found more to my taste than the aforementioned science fiction and horror, as I am currently reading House of Gold which can be summed up as a Jewish Downton Abbey.

More than anything though is how much I'm surprised book lovers propagate trash. Like, when I was looking for lists of books to read I found on Goodreads for instance, so much of it was stuff like Harry Potter. While I have no large issue with Harry Potter I just don't understand why or how it could possibly be levied on the same level as say, To Kill A Mockingbird. People are offended when I make this observation as well and truly consider Harry Potter on par with Brave New World or Lolita. So to my surprise, I found that book readers were just as trashy as any other consumer and that finding reliable testimony on what's good takes a fair amount of research. In the end though, I think I've settled on a nice medium.

Sorry for writing so much. Anyone else start reading again with more regularity?
« Last Edit: December 18, 2018, 02:00:30 PM by Cindi Mayweather »
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HardcoreRetro

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #1 on: December 18, 2018, 01:57:29 PM »
I loved seeing 50 shades of gray in the literature section of our bookshops.

Madrun Badrun

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #2 on: December 18, 2018, 02:00:50 PM »
Harry potter is better than to kill a mocking bird. 

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2018, 02:03:46 PM »
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #4 on: December 18, 2018, 02:16:13 PM »
Best book of the decade: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hollows

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/5.Best_Books_of_the_Decade_2000s
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HardcoreRetro

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2018, 02:19:55 PM »
Wow, how moronic.

It's obviously The Hunger Games.

HardcoreRetro

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2018, 03:17:45 PM »
I wonder if you also feel sad about writing this massive effort post and only getting shitposts in response. It's why I stopped effort posting back in 2008 or something on the Gametrailers forums and now basically only make either garbage jokes or just straight up bad posts.

To actually post something on topic: I've not so much started reading more but shifted from reading only fiction to throwing more history and philosophical novels in the mix.

What are some modern novels you actually thought were worth reading? Lot of the Dutch new stuff I read just seems to get props for either being provocative or being about something that's in the cultural zeitgeist. Not so much because it's actually written well.

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2018, 03:40:41 PM »
To be truthful, I'm not currently well equipped with doling out modern novel suggestions as I am in the process of playing catch up myself. I always was fond of the classics as they were cheaper and more readily found. This is why I've been looking at best of lists - of the year, of the decade, of the current century - to find suggestions on what is notable to read. I'm currently gathering a list however, of titles that interest me.

Of the books I can suggest, the novels that I've enjoyed the most in the past decade or so are these:

Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell
Battle Royale
The Road
IQ84
Let The Right One In

For quite a time I've backed away from novels and mostly just read non-fiction. So I'm playing catch in a major way.
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tiesto

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #8 on: December 18, 2018, 04:15:03 PM »
I'm such an off and on book reader, most of my reading consumption lately has been long form magazine articles or web features... but when I make time to sit down with a good book I'll really get into it to the detriment of everything else. I mostly enjoy nonfiction/sociopolitical/historical but also like "big picture" sci fi or cyberpunk.

Since I see that you mentioned 1Q84, have you read Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World? The only Murakami book I read but it's one of my favorites. Plus it's not too long and time consuming to make your way through.
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Great Rumbler

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2018, 04:26:38 PM »
I started rereading one of my favorite series from my childhood:





They're quick reads, nothing too impressive or fancy. Just solid, good-natured, fantasy adventures with fun characters. I probably read all 10 books at least a dozen times when I was younger, but this is the first time I've read them in nearly 15 years. They still hold up, though.
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Madrun Badrun

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2018, 04:28:34 PM »
Just read Malazan for the rest of your life.   Its also better than to kill a mocking bird. 

HardcoreRetro

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2018, 04:42:32 PM »
Having a hard time getting into that just by the density. Only read Gardens of the Moon and Night of Knives. (which is one of the side stories by some other guy.) Didn't really manage to get its hooks in me yet and having books that are like a 1000 pages each doesn't help.
« Last Edit: December 18, 2018, 04:57:13 PM by HardcoreRetro »

SmokyDave

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2018, 04:43:46 PM »
I have no recommendations that aren’t about classic Le Mans or mid 60s sports cars, but I’m in the same boat regarding rediscovering the joys of the printed page. Goddamn I missed real books.

Enjoy in good health.

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2018, 05:05:43 PM »
Picking up Dune because I've never read it and The Color Purple for a monthly book club.
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Madrun Badrun

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2018, 05:12:18 PM »
Oh no, the sleeper has awakened. 

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #15 on: December 18, 2018, 05:13:25 PM »
I started rereading one of my favorite series from my childhood:

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

They're quick reads, nothing too impressive or fancy. Just solid, good-natured, fantasy adventures with fun characters. I probably read all 10 books at least a dozen times when I was younger, but this is the first time I've read them in nearly 15 years. They still hold up, though.

What are they about?
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Bebpo

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #16 on: December 18, 2018, 05:24:11 PM »
Books are cool!

Great Rumbler

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #17 on: December 18, 2018, 05:28:02 PM »
What are they about?

It's pretty heavily inspired by Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces and sticks close to it narratively, basically a McGuffin quest. A simple farm boy gets caught up in world-shaking events and goes on an epic quest to save the world. It plays a bit with some of the genre tropes, but never too much, and it rarely takes itself too seriously. That's a big part of the appeal for me, it never tries to be more than it is and keeps up a good pace without getting bogged down in page after page of describing what things look like.
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shosta

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #18 on: December 18, 2018, 05:31:40 PM »
I'm glad I read Dune this year. While reading I kept thinking, you know, from a literary standpoint this book isn't very good. But the ideas were very original and overall the story has stuck with me, more than many other stories in fact, and in the end that's what matters most. The journey is captivating. The stakes are unimaginably high. It's what a modern mythology would look like.

I'm also not well read in sci-fi but some of the concepts were really novel to me, although they made sense. Yeah, planetary systems will probably end up being feifdoms. Yeah, if interplanetary travel takes years then, yeah, the person who controls the fuel for that is unimaginably powerful. And yeah, there's no reason necessarily for religion to die off as a human phenomenon.
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #19 on: December 18, 2018, 06:06:35 PM »
One thing I’ve noticed reading sci fi is that the prose errs towards being messy and often writers throw things against the wall to see what sticks especially in the case of PKD. I’m finding televised and filmed sci-fi to be more palpable to me than the novels, which is a shocking revelation. It’s a very pulp-y genre even amid its more famous contributors. Which is odd but not inconsistent with the genre.

Picked up Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Lolita, and The Color Purple. Some I’ve never read, the others I’m revisiting. Still looking forward to reading all of them. Got them all cheap from Half Priced Books which is my preferred shop. Dune wil have to wait another day.

Currently reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and House of Gold.
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Mandark

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #20 on: December 18, 2018, 07:49:36 PM »
If you're going through the Bronte sisters, grab Cold Comfort Farm to read afterwards.

benjipwns

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #21 on: December 18, 2018, 08:16:36 PM »
Now you've done it. Books are a well known gateway.

Geordi La Forge told me that.

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #22 on: December 18, 2018, 09:35:02 PM »
Started and nearly finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? today and...it seems I was wrong about Dick. The first book of his I read made a notoriously bad impression. But Do Androids is fantastic. The copy I have is only 210-something pages and can be read in a day. Get on it.
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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #23 on: December 19, 2018, 01:14:18 AM »
Read Hyperion

Transhuman

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #24 on: December 19, 2018, 02:02:41 AM »
How does Electric Sheep and/or Hyperion compare to Neuromancer or Ender's Game? I like my sci-fi simple, you dig?

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #25 on: December 19, 2018, 02:05:23 AM »
Do Androids is not simple. Can't vouch for Hyperion.
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chronovore

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #26 on: December 19, 2018, 03:58:37 AM »
Probably the 2nd most disappointing thing about getting old has been my eyesight becoming poor. I have corrective lenses and always have a pair of cheap reading glasses near-to-hand, but motherfucker, my eyes grow tired more quickly than in my younger days.

So now many of the books I read are audiobooks.

In terms of LEAST EVIL books, the copy of Foucault's Pendulum was abridged (boo!) but read by Tim Curry (dreamy!).

I'm also love-love-loving the Joe Abercrombie The First Law books, and their reading by Steven Pacey. The narration itself elevates an already impressive postmodern fantasy work.

Snoopycat_

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #27 on: December 19, 2018, 05:15:28 AM »



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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #28 on: December 19, 2018, 06:02:29 AM »
First law trilogy is amazing, good pick

I wish I could get into audiobooks but so many narrators are shit it turns me off

How does Electric Sheep and/or Hyperion compare to Neuromancer or Ender's Game? I like my sci-fi simple, you dig?

I loved Electric Sheep and Hyperion, hated Neuromancer

Trent Dole

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #29 on: December 19, 2018, 10:55:01 PM »
Picking up Dune because I've never read it and The Color Purple for a monthly book club.
Dune is cool but if you continue with the saga know that the books steadily decline in quality and don't really come back up ever. The third or fourth one is about where they stop being worth it. :-*
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TVC15

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #30 on: December 19, 2018, 11:45:34 PM »
Started and nearly finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? today and...it seems I was wrong about Dick. The first book of his I read made a notoriously bad impression. But Do Androids is fantastic. The copy I have is only 210-something pages and can be read in a day. Get on it.

I told you, read Ubik. Maybe then you’ll be ready for my fave.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2018, 11:49:49 PM by TVC 15 »
serge

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #31 on: December 20, 2018, 02:15:38 AM »
Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep today and...I prefer the movie. The book starts out great but I feel that Dick plays with too many themes that the story at the end becomes muddled. The religion bits especially feel forced. I feel that the film - especially the spectacular final cut - asks the same questions with more brevity, wit, and creativity. I also felt Androids anti-climatic in spots. In the film Deckard has far more trouble taking them down but take them out with ease here. In the end, the film proves to be superior to me. Not that the book is bad but it almost feels like PKD knows how to make interesting worlds with fascinating ideas but doesn't know how to end a story well, for this is the second time this has happened in a book of his that I’ve read. I'll reading analyses of Androids to see if there's anything I missed. Still highly recommend but what the fuck.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2018, 02:28:45 AM by Cindi Mayweather »
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #32 on: December 20, 2018, 12:12:04 PM »
Man, after Androids I've gotta articulate this. I really want to love PKD. I didn't find a satisfactory analysis of this so I'm just undoing my thoughts.

Okay so.

Spoilers obviously.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
The book and the film come to the same conclusions. In the film, Roy Baty is the most emotional person in the story despite being an android (I prefer that to replicant and bounty hunter to blade runner). Roy Baty decides to save Deckard despite all he had done. Showing himself capable of empathy and going beyond his hardwiring. He truly dies a death. And he truly was his own person. So when we see Deckard and Rachel leave and people ask the big question,"is Deckard a Replicant?" the answer is easily, does it really matter? These people are truly alive and organic, the film comes to the point that says it doesn't matter if you're replicant or fully human. Are you not man?

Androds comes to a similar conclusion without half as much brevity. Deckard goes to Oregon and finds a toad. He thinks its a real toad, which at this point is an extinct animal. He brings it up and the wife inspects it. In this world, life - particularly animal life - is increasingly extinct following the World War Terminus, which was a nuclear war. As such, residents seek to own animals as a sort of status symbol. Owning an electric animal is looked down upon but not nearly as expensive nor lucrative as owning a real one. The Deckard at the beginning bemoaned having an electric sheep rather than a real one; the Deckard at the ending doesn't really care and finds now has come to the conclusion that life is life and whether "fake" or not, we still have a desire to beat our hearts and pump our blood.

This is fine, except PKD introduces other elements into it to create an element of hypocrisy. Humans have other humans hunt down androids and kill them. Many call androids "it". They dehumanize them, conflating them with fakeness despite their consumption of drugs that give them fake feelings, own fake animals. They decry the necessity for empathy while treating someone as empathetic, good, and open as Isidore like trash because his mental abilities have degraded because of the radioactive environment. Even their empathy is fake and flawed. In Androids humans take supplement drugs that make their brain feel specific emotions. That's fine. But then it also has an entire religion of Mercerism, which also turns out to be fake, and feels like it's trying too hard because you've got like three-four examples of asking the question of what's real and what's fake. Mercerism also complicates the story. Like, what the fuck is an empathy box? What does,"being Mercer" mean? It's just an abstraction that complicates the story unnecessarily. Dick could have easily shown a world that runs on Empathy without introducing religion into it so badly.

Anyways, so we have the conclusion of the story with the toad. Fine. It doesn't matter if something is an android or a human. The problem is that this is counteracted with Dick's own writing. In the book, the androids are emotionless and cold. They state and question things without emotion, far from the emotional pleas of Blade Runner's Replicants. At one point, they take a spider and cut off four of its legs just to see if it could still walk. Rachel pushes Deckard's real, live goat off a building. Roy Baty and his group are murderous runaways not to find ways to extend their life in the film, but through drug enhancement. All of this shows that, yes, there's a difference between an android and a human. Deckard notes multiple times how he hates how cold androids are. When Rachel kills his goat and he wonders why he concludes,"just an android doing android things." How can we come to the conclusion that all life - whether "fake" or "real" - are the same if they way they characterized isn't the same? The humans in Androids have flaws, but aside from Phil, have nothing on the stone cold hardness of the androids and their predisposition to simply not give a fuck.

This is why the film is superior. It keeps its gaze ahead, eyes on the prize. The book goes into tangents and ideas that don't matter to the larger question of,"is there a difference between humans and replicants?" In the book, yes there is a difference. In the film? There isn't.

The first 150-160 pages are master class. After that it takes a dump which increasingly appears to be a Dickian tradition. I still don't know whether I like PKD or not. I've never felt this way about an author before.
[close]
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #33 on: December 20, 2018, 12:28:48 PM »
Another thing. In the film, when Rachel is told she's a replicant by Deckard about her false memories, she cries. She's deeply hurt by this to the point where Deckard retracts and tries to walk it back, which shows her humanity. In the book SHE. DOESN'T. GIVE. A. SHIT.
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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #34 on: December 20, 2018, 03:44:29 PM »
Well she is a robot after all

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #35 on: December 20, 2018, 03:45:53 PM »
Well she is a robot after all

So there is a difference between human and android and it DOES matter?

Is this also just a robot?



This is why I think Dick undoes his entire premise.
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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #36 on: December 20, 2018, 03:54:13 PM »
Its been so long but I remember I always thought the book and thw movie were so different I couldn't really compare them

Maybe someone with a better memory can jump in but the book had so much stuff about animals and that was ommited from the film but thats probably something about the nature of life etc

Great Rumbler

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #37 on: December 20, 2018, 04:08:02 PM »
Yeah, animals played a pretty big role in the book [both real and not]. There was also a lot made about this VR religion that Deckard's wife was really into.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2018, 08:36:15 PM by Great Rumbler »
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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #38 on: December 20, 2018, 04:15:57 PM »
You mean book?

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #39 on: December 20, 2018, 05:22:55 PM »
Its been so long but I remember I always thought the book and thw movie were so different I couldn't really compare them

Maybe someone with a better memory can jump in but the book had so much stuff about animals and that was ommited from the film but thats probably something about the nature of life etc

The first 150 pages I was willing to say that they were both different in a good way. They’re different but they also come to the same conclusions. I just feel the way the film articulated itself and expanded upon those conclusions to be more my taste. Androids certainly isn’t a bad book (it’s actually partly fantastic it’s just flawed) and I can suggest it to fans of sci fi, but it’s just a curious case where the movie ends up being preferable to me than the book.
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TVC15

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #40 on: December 20, 2018, 07:21:23 PM »
Its been so long but I remember I always thought the book and thw movie were so different I couldn't really compare them

Maybe someone with a better memory can jump in but the book had so much stuff about animals and that was ommited from the film but thats probably something about the nature of life etc

The first 150 pages I was willing to say that they were both different in a good way. They’re different but they also come to the same conclusions. I just feel the way the film articulated itself and expanded upon those conclusions to be more my taste. Androids certainly isn’t a bad book (it’s actually partly fantastic it’s just flawed) and I can suggest it to fans of sci fi, but it’s just a curious case where the movie ends up being preferable to me than the book.

You’re crazy, babe. The movie isn’t so hot.

I saw 2049 in a theater on the same street that Deckard’s wifey’s animal hospital was/will be on.
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #41 on: December 20, 2018, 09:06:08 PM »
I used to agree until I watched Blade Runner Final cut which is :bow
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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #42 on: December 20, 2018, 09:15:26 PM »
The book is amazing and includes so many incredible segments, including one where it seemingly becomes a different story for a few pages. Love it.

The movie is little more than a tech demo. 7 out of 10 at best.
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #43 on: December 20, 2018, 09:53:02 PM »
*shakes head*

Nah

The book does have fantastic segments though
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TVC15

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #44 on: December 21, 2018, 12:30:26 AM »
Read Ubik.
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Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #45 on: December 21, 2018, 12:40:25 AM »
currently reading house of gold and started the color purple tonight. I've looked for Ubik and it was actually the first PKD book I searched for but just couldn't find. I'll order it soon. Although I started Color Purple tonight, I'm almost done with it and I could use a break between the English literature I've been immersing myself in.

What 2018 books did you all read that you suggest?
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shosta

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #46 on: December 21, 2018, 12:56:55 AM »
A Fire Upon the Deep
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benjipwns

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #47 on: December 21, 2018, 01:47:32 AM »
According to Goodreads I've only read six books from 2018, and really, I don't think I'd recommend any of them.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
collected editions of comics tho  :doge
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shosta

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #48 on: December 21, 2018, 01:58:34 AM »
Is Goodreads not broken for you? For months, now, every time I visit the site (on mobile or desktop) it continuously refreshes.
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benjipwns

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #49 on: December 21, 2018, 02:04:51 AM »
Nope.

Himu

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Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #50 on: December 21, 2018, 03:42:36 AM »
My 2018 book reading list is now about complete, I'd say. It's very long but it's what interests me. The ones with asterisks I'm saving for  February - black history month of course. I made a list of books I wanted to read for black history month a few years ago and never got to it. I'll be doing that next year. In fact, it'll be black history year because I'm going to devote a lot of time to reading black history and literature.

The list for those who don't care.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Transcription
Fear: Trump in the White House
American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom *
Vox
The Clockmaker's Daughter
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World
The Great Believers
Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
The Shape of Water
American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
Circe
Educated
Washington Black *
An American Marriage
Rise and Kill First: The Inside Story and Secret Operations of Israel's Assassination Program
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke *
Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History *
Asymmetry
Heads of the Colored People *
There There
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Killing Commendatore
The Hate U Give *
The Perfect Nanny
All the Light We Cannot See
The Emissary
[close]

Looooooots of non-fiction. Non-fiction is so damn political these days. I wonder why. :doge I'm also surprised at how short most books are (200-300 pages). Something I never noticed before. Which makes it easy to get through them in a day or two. Combined with reading classics I've missed and 2019 books and 2019 should be a damn productive year.
IYKYK

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #51 on: December 21, 2018, 04:12:42 AM »
I also looked further into ways to read smarter.

https://medium.com/accelerated-intelligence/the-way-you-read-books-says-a-lot-about-your-intelligence-find-out-why-c2127b00eb03

Like today I put down House of Gold, which is solid, for The Color Purple, which is fantastic of course. Pretty useful instead of feeling guilty about hoarding. Through this manner, I should read 4 books by the end of this week: Pride and Prejudice which I started last week but finished this week, Do Androids, House of Gold, and Color Purple. I’m not counting the books I’m reading or doing it with implicit goal of reading x amount of books beyond my goal of one book a week. It’s surprisingly easy to accomplish after getting into the habit of it and learn how to read smarter. I plan on finishing The Color Purple tomorrow. What’s shocking is how little this all takes out of my time despite reading four books in a week.

The way he suggests to tackle non-fiction books by researching and then reading the first and last page is enlightening.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2018, 04:23:16 AM by Cindi Mayweather »
IYKYK

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #52 on: December 21, 2018, 04:26:31 AM »
We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
I read this one. It's funny because the book "runs out of space" and implodes when it gets to the 2000s. After spending 450 some pages on detailed and even handed investigations of the civil rights canons of corporate law over three centuries, including noting many times areas where minorities like the women and the blacks gained advantages from Court rulings for corporations, it drops all pretense of objectivity and becomes a screed about the coming horrors from Citizens United and the need to repeal the First Amendment to protect the government from being influenced too much by anyone who desires to change it.

I complain more because it's jarring and throws off the book than the content which I expected. It's one of the better example of a trend I've been noticing where books fall apart completely at the end, trying to write some wrapping up that ties the historical stuff into something modern and then brings in an opinion piece the author wanted to publish but all they had was this book contract for some dull semi-scholarly non-fiction book, rather than just going "how bout them old times huh?" and dropping fifty pages of useless end notes. (Also seeing less of that part, just lists of "further books on the subject" swiped from elsewhere.)

Like a week after I read it, reason coincidentally posted an interview with the author which offers a decent overview of the books' content:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
[close]
« Last Edit: December 21, 2018, 04:33:32 AM by benjipwns »

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #53 on: December 21, 2018, 06:39:10 AM »
because I'm going to devote a lot of time to reading black history and literature.

Like African or African-American history?

I guess you've already read Chinua Achebe's stuff, if not, Things Fall Apart is basically a must-read.

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #54 on: December 21, 2018, 11:55:10 AM »
We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights
I read this one. It's funny because the book "runs out of space" and implodes when it gets to the 2000s. After spending 450 some pages on detailed and even handed investigations of the civil rights canons of corporate law over three centuries, including noting many times areas where minorities like the women and the blacks gained advantages from Court rulings for corporations, it drops all pretense of objectivity and becomes a screed about the coming horrors from Citizens United and the need to repeal the First Amendment to protect the government from being influenced too much by anyone who desires to change it.

I complain more because it's jarring and throws off the book than the content which I expected. It's one of the better example of a trend I've been noticing where books fall apart completely at the end, trying to write some wrapping up that ties the historical stuff into something modern and then brings in an opinion piece the author wanted to publish but all they had was this book contract for some dull semi-scholarly non-fiction book, rather than just going "how bout them old times huh?" and dropping fifty pages of useless end notes. (Also seeing less of that part, just lists of "further books on the subject" swiped from elsewhere.)

Like a week after I read it, reason coincidentally posted an interview with the author which offers a decent overview of the books' content:
spoiler (click to show/hide)
[close]

I mean. It seems obvious to me that it'd have a bit of a slant. It's called "How corporations won their civil rights", right? That naturally brings up the argument that corporations aren't people. Hence "We The Corporations." It kind of wears where it's coming from on its sleeve. Literally.

Because this is the cover.



So I recognize the slant it'll have. Hell, that's why I want to read it in the first place!
« Last Edit: December 21, 2018, 12:01:38 PM by Cindi Mayweather »
IYKYK

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #55 on: December 21, 2018, 11:58:29 AM »

because I'm going to devote a lot of time to reading black history and literature.

Like African or African-American history?

I guess you've already read Chinua Achebe's stuff, if not, Things Fall Apart is basically a must-read.

Both.

Regarding Achebe, I really haven't. I've always concentrated on black American stuff. I'm more familiar with my black American literary roots than outside of that. I also feel like I don't know a single fucking thing about Africa besides AIDS, disease, poverty, and colonialism, which is why I'm trying to brand out to find love for the mother continent.
IYKYK

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #56 on: December 21, 2018, 12:02:36 PM »
A Fire Upon the Deep

That's a fucking AMAZING book. The "sequel," A Deepness in the Sky is also fantastic. At its core, a scathing and subversive look at business management.

Great Rumbler

  • Dab on the sinners
  • Global Moderator
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #57 on: December 21, 2018, 12:08:30 PM »


One of the strangest and most difficult reads I've ever come across. Whether or not you enjoy reading it will depend almost entirely on if you buy into the central concept of the book: that the book itself is every bit as twisted and confusing as the titular house. If you don't, it'll just come across as trying way too hard to be quirky.
dog

bork

  • おっぱいは命、尻は故郷
  • Global Moderator
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #58 on: December 21, 2018, 12:52:05 PM »
(Image removed from quote.)

One of the strangest and most difficult reads I've ever come across. Whether or not you enjoy reading it will depend almost entirely on if you buy into the central concept of the book: that the book itself is every bit as twisted and confusing as the titular house. If you don't, it'll just come across as trying way too hard to be quirky.

I don't know if I could get through this, but I love the idea of an expanding house with a labyrinth underneath.
ど助平

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: Holy fuck, I missed reading books
« Reply #59 on: December 21, 2018, 04:43:51 PM »
I mean. It seems obvious to me that it'd have a bit of a slant. It's called "How corporations won their civil rights", right? That naturally brings up the argument that corporations aren't people. Hence "We The Corporations." It kind of wears where it's coming from on its sleeve. Literally.

Because this is the cover.

(Image removed from quote.)

So I recognize the slant it'll have. Hell, that's why I want to read it in the first place!
That's not, in any way, my complaint.