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Unofficial What are you Reading Thread?

Started by Thurnez Isa, December 03, 2006, 04:11:35 PM

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Lenin McCarthy

A Feast of Lapithae by Lucian of Samosata (125-180 AD)
Lucian's version of Plato's Symposium, where the philosophers get too drunk to actually manage to discuss anything. Also references Eris.

This passage from the end sounds like a normal night out in my hometown:
QuoteSo the party came to an end, tears being resold in the laughter at Alcidamas, Dionysodorus and Ion. The wounded were borne off in sad case, especially old Zenothemis, holding one hand on his nose and the other on his eye, and bellowing out that the agony was more than he could bear. Hermon was in poor condition himself, having lost a couple of teeth; but he could not let this piece of evidence go; 'Bear in mind, Zenothemis,' he called out, 'that you do not consider pain a thing indifferent.' The bridegroom, who had been seen to by Dionicus, was also taken off with his head in bandages--in the carriage in which he was to have taken his bride home. It had been a sorry wedding-feast for him, poor fellow. Dionicus had done what he could for the rest, they were taken home to bed, and very ill most of them were on the way. Alcidamas stayed where he was; it was impossible to get rid of him, as he had thrown himself down anyhow across a couch and fallen asleep.

Cainad (dec.)

Quote from: Phosphatidylserine on January 25, 2013, 02:16:40 AM
Quote from: LuciferX on January 24, 2013, 10:05:30 AM
I got like 3/8ths through The Filth, the comic thingie.

The Filth is so good. It's hard to push through, though; it just sort of compounds upon itself in disgust. Like Eraserhead. But, the ending is in good Grant Morrison style.

Good to hear. I got about 3/4ths of the way through several months ago, and haven't looked at it since. I read The Invisibles, so I knew I was getting into some truly weird shit, but apparently even I can only gorge myself on so much weird at once.

Cain

Just ordered the Milkweed Trilogy for my Kindle.

Nazi occultists and British necromancers fighting it out in WWII?  Sure, why not?

LMNO


Cain

Last book won't be out until April, but the first two are available right now.  Seal of endorsement from Charlie Stross, author of a series of "modern day British intelligence agents battling Lovecraftian horrors" themed books.

Cain

Quote from: Cain on February 14, 2013, 05:15:21 PM
Last book won't be out until April, but the first two are available right now.  Seal of endorsement from Charlie Stross, author of a series of "modern day British intelligence agents battling Lovecraftian horrors" themed books.

Note: this is a lie.  Amazon's servers are being laggy as fuck today....I don't know what is going on, but it took nearly 3 hours to get an email for confirmation of purchase, and they still haven't downloaded onto my Kindle.

They'll probably still get here faster than they would by mail, but, srsly Amazon.  Srsly.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

#2361
Quote from: Cain on February 14, 2013, 05:04:29 PM
Just ordered the Milkweed Trilogy for my Kindle.

Nazi occultists and British necromancers fighting it out in WWII?  Sure, why not?

I have the first one of these coming, as well. Stross is kind of compulsive about verisimilitude, so if he recommends the series, it must be very good.

In other news, I finished The Forever War (which was excellent, and I would recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind occasionally reading some not-very-detailed offhand references to organ ruptures). I started The Unincorporated Man, which reads a bit like a high-end fanfiction: clearly written by fairly intelligent people with very little fiction-writing experience. If it doesn't become a lot more intellectually arresting, I'll probably ditch it, because the naiive style peeves me (not that I write any better myself).

I'm also simultaneously half-way through: The Black Swan (which was better than I expected), Jon Ronson's Lost At Sea (which was only slightly worse, and still worth the money), At the Mountains of Madness (which I for some reason expected to move a little faster), and A Deepness in the Sky (which makes me realize why Vinge has a Queng Ho series instead of setting one in the world in which A Fire Upon the Deep is set).

In the queue are: Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks, American Psycho, Sleights of Mind, Rasputin's Bastards (about soviet supermen, but otherwise apparently similar to the Milkweed trilogy), Stanislaw Lem's The Cyberiad, Thinking Fast and Slow, & books 3-5 of the Dune series.

Quote from: Cainad
Good to hear. I got about 3/4ths of the way through several months ago, and haven't looked at it since. I read The Invisibles, so I knew I was getting into some truly weird shit, but apparently even I can only gorge myself on so much weird at once.
I had to get through it by reading the whole thing in one sitting. Likewise with We3. It's like pulling off a band-aid (especially since, so far as I can tell, every GM comic has a happy ending and a middle that is both sickening and depressing).


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Don Coyote

gotta be careful with the forever war. there are 3different editions ome of wgich is a terrible hack job which poorly added parts that had been removed.
the unincorporated series is good but ends in a really shitty way imo.

Cain

Which The Forever War are we talking about here?  The science fiction novel or the war reporter memoir by Dexter Filikins, of Afghanistan and Iraq?

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Hadelman version (science fiction). He says in the foreword to my edition that it's the definitive (or, I guess, the author's cut), and that it's the version that he was sending to publishers before Analog started chopping it up.


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Cain

Ah, good.  Because that conversation suddenly became rather confusing for me.  I read the Filikins version, which is very, very good.  It deals with the politics, to a degree, but what it really focuses on the tragedy of war - the broken and divided families, the senseless killings and sectarian hatred, the waste of life in both in general and up close and particular.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

Quote from: Cain on February 20, 2013, 10:40:22 AM
Ah, good.  Because that conversation suddenly became rather confusing for me.  I read the Filikins version, which is very, very good.  It deals with the politics, to a degree, but what it really focuses on the tragedy of war - the broken and divided families, the senseless killings and sectarian hatred, the waste of life in both in general and up close and particular.
Certainly not my kind of book. The science fiction one wasn't exactly rosy, but it focuses on the farsical elements.

In other news, the Invisibles Omnibus is fucking huge:


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.

Salty

#2367
The Complete Yoga Book by James Hewitt.

This is hands down the best singular resource on yoga I've found. It is actually three books:
The Yoga of Breathing
The Yoga of Posture
The Yoga of Meditation

It was written in 77, but its also very well written and includes a great deal of information I've never come across. I take that back, from what I can tell fucktons of Newage garbage is a complete and utter bastardization of cherry-picked Yoga principles and techniques. Which does not surprise me but is extremely gratifying to know.

ETA: I'm not sure how accurate the science in it is, or how outdated, but better than most of the zinc deficient, veganaise chugging assholes who usually write about such things.
The world is a car and you're the crash test dummy.

Mr. Presley

the professional chef. so much info I'll be shocked if the last recipe listed inst my own brain. step one try and study for your exam.

Rococo Modem Basilisk

#2369
Bitter Seeds (first book of the Milkweed Trilogy) is well written but really bleak. If you're sensitive to that kind of stuff (clinical descriptions of people dying in horrible ways, lots of stuff about people developing various drug addictions, life tragedies) stay away from that book. (I liked it, but it was just sort of on the borderline of enjoyability; I won't be reading the others because I suspect they will be too much.)

Currently half-way through Oliver Sacks' Hallucinations, which is excellent. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in neuroscience.

Finished The Prankster and the Conspiracy (and I'm probably the last guy on this forum to do so). Is there something going on between Adam Gorightly and Sondra London that I'm missing? He dedicated practically a whole chapter (albeit at the end) to how she wouldn't return his emails.

The Unincorporated Man and At the Mountains of Madness are on hold, the former because of the poor writing and the latter because Lovecraft is a little too bleak for me at the moment. Still in the queue are: Rasputin's Bastards, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Sleights of Mind, American Psycho, & The Cyberiad. I'm partway through both A Deepness in the Sky and The Black Swan.


I am not "full of hate" as if I were some passive container. I am a generator of hate, and my rage is a renewable resource, like sunshine.