Current Events > Reading Thread: Number Unknown

(+) Yeah! (+)

This thread exists for the purpose of:

Reading novels and short stories
Reading non-fiction
Reading sequential art (comic strips, comic books, manga, etc)
Reading poems
Listening to audio books

Post what you are reading and your thoughts on your current readings.

I finished up a reread of Stormlight Archive for 5, then hit a few novellas (the Archive ones, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter).

Then since I keep a couple series...es... in my phone, I started thumbing through Will Wight's Cradle series again. Absolutely naked power fantasy and he's far from the most sophisticated author, but I like his magic systems. I've got the full Wheel of Time as well but the damn ebook is so massive that it takes a solid twenty seconds to load, even if it's just to rotate the text.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction for fun, I get enough of that during my job. I like escapism.

Reading The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds.

Fun blend of noir tropes set in future utopia. I've enjoyed later books in the timeline so I'm digging seeing society at its technological peak and seeing the seeds of its downfall.

The pacing is a bit odd, the reader isn't given a crumb of information and invited to mull over the unknown since it isn't really a mystery. Plot hooks are resolved rather promptly and the reader is presented with the next instead of having several puzzles to tie together at once at the end.

Not sure if I will follow up with Elysium Fire next or pivot to another book on my list of books to read. If I pivot it will be toward The City & The City by China Miville. I've read his Bas-Lag series.

Oh, a series I really liked that I don't see a lot of talk about:

Ken Liu's "The Dandelion Dynasty," first book "The Grace of Kings".

Four-book series based around some of the foundational history/mythology of the Han dynasty (mostly Liu Bang going from "minor official" to "rebel/bandit" to "actual fucking Emperor Gaozu"). There are fantastic elements (gods and whatnot) but almost everything else is pretty solidly hard science. It's a very interesting exploration of a culture that sees relatively little play in the genre, like African civilizations (that aren't Egypt).

It's honestly pretty great, explores a lot of areas like inequality (societal/gender/economic), the disconnect between legends and the people who inspired them, colonialism, filial piety versus practicality, the corruption of power and how it changes your perspective, a lot of really interesting engineering puzzles and solutions...

I highly recommend it, and it's completely done.

cuh posted...

Thank you for creating and maintaining these topicstheyve become a place of joy for me, I love reading about what other people are reading, and getting ideas and recommendations :)

Cheers to yall

<3 they are my favorite reason to visit CE, and I couldn't do it without everyone who posts in here.

I'm rereading One Hundred Years of Solitude and I just told a friend that it reminded me a bit of Dream of the Red Chamber. Also, I forgot how much incest and child sex there was in this book ( O_o)

Finished Schaffer's America in the Great War again. Taking a break for the rest of the day zzzzz

I'll wait for the Ken Burns documentary about the biography of the biography.

Just need the original biography biography to be about a biographer and we'll be cooking with gas.

Reading both of these on my Kindle:

• Persuader (Jack Reacher, #7) - Lee Child (57% completed)
• Pilgrim (Pilgrim, #1) - Harmon Cooper (5% completed)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/7/4/AAQfvwAACB7O.jpg

That Spider-Man/Human Torch mini is fantastic (no pun intended). When I read that, I said Dan Slott needs to be writing Spider-Man and then a few years later he was on Amazing Spider-Man.

Done with Labor Under Fire and From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend. I think I'll spend the weekend on reading for fun.

Gonna read the next two volumes of Bleach today.

Edit: oh yes, went to a NEW local used bookshop (opened late last year I believe). Didn't pick anything up from there - it was quite cramped and had some loud music playing - but there was a nice Frazetta print by the front door. I'd probably place it in the lower middle of the eight in the "area" (really a large amount of driving distance between each, but I'm taking into account every one I've been to in the past five years). Might check out their bookshop.org store.

Funnily enough, I did grab a book at the drugstore about the old local railroad today, lol.

Was gonna read a short manga next but I think I'll actually go for something Euro instead.

cuh posted...

I'm in chapter 62 of Story of the Stone, so Im now officially more than halfway through (the entire novel is 120 chapters total).

Good job!!!!! It's a great feeling to cross the halfway point lol.
Hofstadter's book looks interesting, I'll have to check it out. I always want to know more about translation efforts, it seems mandatory for anyone reading foreign works lol

Third meeting with professor done - only one left ;_; I can't believe I'm "almost" (still over a month to go) done with college again. I should probably start planning for what comes after lol!
Anyway, he showed me the cartoon I mentioned last thread and I grabbed a copy of it for reverse search
https://i.vgy.me/72TlTT.png
Now to parse the signature...

Started reading Nemesis the Warlock by Mills/O'Neill, I have to post a page from the prog I left off on later cuz it made me chuckle.

https://i.vgy.me/dDcZBO.jpg

The male Warlocks are goat-like alien/wizard/demons but fairly humanoid, the females are centaurs (horse body, human torso, same techno-looking faces as the males), so of course the cuisine is prepared in a feedbag, LOL

Finished Nemesis, eh, it was OK. I think the later Shakara (same magazine) handled similar themes better.

cuh posted...

Thats the coolest design Ive ever seen, what the heck lol

It works very well, pointy horns, the harpoon like nose, the whole "is that a neck or a mouth" question.
https://i.vgy.me/kZysyd.jpg

This week I'll be reading Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I by John Ellis. Also gonna pick up a new manga, though which, I'm unsure.

cuh posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7950e416.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6d7557a9.jpg

On, Bao-yu and Dai-yu

Its a bit melodramatic, but significant to the frame story of the flower repaying her debt of tears to the stone who watered and gave life to her.

Now that's the stuff, dayum...
That translation flows so well, too.

Reading three books at the moment:

• Relic - Sean Hall
• Pilgrim (Pilgrim, #1) - Harmon Cooper
• Predator One (Joe Ledger, # 7) - Jonathan Maberry

Been reading the Hyperion Cantos. On Endymion now. The books don't have the best writing but the story and world building are fantastic. It feels like the golden age of scifi with the constant silly technobabble and weird mixture of archaic culture, but it's a hard R rating. The first one is definitely the best so far. Basically a scifi version of Canterbury Tales, and the diversity of genres the different stories tell is fun. And the way it weaves questions an answers together keeps you hooked. Once the second book gets into timey wimey stuff my eyes kind of glazed over, but still great all around.

Only just started Endymion but I like that the heroes call to adventure is the Gandalf character randomly showing up and saying "You wanna be a hero? Here's my list of impossible tasks for you to save the universe. Now hit the road fuckstick."

Still plugging away at Eye-Deep in Hell.

Also I've been meaning to post this since last thread and finally got around to making a gif, enjoy
https://i.vgy.me/ceoGkE.gif

"No Help Wanted" from Milt Gross' He Done Her Wrong

Juhanor posted...

Eye-Deep in Hell

Finished! Tomorrow I start Hemingway.

Started A Farewell to Arms, so far so good.

cuh posted...

Nice! Ive heard Hemingway described as the inverse Henry Jamesclear, concise prose, and the man himself is as straight as can be

I think that's a pretty fair assessment - I'm just about half through after four hours or so of reading. The only finicky thing is he seems to be using run on sentences to reflect when the main character is drunk - I counted one sentence with twenty one uses of the word "and"

About 50 pages of Hemingway left, I'm surprised at how quickly this book went.

Finished. Oh, that ending... :(
I think that was my last book for this semester, too <_< Just a few weeks of assignments left then graduation.

cuh posted...

Nice!

I havent been reading as much as Im getting into Xenoblade Chronicles X, lol. I also got sick so Ive been too sleepy and tired to do much.

But Im in the fourth volume of The Story of the Stone. Its so beautiful, one of my favorite reading experiences ever. A very cozy type of book with also some shocking and exciting scenes sprinkled throughout.

Ayy I played the original release a few years ago, been a fan of the Xeno- games since gears back in the day. Love me some giant robots.

I haven't picked up anything new yet, maybe tomorrow...er later today <_<

in the last topic i mentioned i was gonna read (via audiobook) the Aeneid
so, by like chapter 3 i realized i have no idea what's going on, so i kinda abandoned that one

gonna continue my Old Classics run with H.G. Wells "the Timemachine" instead

ROBBAN posted...

in the last topic i mentioned i was gonna read (via audiobook) the Aeneid
so, by like chapter 3 i realized i have no idea what's going on, so i kinda abandoned that one

gonna continue my Old Classics run with H.G. Wells "the Timemachine" instead

Ooh love that one, HG Wells is great.

cuh posted...

Juhanor, or anyone elseare you familiar with the Chinese novel Chin Ping Mei

>__>

(Yes its a bit um pornographic, but Ulysses is also pornographic, and Lolita, etc. etc.)

Im a bit fascinated by it namely, by the fact that a significant proportion of it is pulled from classic Chinese poetry, verse, and prose in doing so, it seems to me so subversive, fascinating, and experimental (but also, Im guessing that inserting classic quotes into the text is more common in Chinese literature? Story of the Stone also constantly quotes more ancient Chinese texts throughout the story)

I've heard of it in relation to the Water Margin and the other classic novels -- evidently its framed as a spin off of the other book and involves Wu Song initially (IMO he's the most iconic brother from Water Margin). I bet its a good read.
I also wonder if the quotations are related to chengyu, sort of universally known/cultural touchstone phrases. They also usually sound cool as hell.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu

Started reading Macanudo by Liniers, it's pretty good so far.

https://i.vgy.me/Y64q3o.gif

Waiting for my next comic store visit before I post recent additions to my collection, but one thing I got was The Art of Amphibia.

Not going to post a lot from it, but an in-universe game they did a box art drawing for:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a704824a.jpg

Based off the cover art for the original Famicom release of Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line.