Right now I am reading the book of the Polish noblist Wladyslaw Reymont. The title of this book is Chlopi (The Peasants).
What are you reading? (Literature)
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Since it released earlier this week, I'm going to pick up the third book of Spells, Swords, & Stealth. I listened to the first two are audiobooks when i took a trip out of state last month and really love it.
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I am embarrassed to say that I finished Animal Farm only today. However, I have a feeling that even if I read it ten years later, I would still be able to relate the world events more to the book at that time.
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I've just finished The Book Of Werewolves: The Classic Study Of Lycanthropy. Very interesting book with a lot of insight into different cultures and how the were-wolf myth evolved over time.
Also read Dishonored: The Corroded Man a few weeks ago. Definitely recommended for the fans of the game, not sure how those who are unfamiliar with the world would appreciate the details. Some passages are written quite clumsily which drew me out of the immersion a couple of times, but overall, a solid book. Not great, but it does it's job well.
I'll now start reading Kalevala! December is upon me (it isn't, but it will be soon enough) and with The Unknown Soldier and the Seven Brothers already read, it's the last "big" thing I have to read this semester. Looking forward to it. I've had glimpses into it in the past and I love this kind of mythology.
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Reading A Dance With Dragons now, after having finished A Feast For Crows.
Good stuff.
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Sadly I haven't been able to afford to buy new books or even the time to drive 2+ hours to the nearest bookstore to get a new one. So I just recently started rereading a favorite of mine.
The Graceling series by Cashore. I'm starting with the prequel "Fire" which I really do love because it surprisingly has even better world building than Graceling original did.
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The autobiography of Michael Jordan. Interesting guy!
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My second time reading _Total War: Courses and Causes of the Second World War_ by Peter Calvocoressi and Guy Wint. If you're a history buff, then I highly recommend this book.
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A Study in Scarlet :D
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Just finished The Lies of Locke Lamora earlier today. While I certainly enjoyed it and read it quickly, I also have a couple issues. I would classify more as a fun book than a good one. Anyone else read it?
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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I'm reading The Man Who Mistok His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks - interesting stuff.
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The plot in a nutshell explores a what if scenario of Franklin D. Roosevelt not being re-elected in 1936, and is instead replaced by a authoritarian populist. The social parallel between the events in the novel and real life today resonates exceptionally well. Anger, resentment, and dissatisfaction with the previous administration leading to an outcry for radical change. Which funnily enough involves a yearning for the trappings of an earlier time in American history. The desire to place blame on certain groups of people for perceived injustice. The willingness to put anyone in power so long as they say what you're thinking, even if it sounds impractical. It's a haunting read in retrospect. I find it to be therapeutic though, as surreal as it is to read now. This book was published during the Great Depression, it's insane how reminiscent it is of society today. It really shouldn't be as spot on as it is.
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Been reading through Treasure Island. Not a bad read, though it can be a bit tough to get through with the dated English. Also, be sure to brush up on your nautical terminology.
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I'm currently dragging my way through book 10 of Wheel of Time - Crossroads of Twilight. One more book closer to book 12.
It's so close D; but so far.
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I'm currently dragging my way through book 10 of Wheel of Time - Crossroads of Twilight. One more book closer to book 12.
It's so close D; but so far.
Oh hey, you're at the point where Sanderson took over! Thats when the pace actually picked up and the plot started moving and resolving things again! You'll blaze through those in no time.
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Oh. Then you're at the point where the series is at its absolute slowest and most draggey. That's a shame. Well, persevere!
Uggggh yeah. I'm slowly getting through it. It's all so boring that I can't remember what happened in this book and what happened in the last, it's all a boring-ass blur.
But I'm finally getting to the end! After so many years of regretting not finishing the series! I can't wait. :D
Take me into the embrace of your clear and concise plot, Brandon Sanderson! -
Hunter X Hunter,and also play the game based it named Hunter X Online
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Rereading the Gormenghast trilogy, my favourite books that get better every single time I read them. So, so good, its impossible to forget about it. Read read read it!
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Reading Immortality by Millan Kundera at the moment. My forth book by him. When I finish I'll be reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
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This phony honor code that puts you on your throne, a double standard you invoke when you want~
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Just finished Handmaid's Tale and started Men Without Women (Haruki Murakami, not Hemmingway). The latter is the first book I'm legit reading in the original Japanese, and I'm finding that Murakami's vocabulary is actually really simple. Coasting at about 97% comprehension at this point.
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Emperor Domination by Yanbi Xiaosheng.
I read using machine translation, so much blood has been shed, but it's all worth it. -
Anybody into screenwriting here? I am currently reading the "Screenplay" by Syd Field. This was highly reccommended as the first book one has to take up to read about screenwriting. Any further suggestions would be welcome
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I've heard good things about these books, haven't read them yet though.
[h=1]Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee[/h][h=1]The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby[/h][h=1]Creating Character Arcs, by K.M. Weiland[/h]–- Update From New Post Merge ---
There is also Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet
But I'm not sure that's what you're looking for -
There is also Making Movies, by Sidney Lumet
But I'm not sure that's what you're looking forYeah this one is kind of out of the genre I am looking for. The remaining ones are appropriate
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I'm FINALLY on The Gathering Storm. Let's see what Brandon gives us. I'm on the prologue and it's a biiiiit rambly so far.
Crossroads of Twilight was actually very enjoyable, every single plot thread was super interesting.
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Thanks to the Witcher 3, I have recently started reading the Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski. The short stories are good, and the conversations very well written, but it seems as if Geralt is the only competent character in their whole universe, and some of the magic is questionable at best. Anyone has read the whole saga? Is it worth it to invest in the rest of the books?
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I currently have been reading The Stand by Stephen King. (Uncut version.) It is a pretty interesting book, and a bit creepy. I plan to read more of his books in the future as well! ^^
And if anyone has any recommendations on books for me to read, fire away! o:
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@NER:
Reading Immortality by Millan Kundera at the moment. My forth book by him. When I finish I'll be reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
ended up putting Immortality aside for the moment and began reading American Gods. I finished it today and it's such a good book, I felt like I could've enjoyed it way more if I was more knowledge about the world's mythologies, but it is still such a great book. I relate to it a lot and I share a lot of the writer's views on how and why Gods are created.
Now I'll actually read Immortality. Yay.
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Currently reading A Game of Thrones for the third time, part of my Ice and Fire reread project. It's amazing seeing all the points of foreshadowing that I missed on my last reread project.
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Egwene fucking Al'Vere
! Holy shit that was glorious! Just finished the section of the raid on Tar Valon. Egwene is so amazing in this book.
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Ended up rereading whatever Warrior Cats books I can find. Loved the series in middle school but the third and fourth series had lots of filler and got pretty annoying. But the sixth series is actually really amazing and rekindled my love for the books
Spoiler:
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Yep, that last part of The Gathering Storm really amps up the fireworks!
@Kaido:Ended up rereading whatever Warrior Cats books I can find. Loved the series in middle school but the third and fourth series had lots of filler and got pretty annoying. But the sixth series is actually really amazing and rekindled my love for the books
Damn, they got all the way to a sixth series? I burnt out a little ways into the third.
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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Damn, they got all the way to a sixth series? I burnt out a little ways into the third.
If you want, you can pretty much skip the 3rd, 4th, and 5th series (the 5th series is prequels) and read the 6th without much trouble (though I'd recommend reading the Firestar's Quest Super Edition if you haven't).
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@Kaido:
If you want, you can pretty much skip the 3rd, 4th, and 5th series (the 5th series is prequels) and read the 6th without much trouble (though I'd recommend reading the Firestar's Quest Super Edition if you haven't).
Just PM me the summaries for 'em or something. I do remember reading Firestar's quest at some point.
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I'm on Towers of Midnight now. Everything is SO GOODDDDDD D:
! Every time a Lan scene comes in, it revives my cold, dead heart.
! "I command you to take another path!"
"You aren't my king, LOLOL"
"By joining me you ride to your death"
"Death is LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER, Lan Mandragoran coughmy kingcough"
and then the two became five..
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Wheel of Time fans up until Towers of Midnight:
! I'm about 1/3 through Towers of Midnight.
! Although I have been reveling in the conciseness of the Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight thanks to Sanderson's writing, the ending of Gathering Storm hasn't been sitting well with me. Up until that point, Rand was this insufferable ball of darkness that lost all restraint and emotion, and what it took for him to be whole and balanced again was.. becoming angry and threatening his father?
! Like okay, that was a pretty shocking moment and it was scary that Rand actually got to that point, but after books and books and books of Lews Therin in his head, one nomadic trip to Dragonmount made Rand all better again?
! It's weird. Every scene with Rand in it now is odd. Sure, he should be behaving like a normal human but the contrast is too sudden. We didn't even get a full explanation of what happened to him.
! Sure, Nynaeve delved him and saw his "madness thorns" coated in light but.. what's that, really?
! I don't want spoilers, but what did you guys think of this?–- Update From New Post Merge ---
See above
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Wheel of Time fans up until Towers of Midnight:
! I'm about 1/3 through Towers of Midnight.
! Although I have been reveling in the conciseness of the Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight thanks to Sanderson's writing, the ending of Gathering Storm hasn't been sitting well with me. Up until that point, Rand was this insufferable ball of darkness that lost all restraint and emotion, and what it took for him to be whole and balanced again was.. becoming angry and threatening his father?
! Like okay, that was a pretty shocking moment and it was scary that Rand actually got to that point, but after books and books and books of Lews Therin in his head, one nomadic trip to Dragonmount made Rand all better again?
! It's weird. Every scene with Rand in it now is odd. Sure, he should be behaving like a normal human but the contrast is too sudden. We didn't even get a full explanation of what happened to him.
! Sure, Nynaeve delved him and saw his "madness thorns" coated in light but.. what's that, really?
! I don't want spoilers, but what did you guys think of this?! Rand threatening his father was strange, I agree with that. And I did not appreciate Tam calling Cadsuane a bully either. That was all very Sanderson.
! I do love the scene on top of Dragonmount though. A lot.
! Anyway, all the Rand scenes in ToM are definitely odd. That must have been the point because it is a very jarring change. He's basically become Jesus of the Westlands. If I remember correctly we are barely in his head during Towers of Midnight so…RAFO, I suppose. -
Wheel of Time fans up until Towers of Midnight:
! I'm about 1/3 through Towers of Midnight.
! Although I have been reveling in the conciseness of the Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight thanks to Sanderson's writing, the ending of Gathering Storm hasn't been sitting well with me. Up until that point, Rand was this insufferable ball of darkness that lost all restraint and emotion, and what it took for him to be whole and balanced again was.. becoming angry and threatening his father?
! Like okay, that was a pretty shocking moment and it was scary that Rand actually got to that point, but after books and books and books of Lews Therin in his head, one nomadic trip to Dragonmount made Rand all better again?
! It's weird. Every scene with Rand in it now is odd. Sure, he should be behaving like a normal human but the contrast is too sudden. We didn't even get a full explanation of what happened to him.
! Sure, Nynaeve delved him and saw his "madness thorns" coated in light but.. what's that, really?
! I don't want spoilers, but what did you guys think of this?! I'd say a fair bit of it comes from Sanderson switching in. His Matt in particular feels most off to me, but it's there in Rand too.
! As far as the madness pivot goes, it worked for me despite being a bit jarring. The anger at his dad isn't significant enough to even really register for me anymore, and I think by that point I was so happy to have Rand being clear-headed again that I was willing to take anything. -
I'm reading The Criticon by Baltasar Gracian. It's pessimistic and other philosophers and scholars I like such as Schopenhaueur, Nietzsche, LaRochefoucald, Lacan or Jankélévitch admired him (or maybe only Schopenhaeur admired him and the others just liked his work very much) so I've decided to give it a try.
It seems he's a great philosopher but his work has not been completely translated (in French at least).
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When you tell yourself "I'm going to finish the chapter and then go to bed" but the chapter you're on goes for 200 pages straight to the end of the book. So now it's 2 am and I'm sitting here worn down and depressed over the bittersweet somber ending.
Memories of Ice is a good book with a very slow burn. I'm starting to think the author hates optimism though…
If you get dunked on in the dream, you get dunked on in real life
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When you tell yourself "I'm going to finish the chapter and then go to bed" but the chapter you're on goes for 200 pages straight to the end of the book. So now it's 2 am and I'm sitting here worn down and depressed over the bittersweet somber ending.
Memories of Ice is a good book with a very slow burn. I'm starting to think the author hates optimism though…
Sounds kind of sad. What's it about?
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It's the third book in a fantasy series called "The Malazan Book of the Fallen", by Steven Erikson. Excellent series, which I'm on the penultimate book of myself at the moment. The author worked for most of his life as an anthropologist and archaeologist, which it turns out translates amazingly well into creating fiction, because the world building in the series is incredible. That said, they can be pretty dense reads, if you want to try to spend the time to make connections and piece things together yourself.
I've honestly wrestled myself with how I would describe the tone of the books. Some of them can definitely get to some extremely sad parts (I'm perfectly willing to admit I cried toward the end of Memories of Ice), but at the same time, I somehow don't think they ever get… 'bleak', I suppose is the word I'm looking for? Like I think the sad scenes work as well as they do because of contrast to the good that is out there.
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I'd say the series, without getting in to spoilers, is about a series of conflicts and campaigns that are frequently affected and influenced by the machinations of a pantheon of magical patrons. The tone is rather serious but damn if some of the payoff isn't great.
@Panda:It's the third book in a fantasy series called "The Malazan Book of the Fallen", by Steven Erikson. Excellent series, which I'm on the penultimate book of myself at the moment. The author worked for most of his life as an anthropologist and archaeologist, which it turns out translates amazingly well into creating fiction, because the world building in the series is incredible. That said, they can be pretty dense reads, if you want to try to spend the time to make connections and piece things together yourself.
I've honestly wrestled myself with how I would describe the tone of the books. Some of them can definitely get to some extremely sad parts (I'm perfectly willing to admit I cried toward the end of Memories of Ice), but at the same time, I somehow don't think they ever get… 'bleak', I suppose is the word I'm looking for? Like I think the sad scenes work as well as they do because of contrast to the good that is out there.
Yeah, the lore is rich to the point of being very difficult to tackle. I know I had trouble keeping different groups and races straight during the first book.
I'd say Deadhouse Gates brought me closer to tears since it had more of a clear cut downer ending. Memories had me empathizing with the surviving characters in just feeling kind of numb and horrified, but glad the remaining characters survived.
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Just finished reading Finishing the Hat and Look, I Made a Hat, the two collected anthologies of lyrics written for musical theater by Stephen Sondheim, along with his own descriptions about the songwriting process and the creation of each musical he worked on. (along with his thoughts on basically every topic related to musical theatre he has an interest in… it's kind of amazing what he managed to cram in there.) As a Sondheim fan, these works were a treasure, basically like reading a commentary of my favorite shows, while also getting a chance to examine lyrics I never actually paid attention to before.
Because the volumes themselves are so huge (and expensive...) I don't know if I would ever recommend them to anyone who's not hardcore into musical theatre, but honestly? These two books are the best lessons in editing I've ever read. In part for Sondheim's detailed and invaluable insights on not only each of his lyrics, but their earlier drafts and what needed fixing, but also because the lyrics themselves are excellent examples of balancing character, style, feeling, information, and also brevity. As a writer with some... difficulties, in that subject, studying the streamlined poetry of these books had a tangible impact on my own writing, though I work in a completely different medium.
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Well, today, I started reading the book "IT" by Stephen King. The book already starts out interesting and somewhat creepy. Can't wait to see how it all comes together!
And the book is pretty long too, which I don't mind. Just not used to reading stuff this big XD
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Because I spread myself thin, currently in the middle of:
The Beautiful Struggle, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
In the Woods, by Tana French
Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A God in Ruins, by Kate Atkinson -
I'm a bit of a (massive) newb when it comes to modern literature, so I figure this thread might be a good place for some recommendations :)
Anyone know of any books similar to:
Infinite Jest (please don't recommend the Pale King or anything else by DFW, trying to sit through a 100 page monologue about the benefits of civil service has soured me on him big time, and Infinite Jest is my favourite novel!)
or
Blood Meridian (I've read No Country for Old Men and The Road by McCarthy and they, while good, were very different in tone and style to Blood Meridian)
or
The Monogatari series of light novels (that is translated to English). This one's kinda outta left field, and I do technically have a lot of the series left to read…but there's only so much time of my life I'm willing to spend with a lolicon protagonist who has all the girls chasing him...Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
