What are you currently reading?

Going to read something from the Appendix N list, just debating should it be Jack Vance or Ashton Clark Smith.

Really trying to get into the Lord of The Rings books, got them years back as a school reward thing and they've just been lying around so I'm finally seeing if I enjoy them. I don't read often but I enjoy it when it's something I definitely enjoy.

Just starting Guards!!, Guards!! By Terry Pratchett. This is my first book of the discworld series. 

A coworker recommended it to me.

Finished:

About mathematics and economy (number writing, game theory, models…) with no reagonomical bullshit except the fable of exchange without money→money→debt. The historical order is debt→money→exchange without money.

Now:

Gave up on the Joan Didion book. I managed to read more than half of it, but her prose felt really limp and I found my eyes glazing over and my mind wandering elsewhere far too many times for it to be worth stomaching any further. Switched over to Douglas Coupland's Shopping in Jail which was a huge step up just in terms of engagement with the words on the page alone. It's also really short in comparison at less than 100 pages, so once I've finished it I'll be moving over to Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

@roadworx McCarthy's work is quite violent and bleak, but also really compelling stuff. I've been meaning to read more of his work, having only read The Road back in high school. Blood Meridian sounds like the next of his I'd like to read, so let me know how you go!

Firestarter

On 6/3/2023 at 3:58 PM, Biodegradable said:

I'll be moving over to Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

Unfortunately, De Quincey's flowery 18th century text was far too purple and impenetrable for me. It reminded me of how frustrated I felt when I was forced to read Shakespeare in high school. There's just something I find extraordinarily aggravating about Ye Olde English where I understand the words they're using individually, but when strung together in a sentence, it feels like I'm reading an entirely different language half the time. The former is slightly more readable than the latter, but the amount of times I felt lost and unsure of what the heck De Quincey was even talking about half the time left me very frustrated and unable to concentrate. I'm really disappointed, but I don't want to force myself any further. I tried, but when you're unable to even tell what on Earth the text is saying, it's best not to torture yourself.

I've moved on to Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, which was the basis for Charlie Kaufman's brilliant film, Adaptation. I'm already two chapters deep and loving every second of it. Her prose is vibrant and playful and the subject matter and the people within it are fascinating. I know for sure I won't be quitting this one. :^)

Stone Of Tears, second book in the Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.

Its an epic fantasy with like 12-14 books in the series that I read 25 years ago as they came out, then I recomended it to my wife who read them all back to back at least 10 years ago. We wanted to start a little two person book club so we went up to half price books and bought a second copy of all of them. It makes the conversations about "what are you reading dear" soooo much more interesting and in depth. 😀

The count of Montecristo. This one will probably take some time. I am 12% in according to my Kindle. Quite a page turner so far.

One day I’ll read Dumas.

Finally read:

About mathematical problems, some of them are solved (duplication of the cube) some are not (infinity of twin primes). The 23 Hilbert problems are explained (most of them correctly, a few are hardly understandable), the 7 Clay problems are also explained. The 4-colours theorem is in the list because its proof uses computers.

It’s the last book of this series of forty that comes from Spain. The series is excellent but with a few errors (about one in each book) but I suspect that it’s a translation error. If you like mathematics and if you find them in a bookshop, go go go!

And now, the second series, about mathematicians:

I also finished:

Finally, Roland’s son is born, one of his ka-tet’s nemesis. Roland and his ka-tet crosses lots of strange lands, paths, deserts, tunnels, cities, all of them nearly abandoned.

And Roland reaches the Tower and maybe his story won’t loop.

This book is also a meta-book, about this series that guided Stephen King, than made live enough to finish these books.

Now:

Read:

The second part, where she studies how to liberate women and men from women’s oppression by men. Still too psychoanalytic and Marxist for me but anyway, this book shook up the anti-feminist coconut tree.

Equality (or even equity) are still not here, and anti-feminists are more powerful now than yesterday: this book gives good arguments against them.

Now:

Oh, I was offered this:

And finished:

Greek mythology from Chronos to Ulysses but the gods’ names are the Latin names. The stories are told in a somewhat funny way but rarely, a racist or machist remark…

Now:

Finished:

About Gauß, his role in astronomy, magnetism, geography… and his life in Germany.

Now:

I finished reading the Count of Monte Cristo. For the last two weeks I have done nothing else on my free time. It is an amazing book, loved how the plot unravels during the last third.

Started reading La Rebelión de las Masas by Jose Ortega y Gasset. An Spanish conservative philosopher from the XX century. The book is about reflections on the rise of fascism and the urss and it's implications for Europe between aftermath of the first world war and the Spanish civil war.

I read:

How our misrepresentations of random phenomena produce false results.

If you have already read one of Bronner’s books, you won’t be surprised of the content of this one, but it’s illustrated by 4 Charlie hebdo cartoonists (3 of them died in 2015) and it’s a good introduction of what good sociology can produce, when it’s a bit mixed with other disciplines (psychology, biology…)

Also finished:

The great French astronomer, his life before, during and after the French Revolution, his links with other scientists and political people.

How a son of nearly no one came to the top.

Now:

and

I read:

The story of Arda, inspired by Bible mythology, mostly its first age (fight against Melkor/Morgoth) but a bit of the second age (rise and fall of Númenor, rise of Sauron) and the third age (fall of Sauron), and a glossary.

When I was reading it, I used these maps but I did not listen to this music even if I know that I should (and I own all their albums).

Now:

The Devil and Miss. Prym.

Read "The Hobbit" a bit ago, reading "Catch-22". Funny little comedy novel, reminds me a little bit of Douglas Adams with the occasionally absurd scenarios in it. I know what Orr was really training his apple cheeks for.

So much image hotlinking in this thread! Don't you guys understand just how many of these images you can fit yourself inside the 50MiB DoomWorld offers you?

Finally started reading "The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya", as always, it's really good so far!

Started reading "Last Call" by Tim Powers and am not disappointed.  The man knows how to tell a story.

Assassin's Quest

Does reciting negative replies on youtube word for word like a mantra each morning to myself count?

*Rocks back and forth, hugging self*

Currently reading Growth by Vaclav Smil. Great read so far but reading Energy and Civilization by him first definitely helps put a lot of it in context. Highly reccommend.

Finished:

A mathematical genius, no less. He wrote so many books, letters and notes that it’s still not finished to edit them all.

He also founded graph theory, he developed calculus and worked on geometry, even mathematical games.

Now:

Costa Rican short stories from the early 90s. It is the first book of the author, before she wrote her best works and found her voice. It is not bad, but not as good as her more mature works.

Halfway through Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

Finished:

Another genius, but underestimated during his life.

He invented differential calculus (with Newton) and binary numeration, he worked on fossils, he was also diplomat and historian… and a close friend of a woman who could have been queen of England.

Now:

Finished:

Nice book but with editorial errors (wrong images, wrong translations, bad Greek letters, stars not on the map…)

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 cool book

The latest book in probably my current favorite ongoing series Lightbringer, which was just released last week.

Currently reading: 

I've been wanting to read this for awhile since it's been compared to Disco Elysium, narratively speaking. 

I also just finished: 

Not my favorite of his but it as still very good.

Read:

About the last universal genius in mathematics, his life (including Dreyfus) and some of his major contributions in mathematics (topology, astronomy…)

Now:

Oh, I also read:

Earth seemed to have exploded and families, grouped around their spirit (an immortal giant), live on floating worlds.

Ophélie, a reader (she read objects and their history) who can also travel through mirrors, is married in another world, in a decadent world (symbolized on the book cover).

Now:

I enjoyed Azure Bonds a lot and this one has also been a lot of fun. 

On 7/30/2023 at 7:08 AM, aloysiusfreeman said:

Currently reading: 

 

 

I've been wanting to read this for awhile since it's been compared to Disco Elysium, narratively speaking. 

 

I have read a number of China Mieville. Wonderful Author. My person favorite is "The Scar", though "Perdido St. Station" is another favorite. I don't remember if I have read "The City & The City." I feel I have, though a long time ago.

I am currently reading the Autobiography of Charlie Chaplin. Heh. Extremes of poverty and wealth were a real thing in Victorian England. Who would have thought?