What Books Are You Reading Right Now?

[Feytalist]

Been reading some food books, loaned to me by a chef friend. Most notably Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain. It's hilarious. And quite informative.

[warty goblin]

Well, I'm with you this far.

It's the middle of the spring semester, the perfect time for reading about human failure.

Read some more of How the World Became Quiet last night. Know how most short story collections have one that's this weirdly disturbing out of left field bit of WTF? This entire collection seems to be those stories. The story after Iphigenia was a dark fairy tail written from the perspective of ugliness, and ugliness is so very alone. The one after that was about a rat pirate captain, his insane flea-infested first mate, and the first mate's fraught marriage to a cat with a thing for rodent husbands. Next up was a short number about wearing one's heart on one's sleeve - literally.

This sounded really cool, until I looked it up on Amazon.

954 pages. The cheapest used option is $296.03. (Plus shipping.)

Please tell me your copy is an ILL. Or did you drop $300 on a seven-pound, out-of-print hardback?!

I'm seriously considering dropping $200 on an out of print volume about Greek body armor in the bronze age and early antiquity.

[JCarter426]

I'm currently reading Guards! Guards!. It's only my second Discworld book. I did like Mort, but I didn't know how to get into the series... you need a chart just to know where to start. So I put it off. But then I heard that Night Watch is being adapted for TV, and everybody says those are the best anyway, and the chart says it's a valid starting point, so everything fell into place.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Knaight
ILL. I dropped 0$ to get access to it for three weeks.

ILL is the way to go. I have several in the pattern right now.

Originally Posted by warty goblin
I'm seriously considering dropping $200 on an out of print volume about Greek body armor in the bronze age and early antiquity.

Evidently you're better at stretching a grad student stipend than I was.

Originally Posted by JCarter426
I'm currently reading Guards! Guards!. It's only my second Discworld book.

Ahh, I loved that one when it came out.

And there's a TV version in the works? Do tell.

[JCarter426]

There's not much information on it, but there are some articles here, here, here, and here.

[Feytalist]

Wasn't there going to be some cop show based on Guards, Guards at some point? I'm almost certain I read something about that. Pratchett's daughter was going to be involved, even.


The easiest way to read Discworld is just to start at the first one and read them all. They're all mostly self-contained anyway, and it's not as if they're a slog to get through. Also, they're all awesome

[BWR]

Much though I like Pratchett, some of the Discworld books are merely ok. "Monstrous Regiment" and "Unseen Academicals" (the last DW book I read) were not really impressive. They felt like he was writing just to write something until inspiration struck again. I'd say the golden period for DW was between Wyrd Sisters and Hogfather.

[Feytalist]

Much though I like Pratchett, some of the Discworld books are merely ok. "Monstrous Regiment" and "Unseen Academicals" (the last DW book I read) were not really impressive. They felt like he was writing just to write something until inspiration struck again. I'd say the golden period for DW was between Wyrd Sisters and Hogfather.

That's sort-of true, actually. His latest books also seem to be much more poignant and... preachy? Aesop-y. Whatever the right word is. Snuff and Unseen Academicals especially. I've thought that it could be a result of his condition, but who knows, really.

[happyturtle]

I still haven't read Discworld. I know, I know, and they're on the list. It's just that the list is very veeeeeery looooooooooong.

[warty goblin]

Evidently you're better at stretching a grad student stipend than I was.

My stipend is pretty reasonable, I live in a very cheap city, and it's definitely a save up for it sort of thing.

I still haven't read Discworld. I know, I know, and they're on the list. It's just that the list is very veeeeeery looooooooooong.

I read a bunch of Discworld a while ago, when I could get 'em cheap at the used book shop. They're good, but I found them to get extremely repetitious after a while. You can definitely get the point by reading just a few of them.


Read a couple more out of How the World Became Quiet last night. This is a hella good collection; I'm not sure I've ever found another single-author anthology where the stories are so distinct. The last one had what might even resemble an uplifting ending. Actually the first one might as well, but the main character was so clearly horrible it sorta didn't matter.

[Yora]

I got myself all the Conan stuff from Project Gutenberg and copird it to my android.
At 830 pages as pdf, that should keep me for a good while.

[Feytalist]

I have now, in my hands - finally - Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I've been looking for this book for years.

I don't expect this to be easy reading, but it's going to be good.

[IthilanorStPete]

I have now, in my hands - finally - Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I've been looking for this book for years.

I don't expect this to be easy reading, but it's going to be good.

It's an amazing book. Looking forward to your reactions!

[Piggy Knowles]

And.... done. Having finished (for the second time) all the extant books in the Gentleman Bastards series and still not sure what new books to start, I've decided to dig even deeper into my pile of re-reads: I'm starting One Hundred Years of Solitude again.

I don't know why I've been so hesitant to read anything new lately...

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by warty goblin
My stipend is pretty reasonable, I live in a very cheap city, and it's definitely a save up for it sort of thing.

Well, your spending priorities clearly follow Erasmus, and I can't argue with that.

Originally Posted by piggy knowles
...I've decided to dig even deeper into my pile of re-reads: I'm starting One Hundred Years of Solitude again.

Wow. Once was enough for me.

It's odd, given how I've literally grown up reading fantasy, that I really don't like magical realism. Maybe because I read Marquez without having the slightest understanding that magical realism even existed as such, and only learned that was a tradition some years later. For whatever reason, it just never worked for me.

Originally Posted by Feytalist
I have now, in my hands - finally - Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I've been looking for this book for years.

I ran into trouble with math in second grade, so this one may not be for me.

Originally Posted by BWR
Much though I like Pratchett, some of the Discworld books are merely ok.

I was hooked on Pratchett from Color of Magic, and I've looked forward to new paperbacks ever since. As warty goblin says, some of the later books can be repetitious, and yet I enjoy the warm fizzy bath for the mind. For me, it's okay to be familiar and fun.

That said, Thud seemed to grasp in vain for a fingerhold on the fringes of meaning, and the books since then have been decidedly flat. Unseen Academicals is the last I've read, and it felt very thin and tired. I think there's Snuff and one more? Just haven't been motivated to read them.

.

[Moff Chumley]

Currently in progress (notably) is Godel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter, The Ever Present Origin by Jean Gebser, and Phenomenology of Spirit (Five pages a day for the last few months... will get there eventually).
On the side I've got this interesting collection of paradoxes called Labyrinths of Reason, I'm rereading Futurological Congress for the umpteenth time, and slowly but surely committing the important bits of Book of Thoth to memory. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. I hate finishing books, and only do so when forced to by lack of pages.

[Werekat]

Hegel! Good luck with that! He's fun once you get used to him, though so full of himself, he could probably explode. :D I like Kant's approach a bit more, though: "All philosophers are fired until they explain to me how apriori synthetic judgements are possible," if memory serves.

Since we're onto nonfiction here, my current read is "A Republic of Mind & Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion" by Catherine Albanese. And it is fascinating. There's a lot to study about American religion.

[FinnLassie]

I've read about three pages of Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures, and planning to finish the book by Sunday so I can tackle some other Discworld piece. These are really the only books that interest me right now, I'm so sick of going through children's literature trying to think what kids would like.

[Kindablue]

I'm currently split between a crime noir novel about Jews in Alaska called The Yiddish Policeman's Union, a nonfiction book about the Congo Free State called King Leopold's Ghost, and Paradise Lost/Regained, which is a lot easier to read than I thought it would be. I'm enjoying all three.

[mangosta71]

I think my favorite Discworld book is Going Postal!

I'll probably finish Working God's Mischief by Glen Cook this weekend. It's the fourth (and latest) of his The Instrumentalities of the Night, which is a Crusades-era military alternate/magical history/fantasy series. He includes a lot of geopolitical and religious complexity in the world, so it feels far more real than most fantasy settings. I'm having a lot of fun with it. "All things are true in the Night."

After this, I'm not sure what I'll pick up. Maybe I'll peruse my Amazon wish list...

[Piggy Knowles]

Wow. Once was enough for me.

It's odd, given how I've literally grown up reading fantasy, that I really don't like magical realism. Maybe because I read Marquez without having the slightest understanding that magical realism even existed as such, and only learned that was a tradition some years later. For whatever reason, it just never worked for me.

Well, I tend to re-read books that I didn't absolutely love, too - as long as it's something I didn't actively dislike, I'll probably give it a second read at some point. That being said, I do really like Marquez in general, and One Hundred Years in particular. (I also did NOT grow up reading fantasy in particular - I certainly read some fantasy, but it wasn't a genre I was particularly drawn to until I was in my twenties.) Also, while I've certainly read my share of bad magical realism, many of my favorite authors (like Jonathan Lethem or Haruki Murakami) tend to play around a lot in the genre.

[warty goblin]

Finished How the World Became Quiet tonight. Overall a very good collection, although the last two stories were, I thought, pretty weak. Too much weird, not enough substance to back it up. Still, some very interesting stuff, and a story that's at least 97% as skincrawlingly unpleasant as George RR Martin's loathsome classic, Meathouse Man. That alone is worth something right there. Next up, finish Dying of the Light, before jumping into one of my more oddly specific book sequences: Novels Made into Films I've Seen That Star Saoirse Ronan. To wit, Atonement and How I Live Now. Also a book on bronze age weaponry, because it's time to get this bronze age reading list rolling.

[Jobuu]

I'm currently reading Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[happyturtle]

My husband and I are both finding Surface Details by Iain M Banks somewhat confusing. There's a certain ideological war going on, and we think we know which of the numerous cast are on each side of the war, but then someone will say something that makes us think they're on the other side. We can't figure out if our memories are failing us (likely) or there's a bunch of double-crossing planned (also likely) or if the book itself is simply not terribly clear (also likely!). The parts of the book with Veppers, the ridiculously rich guy (richest in his entire multi-planet civilization), are boring me. He's a boring character. He's narcissistic, repulsive, and boring. I can't figure out (no idea whether this is my failing or the books) what part he has to play in the war when he comes from a (comparatively) backwards civilization - 2 tech levels or more down from the Culture. But somehow, multiple other In-Play civilizations think he's important enough to court. I don't get it.

Also this book? Not enough drones. The drones are my favourite part of the Culture. Even more than the Minds.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Now that Words of Radiance is done (AWWWWWWWWWW YES IT WAS GOOD), I'm on to my Dresden reread! Blood Rites it is!

[TheThan]

Just finished reading When All Hell Breaks Loose, by Cody Lundin (the barefoot hippy dude from Discovery's Dual Survival).

It's an excellent book for those looking to prepare your household for any sort of emergency situation, from zombies to natural disasters and just about anything else you can think of. The book is not a comprehensive guide to surviving any specific catastrophe, instead it gives you an in depth but general guideline for preparing your household. This book gives you the knowledge to build an adaptable survival plan should you be caught in a disaster.

it's not a wilderness survival book and it assumes you know nothing of how to get along without the tech we so readily take for granted (electricity for instance), and gives you tips on how to do without. As the back of the book says "be prepared, not scared".

I highly recommend the book. But now I'm off to improve on my Zombie survival bunker (what?).

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by CarpeGuitarrem
Now that Words of Radiance is done....

That was pretty fast, given the size of that book.

Originally Posted by warty goblin
Also a book on bronze age weaponry, because it's time to get this bronze age reading list rolling.

Do you happen to have that list in written form? Because I have the Fagles translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and at some point I want to dive headlong into all of that.

Originally Posted by TheThan
It's an excellent book for those looking to prepare your household for any sort of emergency situation....

I have a kayak, which covers a lot where I live.





Also, a new book for me: Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, by Anthony Everitt, which I've been listening to as an audiobook. I've read his other two recent and popular histories, Cicero and Augustus, and Hadrian makes a triptych, as the author says. The first two books dealt with the civil wars and chaos at the end of the Republic, and the establishment of a long period of unilateral rule; the third book looks at the consequences of the decisions made and precedents set while creating the Empire.

I'm only a few chapters in, and enjoying it for the detailed history and the broad view of Roman society. Like Augustus, this is shaping into a more distant, impersonal biography. Cicero was remarkable for its immediacy and the clear personality of the principal man, and I think that gave it much of its popular appeal. Augustus, and thus far Hadrian, together follow a less vibrant and more didactic approach to their characters and periods.

I'm enjoying Hadrian no less for that, however, and so far the book has given a good survey of the sequence of emperors from Augustus to Domitian, with particular emphasis on how their policies and attitudes affected Hadrian's family and his own personal prospects. So far it's been a good introduction to the first century of Imperial Rome.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

That was pretty fast, given the size of that book.

Upside of taking a trip for my work. I got lots of flight and layover time to read.

[IthilanorStPete]

My husband and I are both finding Surface Details by Iain M Banks somewhat confusing. There's a certain ideological war going on, and we think we know which of the numerous cast are on each side of the war, but then someone will say something that makes us think they're on the other side. We can't figure out if our memories are failing us (likely) or there's a bunch of double-crossing planned (also likely) or if the book itself is simply not terribly clear (also likely!).

Can't speak to your memory, but the other two things are pretty true. It's a big, sprawling, complex book.

The parts of the book with Veppers, the ridiculously rich guy (richest in his entire multi-planet civilization), are boring me. He's a boring character. He's narcissistic, repulsive, and boring. I can't figure out (no idea whether this is my failing or the books) what part he has to play in the war when he comes from a (comparatively) backwards civilization - 2 tech levels or more down from the Culture. But somehow, multiple other In-Play civilizations think he's important enough to court. I don't get it.

I actually find Veppers amusing because he's so shameless it's hilarious, but I can definitely see where you're coming from. As for his importance, keep in mind that the civs that are dealing with him in-depth generally aren't at the level of the Culture; they're somewhere in between the Culture and the Enablement. There's also some factors that...you'll see. How far into the book are you?

[warty goblin]

Do you happen to have that list in written form? Because I have the Fagles translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and at some point I want to dive headlong into all of that.

Sure thing: Note that this is a list I've compiled, but have not yet actually read. As such, I cannot directly vouch for quality.
These are all relatively scholarly in tone I believe, particularly the last one, and I think focused very heavily towards weapons and armor.

Bronze Age Military Equipment by Dan Howard (Should arrive Friday! I'm psyched, the author has one of the very few accurate replica Dendra panoplies in existence. Pictured here, although without the distinctive 'turret' throat protection in place, as seen here)
The Cutting Edge: Archaeological Studies in Combat and Weaponry by Barry Malloy
Henchmen of Ares: Warriors and Warfare in Ancient Greece by Josho Bowers; Jona Lendering
Archaiologia on Archaic Greek Body Armor (this one's the $200 one I was mentioning earlier, though it comes extremely well recommended)

These are assorted Osprey or similar sorts books focusing more or less on Mycenaean Greece at about the time of the Trojan War. It would also be worth looking up Hittite stuff if you're more interested in the Trojan side of things.
The Ancient Greece of Odysseus by Peter Connolly,
Mycenaean Citadels c1350 - 1200 BC by Nic Fields, Donato Spedaliere
Bronze Age Greek Warrior 1600 - 1100 BC by Raffaele D'Amato, Andrea Salimbeti, Giuseppe Rava (IIRC D'Amato is/was involved in the Thebes dig, and Salimbeti has a fairly goodwebsite dedicated to Mycenaean/Homeric Greece. Do note that a couple of his reconstructions and interpretations of Homer don't really make very much sense.)
Troy c1700 - 1250 BC by Nic Fields, Donato Spedaliere


These are other texts about Troy, Homer and the Trojan War.
In Search of the Trojan War: Updated Edition by Michael Wood
Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution to an Old Mystery by Joachem Latacz, Kevin Windle, Rosh Ireland.
Centuries of Darkness: A Challenge to the Conventional Chronology of Old World Archaeology by Peter James (This is more a general archaeology book, but it absolutely belongs on this list, since it calls into question the entire chronology of the late bronze age, a matter that's tied up in the length and severity of the Greek dark age, the date when the Iliad and Odyssey were composed, and whether they are authentic Mycenaean era works, or later creations. If they are in fact Mycenaean texts from shortly after the Trojan War, they are vastly more valuable for understanding warfare in that period than the conventional chronology has them).

(I've also got a copy of Heinrich Schliemann's original dig report from Hisarlik sitting on my shelf, mostly as a curiosity, since Schliemann was vastly better at finding bits of Homeric history than he was at digging them up. Now if somebody would hurry up and translate Korffman's reports into English... )


Mind, if you're just looking for general companion when reading Homer, and not so much in kegelhelms and the evolution of Mycenaean swords, I'd suggest either The Trojan War: A New History by Barry Strauss, or The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander. The first is a very readable popular level history that gets a whole heap of stuff pretty wrong, but is nevertheless a decent primer on just what the hell was going on. The second is geared more towards literary criticism than history (although it has a fair bit of that as well), and I think presents one of the better arguments for understanding Achilles as a dynamic and compassionate character instead of the petulant, sulky brute he easily comes off as to a modern audience on first exposure. I'd also recommend Elizabeth Vandiver's lectures on Homer, conveniently available through Audible.