What Books Are You Reading Right Now?

[dehro]

I'm a big fan of Umberto Eco and the Focault Pendulum is one of his finest, next to the Name of the Rose. I second that reading both is a good move

The latter. Dan Brown claims that The Da Vinci Code is 100% factual, except for the main character and the specific events of the plot.

Brown did get one thing right. There is, in fact, a city named Paris in a nation called France. Everything else is wrong.

that's not how I remembered it.. I was under the impression that he always acknowledged that it was pure fiction and that it was the bible thumpers and other similar individuals who took the book at face value and burned it on bonfires. As for the whole plagiarisation of another book, yeah, I'd forgotten about that controversy. I know there was a lawsuit over it, but I lost interest before a verdict was reached.
I may of course misremember. That said, I found the book terribly over-hiped and never read anything by him again.

either way, I've always thought that anybody with half a brain would/should understand that it's a book of fiction.. hell.. it's even classified as a thriller/murder mistery, not as any sort of historical treatise. so who cares if he's gone off the rails with his facts?

[Gnoman]

Nope.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../25/sm.21.html

99 percent of it is true. All of the architecture, the art, the secret rituals, the history, all of that is true, the Gnostic gospels. All of that is … all that is fiction, of course, is that there's a Harvard symbologist named Robert Langdon, and all of his action is fictionalized. But the background is all true

[dehro]

Nope.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../25/sm.21.html

I see that more as a case of "hey.. these people are really taking things seriously.. Imma go stoke the fire another little bit..see if I can milk it further"..

[Gnoman]

A nearly identical statement is printed on the first page of every copy of the book, not to mention a great deal of "facts" listed on his (horribly designed) website. Brown has pitched the Da Vinci Code as one step away from non-fiction from day one.

[dehro]

then I guess I'm just too jaded to believe an author when he makes a statement like that.
or maybe I've read one too many books that claimed to be "true" when they're obviously not, to give such things any thought or credence... (something could be said about other books that make such claims of veracity..but that's an argument that would go against forum rules, so..)
or yet again, maybe I just happened to know a thing or two about the facts and things mentioned in the book that are contrary to what the book says about them, so I automatically assumed that everybody knew the book was full of it and not to be taken for anything more than what it is, a contrived thriller based on something of a "what if?" historical frame of reference.
All I know is that I distinctly remember a few conversations where I was going "guys..this is clearly a work of fiction, what are you even arguing about?" back in the day

[veti]

Oh come on! The Tainted Sword was pretty good..

Unless you somehow accidentally posted before completing that sentence ("... as an example, exaggerated to the point of caricature, of the 'Good is Stupid' trope", perhaps?), I really can't admit to that sentiment. I know paladins may take INT as a dump stat, but the entire plot of this book relies heavily on an entire order of paladins being too stupid to breathe.

there's a difference between doing research and then making stuff up around it or even departing from it, which is what I understand he did in his only book I read (that overhiped Da Vinci thing)..and saying you do and make EVERYTHING up from scratch.. which is it in this case?

The "research" in The Lost Symbol has involved reading a book on freemasonry (what book, I neither know nor care, but it was evidently pretty lurid), and a tourist guide to Washington DC. And he's also dredged up from somewhere the term "noetic science", which was a phrase coined in the 1970s to make drug-fuelled mysticism sound like research.

You can also tell he's got Wikipedia bookmarked. At one point, he specifies not only the make and model of the private jet our hero is travelling on, but also that of its engines. Why? I have no idea, except that he'd read it somewhere and damn if he was going to let that fact go to waste.

[GloatingSwine]

There's an interview with Eco where he says Dan Brown is one of his Diabolicals from Foucault's Pendulum, and he goes on to say he suspects he may have made Dan Brown up and then forgotten about it. It's pretty good.

(And yes, I heartily recommend Foucault's Pendulum to any and all. It's one of my all time favorite novels.)

I've read an interview where he joked that he wrote Dan Brown's biography.

[Zach J.]

I've just started In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson after recently rereading A Devil in the White City. Yesterday I read Doctor Sleep, Stephen King's sequel The Shining. I *may* have only checked the latter out from the library due to the author's dedication to Warren Zevon in the beginning, but I enjoyed reading it. King's books are great for a lazy afternoon.

[warty goblin]

Am now about halfway through The Woman in White, which is proving remarkably good, and extremely tense. The conceit of the story being related as a first-hand account by principle witnesses to its various pieces is used remarkably effectively, and Collins delivers a fairly astonishing number of different and quite convincing characters this way. The bit where Miss Halcombe's diary is usurped is also one of the frankly most skin-crawling and invasive things I've read in a long time.

Abandoned my Sabriel reread, since I didn't particularly feel like trying to baby the disintigrating text through another go-through, so I got it on audiobook instead. Let me put it this way, if your novel is almost entirely about unliving abominations trying to drink the blood of the living and drown the world in darkness, having it read by Tim Curry is absolutely the way to go.

[happyturtle]

Oh yes, Count Fosco is such a delicious villain!

[warty goblin]

Oh yes, Count Fosco is such a delicious villain!

He really is. Though I can't say I've met a character that isn't enjoyable. Even Mr. Fairlie, whom I detest, is quite enjoyably detestable. Well, I guess there isn't anything particularly enjoyable about Percival Glyde, but he's a quite believable sort of horrid.

[Zrak]

There's an interview with Eco where he says Dan Brown is one of his Diabolicals from Foucault's Pendulum, and he goes on to say he suspects he may have made Dan Brown up and then forgotten about it. It's pretty good.

This gets especially complicated when one considers that Pynchon probably made up Eco and Nabokov canonically made up Pynchon.

More seriously, I'm all for giving Dan Brown the business and all, but I do think it's strange that the same people who are bothered by him claiming The Da Vince Code is basically fact absolutely eat up, or at least do not object to, the Coen brothers saying Fargo changes only the names. Sometimes, I think the pretense of fact is an important part of the fiction. I don't really know how seriously Brown means it to be taken, but I think it's best to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and say that his prose style is unbearable and it's not like semiotics are that obscure.

And he's also dredged up from somewhere the term "noetic science", which was a phrase coined in the 1970s to make drug-fuelled mysticism sound like research.

Your phrasing that like that is a bad thing. Research is to blame for Richard Dawkins' prose, drug-fueled mysticism is responsible for the parts of the canon everyone can enjoy.

[happyturtle]

He really is. Though I can't say I've met a character that isn't enjoyable. Even Mr. Fairlie, whom I detest, is quite enjoyably detestable. Well, I guess there isn't anything particularly enjoyable about Percival Glyde, but he's a quite believable sort of horrid.

I have a soft spot for Mr Fairlie, because his symptoms would almost certainly be diagnosed today as ME/CFS, which I have. His insistence that no one around him be allowed to make a noise, or he will be left "prostrated", is exactly how I feel most days. Back in the 19th century, ME/CFS would have been most commonly diagnosed as "neurasthenia" or, as Mr Fairlie says, "I am nothing but a bundle of nerves, dressed up to look like a man." I can understand how he would feel aggrieved to be Laura's guardian, and glad to see her married off! Of course, his illness doesn't justify his peevish selfishness or the way he treats everyone (particularly poor Louis!), but I find him far more sympathetic than I suspect the author intended.

[veti]

Your phrasing that like that is a bad thing. Research is to blame for Richard Dawkins' prose, drug-fueled mysticism is responsible for the parts of the canon everyone can enjoy.

Sorry if I came across that way. For the record, I have nothing whatever against drug-fuelled mysticism per se. But I don't like it when people portray, describe or otherwise misrepresent it as "science" of some kind. It ain't.

I think TLS would be a far better book if Brown actually took his mysticism seriously. But he doesn't, he treats it with the same literal-minded casual contempt he does science.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by warty goblin
Am now about halfway through The Woman in White, which is proving remarkably good, and extremely tense.

I will definitely have to give this a look. Although Sabriel seems interesting as well; how did I never hear of this before?



Meanwhile, for a complete change of pace, I've just finished The Art of Frozen and The Art of Tangled, since I've rented both movies recently and really enjoyed them. Despite the common format, they ended up being very different books--and even though I enjoyed Frozen itself more deeply, I found The Art of Tangled did a better job of evoking the full mood of its movie.

Not that The Art of Frozen isn't a fascinating book; it's full of concept art, storyboards, lighting keys, and the reference material on all the wonderful architecture and design elements they found on their scouting trip to Norway. The Norwegian stave churches, rugged and gorgeous, were the inspiration for both the chapel where Elsa's coronation takes place as well as Arendelle Castle itself. And there are pages on what "rosemaling" is and how it found its way into nearly every aspect of the visual design.

Much of the book, though, is given over to artwork involving exquisitely frozen landscapes, as well as quite a bit of technical discussion about the challenges of working with CG snow and ice, especially the finicky and delicate lighting work involved. This is certainly appropriate, and it's interesting in its own right--but there was so much emphasis on the icework that they didn't go into as much detail on character and story development.

The Art of Tangled, by contrast, has a much more integrated presentation of how the concept art helped refine the characters and the setting--and some of the early designs for the Kingdom are absolutely stunning. It amazes me how much energy, effort and talent goes into the early creative stages of projects like these, most of which is never seen in the final movie apart from hints and echoes. (Although an early painting of Rapunzel found its way into the portrait gallery in Frozen.)

And it turns out the artists for Tangled went on a scouting trip as well--not to Europe, but to Disneyland, of all places, in order to key off some of the classic elements of Disney design. And yet they did work with real-world references as well--the design of the Kingdom was based on Mont St. Michel, and they only used certain species of trees from central Europe (oak, beech and hornbeam) to give them the shapes and sense of geography they wanted. I'm fascinated by the work and development involved, just to establish the background and feel, tone and mood, before the CG aspect even begins.

Now my poor ILL coordinator, who knows me by name, has an ILL request for The Disney That Never Was and a purchase order for Lovely: Ladies of Animation, both of which involve a whole spectrum of concept art. The former covers film projects that didn't happen, and the latter looks at the work of female artists and animators in Disney and beyond. It's looking like an animated summer for me....

[Draede]

I know he's a racist bastard, but on the whole the work of H.P. L-L-L-Lovecraft has been influencing my reading habits and to a greater extent my Gamemastering.

[turkishproverb]

I know he's a racist bastard, but on the whole the work of H.P. L-L-L-Lovecraft has been influencing my reading habits and to a greater extent my Gamemastering.

If it helps, he's dead now, and was never one to donate to causes, if you know what I mean.

And his stories were good quite often.


Now, do I read I Have the Right to Destroy Myself by Young-Ha Kim next, or Too Long A Sacrifice by Mildred Downey Broxon...

[warty goblin]

I have a soft spot for Mr Fairlie, because his symptoms would almost certainly be diagnosed today as ME/CFS, which I have. His insistence that no one around him be allowed to make a noise, or he will be left "prostrated", is exactly how I feel most days. Back in the 19th century, ME/CFS would have been most commonly diagnosed as "neurasthenia" or, as Mr Fairlie says, "I am nothing but a bundle of nerves, dressed up to look like a man." I can understand how he would feel aggrieved to be Laura's guardian, and glad to see her married off! Of course, his illness doesn't justify his peevish selfishness or the way he treats everyone (particularly poor Louis!), but I find him far more sympathetic than I suspect the author intended.

That's probably a much more reasonable and compassionate take on the character. His degree of self-involvement is so extreme it almost borders on the laughable; although it was interesting to observe somebody Fosco couldn't even put a dent in. Mind, I'd be far more sympathetic if his chunk of the narration had not occurred at a point in the narrative where I really did not want to hear him complain about the injustices married people perpetrate against singles. At that juncture, that was just vinegar in the wound.

And I have no idea how anybody survived this book being published in weekly installments.

I will definitely have to give this a look. Although Sabriel seems interesting as well; how did I never hear of this before?

Sabriel is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be in my opinion. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best stand-alone fantasy novels I've ever read - it has sequels, but Sabriel itself is a complete story. The protagonist is instantly likable, and hits the right notes of competent without being perfect, and genuinely afraid enough (of legitimately scary stuff!) to be actually brave. The world's not quite like anything else I've ever read, and manages to be weird without weirdness for its own sake, well explained where it needs to be without tedious hunks of 'worldbuilding,' and mysterious without ever feeling cheap. It even does magic in an early 20th century context (in parts) without descending to anything to which the suffix 'punk' could be applied, for which I'm exceedingly thankful*. When I first read it the idea of necromancy via handbell seemed pretty goofy, but by the end it's creepy, effective, and the entire picture of death and what comes after is a remarkably lucid and thematically effective bit of fantasy.

*Maybe I'm just a stick in the mud, but the instant somebody starts to roll out the automata, extraneous gears and overdone British aristocracy or any other of the retro-punks I'm so outa there. I can mostly tolerate cyberpunk, since that is (or at least was) a cogent form of sci-fi and antidote to various blends of techno-utopianism, but the faux-retro stuff is just trying way too damn hard to be cool for the sake of being cool. There's plenty of actually interesting stuff in those periods of history without robots, rayguns and imperialism with all the hard edges sanded off so it's nerd-safe.

[dehro]

yeah.. the entire trilogy has an interesting setting, somewhat reminescent in tone (at least to me) of "his dark materials".. you know.. the golden compass thing..
It's definitely worth a read.

[happyturtle]

That's probably a much more reasonable and compassionate take on the character. His degree of self-involvement is so extreme it almost borders on the laughable; although it was interesting to observe somebody Fosco couldn't even put a dent in. Mind, I'd be far more sympathetic if his chunk of the narration had not occurred at a point in the narrative where I really did not want to hear him complain about the injustices married people perpetrate against singles. At that juncture, that was just vinegar in the wound.

And I have no idea how anybody survived this book being published in weekly installments.

Librivox did a collaborative audiobook of the Woman in White, and Frederick Fairlie's narrative is amazingly voice acted by David Barnes. There's one line where he mentions that his sister married a foreigner, and the venom he puts into the word 'foreigner' just brings chills to me every time I hear it. He manages to really sell the character's extreme fatigue and more extreme selfishness with every line.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by warty goblin
Sabriel is not nearly as well known as it deserves to be in my opinion. In fact I'd go so far as to say it's one of the best stand-alone fantasy novels I've ever read....

This is as far as I read, and it's enough to convince me to make this my next fiction purchase.

If only Barnes & Noble still loved me. Alas, they only wanted me for my money, not my mind, so on the Amazon wish list it goes.

[warty goblin]

This is as far as I read, and it's enough to convince me to make this my next fiction purchase.

If only Barnes & Noble still loved me. Alas, they only wanted me for my money, not my mind, so on the Amazon wish list it goes.

If you've got an Audible account, the audio version of Sabriel is really good.


Felt flattened by a day of study yesterday, so spent an hour paging through a selection of seventeenth and eighteenth century English poetry before going to bed. Never fails to even me out, that.

[EmeraldRose]

On to Maskerade by Pratchett. I wonder how long it'll take me to get all the way thru...

[Jordan Cat]

Starting reading the Song of Ice and Fire series today. About a third through Game of Thrones. I can see what all the hype is about, it's very interesting.

I found it interesting that the series is as old as I am , Game of Thrones being released in 1996.

[Thiel]

I just finished Trudi Canavan's latest book Thief's Magic and I'm ny trying to decide whether I should read Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian or Alectors Choice by LE Modesitt Jr.
Thief's Magic is quite good, though it suffers a bit because she spends pretty much all of it setting up for the rest of the series. The setting seems really interesting though and I liked the characters. It's no masterpiece, but it's definitely worth your time.

[veti]

Nocturnes, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Short stories by my favourite modern British novelist. I've read all Ishiguro's books, and not one of them has failed to make me cry. So far, these stories are keeping up the trend.

(If you want to see how a truly modern horror story can be written, pick up Never Let Me Go. Now there's a nightmare, vividly and economically expressed without any special effects, or even on-page violence at all.)

[Thiel]

I've started on Post Captain, the second book in the Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian and I have to say it's a much better read than the first one.

[EmeraldRose]

Moved on to Feet of Clay by Pratchett. This one was always sort of interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading thru it again...

[Duck999]

Finished any and all books I have listed here previously. I just finished Sabriel, and have not gotten a new book yet.

[TheThan]

I just picked up The Pirates of Venus. Time for some epic pulp swashbuckling sci-fi adventure.