What are you currently reading?

[Brickman | 3,995]

11 hours ago, T-Pac said:

 

If I pick something up to read, I always feel like I can't go wrong with a classic - because even if it's not to my taste (like that Hemingway novel), I know that it'll be worthwhile.

I don't know how I feel about classic novels being cut from school curriculum, though. I didn't actually start to enjoy reading until I actually got to experience books outside of a school setting. So I can see both viewpoints, I guess.

[T-Pac]

I was sort of similar. I've been a big reader since I was a kid. However, I had never really read any classics until I left high school besides Shakespeare.

We did have to study some classics though like sections of The Odyssey, Shakespeare, Dickens and a few others. I think they definitely have a place in high school curriculum and are a fascinating reflection of times and writing styles and how they have evolved or changed. The teacher above is doing a disservice by taking out something like The Odyssey, it isn't dry and something is always happening in that novel. 

[Tabonga | 2,324]

I am about 1/2 way through the first book of a trilogy (Pixie for Hire) by Cedar Sanderson - not a super deep read but it is very enjoyable.

[Tabonga | 2,324]

39 minutes ago, Brickman said:

I was sort of similar. I've been a big reader since I was a kid. However, I had never really read any classics until I left high school besides Shakespeare.

We did have to study some classics though like sections of The Odyssey, Shakespeare, Dickens and a few others. I think they definitely have a place in high school curriculum and are a fascinating reflection of times and writing styles and how they have evolved or changed. The teacher above is doing a disservice by taking out something like The Odyssey, it isn't dry and something is always happening in that novel. 

I have always read a lot - even back when I was in junior high relatively few people read much.  We  had to read a lot for school - but unlike a lot of my classmates I mostly enjoyed it. I liked things like The Scarlet Letter and the Leatherstocking Tales,  We also got to read stuff like Brave New World, Animal Farm, 1984 and Lord of the Flies.  I still read a fair amount - but video games are demanding time wise.

It is a time investment but I recommend Don Quixote if you have not essayed into it as of yet. And a really bizarre fantasy called the Circus of Dr. Lao (the movie The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is based on it - the movie is somewhat  faithful to the novel but reading the novel is a trip).

[Brickman | 3,995]

8 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

I have always read a lot - even back when I was in junior high relatively few people read much.  We  had to read a lot for school - but unlike a lot of my classmates I mostly enjoyed it. I liked things like The Scarlet Letter and the Leatherstocking Tales,  We also got to read stuff like Brave New World, Animal Farm, 1984 and Lord of the Flies.  I still read a fair amount - but video games are demanding time wise.

It is a time investment but I recommend Don Quixote if you have not essayed into it as of yet. And a really bizarre fantasy called the Circus of Dr. Lao (the movie The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is based on it - the movie is somewhat  faithful to the novel but reading the novel is a trip).

I have started Don Quixote but it was moving really slow. My wife told me that it does get better though, I should return to it. I haven't heard of the Circus of Dr. Lao but it sounds interesting to I'll chuck that on my list  

[Tabonga | 2,324]

33 minutes ago, Brickman said:

I have started Don Quixote but it was moving really slow. My wife told me that it does get better though, I should return to it. I haven't heard of the Circus of Dr. Lao but it sounds interesting to I'll chuck that on my list  

The Circus of Dr. Lao is pretty short - 170 pages or so.   It was written in 1935 by Charles G. Finney who only wrote one other thing IIRC - a collection of short stories titled The Ghosts of Manacle - unfortunately not nearly as good  (if you like Dr. Lao it might be worth reading though) as The Circus of Dr. Lao.  It has been in and out of print quite a few times so finding a cheap used copy should be doable.   I suggest watching the movie after reading the book - it makes the movie much more enjoyable.

Yeah - Don Quixote takes a while to gain steam but gets really fun once it does.  If you get into it pay particular attention to Sancho Panza who is actually a much more interesting character than Don Quixote.  So interesting that I once wrote a paper on Sancho Panza's ass* in college - got an A on it too.

*His ass was named Dapple. 

 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Tabonga

[T-Pac | 7,560]

12 hours ago, Brickman said:

I was sort of similar. I've been a big reader since I was a kid. However, I had never really read any classics until I left high school besides Shakespeare.

We did have to study some classics though like sections of The Odyssey, Shakespeare, Dickens and a few others. I think they definitely have a place in high school curriculum and are a fascinating reflection of times and writing styles and how they have evolved or changed. The teacher above is doing a disservice by taking out something like The Odyssey, it isn't dry and something is always happening in that novel. 

I can see that. Shakespeare is a good example - novels that need additional context to properly understand (historical, cultural, etc.) are definitely good to experience in school so you aren't missing out on some key stuff that makes them "classics".

And I'll echo @Tabonga that Don Quixote is worth reading, but only if you look at it as the foundation for things that were improved later (especially character archetypes). It's the "Metroid" of quirky adventure novels, not the "Super Metroid" haha.

[T-Pac]

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

Found Meg at a thrift store, which I've wanted for years.  Started that.

Still working on Malazan 6.  1200 frickin pages.

Almost done with Bag of Bones.  Middle tier King.

Doing audiobook of Dresden 7.

4 at once.  I'm just the worst.

[Tabonga | 2,324]

3 hours ago, T-Pac said:

I can see that. Shakespeare is a good example - novels that need additional context to properly understand (historical, cultural, etc.) are definitely good to experience in school so you aren't missing out on some key stuff that makes them "classics".

A good annotated edition is really helpful for these type of books.  They will not only provide context but explain words that are no longer in vogue.  And they sometimes will restore a lot of text - many early translations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example not only mistranslated stuff but expurgated up to 25% of the book (mostly in objection to the anti-colonial message).  Reading a complete copy is like reading a totally different book.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Tabonga

[DefaultGen | 5,414]

23 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Found Meg at a thrift store, which I've wanted for years.  Started that.

Still working on Malazan 6.  1200 frickin pages.

Almost done with Bag of Bones.  Middle tier King.

Doing audiobook of Dresden 7.

4 at once.  I'm just the worst.

Yeah Malazan really seems like a breezy series to dip in and out of like that. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

1 minute ago, DefaultGen said:

Yeah Malazan really seems like a breezy series to dip in and out of like that. 

"Who the fuck is Strings?  Wait, it's Fiddler?  Then who the fuck is Bottle?"

[T-Pac | 7,560]

20 hours ago, Tabonga said:

A good annotated edition is really helpful for these type of books.  They will not only provide context but explain words that are no longer in vogue.  And they sometimes will restore a lot of text - many early translations of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example not only mistranslated stuff but expurgated up to 25% of the book (mostly in objection to the anti-colonial message).  Reading a complete copy is like reading a totally different book.

True. I have a love-hate relationship with annotated books. I like the additional context and information, but I hate interrupting the passages to reference the annotations. Having them available is definitely a net positive, though.

[T-Pac]

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Finished reading Blink (2005) by Malcolm Gladwell.

Spoiler

This is an incredibly fascinating book that explores the power of “rapid cognition” - that split-second thought process that we go through unconsciously when we encounter anything. Gladwell lays-out several examples of how this type of thinking can be more reliable and accurate than we give it credit for, but also how it can feed unconscious biases into our decision-making. Equally impressive are the subtle ways our rapid cognition is influenced to process things differently (down to minutiae like how lemon-lime soda tastes more like lemon from a yellow bottle and more like lime from a green bottle).

I’ve always put a lot of stock in intuition (although Gladwell doesn’t like that term), and Blink has gone a long way to reinforce that trust. But it has also cautioned me about where to temper my rapid cognition with more calculated deliberation. 

Ironically, it’s difficult to gather my thoughts on this book about thinking - but needless to say I’d recommend Blink to anyone with an interest in the way we process information. Or if you’re just fascinated by little knowledge-bytes, like why most CEOs are tall, or how ugly chairs can dominate the office-furniture market.

[T-Pac]
 

[Aguy | 773]

FINALLY finished The Two Towers, starting Return of the King.

[MegaMan52 | 2,451]

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Finished reading The Centaur (1963) by John Updike.

Spoiler

I picked this one up on a whim from the “free table” at work, and it was a trip to say the least. The novel follows the trials and tribulations of a high school teacher, George Caldwell, and his son Peter as they navigate their day-to-day lives during a harsh 1940s Pennsylvania winter.

What makes this book so unique is how Updike shifts in and out of several tiers of fantasy in his presentation of the narrative. While most of the story is told realistically, some chapters introduce a world where Greek mythology layers itself unassumingly into modernity, acting as a kind of metaphor for the more chaotic aspects of Caldwell’s life, as well as to represent his view of himself. Here he’s the titular centaur - a boon to mankind and his community, but forsaken by higher powers to a life of struggle and pain.

And this brings me to my biggest takeaway from The Centaur. The story is, in many respects, a cautionary tale about the value of self-worth. Caldwell is a hero in action - devoted teacher, selfless coach and ministry-man, and caring father and husband - yet he’s dragged down of his own accord by a cynical, loathing mindset. He views himself as a hopeless man plagued with no prospects of his own and no meaningful contributions to his family or society at large (although the veiled respect of his students, friendship of his neighbors, and concern of his wife and son prove otherwise). This state of mind translates into a self-neglect that extends as far as his refusal to wear the winter gloves Peter bought him because they’re “too nice for him”. Yet he demonstrates his reversal of care so readily, in acts like picking up stranded hitchhikers, to doing everything in his power to keep Peter safe when their car breaks down. Caldwell selflessly serves others, but refuses to heed his own needs to the point that he’s grown intrinsically hateful - hateful of his job, of his home, and of his situation in general.

And this self-neglect and cynicism materializes in Caldwell as an undisclosed illness that, depending on how you interpret the narrative, claims him in the end to his own bitter satisfaction. He’s failed to realize that his sense of duty to helping others can’t continue to be fulfilled without some semblance of helping himself first. Not in a selfish way, but in the sense that valuing your own worth is the first step in being valuable to the people around you. One of my main resolutions for 2024 is to be more positive, and The Centaur has reinforced the importance of that resolution. To be like George Caldwell in action is commendable - to be like George Caldwell in thought is suicide. So as much as “self-care” and “positive thinking” have become overused and meaningless terms today, there really is something essential there that shouldn’t be overlooked. 

[T-Pac]

[RpgCollector | 904]

Just finished “A Gentleman in Moscow” 2016 by Amor Towles 

Great read, very enjoyable period piece.

[fcgamer | 4,730]

I'm currently reading "Middle of the Road" by Benjamin Anderson. I'm about halfway through it and will likely read more tonight.

[Aguy | 773]

Over the weekend I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which I loved. It's short and reads like a bedtime/fairy tale adventure. I also read Slade House by David Mitchell, which wasn't as good. It's a little horror/sci-fi/fantasy, yet predictable. Now I just started Defiant by Brandon Sanderson, the last book in the Skyward series.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,549]

 

The follow-up to Blood, Sweat, and Pixels.  But whereas that book dealt with the struggles to create Uncharted 4, Stardew Valley, The Witcher 3, etc., with mostly happy endings, this book deals with studios like personalities like Warren Specter and Ken Levine, and studios like Mythic, Irrational, and Visceral, and how they almost always end in ruin.  A very unflattering look at how unstable it can be to work for a AAA publisher.  Guys like @Tanooki and @Art of Nintendo Power might be able to relate.

[Aguy | 773]

I finished Defiant by Brandon Sanderson, considering it's the finale to the Skyward series, it was 

Spoiler

pretty meh. 

 

[Tabonga | 2,324]

Just started Double-Booked - the 8th book in the Dan Shamble Zombie PI series - it is the usual romp (which is good) of an odd universe with wacky characters and in-your-face pretty dumb simplistic (deliberately so) humor.

 

Edited January 16 by Tabonga

[T-Pac | 7,560]

Finished reading Candide (1759) by Voltaire.

Spoiler

This book is essentially a sarcastic comment that, in its smug pride, rambled itself into a novella. The titular character Candide is a German noble who finds himself driven from the castle over a romantic gesture toward the baron’s daughter. Now the human equivalent of street litter, his ensuing travels take him through disaster after disaster, testing his philosophical education based on the principle that everything is for the best.

Voltaire uses this story as a vehicle for criticism against such Leibnizian reasoning. Apparently the author once subscribed to the idea that we live in the best of possible worlds, where any hardship experienced is a necessary path to the greatest outcome. But he came to reject this philosophy after several tragedies in his own life left him disenchanted with such a positive outlook on the world - to the extent that he wrote this vitriolic story in a concerted effort to pan Leibniz and his principles.

Traveling across Europe and abroad to regain Miss Cunegonde his love, Candide faces countless tragedies - from natural disasters, to slavery, to senseless capital punishment. And he himself is robbed, persecuted, and tried by pirates, religious zealots, and military forces alike. The few people on his journey that don’t actively torment him relate the miseries of their own lives, which rival Candide’s. He even meets the supposed happiest man in Europe, who in truth possesses all the means of happiness but fails to enjoy any of them due to his clinically critical disposition.

The only brief respite Candide finds from the suffering world is in the mythical utopia of El Dorado, where Voltaire suggests that the citizens’ happiness is born of isolation from our own cruel earthly societies. Unfortunately, Voltaire presents this utopia - not as an ideal we can possibly strive for - but as a means of bitter contrast to our corrupt world. Salt in the wound we inflict on ourselves.

And therein lies the problem with Candide. Venting frustrations as Voltaire does in this work can be healthy and cathartic, but not when taken to the extent of dismissing any sort of goodness or potential in life. That’s a recipe for creating the nihilistic world Voltaire is lamenting in the first place.

It’s worth noting the small ray of hope at the end of the story, in which the miserable cast of characters ultimately finds a semblance of peace through honest, simple labor. (Spoiler - they all become farmers). But even that iota of optimism is tainted by the insinuation that it must be paired with a general ignorance and rejection of the outside world in order to persist. 

It’s true that maybe everything isn’t “for the best”, but I definitely believe it isn’t all for the worst as Candide might suggest. And I feel that dedication to simple, fulfilling work - as Candide came to find - really can sustain a positive, happy (if blissfully ignorant to a degree) outlook on the world in spite of its flaws and miseries.

[T-Pac]
 

[Fleck586 | 301]

Just finished Murtagh, the 5th installment in the Eragon universe. I really like Paolini's writing style. Gonna try his science fiction books next.

[GiygasKaz | 2]

Been working my way through Snow Crash. I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but I definitely didn't think I'd be getting almost dadaist levels of absurdist humor. It often feels like a post-ironic satire of the old internet from a modern perspective at times, despite having come from that era. Pays tribute to the campiness of old sci-fi and the political satire of Carpenter's They Live.

Aside from a few moments that feel outwardly sexist or xenophobic in a way that doesn't quite sit well even as supposed satire, it's generally a very enjoyable experience and unlike anything else I've read.

[Tabonga | 2,324]

I am  about 2/3 through Dragonbones (the latest Shadowrun novel) -  a good spin on the traditional set up in these books.