What are you reading now?
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wrote on 11 Aug 2022, 22:46 last edited by kluurs 8 Nov 2022, 22:47
On one of the bookaholic sites on FB, I saw several people recommend The Stand. Our library system has it available for audio listening - so I decided to put 48 hours into listening to it while running or doing house stuff. Apparently, King wrote a long version, but the publisher asked him to cut 400 pages.. Post publication, there was a suggestion to release the original monster version - and thus - a 48 hour listen. It
s not bad. The premise is solid - an Andromeda Strain kind of thing where a pathogen is eleased from a lab. It is 99.5% fatal and highly infectious. The US is reduced to a population of around 2 million. That results in no small number of challenges. The things that work less well for me are his mystical/spiritual components. Still, I enjoyed the read if no other reason it shows the fragility of mankind - and how much we depend upon a social order.
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It's been decades since I read this, and I really have little memory of what the plot line is, or whether I liked it. So, an opportunity to revisit.
I'm only about 10% into it...not sure it's aged as well as "Ringworld" or other books by Niven.
wrote on 11 Aug 2022, 22:46 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
It's been decades since I read this, and I really have little memory of what the plot line is, or whether I liked it. So, an opportunity to revisit.
I'm only about 10% into it...not sure it's aged as well as "Ringworld" or other books by Niven.
It's still good. I prefer Lucifer's Hammer. Footfall is ok, too.
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On one of the bookaholic sites on FB, I saw several people recommend The Stand. Our library system has it available for audio listening - so I decided to put 48 hours into listening to it while running or doing house stuff. Apparently, King wrote a long version, but the publisher asked him to cut 400 pages.. Post publication, there was a suggestion to release the original monster version - and thus - a 48 hour listen. It
s not bad. The premise is solid - an Andromeda Strain kind of thing where a pathogen is eleased from a lab. It is 99.5% fatal and highly infectious. The US is reduced to a population of around 2 million. That results in no small number of challenges. The things that work less well for me are his mystical/spiritual components. Still, I enjoyed the read if no other reason it shows the fragility of mankind - and how much we depend upon a social order.wrote on 11 Aug 2022, 23:14 last edited by@kluurs said in What are you reading now?:
The Stand.
I tried to read it back in 1990 or so. Just couldn't get into it. As you say, a good solid premise, but it tends to go off the rails in a "Walking Dead" kind of way.
Gimme sci-fi, good and hard. When you start mixing in mysticism and all that, you've lost me.
There was (is?) a series called "Station 11." Same basic premise, about the collapse of society after a virus sweeps the world. I gave up after about 4 episodes.
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On one of the bookaholic sites on FB, I saw several people recommend The Stand. Our library system has it available for audio listening - so I decided to put 48 hours into listening to it while running or doing house stuff. Apparently, King wrote a long version, but the publisher asked him to cut 400 pages.. Post publication, there was a suggestion to release the original monster version - and thus - a 48 hour listen. It
s not bad. The premise is solid - an Andromeda Strain kind of thing where a pathogen is eleased from a lab. It is 99.5% fatal and highly infectious. The US is reduced to a population of around 2 million. That results in no small number of challenges. The things that work less well for me are his mystical/spiritual components. Still, I enjoyed the read if no other reason it shows the fragility of mankind - and how much we depend upon a social order.wrote on 12 Aug 2022, 02:57 last edited by@kluurs I loved it. Read it In high school I think and then returned to read the unedited version when released, I think even followed along with a US Atlas to understand fully the geography.
It’s one of those books from my adolescence that sticks in my memory, like the lord of the rings.
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wrote on 19 Aug 2022, 19:42 last edited by
Currently nerding out over this: a collection of O.G. Robin Hood stories. (It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
What's interesting is that it's really hard to say who can truly own Robin Hood stories: the gentry, or the peasants? We all think of Robin today as a peasant champion. But the earliest recorded stories, by virtue of them being recorded, came from the educated population. And to them, Robin was a kind of aristo Keyser Söze—be too greedy or too harsh on the great unwashed, and Robin Hood's gonna come and murder you, then abscond to the forest and no one's gonna know what happened.
I agree with this guy's assessment that Robin's an anti-King Arthur. That's true in basically every respect. Even in what's recorded. Arthur gets books and official canon, Robin gets an assemblage of ballads, May Day plays and mummery.
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Currently nerding out over this: a collection of O.G. Robin Hood stories. (It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
What's interesting is that it's really hard to say who can truly own Robin Hood stories: the gentry, or the peasants? We all think of Robin today as a peasant champion. But the earliest recorded stories, by virtue of them being recorded, came from the educated population. And to them, Robin was a kind of aristo Keyser Söze—be too greedy or too harsh on the great unwashed, and Robin Hood's gonna come and murder you, then abscond to the forest and no one's gonna know what happened.
I agree with this guy's assessment that Robin's an anti-King Arthur. That's true in basically every respect. Even in what's recorded. Arthur gets books and official canon, Robin gets an assemblage of ballads, May Day plays and mummery.
wrote on 19 Aug 2022, 23:09 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
(It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
I'll take your word for that.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
(It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
I'll take your word for that.
wrote on 19 Aug 2022, 23:11 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
(It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
I'll take your word for that.
Wussy.
If you can do anatomy, you can do this. (Not that you'd want to, I get it.) -
wrote on 21 Aug 2022, 02:28 last edited by
Not really a individual book, but came across this app.
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.
War and Peace takes something like 200 or 3oo segments, while others take much less.
(PS again - I haven't actually tried it, so cant comment on how good or bad it is. 5555)
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Not really a individual book, but came across this app.
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.
War and Peace takes something like 200 or 3oo segments, while others take much less.
(PS again - I haven't actually tried it, so cant comment on how good or bad it is. 5555)
wrote on 21 Aug 2022, 08:25 last edited by@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.Yeah, I can't get too excited about such a thing. If reading is such a challenge that you have to be spoon fed segments according to the wisdom of some app, then maybe you should take up a hobby or something.
Okay, that was probably unnecessarily snotty, but reading should bring joy, should bring fulfillment. The real schande is that joy in reading is not more widely cultivated.
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@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.Yeah, I can't get too excited about such a thing. If reading is such a challenge that you have to be spoon fed segments according to the wisdom of some app, then maybe you should take up a hobby or something.
Okay, that was probably unnecessarily snotty, but reading should bring joy, should bring fulfillment. The real schande is that joy in reading is not more widely cultivated.
wrote on 23 Aug 2022, 22:20 last edited by@Catseye3 said in What are you reading now?:
@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.Yeah, I can't get too excited about such a thing. If reading is such a challenge that you have to be spoon fed segments according to the wisdom of some app, then maybe you should take up a hobby or something.
Many great novels of the 19th and 20th centuries were serialized. That's how most of our classics were originally read.
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@Catseye3 said in What are you reading now?:
@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:
(PS, I think people on this forum page read more than the general public, so maybe this is not applicable.)
Anyway, the "premise" is that you chose a classic book, and the app sends you a 20 minute portion to read each day.Yeah, I can't get too excited about such a thing. If reading is such a challenge that you have to be spoon fed segments according to the wisdom of some app, then maybe you should take up a hobby or something.
Many great novels of the 19th and 20th centuries were serialized. That's how most of our classics were originally read.
wrote on 23 Aug 2022, 22:24 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
Many great novels of the 19th and 20th centuries were serialized. That's how most of our classics were originally read.
Isn't that how Dickens made a living - pay per word?
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Currently nerding out over this: a collection of O.G. Robin Hood stories. (It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
What's interesting is that it's really hard to say who can truly own Robin Hood stories: the gentry, or the peasants? We all think of Robin today as a peasant champion. But the earliest recorded stories, by virtue of them being recorded, came from the educated population. And to them, Robin was a kind of aristo Keyser Söze—be too greedy or too harsh on the great unwashed, and Robin Hood's gonna come and murder you, then abscond to the forest and no one's gonna know what happened.
I agree with this guy's assessment that Robin's an anti-King Arthur. That's true in basically every respect. Even in what's recorded. Arthur gets books and official canon, Robin gets an assemblage of ballads, May Day plays and mummery.
wrote on 23 Aug 2022, 22:29 last edited by@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
Currently nerding out over this: a collection of O.G. Robin Hood stories. (It's in Middle English, which eres moste harkyn too, but it's a hell of a lot easier than Old English.)
I'm actually having a go at translating the first one into modern english. Because why the fuck not.
The form's easy to work with, and I'm taking massive liberties with lines and stanzas, but no details are being removed or altered. I'm also finding it challenging to keep the original voice of the ballad without either failing, or sounding old-timey. (For example, Robin talks to Little John about returning to mass on Whitson, which, no one would know what that means. But the time of year speaks directly to the sense of place in ways we no longer appreciate. It'd be a sin to ignore the reference. So I went with White Sunday.)
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@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
Many great novels of the 19th and 20th centuries were serialized. That's how most of our classics were originally read.
Isn't that how Dickens made a living - pay per word?
wrote on 23 Aug 2022, 22:29 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
@Aqua-Letifer said in What are you reading now?:
Many great novels of the 19th and 20th centuries were serialized. That's how most of our classics were originally read.
Isn't that how Dickens made a living - pay per word?
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wrote on 22 Sept 2022, 22:12 last edited by
About ⅔ of the way through this. Good story, and the storytelling is "tighter" than it's been in a while.
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About ⅔ of the way through this. Good story, and the storytelling is "tighter" than it's been in a while.
wrote on 23 Sept 2022, 00:33 last edited by@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
About ⅔ of the way through this. Good story, and the storytelling is "tighter" than it's been in a while.
I am actually reading the very first one (The Black Echo) based on your suggestion. So far, so good.
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@George-K said in What are you reading now?:
About ⅔ of the way through this. Good story, and the storytelling is "tighter" than it's been in a while.
I am actually reading the very first one (The Black Echo) based on your suggestion. So far, so good.
wrote on 23 Sept 2022, 00:40 last edited by@taiwan_girl said in What are you reading now?:
I am actually reading the very first one (The Black Echo) based on your suggestion. So far, so good.
The thing about the Bosch books is that, although they're "sequels" in the sense that each occurs later in the timeline, only two really depend on knowing what happened in the preceding book.
You can start with book #15 and you won't feel lost. There are allusions to characters and stories told in earlier books, but the plot doesn't depend on your knowledge of these.
They're also a quick, easy, read. I hope to finish this tomorrow.
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wrote on 25 Sept 2022, 00:38 last edited by
Why not?
Finished this this evening....
Really a fun read, and just different enough from the preceding books.
- Bosch is no longer with LAPD
- Mickey Haller - "The Lincoln Lawyer" is a major player in the story. And he's Bosch's half-brother
- Bosch works to exonerate someone accused of murder
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wrote on 25 Sept 2022, 00:58 last edited by
Finally finishing Ian Toll’s trilogy about the war in the Pacific 1941 - 1945. Well researched and written narrative. Worth reading.
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wrote on 25 Sept 2022, 01:16 last edited by Aqua Letifer
Fun. Kind of a "Stephen King does Grimm's Fairy Tales."
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wrote on 25 Sept 2022, 21:11 last edited by
Just continuing the deep dive into the LA crime scene.
Seeing Mickey Haller in the last Bosch book I read got me intrigued.
Halfway done with this.
