What are you reading now?

[bjarnetv]

I read them a couple of years ago and liked them a lot.

Liked 1# and 2# the best though.

3# was just ok.

 

[MexicanDragon]

#1 was painful. It kinda reminds me of DSOTM. It's something that's super popular that wasn't good. People remember it being good, and revisit it and still think it's good, but while each has a mildly redeeming quality in isolation (a couple of chapters vs a song,) as a whole it's a waste of time.

2/5

**BRENT**

[mypasswordis]

Is that you crappy?

[TMoney]

Why do young libertarians identify with Trump? This Medium post takes a stab at explaining that and the rise of the alt-right alongside the rise of 4chan.

This is a long but very interesting read. I found it helpful to begin to understand the actions of certain people that I don't understand.

https://medium.com/@DaleBeran/4chan-the-skeleton-key-to-the-rise-of-trump-624e7cb798cb#.u1fesztj8

[blessingx]

Saunders' Lincoln in the Bardo. Have the text, but with 166 narrators on the audiobook this one is for the car or at home with the lights out. 

https://www.wired.com/2017/02/george-saunders-bardo-white-house-audiobook/

 

Edited February 20, 2017 by blessingx

[HiWire]

The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean

[EdipisReks1]

I'm re-reading the Death Gate Cycle by Weiss and Hickman.  I loved it in high school.  It stands up pretty well!

[Tinkerer]

1 hour ago, EdipisReks1 said:

I'm re-reading the Death Gate Cycle by Weiss and Hickman.  I loved it in high school.  It stands up pretty well!

Now you're making me want to read it again. I collected the hardbacks of it at thrift stores ages ago. Some pretty imaginative worldbuilding in there. But my friend just lent me all of The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell so I'll be chewing through that for a bit.

 

[EdipisReks1]

3 minutes ago, Tinkerer said:

Now you're making me want to read it again. I collected the hardbacks of it at thrift stores ages ago. Some pretty imaginative worldbuilding in there. But my friend just lent me all of The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell so I'll be chewing through that for a bit.

 

You're in good company.

[bjarnetv]

Though The Lost fleet has it's moments, similar to the later Honor Harrington books it's not really that well written, and can get tiresome and repetetive really fast.

I somehow managed to read 6 volumes since my brother kept buying them, but i think the only book in the series i truly enjoyed was the second one.

On a more positive note, i just finished the three books in Liu Cixin's "remembrance of earth's past" books.
Truly excellent stuff, and both "the three body problem" and "death's end" are now firmly placed in my top 10 books ever shelf

[bjarnetv]

i started reading "this book is full of spiders" yesterday, and got halfway through before going to sleep.

It's not what i would call a scary book, but my subconscience obviously thought so, since i woke up like ten times through the night because i was pretty sure there was something in my room trying to kill me.

good times

[swt61]

Are you so sure there wasn't?

 

[bjarnetv]

now that you mention it, my tongue does taste a bit different today.

Edited March 9, 2017 by bjarnetv

[jvlgato]

Enjoyable concept for foodies. The author/photographer asks the worlds most famous chefs the same six questions and then photographs them and their food.

 

1. What would be your last meal on earth?

2. What would be the setting for the meal?

3. What would you drink with your meal?

4. Would there be music?

5. Who would be your dining companions?

6. Who would prepare the meal?

 

[jvlgato]

Oh, also a recipe from each.

[TMoney]

Fascinating piece on Uber and their drivers:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/02/technology/uber-drivers-psychological-tricks.html?_r=0

[EdipisReks1]

Finally getting around to it.

[Dusty Chalk]

Oh shit, I didn't even know it was out, will purchase forthwith...

[EdipisReks1]

8 minutes ago, Dusty Chalk said:

Oh shit, I didn't even know it was out, will purchase forthwith...

It's typical Reynolds: amazing.

[Sechtdamon]

After playing the games, now it's the time reading them...

[swt61]

Picked up Grisham's Rogue Lawyer at the San Diego airport. Only just into it, but vintage Grisham so far (and that's a good thing).

[Dusty Chalk]

Finally finished Way of Kings-- that was fantastic.

[TMoney]

John Updike - Rabbit Run

I read this on my trip. Given how burnt out and listless I was feeling before I left, it seemed appropriate.

Some random thoughts:

• Updike is a smarter man that I will ever be. He wrote this book when he was 28 and was able to change the tone of American literature. I don't know why, but being in the presence of a genius like this makes me feel like shit.
• Part of what makes a great writer is a great eye and keen powers of observation. Updike's skill in first seeing, then making the connections in written words that the mind makes when in deep examination is as mesmerizing as his beautiful prose.
• As if I, or anyone needed a reminder, Rabbit is a lesson of how we all need to be more considerate of others. When we act only at the whim of what we feel, we can cause great, lasting pain.
• Rabbit, Run reads like a reaction to the superficiality and repression of more animal instincts so inherent and central to mid-20th century modernism. Updike takes a deeper look and is unafraid and comfortable with bringing to light our baser, animistic desires that modernism is able to so effectively hide away. In this way, despite my love of modernism, Updike feels closer to "the truth."

5/5. I was blown away. Updike is a rightfully a literary giant and I look forward to reading the next book in the Rabbit series.

[Dusty Chalk]

Anne Bishop, Murder of Crows -- dark fantasy -- fun

[EdipisReks1]

An excellent article for anybody interested in NYC rock of the early 21st century: http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/the-strokes-an-oral-history.html