What are you reading?

[ceptimus]

I'm reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, and though I'm enjoying the book, it's rather hard work on account of the very long sentences which often contain many clauses that interrupt the flow of meaning and make the sentences incomprehensible until I've read them several times, used by the author, and the multitude of characters introduced only by name with their personalities gradually described in short bursts of text often spaced several pages apart: especially as one never knows whether a character will be an important to the plot - not that the book has any sort of plot in the usual sense - or perhaps never mentioned again, but I suppose the book was written a long time ago when longer sentences were the norm and authors expected readers to work harder than they do today, and has a certain style which sets it apart from the mere commonplace lightweight novel.

[JoeP]

I'm reading #4026 by ceptimus, which does appear to be a good and helpful review - something which I am not at all surprised to find myself almost expecting from such a poster, in such a publication - but which may possibly be rather difficult to follow all the points of, as he is quite clearly illustrating the very same tendency to long and convoluted (or should that be convoluted and long? since the length is a consequence of the convolutions rather than its antecedent) sentences on the part of the author, Virginia Woolf, of the work he is reviewing, To The Lighthouse; this to the extent that I may need to go over it again several times - a need which I am nevertheless uncertain that I will meet.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

you can use tweets as prompts for ai and get nobel prize winning story's from it and it's completely free https://t.co/bgURDIQ7mx pic.twitter.com/AUelYDndh7

— egg d o g (@egg_dog) January 20, 2021

[vremya]

I'm reading way too many books at the same time, as usual. Heretics or herejes by Leonardo Padura for my Spanish class, Tudor: The Family Story (when all else fails, read about the Tudors. They were pretty fun) and Persephone Station by Stina Leicht - just started this one, it looks like a fun space opera.

[JoeP]

Oh, are we doing the on-topic thing?

I'm reading The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter, a sequel to The War of the Worlds. He's very much kept the 19th century science of the original - the Martians are still [omg sorry! spoiler!] firing cylinders from guns, space rockets not having really entered sf thinking at this time. And Jupiter is seven times older than Mars. And, of course, the style. Good so far ... but the massacring has only just begun.

[Crumb]

Currently on the second story of

Sorry I couldn't find a bigger image.

[Limoncello]

Don't laugh at me an old Nancy Drew book I found were she goes to the Nasca lines in Peru

[Sock Puppet]

Allie Brosh's new one, Solutions and Other Problems. I'm about halfway through it, because I'm intentionally taking it a chapter or 2 per day.

I'm also reading David Wong's (yeah, the cracked.com guy) debut novel, John Dies At The End. It's rather good, actually -- an odd mix of low & highbrow, with gore, Lovecraftian horrors, deadpan humor, existential dread, asynchronous plot, and a few other damned things.

[Crumb]

I liked John Dies At The End and it's sequel.

[specious_reasons]

We read Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong for the Sword & Laser book club. It was straddling the line between a parody of male aggression and just a book with rape threats in it. A few people in the book club didn't finish it that month.

I am currently reading Light: Science & Magic. It's one of those photography books I was told I should read, even if it thumbs a nose at the Door that reads, "The Eyes Are Not a Sense Organ."

I also started reading How to Be Antiracist, too, but discovered I really needed to focus on one or the other, and chose the more pleasant subject first.

[specious_reasons]

Sword & Laser is reading Elatsoe, which is a young adult book about an Apache teen who can summon ghosts. This was a great book, which I don't want to say too much about it, but it was surprising in both what was thrown into the world and how well it was all integrated.

A not-great book is Flashman - a novel which places the bully Harry Flashman from Tom Brown's School Days into real historical events. The author does a phenomenal job of making the book tie into historical events. The book was written in the late 1960s, but was written pretty much how a 19th Century English man might think.

Harry reflects the absolute worst of English colonialism. I expected the extreme racism, I didn't expect the sexual assault. In Flashman's world, consent is only considered when the lady puts up enough of a fight and there are consequences if he continues.

This book is a technical achievement. I hated it. You can tell the author is quite fond of this awful person. He expects us to find some amusement in the fact that his acting out of cowardice and sheer luck makes him look like a hero, but it never happened for me.

[Miss Shelby]

The Pepsi-Cola Addict by June-Allison Gibbons

[specious_reasons]

I'm re-reading Advise & Consent for one of my book clubs. I had read it many decades ago after I saw the movie.

The movie is rather great (but hard to find now). Directed by Otto Preminger, it does a good job of hitting all the main points of the book, makes some of the subtext text, and does an excellent job of using the actors to show motivation without the chapters full of background. I have it on video tape somewhere.

... but back to the book.

The book was written in the late-50s by a journalist who had worked as a Senate reporter in the 40s. The author and thus the narrator is extremely impressed with DC and the institution of the Senate. It's realistic — the author writes a complicated disclaimer that there are resemblances to real people in the book, but they're not strictly based on real people. It's also quite optimistic. It's a strong contrast with my cynicism — probably the main reason why I enjoy it.

The inciting incident of the plot is centered around a new nomination for Secretary of State. The President has put forward a man who is quite capable, but has some personality quirks and has a controversial stance on dealing with the USSR. The President is looking for a new approach to the USSR, and he thinks the nominee is the man for the job. He wants the Majority leader (same party) to push the nomination as quickly as possible, so does the beltway press and more than a few liberal senators.

The nomination proceedings go off the rails and the head of the nominating subcommittee is pressured on all sides. This pressure leads to tragic circumstances - this is a melodrama after all.

I'm mostly enjoying this so far. However, it's very much a product of its time. It's chock full of middle-age and older white men who are doing the serious business of government. The women and especially foreigners in the book are a big "yikes" from a modern liberal viewpoint. The difference between "liberal" and "conservative" is minimal. It can be summed up in the book as the mainstream liberals want to take a slightly softer stance against Communism than the hard line conservatives want. This is a very Cold War era book.

The biggest problem is the audiobook. The narrator has made choices - particularly accents. I don't consume a lot of audiobooks, but I don't remember hearing so many questionable accents in one book. A senator from South Carolina could be Foghorn Leghorn, we have a Clouseau-esque French ambassador, and a sub-Apu accent for the Indian ambassador. The last literally makes me cringe when I hear it.

I was thinking about picking more audiobooks to improve, but if more narrators make choices like this, I'm not sure I want to continue. That Indian accent is quite racist - so much so that's worse than the casual 1950s racism of the actual text.

[specious_reasons]

I'm currently reading (in audiobook form) Paradise Lost. As a non-believer, it's the most boring shit. I kind of feel like I need to keep reading because it's teh source of so much of the popular conception of Christianity.

[Miss Shelby]

I just finished The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh. It was very good.

[ceptimus]

I've been going to a book club for the last fifteen months. We meet once a month at a pub to chat about a book, and then we take turns at choosing next month's book - which everyone is supposed to read, and usually does. You're allowed to give up on a book if you don't like it, but so far I've managed to finish all of them.

My choice, over a year ago now, was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North. Recommended. I've not had to choose again yet, as there are about fifteen people currently attending, and there have been leavers and joiners during that time - new people get to pick a book before my turn comes around again.

For the meeting at the end of January, I've got to read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I've not started it yet, though it's queued up on my Kindle.

[vremya]

I'm bouncing between The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (she's local) and Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway which finishes his dad John LeCarre's last book. Both are pretty serious, so I'm looking for a light, right before bed read.

[LarsMac]

while cleaning up our storage, I ran across "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee.
I bought it shortly after in hit the stores, but we moved not long after, and it had been sitting in storage since then.
I really enjoy Lee's style. The story is bringing back memories of the days in which it was set - Southern Alabama in the early '60s.
Being a conscious White kid - I think the term is 'woke' these days - was tough.

[Ensign Steve]

I started reading Wool, the book series that the Silo TV series is based on. The first one was free to download on kindle. I bet the others won't be, though. That's how they get you.

I like it a lot. I really like how they wrote Mayor Jahns.