SP
Reading two very different books at the moment, but that’s really not unusual for me as I generally read constantly.
First, I’m dipping into Waking Up by Sam Harris. I’ve practiced meditation on and off for most of my adult life; currently in “off” mode. However, I’ve long acknowledged that during “on” periods, I seem to be much more resilient regarding the regular buffeting that life hands me. I simply lack the discipline necessary to always maintain a practice. Various things crop up that derail the habit, and it takes me a while to get back to it. I’m hoping that this book gives me a nudge to begin again. One day will simply lead to the next, and so on, and I’ll be back to a better practice and, perhaps, sort out some things that have been on my mind lately.
I’ve also begun Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier. If you weren’t already paranoid – and you’re here at Glibertarians.com so I’m betting you are to some extent – this book will push you over the edge. I’m also looking forward to Bruce’s new book Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World due out in September.
Web Dominatrix
I’m currently reading two books as well, also very different from each other.
The first is When: The Science of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. This is very much as is described in the title: all about why the timing of something matters as much — and sometimes more — than the thing itself. Pink discusses how people’s biorhythms make them more prone to mistakes at different parts of the day, and how it’s important to align the task you’re doing with your own natural rhythm. The book starts off with the suggestion that maybe the Lusitania sunk because it was early afternoon — typically a time when most people make mistakes — and the Captain made a series of bad judgement calls. I find this book very interesting.
I’ve also just tucked into We The Corporations by Adam Winkler. It’s too soon to form an opinion.
SugarFree
I had been meaning to read The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin for a while now, intrigued by the idea of the most popular Chinese-language science fiction novel of all time and when it won the 2015 Hugo Award (in translation by Ken Liu.) But with the announcement that Amazon was prepared to commit a billion dollars to adapt the trilogy for Prime TV, I decided to move it up in my long reading backlog.
The first book in the trilogy isn’t perfect, seemingly to only half-heartedly commit to its attempt to blend the history of Red China’s SETI program, the Cultural Revolution and a modern-day mystery of wide-spread suicides among physicists which are somehow connected to an underground VR game called The Three-Body Problem. The early parts of the book, set around the Cultural Revolution and the SETI program are very engaging, but the long sequences of the main character playing the VR game–with its grounding in higher mathematics and Chinese historio-mythologue–is less so. And when the reveal comes to tie it all together, it creates severe fictional whiplash.
I was left with a real sense of “Where the hell does he go after this?” And after Liu showed me in the sequel, The Dark Forest, I was left asking “Where the hell does he go after this?” And after Liu showed me in the final book, Death’s End, all I could think was “How in the hell are they going to make this in a TV show?”
There are few science fiction books that surprise me, and even fewer that don’t turn that surprise into disappointment. Liu Cixin didn’t disappoint me but these books are not an easy read.
Riven
The bad news is: I did not pass the exam on April 3rd. The good news is: I get to take it again on May 7th. … Yay. So, I’ve still been reading this lovely book, taking practice exams, etc. It’s been a very exciting few months. I’m looking forward to reading literally anything else after this is all over. … But mostly I’m looking forward to quality time with Persona 5, which Mr. Riven purchased for me for my birthday based on how much I loved Catherine. Since I can’t recommend you pick up the book I’m buried in, I will recommend you purchase either of these fine video games, instead.
jesse.in.mb
Al Qaeda’s Super Secret Weapon – a VERY tongue in cheek take on the end of DADT in short graphic novel form. I laughed until my sides ached. There’s an almost poignent discussion of the IDF and why threesomes seem like a good idea but aren’t somewhere in the middle, and a pointed criticism of the Dallas airport. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
An Irish Country Cookbook, Patrick Taylor – I didn’t realize when I picked it up that it was a tie-in to a book series. I’ve queued up a few of the recipes and the short stories interwoven into the book almost make me want to start reading Taylor’s Irish Country Doctor series.
I’ve completely failed to put down Jia Pingwa’s Happy Dreams, which is both fascinating and infuriating, which is why I’m light on the reading this month.
Old Man With Candy
Two fun books, with a couple from SugarFree queued up for next month. First a reread of something I picked up a couple years ago and loved the hell out of, Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion, detailing what (to me) was the most interesting scientific fiasco of my lifetime. I may be somewhat biased because I know (or knew) about three quarters of the people talked about in the book, but it really is a delightful look at the use and abuse of science, the wonderful self-correcting nature of the process, the socio-religious tensions in the Salt Lake City-Provo axis, and the carnivorous world of academia. It does make me grateful that I’ve made a science career in industry instead…
The polar opposite is an intimidatingly thick romance novel, The Proviso: Director’s Cut, by the Glibertarians’ own Moriah Jovan (mojeaux). I’m not much on the romance novel genre, but couldn’t resist this one. It’s set in a corporate cut-throat environment, and brings together fatal attraction, ultra-violence, Mormonism (I’m sensing a theme in my books this month), sex, and libertarian sensibilities. The personalities of the characters are very three dimensional and the storyline is compelling. I’m halfway through and greatly enjoying this exploration outside of my reading comfort zone. The scene in the prosecutor’s office will sound disturbingly familiar:
“We don’t help people here. We find excuses to put them in jail and take their stuff… That means we’re the bad guys. Power hungry, abusive of the office, contemptuous of the law, in bed with all the wrong people, completely uninterested in justice,and to top it off, we’re a bunch of thieving bastards… And if you think any other prosecutor’s office is any different, think again.”
JW
I haven’t been eating at home much recently, so I’ve run out of cereal boxes to read. But the really cool thing is that at my favorite restaurant, they have special placemats! So instead of me telling you about what I’ve been reading, I’ll show you!
It’s cool because it’s interactive.
SP’s Dog
Swiss came to visit me. Swiss brought me a whole pizza. Just for me. I didn’t share. I love Swiss. Swiss is my favorite forever. Bacon Magic didn’t bring me pizza. I bark and growl at Bacon Magic.
Swiss inspired my reading. My Pizza. American Pie. The Pizza Bible.
I love Swiss. Forever. Woof!
Brett L
I am reading the latest Mark Lawrence book, Grey Sister, second installment in his newest series. Honestly, I’ll probably take a break and re-read the first one as I can’t track the characters.
I also read The Great Passage, a surprisingly entertaining book (set in Japan and translated from the original Japanese) about a young, uh, “focused” man who becomes the center of a fifteen year effort to create a new dictionary. I really don’t know how to describe it beyond that. But a really good novel about a couple of awkward people who fall in love with dictionaries and lexicography from a passionate desire to communicate better.
I also read the Riyria Revelations trilogy since last I made a WAWR post. A fun “let’s go overthrow the empire” adventure by two thieves who turn out to be principled killers instead of just thugs. Fast-paced, entertaining, good plot twists. A little too reliant on deus ex machina but a good sword-and-sorcery yarn that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Comments
251 responses to “What Are We Reading – April 2018”
Back to either Ian Rankin or Erle Stanley Gardner. Five days on the beach in Mexico so lots of reading time right now.
Hudsons at Seatac sucks balls. What happened to airport book stores and the book selection? Yeah, I feel like lugging around a trade edition of Bowden’s Hue brick tome.
I re-read the Rankin stuff all the time. My favorite series.
Thanks to Rhywun, I’ve been working my way through the Repairman Jack Series. I think I finished three of them on the beach in the DR. Perfect escapist and quite liberty-friendly.
Highly recommended.
Yeah, they’re good stuff. In you’re interested, you might try Wilson’s An Enemy of the State. It’s an info the the Lanague Confederation series and, if possible, even more libertarian than Repairman Jack.
Added to list. Thank you!
I really didn’t care for how the Repairman Jack series ended, though I loved the earlier books.
I agree the series has about four books too many, and as I said the ‘I’m going to tie-in every book I’ve ever written’ is forced and unnecessary.
Yes, the forced tie-ins to the other series annoyed me to no end.
So, do I finish them or not? I just finished By The Sword, so it looks like I have 4 left.
I actually almost bailed after the second book. Glad I didn’t.
Eh, you’re almost done, you may as well (but that just may be my completionist streak). Just prep yourself for a less-than-satisfying conclusion.
I finished the series, it’s not that they get bad, just seemed to me like he stretched it out more than needed.
Just prep yourself for a less-than-satisfying conclusion.
Oh, I have some experience with that! 😉
Thanks, boys. I’ll knock the rest down.
just seemed to me like he stretched it out more than needed.
And then rushed the finish with a little bow on top.
Ebooks happened to airport bookstores.
Ayup. In 2010, I went on a trip for the first time with an e-reader. The moment I was 100% sold on switching from books to readers was when I finished all the books on the reader I had planned to read, went to an internet cafe, and bought a couple more in a foreign country where that would have been a huge hassle to find another book to read.
Yes, I love having a couple hundred books in dozens of genres downloaded at any one time. Whatever I might be in the mood to read is magically instantly available without adding weight to my luggage.
I won’t ever give up my love for print books – obviously if you look around our house – but I love my ebooks. In addition to travel, they are perfect for books I want to read but not necessarily to which to devote my limited shelf space.
You can have my Kindle Paperwhite when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. The backlight is the bomb.
If they put the modern screen in the kindle keyboard chassis, you’d have my ideal kindle design.
Agreed. I miss the buttons.
But the new screen is just so good.
Yeah, the Paperwhite is sick. Excellent battery life and the backlight means I can read in bed without annoying my wife.
Having more books in your e-reader actually does slightly increase its weight.
/physics pedant
And this is why I’m your sixth wife.
Nah the others all aged out.
This is true- when they start getting that pubic hair stuff, they’re past their use-by date.
The zeroes hold the extra electrons – so a scrubbed device would have more mass than a filled one.
And thinking about it, given the way filesystems work, you won’t actually change the average distribution of electron-rich and electron poor storage when removing books, so a device that’s been in usage for a while will statistically have the same weight.
There’s no difference in the number of electrons; charge balance has to be zero. Mass changes are due to entropy reduction because of additional information.
What? You dismiss the possibility that I ionize my mobile devices?
So if I download a slew of Frankfurt school critiques does it become lighter because they have negative information content?
We’re unionized.
Are you degaussed in addition to being ion-free?
You’ll never catch him without his grounding strap!
It doesn’t just change the arrangement of 0s and 1s on the flash card (or whatever they’re using for memory)?
Not if they’re compressed. (or not as much) (I think)
That’s right around the time I read We The Living on a second generation iPod Touch. I miss the compactness of that period’s devices, but jesus current screen size is way better for reading a book.
Managed Shrugged and Fountainhead. We The Living worth the read or did I get enough out of those other two?
If you’ve already slogged through Atlas Shrugged you aren’t going to get much more out of We The Living. I haven’t read Fountainhead, so I can’t compare them. I think I would’ve been happier with WTL and skipping AS. She’s much better at getting across her point when she’s not ham-fistedly inserting philosophical digressions into her characters mouths for dozens of paragraphs at a time.
I’ve become very enamored of eReading. Especially loading things through the Amazon servers and reading across Kindle devices and apps on my phone with automatic placeholding.
Yes!
And for the few that I consume in both audio and actual reading, it does the syncing perfectly, as well.
I love my Kindle books, and do most of my reading on my phone now. My only complaint is that it’s hard to read mathematics because equations don’t seem to render very well. Maybe I’m using an old app, but any substantial equation seems to render as a rather low-res graphic and it’s hard to read, even on my Surface Pro. (There’s also the simple fact that really reading mathematics requires having pencil and paper handy)
I generally stick to history books on the Kindle.
I will confess to being a Luddite when it comes to e-books. I hate them.
eBooks have made me thousands of dollars. I can’t hate them.
Physical copies have not sold so well.
Okay, admittedly I don’t think they’ve made me tens of thousands of dollars yet.
*Throws loom at CW*
I can’t go back to hard copies, it’s Kindle unless it’s something specific I cannot get on Kindle, like The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and thanks to one of our wonderful commenters here, I got that after all.
Why can’t one of your orphans or your manservant carry the brick tome?
I like killing trees, so paper books for me. Also, I stare at enough screens, I don’t want to add one more.
eInk has a very different character to an LCD, so it depends on what type of device you look at.
Though I admit, cutting down trees is an activity I approve of (depending upon the tree.)
I like doing something’s the old fashioned way, just for my own amusement.
My audiobook rotation recently finished a few
“Nagash The Undying King” – a book where the title is a minor background player and it completely fails to explore anything regarding the undead god’s character or background.
“The Island of Thieves” – an Okay adventure yarn from an author I’ve never heard of. Has to do with treasure hunting in Peru. Not spectacular, not bad.
“Murder Al Dente” – A romance novel trying to pretend to be a murder mystery, but at the point I abandoned it (2/3 of the way in) they’s spent maybe ten minutes on the mystery and hours on the uninteresting cliched relationship between the narrator and the boring blank slate.
“Partners in Crime” by Agatha Christie. Just started, so no opinion yet.
I’ve listened to quite a few audiobooks this year, but I always seem to drift off while listening to them. Either that or I end up walking into oncoming traffic during interesting parts.
I listen to them during my commute. Driving in silence made my mind wander and I’d actually lose focus on traffic. My music tastes are highly mood dependant, so I’d spend a lot of time hitting ‘next track’ when I used music. Books occupy that part of my brain not needed for driving, and the slow pace leaves enough free cycles to pay attention to driving. I admit it might not be for everyone.
I’d say novels are fine for audiobook form, but anything technical or even detailed history is a bad idea.
For me, dialogue-heavy books are ideal audiobooks for long drives. And nobody does it better than Elmore Leonard. At this point, I have every Elmore Leonard book that is on audio in my library, and have listened to all but a handful.
Tommy and Tuppence are my favorite Christie characters
I finished whatever is currently published of Galaxy’s Edge series. I’m in for the long haul, but I’m not sure if authors and I have the same priorities – the Space Marines of the setting get most of the page count, but I much prefer every other strand of the story (smugglers, spies, The Force).
After it, I finally got round to reading Splintered Empires: Easter Front 1917-1921. It’s the last book in the series, and probably the most interesting. If you ever wondered how the fuck Finns and Latvians won their independence, it has the answer. Sadly, Russian Civil War gets the short shrift, hopefully he’ll do a book on it at some point.
I’m now rereading Poul Anderson’s Technic League books (that’s what Baen called their bundles of related novels and short stores) and considering writing an article on the first collection, since it features a fat, hedonistic merchant-prince just trying to eke a small profit in a universe that (he feels) has it in for him…
Huh, I thought you were referring to this: http://www.galaxysedge.com/
Wow, never heard of it. Speaking of ebooks and stuff, I’ve started looking into e-magazines, and, despite their disposable nature, I like it more than paper ones. Let alone the reprints of 30s and 40s pulp stuff are easier to do in e-form.
This is the site for Galaxy’s Edge: The Series, and fuck, even the URL knows who are the true heroes of the books!
I read a number of e-stories and subscribe to one.
Oddly, I’m the opposite: loved the first one (space marines), got whiplash from the tonal shift in the second one, starting the third one – forward progress in the series will be provisional. I now assume from the way they’re credited, Anspach is the space marine guy, Cole is the star-wars rip-off guy.
The rest of the series mostly splits the difference, largely in favor of Space Marines. Timeline shifts around a bit, so a lot of stuff that was “OK, why?” in second book gets the “Well, because” in the third and fourth. The biggest “What the fuck is this?” from second are explained in stand-alone Imperator novel, but I would wait until after book 4 at least to read it.
I just saw that Karen Traviss will be writing books in universe, but earlier in the timeline. Well, her Mandalowanking might serve in this context, and at least she won’t be touching the main storyline…
I’m reading Lion of the Sun: Warrior of Rome: Book 3 by Harry Sidebottom. Which has led me read more about the Roman Crisis of the Third Century.
I’m on the waiting list for my library’s audiobook of The Three-Body Problem .
I just finished that one. I like ’em. He does a nice job of showing just how alien in some ways Roman culture was to what we have now. And, there’s plenty of bloodshed. Entertaining stuff.
“Submission” by Michel Hiuelb…something. Stupid French and their weird names.
It’s taken me a while to finish, but it is excellent. The story centers around a future French presidential run-off between the National Front and the Muslim Brotherhood where the Socialists and respectable society throw all their support behind the Muslim Brotherhood to own the nationalists.
First released on the day of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. Truer today then it was then.
I’ve been quite busy, so I’m still making my way through Kristin Lavransdater and Shelby Foote’s Civil War (vol 1).
In spite of its length, Foote’s book reads more like a novel in terms of its narrative flow. Not nearly as dry as I expected it to be.
Foote was actually a novelist by trade, not a historian, which is why you got that feeling from The Civil War. He and Walker Percy were close friends from childhood onward.
Just finished listening to Endurance: The incredible voyage of Ernest Shackleton
What a story! I can’t believe that this voyage isnt universally known. Definitely worth the read. It’s one of those “facts stranger than fiction” stories.
Not sure what to read next. I’m reading a couple theology books for some groups at church, but I need something to listen to on my commute.
I have read that. It is fascinating that he didn’t lose a single man in all they went through.
Hah! I had that on cassette! Absolutely amazing – those were emphatically not soy-boys.
By the way, gotta love Bradbury for letting Hefner get his mag off the ground by serializing his early drafts of 451.
Gotta love Bradbury regardless. Fahrenheit 451 is prophetic. One of my favorite novelists.
*Spoiler*… Loved that the guy got away by swimming in the river and then watching the city get bombed to smithereens. Winston gets broken, Roarke winds up ostracized etc. I like my dystopian novels with a happy ending, dammit.
Roark winds up with Patricia Neal taking the elevator into the sky to see him (and presumably get raped).
Pressing the up button was consent.
Currently reading Ready Player One. I started it then I got a little drunk a few nights and fell asleep without reading. Then yesterday, I got pink eye and that sort of put a damper on reading. I’m working through it, but reading attempt didn’t go too well since I was already tired, I read at night before falling asleep.
Anyway, my initial assessment: Warning spoilers…
By the 2nd page, I thought I am going to hate this. They managed to get in ‘catastrophic climate change’ and ‘energy crisis’ both in less than 2 pages. At that point I’m thinking, do you fuckers ever have an original idea in your head? But I persevered and fortunately, they didn’t keep beating that dead horse too much.
The book is keeping me interested, probably because it’s on a subject I really like. My only other warning to would be reader, there is a LOT of 80s trivia stuff, and sometimes it gets monotonous and in my opinion, gets in the way and drags the story of the game out too much.
Were still looking at manassas to move to? That’s where I’m from so I may be able to answer some questions.
Yes, will be about a year if it happens. Can’t really think of any specific questions right off with is being so far away. Any tips you can give me in advance though, will be much appreciated.
Which highschool district you going to be in? Avoid Stonewall. Whole area has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years, used to be relatively rural now it’s basically becoming fairfax.
We don’t have children, so schools won’t matter to us. We’ll be looking for a single family home that’s not too far from the city, but far enough out that there’s a little space. At this point, I know zero about the area, never been there.
Schools matter for future home values. But I got you plenty of options around the airport and closer to bristol.
Ok, that makes sense.
We’ll probably rent though, so I won’t care about real estate value either. We own 2 homes now and pay taxes on both, so a 3rd tax bill isn’t too appealing when I’m maybe 10 years from retirement, when I’ll buy a retirement home, probably in the cheapest tax state I can find, maybe South Carolina.
*looks up Bristol on google maps*
Oh, is that actually spelled Bristow?
There are a few of us in the area if you have specific questions about neighborhoods/communities. I’m about 10 minutes away from manassas.
The last thing I read:
1. Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook data for 41 magnum
2. Tax notices from three different parishes.
I am quite the intellectual, aren’t I?
Hmmm, connection?
Wrong order.
Actually I cant complain. Property tax here is pretty low. I personally know a lot of the people on the receiving end of those taxes and as far as I know they are on the up and up and pretty good people. The services they provide are pretty bare-bones but of good quality.
My problem with property tax is the principle of it, i.e. the way the system is set up. The people working in those systems aren’t the ones responsible for that. The 41mag is for any hogs I happen to run across so I kinda jacked up this new batch –
http://www.redding-reloading.com/online-catalog/88-bullet-moulds-charts
page 3, top row, left to right #4
21.5 grains of IMR-4227 spits it out at around 1300 fps.
Next time that bastard aint running off.
Connection to what?
Between reading tax notices and arming up.
Ugh. I am slow. I haven’t had lunch
After finishing James Clavel’s Asian saga I read UCS’s Lucid Blue & Shadowrealm. When is the sequel? Then Alice in Wonderland and currently H G Wells history of the World.
Shadowfire (working title) is only up to part 3 in draft. I’m working on “how best to pace the trip to the islands and build up suspense before the Sanaltan authorities start to ask too many questions”
Red Card is further along (being some 36k+ words at this point) but it has been slowly chugging away for literal years so I can’t say it’s close to completion.
Junior Redemptioners is getting in good shape, I just need to order the plot seeds in my mind before running back to it.
I have a short story “Ink and Infatuation” that is complete, but I’m debating if it should go in an anthology or get an individual ebook release.
I’m in as soon as it drops.
I take that as high praise.
So did I when Fr. Sullivan said it about my testicle. The other boys were so jealous!
So am I
Fuck it, I’ll admit it. I’m reading Shakespeare’s sonnets. Did you know that “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” was written to a dude?
I like those.
I got a book of the complete works, and I really liked A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and the musical piece written by Mendelssohn is excellent as well).
And Mickey Rooney as Puck.
That theory is not universally held.
Nothing is when it comes to him. Bacon, Marlowe and who else is supposedly responsible for his plays? Still, it’s more fun if it were written to a guy, so I’m going with it.
I like Marlowe better than Shakespeare. #unpopularopinion
Probably because it is completely groundless. It was actually written by Francis Bacon about Shakespeare as the vows for their secret Catholic gay wedding.
Actually not a half bad reading.
That’s awesome. He should do some Eugene O’Neill, though, given his nickname.
I should read more of his works.
No. Just listen to Ben Crystal do it in “original pronunciation” There’s a video of them explaining it at some point where they explain the dirty puns Billie included in his plays that only work when some of the pronunciations line up during period English. I think maybe this one, but I can’t watch it where I’m at to make sure. Ben goes from kinda dweebie to gruffly attractive just by switching his vocal patterns, which is extra fun.
I’ll check it out when I’m not on work WiFi.
straffinrun is a soy boy. He admitted as much.
I never read just to troll the libs!
#MAGA
Reading helps you come up with better memes. (If we still had old-school PSA campaigns that would totally be what today’s kids would see during their Saturday morning cartoons.)
I’ve read too much Shakespeare to enjoy it/theatre minor
Shall I compare thee to Summer’s Eve?
So what you’re saying is, Sraff’s a Douche?
/Cathy Newman
I’m rereading the Sword of Truth series. A/k/a John Galt Plays Jesus. Sometimes I just prefer not having to be angry at the theme to enjoy the story.
That’s a great summarization of the series, add on all the forward plot movement of the WoT.
Heading toward the end of the completed Sherlock Holmes collection, volume 2.
Also re-reading, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck”. An quick read and worth revisiting from time to time.
Ship of Gold – a book on the finding of the “Central America”, a ship that sunk in 1857. Laden with 30,000 pounds of gold.
Also a collection of Miss Marple short stories.
I think I read that Miss Marple collection, if it’s the long one. It’s not all Miss Marple, and not even all mysteries. I was duly impressed by all; I was a big Christie fan as a boy.
(Rather remarkable, now that I think about it, that a woman wrote openly in what was a very masculine genre so early.)
My preference for Christie came from reading her Poirot books and finding that the evidence to solve the case was actually there in the story and not extracted from the detectives recal cavity during the final scene My big issue with Holmes was the fact that he’d bandy about some article or observation that was quite clearly not in the text at the relevent point, making it impossible to put the pieces together before the characters did. A well told mystery should be able to put the clues in among the red herrings and simply point back to them rather than have to hide the smoking gun to make the detective look smart.
My biggest irritations have been when Agatha didn’t live up to expectation. There were several cases (The Man in the Brown Suit, 4:50 from Paddington) where the character lays out a possible path for the criminal to have committed the crimes but fails to sink it by not providing the key piece of information – the bit that convinced them “This is how I know it to be true” instead of equally possible theories that they discarded earlier in the work that had equal amounts of supporting evidence (ie next to none).
There’s a lot of low-quality stuff in the Holmes stories. “The Five Orange Pips” comes to mind as exceptionally unsatisfying. Barely even qualifies as a mystery story IMO; maybe it’s best appreciated that way. Doyle thought it one of his very best, for some reason. The goal of the whodunit, its complete success, is as you suggest, that moment when you read the end and think, “Of course! The clues were all there right in front of me; how did I not see it?” That is its success.
At his worst, Holmes was a barely-character whose dick Watson never let out of his mouth, like the cartoonishly-awesome dude worshipped by the narrator like Phileas Fogg; but unlike Verne, who gave you an exciting adventure, the Holmes stories sometimes miss their mark. He doesn’t often resemble actual detective work any more than the CSI folks, and sometimes, again, the clues are not left and it really does seem to be mostly about making you think Holmes is as awesome as Watson thinks he is.
Holmes is one of those things that is probably more famous for its place in history than for its excellence, although many were quite good. It’s not complete garbage boring like Robinson Crusoe or Dracula. But when I was little I loved to read and loved mysteries especially, and was shocked when the Holmes that kindly old people had been suggesting for me turned out to be often kind of an unfulfilling bore.
I’ve been reading the Junior Bender series for a few months and I find the spontaneous revelations kinda obnoxious.
My first Christie was Seven Dials. I couldn’t finish it. Turns out, it was one of her klunkers.
Marcus Aurelius’ Mediations, which I’m finding deeply compelling but I’m having to square his insistence on divine providence with my agnosticism.
I’m reading Blood and Thunder. I had started it once before but didn’t get very far before life intruded and led me to leave it aside for a while. Fascinating story, and I enjoy reading stories about the American frontier that aren’t black and white in either direction.
I read an issue of Superman Presents The Krytpon Chronicles last night. I was surprised to find out there was a continent populated by black people on Krypton, and they never integrated into the rest of Kryptonian culture. Of course, this was pre-crisis, pre-New 52, pre-Year One; so it’s probably not canon anymore.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
I read about half of this a year or two ago, and I picked it up again. He sort of repeats himself a lot (which is why I lost motivation to finish it the first time) but there are still a lot of gems in there. The thesis is essentially that you can’t control everything in the universe, but you can control your reaction to things. You have to expect suffering, unhappiness, boredom, and death because these things are part of the nature of the universe. All you can do is adjust your expectations of the world and be a judicious, beneficent person. Also, some people are asses by their nature, and you can’t do anything about that, so there’s no point in letting them upset you. Just let them make asses of themselves.
12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson
This touches on some of the same themes as Meditations, actually. I think I’m on rule 2 right now. On a broad level, it’s a book about how to improve your life, but the text has a lot of digressions into science, philosophy, mythology, history, and personal stories from Jordan’s life. I think this is what separates it from typical “self help” books. Even if you’re satisfied with every aspect of your life, it could be an enjoyable read.
Don Juan by Lord Byron
Lord Byron is a really interesting person (and the origin of the “Byronic hero”). As I understand it, this poem is written in an old Italian verse style that contains a lot of humorous digressions. There are insults to other poets sprinkled throughout the text (I also understand that in a private letter, Lord Byron referred to contemporary poet William Wordsworth as “Turdsworth”).
Don’t remember what lecture it was, but he describes Soviet prisoners cooking rat on a coat hanger over a trash can fire. Awesome imagery, but he may have been quoting Solzhenitsyn.
“You know, it’s funny. Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is when people are
lining up for foodcooking rats on coat hangers. That’s a good thing. In other countries, people don’tline up for foodcook rats on coat hangers. The rich get thefoodrats and the poor starve to death.”That works.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat-on-a-stick
Don’t you mean Don Jewin’?
Going to be starting Wasteland of Flint, as recommended by Raven Nation, this weekend. Aztec and Japanese empire alterbate history in the distant future sounds badass.
*makes plans to change alias just in case*
My reading, outside of glib posts and performance metric calculations for my particular industry, has taken a turn for the worse this past month.
I blame capitalism.
What you’re really trying to say is that Glibs is both the source of, and solution to, all of your problems and shortcomings.
It’s cheaper than booze, but less tasteful.
I’m reading “The Many Deaths of the Black Company”, by Glen Cook. It’s the end of the series, apparently, and I’ve got to say that while I’m not generally a fan of fantasy I’m sad that the series is ending. There’s an interesting “unreliable narrator” mechanism that he seemingly uses to take familiar characters and tweak them between books that I think is really cool. Plus, the story’s interesting, which is the important part I guess.
I complained about it last week but I’m going to mention it again: I wish publishers would issue paperbacks along with hardcover copies, even if they retailed at the same price for a period. Hardcover books are a chore to read. I’ll take a dog-eared paperback over a pristine hardcover any day.
I prefer used hardcovers to used paperbacks, unless the paperback is significantly cheaper. Better lifespan.
I had an issue with the last couple of hardcover volumes I picked up recently. I kept thinking I was turning mutiple pages when I was objectively only turning one. The text matched, the page numbers matched but it felt like I was turning too many pages.
It turned out they used thicker paper and it threw off my tactile expectations.
Paperbacks used to run the gamut from utter $.10 shit, where the pages were likely to fall out all over the place in the first reading, to those Dover books that were essentially soft hardcovers and actually explained why they were so well made along the spine of the back cover, ending in “This is a permanent book.” Nowadays many books are printed quite cheaply, and paperbacks are generally bound with middling quality and very few at the extremes. (Dover damn well is nothing special anymore.)
Paperbacks are much easier to carry and indeed more comfortable to read in many (not all) circumstances. But the durability is pretty damn stark. No way would i even take a used paperback over a hardcover of the same age let alone a new one. And if I’m in the purchase for the long haul I’m definitely not going that direction. Go hard or go home.
Fair warning, the Amazon Print on demand technology uses an ink that is vulnerable to temperature extremes, so if you leave any of my paperbacks in a car for a couple of seasons, pages will start to fall out.
I discovered this the hard way, and it was one of the rare ‘black cover’ editions where the art was so dark you couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.
*glue, not ink.
Dammit, how did I mix those two up.
Have you been huffing either of them?
I’ve set a personal goal to finish the place-mat, the next time mommy takes me.
Good luck, it looked hard.
Currently on book thirteen of the Aubery- Maturin series.
I didn’t want to read this many, went in with plans of only reading the first one. They are so well written and so many varied events keep me interested and as soon as I finish one, I order the next one. (Damn you Amazon!)
I really loved the movie and had never heard of the books before seeing it. So now in my head Aubery is Russel Crowe, not a bad thing because in my opinion, he played it perfectly.
I just finished Master and Commander. Like you, Amazon is going to be getting a chunk of my money.
I should have bought the whole book run in one go it was cheaper.
But I thought “No way am I going to read that many books about sailing.”
Just for straffinrun’s amusement…
I’m reading Basic Connections: Making Your Japanese Flow
Thankfully it uses honest to goodness kanji with furigana. Too many “intermediate” level books are written in romaji or romanized Japanese.
“The final chapter attempts to pin down some particularly slippery locutions: such as toshite, imada ni, sore kara, whoppers like “Sentence A-te sae inakereba, Sentence B,” and many more.”
Years ago I had to learn all those patterns and phrases for the NLPT-1 and 2. Really soured me on using them in real life. Glad I learned them, however, because the do pop up in reading all the time.
The thought of taking the JLPT just completely “takes the fun” out of learning Japanese for me. My learning is for personal growth and interest. The thought of cramming obscure grammar for the JLPT gives me the shivers.
I understand the value, especially as a signal for Japanese employers, but it really highlights some of the most useless real world stuff.
Of course that’s similar to many professional examinations that I’ve had to take and pass.
I’ve never taken a classroom lesson, so I wanted the piece of paper to measure myself. At the test, levels 3 and 4 are filled with Westerners. 2 was about 80% Asians. Level 1 was all Asian except one white chick and myself in a room for 100 or so. Fucking Korean girl asked me if she could use the bathroom. “Yeah, I’m not the test giver.”
お手洗いに行ってもいいですか?
JLPT is now 5 levels. Level 5 basically says you cared enough to stay awake in your Japanese class. Level 4 means you had the ability to memorize roughly 300 or so kanji (something that doesn’t come easily to me). Level 3 means your are serious about this. Levels 1 and 2 are where proficiency starts to really be demonstrated.
Level 1 is supposed to be really challenging. I’ve read stories of people living in Japan with native spouses who still can’t quite pass it.
I’d estimate my current level as somewhere around the JLPT 3. I’m probably light on kanji to successfully pass it.
What’s the level for “person who could probably count their Japanese vocabulary on their fingers”?
There isn’t as much Japanese in English as there is English in Japanese for sure.
My favorite hidden Japanese word in US English is skoshi or skosh. It’s from sukoshi and means just a little bit.
The Kanji is/was important, but I remember the reading comprehension being the hardest part of the test. Been years, so it may have changed. I don’t know if I’d do again if I had a time machine. They say it’s 1500 hours of studying to pass 1 IIRC. I spent more than that because I’m a dunce and I didn’t start until my late 20’s. Way past the critical period. Try 2. It’s not that hard.
Also, I think she asked me if she could “take a piss” しょんべんしたいんですけど。。。
I doubt she passed. Super vulgar Japanese.
I can almost guarantee I’d be the oldest test taker in the room. I didn’t start studying Japanese until I was in my middle 40s.
Your brain really is much less plastic. You can apply all the tricks you’ve learned about studying over the years which helps, but your ability to learn new things quickly definitely declines.
本当? びっくりした!
That’s really is rather crude, especially for a woman.
Makes me wonder who taught her that. She made have been in the “service” industry. Seriously, the stuff I learned for the N2 was very useful. Some of the N1 was.
I can definitely see it being useful. One big issue with it is that it is totally a written exam. So it certainly gives Chinese speakers a big edge over other language speakers.
I’m fortunate that my favorite part of the language is conversation. Once you get over the hurdle of speaking and not caring about making mistakes and looking foolish it is amazing how much you improve.
OTH, I’m in a class with a student who essentially can’t speak because she is afraid of making a mistake or sounding stupid. She has got herself into a bad place and she refuses to backwards to fix her conversational skills.
That is the pattern of professional exams. I was grumbling about that with a friend this past week. The path to becoming an attorney goes:
LSAT= logic puzzles to test your reasoning ability
Law School = classes in how to draft scholarly articles and appellate briefs, focus on learning to “reason like a lawyer” (which is explained in wordy obfuscatory descriptions designed to gloss over the fact that it basically means learning to rationalize instead of reason)
Bar Exam= tests knowledge of obscure facets of law, supposedly tests your ability to spot issues
Practice = make friends with the older courthouse employees and they will explain how you actually do all the things you will actually end up doing.
And like any profession – as you specialize you stop learning about other parts of the practice.
I come from a family of attorneys. The day to day work of an in house counsel is radically different from a trial attorney.
Just started the amazingly detailed Designers & Dragons: A History Of The Roleplaying Game Industry Volume 1 1970 – 1979 by Shannon Appelcline.
Started recording a podcast with my gal last night. It’s going to be called “Girl walks into a comic shop” where a person who doesn’t like comics (her) and a guy who used to read comics (me) talk about different issues and different styles of the genre. As a result, my reading has mostly had pictures in it.
Other than that, I re-read Master and Commander this week. I don’t think I’ve read this book since I was a young punk. Forgot how god damned good it was.
Do you post on youtube? Assuming you’ve been following most of the drama there with marvel, IDW, etc?
I’ve been reading THIS website. Especially the threads that Tulpa recommended.
Likely story, Tulpa.
Reading isn’t going so well this morning. Too many hot Latinas on the beach that are… very distracting.
Why you son of a bitch, you and your excellent life choices.
Going through Ralph Peters’ five novels on the Civil War. A bit better than Gingrich and Shaara (probably because he saw actual combat).
I seem to be in the minority in hating The Three-Body Problem. I found it a total slog, with very little in the way of “hard” science (just the 3-body problem itself). The rest just bored me to tears (and I read all sorts of crap). The fact it won the Hugo show how far the Hugos have slid.
Did you read the rest of the trilogy? It ends up going some fucking odd places.
Nope, disliked the first one too much to continue. As-is, I skimmed maybe the last 25% of the book, which I almost never do.
It’s not the fantasy science that bothered me about it, it’s the wrong science that bothers me THE SUN DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT.
I also found the first book to be extremely anti-libertarian in that the duelling philosphies were “Humanity needs a strong ruler” and “Humanity needs to be destroyed.” “Humanity needs to be left the fuck alone” was never in consideration.
The second book had a lot of promise but little payoff.
The third book was amazing in that it was a normal scifi war story written backwards.
I’m waiting for Print-On-Demand to hook up with some decent bookbinders, so I can get books that I think deserve them some awesome print versions.
I want a leather-bound version of Dune that doesn’t have campy metallic-ink printing on the cover.
I want an illuminated codex of the Harry Potter series
Ditto the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Prydain series.
Has they fixed the line in Dune (fairly early on, in the first 1/3) where a line is reprinted? Both versions I have owned, 1 from the 80s, 1 from the 90s, had that error.
Just gave those to my nephew for Christmas; I should re-read the myself.
Why is Trump meeting with Merkel? Screw that. Bring Kanye to the White House, because everything isn’t stupid enough yet. We need some dragon blood!
#trump/kanye2020
Can we have Charlie Sheen as Secretary of State and Andrew Dice Clay as Secretary of Education? And Bernie Madoff as the next Fed Chair.
Tommi Lahren (I imagine she dots the “i” with a heart) is the most qualified for Fed Chairman
Killer Mike as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco.
Diamond and Silk as joint heads of the ATF
Do you even MAGA, brah?
Underfunded schools?
More curious still, these strikes aren’t necessarily being orchestrated by the teachers’ unions in those states. In some cases, they’re happening outside of union leadership whatsoever. And even more surprising, the strikers have significant public support, largely because the teacher demands aren’t simply about higher salaries; they’re about increased funding for education generally.
All of this is significant. The latest teacher strikes aren’t symptoms of a decadent, declining brand of liberalism. They’re a primal scream of populations that are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the pieties and policies of politicians intent on cutting public services down to nothing.
And that should scare Republicans, who run the risk, much like the liberals of old, of being increasingly viewed as holding extreme, even radical views that run contrary to the public interest.
Instead of squealing about more money, maybe they should take a long hard look at what they do with the money we keep throwing at them.
Where the fuck does all that money go?
NPR news had a report on the walkouts in Colorado today, highlight Colorado teachers’ “low” salary by saying they’re paid less than teachers in half the other states.
No shit, Sherlock; teachers in half the states have to be paid less than the median wage.
Teachers are important. They mold the future citizens of our country. So all teachers should be paid in the top 10% compared to other states. Especially math teachers.
Administration. There’s a lot more administrative staff than there used to be. They all get paid pretty well, have good benefits and retirement packages, and work in nice fancy buildings.
Also, sweet retirement packages for people who no longer work. (See: Illinois)
Yeah, Vermont is trying to get its staff ratio down to 1 per 5.5 students, since the student population is decreasing. All the news outlets are saying that Vermont is telling schools they have too many teachers.
My favorite hidden Japanese word in US English is skoshi or skosh. It’s from sukoshi and means just a little bit.
Huh. I always assumed that was a Yiddishim. Don’t ask me why.
Me too! I always think of a bagel and cream cheese.
I had thought that as well, and I’m Jewish, and my grandparents and great grandparents spoke Yiddish
So was my grandmother until she married a goy and got the boot. So I’m covered in either direction!
Wow, no shit. I also only heard this term for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I really like it.
My favourite Japanese loan word is honcho.
For whatever reason that one is derived from hAnchō
like Han Solo?
It’s just a coincidence that this guy died 30 minutes after being pulled out of the shower by police, beaten to the point where he had a black eye and a broken rib, and tased 18 times, according to the Milwaukee DA.
“He fell on my fists as he got out of the shower”
“How do you explain the tasing?”
“He reached for my taser and used it on himself. It was madness. I’m lucky I made it out alive.”
#hero
He hadn’t committed a crime. The officers did all that “so they could get him medical attention”
Wellness checks are such a wonderful thing! Back in the bad old days when all the cops did was arrest criminals it was really hard to get a proper nut punch. I mean how gut wrenching can it be when the cops end up killing a rapist or murderer. You want real stomach twisting emotion you need the story to start out “Police were called to the house to make sure that the poor retarded kid wasn’t injuring himself. They made sure of this by beating him and electrocuting him in the shower.”
Trump had a press conference with the Olympic and Paralympic athletes today. I saw some familiar faces. One of my friends posted the video on FB, and of course someone made an anti-Trump comment. Which, thankfully, was swatted down pretty quickly.
I wish people would grow-up and put aside their politics when the president is fulfilling his duties as head of state. That includes when President Obama or President Bush did the same thing and people just HAD to rage about something. The only time any president does something that is not completely evil is when he’s playing the role of head of state.
Agreed. So far it was just one person. Everyone else thought it was pretty awesome. He also posted a picture of himself with the first lady.
I’ve been bitching for years that untranslated foreign ebooks were not available in the US even though they were sold for a long time on the Amazon sites in Europe. But recently the situation improved and I could read Chanson Douce on my kindle.
https://www.aier.org/article/personal-animus-should-have-no-bearing-legality-travel-ban#.WuIzNL6QtiY.twitter
Uh oh, Jeffrey Tucker has a nuanced take on the travel ban which officially makes him “alt-right” now or something.
If Sam Harris is now alt-right (according to the SPLC) for defending Charles Murray, then sure.
Sam Harris officially a bad guy. A more recent guest on the 5th Column podcast, some writer with Mother Jones, called him a racist piece of shit that hates muslims, or something like that. The topic of controversy was some discussion on Harris’s own podcast on the topic of race-IQ correlation which I haven’t heard – nor do I have any particular use or interest in this topic because it’s fucking poisonous. Anyway be careful, you’re not allowed to like Sam Harris now.
Why even listen to the Fifth Column? Kmele is the best one on that show (ever since Matt Welch became “newly woke”) and they never even let him speak.
The last episode I ever listened to of the Fifth Column was after that Nazi rally where someone was killed and the president said something about how there were bad people on both sides. I thought that the president should have been criticized for that remark, but Welch and Moynihan’s criticisms were unbelievably over the top. Kmele was more measured in his criticism and then Moynihan and Welch attacked him for his more nuanced perspective. All I could think was “where do a bunch of white guys get off criticizing a black guy for having a more measured opinion about a rally by Nazis to defend a confederate statue?”.
I stopped listening to the Fifth Column after that.
Dave Smith’s “Part of the Problem” podcast is more my style now (even if you learn nothing from him, because his grasp of history and current news is as good as your average comedian). At least he takes a critical outlook on American foreign policy (obviously a byproduct of him being closely associated with the Mises people), unlike Matt “I love NATO” Welch (his position on NATO has always made no sense to me).
It basically boils down to “I lived and worked as an illegal immigrant in Czech Republic for a while. Due to the Russian threat, and the miserable time that the Eastern Bloc had, the mission and scope of NATO should never be questioned.”
Personally I think it’s more productive to talk about selling copious amounts of military assets to the Baltic states and then to presuppose that NATO has no drawbacks and is the only strategy that could keep the Russian Bear at bay in perpetuity. Putin is a nasty son of a bitch and should never be underestimated, but his country is anemic as shit and Welch knows this. He rolled into Crimea because (1) there is a genuine ethnic supermajority of Russians there and (2) it was pretty much ripe for the taking and couldn’t have offered resistance.
*than to presuppose
And it is their only warm water port. There is a majority of Russians there because it was Russian the day before yesterday. It was given to Ukraine. Putin wanted it back since Ukraine was no longer a vassal state. The Ruskies aint giving up their warm water port.
My estimation (worth very little) is that even if the Tatars had participated in the sham post-occupation vote, the supermajority of ethnic Russians probably wanted to be annexed, or at very least didn’t mind being annexed because the Ukrainian government is and was shitty and corrupt.
Pretty much what you just summarized, Pomp, is how I’ve always heard Welch describe his love for NATO. It’s a pretty stupid rationale. But, let’s be honest, the Reason people have sucked on foreign policy for a long time (even during the run-up to the Iraq War). Their foreign policy positions are more hawkish than National Review at this point. Cathy Young writes cover stories about how we need more trade sanctions against Russia (while they simultaneously oppose tariffs, which literally makes no sense) for reasons and how bombing Syria makes no sense, while printing articles pushing Russia fever dreams (are we still pretending like Russia fever dreams were not always about forcing the US deeper into the Syria conflict at the very least?).
Again, when National Review is printing Michael Brendan Doherty with a far more dovish foreign policy position than anything written in an ostensibly “libertarian” publication then you screwed-up somewhere.
I read The American Conservative now to get my realist foreign policy fix
It was refreshing to hear that Dreyfuss (thanks slumbrew) fellow admit that the general state of the Left in America is to almost universally be wrapped like a blanket in this ridiculous Russian hacking/interference fantasy, as if it’s something new.
It’s still worth listening to, you just need to take it with a grain of salt. Kmele is the only libertarian, Welch seems like just a straight-up leftist at this point. Moynihan leans left but has a lot of intellectual integrity.
Plus, it’s often quite funny – I was laughing out loud while walking the dog yesterday, listening to a description of a baby gift from Welch to Kmele’s daughter.
Maybe I’ll give it a second chance. The whole show should just basically be Kmele, though. I never thought Moynihan offered anything other than interrupting everyone with stupid asides. I don’t know what the hell happened to Welch. He use to be good (other than his odd foreign policy positions).
I listen primarily waiting for Kmele to sometimes talk, and Moynihan is very entertaining. Welch has become a really whiney baby that throws drunken Trump tantrums most of the time, bemoaning the new loss of “Presidential” decorum and other Top. Man. type concerns.
Generally Kmele’s one-on-one discussions with intellectuals are worthwhile even if they end up being retarded. The Amy Chua one from a few weeks ago was definitely worth listening to.
I think my least favourite episode – when I started to get a little frustrated with the show – was after the Vegas shooting, the one with Welch and Moynihan expressing zero fucks or interest – frankly completely lacking intellectual curiosity – in the topic of the Second Amendment. The discussion was dominated by “ew, icky bump stocks, who cares if they get banned” and was a fairly revolting proggish dialogue. Not that I am surprised, but I am disappointed in how genuinely incurious Moyhinan can be on some issues.
I don’t even mind the anti-Trump tantrums. It’s more so when they just regurgitate the exact same media narrative. Only Kmele offers a different perspective.
I’ll have to check it out again, though, if you say it’s worth a listen
That’s basically it. It’s the same tantrum every time he gets loaded. He’s that guy you know that, even if you agree with him, listening to him ride his stupid spittle-flecked hobby horse again and again makes you pissed and you want to hang out with him less.
I’m pretty tolerant of listening to viewpoints and don’t love 24/7 circlejerk, and I have to say that I haven’t listened religiously since Welch began the tiresome identical rants phase – which hasn’t ended. What I do these days is let a few months accumulate, and binge listen every once in a while when I have rote tasks to take care of. It’s not a garbage podcast.
I neglected to mention my love of Moynihan’s impressions. Those are gold.
I will never get tired of his Jesse Jackson impressions.
Decorum. Civility. propriety. protocol. Sticking to the narrative.
These mean everything.
Character. Clarity. Forthrightness. Truth. Accomplishment. Calling things what they are.
These mean nothing.
This is the progressive and to a lesser degree cosmo universe.
But soul and rhythm do come from melanocytes, right?
That was Ben Dreyfuss, who seems like a genial piece of shit. Often funny, then will say something so casually authoritarian your head spins.
It’s definitely a net positive when they bring on somebody that is genuinely not libertarian-ish but isn’t a bitter blowhard. I like when they can engage and have a discussion with other viewpoints over some drinks and not erupting into bile-infused bitter arguments.
I’m finishing up The Road to Serdom, it’s been a slog. I will start Knowedge and Decisions by Sowell after that. I’m finally getting to the liberty reading list.
I’m off of work for the first day in a while and taking full advantage of it. 20lbs of BBQ on the smoker, friends on thier way over for dinner, and a beer festival tomorrow afternoon.
K&D is a fantastic book. Not an easy one, but absolutely superb.
Me reading Road to Serfdom: God damn, this is awesome but it’s hard going.
Me finding out Hayek wrote it as an introductory work, accessible to laymen: Durrrrr….Me no think good with brain…the brain in me head!
I’ll admit I didn’t get very far before giving up. It’s still on my bookshelf. Maybe I’ll try again after I finish my current crop of books.
I finished it fine.
I have tried Mises’ Socialism, but its a slog. Its good in bits, but I just can’t sit down and read it.
For Creech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL1DkrYL70s
It will add to your civil war reading experience. As to everyone else I highly recommend. Coolest video on YT.
It will certainly give you a different perspective. Try not to piss your pants.
I should have put this one in there too. Check out brass beauty. You can have one of hyour own for a mere 30K from Steen
http://steencannons.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Napoleon-PD-1-PhEx.jpg
Sorry…the video of the Napoleon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k86XhYS8GJI
Choke by Palaniuk.
Palaniuk is my perfect example of an excellent writer I have no interest in reading. Although Pygmy came close to being interesting. Everything else, the guy is just dropping amazingly crafted work on stuff that makes me want to put the book down and wander off.
That’s a decent book. Did you ever see the movie?
Negative. Worth it?
No.
I just saved you two hours
Thanks, @OMWC!
I’m not reading anything. (Not writing anything, either.) My brain is too tired. I’m working like a fiend, carting my kids around to this thing or that thing, and wondering if I can save my holly bushes (no).
Jim Thompson Pop. 1280 Gilmore was right pretty entertaining read, next up The Grifters.***½
Harry Dolan The Last Dead Girl The best of this guy’s books yet, third in a series but a prequel where the main character goes by his given name (he has changed it in the others) could be a stand-alone, *****
Chester Himes Real Cool Killers Dragnet done as a 70’s blacksploitation movie set in the 50’s*** ½
While we’re listing things:
– Site Reliability Engineering – a collection of essays more than just a book. I wish I had read it earlier, several chapters crystallize thoughts that have been bouncing around my head for quite a while.
– Galaxy’s Edge book 3
– on deck: ‘Endurance : Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage’
Currently reading two books that couldn’t be any more different. On the recommendation of someone over on fee.org, I picked up Principles of Politics Applicable to All Governments, by Benjamin Constant. HEAVY reading, but full of good things classical liberal / libertarian on just about every page. I’m also rereading stories in the wonderful Liavek series by Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, and a bunch of other good authors.
I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix….
Unless it’s subtitled, it doesn’t count for reading.
So anime counts! I has teh smart
Just sticking in a late post since it’s the right thread for it – don’t think I’ve ever seen mention of Eric Flint’s “1632” alternate history stories here. I enjoyed the first few books quite a lot, but only read them regularly for the first 3 or 4 years – think I have more catching up to do.
A really neat idea for an alternate history take and letting other authors play in his sandbox let it develop in all sorts of directions.
BLUF: Small, conservative, West Virginian coal-mining town mysteriously (it was Aliens) gets dropped in the middle of Thuringia, Germany in the middle of the 30 years war. Town sides with the Swedes, wins the war and starts the United States of Europe based on US Constitution in 1632.
That sounds pretty cool.
Night 132. Not getting much reading time in lately.
… Hobbit